I am so glad this wasn't taped.

I have finally found some motivation. Yep, nothing like trying to get all dressed up and stand in front a few hundred people to get a person motivated. While I tried to enjoy the evening on Saturday, while getting ready I kept thinking that I hoped that those spanks were going to work their magic. And afterwards I kept thinking it's time to really start working towards some goals.

So this morning I did my first Jazzersize class at Oranj. And yes, at the end I felt like I had accomplished something, and I had finally started, and I didn't pass out, throw up or feel completely out of place. But I think Tim(hubby) may be right, and in certain situations, I think too much. And I am guessing that during hard fitness classes is one of those situations, because my brain was going off in different directions every other minute. So much for the yoga classes and learning to quiet the mind.

The one thought that kept going through my mind was, "If it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger." It seemed kind of funny to me at the time, since I actually sign up and pay to go to these classes. It's not like anyone is trying to kill me, but at moments, I thought the instructor might have a personal vendetta against us all and really was trying to kill us all, or at least make us pass out for a short period of time.

I learned from one of the other women in the change room afterwards that the instructor, Angel Jutzi is a dancer. I had kind of figured since she and several others had seemed so graceful and coordinated. Unlike myself. I realized today that one side of my body is more coordinated than the other, and none of it really wants to work with me once we got about 40 minutes into the hour long class. And let me tell ya, I kept wondering every three minutes or so, "HOW MUCH LONGER?"

My only motivation was that looking around the room I kept thinking that I wanted to some day squeeze into one of those t-strap shirts that the skinny girls wear, and I also want my butt to some day look half as good as Angel's. Yes, I can dream, leave me alone. I will at least settle for getting into one of those shirts without it turning into a wrestling match, where I am sweaty just from getting dressed.

But in all seriousness, I met some great ladies today who welcomed me to the class and told me their horror stories afterwards, so it was all good. I enjoyed it enough to come home and see when the next one was, and to pick out my class for tomorrow. Thanks to Angel and all the ladies, staff and patrons who are already helping me on this new challenge.

Oh, and it was still a good thing that Angel reminded me to breath again today, so that will be another goal in the coming classes, to try to remember to do that without someone having to tell me. And when she was smiling and encouraging us to do the same, I might have thought the following....for just a second.

What the hell was I thinking?

When was the last time you agreed to do something and then as the day drew closer you thought, "What the hell was I thinking?" I am totally having that reaction this week. As I shared in the last blog post, I will be co-hosting the Festival of Trees Gala on Saturday night in Fort McMurray along with Kim Rizzi, and Phil Meagher will be joining us on stage to auction off the trees. At the Remembrance Day ceremony yesterday I casually said to Phil that he will be my go-to man if I get stuck, and he laughed. Little does he know that I will be looking to him to provide guidance through out the night.

So many of you have sent such nice messages, wishing me luck, saying how proud they are off me and how we are involved in our community, and lots of advice. Funnily enough, the biggest advice was to either have a drink, or imagine everyone naked. Not sure how well either of those will work for me, as both could make me giggle and blush or both at the same time. I really truly have some wonderful people in my life who believe in me, and are my biggest cheerleaders. Some are friends, and I am lucky enough to have met so many online who are always so happy for us. You will never know how much your kind words, support and your friendships mean to me. Of course, a special thanks always goes to Tim, who not only supports me, but listens to me second guess myself all the time. I saw this quote the other day, and thought of everyone who has been so happy to share in all my happiness over the last year, and of Tim. Thank you each and everyone of you, my goal is to not disappoint anyone on Saturday, including the hard working organizers who believe that I will represent the Northern Lights Health Foundation in a respectable manner. Your trust means so much to me, and I will keep repeating, "Don't screw this up" to myself all night.

Unfortunately, with being so busy with the gala, I will be missing out on another wonderful event in town on Saturday night. I grew up in Mabou Harbour, Cape Breton, and our closest neighbours that were not related were either the Beatons or the Cummings families. Shelley Cummings was and still is one of my oldest and dearest friends. We grew up across the field from one another, worked together, lived together, laughed and cried together and she really is one of the most genuine people you will ever meet. Her baby brother, Eddie, was quite a bit younger than us, so I did not get to know him as well over the years, but I have fallen in love with his talent. On Saturday night, Eddie will be taking the stage at Live Bar and Grill to entertain the crowd, and I am so sad that I will miss seeing him play. If you don't have tickets to the Gala, you really should go check it out. For those who may not know, Live is located under the Keg downtown, and the food is out of this world. You all know I love a good meal out, and I have never been disappointed by the food there, and the service is also always the best of the best. Andy and Tammy are my favourite servers there! I can assure you, the effort will be worth it if you go, and he's coming all the way from Cape Breton, so please make him feel welcome!

