The End of 2009

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!! I hope that you all had a great Christmas surrounded by friends and family. We celebrated Christmas at home in Fort Mac for the first time in five years with mum, dad, Ty and Stacey. It was a really great time of just maxing and relaxing. Lots of movie watching and naps. Sometimes you just have to have a holiday like that. It's nice to come home and not feel like you need a holiday after your holiday. Fingers crossed that we'll all be able to spend Christmas 2010 together as well. My wish is to have everyone at our place. Blow up mattresses and mismatched chairs. National Lampoons Christmas Vacation is Christien's favorite Christmas movie, so I think that having all our family together will make for our own funny stories. And having both sets of grandparents here for baby's first Christmas will be more then wonderful. Plus aunts and uncle Ty.

New Year's Eve is going to be a bit different this time around. We've got no plans and haven't really sought any out. I can barely stay up past midnight on a normal night, so I am just hoping that I can have a nap sometime today and stay up to ring in 2010. Would have been nice to have gone to the hockey game tonite but those tickets sell so quickly, I can't even imagine what people are asking for them on Kijiji. Either way, as long as Christien and I are together, then that's all that matters. From the looks of it, this is the last special occasion that Christien will be spending with me. His work schedule gave us Christmas and New Years together, but that's it. 2010 will be a year of celebrating with myself it looks like.

Be happy, be safe and cheers to 2009! Let's see what 2010 has in store!

Winter Driving

I read an interesting article in the paper the other day about winter drivers that I totally agreed with. Winter driving is not the same as summer driving when the roads are clear, clean and dry. People are either overly cautious, driving way too slow and causing accidents themselves, or overly careless, driving way too fast, and .. well, you know what happens.

"I'm guessing accidents would be cut in half if inexperienced and insecure winter drivers parked for the season. Alternately, these drivers could become roadworthy with a winter driving course. Winter driving requires extra skills - skid recovery, traction control and emergency manoeuvres. Not every driver is up to the task"
Adrienne Beattie, Metro News

I couldn't agree more. Why don't they make a winter driving course mandatory before you can get behind the wheel of a car in the snowy season? They have different classes on your drivers license, why not just add Winter Driver to that as well? Getting your learners and your license is much harder to do now-a-days then it was when I was at that stage. If we've identified that younger, or first time drivers need a bit more time when it comes to taking over the wheel, why don't we apply that to drivers in the winter time? I think that it would save a lot of frustration and accidents.

Think about it.

Single Digits

We are having a a baby in 9 weeks! That's crazy. That's also no time at all. Thank goodness we are so prepared, especially with the crazy cold that we've been having. I'd hate to be lugging dressers and cribs into the house in that weather, and in that snow. Besides, I can't be lugging anything anywhere now-a-days. I have a hard time getting up from the couch, I couldn't imagine trying to lug a box up the stairs.

Mum made the bedding and drapes for the nursery, so I'm so excited to get up there and see them. I picked out the material with her when she was up, but having that in the room is going to bring it one step closer to it being a nursery. I'll post some pictures after Christmas once we get home and get that all set up. Getting more and more excited to meet this little one. And to find out if it's a girl or a boy. Some people are SURE that it's a girl, while others SWEAR that it's a boy, so we're back to 50/50 now. All I know is that it's healthy (steady kicks and punches with a heartbeat of 168 on Tuesday).

Christien is coming home in four more sleeps! I've missed him. Talking to him for 5 minutes at 7am everyday just isn't really cutting it. It will be nicer when he has the laptop with him when he's back up there in January. He still works 12 hour days (or nights), so he pretty much just works, sleeps, eats and then back to work again. These fourteen off better make up for the fourteen that we're away from each other.

This weekend looks like it's going to be full of baking, wrapping presents, last minute shopping, and maybe some visits with friends. Christmas just snuck up on me this year. I blame it on the baby brain.

Christmas Reading

Another great book club last night. I'm so luck to be friends with these ladies. As different as we all are, we've always got so much to talk about. I guess we're actually really not all that different deep down when you think about it. We just all have such great stories and ideas to share that it's always a really good time when we get together. Missed Jasmine last night though!

Alana put on a superb veggie feast ~ with Kristin being a vegetarian, meals have been really interesting when she's able to attend book club. And interesting in a good way. Lots of new recipes coming out of the woodwork. Great Christmas and festive atmosphere at Alana's too. Definitely made me feel all warm inside, and for once it wasn't cause of the wine (that I wished I could have indulged in as well). Voting took place and our new book for December is:

The more that I hear about it, the more interesting it sounds. Especially as it takes place in Alberta in the early 1900's. I think that it's going to be a great Christmas read.

A big thank you to Alana for hosting book club, Mike for making cookies, and Candice and Amber for their very thoughtful Christmas gifts. To have friends like these means a lot.

I think that last night was the kick that I needed to get on this whole Christmas thing! I've got a list of shopping and baking that I'm getting started on this weekend. It all starts after work in fact. Although I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, I'm feeling good and refreshed today, so what better day to start it?? That's right.. Less then two weeks before Christmas and I'm "starting" it.

Stay warm and have a wonderful weekend!!

