Savouring Life

I worked with this girl in University who was a Rec & Leisure major, focusing on therapeutic recreation.  One time when I was eating chocolate she said that I should try just sucking on it, letting it melt in my mouth and enjoying the taste, rather than eating it quickly and having the experience be over immediately.  So I did it.  And it was wonderful.

It seems like such an odd concept, but it's something that I still do every once in awhile.  So often in life, we rush though moments or seasons, wishing that the next stage of life was here or that things would change.  Why do we do that?  Why don't we enjoy the moments that we are in as much as we possibly can? It can be as small as a piece of chocolate or as big as a life stage. 

So today I challenge you to do this.  Start with a piece of chocolate.  Enjoy it as if chocolate wasn't going to exist tomorrow.  And then try to live your life that way.  I'm not saying that this is something I'm good at.  Being happy in the moment is something that I struggle with often.  But every now and then I remind myself that this is the only life that we get, and I don't want to rush through it and be 80 years old and wonder where my life went.

{via pinterest}

Christmas Shopping

I've been a little MIA lately.  I'm not really sure what happened, but I'm also not going to apologize for it.  

Did you know that there are 41 days until Christmas?  When I went on the Christmas Countdown website, I was expecting it to say 60.  Not so much.  Good thing I got my Christmas shopping started this past weekend.

Unfortunately I have no pictures to document this, but I promise it happened.  Every year, my mom, sister, aunt, cousin and myself travel across the border to Buffalo to do some shopping.  Usually we go the weekend before black Friday, but this year that didn't work.  It was a bit early to Christmas shop I thought, and that's probably why I bought more for myself than I usually do, and fewer Christmas gifts.  But part of the reason that we do this is because it's just a fun girls weekend.  We shop, we eat out, we hang out in the hot tub.  It's just one of those traditions.

Despite my lack of motivation, I still got a pretty good start on my shopping, so I'm happy about that.  Which is good, because we all know how busy the Christmas season can get, and sometimes shopping seems to be difficult. But I love this season, and despite my hatred of the snow that we have on the ground right now, I'm really excited that Christmas is coming!  (But for those of you like my neighbour who put your tree up on November 1, that's too early!)

So true

A Dress That May or May Not Fit

So I tried to start a tradition last year that I would try my wedding dress on every year on our anniversary.  So I obviously couldn't give up on it already by our second anniversary.  My mother in law had her dress on at their 25th anniversary party, so that's my goal!  I didn't actually make Ryan do it up this year, so it probably could have fit better than it did.  But I also didn't really want to find out if we couldn't get it done up.  It was just better for everyone this way.  It did fit over my hips, so that's something, right?

Pipsi liked the dress even more this year than she did last year because of the tie up string.  She thought that was tons of fun!

Looking at last year's post, I had mentioned that I should maybe get it cleaned.  Can you still get a wedding dress cleaned after 2 years?  It's not that bad, just the bottom is a bit dirty from dragging around on the ground all day.  I didn't do it right away because I had wanted to do a trash the dress photoshoot, but that didn't happen. 

It looks like I photoshopped her in to make her look like a giant, but she's actually right in front of me

2 Years

2 years ago today was one of the best days of my life.  I know that in the grand scheme of things, 2 years is nothing, but it kind of feels like we have been doing this forever and yet part of me feels like it was just yesterday.

It still amazes me how little we fight.  It's pretty much smooth sailing (as long as you don't steal food off my plate).

As much as our marriage is just about the two of us, it's about our families too.  They make us who we are.  I'm lucky that Ryan gets along so well with my family.  I'm lucky that Ryan's family has always been so welcoming to me.  We're both lucky that our parents have given us fantastic examples of marriage. 

But mostly I'm lucky that Ryan chose me.  I'm lucky that he takes care of me, and does blue jobs and does the gardening because I hate it.  I'm lucky that he's so handy and can do pretty much any household task that I can think up.  I'm lucky that he doesn't take away my TV because I know that the Real Housewives drive him crazy.  I'm lucky that he knows how to cook.  I'm lucky that he likes to travel with me and that we always have a good time together and never get sick of each other.  I'm lucky that he was raised to be respectful and that he treats me well.  I'm just lucky.

Happy 2nd Anniversary Fella.