One Year Later

A year ago today (at roughly this time) Dave and I got engaged. We have been happily engaged and planning our wedding since. There have been a few snags in our wedding plans as of late, but things are moving along nonetheless.
We are going to be getting married on September 29, 2012 at the Southway Hotel and Conference Centre (aka the Southway Inn) in Ottawa. We have found  made a great deal of the remaining decisions, or at least started the process of doing so and are meeting with our planner at the hotel in the new year.
Of course, I have quite a large spreadsheet for the plans and today I started printing out things and compiling a hardcopy binder (softcopy just wasn’t cutting it anymore due to the large number of contracts, pamphlets and business cards).

Our engagement announcement went into my hometown paper quite some time ago. It was difficult finding a recent photo of the two of us, but I eventually found one on which we both agreed.

Christmas 2011 Wish List

I have been getting a lot of questions from people as to what to get me and/or Dave for Christmas. So like last year, I decided the best thing to do is to make a wish list.

Dave’s Wish List:
The Book of Cain
Diablo Archive
Archer TV series (Season 1, 2 and/or 3)
Bob’s Burgers TV Series
Movies: Bon Cop bad Cop, Hanna
Sin War Trilogy eBooks (Google eBooks; #1, #2, #3)
Gift Cards: Google eBooks, EB Games, Future Shop, Amazon, etc.

Steph’s Wish List:
Once again, I have broken it down into Camera and non-Camera related items.

Camera Wish List:
4’ wide white paper background;
8’ wide white, black or grey paper backgrounds
~4’x6’ piece of high quality black velour fabric
Bowen's softboxes
Radio trigger system (compatible with Bowen's 400 lights & Nikon D3s camera)
Bowen's battery pack
AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II Lens
AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 G ED Lens
AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED Lens
AF Fisheye-Nikkor 16mm f/2.8D Lens
Photo paper (Epson Premium Photo Paper [4+ stars], 8 1/2"x11")
Computer ink (for the Epson Artisan 800 all-in-one printer - code 98)
small white/gold reflector (maximum 10" or so but folds smaller - example).
Photo Books (Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop, HDR Photography Photo Workshop, Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers; A Professional image editor’s guide to the creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC, Photo Recipes Live: Behind the Scenes: Your Guide to Today’s Most Popular Lighting Techniques)
Variable Neutral Density Filter, 77mm
Lens Cap Strap Holder, 77mm
Handy-Dandy Camera Strap

Everything Else Wishlist:
gift cards (Ricki's, Henry's, thecamerastore.com, Amazon, Lululemon, Photojojo)
picture frames (8x10 or larger, compilation frames);
Movies (Gnomeo and Juliet, Winnie-the-Pooh Movie, The Little Mermaid, Life After People, Sandra Bullock/Hugh Grant/Julia Roberts/Drew Barrymore movies)
TV Series (Being Erica, Powerpuff Girls, Beverly Hills 90210, Charmed)
National Geographic Magazine Slipcases for Years 2008 onwards
Nikon Lens Mug
Time Lapse Camera
OPI Nail Polish (you can find a list of colours I already have here. There aren’t many specific colours I want, but I would like the Natural Nail Strengthener, Any colour of Shatter, A bright orange colour, pastel pink, traditional bright red, pastel green, a plain white, a light grey colour, a taupe like colour, a true black colour, anything from the Femme de Cirque Line)
OPI nail polish case like the one below:

For any of the books, movies or TV series listed in my list above, you can find them in my Amazon Wish List.

My list seems (and is) much longer than Dave’s but once you widdle out the thing that people are not going to buy me (like the very expensive camera lenses and lighting equipment), it isn’t that big.

A Colourful Addiction

I love OPI nail polish!! I have a hard time going to any of the stores that sell it here in Ottawa and not buying multiple colours. But since ‘I’ decided that I have a lot of OPI nail polish, I figured I should put a hold on buying it for myself. So to be able to still get some kind of a fix for the stuff, I decided to blog about it. Originally I wanted to take some studio shots of my nail polish to go with this blog post, but those will have to wait as right now I just don’t have the time.

 

Painting my nails is one of the few ‘girly’ things I do. I think it is fun and it also helps me from biting/picking my nails – which is pretty awesome for the times I want to grow them out.

 

The below table outlines the name and general description of the OPI polishes I have to date (and yes, there is a spreadsheet that this was copied from).

