returning in 2014..

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day" - Edith Lovejoy Pierce

i thought it appropriate i start with a quote as i have not ventured into the world of blogging for quite some time. apparently not since September and even then posts were sparse. it's not really that too much is going on in my life that i haven't had a chance to log on, it's more due to the fact that working full time is just motivationally draining.. its like being stuck in a rut i guess - as much as i love work, i honestly think i still have not got used to working 40 hours a week, being surrounded by the same people and doing pretty much the same thing for 5 days in a row every week.

aside from work, there actually are some extremely exciting and huge things going on in my life. for one, terry and i got engaged!

September 14th :) he proposed  - typical engagement story probably, he was completely nervous and i was being difficult - the restaurant we were supposed to go to that night had a fire in its kitchen two days earlier and called terry to cancel the reservations. no big deal for me, i had no idea what terry had planned, but i think it threw him off a bit and got him stressing.

- he found a place by the water, got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife... it was beautiful.. i said yes :)

i spent from august to september studying for a certification exam i had to write for HR.. and as badly as i wanted to start planning our wedding, i knew i couldn't start until i finished writing the exam on november 2nd!

after i completed the exam, terry and i started the search for our perfect venue. it took a few weeks and a visit to many places but we eventually decided on one we are very excited about! finding the venue is only the beginning of planning and it's all we have done so far. there is still lots and lots more to do but we have until spring of 2015 anyways, so no rush!

second of the huge things going on in life is that terry and I bought a house (although we don't have it yet). we started going to random open houses and that by far was one of the most disappointing thing in my life. so many houses in areas we want to live that are were already over our price range and further, absolutely needed at least $30000 in work. we finally took it further and got a real estate agent and literally in a matter of days we viewed a house that hadn't even listed yet. we viewed the house on a monday night, and put an offer in on a tuesday morning and that night, the accepted. the house was listed at a very competitive price, in a fantastic area that is so close to my parents house and his brothers house, and it doesn't need any immediate work to be done! we get the house mid february and we are both so excited to start painting and starting a new life together :)
thats been my life for the past few months and now i am gladly welcoming 2014! there will definitely be lots of new excitements, stresses and opportunities this year and i am excited to experience them all.

is it spring yet?

after an absolutely lovely weekend with weather so perfect it was hard to believe true, we get a crumby monday with way too much rain. thats a great way to make me hate my monday even more. it would be an understatement to say i was a little bitter today...
the weather this weekend was just teasing us.. i will wait with anticipation until that weather shows up again and stays for more then two days. 
i woke up on saturday to the sun shining through the slight part in my bedroom curtains. the whole day was pure sunshine and up to 10 degrees celsius. i probably didn't take as much advantage of this beautiful weather as i should have, but i did love the fact that a coat was not necessary.
sunday i got outside a bit more to enjoy the weather. sunday got up to 14 degrees celsius. terry and i went for a drive around the city (he may have even had the windows down). on our way back we stopped for a little hike up to tiffany falls. 

after i got home from the drive/hike with terry i felt guinness was missing out on the weather he loves so much, so i thought id take him out. my dad and i hopped in the car with my pup and drove to what we thought was an entrance to the rail trail. it turned out to be a random forest but it was still the perfect place to take guinness for a walk. anywhere he can be off leash is perfect to him.. 

he even found a little lake to play in.. 

i hope next weekend is just as beautiful!

reminding myself .. still in ontario, thunder bay ontario..

terry grew up in thunder bay and as much as he claims to dislike the place, i think he was excited to show me around the place he grew up and i was equally as excited for him to show me. 

friday our flight was at 9 am on friday morning (we were up at 5:45 and in the car for 6:30 on the way to the airport). the flight to thunder bay from toronto was about an hour and 20 minutes, allowing us to arrive in thunder bay around 10:30 am. after laughing at the unbelievably tiny airport, terry's uncle had arrived to pick us up from the airport and brought us to where we were staying for the weekend, at terry's grandfathers house. we brought our suit cases in the house and in a matter of 20 minutes terry and i were back in the car - my tour of thunder bay had begun!

