New Years Resolutions

Who makes them? I know I have in the past. And of course with that time of year around the corner, it is on my mind again.
There is the usual "get healthy" aka loss weight which must be the number 1 new years resolutions every year. Yes I could definitely do that. But is that a 'new' thing?? NO.. i am always striving to get healthier and loss weight.
So what is on everyones mind this new year 2010?
health?
weight loss?
more family time?
more lover/husband/boyfriend time?
More time to yourself?

I think I want to do more good. More good. Yup! What my definition of 'more good' looks like I havent quite worked out but more good is my new years resolution. I will get back to you when I have a clue what this looks like...

Charlie Brown

A picture of our first ever Christmas tree. Mr Charlie Brown tree. Sad but cute!!

Our 1st Christmas Tree

Yup, it is sad but true. Cameron and I have never in our 6 years marriage and 8 years together had our own xmas tree. BUT this year is a new beginning with our very 1st xmas tree. And boy is it ever a Charlie Brown tree.
Cameron disappeared into the bush at our place only to return with a fairly large tree in his hands and a smile on his face. This is the year.... the first year we we have our own real xmas tree. With the xmas music playing (Sarah McLachlan Wintersong), we found all our ornaments, lights and bought candy canes and decorated the crap out of this tree. So much fun.
gotta love christmas!! Hope you all have as much fun with your tree decorating as we did!!

Possibly the world's worst photo of me...

So this is me high as a kite after my surgery. yes i am seriously giving the peace symbol with my fingers with the heart monitor clip on my one finger....lol!!! And to top it off I am sticking out my tongue. WTF??? Gotta love morphine!! I am so smrt... I mean smart!

Kona baby... here we come!!

so excited. we are going to hawaii in Jan 2010. Big Island. So pumped! I should see if there is somewhere to work while I'm there and stay.... tempting......

Fish Rescue 101

so one day, late fall, after early freeze and snow fall at Thanksgiving, I see that the gold fish in the pond havent been taken out and are freezing to death... literally! So rescue 911 started. much to Cameron's disbelief - I was smashing ice with an axe, soaking wet and netting gold fish. Cause he loves me so much he joined the challenge telling me it was hopeless and the fish must be dead. WRONG!!! We saved 14 fish. Woot Woot!!

They are now happily living in a garbage bucket in the heated garage with a great filtration system and delicious food. Success!!!!

Family Fun

Mom doing her thing...

The Cobras.... kicking some butt

cameron and I went to Vancouver for 4 days last week to meet mom there and spend time with my family. It was great to see everyone. It had been years since we had seen each other so I was so excited to reconnect.

My Aunt barb and Uncle Jim are doing great. same as alaways. Super busy and loving. My cousin Leah who was like my close sister is doing much better. Everyday is a process but a successful one. My other cousins Lisa and jack are doing great with families now and careers. isnt life great.

I saw my Uncle Al (my moms oldest brother) and it sure was great to see him. i didnt have him in my life much growing up but I am still thankful to have him as my uncle and thankful to have seen him again.

Anyway it was a great break for both cameron and I and LOVED seeing my fam again. My mom is doing great. Flying business class on the way over, LUCKY, and catching up with all her fam and friends. It was great spending time with mom.

the weather in van was beautiful. We went bowling and all couldnt walk the next 2 days, watched a ton of movies, played badminton (kicked cameron and Lisa's asses...ha), sun baked and ate ALOT of delicious food. Like I said before...... life is great!!

Rescuing Headbanger

Headbanger right before he took off to continue his life after his really bad morning

Headbanger left my Gap jacket nest...

getting stronger now... out of nest and sitting on edge.. not feeling as dizzy obviously

isnt he beautiful....

We made him a nice warm nest to be in while he recovered from the meeting with our window

We had a beautiful little bird fly into out window on Sunday and of course we went into rescue mode. And the good news is that after 4 hours Headbanger (little birdie's new name) managed to go on his way. I LOVE happy endings!!!

