Luck? Fate? You decide.

I'm not sure if this story is more about fate, or if it's based more upon luck. All I do know is that when there is only a 0.8% chance of getting pregnant with an IUD you really seem to put the aspect into the back of your mind filed with the "I'll never actually win the lottery" category. Well, we won the baby lottery. To be honest I even thought about buying a lottery ticket, but I actually felt like saving all the rest of my luck for this baby haha.

Image found here.

Over the past 2 weeks prior to discovering this shocking tidbit I had a few symptoms that marked the discovery of my last pregnancy...first it was sore breasts, then it was immense fatigue, and then it was going to the washroom a ton....at first I marked it off as hormones, then I marked it off as "my period must be here any day"....but my period never came and I started the nail biting...I decided to grab my calendar while stating, "Oh I must have counted wrong, it's probably still too soon for my period..." but then I checked and my stomach flipped....I was actually late by several days.

Since I had to grab some groceries for dinner I decided to pick up a pregnancy test as well. You know, pregnancy tests are expensive. I checked at Safeway and it was like $15 for a single, generic brand test. I then decided to try my luck at the dollar store and picked up 2 tests for $1.50 each! But believe you me, that entire car ride home? Ya, I was convincing myself I couldn't be pregnant.

You see, it's not that I minded being pregnant it was just we had a lot we wanted to do first! Snowboaring all winter, Charles was wanting to get his Volkswagen Golf-R, marriage perhaps, a bigger house....maybe some travelling? We weren't thinking about having another kid until Anna was 5....now she is only going to be days past 2! Nevermind the aspect of all the renovations we have to do now that I shared here.. Anna has a tough time sleeping as it is so I certainly was not about to make her share a room with another baby. Albeit that we would be co-sleeping until the baby is about 3 months old, but a 3-month-old can still wake up a fair bit at night! Despite all this however, there was never a doubt in my mind that I wouldn't love this baby tremendously, and that I wouldn't do all I could to give it the best chance of survival possible.

Anyway back to the story...we had dinner first, but I scarfed my meal down. Charles was only half finished when I couldn't bear it any more and ran to the washroom to pee on a stick. For these tests there are 2 lines. One is a "Complete" line that states the test completed successfully. The other line is the positive line, if it shows up, you're pregnant. Well apparently the complete line is supposed to show up first....my test? The pregnancy line showed up first. Well let me tell you I ran out of that bathroom faster than fast screaming "Where is that other test???" I then grabbed the other one off the table, did my thing, and sure enough it too was positive. Charles came in by this time and said "You're pregnant?" I think my hyperventilating was a clear enough sign ahahaha. Luckily Charles just held me while my brain processed "How can this happen??". We then immediately called Charles' parents over and told them the whole ordeal in order to get the news slightly off our chest. The date was Sunday, January 15th.

Mealplan 01.29.12

Since I got pregnant I have had to drastically change what I have been eating. For the past week I have basically had to turn myself into a vegetarian against my will haha. I have found that any meat gives me absolute stomach pain. Thus lately I have only been eating salads of all sorts, pasta, toast and eggs, soup, and I just found out last night canned salmon agrees with me. For snacks I've been eating raw veggies, fruit, yogurt, cottage cheese, and nuts.

Since I've changed my diet around to eliminate most meat, as well as taking a prenatal vitamin and extra iron, I have found my energy levels to be exponentially higher and my stomach pain is virtually non-existent. Hurray!

This week I am going to try incorporating some meat into my  diet subtly and see how it turns out, either way I got some delicious recipes planned!

On the subject however, while trying to find ways to combat my exhaustion, I learned that 1 in 4 woman are anemic and often even a standard multivitamin does not provide adequate iron for our bodies. Signs of anemia can range from fatigue (yes, being a mom isn't always an excuse like I thought it was!), to poor circulation/always being cold, appearing really pale, or having brittle hair and nails. I remember about 4 years ago now a doctor told me I was anemic; I took an iron supplement for a small period of time but gave it up and realize now I have probably been suffering from exhaustion all along due to iron deficiency! If you think this may be a problem definitely check in with a doctor to see if this is an issue. If you really, really don't want to see a doctor just start taking a natural iron supplement regardless, the extra iron won't hurt, and see if anything improves in your lifestyle. :)

But back on topic, here's what I have come up with for this week:

Monday

Grilled Kebabs with Yam Fries

Tuesday

Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut and Ginger

Wednesday

Fiesta Chicken Enchiladas

Thursday

Thai Peanut Noodle Stir Fry

Friday

Potato skin nachos

Recipes:

SURPRISE!

