Going Back in Time!

Hey Bloggies,

I've been such a slacker in the blogging department but life has been pretty busy and aunt flo's visit this month has got me down for the count..literally! It's come to the point that I'm going to see my ND because I can't take it anymore. I was so emotional this past week that I fought with Ry, cried, was constantly on edge, and repeated many times over..not fun! I also don't want to be taking pain relievers every time she comes for a visit either. I think I should get some blood testing to make sure I'm not really low on my vitamins, minerals or if something else is out of wack! If any of your ladies have found a natural solution to combat aunt flo, I'm all eyes!

Moving on, I've decided to go back and share some of my life that I haven't had a chance to share with you. This is going back to the good 'ole Nelson days. Can you believe its been nearly 3 weeks already. It already feels like our time there is a distant memory. I do have to admit that I really miss it there. I miss the vibe, the relaxed people, the walking everywhere, and the no rush hour! I was so used to having mountains literally stare at me in the face when I went outside and now I feel like I'm living in the flatlands. For those of you living in BC or have been here you know it is NOT flatlands and there are tons of mountains, its just different in Nelson. Yet, my backyard reminds me of Nelson for some reason and so I'm loving it!

Nelson Backyard!! It's nice to know we have friends up there so we can go and visit anytime!

My backyard! Not quite as big but it'll do:) I immediately feel at peace when I go out here!

I also knew I wouldn't be finding a replacement for Oso coffee here so I literally stocked up for a year lol. This is another excuse to go back up to Nelson. Yes, I'm saying I would drive 8 hours to go get coffee..lol! I don't even drink the stuff all the time but gosh damn it's good!

The coffee shelf in the freezer lol! It smells so good when you open the door:)

This "Prince of Darkness" roast...delish! I love their label too!

Yep they roast their own coffee beans like 5 minutes away from the cafe! Oh and its made with love too so you know its gotta be AMAZING!

Here's the little story behind the name. LOVE IT! I wish more companies had this philosophy and would give people choices to not be so "culturally removed."

I didnt talk about The Preserved Seed at all when we were in Nelson because we only went there near the end of our stay there. It is run by a group called The Twelve Tribes. I don't know much about them but they remind me of Mormons or Huterites as they live together in the same communities and work together. Super nice people and doing some great things in their cafe and bakery.

The cafe is located in an old house and its super cozy inside. I forgot to take pictures but its so nice for a afternoon tea or lunch! They grow a lot of the food served in the cafe which I really love and everything is homemade.

Love the wreath! Their main beverage served here is yerba mate. I grew up with this drink so I was very excited to try it here! I would call yerba a much stronger green tea? I love it and holy the buzz you get off the stuff is crazy..haha!

We moved up to Nelson so the hubby could attend school there (in case you didn't know the story:). Every year once the program is finished they hold an open house in the local gallery so the public can see (and even purchase) their completed works. So, this time had come and I finally got to see Ry's two big pieces in their finished form. I had heard him talk about his projects for 6 months but I never saw the final product so it was an exciting time! A lot of Ryan's family and friends had come up for the event (and to help us move the next day) so it was a great celebration. It was also a sad time because it was going to be the last time he and I would see his classmates. Hopefully we can keep in touch as they all are amazing and so talented!

I love this gallery and we would check it out all the time when we would be strolling downtown. It features great, local artists with everything from jewellery and scarves to pottery and lamps.

Ta Da..the hubby's liquor cabinet! Well it's kind of an everything cabinet but he placed the shelves at a certain hight so 40 pounders can fit in there...lol! Like we ever will have those in there but oh well..maybe some fine china one day! We got to the gallery at 7:30 and someone already was asking if it was for sale. We weren't planning on selling it but we did have a price in mind in case we were in that situation. Oh well, now we get to enjoy it in our new house:)

For some reason I don't have a picture of the finished table at the show but here it is nearly complete..it's gorgeous and fits in perfectly with the house.

This was one of their first projects at school. It's such a funky box that you could use for so many things. His Dad was the lucky receiver of this piece!

I love the little cut-out in the front and the dove tails look pretty funky too!

This was the kids chair he made! So cute and love the legs on it! Our little godson proudly has this chair in his room:)

It was very packed in the gallery so I didn't snap too many photos besides Ry's work! What can I say, I was a proud wife:) This piece was Ry's favorite and I love it as well. I would so sit at that desk and blog away! To the right of this table was a beautiful tea cabinet. I really wanted this! Cute little drawers for all the tea and room for some nice tea cups too!

