Gratitude

I'm having a hard time blogging after last week...but I miss it. So today, I'm gonna share some things I'm grateful for.

First off, this guy:

My rock <3

All these people:

My whole family in general is amazing. Including my in-laws, they have been so supportive and I love them.

Memories I'll never forget:

This little angel is my constant companion and bff.

This strong woman.

These ladies are ALWAYS there for me, no matter what.

And finally my amazing parents that I love so much. Plus Jackson before he grew so much.

Also, I'm grateful for my newest nephew Oliver and happy he's on the mend from his ear infection.

I'm grateful for the beauty of spring. Even though I'm sad, everywhere I look I see beauty and I know that's how it's supposed to be.

Today

It's very, very rare that I post serious things on my blog. There's a reason for that. Life can be serious enough and I try to focus on the positive things. My silence when something is going on means that I'm respecting what has gone on enough to not post the fun little things that make me happy through daily life. Today I feel like there's some stuff I need to share
Yesterday, my friend and I went down to the states. On the way there, we heard about a fatal accident at a major intersection (where there have unfortunately been a few serious accidents). I hear these things often on the radio and thought to myself, no one I know would be driving there right now.
But as I found out on my return home later that evening, it WAS someone I know. My grandfather was gone in an instant in that accident. I keep thinking back to hearing it on the radio, how could I not know that it was him? I didn't even get a gut feeling. I didn't even get a gut feeling when my mom called wondering where I was after I'd only been gone for a few hours.
I had thought I had more time with him, even though I've had almost 28 years. I thought I had more time to bring him my pasta dinners that he loves, to leave him notes in his office, to meet up for lunch like he always said we should, to bring him his favourite candy (bridge mix) to fill the jar I made him many years ago that he kept in the cupboard and brought out for people he liked.
Memories keep flashing through my head. How he would play games with me while he was shaving. How he would tidy things around the house, putting them into neat little piles. How him and my Grandma were the most hilarious couple the way they talked to each other, it was like straight out of their own little sitcom. The way he would tell stories about people as if we all knew who they were. The way that he knew everyone in the car business, like literally everyone. He would always have a video recorder when we were younger, he was always recording everything, and he would say the date at the beginning. It's December 25, 2001...here we are at Mark and Judy's house for Christmas dinner..." eventually he switched to taking pictures.
We had this tradition, him and I. I would leave him notes on this pad of paper he'd had since forever ago, which I just found out my aunt gave to him. It was this little brown notepad that said "today and tomorrow and..." and I would almost always leave the note on these slips of paper. Except when my Grandpa put it away so no one else would use it and I had to leave a note saying "where's my notepad paper?" on a piece of some Remax notepad. He kept every one of them and dated them after I'd left his house.
I'm so happy I have all those memories. I'm so happy that he got to see me get married, got to see my sister get married, and celebrate my brother's marriage at his reception, got to see my brother's and cousins kids.
I'm so happy I had him in my life, and I'm going to miss him so much.

Monday Random Ramblings

This is going to be a totally random post. K? K.

My weekends are always all over the place because I work Saturday mornings. Friday night is usually a relax at home night. It was made even more relaxing when my lovely husband brought me home a bottle of wine. That he bought! Just for me!

Barefoot Sweet Red

Of course I had declared to the blog/Facebook world I wasn't having any sugar. So I decided to make an exception and have a glass. This wine was right up my alley as I LOVE sweet wine (sweet drinks in general)
and it made my Friday night even better. Something about wine makes me want to clean and organize things. It's really weird. I started reorganizing my spice cabinet. What's wrong with me?

Anyways, next subject. I had a casual girls night with a few of my besties Saturday night. We decided to ONLY eat healthy food for our girls night. We had hummus and veggies, spinach dip made with greek yogurt served on endive instead of bread, and zucchini chips. I actually felt fantastic after even though I ate a ton. Highly recommend healthy girls nights!

Sunday was awesome. I have this amazing friend who I used to work with. We worked together for a couple years and told each other everything in that time. We totally bonded over life and Starbucks earl grey lattes. And then we bonded over quitting Starbucks early grey tea lattes. Even though we don't get to see each other often, we always pick up where we left off. Anyways I got to see her Sunday for brunch and I was so happy we got to catch up.

Yes, I recycled my outfit from last week. I really wanted to wear a dress but really didn't want to get my feet wet. I tied the shirt for a bit of a different look and wore skinny dark jeans instead of tights.

Last night, I made a batch of this pumpkin bread from Stephanie's blog. Stephanie is my Yeast Free goddess, as you may have read last week. She is guiding me along in this journey to avoid yeast.
Highly recommend this recipe. It does NOT use protein powder like a lot of recipes and because of the way it's made it comes out very most. It's a perfect pairing with a protein shake for a super quick breakfast.

I don't even mind that my weekend is over tomorrow because tomorrow I am going tooooo THIS:

Soooo freaking excited. My awesome client invited me and I couldn't be more stoked. I will post how it was on Wednesday.

So anyways, now I'm going to go walk and my dog and enjoy the rest of my weekend.

Saw It, Pinned It, Did It: Yeast Free/Clean Pancakes

 
                                           

Today I am linking up with Stephanie and Katie for Saw It Pinned It Did It!

