If We Were Neighbours

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Krysten at Why Girls Are Weird did this fun little post last week and I just couldn’t resist doing it as well!

I really enjoy the neighbourhood I live in. While we get a couple “extra” weeks of winter up here (it will snow here and rain everywhere else in the city), it’s very family-friendly and people are generally friendly. One of my actual neighbours is pretty great. The other ones … we tolerate …

Okay, it’s not that bad, but we can’t choose our neighbours, right? Right.

So, if we were neighbours …

You’d probably hear me yelling at the dogs. They both love being outside but with one being old and the other being, well, Campbell, it’s hard to get them to listen. Campbell has selective hearing when it’s time to come in the house, and Daphne just takes her sweet time doing anything and everything. Ugh.

You’ll smell our barbecue going in February. Almost always during the first “warm” weather weekend of the year, we’ll fire up the barbecue. We love to barbecue! So if you smell something cooking outside, it’s probably us.

You’ll hear Isla barking. Yep, my kid barks. I don’t know if it’s something she picked up from watching Paw Patrol or 101 Dalmatians, but she’ll stand in our driveway and bark. Kids, I tell yah …

You’ll see me shamelessly roll the garbage cans out in my PJs. I love the winter months because we can leave the cans out the night before pick up day, but in the summer there’s bears and we can’t put them out until the morning of. So, more often than not, you’ll see me frantically rolling the cans out at 7 a.m. in my pajamas.

You may see my husband jumping on the trampoline. Fun fact: The trampoline we have is his, not Isla’s. Kyle jumps on it as a form of exercise, so don’t be alarmed if you see him out there at night jumping away. Isla loves it as well!

You’ll probably think I’m mean to my dogs. (I’m not!) Campbell LOOOOVES to sunbathe and can’t get enough of the summer heat. He’ll lay on our back deck in the summer until he can’t take it anymore, come inside to cool down/get a drink, then beg to go back out. Daphne lives for the cold weather and it could be -20°C and snowy and she’ll just want to be outside. (I’ve actually had someone chirp at a photo I posted to a local news site of her being happy in the snow, telling me to “Get that dog in the house!”) She’s an Alaskan Malamute, she can handle herself just fine ;)

You’ll probably get baked goodies at Christmastime. I love to bake around the holidays and I’ll most likely deliver a tin to your house wishing you a Merry Christmas. I expect nothing in return – just enjoy the cookies!!

You’ll see me looking out the front window. It’s not that I “keep tabs” on what’s going on – I swear I’m not THAT neighbour – I just like to people watch! I’ve seen kids bail off their scooters after the wheel has fallen off, a dog run away from its owner after a firework was set off, kids get in trouble by their parents for hitting their car with a tennis ball while playing catch … it’s just fun to watch!

So, now you tell me – What would it be like if I were neighbours with you??

Pregnancy 2.0: 26 Weeks

Posted in Baby #2, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Update by

26 Weeks

Size of baby: She’s the size of a butternut squash, according to the Ovia Pregnancy app on my phone.

Feeling: Okayish. Prenatal yoga has been helping to stretch out my achy parts, but at the same time, I haven’t done any kind of stretching in SO long that really, it’s making me sore in other places too. The other day I tried to convince Kyle to rip my legs off because my hip joints were hurting so bad. (He declined.) Other than that, I’ve been feeling pretty good.

Craving: Pi Day made me want pie, so on Monday I decided to whip up an apple pie. SO GOOD. I’ve also had a big craving for Vietnamese spring rolls, and was pretty sad that the place downtown where I used to get them at all the time was all out. Serves me right for stopping there after lunch. The hunt continues …

Other: I got the requisition for my glucose test at my prenatal appointment on Monday, so I’ll be doing that on Friday when Kyle’s home to watch Isla for the hour or so that I’ll be gone doing that. My regular doctor was away, so he had a locum filling in for him, and when the locum asked if I had my “sugar test” done yet and I told him no, he said to me, “Bad girl!” Umm … not my fault? Then when I asked him about what allergy pills were safe to take, he said he wasn’t 100% sure and that he’d look it up. I figured he’d bust out a medical dictionary or something but noooooope – he hopped on the computer and WebMD’d it. WHAT? Needless to say, I’m just going to hold off taking any pills until I either A) See my regular doctor again, or B) Ask a pharmacist. Ugh.

