Sunday, September 25, 2011

Week in Review - Sept. 17-23

It was a pretty productive week around here - I feel like I got a fair bit accomplished :)  Did I take pictures of a lot of it to include in this highly stimulating blog?  No.  I didn't.  So this is going to be a slow pics week... sorry!

I have been looking for a rocking recliner to use with the baby for quite some time.  There's a lot of regular recliners out there, but it's been a bit difficult to find the rocker kind, especially in my price range, which is pretty much "cheap or cheaper".  Anyway, on Saturday night I found a really great looking one for only $40!!  I immediately emailed them, and thankfully heard back about it on Sunday morning.  So Mom and I headed out for a day of errands and to check out the chair.  It was great, and in awesome condition, so of course we bought it!!

And here it is in my room - Tigger is in love with it.  I think he's been using it more than I have ;)

Mom had a coupon for fleece that we can use for receiving blankets at FabricLand, so we scored on some awesome deals, and some super adorable patterns :)
I had to throw a Canadian one in there, of course ;)  Mom's going to sew the edges for me, and voila, receiving blankets!  Pretty awesome!!

I had an appointment with ICBC this week for them to check out my car - estimate the damage versus the value of the car.  You would be surprised (I was!!) that something like just a door would incur so much damage to the car!  But I guess there was some structural issues as well, and pretty much it all added up to them wanting to write off the car.  Bummer dude.  So anyway, long story short, they pay me off for the car, I give it to them and hunt for a new car.  Which needs to happen sooner than later because I use my car daily!  I'm sure I will have some updates on that next week! Wish me luck!!

Baby Update:
I'm starting my 28th week!!  Can you believe it?  It seems like time is flying by so quickly.  I'll be in my 30th week at the Feast, and then when Luke gets here it will be a VERY short 3ish weeks until my due date!!  That seems to be WAY too fast!! :)  I have to admit, it is starting to get overwhelming to think about it all sometimes.  I know it will all work out, and I have a ton of support, but still... a baby!

I have my appointment with the Diabetic Clinic this week, which I'm actually looking forward to.  I want to get as much dietary info as possible.  I also have my regular doctor's appointment on Friday - Mom's going with me this time, which will be great!  I don't know if I ever explained that my doctor is on a rotation with another maternity doc who happens to be the same doctor who delivered me many years ago :)  So Mom's coming in to see her and catch up a little bit!  Also to hear the baby's heartbeat! lol

I can feel the baby moving so much these days - it's so wonderful!  It's my favourite thing, but I have to admit that I get great anxiety when I don't feel her move for hours and hours!  The other day she didn't move until well past mid-afternoon, and it just stressed me out.  I knew that logically it was nothing, she was likely just sleeping (I guess she does need to do that), but still, it comforts me so much to feel those kicks.  I feel like everything must be okay if she's moving :)  I know that's probably silly, but still....

And now for the weekly installment of "Weird places that Tigger likes to sleep"...

Have a great week everyone!!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Home-made Laundry Detergent - SO CHEAP!

While I'm not a fan of the show "19 Kids and Counting", I can totally get behind this!  As you can imagine they go through a ton of laundry, so in order to save money they make their own.  Mom made a batch after we got home from Vegas this summer (beginning of July), and we're not even halfway through the batch yet!  It's saved a TON of money, and works just as great as any store bought laundry detergent.

Since I know so many of us are on tight budgets, I wanted to share this, because I've been very impressed so far.  And double bonus, I've read that all 3 of the ingredients are safe to use for baby clothes, etc, so that's awesome :)

Ingredients:

-  One Fels Naptha Soap Bar, grated

-  One cup washing soda

-  1/2 cup Borax

Instructions:

Grate the soap bar into a small sauce pan.  Cover with hot water.  Cook over medium-low heat, stirring continually, until the soap completely dissolves.

Put washing soda and Borax into a 5 gallon bucket.  Pour in the hot, melted soap mixture.  Stir well, until all the powder is dissolved.  Fill the bucket to the top with more hot tap water.  Stir, cover securely, and let set overnight - it will congeal into somewhat of a gel when it sets.

At this point the original recipe tells you to mix equal amounts of soap concentrate and water in a smaller soap dispenser (like an old store-bought detergent container), and to shake it every time  you use it, and to use about 1 cup per load.  But what Mom did is leave it in the concentrated form inside the 5 gallon bucket, and we use about 1/2 of a cup of this per load.  What we use is a large plastic spoon inside the bucket and stir it before we use it, then use the spoon part as the measuring unit.  It works great!  Mom also added some scented essential oils, to give it a bit of a scent.  But if someone in your family has troubles with scents or anything, you can absolutely omit this step.

