If you spend anytime in Ottawa back in the late early ’90s you would remember this guy.  He watched over all the partying at the Yucatan Liquor Stand.  And I can say I was there.  For a good period of time my girlfriend and I were quite the regulars there. We danced, we met friends there, we just simply had fun.  And the fact that it was all decked out in surfboards and all things beachy meant that I loved it even more.

Then one day, one Canada Day, the Liquor Stand may have let in a few too many people.  So they had to close for a week or so and it would seem they never did recover from that.  A few new places opened and everyone seemed to go to those places so Yucatan’s just closed up shop.  With much less fanfare than we would have liked.  One day it was open the next it was not.

It has been several bars or restaurants since then, but nothing seems to have lasted as long nor been as popular as Yucatan’s.  I miss it.  I don’t miss the creepy guys trying to pick me up, but I miss the fun times that were had, I miss that you could dance on the surfboard tables and speakers and you didn’t get kicked out.  I miss that you could show up in your surf shorts and a tank top or a dress and heels and you were always welcome at Yucatan’s.

Of course, I guess this post really should be about the fact that I miss being 22 sometimes and since I will be hitting 40 in a couple of months I was feeling kind of nostalgic on Saturday when I walked around the Market for the Scott Kelby PhotoWalk (more here).  All the places I used to know and love are long gone and replaced by places so foreign to me it is like they never existed. And Yucatan’s was by far my favorite of all the places that have come and gone. Thanks for the fun.

Not sure about all of you, but when we go on vacation we not only enjoy our favorite beach and the wonderful ocean, but we also enjoy all our favorite treats.  And by treats I mean we had two weeks of all our favorite foods and then some.  We ate pizza, ice cream, frozen yogurt, beer, french fries, chocolate, chips … and the list could go on and on and on…

I also realized this year that when you walk with small children that aren’t in a stroller you don’t burn off as many calories as you do when you can walk as fast as you want.  Apparently our years of walking the boards fast and burning off all our treats are gone for now.

When we returned home, I was not happy with myself at all.  I hate to admit it, but I was feeling a little chubby and after working so hard all Spring to decrease the chub I was pretty mad. The good news is that I had been chosen to participate in the Mom Central Under-Way blog tour.  Mom Central seems to know what I need when I need it and a week after coming home from the beach a box arrived at the door.

In it were samples of the underWAY supplement drink.  I was quite excited to try these out as they are infused with HeroFiber and heart-healthy vitamins, works naturally to suppress your appetite and quench your thirst. And boy did I need help suppressing my appetite.  In two short weeks I became very accustom to extra snacks, well extra, ha,  I snacked pretty much all day long. underWay is great!  I received four bottles of grape and four of acai-pomegranate and you wouldn’t know by taste that they were healthy supplement drinks. At just 20 calories per bottle I didn’t mind having a bottle in between my glasses of water.  And since they are great for rehydration I made sure to have one after my run.

Here are a few extra benefits of underWay drinks:

• there are no preservatives, sodium or caffeine
• one serving delivers almost a third of your daily recommended intake of fibre
• only has 10 calories and 2 grams of carbs per 8oz serving (each bottle is two servings)

In addition to the eight bottles of underWay, I also received a case of samples of Smart for Life products.  There were cookies, cupcakes, crunch, cereal, soup, bagels and shakes.  And WOW!  I was only asked to try the product and let you know what I thought.   But, I went one step further.  In my case I had enough product for five days of the Smart for Life Cookie Diet so I decided to give it a try and see what the results would be. In five days I lost 7lbs.

Now, I know that a couple (ok three) of those pounds were from the beach but the other four were ones that I wanted gone before I left for the beach. But, that was enough for me to tell that it is certainly worth a try.  In addition to losing 7lbs, I felt fantastic.  I chose to not be too strict on myself for my dinners, so I ate the Smart for Life products (with lots of water) all day long as directed then I ate dinner with the family.  I tried not to eat many carbs but didn’t make it super strict. Fabulous.  The cookies and cupcakes were great, they are moist and tasty and I was totally surprised.  So surprised that I went to Costco on Saturday and bought a case of cookies and a case of drinks so I could keep it up for the next week and see what happened.  Either way they are a great meal replacement or low-calorie dessert at only 90 calories for a cookie or muffin.

And as an added bonus, I get to give TEN of my readers a case, courtesy of Mom Central,  just like the one I received (which apparently I forgot to take a picture of) so you too could try out underWAY and Smart for Life.  All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me why you would like to try underWAY or Smart for Life products and you will be entered to win. Contest open to Canadian residents only (sorry to my friends from the South).Readers may enter the contest on multiple blogs but are only eligible to win once as part of the underWAY blog tour contest. Contest closes August 4th.

