wrapping it up

Well this is it, the last remaining hours in my self declared year of AWESOME and it was awesome, no doubt about it. This afternoon Grandma Linda and Poppa showed up with these lovely roses to mark the completion of the project and to ask if there would be a Year of AWESOME 2.0.



The short answer is no, the long answer will have to wait until tomorrow.

Tonight I'm getting ready to head over to end the year of AWESOME the same way I began it... having a great time with some of the people who were integral in making this year what it was. People I'm so glad to be able to share my life with, I can't even tell you.

I just clicked on the link to generate my year in review at facebook and was not surprise to see it was full of family, The Jersey Girls and volunteering. Three things that were a big part of this year.

There were things this year that I was anticipating... like the arrival of the World's Cutest Nephew....



and running races...





and Relay for Life....



and birthdays...



And things that were just awesome surprises like tailgate dinners...



and the Buddy Walk.....



and the resurrection of the family picnic...



and international visitors...



And that is just a small portion of all the awesome I managed to cram into this year. Was it 100% perfect, not by a long shot, but the laughs far out weighed the tears and what more can you really ask for.....

Of course none of those things pictured above would be half as great if I wasn't sharing it with amazing people. So thank yous and hugs going out to all of you who were a part of making this year awesome. I'm not going to name all the names... but you guys... you know who you are and I love you all so much xo. Thank you. I'm sad to be saying good bye to the YoA, but looking forward to 2014 which shall be........ tune in tomorrow.

pink

This is certainly not how I envisioned wrapping up the year of awesome with pink eye in both eyes that has forced me to cancel my trip to have a belated Christmas dinner with the World's Cutest Nephew and his equally awesome parents. Anybody who knows me knows how I feel about my brother and his family. Knows how much it eats at me that they live so far away and our time together is always so short. This will be the second visit in a row that has been cancelled because of sickness in our house. I'm actually having a hard time writing this because my pink eye related weeping is mixing with my broken hearted weeping and I can barely see the keyboard.

So it started late afternoon on Christmas Eve. I like to have an array of snacky things on hand for those times when a big meal is on the horizon and you just need a little something to carry you the rest of the way. To that end I was whipping up a cheeseball that required some diced up jalapeno. I grabbed a few rings of my own pickled jalapenos and finished up the recipe, tossed it in the fridge to set up and then touched my eyes. This is something I have done in the past and will probably do in the future, it's just so easy to forget. Anyway this was about the worse I have ever done it. I immediately couldn't see, but Mike was nearby to get me to some cool water and the moment eventually passed. A handful of hours later, at church my eye was feeling very irritated and weepy, which I chalked up to the jalapeno burn. We came back home got the kids into bed and I crawled in not long after.

Just before 4am I was up with my eye completely swollen shut. I took myself to google to see how I should take care of this and alternated warm tea bag compresses with raw potato slices and by dinner had brought the swelling down tremendously. By Boxing Day there was still no real change in the symptoms aside from the decrease in swelling and after a quick nap I awoke with two red, swollen eyes that were sealed shut with pus. I had a conversation with the on-call doctor at our doc's office and he diagnosed bacterial pink eye over the phone (Doc Google concurred) and he called in a prescription to the closest open pharmacy to us, which was inconveniently located downtown and poor Mike had to wait for 30 minutes for them to fill it. Not that he complained.

You know what words go with pink eye.... highly contagious. There was no way I could take my highly contagious eyes up north to spend Christmas with the World's Nephew. Not to mention I am completely uncomfortable and exhausted. My face is exhausted. My vision is all wonky and I just wish I could take my eyes out and dip them in cold water for half an hour. Forty years I have managed to go without getting pink eye just to have it now seems unnecessarily cruel. I won't lie, I cried when I realized I wasn't going to be able to go and I cried when the girls left with Granny to go without me. We were talking to Dave, Mel and Elliot when the kids arrived at their place and I cried some more then. Skype is a beautiful thing and I was crying because I got to see the big smile Elliot had on his face when my girls walked in the door. How he kept reaching out to touch Maya's hair completely disinterested in the peas his Mom was trying to feed him. So it may have stung, but at least we had that. Mike and I got to see them open our Christmas presents and they opened ours from them, so in some small way we got to be part of the fun. I stayed online with them for longer than my eyes would have liked only getting off to have my drops and rest them for a while. It's probably going to be a rough couple of days as I can't really do much of anything for too long before my eyes protest, but I'm glad the girls are there and having fun with Granny and everyone, but ya definitely not the way to finish up the year of awesome.

party time

Over five days this summer I had hand in doing up just over 300 jars of canned yumminess. Right now my basement is full of jams (raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, peach, & grape jelly), salsa (peach & regular), peaches, peach barbecue sauce, crushed tomatoes (plain and seasoned), rotel, pickles, relish (corn & zucchini), and pickled jalapenos.



