Updates...This One Might Be Life Heavy

Hello my friends! I hope everyone is enjoying their August and the end of Summer! I know I know, bite my tongue. But it has been HOT here, like 39C with the humidex, and I don't love that kind of heat. I am more than ready for Autumn and the beautiful colours and coolness!

I have been going through the motions of life since May, and I will tell you why a little further down in this post. To say that 2015 has been incredibly stressful would be an understatement. But with good friends, family and most of all, Dave, I have been getting through.

The hipsters are taking over, take cover.

In July we tried to take in one of my sister's cats. My sister essentially uprooted her life (left her job, got rid of her apartment), because her husband was sent back to Morocco (long story). So, she had to bring her cats to my parents house to live, but this little girl, Lily, was not doing very well there. So I suggested she come to our house. All was fine for the first few days and then it was HELL. Our cats hated her and were in a constant state of stress, along with poor Lily. After a week we had to bring her back to my parents. Thankfully she is doing better now, but boy oh boy it was crazy there for a while!

It was also Dave's 33rd birthday in July, and we celebrated with some ice cream cake and canoeing. I thought these candles were cute because he is old and can only drink light beer now.

I literally got the worst sunburn of my life when we went canoeing too. Here and on my back. It was a lot of fun though!

We have had some pretty crazy storms in Ontario this summer, with a lot of tornado warnings, and even a few tornados. I was at my parent's house for a visit when these super scary warnings interrupted scheduled programming. I have never heard that before!

So, back in May, my mom went to the doctor and had some tests done because of an underlying health thing that had been going on. She was told at that time that based on experience, it could be cancer, but we had to wait for more tests to confirm. Two months later (!!!!!), our worst fears came true, and we found out that she has cancer. My mom has cancer. For those of you who have gone through this you will understand when I say that when you hear those words, everything sort of stops around you and becomes very quiet. I am sitting here trying to put it into words and I can't. 

Thankfully, surgery and potentially chemo/ radiation will make her as good as new. After two months of not knowing exactly what is going on, it's good to have a course of action now. Although surgery and all the rest is also stressful, it's still better than how the last two months have been. Early September she goes in. I will keep you all posted.

My sister took this picture as my parents were going in to find out the diagnosis. She sent it to me and I wanted to just cry. It's a sick joke that we have to watch our parents get older and sick. It isn't fair.

Everything after that share will just seem silly now! :P But like I said, going through the motions and trying to be normal definitely helps. Even when you don't feel like it. I go through wanting to sleep all the time (how I deal with stress/ depression) to just wanting to go out and do stuff. Usually the sleep wins.

And colouring helps. It's very soothing!

Cute cats definitely help. Except when they are being assholes, which we all know is 90% of the time #ilovemycatsmorethanlife

This guy too. He is my rock, and my love.

Dave and I have been vegetarian now for a few months. I was one for over 10 years and then went back to meat, but now I am back where I belong. 

We discovered a restaurant here in Toronto called Hogtown Vegan. It is so good it makes me want to weep with joy. Vegan comfort food? YEEEESSSSS. They have stuff like unchicken and waffles, and phish and chips, and the mac and cheese, good god. And no, not sponsored. I just frigging am in love with this place. Check it out if you are in Toronto, even meat eaters will love it.

We had the worst storm in recent memory here in Toronto a couple of weeks ago. Holy moly it was bad. Crazy rain and wind and the works. It was scary.

This was my street when we got home a few minutes later (we were out when it happened).

But we were good, all was well, once we re-taped up a window that has an air conditioning unit in it. The water was pouring in.

About a week and a half ago we brought my sister to the Pierre Trudeau Airport in Montreal to send her off to Morocco for 2 months. Although I am really happy for her that she gets to see her husband again after a few months apart, I am going to miss her! But, technology is awesome and with WhatsApp and texting and Facebook, it is awesome how much you can stay in touch.

I put together a little video of mine and Dave's time in Montreal. We were only there for a night and a day, so we stuck mostly to Old Montreal, where we had poutine, visited the Notre Dame Basilica, Steve's Music, and walked a bit downtown. All in all it was fun, but holy moly Dave drove for 15 hours in a matter of less than two days! He's amazing, and we were exhausted, but good to go to enjoy Montreal!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love!