The divorce is ALMOST finalized!!!

We decided to switch from Shaw to Telus and man oh man why we didn't start out with gmail accounts I have no idea.

Quick- everyone with babies that's reading this : make your babies a gmail account if their name is still available. They'll thank you for it later!

Paint nite!

I bought these jeans on a whim 3-4 years ago and have wore them twice.

Tonight is paint nite so I thought I should wear something old "just in case". I am clumsy and these paints aren't washable so let's be practical.

And now that I've got them on I remember why I bought them- they are unbelievably comfy. 

Now I'm hoping I don't ruin them!

Cooking With Irene - check!

BBQ night at the Becks and I made cousin Mike's ribs. Don't they look yummy? I love that cookbook as much as I love my Nanny! xoxo

Another day, another workout

It's 6:49 Friday morning and my workout is checked off the to-do list. 

I really like to exercise. Maybe not waking up so early but the activity and feeling of accomplishment afterwards are priceless. I also like to eat. A lot. I joke that we are a family of foodies.

So in January Aaron and I joined Orange Theory and try and go 3-4 times a week at the crack of dawn before work.

The idea is that you wear heart rate monitors to gauge your level of activity thru heart rate and then you're given a performance summary of calories burned and splat points which are minutes spent in the Orange/red zone. 12-20 minutes in the "Orange" zone and you shall achieve the afterburn effect and continue to burn calories for hours after your workout. 

I highly recommend it! Even with a bulged disc the trainers are able to modify my exercises so I still get an effective workout.

This is me!

Sad day, another appliance has bit the dust

I think my appliances/toys seem to have a 10-15 year lifespan and that's it. That's the trend lately anyways.

This morning while prepping lunch I witnessed the demise of my super handy mini food processor. 

I made the boys baby food with this machine so I'm pretty confident it's been well used over the past 13 years. I still use it once or twice a week so I'm sure I will be shopping for a replacement, it's so

much more convenient than my ginormous heavy Cuisinart!

Wishing in the Wish Book begins today

As previously mentioned last week in the I Dislike Wedneaday post, my boys deliver flyers.

Today they will have the added pleasure of delivering Wish Books to some lucky households.

I generally don't like catalogues but there's something about the Wish Book that I love. 

I'm guessing it's the nostalgia of Christmas's past and making lists of what I was wishing for Christmas.

I never did get the pleather biker jacket I wanted when I was 10 but I did get a real leather biker jacket when I was 16 lol. 

Thanks for the memories Sears!

Just another day at Chateau Beck

My kids eat- a lot. Having a pre-teen and a teenaged boy means I make mass quantities of the favourites and throw them in the freezer.

Aaron and I go to a gym class that's 5-6 AM so this is also handy for our breakfasts too. 

An Old Obsession

Ok maybe not obsession but definitely an interest was Post Secret. I would faithfully check for new posts every Sunday and bought the books.  I think I read some really weird confessions that may or may not have grossed me out that I just quit cold turkey. 

So while trying to organize the basement and move the bookshelf which involves unloading the bookshelf I came across my copies of some Post Secret books.

It's on my bucket list to actually mail a secret but I've never thought of something I consider worthy. 

I did do something secretive today that I'm anxious about so maybe today's the day I do it! 

I'll keep you posted! In the meantime I will add these books to the Sunday auction pile.

So proud to be a mom!

One of my closest friends sent me this link and said she thought of Alex immediately. 

Made me so proud, and teary eyed. I love my boys. As parents our goal has always been to raise kind children that are contributing members to society. 

Maybe that's too simple for most people- sure orthodontist paycheques would be nice but neither Aaron or I are doctors yet we live a comfortable life and are happy. 

At the end of the day that's worth more than a hefty bank account. 

Life is good!

http://youtu.be/8LnuWQgL7Wg

Eat at Home Challenge

This started quite a few years ago with Jenn at My Life in a Nutshell.

Every September since then I always try to Eat at Home for the month. 

Summertime we tend to get a bit lazy with our meal planning and we eat out quite a bit. 

So September is a good chance to reset our idea that fast food is good food when in reality it's not nearly as satisfying or healthy as homecooked.

This is my idea of homemade fast food. I cook quite a bit of food ahead at naptime such as rice, squash and ground beef or turkey. Then at dinner I mix it all together with some black beans and taco spice, heat and serve it in a squash. Sometimes I add a spoon of salsa on top or some shredded cheese. Yummy!

I dislike Hump Day for one reason ...its flyer day!

Early on this year the boys decided they wanted to get jobs and lo and behold you only need to be 12 to get your own flyer route. JT was hired right away and now Wednesday mornings my dining room looks like this:

During the summer the flyers weren't very big so the boys were able to wrap them, and bag them but now that the school sales have started we are back to the old routine of Mom wrapping flyers at naptime. Not my favourite thing to do but its a team effort and I want to help the boys be successful. 

