My Weekend in Snapshots {Florida Edition}

It's weird posting a weekend recap while on vacation because all the days feel like Saturday, with nothing to distinguish one day from another except for things like BINGO night (Tuesday nights), and about a million posts on Instagram reminding me that today is in fact Monday, and not Sunday, thank you Cyber Monday.

If you've been following along on our Florida adventures (#thefrasersvisitflorida) over on Instagram, then I apologize if a few of these are repeats, but nevertheless, here's a few snapshots from the fun we got up to over the past few days.

1. I'm counting Thursday as part of the weekend, since technically, down here, it was a long weekend (not that you'd ever know a long weekend from a regular one when you live in a retirement community!), and we celebrated with a full Thanksgiving dinner. Jim's dad cooks a mean turkey and even better stuffing, so getting to have this meal a second time this year where someone cooks it for you, was just plain awesome.

2.  On Friday we spent the evening walking along the beach as the sun was starting to go down. Sully loved walking in the water and wasn't afraid of the waves at all (which I'm not sure is a good thing yet since I'm pretty confident he would run right into the ocean if we let him!).

3.  The weather here in Florida has been exceptional, with the past several days in the high 20s (low 80s for you American folk), and we've been sure to get over to the pool on a few separate occasions. Jim and I even snuck over for a few hours while Sully napped on Saturday which means I finally had time to pick up my book! I felt this title was very fitting for bringing with me on vacation.

4.  Saturday nights are a popular time to head down to the beach as everyone gathers around while people drum in a big circle. Families bring chairs, wine and snacks, and children run around dancing and playing. It's a lot of fun and this weekend's sunset also didn't disappoint.

5. On Sunday, Jim and I ran out to a few stores on our own, making sure to include a stop at Trader Joe's. In Canada, Chapters is my happy place, in America, Trader Joe's does it for me. We stocked up on groceries for the week and I made sure to grab some of my favourite non-perishable items to take back to Canada with me.

We still have another week left in paradise and I'm now at the point where I'm trying to will time to slow down. The sun sets here early (which is no different than back home), but it definitely makes the days feel short. I'm not ready to come back to the freezing temperatures!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Thinking Out Loud {#5}: I Heart America

For today's Thinking Out Loud post, I'm talking about my love for all things American:

1. Don't get me wrong, I love my country, but whenever I'm down in the states, it's hard not to get a bit jealous of all the things they have that I want frequent access to. And don't even try and tell me that the novelty would wear off, because buying groceries at Trader Joe's couldn't possibly ever get old. Or choosing between 15 flavours of peanut butter. Or buying beer and wine for the cost of a coffee. No, those things will never, ever get old for me, my friends.

2. Speaking of stores in America that we don't have…walking through Target yesterday was so bittersweet. On the one hand, I was like a kid in a candy store (or a mom in Target, haha), filling up my cart as I explored every aisle. It was the best, and I wished I had unlimited luggage space and unlimited funds to buy ALL THE THINGS. But I couldn't help feeling a mix of anger and sadness at the fact that Target couldn't make it in Canada. What is wrong with Canadians that we couldn't support this store!? I know the Canadian version wasn't exactly the same as the American ones, but it was still a great store. It definitely filled that gap between Winners and high-end stores. RIP Canadian Target.

3. Have you guys ever shopped at Publix grocery store? Second to Trader Joe's, it is my favourite grocery store down here. I can't even explain why except it seems like everything is on sale whenever we go!

4. And you know what was on sale when we went the other day? These amazing Chobani flip yogurt snacks. (A dollar a piece!). I ate two different flavours before I took this picture, and I will definitely be going back for more. My question is though, how will I be able to go back to eating regular old yogurt after this?

5. In hindsight, it's probably a good thing, for both my waistline and my wallet, that I don't have regular access to American grocery stores. Because delicious things like this come home with me. Only my favourite cookie ever, which I only get to enjoy when I fly with Westjet. And just when you thought chewing was too hard, there's a "peanut butter" version.