A huge community event and another secret revealed!

Last week I wrote about signing up to volunteer, I will be writing about different events each week, but just to mention again, the Syncrude Food Drive, and the Habitat for Humanity both still need volunteers, you can sign up using these links:http://www3.signupgenius.com/mobile/index.cfm?action=signups.signup&URLID=60b0c4dacac2ba75-20131 and http://www.habitatwoodbuffalo.ca/.

Next weekend is the weekend that everyone in Fort McMurray seems to love, it's the Festival of Trees! It's a great way to kick off the lead up to the holiday season, with events for everyone in the family. The Ladies' Luncheon and The Ugly Christmas Sweater Party are sold out, but the public can go to lots of other events, including the Santa Workshop and the Family Fun Skate. Of course, everyone loves to go down to look at all the beautifully decorated trees and all the beautiful decorations. You can see the full list of events for the entire weekend here: http://www.northernlightshealthfoundation.ca/docs/schedule_of_events.pdf

On Saturday night, the last I heard, there are a few tickets left for the Christmas Tree Festival Gala. You can purchase them here: https://www.dollarsatwork.org/eventsatwork/EventLogin.aspx?EventCounter=312.

This year is the 25th anniversary of the event, and it literally continues to grow every year, with more groups and businesses from the community getting involved. The foundation does so much for our community, and it is always heart warming to see the outpouring from the community in support of their work during this weekend. The programs and services that the foundation provides are far reaching in our community, so the more they are supported, the more the residents of Fort McMurray benefit. I don't want to just mention a few, so you can read all about the great work they do using this link: http://www.northernlightshealthfoundation.ca/programsandservices.htm

This year I am pretty excited to reveal that I will be co-hosting the Gala evening along with Kim Rizzi, who is the General Manager of the 2015 Western Summer Games. And the community minded, Leaf loving, Phil Meagher will be entertaining us while doing the live auction. I am both honoured and terrified by the challenge, and can only hope that I do not disappoint the organizers. Usually if you find me at a gala I am in back cleaning up the plates. And therefore I have to mention, the whole weekend is a success because of the the generosity of the donors, but it runs on volunteers. There are literally more than a hundred people behind the scenes, so if you can't get a ticket, how about donating your time? There are literally jobs for everyone, so sign up the whole family! Here is the link to sign up, please share this blog and encourage your family and friends to get involved. When we moved to Fort McMurray, this was the first event that we got involved with, and we are happy to say that the tradition will continue this year! It's a wonderful way to meet wonderful community members while giving back to the health foundation. http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0e4fa5a62baaf94-festival1

Find out what I did for the first time in 6 years!

So the last few weeks I have been saying I want to start looking after my body again. Yes, it's true, like many women, I make sure the kids have so much physical activity, I encourage my hubby to get to physio, and I just assume my body will do as I tell it. Alas, I haven't lost much weight, and I heard myself saying to Shayleen yesterday, "You can't just expect to learn all your words right away, we will keep practicing and it will happen." And for some reason that clicked with my own body issues. If I don't do something for it to help it be healthy again, it's never going to happen.

Shayleen will be six in February, and it has been that long since I have been inside a gym for myself. SIX YEARS, how the hell did that happen? I can remember when we were young and newly married and I so naively told myself I would never be one of those women that gained weight over the years. I was going to eat right and exercise and all that bullshit we tell ourselves when we are young and have no kids and think we have all the time in the world. What the hell did I do all day before we had kids? I don't even remember, but even back then, I didn't go to the gym, lol...back then I never had issues with my weight. Even after the boys were born, I didn't have weight issues. It was after I lost two babies that I first started noticing that I was keeping extra weight. And more honestly, in the last two years, since Tim's accident I have come to realize that I have some major guilt issues about the fact that I am able to be more active than he can be. So I haven't been. It was about a month ago that I finally admitted this to Tim, and of course, he told me not to be so crazy and that if I wanted to join a gym again, I should. So I started looking. I wanted to find a gym that would be a good fit for the challenges that I would face, where I would feel comfortable, and where I would stay committed to a plan. I was honest with myself while I went looking. I realized that I would not feel comfortable right away jumping back into the things I liked before, like weights and water aerobics. I am just dealing with too many issues to feel comfortable. I finally settled on Oranj here in Fort McMurray, which is just a year old this month, and it is more a studio setting, with dance, fitness, yoga and spin classes.

I had taken a few yoga classes last year and really enjoyed them, so I thought, that will be a good way to start, so this morning I went off to my first class. If someone had been taping it, in maybe a year's time I would laugh, but I thought I would share it all with you so that you could have a laugh, but you could also realize that we all have our insecurities when in settings that are a bit out of our regular routine.

