Oh Canada

I'm back home! The drive through Alaska and Canada went as smoothly as it could go! I saw gorgeous mountains, wild animals and went in some hot springs! (all the photos in this post are ones that either I or my cousin took!)

This will be a random post about Canada and what I learned while I was there. 

 The left hand stoplight signal blinks repeatedly when it's your turn to go and it just turns off when you can't.

They have a Boston Pizza's in almost every town we stopped in. We ate their once and it was alright. 

 One of the most popular gas stations in Canada is called 'Fas Gas'. I love it! It's such a fitting name especially down here especially in Chicago. People never say the 't' in Fast anyways and fas rhymes with gas! You can also SAVE money on gas! That was great!

 It was hard getting use to kilometers rather then miles. But my cousin and I noticed that in his car, they have both miles and kilometers on the MPH dashboard. If we saw a sign that said 100 km until the next gas station, we looked on the dashboard instead of converting it in our head and saw that 100 km is in the same spot as 60 miles. It was a lot easier.

 I wish I went to Canada when I was a child because almost EVERY hotel that was in a decently large city had a water slide or TWO! They even advertise it on the outside of the hotel building 'HOTEL' and next to it says "WATERSLIDES"! How awesome is that. I thought it was great publicity and good idea for kid friendly hotels.

 Camouflage was EVERYWHERE! I saw a family of 4 at a restaurant and the Dad, Mom, little girl and little boy were ALL wearing camp winter jackets! NO joke!

 Canada is very pretty! Until you start going more south in Alberta. haha

Some caribou!

Many gas stations along the Al-can highway and even remote highway throughout Canada, are also motels and tiny restaurants. We saw many truckers at the same motels we were at. One trucker came over to our car when we were getting ready to start our drive for the day and told us she just hit a caribou a little north of where we were staying and to be careful! It was scary. It's dark when you go to bed (gets dark about 4:00 pm) and it's dark when you wake up (8 am).

Sign Post Forest!

 People come from all over the world to post their hometown signs and there was one from the city right next to my home town! How neat is that!

 Don't worry---we pulled over and just watched this bison heard eat and walk across the road. They were not afraid of us or our car.

 THEY WERE HUGE!! And everywhere...

 Me in the hot springs! It was so hot, ALMOST too hot!

 We had to stop at a gas station/motel for gas one time right next to this lake called Muncho Lake. This dog comes walking up to us with his wagging tail and just sat down outside our car wanting to be pet. He was so cute. We found out he was the gas station/motel owner's dog. His name was Muncho and was so cute and friendly. I think he wanted to come home with us!

This sign was right out in front of the desk at a Super 8 we stayed at. It caught me off guard. I think they might have had some encounters for them to actually put a sign up about being respectful. Do you think this means that customers were rude? Or their clerks were rude, so therefore costumers were rude in return? hmmm....

 World's largest Easter egg. It was huge!

 This was our little caravan back to Chicago. My cousin had 3 bikes on top, 4 extra tires on top of the trailer and our suitcases and cooler were with us in the back of the SUV.

 Ahhh...and we couldn't go through Alaska without stopping at a Tim Hortons. In my opinion, they are better than Dunkin' Doughnuts! They're hot chocolate was also excellent!

2 days before I left for Alaska, my parents bought me this new (used) car!!! I'm in love AND my parents are THE best! I'll get great use out of it because I'll be student teaching everyday starting in January. It's a 2007 ford fusion!!

We're home safe and sound and it feels good to be back in my own bed! :)

Sooo...

I'm back from vacation!!

Before I say anything---welcome the new member of our family. Tio!! and yes he is on my bed and I'm completely ok with that!! He is a morning pup, which is perfect for me! We love to snuggle and take naps on my bed.

I'm back. Actually, I've been back since Monday. I had to go straight back to work Tuesday morning :/ Tuesday afternoon I had a doctors appointment. Long story short about that---I may have celiac disease or IBS. Not good, but I'm going to get blood work done, more doc apt and ultrasounds. Hopefully, everything is ok---this will be another post.

My trip to the Dominican Republic was amazing!! So fun, relaxing and much needed!! There are more pictures than words here. 

The entrance to the resort. 

My friend J, her brother C and I.

one of the pools

 Me with my friends lil bro, A. We visited a school in one of the villages.

 My friend J and I.

My feet. lol

J and I again on the beach. 

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.

And I'm off....

For the next 7 days. I'll be in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic doing some of this:

and enjoying some of this:

While drinking these:

Everyone enjoy their weeks! I'll come back to the blogging world in a week. Until then, I'm enjoying my vacation!!

Where Have You Been?

The better question is, where have I been? The answer...I have no idea! I've been working 4 or 5 days a week and it's really starting to catch up to me. By the time Friday comes, all I want is my bed.

