Boler Reno day 7

So Sunday was a Boler day for me. I had one goal and that was to get my new axle mounted. So I finished making the riser blocks I needed, they turned out to be the perfect height from what I can see. It was hard work flipping the trailer back and forth so I could make sure the welding didn't get to hot in one spot. I can also say I am feeling the pain today. I took out the trailer just around the block once it was on and everything seems to work fine. I also installed new safety chains seeing as the style that where on there before are no longer legal. Everything is mounted using grade eight fine thread bolts. I got an awesome deal on these as well as 8 lbs of welding wire and all new stainless steel mounting hardware when I put the tube back on. Seeing as number 6 screws held the tube on before, 1/4-20 should be overkill.

Next week I hope to get the frame painted.

A Special Day

I don't normally blog on a Sunday, but today is a Special Day. One year ago today, my little cousin J married his high school sweetheart. It was such a beautiful wedding!

For our little family it was one of our mini vacations for 2012. It was Hugo's first time staying in a hotel (he was 5 1/2 months). Unfortunately I do not have many photos of this special day.  I only brought my little purse camera that I have, which I discovered does not take the greatest inside photos. I was also in-charge of looking after their guest book and snappy Polaroid pictures of guests as they arrived, so I did not have a lot of time.  I managed to find a couple photos though.

Hugo after the awesome party and
spending his first night in a hotel.

I just love weddings (we attended two beautiful weddings in 2012 -- the following one and a Country themed one. In 2014 we will have another wedding which Byron & Hugo will be in).  I find there is always an abundance of love in the air on a wedding day and there are so many things to look forward to.

Dressing up in something Fancy - I personally like an opportunity where I get to do my nails and dress up all nice and fancy.

The last time I gave myself a French Manicure

I find when you have a kid you just don't have time

for these things any more.

 Byron, on the other hand, hates it.  Hugo, on this particular day was ok with being in a suit. He just did not want anything to do with wearing his shoes.

Getting dressed and being naughty

sticking out his tong.

 I found a place online were I was able to get Hugo and Byron matching ties (I ordered them from My Favorite Pal). I did not get a good family picture of us, but before we headed to the ceremony we snapped the following pictures and I am so glad we did.

The Ceremony - the moment when you get to witness two individuals express their love for each other and give each other their hearts for a lifetime.

The importance of a wedding ceremony did not sink in until I got married myself. Before then I barely ever went to the ceremony. The wedding ceremony was always earlier in the day and seemed so impossible to get to on time. Plus there was always the question -- what to do once the ceremony  was over and you had to figure out how to spend the four hours between the ceremony and the reception? After our wedding my view completely changed and I quickly realized that the ceremony was the most important part of the entire wedding day, next to the beautiful bride of course. Without the ceremony there would be no wedding. I now try really hard to get us to the ceremony.

J & N's wedding ceremony took place at the following church. I found this photo online on the photographer's website (Samantha Erin Photography) - this was not the photographer they used but I thought it was a great shot of this cute little church.

Photo from Samantha Erin Photography website

I am not one to get all teary eyed (I usually leave that to my mom) but at a wedding ceremony there are usually three parts when I get a tear or two in my eyes. The first is when the bride walks down the aisle towards her Knight in Shinning Armour (I think it's because of the music). The second part is during the following reading which was one of the readings at our wedding and is so often used at weddings we have attended.

The third part is when I hear the couple say their vows. In all three cases they are tears of joy of course. I guess these three parts always bring me back to the wonderful memories of our own wedding day (which was almost 5 years ago) - a day that we planned for months and past by so fast.

J+N's transportation for the day

The First Dance - J & N did an awesome job with their first dance. They had all their professional dance moves down to a "T".  They danced to such a beautiful song by  Ingrid Michaelson - The Way I am (I am actually listening to it as I write this post).

