Sock Hands

Sock hands is this new game I play with Alina. When she's getting restless or extra rammy I suggest she put on her sock hands. She now understands the term and when I hold out a pair of socks she holds out her hands patiently. I slip each sock over each hand and she happily goes and discovers the world with sock hands. She slips a little more than usual because she can't grip the coffee table. It basically takes her longer to do everything because well, no fingers right? It's genius! If any mom out there needs something new to entertain a just over one year old; sock hands is totally the way to go. It makes any occasion more enjoyable... for everyone. I always get a kick out of watching Alina try to do ordinary tasks with her sock hands. She will get frustrated but she's very focused and gets the job done. If she's in no mood for sock hands then she just pulls them off one by one and for more added fun I'll keep putting them back on. It's a hoot.

Drinking water will never be the same with a pair of socks on your hands!

Aaaand running around with your violin strapped to your back will probably be close to the same.. but more challenging with the no-grip thing I mentioned before!

 If everyone in the world didn't already own socks; I'd make a fortune! There will be no MHB post today because I didn't work out all week. Gasp- I know. I had to take it easy because I got the dreaded cold that Alina and Rob had. But I'm much better now and I will be kicking RushFit's butt on Monday morning! 

 Happy Friday to everyone out there- I know I'm excited about mine. (I'll end up recapping it on Monday I'm sure.) I'm going to BackThatAzzUp with Miss Yoga Pants today with a song Rob introduced to me (surprise, surprise) a few weeks ago. I keep listening to it in the jeep and I love the words. Introducing- Time by The Mowgli's! (Little update: Yoga Pants appears to be MIA this am. So I'll just keep the song up for anyone to enjoy.. we don't need her!)

Listen to the words of this song and tell me which part relates best to your life!! 

You tell me yours and I'll tell you mine...! 

30 Years

Thirty years ago today, my best buddy was born. Robert has been the twinkle in his mom's beautiful green eyes from the moment that they met. He is such a fun person to be around and I feel like I know that firsthand because I've been beside him pretty consistently for the last almost nine years! Not one day has gone by that he hasn't made me laugh.. 

  So here's to my husband, on his 30th birthday. Please send him positive vibes because he writes his big IP exam tomorrow!

No Time

No time. That's it, it's as simple as that. I wanted to be able to blog as much as I could once I returned to work and it was going okay for awhile. But, then our hot water tank leaked; leaving us temporarily homeless, then we were back with our temporary floors, brushing our teeth at the kitchen sink. I got a concussion, Rob and Alina both got incredibly sick last weekend. I'm sick this weekend and Rob has been stressing and studying up a storm the entire time. School is done next Friday and he's not the only one that is thrilled by that idea! We have one exciting house prospect to look into next week and once June is here; we're homeless again.

 Life. Is. Chaos.

 So- I am feeling inadequate at blogging. I resent that I don't get the time to sit back and write out a really well thought out, full of effort post these days. I feel like all I've been offering lately are recap posts and Mission Hot Bod updates. I hate that I haven't written anything particularly witty or exciting in what feels like forever. But I think this is all part of the process. There are times when you're on a high in the blogging world. You're ahead on posts, you're replying to all of your comments, you're updating Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest after pushing publish on each witty, original and fun post you create and you're getting yourself out there by sponsoring other blogs. Then there are times when you're on a low and that's when you're posting recap posts and totally struggling to find time to simply reply to your comments, you're losing followers, you can't remember the last time you created something for Pinterest and you're just down right falling behind. I want more time!!!

But, having said all of that- I do enjoy my free time away from the computer screen as well. Alina's lots of fun. In between Rob's mad studying sessions we've been getting out. We went to a 'high end' garage sale on Saturday. Who calls their garage sales high end? Oh right, people in this community. Such a pretentious title! There were some great finds at the 'high end' garage sales and we did end up with a couple of items. We let Alina stay up pretty late so we could enjoy watching the fireworks on the beach Saturday evening. My mother in law warned that they would probably have scared her, but she was really into them, not afraid at all. I just missed the Family Day parade that went by one street over. Alina is still in zzz mode and I'm not about to interrupt that.

 Yes, my life is chaos. Yes, it's about to get much more chaotic. I'm going to keep at this blogging thing the best that I can. My goal is to keep posting three times a week and to at least comment on my favourite blogs whenever I find the chance. It doesn't mean that I don't love you; it just means that if I spend an hour plus each night reading about all of your lives, I could very well be jeopardizing my own in the process. I'm sure you understand; you're probably all in the same or similar boat!

