I was going to write a post for Friday, but got busy with awesome stuff life, so I’m doing it today!

– Isla’s been doing a lot of walking along with her little walker for a few weeks now, and since her legs are getting stronger, she’s been doing an amazing job at standing on her own two feet with no support! It started out as a couple seconds, then 30, then longer and longer! It’s only going to be a matter of time before she’s full-blown walking, at which point I can kiss my sanity goodbye.

– How stoked are you for Instavideo? Okay, so it’s suppose to be Instagram’s competitor for the Vine app and I must admit that I like it. It’s great because it’s already integrated into the Instagram app, so there’s no need to open an completely different app to take short little videos to post. I never downloaded Vine (because it’s not like I needed another social media vice) but I’m loving the little videos you can take. Here’s one I took yesterday of Isla playing outside with the garden hose, and if anyone knows how to actually embed them into WordPress, that would be a fun little tidbit of info I’d love to have!

– When Kyle and I moved into our house back in 2011, we were depressed by the hideous wallpaper job that was in our laundry room:

It was starting to fall off in some places where the previous owners wallpapered on top of wallpaper for a “border” and really? It was just not our style. (Like that shouldn’t surprise you.) So, on a whim last week, we finally decided to buy wallpaper stripper and see how much work it was going to be to remove it. And? It came off relatively easily! There’s quite a bit of glue left over on the walls, but with a little TSP and some elbow grease, it’s coming off slowly but surely. We even took the “country bumpkin” border down off of our little dining room window area, and amazingly, it opened up the room!
The one thing that is super annoying and a little strange is this bright yellow paint that’s on just one wall in the laundry room. It almost looks like the previous owners started to paint the room yellow, said to themselves, “Screw this! Painting is too much work!” and put up wallpaper. (Which I personally think would be more work). Regardless, we’re going to have to do a couple coats of paint to cover the awfulness back up. Ugh. In the photo you can see the wallpaper while it was still on the walls, the mess we made taking it all down, and the yucky yellow crappy paint (which is MUCH brighter in person, I swear).

– Tomorrow Kyle starts his holidays from work and I’m super jazzed that we’ll be able to spend some time together! He got the time off for Isla’s birthday (more on that later) and we’re really looking forward to getting to just be a family. It’s also his first Canada Day off in what seems like YEARS, so we’re looking forward to heading to the park for the take and take in all of the sights and sounds. I’ve already bought Isla a patriotic onesie to wear for her first REAL Canada Day celebration. (The first one we were all too exhausted to care!)

– Isla’s birthday is on SATURDAY!!! I still can’t believe she’ll be a year old – How does time go by this quickly? It’s not even fair :( Tomorrow it will be a year since I was actually due with her! I digress … I am planning a fun little get together with all of her favourite friends and family. I think there’s about 25 people coming because I got a wee bit carried away with the guest list. Regardless, it will be a fun time and we’re looking forward to celebrating her big day!

– My little brother is in town for 10 days or so, so it’s been nice to be able to see him and for him to spend some time with his little niece. I thought for sure she’d play shy, but she warmed right up to him immediately. He’s even going to be here for his birthday, so it’s a bonus!

– I don’t know what it is – if it’s because my house backs onto green space or if Mother Nature is just being extra evil this season, but my allergies have been extra awful this year. When I was pregnant last year at this time my allergies weren’t bugging me at all, but this year? UGH. If you see me on the street looking like a hot mess with snot running down my face, it’s just allergies. I swear.

– Last week was my first official week as a Stay-at-Home-Mom. I’m 50/50 about my feelings towards it so far. On one hand I enjoy being at home with Isla and raising her, but at the same time, I miss bringing home a bit of the bacon and feeling like I’m contributing financially to the household. One day I’m sure I’ll get back into the workforce, but until then, I’ll just chill out with my little spawn. And I told Kyle that if I ever suggest that I start selling Avon, Mary Kay or Tupperware, that he is to shoot me.

I suppose that’s all for today.

Happy Monday!!

So, I was going to make this a “Confessions” post, but changed my mind half-way through since there’s other fun and exciting things going on in my life. Sorry for the garbled mess going on.

– Shows I have saved on my PVR and are am little ashamed to admit I watch include Breaking Amish and Hell’s Kitchen. I don’t know why, but it’s like watching a train wreck happen in slow motion.

– When I’m trying to get ready in the morning and all Isla wants to do is be near me, I’ll put her in the bathtub (with no water, obviously) and let her play with her bath toys while I finish.

