January Outcomes and February Ambitions!

I feel like January flew by! I don't even remember writing my January goals, so I hope I was able to achieve some of them. Let's see how I did:

• Have a date night with my husband. We had a baby-free lunch date for our 7 year anniversary! We both would love to do a dinner, but that will have to wait until Ellie sleeps better at night.
• Try a new recipe. I tried quite a few new ones ~ lentil soup, potato corn chowder, mexican rice, to name a few!
• Take one step forward in my business planning process. Yes!
• Declutter our home. Yes, but I feel like it's a never ending process.
• Contact the company that holds our car loan and arrange for either larger payments or more frequent payments. Yes!
• Go to a Bikram yoga class. Yes! Although I only made it once, I'm still glad I went. It's a shame the classes are so expensive. However, I have signed up for a mom and baby fitness class that starts next week, so that's something!
• Schedule the car for an oil change. Soon...
• Visit friends and/or family. Not yet, but we have a brief trip planned to visit friends next week!
• Get Ellie to nap in her crib.SUCCESS!!!! OMG what took me so long!? 

I think I did great considering I forgot about most of these goals after a week or so! So now I'm ready to set some goals for this month!

• Work on improving Ellie's night time sleep. I'm reading the No Cry Sleep Solution and so far it really resonates with me. I figure if I can get Ellie to the point where she only wakes to nurse a couple times each night, we're golden!
• Finish writing the first draft of my business plan.
• Go to more baby groups! It's good for Ellie and for my sanity to get out of the house. Driving into town each day isn't so great on our budget, but we'll have to make it work.
• Get more shifts at work. I feel happiest when I have a few hours every few days to do something productive away from home.
• Green smoothies!! My veggie intake is waning again... not good! I feel like I crave sweets a lot more when I'm not getting enough fruits and veggies in my diet. I need to hop back on the green smoothie bandwagon. Maybe I should branch out and try a new recipe?
• Get the oil changed in the car finally!

January Goals

In keeping with my New Year's Resolutions, here are my goals for this month:

• Have a date night with my husband. This will probably entail renting a movie and watching it in another room while my mom babysits... but hey, at least it's a start! I would like to come up with a cheap and simple way to make it a little more special though since this month marks 7 years since our very first date! ♥
• Try a new recipe. Technically, tonight's dinner was a new recipe, but since it was just chicken in a different kind of tomato sauce and served over noodles... it didn't truly feel 'new' to us. So hopefully sometime this month we will break in my new cookbook and try something we've truly never had before!
• Take one step forward in my business planning process. I want to start working on my actual written business plan, but I also want to try to interview a current entrepreneur to get some insight into the sector I would be going into. Hopefully someone agrees to be my interviewee!
• Declutter our home. We've already made one trip to the thrift store this month, but hopefully we can continue the trend. We have a desk to sell, I have craft supplies to organize/purge, and we have a kitchen to declutter. And I seem to have totally forgotten about anything we have out in the shed... hmm.
• Contact the company that holds our car loan and arrange for either larger payments or more frequent payments.
• Go to a Bikram yoga class. I am planning on going this Saturday, so this should be an easy goal to accomplish! (After all, I didn't say I had to do well in the class... so even if I lie on my mat feeling like death for half the class, technically, I still went to it!)

So those goals should help me work towards my resolutions, but I also want to add in a couple things just for this month:

• Schedule the car for an oil change.
• Visit friends and/or family. We have a bunch of people we haven't seen in a while and have been meaning to visit, so hopefully we can knock one off the list this month! 
• Get Ellie to nap in her crib. I've had this goal before and totally flaked on it. But it's time. As much as I love our cuddles, sometimes I just really need the 'free' time to get other things done or take a nap myself!

Wish me luck!

Resolutions For A New And Exciting Year!

We had a wonderful, family-filled Christmas vacation all the way over in Ontario and are just now settling back into life at home. I've just caught up on reading other people's blog posts about New Year's resolutions, and feel like it's time to put mine out there in the world. Hopefully by sharing them with the vast audience of the internet (ha! more like my 2 regular readers!), I will be more accountable to following through on them. Time will tell!

