The News You've All Been Waiting For...Sort Of

Yes folks, this entry will be ALL about the news I know you've been dying to hear...Matthew and I are going to be parents!! When, you ask? Well, with adoption the child comes home with you anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks after you start the day-to-day visits, but we're going to have to wait a bit longer than that. We probably won't have our baby home with us until...ohhhh I don't know...mid-January? It seems like a long time from now, but I'm willing to wait because...well........I'm pregnant!!

Are you surprised? Did your heart skip a beat? Do you have goosebumps? All of the above??? Do you believe me yet? Maybe first I should answer some questions that I know a lot of people will have.

1. When are you due? As I said before, mid-January. I'm not going to do the whole definite due-date thing with people because I think it'll only stress me out. The midwives and I will know the tentative due date, but really it's give-or-take a week, so why bother with the whole, "You're 5 days past your due date and you're STILL here at church?!" thing.

2. How far along does that make you? 11 weeks and 2 days today. 3 more weeks of the first trimester, and almost 3 months along!

3. How have you been feeling? Pretty normal actually. I almost wish I felt really sick so that I could convince myself it's happening. It's a little hard to believe. I've mostly just felt tired, so I've been going to bed earlier than normal.

4. Are you going to find out if it's a girl or a boy? Yah, probably. I see the excitement in both, but I want to start buying things now, and feel like I'm doing something rather than waiting and waiting and WAITING.

5. How long have you known? Call me a bum or not, but Matthew and I have known for 7 weeks now.

6. Was the baby conceived spontaneously, or did you use Assisted Reproductive Therapy (ART)? Okay, so most people wouldn't word it that way, but now that I know the jargon, I prefer using it. Besides, it feels a little weird to say, "yeah, the baby was conceived naturally." I can't say WHY but it looks so bald written out in my blog post like that. And yes, for the record, this is a "spontaneous" and normal pregnancy, if you can call any blessing from Heavenly Father 'spontaneous'. I think to Him it was quite planned.

I think that covers the usual gamut of questions that I encounter whenever I tell someone, so now if you don't see me for a while, at least you're filled in on the details! AND I don't have to answer those questions repeatedly through the comment section on this post. How practical of me, I must say!

It really took a fair bit of convincing before I realized that I'm actually pregnant, and to be honest, I'm only now getting excited about it. It just seemed a little too hard to believe before now. Here is a photo of the four pregnancy tests I took, a few days apart. Note that they are all different brands! That was so that I could make sure there was test-retest and inter-brand reliability!

[caption id="attachment_498" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The second one down was the dollar-store one, and it's a little difficult to see the line on it. I liked it the least because you had to collect your pee (who likes peeing into a cup?!) and then use a syringe and stuff, which was a little too much work for me, even if it WAS an eighth of the cost."][/caption]

We went for a dating ultrasound a couple weeks ago just to make sure that the due date wasn't totally out of whack, and while there we got to hear the heart beat. I'm not sure what the speed was (I'll find out at my next midwife appointment) but it was so cool to hear the steady thump thump thump thump. I even managed to charm my way into getting a photo to keep, which apparently at that ultrasound, they're not supposed to do. Maybe because there isn't much to see. The baby kinda looks like a little lima bean! I scanned my copy of the image so that I could put it on here. Here it is:

[caption id="attachment_501" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The baby is in the lower part of the little circle on the bottom. I like the end result of ultrasounds, but MAN it sucked having it done. 4 cups of water is just TOO MUCH to drink 1 hour and half before you actually have the ultrasound done. I thought I was DYING. Okay, so I'm being dramatic, but still! All the dark stuff at the top of the photo is my bladder. Yikes!"][/caption]

Anyway, there's my extraordinarily exciting blog post! I've been waiting for a while to post about it, but we only just started telling people this past week, and I wanted to wait so that I could tell my friends Lisa and Anne in person, and I didn't see them until today, so here I am, as soon as possible, posting about our big (or little!) news!