I posted a few days ago about my "No Sugar in April" challenge. So far it's going great, more on that later. We're also trying to avoid a bunch of other stuff in our house, particularly yeast. So far it's been great but the hardest meal has been breakfast. Leigh is trying to rush out the door and can't stomach oatmeal that early. I knew what he would be able to stomach: Pancakes!

I found this recipe on Pinterest and it links to a site for a company that Stephanie (SPD host) works for! They have a whole yeast free diet and lots of helpful recipes. I found this pin that linked to the site:

A lot of protein pancake recipes don't look appetizing to me, but these did. So I created them for Leigh a few days in a row but never tried them myself until this morning! These don't taste exactly like IHOP pancakes but they are pretty yummy!  I can definitely handle these for breakfast and the best thing is you can make the batter the night before to save time in the morning!

I changed a few things on the recipe based on what I had on hand. View the original recipe here:

Ingredients:

• 1/3 C oat flour
• 1 packet stevia
• ¾ scoop vanilla whey protein powder
• 1 egg
• ¼ C plus 1 T unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Instructions:

1. In a small mixing bowl, stir in all ingredients and mix well.
2. Heat medium-sized pan on medium to high heat. Coat with a thin layer of coconut oil to prevent sticking.
3. Pour mix into pan to make a 4 to 5 inch pancake. (Or your desired size.)
4. When the mixture starts to bubble on top, flip and allow the other side to cook.
5. Cook both sides of the pancake until golden brown.
6. Top with sugar free syrup, natural nut butter or fruit!
7. Serve and enjoy!

States Shopping Finds and A Rare Dress Up Day

I've had requests to post my shopping finds from my weekend in the states. Twist my rubber arm!
The past few days I've actually gotten dressed up and it's been fun! Today I had an event to go to, so I wore this which I feel like was much cuter in person. How come everyone else is so good at outfit pics/selfies and I just look ridiculous. Sigh. Anyways, you get the idea.

                                     
                                              

Boots were a 20 dollar find at Famous Footwear! I don't wear boots often and they're pretty classic so I'm sure they'll be worth it. Top is borrowed from my Mom (thanks Mom!) and pants are actually workout capris. I hate regular tights so I wear workout tights when I can get away with it. I bought these seamless tights in black from Target and I feel like they're better as dressy tights than workout ones, but whatever. Definitely worth it.

Of course I had to get some dresses since I'm obsessed. I found a dress super similar to this one I posted on my spring wish list post. I'm too lazy to take a pic of the one I actually bought but they are really similar.

Keeping along with the dress obsession, I picked up this dress in mint and black. I hate when I find something I love in a million colours and then I have a meltdown because I can't choose. I still had some of my budgeted shopping money left so I bought both. I think they were 17.99 each. I have worn the black one three times already.

I also got this bikini because I can't resist bikinis at Target. However I should've looked more carefully because I got mine home and realised the straps were missing. I emailed Target so maybe they will send me some.

All in all I'm really happy with everything I bought, I feel like I am finally learning how to buy things that are wearable and don't just look cute on the hanger. Also buying items that go with a lot of different things. Dressing up and putting on a bit of make-up makes me feel fantastic, especially after long days in runners and workout clothes.

Oh yeah, and that checks off an item on my Spring Bucket List: Build Spring wardrobe...yay!

Easter Weekend Fun

So, today is April 1st and so far I haven't fallen for any April Fools tricks. I'm just popping in for a quick photo recap of our Easter weekend. We went to the adorable town of Enumclaw, Washington to visit Leigh's uncle and his girlfriend. We being Leigh, his mom and I, plus our fur babies. It was a cozy ride up with these two in the car. 

                                   

Layla and one of her BFFs, my inlaws dog Duke

I love going for these trips. Leigh's Uncle's house is super relaxing, and the town is just so peaceful and adorable, Leigh and I always say that we wish we could live there. I get so sick of the hustle and bustle of the Lower Mainland.

Plus, there's the shopping. Oh, the shopping. I had budgeted myself a certain amount of cash for states shopping as it had been awhile, and I spent oh like every penny. I will be posting some of my finds soon but my absolute favourite purchase is these mint wedges. I am in LOVE with this colour  After I bought them I had about ten seconds of buyers remorse because I wasn't sure what to wear them with. But I originally posted them on my blog here, and one of my training clients said they would go with everything. So when I train her this week, I'll be taking some notes from her on fashion while she's getting her butt kicked. :-P

Plenty of this wine was consumed this weekend. New favourite wine, hands down. If only it was the same price back home. Tastes like summer on a patio!


Outside Leigh's uncle's house was these amazing cherry blossom trees. So gorgeous.

                                      

So gorgeous I needed a picture op with these two ladies! Mother in law Julie and Rosie!

                                    

We always go to this little diner for breakfast. It's been in the same family since the 1976! 

                                        

Such a relaxing weekend, exactly what we needed! Yesterday we had an amazing dinner with my family. I didn't take any pictures for some reason, but it was really nice. My sister bought these caramel apple bunnies from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. So freaking good. There was a layer of caramel between the apple and the chocolate. It's a good thing I started no sugar today!