Our Apartment

Well, I was going to wait until we finish unpacking and getting rid of all the boxes before posting pictures of the apartment but I thought it might take a while still because it is getting increasingly difficult to find places to put stuff!! We will get it done eventually though. Since it's been just over a month now I decided to post the pictures before it's not new anymore...so just don't mind the messiness!!

Here is the outside of our building. That is the front door right beside the tree trunk and our apartment is the one on the second floor, right beside the front door. It's just to the right of that blue peek over the door. Oh, and there's my car, the red one. You can just see it on the right side of the picture. That is where my parking spot is.

There's a closer look at our patio. Not the top one, but the one right under it.

Here is the bathroom. It's nice that it's a bit bigger than the usual size for a one bedroom apartment.

Here's the rest of the bathroom.

Here is the bedroom. It's not a bad size. I like it. When we get rid of the boxes it will be nice. I am standing in the doorway and there is a closet right beside the door, to the left of me where I am standing here.

The bedroom from standing by the closet.

Here is the hall. There is a closet at the end strait ahead. The bedroom is on the right of that closet and the bathroom on the left side. The other door on the left that is closed is the storage room.

This is in the living room, and you can the entrance way to the apartment. There are still lots of boxes in the living room.

Here is the dining room.

The dining room.

Here is the kitchen.

Here is the living room again. Can't wait to get all the boxes out of there!!!

Living room

In the living room, looking at the patio doors.

Here is our patio. Normally you could see my car parked right below, the second spot over from where that car that is parked. It's now there right now though.

And that's the view from our patio. It's a nice area.

Tornado Touchdown!

Tornados and hail hit the Edmonton area late Tuesday afternoon, while torrential rain filled the streets of Calgary.

Yesterday, June 5th, at around 4 o'clock a tornado touched down just south of Stony Plain which is just outside the west end of Edmonton. The storm moved west-southwest at 40 km/h and generated winds of up to 50 km/h. Lucky for us it didn't move southeast or it would be headed strait for us! Edmonton's north and west sides had flash floods after getting 50mm of rain in just half an hour. Homes were damaged and businesses had to close due to flooding. There was marble sized hail and lots of lightning too. Store owners in the area reported water knee-deep, with rainwater reaching car doors. Some people that were interviewed on the news, jumped out of their car windows and were swimming in the flooded streets.

Environment Canada also reported nickel-sized hail between Calgary and Red Deer. In Calgary, two people were rushed to hospital after a lightning strike, and students at the John G. Diefenbaker High School were evacuated after their high-school roof partially collapsed as the rainstorm slammed their city. The fire department was swamped with calls as floating cars and washed-out streets stalled traffic and water flooded homes and businesses.

Anyway, I took some of that information out of newspaper articles and some just from what I saw on the news. We were lucky in the area where we live here in the southwest part of the city. All we experience was strong winds, thunder and rain. It was a bit scary when Environment Canada issued a tornado warning though because we are not far at all from were the tornado touched down.

SUV Sent Flying Just Before Road Caves In

Check this out!! This is in the middle of a street in West Edmonton. Blaine and I went down there to check it out today. It is crazy! The cause was a broken water line beneath the pavement. Blaine put together a little caption with the story, here it is:

An Edmonton woman hit what she thought was a simple pothole. But it launched her Envoy SUV about two metres through the air and when it slammed down on the other side, the road behind her crumbled. What started as a small trench within minutes became a massive sinkhole – 20-feet in diameter and 20-feet deep. Deborah Shinkaruk-Hobbs was on her way to a birthday party with her three children, ages 9, 7, and 4. All four were strapped in and uninjured. "The kids started screaming. It was like a scene from the Dukes of Hazard."

This picture and the one below are two that we took today when we went to check it out. The street has been shut down for a week now and it isn't expected to be open again for at least two more weeks.

This picture was taken the day it happened, May 25, we got it off the Internet.

Blaine's New Car

Here is the car...1995 Dodge Neon. We finally got it washed today and took some pictures. It was so hot today...30 degrees!


Blaine sliding across the hood, like "Smokey and the Bandit"

Me sliding across the hood, like "Smokey and the Bandit"
Me waiting in the car

A New (to you) Car, And A Nice Day For A Walk

Today Blaine and I finally found the perfect car for him!! Well it was perfectly what we were looking for right now anyway. We didn't want to spend very much seeing that we have just moved but we really needed a second car so we can both get to work...So it is a 1995 Dodge Neon. We put a deposit on it today and on Monday we are going to finalize the deal!! It is a really nice little car. It is dark green and in really good condition. I will post some pics on Monday or Tuesday after we pick it up. I am so glad that Blaine will finally have his own car!!