 

OPI Name	General Description
Top Coat	N/A
Natural Nail Base Coat	N/A
Kyoto Pearl	a Sheen-like White
Give Me the Moon	Iridescent Light Purple
A Grape Fit	Medium Purple
Honk if you Love OPI	Dark Purple
Suzi Says Feng Shui	Medium Blue
Yoga-ta Get this Blue	Dark Sparkly Blue
Jade is the New Black	Medium Green
Steady as she Rose	Light Rose/Pink
Suzi & the Lifeguard	Medium-light Sparkly Pink
My Address is ‘Hollywood’	Medium Sparkly Pink
Bogata Blackberry	Dark Sparkly Burgundy
Malaga Wine	Dark Burgundy
Teenage Dreams	Glitter Pink

Playing Catch-up

The time has come, again, for me to write another post about how busy I have been and how poorly I have been doing in keeping my blogs up to date. That all being said, I am working on some more posts for the rest of November and into December. Hopefully I will be able to get some more regular posts going until Christmas when I should have some downtime – maybe.

Lately Dave and I have been busy with not only work and the gym, but making the last few decisions on where our wedding will be. Once we have worked out a few more things, I will post about all the details (so far).

 

I have also been working diligently on my final photography course assignment and am pretty happy with how it is turning out so far. I have been learning all sorts of new tricks and am going to start posting some tips and tricks on my photography blog – so stay tuned for that.

 

For now though, bear with me once more as I try to sort through the craziness that is life.

Quotable Thursday #63

A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books. – Walt Whitman.

Quotable Thursday #62

Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope. – Bill Cosby.

Exotic Animal Tragedy

"A total of 49 wild animals were gunned down by police with pistols and high-powered rifles after escaping from a private preserve in Zanesville, Ohio Tuesday. The animals were moving into nearby neighborhoods, forcing residents of the town of 25,000 to stay indoors." - ABC news.

They didn't really escape, the man who ran the private zoo released them then took his own life. I feel sick from this story and felt the need to tell others about it. There is no blame to be put on the officers who shot the animals, they had no other options. The majority of the 56 animals released from the zoo were very dangerous --- literally lions, tigers and bears. The blame is to be put on the government that has some of the most lax laws in the country regarding exotic animals. I do not believe it should be legal for a private person or organization to own exotic animals. Sometimes I even have issues with small to medium sizezd zoos where the exhibits do not seem large, interesting or authentic enough.

Below is the ABC news clip that I watched as soon as I got to the internet this morning (I heard about this story on The Bear on my drive into work).

Dad’s bDay

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Dad!! Just wanted to send my love to him on his birthday.

Below is a photo of Dad (I assume taken by my Mom) and his first grandson (and my nephew) Jackson. Aren't they cute in their matching hockey Jerseys?!

New Stuff Part II

A couple months back Dave and I went on a shopping spree. Below is the car packed full of our purchases for the day:

I got a new bike, we both got new shows and other sporting goods and we spent some money at Future Shop/Best Buy and of course, we stopped by Henry’s as well. Dropped a great deal of money, but on useful things that did not go unused in the months since then.

This shopping spree reminded me of an earlier post that discussed my love of getting new things. It is one of my more materialistic tendencies that I don’t really mind to be honest.

A Grand Meeting

If I ever find a need for a meeting table this is the look I want.

It just looks so awesome…

Quotable Thursday #61

Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them. – Dion Boucicault.

A Day In the Life as…

…an Indoor Air Quality Technician.

 

I often do site work for my Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Assessments and usually they are large scope assessments for entire buildings. These buildings are normally government buildings in and around Ottawa and some portion of them is normally unoccupied. A little while back I did and IAQ assessment for a building that have a few floors unoccupied and below shows what a portion of my day was like:

It is dark and pretty creepy but I ate my lunch here anyway as I could be on my own and still keep monitoring different locations around this unoccupied floor. I do however, love my little IAQ cart – it is so handy and makes work so much easier on these days.

My Mom’s Birthday

Today is my Mom’s Birthday and I hope she has a great one.

Above is a photo of Mom and I spending time with Jackson shortly after he was born.

Today also happens to be my parents’ anniversary – Happy Anniversary!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! Hope everyone has a great weekend spending time with friends and family and eating some delicious food!!

