Tuesday 27 January 2015

My first post since I was pregnant!

hi!

Wow I had totally forgotten about my blog!... Can you blame me after having a baby though?!
I just spent the last hour reading my previous blog posts...gotta say I sometimes surprise myself with my writing.. Those posts are pretty interesting and hilarious and a bit too much information!

I'm obviously not going to write a novel about the past year and 4 months since we had the cutest baby boy, Cayson!

I can certainly tell you how amazing being a mom is. How do I even put it into words?
Children teach you everything you didn't know was possible. Cayson has taught me to be extremely patient and persistent, he keeps me on my toes and learns something new every week - which also comes along with a new set of challenges EVERY week... I kid you not!
I've heard from so many people how different boys and girls are and I can truly believe it...
 My kid is so damn destructive and is CONSTANTLY on the move! Everything he touches breaks from being slapped or thrown or tossed or whatever...it all breaks! He makes this crazy demon noise when he runs around the house and he CLIMBS EVERYTHING! I used to have about 20 heart attacks a day but now he's pretty sturdy and I trust him to make the safest decision... Due to the fact that he's hurt himself from the bad decisions he remembers that very well!

Man..... Being a parent is hard fucking work and tires the shit out of you. Yep I'm going to swear like I'm a trucker because this is the only place I can do that now! Every word I say is being repeated....wow time flies.
We never thought about how tiring it would be to form this baby into a toddler and toddler into a child (we aren't quite there yet). All of our parents don't really live close to us and are away a lot of the time so we haven't had a lot of dates or alone time in the last year and a half...life of a parent?
Our date night consists of popcorn and dexter these days.... Oh I love dexter!

So I'm sorry I haven't written in a while for all the people that did read my blog and enjoy them... Like I said in my past posts writing in really therapeutic and I need to do it more... So this will definitely be one of my goals for 2015... Along with getting in shape for summer of course AND our wedding in December! But isn't that everyone's goal anyways?
I'm actually down to my pre baby weight (... Well I'm 5 pounds away from my pre baby weight) and then all I have to do is tone up... Hopefully the little bit of lose skin that I have left from being pregnant will tighten and tone... Or I sure as fuck am not getting into a bikini unless it's a moomoo that covers everything... And let's be honest who even wears a moomoo?

I'll write tmrw!

Ttfn




Monday 23 September 2013

September

So September has come and gone... And this is my probably my one and only blog post for September - Maybe! I think this has been mentioned in ALL my posts but holy this month has been busy it seems like life just isn't going to slow down anytime soon! 

Today is September 23 so as of right now I have LESS than a month before CCS will be here (hopefully this kid doesn't come late or we'll be having some words once he's here). This is so exciting, nerve racking and scary. In less than a month Landis and I are going to be parents - Yup I've had 8 months to really think this through but it still hasn't set in, is this really happening? We are going to be responsible for a little person!? We have a say with everything that happens with this person and who he will be, what he'll be like, what his interests are - Still doesn't feel real. 
At one of my recent prenatal visits (yeah those happen every week now, kind of inconvenient but I suppose pretty mandatory) the doctor told me that baby is most active in between 32-34 weeks and then it slows down from there because there isn't as much amniotic fluid...Which means when he DOES move, it's a lot more painful and uncomfortable. Anyways  I am now 36 weeks pregnant and let me tell you this baby has NOT stopped moving, if anything he is more active than ever and I find myself constantly subconsciously pushing him in every other direction because he's hurting me, I really don't even notice I'm doing it it's become such a habit... hopefully this hasn't effected him in a negative way =|? Oopsy. I think he's tough, he'll be okay :)! I have such prego brain right now that I don't know what's even happened this month.

September 1st was my baby shower held in Ladner at one of my best friends house - Margaret. She did an AMAZING job setting up and I know it really stressed her out, not too sure if she'll ever know how appreciative I am of how beautiful and memorable she made my shower, Love you Mudge! I'll post some pictures of how it turned it out. The weather was perfect, a bit hot for me but for everyone else it was beautiful. There were tables set up and decorated with yellow and white flowers, blue plates and everyone has a mason jar with blue and white striped straws. There was a lemonade stand, a huge desert table with an ombre yellow and blue cake, yellow blue and white candy bar, White chocolate dipped strawberries and yellow and blue cupcakes, every detail was perfected, I envy Margaret she is so creative at everything she puts her mind to - She did all of this WHILE juggling the responsibilities of her very active 2 year old daughter - Super mommy! Almost everyone that got an invite came which was so nice, I got to see so many faces that I haven't seen in SO long, I believe there was about 30 people there! I was tired by the first hour, it's probably looked upon as being easy; Ya know mingling and receiving gifts but holy Sh*t it's not. 30 different people, some who knew each other and lots who didn't is a hard task. I couldn't just stay seated I had to walk around and make sure everyone was comfortable and I had to make sure to get the chance to talk to everyone that came so yeah it was a struggle, especially since I was a waddler from 31 weeks onward it makes it pretty hard to kinda scooch by tables and people in chairs with a belly popping out! None the less I DID IT lol there may have been some sweat marks on my under boob and sweat on my forehead at the end of it all. The shower went really smooth and I got so many great gifts, everyone really spoiled us and I felt so loved and happy - it was a happy day :)! 

Can I just say I am ECSTATIC that the weather has FINALLY changed and it's not hot anymore! It's cold in the mornings and the leaves are changing colors and falling off the trees and fall fashion is NOW in effect...not that I really have a good fashion sense right now since I have NO CLOTHES that fit me (BUT I'm wearing my hunter boots today, woohoo!). I've really been wanting to make my own fall decorations for the house - DIY is much cheaper, as much as I'd prefer to go to Michael's and spend a crap load of money that I don't have, it's just not a priority. I bought some cheap fall flowers from the dollar store, some candles from Ikea (I really want to make a trip down the cabela's soon to get my PINE TREE smelling candles, they remind me SO MUCH of Christmas I love them) Anyways I also got some pretty leaves (fake) and some fake vines from the dollar store as well, I plan on TRYING to make my own wreath for the front door but I actually have to get the motivation to go for a walk and find a bunch of twigs to use so when I do that there will be a new blog post because I'm sure I'll be excited to show everyone what I've done :).

