A look at 2011

*On my computer, there are random hyperlinks that are linked to ads in my post... I didn't put those there and I have no idea how to get rid of them.  So don't click on them.*

2011 was a big year for me!  At the end of January I found out I was pregnant.  I stopped flying and got a placement in our corporate office working for an event planning team.  This also meant that I was home all the time, which was new for Matt and me.  We had a little adjustment period but we soon found that we enjoyed having each other around all the time.

I struggled to get in with a midwife but after a little coaxing I got a team of 5 midwives for my entire pregnancy care until 6 weeks post pardom.  I was thrilled.

I took a quick little trip to Vancouver with my sis. That was very fun since that marked the start of my second trimester and I got to be really excited about having a baby.

I ran a 10 km and a half marathon in slippery snowy weather.  They were my slowest races, but I will definitely remember them!

I had to stop running in May, which led to a severe lack of motivation to exercise.  I sort of found my mojo again, but I really just wished I could run.

I learned that I was carrying a little furnace and was perpetually hot from June onwards.  That wasn't too fun for me.

Matt and I travelled to Ontario in the summer and spent some time at a lake and watched a Blue Jays game.

As my third trimester began, I really felt the physical effects of pregnancy.  I suffered some terrible heartburn, and was pretty much uncomfortable all the time.  In the grand scheme of things, my pregnancy was pretty easy (no morning sickness), but it was hard to remember that during the last couple of months.

Matt and I celebrated our first anniversary on October 15th.  We had expected to have a baby by then, but the little one held off so that we got to have our day to ourselves.

I worked right up until my due date, which was good in the end since I ended up being 12 days overdue.  Those last 12 days were doozies, but in the end, I was granted a VERY fast labour and had baby Zoey at home and without any major complications on October 17th.

Life with Zoey has been an adventure.  She is really starting to have a personality and it's so fun to watch her interact with various people and things.  I didn't feel like an "instant" mother, since at first I felt more like a machine than a lovey dovey oogling pile of mush, but as the days and weeks progress, I find myself just staring at her in amazement.  I miss her when I am somewhere without her, and I eagerly wait my turn to give her hugs and kisses when other people are holding her.  I didn't know what to expect before I had her, but I am having fun every day and can't wait to see her every morning.  I can't wait for this year to see her learn more things and grow more and more into her own person.

This year I hope to get back into exercise with a vengeance, to keep my relationship strong with Matt, to teach Zoey new things and to appreciate every day I get to spend at home with her.

Bring on 2012!

One Year Ago

October 15th, 2010, Matt and I got married.  Here are some of the highlights from our wedding day.

I really thought I would have a baby on my anniversary, but now that I don't, I'm happy to say we had one year of marriage before we had a family!  I love you Matt! Thanks for making this year memorable and the best of my life!

Changes

This time last year I was extremely hungover.  Because a year ago last night, I was doing this:

It was my bachelorette party.  We ate some sushi, sang some hilarious karaoke, drank a bunch of shots, then I did a bunch of throwing up, and Kristen took me home.  Everyone else continued partying and apparently had a great time!

If I can remember correctly, exactly one year ago, I was standing outside my house with a giant bowl of stuffing that I had made, trying not to be sick again and about to eat a giant thanksgiving feast.

Oh, how things can change in a year!

Finally

I have FINALLY found a dress to wear to an upcoming wedding.  I have probably tried on 30 dresses.  I'm not even kidding.  Today, at my second store of the day, I put this on, it wasn't too long/short/unflattering/revealing/hot/casual/dressy, so I bought it.  It happens to make my boobs look enormous, but otherwise it's the best I've found.  Thank god I can stop looking.  Now if only I could find a swimsuit.

2011 goals

Where has January gone??

The rest of my New Year's Eve was quite uneventful.  I went to bed at 10:30, and Matt woke me up at midnight, gave me a kiss and a piece of toblerone (seriously, I think I got 20 different toblerones as christmas gifts) and I went back to sleep.  I woke up in the morning with chocolate still in my teeth.  Don't tell my dentist.

