Touring

Today Jesse and I got a tour through the labour rooms at the Peace River Hospital. One of our friends from small group is a nurse there, and it was great of her to give us a "private" tour since we had to miss the last prenatal class where they give you a tour since I was on my way home to visit. It was interesting. I honestly don't feel scared about labour and I don't know if that's just because I'm clueless about how bad it will be or if it's good that I'm not stressing about it. I feel that I have educated myself as much as I can, and I know as much as I should, so I feel as, "in control" of the situation as I think I can. I think though, that a lot of women say the second labour the anticipation is a lot worse because they KNOW what is going to happen, rather then just having heard about it. OH WELL!! I'm not losing any sleep over it right now, so I think that is good!

Right now I am trying to keep myself busy at home. I try to go for a bit of walk every day and stay semi active so I don't just become a vegetable. I like to have an outing once a day - it breaks up the long afternoon, and gives me something to look forward to. Jesse thinks I'm "nesting" because I am cleaning things compulsively, and maybe it is partly that, but partly it's just that I have too much time on my hands, so that's naturally what happens with me! I clean. I figure after the baby is born, I might not have as much free time as I do now, (no way!) so I might as well get stuff done now.

Hmmmm, guess that is all for now. :)

Six Weeks till D-Day!

I can see it has been a long time since I have posted. Part of the reason is I just got back from two and half weeks at home in Manitoba with my family. I had fun seeing Jenette and Chealsey in Winnipeg for two days, and then in Kola for the rest of the time with my Mom and Dad. My Mom threw me a baby shower, and it was a lot of fun. Jesse had to bring a large extra suitcase so we could bring all of our great gifts back! Lets just say....this yet unborn daughter of mine has TWICE as many clothes as me, and a lot of them are a whole lot cuter then mine too! Somehow this dosen't seem quite fair! This afternoon I put together the dresser/change table from Sears....yes, I figure I'm ready to be hired on somewhere as a furniture putter together. This one was actually a LOT easier to put together then the weight bench! Not so many unwieldy awkwardly shaped metal peices. I had fun doing it, and once again, the cat was very interested in what I was doing and kept me company ALMOST the whole time before she wandered off to take an afternoon nap. :) I will post some pictures of the nearly completed nursury sometime soon. We are just waiting on our rocker to come in yet, and then I think we are ready for the arrival of this little person. Well, as ready as you can be when you have absolutly no idea what your in for.

So as my title says, I have exactly six weeks left till my due date. Seems kind of long right now, especially since I feel bigger every day. I had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, and the baby is in the right position, so that is good, and everything seems to be progressing fine. I am still having a lot of back pain, but that is mainly my only complaint. I feel it the the worst when I am sitting which is strange to me. Walking and laying down are the best positions for it. I also have seperated abdominal muscels.....I forget what that is called right now, so when I am laying down and do a crunch, my whole stomach area ends up looking like a humpbacked whale. It looks pretty gross, but apparently it is fairly common.

Fall is in the air here, and I am enjoying the change of seasons! I have always liked the coming of winter, and being all warm and safe in my house! We cleaned out the rest of my garden this week, and I just have to clean up my flower pots, and then I feel like I'm ready for it to snow! I was already looking at my Christmas boxes today in storage, and looking foward to being able to get them all out again and set everything up!

Well, even thought I haven't blogged in awhile, I feel like I don't have a lot to say, so I guess that will be it for this time. :)

Strong Women

So this is a first for me. Blogging two days in a row! I know, everybody is in shock, including me.

So I have this problem, and I'm wondering if anybody can relate to it. When I am faced with a new challange or problem, my first instinct and reaction is this. "Oh, I can't do that." So lately I have been taking that reaction and looking it in the face and saying, "Why not? Why do I think I can't do this?" Is it because I really just don't WANT to do it, or is it actually that I think I CAN'T. And of course my stubborn nature kicks in when I think it's because I can't. So I've started to just...do it! For example. Jesse's weight bench. He got a weight bench from his parents for his birthday ordered from Sears. So I went to pick it up covertly, carried it all downstairs in small peices, and thought, man it would be fun if this was all set up when I showed it to him. What was my reaction? Of course, no, I couldn't do it. WHAT??? WHY NOT?? Just because I never have before? I'm a smart, in control, strong women. (At least some of the time) Why would I think I couldn't set a weight bench up. So I proceeded to do it. Yes, it took me probably 4 times longer then it would have taken other people, but that dosen't matter. Yes, I had to call my Father in law for help, (only once!) But that dosen't matter. Yes, it took me over an hour just to get the first peices put together but....so what. I did it. And the feeling of accomplishment I felt was so great. So I've decided that I need to make it more of a life habit to stop immediatly saying I can't!

