Love Is Strong, Memories Are Fading

So happy to wake up this morning, and all mornings, beside Jason. He is truly one of the greatest things in my life and sharing time (and a house) with him is so much fun! I love him in ways that I don't even have words to describe.

We are off to enjoy a fancy Valentine's dinner together this evening. And, as he reminds me, it will be our seventh Valentine's Day as a couple. I am terrible at remembering dates or keeping track of time, every time I get this type of information (usually from Jason) I am shocked at how long we have been together. The year 2010 is burned into my brain as the year that I moved to Toronto, and it feels like I lived here for a long time before meeting Jason, but it was only a couple of years later - in the summer of 2012. This means we have been together for almost eight years!

And in September of this year it will be our fourth wedding anniversary! I really need to remember these things. Here are some key relationship dates...

July 12, 2012 - Met Jason for the first time, at a Starbucks. I have this date noted in my planner each year and I try to remember and acknowledge it.

August 9, 2012 - He kissed me for the first time, on a streetcar. While we were dating we used this as our anniversary.

October, 2013 - We moved in together (Rrunuv Bayit.)

May 8-10, 2015 - We got engaged. Yes, it took a full weekend.

May, 2016 - We moved into our house (Casa Verde.) Though we bought it on Christmas Eve in 2015, and then we signed our mortgage papers on February 25 and the closing date was March 1, 2016. The move in was delayed to allow for a couple of months of renovations.

September 24, 2016 - We got married. This also took a full weekend, but for anniversary purposes we count the Saturday date as the main one. I have this marked in my planner too, so that I remember each year. Though I purposely planned for it to be on the 24th to help me remember (liked my birthday.)

Oh, and Jason's birthday is November 29, this is in my planner too since I get it confused all the time. (My brother was born the day after and my dad died two days before. The end of November is a busy time for trying to remember things and keeping dates straight.)

An Evening Flight

This is my first post about the big Hungary/Romania trip! When Mom posts about trips over on her blog, she does a nice job of naming and dating posts so that her travels appear in cohesive diary entries. I have done that in the past but I don't know how organized I will be at the moment as this trip involves piles of people, a wedding, a road trip and at the same time I am trying to stay on top of The Shop via my phone and computer. 

- Wednesday evening, after working all day and frantically packing, Jason and I made our way to Toronto airport to catch an overnight direct flight to Budapest.

- Teri, Greg, their new baby, and Matty were on the flight with us. Also on the flight was Diana2 and her husband Jas. We were all seated in the back section of the plane but kept to ourselves for the most part to try to sleep.

- I did manage to sleep and enjoy the wonderful bland food. I really love airplane food. Jason and I got one of each type and he was disgusted by the flavourless chicken so we switch because I am just content with anything that isn't spicy and comes divided out so it isn't touching.

- There was an annoying clapping thing when the plane landed, why doesn't anyone clap when I do my job well? However, I would say it was a very lovely landing, but still, the clapping thing is always strange to me.

Stay tuned, I hope to keep everyone updated and will post soon about our adventures around Budapest and beyond.

My Goofy Valentine

Cutting The Cake

Jason and Christine's Wedding Reception - September 24, 2016

By Stephanie Beach Photography

Late Night Poem

Cereal is great for dinner.
Towels are my favourite piece of laundry to fold.
Let's face it,
You did not marry me for my domesticity.

One Year

Jason and I just finished celebrating our One Year Wedding Anniversary during a weekend trip to San Francisco. (But we haven't eaten the special piece of cake yet.)

Riding On A Bus

Muni - San Francisco

Sunday September 24, 2017

Riding On A Streetcar

TTC - Toronto

Saturday September 24, 2016

Photo by Stephanie Beach Photography

A little side note, the sailboat necklace that you can see me wearing in the top photo was a gift from Jason on our wedding day. The necklace that I wore on my actual wedding day, seen in the second photo, was borrowed from my mom and features my father's wedding ring.

I Miss Him, He Is Missing Things

Sunday Mornin' Coming Down - A post about my Dad each Sunday, named after a song that he loved.

