I did DO

Last year at this time, I selected a word to aspire to for 2013.  My word was DO.  Looking back over 2013 I did DO many things that are important to me.


Things I did in Tae Kwon Do: 

1. Liam and I passed our Yellow Belt TKD tests
2. I won a Silver Medal 
3. We passed our next test for our Green Stripes

Things I learned to cook:

1. Cheese
2. Perogies
3. Yogurt
4. Meatballs
5. Gnocchi

 Things I did for me:

1. I treated myself to a French Manicure
2. I had my eyebrows waxed for the first (and probably last) time
3. I got a new tattoo
4. I learned to run and ran my first 5k race

Things I did for others:

1.  I shaved my head to raise money for Cancer Research
2. I ran in the Run for the Cure 5k race
3. I ran in the Food Run race to raise money and donations for Feed Nova Scotia
4. I started a running group

2013 was a pretty good year overall.  Now I need to come up with my word for 2014.  If you had to pick one word to aspire to for a whole year, what would it be? 

Merry Christmas

The presents are opened and being enjoyed.  The turkey is ready to go in the oven.  Everyone is safe, happy and loved.

Liam is having a very Whovian Christmas this year.  He is also VERY excited to have his own tablet!  We can't wait to hear him play his new ukulele too.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful, merry Christmas!

Progress

Slowly, but steadily the apartment is coming along.  Having no electricity and it being dark out by 4:00 is a bit of a hindrance, but we are persevering.

The exciting news is that we have a tenant for January 1st!  So the push is on to get things finished.  The bedroom, den and most of the bathroom are complete (who knew it was so hard to hang a towel bar?)

Here are some before and after pictures of what we have finished.  We moved the washer and stove back into the kitchen today and the last cupboard doors will be put up tomorrow.  That just leaves the living room to paint.

I really hope we don't have to go through this level of cleaning/fixing/replacing again for a very long time!

20 years

Today is a very special day as Hilary and I celebrate our lives together. Today is our 20th anniversary. We have such a wonderful life together that I can’t wait to see what the next 20 years bring us.

Running and Religion Don't mix

I’ve spent a fair bit of time thinking about my final decision for running or not running the Salvation Army’s Santa Shuffle. During all of this thinking, I came to the realization that for me, running and religion don’t mix. (Many runners will proclaim that running IS their religion, but that is a whole other topic.)

I don’t mix religion into any other aspects of my life, so I’m not going to start now. I think running can be a great fundraiser for a lot of causes, and the 3 organized races I have done so far have all been fundraisers but none of them were for religious causes.

So I’m choosing to NOT run the Santa Shuffle, not because it is put on by the Salvation Army, but because it is put on by a religious group.

You could say that I don’t Jog for Jesus, Race for Religion, Canter for Christ, Amble for Allah, Sprint for Shiva, Vamoose for Vishnu or Dash for Divinity. I will however Scramble for Schools, Compete for Cancer and Hurry for Hunger.

Mostly though, I run for me.

photo credit: skreened.com

The 5th Doctor

Liam got to meet Peter Davison who played the 5th Doctor Who.  He got his autograph, chatted him up a bit and had his picture taken with him.

Liam is a very happy Whovian now.

Hal-Con Highlights

Even though it was overbooked and we couldn't get back in after stepping out for lunch on Saturday, we had a great time at Hal-Con.

We did all things Dr. Who.

We saw some amazing costumes.

Liam even got to try on 60+ pounds of 16th century armour.

I'm sure this is now going to become a yearly tradition for us!