JUNE | EAR PIERCING, A BAR MITZVAH, AND THE START OF THE SUMMER FUN

Does anyone remember in my last post when I said I was going to be much quicker getting June’s recap done?  Well friends, it’s now three months later and here we are. Womp, womp! I had a goal of being better at these recaps, but somehow I’ve managed to get worse!

It’s almost the end of September (gasp!!!) and now here I am having to get my mind back into ‘June’ mode. Oh boy, this may be rough!!  But, I’m determined to keep up with these so better late than never, right?  Wish me luck because I’m sure going to need it.

First off, how was your summer?  Can someone please explain to me how summer is now over?!  Things have been much more busier around here over the last few months, and I’m pretty sure it’s probably been the same for you too! Summer is my absolute favourite though, and I love doing ‘all of the summer things’. Patio dinner and drinks, hiking, beach days, outdoor movie nights, barbecues, watching Charley swim, beautiful sunsets….you name it, sign me up!!!

But, let’s back track a little and look back at June, the first official month of the summer.

Rotary Park – One of Charleys favourite places!!

Often times we don’t consider June “summer” here in Newfoundland because the month can still bring horrible weather, but I think we got a pretty good taste of summer in June.  We had a few beautiful and warm days during the month, and we all treasured them like you wouldn’t believe (we also had a lot of not-so-great days, but I’m choosing to focus on the good!!).  I’m telling you, no one appreciates beautiful days as much as Newfoundlanders!

And I made sure to always take advantage of those beautiful days!!!  I love going for walks all year round, but walking on summer evenings just hits so much different right!? I did a lot of walking with Charley in June, and walking to Bowring Park seemed to be our go-to route. There’s a couple places there for her to swim so she loved being able to take a dip at the end of her walk. Plus, I could sit and watch her swim forever!

We also got out for our first games of tennis for the summer!

The beginning of the month I got the second hole of my ears pierced, or as the cool kids call it, I got my ‘seconds’ pierced. I had been wanting to do it for a while, and then one night I went out for dinner with a friend who had hers done, and she ended up giving me the little big push I needed! A few days later I had them done.

I was super anxious about it though. I don’t know why, but I had myself so worked up the day of!!! I thought it was going to hurt so bad and then I thought my ears were going to be so sore for days after. I got them done at Claire’s in the mall, and the girl who pierced them even joked with me beforehand that I must have had a dramatic experience when I got my ears first pierced as a child since I was so nervous!! Ha!

Trying to figure out the marking! The first place she marked it (shown here) seemed too far from my first piercing. Since it’s hard to see your own ears, of course I had to facetime my sister for her opinion too and she agreed!

Thankfully, there was nothing to it!!! Seriously, after she pierced the first ear, I was so relieved and happy because I barely felt a thing and I just couldn’t believe that was it! So, if you’re an adult but a big baby like me and wanting to get them done, I promise you’ll be fine!!!

All done and so happy with both being done and how it turned out!

The first few nights after I got them done, I was a little paranoid falling asleep with my ears touching the pillow (because it did feel a little strange), but that quickly went away.

I was given a cleaning solution from Claire’s and was told to clean the area 3 times a day for at least 6 weeks. I was super diligent with cleaning them for at least the first 8 weeks, but then I got to a point where I only cleaned them once a day or once every second day, and now I barely clean them!  It’s been a few months now and I’ve had zero issues.

I’ve had the original stud in all summer while my ears were healing, but I can’t wait now to be able to experiment with new earrings and looks!

My friend and I had a girls date one afternoon in June. We started the day off by doing brunch at Blue on Water (the grilled brie sandwich is a must!), and then we got pedicures (much needed on my end!). It’s been a while since we had one of these days, so it was really nice to get together and catch up, and treat ourselves!!

Jack Astors – celebrating my father-in-law for Fathers Day and my sister-in-laws birthday.

June is our most packed month for occasions, hands down! Between birthdays, anniversaries, and Fathers Day, we always have lots to celebrate! This year we had an extra one thrown into the mix – my nephews bar-mitzvah, and we flew to Ontario for an extra long weekend to be there for it.

I ended up getting a cold a few days before we left, and of course my ears had to start giving me major trouble! Sometimes I have trouble with my ears on airplanes on a good day, so I honestly didn’t think I was going to be able to fly. The morning of our flight, they were so bad that I ended up calling my doctor so she could get me in for a last minute appointment to take a look at my ears.

Although she said they were really aggravated, she thought if I did a few things (like taking sinutab and nasal spray before my flight, chewing lots and lots of gum, and not falling asleep on the flight so I could constantly be ‘working’ any pressure in my ears), I should be ok to go.

So off I went….

Yellowbelly pizza in the St. John’s airport. The chicken ceaser salad is my favourite!

