Today I watched the 3D Imax movie Born to Be Wild on Netflix. It’s about two women who care for and raise orphaned orangutans and elephants in Borneo and Kenya. I LOVED this movie and highly recommend to anyone who is an animal lover. Bonus, it’s narrated by Morgan Freeman.

One little known fact about me is that orangutans are one of my all time favorite animals in the world, along with gorillas. I could watch documentaries about them for days and never get sick of it. I actually played this film three times today because I kept missing parts while caring for Liam.

The movie reignited my desire to travel to Borneo to volunteer at an orangutan sanctuary. I had strongly considered it a couple years ago, but life really go in the way. Today I sat here wondering if it would ever be possible to do now that I have a son. Would I take him with me or would I leave him and go by myself? Would I ever be able to afford it? Would I go before or after I take my dream trip to Japan?

Some day I hope I can seriously answer those questions and follow my heart to Borneo to help make a difference in the lives of the creatures that fascinate me the most…

Where is your dream destination?

If you could volunteer anywhere, locally or internationally, where would it be?

I took today off to make an extra long weekend and it still didn’t feel long enough!!

Friday night my friend Paul and I headed down to Ross Street to check out the Rock N’Red Deer Cruise Night. Lots of old cars lined the streets and even more circling down Ross. It was jam packed with people checking out all the wheels. Lots of fun. It was even better with a Peppermint Andy’s popsicle AND rhubarb cake from The Stache food truck.

Saturday Layne and I got to enjoy the farmer’s market together for the first time all summer. We did the usual loop, stopped in for sausage and perogies and to say hi to Foui  before coming back to dismantle my spare bed and set up the baby dresser. Slowly but surely getting things started in the baby room! That night I went to a BBQ/fire at the boys house which turned into storm watching. The lightning was incredible! Unfortunately when the rain finally hit, it put an end to the fire so no weenie roasting or s’more making could happen. We just moved our storm watching to the garage where we had a good visit into the wee morning hours. I’m surprised I managed to stay as long as I did, but think the afternoon nap I had may have helped!

Sunday Layne went paintballing in Sylvan with his buddies and dropped me off at my aunt and uncles cabin to visit with them and my grandma who were spending the weekend there. I had a lovely time  hanging out in the sun listening to the water hit the shore all afternoon. Only downfall was my poor sensitive skin got a bit over cooked.

So relaxing!

I swear I'm wearing shorts!

I even got to visit an old friend!

Moby

Moby, formerly known as Moose, used to be my kitty. We had to give him up to my aunt and uncle when he developed allergies and could no longer live in our barn outside. Now he’s a spoiled city cat living in Calgary. At one point he even demanded ice cubes in his water dish. How things have changed from the days of hunting mice! He’s such a beautiful cat and I’m glad he’s with family where I can visit him!

Once we were back in Red Deer we built another fire for attempt number two at s’mores night. We ended up having a delicious dinner of veggies and potatoes roasted over the fire, corn on the cob, pork chops and sausages before moving on to the s’more dessert. Mmmm, so good. I love sitting by a fire just as much as I love sitting by the water so it was a perfect day. The fire even meant crossing an item off the summer bucket list!

Monday was a holiday and a couple of us decided to drive up to Edmonton for the Heritage Fest. It’s basically a big multicultural festival with countries all over the world selling food and putting on cultural demonstrations.

It was a fun day but SUPER hot and humid out and I was melting all afternoon. By the time I got home all I could manage was a cold shower before passing out in bed. I was out cold because I apparently missed a huge storm. Oops.

After a solid and much needed 14 hours in bed, I was up for my extra day off. I had hoped to get some stuff done around the house but my slow and lazy morning put a damper on that. I had lunch plans with an old friend who I haven’t seen forever, stopped at the bank to exchange some pounds that were leftover from Manchester last year, bought new sheets for the bed, threw some laundry in before my chiropractor appointment and dinner with a friend. Hopefully tomorrow night I’ll have the energy to get some cleaning done!!

All in all, I had a fantastic super long weekend. I seriously wish every weekend could be filled with family, friends and fun in the sun! Not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow…

This weekend I had absolutely no agenda and I wasn’t too concerned about having plans since I knew the next few weekends coming up are going to be super busy.

Friday night I was feeling absolutely exhausted when I got home from work and opted to have a nap. I know, I’m the lamest ever on a Friday night. I made up for it when a friend invited me to go see Savages at the theatre with some other people though. I was in! I thought it was a decent movie, but the guys thought it was going to be way  more action. I didn’t go in expecting to get a lot from it which is why I think I enjoyed it more than they did.

Saturday morning was the typical trip to the farmer’s market. I was disappointed that Mini Beans and Peppermint Andy’s weren’t there this week!  Afterwards I ran some errands and came home to do a bit of cleaning. After Layne helped me clean out the drain in my dishwasher I decided to run a cycle of vinegar and a cycle of baking soda through it to help clean it out even more. I’m hoping that will help it clean my dishes better even though I know it won’t help the super high pressure that thing puts out, leaving some of my dishes over turned and full of dirty water when I go to empty it. Anyone know if there’s a way to change that?

I had suggested to Cassandra that we take a trip out to Sylvan for the afternoon and do a round of mini golf and get some ice cream. That’s exactly what we did, which meant I got to cross one thing off my Last Summer Bucket List! It was a nice afternoon to go since it wasn’t blazing hot but it was still warm. While I’m typically bad at mini golf, I had a great time and even ended up winning which was shocking! We had a lot of fun.

Check out that concentration

It was funny when we got there and I noticed that Cassandra’s step daughter was wearing her ‘I’m going to be a big sister’ shirt. Since Cassandra isn’t showing yet, it probably looked like Rebecca belonged to me!

She's not with me, I swear!

After we finished a fun 18 holes, Rebecca decided she wanted to go to Menchies rather than get ice cream. She hadn’t been to Menchies yet and was excited to try it. I hadn’t been for a long time so it was nice to be reunited with my beloved fro-yo. Seeing that Mucho Burrito had opened up next door made me want to try, especially since I’ve heard good things about it.

Sunday I woke up to a rainy dreary day and had no desire to get out of bed, aside for the fact that my stomach was growling. I got up around 11 for a bowl of cereal before crawling back into my bed with a book. I finally decided to get ready for the day around 1 when I got a call to go for brunch with some friends, and then met up with another friend for coffee afterwards. It was a nice visit, we chatted for nearly 2 hours but could have probably sat there for another 2 more. I always enjoy a good coffee date.

Afterwards I decided I should finally tackle cleaning the condo even though I just wanted to crawl back into bed and read. Don’t judge me, I need to take advantage of lazy days while I still have them, because I won’t have them much longer! I did manage to get cleaning though. The last while I’ve been trying to use up my old chemical cleaning products and replace them with natural stuff. Today I was finally able to clean my shower using baking soda and vinegar. I HATE cleaning my shower. It always seems that no matter how hard I scrub I can never get it clean. It’s especially more difficult maneuvering with a giant belly in the way and it makes me wish I could pay someone JUST to clean my shower. While it still took a lot of scrubbing, I think my shower is actually completely clean after using the baking soda and vinegar! Feels good to know that not only am I cutting out harsh cleaners, it’s cheaper and more effective! Go natural!

I’m now done the cleaner and thinking I might curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and see what’s on Netflix. The week ahead is going to be a fun but busy one with Westerner Days festivities, a blogger meet up, UFC fights in Calgary and the Mud Hero! I can’t wait!

What did you get up to this weekend? Cross anything off your summer bucket list?
What is the one thing in your house you absolutely hate to clean?