Ice Breakers

It is coming up on that time of the year again when little puddles of water start freezing over. The time of the year when you can walk over the newly formed ice and break it. I get a weird sense of satisfaction from breaking little pockets of ice like this. Unfortunately this time period is followed up by the freaking freezing Ottawa winter wherein everything gets covered by a metre of snow and all the drivers become idiots incapable of sensible driving. But let’s focus on the ice pockets that we get to break soon instead of all that nastiness.

Quotable Thursday #60

All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers. – Orison Sweet Marden.

French-Style For Chris

I saw these in the grocery store quite some time ago and instantly thought of Chris. She loves french-style cut green beans and often requests them as Christmas presents during the holiday season. This is the first time however, that I had ever seen them in a frozen style – before this I had only ever heard of/seen them in the canned fashion.

Blog of Note: October

This blog doesn’t need me to help it get viewers or anything like that, but it is definitely one that I visit on a fairly regular basis: Cute Overload. Such adorable photos and videos with usually adorable and/or clever remarks about them. I have heard/read that it takes quite a lot of persistence to get a photo posted on Cute Overload, so what goes on there should be the best, right?

Good ol’ TImes

This weekend we had Justin over to the house for the first time in quite a while. Because of our work schedules or his, we just hadn’t gotten a chance to hang out as much as we would have liked to. It was really great having him over because it really felt like the good ol’ times. The boys played video games and I played on my computer. I baked everyone some cookies and did the normal chores like laundry, etc but it never seems as bad when it is mixed in with video game goodness. We did eat healthier than normal as I was making us food that fit into all of our trainer’s restrictions as much as possible (with the obvious exception of the cookies – though I think it should be noted that I made a tiny batch and it lasted the entire weekend). It was a lot of fun and makes me hopeful for lower stress levels when Justin moves back in with us in February.

It’s Been A while

So it has been a while since I last posted…quite a while actually. I think this may have been the longest break from blogging ever (well since I started blogging that is). The reason for this is simply that life has been crazy busy lately – in fact it has been kicking my butt. Figuring out how to be a good and attentive Aunt while keeping on top of my busy workload, classes and my own business all while planning a wedding and attempting to stay on top of my weight loss has just been wearing me down lately. I used to say that I was treading water and managing to keep my head above water but in the last few weeks I have started to feel my head drifting below the water level and at times I felt like I was drowning. There was (and still is) so much stress lately that I don’t really know what to do with it all. I haven’t figured it out, not in the least actually, and am still stressed and have so much to do that I can’t ever see not being stressed to the max, but I need to figure out how to live my life with all of these things in it as it is appearing to be a normal state of life for me.

All of this being said, I have found/made some time this weekend to work on my blogs. I am hoping that seeing regular posts go up for the next little while will inspire me to continue to find/make time for blogging as I really do enjoy it.

Perfection

Jackson Robert Beach

July 19, 2011
8lbs. 1oz.

Happy Birthday Jack!

Today my nephew Jackson was born. He was born at 11:35am in Ottawa. He weighed 8lbs 10z and was healthy and amazing. The new Mom, Dad and Jack are all doing well, though they are all very tired.

 

He is the cutest, most perfect and innocent creature in the world and I love him with all my heart and soul.

I will be posting photos of him once I get the go ahead from my brother and sister-in-law, aka the new parents. I don’t want to post anything until they have said it is okay – don’t want to steal their moments, blah blah blah. I will post more when I have a bit more time to sit down and tell what I know of his story so far, but I couldn’t let this monumental day go un-blogged.

Seriously --- so cute --- so loved.

An Exhausted Update

I am completely exhausted. With the help of our parents, Dave and I moved into our first home over the last few days. The schedule was as follows:

Wednesday: Planned to leave work early, ended up leaving late. Drove to the lawyer’s office and picked up our keys! Took a few before shots of the rooms (empty) and then ate Pizza Hut at the new house and then drove back to the rental to pack the night away.

Thursday: Got up bright and early to pack, pack, pack. Dave picked up the paint for our bedrooms and a few other items. We then drove to the house (with the first car load) and met his parents after eating our lunch. His parents started working on painting the bedrooms and we went back to packing. Packing of cars and the Koning’s trailer ensued – one trailer load and two car loads (one Camry, one Fit). Got the guest bed moved over to the new house and set up in the living room (bed doesn’t fit downstairs and painting made it impossible to sleep upstairs). Got an Edible Arrangement from Chris that was delicious (and needed). Went swimming in our pool – it was cold but wonderful. Oh, we also went for our personal trainer sessions before dinner.