But then I see this goofy, scrunched up face and it's all worth it...

MHB- Week 24- Back At It

 It's my first week back at RushFit and even though I knew it was going to take a lot out of me to suck it up and just plunge back into it; I'm so glad I did. Working out doesn't just give me physical satisfaction it also cheers me up. Those endorphins get going and I'm in a chipper mood headed to work. The sun helps too!

TUESDAY

 Day 1- Abdominal Strength and Core Conditioning. I ended up waking at God knows what time and remembered miraculously to set my alarm. Of course, being half asleep I set it for thirty minutes later than I wanted to get up. SO- I only did three rounds of my workout, but it was hard even after taking a two week break! I know.. the ab pictures are a bit douchey of me, BUT in my defense I've worked really hard to get a tummy like that and sometimes I see it in the mirror and I can't resist and snap a picture. It is a bit vain, but I'm going with it anyways..

THURSDAY-

Day 2- Strength and Endurance. It's time to come clean and explain that a couple of weekends ago, right when our hot water tank leaked I had a little spill and got a concussion. That was the main reason why I took a break from working out. So I took two weeks off of the RushFit and was hoping to get right back at it. Although, I found out that I need to take the RushFit easy. It was leaving me a bit light headed and dizzy, so I had to skip some of the really intense exercises and I only have been going to round three instead of all five rounds. I still feel like I had a good day and ended up taking pictures of Alina and I and my walk to work. So there's no proof that I actually worked out. You'll have to take my word for it!

FRIDAY-

 Day 3- Fight Conditioning quickly turned into Sleep Conditioning. On Thursday night I got the warning... THE soar throat that Rob had last week right before he caught Alina's hell of a cold. The pharmacist I worked with told me that there was a chance that I could still catch the cold even if I hadn't shown any signs of it while Alina and Rob were sick. I woke at 4 and felt pretty lousy. I decided that I wouldn't chance running myself down by working out in the morning. I chose sleep instead. Yes, I snapped a very sleepy photo of myself right before I dragged my lazy buns out of bed. The other picture is the sad, unused living room where I always set my stuff up the night before. (It's a motivational trick. If I set it up; I have to use it. This was the first time I have had to put my work out stuff away in shame and guilt....)

 There you have it- my sad attempt at working out with a lingering concussion and a creeping up nightmare cold.. Oh and side note- please don't worry about me- all is well in the health department and the fall was minor and I'm fine. I didn't mention it because I didn't want to make a big thing out of it.

 Happy Friday everyone. I tried to link up with Yoga Pants for #BackThatAzzUp but she was AWOL last Friday. I'm going to skip out on it today because I hear a little baby girl yelling for me to come and rescue her from her crib!

An Announcement

Well it's official; my baby is no longer a baby. She's a full on toddler.. a kid even! I'm having a lot of fun with her these days but I can't help but feel like time is going by so quickly! Everyone says it and it's completely true.

 Alina is now a mother. That's right; she has her own baby that she feeds her bottle to, a baby she walks in her stroller and a baby that she reads to. (Also; drops, bites, sits on, throws and thumps onto the floor to the beat of a good tune.)

 She is also much more independent in many tasks that she used to need my help with. She feeds herself on occasion. She is always chugging her sippy cup of water. I actually am a bit of a water pusher. In every situation I'm like; "Alina.. want some water!? Oh.. you're playing with your farm animals.. you thirsty? Hey- how was your day at daycare, how about a sip of some water!?" I'm always try to sell drinking like it's a really fun thing to do. She is also refusing to eat certain foods out of the blue. One minute she is gobbling up yams and all of a sudden she is shaking her head furiously that she doesn't want anymore. I've been having a blast teaching her that dropping food on the floor is totally unacceptable. (By teaching I mean yelling NO! DON'T drop that.)

She even finds time to stop playing 'sock hands' to hydrate.. And Angry Alina burst into tears because she finally became wise to my hiding all of the supper she wouldn't eat into her apple sauce. Darn it!

 She sleeps like a bloody dream. As long as she doesn't have a cold, that kid goes to bed right at eight and wakes up around seven, even eight the next morning. (Seven is the new norm but on a blissful morning she has been known to sleep past eight!)