Last weekend I managed to drag Landis out to Ikea with me so we could get a dresser for CCS and a few odds and ends (obviously I forgot the odds and ends so I need to go back at some point). I really really love getting stuff from Ikea but I only like the finished product - putting the furniture together is a whole other story). I invited Landis' sister Amber over to help me set up the baby room and put the furniture together, I was already sweating by the first 10 minutes. I think it took us 15 minutes to figure out the first step (excuse my language but I fucking hate Ikea directions...because there are NONE, it's pictures and they are very shitty pictures!!). Anyways once we figured out the first step we were good to go (or so we thought). We got to I think it was maybe step 8 or 9 when we realized we put one of the drawer bars on backwards and in the wrong spot, so we went 9 steps back and took everything apart and fixed it and then got back to step 10 pretty quick. After I think about an hour and a bit we got it all together and it looks good! After that we moved the crib to where it's home was going to be, put the dresser under the window and started ripping the tags off all of the clothes, blankies etc and filled the dresser. The last thing we put together was the playpen... apparently you can pack this bad boy up to go anywhere - YAH that won't be happening, it took Amber and I like 30 minutes to set that thing up so it'll be dragged around my house from room to room that's for sure. Anyways All in all it was a good day and without her help I think I would've been stuck building the dresser for at least half the day. The crib bumper and mobile arrived earlier in the week so that's all set up now all I'm waiting on is the rocking chair that we should have by next week and then some shelves and a cute little rug that I'll get fairly soon and the baby room will be DONE! Again once it's completely done I'll post some pictures for everyone to see. 

The weekend after the baby shower was exceptionally great and needed in more than one way. One of my best friends from high school Ashley and I had been meaning to get together for the longest time but because we live so far away and we both work different schedules and have different plans it's so hard! So we managed to book a girls spa weekend away to Whistler (I finally got to use my birthday gift certificate from Landis). We left Saturday afternoon after Ash got off work, we got to drive her brothers new BMW X5 aka the spaceship... we couldn't even figure out how to open the doors without the key fob! Check in at the hotel was for 4pm and we managed to get there for about 530 - Checked into the Pinnacle Hotel where we got upgraded to a Junior suite which was pretty awesome! Once we checked in and layed down for 15 mins it was time to hop in the car again and head down to the spa, we had our Massage appointments set for 8 pm but The Scandinave spa has the hot and cold baths before or after your massage and since they closed at 9 pm ours were before. This spa was so beautiful and peaceful, very relaxing but also sort've on the "hippie" side, we weren't allowed to talk (which proved to be difficult and pretty much not do able for Ash and I). 
The night went just as planned and the massage was just what I needed! We went back to the hotel, made some lasagna and watched a few episodes of Sons of Anarchy and chatted until we fell asleep, it was perfect. We woke up in the morning and went for breakfast in the village and took a nice stroll and then of course tortured ourselves by window shopping in Aritzia but we can proudly say we didn't purchase anything. Unfortunately we had to rush home because I told Landis I would go to his friend's little boy's first birthday party in maple ridge and that was at Noon. All in All it was a great weekend topped off by a night of snuggling with my babe. 

Finally we're at this past weekend. Where I literally did nothing for the majority of the 2 days.
Landis went on hunting on Saturday so he had to drive to coquitlam and meet his buddy who was driving up, Saturday called for rain so he took the jetta to coquitlam because big red doesn't like to get wet, especially after him and I spend 2 hours washing and drying and shining the damn thing there's no way she likes to get wet! What Landis forgot was that he had the only key to the Golf which was parked right behind the truck - Saturday turned out to be super sunny but not too hot. I thought Deez and I could go to the dog park and I could go grab some groceries and do some running around but NOPE, Landis had the jetta, the golf was behind the truck and as much as I think it would be okay to just run the golf over with the truck, we need it for when baby is born so Landis can drive to work on a cheap budget! So saturday I literally did nothing all day, I slept, took a bath, ate whatever food we had in the house, watched some movies, cuddled with deez and cleaned the house a bit and Landis got home pretty late so we just hopped into bed once he got home. Sunday he had a couple side jobs to do at his dads house so I layed in bed for a couple hours, made some breakfast, took a shower and got ready for Dinner at Landis' dad's house with my dad and his wife meeting Landis' dad and his wife for the first time. I got to Surrey (his dad's house) around 330 and my dad and Lea showed up just after 4. We had good conversation and a really DELICIOUS dinner that was made by Landis' dad. I think I had steak once my entire pregnancy and that was in the first trimester, it was sooo good to have a steak, although it wasn't cooked how I normally like it just because I had to stay safe with eating it fully cooked, it was still the best meal I've had in so long. He also made stuffed baked potatoes (they were stuffed with sour cream, butter and cheese and were amazing). We also had salad and roasted veggies. I think I was the only one that ate my entire steak, a full potato and then another half of one, all my salad, all my veggies and I even had room for a slice of applie pie with ice cream... whatever I'm eating for 2 ;). It was so worth it. I think dad and Lea left the house at about 730 and Landis and I left at 8. We got home around 8:45 and had a really nice early night followed by me waking up feeling like complete ass this morning - Runny nose a sore throat just in time for Landis' birthday dinner this friday, grrrrrrreat. 

SO my fellow readers, that is september in a novel. Looking forward to (if im not sick) Landis birthday dinner downtown on friday night at Kobe's Steakhouse - mmm more steak!!! This saturday was supposed to be Jason Aldean concert but with how tired I've been feeling and how big I've gotten over the last 4 weeks I decided it wasn't a good idea to be standing on the floor at one of the biggest country concerts to come to vancouver... probably not the best thing for me - So I sold our tickets :( sadly. I'll just listen to Church pew at home and pretend like I'm there. So besides Landis birthday dinner there aren't that many plans this weekend, maybe ill do some clothes shopping for CCS - he still needs a few winter clothes. Can't wait to dress him up for his first Christmas. 

Tata for now 










Our Jeep Ltd Stroller! 

My boy lounging on the couch upset he couldn't go hunting with dad
even though dad put his hunting collar on him, mean daddy.


Friday 30 August 2013

Slacking!

Well, it's pretty evident I've been slacking on the blog! Like I've said in a few of the other posts.... it's been pretty hectic recently...even at work so it's been hard to get a spare minute to write!
Now I haven't written in so long I have NO IDEA where to start.

