Meandering Markham

After reading an email wrong, and showing up to work for a 6am shift I didn't have, I was thrilled to be able to do brunch with my two sisters in the morning on Sunday. Our original plan was to do a hike in the early afternoon, but we didn't manage to get on the road until almost 3pm. (Someone decided they needed a nap, I won't mention names) 

So we headed for Golden Ears Provincial Park, in two cars to accommodate all the dogs and people. Even the drive into the park was beautiful, with tall green trees towering on either side of the road. 

We knew were were going to be rushed to get to the lake, and back before sunset, but we didn't want to miss the opportunity to go all together. The parking lot was packed when we got there, but most people on the trail were heading in the opposite direction to us. 

Above all, that made the trail super peaceful. The trees broke away to give us a sneak peek of the river that ran beside us to the lake, and beautiful view ahead. It was hard not to run down to the riverbank at every opportunity, as all the gaps in the trees offered their own unique perspective on the scenery. 

The trail has some out houses at the beginning and just before the lake, which was helpful. But when we walked out on that beach, it took my breath away. It was dusk, and the water was so calm it was like glass. The river that fed into the lake was a beautiful emerald green colour, and save a couple groups, we had the place to ourselves. 

The beach was mostly rocky, save a sandy part that jutted out farther into the middle of the lake. It was begging for a yoga pose shot in my sisters words. How could I disappoint her? 

The dogs had so much fun running and playing around, but the water was even too cold for them, being glacier fed. 

We frolicked as long as we could, but we knew we had to beat the clock to get back before it was too dark to navigate the trail, and the gate at the entrance to the park was due to close. The hike itself was mostly flat and obstacle free, more like a sunday stroll, and just my style. I'd do this one again in a heartbeat! 

Hair Masked

My sister Aleisha sells Monat, and as the supportive sibling I am, I bought some. Well then I fell in love with my hair again. I get excited about styling it! When I found out they had hair masks, I was excited to try them, as I do love a good face mask.

I chose this one, and I can't say enough good things about it. I'm a pretty impatient person, so hanging out in the shower for the suggested time almost had me going bonkers. But then I realized how little time I dedicate to myself in a day, and self care. And then I felt my hair 

Softness like this didn't used to exist in my world, I can't stop playing with it! It just feels so healthy! I feel like a chick from a shampoo commercial. Love love love it. 

Friendly moms

On Mother's Day today, I wanted to write about something unexpectedly beautiful that's happened in my life in the last few years. Growing up, I loved all my friends moms. My mom worked long hours so I clung to the ones who could make it for school trips, who baked, who drove us around to the malls. 

I always imagined becoming a mom one day, even when I graduated at 18, I wanted to start having a family no later than 26. That was the plan! But my life has taken its own path, and I'm honoring the journey. Jon and I do talk about building a family one day, and having Winnie, I've seen how much his heart can grow. But something beautifully magical has happened in the meantime. 

I feel so blessed to have the amazing friends that I do, and some of them in the last few years have become mothers. I've seen them grow, struggle, and thrive. I've been there for the good, happy times, and I've listened when they told me how hard it is. I've grown to respect them even more, as they've found meaning and purpose in motherhood. 

And something else happened, I fell in love with their kids. This little mini humans are extensions of the beautiful people I'm so lucky to call my friends. They're respectful, they have manners, they're going to grow up to change the world, and I get to be there to watch them. I have lots of women in my life I'm thankful for today, who've helped me in a motherly way, and I'm forever grateful. One day, I look forward to growing my own gremlin, but until then, I'm very much enjoying my friends becoming moms. 

On a side note: I've noticed mothers give the BEST hugs. I challenge you to find out for yourself and hug as many moms as you can today. 

Face the

I have this strange theory that when they said "face the music" in the adulting world, what they meant was, "face the dishes":

And "face the filing":

Music sounds much more pleasant.

Candy Fairy

This is one of those silly quizzes on SnapChat, and I got the same outcome at least three times: 

It hit so close to home because I've been trying to eat healthier lately (who isn't), and in the process, I had to withstand sugar withdrawals. It was an eye opening experience for me into how many treats I consume on the regular. It finally hit home that the winner isn't the one who eats all of the things and all of the stuff. Winning might actually be feeding your body the proper fuel it needs to function properly, with occasional treats. Craziness. *mind blown* *eats cookie* 

Wine & Sushi

Here's a picture of Jon from last weekend, when I got the bright idea to WALK to and from our sushi dinner. Not any of the dozen sushi places around our house, the one at the bottom of the hill by SilverCity Cinemas. I needed to get my steps in for the day, and I'd already dragged him out for a walk anyhow. "Lets be crazy, lets just walk there!" I was definitely regretting my decisions on the way back, most of the way up Marmont hill...

