birthday

those of you who have met me know that i have two sisters. you probably also know that i love my sisters a LOT. when i was much younger i used to get a bit insecure when people commented on how much i love my sisters (how much i talk about them) but then i got a bit older and realized that it's cool to like your family!

anyway, all this is to say that one of those buttheads has a birthday today!

ashley is hilarious, sweet, considerate, and empathetic. she is an amazing baker and she looks like an angel when she sleeps. she's a really good dancer and she really knows how to have a good time. she loves sushi and she doesn't let anyone boss her around. she is an extremely hard worker and she loves to take naps. above all, she's a complete hoot and she's really good at showing her love.

happy birthday asspee.

midnight

here is a photo of midnight (last night):

that's as dark as it gets! 

awesome.

hey ladies! happy mother's day. 

this cute toot is my mom:

she is 4'11" and she's wonderful. she's brave and hilarious and generous and strong. she tells the best stories and she's really good at pulling out loose teeth. she spends all of her time traveling the world like it's no big deal and she's not afraid to ask for her poached eggs in a very particular way at restaurants. she makes extremely delicious christmas cookies and even though she insists that "rude is never funny", she knows in her heart that rude is always funny. 

happy mother's day, mum! your daughters think you're the best. 

spring has sprung!

hi friends! 

i'm not sure that i'm your friend anymore because i'm so terrible at my blog. i'm sorry. i know that it's not a real excuse, but i've really been swamped at work and it's taking over my life. i hope you can forgive me and resume blowing kisses in my general direction. 

here's a big update: it's spring! things have finally been melting and it's getting really warm. sometimes it's even above zero! 

also, we get to see all of the nice stuff that was under the snow:

cute!

we had to put tin foil on our bedroom window because the sun rises so early (around 3:00 am) and doesn't set until late. soon we won't get any darkness at all. i'm still not accustomed to the darkness caused by the tin foil, though. sometimes i feel like a teenage boy dragging myself out of bed in the morning. 

other than that, there's not a whole lot happening with us. i've been eating a lot of grapes the last few days and ian got a sunburn on his eyeballs. want to see it? okay. 

um...

you know what's alarming? coming home to this:

yyyyiiikkkeeessss.

especially this one. the tip of it was about a foot from my face. 

visit!

oh hey! 

today we took ian's mom and dad back to the airport and it was really sad. it would have been much sadder if it wasn't so stressful since we showed up casually to the airport a mere 30 minutes before the flight was scheduled to leave. we sauntered in like we had never heard of being an hour early for a flight before only to be told that the flight was leaving and that it was time to hurry up and get on. 

it was so so so wonderful to have bryan and sue here. we laughed so much and did tons of fun stuff. we were worried that this trip was going to be boring for them (which it was) but luckily they don't mind boring trips. 

here they are!

we did a TON of walking. this is sue and me walking safely down a steep hill. not looking like idiots, obviously. 

we ate really amazing food all week and drank lots of delicious wine. it's a good thing we walked so much. sue cooked such wonderful food the whole time and bryan did most of the cleaning up. what excellent house guests! tonight after work i laid on the couch and wondered who would make me dinner tonight. ian did it. 

we also toonik tymed! more on toonik tyme later. 

i've really been the picture of a horrible blogger the last couple of weeks. i hardly took any photos and i don't have much new material. i'm going to have to start committing crimes so i have something to write about. 

scary

aren't you glad you don't live with this terrifying character?

ian found a huge icicle outside and he brought it in the house. that was a terrifying experience for me because if anyone is capable of stabbing you accidentally with a giant icicle, it's ian bitton. 

on an unrelated note, i took those pictures at 7:00 pm! it's getting brighter and brighter and brighter every day.  it's also been extremely warm. it's suddenly feeling like spring at -15 c every day. we keep having to leave the door wide open to avoid getting heat stroke in our apartment. on sunday i got so hot and bothered that i ended up standing outside on our deck in bare feet with my pants rolled up above my knees for about a half hour. i ended up having to go inside, though, because the blinding whiteness of my bare legs was attracting suitors of the bird-like variety. 

eestor, meestor!

were you guys wondering which completely random thing made me break down in sobs today? don't worry, i'll tell you!

my mom sent us this package: 

the first year she did this was when i was in my first year of university and i cried then, too. even though i've gotten a little long in the tooth since then, she continues to be the sweetest mom ever by sending treats via snail mail.  

she's also hilarious. those two peeps in a small ziplock bag make me laugh every time i look at them:

spring has sprung

hi warm friends. welcome to spring! i know it happened earlier this week but i still want to talk about it. to be honest, i'm a little tired of hearing about the extremely warm weather down south. at first i was happy but that happiness quickly turned into resentment and then it turned into rage. just kidding! i'm am pleased for you. 

even though it was -45 on the first day of spring and that cold weather just won't stop, it's so sunny here. the sun is beautiful and bright every day and it sticks around until late in the evening. the impact the cold has on my morale is nothing compared to the impact the darkness has. i could prance around all day in -40 as long as that sun sticks around. 

here's ian on the first day of spring:

at this point we're just counting down the days until good friday when these folks (ian's mom and dad) arrive:

yahoo! i hope they bring mittens.