Same as this afternoon. The lawn is so overgrown that our hose had completly dissapeared, and I had to dig around in the grass for our sprinkler. It was starting to resemble a rain forest, and since it is supposed to rain again on Saturday, I knew it REALLY needed to get done. I knew Jesse would probably have time Friday, but I was looking for something to do. So I went outside and looked at the mower.....no, I can't do that. Wait....yes, I can. And so I did. I have never mowed with that mower before, I am used to a walk behind, not a push mower, but I decided to do it. I had to call my Dad this time because I couldn't quite figure out the whole chock thing, but hey, so what? I'm not against asking for help, or needing other people, I'm just against my own brain that tries to bring me down and make me belive that I don't have the smarts to do something. It took me a LONG time, and I think I was in stage 2 labour by the time I was done, but MAN, the feeling of accomplishment. I love it. If I'm going to be a stay at home Mom, I've realized this is what I need. Projects, and goals, and challanges that keep my brain going and occupied. I can't sit in front of the TV all day and "relax", whatever that means. I need to feel like I have a purpose in this world! For a lot of people, these may seem like very trivial and silly things to feel proud about, but for me these were major accomplishments, so I wanted to share them!! I tend to be afraid of the unknown, even something as silly as the unknown of how to start a new mower, but I've decided to start trying to conquer those fears in small ways, and work my way up!

30 weeks (almost)

Well, tomorrow I will be 30 weeks. That seems like a milestone to me, because now I only have 10 more weeks to count down, and they are all in the 30's!! I'm starting to feel really huge, and a little awkward. Up till now, I haven't really noticed my belly getting in the way too much, but now I have to bend all wierd to pick stuff up, and I'm really stubborn, so I try to bend over like I would have before, and of course it's like having a beach ball jammed between your knees and chest, and it just dosen't work so well. I still feel her kicking a lot, and she has this new thing where she likes to put her feet under my ribs, and it can get really uncomfortable! I have to literally push her down or get up and walk or something to try and make her change positions! I still like feeling her though, and get a little thrill every time she boots around in there. We had our first prenatal meeting yesterday, and it was interesting. We watched a very graphic video which was a tad horrifying for someone who has never seen a birth before. Yikes. It really is amazing that we can give birth and have this baby come out of us...but still....a little horrifying that something that huge is coming out of you know where. It was actually pretty funny, because the lady on the video they were showing give birth, had the baby's head out but nothing else, and the nurses and stuff were like..."Look, it's your baby...feel it's head!! " And she looked down, and said..."It doesn't look like a baby!!" Hahaha. Ah yes. Labour. I'll just try not to think about it too much, since there is nothing I can do at this point to avoid it! Jesse said to me, "Phhhffff, how hard can it really be", and well, first I beat him, and then I said, come talk to me again after you've passed an 8 pound anything out of any opening of your body. Well, I was a bit more graphic then that, but this is a family show so I'll leave it at that.

Today I worked in my garden, and dug all my carrots, and washed and bagged them, dug some potatoes...which are huge!! And picked all my tomatoes and put them downstairs to ripen, since I will be gone in a week for a couple of weeks, and I don't want the hassle of trying to get someome to cover them at night. I realized again how much I really do love working outside, and hearing the wind, and being earthy! Not as in wierd tree hugger, save the earth, earthy, just appreciating and loving nature and the way God has designed it all. I love going home to my Mom and Dad's farm, and just walking down the gravel roads, and appreciating the wide open beauty and peace. I am flying home next Thursday and I can't wait! I will spend a few days in the city with my 2 sisters, one of whom I haven't seen for 9 months, and then will continue on home. Jesse is driving out after his 10 days on, to come spend a few days and pick me up.

