I am sure I have written it before but I have always believed in love at first sight, one true love for everyone and everlasting love.  I was so blessed and lucky to meet my true love 15 summers ago, on an OC Transpo bus of all places, and have that immediate connection that changed my world in an instant. 

Today is our eleventh wedding anniversary…I don’t regret an instant baby, never have, never will.  Not an instant.  You are my one true love, and thank goodness for divine intervention   Love you forever.

Today I skipped out on my family to go see The Time Traveler’s Wife with my movie friend.  I read the book by Audrey Niffenegger years ago and LOVED it, so I was beyond excited to see the movie. 

I thought it was so well cast.  Rachel McAdams is so bright and sunny in this role, and Eric Bana is beautifully dark and conflicted.  I thought the time traveling effects were really well done.  The only real thing I was disappointed was that they changed the ending of the story from the book and I had really loved the original ending.  Here is a summary if you don’t feel like reading the book:

Clare is devastated by Henry’s passing. She later finds a letter from Henry which asks her to “stop waiting” for him, but which describes a moment in her future when she will see him. The last scene in the book takes place when Clare is 82 and Henry is 43. She is waiting for Henry, as she has done her whole life, and when he arrives, he clasps her in his arms.

I just thought that was magical in the book and I was sad that the movie chose not to use that ending…otherwise, I loved the movie.

I just finished the most extraordinary novel, The Quincunx by Charles Palliser.  I have no idea where I heard about it as I just add books to my list of things to read whenever someone suggests them and this was the next one that caught my eye.  It is huge!  787 pages.  I only had 5 days to read it and an insanely busy week, but I made up a reading schedule (seriously I am that anal) and I got through it!  I finished it last night on the way to a friend’s wedding rehearsal. 

It was truly a fascinating story about a boy who has to learn who he is and all about his family history in order to understand his inheritance, and stay alive.  It was so tremendously written!  It was actually an easy read, despite its size.  I loved the way it started with this very sparse family tree, and at the end of each section, it was filled in a bit more with the stuff you had learned in the previous pages.  So brilliant, it helped you to keep track of the enormously complicated plot.  Loved it!

I just watched this awesome Gossip Girl Gag Reel…so incredibly fun.  I hope you enjoy!  I can’t wait for season 3!

I am feeling pretty ecstatic today.  I have not been able to run in a month, and I made an appointment with the sports medicine doctor but they couldn’t fit me in until August 31…

My calf wasn’t really bugging me the last few days so yesterday I tried out a short run.  I went on the treadmill, did 2 miles, on 5.0.  It felt great, and I stretched a lot before and after.  It felt fine all day and when I woke up this morning it still feels pretty good.  So…I think it may have healed. I am going to try to run tomorrow again, same run as yesterday, and then again on Monday.  If all goes well I will start increasing my distance and speed slowly to see if I can get back to normal. 

I will keep my appointment with the doctor, just in case I activate the injury again, and also to get them to give me the once over and make sure I am not damaging anything.  Also maybe they can tell me what I actually did to myself as I never did figure it out.  In the meantime it felt so good to be able to run again.  I am really hoping this is behind me!

I finally got to see this movie on Monday after much anticipation.  It did not disappoint.  Meryl Streep totally deserves an Oscar for her performance.  I know it wasn’t a deep, meaningful or art-housey film, but she better get nominated.  She is absolutely brilliant!  Amy Adams is good too, as is Stanley Tucci.  I thought this was a very fun film, that had me wanting to buy a copy of the cookbook and cook my way through it as well.  I even wanted to try a poached egg, which if you know me, is quite surprising .  Oh and I am definitely trying out the boeuf bourgignon soon, and will let you know how it goes.  I even have the same  Le Creuset pot they use in the movie!

I cannot believe my beautiful little girl has turned 10 years old today.  I can still really vividly remember the day she was born.  Or should I say evening.  After way too many hours of labour to write down here, she was put in my arms, and I immediately fell so in love.  I spent a few hours just trying to understand how she got there…

I always knew that I wanted to be a Mom, but I still never imagined being a mother could be so amazing.  My girl brings me so much joy every single day.  I love her creativity, and spirit, generosity, humour and heart.  She is fiery, intelligent and strong.  She is SUCH a cool kid. 

I am so privileged to have a front seat to watch her grow and develop into the young lady she is becoming.  I cannot wait to see what the next 10 years bring.  Happy Birthday to the joy of my life!

And yes…I am.  Bitten that is, by Kelley Armstrong’s first book of her Otherworld series.   The book was recommended to me by a local book seller and I was a bit skeptical as really, I am a vampire girl, not so much into werewolves.  This book is amazing though.  It drew me in right away, and Elena is such a fierce lead character.  I loved her!  Not to mention that Elena is my daughter’s middle name so I absolutely loved the name too.  I loved the male lead as well, Clayton.  He was very well written and the story was just terrific.  Great supporting characters too that I can’t wait to learn more about.  

 I look forward to reading the second book in the series, Stolen.  Oh and even better, the author is Canadian!  If you have already read it, let me know what you think of the series.

I just bought a new deodorant at Sephora – Lavanila – The Healthy Deodorant.  I bought it because I am always looking for something with less chemicals etc…  So when I saw the description for a deodorant with none of the bad stuff that was supposed to actually work I got pretty excited.  I ordered the Vanilla scented one as I am basically a vanilla scented kind of girl and I had to get it online so I couldn’t smell the other scents first.

I have worn it several times now and the smell is really nice and light, definitely not overpowering.  It goes on very smoothly, without feeling cakey or wet.  I find it works quite well.  It isn’t perfect but it works as well as the other stuff  I was using, so I much prefer the healthier option.  I am especially excited as I have a feeling in the next year or two my daughter will want to start wearing deodorant and I would rather start her on something chemical-free…this will definitely be a product I continue to use.

We just got back from a lovely weekend in Maine.  My father was kind enough to treat us to a nice weekend at the beach.  He asked me to take care of all the bookings for him so I immediately turned to Trip Advisor.  I was booking on pretty short notice so I did a bit of research and decided on Old Orchard Beach as it was such a family friendly location.  I started calling the list of accomodations with good reviews on Trip Advisor until I found The Alouette Beach Resort that had availability for the nights we needed.  The reviews for it were all good except one so I decided to take a chance.  Oh my, did I make a mistake.  We arrived in a massive rain storm which did nothing to make it look more inviting.  From the outside it was grubby and rundown.  The inside was actually worse.  My parents’ room  was absolutely tiny, and so old and in need of updating we would have gone elsewhere if they hadn’t already charged us the full amount.  There was no screen door, the fridge was rusty and broken, it reeked of smoke, the bedspread and carpet looked like they may have survived World War II.  It was so awful, we had to take pictures.

Now looking at those pictures, think about the fact that we spent $192 US a night for that dump.  Oh my!  People actually walked up to us on the beach just to tell us how bad our hotel was. 

The weekend was wonderful, the beach was great, we had a really nice time.  I just wished we had stayed elsewhere.  I am hoping people will see this post before they book there…and also, please post other suggestions of better places to stay in Old Orchard Beach.