Things to do in Clarenville: Skating at the rink

I may have mentioned this a million times before, but we live in a really small town where sometimes we struggle to find things to do. So we were happy to find one more thing last weekend, which is ice skating at the rink. They have a family skate a few times a week, and we took advantage. 

 

They had these things that the little kids could sit in while you push them around. They were awesome for us since Cohen was unwilling to actually let his skates touch the ice.

We went to the Canadian Tire to buy skates for Cohen, which was so exciting for him. Then we went to the rink, where we were the only family wearing bicycle helmets instead of hockey helmets. Also, all the other kids were wearing full hockey pads and gear. Cohen, not so much. I can barely skate in a straight line. All this to say that we definitely did not fit in. Cohen loved it, and insisted on wearing his helmet for the rest of the day.

I took him again this morning while Jon was at work. He was reluctant to put on the skates, but I did eventually get him on the ice for 20 minutes. Another mom told me she started her boys skating at one years old and she started by letting them lay on the ice. I might skip that step? Not sure.

Luck, and finding a "decent" guy

When I was getting my nails done beside the other bridesmaids for the wedding last weekend, my manicurist started talking about her love life. She has the worst luck. She has never ever dated a decent guy. So she just keeps dating losers and spends her money partying in Las Vegas and Miami with her girlfriends who are slowly getting married. She asked me about my situation. I told her about Jon, how he is definitely the most attractive guy I know, and super fun, sensitive, the works. And I'm married to him. "Lucky!", she said. Then I was reading this article about being lucky. 

And I was quick to tell her, nope. Not luck. First of all, the odds of meeting a "quality guy" (her words, not mine) in Vegas or Miami at a nightclub are maybe a lot lower than in an education program with an acceptance rate of 1:100 (or whatever). So for me to even have met Jon involved me working my ass off for 5 years after high school to get into grad school. And it involved me dating lots of not-as-great guys, and spending a long lonely year with no romantic interests at all. All the stuff I went through before meeting Jon kinda primed me to meet Jon and fall in love with him and ultimately marry him. No luck. Though I do feel lucky.

When  think about my closest friends, it's a similar story. Very few of my friends had an amazing guy fall into their laps in their early twenties. Instead, it seems like my friends have focused hard on careers and education, and ended up meeting the good guys in doing that. For my friend the nail tech, I'm thinking that all her traveling and enjoying life will slowly lead her to the right guy for her. Maybe that's called luck, or maybe not.

Wedding hair drama

So the bride gifted us all with updos for the wedding, which was so fun and awesome. When mine was done and I walked back to join the other girls, they all started laughing. It was bad. I asked if they could fix it because those curls were falling out super fast, but the girl had gone home, so whatever.

(an hour after getting my hair done) 

(after one of the other bridesmaids fixing it up for me)

So I sent a pic to my sister, who promptly told me I needed bobby pins so I could put that mess up into a side bun. So we did that, and it was all good. Crisis averted. Really, it was no big deal, and no one cared how my hair looked, especially me, but I did love having my sister able to diagnose the problem via texting. I've only had my hair professionally done a couple times, and never experienced the style falling out so fast. I dunno. In the future I will definitely ask the stylist for a handful of bobby pics for emergencies later in the night.

Our wedding weekend in Halifax

(ice cream time on the boardwalk) 

(in the back of the bride's ride on the wedding day) 

(shellac nails. lasted about 3 hours on me.) 

(we had fancy snacks at the salon/spa on the wedding day) 

(maid of honor hair) 

(this was the bride's trunk on the wedding day. the flowers were insane) 

(feet. four of us have semi-matching heart tattoos) 

(at the wedding venue) 

(on the bus to the airport)

We arrived in Halifax on Thursday night, and Jon and I went right to our favorite sushi place after making sure the little guy was happy with the Grandparents. Friday was the wedding shower and the rehearsal dinner. Saturday was salon and spa time, then pics, then wedding. Sunday was hangover time. And we left early Monday morning. The whole weekend was awesome. Cohen spent tons of time with his grandparents, and I got to spent lots of time with my best friends. We love Halifax. And weddings. 

