Old Married Folks

We just (...ok three weeks "just") passed our 3 year anniversary! Three years!! I know that's peanuts to many of you but it seems like a big number to us! It still feels so new and great! Isn't it supposed to be that by three years the polish wears off of your shiny new marriage? Maybe we're doing it wrong but I think I prefer it this way!

For my entire life pre-marriage, I was one of its worst critics and wanted nothing to do with it. My parents were sure I was hopeless and destined to be the "bun on the head, horn rimmed glasses, spinster librarian" of the family.

And then I met Justin, fell crazy in love, cut off the bun on my head (that part is actually true), and joined the "other side!" We found out later that before we'd ever gone on a first date, both of us felt absolutely certain that we were meant to marry each other!

We dated for almost 7 months, were engaged for less than 2, and have now been married for 3! Having three years of marriage beneath my belt, I've discovered it to be far different than I'd construed. For instance, I thought that 'marriage' meant 'dull.' No more romance, no more adventure, no more fun. Because I was so certain this was fact, I vowed that I would do whatever it took to keep it as exciting and romantic as the very first week. "Watch me!"

I'm happy to admit, I was officially wrong on both accounts. It is not dull and it cannot stay as new as the first week because while "new" is good, "deep" is so much better. The past three years have been filled with more fun and adventure then the previous 23. (dude, I'm old.) And since we've been married I've laughed...a lot. Way more than when we were dating! I actually didn't know he was so funny and fun until after I married him!

For our anniversary we decided it would be wisest to skip going out for dinner, make something scrumptious at home together, and then go out for coffee or icecream and explore some of the beach areas in Qualicum. Part 1 of our plan worked well and we surprised even ourselves at the meal we were able to whip up with only two burners and two pieces of cookware.

Yeeaah....so it looked more impressive in real life. And tasted de-lish!


Part 2 didn't even work out even a little bit because the skies opened up and drenched the island all day and all night.


So we played scrabble. I wonder what word he has in mind here!


And ate icecream! Mmmm...icecream. If I was marooned on a forgotten island and could take only one thing with me; I would take icecream. I mean, Justin.

...actually who am I kidding, I'd take icecream! :)

We're HERE!!

The day that we thought might never come is finally here! We moved entirely out of our old place, loaded up a months worth of luggage into our horrid car, and made our way over the mountains and through the woods to the Summit School of Guitar Building and Repair. What kind of adventures await!?

Adventure #1:
Accommodations are provided by the school; we were told we'll be staying in a hotel suite for a month. How perfect does that sound? I pictured lounging in front of a large screen TV watching mindless shows, fluffy white hotel towels, little soaps and shampoos, a handy little "maid please clean" sign that would produce fresh sheets and towels, a sparkling bathroom with a large mirror, and a cute little kitchen with a compact fridge and stove that would make food prep seem like playing house. I planned on taking baths every morning, having room service and house keeping at my finger tips, reading and cooking up little herbal potions in my spare time, and getting to know the friendly people at the front desk. Nooooot quiiiite....

For starters, there is no front desk. There's a fishery smokehouse. You go inside and holler for "service" from Tita. Service is a key and a "someone will be by in the next day or two to pick up the things left behind by the last resident." The things left behind ended up being three grocery bags of used shampoos, brown sugar, opened pasta, a condom...not a word of a lie. We didn't wait for someone to come by, we took the liberty of chucking it all.

Secondly, everyone has a different definition of "clean" and the standard of clean in this room is dirtier than my house has ever had a chance to get. We're too grossed out to go barefoot in the place so we've been wearing our shoes inside. So the first 2 1/2 hours of moving in consisted of us rolling up our sleeves and scrubbing.

So excited about it!

This is our room service/maid please clean:

Yes, that hairball was there when we got here. Our complimentary hairball!

Our fluffy white towels...hey, I'm just glad they smell clean!

My big bathroom...

And sparkly mirror...

Our compact stove...very very compact! And those are the only cookware in this place!

And not so compact fridge next to the not so widescreen TV.

And our garbage can the size of my thumb.

For dinner we had pancakes and eggs...and wine...and a $15 cheesecake to celebrate Justin's school and my birthday.

It was delicious but I felt a little ill afterwards!
Oh, and just because I'm excited about it, I have to share some pictures of my lovely new purse, given to my by Sally and Grace!

Isn't it cute?! I've quickly fallen in love with it. Is it just me or do you find that as soon as you upgrade your purse, the old one becomes completely despicable!

As a side note, it's quite amusing what ends up being packed in your car when you try to move out of your home and pack for a trip at the same time. For instance, we packed my mother-in-law's jeans..why? I have no idea. A pair of shoes that were supposed to be thrown out made it along and a never opened package of tea towels from our wedding shower 3 years ago. A friend's salad tongs. Hehe, sorry Tianna.

Despite the filthy abode, our enthusiasm is untamed and as I sit and write this, Justin is about 2 hours in to his first day at school! He was up 2 hours early thinking about the perfect name for his guitar and so nervous and excited I nearly had to sit on him to keep him from going to school 35 minutes before class started!

