Today....

I resolve to make myself a better version from yesterday but hopefully not a better version than tomorrow... 

Remember to be present and grateful :)

My first purchase from Nordstrom Vancouver....

.... is Bobby's Christmas present to me!!!!

Okay so Nordstrom's officially opened in Vancouver in September while we were in Europe. Our first weekend back in Vancouver, we hit up Nordstrom (about a week after it opened) and it was soooo busy that I left after 5 minutes. We've been back a couple times since the first attempt... but it's always been madness.

Anyway, so I've been wanting new Uggs for a really long time now - my pair are really old (at least 5 years old) and really well loved. My original pair of Uggs is the tall bailey buttons in chestnut and I LOVE this design. The buttons are adorable :) Today, I learned that Nordstrom's had Uggs on sale as part of their Black Friday sale... so I hit up the store on my way home from work... and snapped up the last pair of size 6 in black! 

Brand new pair vs. well loved pair

Side note: I am a size 6 (yes I have small feet) and I usually buy boots a size bigger since I like wear thicker socks with them. So my old Uggs are a size 7... but since the fur lining flattens a lot with wear, they aren't snug anymore. This isn't really an issue since it never gets THAT cold in Vancouver... But still, I made sure not to make the same mistake again :)

I love my new Uggs! Thanks a bunch Bobby <3

PS; I LOVE NORDSTROM VANCOUVER!!! So much better than The Bay in downtown. I actually went to The Bay on my lunch break to check out Uggs and they weren't on sale! Even their loyalty program is better. I think I have found my new favorite store :)

Book Review: The Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

Luckiest Girl Alive: A Novel by Jessica Knoll

Please note: this post contains spoilers and all opinions are my own.

Synopsis:

TifAni FaNelli (yes, her name is written that way) grew up in a ‘fake it even if you don’t make it’ kind of household. Her family lived in a gigantic mcmansion they could not afford, and her mother drove around in a beat up, red BMW (heaven forbid she get caught in a Honda Civic!). Even though money was tight, TifAni went to a prestigious prep school and she had all of the trendiest clothes. Appearing wealthy was very important to her mother, who behaved very "low brow" even though she tried very hard to appear "high class". Now as a grown up, TifAni goes as Ani, and she had created a seemingly wonderful life for herself: she has a great paying job, she lives in New York City, and she is engaged to a man from a wealthy family. It truly seems like she is the luckiest girl alive… until we dig deeper into the scars of her teenage past.

My summary:

The book starts off with Ani and her fiancé Luke are picking out items for their wedding registry. Ani feels suffocated about the thought of having a husband… and she even fantasizes about stabbing her fiancé with the knife she is testing out. As we read on, we learn that Ani and Luke have very different opinions on how their married life will be. Luke eventually wants to move to London for his career, but Ani doesn't want to… Also, there was the whole ‘social class’ difference: Luke is from a very wealthy family, the kind of family that Ani’s mother had wanted them to fit in with/be their entire lives.

Ani has been contacted to be a part of a documentary for Bradley (the prep school she attended), and she keeps mentioning how this is a great opportunity to be able to tell her side of the story… When I first started reading the book, I thought her side of the story was how she went from rags to riches (maybe she wanted to be some sort of inspiration for other people who grew up in non-wealthy households? Or maybe she was just vain?). The book is written in the present about Ani’s life, and how she is planning her wedding… but we also really delve into Ani’s past… and only then do we see WHY Ani feels the need to tell her story.

As a teenager, Ani got kicked out of her all-girls Catholic school (she got thrown under the bus by some friends when they all got caught smoking weed). Although her mother was pissed, she saw it as an opportunity to enroll Ani in Bradley, a prestigious prep school. Ani makes friends with Arthur (a chubby kid whose mother is a teacher at the school), and ‘the Shark’ (a girl whose eyes are too wide for her face) and their friends, but it is Liam, a fellow new student, who catches her eye. Ani and Liam become friendly, which makes the popular girls who are also into Liam notice Ani… and by osmosis, Ani becomes a part of the popular crowd. One afternoon, Ani is invited to a party and there is only one catch: Ani cannot tell the popular girls (The HOs: Hilary and Olivia). Ani, desperate to spend time with Liam, agrees.

