My Crazy Mother

For those of you who know about my shopping addiction, I have a story to show that I come by it honestly.

My mom went to Grande Prairie a few weeks ago and went shopping at “the Children’s Place” I think it’s called. I told her to restrain herself but she bought a bunch of 0-3 months and a little 3-6 months clothes. She didn’t tell me what they looked like cuz she wanted them to be a surprise.

So last night she calls me to tell me that they went to Grande Prairie again and she went back to the same store. I asked if she restrained better this time and she said no. In fact, when she got home she realized she had bought some of the same clothes. And not only that, but in the same sizes LOL I said at least it’s a sign that you really liked them ha ha

What?!

In my weekly email newsletter from Babycenter, there was this little tidbit:

A Russian woman holds the record for having the most children. Between 1725 and 1765, she was pregnant 27 times and had 69 children.

All I can say is wow.

Lemon Cheesecake Pie Squares (no oven required)

Hey Folks, I had a craving for some graham cracker crusted dessert so I went in search of a recipe. A few different recipes appealed to me for different reasons so I kind of created my own recipe by mix & matching the layers I liked. Here's the final result (very yummy) if you'd like to try it yourselves...This isn't the best picture, but it's what's left of the sample I made Tyler & I as we are taking the dessert out to the in-laws (I can't serve a dessert without tasting it to make sure it's good!). I also listed the amount of time each layer takes to prepare to give you a ball park of how long the whole process is...& included cheat steps to save you time if wanted (I am all about the Rachael Ray inspired cheat steps - no heroes in my kitchen).

Crust (5 Minutes):
1 ½ Cups of Graham Crumbs
¼ Cup White Sugar
6 Tbsp Butter, melted

*Cheat Step: Buy pre-made graham pie crust

Cheesecake Layer (10 - 15 Minutes):
1 Pkg (250g) Cream Cheese, leave out of fridge for a while before making it to pre-soften
2 ½ Cups Milk
1 Pkg (sm) Vanilla Instant Pudding
½ Small Container of Cool Whip

*Cheat Step: Buy pre-made pudding...that's all I have for this layer. But it's worth the investment of time!

Lemon Layer (10 - 15 Minutes):
1 Pkg Lemon Pie Filling Mix
-As directions indicate you may need 2 yolks & water.
Substitute: Canned pie filling or pudding mix of any flavor you want
*Cheat Step: Using the pre-made canned pie filling or pre-made pudding

Whip Cream Topping (10 - 15 Minutes):
1 Medium Carton (500mL) Whipping Cream
¼ - ½ Cup White Sugar (to taste)
4 Drops Red Food Coloring (optional but it looks pretty)

*Cheat Step: Use Cool Whip or Canned Whip Cream


1. Combine all crust ingredients.
2. Press into a 9 x 13 glass dish (for show).
3. Put into fridge.
4. Beat cream cheese with ½ cup of milk to make creamy & smooth.
5. In a separate bowl, make vanilla pudding with only 2 cups of milk. Beat for 2 minutes, or as directed on pudding box.
6. Combine cream cheese mixture and vanilla pudding, beat until lump free.
7. Add cool whip in & beat until lump free.
8. Remove dish from fridge and pour in the cheesecake mixture as next layer.
9. Put in fridge.
10. Make lemon pie filling as directed, let cool a bit.
11. Remove dish from fridge and pour on lemon layer.
12. Put into fridge.
13. Beat whipping cream & food coloring on medium to high speed until it’s slightly stiff.
14. Add in sugar.
15. Continue beating until peaks form.
16. Remove dish from fridge and pour on whip cream layer.
17. Cover with saran wrap & keep refrigerated until served.

33 Weeks...Ahhh!

I cannot believe that I am 33 weeks pregnant today. That means baby could come anytime between the next 5 - 9 weeks. That totally just blows my mind.

It's not that I'm not excited to see our baby but for the most part, I am enjoying being pregnant and what that brings. I have the baby all to myself and no diapers to clean up or cries to hear. There's a certain amount of excuses you can use when you're pregnant related to your mood & tiredness that you just don't get again. Not to mention that I still feel like I have some research to do on the whole birth thing and what comes after (like breastfeeding, etc). I recently borrowed "Hypnobirthing" from the public library as Kyla suggested it as a good book and I am trying to be at least a little bit frugal and get it from the library instead of buying it. I'm only about a chapter in but it's interesting so far. The main premise, if you haven't heard about it, is that birth is a natural thing for our bodies to go through and that the fear of pain is what actually causes the pain. It continues that, if you can get to a place of birthing acceptance and self-hypnosis then you should only really feel pressue and not pain and finish the experience energized instead of exhausted.

I'm still on the part where I'm skeptical, but I REALLY like the sounds of all that LOL I truly do believe in the power of mind over matter as I've used it many times over the last few years...and if you believe in it then you either believe in it whole heartedly or not at all (there's no inbetween). AHEM - Kim who believes in mind over matter except for certain 'illnesses' that plague her and are different. That makes sense how? Kyla had a really positive birth experience and I've read a few testimonials that jive with it too. It really can't hurt to try it.

There is a center in Calgary where you can do a two day course with a instructor and that costs about $400 and includes a "text, 2 cds" and coaching for Tyler & I. I can still get in to her Aug 22/23 sessions so I guess that's something I need to think about...if I am doing this 100% then it would most likely be worth the investment, but it's not worth it if its just a whim. Something else to think about & discuss with Tyler.

