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Organization Here I Come!

2010-07-08T14:26:00.000-07:00

I've been obsessed these days with looking up organizational ideas on peoples blogs to get ideas and hear tips. I'm not too sure why but I've got this urge to be super organized and I figure I better start now if if I want to achieve this by time I'm 50 or so :-p .
I'll have to post some links along the side here of some of the best blogs I've found.

Organizational tasks I've done as of late:

- Re-organized the filing cabinet

- Got rid of all excess items on our main floor (papers, random items with no home, anything lying around that shouldn't be lying around) and put them either in the garbage or wherever else it made sense for them to be.

- Took almost everything out of the bins in Landon's change table and put them away in the closet or somewhere else where he can't reach them and artistically display them all over the floor :-p

Things I want to do soon:

- Re-organize the scrapbook room

- Do something with my crazy Tupperware/container cupboard.. it's insane.

- Re-do the linen closet

- the list is too long.. I could go on forever.. so i won't :)

Anyways, my goal is to do at least one thing a week that help me become more organized. We'll see how it goes :)

Summer Has Arrived!

2010-07-08T14:14:00.000-07:00

It finally has arrived, and with a bang at that. It went from barely reading high teens to 30 degrees in a matter of days. That's alright, i'll take it!

It's just the one little girl that I am caring for now so the three of us are spending a lot of time together. I have two car seats so we're free to roam wherever the wind may take us, and boy does the wind blow here :)

Our Summer trips so far:
- Beckwith Playground & water park
- Crumsby's cupcake cafe
- Majestic Park
- Horner Park
- Willow's beach with Courtney & Isaac
- Our backyard to play around in the pool :)
- hmm.. where else.. the library
- The mall to check out the indoor play area & pet store
- Visiting the ducks up along the Cedar Hill Golf Course
- Kindergym
- not too sure if i've forgotten some or not..

Places we still need to go:
- Ocean Discovery Centre
- Tumblebums
- A bunch of playgrounds & water parks
- forgetting what else I had on my list...

Keep Calm and Carry On

2010-06-22T21:45:00.000-07:00

The title is a saying that I am going to hang up somewhere in my house.. as soon as it arrives in the mail that is. I've obviously been stressing way too much as of late. These last few months have been filled to the brim with exciting activities, new and eventful days, as well as new kids that I am caring for. I need to take one day, or even one hour at a time, keep calm and carry on.. and remind myself that I cannot do everything. I'm not Super Woman for goodness sake. I'm trying to do too much. Keep the house clean, provide fun and loving days to both Landon and other children I care for, make dinners, grocery shop, the usual mom stuff plus some small renos. I guess what I'm really trying to do is find my groove as a Mom that works from home.

Landon is growing like a weed and constantly keeping me on my toes. It's quite amazing how fast he can get in to things :) Over the weekend he developed this new laugh and smile! How strange :) But it's absolutely adorable and now he laughs at things he does when he is on his own. Nice to know he has a sense of humor already.

Anyway.. it's short and sweet today!

Baby Elyse

2010-04-21T13:15:00.000-07:00

I did a little photo shoot with baby Elyse and her proud momma Jill the other day. Here are a few of my favorites. I'm hoping to do another shoot in the near future and hopefully try out some different lighting.. might be hard since I don't own any fancy studio lights.

A year ago now..

2010-04-15T21:43:00.000-07:00

Well, it has almost been a year since a beautiful new chapter of my life began. I have thoroughly enjoyed becoming a mother over the past year and learning so many amazing things about life along the way. I'm just sitting here reminiscing so I thought I would write some of it down :)

A year ago now I had no idea what was to come.. like no idea.. at all. I thought I knew what it would be like to have a child, to get up at night to feed, to breastfeed, let's not even talk about labour.. but really, I knew nothing at all. Weird how that happens. You read books, blogs, and hear stories about motherhood, but nothing really makes sense until you're there. What an amazing journey! It's weird, but anyone reading this that is not yet a mother, you will only understand what I mean when you've gone through it, it's great :)

A year ago today I was only 36 weeks preggo, but our little munchkin arrived early. Two and a half weeks early to be exact. I believe I was gardening and unpacking boxes from our move, believing that I had at least 4 weeks to go before he arrived. It was fun getting our house ready for this other being that was going to have a whole space just for his own self. Thinking about it now, I think I might have spent those last few weeks a bit differently. Well, not too differently, just perhaps a few more evening outings would have been a good idea.

