Goodbye 2007

And so the last day of 2007 has arrived. Where does the time go??? I had a really nice Christmas season, with lots of gifts for the baby-to-be, great food and lots of leftovers (no need to cook for the whole week and a half!), and good times with family. My folks and middle sister had to leave to go back to work, but my younger sister stayed at our place until Saturday, and we watched the first season of Heroes that we borrowed from a friend.

And now DH is back at work, and I'm trying to figure out if the baby is interested in coming out to meet us anytime soon. I've been having lots and lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions for the last few months, getting more and more regular and longer lasting (ok, that may be a little TMI), but I am assuming that the real contractions will be a little more on the painful side and that I'll know when it's time to head for the hospital... The midwife was really hoping for a new year's baby, and while it's still possible, the likelihood of it is dropping with every passing hour today. Although apparently my grandmother has decreed that she sees a speedy and easy childbirth experience for me, and she "knows those things". Obviously, I am very tempted to believe her :)

I don't really have many preferences for the date of birth of the baby. As cliche as it sounds, I'm just hoping for a healthy and happy baby. I'm really looking forward to meeting her/him, so in a way earlier is better, but on the other hand it's not like I'm super uncomfortable and want to get this pregnancy over with. In fact, I am convinced that I will miss being pregnant quite a bit. I always thought that 9 months was a long time, but it's gone so fast, I feel like I barely had the time to properly enjoy it :) Though I am very grateful for being off work for the last month and getting a chance to relax and hang out, just my huge belly and me...

Update

Well, the car was thoroughly checked out, and it appears completely ok. After thawing, there's not even a scratch on the bumper or anything. I guess it's really a good thing I was going so slow, the impact into the cushy snow was minimal. We've driven the car for over 200kms now (and I've even managed to drive by the ditch in question without too much stress), so I think we can safely assume no harm was done.

My sisters have arrived last night to help us prepare for the Christmas festivities. We have a big day of cooking ahead of us: we need to make some breads (gluten-free for the middle sis), our big fancy salad (the cornerstone of the Christmas Eve meal for this family), borscht, cheesecake, and a few more smaller dishes. Luckily my Mom back in Montreal is taking care of the major food prep, all the main dishes and fish stuff... I am getting hungry just thinking about the big feast :)

Tomorrow we set up and decorate the Christmas tree, finish up some last minute preparations, set the table and wait for DH to get back from work and my parents to come up from Montreal. And then we eat (and eat and eat), and open up presents and sing carols and celebrate. Or at least that's the way it's supposed to work in theory. We'll see how things transpire ;)

Time to google some more gluten-free bread recipes...

I ditched the car - eek

Ok, so last night I composed this whole post about the events of the evening, but I wasn't connected, so I saved it to a file (or at least so I thought). It appears there is no such file, so I have to tell you the story again.

So here it goes: I was heading downtown to go pick up DH to go out for supper with friends. Another 5 cms or so of snow had fallen, so our street was one big sheet of whiteness. I was driving along, when all of a sudden my right wheels caught the edge of the street (just snow packed to be level with the street I guess), and all of a sudden I lost the steering, and thump, I ended up in the ditch. I had never ever been in the ditch, and I'm thinking 8 months pregnant is probably not a good time to start...

The luck in the whole situation was that this part of the ditch is right in front of the last house on our street, and this is where our mechanic lives. The whole family was very nice to me, they let me use the phone to call CAA (after first ensuring that there was no way they could pull me out with just their truck), drove me home, and took care of the car when the tow truck came. DH had to take the bus + walk home (2 hour commute). Luckily, it looks like the car sustained no damage, the mechanic put it in his garage overnight and will give it a good look-over this morning. There was so much snow in the ditch, and I was going slow enough, that it was basically like hitting a huge fluffy pillow :)

Unfortunately, I have no pictures for you. It was quite a sight to see, I assure you, but once I'd made it home, I just sat down trying to relax and calm down, as I really didn't want to go into labour with no car, no DH and all that...

