The (Baden) hills are alive... with the sound of running

Dave here, jumping in for another guest post (two in less than a month! What is this blog coming to?). Unlike the annual birthday post, this temporary intrusion was entirely unplanned -- much like most of the morning, actually -- but wait, I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let me back up a little...

At the start of the year, Natasha and I both resolved to run a few 5K (just over 3 mile) races over the course of the year. While Natasha got an early start on her running goal, I waited until May to do my first run -- the Baden Road Race, which was on May 9th. Although there was an option to do a 7-mile run -- including a trek up to the highest point in southwestern Ontario -- I decided to stick with a distance I was reasonably sure I could finish.

There were two things that I liked about this race: one was that it went through a small town that was right beside the slightly larger town in which I grew up, and so it felt like it was on my "home turf". Also, it supported a few local charities, and was in memory of the father of someone I went to school with as a kid, so I appreciated that connection, as well.

Anyway, the plan for the day was that we would all wake up, get out of the house, and get to Baden in good time for the 9:30 start. I would then run the race, and Natasha and the kids would be waiting at the end to cheer me on. However, Sam woke up feeling sick, and the "is he sick or is he just starting the day slowly?" question was definitively answered when he threw up shortly before 9:00. This, of course, meant a quick change in plans, and after some hurried clean-up, I left the house with just enough time to get to the race. I arrived at the starting line around 9:25, did a few leg stretches, and it was off to the races!

The race itself was more of a slog than I had anticipated. Although the forecast had at one point called for rain, the morning ended up being quite warm, and the course was hillier than the city streets that I usually travel. I started the race with a fair bit of energy -- perhaps spiked by the "have to get there on time" adrenaline -- but by the end I was focused on just keeping moving, and staying ahead of the people who had slowed down to a walk!

One nice surprise was that I ran into (not literally :) a few friends from work who also decided to enter the race; although I couldn't keep up with them during the race itself, I hung out with them for a bit afterwards, and they took a picture of me afterwards, so you don't have to rely on my terrible selfie skills.

Here I am, glad to be finished the race!

Did I mention the terrible selfie skills?

Oh, and as for the race itself, I was pretty happy with how I did, in the end. Sam was really hoping I'd come in first and win a prize, but I explained to him that I'm not actually a very fast runner, and that winning the race wasn't particularly likely. In fact, I ended up coming in 70th (out of 123, full results are here), with a time of just over 31:30 -- for me, that is pretty good, and is a definite improvement over the race I ran last fall.

Tune in tomorrow for a return to more recent life events, and stay tuned next week for our next running adventure -- our first chance to run a race together!

This Week...

This week will not go down in the books as my favourite week ever. In my small, me-focused world, I have been fighting a nasty cold all week. Everyone else in my family had the stomach flu, and lucky Rachel has had two rounds of it. I have left the house exactly twice in the past seven days, and so this morning, when I discovered we'd be staying home yet again today, my extroverted self had a bit of a meltdown. I'm just so tired of it all -- the sickness, the endless videos, the endless meltdowns, and the endless loads of laundry.

This week I also found out that tragedy struck twice, in the form of untimely death. It didn't happen to me, and it didn't even happen to people who are close to me, but it happened to people who my friends have connections with. These two incidences are reminding me that my small problems are just that... small. While they loom large in my mental space right now, by next week, next month, we will be through this and our lives will continue as normal.

Not everyone has that luxury, and this week has, once again, reminded me of that.

We all know people who are suffering. Take some time today to say some extra prayers for them. I will be making time for that today in the midst of folding laundry and watching Max And Ruby with Miss Rachel.

And hopefully, next week when I'm back in the middle of normal life,  I will remember to be so thankful for it, when so many people would give almost anything to be there too.

Book Review: The Maze Runner

 

image from here

This is the first book in a series. As are most books for teens these days, it is a bleak view of our future. Thomas, the main character, finds himself arriving in The Glade with no memories. And the current occupants of The Glade are in no big hurry to fill him in.

The book starts with, what I thought was agonizing, slowness, as we learn along with Thomas, what The Glade is all about. Eventually the pace does pick up however. One thing that I thought Dashner did really well was amp up the suspense. I was more scared reading this book than I have been reading other things. Probably being introduced to the strangeness of everything from Thomas' point of view aided this feeling of unease and terror.

Much of the time I was reading the book, I was complaining to Dave about how awful I thought it was. He told me to stop reading it then. (Probably because he didn't want to hear me complain!) However, I rarely stop reading a book because I don't like it. (One notable exception is Atonement by Ian McEwan). I feel like sometimes a book redeems itself at the end. However, for me, this one didn't.

I guess in the genre of dystopian teenage literature, I just think there are just better options out there, like The Hunger Games or Divergent. It wasn't until I was writing this review that I realized this might be one of the first series I've read where the main character is male instead of female, but I really don't think that skewed my opinion. I also checked out the plot summaries for the rest of the series on Wikipedia, and they didn't make me any more interested in pursuing the rest of the books.

If you've read this book (or the series), what did you think? Am I missing something that makes it better than I'm giving it credit for? Or, like me, did it just leave you feeling lukewarm?

Rachel Goes To Kindergarten: A Preview

This post is coming a little later than I wanted it to. While I was writing it, Rachel threw up. Sadly, she was playing iPad on the futon at the time, so there was a lot to clean up, including the iPad :(

Last week Rachel got to go to Kindergarten. She was thrilled, even if it was only for an hour, and a preview for next year. Since she's spent some time in Sam's classroom while I serve pizza, she was already pretty used to the routine. And what was lovely to see is that the teachers already know her.