I've changed, but I haven't changed everything about myself. I've heard that a lot of parents change so much about themselves when they have a child. Jeff and I hoped that we could continue to be ourselves and do what we do, but do it with our little munchkin with us along the way. Over the past year we've gone on many outings, had babysitters (both family and friends), traveled in planes, trains, busses, and old cars. I have managed to get out and about on probably hundreds of occasions where Jeff has stayed with Landon so I could get some exercise, pick up groceries, go the spa, play hockey etc.. I'm so happy that I have an amazing baby boy whom I love to spend time with and I've also been able to keep on doing other things that I want to do in life.

Anyways.. this past year has been an amazing experience and I'm so excited to see what the future has to bring :) Thanks for listening to my ramble!

Daycare Diva!

2010-03-24T16:49:00.000-07:00

And so my new life as a daycare provider begins! Adios mat leave, well.. technically not yet, and technically I wont officially start my daycare until May 1st. But really, i'll be doing what then what I started doing this week, caring for another or two other kidlets besides my own.

So far everything has been going great! The boys are getting along well, playing nice, and are pretty mellow for most of the day. Landon still seems to get pretty tired and overwhelmed from having another munchkin running circles around him all day, but that is to be expected.. heck, he's having his 3rd nap of the day right now. It will definitely take some adjustment time for him.

I do miss my downtime though.. Landon usually naps throughout the day for a combined time of about 3-4 hours where I get a lot of things done around the house. He is still napping for about that amount of time, but while he is asleep, the other is awake.. hopefully someday their naps will coordinate. The longest I have had them overlap thus far is 30 min :-p Enough to sit down and eat my sandwich and make a cup of tea.. but not drink it hehe.

We've been out and about each day as hanging out in the main area downstairs can get a little boring for a few hours straight. So far we've gone to see the ducks along the golf course, visited two playgrounds, chatted with neighbours and walked down random streets. Tomorrow we're off to another park that I have yet to visit, it should be interesting :)

Here are a few photos of the little tykes getting used to the new setup!
I'm hoping that Landon will benefit from having someone to watch and imitate that is a tad bit older and is doing new things.

Ferry Rides with Landon

2010-03-17T20:50:00.000-07:00

One thing I always look forward to when I have plans of heading to the mainland, is enjoying the ferry ride with Landon. It's a time when I get to spend every momment enjoying him, not thinking about the laundry that needs to be done, or the floor that needs sweeping.

What I really love about the ferry rides is that because we only go every month or so, Landon has changed so much between trips. He has different interests every time, different things catch his interest, and he always shows me a new side of him. This past trip he was busy watching the older children run around the boat, and was fascinated watching all of the other people eat in the cafeteria, and felt it was necessary to wave at everyone that walked by.

I'm excited ride back home with him in a few days and soak up all of his adorableness :)

Storyboard for our bathroom reno

2010-01-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

As a great idea from my friend LL(Lauralee) I'm going to attempt to create a story board showing ideas I like for our new bathroom. Our current bathroom is kind of gross. The floor is some old lino, the sink has gazillion cracks in it, the faucet is disgusting, the walls need a lot of attention, and everything overall seems to be a little outdated. To save some money we may keep the toilet we have as it seems to work fine and looks alright. The tub/shower combo we are also keeping in order to save some money. We will however get some new clear class doors on the shower and we're hoping to tile around the tub to give it an updated look.
I'm in the works of getting quotes from a few different companies for a new vanity and over-john type thing for storage above the toilet. Then we'll need to search for granite and an undermount sink that will fit in our 18" deep vanity. Notice that our bathroom is pretty skinny, our door just barely misses our current 22" deep vanity when we close or open it.
Anywho.. here are a few photos for ideas :)

* Hope to have a big mirror with dark wood edges
* The tile shown is what I'm hoping to use on the floors (12 x12 tiles) and smaller ones surrounding the shower.

*The top right vanity photo is closer to what the color of ours will be, we're not too sure on what exact color of granite top we'll have but it will be lighter in color like the ones shown.
* Above is the faucet I love :)
* The lights shown are ideas of what I like.. we haven't decided yet though.