Major Milestone

I am exactly 30 weeks pregnant today. Holy smokes. I can't really even believe it. Out of the 20's, only 10 weeks to go, well into my third trimester, home stretch... It's all craziness. It's not like I didn't think that we were having a baby before, I mean, we have a fully functional nursery right now, but this just makes it seem all that more real. With my first two pregnancies I would look into the future to see where I would be and what I would look like around certain occasions, and now I've made it till Christmas (almost). I actually need to get a note from my doctor in order to fly home for the holidays. That just makes me smile. I'm getting more and more excited. And getting bigger and bigger.

All day yesterday I was super uncomfortable and just felt a crazy weird "pain" or stretching in my stomach. It hurt to sit, it hurt to stand, it hurt to move around. Then looking in the mirror I burst out laughing cause I looked large. I have my days. My big days and my small days. I think that I'm relaxed back to a more normal size right now.

I'm going to a spa party at a friend's on Saturday (thank goodness for that pedicure, I cannot bend that far for that long anymore), and she's having her baby four days before me. From pictures she looks much larger then me. It'll be funny to compare bellies. Christine and I are carrying alot differently too. It's interesting to see, especially since we're only two weeks apart (only 12 weeks to go for her, yipee). Now.. does that mean anything? Whose got a girl in there? A boy?? Do we keep torturing ourselves with the back and forth of that? I laugh. It's all fun. I'm still so happy that we never found out. It's going to be the best surprise of the year.

Book club tonite. My favorite day of the month!! Can't wait to see what Alana's got picked out for us. Dying for a new book to read. And all our Epicure orders are in as well. Sorry, no Christmas gifts in there. All for me!!

Day 1

Well it's day one of Christien's new job. He flew out of Calgary around noon today. I got to drop him at the airstrip. Was harder then I thought it would be to see him go, but now that I'm home with Franklin, I've been making lists of what I need to get done before he's back for Christmas. It'll go by quick. I've already got plans every other day this week!

Christien said that camp is good so far. He's got his own room with his own TV/VCR combo. Yes, VCR. Good thing we kept all our old ones. He can load up when he's back here. He said that they had a great dinner and he's got a killer lunch packed for tomorrow. As of right now the weather is the same in Calgary as it is in Fort Mac (-31 with the windchill at 5 this afternoon). He's got the next two days of training and then he'll hit the field. He's hoping that his training will be on some of those mondo snow clearing machines. We'll see about that. The camp he's at has about 3000 people living out there. Much bigger then what I was thinking. There are lots of trades guys working and training with him, so he's thinking of eventually seeing where a potential apprenticeship could lead with one of them. That's my husband. Always looking ahead to what he can turn this job into. I'm grateful for that.

I'm getting ready to hit the queen size all by myself tonite. One thing that I can look forward to: no sharing blankets, no getting woken up in the middle of the night cause my snoring is too loud...

New Job

Well, Christien finally got too sick of his job to continue with that company anymore. He took some vacation time last week, and resigned on Monday. A bit of a scary time, but knowing that he's not a slacker and that he'd be on the hunt for a job quickly made me feel a bit more at ease. Turns out he did manage to land himself a job. Starts on Monday. In Fort McMurray. It's going to be quite the change for us. He's working fourteen on and fourteen off. The two weeks that he's off is going to be great. I still have mixed feelings about the fourteen on. I'll miss him. I think that it might get harder once the baby comes. Being by myself for two weeks is going to be hard, but at least I have the baby to keep me company. And my friends (so get me on speed dial ladies, I'm going to be hanging solo for half of every month). It's something new to try out and if we both really end up hating it, then he's not going to stay up there for long. I'm looking forward to the two weeks that we'll get to spend together once the baby is here though. We can do whatever we want cause I'll be off as well. We can take a quick vacation if we decide. Or just spend lazy mornings in bed, cuddling the baby. There are pros and cons to every decision, and I think that the pros outweigh the cons right now. If you don't believe in yourself, and don't believe that you can do it, then you will truly fail. I believe that we can make this work, and we can turn it into an experience. Who knows where this will eventually lead?? Happiness is the most important thing of all, and as long as we're both happy then that should be all that matters. When the happiness fades then it's time to move on to something else that will make us even happier.

Christmas is Coming....

We've got snow. It's December. The weather is more like what it's supposed to be this time of the year (this I'm not happy about), but at least it's starting to feel more like Christmas. We got the lights on the house a few weeks ago when the weather was nice, and I took out a few things from the basement last night. Christmas tree to be picked out this weekend, and then decorated. It'll start to feel a lot more like Christmas then. I'm thinking of hitting up Market Mall tonite, so I'm sure the crazy shoppers and the decorations and the music will get me into the swing of things. Last year everything came so quickly with our trip to Mexico shoved in the middle of December. Only have three more weeks of work before I'm off till the new year. Then the mat leave count down begins in earnest. Stay warm!

Measuring Perfectly...

