Happy Mother's Day!

I would like to start this off by saying Thank you to all the Mom's, Mom's-to-be, Mother's, Momma's, Mum's and the like out there. I hope that I speak for many, when I say I appreciate all that you do, raising children be it this generation or the next. You have a never ending job, that has its moments, but at the end of the day may you always find a way to love (that only you can). May you be blessed with the ability to find happiness and joy in whatever messes come your way! Cheers to you! ('cause I'm sure you could probably use a drink right now.)
And it has been a good day. I spent this morning sleeping in and relaxing, then taking a walk to the dog park so Jackman could play with Brittni's two dogs. He really enjoyed the pond and was the only dog there to jump in and get the sticks we kept throwing. Go Jack!
After that was a lovely afternoon and evening with my Momma. We spent a good portion of it building her new yard swing that my siblings and I pitched in for. It's quite nice, and sturdily built if I do say so myself.
The evening was spent at dinner, not only with my Momma, but my grandma and dad and hubby as well. We went to the Reef n' Beef, and it may be old school, but it was actually quite wonderful, I would definitely recommend it.
When I say old school, I mean it was built in 1980, and it looks that way.
Overall a wonderful day, and if I haven't said it before, I am muchly enjoying my weekends off.
I do miss my regular customers though, and I almost wished I would have stuck around for quite a few of them as they did make my job very easy.
On the job note, I am still coaching most nights for another week and then I am down to just a few hours a week after. I have no idea what I am to do with myself then.
But I do have a bunch of coaching courses starting May 22, and I am very, very excited about it. Moving on to the next level of coaching and I can't wait.
Learning is what keeps the mind young and curious. Always keep learning, it does not matter what, just that you do.
I don't know if that has been said before, or should be quoted but it is very much a necessity of life. It may not matter much to some people now, but in those moments when you find yourself idle, start learning. If during that day you had even one question about something, look it up. If you're looking it up, take a step further and verify. You'll be impressed. Maybe by you, maybe by what you find, but you will be.

It seems I have digressed, but I do have a very strong yearning for knowledge. Even now I can't wait to get back to the book I was reading because I need to know what happens next.

What you're reading now was actually an entire paragraph entering the world of learning. A slight debate between movie knowledge and book smarts and how any good storyline that gets a person involved can be learning. But it's gone.


In the meantime, I would much like to get back to my book. And my attention span is short because it's constantly interrupted by the pain of my sunburn.
I am very crispy in a few places. I said it was a good day, but apparently I pissed the sun off recently.


Peace&Love


Chow

Procrastinating everything else is a good way to start writing

There are so many things I could be doing right now. Things like packing, the dishes, my coaching home study, and possibly tidying up the giant mess that is my living room. I've been spending so much time working on my home study that I've created a nest out of my couch. And not a well constructed nest either, any time Jackman slides into after his ball it all crashes to the ground.

I know I have written in quite a while and I'm sure you're all dying to know just what I've been up to (please flatter me, and pretend that you miss my little updates). :)

In awesome news, Jason and I will be taking possession of our house on Friday. (!!!!!) I feel like I should be really excited, and I do have bouts of excitement, but not when I'm staring around my house thinking that there is no way I'm ever going to pack all of this stuff. We already have so many rubbermaid containers full, and it's as if the stuff I keep packing up is sneaking back out and then growing new stuff. I could probably throw half of it away and not even think about it ever again. But I won't.
We could use moving help (Friday afternoon and evening) if anyone is available. So if you somehow find yourself without plans this weekend, and have an itch to throw your back out lifting boxes full of books, we would really appreciate your help.  The usual pizza and beer will be provided.
I will tell more about the new house once we are moved in and I will try and take pictures during moving day, because I'm sure that will be entertaining.

