Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Shopping Time

So this weekend was suppose to be all about baby. We were suppose to go out shopping and pick up all the necessities that we need. Just the little things like a crib, change table (or dress in our case) and some supplies to finish off the nursery. In the end we wound up with molding. Not much considering we had all weekend but at least it's something.

Also since the nursery isn't finished I don't have any shots of it but I can say that I bought this and can't wait to see it on the wall.


We're going with a monkey theme after all and I can't wait to see how it all comes together. At least we've narrowed down a crib though. We've decided on the Shermag Regency Convertible Crib at Babies R Us.


We're also going to get the matching dresser and make a change table out of it instead of buying a change table. We're hoping this set will last and grow with the kid until they get older (heck until they move out if possible!).

Also this Easter weekend we have no excuses because we're heading down the states to the outlet malls for some shopping and there is no excuse for not picking up something for the baby. Some of the favourites I've seen online are:

Hooded towel


Aren't the feet on this adorable


Can't stop at just a monkey room. And who can resist such a cute little monkey on the bottom of their little monkey.

Looks like I'd better make sure there's room on the credit card!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Lost and Found

So I've been thinking about my next scrapbooking project. I love scrapbooking but it always takes me a few years to finish an album. The last few I've done have all been trips. There was my trip to Europe with Contiki which turned into a 2 volume scrapbook. Then came my field school trip to Italy which also turned into a 2 volume scrapbook. Plus there is my graduation book which hasn't even made it to the ceremonies yet as I've been working on pictures from my grade 12 year. Plus there's a scrapbook full of miscellaneous trips such as Vegas and Puerto Vallarta.

But now I'm stuck. Do I finish my graduation book? Do I start a baby book and add photos later? Do I start on my wedding album (which will easily turn into a 2-3 volume book). Do I do my honeymoon. Plus there's the trips...Ireland and Scotland, Friday Harbour, Vegas (again). Then I remembered I hadn't seen my pictures from Switzerland in awhile and I got a little worried.

I went to Switzerland by myself after my field school in Italy ended. My rule with traveling (especially in Europe) is that I like to try and get to some place new. Since I had already been to Italy once I wanted to add another country onto my travels. Switzerland was right next door and it was a country I felt comfortable traveling alone in. I had quite a few people think I was nutty to do this but after my first trip to Europe where I technically traveled alone, even though I was on a bus with 39 other people, I felt excited to be going off on my own.

Switzerland is really and truly an amazing place though. I never felt more safe and the landscape is just beautiful there.





I think my favourite photo though is this one.

What you have to do is picture the Matterhorn over my shoulder. This is one of the highest points people can get to in Switzerland. I am up just over 12,000 feet here and trust me you feel it. Walking up the steps to the view point you can feel your lungs working overtime. It was a shame it was so foggy when I was up there. Oh and of course the next day it was clear as ever at the top.

I am so happy to have found these photos again as I was really starting to wonder if I had lost them for good. I had so much fun in the mountains and small towns of Switzerland that I can't wait to go back. Hrm looks like I might have figured out what I want to scrapbook next.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Well That Will Teach Me

Note to self, don't play around with the customization tab too much. Results in me losing my background image for a few minutes there then nervously trying to remember how to get it back. All is good now though and again C..."Don't touch the customization tab HTML!" (and all because I wanted to crop the title bar).

We're Off To A Rolling Start

Okay bad title I know but what can I say I got about 2-3 hours sleep last night and it's the best I could come up with.

So it was a busy weekend for Hubby and me. We spent a lot of time cleaning up the place and did something we hadn't done in over 7 months...our filing. We went out and got new filing folders and boxes and now everything is organized. I just wonder how long it will stay like that. We tend to like to pile things up and then file them later but hopefully this new system will keep us on top of things.

We also went out and did a little baby shopping. We picked this up:


Can I just say that this has got to be one of the most coolest baby gear items out there. It's the 2010 Uppa Baby Vista stroller and we absolutely love it. It comes with the bassinet which we hope to get lots of use as we'll probably be running from family to family and it would be nice to have a place for the baby to sleep. Also the chair/seat is reversible so the baby/child can either face you or face out. Hubby and I are having so much fun playing with it and we've been showing it off to our family and friends like crazy. I can't wait to take our little monkey out for a walk in it!