This month has been interesting.  My step-dad had a big surgery on the 5th, the same day that Matt started school (part of his electrician's apprenticeship).  The surgery went well, and Matt is half done his school already and is doing well there too.

My dad took some big healthy steps towards some weight loss, and I'm trying to support him by taking a few yoga classes with him when we can fit them in.

I made some goals for 2011, as did most, but I decided to share them now and tell you how I'm doing.

I split them up a la healthy tipping point into three categories:  Personal, Health, and Financial.  And a la the things i know I will update these periodically.

Personal:

• learn Italian - haven't even started.  Oops.
• communicate better with Matt - this is up and down.  The start of the month was bad, recently has been better.  We try.  It's hard at times and I love being right.
• pay and file bills and letters immediately - 50% better than I used to be.
• clean the house on a more regular basis - epic fail.  I can't see this being an easy one to achieve.

Health:

• run 100 km per month - So far I've run 52.81 km this month, so unless some MAJOR running is happening for me in the next 5 days, I think I lost this one.  BUT, 52 is a lot of kms, so I'm still proud of this.  There were 8 days where I honestly flew, got to a hotel, had 9-10 hours of rest and flew again.  Working out just didn't happen.  Sleep barely happened.  Eating happened.  
• run a great half marathon in April - stay tuned.
• run a speedy 10 km in september - ditto
• do yoga 3 times per week - I think I've done an average of 1.5 per week, so not there, but better than zero.
• drink more water - enh.  
• eat dessert less frequently - much better at this.  I seemed to have gained some weight over the holidays (whaaaaaa?!?!?) from perhaps a little more alcohol than I'm used to, so I would love for it to go away.  I'm actually going to try to cut out alcohol except for special occasions, so we'll see how that goes.

Financial:

• buy less coffee out - I have cut down.  Sort of.
• put more cashola on debt - not yet.  we have one pay check at the moment (because Matt's in school) so this be a little more promising in a month.

 Those are them for now.  I think I will add some more soon, but these seem good for the time being.  Some are exciting and I want to do them (like running and yoga, oh right and the communications with my husband one), and some are terrible (like cleaning and bill filing), so obviously I'm putting time and effort into the fun ones and not so much into the terrible ones.  I should make a new goal of putting effort into the stupid goals.

I'll leave you with a couple of fun professional wedding pics!

Wedded Bliss

I have been absent, but busy.

I got married.

 

Went to New York City on my honeymoon. 

And ate lots of Gluten-Free deliciousness.

And loved it!!!

Hot Hot Heat

Bonjour!

The time is ticking, and the wedding is getting closer!  Three weeks today at this time I will probably be drinking coffee on my deck with my husband to be before the madness of the day starts!  If it's too cold, maybe it will be coffee in bed. (which, coincidentally, is what we were doing when he proposed!)

So much has happened it's hard to even get it all out!  I had an amazing surprise shower thrown by the best besties in the world (a recap can be found here), and then I ran the canmore half marathon (which k did a great recap of as well).  Matt and I ran together, so there was no pressure and we didn't have any time goals.  We finished in about 2:15 and I was pretty sore.  Once I got past 16km, I could tell where my training lacked and my hips were toooight!  We had a good day, but next year, I think we'll drop back down to the 10km race.  It's a lot more fun to do with a group (Matt's cousin and her husband did it with us both years) and not quite as taxing... we can still have drinks the night before, not have to get up, eat and have a strict schedule. 

I've been doing hot yoga more since the race, trying to get a little more toned.  I still am doing some weights when I'm on the road, but in Calgary, I don't have a gym access so I'd rather pay to do yoga instead of pay to lift weights.  I've been going to hot yoga and I can definitely tell I'm working hard!  My arms today were shaking since I've been twice this week (when normally I go once a week MAX).  I'm enjoying the 60-90 minute sweat fest. 