Here's what the final product looks like for us:


As you can see, we've got a little more than half left, and we've been using it for a family of 4-5 since July 2nd.  Since you only use one bar and a very minimal amount of each powder for one large bucket, it is *extremely* economical!  The instructions say that if you have a top loader machine, to use about 1 cup of the soap mixture (or 1/2 cup if you leave it concentrated in the bucket), and if you have a front loader machine to use 1/2 cup of soap mixture, or 1/4 cup of just the concentrated mixture in the bucket.  

One thing to remember if you do end up making this, is that it's not a sudsy soap, so don't be expecting that when you add it to your water :)  My Dad was adding more and more scoops at one point trying to get it to suds... fail! ;)  haha!

I highly recommend it though - it's saved us money for sure, and there have been no changes at all in the cleanliness of our clothes.  A win/win all around :)

Saturday, September 17, 2011

3 Months!

Today marks the "I only have 3 months left until my scheduled due date" day! ;)  Terrifying, exciting, scary, exciting, overwhelming.... did I mention exciting?  It hits me sometimes that this is it... in just a few short months there will be a 3rd person to our little family.  There will be a baby around... all the time.... we can't give her back to anyone ;)  Sometimes it is very overwhelming!

But I also can't even put into words how excited I am!  We have so many things planned, so many things we want to do... I know I already have so many photo ops floating around in my head! :)  Mom already has so many knitting and sewing projects planned!  It's gonna be amazing :)

A couple of quotes that have had an impact on me in the past couple of months....
This one came from a good friend - thanks Sue!:

"Here's to Good Women:
May we know them.
May we be them.
May we raise them."

That hits me hard every time I think about it... we get to be solely responsible for raising this tiny person.  Scary, and very intimidating!  However, I think we're up to the task... with as much help as possible :)

I got this other quote off of a beautiful baby photography website:

"The moment a child is born,
the mother is also born.
She never existed before.
The woman existed, but the mother, never.
A mother is something absolutely new." 
~ Rajneesh

Now for a memory that I definitely don't want to forget ;)  When Luke was here for the summer he would sing this song to me all the time.... making it absolutely impossible to get out of my head at any given time.  Beware, it is SUPER cheesy and ridiculous! :) Hahaha!  But really, if you know Luke you know that this is perfectly normal, and that really the translation of "fromage" should indeed be "Luke Nelson" ;)


Try getting this out of your head... I dare you ;)

Edited to add:  I *just* realized I have now started my 3rd Trimester!  27 weeks and counting!! Woohoo! :)



Friday, September 16, 2011

Day 69-82 - WeekS in Review! ~Sept. 3-16~

Who knew I could suck at this posting thing even more!  Now it's been TWO weeks since you last heard from me - good grief :)  It's been a really busy couple of weeks - lots of housecleaning, lots of photo editing (more on that later, it's *finally* done!), lots of appointments, my car got hit, etc, etc, etc.... there are definitely not enough hours in the day!!

First off, probably the worst part in the last couple of weeks - I was at a housecleaning job and one of the people that was doing some work on the house completely backed into my driver's side door!  Not just a little bump either.... I'm talking enough force to push my car away from where I was originally parked by a good 12 inches!

So as you can see, it's a big munch!
The guy who hit me is a local business owner and someone my Dad and brother Dave have both done a lot of work with, so I was happy to know he was honest and when he said he would take care of fixing it, I wouldn't have to worry too much.  He thought it would be as easy as taking it in to the body shop and getting them to replace and paint the door, etc, but it turns out it's a fair bit more extensive than that.  The guy at the body shop (Mike @ West Coast Collision - I will pimp his business any time because he's been super!) gave him an estimate and it turns out we're going to go through ICBC to get the work done.  So now I have an appt this coming week to take it in to the claim center and see what they have to say.  Big bummer dude.

Dad's friend Eric delivered his Bobcat to us a few evenings ago, for Dad to use on a multitude of projects he has planned, including more leveling out of the backyard.
Dad's been having way too much fun learning how to drive it and playing around in it most evenings :)
The dogs have been extremely unsure of the entire process, especially now that their beloved Dad is behind the wheel! haha!

In other news, I have finally joined the Smart Phone world!  We renewed our cell phone contract and Dave, Jordan and I went with smart phones this time around.  I got the Samsung Nexus S, and am very happy with it so far!  I've had it for a little less than a week, and had a couple minor issues with it in the first couple days, but it all seems to be fine now.
I got a great Case-Mate Pop case for it too - great hard plastic case with some rubbery elements as well - makes it very much fit like a glove!

