Just as last year, Matt, Adam and Jessica participated in the Sporting Life 10K for Camp Oochigeas and all beat their previous years' times! I didn't run, haha, I just didn't train enough. The most I've ever run without taking a walking break is 6K. Good for them! Here are a few pics: Last year's shot...
1 Comment
*Wrote this post last night and updated it a bit just now* Well it's just under a month into the summer vacation, so what have I done? Well, for the long weekend we went to the cottage. See more pictures of that here. Then from Tuesday-Saturday after that I tried my best to not go crazy from boredom. I pretty much did all the little things on Tuesday - cleaned the house, organized my school stuff, got groceries, and went to the gym. By the time Matt got home I was wired and bouncing off the walls. The next few days were similar, so I immersed myself into bad TV and blogging and scouring Pinterest (more on that soon). A few days before the trip I did get my nails and toes done - I went to Tips Nail Bar on Danforth and it was a great place. The women that work there are so friendly and I will definitely be going back there this week! Here are my beachy toes via Instagram (that's right, I now have an iPhone, finally!): Then the trip took us away to the Dominican for the week. Before I left school, I casually mentioned to the summer school principal that if they really needed a teacher for science, I could be available. Well, it turns out that they needed me, because I got many calls and emails throughout the trip, and I ended up getting grade 10 science (my usual summer course) for the next two weeks. I had the Monday we got back off, but then on Tuesday I was back to school. Typical summer kids - not bad, but annoying - 6 hours a day with most kids would do this to me, though. Last Thursday I had dinner with Jessica, Carolyn, and Stephanie at Leslie Jones on Queen. We had a good meal and caught up - last saw Jess and Carolyn at Hixmas in December, and Steph not in a year, which is so sad. It was good to see all the girls, and found out Jessica moved and of course has her little baby Sophia - I'm planning on visiting her for the first time in the next few weeks! The whole weekend was really a Leslieville/Riverside weekend - Friday Matt and I went to Goods & Provisions for dinner (SUCH good food), and then to see Batman (very good too). Saturday we had brunch at The Commissary - had an apple and brie french toast on a croissant - wow - it was yummy. We walked around the street for a while and went into all the furniture stores and antique shops. There were a few things I liked but didn't love enough to purchase. After all that food, there were a few days of hardcore working out that followed. Tuesday Megan came over and we gossiped about The Bachelorette (yay Jef, ohh Ari - that breakup was super awkward), boys, and our summers. We had some sushi, and went to see Spiderman in 3D - much better than the Toby Maguire ones - Andrew Garfield is a way better spider!
Now it is Thursday night, and I'm not feeling so great. I swear Marta, if you got me sick, I am NOT going to bring you Starbucks tomorrow (PS it is now Friday and I'm actually feeling much better)! The exam was today, and of my 13 kids, only one failed (which is better than some years), and now I only have to be there tomorrow until 10AM to give kids their marks, give in all my paperwork, and pick up my paycheque (PS once again it is now Friday and I am DONE - yay summer!) What will I do for the rest of the month? Well Sunday is Meghan's baby shower at The Lakehouse. Next week will be a boring week again, but I'm hoping to get some more cleaning, organizing, and gym-ing done, plus some cooking adventures! Next Thursday we leave for Vancouver, and we're there until Tuesday, for Adam and Emily's wedding on the 4th (also Matt's birthday - must get him a gift soon - PS I did that today at Yorkdale). When we get back, it is our 2nd wedding anniversary on the 7th. Year 2 is cotton...he's probably getting a t-shirt (PS got him something today, haha). Then who knows for the last 3 weeks of summer...some painting, decorating, gardening (oh how I've been avoiding all the dead plants), and relaxing! Oh yeah, and at some point I'll prep for my upcoming school year. Okay, done with the "dear diary" style blog post. Have a great weekend! Nope, I didn't run it, but Matt and my brother did, for the third time each. Adam's fiancee, Jessica, did as well, for the first time. I thought about it, decided against it way back when, and when I realized I should do it, it was too late, and I hadn't trained enough. Oh well, there's always next year! Everyone was above their goal time - it was very humid outside during the run, but they all still did really well. Jessica's goal of 1 hour was SO CLOSE (1 hour, 39 seconds), Matt's goal of 45 minutes was done in 48, and Adam's goal of under 40 was done in 41. I am so proud of each of them, and I made them pose for a sweaty picture outside when they were done and back at the house. The three runners (the close-up shots were not great) in their vibrant-coloured running attire Running is a great stress-relief to planning a wedding... They seem to be handling it okay!