I think this is all the writing I can do for now but maybe I'll sneak in another post later on today! We shall see.

Talk to you soon!

Putting my words in my mouth and dessert ideas!

Happy Friday bloggies!

Oh thank heavens its Friday! I had quite the adventure last night and I thought I'd share it with you all. It has to do with buying a car...so ya, you can probably see where this is going. Anyways, here's my story.

So, yesterday Ry went to look at a car from Craigslist that looked pretty good. As I was working, I was not able to go look at it with him. He is very good with cars and so I had full faith that he would detect problems, if there were any. Okay, so I get a call from him saying that the car looked good but the guys he was going to get it from looked a little sketchy. Light bulb #1. I should have taken this apprehension and told him not to go through with it. Yet, I was getting pretty desperate for a car so my danger! danger! radar was not functioning optimally at this point. He bought the car and did all the paperwork which the guy already had on hand. Light bulb #2. Usually people don't carry the paperwork to transfer cars with them, you usually have to go to an insurance place. Luckily my mom had just come into town and so I had a car to go meet him at this place (over an hour away). We arrive and Ry is driving the car in front of me and I notice that when he punches the gas there is blue smoke. Light bulb #3. We get to the shady car dealership and Ry tells me the guys wouldn't let him take it out of the parking lot for the test drive so he didn't see the blue smoke. In case you didn't know, Blue smoke = burning oil/engine is crappy and may die on you. To make things worse, right before we met up with Ry, he got a ticket for talking on his cell phone while he was pulling into a parking lot. Ya, it wasn't his night I tell you. PS in BC they just made it illegal to have any electronic device in your hands while behind the wheel. So, we go back to the shady guys running this questionable car dealership and ask them for our money back because its burning oil yadda yadda. Well, his options were A) leave the car there and once they sell it he would give us the money back. Can anyone smell a scam brewing? B) pay for his "fees" and get the hell out. We chose option B and chucked down that night as a complete write-off. I was so disappointed and angry that Ry didn't do more investigating into the car and that those shady guys were such a**holes. I guess I felt let down because I was still car-less and we wasted so much time. On the way back I rode with my mom and I was just spewing out negative words left and right. I was so pent up but I really should have said this or remembered what I just wrote about on the blog HOURS earlier. Yet, I let my emotions take over. Once I got back to our place I had forgiven Ry (he felt SOO bad) but I was still grumpy. I should have been thankful we at least got some of our money back and that we made it there and back safely. Like Nelly said in the comments yesterday, "things happen for a reason." We could have bought the car and maybe it wouldn't have even made it home and we would have been out all of our money! There is always something worse that could happen and I need to realize that. Can I blame it partly on my upcoming visit from aunt flo? 1% maybe..not enough to justify it!

So, there you have it.. My Thursday night! The lesson of this whole story?

1. Trust your instincts! If you have just the slightest flutter of doubt..walk away!
2. Really be sure that something you want to buy, be it a car or anything used for that matter, is in good shape and they have receipts to back up their claims of repairs, upgrades, etc!
3. Don't buy from a guy who seems to have a bodyguard and has two phones! I can laugh about this now..lol!
4. Take it for a test run, drive etc and look at EVERY nook and cranny to make sure things aren't falling apart or burning oil, in our case.

So, I'm still on the hunt for my new "betsy" lol! We found a few to look at locally so hopefully by this weekend I'll have some wheels. I really wish that I could get around with a bike or bus but my work is in the boonies and I already had to take a cab to a place where I could catch the bus and the cab ride alone cost me $10. So, $12.50 to get home everyday is ridiculous. Wish me luck and send me good car vibes:)

Onto something much more exciting and happy..I'm having my sister-in-law and her boyfriend over for dinner tonight and I want to make a quick and easy dessert for them. I won't have much time after work to prepare something extravagant. I could search the blogosphere but I thought I could go straight to the source..you guys!! (plus I'm pretty tired and don't have the energy:( Let me know of your favorite, quick desserts that would be loved by non-vegans. Think meat and potatoes kind of guy!

Thank you in advance:)

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday and weekend. It's supposed to get sunny and HOT here finally so I'm so excited to catch some rays. Mom is going to come over tomorrow to help me plant some more flowers and veggies so that will be fun!