We also took advantage of a paint sale Rona had on (by 2 cans get one free). We decided awhile ago on a brown and green theme for the nursery and originally we were going to go with chocolate brown and green but after seeing the colour we picked for our living room I changed my mind and decided to use it instead and accent with chocolate instead. So what we're going with is something more like this:


So we're going to still be busy it seems for the next few weeks. I see a lot of taping, painting and edging in our future plus there's still a bunch of stuff to grab before the nursery is ready. Little things really...just a crib, change table...you know...nothing major. But I'm sure we'll get there. Hey if not at least the baby has a bassinet now to sleep in.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Baby and Brownies

So it looks like I need to learn how to use my oven a little better. I had some eggs that were getting really close to their expiry date so I thought I would make Hubby and I a treat of brownies. There was of course the traditional kind but I had a recipe for vanilla brownies that I wanted to test out as well. So the recipe is going along smoothly but when I go to pull them out of the oven...well I guess I should have left them in a bit longer. The top looked really great and like they were done but if I had checked in the middle I would have seen they were a little goopy still. So after cooling off and going in to the fridge for a bit to help harden up the middle they sure taste yummy but I think next time I'm going to have to add 5-10 mins onto what the recipe says.

As for me and baby we're both doing good. Some days I swear I have a future Riverdancer in there where as my mom says it's going to be a soccer player. She's threatening to get it a Man U jersey which urks Hubby to no end since he's a Liverpool fan. Guess will have to have 2 jersey's, one for home and one for Grandma's.


But we had another ultra sound and baby looks good. He/she is in the breach position but they don't seem to worried so I guess I won't be either then. The little one was way more active this time though then the last time. I felt a few movements while the tech was taking pictures. This time we got three to take home and my favourite is the face shot. The one of the legs has people now thinking it might be a boy just because some say that there's a nub between the legs and that seals the deal. We're not going to be rushing out to buy blue stuff just yet!




Plus today I had the ultra fun gestational diabetes test. They give you a high glucose drink which you have 5 mins to drink all 250ml (or something like that) of it. Then you wait one hour and they take a blood sample. Sounds somewhat easy right? Well the first question is "Are you allergic to oranges?" I have an allergy to oranges in which it causes my face to break out in a rash or eczema. This only occurs with pure orange juice and higher quantities of it. So because of this the nurse was really reluctant to give me the test but I assured her since it was orange flavoured with citric acid added I should be fine. Then when it came time to take blood my veins failed me again. It seems like since I got pregnant my veins have decide to shrink and go into hiding. After a few pokes and a very relieved me they managed to get the sample they needed. I really hope I pass because I do NOT want to go through the 3 hour version of this test.

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

The Last Two Weeks - Week 2

Week two of the games brought lots of events for me and thankfully shorter work shifts so I could enjoy the events. It started with me, Hubby and my mother in law (MIL) heading downtown. We thought we would start at the cauldron and work out way up town.

This time the city was buzzing about 5 times as much as Thursday when I was here. The amount of people walking around was crazy and yet I couldn't believe how relaxed and happy the crowd was. Usually you get that many people into one area and it can be pandemonium.

The day was sunny and warm so after the cauldron we headed up to the Art Gallery to see how bad the line up was for the Da Vinci exhibit. The line up ended up being around the block and then some (I estimate 2 hours plus) we hung out and saw some the sites instead.

The Olympic Clock


Retro Posters


Of course the most popular attraction though was the zip line where people would wait up to 5 hours on average all for a 30 second ride over Robson Square.


There was artwork:




Cool photo opportunities:


And even athletes


We made our way to the Four Host Nations pavilion and found a long line up to the entertainment portion of the pavilion but thankfully a short one to the gift shop. There were some beautiful works of art but my favourite were the Coke bottles all done by different tribes:





It was a fun day filled with lots of walking but we did notice that not all of the pavilions had stuff for people to view. For example we went to Granville Island to check out Atlantic Canada house which had a bar and a food sample tasting. Swiss house had a bar, restaurant and food tasting. We thought all the pavilions would have something to see and were a little disappointed to find out that they didn't.

On Monday it was hockey day for me and Hubby. It started with Hubby going to the women's game with USA verses Sweden and then I met up with him after my work shift to see the Canada women's team take on Finland. I must say I don't think I've ever seen that much red in my life! It was so cool being a Canadian surrounded in such a patriotic setting with everyone wearing their colours, waving their flags and cheering. The girls came out and had warm up and looked really good to go.



Of course the roar was deafening every time Canada scored.

Our favourite moment though came during the second and third period. Turns out we were sitting in the section where they do the Sportsnet broadcasting. So we hear an "excuse me, pardon me" and look up and there is Darren Millard, Darren Pang, Nick Kypreos and Bob MacKenzie all walking by us to do their segment.


Plus their stage is so well designed. The whole thing is on hydraulics and can be brought out or taken down in under 5 minutes. Too cool!

In the end the girls pulled off the win and it was great to see them get to the Gold medal game.


Finland also played a great game and I was really happy to see that they won the bronze medal over Sweden.

Then on Tuesday it was back to the curling venue to watch the women play. This was the last game of the round robin and all of the teams headed to the finals had already been decided so wins or losses didn't matter at this point. Again it was a great line up with the following teams playing: Canada vs Russia, USA vs Switzerland, Japan vs Denmark and Sweden vs Germany. Again just like the men the women were piped out.


And then a quick shake of the hands, a quick practice slide and they were off!

The team had been doing pretty good all week but my favourite was their third Sarah O'Conner. I thought she really helped bring the team together and curled some excellent shots.


I'll admit though Cheryl Bernard came through with multiple draws to the button though! The definite turning point though was this shot which scored 4 points for Canada.


The Russians had a hard time bouncing back from that one.

We also had a little bit of humour in the crowd when this guy showed up


Cheryl had a good laugh over him but then it was right back to business. I was sorry to see her lose out to Norberg in the gold medal game but can't say I didn't see it coming. She had two opportunities to wrap things up and it was a shame that they had to take silver in the end.

Overall the Olympics being in one's back yard was an amazing experience and I can't believe how lucky I was to not only participate in a small way but also to see and be part of the celebration that went on. I can't wait to see what the next games brings as it seems like Canada and especially Vancouver has set the bar high! GO CANADA GO!

The Last Two Weeks - Week 1

Wow what a time it has been. For the last two weeks my life has seem to revolve around one thing and that is the Olympics. I signed up to be a paid volunteer and work the merchandising booth at the curling venue and although it was hard work it was a ton of fun. I don't know if I would do something like that again when I was 5 months along as my feet and legs took a big thrashing because of it but it was sure fun getting to re-connect with some old curling friends and meet some of the curling fans that made it to Vancouver. I was so impressed to with the number of out of towners who came to the game as well. I met people from all over Canada, the United States, Britain and Asia. We traded stories, pins and even taught each other stuff about the games. That to me was the best part of all.

But it was all just work. I did manage to have a bit of fun while the games were on. First it started with a little men's curling.


My Dad, hubby and I all headed down and were thrilled with the games that we would get to see, Canada vs Sweden, Denmark vs USA, Great Britain vs Switzerland and Germany vs Norway. Couldn't have asked for a better line up!

The boys (and the other teams) had some warm up time


Then they were all piped in before the showdown began


Martin and his team were great through the whole game. They really do work together and their communication is something that all teams should study as they are one of the best. Here they are working together to get Martin's rock in the house.




Of course though the main topic of the men's curling was how cool the Norwegians looked in their pants.


This is one of the few events where each team could choose their uniforms and not all have to conform to the same styles.

Also the most sought after item of the games.


No not me but rather the cow bell around my neck. Most popular item requested (next to ticket holder lanyards). That was the last blue cowbell in the venue that we got in and I managed to snag it somehow! Everyone had some noise maker though. The best was the Swiss fans who had a cow bell that was probably bigger then my head. You could hear it from outside the stadium it was that loud!

After Canada won the game we headed downtown to see some of the pavilions. First stop the Mint.


We arrived and were thrilled that it was only a 25 minute line up. However if we wanted to go see the Olympic medals it was a....4 HOUR LINE UP! Couldn't believe that and it stayed like that through the whole games. So we just saw the mint and saw things like
The Million Dollar Coin


A real gold bar that you could try to lift


And other cool coins that they had displayed.



Next it was on to Canada North house which showcased items and artistry from the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.






Our final stop was the cauldron. There had been a lot of complaining because they had fenced off the cauldron and force everyone to view it from far away. Yes it was a little disturbing to have a chain link fence around it but in the end it was so beautiful and such a wonderful symbol of the Olympics you easily forgot the fence was there.



It was a long day and lots of walking but it was great to see some of the sites the Olympics brought to our great city.