My #pandemicbaby is here!

April 14, 2020

Our beautiful second born boy has arrived!  Everything went incredibly smoothly for the scheduled c-section on the original date given. I wasn't surprised, I never went into labour on my own for my first born and didn't expect I was going to for this one.

The hospital experience was very well-managed, we felt. Our hospital had a rule of which entry door could be used with screeners at the door as you went in. We walked in, and some construction workers had just entered ahead of us so we were asked to wait in the outer vestibule until they went through the screening process and had moved along. Then, we walked in and were asked questions (any travel in the last 14 days?, any new or worsening cough?, any fever?, any exposure to a known or suspected case of covid-19?). Then, we were each given a mask to wear. We were sent down the hallway to the elevators -- we never saw another patient, barely anyone around at all, and there was one hallway for one direction and a different hall for the other direction. We got in the elevator by ourselves, and up to the maternity floor.

It felt very isolated, we felt we had zero exposure to any possible risks.  Our labour & delivery floor is only birthing unit, NICU, and pediatrics and there have been no positive covid-19 cases on this floor at all. We were taken into triage, we had to wear our masks the whole time, and they did my pre-op blood work and monitored the baby. Then we waited and were called in to walk to the operating room (there are two dedicated operating rooms just for labour & delivery).

Mr. Lock was taken to change to scrubs and I went right into the operating room. They sat me on the table while the nurses finished setting up, and then the anesthesiologist came in and got ready to give me my spinal. I felt a little woozy when this was happening, I kept trying to remove my face mask because I felt so hot suddenly, they kept shoving the mask back on, haha. Anyway, it was just anxiety and nerves and the panicked feeling passed and then I was laying down on the table and the rest of the surgery was set up.  I felt tugging sensations, and then the most amazing moment happened -- the loud cries of my newborn son! 

He will be our last baby, after everything I went through to get to this point we knew this, so I also had my last remaining Fallopian tube removed during this c-section. While my OB finished the surgery, they brought our little one around and let Mr. Lock hold him close to me.  When everything was done, I was wheeled to the recovery room for a couple of hours. We got to put the baby on me for skin-to-skin time while there. My OB came in and took Mr. Lock's phone and let us remove our masks for a bit and took family photos of the three of us.

We then were taken to our private room -- which Mr. Lock could not leave at all for the duration of our stay. We only ever saw the nurse on duty, and the food service people when they dropped a tray of hospital food for us three times a day. Everyone was in full masks and PPE. We really felt it was a very secure environment, we don't fear having any exposure risk to the virus.

We were able to be discharged by 6 pm the next day. We headed home to recover there. Our little one is now one week old. He's been eating well, sleeping well, and all systems seem to be good! He's certainly a hearty and healthy baby, like his big brother was. He's very relaxed so far.

We are adjusting well to being a family of four in isolation. All in all, my experience giving birth during this pandemic went very smoothly and while it was sad not to have my family visit, we were luckily not in the hospital very long anyway, so it really was okay. We had one small visit with my parents on Sunday, because we had to go pick our toddler up (he had stayed there for five days). It was wonderful to even get to see my parents once, before we head back into our self-isolation.

Social distancing seems to be working somewhat where we live, so we are hopeful if everyone continues to follow these directions we will be able to return to seeing at least some of our immediate family soon. We will look forward to that day.

Here's a photo of the little man!  My rainbow baby, my miracle, my #pandemicbaby.
(For the sake of the blog we will give him the pseudonym "Owen" which was one of the other names we almost gave him).

#PandemicBaby - Part 2

Trigger Warning: This post references fertility, miscarriage, pregnancy loss. Please be mindful if these are topics that are personally upsetting or produce anxiety for you -- you are not alone.

So where did we leave off?  Since May 2014, I had been trying to become a mother. Three miscarriages, and then my amazing rainbow baby Nate was born in January 2017. In attempting to give him a sibling, we had another miscarriage and then I suffered a ruptured ectopic pregnancy and lost a Fallopian tube. But I wasn't quite ready to give up yet.

I went back to the fertility specialist I had worked with before having Nate. Running many tests, we once again could not determine reasons for my pregnancy losses. The only thing we discovered is that my egg count is low for my age -- and now that I had this test twice over a few years, he could see it was dropping at a higher rate than the reasoning to just be "you were born with less" or something of that nature. So we couldn't know for sure, but the best guess we could have was that my egg count being low could mean my egg quality is low and so it's genetic bad luck if it just isn't a healthy egg being fertilized.  I went back to taking co-enzyme Q10 (forgot to mention in my last post, I had taken that before my one successful pregnancy) as there's some research that supports it as a supplement that promotes egg health for women.

I then began the discussion about getting onto a waiting list for funded IVF. In our province, we can receive one government funded round of IVF (doesn't cover the medications, but my work plan would). It's a long waiting list, however. So, I wanted to be sure to get onto the list knowing it would be a year or more before we were called for our IVF cycle.  I wasn't ready to get pregnant too soon after the ectopic, I had some emotional stuff to work through, but I didn't want to miss a chance to be on the list sooner than later -- especially since the fertility doctor had concerns about my egg quality and how many he may be able to harvest.

He was also concerned that I was "flinching" too easily during exam and internal ultrasound. So, before he would put me on the IVF waitlist I had to go to pelvic physiotherapy first.  So I began some physio around February 2019.  I went for multiple sessions, and learned how to relax my anxiety related to gynecological tests and it was enough to satisfy the fertility doctor. So in April 2019, he added my name to the IVF waiting list.

I relaxed -- we weren't going to try to get pregnant naturally, as I was fearful of another ectopic pregnancy and losing my only remaining tube.  I was going to wait and attempt IVF, and if it didn't work we were going to throw in the towel and move on enjoying our lives as parents of an only child.

Fast forward to August 2019. Just after being home from a vacation.

Yes, we got carried away LITERALLY ONE TIME and didn't use protection.

And yes, I found myself staring at a positive pregnancy test at the end of August.

I was surprised -- one Fallopian tube and it still worked!  I was elated -- this is the best I could hope for, a natural pregnancy.  I was freaking out with anxiety.  I just hoped it wouldn't result in another ectopic or miscarriage... I didn't think I could take another one.

Miracle of miracles, the pregnancy continued on and progressed very well. I was nervous for EVERY ultrasound, but we made it through each one seeing a strong heartbeat and normal measurements. It was just like when I was pregnant with Nate -- things just seemed to go well. I showed much earlier, and had some pelvic pains and tension, and there was some additional work stress that I had to manage -- but everything else was going really well.

