Hello from deep, dark South Calgary, where we’ve been dealing with floods, exams, the work hunt, and other such fun things.

I’ve got three other posts I’d like to get to very soon — first and foremost, one about meeting some of my extended birth family a couple of weekends ago. I’d hoped to get to writing it last week, and then life (and flooding basements) got in the way.

Anyhow, look forward to two blog posts coming up in the next day or so.

In the meantime, I need to get back to calling the city, the builder (BayWest homes), and some contractors to get an estimate on the fairly serious water incursion problem we’ve been suffering with. We don’t want another flood as soon as a heavy rainstorm comes our way.

Plus, I’ve got a few more resumes to get out today. And, studying tonight. Oh, and for those of you that missed it on Facebook, I got 75% on the first exam last Tuesday night. I should have seen a better result, but I was thrown off my game arguing with the exam proctor for 10 minutes during the exam. Whatever. One down, one to go.

YOUR TURN: What’s been keeping you busy this summer?

Barry and I were lucky enough to win tickets to “Sneak a Peek” at the Calgary Stampede last night, thanks to the Calgary Food Bank! They put on a lovely dinner, and gave us a quick heads up about their current campaign “Put the Boots to Hunger“…

The Food Bank is experiencing its largest need for emergency food hampers in nearly 10 years. This year, more than 140,000 Calgarians will come to us for Emergency Food Hampers.The majority of these people continue to be the working poor. 41% of them are children. It is BD&P’s goal to provide the Calgary Food Bank with the resources it needs to ensure that all Calgarians who need to rely on the Calgary Food Bank can do so.

HOW CAN YOU HELP? Host your event to “Put the Boots to Hunger” – If you are hosting a breakfast or BBQ this Stampede and would like to encourage your guests to show their support for the campaign by bringing a small donation to pass along the spirit of Western hospitality to those in need, please contact Kristen at 403-319-0840 or email kbrown@calgaryfoodbank.com for more information.

Thanks again for a wonderful evening! Here’s hoping many people will take a moment to help out during the Stampede!

Click here to make a donation to the Food Bank!

Howdy from the Calgary Stampede! We are in the Grandstand this afternoon, thanks to John Biehler and the Nokia N97 mini team. Yahoo!

Stay tuned for another blog update later today about last night with the Calgary Food Bank and what great things they are doing for the city!

Giddy up!

YOUR TURN: what are you up to, this weekend?

Okay, I’m really back this time …I promise.

Life has been utterly insane, and stressful, and I have a hard time blogging with nothing positive to blog about, so that’s why I disappear from my site. I subscribe to the notion that if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing. Obviously, it’s time to crack through the negative straight-jacket I’ve put on myself, and talk about some positive things… Because, despite the month of hell I’ve had, there’s a lot of great things happening, too.

For instance… in the short time I’ve been in Calgary (realistically, it’s been just over a month since we got back from our marathon honeymoon) I’ve met some super-fabulous people I can already call friends. One thing I can say about Calgary is that the people are really friendly here!

Also, who can be stressed and angry when Stampede is on? Buzz Bishop got it exactly right in his blog post yesterday: Stampede is Calgary’s Christmas (go read his blog post) — Everyone is in an awesome mood, and life seems to shine that much brighter in the Calgary sun. How can you have a frown wearing a cowboy hat, right?

And, let’s not forget the pancake breakfasts, people! It’s a staple! No question that during Stampede, pancakes and beer are their own food group. The hangover can wait until after July 18th!

So… Giddy up! I’m looking forward to “Sneak A Peek” at the Stampede tonight… The Calgary Food Bank has generously handed out tickets and dinner, so some of my new friends and I are off to get an early taste of the cowboy action, this evening! Good times!

YOUR TURN: Have you ever experienced Stampede here in Calgary? What’s your favourite part?

I’m feeling a whole lot better today. For many reasons, not the least of which is my body seems to be healing from a really nasty cold I had this week. And my toe, which I’m quite sure I broke 3 weeks ago, is finally not throbbing anymore.