Resolution #1: Have date nights with my husband once every couple weeks. We're still easing into leaving Ellie alone with a sitter (aka Grandma), but in order to get better at it we have to just do it! So our general plan is to start by renting a movie and watching it in one of the hotel rooms upstairs. Once we get more comfortable with that, we may venture out for the occasional date!

Resolution #2: Try new recipes. I got a cookbook for Christmas with lots of yummy, easy meals in it that I want to try. Not only that, but Adam and I really enjoy cooking together so hopefully this is something else we can do together in addition to date nights. We also really want to learn how to make our own sushi, so that fits in well with this idea!

Resolution #3: Work on my business idea. I'm still not quite ready to share it with the world, but if I can put more time and effort into the idea, I might be ready soon! One thing I was hoping to do was to use a babysitter a couple times a week and devote that time to working on my business plan. I would need to take my laptop and work outside of our suite (but still in the building in case I need to nurse Ellie), but it would probably be the easiest way to make some actual progress.

Resolution #4: Keep our home simple and clutter free. This is a huge challenge, particularly around holidays and events like Christmas and birthdays. Having a baby makes it especially challenging! People are always incredibly generous about giving gifts to babies and children, but what I need to be better at is proactively communicating to our family and friends about what we need/want and what we'd really like to avoid. We're currently in the middle of a big time decluttering of our house, so this is a step in the right direction. We just have to keep it decluttered! Ellie's first birthday might be a challenge!

Resolution #5: Pay off the car loan. Provided we don't have any major changes to our financial situation, this is completely feasible! It definitely means sticking to our budget and might mean forfeiting trips that we had hoped to take, but it would be worth it to have the weight off our shoulders! After the car loan is paid off, we would only have student loans remaining.

Resolution #6: Exercise. This isn't the typical New Year's resolution about losing weight or going to the gym X number of times each week. I simply want the endorphins! I have a hot yoga class coming up this week that I am absolutely DYING to go to. It's not the physical exercise that I care so much about, but the amazing feelings that I can't even do justice by attempting to describe. It's something I can do that makes my soul feel good!

It's always possible to make a million lists of things I want to do or change, but I want to stop there. If I keep it short, it will likely be even more manageable! Next I have to make my goals for January and see if I can work towards some of these resolutions in baby steps starting with this month...

Living In The Moment

Lately I've been thinking a lot about how different my frame of mind is now, compared to a few months ago when Ellie was a newborn. In the 0-3 month phase, I remember constantly thinking 'it'll be easier when...' or 'I can't wait until she's able to...', filling in the gaps with milestones I thought would make my life easier. Having a newborn was simultaneously incredibly challenging and a wonderful blessing.

I feel like my attitude started to shift around the 4 month mark. Ellie started acknowledging and reacting to me (smiles, laughs, etc) and I started to feel like having a baby around was just as much fun as it was work. And even then, some of that 'work' was actually pretty great (breastfeeding, bath time, etc.).

Now, at nearly 7 months, she is such a joy to be around! She laughs, plays, reaches for toys, reaches for me, babbles, sits up on her own, makes funny faces (especially the one she makes when I try to feed her apples or hummous). She brings so much joy to my life and I couldn't imagine going a day without her (the day of my surgery was brutal!). All of this gushing doesn't mean she isn't still a challenge and a lot of work (that's just part of being a parent), but the work is a lot less daunting these days. Here's hoping she's still this much of a joy when she's a teenager ;)

December Goals

I've decided not to make any concrete goals for this month. We have a lot going on over the next few weeks and my only goal for the month is to get through it relatively unscathed.

I started off the month in pretty rough shape because I had my gall bladder removed only a couple days earlier. Suffice it to say, those first few days were a blur of painkillers, no sleep and a lot of lying on the couch with heat packs and ice packs just trying to make it through. Thanks to a lot of help from Adam and my mom, Ellie and I were well taken care of.

