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SO PUMPED....only a 10 minute walk from home!
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Life is about to get crazy!
Not only is Alex going back to work after a 2 week hiatus but I'm in the home stretch of maternity leave. I will officially be back to work the day after Labour Day and although I have completely and utterly loved my time off I'm pretty excited to get my brain back into gear. As a kid I always thought my dream was to be a stay at home mom (perhaps because that's what I grew up with until about grade 8) but after being one for a year I know I'll be "ok" going back to work but I also know I'd love to work say, 20 hours a week versus 40. Unfortunately, that's not going to be possible (see a post a few back if you need more details) for a while so going back to a job I love, with people I adore suits me about as best as it can at this point in time. I am seriously going to crave - best word I could come up with - seeing my little man and I know I am going to cry for a week but I can do it. I know it. What I need to focus on is that I'm going to have PERSONAL TIME EVERYDAY FOR A WHOLE 8 HOURS (while AWAKE!!!) - no poopy diapers, no barfs, no nap schedules, a quiet lunch...(I'm trying to make myself feel better here but none of the things I just wrote actually bother me all that much) but also no snuggles, smiles, belly laughs, walks, dance parties, park trips or lunches smeared from head to toe etc.
I am so happy that the woman we're leaving our beast with is fantastic. I can literally see the love pouring out at her from the kids she already watches and one of the Mom's is keeping her kid with her 2 days a week because she'd miss her too much. Now that's what you want in a daycare!!
Okay, more to come. Maybe not baby related....next time I'm going to write about some career moves I'm going to make this year. It's going to happen because I'm going to make it happen - just because that's what I do. BAM.
I am so happy that the woman we're leaving our beast with is fantastic. I can literally see the love pouring out at her from the kids she already watches and one of the Mom's is keeping her kid with her 2 days a week because she'd miss her too much. Now that's what you want in a daycare!!
Okay, more to come. Maybe not baby related....next time I'm going to write about some career moves I'm going to make this year. It's going to happen because I'm going to make it happen - just because that's what I do. BAM.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Oh how I love my family!
Elbeanio, Lillymanilly and Balboski-pie. Jungle Cat World - June 4, 2012.
Meaghan and Emma came to visit and we had such a fabulous time! It was Emma's birthday so we had a mini birthday party on Sunday evening with all the local family members. Great dinner conversation as usual (which means it was all inappropriate!).
Lilly came to our house for the day instead of going to daycare on Monday so she, Emma and Meaghan could get to know each other better since they don't get to see each other often living a few hours away. We had sucha fabulous day! We went to Jungle Cat World and were about 4 feet away from so many crazy animals - lions, jaguars, tigers, hyenas, lynx and more. So amazing. The wee ones all got to feed a donkey and we had a peacock jump up on our picnic table trying to get at our lunch. Lilly and Emma had a fabulous time and Noah was so excited he wanted to walk everywhere. After 2 hours they were all smiles and we got this shot of them on the lion.
Such great memories.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Oh, life.
I'm about to admit something that most don't have the guts to do. They go on acting like everything is fine, racking up the credit card bills and closing their eyes.
I'm a pretty positive. Life has been extremely kind to my family and all in all I just don't have a lot to complain about. I am very blessed and haven't forgot that.....HOWEVER, having it all (what it feels like for me) for so long has made me spoiled. I've never gone without since I've been in the working world; things have come easily and I've been completely and utterly spoiled. Not to say that I haven't worked for everything that has come my way, but it's all come and that's what I'm getting at.
I suppose I'm finally getting a little dose of welcome to the real world. I thought having a baby would be a huge change, but it's been more like another re-adjustment period like moving in with Alex, buying a house, getting a new job etc. I mean, life has changed for sure, but for the most part (other than the lack of sleep) it is all pretty doable on a daily basis. Now that the wee man is 11 months (holy crap) he's as easy as pie and it's amazing.
