No More Stones in This Gal(l)

Sorry for starting with that dreadfully punny title.

So things were going great once all the bedbug and floor stuff was taken care of. But then my gallstones decided that right when I was into the swing of things (I was seriously an AMAZING housewife for a bit in there), they'd ATTACK. And attack me they did. Hard. Violent. I didn't eat for days. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't care for my daughter. B had to take off work because of it. Finally enough was enough and we went to the hospital where I was admitted and put on fluids for the duration of my stay. Turned out that the gallstones were also affecting my liver pretty badly. I lost ten pounds during my week and a half of torture.

I had an ERCP on Monday the 18th, and let me tell you it was one of the worst experiences of my life. They don't put you to sleep, but the drugs can cause you to fall asleep which is what happened with me. However I woke up mid procedure and I really freaked out. Waking up with a tube down your throat is 100% terrifying. I am scared when I think about it, even now. Anyways, they removed some stones and then gave me morphine and then the extremely handsome nurse told me to pass as much gas as I could.

The next day I have my lap-chole. I felt 100% comfortable going into it for a couple reasons. 1) They're always talking about that procedure on Grey's and ER so I knew what it was. 2) I'm generally a chill person, and I knew I wouldn't wake up in the middle terrified as with the ERCP. I trust doctors, the anesthesiologist seemed like an awesome guy, and my nurses were so friendly. I don't remember falling asleep but I do remember waking up feeling panicked. Not as scared as during the scope, but a different kind of panic because I couldn't remember anything and I HATED the oxygen mask. I felt so constricted and like I wasn't getting enough air. When they switched to the nosey tubey thing I was much happier. And they gave me a lot of morphine and it was nice. As a bonus, after my surgery I was moved to a different ward where I had a swanky private room.

All in all, though there's been a lot of pain and inconvenience over the past few weeks, I'm thankful to be rid of my gallbladder. It has been attacking me for over a year now. It was time to ditch the thing. By Monday we'll be back to our regular routine. I'm able to help more with G, my incisions are healing nicely, and B will be able to go back to work.

In other news, I've started to decorate our apartment in our A Very Zelda Christmas theme. I will be making all the ornaments/decorations myself which I think is going to be so much fun. Here's a couple progress pics:

I don't have any proper craft supplies so I've been working with paper and embroidery floss, but I'm hoping to pick up some perler beads soon so that I can begin creating the 8bit goodness. 

Well that's all for today! Hopefully I'll remember to post again in a more timely fashion.

Hi!

Apparently I haven't blogged since around G's birthday, and that was in July and it is now November. Oops. Good stuff and bad stuff have both happened since then.

Probably most significantly was the bad stuff we had to deal with concerning our apartment. Ever since moving in I would sporadically find bug bites on my body but since it was summer I didn't give it a second thought; I just assumed it was mosquitoes. When my bestie (and next door neighbour) discovered she had bedbugs however, I started to pay closer attention to what was happening. I inspected every inch of my apartment and could find no sign at all of an infestation. Yet bites would continually appear on my body. And then TWICE I found actual bedbugs on my body. Both were in different spots in the apartment.

We contacted management on Monday Sept 16 about the bugs and were told an inspection would be forthcoming. We didn't hear back all week. On the Friday, building managers went door to door just to make sure all was well with the tenants. I was asked if we had roaches (we do) or bedbugs and when I said yes and showed my bites, they didn't believe me. So I grabbed the jar where I'd been keeping the bugs I found on my body (KEEP ANY BUGS YOU FIND IF THIS HAPPENS TO YOU!) and THEN she believed me. That weekend we moved into B's parents house for what we thought would maybe be two weeks tops. It turned into 6 weeks.

Days stretched into weeks in part because after we left the apartment due to the bugs, our kitchen sink clogged (with food that was absolutely NOT ours) and our kitchen, dining room, and entryway flooded with nasty greasy water. B went into the office nearly every single day while we were not home to find out what the deal was with everything. The office would give vague answers and it was clear they didn't know what was going on. It turned out the extermination company they worked with was dropping the ball. They would book jobs despite being short of staff, which was completely unacceptable. When we finally got sprayed for bugs October was almost over. We were told they would either clean or replace or flooring, and it wasn't until the day before we moved back that a manager ACTUALLY FINALLY LOOKED AT THE FLOORS. No one had taken those few minutes to check. If they had, they would have told us we can clean it ourselves easily enough and that no replacements had to be made. And if they had told us that, we would have been home way sooner. Fortunately throughout the ordeal, we didn't have to pay full rent.