Anyway, all is well that ends well, everyone is now safe and sound, and I should hear about the state of the car very soon. I am so grateful for having such great neighbours!

On holidays

So I've now been off work for a week and a half. I had thought (naively?), that being home, with no baby to take care of and only a small amount of chores, I would have lots of time on my hands for relaxing and posting on the blog and the like. Boy, was I wrong... Honestly, I don't even know where the time goes! Well, ok, so we had a dinner party last Friday that I took a few days to prepare for, then last night my choir had a small concert. And then there is that whole snow dump we got over the weekend - over 35 centimeters of snow fell down on the city of Ottawa, and our backyard looks like a winter wonderland. This is the third snow storm this season, and winter hasn't even officially begun yet! Here's a picture of our deck, all ready for Christmas:


Unfortunately they are now predicting rain for the weekend, so all the beautiful snow might get ruined!

So aside from the Christmas prep, cleaning the house, shopping for presents, and getting the nursery ready, I haven't really been up to much. I've been reading a book called "The Aware Baby", about a parenting "method" that sounds kind of neat. The whole premise of the book is that babies (and to a certain extent children as well) sometimes need a good cry to release tension or get over some trauma. The trauma may even include birth (I'm not too sure I buy this one). In any case, the book tries to explain how to sympathize with the child by being there when they're crying (to give them comfort and support) without trying to distract them or pacify them with food or toys... I'm not sure I buy the whole concept, but I can see where they're coming from. After all, who hasn't felt the need for a good cry from time to time, just to release all the stress and tension and feel 100% better afterwards? Though there's still a big distance between understanding/accepting the concept, and putting it to actual use. For that, we'll have to wait for baby's arrival :)

On the one hand, I just can't wait to have the little one here. On the other hand, I think I am really going to miss being pregnant. I love feeling her/him move around inside me, and all those moments when I just realize "hey, cool, I am pregnant". It's kind of weird, I always thought that I when you're pregnant, you are constantly aware of your state of pregnancy, but for me, I don't even think of it most of the time. I am just me, and I still get shocked every time I see my reflection in the mirror or a window or something. Where did that belly come from? It's kinda funny. DH says that pregnancy just is a natural extension of who I am, and because it is so seamless, it doesn't feel out of the ordinary, and so I just feel like myself. Maybe he's right (happens sometimes!) :)

Looks like this post is a pretty fair and accurate reflection of my days at home: a little all over the place, random thoughts, and lots of pondering on my imminent transition from preggo-lady to motherhood...

Kick in the gonads

So this weekend another friend announced she'd just had a miscarriage. It was pretty early on, not too too many people knew about the pregnancy in the first place, and she seems to be taking it amazingly well. In fact, she seems less bothered by the whole thing than I am. She is one strong and determined woman that's for sure...

So why is it that I seem to know way fewer women NOT affected by miscarriage than ones who are? Sure, most of us are not in our twenties anymore, so not exactly at the peak of our fertility (unlike, oh, say Britney), but still... If I started counting miscarriages vs successful pregnancies amongst the people I know (keeping in mind that most people will keep such struggles private), and not even going into the tragic stillbirths, I get stats that are worse than the 50% "worst case" that I've read. So is it something in the water??? Is our pace of life just too fast? I don't know, it just seems so annoyingly unfair.

No one really tells you about this (well, at least no one told me!). I guess we don't want to dwell on the less pleasant aspects of life. And luckily nowadays we have plenty of groups and blogs where one can find support and understanding. But still, it's so frustrating to hear the sad news again and again. And it's doubly frustrating to have clueless people making stupid comments ("isn't it about time you started thinking about children?"), or not understanding why one would be tentative when one actually gets pregnant.

Ok, that's probably enough of a rant for one day. I probably shouldn't get too worked up in my "condition" ;)

Last few days at work

Ok, as a counterpoint to the rant, here's a lighter post for today.