Baby Room Update

Megan came back on Thursday afternoon and finished the mural work. We put all the furniture back in & took some pics. Tyler & I still had some other artwork and decals to hang so I put off posting other pics until those were mostly done. I had one set of decals that I wanted to make into a picture (in a frame) and I think it turned out really cute. I was sort of working with scraps for the background colors so it came out pretty good especially considering that! Though it's kind of weird to do this: we are going to hang it under the window.

I painted in this chimp & am very proud of myself for that, ha ha. Tyler put up the zebra border, and June, my master seamstress who is going to make a slipcover for the glider, is camping for a few weeks so I'm not sure when that is happening. Oh, and the curtains are from our bedding set.

Tyler hung the net basket hammock for our abundance of stuffed animals and I think it looks especially cute with the tree now. To the right of that is a white picture frame that has 2 ultrasound pics in it & will have baby's foot and hand prints once he arrives. Oh & I found some bins to put into the change table/dresser that coordinate and were 50% off woot. The middle one says "baby" on it repeatedly and the other two have polka dots.

We hung the "matching" artwork from the bedding set in the corner as two of them looked best on brown & one looked best on blue. It doesn't look like it but there is still lots of room over in that corner for storage of other things. The closet also finally has my scrapbooking stuff out of it (though it's just literally thrown into the spare room right now) so it has TONS of room left in it too - I'd say at least 60-70% is empty. We put the decal stickers on the doors: the closet has animal numbers & the door has animal alphabet. It kind of looks busy in this picture, but rest assured that it looks cute in person. The metal/glass shelf you're looking at still has lots of room on it as well. Only one of the baskets has stuff in it & I haven't done the 'final' placing of the shelf stuff.

The cube shelf still has lots of empty space on it too, which I'm happy about. On top I have an empty picture frame to fill, a family tree that we got for our wedding that I thought looked good in baby's room, and a lava lamp! Above is a footprints beach picture that is holographic - meaning it changes as you shift how you look at it.

So the room is as done as I'd like it to be until baby comes & I have a baby shower. I know I'll get other things to go in it (such as diapers, wipes, more blankets, possibly some toys, a baby, etc) so I'm glad there is still room in it to grow.

One last pic...here is the inside of the crib. It has three of my favorite stuffed animals in it: Cheeky Charlie the puppet from Dallas Aquarium, a lion & a hippo. Of course they might not stay in there as it could interfer with baby's breathing, but for now, it's their home!

North American House Hippo

For those of you who remember the "North American House Hippo" commerical from Concerned Children's Advertisers and would like to see it again or perhaps its your first time...check it out at YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBfi8OEz0rA

Megan's Mural Painting (so far)

Well after two pretty full days of brainstorming, sketching, painting, then re-brainstorming & painting...the mural is coming along! It's taken on a slightly different idea then when we started. Originally there was going to be silhouettes of a hippo on a branch over the crib, some monkeys in the corner over our glider and then maybe another animal in the room in another place. To make it more cohesive, Megan & I decided to do a tree in the center with branches going left to the monkey & right to the hippo. After Monday's work, the "abstract" tree didn't suit Tyler's tastes so Megan added some vines & leaves to it to make it more realistic/alive looking today. The vines are beautiful, but time consuming so Megan is coming back Thursday sometime to finish the vines (as it's 10pm now & she's exhausted). I actually decided I could handle a little bit of participation and painted the hippo & the chimp AFTER Megan sketched them. The finished product won't be available until Friday to photograph with everything else in place so I'll appease you with a few of the work in progress photos...

(P.S. On the weekend Tyler & I also picked out & added a zebra print border about 1/3 up the wall & a plan white ceiling fan that has already come in uber handy!)

The "abstract" original tree:

Megan adding vines & leaves:

Me painting the hippo:

Megan's boy Alex, breaking in/test driving my crib:

The monkey side:

The hippo side:

Middle Name Contemplation

So far, the top two names I like for a first name end in "ER". Since they both end the same I wouldn't be able to use them as a first & middle. Thus opening the 'middle name' discussion up.

My middle name "Ghislaine" comes from my mom's mom's first name. It's french, pretty & uncommon so I've always liked it, especially sandwiched between Crystal Johnson & now Crystal Nelson both of which are fairly boring combos. Tyler's middle name is the same as his dad's middle name and he never really liked that as he felt it was kind of like 2nd hand as it was only his middle name to begin with. At first I liked the idea of 'Evan' (tyler's middle) as a middle name for our baby but as it ends in "N" and also is part of his dad's name I like it less (as I'm not the biggest fan of his dad). I also feel like our last name, Nelson, already comes from Tyler's side and if we used a middle two he'd have 2/3 names possibly.

I like a lot of people in my family, but really we have such boring names...and kind of yucky:
Hubbie: Tyler Evan
His dad: Larry Evan (goes by Willie)
My dad: David Albert Johnson
My dad's dad: Albert (middle?) Johnson
My mom's dad: Larry Ernest McKen
My brother: Cody David Johnson
Grandma's Maiden: Lagace

I have an uncle, great uncle & great grandpa whose first name is Richard so it's sort of a family name, but I didn't meet my great-grandpa & I'm not particularly close to my uncles.

Maybe I could do some sort of name combo like 'Van' from Evan & 'Bert' from Albert and make a cool 'VanBert' last name sounding name LOL like fitzgerald. I've always wanted a name like that.

Any other ideas?

Baby & TruckUpdates

My current temping job is a little busier than my last one so I haven’t been able to blog from here yet. However, there is a tiny lull right now so I am plugging away.