Kids or no kids.... that is the question

anyone know what I mean??? well i know our friends Austin and Kristine know exactly what I mean but there is some sort of pressure that happens about now... (well maybe earlier for most folks but about now for me which could be considered late i guess)..... about having children. ESPECIALLY if you've been married for 6 years and happily married and then "why the F*&% havent you guys had kids yet???"
Good question I think. Why havent we? everyone else is or has. It seems like the next step... thing to do... the way its meant to be.
So why is the decision so hard??? Are we ready? We're still too selfish! I wont be a good mother! Cam's scared of children! (lol seriously but cute) Will I even be able to? every other mother out there will judge me/us and our parenting style. Would we adopt? After watching the whole adoption process happen, we're not sure if we want or could handle the experience....
SO in conclusion if you have the miracle answer PLEASE SHARE!!!
Otherwise we'll work it out. i have all the faith in the world that the universe will give me (us) what is meant to be so I will trust in that process and see. I have had an amazing life so far and my angels have looked after me brilliantly this far so I am going to have faith in that same process.
Our future WITH kids = life full of family, love, growth, fun, ups and downs, patience, sacrifice, rewarding and grandkids.
Our future WITHOUT kids = lots of travel, freedom to be random..... wow thats all i can think of right now.... I love both these things but thats it??? really?? I should do these kind of lists more often....ha!
What does our future hold?????? I guess we'll all find out one day wont we.
(And if you are a future teller and see us with or without children... fill me in...ha)

bringing the blog back

The cousins Anja, Evan and behailu. or Thing 1, 2, 3

Mom and Behailu back in canada

ok ok ok... we suck!! fell off the blog wagon but we are going to get into again as it keeps all our friends and fam around the world informed.

The big news in our loves right now is that I (lee) is working back at Red Deer College in Campus Recreation. The program is changing departments and I will probably spend alot of time being involved in the transfer process. Who knows what this job will bring me but I am very very happy to be back there and out of Bath and Body Works.

We also finally got our nephew Behailu here from Ethiopia. YOOT YOOT!!! he is super smart and cute and settling well.

I think thats it for now. believe it or not it hasnt been very eventful.

The Wiebe's enjoying the summer

So FINALLY Alberta is seeing some summer weather. We have been trying to make the most of it. We had a weekend of wedding and the weather was great for both. Cameron and I stopped along the way to enjoy the canola fields in full bloom right now. And we went camping with our friends Matt and Nicole last weekend and I came out of the tent and Matt had dressed Oli in his shirt. Sooooooooo cute!! I pray the sunshine sticks around for awhile and lets us enjoy the summer some more.

what is with movies these days

Has anyone else out there noticed how violent, scary or depressing all the latest movies are. i was standing in the video store today and every damn movie was some sort of creepy, scary, violent, sad theme. WTF??? Is this really what "the people" want to see? is this what you guys are renting? I was wondering if there is actually a correlation between what we are watching and the way society is these days. Cause i think the way society is nowadays stinks and no bloody wonder. Look at what we are watching....what we are CHOOSING to watch as entertainment.
Although on that note Cameron and I saw The hangover last week and it was AWESOME!! We laughed and laughed and felt so great when we left. Thats the feeling we should always be striving for. Laughter, happiness, positive emotions. if you havent seen it yet definitely go, its a great laugh. We all need to laugh more.

Levans Events is back in business

My safari guide costume...soo fun

me and mommy Emily

My nephew Behailu... cant wait till he gets back to Canada

Levans Events is back in business!!!

My passion has been reignited for event planning after having the great pleasure of planning my sister-in-laws Ethiopian Safari baby shower to celebrate the soon arrival of her son Behailu from Ethiopia. I LOVE event planning and it is what I am meant to be doing. So why not just do it... just do it (in the tune of Michael Jackson's song Beat it...ha!!).

So anyone needing a fantastic event planner .... call me on 403-506-5865

At what cost??

At what cost are we willing to sacrifice our own well being and happiness? Everyone reading this can connect somehow to this question and ask yourself "what cost"? Well this is the question of my life right now. I pride myself in the way I have lived my life not willing to do something I know will make me unhappy or stressed (for long periods of time) and that I know are just down right bad for me. I have been criticized for it and I understand that many people believe that we need to just suck it up, that is life and go on living. I do not think that and believe I can control my sense of well being by controlling the factors in my life.
I am dealing with alot of situations or behaviours I 100% don't agree with and am finding this is enough to make me unsteady, stressed and not happy in my decisions. My instinct is to get the hell out and search for that happiness but the voices, the many voices I have heard over the years are telling me to give it more time, your expectations are too high, you are a quitter etc etc etc. But disrespectful, rude and just completely unprofessional behaviours is something I can not tolerate and will not welcome into my life no matter how much I am getting paid.
So I sit here telling all you about it hoping to find some sort of answer in my thoughts and writings. The stupidest part of it all is I already know the answer and I already know what I am going to do and thanks to the support of Cameron I know I will be ok, making the right decisions, and in the end will find that happiness that we are all searching for.