 The title of this post is about an announcement. So I suppose I should get to it....

 Our big girl started walking a week or so ago. She's still pretty wobbly but I'm excited about it. She's interacting with us more when she plays. She is now into gathering and putting her farm animals upright. She's a very focused little person and I love watching her play. AND- best of all; she's handing me books and sitting on my lap so I will read them to her. She's not even trying to eat them anymore!

For you moms out there; what was your favourite thing that your little one started doing that made you squeal with pride?!

You moms to be one day maybe; what 'first' do you think you'll be excited to see your unborn future child do!?

Wine, Brie, Bath & Book

 Alright so the story is this; our hot water tank leaked. We were out of our house for one week, living in a beach cottage/paradise. We didn't know how long we would be living there for, so we basically packed our entire lives and were sulkily packing it aaaaaall up again after only seven days away from the chaos.

 We are back at home living on 'temporary floors' which consist of cardboard taped onto the old, crappy floors. The restoration crew has to re-do all of the floors in our home, so not this week but most likely next; we'll be moving out temporarily again.

 All I can say is that I am managing okay. I'm just the type of person that silently freaks over situations. I say silently because I usually contain most of how I'm actually feeling. Rob would instantly protest that this is not the case, but it is. I do my fair share of bitching, but what I really want to do would be unheard of and very awful. So I consider myself fairly contained with how I'm really feeling. I don't know- I hate mess. I hate having temporary flooring that collects more dust than a swiffer. I really hate that Alina is walking/crawling and dragging her sheepie blanket all over the mess! But, I have to constantly remind myself that it will all be over sooner than later and we will be left with beautiful brand spankin' new floors to admire and slide all over.

 Friday- Oh blissful, glorious Friday; how I love it. After a fairly easy day at work, I came home to two very sick people. Alina and Rob have matching colds and I had matching babies to watch over.

  Once my girl baby went to sleep, I left my boy baby to sniffle and watch baseball while I had a wonderful soak in our claw bathtub. Rob has big plans for the bathroom once the tile is laid and I can't wait for it all to come together. He decided on Thursday to install a pot light right above the tub and I can't get over what a difference it's made! I loooooove the ambiance in the bathroom now; even with a missing vanity and cardboard floors. The water is lit up and sparkling under the new light. I feel like I'm at an expensive spa or a waterfall in the rain forest. I'm not kidding; it makes a world of difference! So on Friday I decided to make an hour or two of it and had some brie cheese, a couple of glasses of red wine and I devoured a good chunk of my book. It was just what the doctor ordered. I needed a little time to relax and get away from the dusty, cardboard floors.

It's Victoria Day in Canada so we are blessed with what we call May Long Weekend. Do anything exciting this weekend?!

MHB-Week 23- Jogging

Monday was our last day at the beach cottage and then after work on Tuesday we moved back into our house. It was a lot of work and things aren't 100% just yet. We do have hot water and our laundry area is put back together. But we have temporary floors as in cardboard taped to the floors, instead of regular flooring. The restoration crew made a couple of small messes of our floors in our bedroom and hallway, so they now have to redo all of our flooring throughout the entire house. It's a bonus but also a pain because that means that they'll have to take all of our belongings out, while they do the floors. I assume we'll have to put everything back ourselves, like we did with the kitchen cupboard contents.

 My exercising has been put on the back burner this week again. But I will most definitely be picking things back up regularly next week.

MONDAY-

 Day 1- I took a jog on the beach. It was awesome! Nothing is better than waking up early on a nice morning to breathe in the fresh sea air to exercise. It was also a nice little farewell to our beach cottage. We moved the following the day.

THURSDAY-

 Day 2- more jogging! I woke up early and took a jog along the road. Then I decided to take the trails back to our house. Of course, I got a bit turned around because I am the worst with directions. Luckily there are maps that tell you where you are. After about thirty minutes, I ended up in an area that was quite far from where I thought I was. In the end I came out at our cemetery and ran the road back to the house.

 All in all, even though I didn't do my full three days this week, I felt like my jogs were good. I jogged on and off (but mostly on) for forty minutes. Today, I meant to wake up, but forgot to reset my alarm for just 'ten more minutes...' and I slept in until 6:30. I little blessing in disguise. It was nice to sleep.