I'm sure now that I have something a little more exciting to post about than the boring summer-ramblings of an unemployed university student, I'll actually get off my butt and post more often than once every ***almost*** six weeks, so keep checking for more!

Elizabeth and Neal's Wedding

So I know I said I'd post sooner than 6 weeks from my last entry, and I have NOT gone that long! I've only gone 5 weeks and 4 days since my last entry. But that's still not 6 weeks!!!

I do have some fun and interesting things to post about, and for the sake of keeping my entries from being cumbersome to read, I have decided to post my stories in multiple posts with semi-related topics, rather than having one mega post!

The topic of this entry will be Elizabeth and Neal's wedding. The wedding was this past Friday, and Matthew and I were honoured to take pictures of the happy couple. I've realized that it's a lot of fun taking wedding photos when they're either DEFINITELY looking at you (as in, you're THE photographer) or they're definitely NOT looking at you (meaning their photographer has enough of a presence to keep the bride and groom's attention focused on THEM rather than the paparazzi behind the said photographer.) I got a lot of nice candid shots while Matt was making them pose and do all sorts of things that I think I'm a LEETLE too timid to do myself right now.

Here are some nice ones:

[caption id="attachment_503" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="An adorable little niece making off with Elizabeth's parasol."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_507" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Elizabeth and her brother, Christian sharing a moment."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_509" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The blissfully happy couple, looking too cute for words!"][/caption]

We had such a good time that day. The weather was gorgeous, the company was great, and everything was just lovely.

I had a lot of fun too because I got to spend some time with Julia, who was visiting for a couple days from Calgary. Drat the West, and Julia for moving out there! But I'm happy for her, and she loves it out there, so I guess the West can be forgiven. Just this once.

Anyway, that's all I'll post of the wedding. I can't wait until the next one though, so that I can practice some more!

Where does time go?

Wow, it looks like I'm about as good at blogging as I am at journaling! I guess that makes sense, because blogging is like one big public journal. I haven't been blogging much because there isn't a whole lot that is going on in our lives right now. Let me try to think of what has happened since my last post...

Well, for starters, my no-junkfood thing has gone completely out the window! Is anyone really surprised? We got our treadmill sometime over the last 6 weeks (probably around 4 weeks ago) and I've been doing okay with it. I'm only getting on a couple times a week right now, but Matthew and I have been going bikeriding which counts as exercise too. We bought me a new BEE-YOU-TIFUL bike with our Canadian Tire money and I love riding it! What's special about it? It's shiny, purple, and doesn't have a stupid "crotch-bar" as I call it, vulgar as it may be. I really don't know how else to identify this terrible bar that is usually needlessly high and oftens causes guys some trouble when they...well, you get the picture.

I wrote my exams, checked for my marks ohh, probably 3 or 4, or maybe 8 times a day (towards the end, it was seriously every HOUR!) and finally they were all posted. I had worked REALLY hard at this semester of school, harder than I've ever worked, so it would make sense that I did better than I've ever done in university, or even highschool for that matter. How well? Well, if I said it, I'd be bragging and I don't want that, but I WILL say that it pulled up my major average from an 83 to an 85! GO ME!

Matthew and I also celebrated our 4-year anniversary in April. It's hard to believe 4 years have already gone by. In a way, it feels like yesterday, but then when I think of all we've done, gone through and experienced these past 4 years, I'm not surprised at all. I'm so very very happy though, and I hope the next 4 years are AT LEAST as good as these past ones have been. With some work, they might even be better! ;)

It's nearing the end of May now, and I don't have anything to report for this month! It's been quiet, sometimes frustratingly so, but I'm getting better at dealing with it. In a way I feel like I'm in limbo - not working, not going to school, and not having kids. Also, Matt's been working at the office lately, and I don't know if I'm the only one out there who feels this way, but it is SO much easier for me to do the things I need to do (like laundry, other housework, practicing piano, etc) when Matthew is home, just in the next room, than when I am left to my own devices for a solid 8 hours in the day. It feels so lonesome!