So with the arrival of December, I have accrued a little more vacation, that I have to take before my leave or lose it (can't carry vacation days from 2007 to 2009). The funny thing: I officially have 14.38 hours, or 1.92 days. This is the beauty of our new hour-based vacation accounting system... Not sure how I'm going to take that .92 day off. The awesome thing, though, is that I have to take this time off this week (the rest of the year is already booked off on vacation). So I am pretty sure I'm taking Friday off, and Thursday afternoon, and maybe tomorrow morning too. Which leaves me with very little time for work, not that I'm complaining ;)

I was kind of hoping that I would spend the week cleaning out my desk, setting up out of office reminders, finishing transitioning stuff to coworkers, and doing general cleanup like that. Unfortunately, there's still some actual work that's managed to find itself on my plate... Luckily, though, it's a lot less hectic than it's been over the last few weeks. Which is good, because baby is really kicking up a storm most of the time, making it harder and harder to concentrate.

I only have 70 work items that I have to distribute amongst the 3 people that are staying in my area after I leave. How long can that possibly take? I am hoping less than 2 days :)

Last pre-natal class

Last night was our last pre-natal class. I'm a bit surprised at how wistful I got thinking that it was the final class. I will miss seeing the other couples, and the instructors, and the plastic baby dolls they made us use for practice. It's hard to believe that 6 weeks have already gone by since we started the classes. It seemed like such a long time when I first registered us...

Last night we were all given a little baby doll for breastfeeding practice (even the guys, I guess so that they wouldn't feel left out). I have to say, DH looked really sweet with the tiny little baby girl snuggled up against him. I know I am biaised, but I think he looked the best of all the dads-to-be there. He's the only one of the group that I would entrust with my baby :) Ok, there was one other guy that looked like he was bonding well with his baby doll - maybe I'd let him hold my newborn for a few minutes...

Of course if you told DH I said that, I'm sure he would deny the whole thing. So we'll have to keep it just between us :)

The end of an era

Friday marked a momentous occasion: the Probe has officially moved on to a new home. After the huge snow dump, I cleaned off the mountain of snow, and then drove all the way to Orleans to deliver it to the new owner. He works at a Ford dealership, and is an apprentice mechanic, so he has easy access to parts and schematics. And he's planning to restore the car over the winter in his brand new garage. He's already booked the shop in the spring to give the car a new coat of paint.



Needless to say, DH is pretty happy to see his beloved car go to someone who will care well for it and restore it nicely. He even promised to send us pictures when the car is all fixed up. Still, it was hard to say goodbye when the time came, and the license plates were removed.

Snow is here

So for the last three days, we've woken up to this sight:



We've been getting snow dump after snow dump. Luckily it's still mild, so we get all the prettiness of winter without the chilliness. The drive in to work is pretty nice now, with the snow covered trees and deer at the side of the road. Also when our street is covered in snow we don't get as much dirt or as many potholes, so it's a much smoother and more pleasant drive. And with the snow tires on the Audi with quattro, you can barely notice the slipperiness (in fact, I have to remind myself to drive slower, because I know my stopping distance is increased, even though I don't get a feel for it - car drives like it's the middle of summer).

Today is Friday, but I've taken a day off work to just lounge around the house and get a few things done. Things aren't progressing as quickly as I had hoped on the baby stuff acquisition front (read: I've been really procrastinating on getting a car seat and "transport system"), but the baby's room is pretty much ready. Here's a picture to give you an idea of what it looks like for now:



And just because, the latest picture of my ever-expanding belly:

Pregnancy update...

Hate to be boring and repetitive, but work's been pretty busy and hectic lately. And our weekends and weekday evenings seem to be full all the time as well. As a result, blog posts seem to be scarce. I keep thinking of posting, so in my head it doesn't feel like it's been a week since the last post. Oh well, three more weeks of work and then I'll be at home, and able to post on my puny 56k connection (I suspect the picture content may go down even more).

