Merry Christmas

It has been quite the year for E and I. We started off 2008 with the purchase of a house in the south end of Winnipeg to renovate and sell. I was still working full time and getting started on my thesis proposal at that time. Both the house and my thesis proposal were finished by the time my due date was (thank goodness!)

K was born on June 21st and what a huge change that brought to our lives! E took the first 8 weeks off with me. K is doing great and is quite a happy little guy much of the time.

We took a trip to BC to visit friends and family in September. We are still hoping to move out to the west coast within the next couple of years. Winter in Winnipeg seems to get colder and more miserable every year. Of course, being on maternity leave this winter means I'm not forced to go out there every day!

Now we are ending off our year with the purchase of another house to renovate (we're working on it with some friends of ours) and a trip to Winnipegosis to visit family. My thesis proposal has been approved and the ethics board has approved my research.

In January I'll start my research and I hope to be finished with collecting questionnaires and doing interviews before I go back to work in April. We also hope to be done our house renovation by that time. I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope your year will be filled with wonderful things!

A very lovely surprise...

I found out today that I am not just getting 17 weeks of maternity leave payments, but another 17 weeks of parental leave payments as well. That makes 34 weeks of continuing to get my regular salary while staying home with little K.

I had been under the impression that I was only getting the first 17 weeks. So when I kept getting deposits from my place of work, I was concerned that at some point they would call me and ask for all that money back. But now that I've talked to our wonderful HR people, I'm quite pleased.

Getting Out

E and I have some friends who never once left their baby with someone else during his first year. No date nights or dinners out without the little one. And it's not as if they don't have any nearby family members who could concievably babysat for them. That can't be healthy.

As of this weekend we have had all of 4 dates without baby in his 5 months of life. This still seems like a far too seldom occurance. My parents have babysat for each of these times out. It would be really nice to have a babysitter or two that we could leave little K with on a more regular basis. He's a really happy guy, it wouldn't be that much of a trial for anyone.

Sadly, most of the people we know already have their own kids or are far too busy to do any babysitting. It will probably be easier when he gets older and can actually play with other children. Then we can drop him off at a little friends house while we go out and play.

First meal

This morning K had his first cereal. It went remarkably well. I'm not sure how much he actually ate, but he was opening his mouth to take the spoon. I can't wait to be able to start dropping some of his breastfeedings!

New sounds and other fun

K is making lots of interesting noises these days. He is also getting much better at holding on to his toys, rolling over, and all of that fun stuff.

I'm waiting for the ethics board to approve my thesis. I should hear back any day now. Hopefully it passes and I can finally get started on sending out questionnaires and collecting my data.

And in other news... we're buying another house to renovate. No, I'm not kidding. And yes, we are crazy. The plan is to have others do a bit more work this time around instead of doing it all ourselves. And by 'ourselves' I mean mostly E doing the work.

A Song for Kian

To the tune of the Spiderman theme song.

Kian Bear
Kian Bear
Drools over everything he wears
He can poo
Pee too
He's got radio-active spew
Look out!
Here comes the Kian Bear

At the sound of his whine
We arrive just in time
To pick him up
And stop the cries

back to the top

And Winter Comes

The leaves have all fallen from the trees. A few hardy flowers still bloom, but the cold at night will soon cause them to dry up. There is a chill in the wind that blows right through the layers of clothing I put on. I'm avoiding pulling out my winter jacket even though it is more appropriate for the temperature today.

I dread the coming of winter each year. The bitter cold gets under my skin and for the next six or more months I will be unable to completely warm up. The hot tub in our building helps. Cups of coffee, tea, and hot chocolate help too. But nothing completely takes away the knowledge in my bones that the world has frozen over.

This year I am home with K for the winter. I am not sure how my experience of winter in Winnipeg will be this time around. It will be harder to force myself to get outside, get some fresh, yet cold, air. I will have the option of going outside during the daylight hours, but will I want to?

I am deeply thankful that the warmish fall weather has persisted this long. Usually the fall season is much too short to properly enjoy. Maybe this year I can attempt to enjoy winter as well.