Friday: Continued packing and taking car loads (both Fit and Camry/Trailer) to the house. Got a few of the medium to large sized items over including the couch and loveseat.

Saturday: Continued packing and moving using both cars and the trailer. Dave’s parents finished the painting of the rooms and it looked so good! Somehow I had managed to not only pick colours that went well together but also matched the carpet near-perfectly! Several other large items made their way to the new house.

Sunday: My parents came up early morning and the 6 of us got a ton of stuff moved before Dave’s parents headed back home. My parents and us finished off moving (mostly) and then went shopping for pool supplies. After my parents left, Dave and I set up our bedroom (mostly) and fell asleep in our new home for the first time. Below is a photo of our bedroom (half of it at least). The lighting isn’t the greatest as it was taken with my Blackberry right before bedtime, but you get the point.

We still have a lot to do and very little energy to do it, but we are very happy and eager to get the house set up for our friends and family to see. I am not sure when I will have time, but I plan on posting the before and afters of each room as we finish them. I do love my house very much – it was worth the wait.

Incoming House

You may have noticed a lapse inposts again...though I had time to sit down last month and put together the scheduled regular features, I have not had that luxury this month. We get possession of our house on Wednesday and are scrambling to get everything ready. Please bear with me once again as I attempt to get my blogs organized amidst all of this chaos!!

Quotable Thursday #59

“Nothing in life is more remarkable than the unnecessary anxiety which we endure, and generally create ourselves.” – Benjamin Disraeli.

Quotable Thursday #58

“The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.” – Bertrand Russell.

Happy Birthday

Happy 26th birthday to my amazing fiancé. I love you so much and I hope you have a wonderful day…perhaps I will make you something delicious for dinner.

Way Back Whenesday: Care Bears

I remember watching the Care Bears battle Wizard No Heart his assistant Beastly and niece Shreeky. The ten original Care Bears consisted of Bedtime Bear, Birthday Bear, Cheer Bear, Friend Bear, Funshine Bear, Good Luck Bear, Grumpy Bear, Love-a-lot Bear, Tenderheart Bear, and Wish Bear. Later on, additional bears joined them, as well as the Cousins. I had Care Bears bed sheets when I as younger and I think the pillow case followed me to university for a little while as a novelty thing (also because I didn’t want to buy a new pillow case). Though I don’t know if I could sit through an entire Care Bear episode and know I would never make it through one of their movies, I do enjoy seeing Care Bear items (shirt, etc) for sale in stores.

Happy Birthday!

I may have forgotten to post about my birthday, but I will not forget about hers. Happy 27th birthday to the best friend anyone could ever ask for --- or since you are an English major and all, the best friend for which anyone could ever ask.

Quotable Thursday #57

“We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.” – Calvin Coolidge.

2 Years Later it Comes Full Circle

Last week, just over two years after getting T-boned on my way to work, Dave and I drove through and advanced green turn signal at Conroy and Thurston here in Ottawa. It was pretty amazing, so much so that we both clapped. The next day I took this photo to prove to others that the turn signal we had all wanted for so long actually existed. Don’t worry, Dave was driving the car when I took the photo from the passenger seat.
I like to think that through my accident I helped make this happen. There have been at least 4 other accidents in the intersection since mine however, and those are just the ones that I have noticed (and can remember).

SPARKLES!!

Seriously these are the most awesome sparkly heels I have seen in real life. I would have bought them but really couldn’t think of a place to wear them or a reason to even own them. If one comes to me in the next few weeks I will go and get them from the Shoe Company.

My birthday?

So this year we pretty much just skipped over my birthday. Because we are trying to save money, there weren’t really any gifts and because it was super busy at work there wasn’t a party or a celebration of any kind really. My boss did get me a cheesecake which was delicious.

I am hoping that I can get myself a present that I have been considering for some time now and would likely consider it a belated present to myself…but I don’t know if that is actually going to happen considering everything going on in Japan (everything being much more serious than me getting Nikon equipment).

Way Back Whenesday: Classic Mortal Kombat

My brother and I used to play Mortal Kombat. No, he played Mortal Kombat with his friends and I would mash buttons against the computer when he would let me use his systems.
The Mortal Kombat movie is one of my guilty pleasure movies and I love the theme song, especially the techno version that is at the end of the movie.