At this party, there is alcohol involved… and Ani is sexually assaulted by the boys (Liam included) and although Ani knows that what happened is wrong, she is too afraid to speak up about it. She fears the risk of losing her popular friends: Hilary and Olivia would be pissed if they knew she attended a party without them! In the end, Hilary and Olivia find out anyway, and they start to alienate Ani. Olivia has a party at her house one night and Ani is invited. Ani sees this as an opportunity to mend their friendship and she knows she has to try really hard to get back into the girls’ good sides… but Dean (resident bad boy with an attitude problem) gets aggressive with Ani and tries to sexually assault her again. This time, Ani fights back and prevents Dean from assaulting her. Olivia’s father hears the commotion and the party is over. That is the end of Ani’s friendship with the popular crew. Olivia kicks Ani out of her house in the middle of the night. Ani has nowhere to go so she walks off in the unfamiliar neighbourhood. She ends up running into her Honors English teacher, Mr. Larson, who offers to take her in for the night. 

Mr. Larson has a hunch that Ani had been assaulted and Ani pretty much confesses all of this to him. Mr. Larson and Ani make a plan to report Dean (who had previously been accused of sexual assault) and at the last minute, Ani backs out. Dean had called her to apologize and Ani is afraid that her mother will be pissed off for ruining everything (getting kicked out of a prestigious school, etc). (Side note: to be honest, Ani’s mother seemed like the type to get angry at her for being assaulted)… Mr. Larson ends up quitting his teaching position, and Ani starts hanging out with Arthur again.

Side note: At this point in the book, I assumed that Ani wanted to be part of the documentary so she could (finally?) talk about how she was sexually assaulted, and even perhaps name and shame the culprits?

Ani and Arthur start hanging out every day after school. One day, Arthur shows Ani a rifle his dad (who left him and his mom years back) left in their basement. Ani was terrified even though Arthur assured her that it was not loaded, etc. Ani and Arthur end up getting into a huge fight one day, and Ani steals a photo of Arthur and his father (a photo that Ani knew Arthur cherished very much) effectively ending her friendship with Arthur.

Fast forward to a few weeks (or months?) or so later: there is a mass shooting at Bradley. All of the popular kids are severely injured (Dean is paralyzed and Hilary lost a foot) or killed (Liam does not survive). Arthur and Ben (another kid who was mentioned severely times in the book, but no longer a student at Bradley because he had some sort of breakdown from being bullied by Dean and the popular kids) are behind the attack. Towards the end of the massacre, Arthur has cornered an injured Dean in the cafeteria when Ani walks in. At first, Arthur wants to kill Ani as well, but he changes his mind and hands Ani the gun so that she could get revenge on Dean for assaulting her. Ani refuses and Dean survives…

And this whole massacre is why Ani so badly wanted to be part of the documentary. After the school shooting, the police thought that Ani was involved in the shooting (since she was friends with Arthur and everyone knew what Dean had done to her... also, the police found a note Ani and Arthur passed back and forth in class documenting how they wanted to hurt the popular kids). She wanted a chance to be able to clear her name/tell her side of the story.

A few weeks before it’s time to shoot the documentary, Ani runs into Mr. Larson and his wife. Luke had been pestering Ani into having dinner with a client, and when Ani finally gave in, she is pleasantly surprised to run into Mr. Larson. However, it turns out that this is not a chance encounter – Mr. Larson had tried to reconnect with Ani by setting up a meeting with Luke (Mr. Larson put two and two together that the future Mrs. Ani Harrison, who attended Bradley, was in fact TifAni FaNelli). This to me was very strange – perhaps Mr. Larson felt bad for leaving Ani like he did (he quit his teaching position knowing full well she had no one to turn to)? Ani and Mr. Larson had a very strange, borderline inappropriate relationship though – nothing happened when she ended up spending the night, but Mr. Larson tried to get in contact with her after the school shooting by calling her at home… Ani’s mother refused to let Mr. Larson speak with her (this is probably the only motherly thing Ani’s mother did). Oh and they make out when Ani is an adult (they sneaked into Bradley one night after filming the documentary and were forced to hide under a table when security came in... Ani has a panic attack because hiding under a table takes her back to the school shooting... and all o f a sudden, those two are making out... um... what!?!