we drove around probably for less than an hour before i was complaining how hungry i was. he took me to a place (it cant even be granted the title restaurant) called coney island in which terry had previously described as "a hole in the wall restaurant with amazing burgers". maybe it should be called a diner. you know - the kind of diner that uses plastic cups, mismatched dishes and only accepts cash - yup that is what coney island is. terry ordered 4 burgers and i ordered a burger and a poutine (dont worry, any smaller and these burgers would be classified as sliders). i didn't enjoy the burger very much because all i tasted was mustard but they were pretty interesting - the burgers were similar to a weird mix between a hamburger and a sloppy joe (with a strong taste of mustard - blahh!). terry loved his 4.5 burgers and i liked my poutine!

the rest of our friday was spent driving around. terry showed me the mall (yes the one mall in thunder bay) and the neighbourhood he used to live in with his parents. we drove around the poor parts and the rich parts of thunder bay and he showed me some of the arenas he used to play hockey in. we went to see the terry fox memorial monument (thunder bay was where terry fox was forced due to physical illness to end his run across Canada). we went to get a few groceries and some wine for the weekend and we even took a special eight year old in his life out for dinner and to the arcade.

throughout the weekend, i honestly had to keep reminding myself i was still in canada. they had restaurants, coffee shops and grocery stores i had never heard of. there were even foods i never heard of and brands i had never seen before. ohh also.. so as we were driving around, i kept smirking at these funny little yellow huts that were stationed outside of certain houses near the side walk.. im laughing to myself thinking.. man what the heck, these things are so ugly - that really has to devalue the property of a house, having one of these huts in front of your house.. terry explained.. it gets so cold during the winter in thunder bay that these huts are actually for the crossing guards to stand in while they are waiting for kids crossing the streets (haha makes sense- but i had definitely never seen them before.. i still think they are the most ridiculous looking things ever!)

saturday we woke up and went to the market. i guess there is a market every saturday morning from 8am until noon. terry's mom had mentioned we should stop by and say hi to some friends of hers who have a little stand at the market. we had no intention of purchasing anything but we ended up leaving with probably three meals worth of perogies, fresh dinner rolls, some italian sausage, some elk jerky for terry and some chocolate for me. yum! we spent some time in a coffee shop (me reading my kobo and terry doing some work on the laptop - both drinking coffee). we got some lunch and then headed to kakabeka falls where we were meeting up with some friends.

kakabeka falls was one of the few places i was daring enough to take my mitten hands out of my pockets and actually take some pictures. even though the falls were entirely frozen over, the site was beautiful.

 the sky was such a beautiful blue that day. not a cloud in the sky

 you could hear the water running underneath the ice, but the top layer was entirely frozen.

ahh so beautiful! id love to go back in the summer or fall!

after the hour or two we spend at the falls, we drove around a bit more. around 4 we went  back to his grandfathers house to make some dinner and rest before we had to help set up for the stag and doe.

we went to pick up terry's friend around 630 and headed over to help set up (basically our job was to stock the beer fridge) for the stag and doe. the stag and doe was fun! drinks, music, lots of people and some great prizes! i think the couple getting married was impressed with the turn out! get this though.. saturday night it went down to - 23 degrees celsius before windshield! i dont think i have ever experienced cold like that when i wasn't decked out in ski attire (fleece sweaters and covered head to toe from the cold). my purse froze! my leather purse - completely froze! i swear. when we came back to the house at 2 am.. i shivered for probably 35 minutes after being in the house and covered with a blanket (i think terry may have thought something was seriously wrong with me). 

sunday was very low key. i slept a lot. terry watched a lot of hockey/sports (when terry watched sports, i napped - there wasn't internet and only one tv got channels worth watching.. so i napped a lot.. or read). sunday dinner, terry's aunt and uncle kindly took us out for dinner to a local steak house. i had salmon and it was delicious.. ohh and did i mention all you can eat salad/bread& soup bar?!.. yum yum!   it was nice! i like his family (thats a good sign right!?) :). after dinner we went back to the house and decided to play some weird game.. i forget the name, something to do with pigs. the game didn't last long, i won a round, he won a round then we gave up. we decided to watch a movie and drink some wine.. (big wine fans here!)

monday family day! our flight back to toronto was around 4 pm. we lazed around, went for lunch, got some coffee, dropped off some presents/made a visit and went back to the house to pack.

that was my long weekend! 

