Life's Whirlwind Adventures

I'm once again linking up with Mar, Cynthia and Courtney for a Friday Five!! Today is a free Friday so make sure you go to check out what everyone is blogging about!! Today I'm going to talk about the 5 places I'd like to visit and possibly do runs at!! 1. Disney World     I've been to Disneyland a few times and I know I'll be going again soon!! But I've never been to Disney World and I think it would be fun to do one of the Disney Runs down there!! It would definitely give me an excuse to go and I hear it's pretty fabulous down there!! 2. Cabo San Lucas     My mom actually has a time share down there and my uncle lives there. They do this 1/2 marathon that is right along the beach and partly through town. I really love the idea of incorporating holidays into my runs.  So I get to go on a run but my family can also enjoy the beach and stuff! 3. Dublin, Ireland     A girlfriend of mine ran a marathon or 1/2 marathon here once for the heart an...

I did it, I made it through February without checking Facebook! I am so proud of myself, because prior to this I would check Facebook every waking hour, sometimes twice an hour.  It was monopolizing a great portion of my day but wasn't getting me any further in any of my personal goals, therefore, it was a waste of time. What I've learned from this break: 1) There are lot's of great things that I miss about Facebook, seeing everyone's pictures, being able to ask for advice and getting multiple view points, being able to make last minute plans, responding to statuses and seeing other responses. There are lot's of times when you see people rally behind one another and offer such unwavering support that you know society isn't completely lost. 2) That I need to unfollow a lot of people.  There are a lot of people who appear on my timeline that I have no desire to follow or hear what they have to say. It could be they are making a lot of political posts (wh...

What a week, started off with the Family Day Holiday and that translated into a holiday from working out and it spilled over onto Tuesday as well.  But I got back at things on Wednesday. Monday: Happy Family day!! We all just hung out as a family,  I meant to do some walking and stuff, but I was feeling a bit of chest cold coming on. So I took it as a rest day! Tuesday: Still not feeling great today, I even went to the doctor because the cough was getting worse.  I think I needed these two days, sometimes I really push myself and I can get burned out and I just don't want that to happen. So sorry not sorry for these two rest days. Wednesday: No more excuses!! I went downstairs and did my weight workout, because no more excuses.  It was a good quick workout and just what I needed to get back into the groove of things. But that's not all I did today, I even got a 5 Km run in and some yoga!! For an active day this gets an A+++, now just to carry this momentum o...

I have been working on this for years, and sometimes the writing process drives me crazy, no wonder some of the great authors were alcoholics!! I have actually completed this novel pen to paper years ago, but I'm trying to transcribe the second draft onto my computer.  Transcribe might not be the right word, but I'm typing the second draft, which will make editing easier for the third and fourth drafts.  I'm probably 7 chapters in I'd say half way and I've changed the timeline  because there were issues in the first draft, I've also change the antagonist and I'm considering changing the Point of View, which is a lot of work!! I'm so picky when it comes to my writing, maybe that's what's kept me for publishing or seeking a publisher for years.  I'm a bit of a perfectionist, not that I think my writing is perfect, but I know how I want the book to read, but it's not there yet.  That and I write when the mood tickles my fancy, I've not...

Ok this week was so HARD!! I had  few doctor's appointments and a few long waits in waiting rooms.  Let me tell you, when you need a time killer is there.  I really wished I'd had the Facebook app on my phone at that point because well it's a good time waster when you are forced to wait. But I did make it through the week, and I didn't cave.  Well not until Family Day, then I decided I could go on check my notifications and put forth any responses that needed to be addressed.  I'm also waiting for something to come in on one of the groups I follow so I needed to see if it was in.  But now that I've checked the notifications and stuff, I'm not sad to not be going on it each day.  Once a Day checking Facebook is more then enough time to check Facebook, unless I'm in the midst of selling or buying things. I'd spend less time on Facebook if I'd block out time (30 mins) each day to check what was going on. It would also make my life much more prod...

