I Made It To Maine.

I'm here. 

I made it safely.

You can stop worrying now. 

I didn't even have car problems. Nor did I have any problems at the border. It was a miracle, I tell you.

The weather has been beautiful and it's even in Fahrenheit! 

Not only that, but when I got gas and it was measured in gallons! 

I haven't seen a real life moose yet, so this lovely metal one will have to do for the time being.

This has nothing to do with anything. It was even taken in Maine. Tiffany and I went to Ben & Jerry's in New Hampshire the other day and tried out their new flavor, Clusterfluff. Holy guacamole. You've got to try it. Like tomorrow.

Anyway, I haven't been working out and today should be my final weigh-in, but that's just not going to happen. Why? Because I can't find a scale. Give me a break, I am in the middle of nowhere Maine right now. Scales aren't exactly a hot commodity around here. Therefore, we're just going to go ahead and assume I have met my goal. How you like them apples?

PS - My birthday is tomorrow and I have a sneaking suspicion there is an awesome birthday hat in my future. I'll get pictures, not to worry.

I'm Outta Here.

Now that the weather is finally acting like summer is approaching, I'm leaving town. That's right. Tomorrow I'm heading to Maine for the summer. You see, The Canadian and I spend our summers working at a camp in southern Maine. It's the perfect way to spend your summer, especially when you work for the school system. 

It's where we met during the summer of 2005. The Canadian was my boss at the time. I was the in charge of the water ski program and he was in charge of all the water activities (sailing, skiing, canoeing, kayaking, and swimming). I'm not sure if it is to his advantage or not, but now we're co-bosses. They didn't make me his partner in crime because we got married, more so because he was sick of me bossing him around unofficially. So now it's official.

Our camp is a beautiful. It is spread across of 150 acres of lake front property and is perfectly maintained. And I mean perfectly. Just try and find a piece of trash on the ground. See how well that goes.

We're not counselors, and haven't been for many years, so these days we live in our own little cabin that sits right on the lake. Nice, right? They even let us bring our pups. Hobie and Maple love it since they get to start every morning with a swim in the lake, whether I like it or not. 

Like I said, TC and I are in charge of the water activities. The Canadian's heart belongs to sailing. We have 16 boats and around 40 kids sailing at a time, 6 times a day. Yeah, it keeps him busy.

I, on the other hand, love waterskiing and wakeboarding. It's always an awesome staff of counselors that know how to have a good time. Plus, I grew up skiing with my family, skied all through college and spent my college summers as a water ski instructor. It's in my blood.

We spend our days teaching kids how to ski, slalom, wakeboard, wake surf and kneeboard. We also throw in a bit of tubing and sand castle building to keep things interesting.

Not to mention, we get to spend our days driving some serious boats. We're getting new MasterCrafts this year and I can't wait to see them. Ya know why? Because I got to pick out the color scheme. That's right. I'm important like that.

Aside form the waterfront, camp is a pretty normal place. For example, we dress up in blue and green and have major color wars. Because 400 people dressed in green and blue while competing to see who can fill a bucket of water the fastest is normal -- We call this Bucket Brigade. 

We do lots of other normal things for color wars too. Like filling giant tubs with blue and green jello to roll around in. Of course, you only roll in the jello after you've had your turn rolling around in ice. That way the jello sticks even better. 

My point is that I'm leaving tomorrow. Camp is a busy place where we work 15 hour days at the very least. That leaves little time for blogging. Oh, I'm sure I'll manage to get in a quick update here and there but there won't be any rhyme or reason to my timing. So please, don't give up on me. Keep checking back. I'll do my best to keep you abreast of the chaos. At the very least I'll be back in late August. Don't hate. I can't help it. It's just that camp is one of my favorite places on Earth. For pete's sake, it is where I met The Canadian. I'll take plenty of photos and collect plenty of fun stories from camp and from our other adventures around New England. Just stick with me.

So while I'm excited to go to camp, I will be missing TC for the next month until he joins me in Maine. (I won't be missing the construction in my house). But let's not lose focus here. The really important thing is that I AM GOING BACK TO MY COUNTRY tomorrow. USA, here I come!

And for those of you that care, today they tore apart our bathroom.

When they were tearing down the ceiling a few things fell from above the sheet rock. Normal things, like a log and a set of blinds. Seriously, how did a log and blinds get in my ceiling??

Gee, I'm so bummed I'll be missing out on the rest of the construction fun.

Til next time!

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Workout: Cardio - 45 minutes, Weights - triceps, back, legs, abs (good thing today was an intense work out because it's going to be my last for a while. wish my thighs luck.)

A Day in My Life: Construction, Sailboats and Dead Batteries.

The Canadian and I are still living in our (tiny) guest room because the rest of the house is either under construction to repair some water damage or full of the furniture from the rooms that are under construction. It's really fun to try and shimmy down the hallway that is lined with our bedroom furniture and then move the bed to get into the living room which is full of the dining room furniture. 

When I left the house this morning our bedroom looked like this. 

When I got home from work this afternoon it looked like this.