Well it's been a crazy busy past 2 weeks around in this household! There has been a ton of running around, alot of exhaustion, and alot of changes in plans.

For instance....one change of plans is realizing that we need to renovate our attic.....for this we need to create an opening to our attic, put in some stairs, add electricity, insulate, drywall, put flooring down etc. etc. I don't have any photos of the actual space yet, but once I get to take an actual peek inside (Only Charles has been up there as of yet) I'll be sure to take some pictures for you guys! These pictures however apparently best represent what we would be working with...

Image found here.

Image found here.

It's apparently quite a steep roof, so there won't be much veritcal wall space, most of it will be angled. We will not be putting in any skylights, however there will be one small window on the back wall (where the bed is against), that wall would be the back of the house. For the front of the house wall we will be putting a larger window/a tiny glass door so we can step out and turn the roof of our mudroom into a quaint little deck.

Design wise I'm really pining for rafters....

Image found here.

But apparently based on our attic we would have to insulate, cover the original rafters, and then recreate them....being  that we have large looming deadline we probably won't have the time for this, sigh. :( Once i come up with more design ideas though I'll be sure to share them with you!

Then remember our main bedroom?

Some Simple Organization

It's been a busy week around here! We finally managed to take down our Christmas decorations and I'm excited to switch up the decor. I'm also excited to hang up some more custom artwork around the house but it's tough to find time while juggling a toddler, a practicum, and my last course for my Medical Transcription! "Surface clean" has been my motto of late hahaha.

When it comes to putting away Christmas decor I believe that simple is best. We have so far just one tube of ornaments (oops now 2! I picked up another tube of 100 various silver ornaments for $3 at Extra Foods the other day! I couldn't resist hehehe), and one green bin full of everything else.

First off comes the lights! We like to just wrap these around a strip of labelled cardboard instead of trying to stuff them back in their box. I find they don't become as knotted this way. 

Funny story actually, I originally had the small warm white lights that I got last year from a thrift store. Charles however wanted the energy efficient led ones so we went to Walmart. Being that it was just before Christmas they only had one package of that style of lights in pure white so we nabbed it before anyone else could and ran off to set up our tree. Sadly we realized it only covered half of our tree!!! And so the next day we trekked off to Canadian Tire and they only had cold white lights! We didn't want to make the half hour drive back to Walmart so we purchased them anyway hahaha. We were hoping there wouldn't be much of a difference but sadly that was why the top half of our tree was white, and the bottom was blue, oopsie! We sure are newbs when it comes to light buying, maybe next year we'll get it right lol. We definitely love the pure white look though, reminds us of snow :) Has anyone else ever ended up with a 2-toned tree? Hahaha.

As we pull all the ornaments off the tree we remove the hooks and place them in 2 ziplock baggies based upon size.

Bathtime Struggles

Anna used to loovvee having baths! In fact she loved anything related to water, be it kicking up her heels in puddles, splooshing her hands in the sink, swimming, you name it she loved it. We even spent most of the summer at the beach. 

Lately however baths have involved her hearing the tub running full of water and she gets all excited but then as soon as we take off her clothes and put her in she just starts bawling! I don't know what it is! The water has never been hot, she has fun toys to play with, yet still she just hates it. 

I make sure to use a tear-free shampoo on her, and while she has never loved getting water dumped on her head to rinse it out, she has always tolerated it and still had fun splashing around. Not anymore. Now it's mission scrub-her-down-as-fast-as-possible-and-get-her-out-asap. I've tried singing songs to her while she bathes, I've tried getting in the tub with her, nothing works and I'm at a loss!