Disclosure - I am participating in the underWAY program by Mom Central on behalf of Better Health Beverage, LLC. I received a gift card as a thank you for my participation.  The opinions on this blog are my own.

Mamalang and I have known each other for a couple of years now.  We were first introduced when we did an Organizational Swap and we were paired together.  What kept us in contact is my love for the State of Delaware.  Mamalang lives in my favorite State and last summer we tried to meet up at the Beach, but missed each other in the crowds at Funland.  This year we were determined to make sure we would get that chance.

Mamalang sent me a text to let us know they were at Funland and we were thankfully on our way out for a walk which was to include a stop at the rides.  We easily met up and got to chatting right away.  We sent the men on the rides with the kids and got a chance to get to know each other without sending an email back and forth.  Our boys are the same age so they were instant friends daring each other to go on the more thrilling rides.

While we were letting Mamalang and her family head out for dinner, they mentioned that we should join them on their beach later that week.  I looked at Hubby being careful not to impose more visiting with others on our vacation and he jumped right in and said we would join them the next day.  He wanted to change up our beach routine a little bit.  The next day we headed out on our new adventure.

I have driven by this stretch of beach countless times in my lifetime, but have never stopped.  This is one of those beaches where you are allowed to drive up (with a permit of course) on the sand and park your vehicle.  Since we didn’t have any fishing poles and didn’t want to get a permit for just one day, we parked in the parking lot and walked over to where Mamalang and her family had parked their Jeep and were starting to set up.  These guys are professional beach goers.  They had the poles, the tent, the chairs, the sand buckets everything you need for a perfect day on the beach.  We joined in the fun and helped set up.

I just had to get a shot of the Jeep, I almost drapped my Canadian flag towel across the hood,but somehow it just didn’t seem right.

 The waves rolling in were the waves of my childhood.  You could ride these waves all day and not get tired.  In recent years they have had to replenish our regular beach so we have experienced some choppier waves in the last few years.  These ones just begged for you to come in and hang out.  The sand on your feet were filled with treasures and our Hubby’s were both bringing up handfuls of goodies to search through.  The boys played in the water and dug for sand crabs and the the bigger girls chatted and swam.  Apple got a bucket of her very own where she played for hours sitting in it, dunking her hair and just filling it with water.

I don’t think I could describe what a great day we had so instead I will leave you with a mosaic of our fabulous time.  If it weren’t for the fact that the kids were getting very tired and the heat was starting to melt us all I think we would have stayed all night.  The kids were asleep before we were on the highway back to our cottage and with only a brief nap were in bed by 9pm.  A day well spent by the seashore.  I don’t dare tell you the name of this fabulous beach for fear it will be packed next year.  I just don’t want to share it with anyone, well anyone except Mamalang and her family that it.  Thank you for taking us, we had the most wonderful time.

We have returned from the land of Sun, Sand, Surf and temperatures that were tipping the scale at 40C (104F).  We are happy to be home, but missing the ocean badly. Thankfully our two weeks away were so fabulous we have agreed to continue with at least two weeks and maybe three for next year.  I had hopes of blogging so much more, but our internet was so intermittent that I would get frustrated and we were having so much fun we just fell into bed each night.  I owe you guys about 20 posts, but I must start off with one for Lay’s Chip Trips.

Our first Lay’s Chip Trip that we took as part of the Mom Central Blog Tour in conjunction with Frito Lay, was of the restaurant kind.  In early June, I had cashed in some Lay’s points to get started on our Summer. And after a great Saturday of having fun when we asked the kids what they wanted to do for supper they both yelled, “Boston Pizza!” Hubby and I looked at the Lay’s Chip Trip’s I had printed out the day before and saw that we had two kids meals at Boston Pizza, which cost only 10 points each or one big bag of Lay’s Chips.  We packed the kids into the car and headed out.

The kids were sporting their new sunglasses we got for the beach and colouring up a storm while waiting for their food.

Hubby ordered the Jambalaya Fettucini, which was spicy and delicious.

And I got the Chipotle Chicken and Bacon Salad.  Again spicy and delicious. The kids both ordered chicken fingers and were so happy that we took their suggestion for dinner.

 Our first Lay’s Chip Trip was fun and fulfilling and we have a few more adventures waiting for us, a boat cruise, mini-putt and some fun at a Provincial Park. You can sign up for Lay’s Chip Trips too and start cashing in on some fun in your area.

Disclosure I am participating in the Lay’s Chip Trips program by Mom Central on behalf of Frito Lay and PepsiCo. I received Lay’s Chip Trip points and a gift card to offset my trip costs to facilitate this post. The opinions on this blog are my own.

What do you say when someone you have only met in real life once, drives with her family for four hours after a long day of partying while pregnant to visit you while you are on vacation?  You say thank you Bethany Actually!  We couldn’t have asked for a better way to start off our vacation than to welcome Bethany and her family to our quaint little cottage to spend the day with us at our beach.

