My Birthday Weekend Recap!

What a busy and fun weekend I had! So busy in fact, that I could just not muster the energy to finish up this post last night, instead opting for a 9p.m. bedtime. That's right, this night owl was fast asleep hours before midnight! And I'm so glad I did because I feel so much more rested this cool and blustery Monday morning.

Friday

Friday was my birthday! I love being surrounded by people on my birthday and Friday did not disappoint. Sully and I spent the day at home together, and then my aunt came over in the afternoon, and surprised me with these beautiful flowers from my mom! (Thanks, Mom!!)

She hung out with us for a few hours until Jim got home from work, and then we we were joined by Becky and Liam, and Ange for the night! Becky brought all the fixings for a delicious BBQ dinner, and Ange brought buns and dessert in the form of Jelly Modern Doughnuts (and gifted me a beautiful bracelet from Stella & Dot!)! Jim always talks about these certain "fancy" donuts from a place near his work, but has yet to actually bring one home for me, so I was so excited that Ange brought a whole bunch of different flavours for us to try! (I have a week spot for donuts if you couldn't tell). Once the two younger boys were in bed, we spent the rest of the evening chatting and drinking before heading to bed sometime after 11.

Saturday

Saturday, after a big breakfast, we all headed out to the East Village for the Inaugural St Patrick's Island 4k Fun Run. A bunch of my running buds were running it too, so it was great to meet up with everyone! Jim and Sully also tagged along to cheer us on. In efforts to keep this post short, I will recap the event in another post!

Saturday was a gorgeous day out! Too hot for a run in my opinion, but it was nice to actually be outside enjoying it. The East Village is an area of Calgary I have yet to explore, and it's gorgeous down there. The trails and parks around the river have recently been rebuilt and there's lots to do and explore. We will definitely be back to spend more time down there!

After taking the train home, Sully went straight upstairs for a nap, and Becky and I hung out for a bit longer before her and Liam took off back to Red Deer. While Sully was napping, Jim and I got on the first coat of paint in Sully's new bedroom. The rest of the evening was spent at home hanging out.

Sunday

I had another run on my schedule, so I was up and out the door just before 8a.m. My aunt had asked me to run the Mother's Day 5K Run with her so I caught the bus to the train, and met up with them at Chinook mall at 8:30a.m. We ran the whole race together which was really nice to do! Her husband ran the 10k and killed it. It was a great morning, even if my cheer squad wasn't there. I'll probably recap this run in another post too!

After the race, I headed into the mall and picked up some summer clothes for Sully, before heading back to the train station. When I got off the train, I realized that the bus to take me home wasn't due for almost 20 minutes so I said screw it, and decided to walk the 3km home. It was such a beautiful day for it and it was great to stretch my legs and get in some more steps! (Overall, I walked/ran almost 15km on Sunday!).

When I finally arrived home, Sully was still napping, so I showered and got ready to go out for an early Mother's Day dinner. Jim asked me what I wanted and I said Pho, so we found a place that was open on Sunday's, not too far from our house. The service was great and Sully had a blast slurping up the noodles. The Pho wasn't the best I've had, but it wasn't bad either.

We came home, had some more birthday cake, and Jim tried to give me the card he helped Sully make for me. All I wanted for Mother's Day was a homemade card and I couldn't believe what a good job my boys did! Sully is currently going through the stage where one learns about possession, and everything is "mine", "Mommy's" or "Daddy's", so he didn't actually want me to hold or have the card, haha!

We then spent the evening hanging out in our bed, watching TV, reading books and Skyping with Jim's parents. At 9p.m., I told Jim I was done for the day and needed to get to sleep. Sometimes I hate going to bed on Sundays, because it's admitting that the weekend is finally over, but after such an awesome weekend, full of good company, good food and tons of activity, I went to sleep with a full and grateful heart.

Thanks again to all my friends and family for all the phone calls, texts and messages wishing me a happy birthday, and thanks to everyone who made my birthday and birthday weekend that much more special! Love you all! xoxo

Weekending: Birthday Edition

This past weekend we celebrated a very special half-birthday (how is my baby 18 months old?!) and my number one man's full birthday. We didn't do anything big, or even really leave the house, but sometimes those are my favourite weekends.

On Friday, it literally poured all day. And I mean poured! Luckily, Sully and I didn't have any where to be so we had a quiet day at home before picking up Jim from the train station.

{18 months young!}

Saturday morning I woke up with a bit of head cold and took advantage of Jim being home to occupy Sully. Hot water with lemon and honey is my favourite go-to throat soothing drink. And this book! I'm about 3/4 of the way done and quite enjoying it. I honestly had no intentions of reading it, but it was on the front shelf at our local library, so with the moving coming out soon, I took it as a sign that I should read it. It's not my normal genre of choice, but it's not really that "sci-fi", other than it takes place on Mars. Some (ok, most) of the biology and engineering talk is over my head, but it doesn't really impact the enjoyment of the story.

Later in the morning, the sun came out so we went for a big walk around the neighbourhood. Sully loves being in the chariot as opposed to his stroller. As we were heading back to the house, we let him out so he could splash in some puddles, which is his new favourite thing to do.

After nap time, I snuck out of the house to get groceries, but not before spending an hour at Winners trying on clothes. I only left with one top, but shopping without the pressure of a toddler about to explode at any second has got to be one of the best things ever, ha! Sully spent the afternoon "working" in the garage with Jim (his favourite room of the house - both of theirs), but also likes to take "breaks" and bark orders from in the chariot. I think his favourite book, The Boss Baby, is not a good influence.

