VirginiaMiddleton.ca | Category Archives: 2013

Tely 10 – jogging my memory for Sunday

Posted on July 26, 2013 Posted in 2013, NL, St. John's, Tely 10 .

The Tely 10 is on Sunday.
Last year I ran the Tely and did much better than I expected; especially since I was eight weeks pregnant at the time!

Even before giving birth to Missy Moo, I had already decided that I would run the 10 miles/16 kilometers from Paradise, through Mount Pearl and into the east end/central part of St. John’s.

Ideally, I would have been running multiple times a week, but with a baby that’s just now five months old and weather that’s rather unpredictable, I haven’t been able to run as much as I’d like.

This cartoon was in the Saturday’s edition of The Telegram, our local paper for the metro area and boy did it hit home for me. Ha ha.

Credit: The Telegram, July 20 2013

Now I’m staying cautiously optimistic. I can do this. I know I can. To beat last year’s race time of 1:53:39 would be amazing, but I won’t be completely crushed if I don’t. Just running it again this year is a big win in my books.

In the last year and a half I’ve had a lot of life experiences that have only made me stronger. From surviving my month in Taiwan to giving birth to my first child, I think I’m a different person than before any of this started. I’ll just use some of these experiences to motivate me to never give up on goals I have (including running the Tely on Sunday).

Last year Bobble-head Ted and I ran together for the race (truth be told, he didn’t train much and I had to do most of the work, but that’s OK). He’s been rather quiet online lately and has expressed an interest in sitting out the Tely this year. Maybe next year he’ll return as my running partner.

So if you’re running in this year’s Tely, let me know! And if you’re going to be one of the many awesome people watching and cheering on the runners and walkers, please yell a little extra loud this year because it looks like it may be rather humid day and we’ll need all the motivation we can get!

Mommy Musing Monday – Swim swim

Posted on July 22, 2013 Posted in 2013, Baby, Miranda, Musing Monday, Parenting, Products .

As I mentioned during a recent #ThrowbackThursday, we’ve had a pretty hot and sunny summer thus far.

And hopefully I didn’t just jinx us so that the rest of the summer is RDF (rain, drizzle, and fog).

We were at our summer home at Bull Pond a few weeks ago and it was a scorcher of a weekend. It was in the low 30 degrees Celsius (that’s around the high 80s for any American readers). The Humidex was definitely making it feel warmer and there was no way of getting any real relieve except going for a swim in the pond (as I also mentioned on Thursday, it’s something I thoroughly enjoy when at Bull Pond).

Yet we faced a problem – Missy Moo was just as hot as the rest of us, but she couldn’t go swimming because even on such a hot day, the pond water was still too cold for her itty bitty body. The poor thing was stripped down to her diaper and was hot, hot, hot. She wasn’t even able to nap during the day much at all because she was so overwhelmed with the heat.

How silly did I feel when I remembered that we have an extra baby bathtub at home, but didn’t think to bring it with us! And yet I remembered to bring her new swim diaper and some bathing suits…

Sometimes you just have adapt and make due with what you’ve got.

My father had a small mail crate and we filled it with some water. After it was in the sun for a couple of hours we decided to help little miss cool off and boy did she ever!

A little bit of shock at her first experience in some fairly cold water while wearing her new My Little Lion Designs swim diaper!

Notice the adorable swim diaper she’s wearing. It was made by the wonderful and talented Christina Kubik, owner of My Little Lion Designs. The swim diaper we have is fantastic and was perfect for the cool dip Missy Moo needed on such a hot day.

Note: I tend to call my daughter “two by four” when she will no bend because she’s like a piece of plywood!

My Little Lion Designs has lots of other great products and I’ll do a proper review of some other products that we’re enjoying including a very snazzy bib and wet bag. So if you haven’t yet, go check out Christina’s Etsy site and her Facebook page!

All finished cooling off!

Bacon in the sun

Posted on July 20, 2013 Posted in 2013, Comics/Images, Facebook .

I saw this on Facebook and it made me chuckle. It also reminded me of the days when I worked at a Lawton’s Drug store and a wanted baby oil because he was going to lie in the sun… oh my.

