I'm getting ID'd

Well life never seems to get dull around here. I am being ID'd..


ID = Infectious disease


Turns out my "issue" from my last post has become a larger pain in the you know what than I expected.

A trip to emergency last night and 4 different doctors "investigating" the issue turned up nothing but confusion... It was just like Grey's Anatomy. Students hovering around learning....the resident doctor, the chief resident AND the OBGYN on call all fascinated by my "issue"

I should say "issues" as it is now 3 separate cases down there.

So, they chose to discharge me instead of admitting me and I just got the phone call from the Infectious disease department to schedule an appointment for tomorrow. They are treating it as urgent (yay!) but there are many what ifs....

See.... a lump has popped up and the word "biopsy" was thrown around last night... funny, it was so casual for them to say, yet I was freaking out at the thought of a needle going in there!!

I was sent home with some Tylenol 3's and after a quick soak in the tub, I managed a glorious 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. The first full night in almost a month.

Today I am limited to sitting and shifting. Frozen Maxi Pads are stacked in the freezer (the docs loved that idea! Thanks to the birthing unit in Calgary for that lovely tip! It truly helps anytime soreness down there comes about!)

The good news is the babies are just fine! The monitor showed them having their usual party in my belly and heart rates were perfect. Tim and Cole are waiting on me hand and foot and my mother in law dropped off some fresh veggies and cookies.... so far so good. This may be my wake up call to slow right down...sometimes I need a direct hit in a very uncomfortable way for me to slow down!

I will keep you posted! Let's hope this is just some crazy hormonal pregnancy experience that I can laugh at one day!

Pain in the you know what!

Back when we started IVF, I wrote a post about all the issues with pregnancy, including one about a friend who had a vein pop out "down below".

Well......

I guess my smooth sailing pregnancy has suddenly turned to OMG painful pregnancy. Can I take a moment to just vent....

My whole right side is numb, thanks to "the vein" that has decided to pop out of the you know what. Supposedly it happens when alot of pressure is building up down there.......NOT FUN. When my friend purchased herself a little harness for her vein off of the internet, I chuckled a bit.....well now the laugh is on ME! Harness here I come!

My belly is pushing straight out......I cannot even touch my belly button region, it's like nails on a chalkboard uncomfortable.

I have had a cold/nasal congestion for 3 weeks now. The first week I slept 2 hours a night. Finally the doc gave me some Nasonex and it helped after another week of sleepless nights. Last night I finally managed 6 hours of straight sleep, it felt like heaven, until I stood up to walk...and the vein started to rub. Good Lord! Me and Epson salt baths are one.....I am sooooo clean. I look like a prune from all the time I am spending in the tub. Cole has even moved his toys into the bathroom to play while I veg out in the tub 3 times a day. Good times....

I am having a garage sale on Saturday. My neighbors are helping me and so is my mom. Tim wants NOTHING to do with a garage sale and will move more stuff over to the new house with Cole (that way Cole is not aware of what is being sold!!) Problem is, my mom thinks I should not just "give away" my stuff. She thinks that if I do not get a good price for something then I should keep the junk, store it and then try and sell it again next summer....her attachment to stuff is mind blowing....that is a post in itself. I want her help, but she is judging and lecturing more than she is helping.....

I have hit the 2 digit numbers for time remaning on this pregnancy. Yay!!! This also means I still have 98 days (technically only 80 since these munchkins are coming out at 38 weeks)... 98 days to deal with this skin, vein, overall irritation flowing through my entire body. Booooo...

So I'm saying a little prayer for myself this week......a little favor to rid me of this vein...make it crawl back to where it came from...it's not right, it's making me grumpy...I want to be blissfully pregnant.....

I know, back to reality Cheryl. It is what it is....just deal with it. Thanks for listening....venting always makes me less grumpy..

My horrible disgusting habit....

For those of you who have known me for years will know about my filthy habit...one that I have tried to shake over the years..with no luck..until now maybe?

Nail Biting

I know it's gross. BUT I CANNOT STOP.

Flashbacks to my many many issues related to nail biting....here are only a few.