For this Friday Five Link up with  Mar ,  Cynthia  and  Courtney   I'm going to pick my top five races that I'd like to run in 2015, some I'm set to run and some are dreams. I'm pretty brand new to running, or brand new to running in races or marathons or those things. I've been running for years off and on, it's my go to exercise for getting into shape, one of my favourite pastimes and quite frankly runners and swimmers have amazing bodies, long lean muscles, amazing!! So here are my top five races to run in 2015! 1. Seawheeze August 15, 2015.  This is how I'll be spending my anniversary, getting up a the ass crack of dawn to do some pre shopping and then spending a portion of the early morning completing my first 1/2 marathon!! Yeah you might say I'm crazy, but I'm so absurdly excited about completing this that I can't think that this is a bad idea!! It's going to be a great holiday for me and I'm beyond excited to cross som...

I'm always looking for things to help me track what I'm doing and how far I've come from week to week.  Well my fellow blogger Salt, from Run Salt, Run  does a series of posts each week in which she tracks her weekly activities.  I am super jealous of some of the classes she's able to take living in Baltimore.  I'm thinking some of these options would be available in Calgary but I've not seen them here in Red Deer yet, but I'm sure it will happen one of these days.  Or maybe some of my fellow Red Deer readers could point me in the direction of some cool classes to join!! I've decided to follow suit with Salt, which will help my accountability to myself, but will also give me a running tally of what I'm accomplishing and an overview of what I'd need to do to improve my training. So here's how the past week went!! Monday: What a bad night we had last night, the baby was up every 2 hours, and when he wasn't up every 2 hours he was whin...

*Disclaimer * I'm not being paid for this review, but if someone at Fitbit would like me to try other products I'd be most willing* So on the road to a healthy lifestyle, I've cultivated  few tools along the way to help me monitor my progress.  It's one thing to use a scale (which I frankly HATE) and use that as your bench mark but it really doesn't show you everything you need to know and it doesn't keep you accountable.  I have found my biggest success with weight loss was being active and being on my feet for long periods of time during the day and walking.  I wish I'd worn a pedometer back when I was waitressing, I must have walked miles and miles back then.  I've also found that when I am tracking what I eat I have more success and when I use body measurements as well.  I actually find body measurements to be more telling of how far I've come when compared with the scale. I've used different Apps on my phone, Fitness pal and Lose It, bot...

When I started this Social Media (Facebook) Hiatus I thought it would be the most difficult thing imaginable.  And the first few days were brutal, I kept wanting to sign in and see who was engaging with my posts, to see what my friends were posting and engage with those posts.  Then I started doing other things to get my mind of Facebook..... I sent out a couple tweets, so I've not been great at cutting myself off Twitter, but honestly it's about 3 tweets a day maybe five minutes total so it's not too bad.  I've definitely kept up with my Instagram and have sent out many, many pictures keeping people updated with what was going on, but I didn't check my notifications for Facebook. I've started doing other things as well, like an hour phone call with my friend Angela.  I've texted people I've never really texted before, I've written letters to many people and have even got them addressed in envelopes ready to be mailed.  Seriously, I love writing ...

My little baby is now 9 months old, 9 months!!! What a little sweetheart he is turning into as well!! I am absolutely smitten with his personality, he's such a happy baby.  We've had a very rough month, he's been on antibiotics since Christmas Eve and he's still on antibiotics, we are hopeful this will be the last little bit and he will be ok, but man it's been a really rough go of things for a bit. Current dislikes that Teddybear is currently displaying are: being up too long, soothers, drinking from a cup/ bottle, waiting for food when he's hungry, sleeping in our bed. I'm definitely not complaining about many of these dislikes, I'd love if he'd drink from a cup, or if he'd develop some patience, but him not wanting to sleep in our bed or taking a soother anymore are totally ok with me!! Current likes include food, any and all food!! He loves crawling around, his jolly jumper, playing peek a boo, his brothers, standing up and going ...