I get asked, a lot, why I can. Well first I enjoy it, it's also cheaper (or it will be once I build up a big enough stash of jars), it tastes amazing and I know everything that's been put in the jar. So my crushed tomatoes are just local tomatoes and lemon juice. That's it. Also crushed tomatoes super easy to make. It's all fairly easy to make when you get right down too it, but it is time consuming. Especially if you're canning on your own.



Last year was my first time canning large batches with a friend. This is totally the way to go! Split the cost, split the work, double the fun. This year we added another friend to the mix and pumped out that much more. Some tips if you're thinking of having a canning party... have a sit down and decide what you'd like to make, figure out who's going shopping and how much you'll need to buy. That's always a bit tricky in the beginning. I'm lucky that my girl JB tracks how much we spend, what we buy and how much we get out of it, so this year was a bit easier to figure out. Oh... yeah totally do that. Even if you're not sure you'll ever do it again. We do all our buying at our favourite Farmer's Market. It's a bit of a hike from here, but huge nd we know we'll get absolutely everything we need in one spot... sometimes we get more than we need even. The relish wasn't even on my radar this year, but I'm glad we ended up doing it. I think, haven't tasted it yet. Hope it's good.



Canning seems to be a bit of a dying art, so there is huge value to all those jars in my basement when holiday gift giving time comes around. Everybody expects a jar or three to find their way into their gift bags this year and odds are good they will. They just have to promise to give the jars back.

Have you or do you can?

i want some cash

Mike is a social guy. He tries to tell you he's not and he claims to hate small talk, but you'd never know it if you ran into him at a function or even grocery shopping. So when he told me he was meeting a friend for "10 minutes" the other night, I thought the kids and I would tagalong because I knew during the time they were talking I could get some work done at the fairgrounds where they were meeting. It's only about two weeks until the fair opens and there is still lots to do in our little corner. I won't be that long, I promise. There's no point to you coming with me because I'm literally going to be 10 minutes. Just stay here with the kids and I'll be back soon. This conversation was brought on by the fact that Abby was off at her bestie's house and Maya was running around the backyard and they needed showers etc. So off I sent him on his own.

I was brushing and braiding Maya's hair after her bath and Abby was in the shower when Mike came strolling back in the house a full 90 minutes after he left. Well that was the longest 10 minutes in the history of forever I remarked. Turns out his friends had taken him geo-caching after their 10 minute meeting and the dude is hooked. He may have geo-cached on his own a couple of times after work this week and the whole family geo-cached on our way home from the library the other night.



This geo-cache.... which this chick found after watching Mike walk around in circles for 5 minutes :)...... was located at the edge of the cemetery where Mike's grandparents are buried. Once we were done we headed over to pay our respects. The four of us huddled around the front of the stone talking about the grandparents Mike doesn't remember when Mike says, Is it okay to take a picture of a headstone? And before I could get my mouth open Abby piped up, Yeah, it's okay, but I wouldn't post it on instagram. She's quick, that one!

Mike and Abby went back out and found one more last night and the good news is we live very close to a trail dotted with lots of them because it looks like this is going to become our new family favourite activity.

Have you ever geo-cached before?

we love the library

I came home this afternoon to a message on the phone from our local library. My first thought was.... crap one of the kids must have something horrendously overdue, but no. Turns out The Abster had won the summer lego contest and would she mind stop by the front desk and picking up her prize. Well of course she would!!

