Angels, cute little monsters and candy...

This pretty much sums up my halloween this year. We never really celebrated it ourselves due to it's pagan history thing, let alone going all out with the ghouls and ghastly decorations. But....

How could I resist dressing up my darling daughter and depriving her of all the candy she could get?

So what does a Christian mom do in this situation?

Dress my little girl as an ANGEL, of course! She can light this world out of the darkness just with her little heavenly smile...

I took her out too early when there was barely any people in the street. Some of the neighbours were actually just setting up their lawn and porches with all the spooks and surprises they have for the trick or treaters. 

(This is my DD flapping her arms every time she hears the word 'wings'. At the same time, she shouts: "I'm flying high! Mommy see?")

Anyway, we got back in the house...

had dinner...

got all the candy out...

goofed around...

waited till the first costumed little monster knocked on door to ask nicely for some treats...

And then, we thought, IT IS TIME to head out!

We took my DD to the neighbours we were actually friendly with. Those who I see to and after work, who watches out for our home when we are away, and simply those who we like to chat with outside on a nice day.

They were thrilled seeing my DD on their doorstep. Some even gave an extra handful of candy. My DD was more than ecstatic seeing her little princess purse getting filled up. 

The only thing that scared her was going to the one house on our street that went all out with the decorations. But the nice grandpa dude warned his wife not to scare this little trick or treater. I actually saw my DD's face lit up when she saw nice grandma on the door instead of grandma with the monster mask on.

It was getting too cold out and I thought going to a few houses was enough. By the time we were walking back home, our street was filled with little princesses, superheroes, cute animals, ninjas, ghosts, vampires, monsters and a few lame teenagers who "acted out" their costume instead of actually wearing one. It was a big street party, I tell yah. 

Just about 20 minutes after getting home, we were out of candy. But my DD has enough to last her for a while!

I said she can only have one candy per day. I just hope I would be able to resist giving her more every time she bats her eyes and asks me sweetly...

 "My have some of this Mommy please? Just a lil bit?"

5K race recap!

This is waaaayyyy overdue! I apologize, but I had a long week... with no actual weekend! I did some first aid/CPR training last weekend that's required for my job. I had to cram everything I need to get done on weeknights last week (which is a LOT, I'll explain later).

So this is what went down on the day of the run...

Our day started really early last sunday morning. I was up at 4 am getting myself and all our stuff ready. We planned to go to church after the race because it was the Lord's day after all!

After getting all the family up and in the car, we headed over to Tim Horton's to get coffee'd up. The rest of our team met us there as well.

By 7 am we were at Princess Margaret Hospital going for washroom breaks and putting on our race bibs. Then we walked over to Queen's Park where the race is going to start/end. There were vendor tents all over and even McDonald's had one. I love how they try so hard to get a healthy image going! Lol.

Then we saw our own team's sign in board!

This is our team...

Queen's Park was packed with people. Fellow racers, loved ones and volunteers were all gathered and excited for the event.

At 7:45 am we went to the starting line.

The only thing unpleasant about this event is one runner that got upset with our team for not being all the way back in the starting line because we have some walkers. We were allowed to be where we were in the line so really, I don't know what her deal was. Oh well, maybe she was grumpy because she missed her cup of joe that morning.

And then, right at 8 am, the horn blew and the race is on!!!!

The 5k route was basically starting from Queen's Park off of Charles St. which turns into University Ave. The route goes down all the way down to Wellington St. Then it turns back all the way up to the starting point.

Running with hundreds of people gives me a great rush of adrenaline. I pretty much ran with ease with no hyperventilation almost all the way through. I guess it's all the excitement that got me going.

It was that darn 4k marker sign! As soon as I saw it, negativity started seeping through my brain. All I thought after seeing the sign was:

"That's was only 4k? Are you kidding?"

"It feels like I have been running forever!!!"

"They must've miscalculated, the finish line should be way back there!!"

"Uggghhh, I can't breathe..."

"My legs feel wobbly"

And my honey ran by my side the whole time. He could've done his best and finish 15 mins less than we did. But he STAYED with me... for support. He kept saying:

"Are you breathing?"

"Don't forget to breathe"

"We're almost there"

And all I kept thinking was...

"What do you mean we're almost there?"

"We should've been there 5 mins. ago!"

"The freakin' route curves and I can't even see the finish line!!!!!"

Man, was I pissed. 

But then, I saw it... THE BIG ARC...

It was the finish!!!

The crowd was cheering... It was so loud that all I could hear was buzzing...

I wanted to sprint for it, but I hesitated. I was already exhausted, I was too afraid I might hurt myself more.

(Thumbnail from Marathonfoto.com)

That's me on the right!!! My hubby is the one wearing the grey sweater.

My hubby finished at 34 mins 21.5 s

And I did at 34 mins 21.7 s

It was awesome!!! I felt AWESOME!!!

Greeting us at the end was bunch of cheery volunteers that gave us our OWN medals.

And the gatorade stand by the finish line never looked so good in my life! I don't drink gatorade but at that time, I did. It was delicious and thirst quenching.

All the racers got free breakfast of bagels, banana and oranges as well. The massage tent enticed me to go in but I had to wait for the rest of our team.

Once the rest of the team finished, we all celebrated with some free Starbucks coffee, tea and hot chocolate!!!

