In a random burst of motivation, let's go on a tour!

I'm alive.

I had you worried didn't I?

Things have been grand here in the world of me. Homeowning is good, work is good and family is great. 

We've been in our house for 6 months now and we're still loving it. I never did upload pictures for you so let me give you an imaginary tour... 

Hello, welcome to my home. Come in, won't you? What's that, you love the metal pine cone light that hangs above the entry? Don't lie, it's ugly. As soon as I find something better it's coming out. But if you actually like it then maybe I'll let you have it. Here, have a seat on the couch in our sitting room. I call it that because there's a couch here and that's about the only thing you can do in this area. That and stare out the window at my purple tree. Yes. My tree is purple, I don't know why. Anyway, stop staring at my tree and look at my dining area! It's the one with the gigantic table in it. We bought the table because we like having people over to eat. No, we don't eat them, we eat food with them! And right beside the dining area is the kitchen. It has lots of cupboards and I like it. I've discovered that glass top stoves are a pain to clean though. If ours ever dies while we're here I totally want a gas stove like we had in our first place. 

Alrighty, now that we've made it through the kitchen you'll see our side entry and a set of stairs leading up and a set of stairs leading down. This is a bi-level split and you know what that means: stairs, and lots of 'em! Oh you've decided to take the stairs going up, excellent choice. Here we have Astrid's room which has a window that faces west. That means that when we're trying to put this girl to bed the sun is shines right in to light the whole place up. Thank goodness for blinds and blackout curtains. Across from Astrid's room is a bathroom. Yup, I don't think I need to elaborate. And then at the end of the little hallway that I forgot to mention you were in is our room. Don't mind the mess. There's a door that leads onto our deck (which we'll explore later) and there's also an ensuite bathroom and a nice big closet for all my crap to go into. There's some awesome shelving in there too which I love!

Okay that is it for the upstairs so let's get back to the main level and decide where we'll go to next. Excellent choice, downstairs it is. As we come down, you'll see we're in a big room with carpet and a couch and a comfy chair and a tv. There's windows level with the deck so you can look out and see everyone's feet when people are out there. Yup, nothing too exciting about this room except for the fact that in the summer time it is considerably cooler than the upper levels making it a nice retreat from the heat. Wait a minute there's a door here, is it a closet? Nope, some more stairs! (Bi-level split, remember?)

So we journey down the stairs into the unfinished basement. The bare concrete gets pretty cold on your bare feet, hence the pair of flip flops near the stairs. But those are for me, not for you. You should have brought your own flip flops. Right at the bottom of the stairs is a closet type area under the set of stairs that led from the main level to the living room and then at the end of that little space is the entrance to a huge crawl space which is the entire area under the living room floor! This is gonna be awesome for Astrid to play around in when she gets older as long as we don't accumulate so much crap that we fill it up. Okay, coming out of the crawl space and continuing our tour of the basement we see another bathroom, no elaboration needed. Then there's the laundry room/furnace room, a spare bedroom and then what I like to call the Spare Oom. I call it that because of the giant wardrobe the previous owner left behind. One of these days it's going to open up right into Narnia, I just know it. 

And that completes our tour of the basement so let's head up the two sets of stairs to the main level and go out that side door onto the deck. Don't be alarmed, but we don't have a backyard. Just a deck. It's a big deck though, so don't feel too sorry for us. Oh yes, if you recall, while we were in my room which is upstairs, there was a door leading onto the deck, remember? So the door leads out onto a little deck and then there's a whole new set of stairs leading down onto the main level of the deck. I feel like whoever was building our house was in a competition with another guy building a house and they wanted to see whose house could have the most stairs without any of them leading to nowhere. I have a feeling our house won. ANYWAY, back to the deck: Joe felt like the whole thing was too empty so he just had to buy a BBQ. (I wasn't super thrilled about the purchase, but whatever. It was going to happen eventually). Right behind our deck is our garage. There's a couple steps (yes, more stairs) leading down to the door and inside is our Jeep which we named Bagheera. Having a garage is nice because in the summertime it keeps the jeep out of the sun which keeps it cool and in the wintertime I don't have to scrape the windshield! Wahoo! 