And have I mentioned that in the midst of all this chaos I'm trying to get ready to leave for Maine for the next three months? Because I am. These conditions aren't exactly conducive to packing and organizing. Granted, I'm only packing for myself and the dogs right now. But still... The Canadian won't be joining me in Maine for another month. He has to stay here and deal with the mess. Plus, he has this little thing called work that gets in the way of our summer plans sometimes.

As I mentioned before, there is really nowhere comfortable to go inside so Hobie and I sat outside while Maple played in the yard for a bit. And by play, I mean she tormented the neighbor's dog for a while before I dragged her butt back inside.

I also came home to find this lovely accessory sitting in our driveway. The workers tried to avoid bringing in a dumpster but there is just too much insulation and stuff that needs to be removed so they had to break out the big guns.

See what I mean? This is just what was removed from our bedroom today.

I finally left and went to the gym for a while. I was feeling good and ready to tackle the job of packing but my car decided it didn't really feel like going anywhere when I went to leave the gym. That's always a good thing to have happen two days before you embark on an 8 hour road trip. Thankfully, TC and Andrew were able to come to my rescue.

When the boys came to rescue me they had been working on the boat. Like that's a normal thing to do in the middle of the road on a Wednesday afternoon.

Out of the Blue (OOTB) is John's J24 sailboat that they all crew and race on. We live right near the water so the boys log plenty of hours racing this beauty during the summer.

The first big race of the year is this coming weekend in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Today they had an important job to do. There's this little part of the boat called the mast - apparently it has to go on the boat before it can race. Something about holding up the sail, I think. 

(Note: I'm just kidding. I totally know all the parts of a sailboat. Don't you?)

There is also some sanding to be done but they didn't exactly get around to that today. 

Hey, Captain John! OOTB is looking good. Please try not to capsize this weekend. And try not to let anyone fall overboard. I'll be worrying the entire time. Great. Thanks.

Oh, Andrew...please try not to drop Tyler on his head. Thanks.

Anyway, I finally made it back home after the unexpected car debacle and the OOTB photo opp and found our bedroom had almost been put back into one piece...minus the wall and ceiling. But at least it's not full of insulation.

Now it can be used as my dumping ground while I sort through my wardrobe and attempt to pack the proper clothes to survive Maine's crazy weather patterns.

Wish me luck.

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Workout: Cardio - 50 minutes, Weights - legs, biceps, shoulders, abs 


6 days until the big 3-0. Will I make it? I'm going to channel my inner Little Engine That Could. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

The Niece's Birthday.

I'm really enjoying this being an aunt thing. I get to see my niece once a week at Sunday dinners and for an hour or so she completely entertains me. This weekend we got to see her twice since we celebrated her 2nd birthday on Saturday.

We scored big time with our gift. I think they may need to install a permanent lawn mower track around the kitchen and dining room. I bet she's logged close to one hundred laps by now. That's no small feat when your legs are that short.

Her pink lawn mower has a secret power too. It blows bubbles. The bubble maker wasn't working very well on the hard wood floors but her fun-loving uncle showed her how to make it work.

I should probably go ahead and apologize to my sister-in-law now for all the dents and scuff marks that will be covering her walls and dining room table. Oopps.

Eventually, the bubble solution started leaking and got all over her feet. 

Good thing The Canadian was near by to remedy the situation.

She also got a super cool rocking horse. It took some figuring out but she eventually got the hang of it. Please notice Spider Man in the background. He may be the happiest child I have ever laid eyes on.

He enjoyed the pony too.

Making me proud, she promptly opened up all of her new clothes and tried them on. The new sandals and hat stayed on all afternoon. She's an accessories kind of gal.

I even managed to get her to sit still for a split second so I could snap a photo of her in the new pink hat. Okay, fine. She's staring at her goofy uncle and it took me about 1,000 attempts to get this picture.

The Canadian decided to give her a quick piano lesson while we were there. It would have been much more productive if he actually knew how to play the piano. She's scratching her head already. Maybe TC should have paid more attention to his piano lessons when he was a kid.

She eventually tore herself away from the lawn mower and the piano just in time to lick some frosting off a cupcake. Again, a girl after my own heart. She's going to go far in life.

At our weekly family dinner on Sunday she was sporting her other new hat and the matching dress.

It seemed like the perfect weather for mastering the art of steps so she went up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down...over and over and...you get the idea. It was like the Stair Master for toddlers. Even I didn't get that good of a workout on Sunday. 

I wish I was just turning two and not looking down the barrel of (gulp) 30. It's a whole new decade. It's all old sounding and non-young and basically non-fun. Wishing to be two years old again may be a bit of an exaggeration but 26 sounds like a nice round number. Hell, I'll even take 29 again. Maybe that's what I'll do. I'll just ignore my birthday next week and stay 29. I'll pretend my birthday doesn't exist. But if I do that will I still get my presents?? Hmmm...I'm may have to noodle on this one. I'm thinking The Canadian has something exciting up his sleeve so it may be worth getting old...I'll get back to you.

