Summer Bucket List Update & a Giveaway...

At the beginning of Summer Holly and Trista hosted a Summer Bucket list link up. Today I am updating with my progress and what has been checked off the list so far

 (You can check out my Summer Bucket List post here)

What I have accomplished:

Take the girls to the fair in 'the city'

Toni, the girls and I headed to 'the city' to take in the fair on its second night in E-town. The girls enjoyed the rides and me and Toni enjoyed the food...

Ok, so the girls enjoyed the food too

Trip to the Twin Cities for The Color Run

We road tripped to Minneapolis and I fell in LOVE with the city (no surprise there...) and also ran my first EVER 5K

Color Run recap here. Twin Cities recap here

Re-uniting with my Cameron cousins to celebrate Jeremy and 'Fun Brittany's Wedding

July 20th was the big day and once again the Cameron clan showed everybody how its done. Our hangovers the next day were a testament to that...

Almost all of the Cameron clan - only missing a few 

Spending as much time as possible outside with my girls

We unfortunately have not had the nicest Summer here in SK but we tried to take advantage of whatever sun we got! It has been super nice for the past few days and I am loving it considering we FINALLY have our deck built

Reuniting with my College BFF after three long years to watch her get MARRIED!

I made the quickest trip to AB as possible but it was all worth it to be reunited with my College BFF, Marissa

Pool time with the girls - my ass WILL be in a bikini this Summer!

I spent a few days at the beginning of the Summer at the pool with the girls - we even took a daycare field trip to the pool. Unfortunately my bikini has not, and definitely will not, left the privacy of my bedroom this Summer :( Next Summer!

Beer Pong All.Summer.Long

This Summer has been so busy that my beer pong table really has not seen that much action. But that will change with the upcoming long weekend and all the Rider game halftimes coming up!

Weekend Getaways

Twin Cities, MN

Regina, SK

Oyen, AB

I would have preferred a few more but my bank account told me no :(

Trip to a beach preferably in Florida

Just this past weekend we made a trip up to the lake to the Beach. Unfortunately Florida was not in the cards BUT I did just find out last week that Allegiant starts flying to Orlando in November so HELLO DISNEYWORLD, HERE I COME!!

I still have a few more items on my list that I am hoping to get checked off before Fall is officially here but I do know that there are a few things that will remain unaccomplished until next Summer :( Boo to Summer being way to short!

And finally, the title promised you a giveaway, so here it is:  Allie and her sponsors (myself included) are giving away Paypal CASH. Check it out and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What were your Summer bucket list items? What would you do with $200?

Sweet Red, Riders, and Red Barns...

First off, HUGE THANK YOU to Sarah for my amazing new design. I am LOVING it and it makes me want to blog again! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I haven't recapped a weekend in forever but I finally did something on a weekend worthy of a recap. In my books anyways...

Friday night my Mama Bear cooked the family a delicious supper and for the first time in FOREVER I was finally able to enjoy a full meal. I also got reunited with my BFF, wine, after three long weeks without! I was a happy, happy girl

I woke up bright and early Saturday morning to head into 'the city'. I ran a few errands, met up with a friend for lunch, and then was racing back to O-town to watch the Rider game. It was a nail biter game that came down to the last few minutes. I love/hate those games. My anxiety just can't handle the suspense!

During halftime I finally got to put my new Margartitaville blender to use - that thing is amazing. It is definitely worth every penny and I can't wait to use it again this loooong weekend

After the game we spent some time outside on the NEW deck! This deck was only 5 years in the making so we have been trying to soak up every minute on it before Winter hits with full force and the only things its good for is collecting snow

Sunday morning I headed up to the lake with the family. Toni is working weekends in 'the city' so the girls have been with my parents on weekends. Rae had a birthday party so she couldn't come but Graycie Bear was able to hit up the beach.  Mama Bear and I dropped the bro, sis-in-law, and Graycie off at the beach and headed up to Kenosee to the Red Barn. It's a flea market/farmers market located in the yard of someone's home. Every weekend during the Summer they have vendors come out and set up in the barnd and outside. There is food, vendors with all sorts of things for sale, and even live music sometimes. It's only 45 minutes away from O-town so we try to make a trip up every Summer

Some of the goodies at the Red Barn. I swear I am the only young-ish person in the world with a love for pickled beets. I just can't get enough. I spent waay to much time at the Scentsy table checking out all of the scents. And I wanted the Happy Fall Ya'll planter sooo bad but I'm trying to avoid the fact that Summer is coming to an end so I couldn't fathom buying it yet

Me and Mama Bear got to spend a little time at the beach too after the Red Barn before it was time to head back to town to pick Rae up from her friends house. 

It was so hot and humid out that by the time we made it home I was EXHAUSTED. I plopped myself down on the couch, with a Palm Bay in hand, and watched Big Brother (side note: Elissa, get Amanda out NOW!) and Sister Wives. Sister Wives ended just in time for me to switch over to the VMA's to catch JT's performance and the 2 second N*Sync reunion. Then I tried, with no success, to find pictures ( in a box of a million pictures) of what my walls used to look like plastered in N*Sync and Backstreet Boy posters. But don't worry, I'm going to keep looking and there will be a blog post once I do find them!

So in my books the weekend was a success since I finally crossed two more things off my Summer bucket list! Just in time too since Summer is coming to an end :(

Why I'm A Baby...