So, for what is going on (and the real meat of this post)....our plan was to live in our old house for 10 years or so. We were going to save up and buy a house on our dream street once we were all set financially. Well, when the dream house came up on our dream street during my maternity leave, we went to the bank and they said we could "afford" (please notice the quotes) it. Of course, we jumped on it perhaps without really looking too far in advance. Looking back at our old life at our previous house, man we had it easy financially (which didn't feel like it was THAT easy at the time). We would've had no problem doing small renos, paying for daycare, going out for dinner here and there or into the city for a dance party night.
Oh, how things have changed.
For the past 6 months or so since we moved into the new house I've been doing my best to go without. I bought some new clothes at Christmas with gift cards and got my hair done (as inexpensively as possible) every 2.5-3 months or so but other than that my spending has been nil. I'm sure you all know Alex is a thrifty shopper to say the least so all was good there. But after 3 weddings in 4 months, a broken fridge, Alex's truck needing new brakes, opening the pool, and a couple of $500 winter gas bills...man, oh man, oh man. The savings are gone. The worst part is that in an old house there is always something....we need our chimney fixed sooner than later, the basement ceiling needs to be dry-walled and a woodstove is also something that in the long run will save us money (see $500 winter gas bill).
Please don't get me wrong, our bills are being paid but that's about as far as our money is going and to top it off daycare will be $700 a month pretty soon and me going back to work isn't going to change our income. BRUTS.
I'll admit that I've been slighty ignoring the situation. I really came to terms with it this week when I needed a couple of new bras because the old bod has made some changes. I honestly couldn't validate spending $50 on TWO bras. This is unheard of for me. Luckly the old girls have gone down a size so the flimsy Joe Fresh bras that were 2 for $20 at the old grocery store seem to be doing the trick (shoot me now).
I also was supposed to be going out this Saturday for a fantastic bachelorette for one of my VERY favourite girls including dinner/drinks, dancing, hotel, and brunch the next day. After figuring the night will cost about $250 and taking into account I couldn't bring myself to spend $50 on bras, I've opted out of the sleepover and am going to just do dinner, a couple of drinks and dancing. It's just about the saddest decision I've had to make in a while but it's the right one and I'll feel a heck of a lot less guilty in the long run.
I wonder how long life will be like this? I'm hoping a higher paying job comes up when I go back to work!
So I guess life is all about choices. We chose to go without now in hopes that in the long run we'd have much more by tackling a big mortgage while we were young. Maybe I wasn't prepared for how "without" it would be. I suppose putting a budget together is in order....
FYI - right now I'm sitting in a pair of shorts that are about 5 years old and they literally hang off of me. I must say, it's a good thing I have a husband who loves me, a baby who doesn't care what I look like and some pretty high self-esteem if I do say so myself!
So, if you don't see my outfit on the latest catwalk (not that you ever would have) - you know why! LOL.
I'm a pretty positive. Life has been extremely kind to my family and all in all I just don't have a lot to complain about. I am very blessed and haven't forgot that.....HOWEVER, having it all (what it feels like for me) for so long has made me spoiled. I've never gone without since I've been in the working world; things have come easily and I've been completely and utterly spoiled. Not to say that I haven't worked for everything that has come my way, but it's all come and that's what I'm getting at.
I suppose I'm finally getting a little dose of welcome to the real world. I thought having a baby would be a huge change, but it's been more like another re-adjustment period like moving in with Alex, buying a house, getting a new job etc. I mean, life has changed for sure, but for the most part (other than the lack of sleep) it is all pretty doable on a daily basis. Now that the wee man is 11 months (holy crap) he's as easy as pie and it's amazing.
So, for what is going on (and the real meat of this post)....our plan was to live in our old house for 10 years or so. We were going to save up and buy a house on our dream street once we were all set financially. Well, when the dream house came up on our dream street during my maternity leave, we went to the bank and they said we could "afford" (please notice the quotes) it. Of course, we jumped on it perhaps without really looking too far in advance. Looking back at our old life at our previous house, man we had it easy financially (which didn't feel like it was THAT easy at the time). We would've had no problem doing small renos, paying for daycare, going out for dinner here and there or into the city for a dance party night.
