Is that the sun I see??

It sure is! After days of rain and grey skies, we finally woke up to some sunshine this morning. It's amazing what that does to your overall perception of life. Ok, maybe that's a bit too much, but I can't deny it's making me feel so much more positive! The fact that the bus this morning again, was really fast also helped. I'm still struggling with the bus in the afternoon, it takes me 45 min in the morning, 75 in the afternoon, but hopefully I'll get that figured out as well.
This afternoon I have another dentist appointment and will get my 4th set of trays as part of my Invisalign treatment. So far so good. I can tell a slight difference and the pain has been pretty much non-existent. On the 'down-side', they are so easy to take out and put back in, that it hasn't really affected my coffee intake, which I was secretly hoping for. However, it has helped me snack less, since I really have to brush my teeth every time I eat something, so at least that has been good!

We went for a run last night. Big deal you might think. Well, actually it was. I think it was our first run in about three weeks. Yikes! But we did it, and I think the first one is always the hardest. Now we have to keep it up, and keep getting out there. However, with the nicer weather in the forecast, it might become a bit easier. We both pledged to lose 10 lbs by July 1st, so we need to start doing something! Oops, I guess I just made ourselves accountable! There's quite a bit of travel in the near future for me, mainly to the PRF, so hopefully that won't derail my efforts too much...

Invisalign time!

Today was (finally) the day that I could pick up my first set of Invisalign aligners (see previous post on Invisalign here). They are clear, so they are not super obvious to see, but you can definitely tell they're doing something. And they are really hard to take off, so I'll only take them off for a meal, but will have to cut down significantly on coffee and snacks. However, that could be a really nice side effect!  I wonder if my teeth will really be as straight and perfect as my dentist makes me want to believe. I guess to be continued?!

This past weekend we were in Brockville to celebrate Aimee's birthday. It was a fun, relaxed and great weekend. We ate some amazing foods, albeit too much, but it was  worth it!  I'm very blessed with my in-laws, that's for sure.

Not much else to report on. The weather has been pretty good, and the forecast is even better so hopefully some of that snow will melt soon. I went for a run on the trails today, and that was challenging, trying to manoeuvre between ice, slush and deeper snow where the sun doesn't hit the ground. But it was really, really nice to get out there again!

Oh, I guess one last thing. We have some additional animals around the house. With some of the snow melting, the raccoons decided to get out of their hiding places.  Not sure we're very happy with them, but they make for some cute pictures:

I guess it's time to bring the bird feeders in...

Good night!

Invisalign and Cats

Last week feels like a blur. It was good, but it just all went by so quickly. I guess that’s what happens when you’re busy, and have fun at the same time!

I spent one day in Kemptville last week, attending a meeting to discuss short rotation woody crops opportunities in Eastern Ontario, which was very interesting and shed some light on the challengers, but also possibilities.  More to follow…

On that same day, I spent about an hour in my dentist’s chair, to have impressions taken in order to start my Invisalign treatment. I had an initial assessment done over a year ago, and after some hard thinking I decided to go ahead with the treatments. If all goes well, I’ll have Invisalign retainers (which are basically clear plastic trays that go over your teeth, and should be invisible), for the next year or so. I’m really curious to see how they will feel, and how it will impact my life. I will have to take them out when I eat, or drink coffee (or other dark drinks, such as wine…), but you need to wear them about 22 hours a day to be effective. Hence I can see a significant decrease in my coffee intake (and my grazing behaviour, but that might not be a bad thing…). I’ll receive my first pair on March 1^st, and I’ll make sure to let you know who it will be going.

On Saturday we went to see Cats, the musical. The reviews earlier in the week were not very promising, but the show itself was very well done. Sure, the first half might have been a tad slow, the second half absolutely made up for it. I was just plain incredible, with amazing talent, both vocal and dance. Well worth it!

We got a bit of snow on Sunday, which made for a tough run Sunday morning, but despite the poor footing I was still able to get (another) 18.5km in. The run being so hard, I think that should count for a 20km run as was scheduled, right?!