When Jen caught wind of my random act of kindness, she asked me to share my story with others on her new website http://www.makejensday.com
To read my story submission “$24.75 goes a long way,” click here

Thank you Jen for starting this great initiative and helping make the world a friendlier, compassionate place. I encourage all of you who have a similar story to share it with Jen through her website. And please always remember, a little but of kindness goes a very long way.

To view the website visit www.makejensday.com; you can also view Jen’s popular blog www.techmommy.ca

Find her on Twitter @JenBanksYEG or @makejensday

Jasmine

Enjoy!

Thought I would take the time to do a little update since I haven’t posted in almost a month. June has been C-R-A-Z-Y busy — really, it has. Look at my calendar:

Between working at City Hall, writing for my business and dance wrapping up, I have also been keeping busy with photo shoots, video shoots and not to mention the most important part of June — Ryan and I picking out paint colours like champions and nesting our new home together.

We’ve (he) has just started putting paint on the walls and our colours look beautiful! We should be officially all moved in together this weekend, so I am very excited about that! Although, it has been an insane amount of work! Ryan seems to be working his regular job in the day/evening then coming home to paint at night. He’s the best. I have doing much of the same though I am cleaning up, decorating and sprucing up the place!

We also celebrated one year together this past weekend. I can’t believe how fast time has gone by already. I look forward to our wonderful future together and continue to appreciate and be grateful for this outstanding man.

While all this goes on, our handsome and continuously growing pup — Hudson — is loving his doggy daycare sessions three times a week. It’s really helped keep him busy while we are at work and by the time I pick him up in the evenings, he’s so exhausted to whine when we can’t pay attention to him.

Soon though, I think we will be needing to get our cute little puppy another dog friend. Last night we discovered Hudson is finally becoming more vocal! I’ve never met a dog like him that does not growl or bark…ever. But he’s getting there. The rare time he does bark I say “good boy,” — I will probably regret when he turns into a barking maniac. Whoops!

This is how big Hudson is getting:

I just love this dog. He is adorable.

Work is going great. I’m really enjoying my time at City Hall working with an Edmonton city councillor.

To my surprise, I don’t miss the mainstream media life at all. I’m very much enjoying my new position and work life.

Overall, I don’t think my life could be much better.

I mean come on, look at this happy family!

Have a great week everyone!

Jas

Since the time I was young, math and I always had a misunderstanding.

He said, “2+2 = 4″

I said, “I don’t know why… but ok, if you say so.”

That was only the beginning of the control Math would take over my life.

As we grew older together, our relationship got more complicated.

“3x + y = 9,” he said.

“Um….wait, those are letters. How does a letter equal a number now? Math, are you sure this is right?”

Through Elementary and Junior High School I never received Math’s approval. I was always just “satisfactory,” or “needing improvement,” he said when I repeatedly failed to get more than 60% of the problems correct.

By the time high school hit,  me and Math were on rocky terms.

I poured all my energy, sweat, tears and money into understanding our relationship and trying to make it work. In return, I got single digit grades, red marker notes and a lot of sleepless nights. The fear of working out algebra equations eventually took over my life so much that I avoided attending Math’s class.

After a much needed break apart for two months, I prepared myself to start over fresh with Math in my final year of high school. I was determined to make it work.

But we didn’t get far.

Math (now 30)  tried to introduce me to his newest of love affairs: trigonometry, transformations, geometric series logarithms and the most dreaded of them all – circles.

I sought counseling from a well-known tutor in the area to help me patch up my relationship with Math and assist me in understanding why he did what he did. For countless hours every week, I poured all of my mental energy into our relationship and stretched my level of understanding to its maximum.

I just couldn’t do it anymore.

With four weeks to the final exam and a grade percentile sitting just above 30%, I ended my long-term relationship with Math.

I vowed to never again try to understand his inner-workings and calculations of a circle or a logarithm.

Though it was a tough decision to make, I can honestly say it was for the better.

No longer do I dream of finally answering one of his demanding questions with the correct answer. No longer do I have to calculate  at which time two vehicles would collide if both were travelling at a set speed.

I have finally stopped looking for x and y.

And most importantly, a circle is merely a shape and not a confusion of endless numbers and equations I have no idea of what to do with.

I wish you the best in all your relationships Math and though I value the time we spent together, my time away from you has been the most freeing, exhilarating experience of my life.

Thanks to you, I am now a writer.

Sincerely,

Jasmine Franklin

1) It is the one year anniversary of a fire that ripped through Slave Lake destroying 30% of the town. I covered this story on and off for months following the devastation and was in the disaster zone just hours after the blaze turned part of the town into ash.

2) It is the day I can say I’ve been published by Reader’s Digest Canada about my experiences of being a young journalist covering the Slave Lake disaster.

Please take the time to read, share and comment on my recollections of Slave Lake and the lessons it taught me about our great country of Canada.

You can read my piece, Memories of a young journalist heading into one of Alberta’s worst disasters, here.

Thank you all and I hope everybody takes the time to stop and think about Slave Lake today.

Jas

Elements 2012

I don’t really have much more to say about this.

This weekend I made some not-so-smart decisions that believe me, almost never happen ha.

1) Our new puppy Hudson happens to have a wee bit of a dandruff problem. The vet told us to start including a hint of oil in his food to sooth his coat. In fact, he said oil is like lotion for a dogs coat. We have been doing so, and still not the best results have come of it. On Saturday following an afternoon of teaching dance, I decided to give my little pup a bath.

I also decided that during his bath, I would pour a bit (more than a bit) of oil on his coat.

Guess how that turned out….

My boyfriend arrived home later that night while I was out and sent me this text: “Why is Hudson so greasy?”

I immediately felt like an idiot. It still baffles me that I did that and worst of all we had to wash puppy two more times to get it out and now his dandruff is worse than it was originally.

FAIL.

2) My fellow allergy sufferers understand when I say this year’s allergy season is knocking me flat on my ass. For almost three weeks now I’m been congested like a clogged-up pipe, constantly wiping my watery eyes and scratching the never-ending sore throat.

Saturday evening (clearly not a good day/night for me) I had a fun night planned with my girls. We got dressed, did our makeup and went on our way to the Rush game.

By the time I finished my first beer at the game, I was feeling the effects of my allergies and lack of taking any allergy pills that day.

As it so happened, my best friend’s mom had some allergy pills on her that I had never taken before. Out of desperation to have a great ladies night and feel better, I took the pills and drank another beer about an hour later.

Worst decision I’ve ever made.

I cannot tell you how sick I got. We had to stop at a gas station to pick up gingerale which for some reason, didn’t sell the pop in singles, so I bought an entire case.

It didn’t help.

Completely sober, I walked into the bar and immediately got sick.

Case and point: allergy meds and alcohol (even just two beers) is a horrible combination.

Needless to say, I made some stupid, stupid choices this weekend lol.

Hope this helps some Mondays off to a laughing start.

J

This has become my favourite article ever written. Please click here to read about the tragic death, of facts.

For those of you into American politics, you’ll love this.