A Sinful Giveaway with Sauza Tequila

It's the weekend, and you know what that means! We can let down our hair, cut loose and make some poor life choices. Nothing starts a Saturday Night better than a couple shots of Tequila with some good friends. So you're in the right place, because this week I am hosting my very first giveaway courtesy of Sauza Tequila.

I was lucky enough to get to test drive a new Tequila shot developed by Sauza, and let me tell you, as someone who usually prefers to skip the salt and the lime on the standard 1,2,3 shot, this new and improved variety was much improved. You trade in that bitter salt lick and sour lime finish for a lot of sweet and a little bit of heat, and way more fun. All you have to do is resist the urge to have too many!

All you need to create this Sinful Shot of Sweet Heat:

~1.5 ounces Sauza Tequila Gold
~Sauza Cinnamon Sugar (in the place of the salt)
~An Orange Wedge (in the place of the lime)

And you've got yourself a Sauza Sin!

OK I know the orange wedge is supposed to point up to look like devil's horns, but I thought aimed down they looked kinda like sombreros....so this happened!

Now it's your chance to weigh in, do you prefer the old sour puss shot, or the new Sinful Sweet Heat?

Here's your chance to win your own Sauza Sin (C) Party Prize Pack, valued at $75.

All you have to do is be a Resident of Canada, of Legal Drinking Age and enter via the raffelcopter form below.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

What will your prize pack include?

A bottle of Sauza Gold Tequila
A set of 6 shot glasses
A $15 iTunes Gift Card so you can create the perfect party playlist
A $20 Target Gift Card for party décor purchases
And 1 Sauza Cinnamon Sugar shaker

All you need is to add an Orange and you're ready for the best Tequila shot you've ever had!

Contest will be open from Saturday Sept 28 Thru Wednesday Oct 3rd.
Don't forget to share it via Twitter everyday for more entries!

Kid President?!?!

I have a total and complete fascination with YouTube, and how much seriously good content is produced for it. I've talked about some of my must subscribe to channels for science before on my other blog. And today I wanted to take a moment to bring you a pep talk, from someone I discovered only this weekend (thanks to a FB share from my cousin Krista).

Kid President, AKA Robby Novak, a 10 year old from Tennessee is on a mission to make the world be awesome and dance more. And I think we could all take a page out of his book!

Hope you all had an amazing weekend, and this week DFTBA!

Books Lately

Since I was travelling pretty much constantly this past month, I've done quite a bit of reading lately. If you click around up in my navigation bar, you might have noticed that I have set myself the task of reading 100 books in 2013. Unfortunately despite my best efforts this last little while, with less than 4 months to go, I am still 49 books short.

So I thought I'd take a brief moment to share some books I just finished, and some of the ones I'd like to tackle next.

 Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns". Because whenever I fly, I pick up an airport book or two. I find that for the most part, books you buy at airports are always a good read, and these two are no exceptions. While the Kite Runner depicts the friendship between two boys from different social classes growing up in Afghanistan, A Thousand Splendid Suns focuses on the hardships faced by Afghan women. Both books provide the reader with an inside view of daily life over the past 30 years in country exposed to the Western World often only through news media. More importantly however, both books offer a truly moving glimpse on the depth of human emotion,  commitment and endurance, as the characters try to find a place of happiness amid truly unimaginable cruelty.

Which brings me to the next couple books I'm eager to read.

Khaled Hossieni's most recent work "And the Mountains Echoed", although I'm debating whether I want to pick up the hard cover or go with a digital copy for now. And Shilpi Somaya Gowda's "Secret Daughter", which I have had on my bookshelf here in Calgary for two years now but haven't read yet.

And finally, two books that I am constantly picking up, and almost buying every time I'm in Chapters, both with a common theme. Chris Bohjalian's "Midwives" and Ami McKay's "The Birth House". I have to say I have something of a fascination with the idea of midwifery and so both of these books should be enjoyable reads for me.

What books are on your fall reading lists?

Happy Birthday Dad

Happy Birthday dad! Despite everything else that was going on this summer, I'm so glad I got to spend as much time with you as I did. We even got in our annual ride in the Seminole! Wish I could be home for your birthday too, but since I can't spend it with you, I did take some time going through some air show photos of yours I happen to have on my PC.

Maybe next summer I'll have to meet you at a fly-in or something?

Or maybe you should come fly aerobatics out here in the mountains like the plane mom and I saw this July.