Lately I have been really aware of all the things that my Dad has been missing (you know, by being dead.) As usual, strange things remind me of him. Here are the things he is missing out on this summer:

- So many superhero and action movies
- Sleeping in our cool cabinet bed
- Visits with the ever growing Minns family
- Lots of free events and festivals in Toronto
- Nautical style clothes becoming cheap and being everywhere
- Helping with our many outdoor house projects
- The new Game of Thrones season
- A lot of sailing

This doesn't even get into the extremely upsetting parts, like my wedding last year, or, meeting and playing with his grandchildren. There is always so much I want to share with him. I miss his happiness and excitement (something I am planning on writing about later.)

And Why Did I Go?

So, since I haven't been away, and most people knew that I wasn't, what has been the cause of the month-long blog hiatus? A lot of friends and family have been wondering why I haven't posted, and everyone has their own ideas as to the reason behind my stalled writing on Always Standing.

Here are the theories I have heard:

- The trails of home-ownership. Nope. It has been a busy Spring at Casa Verde but more for Jason than me. He has been working on the lawn, trying to get rid of weeds and seeding in more grass. While I was in Ottawa this past weekend Faye and David came and helped Jason and Noah tear down the gross shed/kennel behind our garage.

- Newly wedded bliss. Nope. I know we just had our honeymoon, BUT. We got married in September 2016, moved in to our own house in May 2016, bought our home in December of 2015,  and we had started to live together in October 2013. So the bliss wouldn't really be the type to keep me from posting.

- My new job. Nope. While it is true that I am working long hours at the office in preparation for our big summer event, it has only stopped me from posting in that I don't want to log into a work computer to do it. We use Google for everything here and having my account on the computer to access Blogger might get tangled up in the accounts I use for work. But I often have my personal computer here so could easily pop on it during a break and fire off a post.

The actual reason:

- My tablet broke! I don't think I ever mentioned that I had my own tablet but Jason got me a very nice Google Pixel C for Christmas. (It was intended for my birthday but came so early that I got it at Christmas instead.) Well, I have been using it to post on Always Standing because it is always on hand and the Blogger interface on it is okay. I hadn't realized how much I relied on it to blog, but I do. All my Azores posts were done from the tablet, it is pretty much my main computer now. Well, the screen on it went wonky about a month ago and Jason spent some time trying to fix it but ended up having to send it away. I have it back now and posting will pick up again.

Me, On A Sailboat, On Tuesday, In The Azores

When Jason shared his photos from the trip I was surprised how many there were of me. I am just not bothered by having my picture taken so it doesn't really register. We both only had our phones with us in terms of cameras but Jason came away with more pictures. I thought I would show what our sailing day looked like based on photos, it was a nice post to do about Monday, lets do it for Tuesday too. (All photos are Jason's unless otherwise noted)

Setting off! A beautiful day, a beautiful boat!

Skipper Pedro (left), First Mate Rui (right), and Jason

Photo by ME

Touring along the coast, passing cities and towns.

The architecture is very 'European.'

They let me drive!

I think there was some type of autopilot going too, 

but when I turned the wheel the boat moved.

Left the wheel to hang out at the bow.

One of the quiet coves along the southern coast of Sao Miguel.

I can see it! Our destination far ahead. 

It doesn't lie far off the coast of the city of Vila Franca do Campo,

but we left from Ponta Delgada so had to travel east to get to it.

The reason for it all!

This is the Islet of Vila Franco do Campo, 

something that I REALLY wanted to explore.

While we didn't see it from this angle (helicopter?)

you did get a sense of its shape from sailing around it,

climbing along the rocks on the inside, swimming in the lagoon, etc.

Photo from Tourism Website

We are getting closer.

The weather was perfect.

Just enough wind to be exciting,

not enough wind to make Jason uncomfortable.

I can't take my eyes off of it.

It is literally an ancient submerged volcano, and looks like it.

Rounding the islet to get to the entrance.

The cliffs show the rocks at strange angles and formations.

So beautiful.

Not just lava rocks and harsh cliffs,

also tropical vegetation.

(And later we would learn,

tons of newts and crabs.)

Time to swim!

We reach the entrance and they anchor the boat.

Jason and I swim into the Islet to explore.

Docking the boat.

After our excursion, we went into town for lunch.

It has moss still on the shell!