 It's Friday! I'm super excited because it's May Long Weekend. Too bad we won't be camping, but that doesn't matter because it's long and that means more days with Alina and Rob. For BackThatAzzUp I introduce a deep tune by Death Cab For Cutie- " I Will Follow You Into The Dark."

 

The Last Of The Boys Behind The Blog

Well it's the last of the Boys Behind The Blog and I am sad that it's come to an end. But it's always good to quit while it's ahead like Seinfeld did! (I mean seriously guys; none of us were ready to see that show end.....)

//1  What was your first job?
Rob: Produce at A&P. It was fucking awesome.
  Me: I take that was sarcasm.
Rob: No, it was fucking awesome.

There you have it folks. I decided not to even ask for an explanation. It was fucking awesome; that's all we need to know.

//2  What is the biggest risk you've ever taken?
Moving to B.C.
                            ... also becoming an electrician.

 This is true. When Rob was 21 his parents convinced him to go out to the island, with the prospect of maybe moving out here. Once he was here, they were like; yeah, you should just stay. They hooked him up with a temporary place to crash, his aunt and uncle got him a job and soon found him a house to rent. (The house we now own.) Also, becoming a journeyman electrician has been very challenging. He's so smart though, I know he's going to pass with flying colours. (At the end of this month.. so soon!)

//3  What is one thing you can't live without?
Probably my phone right now. I don't know what I'd do without it. I'd take yours, I'd steal it. I'd convince you that you didn't need it.

 Wow, what a keeper.

//4  What is your least favourite food?
Sometimes, sometimes my least favourite food is your macaroni and cheese.

 See I thought that this question was somewhat confusing. Your least favourite food would still be a favourite; it would just mean that if you had a top five favourite foods it would be number five, rather than number one. Am I right!? Rob disagreed. He also revealed that he basically doesn't like my mac and cheese. Hmmm.. I'm still going to make it.

/5  If you could time travel when/where would you go?
 If I was thinking long term; I'd go to Vancouver in the nineties so I could have bought a house or two.

 I was thinking more along the lines of when I was a baby- so I could see what my house looked like back then, my siblings, my parents and of course me as a baby! How cool would that be?! Of course, Rob is thinking of ways to make us money.. of course!!

I've been participating with the Boys Behind The Blog for several months now.  Here are the BBB posts from the past;

Slippery Slope There Mister

(Rob- getting in trouble.)

  Porcelain Bowl of Chocolate

(Rob on Valentine's Day)

Eeeeeediot

(Another look at my 'eeeeeediot' husband.)

Alina's Papa

(Featuring my father in law.)

A 'Linc'-Up 

(Featuring my brother.)

He Bites 

(Rob's debut on the blog, which inspired the chapters of Crazy Shit Rob Does!)

Sunday, May 11th

 Sunday, May 11th.

 I woke up to a howling baby and I just laid there hoping that Rob would wake up soon, so I wouldn't have to get up. Yeah, I was milking the fact that it was Mother's Day and hoping that he would just get up and take care of Alina, letting me sleep in a little bit. He did get her, but he brought her right to me so that she could present me with the home made card that they made for me. Due to all of the chaos we have been going through, Rob decided it was best if we skipped a present this year and I have to say that I agree. Besides I am really happy with the card that the two of them created for me. I love it when Alina comes home from daycare with a craft that she helped make.

 Rob had Alina hold the marker and he guided her to write the words. He said she was getting pretty mad by the end. Her name was written a bit roughly because she was beyond pissed at that point. I love that.

 Once she was finished yelling, she decided that my head and neck was a seat and just crushed me while she poked her finger into my eye. She discovered my eyelashes and kept pulling my eye opened.

 I took Alina over to Baba's for a visit. Baba pulled out all of her bowls and Alina had fun banging them together. She practiced her new skill of walking on and off and ate baby cookies, oranges and chocolate icing. It was a nice visit with my mom and we got the chance to present her with her Mother's Day card. (Thankfully Rob's creative idea gave me inspiration...)

 When we returned home, Alina and I both had naps. It was so wonderful to have a bit of extra sleep! My sister in law Erin popped by while she was driving through town. We spent the afternoon at the park, playing with Alina, snapping photos, playing tennis and badminton. We had a bbq with steaks, shish kabobs, corn on the cob and caesar salad. It was really awesome. All in all; it was an amazing, stress free day.

 We are still in our temporary home. I'm beyond happy to be here. I want nothing to do with what is going on at our house right now. I only want to return once everything is dealt with. I'll post more on the subject as the week progresses...