The first thing I noticed when I entered the room was that I had no idea which one was the instructor, they all looked pretty fit, and like they knew what they were doing as most were already laying on their mats and doing some type of yoga pose. Crap, where should I sit? I took a breath and gave myself a pep talk. I picked a spot and rolled out my mat. Two minutes later the tiny little instructor informed me that I had my mat upside down, and wouldn't you know it, I picked the spot right beside the instructor up at the front of the class instead of blending into the back like I had hoped. Crap, crap, crap.

Overall the I enjoyed the class, but every time I caught myself and others in the mirror, I couldn't help but notice how much work I actually have to do. I am embarrassed that I have gained this much weight, but even more so, I realize that if I don't do something the weight could potentially affect my health. And many years ago, after being given a second chance at life, I swore I would never take my body for granted. Yet here I am, I have done everything I swore I wouldn't. But if I don't acknowledge it all, it will never get better. So here I am, laying it all out there, and starting again.

Yes, I was sweating at the end, yes, every time the instructor said to breath she was probably talking to me directly as each time I realized I was holding my breath. And yes, it will take some getting use to, and I forgot my water bottle already, lol. But I did it, I started, and I have so much more to share about what is going on in my life right now! It's an exciting time for me lately, and over the next few days I will tell you some more BIG secrets!

What 3 Things Can you Do?

Over the summer, this purple 3 kept popping up around town, and it's picture appeared on social media every time it was in a different spot.

This is of my favourite pictures, since it has some wonderful people in it who do so much for our community. You can often see their smiling faces volunteering at a variety of events around town. So you can go to 3thingsforwoodbuffalo.com to find out more about this idea. But basically it is a challenge for people to go out and do three things for their community, or for the people living in it. I fell in love with the idea right away, and kept wondering how our family could do our three things and somehow challenge others.

Fort McMurray has been so good to us since we moved here, and in our times of trouble in the last few years, we felt supported and loved. I have been noticing with the challenge that some companies and radio stations have taken it on, and have done some fantastic things. But the thought kept popping in my head that not everyone can do "big things", and sometimes the best things in life are the little details. And something clicked. A few weeks ago everyone was challenging three people to share what they were grateful for, why not do three things, and pass on the challenge to three people? Then go to the website and tell everyone what you do, when you share, you inspire others.

We all do our regular everyday things, but why not step outside our boxes and do something different? This weekend our family is going to volunteer with the new build that the Habitat for Humanity is working on in Fort McMurray. If you want to sign up to help out, here is the sign up page.http://www.habitatwoodbuffalo.ca/

Also this weekend we will be volunteering for the Keyano Gala, and if you want to lend a hand at that, please email me, at mackdale@hotmail.com. And our third thing is that we signed up for the annual Syncrude Food Bank Drive. It's a great way to get the whole family involved as there are jobs for everyone! And here is the link to sign up! http://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0c4dacac2ba75-20131

And lastly, I am going to send out my challenge to three families, and I would encourage everyone to do the same, even if you don't live in Fort McMurray, why not challenge the residents of your community? Positive deeds for others can only bring good feelings, so we all win. So my three challenges go out to the MacLeans(John, Kerin, Sam and Colin), more MacLeans...(John, Andrea, Brandon, Tyler and Alyssa), and lastly the MacLeods(John, Kim, Brooklyn and Morgan). And yes, we know a lot of Johns, lol. Let's get creative and have fun with this, and remember to share what you do, and pass the challenge on to three others, via Facebook to make it easy.

Following my Heart.

The emails or comments that I still get the most are from people who say that they miss my column in the Cape Breton Post. Many of the people who I hear from are parents or even grandparents of people who are living out here in Fort McMurray. They liked getting the news from out here so that they could carry on conversations with their loved ones about the town they are living in. And at first I thought I would keep posting here just like I did in the paper. But then the self doubt crept in, and I thought that no one really cares about the silly things that I write about around town, so I let it go. In fact, I let a lot of my writing fall to the side, as I found myself writing about things that were not as interesting to me.

I stopped posting about local Fort McMurray news, East Coast talent, my journey in weight loss and even my person of the week idea. A few months ago a very good friend asked me what did I really want to do with my blog. What purpose did I want it to have, why did I start it in the first place? And because I value this friend's opinion, and he often makes me think about things, I kept thinking about his questions. And the one thing that kept coming up for me was that I started the blog to share whatever was happening with me so that if someone else was going through the same experience they would not feel so alone. So while it may not have any great "purpose", it's honest, and real and even silly at times, and I will go back to writing whatever moves me, and I will keep people posted about local events.