When I was young I would bite them down so far they would bleed. My mom would put that awful tasting nail polish on them in hopes of putting an end to the terrible chomping sound she had to endure. Guess what? That stuff, although it tasted awful, was no match against the urge to bite....

Years passed of constant hand smacking from my parents every time a nail would go into my mouth. In private or public, they tried to shame me into quitting....stubborn teenager that I was could care less... smack away, I will just bite them while you are asleep!!!

Fast forward to my twenties. We move to Calgary, I transfer to a new office. Stress and endless hours sitting at my computer lead to fingers hitting my mouth mindlessly at all hours. The result? A trip at 10:30pm to my dentist friend to deal with an infection related to some bacteria I must have picked up on my fingers and then shoved into my mouth.

Gross...I know...

Jump ahead another few years and I am 7 months pregnant with Cole. In my crazy pregnancy mind I decided to get some gel nails put on (not the first time...) but this time I was determined to KEEP them on. Gel nails would last all of one week with me and then I would chomp them down too....It's as though I would pay $100 for the thrill of the bite...sick, I know!

Gels were too much work - I couldn't do up my buttons fast enough, they were IN THE WAY OF LIFE.

One night I am putting away the laundry (in a rush as usual..) and I shoved my clothes into the dresser and caught my nail on the little edge inside the drawer. The result? The gel nail tore right back with my own nail...I pushed it down, got a bandaid and headed out for dinner with my folks. 3 hours later my arm was red and tingling....I was in a panic and off we went to emergency at 11pm. 5 hours later I was on antibiotics and a week later I was at the nail salon getting the poor girl to drill away the gel nail ever so carefully.

So today, as I am doing some squats at the gym, I notice my pinky nail.....there is some growth to the nail, an actual white nail emerging...trying to say "give me a bloody chance!". I started to think....I have been so busy these days with packing and moving that my hands have been nowhere near my mouth....could this be a turnaround point in breaking my habit after all these years?

I would love to have little nails, get a manicure now and then and finally ditch the site of me gnawing on a part of the body that lately we are sanitizing by the hour!!

Tools ladies...have you broken the nail biting habit or any other bad habit? How? What works, what doesn't? By the time these babies come, maybe I could have some nicely manicured hands to admire during labor!

New house means new decor....ugh

Give me a set of financial statements and I can analyze them to death, balance them at the speed of light and provide useful feedback and guidance for my clients on what to do.

Give me a new house to paint and decorate and I am LOST. Completely and utterly in no man's land...begging for a lifeline to help me find my way out.

When I moved into the condo with Tim after our wedding, we had NO money, so decor was mostly IKEA, wedding gifts and cheap picture frames. Tim's idea of decor was placing a Mountain Dew frisbee on a hook on the wall..... yeah that came down pretty quickly..

House #2. We moved onto Glenbrook after 2 years in the condo. 1000 square feet to 1700 square feet meant more rooms to decorate. I was slowly realizing that decor takes money, and CA students make NO money. I would watch Trading Spaces for ideas and I even tried a checkerboard type paint design in one of the bedrooms and a suede like paint in another room (it was 2002, give me some slack!)

House #3. Off to Calgary we went and found a home pretty much complete EXCEPT for the finishings...I flew out and in 4 hours we had chosen paint, counter tops, flooring, fixtures etc... I honestly did not care and just went all neutral. Blah blah bland..My cousin graciously gave me a beautiful house warming gift with some color in to help me...she also helped me shop for some decor in our 4th home (thank you Laura, if you lived here you would be booked for some shopping nesxt week!)

House #4. Current home in Winnipeg. Our time in Calgary proved profitable and the first thing I did when we moved back was hire a designer to come and choose my paint and show me where to hang my art etc... I told you I am a complete failure at this stuff... He was well worth the money (although he did show up to the house in a BMW and then took his shoes off and the toes had big holes in them....so odd...) He gave me ideas of what to buy for my empty walls and in 3 years I managed to buy NOTHING...... we renovated the bathroom and the walls are bare. Our bedroom walls are bare...a cozy, peaceful sanctuary it is NOT!

House #5. Ok more space to decorate. I am in a panic......I kid you not! I HATE making decisions like this. I have hired a new designer...she seems to have appropriate dress attire from what I have seen, hopefully no holey socks...Tim has hired a painter (thank god!) and he is meeting us tonight. A quick call to the designer and she is meeting me tomorrow! Double thank you....

Baby steps right? Paint first, decor next...I need suggestions...any favorite stores, great finds, tips on how to decorate? I am really trying to make this house feel like a home...we want to stay put for longer than 3 years..

SOLD!

We sold the house last night!!!

The crappy low ball offer folk came back with a great deal..and a fast possession date of Sept 4th so we are starting to move this weekend. Cole and I will spend today starting to pack light stuff and organize the rest, I need to sneak in a garage sale soon to purge some stuff!

I have tried over the years to embrace real estate and the "game" you need to play. No luck though. I realized last night that I truly HATE negotiating. We ended up $4k below our asking price and they ended up $25k above what they initially wanted to pay. Why could we have not just laid it all out on day one and avoided the back and forth? Tim on the other hand LOVES the "game" he thrives on it...likes the risk of the buyers walking away.....stressing his wife out!! Why is it he is always right though? If he left buying and selling homes to me we would never make any money, I would take the first offer just to avoid any conflict!

In the end, it was obvious that this family loved and wanted our home and that makes me feel A OK...I even threw in my front load washer and dryer in the deal... partly because they wanted them..but mostly because it means that I...

GET NEW ONES!!!

So where to even start looking for new front loads? You guys!

Let me know what to get. I had the Whirlpool Duets and they had mold issues if I did not leave the door open on the washer between loads. NO THANKS...

House #5 in 9 years of marriage...I can only imagine how many more "games" I will have to endure in my lifetime.

The proud owners of 2 homes

Yes, the sale of our house has yet to happen. Watch our money fly out the window as we pay for 2 homes....We have another showing tomorrow, fantastic..maybe this couple will bring a reasonable offer to the table instead of the junk that was presented to us last week.

Note to buyers: if you are trying to buy a $350k home, you need to cough up more than a $1000 deposit. Show some sincere interest! Also, do not try and low ball by $25k and ask that our awesome front load washer and dryers be thrown in...and finally, making an offer conditional to the sale of your home.. which happens to be in the crime ridden area of the city is not helping your situation. WE WERE INSULTED.

Moving on..

We did pick up the keys to our new shack! Not sure how the whole "move" will take place...I took my non-maternity clothes over today and some baby stuff for the boys. At this pace we should be living there by Christmas (kidding...I have an late September deadline!)

A few shots of the new pad. For those on facebook, I posted a full album of several rooms.

Salt water pool

Kitchen

Cole's dinosaur room is amazing..the mural is beautiful and I'm so happy I did not have to have someone in my house painting for hours on end!

Basement bath...steam shower and infinity jacuzzi..like I'll have time to enjoy those but my guests can!

Overall we are thrilled, considering we saw the house for 15 minutes and decided to buy it...

A few things need to get done in terms of paint, a new deck and maybe some new kitchen counters...that may be pushing it. We wanted more space and this has about 3000 square feet of it. I do not see us moving for a long time....thank goodness.

25 week pictures

Heading into 25 weeks!! I am feeling the "bulge" and loving it!

Rear shot...

Wait for it.... alot happens in 4 weeks with these 2 boys!!! Side shot...

Thank goodness Lululemon's stretch! Only 13 weeks to go now.....time to slooooow down says the doctor, which is exactly what I've been doing. I walk 6-8 km 3 times a week (thanks Mandy for joining me!) and I swim most days. The gym consists of light weights and lots of good ole fashion lunges!

No complaints! This has been a fantastic trimester, time to say adios to it and hit the home stretch!

Mmmmmmmmuffins!