We found out at our 19 week ultrasound, after giving a post-it from the technician to our friends so they could help us find out in a fun way, that we were expecting a second baby boy.  Our second little miracle boy.

So now... we are excitedly looking forward to his arrival... and yet, we've been his with this Global Pandemic. A lot of hospital protocol has changed -- we have paid close attention to what we need to do. We have been staying completely quarantined since March 17th so we know we are not ill in any way before going to the hospital (if Mr. Lock had any exposure to a positive case, he would not be allowed in with me for the delivery).

So, my miracle pregnancy that was going oh-so-normal.... is now resulting in me delivering this baby DURING A PANDEMIC.

I get it, Universe. This was already going to be our absolute last pregnancy, but we really get the message now. We done!

Looking forward to being able to share a happy bit of news when baby boy #2 arrives -- any day now on his own (though I feel that isn't likely) or on April 14th when I'm scheduled for a c-section.

Fingers crossed everything goes well, and we can safely deliver our #pandemicbaby AND that Mr. Lock can stay with me in the hospital for my short stay following the c-section surgery.

#PandemicBaby - Part 1

Trigger Warning: I am going to be blogging about fertility, miscarriage, pregnancy loss. I hadn't documented my parenthood journey on my blog before, and it feels like it's an important part of my life and history that I would like to write about. I recognize -- oh, I fully understand since I have been through it myself -- this can be a difficult subject for some to read about, so please take care of your mental well-being if this topic may trouble you.  Please just also know, you are not alone.

I suppose it's time to mention the Big Deal that's happening for my family during this pandemic. We're about to welcome our second baby boy into our family.  I have a scheduled c-section on April 14th.

Yep. I'm about to have a baby during a global pandemic. (Wut. OhGodWhy?!)

It seems almost fitting, so for this first post I am going to go back and describe my challenging journey into parenthood.

I have always wanted to be a mother. I was that little girl playing house and mothering my dollies, I was a caregiver to my young cousins at our family cottage, I was a local baby-sitter to neighbourhood kids as soon as I was 12 (um, do people trust 12-year-olds to baby-sit anymore??) I was always nurturing. I loved kids, and I always dreamed of the day when I was a mommy myself. I always wanted a big family -- 3 or 4 children.  I used to wish I could just be a stay-at-home-mom.  I love my career as primary teacher; with today's economy an at-home parent is not as feasible, but I do love my career and that I get to work with children so that works well for me.

My fertility journey, however, was not as simple as I hoped. Which is a familiar story for so many these days -- I'm certainly not unique in that.  I got married just before turning 29, and while we tried to get pregnant right away it took about nine months of trying before I got a positive pregnancy test.

However, unfortunately, that resulted in an early miscarriage at 7 weeks (it was a "missed miscarriage" -- I thought I would have been 9 weeks along, first ultrasound yielded the sad result). I had a D&C. Over the next year, I went on to have two more miscarriages (one at 10 weeks - which I miscarried naturally and painfully at home, and a very early loss at 5 weeks). I was now in the world of an identification of "recurrent miscarriage" and was sent to see a fertility specialist. We could never find a reason for the losses, so likely just some genetic bad luck (but nothing that came out on blood work for my husband or I that indicated specific genetic risks).  We worked with the specialist for cycle monitoring, and then in May of 2016 we got another positive pregnancy test -- and finally, FINALLY (taking baby aspirin daily and progesterone) this was a successful pregnancy.

My first, and much wished for baby boy, was born on January 30, 2017.  Fortunately very healthy, a very normal pregnancy with no complications. He was late -- so at 41 weeks I was induced.  Pushed and pushed and he wouldn't come out, so he resulted in a c-section.  We've had three awesome years so far with our very funny, intelligent, and curious little man. For the blog I will give him the pseudonym of Nate (it was our other baby name for him that we didn't end up using, haha).

Since the pregnancy ended up going so well, we were hopeful that maybe we would be able to add to our family naturally.  When we were ready, we were able to get pregnant again without returning to the fertility clinic (I had conceived naturally in the end there anyway just with cycle monitoring), and my own family physician prescribed me progesterone like I had used before and I began the baby aspirin. Things were going very well.  We got through to 12 weeks, no spotting, and having seen the heartbeat at 8 weeks and heard it in my doctors office at 10 weeks.  At 12 weeks, 3 days I had my next ultrasound.

Sadly, it was another loss. The baby had grown to 12 weeks exactly and then the heart stopped. I miscarried in the hospital with medication to induce it (misoprostol).  I was very scared to miscarry at home because of what I went through when I had the 10 week loss before, so fortunately at the time the hospital could admit me and let me go through the process there with some pain management ready if I needed it.  This was a very difficult miscarriage to work through emotionally, though I'd been down that road before. It was the longest pregnancy I'd gone through before miscarrying and it really seemed things were going well. Once again, we didn't have a reason for the loss other than a genetic abnormality that was poor luck and it just wasn't meant to survive.

Six months later, I felt ready to try again. I just didn't feel "one and done" -- I was no longer hoping for three or four children, but I did want to continue to attempt to give my son a sibling while I was within child-bearing years. I wanted to know I'd tried all of my options before moving on, so that I didn't have regrets years down the road.

I ended up having a strange occurrence -- I didn't think I was pregnant, but then my period was a little late. I had a faint positive pregnancy test, but I started to bleed like a period. It seemed very much like the third miscarriage I had before having Nate -- it was just a very early loss.  It was over New Years Eve, so I hadn't been to my doctor about it.

Then, on January 2nd just as everyone began to return to work (but I was home alone with an almost 2-year-old Nate, as I was still on school break from teaching), my bleeding changed and I began to have a sustained pain on my right side. The pain was getting slightly more intense, and I nearly fainted just after I had laid Nate down for his afternoon nap. I had messaged my husband to let him know something was wrong, but when I nearly fainted I called 911.

Paramedics arrived -- I think in the process of talking to the 911 operator I fortunately worked through some anxiety and I didn't end up fully fainting. They checked my blood pressure, and I explained that I was having an early pregnancy loss but this was different than I'd experienced before. I had already asked my friends who lived locally to please come to my house to help with Nate in case I had to go to the hospital, since it would take Mr. Lock about an hour to get back into town from where he worked. It was a strange experience. I couldn't just leave the house -- I had a toddler asleep upstairs -- but the paramedics weren't really helpful and just ended up asking me to sign a thing that I wasn't going to come with them, but they advised me to go to the emergency department as soon as I could.

