A Year of Adventure

Do you ever have the yearning to do something more?
I've been having that feeling like crazy for weeks now.
I feel like I'm in the wrong career, maybe even living in the wrong place.
I want to explore, I haven't been to very many places and I would like to see much more.

There was a day this year where I decided this would be my year of being adventurous.
Being adventurous can mean different things to different people.  For me, it's mostly getting out of my shell, not coming home and sitting on the couch, going out on my days off and doing something.
I feel like I've been succeeding in this but at the same time I've hardly made it off of the rock I call home to see places I've never seen.

Here's the thing, I have a job I can't abandon because money and you need money to go on adventures.
Why do you get a new job somewhere else and go on adventures you ask?
I'd most likely be moving somewhere where I'd be doing the same thing because I have no other skills except for a year of acting classes and janitorial work behind me.

It feels good to get my thoughts out, my brain is a very busy and confused place.
If you have any advice for starting a new adventure or figuring out a new career please, please leave a comment below, thank you.

That Weekend We Did Whistler

So, we island folk recently headed to Whistler for the first time ever.
No it's not Winter, but neither of are into Winter sports anyways.

About five hundred plus dollars later and we have both decided Whistler is not for us.
But, we enjoyed the things we did in Whistler.

We originally traveled to Whistler for a concert, but more on that later.

Whistler in the Summer is good for mountain biking, site seeing and shopping.
Oh and Bachelorette parties, and I only say that because we witnessed about seven different ones going on.

We hit up the Brittania mines before doing anything in Whistler, and it was neat but I wouldn't go back.  Neat thing though, they were filming a movie there and upon doing my research I found that it stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Lily Collins!

After that we had a late lunch, people watched and then finally were able to check into our hotel.
So we relaxed for about an hour and a half, had a couple beers and then took the bus down to Whistler Village.
The concert wasn't set to start until seven thirty so we had an hour and a half to kill.  We decided to people watch some more and eat ice cream.

It was the most expensive single scoop I've ever had, but it was delicious.

Finally it was time for the show.
Are you dying to know which band we saw?

 The Strumbellas.

Nathan will tell you it was the best concert he's ever seen and he's been to a few.
I have been to a lot of concerts and I agree with him, it ranks pretty high up there with Florence & The Machine.
Their energy is amazing, and you can tell they just genuinely enjoy what they do, especially Dave (the guy in the hat).

We started off the day to a very rocky start, but I will spare you the details, and this band just made us forget every bad thing that happened.
I highly recommend seeing them in concert if you have the opportunity to.

We woke up early Sunday morning and enjoyed a very huge complimentary breakfast at our hotel.
After a pretty relaxing morning we headed to the gondolas.

 The pictures don't do it justice, but if you ever go to Whistler go on the Gondolas.

If you've ever been to Whistler let me know your thoughts below.

Fireworks, Music and Food

This past weekend was just the best.

I really planned to take more pictures and video, but I was just too busy enjoying myself to do so and that's why I make a terrible blogger.

Saturday after work we headed down to the Bathtub Weekend festivities, which basically we go just to people watch.
You're probably all "what is Bathtub Weekend?"
It's this festival my town has every year that lasts 4 days, there's concerts, lots of activities and vendors, fireworks and of course the Bathtub Race itself. 

Around dinner time we played this game called Fibbage, to sum it up it is a game of lying.  Tons of fun if you have more than two people playing!

After a few hours of that we headed down to the fireworks.  These fireworks are kind of special, just because it was our first real date together.
The trick to the fireworks is go early, bring coffee and/or a snack, and do laps around the park people watching, it's just the best.  Then settle into a spot about 30-40 mins before the fireworks start and continue people watching and playing the game 'Pokemon or Texting?'  It's a new game we play and it's just funny to think everyone is playing Pokemon.

Sunday!
Sunday was Rock the Shores day 3 in Colwood.
We didn't do Friday or Saturday as I had to work and didn't feel like taking the days off to see bands I was so-so on.

We arrived about an hour after the gates opened, which was kind of perfect because parking wasn't a nightmare and we got through the line super quick.  We then did a lap around to check out the food trucks and made sure we found the water fill up, then just took a seat and, you got it, people watched.

Playing Scrabble while we waited

First up was The Motorleague, and we just sat in the grass eating lunch and had a beer (me) while listening.  Next The Stand Stills played and same thing just chilled out.

After that was when the real fun started.  I've seen Yukon Blonde before and they put on a good show, so we decided to get into the crowd for a bit.  Even if you don't like a band, you just feed off the energy of everybody and have a great time.

It was time for a break, so we headed up to the water mister they had spraying and stood in front of that to cool off before July Talk went out, oh and refilled the beer.

 July Talk killed it.
Leah Fay is my new girl crush.

Between July Talk and Metric, Eagles of Death Metal and The Arkells played so we had a food break.
Poutine and mini donuts for dinner, yes please.
We ended up running into some friends right before The Arkells went on, so our two person group suddenly became six.

The sun was slowly beginning to set but it was still hot out and Metric was going to close this three day festival down.

