Missing...

So I've been kind of a missing person lately. Instead of jumping in and updating you, including the celebration we had for little Bug who turned a year at the end of June, I decided to go back to the basics...... so without further delay, enjoy ~

Here you go mommies - a different kind of survey for a change - it's all about your first (possibly only) born! Just copy and paste it.

Let's see how much you remember!

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Yes. Both of them were. Sometimes I think I was crazy, but most of the time I'm so thankful.

2. WHAT was your 2nd choice name or your opposite gender name? Aiden was our boys name, however we likely would have spelled it differently

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? Very excited. I cried of course.

4. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 25 when she was born

5. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? I took a pregnancy test, told J, then went to a walk in to confirm it

6. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? obviously J, then my parents, J's parents, and S&J.

7. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? nope, but sometimes I wonder if it would have changed the experience. (neither good or bad, just curious, you know?!)

8. DUE DATE? Peanut's due date was March 11 2010

9. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? nope

10. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? junk and lots of it! I had a slurpee almost everyday and burgers and fries. Near the end it was lots of bananas and banana pancakes. (strange cause i hate pancakes - a lot!)

11. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? What didn't irritate me?! Mostly doubt about my birth plan, or questioning why we were/weren't doing something already. basically judgement and advice was right up there on my list.

12. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX? female

13. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX ? nope, I don't know what I would have done with a boy - haha!

14. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? about 65! I was HUGE! (totally my own doing)

15. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? yes I did!

16. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? I knew, and it was amazing!

17. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? a little scare, but not a complication

18. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? St.Boniface Hospital, Winnipeg

19. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? hard to say, knew I was in labour at about 3am, didn't get into the hospital until 2pm, gave birth at 6:30pm, so depends what you count.

20. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL?  J, in a state of panic!

21. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? J, and about 10 nurses

22. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? Natural

23. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? no

24. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 6lbs. 7oz.

25. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ? March 5 2010

26. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Peanut ;)

27. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? Peanut is 2 years, 5 months

28. WOULD YOU DO IT AGAIN? depends when you ask me. Sometimes I think we'll have 3, but most of the time I am quite happy with my 2 little girls!

Happy 1/2 Birthday Monkey!

So here's whats been going on.... my secret stayed a secret until about 11:30am Saturday.  As we walked out of swimming into thunder, tons of lightening and lots and lots of rain, there was no way I figured adrenaline was going to come together for J's half birthday. So I spilled the beans about my plans and pouted while I explained how disappointed I was...... how wrong was I?! The skies cleared and the rain held off and we were able to (at least attempt) the ropes and climbing course at Adrenaline Adventures!


For those of you who are wondering why we were celebrating a 1/2 birthday, here's the deal.  J's birthday is Jan 31, mine is Jan 21 and S is Jan 25! 3 birthdays within 10 days of each other in our family usually means dinner or whatever I want to do. (Thanks S for being such a good sport too!) Anyways, J never complains and always just goes with the flow (granted he doesn't plan anything so he should just go with it, but that's another story). This year I decided to do something completed geared for him. So I made a reservation for 10 of us go try the ropes and climbing course at Adrenaline which included zip lining. I ordered a special Kokanee cake, and had our friends and family keep it a secret for months. :)


Now what's the deal with Adrenaline you ask? Well for starters I think it's opened a little premature. It needs work, help with customer service and management. But having worked with a few start ups (opening some BPs and Lilac when it was still growing) I know this takes a ton of work, a lot of hours, and usually they don't quite have the funds to pay a person properly to get a really good dedicated manager. It's not quite set up for groups yet and the course is well......

The course itself is not for the weak. It's actually not for a lot of people. It is designed with a few flaws in my opinion and it was tough. Not just physically tough, but emotionally disappointing. As I read on their website that a 4 year old could complete the course, I thought, 'oh it's just a fun course that is built up high.' Not really the case. Now, do not get me wrong..... it was TONS of fun. And I would go back. I would try my best again. BUT it was frustrating. It was hard to try climbing to wall over and over again while being physically exhausted and knowing you are so close, yet so far away. I will tell you this.... I never made it to the course.  But 3 men in our group did and J said it was a lot of fun.


