British Stereotypes...REVEALED!

Ok so here's the thing... Yes I am British and yes I live in Canada so I figured I'd have to finally clear a few things up for my Canadian/American friends.

The following stereotypes will either be confirmed or denied based on my own life and according to my own wit and judgement:

1) Because I am from the Manchester area I know your grandma, your cousin, or even your friend you met over the internet...

FALSE

As rockin' as I'm sure your grandma is chances are I've never met her considering there are approx. 2.6 million in the Greater Manchester area...just sayin' so please stop asking if i know someone from the motherland coz i don't know them.

2) I watched the royal wedding of the century...

TRUE

Yes I went to bed at midnight woke up at 3am and stayed up to watch 3 hrs of the wedding coverage..LIVE! C'mon it's Prince William and Kate! They are the most promising royal couple I've ever seen! P.s. Will is gunna be the next king you  wait and see!

3) I've met the Queen

FALSE

Don't be silly! As if I've met her! I wish though coz that would be kinda cool. I'd much rather meet Prince William, he's amazing! He will do great things! (hahaha I always manage to quote She's The Man)

4) I eat crumpets...

TRUE

I love crumpets!!! For those who do not know what they are "They have a characteristic flat top with many small pores and a half-chewy half-spongy texture. They may be cooked until ready to eat warm from the pan, but are frequently left slightly undercooked so that they may be cooled and stored before being eaten freshly toasted" (thanks Wikipedia).

Crumpets taste the best with butter and honey! YUM!

5) Along with my crumpets I also drink tea at...wait for it...tea time!

FALSE

I tried drinking the herbal stuff but it's not really my cup of tea. hahaha get it? well that lame joke leads to my next stereotype.

6) British 'Dry' Humour is the only humour I find humoureous.

FALSE

Apparently I'm the only one that's thinks I'm funny. That's okay I like laughing at my jokes. I do enjoy some good British humour like Monty Python or Mr. Bean but I like other humourous things too.

Just a side note...don't tell a joke that no one will understand and defienatley don't blurt it out so your friends stop what they are doing and stare at you in confusion then laugh at you. That may or may not have happened to me this past week. For those that were there all I'm sayin is: garlic. bread.

7) All Brits have bad teeth.

FALSE/TRUE

Well this applies to me. I have never had braces and I have super straight/white teeth. I admit I DO whiten them but hey why not? I have a confession though...I have sooo many fillings so I guess that makes my teeth 'bad'. P.s. that's my new neice, Victoria! she's cute right?!

8) All Brits are chavs (this one's for Nolan, who probably doesn't even read my blog)

FALSE

I am NOT a chav. I do not own any Burberry or big gold hoops or chains. I do not wear track suits as my 'uniform'. I do not tuck my socks into my track suit bottoms. I do not have a kid at home or live off welfare. I do not talk or look like Vicky Pollard from Little Britain....yeah but no but.

9) I've played cricket, netball, and rounds.

TRUE

Yeah I played those sports and they were so much fun! I was actually pretty decent at them but I was 14 when I moved to Canada so I might have gotten a lot worse who knows.

10) I'm very patriotic!

       TRUE

I thought I would educate my fellow Canadian friends. To be honest I didn't know there was a Union Jack flag before the one we have today that did not include Ireland, so I learned something new as well. I love my country but I also love Canada and all the blessings and opporunities that I have by being in Southern Alberta.



Jimmy Eat World Concert...the stuff dreams are made of

I guess you could call this a concert review. If I had to describe the Jimmy Eat World concert in one word it would be 'incredible'. But y'all (hahaha inside joke from the concert, don't worry bout it) know I like to talk so I'm gunna do more than write one word.

We waited in line for about 4 hours but it paid off for 2 reasons:

1. We got front row!!! fo reals!!!

         I'm front stage left!!!

                       

I didn't even have to zoom in!

2. I made friends with the people that were in front of us and it turned out I met one of the girls before. We had a blast and we wasted our time taking photos!

