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.