My Summer Rollercoaster

I have never really enjoyed roller-coasters. When I was a kid, I could tolerate them, but did not enjoy them. When the family would head to Canada Wonderland or even during our trip to Disney World, my mom and brother would venture onto the craziest of rides while my dad and I sat quietly watching our crazy family members. To this day, I do not understand the thrill and can no longer even tolerate the beasts. But I go on them every once in a while to make sure my dislike of them is still valid and every time I do, I come out a little worse for wear, but alive. To say that the last few months have been a roller-coaster ride with all those dizzying highs and nauseating lows, barely even begins to cover it.

For just under the last two years, Dave and I have been planning our Fall wedding. Since it was a long engagement, we ended up having this vision of our wedding being way off in the future of Fall 2012. It was beautiful and awesome all at the same time, our friends and families were having a ton of fun and Dave and I looked amazing in our wedding clothes. But, it was still way off in the future, something we could enjoy planning and looking forward to, but nothing to worry about. It was 'round about 3 months ago that I realized that it wasn't way off in the future anymore and that we needed to step our planning into high gear.

For whatever reason, there was absolutely no slow period at work and as a result, we ended up working very long hours at the office and trying to squeeze our regular gym appointments and now all the new wedding meetings/tasks into the mix. It resulted in a lot of stress, some of it inevitable, while some of it was completely avoidable and yet wasn't avoided.

Next came raise time at work. This was at first abysmal but after some very good conversations with my boss' boss, it got resolved for the better and I was moved from hourly to salary and was given a much more tolerable raise. In fact, as stressful and upsetting as this time was, the actual process, was pretty straight-forward and pleasant as everyone pretty much agreed with my position. But it left me feeling nauseated nonetheless.

The 2 month mark quickly came and I was really feeling the physical and emotional draining that was happening to both myself and Dave. To be able to meet deadlines both in my professional lives as well as my personal life, I had to take some time away from blogging and to be honest, pretty much everything other than work, going to the gym, and wedding planning. There was time for friends and family, but even that was cut shorter than I would have liked due to work and stress loads.

Then, about a month before the wedding, my grandfather was suddenly hospitalized. It left my entire family in an awful state. My mom drove roughly 3 hours a day to visit him with my aunt and getting the updates from her was not only difficult because it was pretty clear that he would not pull through, but also because of the pain and sadness I could hear in my mom's voice each time we spoke.

Two weeks before the wedding, he passed away. There was a private graveside memorial attended by his family and closest friends where he was laid to rest beside my grandmother. It was quiet and peaceful, exactly what he wanted. As a child, you are sad because a family member is no longer around. As an adult, you understand what has happened not only to the one who passed, but to everyone else as well. You can visualize the unspeakably painful day when your own parents become sick and you are forced to deal with their mortality.

Luckily, we have a really amazing circle of friends and family who supported Dave and I through this time and some great co-workers who picked up our workloads so we could take a day or two off to try to cope and spend time with our family.

We returned to our wedding planning and trying to get things settled at least somewhat at work. After a very long last week at work, we had made it - 2 glorious weeks off! We spent the week before the wedding not paying attention to work emails and tying up all the lose ends for the big event. We made lots of ribbon flowers and decorations; managed to pick up over 600 bulbs that we had ordered and get them into our wedding favours a few days before-hand (thanks mom and dad); arranged drop-off times and locations with vendors; finalized and issued schedules for the wedding party and our families; picked up suits and dresses; and did what seems like a million other things. The rehearsal day came, and I was super stressed and a little nervous. Everyone got there eventually and things went pretty smoothly for the rest of the night.

Something happened that night though, as at some point while I was sleeping, all my worries drifted away. When I awoke, I was super calm and stress- and worry-free. I came to the mindset of, if something went wrong, it didn't matter, there was little to nothing I could do about it now and I had done my very best up until this point. I am not sure how I got to this mindset, as that is typically not my style whatsoever, but it was a great place to be for my wedding day.

This post is longer than I had anticipated, so I will not go into great detail here about the wedding day itself, mostly because I feel it deserves it's own post, but let me just say it was amazingly awesome. There were a few tiny hiccups, but nothing that mattered then and definitely nothing that matters now. It was a beautiful day and I came out of it as a wife to a loving and caring man, who I love more than life itself. I am now Mrs. Koning and all of the roller-coaster lows of this summer are made a little easier to handle by this fact. I am honestly and truly happy.

