Tag Archives: Recap

May Recap!

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Hello, friends!

While I’m never 100% sure what day it is, May seemed to go by in a flash! It’s always such an eventful month, so I’ll recap it briefly here!

The kids

Isla is still working hard on her schoolwork from home. I’m so thankful that she’s a bright girls and has a fairly good grasp at understanding her work; they finished the grade 2 math curriculum in May and started learning a little bit of grade 3 stuff – multiplication! She’s slowly figuring it out, so she’ll be good to go when she starts grade 3 in the fall!

Norah had her kindergarten immunizations at the beginning of the month and she was NOT KEEN on them at all, but she was treated to her choice of donut so all was well with the world after that.

We had the option to send them back to school on a part-time basis starting today (June 1) but I’m opting to keep her at home for the remainder of the year. It just didn’t seem worth it, as much as she misses her teacher and friends. Hopefully everything will settle over the summer and school life can resume normally in the fall!

Isla was supposed to have her final dance shows this past weekend but it sadly had to be cancelled. We were able to pick up her costume, so instead of performing, I did her full hair and makeup and we took photos in the park. Her academy also held a “reverse car parade” where we could drive by the studio and wave/see all the teachers, so she dressed up again and we drove by.

A little glimmer of brightness has come through and the teachers are planning an outdoor, adjusted/socially distanced choreography show so the students can perform for their close family.

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We also bought them a trampoline! It was SUCH a smart investment, especially for Norah since she has endless energy. We had to wait a couple of weeks for it to come back into stock, but we got it at the beginning of the month and had it set up in a couple of days for them to enjoy!

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Life

We/Kyle have been busy doing a bunch of work to the yard! Kyle built a new fence for the back portion of our yard and we got our garden in a couple weeks ago! We planted peas, two types of potatoes, bush beans, corn, cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce and radishes.

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One of the two plots!

We lost a few tomato plants and our zucchini because of an over-night cold snap, but thankfully we were able to find replacement plants.

I also celebrated my birthday at the beginning of the month, as well as Mother’s Day! Kyle bought me an awesome Yeti Rambler and an amazing new crossbody bag for my birthday, and then he and Isla picked out some beautiful hanging baskets and flowers for my planter for Mother’s Day. To celebrate my birthday we had a little social-distance visit in our backyard with family.

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Hobbies

I finished three books this past month and just started reading The Testaments and am trying to get into it but like The Handmaids Tale, it’s a little tough to follow at first. It’s starting to pick up now, so we’ll see what happens!

I have Emily Giffin’s newest book on preorder and it should be ready to pick up at the bookstore sometime this week – Hurray for summer reading!

Since organized, outdoor races have been cancelled for the remainder of the year, I suppose all this running I’ve been doing has been mostly for fun, haha. I’ve been signing up for a few challenges/virtual races on Strava to keep myself motivated, and it’s been pretty productive. Kyle thinks I’m nuts, but that’s okay! Really, it’s been keeping me sane during all of this craziness, and he understands that.

Looking ahead …

June is already looking to be a busy one. I’ll be returning to the office on a part-time basis starting on the 15th, the girls will both be celebrating their birthdays, and Kyle and I will be celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary later this week! At some point Isla will also be performing with her dance studio too. I’m pretty certain June will fly by just as fast as May did!

What was the best book you read in May? Tell me something exciting that happened in your life this past month, or what’s happening this month that you’re looking forward to?

October Recap

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Hello, November! Can you believe there’s only a couple handful of weeks left in 2019? October seemed to fly by, so here’s what we got up to!

The Girls

Norah’s preschool class got to go to the pumpkin patch right at the beginning of the month! It was pretty great being able to go with her and share the experience with her; as the girls get older I think they start to value one-on-one time with Kyle or I more. Anyway, Norah had an awesome time going on a hayride, feeding the sheep, making friends with the guardian dog (of course), and picking out her pumpkin!

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We had a couple of pretty cold days, but for the most part the weather was fairly cooperative. Isla was enjoying raking up all the leaves that had fallen, so I made it a fun after-school activity for us to do with the boy I’ve been taking care of. (Dollar Store pumpkin bags, for the win!)

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Of course, one can’t talk about October and not discuss Halloween! We carved pumpkins the weekend before Halloween and Isla insisted that she carve her pumpkin on her own and she did a pretty good job!

From L to R: Norah’s, mine, Isla’s

This year Isla and Norah decided to be Luigi and Mario, which I had thought was a pretty original idea but as it turns out, there were a lot of Mario & Luigi’s out there this year! Regardless, they had a ton of fun with all the Halloween-related festivities. It started off with dressing up for Isla’s ballet class on the 29th, then for the school Halloween dance on the 30th, and finally for trick-or-treating on Halloween!

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I couldn’t decide if I wanted to put together a costume for myself or not, but I ended up stumbling across an easy Mario-related idea on Pinterest and went for it! I think I spent just under $5 on materials, and I got a lot of thumbs up for it! (Especially from Isla and Norah, because when they “hit” the box, I was able to pull power stars and mushrooms from a hidden pouch!)

The girls had an absolute blast trick-or-treating, especially Norah! I think she proclaimed that she got candy after every house, and she didn’t want to stop going door to door even when she was exhausted. We were our for about an hour and a half and they each got a pretty good haul!