As far as the pregnancy goes, I really cannot complain. The hypochondriac in me keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop, but so far so good. Early on, when I started getting nauseous, I was mentally preparing myself for months of torment, but a few dietary adjustments (eat less, more often) really seemed to help, and in the end I only had a handful of "morning" sickness episodes (can't believe my luck on that one). In the second trimester, when I started getting some lower back pain, I thought "here we go, brace yourself for 6 months of discomfort and pain". But once I stopped wearing heels, it turned out that the change in posture really helped, and my back has been pain free ever since (again, so darn lucky!). I keep waiting for the discomfort of the third trimester I've heard so much about, to set in. So far so good. Though I have to admit that I have slowed down a bit. I notice mentally I am not as alert as I used to be, especially when it comes to multitasking at work. Also, climbing up the stairs at work, I've lost some of the spring in my step (which is probably good, as my coworkers were starting to make fun of me bouncing up and down the stairs) :)

The flip side of all of this is that, believe it or not, I still don't remember that I'm pregnant most of the time. When I go see my Junior Achievement company, I am always amazed when the kids offer me a chair to sit on, or when they offer to carry my bags or something. It usually takes me 10 or 15 seconds to remember - oh yeah, I have that big belly that makes me look unbalanced, uncomfortable and fragile... You would think after 7 months of pregnancy I would actually remember at all times that I am, indeed, pregnant. Maybe I just have too many things going on and occupying my brain, so that I never fully embrace my state of expectantness.

What's keeping me so busy? Let's see... Two weekends ago we went to Montreal to visit with my family and celebrate my sister's and DH's namedays, as per the Polish custom. Last weekend we went to London to visit FIL, who is in the last days of radiation therapy, and doing pretty well, too. He's starting to lose his hair, but he's been eating well, and putting on weight, and overall he's looking not too shabby... He seems to be in good spirits too, so that's nice to see. We definitely won't be going to see him again any time soon, because the 7-8 hour trip is becoming a little too taxing for me, and once the winter hits, it's pretty iffy to go there and back on a weekend.

Other than that, I'm still doing the Junior Achievement thing on Mondays, going to my choir on Tuesdays, prenatal classes on Thursdays. Makes for full weeks, and time is just flying by! Halfway through November, December is just around the corner. I'm really looking forward to being home for most of December, preparing for the holidays and for the arrival of the little bundle of joy...

But first I have to get through the next few weeks at work. Delegate, delegate, that's my motto these days.

Long time no post

I've been slacking on the blog front. My only excuse is an enormous mountain of stuff to do at work. I've been doing my best to not let it stress me out too much, but I have been a busy bee... On the home front, we've bought and assembled a crib, and with the addition of the rocking chair, the baby's room is really taking shape. Pictures to come very soon!

Last weekend we took a quick trip to Montreal to see my family, and this coming weekend we're heading to London, ON, to see my FIL. Seems like we're on the road a lot lately... And we still haven't sold the Probe, although there seems to be some interest in it out there. We've had two offers so far, we'll see if either of them will pull through.

Junior Achievement has started again as well, our company this year is called MAGICC, and we're making greeting cards and calendars. We had a few hiccups at the start, so we've fallen a little behind, but we're starting to catch up and we have a great production line all set up. The cards that the achievers designed are really pretty!


Aside from that, not much is new. Belly growing well, the baby has already turned head down, so we hope it stays that way. Now I get the wonderful pleasure of getting kicked in the ribs with impressive regularity. This kid has got the beat! I'm starting to get a little more tired overall, but seeing as I am starting the 8th month, I guess that's not so surprising. Only 1 month of work left, though, so that's pretty exciting ;)

Summary

[Blogspot appears to have swallowed the original version of this post, so I am reposting it today, even though I wrote the whole thing last week. Sigh]

Just a quick one to summarize some of the events of the last week. We seem to be pretty busy lately, and I keep meaning to sit down and write a good post (I have a few running around in my head), but it might have to wait...

