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Summer

Breaking Radio Silence

I could tell you all that I have been up to since August, but truth be told, this is my busiest time of year with my Photography Business and silly me, added another business to the round up, so double that and you will know where I am. Spinning out of control.  I promised myself I would blog on my birthday, but I had to work, for the first time ever on my birthday so instead I am blogging tonight, almost a week later. I haven’t forgotten about my blog as some of you may think, I have been told that people have given up on me. That is Ok because if you know me well you know where to find me: Photography Blog, Twitter, Instagram, email and we would still be in touch. I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth, I have just been working hard.

Since August, I have had Apple start school full time, started my Arbonne Business, Ballet, been to Delaware three more times (and another trip coming up), Birthday parties for J and Apple and Fall Family Sessions along with Photographing conferences, Photo walks and actually meeting people in person instead of online. Phew.

All this talk of Hurricane made me remember that I never shared the after photos of the Beach House. The very Beach House that had us praying for its safety.  You see, our little dream is located on a flood plane on Rehoboth Bay in Delaware. We are mere steps from The Bay, which empties out into the ocean. When we stand on the crabbing pier we look out to the Indian Inlet Bridge that was closed Sunday due to flooding. So you can imagine what we did for Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We trolled the internet for any signs that our Beach House was not floating away into Rehoboth Bay. As Rehoboth Beach (which includes us) was evacuated on Saturday we knew we lost any hope of contact with our neighbours, some of which live there year round. Our handyman Rich and his wife, not only have a home in Rehoboth but also in Chincoteague Island, Virginia. We prayed for their safety and are happy that at least their home in Rehoboth was spared, not so sure about Chincoteague but we will find out soon.

Our Beach House was indeed spared. With talks of flooding in The Bay, and the main road into our community we thought for sure the water would be up to the doorway or worse. We had no illusions of grandure, we expected to find out that we had to start from scratch. We were prepared for the worst. When Hubby called the office today after we heard the driving ban was lifted, he was surprised to talk to the ladies in the office, laughing and telling him that it was a miracle that there was no flooding to our houses. The water did come up our street a little but nothing more than a regular summer storm would bring.  Miracles to happen and although I am saddened by the news for others in other States like New York and New Jersey, I can’t help but be thankful that we were spared.  We will make the trek this weekend to check that the roof didn’t leak and that there isn’t anything to be taken care of that can’t wait for Thanksgiving. Yes, we will return later in the month for Thanksgiving (unless there is lots of snow up here) as we have so much to be Thankful for this year.

Here is a little peek into our Beach House, post renos. And honestly all we did this year was replace the floor (which included patching holes), wash the walls and bring in new beds and a couch. Next year we are going to update the bathrooms (which are 1969 old), paint and possibly add an outside shower. After spending three weeks here in June and July it was amazing what you can live without. We had very little with us, a few toys, an xbox (for games and movies) and our computers. We spent mornings on the beach and afternoons by the pool. We alternated nights with staying home and going to the boardwalk.  My cousin even lent me her 1989 Jeep Wagoneer so I could stay longer with J and Apple and she hadn’t even driven it yet!

Our Living Room (with lunch to head home already packed on the table) and the hallway leading from the backdoor to the living room.

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Front Bedroom, with powder room attached (otherwise known as J’s room or the guest room)

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Kitchen, with retro cabinets that will see an update sometime in the future and Apple’s mini room that just fits a bunkbed. Great place for J to sleep when we have guests (which we have had a few times now)

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And the Master Bedroom, complete with ensuite/full bathroom.  We chose to go with Queen beds in the main bedroom and front bedroom so that we could sleep comfortably, it means that there isn’t a lot of room to walk around the beds, but they do move easily on the floor and it makes for a much more comfy sleep in the heat… trust me on that one.

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And that is a little tour of the Beach House. Hubby and I will head down to check it out later this week, while the kids stay home and go to school.

We were thrilled to be at the Beach House for Canadian Thanksgiving, where we cooked a turkey and had our family over for supper, we were tight, but we managed with eight of us watching a football game and enjoying Canadian turkey. We also had two amazing days on the beach before the weather turned cold. A little last fling of summer for sure.