She does still love water in general. She loves to dump her bottle on the ground and splash in the little puddle she's made, she just no longer likes baths. Is this a normal phase kids go through? Has anyone else ever experienced this? Any ideas how to help get her over it/tolerate it better? Baths have now become a nightmare. :(

Mealplan 01.15.12

This week I'm featuring our Sunday meal plan because it's something particularly special that will fuel the recipes for the rest of the week......roasted turkey!!! I know, I know...Christmas just ended but I just love turkey and we have one taking up our precious freezer space which needs to be eaten stat....om nom nom!!!

Oh and last week's recipes turned out amazingly! The lime and honey drumsticks were divine and so delicious! It was also really good to take the glaze and pour it over the quinoa, yummy!!! We had a near disaster with the carrots where our pepper grinder broke and we had TONS of peppercorn all over my honey glazed carrots but we rinsed them off, picked off all the peppercorns and re-added the butter and honey haha.

The stuffed peppers also turned out delicious and made for an awesome serving presentation as well! They turned out to be pretty simple to make too! I ended up skipping the spinach since ours had gone bad, and I added sunflower seeds instead of almonds which still added a nice crunch.

Drooling yet? lol. Now back onto this week!

Sunday

Roasted Turkey with all the Fixings

Monday

Spaghetti

Tuesday

Turkey Pot Pie

Wednesday

Roast Pork Tenderloin with Oven Roasted Asparagus & Tomatoes

Thursday

Turkey Noodle Soup

Friday

Wrap pizzas

Recipes:

A little space for vanity....

In my old bathroom I used to have a large shelf/cupboard where I was able to store all my makeup, nail polishes, and hair supplies. However, with a new house comes new storage ideas! Our new bathroom simply does not have enough room for all of this stuff and it can be impractical too when you have to share a bathroom. Luckily our bedroom has a cozy little nook that was just being used as dead space. Traditionally I was thinking of placing a chair in the corner with some artwork but since we really only use the bedroom for sleep etc ;) there was not really much of a point. Instead Charles came up with the fabulous idea of turning it into my own little vanity nook! Isn't he sweet? :D

Excuse the poor "before" shot of the space. I forgot to take a picture of the area beforehand and stumbled upon this photo during my process shots lol.

And here it is afterwards!!

Isn't it beautiful? Keep reading if you would like to learn how to make your own little shelf, it's really soooo simple and only took us one evening! We do have bigger plans for this space when we tear down the panelling, put up drywall, paint etc but for now it was cheap (under $30 including fabric, mirror, hardware etc.) and I still think it's pretty stylish. I really, really want to find an ornate, thick gold framed mirror for this space one day however and make it really glamorous!

My little baker!

I'm always trying to come up with new activities to do with my daughter. I won't lie, I don't always know how to just sit and play with her with her toys, blocks etc. It's something I am still learning. Instead, I love actual activities we can do together.  A lot of the times I'm not sure if they are fully age appropriate but we always manage to have fun and share lots of smiles together regardless. I can't wait until we can start playing make-believe together, dress-up, doing more crafts, and reading! This time, however, the activity I chose was making cookies! We were both bored, and I thought she might have fun stirring the different ingredients together. She actually did although she also tried "tasting" alot of the different parts haha. Brown sugar and butter anyone? Yummmm...lol.

I'm still trying to find the "perfect" chewy cookie recipe but this one turned out pretty good.

I cut the recipe in half and it made a perfect dozen cookies with some batter leftover to savour, so in a perfect world the full recipe will make 24 cookies...depending on how much cookie dough you like to eat ;)

The brown sugar and butter, Anna kept trying to steal bites of this haha.

Helping mommy measure!

A big smile after trying out some cookie dough!

Yumm! I love the smell of the house after baking fresh cookies <3

 After we had baked the cookies Anna went for a nap. I was going to give her a cookie for a snack after we had something more healthy when she woke up, but I forgot I had left half a cookie on the coffee table and she stole it while my back was turned! I think she likes them hahaha.

When did any of you start baking with your children? Do you have any cookie recipes you swear by? I would love to find the perfect chewy cookie!

