Broadway CCC (child care centre)

This week I'm subing at a child care development centre (fancy language for daycare) for W&T. I thought it'd be a great opportunity to see the schedule in action.

I was slow at first with getting back into the swing of things and daycare is incredibly different from preschool. I knew it would be but not as much as I've been experiencing this week.

So today I finally "got it"; the flow of the day, the rules that are different, the 25 names of the children and their individual personalities. I felt like a teacher again today and it was AWESOME! I'm so glad to be working child care come September. I'm loving all of it!! What a fabulous opportunity to spend some real quality time with the children in my care. It's going to be so much fun!

I'm already not looking forward to saying goodbye tomorrow to the kids I've met this week. I got so many hugs today! And I overheard a mother tell her daughter at drop off, "you are smart, you are beautiful, you are important"! It made me grin ear to ear.

I'll be glad to have my break back come Monday. But this experience has just made me more aware of how much I love my career and how excited I am
for September and my future as a W&T teacher.

Goodnight :)
N.

Bike intervals

So my brother has been seeing a personal trainer for a while now for his work outs. He's lost a lot of weight so of course I asked him to ask his trainer "what's one simple thing I can do at home?". Of course he came back with something hardcore! Bike intervals, 3 times a week for 16 minutes each time. This is to help promote fat loss (not just weight loss). Jay added that I'll want to die every time I do it, and as soon as I can't beat my calories lost then I need to move up the level (meaning it gets tougher!). So I've been doing it... and I've almost thrown up a couple times, I sweat like crazy (gross!) but I LOVE the challenge. So guess what? I kicked ass this morning, my previous success was 204 calories lost and today 229 calories lost!!!!!! So crazy happy about it that I'm having sushi tonight... but no worries, it's in my calorie count for today, so it's alright :)


PS. I always feel so darn awesome after my work outs.

Happy Saturday!
N.

Location:Stehr Residence :)

mint yogurt & pretty nails

I got new nail polish, now my cracked pretty pink nails are all sparkly! I love it :) o, and that's my new favorite frozen yogurt in that picture below. I got a big 2 liter tub at the store for like $2.86 or something, it's the best EVER!!!! And I make sure I have enough calories in my day available to have a bowl, every day since I got this stuff... YUM!


Happy frozen yogurt eating on this wonderfully lazy Friday!

N.

Working hard!

Making that number on the scale go down means hard work!!!


Do you see that sweat on my forehead?? Gross right?? :)

At least all that hard work means this:


Looking and feeling FANTASTIC!!

Yep, I'm not going to stop, I'm crazy happy and excited to get my bum out of bed in the morning and out side working up a sweat!

Happy exercising!
N.

Pretty toes!

Yesterday was a VERY busy day... So busy in fact that I never even saw my hubby (sorry Camy). My best pal Nantina is getting married Saturday in a very small backyard barbecue wedding and I am the matron of honor! So of course manicures and pedicures had to happen, awesome!!! I'm so in love with my nails right now which is a big step up from my constant abuse of them (big toe nail ripped off by door, remember that one?). Maybe this means I need to make this an every birthday type of luxury?? I'm thinking so!


Onto more wedding errands today... ONE MORE SLEEP!

N.

Yes, I live in my parents basement & it's awesome!!

Way back in March 2011 my parents approached Cam & I and asked if we'd actually move into the basement of their home if they bought a new one. This was both a big surprise and a wonderful blessing. A surprise cause it was always the running joke that we'd live with them. And a blessing because we wanted a yard for Cam to garden, cheaper rent and more space.

I got super excited when we started looking and even more excited when we found, "the one". We moved in July 1st, 2011 and things were fantastic. Then I found myself defending our home to those that asked where we lived. I said that, "the market is so expensive we can't get a place", or "the rent is cheaper and we need to live somewhere so we might as well."

It was as though I was ashamed of the fact that we weren't in our own home and that we had to live with my parents, that we had no choice. That it somehow made us less successful people since many friends of ours owned property. I look back and I'm ashamed that I thought that way.

We chose to live in my parents basement because yes, it's helping us save for the home we want. An actual house that's unattached, with a yard for a play set, large dog and my husbands gardening.