Happy Halloween

Our little devil! Isn't he adorable?

Yet another thesis proposal revision done...

Happy birthday to me! I spent the day working on my thesis proposal and ethics protocol submission forms all day while my mom looked after baby K. Exciting times huh!

I may even be done with my proposal and hope I am done (maybe 1 more revision) with my ethics forms. Then the fun part begins... sending out questionnaires and doing interviews. 

14,000 words and counting.

I'm still shooting for an end date of August 2009.

Mommyhood and funny noises

Being a mommy has added a whole new dimension to my vocabulary. Well, maybe that isn't entirely correct, maybe my vocabulary has taken huge giant steps backward to the point of being mostly noises. I find myself resisting the urge to talk in funny tones or insert nonsensical syllables into ordinary conversations. Probably because that is exactly how I spend much of my day talking to little K.

Thoughts on childcare...

We have K on 9 waiting lists for day care. Of those, 3 will take infants. 1 will take children 15 months or more. The rest will only take children 18 months or older.

Wouldn't it be great if parental leave was for 18 months?! Then all of us parents who are returning to work when our benefits end wouldn't have to compete for the extremely rare infant spaces in daycare. At 18 months, daycares can take more children with fewer staff. Which is why there are limited infant spaces, it just doesn't make as much financial sense to provide them.

An 18 month leave would allow parents more time to get their children off to a good start developmentally. It would allow daycares to maximize the number of children they take per staff. Plus it wouldn't really cost the goverment much more. I mean, we're all paying into the EI pot and most of us aren't taking back out of it. The regulations around collecting EI are so strict that we generally end up with a surplus of funds which the government is not supposed to use for other purposes (but do anyway).  So why not extend parental leaves? Some of the European countries have much longer leaves than we have already. I think this is a great plan!

Another proposal draft done!

Yay! I finished yet another draft of my thesis proposal. Hopefully this will be the last one... I doubt it, but I always keep the hope! We are now at just over 9000 words. Over 10,000 if you count my ethics approval forms.

I'm meeting with my advisor on Oct 6th and am hoping that this will mean I can soon start my research... my people research as opposed to my literature research.

Knock on wood!

Cute little stinker!

Have I mentioned the impressive amounts of laundry that a little creature such as this can generate? Yesterday... 3 shirts and 1 pair of pants (of mine), and 2 onesies, 1 sleeper, 3 spit rags, and 1 blanket all got impressively spit up on. I think E got through the day unscathed.

Today... more of the same!

And to add to the fun, K decided to fill his diaper (not pee) during the 45 minute window of time that my Doctor's appointment occurred in. Which meant having to cart home his very stinky diaper in a plastic bag.

Being a parent is seriously dirty business!

Back to the Thesis

This week I started back in on my thesis. I am starting to realize what a challenging journey it is going to be to get it finished. Two of the biggest challenges to overcome are time and motivation. 

My mom will be coming in once a week to help with entertaining baby K. That is a HUGE help, since babies (oddly enough) demand a lot of attention. Otherwise, I can plug away during naptimes and in the evenings. Of course, there are countless other things I also try to cram into naptimes, such as eating, showering, my naps, laundry, tidying up the apartment, exercising, and so on. And there are also other things to do in the evenings like hanging out with my husband, the odd night out with friends or family, going for walks, dinner, and any of the above items that weren't done during naptimes.

Then there is the motivation challenge. Other than the fact that I just want to get my degree over and done with, I'm not really all that excited to be working on school stuff again. But, I have gotten this far so there is no way I'm not going to finish it.

Sigh... 

Rolling Over

It's not consistant yet, but K can roll over. Most of the time, when we put him on his tummy he just whines. But this day he rolled over nearly 10 times in a row.

Trip to Vancouver

We just returned from a short trip to Vancouver. It was so great to be out there. We rented an apartment in the West End, only one block away from the beach. We walked everywhere along the sea walk (top picture). We hugely enjoyed the ocean fresh air and the chance to spend so much time outside. And we visited some family and good friends in and around the area.

