New(s)

I have been taking pictures galore so here is an update, in the form of many pictures.

About a month ago, our new dressers finally arrived. This marks the first time I have ever owned new dressers (as I kid I had an antique, which I love, and is now Kamden's). I don't count the "new" Jysk (aka crap) dressers we bought about 5 years ago. a) Because they are now broken and useless and b) do I really need another reason?

Instead of those dinky night stands with like, what two teeny drawers, we opted for full chests. Our bed is like 15 feet tall so I think it works. And I need the storage, trust me. (Jay off handedly suggested I buy fewer clothes. Pshaw)

My side of the bed is slightly girly. The flower box was made by Kamden for Mother's Day last year and the rest I have accumulated over the last couple years.

This bad boy has 10 drawers. Yes, 10. And the bottom four are HUGE. And sadly, I filled them all. And I go back and forth on updating the photos here. The majority are from our trip to the Bahamas way back in 2008. But the boys are so stinking cute so I just haven't brought myself to update them.

Jay's side. More manly. Well at least the wood figures carved by his Grandad anyway.

This past week, I zipped to Vancouver (and I have the bags under my eyes to prove it) for a work course. I stayed out at UBC with a friend, who fed me amazing food every night. Must tries if you are in the Vancouver area - The Flying Beaver (Mahi Mahi with coconut curry sauce - yum is an understatement), Chronic Taco (oh my word. you must try the Mahi Mahi (see a theme?) taco), it will change your life, and The Banana Leaf (the appie sampler was amazing. I even ate the calamari and if you know me, you know that is WAY out of my comfort zone).

Wow, that was a tangent. I wrote all that just to tell you about the leaf Jack is holding. Cathy and I were out for a run when I found this huge maple leaf. I hid it under a sign so we could come back and find it later. She found this quite hilarious since the campus was covered in leaves. But they were not all this big is my story and I am sticking to it.

I mean, it is huge, right? Also of note is the fact that it made it home in my suitcase in one piece.

And of course the pumpkins. My favourite part of Halloween, hands down. Used to be the chocolate but now two or three and I have a headache. Getting healthy and fit is awesome but I do miss the ability to consume copious amounts of chocolate.

And that is a wrap for now (ie bedtime for Kami).

Kami, out.

Melancholy

Be yourself. Be who you are.

What if who you are needs work?

Is it possible to be who you are and still be better?

(in case you were wondering, my head hurts)

Lessons. Learned the hard way. Forgotten. Re-learned, though never fully and completely. An endless cycle of futility.

So easy to fall into old habits.

I am an adult, yet not quite grown up. I am never quite as mature as I hope to be.

Buttons. Easily pushed. Never quite rise above.

When I was a kid, I thought adults had all the answers. Now I know the truth. All we have are more questions.

Insecurities. Striving for more but it’s hard and I want to quit. Others do it better. Maybe I have peaked.

I don’t always feel this way, thank goodness.

But today is one of those days, this week, one of those weeks. This too shall pass and if I learn something and become a better person, all the better.

Favourites

Fall has been beautiful here and we took advantage of the warm weather and beautiful colours a couple weeks back to do the annual Christmas photo.

Don't mind this one.

And this one. He is growing up, my first born.

And this one too. Also growing up.

But clearly this is the one to go with for the Christmas card. Am I right?



By the way, Jack is the only sane one in this family. Clearly.

Domesticity

I go in spurts. I am 3 parts lazy, one part get at it and get things done. Most weeks, I work the weekdays as the paying job and that leaves me with just enough energy to exercise and keep the house from imploding (barely and that is with a lot of Jay's help).

But for some reason (maybe it was the lack of a long training run) this weekend, I had mojo and then some.

Saturday afternoon had all three of my boys busy. Jack was gone to a birthday party sleepover (awakeover?) and Jay and Kamden went to the football game.

Jack was pretty funny when he asked all worried like, "But Mom, what are you going to do?"

Not to worry son, an afternoon to myself? Sign me up.

I had me some farm fresh raspberries delivered to me by my Auntie Sharen that were frozen and waiting for some jam making.

Kamden and I love us some raspberry jam and it just plain tastes better when I make it from fresh raspberries myself. I make freezer jam because it's even easier.

The jars look so pretty all lined up in a row. I was even inspired to pick up the camera, wonders never cease. We won't talk about how long it has been, m'kay?

I also had me a box of fresh tomatoes from my parent's garden. It was a small box perfect for a batch of pizza sauce. So I got me to the sink and washed the jars and set them to simmering whilst I prepared the sauce.

I don't even peel the tomatoes, it all goes in (see that is the 3 parts lazy again). I don't worry about keeping the skin because these are organic - my parents plant them and water them and that would be it.

I just toss the completed sauce into the food processor and behold smooth sauce with no chunks of unidentified objects for Picky McPickerson #1 and #2.

And this took me all afternoon. I work slow but diligently. And I earned this glass of wine, in my opinion. It went very nicely with the Greek feta chicken and lemon roast potatoes that I whipped up for supper.

There is something so innately satisfying about cooking and canning. It brings out my inner farm girl - some kind of recessive genes for sure!

Look at me, all grown up like and all.

The Second Half

Hi Y'all!

Or Mom anyway.

*blows dust off blog*

Ahem.

This is hard. I don't even know how to start so here goes...

Here is me and my good friend, Cheryl. She came to my fair city for the first time. I have had the opportunity to visit her a few times now so it was fun to have her come here this time.

We did our usual spa and shopping on Saturday which was, and always is, so much fun. I swear my fashion sense goes up a notch every time we shop.

