Day 207 100 km!

I did it! I decided to exercise every day....to see how long a string I could build. It's made all the difference for being able to do 100 km this month. Now I will see how long a string of 100 km/month I can build.

Day 206 Musical Readiness?

I tried for years to get these two to practice....now there's no stopping them. 

Love it. 

Love them.

Day 205 Piano Lessons

Jill has some goals about things to learn before she leaves on a mission. First is learning to play the piano. 

Chico is learning to play along. 

Day 204 Swimming, storms and Guatemala

My picture of the day was going to be my t-shirt from Natioanl Age Group Champs swim meet that I volunteered at.

But this storm was much more exciting

Best news of all: Jordan is going to Guatemala on his mission!!

Day 203 It Has Finally Happened

He's finally grown taller than his dad! 

Day 202 Mission Call

Today Carter got his mission call. He invited us and a dozen or so other people to come over to find out where he was going. It was really fun and a great experience for Jill and Peirce especially. I'm so grateful we all joined in celebrating this great milestone together. He will be going to the MTC In Mexico City December 27 to serve in the Mexico Guadalajara Mission! 

Day 200 Swimming Wrap Up

That's it. It's over. Years of practices. Weekends of swim meets. Tears and sorrows and joys and victories. Jill has really loved swimming. It will be hard for her for it to be finished. It has had a great positive impact on her life. She is one of the most fit people I know. She has amazingly positive body confidence. She is a fabulous swimmer. She knows how to work hard. She has made great friends and been a leader. Swimming is a big commitment, but for all it gives back, I'd say it is worth it.

Once strange thing this year is Jill has been the only girl amongst a bunch of boys in her squad. These are some great boys. This was taken earlier this year at the Pan Am pool in Winnipeg. 

Day 199 U of C Campus

Today Jill had had a swim meet at the U of C so I spent a little time walking around campus. I love it there in in summer!! So beautiful!

Day 198 Clean View

This might not look like much more you - but it is beautiful to me! It is one VERY clean window. Even the blinds are clean! I might have cleaned it last summer (or maybe it was the summer before?? Horrors!) I don't know if I have ever cleaned the blinds. They sure are clean now. It took me an hour. I have decided that every day I'm going to spend an hour (and only an hour!) on making something shine in my house.

If you need me, I'll be in my bathroom admiring the window.

Day 197 Scout Camp Prep

Peirce is going on a scout camp. Good thing he has a good dad. If it was just me, I think I'd just have him stay a home where it's safe!!

Day 195 FHE

I'm not doing a very good job of daily photos. I will try to do better!

This was Chico during FHE tonight. I think he was a little bored. It was a good lesson though....being s prophet. Good things to consider. 

Day 193 My Good Life

This whole week since we have been home it pretty much won't quit raining! It is dreary....but my life is sunshiny, in general!  It is a good life I have. 

It's a Here is how my day went today:

5:45 wake up and contemplate whether I should wear my exercise clothes to the Talisman and walk while Jill swims or if I should shower and put on real clothes. I decided I had enough time so I showered. 

Shower and dress, put some snacks together, tidy the kitchen a little and at 6:30 we were off!

7:00-9:00 Sit with Chico, recline the driver's seat and finish reading Brain Rules (it was due today!) and start a graphic novel that will be perfect for my class

9:00-10:30 drive Jill to work, return books that are due today to the library before it opens, then stay a while, find a couple more books for my TBR list and read a bit. Pick up prescriptions for Jill and then go home. 

10:30-12:30 Exercise, put dinner in the crock pot, talk to Peirce and Zoe (she's visiting from Lethbridge) and tidy up a bit. 

12:30 1:30 Massage at Good Life. Now and then I get too ambitious and try to increase the pace of my walks. I did that this week and have had a sore hip ever since. The massage was a great choice (thanks to Allen for encouraging me to do that) 

2:00 - 3:20 Hang around at Starbucks while I wait for Jill to finish work. Read (The Seventh Wish by Kate Messner is next), blog and just enjoy some quiet time. 

3:30-5:00 Make dinner, hang out with the family

IT really is a good life I have. 

Day 192 Carter and Jill....Jill and Carter

I love this picture. It was a Polaroid taken for the guest book at Sarah De Oliver's and Spencer Miller's wedding reception tonight.

This is Carter and Jill. They have a really great and unique friendship. They have been friends since they were about five and so they have a lot of good memories. They talk to each other about everything and disagree and agree about much. When one has been dating someone, the other is their confidant and counsellor. They make sure each other is going to be at firesides and activities and parties and...? They go to the YSA ward together. They have a lot of fun. They are a little worried about not seeing each other for a couple years while they each take on the title of missionary. I love that they a such good friends! They are really great for each other. 