Well today I can officially say our bathroom is DONE - after almost 2 months of renovations and with us going away for 12 days not being here it was at a standstill - but today Landis' dad is putting the baseboards and trim up and it's DONE! I can't even begin to explain how exhausted I am from yesterday (Thursday). I didn't go into work because I haven't been able to sleep well and I've been getting AWFUL morning sickness again (except throughout the entire day) so because I didn't go into work I decided when I wasn't feeling so shitty to start painting. Well because we had new drywall put int, some old drywall still there and then some mud over new and old drywall we had all different types of whites on our walls at this point, so we had to go buy a paint that had a sealer and primer in one and then chose our color which was a paint and primer in one as well to make sure the entire bathroom looked the same! SO NONE of this was done as of yesterday... me - 8 months prego; painted the ceiling (sealant and primer) and the trim did TWO coats of that and then TWO coats of the color we chose. After I finished that I probably did about 50 sets of stairs carrying stuff down and up from one room to another - MY BABY SHOWER is this coming Sunday and I literally had nowhere to put anything I'm going to receive. So I took apart Diesel's Kennel and carried that downstairs to the boardroom and put it back together down there and then I carried the crib and mattress upstairs to the baby room and set that up (all by myself with NO instructions...I'm impressed). Anyways after making everything look somewhat good I cleaned the whole house, I must be in that nesting stage because I can't live for a day with a messy house it drives me insane. Look I'm already into my first paragraph and have too much to talk about. I can't really go over what's gone on the past month because there's just way too much. So I'll look forward and talk about what's coming up and how hopefully the last stretch of this pregnancy goes by fast!

September - So September is actually looking really busy - which it wasn't before but I guess that's how it always works. This first weekend of September kicks off with my baby shower on Sunday :), which I have so been looking forward to, I get to see all my friends and family who mean the most to me and who I am closest to. We all live so far away and live our separate lives that it's so hard to see each other so this will be a nice treat!! Saturday I've actually made plans to help by girlfriend pick up tables and chairs for it and then I will be heading to the mall to find a pretty outfit, visit my daddy and then go for a nice visit with Sam (she lives in Kelowna and is one of my closest friends as well as her mom who is the sweetest lady, I'll be staying the night at Sam's since she lives really close to Margaret's for the shower the next day) - I'll drive home Sunday night not too late so I can spend the rest of the evening with Landis (he's going to Kelowna on Monday morning and wont be home til late Tuesday...yes I know it's only one night but I still miss him and worry about him regardless AND I'm spending Saturday night away from him as well..it always feels really lonely and unusual to spend the night next to him, never feels right!
2nd weekend in September - Another GREAT friend who I don't get to see too often is Ashley. We've been talking for months about getting together but just never get enough time so we planned a girls trip to Whistler at the Scandinave Spa (Landis got me a gift cert. for my birthday this year, a prenatal one of course. So I can finally put that to good use). So we will head up to Whistler on Saturday and come home Sunday, short yep but none the less we're both so excited to spend some quality bestie time together.
I think the 3rd weekend in September is the ONLY spare one I have - I think that weekend I may go to Ikea and get the baby dresser I need and pretty much set up the baby's room with Landis and just really take that weekend to relax (happy birthday MUDGE...I'm sorry I can't stay awake past 11 or id be at the club dancing right by you).
The following weekend I believe we are going downtown for an Early birthday Dinner for my love. That'll be the 21st I believe and his birthday is on the 25th - so not too early. And then the folllowing weekend is our Jason Aldean concert...haaaa haaaa... I didn't mention anywhere in this post yet but CCS has gone into a good position for him..not so much for me. He is head down and has actually dropped a little bit (doctor says this is normal and he could quite possible come a few days early WOOHOO). However that being said I'm an official waddler and I pee every 15 minutes, I can seriously feel this baby's head IN there like it's about to fall out from in between my legs, so that probably means I'll be sitting almost the entire concert! That's ok as long as I get to see Jason Aldean I'm a-OK.

So that's September weekends for me - I'm sure the week days will fill up just as quick.

CCS is on the move ALL the time, always rolling or moving so we know he's a happy healthy baby. His momma on the other hand is definitely one bitchy, hormonal, emotional wreck. I'm feeling a bit Bi-polar these days. One second I'm feeling good and happy and in the flip of a switch I am so upset or cranky - I enjoy being alone in those times so I don't have anyone to take it out on, especially Landis, I don't want to take anything out on him anymore he's been the best this whole time. My feet tend to get pretty swollen and sore again another 'normal' pregnancy symptom - I have a SERIOUS hard time understanding why women say "I miss being pregnant, I miss my belly" and I want to know how on earth you could ever miss this! I will be so happy when CCS is out of me and we get to snuggle as a family and I no longer have this watermelon as a belly or these swollen feet, or random throwing up etc... I don't think and I truly believe this I really DON'T THINK I will EVER catch myself saying I miss being pregnant - F*&# that!

OK - thats my post for today short but ...better than nothing :) heres some pics below of the last little while

Christina Lake 13'

So proud of my Pinterest shelf - Mine is the one on the bottom right of course - Example is top right

Our Anniversary <3

Maternity Session - My growing Family <3

My best friend and the love of my life





Tuesday 23 July 2013

Feeling Exhausted.

