Dave & Macey Tie the Knot

On Saturday, May 30, 2015 we were all privileged to be witness and be part of the marriage between David Veldman and Macey Scullion.

In the past two and a half years, our family has been part of four weddings among our siblings.  The saying,  "it never rains but pours" could not be truer of our family.  As we all entered that phase of our relationships around the same time, we began with Josh & Amber, Matt & myself, Joseph & Danielle, and finally Dave &  Macey.

Each wedding was unique in it's own way, a personal statement on the individuality of each of our relationships and personalities;  Dave and Macey's wedding was unique indeed.

Married on the Borden base of the CAF, we were all treated to a glimpse inside the lives of the army.  I had the assignment of shooting some simple photographs for Dave and Macey. 

Disclaimer:  I am most definitely not a professional photographer and I'm sure other people attending with cameras were able to catch more vivid images.  These are the particular few that I enjoyed the most from that day.

To Dave & Macey, I wish you a long long marriage of happiness, learning and love.

Updates Galore!

It's been a terribly long time since I've updated and I have no excuse...other than being caught up in the usual busyness of Christmas and wedding preparations.

Life seems to have gotten busier as I grow older.  Clearly part of it is due to the natural transition of moving through life stages...but I am swamped!

Here are some photos to give you an idea of what I've been up to!

Lake Ontario frozen!  Just before Matt went off work for Christmas vacations, I was still taking the dogs to the beach, but the water is now partially frozen and the mornings out there are COLD.

The week before Christmas we had an actual snow fall.  I mean, for the past couple years, despite being in Canada, our Christmas's have been green.  This year was a treat though--for the people who want a white Christmas.

Instead of buying a large freshly chopped tree as we had initially planned, we decided to go with something a bit more green friendly.  We bought a small live spruce in a pot from Canadian Tire.

Okay, so he's a bit small, but he's mighty at heart and he'll still be with us next year! (Fingers crossed, I don't have the best green thumb.)

Matt bought me a pretty candle holder for more Christmas decor...

We also got some pretty stars from Ikea to hang in our windows...

More exciting stuff!
I won't show what's IN the box, but we bought our wedding bands today.

Buying the wedding bands made everything seem so much more...real.  I can't believe we're getting married!!! It is the natural progression of things (for most people), but sometimes it's so hard to imagine being a MRS.

To add to that--

We've finally made some honeymoon decisions and I think most everything is figured out!  I have some important things left to do, but for the most part I feel calm and on track about all of it.

Having Matt home from work for a couple weeks has been so awesome.  I've been working a lot myself this week, so I'm very much looking forward to a 4 day stretch off that I have coming up.

We took the dogs to the dog park today and Oliver was a good little photogenic boy.

Cutest little man.

Well, that's all for now!  Stay tuned for more wedding plans and all that boring stuff!

~Marcia

P.S. Did I mention...I BOUGHT A DRESS???  

AUTUMN! I LOVE YOU.

Every single winter of my life I have always found myself longing for spring and the eventual arrival of summer.  As we pass into September tomorrow and approach the end of this summer, a realization has been dawning:  I no longer love summer.

When I was child I enjoyed playing out in the sun, wallowing in the mud, running on the streets.  The heat barely seemed to bother me.  As I am ageing, I am finding myself absolutely HATING the heat and the humidity that Hamilton summers bring.

Anywhere else there may be a dry heat or cool breezes... In Hamilton, the air is stagnant, thick and heavy with pollution and smog.  Running outside gives me long bouts of chest pain.  Sweat trickles down my back even when sitting still.

AUTUMN CANNOT GET HERE SOON ENOUGH.  Yes, I will shout that out!  Last week we had a cold snap and the leaves are starting turn.  Soon the entire escarpment will be ablaze with glorious colour.  For now, the heat has return with a vengeance and I feel like a dying fish--flipping around fruitlessly on land.

However, I have been able to get some beautiful pictures of the beach and surrounding areas.  