Oh, how things have changed.
For the past 6 months or so since we moved into the new house I've been doing my best to go without. I bought some new clothes at Christmas with gift cards and got my hair done (as inexpensively as possible) every 2.5-3 months or so but other than that my spending has been nil. I'm sure you all know Alex is a thrifty shopper to say the least so all was good there. But after 3 weddings in 4 months, a broken fridge, Alex's truck needing new brakes, opening the pool, and a couple of $500 winter gas bills...man, oh man, oh man. The savings are gone. The worst part is that in an old house there is always something....we need our chimney fixed sooner than later, the basement ceiling needs to be dry-walled and a woodstove is also something that in the long run will save us money (see $500 winter gas bill).
Please don't get me wrong, our bills are being paid but that's about as far as our money is going and to top it off daycare will be $700 a month pretty soon and me going back to work isn't going to change our income. BRUTS.
I'll admit that I've been slighty ignoring the situation. I really came to terms with it this week when I needed a couple of new bras because the old bod has made some changes. I honestly couldn't validate spending $50 on TWO bras. This is unheard of for me. Luckly the old girls have gone down a size so the flimsy Joe Fresh bras that were 2 for $20 at the old grocery store seem to be doing the trick (shoot me now).
I also was supposed to be going out this Saturday for a fantastic bachelorette for one of my VERY favourite girls including dinner/drinks, dancing, hotel, and brunch the next day. After figuring the night will cost about $250 and taking into account I couldn't bring myself to spend $50 on bras, I've opted out of the sleepover and am going to just do dinner, a couple of drinks and dancing. It's just about the saddest decision I've had to make in a while but it's the right one and I'll feel a heck of a lot less guilty in the long run.
I wonder how long life will be like this? I'm hoping a higher paying job comes up when I go back to work!
So I guess life is all about choices. We chose to go without now in hopes that in the long run we'd have much more by tackling a big mortgage while we were young. Maybe I wasn't prepared for how "without" it would be. I suppose putting a budget together is in order....
FYI - right now I'm sitting in a pair of shorts that are about 5 years old and they literally hang off of me. I must say, it's a good thing I have a husband who loves me, a baby who doesn't care what I look like and some pretty high self-esteem if I do say so myself!
So, if you don't see my outfit on the latest catwalk (not that you ever would have) - you know why! LOL.
Friday, April 20, 2012
talk about a hiatus!
Holy moly - I haven't posted since January! WTF? Oops!
Well, Mr. Noah Balboa has been keeping me on my toes and going slightly crazy regarding the never ending "nap game" it's probably the worst game in the world. It goes a little something like this: for a few weeks everything goes smoothly and Noah is going to bed and getting up at relatively the same times, THEN all of a sudden whamo! It's like a switch goes off and he's like NO I am not sleeping when I usually do, NO I am not sleeping 15 minutes later. Guess what lady? I'm not going to sleep AT ALL today. FML - seriously baby? See? Not a fun game.
I'm also on a quest to clear up some various ailments I've been experiencing for most of life like eczema, dermatitis and my awful belly. On the advice of my Naturopathic Doctor I've cut out pretty much anything that made me happy like sugar, salt, caffeine, beef, pork, gluten and dairy. GOOD TIMES!! LOL. I'm so pleasent today. It's actually called "The Elimination Diet" or the "Hypoallergenic Diet" and hasn't been too bad. I've been making lunch and dinner every night which is saving us loads in the going out for meals department. I've lost some lbs - down to 130! OH MY (this is my wedding weight yesssss!). The only negative is that my fuse is quite short with Alex and it doesn't seem like it's going to lengthen since I've been on it for almost 2 weeks you'd think my body would've readjusted......maybe not.
What else?
I ran my first half marathon in 2 hours 11 minutes and 40 seconds....came in 3rd in my sex/age group and am having a medal delivered to me as I type - HELLO BUCKET LIST! I may run another half, I honestly didn't find it all that challenging since we trained so well for it. A full marathon I think would be great but I just don't have the training time to devote to it.