I think the last couple of weeks have really tired me out. We've been so busy at home and running errands that I feel like we haven't had a second to sit down and relax. Not to mention we haven't had a drop of rain in 26 days I think the heat is finally starting to get to me. 
Our bathroom renovation is at a standstill, Landis' dad has a roofing job up in Castlegar this week, he left as of today and will be gone for 5 days. He did make sure that our tub was finished and the tile in the tub was grouted and sealed and in good working condition. The toilet is installed and working, the floors are done and grouted and sealed as well and the vanity is in place with a working faucet and sink, so the necessities are there for us. Before we started the reno the old bathroom had a sliding door separating the vanity from the toilet and tub, we got rid of this because it took up too much space and in order to do that we had o rip out the wall and put new drywall up and mud it, well all of the mudding hasn't been done yet on the walls or the roof and the back splash hasn't been done around the vanity, we still need to put frames around the doors, baseboard on the floors, put in the new mirror as well as the lighting and then finally paint the doors and walls! There is still so much that needs to be done however won't get done until we are back from vacation. At least we have the necessities but I am that person with OCD, I need everything clean and finished or it drives me crazy... this will be HARD!
Yesterday was a really tough day I feel. It was a hot one outside and it was Monday, Monday's are always hard regardless of if you're pregnant or not. I'm starting to feel the heat exhaustion (I am constantly drinking water and then having to pee every 10 minutes) and not to mention I am getting pretty tired fast these days, it's hard to make it through a full day without a power nap! We left work at 330 yesterday because Landis wasn't feeling well (which means I'm next) but we didn't head home to just relax. I cooked some spaghetti while Landis started doing a tune up on the boat getting it ready for our vacation. After we ate we jetted off to Landis' friends house to drop off the truck that was fixed over the weekend, I managed to finally convince his friend Darren to buy that huge party island from Costco so we can use it up the lake (best part of the day, I'm pretty good at making things sound amazing but honestly and truly this party island is awesome)! We headed back home and I tried to make the bathroom look as good as possible with what we have to work with. I put everything back in there (shampoo, conditioner, soaps, face wash, toothbrush ETC). I then cleaned out the spare bedroom/office eventually CCS' room, which is where all the tools were for renovating and pushed them off to the side and cleaned the floor in there - it looks decent now and I can actually get to my closet (My closet is in the spare bedroom because I have too many clothes and shoes to share a closet with Landis). After that I cleaned the master bedroom which also had some tools and miscellaneous items and a very dirty white carpet and hairy laminate floors from deez - so I just decided to vacuum the entire house. Moved onto laundry and then vacuumed the laundry room floor (cat litter always over my god damn feet in there) and then swept the foyer (Landis did the dishes for me and wiped down the counters). Needless to say I was exhausted, my feet were swollen and I was sweating. I decided to be a bit more motivated and we took Diesel out for a walk since he's cooped up in the house all day, I am really starting to struggle walking up hill or walking a lot period but I am trying to walk as much as possible even if I start huffing and puffing. We got home and it was already 10, way past my bed time and I still needed a shower so on my feet again I had a nice but short shower and finally hopped into bed around 1030. I woke up feeling really tired this morning and just not in the mood to be going to work, I have so much on my mind work is just not something I want to be doing. I threw a peach in my purse this morning for a little snack and shot out the door, I got a phone call while I was driving from Landis (probably about the $1000 minute, a guy actually WON this am) but what do you know? My F*cking phone speaker isn't working becuse there is part of a peach in the headphone jack, so I can't hear anything, just what I need! I obviously have the worst luck with phones because I am currently using my old Iphone4 that has both front and back cracked because my Iphone5 got drenched in sun screen while we were in Peachland and stopped working from there. I got to work and googled what to do, after 15 mins of sucking out air from the headphone jack it's back to working for now and I am all out of breath. I'm feeling so drained today I think I will be leaving work early, I have to go to Babies R Us today without Landis sadly, to do our baby registry for the baby shower, I know you're supposed to enjoy that but I'm grabbing that scanner, scanning everything and getting out of there so I can just go home and lay down.  I didn't even bring a lunch today because yesterday was too busy for me to pack something. I'm really bad for going out and spending unnecessary money on food for lunch when we always have food at home to bring. Come to think of it I actually don't know how much food we have for me to bring for lunch but there is NO TIME to go grocerie shopping this week. Tomorrow I have my next prenatal appointment and then monthly blood test (thyroid). Thursday I have my hair appointment right after work so I have to jet off to Richmond and then I'll stop by for a quick visit with my dad just to say Hi since I'll be out that way. I am really looking forward to my hair appointment on Thursday though. I haven't had a hair cut in almost 4 months it looks horrendous and the I can't wait to go back to dark hair. I especially am looking forward to the head massage ill get when I get my hair washed, I'm getting shivers thinking about it.
I don't have a whole lot of motivation to be typing much more than what I've got, I have a feeling this exhaustion isn't going to go away any time soon and I'm going to have to figure out a way to be HAPPY while exhausted and not just bitchy, poor Landy yet again.

Tata for now
xxxooo


Frontal view of my bulging belly


Our bathroom at a standstill.

Monday 22 July 2013

Pool, Family time, New Bathroom & Worst day ever!

I don't think I will be able to write posts on weekends because the summer weekends are just too hectic for me and who wants to sit inside on a nice weekend on the computer?...Writing these takes me a while because I have so much going on in my head that I never know where to start and the writing just gets messy and unorganized! This weekend consisted of exactly what the title says.

Friday night Landy & I took Deez for a nice long walk, he hasn't been able to go on an actual walk in what seems like forever. He's been stuck in a cone because a week and a half/2 weeks ago he did a burn out on the hot pavement and made his one paw raw and wouldn't stop licking it, so puppy had to live in a cone for a while. It's sad yet humorous at the same time to see him in a cone, he's normally a pretty graceful dog, prances around, takes corners like a NASCAR...and he's damn near as fast as NASCAR - but with this cone on he spills his water all over the place, bumps into walls and lays on his bed with those sweet puppy eyes. ANYWAYS he's out of the cone now and we went for a nice long walk and spent some time together. Landis will be working all weekend and he's got playoffs for ball so everyone else gets to see him but me </3.