first weekend away with mister boyfriend :)

thunder bay

i like long weekends. i like long weekends more when you can entirely relax and not just add another day on to your already stressful weekend. i especially like long weekend when you get to leave and go somewhere else for a few days - somewhere that stress is not even an option because your wont let it be. i loved this february long weekend! my boyfriend and i got to spend four days relaxing, away from home (sort of not for him) and stresses associated with it. terry and i spent our long weekend in thunder bay and i entirely enjoyed myself.
i am not surprised in any way that i enjoyed my weekend but you honestly should have heard some of the warnings (i guess you can call them warnings) i got when i told people i was going to thunder bay.
"eww thunder bay- why would you go there!?" 
"haha, i got sent to thunder bay once for business and the next time my boss tried to send me i got down and cried in front of him asking him why me!? why me!?"
"there is nothing in thunder bay - you should refund that plane ticket now"
"highest crime rate per capita in thunder bay"
"dont get stabbed - its common there!"
yup.. true say. i heard all these comments.

so obviously i disregarded the concerns in these statements and went to thunder bay with terry.
the purpose for us going was for a stag and doe ("shag" as they call it in thunder bay). terry's cousin is getting married in september but the stag and doe was over the long weekend so we made a short trip out of it - we both booked friday off work!

*picture is of  (frozen over) Kakabeka Falls - Thunder Bay, Ontario*

simple messages and tiny notes

i am, like many in this day in age, completely attached to cell phone and have a tendency of going crazy if i am without it. its my phone, my camera, my gps, my computer, my alarm clock, my calculator and my calendar.. and its sad but i can confidently state i am not alone in this!.. even if im not on my phone constantly, i am calm when i have it with me. 
so on tuesday i left for work and as soon as i was half way there (it only takes about 5 minutes to walk to work from my house) i realized i forgot my phone at home. i turned around and was about to head back home but i looked at my watch and realized i only had 3 minutes until i had to be at work!.. i turned around and headed towards work (the smart and responsible thing to do).. but i was already stressing out i didn't have my phone.  its not even that i am on my phone at work ever but for some reason i just need the phone with me and alive (i also hate when it dies during the day)..
anyways i get to work and get everything together for the day and i email terry saying.. ahhh! i forgot my phone at home! im going to go crazy"and continued on with my day.
i came home to quite a few text messages.. sent by terry throughout the day.. each message short, sweet and completely perfect. the words made me smile and may have made leaving my phone at home a little worth it!

1 year!

terry and i met in september when school began. by october he pretty much stopped showing up for classes. by november classes picked up, group members started to get their acts together and dead lines needed to be met. terry and i started working on group projects with group members and by december terry and i were hanging out by ourselves outside of school (and he even made me dinner a few times). over christmas holidays last year, terry went back home to thunder bay for maybe two weeks.. he came back on january 6th.
although we had been hanging out before this date and anything so traditional as a dinner date didn't occur until valentines day.. we chose this date - january 6th - as our day. our somewhat official "we have established we are dating" day. therefore january 6, 2013 was our one year (we'll call it our anniversary).
i can't believe it has been a year! sometimes i feel we are so young in this relationship.. other times i feel we have grown so much and overcome many of the significant issues. we have learned a lot about each other (he has learned i am a horrible dancer and i have learned he will never give up his horribly weathered and ripped hat).  its hard to understand how two people so different can get along so well..
i'll be honest though - as different as we are - its not hard. i don't find our relationship a challenge (or a least not a difficult one) . yes, we need to go out of our way for each other sometimes, yes we have arguments and we don't always see eye-to-eye and yes we both have busy, busy schedules.. but no its not difficult. it feels good to go out of my way for him sometimes and our arguments teach us about each other - they allow us to be more considerate of one another and grow together. when we don't see eye-to-eye, there is opportunity to veer away from stubbornness and any existing single-mindedness. we are able to listen and talk  - seeing as we are so extremely different, this is crucial. our busy schedules allow us to both appreciate the time we have together and understand the need we both have for our own individual time (because yes, we both desperately need our "me" time).
anyways.. to keep it simple.. it works! we work! and HAPPY ONE YEAR TERRY xo!

we spent our day at the arcade paying video games (where we kicked butt at wheel of fortune) and at chapters picking out books (i requested he pick out a book for me - i warned him it better be a good choice). arcade/chapters was followed by a lovely dinner at a tiny pasta place with some amazing food and great wine (and i also tried oysters for the first time!).. 

*i lack pictures :( my phone died shortly after we got to the arcade..