Life Lately - Our Wedding, Vacations, Health, etc

I told myself I was going to blog more this year, but we’re already in April and I’ve only written one post so far. That’s because life is incredibly busy at the moment, but in a lot of good ways, so let’s chat about it.

As a writer, I constantly struggle between wanting to write personal posts, and wanting to write helpful posts (the ones that get more views.) To be honest, all I have in me is personal posts right now, because my brain is too occupied with the following:

we’re getting married!

As a 35 year old second time bride, I never wanted another full-on wedding. Kris and I both decided that we wanted to elope, and spend money on a family trip instead. Last Fall, my grandmother was unexpectedly diagnosed with brain cancer. Five tumours, and no prior symptoms - which considering my already existing health anxiey, shook me to my core. One day she was a totally healthy 90 year old, still cooking and cleaning, and going on road trips, and having dinner with friends. The next, she was in the hospital, faced with the unthinkable. Before being diagnosed, she had asked me if Kris and I were going to have a wedding celebration. We wanted to give her something to look forward to, and then even more so after she got sick. So, I started planning our celebration. We booked a venue, and rentals, and found an officiant. We decided to have the fun elopement photoshoot at a local hotel, AND do a reception for friends and family.

During my visits to her in the hospital, I talked about my dress, and our plans. She would ask me when the reception was, and I could see her mentally trying to calculate if she would still be alive by then. We tried to make things fun and light hearted, but talking about an event she might not make it to, wasn’t fun anymore. We switched to shorter “something to look forward to” goals, like Christmas. Despite her best efforts (like agreeing to and getting radiation to shrink the tumours), she didn’t make it past November. It’s been almost six months and I still think about her multiple times a day.

So, what started as an event to give nan something to look forward to, has snowballed into this DIY reception of my dreams - which I’m not mad about - but I have created a lot of extra work for myself. Give me an event, and I will take any idea that pops into my head and run with it.

THIS is why I haven’t been writing as much lately - because I’m too busy attaching fringe that I ordered from a woman in Greece to a patio umbrella - because I decided that I needed a patio umbrella for cocktail hour, but didn’t like any of the fringe umbrellas I found online.

Or I’m too busy hand painting bunting banner signs for our retro drink cooler, because we are doing a Coca Cola bar in memory of my grandfather.

Or I’m too busy trying to propagate Zelda plants for our favours, in memory of nan. I have a literal greenhouse in my office right now.

Or making custom matchbooks (which I posted a tutorial for on TikTok because they turned out SO cute.)

Add in a bridal identity crisis that I had a few weeks ago, which prompted me to buy a whole new dress (thanks for the new dress mom,) and a whole new veil for the elopement shoot (which I think nan guided me to, because it’s a vintage veil, and the seller on Poshmark was named Elizabeth S, which is nan’s name.)

There’s SO many more projects on the go for this reception (our welcome sign, our taco bar, decor, etc) that I can’t even begin to discuss them all, but I plan on making a few more TikToks soon.

Kris is also working on his own reception projects, like a custom model Coca Cola van for the Coca Cola bar, spray painting vases, etc.

I’ve also been dealing with normal big event fears - like what if we put all of this work in, and nobody shows up. At the end of the day, I get to marry my best friend, so I’m trying not to worry about things that are out of my control.

And, on top of the wedding stuff…

We’re still going on vacation

Yes, after all of that, we are still taking our big family vacation, as planned. Next February, we’re headed to the BAHAMAS, with a couple of days at Disney. So, if you remember our trip last year, you know that I’m in full trip planning mode right now.

Along with our Bahamas vacation, we also have a week long trip to Shediac in July, almost immediately following our wedding weekend, and then our usual trip to Jellystone in August.

and if that all wasn’t enough of a hit to the ol wallet,

we ordered a new couch

Which I am EXTREMELY excited about. This is my first brand new couch ever, and it took me months to decide what we wanted to get. I did hours of research, I ordered fabric samples to test it against our cats, I chatted multiple times with the brand, and we finally pulled the trigger last month. It’s from the brand Cozey, and it’s their Atmosphere couch, storage edition. It’s going to take a few more weeks to get here, so I’ll write an update post and review once it arrives.

I’m also really excited that it’s supposed to arrive before our elopement weekend. We will be getting ready at our house the morning of the elopement (unless I can get an early check-in), so it will be nice to have a brand new couch for everyone to lounge around on.

Mason just had a birthday!

My little baby is 11 years old, and we love birthdays, so the last week has been all about Mason (not unlike any other week.)

We started last weekend with a pizza night at home, then mom took us shopping Tuesday and we had dinner out at East Side Mario’s with family, then he had cupcakes on Wednesday- his actual birthday, then we capped the week off with taking him and 2 of his best friends to see the new Minecraft movie, followed by the arcade, and supper with my dad and step-mom.

His birthday celebrations aren’t over yet, because he still has lunch with his Grammy and Grampy this weekend. We’re also taking him to a local gaming convention this weekend after work.

Mason is also in the middle of a big entrepreneurial project at school, in which I am both an investor, and every employee, so we’ve been spending a lot of down time working on that.

Easter is coming!

I love ALL holidays, so I’ve been busy preparing for Easter. We have our Easter tree all set up in the living room, and I’m decorating the rest of the house this week. I have to work this Easter, but I booked vacation time off in the morning of Easter Sunday, so we can do our egg hunt.

I’m still writing my book

Much like blogging, my book has taken a back seat to everything else going on right now. Because it’s about my grandparents, and a lot of my research material is their writing, voice recordings, etc, it’s been an emotional undertaking, but I’m not giving up, and I hope to have it finished by the end of the year. I also work full time at an actual office job, so that takes up a depressing amount of my time.

health stuff

On top of everything else, I was also dealing with some health issues the last few months. I’ve had recurring stomach ulcers for years, and a doctor on Maple finally ordered me an h-pylori test, which came back positive. H-pylori is a really common bacteria that can cause recurring GI issues, but it can be eliminated with a round of antibiotics. My GI doctor, told me that most people contract it in childhood, but it doesn’t cause symptoms for everyone. So, I had to take over 20 pills per day (antibiotics, acid supressors, and pepto) for 2 weeks in January.

In February, I had a gastroscopy - a procedure where they put a camera down my throat to look at my esophagus, stomach, and duodenum. I obsessed over this appointment for weeks - watching videos and reading posts on Reddit. I communicated my fears with the doctor, and they made sure I was super frozen before they went in with the scope. They found ulcers in my duodenum, and took biopsies, which were negative for h-pylori, which means hopefully the antibiotics worked, but I need one more h-pylori test to be sure.

Everyone likes to say negative things about Canadian health care, but the doctor on Maple sent my referral to a GI specialist in October, they called me in January, and the procedure was in February. For a non-emergent procedure, that wasn’t a long wait IMO.

home projects

Since Spring is upon us (almost -this weather has been insane lately,) I have a number of home projects I want to check off the list. I’m going to be working on our garden as soon as possible, and I’m re-doing our little free library this summer too.

so that’s pretty much it

Life is busy lately, and lots of good things are happening, but I do look forward to things calming down a bit so I can get back to work on my writing. I’ll try to update more going forward, but you know how it is.

D