We had just enough time to unpack, grab some groceries and have our favourite pizza for dinner before The Actually’s arrived.  We all got a good night sleep and woke up refreshed for a day of sharing and fun on the beach.  The sun was strong, the temperatures were HOT (35C/104F) with high humidity and it was a glorious day.  Bethany and I even managed a little pottery painting while the kids and husbands napped.  The Actually’s packed it in after dinner for their long drive home.  We were so blessed to spend our first day with them, we hope that they enjoyed our beach as much as we do and hopefully we can do this again sometime soon.

To view more of our beach vacation head on over to my flickr page.

Sorry for the delay in announcing the winners.  Our cottage has internet, but we couldn’t get it going until today.  Due to the delay, I am going to select two winners of Lovely Design Pocket Books.

Winner #1 is comment number 3, Amy!  Congrats Amy:

Winner #2 is comment number 6, Lara!  Congratulations Lara:

Congratulations to Lara and Amy, I will be emailing you shortly to find out what colour you would like for your Pocket Journal.  I have one more giveaway coming up in celebration of my fifth anniversary of blogging, stay tuned…

Well, apparently the end of June is the busiest time of the year next to Christmas.  The good news is that nobody was hurt during the Earthquake we had yesterday. Despite J’s school being evacuated, Hubby having to work double overtime and Apple and I having to pick up a few things that fell down we really didn’t suffer much more than some shaken nerves and a reminder that we are not immune to the ground shaking.

Before I announce the winner of the Swanky Paper Giveaway I have to say that Heather, from Swanky Paper, emailed me today after reading about my Blogiversary and offered to donate the cards for my giveaway.  How sweet is Heather?  Be sure to think of her if you are looking for some notecards or invitation, I do love her designs as much as I love paper.  Thank you Heather.

Now to announce the winner.  I used the Random.org generator and it picked comment number 1.

Shannon!

Go figure that A Crafty Mom who may be the only person I know who loves paper more than I do would win this giveaway.  Congratulations Shannon and be sure to enter today’s Giveaway.

Now onto today’s giveaway.  I am sticking with the wood/paper theme here and giving away one of Sharilyn’s Pocket Books from Lovely Design.  I ordered one a few months ago and just love it.  The pocket book is handmade, using  scraps of paper such as old maps, accounting papers, lined papers and many more.  The books are bound and covered in a gorgeous linen, I chose the Robin’s Egg Blue and use it for notes and reminders.  In between the pages there are little pockets with surprises and it just adds so nicely to the books. Sharilyn also has other great products.  I am eyeing the Address file, so that may just be my next purchase.

I will also add that Sharilyn is extremely busy and can’t even keep the pocket book and journal books in stock.  The next order should be ready in the next few weeks, so I am on the waitlist ready to order one for the winner the moment they are released. So your prize will not be delivered immediately but in a few weeks time.

For today’s giveaway all you have to do is leave a comment and tell me how do you keep all of your addresses organized?  I have two ways, my old daytimer and it’s address pages and my address book on my computer, but neither is truly complete so I need to make a decision and update on and get rid of the other. Contest closes at 6pm on Friday, June 25th where a winner will be randomly chosen from all entries.

My official Blogaversary is Friday, June 25th which makes it five years that I have been writing this blog.  Five years that I have been sharing with you at my little place in the blogisphere.  I know that some weeks I have a lot to share and some, not so much.  But, I also know that it has been great to get to ‘meet’ you all and share in your stories and lives as well.

I love that I have met so many wonderful people in real life through my blog.  If I had never dared myself to do this I would never have met A Crafty Mom, Andrea, Borderline Bonkers, Kami’s Khlopchyk, Secret Agent Josephine or Bethany Actually.  All of whom are just as wonderful in real life as they are on their blogs.

When I first started sharing, I did it as a lark.  I felt like I couldn’t just lurk and read others blogs without contributing a little something back.  Then, I kind of got hooked.  It became like an addiction.  I will be doing something and writing posts in my head.  Not all of them make it to the blog due to time constraints but, I see the posts or hear them while I am out and about.  And that was when I knew I was in it for good.  I can honestly say in five years that I have never thought of stopping and this blog has seen me through some pretty tough times and I am grateful for those of you who commented and helped me through them.  There are also times when things in life don’t go so well and sometimes that it when things go a little quiet here, because believe it or not there are things in my life that I don’t share with the whole world.

As a little thank you I will be giving away a few of my favorite things this week.  The Fifth Anniversary is the Wood anniversary (modern) or the silverware (traditional) since I am sponsoring my giveaways, I will stick with the more modern approach and go with wood.

