Where has the time gone?

So it's officially 2011!!! I can't believe how fast time is flying by these days! I am 22 and feel as though I just barely turned 16! I have made A LOT of major changes over the past year and have had more stress enter my life this past year than the first 21 years combined! But I can honestly say that 2010 has by far been the best/ most rewarding year of my life!! I have so much to be grateful for!! 

*I rang in 2010 with my first YSA dance ever.....lets me honest I'm not much of a dancer never have been- never will be. But it was definitely a good start to a great year!! I met my friend Andrew Swenson there! He is a pilot and took my flying in his airplane and let me fly it for a bit to!! Very cool! was my first time in a small aircraft!

*I learned that the term sledding does not mean tobogganing but rather snowmobiling- apparently the cool kids prefer the term "sledding." This day I managed to go 160 km/hr on this sled I had no idea they were capable of going that fast! Thus the beginning of my adrenaline junkie phase!!

*I was working as a B-pressure welder at a shop called universe machine for the first part of the year.....as well as studying for my examiners certification--CRAZIEST EXAMS EVER-- passed exam #1 with a 90% that was a BIG HIGHLIGHT!!!

 *I met my friend Lacey McRitchie who is SUPER RAD! she had just returned from her mission...she is a J-man hairdresser and currently doing a carpentry apprenticeship and starting school for culinary arts in Jan!she is super cool!! and we have so much fun I am so grateful to have a friend like her in my life!!

*I dated a guy from Vegas--Random-- I know but awesome as well!! I made 2 trips down to Vegas and Ryan came up to Canada all within about a month and a half.....needless to say anytime I was not in Vegas I was a workaholic trying to pay for this ridiculous adventure. Things obviously didn't work out but I had A LOT of fun while it lasted!

 *My first trip down to Vegas we went Skydiving!! which was AWESOME!! I fell in LOVE with it such a rush!!! and I also met Stephanie and Jake Tobler. Stephanie is actually from St. Albert but I had to go to Vegas to meet her. Turns out she married Ryan's good friend Jake.....they both served missions in Canada--Small World. Turns out Steph and I have A LOT in common love her to pieces!! (She is the one who made me start this BLOG thing) as you can see I'm not very good at it!! haha

*April 30th I was at work on my lunch break minding my own business when I received a phone call that would spin my world up-side-down! It was livingstone range school division (the division I grew up in in southern alberta) offering me a position as a welding teacher! I got the call April 30th had to sign my life away May 3rd and started school at the university of Alberta on may 10th! SO STRESSFUL! How's it all work? Well the government put out some grants saying if school divisions get Journeyman trades workers to agree to become teachers the government will give division x-amount of money to put those people through school. So the deal is I go to school get a degree in exchange for my soul being under the direction of livingstone for basically eternity.....sure glad they gave me 3 days to think this one over! Needless to say I went through with it and am actually loving every minute of being in university but well get to that later. So this contract was the beginning of the month from HELL!

By the way Livingstone I made this sign.

MAY 2010 AKA month from hell!!

*First week of school at U of A on my way home....well actually I was home I was in the process of parking my truck in front of my house......I T-bone a guy in an SUV and write-off my Truck, his SUV and my wonderful tenants car! Great start to university student life

*That same week as I am transit bound due to the lack of wheels....mom and Jessie come up to spend some time with me....they pick me up from U of A and on the way home I get a call from my tenants explaining that my basement is flooding.....THATS JUST GREAT!!! so get that all figured out and about a week or 2 later Duke was supposed to fly up....and he calls the day before and not only cancels the trip but breaks up with me.....like I said month from hell! but hey I survived and I actually much to my own surprise handled it all quite well!!

*My VERY good friends Ashley and Kaleb got married! I knew Ashley growing up but we didn't hang out much until high school/ mostly after high school I LOVE her she is SSSOOOOOO much FUN and her and Kaleb are my favorite couple of all time!! they are just too dang cute!!

*Just so happened that I ran into an OLD friend Brett Olsen at this wedding and the most random activity of all time starts to happen in my life!! Basically to describe Brett and I in as few words as possible I would have to say.....RANDOM!

When ever Brett and I are together we think up the most ridiculous possible thing we could do and then we usually go and do it.....one of our first adventures involved a one armed bandit, 2 fishing poles, a dingy, my dog, lake misquikee, some beavers, and A LOT of laughs!!

*I had a  bit of time off in the summer between classes and was initially planning on spending some time down in Vegas....but when those plans went out the window I decided to go and see my friend Lauren in Vancouver.....I don't really know how to describe this trip other than Chaotic. But I have learned to LOVE the chaos that is constantly raging in my life so it actually wasn't all that bad. After all we did spend 2 nights at the Grotto! some other trip highlights would be...endless fancy dinners, Porsche, Spa-tacular & Party.

*Toblers came to Canada and we all went rock climbing! 'twas very entertaining

*I worked a lot during the summer but decided before I fully entered this university chapter of my life I needed to take a bit of a break. So Brett and I ventured down to Montana on a little hiking expedition which I blogged lots about earlier on....CRAZIEST trip of my life!