People tell me to cherish this time while it lasts, but you know what? I've thought about that, and I think it's dumb advice. Why dumb? Yes, I understand that I'll appreciate this time more once it's gone and won't come back, but isn't that sortof like saying you wish the blessings that came your way didn't come at all so that your life could remain in limbo FOREVER? I'm so ready for the next stage of my life, and I know part of the 'enjoy it while it lasts' maxim is being happy now, and not later, but that doesn't mean I'm going to sit around when I'm bored and lonely and look around and think to myself, "Well, on the upside of things, I COULD have kids making my house noisy and my life busy!" I mean, really. Should it really be a bonus that I don't have kids yet, when I want them so much? So, there is my long-winded, probably foolish and inexperienced rant about why it's DUMB to say "Enjoy it while it lasts."

Phew, now that I'm done complaining, I can move on with this entry. So what have I been doing with all of my free time? Mostly reading Sense and Sensibility, going to the office for lunch, running errands with Farrah, having family over for dinner, neglecting piano, practicing taking pictures, cross-stitching, bike-riding, etc etc. It's not a bad life, just not a terribly meaningful one.

I'm going to be working for Matt for the next couple weeks and I'm actually a little excited about it. I'll be helping to pack orders for Matt's sale that he's having this week, and I actually like that sort of work. Tedious and a little monotonous, but it gives one time to think, and goodness knows I don't have enough time to do that already! It'll also get me out of the house which is LOVELY.

Another thing that I've been doing is attending the intro to photography course in college. I'm really enjoying it, and I'm starting to really understand the functions of my camera. Today I took a photo that was really overexposed and within seconds I had it all fixed and lovely again. It's a kindof empowering feeling, knowing that you're controlling this device in your hands, and not settling for the merely half-decent photo it tries to spit out at you. I want GREAT photos, darnit! GREAT PHOTOS!

That being said, I really need to get into the habit of uploading the pictures I take onto the computer so that I can start posting them in my entries. I like the blogs that people have that document their life with words AND pictures.

Oh, here's something sortof new! I got rid of facebook. I don't just mean I stopped signing in one day, I mean I deleted all the material on my account and then closed it down. The deleting of the material was so that I wouldn't be tempted to join again, because apparently all you need to do to sign back up is just sign in with your email and password, like usual, and BOOM, you're reactivated. They make that way too easy, in my opinion.

Why did I get rid of facebook, you ask? Well, I DID like the photosharing thing, but I hated all the people from highschool and places like that who were adding me to their friends list, just to face-snoop. I mean, there are people I didn't even get along with, and they wanted ME on their friends list? There was a time early in my facebook youth when that flattered me. I thought, "oh cool, we're adults now, and it's like they're saying, 'hey remember how I made fun of you? I'm sorry about that. Let's forget the past and be friends' " BUT NOT SO! That's when I started to realize that facebook was just a tool used to keep tabs on people. Oh, and has anyone else noticed how many people are losing lawsuits, jobs, relationships and even LIVES over content posted (or neglected to be posted) on facebook? I know those people were morons with what they posted, but you do need to be cautious as to the material that you are posting on your "secure" pages.

Now, all this being said, I am fully aware that posting personal content on a blog on the internet is not really any different than keeping an up-to-date facebook profile, but it's a different story. There is not this huge social network linking my blog with millions of other blogs, where everyone and their uncle can see what I'm up to. I'm too tired to explain the difference right now, but it IS different. It feels different. And this is much less of a time-waster, and I'm not going to start snooping on other people, and I'd only post things on here that I'd be okay with anyone seeing. For some reason with facebook, it feels like the world and your network is much smaller than it actually is. For instance, have you realized that ALL of your mutual friends know when you post on another friend's wall? Like, your plans to go to the movies. Or when you change (or someone ELSE changes) your relationship status, or whatever! Oh, and it really drove me crazy, that all of my newsfeed would be dominated by 2 or 3 people who are addicted to facebook and always doing things that facebook apparently thinks I need to know about, like I'm keeping tabs on my "friends" facebook activity. What the heck people!!!

