January was probably the longest month ever and I accidentally disappeared from the blog aside from book reviews. Apparently those are easier to type up than life updates?

Between January being 79 days long and being super busy with life, I finally have a moment to post a life update from the beginning of 2020 today. Hurray for long weekends! I’ll break everything down into categories so I don’t forget anything …

The Girls

Norah took a month-long break from preschool in January because her part-time program was cancelled due to a lack of enrolment. She returned earlier this month to a full-time program (more on that later) and she’s doing really well! Isla got her first report card of the year back and she’s turning out to be quite the student! Kyle and I are both super proud of them both; even though they’re so different they are both striving.

Norah is all registered for kindergarten starting in the fall, so there’s a lot of emotions surrounding that! I still can’t believe she’ll be 5 in a few short months and that she’s off to school with her sister in September! Where did the time go?! Really though, she’s SO ready and SO excited to finally be going to the same school as Isla; she’s been waiting for this day since Isla started kindie, so it’s been a long time coming!

Isla and Norah both started swimming lessons at the beginning of January! Norah was going 2x week and finished up after four weeks, and she did amazing! To be honest, I wasn’t 100% sure she was going to pass because she has a lot of energy and just wanted to swim around, but after a few reminders to listen she did awesome and got her badge. Isla’s lessons are only once a week, so we have a couple more to go before she’s done, but so far she’s looking strong.

This past weekend Kyle worked overtime one day, so we spent the day hanging out – we went and did the grocery shopping, and then after lunch we saw a movie (Dolittle) and went out and had sushi for dinner! It was a lot of fun and while they drive me crazy sometimes, it was nice to spend some quality time with just the two of them.

The Dogs

Campbell and Lars are … Campbell and Lars! Lars is growing like a weed and probably needs more exercise, which will be remedied soon as he’s going to go off to bootcamp within the next couple of weeks.

They are still getting along so well and Campbell is such a patient older brother to Lars, haha.

Back in October I had mentioned briefly that Lars was suffering from a bit of a limp, and after Kyle and I had it checked out by two vets (the original appointment and a 2nd opinion), it turns out that he blew out his ACL somehow. (Likely playing too hard with Campbell.) We had the option to send him for surgery, but with him being so young it may or may not have worked, plus he’d need more in the future. (Read: $$$$) We opted to make him lay low and see how it healed on its own, and while he can’t put 100% of his body weight on it, you’d never think he’s injured. Lars is very much a typical Labrador retriever and acts like a doofus

Running

I took a solid bit of time off between the last race I ran and February, aside from a Mile-a-Day challenge I did in December. Race season is starting back up in a month or so, so I need to get my butt in gear! I’m hoping to conquer more 10K distances, even on the trails, so we’ll see how it goes! My shoes are two years old now, so I may or may not treat myself to a new pair soon. I just can’t decide if I want to keep wearing my current ones for the road and get trail shoes, or just get a new pair of road shoes for everything. This is the toughest decision by far because really, I can’t afford both. (Even though I really want to!)

Life

Overall, life has been pretty amazing. Kyle and I have been working together to hash out a lot of “life’s plans” and it seems to be going well! We have some big goals for ourselves and for our family, but I think we’ll definitely be able to accomplish them if we stick to the plan and life doesn’t throw us too many curveballs. (Because there’s always curveballs!)

Last year when I finished my Administrative Assistant certificate I said I was going to reward myself with a new tattoo, and I finally got around to it at the end of January. (I finished school at the end of June, haha.)

In a nutshell, I got a lupin tattoo in honour of my grandparents. Once upon a time they had a cabin, and the trail to get there had crazy amounts of lupins growing wild. My brother and I used to spend a lot of time there with my grandma and grandpa, and have so many fond memories with them there. Lupins seemed like a logical choice to honour them.

Work

Oh yeah – I got a job! I didn’t really plan on going back to work until Norah had started kindergarten, but a position for a part-time administrative assistant was posted for a local business and I couldn’t help but apply. The hours were perfect to accommodate drop off and pick up from school, so why not, right?

I ended up getting a call to interview a few days after I applied, and was offered the position a few days after that! I was thankfully able to get Norah back into preschool full-time, just at a different campus (the school she was going to has four locations) and nothing else really changed.

I’ve been at the position now for two weeks and I’m really enjoying it; there’s a lot to learn and do, but I feel like it’s going well. It really fell into my life at the perfect time and it almost seems too good to be true, especially with being able to get Norah into full-time preschool right away.

So that’s pretty much what’s been going on since my last update! The days are getting longer and I’m looking forward to what the warmer weather is going to bring. (Camping! Waterslides! Races! Slo-Pitch! Pool Days!) I’ll try not to go so long between updates this time.