Currently...

Back behind me, in the kitchen, there is a new thing going on.  It's called a gas stove and it's the latest craze in the Meadows.  Designed to scare the user into being super careful whilst cooking (no dangling strings or hairs nearby please) and to heat up instantly and cool down nearly as quickly, it has replaced my little apartment sized stove and filled the gap between the counters remarkably well.  Okay, you're thinking to yourself, what is so super exciting about that (besides new appliances - which are always super exciting specially when you get them as a wedding present!! and you get to peel the plastic covering off the display module with that satisfying feeling)? 
Well, the excitement happened the day that the new stove was delivered.  You see, i thought i was going to be super helpful and unplug the old stove and move it out of the way.  Alas, my being helpful nearly turned into my very nearly having curly hair or possibly no heartbeat at all.  The plug was in the socket a little tighter than i imagined and i consequently had to do a bit of tugging and pulling to get the cord out.  Being a good daughter of my father, i was not tugging on the cord part but holding close to the plug.  Alas, my finger slipped as i tried to get a better grip and next thing i knew, i was experiencing a lot of pain and consternation.  I think it took a short split-second for my brain to compute that this was indeed not a good situation and i had better vacate the area asap before my heartrate was going to be converted to a bad rhythm (or none at all).  The sensation travelled up my right index finger, up my arm and to my chest.  My first reaction after quickly evacuating my digit was to start crying... it was a big shock (literally).  As i type, my poor finger goes into spasms just thinking about the bolt of power that shot through it.  I haven't turned into an X-Lady yet - didn't one of the X-Men derive their power from a lightning bolt or something sci-fi like that?  Needless to say, when the delivery fellas showed up,  i let them unplug the old stove and do all the installations necessary.  I will admit to experiencing a lot of paranoia when it comes to plugging the toaster, the kettle or even my computer in since that whole experience. 
I am thankful that it wasn't worse than it was, otherwise, poor Timothy might not have had a live-wire to walk down the aisle towards him.  I was thankful too that the delivery guys were coming - if i had done some serious damage, hopefully they would have figured out that something was wrong and come in (or maybe they wouldn't have?).  I work such erratic shifts at the hospital that it would probably have been a few days before someone clued into the fact that Danielle hadn't come in for work or called to say hi - probably morbid of me to think about but hey, that's life. 

September thus far....

So, it's September... quite obviously, we're almost halfway through the month!!!  How time flies when you're having fun right?  I'm amazed to think that in a month today, we will be walking down that aisle and our lives change forever!  We are so blessed to have each other, and are looking forward to the big day with joy and anticipation.  Oh, that doesn't mean there's not lots to do and figure out yet - lots of those little last minute details that take time to mess out and arrange, but we're getting there - though i'm a little afraid (being a bit of a last minute person - my family can attest to this!), that i'll have forgotten to pick up my dress or some other highly critical detail, but people keep reassuring me that that's not the case.  Anyhow, here's a few pics from the last few weeks...

 

 Yes, i derive immense pleasure from my odometer reaching certain readings... i loved this one - drove around the block 1 1/2 times to get it to this point in the driveway!  Oh Prunelope...

 Sometimes, i ask to stop the car on the side of the road when we are driving - just to drink in the fall colours and immense skies, wonderful clouds and fresh air... did i mention i love fall??

 My dearest mom has been a huge resource in preparing for the wedding!  Full of lots of ideas and enthusiasm, she has provided the artistic flair to our day and we thank her so much for all her time and efforts, "versions 1, 2, and 3" of different things and her patience and wisdom... love you mom

 We were on our way back to church after visiting at Able Living and yep, another roadside stop - this time crawling through the ditch to check out the goldenrod - love it!

 We went for a little pre-church stroll through the soy beans and even saw a man on a unicyle... not often you see that on a stroll through a country trail!

 And yesterday was my birthday.  I was super spoiled already since Timothy took the day off... and the weather was perfect, warm and sunny and a little breezy.  He just told me to be ready by 10... and so i was... wearing pants as requested and running shoes/boots... well that ended up being perfect since we were off to ride the range on Junior and Tex... We went ambling through the woods with a very friendly guide and had a great morning... watch out, hon, or i could get used to this birthday treatment!

 Enjoying a well deserved feed after some hard work!  Junior and Tex join their friend.