...you look fantastic... heartbeat right on... every thing's great... All words that I love hearing when coming from my doctor's lips! Baby is doing great. Kicking harder and harder everyday. Apparently baby still has a lot of room to flip flop in there. Got to check the heartbeat twice and it was 142 and then 147. Hmmm... what old wives tale can we come up with to determine the type of baby this is?? I go back and forth. At first I was sure it was a girl. Then I totally changed my mind and for a long time I thought that it was a boy. Now I'm back to thinking that it's a girl again. Christien thinks it's a girl. Cleo thinks that it's a boy. My dad said that he will make his prediction over Christmas. I wish there was some sort of sign... Next ultrasound is on Thursday and it's very tempting to find out. But we're going to wait. It's making it more fun. It's not like it really matters to us one way or the other. Right now we know that the baby is healthy and that's the best news I could possibly ask for. I want that surprise at the end of labour. Not knowing will help me to push past the pain to find out. It will make it even more exciting. I'm starting to have dreams about what the baby will look like. I cannot wait to meet this little one. See who it looks like. 2010 is going to be a crazy, wonderful year full of surprises and first. I cannot wait.

Bucket List

I created this list a few months ago when everyone was talking about bucket lists, and I revisited it the other day. It's not too bad. There are quite a few "big ticket" items on it, but when I think about it, they are really things that I'd like to do and see, so might as well have them down in print and see if that pushes me towards them.

1) Scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef
2) Plan a party or a wedding and get paid to do it
3) Have my own garden
4) Visit London
5) Get pregnant and experience a normal pregnancy, where I end up with a child at the end of 9 months.
6) Race a rally car
7) Take a photography class
8) Go to Vegas with Christien
9) Learn to play guitar
10) Visit Paris
11) Write a children’s book
12) Get a dog
13) Visit Spain
14) Go back to Greece for my 10th anniversary
15) Have a salt water fish tank
16) Complete a half triathlon
17) Get fit and stay that way
18) Own a boot camp franchise
19) Have a dream kitchen
20) Take a cooking course. In Bali
21) Visit Brazil (see the rain forest)
22) Learn sign language
23) Swim with the dolphins
24) Take a hot air balloon ride
25) Do the West Coast Trail
26) Whale watch in Tofino
27) Whale watch in St. John’s
28) Dolphin watch in Bali
29) Drive an environmentally friendly car
30) Mardi Gras in New Orleans
31) See the pyramids in Egypt
32) Visit Stonehenge in England
33) Visit Easter Island
34) Go on a backpacking trek to Thailand
35) Road trip to Seattle (Pike Place, baseball game, underground city)
36) Go to Montreal
37) Go on a trip with my friends and their spouses
38) Visit Italy
39) See Mars as the closest it will ever be to earth in my lifetime (August 27, 2009)
40) Build a habitat for humanity home
41) Volunteer at the children’s hospital
42) Grow a successful herb garden
43) Become financially literate
44) Go for walks every night
45) Watch the 10 greatest movies of all time
46) Start my own business
47) Go on a safari in Africa
48) See Madonna in concert (preferably in Vegas with my girlfriends)
49) Create a photography bucket list
50) Practice yoga more regularly
51) Go to the Kentucky Derby
52) Write in my journal everyday

Spruce Meadows Christmas Market

Middle of November is the perfect time to get into the Christmas spirit. Candice had wanted to go to the Spruce Meadows Christmas market for some time, and was able to cross this off her bucket list today. Jasmine, Amber and I joined her. It was a fun morning. Jasmine and I were the only ones who left with any purchases. The market was quite big, with three different pavillions to visit plus a few booths outside. I was hoping to find some ornaments for our parents and for our tree, but there was just too much to choose from. Here is my one, super cute, ornamental purchase.

He is going to look fantastic out front!

Christien's dad gave us tickets to Tuesday's hockey game. Third row, right behind the penalty box in club seats! Can't go wrong with that. It's too bad that I'll have to miss yoga to go, however, it'll be fun to go to a hockey game with Christien. We haven't been to one together in ages. I'm looking forward to it.

A Year's Worth of Books ~ Year Three

I love book club.

I am so happy and proud that we've been able to keep it going for the last 2 whole years. There have been a few stumbles where we've had to either cancel a meeting for the month, or move it further along in the month, but all in all it's been a huge success.

I love book club because I really enjoy reading. I find that I read way more often because I take the train to and from work. That gives me a total of 1 hour a day that I am just sitting there, with every opportunity to read. I like to read a bit before I go to bed as well. Helps me wind down at the end of the day. And in the summertime, I can read and read and read. Nothing like being at the beach with your chair right at the water's edge, soaking up the sun and a good book. I think that I made it through 2 or 3 when I was in Kelowna for a week last summer.

I love book club is because it gives me one day a month to reconnect with my girlfriends. Sometimes we'll see each other more then at the once a month book club meeting, but other times it's the only time that I'll see some of them. It's always a different night with these ladies. Sometimes we go out and chat, sometimes we get dinner made for us, sometimes we drink a lot of wine, sometimes we report more on what's going on with People magazine or on Lainey gossip. It's always a great time and full of laughs.

I love book club because over the last two years I have read so many different books. A lot of them books that I would have never picked up myself. Some I loved. Some, not so much. I am happy to say, that since its start, I have read every single book that has been on our book club list. From start to finish. I might not have made every meeting, but I've read all the books. I am proud of myself for sticking with it.

I love that book club has been a stepping stone to other friendships and other interests. People might think that a group of 8 different girls might make for a crazy club, however it's made our little group even closer. There are lots of different things that I'm introduced to because of these girls and for that I am thankful. I also really love that all of our husbands and boyfriends all get along. Bonus no matter how you look at it.