And this concludes our tour of my house. Maybe I'll post some pictures later and you can see if you imagined my house right, haha. Oh and because of my little tangent about the stairs, I just went and counted them and we have 21 stairs inside the house and 17 stairs outside. Can you beat that?

Duets and Song Mates

Do you know what needs to be invented?

A dating service. For singers. Or for people who like to sing but don't consider themselves to be "a singer".

In my teenage years I was lucky enough to find my vocal soul mate, or song mate if you will, Trudy. I think we were sitting next to each other in church and as we were singing the hymns we discovered that our voices blended really well together. We sung a song in front of the older couples we were serving dinner to for a youth activity and bam, the rest was history.

I had never sung in front of people except in a choir until Trudy came along, but after the first song we sang together, we became official. We were a duet. We sang several times a year in church and at various church-related functions.

Even when we were hanging out, we usually sang. Her mom would play the piano and we would flip through the hymn book singing whatever took our fancy. Yeah, we were the coolest of the cool kids.

But alas, as we've grown up our lives have taken us in different directions and I have lost my song mate. I think the last time we did a duet was Christmas of 2012. We would certainly jump at the chance to sing together if it comes along, but I don't think we'll have one for a while.

Though my heart still misses Trudy, I believe the time has come for me to find a new song mate. Not to replace Trudy, but just a song mate for while I am here in GP, where Trudy is not.

So here goes, my personal ad for a song mate:

I am a 24 y.o. female seeking a female (preferably), but open to a male. Age is no issue.
I sing alto confidently and can also sing tenor if the alto part is boring or if I have a cold.
The highest note I can hit and still sound good-ish is a D, the lowest note being an F.
Prefer to sing hymnal music, but also willing to sing pop music if it has good harmonies.
I enjoy singing recreationally and am not afraid to sing in public.
Looking for a semi-serious relationship, but also open to one-time gigs.
Call me at 1-800-HOT-ALTO ;)

And that's a fact

I'm too lazy to write up a full, proper post so let's just get into this, shall we?

Fact #1: we bought a new vehicle. Our old car got rear ended at the end of January two days before Joe went back to work. Thankfully it was just him in the car. But unthankfully, the girl who hit him took off and Joe never got a chance to even get her license plate. So there's a lesson kids, if you get in a car accident first check to see that everyone's okay and second, GET THE LICENSE PLATE NUMBER OF THE PERSON WHO HIT YOU!! Anyway our insurance declared the car a write off which was fine cause we hated it anyway, the timing just really sucked. So long story short we got a 2015 jeep Cherokee and we love it. I love the heated seats and Joe loves the extra leg room. 

Fact #2: Astrid is nearly three months old! She is getting so big and strong. When you're holding her she can pretty much hold her head up on her own except for when she's tired. She's started cooing and some mornings I'll have entire conversations with her just saying "oooh?", and "kgoooh" (which you do by making a scratchy sound at the back of your mouth combined with ooh).

Fact #3: oil prices can suck my big toe. Yes it's nice to have Joe home in the evenings more often, but come onnn! We just had a baby, bought a house and now a car and we'd like to start making headway on our payments please! Plus I'd really like to buy some new clothes cause my old ones don't quite fit the way they used to. I found some good deals the other day and got a pair of pants and two shirts for thirty bucks and I still felt guilty for spending money!

Fact #4: I know I'm way behind the times but I've recently fallen in love with Pinterest. I've been trying a bunch of the recipes I found and pretty much every one has turned out great. 

Fact #5: I wrote this post with Astrid in my arms because the poor dear just did not want to go to sleep and now she's out like a light! Let's just hope she stays out once I put her down...

5 thoughts on the 5th

Wow I didn't post anything in January.