In health news, FIL started his radiation therapy, and so far things seem to be going ok. He hasn't started losing his hair or anything like that, and it doesn't seem to affect him physically too much. He's made of strong stuff, that's for sure. We're hoping to go visit him one of the weekends in November (can't believe October is almost over!), so that should be nice. We'll see how well I handle a trip to London ON in the third trimester ;)

In other health news MIL got her gallbladder out. Sounds like she did very well, was in and out pretty quickly and handled the anesthesia very well. It'll be nice for her not to have the gallbladder attacks anymore, as those seemed to be really painful and disruptive.

In other news, we finally acquired a crib on the weekend. I'd been looking in the classifieds for months now, without much luck. I was getting a little worried that I wouldn't find one until December or something, when I'll be too awkward to assemble it ;) But finally I found the right crib at the right price, It's all white, so it will fit with the rest of the furniture no problem, It's in pieces in the garage right now, and hopefully we can get a chance to assemble it this weekend. I've also acquired a rocking chair, to hopefully help with the feeding and putting baby to sleep (I'm hoping it will go to sleep at some point :S). So the baby room is finally taking shape :)

On the weekend we've also spent some time cleaning up the Probe to get it into showable state. We've posted it for sale, we'll see if we get any interest. It's hard to say goodbye, but we sure don't need three cars! That would be a little silly.

New addition to the family

Well, this week we've finalized the new vehicle purchase. Yes, DH's new toy (new to us, although it is 8 years old) has been purchased, imported, modified, tested and finally plated. It's a 1999 BMW Z3 coupe, one of only 400-some built, or so tells me DH. Here's what it looks like:



It's taken a little while to deal with all the paperwork and bureaucracy, but now it's here and it's registered in DH's name. I have one happy hubby on my hands :)

Of course with my ever expanding belly, it is getting harder and harder to get in or out of the tiny little coupe. But I have to admit it is a lot of fun to drive (and be driven in). And not completely impractical - last night DH managed to bring a mattress back from the store in it. And not strapped to the roof, it fit nicely inside.

Since it's a two-seater, we will not be putting an infant car seat inside. In fact, we'll probably never put any kind of child seat in it. It's really a commuter car for DH. After all, it's fun to drive and fuel efficient and easy to park, what else would one look for in a commuter car?

No GD!

So I got my glucose test done this week. The news is good: no need to worry about gestational diabetes. However, they checked my blood for other stuff too at the same time, and it appears I need more iron. So I am supposed to take some kind of supplement to replenish my iron, as the baby is supposed to intensify the iron demands, which will basically be taken from my reserves, meaning I will be heading for anemia. At least it was caught early, so I don't have too much to worry about (just take the supplement).

Other than that, not much else is new. Well, we got our new couch delivered yesterday, it looks scrumptuous. The colour is chocolate, although depending on the light it can look many shades of gray-brown, from mocha to cafe-au-lait to dark chocolate. We need to rearrange the living room now, because this is a big sectional and it takes a lot of space. But it's quite exciting. Once the living room is setup, I will post some pics.

I'm also intensifying my search for baby stuff. Mainly the crib and maybe a changing table. I have a lead on a few rocking chairs, I will be taking a look at this weekend. I've picked up a few more bath accessories, so things are slowly falling into place. Well, except I still have no idea about the whole car seat/stroller/transportation system business. I really have to look into it, but the myriad of choices and exorbitant prices have really scared me off so far... Hopefully December will not be too late for me to look into it. I figure once work is done, I'll be able to better concentrate on big purchasing decisions like that (though I might be totally off on that one...)

Long weekend already over?

Another long weekend went by in the blink of an eye... But boy have we been busy! Friday we picked up the new (to us) car at the US border. All that's left now is a mountain of paperwork and checks, and we should be able to register the car in Ontario, and then we can breathe a sigh of relief. Importing a car from the US is not for the faint of heart, although truth be told, so far it couldn't have gone more smoothly.