Honestly, it was very odd to me (my first time ever having called 911 for help to my home) and I wasn't that impressed by these two men who seemed to know nothing about what to do about a woman talking about a miscarriage. It was not what I expected.

My friends got to my house shortly after the paramedics left. While her husband stayed home for Nate, my best friend took me over to Emergency and waited with me until Mr. Lock could get there. My mother-in-law came to stay at our house to relieve my friends of staying there.

In the end -- it was a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. I was bleeding internally.  I was taken into surgery that night, and lost my right Fallopian tube.

So now, I had a history of four miscarriages and one ectopic pregnancy. I was beginning to feel it was becoming hopeless that I could have a second baby and give my son a sibling.

But I also felt resolved not to give up all options, because again -- I didn't want to have regrets a decade from now if I didn't make sure to follow-through on the different ways I could have added to my family IF it was possible during my child-bearing years.

Part 2 will follow up tomorrow... 

Vacation(s)!

I'm back from three weeks of vacation!

I spent two weeks in South Carolina.  I've been going there with my family since 1990, making this the 25th anniversary of my first visit to Myrtle Beach.  25 years!  Amazing.  We used to travel there with my grandparents, and since my grandfather's passing ten years ago I appreciate the memories we made on those vacations there so much.  This time around, I really missed him and remembered so many of the good times we had together there.  We visited an arcade that we used to go to as little kids, a place I hadn't been back to in many years (since we haven't stayed in a hotel in that area in awhile).  The place hadn't changed AT ALL.  I was a little overwhelmed with how much I missed my Poppa in that moment and with how fast the years have passed by.

I had traveled down South with my mom and youngest brother so we could have a full two weeks vacation.  This also gave my youngest brother and I time to bond, as we haven't spent as much time together lately as we used to.  The first Thursday of the trip, Quin flew down to spend a week there with us which was extra fun for me (and hard on my wallet, but the outlet shopping was SO GOOD!).   Saturday, Mr. Lock, my dad, and my middle brother drove in to join us for the second week of the trip.  We had amazing, super hot weather.  I loved being on the beach in the sunshine.  The ocean was 85 degrees Fahrenheit!  We went to some great restaurants, great shops, and I highly enjoyed playing four games of mini-putt!  The mini-putt courses in Myrtle Beach are so much fun.

We drove home after two great weeks in one of my favourite places in the world, and then Mr. Lock and I were off to the cottage his family rents each year for the next week.  It was very relaxing up at the cottage, cooler than South Carolina for sure, haha.  It was refreshing to swim in the cold lake, and I was able to read books on the dock, and just breathe in the fresh air and relax.  Gryphon seemed to enjoy the lake.  He LOVES the water!   He is a little nervous to swim when we have him in the deeper water, but he will go in to the shallow part of the lake quite willingly and loves finding a shallow spot to lay right down in the water and cool off.

So, I had a wonderful three weeks.  What a pleasure to have the summer off to be able to freely enjoy traveling when the opportunity comes up.  I can't believe I have another three weeks ahead of me before I'll be heading back to school.  It feels good, very refreshing after a hectic and somewhat stressful school year (kindergarten is a joy, but is also VERY difficult and tiring!).  I think I will be a better teacher in September after having this time to unwind and recharge.

On Naming our Dog

Mr. Lock and I don't really have serious discussions about baby names.  We have always been the type to jokingly say we'd name our kids "Ektorp", after the name of our IKEA couch.  That's the sort of way we discuss naming future offspring.  In very silly ways.

Now that we're married, and are settled into our home, we sometimes toss around more realistic names which can be very fun.  I've always been name obsessed, so I enjoy these moments very much.

While we aren't needing to name an actual human baby yet in our lives, we have made the choice to add a puppy to our home.  I've mentioned this briefly in a couple of past posts.  My best friend being a veterinarian, and my love for my parents' dog, has really led me to wanting to be a dog owner.  I appreciate the company of a dog for times when I am home alone (even though I am 29.5 years old, I am still not a huge fan of being home alone), and I am a pet lover.  I'm a caregiver, I have a lot of love to give, and having a pet feels right to me.  Mr. Lock is on the same page, he is really excited to own a dog of his own, and he is looking forward to teaching our dog to catch a Frisbee, and to playing with it at the park near our home.  Getting outside and enjoying the fresh air is so much more common with a dog in your life, so we are both looking forward to that.

This is really our first serious naming decision!  This is good practice before we have to agree on the name of a tiny human.  We have thrown around a variety of options.  We did agree on a name if we end up with a male puppy -- we like the name Gryphon.  We are old time friends from the University of Guelph, and Guelph's mascot is the Gryphon.  The breeder we are getting our puppy from also happens to be in Guelph!  So it seems meant to be, and we think the name is super cute for a boy dog.  So, boy dog = Gryphon.  Done.

The thing is, we will actually most likely be choosing a female dog.  My family has always had female dogs (including my aunts and uncles in that), and of the Wheaten Terriers I have known before, the female ones were of a calmer temperament.  I think I'd prefer a female.  In the litter, there were 3 females and 2 males born so we will have to see which dog just seems to be "ours" once we get to pick our puppy at the end of January.

Female dog names seem harder for Mr. Lock and I to agree on!  We have a few categories of names we are considering.

First Category: Winter/Christmas names

The puppies were born December 7th, and finding that out felt like a special Christmas gift!  We have been toying with the idea of giving her a winter/Christmas name to commemorate her birthday.  Some names in the running have been Holly, Ivy, or Clementine.  Of those three, Mr. Lock and I really only agreed on Holly.

Second Category:  Irish names

The soft-coated wheaten terrier was originally an Irish breed.  We think it could be fun to go with an Irish name for our pup.  We were looking at some of the names that have a fun/unique Gaelic spelling.  We don't want to pick a name that could be a future child's name for ourselves or our friends, so that's why we are choosing names that could be unique/different. We think that works best for a dog.  Our favourite Irish name right now is Caoimhe - which is pronounced "Keeva".  We would spell the dog's name Keeva; but for ourselves we would enjoy the unique Gaelic spelling, haha.