I've let my blog post get a bit behind, not that anyone can notice but I've only got about a week of blogs ready instead of my usual two and half weeks.  I almost feel that once I get back to work I'll be more organized, simply because I will have to be, working 40 hours a week and doing all the family things I have going on right now.  Life is always on the go but it's so important to do things I love as well. For this Friday Five Link up with  Mar ,  Cynthia  and  Courtney  we are talking about  Love and 5 things that I love! To break down this weeks topic I'm going to use the 5 Ws. 1.Who do I love. My top five people that I love, in no specific order are Hubby, Chandler, Lil Man, Prince T, my mommy.  I love these people and more (my siblings, my grandma, my aunty, my amazing friends) and I would do anything I would do anything I could for them!! 2. Where do I love to spend my time. My top five places that I love to spend my time ...

Well I've now sign dup for a new run, it's a fun run and it's only 5 Km, but I'm super excited for it!! It's the Color Me Rad run in Calgary in June!! My girlfriend Pam did it last year and had a lot of fun and she asked me to join her this year!! So that's exactly what I'm doing! She started the team and I signed up so for June 27th I'm official a Pink Panther and will probably run around 11 am. I've also convinced my friend Sara to join us as well, there will be about 8-10 of us running, so that's going to be great!! Just one more reason to get into shape and to start really watching my diet!! I'm still undecided about running the Woody's 10km in May, but maybe I will.... it just depends on if we go camping for May or not.... So it's time to kick my training into full gear.  I'm walking at least twice a week, plus working out at home 3-4 times a week and a long run at least once a week.

Sometimes it astounds me that I'm not out at the mountains more than I am. Read once or twice a year I'm out at the mountains, yet I'm about 90 minutes away.  I just don't get there that often, I'm never sure what to do out at the mountains, but I do enjoy going!! I don't think I've been to Banff since Lil Man was born, so we changed that the other day. We loaded up the van and me and the kids went to Banff.  It was an uneventful drive down to Banff, a lot of Pop2K because Chandler was being the radio manager.  He would not let me listen to my talk radio, so it was song all the way down. We had lunch at the food court in the little mall, I was surprised actually, the last time I was there the mall was quite fancy, now it seems that some of the high end stores have vacated that space.  That and we got there around 11 so it was pretty empty but I had to change the baby's diaper and feed him, but by the time I was ready to feed him school was out for lu...

So when we bought our house 5 1/2 years ago we were first time home owners, we had ideas about what we wanted in a house, but having never owned one of our own we were just basing it off our little rental places.  We bought a 4 level split which I am mostly happy with, there are a few things that could be better but at the end of the day it's working for us.  Do I still want to move? You bet one day we will move to a place that has a nice yard, a garage and an extra bedroom/ office for our guests.   For now we need to make the best of what we have. So our home was a bank owned home.  The previous owners had defaulted on their mortgage and the bank had foreclosed on them.  It was right up by Chandler's school, a school I really enjoyed and the neighbourhood seemed like a decent neighbourhood.  It was a on a busy street but it was a corner lot with a nice size back yard. good for dogs and kids to share.  (Two things I'll never do again, buy on a busy s...

Lent is a time of the year when Christian's give up something as a form of reflection to mimic Jesus' choice to give up all he gave up for us.  And blahdeeblah.... anyways I don't usually give things up, I like to hoard my obsessions and addictions but I found like I'd stated in my previous post that Social Media was not improving me but in fact it was impeding me from becoming a better person. I've now taken to writing letters to friends, some of you will get them, some of you may already have gotten them.   I'm spending time with my kids, I'm planning my blogs more efficiently, I'm spending time writing my novel and working on that aspect of my writing.  I'm also focusing on what I've got to do when I get back to work, what I want that to actually look like. Not constantly checking in with Social Media has freed up more time in my day to spend with the boys playing. We stay focused on what we are doing and notifications of a like or new pos...

