Savouring/Sweeping/Swimming/Shopping/Supermoon

This weekend, like most other weekends, was a busy one!

Friday night, we went downtown to U&I Thai with Mom, Dad, Jeff, Adam and Aly. If you haven't been there, I highly recommend it. Excellent service and decent prices. The food is amazing. Every time we're just fawning over how delicious it is!

Some of the best Pad Thai and Yellow/Red Curry I've ever had! Naturally, I forgot to take a photo of the dishes and the wonderful company we had...

Saturday morning rolled around and we participated in a church clean-up. Volunteers from the church community went to the work-site and swept and cleaned up drywall, insulation, plywood, etc. We probably had 15-20 volunteers give up time on their Saturday morning. It was hard work, and our lungs were filled with dust, but a good exercise in giving up our time!

Some sweepers in action

The front of the sanctuary. The building feels so... grand. Very excited to be moving in there!

After the church clean-up, we decided to take Sherlock to Noel Booth park for a swim, as we had some errands to run later in the day. At least... that was the plan. This is what the "lake" we normally bring him to looked like on Saturday.

This used to be all water!

Sherlock wasn't overly concerned... He found a mud puddle to roll around in. 

Whose muddy dog is that?!

AIR DRY! Sherlock tends to roll around on the ground or run like mad when he gets wet. It makes for a great show!

Since he couldn't swim like we were hoping, we took him for a walk around the lake. 

Lovely nature walk. If you look VERY closely, you can see Sherlock and David running together down the trail. 

Finally, near the end of our walk, we found a large puddle, or small portion of the lake that still had water in it! We grabbed the fattest stick we could find and threw it a few times for Sherlock. At least he got his swim in! All that hard work air drying was put to waste. 

After we got Sherlock home and dried off, David and I decided to head out to Homesense and Canadian Tire. We had some gift cards and items we wanted to purchase. 

David wants to make our powder room a "forest" theme. He picked out some green and brown towels as well as that grassy plant and little tree on the counter. I think it looks cute. He can have free reign of this bathroom I suppose! It's not complete yet though.

I purchased the glass vase and these cute fake flowers for the little shelf in our living room! Brings some colour, texture and shine to the wall. 

Finally, from Canadian Tire, we bought two patio chairs! Yay! I've been getting lots of use out of them sitting out on the deck with Sherlock. 

On Sunday, we went to church in the morning as I was playing bass. After church, my parents were having some old and new friends over to their house for lunch. We joined them and talked to Karen and Darcy and the girls about their recent trip to Harry Potter land in Universal Studios Orlando!

That's me closest to the camera. My hair is getting so long! I can't decide whether to keep growing it or chop it again. 

Sunday night was the Supermoon & Lunar Eclipse. We were lucky enough to have an amazing vantage point for the show. Sometimes it's all about the people you know, and the family you have ;).

Photo cred: Larry Kimber

Photo cred: Larry Kimber - Amazing how you can see the texture/craters of the moon! 

Looking West towards Vancouver/Burnaby

Can see Grouse Mountain on the right there! Amazing view.

Looking out over King George Blvd and the Skytrain. Can almost see my work from here!

Not a view many people get the privilege of seeing.

Christmas Card Stampin' Up!

I know what you're thinking... Christmas?! ALREADY!? 

I'm not on the same timeline as Costco, don't worry. However, my Aunty Sonya has a TON of Stampin' Up supplies, and hosts Christmas card making evenings every year. She starts early to maximize the number of cards she can make each year, and the number of evenings she can host! Last night I picked up Oma and we drove out to Olympic Village to make some cards!

There were six of us total, and we were able to use the Lounge area in someone's apartment for the evening. Notice how we were looking out at Craft Beer Market through the window there!

Sonya had prepped and set up for us each to make 9 cards. Three different designs, and three of each! She always picks the cutest cards. She puts a lot of work into setting it all up, and prepping everything, so major shout out to her! I get a lot of pride giving them out every year. I may secretly not be able to part with some of them, so sometimes I keep a couple. Guilty... 

Our beautiful set-up for card making! Who wouldn't love to do this?!

Sneak peek at one of the cards we made this evening. Lots of stamping work on these babies! I love the finished product though. So satisfying!

This is what the work station looked like as I was working on the final card. A bit of a disaster, but such fun stuff!

There is something cathartic about the meticulous, tedious work of making cards. When I get into the zone, It feels like everything else in my mind goes away. No stress, no worries, no rush... Very therapeutic. 

Thankful Thursday - 14

Thankful Thursday is a good exercise to learn how to be grateful for the people and things around me. 