I've now made it through my first week of recovery and I'm on to my next challenge. This week I'm putting together a staff holiday party for 20-30 people and then baking 7 dozen cookies for a cookie exchange on the weekend. I'm a little overwhelmed but I still seem to find the time to do fun things like set up a small Christmas tree and bake shortbread cookies.

During the last couple weeks of this month I have to plan and pack for a week long trip across the country with Adam and Ellie. To say I'm nervous/anxious/stressed/worried about all the things I need to remember and deal with along the way would be an understatement. I have no idea how Ellie is going to react to airplane travel, airport transfers, and a plethora of new faces. It may sound negative to some people, but I'm trying to plan for the worst so that I will be prepared for any scenario. Wish us luck!

So that's the month ahead. All while still recovering from surgery. Here's hoping I make it out alive!

It's Almost December!

With my surgery coming up on Monday, I thought it would be best to get a head start on evaluating my November goals.

• Take Ellie to a baby group. Nope!
• Continue to eat more veggies. Yup!
• More tummy time for Ellie! A bit, but she's not a big fan.
• Be more consistent with putting Ellie in her crib for naps. I totally suck at this.
• Sit down with Adam and weigh the pros and cons of me finding an outside job. Done, and as it turns out, I got a job and then went from part time to on-call/casual. I think this is the perfect balance.
• Encourage Adam to use the sauna or steam room at least once a week. I totally forgot to do this...
• Do something (anything!) once a week that contributes to my own overall health. Not even once...
• Let my mom babysit more so that Ellie gets more used to her. Done! Ellie LOVES her!
• Get our house clean and sorted. Mostly done, but I feel like it's a never ending task.
• Baby proof! We've started!
• Work on my two big goals.Yes. I've been doing research for both goals. I've determined that if we do proceed with adoption, it would likely be a private adoption as I am just not up for the challenges that come with raising a child with FASD. I completely commend people who take on this challenge knowingly, but I don't see myself going this route any time soon. So now I need to do more research on funding for private adoptions. As for my career goal, I just have to keep plugging along with the research for now.
• Make and freeze a month's worth of baby food! Well, I might not have a month's worth frozen, but I do have quite a bit.
• Pump and freeze milk for my surgery. Done.
• Christmas presents/plans! Everything about this is up in the air, so hopefully we can get some of it figured out soon! Plans are made and I'm just about done with presents!

I'll have to think up some goals for December, but I might not get a chance to post them on time, depending on my surgery. Hopefully it will go well and I'll be posting my December goals on the 1st!

November Goals

I can't believe it will be December a month from now. I am not even the least bit prepared for the holidays. Looks like I'll have to make up for that in November!

• Take Ellie to a baby group. We've been to it once before, but now I'd like to work it into our schedule more regularly.
• Continue to eat more veggies.
• More tummy time for Ellie! She very much prefers to sit up to play on her blanket, but to learn to crawl, she'll have to do more tummy time.
• Be more consistent with putting Ellie in her crib for naps.
• Sit down with Adam and weigh the pros and cons of me finding an outside job. I have an interview next week, so hopefully we can do this before then.
• Encourage Adam to use the sauna or steam room at least once a week.
• Do something (anything!) once a week that contributes to my own overall health. Whether this is a yoga class, a session in the sauna, some time in the fitness room, etc. It doesn't matter what it is as long as it makes me feel good and is good for me! 
• Let my mom babysit more so that Ellie gets more used to her. This will give me some freedom and help relieve some of the stress of having to leave Ellie when I have my gall bladder removed. Plus, if I do get an outside job, it will help with childcare.
• Get our house clean and sorted. We have bottles that need to go to the depot, a baby swing to return to a friend, computer stuff to organize and put away, a baby gate (or rather, a dog pen) to set up, a playpen to put away, etc. I am looking forward to tackling this to-do list!
• Baby proof! Ellie will only be getting more and more mobile as the months progress, so it may be time to baby proof things like cords, cables, outlets, etc. Then, when she's just about to pull up on stuff, we'll baby proof things like heavy furniture and toilet lids!
• Work on my two big goals.
• Make and freeze a month's worth of baby food!
• Pump and freeze milk for my surgery (I have to keep doing this on an ongoing basis because milk only lasts so long in the freezer and I have no idea when my surgery will be).
• Christmas presents/plans! Everything about this is up in the air, so hopefully we can get some of it figured out soon!