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Life

October was a fairly busy month in general, with Kyle and I doing a few home reno projects updating fixtures and such, and a few family gatherings in between.

I had a quick day-surgery right before the Thanksgiving long weekend. Nothing serious, (I’m fine, it’s fine, everything is fine!) but I’m pretty well all healed up and back to normal! (Click here if you so desire to read it, you just have to ask for the password.)

I took advantage of the pretty fall colours and warm-enough weather to take the girls’ photos for our annual Christmas cards one weekend. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to keep making them pose for photos every year, but as long as they’re down to sit for a few minutes, I guess I’ll still take the photos! I’m super happy with how they turned out and I’ve already ordered and received our cards. I wouldn’t say I’m on the ball, but it sure feels like it!

The Dogs

We’ve now had Lars at home with us for just over a month now and things have been going really great with him! He’s such a typical Labrador, loving everyone he meets and being a silly, goofy dog. His house training is going well and so we’re slowly moving onto other basic training skills. Kyle and I are hoping to get him into obedience school eventually to really harness Lars’ capabilities and give him an extra boost when it comes to listening.

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He and Campbell have really bonded and are enjoying each other’s company, although sometimes they play a little too hard and Cam starts throwing his weight around; Lars must’ve got too rowdy because he has a bit of a limp, perhaps from a sprain, but he has a vet appointment for his next set of puppy boosters so it will be mentioned to the vet. He doesn’t appear to be in pain, but it sucks seeing him hobble around.

I think that pretty much covers everything that went on in October for us! Keeping with the general rule, November is shaping up to be relatively busy as well, so here goes nothing!

What are some highlights from your October?!

September Recap

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The first month of school is done! Did you survive? We hung in there the best we could but I think we’ve found our rhythm and are back in the groove of things.

Isla started grade 2 this year and after the first week of school she was finally placed in a classroom. (Because of a large amount of new students it took a while to shuffle everyone around.) She was happy to get the teacher she was hoping for and so far she’s really loving her classroom.

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The classroom she’s in is a grade 2/3 split, so I’m hoping she does okay. Her teacher seems wonderful and has been teaching for quite a while, so I’m confident Isla will be able to absorb everything that’s being taught with no issues.

The most exciting school-related event, however, was Norah starting preschool! She’s been dying to go to school practically since Isla started kindergarten two years ago, so when she learned that she FINALLY gets to go twice a week, she was ecstatic!

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She looks forward to going and needed no convincing that school is an exciting place to be. And she’s already learning so much! I hate comparing Isla and Norah, but Norah definitely has more “learning” to do than Isla did at this age, so preschool is definitely benefitting her a lot more.

In addition to going back to school, Isla returned to ballet classes this month and is happy to be back in the studio with her dance friends. She also started rehearsals for the Nutcracker performance that she’ll be in come November, so that’s exciting as well. Norah so far isn’t in any extracurriculars, but I’m leaning towards something like soccer or baseball come the spring. The kid needs to MOOOOVE so I think a sport would be better for her than something as structured as dance or gymnastics.

Of course, there was also the Dirty Feet trail race I ran near the beginning of the month. My legs took a solid week to recover but I think they’re back to normal now ;) I’m not sure what my next race will be – I haven’t even ran since then – so whenever I find the time/energy to do that we’ll go from there.

Kyle and I also got in a dinner and a movie just this past weekend! My mom had the girls over for a sleepover, so we got to go out for dinner and then we headed to the theatre with a friend to watch Rambo: Last Blood! The movie was everything I expected it to be, and then some, so I give it two solid Bowie Knives up, lol.

September, unfortunately, wasn’t entirely celebrations and excitement. Near the end of August we learned that Sam, our German Shepherd, was suffering from a pancreatic disease called E.P.I.. Generally, it’s more common for older dogs to contract the disease, so Sam’s case was highly unusual, but it explained why he was so skinny and not gaining any weight. Sadly, the medication to help his pancreas regulate his food digestion was a cost that was unexpected and something that we wouldn’t be able to maintain, especially on top of the semi-annual bloodwork he’d need. After a long discussion with the breeder we received Sam from, we decided that it would be best for Sam to go back to her. It was something that definitely wasn’t an easy thing to do, and I still miss him terribly, but I know he’s getting the care he needs by someone who can afford to do so.

The girls handled his departure extremely well (me, not so much), and I’m so ridiculously proud of both of them for being so grown up about the situation.

All that being said, we didn’t want to remain a one-dog house for too long, so Kyle and I began the search for another puppy. We had many discussions over what kind of dog to get – we thought about another shepherd but were still in shock from Sam’s issues – so we opted for a “Good Ol’ Labrador retriever.” We searched the mighty Internet high and low and eventually stumbled across a litter that was ready to go, so one sunny, Saturday morning we dropped the girls off at my mom’s and the rest is history …

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Meet Lars! He’s the chillest little chonkster and the girls are so happy to have a puppy in their lives again. I’m pretty smitten too, potty accidents aside, lol. And Campbell loves having a friend to play with again – he’s been SO good with Lars and it’s great to see him perky again.

So, that’s September in a nutshell! Lots of ups, a couple of downs, but overall it was a decent start to a new school year! October has the potential to be an interesting month, but we’ll see how it goes!

What were some of the highlights for you in September?!