Look who showed up for class today! I feel like I've been missing all Summer, not just for a week. But I'm back and it feels so good to finally be getting back to normal! 

I had a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy a week ago and have been DYING ever since. The pain in my throat isn't actually that bad once I have a few painkillers in me. But its what those painkillers are doing to my stomach that have had me asking people to just put me out of my misery. Strong medication on a very empty stomach is no bueno! Its like having the flu for a week. No one should ever have to go through that. Not even my worst enemy.   Last night was THE best night since my surgery a week ago and this morning I was finally able to look at a computer screen without feeling nauseous so I figured I should try and get a blog post in before everything goes back to hell in a handbasket

Getting a tonsillectomy at age 26 25 is like regressing right back to being a baby

1. You drool. A LOT. Swallowing is done only when absolutely necessary (ie: to take your painkillers). Otherwise its drool city
2. You sleep ALL.THE. TIME. I thought I would get soooo much accomplished in my 10 days off following the surgery. I had a list of things to do that I've been putting off for months and I figured I'd be able to get them all done.  So, so wrong. For the first four days I could barely stay awake long enough to swallow my painkillers. At one point I even fell asleep with a freezie IN MY HAND. True story. And a messy one at that
3. You can't eat solid foods. I've been living on a diet of Jell-o, freezies, yogurt, popsicles, and popcorn twists. And just yesterday I graduated to finally being able to eat Tater Tots. Apparently I've hit the Toddler stage of the recovery period
4. You can't talk. I could talk perfectly fine about two hours after the surgery (thank you anesthesia and morphine) so I figured I'd be fine for the rest of my recovery. Wrong again. I could barely whisper the first few days and doing so took all my energy. Now I can squeak out a few words but its hurts so bad that I usually just try to communicate by nodding my head or using hand gestures. Its like a game of charades all.day.long 

The only good thing to come out of this whole ordeal? I've lost 10 lbs in a week. But I'm efffing hannnnngry. I am going to gain those 10 lbs (and more) back the second I'm able to eat regular foods again. I'm drooling (beyond the regular drooling) just thinking of the deliciousness. Mmmm.  I plan on eating as if the world is ending. And I don't care because I haven't ate in a freaking week people. A WEEK! 

I've watched more TV than I ever thought possible. But I keep falling asleep during episodes or halfway through a movie so I have to rewatch it. And then repeat the vicious cycle over, and over, and over. 

1/ Last picture with my tonsils still intact. I rocked that hospital gown...

2/ I also rocked those awesome hospital booties. I need to get me some of those...

3/ I only eat Jell-o if there's vodka in it. True story. I hate the slimy-ness of it. So this last week has been a struggle. Vodka really would've been appreciated...

4/ My lifesavers. These things do not leave my side

5/I haven't moved off that spot on the couch for a week. And I swear I've watched absolutely EVERYTHING on Netflix. This bed rest thing is for the birds

6/ Shout out to the incompetent nurses who couldn't get my IV in right the first TWO times. Now I have two black and blue hands

7/ Melt in your mouth deliciousness. If the 50lbs of salt in these doesn't make me gain weight then nothing can

8/ The Toddler stage of eating

9/ My snuggle buddy for the last week. You can also compare the life of  recovering from surgery to the life of a dog...

And now I'm off to go watch a season of HIMYM, in bed, in my pajamas, while I eat freezies and constantly check Twitter. This is the life

Cheers to the Freakin (long) Weekend...

It's a loooong weekend here in Canadaland. Which is super awesome but... last year for the long weekend I was leaving on a jet plane, Pennsylvania/NYC bound,  sooooo this year I am probably just going to spend my weekend crying into my glass of wine and commiserating the fact that I'm not in NYC 

So for today I am linking up for Five on Friday to talk about 5 things I LOVED about NYC

ONE

There was a Starbucks on every corner. This girl LOVES Starbucks and doesn't get it nearly enough so I was in coffee heaven. And those Starbucks had WiFi so we could update FB, IG, and Twitter and make everyone back home jealous that we were in the BEST CITY ON EARTH! 

TWO

I got to experience NYC with one of my oldest friends (since Grade 2) -  nothing tops that!

The ONLY picture we got of the two of us together in NYC. We didn't trust people not to take off with our phones so that meant no pictures together :(

THREE

I saw Chicago on Broadway. And it was AMAZING. And when I go back I will go see it again. It was that good people! 

FOUR

I got to experience things that, growing up in a small town, I would have never dreamed could be possible. The Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, 9/11 Memorial, Times Square, Central Park, etc. So many people from the tiny town I grew up in have never even left the country, let alone experienced NYC

FIVE

The busyness of city life. Even when I went to College in a city I didn't get to experience true city life - I was a broke college student after all. But while in NYC I got a taste of city life and absolutely LOVED it. It really is the city that never sleeps and that just made me fall even more in love with it. We were there during the week and watching the people on the streets hustle off to their jobs just made me want to head home to pack up all my things and move to NYC. I honestly can't even describe to people how much I loved it. I can tell you that I fell in love with a city and won't be happy until I'm living there. It's as simple as that. NYC stole my heart and one day I will make it back there

So many people think I'm crazy to want to live in NYC. And maybe once I've done it I'll realize that it isn't the place for me and I'll end up leaving for somewhere else. But at least I'll have been able to say I followed my dream

And of course I can't forget about Whitney and #backthatazzup Friday. And to fit in with my NYC theme I give you this: