41 things about me
I love reading peoples 100 things posts and am so far from my 100th post that I’m stealing a page from my cousins blog and putting up 41 things for my 41st post.
1. I was born three months premature and weighed only 2 lb 10 oz at birth.
2. I looked like a drowned rat…seriously not a cute baby until I started to pile on the baby fat.
3. My mom was on holiday when I was born so eventually she had to leave me in the NICU in Saskatoon to go home and take care of my brother, my god-mother Sheri (who was attending U of S) came to visit me everyday and to this day we still have a special relationship, no matter where in the world she is living.
4. My family is freakishly normal and happy, same as my husbands…we hope to foster the same environment with our own kids.
5. I talk to my mom at least once a week, so does my husband (his mom).
6. I joined the military at age 17 and needed my parents signature.
7. I currently hold the rank of Captain in the Canadian airforce.
8. Through my military training I’ve earned two degrees with no student debt.
9. Instead I ‘paid’ (and will pay as I just finished this last degree) with time served.
10. I love my job.
11. My trade is Aerospace Controller, but what I did (when not in school) was Air Traffic Control in the terminal (so not control tower work, but talking to planes while monitoring them on a radar screen).
12. I’m not sure what my new job in Ottawa will entail, but I know it is related to any and everything the Canadian Forces is involved in in Space.
13. I met my husband in Comox BC, we had a mutual friend who was going away on course and he introduced us because we were both interested in rock climbing (a sport you cannot do alone).
14. We were friends for years before we started dating.
15. He proposed before we’d even been dating for a year; in the backyard while we were playing with our new puppy.
16. We had a long engagement and were married in Aug 2006.
17. Our wedding was PERFECT. Seriously I cannot think of one thing I would change.
18. The day after our wedding we packed up the pets and started our drive across country to Ontario, where I would be attending school.
19. We wanted to start a family right after we were married, but then I was accepted for a master’s program so I said we had to wait (there was no way we were going to have a kid with both of us studying).
20. We got pregnant right away and are expecting our first child in June
21. I’ve had a very easy pregnancy with no morning sickness or complications.
22. I’m convinced labour and delivery is going to be hell or the kid will be a hellian 
(it only seems fair since the pregnancy was so easy).
23. I own two dogs and two cats…I can blame all but one cat on my husband.
24. I don’t really like cats; but don’t worry, mine are well taken care of and pampered.
25. That being said, if I have my way (which I probably won’t see #23) we’ll never own cats again. These two are great, but come on how much luck can one family have.
26. I tend to be quite and reserved when meeting new people; at times I believe this leave a poor first impression and people think I’m a little stuck up.
27. I’m trying to work on this.
28. My husband is great with people and can talk to anyone, I admire this.
29. I want four kids, but Jason is more comfortable with the idea of three.
30. We’ve decided we’ll start with one and see how it goes.
31. I never want to own a minivan.
32. I’m a station wagon kind of lady.
33. I’m 33 wks pregnant and we have no idea what to call this kid.
34. I love to travel.
35. Last summer Jason and I fulfilled our dream of a Europe vacation (just in time before we got pregnant).
36. We both want to go back and share the experience with our growing family.
37. I love to snowboard and really miss living close to the moutians.
38. Same goes for hiking and camping.
39. I have a ridiculous number of fillings in my teeth, even though I brush and floss regularly.
40. I pierced my tongue during my last year of university; I kept the piercing until I lost one of the fasteners on vacation in the Dominican Republic, with no replacement I couldn’t keep the piercing in place and it grew over.
41. I pierced my eyebrow shortly after university and loved it; then one day (about three years later) I just stopped wearing it.
Weighing in on stuff
There has been a lot of talk about stuff lately (if you haven’t already, check out the story of stuff) and it has really made me stop and take a look at our house and the life we lead. Jason and I are all about stuff, the shinier the better. We are certified gear geeks who love to camp, hike, and rock climb. With this pregnancy I’ve added babywearing to my list and already own five carriers (and I don’t even have a kid yet). I like to think I could take the compact challenge, but I know I’m not there yet.
Alas, I also know that I’ve written on several other peoples blogs that everyone has to start somewhere and every little bit helps. I also firmly believe that acknowledging that there is a problem with consumerism today is a step in the right direction. That being said for this post I’ll focus on the positive and then in a month or so I’ll update on how the consumers in the Beaudette-Towle household are holding up. So positive steps we’ve taken to reduce our consumption of stuff:
- all of the baby clothes we have (except two outfits) has been bought used or gotten from free cycle
- we freecycle and do a quarterly purge of the house to donate items to the Canadian Diabeties Association Clothes Line
- at least 75% of the baby shwagg (including three of those five carriers) was bought second-hand
- on the disposiable front we’ve stopped even our limited use of paper towels (to be honest the only place I miss them is when cleaning bathroom mirrors), I’ve switched from disposable pads to luna pads and a diva cup, we plan to use cloth diapers and wipes on Baby T vice disposables, and we use cloth grocery bags.