Baby Update
Unit 25 from Red Deer Hospital finally got a hold of me today (we were playing phone tag) to do my pre-registering for when I go into labor. I think it’s a really neat thing that you can get the paperwork out of the way so that you can just go straight to the right unit when baby comes. In addition to that I finally got to register for Better Beginnings, the maternity orientation that I was interested in. Unfortunately they only run Tuesday & Thursday nights, so I booked for a Thursday (Aug 20) and hope that Tyler can make it. He is often home Thursday nights but not until about 1 ½ hours after this orientation starts so hopefully he can leave early (or already be working a local job!).

The baby has been moving, but the movements feel different, I guess because baby is a different size now, every growing. It’s just weird.

Truck Hunt Update
Although we are excited about baby, I’d say we are a little bit stressed about finances right now. Although we are getting some money from the insurance company for Tyler’s truck (about $3700), it isn’t enough to really replace it with another functional truck especially with the few upgrades we’d like to get (and we’re not even going crazy with upgrades). Tyler’s understandable nervous about taking on any kind of truck payment right now as I want him to change jobs to something local in the very near future (before baby comes) and I will be contributing even less financially to the household once baby comes (and we’ll have more expenses). I’m trying to stay positive and hope that the right opportunities come our way in the next 6 weeks! I’m also trying to think of some ways I can streamline our expenses and tighten my budget belt even more.

Tyler has decided to officially try to sell her 1964 Pontiac Parisienne Sport that is just sitting behind our house. It ran really well when he used it all the time, but he parked it about 3 years ago when he bought the truck and hasn’t moved in that time. He bought it (yep bought it) from his dad for $2500 and then put at least $2500 into it to get it road worthy and pass the inspection. Since then he put money into it fairly regularly to keep it up to speed as it was a primary vehicle for us for quite a while. It’s a good old car but it needs some love (aka time) and money. To supe it up to mint condition would take about $30,000 which we don’t have now nor will we have for quite a while so I’ve finally convinced him to sell it. It’s just such a shame to leave it to depreciate and it can’t be a priority for us for quite a long time. So far we put it on Kijiji.ca and listed it for $6,000 so if we got that for it, plus our insurance money then buying a truck wouldn’t be such a hardship.

One of the sucky things is that we can’t do any more RV camping now until we get a new truck and the hitch installed for it. I was really looking forward to go camping last week to celebrate our Anniversary (which is this Thursday, the 23rd) but the deer changed our plans for us. It costs money to camp so that’s holding us back now too depending how the truck situation works out.

Tyler’s dad offered to ‘lend’ Tyler some money to buy a truck with no interest. However, Tyler very correctly pointed out that although the interest is free, the STRINGS are expensive so that’s not really an option for us. Robert & Willie and other people keep trying to tell Tyler what he ‘has’ to buy now and he’s getting pissy about it. It’s fine to give some suggestions but ultimately we have to buy for the truck and use the truck so I think we’ll decide as a couple what we get (with Tyler getting the majority of the decision since it’ll be his primary vehicle, I’ll probably just have veto power if it’s ridiculous). All I care is that it is an extended cab (so baby can ride in it) and in good condition. It would be nice to get a V8 instead of a V6 but I guess it’s not necessary. And his last truck was a work truck before so he’d like to avoid work trucks this time.

No Doubt Concert review

Mel & I went to the “No Doubt” concert at Rexall Place last night. We were both in the mood to get to the concert as early as possible (as Mel is an avid souvenir collector) so we planned our evening to get to Rexall at 6:00pm. There is a restaurant right beside Rexall called “Fireside Lounge” that we thought we’d check out for dinner due to its convenience. The restaurant was a little dive-y looking but they made really good fries and cheesecake for a reasonable price. As a bonus the restaurant offered parking for the concert for $10 and it turned out to be right across a small road to Rexall.

We lined up for the concert shortly after 6:00pm and the line was nice and short at that point. Doors opened around 6:30pm and we were able to get right up close for the souvenir booth. There was one long sleeve No Doubt shirt I would liked but it only came in small, medium & large, then there was a super cute Paramore hoodie but it only came in small & medium. Concert shirts tend to fit small so I like to get the 2XL. There was a cute black No Doubt hoodie that came in 2XL but it was $85 and I thought I probably don’t need to buy that. So I told Mel that I wasn’t going to get any. She was like “well I’ll buy you one cuz I owe you like three birthday presents”. I put up a little tiny bit of a fight but not much so she got me the black hoodie. It’s super cute looking I think and soft and comfy. Melody got a hilarious T-shirt that has the tuxedo on the front, No Doubt branding and tour cities on the back. After the concert I took a picture of us in our clothes (took a few practice shots but eventually got a good pose).

The first opening band was Bedouin Soundclash and they started at 7:30pm. I had seen their name but didn’t think I knew any of their songs. They had a ska sound and it turned out that I did know one song, I think it’s the one called “When the Night Feels My Song”. They performed well for an opening band, its just hard to get into them when you are not familiar with the music.

The second opening band was Paramore who I was really looking forward to. I had pre-downloaded some of their songs (so I could be a little more familiar with them), so though I couldn’t sing, along most of them rang a bell. Their first song was “Misery Business” which I love and their last song was one of the two from the “Twilight” soundtrack that I also knew. I was pretty happy with their performance but disappointed with our nosebleed seats (Section 208 Row 30) because we couldn’t really see them. I’ve been pretty spoiled with good seats for so many concerts:

Black Eyed Peas 1st Time – 100 Level
Black Eyed Peas 2nd Time – Seated Floor
Nickelback both times – General Admin Floor
Justin Timberlake – 100 Level
Offspring (this June) – 100 Level right by stage
So You Think You Can Dance Canada – Seated Floor

The experience is very different on the floor to 100 level to 200 level and my fav is seated floor followed by 100 Level (as I’m too old to enjoy sweaty general admin floor anymore).