Saturday we had a Thanksgiving dinner at our friends'. It's a tradition thing, they've been hosting Thanksgiving dinner for the group for years. As always, I was tasked with bringing a vegan entree, and this time I went mediterranean, with a 7-veggie couscous. In the end, I think it was more like 10 veggies, but who's counting? It turned out pretty yummy if I may say so. Not that hard to make either, it just requires a whole bunch of different spices (most of which were luckily already in my spice rack). Dinner was great, as always, it's nice to get together with the gang. Our friends' 6 year old is getting really excited at the prospect of having a new little friend to play with in the next few months, and she's so sweet to me (well, mostly my belly).

Sunday, DH's sister and her husband were in town, so we went out for breakfast. After that, they came over to our place, where we hung out for a while. Then my parents arrived, and we hung out some more. It was nice to have some family time, especially since DH's family and mine rarely get the opportunity to meet! We got to admire BIL's brand new tattoo. The consensus amongst the ladies was that the tattoo was a bit over the top, while guys thought it was cool :) Apparently, what originally started as a design of a simple maple leaf had over the years grown to include a very colourful (and faithful) reproduction of BIL's beloved motorcycle with a maple leaf in the background. He does seem pretty happy with it, though, so the pain (and nagging from the wife and other female relatives) must have been worth it. I really hope DH never decides to get a tattoo, as I have no good reasons to ask him not to other than "I'm not crazy about them".

After DH's relatives left, we worked outside for a bit, and then had another huge turkey dinner. It felt a little sparse with just the four of us, both of my sisters being very busy in Montreal. But the food was good, and the evening went by in a flash. We concluded the festivities with a viewing of the night's episode of "Laflaque" and "Tout le monde en parle", two shows my Mom likes to watch on Sunday evenings.

Monday was very busy again! The weather turned out pretty nice, despite all the predictions of rain, so my parents decided to stick around and do some more outside chores. We now have a huge pile of wood to burn this winter (yay!). DH was very busy trying to get over a cold he's had on and off for the last two weeks. Unfortunately, he's still not completely healthy, but at least he got a chance to rest a bit and even catch a few Zzzz's. We concluded the weekend by watching a few more episodes of "Wild Palms", a miniseries from the early 90's that DH picked up recently. The action takes place in 2007, and it's interesting to see how many political parallels one might find to the current situation in the US. Of course the miniseries is sci-fi, so a lot of stuff is a little over the top, but quite a few things were predicted (guessed?) right.

And now it's back to work. Counting down to the next weekend ;)

Not so good news

Yesterday, we finally got the results of the biopsy of FIL's brain tumor. We had been under the impression that it was not malignant, because it hadn't grown much over the last 2 years of MRIs and Cat scans he's been getting. Well, it turns out we were wrong. He's got grade 2 astrocytoma, also called diffuse astrocytoma, which means it has tentacles that extend into the brain (and look remarkably like brain matter). So even though the surgery was a success, and the seizures are gone, FIL is not out of the woods. The whole tumor cannot be removed, so his only option at this point is chemotherapy.

As far as we can tell, he's in good spirits at this point, getting ready for the new treatments. We'll have to go visit him soon, while I can still handle the eight hour drive one way. So far I've been good with cars, but I don't want to assume that it will be as easy once the third trimester officially kicks in... SIL will be in town this weekend, so we will be getting more specific news straight from the source (she met with the oncologist). Apparently with the chemo treatment, they expect FIL to be free of seizures for the next 5-10 years (that's if everything goes well).

The really sad thing is that DH's brother's wife's Dad has brain cancer as well, and has been fighting it for the last few years. He's been doing pretty well, and has far outlived any of the predictions that had been made, but he's still alternating between chemo and surgeries. My two nieces and nephew have two grandfathers with brain cancer :( That's just no fun!

So that's the depressing news of the day. I've been trying to come up with some good news to end the blog on a sunnier note, but my head is still a little cloudy from a cold I caught earlier this week (I guess the fact that I'm getting over the cold is good news)...

My big belly

Here it is, the first real pregnancy picture... I can't believe how much my belly has grown lately! It's really popped out. There's very few of my pre-preggo clothes that fit me anymore. But I have 5 pairs of pregnancy pants, a few skirts that can still fit me, a few dresses and a fair amount of shirts, so I am hoping not to have to do much more preggo clothes shopping. I only have a little over two months of work left, so it shouldn't be too bad.

