Hello I'm back :)

So I took a little break, unintentionally but it was needed.

I can't believe January is over, I haven't posted since the beginning of the month, since telling you my 2012 goals lol opps. I just reviewed my goal list actually and I suppose I could scratch off my break as being some "me" time. Ideally I'd like me time more regularly tho.

I've been peeking at everyone's blogs, I still have lots to catch up on though but I've seen some exciting news on a few so far :)

So what have I been doing...
Well to sum it all up as short as possible I have been working tons (almost finished work! Yahoo!),
I've been spending some quality time with hubby,
trying to prepare for baby V,
I've been taking pictures! Despite my inability to post them and link up each week I have been taking them! I've had some issues with my computer but I think/hope it is all resolved.
I have had a few little craft projects on the go I'll show you some possibly in the next week when they are finished.

Other than that it's all been pretty mellow, nothing too exciting just life in general. I was feeling mentally exhausted.

There of course still things being wrapped up from 2011, not so fun things...
In addition to preparing myself mentally for the year mark of our miscarriage, my parents decided they had had enough with their relationship. I don't remember if this was wrote about on this blog of my old one but they almost ended things last year, maybe the fall sometime. Anyways they have decided they are too far gone, I had a suspicion at Christmas but didn't say anything. I'm sad of course but I think I'm ok with it, it's not a shock like last time.

But I'm not going to get into details on anything this post, I wanted to say I am back and here's a recap and I will be back again soon :)

And I will leave you with a pic of my nice fat swollen feet and ankles, I now have to wear hubby's shoes mine are too tight. If you look close you might be able to see my thumb imprint on my left foot.

2012 Resolutions & Goals

So we are a few days into the new year, I hope it's off to a good start for everyone.
We are still wrapping up the remaining tasks of 2011 (getting the car repaired etc), but so far no new catastrophes have occured. Hopefully this year will bring only good things and maybe even be the best one yet :)

I am always hesitant to make a resolution, I feel people including myself pick grand ideas that lose steam weeks or months in. So this year I decided I would pick more specific smaller short term goals, more realistic and easier to achieve.

My goals for the year include the following:

1. Be more organized in every aspect of my life. For this I plan on starting with a routine and expanding my organization into my home environment. Between Pinterest and the organization blogs I read I have plenty of small ideas for this. Even if I only accomplish 1 or 2 of these projects I will be more organized than when I started making this goal met :)

2. Take more pictures. I used to be just like my friend Maria and take pictures of EVERYTHING. It probably was annoying at times lol, my camera was always on hand and every moment captured. This past year was exhausting mentally for me and I lost that desire to take pictures. 2011 was probably the all time low for picture taking for me ever. So to help me get back into the swing of things I am going to do one of the 52 week projects. I've only found this one to link up with so far but if I find more I'll link to them also. I figure once a week is small enough to not be overwhelming, I may take more pictures but only post once a week.

3. Cut out fast food. Here is it, this is my over ambitious goal that I always fail. So I'm going to take it a month at a time and cut out fast food for the rest of January. I could have said all of Jan except I ate at McDonalds yesterday lol.

4. Be a better wife.  Where this goal comes from is from my reflections of the past year, our first year of marriage, the stressors we've encountered, and the craziness of life. Like any couple we've had rough patches over our 8 1/2 years together, and I recognize this baby is going to change the dynamic of our lives even more. I don't want to be one of those married couples that put all their focus on the baby and forget each other. So I'm planning my valentines gift already and it's a gift that lasts all year, in addition to that I am making a better effort to think 2 steps ahead of him and do some of those little things we take for granted. All simple enough but those little things matter.

5. Knock a few things off my 35 before 35 list. How perfect is it I already have a list of mini goals to include in my new years list ;)

6. Take time for me to be me. Life is crazy and stressful and overwhelming at times. I struggle to find the time to do things I "want" to do rather than "need" to do. So I'm highly considering taking designated Me time. I'm not sure how often yet, and maybe creating a routine (goal #1) will help find the time.

7. Be a better sister and friend. This one always has room for improvement. No specific ideas on how to start this yet but again with being a better wife it's the little things that matter.

 I'm sure I could think up even more goals for the year but I'll start with these and see how far I get ;)

Good luck to everyone with all their goals and resolutions!

Recap of 2011

Happy New Years! I am so ready for the new year, I feel like 2011 was the most stressful year for me yet. This new year can only be better. I have my resolution/goal list but before I share that I thought it would be good to do a recap. So let's see 2011...

