Waste of a Lovely Evening (July 30, 2026)

 I had previously considered taking today off but since Jason and the girls didn't end up coming with me, I decided to save the vacation day and work.

I had to do payroll anyway.

My co-worker Christian allowed me to use his office as he was off today and just look at the fabulous view he has.

I sent the picture to Jason so he reciprocated with a picture of his current fabulous view with this note:

Ha ha ha.

He can always crack me up.

I got to spend some one on one time with Alicia today and we chatted about a bunch of stuff.

It was nice.

I worked all day without anything at all to eat so by 3:30 I was starving so I headed out for the day.

There was a restaurant in the hotel called Flower and Wolf that had outdoor seating so I decided to eat there.

 I love eating outdoors when it's nice out.

I had brussels sprouts to start.

Then I had a kale Caesar salad with grilled chicken.

It was pretty good.

I went back to the room to deal with a few payroll issues.

It was another nice evening out and I had planned on maybe hitting up the pool at the hotel or going out for a walk but ended up staying in all evening.

I was texting Kody to see if he was going to let the girls come and he was taking forever to get back to me and so I was thinking the worst and that he wouldn't let them come.

Things really aren't back to normal since the fight and I hate it.

I know it will eventually but in the meantime it really stresses me out and I just feel bad and like I don't know what to do with myself.

In the end, he did agree to them coming and I'm happy about that.

I know the girls would have been so disappointed if they'd missed out on a visit with Hunter.

I chatted with Jason for an hour or and really spent most of the evening playing games on my tablet.

Kind of a waste of a lovely night really but it's what I needed I guess.

I didn't get anywhere near my step count goal for the day.

That's all, until next time, be happy!

Summer Evening in Calgary (July 29, 2026)

I was up early this morning because I have to drive to Calgary and I needed to be there for 1 pm.

I wanted to leave by 7 am, it was 7:10 when I left so not too bad.

I listened to the new book the whole way, Stranger in the Mirror. 

It's ok, I sampled a few but none of them really peaked my interest.

This one is just ok but it was also free so I decided to give it a chance and so far, so good.

I made it Calgary at 12:45, found a spot to park then found my way to the office.

Our head office moved to a new building since the last time I was here.

It wasn't too difficult to find but it was still a little after 1 when I got to the meeting - there were having technical difficulties so hadn't started so it was all good.

We finished up our meetings at 3:30 then we presented Pam with a going away gift.

I think she was happy and felt how much we appreciated her.

Afterwards we all went out to dinner together to celebrate Pam.

We went to The Keg.

There was Jason, Christian, Pam, Alicia, Colleen, Queenie and myself.

We sat and chatted and visited for a couple hours, it was really nice.

They all work here in Calgary so I don't have a chance to see them in person often.

I had the salmon and garlic mashed potatoes for supper, yummy.

Afterwards, I went and checked into my hotel.

They put me up at the Sheraton.

It's a nice hotel.

It's right by the river and there are nice walking trails all along the river and it was a gorgeous evening so I decided to go out for a walk.

There is a nice playground right outside the hotel for the kids with an awesome climbing structure.

Then a little further down, there is this area where cool mist comes out of the ground.

What a great place to run through if you were out for a run and needed a quick cool down.

It was such a nice evening and there were tons of people out and about.

This is the Bow river and it's glacial water so it has the cool icy blue color which is so pretty.

It runs all right along the edge of the downtown, they are so lucky to have a space like this.

The sky was looking gorgeous.

You can kind of see the blue color of the water.

Just a little scenic moment.

It was such a lovely evening.

There were these giant pots of flowers all over in full bloom.

I just love them.

Another scenic little area.

There was this platform/dock kind of area full of people.

There was music playing and they were all dancing.

What a fun thing to do.

I walked over to the bridge behind them and watched for a bit.

There were a lot of people there.

Nice way to spend and evening.

Dancing by the Bow River.

I went one way on the trail but it goes all along the river in the opposite direction as well.

I must have walked for about and hour or so and I think I pretty much talked to Jason the whole time.

I really enjoyed it.

Heading back to the hotel.

I spent the rest of the evening doing a blogging and watching some YouTube then heading to bed.

I've been trying to remember to take my Progesterone lately because I find it really helps me to sleep.

Reached my step goal.

That's all for today, until next time, be happy!

Yard Updates (July 28, 2026)

Work was just the same old, same old today.

My sister sent some updated pictures from her yard.

It's looking really good.

Seems like it's growing in well.

I think we did pretty darn well for our first time.

She also got more sods and finished off the rest of it - and planted a tree while she was at it.

