All's the same when you're in the game...

Well it's been a little while since I've posted so I figured I would ramble a little bit for anyone who cares to know what's going on with us. The short answer is: not much, haha....same old I suppose.

Work is going well, I'm still only extended until Dec 1st at this point, but I'm about 99% sure I'll be there longer, at least until the New Year, so that's good, by the sounds of it my position has been approved for 08-09, meaning that they will keep me around as a Casual until the new fiscal year in April, and then I can officially apply for the position as a permanent employee(they can't create new positions this late in the year I guess, they don't have the money for it or something, I don't quite understand, but I don't really care.) So all in all, it sounds good, I might even be getting a slight promotion, since the job is not going to be a Secretary II, but a Program Office Administrator (or something), which is a higher classification than a Sec II, and that means a raise. So all in all, it sounds good and I can't complain.

Dan is doing well in school. He has done toilets and is now working on sinks (I think), so things are moving along well, he only has another 4 weeks and then his first semester is over already...in a way it's gone by quickly but in another it's been very very very long. He keeps telling me that he still likes it, which is good and important, I just hope he likes it when he gets out and starts working. He's still trying to find some part time work for the school year, which will be helpful, but it's hard since he has limited hours (and is also picky about where he works), so in the meantime, I'm still his sugar mama, haha. I don't mind though, he'll be working plenty when I'm at home with the babies, hahaha...he's pretty sure htat he'll be able to find a co-op employer here in May, so that's good, and then he begins his apprentiship and starts making some real money...I can't wait.

Well the last 2 weekends have been quite busy. Two weeks ago I got a mini vacation, because I had 4 days off plus a day out of the office, so really, it was 5 days away from work, which is awesome. We went to my parents' camp on Friday, hung out there and in Sussex with my family on Saturday, then headed to Freddy for the night on Sunday to hang out with Dylan and Claire, then SJ on Monday, and back to Sussex Tuesday...we made the rounds basically, haha. I was especially glad to go wedding dress shopping with my sister and to see my little neveu Sean on Monday. That boy is come cute, and I love how he's not afraid of anyone (he was a bit weary of us at first, but it didn't take long for him to come sit on my lap and play with me and give me kisses) If any child were to give me baby fever, it would be him....cute cute. Then this weekend that just passed we had some visitors come to see us, which was a nice change....Bonnie and Andrew came up to do some Christmas shopping, so we got to hang out with them for a few days...on Friday we went out to supper then just out and played cards, then on Saturday the boys and their mom went shopping while I was away doing other things (my preggo friend Sara came up for the day, so we had lunch, and then I had to work for a bit), but later that night we headed out to watch the Christmas Parade in town, which was fun and got me in the Christmas mood....then we went out for Thai, which was AWESOME, I loved it soooooo much, haha. Anyway, all in all it was a good weekend too.

Speaking of weekends, ours are going to be quite busy for the next little while...we have 2 free weekends (including this one coming up) for the rest of the year! We have a wedding to go to on the 1st, then Dan has Dylan's bachelor party the 15th, then Christmas weekend on the 22nd, then Dylan's wedding on the 29th....so lots and lots of travelling for the next little while. I'm a little worried that we won't be able to see everyone and do everything we want to do over Christmas, there's just too much going on. We are supposed to be having a meeting with our supervisor this week to figure what's going on over Christmas, I'm hoping to get the 24th, 27th and 28th off, but I'm not sure if I can pull all that off...if so then we should have no trouble, it'll be Peters from the 21st-25th, then Flynns from the 26th-30th or so. We'll have to see I suppose.

Well not too much else to ramble about, I'm still going stir crazy and mind crazy, wondering what the heck we should do next year....my main concern is whether we should continue living here in Halifax...it's so far away from our families, and plus, we will never be able to afford a house here within a reasonable amount of time, so I don't know if it's worth staying, especially since Dan is able to work wherever he wants, and with my govi experience, I shouldn't have too much trouble either. So we'll have to see what happens come spring, we may be on the move once again, who knows.

Who knows, who knows.

"Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!!"

Finally!

Well, I got some good news over the wekeend:

My wedding dress has finally been sold! It's about time, I've had it since April 06 (one month after getting engaged) and have been trying to sell it since October 06 (one month after getting married.) My mom called me on Friday to tell me that when she called the consignement store in Moncton (the same one where I bought it), to make an appointment to go pick it up (I wanted to try and sell it myself on Kijiji since it wasn't selling), they said that they had already sold it...so that's good I guess. I'm only going to get 150$ for it, which is a third of what I paid for it, but that's ok, I'm just happy that it's finally sold.