Day 190 Raining Cats and Dogs!!

I astounded at the rain this week!!

Day 189 Comic Book Store

I've decided we need a lot more comic books and graphic novels for my classroom. This store was a total gold mine! I had a great time perusing their shelves

Day 188 Weather!

We ain't in Florida anymore, baby!! Today's weather mostly consisted of rain, grey skies and more rain.

Jill is off camping with her friend, Shaniah now. I hope she is staying dry!

Peirce has stampede plans this week and is doing a lot of babysitting.

I did some housework today and lots of laundry and some reading...and man, am I tired!! I'm working hard to push myself to stay up until 8:00 pm. I thought I had a good rest on our vacation, but man, I'm exhausted!

I turned up my workout a notch today. Maybe I'll blame that. I'm going to try to do 3 km every day from now on. Now and then I'll have to do 5 because my real goal is to do 100 km every month from now on. I think that's where the weight loss starts to kick in. Here's hoping!

Day 187 Traveling Home

Even the post office in Miami is beautiful!

We were in the shuttle to the airport when we went over a bridge. We both gasped at how beautiful the water was. People were water skiing. Some were fishing. Some were just meandering along in boats. So beautiful!

As much as I have loved Miami, I'm happy to be going home as well. 

I don't know how we got so lucky, but our flight didn't leave until 12:30 today. We had a leisurely morning with breakfast and packing up. When it was time to get on the shuttle, we showed up just as they were about to leave, so we didn't even have to wait then. When we went to check in, the guy was super nice and he didn't charge us for our luggage. I'm not sure why he decided to forget to do that! I didn't even realize it until we were down at the gate. Our flight from Miami to Montreal was uneventful, which is always good. In Montreal we picked up our luggage and took it to the next flight after we had cleared customs. Boy were we surprised when we got on the next flight and found that we had been upgraded! That guy in   Miami was nicer than we ever knew! I wish I could go back and thank him. It was so nice to sit in such a comfortable seat and to even be served food and lots of drinks and be given hot cloths to refresh ourselves. It was wonderful!

Becky Ackroyd picked us up at the airport (thank you!) and even let us use her air pump in her van to pump up Allen's flat tire when we got home. It was wonderful to see our kids and visit with them.

The trip was wonderful. Getting home is even wonderfuler!

Now we need to get to work so we can get on the next trip to Disneyworld!

Day 186 Saturday in Miami

One thing is sure: they sure feed us well on these trips! This morning we had steak and eggs. They did a bunch of recognition and then they had a Canadian breakout session. It was very technical and frankly, I wasn't into it. Too much technical stuff for me! I used the time to work on some RS stuff though, so it was time well spent :)

After the meetings we went for lunch with Bob and Rhonda and Riley (their son), Ken and Natasha Pinder and Dwayne Morrow. He is from head office in Atlanta. It was really fun to have lunch with him. He has a great sense of humor and is a lot of fun.

After lunch Allen went to check out the cabanas and I went to buy gifts for the kids. I also went for a walk. I am so in love with the beautiful walk way here!

Tonight we had a gala dinner: Steak and lobster! I've never had lobster tails before. So fancy!

They also had speakers - more the kind that I'm used to. And that was really great. I definitely want to make sure we do what we need to do so we can go on some more of these trips. It was absolutely awesome.

After the gala and speakers they had a band. They were quite good. We enjoyed watching them and watching the dancers. Allen's ankle isn't permitting much dancing these days. That's okay. We had a great time anyway.

When we got back to our room there was another gift: a book about all the highlights of Miami. It is going to be a great keepsake!

Day 185 Miami

This morning we went to some meetings. They were pretty different from most PFS meetings....much more technical. I guess that is how investment trips are (so the trip experts say). 

We walked along the beach to go to a restaurant for lunch. Unfortunately, along the way Allen tripped and hurt his ankle quite bad. Poor guy! It really put a kink in his afternoon plans. 

Lunch was great though! We went to a place called Havannah's. Real Cuban cuisine. It was great.

I love the buildings. Peirce would have a hay day taking pictures here. 

Tonight was "Dine Around". We ate at a restaurant called Cibo's. It was an 11 course meal!! When they cleared away our appetizer plates and brought our dinner plates I knew I was in trouble. So much food!! We were there for about three hours. It was an Olympic event!! 

Jeff (from head office), Rhonda Graham, Natasha Pinder, Allen, Ken Pinder, Roy Kern and Bob Graham. A fun group!!

The elevator wall was full of bag tags to different destinations from Miami. "Follow your dreams" seemed appropriate for a trip like this. 

