Reverb10 DAY 2

I'm participating in reberb10 this month, which can be found over here, or by clicking on the reverb10 button on the side! The website explains what this is all about:

Reverb 10 is an annual event and online initiative to reflect on your year and manifest what’s next. The end of the year is an opportunity to reflect on what's happened, and to send out reverberations for the year ahead. With Reverb 10, we'll do both.
This December we invite you to share your story and join us in reflection.

Each day they will post a new 'prompt' for you to write about!

Today's prompt is:
December 2 Writing.
What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it? I procrastinate. BIG TIME. I don't know if it's because I'm not inspired enough to have a thousand things running through my head to write about (I'm really not very exciting) or if it is pure laziness, perhaps both?

Right now I know I don't do a heck of a lot that doesn't involve my couch and TV because of my pesky little friend calling 'morning sickness', which I would like to rename to something more appropriate to reflect the 24/7 feel like deathness of the ailment. But even when I'm feeling well I easily get distracted by the TV (I'm hoping to one day get rid of it, if I can convince Mike, I'm perfectly happy with just country cable) and wasting time looking at celebrity gossip and facebook on the Internet. Facebook is something else I think I will rid myself of soon, since I use it mostly as a creeping tool and feel obligated to have 'friends' on there that I don't even like. It's all nonsense. I find the less I give in to these easy distractions the more I get done (around the house, maintaining relationships, reading, crafts like sewing and knitting, and basically just being present in my life and the lives of those important to me).  

I would like to be proactive in implementing these changes and hope that I can be a more productive person, and a better person to those around me.

Reverb10

After reading Kapachino's blog post about Reverb10, I decided to try to participate. I'm having trouble posting often and I thought that perhaps this would be great way to help me out. Plus, it gives me a great opportunity to reflect on the whirl-goneinaflash-of-a-year I've had and hopefully project something greater for the year coming!

December 1 One Word.



Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word.  Explain why you’re choosing that word. Change. I don't mean the jingle in my husband's jeans (yes we listen to country music). The last year holds so many changes in my life. I touched on the recent ones in my last blog post, but in the past whole year?! So many more. I struggled with school (commuting, tiredness, GI issues), adjusted to life away from my family, acclimated myself to a new community (which I don't think I did successfully), completed the hardest thing I've ever done - my full time clinical placement (difficult because of the distance of the hospital and the hours I was there) but was such a fulfilling area of nursing for me to be involved with and praised for by pediatricians, patient's parents, and some fellow nurses, learned the devastating news that my overall average was .18 too low to graduate (I'm STILL in the process of trying to sort this out, it's extremely frustrating and I'm still struggling to learn the lesson in this situation to be honest), our home sold and we built a new one which meant moving to a new town, started a new job (which I struggle with because I don't like it, and its awful hours and awful shifts, because of this I hate being a nurse and wish I had never done it), got engaged, got married, got pregnant. Change.
 
Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you? Peace. I would like to feel at peace. I would like to find a job that I like so that I can be at peace with that area of my life. I think if that were resolved I would feel much happier and more fulfilled. I hope that I feel better for the rest of this pregnancy so that I can actually enjoy it. I hope that our child enters this world in a peaceful way! And we are just the happiest little family with our new little one. I hope that school gets sorted out and I can finally graduate. Perhaps take some office courses in order to make the change in career that I'm hoping for to an administrative job. I hope that our marriage continues to grow strong and happier each day. I get teary thinking of my hopes for the next year because it will be a big year for us becoming parents and all. Basically I hope that I'm happy and that my family is too. I'm hoping to find some peace from all this change! But as I type this out I can see that there will be plenty of changes in the coming year as well!

From Ms to Mrs. Updates since June!

SO MUCH HAS CHANGED since I last posted! I kind of can't believe it. Since then we've moved into the new house, which has been nice and not quite as nice as I thought. I love the new town we live in, that was a nice change. The house...is alright, don't like it as much as the last house but like I said, it's alright. I have to actually walk Brady now each time he has to go out - which is even more annoying than I anticipated, as you can imagine.

We had a buckndoe thrown by our wedding party! It was a blast :)

I had two bridal showers!

Mike was in the wedding of our two close friends. It was such a fun and wonderful day, great wedding! And he looks so handsome all dressed up :)

Then it was our turn to get married! The sneak peek of our photos can be seen at our photographers blog :

www.samanthaerinphotography.com/blog

She is amazing. Her husband is hilarious. Together they make you feel less awkward about having your photo taken, they have such creative ideas, they are a couple who work great together and are clearly very much in love, and they rock, basically. 

We learned this exciting news!

And were completely surprised that we were successful the very first try, we are so thankful and we realize how lucky we are. We are praying that everything goes well for the pregnancy and birth and have a health baby in the end. I've been suffering with 'morning sickness' a lot. Whoever named it that is ridiculous. It should be called 24/7-nothings-going-to-make-it-better-sickness. Hopefully that improves soon. Yesterday and today are both better days. So I'm hoping the diclectin is starting to kick in, mother of mercy!  :)

Here's where we are today: Officially 8 weeks! Feeling super fat. Sore breasts...err melons I should say. I can't do up the button or fly of ANY of my pants. I can't stand any pressure whatsoever on my stomach because it just makes me feel sick...ie tight tank top, maternity pants, elastic waisted pants. Hopefully this will improve when I start feeling better, I'd like to stop looking like such a grub in my PJs all the time!

We took our honeymoon in Montreal, which I'm sure is a great, beautiful city. I spent the whole time in bed in our hotel room. We did get out for one thing though:

It was really fun to go to the game, although all the smells there made me sick by the end of the first period. It was fun while it lasted! I did stick it out until the end though. Thankyouverymuch!