Here is a photo of our current bathroom. The new vanity will be in the same location as it is now, but it will be a few inches less deep. There will also be a 6 inch deep cabinet above the toilet... now picture a nice mirror above the vanity and some nice lights hehe.
Anywho, that's all for now! Wish us luck! Also, if you have any suggestions don't hesitate to let me know :)

Let's make some music!

2010-01-21T22:26:00.000-08:00

Well, with the thought of daycare land in my head while on vacation last week I picked up some great musical instruments for kids.. and adults too for that matter. The total price for all of these lovely instruments came to 10 Cuban pesos.. so about $13 Canadian. They seem easy enough to play, especially the rattles. Landon is intrigued by the sounds the make and I can't wait for him to start enjoying them more.

Those things I planted a few months ago are actually growing!

2010-01-21T18:08:00.001-08:00

There are signs all over our front yard showing that Spring is just around the corner. Back in September and October I planted a bunch of bulbs of tulips, daffodills, crocuses, snow drops and I think one other type of flower. Most of these are starting to pop up, with only the snow drops ( I think this is what they're called) having blossoms. We also have a little ornamental tree that is blossoming pinky red. I'm excited to see what else comes up over the next few months as we have yet to see what happens in the yard during the months of late Jan, Feb and early March.

Cubafied !

2010-01-20T20:44:00.000-08:00

Well, we have gone, relaxed, and returned. Twas a good trip overall, minus a few drawbacks such as food poisoning and hungry mosquitoes.

It was interesting to learn about the country through different Cubans that we met. Some of the things they do down there just seem so interesting.. for example, all education and health care is free for all, anyone can hitch hike and if you have a certain coloured license plate you must pick people up, Cubans are very proud people yet they do accept gifts that they cannot afford or possibly find on their own. There are many interesting things that we learned while down there but I won't bore you with anything more.

Since it was my first time staying in an all inclusive I wasn't too sure what to expect. Overall I was a little dissapointed, mostly because of the food I guess. On our third day there I got food poisoning.. and believe me, I wasn't the only one that experienced this. As we went with a huge group of people from Vancouver Island (others that won their trips or listen to the Ocean radio station), it seemed that about 15 out of 40 people got sick on the trip. Seeing as this resort is a 5 star.. that's pretty pathetic. After getting sick from food I was also super weary about trying new foods, so that was a bummer, but I wasn't about to go through being sick again just to be adventurous.

The trip was relaxing though as we had Jeff's parents along with us, which was great! It was so nice to be able to share Landon around. This allowed us to go for walks on the beach as just the two of us, or eat dinner in peace :) If you ever think about bringing your youngsters on vacation with you, consider bringing some grandparents as well.

Some of the highlights of the trip - swimming in the warm turquoise waters, swimming with the dolphins and being shot up in to the air about 10 feet, traveling to Havana, meeting locals and giving away goods, and watching Landon experience the ocean and pool.

Even though we had a good time, I couldn't believe how nice it felt to come home to our home. Perhaps because I have never been away from our new house for this long before, or perhaps because I had painted our main room just lately. It felt so darn nice to walk in to our clean home that we have begun to make our own.

Donations for Cuba

2010-01-05T20:52:00.000-08:00

So i've been reading up on bringing things with us to Cuba when we go to give to the locals. I think i'm going to look through our things to see if we have any baseball caps and perhaps a spanish/english dictionary that we can give away. I'm hoping that we can visit an elementary school there and ask if they mind some donations.

Here is one of the lists I've found online of what to bring for Cubans:

Art Supplies, Musical instruments, guitar strings, pitch pipes, tuning forks, sheet music, theatre make-up, ballet slippers, anything baseball or football related, bike tire repair kits, aspirin, vitamins, school supplies, toys, spanish/english phrasebooks or dictionaries, and summer clothing.

If you know you're going to see me or could see me within the next few days and want me to bring something along to give away, please contact me :)

Ready for 2010

2010-01-05T17:26:00.001-08:00

Well, 2009 has come to an end. It was filled with moving to Vic, having a baby, going on trips, and making new friends! I can't wait to find out what 2010 has to offer me and my family :)
We're starting out on a pretty happy note as we are off to Cuba next week as I won a trip on The Ocean radio station. We actually just got home from a little send off party down at Laurel Point in Vic where we got to meet everyone that is going. Quite interesting to see that over half of the people going actually paid for tickets.. for some of the group this is their fourth time going on a trip with the radio station.. interesting.