Saturday was actually a really relaxing, fun and hot day. Started off with a trip to the dog park with one of my best girlfriends Rosie and her pup Brody (he's a boston terrier full of energy) and then of course Deez came with us (If you didn't know, here is a little fun fact: Siberian Huskies can work up to 80 MILES per day on very little food - this fact explains why our dog is NEVER tired). We drove to the dog park in aldergrove - probably my favorite dog park because it's absolutely massive but all fenced in so I don't nor does anyone else for that matter need to worry about our dogs running off and us having to chase after them! After that we hopped back into big red (I will upload a picture of our beast at the end of this post and you'll understand why we call her big red. She's our (I guess Landis'...he reads these now...Hi Hunny, yes YOU'RE---> Ford F350 with a 10" lift, Toyo mt's and 22s and believe me when I say my babe is not compensating, he's well equipped! - Normally we only drive the truck to tow the boat but I decided to take it for a nice drive without the boat today, it's probably the best vehicle for me to drive in these days, minus the jumping in and out which isn't too difficult yet, it feels much safer then our jetta, NO ONE screws around with you on the road, no one ever cuts me off, I am level with semi trucks so I don't feel all tiny and scared when driving next to one and everyone gets out of my way oh and if anyone does piss me off all I have to do is stomp on the accelerator and spray black diesel soot all over them). Anyways after the dog park we went home and I got changed and ready to spend the rest of the day in Mission at my brother and sister-in-law's pool. I texted Mel on friday morning to see if they had plans for the weekend (because both of our families have been so busy we really haven't seen each other almost all summer!). SURPRISINGLY my brother Lee was off work on a saturday for the first time since he started his new job so probably 3 months, his wife Mel who owns her own photography company (Style Us Beautiful Photography) along with being a co-founder of some amazing organizations and just starting another company called the branching booth, I figured I was sol but thought it would be worth a shot to just check and amazingly her and Lee as well as the kids had NO plans! So I went over to their house at about 130 to get in some sun tanning time in the pool and get some time with the kids. The last time I saw them was a couple months ago and I was significantly smaller so when they saw me this time they realized I had an outtie belly button (which I HATE) and they were pretty focused on that for a while! I managed to get in some sun and left their place at about 5. 
I came home to a tired hubby who was napping after a long hot day replacing the front end on one of his friends trucks, I didn't think he was going to be home til a lot later so it was nice to come home to see him. After he got up from his nap we headed to L.A Sushi in Mission and went for dinner with Landis' friend. I'm NOT a sushi eater but I do love their Teriyaki chicken with rice and veggies, so delicious :)! All in all it was a good day! 

Sunday - I must've woken up on the wrong side of the bed because Sunday was probably one of the worst days I've had in a LONG time! I've done a lot of research of Baby strollers and I know the one I want; Phil and Teds. I am set on it, there is no changing my mind. It folds easily, it can be a single and then when (IF) baby #2 comes along it turns into a double, it's great for jogging, they come in all different colors and are made for any type of terrain! So the plan was to go down to the states and get my stroller, adapter and car seat. I had searched WHERE to get Phil & Ted's strollers and found out that Along comes a baby in bellingham sells them. Right from the get go of me being pregnant my mum offered to pay for the stroller so this day was kind of set up for her and I to get out together and go shopping for this. Well I was in a horrendous mood so the car ride down resulted in arguing and tears - We got to Along comes a baby in the worst mood ever to find out that they don't even sell Phil and Ted's strollers anymore - so we left and I came out in an even worse mood - Not only did I drive down there and use gas, they had wrong information on their website, I used data roaming on my phone to try and find somewhere else that sells them in Bellingham which NO OTHER store does and I learned I couldn't even buy a car seat or adapter for it down there because USA car seats aren't certified in Canada. SO after all of that we got back into the car and returned to arguing and more tears on my end - My mum wanted to go to the beach but after only an hour of being in the states I was DONE and going home, I never wanted to be back in my own house so badly. The car ride home was extremely quiet. So we left for the USA at 1030 and were back at my house in abbotsford by 1245, needless to say I was SO upset, pissed, bitchy, hot and frustrated. I came home and my mum left - Onto the next story.
We've been renovating our bathroom for the last 2 weeks before CCS gets here because obviously we didn't want to do any renovations when the baby got here or any later than where we are right now as I'm going into my 3rd trimester nobody wants to be around a bitchy pregnant Rachel! Landis' Dad is retired and has been doing renovations on the side to keep himself busy (he's really good at that stuff) so he's been driving out from Surrey everyday to work on our bathroom - it's ALMOST DONE - should be done by Wednesday this week and then it's onto priming and painting this weekend - I absolutely LOVE re-doing and organizing and renovating and painting - it's so much fun for me. I don't know why we didn't take a VERY before picture of how our bathroom used to look compared to now but our house was built in the 70's and that bathroom is from the day that house was built - so you can imagine! I can't wait until it's done next week (right before we go away on our vacation to Christina Lake, Landis' Mum and her spouse will enjoy the new bathroom before us since they stay there to take care of our funny farm at home). I will post pictures of the bathroom somewhat before (during the reno) and after as soon as I have it all done! 

BACK TO my weekend - Landis got home from ball around 330 while I was almost done washing the jetta (it hadn't been washed in way too long and again I wanted some nice color). We had a pretty productive day after that, cleaned up the house a little bit, got rid of our pool table that has been sitting in the car port forever, got garden work done and all the vehicles washed, put together the new vanity and moved it into the washroom, had come delicious perogies covered in onions, cheese and sour cream *mmmmm* and then went and got a new CURVED shower curtain rod (those things actually give you so much MORE space). We also got a nice new shower curtain, liner and the hooks in a brushed nickel to hang them. 

There you have it - My weekend in a post! And here we are, back to Monday! This week is an exciting week packed with plans, plans, plans but all fun plans :)! I'm starting to count down the days until we leave for 2 weeks (well...11 days) to the Kootenay's! 

Tata for now
xxxooo



Big Red and the boat!
Hannah making fun of my outtie! 