– I only enjoy watching the movie Casino if it’s the censored version on AMC. Why? Because I find the scene where Ginger (played by Sharon Stone) is cussing at Sam (Robert De Niro) to be hilarious when it’s censored. Actually, the whole movie is hilarious censored, mostly because there’s so much cussing, the “clean” words just get ridiculous. Here’s a clip, with my favourite scene at 1:30:

– Isla gets to experience her first Ashcroft Rodeo this weekend! I’m pretty excited to go and visit with family and have a nice, relaxing time, but I’m bummed that Kyle has to work. Boo :(

– It’s Father’s Day on Sunday, and I’m at a loss for what to do for Kyle. He has everything, doesn’t want anything special, and has to work that nice so will be sleeping all day, so I have no idea … Thoughts?

– The vet bills for Daphne keep adding up. Now it appears that she has a really bad UTI. Or at least I hope that’s all it is. She’s on antibiotics for it, but the vet is sending away her urine for MORE testing and if the UTI (or whatever it is) doesn’t clear up, he’s making talks about ultrasounds for kidney stones (which would mean surgery – which we cannot afford), and running tests for cancer (which is something I don’t even want to talk about because I know what that means …). If you wouldn’t mind sending some happy & healing thoughts Daphne’s way, I’d greatly appreciate it. I’m really hoping that it’s just a bad UTI.

– I’ll leave with a happy, cute photo of my kid being exactly that:

We were having a very intense conversation.

Happy Friday!

Oh hey! I still live here, I swear. As usual, I’d like to say I’ve been busy, but really, I haven’t. Or at least I don’t think I have been. Here’s what’s been going on in my life lately:

– Kyle and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary on Tuesday. Actually, we celebrated a day early on Monday since he had to go to work on Wednesday. We went for dinner at one of our favourite local eateries and it was SO good. He had the ribeye, I had the salmon. *drool* My mom was kind enough to take Isla for a few hours so we could relax and enjoy ourselves, so we took a walk to the place where we had our wedding ceremony after dinner just to reminisce a little. Too bad there was a homeless person sleeping on a bench there … Anyway, we also went for a drive to a new housing development in town just to see the views – which are amazing! I wish I had the cheddar to buy one of these lots and build. Here’s a panoramic shot I took with my phone:

– On our actual anniversary, we took Isla to the park where we had our wedding reception! There’s a playground and water park, and while she’s too little to play on the playground equipment or run through the water park, she did swing in the baby swings a little while Kyle and I pushed her. She liked it for the first little bit, but then I think she started to feel a little woozy, lol.

– I’ve mentioned it before on the blog that I know how to play the piano. I started played when I was little (like, 6 or 7) and stopped taking lessons in Grade 7. I didn’t take lessons long enough to be Mozart or anything like that, but I took them long enough to be able to move my fingers around the keys and make music and not just noise. Anywho – on Wednesday I finally had my piano moved into my house! (Thanks to my father’s annoying nagging for me to have it done.) It took maybe an entire 1/2 hour for the movers to move it, but I’m glad it’s done and over with. Now I’m trying to decide what exactly I want to do with it – Keep it for the future in case Isla takes interest in playing, or sell it because it’s taking up space. Decisions, decisions, I tell yah.

– After not having one for over a year, I finally got to go get a professional pedicure done! My mom got me a gift certificate for my birthday, and she had one from Christmas, so we finally went on Tuesday and got our toes prettied up! I needed it so bad – my last pedi was a week before Isla was born and my feet were so swollen that it was hard to enjoy it! I can’t for the life of me remember what the name of the polish is, or what the name of the actual colour is, but it’s a pretty coral colour:

My feet have never been happier!

– Daphne has been having a few health issues lately, which is never fun emotionally or financially. It all started back in March when she got a little sore on her back leg. I figured it was a hot spot, which usually heals up on its own, but it just started getting worse. She was due for her immunizations, so I had the vet check it out. Turns out, it was some sort of weird virus that basically was killed her skin. Yuck! So she went onto antibiotics for a while and went back for a follow-up last week because her leg still wasn’t healed up 100%. Her weight was off and her symptoms showed signs of a wonky thyroid, so the vet ordered blood work and a thyroid scan. We went back to the vet yesterday for ANOTHER follow-up and got the results of her tests, and it is confirmed that she has hyper-thyroid disease. The vet is happy to have finally figured out what’s up with Miss Daphne (he claims she’s one of his favourites), and treating her thyroid issue is super easy – Just one pill twice a day. We go back in a few weeks to make sure her meds are working properly, but it’s nice to know that Daph will start to feel better soon. No more lethargy and loss of appetite!

– Isla’s first birthday is less than a month away, and I’m starting to dive into party planning! I have no idea where to start, other than having the date and location picked out. And the cake. I’m lost! It’s not like you plan a first birthday on a regular basis!

Any ideas for a kid’s 1st birthday?

Hope you have a fantastic weekend!