LOTS OF LOVE

Quotes for the day - Life

Happy Thursday Bloggies!

Today's post is short and sweet. I really wanted to share some words of inspiration with you all that will help you push on in life, no matter what is thrown your way. Everyone struggles at some point in their lives (or everyday!) and sometimes you need a hand to help you get up off the ground and dust yourself off. Sometimes you even need tough love! I love quotations as they really "speak" to me and help me get my thoughts out of the negative ditch and back onto my path. I know a quote may not be enough to help you with all you are dealing with, but, if even for a second, you can have some peace or contimplate good change, I think it's worth it.


I know God will not give anything I can't handle. I just wish that he didn't trust me so much ~Mother Teresa

NOTE: I'm not pushing religion here. You can apply this quote to whatever religion you want..or none at all. Also, I don't think we need to argue how special and AMAZING Mother Teresa's work was. Trusting in ourselves is so important and its a huge struggle for so many people, including myself, and apparently even the sweetheart, Mother Teresa. See, even powerful people have struggles. You are NEVER alone!

You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you ~ Walt Disney

Change is NEVER easy and sometimes if we procrastinate for too long, a little boot is exactly what we need to get moving again! This was me and is still me in certain situations!

I have been wildly, disparingly, acutely miserable, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just being alive is a grand thing ~ Agatha Christie

I think about people in other countries who haven't eaten in days or live in mud shacks or suffer from unbearable diseases, and I realize I have absolutely nothing to complain about. I used to complain a lot about life, but now I think to myself : have you eaten today? yes! Have you had clean water today? yes! Do you have shelter? yes! Are you loved? YES! This brings me off my high horse and I become thankful for my life. Sometimes this process brings me to tears because I had taken for granted all the luxuries that I have in my life.

That's my food for thought today! And remember I think you are all wonderful and are doing fabulous things in your life. Trust in yourself!!!


PS - my dear Nelly is having an AMAZING giveaway for Ani Phyo's new book Ani's Raw Food Essentials!! So go check out her awesome blog ASAP!!

Home wrecker plus garden picts!

Happy Tuesday!!

The whirlwind continues in my neck of the woods!! I'm car-less and I work in an area that has no bus stops so Ry has been dropping me off. Today his boss asked him to be at work for 6AM..that meant I was at work at 5:30 (I usually start at 7)..eek! I am looking at this as a positive thing though because that means that I get off at 1:30..wahoo!! Anywho, things are coming together...slowly...at the house. I didn't take any time off so I've had to organize after work and, well, sometimes it just doesn't happen. The hubs is working this weekend so I am planning on spending a lot of time in the closets..ha..jk..more likely the garage which looks like a battle zone right now with boxes, tools, gardening stuff etc! As for time in the kitchie....ya...umm...it hasn't really happened. I've been eating on auto-pilot: salad with avocado, pickled beets, carrots, cauliflower, parsley, cilantro, cabbage..etc etc! I really need to stock up my pantry and haven't had a chance to make it to the ONE health food store that I can get to by walking. I was searching meetup.com and found an organic food buying group in my area so I'm going to be in contact with them soon!

Okay so you are probably at the edge of your seat wondering why I would admit to being a home wrecker? Ha...well I didn't even know I was one. What? Let me explain. On Sunday I was outside almost all day in the garden and didn't take my phone with me. When I finally looked at it at 5pm, there were 9 missed calls from this weird number. One time the caller left a message saying her name was Cindy and if I could give her a call. I don't know a Cindy so I thought it was probably a wrong number. Then on Monday morning..literally 7Am on the dot.. I get another call from her and she flat out comes out and says if I'm with "her man" that I should tell her so she came kick him to the curb (apparently this man works with me in some way or another). I tell her I'm married...and am not with her man but she still doesn't really believe me. I'm in total shock at this point and aggitated. I can't believe I get a call like this at 7AM. I finally tell her in a firm voice that I'm not with her man (she still hadn't said his name) and so she doesn't need to worry. She hangs up and I'm immediately in contact with Kelly..AKA office gossip lover..and so she tells Tommy who is the boss of all the guys working here. He phones her up and she admits her name isn't even Cindy and she was assuming because "her man" had a post-it with my address and phone number that he was up to funny business. Well, I found out her man was the guy who dropped off my soil on Saturday and so he needed the post-it to know my address!!! Crazy hey? She was really embarassed and even called me to apologize.Made for good Monday chit chat at least lol!

