Plant Nite!

Succulents In A Fish Bowl

Teri and I, taken by the instructor

March 2018

Part of my Christmas gift from Teri this year was an evening together making a terrarium. I have been to a few of the ones that are for painting a canvas - with both Tessa and Kristen on multiple occasions. I always have issues figuring out what to do with the picture afterwards. Teri had heard me complain about this aspect and thought the plant one would be a good solution. It was! We had dinner together at the pub beforehand, as these things are often hosted at a bar, and then made a little planter. It has inspired me to re-pot my other house plants too!

Also, is it just me or does Ter look the same as she did in 2006 in the photo? Way to not age over the past 12 years. This shot actually reminds me of an exact picture of her from somewhere but I couldn't find it on the blog and I am not heading over to Facebook to see if it is there. Either-way, basically if you just refer to this photo, she is still 22.

Another Extra One

Nothing was scheduled for Monday on the tour since it was the day that everyone flies home, and the flights all leave at different times. For example, Kristen and Noah had a 7pm flight out of Johannesburg and later on Mom, Jason, Tessa, and I had to catch a plane at midnight. It did mean that all of us had pretty much a full day to fill. Here's what everyone decided to do:

-- Jason and Tessa went to the spa next to the hotel for massages, and spent time by the pool

-- Kristen and Noah went to The Cradle of Humanity to the the caves and museum

-- Mom and I decided to do another extra safari, we went to Pilanesberg National Park

Itinerary Update - Bit Of A Split Up

Pre-Scheduled Post: Sunday - Cape Town City Tour
As per our trip itinerary (bar any issues/changes/complications etc.) we will split up ....

Mom and Tessa will join the Winelands Tour along the country's principal wine route to the scenic towns of Paarl, Franschhoek and Stellenbosch with tastings along the way.

Kristen, Noah, Jason, and I will take a full-day excursion to "Shark Alley" to experience great white shark cage diving.

All Here

Big meet up in Cape Town Airport - just before midnight Friday, with Kristen and Noah's plane landing just 10 minutes before ours. Asked a lady from our Gate 1 Travel group to take the first photo of us all together as we gathered before getting on the bus to the hotel. She got this one of us chatting as we got into position, so it is the actual first shot and I like it!

From Left: Noah, Kristen, Tessa, Jason, Me and Mom

Cape Town Airport 2018

Itinerary Update - Travel To South Africa

Pre-Scheduled Post: Thursday/Friday - Travel to South Africa
As per our trip itinerary (bar any issues/changes/complications etc.) today we will ....

Be flying to South Africa!

Kristen and Noah are going separately, through Amsterdam.

Mom, Tessa, Jason, and I will be on Air France Flight AF351 leaving Toronto at 6:35pm tonight, getting into Paris Charles de Gaulle, France tomorrow (Friday) morning at 8:00am. It is about 6.5 hours in the air. The longer flight is a full day one for all of Friday. Leaving Paris at 10:10am and flying AF864 to Cape Town, getting in at 10:40pm. It is over 11 hours of flying (not much of a time change going straight south I guess.

So Soon, So Unbelievable

I can't believe my trip to Africa starts tomorrow! In fact, for Kristen and Noah the adventure has already begun. As I mentioned back when we booked the tour, there are 6 of us going together. Kristen, Noah, Tessa, Jason, myself, and my mom for 12 days in South Africa with game drives and everything.

Always Standing will be buzzing! I have pre-scheduled posts that detail each day on the itinerary. I hope to load pictures and posts throughout the trip as well - we are staying in nice hotels that should have good wifi.

You should also follow along with Vicarious Travelling, which is my mom's blog - set up in a more 'travel diary' style. (Link on the left)

Somewhere Changing

Back from a weekend in Niagara Falls with the following:

- Joy from three straight days with great friends
- A Massive headache
- Guilt from keeping Tessa awake

- The sound of Kristen singing Kesha stuck in my head

- Reminders from Taylor to do a safety check
- Sweat drenched clothes from the humidity
- A lavender plant
- Memories of the 45oz blue margarita
- Plans to go out on the Friday night next year

Journey Behind The Falls has ponchos too!

I never know where to look when I am the one taking the selfie

Me, Tessa, Taylor, and Kristen

After skipping a year because of my wedding, we are back with tradition. Third time is the charm.