6. In an effort to counteract all the extra calories I will be consuming during our time down here, I joined my mother-in-law and father-in-law for aerobics this morning. I'm usually a bit of sloth on vacation, preferring the pool lounger to exercise, but I'm trying to make the most of the extra sets of hands for toddler wrangling I have here. There's even a full gym here which I'm working up the motivation to go and use. I didn't waste luggage space with workout clothes for nothing!

7. The retired folk in Florida have it made, and whenever I'm here, I'm reminded of how much of a retired person I am at heart. Jim jokes that I already fit right in…besides the pool and gym, the community here is full of all my favourite activities - shuffle board, mini-golf, ping-pong, billiards, BINGO night, movie night, there's a library, an endless supply of jig-saw puzzles (my favourite!), plus a full schedule of daily activities that residents can join in on at any time. When can I move in?!

Confession: I basically stop eating, drinking or sleeping when I'm working on a jig-saw puzzle, which is why I only do them while on vacation now. I have issues, I know.

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends! I'm happy to report we will be celebrating with turkey dinner today!


Linking up (as always!) with Amanda from Running With Spoons!

Do you work out when on vacation?

Canadians: what's your favourite store in American that we don't have in Canada?; 

Americans: favourite grocery store?

Favourite "retired person" activity? 

Hello, From Florida!

Hi, friends!

In case you missed the memo, on Sunday, we packed our bags, said goodbye to the snow, and hopped on a plane to Florida! It seems like ages ago we booked our tickets and I thought the day would never arrive. But here we are, chilling with Jim's folks in their retirement community for the next two weeks.

Do pictures of palm trees ever get old? I hope not, because I just love palm trees. A sight I will never tire of.

This is our third time down here visiting them, but out first time with a third wheel. Luckily, we were able to snag a direct flight and even splurged for upgraded seats (probably not worth the money, but we made sure to consume copious amounts of free food, snacks, Cesar's and beers during the flight!). Sully was a trooper on the flight and even rewarded us with a two hour nap on my lap (who is this kid?).

The weather in Florida has been lovely, but not overly hot. The humidity always takes me by surprise when I get here, and I could feel my skin slurping up the moisture almost immediately after getting off the plane. Gone are my dry hands and lips, and even my pre-vacation breakouts are almost cleared up! Am I the only one that gets the most massive, needs-its-own-zip-code, pimple before vacation?! Ugh.

On our way to Jim's parent's home, we stopped to eat dinner at Cracker Barrel, which has become a bit of a tradition.

Mmm, tarter sauce! This kid never fails to crack me up.

Our vacation's with Jim's folks always consist of a lot of eating, shopping, relaxing and playing games. And by shopping, I mean checking out all the cool stores we don't have in Canada. Like Publix, my second favourite grocery store after Trader Joe's, Kohl's, and Target (RIP Canadian version).

I also turn into a woman of retirement as soon as I come here because basically everything retired people do here, I love. Jigsaw puzzles - check. Bingo - check. Read, lay by the pool, and drive around in a golf cart - check, check, check!

Jim's Uncle Keith and Aunt Ethel have a golf cart down here and Sully thinks it's the best thing ever. He drives around and around with his Papa, a big grin plastered on his face.

We had our first pool day of many today!

It was a bit chilly with the wind, but we Canadians are tough (as evidenced by the lack of anyone else at the pool!).


P.S. If you want to follow along on some of our vacation fun and adventures, I post daily on my Instagram account and my snapchat (user name: slicebrie)!

Flu Fighter Smoothie

This past week, I've been battling another cold. That's two already this fall! Besides my usual arsenal of upping my vitamin D intake, drinking hot water with lemon and honey, and trying to get to bed at a decent time, my go-to remedy has been a smoothie packed with vitamin C and ginger.

This smoothie is so delicious that I'd be lying if I said I didn't drink it regularly, regardless of whether or not I'm feeling under the weather.

I'm also a big fan of it because I generally have all the ingredients (which there aren't many of), in my fridge at all times. Did you know you can keep your fresh ginger in the freezer and then just pull it out and grate it as you need it? This way it's always possible to have ginger on hand. Plus, I actually find it grates nicer when it's frozen.

