Longest Run In Awhile and Nice VRBO in Strathcona (Aug.4, 2023)

Morgan was having a bit of a rough start to her day so Mom and I went to the store to get her a few things and dropped them off to her.

Freya came with us and when she saw that Ella was there, she wanted to stay and play with the girls and Morgan said it was fine so I left her.

We are heading to the city later for the weekend and Freya can't come because Haylee's grandparents are coming up for the weekend to celebrate their anniversary and they all have plans to hang out together.

So I figured it would just be easier if Kody went and picked her up after we were gone.

I wanted to get a run in before we headed in to the city so I went home, got ready and headed out.

I wanted to see if I could do a bit longer of a run today and I managed to do 9k which felt pretty darn good.

The exercise details.

My average pace and splits.

I pretty much got slower and slower but that's ok - as long as I'm just doing it I'm happy.

Speed will come later or it won't but either way, I'm not too worried about it.

The longest run I've done in a while.

My flowers are looking pretty good in spite of all of the hail we've been getting this year.

We had a few things to do around the house so it was later in the afternoon when we finally headed in to the city.

I rented a vrbo in the Strathcona area - it has 5 rooms so lots of room for Jen and the boys then Morgan, Alivia and Hunter will be joining us tomorrow night.

 

I loved how the house looked online and couldn't wait to see it and it did not disappoint.

This was the first bedroom as soon as you walked in the house.

I love the artwork and the bright colors on the duvet.

There were 3 bedrooms upstairs and this kids room with two single beds was one of them.

I like all the artwork around the house.

The upstairs bathroom.

It had a clawfoot tub.

The kitchen was big and nice and open.

The primary bedroom and a nice four poster bed and I loved the bedding.

I liked the nice staircase - it would be fun to decorate for the holidays.

The living room had a gigantic sectional couch - it was comfortable and I liked the color.

There were five bedrooms over all and three bathrooms, a big backyard with a little patio and then a nice porch on the front and a really big mud room.

I loved it.

We put our stuff in the house then went for a walk.

We were in Strathcona very close to Whyte Ave and all the shops and restaurants and stuff.

We were going to check out Marlo's which is a new taco spot but there was a 30 minute wait so we walked next door to The Next Act pub which I've been wanting to try for some time and there was no wait there at all so we went there instead.

They had a special burger for the Barbie phenomenon that is currently all the rage.

I ended up ordering it.

I also ordered myself a Caesar which I thoroughly enjoyed.

My handsome honey.

There were quite a few open tables but that was because it was such a nice day outside so everyone wanted to sit on the patio.

Jason had a bluecheese burger with their house salad.

I had the Barbie burger with an arugula salad that had a pistachio crumb on it.

The burger was ok.

After we ate, we went for a little walk around - it was such a lovely evening.

We found an ice cream spot we wanted to try.

Waiting in line.

They make their own ice cream and they had some interesting flavors.

There was a long line up but it didn't take long to get through it.

Got our ice creams.

I had passionfruit & basil and Marcona Almond Chocolate Crunch.

We walked around a bit more - there are some cool murals in this area of town.

We saw a spot that did thick pancakes so we thought we'd try one but there was too long of a wait.

We did order lattes though.

We tried the mango latte and the sesame seed one.

Then we headed back to the house and waited until it was time to head to the airport to pick up my sister and the boys.

They were supposed to be in at 11 but got delayed until 11:45.

So I was kind of tired when I picked them up and forgot to take pictures but I was very happy to see them.

They were tired too after a ong day of travelling so they went to bed not long after we got back to the house.

Ha ha - I feel like this is so true.

I only get two days off each week and the thoughts of spending one of those days cleaning house is not appealing to me in any way, shape or form.

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

New Bed, PIzza Date (Aug.3, 2023)

I can't believe August is here already.

It was a very quiet day at the office - Bonnie and Shennelle were both off as were a bunch of other folks.

Summers in the office are always so quiet -it's nice though.

Jason walked down and met me at coffee break time and he and I went for a walk.

It was a lovely day out there.

I decided to hop on the treadmill at lunch and run 5k.

It was nice out but it takes a bit longer to do my runs outside and I wanted to hurry up and get back to the office.

I was working on a project that I was trying to get done before the end of the day and it was taking me way longer than I expected.

It was a really good workout - I was super sweaty when I was done.

I spent the rest of the afternoon at work trying to finish my project - I even ended up working late but I didn't manage to get it all done so I'll have to try to finish up on Tuesday.

Freya came over to hang out with Jason for the afternoon.

They went out for a walk and she took her scooter.

They stopped by her friend Dakota's place and ended up staying there to play all afternoon.

His little sister Capri just loves Jason - all the kids do - so they think it's great when Jason comes over to visit.

Mom's new bed was delivered today so when I got home from work I put it together for her.

It has a remote so the head and foot move up and down which is pretty cool.

Jason had picked up a few more kids on his travels.

I went down to meet him so he could go over and help Nadine and Karl with something.

I stayed at Burger Baron with the kids.

Had them look over for a picture and managed to get them all looking - just need to work on the smiling part.

I ordered them pizza and Freya had a donair - she's all about them lately.

We sat there and ate supper and Jason came back to meet us.

Then we all walked over to the park to play for a bit.

Adrien and Mel had gone out but got home and so the kids just walked home.

Freya ended up spending the night with us.

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

Declan Turns 11! (Aug.2, 2023)

 We were having a bit of a rainy day out there today but I still made sure to get out for my walk.

I had my raincoat on just in case.

I did get sprinkled on but it felt nice and by the time I was heading back the sun was trying to come out and I even ended up taking my coat off.

Little Miss spent the night at our place.

Her new favorite snack is baloney on a plate with Franks hot sauce.