January
+ started with finding out days after New Years that I was pregnant! After the initial shock and panic this was a good thing. ( we weren't preventing but not 100% sure we were ready)
+ next came a move from our tiny apartment to our 3 story townhouse. Yay for more room!

February
- at 9 weeks found out we had a missed miscarriage
- a week later my body finally tried to miscarry only to have me hemorrhage and have an emergency d&c, narrowly escaping a blood transfusion.
+ I started my first ever blog after discovering others had done the same to deal with loss

March, April, May, June
* These months all sort of blended together for me
- I was struggling to cope with our loss, depression had crept in, anger and jealousy towards anyone happy were also present emotions.
- my relationships with friends, family and my husband were all damaged because of my inability to cope.
- I got let go from my job in early April because of senior co workers dislike of me and my unwillingness to to kiss her ass.
+ because of their being no real reason to terminate me I got a pretty sweet lay off payout
+/- in June I started working again for a previous employer, not ideal but it was a paycheck.

July
+ BFP
- spotting pregnancy scare
+ healthy heartbeat at dating ultrasound found out EDD March 11, 2012

August, September
+ Incubus concert with Hubby (our fave band)
-/+ pregnancy was "outed" at cousins wedding
+ made it into the 2nd trimester
- my parents reveal they are on the verge of splitting

October
+ Hubby and I survive the first year of marriage. Celebrate 1 year married, 8 years together
+ found out were having a boy!
+ started my new blog

November
Nothing terribly exciting or bad happened that I can think of

December
- emergency visit to the vet for the dog $$$
- minor car accident
+ babies are born for cousin and friend
- and December 31st to end the year with a bang I slipped on ice and fell smoking my head of the pavement.

Looking at it all it doesn't feel as bad, however in-between it all there has been lots of stress with fighting with hubby, family, pregnancy hormones etc.
Good riddance 2011

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

I know I'm a little late on the Christmas wishes but I hope everyone had a good
holiday!
Things have been busy as usual around here so I thought I had better do a little recap. I was hoping to have some pictures to share with you but my mother in law has not sent them to me yet... So let's go in order here:

* December 18th I had my diabetes test. I drank up my semi orange flavor drink and had blood work an hour after. I have not heard anything back at this point, so I'm assuming this is good but I will know for sure next week.

* As I arrived at the hospital on the 18th (that where the testing is) I discovered that Hubby's cousin had been admitted and her induction had started! I spent some time visiting with her while there and kept in touch thru out the week, and Thursday December 22nd at 9:30pm she had given birth. :) Baby A aka Nathan weighed in at 5lb9oz a good size for an early twin! His little brother was named Luke, and his parents and grandparents got to hold and love him a bit as well. Ugh heartbreaking, but Nathan is doing well and hopefully will get to go home soon.

* Christmas eve was spent over at Hubby's aunts house. Some food, and a fun gift exchange as is tradition. Christmas morning we got up early and drove to my moms about 45 minutes away for brunch and gifts. After that we drove to Ottawa to see my Aunts, Uncles and grandparents for Christmas dinner. Such a busy day after dinner we drove back home thru a mini snowstorm which made a long drive even longer.

* Boxing day is traditionally spent with Hubby's family. His aunts and uncles take turns hosting, this year we drove to Toronto area for more good food and another gift exchange. That night we got in the car again and headed off to spend a few days with Hubby's parents.

* While away our dog ate something (possibly pleural) and we ended up in the emergency vet clinic... I thought we were gonna lose her it was awful. After an xray and some nausea and pain meds she was given the all clear. It has taken her a few days to be back to normal, were about 95%, only thing holding us back from 100 is she has not pooped in over 24 hours... Hopefully this is resolved by tomorrow, she has been on a restricted diet until today so not stressing yet. I don't know about you but emergency vet clinics here are ridiculously expensive, our first experience at one cost us 1200$, the clinic near Hubby's hometown was cheaper and we paid less than 500$. Still a lot but not as bad.2012 is days away! I can hardly believe it.

Since this is long I will touch base again Monday :)Hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year!

Nursery ideas

The one thing harder than finding a baby name is probably deciding on the nursery.

We had a plan and it was awesome, but a recent turn of events is causing that to change. Our car needs something expensive (I'm not a car person so don't know what), and hubby's cousin had offered us one of her cribs... We weren't going to take it cause it's more natural wood colour and we were set on cherry wood but now with the expense of the car it sounds like we may need too.

