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?