I am mentioning this now because Dave just recently bought the new Mortal Kombat video game for PS3 for Justin’s birthday (it was an early present) and the two of them have been playing it in their spare time ever since.

Our House is a very, very, very fine House

I'll light the fire
You put the flowers in the vase
That you bought today
Staring at the fire
For hours and hours
While I listen to you
Play your love songs
All night long for me
Only for me
Come to me now
And rest your head for just five minutes
Everything is good
Such a cosy room
The windows are illuminated
By the sunshine through them
Fiery gems for you
Only for you
Our house is a very, very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy
'Cause of you
And our la,la,la, la,la, la, la, la, la, la, la.....
Our house is a very, very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy
'Cause of you
And Our
I'll light the fire
And you place the flowers in the jar
That you bought today

"”Our House” – Crosby, Still, Nash & Young, 1970.

The story of how Dave and I found our house is pretty short really (relatively speaking). We decided last fall that we wanted a house and were going to try and get one Spring 2011. Around Christmas 2010 however, we learnt that the bank didn’t want to give us a big enough mortgage for us to get a house here in Ottawa. We got very depressed about the subject and put the whole idea on the backburner.
In March, a co-worker informed us that he had just bought a house. We though to ourselves, we make approximately the same amount of money, how could we not get a big enough mortgage. We went to the mortgage broker he recommended and learnt that the bank was wrong. We could afford a very high mortgage and had impeccable credit ratings.
We informed our real estate agent and started looking at house mid April. For two weeks we looked at about 15 or so different houses and found one that we thought we really liked. We also found one that I absolutely loved. We scheduled second visits for both these houses while Dave’s parents were down so they could give us a less-biased opinion. Upon visiting the fist house the second time, we noticed everything that was wrong with it and no longer liked it at all. Then we went to the second home, the one that I had absolutely loved. It was pretty much perfect for us and Dave’s parents agreed. We stared the process of putting in an offer that very afternoon. By 1:00pm the next day we had conditionally bought the house for $10,000 less than the asking price. It was a very good day.

On April 29, the conditions came off the house and now we just have to wait until we get possession of our new home on the 15th of June. I sit around our rental waiting for the day wishing it would come faster but then thinking of how much is left to be done before we can actually move – we own a lot of things that need to be sorted and packed or sold or given away. We plan on doing quite a large purge when leaving this house as there are quite a few things that are still packed from when we moved here nearly three years ago.

In case you are wondering, the description of our home according to their real estate agent is as follows:

“3 Bedrooms,3 Bathrooms. Hardwood & porcelain flooring on main level. Main floor family room w/wood fireplace. Gourmet kitchen w/central isle & granite. Eating area opens to the fenced & private yard w/patio & above ground Pool.Main floor laundry. Master bedroom w/3pc en-suite & walk-in closet. Basement is near complete w/Recroom, Bedroom & ample storage. C/Air, C/Vac.”

Ottawa Tulip Festival 2011

Ah the Tulip Festival. You all know how much I love it (and I know how much a certain one of you hates it). It is my favourite Ottawa Festival and it is finally here. The above image was taken earlier today at the Dows Lake Pavilion location. Dave and I toured the tulip beds for a couple of hours, had some yummy food and then went home. The tulips are a little late this year (as are the ones in my backyard) so there were a great deal of un-bloomed flowers around and empty looking flower beds, but all in all it was still very pretty and i enjoyed the nice walk and photography-filled afternoon.

I’m Back!!!

I know it has been a while, but I am back now. I am spending most of the rest of this afternoon sitting by an open window, enjoying the fresh air, my backyard garden and the sunlight while I blog away. In other words, there should be regular posts for the next month or so despite how busy I will likely be.

 

What have I been busy with you ask? Well for those of you who don’t already know, Dave and I have been advancing our lives a fair bit lately. We are obviously planning our wedding which is very time consuming despite the fact that we are planning a wedding that is well over a year away. We have also signed up at Goodlife gym and gotten ourselves personal trainers (to learn more about this, check out my health blog, The Road to a Better Me – it too is getting updated today). We also made one of the biggest purchases we will ever make…we bought a house. I will create more specific posts about each of these things later, but for now I think this is enough to understand just how busy our personal lives have been lately. Oh, and I am also planning a baby shower for my sister-in-law with my mom which has taken a little bit of work as well (invitations, ideas, gift shopping, etc), though to be honest, this one wasn’t as much work as the others. In fact it was quite fun to send out invitations and look at baby things.

