I need to vent!

my wedding headband =)

I am feeling a little blah today thanks to someone who upset me yesterday.... Do you ever meet people who just seems to push all your buttons and brings out the worst in you? ARRRGH... she makes me LIVID....

and the weather is cold, rainy and dreary. I think tomorrow will be better =) hopefully sunny and I will either do yardwork, Bodyflow class or both....

I went shopping in Huntsville with some military spouses today - was fun but WAY too short... wish it could have been planned better so that we had more time to shop but oh well.

Here is our wedding website if you want to check it out:

http://www.projectwedding.com/ourwedding/angelaandbruce

I think I will go to bed early and hopefully wake up all cheery......

Here is a short list of things I want to do oneday soon:

• Wonderland
• Wasaga Beach
• Blue Mountain in Collingwood
• Algonquin Park- camping
• road trip NORTH..... I want to explore northern Ontario just to see what it is like- perhaps Lake Superior, I would have said James Bay way up north but I found out today that you can only get there by plane or train, no roads.... I want to see polar bears, lol.
• make garden stones (I have all the supplies, just need to do it!)

signs of edible life =)

I have made a few friends this year. Savannah (Arizona) who I grow more fond of every day and oneday perhaps we will live closer. Stephanie (Ottawa) whom I look forward to meeting at my wedding. Natalie (North Bay) , I met her through a military spouses shopping roadtrip =) Lucky me to be surrounded by such fabulous people. I am working hard to weed out the clutter from my life, be it people (mostly in the form of old friends that I no longer have anything in common, or people I find too negative or draining, extended family perhaps and their drama) or things- too many useless things. Yard sale soon to get rid of house clutter....

I am excited to go to Ottawa and see friends and family. and attend 4 parties and celebrate Canada Day! I haven't been home since the beginning of February. 4 months.

glass hummingbird feeder for our yard!
We saw a hummingbird last week....
this one is gorgeous....handmade/blown glass.

this fabulous planter I bought used at Value Village for $3 and it looks brand new.
Value Village is my new favorite store. I have been finding so much good stuff lately.

best friend monkey digital watch rings

succulents that grow in our rocky yard

Jodie & I dressed up playing Rockband!

Jodie and Bruce outside having a wine & cheese picnic



forget-me-nots growing in our yard


apple blossoms

Septoplasty

post surgery

surgery was to correct a deviated septum

he was on morphine and IV fluids in this pic

this was after his follow up visit when they took the things out of his nose!

He is so much happier now that he can breathe =)

I've been playing nurse...

was hard to watch him suffer in pain but he is much better now...

I used twine to map out the garden!

our veggie garden!!!!
we ordered a dump truck full of soil and bought some cow manure. Bruce built the raised planter box.

our new concrete raised planter
we are going to plant shrubs, maybe some flowers and a rose bush
we are going to finish the floor and this is the future home of our patio set (which we do not have yet)

I bought this dress at the end of april. To wear to a wedding at the end of May. The large fit PERFECT so I bought a MEDIUM instead thinking that it may be too big to fit by the wedding.... then I got sick and wasn't going to the gym for a bit... I was worried that I wouldn't be able to wear it as I could not do up the zipper. Yesterday I finally got it zipped up. and I still have a week to go.... It will be perfect by next weekend. and I will likely be able to wear it this summer as well!

Lululemon =)

Namaste!

numbers

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happiness is.....

• having a complete stranger tell you that you made their day better! I told a girl at the gym a story and she said that it made her day and made her feel better =) How sweet is that?
• having 6 people in one day tell you that you look GREAT. 2 people at the gym told me I lost weight, 3 people on facebook gave me a compliment and Bruce told me I look awesome...
  
• making new friends.... Natalie, that would be you!!! YAY. we are going to have so much fun together :)
• inviting people you have never met to your wedding and having them say YES.
  
• knowing my wedding dress will have to be made SMALLER
• buying a dress to go to a wedding (end of next week) in a size too small and then working hard to fit into it.
• receiving compliments on the wedding invitations that I made
• new clothes from Old Navy
• new books from Chapters
• shopping road trips
• feeling more bendy at Bodyflow
  

my seeds are growing! most of them anyway.
wildflowers, peppers, and tomatoes

I made these blueberry mini loaves yesterday!!
sooooo yummmy!