Friday 19 July 2013

Pregnancy Thus Far

I figure I’d start out my second post by actually getting to talk about my pregnancy (since that’s all pregnant women can do, seriously every time a pregnant chick speaks all they want to talk about is how nasty they feel and what this does to their body and everything else that goes along with pregnancy and I never really understood it OBVIOUSLY because I wasn’t pregnant up until now, so people please bare with me if you’re not pregnant because one day you will understand!!).
Let’s go back a couple years. January 2011: I had just gotten back from a gorgeous and relaxing trip away to the Dominican Republic, my mum and I went for a week over the Christmas holiday. I returned back to work on January 3, taking in alllll the compliments on my solid tan and telling everyone about my amazing trip while everyone was stuck back here in the cold (which might I add, I don’t think I would ever go away again on actual Christmas, it’s meant to be cold weather people, all part of the holiday) BUT I still went away and still enjoyed it, bragging and all. Anyways During the middle of the day on my first day back I started to get this really really sharp pain in my upper right abdomen but I pushed it aside and thought it was something small ya know maybe constipation or something (Yeah I’m gonna be really open about that, my entire pregnancy is FULL ON constipation, a heads up if you intend on reading further) anyways the pain got worse and worse and eventually dropped from the upper right abdomen to my lower right abdomen. I left work and intended on just going home, putting a hot water bottle on my tummy and sleeping it off – at this point in time I was living in mission but working in surrey so a good hour drive – Let’s just say I didn’t make it home, I drove myself to the mission hospital and walked into emerg in a sh*tload of pain, almost in tears but not quite there yet. This is one thing I can’t stand about emerg, they need to have a separate section for people that are ACTUALLY emergencies and people that go to emerg because they’ve got a headache.. . Gimme a break. So I walk into Emerg and they take my info, ask about my symptoms etc then send me back to the waiting room. I called Mel (my sister-in law who I was living with at the time) and told her what was going on, naturally she rushed to the hospital to be with me). By the time she got to the hospital I was pretty much in the fetal position on a chair in emerg, crying from the pain. After they noticed that I was actually in severe pain I was admitted and got into a bed after a couple blood tests. ** The nurse that took my blood test was annoying as hell – thought I should mention that. “You look tanned, did you go somewhere”, me: “Yeah I just got back from the Dominican republic”. Nurse: “YOU DID get your shots didn’t you?” Me: No I didn’t and NO this has nothing to do with that I DO NOT have hepatitis you asshole but thank you for trying to make it sound like I do”… I didn’t say that but obviously it’s what I was thinking. Anyways got my blood work done (Nope, no Hep C for me! still crying, in severe pain… to put it lightly it felt like I was being stabbed repeatedly in the stomach with a thick ass needle) so got my blood work done, get into those beautiful robes they provide you with and finally get to lay down in a bed! By this time it’s been 3 hours since I’ve been there and I’m not being patient anymore, I need drugs right then and there so naturally I made a big scene. Well I got what I wanted – an IV and they shot morphine right into me through the intravenous. It was marvelous, one second I felt severe pain and the next second I felt this cold liquid running through my entire body and I was pain free (I can seriously understand anyone with an addictive personality getting addicted to morphine, its unreal). OH by the way this story all leads to my pregnancy… eeek this is going to be a long post! Okay so I’m going to shorten this bit of the post a tad, I’m in the hospital for 4 days because the doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me – I had 2 Ultrasounds, 2 X-rays, transferred back and forth from Abby hospital to mission hospital for a CT scan and finally after 4 days, severe pain, withdrawal from morphine (therefore puking) they finally found out that I had an Ovarian Cyst that had ruptured, which they only found out from the liquid around my ovaries which could lead to an infection (thankfully it didn’t). Anyways I get out of the hospital and have regular checkups with an OBGYN and specialists of course. They send me back to my regular doctor with recommendations on what I should and what we should all be monitoring so that this doesn’t happen again. They recommended I go on YAZ (birth control) because this type of birth control helps control the growth of ovarian cysts – I was already on YAZ to begin with so I just got another prescription and was monitored. Okay so now were fast forwarding to October 2012 at a regular check up with my doctor who was always in contact with my OBGYN who suggested I go off of birth control to actually see if any Cysts grow – I’m sure they could’ve done multiple tests to see If I actually had PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome; where cysts multiply into thousands on your ovaries, compress your follicles which means no children for you) but they recommended this way because it was easy to see if cysts were growing. I went off birth control (up until this point I was on birth control for 7 years). So I’m off birth control, I go home and tell Landis that I’m not on birth control anymore and that we have to be careful just in case. We were careful! There came a point in our relationship where we started talking about the future and kids and getting married etc. Landis is 30 – 31 this September and ever since I can remember I’ve always wanted to be a young mum, not too young obviously but younger than 30. Even after only a couple of months being together Landis and I knew that we were meant to be together. ** Barf I know lol** Anyways around Christmas time or maybe just a bit after we talked a lot about kids and how we really wanted them soon and at this point we’ve been together for a while now – HOWEVER we just bought a boat so the original plan was to continue being careful until after summer (like I suggested in my first post ;) ) and then we would work on having a baby. On a side note Ladies, you know how you hear from all over the place that it’s really hard to get pregnant within the first year of going off birth control if you’ve been on it for a while… that’s bulllllllllllllsh*t. SO 3 months later and Tralaaaaa I’m pregnant! So our baby boy wasn’t entirely planned but it was by no means a mistake and definitely not prevented.
1st Trimester:
I found out February 13, the day before Valentine’s Day that we were expecting. Landis caught me sitting on the bed eating Green beans out of a can in one hand a Dinsour candies out of the other hand the day before…. So he made me get a test. So we found out and we were so excited we called our families that night to let them know (yup, dangerous since there is always a possibility of miscarrying but regardless they were going to know). Everyone was ecstatic and so were we! I called a maternity clinic close to home the next day and made an appointment for March 7 and the weeks leading up to that took FOREVER. We also found out so early, most women don’t notice they’re pregnant or symptoms until 7-8 weeks but I took a test and found out at 4 weeks. After my first prenatal visit my pregnancy symptoms kicked in. I was so god damn tired I didn't feel safe driving to and from work, Landis and I carpool thank god, I was sleeping at work a lot or always leaving early. I was constantly nauseous but during my entire pregnancy I've only puked twice (one of which is when I was driving myself into work, praise the lord I kept plastic bags in the side of the door, still embarrassing having people next to you watch you puke into a bag while driving stick shift on the highway) so the rest of the time I was dry heaving which in my opinion is WAY worse than actually throwing up.  I was turned off of ALL meat and poor Landis lived off of noodles and KD for MONTHS because I’m the cook and let’s be honest, I wasn't cooking for ANYONE. I noticed in my first trimester that I actually put on not a little bit of weight but a lot of weight.. 9 lbs to be exact… which isn't normal in the first trimester, a lot of women don’t tend to gain weight until 2nd trimester. I got a call from my doctor saying they got my blood test results back and they wanted to see me… GREAT! Doctor’s tell you to always keep your stress levels down because stress isn't good for the baby and then they call you with bad news but don’t share the news with you on the phone and can’t get you an appointment until next week so you’re SERIOUSLY STRESSED OUT! – Turns out I had an under active thyroid which explains why I gained weight in the first trimester, my body wasn't producing enough thyroxin for the baby and me so baby got everything and I got none which means I had a really slow metabolism. Doctor terms: Hypothyroidism. This also explains why I was much more tired then I should be. I was put on antibiotics right away and got what I call a Membership card to BC Biomed for my monthly blood tests, rock on! I used to hate blood tests now I think I’m a trooper, I go in there and I’m not even nervous anymore – Unless Landis comes with me, he always has a way of making me nervous or bothering me or making fun of me while I get it done. I don’t think I am over exaggerating at all when I say that the first trimester seriously took forever to pass, with feeling shitty, super b*tchy, worried about my body and what’s going to happen but NOTHING actually happening to it yet, my thyroid, my nausea, the thought of miscarrying… it’s a long process and getting passed the first trimester is the hardest part (so far! Am I speaking too soon? 3rd trimester awaits).  Last thing about this trimester, I think CCS is going to absolutely LOVE starbursts and fruit loops because that was my nutrition for hmmm about 7 weeks!