Big Stuff

I know it has been a while and I know I posted in March saying I would be back shortly...but Dave and I are working on some big stuff in our lives right now that is taking most of our time and energy. I will be back though.

A Lapse in Posts

You might have noticed a lapse in regular posts here lately. It has to do with the workload. March used to be the time of studying for end of the year exams and stressing about my grades, etc. Now that I am out of school you would think that was done, but instead I worry about work. I think I have mentioned before that I work in the private industry in the Capitol of Canada, which means we have a lot of government contracts. As the Federal Fiscal Year End is March 31, March is now the crunch time for the vast majority of projects on the books right now which means it is SUPER busy at work. Constant last minute site visits and sample collection and analysis. Lots of reports to be written and reviewed and a ton of management and coordination to be done as well. It is very time consuming and energy depleting. To be frank, by the time I get home all I want to do is relax and go to bed. I really don’t feel like writing or setting up posts. I will do my best to get something on here every once in a while for the next month, but I can’t promise anything even remotely close to regular. Sorry guys, hope you understand.

It’s a Boy

Lynn and Tyler were told today that Baby Beach is a BOY!! I am going to have a nephew and I am super excited!

Apparently the ultrasound technician said she was 99.9% sure that the baby was a boy. Thankfully Tyler and Lynn included me in the phone calls that followed their appointment.

Seriously, I am one happy Aunt who is about to buy a great deal of blue things including baby photography props!!

Quotable Thursday #55

“There ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” – Mark Twain.

Stephanie Beach Photography

I finally launched my own website: http://www.stephaniebeachphotography.com/ and to say the least I am pretty excited about it! I am still working on some of the finishing touches, but it is pretty much ready to go so everyone should head over to the new site and spend some time checking it out. Then come back and let me know what you think, I really would appreciate any comments or suggestions you may have. Thanks everyone!!

Quotable Thursday #54

“A leader is a dealer in hope.” – Napoleon Bonapart

Way Back Whenesday: THe Fro

 

When we were in first year Dave didn’t really get his hair cut – as matter of fact I don’t know if he got it cut even once throughout that year. We all named it the Fro. At one point we even gave him a fro pick.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Green Ideas: Heating #1

Planning a party? Turn the thermostats down. Each guest is the equivalent of a 175-watt heater, and a large group will warm up the place without the furnace or the heating units in operation.

Quotable Thursday #53

“Those who spend too fast never grow rich.” – Honore de Balzac

Quotable Thursday #52

“We are chameleons, and our partialities and prejudices change place with an easy and blessed facility."” - Mark Twain.

Way Back Whenesday: Pocket Organizer

I remember when I was younger and loved the idea of electronic gizmos and the assumed importance of people who had them (and even more so of people who actually needed them). I got a little pocket diary and I loved it. I used it as an address book and calculator and of course diary as that was its original purpose. I used to make up stories and pretend to chat with people online (this was before this was a common thing for children to do). It was a great source of entertainment for me. Every so often the little watch battery that ran it would die and I would have to start all over again. Sometimes I would lose it and by the time I found it, it was dead and needed a restart. Eventually it lost its appeal as chatting because an everyday thing and as I really didn’t have a need for the other features, I stopped using it. I haven’t seen it in a very long time, though I suspect that it it sitting in a Rubbermaid container in my parents’ shed back home.

(photo from http://www.canstockphoto.com/)

Happy Birthday Big Brother!

My brother turns 30 today and 30 is looking to be a good year for him. All the best Tyler, Happy Birthday!!

7 Wonderful Years

Happy Anniversary Sweety. I love you more than I could ever put into words.

Quotable Thursday #51

“There is no wealth but life.” – John Ruskin

My Family’s Big News

On top of my and Dave’s engagement, my brother and sister-in-law had their own big news to share with our family this past holiday season. They are going to be parents. They shared this with my parents and I through Christmas cards for Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt. I absolutely loved it and am so incredibly excited for my niece or nephew (they will be finding out if the baby is a boy or a girl when the 5 month marker comes around). I can’t wait to spoil the baby with toys and clothes and shower it with love and of course take lots of photos.

