The plan

So, my friend, Darlene, & I started a 12-week challenge 4 weeks ago to lose weight. Basically, we each came up with five things we wanted to do for the next 12 weeks. Here's my list:

1. Exercise everyday
2. Eat between 1000 to 1200 calories a day
3. Avoid sugar and deep-fried foods
4. No snacking between meals and after supper
5. When I eat at home, I can only eat at the dining room table

So far, I've done really well with #1. But #2 thru 5 have been a little trickier. To date, I've lost 3 pounds.

But I'm pressing on.

I came up with a plan for exercising for the summer. Austin & Jonah have swimming lessons for the first two weeks of July and I've decided that we aren't going to purchase a beach pass, but we'll bike there instead. It's probably between 4 & 5 km away. We did a trial run this afternoon and it wasn't too bad. (It was really windy and the way there is mostly uphill, but I was very proud of how well Austin and Jonah did.)

So, between running every morning, biking to the beach for swimming lessons and sticking with my eating goals, I'm hoping to lose some more weight by the middle of August.

Wish me luck!

Keeping cool

We had our June Wind-up this morning (where the children's ministries lead the worship service.) It went well. I was in charge of hosting the R.O.X. part of the morning and both Jonah & Austin sang on stage with their groups, which is always fun to watch.

After the service, we headed to the park for a picnic. There were games planned for the kids (followed by freezies, which Jonah is enjoying in the picture) and we played softball, too. But, man, was it hot! ;)

So to keep cool when we got home, we headed down to the basement (our airconditioning isn't working :( ) and I got to scrapbook a little. Here are the two layouts I created:

Someone was really happy today...

On Wednesday, Austin told us that Thursday was the first day of summer. When Jonah heard this, he whipped his head around to look at me and said: "Mom, now we can go to the beach?"

The poor little guy has been wating a while to go to the beach. He's been asking me since the snow started melting. So, of course, I've been putting him off by saying: "When it's summer."

And now it's summer!

So, of course, we spent the afternoon at the beach.

And, of course, I took lots of pictures:

20 firsts

For Ali's Aezine challenge this week, she challenged us to to created something with 20. I decided to make a layout for my album about 20 of my firsts. Here's the layout:

And here are my 20 firsts:

1. First boyfriend: Marc Vandal. We worked together at McDonald’s and went out for two weeks in the summer of 1988.

2. First kiss: On my parents’ driveway in July 1988 (see #1.)

3. First crush: I liked a boy named Scott Farlinger from grade two to grade seven.

4. First real job: Working at McDonald’s in Winnipeg on St. Anne’s Road in March 1988. I was 15½ and my starting wage was $4.55 an hour.

5. First child: Austin who was born on May 9, 1999.

6. First trip in an airplane: summer of 1977, when I was almost five. We flew to England to visit my dad's family.

7. First trip without my parents: mission trip to Sturgeon Lake Alberta with my youth group in July1990.

8. First trip by myself: mission trip to Montreal in July 1992.

9. First pet: a Siamese kitten when I was four.

10. First dog: Our only dog growing up: Muffie, a Pekinese-poodle that we got when I was seven.

11. First car: a 1985 Hyundai Pony, I learned to drive it as my parents’ car and they sold it to me when I was in university.

12. First teaching job: in the fall of 1994, I taught half-time grade 6 at Maple Leaf Elementary in Morden.

13. First home: 11 Westmount Bay in Windsor Park, Winnipeg, Manitoba. We lived there until I was five.

14. First school: Ecole Guyot, a French-immersion elementary school that I attended from Kindergarten to grade 5.

15. First time living on my own: an apartment on 4th Street in Morden that I rented my first year of teaching.

16. First play: In grade four, our school put on a production of the Jungle Book in French and I played one of the girls at the end.

17. First video game: an Atari when I was eight or nine. We loved it!

18. First surgery: Having my wisdom teeth removed the summer I turned eighteen. (I looked like a chipmunk for a month!)

19. First steps: When I was fourteen months old.

20. First sleepover: At Nandita’s Biswas’ birthday party in grade 4. (where I watched my first horror movie (the Fog), which I hated.