Going To Africa

It was a crazy rash decision and purchase but a group of 6 of us are going to Africa in January. To quote Kristen, "July 1, no plans. July 3, ALL OF THE PLANS." We got a voucher from Groupon, making a very affordable tour even more so. We bought the Groupon about two weeks ago. Then over the last week we have been working with the tour company to make the final reservations. The trip includes flight, but out of JFK in New York, so some of of us have paid a bit extra to adjust the departure to leave from Toronto instead. Now everything is booked and I still can't believe it is happening. Kristen, Noah, Tessa, my mom, Jason, and I are all taking a 12 day tour of South Africa and the idea of being on a safari is still mind blowing to me.

Panda Is A Real Cat

We took her back yesterday - but for the past week we have been looking after Tessa's cat, Panda. Unlike Two, Panda is a more 'traditional' cat...

Panda
- Spends a fair amount of time hidden under the bed
- Doesn't play very much with toys or string
- Takes a while to warm up to new people
- Sits near or beside you, not ON you
- Purrs very loudly when getting petted

She really is a lovely cat, but she is different than Two and it really made me remember how unique different animals are with their behaviors and personality.

The Great Pet Shuffle

- I took Two to Teri's today. Two will be staying in Oakville until Family Day, hopefully behaving herself around the baby.

- Tomorrow I am going to go pick up Panda from Tessa's apartment. Jason and I are going to look after her for the week.

- This is because Tessa is up in North Bay looking after her families pets while her mother is out of town.

We are all so lucky to have Teri at the end of this chain who is able to take Two. Follow along with the TwoDeeCat instagram account, link to the left, for pet updates.

Motherhood - Just Disappear

I was watching Hockey Wives with Tessa on Monday. (I would like to state that it was not my decision of show, I don't like it very much - but I can't judge her choice, I like a lot of reality TV and none of it is good.) One of the women had a baby recently and talks to her friend about how tiring motherhood is because her son isn't sleeping through the night yet. She said this, while giggling:

I don’t want anything bad to happen to me. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him. But if the world just blew up and everybody just ended at the same time, I’d be fine with that. That’s how tired I am.

This rings so close to depression. I have had these thoughts, they are the precursor to wanting to die. It isn't quite there yet, it is the desire to just not exist anymore in a way that avoids pain for friends and family - it is very close to a suicide fantasy. However, it also rings so true to what I image parents might think or feel at times.

An Epic Party

My Bachelorette Party was this weekend, a three day event planned by Teri and flawlessly put together for me by 11 amazing friends. This has brightened my summer into the phosphorescent. There are no words so how loved I feel, how grateful I am to have these beautiful, inspiring, women in my life, how much fun I had, how touched I was by each thoughtful gesture. My abs hurt from laughing, my face aches from smiling, and these are the greatest pains to have.

Thank you so much to Teri, Steph, Kristen, Tessa, Andrea, Erin, Jenn, Jen, Maria, Meghan, and Taylor.

Panda Wants Tessa To Stay Home

It is so hard to take a good photo of a black cat, I remember the challenge from the years of having Binx. Tessa got a beautiful one of Panda yesterday as she packed for the weekend Bachelorette (mine!) trip up to Collingwood.

Please Don't Go Mommy

Panda Prevents Packing 

Photo by Tessa

Self-Care

I really need to practice better self-care. I keep saying it, self-care, self-care, self-care. But I haven't been following through. For me taking care of myself means ensuring the following things:
- Getting enough sleep (regularly having 9 hours a night)
- Eating well (no complex carbs like bread, pasta, or potatoes)
- Exercising three times a week (aka going to Cykl)

It is especially important to get back to spinning which I have almost stopped going to entirely. I would like to blame the fact that I have been so sick but really it has been a combination of that, working on house stuff, and just being lazy. I miss Tessa a lot, since it is the main way we get together. I also miss being able to climb a flight of stairs without losing my breath. I am going tonight!

Bad Habit, Good Habit

For almost over a week now I have been dealing with a cold. Between work, preparing/painting Casa Verde before moving in, and packing up Rrunuv Bayit - I am scared of burning out. I am being careful to get enough sleep every night and take cold medicine to keep myself functioning, however I feel pretty foggy from it all.

I have also gotten into a bad habit of getting a little bag of potato chips (Miss Vickie's Original) and a chocolate bar (Crunch) from the vending machine almost every weekday afternoon. I usually buy them on my way out the door to have on the bus during my evening commute. Or, if I am staying later than usual then I have it at my desk in the late afternoon. So unhealthy! But, I get so much comfort from it. Also, when I can't breath and everything tastes disgusting because of all the grossness from the cold, it is nice to actual enjoy eating something.