A big CONGRATULATIONS to my team!!! We did it!!! It was a great day and a GREAT way to raise money for cancer research.

As we walked back to where we parked, we saw the half-marathoners on their way to the finish...

Maybe someday I will be brave enough to do the half-marathon...

Thank you Princess Margaret Hospital for helping fight cancer, helping it's victims and their loved ones. And THANK YOU to YOU who supported us!!! 

If you would still like to donate and help conquer cancer, you can still do so by clicking this:

http://pmhf3.akaraisin.com/p/savannah.aspx

Donations are accepted until December 31st!

Marineland

This is a continuation post of our Niagara Falls vacation. I've been so busy lately that this is the first time I got to sit and relax at home. And now I can't even just sit around because I'm always used to doing something. So, I thought it'll be a good use of my time to finish this post while I relax before the Thanksgiving festivities (Thank God I'm not cooking!).

We got to Marineland after having a great breakfast buffet at the Hilton where we stayed at. The weather was cloudy and it looked like it was going to pour. But we didn't care since we were dressed for it. Nothing going to stop us from enjoying our trip!

First off, we went to view the white beluga whales in the underground viewing area.

These two kept showing off!

My DD got overexcited running around the place so I thought her cute bear harness will help control. She was not to happy about it.

This whale was so playful that I couldn't get a good pic. 

On our way to another underground viewing of the whales, we saw a few rides. I was so surprised that my DD wanted to ride one so badly that she begged by jumping up and down excitedly! 

She rode this Octopus ride with her Daddy. The ride operator was nice enough not to make the ride go to high so my DD. She had a hoot! 

Then we saw a few more whales...

Then we were off to see the shows!!!

The Killer whale show was up first...

My DD got a good spot sitting over her Daddy's shoulders.

We got splashed a few times...

She didn't mind, she was too zoned in!

At the end, the big guy gave us one more good splash then stuck his tongue out at us!

Next, the dolphin and sea lion show is up!

We got a great seat...

These animals did so many tricks that entertained everyone and kept DD in clapping mode :)

We had some lunch afterwards. 

We sat on a table while my hubby got our food. And of course soon after this pic was taken, my DD fell off her chair! She cried a bit but no bumps or bruises thank God. Man, she is so squirmy and active that just taking care of her is workout in itself.

After we finished gobbling up our lunch we walked around and found more rides.

She rode this boat ride with me.

And she got to ride with both of us in the mini ferris wheel!

We headed to the deer park next...

There were lots of Bambi's here!

But my DD was just happy looking at them. Which I didn't mind considering germs and all!

Then we went to see a few bears...

Here's a shot of my hubby and I...

And my hubby being silly...

My DD and hubby went by the pond and fed some catfish...

But those pesky seagulls kept stealing their food!!! 

My DD had a blast whacking a mole at the arcade... then she went on this ride!

With all the fun things we did we had to stop by the gift shop to get a souvenir.

My DD took her time picking out which one of the blow up whale or dolphin she wanted.

Well she decided she wanted the dolphin... and another soft plushy one too!!! Oh well, we couldn't say no to our little girl seeing how excited she was.

So that was our Marineland adventure! My DD had a blast and it was awesome that there were only a few people there because we got to enjoy the park (almost) to ourselves! 

My DD took a big snooze in the car while we headed over to the outlet shopping mall. I wouldn't miss that at all since we were already in the area!

During that vacation, we had one more cool adventure... Ontario Science Centre!!!

Stay tuned for that post...

In the meantime... hope that all of you Canadians have a great Thanksgiving dinner! 

And the rest of you, have a great week!!!

Downs & Ups

Don't you ever feel like life is just a never ending battle? I have been feeling like one thing after another just comes and challenge all the time and it never seems to end. Last week was the WORST. It was a terrible week... but I pushed through... my family pushed through. We are still struggling but slowly recovering. I would like to keep details about it out of the blog right now, but I'd like to thank all our friends, family and church family for their support. Now, we are 'sort of' getting back into the normal routine of things (well, not really but I'd really like to think so).

Photo source

I'm going to be very vague this post so I apologize. But with all that we had gone through recently, everything else in this world seems unimportant. Work, to-do list, money and self-improvement among other things seems to be vain, unrewarding and totally a waste of time for me right now. 

So last week, right at the same time that our world seem to crash down, we had 2 huge material blessings. It felt unreal. We have been praying for it for over a year. And now it seemed like it was just handed to us. But at the same time, we didn't how to be happy or excited about it. We are thankful... VERY thankful. But being blessed materially during a time of darkness is..... WEIRD.

Ok, so to let you know a little bit of what I'm talking about, here is a pic of our 1st blessing:

It's nice and bigger than what we had before.

My DD seems to love it and it's a lot comfier for her.

Oh and I think somewhere deep inside he totally loves it. It's his new toy!

I, on the other hand get car sick in it. It's the new car smell, I think is gross. But I'm sure a few more rides  to get use to it (and an air freshener) will cure the nausea.

The 2nd blessing involves a whole lot of to do list items to be checked off. One of them is this:

Now, I'll leave it up to you to guess what that BLESSING is. Eventually, most likely and probably I will post about it.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

There are so much to be thankful for. Just look around you and I'm sure you'll find something or someone that blesses you. I hope all of you have a great thanksgiving weekend with loved ones. 

This year, I'm thanking GOD every minute for all the difficulties and for providing me and family with what we need and more...