I've been sick with a cold all week :( Bleh! I have been doing a ton of wedding stuff. Last night I created labels for our clear bags that people can fill with candy. I also almost completed our wedding scrapbook/guestbook.
We will be mailing out our invitations soon, this week I hope!

p.s I have now lost 12lbs since the beginning of March. and it is FINALLY warm enough to bicycle now- YAY.

The Dress

I bought my wedding dress!

It is absolutely the most beautiful dress. It was the very first dress I tried on. First store. It was magical. I felt like a movie star on Oscar night. or a princess in a castle.
I NEVER thought I would spend that much on a dress that I will only wear once. I never thought I would end up getting to wear a dress that is so unbelievably fabulous. I bought a veil also. They are going to live at the store but I have full visitation privileges if I want to go visit, try it on, show it somebody..... It was such an adrenaline rush. My sister came with me and she cried. It was emotional. It feels so real. I am so excited!!!!

Wildflower seed sprouts

p.s I have not had a cigarette in over 8 months.

I bought my wedding band! I love it. I tried it on and took a pic but now it is put away... cannot wait to wear it. It was more than we originally budgeted for my ring.... but they look so good together... It has 9 princess cut diamonds in a channel setting .25 carats so the set is .77 carats

In March I lost 9.2lbs... YAY.
4.5 months to go until the wedding.

this and that...

cupcakes I made in February! They were delish!!!!!

I am so tired of winter!

I won week one of our competition. I lost 2.6lbs... YAY. Bruce has to clean the kitchen all week- YAY.

My New Regime!

Today is DAY TWO.....

FOOD!

Breakfast: anything I want!! Today I had 1 piece of whole wheat toast with peanut butter. and coffee.
lunch- single portion frozen meal
dinner- single frozen meal
remainder of calories- fruit, veg, salad.
drinks- water, green tea (other than coffee, juice with breakfast)

nothing else!!!
also, I am writing everything down.
for now I am aiming for 1400-1600 calories a day.... and see how that goes.

EXCERCISE!

going to the gym 6 days a week
3 days of cardio (usually I do 45-60 min of elliptical machine- burning 430-600 cal each session)
3 days of weights (I am currently doing a ~30 min hydraulic machine circuit)
1 yoga class
1 aquafit class

Eventually I want to do more classes at the gym... but this will be good for now. When spring comes I can bike to the gym, there is a nice bikepath that goes from our house right to the gym.

GOAL!

to lose 45 pounds... at least 35 by my wedding date. That will bring me to a "normal" and healthy weight... and I think I will be in the best shape of my life at that point. I used to be thin, but never healthy.

p.s we are going to St. Lucia for our honeymoon, staying at the Sandals resort (couples only) and I WILL be at my final goal by then. We are going Feb 2010. I am hoping to be there by my wedding day.... I am DETERMINED.

Do, or Do Not....there is no try :)
-yoda!

Engaged!

Bruce proposed at Christmas! We are getting married August 14th, 2009. We are super excited. We have been busy planning...

In other news, I am starting a jewellery business (handmade) and I intent to take some classes as well and invest in some fancy equipment and build a studio. I am hopeful that oneday I can teach workshops! I am really excited about this.

I am soooo sick of WINTER. UGH. It is now March and it feel like it has been going on forever and ever.... this is month 5.

Today I am starting a strict healthy eating/excercise regime. Want to lose 40lbs in 5 months. I KNOW I can do it!!!!

Our Date!

We had so much fun on our date. We travelled all over the city to pre-determined spots and took pics at each spot of us kissing :) It was a fun way to spend a gloomy and cold day.

Our date idea came from these cards!!!

happy happy happy

This was my Halloween costume- black peacock (although I kinda felt like a LasVegas showgirl). We had a great Halloween in Ottawa with friends. The week before that was our Housewarming Party and that was fabulous although I drank too much..... see video..... me contemplating why I drank so much.

I have been at the gym about 6 days a week... 3 days cardio, 3 days weights. I am loving pilates and the Bosu ball which were kind of an add-on to the other things. I actually like all of it. It'll take a while but I will get to my goal.

Life is very good here :)

September is almost over....