This year for book club we've done things a bit differently. The first year, Christine, Shannon and I sat down over lunch and picked out 12 books that we were going to read for book club. We then recruited some girls and it went from there. Last year we all got together and everyone had 2 picks that they threw in a hat and books were chosen that way. This year we picked the hosts for the 12 months of book club and that host is in charge of choosing 3 different books to present to the members, and from there we vote. This way, it'll be more of a group choice rather then having the responsibility fall all on one person's shoulders. This month, Christine graciously hosted and took us out for amazing Thai food and brought us back to her place for birthday cake for Jasmine. We've chosen to read:

I am really enjoying this book so far. It very much reminds me of The Thirteenth Tale. Kind of suspenseful. I'm curious about a lot of the stories that she is getting into. I don't know where it's going to go from here, but I'm really liking it. And so far I'd recommend it!!

100 Days

This time it's a countdown to baby Short. Wow. 100 days doesn't seem like a long time at all. As of tomorrow we'll be in the double digits for countdown days. Very exciting. Baby is moving and growing like crazy. Giving me pains all the time, but I know that they are good growing pains. Had a friend over the other day and she laughed when she was looking through the baby's dresser. We are ready. I guess with the though of Christien's birthday and Christmas in between now and when the baby is due, I know that I'll have a lot to do for those, that I might as well get done what I can while I have the time. Everyone seems to think that I'll be so bored and impatient waiting for the baby to come by being finished work on the 1st of February. However, in reality, I'm looking forward to just relaxing and taking time to get a few things done around the house. Laundry spread over a couple of days. Dinner on the table every night when Christien gets home from work. Maybe ever get to work on my honeymoon scrapbook that I've started by haven't looked at for months. I'd like to get our wedding pictures into a scrapbook too. So for all of you who are worrying that I'll drive myself crazy, don't fret. I'm very much looking forward to taking a bit of time for myself before the baby comes.

Yoga with a Friend

Started up another cycle of yoga last night, and was happy to have Christine to go with. I know yoga is supposed to be a practice that's all about you, and in the case of pre-natal, about you and your baby, but it's nice to have someone to go with all the same. I've been finding it beneficial but am still having a hard time with the late start time. So having Christine to go with is going to make it easier to bundle up and get out of the house for the 7:45 class. Small class yesterday, but still nice and relaxing.

November is going to be a quick month, I think. Already have this week, and next week mapped out. And plans booked for this weekend, the weekend of the 21st and the weekend of the 28th. So, basically, there goes November. Always nice to have a short week plopped in there somewhere too. I'll be needing it by next week. Planning on meeting new baby Victoria this weekend, having dinner with some friends I haven't seen in ages, seeing a cousin I haven't seen in about 20 years and meeting up with Bea, who it feels like I haven't seen in 20 years. Fun weekend followed by a short week brings me to the middle of November!

Mum and dad left for Cuba this week. Their first all inclusive. Pretty impressive for two people who have travelled their whole life to finally be experiencing an all inclusive in their 60's. They were turned onto it after Ty, Stacey, Christien and I all went all inclusive to Mexico last year. They were very excited and are going to have a great time. Nothing like 2 weeks on the beach! They get back on the 18th and are going to turn around and head to Calgary for a little pre-Christmas shopping and a visit. Will be nice to show off the nursery, or at least what we have done with the nursery.

Pumpkins Galore

Went to the 8th annual pumpkin carving party at the Dunham's on Thursday. There was another great turnout with all sorts of pumpkins being carved. Always a good time. Happy Halloween everyone!!!

Progressive Dinner Party

Christien was out for coffee with a client the other day and asked her what her plans were for Halloween. She told him that she was going to be going to a Progressive Dinner Party. Apparently the gist is this. You get a total of about 3 or 4 hosts, and have each of those hosts cook a dish for the night. Could be an appy at one place, soup and salad at another, main course at another, or just a large dish at each house. The deal is you drive from house to house having dinner or portions of dinner and having someone different host. It sounds like the main idea is to have more of a mingling party. You know when you go to parties, depending on whose place you are at, there are certain people who will park by the fireplace all night, and others who will stay in the kitchen, etc instead of mingling around. The idea of the Progressive Dinner Party is to get people mingling in a different way throughout the night. Kind of a cool concept. A little un-environmentally friendly. And I think that it may work best either in a smaller city or in a city where your hosts live in either the same or a close neighbourhood. Calgary might make it a bit difficult as people are so spread out in this city. Otherwise, I think that it's a cool little idea.

Strong Beat

Went for another appointment with Dr. Lam today. So nice to hear the baby's heartbeat. And it sounds much stronger now, even though the BPM have gone down (146 today). It was so easy to pick up and so strong. The doctor did all her measurements and such and said that I was the picture of health, except for the low lying placenta, which I am having checked out again with another ultrasound in about a month. So basically, this baby is perfect. Every measurement that we've had, every scan that we've had, everything has been bang on. Not a little small, not a little large, just perfect. Reassurance is wonderful. I have an ultrasound, diabetes testing and another doctor's appointment to look forward to over the next month. Then I'll start seeing her every two weeks. Crazy how quickly time flies.