This is a terribly long list, but hopefully with some babysitting by mom, I'll have a little more time to accomplish things!

A Look Back At October

Well, October definitely started out on the wrong foot. After a lot of pain and many doctor's appointments (and one night in the emergency room!), I found out I have gall stones and need to have my gall bladder removed. On top of this, the hotel got much busier and we lost a staff member, so I've been working a little more than I expected. So those are my excuses for failing at some of my October goals! Here are the goals I had set for October and the results of each goal:

• Take Ellie to swimming lessons. We did this. We lasted for 3 lessons before we realized it was silly to keep going. They happen to coincide with nap time, so Ellie just wasn't a very happy camper for most of the lesson. We plan to go to public swim time with her in the future and then try lessons again when she's a little older.
• Continue to eat more veggies. We've been having green smoothies nearly everyday and dinners that consist of a ton of veggies since my gall bladder troubles have me on a very restricted diet.
• More tummy time for Ellie! Yup! Although we're also doing a lot of 'sitting' (while I support her a bit) time because she seems to prefer it.
• Get Ellie to nap without being held. I know this is possible because she's done it a few times and because she naps in the car seat or stroller sometimes too. Now I just need to get her used to napping in the crib. I've been avoiding it because I appreciate the cuddles, but it would be nice to also be able to nap or to get things done while she naps. Yes! She has napped in her crib a handful of days now. I need to be more consistent with it though.
• Apply for jobs. I am able to work at the hotel, with my husband, however, I would like to find some part time work where the pay is a little better. At the very least, I would like to pick up a few more hours at the hotel to supplement our income since I don't get any maternity leave pay. I have sent out some applications, but have also gotten more hours at the hotel. I had forgotten how much I like working with my husband!
• Encourage Adam to use the sauna or steam room a couple times a week to take better advantage of the perks of living here and to relax! I probably haven't done this as much as I intended, but we've been pretty swamped, so free time has been at a minimum this month. However, I did manage to send him off to use the sauna once and he also got treated to a 3 hour massage on one of his days off!
• Do something (anything!) once a week that contributes to my own overall health. Whether this is a yoga class, a session in the sauna, some time in the fitness room, etc. It doesn't matter what it is as long as it makes me feel good and is good for me! I like the sound of this goal already! :) Giant fail. It seems ironic that I wrote a goal about doing things that contribute to my health and then days later found myself in the emergency room. I spent most of October feeling sore, weak, tired and just plain crappy. Hopefully I can do better next month!

I also think I should give myself bonus points for fitting in an overnight road trip. I took Ellie (all by myself!) to visit my parents on their new farm. It was a quick, but successful, trip!

 
Now I'm going to take a couple days to think about what I want my November goals to be!
 

It's October Already?!

It seems like September passed in a blur of activity and we've somehow wound up several days into October without even realizing it. Yikes! I guess it's time to see how I did with my September goals and set some new ones for October. Here's how I did last month:

• Take an overnight family trip. Done! Major success ~ Ellie travels well! She actually started consistently sleeping through the night during our trip!
• Eat more veggies. Done! I found a yummy slow cooker meal that's nearly all veggies and I've also been having a green smoothie everyday for the past week or so.
• Continue to exercise regularly. Not so much. I've walked with Ellie, but not as much as I did in August when the weather was nicer. 
• Give Ellie even more tummy time and independent time. I still have to remind myself to do tummy time everyday (I often remember right after a feeding, which means we don't do it because it would only result in mass quantities of puke), however, she does get a decent amount of independent play time.
• Go to a mom and baby group with Ellie. Preparing for our overnight trip meant skipping these groups and now they overlap with swimming lessons so they might not happen until November!
• Take the car in for an oil change and to replace our cracked windshield. Done!
• Get my bloodwork done to check my thyroid. I "forgot"? Haha... who likes bloodwork anyhow?!

