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.