Our library is only open until 5pm on Thursdays and normally the kids get off the bus at 4:10, except this is the first week of school and we have a new bus company/driver, so it was more like 4:20 when they finally strolled up the driveway. Hurry up, hop in the car we have to go to the library! Only to be met with a chorus of groans... but Mom, we're hungreeeeeee. Can't we get a snack first? My plan was to say nothing about the phone call, but desperate times call for desperate measures. So I told them we had to go because the library had called saying they needed to see Abby as soon as possible! It took about 47 seconds for her to work out that she may have possibly won one of the summer contests.



Over the summer the library had a lego scene set up and quiz based on what was depicted in the scene. Abby answered the questions with no help from me and handed in her paper back in the beginning of August. Excuse me, the librarian called us back, you've missed the first question. Did you realize that? I mean if you didn't know the answer that's okay, but I just wanted to make sure you didn't accidentally forget to fill it out. Abby had in fact missed the first question, so she took her paper back to the lego scene and completed the quiz, including the bonus question... the only part I ended up helping with. She's never seen any of the star wars movies so how was she supposed to know that was an x-wing fighter? Looking back, I'm thankful she pointed Abby's oversight out.

Abby was suddenly very nonchalant when we got to the library. Apparently checking out the dvds was the most important part of the trip, no need to introduce herself at the front desk. Mike coaxed her back and the librarian was only too happy to hand over Abby's winnings!



Inside her super cool messenger bag was a couple of packs of lined paper, an HPL pen and pencil, six bookmarks, headphones, a Brave (the Disney movie) journal a shirt, a notebook, some thanksgiving paper puppets and a Legend of the Guardians chapter book. Not a bad little haul for one happy little girl!

picnic

It was fast approaching a decade since we had our last Family Picnic. Mike recently remarked that he missed getting together with the whole family and perhaps we should like about having one next summer, to which his cousin replied... next summer?! Let's have it in two weeks.



And we nodded in agreement and then threw it together lickety split. Abby decided kind of last minute that we should have games, so we hastily came up with a couple. I'm hoping to be better organized in the games department for next year. To be honest though we had an absolutely terrific time even flying by the seat of our pants. Yes, there was too much food. Of course there was! Have you ever been to a Revill event? Food is our thing.

So the food was terrific, but of course the best part was just sitting around and listening to the stories. The catching up, the reconnecting, the reminiscing. The kids were a mixed bag of ages, but they all played together very well and Abby displayed some kick ass babysitting skills as it got later in the evening.  I have always felt like a such a lucky girl to be a part of this great family and I am doubly happy and thankful that we didn't put this off for another summer. Same time next year Revills!!

the best worst summer ever

Tonight the obvious topic of conversation at the dinner table was the summer. How did we feel about how we spent our summer. When Mike asked Abby said she'd give this past summer a solid seven out of ten. We asked why because, to be honest, I thought she was scoring it a little low given this is the year of awesome. She declared this the best worst summer ever and looking back she did get her summer off to a rough start. She had a broken thumb, mangled toenail and an out of control ear issue... oh and her best friend went away for a week. Maya gave the summer a solid thousand out of ten, so there's that.

Family highlights in no particular order.... See if you can guess who's are who's

Walking in the parade
The summer of a million sleepovers
Working two days a week
Tailgate dinners at Holy Food Truck
Despicable Me 2
Family picnic
Elliot's open house
International tweet up
Port Dover
Camping in Granny's living room
Granny's week long visit
The Jays game
Roast you weenie
Canning

It seems like a lot to pack into one summer, but there was so much more. Thanks everyone for the memories. Now on to the fall.

so awesome

So we're over halfway through what I have declared to be the Year of Awesome. I actually had some Year of Awesome homework that I was supposed to have completed for my favourite mental health professional that I have been putting off for.... well the entire summer.... and she's been letting me slide because she's awesome like that, but also it was really difficult for me to complete. I was supposed to make a list of what would make this the Year of Awesome for me and it couldn't be things that I would do for other people... which seemed kind of mean because I like to do things for other people, but of course that was point of the exercise.
 


So I struggled with it. I turned it over in my mind for a very long time. I came at it from different angles. It's been my constant bedtime companion the entire summer. What will I put on this list? So after hours and hours of pondering, what exactly have I come up with?



Well before I get to that point, let's check in and see how the Year of Awesome has been going. In a word it's been awesome. Ha! I'm so funny. Well as we know it hasn't all been moonlight and roses. I hit a bit of a rough patch there, but I'm happy to say that I've rallied back. Righted the ship. Things once again are rosy.