Other than that, it's little wedding details and that's about it!  Time to relax and enjoy the time with all the visitors coming! 

Recovering

Life since the 70.3 has been great.  I am still in disbelief that I finished and that it's over, and it's strange to not have this HUGE ENORMOUS deadline looming over my head.

Oh wait, I guess there's our wedding that's in less than 2 months.  Most of the important things are done, but I'm still trying to get all all of the little details figured out.  Luckily there isn't anything so pressing that it doesn't seem manageable. 

I also signed up for a half marathon on September 12 in Canmore, so I still have to run and make sure I can finish that one well.  I know I can finish finish, but it would be nice to have a strong race.  I haven't been SUPER into running, though I just got a birthday present that should pep me up a bit!  Matt (and my parents) got me a Garmin 310XT!!  I took it out for the first time yesterday, and so far it's cool, but I just kept looking at it the whole time.  I can see how people rely so heavily on them, since they are just plain cool and it's interesting to see all sorts of stats, but I'll just let the "newness" of it wear off and hopefully just use it as a compliment to my training.

What else?  Matt and I have continued to go to hot yoga, which has been great, and I'm working on some strength training when I'm on the road (and have the use of free gyms) to tone up my upper body for the wedding.  I worked out with another flight attendant who does fitness competitions, and while that's definitely not something I'd ever want to do, it was fun to do a strength training routine with someone who knows what she's doing.  She is STRONG!  I've never been much into strength, aside for a few little weights here and there and some core stuff.  I definitely was out of my element.  One thing that she commented on was how determined I was, and how she didn't have to push me to finish a set or exercise.  I told her that even though weights were foreign to me, pushing myself and persevering is what my sport is all about!  Funny how two very different athletes have the same thing at their core.  Anyway, though I don't think I'll be sporting a spray tan, a string bikini and clear heels anytime soon, it was amazing to see her lifting 40 plus pounds doing tricep something-er-rathers (while I was lifting 8!)

And that's that.  How's everyone else doing?

Feeling a little guilty

I have so much to say, but not enough time to say it!  I've been working and out of town for what seems like forever.  Every time I see my blog I think about how much I want to post, but I haven't had any time on the computer! 

I will start with a bike ride.  My third attempt on the bike went well.  I went on a path that was technically closed, which worked very well with me because it wasn't busy, and I had to stop, unclip, and walk my bike over parts that were under construction, and so I got all sorts of practice getting on and off my bike!  I even went in and out of aero position lots!  Yay for me!

Next was the Glencoe Icebreaker 10km race.  I saw Leana at the shop for package pick up, and she introduced herself and then we talked about how terrible my fall was.  It was nice to meet her!  Then Saturday before the race I went to a wedding reception, had more drinks than I intended, wore 4 inch stilettos, and had three hours of sleep.  I wasn't super excited to get up and race the next morning, but I gave it a go!  I took it a little easy during the first 5 km because I wasn't sure what my body would do.  I have a sensitive stomach, so cramps and stitches were definite possibilities.  Luckily, I felt pretty good and even powered up a hill and passed a bunch of people.  (Nothing feels better than being strong on hills!!)  I saw Leana at the top of the hill and again  little later, which was nice!  At half way, when I was still feeling good, I decided I would pick it up a notch.  Then, at 6km, I grabbed a quick sip of water and picked it up again.  Since I was feeling good still, I decided I would pick it up more at each of the remaining kms and hope for the best.  I got to 9km and just powered through to the end and ended up finishing with a time of 51:23!  A new PR!  Wahoo!  Normally I take walk breaks when I run, but for this race I didn't, with the exception of my quick water stop.  I can't run and drink since my stomach is so sensitive and I end up swallowing so much air.  I don't think I've ever run 10km without walking, so this was a new experience and it ended up working.  I couldn't have run 10 more km at that speed or without a break, but it was nice to know I could do it this time.  I really liked that race, and though it wasn't my "A" race, I am very happy to have a new PR.