Third Category: A play on "Wheaten"

Wheaten terriers start out with caramel-coloured fur, which fades to a blond "wheat" colour over two years.  It could be cute to name the dog something that goes with this theme.  Maybe a grain name like Barley.  We also have been considering the name "Willow" -- which alludes to the actor Wil Wheaton.  Many years ago, when he was first on The Big Bang Theory, the character Sheldon said the line "Fetch me Wil Wheaton!".  This always made me laugh, and knowing that wheaten terriers were a dog breed I liked, I used to joke that I'd name my dog Willow, call her Will Wheaten, and then when you said that line, the word "fetch" would be so funny since it is also a dog term.  The joke has lost its lustre after this many years, but sometimes I still go back to liking the name Willow since I was thinking about it for years.

I think the front-runner right now is Keeva, to be honest.  It is really growing on both of us, we seem to agree on it.  We like that it isn't a potential baby name for ourselves or our friends.  So, we may go with:

Boy:  Gryphon
Girl: Keeva

However, we are also waiting to see what name jumps out at us after we actually pick which puppy will be ours.  We may meet her (or him, keeping my mind open), and feel like one name works better than others.

I'm really excited, and am enjoying this whole process leading up to bringing our puppy home!  It's an exciting way to expand our family, and prepare us for the responsibility of parenting one day.  I'll probably be one of those crazy puppy parents who will start sharing a ton of photos of our dog.  I think it will actually make for some very cute blog fodder!

Reflecting on 2014

Tonight, as the house is quiet following quite a fun and festive New Years celebration with our best friends, I'm feeling reflective.  I guess a "new year" does that to you, even if you previously thought you really wouldn't bother blogging a reflection post.  Ah well, here I am!  2014 was quite a special and important year for me.

Our home was finished being constructed and we were able to move in on February 6th.  Our journey into home ownership has been such a positive experience.  We have loved living in our neighbourhood, and our place has felt cozy and right for us from the moment we got the keys.  We've been enjoying picking out some new furniture and decor, and have been able to host some nice gatherings with our friends and family here.  We hope to do a lot more hosting in the coming years, as the space continues to come together.  In 2015, our goal is most likely to paint over the horrible builder's paint in the main areas of the house.  It will be quite the interesting process as we try to pick out paint colours for such large areas of the home!  I also hope to hang some more pictures, and to get an overhead light for our dining room area and a nice, large mirror for above a buffet storage cabinet we have in that room.

Mr. Lock and I enjoyed events leading up to our wedding, and were overjoyed by how perfect and special our wedding day was on May 24, 2014.  Just two days before that, Mr. Lock turned the milestone age of 30.  Sometimes when I think back on my earlier 20s when I was so eager for marriage and domestic life, I am thankful in the end for the direction my life went.  Mr. Lock is such a fantastic husband.  He is kind, fair, accepting, helpful around the house, and is an excellent cook.  I am very, very lucky and I am thankful every day!

In the summer, we enjoyed our honeymoon vacation to the East Coast of Canada immensely.  What a beautiful place to be!

In September, I began teaching kindergarten.  This was the grade I went into this career hoping to teach one day, so it felt very special to have that dream realized.  It was a very challenging transition, in the end, and I had many moments of frustration as I adjusted to a much different educational world than the grades I had taught before (grades 1 - 4).  Kindergarten is certainly a very unique grade.  I have since learned more about the age group I am working with, and my confidence as a kindergarten teacher is returning.  I do love the age of the children, and my students are so sweet and are learning so much!  I am actually happy to return to work on Monday!  Shocking as that may seem to some people, haha.  But I do love my job!

2014 was certainly a year to remember.  As we move forward to 2015, I'm excited by the prospect of adding to our family (hopefully!  Though I don't want to jinx myself so I may not talk much about that until it happens, haha).  We shall start with adding a fur-baby, a Wheaten Terrier/Poodle Cross which we should be bringing home from the breeder in February!  We haven't "picked our puppy" yet; but the litter was born December 7th, and mid-January we should get to go and pick the one we will be calling our own.

Thanks for a wonderful year, 2014.  You were very good to me!  Cheers to another wonderful year in 2015!  My 30th year!

Happy Holidays!

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and a happy holiday season!

December 19th was the last day of school before the winter break.  This year, with Christmas Eve on the Wednesday, I haven't really felt like I've had a break!  We had such a wonderful time celebrating Christmas, but it feels like it is all I've been doing.  Even with some time to relax Sunday to today, it has still felt like this winter break is going by VERY quickly, and has been VERY busy.  I'm enjoying it; but I will admit, I prefer when Christmas happens right away on the winter break from school.  That way, New Years comes up quickly too, and there is actually time AFTER New Years to relax.

My Christmas was wonderful, though.  We saw my mom's side of the family on December 20th.  My cousin is currently pregnant, and it is very exciting for our family to welcome a new baby.  She found out just before our party that she is having a girl, so we cannot wait to spoil her baby when she is born in May.

December 21st, we went to Quin's & Mac's house for our Sitcom Group of Friends' Christmas get-together.  Quin did a great job preparing appetizers, and we enjoyed relaxing together and seeing one another before the holiday craziness with our families began.

This year, Mr. Lock and I spent Christmas Eve with his family and then Christmas Day with mine.  Both events were really fun, we had great food and received plenty of fun and useful gifts!  Everyone was very generous.  We are actually getting a puppy (more on that later!), so many of our gifts were PetSmart gift cards -- which is SO appreciated!

On Boxing Day, we went to my grandparents' house to spend time with my dad's side of the family.  It was good to see them, and we played our favourite card game (Canasta) and had MORE delicious food.  While I would have liked to see a white Christmas, the clear weather for travelling was appreciated.

On December 27th, we went skating at a rink that Mr. Lock's godfather rents every year.  Then, off to their home for a potluck dinner with lots of my in-laws friends.  MORE delicious food and treats; good thing we spent an hour skating, hopefully we burned some calories!

I've now been trying to accomplish a few tasks around the house; and clean and prepare for our New Years Eve celebrations!  This year, our Fancy Dress House Party is at our house.  It is really fun to be hosting.  I'm excited for ringing in another New Year with our best friends.

I'm just glad I have amazing Norwex products to make cleaning my home a project I actually enjoy! haha.  I'm off to dive into that job now...

Have a Happy New Year, friends!

The One Where I Think I Was Supposed to Recap My Honeymoon 2 Months Ago...

I believe about two months ago I said I'd come back to write about my honeymoon!  Well, I certainly followed through on that didn't I?  Ah well, teaching Kindergarten is sooo exhausting.  By the time I am home, it is hard to do much other than relax with my feet up in front of mindless television.  However, here I am, so let me tell you about our trip!

