Just staying one day ahead of yesterday

These are my parents, Joe and Sandra Lootens . They have been married now for 30+ years, have had 5 children, 9 grandchildren, 1 grand-dog and a life time of memories. I think you never really realize how much your parents taught you until its time to head out into the real world and do it on your own. Here are some of the things I learned from my parents: My parents taught me IRONY -- "keep crying and I'll give you something to cry about" My parents taught me LOGIC --"because I said so, that's why" My parents taught me THE CIRCLE OF LIFE --"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out" My parents taught me STAMINA --"You will sit there until all those vegetables are gone" My parents taught me WISDOM --"When you are my age you will understand" My parents taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE --"If you don't stop crossing your eyes they will stay that way" My parents taught me RELIGION --"You better pray

You know the saying: Work like you don't need the money Love like you've never been hurt Dance like no one is watching Well I have managed to master one of those thoughts....and it may very well be the best one to master! Just another night out, another time I swore that empty dance floor would not lure me in, and just another time I decided to bust a move...by myself. Its hard to say what I really look like while being consumed by a beat and an empty dance floor, it's not like I've ever seen myself do it, there has been no out of body experience to say to me " Rach , you look retarded. You should consider sitting down and just tapping your foot to the beat like everyone else" No, never once has this happened. In fact, quite the opposite. There is some kind of spell that is cast upon me when I go out for the evening, and all of the sudden I just want to dance. However, based on the evidence I am going to just go out and say it, perhaps someone should just

Meet Kelly. Kelly is one of my best friends, who I recently had the chance to spend the weekend with in Kelowna . It is a very rare find when you meet a person who, so simply put, is your other half. Every thing done together is fun, all stories become funnier, and memories become that much more memorable. And this one will forever go down in history! The day started with a lovely little walk down Bernard Street in Kelowna where there was a Mardi Gras festival happening, we shopped, had some drinks, felt nauseous as we watched an extremely jiggly belly dancer walk by, you know, just a usual Saturday ! The rest of the afternoon was filled with a poolside backyard (disappointingly no hot tub), a few beverages, and some competitive games of bean bag toss. The afternoon was turning into quite the perfect day, except for the part where Kelly and I ventured into the pool and all of the sudden we both find ourselves so cold, that our fetal instincts kicked in and we were curled up a

Somewhere between the city lights of Calgary, the construction filled highway towards Banff , the tipped over UPS truck with papers flying every where and in the midst of the Rocky Mountains on my way to my week of serenity.... And somewhere between the flashback bouts of singing to Backstreet Boys and N'SYNC , pretending I was a rockstar as I belted out to Aerosmith and thinking my voice was truly as good as Natalie Maines and the rest of those Dixie Chicks..... And somewhere between imagining that every gorgeous lakeside home was my summer getaway....Somewhere between this all I was given the chance to spend sometime with myself. Now at first glance over 6 hours with myself, an open road and nothing but my thoughts seemed somewhat terrifying! However, lucky me, I was filled with one of my rare moments of brilliance: At 24 years of age I have definitely taken a ride on the rollercoaster of life, of love, of work, school. I have certainly not been perfect, nor will I ever co