Onto something a bit more..classy, shall we say? My garden is in and 90% planted...wahoo!

It was quite the adventure as we were making raised beds vs an in-ground garden. I didn't have the time to rent a rotatiller and do all that. It was pretty awesome too because the previous owners of the house left some wood behind which was just enough to make my two beds. I love it when things like that happen in life, don't you? I was pretty lucky too that Ry and his buddy were there to help me. Although working with two "construction" guys has its own challenges..LOL! No, they were fantastic and the beds look fabulous as a result.

First off, I needed to start the day off right so I made a PURPLE MONSTER!!

Don't fall over...fast food joints are not serving smoothies now..wouldn't that be the day! Don't worry I don't eat here either...the hubs.."attained" this mug when he was really young and its perfect for large purple monsters. This monster had romaine, banana, frozen blueberries, Chai Vanilla Vega, cinnamon. Sooo delish! I thoroughly enjoyed sipping on this in the morning sunshine:)

Look at all those bubbles! I have to admit that I haven't been eating too many of these monsters lately. I really need to get into it again and I know I will be for sure especially when berry season strikes the coast!!

This is how Nemo started his morning. You think he likes it here? Oh ya, baby! He loves being around people no matter what they are doing. The hubs had the saw going and he was sitting on the table nearby just checking out the scene..love him!


Once we were fueled..the digging began! I didn't know exactly how it was going to work when you put a garden bed above turf so I did a quick search and found a source that said you need to dig up the turf. I later read ,after all the pain-staking work was done, that there are easier ways..oh well.

Before!!!

After!! The hubs and his good buddy dug up the first bed but I did most of the second bed because they had to go pick up more supplies and I wasn't going to sit around waiting for them. I loved it! It was really hard work (everything was sore the next day..including the thumb muscles..ha ha) but I loved feeling the earth and seeing all the wormies in there. Man, there were some HUGE worms, some like small snakes! I take that as a good sign that my soil is pretty good ( more worms mean your soil is bacteria-driven). Next year I'm going to get a full soil analysis done to make sure I don't have any contaminants in there because more likely I will only be using the raised beds for this growing season.

I call this area operation central!! As you can see by the sawdust below the hubs was cutting a lot of wood that day. I am very appreciative to have a handy hubby who loves doing new projects:)

The boys had a few levelling issues with the beds, so while they were busy creating solutions for that I started filling the planters. My work garden had so much lettuce that they said I could take some home for my own garden..and I was the only one who took any..oh well more salads and green monsters for me:) I just learned a couple days before doing my own garden how fragile plants are, especially frail types like lettuces, when they transplant them. Once you dig them out of the ground they need to spend the least amount of time as possible out of the dirt. I thought they could survive at least a 1/2 hour but its literally minutes. The large leafed plant right in front is a member of the mustard family...oooh she is spicy! I also planted other pots but I forgot to take a picture:( There was re-potted sage, rosemary, and lavender, a pot with parsley, another with purslane ( techinically a weed that has large amounts of omega 3), and one with a tangy lettuce mix that contains cilantro, arugula, and other leafy goodness.

The first bed! Tomatoes, holy basil, spinach, beans, carrots, beeets, and more lettuce.

My carrots that I grew from seed! They are a bit "stringy" right now but I hope that this new, rich soil will help them out:)

The second bed! More lettuce, kale, mustard greens, collard greens, swiss chard. I had the hardest time with my kale and collard seedlings and so I'm not sure how well they will do but I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt! Ryan's great uncles wife bought me the fully grown kale..so sweet! She also gave us a ton of garden tools and even a practically new BBQ!!

Thank you so much Alinne, you are one of a kind!

Those boards on the right hand side are my "walk-through" because immediately to the right of the picture the hubs is putting in a compost..yay! I love "recycling" my food scrapes.

The other end of bed #2. From the left: lettuce (varities of butter), swiss chard, kale.

My lovely zucchini hump..haha..I mean hills!


A swiss chard baby!

I also planted some sunflowers and pumpkins. I have a quarter of a bed left. Any suggestions on some veggies I should be planting? Since this is the first time I was planting a veggie garden on my own, I felt like I needed a little back-up! I purchased The Moosewood Restaurant Kitchen Garden by David Hirsch from a thrift store ages ago mainly for the recipes in the back of the book. Moosewood Restaurant is vegetarian restaurant that focuses on local and organic foods located in Ithaca, NY. I'de heard great things about their cookbooks and so I scooped this one up the second I found it:) It turned out to be an amazing reference for my first garden.

