This week I had my very first summer camp! And I also learned how to tie my shoes too. I was so proud of myself because this means I get to have the laceup shoes I want for back to school!

He said

As hoped and blogged about in last week’s post by Monday night, I was uploading the final version of the Home County festival program to the printer, and then I let out a big sigh of relief. It feels really great to have this off my plate. Every year it is a bit of a marathon sprint for a couple of weeks, that feel like it will never come together in time. And then, all of a sudden it miraculously gets done just in the nick of time.

I am not sure whether I will be doing it again next year, as I am finding my time away from work is something I need to protect more. But, I won’t make any decisions about that until later this year. For now, I will just enjoy the short breather before I dive into the Wolfe Island Music Festival program.

This weekend I was supposed to be working on Saturday, but because they needed me to come in Friday this week, they had to give me another day off. So, the only option that worked given what is lined up this week, was giving me yesterday off. So after some session shuffling on Friday to make sure we had everything covered, I texted Danielle to let her know that we were getting another whole weekend together. No one had any complaints about that!

This week, after seeing what a big change it made in Danielle’s weight loss, I decided to give the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred a whirl. I knew it would be tough, as both she and many of her friends who have been through it were commenting on just what a workout it was. But, I was not prepared for just how tough it was. In twenty minutes I was very aware of some new leg muscles I had awakened.

Danielle and I both thought that I might not have too much of a problem with the early stages of the workout given that I already have been doing hour-long workouts for over a year as well as been playing hockey once a week for the last 10 or so years. We were both wrong! My quads and calves were killing me for the next 4 days. Only just now am I able to make it through the workout or down a flight of stairs without crying and moaning.

I am 6 days in (I had to take a break from it on Wednesday for fear crying more than working out) and I already feel a lot better going through it. I feel a slight difference in my body too. I am really interested to see the transformation as I make it to the full 30 days, and move on to level 2. Danielle made it all the way through level 3, so I have good coach and support network.

As for Emelia this week… She started her morning summer camp and seemed to really enjoy it. Danielle had a harder time at it then I think Emelia did. But in the end, it’s nice for the both of them to get a break from each other too. Tuesday she went to see movies at The Grand Theatre, and Thursday they had water day which was the perfect remedy for the summer heat that has shown up.

This weekend we got over to Mom & Dad’s to do the weekly laundry stint, and got a chance to check out Emelia & Poppa’s garden. It’s coming along quite nicely. In fact the pumpkins are coming along so well, I think she & Poppa will have grown enough for the entire Teeter clan… But I am most excited about all of the tomatoes sprouting!

This week at work we have the kids Camp where we show kids how to record soundtracks and film movies and put it all together in a film festival in the store. Like the Field Trips, I have been charged with organizing it and making sure we have everything in place. It’s a lot of fun, and one of the things I am really proud we provide.

As I type this from our back patio, on the iPad while Emelia eats supper, and Danielle relaxes. There’s a bird on the feeder, and our supper is inside marinating for the BBQ. As much as I love sharing my week with the world, it’s time for me to soak up the last couple hours of this weekend and end my part this week…

She said

This week was much warmer than it has been for this entire year so we enjoyed as much outside time as we could manage. The only day that we didn’t really get outside much was Wednesday afternoon as a horrible storm came through the entire southern part of the province.

We got hit hard but only for a short time, however Toronto got blasted, so bad that it cause massive flash flooding of the entire downtown core and surrounding areas. There were areas that we under a couple feet of water, flooding subway lines, and gotrains. It also washed out power to thousands for a few days. Thankfully my sister was on high ground on the 15th floor and was staying dry although she was effected by the power outages. What a mess.

The impact at home was much smaller, a bit of water and other than Emelia and I not being able to do a family fun run that we had planned for that evening. There was an event hosted annually at the Running Room promoting family fitness. Emelia was quite upset we missed this family run but I promised her there would be more in our future.

The reason for her interest in running is my recent fitness change which was adding running to my workouts. In the back of my mind when I started really getting in shape was to train for a mini-marathon. Well at first I thought ½ marathon but then thought about reality and limitations for training and decided that my first step would be to train for a 5K race. I have been at it for a couple weeks now and I am getting stronger and faster at every run.

What I love about this training is not only am I pushing myself in a whole different way but we are doing this as a family. Emelia and John have been a key part of my training. Emelia who recently learnt to ride with her training wheels off now rides with John behind me as I run. So not only is she getting to be a stronger rider we are doing what we always wanted to do for her which is that fitness is part of our day to day. A natural extension of our lives, with more and more children being outside less and in front of computers and video games more we knew we wanted to do our best to assure that fitness was natural for her. And it is so far, she is excited because we are signing her up for dance class in the fall, she asks every night if we are going for a run and bike ride and although she loves watching cartoons like every other kid she loves being outside and being active just like her parents.

This is far too important to us as parents, not only for our own health and well being but to be an example of healthy eating and activity for our little girl. And Emelia and I are excited to say that I will be signing up for our first 5K in September with all the donations going to St. Joseph’s Hospice — a very worthy cause. Emelia is going in a kids fun run the same day and John will be there to cheer us both on. Hopefully I am in shape by then.

It is almost 8:00pm and we have a little girl to get to bed, so off I go for another week.