tea for me.

today i taught chris how to make tea.

i didn't know tea was so complicated that one needed to be taught how to make it. on the other hand, the crime scene that is our kitchen after i'm done making tea, could totally lead a person to think it takes all kinds of sorcery to produce a delish tasting cup of tea.

actually, my teacups resemble mugs because no teacup holds a large enough amount of tea to satisfy this loose-leaf addict.

photo evidence: my tea mug next to a regular sized mug. that puppy holds a whopping 4 cups (filled with a current fav stormy night from davids tea).

teaching him to make tea doesn't mean chris is going to start serving me tea when i am craving a cup, but rather 'for when i'm not home to make it for him'. it's a good thing our roles in this marriage are clearly defined. truthfully i don't mind. his recent liking of tea started from a cup of santa's secret from davids tea that we have re-named santa's little helper (the simpsons reference), that i'm convinced only sparked an interest due to the mini candy cane sprinkles mixed in for a festive flair.

so after i had completed my lesson chris asked 'that's it?'

maybe i should have kept my tea making skills a secret, in order to maintain the magic. no, the only real magic going on is the ability to choose what type of tea i want from my 20 or so kinds in the cupboard. it's rough.

how it all began - part 2.

shortly after my husband and i got married, i started volunteering at the toronto humane society two days a week. i loved my time there. i got to feed newborn kittens, snuggle bunnies and nurse sick animals back to health. one side of volunteering i hadn't considered on was the abused, mistreated and abandoned pets that had no where else to go. prior to this i had been relatively ignorant to that world. i knew that there were people who treated animals like garbage, i had seen it on the news, but it was never something i had been exposed to. i never really believed that humans could be so cruel. but the people i met there taught me to see beyond the sad exterior to the gentle soul struggling to survive, i knew i had to join the fight. a spark ignited in my soul, a new me was growing, an erin emerged as an animal rights activist and a defender of god's creatures.

when we relocated to milton a few years later, my time at the shelter came to a close. i searched for a new place that i could help. enter rabbit rescue, inc. a fluke google search led me to a rescue dedicated to helping the smallest of the animal kingdom, the throw-away pets as they sadly get called. mice, hamsters, sugar gliders, gerbils, degus and of course rabbits. they (and i) believe that even wee mice deserve another chance at life. i'll talk more of rabbit rescue in another post.

my love for rabbits grew stronger as i learned from my fellow rescuers. my reese became more than just a pet, she became intertwined in every part of life. she is the reason i made the vow to make a difference. i've had many creatures come through our home and each of them changed a little part of my soul, they've made me better.

our second bunny girl came to live with us in 2009 and we (chris) named her dodongo. she turned me from a relatively normal rabbit lover to an all out crazy bunny lady. and that, my friends, is how it all began.

how it all began - part 1.

i've always liked animals.
my mom tells stories of me as a toddler stopping to have conversations with worms out on the sidewalk (how weird is that?).
i remember in elementary school spending hours one afternoon with my friend priscilla trying to catch a mouse that had been living under the playhouse in our backyard. i can't recall why we were trying to catch that poor thing, perhaps i thought it would be happier living inside our house?
growing up, i always had a pet. mostly hamsters and a budgie here and there, but my first rabbit entered my life when i was in grade 6 or 7. i was hooked.
sadly, and with guilt i will never live down, i knew nothing about caring for a pet rabbit. actually i knew the basics, food, water, hay, but that's about it. charcoal's existence must have been miserable. knowing what i know now about rabbits and how intelliigent they are, the lack of stimulation and interaction eventually made her a grumpy girl. i don't blame her one bit. i only hope she forgives me for my ignorance and sees how much i've learned since then.

fast forward 8 years, to an erin who longed for another bunny companion. i had finished college and felt i was wise enough to learn how to properly care for a rabbit this time around. i was at a pet store one afternoon, and a sweet baby girl sat with her twin sister in a glass front cage looking at me, tugging at my heart strings, begging me to take her home. and home she did come.
i fell in love hard. my reese-reese as i often called her, opened my heart and turned my liking of animals into a love of animals.

who i am.

last week i was filling in an adoption application and one of the questions was 'who are you? what do you do?'

in day to day conversations being asked 'what do you do?' is almost automatic. you'd think by now i would have an easier time answering this. but i don't. so who am i?

i'm an animal welfare activist (not the red-paint-throwing-if-you're-wearing-fur-kind-of-activist, but one that believes animals should not be used for cosmetic and product testing, that there should be heavier penalties for those that cause harm to animals, and i most certainly believe animals have feelings).

i'm an animal rescuer.

i'm a wife.

i'm a friend.

i'm a lover of all things vintage.
 
i'm a chronic pain sufferer. 

i'm a depression survivor.

i'm a believer in fate, faith and a higher power that teaches us to love.

that's where i get stuck. i can't think of anything else. surely that can't be all i am? but if that is in fact all i am, why do i feel like i'm falling short?

i want to be transparent, i want to be able to talk about who i am, i want to write about all the really ridiculous things that happen to me on a daily basis.

i tried starting this blog before, but i didn't do so well. i shall start again. so, welcome to my blog, my life and who i am.