What next?  Oh, my brother in law ran a stupid ridiculous boston marathon time!!!  I yelled out in the middle of the mall when I saw his finishing time on my iPhone tracker thingy!  Under 3 hours is just unimaginable to me!  Go Jordan!

Matt and I went to Toronto for a very weddingy weekend!  Kristen came too, and we had a big family shower in the afternoon and a Jack and Jill party in the evening.  It was strange for me, since I didn't know many people there, but it was fun and I was very grateful to have Kristen there with me!  She's such a good big sister.

I've been getting tortured by my chiropractor lately since I've had a few shin and calf issues on my left leg.  I really don't like how much he hurts me, but it's supposed to help in the end, so I'll suffer.  I've had a few bruises down my shin, on my left butt cheek, left hip, and both feet though.  He's so mean.

I've been working lots and lots, and thankfully I'm home now for about two weeks!  I'll have to hit the pool in a major way, since I've been slacking.  I luckily missed the blizzard in Calgary while I was working, so now that I'm home and the weather is nicer, I'll have to head out for bike rides too.  It's getting a lot closer to the 70.3 and I'm getting really scared.  My Vermont race is coming up really quickly too, and I need to pick my mileage up again.  I was up to 18km a month ago, but then I got had some issues and my life got in the way, so I'll have to get back up there so I can have a good, strong race on June 6th.

I think that's about all I can think of right now.  I'm sure I'll have more soon! 

OH, anyone in the Calgary area, there is a nice big Tech Shop sale this Friday and Saturday at Mount Royal College on the track.  I'll be there on Friday, and I can't wait to see what's all on sale!  I plan to pick up a few pairs of shoes to do me through the year.  I can't wait!

Amazing Day

Yesterday was a day I was really looking forward to.  First thing in the morning, I planned on waking up and heading to the pool.  Well, I didn't do that.  (Ooops.)  Instead, I stayed in bed and read a riveting book, Into thin Air, which is about the Mt. Everest disaster of 1996.  It was written by the same guy who wrote Into the Wild (I guess he likes titles starting with "into"), Jon Krakauer.  Anyway, I'm hooked and really want to finish it.

After about an hour, I hopped up, and started making breakfast for my two friends (and bridesmaids), Katie and Kaitlin, who were due to come over around 10:00 to do some weddingy stuff.  I realized that I was out of a lot of things like milk, almond milk, fruit etc. which would put a damper on my breakfast.  So I walked the block to safeway and picked up what I needed (including cream for our coffee, which I NEVER get since I normally use milk, but it made the morning extra decadent) and finished up cooking breaky, made coffee, cleaned off the coffee table, compiled all that we needed to finish off our tasks, and waited for them to arrive!  (I got dressed somewhere in the too!)

We spent the morning eating, chatting, laughing, and ended up being VERY productive!  My method for the wedding is to get things done early so I don't have to freak out about them later.  I know it seems crazy to have the invitations all done and ready almost 6 months before the wedding, but I'm happier knowing it's one less thing on my to do list!  I would like to enjoy the month leading up to the wedding since we'll have family in town and I'd rather have time to have coffee dates instead of running around trying to find a guestbook. 

Anyway, we had a great morning, but I really missed my other two bridesmaids... Kristen, of course, is in Ottawa, and my other friend Vanessa is in Africa working at an orphanage, so they have missed a few of our crafty days.  I hope there will be other things for us all to do together!  (Though, I'm sure neither is complaining that they didn't get to lick envelopes and will be perfectly satisfied with coffee dates instead!) 

Then, I headed downtown to meet Matt, and then the two of us met with the minister who will be officiating our wedding to go over some details.  It was an awesome meeting, and he and Matt hit it off right away.  The minister is a long time family friend of ours, and I was really happy he could do our wedding.  I really liked his ideas and wording and flow and all that, so I left feeling really happy with the way our ceremony would "go". 