Earlier today I was checking out my friend's blog about their home renovations and it got me thinking that I should perhaps aim to start blogging more often. I think i'll try to aim at posting things on here that I would maybe not post on Facebook. Wish me luck!

Landon sure has been zooming through the milestones lately. In the past two weeks he has learned to sit up, clap his hands, say mum and mumma, and his first tooth has poked through! I wonder what will happen next :)

The Single Life

2009-11-23T15:42:00.000-08:00

Finally I have reached the end of single mommyland. Jeff has been away for almost four weeks now and I must say, it hasn't been so easy being a single mom. Of course I'm used to being alone with Landon during the day, but around 4:30 or so I am really looking forward to sharing him with his daddy. Thankfully Landon is a great sleeper most of the time and gives me nice chunks of time during the day to clean, cook or relax.. however, he's not usually sleeping when I need him to the most. It's been a challenge but I have really enjoyed spending so much time with my little munchkin.

While Jeff has been out of town I kept fairly busy for the most part. The first week was brutal as I had nothing planned and a few of my baby groups/meetups had been canceled! Arg! After that, time flew by! Landon and I hopping on the good old E & N (Esquimalt & Nanaimo) railway built by Mr.Dunsmuir himself (Geography lesson coming back to me from Uni) all the way from Victoria up to Ladysmith. Jeff's Mom picked us up and the next day we zipped up to Terrace/Kitimat to visit with Jeff's brother, his wife and their two adorable munchkins Caleb & their new addition, Logan. The plane rides went well for the most part, it was just the layovers in Vancouver that were a bit brutal in terms of Landon napping. I nursed Landon on the take offs and now I think back on it as I have just read another frustrating story about a mom being asked to cover up while nursing on the plane. I don't remember covering up much at all now that I think about it. Babies need to be nursed, it's a natural thing, get over it people! Thankfully I didn't have any rude comments or stares and all went just peachy :)

This past week Landon and I hopped on another plane, this time an eight seater, over to Abbotsford where my Mom picked us up. My Dad also came home that day as he has been working for about 7 months now up in Toba Inlet on the coast of BC. He works as a Lineman and this has been quite the trip for him. He has been living on a barge and literally working in the sticks, being flown in by hellicopters and wading through three feet of snow. He sure was glad to be home and very excited to head off on an adventure to Australia soon. Anywho.. we spent a lovely three days out in Rosedale, meeting up with old friends and their kids and doing some shopping at the local jumbo craft sale. The plane ride back to Vic however.. was, well, very interesting. We flew right through a lightening & hail storm! Super bumpy plane ride with lightening all around us and hail pounding the tiny plane. As we landed you could see something weird on the runway. It was covered in hail! Neat, yet not so fun when you're alone and carrying a baby on your front.

Lastly, this past weekend my two friends Kelsey and Chrissy came for a visit. It was so very nice to see them and to show them where I've been living for the past 8 months or so. We did some much needed shopping and took in the Santa Claus parade downtown. I was sad to see them go :(

Well, thanks for reading.. i know I'm not the best writer and definitely not the best blog writer, but I like to write things down so I can think about what I've been doing for when I do my scrapbooking & to share my thoughts with family and friends :)

Cuba Bound :)

2009-10-16T11:24:00.000-07:00

Arrriba! If you haven't heard my exciting news, let me fill you in! I was lucky enough to get through to a radio station contest a few weeks ago and ended up winning an all inclusive trip for two to Cuba :) We are taking the baby boy along with us as well as Grandma and Grandpa Mottishaw. I do believe that all of the winners (7) plus the radio station hosts all go at the same time and do a few events together down there, so it should be a lot of fun!

Landon had his 6 month check-up this morning and he's growing just fine :) He has only gained about a pound in the last one and a half months, so he's finally slowing down. He sure is loving to stand up lately, it seems like that's all he wants to do! He's growing up so quickly :( But he's always doing new, even cuter things each day and it's so fun to look forward to what he does next!

Busyland here we come!