Well, I guess I should go fix myself a sandwhich for supper, and then I have a little party to go tonight, so I will get ready for that. Until next time!!

My day from you know where

So my last day at the Pomeroy is this Friday, and in honour of my summer job, I will do a blog on one of my days of work. AHHHEEMMMMMMM......

The morning started off badly, and I should have known it was an indication of how the rest of the day would progress. I got to work at 8:30 since it was a Sunday, and on the weekends we start at 9, not 8 since people tend to stay in their rooms longer. I got there at 8:30 since I was in charge and I have to be in half an hour earlier to get the sheets made up of what rooms there are for the day, and so on. So at 9, Amanda and Debbie have shown up.....no Christy....hmmmm....ok that dosen't surprise me too much since she is a new girl, and the day before she suddenly had to leave because her babysitter showed up with her two kids....(which may or may not have any bearing on your perception of this girl, but her 2 young kids are 2 different nationalities, meaning 2 different fathers, and she isn't married) so you can kind of guess this girl has made some poor choices already in life, and so it really didn't surprise me that she didn't show up. Then Amanada said to me, "Tamara, I can't work alone today because yesterday I was at Tags with my friends, and two girls threatned to stab us, and I KNOW they are staying her, so I'm scared and I can't work alone....."......Alrighty. SOME PEOPLE"S KIDS!!! I'm like, what the heck? What does that even mean? She is 16 years old and so ridiculous sometimes it blows my mind. So when Christy didn't show up, and she still didn't want to work alone I firmly said..."Amanda, set the speed dial on your phone to 911, and scoot. Your going to live". So she went, and yes, she did live. Finally at 10 Christy called and told our frount desk manager that her friend had died and that's why she wasn't at work.......So, I'm sorry that I'm so cynical, but...yeah right. Ok, maybe it's true, but chances are it's not. So.....your friend died between 8:30 and 9 this morning...or if not, why didn't you call the night before and let us know you wouldn't be in to work, or how about early this morning so that we knew you weren't going to be here.....just really irrisponsible. So it was down to us 3 girls with no laundry lady, and we had 30 checkouts!!!!! Normal is probably around 10-15. So it was shaping up to be a pretty crazy day. So around 3:30, I finished first floor, which was eight checkouts, and one stay. I also kept up with luandry, changing it every hour, and folding a batch of towels. I was exhausted!! So I went up to second and third thinking Debbie and Amanda would at LEAST have what I had done....not even close!! That's when I almost started crying. I was so tired, and then for them to have 16 combined checkouts left between them was SOOO disheartning. Long story short, I walked out of there at 6:30, with most of those checkouts rolled over for the next day. I was SO tired! I just couldn't figure out why a 6 month pregnant lady was out cleaning these very able girls. Does that make any sence! Then yesterday was almost no better since so many of those checkouts were rolled over, but at least we had another girl on, plus a laundry lady which made all the difference. I still only got home at 5, but it didn't feel as bad. Last night though, my back hurt so bad. Yuck. I couldn't hardly even turn over in bed. Jesse told me he usually likes it how hard I work, but sometimes it's just stupid. Haha. I will admit, I don't think I could do this job till I was 9 months pregnant. We have got a few painting contracts so that's why I am quitting a few weeks early, and so we will be doing 2 houses, and then I am going home at the end of September for a couple of weeks, and before you know it this baby will be popping out! I had to do an online survey today about working at the Pomeroy, so I wrote very nicely, how I thought they paid housekeepers crap, and for the hard work it is, we should be getting WAY more then 11 bucks an hour. Just my humble opinion! Well, I should go to bed. I usually have a nap when I get home, but today, I got home around 3:30, and after my shower and other things, it was time to make supper so I never got around to it. Oh, and I should mention that the day I got home at 6:30, Jesse met me at the door and he had made cookies!! For the first time EVER!!! I was very impressed. And he had supper all planned, and made me supper, and served it to me in frount of the TV so I could watch Big Brother at 7. Have I mentioned I have the sweetest husband ever? Yup. Well, guess that's all for tonight folks. The baby is doing a tap dance routine on my ribs, and I need to get some shut eye.....:)

Hmmmmm.....