 And dinner... i was treated to dinner at Spencer's on the Waterfront in Burlington... we had a truly enjoyable evening... very gezellig and wonderful environment, talking, sharing, planning.  Thinking that next year at this time we will have been married for 11 months already!  Hard to believe!  We enjoyed a lovely little bread board before dinner with hummus, olives, butter and an olive ?tapenade?  Also included were deviled quail's eggs... thought some of our friends who love to rib us about being snobby eaters might love that for fodder for further teasing!!  Also included are the gerbs that provided colour on the table, my cocktail drink (?first one!) and a finger so you can see just how small that little egg was!

 Enjoying the quail's egg!  Fun to try new things - didn't really taste too different to a chicken egg!

 My steak and potatoes au gratin and broccolini - a cross between broccoli and rapini - we were having debates about whether it was broccoli or rapini when the waiter cheerfully cleared it up with a little bit of compromise and a middle ground of the new veggie broccolini!

Timothy enjoyed an arctic chair with rice and salad, swimming in milk bubbles of some sort - we never did ask what that was..but it was good too!
Thanks again everyone for all the birthday greets and hope you enjoy the month as much as I!

yes, i'm still alive

Hi there my faithful few...
I am not lost at sea or run over by a road-flattener-outer truck or abducted by aliens or any of a number of wild and crazy fantasies that might have been flitting through your heads... but rather just busy with the busyness of life and rather lacking in linguistical ability to turn out a decent blog post (nearly typed in glob pot - that shows the calibre of my typing lately) that would be in the least bit interesting for your reading pleasure.  But that doesn't mean that i have been sitting on my hands or slacking off... oh no.  Well, there have been moments of slacking off and yes, two days ago a morning when i just couldn't drag my sorry self out of bed, but in general, each day is a day filled with planning, thoughts, emails, ideas and confirmations of this and that running through my head.  People tell me i'm super organized (having a notebook helps lots towards the pretense of looking organized - impresses em right away) but sometimes its a bit of a lie - i feel like i'm probably missing things - when people ask "have you done this or checked that?", then i say to myself - oops, forgot that too - better get that done...  Aaah, yes, to be true - i have a groom, a dress (needs altering - Saturday's job), a church, a hall (needs decorating), shoes that need wearing in, and oh yes, tonnes of other things... i really am super blessed to be surrounded by a super supportive crew - shouts out to Timothy, my parents, sisters and brother-in-laws, in-laws to be, sister and brother-in-laws to be and the friends who make up our extended family!   We'll get there whether all the "i"s are crossed and the "t"s dotted.
And yes, what has the rest of the month been filled with?  Or August at least since we're already rushing headlong into September...
Hmmm... highlights include...
- picking up my wedding dress with Lauren - who was super excited to be there with me and made it super fun!  Thanks lady!
- celebrating dinner out with friends at the Keg - yummy!
- garage saling in St George on the hottest possible day of the summer - we could barely breathe as we strolled along and what made it worse was the fact that we didn't really get any great deals - but it was fun to be out for the morning together!
- night shifts - day shifts...
- sending out invitations (as per previous post)
- sharing meals with the family and spending time with my little nephews (though not as much as i'd like)
- painting in Rach and Mike's basement - that was a big job but nice to get a good start on it - i suppose we'll have to get our brushes back in shape soon and get the job done!
- getting our new bedroom furniture delivered - it's super nice and we're very happy with it
- watching an outdoor production of Shakespeare in the park - that was good times - brought a picnic supper along and got in trouble for taking a picture of the stage, snuck our way into premium seats and thoroughly enjoyed the performance on a beautiful summer night.
- spending a day driving out to Caledon (driving the long way), hiking with our friends John and Carina, sharing plans for weddings, sharing a meal and a game of Settlers - first win for me in eons!
- anticipating and then actually hearing about the birth of my fourth nephew, little Benjamin Simon Schotsman - he's super super cute, and Lauren and Tom are great parents... i'm proud of them and can't wait to cuddle him again - from what i hear, he's gaining weight very quickly (must be getting the high-octane fuel!)
- having our pre-marriage sessions - we are nearly done and have enjoyed the challenging questions and readings we have done and having time to get to know each other better. 
Well, i'm exhausted after that list - i'll close with a couple of pics of my newest little nephew - for your viewing pleasure!
Only 37 sleeps!

 Okay, he's sideways, but even sideways he's cute

- c'mon - just after bath time - apparently a favorite time

 What up mom?  i'm just chillin here after all the hard work of being a baby...

 Hanging out with Aunt Dell - he's pretty relaxed and happy here as am i!

One last super cute one!                                                   And Nato - just cause he's super cute!