Baby Update

Here we are 22 weeks (and 1 day, but who's counting ;-) lol) I'm pretty sure baby went through a growth spurt these last few days. Monday night I laid down for bed and all I could feel was kick kick kick. So far it's been random kicks but nothing steady. Then Tuesday morning was full of kick kick kick too. The last 2 nights I've been feeling the resistance in rolling over and getting up during my many pee trips. I was expecting to start feeling this stuff a little earlier, but here we are. with 18 (ish) weeks left until this little one is here it will be kicks and stretches like crazy.

I know that every pregnancy is different, but I didn't realize just how different it would be. With Austin, I almost wondered if he was growing outside my uterus becuase he hung out pretty much the whole pregnancy between my ribs and my belly button. This baby is hanging out down low. Every kick I'm feeling is in my lower stomach.

I've been waiting for the aches and pains to start hardcore, but so far it's been just minimal. I've been feeling great and fully enjoying every minute. And exciting, I have another ultrasound tomorrow since baby had it's back to the ultrasound tech and he couldn't get a good look at the heart. I'm excited to see baby again!!

About a year ago.

It's crazy to think that a year ago today I was busy cleaning, sorting, packing, and repairing our house to get put on the market.

Crazy to think back to that day Dave came to talk to me and said that yet another job fell through. Crazy to think that I was the one who said "well, maybe we need to just go to Alberta."

There were so many emotions. Excitement for a new adventure. Doubt of making the right decision. Sadness to leave the only area I've known for my entire life and our family behind.

I'm not going to lie and say it's been all unicorns and rainbows since we've moved here. We have had a few tough times where we almost threw in the towel. But, we've come out the other side stronger, and we will just keep getting stronger.

And that is all the sappy I'm going to get into tonight.

WHAT A WEEKEND

Whew. I need to catch up on everything. We are all moved out of our house and now we are in my mom's basement. I have to say that sharing a room with Austin isn't really all that fun. lol. We're both just sleeping on mattresses on the floor. Thank goodness for that some days. Austin likes to keep rolling off the bed, so it's a short landing to the floor but of course he whines and cries. Our first night was rough. I had forgotten Austin's night light at our house (since we stayed at moms a few days early) and he was up a few times and scared of the dark. At one point I went to his bed to calm him and find he wasn't even in bed. He got up and tried to find me and was standing in the corner crying. My poor baby. The other thing that has been a bit of an adjustment is the new wake up time. I probably notice it more since we're in the same room. This morning he stood at the door to our room (which I have a baby gate across the door) and was sad because papa was leaving for work. Well papa leaves for work around 5:30am!!! I'm slightly afraid of the wake up times once we move. Alberta is 2 hours difference from us, so that would mean he was up at 3:30 in the morning. no.thank.you.

Yesterday we had a fun birthday party for Austin. Sadly, my camera battery was dead so I didn't get too many shots. that definately makes me sad. Everyone had a great time and Austin loved playing outside with his cousins and friends. Since I am at my mom's place I am going to upload the pictures to my computer then plug it into her internet connection instead of trying to upload them to her computer.

We did have some nice family pics done last weekend. Here is a little sneak peek. I think I am going to take Austin down to the lake and get some pictures of him in the next few weeks before we go.

A big thank you to my cousin Kiley who took these pics and to my cousin Sarah who followed through with the idea of family picture day. I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures!

My house.

Looks like this right now.

It's not pretty. Lots of packing done and a bit more still to do. Unfortunately in that still to do list is my craft stuff. NOT looking forward to packing that up. I know I need to move less then I have, but how do you turn your back on your supplies. haha. ok, I'm being dramatic, but that is going to be a huge daunting task that I'm kind of afraid of.

Tonight I packed up Austin's toys. He was at my mom's so I figured I would take advantage of that time and do his toys. Well, it was a disaster. He came home halfway through the packing. He kept trying to pull his toys out of the boxes and was crying hysterically like I told him he wasn't allowed another toy for the rest of his life. When I tried to move him away he was trying to climb over me to rescue his toys. o.m.g. it just broke my heart. Then, I put him to bed. Even though he was yawning he wasn't going to bed. I could hear him walking around his room (for over an hour and a half) opening the closet and the hood of his car bed checking for his toys, then going to the door and crying. I finally laid him down and sang to him until he fell asleep. I really wish he was old enough to understand what is going on and that he will get his toys back in a few weeks when we're all moved.