Anyway, after the documentary is filmed, Ani goes back to the city to her regular life. At her wedding rehearsal, she decides to end things with Luke. It was a culmination of many reasons why they should not get married, but ultimately, the straw that broke the camel’s back was the fact that Luke’s friend broke Arthur’s photo frame (the one that Ani stole many years ago) and Luke threw away the pieces… which Ani then found one day in their apartment. Luke was against Ani doing to the documentary – he really wanted her to just move on from her past, and perhaps throwing away a frame she was holding on to was his way of helping her? Either way, they break up. Ani moves in with a friend and she finally feels free. 

Personally, it took a really long time for me to get into this book. The story starts off with present day Ani, and she is not a very likeably character. She is quite vain, and materialistic… I really got into the book when we got to Ani’s past: Ani is the way she is because of her mother who forced her to keep up this façade of being rich even though they were actually quite poor, because of being sexually assaulted and then outcast by the popular kids at school, and then being a part of and them blamed for a school shooting. Ani never really got a chance in life, but yet she still made something of herself. I was glad to see her breaking things of with Luke – it’s nice that her happily ever after was not because she got rescued by some knight in shining armour (Luke had actually told her that he was glad he was the one that got to rescue her from her past).    

Overall, I would give this book at 3/5. It was an easy read and honestly, I was not expecting the school shooting plot twist (even though Arthur's rage, and the constant mention of Ben who had a mental breakdown)... Apparently, it will be turned into a movie (Reese Witherspoon will produce it!) - looking forward to watching the movie :)

The Starbucks Bogo, etc

Had my first PiYo class in months this morning! I was really looking forward to it.. and I knew it was going to kick my ass... Oh man, I was so shaky the entire class, and I had to modify poses a lot. But it's okay! Glad to be getting back at it and can't wait until the next class!

Afterwards, Bobby and I had to get some boring old chores done. We hit the grocery store to re-stock the fridge. We treated ourselves to Starbucks holiday drinks (Peppermint mocha for me, chestnut praline for Bobby).

Home for a bit... next on my list: Hit up Michaels for some twine... and Sephora for their VIB sale

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

In Flanders Fields

Happy Remembrance Day to my fellow Canadians (and Veteran's Day to our neighbours down south of the 49th parallel. Saluting each and every veteran out there today - thank you for continuing to fight for our freedom!

Being Canadian, Remembrance Day is symbolized by poppies: Every year, by the end of October, you can buy a poppy by donation. And in elementary school, we would make our own poppy out of construction paper, and each student would glue their poppy onto a their class wreathe. At the Remembrance Day assembly, a student from each class would then place their class's wreathe at the front of the auditorium and we would do a moment of silence for our fallen heroes.

We also learned the poem "In Flanders Field" (which was written by a Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae) and we would recite this poem each year at the assembly. It's well known poem to most Canadians, but I thought I would share this poem today.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

between the crosses row and row

that mark our place

and in the sky the larks still bravely singing fly

We are the dead

short days ago

we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow

and now we lie

in Flanders Fields

Take up the quarrel with the foe

to you from failing hands we throw

the torch be yours to hold it high

if ye break faith with us who die

we shall not sleep though poppies grow

in Flanders Fields

I know today is a stat holiday... but I hope that everyone took a minute to be grateful for everything that our veterans have done for us. :)

An updated view

Why hello there... it's been a while! Life has been crazy and I finally have some time to get back to this blog. 

The past few months have been busy - we were away (Europe), then we got home and Kiwi got diagnosed with cancer, then we went away again (Vegas), and Kiwi passed away.... and we had our wedding reception with friends and I got sick. 

To sum up, I have lots to blog about... and a couple of books to review...

But to start off, just wanted to give an update on the view from my desk at work. We changed the paintings around at work and no longer do I have to stare at the gladiator lady! 