Still debating on when I'm going to go back to work. Could be in late June, early August or if I'm lucky Labour Day. I honestly can't see how we could swing Labour Day financially so I'm going to start planning for early August - just not until after my 30th birthday!! WOOT.
That's about it....nothing to radical.
xo
Jenn
Well, Mr. Noah Balboa has been keeping me on my toes and going slightly crazy regarding the never ending "nap game" it's probably the worst game in the world. It goes a little something like this: for a few weeks everything goes smoothly and Noah is going to bed and getting up at relatively the same times, THEN all of a sudden whamo! It's like a switch goes off and he's like NO I am not sleeping when I usually do, NO I am not sleeping 15 minutes later. Guess what lady? I'm not going to sleep AT ALL today. FML - seriously baby? See? Not a fun game.
I'm also on a quest to clear up some various ailments I've been experiencing for most of life like eczema, dermatitis and my awful belly. On the advice of my Naturopathic Doctor I've cut out pretty much anything that made me happy like sugar, salt, caffeine, beef, pork, gluten and dairy. GOOD TIMES!! LOL. I'm so pleasent today. It's actually called "The Elimination Diet" or the "Hypoallergenic Diet" and hasn't been too bad. I've been making lunch and dinner every night which is saving us loads in the going out for meals department. I've lost some lbs - down to 130! OH MY (this is my wedding weight yesssss!). The only negative is that my fuse is quite short with Alex and it doesn't seem like it's going to lengthen since I've been on it for almost 2 weeks you'd think my body would've readjusted......maybe not.
What else?
I ran my first half marathon in 2 hours 11 minutes and 40 seconds....came in 3rd in my sex/age group and am having a medal delivered to me as I type - HELLO BUCKET LIST! I may run another half, I honestly didn't find it all that challenging since we trained so well for it. A full marathon I think would be great but I just don't have the training time to devote to it.
Still debating on when I'm going to go back to work. Could be in late June, early August or if I'm lucky Labour Day. I honestly can't see how we could swing Labour Day financially so I'm going to start planning for early August - just not until after my 30th birthday!! WOOT.
That's about it....nothing to radical.
xo
Jenn
Monday, January 23, 2012
Giving a "hot mess" a whole new meaning...
I am a hot mess; instead of the hot part just think mess.
Boys, let this be your warning - read no further.
So AF came for her first visit post baby - can I just say fucking sick. I guess it's bullshit that it doesn't come until after you finish breastfeeding.
I feel like a teenager...at least I might lose a few pounds given the amount of blood I'm losing. LOL - ewwwwwwwww.....
Today has been one of the grossest days of my life....I "leaked" (think undies, sheet and mattress pad). I cleaned it all up, including myself at 6 a.m. this morning and then baby wakes up at 6:30 (slept through the night) and what happens? My boobs start leaking - yep, that's right. I soaking wet skin coloured nursing bra.
LOL - ewwwwwwwww.....
Now do you see why I feel so sicko? Why is the female body so messed up?
Ugh.
Hahaha - I can't believe I'm about to post this.
I guess giving birth really does make you think anything else is for public consumption.
Bahahahaha.
Boys, let this be your warning - read no further.
So AF came for her first visit post baby - can I just say fucking sick. I guess it's bullshit that it doesn't come until after you finish breastfeeding.
I feel like a teenager...at least I might lose a few pounds given the amount of blood I'm losing. LOL - ewwwwwwwww.....
Today has been one of the grossest days of my life....I "leaked" (think undies, sheet and mattress pad). I cleaned it all up, including myself at 6 a.m. this morning and then baby wakes up at 6:30 (slept through the night) and what happens? My boobs start leaking - yep, that's right. I soaking wet skin coloured nursing bra.
LOL - ewwwwwwwww.....
Now do you see why I feel so sicko? Why is the female body so messed up?
Ugh.
Hahaha - I can't believe I'm about to post this.
I guess giving birth really does make you think anything else is for public consumption.
Bahahahaha.
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