Morgan, Kalem and Whitney came over for a visit after supper.

Whitney is starting to talk a lot more and interact.

She's pretty cute.

I don't know why I didn't think to take a picture while she was here.

I'm heading to Calgary tomorrow for work and I'm taking a work truck so Jason took me down to the office to pick it up.

Then I packed up for the trip.

We have some meetings tomorrow in the afternoon then we are taking our co-worker, Pam, out for dinner because she is retiring.

She's done on Aug.6.

Then I'm just going to stay in Calgary because I have an airbnb booked for the weekend and the family is coming.

I left the car home so Jason could bring the girls and come on Friday.

Did not get all of my steps in.

That's all for today, until next time, be happy!

Reunited (July 27, 2026)

 Today is weigh in day.

I was 241 lbs.

What the heck?

I'm going the wrong way.

I don't think I ate horribly over the weekend but obviously I did something wrong.

That's up 2 lbs since last week.

I was feeling so hopeful - am I ever going to get this thing beat?

I hopped on the treadmill on my lunch hour because it was raining out.

I did a little running but just at a 3.0.

I was happy to have gotten somewhat of a walk in.

Jason was finding more berries out in the field today.

Looks like a yellow raspberry.

Found some tiny blueberries too.

I had a physical therapy appointment in Whitecourt after work today.

I had enough time to stop at the second hand store and I found these awesome storage shelves.

There were 2 of them and they were 5 bucks each.

Then up at the register, there were two more that another lady had put there.

When she saw me buying the two I'd found, she told me I could have the two she was going to take as she really didn't need them, they were just a good deal.

So I took her up on the offer and bought all 4 of them.

I can't wait to get them set up and organized in my craft room (which is a total disaster right now).

They started me using weights today at my therapy appointment, just a 1 lb weight but it feels good to be making progress.

Kody texted me to say that the girls wanted to come for a visit so I picked them up on my way home from Whitecourt.

I was so happy to see them and they were happy to see me too.

Eden was super happy to see Mom.

She kept taking her and showing her things and checking on her.

She kept asking where Nanny lived - I think she was having a hard time wrapping her head around why she'd seen her in PEI but now she was seeing her here.

She wasn't quite understanding that mom lives with us or maybe she was just trying to figure out the name of the place that she'd seen mom last.

Freya had my phone the whole time so I didn't get any pictures.

I took them home just after 9.

I'm supposed to be taking them to Calgary with me on Wednesday.

Not sure if Kody and Haylee will still let them come but I did mention it to him when I dropped the girls off.

He said he would check with Haylee.

Got all of my steps in.

That's all for today, until next time, be happy!

In a Funk (July 26, 2026)

After my morning coffee, I packed up the car then mom and I headed back to the hills.

I only had an hour left of my current book so Mom was kind enough to let me listen to it on the drive home so I could finish it.

It was a great book - I really enjoyed it.

Mom wanted to stop in Barrhead to the senior center to visit her friend Helen who moved into one while Mom was away.

We weren't sure which one she was at so I had to drive around checking in at each one.

She ended up being at the third one that we checked.

I was kind of annoyed that I had to do that - I wanted to just go on home and talk to Helen's daughter-in-law then take Mom back another day but then when we got in and Helen was so happy to see mom, I was glad that we had stopped.

It was kind of depressing in there honestly.

We only had a short visit but I told Helen that I would bring mom back and I will for sure.

Jason helped me to unpack the car when we got home.

He tried out the lawnmower I'd picked up for 25 bucks at a yard sale yesterday.

He couldn't get it started but he feels sure that he will be able to.

He's just going to do a little research and if he can't, his buddy Blair is really good with lawnmowers so we'll get him to have a look.

I'm still feeling in a funk and kind of depressed honestly.

I haven't seen the girls since Wednesday and I'm missing them so much.

I'm just letting Kody and Haylee do their thing though and I'm sure they will be over again at some point.

I decided to do a puzzle just to try to keep my mind off of things.

It is a 500 piece one that I picked up at a second hand store.

It went pretty quickly, maybe took me under 2 hours to do.

Then I worked on my blog, got it all caught up so that feels great.

Jason got the pizza oven going and made us supper.

I love pizza so I was excited.

We went to the store just before it closed to get an ice cream

I only had a few bites of mine and that satisfied me.

Over in PEI my cousin's son (which is also my cousin I guess) landed his first Tuna.

It almost looks fake - it's kind of strange to think that while I'm swimming in the ocean, I'm sharing it with creatures like this.

So close!

That's all for today, until next time, be happy!