14 Weeks

Not a countdown to when this baby is due, but a countdown to when I'll be finished at work. I've decided to cash my personal days and whatever little vacation time I will have accrued in one month at the beginning of February. I think this will only led me to be taking an early mat leave of 10 days, plus the vacation that I'll tack onto that. So a good three weeks before the baby is due. Not that I think I'll have a lot to do between the beginning of February and the due date (trust me, I am basically ready right now), but I think that with all the uncomfortableness I've already been experiencing, I just might need to take it easy for a few weeks. Try to get a little extra sleep in. Have time to make dinner and maybe hit up a few work outs. That's the plan, and that's my countdown.

Mind you, there are a ton of mini countdowns going on between now and then.. next week is already jammed packed, which bring me right to the beginning of November. Then I'm hoping that my parents will be able to make it down for a quick visit/shopping trip between when they get back from Cuba and the end of November. 7 weeks till Christien's birthday! 9 weeks till Christmas! 11 weeks till we start our pre-natal classes! 14 weeks till I start my mat leave! Exciting.

We now basically have a nursery. Crib and dresser are in there and all set up. We put a nice big bamboo tree in there as well. It looks great. We're only missing a rocking chair, which is most likely going to be a glider, cause all the rockers that we can find are old and uncomfortable. Otherwise, onsies are folded in the dresser, washcloths and towels are put away, a few cutsie things are hanging in the closet to make it look less empty. Christien is working on a cute painting right now. And we're just looking for some cute bedding to bring it all together. There's not much that is plain and neutral to choose from, but we've narrowed it down to a few. I like to shop around and find something that I love, so it might take me a little while before I am good to go with something picked out and put on the bed. Franklin is starting to get a bit more curious now that there is a mattress on the bed and the room is cleaned up. We'll see how long it takes him to jump into the crib, and then it's off to the store to buy a cat net. I think that he'll be too freaked out by the baby to be around all that often.

We've also got a bit of a thumper in there right now. I swear the day after my last post, this baby started moving around and hasn't really stopped. I can't even pinpoint when I feel it most. It's gotten to the point where I just kind of ignore it during the day cause I'm getting used to it. At night or first thing in the morning, when it's moving around quite a bit, Christien always jumps in to feel it. I think that he might have felt a slight twinge about a week ago, but he hasn't felt anything since. I'll be happy when he's able to feel it too. Just one more thing that reinforces how real it is. Another appointment on Tuesday to get lined up for the rest of my tests and ultrasounds. Hopefully hear the baby's heartbeat again (that's even better then the ultrasound for me).

When am I going to feel this baby kicking???

Kalispell, Montana

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving this weekend! We had a wonderful, wonderful time in Montana. It's so beautiful down there, I can't wait to plan another trip, but in the summer next time. The drive, although 5 hours, went really quickly and that Crowsnest highway is just beautiful. We got in fairly late on Friday night, but that gave us all day Saturday and Sunday to explore and do some shopping. And shop we did. Christien and I never do well shopping together, but man, we had a blast. The dollar was so great and the prices were so cheap. Christien scored 60 beers for $40. Can't beat that unless you are in Bali.

The weather left something to be desired. Although it was at least 0 every day, it got really, really cold at night. It was just a biting, bitter cold. When we got back to Calgary and it was cloudy and snowy, it was still warmer then it was down there in the sunshine. Hence another trip is in order when the weather gets warmer.

We had Thanksgiving dinner last night with the Dunhams and their neighbour, Rambo. BD deep fried a turkey and it was magnificent!! Was very nice to spend Thanksgiving with friends. 10:30 hit before we knew it and we were rushing to get home, to try to get a good night's sleep before it was back to work today. I could have used just one more day off.

We're now faced with cold, snowy weather. Supposed to snow until Thursday and then get up to +16. Man, this Calgary weather. I just wish it would make up it's mind.

Working Out

That's right, it's not a typo. It's been long enough, so I decided that I need to get back at 'er. Started going to yoga 3 weeks ago, and I love it. It's not quite the yoga experience that you would normally get. No intense heat and sweat, but it is a nice way to relax and find some good stretches to help out with the growing pains. Lots of relaxation and corpse pose. Sweet... Half way through the 6 weeks that I signed up for and am most likely going to sign up for another 6 weeks once this is done. I might even have a friend to join me...

Hit up the elliptical in the basement twice this week too. Swimming was good, but I only went once. It's not way far out of the way, but it takes me at least an hour an a half for a simple 30 minute swim. Still wishing there was a pool closer to our place. However, while Christien is at kickboxing, I jump on the elliptical for 30 minutes. It's not much, but at least it's not sitting on the couch. It's starting to get cold, and dark early. Our nightly walks sort of fell by the wayside once that started. We did pretty good over the summer with our walks though. Either way, I am glad to be getting back to doing something. Hopefully I'll be able to have a good go at it for a couple of months before I get too big to move around like that. I'm sure that the baby likes the extra exercise. If only it would start moving around with me. Come on baby...

Christien and I are off to Kalispell this weekend. Just wanted a quick, cheap and easy get-a-way, just the two of us. Kind of funny place to go, but it's close. Christine's in-laws have a cabin just outside of Kalispell and they normally spend every single long weekend out there. Go figure, the one weekend that we'll be making the trek down there and they are off to see her parents in Kamloops. It'll be nice to just get some shopping done and do a little exploring. We always have fun no matter where we are. The newer the place, the more fun it is.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Death Tank

My poor fishes came down with what I think is Ick. This is the second time that I've had clown loaches in my tank and the second time that this has happened. I've had them for quite a few months and they were doing really well. I thought that I had caught it soon enough, went to Big Al's and started medicating them last week. I've lost all three of them. And two other cute orange tetras in the process. Hopefully the medicine has killed what was left and I can clean out the tank and get everyone back to normal again. It's too bad cause those loaches were super cool fish. They liked to play and swim around. There's nothing better then having active fish in the tank. I'm very sad. With having a community tank, there are not a lot of fun fish that you can add. Franklin is upset too, cause it's ruining the fish show for him.

On top of that, this belly is starting to get in the way. It's not even that big yet. I guess I'm just not really used to it. I had something out of the oven yesterday, on the counter, and I was just reaching up to grab some plates, and burned it on the pan. Ouch. I guess I have to start taking it into consideration. It's only going to get bigger and bigger. I can feel the growing pains so bad today. Yipee???

Heartbeat and a Kick

We finally got to hear the baby's heartbeat yesterday at our appointment. Words cannot describe what I felt when I heard that. It's just amazing. And it puts it all into perspective. There's a little someone growing inside. So crazy. So very cool. Our doctor picked it up right away. Crazy little techno beat that it was, then we heard a loud thump. The doctor laughed and said that it was a little kick from our crazy baby. It was truly indescribable. I cannot wait to hear it's little heart beat again. Beats were at 156. So we're staying pretty steady there. It was one of the most emotional experiences that I've ever had. I definitely had to choke back tears a couple of times. I cannot expressed how happy and blessed Christien and I both feel to know that we've really got someone to meet in the next few months. A little Malia/Christien mix. There's your Malistien.. Ha ha.

Human Baby Revealed

Had our 19 week ultrasound yesterday! Which means that I am right around the half way mark. What a relief. I'm sure that everyone worries to some extent, but this half way point was my cut off for worry. I'm switching that worry to the excitement that I feel we were cheated out of from the beginning. I'm going to focus on how lucky and blessed we are rather than worry about what could happen. If I can't stop the worry now, then I'll be stressed for the rest of my life. Something can always happen, right?? Life is too short. You hear that all the time, but it's really the truth!

Seeing the baby healthy yesterday just made everything perfect for us. What more can you ask for?? Heart, brain, limbs all in the right place = excellent. Heartbeat was 157. As old wives tales go, should be a girl. Especially since it was first thing in the morning and I think that baby was sleeping the whole time because there wasn't as much movement as there had been before. No cooperation from baby either (stubborn just like it's dad). It just had it's curled up little fists by it's face most of the time. The technician did manage to get baby to open a hand a few times and finally got a shot of it. We opted not to find out what we were having, and although I am curious, I'm glad that we don't know. It'll be that extra little incentive that I need at the end of labor.

Baby and it's "perfect shaped" head

Baby's 4 chambered heart

Baby's little feet and ankles (we were told it had great long legs)

Baby waving

Yesterday was a very exciting day. Today after work we're packing up the car and heading to Edmonton to celebrate my brother and mum's birthday! We're going to hit up West Ed (specifically the water park) with Ty and Stacey tomorrow and then have a nice dinner with the family. Haven't seen Ty and Stacey since Easter (which is lame) and haven't seen mum and dad since August. Looking forward to it.

Have a great weekend everyone. Be safe and enjoy the last of this nice weather. Back to normal temperatures and rain next week, so I hear.

First Bike

I came home from work the other day and saw this sitting on the deck.

Our friend Candice went for a browse at the thrift store the other day and stumbled upon this. She was going to bring it home and fix it up and thought that it would look great in her garden. On her way back to the office she thought that it would look even cuter with a baby Short riding it around and gave it to us. It's the most perfect first bike! Christien is going to fix it up, get some new wheels, new pedals and new grips, with a little bit of fresh paint and it'll look brand new! I can't wait to take a cruiser ride with the little one. We've still got quite a few years to go... Thanks Candice! We love it!

Big Purchase

I finally gave in. Christien and I own a stroller! We searched all over the place, asked our friends tonnes of questions, and settled on a travel system that we liked from the beginning. You can't overly get away from big and bulky when you are buying a stroller, so this is right in line with the rest of them. And the price was great too, which was a super bonus. It's put together and just sort of sitting in the basement right now. The car seat installation gives me anxiety cause I'm so scared that it's not going to get installed correctly and our baby will end up flying through the window. I kid. There are lots of instructions and I'm sure that Christien will do a great job getting it in the car so that baby is safe.

It's cute. Kind of made me want to throw up a little bit once we paid for it and put it in the car. I guess it just kind of makes things seem a bit more real. I'm sure I'll feel that way more and more as we get closer and closer to actually becoming parents.