Living with B's parents was a nightmare for me, but I won't go into that today. Suffice to say, I'm ECSTATIC to be home, despite the fact that we have no living room furniture and are living in mild paranoia of bugs returning.

Now. I have two new blogs to recommend:

http://www.geekyhostess.com/
Tips, DIY, Recipes from a geeky girl. Even if you're not a geek, it's a blog worth reading. She hosts fabulous parties and has inspired me to try hosting an event of my own. (Perhaps at Christmas time!)

http://www.freckled-fox.com/
A mom blog, but different from any of the other ones I've found. She has great hair tutorials, and I love seeing her pregnancy fashion.

G's Special Day

G's 1st birthday has come and gone. On the actual day (July 13th) we went to the mall with a friend (E) and then had dinner with Gma and Gpa. It was a low key day and G enjoyed herself as she always does every single day. Seriously, she is an amazing baby.

On the 21st, we had our celebration and it went really well. I was very anxious, because really...what do you do at a baby's birthday party? I mean, she's too small for activities that will engage her, and there was only one other baby to invite. So the party consisted of 4 parts.

1. General hanging out until everyone had arrived. At first it seemed slightly awkward, which is what I was expecting because I am not a good hostess as of yet. I lack the skills to start conversation when there's a large group of people. Fortunately there were two really cute babies to keep people entertained.

2. Food! We had snackish type things; cheese, crackers, fruit, veggies, and iced tea. Yum.

3. Present time. I had hoped G would be into ripping the paper off of her gifts, but she's not quite at that point yet. Hopefully for Christmas! The gifts she received were perfect. Everyone was so thoughtful and we definitely appreciated it!

4. Cake/cupcakes! I made the cupcakes (chocolate with chocolate frosting - from a box mix), and also used the leftover mix to make a small cake for G to dive into. And dive into it she did. She was timid at first, but she had chocolate EVERYWHERE by the time she was done.

All in all it was a really good day. I can't believe my baby is one year old though! Time has flown by, and now she has her first tooth and is walking (sometimes running!). I miss the days of the tiny newborn asleep on my chest, but I'm so excited by the fact that she can play now! She makes every day SO GOOD. Utterly and completely.

Blog Roundup

I've recently begun to read several new blogs, and I thought I'd share them with you:

Miss Abigail's Hope Chest
This is about the journey of a mother and daughter to revive the hope chest tradition! They are very crafty and the items they are collecting for Abigail's chest are absolutely beautiful. Kind of makes me want to get a chest for G!
http://missabigailshopechest.blogspot.ca/

Made by Marquette
This blog is actually made by the daughter in law of the lady running the blog above. It's mainly diy crafts and projects, heavily inspired by things on Pinterest.
http://madebymarquette.blogspot.ca/

Etiquette Hell
It's always fun to read the social faux pas horror stories of other people and this blog provides precisely that, as well as advice to navigate the various situations should they happen to you. Lots of laughs, lots of cringing.
http://www.etiquettehell.com/

Fleur De Force
Essentially this is just a lot of product recommendations and reviews. I love the author and really enjoy her youtube videos as well.
http://fleurdeforce.blogspot.ca/

Kristina Horner
I've been a huge fan of hers for years, and she just recently started up this new blog. So not too much content yet, but I can't wait for updates.
http://kristinahorner.com/

1st B-Day

I've been preparing a bit for G's first birthday party. Her birthday is July 13, but the party will be on the 21st as that is when my brother arrives for his visit! I'm so excited for P to get here and that someone from my family will be represented at G's party.

The theme is Minnie Mouse. I found napkins, plate, hats, etc at Wal Mart so things will be fairly cute. I'm going to make chocolate cupcakes - my first time ever making cupcakes! Hopefully they turn out. It's not going to be a huge party - less than 20 people, I think. And it's not going to be long - only a couple of hours. In comparison to my cousin's son's first birthday, this is ridiculously tame. They had over SIXTY people stop by his party. My word. I could not deal with that. Holy moly. But my cousin is a social butterfly and I am not.

I'm looking forward to the party but it is so stressful figuring out who to invite. I feel worse about it than when I was making the list of who to invite to my wedding. This is a much smaller group of people and I would hate for someone to feel left out. I'm not even sure who WANTS to be invited. It's a baby party, not exactly exciting.

