Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy new year! Hope that Santa spoils everyone rotten this year :)

Ps- I just looked back at previous years Christmas picture with Harley and he was so tiny! See:

Best of 2013

The past couple of years I have done a year in review post (2011part one and part two/  2012 part one and part two), but decided to switch it up this year. I decided to do a post with the best of theme for 2013.

Best book read

This is a tough one for me! Goodreads sent me an email the other day that I had read 119 books in 2013....that's crazy! Some were definitely better than others. Top of my list would have to be:

• Me Before You by Jojo Moyes  
• The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
• The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay 
• Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain 
• These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf 
• In The Stillness by Andrea Randall
• If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Best hair cut 

It would definitely have to be when I chopped my hair off in October! So worth losing all of that hair for.

Best race

I ran six races this year, but nothing compares to crossing the finish line of your first full marathon! A lot of training and time went into this race, and I was so happy to have completed it.

 
Best place traveled to

Ooh, this a tough one! I was a very lucky girl in 2013 and got to travel to: Ireland, Wales, England, France, Italy and Spain. I loved everywhere we went, but Positano and Barcelona will always hold a special place in my heart.

Best post

Nothing I write will ever compare to the birthday posts that Mr.D does for me each year. You can find his birthday post from 2013 here.

Tell me: what was one of your favorite moments of 2013?

Five on Friday

{one} thanks for playing along with my questions yesterday! I love hearing people's answers and why they'd choose one option over the other. The first question popped into my mind because I stopped in at a running store the other night, and the sales person was helpful, but talked my ear off!

{two} I had a dentist appointment yesterday. As much as I love having clean teeth, I have never been a dentist lover. I still get nervous going. Anyone else?

{three} how is it almost Christmas?!

{four} I think I picked a color to paint our basement....I choose santorini blue. It looks different on all of the walls I tried it on last night...hopefully it turns out!

 

Top left

{five} have a fantastic everyone!

Three Things Thursday

I have no reason why I've been slacking on blogging this week....well I lied. I've been super tired and haven't had any desire to blog. Curling up on the couch with my Kobo and a blanket was MUCH more appealing. 

Three questions for you on this Thursday:

{one} would you rather have a sales person in a store that talked to you non-stop even though you were trying to signal you weren't into the conversation OR a sales person that treated you like you were dirt on their shoe?

{two} would you rather have to wear an ugly Christmas sweater every day for the month of December OR would you rather wear a Santa's hat for the whole month of December?

{three} would you rather have lunch with Speidi (aka Spencer and Heidi) or Celine Dion?

Let's hear your answers!

Happiest of birthdays!

Do you know what today is? Well, not only is today December 16th it is also Mr.D's birthday! 

I just want to wish a very happy birthday to the most loving, caring, funny, supportive husband! I hope you have a fabulous day Mr.D and that Harley let you sleep in this morning :)

Five on Friday

{one} who else is super excited that it's Friday?! This week has been very busy and hectic, so I am so ready for the weekend.

{two} we have two Christmas parties for both of our works tonight. Looking forward to both of them!

{three} if anyone who participated in the blogger swap has not received their package yet, please send me an email and let me know. I will hopefully figure out why you haven't received it yet from your partner.

{four} besides the Christmas parties tonight, we don't have much planned this weekend. Well, I'm going to bake a whole bunch of cookies. Ginger bread men and sugar cookies to be exact :)

{five} hope you have a great weekend everyone!

Canadian Blogger Christmas Swap 2013: link up

Before I start sharing my package, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who participated this year :) I love that everyone wants to join in and that I am able to find new blogs to read :)

My swap partner was Lindsey (I promise I didn't rig the partners...that's the name that came up when I drew names!). Lindsey sent me an awesome package with lots of stuff! Included in the package was: a card, packages of Starbucks hot chocolate, a bar of white chocolate, a note pad, lip balm, amazing smelling body lotion {which I have already bought another bottle of!} and an ornament. Thank you again Lindsey! You spoiled me :)

I've added a place to link your blog post to with your package information below. Can't wait to see what everyone received! :)

Workout Tuesday

Let's talk about the workouts that I did last week:

12/2

• 4.2km walk with Harley
• at home workout of:

100 squats

100 push ups

100 sit ups

100 walking lunges

• I finished in just over 21 minutes

12/3

• CrossFit workout of push jerk
• worked up to 102.5lbs, which was a PR for me! I am surprised with this as I haven't been lifting a lot of weights lately

12/4

• CrossFit workout which was Fight Gone Bad. This workout is structured as follows:

3 rounds for time of:

Wallballs

SDLHP

Box jumps

Push press

Rowing

1 min rest

• I used 55lbs and 10lbs for the wallballs. I managed to get 253 reps, which was high for me. I will have to use more weight next time

12/5

• CrossFit workout of:

21, 15, 9 reps of:

Overhead squat (used 55lbs)

Pull ups

• I finished in just under 9 minutes and managed to do all of the OHS unbroken. Pull ups were unassisted but very broken up. I need to get better and stronger with them!