Office Closed

Not sure if any of you had the chance to watch the news or read the story in the Calgary Herald yesterday, but it was announced that our offices will be closing come the end of October.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Telus+cuts+call+centre+workers/1982558/story.html

I am, fortunately, one of the very few (I think that there are two of us) who was able to be placed somewhere else in the company. A few agents had a end date of yesterday to vacate the office, whereas the majority of the agents will be leaving at the end of September. The most senior agents will be staying on until the end of October to finish up the closure of the call center. I'm very glad that I was able to be placed so that I will still get my maternity leave in February. However, my heart goes out to all these agents who were simply let go. There is no attempt at all by TELUS to try to place any of these agents. That, unfortunately makes sense, due to the fact that they were term employees, and therefore considered contract employees. However, it's been even harder for these agents to have to deal with the loss of their jobs plus the reports that TELUS is trying to place them somewhere else within the company, when that is not happening at all.

Alana's Stagette

My friend Alana will be marrying her best friend, Mike in 25 days! I was at her stagette this past weekend. Alana and I are fairly new friends. I met her through Amber. They work together at Superior Cabinets. We've been in the best book club together since October 2007. We share a love of wine, books (which go hand in hand) and laughs. Alana and Mike will be getting married at the Ranche in Calgary. It's a beautiful venue and this will be my 3rd wedding that I've attended there in as many years.

The Ranche in Calgary

Both of the weddings that I attended at the Ranche were at different times of the year and therefore quite different. The first wedding I went to at the Ranche was Christine and Brian's in late August of 2006. They were married outside on the side steps and had the reception in the restaurant. It was a very beautiful wedding. The second time was for Christien's friends Mike and Christina in October of 2008. They had the ceremony inside in front of the fireplace, followed by the reception in the dining room. What a difference a couple of months makes. Not only in the atmosphere, (Christine's being mostly outside and Christina's, more indoors), the menus were completly different. Alana and Mike's wedding will be at the beginning of October, however the one big difference for me at this wedding will be that they are getting married in a church. I haven't been to a wedding in a church since Barb and Mike's (different Mike) in 2004.

Back to Alana's stagette. She went into this night blind. Had no idea what we were doing, who was coming or where we were going. We were all told to wear something white for her "Like a Virgin" stagette. Which I must say, turned out quite well. All the ladies looked wonderful. We all met at Alana's at the beginning of the night for martinis and snacks. We just hung out and chatted for a bit. We played one little game where we got to take a piece of toilet paper and make some sort of accessory to complement Alana's lovely outfit for the night. The deal was that for every item that she removed, she would have to do a shot for. Amber and I colaborated on her headpiece, which I think turned out quite lovely. There were a few pieces removed before we headed down for dinner, and I don't believe that I saw Alana take any shots that night. Apparently the rules changed and it was either shots or drinks to make up for what was taken off. So I guess I can deal with that but I still think she's a cheater (wink, wink). We then walked down to stop #1, which was dinner at Wildwood. We had a set menu where we could choose our starter and dinner. It was delish! I overdosed on Bison. Surprised I didn't get the meat sweats. It was a really nice time hanging out, Alana getting a bit emotional, and having lots and lots of laughs. After dinner the girls decided to take Alana to Ducky's, which is basically a dive karaoke bar. I headed home just before they went into Ducky's, but heard that they stayed until they got Alana to sing "White Wedding". They went off to BLVD for some dancing and drinks and then to the ... Yardhouse. Sounds like she was doing okay the next day. A bit sluggish, but okay. I can't wait for book club so that I can get more dirt on the festivities of the evening. I am just very much looking forward to her wedding on October 3!

February Festivities

This being almost our "miracle baby" I'm taking stock of all the good things that are happening around the arrival of our little one. I might still be in a bit of denial as I'm already 16 weeks and not really showing at all. Till that happens...

February family birthdays on my side:

• February 12th ~ Grandpa Nestor (little Grandpa)
• February 13th ~ Grandpa Langis (big Grandpa)
• February 19th ~ cousin Nicole's birthday
• February 29th ~ Grandma Langis

Looking like a great month!! And an even better year!!

Neutral Neutral

When you aren't going to learn what type of baby you are having, you are stuck with a very limited number of options when it comes to decorating. Yellow or green. That's basically about it. You are also stuck with only a few options for theme as well. Therefore, seeing as we are not finding out if it's a boy or a girl, we chose yellow and green as our colors, with a jungle theme. Ha. It's going to be super cute, but it's just funny that this is the theme and color of choice of most people having a non-gender specific room. Knowing this, I still don't feel any sort of desire to find out if we are having a boy or a girl. To ruin that surprise for decorating purposes?? Here is our cute yellow room (paint job care of Cleo). We've got a lot of green "accessories" and I'm looking for a nice, big, soft tan or cream rug for the middle of the room.

We haven't done a lot of buying of anything for the room yet. Just a lot of comparison shopping so far, and we've picked up a few smaller things, like blankets, stuffed animals (to compliment the jungle theme), and stuff like that. I, however, have had my eye on an OiOi diaper bag for over a year. iBambini had a ton of them about a year ago, and I started browsing their websites. They are a company based out of Australia and their bags are beautiful. I even like them better then Petunia Pickle Bottom (sorry Amber). It's definitely something a bit more extravagant then I need, cause I know I could drop $30 and have one from Toys R Us, but I got to thinking that this is something I am going to be carrying around for at least a year. Why not be stylish?? So, after the last ultrasound, I decided to treat myself. Here is my beautiful bag...