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Workout: Cardio - 105 minutes (2 spin classes and a 10 minute warmup on the elliptical) 

So, I thought my final weigh-in was today. I don't know where I got that idea. The deal was to lose the weight by my birthday which is next Wednesday, which means I still have a whole week left. Thank God for small favors because I was unsuccessful this past week. It was a long weekend and there was lots of BBQing, eating out, drinking, and 3 birthday cakes. 

Week 12 Weigh-In: 0 pounds lost. 0 pounds gained. Hallelujah. I feel like I've gained about 10 pounds.

Total Lost: 17 pounds

Remaining: 3 pounds by next week!! It's about to get tricky because I'm leaving this weekend to head to Maine for the whole summer. There is no gym, there is no time. There is only an unrelenting appetite fueled by days spent in the hot sun, manual labor and hard work. I don't know what is going to happen but we should all start praying now. Thanks.

Dining Room Rubble and Retail Therapy.

Today was a national holiday here in Canada and that means one thing -- long weekend! Victoria Day is the Canadian version of Memorial Day, in case you were wondering. I should have been sleeping in and heading out to the pool or something but instead a whole crew of workers rang the doorbell at 8am on the dot. Wasn't that nice of them? The crew was here to begin work on our house which sustained major water damage over the winter from all of the ice on the roof. Over the course of the next few weeks they will be ripping out 5 ceilings and 4 walls throughout our house. To be exact; our walk-in pantry, the laundry room, the dining room, the bedroom and the kitchen ceilings, the dining room wall and 2 bedroom walls. That's basically every room in the house save the living room (which is now full of furniture and uninhabitable). No biggie. Oh, and the floor of our sun room. 

Work started with the dining room this morning. It looked like this when the furniture was removed. Please note that is a brand new paint job on the walls...done by yours truly just a few months ago.





The nice man was kind enough to promptly remove the world's ugliest lighting fixture. I consider this the perfect opportunity to replace it with a fun new chandelier.





Within the hour our dining room ceiling was reduced to a pile of insulation and rotted wood and plaster about two feet deep.





Bye, Mr. Ceiling. Check ya later, dude.





Then the exterior wall came down and The Canadian and I decided it was time to leave the premises before we had a complete meltdown.

So we went to breakfast. I'm happy to report that I passed on the eggs benny and went with the healthier option of a poached egg and a mountain of fruit. Just in case you were wondering...





After breakfast we were driving aimlessly around town with nothing to do because every single store is closed today, including the grocery store and Home Depot. The Canadian and I are mildly obsessed with the TV shows Auction Kings and Auction Hunters so when we saw a sign advertising an auction we decided to stop. Actually, The Canadian decided to stop. I rolled my eyes, sucked it up and followed him inside with minimal amounts of whining. It seemed like a bunch of crappy furniture at first and a lot of old people stuff that I just wasn't into. But then I noticed a Tiffany lamp and decided I needed one of those fun paddles to wave in the air at the auctioneer. So, I became #14 and then everything quickly went down hill.





I missed out on my beloved Tiffany lamp for $30 because 1. I don't know how to bid properly and 2. the auctioneer was blind. So instead I set my sights on this awesome mint green chair. Okay, it's ugly as sin but a quick paint job will spruce it right up and then it can replace my broken desk chair. For $9, I'm sold. Actually, I thought I had it at $5 but some old lady up'd the bid to $7 and then I was forced to put her in her place.





I don't know what came over me next but I suddenly, out of nowhere bid $15 on this awesome Gerber multi-tool. I didn't even see it up close. I just had to have it. I'm a badass like that. I swear I have a genuine use for it though. It will definitely come in handy next week when I head to Maine for my summer job. I promise.





I think TC was feeling a bit left out so he took another lap around the merchandise and decided to bid on our new and totally awesome trunk. I don't know what on Earth he's going to put in it, but I figured I'd let him have some fun with the bidding paddle too.





At this point we were beginning to have a pile of stuff building up so we just kept going. We also scored this ancient 8,000 pound full length mirror. It's solid walnut and is so old that it has hand-made nails holding it together. Since we don't currently have a full length mirror I figure it will save me from a broken ankle when I eventually fall off the bathtub ledge where I teeter every morning trying to look at my pants and shoes in the little mirror. Definitely worth the $20 bucks.





Now we were really getting the hang of things and realized that the jewelry was going for outrageously low prices. I'm talking gold ruby rings for $30. Melting the gold alone would bank at least a couple hundred bucks.  I don't really have time for that nonsense but I fell in love with this topaz ring and decided that I must have it. You know, for all the galas that I go to. I have no idea if it's worth $10 or $400 and I don't really care. All that matters is that it is AWESOME, sparkly and I got it for nothing. And I love it. Amen.

So, while we lost a part of our home we managed to gain stuff. I'd say that is a fair trade. And seriously, is there a better way to calm yourself than a little retail therapy? I think not.

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Workout: Nothing. I know, I know. It's the day before my final weigh-in, but I went to the gym and didn't have my shoes and by the time I would have made it home and dug out my shoes from all the rubble I would have been late for the Victoria Day BBQ at Serge's house. Self-sabatoge? Maybe. Oh well.