Question for the Mommies who Read This

Do you, or did you, use special detergent for your baby clothes?

Point to Ponder from Tut

I get emails weekdaily, from "the Universe". This was Monday's...

If you could actually stand in someone else's shoes, Crystal, to hear what they hear, see what they see, and feel what they feel, you would honestly wonder what planet they live on, and be totally blown away by how different their "reality" is from yours.

New 'Do Tomorrow!

I’m getting my hair done tomorrow & I am very excited. I’ve stuck to a pretty similar ‘do for a while now as I’ve been really happy with it, but I’m ready to “edge it up” a bit. I bought a ridiculously expensive hair magazine to look through and find some styles that I liked parts of. I of course will have to consult with Megan, my ‘personal stylist’, before we for sure decide but I think I’ll be getting some fringe (a.k.a. bangs), and maybe keeping the length in the front and making the back to front angle more drastic.

In terms of color I think I’ll stick with my black/brown/blonde combo but hopefully change the pattern of it a bit. That’s kind of hard to do so I’m sure Megan will try to talk me out of that LOL I can’t wait, I’m hoping it’ll add a little pep into my step. I almost always photograph my hair once I get it done (I have like four years of hair styles photographed that I should do something fun with!) so if it photographs well, look forward to a pic.

A 180...

I’m not sure what happened over the last few months, but I went from being really apprehensive about nursing to being willing to try it to, lately, actually being excited about it! I’m not really sure what I am excited about, but I am. Maybe it’s just the reality of our baby actually arriving soon is starting to set in?

This might be an over share for some of you ladies, but I’ve been leaking just a tiny since about 24 weeks or so I think. The first time it happened I felt a coolness on my nipples, like a draft, so I checked them out and there was a tiny drop of liquid there. I’ve pretty much only had a drop or two here and there (no actually streaming happening, but I have heard of people with that experience). A drop is kind of neat… streaming would be very inconvenient & possibly embarrassing! Yesterday I borrowed a book from the library that looked modern enough (& short) to learn as much about nursing as possible before baby comes.

I still get very irritated by some of the arguments for nursing, as I just don’t believe them or think they are fact based. Then there are some arguments that are likely true most of the time, but certainly not EVERY time, and I hate how its’ presented in a very black & white way. Yes I agree that most of the time, something synthetic is probably not as good as the real thing, but at the same time the synthetic product will be more consistent in quality than the real thing. Even the book I’m reading now, presents the idea of giving even one bottle of formula as being potential hazardous long term as “we don’t know the effects of formula long term”. I seriously doubt it’ll be hazardous. Maybe I’m just too much of a radical thinker than a conservative thinker. On a side note: I think my original resistance to nursing came a lot from just not wanting to be brainwashed, or conform to this huge pressure as I like to investigate everything myself and make personal, individual decisions. The more pressure something comes with, the more likely I am to go in the other direction (i.e. why Tyler & I resisted first marriage & then babies for so long).

My ingenius new idea!

We went to Calgary yesterday with my car. I want to test out the carseat placement so we put it directly behind the passenger seat. We've already tried putting it in the center of our backseat but it takes up so much space that both front seats have to be pushed way up & it's not very functional for driving or passengering.

Let's just say I felt very cramped the whole way there, we had our dogs too and a few things for the day but no where near the amount of stuff we'll have once baby arrives. Then we ended up spending the night, unplanned as Tyler was too tired to drive home, and we slept on the futon. Well sleeping on my comfortable pillow top mattress can be painful enough right now so a futon made me feel like I had daggers all over my body this morning. On the drive home I had to disable the carseat so that I could put the seat back and stretch out a bit. Something that would basically not be an option once baby is here.

I had been thinking it would be nice to trade in my car for an SUV or van but I am almost done paying for it (January 2010) and was looking forward to being payment free for a while, especially with how our finances are right now. I briefly considered maybe getting a SUV/van instead of a truck for Tyler but if we want to use the Fifth Wheel my parents gave us we need a truck. Suddenly, when we got home it occurred to me that I could sell my car & get a used van/SUV (probably a van as they tend to have better mileage & be less expensive to purchase & insure). Then, it occured to me that if we could buy a van for less than my car is worth we'd have some extra money to put towards buying a truck we'd actually want (as that's been one of the hold ups of purchasing a truck right now). THEN, it occurred to me that we don't really need a truck until spring/summer for camping but we do need a second vehicle. So...if we go ahead & use the money we have now to buy a van that's about a 2000/2001/2002 then Tyler could just use my car as a secondary vehicle until we have the funds to purchase the type of truck we really want. And if we wait until spring/summer for the truck then we won't have to payout my loan on it either.