Rachel just jumped in and started playing, and since Dave and I are going through this for the second time, we had way fewer questions, and I could just enjoy and take some pictures. Although I did get a little teary eyed a few times. sniff.

I especially love these pictures of Miss Rachel blowing bubbles outside of her new school.

We are both excited and ready for this change and it is so reassuring to know that she will be just fine. See you in September Kindergarten! We can't wait :)

May Brings So Much To Celebrate

I know, I know -- you're all expecting a Mother's Day post today but I'm switching things up a bit. That's mostly because both kids had the stomach flu this past weekend and so yesterday, on Mother's Day, I was exhausted and we couldn't go anywhere. So, in our family's typical fashion (see here, here, and here for examples!), we are postponing Mother's Day until next weekend when hopefully we'll all have recovered from this weekend.

Last week was a very celebratory week. First up, we had Cinco De Mayo. We don't do a lot for this holiday except use it as an excuse to eat yummy Mexican food off of colourful dishes :) I made a new recipe (mini pepper nachos with black beans, corn, and avocados) which was delicious!

We were going to have rainbow sherbert-Sprite floats for dessert but two unnamed someones didn't eat their supper very well so we skipped dessert. And I'm sad to say that almost a week later, we still haven't had our floats :(

And then on Wednesday, I celebrated my last Mother's Day Tea with Rachel at her preschool. This has been a staple for the past three years and I will miss it next year. (Sidenote: Sam's school doesn't so anything to celebrate Mother's or Father's Day due to it being a painful holiday for kids who don't have one of those parents. I respect that, but it means I don't get cute crafts from Sam anymore.)

All the other moms thought it was adorable that Rachel said I was her best friend but it totally made me laugh because she always says, "Daddy is my best friend EVER!" which is true and I don't mind because it means she always picks Dave to help her in the bathroom or put her to bed :)

The kids sang two songs and made their moms a necklace. It was very sweet, and you all know how much I love necklaces :)

So that's just a little of what we've already celebrated in May. And today I am celebrating that we are all healthy (prayers said, fingers crossed), and that life is back to normal. Which means a lot more leaving the house and a lot less changing the bedding. Yay!

Feeling The Birthday Love

Anyone who has been reading my blog for any length of time knows that I LOVE flowers. In fact, I have written before about how flowers really are my love language. And this past weekend showed just how well my friends know me, down to my very specific love language.

Last year my birthday was pretty awful. In fact, after the actual day I declared an entire birthday month for myself, and it really did end up being a very good month. Sadly, this year, I have no such excuse to celebrate all month because my actual birthday was amazing!

Friday night we went out for supper with Tim and Janice. Unfortunately, I took no pictures. Sadness. We went to a new Italian place, Levetto, which was really good. Tim and I shared a salad and Dave and Janice shared a salad too. We obviously don't share the same tastes as our spouses (arugula -- yuck). Dave had a pizza with more arugula, fig sauce, and bacon on it. I enjoyed a pasta dish with peas, tomato sauce, and dill.

And Tim and Janice gave me a gift of English primrose for our yard, which I planted on Sunday.

 

After we parted ways with Tim and Janice, Dave and I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few quick things. And tulips were on sale so Dave bought me a bunch.

On Saturday morning Dave took the kids so I could sleep in a little and then we went to run some errands. While Dave took the kids to Costco, I got to browse at a garden centre and I bought an entire flat of pansies. Then we ran to Zehrs for more groceries and then Dave dropped me off at the library so I could browse on my own for a bit. I really enjoyed having so much time to myself! And Dave and the kids got to take advantage of free comic book day.

Sam picked out a huge bunch of beautiful tulips for me at Costco.

In the afternoon I enjoyed reading outside while Dave prepped for my party. He did a really awesome job of making sure everything was good to go and I only had to help out if I wanted to, which I did for a little bit.

It was beautiful weather so we had planned an outdoor BBQ of Farmer's sausage (which my parents had brought from Saskatchewan at Christmas), potato salad, and a pasta salad. And of course, cheesecake. Dave was too busy BBQing sausage, and I was too busy visiting with my friends, so we didn't take any pictures.

One thing which was really unexpected is that everyone brought me presents. I was so touched. I got a beautiful outdoor pitcher and tray set (and the tray has flowers on it!), a gift certificate to a bookstore, and more flowers!

Yes, I have two vases of tulips on my dresser because I'm running out of space to put flowers. It's a GREAT problem to have!

This hydrangea is from Donny and Marika and the colour is just stunning.

And then, because the gorgeous weather continued, we hosted our small group from church on Sunday, and my friends brought me more birthday flowers. We both carried calla lilies at our weddings, so this was a special reminder of that. Margaret also made a really delicious chocolate ganache torte for dessert as a birthday treat. Seriously, go make that recipe.

So I had a really great birthday and felt so celebrated and loved all weekend. I hope everyone feels as special on their birthday as I felt on mine.

Happy Birthday to You!

It's time for the annual birthday blog takeover, in which I (Dave) jump in to wish Natasha a happy birthday! Even though her birthday isn't until tomorrow, I wanted to write this today before the birthday weekend got into full swing. As seems to be the tradition around here, I'm going to share some highlights from the past year, and wishes for the next.

Here are some highlights:

 Adventures in far-off lands

Getting lost in a good book

Celebrating (Mothers Day and Christmas)

 Taking on new challenges

Another year of planting in the yard

Fun with Sam and Rachel

Hanging out at the beach(es)

Enjoying a siesta in la hamaca

Here's hoping your 43rd year is filled with even more exciting adventures, time to sit back and relax, and lots of fun and crazy times with your family.