Category: See the Beauty

Wedding & Honeymoon Wrap Up

On By The Widow BadassIn I Got Married, See the Beauty1 Comment
 

Married 3 weeks already….wedding flowers not all dead yet, amazingly so….honeymoon spirit still intact!

Here are some of my favourite shots from the wedding day:

The joy of the day for us was very evident!

All of our honoured guests!


A creative pose, suggested by our wonderful photographer, Jillian Bolender of Focused Photography:

Here’s more inspired shots:






The wedding flowers were so beautiful…..


The honeymoon was supposed to be only for a couple of days, but we found ourselves having so much fun, we extended it for 10…..

Our first night was at the Village hotel where we had our dinner and reception:


Then we went to the Little Inn, in Bayfield:

Home of the best sunsets in the world, according to National Geographic:

After that, we stayed in Elora a couple of nights, at the Elora Mill Inn:

Then we were off to Niagara on the Lake, to stay at one of the top 500 hotels in the world, right in our backyard (so to speak). Who knew?

When we saw the dragonfly lamp in the corner, we knew we were going to take the room, no matter what the cost (and it was pricey, but worth it!):

Even the pool was opulent:

We had our first B&B experience, in Maryhill (definitely not the last!):

Yummy yogurt parfaits, followed by caramelized french toast…..

We went back down Niagara way again….this time to the Falls themselves (view from our room at Embassy Suites):

We did the typical tourist things….the Maid of the Mist boat ride never gets old:

After coming back home for a week, we were off to Dubuque, Iowa for a work trip (we called it part of the endless honeymoon…). With an unexpected quick tour of Chicago when we missed the flight to Dubuque (thanks to American Airlines) and had to rent a car to actually get there in time for my meeting…..
We definitely want to get back to Chicago for a visit!

Dubuque (below) is a beautiful town on the Mississippi River….worth a visit if you are in the area. The trouble with work trips is that there is very little time for exploring wherever you are, usually. Dubuque has many beautiful buildings, a rich history, and the National Museum of the Mississippi, not much of which we got to see….wah!

And now to start married life….for real! (And to FINALLY open our wedding gifts…I can’t believe we haven’t even had time to do so yet…..)

Welcome to the Spring/Summer of My Discontent

On By The Widow BadassIn I Got Married, See the Beauty3 Comments

ALERT: posting contains wedding dress photos. Dear JD, please do not read any further!!!!!

Dear Long Suffering Blog,

 

Once again life has overwhelmed me and I have thrown my goals to the wayside in order to fire-fight, including posting to YOU, dear blog. I so hate living in Crazytown.

 

I have GOT to come up with a better way to deal than this. Hmph.

 

Update on goals and other schtuff:

 

Picture a day goal – mostly still doing this, despite everything. A lot of my daily pictures look like this:

Or this:
…As I attempt to capture the perfect sunset photo, while waiting for JD to finish up his shift at the City Golf Course he’s at this summer (he’s apprenticing to be a pro). There are worse places to hang out than at a golf course on a beautiful spring evening.

May Goal – 30 Day Shred
Well, for about a week there it looked like this goal would become the 30 Week Shred instead. However, I did end the month with 20 workouts to my credit. (That’s about 15 more than I did in April and March combined – so, yay me!!!!)

 

My muscles are more THERE, that’s for sure. My measurements haven’t really changed yet, but everything is firmer. So, a great start. I am pleased despite not finishing in time.

 

June Goal? – should probably be a meditation session once per day as I desperately need to take time to breathe and remember I am a human being, not a human doing. However I also want to continue with the workouts. It’s June 4th and I will have to decide soon. Stay tuned, dear Blog.

 

Wedding Update
My dress came in!

And it fits quite nicely! No Bulging Brides scenario for me, thank goddess. Just needs minor adjustments at the shoulder and hemline.

And I did something I swore I would never do:

Yes dear Blog, I not only tried on the veil, I loved it so much I bought the sucka. JD so wants me to wear a veil and I have been bucking him on this one….up until last night. When lovely Salesperson Sue said (despite knowing my supposed anti-veil stance), “Let’s just try one on, for fun – shall we?” I should have known resistance was futile.

I am keeping the veil purchase as a surprise for JD, so don’t tell him, OK?

So…not only am I a second-time bride with 2 grown kids wearing a full-on white gown with train, I am going to be wearing the traditional head gear as well. I expect to be struck down by lightning anytime now.

Or perhaps I will be run out of the chapel on a rail, like Homer Stokes in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

Sigh.

Can a tiara purchase be far off?

Clearly, the answer is: NO. When it comes to this whole bride thing, I seem to be subscribing to the “Go Big, or Go Home” mentality these days!