1. Dessert dates with Elissa. Elissa texted me the other night and asked if I wanted to go out on an impromptu dessert date. As I had absolutely nothing planned for the evening, I obliged. Twist my rubber arm! It's always fun to be able to pick back up where we left off. We don't see each other as much as we'd like, but when we do we always have a blast and wonder why we don't do it as often. 

We went to Earls and shared the Peanut Butter Cookie Skillet and the Sticky Toffee Pudding. Can't go wrong with that!

2. Housewarming Party. Many people we invited to our house-warming weren't able to make it, however we still had 40 some-odd people come through on Saturday! I'm so grateful to have so many great people in our lives. 

Panoramas rarely seem to work out nicely. Everyone looks a little warped and/or bored. Hopefully they weren't this bored in real life! Haha

3. Lovely places to walk. I took Sherlock to Tynehead on Tuesday evening. When we lived in Fraser Heights, we came here many times per week. I think I took it for granted after a while. It really is a beautiful park and place to walk. You don't hear the roads or civilization at all when you're in the trails, and Sherlock loves the off-leash portion. 

I'm guessing this tree fell down in that big windstorm on August 29. Although the other trees that fell have been moved and chopped up. Maybe it was a fresh one? 

Bonus Picture!

Sherlock was unimpressed that I wouldn't share my snacks with him. We had a nice time sitting out on our patio (which we still haven't picked out furniture for... do they even sell patio furniture anymore?!)

Happy Housewarming!

David and I had our open house/house warming party on last Saturday. 

It was the first time we had ever hosted a party like this, with so many people, that we were planning and prepping for ourselves. I was secretly (or not so secretly) super nervous in the morning that no one would come; like a child before their birthday party. 

In the end, as usual, my anxiety was all for naught. We had a great turn-out, and we didn't run out of food! Some people ragged on me (in jest) for not having enough dessert options. They're right... I didn't. Dessert is often an after-thought for me. I pay much more attention to things like cheese, dips, vegetables, drinks, etc. I'll have to make a mental note to have more desserts than just brownies and rice crispie squares next time!

I hadn't made rice crispie squares in years! 

We did some of the food prep and cleaning on Friday evening, and then spent Saturday morning getting everything else set up. 

We needed our juice jug empty for juice. There was some margarita left in there, so I took matters into my own hands! Makes cleaning much more tolerable ;)

I was proud of my meat and cheese plate. 

Pondering the existence of broccoli?

Colourful veggie platter

Sherlock patiently awaiting a piece of carrot or cucumber.

Had to get the place nice and clean! Also, notice we hung our Venice picture that David took on the wall. It just happens to compliment our new couch perfectly!

Ready for the guests to arrive! (It's really tough to do a selfie with such a large camera!)

We didn't expect any gifts or anything for our housewarming, so it was a nice surprise when some people brought things like a bottle of wine, a card, a gift card, and some herbs! I now have my own herb garden. Very exciting! Hopefully I can keep it alive!

Rosemary smells so great! And apparently smelling rosemary improves your memory(?)

We had roughly 40 people come through throughout the day. At one time though, we had about 25 people on our main floor. It didn't even feel that cramped! Loving the open floor plan at our place. {The first time I typed "place" it came out as "palace"... Maybe it is our palace...}. 

A few of our guests testing out the new couch!

My mother and HER mother! Two generations 

Nice shirt Uncle Al... Haha!

Michael and Elissa graced us with their presence. Got a rare photo of Larry too!

Jeff flaunting his peacock tail for the camera.

Sherlock was remarkably calm considering how many people were in his house!

I didn't take as many pictures of our guests as I was hoping to. Many of the photographers in the family weren't able to make it, so we're stuck with the few iPhone and candid shots that I took. 

Sherlock tuckered out after a long day of visiting

The last people left at around 7pm, and then I decided it was time for my first bubble bath in the new house. What a nice, relaxing way to end the evening! I don't know why I don't have a bath every night. 

That is not two glasses of wine. The one closest to the camera is actually a candle in a red gel made to look like wine. Note we don't have a shower curtain in there yet! We plan on making that bathroom a nautical theme. We just have to find the perfect shower curtain first. 

Sunday morning we decided to skip church (GASP). This was the one week in a few months (other than when we were away) where I wasn't involved playing bass or teaching Sunday School. We also were rather exhausted from our day before, and wanted to just have a nice relaxing morning with the two of us. 

