Movin' On Up!

In April our house sold (finally after being listed for about 2.5 years). We knew that we would build again and this time we chose to build in town! I'm quite excited to live in town - the main street is so sweet with lots of little shops to visit and I'll be able to walk downtown to visit them :) Where we are now it's a 10 minute drive to get there, and a 20-25 minute drive to fast food LOL. I shouldn't be excited to be closer to it, but I am. I'm mostly excited for convenience, of stores being right there when we need something and not have to pay $3 extra for a box of tampons. I think I rage about that even more when I need them since the hormones are flying wild during that time :)

So we picked our lot in the cutest little subdivision that won't really have any traffic that doesn't live there, that has basically a dog or two in every home, and that has children running and playing on the street. I am so excited to live here, and I'm excited for us to start our family here, God willing :)

Mike has been working so hard to build this house. This is the first time I've been able to see him working and I'm so amazed with what he does! He's been so great with organizing all the trades to do the work on the house. And he spends most of his spare time working on it himself (even after working a 13hr day and then doing it all again the next day). I knew he had a very strong work ethic, but I've truly seen how amazing it is. Even though we have so much going on right now between the wedding, setbacks with school, me not having a job right now, and building this house our relationship continues to grow and we are able to see how well we can work together - it does take effort though. But it is so so worth it.

It's been crazy how fast Mike has pulled this house together! I still don't think we'll be in it on time, maybe a week or two late. But it's been amazing how quickly it can go.

There are more updates but I haven't taken pictures of them, I'll have to get on that! We've got windows and doors and it's getting drywalled right now! We'll be painting in no time! I picked out the colours today :) I'm quite excited.

My Mom is an Inspiration.

Last week my mom graduated from college! She decided to go back two years ago and become a Social Service Worker - in her 50's. She's amazing! She worked her way through school with more effort and determination than any student I've ever seen in all my years of being in school. She became friends with her colleagues and teachers. She branched out of her shell and her comfort zone. And she excelled extraordinarily and made the Dean's List (above 80% average). She overcame physical, financial, geographical (commuting over an hour each way every day to school), and learning challenges as well as judgment from some for entering school so late in life. My mom has shown us what an inspiration she is and to go for your dreams! And also to ignore those nay-sayers!!

My brothers and I drove up from all our different locations to be with mom while she achieved this milestone.

Mom and I:

My oldest brother M:

My other older brother G:

And by far the most stylish person who attended convocation was this man. He had a 70's stache, bow tie and tux on top, kilt, knee-high socks, and of course skater shoes. Oh and he accessorized it all with a polka dot purse :)

Sorry it's crooked.

Niece Count is Up to Two!

This May my step-sister had her first baby, a little girl, E. She is so sweet! Such a good baby, with lots of hair!!

We had a baby shower for them and I decided to make them a rag quilt. I saw one on KevinandAmanda.com and she said it was super easy so I thought I could do that! And it really was so easy! I think my step-sister really appreciated the gift, and it turned out big enough that E will be able to use it on a twin sized bed!

I just loved this quilt so much, I wanted to keep it for myself when I have kids! I love how girl, bright and soft it is :)

This one is a little dark, but you can see the fray detail (after only one wash!).

The back of the quilt looks nice and finished, which is nice to have the option of mixing it up! However you want to display the lovely quilt!

For this particular blanket I used 9" squares of flannel. For the inner lining I always grab a neutral (I actually used white in this quilt) flannel and cut the same 9" size of squares. Make sandwiches with the colours (obviously printed side out) and sew it all together! SO EASY :) I have two friends and one sister-in-law who are pregnant right now so I'd better get started on some more quilts for gifts :)

The Beginning of Many Updates :)

SO much has happened since I last posted! I'm pretty sure there was snow in the last pictures! That's insane, but in my defense I have been busy. I'm going to split these update into different posts because it would be ridiculously long if I didn't!


Let's see where to begin...I completed my last semester in school, working as an RN student doing post-partum, paeds, and intensive care nursery and fell in love with that area. I finally found the area of nursing that I'm comfortable, interested, and good at. However the hours were less than ideal. Shift work bites! What was I thinking becoming a nurse? I worked 12hr shifts, two weeks of days two weeks of nights, on a schedule that is basically 2 on-2off-3on-2off-2on-3off. It was insane. Plus my drive to work was 1hr10 min, which makes for a LONG day, especially when getting off of nights! Luckily one those difficult mornings I was able to call my mom to talk while I drove. Bad, I know since now it's illegal here in Ontario, but it's the only thing that kept me awake. Thanks mom!

So after surviving all this I was about a week and half away from writing my RN exam and graduating and I found out that my overall average for school was .18 too low to graduate :( BOO. So now it's going end up taking a whole year before I can get it sorted out and write my exam. Luckily I have my RPN to fall back on until I finish up!

On a happier note! I GOT ENGAGED!! hurrah!

Mike proposed in between Christmas and New Years up at his parent's cottage in the snow at the waters edge. It was perfect!

I picked out my dress quite quickly too. My mom and I went looking in town and I really wasn't expecting to find it so easily! I sort of wish I didn't so that I can keep trying dresses on - it's SO much fun and makes you feel so happy and skinny if you've never done it before! I highly suggest doing it, even just for fun. So I've been busy trying to get this wedding pulled together. The date is November 13th, 2010. We are SO excited!

And of course Brady is still here being his cute, wonderful, snugly self! He's actually still in our bed right now, even though I got up an hour ago! These Boston Terriers have personality I tell ya!

Will update more soon!

Always grow. Grow all ways. All ways, always.

