Status Quo

We are a few weeks post wedding, post honeymoon and back in the swing of real life(sigh vacations/ honeymoons are never long enough). I can't tell if it is good thing or bad thing but I can't say anything is really that different. I am really not complaining as things were pretty good before the wedding and still are pretty darn good. Maybe slightly better because the pressure of the wedding deadline is off me now.

I wonder if this is common? PJ and I lived together before we were married, actually we bought a house together six months after we met and we had already been living together for four months. If you are math savy, that's right we lived together two months after our first meeting and if I was being honest it is probably more like one month after we met. Let's just say it felt right to us and to my surprise it made sense to everyone else too! Anyway, we lived together before marriage so I feel like a lot of the adjustment to that lifestyle was already complete. Now we have some new stuff and a piece of paper to prove it ( and a wonderful memory).

The reason I wonder is because a lot of people told me " even though you live together it will feel different..." or " things will still change" , Well not so far, and I think I am ok with it. If anyone else is reading this....did marriage change things for you? Are you worried it will?

My sheepish secret

A while ago I ripped off the band-aid that was my little blogging secret and told PJ about the blog. I not sure what made me keep quiet about it before, embarrassment, maybe? A desire to have something just for me, possibly? I think maybe a bit of both. Either way, I decided that we were about to be married and he should know about it, especially if I was going to talk about him in it.

Decision made! I was going to tell him. I told him. Unfortunately I didn't really think this decision through very well, because then he wanted to READ IT! After a few squirmy moments I handed over the address and waited while he read each post.  He was given the instructions he was not allowed to give feedback on my writing style (writing has historically been difficult for me so I have a little sensitivity to correction), content feedback was welcome.

The end of the story is a happy one, he thought it was good and was happy with some nice things I wrote about him. I don't think he has read it since that night, which is fine by me, it keeps it just for me. But I feel better knowing he knows.

Making up for lost time

Things have been a bit sparse on the blog posting front and I apologize. I will try to make up for it by filling in the gaps with a few more posts ( and posting twice today!), also I am sick so I have a lot of time to sit with my computer.

So now that the wedding and honeymoon are over, we can get back to normal life. In the last while since returning from our honeymoon we have been focusing on getting our renovation back on track. I am not sure if I alluded to this in my other reno post, but part of the reason our basement project is taking so long is we had to fire our contractor. It is a long story of poor project management, inexperience and covering his tracks. Anyway, the long story ends with him being 'let go' and us missing a large huge sum of money and our basement only halfway done. This means we have become 'do it yourselfers'!

The first order of business is to address the half completed exterior of the house. Winter is coming and I have no desire to be working outside in the cold and dark. Not to mention the possible damage to the house if there is not siding on it.

Part of the problem is the windows. They were improperly installed and have to be taken out and redone. Then we need new siding, because there is none of the old siding left to cover the exposed parts. 

And the biggest barrier, apart from no money to pay someone to do the work, is the deck was put back together and is literally blocking us from doing work on some of the windows and siding. Blah!

The good news is we have help, people who took pity on us and are professionals who will guide us, and non-professionals who will help us with the labour. In the last week/weekend, we (PJ, carpenter, PJ's mum and I) removed the old siding, partially took apart the deck, and reinstalled the three windows on the back side of the house, and put up the tar paper in preparation for the new siding. I promise to get some pictures, but I couldn't be bothered because I have the flu and today is thanksgiving. I am pretty sure PJ took some in progress photos, that I can steal.

I'm BACK and BETTER than EVER!

I am happy to report that the wedding was huge success, not only because PJ and I are now legally married but because it was amazing. Everything turned out how I envisioned and everyone had a great time. With out further ado, here are some pictures...

The ladies getting ready

My Dress

The ceremony set up

Our "first look" before the guests arrive

Some of the bridesmaids, missing my sister but it is such a nice photo I had to include it

Adorable flower girl

Walking down the isle with my mother

The ceremony

First kiss as Mr. and Mrs.

The full bridal party

Our lovely vehicle

The reception

Place cards

Guest book painted by a friend and card/gift table

Swedish lawn game to help guests relax and fill the time while we did some photos

And some sangria on the deck

Groomsman's speech

Cutting the cake

Gorgeous cake made by a friend

I loved every minute of our wedding, well not the one where I got stung by a bee, but every other minute was wonderful. I am so happy to have been lucky enough to have found someone so amazing to love and to have him love me back.

The storm before the fun

The last couple days have been crazy, I didn't think I was going to be too "crazy bride" but I had my moments. Luckily for PJ, I think I am past it now. He has, after a bit of fumbling, come through with shining colours on the getting stuff done front. He started his own list of things to do and has pretty much done everything I ask him to do without complaint. Although, we were visiting his parents the other day and I was telling his mother about the 'fumbles" and she asked (in jest) "are you sure you still want to marry him?" Apparently these traits are one she has lived with for many years in PJ and his father. Yes, I still want to marry him :)
I think we still have a few things left to do, but the majority is done. So now 3 days before the wedding I am looking forward to relaxing, pampering and visiting with the out of town guests that begin arriving today. Yay!

Oh and the weather looks great, 25 degrees and blue skies!

Our Dirty Secret

Our dirty secret has nothing to do with scandal and intrigue and everything to to do with actual DIRT! We have been renovating our house for over a year. And I am pretty tired of the mess. PJ and I bought a house that we both fell in love with. The basement was a good height and looked prime for building a basement suite. That is about where the happily ever after ends. After many, many things that have gone wrong we are about half way through a reno that was supposed to take 3 months. But maybe that is a story for another post. This post is about the mud and dirt and mess that is our yard.

This is our backyard at its worst, it is a little better now, but not much. At least the heavy machinery is gone and we have most of our deck back.  But two people and two dogs is a lot of muddy feet to be sweeping up after.
Most of the renovation have been put on hold for the wedding and honeymoon, but once those are over we will have no excuses and hopefully things will move forward.

I WUB YOU!

I count myself amongst the very lucky few people who can say I love my job.This doesn't mean that I  arrive early in the morning and leave much later than everyone else, I am human and I really like to sleep.  I do however feel like I found something I am meant to do. But I think most of all I do actually enjoy many parts of my job( read: everything but paperwork)

I am a pediatric speech language pathologist or speech therapist. I get to help preschool kids with their articulation, language and stuttering among other things. The two things I love most about my job are: the idea that I helped a child/ family to understand each other and gave the child a sense of pride the they achieved something after some hard work. I also love the mental puzzle that is involved with 'figuring out' each child and how to help them.  Not the mention that I get to work with kids who are at such a fun and interesting stage in their young lives, I mean, who doesn't get excited by play-doh.

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Now to be honest, they are not all little cherubs, some are poorly behaved, some have off days (don't we all) and some pick their noses, but those are rare. Most are happy and excited to see what game or activity I have to play that day.

This post is inspired by a little boy who I have been seeing since he was just under 2 years old. At that time he was a handful. He was not yet talking and he was very, very frustrated about not being able to communicate. He had a very short attention span and most of his appointments were spend with his mother and I chasing him and desperately trying to interpret what he wanted.

A couple years later and he is a happy little boy with a great sense of humour, who can walk into the office and announce " I'm FOUR" to anyone who will listen (we worked on the /f/ sound for months and months). After his appointment yesterday, as he was leaving my office, spiderman sticker proudly displayed on his t-shirt when he turned around and ran back to me and said "I wub you" and gave me a hug.  It is moments like these that make all the spit, vomit and stinky kids worth it.