What do you do?

I'm a bit at a loss. What exactly do you do first when you find out you are actually moving? When the offer comes through, when the negotiations are finished. Do you start to pack up hoping there isn't a problem with conditions? What about when the conditions are lifted. Where do you start? How do you remember to do everything? There are so many questions that go through your mind it's crazy!

Our house did sell. I didn't really tell anyone other then immediate family until the conditions were lifted. We only had 4 weeks from when the offer came in to our closing date. Waiting until the conditions were lifted gave us 3 weeks. I didn't want to start packing and jinx it. We still have one condition to be lifted, but I'm pretty confident we'll be fine. Next Question is where do you start? Well today I started on my spare bedroom. Took the bed apart, emptied the closet, boxed everything up. Great. What do I do now though? I think I'll start taking pictures down, packing up some toys, maybe some clothes. Start on packing DVD's, hall closet items, office supplies, CD's, bakewear and extra dishes?

Then, I keep thinking. I have to call about the cable, the utilities, the natural gas, I have to call and change our address so we don't annoy the new people with our mail. But wait. Where do I send the mail. We don't have a new place to go. All I know is we're moving to Alberta. Where are we going? We don't have a house, apartment or even a square of land to huddle in. How can I forward our mail? I've already figured out that Austin and I will stay with my mom until we get a place and go, but how long will that be? What about Austin's birthday? Will we still be here? I don't know, so we're having it over a month early. Who knows when we will be going and I want our parents and family to celebrate our little boy turning 2.

There are so many things to think about, and for someone who likes to have a plan and write it down 12 different times this is stressing me out. I don't know what my immediate future holds for me. All I know is that in 20 days I will no longer call this place home. Someone else will call it home. They will make their own memories here. Sigh. We will call another place home and make great memories that include all of us together.

Truth is, this is very overwhelming. Knowing that I really only get 2 weeks of my husband home to help me out over the next 6 weeks is even more overwhelming. I don't want to do anything but I want to get it all done. There are a lot of things crawling around my head making me think and reminding me of a lot of things. To be honest, I have my sad days. I'm just thinking of all the people who are missing out on my life and it makes me sad. However there is nothing I can do but just move forward.

Who knew there was so much to think about when you're moving across Canada?

Internet Vacation.

I've been on a bit of an internet vacation. I wasn't happy, I was feeling sad a lot over a loss of many friends who have been my support on a chat board I was on for about 5 years. These were people I have checked in with every single day (if possible, I think max I've been away from the board was 5 days and it wasn't very often) for the past 5 years. Now, a lot of them are gone. I was very upset and very confused and angry and insert every other possible emotion. I was addicted to my facebook in hopes that they would just magically re-appear since I know there is no hope of going back to the board (yay perma ban!) I know I know, it's silly to get such an attachment to people on a chat board, but this was more then just a chat board. I had met up with many of the ladies from the board for dinners and we went through celebrating our weddings, and birth of our children and anniversaries and much more together. So, I felt a little lost. I felt like I was alone. I finally gave up on my facebook friends list magically growing again. And I haven't been on since. I just don't feel like going on the internet. Tonight I needed to log in for a different reason to check on a purchase made last week and decided to update at least this.

So, Here I am. I still feel alone. Most days I am still really sad. I am trying though. I am determined to push through this. I need to find another outlet for myself. I need to work on myself. I am going to. It may be hard, but I am going to. I've also been feeling sad because I am missing Austin and Dave a lot. Obviously Dave because he is in Alberta, and I am working nights so I am missing out on a lot of things with Austin. I'm loving my days off where I can read him a story in bed. I love having 'conversations' with him. He's growing like crazy and I am definately missing him. Last weekend we were at Dave's grandparents and I got some awesome shots of the little man.

Can't believe just how big he's getting. *sigh* He's going to be 2 soon. How is that possible? I was ok with 1. It happens, it's a big party, it's another one of his firsts. All along you count your child's age in months. However I started counting Austin's age in stages. "just over a year" "almost a year and a half" "a year and a half" "almost 2 years old" In just 3 short months it's going to be "2 years old" Soooo crazy. I also think I'm a little panicked because I don't know where we will be for his birthday and therefore haven't even started thinking about party details.