And, for those of you who remember, I found my birth family a few years ago? The rest of my birth mother’s family has been told of who I am, and that I’ll be coming out to Gimli next month for a family reunion. There’s a LOT of family. I’m quite overwhelmed, but in a very happy way… I can’t wait to meet many of them while I’m there for a weekend in July.

All of this recent activity on that front has had me looking back at the path I took to get to where I am today with them all… I’m so, so lucky that although my birth parents have decided not to be a part of the journey with me, the rest of the family has been quite amazing. I never would have imagined that I would be so welcomed.

I really have much to be thankful for.

I’m also deeply saddened that one of my uncles is too sick to make the trip out to Manitoba this year — Barry and I are hoping to drive down to see him this weekend, instead.

If you’d like to be reminded of the story behind me finding my maternal birth family, click here.

YOUR TURN: What’s your plan for this weekend? Are you looking forward to anything fun?

Hey all… I’ve never been this quiet in all my years of blogging. I very much miss writing here, but haven’t had any time to set aside each day to share what’s been up. Today, unfortunately, is no different.

I’ve been sick for a couple of days now, so now I’ve got a ton of stuff to catch up on. I’m hoping tomorrow will bring a brighter day full of inspiration and empowerment. Being sick in bed yesterday was no fun at all.

What I can quickly share, is that I’m the luckiest girl in the world — my guy is awesome! He’s been so helpful during this time of upheaval and change, and I couldn’t have asked for a better husband.

Oh look… The sun has come out. Perhaps I’ll continue my tasks for today outside on the deck.

YOUR TURN: What’s new with you? Did you do anything fun to celebrate the first day of summer, yesterday?

Welcome, everyone! Here’s your Weekend Meet n’ Greet! It’s a great way to get new readers and comments to your blog!

Thank you to the wonderful people who play multiple times, each of you are guilty of spreading lots of comment cheer – hugs from me.

Spread the Comment Cheer!

How to play:

1. Leave a comment here that says hello.
2. Now, visit the person who commented above you, leave a comment on their site that includes the oft-repeated tagline: “Hello, NetChick sent me”.

Please play along.

Note to the first person commenting: simply say hello to me.

And YES, of course you are invited to play often. As you know, Michele always encouraged this, and so do I!

~ Tanya

—-

Help spread the word: Please ReTweet the game by clicking on this link, or let your own blog community know about it… Always fun to get new faces in the mix! Thanks guys!

Hey guys! I’m back!

This will be a short post for now, because I have study and looking for work to do… Which is what I’ve been busy with since we got home — it’s been crazy times here trying to catch up with everything, and get settled into our new home.

And, let’s not even get started with the name change hoops I’ve jumped through! Or, car insurance issues (I still don’t have car insurance!!) because there are gaps in car insurance in BC, despite coming from a 43% discount there. #grr

But! We had a fabulous wedding and honeymoon, and I can’t wait to share all the details… I may have some time later today after the books, so check back. my guy and I will be doing a few “he said, she said” blog entries, as well, which should prove to be a fun way to hear about our adventures!

Big apologies for no blog updates while I was away — I had hoped to have internet connectivity on board the Celebrity Eclipse, but instead had a very frustrating experience trying to get connected. It’s a brand new ship, and they’re definitely working out some kinks. If you are a Facebook friend, at least you saw my txt updates in 140 characters or less! I’ll see if I can easily copy those to my blog for those that didn’t see them.

I’ve SO MISSED my friends, readers, and family! How has your month been while I was away?

ps: iPAD, iPAD, iPAD!!! My husband gave me an iPad for an early birthday gift!!! OMG! *heart* LOVE it so far…

Welcome, everyone! Here’s your Weekend Meet n’ Greet! It’s a great way to get new readers and comments to your blog!

Thank you to the wonderful people who play multiple times, each of you are guilty of spreading lots of comment cheer – hugs from me.

Spread the Comment Cheer!

How to play:

1. Leave a comment here that says hello.
2. Now, visit the person who commented above you, leave a comment on their site that includes the oft-repeated tagline: “Hello, NetChick sent me”.

Please play along.

