My Favourite Things About Fall.

The Fall season has absolutely, 100% arrived here in Maryland.

Do I like that the weather is getting colder? No.
Do I enjoy having to wear layers upon layers of clothing in my own home? No.
Do I look forward to having to wake up at 5:45 AM only to open my eyes to nothing but total darkness? No!
Am I attracted to all of this insanely-tacky-redneck-backyard-Halloween decor? Uhh, no.
Do I love the colour orange? NO. Absolutely not.

Reading what I've just written, I can totally understand if you assume that I'm some kind of Autumn "Scrooge". Haha! Trust me, I'm not! Every season has its own set of pros and cons, and those just happen to be my "cons". So, to redeem my pessimistic tendencies, I decided to make a list of my top favourite things about the season of Fall. Some are cliche and others are just a bit out of the ordinary. Enjoy! ;)

1. Let us begin with the most obvious of them all, shall we? PUMPKIN SPICED LATTES FROM STARBUCKS. I love this $5.00 drink to bits and pieces. The only good thing about this drink coming to its seasonal end is that Starbuck's Caramel Brulee Latte makes its big reveal! Eeee!!

2. One of my most favourite things about Fall is that October and November are the months when Taylor Swift has released every single one of her albums. When the leaves start to change and the air gets a little crisper, Taylor Swift is all I ever play. Of course she releases albums every few years, so in years such as this one when no new album is being released, I listen to ALL of her music on repeat. Hopelessly, fall will always remind me of Taylor Swift.

3. This one is yet another obvious one, but I love the vibrant colours of the leaves. I really don't think that someone could ever appreciate autumn leaves as much as the girl who moved from the Canadian prairies to the eastern coast of the USA. (I'm talking about me, here!) My childhood autumns consisted of one week of beautiful, fluffy, colorful trees. Before I'd know it, the wind would circle around once and the trees would reveal themselves....totally naked. Depressing, I know! Whereas in Maryland, autumn lasts SOOOO long! It's amazing! And every day on my drive home from work my eyes are just taken captive by the trees, and I somehow put my body on "auto-pilot" when driving. I am such a good multitasker...

4. September will always bring back good memories for me because it's the start of the academic school year. All the way until high school I couldn't sleep the night before the very first day because I'd be so excited! My new back-to-school outfit was always laid out on the floor, and my backpack full of new binders and clean notepaper was right there next to it. And after graduation, every September I'd wake up in a different place...British Columbia, Germany, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and now for the second autumn in a row: Maryland. New beginnings and fresh starts have always been my thing.

5. Thanksgiving with family. A date marked on the calendar for the whole family to be together around a table full of delicious food?! A holiday dedicated entirely on FOOD and FAMILY? Yes please.

6. The only, only, only positive outcome of the weather getting colder is that my desire for scorching hot food increases. Yes, I'm talking soup! Soup is one of my favourite things to cook, and in the past three days I have cooked three different soups. Creamy Broccoli soup (at work), Vegetarian Vegetable soup (at work), and my personal favourite which I made at home: Farmer Sausage Potato Bacon Corn Chowder. It is as a mouthful to say as it is a mouthful to eat.

7. Hockey season begins! Watching the Winnipeg Jets are one of mine and Jarryd's most favourite things to do! (Unfortunately, they lost last night 4-1... :'( But, we shall prevail!) It is so much fun cozying up on the couch with Cokes, Beers, and oodles & toodles of junk food and cheering our Jets on. (And how lucky am I that my husband's favourite team is my very own hometown team?! Whaaat?!) Together we have been to two Jets games, and this winter we are planning to change that to a whopping three!

Because I simply cannot think of anymore...The End! I hope you feel inspired to go out and invest your hard earned cash into a $5.00+ drink from Starbucks. <3 ;)

Home Decor.

Our apartment is coming together quite nicely, and this picture of a corner in our living room pretty much sums up my interior decor style;

Mirrors, gold, plants/greenery, world maps, New York City, wooden accents, and sheer white curtains welcoming in the natural light.

The only thing missing is something über feminine like frilly pink peonies. ;)

Back in the U.S. of A!

Well, I'm back!

My very first trip to Canada as merely a "visitor" has come and gone. Eleven days sure fly by. Eleven amazing days, actually. ;)

While in Canada, I was really excited to get back to the US. I was missing Jarryd, my apartment, and my routine; but I was more excited to get back with new goals in mind and to start things afresh here.

I'm currently on my third day back here in Maryland, and I have already been flummoxed in whirlwind of emotions. I was so happy to see Jarryd, but sad at the thought of no longer being able to call up my best friends and hang out at their house or invite them over. I was sad I couldn't see my parents on a weekly basis, or anyone in my family for that matter.

Without a doubt the biggest sacrifice of moving to a new country have been my family and friends. Nothing could ever top that. I love Canada, and my family and friends are what Canada is to me.

I'm happy, I'm sad, and I'm also fearful.

I'm scared that nothing is going to change. I'm scared that I'll be living in this restless state of mind forever, working at a job that isn't my dream job, and longing for a depth in relationship with family and friends that I may never achieve here.