We have AMA and one of the membership features is being able to use the Gold Book, Black Book & VMR Canada to calculate used vehicle values for free. Each book gives you a low price which is what you'd get if you traded in your vehicle at a dealership, to a high value which is what the dealership would get when they sell it. Private sales go somewhere in between...so I got the following values for my 2005 Saturn Ion II:

VMR Canada: $5375 - 7200

Gold Book: $5475 - 8125

Black Book: $4500 - 6150

Taking the lowest value & the highest value of all three, I get a range of $4500 - $8125. I was pleasantly surprised as I assumed my car would be worth about half that... I figure I could start by asking $8,000 and then maybe have $6,500 as my bottom price (or there abouts). I think I have about $1500 left on my loan so if we do have to pay it off that's about $5000 towards our truck purchase minus what we get a van for. I think we can get a van for $2500 - $5000 range as it doesn't need to be supped up. For features I'm looking for a CD player, A/C & cruise control which seem to be almost standards!

I'm super pumped now as it seems like an ingenius idea and I can't believe we didn't think of this sooner! Maybe it's because the summer is essentially over now so we don't have any hopes of using the truck this year for camping so our eyes are open to other possibilities.

Red Raspberry Leaf Tea

What does Red Raspberry Leaf Do? Red Raspberry leaf does not start labor or promote contractions.It is NOT an emmenagogue or oxytocic herb. What it does is help strengthen the pelvic and uterine muscles so that once labor does start the muscles will be more efficient.

I am all about that...it's suppose to help you have shorter labors. I'm an avid tea drinker so it's not difficult for me to consume at least a cup a day of this stuff (recommended up to 4 cups a day). I add in my honey from Danielle's wedding (shout out!), and enjoy the yumminess :-)

More info from Wikipedia: Vitamin C and vitamin E are present in large amounts as well as Vitamin A and some B Complex. Increased Vitamin A intake in the form of the carotenoids of red raspberry leaf can aid the women’s immune system as well as facilitate healthy skin and bone development for the baby. Vitamin E serves to promote better circulation in the mother who is dramatically increasing her blood volume during pregnancy. The Red raspberry leaf also contains many essential minerals such as phosphorus, potassium, and an easily assimilated form of calcium. An increased availability of calcium is necessary in controlling nerve response to pain during childbirth and in aiding bone development in the fetus. It also contains fragrine, an alkaloid which help tone the muscles of the pelvic region including the uterus. This allows the uterus to contract more powerfully and effectively during labor. Also, many midwives report that it aids in focusing the pre-labor contractions that help a woman’s uterus to prepare for delivery. The high vitamin and mineral content help replace those lost via blood loss during delivery. Also, the alkaloids will continue toning the uterus as it returns to its usual size. In some women, the high mineral content may even help their milk to come in. Some people believe it is not recommended for breast feeding and use of the leaf should conclude with in 6 weeks of birth. However, according to Every Woman's Herbal, raspberry leaf tea will enrich the mother's milk, especially during periods when the baby is going through a growth spurt. Continuing to consume raspberry leaf after the baby is 6 weeks old is not dangerous to the mother or the infant and may be beneficial.

Baby Full!

I woke up Tuesday morning feeling "baby full". I'm not sure if my baby boy had a sudden growth spurt or something but pants I wore just on Monday feel tighter and it's more uncomfortable to sit forward or even straight up. I can't really explain it but I just feel like he's taking up more room in there!

My mom & sister made a last minute trip to come visit. :-D My sis found out she had Tuesday thru Friday off this week and wanted to come down. My parents didn't want her to risk the trip with her car (second hand, unreliable) so my mom managed to get a couple days off & come with her. Last night we went to Babies R Us and my sister decided to buy the Fischer Price Vibrating Bouncing chair I wanted (it has polar bears & penguins) which is awesome. My mom decided to buy us a Diaper Genie II Elite, some refills, a pack of newborn diapers (as they are only good to 10lbs & we don't know how big baby will be), a refill pack of wipes, 3 pack of receiving blankets, a soother string, a wrist rattle, a baby bottle, teether rails for the crib...it all came to about $200+ with my sister's chair so we didn't make out too bad!

It was fun. I assembled the bouncer when we got home, which is SO not my job usually, so it took a while but I got it :-)

Hiccups, Sleeping Positions, Priorities, Hospitals

Hiccups

I have read quite a bit, in my baby books, about baby hiccups. I had just finished telling Tyler, about a week and a half ago, that I hadn't felt anything like that when I felt it. It feels sort of like a rhythmic twitch every other second and has lasted for maybe a minute or two. If I hadn't read about it I might not have paid too much attention to it and just thought it was regular baby movement.