Not so bad ~ although I'm noticing a trend where the things that are least likely to get accomplished are the things that relate to my own overall health. Not good. I need to try to rectify the habit of placing my well being on the back burner!

Now here are some October goals:

• Take Ellie to swimming lessons.
• Continue to eat more veggies.
• More tummy time for Ellie!
• Get Ellie to nap without being held. I know this is possible because she's done it a few times and because she naps in the car seat or stroller sometimes too. Now I just need to get her used to napping in the crib. I've been avoiding it because I appreciate the cuddles, but it would be nice to also be able to nap or to get things done while she naps.
• Apply for jobs. I am able to work at the hotel, with my husband, however, I would like to find some part time work where the pay is a little better. At the very least, I would like to pick up a few more hours at the hotel to supplement our income since I don't get any maternity leave pay.
• Encourage Adam to use the sauna or steam room a couple times a week to take better advantage of the perks of living here and to relax!

Hmm... Other than eating more veggies, I seem to have a lack of goals related to my own well being, again! So maybe I'll top the list off with one more:

• Do something (anything!) once a week that contributes to my own overall health. Whether this is a yoga class, a session in the sauna, some time in the fitness room, etc. It doesn't matter what it is as long as it makes me feel good and is good for me! I like the sound of this goal already! :)

September Goals

I'm pretty happy with how I did on my August goals even if I didn't achieve all of them. Now it's time to set some goals for September and get started making them happen!

• Take an overnight family trip. We have this planned already, so fingers crossed it goes well! It will actually be a 4 hour trip in the car and two nights away from home - yikes!
• Eat more veggies. My August goal about eating more salads and green smoothies didn't work out. I think it was too specific. I'd like to get more veggies in my diet, but it doesn't have to be through salads or smoothies.
• Continue to exercise regularly. This may only be a walk with Ellie in the stroller, or it may be a half hour stint in the fitness room. I'm okay with either!
• Give Ellie even more tummy time and independent time. We threw caution to the wind and ignored absolutely everyone's parenting advice for the first three months and just did what worked for Ellie. Now, I'm ready to wean her off of always wanting to be in someone's arms. In the next couple months we'll start to work on getting her to fall asleep on her own for naps!
• Go to a mom and baby group with Ellie. There is one very close to our house, so hopefully that will help me get over the trauma of driving alone with Ellie.
• Take the car in for an oil change and to replace our cracked windshield. We've been meaning to do this for a while now, but it requires 'giving up' almost a whole day off, so I've been postponing it inevitably. I'm hoping that posting this here will force me to book it and get it done. I also would really like it done before our road trip!
• Get my bloodwork done to check my thyroid. I had crazy weird thyroid issues early on in my pregnancy with Ellie and was supposed to have it checked again shortly after her birth. Well, I've been putting this off strictly because it's not fun and I often have 'more important' things to do. It's time to get it over with! 

I could keep going, but I think this is a manageable number of goals. I also need to get started on some of them as soon as possible because otherwise there is potential for a lot of these things to all happen within a week of one another. That doesn't sound fun!

August Goal Review

Early in the month, I set some goals for myself and now the time has come to see how well I've done. Here are the goals I had set, and, in bold text, the results!