This past weekend was great for so many reasons - Matt came home from Vancouver for a long weekend, we went to the cottage, we were with family, we ate good food, and had such nice weather - it couldn't have been better! I picked Matt up late Thursday night from the airport and went straight to the cottage. After sleeping in, Matt and I went for a run - I ran 6km followed by a 3km walk (while Matt ran the other 6km) - I think 6km is the most I've ever run without walking breaks in between, and it was very hilly - I was so proud! After that we did a lot of relaxing and reading, and had dinner with the family. Friday afternoon - the brief period before Tabby tries to bike Matt... Friday sunset - cottage weekends are BACK! Saturday the boys went golfing, and us girls went for a walk - this one had more hills and was probably a bad idea considering how badly my legs hurt from Friday, but over 6km later we felt great (sort of - I also was staggering and a bit sunburnt on the face, but at least we could eat Easter dinner without guilt). We spent the afternoon baking (Meg, and Martha Stewart helped) - made carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and little "nests" on top (toasted coconut and mini-eggs). I was very proud of them - they turned out great! After some photo shoots outside, dinner was good - family and wine and food = perfection. That night we used the "night sky" app to see what constellations were out in the very starry sky. Table set for Easter dinner - Matt's mom made this centerpiece! Carrot cupcake "nests" with cream cheese frosting Matt set a big fire - he watched it all afternoon Sun-facing pictures = squinty... Like father, like son, with equally awkward smiles The matriarch - Momma Meg and Jeff Cream cheese, pesto, sundried tomatoes, pine nuts = delicious! Evil Tabby Meglet creeping through the window Conner is getting so big! Copper-green flames within the fire Matt's artsy-photography moment Jeff's idea of photography is taking 100 pictures in rapid succession...this was the only half-decent one Cute and smiley! Playing yahtzee with cards - they were pretty hardcore about this game... Such a nice day! The love wood is still there after the winter! Reds of fall mixing with the greens of spring New dock in progress! Almost time to go! But first a few more pictures... I was NOT going to climb onto that wood pile...even for a good picture Sunday was the 3rd sleep-in (felt so good), nice family breakfast, and relaxing. We left that afternoon and headed to my parents' house. Had a small gathering of my parents and grandpa, watched the end of the masters, and caught up with everyone. Grandpa watching golf Mother & daughter on Easter Lilac for Easter dinner New "Mad Men" inspired lights in the living room More cupcakes for dessert! Today Matt left really early, and I slept in for the 4th day (and last day for a while). Did some marking and school work, sorted through my pictures, cleaned up the house, and relaxed. It was such a nice day, and I should have gone outside, but instead I lounged in my PJs and drank tea. Excellent weekend!