Missing Byron Bay

Oliver on his fav beach....Tallows

Tallows Beach Byron Bay where we use to live.

hi everyone,

well today is a weird day as both Cameron and I are missing Byron bay very very very much today. I am not usually one to get "home sick" but I must admit I am suffering today along with my husband. Now the reason this is so weird is today is actually a nice day. YES folks believe it or not we have a nice day here in Red Deer Alberta. You would think over the past 3 days we have had freezing rain, snow, flurries and rain that we would definitely get Byron sick but no... today with blue skies and sunshine we want to be in beautiful Byron Bay.

So for our friends reading this sitting in Byron right now... please go to the beach for us and breathe in the beautiful beach air and take in the amazing views and be thankful for your environment.

Moved and organized

sorry for the delay in blogging lately. Cameron and I have moved into our studio again and finally got a laptop, internet and cell phones. Its amazing how life feels like its just not right without these things. Spoilt?? Out of touch?? or true? that's how we felt anyways. so we are back in business.
latest events include

• the move of course
• hanging out with friends
• lee got a job...yoohoo!!
• Cameron still loves his job
• lee in the middle of planning Emily's baby shower
• booked our tickets to Manitoba (we going end of June to celebrate our cousins grad)

anyway thats all i can think of for now.... but my brain is tired so I'm sure I'll have more tomorrow

"Lee drinks her own pee" birthday cake

Well its official. I am 33. Theoretically this should be a great year if I take into consideration numerology and 3 being my number and then being 33 ...this year should be fricken great...right?? I'll keep you posted.

Yes I seriously did get a bday cake that said Lee drinks her own pee. VERY funny!! Love it. and of course it was Dairy Queen ice cream cake so I was really content. I had a great bday. 1st I got to celebrate the day with family and tons and tons of phone calls (thank you everyone for the well wishes). I got my Lululemon from Cameron so i was pumped. I was spoilt which was fun with the little things in life you never get for yourself so that's great. And on the Sunday we had a bbq. It was awesome to be surrounded with good friends again and talk about life and where we are all going. its all exciting. Its weird to have babies at these things now. man thats a sign of age or what..ha!!

So here I am 33. Excited about whats coming, let go of what has past and going to try love every moment, live in the now as they say.

1st visit from Oz

Bridgie, me and Lisa

Lisa and I having a fire in the backyard

Isn't life awesome!! And amazing! Really?? I have been back in Canada 3 months today. And it doesn't seem to matter where in the world I am we can all stay connected. In less than 24 hours I can be back in Oz or you from Oz here with me in Canada. Hanging out in my backyard, snow falling, Aussies freezing and cooking griller sausages on the fire. My girlfriend Lisa came to visit for 4 days and it was just like old times. hanging out, no pressure to do anything, chatting, eating Tim Tams (thanks again Lisa), drinking Tim Hortons, eating bagels and cream cheese, watching movies...... just Being!!

It was great having her here and sad to have seen her leave knowing it will be a good year before we see each other again. but thank god for blogs, email and facebook....ha!!

So who's our next visitor???

Superhero Murder Mystery

I am the murderer!! ha!

Mike was Mr Fabulous (of course..ha) and Cameron was Red Wonder a Rapper

Blue Blaze in action

Red Wonder in action

So our buddy Mike threw a Superhero Murder Mystery last weekend. We had so much fun. For some reason Cameron and I just love getting dressed up into costumes and getting into characters. Hence our love for Halloween I guess. We had a great time I was Blue Blaze and Cameron was Red Wonder the Rapper. I ended up being the guilty murderer which was fun. Great fun, great friends, great food (terrible P and J shot thanks to the Jester) and lots of fun!!

Steve the Playwrite

This past weekend Cameron and I along with family and friends went to support our brother-in-law Steve who had a play selected for a scripts at work program at Red Deer College. We were able to watch a dramatic reading of the last part of Steve's new play. WOW!!! very cool and very thought provoking. I cant wait for someone to pick it up and put the play on in full length to watch it all out together. The play is called Tumaini. Well done Steve... we are extremely proud of you and want you to know how wonderfully talented you are.

Easter 2009 in Leduc

Us

On left is Cheryl with daughter Abby, Laura, Steph with Emily and me

The girls with Aunt Hazel

Happy Easter everyone. Cameron and I enjoyed the first 2 days of the extra long weekend in Red Deer with the Wiebes, dark chocolate easter egg hunt and drinking beer in the sun.