2nd trimester:
You know I told this to a friend the other day, they make these weeks and trimesters and months so god damn confusing you never really know how far along you are. I like to go with weeks because I find it to be less confusing but people don’t count weeks when they’re not pregnant so they go oh how many months is that?… ummm I don’t know actually.
So things didn’t start to ease up in the 2nd trimester till I was about 16 weeks, poor poor Landis seriously, he went through hell and back with me, mostly I think he just felt bad that there was nothing he could do, at one point I couldn’t stop crying no matter what he said so being his mother’s son he called a good friend Lizzy (mommy of 2) to tell her to console me cause he didn’t know what else to do, such a good hubby <3. Anyways the 2nd trimester has been very up and down, I got my energy back and started to cook and clean again and for the most part I’ve been pretty upbeat and happy. THEN there are those dark dark days where first time mommies are thinking there life is over and no longer about them. I think I have a crying spell once a week now where I’m sad about my body changing and not feeling sexy anymore… because seriously women can say all they want about a pregnant woman being sexy and there is NO disrespect to what I am saying but they just aren’t. I can’t fathom the thought of walking around in lingerie with this massive belly and my weighed down thighs full of water thinking yeah I look super sexy. It is definitely a HUGE adjustment, especially when you walk around for most of your adult life feeling confident and liking what you see in the mirror and then all of a sudden the body you know and the personality you know is gone and you’re this different person for 9 months, it’s really unsettling and you feel very out of place like you don’t belong in your skin. Like I said good moments and some very bad moments, no inbetweenies for this prego!
I think it was around 18 weeks that I started to feel CCS move for the first time but wasn’t too sure, it felt like these tiny little bubbles… I thought maybe gas cause haaahaaa that’s very common these days but then I started feeling those bubbles all the time and wasn’t letting any rip so I knew it was him! They just started to get stronger and stronger and holy crap now he is constantly moving while I am awake. Seriously at all hours of the day he is moving up until I go to bed. Landis and I lay there in bed and put the IPOD on my belly and watch him go crazy for 15 mins then we’ll put it away and go to bed and he seems to go with me (let’s hope he’s like that when he’s out of the womb!) I told Landy last week that I was annoyed that day with CCS cause he kept moving and I wasn’t in the mood for it, that baby must be one smart cookie cause he stopped moving for the entire day after I said that and that night I had the worst dream about him not being alive in there and was waiting and waiting and waiting for what seemed an eternity for him to start kicking again, I think he did that to teach me a lesson ;).
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m fairly out going and pretty humorous and sarcastic. I burp these days like nobody’s business and there is no way I’m holding them in, it makes me gassier and they taste gross so those come out! However I like to leave some kind of MYSTERY in mine and Landis’ relationship, some people don’t understand this, some do.. I guess it just depends on who you are. I’m extremely comfortable around him, I don’t think before I speak, we’re best friends we talk about everything, act like fools, rarely fight but obviously have our little tiffs like all other couples. I have always REFUSED to fart in front of him, or let him hear me poop, even peeing was a bit on the far side but I can do that now. So regular NON pregnant girls obviously have their business to do, guys; we all fart and poop, otherwise you would have a bunch of fat, bloated women around you so be thankful. ANYWAYS it’s probably the most humorous thing for anyone else but me during this pregnancy. Landis is a man’s man, he’s a mechanic, he’s athletic, he hunts, he eats a crap load and still manages to stay so skinny and he’s got a foul mouth (we’re both bad for that, wonder what CCS’ first word is gonna be? I already know) so yeah he’s a man’s man and he’s got no shame in farting when he needs to it just comes naturally. He’s only ever heard me fart ONCE and it was by accident and probably the most embarrassing moment of my life. It was a Saturday morning and we were both sleeping maybe around 830ish and I guess while I was sleeping I let a pretty big noisy one go and it woke HIM and ME up!!! He turned around and I was still half asleep and he goes “BABE!!! BABE DID YOU JUST FART?!?!?” in this exciting giddy tone like he enjoyed it and I just turned around and said “NO, IT WAS THE BED” (couldn’t think of anything else to use as an excuse, it was too early in the morning. Anyways he just started laughing hysterically and will never let me forget it. This whole pregnancy thing though sure isn’t flattering for a woman.
I can’t really talk about the 3rd trimester yet because I’m not quite there, almost! I could seriously go on forever about everything that’s happening to me during these wonderful 9 months of my life. But I’m pretty damn sure I’m not the only nasty pregnant woman out there which makes me feel a little better.
So 3rd trimester talk is in the near future. I can’t believe how much I’ve written and will be shockingly surprised if people actually read this entire post. I’m really enjoying writing though, it feels very therapeutic and I feel so relaxed like I’ve just gone for a massage , I’ll try and keep my posts as entertaining as possible so they don’t get boring! I think I did a pretty good job on this one.

Tata for now

xxxooo



First Ultra sound picture of CCS - Cannot believe how big he is now compared to that!


Me, my skinny body and a + test!


MMMM! Fave reds!

Thursday 18 July 2013

My first post!

Well.... this will be a work in progress!
I've never really been a writer or been interested in blogging but always find myself reading everyone else's blogs; BORED at work and constantly thinking about my pregnancy, pregnancy or baby blog's are what I find myself looking at pretty much daily. 