Our house has been doing pretty well. It looks amazing and this week we've had a showing almost every day. I'm hoping this results in something. I would really like the house to be one less thing to worry about. Like I've said before that I will definately miss this house, it was our first house and Austin's first house. But, we will be moving on to exciting things and new memories.

Anyways, I am signing off, hopefully I will be keeping this updated a bit more in the next few weeks.

Big Day!

I'm very excited today!!! I have a meeting with our Real Estate Agent about putting the house up for sale. In some ways I'm kind of excited that we're starting a new chapter, but in other ways I'm sad.

We're going to be leaving our families. This is hard. They have all been so helpful and supportive of us. Especially when Dave was gone last year. I appreciate everything they did for us and all the help they provided to me. My family, who I have never lived more then an hour away from, will be here while I am on the other side of Canada. It makes me very sad to think about. I'm going to miss my niece and nephew growing up, I'm going to miss my cousin's graduations from highschool, I'm going to miss movie nights with family. Oh how I will miss them. I'm also going at a very tough time. I want to be here for support. I want to have hugs ready whenever they are needed. I want to be able to provide distractions. I want to be able to hold your hand if you need me to. This is going to be very hard for me to leave, and whenever I really start to think about it I cry. (Like I am right now typing this) Just remember, I am a phone call away whatever time that may be and I wil be there however I can.

I am also sad about selling and leaving our first house. The house we brought our baby boy home to. The house we put so much effort into and turned it into a home, not just a place that needed a paint job, un-painted carpets, non 70's carpet, some love and attention and a basement. I will miss the memory of my first smile from austin, the first time I found him naked in his bed because he figured out how to take off his clothes, the living room floor where he first rolled over, the spot by our entertainment stand where he took his first step, the spot by the end table where he walked to me for the first time. Or, how about his bedroom. All the love and sweat and tears put into making that room so awesome for him, something at the time I figured would last for years, but now hopefully will make some other kid excited. I know we will make memories in our next place, but this was our first house. We bought it together. We signed the paperwork the day before our wedding. It truly was a new life together for us. I am going to make sure we have even more awesome memories in our next house.

On another note, today I am exhausted. Austin got up at 2am and was all about partying and playing until I gave up at 4am. not entirely sure what time he fell back asleep as he was in his room, but I know I am tired. Hopefully I can get a nap at some time today.

New adventures in Wipe-Your-Paws land!!!

Well, the new excitement is: We're moving to Alberta. Crazy and insane for sure.























Obviously you all know that Dave has been working out there then came home. Well, there really isn't work here so the most obvious thing is - Go where the work is. So off to Alberta we go. We made the decision Tuesday morning. Let me just tell you, Tuesday was such an emotional wreck of a day. Yes, it did make me sad. I will admit that I cried. It was one of those cries where it starts and you have no idea until the tears are streaming down your face. Then I cried harder. I tried to reassure Dave that it was ok we were moving. He wasn't falling for it though because of the tears. Really, I was scared. I've never lived that far away from my family. I enjoy being able to drive 1o minutes to go visit if I'm bored. I enjoy looking in my cupboard, realizing I don't want to cook dinner so I just go to my mom's. (and yes, that may make me a mooch, but I bring Austin along so it's worth feeding us for some adorable baby/now toddler time.) I won't have anyone to just go hang out with, A nice dinner and a movie night? Who do we get to babysit? Because really, who can I trust. They will all be strangers. Then there is my job. I'm really enjoying it. It's the first time in years I've actually liked my job. However it's just a temp position so it's bound to come to an end. Then, the technicallities of actually moving and housing.

We originally decided to rent. However to get a 2 bedroom apartment we're looking at paying more then our mortgage here. So, I think we will be getting a mobile home. These things are crazy!! You can find some with more square feet then our townhouse! We are aware of the difficulties of re-sale but it's a better option then paying the outrageous penalty on our mortgage. Plus, some of them don't even look like mobile homes. They are a lot nicer looking then our current house.



So, this week has been busy. We've purged a lot, and I mean A LOT of stuff, and will be selling off a lot of furniture as well. We've packed a bunch of stuff away as well and got all of Dave's clothes packed up ready to go. The house will be going on the market next week I think. It's definately going to be a busy busy place here!!!



I am very excited to see all new things and meet new people. And at some point I am very very excited to try and see these.

















I will be posting pictures when and if I get there!!!!