She dips the baloney in the hot sauce then when it's all gone, she licks the rest of the hot sauce off of the plate.

What a girl.

I met she and Jason at Burger Baron for lunch.

Jason had a Greek Salad - doesn't that look good?

I had the donair salad.

It had donair meat on it and this crust of cheese.

It was good, I could only eat about half of it - it was a lot.

From there I headed back to work and Jason took Freya over to Rexall.

He had to pick something up and he let her pick out a treat for herself.

She picked this mini frying pan that came with a spatula and she wanted to cook herself an egg in it as soon as they got home.

Jason gave her the Wednesday Addams prom dress he had ordered for her.

Safe to say she liked it.

I thought it would be big for her but it fit her pretty well.

Jason was watching Alivia and Hunter too and Alivia braided Freya's hair for her.

She left that dress on all night until Kody came and picked her up.

In other news, my nephew Declan had a birthday today!

Guess he's not so little anymore, he turned 11!

Jen shared a few pictures of him here.

Such a handsome little dude.

He isn't afraid to do his own thing and I love that about him.

I didn't send anything since they are going to be here Friday night so I'll just treat him while he's here.

I still need to get something for Jen too so I'll get them both to pick out something they really like.

I'm so excited that they are coming!

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

Starting her Young (Aug. 1, 2023)

 It was a nice day out there, I had a busy morning but I still managed to get out for a short walk.

It felt nice to be out in the sunshine even if it was just for a short time.

 I wasn't sure if I was going to go for a run at lunch time or not but decided too last minute.

I only ran 5k today.

I changed my route up a bit just to make it more interesting. 

The exercise details.

 My average pace and splits.

It was hot out there today which made it a bit tougher.

The worst is when I sweat and it gets in my eyes - it really stings!

I need to start wearing headbands more often.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly. 

I had a few things to take to the dump so Adrien let me borrow his truck. 

I stopped by Kody's to see if he would help me load up the stuff and he ended up bringing the truck over and he loaded it and took it to the dump for me.

Which meant I got to stay and hang out with Freya.

She wanted a donair so I ordered one for her and mom.

We all went to the store for a few groceries for supper then we stopped and picked up the donairs.

She ate all of hers.

Nadine came over for a visit and Freya sat on my lap and was pretending to go to sleep or so I thought.

She actually did fall asleep and was still sleeping when Jason got home from work.

He took this picture when he came in.

I had gotten most of supper ready so Jason finished up and she slept the whole time we were eating.

We had salad and pita pizzas - so good. 

When she did wake up and saw that Jason was home she was so excited and happy to see him.

She wanted to go to the park so he took her and it was quite late by then.

I was tired so I didn't go.

Instead I watered my flowers and did some deadheading on them.

They weren't back by 10 so I got in bed and read the new book I started,  Plain Truth.

It's very good so far, really drawing me in!

When they got back Freya was still raring to go.

Jason said she wanted to run home from the park and was asking him all kinds of questions about when he runs.

Like, is this how fast you run Papa and Do you stop for breaks?

Maybe she'll want to start running one day too, starting a love for it while she's young!

It was a long time before she settled enough to go to sleep.

I'm going to be so tired in the morning but that's ok, I'm super happy to have her back.

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

My Girl is Back Home and Bedroom Reveal (July 31, 2023)

It's Monday and that means weigh in day.

You know it's been a good week when you are looking forward to weigh in.

I was hoping for 207 so you can imagine I was pretty stoked when I saw this.

206 lbs.

I'm making progress again finallly and it feels so great.

That's down 4.4 lbs since last week.

I'm so close to Onederland - Maybe I can get there by September!

It was nice out today, a little windy but that didn't stop me from getting out for a walk to the road and back this morning.

Then on my lunch hour I headed out for a run.

I wanted to do 5 but 6 seems to be about where I'm settling.

It feels good to be running again.

It's nice to head out just because I want to and for now, if I can at least run 5k for a run, I'm happy with that.

I don't want to bump it up too much and hurt myself of get super hungry - I feel like I'm in a good place with it right now.

I for sure will train to do another run in the future - likely a half marathon - but for now just running what feels good when I feel like it is working for me.

The exercise details.

My average pace and splits.

Jason ordered car seat covers for the car and they came in today so after work I wrestled with those to get them on.

The hardest part were these round clip things that you pushed into the seat then you had to flip them on the side so they would stay in place.

I struggle with them and I was getting frustrated but I eventually managed to get them on.

They are waterproof so now we are all ready for Freya to be in the car.

Just in time too because they are getting home today.

Likely not until later tonight - I told Kody to let me know when they were getting close so I could be over there when she saw her new bedroom.

It was around 9:30 pm when they got home.

I had Freya's bedroom door shut and made her wait a mintue until she opened the door so I could video.

Critiquing my make over of her bedroom.

She wasn't happy about the 'gross' pictures I put up but aside from that I think she liked it.

She noticed 'Thing' at the end there - she was quite happy about that.

Kids are funny - they don't try to hide their feelings at all, they just say it like it is which is refreshing actually.

Overall - I think she was pleased with her room.

She kept asking for Jason but he hadn't come over with me and she really wanted to come over to our place just for a visit but it was too late for that.

We both have to work tomorrow but then Jason goes on days off so I'm sure she'll be sleeping over tomorrow night.

It's so nice to have her back home - I really missed her.

I visited just for a short time because it was so late then I headed back home.

Jason made his famous low calorie ice cream for us before we went to bed.

It's such a nice treat in the summer - he makes it pretty much every night - just changes up the flavors a bit.

I saw these on social media somewhere for sale and I think they are so stinking cute.

I thought I could maybe try making some.

All the Halloween stuff is coming out already.

Kind of a bummer - I like Halloween but I'm not ready for summer to end - it's never long enough.

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