It has been a while since my last post. I tend to only post updates on Facebook lately. sorry.

I have been sick all week. Our yard sale went well, we made $200. We also rolled all our change and that amounted to $300 (half is in US $$).... $500 in one weekend, not bad. We went out and bought a new piece of furniture and solar lights with some of the money :)

We have our housewarming party planned for late October. I am very excited to have friends and family visit! It will be interesting to see just how many people make it as it is a 3.5 hour drive (minimum) for pretty much everyone.

Bruce and I joined Goodlife. It is an all inclusive membership: classes (yoga, aerobics, aquafit), use of pool and sauna, huge weight room, cardio room, cycling classes. We haven't been yet as we have both been so sick. we got free gifts for joining: duffle bag, baseball hat, flip flops, tshirt, Cd's, coupons etc.... the memberships are good at all locations,which I like. There are two in North Bay- one is women only, the other is coed.

Bruce bought a bicycle so we will be starting to bike too! I now have a new bike basket (much needed for grocery shopping) and a helmet (which Bruce decided I MUST wear, lol).

I read this article today, and loved it! I am a strong believer in forgiveness :)

It is sooo beautiful here with all the leaves changing colors. Will take a picture soon and post it :)

ying and yang

curtains....finally!

You would think that because I am not working that I would have so much free time to post blogs. I feel busy. Bruce leaves early and comes home by 3pm. I get up and putter, then shower, sometimes bike to the grocery store, clean a bit, bake or cook.... before you know it Bruce is home and I am making dinner. We go to bed really early.

The weekend of Sept 13/14th is going to be our HUGE yard sale. We have half our spare room full of stuff to sell. We even have some of Jodie's things to sell. We are going to have our housewarming party at the end of October. Bruce has a new work schedule and is only off every 3rd weekend. so we want to alternate his weekends off and stay in North Bay for one of them, and then go to Ottawa for the next one. So I will get home every 6 weeks, which will be nice.

I am ridiculously happy. I *love* being here with Bruce. He is the absolute perfect match for me. My yang :) I am his ying..... I cannot imagine him not being in my life. ever.

Isabelle's Outdoor Adventures

She LOVES it outside!!!!

Silver Beach

this is the beautiful beach that is literally at the end of my street.

Life here is pretty peaceful.

I have applied for UI. I am looking for work in the meantime. and trying to decide what to do next..... start a business, go back to school (they have a fabulous 2 year fulltime course at the college that I would love to take!!!), or just get a job doing whatever. I have no idea. Perhaps getting a parttime job AND starting my own business on the side might be a good option. Also I have been looking into government programs that help you start a business!!! that would be awesome.

I am really enjoying being here. I love being with Bruce everyday. We get along really well. We laugh a lot. Right now we have a deal- if I watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy Bruce will watch the 5 hour version of Pride and Prejudice AND the new 2 hour version. Right now we have gotten through the 1st LOTR and almost half of the 5 hour version of P&P.

And no, life is not perfect all the time. most of the time though :) we have stuff to work through, miscommunications, bad moods and the sort to work through like everyone else. We seem to be able to communicate though and find resolutions quickly and bounce right back to our happy selves. We are the best of friends. We have a very peaceful relationship.

Next on our agenda will be having a huge yard sale, housewarming parties, and Jodie is visiting this weekend- we are going beach hopping AND there is a "corn festival" going on Saturday morning at the Farmer's Market downtown.

in the middle of nowhere....

the move went well. I love it here. the house is fabulous. we have apples on one of our apple trees :) there are kids everywhere and everyone owns a dog! very different than the neighbourhood I used to live in. All of our neighbours are very friendly. A couple of them stopped by. One of them brought up baked goods! we had a house full of kids. at times it does feel as though we are so far away from city life- a bit of culture shock. the area we live in is near the lakeshore and has a beachy feel- lots of motels and beaches and laid back feel. The cats seem to love it here. I cannot wait to have people visit!!!!! It has been crazy to not have internet for 2 weeks. I will post more tomorrow- plus pictures!!!!

p.s my life is pretty much this right now: baking, cooking, decorating, and lots of "honeymoon-type" X rated goings on ;) it is a sweet life. I wish I never had to go back to work. I feel so happy and peaceful right now......