I have to say, though, that if it wasn't for my natural aversion to shopping, getting maternity clothes wouldn't really be so bad. There's lots of really flattering styles out there these days, and many outfits designed to make us pregnant ladies look good and stylish, and still feel comfortable.

What I miss most, though, is my heels. I never realized how few pairs of shoes of mine had flat soles (3 pairs). All of my sandals have heels, my nice shoes, my work shoes, my boots... And walking around in heels is a recipe for backaches. So I try to rotate my 3 pairs of shoes throughout the week :)

So that's the update from the preggo front!

Funny of the day

Some people have a way with words....

Today, someone at work stopped me in the hallway, and the following conversation took place:

Colleague: So, I am assuming that you are expecting a child.
Me (in my head): Well, technically it's more of an alien-hybrid, but sure...
Me (out loud): Yes I am.
Colleague: Good, good. At first I thought you were just putting on weight!
Me - nervous laugh.

Not sure what reaction he was expecting. He's definitely a well-meaning guy, but still... Not the most tactful way of congratulating someone on their pregnancy :) Luckily, I found it rather funny.

Now I'm wondering what kind of other humorous exchanges my pregnancy will generate :) I'm sure there's lots of potential there!

Update

Good news update: FIL had brain surgery on Monday, as far as anyone can tell everything went well, he should be discharged from the hospital today. They had only put some probes in last week, to identify which parts of the tumor needed to be removed. And we figured it would be months after that before the actual surgery would be scheduled. But they had a cancellation, so they were able to fit him in this week! He's feeling ok, seems to have all of his memory intact. Now we just need to watch for seizures (or lack thereof).

In other news, DH might have found a car to replace the Probe. No reason to get excited yet, but we may be going to NY state on Saturday to check out a 1999 Z3 coupe, metallic green with tan interior. From the pics, the car looks really sharp, but we'll see how this saga progresses :)

Work has become really crazy this week. Lots of new issues cropping up, more people leaving, so more work and less resources (story of our company these days). I have to consciously work at lowering the stress level, but overall I think I am doing ok. I should be starting to figure out where and how to delegate my workload in preparation for my leave, but for now we're already too busy just trying to stay afloat. I am really hoping that my manager gets someone else into our team soon so we can start catching up on stuff.

On the fun side, tonight we're going to see Rush in concert. I'm looking forward to it, haven't seen the band since their last concert in the vicinity (Montreal?), and they always put on a great show. We'll see if the baby enjoys it ;) I went to see a Beethoven concert on Wednesday, and there was a very quiet part with only wind instruments for a little while, and then the whole orchestra came in with a bang, and it seemed to startle the baby because I got a monster kick. It was kind of funny! Overall, though, I think the baby found it quite enjoyable. Must have been the happy hormones from mommy :)

I keep forgetting to take pictures to show you how big my belly has become. Maybe this weekend I can remember...

Back at home

Traveling is a lot of fun, but it can also be exhausting. We're back home, and back at work... On the plus side, it's nice to be home, and sleep in one's own bed. On the minus side, work has piled up while I was gone, so now I have a lot of catching up to do. But it's fun work, so I don't really mind.

People at work are starting to notice that I am pregnant (I guess now that I've reached the 5 months mark, it's about time ;)). And I have to start preparing for my leave, start delegating stuff to other people, and planning for the work partitioning after my departure. Since I need to use up my vacation time before my maternity leave (cannot carry the vacation over to 2009), I will most likely take a week or two off in December, which combined with the holiday shutdown means that I will be finishing work in late November or early December. That means I only have 3 months or so of work left... All of a sudden time seems to just zip by!

In exciting news, my sister-in-law just gave birth to a baby daughter yesterday. She's a real cutie, just like her older brother and sister. Hopefully we'll get to go back to Halifax and visit them sometime soon!

Time to go home now... TTFN