But this time we also added a new activity, one that we have been talking about doing for a very long time.

We ran together.

A half marathon to be exact.

Cheryl is a veteran half marathoner so we agreed we would run at my pace, you know so I could remain conscious. My goal was to beat my first half time from 2.5 years ago of 2:22:29.

Here we are at 3km (all photos courtesy of Cheryl's husband, Tim) and I was on pace and feeling great. Cheryl was discussing our full marathon training while I ran beside her. I think she may have been having some reaction to the Regina water, poor girl.

She told me not to talk, just listen right about this point too. Something about my protesting violently taking up too much energy for the remaining 18k.

What was I to do? She is the veteran.

Things were going great. At 7k we passed Jay waiting to pick up his leg of the relay. I was feeling great!

At 14k, I was starting to slow. The day dawned sunny and they were calling for 30 degree heat. At this point the temp started to climb and I started to slow considerably.

I knew it would happen, and was prepared. I had hoped I could push myself harder during a race than I had during my training runs. I could not.

Jay passed us at about 16.5k then waited for us to go by at his finish point (17.5k into the race). I made a sad face as I went by. I was hurting and I was very happy to see him.

Our plan was for him to leave from there to go pick meet my mom to pick up the boys - a 1.5 hour drive. He didn't. He called mom and said he would be a bit.

He met us at the finish.

When I saw him I yelled, "I love that man more than words can say!"

He came to run into the finish with us. He knew I was hurting and it means so much.

And Cheryl was fabulous. She didn't judge or push, she just ran beside me. Good friends. I got 'em and I know it.

I came in at 2:22:09. Yes, that's right. A whopping 20 seconds faster than my first half. Part of me is happy. I did it in the heat. It was hard but I did it anyway. The other part of me is saying why didn't you just push a little bit harder?

I was reminded by another good friend that given that I felt sick for the rest of the day and the day after that I should stop being ridiculous. I told you I have good friends.

(As an aside, the very next day Fall arrived. Murphy is a complete asshole.)

That friend is on the left - Terry-Lyn. She ran the half too. She was originally going to run with Cheryl and me but the girl is a hare and we decided she should run her own race, not held back by me.

She finished in 2:00:04. This was her first half marathon EVER. That time is killer and I am very proud of her (also green with envy but she knows that and we joke about it).

It was a great weekend and as always, I was sad when Cheryl had to leave. Until the next time, my friend. I look forward to it.

As for the race, I am very happy I did it. I wasn't sure I would attempt another one. I don't regret it. Even though I didn't quite meet my goal. What I did do though is run two more half marathons than I ever thought I would and that is something. Something rather huge.

I do have another goal though.

This time, I am not going to quit distance running altogether. I worked hard and sweated buckets of salt (I have the white stains on my hat to prove it) to get to the point of finishing a 21.1k race.

So this time, with no talk about whether or not I will do another half, I vow I will keep up my distances.

Because that sweat has to be worth at least that.

Summer Recap

Summer. Blink and it's over, just like everything else in life. We fit in some serious fun, as usual.

First stop, Radission, SK, the scene of much of Jay's childhood. Above you will see him showing his boys the living quarters of the hotel his family owned. We were on our way to a wedding and happened by so we stopped and naturally I shot 50 or so photos. See Flickr for more.

While at the wedding, the hotel had a fabulous water slide. I let you be the judge on whether it was a good time or not.

This is serious business, this water sliding stuff.

Candy buffet, at wedding, sign Kamden up. Also of note, the fact that he tossed and turned for 3 hours in the middle of the night unable to sleep. Sugar high, much?

Did I mention that I am also training for a half marathon mid-September? Did I also mention that I have been nursing my usual IT band injury?

Given that I have posted a grand total of twice since June, I guess not eh? What can I say, weekly 2 hour runs take a good chunk out of a person's free time.

A few weeks ago, I wasn't so sure my leg was going to cooperate but now, after my daily regime of stretching, icing, foam rolling and glute exercises coupled with weekly massages, I can now say for sure that I am going to make it to the race. Making it through the race, well, that remains to be seen.

We fit in a couple trips to the lake too, one with Jay's family where I tried water skiing for the second time. This time, I was successful. What a rush that was! Then we headed up to Jan and the cabin my parents co-own for some fishing and tubing.

Kamden caught three fish one night and was all about trying again the next morning. He was pretty cool under pressure, very fun to watch him reel them in.

Naturally, I taught him everything he knows, including the ability to exaggerate just the right amount when re-telling the story of the big catch.

And my boat driving skills have improved a great deal, as you can see in the above noted picture. At one time, I launched my niece right out of there.

Her response?

Do it again Aunty Kami!

So much fun and so many memories, it's been a perfect summer.

Chopped

A few posts ago (about 2 given my recent notable lack of posting) I noted the next time I went for my regular colour, the hair was due for a change. Well, I followed through on my word. And lucky me, Jay is still speaking to me.

He will not, however, say he likes it. On principle alone, I am sure.

I like it. And the change is just what I needed.

But before the big reveal, because who is shameless enough to have already posted pictures on FB, let's go back and remember the different phases of Kami's hair.

There are some gems in this one.

Oh and this one too(safely falling into the what the hell was I thinking category).

And we CANNOT leave out the blunders of my youth (we all need a laugh or three!).

Perhaps someday this latest look will make it into a post to add to the list above, but for now, I am pretty happy with the change.



And the rear view, you know because I am not shameless enough, I have to!




I would like to thank my long time stylist, Kristy and my trainer of over three years, Ashley - you got my back ladies. Literally.