Rather than feel guilty for not blogging here, I'm going to officially take a 2 week break so that I can deal with three big projects that are simultaneously coming to a head.

I'll be back the first week of July...

DIY Wedding

Here are some more photos of the wedding we went to last weekend. I was pretty involved in the preparations (from doing all the flowers to helping the bride pick out a dress) and Jeff created the ingenious cardboard tube vases that held the flowering branches at the outdoor "altar" and did 101 other tasks behind the scenes. Here's what we helped create:

The part that made me most nervous - making the bride's bouquet. It was a rustic hand-tied bunch of white hydrangeas, Queen Anne's lace, pink and green lisianthus, purple scabiosa, cream stocks, ivy and lime green puff balls. Against the bride's eggplant purple dress, it was very pretty and I was very pleased with how it turned out. 

What kind of boutonniere do you make for a groom allergic to most flowers? A green one. Thankfully, it looked great against his purple tie and shirt. 

Jeff's aunt, another cousin and I made the centerpieces out of thrift-store clear glass vases, greens from our gardens, mystery purple flowers from my garden, pink tulips and yellow ranunculus. The mantle was simple - just votives and ivy. 

The groom cut wood disks for under the centerpieces. My mom sewed table runners out of sheer curtains the bride found at Value Village. A trunk from our maple tree (trimmed several years ago and stashed in the garage) became the place cards. And the wedding favours? S'mores ingredients for the bonfire that happened after dinner. 

 The groom fabricated the fantastic cupcake stand out of wood disks and a brass frame. The cupcakes were from Lynne's Lovecakes in Chilliwack and they were delicious. The icing was the best icing I've ever had - light, smooth, not grainy and not sweet. They tasted as good as they looked.

The bouquet wilted during the heat of the wedding but perked up once it got back into water. It survived our day-long trip to Ikea and got home, 2 days later, looking fairly fresh.

I don't have pictures but we also did two huge arrangements of Solomon's Seal, pink snapdragons, green bells of ireland and a mass of other greens for the front of the "altar". It was great fun... and I'm happy it's over!

The Music of Living

I see the world and live life through music. The same is true for Jeff. Part of that is in the DNA of who we are, and part of that has been nurtured. We're both very lucky to have grown up in families and church communities that nurtured this. 

Yesterday, my piano teacher passed away. The legacy of nurtured music she leaves behind is immense and the many memories of her contributions to church and community music pouring in this week have been inspiring and wonderful to read. Music teachers usually teach their students notes... she taught me that talent is something God entrusts us with to share with humility. She taught me that listening makes us better not just in music, but in all areas of life. She helped me discover the great joy that is found in making music with others (far more joy, it turns out, than being a soloist!) and she taught me that approaching music (and all of life) needs to be with the whole self and the right attitude. I have been able to choose a life filled with music, in part, because of her teaching, and this has been a gift bigger and more meaningful than I can ever express.

It's usually most appropriate to play somber and quiet pieces of music for memorials. Today, I just can't. The gift of music is something to celebrate and be immensely thankful for. So today, I remember someone who nurtured the gift of music for me by singing Dan Forrest's celebration anthem, "The Music of Living".

Giver of life

Creator of all that is lovely

Teach me to sing the words to your song. 

I want to feel the music of living

And not fear the sad songs

But from them make new songs

Composed of both laughter and tears.

Giver of life

Creator of all that is lovely

Teach me to dance through the sounds of your world. 

I want to move in rhythm with your plan

Help me to follow your leading

To risk even falling

To rise and keep trying

For you are leading the dance

Giver of life

Creator of all that is lovely

Teach me to sing the words to your song. 

Birthday

Jeff's birthday was last week. It started out with the birthday tradition in our household (one started by Jeff) - pie of your choice for breakfast. Jeff's choice this year was apple.

The day ended with our care group enjoying chocolate brownies in the shape of one of Jeff's robots. They were delicious and Jeff reports that it was a very good day, indeed.

Resolution #1

Christmas Recap

I did fairly well, taking photos up until Christmas dinner. That was when we started getting sick.... and the photos stopped. Here's a recap of our holidays, with the few photos I managed to snap.

Cheap & Cheerful- ivy cut from the backyard for this year's front door wreath

FINALLY ripe! 29 pounds of kiwis picked in early December and made into jam.

