Happy Valentines Day!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentines Day! I really enjoy this time of year. I wish I could send you all homemade sugar cookies with pink icing and a paper valentine heart with sticky glitter all over it.

February 14th is also Dean and I's wedding anniversary. I feel blessed on a daily basis to have such a good companion. He is my Eternal Valentine! Here is an old pictures of us on our wedding day! Hope you take the time to show someone that you love them on Valentines Day.

Run, run, run as fast as you can...

As I'm sitting here trying to think of something clever to write I am reminded of my junior high gym classes. I don't know what your gym teachers were like? Probably really cool, right? which made gym your favorite subject. Well my gym teachers were not cool. They were pretty lazy actually. For several winter months they would have us change into our gym strip and turn on Dance Music Hits from the 90's. Then make us run the whole gym period in circles around the gymnasium. And if we stopped running they would yell at us (that was whenever they looked up from their magazine). I think this is where my great disdain for running stems. I have been doing a lot of running in the last 3 weeks and I can't say my love for it has grown.

I decided to do a triathlon. I will be turning 30 years old this year and I thought if I wait any longer to do this I may inflict serious injuries on myself. I have wanted to do a triathlon for a awhile now. I enjoy swimming and biking but running not so much. I have convinced Dean to do the triathlon with me. And no, we will not be doing the the full Olympic distance. I think I would seriously die if I did that... ok at least puke -a lot! We will be doing what they call the Sprint distance. It is a 750 m swim, 26 km bike and 5 km run. That's long enough, right? For running we are using a training plan we found called: "Couch potato to 5K". We thought it sounded perfect for us :) So far, so good. It is a gradual training over 8 weeks and the goal is to get us running for the full 5K. Of course we are doing this all on a treadmill right now and I have been warned that running on pavement is completely different. We run Monday, Wednesday and Friday -increasing the intensity every week. On the days in between we weight train to build our core strength and muscle tone. Dean is much better at this all than I am. I just throw around the kettle bell for 20 mins and barely break a sweat. Meanwhile, after Dean works out he looks like he had a shower with his cloths on! Dean is very committed. Once he sets his mind to something there is no stopping him -very determined that man. No wonder where our son gets his determination?!

We found a biking/running trail near home that is 5Km and will be a great place to do some outdoor training when the snow melts. Dean's Aunt generously gave us a bike/running stroller, so maybe the Bean will do some training with us. We haven't decided how to train for the swim yet but luckily the race is not until July, so we've got time. Any suggestions?

I'm sure my view of this triathlon is very romanticized. You know... running into the water with a swimming cap that matches my swim suit, black numbers tattooed to my toned, tanned skin. Then picking up my bike and seamlessly mounting it. Running for the full 5Kms while splashing water in my face from the water station. Then running across the finish line to a crowd of family and friends cheering for me. And being in the top 10 to finish!

In reality I will probably have an ill fitting swim suit with cellulite bulging. And I can guarantee I will not have tanned skin. In fact I will probably blind the other contestants with the whiteness of my skin. I'm sure I will be confused at one of the transition areas not knowing where to go or what to do. Hopefully, it won't be from the swim to bike and I won't get on someone else's bike and ride for 15 kms before I'm waved down. I pray I'll have energy to actually run for part of the running. And I'm sure anyone who comes to support me will tire of waiting for me, that they'll miss me crossing the finish line as the last contestant.

Happy 20-10!

I guess this post is a little late but here it is:

Christmas this year was nice. We decided to Secret Santa someone, which was fun trying to be all sneaky and to not get caught. It was hard deciding what to do. I really wanted to participate in the adopt a family program here in Calgary, where people or businesses gather food and gifts for families in need. But they said it costs $400-500 dollars for one basket, so not something we could of done on our own this year. I think maybe if we got a couple families together it would be fun but I wasn't that organized this year. I think next year Dean, Em and I will each pick a nice winter coat to purchase and donate it to the Mustard Seed here in Calgary. I learned that the Mustard Seed gives out winter coats to the homeless folks who come in on Christmas day. I wish I had known earlier but we had already decided to do the Secret Santa. It was fun and I realized that there are a lot of ways to serve others during the Christmas season. I guess the challenge is keeping that service spirit going through out the year.

We spent most of the holiday at home with each other or with my side of the family. Dean offered to prepared a smoked pork shoulder for Christmas dinner instead of the traditional turkey. He got a smoker for his birthday in June and has been trying recipes out here and there. It has become one of his new obsessions... at least he's good at it and it puts food on the table :) Everyone agreed that it would be OK to not have the traditional bird but I think when it came time to serve up and there were no mashed potatoes or candied yams, that my family were a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong I think they enjoyed it and Dean did a superb job! We served in on buns and had 3 or 4 different salads with it. I was surprised that the family even agreed to have pork instead of turkey. I guess it's hard to break tradition. Anyway, Dean spent over 12 hours working on the meat. He barely slept Christmas eve and not because he was putting together some ridiculous toy for Em (although I'm sure those years are coming). He was tending to his other baby... his pork baby. He has done a pork shoulder before but used a different method this time by injecting juices into it. It was so yummy! I'm just sorry we didn't have more left overs.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday and got some time to reflect on the last year and its blessings. Here are some pictures/highlights of our holidays:

Dean tending to his baby on Christmas eve.