While it’s not as hot as it was a few weeks ago, summer is still very much here.

So no matter where you are, keep yourself coated in sunscreen and well hydrated!

#ThrowbackThursday – Swimming swimming in my giant pool

Posted on July 18, 2013 Posted in 2013, Bull Pond, Family, NL, Nostalgic, Throwback Thursday .

OK, so maybe the title of this post isn’t completely accurate. Technically I’m not referring to an actual swimming pool.

Yes, I did have one of those kiddie pools that had the bendy sides and it was so much fun!!!! But the pool I’m writing about today is actually a pond and for you mainlanders, you can go ahead and call it a lake.

Mom and I with my dog Muffin. Not sure of the year, but given our closes, the 90’s more than likely!

One of my favourite places on the planet is our summer home at Bull Pond and I’ve written about it before. With this summer already getting fairly hot, I’ve been able to enjoy some nice swims and look forward to lots more.

Our dog, Muffin wasn’t an amazing swimmer, but she would often get in the water. It was mainly to bark at anyone swimming because she was worried that we were in danger. And every now and then when barking her face of while on the wharf, she would accidentally get bumped and fall into the water. Luckily it was fairly shallow and her natural instinct to swim would then kick in. It was pretty funny to see and you’d year “Bark, bark, bark” then a splash and someone saying, “Oh geez, Muffin just fell in!”

Growing up I didn’t always want to spend my weekend at Bull Pond, but once there I was usually happy. Even on weekends when it rained and rained and rained, I enjoyed playing cards with my mom and Nanny Sturge; I even went fishing on our wharf in the pouring rain a few times with Grandma Radford or out in the boat with Poppy Sturge. These are all memories that I cherish and am grateful to have.

I’m really looking forward to helping Miranda to make some great memories up there as well. In fact, she’s already been swimming… well not really, but she was in water while at Bull Pond, so that sort of counts, right? More about that on Monday!

Mommy Musing Monday – There’s an ad for that

Posted on July 15, 2013 Posted in 2013, Baby, Facebook, Marketing, Miranda, Musing Monday, Parenting, Social Media .

Dear Facebook,

I get that your purpose is not to connect me with friends, family and long lost high school classmates.

No, no, your purpose is to sell advertising. You get money for ads that are created by companies who want to reach select target markets. This all happens on a social media platform that’s free of charge and I can access it 24/7 on lots of different types of technology.

It’s key to remember that you get what you pay for and if you haven’t paid for something, then you’re not really the important person in the relationship/business arrangement.

I understand, I really do. But it still bugs me when I see advertising like this…

Way to play on a woman’s self esteem Facebook!

It’s bad enough when there are Hollywood stars who have personal trainers and mounds and mounds of money so that they can afford to have the pounds melt away.

And even if a woman has a great metabolism, losing weight and getting back into your pre-pregnancy form isn’t always easy. You may have stretch marks, or some extra jiggily parts… but that’s OK, it’s all part of pregnancy and you shouldn’t worry about it.

Heck, there’s pressure enough to be the prefect mother and just getting a shower every few days can seem like a challenge (especially in those first few weeks!).

I don’t want to throw stones from my own glass house either. At the end of April, I returned to Weight Watchers (WW). I became a lifetime member back in 2009. I loved attending the meetings and found it to be a program that encouraged me to eat healthier and to exercise and move more at they’ll say in WW speak. I’ve lost almost 20 lbs, I’m really proud of my progress so far and I’ll write more about it later.

As a marketing and communications professional, I understand the drive behind advertising. But it doesn’t mean I have to like the approach that is sometime involved. So I’ll say what I’m thinking, “Not cool Facebook. Not cool at all.”

I’m on Facebook so that I can keep in touch with friends, family and even some professional contacts that have become friends whom I want to share more than the odd random interaction with every few months. I like to read the latest location and national news. I enjoy seeing photos of someone’s adorable dog, their vacation photos, or a cute child that deserves to have someone click the like button.

It’s too bad those advertising bots and their fancy algorithms can’t read this post to help refocus their ads for me.

At the end of the day, it’s nothing personal; it’s just business. But it still as frustrating as hell.

And that’s my rant for the week. ;)