Bright and Beautiful This Week!

Hhhhhhmmmmm. It's been a tough and emotional week. David wrote his exams Tues, Weds and Thurs. It was pretty intense but as usual David remained calm and focused and gave it his all. Me on the other-hand? I've had a knot in my tummy all week and today feel like I could burst into tears at the drop of a hat!!! It's quite a strange experience going through something so intense but not being in the driving seat.

But there have been lots of rays of sunshine:

1. Snuggling up everynight to watch episodes of prison break back to back to help David switch off
2. Lovely emails and texts from my Mum, Ella and Liz counting down the days with me.
3. A new dress!! Bought on impulse but it's fab. Rusty orange sweater dress that will go with my brown boots!
4. 2 amazing work-outs - great music, fast paced, pain, sweat, pain but it felt great.
5. Not being busy today so I can go to a lunchtime pilates class in 20 mins
6. The furniture guy who built our bed figuring out a way to add some metal 'toes' to it to lift it up higher so we have storage under the bed and it not costing too much to do this! I am very excited about having more space to store things!!

I feel better for writing this!!

Bright and beautiful this week....

1. The anticipation of seeing my favourite little boys -gorgeous, adorable, too cute for words -Fin and Ewan over the weekend. I can't wait. Who can resist a smile like these?

2. Madeline Peyroux - I am late to discover her but I am so glad I did. Her album Half the Perfect World has had an extremely calming effect on me this week.

3. 45 members signing up to Y.E.S! This is a networking/fundraising initiaitve I am helping to set up designed to raise funds for Dress for Success Vancouver. It's so cool to have created something for scratch that other people are excited about, joining and spreading the word. Check out the website - I am quite proud of it. www.yesvancouver.org

4. David's home-made burgers - mmm, mmmm, mmmmmmm

5. Reading Maui Revealed. An excellent guidebook that is helping me plan our trip!

6. Apartment Therapy - another good book and website www.apartmenttherapy.com that is helping me declutter and create a vision for our new home.

7. Squeezing into my 'skinny' jeans again after months of banishing them to the back of the closet. Those ab, butt and thigh classes are finally starting to pay off! (Yes, even in spite of item #4)

8. The beautiful, fresh, September sunshine.

9. My favourite Cherry Blossom Roll at Kamei Royale - salmon, avocado roll wrapped in melt in your mouth tuna.

10. It's now only 90 days until my M&F come to visit me!

One of those moments

Sometimes some of the hugely significant moments in your life pass by without you realizing their importance until after the fact. There are others that you just know deserve a starring role. I love this picture for so many reasons (not least the fact it means we will shortly moving in) but also because as I look at it I can imagine it being one of those photos we keep forever and one day our children and grandchildren will pour over, just I have, startled by the fact that David and I were once young and had lives before them and how old fashioned it all looks! This picture signals the beginning of a new chapter for us and I am so excited I could burst. I hope I look back at this picture and remember the giddy happiness and pride we were both feeling as this image was snapped.

Slowly slowly...

... I am trying to banish bad apartment habits and learn new ones. I want to make sure that we do our lovely new home justice and I am fed up with not being able to find anything and living in a jumble.

Here's a first step -- organized beads and necklaces on this little jewelery tree made by Umbra. It's very pleasing!! I am debating whether to buy a second one of these but think it might be overkill?

A small victory

One of my biggest challenges is staying on track with good eating and exercising when work is crazy. It becomes a vicious circle leaving me tired and grumpy.

Last night I had a small but sweet victory, after a frantic day and clients still calling at 6, i confidently asked if I could possibly speak to them in an hour instead - to my surprize that worked better for them, I made it to my gym class and then back to the office.

After sweating and squeezing (it was an ab, butt and thigh class!!) for an hour there was no way I was diving into the chinese my colleagues had ordered. And after a long night of working, I still feel good today because i kept the things I need to do feel good constant and didn't step on the rollercoaster of work taking over.

So that's my pat on the back. Now I've just got to keep doing it!

Blackberries and Bunnies

Last night I went blackberring at the park alongside Jerico Beach. I went last year so it was nice to do it again, it's now offically a Louise September Tradition.

Hot blackbery and Apple crumble is one of my favourite Autumunal treats. I can't wait to cook it up into a deep sweet mix and freeze it for a rainy sunday afternoon.
In my hour of blackberry picking I smiled to myself at two little reminders the blackberries kindly shared with me...

I marched up to the blackberry bush in great anticipation and immediately saw lots of shriveled up pods - oh no i thought, my shoulders slumping in extreme disappointment, I've left it too late, there's nothing here at all. I stayed glued to the spot though and after a minute or two I spotted one blackberry here, another there..and before I knew it I had quite a collection. Funny how sometimes you have to look a little harder, or just stand still for a moment to see what's in front of you.

The other thing that made me smile is that the fat, plumpest, juiciest berries were always just out of my reach!!! I got a few cuts and scars trying to reach for them but decided to be happy with my lot!!

I didn't take a picture of the berries because as I looked up - look what I saw instead 4 little bunny rabbits nibbling on the grass!! Who knew there were rabbits near the beach! I love Vancouver. I don't know many places where you could spend an evening like this 15 mins from the city centre.

This is the life!

I still have moments when I have to pinch myself that this is my life! Last night was one of them! Janine and Mike invited us to go sailing with them! It was a gorgeous day that promised to end with a beautiful evening. I accepted and tracked David down via a friend (he is the last person in the world not to have a cell phone) to let him know the plan. I skipped out of the office at 4, a quick stop at the liquor store for some Granville Island largers and we were changed and our way. Janine is a member of the Royal Vancouver Yaught Club which is right near Jerico Beach. They have a great set up on Tuesday nights experienced sailors take out the novices to show the ropes and have a relaxing hour or so on the water. I must admit I can't remember much of what we learnt other than a refresher of a special 'bunny knot' I first learnt at Brownies. We sailed out to UBC and back. We picked up some speed and 'raced' another boat, cruised for a while and watched some small boats called lazers race. Back on the patio pitchers of beer and plates of nachos were waiting for us - oh and the most beautiful sunset!