I'm currently working on my next level of coaching, which has been another one of those things keeping me busy. It's partly my own fault, because I have been procrastinating a bit. I had most of the home study (aka work booklet) done, I just didn't have it typed out and edited.
I was waiting until they posted the set of courses I had to take after finishing the home study, so I would have everything fresh in my mind before I took the courses.
I thought the courses would be in June or July like every other coaching course I have ever taken, but the ones I plan on taking now are being offered at the end of May. Which left me with a lot less time then I had planned to finish the home study.
The good news out of all of this is I have learned to type surprisingly fast again. I also figured out that I had skipped over a few important parts (like observing a test day and writing a report) so I had to get a few things lined up quickly before the courses were set to be held.
All in all, I'm almost done, just a few little bits to tidy up. Though my brain is officially fried. If there are a lot of typo's and grammatical errors in this post it's because I've been staring at my computer so long, I actually see two screens.

In other lovely news I quit Smitty's. April 14 was my official last day there. It was a good seven year run, but I am ready to focus more on other things, and I'm really tired of pretending to be happy while wanting to throw debit machines a stupid customers. Just kidding, most of the customers were awesome, and I'm going to miss quite a few of the regulars. Also it will be nice not to come home smelling of bacon every weekend.

I feel like I have other news but I just can't seem to remember... or maybe I don't and I just feel busier than I am, that could be it.

Coaching is still going strong until the middle of May, so I'm on the ice 4 nights a week. As much as I love coaching, this has been such a growing/transition year with the club, that I might be looking forward to a month or two off. And by might be, I mean I can't freaking wait to actually have time to enjoy the summer for once.
I'm sure after one month off the ice though I'll be quite ready to get back out there.

Hooping classes have started back up, so I am really enjoying that hour to myself on Thursday nights. It's a fun group of ladies as always, and I'm glad to be a part of it. I'm sure you'll all be pleased to know that my 'ducking' skills are really coming along and I am hitting myself in the face less.
Though I did manage to smack my funny bone on my heavy hoop yesterday and actually lost feeling in two of my fingers for a few minutes. Don't ask me how I manage to accomplish this level of talent, it's just a gift really. :)

Well, so ends that ramble. I feel if I write any more you'll have to bookmark it half way through and come back to it later.

I hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather, and actually taking time to appreciate it that it's here for once! So take it in while you can since I'm pretty damn sure it's not going to stick around long.

Peace&Love


Chow

Hey look! ...Snow

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day.
Today... not so much. I was up before the snow this morning, and it was still pretty nice outside. About 6 a.m. there was a skiff of snow on the ground but it smelled like rain which was very refreshing.
By the time I left the arena just before 8, it definitely didn't smell like rain anymore, and there were sharp ice crystals pelting my face. Moody lil' witch that mother nature is.

Exciting weekend upcoming. I have skaters testing tomorrow (some for the first time!) and I'm sure they will all do wonderful, I can't wait.
Saturday is the Airdrie Skating Club Gala. It's going to take a lot of work tonight at dress rehearsal, but I'm sure like every year, it will all just fall magically into place the night of.

Also Saturday is the Crossfield Skating Club carnival. Bound to be a wonderful time, AND the coaches (myself included) have a little surprise number. :)

After a decent morning skating and coaching, I seem to have hurt my ribs. Don't ask me how, I couldn't tell you, I stayed (miraculously) on my feet the whole time.
I'm speculating that it could be one of those 'floating' or 'slipped' rib pains. I've never had it before, but my symptoms are pain on my right side after deep breaths, and sharp lower rib cage pain when I extend my right arm up. And a dull ache sensation. More annoying then anything. Being short as I am, to do absolutely anything chore-like around the house involves me reaching. And I'm ridiculously right-handed.
What I could do is attempt to use my left for most things today. And if I do that I'm sure I'll manage to hurt myself even more. Like attempting at grabbing something from the cupboard and dropping it on my head. Very plausible.

With this skating all winding down, I'm more than ridiculously excited to have Monday off next week! I think I will celebrate by shopping. I could use new jeans, as Jackman decided to eat mine while I was sleeping yesterday morning. Technically I could still wear them, but I'd have to wear pants underneath as these jeans now fit into the 'chaps' category.

Waking up an hour before my alarm went off, to find Jackman eating my pants, then sleeping through my alarm, really put me in a pleasant place yesterday. They day did turn out nicely though, spent a good portion of it letting my puppy run around at my parents farm while I chatted with my parents.