One day we hope to move out to the west coast. Not necessarily downtown Vancouver - actually, definitely not downtown Vancouver. Really, anywhere we can find decent jobs would be totally acceptable.

Travelling with baby was also quite the experience. I learned how to breastfeed in public. I still don't really like to do it, but I can now without too much of a fuss. E mastered the diaper change in the stroller. And K behaved very nicely for our flights. All in all, it went pretty well.

It is nice to be back in our own space though. In spite of our space being here in Manitoba. But someday...

Going for Walks

The Riverwalk is my favourate place to go for walks with K. Access to the Riverwalk is just across the street from our apartment. I can walk west towards the Legislative grounds and the park & fountain at one end. Or I can walk east to the Forks Market and past it to the Provencher Pedestrian bridge.

K likes his rides in the stroller and usually falls asleep. I get my exercise and some fresh air. It's good all around! The hardest part of moving into a house somewhere (not that we have one yet) would be leaving such a nice spot to go for walks and hang out outside.

Conversation with K

Cloth Diapers

Did you know that a huge percentage of landfill is made up of disposable diapers? Tonnes of these tightly wrapped, poo and pee filled conveniences sit for decades, not really decomposing. Crazy stuff huh! That's one reason why we decided to primarily use cloth diapers.

Another reason to use cloth diapers is that in the end it is less expensive to use them. It's a bigger expense up front, but we purchased one size fits all diapers so we won't have to buy any more when K get's bigger. They're not really as much extra work as some people seem to think they are. Plus, our cloth diapers are pretty cute. We're using Bum Genius, I'd recommend them to anyone.

Disposable diapers are a relatively recent 'evil.' My generation's parents all seem to have used cloth diapers because there was no such thing as disposable. Everyone of them I've talked to seemed singularily unimpressed that we made the decision to go with cloth diapers (apparenlty this is normal for them). My mom used these squares of cloth folded up with a plastic diaper cover on my brothers and me when we were babies.

Of course, if we lived in an apartment building where we didn't have in suite laundry, I would probably make the decision to use disposable in spite of all the reasons not to. I am doing laundry constantly (maybe not constantly but it sure feels like it.) I wouldn't want to have to be toting an infant up and down a few floors of apartment stairs into a dingy laundry room, competing with 20 other people for the same 2 washers and dryers. Or hauling everything off to the nearest laundramat.

Swimming

K seems to like the wading pool here at our apartment. We have now been swimming with him twice. He wears these nifty swimmers diapers (which are a bit big - so fingers crossed that he doesn't poo and it doesn't leak out into the pool).

Home Alone

Well, today is my first day home alone with baby K. E headed off to work this morning around 8am. It's been fine so far, very quiet though...

K & I slept until about 11 when he wanted to eat again. After that K didn't stay awake very long before he went back to sleep again and I got up, got dressed, made lunch and ate it. By 1 he was awake and wanting to eat again. I had been thinking about going for a walk at that point except for that big pile of laundry - which now only needs a little more folding, the kitchen is clean, and the apartment is tidied up. And K slept some more. Look at me all domestic like!

Now he's starting to wake up and I'm typing this with one hand while holding him in my other arm. I'm hoping he wakes up soon to eat, and then we really will take a short walk.

Smiles, Coos, and Laughter

It's way too cute! The smiles, the cute little cooing noises, and the other morning a real laugh.

The View from Here

Recently all of my posts have been about baby K. Today I'm just going to put up a few pictures of our 'yard'. This is our balcony and the view from it.

My Two Children

You may think that I only have one child, but in truth, right now I have two of them. I call them Morning K and Evening K. Or, I could call them Happy K and Cranky K. Two distinct personalities all in one tiny little body.

Morning K might let out the occasional cry when he's hungry or his diaper is dirty. Evening K doesn't need a reason to wail. Morning K coos and makes sweet little noises when he's happy. Evening K grunts or wimpers at a lower volume at his happiest.

Thank goodness Evening K only visits us for a relatively short period of time. Yesterday, Evening K was around from about 7:30pm until midnight-ish.