Here is a little Summer Recap from Instagram:

Thanksiving… Labour Day

For this I am giving Thanks #beautifulday Just me and my little man #beachtime

August with my Sister…. Watching the view

Last day at the pool... For this week #beachtime Our view today #beachtime

Borrowing my Cousin’s car in July… at Cape Henlopen with MamaLang (we met through this blog and I cannot express how grateful I am to have met her and her family)

This is me borrowing @annabananagirl 's BeachMobile it's going to be a great week! Together with @mamalang at Cape Henlopen, DE

Now that I am missing Summer terribly, I will try hard not to wait as long between posts. I may even post from the beach again this weekend, we shall see.  Until the next time.

5 comments
Categories: Blissdom Canada, Catching up, Summer, Thanksgiving, The Beach

U2 360 Baltimore

Our summer vacation started a bit early this year due to a conflict in U2 schedules. We were supposed to see U2 play in Montreal last July, when Bono hurt his back and had to have surgery. When it came time to reschedule their tour the Montreal date fell during the end of our summer vacation.

We toyed with leaving the Beach early, however, that really wouldn’t have been fun so we looked at our options. Go to Toronto, Philidelphia, Moncton or Baltimore.  Since Baltimore fell just before our beach vacation and my cousins live quite close to M&T stadium, so we had a place to stay and babysitting, we opted for Baltimore.

The concert started at 7pm but we don’t know our way around Baltimore and have heard horror stories of traffic, so we decided to make a day of it and left around 1pm for the stadium.  Upon our arrival we could hear the guys doing a sound check on the instruments. Our excitement started before we even got out of the car. Lots of people stopped us to ask where we were from with our Ontario plates, wondering why we were crazy enough to drive all that way to see U2.

We took a walk and stopped at a pub for some nachos and beer then back to the stadium in time to hear the whole band doing sound checks before they opened the gates. It was killing us to know that Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr were all inside while we were on the other side of the walls. They gave us a small taste of what was to come.

As the gates opened I realized for the first time how high the 500 level was and wasn’t sure I was going to make it. For the Montreal concert we had General Admission tickets but we had to trade in for the 500’s in Baltimore, funny thing…we went from being super close to being super far away! We were two rows from the top, my legs still feel like jelly when I remember just how high we were.

Here is a photo of us while I was actually still clinging to the seat as though I was about to tumble to my death. Hubby kept warning me that once the stands filled up and it got dark, I would be OK. I wasn’t sure… Just look at how nervous my smile is!

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Despite how high we were, the stage was incredible, it all makes sense now as to why they built this monstrosity, it filled the stadium up. Even though we could see them running around, the giant screen and the effects from the stage made it that much bigger.

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See how it fills the night sky!!

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Best of all… Hubby was right, as soon as the stands filled up and The Boys hit the stage, my legs stopped feeling like jello and I was able to get up and enjoy the concert. They played many of my favorites (Sunday Bloody Sunday, Elevation, Pride, Mysterious Ways and more) but two of my favorite moments were One/Amazing Graze/Where the Streets have no Name and closing with Moment of Surrender with a tribute to the late Clarence Clemens with Jungleland. Just an amazing night all around.

After waiting two years to hear them play again, I am just a tad bit sad that it has come to an end. Knowing how tired they must be keeping this tour going, and looking forward to the end I just hate to wonder if this was their last go around.  I do hope to hear of an arena tour a few years down the road, as I promised J that we would take him if they did, but knowing how hard it must be to put on such a show I would completely understand if they didn’t.

Next time, if there is on, I will be sure to bring the old DSLR with shorter lenses, as I couldn’t bring my big guns in the gates with me.

1 comment
Categories: Summer, Travel, Vacation

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After struggling for way too long to lose the last ten pounds after Apple was born, I am happy to announce…

They are gone.

They have been gone for a few days now but I really didn’t want to believe it until today.  Today I am wearing pants I haven’t worn in five years and I unearthed a box of my favorite summer clothes.  In it I was able to dig out five skirts, four pairs of pants and three shorts.  All of which haven’t seen a summers day in five years, minimum.

As overjoyed as I am I am not stopping here.  I still have another box of cute summer dresses that require at least five more pounds, if not seven to be gone from this body and I am determined to bring them on our summer holidays this year so I will keep on doing what I am doing in the hopes that I will get to unearth those other favorites. It hasn’t been easy for sure, but I am confident that I can keep on going. I will let you know when I get there.

4 comments
Categories: About Me, Fitness, Food, Summer