Day 184 Travel Day

We are so blessed! This past month Allen won a company trip to Miami, FL. His office was one of the top producers and so they got to have an "MVP" join Bob and Rhonda on the trip. The number one guy couldn't go. Nor could number two....so Allen was the next to be invited! Yea for being #3!!

We left this morning at 6:30 am. I have to say I am pretty happy to stay home, generally. All the crazy stuff that happens at airports does rattle me. Funny that when we got to the airport this morning at 4:30 am, the first thing that happened was a policeman was called to come take a bag that had been abandoned right beside where we were standing filling out customs forms. Eeeeesh! 

I continued on though. Luckily, the rest of our trip was quite uneventful. We flew from Calgary to Dallas to Miami. The flights went quite quickly for me. I did get a lot of sleep last night so I was quite easily able to fall asleep on each of the flights. 

On our flight from Dallas to Miami there was a woman with two children. They looked to be maybe two and four years old. One or the other was crying pretty much the entire flight. The poor woman! I'm sure she felt like crying too. When we got off the flight Allen and I got separated a little. When I caught up to him, he was talking to the mom to see if he could help her. He is such a good person! It turned out she spoke very little English. I think she was from Equador. Allen looked after her carry on luggage so she could carry her crying boy. We found her next gate and went with her to the gate. We also gave the kids some gum thinking maybe that would help on the next flight. 

As we walked away, my heart was about to explode. I am so happy to be married to someone with such a kind heart. He is a good man. 

We got to our hotel. I changed into my exercise clothes and went for my walk for the day. What a beautiful place!!

Seems like the Miami colours are white and some other muted color. Buildings are white. White cars are everywhere. White clothes are what people seem to wear a lot. Interestingly, the colours of our hotel room are the same as our library (I know. I know. I'm such a nerd....the colours of the library....sheesh!)

I love our hotel room. I haven't seem a bathroom with double doors before :). 

Our hotel is steps away from the beach.  Went walking on the beach. Man, is that ever hard work!!!  It was really hot too so I only went for 15 minutes. I figured it would be dumb to get heat stroke in the first hour we were here. 

It's like right out of the movies! 

First time I have seen the Atlantic Ocean. 

It says: Happy 4th. Loews (the name of our hotel)

The pool! I don't hang out in a swim suit....although there were a few people there that make it clear that maybe I'd be ok. Still not doing it though. I'm sure Allen will enjoy it though!  There weren't a lot of people swimming when I walked by earlier - but plenty lounging around and reading. These are my people!! :)

Seems like Miami is a gardeners paradise. 

Tonight was a dinner and a, uh, party! Everyone just hung out and visited. It was great. We saw a number of people that we don't see that often. So fun to visit with them! 

We feel very blessed to be here in such a beautiful place!!

Day 183 Blood Pressure

I've gone to the doctor a few times this year for different things. Every time I do, blood pressure gets in the way. I went to get a prescription renewed today and we ended up checking my blood pressure again....and again the news wasn't great. I have been trying to improve things by exercising and eating according to the DASH diet....but alas, my blood pressure is still a concern. Today I finally said that we have been monitoring this for a year and it isn't getting better. When do we decided it's time to try medication? Turns out today was the day.

Here's hoping it does the trick!  

These are my war wounds from the blood pressure tests. It really hurts and I always end up with marks from it. I think it is broken blood vessels. Does it hurt other people? Eeesh!

Day 182 My Best Friend

Who would have ever thought I'd be so grey?! Thank goodness for my friend, Belle!

I figured I better colour some of my grey before we go on our trip. Feels better already!

Day 181 Rainy Day

Today was kind of our first real day of summer. No swim practice. No swim meet. No meetings or appointments. A real chance to sleep in!

Unfortunately, it was a rainy and dreary day. A great day for dominos and for reading! It was great! :)

Day 180 Scripture Study Refresh

Our great gospel doctrine teacher, Pam Payne, is away. She asked if I would teach for her and I was happy to. I have been in a slump with scripture study. I put off preparing way too long. This morning it was do or die. I came across a brand new blue missionary Book of Mormon and decided to use it for studying. I think I might have struck gold. I have been using the same set of scriptures for more than 25 years. I have been trying to get into using the LDS electronic study tools, but it just wasn't working for me. Give me a sticky pad and a new book!! I'm good to go!

Day 179 Khan Wedding

Today we got to go to Tammy and Idrees' wedding. They were married on the balcony of the Simmons building. It was a beautiful venue. I have rarely been to a wedding that was as much fun! They know how to throw a party! 

Day 178 Mid Year Goals

It hasn't been my best year for exercise. My km have been very low. I have decided to get back on the 100 km/month band wagon. Today is July 1. Here we go!!!