But that's not the only reason, having coffee on the deck with my mom in the morning is such a treat. Being able to walk up a flight of steps to spend time with my dad and ask him questions about his work is the best! It's moments like those that help me grow in my relationship with them. My mom when she was 42 lost both her mother and father. Therefore, my time spent with my parents, even if it's living in their basement is valuable and important to me. My kids will have their Omy and Papa around much more often than if we were a drive away. That'll be very special when the time comes.

So yes, I live in a basement suite in my parents house and it's AWESOME! And I'm sure when Cam & I buy our home, we'll miss this suite and my parents very much.

Blessings,
N.

just a few things...

My hubby picked these beautiful roses for me! He also installed our new towel racks in our bathroom and curtain rods in our living space. You can see a bit of the curtains in the photo, I sewed most of them myself! Of course with the help of my mother in law.
This part of my home is now my favorite, I'm eager to get the rest of our place done now.


I also got a new Starbucks mug with the money I got at work from all my kids. I saw it and HAD to have it, I mean look at it, it has an elephant on it!!


One last picture to share then I'm done, I promise! Us on my birthday at the beach, right before we got gelato. It was SO FUN! What a great birthday this year. Thanks to everyone for the wishes and love sent my way, it made turning 27 a lot easier.


This weekend my bestie is getting married and I get to be matron of honor! I'm very excited, the wedding is a small backyard BBQ and its going to be a big party!! FUN!!!

Until next time,
N.

Morning at the beach

I love the days when Cam wakes me up a little bit early and waits for me to get ready for the day. We then get into the car, grab a Timmies coffee and go for a walk in one of the many beautiful areas around us. This morning it was Crescent Beach, I absolutely love the beach. Actually, I absolutely love where I live. I don't want to live in any other province in Canada or in any other part of the world. I'm perfectly content living my life here in beautiful British Columbia.





Just gorgeous isn't it? Can you spot Cam in the first photo?

Many blessings for a fabulous day ahead, we're BBQ'ing hamburgers for dinner. YAY!
N.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

summer is here already?

I've been thinking about what I would write here to mark the end of my first year as an Early Childhood Educator. I had all these stories going through my mind and things I could say about how of a great year it was, and it was! I guess I'm just really sad to be here now on July 1st and not going back to the W&T 140th location for another year. I won't see those incredible faces of the threes that I taught this year make their way into the class as four year olds in September. I won't see my co-worker every day and chat about the happenings in our lives and her reminding me to "stop thinking about it!". I had so many parents on Tuesday say the words, "we can't wait to see you next school year" and me saying back "actually, I'm being moved to a daycare location and another assistant is taking my place here at 140th." I even had a mother get quite mad at me that her child had to say goodbye to "Teacher Nicole for forever!". Did I really have THAT much of an impact? It didn't really feel like I had while I was surviving my first year of ECE and preschool, I had fun... don't get me wrong, this is the job God created me to do. But I never felt like I was THAT much apart of these children's lives. Yet, the cards and the gifts I was struggling to hold onto (there were so many)... the hugs, so many hugs! No wonder I cried on my way home from work those two days of graduations and goodbyes. Every day that I was there never once felt like "work", it never once felt like an obligation, nor was it ever a bore. I was there because it was something I was honored and privileged to do day in and day out and I am SO excited to do it all over again in daycare in September. I'm already setting up subing jobs for the summer cause I'm going to be bored here at home with nothing to do and I'll miss it. I know that I'll miss those children, the joy in their eyes, the hugs they give freely, the overwhelming excitement over the littlest of things and the incredibly long amounts of time for them to accomplish anything (they're just learning!). I love it all.

It makes me constantly pray for patience for when God will bless us with a baby and a family of our own. There are babies all over, everywhere I look women are pregnant and children are born. It makes it hard to keep off my mind, and surrender that to God. I am very thankful however, that the vestibulodynia treatment is working!!!!!!!!! and that I'm enjoying the intimacy in my marriage for the first time, now we're just waiting for that pregnancy test to say positive! :)

Now that I will have an incredible amount of free time on my hands for 8 weeks straight, I'll be writing on here a lot more! Be ready to be updated!

Blessings on this Canada day!
N.