A fathers love for his children

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Seeing my husband become a father was like falling in love with him all over again. Seeing the way he is with our kids, how much he loves them, the little details he pays close attention to, getting to go places with “just dad”, every moment he spends with them, or us as a family, for our kids it means the world. Hearing their little voices tell us they want to be a mommy and daddy when they grow up, I think we’re doing it right! 😉

I captured this image on hub’s birthday at the cottage. Both kids on his knee just erupting with laughter! I can still hear it. Warms my heart with so much love. Its true love moments like these that make any hard, frustrating days (with either the kids or hubs haha 😉 ) soooo worth it, and makes me look forward to sooo many more! xoxoxo

The beach bird | Saugeen Shores

You always know you are at the beach when these guys are around, they really are a beautiful bird!

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Happy 40th Birthday to my wonderful hubby!!!

Wishing my hubs a very happy birthday and many more wonderful years to come! Look how far you’ve come, look at what you’ve accomplished in life, especially these beautiful children of ours. You are not only an amazing man, you are the best husband and father a girl could ask for! I am very proud to be your wife!!! To many more happy and healthy years ahead!

Life Lessons, Live and Learn

It’s funny in life how life lessons come at us. Since buying our first house and now on our third, yes third, and my husband now working in hvac, the plumbers (and gas tech’s) daughter has become the gas tech’s wife and is learning so much with each house…

Most recently, being so thrilled with hubby replacing a burnt out part on our geothermal hvac unit and enjoying the cool air… Well it’s been short lived. Unfortunately our wonderful water furnace that has lasted a very good life of 23 years will now rest in peace.

Great plans upside down and slightly turned around, after hubby spent hours repairing the unit last night and cleaning it, what really was a problem unfortunately was not the only problem. Live and learn, in this business it can happen often, frustrating for both the homeowners (us in this case) and our tech’s.

Truth be told we knew we would have to do something with this system as it has been getting older, which haven’t we all. I won’t knock a Geothermal unit one bit, but when we have gas available we both have been looking forward to make the switch, eh perhaps just not being forced to do so.

If anything I can relate with our customers even more, yup from my own life lessons… In the spring it was waking up to no water… Cheers to living in the country and having a well. Even bigger cheers to my dad and hubs who spent the morning changing our pump lol! It’s funny but some customers have felt it almost reassuring when we can give our own life experiences, they’re not the only ones who have “bad luck”, or things happen at the worst time.

I’m A… What do you do?

Not that long ago there were quite a few feathers being ruffled by some of the “teachers” requests. I wasn’t shy at voicing my opinion… really though for some, of course not just teachers you can have it all and still think it’s not enough. I voiced my opinion but at the same  time I did also voice that my kids and also myself have been lucky to have truly dedicated teachers who truly love their job and care about the children coming in and out of their classrooms.

Teachers is not what this post is about. 

We are also in an industry which catches flack for being “over priced” or “too expensive” and many times the guys “only did this” or “just did that”, unfortunately being a common complaint many in the trade hear. More recently the trades profession now has representation through the Ontario College of Trades. Yearly licenses to be renewed through and education to be regulated by. 

Growing up in this business I know the crazy hours my dad worked, as well as the other service guys. Now not only me being a part of our everyday business, but my husband being hands on with service, repair and installation,  I am honored to deal with customers and be a true part of providing them service. 

Yes, service comes at a cost, much like a mechanic, massage therapist, eye doctor, dentist, carpenter, hair stylist, home detailers or decorators, landscapers and lawn care. However the true talent of a plumber, hvac mechanic, backhoe operator, pump truck operator, electrician… not really as glorified or exciting as some of the above trades and professions. Those above you can see and/or feel, If you are calling us or one of our colleagues, there is typically a problem and sometimes a major!

I feel very lucky to work with the people who I do, to feel proud of not only the work they do but know they have pride in themselves, their work  and the services we provide. 

The kitchen is the heart of the home, your mechanical room is like the veins, or circulation system within your home, where your plumbing, heating, cooling etc originates from. 

In this business it’s not everyday the guys receive compliments for their work, let’s face it some days they are literally dealing with sh*t!

Tonight I personally am (again) appreciating all the crazy long hours, evenings, days and even weekends spent in school for hubby to come home after a long day at work to fix our hvac system. A few hours later he had it working, after time spent weeks ago diagnosing the problem. 

Living in a house that truly is fitting to our dream home we have lots of exciting future plans for our home, involving a few other trades people who we will be hiring to help bring these dreams to light… 

There truly is an appreciation we should all have for the variety of professions and trades. Each forms and plays a part in our life, whether we want it to or not (everyone loves those hvac or vehicle break downs right?! 😉 ).  Appreciate but also take care of what we do have, maintenance goes along away not only in home repairs, vehicle repairs, our own mental health and our relationships! 

Kudos to my hubs tonight! Another reminder of why for all those years with very young kids (ok babies), many days feeling stressed and sometimes like a single parent, it’s not only worth it for us but also for so many of our customers. And now we finally get to sit down together for a few minutes before going to bed :). Ah many the nights of a technicians wife, I know a lot of the wives of our guys and even my own mom would agree! It can suck, but the guys truly do an awesome job! Great job, again hubby! 

My rings and their meaning

I have never been a girlie girl who loves a lot of jewelry. I am a girl who cherishes a few key pieces which hold so much meaning, to me.

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My rings.

My engagement ring. My wedding ring. My 1st anniversary ring. My 5th anniversary ring and my 10 years together ring.

More recently I took my 1st anniversary ring into our local jewelry store to inquire about adding our family birthstones to the two bare spots on the lower band. This ring means so very much to me. It not only symbolizes our 1st year together as husband and wife, it symbolizes hope at a time when it was very difficult for us during our attempts to grow our family.

I am THRILLED with the results of this ring, having our 4 birthstones added. The boys and the girls.

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This ring now holds even more meaning. From our 1st year married, hope to grow our family and now proudly displaying my family’s birthstones.

Us… not perfect but perfectly us

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My wee little mini me was taking photos at a family bbq we attended a couple weeks ago, she tried twice to get a photo from us, granted the weight of the camera is significant, the focus fell above us. I adore this photo, its not perfect, its breaking a lot of photography rules, but its us, very much like our life, its not perfect but its perfectly us.

Kids just wanna have fun… family fun with cousins!

Our kids love their family, they love spending time just as a family of 4 and as Madison says “I love it when our whole family gets together…” they are too cute!

The past few weekends they have been lucky to get to see lots of their cousins and had a blast!!!

SO many memories made 🙂

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The kids are lucky to have a great bunch of cousins 🙂 Even though some of these cousins we only see a few times a year they always have a blast!!!

Your Life As Art Photography by Pam

Artist & Intuitive | Pamela Zmija

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