The last few nights it has stormed like crazy in Chicago and the NW suburbs! I woke up last night to my house shaking! It was so scary!!

On other news....we have a new family member!!!

Introducing Tio!! He is one of the foster pups we had a couple weeks ago. His brother got adopted a couple days ago, so we had to go get him back home! 

I have also been obsessed with pinning!

Source: reasonstobreathe.tumblr.com via Kristen on Pinterest

Source: annies-eats.net via Amanda on Pinterest

Tomorrow I'm heading up to Michigan for a friends 21st birthday. I'm super excited! And then NEXT Monday (the 1st) is when I'm headed on a plane to Punta Cana!! I cannot wait. Only 8 more days. 

I remember when I was in triple digits!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful, lazy Sunday.

Rantings and Lovings

If you are not interested in my complaining then read on to things I'm loving instead.

THINGS THAT ARE FRUSTRATING ME:

I am so frustrated lately and honestly cannot wait to move out of my apartment and back home. I never thought I would say that. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE living by myself in the city on my own, but when you have 2 other roommates that are either; a. never here or b. more sloppy than my dog, then I have a problem!

About 2 months ago, I bought a 26 roll pack of toilet paper, a 12 roll of paper towels and 2 tubes of clorox wipes. We still have the toilet paper I bought, but no one has bought another pack of paper towels or clorox wipes. So, when they spill, guess what they use? THE DISH TOWELS! and you'll never guess who uses their OWN 4 quarters to wash those dish towels when they get all gross and dirty? Yep, you are good....it's ME!

Secondly, my roommate, Ms. "I'm-too-good-for everyone" does not do CRAP around here. Never has and probably never will. She will leave dishes on one side of the sink for (NOT KIDDING) 3 weeks. Today, I walked in our apartment, from a much needed manicure and it reeked! It smelled so bad. So, of course, I took the garbage out and the dishes were still on the side of the sink. The same dishes that were there 3 weeks ago. I was so sick of it, I put the dirty dishes in the dish washer AND they weren't even mine!!!

During all of this, I texted both of my roommates and asked either of them if they could stop by SOMETIME today and get some rolls of toilet paper and clorox wipes. Of course, neither of them said they had time today. Except the "cool" roommate did bring some back from the cafe she was at. Which only lasted me the counters and the stove top.

I also have 5 weeks of school left! That's so long. I still have 10 hours of observations to do, which I don't know when I'll be able to do it. I still got work Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings.

THINGS I'M LOVING:

Me, My Sister and her roommate on her bday

My sister is coming home in a couple weeks from Spain! I know she is probably not excited but I am. Now, when I have no one to hang out with in the city, she can come visit me!

Us on Easter at his Grandma's

The Boy makes me happy! I see him probably every other weekend and sometimes two weeks in a row. He really is the best.

Me, B, and C (my roommate when I was at Western)

Things have changed over the past couple of years. With my changing colleges and whatnot, friends sometimes are with you or without you. I use to be able to say that one of my close girlfriends was my absolute best friend in the whole world. And while, I still consider 1 or 2 of them to be, The Boy, right now, hands down my best friend. It's nice to know that he enjoys seeing me and hanging out with me as much as I do. He's friends are amazing as well. I do wish some of my friends and I were still as close as we were in High School, but I'm hoping once we've all graduated and back in our home town, I think we will. YAY!

93 DAYS until Punta Cana! I seriously cannot wait! This is all I'm thinking about. The Boy told me I should workout with him everyday over the summer. Let me give you a little inside scoop....he is a buff guy, watches what he eats, works out everyday and works as an exercise therapist at a physical therapy office. So, needless to say, I'm hesitant about his offer. I already have a guy, so why should I feel the need to look good. I do, however, feel much better and healthier when I workout. So, I might take him up on that offer. Then, in 93 days, I can look good for all the 1,000,001 pictures I will be taking while in Punta Cana.

My sister, J and I

J is the friend that I'm going to Punta Cana with. She lives next door. I'm so excited to be going with her and her family. But, can't you tell that she's in amazing shape. She's a D2 pole vaulter. So, I gotta not look like a lump next to her. lol

Anyways, I cannot say enough GOOD things about the lady I nanny for. She is just awesome! She's like one of my new good friends. I work for her Tuesday's, Thursday's and Friday's. She even asked me if I wanted to continue nannying over the summer! So, I don't need to look for a summer job, which is amazing!!

I also LOVE that I am (hopefully) fostering again this summer! I absolutely loved it last summer. We got a new fence so there is NO way they can escape now and I love it!!

These were the puggles I fell in love with. I'm still convinced they were not puggles, but we can pretend they were.

I'll leave you with this adorable picture! That is all my ramblings for a Saturday. Back to cleaning, homework and making dinner!