I did have a few complaints, among them were when I called to confirm our reservation at about 11:30am and see how the weather was there, they never mentioned there was no power. We had a reservation to eat in their restaurant, but with no power that meant no restaurant. Had they told me, I could have made other arrangements at that point. It was fine, we went to BP Kenaston who accommodated our group and we had an amazing server, but it was more the point of it.  This also meant you had to pay cash as their debit and credit machines were down. Again, had I known, when I confirmed with our friends & family, I could have made sure they had cash on hand to pay for their drinks (warm) from the bar. (As a side note, I'm pretty sure you aren't allowed to serve if you have no power, and with no emergency lights on in the bathroom, I'm also pretty sure you have to close for safety reasons)


Having no easy way up the course made it so 70% of our group could not participate although they tried.  Ziplining was only accessible if you could make it up, so our group was stuck watching. Because of the weather, we were also not able to go xorbing, which was disappointing as it would have provided at least something for the observers to participate in.  The wake boarding was also closed due to no power.


But even with all of this, I'm happy with the day, I'm glad we did it, and it was tons of fun! Here's a few pictures

J, C, and K (who is scared of heights) on the first level of the course

Me climbing the wall, never made it much further

Birthday Cake courtesy of Sunrise Mosaics - check them out on Facebook

Unsensored

This blog has received a lot of reads lately by many people I never expected. First im sorry to hurt you. This blog is used as a personal and unsensored account of daily life, my opinions, and observations. I sometimes forget with it being online, its online for any one to read. I never edit my posts, they are written exactly how I'm feeling at the time. I never think about others feelings, but maybe i should. That being said the last post did come out harsh and that was never my intention. I'm sorry again.

Out of place......

Warning about this post: it's not meant to offend anyone. It is simple observations of my daily life. I am not trying to complain or put down others, just point out mere differences. If you at okay readi g this with an open mind and not interested in judging, please continue. Otherwise, I think you should skip this post. I went to the same school for 12 years. when I entered as a shy (yes I was shy at one point!) scared little girl with glasses to my grade 1 classroom I would have no idea how many of these other scared little girls would become lifelong friends. many of them have been friends with me for over 20 years! I attended a friends wedding yesterday of one of these school friends. As the maid of honor (also a lifelong friend) gave her speech I felt like we were right out of high school again and nothing in our lives had changed..... Except everything in our lives has changed. There were many of our other school friends there, many whom I was seated with for the evening that I haven't seen in years. Yesterday I was reminded why. As I near 30 I believe it is time to grow up. We are not 18 anymore and I'm quite happy that we're not. The days of drama and drinking are behind me and my focus (and love) is diapers and discovery. So while I sat at a table where I was the only mom, the only woman without a career (that pays money), an the only one who planned to leave before 11pm, I noticed a huge gap. A gap that I just couldn't avoid - I couldnt pretend it didn't exist and fool myself into believing we were right out of high school and we still have something in common. Now don't get me wrong, half of my table was great. Although one still lives at home and has a long term bf (8years i think!), and one just bought her first house with her bf, I felt connected to these ladies. They didn't judge my relationship with J (or question why he is gone), they didn't make me feel ridiculous for leaving early to come home to my babies, and they found common ground by talking by random life events. However, the other half of my table was...... Mind blowing. Beside me sat a girl who I spent every weekend with in high school, countless hours on the phone with and even wrote my grade 12 farewell message in the year book. As she sat there and discussed the events (or those that she could remember) of her night before, I couldn't help feeling really out of place. We have nothing in common anymore...... This week also involved a playdate with a friend from high school who I was never close with. We got along but just ran in different circles. She now lives in California with her husband and 2.5 year old. She was in town visiting and called me up. I'm thankful she did! It was a great afternoon spent outside at Assiniboine park, we walked the gardens with our kids talking about how we feel out of place sometimes in a sea of friends who went onto impressive career orientated lives. But we also connected over our natural methods of parenting. Now she is more of a hippie than I, but we had many similar views. It was nice to let the kids play at the nature park, but also fun to see her now. If only she lived closer I'm sure she would be a weekly playdate for us. I'm excited for wedding season to be over. To go back to spending my days focused on my babies and to again not see some of these ladies for years. While I say that, I also hope I have reconnected with a few and can continue t stay on touch even if we don't see each other much. Life has many paths and each person chooses what they feel is right for them, but the more time I spend with "the other side", the more thankful I am for the life I have. J and I have ups and downs, and sometimes I have no idea if he's being spontaneous or has been planning things for awhile before springing them on me, but he really is my best friend. He is supportive and level headed, he's strong, hard working, funny, sometimes a jerk, good looking, and honest. He is the most loyal person I know and I wouldnt trade him for anything! Obviously the girls are my world, and I could write a whole post on how great I believe they are (as every parent could of their own) but I won't today. I just look at them and know I have made the right choice for me. This week j comes home and Saturday is his surprise party. Since it looks like he will only be home for 5 days, we will likely go north to visit him during his run. Well that's it for today, enjoy ~

