Tuesday, December 22

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

JOYEAUX NOËL!!!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!
---


Wednesday, December 16

Turkey lurkey.

So, by last week, no one in my family had opted to cook "The Big Dinner".

It seemed as though my parents needed a break from doing it since they have been utterly silenced about the subject and Thanksgiving was boycotted (Jody and I, instead, made it a FUN day of making turkey pot pies and tourteires). And my brother and his wife were "going to the cabin in the bush" given that his wife would be working during most of the holidays and this would be her only break.

So with that in mind and the need for my Type-A list making and planning ahead, I volunteered Jody and I's "expertise" (or just plain ignorance??) in making "The Big Dinner". We've only cooked a turkey once or twice before but we REALLY wanted a nice family din-din this year (last year was kind of a gong-show). So we decided to do it ourselves and have our own shin-dig.

*Of course we invited everyone over if they were, at all, interested....*

And whatya know....they were all gung-ho, able and willing to come on down on the big day! Cancel the Christmas dinner boycott! And cancel that cabin thing in the bush!

Free food brings the masses, I guess, lol!

My mom had the sniffles at the offer and my dad was excited about "not having to cook this year!!!" And of course, my brother's stomach leads him to wherever he goes, so that was a given, LOL! He even offered to buy the biggest and baddest turkey (as long as we were cooking it, LOL)! The Grandpa and his girlfriend will also be showing up which will be interesting as well (he's, unfortunatley, not that tight-knit with us grandkids but Brooklyn loves him so it'll be fun watching her bug the old guy, LOL) ...

I'm not gonna lie: it's going to be a big challenge...thank gawd I have that week off and can plan days ahead as to how exactly I'm going to prepare all the food (side dishes & desserts the night before and turkey & stuffing on the big day itself, seeing as I only have one oven; I did mention I was Type A, did I not?!).

We will be up bright and early with Brooklyn watching her open up a tonne of gifts and then start our preparation and cooking that should be ready by about noon-ish. And with Jody being the brilliant chef he is (seriously, if he wasn't a mechanic I'd encourage him to become a chef because he LOVES to cook and he's BRILLIANT at it!!!) he will be an amazing help in the kitchen as well, if he manages NOT to take over (which he usually does anyways, lol).

I've also got my mom's famous and MOST DELICIOUS EVER stuffing recipe so I think we're all set!

Anyhow, I'm pretty excited about doing this yet reality is setting in and I'm also starting to panic, hehe! But I guess that is what my parents have gone through for the last, hmmmm, 35 years! So I'll take it and make it great for them and for all of us too.

Cannot wait!!! =)

Monday, December 14

Embracing the chubbs...

Here I am with our new camera
taking a picture of more than just my belly.
Back fat and all.
Embracing it, uh-huh! :P

(I swear my metabolism goes into
full-on REVERSAL mode
*the minute*
that I get pregnant!!)


Pregnant chubbs:
I - - once again - - have NO chin.
I tend carry a lot in my face :P
Oh, who am I kidding...
35lbs, at this point, to be exact...at just 6 months.
Still 3 more months to go...
That amount of weight gain is
super harsh on the body,
let me tell you....
I am DEFINITELY feeling it!
UGH.

Ah well.
A temporary thing.

I've figured it out that I pretty much have
slight, yet highly annoying nausea
during my whole pregnancies
and my way of coping with such a yucky permanent feeling
is to eat every 2-3 hours....like ALLLL day (and night).
Hence the weight gain.
Plus I'm short, 5'3",
and so the added weight is more evident.

Am really hoping, though, that
the weight gain maintains itself soon
seeing as my stomach is getting
VERY, uncomfortably squished in there!
(and baby is only getting BIGGER!!)
I've noticed my meals becoming
quite a bit smaller
(thank God!)
so hopefully this is what happens naturally
if I choose to listen to my body.


ANYWAYS...
Enough about the baby chubbs!


Here is a beautiful picture of my
Brooklyn with Santa: she's SUCH a cutie!!
And not even scared!!
(well not after a few minutes of seeing some other kids go up) =)
I was sooo proud!! =D

We have another preschool Christmas party tomorrow
and ANOTHER visit from Santa!
Boy, she is one busy & lucky girl!! =)



Sunday, December 13

C . O . L . D !

Breathless at -52°C with the windchill...!!!
Dear Lord!




Tuesday, December 8

6 month mark & labour scares.

Here is a picture of my baby bump a few weeks ago at the 6 month mark (24 weeks):
Mind the banana in the picture...Brooklyn was hanging around with a snack ;)

My. I do feel larger than I look, whenever I go back and actually look at the picture...however I do get bigger every week, so I guess it's all about the current perspective. You really don't think you can get any bigger...until you actually do in the next week, LOL!