Also today we went to Whitemud Park for a walk. It was really nice. It was hot out today and I got a little bit of a suntan. We also got a bunch of mosquito bites! Next time we need to bring bug spray. The mosquitoes were pretty bad! We took a few pictures. It was a really nice day:

The Killers Concert!!

Last night Blaine and I went to see The Killers concert at Rexall Place. It was a really great show from start to finish!! I couldn't take any pictures because you aren't allowed to bring cameras in so I will just add one of their many awesome videos to this post below... They have so many great songs so it is hard to pick just one but here is Mr. Brightside, one of my favorites. Cheers!

Visiting Friends In Grande Prairie

I went to Grande Prairie on Wednesday the 16th for a quick visit. I really miss my friends. It was great to see them again. It's about a 4.5 hour drive so I left early in the morning and got there around 1:00. We had a great time. My friend Laura came in from Fort St. John, and Lisa, Hayley and Tracy still live in GP. Here's a few pics...

Lisa and me. She was my assistant when I was the Kitchen Manager at Egan's. We were great friends from the first time we met.

Me in the hotel room. Laura, Hayley, Lisa and I got this room for the night.

Lisa, Hayley and Me.

Lisa, Laura, Hayley and Me. This was the Management team at Egan's. We were all great friends and such a good team.

We went out to Egan's later that evening.

Lisa, Me and Laura.

Me and Laura.

Another good friend of mine. Tracy. I stayed with her for like a week before I left Grande Prairie. She is probably moving to Edmonton In September to go to the University. I hope so!

Tracy, Me and Lisa.

My New Steamer

My Mom and I were talking on the phone today while I was making supper and was telling her that I was using my new steamer for the first time. Before I left Terrace my Mom bought me a steamer and tonight was the first time I got to use it so far. I cooked the whole meal just in the steamer. I didn't need to use any pots or the oven!! Anyway I wanted to show Mom how it turned out...

Here is the steamer. You can't really see but I had rice on the top and fish and carrots on the bottom. I put it on the stove and turned on the fan above to suck out the steam. It worked really well, and was so easy.

After it was done here was my meal. It was really good!! Thanks Mom! I really like the steamer.

Pictures from the moving day

Blaine is working right now. He won't be done until 11:00 tonight. Last night we did some more unpacking. I am working on it tonight too. It's hard with a lack of space though, to maneuver thing around and find a place for everything. Blaine got a leather couch and chair for us. His friend at work is moving either at the end of May or end of June so we will probably be buying them from him when he leaves. We just have to go and look at them to make sure but I'm sure they will be good. That will be nice but I have to make room!!

I just uploaded my pictures of our moving day so I will post those and still will soon post pics of the apartment, but not yet...





Here is our storage unit. It is 10 by 10 foot, and packed full. Adam and Charlene and Mom came to help. Thanks so much you guys!!





Here is the U-Haul that we had to transfer it all into.

Our U-Haul just happened to have Virginia on the side. They all have different places on the side of them. Cool hey!

Here we are just over half done. It was a great day to do it. I even got a tan!


I miss these little kids so much. My niece and nephews. I love them!! They are so cute.

My sister and I just before we left. We said goodbye at the storage place.

Blaine is good to go in the U-Haul!

First stop to stretch not to long after we left.

Here is a picture I took from my car while I was driving. That's Blaine ahead.

This was on day 2 somewhere we stopped for a break. I was extremely tired. Almost couldn't stay awake so we had to stop often on the second day.

Okay so I will be going to pick up one more thing (a dresser) from Berna and Rod's place in FSJ this week. When I return I will put on some pics of our apartment!!

At Home In E-town

Finally!!! I just got my modem/router in the mail today and got connected! I don't have pictures yet but I will soon post some. Blaine started his job on Tuesday and we have been spending some time looking for a car for him. He said the job is alright. He is working the 7AM-3PM shift right now. I think next week he switches to 3PM-11PM. That will be for 2 weeks and then he will be on 11PM-7AM for 2 weeks. The shifts rotate every 2 weeks.

Blaine's brother Shawn is living in Edmonton now too so he came and helped us unload. He has spent a few days and nights at our place visiting too. It has been nice. Blaine and I went and relaxed in the apartment hot tub last night. There is also a gym and a sauna that we can use anytime we want. It's really nice. We have lots of work still to get this place organized but it is going okay so far.