• Shower while home alone with Ellie. I have now done this about half a dozen times. It totally depends on her mood, but if she's happy in the bouncy chair I get a very enjoyable 3 minute shower! 
• Take Ellie somewhere in the car without Adam. I did manage to drive a couple minutes down the road to meet a friend and her kids at the beach. This was a few weeks ago, and slightly traumatized me (Ellie cried, I got distracted, I ran a stop sign!!!), so I haven't done it since.
• Go back to work part time. I've been working a few shifts here and there, but after much consideration, we decided it was too soon. Because Adam's shift would end at the very minute mine would begin, it required this difficult baby-shuffling routine in addition to the challenge of getting ready for work while entertaining a baby. I have my last shift this Saturday, and then we're going to wait a month or so and try again.
• Take an overnight family trip. Our work schedule made this impossible, however, we have one planned for September!
• Make time for regular exercise at least 2-3 times per week. I haven't made it over to the fitness room once this past month. But I did get out for walks with Ellie in the stroller nearly everyday for the past few weeks. It's a start!
• Eat more salads and/or green smoothies. Ha! I totally bailed on this goal.
• Do more tummy time, diaper-free time and outside in the shade time with Ellie. Success!
• Open an RESP for Ellie. Done! 

Not too shabby! Now I'm going to go think about what I want my September goals to be and hopefully I will get around to posting them in the next few days. 

Time Flies...

... when you're exhausted 24/7. I can't believe it's been just over 3 months since Ellie officially entered the world. It's so hard to remember what our lives were like before we had her. Adam and I were talking the other day about what we did with our days off before her birth, and we really couldn't remember. We concluded that we wasted a lot of our baby-free time. Oh if we only knew then what we know now.... Isn't that always the case?

 

This past month has been hectic. We had a two week visit from Ellie's Ontario grandparents. We attempted several outings with Ellie but she just wasn't having it. She also had a few super fussy nights with lots of crying, which lead to a very exhausted mommy! On top of that, she had her first shots which resulted in a full day of crying in her sleep (yup, she slept ALL day after her shots!). We've also had visits from my mom and stepdad, my dad and stepmom, and a whole bunch of our friends (Danica, Shawna, Sven & Kayden). I also started working part time (but that's an entire other post worth in itself!). We even ventured out to Diana & Richard's house for a delicious dinner (and survived with only a short bout of crying!).

Ellie has also reached a lot of milestones over the past month. She had already started rolling from her tummy to her back, but also now rolls from her back onto her side (mostly in pursuit of fingers to suck on). She has also rolled back to tummy a couple times, but I think they were mostly accidental. She also figured out how to bat at her toys and a couple days of doing that resulted in her being able to reach for and grab her toys! Now she's just starting to put her two hands together. It's pretty fun to watch her concentration as she stares in amazement at her hands clasped in front of her! She is holding her head up really well these days, and likes putting weight on her legs when we hold her up. We also just got her a bumbo, which she really seems to enjoy so far!

Well, our life is pretty much all about Ellie! So that about sums up the last month or so. I don't even remember what 'busy' felt like before having a baby!

August Goals

One of my favourite blogs and bloggers does a monthly reflection and sets out her goals for the next month. I really enjoy those posts and have been wanting to do something similar because I think it will help me commit to my goals and hopefully follow through on them. So, as a trial run, here are my goals for August:

• Shower while home alone with Ellie (I usually either sneak in a shower before Adam goes to work, or when he comes home on his break, but getting up at 6am to shower or waiting until noon aren't very convenient options).
• Take Ellie somewhere in the car without Adam. I haven't attempted this yet because she often gets fussy in the car and I like to be the one sitting beside her and soothing her. But I have a friend I haven't seen since before Ellie was born, so I might just use that as an excuse to get over this hurdle! Then we can look at going to mommy-and-me type groups together in the fall!
• Go back to work part time. Luckily, we live at work, so this can be done fairly easily without me having to pump (hopefully). I'm just not sure how I'll handle longer periods of time away from Ellie (my shifts would be 4.5 hours).
• Take an overnight family trip. We will probably either go to visit my parents (depending on their schedules - they have a busy month!) or go somewhere else on the island just the 3 of us.
• Make time for regular exercise at least 2-3 times per week. We have a fitness room on the property, so all I have to do is get dressed and go over there when I get free time. I'd like to lose 5-7 pounds this month. I think this is doable.
• Eat more salads and/or green smoothies. There is a group retreat here at the moment in which the participants subside on nothing but green smoothies for a week. I'm hoping to be in the right place at the right time and score some free smoothies!
• Do more tummy time, diaper-free time and outside in the shade time with Ellie. Tummy time is great for strengthening her arm, neck and chest muscles and it's also the first step to crawling someday. Diaper-free time is good for airing out and keeping diaper rash away. On that note, diaper-free time can be kinda messy, so outside in the shade might be a nice place to do that!
• Open an RESP for Ellie. We actually had intended to do this in July (the appointment was made and everything), but had unexpected guests, so we cancelled it to spend time with them. It should be fairly simple to re-book once we know our work schedules.

