Pre-Canada Day + Life Lately

Hello! Happy almost Canada Day!

I am excited for Canada Day this year. I can't really remember what I did in past years, but this year HAS to be good since we're in Ottawa for the festivities! I kind of wish the royals weren't coming so there won't be so much fuss and so many people downtown. I have always always always, for as long as I can remember, wanted to be in Ottawa for Canada Day. I have our day planned out! We will head downtown, maybe by bus, maybe halfway by car, but we don't really want to park downtown and have to deal with road closures and sooo many people! We're going to head downtown about 8am, I think, and claim some grass on Parliament Hill. I've heard that if you're not down there by 9am all the space on the hill is gone and they close the gates so no more people can get in there. I wonder just how many people will be there... There's some short activities like a carillon (bell) concert, the flag changing and changing on the guard in the morning then the main show at noon! Will and Kate will be there and more exciting Great Big Sea is playing! A band I have always thought would be cool to see live. I've heard they have great stage presence. The show ends at about 1:30. We will vacate our spot on the Hill at that point. We're going to take a picnic lunch and Charissa and I checked out the availability of washrooms on the Hill last week. From there we are going to head a bit out of the downtown core to the Canadian Science and Technology Museum. All (or most) museums are free (!) on Canada Day so we're going to take advantage of that! It will also be a nice air conditioned area to cool off for a bit. I hope the weather's like today, nice and sunny but only about 20 degrees. It's supposed to be 28. From then the afternoon is free to do whatever.. maybe a short nap somewhere? There's another concert etc at 7pm and then the fireworks are at 9 or 10, I can't remember. Then home! It's going to be a long day! Hopefully T-rex will be up to it, cause I sure am!

What are your Canada Day plans?

Here's a snippet of our life lately...

We had a couple really big thunder storms, one on Friday and the other Tuesday evening. I guess there was a tornado on the Ottawa river on Thursday or Friday and the threat of more Tuesday! I don't like thunder storms, and they seem to be especially intense here!

On Friday I met Simon at work for lunch. Since I was kinda far-ish from home I stole the car from him and headed to do some window shopping in the area before I had to pick him up in about 2 hours (he works from 6am-3pm and I met him for lunch at noon.. and stayed til 1). I went to Value Village and looked around. In my wandering I found yarn! I remember that Miranda got some yarn from VV. I was excited to find full balls of yarn (some even unopened) for about $1 each! I got a ball of bright yellow, bright orange, dark teal, and 2-3 smaller balls of soft yellow all for $5! I was excited. They had lots more and even six or seven rolls of one colour! Definitely enough to make something! I also bought a really nice pair of maternity pants, nice beige cords. They were hemmed perfectly for me too! And for $5 what a steal! 

 Here's what I've started with my yarn. I bought the pink and green yarn from Micheal's to match a variegated yarn that I already have (white-yellow-orange-pink-green)

 

 I also made cinnamon buns on Monday and we went to the RCMP Musical Ride on Sunday night.

Week 20 + Camping!

We went camping this weekend! Simon took a half day on Friday and we headed out! We came back Sunday morning cause I had to work on Sunday. We went to Philippe Lake (Lac Philippe) in Gatineau National Park, just across the border in Quebec. It was really nice. Felt like we were in BC again cause there were small-ish mountains around the lake. I think we might go again this weekend, but somewhere new! We can't go the same place twice!!

Here's my week 20 belly shot and ultrasound picture!
Baby wasn't very cooperative for the ultrasound but there he/she is! My belly is more pronounced now. Two customers at work yesterday noticed it!

Connected again!

We have internet! Yay!
It was pretty boring for awhile. No tv, no internet, no work!
We're not getting cable, but at least we have internet! I am working on getting a full-time job, or a second part-time one.

Here's our new living quarters. It's messy, sorry. Simon thought we should clean up before taking pictures, but we'd have to either unpack boxes or move them all to one room.  We're slowly unpacking. The bedroom and bathroom are mostly done now. I think the rest, if its not needed immediately, will get moved to the spare room for now. We'll deal with it eventually. We have to see what this summer brings for us. Whether we'll live here in the fall or not...