Anyways, it was actually out for this dinner that I told Jon the story of when dad made it his mission in life to get me to like wine and sushi. I'd have been in my early twenties, still living at home with them. I'd go to the wineries with them in Salmon Arm, and try them, but never liked them. When he'd drag me out for sushi, I'd get beef teriyaki. To be fair, I still don't eat the raw fish, but I could live on wine and vegetarian sushi.  

It also occurred to me that dad was always hoping I'd meet a guy like Jon, I just wish they could have met. He'd have had a HAY day with Jon, and visa versa. And yet, I'd not be the same person I am today, without the experiences I've had, and maybe it's some of those things that make us so compatible. Either way, wherever dad is, I hope he knows he succeeded, and I imagine him smiling down on us when I took this picture. 

Unicorn Onesie

Sorry Canada Sevens, been there, done that! 

Chipy

A friend online shared this recipe with me. I was a part of a group of hers, trying to make healthier food choices, so I decided to give it a go. 

But this is how I feel about the "4 chocolate chips each" instruction: 

So this is what I ended up with: 

Still healthy? Questionable...but delicious!

VDay

Here's to hoping everyone had an enjoyable Valentine's Day, whatever that looked like for you. I'm here to say though, I'm living proof you can create whatever level of corny you'd like to entertain, all you need is a willing co-pilot. 

We kept up with our traditions of the heart shaped pizza from Me-N-Eds, because they donate partial proceeds to help Alzheimers. (I'd just like to add, I got the spelling on that FIRST TRY NINA!) 

Just in case you were curious, my level of happiness can be summed up in one photo: 

Monat Dry Shampoo

I'm about to tell you all about the Monat Dry Shampoo I bought off my sister Aleisha, who sells Monat. If that's not your jam, by all means, click the sidebar for something else.

I was always going to buy off my sister, to support her, but I've actually found I love Monat, and it works excellently on my hair. It's made me feel differently towards my hair, and like I want to style it, and put more effort into it. Recently I tried the Dry Shampoo in the line, and I also fell in love with this product. I've tried other dry shampoos before, but I love how this one smells. It leaves my hair feeling fresh, like it's just been washed, without the powdery white effect. 

In the above picture I've curled it with an curling iron, but as another update on my curls, check out this picture. 

Those are my NATURAL curls people!!! This didn't used to happen in my life!! Can't say enough good things about it. I've tagged her in this post if you're interested, drop her a line. 

Snow car

Who remembers where they park? And they're being honest with themselves? I absolutely do not. So when it snowed, I came out and almost wiped off this car...

Before I checked the license plate...not mine. This little hump of snow was:

I was almost the guy from the GIF on Twitter. You know the guy...

#spoileralert when he hits the button to unlock it, the car in front, still all covered in snow lights up. Gets me everytime. Doubt I'd have found it as funny if it happened to me though.  

Turkish Crack

So I accepted an invite from some random player on Trivia Crack, not even noticing that the little wee flag in the corner wasn't a British Flag, signaling "English". 

I'll be honest, before I decided to fact check for this blog, I just assumed it was German. Turns out it's Turkish. But here's the thing guys, I'm not losing that badly. 

Since it's multiple choice, I just pick one at random. It's actually the game I look the most forward to playing if I'm honest. "Lets see how lucky I am today..." 

As an aside, by the title of this blog post, you may have clicked through hoping I might tell you about my adventures with the food item, Turkish Delight. 

Those fruity gelatinous squares from the Chronicles of Narnia Series, you know the ones. We used to have to pack it at Purdy's Chocolates where I worked. That white powder would get EVERYWHERE! It was literally the worst. They had one of these we would wear. 

Btw, while I was googling that above image, I found this: 

 What a party! It is picture week at dodgeball in two weeks...

Status update

When Jon and I first started dating (two years ago now) we decided together to change update our Facebook status' as "in a relationship" on the Saturday. So this is what popped up, with our current Facebook profile pictures:

As it turns out, I dragged him to a trade show that evening. Based on how I'm dressed, I'm sure many of you can guess which trade show it was, but for those who can't, I'm not telling... So when I updated my profile picture, I assumed it wouldn't update the status change, but I was wrong:

Doesn't help that Jon was raised super religious, so his parents and some of his friends on Facebook still are. Can you imagine what went through their minds? "Who's this TART Jon's started with? It probably won't last..." 

Trivia crack addict

I'm well aware that I should not be proud of this, but something huge happened this week.

After all the years of intermittent playing of this ridiculous game...

...I finally purchased what should have been my last little figurine card in the game!!

BAM!! Who's your daddy?!?!? Jon admitted he should be disgusted, but the gamer in him was very proud. Problem is, they just launched a Valentines day card deck...and on I play. 