Yes this was my idea...and I like it! (mine are the cool red shoes btw)

Their set list was to die for! My friend Kyle got a good photo of the set list:

They played all my favourites songs like:
23 (when I turn 23 I will listen to this EVERY day...but probs not every day)
Hear You Me (get's me every time!)
Bleed America (They opened with this and was it ever amazing)
Work (the first J.E.W. song I ever heard...I know what you're thinking "wow she's a late bloomer" but really that's from the album 'Futures' that came out in 2004 so it's really not that late)
Sweetness (they ended the concert with this one...what a great way to finish!)
The Middle (call me cliché but this is my FAVOURITE one of all time!!!)

To be completely honest Jimmy Eat World was never my go-to band but I still really like them. Now after the concert I truly LOVE this band!

Jimmy Eat rocks my World!!!

Momma Etches

I know you've all heard the cliche "my mum is the best mum in the whole world" well unless your mum was Mother Theresa or Mother Mary or  someone as cool/righteous as them sorry to say your mum is probably not as good as mine! Just sayin'
There's so much to say about my mum that I'm only going to able to cover a few of my favourite things about her:

1. she is the biggest donny osmond fan. you may think that your mum or some other lady you know is the biggest donny fan, but alas you would be wrong, again lol.
2. she makes THE best batispms cakes ever! she makes them look like golden plates! i wish i had a photo to show you all how cool they look...i'm so gunna use that idea for when my future children get baptised, for reals!
3. so many people say i'm a spitting image of my mum and i'm pretty awesome so therefore my mum is awesome!  my nickname is mini-ME (ME is my mum's initials...clever i know!)
4. she is so loving and will do anything for us as a family and at times (ok a lot of the time) us as children take that for granted.
5. she is a super mum! she works so hard and always makes time to spend time with us.
6. she always is willing to serve others.
7. we have such a laugh when we chat and i can honestly talk to her about everything. she is such a goof and i blame/thank her for my quirky-ness
8. this woman knows how to party when given the opportunity! it's so funny that when she was my age she was organizing huge dances and activities and that's the kinda stuff i love doing too! whenever i have parties she loves to help out which i love her for!
9. 99.9% she's right about things when it comes to advice about guys and friends (yes i still chat to my momma about that kind of stuff)
and finally 10. i know that she was meant to be my mum and to help me and the rest of my siblings learn and grow.

I love you mum!

Oh and another thing a love doing with my mum...singing to classic songs. This one's our fave!! ENJOY!

Ketchup + Awkward Eye Contact = Huge Ego Booster

Ever have those days where you didn’t expect something to happen that makes you smile and it just makes you smile even more? Yeah that happened to me this week. I was hanging out with my sister and a few of my close friends doing errands and we got hungry...it happens lol. So we went to 5 Guys, Burgers and Fries.
For those who do not know, I love ketchup...actually LOVE it! There wasn’t enough ketchup at the table for the amount of fries there was to eat, so naturally I go and get some more from the dispenser up front. So I’m minding my own business getting my ketchup and this guy comes up beside me and uses the other ketchup dispenser. He looked in his mid-twenties, tall, a little stubble, and of course pretty dang cute. We make quick eye contact and I look away (eye contact makes me SUPER nervous and I freak out on the inside). Then I noticed he missed dispensing the ketchup into his container and he says “oops, I guess I wasn’t paying attention” while he was looking at me. Guess what I said?! “It’s all good” and I walked away. Who says that when a guy is trying to make small talk? Clearly this girl does! So we’re eating away and I turned around and there was the same guy sitting behind me, so I flashed him my pearly whites and he showed me his (that’s probably sounds dirtier than intended so get your mind out of the gutter for goodness sake!) Oh and he had a little toddler with him too! Good thing I love kids!! I totally thought of a pickup line...something like "Hey, so I like kids" or something like that lol. So to keep it short I got giddy while I ate then when we finished we got up to leave. We walked by his table and I smiled at him and he smiles back but again I can’t keep eye contact for much longer than a second. My sister said that as we walked away she saw that he kept his eyes on me smiling.
So I’ll probably never see him again or if the one in a million chance that it happens I may or may not remember his face... oh well. It wasn’t a huge deal except the fact that it made my day and I looked so scruffy that day (baggy-but-cute shirt, hair in a pony and minimal make up). Gotta love things like that, total boost to the ego! And in honour of speaking of egos and my close friends that I was with that day here’s a little Beyoncé...Promise me you dance to this while you watch it. (and for those who are super sensitive I'm sorry if this is too hawt for you to handle lol)

