Want to Host a Cheap Wedding?

Last month I had the pleasure of sharing/writing Steve and Sally's love/wedding story for LearnVest.

The piece was just picked up by Huffington Post: I Just Spent $1,000 on My Wedding. Here's How

Steve and Sally celebrated their one-year anniversary on the same day my husband and I celebrated our nine-year anniversary (July 1st)! Happy Anniversary!

Budget Weddings

I am approaching my nine-year wedding anniversary, so the intense dynamics of wedding planning have become a distant, somewhat foggy memory.

It all came back to me recently when I got to work with Steve over at steveonomics.com to share his $1,000 wedding story.

Check it out on LearnVest: How I Did It: 'My Wedding Cost Less Than $1,000'

Did you manage to pull off a budget wedding? Please share your secrets!

Another Holiday Celebration & Another Anniversary

First off, Happy Thanksgiving to all you Americans!  I am always thrilled to celebrate this Holiday right along with you.  While Canada celebrates Thanksgiving in October, it has always seemed like a way bigger deal here.  I enjoy all the festivities (especially our traditional smashing dinner hosted by our generous and wonderful friends I and D--thank you in advance!), but I also like taking some time to dwell on all my blessings.  I have so much to be grateful for and I'd like like to say thank you to the universe for everything I have.  Right now I am especially grateful to my husband for taking my energetic kids to the park and for the sun which has decided to shine after days and days of rain and gloom.

Secondly, I would like to tell you about a special Anniversary I am celebrating.  Last night, as my husband and I caught up on all the shows we had DVRd (is that a word?) throughout the week, I realized that it had been five years since I left my job.  The babe was due around Thanksgiving, so I had decided to work until the day before Thanksgiving and then go on official leave.  Five years ago yesterday I organized my office, said my good byes, and went home with the hopes of having a baby in a few days.  Little did I know that my baby wouldn't make her debut until December 7th.  Little did I know it was to be my last day in an office for a very long time.  And little did I know that my home would become my new "office."  There's a lot I didn't know five years ago that I know now! 

At this half decade point, I am finally relatively comfortable with the notion of being a "stay-at-home" Mama.  I take pride in all I do to keep my four person family functioning.  And while I don't know what the future holds, I know that I have made it through what have been some of the most challenging and beautiful years of my life.  And today, I am giving thanks. 

I Remember

This week I had to explain to my daughter what happened on September 11th, 2001.

It's not something I planned, but when the opportunity arose, I decided to share a few details with her. She took in the information I provided and said she wanted to see pictures. I knew there would be a lot of media coverage of the 10 year anniversary and thought it was best if she had a base understanding of what had occurred on 9/11. In her 4 year old brain she processed that planes had crashed into numerous buildings on the same day.

I honestly had never thought about when I would have to explain the events of 9/11 to my kids. I never planned what I would say and what I would not. But when a DJ on the car radio started discussing the upcoming anniversary as we drove to school, I knew the time had come. The babe was sitting so innocently in her car seat and started to ask questions. Despite the fact that I closely monitor my children's exposure to mass media, my daughter wanted to know the story.

Today, after sneaking up on me in the living room while I was watching the news during "nap time," she followed up and asked me why it had happened. I told her that I honestly didn't know and that many people have asked the same question. I did not explain to her that planes crashed into numerous buildings and a field because of a few evil men. When is it ever OK to explain that to an innocent child? I did tell her that today is a day to remember the people who died (not that that is easy to digest, either).

Tonight as I watch the television coverage of the anniversary, I have been consumed with memories of what it was like to live in New York City in September of 2001. In some ways it seems like so long ago and yet right now, as I watch the horrible images flashing across my screen, it feels like only yesterday. Nothing has ever touched me as deeply as the days following 9/11. I continue to count my blessings on a daily basis, but wish I was better at remembering how precious each and every day is. As we learnt 10 years ago, one day can change everything.

Happy Anniversary!

I know I should be writing about the beach.

I know I should be writing about Montreal.

I know I should be writing about summer "vacation."