At least I am back to keeping up with my good habit of spinning, specifically going to the Top 40's class and staying overnight at Tessa's after. I missed last week because it was the worst day of my cold (the sore throat part was impervious to medication and hurt terribly.) It is going to be slow going having really cut back from spinning while I get ready to move but I need to keep it up and start attending more often again.

Dad's Walk

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

On our way home from the cottage today, Kristen, Tessa, and I were talking about checking out the little walking trail on the causeway. I have done the loop with Yen a long time ago. There were a lot of frogs so I haven't really done it since. It is a nice 2km path so we probably will check it out as a group when we head back to Long Point next month.

I also really want to do the hiking trails that run between the cemetery and the Bird Studies Canada headquarters. Every time I have wanted to do it the paths have been so muddy. It was part of what is so nice about my dad's grave site is that his headstone is right near the entrance to those hiking trails.

Paper Productivity

On a quick step away from all the house related posts, I went to The Cottage this weekend to work on some wedding preparations. 

In order to keep our budget down, Jason and I are trying a lot of tips and techniques to cut costs. One of those is to do your own flowers. It was hard to find a good cost estimate but I knew that this was is an area that can cost anywhere from $500 to $5,000. It all depends on what specific flowers are chosen, whether they are in season locally or not, size and number of bouquets needed, and if any decorations or centerpieces are getting made.

Both Kristen and Jenn found ways to save on flower costs but still have beautiful fresh flower bouquets. Jenn got her's done by a grocery store florist, I know because I picked them up for her. Kristen's mom put her's together the morning of the wedding from flowers bought at a farmers' market. These would have been smart options for us as well but as soon as fresh flowers are used it means more work and organization on the actual day - bouquets using other materials can be done well ahead of time and don't add to the day-of organization.

So this weekend, using some outdated brochures that were going to get thrown away, Teri, K, Tessa, Kristen, Jeska, and I gathered glue guns and scissors around the dining room table down at Long Point and got to work. And work we did! Jason and I have a large wedding party so that meant EIGHT bouquets to make yesterday. We finished and they look great. See the photo above - paper roses, mainly in blue. One more thing to check off the list of things to do before the wedding.

Excited For A Fresh Start

Look what came in the mail today! Chapters was having a sale so instead of the normal $25, my yearly planner was only $20. Unfortunately, they only sell one colour (black) in the weekly-horizontal style that I use. Last year I had pink, but I think I ordered it through Amazon where there are more choices.

Steph used to get them for me, when for a couple of years you couldn't get this specific layout in Canada and had to go through the USA. She used to use the one that is smaller than this one, the "pocket-size" but I don't know if she still does. Everyone's phones are so good now and calendars sync to various devices; most people have gone digital.

I actually keep mine, and look through them, it is a really cool snapshot of time to see what I was interested in or doing each year. They store in a compact way. The last couple of years I make sure to white out (or scribble over) any thing that I don't end up doing, so these planners are accurate representation of what I do. This is especially key for spinning since I am trying to keep track of how much I spin now that Tessa and I have an unlimited package (got to see if we get our money's worth.)

I have already torn open the packaging and transferred over the details for my Peru trip, the second week of which was mapped out on a blank page in my 2015 planner since they do minimal overlap between the years. I also put in all the birthdays, in two places. Usually the first 3 pages has a list-version of the year's dates and it goes in there for easy reference, in 2016 they have a full month on each page so I used that. Then I go through and put notes in the individual days too. I already made my first white-out, I tried to draw wedding bells to go beside Rob and Andrea's wedding date but they looked horrible and I had to erase them, there are hearts now instead.

Cat Logic

------ found online (from Tessa)

Not my photo - Found online

Check out the HUGE list of hilarious examples HERE.

This Is My Fight Song

Weekend trip to Niagara Falls and I returned with the following:

- Shin pain from dancing
- Promises of Journey Behind The Falls and Wizard Golf next year
- A bottle of wine with my art on the label
- Chocolate covered beer nuts
- A losing mini putt score but joy about a hole-in-one
- Rachel Platten in my head, still with incorrect lyrics
- New definition for Liquid Gold (breast milk)
- A killer hangover that lasted for 3 days

Hornblower Again - I take a good selfie

Me, Tessa, Kiyomi, Taylor, and Kristen in front

We are making it an annual thing, this is the second year in a row.