We waited to go on our honeymoon until the summer, since we got married during the school year.  We had weighed our options, and we decided that what was most "us", and what would allow us to have the most time together, would be a road trip honeymoon rather than flying to an Island vacation for just a week.  Neither of us had ever been to the East Coast, so we decided to go ahead and see our own beautiful country!

We spent two and a half weeks travelling.  We first went to Quebec City for a couple of nights.  It was nice to see it, and the Old City is so beautiful, however it was SO rainy that it was hard to really enjoy our evenings there.  We did have a great day of sightseeing, but it ended very rainy, wet, and chilly.

After that, we were off to New Brunswick!  It was such a beautiful province to drive through.  We decided it was our favourite in-land drive.  There was NO traffic, AT ALL, anywhere.  It was amazing how fast we could travel place to place in New Brunswick.  We stayed in Fredericton, and then at a small motel near the Hopewell Rocks.  We then met up with Dr. McVet and her husband to visit the Hopewell Rocks for the day.  We walked the ocean floor, and stayed to see the high tide as well.  Here are a couple of our pictures:

The Hopewell Rocks before we went down to walk the floor ourselves.

A few hours later when the tide had come in!

Such an awesome transition to see!  It was really fun.  When walking the ocean floor, it felt prehistoric.  The water was also so brown, it was like chocolate milk.  Very interesting!

After New Brunswick, we met up with the rest of the Sitcom Group of Friends in Halifax, Nova Scotia for the August long weekend.  We had a wedding to attend, on a boat!  On our first day in Nova Scotia, we visited Peggy's Cove.  This was such a beautiful place, and I felt like I could lounge in the sun and watch the tide roll in for hours.  Then, we explored Halifax and had a fantastic time at the Hat family's wedding (pseudonym, obvs).

Peggy's Cove, NS

Following our weekend with our friends, Mr. Lock and I took off on our own again and we spent two nights driving along the Cabot Trail.  This was probably our favourite part of the whole trip.  The Cape Breton Highlands National Park was beautiful, and the drive along the coast was gorgeous!  We decided that while New Brunswick was our favourite in-land drive, Cape Breton Island and Nova Scotia generally was our favourite coastal drive.  We both agreed that we would love to go back to the Cabot Trail one day, and spend more time hiking and visiting the beaches there.

A view from a look-out along the Cabot Trail.

Our next stop was Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.  We took the ferry across from Nova Scotia to P.E.I.  It was really awesome because we actually saw a pod of Pilot Whales while we were on the ferry.  We otherwise saw next to no wildlife on the entire trip!!  Which was quite surprising!

Prince Edward Island was very nice, very small, very quaint.  However, we didn't feel blown away by it.  We found that it was difficult to see much without constantly having to pay again.  We had to pay a Provincial Park fee to see Cavendish Beach, but we only had a day of touring so we weren't stopping at the Beach for long... then we had to pay a DIFFERENT Provincial Park fee to visit L.M. Montgomery's homestead/inspiration for Anne of Green Gables.  The red sands were really interesting to see, and we had some of the most delicious food of the whole trip while in P.E.I.  We just found it a bit dull for us compared to the other provinces we had visited.

Cavendish Beach, P.E.I.

We took the huge Confederation Bridge to drive back into New Brunswick as we headed back home.  We spent one night in Moncton at the New Brunswick Casino Hotel.  It was pouring rain, so we never really saw Moncton.  We did drive the Magnetic Hill which was very, very cool to experience.  I know it's an optical illusion, but it REALLY feels like your car is rolling uphill, and quite fast.  I took a video and it is amazing!

We drove to Montreal the next day, just to spend a night there to break up the drive, and then we ended our honeymoon by spending time with Mark's family at the cottage they rent to the North-East of Toronto back here in Ontario.

It was such a wonderful vacation and honeymoon.  We spent quality time together, experienced the beauty of the Eastern part of our country, and even spent special time with our best friends and Mark's family.  It was a perfect honeymoon, and one day I do hope to go back and visit the East Coast again.

P.S.  The photos in this post were all our own, I'm pretty impressed with how gorgeous they turned out!

Let's start back in May with my wedding?

Well.

I didn't MEAN to stop blogging!

I've just been very busy, I suppose!  I've also been a little frustrated with my laptop, so I haven't been doing many things I usually did online.  I'm going to try to continue blogging, because I do very much enjoy it!

So many wonderful things happened since my last post!

Mr. Lock and I got married, first of all.  I never blogged about my wedding!  I cannot believe it.

So, we had an absolutely fantastic wedding day.  After a very cool spring, our May 24th wedding day was sunny and quite warm!  It was just perfect.  Everything went according to plan, and I just had so much FUN. The dance party was everything I wanted it to be (that's my favourite part of any wedding, so it was what I cared very much about for my OWN wedding).  My aunts and uncles on my mother's side stayed right until the very end of the night, and we even ended everything with a big group sing-along to Bohemian Rhapsody... it was so cool.  They had such a great time, I was glad I could provide them with that!  I was the first of my cousins to get married on both sides of my very large family, so it was a very special event for everyone.

It was just so exciting to have all of the important people in our lives gathered together in one place... I am so very happy with how my wedding day went!  It all went by very quickly... however, I have incredibly happy memories of the day.

After the wedding, it was time to write report cards and finish off my year teaching SK/1.  I had such a great class, it was bittersweet to see the school year end.  We were also spending time doing some furniture shopping and continuing to set up our new house.  It is coming along nicely.  Our next project will be painting and putting up photos and art, so far we have nothing on the walls.  We are taking our time though.  As a new construction, it is recommended we wait to paint until the house has settled more.  We can still have the builder come back and fix a few things up until the 1 year mark, so we may wait to paint because we have some nail pops that need repair.

Married life has been great so far!  For Mr. Lock and I, not much changed, since we were already living together and forging our life together.  We are very happy, though.

I will update soon about our honeymoon trip this summer -- we drove through the East Coast of Canada, and it was an amazing adventure!

Less than a month to go!

Mr. Lock and I have less than a month until our wedding day!!  Plans have all been coming along really well, things are going smoothly.  We've created our ceremony and have shared the plan with the officiant.  We have our cake flavours chosen.  We're working on some music selections, but mostly have those chosen, too.  We're just on the very fine details and little touches we want to add to make the event memorable and unique to "us".  The RSVPs are almost all in!

I'm feeling excited, and also a little nervous for the ceremony part and speaking in front of everyone.  I know it will be really nice, though.  I'm very much looking forward to being married!!!

