VirginiaMiddleton.ca

In case you didn’t see my post on Friday about communications skills, there was another gem from Dilbert posted on Saturday.

Communications is so subjective and it’s hard not to offend someone if you think they’re being an idiot. It’s important to be careful about what words you use… if you start throwing around five-syllable words, people may start using a universal translator (AKA a dictionary) up as a means of translating you. Try to minimize the jargon and stick with three to four syllables max. Otherwise, someone may realizing you’re mocking them.

My to-blog list includes the recent social media comics they had two weeks ago (as mentioned in my earlier post). Definitely commenting on them soon… perhaps later this week.

With a recent absence of posts, I have a very good reason why… Matt and I have moved to St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador!

It’s been an insane couple of months, but here’s a quick overview:

• Sadly, I was laid off in mid-July due to an organizational restructure caused by financial changes at Kids Help Phone. No hard feelings. I’m still very much in touch with previous coworkers (they’re like a second family to me) and I continue to support the organization and the important work they’re doing for kids in Canada;
• After said layoff, I hopped on a plane and went home to St. John’s visiting family and friends and ramping up my local job hunt and expanding my network;
• The second weekend in August was filled with bachelor and bachelorette fun as friends for close friends getting married the following week (we were in Oro and/or Collingwood for pretty much the whole weekend);
• Shortly after, Matt received a job offer from an employer in St. John’s. The offer requested he start employment in St. John’s on September 7th… and so the crazy #mmvmNLmove began!
• The previously mentioned wedding was on August 14th and WOW was it fun! Two great friends are now hitched and spending their lives together;
• In mid August, I received a job offer from Memorial University (yay!);
• Our only free weekend in August had us hosting a “Mr & Mrs Middleton are moving, so come drink our booze and take our stuff” party. Seriously, that’s what we called it. AMAZING weekend was had by all;
• During the last weekend in August, my sister-in-law (Matt’s sister) was married in Barrie (another weekend out of town and just three days before the movers were arriving);
• The first week of September had movers arrive on August 30th (after an all-nighter of packing), Matt and I staying in a hotel for a couple of nights in Toronto (thanks to Hotwire.com), going up to Barrie on September 2nd for my mother-in-law’s birthday, and then flying out of the Greater Toronto Airport (YYZ) the morning of September 3rd.

So needless to say the past month+ has been a blur. I’ll try to write more about some of the above mentioned events, but it could take a while.

Being back in St. John’s has been amazing. We’re finding a good rhythm here and are settling in nicely. We even bought a new car! More details on that later…

Bell Island, Newfoundland & Labrador (2007)

So that’s it for now. Still alive and doing very, very well. And just to tease you a little, enjoy this photo taken from my uncle’s yacht back in July 2007. It was a beautiful day and we sailed around parts of Bell Island, NL.

I just realized that it’s pretty much been a month and a half since I last updated here. I swear the time flew far too quickly and I don’t know how it happened…

I have a few posts that are in the drafts and at least two updated in my head, so I’ll try to find time to actually make those into a reality soon. Next weekend seems like a potential time as it’s the first weekend since mid-May that hasn’t been action-packed or full of insanity.

But I don’t want to leave you empty handed if you’re taking the time to read this. After posting so many photos over the years to Facebook, I’m finally starting to make a better shift over to Flickr. The photo quality is so much better (and I have a Pro Account to boot) and I don’t have to worry about rights or ownership because Flickr is much more reasonable than Facebook.

There was a wedding shower for my sister-in-law and her fiance and it was up near Dorset, Ontario. My husband’s aunt and uncle moved there last year and their new home is beautiful. It’s a bit of a drive to get there, but the afternoon was lovely and a good time was had by all. It also gave me an opportunity to take lots of photos (especially since I only knew around half of the guests, so it kept me nice and busy).

More photos are available for viewing on my Flickr page.

The happy couple

Love this photo of Aunt Lorraine

The bride-to-be

L-R: Aunt Darlene, cousin Chris, his wife Margaret, Louise (my mom-in-law)

Louise with Willie the adorable puppy (there were actually SIX dogs in attendance!

In the back is Sam and Cooper is in front as they keep their eye on the prize. These are my in-laws dogs. Such good boys!

This is an adorable card that Brynn, who is a younger cousin of Heather and Matt (that's my husband) made for Heather and Colin

Well it’s finally happened – I have an iPhone. And what’s this, I can use the WordPress app to update!

“With great power comes great responsibility.” (Reference for the non-geeks: Spiderman quote)

Hopefully only good can come of this… Stay tuned!

In Ontario (and also Alberta and Saskatchewan), today is Family Day.  The majority of my family is in St. John’s, so Matt and I had the pleasure of going out for brunch with our friends Jon and Rachelle.

They’re both from Newfoundland and Labrador originally; Rachelle is currently attending school in Toronto and Jon was up visiting her this past week. History note: Jon and I have been friends for a heck of a long time. Going back to being in the same church choir growing up and then hanging out in high school and even more so in University onwards.

A couple of days ago, Jon suggested we go for crepes and Matt mentioned a place at Queen West and John Street. Now I’ve seen Café Crepe before, but have never gone in. Wow have I been missing out!! It turned into a really fun morning and was a great way to kick off Family Day.

Check out more details about our Adventures with Crepes in this quick video I’ve put together:

If you haven’t been to Café Crepe, I highly recommend you check it out. YUM!!