It's amazing how different my two little babies are from one another. I don't really enjoy Evening K all that much. He's not as cute as Morning K is.

5 Weeks

I wasn't planning to write only about K, but as our lives are revolving around the little guy at the moment, it's hard to find other items of relevance...

K is 5 weeks old as of yesterday. He now makes noises other than wimpering and crying. He grunts (a lot lately) and makes cute little sighing sounds, and a few others that I'm not sure how to describe.

The grunting, although cute during the day, is annoying at night. It is the sound of constipation. It can go on for more than an hour. This morning at around 2:30am I noticed the grunting noise coming through the moniter. As K usually wakes around this time (give or take) to eat, I remained mostly awake, waiting for the wimpering to start - signalling that it was time to go get him up to eat. The grunting continued until about 4am when I decided to just go wake him up anyways. He finally sleeps extra long at night but still manages to keep me awake!

Sleep, Eat, and Poop, Sleep, Eat, and Poop

This is the remarkable routine of a newborn that becomes the centre of a new parents world. It is amazing how exhausting this routine can be. Especially when the sleep part of the routine turns into the crying part of the routine from about 11pm until 4am.

I have concluded that God is extremely wise to make babies so damn cute because otherwise they would drive us crazy in the wee hours of the night with their inexplicable wailing. They've been fed, their diapers are clean, they've been burped, we've tried holding, rocking, swaddline, putting them down, and picking them up again... in dark rooms, light rooms, quiet rooms and loud rooms, and still they cry. Sigh... At least it's only for a few hours at a time.

Thank goodness K doesn't do this every night. But the first few weeks at home were a bit of a trial, and rather alarming. We weren't sure if there was something wrong with him. But by the time morning rolled around he was usually sleeping peacefully, and would generally sleep peacefully (as his routine cycled) until evening. Which is why E & I never managed to get out of be for the day until at least 11am, usually noon. And why I often just stayed in my pj's all day long.

A Baby Story

Welcome Kian Erick Dirks Pay, born on June 21 at 11:45pm, 8pounds 5 ounces, 22 inches long.

At 5:00pm on Saturday the 21st, we finally recived the call from the hospital saying that we could come in at 6:30 to be induced. This was supposed to be a 1 hour appointment and then we would return home and wait for labour to get going.

Instead, we got to the hospital to find out that I was already in labour and that my water had already broken (which I hadn't noticed at all). I got all hooked up to some moniters and an IV and they began to moniter my contractions and Kian's heartbeat.

After about an hour of being monitered, our nurses and my docter were concerned that Kian's heartbeat would go down after every contraction. No cause for alarm yet, but in 4 or more hours this could become a real problem. Especially since my labour wasn't really progressing, at least not quickly enough.

Our doctors wanted to make sure Kian was doing okay, and to do so needed to take some blood samples from Kian's head. Which meant I needed to get an epidural. And since I was planning to get one at some point anyways, plus on the off chance they needed to do a C-Section, I figured why not.

So, after they did the blood tests, both of the attending doctors recommended that I go in for a C-Section. They gave E& I a few minutes to talk it over, but we both agreed that we didn't want to risk anything happening to Kian by waiting for a natural delivery.

By 11pm I was wheeled into the operating room for prep. The actual surgery took less than half an hour, and Kian joined us at 11:45pm. Apparently the umbilical cord had been wrapped around his neck, and there was some concern about his oxygen levels and blood sugar levels. So all I got was a quick peek before he was whisked off to the neonatal ICU for monitering.

I was wheeled over to the recovery room for a few hours and then moved to a regular room. I didn't get to hold my Kian until the next morning when I got a wheelchair ride down to ICU to try and feed him.

But all is well, and after a few days in the hospital we were able to take him home.

So far, the hardest part is the few hours of 'cluster feeding' (crankiness and lots of wanting to eat, without the usual sleeps in between) that happens sometime between midnight and 3am every night. The rest of the time I mostly sleep when baby sleeps, which means I'm taking 2 hour naps every couple of hours, all day & all night.