I love, love, love it so much. It will be doubling as my purse for a long while as well.

Other then that, we're still looking around, seeing what we like. We're planning a trip to Montana for Thanksgiving. Thought that we could look for some cheap baby stuff down there, and bring back what we can fit into the car. Do they have a Gap Maternity??

We've had some wonderful things given to us from friends whose kids have outgrown them. Thank you Jasmine and Curtis (and baby Davis for growing up so quickly). Jasmine has been a great source of information to me over the last few weeks, and for that I am very grateful. It's a bit scary when it's your first time and you are going in blind.

My Personal Ecological Footprint

It's becoming more and more important to me to try to reduce my ecological footprint. Last year we bought a push mower, we've always recycled all our paper products and now that we have our blue bin, we're down to 1 bag of garbage a week. All our light bulbs in our house are energy efficient. I've even got my eye on a VW TDI Clean Diesel as a potential new car.

All that work to find out that my Personal Ecological Footprint is 8.3 global hectares!! Calgary's average is 9.4 and Canada's average is 7.1. It's nice to see that I'm a bit below the average in Calgary, but I'm not as impressed as I thought that I would be. I thought that we were doing a really, really good job, at least trying to do what we can do. I'm going to have to start eating 100 mile, which is going to be difficult, but I'll try hitting up some of our local markets.

Weekend Wonders

We've finally had a beautiful week, followed by a beautiful weekend. It's like summer is finally here! Started out with the hopes of going on my first cruiser ride of '09 with the gang. Unfortunately, after the fight with the bike rack, when I got to Kristin's,
her bike had a flat. From the sounds of it, not the first. Unfortunately there was more then one hole in the tube, and our ride was called off.

However, we weren't going to let that ruin our beautiful Friday. We decided to just walk around Prince's Island Park, see if we could find anything funny and just take advantage of the warm, sunny evening. We went hoping that we would find some interesting characters, and the park did not disappoint. We found Shakespeare in the Park (doing Romeo and Juliet), so we watched for a bit, and at intermission decided to take a little walk around and see what else we could see. Good thing we did cause we happened upon this scene:

What are these guys doing? And who is the dude in the suit? The judge? What is he judging?What kind of uniforms are they? Amber thinks that they are some sort of trekkies. I'm not convinced. There's something else going on here. Very strange.

Saturday was full of consumerism. Out of the house before 11 and not back until after 6. Shopping, shopping, shopping. We finally bought a few things that we've been talking about getting for a long time. Hit up Costco and even that was dead for a Saturday afternoon. We lucked out and had a very successful shopping day.

Thanks to Christien's mum, we got a lot of our unfinished projects completed around the house. Nursery painted, closet painted, kitchen painted, baseboards painted and nailed up, new closet organizer installed. Feels nice to have those checked off our list.

Now it's back to work for the week. Dale is coming to visit this weekend. Looking forward to seeing Christien's buddy. I haven't seen him since Christmas. Might even get a visit in with Mike, Christina and their new baby Ella. Ah... working for the weekend!!

Question of the Day

Human baby or food baby?

I'm really not sure anymore. Christien thinks that it's just cookies in there. I'm on the fence. This is the first time in years where I haven't been on some sort of diet, or exercise rage. I'm not sure what to do with myself. With my energy coming back, I would really like to take up swimming. My knee is just too messed up to go back to running, so I thought that this would be a nice, easy form of exercise on my joints. Do you think that I can find a pool in the north east to swim at?? I'll broaden my search. Starting back up with yoga in the middle of September, so I'm looking forward to that. I can't say that I've been the poster child for the Pregnancy Diet, but I've only gained 2.5 lbs since the beginning, so that's not too bad. I have quite the appetite lately.

Starting Fresh

After much discussion around starting our blog back up again, I've finally gotten the push I needed to get it going. I will try to be more diligent about writing in this blog. More so then I was before. Christien was more the master behind that one. So here goes...

A little background into what's been going on with the Shorts... We're going to have a baby! Finally!!! I am 14 weeks today, and we are both very thrilled about it. Came as a bit of a surprise to us, as we were awaiting tests results from our doctor, only to find out that we were pregnant. After a gut wrenching 1st trimester (3 ultrasounds and countless doctors appointments), we're happy to report that we've gone from a high risk pregnancy to a normal pregnancy. I can't believe that I don't have another baby pertaining appointment for another 5 weeks. Feels good to be able to start to enjoy this.

The final ultrasound that we had was pretty amazing where we got to see the baby so clearly. It was moving around like crazy and not co-operating at all with the technician. She had to come back 3 times to get the correct measurements for the doctor. At one point she saw the baby's mouth open and then closing over and over again, so we got a couple good stills of mouth open, mouth close. Very cute. It's either a girl who's already gabbing to herself, or a boy who is practicing his jokes like its dad.






Christien's mum has been visiting since the weekend, and she's already managed to paint up the baby's room for us. We won't be finding out what we are having so we've just gone with the good old neutral stand by of yellow, or more precisely Corn Silk on the walls. Starting to makes things a bit more "real".