My reaction to one of the pieces of seafood served at lunch.

Full on tentacles.

But then I had fresh octopus for my main course,

it was amazingly delicious, melt in your mouth good.

Saying goodbye. 

Left the islet and the city Vila Franco do Campo,

time to sail back to the main port.

Dozing.

Spent the ride back enjoying the sun.

A bit bigger than us.

Came into port just as a cruise ship was leaving.

We want to thank our friends and family who supported this trip, which was our honeymoon, and those who participated in our crazy wedding back in September. The money that was gifted to us was used on this trip and allowed for the types of adventures we might not normally splurge on. We had so much fun and are very grateful.

Six Hours In

I didn't get a chance to sleep on the plane, so arrived with Jason this morning in The Azores, for our honeymoon, pretty damn exhausted. After touring around a solid portion of Sao Miguel Island (it is quite small) while we waited to check into our hotel, I came up with the following delirious impression...

The Azores is like Spain and Hawaii had a secret love child 500 years ago and didn't tell anyone about it. They just put the kid the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and gave it to Portugal to look after. All lush landscapes with volcanic geology, green vegetation, and bright tropical flowers interspersed throughout by classic Latin/Mediterranean style architecture and European towns/culture. It is an amazing merger that to some degree feels very familiar but at the same time is like no where else.

Like you would expect from a hidden illegitimate child, The Azores, both the islands and their population, are quiet. Comfortable with their complicated and unique identity but also very reserved about it. Most people speak English and Spanish (and more) but they occasionally point out the difference in those languages as they connect to Portuguese, the main one spoken here.

The weather changes on a dime many times throughout the day, a bit moody I guess. Flipping from cloud covered mountains to rainy coasts to stretches of blue skies across patch work stone fenced fields. The weather doesn't stay the same very long but it also doesn't seem to be too extreme.

Lastly, they got pretty into cows. Bit of an obsession, cows are everywhere and wander all over the roads at times - even major highways.

Basically this place is strange and amazing but also absolutely STUNNING! I can't wait to explore everything from the waves crashing on the coastlines to the black lava rocks on the hill tops and everything in between. Stay turned for more updates.

National Siblings Day

According to my Facebook feed it is National Siblings Day. Though really it is only recognized in The States, everyone is posting photos of their brothers and sisters. I figured I would join the fun on Always Standing. Instead of posting a 'Throw Back' image, here is a recent one from September:

Mike and I at my wedding

September 23, 2016

Toronto City Hall, Ontario

Photo by Stephanie Beach Photography

He also was back in Ontario a couple of weeks ago. Instead of attending the funeral for Aunty Laura he chose to spend the money coming back to visit her before she died. He brought along Maya too since she is still young enough that you don't have to pay for an extra seat. Not only did they get to see our aunt but they spent a bit of time in Toronto with me too. I love hanging out with Mike, he is a great little brother!

Aunty Laura

I got notice this morning that my Aunty Laura had passed away over night. She has been sick for the last couple of months and had been put on palliative care a few weeks ago. Goodbye Aunty Laura, you will be missed.

Aunty Laura and I at my wedding

September 24, 2016

Toronto Island, Ontario

Photo by Stephanie Beach Photography

This is her official Obituary which will be published in the London Free Press on Friday:

Sweeton, Laura Delbridge 
April 5th, 2017 

Born March 13, 1943 and died at home on April 5, 2017. Predeceased by her father Alec, mother Berniece and brother George (Carol). Aunt to Christine (Jason) and Michael (Aimee), and Great-Aunt to Avery and Maya. Bridge player, collector, cat lover and traveler. The funeral service will be conducted at Westview Funeral Chapel, 709 Wonderland Road North, on Sunday, April 9th, 2017 at 1:30 p.m. with visitation one hour prior. Private interment, Exeter Cemetery. Those wishing to make a donation in memory of Laura are asked to consider the charity of your choice.