Lipstick problem

The other day, I decided to reevaluate the lipsticks I was keeping in my purse, literally ON MY PERSON on a daily basis. I decided to check because the middle section of my purse where I keep them was starting to bulge into the other two sections on either side and make it hard to fit anything else in my purse.

I know I should be shocked, but I started to JUSTIFY every single one of those. I'm ashamed to admit, I had a whole collection at home as well...

Coincedently, the same week I saw this meme, which spoke to my heart. 

The first step to overcoming something extreme is to first admit that it's a problem. Good thing it hasn't hit that point for me...lol

#SelfLove

I posted on my Facebook yesterday, "I'm taking today for me. I'm being selfish. I'm not doing anything for anyone else today, JUST ME. #selflove" So I thought it might be fun to do a small recap of what that looks like for me. So I got up at 4am to go to the gym.

Yes folks, that's JUST THE BAR you're looking at, we all gotta start somewhere. And then I took a nap. When I got up, I made some energy bites for my training ride.

Got all my gear, loaded up the bike.

My plan was to quickly fill my tires that had been sitting for the better part of a year with my little hand pump and be off. When the hand pump didn't work, I drove to the gas station who's air attachment also didn't work. We laughed with my team because the two "amateur" riders both had their tires filled with compressors. And off they went without me.

I was so disappointed about the whole thing, I took another nap. I woke up when Jon got home, and made me dinner, even though I was the one with the day off. #boyfriendoftheyearaward. 

After dinner I went to our first night of Surrey Dodgeball League, with my old team name and logo back out for another spin. 

So in summary, it would appear my form of self care is exercise, interrupted by lots of sleep. In case you don't believe me, I have FitBit stats to back me up. I slept 10 hours and 58 minutes yesterday. Just short of 11 hours.

Not going to lie, that's pretty much my favourite feature of FitBits, and the one I'm most proud of. Yea, I'm kind of active, but I can sleep like a BOSS! 

Rockstar report

I love it when I check step challenges before anyone else has woken up, I look like such a rockstar...



Clearly Helen falails in her sleep, or got up for a pee to a washroom SUPER close to her bed. lol

Letting go

This past Christmas when we were putting the ornaments on the tree, I broke one that meant quite a lot to me. It says "First Christmas Together 1982".

All those years we put it on the tree as kids and it survived. It could have fallen anywhere on the carpet and been fine, but it fell on the base of the lamp and broke the top where it hangs. Now besides the fact that I believe in the afterlife, and question whether dad did this on purpose since it was his first Christmas with mom, it's a good lesson in letting go. Whether dad was trying to teach me that, fate, or this awesome minimalist chick at work who's been talking to me about emotional attachment to things, I think I'm catching on. 

It's brought to light this bigger issue in my life about keeping things I shouldn't/don't need to. It's come to light because of Jon moving in with me to my 750 sq ft apartment, and how stuffed I have it with stuff. I've been going through stuff lately, like 4 boxes of cards people gave me down to 2. I've been giving stuff away, and letting go of things. I have to admit, it's felt GOOD. Cheers to emotional healing!

"I'm seeing dicks..."

Before I was a consultant with Pure Romance, I was the hostess for Coralie over at my place for a couple parties. The night before one of them, i'd have my friends over for a onesie party. Well they'd played a prank on me and made little penis' out of post it notes, and stuck them literally all over my house. I'll never forget it, Cor was just launching into her presentation when she stopped mid sentence and said, "wait a second, are there dicks stuck all over your house?!!?!?" and we all laughed. "Oh good, I thought maybe I was just going nuts, like I'd been in this business too long, I just started seeing dicks everywhere.." 

It was funny enough that I'm pretty sure that was the night I signed up with her. Just to ramp up my random hilarious scenario occurance...

Masculine BBQ

So Jon and I just recently got a used BBQ at my place, off a friend. (Thanks Matt! And Chanel for transporting it here!) So we've started to cook EVERYTHING on it. Which is lovely. What's funnier, is how badass Jon feels as man because of the BBQ. The masculine appeal of the device is not lost on us around here...

Creepy bitmoji

I'm newer to Bitmoji, because that's how I run my life, I like things 10 years after they were officially cool. So lots of the pictures Bitmoji comes up with, I absolutely love.


Bubble baths! Literally one of my favourite things.


Hot chocolate! Sign me up! Only one thing I like better than hot chocolate...



Tea! You guessed it, but I usually prefer to drink my tea while I'm...



...yes Bitmoji, while I'm reading a book. Creepy. But it's a lot easier to focus on tasks since...


...yes, since my cat moved out. How did you know that Bitmoji?



This is slightly odd. Who fits in their toilet? Who would want to? And who loves that?


Also not a fan of floating around by my ass? Where do you come up with this stuff?



*block* *delete* *run for my life*

Wallet

So I got this wallet from biding wars right, and for ages I couldn't place what it reminded me of.

 

...and then suddenly it finally occurred to me.