For some reason, when David and I decide to spend time together in the evenings or on weekends, we often end up going shopping. It turns out to be an expensive habit! We went down to Morgan Crossing, and went to Winners. I picked up a pair of runners and some super cozy boots. David also got a pair of runners. We spent $150 there, but it would have been $260 if we bought these items at their retail stores. 

My clothing lot from the day! I hate shopping, but I love sales. 

Then, on our way back to the car, I saw that there was a sale at Van Heusen. I figured that we didn't have much time as we had to get to brunch, but it couldn't hurt to take a quick peek right? Wrong. We walked out of there very late for brunch, and $200 poorer. However, it is great quality clothing, and we got a lot for our money! David picked up two dress shirts, and I got a vest, three sweaters, and two necklaces. 

Throughout the day our total spending was $350. Our total savings were around $300 though. We saved almost 50%! Lots of high quality items for a (per item) affordable price! I love sales. I never ever buy anything regular price. 

After our shopping spree we rushed over to brunch at David's parent's. We scarfed down some waffles and then Shelley helped me pot my new herbs. 

We got our hands dirty potting all these babies! I had never potted my own plant before, so it was nice to have some help. I am infamous for not having a green thumb.

Don't these look cute on my little sill?

All the herbs I got include: basil, sweet basil, pesto basil, peppermint, oregano, tarragon, rosemary, sage, stevia, and thyme.

I put some (and maybe at some point all) the herbs out on our smaller patio. This faces west, so I think it will get more sunlight. Hopefully I can keep these herbs alive and use them all!

That was a busy, exhausting, but also very fun weekend. We feel so blessed to have the friends and family that we have. 

30 Day Squat & Plank Challenge

I'm not sure what prompted it, but I decided to start a squat and plank challenge recently. 

It's embarrassing to admit it, but It has probably been roughly 8 years since I've consciously, intentionally exercised. Since I played volleyball in high school. Working out has never been my thing. 

I started out with a 30 day challenge for each. Sometimes at work I have periods of 5-10 minutes or so where I'm just waiting for someone to return a call. I can get lethargic and feel lazy sitting in my chair waiting for that to happen. Occasionally, I'll shut my door and do some stretches or something. My manager even joked one time that I needed to get a yoga mat or something to put in the big open spot in my office. The hiccup I'm coming across as I get further into the challenges is that they're not always easy to do in work clothes. Skinny jeans and squats do not go well together! Maybe I should start bringing my runners, lulu lemon pants and deodorant, and work out during my coffee break. 

Why? I'm not trying to lose weight. I'm not training for anything in particular. I think I am more enthusiastic about doing these challenges because it was MY decision. Nobody suggested it to me. Nobody said I needed to work out. (Can you see the stubborn, independent side of me coming out? Haha). I just figured it would be a better way to spend my down time. I even went for a jog the other day with the dog, because why not?!

Plank Challenge. I went on Pinterest and picked two random challenges. I'm currently on day 16 for both of them. That means I just did a 2 minute plank (Go me!). The hardest part for me about the planks (other than actually doing them) is keeping distracted for that amount of time. I typically just pull up an interesting article on my phone and put that in front of me to read with my timer set in the background. One piece of advice is do NOT watch the clock or count seconds while you're doing planks. Time seems to go three times slower when you do that. 

I'm pretty proud of myself for doing the 2 minute plank today! I started out at just 20 seconds. I may not be noticing outward physical improvements, but I just have to remind myself that 15 days ago I never would have been able to plank for 2 minutes. 

I do not know that I will continue with this particular plank challenge for the full 30 days. I do not think that 5 minutes is a realistic goal for me. Maybe I will start increasing by just 15 seconds instead of 30 seconds or something. Or maybe I will look for a new challenge. Or maybe by day 30 I'll be able to do 5 minutes! Who knows!

Squat Challenge. I don't know if you can read this squat challenge at all, but if so, you'll see that today (day 16) is Rest day for me! Yay! Although, typically on my rest days I do some lunges or something else if I'm not too sore. The first three days of starting the squat challenge I was so sore I feared I would fall down the stairs. I hadn't felt like that in years. Now I'm at the point where I can do 125 squats and hardly feel it the next day! 

Again, I don't personally notice any physical changes, but at least I'm not falling down the stairs after doing 60 squats anymore!

Why do I continue? I am enjoying these 30 day challenges because they literally only take 5-10 minutes all in. It seems foolish NOT to do them. Every day I cannot think of a single good excuse not to do my planks or squats. Not having time is definitely not an excuse for me. Also, it is very easy to mark my progress. I can look back at the click of a button to see where I was 1, 5, 10 days ago. 

Have you ever done an exercise challenge like this?