For this Friday Five Link up with Mar , Cynthia and Courtney  we are discussing fitness snapshots, I never take pictures when I'm working out but I do have snapshots of my different levels of fitness and they tell my journey to becoming healthy and happy. Fitness Snapshots.... hmmm well since I've never really taken pictures of me working out I think I'll just take you on a blast from the past chronicling my yoyo weight adventure. I am not a petit frame girl, so growing up when Kate Moss was the "It" girl sort of sucked. I didn't have that shape and I had friends that did so I was totally envious.  What teen girl isn't envious of girls who get to be like the "It" cover girl of the day?  I seriously wish I was a fat as when I first thought I was fat back in High School, because obviously, three kids later, I didn't know what fat was hahaha.  I've got an hour glass figure, with great "birthing" hips, yup a doctor has...

So one  of  the blogs I subscribe to is Run Salt Run  and this link will take  you to the blog I read that inspired this blog. I am really happy I've stumbled upon her blog, it's a lot of fun to read and she's inspired me to try different posts and updates to include on my blog.  I am going to tag Becky , and Tara to follow suit and post an all about Me blog following this format!!  4  NAMES THAT PEOPLE CALL ME : 1. Jenn  :) 2. Mommy-a (not sure why Lil Man puts the a at the end but he does and it's so cute). 3. Ms Lacourse, not so much anymore but lot's when I was in the schools 4. Jenny, but that's strictly from my mom and grandma 4 JOBS I’VE HAD : 1.  Teacher 2. Waitress, do you want a single shot or double? 3. Bakery Employee, not really sure what my actual title was but I did everything, from slicing bread, to packing orders, to working retail, to driving delivery trucks, I did it all!! 4. I was a customer Service S...

You will have to excuse my iPhone photos in this post but it's what all I had available to me while I set up my home gym in my basement! I'm so excited to have something practical to use my basement for, it's such a wasted space area.  It used to be a finished area, but the hot water tank blew and flooded the house, so the flooring was ripped up and it was just a cement basement.  It's a huge area and it's great if it were finished but it's not so it has become a large dumping ground for our stuff.  It drives me crazy but we've been purging and now we have some open space to use. I am also not a fan of having gym equipment strewn in my living room for people to stare out while we are visiting. Not that I'm not proud of my workout equipment, but workout equipment does not make the most appealing decor pieces. So I bought the last pieces I needed for my home gym. Because I like Yoga I needed a foam block along with the Bolster I had bought as wel...

This blog is in response to this news cast from CTV News Edmonton back in January. I don't usually use my blog to post, or pontificate, my views on things that could be seen as political or even emotional.  I don't want my blog to be a fighting ground but every once in awhile something is brought to my attention and I'm like,"yikes, that would not be good." So I'm going to share my views on this article, and I'm definitely not a supporter, so if you are with this mom and feel she is right and that's how schools should be you should stop reading now, because you probably won't like my opinion.  But if you are interested in seeing a new view then please continue reading.  I will post all comments I just won't respond to negative bashing comments. So a little background for those of you that did not click the link, a mother wants the Alberta Government to adopt a law like the one in Ontario that forbids children from bringing foods that could...

Most of you know that I was not born in Canada, for those of you who were not aware of that fact, I was born in California and I hate the cold Winters of the Prairies!! I find them incredibly unmotivating to do anything besides sit in my house and be Peg Bundy, eating bonbons all day!  But I have a half marathon to prepare for and a possible 10k before that so sitting around is not an option!! I've got to get up and get moving so I have to get clothing for running outside!! In the summer I'm all decked out, I've lot's of clothes that are appropriate for running in the summertime, but winter outdoors, nope, nada.  And since I'm very new at all this I decided to go to the experts and get some advice.  I had a basic understanding of layering and all that but I also know I sweat after a little bit of running so I needed something that would breath but would also keep the wind out. I don't need frostbite from running. these are shoes I ordered on line, but they ...