We got home around eleven thirty and passed right out after the long and hot day.
Monday was a recuperating day.

Such a fun weekend, this is what Summer is all about.
I feel so refreshed and like myself again.

A Weekend of Fishing

How was your weekend?
I had yet another busy one!
Saturday was work and then an evening at the race track. 
Sunday we got up early and went fishing all day.

We had lots of nibbles, but only one of us caught a fish.

I should have an exciting post coming up next weekend!
Talk to you soon.

Why I Hate Hormonal Birth Control Pills

I did an experiment this month, with me as the guinea pig.

Four years ago I went off my birth control pills.
I had been on them for about a year and a half and hated every moment of it.

I remember going camping with my then boyfriend and being so unbelievably grumpy towards everyone we were with and I was just not a fun person to be around.  That was after being on the pill for a month.

Let's get back on track, early 2012 I went off of the pill.  I dropped a few pounds, started running again, and just felt happy.  I realized I was in an unhealthy relationship and found someone who made me happy.

That Summer I went back on the pill (can you hear me groaning in agony?).
I remember becoming super anxious and didn't know why, so I went to the doctor who put me on anti-depressants.  Yes, more medication.

After being on the anti-depressants for a month or two I weaned myself off of them because I didn't even feel anything anymore.  I didn't feel sad or happy, just neutral and didn't care about anything.

So from about August 2012 until December 2015 I was stuck being on the pill.

Last year my boyfriend was complaining about how I wasn't lovey anymore and started questioning if I even loved him anymore.  It was bad guys.
When I was home alone I would break down and just bawl my eyes out.

I remember one day in particular, where I woke up grumpy and pissed off boyfriend so he went to his parents house (can you blame him?) and I just stayed in bed all day, crying.

That evening we had a talk and I broke down and told him everything.
I begged to go off of the pill, it's not his choice but I still think we should be making that decision together.
I went off the pill.

Flash forward to now, well kind of. . .At the beginning of June of this year I decided that condoms weren't really cutting it as he was getting fed up with them. 

So, here I am finished my first pack of pills and I can already feel that I've changed and I am unhappy.
I've been crying, not sleeping properly, I am grumpy and irritable for no reason, boyfriend tries to hug me and show love and I shove him away. . .it's bad, bad, bad.

The pills I am currently on are Alesse, I've tried one other brand, Yaz, but well if you've done any research you'd know Yaz is no good.
Hormonal birth control is just not for me, but my doctors talk me out of other methods every time.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Thank you!

Health & Fitness Update (3)

Really? This is only my third update?
I'm not very committed am I?

I really thought I would do better with my husband to be gone away for work.
I have, what feels like, unlimited free time and I have worked out only a handful of times.

So we won't really get into a workout routine on the blog today.

Food wise, I'm doing pretty good.
I am drinking tons of water and feel less bloated then ever!  Bloating has always been a big problem with me (I kind of blame birth control pills for that one though) no matter how much water I drank it seemed to never go away.

People normally do a cleanse with cold pressed juices, but I like to have one as a snack or for lunch with some fruit/vegetables as I am not a big lunch person.

I'm trying to eat out way less which can be challenging some nights. 
Yesterday was Father's Day, so of course we took him out for lunch and then he wanted pizza for dinner.  So how I dealt with this was I ate lunch out and then at dinner one slice of pizza and then filled up on salad.

I love things like poutine, cheese, chocolate, pizza etc
But if I don't stock them in the house then there's no temptation to eat them.  Plus, if I really want them bad enough I have to challenge my anxiety to even leave the house, so you can tell I really am craving something if I go out to get it.

Lately my typical day looks like this:
Breakfast- Cereal with almond milk/oatmeal and a fruit smoothie
Break at work- 2 pieces of wasa bread with cheese, fruit
Snack when I get home from work- fruit/cold pressed juice
Dinner- Chicken salad or pasta or grilled cheese and veggies
Before bed snack- fruit covered in melted chocolate or popcorn

As you can see I don't eat a lot of meat, so when Nathan is home I eat quite a bit more as he's a better cook than I.

I hope to start adding more fitness into my life and keeping up with the healthy eating because I feel great lately.

Any motivation tips to get your body moving?

What Do You Want To Be?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I don't care how old you are, what do you want to be?

I want to be happy.

A Bumpy Camping Trip

I told Nathan that he can't go to work until June.
So I planned us a camping trip from May 30th-June 1st, and being my luck he got called for a job for June 2nd.  So we had a partial camping trip and it was enjoyable for the most part, except for the bout of food poisoning he had. . .Enjoy these Tofino and Uclulet pictures!

 My crazy dude decided it was a good idea to jump into the freezing ocean.

 Nathan was up at 4am and headed down to the beach to try and catch a sunrise, this is what he ended up with.

 Coffee in class.

 Had to get a ring shot in there.

Besides the few mishaps I had a fun time camping with this guy!  We learned that you can boil an egg in a beer/pop can in the fire and that the more blankets the better (we learned that the hard way).

Let me know your camping tips in the comments below!