Here's my January Photo A Day Challenge for Day 14: Something You're Reading So currently I am not reading any physical books, but every day on my 40-minute commute to work I read an audiobook of some sort. Currently I am reading "The White Queen" by Philippa Gregory - I love all her books and this one is no exception. Before that, I read "The Hunger Games" triology and loved that too! Here is Matt's book collection of "to read" books - his common authors are Chris Buckley and Kurt Vonnegut - they both have a large collection of books. I like the Chris Buckley ones a lot and I'll read them when he's finished - very funny political satires. He decided recently to read more classical books, so he picked up some Fitzgerald and Hemingway after watching "Midnight in Paris." Fine with me as long as he doesn't turn into Ted Mosby. :p What I should be reading is more healthy recipes and workout tips and general fitness stuff to go along with my consistent workouts! I have a stack of "Women's Health" - some of which I've only browsed and others that are untouched. Beautiful women on the covers should be my inspiration pictures! Up next tomorrow: Happiness
So, I can look at the stats on my blog and find out what people search to come across it, or what pages are the most viewed. Without fail, each month, two categories are most often clicked. The first is the wedding page with the reception and photo booth pictures, probably because a lot of people come here from The Knot. Plus anyone who was there wants to relive the fun all over again! :) The second, and much funnier one, is the category "baby". I do not have a baby, lol. I probably had about 5 posts in there, and 4 of them were about Marta's baby, Evan, who is the most adorable baby on the planet. The other was about some cool science-y nursery I saw once. So I deleted that category - I don't have a baby! Calm down, people! Haha, I know people are just curious, but it makes me laugh every month to see it so high in stats. Marta - they must love your cute baby too! Sorry for the lack of home stuff lately - we really haven't done anything much since Christmas ended and we rearranged the house back to normal. I guess I could show pictures of that. I'll keep up with the inspiration pictures and a few very small projects we have going here and there, but the next big thing will be painting the hallways and spare bedroom, which will probably happen over my March Break! My time is now filled up with: 1. Going to the gym to try and get that figure I had back...it got lost sometime between now and my wedding a year and a half ago! 2. School - Prepping my students for exams in 3 weeks. Only been back for 5 days but there's not a lot of time to ease back - we are finishing up last units, doing culminatings, and reviewing. We are all stressed! 3. School - The play - Seussical the Musical. We have now finished 3 songs and are on to the 4th, and have all the rights so the students can have the CD's to practice with. It's going pretty well and we have some talented vocalists! 4. School - Prepping the Christian Band for a grade 8 parent night performance. There are at least 12 songs we have done over the past 3 years, so going through a few old ones is fun. We do a lot of Hillsong - I love it, and the band is incredible - along with the choir of at least 30, we have a pianist, guitar and base guitarist, and a drum player. Favourite Hillsong music is "Hosanna" That's all for now, check back later for the photography post of the day! Happy Friday! :) Ohhhh the resolutions. I went back to last year to try and find my resolutions...I found the New Year's Eve post, but then I think I got the flu pretty bad and forgot all about it. Oh well - time to start fresh this year anyway! Here are some resolutions for 2012: 1. Get Healthy Yep, pretty vague, but it encompasses a lot. Specifically - eating better, working out more, finding good ways to relax. Since Christmas break started I've been to the gym 4 times, and done a lot of relaxing, but I definitely can't say the eating has been the best or that I can keep up the relaxing when work starts again next week. a) So my workout goal is to go 3 times a week - twice between Monday to Friday, and once on the weekend. I think I can handle that. If I try to do anymore than that, I usually end up crashing and burning and after weeks of working out get exhausted and don't see the gym again for months. So with that goal at least two times could technically be on the weekend if necessary. b) My food goal is to cook more at home, and more healthy options. We have been getting into a bad routine of pizza on Fridays, and either going out to dinner or getting takeout on Saturday, if not more in a weekend. Matt is an incredible cook and I am already starting to do a lot more in the kitchen, plus with an influx of Christmas gift cookbooks, we have a lot of options for home-cooked meals. We both love going out to dinner, so we'll limit that to maybe once every other weekend, and good balanced meals during the week. We'll save money this way as well. I'm going to load my meals with vegetables as well. Getting better with protein, but the carbs and snacks can drastically decrease. Typical resolution, I know, but hopefully I can stick to it. c) For relaxing, I want to do Yoga or Body Flow again - I did this a lot a few years ago and didn't keep it up. This will also work its way into the workout routine, so it's perfect. I want to improve my core strength, stability, flexibility, and balance, along with losing some pounds and toning the super-weak muscles. Naps will help with relaxing too - keep up with the naps... 2. Take Pictures This started yesterday with my photo-a-day challenge! I want a better camera, but ultimately I just want more pictures. I was really good the year we got married - I was a shutterbug indeed, but then I just stopped, and have very few pictures from the past few years. And NOT just pictures of house stuff - of outside stuff, where I actually see natural light and sunshine. Plus it will get me outside, and active, and again relates back to the health goal. My brother is getting married in the summer, and so is Joni, so the family and friend photo ops will be plentiful! 