I keep wanting to add more goals, but at the risk of overextending myself and feeling stressed out all month (or disappointed next month when I look back on these goals), I'm going to leave it there.

What do you think? Does this list seem realistic? Or is it too much too soon? Do you have any big (or small) goals for this month?

My Long List of Excuses

I've been terrible at keeping up with blogging. At times, it's a nice break from this baby business, but at other times - those breaks are used for much needed sleep! I've even given up on washing the dishes everyday so that I can have that extra ten minutes of rest - believe me, it's worth it!

We've also been super busy lately with lots of visitors. In some ways it's easier to have a whole bunch of people visit over the course of one weekend, but in other ways it's ten times more hectic! We started off our busy weekend on a Wednesday night when we went into town to pick up Adam's sister from the airport. The very next day, a couple of our friends came to visit. Unfortunately for them, Ellie was having a particularly fussy night and she put on quite a screeching crying show for them! Thankfully though, we also got to visit with them the next morning when she was in a much better mood. Then on the Saturday my dad stopped by for an hour or so to show us his new sheep and to visit briefly with our other visitors that arrived that day - my brother and his family! It was great to see my nephews (they are growing up far too quickly!) and absolutely heart melting to see Ellie's Auntie & Uncle dote on her! By Monday evening, all our guests had departed and we were just plain exhausted!

That was over a week ago now and I'm still not sure if I've recovered. Now we have another super busy couple of weeks coming up. This week and next we have appointments on every one of Adam's days off. One of those is Ellie's first shots. I don't think I need to explain why I'm not looking forward to that day! We booked her appointment for the morning for a couple reasons. She's the least fussy in the mornings, so at least she won't already be screaming when we get there. Also, then if she has an adverse reaction to the shots, hopefully it would still be day time when it happens so we won't be heading into town in the middle of the night to go to the emergency room (why do I always think of the worst case scenario?!). And if she's just fussy and upset all day, hopefully it will subside by night time and we won't have a sleepless night as a result. Wishful thinking? Probably.

On top of all that, we have more visitors coming this weekend for a couple weeks - Ellie's grandparents from Ontario! She is their first grandchild, so they are very excited to finally meet her. Hopefully we have a minimal number of super fussy days while they're here, since we still seem to be getting those fairly often! Oh - and in a lovely turn of events - my mom (who was the biggest help in the world to me for a whole WEEK after Adam went back to work) will be back for one night at the end of the month! Oh how I wish I could keep her another week!

If anyone else is planning on visiting in the near future - bring coffee and lots of it. Or food, food is good! (Thank you sooo very much for the chili and bread Madeleine! Yum!!)

Pregnancy Ads

My husband had a genius moment of hilarity I just had to share. We were talking about all the weird and random things pregnancy does to you (the no one tells you about until after you get pregnant) and he concluded that there should be ads for pregnancy similar to ads for medications. You know the ones - where they talk about the wonderful things the drug does for about 2 seconds and then spend the rest of the commercial listing side effects.