Sleeping Positions

It didn't take long after becoming pregnant before I was informed that I had to sleep on my side, not my back or stomach. Then, when I took the Early Prenatal class offered by our health unit, they went on to say that you need to sleep on your left side only. The theory was that there is an artery or organ on your right side & in your back that can be squished by the wait of baby/uterus and cause damage to mom &/or baby. As an avid side to stomach sleeper this was pretty difficult to thing to aim for and I got to the point where I just didn't care. A masseuse I knew told me that all you have to do to take the pressure off the back artery is to put a facecloth there. That little bit of cloth makes all the difference? Then I found some material online or in a book (can't remember) which said the sleep thing was a theory at best and that it had never been proven. A new theory was that if indeed blood flow was severed by the weight of baby/uterus, that mom would awake and change positions as she would sense a difference. That made a lot of sense to me as in reality I'd never heard of a pregnant women dying from blood loss while sleeping.

A couple months ago I asked Dr.Phillpot if I would hurt my baby if I ended up sleeping on my stomach. She said not at all, that the uterus is a really good protective barrier for baby. In fact, she said that the OB/GYN society people had released new information saying they no longer believed that it mattered how you slept. So sleep however you are comfortable ladies and enjoy it while you can!

Priorities

I have two schools of thought that seemingly contradict each other, but can work together I think. The first is that your children should be your number 1 priority & my second is that you have to take care of yourself first because "you can't pour water from an empty pitcher." I think I believe the second statement as long as it's not determental to your kids. For example, I think to be a successful parent you need to be happy in your relationships, spirtually fulfilled, physically nourished, etc. However, when it comes to the priorities in your life, like whether you should make & distribute Birthday/Christmas wish lists at 30, or go play a hockey game two days after your baby is born, I think you need to choose your kids.

Perhaps there is just a balance that needs to be maintained between taking personal time for you & your partner as well as building a life that fully includes your kids. It's probably not healthy to make your kids the "center of your life"...as they are one element of it (but a big element!). Example: Jennifer Persson's mom if you're from Grimshaw

Hospital

I have never really been in a hospital, at least for anything much related to me. Both my brother & sister have had physical injuries that caused them to spend a night or two there but I never have. I did have my miscarriage last December but I was never checked into the hospital. I've also spent a bit of time in hospitals visiting sick relatives (my Great Grandma when she had cancer, my Grandpa when he loads of problems for a few years).

The reason I bring this up, is that its really hard for me to visualize my birthing experience because I don't really know what to expect in regard to staying in the hospital. We are doing the "Better Beginnings" hospital orientation on Aug 20th, which will help, but won't fully fill in the gaps of my knowledge. I'm sure there will be all sorts of little details that will remain foreign to me unless the situation comes up...it kind of scares me!

Prenatal Appointment

Had my 34 weeks check up yesterday with Dr. Hawley (sp?). SHE is a new doctor in the area & part of my clinic also.

Weigh In - I am officially 6.5 lbs heavier than my original starting weight before being pregnant. Not bad I guess.

Measuring - My belly is measuring between 34 & 35 cm, which according to Dr.Hawley is right on track. I feel like my belly should protrude more but maybe I am just tall enough & wide enough for baby to have room.

Heart Rate - When she first put the monitor on baby's heart rate was at about 190, which is quite high. She waited a few seconds and it came back down to 140. She said it's a good sign that it spikes and returns to normal (normal being between 120 - 160) because it shows that he is responding to stimuli but that his resting heart rate is still good.

Blood Pressure - 130/70, I have always been good at this test LOL but I usually test a little more to 120/80.

Next Time: In two weeks time I am back with Dr.Moffat who just so happens to be a guy & just so happens to coincide with having to do the vagina/anal strep b test. BOO. I have never had a male doctor down there so yeah. I wasn't worried about delivering with a male doctor cuz I figure when you're in that stage you just want baby out, but I'm not all about doing that test in the office...oh well, that is life.

My Questions

Do we need to pre-arrange the circumcision? No, we can just come in when baby is about 1 week and make the arrangments then.

Is there a September schedule for the doctors so I know who to contact? Not really, and it can change very easily even if there was one. So I just have to go to the hospital when I am in labor and they'll contact the right doctor.

When do I need to make decisions about birth control methods post baby? Unless I was planning on getting a UTI (i think they're called) put in right after labor, then it can wait until the 6 week check up mark.

That's all there was...

Fun with props & Picnik.com

Here's a small preview of what I did last night...

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!