Doesn't the cover just make you want to get your green thumb on!


It had great ideas for a variety of different garden designs. I went with this one that was basically for a raised bed garden. I didn't follow it exactly but it really helped with learning which varities of vegetables thrive together.


Another great reference was the "beneficial companions" page. It showed which veggies and herbs like each other and it also shared pairings that are bad.

The book when through every veggie you ever wanted to plant (well almost) and explained how they should be planted and what they need nutrient wise. The also went over ways to use each veggie-steaming,baking, raw etc!





I know there are a lot of bloggies out there who have a green thumb like Kelli, Lori, Pen, Lauren, Aletheia, and Katie. (If I missed you give me a link to your garden post, I'de love to see:) Even if you just grow sprouts or wheatgrass...that's AWESOME!

Anywho, back to work for me! Even though I'de rather be doing this...

Have a great day everyone! I've missed you all and feel pretty out of the loop:( I've got a lot of posting to catch up on so watch out for my post 10 million posts coming your way!!

PS - The lovely Bitt is having a great giveaway for Jennifer Cornbleet's new book Raw for Dessert plus a flirty apron. So go check out her amazing blog! You have until Saturday June 12 at noon pacific to enter!

internet-less and new house picts!

Happy Friday Bloggies!

What a crazy week! For anyone who has gone on a long vacation from work knows how their desks looks when they return...now imagine 9 months!! Even though I was working in Nelson, being in the lab is a complete different scene and of course more hands on. My boss left the lab a complete mess (nice welcome home present hey?) and so I've been organizing it to my liking which has taken nearly all week! It's good to be back here though because working at home in Nelson made me pretty unmotivated. Pushing myself outside of my comfort zone is something that I used to hide from..but I'm trying to embrace it and take on challenges that help me to do so! I forgot I never posted on my workshop experience a week ago..I'll do that next time as it really helped me with the comfort zone thing! Anywho, while we were in Nelson my work has been putting together test trials for organic soil mixes. This means free greens and veggies for me (and the staff if I don't eat their share..lol). I'm so excited for this project and my boss says I'll be working a lot out in the garden...sweet! Once the weather turns around (seriously, I haven't seen this much rain in forever) I'll take some picts for you to see it.

On the internet front, I'm not going to get hooked up at home until Tuesday so that means I'm going to be sneaking in some blogging time at work..shhh don't tell! It was funny, when I called the internet company they wanted to charge me nearly triple what I was paying in Nelson and so I spoke up and told them the deal I got there and they honored it plus he didnt' charge me another hook-up fee. All that just for speaking up! I tell ya big companies get away with so much because people just accept their fees..not me! I felt pretty empowered after that..maybe I should have called my mortgage company too? HAHA! Anyways, the moral of my blabbering here is that I won't be able to unleash all the random goodness that has happened in my life until next week:) suspense is good, right Averie? Ps good luck to you lovely lady in your first fitness competition..I know you will KILL it!

On to the exciting part of this post...house pictures!!! Except they are more like messy, just moved in, house pictures. Today is the before-I've-organized-to-my-liking...err "our" liking-house pictures. We've done a lot of moving things around and trying different placements of items, plus we got a cover for our dated sofa Ha! I've changed my philosophy on spending over the years. I used to buy things because they were an amazing deal that I would never find again (yet, next year the same sale would take place). If I was consignment shopping I would convince myself that this piece of clothing was so unique and I would stand out because nobody would be wearing it. No more sister! I've adopted a new mantra for my spending (especially when it comes to big purchaces on the house)...QUALITY over QUANTITY. Check out Averie's post on spending habits! I'm actually looking forward to watching my savings account grow which is a very new concept for me but the quality products I'll be able to purchase will be worth it. Also moving all the time has really helped me focus on what I spend my money on because do I really want to pack all those little trinkets with bubble wrap or a million DVD's? Nope, I really do not. Okay from me...onto the pictures!

The front yard with the beautiful rhodo bushes! We may be putting in some garden beds because we will not be using the front yard for anything.

Next to the rhodos is a gorgeous rose bush! Love their color!

My very messy living room, view from the front door! I love that its an open living/dining room

View from the deck!