It's about time I start getting ready for work, so I will leave you folks with that.

I don't have any pictures but I will leave you with this nice little thought:

Happy travels all!
Just remember, if it weren't for all this snow we wouldn't be so excited for the sun to come back.
:)

Peace&Love

Chow

What Life is all about

Life is all about irony.
That's what I'm going with. That and Murphy's law.
The week I'm (extra) busy is the week I get sick. Stupid headcold. Making me talk funny and be whiny.
Bah Humbug.
On another note, coaching is almost coming to a break  for the season. As much as I love it, I could use two weeks off.
It's always weird not being on the ice, but patio season will be arriving sooner than we think and that is my favourite season.
Aside from fall, I also love fall. Because of the crunchy leaves, crisp air, and spectrum of bee-u-t-full colours.

Hoping to get this Saturday off, because I should get a day off, and Jason wants to go to the home and garden show.
At this rate though I'm going to end up calling in sick anyway. Haven't done that in years. It's like a vicious spiral. When I'm sick, I'm tired, when I'm tired I'm... teary. As in I just saw an Ikea Kitchen commercial and was about to start crying.
I probably shouldn't leave the house. But I will anyway because that's more entertaining, and clearly I should be sharing all this joy I have.

I don't have a lot of effort to spare in continuing to write, so I'm going to leave you that little snippet for now.

And I think my laptop is about to die to.

Peace&Love

Chow

"Do you believe what you are saying?"

The only problem with it snowing, is Jackman wants to go out and play in it... constantly.
Other than that, it's beautiful.

So this morning while cruisin' the internets and drinking my coffee I've seen pictures of pizza and chocolate cake.
All I want is pizza and chocolate cake. I haven't ate anything yet and I'm already disappointed with any other food I'm going to have today.

I decided to clean my house yesterday so it wouldn't bug me the rest of the week. It looks great. I dusted, did the dishes cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed the main floor/stairs/upstairs/, mopped, cleaned the bathrooms and did the laundry. I'm pretty proud of myself. Oh and I took out the garbage. I have to say, that was a very productive morning.

Now I don't have the will power to even go put clothes on yet. I might have used all of my productiveness up in one day. Oops.

Our neighbours moved out recently. Actually they fled. Apparently they left two trailer loads of sh*t behind to clean up (the poor landlords), and now they have to FULLY renovate the place to make it rentable again.
I had an idea it was messy, but the neighbour was pretty nice so I'm a little surprised. Though it was a single dad with between 4-6 kids. And a rotating door of roommates/babysitters. At any given night I think there was upwards of 7 people living in that house. Plus a big dog. Quite a modgepodge of just everything.
But now that they're gone all the construction going on next door is a little loud. The walls are so paper thin I feel like they're tearing down our place half the time. And I'm definitely a fan of the table saw on my front porch. I narrowly missed walking out my door while it was being used yesterday.
Can't wait to have a place with a little more privacy. Soon. And a yard. Jack needs a yard. (As I typed that Jackman actually came and sat on me because I was ignoring his request to go frolic in snow). Really needs a yard.

I think it's time for me to start getting ready for work. Or at least go start my car. Fun Fact for the day: I'm too short to brush of my Escape. Yup.

Peace&Love


Chow

Monday

I am very conflicted on how I feel about Monday's.
On one hand, this was my only sleep in day this week, so that's awesome.
On the other hand, it's still Monday...

It is super nice outside today, so Jackman and I took advantage of it and played at the park.
Last time we went and it was really cold out, there were a bunch of people and pups there. Today, there  was just me and Jack.

I had a little sit down, enjoyed the weather, and made sure to soak up a little of the sunshine. Jack lost the ball we brought, but found two new balls. I would say we both had a pretty good time.

Now Jack's passed out and sleeping, and I'm off to start another week of coaching. In all fairness, I think he has the better deal.

I may write more later, so stick around.

At the park...

After the park. :)

Peace&Love

Chow

Frosty walk with Jackman

Not much to do, not much to say.
Went for a walk, on a frosty cold day!

 

Peace&Love



Chow