Every now and then they offer to buy me dinner or lunch to thank me for all of my hard work, so sweet.

JTs goal was to do flyers until he turns 14 and then he wants to apply at McDonalds. He's a planner just like his Mama!

Karma

Are you a believer? Are you a practiser?

The idea of karma is simple - if you have good intentions and perform good actions that will reflect positively on your future endeavours.

The yin to that yang is if you have bad intentions then be prepared for the cause and effect.

Someone told us this weekend "that's karma for you" and it's bothered me all weekend. Really, poor Aaron had to listen to me battle it out with myself about it. 

We live our life with the ideal that life is good and we do what we can to achieve this concept. We enjoy our family time, we work really hard for what we have and don't take it for granted and have values that are not negotiable. 

Aaron's awesome career path in the funeral industry is the constant reminder that death is final and can come anytime. So we exercise, try and eat well, make lots of happy memories and try to prioritize accordingly. 

Life is good, if you allow it to be.

Long lost treasure

It was about 10-11 years ago that my precious little Joey thought it would be a fun game to push all of Nannie's special coins down under the baseboard to never never land.

We didn't recognize the sound of the clink clink and figure out what was happening until it was too late. 

In a 4 level split house there's a good chance we thought he was upstairs sleeping while we were sitting 2 floors down in the family room watching a show  or playing games.

So randomly over the years this has come up in conversation and tonight I decided was the night we were going to find the coins. 

A flashlight,angled mirror,magnet, string and Joey's little hands revealed some coins. Maybe not all but the mystery is solved and the boys are busy treasure hunting right now 

MacBecks are ready for a weekend of fun!

Not all fun and games mind you lol. Golf for the boys, shopping for the ladies, UFC for everyone and OTF for the grow ups. 

A perfect combination! The exercise will balance out the calories. We're foodies.  

Every weekend gathering usually involves meal planning and going the extra mile. Which results in the need to go to the gym and literally run the extra mile.

Happy long weekend everyone!

Janet in concert- bucket list-check!

I love concerts- especially when the vocals are live and Miss Jackson did not disappoint!

There was no opener, just 90 minutes of singing and dancing. 

I loved it! Even when Jessica recorded my singalong to Again (oops) 

Next concert up will be Madonna in October- life is good.

Do you matcha?

I heard about matcha tea a few months ago from a friend that sells Steeped Tea.

Aaron loves green tea whereas I like white or black tea typically. Anyways, matcha is the powder form of green tea leaves so rather than just drink the water the tea has steeped in you drink the whole leaf which is packed full of antioxidants. 

You dissolve 1/2 tsp in a cup of hot water and that's it. 

For the month of September I have packed away my keurig and have challenged myself to drink tea. I have an extensive collection of tea. Green tea, black tea, fruit tea, white tea, matcha tea - every tea!

I'm hoping this will cure my addiction to coffee creamer ha ha. I blame the summer trip to Idaho- there is an incredible amount of flavoured creamers in America and I tried as many as I could. 

Pumpkin Pie is definitely my favourite hands down.  

Post 1 - Beck boys are off to school!

After a last minute growth spurt and newly needed indoor shoes last night the boys were ready to rock and roll into Grades 7 and 8 this morning!

And when I say last minute growth spurt that is no exaggeration. The awesome Vans Alex picked out in Idaho at the end of July did not fit when I had him try them on again Sunday night! If I hadn't been there when he bought them I wouldn't have believed it possible.

So JT now has 2 awesome pairs of Vans because these were bought in the states I won't be trying to return or exchange them lol.

Happy First Day of school everyone!

Testing Testing - 1, 2, 3

Just checking that the old blog-a-roo is still in good working order for the 30 blogs in 30 challenge I am about to bestow upon myself.

I LOVED blogging, I mean really, I LOVED BLOGGING.

Crazy things would happen and I would say "I'm totally blogging this".

Then enters the world of Facebook and there goes the blog...shoved to the back of my closet like my cowboy boots which only see daylight for 10 days a year.

What am I hoping the outcome of this challenge will be? Probably nothing life changing other than the documentation of those crazy funny things that happen at Chateau Beck.

Stuffed Baby Yorkies are SOOOO close to home!

Jeff Dunham came to Calgary Saturday night and was so funny! I don't even know which character I loved the most. Little Jeff was right up there with Achmed and Walter.

After the show (which was at 5 - I thought it was at 7:30 so with some quick thinking and awesome babysitters we made it) we went out for dinner at Halo.

And after a quick google at the menu and seeing Stuffed Baby Yorkies we were in!

If you've never had them I highly recommend you go there and give them a try. I had the Naughty New York Striploin and although it was tasty it wasn't as memorable.