Now that I know, I can't live without...

1. H&M (enough said)
2. Joe Fresh (ditto)
3. Pur Minerals - http://www.purminerals.com/Pur-Mineral-Makeup-Starter-Kit
4. Kiss My Face - Early to Rise http://kissmyfacewebstore.com/detail/KMF+1401622
5. Lululemon - astro pant (w/complimentary hemming!) http://shop.lululemon.com/Astro_Pant/pd/c/560/np/560/p/2187.html
6. Hemming in general
7. Nail polish topcoat (it really does stay on for a week!)

Has it really been THAT long?

On September 18, Alex and I will have been married for two years. Most people would say "on one hand it feels like yesterday, but on the other hand it feels like so long ago". Not me, to me it feels like so long ago - and I like it that way.

Alex is:

• my rock;
• my voice of reason;
• my "I know you better than you know yourself" guy;
• my "you better slow down so you don't burn yourself out" guy;
• my pain in the ass; and
• most importantly, my love.

I feel truly and completely blessed to have someone like him for a husband. Sure, he drives me NUTS some days and I think "who is this guy?" but those days are usually about a week before Aunt Flo comes to town and I'll be honest, I tend to be a little irrational even when I'm trying my damnedest not to be.

Of course, there are those days no where near my time of the month when he drives me crazy but I'm 1000% sure that I drive him around the bend here and there too.

Would I like it if he did more around the house? Yes. Would he like it if I mowed the lawn here and there? Yes. In fact, we just had that conversation just last night when he asked if I'd unloaded the dishwasher yet (he'd be home all night and I'd been in Port Perry teaching Pilates 30 minutes before). Those are the times though that when he comes back with a remark "did you mow the lawn and whipper snip last night?" that make me think, riiiiight - it's not a one way street and we both do things around the house, just different things.

When it comes down to it though, I'd give us a 90% (I'm into percentages today) in the happiness department which takes into account pet peeves, button pushing & Aunt Flo. That, to me is pretty damn awesome.

I also think we are very lucky to have been together for so long prior to being married. We knew each other pretty darn well before getting married and had been through highs and lows and already know that pushing through the lows is more than well worth the highs.

In the spirit of TSN, I'd like to give my highlights of our last 2 years together:

• Our housewarming (ok, that was before the wedding, but it was still amazing)
• Our wedding
• Our wedding morning (waking up realizing all we had was our wedding wear)
• Our honeymoon, which was about 6 months after our wedding and SO well deserved
• Sunday drives to Bond Head
• Any drive to any cottage with the windows down and the music loud
• Our trip to Montreal with Em & Andrew
• Sunday afternoons on the couch watching movies followed by delicious takeout
• Alex's surprise trip to Québec City (so thoughtful)
• Our 1st anniversary (MAN we loved that spiced banana cake with a butter cream filling)
• Sir Winston Stanley Powell's arrival into our life
• Our completely beautiful home (starring the following): complete spare room, level and grass filled backyard, almost finished kitchen & new driveway
• Our new nieces and nephews who we are also guardians for
• And for me, the most important part - a countless number of times where I laughed so hard I cried when Alex said things that got me right in the funny bone. A great example is "Koskinen tagged me as a monkey on Facebook. Here let me show you (log onto facebook - picture comes up). Do I look like a monkey?" Umm.....Hahahaha (insert crying, rolling, belly aching laugh).

Wow, do we ever have a lot to be grateful for. I have everything possible on my body crossed that life keeps on the way it's been because we are on one great ride.

xo
Jenn

the benefits of set backs

After watching a particularly meaningful "Being Erica" that focused on how what we believe are set backs at the time they are occurring are actually gifts and if we let them they will reveal something about ourselves that we never would've discovered had everything run smoothly with no bumps in the road (that's right, instead of getting ready for work I furiously fast-forwarded our PVR to watch a t.v. episode as quickly as possible and came to work with dirty hair!).

Being somewhat of a perfectionist, setbacks are not something I normally ponder (they happen and I plow through them like they never happened) but after watching the show instead of showering, ironing, getting my lunch together or doing anything else remotely productive I sat on the couch and reflected back on all the perceived setbacks I've encountered over the past few years and the benefits they've provided for me. The ones that stuck out most in my mind are:

1) SETBACK: not having a baby a couple of years ago as per the "plan". BENEFIT: I never would've had the guts or opportunity to take a contract job with a little one to take care of and I'd be living in Oshawa, communting to Toronto on a daily basis and hating every minute of it (not to mention missing so much of our childs life).

2) SETBACK: not taking my Pilates certification a year and a half ago. BENEFIT: Your Pilates Place wasn't open, I didn't work at Durham College so I wouldn't have been hired to work at their fitness centre and my certification probably would've sat dormant until I forgot what I'd learned and I would've been so overwhelmed with starting a new job and getting the house renovations done I would've probably had a mental breakdown.

3) SETBACK: My boss not seeing my vision to combine 2 positions at my old job to give me a new challenging job and keep me at the company for a couple more years. BENEFIT: Even if I didn't love the job I would've felt that I owed them my time and stayed there unhappy.

So the moral of the storey is although you might feel it's bad to take 2 steps backward you're actually doing yourself a favour because you can look at the situation from a few feet back and re-assess if the path you were taking was really the right one!

Looking back at my "3 big ones" I am so glad they worked out the way they did.

xo
Jenn

1st class complete - 900 to go!

Hello, hello!

Sooooooooo yesterday I taught my first semi-private class and guess what?? It was a success. The two girls I taught were both very sweet beginners who were perfect to ease me into teaching. They were both very happy at the end of the session and so was I.

CHEERS - to my first class complete and the first and last 90210 we'll ever have!

xo
Jenn