The Waddle

You've all seen it, the pregnant waddle.

I never understood what made a pregnant woman walk this way and I was fascinated to find out for myself. I couldn't figure out if it was the weight you're carrying or just what it was that brought on this condition. I was also fairly determined to not be a victim of it, let's admit it, it's not the most flattering.

Well I've figured it out (at least my experience), something no one mentioned to me… these very pregnant woman waddle because their poor feet hurt! It has nothing to do with the weight, the back issues or the exhaustion, it all about the swollen puffy feet and the inability to do anything about them.

I'm doing my best to avoid the waddle, often I catch myself and have to straighten up. I'm sure looking forward to having my feet back again.
L

The Move

A few words on the move this past weekend…

1. Kudos to our 1:00 crew that were so efficient they made our 6:00 crew unnecessary and we were able to leave Calgary 4 hours earlier than planned.
   
2. Never have I seen a move go that quickly. My two brothers, my Mom, Dad and Brad unloaded our truck in 20 minutes. Those boys were moving mattresses on their own and doing everything so quickly that the Denise and Jenny just stood aside before they were run over (there will be much more for you to do on the 17th, we can stay inside the new house and move boxes to the proper rooms)


3. You would think I'd learned the lesson in the last move… my flour and sugar buckets can't just have the lids put on them, they need to be taped. Last move it was the flour that tipped over and spilled, this move it was the sugar. It's a good thing we'd thought to bring a broom.


4. Our U-Haul experience was entirely satisfactory and we'll be happy to use them again.


5. As we packed up in Calgary Brad did an awesome job of fitting things in Tetris style until we realized we didn't actually need that much room. Apparently we should have tied things down (don't worry, nothing broke).

A Belated 29 Weeks

This is a bit of a belated photo but I was clean out the camera and came across me on my Birthday at 29 weeks.

I'm particularly fond of the lady bug balloon and doesn't that cake look yummy! It's even better than it looks. It made me chuckle that I really didn't have the breath support to blow out all the candles.

L

Q&A's

Another question I'm often asked is, "So do you have the nursery all ready?"

This leads me to scoff and, laugh and say, "I wish" or "Not even a little".

We've had this really frustrating moving situation so for the next week and half we're sort of homeless. All of our stuff has been moved down to Lethbridge to a friends garage (thanks Michelle, it all fit perfectly). We were supposed to move into our new house that weekend but those plans fell through and our new, new house isn't available until August 17th. So until then we store our stuff and we've been living with Brad's parents.

The 17th will include a second U-Haul truck and hopefully some Elder's Quorum moving help since I'll be even more useless.

So do you we have a nursery ready yet? I'd sort of like to have a bed for myself first and then I can focus on the nursery, although we'll be in trouble if this little girl decides to come early.
L

Relief

I've discovered the best temporary relief for every and all uncomfortable pregnancy symptom. Swimming.

I've always really liked to swim so I don't know why we didn't think of it sooner but never have I felt more weightless and graceful and cool and comfortable then when I slipped into that pool this weekend. My feet returned to their natural size, I was able to throw my nephew around a little (at his request of course) and for a little while I could feel like my old self. I did make my Mom a little nervous by jumping off the diving board but what's a trip to the Magrath pool with out it.

The feeling was so great that we recreated it last night with a trip to Cardel and nothing could have snapped me out of my awful mood quicker. I see many return trips in the remaining 7 weeks. The only drawback is how extremely heavy I feel upon exiting the pool, it takes some time to get used to all that weight again.
L

Complaints

A lot of people have started saying things along the line of, "You must be so excited to be done" or "You must be really ready for the baby to come" and everytime I've sort of been surprised how I haven't felt that way at all. I've really enjoyed being pregnant and everything is fun and new. I like my maternity clothes, I like to feel Catie move and I've enjoyed the mental preparation time before she comes.

Well it's suprising how quickly that can all change.

I've become hot and puffy, my shoes don't fit anymore and I miss my wedding rings. I wear flip flops all the time which now hurts the balls of my feet.
I can't sleep on my back because it hurts my back but sleeping on my side hurts my ribs, I have to use 5 pillows just to be comfortable and don't even get me started on how often I have to pee lately.

I'm hoping this is just a phase and I'll go back to enjoying things because otherwise it's going to be a long 7 weeks. I need to start looking on the bright side again.
L

Chocolate

I'd suspected it was true but today I actually confirmed it... chocolate gives me heartburn.

I'm not impressed
L

Exhausted

You know what's not fun to do when you're 7 months pregnant? Move.