Either way, happy birthday! I hope you got to enjoy it playing with your new Beetle in the garage!

In Loving Memory of Mary Edna Turner

A week ago today I lost my paternal grandmother (following a major stroke 8 days earlier). She was a truly loving, inspiring and incredible human being, and I thought I'd take a moment or two to share her with you all.

My grandmother, who went by Edna, lived an incredible 85 years, 55 of which she spent happily married to my grandfather Graham. Both of my grandparents were Returned Canadian veterans who had served in active duty over seas. Edna was a dedicated R.N. Nurse, defying her role as eldest daughter on a farm in Prince Edward Island to go to school for nursing. As a dedicated Catholic, her first job as a nurse was at a Convent in PEI, but with ambition and drive to help more people and around the world she served heroically as a Flight Nurse with the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Korean Air Lift (1951-1956). She loved to tell stories of stopping over in Hawaii will transporting wounded soldiers back to the US.

Later she traveled and lived throughout most of Canada, providing nursing to the ill of some of Canada's smallest and most remote communities. She even spent several years serving the Inuit communities of Canada's territories, including the world's 4th most northern settlement, Resolute Bay, Nunavut. After having my uncle and my dad (and moving around some more) she spent her longest tenure Nursing at the Durrerin District Hospital in Orangeville, Ontario (where I was born).

My grandparents retired to Hickory Hills in Tillsonburg Ontario, and I have many fond childhood memories of visiting them there, playing with their Terrier Bridie, balling yarn, sorting through knitting patterns and playing with buttons. My grandmother was a true crafter and creator in every sense of the words, with a lifelong passion for knitting, and in this I am so proud to take after her. It would be impossible to count the number of sweaters, blankets, mittens, hats and toys she knit over the years. She often completed more than 100 in a single year, giving them away, with love to her family, friends and charities.

 The collection of sweaters my grandma knit for my brother and I, along with some blankets.

She would never be without a set of knitting needles and a project on the go, weeks before her first stroke in July, she completed a beautiful blanket, and I am tasked with finishing another she had just started.

“Edna is lovingly remembered as a peaceful, gentle woman who touched the lives of many, and made no enemies. Her spirit and attitude live on in her family and in all those whose lives were touched and enriched by her loving presence."

My grandmother and I are in many ways kindred spirits. It is from her that I received much of my creativity, and love for animals. I hope I have also inherited her inexhaustible capacity for caring for others.  In many ways I also take after her in my life, moving away from home at a young age (18), traveling across this country (coast to coast), living far from home. Pursing my career before a family (it was quite unique for a woman born in the 1920s to do as much as she did before marrying relatively late at 30). I only hope I can model the entirety of my life after her, a woman who has and continues to inspire me every time I think of her. Which is and ever will be, often. You are in my heart, and my prayers Grandma.

Knitting together in 2011.

SeaWheeze 2013 : The road to my first half marathon

As the clocked ticked towards midnight on Dec 31 2011, I declared the new years resolution that would set my feet on the path (literally) to my first half marathon, the Lululemon Sea Wheeze in Vancouver, and one of my proudest moments.

I am a huge fan of the reality television show "The Biggest Loser." It really is one of the most inspiring things on TV, and the transformations both in body and mind that the contestants go through are incredible. The first time I told myself I would run a half marathon was during the second last episode of Season 12, the contestants, who only 12 weeks prior could barely move their bodies through a single mile, run a marathon. As I sat there, alone on my couch, probably stuffing my own face with junk food I thought "really Sara, if they can do this, what's you're excuse?"

Mine is not a story of weight loss, but it has been a transformation for me non the less. At the time, I was 23 and minimally active, the only thing maintaining my figure was the determinedly strong metabolism I'd been gifted with that kept me waif-like thin through to college. As I entered my mid 20s, it was beginning to slow down. More importantly, so had I.

I grew up playing every sport I could try my hands at, basketball, softball, soccer, volleyball, track and field, cross country, lacrosse, ballet and jazz dance you name it. I was active all through high school and well into university. However, as my science course load grew heavier with each year, and as I began to spend more and more time glued to my laptop computer, my level of activity fizzled to a stop. While I may have still been thin,  at 23 I was horribly out of shape, and not at all happy with myself.

In Barcelona, Summer of 2011.