I am a horrible person. Please forgive me. To make up for it, I will blog at least twice in February. (Ha! I'm already halfway there)

Let's see, today is the 5th, so I am going to share 5 thoughts with you.

1. I am loving this mom thing a lot more than I expected to. Not that I was dreading it or anything, but staying at home with Astrid and taking care of the house is more fulfilling than I thought. I thought I would be dying to get back to work, but really, I could go without it. Right now I'm just working a couple days a week for a couple hours at a time, but I'm just waiting for them to hire someone to fully replace me so that I'm not needed there anymore.

2. I have zero decoration skills. And my organization skills are lacking. I need to hire my own personal Martha Stewart so I can get my house pinterest worthy. Or at least worthy enough that I can bring someone into a room without saying "excuse the mess."

3. I am sooo done with winter, but it's only February :( I want to take Astrid outside to explore the world! Instead we just have to settle for books and blankets. My toes haven't been warm since before we moved into our house. To cope, I've had at least one cup of hot chocolate or Milo everyday. I'm sure that's healthy.

4. I've started working out again! Hooray! I downloaded the Johnson & Johnson 7 Minute Workout app and it's great to get me started. My push ups are pretty pathetic these days and my cardio is a joke so I've got my work cut out for me. I know I won't be rugby ready for this summer, but I'm totally looking forward to playing some touch at least!

5. My mom and sister are coming to visit in over a week! Now that I have a baby my family wants to visit all the time, it's great! Where was this last year when I was totally homesick?!

And now for the only thing people really care about these days: my baby!

She loves her swing. Thanks, Auntie Katee and Uncle David!

All smiles!

Her lovely church dress from one of my coworkers. 

Me and Astrid!

Supah cute

2014 in Review

It's time for the annual New Year quiz! If you'd like to reread the reviews from previous years, go to the 2013 review and the links to the other years can be found there. (I'm lazy, ha) I should get a cookie though, because I finally fixed the stupid formatting for this stupid entry! (if you look at the previous years you'll notice the font looks wonky compared to everything else on the blog)

1. Did you keep your New Year's Resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

In 2013 we started making a theme for the year rather than do resolutions and I think it's a tradition I'd like to keep. Last year's was "Let virtue garnish thy thought unceasingly". We haven't had a chance to come up with a new one for 2015, but trust me, we will. 

2. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Uh yeah, about as close as you can get! Me!

3. Did anyone close to you die?

The family has made it through another year unscathed. Though I just recently started watching Downton Abbey and in the last episode one of the characters was killed and I am still livid from it.

4. What countries did you visit?

Hawaii really needs to be considered its own country because it's kind of depressing to visit this gorgeous tropical island and then realize you're still in the Amurica.

5. What would you like to have in 2015 that you lacked in 2014?

Anything that we were lacking this past year, we will have in 2015. We've bought a house and had a baby. Maybe I would like to develop some closer friendships. We came to GP knowing very few people, but we were able to make friends and now I would like to develop those friendships further. 

6. What dates from 2014 will remain etched upon your memory and why?

December 9th, Astrid's birthday! As well as April 1st, that's the day I found out I was pregnant.

7. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I hate to be a broken record, but having a baby was a pretty big deal. I think another one though was that I had a real grown-up job this year working at the physiotherapy clinic.

8. What was your biggest failure?

I don't think I failed at anything this year. It was a good year.

9. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Being pregnant wasn't always sunshine and butterflies. It kept me from playing rugby this year and that was a real bummer.

10. What was the best thing someone bought you?

A house. Joe is so good to me  

11. Where did most of your money go?

Into our house. And I'm sure only more of it will go there next year...

12. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Any time we went back home to visit. My convocation. Going to Hawaii. And having a baby.

13. What song will always remind you of 2014?

Let It Go. I was going to list other songs as well, but really, that one just blew up so much that nothing really came close.

14. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) happier or sadder? Happier.

b) fatter or skinnier? Fatter, sigh.

c) richer or poorer? Poorer. Thanks, house.