So, less than a month!  I feel very ready, and not that stressed, so that's perfect!

Let's just hope for some nice weather!  It has been TOO COLD so far this spring... I hope May warms up!

Woo hoo!

The 2 Month Countdown

Today marks the 2 month countdown to our wedding day!  It has been a relatively stress-free experience, fortunately.  I think helping my best friends plan their weddings before mine was really useful.  I knew generally what needed to be done and in what order, got a good book for a To Do List to follow, and then Mr. Lock and I just made appointments as necessary and took it all one step at a time.  Our RSVP cards are coming back, and each day its great fun to open them up and see who has replied.  We're actually getting them back really quickly which is awesome, I think we are only waiting to hear from about 70 more guests (out of the 157 we invited).

We've been for our food tasting, and we've been to the bakery to order our cake.  We haven't made final decisions on the cake yet, but at least our preferred bakery is booked.  My first dress fitting was a couple of weeks ago, and I go back on April 2nd to try it on again after the alteration -- it only needed to be shortened, so that's pretty great.  The guys are going for their tux measurements, we picked out their formal wear over March Break so they're good to go for measurements any time.  I have an appointment with my florist on April 5th to make the decision about my bouquets -- Mr. Lock's mom is making our centre pieces herself, which I'm quite happy about!

There are some bridal showers coming up.  My bridesmaids are hosting one on April 13th, and then my dad's cousin wanted to host one on March 30th for their side of the family.  My great-aunt is quite ill, so her and my great-uncle won't be able to attend the wedding.  I think having a shower in their home is my dad's cousin's way of including her parents in the wedding festivities.  I grew up very close to my great-aunts and great-uncles on my dad's side, his cousins were much like aunts and uncles to us growing up.  It's great how weddings bring everyone together again and we can have a few events to enjoy each other's company.

All in all, things are going really smoothly.  Now that the RSVPs are on their way in, we're beginning to consider table placements.  I'm hoping the seating plan won't be too much of a headache, I think we'll be able to sort it out without too many issues.  There are escort cards on Etsy that I'm going to purchase the template of so that Mr. Lock and I can make them ourselves once we know which table number each guest will be sitting at.

Two months and I'm a Mrs.!  What an exciting time of life!

This Christmas...

Another winter break from school is soon coming to an end!  What a winter break this was... 

We had quite the Christmas week, I feel happy about all the time spent with family, but it sure did feel like "The Christmas That Never-Ended".   My vacation began on December 20th with Mr. Lock's work Christmas party in the afternoon, and then we had all of our friends over for our annual Christmas get-together -- the last one in our condo.  An ice storm was coming into our area of southern Ontario, but we only had rain where we were fortunately.  I had a great time at Mr. Lock's work do... but that evening, just as we were starting dinner with our friends, I felt incredibly ill.  I ended up with what must have been food poisoning, not a stellar start to my winter break! 

Fortunately, I felt a bit better on the Saturday (phew!).  However, the ice storm had changed some of our plans and my family Christmas party was rescheduled to the 28th.  Mr. Lock and I signed our mortgage paperwork for our house on December 21st, but other than that I mostly laid around and tried to get some strength back after being so sick the night before.

That evening, the ice storm caused quite a few power failures... fortunately, not for us.  However, Mr. Lock's parents ended up losing power from Saturday, December 21st... until Christmas night.  By Christmas Eve, we convinced them to come stay at our condo and we went to stay at my parents house.  We had a really nice Christmas Eve with my family, full of the usual traditions (and a brief visit with some very good friends before dinner).  Christmas morning, Mr. Lock headed back to our condo so they could have a make-shift Christmas morning as a family, he was coming to get me again that evening for dinner at his Aunt and Uncle's house.

Well, Christmas just wasn't meant to be for the Locks.... what a fiasco!  Christmas morning, rather than opening gifts and having their traditional brunch, the Locks had to go to Toronto and help out Mr. Lock's brother and his wife -- who had returned from a trip to New York, only to sleep for a couple of hours and then have the radiator burst in their apartment!  What a mess!

We were able to have a really nice Christmas dinner that evening, and were happy when we discovered that the power was restored to the Lock residence that evening by 8 pm.  They slept in our condo for one more night so their home could warm up, and went home on Boxing Day.

Also on Boxing Day, Christmas continued for Mr. Lock and I as we went to my paternal grandparents' house for Christmas with my dad's side of the family.  We had a wonderful day, good food and great company, but we were sad to learn that my dad's uncle had passed away on Christmas morning.  He was older, and ill and in hospice, but we were still sad for the loss of course.  My grandma will miss her brother, as her family was always very close.  The funeral is this weekend, so we'll be back together with family again to celebrate and honour my great-uncle's life.

Then, December 27th came along... it was time for another tradition for the Lock family, a skating party with Mr. Lock's godparents.  It was really fun to spend an hour on the ice, since I don't skate as often anymore as I did growing up.  The 28th, we went to my Aunt and Uncle's house for my mom's side of the family Christmas party... glad for better travelling weather compared to the weekend before.  

Then, on the 29th, we were able to get together with Mr. Lock's parents and brother and sister-in-law so that we could have a meal and finally have the Lock's Christmas presents opened that they missed on their mixed-up, crazy, Christmas morning.

It was such a hectic week... full of great food, great company, and an overall wonderful Christmas.  It was just a strange one, lots of events had to be moved around and we needed to make up some family time after the ice storm and power failure.  It was definitely not a traditional Christmas, but as someone getting married and needing to change the Christmas traditions a bit to balance family commitments, it was probably for the best to get us all ready for next year.

28-Years-Old: A Super Boring Update Because Life Has Just Been Normal and Great

Well, that three-times-a-week blogging thing didn't happen yet!  Oops!   Life has just been fun-but-relaxing, so I haven't really had much to say, I suppose?  Not much good blog fodder lately.  Ah well, here's what's been up with me lately.

Last Sunday (July 14) I turned 28-years-old.  Yes, I'm crawling towards the big 3-0.  Unlike when I turned 27 and felt a bit funny about it, this year I felt fantastic on my birthday.  I have SO MUCH to look forward to at age 28.  We will get our house, we will get married, AND that permanent teaching thing!  WOO!  28 is fabulous and it has just begun!