Next time you're feeling run-down, or craving a glass of orange juice, go ahead and make this smoothie. It feels like you are indulging, but really you're just giving your immune system a nice boost.


Flu Fighter Smoothie
(slightly adapted from The Oh She Glows Cookbook)


Makes approximately two servings

1 cup orange juice
2 oranges, peeled
1 tsp fresh, grated ginger
2 tbsp lemon juice (fresh if you have it)
1 tbsp maple syrup
6 ice cubes


Add all the ingredients into a high-speed blender in the order they are listed. Blend until smooth. Enjoy!

It is possible to make this smoothie without orange juice, if you have a powerful enough blender. I just prefer to use orange juice if I have it on hand as it yields more smoothie as a result. And since this smoothie is so delicious, that's a good thing!

 

*affiliate links have been used

Weekending: Can I have a do over?

It's been a trying weekend, my friends. I have no fun recap, no snapshots to share. Just some honest words and feelings that I need to get off my chest.

Friday started out as a great day. Sully and I had his baby bookworm class at a new-to-us library, and he had a blast in the class. Usually when we are at this class he sits quietly on my lap the entire time, watching the other children run around instead of joining in. On Friday though, I must have put on his big boy pants, because he was up and about, galloping and dancing, showing everyone where his nose, eyes and mouth are, and continually tried to hug another little girl. This particular library also has an amazing play space which we spent some time in after the class. We left shortly before lunch so that we could get home in time for a nap.

Nap time has been an almost daily battle since day one. On a good day, he does go down easily and will sleep for an hour. An hour and half once in a blue moon. This past week though, I'm lucky if he naps for 20-30 minutes and even car naps are lasting less and less. Friday, despite being cranky, and showing all signs of needing a nap, Sully only slept for 20 minutes. He woke up a miserable, screaming mess, which tells me he needs to keep sleeping. But this stubborn little boy of mine wouldn't go back to sleep no matter what I tried. I wanted so desperately for him to get in a good nap since we had plans to go out for Pho to celebrate our anniversary.

By the time late afternoon rolled around, Sully was still cranky and I was exhausted and emotional. Every news article I saw and read about the Paris and Beirut attacks made me cry. I couldn't help but think, if this is what 21 months looks like, what will age 2 and 3 bring? How did I fail so terribly at teaching my son to nap?  Instead of wanting to celebrate my anniversary, all I wanted to do was go out somewhere by myself. We picked Jim up from the train station and then ordered Pho to take home to eat. Sully was in full melt-down mode by 6pm so we put him to bed before we ate. We gorged ourselves with Pho, salad rolls, spring rolls and beer. We were in bed by 10 p.m.  It was the first night I've gotten eight uninterrupted hours of sleep as Sully actually slept a solid 12 hours without waking us up once (also a rare occurrence lately).

Saturday morning I had a dentist appointment to get one of the sealants removed from my molar and to have a filling put in instead. Want a great way to ruin the rest of your day? Get some freezing done in your mouth. The right side of my mouth was sore and frozen for almost five hours and I felt exhausted from the procedure. From here on out, all and any dental work will be done in the evening so that I can just go straight to bed and sleep it off!

Of course, Saturday was another 30 minute nap day and I literally thought I was going to lose my mind. Jim had run out to return something at the store and I've never been so anxious for him to return home. At least the man was smart enough to come home with a coffee for me. Thinking that Sully would perhaps nap in the car, we drove to the Costco 30 minutes away from us. No naps, but at least he enjoyed being in Costco and bedtime shortly after we got home was a breeze.

Sunday I woke up with a cold brewing. Again. I would be more pissed about it except I'm just glad it's hitting me now and not the day before we leave for Florida. The only saving grace to this weekend was that I had a massage booked for today and it ended up being one of the best massages I've had in a long, long time. My RMT focused on my back, glutes and thighs and it was heavenly. Sometimes I don't realize how sore and tense I actually was until after I have a massage. When I arrived home, Jim had hung up all the outdoor Christmas lights while I was gone so maybe today doesn't need a do over*. Even Sully's had a pretty good day, rewarding us with a 45+ minute nap. Jim's making drumsticks for dinner (the best!), and if I squint, my house doesn't look that dirty.