Update in a glance

So here's what's going on around here......

• J quit his job and is going back to working in Bissett. It's a long story and there were a lot of reasons, so he will finish the month in Red Lake and go to Bissett hopefully for his regular rotation.
• I spent my first night away from Bug. Although the night was ok at home, the morning was sad and lonely and I was happy to have my girls back home with me.
• Peanut has joined gymnastics where I do not participate! It is great. I watch for one hour and try to entertain Bug while Peanut listens to an amazing (PATIENT) instructor. She's a saint.
• We have 3 weeks left of swimming for both Peanut and Bug.
• I am trying a running program Monday with my friend whose wedding I am in this summer. I'm excited for the company. The goal is to run a 5k in Niverville to support Mental Health in September. (I know my ultimate goal, but this one is more achievable this year. If I'm ambitious, they have a 10k we could do)
• I have finally hung pictures on my walls. With it being a new house I didn't want to rush and put holes in my walls and then end up having to patch/paint because I didn't like where things were. I'm quite happy with what I have up so far, but am really glad I waited too.
• I did a scandalous little photo shoot and get the pictures tomorrow. I'm beyond excited to see how they turned out. Hopefully they will boost my self confidence and not destroy it - I felt really strong and happy doing it so hopefully it will lead to good pictures too.
• I am ending my weight loss program, not because I have reached my goal, but because I'm not sure their goal was ever really achievable. (they are using the same measure that puts Micheal Jordon as obese!!) So I'm happy with where I sit today. I still have a bit to go, but I'll work on that myself, with my new learned eating habits and exercise.
• My aunt and uncle are in this week, which clearly brings back memories of June 25 when they were here last year..... oh what fun!
• I have birthday parties in the midst of planning, and am really excited for both weekends of events. More details to follow.....

Well it's short and sweet and doesn't include everything, but it has enough about us for today......

Photo Card

Party Dots Birthday

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For love of his face

If you've followed me for awhile, or know me personally you know I love to give (and get) surprises! Although not many people have managed to surprise me - I am a peeker when it comes to presents, a curious soul by nature, and just usually know when something is up....

Back to the giving part..... my latest surprise is targeted again at my hubby because let's face it, I love his face when I manage to surprise him! I will always remember the look when he realized peanut and I made it up to Bissett for her first birthday.

So this year I have once again planned a surprise. J is amazing at going with the flow. He never complains when I want to go out for a fancy dinner, or watch a movie (this is a man who can barely sit still for 20 minutes, you can imagine how movies go in our house). Since our birthdays are only 10 days apart, and usually because I am the one planning something for us, friends and family, and it is the dead of winter, we do something tailored to my taste/style. Not this year!!

I saw passes for Adrenaline Adventures on Auction Mart, and thought what a fun idea! I bought a pass for 10 people to zipline/participate on the climb course. (if you've never seen it - check it out here) I have a reservation for June when J is home and have ordered his birthday cake. What else other than a cake shaped as a Kokanee beer bottle?! I have invited some friends and still have a few to ask but I am so excited to plan another surprise! If we have more than 10 people, that's okay, I'm excited for J to celebrate his birthday actually doing something he would want to do. Now I just need to purchase his wake boarding lesson and xorbing! (xorbing is the large hamster ball)

I am so looking forward to this ~