The Meal - another thing I look forward to at a wedding -- usually a very delicious one.  One year ago today our meal consisted of a traditional Portuguese soup - Caldo Verde (starter). I will have to post the recipe one day. Followed by a mouth watering delicious Prime Rib Roast Beef served with grilled veggies and potatoes. Then we were served a chicken piece stuffed with a pistachio & goat cheese filling and a salad. (I was quite stuffed by this point but it was delicious. I have searched online for a recipe that replicates it but have yet to find one that is similar- I really want to try and make it at home. To be honest I'm not a fan of goat cheese or cheese in general, but this chicken was so tasty). For dessert we were served crepes and ice cream. By that point I was stuffed like a turkey, but some how managed to finish my dessert. Later in the evening there was more yummy food.  I did get the following photos of the yummy dessert and the late night buffet table.

  

The Details - The final thing that I look forward to is seeing all the details - the dresses (bride and bridesmaids), the flowers, the favours, the centrepieces, etc. The items that require so much time planning, but bring the wedding together and make it outstandingly beautiful and perfect.

I thought this was a neat idea. As guests arrived at the reception this is what they saw next to the framed seating chart. The wedding photos from the bride and groom's parents and grandparents.

The beautiful white hydrangea centrepieces. Hydrangea's are one of the top five flowers I really like. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the ones in my garden do better this year.

 

At each place setting there were these cute little boxes filled with Hugs and Kisses from the new  Mr. & Mrs. At the bottom of each chocolate there were little stickers with the couple's name and wedding date.

 

 

 

These are the details through their photographers lens (Shawn Bettencourt Photography) ...

 I absolutely loved the bride's dress and shoes -so pretty.

 

The reception took place at a Yacht Club and was a beautiful venue with lots of windows to let in lots of natural light. Since the wedding was in April there weren't any boats in the water but it was still a gorgeous backdrop behind the head table.

As guests left they were given a cute little  seedling.

Here's the custom card I made for their very 1st Anniversary (traditionally known as the Paper Anniversary). The 3D tree has the lyrics from their first dance and is affixed to premium cardstock.    The two hearts have the couple's initials. The inside reads "Happy 1st Anniversary" followed by their names and their 1st Anniversary date. The envelope had part of the sheet music of their first dance.

While I was working on the above card I also made the following card ...

The roots of a Family - 3D Tree Card

 

Close-up of verse and heart embellishments

 

This card will work great for either another anniversary card or even a wedding card. The 3D tree has the verse ... The Roots of a Family Tree begin with the Love of two hearts. It is affixed to premium cardstock. There are two small heart embellishments hanging off the tree. The inside of the card is blank for your own personal message.

(This card is currently available for purchase)

I seriously can not believe its been a year already since J & N tied the knot. We are so happy we were able to be a part of their special day. It was a gorgeous Spring Wedding! We wish them many years of happiness together filled with a lot of wonderful blessings!

The Happy Couple 1 Year Ago

 

 

A Little Laugh for a Slippery Friday

The other day I was trying to log onto the Huggies site so I could input some Huggies codes and this is what came up instead ...



Please click on the image for the source.

 

I thought it was cute and just had to share it.

Now for a seedling update for this week. One of my fears of growing my own seedlings has occurred ... I may have waited a weee bit to long to water my tomato plants oopps (they were not looking to great this week -bottom right photo). They have bounced back since I watered them and I must try not to be a slacker with the watering again. Things are growing like crazy and I will soon have to repot these little guys.

 

 

The storm finally arrived last night. There was freezing rain falling all night. This is what we woke up to this morning. A thick sheet of slippery freezing rain blanketing everything - what a task it will be trying  to get to the car and then into it should be interesting.

 

 

 

By Sunday the weather is suppose to go to a high of 10. What a crazy Springter we are having.

 



Rainy Days

Hugo is ready to test the water levels ...

 

There is a problem, however ...

 

Screenshot from The Weather Network 

 

 

 We are in the middle of a winter storm warning today.

 

If April showers brings May flowers, what does April snow bring?

 



15/52 - Grocery Shopping

Grocery shopping is so much more fun (and easier) when Dad comes with us. Usually we try to get it done throughout the week. This week we did not even need a snack to get through our trip.

I was going to try and snap some pictures when we were in the store, but it was crazy busy on Sunday morning and I figured it would just be easier to take it when we were packing up the car. The only problem though -- I could not get Hugo to look at the camera because he was too busy looking at all the cars in the parking lot.