In a week we'll be in Florida and this weekend will be but a distant memory.

Hope your weekend was better than mine!

*I take that back. I wrote this while Sully was napping. We had some Christmas lights extension cord issues so while Jim worked on that, I made the drumsticks while Sully threw tantrum number I've lost count. When we took him outside to show him the lights, he completely lost it because he wasn't interested in the lights, he only wanted to go for a walk in the pitch dark which obviously wasn't happening. God, we're horrible parents. I can't believe I'm saying this, but is it Monday yet?!

Four Years

Four years ago, we stood up before our closest friends and family, declared our love for each other and then partied the night away. Our destination wedding in Punta Cana was the best, most fun night of my life. Actually, the whole week was an absolute blast! Instead of just one day for the wedding, we got an entire week to spend with our loved ones, something that will probably never happen again. Every year around our anniversary I feel a little nostalgic for that vacation and wish we could relive the trip all over again. I will forever be grateful for our friends and family that travelled to spend our wedding week with us.

The last four years have been both short and long. We've done a lot; we've lived in a few different cities, worked a few different jobs, owned two different homes, had a baby, and travelled as often as we could. You never quite know where life will take you, but I know there isn't anyone else I would want to do life with.

Life can be full of wonderful, adrenaline producing, exciting moments, but there's also a lot of ordinary, less than exciting days. There are bad days. There are sick days. There are days you wish you could do-over. There are days when you are at your worst, and days when you are at your best. And then there are all those days in-between. My husband is someone I want around for all of these days. He's not just my husband - he's my best friend, my confidante, the father to my child, my shoulder to cry on, the one I vent my frustrations to, the one I want to share new and thrilling experiences with, the one I can be completely, one hundred percent myself around. He's the one I love most in this world (next to my son).

I don't know what our life will look like in another four years…where we will be living, if our family will have grown, what adventures we will experience, but it doesn't really matter because it's the journey to get there that counts, and I'm confident it will only make us that much stronger as a couple, as a family, and as friends.

Happy Anniversary, Jim! xoxo

Currently…{November}

Thinking about: the state that my house is in. Everywhere I look, there's clutter and things that need to be put away, but don't really seem to have a place to be put. We purged so much before our move to Calgary that it blows my mind how quickly it all accumulates again. We're also painting a lot of our walls as they were pretty banged up when we moved in. What a world of difference fresh paint makes, but the process always creates a bit of a mess. In a perfect world, this house would be clutter-free, painted, clean and organized before we head South on vacation next weekend.

Reading: I'm kind of in-between books now. Last week I had both of my book club meetings for the month and now we don't meet again until January. As much as I love book club, it's always a bit of a relief when I can choose to read whatever book I want. I think I will be starting The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende this week as I was sent an advanced readers copy of it and should probably get on it! But I'm also thinking about which books to take with me on vacation next weekend…any suggestions?

Listening to: this song on repeat (it puts a little bit of summer back into these chilly days):

Watching: We just started on season 5 of The Walking Dead the other night (we're 5 episodes into it now) and holy shit is this season ever intense!! Like, "cover my eyes, heart pounding, sleep with the lights on" kind of adrenaline. So good though. Jim started watching Schitt's Creek the other week (I refused to at the time thinking the show looked so dumb), and then he insisted I watch the first episode because he was convinced I would like it. Well, let me tell you - this show is so funny - and not that lame slap-stick, laugh track "comedy" junk. Daniel Levy (who some of you might remember from MTV's, The Hills After Show) is brilliant in it. Plus, it's pretty cool that the show is Canadian and stars some very talented Canadian actors. The episodes are only 21 minutes long, so give it a shot!

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Eating: I'm trying to clean up my act, I really am, but I'm so weak when it comes to sweets, and chips, and beer. And basically anything that's bad for me on a regular basis. And I know, why do I even bring these things into the home? Because I'm even weaker at the grocery store! I am trying to start the day out right with a bowl of steel cut oats and I'm trying to keep mindless snacking to a minimum. It's the evenings I struggle with most. That's when I want all the junk food.