It’s a start, and every little bit helps (both the planet and our pocket books!)
Simple Pleasures
The weather around here has been great lately…it’s like we skipped sping and went right into summer. Now apparently it will all end next week, but for now I’m enjoying it as much as I can. I’m taking great pleasure in my daily walks with my dogs…they’ve been superstars lately and very well behaved. They go into the backyard after dinner and play for hours, which is a great routine to start with baby on the way. This morning I noticed all the buds greening on the trees and am looking forward to working in my garden this weekend (I can only look forward to it because it is so small and so low maintenance). I finally took time to go swimming over lunch and really enjoyed the water, I think I’ll try to go at least three time next week. And finally, whether it is from the pregnancy or the hot weather (or likely combination of both) my usually comfortable sandals have been giving me blisters, so the most comfortable shoes I have right now are the flipflop style sandals I bought for my wedding day two summers ago, and for some reason this makes me happy
More Pregnancy pics
Here are a couple of photos from the last few weeks. The first is Jason and I at his POET grad, notice the stylish military issue mu mu I’m sporting.
Next is in the Telus rainforest section of the Ontario Science Center in Toronto (I went last weekend with Bobbie-Jo)
And finally the 32 week bare belly pic…
Give away envy
Well I am finally finished with school (and beleive me I am VERY happy about that), but in the preceding weeks I haven’t had a chance to make anything cool to give away…so I am deferring this weeks give-away carnival (for now). Check back in May time frame for a hand-made gift to be given away. In the mean time I’m going to use my now free evenings and weekends to catch up on about 50 projects I wanted to get done before the baby comes.
DONE
I handed in the final draft of my paper today….now I just need to wait for some feedback….then I’m DONE!
Procrastination
Since I’m writing the final report that will count towards my degree I decided I should spend the weekend sewing. I found a ‘hippie mama’ diaper bag pattern on line at
http://www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/Baby/mybag.html
It’s just a little bag, designed for a breast feeding cloth diapering family. I modified the pattern slightly adding a couple of inner pockets and using only one magnetic closure instead of velcro. Here are the results
Closed Bag
open bag (I’m especially proud of the elastic in the front pocket)
lined with extra pockets
Wearing the bag…I really wanted to make it adjustable in length, but I didn’t have the right sized ’slider thing’ so I just made it long (so I could use it with baby in a wrap). I love the zipper pocket on the strap, this is were I keep my wallet since none of the other pockets are really secure.
Eggstravagant Easter Celebration
Yeah, this is a month late; but believe it or not it took me this long to get all the photos on my computer
My little sister (through a community program) B.J and I coloured eggs last week in preparation for Easter. first we started with an easter egg hunt where she had to find a dozen coloured plastic eggs throughout the main floor of my house.
Don’t ask how the pineapple fits in, seemed like a good idea at the time (we always have fun)
Most of the eggs held candy, but one of them had her gift from our trip to Florida
(excuse the fuzzy pics, the camera was on the wrong setting, they get better)
Then we got on to the real work
Hair Cut
I finally had to give in and get a hair cut. Jason’s grad parade is tomorrow and there was no way I was going to a parade with my half-assed, hugely assisted by bobby pins frenchbraid. So yesterday I went and had a trim, to just above my collar (I’ll post pics soon once I’m back at home and finished this final paper for my degree). Truthfully I couldn’t be happier. My hair was getting very shaggy looking and it was very thin in the back since there were so many layers in the original short cut. It looks soooooo much better right now and will grow out much nicer now that I’ve got a few more longer layers in the back.
Score of the day…
I had my regular two week check up today and baby and I are both doing fine. The little lass/lad decided to turn head-down for me so hopefully he/she will stay that way now. After my appointment I decided to check out one of the local second-hand kid stores that I hadn’t seen yet. I’m not really looking for anything for baby, but their website said they had maternity clothes too so I thought I’d check it out. To my utter amazement they had four formal outfits on the rack (I need something to wear to my Graduation Ball next month), I narrowed it down to two and then picked the cheaper one which was slinkier and less tent like. It’s currently a little big in the bust, but we’ll see what happens over the next three weeks then a local (wonderfully talented) skilled friend is going to take it in for me. The best part, I got it for 40% off the asking price so I just bought a ‘ball gown’ for $30!!