Chat soon!! :)

All 'hogs go to heaven

Dear World,

Little Miss Kiwi-Keys Chaos has gone to hedgehog heaven. She lived a very happy three years, seven months and seven days... and despite constantly thinking that I would one day squish her to death from cuteness overload, she passed away due to jaw cancer :(

Kiwi passed away Tuesday October 13th... and it has taken me a while to gather my thoughts and pictures of Kiwi I wanted to share.

A little bit lot about Kiwi:

Kiwi was born on a winter-almost-spring day: March 6, 2012. Time of birth is not documented - I came home one day and found that mama Chaos had not eaten a bite of food all day. I tried to get Chaos' attention to get her to eat food but she just kept hissing at me! So I said "Fine Chaos, go ahead and starve, see if I care!!" even though I cared very much... then I heard the CUUUUUUTEST little suckling noises ever. I then realized that Chaos had given birth!! I covered her cage with a towel to give her privacy and called Bobby to tell him the good news! Bobby came home and we went out for dinner to celebrate :)

We didn't disturb Chaos for 9 days - I was so terrified she would feel threatened and eat a baby! We only had Chaos for less than a month, I didn't know if she 'trusted' us... so we left her alone. It was sooo adorable hearing the babies squeak for their mama... and Chaos was the best hedgehog mama ever!

On the 9th day of Kiwi's existence, I came home and found Chaos sleeping BEHIND their little hut. I panicked because no one was keeping the babies warm! Hedgehogs are born furless and blind - they get their warmth from their mama (okay so is this first and only strike against otherwise perfect Chaos!)... so I picked Chaos up to force her back home... and boy did Chaos panic!!! Luckily, she calmed down and continued to be the world's greatest hedgehog mama :) And this was the day we realized that Chaos had given birth to three little hoglets :)

First pic of the babies at 9 days old

We started handling the babies at 14 days old... and we discovered that Chaos had birthed three perfect baby girls :) I initially named the babies Kiwi, Mango and Papaya.. Bobby ended up renaming a baby Bowser, and our friend Aleks named her adopted hoglet Purdy. I know you are never supposed to pick a favourite, but Kiwi has ALWAYS been my favourite :) She had such a crazy personality - ever since she was a month old, she was a dare devil: you put her on any surface and she would JUMP. Seriously! When hedgehog babies are young (a month old or less), their spikes are constantly spiked out... so baby Kiwi would jump off the coffee table... and I would go to catch her... and OUCH. The craziness never stopped. You had to watch this one like a hawk ;)

Babies at 14 days old! It was adorable how they always slept next to each other!

Babies learning to use mama's wheel

Weighing the baby fatties: Bowser was always the largest, Kiwi was the middle sized babe, and Purdy was the smallest

Baby Kiwi!! Taken on April 6, 2012... so she was exactly one month old

Eventually, after re-homing the other two babies, we were down to Chaos and Kiwi. Chaos was such a sweet mother... and Kiwi was such a brat for a daughter :) But she was adorable so how could you not love her!?

Kiwi and Chaos (in background)

Kiwi's first summer (as a 4 month old hedgie)

Hiding behind gigantic sunglasses like a bunch of cool kids!

"Keep back!" says mama Kay

Kiwi's favorite treats were cat treats, graham crackers.. and anything crunchy like cereal. When she got older, she started getting into fruits (mangoes were her latest obsession).

Cereal :)

mmmmango!

She was very spoiled (not once did Bobby go to the pet store without at least looking for a new toy for Kiwi). Ultimately, her favorite toys were fake grass pieces (Bobby bought Chaos and Kiwi fake grass one day... and that night, Kiwi brought all of the little pieces in her hut and she slept beside them pretty much most nights of her life) and nerf gun ammo (she found a piece in the apartment one day and brought it home to live with her collection of fake grass pieces!). Otherwise, she didn't care for other toys :)

Kiwi protecting her nerf gun ammo and grass piece

Sleeping with her prized possessions

Fake grass all the time!

Most of her toys: Fake Bowser the dryer ball (named after Baby Bowser), rocks from Bobby's hikes, pinecones... and of course the fake grass and nerf ammo

Kiwi was very feisty - she would bite if you pissed her off. But she also had a tender side.. and it was soooo sweet seeing her cuddling with her mama.