15. What do you wish you'd done more of?

Rugby. I missed it. And yoga. I started doing it late in the pregnancy game and I wish I'd gotten into it sooner.

16. What do you wish you'd done less of?

I regret nothing.

17. Did you fall in love in 2014?

Yes. I'd say I'm quite smitten with Astrid. She's pretty stinking cute.

18. What was your favourite TV program?

Fringe (still). Downton Abbey has been pretty good (I like watching it while I feed the baby)

19. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

No.  

20. What was your greatest musical discovery?

I am pretty lame, musically. I've been stuck on the same stuff for years. Maybe this year I will venture out and try to find new things.  

21. What was your favourite film of this year?

Joe and I just watched Hercules and I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. Ooh, and Xmen: Days of Future Past was pretty freaking amazing. I'd say that was my favourite.

22. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?

I turned 24. Joe and I went out for dinner at a new place in town called the Sawmill and we were disappointed.

23. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Being more social.

24. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2014?

Flowy shirts and stretchy pants (in other words: maternity wear).

25. What kept you sane?

Work, Joe, facetime and yoga.

26. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Rhett and Link from Good Mythical Morning and the Fine Bros were my entertainment of choice this year.  

27. Who do you miss?

I still miss the friends and family I have back home, but it doesn't hurt so much when I think of them any more.

28. Who was the best new person you met?

Brandi and Oaklan were two awesome people we met while up in GP and we were quite sad when they moved away. We've been able to make new friends since they left, but no one loves Settlers as much as they do!

29. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2014:

Don't slack off when it comes to living the gospel. Say your personal prayers and read your scriptures everyday.

The Birth Story

In case you haven't heard, I'm a mom now. Our little Astrid was born on Tuesday, December 9th at 6:19 pm. I've been asked if it feels weird being a mom, but the weird thing is that it doesn't feel weird. It feels totally natural. Of course, I do pinch myself every once in a while because I can't believe I'm in this stage of life already, but I am happy and that's all that matters.

Astrid certainly took her time coming into the world. Her due date was set for December 6th, but in true Polynesian style, she wasn't too concerned about being punctual.

My contractions started on Monday the 8th at 2:30 in the morning. It was exciting and scary to think that by the end of the day I'd have a baby and be a mom (that thought turned out to be wrong). The contractions continued all day long, but they never became consistent. I checked in with my doula periodically throughout the day and she reassured me that even though things were going slow, that it was okay and I should try to go about my day as normally as possible. So me and my mom ran some errands in the morning and then Joe and I went to sign some papers for our mortgage at noon (oh yeah, we bought a house. I'll have to share more on that later). I had a nap in the afternoon and after dinner I had a bath and watched Sleepless in Seattle by my doula's recommendation to enjoy my final hours before becoming a mom. When I went to bed that night, I had come to terms with the fact that baby wouldn't be arriving until the 9th and decided to try and get as much rest as possible to prepare for what lay ahead.

At 11:30 pm, my contrations started to pick up in intensity so that I couldn't lay in bed any more when they came. I got my doula to come over around 2 am and we all worked together as the contractions slowly started becoming stronger and more consistent. (we had Fringe playing in the background the entire time. Thank you, Netflix). Finally at 6:30 am, Tuesday morning, I decided to head over to the hospital and hopefully be admitted in. When they checked me at 7:00, I was 4 cm dilated, but they weren't sure they were going to let me stay so they put in a call to my doctor. Because I was positive for strep B, they ended up keeping me and took me to the my room where I would eventually deliver.

After 5 gruelling hours, my conctractions were 1-2 minutes apart and had become quite unbearable. I had gone in with the resolve to give birth without any drugs, and so far I hadn't had anything for pain. At noon they checked me again and rather than tell me I was 7 or 8 or even 9 cms dilated they told me I was STILL 4 cm. My heart sank when I heard this. I was so tired and in so much pain and I had a whole 6 centimeters to go still. At that point I didn't care about going without drugs. There was no way I could last until 10 cms and have any strength to push without getting any rest.