Some of the things that have made up the Year of Awesome so far were definitely planned out. Things like our new to us car, Baby Elliot, turning forty, Relay for Life, but the vast majority have been things that weren't even on my radar. opportunities that I/we just had to say yes to. Family tailgating dinners, cards with friends, pancake cook offs, girls  nights out, and the family picnic. Tonight I went from a planned quiet evening at home to getting soaked and singing my face off at a Montgomery Gentry concert with some great friends.



So I don't think I need a list of things to make this the Year of Awesome. I think I just need to keep saying yes to things and more awesomeness will come from somewhere. I have learned a lesson that's bigger than that though. I think I have learned that a big part of saying yes to a lot of things is knowing when I need to say no. And even more importantly to actually say it when I need to. It will never be a question of wanting to do things, but I'm slowly figuring out that as much as I would love to, I cannot do every awesome thing on my radar and I have to prioritize things the best way I can..... for me. Shockingly enough, this gets a little bit easier every time I have to do it.



So absolutely, I could make a list that says this will be the Year of Awesome if I eat at that restaurant I saw on You Gotta Eat Here or if I host a favourite things party or if my sister in law takes me to the Bread Bar and all of those things may still happen and if they do... awesome and if those exact things don't... well I'm sure there will be other Awesomeness to take it's place.

epic weekend

Sunday we held a Meet the Baby Open House instead of having a traditional baby shower for Auntie Mel and Uncle Dave. Let me tell you folks, that is totally the way to go if you have a similar life event coming up. People came and went, had some eats, visited and there was no games, no marathon present openings. The baby got passed around and lots of hugs were exchanged. I highly highly recommend this.

This weekend also marked Elliot's first road trip and sleepover, both of which he handled like a champ because he is super awesome like that. This Auntie got lots of snuggle time in, but it truly wasn't long enough. It probably never will be since the hipsters like to live so far away.

If I wrote a thousand words I could probably not adequately explain to you how much that little man means to this family. He's like the most anticipated movie of the summer times fifty. I think the absolute world of my brother and his amazing wife and I am endlessly appreciative of the wonderful relationship they have built with Abby and Maya despite being so far away. I cannot wait to watch their journey with Elliot unfold before my very eyes and I can only hope to be able to return half of what they have given to me. They will be a tough act to follow in the Auntie/Uncle game that is for sure.

We also attended a 50th anniversary party for my Aunt and Uncle at which I had the pleasure of snapping some pictures of them with their entire wedding party. How amazing is that, that they could all be together for such a special occasion.

So it looks like my oven is well and truly broken now, so I spent Saturday night baking gluten free cupcakes in my toaster oven. Twenty-four cupcakes, six at a time. That is true love right there. I know Auntie Mel appreciated it and not just because I sent the leftovers home with her.

It's been many many years since I changed a little boy's diaper so I was a little rusty, but managed to avoid any direct hits so we'll call it a win.

On top of Elliot this weekend was full of lots of family that I don't get to see all that often. Cousins from in town, cousins from out of town. Sometimes we had to stop and do some figuring about how we actually we related and then how long it had been since we'd seen each other. The kids got slipped some ice cream money and Maya was voluntarily hugging people whether she knew them or not.

It was just another run of the mill weekend in the year of awesome.

maya's bucket list

 Last summer I declined an invitation for the kids and I to walk in a parade only to have Maya say to me... Actually Mom, my dream has always been to be in a parade. Unfortunately we had that conversation at the very end of parade season for us. There was nothing to be done about Maya's new item on her bucket list until the next summer. Fast forward to the first parade of the summer and it's only days after Abby rips her toenail most of the way off. She wasn't going to be able to walk the entire parade route, Mike was pulling the float and I didn't know of Maya would be comfortable with the other folks walking so we sat the first one out, but I make arrangements for her to be in the Canada Day parade in the next little town over. I figure it's perfect for her because it's a shorter route and a smaller crowd then the other two parades the fair participates in.



I'm not going to lie I was fully expecting her to bail out at the last minute, but like JB said the day before she's a totally different kid these days. Maya and I showed up a handful of minutes before the parade was due to start. Mike and Abby were already there and had filled everyone in on Maya and her bucket list so they all made a big deal about her being there which was totally cute. Abby got her suited up with an apron and pencils and then we just had to wait.