But I love the little guy like crazy, he is sooo beautiful, and I'm getting to know what his different facial expressions mean, and can sort of predict when he'll wake up next for another feeding.

I'm sure I'll have lots more to write about K as we figure out this parenting thing.

1 week and counting

It's June 17th today and still no baby. This waiting around is starting to drive us a little crazy! If the baby doesn't make an appearance by the weekend I will be getting induced on Saturday. I hope we don't have to wait that long.

Still no baby...

It's Thursday June 12 and I'm now 2 days overdue. I'm pretty sure I'm not in labour right now either. I hope we don't have to wait too much longer.

Any day now...

I decided to take my mat leave starting a week early - so I've had this week off. I needed it. I have started clearing space in our office for the baby's half of the room. I've washed all of the baby clothes and made a short list of the few other things we need to pick up, I'm napping in the afternoons, and I'm slowly cleaning the apartment (it's gotten pretty messy in the past few busy weeks).

Today my list includes: dropping my work keys off at the university (the new staffer will need them); going to baby stores to find cloth diapers, a nursing pillow, and whatever else seems important; calling more daycares and getting us on a few more waiting lists; and cleaning at least one bathroom. We'll see if I get it all done!

Last week my thesis proposal was approved by my committee (with a few changes). So I've made those changes and completed my ethics approval application forms. Hopefully I don't need to make too many changes to my ethics application. I won't hear back about that one until I likely have my baby in my arms and I'm not sure how motivated I'll be to work on it at that point!

Well, that's all for now. No baby yet... I'm betting on June 13 but I'm starting to feel like it may be more imminent than that!

Less than 1 month

It's May long weekend at last! I love my long weekends even more than I love regular weekends! E is over at the house working away on our renovations. I'm here at our apartmetn pacing myself for a day of cleaning, laundry, baking, and putting my thesis proposal presentation together.

I have finally completed my thesis proposal, my committee is meeting to hopefully approve it on May 27th when I have to do a 20-25 minute presentation on it. My fingers are crossed & I'm knocking on wood because if they don't approve it, I am unlikely to be able to get anything more done until sometime after the baby comes (August most likely). I'd prefer to have my project ready to start as soon as I feel ready to start it.

I had been planning to work right up until June 6th but am now pretty sure that I'd like to start my maternity leave on May 30th instead. I'm just too tired by the time I get home from work to really do anything in the evenings and I don't want to be completely exhausted before the baby even comes.

Plus we aren't quite ready for our little tyke yet. We haven't made baby space in the office, we don't have bed yet, no diapers, no sheets, none of the clothes are washed and ready, I don't have my 'hostpital bag' packed. If this baby comes early we'll really be scrambling!

less than 2 months to go...

Okay, so I don't know exactly how many days it is until my due date, but I know it's less than 2 months at this point. The baby moves almost constantly these days - it's very very distracting. I'm large and clumsy and waddle around. I can't sleep through the whole night anymore because I have to get up at least once or twice to empty my shrinking bladder. I can't see my feet and it's about time to clip my toenails and I'm not sure exactly how I will manage it.

Aside from all the uncomfortable-nesses, I'm excited to be getting closer to my due date and to my maternity leave. I'd like to meet this little creature that has been squirming around in my belly these past number of months.

Banff trip pictures

Banff Holiday Continued

Well, Thursday night we did have dinner with my aunt. Afterwards we headed up to the Arts centre for a Celtic Concert.

Friday we went for a cross country ski up near Lake Louise. It was beautiful up there. And it was nice to get some exercise after a few days of driving.

Saturday we drove out past Invermere to meet up with my brother and his wife. We went out to these natural hot springs for the afternoon. Then back to the place they were staying for a barbeque before driving back along the winding road to Banff.

Today we attempted to go for a hike. It was way to icy for me to brave the trail up to Johnstone Canyon, so we found an alternate walk along a river instead. It was quite nice, and right on par with my current walking abilities.

This evening E&I are off to an Indian restaurant in town for dinner. Yummy Indian food! I hope the baby is okay with it!

