50 Things To Do When I am 50: #43 Karaoke Night!

Hi friends—I have had a lot of you ask me lately how many things I have checked off my list. Some things are on going but I have been consistently doing them so I am going to include those in this tally along with the ones that have been checked off. So right now I am currently at 24 things—so almost half way! I have some plans to get a few more completed this fall so make sure you are following along on my journey!

Karaoke night was so much fun and it was also Alysha’s bday and I would definitely say we brought the energy—not the talent! hahaha! Alysha has some friends that can actually sing and I am not that gifted but I do really embrace my song choice! Thanks Tanis for suggesting that I add this to my list! Surprisingly, I had not ever Karaoke’d out in public before, only at friend’s houses.

We kicked the night off by singing Anaconda by Nicki Minaj, hahaha!

We also sang some Kelly Clarkson ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ and my personal fav song to sing (I always crank it up in the car when I hear it) ‘What’s Going On?’ by Four Non Blonds. And I think most karaoke night need to include a little Whitney Houston.

Disclaimer—do not listen to this for quality instead enthusiam!

I have always been a fan of a microphone—one of my first jobs was at Fuddruckers and I loved being on the mic calling out people’s names when their food was ready. I have also had the pleasure of MC’ing a wedding and bringing out my karaoke microphone at home to host bingo nights. Even if I didn’t have a microphone at Alysha’s karaoke bday party, I was still singing!

Reese was my personal Uber driver for the night and we even convinced him to some inside and sing a few songs with us. We ended the night with a little Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. It definitely a song for any generation. And arguably one of the best songs ever written.

I also love having adult kids who are willing to do things with you! Honestly, give this gal a shot and a microphone and she will bring the fun!

I am definitely up for another night of karaoke—let me know if you want to join me!

50 Things to Do: Host a Scrabble Tournament #34

Do you have a board game that is nostalgic to you? For me it would be Scrabble. My grandma Nelda (my dad’s mom) and I would spend a lot of time together, especially in the summer time. I loved going to visit them in Southey, Saskatchewan. My grandma always made me feel like she had the time for me and one of the ways we spent time together was playing card games and board games, Scrabble being my favourite.

One of the first things I wanted to do add to my 50 Things list is hosting a Scrabble Tournament.

I have a fancy swivel version of Scrabble but I did decide to go out and buy another one (we needed a few boards).

Christina also brought her board—there are so many different versions of this game which has been around since 1948!

I love board games and want to host a board game night in the next couple of months where we could be playing a few different games and just enjoy all being together. That is what it’s all about right? If you are interested, let me know—I think it is the best cooler weather activity.

I few of my co-workers from Lululemon and teaching joined me for this fun Saturday afternoon. We discovered a few things about Scrabble—people play with different rules (seems simple in Scrabble but you would be surprised—you know who you are!) and while using my vintage 1996 Scrabble Dictionary was initially frowned upon, it did end up coming in handy. And people like to WIN!

We played in teams and the team names were Scrabblicious, The Tile High Club, We forgot the Q and The Buzzwords. Christina set up a bracket (not sure if it worked in the end as we ended up adding in a final round) but it made it feel official, hahaha!

It was a really fun afternoon and Jac & Jen —aka team Scrabblicious, ended up being the winners in the end (at the end of the bracket, it was me & Christina—I had prizes and felt bad winning so we played one more round to make it legit and Jac & Jen defeated us).

I think they were pretty excited about the bragging rights and the Starbucks gift cards :) Got to combine all the things I love!

But the losers also deserved a photo too (I am questioning some of the scorekeeping—you know who you are! hahaha!).

And I will say it again—the best thing about this list is the people who are showing up to help me make it happen. You know who you are :)

50 Things to Do List: #45 Try a NEW to ME restaurant!

Don’t you find that you go to the same places to eat a lot? It’s easy, you know the menu and all that? Well in my quest to have NEW to ME experiences (you know, knowing that you never went to a certain place with anyone before) I wanted to try a new restaurant in Edmonton and I recruited a couple of my favourite people to join me.

In fact, none of us had been there to eat before which was fun for us to experience it together!

We decided to check out Yianni’s Taverna on Whyte Ave. I have seen this place for years and have always wanted to check it out as I have heard it has really excellent Greek food. Greek food is one of my favourite cuisines.

The menu had a lot of options and the atmosphere was great. We went on a weeknight and I have heard on the weekends they have entertainment. I love the open to the street atmosphere but we chose a cozy corner inside.

Marian and I enjoyed a glass of Prosecco and the 3 of us shared the most amazing calamari, tzatziki, hummus and pita to start. I would say that the calamari some of the best in the city that I have had. And yes, I know what you are thinking—-I eat calamari but I had never had a peanut butter & jam sandwich until earlier this year. Judge as you must, hahaha!