As a quick side note, the girl seated next to me wasn’t there during the openers but showed up for No Doubt. She was probably late teens or early 20s and her and her 2 friends had clearly been drinking for a while. As she started to dance around her giant backpack purse kept hitting me which was uber annoying. Then they knew the 2 girls seated directly in front of us so they kept leaning around me to talk to each other. Though we were in the 200s we spent almost the entire No Doubt portion on our feet. I probably would have had an aneurysm from annoyance if she hadn’t suddenly noticed my baby belly. She is my first official “stranger sighting” that knew it was a baby belly rather than just being overweight so I forgave her for all her annoyingness LOL She told me “congrats” told me he/she would like No Doubt (to which I said it’s a boy), and then asked me if I had a name picked out. Then she told her friend who said I should name him something that ended in “N”. Too funny.

No Doubt took the stage at about 9;30pm and their performance was very enjoyable. I had seen them "live" on the Ellen show and was less then impressed with how they sounded so was admittedly worried that they wouldn't sound very good. However, all the songs that they didn't remix sounded quite similar to the original recordings. All the remixes were really well done and the only song that sounded weird to me was "Just a Girl" and I think its just the way they choose to performed it (if you saw it on Ellen she did it the same way). The stage was very futuristic/modern and very different from anything I've seen before. With all the concerts I have seen, I could have used a little more "stage show" from them. I mean they danced a lot, had high energy and great screens with new video footage to watch but it was missing something. I also found that there were quite a few songs that they played that I didn't know. I'm pretty sure they played all the songs I'd be interested in (opened with Spiderwebs & closed with Sunday Morning, heard Hey Baby, Just a Girl, It's My Life, Underneath It All, Hella Good just off top of my head) so I can't really complain about not knowing more songs. All in all it was good but not great.

Today my muscles that are under my belly are very sore. I think that is probably the longest I have stood for a long time so I guess they aren't used to holding up the belly...kind of sucks :-)

5 New Posts!

I've been working hard this morning...on my blog. I've posted FIVE new posts, separately for your commenting convenience. I look forward to your feedback!

Unable to Understand JW Religion

I find the Jehovah Witness religion (and honestly most religions) very frustrating to understand. To me, the idea of what religion should be, is based on a foundation of love, support and family. Whereas I find specifically the JW religion (and often people in other religions) seems to be focused on Alienation & Judgment. I say specifically JW’s because they are very insistent about not celebrating Christmas’ & birthdays which causes them to miss out on family & friend functions throughout the year. I don’t see why Christmas & Birthdays are so evil and I like to think that if there is a God, he wouldn’t be so petty as to send me to hell or keep me from heaven based on the fact that I ate cake once a year to celebrate my age.

I’m bringing this up because another one of Tyler’s cousins, who is the same age as Tyler, just told me she is pregnant (due Dec 21) and is going to be a single mom. Tyler’s mom has 11 siblings and I guess they were brought up somewhat JW but not everyone stayed in the JW religion. In fact I think maybe only 2 or 3 of the siblings are the only ones that are JW’s. Others are Catholic, or non-religious, or exploring alternate spirituality (like Mary). Anyway, Cousin Amanda, is unfortunately from one of the siblings that are JW and very strongly so. In fact when Tyler’s Grandpa passed away it was Amanda’s parents who got into a big fight about religion with Tyler’s Auntie Jenny (who is a Catholic one) and her parents went home very shortly after the argument. Tyler’s family reinforces my believes about the JW’s because they have a family get together at Christmas every other year and the JW’s never attend. I’m not sure why the family doesn’t make an executive decision to do it at a different time of year so that everyone comes but yeah…

Back to Amanda, as I predicted, her very strongly JW parents are basically ostracizing her because she is having a baby out of wedlock and therefore they cannot and will not associate with her. I am totally for the whole “not enabling bad behavior” but completely cutting someone out of your life because they are having a baby seems very drastic. Babies are essentially innocent beings who are being punished by a lack of family support and relationships because of their religious beliefs. Single mom’s would especially need the support of loved ones to get them through the stress and chaos of an unexpected pregnancy. I don’t know the details, but Amanda shared with me that she thought she was unable to get pregnant so was quite surprised when she did.

The whole situation is contrasted with the fact that Tyler’s cousin Jennifer, who is almost 10 years younger than Amanda is also pregnant and her mom (who would be sister to the Amanda’s mom) is being as supportive as she can as she lives in Ontario while Jennifer resides in Medicine Hat. Jennifer’s dad is a less than thrilled but I am sure he will still be there for Jennifer as he has been her primary caregiver for the last five years.

I guess in my opinion, unexpected pregnancies are something you need to deal with on a pro-active preventative basis and isn’t something you should punish after the fact. I think it’s important that the parents of the new baby need to struggle a bit and learn that there is sacrifice involved (like you shouldn’t baby sit for them so they can continue their partying lifestyle) but I think you should at the very least be a strong emotional support for them. I am going to try to contribute what I can to the support network of both of these newly pregnant ladies - and they both naively asked for my advice ha ha. I might just send them copies of some of my blog posts!