So yesterday was my 31st birthday...and it turned out to be quite the day/scare!

I woke up at 3am needing to pee (what else is new??) but this pee "feeling" never did go away...I woke up several more times after that with nothing happening (no pee). Finally woke up for good and got ready for work with the same feeling but it was turning into a VERY uncomfortable pressure and so went in to the hospital early to see my midwife at 9am. Took a UTI urine test (which would get tested later, of course) and was sent on my way home to relax.

At home, the feeling got significantly worse and more uncomfortable and I swear, at one point, I felt like I was in labour (like I needed to push!) and panicked and went in to the hospital again at 2pm, scared that I was in pre-term early labour stages. Turns out I did, in fact, have a UTI, and was given antibiotics right away...got my hubby to get some cranberry juice but, alas, he came home with cranberry blend (not the real cranberry juice) and stated that he didn't see anything there with a "non-blend" or "non-cocktail" title...of course...this town sucks for getting what you really need.

So once he got home at suppertime, he boiled me up some cranberries that we had in our freezer and made me my very own cranberry juice! What a freakin' sweetheart!!! God, I love that man so much! At that same time, my pains were heightened and all I could do was cry and cry and cry...it hurt so bad. Jody said the last time he saw me in that much pain was during labour with Brooklyn...and let me tell you, it was a close 2nd to the pain of labour...oy. Thank God the pain only lasted about an hour before I was able to sleep a bit of it and the fever off. Antibiotics kicked in shortly thereafter. Went to be early...slept in late. Feeling famished all day. But atleast the infection is going away.

Anyhow, I guess this might be a post of somewhat TMI, but such is life when you're pregnant, lol!

On a more positive note, am really looking forward to 2 weeks off of work starting on December 21st! With zero annual leave left, this "mandatory leave" is an absolute haven to me!!!

Friday, December 4

The Slowness.

So things around here have been suuuuper slooooow.

As you may have noticed....

Well I guess as slow as they can get with a 3 year old, who all of a sudden is a defiant, feisty, crazy, sometimes nasty, often nice but whiney, always funny little girl running around!!

Whoever made up the phrase "terrible two's" must have left the house when the kid got to their three's...because they forgot to make a phrase for three also, which, in my opinion, is wayyyy more crazier than the two's! So far...LOL!! God love her though!

Anyways, I digress...
Back to The Slowness.
It is also, of course, due to the pregnant belly, a fulltime job and a thesis to research and write!
And most of which the pregnant belly is winning out over the rest.

I think The Slowness gets slower with each pound gained.
Sad but true. geesh! But at this point, it is necessary.
Can't wait to work out like a fiend again and get some muscle and leanness back!
Ah, but that is a few months away, yet.

I guess I have just needed to be slow. These physical changes are ROUGH! But necessary, I know. However, I am almost certain (99.9999% sure) that this will be our last "go" at having another baby...I am just too much of a control freak to let my body be "overtaken" like this again. Sounds super silly, but honestly, last week was the first time I've felt like my body was being overrun by aliens! TOTALLY out of my control! It was a depressing night, let me tell you! LOL! But I think I've overcome that feeling for now...but am sure it will creep up again soon...I do, after all, still have 107 days (~3.75 months) to go! (But who's counting anyways, right?!) OY!

But I'm trying not to worry about it so much anymore and be more "carefree" and c'est la vie-like. I'm slowly working on that and making some progress. Slowly but surely...(the story of my life right now, hehe!)

Some things help more than others: I just finished 'tweaking' my schedule a bit more back to the 'old ways' and I must say it's made all the difference in the world and am glad that I realized it now. I must have needed for things to go back to the way they were a few months back even though it was only the difference of leaving Brooklyn at her dayhome for that extra hour after work so that I could get in a good workout, in peace (The workout seems to be one of the only things that is keeping me personally sane lately). And I don't feel as stressed or guilty anymore (ah, guilt. a true characteristic of motherhood) because then she also gets to play outside too in that last hour instead of watching tv while mommy walks on the treadmill. It's amazing how much routine and schedule is absolutely a haven at times. But of course, absolutely not, at other times! But I'm sure that sponteniety of life will come, once again, when our two little bambinos are a bit, bit older! ;P

I must say, though through all my complaints and struggles, that I feel SUPER blessed and am REALLY loving life right now, even with all the roller-coaster twists and turns and bumps along the way. I am a truly lucky woman with the most awesome family I could ever, EVER have hoped or dreamed for!!!

*sniff, sniff, sniff*....oh these darn hormones! :P hehe

--- Baby bump pictures and more to come in next post! ;) ---

(Screw it!! I am going to EMBRACE my chunkiness because I AM FABULOUS no matter what, ESPECIALLY while creating human life!!--So there! hehe)