Makes me a little bit sad, knowing that it's gone forever, but really, I was never really that attached to it in the first place, it was the 3rd dress I tried on on the first and only visit, and I bought it mostly because it fit, it looked good, I knew Dan would like it, it was cheap, and my mom/sister liked it. If it had been up to me to do whatever I wanted, I would have gotten something completely different (not white, for starters, no back, dramatic jewlery, etc...) It never bothered me sending it back to be sold, though, we needed the money (still do), and there was no point keeping it around to collect dust so that my daughter (if I have any) could make fun of it 20 years later. We have plenty of picture to remind us.

If I hadn't of sold it, the only other thing I would have liked to do would have been to Trash It. But I mean, I could still do that with another cheap white dress on an anniversary or something, it's no big deal. (Trash the Dress, in case anyone doesn't know, is when you go out after your wedding and take pictures of you in your dress in 'messy' places, like in the ocean, in the woods, on the streets, ect, and you 'trash' your dress by laying in the dirt, getting wet, etc...the pics are AWESOME and so much fun!)

Anyway, that's it, the cheque should be getting here sometime this week, which is sooo lucky since we were going to go in the red this week!! It's funny how life throws you a bone every once in awhile... that's all for now, more rambling later this week I suppose...

Nothing new to report...

I realize that it's been forever since I last posted (although I'm not quite as bad as some family members who shall remain nameless, haha), so I just thought I would write a quick little hello...I'm actually at work now so I can't say much, just wanted to let you all know that things are going well, everything is just flowing along I suppose...Dan still enjoys school, but is not working yet, I still have my job (until Dec 1st at least), I work too much, we are still poor, we still like Halifax, we are still happy :)

.....


Well, besides the occasional bout of stir-craziness and moodiness, but that's just me.

Anyway, more to come later after work! (maybe) In the meantime, here's a picture of Félix in a vampire costume, haha

Our One Year Anniversary Teepee Adventure

Well, we just got back from our Anniversary weekend, so I thought I'd update you all on how it went...I took pics, but sadly our digi camera doesn't work so I had to take them old school, but I'll develop them tomorrow and post them on Facebook most likely...so anyway, here's the lowdown:

We both took the day off Friday, so Dan came home Thursday night, which made a big difference, that extra day was really good to have...anyway, we left the city at around one and got to the retreat at around 3...we drove along the South Shore to Liverpool, then cut inland to head to Maitland Bridge, which is where the retreat was (it's about 3 mins away from Keji Park, for those who know NS) Anyway, so we got there, and the place was really nice; small, only 7 cabins, 5 teepees, a restaurant, office, kitchen cabin, and a lodge with 4 rooms. Anyway, it was in the woods along the banks of a river that ran into a small lake. Our teepee was pretty cool, it was set apart from the other 4 teepees, which are the 'village'; ours was set kind of in a corner of a small field, on the edge of the woods and right on the lake. It was a pretty big teepee, probably 15-20 feet tall, and there was room enough in there for 3 beds, a double and 2 singles, and 2 small shleves, all on the outside edges of the inside. They are set up on platforms so you aren't on the ground, which is cool, and they were pretty waterproof, despite the pouring rain (more on that later.)

But the best part of the teepee for sure was the hottub. Basically it was a home made hottub...it was on our platform right on the edge of the lake. It was big enough for probably 4 people, and was made of wood. The way you heated it was by a wood stove that was set underwater in the tub (it was walled off by wooden slats so you couldn't touch it) Anyway, most of the stove was underwater, so as you burned wood, the water got hotter. The water was water from the Lake, and there was a valve to release the water and a pump to add more, and a pool skimmer to clean out any grass or bugs. Pretty rustic, but it worked out perfectly. So anyway, we get there, unpack, walk around, and decide to get this hottub going. We light it up, but it takes forever to heat up because it's quite a lot of water and of course, it was freezing cold when we got there. So we played some tennis, had supper in the kitchen cabin (all people staying in the teepees shared a communal kitchen cabin, which had a stove, fridge, pots, pans, everything you would need, it was great.) Then we kinda just lounged around, made a fire in the village (there was only one spot to make a fire, in the middle of the village, but luckily for us no one else was staying in the teepees that night so we had the place to ourselves.) So we go back to the teepee at around 10-10:30 (it was hard to keep track of time that weekend, since neither one of us had a watch and we had no clocks or cells and no access to our car, so we didn't know what time it was most of the time, which was actually nice), and the tub was STILL warming up. We didn't actually get in until about 11:30 I don't think, but it was sooo worth the wait. It was so nice to sit outside, in the hottub, with candles all around, right out on the Lake, and the weather was really nice too that night. We were in there for 2 hours or more I think. So yeah, that was Friday night.