This last weekend has involved pretty much nothing but packing and I have not been enjoying it. The bending down and sitting and standing and leaning has been hard on my back and at night I fall into bed an exhausted heap. I can't wait for Saturday night when it's all done (at least until the second leg in August).

Thank goodness I have an awesome husband who does all sorts of lifting, moving boxes and fetching tape and scissors for me, I couldn't do it without him.

The weekend also involved a trip to a random dumpster to get rid of stuff that made us feel guilty and like criminals, I'm not sure we'll do that again.
L

Getting to Know Me

One of the many Facebook notes that goes around. I'm real bored at work today so it makes for good filler.

1. What time did you get up this morning? The alarm first went off at 6:10 but it was 7:00 before I actually forced myself to get up.
2. How do you like your steak? Medium rare. It's not worth eating if it's well done and tough.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Brad and I went and saw Transformers this weekend, it's not that great.
4. What is your favorite TV show? So You Think You Can Dance, Malcolm in the Middle though it's in syndication and the episodes are starting to get repetitive. I've begun replacing it with One Tree Hill, completely soapy, crappy show but I'm loving all the drama.
5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? I'm sort of picky but not at the same time… I'd be happy anywhere as long as I have family around. I love being so close to Brad's siblings and I'd be thrilled if mine were closer too. I wouldn't mind somewhere that doesn't get as cold as here but it also can't have giant spiders.
6. What did you have for breakfast? A Strawberry smoothie. Smoothies are my new favorite and I have a different kind every morning for breakfast.
7. What is your favorite food? I really love food. I have a hard time picking a favorite because there are so many options. I really like pizza and almost any kind of dessert. Macaroni and Cheese (not yucky Kraft dinner, homemade stuff) would be high on the list of favorite too.
8. What foods do you dislike? Mushrooms and olives. I was saying to Brad the other day that one of us should learn to love olives since neither of us will eat them, he was fine with the plan as long as I was the one of us, blech.
9. Favorite Place to Eat? At just about any restaurant I can find something I love so this is a hard one. I really love the pizza at Boston Pizza though and the Calamari at the Olive Garden is so yummy. I love Spicy Hut and Diner Deluxe and the list goes on and on.
10. Favorite dressing? I've never bought it but I love that Kraft Asian Sesame one, it makes such a yummy salad.
11. What kind of vehicle do you drive? A 2004 Honda Civic
12. What are your favorite clothes? I love all of my maternity clothes, especially my jeans. I'll be really sad when I don't get to wear them anymore because they're comfy and super cute. I can't imagine going back to my boring pre-pregnancy clothes.
13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? Hawaii, Disneyland and I know Brad would love to go back to Montreal.
14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? 1/2 full, although sometimes it's 1/2 empty.
15. Where would you want to retire? Anywhere close to family, I really like Calgary though.
16. Favorite time of day? I love 4:00 on Brad's day off when he comes and picks me up. Sometimes he'll come meet me for lunch too, that time is pretty great. I also really like bedtime.
17. Where were you born? Magrath, Alberta.
18. What is your favorite sport to watch? Baseball.
19. Who do you think will not tag you back? I'm skipping this one since I'm not tagging anyone.
20. Person you expect to tag you back first? Same as 19.
21. Apparantly there's no 21
22. Bird watcher? I'm really not. Brad does have this fascination with birds of prey though, he'll point out hawks and stuff when he sees them. One time at the Wiebe house there was an owl outside and every was in awe and gathered around the window… in my head I was thinking, "meh".
23. Are you a morning person or a night person? I'm not a morning person but not particularly a night person either. Midday? Although these days I need a nap at noon.
24. Do you have any pets? No and we'd like it to stay that way. We're going to be those mean parents who don't let their kids have pets, we're just not animal people.
25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? It's not really news but we're moving on Thursday. Boy it'll be a relief when that's done.
26. What did you want to be when you were little? I always wanted to be a mother. Now as that actually gets closer I'm starting to feel pretty nervous about it.
27. What is your best childhood memory? I loved our trips to Disneyland. We'd drive down and camp all the way. I remember the yummy breakfasts we'd eat at the KOA's and there would inevitable be some pretty good arguments but overall it was a fun time.
28. Are you a cat or dog person? I like cats though Brad's allergic. Neither of us like dogs, especially since Brad's convinced they all want to eat him.
29. Are you married? Best decision I ever made, he makes me so happy every day.
30. Always wear your seat belt? Absolutely.
31. Been in a car accident? Not any major ones. I rear ended a car once when it was super slippery out, there wasn't much damage though. Once before Brad and I were dating he turned left and it's wasn't actually all that clear and we got hit, that was stressful for him.
32. Any pet peeves? Smokers. I become less and less tolerant every day. I hate walking to the bus behind someone who's smoking. Or getting on the bus and someone sits beside you who just put out their cigarette, it's so gross and proven to kill you! I don't get it.
33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? Pesto, Feta and tomatoes – so yummy together!
34. Favorite Flower? Lisianthus (that's probably spelled wrong). I'd never heard of it before until the florist who put together my wedding flowers picked it out, it's a pretty purple flower.
35. Favorite ice cream? Anything with lots of stuff in it. I think that vanilla is a topping, not something to be eaten on it's own so I need a bunch of goodies in my ice cream.
36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Taco Del Mar, they have the yummies burritos
37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? Once, I sped through a playground zone… I know, it was stupid. I did much better the second time.
38. From whom did you get your last email? Brad
39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Right now it would be a furniture store, maybe Leons? It'd chuck all of our furniture, buy brand new everything and have it all delivered so we didn't have to deal with it in the move (I hate moving).
40. Do anything spontaneous lately? We went out for dinner on Saturday. Not terribly spontaneous but it hadn't been planned in advance. We also showed up at Brad's parents hoping we could eat some lunch yesterday, again, not planned. That's about it though.
41. Like your job? Not even a little bit, I only have 15 days left though so I can handle it (let's hope none of my co-workers read this)
42. Broccoli? Love it. Brad doesn't though so I seldom cook it anymore though I have convinced him he likes Broccoli Cheese Soup.
43. What was your favorite vacation? Mexico with Brad for our honeymoon. We sat around and ate lots and did a cool canopy tour and had so much fun. I'd love to do something like that with him again.
44. Last person you went out to dinner with? Brad. We went to the Olive Garden, mostly for their Calamari. It was really just an excuse to not go home to our really messy house that was waiting for more packing to be done.
45. What are you listening to right now? Typical sounds around the office. There are some muffled voices, but mostly I'm listening to the sound of myself typing. Betty just asked if I'm writing a novel so apparently that's what she's listening to as well.
46. What is your favorite color? I love green. I don't own very much in green but I really like it. I love to decorate in brown too, I think if I had the money to redecorate the whole house would be brown (I know, so boring).
47. How many tattoos do you have? None. I almost got one once but then thought better of it. That was such a wise decision.
48. How many are you tagging for this quiz? None
49. What time did you finish this quiz? 12:40 pm
50. Coffee Drinker? I can't stand the smell even. I do like Starbucks Hot Chocolate though.