Sunday was Jim's birthday and we first celebrated by all sleeping in! Then Jim and Sully got in some solid block building while I cleaned up the main floor. Our friend's, Kate and Dan, and their baby, came over in the afternoon for dinner and birthday cake. We made Grilled Chili Honey Lime Chicken Thighs on the BBQ (sans the sauce), which are delicious! It was our second time making them and they were just as good as the first time. I'm not much of a baker so I went with a store bought cake, and it was a huge hit! Sully was digging in even before Jim could blow out his candle. Yes candle, singular. And it's a tea light. #wifefail

Later in the evening an old friend of ours was in town and popped over for a visit. Sully was in heaven having all these people to entertain all day long and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow (figuratively speaking, as he doesn't actually have a pillow in his crib). Some story reading before bed, then some Walking Dead for us, and just like that, another weekend has come and gone.

Tell me something fun you got up to this weekend! 

31

Yesterday two days ago, I turned 31. It's a pretty insignificant birthday when compared to say, turning 30, but for me, it was my first birthday as a mum, which is anything less than significant in my books. I guess everything that happens this year on will be my first "as a mum", and it's still a thought that makes me smile.  If you had told me on my birthday last year, that I would be a mum on my 31st birthday, I would have laughed in your face, and then promptly downed my glass of champagne.  Not because I didn't want to be a mum, but because I never imagined I would become pregnant quite so soon after I turned 30. 

My 20s were all about me and now my 30s will be spent raising my son and making memories with my little family. It truly is the beginning of a new era. A journey I am both excited and nervous for.  You never really feel "ready" to become a parent and I was no more ready this year to become a mom then I was last year. I remember when I was a child, I believed my parents knew everything and had the answer for all life's questions. I thought this was just something that happened to all adults and so I assumed that one day, I too would all of a sudden know all the answers. Well, I'm still waiting for that day and I still think my mum has most of the answers. 

I've spent a lot of waking hours in the middle of the night (hello night feeds!), reflecting on my past 31 years, thinking about what the future holds, and all the things I've still to learn and what I want in this life for this little family of mine. Happiness. Peace. Adventure. Laughter. Love. Finding pleasure and joy in the everyday simple things of life. I recently watched the movie, About Time and there was a line near the very end of the film that really resonated with me:

I just try to live every day as if I've deliberately come back to this one day, to enjoy it, as if it was the full final day of my extraordinary, ordinary life. -Tim, About Time

'My extraordinary, ordinary life'. I love that so much. I don't have a list of things I want to accomplish this year, no "32 before 32" bucket list. Instead, I promise myself to enjoy this simple life of mine, to find the extraordinary in what would otherwise appear ordinary. To spend my time with people I love, who's company I enjoy. To try hard to not compare myself to others, to not be too hard on myself when I'm having a tough day and struggling with this mum thing. To be kind to my husband, even when he's the easiest person to take my frustrations out on. To smile more, laugh lots and love strongly. And most of all, be present in the moment. Happy birthday, Me. 

My Not So Baby Sister Turns 24

And a Bookish Memory

On the top of The Chief, Squamish, BC

Today, my baby sister, Vanessa turns 24 years old! I can remember so well, begging my mom for a baby sister and then, when I was 5, Vanessa was born. And she cried. A lot! And I'm pretty sure at some point, I asked my mom to return her.

But today, she is my best friend and my most favourite sister ;)  It took a long time to get to this point though. Five years is a big gap in age when you are growing up. Ten year old`s don`t really have a lot in common with 5 year old`s. But 5 year old`s want to be everywhere their ten year old, older sister is. Vanessa was no exception. She wanted to be everywhere I was. I have memories of going down the block to play at a friend`s house, only to have Vanessa show up at the door a few minutes later. When we no longer shared a room, she would beg to sleep with me, and I, being the big, mean older sister, would make her sleep on the floor next to my bed. Which she happily did for what felt like years. (I am so sorry for this!) We played a lot of barbies together, but only on my terms. Vanessa, I know, fondly remembers my favourite barbie game which involved dumping ALL our barbie stuff into one big pile and then re-doling it out by singing the eenie-meenie-miney-moe song for EACH item.

Clearly, my sister LOVED me big time.

But one of my favourite, bookish memories I have of my sister and I is reading books together. Naturally, being 5 years older, I read a lot to Vanessa. Little Critter and The Berenstain Bears books were some of our favourites. What Vanessa probably doesn't remember though, is that I liked to sing these stories to her (and eventually our little brother). At some point, I decided that just reading the stories wasn't fun, so I decided to sing them instead. All this entailed was picking a tune and signing the words to it. What a horrible idea. Vanessa hated it, but I would insist. I was the bigger sister after all. And she put up with it. Thankfully, I grew out of that phase, but I do get an urge once in awhile, like when I am reading a story to my nephews, to ÈsingÈ the book.

Gone are these days of playing barbies and singing stories. We are now both adults, Vanessa in the prime of her twenties, and I, soon to leave them. She`s the one person I can tell anything, and often look to for advice, even though I`m supposed to be the ``wise, older sister``. I like to think our relationship is on more even ground now, now that our age gap doesn't feel so wide, although we both know I`m still the bossy one. 

Sharing a Laugh

My best friend, and Maid of Honor

BFFs

Happy Birthday, little sister!