3. Reconnect Whether this be through seeing family and friends, making more phone calls, or even blogging, I need to reconnect with people! We did a lot of family things on the holidays, but other than that, we just stayed in the house. Not that I don't love relaxing with Matt - we really needed it, but it's still nice to get dressed up or go out and just see people. I need to call my long distance friends more, and I definitely need to keep blogging, which brings keeping in contact with people full circle. 4. Save Money This is more a continuation rather than a resolution. I'm a pretty good saver when it comes to money. Just need to keep it up so we can keep up any house projects, travel around (want to do New York City this year, and other parts of Europe next year). Of course around Christmas I spend a lot, so now back to saving for the "just in case!" 5. Get Creative This has to do with teaching. This semester has been weird - I haven't been as motivated as I normally am to create unique lessons that engage my students. I think I started off the year tired, and with a tough class, it just didn't get off on the right foot. I'm hoping for the next semester, starting in February, to create some new ways to teach my lessons, and not just notes and PowerPoint and worksheets and tests. More articles and activities so students aren't bored, and so I'm not bored! Sailing throughout Greece...now that's relaxation!
Today my husband ran just over 42 km in the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, in under 4 hours (3:58:57 to be specific) - which was his goal. I am so proud of him! He is very sore, and tired, but wow....I can barely run 5 km without stopping! He trained very hard (thanks to the Nike Plus training program). Here are some pictures we got of the big day: Waiting at the finish line, of course with Starbucks in hand Lots of support for Matt! Action shot of just before the finish line! I think he realizes we were cheering (screaming?) for him now... I was forced into this very sweaty hug...can you tell?
Last year on Labour Day Had to go in for a PA Day on Thursday. Pretty easy morning of meetings, nice seeing everyone, and prepping for the following week. There is NO PAPER in the entire school and I don't understand why...it's not like we don't need paper every single year. Anyway, hopefully that will be remedied by tomorrow morning! Had a great teaching moment in the afternoon too. One of my students from a grade 10 class last year came to visit - she was with her brother for the grade 9 BBQ, and just stopped by. I knew I had seen her name for my grade 11 chemistry class this year, and I told her so, and she said "Really? YES!!!!" - I was so glad to hear that she was happy to have me, instead of an awkward "great" that could have come out of her mouth. Proud moment for me - it really made my day! Went to the cottage this weekend - the weather was terrible but it was still a good, relaxing weekend. Hot tub, wine, great food, reading home decor magazines in my comfy clothes = great! Even went for a run. Well, 3 km of running, 4 km of walking. But still - it's something! Was supposed to go golfing but the weather did not cooperate! Back to school tomorrow - doing laundry, tidying up, and general organization for the week. There is lots to do this first week - you prep so much and it really only lasts a day or two before the real work begins, so trying to do as much as I can before the week starts. We were talking this weekend about Labour day is really our "New Year" - everything starts over and we make resolutions. With that said, getting back in shape and eating better is on the top of my list - wish me luck! Mostly eat well at home in the summer, but not so much always at the cottage, or at school. It's hard to eat quickly but something needs to change because I have gained SO MUCH WEIGHT since last summer - it's horrible. Another resolution? Getting back to my home reno stuff. Projects for this weekend? Well - I'm going to prime and paint the hallway closet (yep, it's STILL not done), and Matt is going to do some wiring to add a light to our basement stairwell where there is a little shelf to add a painting we got from his uncle and some books. Goal before Thanksgiving is getting the dining room (more) done. Getting the sideboard in with the quartz countertop and wine rack, adding a gallery wall, getting some new dining chairs, and mounting the mirror in a frame. We have 5 weeks to meet our deadline - let's see if it can be done! |
KathleenAdventures in married life, cooking, teaching science and new home renovations in the city! LinksArchives
June 2015
Categories
All
|