Take it one day at a time, I suppose.

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.  Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.  Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?  Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?” Luke 12:22-26

P.S.- A blog post about my Canada trip is in the works! Stay tuned! :)

Layover in the Twin Cities.

Ahh airports, I have always loved airports.

Ok that is a total lie.

Clearly I have been repressing my childhood memories of getting overactive butterflies in my stomach any time I would even step foot into an airport. Not to mention the extreme nausea inside of an airplane.

Nonetheless, that was then and this is now. My fear of airline terminals has long subsided and now when I step into an airport I feel nothing but excitement.

It is quarter to seven (PM) and I'm sitting in the Minneapolis International Airport, in Minnesota.

I'm drinking my liquid version of my saving grace, Starbucks, and reading my shiny brand new book, Why Not Me? to fulfill my craving for comedic and raw literature. Obviously I ripped the jacket off of the book because we can all agree that book jackets are insufferably irritating, yes?

Just the fact that I am presently in the state of Minnesota is just so grand! Firstly, I love this state. I've been to it many times! I have the fondest of memories road tripping to Valley Fair with my siblings, and camping with my cousins in their camper. And let's not forget how great the Minnesota Wild is!

But most of all, this moment is so crazy because I am literally a six hour drive from my hometown. SIX HOURS! I haven't been this close to my Canadian home in a year and four months. It's both and amazing yet surreal feeling. It hasn't quite hit me yet that in just a few days I will be back there, seeing all of my friends and family once again.

And it  hasn't quite hit me that in less than four hours I will be hugging my second oldest sister and brotherinlaw. How amazing will that be?!

I have missed my Canadian home so so much. A part of me is scared I'm never gonna want to come back to my Maryland home. Haha! But don't worry, I left my hubby behind and I could never leave him for longer than I already am, I honestly miss him already! *blush*

This may just be the best Thanksgiving yet! :)

See you on the almost-frozen Canadian soil!

Canadian Thanksgiving!

Strawberry blonde hair, don't care! ;)

This girl is off to the Canadian prairies. First stop, Thanksgiving in cowboy land. Second stop, roadtrip to German-town.

Yippeeee!! I couldn't be more happy!

Success!

Me to Jarryd: "When you bake two batches of oatmeal cookies, and cook a salmon and asparagus dinner and your kitchen is STILL clean...this means you have reached culinary success!"
Hooray for multi-tasking and cleaning-as-you-go!
I feel like the cleaner your kitchen is while eating, the better your food tastes. ;)

Tender.

One of my favourite Christian artists today is Francesca Battistelli.
As her music played in the background this morning, a section of her lyrics really stood out of me:

"Oh God let my heart be tender in a world so tough, I'm gonna choose to love".

For those of you who know me and who have met me, can make a fair judgement that my demeanor is more on the "tender" end of the spectrum than its opposite, "tough".

Words that I've been countlessly described as include: soft-spoken, graceful, calm, quiet, warm, and gentle.
So you must be thinking that it must be remarkably easy for me to be "tender in a world so tough", yeah?

Not really. For those of you who really know me, know that I have a bitter side to me.

I'll never forget the time that after months of living together, one of my roommates told me: "Jenny when I first met you, I thought you were the sweetest most gentlest of girls, and then I realized...you are actually quite sassy."

I could not help but wholeheartedly and amusingly agree. I can be extremely sassy, or impudent as I like to call it.
Impudent: "not showing due respect for another person".

This cheeky part of me is really always there, deep down in the moats of my heart. (Yes, my heart has moats). But it only comes out a) when I'm with someone I'm really close with, such as my hubs, my friends, sisters, parents, ect., and b) when someone is really irritating me and I want to fire at them in a passive-aggressive fashion.

Do I like this sassy part of me? No, not really...

I feel like the world is always telling us (especially women) to be tough, to never let our guard down, to build walls and always be ready to fight if we feel we're being attacked (verbally, that is).
Someone once told me that I need to "thicken my skin". They told me this probably four years ago and I still to this day can't seem to shake their little suggestion off. Do I really need "thick skin" to survive in this world?

I don't think so. Um hello? I survived culinary school, immigration, wedding planning, and landed a job as a cook all without needing to "thicken my skin". And I am still alive.

I truly believe that the strongest of people are the ones who acknowledge their hurts, fears, pains, and share it with the world. Do you really think it makes you stronger when you push your feelings under the rug? Really?

There is nothing inside of me who wants to be like those people who are constantly sarcastic, always joking, and never able to have a real conversation with you. I feel like I know way too many people like that; it drives me nuts and requires almost all of my patience to deal with them.

So like Francesca's lyrics say, I am going to choose to be tender in this tough world. And as a highly-sensitive person I'd say it's pretty easy for me.

I want to be tough as in never-wavering from my beliefs and relationship in Christ, and tender as in being open, honest, real, and soft (like my brand new slippers). :)

The Weekdays Are Here!

My weekend is over and I am SO happy about it.
I'm definitely weird in the way that I look forward to the weekdays more so than I do the weekends.