Then, we headed home, I had a quick bite to eat, and I went off to see my other friend Katie who was going to cut and highlight my hair for the last time since she's moving back to Nova Scotia!  It was a bittersweet visit, since we knew we wouldn't see too much of each other in the near future, but we had fun chatting and eating some chips and guacamole (and doing hair).

I ended my fabulous day with some vietnamese food and more book!  And visiting with Matt of course.  I felt so satisfied and happy with my day and fell asleep feeling amazing.

I just love great days!  And visiting with friends!  Amazing.

Too much sitting

Tuesday morning I woke up to my phone ringing at 4:50 am, with work telling me I needed to fly to Moncton, NB in order to work a flight the next day.  I had to get all dressed up in my uniform just to sit in a seat allllll the way to Moncton.  When I got there, I was definitely in need of some activity!  I changed went down to the hotel gym right away.  Luckily, there were a few TVs in there, so I biked and ran my way through the women's boarder cross and watched Canada get the first ever gold medal in that sport!  I had so much fun and actually cheered in the packed gym when we won!  Other people were watching too, so it wasn't too out of place.  I watched some more Olympics that night, and then fell asleep with the TV on!

Yesterday I had the entire day in Toronto, so I spent it at Matt's parents house.  I had such a nice time seeing them (since it had been August since the last time I saw them) and his brothers.  I had almost every minute scheduled and didn't get to watch the hockey game, but I got some updates via text message and we caught a few minutes of it on TV when we were picking up his brother from hockey practice.  I also went to an AMAZING gluten free restaurant with his mum and grandma.  The food was out of this world delicious.  The bread was light and fluffy (not usually something that goes hand in hand with gluten free), and they had a great variety of food.  I wish we had a restaurant like that here!  I got to fill them in on all things wedding and we chatted about the shower coming up in April.  good times.  When I finally got back to my hotel I caught the last 5 minutes of the hockey, and our two medals in bobsleigh!  What a great day for Canada.  I'm just so proud of our athletes.

I've got a run scheduled for today, but my head is currently pounding, so I'll pop some advil and see what happens.  Running and headaches don't really mix too well, so I'll have to wait and see if it goes away.

I wish the time would go by slower; I'm not ready for the Olympics to be over!!

Things are coming along

We've settled in even more, re-arranged a few things, and finally started tackling the 2nd bedroom.  We bought a whimsical shelf that looks kind of weird and terrible in the picture, but when put in an otherwise plain jane room, I think it adds a little excitement.  We just need to find a futon of some sort so that we have a functional bedroom for guests.  Anyone have an extra one??

In other news, I bought a wedding dress.  Exciting.

I haven't had a lot of motivation for running lately, but I did buy some cycling shoes so as soon as I get my pedals I'll go take those for a spin.  It will be scary I'm sure.  I think I should bring a buddy in case I fall and get hurt. 

I never ended up getting to Ottawa last pairing so hopefully next week I'll make it.  I haven't seen Kristen in eons so I'm getting a little ansy.

Alright, off to shower and have some lunch with Vanessa.  We may look around for bridesmaid dresses or something like that.  Oh weddings.

Race Reports

This was a busy weekend for a lot of people!

Over in Ottawa, Kristen ran an awesome 10k! Woooweee good job and great time! Jordan ran an awesome marathon with a great personal best and boston qualifying time. Were there 50 pushups? I'm not sure. Jordan's parents walked a great half marathon too! I don't know what the time was but any weekend where four people run races with personal bests and no trips to any medic tents is great! Good for all of them!

I was busy with being on call at work, and having to stay up and be ready to hurry into work until 1am. LAME! I was on call for 5 days and assuming I don't get called out in the next 3 hours, I didn't hear a peep for the crew schedulers. I got paid (a little) for sitting around working on my project for my Stampede committee! Today before my on call time I went out for a little brick workout with Katie, and we biked the route for next week's race and then ran the route as well. Things learned:
1. I am in trouble when I get my road bike tomorrow. I couldn't seem to get going when I tried on Katie's. It's very wobbly!
2. This is a boring bike route. Four 3k loops with lots of turns. Yawn.
3. I'm a chicken. I can physically go fast on the bike, but I'm way too scared.
4. Running after biking isn't really that easy.
5. We are vain, because most of our conversation revolved around how terrible we're going to look after the swim and how we wish we could have permanent make-up.
Regardless, we had fun and it was such a nice day out that it made it extra enjoyable.