I'm having a hard time finding inspiration pictures online with that colour of wood, especially ones I like... I don't want a nursery that too babyish, I'm not sure how long were living here but it needs to be something that will last him at least 2 years. Also I'm trying to avoid too much of a theme, particularly personality themes i.e. sports, fish, animals etc.

Am I sounding difficult? lol

Hubby is not able to visualize either so pics need to have some similarity to what were working with, similar carpet colour etc.

So our carpet is a beige/off white, the window trim and doors are white, crib is "natural" not sure what it's really called.

This is what I've come up with so far. I'm thinking a combination of these 3 pics
- I like the idea of grey walls with green and blue/teal accents exact shades undecided.

2nd Trimester Recap

I have at least 5 different blog topics in my head right now but I think I should do a quick recap before I get too far ahead of myself!

I am in my third trimester :)

Currently 28w1d

weight gain so far:

Yikes! a whopping 32lbs!!! I am trying not to stress about that number. My OB didn't seem the least bit concerned, I even pointed it out and her response was that I don't appear to have gained so much, so no big deal. Since I am not a total fatty, just belly and thighs I guess its fine.

stretch marks?:

Nothing on my belly so far! I'm shocked since its stretched so much. I have 1 tiny one on my right hip, and a couple on each thigh, but none of them are really that noticeable.

cravings?:

I love gravy. I'm not "craving" it per say... but if gravy is an option I'm for sure taking it.

movement?:

Pretty much all the time now, this little man is a total wiggle worm. He doesn't kick and punch too much, or too hard but I often feel body parts sliding under my skin. Its kinda cool and alien like at the same time lol

gender?:

Boy! we had this reconfirmed a few weeks ago when I was in for stress testing (we got in a little fender bender I didn't tell you about). Everything looked good on the tests as I suspected and I had them take a peek during the ultrasound to re confirm.

sleep?:

I'm sleeping... just not a lot. Between having to get up every few hours to pee, and reposition in the hours in between its more like napping than sleeping through the night. I like to nap whenever possible in the day which lately is not too much :(

 mood?:

Generally I am happy go lucky... I have always been "crabby" when tired.. I think this has escalated lol. If I'm tired then I may be a little short tempered and lacking patience but I've managed to keep it under control and only had a small handful of days where I may or may not have been not so nice to someone. 

swelling?:

 I haven't been wearing my rings probably since October sometime, my hands will swell up unpredictably and it only took that happening once or twice before I just gave up on the rings. My ankles and feet are swollen on a daily basis it doesn't seem to matter what I'm doing.

 other mentionable points?: 

- I am most definitely nesting. So far its been all about organization, I'm sure hubby wishes it was cleaning ;)

- I'm doing my diabetes screening tomorrow, fingers crossed I pass! I have this feeling I won't

- despite my desire to be organized I feel like I have ADD and my mental state is slipping, I need to write everything down and hope I don't lose the list or I'm screwed. Total baby brain. 

I'm sure there is more worth mentioning but I've forgotten ;)

 

Room Swap - Part 1

Whoa has it seriously been over a week already since I wrote last?

Ive been busy. Very busy in fact. 

I probably have been busy enough to post once a day for the next few days, 

no promises tho ;) 

The living room / dinning room swap phase 1 is complete! 

I am soo happy and excited it is done :) 

I just feel like the flow in here is so much better.

It is slightly awkward to have the dinning room so far from the kitchen,

but not enough to make me switch it back. 

Our old set up consisted of walking in the front door and having a very small,

very square and confined living room right upon entry.

It felt cramped, slightly claustrophobic.  

And the thought of having more stuff (baby items) cramped into that space in a few months really was starting to make me twitch lol

We also put our tree and decorations up last 

week, we still don't have alot to decorate with since we were in such 

a small space the last few years. But I did inherited some decorations from Hubby's Aunt as she was switching  things up at her place. Score! I won't have to buy anything else 

until the holidays are over and hopefully get it all on clearance.

Another task which has been started is moving our desktop computer from the basement

living space (which we never use) upstairs to our new living space. 

I still want a corner desk so it can be nice and 

tidy and not take up so much room but its a start.

And so I will leave you with a few before and after pictures of phase 1 of the room swap. I still have things I need to do before the rooms are finished. 

The old dinning room aka new living room

The old dinning room aka new living room

New dinning room

New dinning room

Old living room aka new dinning room

Old living room aka New dinning room

New living room - still narrow but feels more spacious

New living room aka old dinning room