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!

Yard Work (July 25, 2026)

 I had a terrible night last night.

My mind was racing all night and I just couldn't get to sleep at all.

I sometimes wish I could just turn my mind off but I can't.

I finally gave up around 2 and went back downstairs to watch tv hoping it would put me to sleep because it sometimes does.

It didn't do the trick - I did doze off a bit and I think all in all I got about 2 hours of sleep.

Surprisingly though, I wasn't feeling terrible today.

The sods were delivered right around 9.

Before we could get started, we had to drive to Jen's work to pick up a roller Jen's co-worker was lending her to do the lawn.

It was between 9:30 and 10 when we got back to the house and got started.

This is the before picture.

Neither of us has ever done this before but Jen had done some research so we just went for it.

We got through the backyard pretty quickly, I think maybe about 3 hours.

We were feeling pretty good and figured we could knock out the rest of what we had to do pretty quickly.

This skinny section along the side of her house was all that we had left to do.

Boy were we wrong.

The problem was that the neighbor's side was done already and Jen's side was higher so the sods weren't meeting up.

We ended up having to cut the edge and dig it up some in order for it all to look ok and it took a LONG time.

I think it was around when we finished up.

The mosquitos were bad so we were happy to be done.

We had showers and were feeling pretty great about all that we had accomplished.

Admiring our handy work.

We didn't quite finish up, we were about 7 sods short but we couldn't get anymore today so she'll have to finish it up herself next week.

Looks pretty darn good though.

We had to go pick up a few things in St. Albert so Jen, Mom and I headed out.

Jen needs to plant a tree so we went looking for one of those.

We found one but she couldn't fit it in her car with us in it too so she'll go back for it tomorrow.

We went to Jersey Mike's for supper.

We stopped at Walmart to get a few things then we headed back to Jen's to chill for the evening.

We watched more Downton Abbey - I was getting right into it even though I've already seen it.

A big storm whipped up out of nowhere.

It was windy and pouring and thunder and lighting and then the hail started.

I was so worried about my car getting damaged, there was a warning on Facebook yesterday saying that there was a chance that Edmonton and surrounding areas could get hail they size of Timbits and possibly even golf ball sized hail.

Luckily it was only about marble sized and the hail only lasted about 20 minutes.

The rest of the storm lasted on through the night.

I had a hard time falling asleep again tonight.

I think tomorrow night I might have to take something to make sure that I get a good night's sleep - I can't carry on like this.

All that work today helped me to reach my step goal.

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

Weeding (July 24, 2026)

I was up early this morning.

After Jason headed to work, I did a few things then decided to head to Jen's.

I picked her cats up from Rob's and took them with me.

I dropped them off at her place, then headed in to St. Albert to do some hopping.

I found a bathing suit top that I really like so that was good.

I decided to get myself a pedicure.

Went with a pastel green color - I like it but I prefer the pale pink color that I normally get.

Think I'll go back to that next time.

I came to Jen's to help her put sod down in her yard.

It's being delivered tomorrow.

Before she went to PEI a few weeks ago, she put dirt down in her yard - a bunch of weeds started growing in it so we had to get those out before we put the sod in tomorrow.

It ended up being a lot more work than we expected but we got it done.

Doing the work was good to because it kept my mind off of things.

Maybe I should have waited and got the pedicure tomorrow.

I soaked in the tub after we finished up and most of the dirt came off. 

Mom was re-watching Downton Abbey so Jen and I watched some of it with her.

I loved it, I could watch the whole thing over again.

Got all of my steps in.

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

Not Normal Times (July 23, 2026)

 It was another busy day at work today with payroll.

I'll be glad when it become second nature.

Kody and I were texting today which was good.

We got some things talked out I think.

I'm still feeling sad about the whole situation though - things definitely don't feel back to normal and I'm not sure how long it will be before they do but I sure hope it's not long.

After supper, Jason and I went for a walk and stopped for an ice cream.

I didn't get to see the girls today at all - I miss them so much when I don't see them.

I had thought about going to Jen's tonight but I wanted to get a few things done around the house so I stayed home tonight and I'll head in there tomorrow.

Got all of my steps in.

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

Not a Great Day (July 22, 2026)

 It seems all I've been doing at work lately is dealing with payroll and it was the same thing again today.

It was a gorgeous day out there today so I went for a walk on my lunch hour.

I picked up the girls on my way home from work because Haylee had to go to work and Kody was still at work.

When he here to pick up the kids, we kind of got into a heated discussion about some thin

gs that have been going on.

He ended up leaving with the girls and I was so upset.

I could barely sleep because I just kept thinking and thinking and thinking about it.

I do not like conflict at all and I especially don't like that the girls were here when it happened.

I'm sure we will get past it because I won't allow us not to but I just really wish it hadn't happened at all to begin with.

And that's really all that I have to say about things today.

Tomorrow is a new day, it will be a better one.

I did get all of my steps in at least.

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