She was very excited to be there until we actually turned the corner onto the parade route, then she was a bit unsure. There were lots of people, lots of noise and she wasn't quite sure what to do. Abby is a seasoned veteran when it comes to handing pencils out so she took Maya under her wing and showed her the ropes.



In no time Maya was handing out pencils like a pro. And she wanted to give a pencil to every single person she came across so we fell behind quickly which meant this Mama was doing a lot of running ahead to get more pencils.



She took her job very seriously and had a great time. Also totally cute that the rest of the crew knew not to give Grandma Linda and Poppa a pencil so Maya could get to do it.



Maya is a lot like me in so many ways and I know not that long ago this is something that she just wouldn't have been able to do so today just did my heart so much good.



Year of awesome for sure!

and it gets awesomer

Maya comes home from school today and I am tap tap tapping away at my laptop working on Touch a Truck and not paying 100% attention. I'm also somewhat absently eating an apple. Suddenly I stop and look at her....

Me: What did you say?
Maya: Maya would like to try an apple.
Me: For serious?
Maya: Yes, please.

Now bear in mind this is a child who has only about seven acceptable foods on her "to eat" list and none of the seven are a fruit or a veg.

Me: Uh, okay. Would you like me to cut it up?
Maya: Sure.

So I cut it up and I hand it to her and then I sit and silently watch her while she takes a bite. I'm almost afraid to ask, but I do anyway.

Me: Well, do you like it.
Maya: Yep!

The thump you heard was me falling off my chair, yet again. Then I got up, sat back down and watched her eat the rest of it. Three hours later she is saying to me.... Mom, is it okay if I take an apple in my lunch?

Oh, heck yes it is!

This is totally the year of awesome.

welcome to the world little one

Sunday was  pretty epic day in the year of AWESOME. People who know me know I have some mad love for my baby brother and his super awesome lady friend, Auntie Mel. They are the best. Truly. If it's possible, I love them even more now that they've brought this little guy into our lives....



Isn't this the cutest baby boy you've ever seen? I think it might just be.



These two are pretty smitten as well.



Maybe Granny is too.



Can you blame us? Look at that face!!!

well on our way

Well all that planning and organizing came down to tonight, the Jersey Girls second annual spaghetti dinner! We set an ambitious goal for ourselves this year, $5000 in 2013. My hope was that tonight would get us a fifth of the way there. That was my hope. How did we do in reality?

This is where I pull a Ryan Seacrest on you and make you wait until after the commercial break for the answer!

First of I have to thank my team. I just couldn't do this without them. I don't want to do this without them. They are my best girls! We have shared a lot of great stuff together and they have supported me through the not so great stuff. I love them. Thanks to the kitchen crew, who worked their tails off keeping a steady supply of hot food coming out of the kitchen. Thanks to the server girls who served everyone with a smile on their faces. Thanks to our kiddos, the Junior Jerseys who replenished water pitchers and dessert platters, cleared and wiped tables, ran things back and forth to the kitchen and so much more.

Thank you to everyone who came out to support us. It was fabulous to see so many friendly faces out there. I so wish I'd had time to chat with more of you, but it was an absolute sprint to keep everything running as smoothly as we could. I was, quite literally, running the back hall between the room and the kitchen all evening. I hope y'all enjoyed yourselves and left with full bellies.

So... commercial break over, how did we do? Well, thanks to your very kind support, we raised a titch over $2000 towards our goal of $5000. I am overwhelmed and so incredibly grateful. Thank you all so much!! It was definitely a great day in the year of AWESOME!

the setback

I read something this week and the second I did I had what The Oprah would call an "aha" moment.

What other people think of me is none of my business.

That is some truth right there, but it's not easy to let go of. I know. What other people think of me is a major bugaboo for me. Well, what certain people think of me is a major bugaboo. It is and/or was a huge source of anxiety for me. And that brings me to my next point.... my anxiety has made it's triumphant return. Things are not quite as rosy as they have been, but I am doing my very best to "fake it until I make it", my most trusted coping mechanism which I employ with varying degrees of success.

This too shall pass.