Then tomorrow we begin the long drive home. It has been so nice and relaxing to be away from Winnipeg and we're both not all that excited about going home again. But we can't avoid daily life altogether I suppose...

Banff Holiday

Today is day 1 in Banff. Tuesday night after work, E & I hit the road and pulled into Regina very late in the evening. Wednesday we spent the day on the road and made it to Calgary in time to have dinner with some of E's extended family.

This morning, we made a pit stop at Ikea and picked up a lamp and a ceiling light fixture. Sigh, if only there was an Ikea in Winnipeg... We would buy so much stuff there instead of having to first scour the city for items we like.

We pulled into Banff around 2pm and booked into our hotel. We have already had a lovely afternoon walk along the river and a luxurious soak in the hot tub. We'll be meeting my aunt for supper, whenever she calls us back and then will probably go for another soak in the hot tub. Hot tubs are necessary for recovering from long road trips!

I'll post some pics later on. I'm not sure we have the right cords along for me to download anything.

LOVING the weekend.

Sigh, 15 minutes until I can head home for the weekend. I should still tidy my desk before leaving, but I've already written out my 'to do' list for next week.

Tonight E&I are headed to Providence College to get a display of his photos set up. Tomorrow E will probably head to the house to continue with the tiling and I will attempt to get another few pages of my thesis proposal done. Tomorrow night I'll head to my hometown to visit a few of my high school friends. I'm not sure what our Sunday plans will be.

It doesn't really matter what we plan to do on a weekend, all that matters is that we are free from the workday obligations and schedules and can make it up as we go along.

89 days and counting

I am so tired these days. Apparently this is a normal feature of the third trimester of pregnancy. I just can't seem to get focused, everything goes slowly, and I keep zoning out in the middle of things. I really hope this doesn't last for the entire next 89 days or so.

Warm week again

After another week of wearing ski pants to work, I have again attempted to put them away. This week is gearing up to be fairly tolerable weather-wise. Hopefully it continues.

Trip to Banff

In a few weeks, E&I are taking a little road trip out to Banff. I have an aunt who lives out there, so we'll visit her. But we also just want to get away from Manitoba for a little while.

I haven't been out to Banff for a long time. After I finished my final year of bible college (yes, I actually went to bible college) I spent a summer working in Banff. It was great! I loved the hiking, the mountains, the air, the rivers and everthing. I didn't really like the mass exodus in of tourists. Most of whom were either seniors or Japanese. By mid-June, it was a sea of people in town. I lived with my aunt in her apartment that summer and worked as a front desk clerk in a hotel, Irwin's Moter Inn. It's still there, I checked.

It was a fun summer. But I came to the conclusion that in spite of my enjoyment, I couldn't live right smack in the mountains - I didn't like the shadows. There wasn't any sunrise, just the sun coming out from behind a peak, and there wasn't a sunset, just the sun disappearing mid evening behind a peak on the other side. I just felt a little to closed in. Not that I feel I need a vast prairie with absolutely no landscape variation around me... heaven's no! But the mountains proved to be a bit too overbearing for my comfort. That and the crowds of tourists.

Hurray!

I went to work without ski pants on today! It was a little cool, but I managed. I have worn ski pants to work every day since before the Christmas break... possible since November even.

I can't wait for above 0 degree temperatures. Well, except for the mess of melting snow, mud, salt, gravel and so on, all over the pot holey roads. Other than that, yay spring!

Countdown

110 days to go until my due date...

Sun vs. Clouds

As some of you may know, E&I are working towards moving to BC sometime in the future. Part of the purpose of our house renovating is to be able to actually afford living in the lower mainland at a lifestyle level that is comfortable for us.

One of the major reasons for doing so is to escape the long, inhospitably cold winters as well as the short, mosquito ridden summers here in Winnipeg. (If I have to wear my skipants for another month just to avoid hypothermia, I'm going to go completely insane.)

Whenever we discuss our plans with fellow Manitobans, it raises a particular debate... Sun vs. Clouds. In Winnipeg, there is a good amount of sun throughout the winter. The arguement is that "sure it's cold, but it's a dry cold, and at least we have sunshine." In the lower mainland area of BC the weather is warmer, the winter is shorter, but it does rain a lot and they do get a lot of cloudy days.