Kitchie! Complete with a dishwasher! I've never lived in a place that had one. I think I still like handwashing better..is that weird? LOL Notice this is the cleanest room in the house..ya, I got right down to business organizing in there:)

All the cook books organized in one place..yay! In what place might you ask?

It's Nemo's favorite place to hang out or hide out when the crow in the back yard has been chasing him around the grass..poor guy!

It's my first ever pantry!I call this "my space." Oh how I love having a pantry already. It's like a walk in closet for a foodie..lol!

My kitchen sink view! Maybe this is why I love to wash the dishes myself:)

A soaker tub! All I need is some epsom salts, baby!

The master bedroom! Sorry the picture is so dark. I never checked my camera after I took these!

The huge closet! The hubs used to work for a closet installing company so hopefully we will get some shiny new closets one of these days:)

The patio off the master! I have big plans for this deck! I want to place planters on it and hanging off it to make it have some color.

My back yard! It's my oasis already! If you look closely to the left of the picture you will see this brown area on the grass..that's where the garden is going to go! Seriously, sooo excited to get that in! The patio is awesome too..I see many a BBQ's at our place. Out of our friends, we are one of the only peeps who have a significant yard and I'm more than happy to share:)

This right here folks is going to be gardening central. Ry is going to build me a potting bench and we are going to put some gutters up and have a spout to go into a rain barrell!

I got the yard and Ry got the double length garage..lol! It's the white siding on the right. That door you see goes into our tenants place. He is so incredibly quiet and so nice..we really lucked out.

So there you have it! I still don't think its sunk in yet that this is "our" house! I rented so long before Ry and I got together..then after we got together too so its going to take some time..maybe after the water heater breaks down and we have to foot the bill haha!

I get my soil dropped off tomorrow (all organic from my work...wahoo!) and then the gardening begins. Busy weekend for me..but I love it! Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend and hopefully you get some sunshine too:)

We Made It!

Howdy everyone!

What a whirl wind! After a weekend of taking planes, catching up with family and friends, packing, cleaning, having my last sips of Oso goodness, and driving 7 hours, we made it to our new home! It still hasn't sunk in that this is "our" home, not "our landlord's" home but it feels amazing to finally be in a place that I know we won't be moving out of in 6 months to a year! We didn't bring our mattress set with us to Nelson so sleeping on that bed last night felt like a dream come true...ahh! Even Nemo didn't want to get up this morning. I'll write a more detailed post soon (once my internet is connected and all that jazz ...right now I'm in the office:) about the past week as there was lots of stuff going on.

Right now we are concentrating on getting the 3 foot tall grass cut..lol! Ya, we are "those" neighbors right now. I've even picked the spot for the garden and so I'll be busy prepping that this week for my little veggie babies. Now, only if the weather would cooperate and spare us some sunshine!

Can't wait to catch up on all your lives!! I hope I haven't missed out on too much:)

Chow for now!

Weekend away

Happy Wednesday everyone!

I just landed in Vancouver from my delayed flight out of Castelgar! I'm not drinking a soy latte but I am having veggies and hummus..so sophisticated, right? I am very disappointed cancel-gar didn't happen but oh well, workshop time it is for me. I am actually doing a Dale Carnegie workshop on creating outstanding presentations. I'm not sure why my bosses wanted me to take this workshop as I don't do presentations as part of my job..lol! I foresee that is going to change! Anywho, today I wanted to share with you my long weekend trip!

But before I get started, I just wanted to say thank you so much for all your sweet comments on my gratitude post. Wow, I was totally taken aback by your kind words and how I provided a reminder of how good our lives really are:) To be honest, I thought people wouldn't really be interested in what I'm grateful for. Boy, was I wrong! I'm excited to see your gratitude posts in the future too.

Onto the weekend!We left pretty late Friday night as it was Ry's second last shop day at school so the teacher let them stay late to finish up their projects. We had a full car load once again, including out fur baby who wasn't too impressed to be locked in his cage! After half and hour he settled down and was content at looking out the front window.

I was fasting so no road trip eats for me, but I stocked up on some goodies for Ryan!

Some organic apples and bananas, goji berries, walnuts, Brazil nuts, medjool dates, and Vega shake and go that I won on the Vega site! No, he didn't eat all of this food...I wanted to have some healthy eats for the whole time we were there. Whose kidding who, this lasted about a day..lol!