I didn't sleep all that well (I don't sleep well in the woods) but we still woke up at around 9:00 or so to discover that it was misting and raining a little bit. We decided that we would head into a town for the day since it was supposed to pour all day and we didn't want to be outside or in the teepee when that happened, but luckily in the morning it wasn't bad at all. We started up the hottub again, had breaskfast, then came back for another dip, this time in the daylight and in the mist and rain, and it was actually really fun. We left once the rain started a bit harder ar around noon and headed into Bridgewater for the afternoon. We had lunch then went bowling, which was really fun too, considering we hadn't bowled in years. We headed back at around 4:30 or so, and by the time we got back to the retreat, the rain had stopped. Some of our stuff was wet, but luckily the bed wasn't and our clothes were all safe in our bags, so besides being a bit cold and damp, it was ok. We got the hottoub going again and then headed to the restaurant for dinner. It was nice, really small, just a few tables and home cooked by a few ladies who worked there, really home made kinda thing. So we had that, then came back to the teepee and hung out some more, then got back in the hottub (again, haha) But this time we kinda ruined a good thing...the water was wayyyy too hot, since we had kept the fire going for pretty much 2 days straight, the water was near boiling basically, and there was no way to cool it down. Also, it was really windy so it was harder to get out and cool down, so we didn't end up staying in it long, but we did manage to get another dip in.

We woke up this morning, had breaskfast again, contemplated getting in the hottub again, but it had actually cooled down quite a bit and was a bit cold, and it was hard to get the fire going again with all the wood being wet, so we just said forget it and left at around 11. All in all it was really nice, I'm glad we went.

Now, as for being married a whole year, I don't really have a whole lot to say about it. To me, and to Dan I think, it feels like we've been married much longer, so this was just a little reminder that we have a long, long way to go yet, haha. They say that the first year of marriage is supposed to be hard, and I guess for us it was hard, but not so much in our relationship, but more in our circumstances. It was hard for us with Dan working overnights for 8 months, then leaving to plant trees. It was hard scrambling to figure out everything for school, and deciding to live apart again, and me not knowing about my job (still not knowing.) All of that was hard, but being together wasn't. We fought, yeah, mostly about money, but I think that was just us getting used to actually sharing money and bank accounts and everything else, but we've got it pretty well sorted out now. I don't ever doubt that we got married too soon or that we're headed for trouble, I know we're doing well and will keep doing well as long we keep remembering to be kind to each other, respect each other, and support each other. I'm excited to see what this year will bring, but I'm not very worried about it...I know it'll be good :)

Well that was a huge ramble, but I wanted to keep a little record of our weekend so that when we are celebrating our 25th, we can look back and remember how we started out in a teepee.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Isn't it funny...

Isn't it funny, that when you are married (and a woman), and you throw up, or are queasy/nauseous for any reason at all, people automatically assume you could be or are pregnant?? I don't know if I'm the only one, but anytime I feel sick people always make the joke 'maybe you're pregnant'...last night my mom called to see how I was, and then she asked if I was pregnant! After I said no, she continued on about how this is how I would feel, and this is how she felt, lala, and asked me if I was sure...No Mama, I'm not, I would know...I think, haha.

Although I must admit, I think all women do it to each other once you reach a certain age, married or not, my friend Heather was nauseous a few times over the summer and I made jokes about her being pregnant, and she wasn't even seeing anyone seriously! She did get paranoid though, haha....everyone does.

Anyway, just a little remark I've made, now that I'm married...nearly a year married!!

It begins again...

Well, Dan is gone. He left for Springhill a few hours ago, and I'm pretty bummed about it, because this is officially the beginning of a long, LONG year. I know that he'll be home on the weekends and holidays, but it's not the same, we shouldn't be doing this anymore, after having done it so much already (I've calculated, and about half of our relationship, or over 2 years, has been spent long distance like this...that's too much!) I know we'll be fine and that it's the right decision for me to stay here, not just for me personally but for both of us; it takes off a lot of financial strain this way, but still, I wish it could have been different. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes, I know Dan is going to do awesome in school, I just really hope he likes it. As for me, I still don't know what's going to happen after October 19th, but I'll worry about that when it comes I guess. At the very worst, I'll move to Springhill with Dan after Christmas, but hopefully it won't come to that. It's the government, they have to find me something :)

Anyway, just my little bummed out rant, I've been sick for the last 2 days so it might not make a whole lot of sense, I'm pretty achy and I think a fever is coming on, hopefully I'll be better by tomorrow, I have too much work to do to call in sick, stuff that can't wait until Wednesday (I never though I'd have one of those jobs, but I do!) I felt like such a yuppie the other day, I had to bring some proofing work with me to lunch because I had a deadline! Craziness. Anyway, enough blabbing, I'm going to go lie down before I throw up again.

Happy Birthday Tom!!

Sorry this is so late, but Happy Birthday to the oldest Flynn boy, Tom, who turned a big 3-0 yesterday! You old man you ;)

(I tried to convince Dan to write "30 Reasons Why Tom is Great", but he said he couldn't come up with 30 reasons...some brother eh? haha)

Happy Birthday, hope you had a good one!

Dan & Geneviève