Wearing: I find the transition from wearing flats and sneakers to all of a sudden having to wear socks and boots hard. It totally changes a look and sometimes I'm not sure how to pull it all off. Don't get me wrong, I love boot-wearing weather, but I just think some of my pants look better without boots. On another, somewhat related note, watching this guy experience his first real snow day was pretty must the best thing ever (how cute are toddlers in snowsuits?!). He now points out "'no" everywhere we go.

Looking forward to: Florida!! We leave next Sunday, and while my to-do list is a mile long, I am so excited to escape the cold and be on vacation with Jim and Sully for two whole weeks. I just wish our dollar wasn't doing so poorly - it's hard not to shop when we're down there!

Your turn: tell me something you're looking forward to? 

What book should I take on vacation with me? 

Current favourite song?

My Weekend in Snapshots

Five snapshots that captured how we spent our weekend:

1. On Friday night, I went to my second book club meeting of my new book club. What I like about this particular book club, which is different from my last ones, is that we go to a new restaurant each month. This is a nice treat for me as we don't eat out very often and it's a neat way to experience new restaurants. We dined at a Lebanese restaurant, and while my meal was tasty, the prices were ridiculously high for the amount of food we got. And let's not even talk about how the pita bread was served in the original bag it came in from the grocery store. Not much irks me more than overpriced family restaurants trying to pass as fine dining establishments.

2. Confession: I love taking the bottles into the bottle depot. It's something I've been passionate about ever since I was a little kid. And this weekend's haul padded my Starbucks account quite nicely.

3. I was tidying up my bookshelves this weekend and of course my little shadow was right there to help me. He was particularly interested in my big jar of corks, so I dumped them out to let him see what they were. This immediately turned into a game of put the corks back into the jar, dump out and repeat about a dozen times. The simplest things always end up being the most entertaining. And yes, he wears those boots in the house all the time (thanks to Becky for the hand-me-down!).

4. I rarely ever buy books for full price anymore. It's amazing how quickly I often score a recent bestseller at the thrift store, and this weekend I was pretty excited to find these two books that have been on my wish list. Bonus points for being in brand new condition.

5. We took a trip to Canadian Tire today to stock up on Christmas lights and while we were there, Sully spotted this reindeer amongst a shelf of garden supplies (another parent's dump and hide, I imagine). When I showed him it sang and danced, he was a little suspicious and kept his distance. But a few rounds of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer later, and these two were sharing hugs, kisses and Sully's soother. Jim said we should buy him for it, but I put a stop to that when I found out the silly thing cost almost forty dollars!

Tell me one highlight from your weekend. 

Have you read either of those books?  

The End of Daylight Saving is Kicking My Ass

Do I even need to write more? I think my title captures it all, and I have a feeling I'm not alone in this. But humour me as I continue on with this "vent".

I hate daylight saving, but I always look forward to the end of daylight saving. Did you know, until like last year, I just thought they were both called daylight saving, unaware that one was the start, and one was the end? Please tell me I'm not the only one this dumb. Also, I totally had to google if it was daylight savings or daylight saving, and apparently it's the latter, even though I think daylight savings sounds better.

Anyway, who doesn't welcome an extra hour in their day? Can we have an extra hour everyday?! I'd probably just waste mine by mindlessly scrolling through social media, but still. Remember when you were young (or maybe you are young and accidentally find yourself here reading this - sorry about that), how awesome it was to have an extra night out at the bar? I mean, the bars didn't actually stay open for an extra hour, but it felt like they did. Plus, you got an extra hour of sleep to baby your hangover so life was good.

Then one day, I became a nurse and pretty much hated my life when I had to work an extra HOUR on a night shift on the end of daylight saving. Time literally stood still for an hour. What a cruel joke. And I'm pretty sure I didn't get paid for that extra hour.

And then somewhere along the line I started to get old and now I find any time change challenging. It takes me a good week to recover from either the clocks going ahead an hour or back one. Maybe I need to move to Saskatchewan? (Americans…do you have states where there aren't any time changes?). Imagine a life where the time never changes? Sign me up! Except I don't want to move again.

