Tag Archive | Life

In Response To My Best Friend…

And to all those looking marriage in the face!

Marriage

Scary topic right?? Yes and no! It is scary because you think it something new, unchartered waters, it isn’t all that new … Trust me.

I’ve learned a few things in the past three years of marriage. Trust me I’m not claiming to have all the answers and God knows I was a really bad wife for a while there BUT what I do have is some experience and some rambling to share with you!!

There Is No Such Thing As The Perfect Soulmate Or Perfect Marriage

Sorry to burst anyone’s bubble but nothing is ever perfect, you’re going to have hard times, disagreements, tears, fights, blowouts and there will be times you think about leaving. However there will also be love, quiet times, parties, happiness, and occasionally you will wonder how you ever lived without the other person.

Marriage is a balancing act and it’s a lot of work but the pay off can be amazing if you open your eyes and see the little things. Life is an amazing adventure if you allow it to be!

Marriage is not as scary as you think. Marriage isn’t a piece of paper Marriage is everyday, working together to get things done, marriage is grocery shopping, paying bills, going out for dinner, going on vacation, fights, compromise. Marriage is really no different then the things the two of you are doing day in and day out together right now! Don’t let those vows intimidate you. They are just words and your marriage license is just paper. Your words and that paper can’t force you to stay together. Your actions and feelings for each are what your marriage is made of. The way you work as a team and treat each other are what will keep you together.

Marriage is falling out of love and back in love with the same person hundreds of times because just when you think you’ve reached a breaking point something happens that makes you remember why you fell in love in the first place!!

Marriage is letting the other person have the last cupcake! Giving and taking but also being patient and thankful. Marriage is as much about learning who you are as it is learning who the other person is. Make yourself a promise right now to never give up on learning who either is!

Marriage is like the seasons, always changing, renewing, living, dying. Marriage is a promise to let your two worlds collide and to hold on for dear life to each other. To help each other be better. To help each other get through the tough times and embrace the good times.

Never let your marriage destroy your individuality and never think you have the right to destroy your partners individuality. Getting married doesn’t mean you lose you to become a “We”. Marriage means you promise to hold on to who you are, respect who your partner is and work together to both be the best you can. In the process the support will create an amazingly strong bond. Together you will be better because you have nurtured each others strong points.

Marriage is counting to ten and remembering that no matter how mad you are in this moment that person you’re livid with is someone you love deeply. Marriage is being careful with the words you choose because once those words are out there you can’t take them back.

Marriage is falling but helping each other back up. Sometimes one person may fall hard, fast, and deep. It’s going to hurt! You can embrace the hurt and walk away or you can except that much like cleaning a wound with iodine it’s gonna sting like a bitch but eventually the sting will subside and the scar will fade. People make mistakes and marriage is accepting the mistakes others make and the hurt they cause but deciding to heal through the hurt and be stronger on the other side.

Marriage and a wedding are not the same thing! In fact in today’s world either one can happen without the other! A wedding is a public celebration of the love between two people! Don’t let planing that celebration harm the love you’ve already built. Remember you can’t please everyone and your choices may step on a few toes but no one is going to die if YOUR wedding isn’t the way they envisioned it. Enjoy your special day, embrace the excitement and experience and remember its just one day. Marriage is the rest of your life if you choose for it to be.

Life ain’t always beautiful and neither is marriage. Both will knock you down but its easier to get back up when you have a hand from someone you love.

Be Better

May13

Dear everyone,

Someone’s value and self worth does not go down because their pant size has gone up nor does their worth go up as their pant size goes down.

I am seriously disgusted at how some adults expect their children to learn to not bully others because of body type yet grown ass women think its okay for them to snicker because not everyone is a size 2.. Be better ladies!

That girl at the gym my not be tiny and yes she out weighs you. She out weighs you as a better person! She can change her appearance but your ugly comes from the inside!!

Dear Girl at the gym,
You are beautiful! You are beautiful the way you are. You will be beautiful if you change or stay the same. Don’t let those ladies discourage you. You are there because you love yourself or because you’re learning to love yourself! Either way don’t stop. Do it for you, not for the size tag in your yoga pants.

Sincerely,
The girl who’s been there and back again.

Make Sure You Aren’t Asleep At The Wheel

Feb27

Don’t let anyone tell you how to feel. Don’t let anyone make up your mind for you. Don’t let anyone put your back against a wall. Don’t live your life in a fog or a daze, tear down the walls and find yourself! Ask yourself if the wars you rage are worth it? Where will you wind up if you win? Will you be happy?

Live your life for you but tread carefully as to do as little harm to others as possible. Live with purpose, do your best to understand circumstance. Don’t try to further yourself by doing harm to others but understand in life you will hurt people and you will be hurt. It is all part of the process.

We all have our secrets, we all have our dreams. We all have those memories that will never go away. You know the ones… The sweetness of that first kiss, the sting of the moment of failure. We all live with the would of, could of, should of feelings. Instead of letting these things overwhelm you, try to let the goodness of life, of your choices, of who you are, and your successes overjoy you.

Know that your wings may be broken but there is more then one way to fly. Start crawling, walking and soon enough you will be ready. Ready to run, ready fly. Don’t believe you have to be who you are in this moment. Be who you want to be. Live the life of your dreams and sooner or later you will realize you never stop aspiring to be better. Live with dignity and learn from your indignities.

No road in this life is straight. Enjoy the curves, the bends and every now and then use the U-turn routes. Never drive in circles because it won’t get you anywhere except frustrated and out of gas!!!

If you only do one thing, be better then you use to be!

Good Evening….Good Morning! It’s 1:32am Your Call!