Matt and I went to the bottle depot and got 23$! Sweet.

I need to find a cute dress for a fancy wedding at the beginning of July. I was thinking something short ish, structured (not flowy) and maybe strapless? It's going to be stinking hot in Toronto I'm assuming so less is more here. So far I haven't found anything but I've barely looked. Any suggestions?

I don't think I'm going to post pics of my new uniform because my mum always gets mad at me when I talk about work too much, and she wouldn't approve of me showing everyone on the internet who I work for. Maybe if I blur it out or something... I'll work on it.

Next weekend is going to be busy for us Calgarians, with Kirsten running the calgary half marathon and me doing my little triathlon. I hope the weather is good!

Weekend Update with bonus pictures

The weekend in Ontario was great. The wedding was great, the relaxing was great, and the whole thing was just great. (Do you think I need a thesaurus?)

On Friday, Matt, his brother Kurt, Kurt's girlfriend Bethany and I went to a snowboard show in Toronto. It was one of those conventiony type things where you pay to get in and then there are fabulous sales on all sorts of things. So Matt really wanted to get boots, and then when I saw all the cool new boot features, I had to get some too. In my defense, my current snowboard boots are the first ones I ever owned, which I got probably 7 years ago, and they completely suck and give my legs bruises, so it wasn't like I bought new boots even though I had perfectly good ones. I found some great half price boots with cool wire laces so you don't actually have to lace them up, you just pull the laces and they lock into place. That made me quite happy. Unfortunately the place was super busy and I wasn't quite in the mood for enormous crowds, so I was really ready to leave about two hours before we left.

The wedding was fun. I didn't know very many people there, but it was fun none the less. The bride looked great and it looked like they both had a great time.

Matt had to work on Monday and Tuesday so I lazed around the house and just chilled out. I went and visited him at work and brought him snacks, learned how to replace the nozzles in sprinkler heads and enjoyed just hanging out with him outside. I relaxed, just like I had hoped.

Probably the most dramatic event of the weekend was that Matt shaved his head. It was CRAZY!!! I've never known him without long-ish hair, so it was a huge change. Allow me to elaborate through photographs.

First, when we met:


Secondly, the day before the shaved head:


And lastly, post haircut.
Also, the third photo shows his incredible dancing skills. You really can't go wrong with hip pointing!

I have no life

All I do is work. That's what it seems like. I'm having a bit of a moment today... I'm just sick of working and being home for one short day, and then working again. It's almost over... One more four day starting tomorrow, and then home for not even a day and off to Ontario for a wedding. Hopefully I can chill and relax there, because then I have to come back and work again!


I'm happy Kristen and Jordan are here, and also that I got to see Spencer! That kid, SO CUTE. Kristen was saying that after those three adorable chitlin, the rest of us don't really have a chance! Our kids will be gremlins compared to them. Oh well... Maybe they'll have great personalities or something. (Usually when someone says "well they have a great personality" it means they're ugg-o, don't you think?) The problem is the mini Lobbs are cute AND have great personalities, so we're screwed.

ANYWAY. I'm missing having a boyfriend who lives in the same city as I do. I'm not really loving the whole talk on the phone relationship thing. He'll be here soon enough, but man it's shitty in the meantime. I'll suck it up. I feel like I should perhaps be happy I have someone who wants to move across the country for me.

I'm off to the Tronsgard's for Thanksgiving tonight. It was really nice of them to invite me (and move the whole dinner so I could come), and I'm excited for some turkey and stuffing. And some pumpkin pie. I like pie. And whipping cream.