Wow, and I thought I was too tired for all that. There's my second rant for the night. Well, before I finish this off, I will just post a link to a video that I saw on youtube. It is the most hilariously real video I've seen in quite some time, and it was honestly a big factor tipping the balance in the whole 'down with facebook' thing. Here it is:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2HAroA12w

Anyway, I'm rambling now, and this is getting so long! I'm going to bed, and I'll try to write again sooner than 6 weeks from now!

It's April!

It's April now and I'm very very happy. I love April for so many reasons. The biggest reason is probably that my wedding anniversary is getting pretty close, but second to that would have to be that school is finishing and exams will be here and gone in 3 weeks time. Also there's General Conference next weekend, and Easter in a week and a half. I love Easter...it's my favourite holiday for chocolate.



That's obviously not the only reason I love Easter, but I can't help myself when I have a sweet tooth! Well, actually, that's not true. I CAN help myself, and I WILL help myself. I haven't had any junkfood for 4 days now, which may not seem like a long time to some, but it's quite an accomplishment for me. I'm going to see how long I can go. I need to go at least 3 weeks, it's what I've decided to do and I'm not going to go back on it, even if it means not eating junkfood over the Easter holidays. Sad! But I realized that I'm far too addicted to junk and sweets, so I need to just cleanse my system of the cravings.

I've been doing really well actually, I'm on my 4th day and I haven't felt the desire to give in once! I'm so proud of myself, and I've already lost 1.5 lb's! Soon Matthew and I will have our treadmill too, so I can start jogging again. I COULD go jogging outside, but I just don't want to. I don't like our neighbourhood for jogging. I mean, our neighbourhood is just fine, but it's not very big, and if I want to jog outside of our neighbourhood I have to jog in places I'm not comfortable in, so I just don't jog. Silly? Perhaps. But safe too.

Anyway, I've got to go, I'm bringing Pippin to the groomers today so that he can get shaved down for the Spring. He hasn't had a haircut since October! I'll take a picture of him now and get an 'after' shot when we get home, then I'll post about that too!

Julia's Big Day

On Saturday my bestest girlfriend, Julia, got married in the Toronto Ontario Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am just so happy for her, I've never seen her so happy before...she was positively beaming the whole day! She deserves so many good things in life, she's so strong and faithful and is such a good friend.

I've posted a few photos of the day with my comments on them so that maybe you can get a feel of how fun and great the day was.

[caption id="attachment_508" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="This is a cute one of Julia outside of the temple. It's like everyone's going, "Wow, you're married now!" and Julia's saying, "I know!" in her cute Monica-from-Friends voice! I love her dress too...it's pretty much the prettiest wedding dress I've ever seen. You can't really tell in the photo but it's completely covered in lace and dainty beadwork, and I've realized recently that I am in love with lace. I told Matt that it was the prettiest dress ever, and he said that mine was prettier, and although I think he's a little biased, I'm so happy he feels that way!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_511" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Okay, so not to be vain, or anything, but I'm pretty happy with how this picture turned out. I don't consider myself to be very photogenic...I have this bad habit of tilting my head or tucking my chin, resulting in the 'I look fatter in photos' syndrome, but I think this is pretty close to how I picture myself in my head before looking into a mirror. As a side note, doesn't it drive you CRAZY when you get a good photo of yourself, and people look at it and say, "It doesn't really look like you though..." I find it insulting. It's like they're saying, "You're really not that pretty in real life." And then they see another photo that you think is just awful and they're like, "You look so good in that photo!" I have to wonder what's going in their heads sometimes. Is there something wrong with my eyes or something? I mean, how can a photo NOT look like me when it IS me???"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_515" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Here is a cute candid of Ron and Julia getting their food. I actually don't have many pictures of just the two of them, because we figured that's what the photographer was for. We were looking more to get the photos of other things that the photographer might overlook, or not be there for."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_518" align="aligncenter" width="199" caption="The reception was at a conservation area, and while the photographer was snapping shots of Ron and Julia with their family, Matt and I walked around the old village and snapped shots of eachother. This is a cute one we took with the tripod."][/caption]