Brother's Baby Mama Update

Things had been going relatively good for my brother with his kid Chase and the baby mama Crystal. Nothing surprising happened in court in June and my parents and sister had a good visit with him for most of the weekend after. Apparently though, last weekend when my brother went to pick up Chase, Crystal started reaming into him about being a deadbeat dad for some reason. My brother can be very sensitive and has a bad temper & unfortunately Crystal knows this and knows how to push his buttons. I guess there were other people around and Cody got very upset, started crying and wanted to hit her. So now he hasn’t seen Chase since then and is re-debating his involvement. It’s hard because although Cody is 21, he is still quite young emotionally. My parents were pretty hard on him discipline wise growing up and he didn’t finish school which hasn’t helped him develop the proper social skills like others might have. My mom’s pretty upset because they started developing a bond with Chase when they visited him for the weekend and she doesn’t want to miss out on continuing that relationship. However we don’t want to push Cody either has it has to be his decision and I know how hard a time I had when I tried to deal with her – I’ve had a lot more experience controlling my emotions and I wanted to hurt her! I wish there was a way to enforce a positive relationship between Crystal and Cody. I told Cody that we should look into trying to press charges for verbal abuse or something. For my brother, I think that it could be to his advantage to get some counseling to help him learn how to deal with her. I know it helped me when I used it regarding my in-laws. Its like a muscle though and if you don’t use it consistently you forget and get dragged into the crap again.

Tyler's Truck Update

The insurance adjuster came to look at Tyler’s truck already and assessed the damages at over $7,000. Tyler bought the truck for $5500 about two years ago I think so needless to say our insurance is opting to write the vehicle off. They are offering Tyler $4600 for it which seems fair with comparables we’ve checked out and the used car value books. From the $4600 we have to minus his deductible which is $250 and if we want to keep the vehicle to salvage it for parts then we minus an additional $400. I might have the original figure off because we came to a total of just under $3700 that he would get. Its mostly to our benefit to keep the truck for parts as Tyler just put $800 in tires into it not too long ago plus Robert (Mary’s boyfriend) is a mechanic so he can probably help us pull the parts out. Robert’s brother Greg (also a mechanic) has a truck very similar to Tyler’s that can use the parts at the very least. Greg hooked us up with a few items for our RV so it’d be good karma to let him pick through and take what he wants. We are waiting to “settle” our claim until Robert can look at the truck this weekend and also because we have a rental truck as part of our insurance but we’ll most likely lose that once we settle the claim! I was actually quite surprised at how fast AMA has handled everything.

Tyler’s dad wants him to get a NEW truck and offered Tyler a “interest free” loan to help him get one. Tyler said “sure interest free, but the strings are expensive” LOL I’m so glad he thought of that on his own. Considering Tyler has always paid for everything we’ve gotten from his parents it would be nice if they could offer him a gift of money. Tyrone had his first two vehicles paid for (not to mention the free hand me down of Mary’s car) and Tyler paid for his’64 Pontiac from his dad so yeah… Speaking of the Pontiac, Tyler is going to officially try selling it now as the extra cash could help him buy a better truck. I think it’s a bit sad for him to sell the car as his dad has had it since like 1966 but it needs a lot of money and work and that just can’t be a priority for us right now. It’s been sitting in our back yard for like 3 years and depreciating so for the car’s sake we need to sell it.

The major things I’d like in a truck now are for an extended cab (as we would like to take our baby camping and wouldn’t have been able to with Tyler’s ’98 Chevy), an 8 cyclinder motor I think (his Chevy had a 6 and could do the job of towing the RV but was struggling) and for it to be in good condition. Tyler has never had a new vehicle so I’d like it to be as nice as possible. He’s worried about having payments as we are just staying afloat right now but I’ll be done paying for my car in January so that is $333.58/month that will come back into our budget. I think I’d like to continue temping this fall if I can swing it somehow, but we’ll see how that goes. I’d also like to do more “Home & Gift/Everyday Style” parties this winter season as everyone does get exited about our Christmas catalogue and that can be evenings and weekends.

Concert Plans

Tomorrow night (Thursday) I get to go to the No Doubt concert with my friend Melody. I’m excited for several reasons including that I love No Doubt, I am familiar with Paramore the opening band and like some of their songs and Melody & I haven’t done an activity together in a long time much less one just the two of us. I am luckily only working 8am-12pm this week so I can leave after work tomorrow and head to Edmonton right away. Depending on time I will help her pick out some jeans, go out for supper and then head for the concert. I have to work Friday morning so I have to drive home after the concert which I am dreading. It could have been worse though as the place I am temping at next week wanted me to come in Friday afternoon to catch up on the changes they have. I have been there before so I emailed them asking if it would be possible to come in today (Wednesday) afternoon instead and explained why. Brenda, my supervisor there, said it was no problem which is awesome! Oh, as a bonus, Melody still owes me $100 for her ticket so I can put that towards my debt.

Hijacked Taste Buds

A common pregnancy issue is the effect of the hormones on your taste buds, or as I like to call it “Hijacked Taste Buds.”

