AGM at The Law Society of Ontario

As part of a field trip, my class and I rented a Hummer Limo and went to the AGM in Toronto at The Law Society of Ontario. The Hummer was pretty crammed, but it was the novelty of it all! The meeting was very interesting as there were disgruntled lawyers challenging changes that would give more scope of practice to Paralegals - basically a turf war.

Tall Ships

Hamilton welcomed the Tall Ships to the Pier and Douglas and I spent the day there.  Sadly, the kids were not interested, so they stayed behind.  It was quite hot that day!

Growing Up

You only have your children for such a short period of time where YOU are their everything.  They wear what you buy them, they do as they are told (for the most part) and they go where you bring them!

Unfortunately, (I guess for some they would say the opposite), they grow up to be TEENAGERS (insert shrill scream here!) and then they want to spend most of their time with their peers! I find this stage to be very difficult.  Trinity is fifteen, a social butterfly with lots of friends and a galavanter (just like me!).  This year she did not wish to go to The Sound of Music Festival with me - I was instead only shown a glimpse by way of a text message with a picture of her! (That bloody lip ring was fake and thank goddess that fad is now gone with her - it drove me crazy!)

 My baby girl, Avalon, who is thirteen is still in Elementary school, so not quite the "Galavanter" as her sister.  We enjoyed Beavertails at the festival together!

 

Avalon & her friends went to Canada's Wonderland one hot day in the summer (in the bottom left hand corner) - again I was not invited! I got some retail therapy at the nearby Vaughn Mills Mall!! 

 I made a "hipster floral wreath" for Avalon & because they were so cute, we decided to add them to our Etsy shop.  Here she is modelling one of the wreaths! She's such a cutie petutie!

A Summer Photography Gig for Me!

While being a full time student, I wanted to find a little part time "gig" to help pay for groceries! I found a position within a local Photography company dealing with children and sports/dance.  It ended up being many more hours worked per week than I had bargained for! I ended up working almost every evening and full weekends - certainly not what I had expected - but I worked all the hours given to me and then some! If I was called in at the last minute, I gladly filled in.  I worked for bloody MINIMUM WAGE - now when you are used to earning at least twice that wage, it is an eye-opener! I can honestly say that the minimum wage job was more difficult than the better paying ones! I was driving all over - sometimes driving 1.5 hrs one way to London to work for only 3 hrs! I really worked my backside off! We would work in hot, full on sun days, no breaks at all for eight hours (on the weekends) and just devour water bottle after water bottle.  Occasionally the shoots were held inside dance studios and a few times inside beautiful Liuna Station for the high school Proms! There was set up and tear down and quite a bit goes into these shoots.  In the Prom settings, the prints would be given right away to the students.  I loved seeing the dresses that the girls wore.  I had my 15 yr old daughter assist me on one of the shoots, so that she could gain some customer service experience - she did really well.  Those were sweet little gigs. Since I loved Liuna Station gigs so much, I am attaching a few pics here of the fountain outside and the interiors - very art deco.  It was a seasonal job which ended in August.

 Trinity in the test shot before all the students started arriving!

Avalon's Confirmation

At the end of the school year, Avalon had her confirmation.  In the Catholic faith, this is a sacrament where the person is "confirming" that they wish to continue to be a Catholic - sort of like a baptism but this time with the person's permission.  The Knights of Columbus start the procession down the aisle - Trinity's hair matched their feathers!

We got all "gussied" up for the occasion and here are some pics!

Repurposing an Old School

Located in Hamilton, Ontario - is a beautiful old school which was built in 1894 - Stinson School.  Currently, it is being renovated into condos.  Recently during "Doors Open", I went on a tour of the school.  It was fascinating. Of course, the developer is trying to keep as many architectural elements in tact as possible; the floorboards have not been replaced (incredibly creaky), exposed brick everywhere, staircases have bicycle rails that the children would have used (those are staying put).  The condos are quite expensive for the area, but I think it would be incredible to live in such an historic place! Just to think of all the children that would have passed through those classrooms and now are all dust.

Avalon is a New TEENAGER!

Our sweet & feisty Avalon turned 13 on April Fools Day! I have been so busy with life that I have fallen behind in blogging, but I cannot forget to post something about our second teen in the house! (Oh, such fun!)

She wanted only one thing, a new cell phone.  In particular, an iPhone, like the rest of us.  Soooo, she ended up getting an iPhone 5 (& the rest of us have the 4S), so she did well! She was spoiled by her grandparents and family with prezzies.  We had a wonderful party for her at her grandparents house and then the next day we went to Montana's and had them sing to her! We had a blast at the restaurant - Douglas and I did a dance routine in unison at the table and the kids loved that! 

The moment she opened her iPhone 5!  So exciting! I love the iPhone - can't imagine life without it actually - it has become an appendage!

I love this candelabra I found for cakes! 

I had to photobomb this picture!

Avalon and myself.

Avalon and Trinity when she had turquoise hair - it has since morphed into many other various colours!

Nana and Granddad who spoil Avalon!

My New iMac!

I've wanted an iMac for some time now.  My sister has a 27" one and we all love hers, so with my wonderful tax return I went up to the Indian reserve in Caledonia and purchased a 27" for us! It has a little home in the corner of our eat-in kitchen right by the big windows, so lots of sunlight! I'm really enjoying using the imovie  app and have created a few new movies! My very first little movie "trailer" is embedded!

Our Winter Storm 2012

We don't get much of a winter up here in Ontario anymore. We had one storm in the first week of February that was a real doozy! It was wonderful,  everyone had a "snow day", which equals a day off school for everyone!

I ventured out in the morning to get sustenance for us all and, what would have been a usual 5 minute run, turned into a 35 minute caper! No side streets were plowed and by the time I came back to my street, the plows had plowed it in! I had to take a very long route around to get back to my street!

I love shovelling - it took a while and had to be done several times throughout the day to keep on top of it!

My hubby takes a turn at shovelling the driveway!

Good job!!

Tequila checking out the snow! He is not too fond of the cold stuff since he is El Salvadoran!

Pretty pics at the beach! (I have to live near a body of water - very, very important!)