Now we all have different weather related things that we can tolerate to different extents. I am not able to cope with -40 degrees no matter how many sunny days that temperature occupies. I am, however, able to cope with +5 degrees with rain and cloud cover for many more days in a row.

When it's really cold, I don't go outside anyways, so what difference does it make whether there's sun, cloud, or complete darkness?

I'm not saying that one type of weather is better than the other, I'm just saying that I would much prefer one over the other. So for everyone out there who would rather have a dry cold with sunshine, by all means, you are more than welcome to it! I am counting down to a future of short, wet, mild winters under a comforting blanket of clouds. If I find I need more sun, I'll buy a sun lamp.

Disturbing News

E & I get the Free Press on the weekends. This past weekend I read a little tidbit that I found deeply disturbing.

People who are caught driving drunk face additional penalties, especially when their drunk driving causes an accident. Drunkenness in this case, is considered a contributing factor to the 'crime' and punishment is increased accordingly.

In a 'recent' and brutal murder in this city, drunkenness was considered an excuse for the criminals to receive reduced sentences. A group of drunks viciously attacked a passerby and beat him to death, giving each other high fives throughout the process. In general, drunkenness might be (and often is) used as a defense in murder cases or assault cases.

These laws should be changed. A precedent needs to be set that holds the same level of accountability for violators in drunk driving cases as in drunk murder or drunken assault cases. Drunkenness should no longer be allowed to function as an excuse. What kind of society accepts "the licquor made me do it" as an acceptable defense for indefensible behaviours?

The Mighty Nail Gun

So, the latest portion of work that E&I have been occupied with on our house is drywalling. We hired a friend to help with the ceiling since I'm not really strong enough to lift that much. But the rest of it I can help with. It's been kinda fun seeing the walls go up.



We spent Saturday and Monday evening just doing drywall (Erick finished up the last of it yesterday evening.) Of course there are are always other things that interrupt, like framing in a doorway... which had to be done before the drywall could be completed in the downstairs 'office.'



Sadly, not all boards are as straight as you need them to be. So while E pushed and pulled them into place, I had to use the dreaded nail gun to ensure that they stayed in place.



Damn that stupid thing! You'd think that 1 pull of the trigger would release 1 nail. Right? That would make sense. But no... no such luck. It's like a nail machine gun... I pulled the trigger once and the nails kept coming... slowly moving upwards towards E's hand. The thought crossed my mind that I was about to permanently maim my poor husband's hand... but I managed to pull the nail gun back just in time.

The second attempt at nailing with that horrid machine released only 2 nails. Apparently you're supposed to pull & release the trigger at superhuman speeds. I'm not sure if anyone has noticed but I don't move at superhuman speeds for anything.

The bottom line is... I don't think I'm cut out to operate nail guns. Maybe with some practice. And most certainly without anyone's hands in my way. Then, maybe. But I'd still rather not have to use one.

Ultrasound

Last week I went for my ultrasound appointment. Did you know that you have to go with a full bladder? That part is agonizing... the rest of it is really cool.

E&I could see the baby's arms and legs, and face, and everything. We could see it moving around and moving its mouth. It was amazing.

We were hoping that the technician would tell us if it was a boy or a girl, but she wouldn't say for sure. However, from our view of the baby, we are guessing that it is going to be a boy. We can't be completely sure though, since we're not really experts at reading ultrasounds! So at this point we're just speculating.

No matter what the baby turns out to be, it was exciting to have our first look at him/her. There's a real human in there, it's not just a growing blob making my belly get bigger and bigger!

Is it wierd that I really like my baby belly? The only belly worry I have is whether or not my warm winter ski pants and winter jacket will continue to fit for the duration of our frigid Winnipeg winter... Here's hoping!

DestructionPhase of Renovation

I have to say that although I enjoy many phases of the whole renovation thing, the destruction phase is the most exhiliarating. We did a lot of destructing in our house.

