Commemorating

Today is a celebration for all citizens and lovers of El Salvador who begin to honour "El Divino Salvador del Mundo" which stands for the Divine Saviour of the World, Jesus Christ. Since the country is mostly Catholic, August 6th is honoured with a national festival, commencing the week before and leading up to the saint's day.

Below is some history for those that are curious:
The observance of the festival dates back to 1525, the year that the capital city San Salvador was founded. The grandest of the celebrations take place in that city, but there are also observances throughout the rest of the country and in Salvadoran communities settled abroad. The main events of the festival are a religious procession, a large fair, various sporting events, a beauty contest, and a street party featuring floats and dancers.

On this day, there will be happy celebrations throughout the beloved "pulgarcito" (nickname for El Salvador) through the USA and up to Canada. As for me, I can only think and reminisce on the lady that taught me how to love life. She was my mother, my father, companion, and most beloved relative. My grandmother was a lady with character and for those who knew her very well, can definitely attest to this.

When we would go to church, there would be people who would introduce themselves every other Sunday, people who I had never seen before. I would wonder how the lady who sat five rows behind us knew my grandmother so well like she was a part of our family. I knew grams had a big heart to welcome anyone into her life whether it was to teach people or guide them towards a positive way of living. I would claim my grams was an inspiration to those who had the privilege of meeting her... after celebrating a very emotional new year, that is when everything changed.

My grandmother fought for what she always believed in and it was the best advise I could have ever received. She was my greatest inspiration and will always be in my heart. Te quiero mucho abuelita y te pienso siempre!

June Birthdays

Spring is officially not over until the celebration of some little ladies that happen to be our nieces. 

June 7 marked Chloebear's 4th birthday; a year older and ready to begin school this upcoming September. This little girl has quite the style as her mom always dresses her to look cute. I've been told, Chloe does pick out her clothes and loves to go into mommy's closet for shoe shopping. I'm sure as Chloe is her mommy's shoe size, those shoes will see more light.

June 12 is London's birthday and since she is also the first grandchild (on mama's side) and first niece to Jord, she will be celebrating in style: dresses and bubblegum cupcakes as she requested. She will most likely be wearing a dress and little girl heels to her celebration tonight. London is also turning four and will begin school this upcoming September.

June 17 is Breitling's 2nd birthday and happens to be London's baby sister. "B-Bop", "Brecky', "Binky" as some of us call her, has quite the mind of her own. Her Gramma tells everyone Breitling acts the same way Jordan used to act when he was around that age. Always sticking fingers into anything they got their hands on. This little girl will be interested in the sciences or will surprise her family with a new invention of some sort one day, keep an eye out! 

We all wish these girls could remain small and young forever but life teaches us all must grow up one day!

Homebuying

Cheers to this new journey...

Life will throw lemons your way and when you least expect it, you are bound to turn those lemons into lemonade! Today, Jordan and I have become homeowners, together for the first time in Oakville. We have been looking for over a year now but were not going to settle for anything less than what we could afford.

As Spring was in full bloom, we decided it was the right time to look around for houses within our budget. We knew some work might be required when purchasing a house in our price range and we were ready to take on any challenge. I put together a list on our Google drive, made numerous notes, and then once the weekend hit, we drove around the city to our scheduled viewings.

It was a beautiful Sunday after brunch at Glen Abby Golf Club that Jordan agreed to spend the day looking at houses. His mother had an open house of her own (do you want to purchase a detached bungalow loft 10-ft ceilings? if so, message me!) and she also decided to tag along on our adventure. The first two detached homes we saw, were situated at the mid-range of our budget and were located perfectly close to work. For a detached home, you are always bound to make a reasonable profit when flipping the house, however if the current homeowners spent a decent amount of time vacuuming and cleaning their floors, these homes would not even last on the market by the time I saw them.

This only gave us a push to not settle for a house even if it is detached. I had lined up two more viewings for that afternoon and with 35mins to kill, we decided to visit an open house to pass the time. 

Walking through the front door into the open house, we were greeted by the homeowners since they decided to sell their own house with "ComFree" instead of paying a Realtor. The entire house had an Italian and Indian decorative feel as those are the wife's interests. I fell in love with the kitchen and the beautiful garden in the backyard, something we did not have to worry about if we were to make an offer. After viewing every inch of the house two hours later, I had missed my scheduled viewings for that afternoon as both parties signed the ComFree paperwork with huge smiles on our faces.

One weekend was all it took and one sunny day made us homeowners.

Oasis of The Seas

Such a beautiful ship with the name Oasis is truly a must see!

I have been rather busy with my new position at work that Jordan and I planned a getaway to the beach. Not only were we able to see the beach, the fluffy white sand, but also the aquamarine ocean that the Caribbean has to offer! Our trip did start out on an interesting journey as I will list what went down:

1. delayed flights, twice
2. cancelled flight... had to switch flights
3. lost luggage.. arrived hours before boarding
4. Relaxing cruise
5. changed delayed flight back home


During this New Year of planning, my one year of blogging came and went a few weeks ago. I cannot believe this blog hasn't been a priority as I wish it could be; I will try to change that.