And this is the view from our hotel room. Quite pretty really. And if you look closely down the street you can see a wreath that's all lit up, it had so many tiny lights on it that it looked like the glittered!

Movin' On Up!

In April our house sold (finally after being listed for about 2.5 years). We knew that we would build again and this time we chose to build in town! I'm quite excited to live in town - the main street is so sweet with lots of little shops to visit and I'll be able to walk downtown to visit them :) Where we are now it's a 10 minute drive to get there, and a 20-25 minute drive to fast food LOL. I shouldn't be excited to be closer to it, but I am. I'm mostly excited for convenience, of stores being right there when we need something and not have to pay $3 extra for a box of tampons. I think I rage about that even more when I need them since the hormones are flying wild during that time :)

So we picked our lot in the cutest little subdivision that won't really have any traffic that doesn't live there, that has basically a dog or two in every home, and that has children running and playing on the street. I am so excited to live here, and I'm excited for us to start our family here, God willing :)

Mike has been working so hard to build this house. This is the first time I've been able to see him working and I'm so amazed with what he does! He's been so great with organizing all the trades to do the work on the house. And he spends most of his spare time working on it himself (even after working a 13hr day and then doing it all again the next day). I knew he had a very strong work ethic, but I've truly seen how amazing it is. Even though we have so much going on right now between the wedding, setbacks with school, me not having a job right now, and building this house our relationship continues to grow and we are able to see how well we can work together - it does take effort though. But it is so so worth it.

It's been crazy how fast Mike has pulled this house together! I still don't think we'll be in it on time, maybe a week or two late. But it's been amazing how quickly it can go.

There are more updates but I haven't taken pictures of them, I'll have to get on that! We've got windows and doors and it's getting drywalled right now! We'll be painting in no time! I picked out the colours today :) I'm quite excited.

My Mom is an Inspiration.

Last week my mom graduated from college! She decided to go back two years ago and become a Social Service Worker - in her 50's. She's amazing! She worked her way through school with more effort and determination than any student I've ever seen in all my years of being in school. She became friends with her colleagues and teachers. She branched out of her shell and her comfort zone. And she excelled extraordinarily and made the Dean's List (above 80% average). She overcame physical, financial, geographical (commuting over an hour each way every day to school), and learning challenges as well as judgment from some for entering school so late in life. My mom has shown us what an inspiration she is and to go for your dreams! And also to ignore those nay-sayers!!

My brothers and I drove up from all our different locations to be with mom while she achieved this milestone.

Mom and I:

My oldest brother M:

My other older brother G:

And by far the most stylish person who attended convocation was this man. He had a 70's stache, bow tie and tux on top, kilt, knee-high socks, and of course skater shoes. Oh and he accessorized it all with a polka dot purse :)

Sorry it's crooked.

Niece Count is Up to Two!

This May my step-sister had her first baby, a little girl, E. She is so sweet! Such a good baby, with lots of hair!!

We had a baby shower for them and I decided to make them a rag quilt. I saw one on KevinandAmanda.com and she said it was super easy so I thought I could do that! And it really was so easy! I think my step-sister really appreciated the gift, and it turned out big enough that E will be able to use it on a twin sized bed!

I just loved this quilt so much, I wanted to keep it for myself when I have kids! I love how girl, bright and soft it is :)

This one is a little dark, but you can see the fray detail (after only one wash!).

The back of the quilt looks nice and finished, which is nice to have the option of mixing it up! However you want to display the lovely quilt!

For this particular blanket I used 9" squares of flannel. For the inner lining I always grab a neutral (I actually used white in this quilt) flannel and cut the same 9" size of squares. Make sandwiches with the colours (obviously printed side out) and sew it all together! SO EASY :) I have two friends and one sister-in-law who are pregnant right now so I'd better get started on some more quilts for gifts :)

The Beginning of Many Updates :)

SO much has happened since I last posted! I'm pretty sure there was snow in the last pictures! That's insane, but in my defense I have been busy. I'm going to split these update into different posts because it would be ridiculously long if I didn't!


Let's see where to begin...I completed my last semester in school, working as an RN student doing post-partum, paeds, and intensive care nursery and fell in love with that area. I finally found the area of nursing that I'm comfortable, interested, and good at. However the hours were less than ideal. Shift work bites! What was I thinking becoming a nurse? I worked 12hr shifts, two weeks of days two weeks of nights, on a schedule that is basically 2 on-2off-3on-2off-2on-3off. It was insane. Plus my drive to work was 1hr10 min, which makes for a LONG day, especially when getting off of nights! Luckily one those difficult mornings I was able to call my mom to talk while I drove. Bad, I know since now it's illegal here in Ontario, but it's the only thing that kept me awake. Thanks mom!

So after surviving all this I was about a week and half away from writing my RN exam and graduating and I found out that my overall average for school was .18 too low to graduate :( BOO. So now it's going end up taking a whole year before I can get it sorted out and write my exam. Luckily I have my RPN to fall back on until I finish up!

On a happier note! I GOT ENGAGED!! hurrah!

Mike proposed in between Christmas and New Years up at his parent's cottage in the snow at the waters edge. It was perfect!

I picked out my dress quite quickly too. My mom and I went looking in town and I really wasn't expecting to find it so easily! I sort of wish I didn't so that I can keep trying dresses on - it's SO much fun and makes you feel so happy and skinny if you've never done it before! I highly suggest doing it, even just for fun. So I've been busy trying to get this wedding pulled together. The date is November 13th, 2010. We are SO excited!

And of course Brady is still here being his cute, wonderful, snugly self! He's actually still in our bed right now, even though I got up an hour ago! These Boston Terriers have personality I tell ya!

Will update more soon!