The cats may love our Expedit shelving more than we do...

And Licorice is no longer too hot to sleep on the couch...and revel in it...

Oliver is finally almost completely full grown.  At six months his bladder will be completely formed and hopefully our pee pad training will be OVER!

I'm sorry I have been so infrequent with posting.  Work has been keeping me very busy and hopefully *fingers crossed* our full timer will be back from an extended sick leave which will then give me more time off.  I cannot wait!  

AUTUMN IS ALMOST HERE!!!! 

Apples!  Bushels of them!
Apple cider!
Sweaters!
Colourful leaves!
Thanksgiving!
Turkey!
The smell of bonfires!
Cool crisp nights!
Boots!

What's your favourite thing about autumn/fall?

July

I can't believe how fast the summer is whizzing by!  It's already July 13 and I've barely been updating my blog, not to mention I haven't had a beach day yet!

 I feel as though I've grown up A LOT through out the past week, probably because I made some "adult" purchases.

Number one was a water dispenser.  Our apartment building is around 100 years old and I'm sure the water pipes haven't been updated in...quite a while.  Instead of buying cases of water bottles which isn't environmentally friendly, we picked up a dispenser last week.

Cold water all summer!


Another interesting purchase I made off of Amazon was a...baby gate!  No, I'm not planning anything drastic...  We have graduated Oliver from X-pen to having the entire dining room while we're at work.  We grabbed a wooden stretchy gate from Canadian Tire for the kitchen doorway, but the living room doorway is 51" wide which was problematic for gating.  Most gates only stretch to 36".  The bigger gates are easily $100+, not an amount we intended to spend.

Fortunately, I was able to find an Evenflo extra-wide gate for only $36 on Amazon! It was can span maximum 60" and doesn't need to be fixed to the door frame...It works by pressure mounting.  I can see how this might be less suitable if a child was hanging off of it, but it works well for a puppy.

And yes, that is our massive Mr. Cat inspecting the barrier.

We also made a big purchase...physically and financially.  Our queen sized bed has been a problem for a while.  Because we made so many moves in the past four years, I'm sure the mattress sustained some serious wear-and-tear from being shoved and pulled and squished into small travelling vehicles.  We realized earlier this week that the large hump in the middle of the mattress (impossible to avoid even when the mattress is rotated) isn't going away.  

(Pillow top mattresses suck.  I remember when I was a teenager flipping my mattress over and over every couple months in order to allow the coils to settle back down into the other side.  It felt like a new mattress each time! )

Anyway,  we went all out and purchased a KING sized mattress and box-spring for a very reasonable price at a mattress outlet store on Barton St.  Pocket coil, pillow top (boo!) and with a mattress protector and it was extremely affordable compared to big mattress companies such as Sleep Country.

I'm getting more excited as we wait for it to be shipped in an delivered!

In the meantime, here are a few pics from this month so far!

Oliver is getting bigger before our eyes.  

Watching ships past under the lift bridge

A beautiful new plant Matt bought (and potted!) for me 

Our superintendent has a massive and beautiful garden at the front of the building

Licorice and Oliver retreated under some ivy to pant and cool down on a walk

I do have more photos but that's all for now!

I hope your summer is going well and you are enjoying the sunshine and long days :)

Peace

Ode to Spring

Spring is my favourite season and I am sad to wave good-bye to it. 

It's a time of new life and birth, when the grass smells rich and musty as it grows up through the mud.  The baby birds cheep and the animals get cabin fever, knowing that warm days are ahead.

I've been soaking up the sunshine and enjoying watching our tomato plant thrive, while decorating and setting up our balcony.

Below are some of my favourite photos that I feel best represent spring for me this year, 2013.

The sunrises, sunsets and twilight

The stormy days

Beautiful cloudy skies

The beach 

Flowers!

I hope you've been enjoying spring as much as I have!  Now we're onto the grand ole summer, with the heat and sweating. 

XOXO