 

He was so focused

 

 

Tax Time Again



I can not believe it is that time of the year again - income tax time. For a change this year I finished early {insert jumping up and down}.

 

For years now I just file our own income tax returns. Two of my co-ops in post secondary were at an accounting office completing tax returns. When I finished my post secondary education I worked at an insolvency office and part of my job again was completing tax returns for insolvent individuals. I actually had a running total of all the returns I completed but have lost track now. It must be at plus 3000 returns. For every return I did at the insolvency office for an insolvent person I had to complete two returns which added up quickly, not to mention a lot of these individuals had not filed their taxes for years (part of the reason they were in the situation they were in). Let just say I completed a lot of income tax returns over the past 15 years.

I have a couple returns I do for people during tax time. I must admit it is nice having that little bit of extra money, especially now that I'm a SAHM. I never know how much to charge people though. Some of the people pay me what they would pay to have them done at a professional office (what they paid before I started completing their taxes - they always tell me whether they bring it to me or somewhere else they have to pay to get it done so they rather give me the money) and others ask for me to set a price. I must admit though I always have a hard time setting a price since I do not know what other places are charging and I do not want to over charge people. I figure the amount I charge covers a bit of my time, gets put towards the cost of the program, and my material - I print a copy of the return (which is usually close to 30 pages) and put it in a folder like so...

 

Yesterday I had the radio on and an ad for H&R Block came on and they said their basic returns start at $69.99 plus tax. (I thought it was so odd that I heard this ad ... the timing was just so weird since I had been discussing pricing on the weekend). After hearing the ad I must admit that I was curious to see what they considered a basic return. I decided to go visit their website to find out and let me tell you  I almost fell off my chair when I realized how much it costs to get tax returns done.       

I just had to document what I saw on their site at http://www.hrblock.ca/services/pricing.asp and I took a screen shot on April 7, 2013 ...

 

Most of the returns I do fall in their Intermediate Category which they charge $114.99 each return plus tax. I could not stop my price research here so I did a bit more searching. I figured the reason the price was so high was because it was H&R Block and other places probably charge way less.  I had a couple local newspapers laying around and quickly looked through them closely (I never look at the paper) to see if there were any ads listing income tax preparation and the price and I found a few. Most of them stated their prices for a basic return (one to two T4 slips) started between $55.00 - $60.00, and went up from there for any additional slips. They charge about $10 to $15 less than H&R Block (not really that much cheaper).

I could not believe how much money we save with me completing our income tax returns each year. I never really did the math before. This is why I decided to do this post. I hope it will be a reminder to us for years to come that every little bit we save by doing things our selves (if we have the know how) sure does add up and saves us quite a bit of money.

I think this year I might put some of the money towards a cartridge that I want to get for my die-cutting machine which will hopefully become an investment that allows me to make a bit more extra dough to put towards extra treats for the family (pizza night, ice-cream treats, etc.).

Just curious, do you do your own income tax or do you get them done professionally? If you do not mind me asking, how much are you charged?

Steak ... Oh BBQ Season {1 of 10}

For the next ten weeks we have decided to post the Top Ten Favourite dishes at our house. The posts will be in no particular order. It should be interesting to see how our current favourite dishes will change over the years to come.

I figured I would start with a dish we love to make during BBQ season - beef tenderloin steak, grilled peppers and Italian herb tomatoes sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. My mouth is watering just writing this post. Oh how we love BBQ Season. I think I like it a wee bit more than Byron because it gives me a break in the kitchen. Sometimes Byron cooks the entire meal on the BBQ which means there is nothing for me to do inside besides the prep and the big bonus ... there are less dishes for me to clean afterwards {yahoo}. The weather was nice and sunny throughout the day this past Saturday (a bit chilly), but that didn't matter because we were still able to BBQ. At night it was a different story - it hailed and snowed and was super windy - it's like Old man Winter does not want to leave. As I sit here writing this post at 5:45 a.m. the birds are singing away. Such a beautiful spring sound and a lovely reminder that Old Man Winter will have to give up soon.

As always, Byron did a wonderful job with dinner - all 4 of us thoroughly enjoyed it (Roxy loved the little fat treat she received at the end of dinner)!

Hope everyone has a good Monday!!