"We must be willing to let go of the life we had planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." - Joseph Campbell

What a crazy few days these have been.

Yesterday was our ONE year wedding anniversary. HOLY! 

It is hard to believe it has been a year already, how fast this year has gone by. 

Our wedding day - March 26, 2011

As promised, I will report on the "paper" themed anniversary ideas that we challenged each other to come up with (really, I came up with the challenge - the Mr. didn't really have a choice, but agreed anyways). The first year anniversary is traditionally the "paper" anniversary, and when you look it up, the interwoven fibers of paper are supposed to represent the interwoven nature of marriage. Kind of nice. The modern version of the first year anniversary is clocks. Hmmm.

Well, since we had already purchased iPads (expensive!) for the both of us over a month ago, the rules were that ideas had to be paper-related and budget friendly.

Anyways, the Mr. came up with tickets (=paper) to The Hunger Games! What a GREAT idea, as I had read all of the books, and thought I had no chance in heck to see the movie opening weekend (blame it on poor planning). Lo-and-behold however, he had managed to get us tickets to 7pm Friday night show in IMAX :D 

We went to Chop Steakhouse for dinner (yummo) where I had Steak Oscar (delisheeous) and where we shared a scrumptious creme brulee (our favourite) and each had a glass of champagne. Before excitedly going to watch a bunch teenagers kill each other. Perfect!

The movie was very well done in my opinion, with just some minor deviations from the novel. It almost inspired me to read the books all over again, if I had time to do so. Humph.

So what was my surprise?!

The Mr. was working some overtime on Sunday and so I used this valuable time to execute my plan. I had written 4 love letters over the last few weeks (see, paper), and had some wife/husband IOU cards (also paper) in one of my drawers. Without further ado, a photo is worth a thousand words so:

Aw!

I hung the IOUs and letters from 8 helium balloons and hung them over the bed. Cute and romantic :) I love how it turned out.

I also found the Coat of Arms for our name and printed it out (paper again!) in a frame. I purchased the image from House of Names (google it). They have lots of products for name heritage and coats of arms - very cool!

(PS. I was using my camera's "pin hole camera" setting to see how it worked. I think it turned out pretty neat, if not a bit dark. The one above of the balloons was in "soft focus" mode).

 

 No surprise is complete without some food in my opinion, so I wasn't finished yet. We had some left over steak from the night before's dinner, and what better with steak but some eggs and potatoes, some fresh muffins, a fruit salad, and of course, a mimosa! Sunday brunch done right!

Latte bowl? Yes please!

 While out picking up a few things for the brunchy brunch, I came across these most adorable porcelain things called "latte bowls" - how genius and perfect for me. It's more or less a bowl with a handle, perfect for large lattes :) And in this case, were ideal for serving fruit salad! Yes!

They were only $2.95, so naturally I wanted at least 6. (What can I say, I'm my Mother's daughter and she forever buys in multiples.) I settled for 2 considering the Big Move. Humph humph humph.

And what's better? They have the cutest little birds perched upon the handles. I'm particularly attracted to bird things lately - like fabric, pottery, clothing even. I have a cute blue dress with little white birds on it I plan to wear as soon as the weather is favorable, which by Calgary standards, should be never. I also have a pretty blue bird fabric I just purchased with no idea as to what I was planning to do with it.

Anyways, the surprise went off great. The Mr. came home as scheduled (meaning one hour past when he said he would haha), and was surprised and thrilled to find the letters and read through them all :)

An excellent anniversary all in all. At least a good one to start with, as I'm hoping to have quite a few more!

I haven't forgotten the picture idea either, and am intending to do it but don't think it will be anytime soon :( 

 

Recent developments have given us a few more things on our plate (because we clearly had room...):

I had been a teeny weeny bit nervous about the move to Small Town because we were moving into a fully furnished suite that previously did not allow any pets. "No pet" policies I will never understand. How does one live without a pet anyways. However, I had specified that we had 2 dogs when applying to the program, and was accepted (this was back in August of last year).

Anyways, so when I picked up the documentation about the move last week or so, dun dun dun - they're only allowing us to have the two little ones with us. Bummer. Big time. 

What does this mean for us? 

Well, the Mr. is going to have to get a separate apartment back here in the Big City. That's dog friendly. Alone. :( Tres sad. We'll live separate for about 9 months.

We're seeing the silver lining of this cloud however because this means that we don't have to sell as much stuff (as we'll just move it to the new place), and he will no longer have to waste time and gas (and in my paranoid mind, probably risk his very life) commuting 1.75 hours each way every day. And it's really only 6 months premature to when we were actually planning to get another place for him in anticipation of dangerous wintery roads.

So I'll be taking the little mutts and he'll have the Destructo Dog. We may even share custody of the little ones every once in a while, and I'll most likely (read: hopefully) be able to come back to the Big City at least 2-3 weekends a month to see him. Not nearly enough, but it's against our morals to get rid of one of our furry children, and so this is the sacrifice we have decided to make. 

We refuse to be those pet "owners" who believe their pets are expendable, and give them up when no longer convenient.

 

So that's that. An adjustment for sure. We've currently been searching the rental ads and scouring the internet for a suitable and cheap rental that will accommodate him until later this year when I'll join him with the other two furbabies. Not an easy task with all these ridiculous "no pet" policies, but I'm assured we'll prevail.

Everything happens for a reason, right? 

A latte love,

C