LOVE is a many splendor thing...

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." ~ Moulin Rouge! 
Sure the movie is about prostitution, lies and deceit but there is a much more predominate theme...LOVE

For a while now I've been contemplating this whole topic; love. This is nothing new in the whole of YSA where really the main purpose is to find someone and get married (don't get me wrong it is so important because really marriage and families is central to the whole plan of happiness our Heavenly father has put in place). So many of you are feeling the same as me...everyone round you is getting hitched and you're left in the dust. Well guess what? I learned something that has stuck with me. Let me back track to why I thought of this topic. Elder Richard G. Scott came to town, really righteous I know! We all thought he was gunna ream on us about getting married and STAYING married coz there's so many that are getting divorced these days. Well he did talk about marriage but he did it in such a way that it (for me at least, in such an inspiring way) that I hope all the guys and gals actually start doing as he told us. He talked about putting a stop to hanging out and start dating. That was quite discouraging to me coz it's hard to sit at home on a friday night coz a guy hasn't ask me out on a date. (i can't say this has happened too often coz if i don't get asked out i find something to do rather than mope at home - that's lame). BUT Elder Scott goes on to address the ladies about what to do while waiting for the guys to get their act together. he said, "Live it up...in a righteous way" and that's what i've decided to focus on, living it up righteously.
don't get me wrong, it's still hard at times to watch all the cute girls get asked to dance as you're stuck awkwardly in the middle of the dance floor and everyone else is slow dancing around you. ever tried getting to the edge while people are dancing around you? you kinda have to weave between them...not my idea of a great time, but hey sometimes it beats the awkward small talk where you have to yell in the guy's ear to say either "I'm livin on the west side but i'm from england originally" or "yeah i'm going to school, i'm in my 3rd year of nursing" or my favourite small talk for slow songs "yeah...i love this song too...".
That went on a slight bitter curve... My point is that us girls need to have fun, get an education and basically just live life instead of waiting for prince charming to come rushing in to sweep you off your feet. Many people have told me that he comes in the mean time...meaning that he comes when you least expect it.
Well in the mean time i'm gunna have fun!! And this is a side note for all the gals reading this... there's nothing wrong with asking a guy out on a date... I did last week! We had fun and here's to hoping that he'll ask me out... but i'm not gunna keep looking at my phone to see if i missed his call as much as i REALLY want to.  For those gals who are brave enough it is important to remember about making the first move: there's a fine line between confidence and in-your-face-i-want-to-date-you kinda thing. Be confident but not over-bearing.
All i'm saying is don't give up (I tell this myself every day)
Focus on being the best version of yourself and have fun.
The Lord is mindful of everyone's needs and knows us individually, I know this to be true! I feel my Saviour's love for me everyday and it gives me strength to do my best.

Albums to Look for in 2011

So if you didn't already know I <3 music. Having said that there have been a few albums out so far this year that I love and many more I am looking forward to. Hope this inspires you to try out a new band or get you excited for the release of a long waited album to come out. Either way ENJOY!

