Events and pictures.

This little heartbreaker right here is the newest member of the extended Bell family. Her name is Maggie Bell and she now belongs to my Uncle Jim and Auntie Reta in Nanaimo, B.C. (yes, birthplace of the delish bar!)
Isn't she gorgeous? I'm so envious.










Next on our list is Ashlea Collis's bridal shower. Ashlea lived across the street from us on Peter Andrew when I was a little girl, and from the time I was old enough to go to school she walked me to and from Westminster P.S. until she moved away. She was a pretty special friend and babysitter, and we were so glad to be invited to her bridal shower. Her fiance Eric is a really nice guy and treats her really well. The shower was at the Finch Garden chinese restaurant and was hosted by her mother and aunts. A good time all in all.


















This last batch of photos is from Friday's foray downtown with Ms. Morris's grade 9 geography classes. For those of you who don't know, Ms. April Morris-Rulens was my absolute favourite teacher in high school. She was also a real inspiration to me, and in the end is who inspired me to go for teacher's college. She remains my mentor, and after I graduated from VSS and had my first year in University she was hired to be the head of Geography at Richmond Green SS in Newmarket. Shortly thereafter she found out that she and her husband were expecting a baby girl, and we've been connected and catching up ever since. Every so often myself and Evgeny Aizenberg (see above with sister Polina), also a big fan of Ms. Morris, go see her and help in her classroom. This time she had planned an Amazing Race-style adventure for her students in the downtown core, and Ev, Polina and I acted as Checkpoint B in Kensington Market. Other checkpoints were located in Chinatown, Union Station, Queen's Park and St. Lawrence Market. It was sweltering hot and some of the kids got lost and had to be rescued by yours truly, but we had a pretty amazing day.

-Laur

The Long Wait

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I've been extremely busy with work and renovations. As you can see, we've starting pulling up the back deck in anticipation of relaying it properly. So exciting!

The garden looks amazing, hence the many pictures I've posted, and I can't wait for things to keep blooming. I planted a pot of climbing pole beans, so hopefully soon they'll germinate and we can eat the fruits (or vegetables) of my labours haha.

Today is Sarah's prom and everyone is in a tizzy. After the craziness ends I'll blog more.

-Laur

Mother's Day

My mom is the greatest. I don't even want to get started on why she's the greatest because I'd go on for days. So I'll just say that she's the greatest and no one will contradict me.

And she loved the ice cream cake.

-Laur

Wa-Ma

Nothing new to report. Went to Wal-Mart today with Sarah and got too much nice-smelling body stuff and a really cute top, which I didn't try on before buying.

I'm LIVING ON THE EDGE, KIDS! WOOOOOO!

In other news, look at the cuteness of my iGoogle page (pictured above).

There's a little fox and some ducks and a crane, and at night (because it adjusts to the time of day) there's a little glow worm with a lit-up butt. SO CUTE!

I hate to confess it, but I really love Wal-Mart. It's scary and disorganized and the people who work there are somewhat useless (LOVE YOU ALEYA!) but I always find such awesome stuff there. Like coconut-scented handcream and the aforementioned cute top. There's one opening up near me in November, and I'm secretly so excited. Obviously not a secret anymore because I just told you, but yeah. Very excited. And there's rumours of a Chapters/Indigo opening up in the same lot, and the Shoppers Drugmart from across the street is getting its own brand new superbuilding. November is looking like a very eventful month.

My day was nice and that makes me happy. Tomorrow is Mother's Day and Sarah and I ordered mom an icecream cake because she's trying really hard to stick to her gluten-free diet. I hope she enjoys it.

Jamocha Almond Fudge, y'all.

-Laur

Another Grand Adventure!

So I had an adventure today. It was a gorgeous, hot and sunny day in downtown Toronto, the perfect conditions for exploration, discovery, and unexpected surprises.
Check out this public Facebook album and see the pictures for yourself:
http://yorku.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2148964&l=19b02&id=48910835

Let me know what you think! I'm not photography genius like Nazia is, but it'll do.

Can't wait to see what the rest of the week will bring!

-Laur

Spidey

So I saw Spiderman 3 yesterday. Don't waste your money at a big theatre to see it. Just watch it at a small cheapie theatre. I swear, if I have to watch Tobey Maguire cry one more time I might throw something expensive at the screen and then regret it terribly.
However, I had my beautiful and totally lovely friend Valerie over later on in the day for a baking BO-NAN-ZAAAA in which we experimented with the traditional Nestle Tollhouse recipe and made quite a delicious batch of peanut butter-chocolate rainbow cookies. She even brought me a gift in gratitude for inviting her over. What a sweetheart!!!
I started, at my friend Ola's urging, a recipe exchange group on Facebook a few days ago and it's now 48 members strong with 9 different recipe discussions and 7 recipes posted. I love it! If you're on Facebook, look it up: Laura's Super Delicious Recipes. I have yet to post the recipe that Ola actually wanted, but I'll do it soon.
The internet is a wonderful and distracting thing.

-Laur

Karma? Tres weird

Well, I must have been very good in the last few months because in the previous 48 hours I've been luckier than I have been in MONTHS!! I got the Summer School Tutor job with the York Region District School Board, which is AMAZING because it means I get my foot in the door with them, AKA easier time finding a job with them when I graduate from York.
Then City of Vaughan calls me and tells me they want to interview me for an Assistant Director position. I couldn't take them up on it, obviously, but I'll probably still have a position in August if I want one. Yay!!!!
AND I'll be picking up shifts at Kids Come First Childcare Program, which means little work for muchos dinero! Double yay!!!
So the time of being anxious is over. Hopefully my hair will stop falling out soon (jokes!) Now I can't wait for the onslaught of family, starting at the end of May with my Auntie Jule and going into June with my Auntie Brenda and my Gramma. YAY!

-Laur