I truly believe this is a temporary blip. I have not been taking the best care of myself. I've spread myself a bit thin at the moment, the next four weeks or so will be a bit intense as I have two big events coming up. I'm not sleeping terrifically well, my headaches are back along with the back ache and it's all just chipping away at the awesomeness. I have a hard time with directly saying what I need and an even harder time asking for help. The thought of disappointing someone important in my life just levels me.

 So, you know where this is going, right? I disappointed people I care about. I had a decision to make, so I attempted to make the best one for me at the risk of disappointing others. It wasn't a question of not wanting to, it was a bigger question of what was best not just for me, but the three other people who live with me. What was going to help turn this tide and some how it just spiraled out of control. Thoughts of this weekend will come back and torment me at low points in the future, of that I have no doubt.

Running, I have come to realize, is a big part of what makes me feel better. It helps keep all those other issues at bay. I haven't been running as much this winter and it has clearly caught up with me. I'm not the only person who's taken note of this either, at one point on Friday when I had just about reached my breaking point Mike looked at me and said, can you please try and get a hold of yourself and go for a run. I probably should have listened to him, but instead I had a shower and cried on and off for the rest of the weekend.

I went to church this morning, that hour once a week where I am quiet and reflective that I typically find comfort in, instead this week flared up my biggest bugaboo.... my fear of dying. That one is a lot of work to keep in check, you don't even know. It was all I could do to sit through the service. I managed, by completely fogging on the sermon and instead planned out the upcoming week in my head.

My goal in telling you all of this is not to make anyone feel bad and please... God please, do not come up to me with a sympathetic look on your face and ask me if everything is okay. I'll handle this set back a whole lot better if y'all aren't so nice to me. The last time I wrote about the state of my mental health I received a lot of nice messages and a lot of me toos! I just felt like I should keep sharing the journey. And it is a journey. I think I forgot that. Lost my focus and look where it got me. Thankfully I think I have been able to figure out how I need to live to make the rest of that stuff less of an issue, so we'll get back to all of that posthaste because as Mike rightly (again) said to me as I lay in bed weeping Saturday morning... Shanny, this is not what the year of AWESOME is supposed to look like. So that's the plan, to get back to the AWESOME. Wish me luck.

one year

Happy anniversary to me. It's been a year since I started running "seriously". Really? Only a year? It seems like it's been way longer then that. In that time I've gone from not being able to run to the mailbox, to running 5k and completing 4 races. I'm still kind of surprised at that. Who knew there was a sport out there I'd actually enjoy competing in...... and yes I am using competing loosely here. Don't worry first placers, there's not a chance I will challenge you for the win. Hell I'm happy to get some hang time with my favourite running peeps (Kim!! and sometimes KK!!), score a new shirt and not come in last.



Running has been tough this winter. Treadmill runs suck ass! I am happy that I didn't lose too much of my mad skillz, I ran the Around the Bay 5k in the same time I ran the Road to Hope last November. What's on tap for the rest of the year? Well I'm not quite sure. Kim's invited/challenged me to join her in running a 10k she's signed up for and I'm very very tempted. Hell, I'll probably end up doing it. It's not until November so lots of time to train. My goal is to run most of it and finish in less than one hour and fifty minutes. No, I haven't spent much time thinking about it at all, why do you ask? Pretty great way to wrap up the year of AWESOME, right? Thanks KK for pointing that out! 10k here I come!

to the bay

The Around the Bay road race is as old as the hills. Older then the Boston Marathon, even. I wasn't crazy enough to run the 30k around the bay, but I did feel confident enough to tackle the 5k to the bay and back. Spoiler alert....... I was over confident. You see it's been a kind of miserable winter here. A miserable never ending winter. It's been too icy or just too darn frigid for running outside. I gave the ole college try a time or three, but it really was hard getting out there. So treadmill running it's been. I read recently in my running magazine that you can't really train for a road race on a treadmill and I am here to tell you they are 100% right. Gosh my legs are sore today!

So I wasn't at my best. I have a bit of a cold, but even still yesterday was pretty much dipped in awesome sauce. It's been a few months since I ran a race and just before I found myself wondering why I was even running it. I'm not competitive by nature, I have no chance of winning... why was I running a race?