Uh... sure, you can sleep in my bag

Spooning! Mama Kay is big spoon

Snuggle time

Always snuggling! Even when mama Kay looked uncomfortable...

...or Kiwi looked uncomfortable!

Just airing out!

Kiwi-isms
Kiwi was a terrible hider.... she was a firm believer that if she could not see you, that clearly meant that you could not see her. Please see exhibits A-C below:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

Kiwi and me
To say I had a major obsession with Kiwi is the biggest understatement ever. Admittedly, she was my favourite hedgehog! And to be honest... I would play with Kiwi a minimum of five times a day. My day would start with checking in on Kiwi before I went to work... and when I got home, the first thing I would do is get Kiwi and together we would sit on the couch and wait for Bobby to get home :)

Me and baby Kiwi

Just a couple of weirdos

Kiwi and I even did PiYo together ;)

Even when Bobby and I had movie nights in, Kiwi would chill on the couch with us. Bobby had one corner of the couch, I sat in the middle, and Kiwi had the other corner. She would happily nap under a couch pillow... and when she would wake up from her slumber and poke around, I would let her run home so she could eat and run on her wheel.

Kiwi's corner of our comfy couch

Bobby thought Kiwi was pretty awesome too:

Hello Kiwi, do you like our new house?

Kiwi (and Chaos) had a hoggy door on their cage and I would often let Kiwi run home to escape my craziness. She knew how to get home from the living room/dining room area. As she got older (and Marco moved out), we moved her to the third bedroom of the apartment so we could better control the temperature (hedgehog's are very temperature sensitive). After we moved Kiwi, it took her a while to re-learn how to get home (you can't teach old 'hogs new tricks ;))

I had to teach Chaos how to use her hoggy door, but the babies learned  how to use the door really quickly and they liked to make their great escape :)

Running home... check out my Christmas wreath by the way ;)

Kiwi's claim to fame
I started an official instagram account for Kiwi earlier this year... after heavily spamming my Facebook friends with nothing but hedgehog pics... and let's face it, 50% of this blog is hedgehog entries.... And one morning, I woke up and found that a picture Dora took of Kiwi ended up on @AnimalsOverPeople! Her picture got over 3000 likes! And she made so many new hedgehog friends!

Also, Kiwi had her own personal photo shoot, thanks to Dora of 21 Mpix Photography. Here are a couple of shots:

I'm cute... this is the same pic that got featured on @animalsoverpeople

Hello world!

And now, some of my fave pics of Kiwi:

In my pink towel

Kiwi and kiwi!

Kiwi, Old Chaos and Chaos

Watching men's hockey during the 2014 winter olympics

Hello, can I help you with something?

Kiwi's love notes to Bobby

Kiwi's third birthday... the last birthday we got to celebrate together

Kiwi's last half birthday... we missed it by a couple of weeks because we were away... Kiwi was already diagnosed with cancer at this point and we wanted to make her half birthday extra special!

Our sincerest thank yous
In no particular order:
- To Aleks and Brad-Ja-Luca for watching our babies whenever we went away.

- To Dora/21 MPix Photography for Kiwi's private photoshoot... I am so grateful for all of the beautiful pictures from this day that I will get to reflect on

- To Pawsh Pet/Melissa for taking care of Kiwi when she was sick and we were away. Melissa did such a great job and I am so grateful we found her. I was so stressed out having to go away when Kiwi was sick but unfortunately, our trip was pre-planned. Melissa was able to take my stress level down a couple of levels.
- To Eagle Ridge Animal and Bird Hospital... words cannot express how kind their staff are. When we first brought in Kiwi with her swollen cheek, I was devastated to learn that she had cancer. We decided to bring her home until it was her time to go.... Today, I received a sympathy card signed by the staff at this hospital. It was extremely unexpected and it caught me off guard and I immediately burst into tears. No one ever understands the bond you have with an animal but I was so touched by their kindness

And finally, to my sweet Kiwi:
Thank you for 3 and a half years of love, happiness and silliness! You brought so much joy and laughter to us and to our family and friends. I miss you so much but I am so happy you are pain free. Run free my Kiwi-Keys. I love you