Anyway, the day was wonderful and (as far as I could tell) everything went very smoothly. The sealing was beautiful and it almost made me cry, to see how happy they both were. The weather was gorgeous, and despite the fact that the weather forecast predicted rain for Saturday the entire week leading up to the wedding, it didn't rain ONCE, even at the reception when it was allowed to rain. Oh, another thing that was great about the wedding was the food. There was this waiter, Ricky, and he kept coming around to our table wanting us to finish off the last of the hors-d'oeuvres on his tray, and we obligingly helped him out. My favourites were the steak cabobs in peanut sauce and the chicken cabobs in the hot chili sauce. I had way too many sticks on my plate by the time dinner started!

I also loved how at the end of the night the waiters and waitresses were SO excited that they got to bring home cupcakes! It was something so small but they were so surprised by it that it makes me wonder if anyone ever does anything nice for them at weddings. It was probably a tame wedding for them, what with no alcohol or anything. I wonder if they enjoyed themselves more or not. I know that I enjoy myself more when people aren't walking around me intoxicated out of their minds, but maybe people tip better when they're out of their senses.

Anyway, I could go on for a long time about the wedding, but I'll stop myself in the interest of not boring my readers. I have more to write, but I'll do it in two separate posts so that this isn't ridiculously long and boring to read!

When it rains...

It POURS! It seems like every time we go to fix the blasted rust on our car, something breaks down to prevent us. The last time, Matt was actually on his way to the place to get a quote to get the rust fixed and he had to pull the car over because it broke down then and there. Then this time, we're like, "Hey, let's get this rust fixed now that it's Spring and we have a some money!" and the anti-lock break wires go all haywire and corrode and the catalytic converter goes...at the same time!

So $1000 of repairs later...oh and a quote from the dealership saying that the rust will cost another $1500 to fix, the car finally made it to Grandpa G's friend's place. We've got connections, and it's GREAT in this case, because Matt's grandfather happens to know a guy who fixes cars for fun, and he gave us a deal and quoted us $500 for the rust. So HA! Take that, fates! The car made it to the shop AND has an appointment, and soon, will be it's gloriful self once more! (and by the way, gloriful is the new, coolest word ever. I think it's catching.)

Here are some photos of the pesky rust spots:

[caption id="attachment_510" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Good old Ally Alero! It's not even THAT old though, it's only a 2002. We still can't figure out why we have so much rust and why it happened all at once. They've all rusted at the same rate which is nice for repairs, and we're hoping that because we seemed to have got all these rust spots at the same time, that maybe we won't have any more spots rear their ugly heads for a while, that they're all out in the open now."][/caption]

Here's a close-up:

[caption id="attachment_513" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="There's 4 of the spots. The most surprising was the gas cap one. It's not really in a logical place at all, and we didn't know it was there until we brought the car through the power wash and it blasted at the gas cap, bubbled up the paint, and eventually we peeled the paint away to expose this beauty of a piece of rust! I've been so scared about finding other spots that we haven't got the car washed since, oh I don't know...last April?"][/caption]

Another close up:

[caption id="attachment_516" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="These are the other 2 spots. I'm so excited to get them repaired! My car can be cool once more...or at least cool enough for me."][/caption]

Anyway, apart from that, not too much is new. I probably always say that, but it feels true! I'm finishing up school; I have less than 3 weeks of class left! I'm not going to be a taking a spring/summer course for university like I intended because there aren't any that I CAN take...I only need a half credit, but most 1/2 credits are 2nd year or higher, and I don't have the 1st year prerequisite for most of the classes. Oh well, Matthew and I are going to be doing something SUPER fun instead! We're going to be............taking photography courses so that we can have our Photography certificates! I'm so excited about this. I tried to express my excitement to Matt by saying that it made my day, but Rachelle said I should say, "It made my LIFE" because it's more dramatic, and it's really how I feel! Well, not totally, but it's closer than "It made my day!" I'm going to be a photographer...even if I'm just a beginner!