Hoping to Settle

In our married life Brad and I have been pretty blessed, we really haven't had a lot of trials or difficulties (knock on wood). Our finances are well organized, we've both been well employed. We're healthy, have a great relationship and have been really happy except in one aspect… we seem to have difficulty with housing.

There was the first apartment where there was confusion about whether it was ours or not and then the whole heat debacle. We lucked out and found a lovely new place where we've been since January and we've enjoyed it a lot.

Then there was our Lethbridge house. We had everything lined up months in advance only to have it all fall apart a couple days ago. We were pretty stressed out about it as we have no time to go look at new places and we were supposed to move our things in a week.

One thing about me, I hate looking for apartments, I think it's a long, tedious and frustrating process and my previous landlord history has made me nervous to speak to them at all so I'm lucky I was blessed with a husband who takes care of that for us. I just make sure I'm real supportive and we're both happy. We were a little picky about this Lethbridge house. I really wanted 3 bedrooms, a dishwasher and I was not living on the West side, so when Brad sent me an email and photos of a house on the West I wasn't interested at all, until I looked at the first picture when I thought, "I'm in trouble". This house is beautiful, I'm not sure how you could turn it down. It's less than two years old, meets all our criteria (except the location) and is only slightly out of our price range (we can make it work). The move will not be as smooth as it will now involve a storage unit for a month but at least we know where we'll end up eventually.

Click on the photo below for more photos of our soon to be home.

Lethbridge House

Here's hoping the location sacrifice is worth it because I'm excited to have such a beautiful house.
L

Marriage

Today's post is a bit of a space-filler but stay tuned for details on the Lethbridge move that is slowly falling apart.