This year's tree in green, white and gold.

The new addition this year, inspired by a photo I saw on pinterest and created by a very handy husband. 

Staying with the green and white theme

My first attempt at decorating sugar cookies. Not bad, eh?!

The only craft this Christmas, also inspired by something I saw on pinterest

The family room tree in every colour under the rainbow

Christmas dinner table. After being gifted with red flowers, I made the centerpiece, added some beautiful napkins my mom sewed me a few years ago, threw on some candles and called it done. I'm not usually a big fan of red but for this year, I think it was just perfect 

Someone (AKA Jeff) has been in the candy dish... 

Celebrating the New Year with a cross-country game of Ticket To Ride

Happy New Year

As planned, Jeff and I had a lovely Christmas spent with family and friends. While some days were filled with visiting and activity, we also managed to find a few days of quiet for which we've been most thankful. I've been sick the past week and that has resulted in our traditional Christmas letter/slideshow morphing into a New Year greeting this year. We hope you enjoy this little glimpse into our lives in 2012 and we wish you hope, love, peace and joy in 2013.

Our Song

While I wasn't going to replay any songs that appeared here last year, the arrangement of "Go Tell It On The Mountain" which our friends and cousins sang for the recessional at our wedding is way too wonderful (and special to us) not to replay. So here's the music we danced up the aisle to, five years ago today.

Special Lullaby

One of my best friends lives far, far away. Today is her birthday. And I would like nothing more than to have coffee with her and chat... in person. We have plans to do that over video Skype next week, but it's not the same as being in person. A few years ago, she recorded a wonderful Strauss piece with the Wellington Winds. She's a fantastic soprano- those of you who were at my wedding will remember her singing. In honor of her birthday, I thought I'd share.

Happy Birthday SandyPants! I miss you tons and tons and tons.

Beim Schlafengehn (While going to sleep)

Now that the day has made me so tired, 

my dearest longings shall be accepted kindly by the starry night like a weary child. 

Hands, cease your activity; head, forget all of your thoughts; 

all my senses now will sink into slumber. 

And my soul, unobserved, will float about on untrammeled wings 

in the enchanted circle of the night, living a thousandfold more deeply.

Jeff at the Olympics

If you've been following the Olympics at all, you've probably heard about Michael Phelps smashing the record of most Olympic medals won by an individual. What you haven't heard is how Jeff helped him, and the rest of the US swim team, a little bit. Check this out. 

Cool, huh?!

Photo courtesy of AFP/Getty Images retrieved from CNN

Graduation postlude

Unexpected flowers to mark this event from two dear friends. I was so surprised- but they made our quiet week last week that much more enjoyable. Thanks M & S.

Graduation Part 2

The best part of graduation, for me, was getting to show my parents, parents-in-law and cousin around the Royal Roads campus where I lived for 6 weeks during on-campus terms. The star of campus is Hatley Castle, a medieval/Stuart castle house built in 1908 for a member of the wealthy Dunsmiur family (see a history here). It was eventually converted into a school, but the gardens have been kept pretty much as they were when the estate was a private residence. I had a direct view of the castle both years I was on campus and it's a pretty neat thing to see first thing in the morning.

  

  

Graduation Part I

The ten days surrounding graduation were a bustle of activity, out-of-province company and little down time. As such, I took a wee blogging break last night- I think both Jeff and I needed a few days of quiet. I promised more photos from graduation, so here they are. Note: photos here are courtesy of my dad, cousin D, or the official (and shockingly overpriced) Royal Roads photographer.

Graduation is s actually a pretty boring event.  Your name is read, you walk across the stage to share Chancellor Calhoun's hand, you get a scroll (with a congratulatory letter as diplomas had been sent out via mail the week before) and you go back to your seat. All while wearing an ugly polyester gown. That hat was even the exact same cardboard monstrosity that I had at my high school graduation (which finally hit the garbage last fall)... somehow, I thought a master's degree would get warrant me a hat made of something more than cardboard! I guess it's good to mark these accomplishments in life, but the ceremony really is a little absurd. 

The convocation ceremony is still online- just click here. You might also want to fast forward until my name is called at 1:41:13!  

proud Mama

proud cousin 

and very relieved spouse (still getting used to having his wife back)

Quick Recap

Last week was a social whirlwind but everything surrounding graduation went wonderfully. I have a bunch of photos to sort (and a bunch of "real" work to do today) so I'll post more later this week. In the meantime, here I am with my #1 school supporter, minutes after walking across the stage.