The trip went smoothly and we luckily didn't come too close to hitting any dear or wildlife. There was one massive dear that crossed in front of us but thank goodness it was in a 50 zone!
We got to my mom's after midnight so that night was a write-off! The minute I walked into the door there I felt like I was on vacation...and it felt gooood!

Saturday morning we slept in and made breakfast. Mom saw this Dr. Oz show about some benefit of eating bacon, so whenever Ry comes over she practically shoves it down his throat. I've told her that it isn't good for her fragile health to be consuming that crap but she doesn't listen. So I'm done trying to convince her otherwise! I went with the toast plus I tried the Vega Shake & go!

Mmmm....I had the tropical flavor and it was delish! Surprisingly filling too:)

After breakie we headed down to the local farmer's market and holy has it ever grown since a couple of years ago!

Complete with dancing girls...lol!

There was one raw food stand there but the prices were a little steep to say the least! But, I did pick up a few goodies!


This is called Mizuna and its a relative of kale! Tastes like it but a bit more tart. I really liked it

A bag of local spinach and radishes! The lady who I bought these off of even said that I could eat the radish greens. I gave it a try and they are actually really tasty!

I couldn't resist trying some dried cherries! They are so pricey in stores and so this was my chance to try some homemade dried cherries...yum!

We did a little more grocery shopping and we picked up this awesome pineapple. Can you believe that 3/4 of that went in my tummy! Ya, I totally paid for it with the next day with chapped lips and the inside of my mouth was super sensitive but it was very worth it!

I ate this out in the somewhat sunshine...yes, this is when I got the half burnt face...lol!

Nemo is apparently no sun worshipper!

Saturday night we made an amazing meal and had Ryan's dad as our guest! We picked up some local asparagus and I was dying to get my share of this short season!

Mom marinated these and they were beyond delicious! Melt-in-your-mouth good!

Mom also cooked up this long-grain wild rice. I really enjoyed this variety..mmm!

Ya, check out that scrumptious plate...oh I love this dinner- yam fries, asparagus, wild rice, salad with mixed greens, carrots, cabbage, mizuna, arugula, chives (with flowers) and Dijon dressing:)

We finished the night by eating some dark chocolate chips..lol!

On Sunday I started the morning with my TT workout! Love working out in the morning Even though I had to do that last set indoors because of the rain:) After my workout we headed to my bestie's parent's house to hang out with her family and meet her beautiful daughter:)

I love this place! It's so beautiful and peaceful! Can't wait for Ky's and Jason's wedding to be held here in July..wahoo!

And the beautiful star attraction...CJ! Isn't she just too precious! That hat is courtesy of Auntie Mel:)

Me with my beautiful BFF and her gorgeous daughter! How far we have come from grade 8 hey ky? Loved seeing you and the family and can't wait to be a part of your wedding in July! love ya lots:)

It is such a blast to hang out with Ky's fam. They are such a hoot! We had many a laughs and even got down to a little wedding business too!

We got back late in the afternoon and we were pretty pooped and so we just hung out and laid around and chatted! We ended up renting Kung-Fu panda later on that night. It's such a cute movie! We even had popcorn made in Mom's ancient popcorn maker!

She wasn't prepared for the off-shoot of popcorn lol! hence the two bowls and popcorn everywhere! It was pretty funny.

I also made some blueberry-banana softserve for mom to try out. I think the bananas had been in the freezer a tad bit too long so the taste wasn't as great as it could have been..but I still devoured it:)

I love Mom's place for summer hangouts! It's so awesome and purely relaxing! Can't wait to spend some serious time under that veranda!


Mom loves to garden too and so I'm always in there raiding something! She has some great chives, oregano, and arugula ready right now!

Remember I said she was trying to grow some goji plants from seed. Check them out! Going strong. Can't wait to see if these will produce some fruit in a couple years!

On Monday morning I was feeling a bit guilty of my many indulgences over the weekend so I headed to my old elementary school and did some hill sprints! After that good sweat session, we made some Thrive Pancakes! Oh these are so, so good! I highly recommend them.

I had mine with a homemade blueberry sauce ...mmmm!

I love this sauce dish mom put the blueberries in..soo cute!

So there's most of my weekend..at least what I took photos of:) Have a great night! I am about ready to get out of the airport now and tackle the skytrain and bus to get to my mother-in-laws! It shall be interesting! I'm not sure when I'll be able to post next as the rest of this week is going to be insane with the move and all our friend's visiting! It might have to be from my new house...does the giddy dance...lol!