As a reward for getting through this post, I am going to share the following image with you. Dave and I took it on Honeymoon #1 to Niagara Falls. My camera had felt a little neglected this summer so gave it lots of attention during this trip and I hope that the next year of traveling and honeymoons makes it feel loved.

2011 in Review

This year-in-review post is a little late as we are nearing the end of January now, but better late than never right? Let’s see, 2011 was a pretty big year for me and my family. I think the biggest things that happened are pretty obvious but let’s try to go through things chronologically shall we.

---

January 2011
Dave and I announced our engagement. Since Dave proposed on the 30th of December in 2010, we did most of the announcing early in 2011. Our families and closest were informed that day after he proposed, but the world found out through Facebook and this blog in January.

February 2011
This was a big month for me. Not only did I learn that my brother would be having a boy (and I would therefore be getting a nephew), but on February 28, 2011 I officially started Stephanie Beach Photography as a small business. I got a domain name, website host and design and got an official business number from the Province of Ontario. It was an exciting and somewhat scary time for me, but I am very glad I did it.

March 2011
My birthday happens every year, but this year, as I turned 27, I think I might have moved from mid- to late-20s. It is a scary thought, but I think I am getting old!

This was also about the time when I got my own office. An office at work with a four real walls and an actual door. It is still pretty awesome. My own office came with a larger workload and much larger jobs to manage. Though I had shadow managed jobs before, I started working on even larger jobs as a shadow project manager around this time as well.

April 2011
April was the month where Dave and I searched for and purchased our first home. We wouldn’t get possession of it and move in until later, but the exciting purchasing process definitely happened here.

April was also the month where Dave and I joined Goodlife Fitness and signed up for personal trainers. It was (and still is) expensive, but we have been going ever since and I am glad we started and stuck with it.

May 2011
Though it may not seem like much, May 2011 was when I learnt that my 2009 accident had come full circle. An advance green light was installed at the intersection where I was t-boned. It left me with a weird, but satisfied feeling.

May 10, 2011 was the day my baby was brought to me…my Nikon D3s arrived in the mail! It was a wonderful evening and the next few months allowed me the time to really learn the amazing abilities that my full-frame camera has to offer.

June 2011
Dave and I got our house! It was purchased 6 weeks prior to us moving in on June 15, 2011. At the same time, my brother purchased his house (literally we put offers down on the same weekend and ended up closing on the same day). We have been here for over 7 months now and I still love my house! We have done some work on it, mostly painting, organizing and decorating but we are planning more significant updates later on.
July 2011
Jackson Robert was born on July 19, 2011. He was (and still is) adorably perfect and I love him to bits. My only wish is that I had more free time and could go visit him more, perhaps I will plan a trip to go see him in the next couple of weeks.

July was also a big month for my photography business as I shot my first wedding as the sole wedding photographer.

August 2011

As Dave and I had combined our bank accounts when we purchased our house, I had been spending the months following that event making sure all of my automatic payments, etc. had ceased or been transferred from my old account. August was the last of my ‘student plan’ capabilities at BMO and I therefore closed my very first bank account. My mom and I opened my BMO account when I was 12 or so as I had  gotten a paper route. I remember going to South Keys or Meadowlands with Chris to get to a BMO ATM when we were in school and getting a PLoC for when Dave and I bought the Honda Fit (though we didn’t end up using it then). Good memories, but the account wasn’t worth the bank fees. Seriously, why would I pay bank fees?

September 2011
This was the second quiet month for The Great Abyss (and my other blogs too). I was struggling to keep my head above water. To be honest, I still haven’t figured it all out and have been getting more and more comments from friends, family and even clients about how I manage to do everything that is currently sitting on my heaping plate. I could be doing much better if I focused on one job rather than the two official ones I have. I could be organizing my wedding in a much more timely fashion if I so chose. But I have chosen to try and do a great deal right now and I am doing okay at it (in my opinion).

October 2011
October was primarily spent trying to get things straightened out. It was the first time in my life that I knowingly carried a balance on a credit card and ended up having to take money from my personal line of credit to deal with it. This didn’t last long as before the year was done, any debt Dave and I had was taken care of, but it was an uneasy and uncomfortable time for me.