But frankly, I'm too tired.

What I want to write about is my parents.  Today they are celebrating 40 years of marriage.  They are out on the town as I write this from their home office in Ottawa.  I am so proud of the family they created and am so grateful to have been born into this family.

I only pray I will be as blessed in 34 years time.

So congratulations, Mom and Dad.  You are both awesome and I love you both dearly.  Thank you for everything you have done, and continue to do. 

Bad Blogger

I have been irresponsible.  I apologize for not posting to tell you that the babe's food challenge was a success!  She has now been cleared for baked dairy (like cake, cookies, and other good stuff).  We are all thrilled and so relieved that she seems to be growing out of her food allergies.

In the past week, my husband and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary (yay, us! and, where has the time gone?), went for dinner a few times, went to a movie (it had been a year and a half since my husband and I were in a theater together), bought a mini freezer for the basement (my husband's Mother has been visiting and cooking up a storm for us!), celebrated Canada Day, celebrated the 4th of July, went to a BBQ, hosted a BBQ, dealt with various home owner related issues and have generally been running all over the place like a chicken with its head cut off. 

These things do not amount to a valid excuse for not writing, but finding computer time has been challenging.

More news: I am taking off by myself for the first time in over a year.  My train to NYC leaves in a few hours and I am so very, very excited.  A weekend in my favorite city with my old and lovely friends.  How delicious is that?   

I will get back into the swing of things upon my return.  But I did want to say hello and that I miss updating you on all the excitement and chaos of life in our home.

Food, Planes, Food

Last night was a beautiful night out.  The weather was perfect.  Georgetown, where we first lived together as a newly engaged couple, was action packed with all the pretty people.  We managed to have a drink by the water/people watch and make it to our dinner reservation, no problem.  It was 4.5 hours of bliss (although we did eat a rather large amount of food a little too late).  To not have the diaper bag was a real feeling of freedom, even if we were only a 10 minute cab ride from home.  We should do it more....famous last words.

Today had a wonderful second half.  We drove out to the park by Reagan National Airport and watched the planes coming in to land.  The little guy got the biggest kick out of it.  He would point at the planes flying just overhead and start yelling and jabbering in his special language that only he understands.  The babe was a big grumpy pants, but we managed to ignore it enough that it didn't ruin the experience. 

We then took a chance and did something crazy.  As we were already in Virginia, we decided to pop over to the Outback Steakhouse for dinner (despite the fact we went to a "real" steak house last night).  We thought it would be cool to do something special with the kids as it was just Canada Day, our Anniversary, and it's Independence Day tomorrow.  This restaurant welcomes families, has booths, serves your food fast, and is good at dealing with food allergies (in our rather limited experience).  I have to say it was about as successful as I could expect, even though we constantly felt like we were one step away from chaos.  I managed to scarf my pasta down while trying to get the kids to eat their steak and chicken.  They basically ate the snacks I had in my bag already.  We didn't break any dishes or glasses which felt pretty good (at one point we had 9 glasses of various liquids on the table!).  A very different experience from our dinner the night before!

Anyway, it's the long weekend so the good times will continue.  Hope you're all having fun out there.

Veggies and Dates

This is our garden!  How cool is that?

We picked our first tomato today, and while I haven't tasted it yet, it is an amazing feeling.  When the babe gets home from school this afternoon we're going to let her pick the first cucumber. 

Good times!

We've decided that when we buy a house we are going to put in a serious garden.  It feels good and makes sense.


Today is Day 2 of our Anniversary celebrations.  My husband surprised me by taking the day off and we took the babe to school together.  We also hit the park with the little guy which was nice.  So good to see him playing at the park with his Papa.

We actually have a sitter coming tonight and are headed out for a dinner date in Georgetown.  We never do this kind of thing so I'm excited.  A cocktail by the water and a steak dinner, hopefully in a quiet romantic booth.   

Happy Canada Day/Happy Anniversary to Us!

What a day!  The babe went back to school today and life returned to "normal."