These muffins are delicious, and have no sugar or butter in them. Try a batch and it will make you realize how unhealthy the muffins are at restaurants and coffee shops. If you need some flavor, top the muffin with some sugar free jam or natural almond butter!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups egg whites• 1½ cups oats or 1 cup instant oatmeal or 1½ cups quick oatmeal• ½ cup whole wheat flour • 1 cup unsweetened applesauce• 1 cup 1% cottage cheese• ½ cup whey protein powder • 1½ tsp baking powder• 25 almonds• 1 tbsp vanilla extract• ⅛ tsp or pinch of salt• 1 cup strawberries (see below for variations)

INSTRUCTIONS:Pre-heat oven to 350˚F. Pour ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Mix in fruit by hand, if desired, or include in the blender. Pour into regular-sized stick-free muffin cups. Cook until toothpick comes out clean (about 20 minutes).

NUTRIENTS PER MUFFIN:Calories: 120, Total Fat: 2 g, Sat. Fat: 0 g, Trans Fat: 0 g, Cholesterol: 5 mg, Sodium: 125 mg, Total Carbs: 17 g, Dietary Fiber: 3 g; Sugars: 3 g; Protein: 9 g; Iron: 1.20 mg

FOR CHOCOLATE BANANA MUFFINS:Substitute ½ cup sliced banana for the strawberries. Add 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder. Use chocolate flavored whey protein powder. Add ½ to 1 tsp banana extract for extra banana flavor.

FOR BLUEBERRY MUFFINS:Substitute 1 cup blueberries for the strawberries and 222 g unsweetened blueberry applesauce for the regular unsweetened applesauce.

FOR APPLE CINNAMON MUFFINS:Substitute ⅔ cup diced apple for the strawberries. Add cinnamon.

I have a batch in the oven. Enjoy!

A Piece of History

The anticipation was killing him.....hubby that is...


Yesterday was THE DAY!


Tim is a closet war junkie, and star trek junkie....and an anything sci-fi related junkie. Instead of watching endless hockey games or the sports recaps on TSN, I am required to live with the occasional Star Trek episode and History Channel war documentary. I can live with that.


So when our local newspaper advertised that the Lancaster was landing right here in our city...well Tim was giddy, planning the outing.. entering it into his blackberry... very nerd like, I love it.


Now if you are like me, you're asking...What is the Lancaster???? Let me enlighten...


"This historic Avro Lancaster belonging to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum is one of only two flyable Lancasters left in the world. It is a famous WW II bomber aircraft"


Yeah.....ok. sounds neat! I agreed to go with him and Cole. We would go see it land and then head out for lunch....(food is more my style!). How many people would really want to see this thing anyways? Who knew that many many many many many people are in love with histry like Tim is. Old, young, men, women, I swear all of Winnipeg crammed into that museum to see this thing land. Note my irritation, I was peeved that I had to stand for an hour, and then find out the plane was LATE by an hour. Luckily Tim entertained Cole by making a mock Lancaster....he's talented in the airplane "craft" department..




Finally at 3pm this plan landed. I admit, it was quite the sight. Not just the actual plane but the way some people were acting.

"down at the front" was being yelled alot by people standing in the back. When I tried to squeeze into a better spot so Cole could see, I was "told" by a lady that she had been here for 3 hours and would appreciate it if I would move out of her way. Good ole friendly Manitoba!!! So myself and a nice older lady had a chat at the back of the room as her hubby (decked out in full air force gear) watched intently with his pals.

Put Tim in a mall for 4 hours and he would LOSE HIS MIND. Put him in an airplane museum, waiting in line for 2 of the 4 hours and you get a patient, photo snapping, happy man. So so very odd.

So here are some shots, the Lancaster in all of it's glory.

Once it landed, we waited another hour to see it up close and personal....while in line, we befriended a man with a deluxe looking camera, exchanged emails and he sent us this photo...
Tres cool no? We were waiting for the hangar door to open....it feels very vintage, pretty, like being back in time...it was hard not to think of all the people who lost their lives flying these planes. 25 flight missions and you could go home. The average pilot saw 12 missions.

I usually space out when the History Channel comes on...maybe next time I will pay more attention..