We think the pregnancy commercial would go something like this:
Pregnancy is a beautiful journey that ends with the birth of a child you will love for eternity. Side effects may include constipation, swelling of the face, hands, feet and stomach, discolouring of the face, sensitivity of the gums, round ligament pain, cramps, back aches, nausea, vomiting, headaches, exhaustion, dry skin, weight gain, increased appetite, decreased appetite, light headedness, heartburn, imbalance, nipple and breast soreness or sensitivity. Pregnant women should avoid dangerous activities, heavy lifting, eating soft cheeses, drinking alcohol and should limit their intake of caffeine. Should you experience bleeding, contact your doctor immediately.

Of course, if this ad existed, pregnancy probably wouldn't be such a popular route to starting a family!

First Snow Fall

We got our first snow fall of the season last week. It was only a couple centimeters, but it sure made for some pretty scenery for the day.

It has pretty much melted now, except for a few spots that are nearly always in the shade. I can't wait until the yard is covered in a foot or more of snow so we can run around and have snowball fights with the dog!

The snow clouds ended just across the water where the mountains begin, which made for some pretty cool clear photos of the mountain peaks. So beautiful! On cloudy, rainy days it's easy to forget that the mountains are even there because you can't see anything but water and clouds. So this was a nice reminder of the view from our back yard. How lucky are we?!

10 Year Plan

I wish I had the patience to make a 10 Year Plan and then relax knowing I would get everything I want to do accomplished in due time. For me, that doesn't work. I want to do everything and I want to do it all right now.

~ I want to do the Hospital Unit Clerk program and spend a few years working in that field.
~ I want to volunteer for a local health-related non-profit for a few years before doing my Master's.
~ I want to do my Master's of Public Health.
~ I want to do more international volunteer work in a health related setting.
~ I want to accomplish all of this simultaneously and in the next few years. I'm a dreamer.

To some extent, this could work. For example, I have already started the volunteer work and could continue it while finishing my Medical Terminology course. I could then get employment (fingers crossed) in the medical sector while taking my Hospital Unit Clerk program. Once I complete that program, I could potentially move into that career field and then do my Master's via distance education. The tricky thing is, I also want to do the international volunteer work before my Master's.

And where does my husband and family fit in? What if Adam has a career change in this time as well and what if it involves relocating again? What if Adam wants to go back to school? How does 'life' fit into my plans??

I need to learn patience. I want to jump in and do everything all at once, but life doesn't work that way. There's applications to do months in advance, time spent waiting on test results, holidays, and of course, each thing I want to do takes time as well.

And don't get me started on finances...

Excitement!

I just had a great meeting with a local non-profit that provides education, counselling and support to people living with HIV and Hep C. I'm going to be volunteering with them and my first gig is next week! I'll be happily handing out free condoms to students at the college's orientation day. Want free condoms? Come visit me!

Fasciotomy, Hyperkinesia, Osteosarcoma, What??

I'm not sure if I've previously mentioned my decision on which career path to take. I had three options - nursing, Montessori teaching, and hospital unit clerk(ing). Factors out of my control narrowed it down for me pretty quickly. I decided to first take a medical terminology clerk to see if the hospital unit clerk program was the way to go or not.

So far the course is as fascinating as it is overwhelming. Learning medical terminology is sometimes compared to learning English for the first time. I now have endless empathy for English language students. I really need to get off the computer and go study! [And no sooner than I typed that I got called into work!]

Bad, bad blogger

Clearly I've neglected this blog. It was all wedding all the time for months, then the wedding month came. The crazy schedule of a million tasks took over and blogging was no longer a priority. After the wedding it took weeks before I bothered to post about the actual wedding. And now that's over and I have nothing left to say about it. I'm no longer a West Coast Bride... I'm now a West Coast Wife.

So now that I'm a wife with plenty of time on my hands, I'm getting a bit discouraged with life. Not to sound depressing, but it's lonely being in a new town with no friends and only a part time job to occupy your time. I was distracted from this for the first couple months because I had the wedding planning to focus on. Well, now that that's over with, I have WAY too much time to sit and think about how I have nothing to do. Add to that the financial stress that goes along with only working part time and you've got one bummed-out, stressed-out stay-at-home-wife.

Any tips on how to get yourself out of a funk?