*I still had a week before school started when we got back so I decided to pay my friend Duke a little surprise visit down in his new city Boise. Understand that normally I can't drive from Edmonton to Calgary without needing to stop for a nap...So taking a road trip by myself down to Boise Idaho was quite the undertaking. I survived I took the scenic route...so it took me 15 hours to get there from Claresholm but it was a BEAUTIFUL drive! and gave me lots of time to think :) It was definitely needed and allthough I heard some things that I really could have lived without it was a lot of fun and I once again was forced to face my FEAR and eat seafood..... not just seafood but CRAWFISH! hands down ugliest thing I have ever put in my mouth!!

*The weekend after Boise was my Families trip down to Greatfalls for the day it was very fun!! I love my family so much! they are all so Wonderful! I truly cherish all the time we get to spend together! My "little" cousins are so much fun!! I don't know what I'll do when they are all grown up and too cool to talk to me anymore! that will be a sad day.

*October 2010 was my first time ever attending general conference! one word: AMAZING!! 

I took a road trip down with 3 of my closest friends: Lacey, Dayna, and Alyssa!

We had a lot of fun I LOVE Salt Lake! I cannot wait to go back again soon! being able to visit temple square again was wonderful! I love the spirit that is felt there!!

and I couldn't have went with a better group of people! LOVE you girls!!

*I discovered a lovely little town in central BC called Vanderhoof... I went there with my friend Brian Kochel for thanksgiving. Most action packed weekend of all time included: 10 hr road trip, riding horses, flying an airplane, thanksgiving dinner, cousins wedding, church, family dinner, quadding, chasing cows, feeding chickens-pigs-rabbits etc. shooting guns and watching movies. all in a span of 3 days. SO MUCH FUN!!!

*The following weekend I convinced my scholar friend aka Brian to take break from the books and go skydiving with me for my second time! It was AMAZING!! once again such a rush I LOVE IT!!!

*I passed all my university courses so far! recently completed my first student teaching stint. I taught in the welding class at Harry Ainlay high school here it Edmonton. At first I couldn't help but think WHAT THE HECK HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO!! But everyday I fell in love with teaching more and more! I think I made the right choice and look forward to having my own class one day. 

The hardest thing to get used to was being called Miss Needham.

*During the summer I was able to spend 2 weeks in Red Deer with Kalyna and her kids while I took some extra courses at Red Deer college that will transfer into my degree I had so much fun with them I love them soooo much and am so Grateful to have them in my life!!

*While in Red Deer I convinced Brett to let me register him for school in Edmonton for 6 weeks to get his 1st year apprenticeship over with. So he spent 6 weeks up in Edmonton and we ripped up this town! it was ridiculous! We discovered our new favorite passtime--> Geocaching!! its wonderful haha and RANDOM! Brett also decided he is going on a mission!! And I was one of very few individuals who got to know before he got his call! keeping that a secret almost killed me I was/still am SO EXCITED!! he got called to South Carolina and leaves in May... I will miss him so much and all our random activity! but I am so happy for him and know that this is what he needs to do! YAY BRETT!! 

*My favorite random Video of all time though is when Brett and I bought matching sweat suits and NBA headbands and wore them to the grey cup party down town Edmonton during Grey cup Parade. 

(For those of you who don't know Grey cup is football) 

Enjoy... 

*I rented out my whole house and moved into the city with 4 other girls as room mates.....I wanted the full university experience. so far so good! I really like the girls I live with they are all really nice. Only down side is I do not get to have my puppy with me :( I miss little Lilo Soooooo much!

*I live just barely off of Connors hill in Edmonton and was itching to go snowboarding this year and just couldn't find the time to head to the mountains so at 11:00pm one night at the institute I convinced my friend Andrew (Pilot from beginning of post) to gather his gear and do a little midnight boarding down Connors hill walking up took quite a bit of effort so we only did about 3-4 runs but it was SUPER FUN!!

*Brett took me to whistler the weekend before christmas! I had never been it was AMAZING!! so much SNOW I love snowboarding!!! it was fabulous! I will have to save that trip for another Blog though.

*Christmas was good

All in all I feel like 2010 was a VERY Exciting year for me... I have learned a lot about myself. I finally have a  good grasp on what I truly want in life and have found true happiness through friends, family, and living my life in a way that I feel acceptable. I am so grateful for all that I have been blessed with this past year. Thank you so much to my friends and family for all the wonderful memories that were created I will cherish them forever! Sorry this is so long but I wanted to capture as many memories as possible

 I LOVE you all so much and I can't wait to see what 2011 has in store!

P.S. I feel it fitting to add a new years resolution to the end of this: 

as a new years resolution I would like to keep better track of my adventures on here so that I do not have to spend 3.5 hours trying to recap the past year of my life in one BLOG!

Help doing so would be greatly appreciated :)