End of May happenings

Lenny has been working 60+ hour weeks lately so I've had to fill my time with solo activities more than usual. One thing I've been a bit better at in the last few weeks is meal planning and trying out new recipes.

The biggest success was these lasagna rolls from a Rose Reisman cookbook that Lenny's mom bought us a few years back. The recipes in this cookbook have never disappointed. I really like them.

Delicious stuffed lasagna sheets. The stuffing includes ricotta, spinach, mushrooms, and parmasean amongst other tasty things.

Aside from cooking, I've also been decorating a bit more. I was able to sell our old girly chrome fruit bowl on kijiji and get a metal one from Home Sense in exchange to go with our black iron accents in the kitchen.

Out with the old...

And in with the new! Excuse the overripe bananas... I haven't been eating a whole lot of raw fruit these days to help keep my allergies in check.

And then while at Home Sense, *ahem, I found some work sandals calling my name. Now all I need to do is paint my toe nails for the first time this season :)

This last pic is a pretty awesome one. While I was in the kitchen making the lasagna rolls, I gave Sally an ice cube to chew because it was sooooo hot. I heard a lot of crunching but just attributed it to the ice cube. After I was at a stopping stage and the chewing was still going on, I went to the living room to take a look at her and low and behold she had found a highlighter to chew on!

Sally's do-it-yourself summer highlights.

Well there ya go; a week or so in snapshots. Hopefully there'll be some more tales to share soon enough!

Holiday Eats

There has been a lot of cooking in this house as of late. I've been trying to eat more fruits and veggies, and Lenny is just plain eating more because he's biking everywhere now that it is nicer!

Here are some pics from the last few days.

Lenny's concoction of Jewish artichokes (which are neither Jewish, nor artichokes), blue cheese stuffed bacon-wrapped dates, accompanying aioli, and some bbq'ed salmon.

The beginnings of my favourite breakfast these days: oodles of spinach & some bonus pancetta on this particular day b/c we had some that needed to be used up. 

The finished omelette with my new favourite bread.

My first lemon meringue pie. I think I over-whipped the meringue because it didn't quite peak properly. Thankfully it still tasted Delicious.

And finally, a post wouldn't feel complete with out a cute Sally picture. This was taken to demonstrate that when she's exhausted, she sleeps with her tongue partially out of her mouth. How silly is that! We had been out geocaching in the heat for two hours or so and she was wiped!

Well there ya go. Happenings at the Lenny-Heather-Sally household!

Geocaching Adventures

The past few days Lenny and I have been going on a lot of geocaching adventures in the London area. The weather has been so nice, Sally has been a champ enjoying all the nature time, and we've all just been getting along and having a lot of fun :)

I thought I'd share a few pictures from our Tuesday adventures.

Sally sniffing things out. In really low-travelled areas we will take her off-leash and she stays within about a 20-foot radius and will come bolting back when called. Tonight she got to chase three deer, a few ducks, and a handful of squirrels. It's incredibly cute to see  how happy she is on these adventures. Check out the wagging tail!

Here's Lenny demonstrating a found small geocache. The idea behind this whole thing is that you get the GPS coordinates for a cache from a website (which narrows the area down to about a 20-foot circle), and then you look around and around and around trying to find the cache.

Here's a pic of a larger cache.

Sally checking out the cache. This one was right at sniffing height.

And lastly, this is what happens after geocaching. Every time. Same pose. It's too cute. :)

Mother's Day Events

Today in celebration of Mother's Day, I celebrated by calling the mommies in our life and then pulling a mommy makeover to our kitchen and patio area.

Lenny was an Excellent help going through all of the cupboards and picking out food we haven't eaten in the three years we've been here (mostly tea and other things inherited from old roommates) and appliances/containers that are no longer in use. The hardest thing to get rid of was probably our blender. I have loooved this blender, but sometime last summer I was blending and one of the grommets wasn't on properly and got shredded. Since that time we (ok mostly Lenny) have been searching for a replacement one to no avail. A $40-ish blender just toast because of one silly rubber thing. Arg. Thankfully we still have many blending appliances, but man, how annoying to just toss $40 into the garbage.

Sally accompanied me outside this afternoon for a weeding frenzy. There's a lot of overgrown vines and ginormous dandelions that were over maybe two feet tall. An hour or so later, and everything is looking a Lot better. Now when Sally adventures into the side yard, she won't get lost in the weeds. Nice. :)

I need to give many thanks to my mother for teaching me the joy that comes from things being clean and treating what you own with respect. Our home here is a very comforting place and I really think I have my mom to thank for that even though she's never been here! Thanks Mom!

My momma :)

I'll also give a shout out to Lenny's mom for welcoming me into the family and sharing her wonderful son with me. I am incredibly grateful for all of the support and encouragement that she's given both of us over the past few years while we try to find jobs, finish school, learn how to parent a dog, figure out car and home repairs, and provide a relaxing environment to vacation at. Thanks Silvana!

Not the greatest picture of any of us, but this is one from a birthday party they through me last August in Mildmay.

Couple-time

I was scrolling through my Facebook profile today, and noticed that there are a lot of nice couple-y pictures on there that might make a nice collection for a blog post. 

At Andrew & Bethany's wedding reception thanks to Andrew's sister-in-law.

At O'zen's visiting with Lenny's old science mentor who is now working at the NIH in Washington. Man does my hair ever look nice in this pic. Perhaps it is getting a bit too long though.

And finally, pretty much a year to the day, enjoying the rolling hills of Tuscany. Soooooooooooooo gorgeous, I can't Wait to go back. 

Good News!

Ya gotta LOVE good news, especially when things have seemed so unstable for so long. I'm happy to report that my current contract has been extended until the end of September (it was originally supposed to end June 30). I really love helping students, dwindling down a pile of paperwork into something meaningful and awesome, and am just so darn happy at my job. Nearly every day, I go home thinking "Man, I love this job!"

Being this happy for a prolonged period of time is quite foreign to me. I don't think I've been like this since I first met Lenny and that was three years ago! Ha! I'm sure finally filling the doggy-void that has been in my heart for a very long time has also helped. In the past few weeks we've gotten to know a couple down the street pretty well because Sally plays with their dog like they're two peas in a pod. She'll literally go bolting across the park (if no one's around, I'll let her off leash) if she smells her pal Guinness. The two of them wrestle and chase until they collapse onto each other while huffing and puffing. It's so unbelievably cute. Like super duper cute. Whenever I break this picture-laziness streak, I'll be sure to post a pic or video of the two of them playing.

Engagement Party Fun Times

No, no, not my engagement party(s). 


One for a good friend, Andrew (of Andrew's Journey) and his fiancé Bethany last night, and today, Lenny's cousin Serena and her fiancé Wayne.


Andrew's last night was a lot of fun. I miss the regular joy and corny jokes that come with Woodford family celebrations. They are such a welcoming and happy family.


The past few weeks have been fairly uneventful so I feel as though I haven't had much to post. I have been meaning to post a few pictures from my family's gathering for my Grandpa's 85th birthday at the end of April. Here are a few of my favourites:

My grandpa with his kids: Donna, Sharon (my mom), Murray, and Paul

Grandpa with all the grandkids. It's kind of interesting to see just how little we look a like :P

My sister Paula and her boyfriend Mike.

Lenny and I with a nervous Sally.

Not a particularly flattering picture of me, but definitely a funnier one of Sally. :)

In other news, I've officially deferred my acceptance for teacher's college to September 2013. I did it because I can't exactly afford it now nor am I super sure that it's a good idea. This way I get a few more months to figure out what to do with my life! ha! In the meantime, hopefully paying off student debt will bring me joy :)