Then I got there. Got all bibbed up....



and I remembered, because it's freakin' amazing. Yes it is. It's fun, so much fun. I mean you're surrounded by thousands of people that share the same love so there's a little bit of a party atmosphere. Then you're off and the crowd thins out and suddenly I'm just running with one of my most favouritest people in this world. I always run alone, which I love as well. Gives me time to clear my mind, recharge and come back ready to take on the homework, dinner, tidy up, refereeing arguments and all that fun stuff, but it's pretty darn fun to run with Kim. Usually she insists I go ahead and not let her hold me back, but I was not at the top of my game and she pushed me right through to the end, which I greatly appreciated.



That's her right there telling me... you can do it, don't stop running now, we're almost finished.... and so on. She's awesome! Although I may have not believed her right at that moment because my lungs were on fire. Damn cold! It's not even a really bad cold, but boy could I feel it when I was running.



But I did make it to the end. You should see the event pictures from the finish line.... Kim looks happy and great and I look like I'm going to die! I think I might buy a copy of it.



I will never tire and I will never be unemotional about seeing my family at the finish line. I hope they know how much it means to me that they take the time out to be there. I truly love it. And not just because they bring me flowers :) On an unrelated note... look how tall my kid is. When the heck did this happen? This growing up shit has to stop!

So the stats... well we ran it in 44:21.... six minutes slower than my best time. I finished 1651 out of 2100+ runners. 968 out of 1342 women. and 111 out of 149 in my age class. More importantly I was out there and that's a win right there. Where do I sign up for the next one.

Also.....



I have the best family ever. This is the card that was with my flowers. Year of AWESOME for sure! Love that they get me!

maya's turn

It's Maya's turn. Finally. Thursday was her first riding lesson. She's starting out in a half hour private lesson, just as Abby did at this stable. I'm not going to lie to you, I wasn't really sure what to expect. Longtime readers and real life peeps know that Maya is a total riddle when it comes to dealing with life. Which makes being her Mom a total riddle sometimes, but that's a post for another day. All kids are different yes, but I don't think you can help, but compare your own kids. I'm not talking in a one is better than another, why can't you be more like your sister kind of way, but rather just identifying those differences so you can be the best parent you can be to each one. Abby is a very social kid who has almost always enjoyed participating in organized activities. For most of Maya's life so far organized activities have been her kryptonite. Where as Abby has always known what she's loved to do, art classes, choir etc and been vocal about asking to participate, Maya has shown no true love for anything. She tags-along to choir and art class, but I would argue that the pure love for either activity just isn't there for her and she participates with varying degrees of excitement.

Now that she's seven, the offer was made to her to start riding lessons and she quickly accepted. I asked her several times if she was looking forward to lessons and she always answered in the strong affirmative, but see paragraph one. Maya = riddle. Odds were medium high that she could get to her lesson, dig her heels in and refuse to get on the horse. I've seen it before with choir and continue to see it each and every week. It goes a little something like this, Me - Maya are you going to sing with the choir this week? Maya - Nope! And she doesn't. Not even when her little bestie is there to sing with her. So I was alittle bit surprised and a little bit teary when I showed up to watch her lesson and this was happening.....



And I guess all those endless hours of watching Abby ride taught her a thing or two because she looked very comfortable in the saddle, knew what to do with her hands and was surprisingly adept at getting Star to stop and turn. Her instructor said Maya kept getting shyer and shyer as the lesson went on, but she was out there, so success!! She walked and stopped and trotted and led the horse and LOVED it!





Maybe she's found her thing too!

how did we get here

Since you guys asked..... well two of you anyway... here's the story. How did the car become the one? As I mentioned Mike had a long list of vehicles he liked and was looking daily at all of them just to get an idea on prices and what our meager budget could get us. I had decided that the car we purchased this time around should be paid for with cash and let me tell you it was not an easy sell. In fact I'm fairly certain that Mike thinks it was a great idea only now after everything has been settled.

So our long list, there was everything on it... cars, vans and suv's. We took a day and found a private lot that had most of what Mike had been looking at and test drove our faces off. Following that we had lunch and discussed what we liked most about each one and which would be the best fit for our family. We weren't 100% sold on needing to purchase another van. There are only four of us and no plans to add anymore little feet around here... although I keep telling people the last two times we bought vehicles I ended up pregnant, so I'm understandably nervous now :) The thing was, we weren't 100% sold on a car either and that led us to smaller SUV's. After that session of test driving the two that seemed to fit the best were the Ford Freestyle and the Ford Escape, in that order.