Marriage

1. When was your engagement? March 23, 2007 (maybe the 24th). We called all of our family right after and then we got to go to an activity where all of our friends were. It was fun to be able to tell people so quick.
2. When is your marriage anniversary? June 30, 2007
3. How long have you known your spouse? 5 years ish? Most of those years I didn't know him well though, we were friends for about a year and a half.
4. How long did you date before you got engaged? 3 months. I know it's crazy short. I used to hate it when people would say, "When you know, you know". I thought that was hogwash, you can't know you love someone in 3 months. And then I knew and I didn't want to wait. I like to think it helped that we'd been friends for so long.
5. Where did you meet your spouse? The first time we met was pretty unmemorable for the both of us, it took us a long time to come up with it. I was playing my clarinet in a performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Brad came to sub on the drums for a practice or two until he left on his mission. The meeting left no impression on either of us though. While on his mission I happened to become friends with 3 of his siblings so we naturally ended up in the some of the same places when he got back.
6. What is your spouses full name? Bradley Earl Wiebe
7. Do you have any children? Catie Mae is coming in September
8. How many? Just the one that's still cooking
9. Do you have any pets? Nope. We're going to be those mean parents that don't let their kids have any pets, we don't like dogs and Brad's allergic to cats. One day maybe we'll let them have goldfish, in a bowl though, no fancy aquariums.
10. Do you own or rent? We rent though we move at the end of the month and the new place we had lined up just fell through. Hopefully we're not homeless or living with my parents.
11. Do you live in the country, city/town? City unless we end up at my parents, Magrath is definitely a town.
12. What is your favourite activity you do together? We love spending time together, it doesn't really matter what we're doing as long as we get to do it together. We do really love going out for dinner though.
13. Do you have a favourite vacation spot? Brad would definitely say Shushwap Lake but I'd probably say Disneyland or Hawaii. I want to take him to both eventually.
14. How many siblings do you have including in-laws? Oh man, this is getting complicated. I have 3 brothers and 1 sister, they're all married except one brother. Brad has 1 brother and 4 sisters and they're all married so that gives me a whole lot of in-laws. If you add them all up it totals 17 siblings and in-laws.
15. What church do you attend? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
16. Is this the church you got married in? We got married in the Cardston Alberta Temple
17. What town is your current address? Calgary, AB though as I mentioned we're heading down to Lethbridge soon.
18. Do you work or stay home? I work for another 4 ½ weeks and then I get to go on maternity leave.
19. Where did you go for your honeymoon? We went to Puerto Vallarta. It was amazing but I don't think we'd go back, next time we'd go to the other side of Mexico, we've heard such great things about it. The beaches are supposed to be way nicer.
20. Leave a piece of marriage advice: My favorite piece of advice is given on the wedding day, "May be today be the day you love each other the lease." I like that the amount you love each other grows more every day.

Marrying Brad was the best decision I've ever made, I look forward to lots of years of fun together.
L

07/08/09 - A Birthday Recap

So I can admit I had a slight meltdown on Tuesday. The birthday things was freaking me out, I just kind of wanted to skip the whole day so I had this really bad attitude.

Brad is amazing though and managed to turn the whole day into just what I wanted even if I didn't know I wanted it. He started things off first thing in the morning. These days we've taken to watching Breakfast Television while we eat our breakfast and when the birthday's came on he turned it up real loud, he'd actually called them to put my birthday on tv, so cute! (I had joked about him doing this the day before so I loved that he followed though, sadly there was a miscommunication and I didn't actually make it on tv. They said they could get it on this morning instead though so we watched anxiously, and still there was nothing. There were only two other birthday's up there today so I think my chances of winning that Marble Slab cake were high but sadly it fell through again. It's certainly the thought that counts though and I loved that he tried.)

As mentioned in yesterday's entry I picked up some cupcakes, a pack of 12 assorted mini cupcakes that Brad and I have been sharing between us. So yummy, I highly recommend the caramel.

Later that evening we went for dinner at La Dolce Vita and had the most incredible meal! The bruschetta was to die for and my pasta brought out yummy noises on every bite. We had great service and a great view. It definitely deserved a cheer at the end and we'll definitely go back.

And, saving the best for last… for about a week now Brad has occasionally mentioned how excited he is about my birthday present, saying that other than the cupcake courier it's the best he's ever given me. I tried to think of what it could be but couldn't even come up with a guess so I was pretty curious when he handed over an envelope.

First a little background… I have this thing for big cats. I'm fascinated by them and could watch nature programs about lions all day (that YouTube video about Christian the Lion nearly made me cry and just about convinced me that a lion would make a great pet after all). I often ask Brad if he'll buy me a lion and strangely he always says no. When I saw a photo of my Brother and Sister-in-law holding a baby tiger I was insanely jealous.

