Thursday, December 27, 2012

wow...

I am getting married in 2 days. Less than 48 hours until I'm a Mrs.
Wow.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Tomorrow Morning!!

Bright (ok, likely still dark) in the morning we get to go up to Barrie and pick up my sweetie bear!! woohoo!!! I've missed him so so sooo much! I can't wait to have him back home and wrap him in a great big bear hug!! Not only is this actually the longest night of the year, it's sure going to feel like it too! I'm off to bed to try and get some shut eye in hopes that it will make the night go faster and because 4 am is no laughing matter. I've occasionally met that time from the other end of the night, but that's hella early as a wake up time.
Goodnight world... and if you don't hear from me for a few days... well, we'll have to come up for air eventually.

catch up

I'm sure y'all are tired of my excuses, but the last ten days have truly been a whirlwind! Let me try to catch you up.
Tuesday, the 11th. I worked in the morning in Bolton. Henceforth when I say I worked, assume it's a packed solid, totally filled up crazy work day, because they all have been. Everybody is trying to burn through their last bit of benefits before the year is out. Then it was my last meeting with the girl guides, very sad to say goodbye to my kids.
Wednesday, Grandma came over to mom's house and we pulled down all the haphazardly packed boxes in the garage from all the times I've move into and out of my parent's place. We washed up, inventoried and reorganized and repacked all the contents into sturdy rubbermaid containers that will make the trip well. That took pretty well all day.
Thursday was the pinnacle of my cold, or should I say the low point. I was certainly feeling low. Miserable. Like hammered turd. In spite of that, it was another crazy busy day at the office full of clients, and I got through every single one of them. Then I followed my friend and co-worker home to her place in Brampton and took full advantage of her hot tub (which felt fantastic. Cool, moist air to breathe, and luxuriously warm body. Getting out in the cold sucks though.) and then spent the night, because...
Friday morning, my Nana had her hip replaced, at the Brampton hospital. So I was there, bright eyed and bushy tailed (ok, bleary eyed and dragging my tail...) at 8 am, and sat with my dad and popa until we heard from the doctor that all went well, and she was out of surgery. They had to cut more soft tissue than they anticipated, so the poor ol girl's gonna have a long recovery process ahead of her, but she'll pull through it ok. By this point I was seriously doing the head nod, and I figured if I stuck it out much longer I'd end up sprawled out and snoring on the hospital floor, so I said my goodbyes, downed a strong coffee, and left before poor nana even woke up from the procedure. When I got home mom took one look at me standing in the hallway, weaving back and forth on my feet and staring transfixed and fascinated by a piece of pocket lint, and marched me straight up to her bed and tucked me in for a nap. I'm not sure if I just didn't sleep enough hours for the night time cold medicine to work through my system? Either way, I'm slightly terrified that I drove my car in that condition. When I woke up from my nap, it was time to meet with our officiant. His name is Gary Faris, and he had a lot of good ideas to offer us, and walked us through the ceremony. He's going to have a rehearsal with us the day before the wedding so that Andrew gets the chance to meet him too. Then I drove home to Newmarket.
Saturday afternoon, Andrew's mom hosted a bridal shower for me with their side of the family. She put on a lovely spread, learned that she doesn't care for making red velvet cake, and they all spoiled me right rotten with gifts. I got a kitchenaid stand mixer (yay!!!) in bright red, and a coffee maker to match it, along with kitchen wares, towels, sheets and blankets. I also got a bag from la senza, but rather than lacy panties they thought it would be funny to pack it full of long johns. Well, I'll certainly need those more where I'm going! Later in the evening a friend was hosting a passion party and there I bought myself some racier gifts. Merry Christmas to me! And to Andrew!
Sunday saw me heading back to Orangeville for a Christmas cookie swap hosted by one of my mom's friends. We had a lovely time, and we came home with 24 dozen cookies between us. Holy cookies!! Sunday was also the day that my sweetie went and scoped out our new digs. Our new home will be a ground floor unit in a brand new building that has 6 units in total, and we're the first tenants! There are three bedrooms, a bathroom with a tub (woohoo!!), a nice big open kitchen. There are hardwood floors throughout, except in the kitchen where it's ceramic tile. It doesn't come furnished, or have appliances, but we'll figure that all out when we get there. We were happy to learn that Moosonee has a Brick. I do like that there's a laundry room in our unit. That will be very nice.
Monday I had a lovely lunch with my boss from the Newmarket office. Boy can that woman ever cook! It was the best meal I'd eaten all week (and probably the longest stretch of time I'd alloted to the task of eating). After that I scurried off to the Bolton office for another full day.
Tuesday I worked in the morning, and then Bernie took me to the spa, we went shopping, had dinner, and then she took me to see war horse. It was INCREDIBLE!! So moving, such a touching story, and such astounding puppetry. You totally lose sight of the fact that there are three men right there on the stage operating each of the horses, you just see the horse come to life. They did an incredible job of catching the nuances of their movements and mannerisms, it was absolutely mesmerizing. I'm so lucky to have such great friends.
Wednesday morning we had the cap and rack put on Andrew's truck that will make our move a whole lot easier. I have to say it looks really good, and makes his little truck look a whole lot bigger. And then I realized how incredibly close we're getting to christmas and figured I'd better brave the mall and get a start on my shopping.
Thursday I got caught up on some paperwork and correspondences I've been letting fall by the wayside, went back to the mall to pick up the shirt that goes with dad's suit, worked all afternoon in Bolton, went home to Orangeville, helped mom sew the crinoline to go under my dress, and picked out the songs we'll be playing that day.
Today started off by taking Ian shopping for a suit jacket to wear to the wedding, shopped some more for Christmas presents and the wedding, then came home and decided to tidy up this messy bedroom of ours somewhat. I've been doing a lot of back and forthing, and staying over night places, so there were myriad bags that had been packed and then abandoned, as well as gifts hanging about, laundry I hadn't dealt with etc. And then, since my parents/grandparents are keeping my car, they decided to void it of all my personal belongings while they were here. All kinds of bags and boxes and such and nonsense were hiding out there as well. I haven't emptied all of the boxes and bags, but at least you can walk through the place now. And besides, it's silly to put things all away only to pull them back out and start packing them right? Tomorrow when I have more energy I'll set up a couple boxes... bathroom, kitchen, office etc and start sorting the mountain of stuff accordingly.