And finally, here's my 18 week picture!

The girls at work say I still don't look pregnant. They almost didn't believe me when I said I was 4.5 months.
I sure notice it! Belly gets in the way when doing the dishes, hugging Simon, getting dressed! I went through my summer clothes this morning and put most of my capris away in a box cause I won't be able to fit them. Some I couldn't even get over my hips! I might go to work and buy some looser dresses. Sophie gave me some leggings she had acquired from her niece. They fit well, but I was shocked when they said XL on them!!! Then I realized they're from Ardene, so they're a girls xl, whew! I don't think I could handle that quite yet!

Mostly settled, now for relaxing!

So we moved last weekend! No fun! I actually said to simon that I never want to move again!
I felt pretty useless when moving.. I directed people mostly. I go in trouble a couple times for lifting some things that I figure were okay for me. I asked my dr about it and she said some things were okay as long as I felt comfortable with it.. Anyways, I'm unpacking now. I completed the kitchen yesterday and today well I wasn't in the mood for unpacking so i made pumpkin muffins with cream cheese filling, liket he ones Starbucks has in fall! I would post pictures, but we had a big ordeal with our Internet and so currently don't have any! I guess the builder of this complex set up an account with Rogers for all the units and bell's not allowed in. So we had to cancel our bell Internet and still have to go get Rogers. At least we have iPhones so we're not totally disconnected :p

So right now I'm sitting on our balcony in the 28 degree heat enjoying summer :) and watching airplanes take off! We have a good view of them from here! I'll have to figure out a way to watch the Canucks game tonight for simon... He's been workin his butt off lately first workin all day then coming home and moving stuff around for me! We don't have cable here either.. Maybe off to Sophie and jeff's with some muffins tonight! Of course after prenatal classes. We started them last week and it just feels like school again. Simon said I looked really bored! Hopefully it will get a bit new interesting, last week we just talks about our feelings... Blech!

Have a happy Wednesday!

Long Weekend Garden Boxes!

This weekend  we did lots! 

Saturday we had a very successful yard sale. 

Sunday we took apart our garden and made garden planters for our new place 

(a townhouse with no yard, but 2 balconies)

Monday we cleaned up the basement and packed leftover things then relaxed!

Here's the progress of Simon's "masterpiece" planter boxes... 

  

Working hard! 

Simon got to use the saw that I bought him for Christmas. We re-used all the wood from our built-up garden that we took down because we are moving and the landlord said he was going to get rid of the gardens anyways. 

I used Simon's sander and organized the wood to the pattern I like. The wood was sun-bleached on one side so it looks kind of blue.

Finished product!

The only thing we bought for this project was the nice clean wood on the top of the boxes. It finishes it off nicely. Simon mitered the corners to make it extra nice :)

Peppermint "snowballs"

I have been hard at work packing lately... and wishing for a job, or shifts at the job I have.. but needed a break this afternoon! I had a pretty large lunch and just sat on the couch reading for an hour so my tummy could digest a bit then I started packing again, but I was so cold that I decided to do some baking! Our kitchen is pretty small so it holds the heat from the oven :) And plus I did the dishes by hand in nice hot water while the cookies were baking. I wanted chocolate chip cookies, but since I packed most of my baking things yesterday and didn't want to search for them I made this recipe (plus it jumped into my hands when going through my recipe box).

My Version of Peppermint Snowballs

I added chopped dark chocolate into the dough :) and then dipped them in melted chocolate chips and topped with crushed candy cane (my second to last one!!)

Now I am sitting on the couch again with 3 cookies beside me (2 have already made their way to T-Rex) and my tea. This is nice, but it would be nice to work as well. Sometimes I get bored. At least I have packing to do! I finished the office today, and the "sewing" room was done last week. I started the kitchen yesterday. I need more boxes. Hopefully I'll get some tonight. I can get them from work, I just have to go pick them up! 

Okay my cookies and book are calling me!

15 weeks and counting