How surprising that Brad managed to buy me Lions for my Birthday! On August 5th Brad and I have a date to go behind the scenes with the Lions at the Calgary Zoo! I'm so excited! We get to talk about the lions and then we follow the zookeepers behind the scenes with the lions! The groups are all less than 20 people so it will be small and intimate. I'm not actually expecting to be able to hold a Lion but you bet I'll be looking for an opportunity to sneak one into our car as my new pet, hope Brad isn't allergic.
L

Birthday Wishes for Me

I'm 28 today and I'm not really happy about it (I don't think this bodes well for when I turn 30).

I'm surprised it took me this long to think of it but what better way for me to enjoy a birthday than with a yummy cupcake. There's pretty much nothing that could stop me from heading down to Bliss & Co. at lunch and eating a super yummy cupcake (maybe two)
L

29 Weeks - A Photo for the Memories

Business Casual, or maybe just Casual

I feel so rebellious today.

As mentioned in my last post I've started to be a little puffy, this morning I went to put my shoes on and they were just a little tight and I was unwilling to suffer all day so I'm wearing flip-flops. I'm just waiting for the email from HR to come, we'll see how long I can pull these off (it is Stampede week after all).
L

Two Years

On June 30th Brad and I celebrated our second anniversary. This year was especially casual as we were out at the lake all week. We did go on an anniversary canoe ride but I didn't want to let to day go by completely unmentioned.

Here's a list of 24 reasons (one for every month of marriage) I'm thrilled I married Brad. Sorry if the list is boring for everyone but Brad.

1. He was perfectly willing to stop to let me pee twice as many times as usual on the way to and from BC.
2. Everything to do with Catie, finding out about her, hearing her heartbeat, seeing her tiny feet. It's all made me love him so much more.
3. He kills all the spiders for me.
4. He makes me laugh with his unique silly-ness. It's a shame I'm the only one that gets to enjoy it.
5. Is so helpful with packing, unpacking and getting ready for our next move.
6. He often will put his face on my belly and try to get Catie to kick him in the face, so cute.
7. He's willing to share a DQ Blizzard with me because they're just a little too large for both of us.
8. He loves to play softball with me.
9. Is the kindest person I know.
10. He appreciates me and is always quick to say thank you if I've done something nice for him.
11. He does the majority of the laundry and is happy to do it.
12. We share the same ideas on parenting (not that we know anything about it yet) and we're excited to see how we do together.
13. Sometimes his hair does this awesome flip thing in the morning if he's slept on it wrong, I like that.
14. I can ask him any question, no matter how stupid and he'll never make me feel dumb. He explains things to me so clearly without being condescending.
15. No one makes better cookies.
16. Doesn't complain at all about my super annoying pregnancy snoring, even when it keeps him up at night.
17. He drives me to work every morning even though it makes him 40 minutes early for work. In two years he's never once complained about that.
18. If he's not at work he insists on picking me up after I'm done work, even if it's not convenient for him.
19. I'm happiest when it's just the two of us together and so is he. We're excited to make it the three of us.
20. He likes to surprise me by doing things he knows I'll like, like doing the dishes or the laundry.
21. I don't know how he does it but he drinks water so loud! It glug, glugs all the way down. I like that he has random quirks like that.
22. When I'm sick he won't let me lift a finger, he insists on taking care of me the best he possibly can and would go out and get me anything if it would make me feel better.
23. He loves new electronic toys and has to find out every possible feature or cool trick available on said toy
24. He's super musical. I love to listen to him sing and I love that he's so talented.
25. He loves me in a way no one else would. Listens to me, is super affectionate and looks at me different than everybody else. No one makes me feel better about myself than him.

I'm so grateful for the two years we've had together and I can't wait to see what the future brings.
L

Tree Frogs, Mosquitoes and a Surprising lack of Spiders

We read books, we took daily naps, we played games and swatted the mosquitoes away. We had the best s'mores you've ever had and we gained lots of weight from all the yummy food. There was a quick (very quick, it was cold) dip in the lake, a trip to the narrows and games played. Courtesy of the little kids play table we counted to 10 countless times and will forever have the La Cucaracha as a soundtrack to this last week. We laughed at Brad, stuck in the wetsuit, I tried to hold a frog and we went on an anniversary canoe ride. We scratched our mosquitoes bites, passed around the after bit stick and were completely ready to come home.

Why does it take so little time to be ready to go back?
L