2009-09-14T22:42:00.000-07:00

I must say, our summer was pretty busy. But these last few weeks we've had a lot of time on our hands as we've stayed in town and all of our activities have been on hiatus. But.. September is the month for busyness to begin! All three of us in the household will be starting new things this fall :) I am starting to play field hockey again, but for Victoria .. this means i'll be on a new team with new peoples. I actually just had my first practice tonight and boy am I going to be sore. So that means I will have one practice a week and games are on Saturdays. I am also taking a course that will outline all of the things I need to know about running a LNR (License not required) daycare.
Jeff is going to be playing ultimate frisbee two days a week with me joining him on one of the nights if all is well with Landon. Also, Landon and I will be starting swimming lessons with a group of mommies I know, so that should be fun! On top of all these things there are also the two weekly free workouts at the malls plus the different activities offered by the Baby Sightseeing group that I am a part of.

Landon has been growing like a weed! His favorite thing to do these days is to play with his toes as he lies on his change table. His bulky cloth diaper prevents him from doing this all the time so I let him be diaper free as much as I can :)

Hmm... what else is new? I've started planting Fall bulbs! I've picked up a bunch of different types of daffodils, crocuses and allium.. plus i've dug up the tulip bulbs we have and I'm going to move them to different spots (the deer ate them all up last year). I'm so excited to see what it all looks like next spring! I've also been planning the garden for next year in terms of perennials.. it seems like whomever lived here before us really didn't plant much, so there are no nicely established trees or large shrubs. Anywho, I'm excited to plant everything but I guess not until May or so :)

Oh, and I have been garage sailing up a storm and watching used victoria like crazy for toys and furniture for my future day care. I've been putting up things on the walls like numbers and colours, i'm so happy that we have space for me to do this in our house :)

Anywho, that's all for now! Thanks for reading :)

Summer Days and To Do Lists

2009-08-12T10:33:00.000-07:00

Well, Summer sure has been keeping us all busy. It seems like every weekend is filled with trips up island or over to the mainland to visit with family and friends. Not that it's a bad thing, it's just go go go. I know that once Fall is here i'll be wishing it was Summer again!

With every day that goes by I'm enjoying motherhood more and more :) Our little baby boy is learning new things every day, making new sounds and faces, and changing the way he reacts to things like sleeping. Hmm.. let's see, my favorite things thus far are making him smile, hearing him coo, and cuddling him when he's sleepy.

This past weekend Jeff and I headed up to Parksville for our friends Leif and Jenn's wedding. The wedding was set on the beach and it was gorgeous! Jeff's Mom and Dad looked after our little man and Jeff and I could spend some alone time together, which was much appreciated.
This weekend we're off to the mainland for my friend Trieneke's wedding and to visit with my family. My Mom is so excited to see Landon! Last time I was at my parents with Landon he totally slept through the night three nights in a row! Hopefully it happens again :)

Well, we've got a few things on the To Do list for our house. Not that anyone should really care.. but I'm going to list them anyways :)
Things we're hoping to do inside are: get the guest room set up, renovate the upstairs bathroom, paint the hallway & trim upstairs, and paint the living room and dining room. My goal is to have all done by this Christmas.. am I crazy? Perhaps! But I don't mind painting :)
Things we're hoping to do outside: Build a fence, plant a bunch more perrenials in the front, convert the pile of rocks in the back in to a flower garden, fix up the shed, and build a deck.. oh boy.. this could take years! :) Oh well, it's a work in progress!

Alright.. that's all for now :) If anyone ever comes over to Victoria, make sure you drop us a line.. I would love to see friends!

Mommyland

2009-06-02T21:43:00.001-07:00

Well, I am officially a Mommy :) Sure I was one a month or so ago but now I really feel like I am. I have started to get the hang of life with my little man but I sure have had some difficulties. My incisions kept me from doing a whole lot in the first few weeks and breastfeeding has been quite the struggle for me. However, now I don't feel any pain at all in my incisions and Landon and my boobs are starting to get the hang of things, thank goodness!

Everything has changed! Now I'm on Landon's schedule, which is fine, but it did take some getting used to. He feeds about every 3 hours or so these days with a little bit longer stretch happening at night. During the day I usually feed him and then right away we go and get something done, whether it be errands or a nice long walk.

Landon is growing up a storm! When he was born he weighed 7lbs 7oz. and was 19 inches long. He has been eating like CRAZY and now at 5.5 weeks he weighs 10lbs 15oz. and is 22 inches long. He's starting to change so quickly with his puffy cheeks, rolls on his legs, and he's starting to follow us with his eyes, turn his head, and lift his head up to look around. It's so neat to see him change, but at the same time it reminds me that he is going to grow up so darn quickly!