November 2011

Dave and I put chose our venue and put down the deposit, making our wedding date officially September 29, 2012.

November was also the month in which I finished my first conceptual photography series. I am very pleased with how 99 Luftballoons turned out and have received many great comments/reviews from friends, family, classmates and followers on the internet (aka strangers).  The final product and the responses from everyone have inspired me to think of more conceptual ideas and work towards getting them completed. You can view the images on Flickr (link above) and there will be a series of posts on my Photography Blog shortly.

December 2011

After a long search (I may have been looking for all of 2011), Dave and I selected our wedding photographer. We put down the deposit and are very happy with our choice.

December was also the month in which I finished my last course of the Algonquin College Digital Photography program. Though I got my grade in January, the last class was in December. I am very happy to be done with the program and have learnt so much. More to come on this later on my Photography Blog.

And of course, Dec. 30, 2011 marked one year since Dave and I got engaged.

 

---

So that was pretty much 2011. Some of the items above are a little forced to be able to get something in each month (you may have noticed). The big ones are obvious as I said before. Announcement of our engagement, birth of my nephew, purchase of our first home and starting my business officially. I started working towards my photographic dreams by starting as a wedding photographer and a conceptual photographer. I also started taking on much larger jobs at work as a project manager and shadow managing on even larger jobs earning myself my own office.

My goals for 2012 are pretty simple. I want to have a great wedding that everyone enjoys; continue advancing my photography business; continue working on my conceptual photography ideas; get closer to achieving my health goals; start my travel goals; and continue to make our home truly our own. I am also looking forward to watching Jackson grow up and really get his own personality.

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.

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.

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.

Biking in the Rain

A couple weeks ago Dave and I participated in the Heart and Stroke Big Bike with work. It was pouring rain so we got absolutely soaked but we completed the ride in a decent time (despite the rain) and had a bunch of fun too. The above photo was taken by one of the volunteers working at the event and you can’t see many people in the team, but you can see me!!

Let’s Play Ball

Dave and I joined the baseball team at work called the DST Destroyers (the above photo is from our first game – it is a pretty bad one of me, but I am having to deal with it). So far we have been scheduled to play 4 games but two of them have been cancelled (due to a shortage of players). It has been a lot of fun and I have found that I am not that bad – well I can hit the ball at least when I am up to bat. I likely wouldn’t have such a good batting average if we weren’t pitching to our own team mates.

Back to It

March Madness is pretty much over. That is to say, the craziness is over. There are still reports to be finalized and a few to be written but the majority of the work is over. We do tend to send everything out in electronic copy for March 31 and then get the hardcopies out in early April so I suppose that is left to be done, but once again it is nothing compared to the work that needs to be done before March 31.
Since my work will likely be getting lighter in the next few days/weeks, I have come back to my blogs with the dedication they deserve. You may have noticed a severe drop in features as the ones that I hadn’t written in advance, Quotable Thursdays for example, did not published at all during March. I tried my best to get a post up as much as possible, but really there was only so much energy to be had and most of it was spent at work.
(Hopefully) You will be happy to hear that I am spending a great deal of this weekend working on my blogs and my photography. Hopefully I will be able to catch up in both departments.

March Madness 2010

You may have noticed a certain lull in daily posts and/or that the Florida trip wasn't quite recapped in February as planned. I blame these all on March Madness. Though March is my favourite month (primarily because it contains my birthday), it is also one of the busiest, especially since I started working at DST. As it marks the end of the Federal Fiscal year, all federal projects have to be wrapped up and fully invoiced by March 31st.
This being said, I have tried my best to keep posts coming as often as possible throughout the last little while and will continue to do so until this is all over, but please bear with me. Features may be a little behind schedule and posts may not be as interesting as they ought to be - but it is only temporary, I promise.

Priority Upgrade

The other day I drove to Lindsay to complete a BOMA BESt survey for work. I then drove to Peterborough and spent the night in a hotel before driving to Belleville for a Designated Substance Survey (DSS) and then driving back to Ottawa.
While in Peterborough, I stayed at the Holiday Inn there that I had reserved with my personal information in order to get points on my holiday inn card. Because I had done that, I was registered under my priority points number and upon arrival was upgraded to a river-view room that should have been almost double the price of the room I had actually reserved. It was very nice and once I got a minute to check out the view, I was a little sad that I hadn't brought any of my personal photography equipment. I only had the crappy little cameras we use for work. They are incredibly beat up and don't take the nicest photos, but hopefully you will still get the point of the great view I had, even though it was late January.Please ignore the reflection of my hand and camera and the terrible glare from the sun - like I said, the work cameras are far from the standards of my normal equipment plus I was running behind schedule. Either way, it was a very nice room and I was rather impressed that I got bumped up so easily - go Holiday Inn Priority Club!!