I celebrated turning 28 a few ways.  On Friday the 12th, we went out for dinner with Quin, Mac, Dr. McVet, and Rick.  Quin and Mac treated me, which was very nice!  We went back to their house for a bit after, and just happened upon "Sharknado" on TV.  I don't even... well. It was quite the film.  Even the movie poster just says the tagline, "Enough said!".  They don't even know what to say about it!

On the Saturday before my birthday, Mr. Lock and I visited my parents and had a BBQ at their place (they have a pool, it is heaven).  Talk about gorgeous weather!  It was a perfect weekend to be outside.

On my actual birthday, we went downtown with the Sitcom Group of Friends and saw our good friend, Tobey, perform in the Toronto Fringe Festival.  He's a part of an improv troupe, and they performed all week at the Fringe.  Very cool.  Their show, called "Tomes", was hilarious.  Essentially, they have a box of nerdy, fantasy novels that none of the performers has ever read.  They have an audience member choose one of the books, then they look at the title, front cover, and read the blurb on the back cover.  Then, they improv the story based only on that information.  It's pretty fantastic.  Mr. Lock and I stayed downtown afterwards for awhile because the weather was gorgeous, we walked around and then had dinner, and then a quick visit with his brother and sister-in-law.

Then life at 28 began.  I went up to my parents' place on Monday for a swim and dinner visit, because the weather was so beautiful.  I love having full use of a backyard pool in the summers.   They only put in the pool six years ago, it was a fantastic investment if I do say so myself.  I'll be even happier next summer when I only live five minutes away, rather than half-an-hour like now!  Tuesday night Mr. Lock and I were back in Toronto, having dinner and drinks with friends of his.  Wednesday I was hanging out at home, cleaned my condo some, avoided the sweltering heat outside.

I'm really taking it easy this summer.  I'm enjoying spending time with friends and family and just relaxing and enjoying the sun.  This weekend we have a wedding to go to for one of Mr. Lock's friends from elementary school, so that will be a nice reunion for him.  I'm enjoying taking each summer weekend as it comes, and I'm trying not to rush the summer away.  I'm also reading like crazy, I've finished three books this summer so far!

Now it's time for some lunch, and then I'm off to see my family again!  Reading by the pool if the weather holds up and there's no rain yet... ahh, so lovely!

 

The Wedding Venue Search is On!

So, Mr. Lock and I have pretty much decided to be open about wedding dates until we find the venue we like.. because their availability will then matter a lot.  We have begun to hunt for the right venue at the right cost.  So far, a lot of golf courses seem to be quite inclusive in their packages so we may end up with one of those.  We've seen two in person so far, and both weren't quite right (terrible decor inside, too dark, not the right feel for me).  I think I've resigned to having an outdoor ceremony, but I need to like "Plan B" (read: rain plan!) very much, or else I'm not okay with that venue.  I don't even want to have to think about the weather, I want to be very much fine with the indoor option for ceremony.  We do know we aren't looking to have a ceremony off-site, so we are looking at venues that provide a space for the ceremony and reception (again, golf courses seem to be good at this).

It felt like a bit of a stressful weekend, as we began to look at venues in person.  Made me a little worried that the venue hunt will be a bit more complicated than I initially thought.  However, there are now two places we are really hoping to see and are really hoping will be "the ones", so tomorrow I may give them a call if I still haven't gotten a response to my initial emails.

If we did have our choice of date, we are probably looking at May 24, 2014.  Our other two favourite potential dates are May 31st or July 5th of 2014.  However, still open to venue availability if the place is right.

Most teachers tend to get married in the summer months... 2014 is a very busy summer for Mr. Lock's family, it was actually very hard to find weekends in the summer that work for all of us... so, I've figured that as long as we get married in May, before report card time really begins, then I will be fine (this time of year I'm not feeling nearly as much pressure or stress as September through February, for example).  Then, we will just wait and go away on a bit of a honeymoon trip at the start of my summer break.  It's pretty common these days to wait for a honeymoon anyway, so not a big deal!

We will also have our home in February 2014, and a whole new set of expenses... so we may just go on a very small honeymoon trip anyway, perhaps a driving trip somewhere like the East Coast of Canada, because we both have never been there!

Anyway, this is just the initial planning... venue has to come first, because until we have that figured out there isn't much point planning anything else!  I am very excited to be engaged... I've certainly spent the last week and a half very busy already.  Though I wasn't sure I wanted a full, traditional wedding... I know that my family will highly enjoy it, and it's special for both mine and Mr. Lock's parents, so I am warming back up to the idea... I'm just going to try to be cost effective where I can, because we are on a bit of a tight home budget too.

Oops, missed the A to Z challenge AGAIN... however... I'M ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!

So, whatever letters I missed... TOO BAD!  Big things have just happened!!!

It all happened last Wednesday!  Mr. Lock and I had to go up to the sales centre for the new build home we are purchasing, it was our day to "firm up" on our purchase (no going back now!).  Turns out, Mr. Lock had a very, very exciting surprise for me that day, too!

So, on our way to the sales office, he asked if I wanted to drive past our "pile of dirt" (our pet name for the lot our new home will be built on).  He knows I like to go by it every chance we have.  I said yep, and said I'd prefer to go past it on our way to the sales office rather than after.

Little did I know, Mr. Lock had gone up there earlier that day!  He took the day off work, I didn't know at all!  We arrived to our pile of dirt, and Mr. Lock said we should stomp around on it a bit.  We got out of the car, and near the sign with the lot number, there was this rolled up blanket.  I honestly thought someone was throwing their garbage on our property!

Then, Mr. Lock began to unroll the blanket, and I was very confused... I saw plant stems, and said out loud, "Oh man, they are throwing away old plants!".... then I saw more of the unrolled blanket, and said, "Oh.  Wait. Those are really nice roses.  OH MY GOD I THINK I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO DO!".

Then I looked at him, and he was pulling a ring box out of his jacket...

"I DO KNOW!  OHMIGOD, YOU ARE PROPOSING?!?!"

He got down on one knee, had time to say "Will you marry me?", meanwhile my hand was already out in his face and I was already saying, "YES, YES, OH YES!".

So, we have now been THROWN into wedding planning, let alone finishing up this house buying stuff!  LOTS suddenly happened -- what a MONTH April has been!!!!  Trying to blog every day, and then NO blogging time!  Aaah! haha.

I am just SO impressed that he was able to surprise me.... I had NO idea it was coming!!!  I thought maybe he'd propose by this summer... we are buying a home together afterall... but he did a fantastic job taking me by complete surprise!  Turns out he was ring shopping well before all this house buying stuff began happening, so that was all just a happy coincidence.