Note to the first person commenting: simply say hello to me.

And YES, of course you are invited to play often. As you know, Michele always encouraged this, and so do I!

~ Tanya

—-

Help spread the word: Please ReTweet the game by clicking on this link, or let your own blog community know about it… Always fun to get new faces in the mix! Thanks guys!

Welcome, everyone! Here’s your Weekend Meet n’ Greet! It’s a great way to get new readers and comments to your blog!

Thank you to the wonderful people who play multiple times, each of you are guilty of spreading lots of comment cheer – hugs from me.

Spread the Comment Cheer!

How to play:

1. Leave a comment here that says hello.
2. Now, visit the person who commented above you, leave a comment on their site that includes the oft-repeated tagline: “Hello, NetChick sent me”.

Please play along.

Note to the first person commenting: simply say hello to me.

And YES, of course you are invited to play often. As you know, Michele always encouraged this, and so do I!

~ Tanya

—-

Help spread the word: Please ReTweet the game by clicking on this link, or let your own blog community know about it… Always fun to get new faces in the mix! Thanks guys!

I (Raul) will be liveblogging the wedding (starting around 5:30pm PST – the actual ceremony is at 6:00pm). This post is the placeholder. You can start reading the live-tweets below (I had to use CoverItLive because ScribbleLive isn’t working properly). I will also update this post with little snippets and quotes, as well as photos. If you take photos and put them up on Flickr please tag them “netchickweds” as well so I can find them easily. It should be a great day!

UPDATE: 9:45 am – I am testing the CoverItLive liveblog. If it doesn’t work well, I’ll just update this post as I’ve done in the past with other liveblogs. Can’t wait!

UPDATE: 4:30 pm – I need to be at the wedding location in 30 minutes, so I’m just publishing the post right now!

UPDATE: 6:00 pm – The Bollwitts (Rebecca and John), the Biehlers (Stacie and John), the Millers (Airdrie and Derek), Catherine Winters, Gus and Russ are all here. We are aboard the boat and waiting for the groom and bride.

UPDATE: 6:15 pm – The bride and groom are here!!!

UPDATE: 6:30 pm – I will be ustreaming so I can’t liveblog while that happens. Will update soon!

UPDATE: 7:11 pm – Tanya and Barry are now husband and wife!!!

UPDATE: 8:22 pm – We just finished dinner, and at some point I’m going to roam Flickr to find photos tagged #netchickweds.

the wedding

Free TV Show from Ustream

TUNE IN TOMORROW AT 6pm (or sooner, if we can) for the start of the video stream!!

Welcome, everyone! Here’s your Weekend Meet n’ Greet! It’s a great way to get new readers and comments to your blog!

Thank you to the wonderful people who play multiple times, each of you are guilty of spreading lots of comment cheer – hugs from me.

Spread the Comment Cheer!

How to play:

1. Leave a comment here that says hello.
2. Now, visit the person who commented above you, leave a comment on their site that includes the oft-repeated tagline: “Hello, NetChick sent me”.

Please play along.

Note to the first person commenting: simply say hello to me.

And YES, of course you are invited to play often. As you know, Michele always encouraged this, and so do I!

~ Tanya

—-

Help spread the word: Please ReTweet the game by clicking on this link, or let your own blog community know about it… Always fun to get new faces in the mix! Thanks guys!

Welcome, everyone! Here’s your Weekend Meet n’ Greet! It’s a great way to get new readers and comments to your blog!

Thank you to the wonderful people who play multiple times, each of you are guilty of spreading lots of comment cheer – hugs from me.

Spread the Comment Cheer!

How to play:

1. Leave a comment here that says hello.
2. Now, visit the person who commented above you, leave a comment on their site that includes the oft-repeated tagline: “Hello, NetChick sent me”.

Please play along.

Note to the first person commenting: simply say hello to me.

And YES, of course you are invited to play often. As you know, Michele always encouraged this, and so do I!

~ Tanya

—-

Help spread the word: Please ReTweet the game by clicking on this link, or let your own blog community know about it… Always fun to get new faces in the mix! Thanks guys!