Frazzled

The work is piling up and vacation is coming up for which I am not ready and I am really starting to get frazzled. I am frayed around the edges one might say. I am doing my best to stay on top of everything, but as soon as I feel like I have gotten a handle of things, I get another project at work, or need to get another thing accomplished at home.

Take the other day for example, I had a last minute site visit for a designated substance survey (DSS). It was to freshen up my skills with respect to DSSs as I haven't done a proper one in many months and am likely going to be doing one solo next week. After finishing that, I helped out Dave with a HazMat survey in the same building and didn't return to the office until nearly 3:30. I then answered many emails and phone messages, dealt with some invoices that were on my desk and prepped some field teams for some work they are doing for me the next day. 5pm rolled around and I was still in the office with tons of stuff to get around to doing.
The thing that is really getting me frustrated and frazzled right now is the fact that it is looking like I will be out of the office and out of town the last three days I am at work (before my vacation). This worries me because I am afraid I won't have time to get my projects in a state where I can leave them with others (or on their own) for two weeks. I spent most of Friday trying to once again catch up, and did a pretty good job of it, but will still have a lot of work ahead of me this week in order to be truly prepared for vacation.
Who knew taking time off could be so much work?!

Hallowe'en at DST

Most workplaces have people who get dressed up and some will have candy and treats for their employees near Hallowe'en, and DST is no exception. This year we had a myriad of costumes and a pizza lunch/staff meeting.

The costume contest participants at DST Ottawa, are pictured above. There was our (female) CAD Technician who dressed up as our Sector Manager (with newborn son) pictured below, won the costume contest despite the fact that she wore the same costume (minus the child) last year. It is just such a funny costume it can't be topped.

Dave was a little upset later on when I told him that he likely would have won if a) his costume was complete and b) he wasn't sent out of town for the day (by me) to complete waste audits. He was only upset because the winner (and runner up) got gift cards to Future Shop and Subway, respectively. I hope that next year, my costume will be completed in time for me to participate as well as it just looked like everyone was having so much fun.

Asbestos

Dave and I work and deal with asbestos (and asbestos abatement) on a pretty regular basis. DST does a great deal of asbestos surveys and abatement monitoring and we as juniours tend to do a great deal of the field work and report writing for these jobs. I recently completed a course on Asbestos Fibre Counting and can now do even more with asbestos.

It is also funny how Dave and I both get really excited when someone, or thing, in every day life refers to asbestos, like the above comic. (comic from xkcd). We also have this pretty annoying habit of surveying every building we walk into for asbestos and the other 10 designated substances.

Out of Town Again

Once again Dave has been sent out of town for work. He is going to be doing three waste audits and asbestos update surveys in Peterborough, Lindsay and Cobourg all of this upcoming week. While he is doing all these site visits he will be staying with his parents in Peterborough, which saves the company some money since we don't have to get a hotel room for the week (he will also get to pocket a few bucks as an incentive for doing this).
Unlike previous out of town work Dave has done for DST, it is not one of our bosses that has scheduled all this work for him - it was me. The waste audits he will be completing are part of my job for the ORC. The asbestos update surveys, also for the ORC, are not my project, but were kind of left under my watch while my boss is on paternity leave - well, at least the scheduling of this site visit was.
So, long story short, Dave will be out of town for a week leaving me to figure stuff out on my own. What will I do you ask? Well I have costumes to sew and a house to clean. I also have some free time for friends and catching up with the girls as Dave will be night work for the majority of the week and therefore will not really be available to talk that much either. All in all, not much will be different from when he is here, except I will be a little less happy, and lot more lonely.