And that's my last couple weeks in a nutshell!

Monday, December 10, 2012

A Cold!?!

What is this!! I don't have time to be sick right now!! I should have figured I'd catch one... during stressful times I can generally keep my mind fairly uncluttered and keep it to dull roar, but my body shows off the stress like you wouldn't believe. Right now it's manifested in a throat that feels like I've tried to swallow swords, or maybe even a chainsaw, and jam packed sinuses that are making my whole face ache and breathing a chore. Well damn. Too bad, I don't have time to slow down and baby myself just now. Still gotta work and still gotta get through my finally shrinking to do list. It's already the 10th! My wedding is in 19 days!! Not to mention Christmas. I haven't bought anything for anyone yet. Sheesh. Not a good time for a cold.
I did allow myself a little down time yesterday, and I've started reading S.M. Stirling's Dies The Fire. I'm not all that far into it yet, but I think I like it so far. I had a hard time putting it down at bed time. Nearly every night I read for at least 10 minutes at bedtime. Helps me slow my brain down and it's part of the routine or ritual of sleep for me. I just finally finished the Lord Of the Rings books, which I started back in the fall. When you're only reading 10 minutes at a time it takes a while to chew through such sizable novels.
What are you folks reading? When do you make time to read?

Sunday, December 9, 2012

cookie swap cookies

... are baked. All 15 dozen of them. Whew! 12 dozen are actually required for the cookie swap, the rest have fallen victim to my family, to keep them from eating the requisite 12 dozen. We're getting together next Saturday at my mom's friend's house to exchange our treasures, and each come home with 12 different dozens of cookies. Cool huh? I'd be lying if I said christmas cookies won't make an appearance on the snack tables during the wedding reception.
I used the recipe for the cream cheese cutouts that I posted around this time last year. I figured they make a whole bunch of cookies in each batch, and they're SOOO good, why mess with a good thing?
No sooner though had I gotten two batches of the dough mixed up, than I found my first ever flour weevil in one of the batches of cookies! Gross!! Needless to say, I threw out both batches, and a lot of flour, pulled out a new bag and carefully sifted every last ounce of it to check for more bugs before sealing it up in an airtight container. And then I started all over again from scratch. While trying to hurry so I could be the living pin cushion once more and finish off the last bit of my dress.
Today, I am reclaiming Sunday as the day of rest it should be. I'll get a couple things that are weighing on my checklist sorted out this afternoon, but this morning I'm being a lazy slug-a-bed, and I think it's well deserved.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Moosonee Bound!!