My body:
It sure has taken a toll.. doesn't help that I didn't really do any exercise the last few months of pregnancy! I lost 20lbs within 2 weeks of delivery and now I have 20 more to go. I'm eating pretty healthily but I know the pounds are not going to drop off magically. Today I got the okay from my midwife to jump on the exercise train so that is exactly what I am going to start doing tomorrow. I'm pumped! All of my pants and shorts only fit halfway up my thighs.. so i'm definitely excited for some of those to fit again :)

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

My Birth Story

2009-05-07T18:11:00.001-07:00

Well, Jeff and I had planned for a drug free homebirth and well, we ended up with something slightly different. I’m sure I’ll soon forget the pains of labour/birth and recovery as having this healthy baby boy in our arms is worth every second of it.

Here is the timeline!

Thursday, April 23

5pm: Water breaks while floating in a cooled down hot tub at Jeff’s parent’s house

8pm: Meet the midwife at Victoria General to get antibiotics because I’m Group B strep positive

9:30pm: Quickly do the belly cast before my contractions start! (I’ll post pics of this soon)

11pm: Contractions are starting up

12am: Back to the hospital for another dose of antibiotics ( have to have them every 4 hours)

1am: Contractions are getting stronger

4:15am: Midwife arrives, contractions are pretty strong

5am: I’m 5cm’s dilated! Woo! Contractrions are super strong, baby is posterior so I’m experiencing crazy back labour

8am: The moms arrive to help Jeff out! I’m moving from room to room to shower to ball, trying it all out. Midwife checks me again and I’m 8cm dilated! Woo! Moving quickly, or so I think. The shower ran out of hot water twice.. not fun!

11am: Pain is getting crazy, I’ve been feeling the urge to push for a while now, midwife checks me, I’m still 8cm – stuck!

1pm: I decide I need some relief, and the baby is not moving any further, heart rate still great though! Time to move to the hospital – worst car trip EVER! Felt like an hour long. I labour at the hospital for a while, I’m exhausted!

2pm: Screaming for an epidural – baby is still 8cm and head is not turned fully yet, still posterior. I get relief and take a 45 min or so nap, thank goodness!

3:30: I get to start pushing! Exciting J But contractions are irregular so they start some plutocin.(not caring about spelling here). Contractions get stronger and I can feel a lot going on down there which was nice.

6:30: Midwife calls in a doctor to see if he can use the vacuum to help the baby out, he tries this 3 times or so, no luck. He says he needs to do an episiotomy, I say go fo it! Get the baby out already! He does this and then tries the vacuum again, after two more tries the baby is just about out when the vacuum pops off. He says we need an emergency c-section. The baby’s heart rate was still pretty good, but I think I was bleeding quite a bit so I had to be under general anesthetic.

7:14: Landon Andrew Mottishaw is born and handed to Jeff in the hallway after being checked out. But, Jeff doesn’t know the sex yet! Our plan was for him to be the first to tell me what the sex was before anyone else knows. So he held our little boy for about 40 minutes without knowing it was a little boy. After I wake up he is told the sex and then comes in to tell me. It was a great end to a longgggg experience.

Now: May 7th!

I'm on the mend! My body is quickly recovering and I'm able to walk around and sit without being in pain, phew! Landon is doing great as he is already up to 7lbs 11oz after starting out at 7lbs 7oz and then losing 10% of his birth weight. Jeff and I are quickly adjusting to life as parents of a newborn and are excited to watch our little man grow.

37 Weeks - Full Term!

2009-04-19T16:05:00.000-07:00

Baby Land: Well, it seems like time has flown by so quickly, i'm already 37 weeks preggo! It sure did sneak up on me. If I was to have the baby now it would be considered full term and it would most likely not need any extra care, so that's good to know. The midwife also said that I can start 'helping' the baby along its way. I have already purchased some red raspberry leaf tea and may start drinking it once I feel I'm ready and organized for baby to arrive. That's not to say that anything I do will help baby come sooner, but you never know!
Also, a week ago or so Jeff and I did a tour of the hospital. It's a nice hospital and it seems small and cute, but I'm not too sure I can picture myself labouring there. Our hope is to try for a home birth, and if for some reason I don't feel comfortable with it at the time or if something goes 'wrong' then we can always go to the hospital as it's not too far away :)