Yesterday I bought the January edition of Oprah’s magazine, which I wouldn’t normally do because I think it’s expensive for a magazine. But the reason I did was because I saw in the top right corner the words ‘Eat, Pray, Love…and Then What? An exclusive excerpt from Elizabeth Gilbert’s inspiring new book’. And BOY was I excited. I have been waiting for her next book for so long! I loved her last book; it really spoke to me and opened me up to an idea of what God can be that I was comfortable with. So I’ve been very eager to hear about her thoughts of marriage and how her and her husband are making theirs work.


When I read the excerpt there were two ideas that really stood out for me the first was that she actually made an honest list of her top 5 faults, I found this inspirational! How can you possible work on improving yourself if you aren’t honest about your faults and if you haven’t faced them? Just based on my nursing background and how much we need to reflect on your practice in order to develop further, and provide better patient care. I think in order to continue to grow as a person, once must also reflect upon themselves and their life. Always grow. Grow all ways. Always, all ways. This is something I feel I should do too. Then she shared it with her then fiancée, which I think was brave and open. What a great way to start a marriage, with a conversation about who you are, both the good and the bad, and not to hide anything. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a relationship that is beyond the point of deal breakers?

The second point in the excerpt that really struck me and actually made me sit back and think WHOA. It’s so simple, yet I’ve NEVER thought of a relationship being like that before! What a great way to clearly look at a person and know whether they are a match for you or not. In the book it states that Elizabeth asked her husband Felipe how he could still love her after sharing her list of faults with him. To which he explained that anyone can fall in love with the best parts of someone, it’s by looking at the not-so-great parts of a person that you see whether those flaws are something you can ‘work with’. I think when we don’t do this we can easily fall into the habit of creating a partner in your head that only has these great qualities, rather than actually seeing them as a whole and accepting that. A great quote from the book states that “there is hardly a more gracious gift that we can offer somebody than to accept them fully, to love them almost despite themselves”. After all, nobody’s perfect! God knows I’m a prime example of what a hot mess can look like :)

I hope to reflect upon myself and make a list of my faults in order to learn from it to improve myself. And I want to share that list with Mike so we can communicate about it and so he can encourage me too. I also want to be able to truly reflect and put into organized thought why I love Mike, I’d like to have a better answer than ‘I do because you’re wonderful’. So that’s what I’ll be working on, along with studying for my exam that I have tomorrow night – wish me luck!

Thought I'd add some wintery photos, just for fun! In case anyone doesn't get to see this out their back door.

Some things from my life right now

• when I left my moms I forgot Brady's food there (he eats raw) and I have to drive an hour (one way) to the store to get it, so I'm just making extra fish and rice tonight and he can eat with us ;) Which I'm sure will make him gassy
• every time I cook rice I spill it all over the counter and floor
• my wiper blades decided to stop working for some reason during my drive, which gave me some rage
• getting prescriptions filled annoys me - just give me like a year's worth because I don't want to keep coming back
• I have a laundry pile taller than I am
• I got to see my step neice or nephew in a sonogram pic last night
• we didn't eat at the dining room table tonight because it's coverd in folded laundry, my laptop, textbooks and papers
• I'm drinking wine while I write my paper, hoping that helps me - verdict is still out
• I'm sick of school
• aaaand I need something chocolate

What's YOUR day been like??

*Tree of Enchantment*

This year is my and Mike's first year living together, therefore our first Christmas together and I'm quite excited for it! I think it's going to be a great year filled with visiting family and some friends. We got an artificial tree because...well I wanted one!

My brother is allergic and so growing up we always had a fake tree and I have such happy memories of 'putting together the Christmas tree'. On ours growing up it was basically a metal pole and all the branches were colour coded so you just had to match up the colours. I loved doing this with my brothers.

Also, an artificial tree ends up costing less because you only buy it once. It doesn't have any mess. Nobody will have a reaction to it. AND most importantly you can have it up WAY longer! Its an all around winning situation :)

We started out not having any Christmas tree decorations at all, just the lights which come already on the tree. And I was okay with that - I knew that throughout our years together (hopefully there are many) we would gather decorations that mean something to us, lots of memories and keepsakes from our lives. One night we had Mike's parents over for dinner and his mom suggested that I put up the extra (and old) candy canes that I had from baking on to the tree. I loved this idea! It looks great and it was free - I love free and thrifty  :)

Then Mike and I decided to go to Hallmark to pick up an ornament that celebrated our first Christmas together. I have a slight obsession with Hallmark :)

I also remembered that my very best friend gave me a beautiful glass ornament (this photo does not do it justice AT ALL). It sparkles and shines off the lights and is so pretty - I want about a hundred of these! The colours on the globe are all fall colours and it comes with a little tag that explains it all:

Enjoy the magic of the seasons with this beautiful

glass ornament. Like the trees in a forest, no two

are the same, and each is a symbol of growth,

strength and the cycle of life. As the seasons

change so does nature's colour palette.

How nice eh? The ball she gave me is autum which says:

The fiery ambers of Fall bring to mind a magical

sunset on a cool Autumn night. The trees explode

with colour just before a Winter Slumber. 'Look

too closely and you may just fall into your own

fairy tale'.

AH! I just LOVE this ornament. And I'm happy to have a symbol of the wonderful friendship I have been so lucky to recieve.

The last ornament that we have Mike's sister bought for us. She saw it at the hospital she is doing her placement at and thought of us and bought it. She brushed off my thanks saying that it was just a cheap one, but it means so much to me that she was so thoughtful - it doesn't matter to me how much it costs. I will always treasure the gift of thought from his lovely sister! Who I am thanful to call a friend as well :)

Believe me, Brady is not as tortured as he looks in this photo! He hates having his picture taken. Too bad for him that he's just so stinkin cute :)  (Lastly, I could not find spell check for this post for some reason so please excuse my mistakes. It's probably right in front of me and I can't see it for lookin!)