On Easter Sunday we drove to Leduc to spend the night with my Aunt Hazel and Uncle Dave and all the girls and add-ons. Its growing as a family (husbands, boyfriends and babies) so it was very fun and busy. The huge meal was delicious and the mud cake desert was AWESOME!! and then after desert Cameron and I found out the easter bunny came to visit us and left a bunch of treats on our bed....ha!!

On Easter Monday we met Cheryl, Chris and Abby for lunch and then Cameron took me birthday present shopping. Of course I went straight to Lululemon and got spoilt....yoohoo!!

So all in all it has been a fabulous extra long Easter weekend and tomorrow Cameron starts work. Man how sweet it is!! (Literally ..... soooooo much chocolate)

University pays off

I just want to congratulate Cameron on getting a wonderful job when we thought it wouldn't happen and share this great news with our friends and family.
As you may know we are currently in Red Deer, Alberta and to be honest Cameron and I thought we wouldn't be staying here cause the likeliness of him getting a job in his field was pretty slim. BUT Cameron is now a Multimedia Design Specialist for a media and sound company in Canada. SWEET!!! So we are renovating our studio and super excited to move back in there and be debt free in 12 months. OH YEAH!! How great life is to us!!!

The week everything changes for 2009

So I was talking to my sister-in-law today (Hi Em) and she was saying that this is the week that 2009 is gonna become the amazing year we all thought it was going to be. I am very excited for this week to happen then....
It seems to me that 2008 was a hard or some would say shit year for most people, Cameron and I definately included. Pressure, loss of job, hard new lessons, big decisions to make with unknown results, scrubbing toilets, loss of friends, disloyalty......
But 2008 also held wonderful events and moments such as Cameron's graduation, a trip to Norfolk Island, a trip to Daydream Island, my first private helicopter experience, made new friends, time with my family, Cameron got tons of diving done in some amazing places and we both have our health.
So 2009 as of March 30th ....
what is in store???
I hope everyone is having the amazing year 2009 is going to be!!

We are back

Cameron skiing at Panarama

Yours truly enjoying the mountain view

Us

Hi everyone. Its only been since Halloween since we blogged last. Oops!! Of course a million things have happened in the last 5 months. We are back in Red Deer, Alberta Canada right now. Got back at the end of Jan. It was a big decision for us to make and we made it and now trying to get things sorted.

Its winter, ok officially Spring but still too cold for my liking. Although we have taken advantage of the snow and done lots of skiing (Cameron much more than me) and thats fun. being with the family here and our friends again is awesome. But then we have the ache in our hearts for our friends still in Oz. If you are reading this we love and miss you...

So here is a brief update of whats news

1. Neither Cameron or I are working yet. Because we are lucky enough that we can, we are being fussy and particular about the jobs we apply for and even then I have turned down a position. Most of you may be thinking I am a lunatic, but both of us have made the choice to only have jobs we love and are WANTING to do so we love life and not dread getting up to go to work every day... no way hosey... not for us!! We have a few jobs we have our eye on right now so I'll keep you posted.
2. Our long term plans (1 to 2 years from now) is to open our own business. A restaurant.
3. We have decided to move back into our studio instead of looking to buy or rent something. We are going to make some renos and stash away the cash.... to go towards point number 2. And our plan is to be 100% debt free in 12 months which is AWESOME!!
4. Oliver is obviously back in Canada with us and has adjusted to the weather really well.
5. On our way back to Canada Cameron and I travelled through Malaysia, Cambodia and Thailand. LOVED it!! We are both absolutely in love with Cambodia. Amazing place and we seriously recommend everyone go if you can
6. While in Thailand Cameron and I spent time at the Elephant nature Park which is about an hour north of Chiang Mai. Again, LOVED it!! The most wonderful place with such great people. Lek (who started and owns the park) is an amazing woman and my hero. There are approx. 36 rescued elephants at the park. Along with tons of dogs, cats, cows, buffalo.. just to name a few. While we were there we fell in love with one of the dogs there names Ahingsa. We adopted him from the park and our plan is to bring him back to Canada. Although the unfortunate news is that I dont know if it is actually going to happen now which makes me very sad and so we'll move on.......

Anyway that's just a brief intro to the last 5 months. We plan to keep updating this blog for all our international friends and family out there. Its such an easy and great way for us to communicate whats been happening to everyone. Feel free to leave us comments or email.. Hope this finds everyone well... Lee