The first thing I asked for was the gas because I had heard such good things about it from other women. I got it, but all it did was make me feel dizzy. Instead of wasting time with the small stuff like morphine or fentanyl, I went straight for the epidural. When I was making my birth plan, getting an epidural was out of the question. I was going to labour without pain killers, but if things really sucked, maybe I'd take some morphine. Little did I know I would be in labour for 36 hours before I would be told I was still only dilated at 4 cms.

By 2 pm I was hooked up to the epidural and numb from the stomach down. I hated the feeling that my butt was asleep, but I loved the fact that I no longer felt like I was dying, so I didn't complain too much about my tingling bum. I scarfed down the lunch that had been waiting for me since 12:30 and then I promptly barfed it all back up. I had forgotten that I was still nauseous from the gas I'd had earlier. I had a granola bar instead and then fell asleep for several hours. I woke up after 5 pm because I had started feeling some contractions again. I told my nurse and I was allowed to have another shot of the good stuff.

Things continued to ramp up and I could really feel the pressure increasing in my abdomen. At 5:30 I felt like I had to take a huge poop. I told my nurse and she got things ready for me to start pushing. I started pushing at 5:50 and the nurse told me I'd probably be pushing for an hour before baby arrived. In my head I saw this as a challenge and so I pushed with all my might. I ended up pushing for 29 minutes and at 6:19 I became a mom.

The hospital policy was that I could only have two people in the delivery room with me when I had my baby. But I had Joe, my mom and my doula all with me. Joe and mom held my legs and my doula was at my head coaching me along. I was later told that the nurse let everyone stay because we made such a great team and she didn't want to break us up. It was really great to have such great support. I am so glad I got a doula because she was able to coach us all along and she helped Joe and my mom to know how best to help me. Even though the birth didn't go exactly as I would have liked, the experience was the best that it could be. And in the end I got a little girl like I wanted! 

And now, pictures!

Just a day old in the hospital

Bindi being Astrid's guard dog 

All smiles while getting burped!

Confessions of a Pregnant Girl - Final chapter???

*Note: I don't know why I didn't post this when I wrote it. Was going through my drafts and found this one unpublished, but finished! Let's blame the baby brain.

Well, it's down to the final stretch. (literally!!)

I hit 37 weeks this weekend and that means the little Bean is a full term baby. It can come any day without causing too much stress. Other than the standard, "holy crap you just pooped out a human, now what?" stress. omg, can someone pleeeaaaase make me a card that says that? Cassandra. I vote you.

Overall, I feel like pregnancy has been kind to me. Although I feel big, by everyone else's standards I am quite small. I can still squat down with relative ease. I've learned how to pee in a cup without getting it on my hands. My energy levels are pretty normal. And I've only had fat ankles once after a car ride home from Edmonton (knock on wood!).

To be honest, when I first found out I was pregnant, I think I was filled mostly with dread. Yes, Joe and I were trying to conceive a child, but I still wasn't quite ready to give up my life as I knew it. So when I saw the little blue lines that told me I was pregnant, I was scared to move on into the next big phase of my life that would last 18+ years. But as the baby has grown, so has my excitement to meet the little one. I can say I'm not dreading it any more. I do worry that I'll be overwhelmed and scared and exhausted, but I know that with God on my side, I can do this. We can do this.

Along with turning 37 weeks this weekend, I also went to my prenatal course which was basically all about what to expect when you're in labour and what to do with a newborn. While I was there I learned a fact that blew my mind. Did you know that when babies are born their stomachs are the size of a marble?? I had no idea their stomachs were so small. And then I realized something: My boobs have grown nearly twice their size in order to feed a tummy the size of a MARBLE!!?? How is that fair! And apparently my milk hasn't even come in so that means they're going to get EVEN BIGGER!! To feed a MARBLE!!! In what world does that make sense?? How on earth were my previously sized boobs not large enough to hold enough milk to fill a marble-sized stomach? Gah. Life is unfair.