What Lies Ahead

I realize I haven't updated much....or at all...through this summer. Oops.
I'm happy to say I've been too busy having fun - oh, and doing some work. By way of excuse, let me share with you what the following week and the month of September holds.
Ever since I met Justin back in October 2003, he has stated that his dream is to build guitars. He loves fine, artistic work (have you heard about my ring?) and he loves guitars - it's a perfect match! From the beginning he's had one luthier school in mind and for the past 3 years and 9 months, we've planned together that some day, when I'm finished school and before we have children, we'll move over to Vancouver Island so he can take the course.
Recently he's been making me a longboard and began to experiment with some very fine, detailed design work he's seen in his guitar books. I'll post pictures when he's finished. The result is twofold: he's even more excited about building guitars and he's beginning to think he may not need to take a full 12 month course. He's incredibly talented, meticulous, and patient when it comes to woodwork; he just needs some direction in crafting a musical instrument.
All this to say that one evening as we were discussing his schooling and how long the course is and how badly the grandparents want little Wiebe Jrs. running around; we realized I have exactly 1 month in between my summer and winter jobs. The next day we called the school to see if there was any openings for the month of September. It was already June; September was full. Two weeks later they called us back to say they'd had a cancellation and were we interested?!!!! Were we ever!
Since then we've decided to also move out of our little place in favor of a new suite. Complete with, get this, a washer and dryer!! Not even kidding, a real washer a dryer! And a dishwasher! And a new fridge and stove!! I`m so excited it`s hard not to wet myself!

Six days from now we are returning our keys to the landlord and heading to the island! This day has been looked forward to for so many years, I can`t believe it`s this close! In the month of September, Justin will build his first guitar!
So this is one of the reasons blogging has been de-prioritized.

The windy city...

Has anyone watched that old old Calamity Jane musical from ages ago? At one point in the movie they burst into an energetic tap dance singing routine about "goin' down to the windy city" which was Chicago if I remember right. Anyway, that song keeps going through my head when I look at these pictures.
We don't live in a particularly windy place but in the two years we've lived here we've had a few massive wind storms. Like, power out and roofs flying off houses and trees uprooting all over the place, smashing through cars and houses, and our garbage can lid disappearing, never to be seen again- kind of massive windstorms.
In the first picture it wasn't even the big storm and I was actually afraid of being blown off the mountain. I'm not holding on to the post and my headband just to be cool, I'm holding on to keep from flying off!



Check this out. Someone's tree went down and the root system neatly picked up the yard and peeled it back like and orange!


For the surfing nuts this looks somewhat like a wave and provides a beautiful photo op of being inside the barrel...sort of.



Look at that...he's totally surfing in his mind!



Apparently the owner came out as they were enjoying his mess of a yard and he was decidedly unexcited about both the yard and the hooligans on his yard! I have to admit, I can't help but be on his side just a little. This does NOT look like an easy fix.

Some great Stuff and Some not so Great Stuff.

So about a week ago I had some lovely friends come to visit. I'd been looking forward to their arrival for about 100 years and had great plans of going to the beach and barbecuing and staying up late. As it turns out, I unfortunately, was both very sick and had very bad cramps. What a blessing! And the weather was cloudy, gray, drizzly, and downright cold. But as good friends do, they curled up in blankets with my miserable self and watched movies and played Bible trivia.

We, of course, stayed up late every night and on one of them, it was after midnight and I was the last person getting ready for bed. The house was dark other than our bedroom and as I was discarding my clothes and preparing to turn off the light, I was horrified to look up and see hands holding a camera right up against my window. Of course as soon as I looked at it, the person I couldn't see in the blackness jerked it back and it disappeared.

I've always thought that if I ever saw anything outside my window at night that I would scream bloody murder but I was surprised at how unbelieving my brain was. I thought it was a prank, a mirage, a reflection...anything but some creep taking pictures through my window in the dead of night! I checked the livingroom to make sure the girls were there and Sally was sitting bolt upright looking out the window. Only when she informed me that there was a man in our yard did I actually panic, wake up Justin, and go racing outside. In hindsight I realize I should have waited for Justin before I tore out to attack a full grown man in my pajamas but at the time I wasn't so much rational as I was TICKED.

Unfortunately we didn't catch him and only Sally saw him and his only identification was that he has gray hair. Seeing as how this is the retirement capital, it could be anyone, so it leaves us with this sick suspicion of every neighbor we see.

Whats really disturbing is that our place and certainly our bedroom window are pretty tucked out of sight so it doesn't seem likely that it was a spur of the moment intrusion by someone wandering around at midnight with a camera. You kinda have to know where to look to find our bedroom. How many times has he been out there under cover in the darkness!?

As disturbing as it is we can't be paranoid so other than being religious about closing our blinds, life goes on. We called the police, we lock our doors....our house is easy to break into...

On a much much better note - the rest of the weekend...

These are my lovely friends curled up with the ailing.

I'm aware of how I look thank you very much.

For old time's sake we went to Walmart (before I got hit with a tanker) and got a highlighting kit; it's funny that they trust me with their hair when in times past it hasn't always been....er.....fully successful. Sometimes 'mahogany' isn't so much a lustrous brown with reddish undertones as it is just fire engine red with purple undertones....anyway.

5 hours later....we're ready for the bleach...it's nearly 1 in the morning!

OH yes, speaking of hair, note that there is some pink in my hair! I've been wanting to do that for years and just never did. Now that I finally did it I was attacked by some wicked cold sores and refused to take pictures so by the time this was taken, it was mostly faded out. Durn. I liked it while it lasted though, i was smashing! :)

In order for it to not be a 100% lame weekend we did go to a cliff jumping site.

He looks like a fairy who flew up to kiss the hills!

Since I'm not so much of a swimmer and not so much of a jumper offer of cliffs...I read. Off the charts coolness!

This is my polly pocket, Grace.

Do as I say or I swear, I'll squish your head!

We girls went out for drinks and were interrupted by a random guy who came up and high fived us and proceeded to chat aimlessly.

Undoubtedly because he saw this irresistible pose!

Or this one! Nice chin Grace!

Despite the weather, the cramps and general malaise, the interrupting strangers and the peeping toms...we had fun. This is what friends are for and I love them!