Mike focused his search specifically on the Freestyle for the next six months or so. Just keeping an eye on prices and many times he found "the one". There were many "discussions" about sticking to the plan... stay on budget, pay cash, buy in the spring. I'm afraid I'm making this sound easier than it was, there was so much talking, with Mike, with friends and still it wasn't an easy decision to make. We talked to people who's opinion we trust. We talked to more than one mechanic and tried to go into this with as much information as we could. At the end of the day we don't have a crystal ball, but we did the best we could.We decided a little late in the game that we needed to buy a new vehicle and only saved for a year. Our plan is for this vehicle to get us through the next two or three years and at that point purchase something else. That way we'll have at least a couple of years of our savings regime under our belts for the next purchase.

Next week we pick up our "new" car, a 2005 Ford Freestyle. Mike showed off some amazing negotiating skills and got within $50 of his "walk away" number. I was perfectly content with the sticker price and the thought of negotiating was filling me with anxiety. I am glad he didn't listen to me though, since he ended up a few hundred dollars under budget when all was said and done. It's a bit smaller than the van in terms of engine, but it still seats six, so we can take a grandparent or two with us if we are going out.

What will I take from this experience to the next? I think it's important to really have a handle on what you need from your vehicle. Mike liked a lot of other cars that, if we were being honest, were too much for our family, too much car, too much money, just too much. Start looking earlier, especially if you are shopping with a strict budget to get an idea of what is reasonable at your price point. I give all the credit to Mike for this one. He did 100% of the leg work here. My job (self imposed) was just to keep him on plan. The Freestyle ended up at the top of the list largely because we were comfortable in it.That's it, in a really big  nutshell.

phew

It's been around a year that Mike has been looking for a new to us car. Our goal was to limp this the van along through the winter and purchase something in the spring. When we began this journey we had no idea what we wanted to buy. Another van? Possibly. Very likely. Then Mike cast a wider net and slowly began driving us both crazy with too much choice. So we made a list of all the vehicles that had flashed across Mike's radar and headed to a lot to indulge in some test driving. After that session we narrowed it down to two favourites.... neither one a van.

After that the daily searching became easier. Mike looked and looked and many times tried to convince me to purchase something before we got to spring. Many times he tried to convince me to look at cars above our budget. Some how and I'm not sure how because there were days it was pretty dicey we managed to make it through to the winter and it was real deal car shopping time. Ugh.

I have made no secret of the fact that I have not enjoyed this process. I am very soon to be forty and yet felt no older than four. I was extremely anxious to get past the shopping/deciding/negotiating part. I live my life very much free from my usual anxiety, but the past week or so brought it back around as we tried to decide what to do. It was not a pleasant experience even though it was relatively mild.

That brings us to today. We bought a new to us vehicle this afternoon. Mike negotiated us a better deal than I was anticipating... Go Michael! And for my part I managed to get through it anxiety attack free. Hashtag best case scenario. The kids were very funny... over the moon excited. And Uncle Dave immediately wanted to know when we were headed north for a visit. Soon! Promise!!

Oh boy, I cannot believe this is over!

this is 40 for him

While we love a lot of things about our house it is not an ideal entertaining house in the winter. Over a hundred years ago when this house was built the words "open concept" and "entertaining space" had not yet been uttered, but none of those things deterred us from stuffing it to the gills with some of our very best friends to celebrate Michael's 40th birthday.

It was my favourite type of evening. Time spent laughing and talking with the people that make our life incredible. There was a completely perfect level of trash talk, funny stories, hugs, laughs, and hide and seek..... just the kids were playing that one. Rumor has it there was also an over abundance of food. At a Revill event? Unheard of! We had some surprises guests and some early leavers, but we were happy to have everyone here even if just for a little while.

So thank you to all the fine folks that came to help Mike celebrate a milestone birthday. Thank you for spoiling the birthday boy, completely unnecessary, your presence was gift enough, but the gesture was very much appreciated. Thank you all for being such a giant part of the good in our lives. If you had even a fraction of the fun that we both had, we'll declare it a rousing success! Much love to each and every one of you! xo