In our Home and Native Land!

We made it back to Calgary! We are currently on our 4th day of quarantine at Brian's parents place. It's been a hectic few weeks to get to where we are now. All the kids activities wrapped up the second week in June, Lynsey's volleyball ended with a loss to a very tall, clearly full of 8th graders team, but they played great! Nathan still had a few Lacrosse practices after his first victory of the season and then he was done on Wednesday the 9th. We had to get the house ready to have the hardwood refinished, so I went through a bunch of our toys to see what we could get rid of, not a whole lot of toys left now! Lynsey was able to see her friend Ari in person for only the 3rd time or so since the pandemic started, it was her birthday so Lynsey made her some macarons and dressed up a cake for her. The last day of school was last Tuesday and Lynsey had a sleepover with Maggie (both girls were almost fully vaccinated at that point so Cindy said it was okay). They had a great time! Wednesday we had to move all the furniture so the hardwood was free and clear - thankfully Andy came to help with the big stuff.

Thursday morning, the hardwood guys came and we had to make a decision on the stain color - I hope we don't regret it! We were off pretty close to 11am and drove to Bonner's Ferry. Our hotel room was pretty nice, and the boys enjoyed the pool time. I was pretty anxious to get across the border the next day, but it actually was a relatively painless process. We did get a load of Covid tests, we had to do one on Saturday and do another this Friday. A bit of a pain but I know we will be a bit more organized for the next one on Friday. So far quarantine is going okay, the kids aren't going crazy yet and neither am I - I'm sure that day will come shortly lol! Trying to stay busy with games and puzzles and crosswords (I think I have Nathan hooked!) so it doesn't end up being just a never ending loop of screen time every day. I'm sure we will make it, and it will all be worth it!

I feel like I need to provide an update on Adam's repetition. I think in previous blog posts I have mentioned that his verbal repetition was down to almost nothing, but in the last few months it has returned unfortunately. It's a bit different than before, the urgency is generally not as bad as it used to be, but it is still a very frustrating development. Brian is trying just not doing the repeating, but I just don't see a way forward without doing it so I am doing it for him, trying to vary it as much as possible. Hopefully this isn't a permanent re-addition, and he drops is as quickly as he picked it back up!

Spring hikes, short lived playoff dreams, more baking

Well, the title pretty much sums up our last three weeks! One thing not mentioned - Lynsey got her first Covid shot, woohoo! She gets her second on Monday, so glad our family will be 60% fully vaccinated for our trip to Canada. So wish the boys could also be vaccinated, but this is a pretty good percentage! I finally finished this puzzle that had been neglected on our coffee table the last few months, not sure why it took me so long to get to it since I love puzzling:-/. What else . . . oh yes, of course, another short lived playoff run by the Oilers. Didn't take too long before that was over and I could once again stop caring about hockey, disappointing as usual! 

The last three Fridays I have been going on hikes which I have really enjoyed! The first one was Twin Falls by North Bend with Kristy and Elisse, the next was last Friday with Brian to Wallace Falls (my favorite so far!) and then yesterday Kristy, Elisse and I did about 10k around Cougar Mountain Regional Park. So many amazing hikes so close by! We took Jasper with us when Brian and I went, and he did so well! I also took him yesterday and he did okay, but a bit higher maintenance since Elisse also took her dog:-/. 

I did say I would do a weight loss update if there was more movement, and since my last post, I have lost another 5-6 pounds! I believe I was around 154lbs at my last post, I am now hovering around 148. I actually have to buy a lot of new clothes because everything I have is just a bit saggy:-/. It feels so good to be at my ideal weight, I actually don't really want to lose much more (I mean, no one would call me anorexic if I lost another 5 but I don't think I need to). This is very close to a weight I used to maintain back in high school when my metabolism was sky high and I wasn't addicted to food so I just ate whatever without thinking about it. I know I will never be at the point where I don't have to think about it at all, but I am getting to the point where I am not so tempted to eat until I'm overly full. I am starting to understand that this isn't actually fun for me, or meeting any needs at all - I just feel gross. My goal is to change my lifestyle and habits to the point where I'm not weighing myself as often, I just kind of know when I am starting to go off the rails and correct course before I gain anything back permanently. It does feel good to go shopping when you are at your ideal weight, I had completely forgotten that feeling lol!

Lynsey is still having a lot of fun with baking, and Nathan wanted to bake the other day as well! I guided him quite a bit, but he did a lot of the mixing and measuring of ingredients for his peanut butter cookies:-D. We are hoping to occupy some of time in quarantine with some bake off challenges to make it fun.

Speaking of quarantine, our trip to Canada is less than 2 weeks away! We are getting our wood floor refinished while we are gone (had a bit of a leak with the dishwasher, and it was just time to get it done). While we're at it, we decided to get new baseboards as well, just on the hardwood floor portions for now. It will be like a whole new house when we get back! I'm excited but a bit anxious for the work that we need to do to get ready for this trip. Aside from the usual work to do before going on a big trip, we are now going to have to prep the house for this big project:-l. It's okay, we will get it all done. Here's hoping we like the result!

I can't believe I'm going to be in Canada in two weeks. I am so excited to go home, it has been way too long. Hopefully quarantine doesn't feel too long:-/.