Mission Goal 2011

In 2010 I defined my mission goal as being “I want to be happy, healthy and comfortable in 2010”. I wanted to do these things by losing weight, saving money, traveling and getting a puppy. I did not lose weight. I did save money, in fact Dave and I are well on our way to getting enough for a down payment on a house. We did not get a puppy. We did travel – we went to Florida, Quebec City and Toronto as vacations and of course the cottage on Lake Erie. So all in all, could have done better, but could have done much worse as well.
My mission goal for 2011 is unchanged: I want to be happy, healthy and comfortable in 2011. These things are likely to happen this year if I lose weight, buy a house, travel and work on my wedding plans (including the process of saving money for the wedding).

Quotable Thursday #50

“The man who will not execute his resolutions when they are fresh upon him can have no hope from them afterwards; they will be dissipated, lost and perish in the hurry and scurry of the world, or sunk in the slough of indolence” - Marie Edgeworth.

Way Back Whenesday: The Munsters

For Christmas we got my dad the complete series of The Munsters.

Similarly to the Adams Family, The Munsters was a sitcom about a monster family. There was the Frankenstein dad (Herman), the bride of Frankenstein wife (Lily), a vampire Grandpa, a werewolf son (Eddie) and a human neice (Marilyn). They of course didn’t see themselves as different but rather worried that their normal neice Marilyn would never find a man. Great show that I remember watching with my Dad.

My Big News

As some of you already know, I have some  big news to share with you. Over the holidays, Dave proposed to me. It was perfect and amazing and I of course said yes. The story, since I have been asked so many times, goes like this:

On Thursday, December 30, 2010 Dave and I went to Upper Canada Village in Morrisburg to take night photos of the Alight at Night Festival. During our 2-3 hours there we walked around and took many photos of the night lights and even had fresh gingerbread, so yummy. We then got back to our car where Dave brought out the hot chocolate he had made for us and snuck in our thermos. We then drove back to Ottawa listening to the Glee soundtrack that he had so nicely downloaded and put on his new Google phone. When we got back to town he drove us towards downtown and I thought he was driving us to Parliament Hill as I had also wanted to take photos of the lights on the Parliament buildings. Instead he turned onto Sussex and parked overlooking the Ottawa River. He had music playing on his phone and had packed blankets and pillows for sitting in the back of the car - it was very nice. The evening was great and because it was so cold (it is Winter in Ottawa), the ring actually fit me.
It is now at the jewellery store being resized as even though Dave took his iron ring as a reference, it was still too small (only be about one size though). His iron ring fits my right hand but not my left unfortunately.
I am very happy and looking forward to all the planning and organization that is involved in getting a wedding set up. But first things first, Dave and I are still planning on getting a house this Spring.

Ambrose Bierce

A little while ago I used a quote from Ambrose Bierce for my Quotable Thursday feature. I usually try to link the quoted person to their wikipedia page so that you can go and learn more about them if you so please. In the process of doing that this time however, I saw that this person had an interesting story – he disappeared.
Ambrose Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist. He was born in 1842 and earned himself the nickname “Bitter Bierce” primarily because of his motto ‘nothing matters’.
In 1913 the then elderly writer traveled to Mexico to gain a firsthand perspective of the country’s ongoing revolution. According to Wikipedia:

“In October 1913 Bierce, then in his seventies, departed Washington, D.C., for a tour of his old Civil War battlefields. By December he had proceeded through Louisiana and Texas, crossing by way of El Paso into Mexico, which was in the throes of revolution. In Ciudad Juárez he joined Pancho Villa's army as an observer, and in that role he witnessed the Battle of Tierra Blanca.

Bierce is known to have accompanied Villa's army as far as the city of Chihuahua. His last known communication with the world was a letter he wrote there to Blanche Partington, a close friend, dated December 26, 1913. After closing this letter by saying, "As to me, I leave here tomorrow for an unknown destination," he vanished without a trace, becoming one of the most famous disappearances in American literary history.

Oral tradition in Sierra Mojada, Coahuila, documented by the priest James Lienert, states that Bierce was executed by a firing squad in the town cemetery there. However, all investigations into his fate have proven fruitless, and despite an abundance of theories his end remains shrouded in mystery.”

I don’t know much more than what is in the Wikipedia link, but thought it was rather interesting and wanted to share it with you.

Blog of Note: January

The Graphite Art of Clive Meredith is a blog similar to my photography blog in that it displays the works of an artist. Clive Meredith is an extremely talented artist who draws amazing portraits in graphite. Check it out.