Jordan and I have been working like crazy on editing Crystal and Darrel's wedding photos, and I am super happy to say we are DONE!  Finally, eh?!

All of the finished photos can be seen HERE - Yutzy Wedding!

BABY UPDATE:
So much has been going on with the little one these days - I've been having more tests and appointments lately, which is a bit difficult to fit into my already hectic schedule.  I had to go in for my gestational diabetes test (a two hour test - ugh!), and yup it turns out I do indeed have it.  I've been scheduled for an appointment at the Diabetic Clinic so they can go over things with me and see if I can control things with diet alone, or if I need medication or anything.  I'm really hoping to be able to control it with diet obviously, but I really just want what's best for me and baby, so if that means I need to do meds for the next 3 months, then so be it.  I've done a ton of research and tried to learn as much as I can about what I should and shouldn't eat, and have been implementing that diet for the past couple of weeks, and I'm *feeling* a lot better at least!  I'm hoping that it's a step in the right direction anyway - I'm feeling like this can only be a good lifestyle change in the long run anyway!
I also had to go in to see my doctor for a quick blood pressure check.  I suppose I was stressed at my last appointment a few weeks ago because it was pretty high!  So anyway, they were a wee bit worried about that, so I've been checking it at home with Dad's meter, and it's been really good.  Then when I went to the doctor, it was the best it's been my entire pregnancy!  What?!  I thought it would still be on the higher side cause now I was thinking and stressing about it!!  Anyway, it's all good - one less thing for me to have to stress about :)

Now for the fun stuff!  Baby Clothes!!! :)  One of Luke's coworkers just blessed us SO much with some of her baby girl's clothes that she's grown out of!  Enough that I am going to have LOTS to send to Sacha for her sweet little Emma who is due in October :)  I'm so very excited and feel so blessed by it - what a sweet gesture!

Luke's Mom's been going through all of his old baby stuff too, and she's come up with a number of awesome blankets that she and Luke's great-Grandma made for him when he was a baby :)  And some clothes that will totally work for a little girl too! One of the blankets is obviously very pink, because she didn't know if she was having a boy or girl, and so made one for both genders :)  So this one's totally "new"! :)  So sweet!
Too cute!!
Luke's also been guilty of buying for the baby, which honestly makes my heart just so full every time I think about it :)  Thinking of him going into a store and specifically looking at teeny tiny adorable baby girl clothes - seriously, that has got to be the sweetest thing I can even think of :):):)  And he's come up with some awesome stuff!
What a sweetheart :):)

I also took my first "baby bump" photo a couple Saturdays ago...just in case some of you haven't seen it yet ;)
This was at the start of my 25th week... wow how time flies!  I'll try to take another one in maybe a few weeks or so.

Also for Alina's viewing pleasure....
Tigger finally found a spot where no one could almost sit on him, move him, shove him over, etc :)  Poor cat! hahah!

Whew, I can't really think of too much else that's been going on this week - nothing worth writing on here anyway!  The car issue, all the variety of baby appointments and the seemingly endless housecleaning jobs and projects at home have made life very busy!  I'll try to be better about posting at least once a week though!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Day 62-68 - Week in Review!

I might just start doing a week in review type of post instead of trying to actually accomplish a daily post...I can't seem to get it done, and I am sick of starting every post with "I suck yet again..."!

This week started off great - the family went over to Vancouver for our friends Crystal and Darrel's wedding.  My brother Jordan and I took some engagement photos of them on Saturday before an amazing lunch at The Boathouse on Kit's Beach.  It was great!  Then the next day was the BIG DAY, and wow, did we ever have a good time!  Over 3,000 photos were taken by Jordan and I, and we are trying to narrow it down!  It was a very long and busy weekend, but it was great :)  Here are a few teasers of the weekend....


The rest of the week was a blur of catching up on work, catching up on sleep and periodically editing some photos, and trying to get in some quality time with Luke.  I only took a couple photos, and who knows what day they were taken on....but it is what it is!

This is the adorable outfit that Michael and Ginni bought us for our little baby girl - so adorable, and so very sweet of them to think of us :)  I love that the pants can be capris as well as full leg - too cute!!

On the 1st of September it most definitely felt like a fall day, and guess what made it even more that way?  There was enough of a chill in the air that Dad actually started a fire in the wood stove!  I love that smell, it's one of my very favourites - first of the year fire :)

That's about it for the week of August 27th - September 2nd.... pretty exciting eh?!  I lead the life people, I am tellin ya!