12/6

• rest

12/7

• snowy walk with Harley and Mr.D in the river valley

12/8

• Nike club training workout

Tell me: how was your week of workouts? Did your dog lack walks this week too?

Highlights of the weekend

Happy Monday everyone! For those of you in Alberta, did you manage to stay warm? Fingers crossed these freezing temperatures go away or give us a break soon.

{friday} Mr.D's work organized a group of tickets for the Flames game, so we decided to buy some. I have never been to a Flames game since we've lived in Calgary, so it was fun to experience. Our seats weren't the greatest, but it will still a fun night :)

{saturday} we were up early to pack our bags and head to Edmonton for our niece's birthday party. We spent the afternoon at the party and then helped to clean up. After the party, we headed back to my in-laws house to take Harley for a walk. He had been cooped up all last week because of the frigid temperatures, so he was running around like crazy in the snow! After our walk, we went out to grab some dinner and then spent the night in front of the fire and watched a movie.

{sunday} Mr.D headed back to Calgary, but I have to be in Edmonton for work, so I stayed the night at my in-laws. My MIL and I ran some errands in the afternoon and then I made dinner for my in-laws. The rest of the night was spent watching tv, blogging and hanging out in front of the fire :)

Tell me: how was your weekend?

Currently..

I know that a couple of people have done posts like this, but I borrowed the format from Amber.

I'm currently...

Feeling...excited that Christmas is coming and that our tree is up and my shopping is done.

Writing...not too much. I've been slacking on the blog posts lately and need to step up my game!

Reading... no books at the moment. I go through periods where I just devour books and then other times I don't feel like reading at all. 

Listening.... to Christmas music and lots of it! 

Eating... yummy dinners made by Mr.D. Along with my writing motivation, my cooking motivation has gone too. 

Wishing... that I had a tropical vacation planned. I would never say no to a week on the beach doing nothing but swimming, reading and relaxing.

Enjoying... looking at our Christmas tree every time I walk up or downstairs :)

Drinking... Diet Coke. I bet that surprised no one ;)

Learning...that stress and myself don't go well together.

Thinking... about marathon training and how I hope this winter isn't too snowy.

Loving... that our tree is up and decorated. I'm also loving that I am planning on making Christmas cookies soon!

Tell me: something that you are currently doing :)

Workout Tuesday

Another week of workouts done! Let's see what I was up to last week:

11/25

• 4.2km walk with Harley
• Crossfit workout of:

1000m row
50 wall balls (10lbs)
100 KB swings (.7pood)
50 wall balls
1000m row

• this was a tough workout! I finished in just over 24 minutes

11/26

• 5.3km run with Harley

11/27

• I took the day off of work because I wasn't feeling well, so I took a rest day

11/28

• 5.27km {5:30/km pace} run with Harley
• at home tabata workout of:

Russian twists
Kettlebell swings
Tick tocks
Clean and jerk (single arm with 10lbs)
Planks
Single leg deadlifts

11/29

• rest day

11/30

• 8.73km {5:16/km pace} run with Harley. It was a gorgeous afternoon for it!

12/1

• 4.75km walk with Harley
•  another at home tabata workout of:

Snatch
Single leg deadlift to shoulder press

Downward dog abs

Burpee to shoulder press

Russian Twists

For tabata workouts, there are 8 rounds of each exercise. Each round is 20 seconds on with a 10 second rest. So, you would do 8 rounds of snatch, then 8 rounds of single leg deadlift to shoulder press, etc.

I've included a short video of the exercises below as it's easier to demo the movements then try and explain them. Hope it helps! Let me know if you have any questions about the exercises.

Tell me: how was your week of workouts?

The weekend

Happy Monday everyone! We are currently under a blizzard warning....oh winter in Canada, how wonderful you are ;) I wrote this post last night, so I am crossing my fingers that they were wrong, and we don't get 10-20cms of snow. I was actually starting to enjoy running outside again. 

{friday} we met up with Alison, Justin and Delainey for pizza at The Rock. It was great catching up with them and getting to see Delainey again. After dinner, we ran a couple of errands and then headed home. I quickly got into pj's (best part of the weekend!) and we watched a movie.

{saturday} we were off early in the morning to drop off the presents for my work. We adopted four seniors this year as a secret Santa, which was a neat idea. After dropping off the presents, we headed to Crossiron Mills. Mr.D's birthday is coming up and he wanted a couple things at the Reebok store. I lucked out and everything was 30% off, so we scored everything for a great price! I was also able to find a couple Christmas presents and things for myself too :) After the mall, we headed home and I took Harley for a 8.75km run. It was such a nice afternoon for a run! The rest of the afternoon and night were spent wrapping some presents, finishing our Christmas cards and hanging out.

{sunday} Mr.D and Justin were off early to go biking in the mountains (crazy boys!), so I headed out to get groceries and stop at Target. After that, I took Harley for a long walk and then decorated our Christmas tree. 

Another weekend that went by too quickly!

Tell me: how was your weekend?