Our Temporary Beach House

 An update is in order...

 Things are happening really quickly. The restoration crew was in today. We were advised to get the hell out of the house as soon as we had the chance. The insurance company hooked us up with an incredible place to stay. We're staying at a beach resort in the neighbouring town. We have a view of the ocean, there's a pool, hot tub, sauna, park and a common room with a pool table. We our living in a two bedroom house and it's like we're on vacation. It was absolutely insane coming home and having to essentially pack up our entire lives in a matter of hours. But, we managed to do it and now we're relaxing on the couch, with a crackling fire in the fire place. The WiFi is a bit touchy here, so I'm probably going to be a bit on and off with checking blogs and even blogging myself, but I'll do my very best. I had to update, just to show that we're doing okay.

What our house looked like over the weekend. We had humidifiers blowing hot air into the whole house. We avoided the house by going out a lot over the weekend and by watching movies in our Westy. Our weekend laundry room was under our car port.. super classy stuff!

Check out the new digs! Talk about nice!

Our new abode. There's a pool! AND a gorgeous ocean view!

  Again, if I'm scarce in blogland I apologize. I'll do my best to keep up and to comment on my favourite bloggers as much as I possibly can with the chaos and this wonky WiFi!

Has anything like this ever happened to you? You hit a disaster and then some good actually comes out of it!?

Possible Absence

 Well- isn't this pleasant... Friday night Rob and I were trying to figure out something to do once Alina went to bed. I complained that there was nothing to do, as usual. Then Rob noticed the tiles were warm in the entry way. He investigated and discovered that our hot water tank was leaking.... bad. Long story short; we have some guys coming in to assess the damage aka rip out whatever they feel necessary. On Monday we have someone coming in from the insurance company to let us know what is going to be covered. Slightly terrifying.

 We don't know if this is going to be a quick fix or not. I'm not even sure where we'll be living for the next few days or weeks or .. or .. or..

 I may be absent for a week, (or more or not at all) I'm not sure yet. But I wanted to let Blogland know that I may be away from my computer or blog life due to lame house priorities..!

 Wish us luck and I'll keep you posted...

MHB- Week 22- Weights

 This week has been alright. I feel less focused on working out because I lowered my days of exercise to three. I am not sure yet, if that's a good or a bad thing. However, I am working out with heavier weights, which I feel pretty good about. I probably should have introduced the heavier weights months ago though.
MONDAY-

 Day 1- Strength and Endurance. I snapped a photo of George St. Pierre explaining something during the warm up. I also wanted to show off my new eight pound weights that I scored at a garage sale for five dollars! It was definitely time for me to increase my weights by a few pounds. The five pounds was working but I know that after Monday's work out, my arms were feeling it.

TUESDAY-

Rest Day. It turned out to be a nice day and Rob, Alina and I went for a warm, evening walk. I can smell summer in the air and I'm so happy over it, I could burst.

WEDNESDAY-

 Day 2- Fight Conditioning. I finally nabbed Rob before his workout Wednesday morning to snap a few photos of me during my workout. Nothing really new to report. Finished workout; check!

THURSDAY-

 Rest Day. I walk to work everyday and I have been walking to work for the last nine years.. this is the first time that I've actually stopped to look around at the beauty all around me. Even though I was running late, I had to take a moment to capture the gorgeous spring flowers along my way. I probably looked crazy stopping to take a picture of every flower, but it was fun and Thursday was an absolute summer like day!

FRIDAY-

Day 5- Abdominal Strength and Core Conditioning. The sun was shining, my mood was awesome and the workout was incredible! It was a fantastic way to end my week of workouts! I didn't have a photographer this morning so I took a picture of GSP doing the back bend. (Well he's going into the back bend, his head is still on the ground.) The next photo is of my 'sweet' workout set up every morning. I can't wait to have a bigger house! The bottom picture is of my tummy relaxed and then flexing. Looks like things are still tight and together, so I think I'll continue with the three days for now.

I love Friday for two reasons; it's Friday and it's jeans day at work. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before. I love how happy I feel this morning, before I head to work. I just love the idea that I don't have to go to work the following day. I'm going to link up with Yoga Pants today because Rob played a song I really liked last night. I thought- oh, perfect song to link up with! Florence and the Machine's "Kiss With A Fist."