Easter: Last weekend my parents came over to the Island and saw our house for the first time! It was great to have our first real house guests as they stayed two nights here. It was nice to have house guests but I sure did notice myself getting tired quickly. Jeff and my Dad ended up puting up our very own clothesline and got the garden ready to go. My Mom and I did a little bit of shopping and got a few things like hanging baskets so that I'll be ready to plant them when the time comes. Thanks for being such great house guests you two!
On the Friday of this weekend Jeff and I also made our first trip up Island since moving over here. We went up in the morning to Ladysmith to wish his Mom a Happy Birthday and to go out for lunch :)

Baby Moon: As my parents were leaving, Jeff and I went over on the ferry with them and headed in to Vancouver where we stayed at our friend's apartment in English Bay with a beautiful view! (He was out of town). We caught a movie, had a nice dinner, strolled along the sea wall, watched blue herons (there's a heap of them nesting in Stanley Park), and relaxed. It was so nice to just do whatever we wanted and enjoy each others company. On the Tuesday Jeff went to work while I went to a few baby stores and Ikea. Got that out of my system for a while! :)
Oh yes, in the morning of the Monday Jeff and I headed out to UBC with our photographer to take some maternity photos. We went to a spot where we were alone and she got some lovely shots! I have a few posted on my facebook if you want to check them out, or you can look at her website at www.lucida-photography.com

That's all for now! Thanks for reading :)

The End Is Near! Well.. sort of.

2009-04-06T06:58:00.001-07:00

Well, i'm now in my 36th week of pregnancy and the countdown is on! I'm so very excited to meet this little person. The nursery is pretty much complete, and we have almost everything we need for our little bean to come home with us. Things are starting to get really uncomfortable with my body.. the skin on my stomach aches constantly now as it stretches even further, and the hip pains at night are making it so I'm sleeping less and less, thank goodness for naps! But I must say, I still love being pregnant! I love the big round belly and the oh so amazing movements I am feeling inside.

This past weekend I was out in Chilliwack to visit with my parents one last time before baby comes. I was a little nervous as my husband was in Edmonton and I was so far away from home. A lot of people that I know have been delivering super early! Eek! I'm shooting for 37 weeks, as then the baby will not be considered a preemie. Who knows though, I might end up carrying to 41 weeks.

Don't bother asking us about what names we have chosen and we will not tell you! hehe. We've decided on a boys name and have the girl's name narrowed down to two. However, we're not going to say what the name is until we meet our little one.

Yesterday I had some maternity photos taken by a friend of a friend as she is just starting up her own photography business. It was a lot of fun and the pics look great :) This is her webpage: Bradford Photography.net . We had, however, booked another maternity photo session with the photographer that shot our wedding. She'll be taking pics of us next week out near UBC I believe. Check her out at www.lucida-photography.com . I'm super excited for her to take these photos - you'll see why if you check out her webpage.. she's amazing! She has taken engagement photos for us, weddintg photos, and budoir photos and she has never ceased to amaze me!

Well... Let's hope this little one stays in me for at least two more weeks! Thanks for reading!

Home Sweet Home

2009-03-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

Well, we're settling into our new place quite nicely it seems. Over the past week I've been unpacking and setting up like crazy, too much actually. I've quickly come to realize that my body does not handle things the same way anymore. After about one hour of moving things around or cleaning my body is done for the day. They belly is coming along nicely now, popping out and growing by the second it seems, i love it! I cannot believe that I'm already 33 weeks pregnant and will only have around 7 weeks left! Eek!

This past weekend Jeff and I have been prepping and painting the nursery. We have decided to to at least one, maybe two accent walls (depends if it works) using big squares of different colours. The wall was taped off in to 20 different squares and we used 4 different colours to fill them in with white lines seperating them.. this may make more sense to you once I post a photo :) Two of the colours of the squares match our baby bedding perfectly! The other walls will be a neutral tan colour. Let's hope it looks good! The only thing we have to worry about is that the walls are textured, so it's not as easy as it sounds. The paint may bleed into the white lines and ruin our beautiful design, oh well, we'll soon find out!

We've met quite a few of our neighbours now and they all seem quite nice! Phew! The ones next door to us even brought us cookies and a baby gift as they know we are expecting, how sweet eh?