Food that you have always loved can suddenly make you nauseous at one whiff or one bite. Or a more subtle problem is when food you have always loved or liked doesn’t taste the same as it did before you were pregnant. In addition to that, you are subjected to the introduction of “cravings”. Personally I have always been a person who had cravings and food phases, so it wasn’t surprising that it continued through my pregnancy. Tyler teases me because at the suggestion of a certain food that I may not have thought of in a while, I’ll go out and buy it to eat. I don’t see what the big deal is, I like to encourage good advertising ha ha

An example, pre-pregnancy, occurred when we watched the movie “Pineapple Express” (an otherwise disappointing movie by the way). One of the main characters was eating a Fruit Roll-up and I was like “yum, I haven’t had one of those in forever.” Then the next time I got groceries I bought a box of Fruit Roll-ups. The thing is, I still have most of that box in my pantry so I don’t think it’s a problem I need to worry about. Whereas Tyler has this terrible habit of seeing something in the pantry and he has to eat it right then & there (whether he is hungry or not). I think that’s a worse problem (and if he has any argument about that I have three words for him “My Coffee Crisp” LOL).

My first aversion that I can remember having was with garlic. I had just found out that my iron count was low so I decided to look up iron rich foods. Looking through the list I thought I’d make a lasagna with spinach as a good iron booster. I went to all the trouble of making the lasagna from scratch & Tyler made his garlic loaf only to find that I could not stomach the food nor be near Tyler when he was eating it!

My second major aversion seems to be meat products. I’m just not the hugest fan of cooking them or eating them right now. If they are included in what I’m eating I don’t pick it out or anything, but I just feel like loading up on carbs instead. Not really cool!

My first major food phase was for eggs and it lasted for quite a while. It was handy because eggs are very versatile and very quick to make. So at say 11pm when I decided that I’m hungry for an egg it was easy to whip one up! Then, one morning I was making my eggs, I looked at them and thought “I don’t want this.” Bizarre. Since then I have just had a healthy relationship with eggs.

I’ve had a fruit food phase for pretty much the whole pregnancy, though specifically I have liked watermelon. I’m thankful to be pregnant into the summer so that it is in season! I’m very particular about how I like the watermelon though (texture, color, flavor) and sometimes its difficult to pick the right piece. I’ve been a bit wasteful when it doesn’t meet my standards.

One night, all of a sudden I wanted peach juice. You know the kind you can sometimes get out of one of those juice fountain machines in a Mom & Pop restaurant? I haven’t really been able to satisfy this craving though as it is hard to find. I’ve been eating nectarines and drinking Snapple Peach Iced Tea which is keeping it at bay, but not satisfied. I just remembered that Sammies in Grimshaw has peach juice and that Melody is meeting me tomorrow so she might be able to hook me up. Oooh, now I’m extra excited!

For probably a month now I have been craving wieners n’ beans (beans in molasses to be specific). Again a nice simple craving that is easy to satisfy…and works in with some of the camping we’ve been doing!

Most of my cravings have been on the positive side however I have not been able to avoid my sweet tooth though I would have liked to. In my early pregnancy when I was experiencing nausea and morning sickness sweet stuff seemed to be safe. In addition to that, I have also been craving Pepsi (in cans) which is not something I was super into pre-pregnancy. I was mostly a non-cola girl. I’ve been trying to limit the Pepsi as pop isn’t that great for baby and the addition of caffeine makes me a little weary but I’ve still had some.

A word of warning for future pregnancy people: sometimes the cravings are satisfied in one sitting and sometimes they take longer. Be conservative and don’t “stock up” on any craving foods too much. An author of one book had a craving for beans and bought 18 cans (not sure why) and after one can was good so now she is stuck with 17 cans of beans LOL

Circumcision Decision

Now that I know we’re having a boy, I can discuss this dilemma as it actually pertains to us right now. This will be one of my less researched “dilemma’s” as I’ve pretty much already made up my mind ha ha

There was a period of time when baby boy parts went untouched, then there was a period of time when the majority were circumcised. Now, there seems to be mixed medical opinions on whether it is in the best interest of the boy to do it or not, so much so that the circumcising surgery is available to the public but its considered optional so you have to pay out of pocket (in Canada at least). Statistically I think it’s still accurate to say that its about 50/50 for newborns now to have it done or not.

First of all, I think the majority of the decision should get weight from the father of baby (if he’s involved in baby’s life) as he would have personal experience that the mother just doesn’t have access to. Of course every decision should be a joint decision made by both parents having say. Both Tyler & I are pro-circumcising and here are some of the whys…

Tyler is circumcised and hasn’t suffered any consequences. I think its simpler for baby to look like daddy as much as possible.

I personally find it more visually appealing to be ‘cut’.

One of the arguments against it suggests that men have LESS sensitivity if they have been cut and really ladies are we worried about men having less sexual sensitivity?

Some are concerned about possible infections, etc that can result from the surgery. However, if you are in a proper medical facility with trained medical professionals, those instances are rare (bearing in mind that I have read “Born a Boy, Raised a Girl” and know of an EXTREME consequence).

I have heard 2nd hand accounts (so not a “friend of a friend of mine” per say, a little more accurate) of kids having problems with hygiene when they are uncut and then getting court ordered circumcising by Child & Family Services at the age of like 12. I think the experience would be much more traumatic at that age then newborn so I’d like to be preventive.

Some say that boys are born with it for a reason so it should stay…however I argue with that – tonsils, appendix, wisdom teeth. We have a few “spare” body parts that don’t seem to serve a purpose anymore in the lives we lead now and actually seem to cause problems.

Um, I think that’s all I got on this topic? Ladies...the floor is now yours :-)

Tuesday Morning Randoms

Brandy's Generosity

Since I decided to have my baby shower post-baby and I want to give people as many options as possible for what they could get us (if they so choose), I have been limited my purchases for baby to what I feel we need within the first two weeks of him being around. So my plan had been, once we found out gender, to get maybe half a dozen onesies/sleepers for the 0-3 months size. The first weekend after we found out we bought two onesies that came with pants and then Tyler found a sale rack at Sears so we picked out a couple more outfits. Then we got a few hand-me-downs from Kyla and Shelley.

