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!

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!

Bachelorette Party!

Our wedding is less than three weeks away now.  Talk about HOME STRETCH, omg!!!

I feel very prepared, but there's just a few things I know I really need to do asap that I must keep to the forefront of my mind otherwise I'll start to get a *wee bit* panicked.  However, for the most part, we're incredibly well-prepared and ready!  I will just have to remind myself of how well-prepared we are, so I don't start to feel worried unnecessarily!

This weekend, Mr. Lock had his Bachelor Weekend with his brother and friends.  I think it went well, I haven't heard details yet!  Last night, my awesome co-Matrons-of-Honour threw me my Bachelorette Night!

It was just the sort of night that was perfect for me.  It started with dinner, and there were only four of us at dinner but it was really great.  A few more ladies were invited, but they ended up having to cancel last minute, but all in all it worked out to be a nice meal.

Then, my very good friend Amanda from Multi-Testing Mommy joined us and we were off to go line dancing!  We went to the place Amanda and I go to a few times a year!  I just love it there!

For line dancing, a couple of other friends met us out there.  I hope everyone had a good time -- I sure did!  I joined in to LOTS of the line dances, and it was just awesome.  I love following along, even if I'm not quite doing it right, as I try to learn a few more combinations.  It's also great exercise, let alone how much fun we have!

I really had a good time with my few, close, best friends and that was all I was looking for in a Bachelorette night out.  It was so much fun.  Also, it was the last pre-wedding event until our rehearsal on May 23rd, and the big day on May 24th!  Suddenly, time is speeding by... next thing you know, I'll be one half of an old married couple!

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!

Wedding Planning Update

Less than two months until our wedding day!  Lots happening!

1.  Dress fittings are done!  All that needed to be done with shortening the hem.  The dress is back in my grandma's closet, and will just go back for a final steam before the wedding day.

2.  Decorated our envelope box!  Quin was so great and loaned us her envelope box from her wedding, so I just needed to update the décor to match our wedding colours.  I enjoyed working with the glue gun, actually, haha.  Added some plum ribbon around the top edge, moved some white flowers to one side, and made a cascade effect of small plum purple and white flowers across the top and down the other side.  I think it turned out quite pretty!

3.  We have so many RSVPs back!  I've been keeping a spreadsheet, and we only have 47 out of 157 invited guests left to hear from!  Most people have been RSVPing yes.  I'm going to download our escort card template a.s.a.p and begin typing in guest names, then I just have to add the final table number later but at least one part would be done.

4.  One bridal shower down, and one left to go!  So looking forward to April 13th, seeing some good friends and family and enjoying a luncheon together.  I'm loving how much weddings bring family together! 

5.  This weekend is a meeting with the florist to discuss the bouquets and I'm hoping we'll make some final decisions.

6.  The guys have been measured for their tuxedos!

7.  We've chosen our cake in general, but we just need to make final flavour decisions -- hoping to come to a decision about that this weekend, too.

8. We've heard from our officiant and have some sample ceremonies to look through so we can discuss our ceremony plan in a meeting soon.

9.   Mr. Lock went and got our marriage license this morning!  So we are officially licensed to wed!

Things have been going smoothly so far!  Still quite a few things to do, but mostly I think it will turn out to be a great event.  I'm looking forward to seeing it all come together on May 24th!

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!

It's SUMMER! Here's a huge update about my life!

Today was my final morning of going in to my school for this past school year.  I am officially on summer break!  I had a lot of boxes to lug around, because next year I'm moving back down to the first floor of our school.  I have very exciting news -- I've secured a permanent teaching position in my school!  I still have to sign the paperwork, but FINALLY!  I'll be teaching a senior kindergarten/grade one combined grade class next year.  We will have the full-day kindergarten program, so I will also have a designated Early Childhood Educator teaching with me.  Over the summer, I have a bit of homework as I prepare for a whole new program yet again!

Life has been SO good to me this year... I got engaged, bought a house, AND now a permanent teaching position!  All is VERY well!  2013 rocks, haha.

Here's our home in progress... I am so shocked by how quickly it is going up!

It is a semi-detached home, we have the unit on the left.  We don't close until February, but they are making amazing progress on the framing!  I will be back to having a commute to work, but that's okay with me!  It can be very nice to live in a different town than where you teach.  For example, if I wasn't so close to my current school then maybe I wouldn't have already bumped into one of my students this summer (yesterday, one of my grade fours from this past year).

Wedding planning is going smoothly.  I've already bought my wedding dress!  First day out shopping.  I'm pleased, I'd like to just keep checking things off the To Do list, and then have a fun event.  We've met a DJ we like, so I think our next step is to finish booking their services.  So that's venue (ceremony/meal/bar), officiant, gown, and now DJ done.  I've also been working on photography, as I think we are going to go the route of using friends-who-are-great-photographers rather than paying thousands for a specific professional company.

So, three amazing things!!!  Now that summer is here, I plan to be blogging more regularly again.  The school year took a lot out of me, but now I'm ready to relax and enjoy July and August until I'm back at it again.

One year until our wedding day!

Mr. Lock and I have our venue, and our wedding date will be May 24th, 2014!  That means that today we are officially one year away from the big day!

After the venue hunt, we slowed right down on wedding talk.. I think I needed a break after a very exciting and hectic few weeks, plus I have a few other events coming up soon that need some attention.  Fortunately, finding the venue is the really big thing... since our ceremony will be on site as well, the venue covers a huge portion of what we need for the wedding day.  Next on our list is booking a few vendors... DJ matters to me a lot, and our officiant (we're hoping to use the same officiant Dr. McVet used, as she is a family friend of theirs).  We are debating what to do about photographers.

The thing is... we want a beautiful wedding, but we also really, really want to be budget-conscious... we do not want to be house poor and wedding poor all at once!!  Our parents are being very generous, but since we went with a fancier venue... we are going to look for other ways to save money where we can.  For example, we are most likely going to make the centre-pieces ourselves -- well, my future mother-in-law and I.  She is quite good with flowers, and I think we'll look up some really cute do it yourself ideas online.  I'm not picky over flowers, so simple and colourful is fine with me.  Other than using a florist for the bouquets, I am very fine with the centre-pieces being more homemade.

So, photographer is the other huuuuge expense... and frankly, I really want to cut where I can on that.  We have a couple of ideas of good friends who are very good photographers, so we may try to work out a deal with them... it's something we're still mulling over and trying to consider.  I might ask for some quotes and see how we feel after that.

Now that we've hit exactly a year, though, I also recognize that I need to start dress shopping!  My mom seems to be most looking forward to that part.  I have no idea what type of dress I want... other than I need to be able to dance in it!  We'll see what I end up with once I get out there and try some on.

At times, I feel a bit complacent about wedding planning... I think it's just a bit overwhelming. Most of the time, though, I'm excited and I want to look up colours and styles and flower ideas... I think I just need to get through this very hectic time of year, and then use my summer break from school to be very, very productive on the wedding front.

So, I get married in 364 sleeps...

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.