Feb27

I just got finished deleting half of the people off of my Facebook friends list and putting a good portion of the remainder on limited profile. I know in a few cases this will not go over well but honestly I don’t care. I did it for me and my own well being. There are a few reasons I did this and the most major one is I don’t want to share my life with some people I don’t feel comfortable or close with. Now you may be asking yourself why I have a blog in that case. This blog was never posted on my Facebook account and while it by no means is hidden if certain friends, famy or acquaintances wished to located it that would be at their own discretion. The Facebook machine is an interesting beast. In many cases Facebook seems like nothing more then a glorified pissing contest. A who’s who of making their life sound like complete perfection. While I enjoy many aspects of Facebook and enjoy sharing my life in this manner, I think the deletes were a very healthy choice for me.

Now on to the real interesting bits and bites of my day! Okay I lie…today was pretty uneventful!!! Typical Tuesday at work.

Just ask Muffin how eventful our day was!!!! Actually don’t she is sound asleep …. AGAIN!

I tried some new gluten bread at lunch time and it was stellar. I will snap a picture of the package tomorrow. As for now check out my yummy sandwich ! Ham, cheese,micro-greens, and tomato on the tiny gluten free bread! I

I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. I guess trying new things really is worth the risk.

The only other food I took a picture of was my snack.

I couldn’t help myself because I thought it was pretty!

Well friends I should try and get some sleep incase I need to fight off angry deleted Facebook peeps in the morning 😉

A Week In A Blink

Jan22

Please pardon my MIA status for the last week. I’ve been feeling very stressed with my up coming appointment at the Lupus clinic. I’ve been doing my best to keep myself occupied and busy. I succeeded at both for the better part of the last week!

Wednesday night after work my best friend, Katie and I hit Starbucks for some tea and small talk. I’ve found myself becoming more closed off these days even around those I love deeply. I think it is a combination of being unwell, the unknown, and the inability to even get out what I want to say. With that being said it was nice to have some one on one BFF time.

Thursday I ventured out to get my nails done, toes painted, and eye brows waxed! A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do! Unfortunately that meant venturing outside in flip flops. Let me tell you it was not a warm experience!!!

I came home from my nail appointment to get love attacked by Maple and Muffin!

After I managed to pull myself away from the pups, Kevin and I ventured out to run some errands. We went to the wild bird store and then to edible arrangements before heading to Starbucks and to visit a friend. Our friends recently finished a kitchen renovation and oh my gosh it is seriously gorgeous!!!! So jealous! Once we got home Kevin had to force me to eat dinner before I was allowed to bust open the box of chocolate covered fruit we picked up at Edible arrangements!!!

If you have never tried anything g from E.A. I suggest you go… Go now… I will wait!! But seriously, so amazing…so not cheap! You’ve been warned!

Friday I got up early and headed to the gym. I got my workout in despite the pain!

I promise I burned more then five calories!!! I only have this photo because I’m still getting use to the iPhone! After the gym I had coffee with a friend and walked around the mall before coming home to a little family work party of wood chopping and stacking!

I was out on stacking duty because let’s face it I’m not chainsaw or axe handling material these days!!! After the work was done I was thoroughly exhausted but rallied to go out for the night with some friends. One of our friends is a musician and was playing at one of my favourite pubs! We spent most of the evening there, had dinner, some drinks then hit the hot tub!

I’m such a fan of tasting plates and this one was amazing!!! The pub makes their own marinated veggies and beer infused Dijon mustard! As well as the pretzel buns! I would order this again in a second!!!

The waitress and I become quick friends so she made sure my wine arrived as full as possible!!

The hot tub felt amazing in the freezing winter night. Thanks to my autoimmune issues I can only handle about ten minutes at a time so I got out and wrapped my self in blankets on the patio. I’m no fun!!

Saturday morning saw me power clean the house before heading into Vancouver for the day with a group of eight friends. We had a very entertaining day and a wonderful meal at a quaint little Italian restaurant.

The butter was rose buds!! I was a fan !!!

The rest of the weekend was rather low key because I was exhausted. When I think about last year at this time I get insanely frustrated because of how much my life has changed. Being sick has caused me to have to slow down. I haven’t been running and I miss it. I am going to the gym three days a week as opposed to five days a week as I was before. I guess I should be happy I’m able to go at all. I have to be honest I’m not feeling overly optimistic today. I really can’t wait until this specialist appointment is done with.

Anyways this week so far has been good. The gym yesterday was helpful temporarily in helping me forget how much I’m not enjoying my to do list this week!!

Tonight I made home made black bean burgers and they turned out awesome and of course I neglected to take a photo!!! Blogger fail!!

A few more pictures from the past week!!

Enjoy and goodnight friends 🙂

I’ve Had My Run….Baby I’m Done…I’m Glad I Came Home

Dec18

Hi there! I am Erica… a 30 year old home care nurse from Cloverdale BC Canada. Cloverdale is a little suburb about 40 minutes from downtown Vancouver! I share my life with my husband Kevin and our dog Muffin, along with a number of family members and friends! I’ve been blogging off and on over at Livejournal for many years, I have often considered trying the more intense blogging thing and I guess there is no time better than the present!

I originally started this blog back in the early summer of 2011 around the same time my life took an 18 month turn down a road that taught me many things about myself, love, life, marriage, friendship, who to trust, and what’s important.

So I guess this is my new blog beginning. I want to use this as my day to day canvas to document my struggles and triumphs of trying to lead a full, healthy, happy life. Feel free to tag along for the ride, offer feedback, constructive criticism, ideas and anything else you see fit.

Hope you stick around!

Erica M.

Life With The McGavins

100% Not Sugar Coated