I got a replacement of my favorite CD.
I love this sound track so much that I wore out the old one.
We went for a winter walk with the Bean's new sled on Boxing Day.
I was trying to show him how to throw snow but in the end he liked watching me throw snow better than actually doing it.
Emerson in front of the house making a funny face.
I think he has already learned to pose for the camera.
What a guy!

Catch Up

I haven't given up on the blog... I'm just feeling like I don't have anything interesting to write. I think the only two people who check this blog are my sister (thank you Mandy) and my mother-in-law (thank you Gladys). But for the sake of those two dearly loved people (and who ever else might be reading) I will press forward and try to keep the blog alive :)

I started back to work last month. I am very blessed to only have to go back part-time. And even more blessed to find a job only 15 mins away from home working evenings and weekends. We prayed hard that I'd find a job that required minimal childcare. We had several wonderful offers from great people to watch Emerson. But in the end Dean is able to watch him for most of my shifts. My sister has looked after him on the odd Sunday I have to work, while Dean stays to do tithing at church. I am working at an after hours clinic that sees patients who need to be seen urgently but not necessarily in the ER. I am really enjoying it. I like the people I work with and its nice to get out of the house and be "Megan the nurse" for a few hours. We have adjusted OK. If Emerson and I haven't got a lot of cuddle time in on a day, then he usually cries when I put my coat on to go to work but it doesn't last long. He quickly realizes that Papa is there with him and he lets him get into trouble a bit more than mom does, as well as doesn't make him eat as many vegetables as mom does. I think the hardest part is that quality time together for Dean and I is significantly lower but to everything there is a time and a season, right? We will need to be sure to sneak in date nights every once and awhile and have to try to avoid unessecary obligations.

Well I will try to post some festive pictures in the next couple of days. That's all for now.

We have a one year old!

Emerson turned 1 year old on Sunday. I can't believe a year has passed so quickly. We had a birthday party for him and it was crazy! We had 15 adults and 6 children over! I will admit that I'll never invite that many people over again. Not until we have a house with a larger living area anyway. But it was a good time and lots of fun! Emerson loved every minute of it. Here are a bunch of pictures:

The farm animal themed Cake!

The anticipation...

We didn't get any pictures of him with the candle lit.
Emerson's older cousin was so excited and blew the candle
out the second the cupcake hit the tray!

He was very interested in the candle...

...but even more interested in the cake!

Yum! That's good stuff!
The Birthday Boy!

One Year Old Emerson.

Here comes Christmas

I think Christmas comes earlier in Canada. We are closer to the north pole! I have been feeling the Christmas spirit all week. I don't put my decorations up until December usually but I'm tempted to get out a Christmas CD.

I want to do a special act of service this year and make it a yearly family tradition. One year when we were kids we delivered little treats to a family that correlated to the 12 days of Christmas and it was so much fun! I also know of a family that participates in an event where you dress up like elves and hop on a city bus full of donated gifts and food to deliver it to people in need. I think that would be fun! Dean says its too "public" for him. He wants to do something more anonymous.

Does anyone have any ideas? Or can you share what you do?

Halloween

I was pretty excited about Emerson's first Halloween. Our ward had a Halloween activity and a "Trunk or Treat" on the 31st. My sister had her annual Halloween party the weekend prior to Halloween. We all dressed up like a TV star and decorated haunted gingerbread houses. So fun!

However last week I decided it would be a good idea for Em and I to get the H1N1 vaccine. This is because I am back to work at a clinic where I see a lot of patients infected with H1N1. It took a good amount of thought (and prayer) to decide to get the vaccine. We usually don't get the flu shot because I think it is unnecessary for healthy people and why expose yourself to more chemicals than you have to. Having done my research I realize the H1N1 is very unpredictable and can seriously harm even the most healthy person. Anyway, we got our shots and other than recovering from the 2.5 hour wait, we did fine. Then last Friday Emerson got very sick. It is most likely the flu... maybe the H1N1, maybe the seasonal flu. I'm not sure where he got it for sure but I'm guessing it was in the line waiting for his shot. There were a few dark days where he wouldn't eat or drink anything but we're on the mend.

So no Halloween-ing for Mr. Bean :( I put his little skeleton shirt on him and took some pictures just so that we could have them. We didn't even carve a pumpkin! Sad, eh? I guess the good thing is that Emerson will not even remember missing his first Halloween. Here are some pictures.

Dean's decorating is usually quite superb. This year he made:
"A Graveyard Collision: Zombies Arise"

This is my mom (heaven bless her) dressed up as Beth from the TV show
"Dog the Bounty Hunter".


Dean dressed up as Jeremy Clarkson from the British TV show "Top Gear".


My sister dressed up as SNL star Stuart Smally.

We also had Hannah Montana (my costume), Ninja #3 from a Chuck Norris movie, Hal and Joanne from Body Break (Canadian fitness Gurus), Deanna Troi from Star Trek, and Liz Lemon from 30 Rock. We didn't get as many pictures as we wanted because we had Emerson with us and left the party early to get him home to bed. Sorry!

Emerson's skeleton smile.

Emerson has discovered that he can take lids off and on,
so his new favorite toy is an empty bottle.