Weekends = chaos.
Weekdays = routine.

Don't get me wrong, the weekends are normally alot of fun because they are filled with exciting experiences all shared with friends and family. Fortunately I would estimate that a good 8/10 times my weekends turn out to be more fun than I ever expect them to. But it's just hard for me to cope with not knowing exactly what to expect, how late will we be staying up? How early do I have to get up? What time do I work? Will I have time to shower between this and this? Who are we seeing? Where are we seeing them? Ect.

What I love about the weekdays is that I have a general idea of what to expect from Monday to Friday. Jarryd always works 7-4. If scheduled to work--I know that I will always work from 6-2. I know that if I'm not scheduled to work, that I'll most likely be spending my mornings with coffee, Rachael Ray, and The View. And I know that my evenings will always be free for whatever we so desire! And I know that we'll always be shootin' to go to bed by 10 pm.

I heart routine almost as much as I heart NYC. Almost. ;)

Friday: I worked from 6-2. Then did some serious shoe shopping for new work shoes. I ended up choosing $65.00 memory-foamed shoes over non-slip shoes, so I will probably break an ankle one of these days at work, (but at least my feet will be incredibly comfy whilst doing so). Then we watched the season premiere of Shark Tank, because that show is AWESOME.

Saturday: Was my 14 hour work day, 6 am to 8 pm. It was agonizingly long, especially when you know it is a Saturday and all of your friends and family are enjoying themselves at home without you. What made it even longer was the fact that my co-workers and I nailed out the prep-list the day before so besides cooking off the meals, we didn't have much else to do. Sigh.

Sunday: Worked 6 am to 10 am. Then I finally went to church! Finally!! It's been much too long! After, we watched football at our place with Tim, then we all went to the in-laws for Jarryd's birthday crab fest.

Oh. My. Goodness. These were the best crabs I've ever had! Their flavour was absolutely impeccable. Eating crabs with Jarryd's family is one of my favourite things to do. We all sit around the picnic table under the shade of the magnolia tree, grab a ton of paper towels, dump a whole bushel of crabs in the centre of the table, grab hold of our mallets and get to picking! Eating crabs together is really just a social bonding experience, and if Jarryd and I ever move away from Maryland, this is one thing I'm really going to miss! Might I add, for a central-Canadian, I am pretty darn good at picking crabs! But in comparison to a Marylander, my crab-picking skills is absolute garbage. :P
Believe me, I wish I had a photo to show you but it's literally impossible to take photos while eating crabs because your hands are like elbow deep in Old Bay seasoning. It's glorious.

Oh and on top of that, my father-in-law grilled us an incredibily delicious dinner of mushroom-swiss burgers, chicken thighs, baked corn, garlic-butter green beans, and apple crisp. Can you say: bloated with pure glee? I know I can.

Monday: Worked my usual 6 am to 2 pm, and then Tim and Jarryd surprised me with tickets to my very first Baltimore Orioles game!!!! (Or as I call them, Baltimore Oreos). It was an awesome experience! Anyone who knows me, knows that I love living like a tourist in my own town/city/region/state/country/world. Camden Yards was on my mental list of ball-parks to visit (with #1 on the list being Fenway Park), and I'm so happy I finally got to see it. It's a beautiful place.

What sets it apart from other ball-parks is its abundance of brick. Doesn't it resemble a historic American university to you?

The moment you enter through the gates you find yourself on what feels like a normal city street, where you're surrounded by shops and restaurants. But really, you're inside a ball-park! How cool!

We all know I gotta wear my glasses so that I can actually see the ball.

Panorama never fails to please.

The three amigos!!

Tuesday (Today): I didn't work this morning, I got to sleep in until 9:45 (although I probably could have slept longer if I hadn't have set my alarm), I drank my coffee, and I watched my tv shows. I am without-a-doubt happy as a clam because I finally have some alone time. It has been 6 days since I've had me-time but it may as well have been 6 months. I've been over-stimulated this past weekend (it's a struggle), and I am just so content to be here in my cozy apartment by myself blogging, dreaming, planning, learning, and praying. :)

I Heart NY.

Oh New York City,

They say the third time is the charm, but you had me at the first time.

I remember when I was younger, falling in love with you a little more and more with every movie I'd watch...from Breakfast at Tiffanys, Home Alone 2, and FRIENDS, to You've Got Mail.

Every ounce of you that I walk on feels like the makings of a movie set. Every avenue, every stoop, and every cafe encompasses so much character and has potential for so much love.

You make me feel underdressed, but still simultaneously you always make every part of me feel welcome (even my country roots seem to enjoy their time here).

By the end of the day you exhaust me, you utilize every muscle of my legs that I didn't even know existed. But on the train ride home I think to myself, I could definitely do this all over again. If I could I would come right back to you tomorrow.

New York City, I just can't get enough of you...you and your Starbucks-on-every-corner-way.
Let's do this again some time, some time soon. ;)

"A poem begins as a lump in the throat, 

a sense of wrong,

a homesickness,

a lovesickness."

-Robert Frost