Stuff

Here are some highlights from this past week:

I got a pedicure this morning with my friend, Val. (It was heavenly!)

I took Jonah & Sage to Winnipeg yesterday to see my mom and do a little shopping.

I worked in my garden, laying landscape fabric and putting woodchips over top.

I went to Winkler to MSS and bought some new goodies.

I've been busy making cards to sell at Morden's Heartland and Winkler Bible Book Shop.

I went to a friend's for coffee on Tuesday evening. It was good to connect with her-- it'd been too long!

Austin's played baseball twice this week and has a tournament tomorrow.



We cleaned up a pile of paint from our basement storage room (I know, this is sad that it's a highlight for me, but it just feels so good to get junk out of my house!)

Austin & Jonah have been enjoying their new obsession-- a Nintendo gamecube.



Have a great weekend!

Some recent firsts

#1. I was asked by a woman at church if I would come to her daughter's birthday party and make a scrapbooking craft. It was Madeline's (in blue) 10th birthday and she and four of her friends created "friends" mini-books with chipboard, Bazzill cardstock, Rob & Bob patterned paper and rub-ons, binder rings and Heidi Swapp ribbon. It was a lot of fun and the girls had a blast!







#2. After living in Morden (& the surrounding area) for 12 years, I finally made it into the local paper. Our neighbour submitted pictures from our block party last week and we made the front page! (I especially like the picture of Sage colouring with sidewalk chalk.)







#3. Guess who hit his first homerun last night?

They've been using a pitching machine until last night when the coach started pitching to the team. Austin was last in the batting line-up, so his second time up, he knew he had to make it home. He hit the ball over the third baseman's head and managed to run around all the bases at make it home before they got the ball to the backcatcher. It was very exciting! I was one proud mama in the stands cheering him on, let me tell you.

Flying by...

It always seems that I can't wait for June to arrive. And then when it gets here, it seems to go by so quickly! I wish it was a month that took its time in passing...

It already seems that we've been up to quite a bit, so I thought I'd share a little of what we've done.

On June 1st, we went to the Thresherman's Museum east of town. I'd never been before. What great old buildings-- Anita & I are already planning some family photo shoots there in fall. Here's some of what I took with the kids:







Then on the weekend, Cameron bought a couple of new fishing rods, so we took the kids to Lake Minnewasta to go fishing along the shore.




They really enjoyed it-- especially Jonah! He keeps asking when we can go again!





Austin was quite captivated with a picture at church on Sunday morning on the powerpoint. It showed a man at sunset and he looked like he was holding the sun. (He asked me: "Is that Jesus?")

So I told him that we could try to do our own picture like that, so while they were fishing, I took this:


Thought it was kind of cool, and so did Austin.

June is here!!

And with its arrival, I thought I'd share the layouts I created for the DT assignments for My Scrap Shoppe.

Here are the layouts I created with the fabulous June kit:















This layout was for the DT challenge to lift a DT from the site:



I lifted Marcy's layout: a bit longer. I loved the design and how she sewed lines for her journaling.



And this was a bonus layout for my five favourite products (which are Bazzill cardstock, patterned paper, chipboard letters, stamps and staples.)

Thanks for looking!

The 5km run/walk/ride for the Congo

took place on Saturday morning. It was a gorgeous day (thank you God!)

We had 28 participants come out and run/walk/ride the course. I'm still waiting for final figures to come in, but it looks like the event raised over $2500, which means that we can purchase about 16 sewing machines for women in the Congo!

I was totally blown away! I'd never made any predictions or put a lot of thought into how much we'd raise, but I thought more like a fifth or sixth of that amount! I'm really thankful to everyone who made it such a success-- the sponsors, the participants and the volunteers.

And thanks as well, to my family who supported my efforts and rode the course with me-- you guys rock!