THEN, my friend Brandy, who had a baby boy last summer asked me if I’d be interested in some clothes she was done with. I was all like, bring ‘em on (as its very similar to shopping). Well Ms. Brandy drops off 3 garbage bags full of stuff! She told me to take what I liked and then pass the rest on to a second hand place. Well there were some really great items in there…including but not limited to a backpack diaper bag (which is exactly what I was thinking I wanted), blankets, couple bibs, and pretty much every clothing item I need for 0-3 months. I wrote it down somewhere but in that size range I got something like 20 t-shirt style onesies, 6 long sleeve style onesies, 8 sleepers, 14 t-shirts, 4 pairs of overalls…its crazy, and great! The majority of the items I kept were in that size and then I have a few items for 6 months and on. I had the haul spread out on our coffee table so I could sort it into item type and size (as I want to have 0-3 months in the dresser and the rest put aside sorted by size). Tyler looked at it all and was like “So we don’t need any clothes!” to which I responded “Actually this is only until 3 months” LOL Good times. Super thanks to Brandy for her generosity!!

Braces

I had a dental check up yesterday to see if my teeth had moved enough to get my braces off. Basically I’ve been waiting for my top & bottom jaw to move together now that my front teeth are in position. The evil dentist that is my orthodontist said that my teeth are finally ready. Now what I didn’t understand is that I had to make another appointment for August to get fit for my retainer. Why couldn’t I get it done right then & there? Probably cuz they only scheduled me for a 15 minute appointment! Plus my orthodontist is moving to BC (darn) and is only working part time now so there are even less appointments to go around. Grrr! Oh, and I was very insistent that if they were coming off that I wanted them off before baby comes. They asked my due date and I told them Sept 20 (I should have lied) so they booked my braces off day for Sept 9th. Why does everyone think that the due date means baby is coming then? It’s only an estimation people! On average, babies can arrive anywhere from 2 weeks prior to 2 weeks post with no health issues. Of course this made me curious for some statistics and I was able to find this graph. Due dates are based on a 40 week term from the date of your last period:

That graph looks split pretty even to me that you are just as likely to give birth early as late...though the "majority" (35%) do come during the 40th week, that represents only 1/3 of births. I read that this chart was made with a simple bell curve in mind so its not 100% accurate but is pretty close...

Tornado Charlie's Mass Destruction on my Bathroom...

Hard to believe it was the work of one (possible two) little dogs only 9 lbs each...

Friday Morning Randoms

Random #1: So I finally heard back from Dr. Phillpot yesterday but since I was out she just left a message. She said that my placenta has moved up & out of the way of the cervix so everything is considered "normal" now. From my reading, its pretty common for it to look like a woman has Placenta Previa at her first ultrasound in the second semester and then for it to be corrected by the third trimester. I think they identify it to be preventive and then check on it later. My doctor said that technically the placenta doesn't move on it's own, its that the uterus continues to grow while the placenta stays the same so the placenta moves with the growing uterus.

This all translates to mean that I can continue seeing the doctors in Dr.Phillpot's clinic and possible have a traditional, natural birth. I'd be lying if I said I'm not a little disappointed. It sure would have been handy to have a pre-planned c-section with the dates picked out & everything. But that doesn't seem to be the journey that is meant for me! And the positive side is that everything is kosher for baby.

Random #2: At the places I temp out, I usually try to bring up the fact that I'm pregnant so that everyone is aware of it. Its really fun news to share so I have a good time doing it. This morning I am working on my own as the boss lady decided to take a personal day off. When I got into the office, under a note she left me regarding some work, was a Babies R Us flyer. I thought it was really sweet that she thought enough about me to save it and put it directly where I would see it this morning. As for temping, if all goes well, it looks like I am going to be employed for the entire month of August which sounds both exhausting but positive! The place I'll be at during the last week of August said they'd love to have me in the office as she'll be on holidays and she trusts me to hold down the fort, but if I'm not feeling well or go into labor its no big deal. So that rocks.

Random #3: My dog Charlie is acting very bizarre this past week or so, pretty much since we got home from camping. I think the first thing we noticed was our bathroom door. See while we are out during the day, our dogs go into our half bath on the main floor where they have their food & water and its just a little roomier then the kennels and despite being over 6 years old now, they still can't be trusted to have free range of the whole house. So anyway, over the last four years they have done some scratching on the door so that there is visible marks, but when I opened the door one day last week Charlie had scratched at the door so much that there were door fibers all over the floor. At first I had thought it was dog food crushed so I just vaccuumed it up but then I looked at the door and realized it's condition and figured it out. I thought it was just a weird flukey thing, so the next day I put the dogs in the bathroom again & came home to the same mess.

So when Tyler, Vanessa & I went to Calgary on Saturday we decided to put the dogs in their kennels in the half bathroom. Basically what we do is put one dog in one kennel with the door shut and then put the other dog in our other kennel without a door and push them together so they can see each other (otherwise they cry). Tyler closed the bathroom door but it didn't click secure. When we got home Dominic was roaming free around the house and Charlie was still in his kennel but the kennel was outside of the bathroom and about five feet away! The only thing we can figure it that Charlie was going mental in his kennel and the movements shuffled the kennel out the door. Very bizarre.

