Posted on November 15, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….what a glorious day!

For two days in a row, I’ve slept for a solid eight hours and I’ve reached my walking goal of 10,000 steps for seven consecutive days. Yay!

It is hard to believe that we’re half way into November. I dressed warmly for our daily walk this morning only to disrobe half way through our trek because I was too warm. I took off my scarf and gloves and opened up my jacket and the fleece I had on underneath it. Every day like this from here on in is a blessing.

When we got back from our walk we decided we could no longer stand the smell emanating from our little dog. I don’t know if she rolled in something or if it was a just a combination of swims in the lake and running through the fields that produced that rancid smell. None the less, we plopped her into the tub and scrubbed her down with doggy shampoo and warm water. After a couple of rinses we dried her off with some old towels. She didn’t particularly like the experience but she smells so much better. She even feels nicer to pet. We also threw out her old bed and I went out and bought her a new one. The old one was beyond washing again.

Our entire family has an app called WhatsApp. It’s very inexpensive to purchase (it was free and then went up to 99 cents) and we’ve never experienced any problems with it. What it does is allow us to text message and phone anywhere in the world, free of charge, to friends and family who also have the app. You can also put a group together so that everyone in the group gets the message at the same time.

Today our son in London texted all of us and informed us that the plans for his wedding were starting to move along and that Italy was back in the plan. He put some dates out there for all of us to mull over and it looks like there may be a wedding in July. I don’t want to jinx it so I’m not giving any more information than that. Now we just have to wait and see if the ‘farm’ apartments can be booked for the whole family and what day B and A choose for the actual wedding. Her family would also have to travel, so there’s a lot to consider in a rather short space of time but I’m glad that we’re not waiting another 18 months before this wedding takes place. I’m so excited!

Taken two year Christmases ago when they first got engaged.

It looks like this warm weather may stick around for a few more days. Wonderful!

Cheers!

Long Walks on Weekends

Posted on May 17, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….now if only I could do that every day or at least every other day

I started this long holiday weekend with a long, 8.6k walk. Last Sunday I managed two walks totalling 9.0k but in between I didn’t walk at all. Granted it was a busy week at school and when I was on yard duty I purposely kept walking for the entire 15 minutes. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday I was out with the girls for soccer practice and on Wednesday night I went with the junior choir to the baseball game at the Rogers Centre where they sang the national anthems at the beginning of the game. They sang beautifully but the Blue Jays lost miserably against the Cleveland Indians, 15 to 4. It was a very late night and I didn’t get home till 11:30. I was also out on Tuesday night with friends and on Thursday I had one final appointment with the oral surgeon after school. Everything on that front looks good and I’m ready to be fitted for my dental crown next week.

All of this of course is extra over and above my regular teaching day. I also met with the board designer to have the library measured up for some renovations and the assembly that I organized for this year’s Jump Rope for Heart took place Friday morning. It always feels good to be able to check another thing off the ‘To Do List’ this time of year.

This brings me back to walking. Last week I installed a new app onto my iPhone called Strava. It tracks my distances, times, calorie output and maps out the routes that I’ve taken. I just push start at the beginning of my walk and stop when I’m done. It does all the calculations for me. I love it and on Mother’s Day, A and J bought me an armband to put my iPhone into when I’m running so I don’t have to carry the phone in my hand or worry about it falling out of a pocket (if I have one).

Walk on May 17th, 2014

If you click on the link you’ll notice that it calls my walk a run. I haven’t figured out how to change that to walk but I did for the first time in a long time run part of today’s walk. It wasn’t far, maybe 1/2 a kilometre but it’s a start. During the walk I stopped a few times to take some photos of the birds in Sam Smith Park. There’s a bird sanctuary there and it is nesting season so there’s lots of activity there. One of the highlights for me on today’s walk was seeing one of the male swans building up the nest and the female sitting on her eggs. It was a bit cool today so she never got off the eggs but the last count had her sitting on five eggs.

I have to admit that I got a bit carried away with today’s walk and completely lost track of time. I was gone for over two hours and my husband called me on my phone to make sure I was okay. The nice feature about Strava is that is only records the time you are actually moving.

When I did finally get home it was time for lunch and then I spent about two hours working in the garden. Our beautiful White Pine has died and it is slated to be cut down in the near future. One of the jobs that I tackled today was removing the river rock that surrounds the tree. We’re having the stump removed right away so everything around the bottom of the tree has to be cleared away. It’s a much bigger job than I thought and I’ve only removed about half of the rocks. My husband was building a new raised garden bed today so I volunteered to start tossing rocks (literally tossing them across the path and into the side garden).

Here are a few more photos from my morning walk. Enjoy!

Frances, Our Wonder Dog

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….we think she must be part mountain goat

Signs of Summer in My Neighbourhood

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..on my evening walk with Frances

Who says you can only decorate trees at Christmas?

As we entered the park I noticed a lot of bird activity. It’s clear that there’s a lot of nesting going on. The pond has a pair of resident swans. The female was on a reedy little island in the middle of the pond, probably sitting on her eggs, while the male was enjoying a leisurely evening swim.