Normal was a bit crazy, though:

-Drop off the babe at school
-go to grocery store and drug store
-pick up framed photograph of my husband and I on our (Hindu) wedding day (July 2, 2005)
-go to other grocery store for 5 year anniversary cake (we celebrate both July 1 when we were legally married and July 2)
-head to Canadian Embassy with the little guy to celebrate our home and native land
-get home and put little guy to sleep
-pick up the babe at school
-put some time in at the park
-head to friend's house for more Canada Day celebrations (thanks, R!)
-back home and get kids to bed (a little late)
-drink wine and watch my husband clean up the kitchen (what a man)
-open super sweet gift (a compilation of our first few emails after we met in 2003)
-do this blog entry
-eat cake and celebrate 5th anniversary with amazing husband

Gotta go!

Happy Half Birthday!

My darling son is 1.5 today.  Despite all the chaos this week, I just wanted to mark this special occasion.  I cannot believe my baby boy is so old. 

Last week the kids and I went to a music class in our former neighborhood.  We visited one of our old parks before class and it brought back so many memories.  The babe and I used to frequent this park when she was the little guy's age.  It was one of our special places.  And now another few years have gone by and there I was was, bringing 2 babies to the park instead of just 1.

The thing that hit me the most was that this was the park the babe and I went to at 6:30 am the day I found out I was pregnant with the little guy.  It was a weekend morning, and it was my husband's sleep in day.  The babe woke up early that day so I took advantage of the situation and took an early morning pregnancy test. When it came up that I was pregnant, I just didn't know what to think, or do.  So I packed the babe up and off we went to the park.

The emotions of that morning came back to me last week as I stood in the park with my children.  A stranger complimented them saying they were both beautiful.  And indeed they are.  Sometimes a trip down memory lane can help you remember that you are where you always wanted to be.

Nine Months

It happened just like that. For nine months I was pregnant. And on Christmas Eve my little love bug was born. It has now been nine months and we can't imagine our life without him.

I'm not sure where the time has gone, but it feels like the little guy has always been with us. I am amazed by his development and parts of me wish I could freeze time. I really do love this age and am trying to cherish all the "moments."

I think it's really cool that he is nine months old in the ninth month of 2009. Similarly, the babe turned seven months old on the seventh day of the seventh month of 2007.

To mark this special occasion, I splurged on a chocolate torte cake for tonight. My husband and I will raise a chocolate filled fork to celebrate our good fortune. We are blessed.

Day 1

Today I had a first. I cleaned a very large poop out of my daughter's panties. Not diapers...panties, because today was Day 1 of "Project Panties."

The first half of the day was pretty miserable. We had three pee pee accidents and one poop accident by 11:30 am. That is a lot of accidents for half a day (especially as we were putting her on the potty every 30/45 minutes). The running dialogue in my head wasn't very positive and we were beginning to think we had rushed things.

After a long nap, the babe stepped it up. She woke with a dry diaper and didn't have any more accidents for the rest of the day. In fact, she let us know she had to pee during her shower and got plunked on the toilet naked and soaking wet. How awesome is that? The fact she told us she had to go is what is making me smile right now.

We'll see how things go tomorrow.

In other news, we had a lovely time at the Canadian Embassy for Canada Day on July 1st, and my husband and I celebrated 4 years of marriage on the 1st and 2nd (we had 2 separate ceremonies). We even ventured out to a local Japanese restaurant for some sushi (a friend from across the street baby sat for us). It's been an action packed week which has involved lots of potty talk and lots of celebrating our love talk. Right now, my night is about to involve some eating of the chocolate torte cake talk.

So Much to Say

I don't know where to start! So much has happened in the past few weeks and I haven't had the time to share it with you.

I guess I'll just start with the big news: I'm expecting my second child this coming December 21st (great timing, right?). My blogging has been rather abysmal because of my racing mind, lack of energy, and general freaked outness. We are thrilled and scared and can't really believe it. I didn't realize my body would be able to do this whole human creation thing again, but by the looks of my protruding belly, it is! So, that's our biggest story. It will sure make this blog a tad more interesting with tales of balancing a toddler and a newborn. But maybe I'll be too tired to even remember I have a blog.

