A New House and a Puppy!

Phew....after this post I'll have you all caught up on the last month! What a crazy time for work (TOO many hours!) and running (TOO many kilometers) and housework (NEVER enough time!) haha!

So....exciting news! My brother and I bought a house together!!!!!! We split evenly on a raised bungalow with separate entrances. He'll live in the walk-out basement with Amanda and Reimer, and I'll live in the upper part! We don't move until Sept. 1st....but I'm so so so excited! I'm really glad that we thought of this option and were able to do it civilly and with the help of our parents, and find something we could all decide on. After living in a basement apartment underneath a couple of 75 year olds who (although I love them dearly) sometimes drive me nuts...this is a HUGE deal for me :-) Here it is!

And, even more exciting, is that assuming all goes as planned, I'm getting a puppy in the fall!!!!! I fell in love with the Shiloh Shepherd breed and I CAN'T WAIT to have one! Any name suggestions? I'm pretty set on Finn for a male dog....full name being Finnigan of course, but I'll call him Finn. Still open to suggestions though. And of course, if his personality dictates a different name, I won't be totally set on Finn. Maybe Roxy for a girl? Not sure. Here's a pic...just a random Shiloh from google images LOL!

In The Shower With Justin Bieber!

Justin Bieber Weekend 2011

What an occasion!! Justin Bieber was so excited about Cait turning 11 that he hopped in the shower with us!!!!!

Some of you might remember last year's Twilight Weekend 2010 to celebrate Cait's 10th birthday. Well.....last weekend was Bieber Weekend, and it was an AWESOME time!!!!

Holly, Cait, Tomi and I headed to the cottage Friday after work, had Chinese food...yummmmy!! Then cranked the Bieb!

The weather was perfect...sunny and hot. We spent most of it outside...the girls swimming....me occasionally swimming, and Holly and I on the deck with the puppies Miley and Maddie!

We also made Bieber concert t-shirts (obviously!!!!), watched his movie, painted our nails with nail polish from Bieb's "One Less Lonely Girl" collection, drank out of 3D Bieber cups, had a silly string fight.....and then made some Smores, for good measure. It was a fantastic weekend!!!!! Pics..... :-)

Cait, the Bieb, and Tomi!

Cait helping me with my sparkles!

Cait and Tomi investigating the island that appeared!

All of us with our Bieb shirts on!

Me and my chicklets :-)

The Huron Shores Rotary Race!

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to run in a really great race, and one that supported a charity that's really important to me.

Erin and I took off around 6pm Friday night and headed for Southampton, the town my Grandpa lives in, to run in the Huron Shores Rotary 10k Saturday morning. I had been up since 4am working, and....long story short, we ended up lost at 11:30pm in a town with no gas stations or convenience stores, then I hallucinated people on bikes (turned out to be a stop sign), and then, around 1am, we ended up at my Grandpas, and I will forever be made fun of for getting lost on the way to somewhere I've driven to a hundred million times.

Saturday started off pretty shaky with extreme thunderstorms and torrential downpours. We headed down to the main street anyways since we had no way to listen to the news to find out if it was cancelled, since the power was out! It was postponed for a half hour, someone had seen a tornado, and nobody could figure out what to wear....it was cold, but would it be humid along the shoreline? Would it keep raining? Should we wear the shirts they handed out?

Anyways, it turned out to be an awesome race....it ran along the shore of Lake Huron and was breathtaking. It was my most challenging race to date...my stomach was not impressed with something I had eaten the day before, but we both had a great time.

More importantly, the race raised $14,000 for mammogram machines for the hospital. I ran this race for my Grandma who passed away 9 years ago at only 59, and if the hospital had had those machines back then, she might still be here. So...YAY for such a successful event!! Here are some pics :-)

Me, Erin, and our ponchos LOL

Trying to Stay Warm

Erin Finishing....only 20 seconds away from breaking 1 hour!

Me finishing!

With my Grandpa :-)

My Nephew Is Growing Up!!

Get ready guys......you're about to see many, many pictures of the cutest, sweetest, most amazing Golden Retriever on the face of the planet! Okay, that might have been a little exaggerated, but I went and spent the afternoon with my brother and his girlfriend's puppy a couple days ago and I couldn't get enough of him!



The "Reimer" Look



Me, letting Reimer think he's the one running me LOL!

Snuggle Time

With my Mom helping cut watermelon

The Happy Family- Reimer, Amanda, and Jordan

Is Anyone Stitching Out There???

HEY!! Long time no post... what can I say? It's summer. That's all I've got.

There's been absolutely no stitching happening in the last month. I've been so busy in my gardens, running, working and reading that I can't find time or motivation. How do you guys keep it up when it's soooo nice outside? Pleeeasee tell me your secrets, I need to know before my Crazy January Challenge becomes an epic failure LOL!