Albums already out so far this year:
Panic! At The Disco - Vice & Virtues
Yellowcard - When You're Through With Thinking Say Yes
The Strokes - Angles
Adele - 21
Go Radio - Lucky Street
Laura Jansen - Bells
Travis Barker - Give The Drummer Some
The Get Up Kids - There Are Rules
Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
Sum 41 - Scream Bloody Murder
Cage The Elephant - Thank You, Happy Birthday
Bayside - Killing Time
Noah & The Whale - Last Night On Earth
Funeral For A Friend - Welcome Home Armageddon

So the least famous out of all these artists is Laura Jansen but she is still AMAZING!!!! So i figured i'd add a video of one of her songs. i saw her in concert when she was an opening act for Joshua Radin...she's freakin' hilarious too!!!

Albums to look out for in the rest of the year:

Owl City - All Things Bright & Beautiful - May 17th

Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math - May 10th

These bands have not yet released dates for their albums...

All Time Low - Dirty Work

New Found Glory

The Cab

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Blink 182

Fun. --> this band i just listened to last night and they are so good!!!!

Got anymore albums to add that you're excited comment :)

Cartier Pushups, Gold Medals, and One Big Black Eye

This definition has a purpose promise!
Hooker:
1) Prostitute
2) A large drink of liquor
3) A player in rugby who hooks the ball in front line of scrummage

I am a hooker...well the 3rd one, coz i'm not a large drink of liquor and i'm most definitely not a prostitute (sorry for anyone that's disappointed...i will accept dates from kind gents though!) My parents would get a kick out of telling people that their daughter is a hooker just to see their reaction to hearing that. then they would explain that it's a position in rugby. not gunna lie, i like to do that to. it's quite funny coz you can totally predict what the person is thinking!

Playing rugby for LCI was so much fun. I got to meet up with my old rugby coach, Cartier, for dinner at BP's this week. So this got me thinking back to the good old days of Cartier push ups, rugby miles, and burpies gallor!!! that and alaya french working us super hard...i was actually scared of her!! now we're tight NBD!

My first memory of rugby was day one of practice when Cartier sorted us noobs into 2 groups, forwards and backs. I started to see a pattern...all the skinny, fast girls when to one side and and the rest of us went to other side. This is not to say that us forwards were not as good as the backs, heck we do most of the work!!! OOPS! did i really just type that? lol.

Another great memory was a game in my gr 12 year against fort mcleod. Just to keep the story short coz, well, i'm not always the best at telling stories..just ask my siblings, i ended up colliding with another player and i got a HUGE black eye as a result... you should see the other girl!! I'm pretty sure she was fine, which makes me extremely bitter! I wanted to play the rest of the half and i refused to get off the pitch even though i couldn't see out of one eye! I'm sure that was my concussion talking...the other girls weren't too impressed with my persistence to carry on playing coz being the hooker requires me to see when the ball comes into the scrum. OOPS!

Needless to say this occurred a measly week and a half before grad. i kid you not!!!! i had a black eye for graduation! FML!!! i got over it...kinda.

Here's the before's and after

BEFORE: aka 10 mins after it happened....don't i look fabulous?!

A few days after...

So i couldn't open my eye for a few days...i got the nickname Quasimodo by some real FRIENDS! (*cough* the Kyle sisters and Andrew Wagner *cough cough*) great! i'm pretty sure they forgot about that name and i kindly reminded them through this blog lol.

Here's the day of grad at convocation: you can still kinda see it but wait till you see the next pic.

AFTER: No black eye!!! i still had a red eye from the busted blood vessels in my eye but i was very clever in the way i position my head so they were not caught on camera!

Now that you've seen me at my best and worst... Time to share another fond memory from rugby. South Zone Finals 2008. LCI vs. Raymond!!!! This game was super intense lemme tell ya!

Needless to say we won!! but it was really close!! It felt AMAZING to beat Raymond!! Serious!

Just look how happy/exciting we were to walk off the pitch after that glorious win!!! beautiful isn't it?
We went onto play in provincials and we WON GOLD!!!! BEST TIME EVER!!!

For all you rugby players or rugby lovers out there that have favourite memories or comments feel free to share!

Next on my fab blog...most anticipated albums of 2011 (according to me!)

peace out yo!