Mealplan 01.08.12

Meal plans are back!!! Now that we have finally settled in our house together we are starting to get back on track with regular, home-cooked meals and there is nothing better to help with that than a good old fashioned meal plan! What can I say? I love me some lists! Especially lists involving food! Mmmm....

Our meal plans however have been revised. Being that Charles requires a bagged lunch each day for work (consisting of leftovers or sandwiches), and I just tend to graze most of the day, I am now I omitting lunches and will only be previewing dinner. My apologies to anyone who appreciated the lunches but it also makes meal planning simpler and easier to write these posts as well.

Now bring on the deliciousness!!!

Monday

Baked honey & lime drumsticks with quinoa and honey glazed carrots

Tuesday

Baked three cheese macaroni casserole with salmon and peas

Wednesday

Quinoa and hamburger stuffed bell peppers

Thursday

Homemade tomato soup

Friday

Curry chicken with basmati rice and peas.

Recipes:

Baked Honey & Lime Drumsticks - This is a recipe I have had saved in my online recipe file forrevverr but have never gotten around to cooking it! I'll let you all know how it turns out next week! The recipe originally calls for 24 chicken drumsticks but seeing as we're only 2.5 people we don't need that many so here I'll be posting my adaption but you can find the link to the original recipe here.

Pattypan Joy

So I decided to take a trip through the thrift store here in town since I haven't been yet and I stumbled upon an amazing find for our Christmas tree!

Check out these cute little pattypans! They are a beautiful rosey copper colour and just so vintage and divine. They also already came with a little hole to string an ornament hook through. Since we still have our tree up I just couldn't resist hanging them right away and I just adore them! Plus they were only 50 cents for all three!

It goes to show you can turn all sorts of random items into Christmas ornaments.

The horse is my favourite <3 Which is yours? Have you ever turned any random items into Christmas ornaments?

Spices + Mason Jars = Love

Who here is always frustrated with their spice cabinet? Those annoying little bags or oddly shaped bottles? A spice rack that doesn't fit all your spices? Well I have a solution! Mason jars!

I'm well aware of how much all of us bloggers typically love mason jars and I found another reason to love them so much; their perfect for spices! Check out these beauties. I could just stare at that shelf all day!

This was such a simple process: Purchase mason jars, wash, fill, label, enjoy!

Gotta love simplicity for such a huge result! 

These guys are the perfect size to hold about a whole little baggie of spices, and they are the perfect size for reaching your hand in to pinch out spices for all your cooking needs! I'm in love <3 They weren't expensive either...I lost the receipt but I believe they were about $15 for 24 of them? Either way, worth every penny!

What are your latest favourite reasons behind mason jars? Or do you have any beautiful spice jar organization? I wanna hear about it :D

Design Plans for 2012 and Beyond!

So I have a bunch of New Years resolutions for this year including a few such as going camping, exercising more, getting my hunting license etc. However one of the biggest ones? Breaking out my pink hammer and renovating our new house! 

When Charles first lived here he really did not have much.....in the living room he only had a teeny tiny tv stand with a 50" flat screen on it and a papasan chair. In his bedroom he just had a bunch of random bedding on his queen size bed minus a headboard. Can you say bachelor? It was so "cold" and bare in his house and it got my design itch going. (Sadly I don't really have any pictures of it then). Now that I've moved my stuff in it's alot cozier and feels like a home but I still can't wait to really make it ours and give it some true style! 

We have big plans for most of the rooms in the house that I can not wait to share with you below! Some of the rooms however (the basement and the mud room in particular) we're still dabbling around with so you'll have to stay tuned for those ideas. I really wish to master powerpoint and create mood boards but for now that will have to wait. You'll just have to deal with separate images and piece it together yourself, my apologies.

When you first enter our house you walk into the tiny mudroom. We aren't sure how this space is going to evolve exactly but we have big plans for the future of completely redoing it with insulation, double paned windows, proper flooring, etc.

After you enter the mudroom you walk into the living room. I simply cannot wait for this room to come together and it'll probably be the first to tackle. Of course this room, as with all the others, will take time and fair chunks of change to evolve (although we do want to DIY as much of it as possible) but for now here is what we envision!

This is the living room as it currently stands.