I am happy to report that I did not trip and fall while walking across the stage... I did that 2 hours earlier over lunch. So under my gown is the biggest and yuckiest looking skinned knee I've had since childhood. Go figure. 

Big Day

Jeff and I are in Victoria today, along with my parents, parents-in-law and special cousin D to celebrate my graduation. I'll post highlights of our visit next week but so far, we've had a great time (with clear blue skies and the most perfect ocean breeze). Last night, the students I've shared the past two years of my life with met up and it was so great to share and reflect on all we've been through together.

We'll be here this afternoon- Hatley Castle and gardens on campus at RRU (photos taken last year).

The final step

What are you doing June 14? I'm crossing a sort of finish line...

School's out

Yesterday, we received an email.

It was a very happy email.

Jeff passed his Professional Engineering exam (the one he wrote back on April 16, after 6 months of preparation and studying) with flying colours. So, in 2012, one of us gained an MA and the other, a PEng. That means we're both done school. For good.

So how do we feel? Something like this:

Robots

A few people have recently asked me to explain exactly what Jeff does. I asked him to explain his work and here's what he said. "As part of an engineering team, I design industrial video inspection robots for diverse applications. Some of these include municipal pipe inspection vehicles, search & rescue vehicles, others for inspecting natural gas mains, inspecting in dangerous industrial areas, under the ocean, and even bomb disposal and investigating smuggling tunnels.'

That's a lot of robots. Here's what some of them look like:

Photographer Sean Fenzl recently photographed a new robot (the Versatrax 450TTC Crawler) and has great commentary about his visit to the company and some stellar photos you can see here.  

You'll see Jeff (and his arm) in this video with his new vertical crawler (a robot that can drive up or down a completely vertical pipe). 

Jeff has robots working all over the world. They are in the US Swim Team's training pool and NASA's Extreme Environment Mission Operations training pool, they are cleaning nuclear tanks, helping maintain healthy public water systems, monitoring smuggling tunnels, inspecting the underwater structure of off-shore drilling platforms and doing routine work in Venezuela, Turkey, Japan, Iraq and Afghanistan (among many other countries). Jeff has also seen robots be part of major search and rescue efforts:

Inuktun robot in use after Hurricane Katrina

Inuktun robot in use at Ground Zero

Inuktun robot used for search and rescue after the Crandall Canyon Mine collapse (Jeff was on site for this project- he's on the far left in the final group photo at the end of the video).

There are also countless robots he can't talk about or simply, doesn't know about their true location or application. His robots go just about anywhere a human can't go. Except the moon. The one thing Jeff CAN say is that he has no robots in space. Yet.

Now, in case this all sounds exciting and glamorous, Jeff wants everyone to know that engineering usually encompasses long hours of drudge work. That being said, I can affirm that Jeff  leaves for work most mornings with a spring in his step, and clearly loves what he does. As a former career counsellor, I know just how unusual that is. I think a lot of little boys dream about building robots, and Jeff is one of the few adult "kids" who actually lives this dream each day. Pretty cool, huh?!

First day of the rest of my life

Yesterday, I finished the final piece of my thesis project- a report and presentation to the organization where I did my research project. With that, I am DONE. 100% done. I've already heard back from Royal Roads that my thesis was accepted and I have been invited to put on a cap and gown at convocation on June 14. It all feels rather surreal. 

From flickr

End of a long road

This sums up how I have felt about graduate school for the past two years... and today at 5:38 AM, I got to add the last line.

From this Etsy Shop

After handing in my last and final paper, I have finished my master's degree.

I have to say... this ending is bitter-sweet. I have so enjoyed being in the graduate school bubble of reading, ideas and discussion- I have loved the challenge of learning and the ways I have been personally challenged to consider and think about how I see the world. I have also made some very close friends in school and it will be sad not interacting with them all several times a week. I will really miss that. 

I'm going to take a few days off to catch up on sleep, watch a movie, and try and get rid of a nasty cold that has plagued me since New Years (seriously). And then... I'm not sure. I'll let you know.

P.S. Happy birthday to my dad and my mum-in-law, who both get to blow out candles and eat cake today.