In other exciting news, the babe sings along to the ABC song pretty darn well now, and yesterday she counted from one to six on her own...no prompting...two separate times! She did it again today standing in front of the window counting cars. I guess she really isn't a babe if she's counting cars, right?

Oh, and how can I forget. Potty training. We have invested in a potty for her room and a potty for the downstairs bathroom. I am taking a very slow motion, no pressure approach to the whole thing. But I figured seeing the potty would help her understand the concept. I have sat her down quite a few times over the past couple months, but no success. One day, while she was sitting on the potty and I was sitting on the potty (teaching by example, of course) she stood up and ran off to the kitchen. I was not fast enough and she was back in the bathroom before I could do anything. I realized she was wet and cleaned her up. She was wet because she had gotten up off the potty, walked to the kitchen, and peed on the carpet. Not quite grasping the concept of peeing in the potty, I suppose.

Fast forward to last Saturday. My dear friend from NYC was visiting and we were playing with the babe in her room. At one point the babe stood by her potty and started pulling at her pants. "Do you want to go potty?" I asked. She nodded her head, so off came the pants and diaper. To both our surprise, she sat down and went pee right in front of us. Needless to say, I was in total shock. I can't really explain the feeling of seeing your little baby pee in a potty for the first time. It was simply, remarkable. On Sunday we had a repeat performance, and yesterday, she even peed in the downstairs potty (which is much wider and practically swallows her in). We'll see how much training we can get done by December 21st!

And last but not least, a week and a half ago we did a one night family road trip to the Big Apple. It was the babe's first time to New York City, and it was so cool to be with her in my old town. We spent the majority of our time in Central Park (see pic above) and it was a very special 21 hour trip. She even learnt how to say "apple" on the drive back (she had previously just said "app").

My Mother in Law is now in town visiting and the husband and I have very early dinner reservations (5:30 pm so we can put the babe to bed) to re-attempt celebrating our three year anniversary. We went out last night and had to go to four restaurants before we could get a table (it was a tad disappointing). We're going to my favorite sushi place, Sushi Taro, even though I can't eat raw fish. I can't really explain why I want to go there so badly, I just do.

So, three years of marriage, one toddler, and one baby on the way. Who woulda thought, eh? Oh, and happy belated Canada Day!

Happy Anniversary To Us

Two years ago today, my new husband and I flew to the Bahamas for our honeymoon. We were legally married in Ottawa in a simple ceremony on July 1st (Canada Day) and had a beautiful Hindu wedding on July 2nd. Our anniversary was this past Sunday and Monday and I must say we had a really great time. If you read my blog post regarding my first Mother's Day as a Mother, you may recall that I have a tendency to get worked up about special occasions. The moral of the post was that I'd have to lower my expectations as I can't always control my baby and demand she celebrate on my schedule.

So, I did my best to keep my anniversary expectations low. My husband and I pretty much agreed that we wouldn't worry about presents (other than cards, of course). His gift to me was sushi from our favorite restaurant, Sushi Taro. My gift to him was our favorite chocolate with vanilla butter cream cake from Cake Love. We had an awesomely blissful food fest at our place on Saturday night. Our daughter had even fallen asleep at a decent hour and allowed us to celebrate.

To continue the food frenzy, we headed out to brunch in Georgetown (our old 'hood) on Sunday. We dined at Filomena's brilliant buffet until we felt slightly ill and were amazed that our daughter continued her good behavior. She was easily entertained and pleasant for the whole experience and even fell asleep as we walked off the food at the waterfront.

All this may not sound that exciting, but for new parents who haven't gotten out much, this was a sweet anniversary marking the days we said "I do." I need to remember this lesson of low expectations. I was truly pleasantly surprised and it helped me realize that my little family can still have great times on "special days." I just can't always count on it.

Now if only we were getting on a plane to the Bahamas today. That sure would be special.