Well, not sure what to write about, so I will start, and then usually when I start, I can get myself going on one rant or another so we will see where this goes. I find these blogs interesting, but also a bit fake, because you still have to be politically correct because it's public domain, and anybody could supposedly stumble upon it, so you can't write scathing paragraphs on people's character flaws. Sometimes those can be fun. I'm not sure what I would do if I stumbled upon one written about me though...probably wouldn't be as fun. We all tend to think we're mainly perfect...a few minor flaws here or there, but pretty darn close to angelic...OTHER people though, MAN do they have things to work on...:) Jesse is not that great to gossip with...yes people, I will admit I do enjoy a little gossip session every once and awhile. And anyone who says they don't is LYING. YOU ARE LYING!! So anyway, when I get around another female companion who I know well, it is such a treat to be able to talk GIRL TALK! Trying to talk girl talk to Jesse is like beating your head against a brick wall. It is literally that hard. He got off the phone with his parents the other night, and they probably talked for 45 minutes, and so I wanted to know all the news and what they had talked about and he couldn't think of a single thing. That is a man for you. :) I think God made us so different on purpose because we must balance each other out. If Jesse was as emotional as me we would have a problem.

Hmmm, well I could write out all my latest pregnancy aches and pains, but that might get boring, so I'll just say the main one....MY BACK HURTS!! GRRRRRR. Irritating to say the least. Sometimes it gets so bad it dosen't matter if I'm standing, sitting, laying, whatever. It just hurts!! *Sigh* And right when I thought pregnancy was going to be a breeze finally after hating food for 3 months, now it's a whole nother round of icky things. I'm still amazed though, that God has given me this opportunity and ability to have a baby. It is pretty cool!! But man, the symptoms are not always so cool. Someday when she complains about putting the dishes away, I'll say, COOL IT HONEY, you owe me BIG time for all the pains you caused me!! Haha. I watched a birthing story today on TV, which everyone tells me not to watch, but I still do anyway, and then I always cry at the end. I'm such a suck. :) I'm excited to see my baby for the first time.

Well, anyhoo, I made perogies for supper, and my kitchen is still a mess, so I guess I could go attempt to clean it all up. My cat is such a goober. She comes in here, crouches on the floor, and stares at the wall. HAHA!! Till next time.....

Odds and Ends

It is Friday...my day off before working the weekend, so I had some time to paint my baby room again. I had originally painted it yellow, which turned into this horrible shade of green, so I redid it in purple. I love it!! It's so girly and feminine. My cat kept me company most of the afternoon. She sprawled out on the floor and then swiped at me with her paw every time I walked past. I had to laugh. It was pretty cute. I feel like the baby stuff is all coming together finally....what with the room painted, the crib on the way, and all my little clothes hung up in the closet. We were in Calgary for the week, and while Jesse's Mom was out for her run in the morning, she ran past a garage sale selling all baby stuff. So she said she ran home as FAST as she could, and came and woke us up...it was before 9, and we raced over there, and I got a swing, high chair, bouncy chair, and exersaucer all for the grand total of 90 dollers. YUP!!! Pretty excited about that. And the kicker is, it all looks brand new. And I'm not just saying that. I saw the exact same exersaucer the next day at The Bay, and it was retailing for 99.99, so once again, I reiterate my point...why buy things like that new!!!! There is such an advantage though, when you garage sale in huge cities....so many more people selling things, and also a lot more well off people. Believe me, not a lot of people living in Jesse's parents community would be buying things at garage sales!! So that is good for me, because I get the cast offs for super cheap! So I was very happy that Jesse's Mom went running that morning!

It is very hot here today. I have all the lights off, and the blinds closed, and am trying to avoid going outside at least until the evening. The baby was pretty active this morning....turning and kicking, and who knows what all in there, but now I guess it is sleepy time. I have 15 weeks left, which still sounds like quite a bit, but I guess not, considering I started at 40! I know it will go by fast. I have a flight booked home for September 25th, so I will get to spend a couple of weeks with my family. Then Jesse will drive down, and spend some time as well, and then take me home. I alm looking forward to that. Well, I am thirsty, and hot, so I am going to go get myself a drink, and try to think of something to keep myself occupied the rest of the afternoon......:)