People with kids blame their kids for making daylight saving (or the end of it), a hundred times worse because kids defy all sleep logic. As much as I want to blame my son, I can't, because he's still sleeping the same amount of hours, at roughly the same times as he was prior to the time change. Of course, if I was sans kid, I could sneak in some extra naps or sleep-in, but probably not because I wouldn't be home during the week, I'd be getting up for work. So I'm screwed either way.

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Where am I even going with this?! I'm exhausted! Today, I was so tired when we woke up that I could only lay on the couch for the first hour while I let my toddler watch back to back episodes of Bo on the Go. Parenting for the win! (And god bless annoying cartoons). Don't worry, eventually we got on with our day, but all I could think about was how much I was looking forward to going to bed tonight (which isn't really that different from any other day, but today, I actually meant it).

It hasn't been a full week yet, so I'm hopeful that by the weekend I'll be feeling all time-change adjusted, but until then, thank god for coffee!

{source}

Do you adjust well to daylight saving, or the end of it? 

Which do you prefer, or do you hate both like I do?

Weekending: Happy Halloween!

For the majority of our past Halloween's, we have always travelled to Red Deer (save for the year I was pregnant), to spend it with our nephews. Gone are the days of wanting to dress up and go to house parties, and I truly believe Halloween is way more fun with kids. This year though, now that Sully is a bit older, although still unaware of what Halloween really is, we thought it would be nice to spend it in our own home. I decorated for the first time in ever, even making some of the decorations myself, and we had a blast taking Sully trick-or-treating around our block.

But let's back up for a minute…Friday was spent picking up some last minute Halloween supplies, and then Sully and I popped into Kayben Farms for one last visit before they close for the season. It was fantastic because we practically had the entire place to ourselves. We got to jump on the big pillows for as long as we wanted and without the chaos of other children around, went down the slides a few times - Sully even insisted on going on his own! - but the best part was getting to pet the baby goat. When we were leaving the farm animals area, I noticed the small goat had snuck out of the pen and was digging around in the storage shed. I alerted one of the workers and then she let us hang out with the goat while he ate some feed from a bucket. Sully didn't wasn't that interested in petting him, but he was pretty excited about getting to stand next to him while he ate!

We headed home shortly before having to pick up Jim from the train station and then I dropped the two of them off at home as I had a movie date at the mall with Leigh. We watched The Intern, a really cute and touching movie and ended our evening with some browsing around Old Navy and chatting in the mall hallway. A movie and girl talk is always a great night!

On Saturday, we had my Aunt Max and Uncle Barry over, along with Barry's daughter, Kate and her husband Dan, and their daughter Gwendolyn. We ate a quick supper and then took the kids out trick-or-treating. Sully was pretty shy at first and then one house scared the crap out of him, but we wanted to end the evening on a happy note, so we continued on to more friendly-decorated homes. It didn't take long for Sully to catch on to what was going on, and eventually he was even saying "trick-or-treat" when prompted. I'm kicking myself for not getting any of it on video. I also failed to take any pictures of him in his costume in the daylight so of course, amateur photographer that I am, all of my pictures are pretty terrible and inconsistent, but I'm quite confident that his cuteness factor makes up for my shortcomings.  And yes, we totally let Sully dig into his trick-or-treating stash!

Once Sully was bed, Jim headed off to watch the hockey game with Dan and I spent the evening on the couch with candy and a horrible movie. Seriously, don't watch And So it Goes. Boring and an hour and a half of my life I'll never get back.

Sunday, we spent a good part of the day organizing and cleaning the garage in preparation for my new vehicle that arrived two weeks early! We won't be picking it up until the end of the week, but I'm so excited that it came ahead of schedule. We ended the evening with a few episodes of The Walking Dead and stomachaches from too much candy and chocolate eating. I'm not sure if it's impressive or embarrassing how fast two adults can get through a big bowl of Halloween candy!

How did you spend your Halloween? 

If you dressed up, what was your costume?