Doctors orders!

I started the third book in the ACOTAR series.

My ears were so bad on the flight though!!  I had a full hour of pure agony!  But, I survived and was just happy that I made it to Ontario!

Saturday was my nephews bar mitzvah. I’m not Jewish and I had never been to a synagogue service or a bar mitzvah before so I honestly didn’t really know what to expect. I have to say it was a great day!  I loved watching my nephew participate and often lead the service in Hebrew, and I was so proud of him (I also may or may not have shed a few tears during the day).  How is he 13 years old?!?

Right after the service we had lunch at the synagogue with everyone that had attended.

My sister then had 70+ family and friends invited to her house that afternoon for a bar mitzvah/13th birthday party for my nephew. We had such a good time, and the party lasted wayyyy longer than any of us thought.

A fun fact for those who don’t know – in the Jewish tradition, it’s standard to give money for a bar mitzvah (or a wedding) that’s a multiple of 18. 18 symbolizes “chai”, meaning “life” in Hebrew.

My sister, me, and my mom!

It was a very short visit with my family in Ontario, but luckily they were coming to Newfoundland the month after so I knew we’d be spending almost two weeks together then!

It was mine and Todd’s anniversary the day we flew back home. We’ve been married for 7 years!!  We didn’t have anything planned, but the next day we decided to head to the St. John’s Fish Exchange with my parents for dinner, so we called it our anniversary dinner! We were always so good at celebrating on our first couple of anniversaries, but it seems we’ve gotten really slack over the last few years.

If you’re married, do you make a good effort to do something on your anniversary?

The apple goat cheese cheesecake was ahhhhhmazing!!! 10/10

What else did I do in June?  *looks through pictures on my phone as a reminder*

Oh yes…..we did our annual visit to Murray’s Garden Centre to get flowers.

We’ve been doing this now for about 10 years, and it’s one of my favourite things to do to kick off the summer! I absolutely love picking out flowers to put in the pots and flower beds around our house.

It usually turns into an all-day event because we always go to their cafe first (The Grounds Cafe – they have the best coffee and treats), and then it takes me foreverrrrrr to pick out exactly what flowers I want/need. Decision making isn’t my strong suit, folks!

Next comes the hard part….figuring out where the flowers should go and actually planting them. I swear this part never gets easier! Doing this then becomes another full day event.

There’s always a few flower pots I keep the same, but for the most part I love doing different arrangements every year. Some of my usual go-to annual flowers for my pots are: petunias, begonias, dusty mills, marigolds, dahlias, impatients, calibrachoa, and osteospermums.

I love watching all my flowers grow over the summer!

Last year, Todd’s father finished building us kitchen cabinets for our cabin. We were so excited to finally have cupboards!!  In June we decided it was finally time to start picking out a colour for the cabinets since we wanted to get them painted, so I picked out a few Benjamin Moore samples and brought them out to our cabin to start testing them.

Do you remember when I said decisions aren’t my strong suit? Well, I should also mention that I’m especially horrible at deciding on paint colours! It’s bad, like really, really bad! Even to this day we’re still no further along with what colour we want to go with.

At this time in June, we were thinking about doing the top cabinets white and the bottom cabinets in one of the colours below. We have a lot of pine in our cabin and our furniture is a light blue, so we were originally thinking a navy would look nice. I love Boothbay Gray probably the best, but I think it may match the furniture too much.

The 5 paint samples look so different in both of these pictures. Gosh, lighting and paint is so frustrating!

From left to right: Benjamin Moore’s Steep Cliff Gray, Flint, Gray (2121-10), Hale Navy, and Boothbay Gray.

From left to right: Benjamin Moore’s Boothbay Gray, Flint, Steep Cliff Gray, Gray (2121-10), and Hale Navy.

I made a few visits to the mall in June to get a few things for the summer. And yep, I’m still a mall girl at heart!  While I do like online shopping and the convivence of it, I always struggle with finding the right size and fit, and I always end up having to bring back 98% of the things I order and it just turns out to be waaayyy more difficult overall. What do you prefer?

I ended up buying a few things, including this linen blazer from Old Navy below.

I’m trying to think of anything new and exciting I watched in June, and the only thing that’s coming to mind is season 3 of Bridgerton. Did you watch?  I thought it was a great season and worth the watch for sure. It was probably my favourite season out of all of them. We actually just started watching Queen Charlotte (we’re late to the party!), the spinoff to Bridgerton, and we’re both actually liking this show probably better than Bridgerton.

I can’t think of anything else for June, so I guess I’ll leave it at that!  Considering it’s now September, I’m actually pretty impressed I did this well!!

Will I ever catch up on July and August’s recaps? I’m going to need more of that good luck please!!

Until next time.