So, this was all VERY, VERY exciting and suddenly I am overtaken with the fun of celebrating being engaged, and planning a wedding -- we need to find a venue a.s.a.p before places we like are booked up for 2014.

Squee!!!  ENGAGED!!!!  WHEE!!

My ring...

H, I, J, K, L are for.... House (buying) Is Just Kinda Labour-intensive!

 

 House buying...

Is... 

Just... 

Kinda...

Labour-intensive!

I have a very good reason for why I pretty much missed an entire week of A to Z blogging...

Mr. Lock and I are buying our first home!!!

Last Saturday the paperwork began, then we had to deal with the bank to move some funds around and make sure we had our financing approved, we've had to deal with a lawyer reading over our Purchase and Sale agreement, we've been excited with our family, and have visited the model home multiple times!

So... there you go!  I missed blogging because real life got VERY exciting!  House (buying) Is Just Kinda Labour-intensive, alright?!  

I am so excited to document the process here as we go!  It is a brand new build, a semi-detached home.  Right now our closing date is February 2014, so there is lots of time before we move from our rental condo still.  It's just wonderful to start the next stage of our lives together, moving on to becoming home owners!!

Wooooo!

Also, I could use some input to help out a friend of mine, can you quickly give your two-cents over at this post here?  Anyone is welcome to comment with their opinion, please!  How would you most likely choose a veterinarian, word of mouth or via some other search method?

F is for... fas·tid·i·ous

I asked Mr. Lock for an "f" word for today's post... which I know I am again a bit late on writing!  After a bit of swearing (of course), he said the word "fastidious".  He was gifted, he knows big words.  I looked it up, and had a good laugh.

fas·tid·i·ous

Very attentive to and concerned about accuracy and detail. Very concerned about matters of cleanliness.

I am quite a "clean freak".  Though I am course a normal person who has my times of clutter, I tend to get really squirmy if things aren't clean.  I've been known to be a bit of a hypochondriac, to the point where I used to feel like I could see the little germs crawling around ready to infect me... luckily as I've matured, I've been a bit more easy going than I was in the past... haha.  My friends and family know that if I'm expecting a visitor, I don't feel right if I don't thoroughly clean my condo before they set foot in here.  The funny thing is, I'm not *that* judgemental or worried about it when I visit other peoples homes, and yet I worry way too much about my own space.  It's like I have a reputation to uphold!

My own mom has taken to saying, "Just because I'm stopping in a for a few minutes to drop something off, DO NOT feel like you need to do a major cleaning!!!".

So, I am quite a fastidious type of person... I certainly notice the "little things".

Oh, the part about fastidious that isn't quite like me is that I'm not so "demanding" and "hard to please".

I may like to get my own way sometimes, but, I mean... who doesn't?!

2 Years

Today marks the two year anniversary of the night Mr. Lock and I went to the movies as friends... ended up being cutesy enough to hold hands, steal some smooches, and then say.. "Well.  Should we give this a try?".

Two years later (oh how time has flown!), we are still going strong.  We have moved in together.  We are respectful and supportive of one another.  We love each other beyond the way we already loved each other as friends of six years.  I am so pleased, so very happy, we "gave this a try".

I love you, Mr. Lock.  Thank you for an amazing two years beyond the Friend Zone, I look forward to many, many more!   Hugs & Kisses!

My anniversary post from last year - "One Year Ago"

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing my fellow Canadians a Happy Thanksgiving!

Mr. Lock and I enjoyed a turkey dinner with my family yesterday, and we are off again soon to visit and have a big family dinner with his side today.  I'm certainly thankful for the wonderful family that surrounds us. There is so much love in our life, we are so fortunate for all we have.

I love Thanksgiving and autumn and everything this time of year brings!  Best wishes to you and yours!

Love,
Ms. Key

August, Oh My!

I know I am not the first one to say this, but I cannot believe it is already AUGUST!  I have been enjoying this summer, but it sure has felt FAST.  There is still lots of exciting stuff happening in August, including a four-day course next week provided by my school board as a grade-specific summer institute (so, I'll be in sessions relating to planning for and teaching a 3/4 combined class this fall -- a very new adventure for me!). I said that I would wait and think about the coming school year in August, well... here we are.

I am not allowed back into my school to set up my classroom until the very last week of August this year (due to the caretaker cleaning schedule).  I am so excited to get in there and get set up.  It's one of my favourite parts of teaching, preparing my classroom to become a welcoming environment for encouraging my students to want to be there every day!  Because I've been changing teaching assignments so much, I've been moving classrooms completely, and I get to set up a room from scratch each time.  It's a lot of work, especially in no air conditioning in late August, but it's really exciting and fun.

In between those two things, Mr. Lock and I are spending five nights at a cottage his parents rent each year (and have rented every year since Mr. Lock was four-years-old or so).  We went there last summer, and it is just such a lovely lake and peaceful location.  I love being at a cottage, and am really looking forward to this trip.  While we are there, Mr. Lock's aunt and uncle will be there as well and I do love spending time with extended family!

Oh, before the cottage but after my course (following me?  Disjointed writing straight from the heart FTW!)(ahem)... we also have Quin's bridal shower!  I am really looking forward to it.  We have a few games planned, and Quin should receive some lovely, much-needed gifts for her new home.  It will be such a great afternoon with about 22 ladies, a fun send-off into the world of marriage for one of my BFFs.

I also think I'm finally going to go see the new Batman movie.  I've had trouble feeling okay going to see it in theatres (anxiety disorder FTL), but I know I just need to get my butt back to the theatre again to feel better.  I'm sad there was a tragedy, but I also cannot allow a crazy person's horrible choice in one circumstance to stop me from doing what I enjoy ("feel the fear and do it anyway", a quote I try to live by).

Alright, so in a totally disorganized way...which I'm not bothering to edit for flow because hello?! It's a BLOG and should sound like I'm journaling sometimes...where was I?  Oh yes, so... that's August.  I just know it'll speed up and be over before I know it, and there I will be in my next classroom with my new group of students.  I'm just glad I love my job so much.


Want in on a secret?  I cannot wait!  C'mon September!! 

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Only a few days left to enter my giveaway for a chance to attend a pre-screening event for The Odd Life of Timothy Green on Thursday, August 9th (7:30 pm) at Richmond Hill SilverCity!  If you live in the GTA and would like a chance to win a family pass (that's FOUR tickets), then enter the giveaway on this post!