So anyway, that's the biggest news right now, and I'm sorry it's not bigger, but hey, you know what? I'm happy, Matt's happy, life is good, what more can I ask for?!

Resignation

Not too much new here. I had reading week last week and it was blissful. There really is no other word for it! Even though I was sick for most of it, it wasn't this debilitating sickness, just a general blah-ness. I can handle that. I did things just for the fun of it! I started reading Mansfield Park (which I am now almost done), I cleaned, wrote a little bit, watched movies, ran errands, practiced piano. It was wonderful! I didn't want to go back to school today, especially as it meant getting up at 6am, but I knew I couldn't skip today because I'm going to be missing classes in 2 weeks and I don't want to fall behind.

Oh, yes, that's something that's new. I'm going out to Calgary to see Julia! I'm wickedly excited to go, I've never been out West and I get to see Julia and Ron's apartment and everything. I'm so excited that it's taking a lot of restraint to not use an excessive amount of exclamation marks, but I shall resist (PS-that last, "I shall resist," was spoken in the voice of that cleaning guy from Finding Nemo, Jacques I think. Just so you know!)

Getting up this morning was hard and I was still disoriented when I got to school. I actually went to the wrong class. Not the wrong class as in I just walked in the wrong door. I mean the wrong class where you think it's a totally different day and you walk in the door, sit down, unload your things, look around, and wonder why no-one else is there. Then you think, "did I not get some message saying class was cancelled? I was on Sakai this morning and there was nothing there..." and then you realize that when you were on Sakai that morning, you printed off notes for a different class - the right class - and then you get up all embarassed. It was quite the blunder.

Matthew is having a sale this week with his website, and it's doing surprisingly well. His last sale he was hoping for 50 sales overall, and he had 150 sales on the first day alone. It was amazingly exciting, and he was hoping that this sale would be able to do at least as well. The lead-up seemed very promising - by yesterday he had more than twice the number of people signed up on his pre-notification list, so we were hoping that it would mean twice the number of sales. Matt hoped that today he would get 150 sales and 400 sales for the week, and I estimated 25o sales today and 500 for the whole week. Well, so far, 6 1/2 hours after the sale began we're already at 326 sales! It's thrilling, to say the least!

Another thing that's slightly new with us is that we called our CAS today asking some questions about when we might expect to adopt. Our adoption worker is on educational leave until June and I was a little worried that we might not be remembered when it came time to find a family for a child up for adoption because we don't know any of the other workers. I was assured that this wasn't the case, so that's a relief, but the woman I talked to said that it's been really slow in the department and everything lately, and that, although they're trying not to fall behind, the estimate for adopting right now is 1-2 years. I thought it was 1 year max, and that The Call might come any day, but now it could be as late as December 2009!

This news really upset me at first, but I looked down at my Mansfield Park book, and I thought of the heroine, Fanny Price. I don't like Mansfield Park all that much, but I do think that Fanny is great heroine. She's very brave, and despite the moral degradation of pretty much everyone around her, she remains strong. She also never complains, gives people the benefit of the doubt, and tries to look on the bright side of things. That helped me, because I realized that it's really not a big deal if we wait a little longer than we thought to adopt. It still could be any day, but if it's not until next Christmas then I'll definitely finish my semester without any major distractions, I'll have a lovely peaceful summer break, we'll be more financially prepared, and we'll be able to go on some vacations this spring and summer. Realizing all of this brought me a lot of peace, and helped me to see some of the gains I've made in my outlook on life in general in the last 3 1/2 years.

Anyway, I've made this post ridiculously longer than intended. If you've stayed with it till the end, then congratulations. Your prize is bragging rights! When people ask you about your accomplishments, you can tell them that you read until the end of Holly E. E. G's blog posts and survived to tell the tale!