We’ve also decided on a middle name, so the baby officially will have a name when she arrives. Although the other night I had a dream that I gave birth to a boy when I was told it was a girl, haha. We have boy names picked out too, so you never know! Crazier things have happened. Isla would be happy if we named her baby sister “Ketchup” though. ;)

TGIF v.13

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The high of my week was just being off work! The weather has been ah-mazing, Isla has been in a good mood, and I’ve just been happy in general. Kyle has even noticed a difference. Like I said in Monday’s post, as much as I appreciated the opportunity to work, I appreciate being at home and raising my daughter a little bit more.

The low of my week was the awful sleep I had Wednesday night/Thursday morning. Isla work up just before 2 a.m. with a soggy Pull-Up, and then she didn’t want to go back to sleep. I think I put her to back to bed three times before she finally stayed in her room and fell asleep. Then of course, I was wiiiiide awake, my body ached, and I couldn’t fall back to sleep. I finally did and woke up when Kyle left for work around 5:45 am, then fell back to sleep and woke up again around 6:30 am because of a weird dream I was having. (I SWEAR I heard Kyle shout, “Get off the stairs,” and it scared the crap outta me, but I was just dreaming.) I gave up trying to sleep after that.

 A blog post I loved was … there aren’t any that actually stand out in my head right now.

The best money I spent was no money! Honestly, the only thing I spent money on this week was some McDonald’s for lunch on Wednesday. (I had a McChicken, Isla had a McNugget Happy Meal.) It was a moment of pregnancy weakness and I have no regrets, except that the little toy Isla got is annoying. But other than that, I haven’t spent any money. I even returned something on Monday. I un-spent money!

My favourite Isla moment was every single moment! I feel like she’s grown up SO much in this past week, it’s unbelievable. She can ride her tricycle with no issues (as long as we’re on a flat surface), she’s doing well with potty training again (any accidents have totally been my fault), and she’s just acting like such a little grown up. Yesterday during breakfast she asked how my sleep was, lol. (Something I ask her every morning.)

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The song that has been stuck in my head is Lost Stars by Adam Levine. It’s such a pretty song!

My favourite meal of the week was probably the planked salmon I made for dinner on Thursday. I found this recipe for the “sauce” and just poured it over my slab o’ salmon once I put it on the plank. It turned out SO good, even though I maaaay have let the barbecue get too hot and the sauce that escaped off the salmon caught fire. Luckily, Kyle came home just as I noticed all the smoke and he came to the rescue. (A bonus for having a welder for a husband? Heat & fire doesn’t bother them at all!)

I also tried my hand at making homemade sushi on Tuesday. I stuck with California roll, and while it tasted not too shabby and looked aesthetically pleasing, the work I had to put into making it wasn’t quite worth it. I will say, for about the same price as it would’ve cost for one Bento Box at my favourite sushi restaurant, I made about 4x as much California roll. I used this recipe (Alton Brown’s “Good Eats”) as my guide and doubled the recipe. I think I’ll just stick to buying it.

My plans for the weekend are spending time with Kyle and Isla. We haven’t had any good quality time together in a few weeks, so we’re all looking forward to just hanging out as a family together. We have grand plans for 7-Eleven Slurpees, 5¢ candies, and a movie, as well as crossing a few things off of our around the house “to-do” list.

What are YOUR weekend plans? Have you ever made homemade sushi? Would you do it again or stick to buying it already made?
And how weird is it that this is the second Friday the 13th in a row??