Wedding Update

I posted the following on Jason and My Wedding Website but I thought I would put it here as well. (This is why it is written weirdly in third person.) After our wedding was over, we spent the last week in September doing a lot of donations:

CASH DONATIONS

During the reception at Watermark Pub we gave each guest 3 bingo chips in a small bag. Each chip represented one dollar. Our guests brought these to the head table during the evening and placed them in a charity jar. There were two jars representing different charities. We also asked that instead of just clinking glasses to get us to kiss, guests donated an amount of their choosing to one of the two charities. With the combination of poker chips and cash donations for kissing, we have given the following:

- $175 to The Heart and Stroke Foundation
- $280 to Jesse's Journey Foundation

Thank you to all our guests for their generosity!

DRESS DONATIONS

Chris has donated both of her wedding dresses:
- The Paperwork Dress, the cocktail length dress worn by Christine on Friday September 23, 2016 to Toronto City Call to sign paperwork was donated to The Brides' Project in Toronto. The Brides’ Project accepts donated wedding dresses and resells them raising funds to support cancer charities.
- The Main Wedding Dress, since the large dress worn to the ceremony on Saturday September 24, 2016 had been purchased used and was more than 3 years old it couldn't be donated to The Brides' Project. Instead, this dress was given to Double Take, a thrift store that supports The Young Street Mission.

OTHER DONATIONS

- Hot Dogs and Hot Dog Buns, on the Monday immediately following the wedding all the leftover perishable food was brought to Second Harvest in Toronto. This organization arranges the delivery of fresh food to various community agencies.
- Paper Plates, Cutlery, and Plastic Cups, we also had a lot of leftover picnic supplies which were given to The Daily Bread Food Bank.

Quiz - Jason's Answers

From Tuesday's Valentine's Day Quiz, here are Jason's answers (as he relayed them to me verbally.)

- Who's older? Me.
- Who was interested first? You contacted me
- Married? Yes
- Together? Yes
- More sarcastic? Me
- Who makes the most mess? You
- Who has more tattoos? You
- Better singer? Me
- Hogs the remote? I don't know
- Better driver? Me
- Smarter? I don't know, what does smart mean?
- Most common sense? Probably you
- Whose siblings do you see the most? Mine
- Do you have any children together? No
- Did you go to the same school? No
- Who is the most sensitive? Me
- Where do you eat out most as a couple? Harvey's
- Where is the furthest you two have traveled together? Peru
- Who has the worst temper? Yooouuu..I mean...no one really
- Who does the cooking? We both do
- Who is more social? You
- Who is the neat freak? We are neat freaks in different and incomptable ways
- Who is the most stubborn? Me
- Who hogs the bed? You thinks it's me
- Who wakes up earlier? Me
- Where was your first date? Starbucks
- Who has the bigger family? I do, because of my neice and nephews, but you have a larger, in touch, extended family
- Do you get flowers often? No
- Who does the laundry? I do
- Who drives when you are together? I do
- Who picks where you go to dinner? Both of us
- Who wears the pants in the relationship? We are both currently wearing pants

Quiz - My Answers

From yesterday's Valentine's Day Quiz, here are my answers (about Jason)

- Who's older? Jason, for this half of the year
- Who was interested first? Neither, eHarmony
- Married? For four months
- Together? For over four years
- More sarcastic? Jason (he is basically Kristen)
- Who makes the most mess? Me, but I am also the one that cleans the bathroom
- Who has more tattoos? Me
- Better singer? Him, by far. However, I sing way more often
- Hogs the remote? The Xbox uses voice commands
- Better driver? Him
- Smarter? Toss up
- Most common sense? Me
- Whose siblings do you see the most? His. Mike's in Edmonton
- Do you have any children together? No, and it is a long way off.
- Did you go to the same school? No
- Who is the most sensitive? Me
- Where do you eat out most as a couple? Harvey's
- Where is the furthest you two have traveled together? Paris
- Who has the worst temper? Neither
- Who does the cooking? Jason lately, but we try to share the task
- Who is more social? ME!
- Who is the neat freak? Jason but he isn't unreasonable
- Who is the most stubborn? JASON!
- Who hogs the bed? Jason
- Who wakes up earlier? My alarm goes off first
- Where was your first date? Starbucks
- Who has the bigger family? Me
- Do you get flowers often? Not really
- Who does the laundry? Jason
- Who drives when you are together? Jason, but only because he hates my driving
- Who picks where you go to dinner? Usually me
- Who wears the pants in the relationship? Pants? Isn't everything better naked?