Yesterday Jeff and I became true suburbanites, or house owners I guess; he mowed the lawn and I weeded the garden! It was so nice to be outside in the fresh air and finally actually want to weed and do gardening :) There is still plenty to do, but for now the yard and house are looking great!

I think that's all for now, thanks for reading!

All Moved In!

2009-03-15T12:14:00.001-07:00

Moving:

Well, we're in the new house! It's great! It's bigger and better than we remember and we are quickly finding out how we want to organize our things. So far we have most of the upstairs organized and parts of the downstairs. It feels so good to have things put away/organized. The actual move went so smoothly, thank you soooo very much to everyone that helped us out, we couldn't have done it without you. We were also so very lucky to have friends to put us up for the two weeks that we were homeless, so thank you :)

Pregnancy: My belly is definitely growing quickly these days and the little one is moving around like crazy, it's great! I'm pretty sure it is still head down, which is good, and it seems to turn quite often so I feel it's back or butt bulge out. We're narrowing down our names list but are not going to say anything until the baby is born. Ooh, I got my new stroller! We decided to go with the Phil and Ted's jogging stroller and I cannot wait to try it out!

Leaving Work: It was sad leaving work this past Friday. The staff even sang me a cheer/song and gave me a gift, it was so sweet, I even cried. I'll blame it on the hormones :) I most definitely think that I will go back and visit before the end of the year so I can show off our little one.

New Town: So many changes are happening in our lives right now, including moving to a new city! We have a lot to check out still as we don't know a lot about the area. We do know how convenient everything is though, traveling to the grocery store takes maybe 5 min, even if you go to the really good one that's 'wayyy further' away hehe. My highlight today was going to Home Depot and finding out that they have parking spots for Moms and Moms to be! What a sweet life :) Anywho, that's all for now! Thanks for reading!

Homeless and 30 weeks Preggo!

2009-03-01T21:24:00.000-08:00

Moving talk:
Well, we have now moved out of our condo and all of our goodies are in a storage locker. This past Thursday night Jeff and I made the big move with the very generous help of our friends. It was a long day as we did the moving after a full day of work. Thursday night, Jeff, myself, and Linus our cat slept on an inflatable air mattress in our bedroom. Friday night we stayed over at our friends' place in Burnaby where we finally relaxed and took it easy. Saturday night we headed over to another friend of ours where we will be staying for the next 2 weeks or so. We're so thankful that we have such nice people to put us up :) We will officially be in our new place on March 13th!

Pregnancy talk:
Jeff and I finished our last prenatal class today - it was a doozy of a class today, 6 hours long! We learned a lot, met a lot of nice couples, and it really gave us a taste of what is to come. I'm now 30 weeks pregnant! AHH! Approximately 10 weeks or so left until we're a family of 4 (must include Linus). I still have the same complaint that I've had all along - sleep deprivation. Now it has moved from pains in my legs at night to pains in my hips. Besides these pains, life as a pregnant lady is pretty sweet. I love how my belly is growing rounder by the day and how our little baby loves to kick and move around almost constantly. It sure is starting to seem real!

Other talk:
Officially I only have 6 days left of work until I go on leave. I'm hoping to have up to a total of 10 more days if I get called to TOC on the days that I'm not at my contract position. I'm going on leave so early partly because it is a natural break with it being spring break and all, and also because these are the dates for taking possession of our new house in another city. I'm feeling a little guilty both in terms of leaving the students that I have come to adore, and leaving the staff that have come to rely on my services within the school. It will be sad to leave, but I know I will come back and visit to check on the students :)

We're Moving!

2009-02-15T21:03:00.000-08:00

Well, everything has gone through with the sale of our condo and the purchase of our new house in Victoria!

We will officially be in Victoria on March 20th! We're both so totally excited :) At that point I will be almost 33 weeks along in my pregnancy. I sure hope the baby holds out until at least 38 weeks! Over the last week I have been packing up a storm and feeling so relieved that my husband and I had gone through all of our drawers and storage items over the last few months, making it very easy to pack things up.

The baby has been kicking up a storm lately so much so that I can watch my belly bop and bounce around for 30 minutes or so at a time, it's awesome! Jeff and I are trying to narrow down our choices on names, but it's pretty scary knowing that we are deciding a name for our unborn child .. we hope we pick a good one! We're going to keep our choices a secret until the little one is born.

Anywho, I'm zonked and should lie down and rest. Take care, and thanks for reading!