Um, yeah, it’s Winter calling. Sorry I’m late…

On By The Widow BadassIn Hmmm?, I Got Married, See the Beauty2 Comments

This is what Mizz Lucy and I woke up to on Feb 23rd – winter wonderland. Um, a little late, doncha think? I was hopin’ this would be winter’s (first and ) last hurrah, but we continue to get snow dumped on us as we head into March.

 

I do really think that February is the longest and cruelest month, and this winter, though exceptional weather-wise, hasn’t changed my opinion much. Well, nothing to do but make the most of it.

 

Wednesday’s photo (Feb 24), I tried to capture the beauty of the sunrise coming over the hill in the part of the trail I walk Mizz Lucy on every morning, that I call the “Cathedral”. It’s a steep hill covered in tall thin deciduous trees, which seems to me like a church, the way God would design it. If She was “into” churches. Which I am not entirely convinced is true. It’s the only church I really feel comfortable in.
Feb 25th brought us another snow storm. Blowing winds, a sudden drop in temperatures, snow…again. I hurried into the grocery store on the way home from working late, just wanting to get a few necessary things. But ended up with all this:

 

There was just so much good stuff on sale! What gives? Is it the recession? Or Wal-Mart Supercentres providing competition? No matter, it’s bargain-city right now, for those that have any extra cash.

When I arrived at the store it was fairly busy, but suddenly it seemed to just empty out. A store employee asked me if there was a storm brewing, is that why the store was devoid of customers? I said definitely, that it was nasty out. Someone else piped up that the women’s gold medal game was on (Congrats Canadian Womens Hockey Team on your Gold! Smoke ’em if you got ’em. Oh yeah, you did….Ha!), and also Survivor. (Is that show still going on?!?!? Haven’t they run out of deserted islands yet?). It was certainly a good night to get home and stay home, whatever the reason.

 

And now this morning, this:

I got up nice and early, planning to walk Mizz L as usual, and then have time to do an upper body workout. On the way back to the house, I laughed at the absurdity of hurrying inside to lift dumbells to the instructor on the DVD when I had a driveway full of snow I could be lifting instead! So I made things easier for Edward by clearing a path to the street. Shoulda brushed him off before I cleaned up the driveway though….

And now tonight I get to do it all over again ‘cos it’s snowing and snowing hard and heavy. However, things are looking up for next week. Temps in the pluses for most of it. Yay!

On a completely different subject: I’ve been tracking my weight loss for the past 3 weeks and I’m averaging 0.9 lbs lost per week. At this rate I will lose 26 pounds by the wedding date. Not too shabby! I developed a little Excel spreadsheet and even created a graph in it to help me track my progress towards this goal. I am delighted that I am seeing success with making just a couple of little changes to my lifestyle and being more mindful of everything I eat and how much I move.

Now to get back to snow shovelling. Wish me luck!

 

 

Yesterday’s LSD

On By The Widow BadassIn See the Beauty2 Comments


The title of this blog post reminds me of a joke we used to tell when we were kids. Tim Horton was a professional hockey player, who died in a car crash in 1974, but not before starting a highly successful chain of coffee and doughnut shops that still bear his name today.

Kid A: Did you hear that when Tim Horton died, the police found LSD in his car?
Kid B: NO! Really?
Kid A: Yeah, the back seat was filled with Last Saturday’s Doughnuts.

Anyhoo…..

My LSD stands for Long Slow Distance run. Yesterday I was hoping for 12 K, but only managed 7.5. Reasons: out-of-shape mainly, but also because it was STINKIN’ HOT (I ran in the afternoon as I didn’t have time to run in the morning). And an alarming new development – every time I did my requisite 3 minutes of running (I run 3 minutes, walk 2 minutes, routinely), my stomach and esophagus just started burning – very uncomfortable.

I’ve been having issues with acid reflux since the spring and am going for an endoscopy later on this month to check things out. Let’s hope this episode was a one-of.

Other than the heat (external and internal), it was a lovely run along the Toogood Trail in Unionville and reminded me of all the things I love about this time of year.

I love Queen Annes’ Lace, above. I love fields of goldenrod and milkweed, and seeing teasels in flower, below:


Canada Geese, Running through the Marsh:

Wild Purple Asters against Goldenrod, White Asters and Red Leaves:

I think this is called Joe-Pye Weed. I love it and want it for my garden someday:

Wild Cucumber, White Berries on Red Stems:

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard and a lovely little turtle:

More Mallards, paddling in the shade of a willow, and a Great Blue Heron:

Toogood Pond Trail: