No more blogging for me. Maybe in a couple years or something.
:)

A Long Time Coming

A week ago today I got a job. And the day before that, Jon got a job. Both are term positions, but we are SO thrilled! I may or may not have literally jumped for joy ;)
I am enjoying teaching SO much, and LOVE my students.

Here are a few pictures from the holidays. I had to include the one of me laughing...Ayii caught me mid-laugh at something apparently super hilarious, maybe even more hilarious than anything ever--yikes. I can't look at it without laughing. Thought my crazy face would make others laugh, too.
And of course my beautiful nieces. Jon and I got to babysit them one day, and it was a blast! Here Halle and Jon are making a snow fort and getting Kaylee to smile.
Basically, I'm feeling more positive and happy lately. And that's a good thing.

Cute Story

Jon's cousin, I"ll call her Molly, loves me. She also doesn't like her middle name (even though I think it is a cool middle name).

For a school assignment, she was to put together her "full" name on leaves, for a wall display in time for parent-teacher interviews. When her mom went for the meeting, she noticed something odd...Molly's name read like this: "Molly Jessica Hildebrand." I don't condone lying, but this is pretty cute.

Oh yeah. I've decided to write again. There was a (long) hiatus, with many unpublished drafts and erased posts, but I'm back for some more regular sharing! If anyone even checks this anymore, hello again.

J & J and J & J Outing

Our good friends Jenni & Joel took us to a mystery destination yesterday...which ended up being the St. Jacobs Farmer's Market! The drive there included a thunderstorm and lots of rain, but once we arrived, the sky had cleared and the temperature was perfect! We browsed the market, bought fresh berries and some baking, and had a picnic by a stream. After that we checked out some galleries/shops in the town. Such a fun day! Thanks go out to our lovely same-initialed friends for a memorable, relaxing, summery afternoon.

The Market

We love animals

Picnic!

Nayler Time

Today we had our last set of Winnipeg (and Peterborough) visitors! My Dad, Ayii, and Grandpa came by for the afternoon. We sat and talked, and were treated out to lunch. Not many pictures were taken as we'll soon be seeing my dad and Ayii on a more regular basis (yay!) and Jon and I are visiting my grandpa one more time before we leave Ontario. "Not many" pictures does not "mean not any"...here's a photobooth shot of a few of us:

First family visit in Hamilton where I didn't cry after they left. Makes sense as we have only 20 days left here. CRAZY! My last day of work is this Friday...then we'll be cramming every last bit of Hamilton/GTA fun in as much as possible!

Plans

We now know when we are moving (and how we are moving) back to Winnipeg. After looking at different options (U-Haul, moving companies, train, etc.) we, or rather, our fathers, have come up with the most cost-effective way of return. Dad H and Daddy N are driving down together in Jon's parents' pick-up, and we'll be returning with a U-Haul trailer in tow! Road trip with the dads! They will arrive sometime on the 24th, and we'll be back in Manitoba on the 26th. This method is at least $1000 less than any other option--yay for saving!

So far, I've handed in my notice at work, and am doing what I can to get back in to the teaching world in Winnipeg. We're looking for apartments, and have some family & friends checking out some of the places we're interested in. Jon has finished the research part of his MRP, and is now organizing and planning before the actual writing part of the process begins.

As much as I am looking forward to life back in Winnipeg, I am not wanting to move!! I really love Hamilton, and feel so at home here. There is so much involved in moving back...and I am not as excited to move back as I thought I might be. In fact, if it wasn't for the whole Ontario non-teaching situation, I think I'd be really tempted to stay! That being said, there is a lot to look forward to in our return: FAMILY, re-connecting with friends, going back to Faithworks, teaching, and settling back into the city we so love...

So much more I could say about all the above, but I'll leave it at that.

Sister Shout Out!

Big congratulations to Janessa--she graduated on Friday with her B.A. in International Development Studies!! So proud of you. You are an amazing, beautiful, intelligent, caring individual who is doing great things, and will continue do great things in life. Love you!

Visitors & Visits

The month of May was a busy, yet exciting month for activity around here. Just after our Toronto weekend, my Mom flew to Kingston to visit her mom. I was able to drive down to Kingston to spend a day with her and my Poi Poi. SO good to see both of them! I've missed my Mom very much.
The past few days, we had the pleasure of hosting Randall & Kim at our place! It was great to spend time with them! We went to Webster Falls, showed them around the city, spent some time on the escarpment viewing the city at night (one of my favourite things of Hamilton!), hit up the Busker Festival, and ate delicious meals together. That marks our 2nd last set of visitors...Dad and Ayii are next in the first week of July! We certainly have not been lacking in the visitor department this year!!
Aside from the wonderful visits we've had, work is draining me and I am really looking forward to finishing up soon. I've been so exhausted lately, and need a break! We are starting to plan for our move back to Winnipeg, which feels strange but also exciting. Lots to fit in before we leave our 2nd favourite lived-in (Canadian) city!

Proud Wife

Check THIS out!! I am the proud wife of a published man. Jon wrote this article (Class, Community, and Urban Consciousness: The Winnipeg Street Railway, 1902-1910) last year at the end of his Honors Degree, and now it's in the Spring 2009 issue of the Manitoba History Journal. If there are any History Buffs out there, you can get a copy at McNally Robinson. It's a good read!

Toronto Weekend!

After a very, very long work week (I ended up covering for a co-worker and lost my day off...8 days in a row is no fun!) our Toronto weekend began. We've had this planned for a number of months now; a just-for-fun weekend built around the Animal Collective show. It was quite the packed weekend, and loads of fun! Here is a list of our activities:

- shopped
- ate out
- hung out at the hotel (swam/relaxed in the hot tub)
- visited the Royal Ontario Museum
- went to the Distillery District
- saw Animal Collective
- walked through/ate at Chinatown
- explored Kensington Market
- took the subway (my first time--not as scary as I thought!)
- walked a LOT

Needless to say, it was wonderful--can't wait for next time!
Here's a small sampling of pics from our weekend...

In front of the Westin

Our room!

Happy to be there!We had a corner suite, so we had a lake view & a city view

A walk in the parkMmmmilkshake
Animal Collective

Chinatown

Sister Visit

After much anticipation, the long-awaited sister visit from Janessa finally happened! It was so good to see her again, and now only three-ish months left before our next 'reunion.'
Jon picked her up from the airport as I had to work till 3:30 on Friday, and when I got home, we ran some errands and did some shopping. The next day was spent in Niagra Falls. The next 2 days were spent (for me, at least) in bed! I caught the flu from a co-worker and that put me out for the rest of the visit. I mustered up some energy for some shopping & a drive to the water front, but that was pretty much my limit. Despite the sickness, it was still a wonderful weekend. Luckily Jon is a great Hamilton tour guide! That, combined with Janessa's addiction to the Twilight series, made me feel a little less guilty about being sick.

Strawberry Tongues...it's a thing we do.

The Falls

Gettin' our crazy on at Ripley's Believe it or Not

We like to try on hats...and pretend to be Asian touristsGondola Love

Spring Catch-up

- Visited my Grandpa a couple weekends ago
- Had my third Easter away from home (first of the 3 not to be in Central America), and made first Easter meal
- Now working at getting back into the Manitoba-teaching world
- Current work is going well
- Starting to miss Hamilton already yet looking forward to our settling in Winnipeg
- Recently explored Dundas with my good friend Jenni the other day--awesome town!
- JANESSA VISITS--less than a week away!
- One month till our Toronto weekend...
- Have enjoyed spending more time with Jon now that his super intense end of semester stuff is winding down

Easter ham/meal

On another note, Jon and I went for an evening walk last night...in our sweaters! Lovely weather the past few days...Spring is definitely here in Ontario--lots of flowers starting to bloom! Love it. I think the sign below says it best: Welcome- Spring!

Flowers seen on our walk

This Makes Me Happy

Cadbury is making steps to have its most popular chocolate bar in the UK Fair Trade. It's a start in a positive direction for a major international company! I'm happy for those in Ghana who will be positively effected by this.

What is Fair Trade? Find out more here.

The Big 26

Yesterday - March 27th - was Jon's 26th Birthday! And although he is in the midst of a LOT of work right now, we took some time to celebrate! We had butter chicken with rice & salad for supper, and a cherry pie for desert. This morning we went out with our good Hamilton friends, Joel & Jenni for breakfast (one of Jon's favourite things)...

The Birthday Pie

Birthday BreakfastJenni's the artist, but Joel created a special pancake message today...Happy Birthday, Jon!! Love you.

Babe & Burkas

I painted this a while ago after seeing a photograph in the Winnipeg Free Press (online). The photograph portrayed Afghan refugee women (and this young child) in a Pakistan refugee camp. One of the things I thought about as I stared at the photograph was, Wow, there are women like me under those burkas, fleeing horrific circumstances. I wonder what these women were thinking at this time? Were they talking? Laughing? Crying? Silent? Praying? I care about these women. The child also stood out to me. Those eyes.

I have recently read A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini and highly recommend them. Both are incredibly powerful, informative, and beautifully written.

So what now?

Valentine's

This year, Jon and I decided to stay home for Valentine's Day. It was one of the best! It included making dinner together, dressing up, candlelight, dancing, and a movie. Lovely.

Jon is the cutest. I came home from work on V Day to these beautiful "Happy Valentines Day + Happy New Job" tulips!Our meal: Ricotta & Spinach stuffed Cannelloni with a Rose Sauce, Parmesan/Garlic Breaded Chicken, Spinach/Romaine salad, and wine. Yum! Not only was our food incredibly tasty, but we had a fantastic time making it together.We got dressed up...

Jon's head is a bit cut off, but this was the only slow shutter picture where I didn't blink! :)

Job

After much searching, applying, and waiting...I am pleased to announce that I now have a full time job!! It is not teaching (for a while now I have known that teaching will have to wait until September) but I am very excited nonetheless. I think too, that I am all the more grateful for this job because I had to wait so long for it. Had I gotten this right away, I think I would have been disappointed it wasn't teaching related, but because I have had time to just want pretty much any job, this is perfect!! The next couple weeks will be spent in training/finishing up my tutoring position.

So, I am now a customer rep. for a car rental company. It will be perfect for us until we move back to Winnipeg. Jon and I are pretty happy. Thank you, God!

A Kite

I picked up A Child's First Book of Poems (pictures by Cindy Szekeres) the other day and had so much fun reading the poetry! My Auntie Gayle gave it to me a a child. As I read through the poems and studied the pictures, childhood feelings and memories came back to me. I love that. Here is one poem that I think is really sweet.

A Kite

I often sit and wish that I
Could be a kite up in the sky,
And ride upon the breeze and go
Whichever way I chanced to blow.
Then I could look beyond the town,
And see the river winding down,
And follow all the ships that sail
Like me before the merry gale,
Until at last with them I came
To some place with a foreign name.

~Frank Dempster Sherman