I have been to Greece a couple of times (when can I go back? Who wants to come?) and I have to say this food felt pretty authentic to me. I would definitely recommend Yiannis if you are looking for good food and a fun atmosphere.

This portion was huge! It made a great lunch the next day too which is always a win.

Thanks to all of my friends that have been helping me check off things from my list. We are now 8 months in and pretty much everyone I know is familiar with ‘my list’! Now I can say this experience is checked off too!

The best of the best from my lululemon life!

p.s we also got ice cream from Made by Marcus after this and I got chocolate on my yellow pants! I can’t get the stain out—message me if you have a secret!

50 Things to Do When I am 50: Try a new ice cream shop, #37!

The point of my list that I created back in January was to have some new experiences. To motivate myself to try something new. To get out of the safety and comfort of doing the same things and the same places.

To be frank, my marriage ended in 2023. It was a couple of years of ongoing emotional distress, dots connecting, facing realities and having to embrace being separated and a single mom. It took me a couple years of therapy to even identify myself as a ‘single mom’.

So what does any of this have to do with ice cream? Growth. Finding a new spot, a new experience that hadn’t been shared with that old version of me that was gone. The wild amazing freedom of ‘I can do what I like with MY time’. This is a mind blowing realization when it hits. I am the creator of my life and experiences. I can try out this new place and know that the memory of it is solely mine.

I mean come on…look at this ice cream. And yes, I am always a double scoop kind of gal. 2 reasons—you only live once and I cannot usually make a decision on flavour! I want to try them all.

This particular afternoon took me to Annie Rue’s ice cream. I place that had been referred to me by some friends. When I turned down the street in the Parkallen neighbourhood, I was like “What the…”. This cute little street also houses The Columbian (an awesome coffee shop), an adorable flower shop and some other cute stores—I was blown away. I have lived in Edmonton for 25 years and had never been on this street.

This was the power of my list. I discovered, not only an amazing new place to get ice cream but a whole part of my city that I had not discovered!

In case you are wondering my ice cream choices were—-a chocolate nib flavour known as Delavoye Death by Chocolate (this is actually a collab with a local chocolate maker on 124th street) and Lemon Cream Pie (absolutely delicious and worth every calorie!).

I also had some awesome company to enjoy ice cream with. Bailey got the Pina Colada and Wyatt had strawberry. We gave this place a solid 10 with Bailey even taking a few pints home.

We enjoyed the little patio out front and marvelled at the fact that we didn’t know this gem of a street was hiding right off 111th.

And we deciding to wash our ice cream down with a couple iced mocha’s (truly the best in the city) from The Columbia.

So what does ice cream have to do with starting life over in mid-life and turning 50? The experience. It’s all about the experience which has become my motivating force this year. And I can officially check # 37 off of my list.

Thanks for following along my journey!

50 Things to do When I am 50! Go to Mexico #5

Hi friends!
I will admit this was maybe a bit of a cheat adding it to my list as I did already know I was going to Mexico back in January when I created my list. But I figure it should count as I have never actually been to Mexico!

The reason for Mexico was actually a crafting cruise that I co-hosted with my friend Melanie. We started organizing last summer and had no idea how awesome things actually were going to be!

It was actually a bit of a small miracle that we were able to get everything we needed onto the ship to craft for a week! 4 very full suitcases, 2 carry on’s, 2 boxes shipped a head and oversized personal items!

Our stops included Cabo (love), Mazatalan (fun at my cooking class) and Puerto Vallarta (I didn’t actually get off the ship but I saw it from the deck!).

It was such a great week at sea with the best people you could want to spend a whole week with. The laughs were countless, people were always up to doing an activity with you or go grab a bite to eat and of course we had tons of fun in our craft room (check out the reel I shared on Instagram!).

Our first day on the ship was a crafty day as we were on our way to our first destination of Cabo! We had 3 stops in a row and then a couple crafty days at the end of the cruise as well. However, there were always stampers in the room working on things as had our crafty space available 24-7.

Out of the 3 spots, I think Cabo was my favourite. I would definitely love to go back again some time.

I just love the warm air and the ocean. We took a little water taxi from the ship over to a beach and a seal was waiting to greet us. He was even posing for photos, it was adorable!

What is better than having beach hair and getting baked in the sun? Sharing it with friends! We had such an awesome day together!

I also had a great time on the ship—I did find time to read every day, have a nap in the sun and spent lots of time in our craft space socializing and laughing. Even though I tried, I did not even out my tan lines! haha!

Overall, this Mexico trip surpassed my expectations! There was a Starbucks on board…say no more! I got to treat myself to a new mug for my collection too.

And I took advantage of fun things on the ship like the waterslide!

This was a really good experience to check off my 50 Things List with some of the best people and a vacation that will be a true highlight for me for a while. Plus, I have so many great photos to scrapbook to create my #paperlegacy!