We ripped off wierd panelling, baseboards, pulled up carpeting & laminate flooring, we ripped down a few walls, and pulled down all of the kitchen cabinets. Well, all except one of them which will go in the new laundry room.

Here are some of our destruction pics... sorry I didn't get any in progress, they're all from after the destruction is done!

smelly

I went into the kitchen this morning and I could smell our bananas. UGH!! So I put them in a less used cabinet so I wouldn't have to smell them while making breakfast and packing my lunch. I'll have to remember to tell E where they are, or they'll end up rotting in there!

So Tired

I am so tired today. Ever since my lunch break (after the fire alarm excitement and all). I got back to my desk and the rest of the day dragged. Then I nearly fell asleep on the bus ride home. When I got home I needed to doze for a few minutes before E & I dragged our lazy butts to the gym. Now I'm sitting at my computer, I should be working on my thesis, but my brain just can't seem to get geared up.

I wish tomorrow was saturday and I could sleep in. But, sadly, it's Friday and I have a whole day of work ahead before I can look forward to a proper break. Oh well, we all gotta work right?

2 Fire Alarms

Today we had 2 fire alarms go off in our building, one after the other. It took about an hour and a half... Right when I was supposed to be going to my dentist appointment... which is in our building.

I was wishing that the alarms had gone off at the end of the day on a Friday. Then I could have gone home. Needless to say, I feel like I haven't got much done today! Too much excitement. Too many hot firemen too!

When you assume...

We all know what happens when you make assumptions right?

This morning as I was on the bus, the express bus, actually, it was the super express bus, I had the fun of witnessing what happens when you make assumptions.

First of all, let me explain the super express bus. I love the super express bus. It goes from downtown all the way to the university where I work and doesn't make any stops for the majority of the trip. A few stops downtown and then a few stops at the university. It's so much faster than taking any other buses. Plus, the lack of stops means it's a much smoother ride for all of us.

Every once in awhile, some poor individual fails to realize that this bus does not make any stops for the greatest proportion of its route. This usually ends up in some dismay, occasionally in begging, often in disappointment, and frequently in a trip back towards downtown on a non-super express bus, but usually not in an extra mid-route stop.

This morning some business type fellow assumed that the bus must make some sporadic stops, even though the bus was clearly labeled a super express bus. Instead of asking the driver about potential stops when he boarded the bus, he assumed he would be able to get off the bus whenever he wanted.

When his assumptions proved incorrect (as they often do) he became belligerant and proceded to grumble and complain about: the stupid bus route, the stupid city, the stupid driver, and various other things that I couldn't understand because they just sounded like general muttering. He even complained saying that he assumed the bus would stop and made it sound like someone else out there was responsible somehow for his assumptions.

All I could think about as he complained was, "when you assume, you make an ass of u and me." And he certainly was coming across as a bit of an ass. Apparently that little spelling trick isn't as widely known as I thought it was.

In any case, some advice for anyone taking a bus that they have not taken before, are unfamiliar with, or are unsure about... don't assume that it's going where you want it to go, ask the driver if they are stopping at the point where you'd like to remove yourself from the bus. It will make your life easier, your bus driver will be less irritable, the people who would otherwise have to listen to you complain will be less annoyed, and the chances that someone will mock you after you get off the bus will also significanly decrease.

Bananas

When I was growing up, my mom stored our bananas on top of the pile of plates in the kitchen cabinet. Whenever I opened the cabinet to get dishes to set the table with, a nasty whiff of banana smell would viciously attack me.

I think this is why I don't like bananas. I find the smell exceptionally awful to bear. E thinks it's funny to wave his banana peel at me... it's not though. Especially now that I'm pregnant and nasty smells have the potential to make me lose the last meal I consumed.

I can handle eating bananas when they're still a bit green. They don't smell as strongly at that point. I also really love banana bread. It doesn't smell at all like bananas. E made banana bread from my mom's recipe the other day. We consumed it at lightening speeds. Mom's recipe is awesome because it has chocolate chips in it. I think it's probably time to make more. Too bad that means having to buy bananas at the grocery store!