Orchard And Goats

My mom is in Spain, you can follow along on her trip my visiting her blog Vicariously Travelling (link on the left). The problem with reading her posts is that it makes me really want to travel. I don't feel like I got to travel as much as I like to in 2016, probably due to buying a house and having a wedding. 

Mom went for a walk through a citrus orchard yesterday and the photos are beautiful. There were also chickens! They are less beautiful but still very majestic.

A Chicken Amung The Orange Trees

Photo by Mom

A few days ago she posted a series of goat pictures, they jumped over a wall onto the road in front of her. She says that she took the photos mainly for me because I love goats (and sheep). However, these goats had two baby goats so I think everyone would be excited to see them and want to take pictures.

A Series Of Goat Pictures

Taken by Mom

Shepherd's Wedding Cake

Pulled out a tupperware of what I thought was Shepherd's Pie from the freezer this morning so that it would be thawed to eat for dinner. I haven't really made shepherd's pie in a very very long time so I don't know why we would have it, but I thought it might have been put there by my mom.

Got home this evening ready to split it between Jason and I and warm in the microwave. When I opened the container I noticed that the 'mashed potatoes' at the top was in a beautiful rose pattern and realized that we had defrosted the top portion of our wedding cake eight months early. Oops!

I cut off a small part and put it in a labelled container to keep until our one year wedding anniversary in September - we will eat the rest for dessert tonight.

Note: Meg, Jason's sister, made our beautiful cake. Rich carrot cake with delicious cream cheese icing. Photo by Stephanie Beach Photography.

No, Thank You

Just before writing about her Top 5, Steph did a thank you post on her blog reflecting on her biggest year yet with Stephanie Beach Photography. I am so excited about the future of her company. You can read about the many things that has made this past year such a highlight, but for me it will selfishly be her participation at my wedding (which she also mentioned). Here is her sweet message:

I had such a hard time writing the original blog post for these two. This wasn’t because their day wasn’t interesting, on the contrary, Chris + Jason’s wedding was the most unique we have ever been a part of (and this will likely be a true statement for a long, long time, if not the rest of time). It was difficult to write because nothing was ever enough to express just how much they mean to us. When the bride is your very best friend, who has (and continues to) given you so much and always been there for you, expressing all of that in a matter befitting her, such a charismatic and well-spoken person, can be troublesome. Writing down the words that truly show how genuinely happy I am that two people as caring, thoughtful and utterly wonderful as them, have found each other took me longer than usual and to be honest, I still don’t think the words did the entire situation justice. I love them to pieces and getting to document their wedding days was without a doubt, a highlight of my photographic career and I can’t think of any other way I would have wanted to spend these days with them.

Check out the full 2016 Thank You post, HERE. You can also see her post about our wedding, which I love and frequently reread, HERE, the pictures are so beautiful.

Fall Wedding Handicap

Steph has reported on her blog the TOP 5 POSTSs for the year, Jason and My Wedding did make it. (Though we did get a nice little shoot out at the bottom, and included one of my favorite pictures of us hugging.)

I am a bit competitive and like to achieve really high digital and social media stats, so I was careful to link to Jason and my wedding post on her blog as often as I could. I also love the pictures and want to share them with everyone.

I think that we had a small disadvantage since the wedding was at the end of September and the main post went up at the start of November, so only two months of traffic! However, there was a wedding listed that only had a month up on the blog, very impressive, they must have a large network of friends and family.

Steph uses Wordpress, I think, for her blog so I won't be able to ask her how she figured out the top posts because Always Standing is on Blogger. I want to look into it though and maybe post mine later.

Happy Day

By A Brick Wall

Jason and Christine's Wedding - September 24, 2016

By Stephanie Beach Photography

Three Years Ago Today

Sunday Mornin' Coming Down - A Sunday post about my Dad, named after a song that he loved.

It still hurts. I think about my father often and I wish he was still here with every fiber of my being. He was gone too soon, even in three short years he has missed so many things that would have given him such joy. There is still more I want to share with him.

I got married.
Mom has a cat.
He became a grandfather, twice.
A house has been purchased and renovated.

The list goes on and if I start thinking about it too deeply it will hurt too much.