So, I'll start this off like any other blog I guess and tell you a little bit about myself; Rachel is my name -- I'm sure you can tell by my blogger name -- I'm 23 years old, head over heels in love with my best friend Landis and we are soon to be Mommy & Daddy to CCS in October 2013 (I'll reveal his name a bit later on) and are already Mommy & Daddy to Diesel: Our 2 year old Siberian Husky. I currently supervise a marketing center for Barnes Wheaton Auto group, been here for 3 long years. What a boring way to start a blog!! My absolute favorite time of the year is Christmas time... sometimes I take that back and say summer is the best part; Beaches, Lakes, Tanning, late nights, drinking, boating, wake boarding, wake surfing, tubing, trips to the Okanagan...ummm how could anything beat that? Let me tell you for any women wanting to get pregnant... save it for after summer if at all possible!!!!! I don't think I could stress that enough, PROTECT yourself until after summer. Don't get me wrong, being pregnant is a blessing (considering I thought i'd have problems getting pregnant I'm extremely thankful) but being pregnant during the summer is plain torture. That list I just wrote about why summer is so awesome..yeah that doesn't pertain to me. Beaches have no shade. Lakes - yeah okay those work but I'm not a people person to start off with and lakes are usually packed to the nines in the summer, so I'm probably not the best person to be around especially when we have to look for parking for 30 mins and I'm sweating profusely. Tanning is hit or miss, 50% its great 50% heat rash. Say goodbye to late nights, I usually can't make it past 9pm and if I do welcome bitchy and tired Rachel, you'll be in trouble for keeping me up past my bedtime and you probably won't hear the end of it until I'm asleep and even then if I'm tired the next day (or any other day for that matter cause hey I usually am) it's all because you kept me up that night (my poor hubby lol). Bye bye Alcohol. Boating!! We have a pretty top of the line boat that we're paying out of the ass for to use 3 months out of the year but oh god am I thankful for that thing this year - We load up the boat, get to the lake, put it in the water, find easy parking because we have a boat trailer and we're off in the water where no one is around us except our friends and we don't have to be tortured by listening to high school kids listen to their shitty music and have pointless conversations. Wake boarding - I got a brand new wake board in January before we found out I was pregnant... by the time summer rolled around and we actually got to go out on the boat I was well past my first trimester, that being said my brand new wake board is being used by girls that I don't even know (Hubby's friends girlfriends etc) normally I'm a pretty generous person but while I'm pregnant I feel I'm probably pretty selfish because why would I like some girl I don't know to break in my brand new wake board and I can't even use it let alone break it in? Ya not so much. Tubing is out of the question. I think this is a prime example of why I'm so bitter - 

Last Tuesday we took the boat out to Allouette lake in Maple Ridge after work - it was cooking outside and it was a perfect night to be out on the water. Landis invited Austin & Carlee, Brian & Mel, Austin's friends Cody & Megan and then there was Landis & Myself. All of these people are really nice but if you know me I'm a pretty shy person until I get to know someone and then I can break out of my shell slowly but these people are all Landis' friends so naturally I am quiet. We get onto the lake at 5:30 and I'm feeling good the sun is out I want some color it's perfect. If anyone knows Allouette Lake you know it's not a warm lake until August and even then is pushing it so I refrained from going in the water since it was past 5pm and was only going to get cooler out, meanwhile everyone else is taking turns wake surfing, wake boarding, drinking and sharing laughs. I quickly realize that my mood is turning sour and that this is just no fun for me. Every single person on that boat was drinking and getting to do high impact water sports...NONE of which I could do. My night consisted of Sitting in the corner (got sun for maybe 30 mins) and driving the boat in circles. By the end of the night we were still on the lake at 930 and I was ready to cry. I'm tired, upset, bitter and just want to go home. = PRIME example as how I could go on forever about why this summer SUCKS but I think you get the point - Christmas takes the cake, at least for this year! 

ANYWAYS back to a little bit about me: If you can't tell from my complaining about not being able to do stuff, I'm an athletic person and always have been. Give me any sport and I'd love to play. That's definitely one thing I miss insanely from high school are my sports. Volleyball, Beach Volleyball, Basketball, Rugby it's definitely how I stayed so slim for all those years and then after graduating I actually had to work my ass off to keep a body I was happy with. 

I have 2 brothers; Lee and James, they are both happily married. Lee & Mel have 2 kids; my nephew Ethan is 6 and niece Hannah is 4, they're pretty awesome and cute but are growing way too fast! They live pretty close to us as well which is comforting. James & Tina live on the Island in Campbell River (where we were born) and own a house over there, no kids just yet for them and I actually think they plan on keeping it that way. My dad is in Richmond so a solid hour and a half away from our house in Abbotsford but he's always coming out to visit us (especially since I've been pregnant) and last but not least my Mum lives in abbotsford about 20 mins away from us! 
Landis' side of the family is pretty close to us as well and his family is awesome! His sister Amber and her Fiance Tim live in Langley (they are set to Wed in October this year... I'll be a moose by then). His mom partially lives in surrey and partially in Abbotsford with her spouse and she is the most helpful, generous, caring person I have ever met (Landy gets a lot of his sweet traits from her which I am so thankful for) and then there's Landis' Dad who lives in Surrey as well with his spouse, his dad is pretty awesome too and they're exceptionally close. They go hunting together throughout the year, Landis always works on his side jobs at the house in surrey just because all his tools are there and his side clientele is mostly out that way and oh man does Landis ever get his temper, sarcasm and sick humor from his dad (Again which I'm pretty thankful for, minus the temper but I have a way with calming him down) lastly Landis' Opa lives in Burnaby and is such a sweet man but again all these personalities from the Schray men trickle down from him! His humor is hilarious but sick just like the other two and if that is any indication on  what our boy is going to be like we are going to have our hands FULL! 

So there that's a little bit about me and my current life and all that surrounds it! I think I'm going to try my best to blog once a day, I think it'll help relieve a lot of the stress I get when I don't want to bother anyone with complaining about how I'm feeling! I've posted some pictures below so you can see who we are!


Tata for now

xxxooo


Landis And Rachel Christmas 2012


Rachel Christmas 2012


Rachel and Deez 2013


Landis and Deez Whistler 2013


He's so CUTE! Landis Peachland 2013


Our little Boy, Due October 22, 2013


Deez Cuddling CCS <3


Rachel 26 Weeks 2 Days pregnant


Rachel and Landis 6 months pregnant, Peachland 2013