So sitting there on my couch, Christmas and a new year around the corner, I told myself it was time for a change, next year I would run a half marathon. I declared it my New Years Resolution, and the first of my 25 goals before 25. I signed up for a Dailymile Account (which I have been neglecting to update lately), bought a membership for the gym in the building where my lab is and got running.

The first mile I ran, after the past few years of inactivity was painful, physically, mentally and emotionally. To distract myself for how badly my body was performing, my friend and I (like us females tend to do) laughed about how one runner flailed her arms as she ran. Ran laps around us that is. However I stuck with it, and by spring was signed up to run a 10km race during the Calgary Marathon. And my new boyfriend Kev (a bit of a fitness junkie) would be cheering me on at the finish line.

Summer running along the Bow River, stopping for a photo with the Peace Bridge.

I impressed myself with that first 10km, and then again with the Spartan Race in August, and a second 10km in September. I signed up for Calgary's last chance half marathon in November, and began working my way into longer runs. More fit than I had been in years, I hit the wall when I began suffering from horrible shin splints.

It was time to face the facts, the half marathon just wasn't going to happen that year. I suppose I could have walked it anyways, but it just wasn't in the cards. I wrote this post, and postponed the goal.

2013 started great, Kevin and I were headed to the beach (Cuba) for a week in March, and we were both determined to be beach body ready. I worked my butt off, kept up with the running, did a 10km on St. Patty's Day in a blizzard and felt great. However, as spring rolled into summer, and my life got incredibly busy with traveling and school I wasn't really working as hard towards my goal as I should have.

But I had paid my registration for the 2013 Lululemon Sea Wheeze Half Marathon in August, and I was not going to back down. In the month before I committed to running three times a week, got in a couple 14km runs (with hill climbing) and one 16km (my longest run ever). Kevin shook his head a me for how little I had trained, he would never commit less than 100% to a goal. A trait in him which I admire and love him for.

I told myself I would give it my best shot, and finish in less than 3hours, expected I'd probably be walking the last 4km. I hoped that the relatively flat race course and sea level elevation would help me get through it.

Before the start, in the 2.5-3 hour wave.

I decided to run with my ipod (usually I don't) and put together a playlist of songs that would keep me pumped up. I installed a pacing app, and set myself to run the first half hour straight, then do intervals of 10min running 1min walking for the rest of the race. It was me, a pair of running shoes (I wore the asics) and my stubborn determination (for which Kevin always teases me, but I hope also loves) versys 21.4km and an army of 10,014 lululemon-clad runners.

You won't spot me in the video and there are no pictures of me running (our cheering squad was a bit hungover that morning), but I don't need that kind of evidence of my accomplishment that day. My accomplishment became a part of me the second I crossed that finish line.

2 hours
24 minuetes
23 seconds

My left foot was bleeding from a blister, my knees screaming in agony, I had chafing on my thighs and from my sports bra. I was exhausted and grinning from ear to ear. Despite not feeling prepared I rocked that race, and exceeded my expectations by far. I stayed with my pace, no cheating until the last mile. And even then, with the help of the super motivating 2h30min Pace Beavers finished strong and running across that finish line.

I need to thank my running buddy that day, Sarah (@setulk) who set this goal with me, ran with me for the past year and a half and finished strong that day too. I need to thank Kevin, who I called the minute I crossed the finish line so I could share my success with him, and who sees a world of potential in me and challenges me to meet it. I need to thank my family who always supports me. Thanks to everyone who is a runner and tweets or blogs about it, I find so much inspiration from this online community. And lululemon, who despite happily taking more of my money than I should be spending there, put together the most perfect, motivating and inspiring race for a first timer like me. I plan on being back next year, and shaving another 25 minutes off that time!

If you look close, you can see my name in the top of the 'S'

Saskatoon Berry Picking

On the long weekend, right before heading off to run the Calgary Color Me Rad, I headed out berry picking with our lab tech Mona (@celli_beans).

We headed down the Deerfoot and out of town to Okotoks and the Saskatoon Berry Farm, to U-pick ourselves some berries. I had never had a fresh Saskatoon berry before (think blueberry crossed with cranberry) and was looking forward to picking some.

The berries grow on bushes, and we got there right at the peak of the season, as they were getting nice and ripe and purple.

It wasn't long before we had filled up our buckets ($14 dollars worth of berries each). I took mine home to make into Saskatoon Berry Jam.

How else do you enjoy Saskatoon Berries?