Back from a long wedding weekend

We just got back from our good friend's wedding weekend. Oh man, it was so fun. I got to see a handful of high school friends and others who I went to undergrad with. 

(angry toddler plane selfie) 

(family selfies. it's getting bad)

We stayed at an airbnb, which was cool but actually super hot in the nighttime, and the beds were tiny and uncomfortable. More wedding weekend babble to come, but right now I need to nurse by three day hangover that I guess comes with being over thirty?

Thinking...

Cohen loves his peaches these days, and I just love these two photos so much. He bumped his forehead on some rocks when he was running in our rock pit/backyard area. He is always bumping his forehead, and sometimes I am tempted to tell him he is not allowed to run anymore. But running is pretty much his favorite thing to do. Luckily we have cool bandaids.

So we had friends for supper on the weekend, and they texted to say they were bringing the wine, which is so awesome. We went to open it when they arrived, and no corkscrew. I know we used to own one, but now we don't. The guys jumped in the car and got a corkscrew, but then when we opened the wine, well, we don't have any wine glasses. So we drank the wine from teacups, and it was totally cool. But our friends were shocked that we don't have these basic things, and wanted to bring us some of their extra stuff the next day.

The thing is, I don't really want those things in our house. I like drinking wine with some soda and fruit in it in a big glass, first of all. But also, I just don't want our cupboards jammed with stuff we use only a few times a year. Other things we don't have that some people might find weird: headboards, bed frames (our mattress is just directly on the floor), measuring cups (teacups tend to be about a cup), extra sets of sheets (just what is on our bed), glasses (we exclusively use random jars), a cake stand, a salad spinner, a soup ladle, and the list could probably go on and on.

Anyway, tomorrow we are off to a wedding in Halifax this weekend! We have been taking lots of little trips over the past month or two, and I am loving it. Can't wait for the reunion.

The long weekend thus far (and berry picking)

(biking all the time) 

(a raspberry picking selfie)

(raspberry face) 

(I let Cohen take the polaroid to pick blueberries) 

(hiking)

It is serious berry-picking season here right now. They are everywhere. When we go out to the backyard to kick the ball around, I get distracted by all the ripe wild raspberries everywhere. And we went for a hike, but there were just so many blueberries, that we had to quickly eat our snacks that I had packed so we would have containers to put all the blueberries in. I am obsessed with these berries. I have made blueberry scones, blueberry oatmeal, blueberry jam, blueberry crumble. And I still have tons of berries in our fridge and freezer. I'm thinking maybe blueberry ice cream next? I have never seen such amazing berry-picking conditions. I could probably go on about berries forever, but I have to go make more muffins.

Things I learned at the National Dental Convention

(The one single pic I took at the convention. Our assistant and I)

1. We should all be asking our hygienists to use a fluoride varnish instead of fluoride foam, rinse, or gel. This is pretty common sense, but the really thick varnish hangs around teeth way longer and we end up ingesting way less than the foam/rinse/gel. Especially important for kids.

2. The Merchant Tavern is an awesome restaurant to go for a good meal in St. John's. Jon and I had the best meal of our lives there. No kidding. I don't even know what they put in the beet salad, but I am still thinking about how great it was. Also, dating your husband= a good thing.

3. The average momma dentist takes about three months off after having a baby. I only talked to four other moms about this, but three months seems to be the norm. I ended up taking 3.5 months off.

4. Grinding and clenching our teeth is bad! And so many of us do it. Your teeth should never be touching unless you are eating. So separate those teeth.

5. Never assume they are going to feed you. Even if you are going to the kind of thing that you paid a lot of money to attend and they usually always have food. Just throw a banana in your bag, always.