We found out where he's being posted today: It's Moosonee and Moose Factory!! Woohoo!! I mean, we would have taken just about anything, but Moosonee was what we were really really hoping for! Yippee!! It's only a part time position, which makes me a little nervous, but even so he'll be making more money than we were here, and there's more opportunities for me to be working in Moosonee than some of the smaller communities. And as a part timer, because of the proximity between the Moosonee and Moose Factory bases, he can pick up shifts in either place. More chances of being busy. Awesome!
Now we just have to figure out the living accommodations, which he assures me he's working on. I wish I was up there right now to experience it all with him. I can't wait to see our future town.

Friday, December 7, 2012

4 nights

With no snuggles and I'm missing him something awful. He's in Moosonee now, but hasn't sent any pictures from there, so I don't have much to share. Last week sometime there was a fire in the health clinic in Moosonee, so no sooner had Andrew arrived and slung his bags down than his Sup showed up and asked if he wanted to make some money. My honey spent the afternoon meeting new people and making a bit of a name for himself in the community by pitching in and doing whatever needed done, from scrubbing soot and smoke stains off of medical equipment, to moving things to the temporary location in the curling rink. What a welcome to town.
He did say that Moosonee is beautiful, and way more built up than we had been led to believe. Don't get me wrong, it still barely rates small town, but it seems to have all the essentials. The people seem to be friendly too. When Andrew left the clinic and headed to the restaurant for dinner, he was passed by a little girl in a toboggan being pulled by her dog, who smiled at him and waved. How cool is that!? I want a sled dog... hehe

I will leave you with this picture from the bulletin board in the Cochrane hotel, it's good for a laugh:

Thursday, December 6, 2012

The Cochrane Sunrise

My sweetheart sent this picture this morning of the sunrise over the train station in Cochrane. Wow. It is pretty, I have to say that much about it! It was -12 deg. Celsius when I was talking to him yesterday... brr!!

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

So Much Has Happened...

And it's only been a week since my last post!!
We are nearly finished the dress and it is beautiful!! I am so totally in love with my wedding dress it is turning out better than I dared to hope. Again, pictures will follow after the big day, but until then I don't want to wreck the surprise for a certain sweetheart of mine who reads this blog.

There has also been a flurry of other wedding activity happening. His ring has been ordered, mine picked up, sized and polished. He's rented his suit. The flowers are ordered, the wedding party re-organized, and everybody has at least some idea of their role. We're on the right track. There's lots more to do, but there's lots getting done.

I'm also taking care of things that should really get done before we contemplate moving far from "civilization". Things like doctor's appointments, and dentist appointments and trying to set the same up for Andrew when he gets back home. We're also having a cap with roof racks and a hitch put on his truck. That'll come in handy when we try to move. Nearly triples our packing capacity.

 I am missing him terribly already, and he's only been gone since Monday. We dropped him off and waved good bye at the bus terminal in Barrie, and he took the Ontario Northland bus to Sudbury for base hospital training. He passed it with flying colours!!! He got 49/50 on his written test, which is pretty amazing. I'm so very proud of him!! But this was also the last step between us and the great white north. This is it folks, the job is his, and he is a base hospital certified primary care paramedic. Buckle up, we're headed north!

We still don't know where exactly we're going to end up, but we're moving for sure. It's a start. He's on his way now from Sudbury to Moosonee for orientation. He made it to Cochrane tonight, is staying in a hotel, and then taking the Polar Bear Express to Moosonee in the morning. Hopefully by tomorrow night we'll have a few more answers about where we're going and what we'll need to bring with us. He has learned a bit more about the train, and freight rates and the likes of that. He's not coming back until the 21st though, and like I said, I miss him already. Like crazy. I've been in Orangeville the last couple days, and let me tell you, Taffy snuggles are no replacement for Andrew snuggles. She has much pokier paws and much worse breath.

Keeping busy!