So the first giveaway will be from Swanky Paper. I love Heather’s personalized notecards.  They are so fun and funky, I wish I had a set of each. The winner of this giveaway will get to choose either a flat notecard set or a folded notecard set from the personlized notecards. All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me what is your favorite way to celebrate an Anniversary (and it could be any Anniversary, not necessarily a wedding one).  Contest closes at 6pm Wednesday, June 23rd a winner will be randomly chosen from all the entries.

Last Friday night.  Yes, last Friday night, I know I don’t get to blog very often anymore, so it would seem.  I am actually looking forward to the end of the school year and our vacation just so I can get back into my blog full force. Either that or I will have to go back to work to have time to blog as being a Working at Home Mom leaves little time for my hearts desires.

So, last Friday night, a bunch of us got together for an evening of Card Making with A Crafty Mom. There were six of us in total, A Crafty Mom, Myself, Coffee and Commutes, Capital Mom , Gliding Lara, and Two Hands Full and I think I made enough desserts for fifteen of us, but it was all good, I just made sure to eat, I mean bring home the leftovers.

Shannon had a wonderful set up for us, we had five card stations set up with all the necessary tools to put the cards together.  Shannon did most of the labour intensive work we just got to paste and stamp, which is really the fun part of crafting anyway.

In between card making we got to chat and catch up.  It isn’t too often that I get a night out with friends so using the Card Making as an excuse to get together was great.  All of us have children and all of us need that little alone time to not worry about what is happening at home.  Although a couple of the brave Mom’s with smaller children made it solo and got some instant messages on their phones about how the kids were doing with Mom out of the house. For all the fun we had, we will have to find another occasion to get together and make cards for, I am thinking Christmastime, but in November or earlier. And next time we will need to have a few more hands in the mix, with more stories to tell.

As a side note, my blog will be having a birthday next week!!!  We are turning FIVE!  Stay tuned for a few giveaways in celebration!

This is one of those long over due Thank You’s.  Something I have been thinking about since last week when I went out to dinner {gasp} with other Mom’s without our kids!!!!  This time of year is so busy and I have so many posts brewing but never enough time to write them.  Tonight I promised I would write my Thank You note.

I don’t know about you, but whenever I am asked who was my favorite teacher in High School? Hands down, no questions asked it was Mr. Torjman.

Mr. Torjman meant business, but he so rarely had to get mad that everyone showed up to class and did their work.  Or maybe they didn’t do their work, but just appeared to do their work who knows..  Mr Torjman taught Geography, in french.  Now, I am sure that many of my classmates may have a different take on Mr. Torjman, but that’s ok we are all allowed to have an opinion.

For the most part many of the teachers at my High School were afraid to show that they could have fun.  There was a handful that participated in fun stuff like Kangaroo Court, Pajama Day (everyday is pajama day apparently now), school dances and actually played in bands.  In a school of 1500 students and how many teachers it was hard to see the teachers with the fun side.  Then there was Mr. Torjman.

On a whim he would walk on his hands, do handstands on the garbage can and yes, let students handcuff him to the projection screen.  All with a laugh and a smile. He didn’t participate in the extra fun activities, but his classroom was fun all the time.  Not that I ever skipped a class (Ok I skipped twice, once to get my license, but it wasn’t really skipping because my parents gave me a note and the other time was to go try on my grad dress that I was getting made for me - that’s it!) but nothing would keep me from attending Mr. Torjman’s class.

And the best part of it all was that I actually learned about Geography in class.  And today, I still remember most of what I was taught and pass it on to my own kids.  I can’t say that for any of my other classes, except maybe English Lit.

And to add a fun little story to this, my older Sister and I both had Mr. Torjman at Confederation High School from 1982-1988.  Then we said our good-byes to Confed and carried on with life.  My parents moved to Manitoba and then back again and my younger Sister attended Merivale High in the early 1990’s. One day she is working on this project about a farm they visited and when I tell her we visited the Schouten Farm back in High School, she laughs and says that is where she went.  I asked her who her teacher was and guess what, it was Mr. Torjman.  So I gave her my photos (yes, I took photos back in High School) from the trip to include in her project and Mr. Torjman was delighted to know he was teaching another Sister.  Fast forward another seven years and my baby Sister walks into Geography at Merivale and Mr. Torjman doesn’t skip a beat he knows she is our Sister.  In a course of 16 years he taught all four of us. He retired after that but, my youngest Sister gave him a photo of the four of us as a thanks for being such a great guy.

So Mr. Torjman, if you ever get to read this, I just wanted to say Thank You.  Your demeanor in class and love for Geography kept us all in class and learning.  And all these many years later, I still think you were the best teacher I ever had.  I hope you are still passing on your knowledge to others and enjoying your retirement, just a little.

Thanks again, you Mr. Torjman, made a difference.