Persistent Cough

Ever since I was little, whenever I get sick I get a really nasty, persistent cough. It would and still will last for weeks sometimes and always long after the actual cold is gone. The coughs are loud, and sometimes painful as they can lead to headaches and sore chests after a long night of coughing in my sleep. My mom says it sounds like I am barking. Cough syrup doesn't seem to do much for the cough, though it can decrease it ever so slightly. I have gotten used to them and the people around them seem to be getting used to them too.
Yesterday at work I was called into my boss' office and told that he had received a complaint about my coughs and asked me if there was work I could do from home. The complainer, lets call him Bob, is higher up in the company and his opinion matters so if there was any way to appease him, it would be done. Though I am no longer sick and will not be 'infecting' anyone in the office - I was sent home. I have several projects that can be done from home and as such I worked from home yesterday afternoon and will be doing the same all day today.
You may be thinking that this is not fair. The complaints of one person cannot send another one home. But this is awesome! Never has my persistent cough ever paid off so wonderfully! Working from home is so fun. I am going to get paid for writing my reports and databases from the comfort of my bed or couch while watching movies and TV in general. As long as there are no emergencies in terms of my other projects, it is going to be a great day.

Published

A while back DST was part of a project to get an award for one of our clients. I was part of the project and later on inherited it as project manager. We got word last week that the building had won the award and I was asked by my boss to write up and article for our in house newsletter, the Mini Drill Press (MDP).
I whipped up an article, got Dave to review it, and after some editing by my boss, it was published in the MDP. It got displayed in the middle of the newsletter in a pretty significant way, with a bold background and distinctly different header. I am pretty happy with it, though it is more report-like than fluffy news article - but it is a newsletter for an engineering consulting firm.

One Minute Writer #40

What is the last city that you visited, for the first time? What did you think of it?

I was going to write a brief summary Chicago post and then realized that One Minute Writer had started one for me already. I spent this past week in Chicago completing an Asbestos Fibre Counting course (NIOSH 582) for work. The course itself was pretty good, though I had a few problems seeing certain fibres in the beginning but eventually got the hang of it. In the end, I received 100% on the theory exam (simple theory questions and a few even easier math problems) and passed the practical (there was only pass or fail, no grade). There was only one other person who aced the theory exam, and he had to recount one of his slides during the practical, so I guess I got the top mark (If you know me at all, you know this is what I was aiming for).
As the course ran from 8am to 5pm, there wasn't much time to take in the sites of the city, but myself and Kyle, the other DST employee who went, did our best. We walked around Michigan Avenue and I went to the Sears Tower (which is now called the Willis Tower) and the Art Institute of Chicago. I took a great deal of photos, most of which were night photos taken with my new Gorillapod. I was able to finish my photography assignment with ease as the tourism board does a really good job of lighting up the buildings and art in an interesting fashion. I even got a woman's business card while I was taking photos near the Art Institute one night. I wasn't able to see everything, but I got to see some really great stuff and am pretty happy with how much tourist stuff I was able to cram into my business trip (my first I might add).
As usual, I plan on posting my images on my photography blog and a few choice ones here with a little more details about the trip. But for now, I thought Chicago was beautiful, for the most part, and would go back again if given the chance.

Chicago without the Net

I am currently in Chicago for a training course (Asbestos Fibre Counting). I am really enjoying it, more so since I can no do all the components of the course, but have found one flaw - this city has horrible Internet reception at hotels. You either have to pay an arm and a leg for Internet or you get it for free but it is constantly down. I have been able to log onto the net from my hotel for a total of approximately 3 hours. During which I have only been able to talk to Dave through Skype and check my emails a few times. That means that all the planned posts I had (unwritten and therefore not scheduled) were not possible. I will be posting regularly again once I return home, which is tomorrow night, though I am sure it will take me a day or two to get back into it the way I had been recently. For now, all my readers will need to enjoy my previous posts and the few scheduled posts I have, like my features. Thanks for your patience.

One Minute Writer #39

What responsibility would you like to forego (without any negative consequences) for one week?

I think the obvious answer here is work. I would love to not come into work for an entire week. Simply put, it would be wonderful.

Gone Again

Dave is away again for work, this time for a week. He is working on asbestos update surveys and later on in the week he is doing some waste audits. But instead of a hotel or a rented house, he is staying with my parents. I like the idea because I know he will be comfortable and get some luxuries too, like the pool and hot tub, not to mention the adorable puppy.
He is only away for a week but it is still a very lonely time for me and I can't wait until Friday when he comes back home.