I am creating a schedule that I hope to stick to, and have several pieces ready to go. I will continue to do my person of the week, and that person can be from any where, you never know where you are going to meet someone wonderful, or how someone will impact your life in a positive way. But I am also going to start writing about groups or people that may need help. I want to write about volunteer opportunities, fundraising events that strike a chord with me, and groups that need people to help out in different ways. I always have loved talking about ways to volunteer or help out, and I am hoping through the blog to tell you about some wonderful groups that are always working so hard in communities right across the country.

So if you have a parent on the East Coast that once read my column with the Post, please feel free to send them this blog link and tell them to follow along, I am pretty excited to go back to my old ways.

Looking through someone else's eyes.

The last few days on Facebook everyone has been posting their pictures of their kids since most are getting their school pictures back. I remember always buying the boys a new tie or shirt so that they could be all dressed up and looking clean for their school photos. I have them all layered, and hanging in the hallway. Each year brought a new look, even if it was just that they looked older. This year I will be adding Mitchell's final picture, his grad pic. I commented on a friend's picture of her girls the other day that I thought they looked even cuter since I have gotten to know them a bit more. They are two girls that are always well-behaved, well spoken and just pleasant. Their mother responded to my comment by saying that since she sees them every day, she did not always see them the same way, but that I could be right. Her comment kind of stuck with me the last few days, and I thought of it again last night as I sat at the Sawridge, and took in the evening's event. We can often be our own worst critics, and I think that at times we can do the same to our children. Last night, as Mitchell was presented an award for being an "X-Ceptional Kid" I watched it unfold not as a mom, but as an observer.

The awards are held by the Fort McMurray Chamber of Commerce every year, and it is a night where local businesses and individuals are recognized for all their hard work, dedication to the community and they present various awards to the winners. Nexen was the sponsor of the award presented to Mitchell, and to another well-deserving young woman from Fort McMurray, Sam Wells. Sam's mom, Theresa, is a well-known blogger/communications woman from Fort McMurray, and someone at the table joked during the evening that with two bloggers at the same table then the event should be well covered. I think it's wonderful that Nexen would take the initiative to recognize local youth, because really, they are truly our future. There were two young interns at our table from Nexen, and if they were any indication of the quality of people that work for Nexen, then it definitely must be attracting the cream of the crop. They were both so engaging, and spoke so highly of their work, where they were from, and of Fort McMurray. It's always fun at these dinners when you are in arranged seating and get to meet some new people. 

When I first told Mitchell about the nomination, he was his usual humble self, and we talked about what it means to win such an award. Mitchell has done so much for his community in the last number of years, and has shown me on many occasions that when you give your time and heart, you really do feel better about those around you and your community in general. I cannot count how many conversations we have had after an event and Mitchell has started the conversations by saying, "You wouldn't believe the person I met that...." and he would then go on to tell me about meeting someone who shared their story with him during their time together. It has been all those people that he met and interacted with over the years that kept inspiring him to do more, to be more and to dream more. I have often said that Tim and I have little to nothing to do with how great our kids are turning out. While we have provided the love and stable home for them, we have had support and inspiration from teachers, coaches, the cadet group, and all those people who share their time and their hearts with our children. So I guess we all play a part in nights like last night. 

Years ago Tim and I received lots of advice when we first had Mitchell and then Nathanial, and it always stayed with us. The first piece of advice was to pick our battles, if it was not something that would matter five years from now, then don't argue about it. So hair styles, clothing choices, and silly things were never argued over. Another tidbit was when you felt yourself getting upset, pretend there's a video camera on you...if you were being taped, would you be okay with showing the tape to your best friend or a teacher tomorrow? I caught myself on more than one occasion finding better words when I thought of a video tape showing up, lol. But my favourite piece of advice has always been to build up your child, tell them you love them and that they are amazing, because no else has to. As a parent, it's our responsibility to make sure their self esteem is the best it can be, because when they go out in the world, too many bad things can happen and life can be cruel at times. But if they feel good about themselves, than they can handle the bad stuff. That's our job, as parents, give them the love they need to help them realize they can do whatever they want, and that they are loved. 

So am I proud of Mitch? You darn friggin right I am. He is everything we had ever hoped for in a child, and he is now a young man, who's ready for the world, and I can't wait to see what he is capable of doing with his life, and for his community. But even in receiving this award last night, Mitch still pointed out in his humble way that there are so many other great kids in our community. Ones that may not have support at home, who still have jobs, volunteer and do great in school. So if you know a great kid, please tell them you think they are doing a great job of growing up. Help build up that self-esteem, because we all benefit from having wonderful people around us. 

Below is a picture from last night of Mitchell, with one of our local MLAs, Mike Allen. Thanks again to the chamber of commerce, with it's sponsor, Servus Credit Union, Nexen and whoever thought of Mitchell to nominate him. It was another memorable evening in Fort McMurray.