Tuesday I went to put Charlie in his kennel so I could go to work and Dominic followed him in. I didn't have time to worry about it as I was running late so I just let them share it. That was apparently a mistake because when I got home, a mere 4 hours later, I could smell the dog poop the moment I walked into my house. Charlie had gone to the bathroom in the kennel and then they both moved around inside it so much that they were both covered, the kennel was covered and it was even starting to come through the air vents of the kennel. Luckily it wasn't raining at the moment & was semi-warm out so I just took the whole kennel outside, dogs and all and then hosed everything and everyone off. My dogs whined the entire time as they are princesses and usually get pampered baths they still don't enjoy. So that was disgusting.

Wednesday I put Charlie in the kennel & left Dominic out. I didn't reset the kennel good enough so Charlie got out of the kennel and there was the usually destruction of the door.

Yesterday. Ugh. I was running late for work again (not sleeping well) so I just put the dogs in the bathroom and tried to block the door with the kennel. I had a lunch date and errands after my morning temping so I got home a bit late in the afternoon. When I walked into the house I heard the whinning that has become normal over the last week, I opened the bathroom door & it looked like a tornado had hit it. I took a picture because I was so flabbergasted by the mess. I'm at an office this morning so I'll have to upload it later. Here's a description:

-there was a bag of dog food about half full that I always leave in the bathroom. It was completely destroyed and the food was all over the floor.

-every item that was on my floor including 3 vases, toilet brush, plunger, magazine rack, dog food dish...were strewn all over like a tornado had hit.

-there was poop smeared on the floor.

-the walls were dirty like someone with dirty paws had been pawing at them.

-even the toilet seat was dirty with footprints.

I had only an hour to shower and get ready to go to a business evening thing that I had signed up for so I didn't have time to even touch it. Unfortunately for Tyler, he came home from work last night and beat me home so he got to deal with the mess.

One theory Tyler has is that Charlie got some virus or disease while we were camping that is making him crazy. I hadn't even considered that as I was blaming it on buying the wrong dog food this week and the storms. Hopefully Tyler can take Charlie to the vet today and have him checked out as now I'm really worried!

Underestimating the Creepiness

Last night I watched two shows on TV that could arguably not have been in my best interest to watch. The first was a documentary on the movie channel called “the Business of Being Born” of which I caught the last half and afterwards I watched a special on TLC called “Obese & Pregnant”.

The documentary was about home births and whether they were a good option. I started watching it just in time to view several home births that I did not enjoy. First off, all but one of the women being filmed were completely nude & uncensored - which disturbs me since I am a prude. I just find it creepy to be completely naked when there are several people around who still have their clothes on. Second, the noises women in labor make are super disturbing. They just seem unnatural. Third, the main midwife of the film had footage from her own home birth and she had a very creepy hairdo that made her look very manly and almost alien. It was this crazy elaborate braid made into like a horn on the top of her head. Anyhoo, creepy. Fourth, they had lots of shots of the baby emerging and I am not good at medical things, let alone gross fluids and large items coming out of what should be a small hole -especially when I might find myself doing the same in a few months! So I did what any good wife would do, I PVR’ed it for Tyler to suffer through when he gets home ha ha

I’m not completely masochistic so there were interesting things in the film that I was getting out of it. The midwife featured actually talked about how she was the “midwife who begged for a c-section” during her labor. She had a really tough time with the pain management and described the one point in labor as being stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place. The rock, she said is that it hurts but it hurts more to push. The hard place is that if you don’t push you’ll be in pain forever since you’ll be pregnant forever.

Also, I found out that when you go through the pain your brain releases this hormone called oxytocin (I think) that helps create the mother-baby bond and instills the protector vibe into you, the scientist/doctor went so far as to say it creates Love. There is a synthetic version of the hormone that mimics the physical properties but the scientist said that they can’t replicated it’s affect on the brain. An observation of other mammals shows that when the animals don’t go through labor and/or have medical interventions that they don’t have a bond with their babies and they abandon them. So the theory goes that if a woman has pain medication &/or a c-section that she’ll be less bonded to baby. Not sure if that’s true, but interesting none the less.

A few more points about home births were that they are less expensive (one-third to half the cost of a hospital delivery) and that according to other countries statistics, possibly safer. The US only has about 0.5% home births but it also has one of the higher death rates. Swedan, I think it was, does about 1/3 of births at home and has a much better birth rate. So that was all interesting to hear but I still want to have baby in a hospital, at least for this one.

The second show, focused on three women who are “morbidly obese” and pregnant. I believe all three women were over 300 lbs at the point of the taping. One of the ladies had actual lost 20lbs with being pregnant whereas one of the others had gained 90lbs. The one who had gained had type 2 diabetes before becoming pregnant (with baby #3) so her baby was at risk and they c-sectioned her at 37 weeks. The surgery was really gross as she had many layers of fat they had to cut through and even lots of layers to go through in her back for an epidural. They also mentioned at one of her ultrasounds, that since she has 5x has much fat layers to go through, that getting a good reading of baby was difficult. Though far as I could tell, her screen still had better images then mine ever did!

The one women who lost weight was getting induced with the drip and after 48 hours didn’t have any success so they c-sectioned. They also mentioned that since she was larger she required more of the drip to be administered. Despite some of these complications, all three women gave birth to healthy babies.

So between all the books, internet and documentries available I've decided to skip my Late Prenatal Classes. The classes are very time consuming, not really available when Tyler is home, cost $120 and I'm not sure if they'd really be a benefit to me. I didn't enjoy my Early Prenatal Class so I think they're just not for me. The only thing I'm really interested in is getting a hospital tour which I could maybe get arranged through another channel.