After the party I'll post pictures. If I remember to.

The Weekend

This past weekend was mostly great, considering it started off terribly. Friday was utterly awful. G had been up way too late the night before, and then woke up way too early. She was fussy, I was exhausted, and I ended up crying at one point - which she laughed at. I slept through lunch, so I didn't make B anything to eat (which was okay, he had Spongebob Alphagetti), and then much to my dismay I found out that B would be home late from work which meant several more hours alone with the cranky child.

Despite all this, and despite G waking me at 6:30 Saturday morning, I had a great birthday. It was lazy and quiet. I was able to lounge in bed for a few hours just reading fanfiction and being cozy.

Later in the day, we went to Old Navy so I could buy a new outfit with my birthday money. No luck. I only had $45 dollars, and they weren't having a denim sale so jeans were out of the question. I did find a pair for $20 on clearance, but when I stepped into the change room they wouldn't move anywhere above my thighs. Apparently I don't know my pants size. But that's understandable because I am still wearing my maternity jeans from Old Navy and in pregnant lady sizing, I'm an 8. So I thought a 12 in normal sizing would work. Wrong! There were also no tops that really stood out to me, and jeans were really the thing I NEED. So I went next door to Michael's and bought new art supplies! And I love what I bought. It has inspired me.

Next we went out for dinner with E and S at Denny's which was delicious. Afterward, we went home and I chilled some more, hung out with the fam, talked to my Mama on the phone, and then facetimed with my sister, brother and dad. It was a good end to a good 24th birthday.

Today, Sunday, was different. We didn't go to church and instead went to B's work family picnic thing, at the forestry farm zoo place. The bbq wasn't really my scene, but I did really like it when G decided to take some more of her first steps...on top of a freaking picnic table. That's my girl. Then we went into the zoo and saw some cool animals and G fell asleep in an adorably awkward position. At around 1:30 we came home, and all three of us had an hour and a half long nap which was amazingly nice. Then I got to work making dinner, and I tried out two new recipes. One was a simple chicken recipe that involved just oil, vinegar and a few spices. It was simple, and tasty and I made lots so that we would have leftovers for wraps. The second recipe was for twice baked potatoes and it was amazing. I'll have to find the pin but in the mean time, here's the final product:

My Sunday ended with some sketching, cuddles with my G, cuddles with my B, and some time to blog by myself. I'm really hoping this week will be a good one!

Update!

Well, we moved! What. A. RELIEF.

We found an amazing apartment that already feels like home. It may not be in the best neighbourhood, but there are so many families with children around that it feels very safe. I do wish said families with children would teach said children to BE QUIET at a decent hour each day, but hey...what can you do? Seriously though, it was almost nine o'clock tonight and we were preparing G for bed when this posse of six year olds starts hanging out near our front window, just jabbering away at the top of their lungs. And then they decided to peek in our window and dance to the music Sesame Street was making on our TV. Eventually I went and shut the blinds so I didn't have to see that one kid dancing anymore.

Since moving, a couple good things have happened.

1. I am SIGNIFICANTLY less stressed out. The ball of tension in my stomach is gone and it feels GOOD. Honestly, I was crying nearly every single night in MJ and since moving here I've only cried once or twice and it was because of extremely legitimate reasons.

2. I'm back in the kitchen, baby! I cook us dinner and lunch nearly every single day and I'm loving it. Having my own kitchen is fantastic and I'm having a blast stocking it with food and equipment. I finally own a muffin tin! And I got a Gordon Ramsay cook book for Mother's Day (my first!) which I'm looking forward to working through. Below is a picture of the soda bread I attempted:

It looks pretty good, but it was a failure. It didn't cook all the way through, which I didn't realize until after it had cooled down. Next time I'll add less flour, and I think that will solve the problem.

3. I'm no longer making my own baby food. I have the time, but at the same time I don't. Since moving here I haven't been sleeping well, so when G naps I definitely have to nap. When she's awake, I like to be in the same room as her. Most days I'm able to sneak off to the kitchen while she's watching Baby Einstein so I can get some dishes done, but some days she stands at the barrier banging away and screeching at me to give her attention. And how can I resist that face?

4. I'm losing weight! Part of this is due to being a little bit more active, but most of it is thanks to our diet. We no longer buy pop for the house. We still drink it, but only when we're out. Occasionally we'll get dollar drinks on the way home from somewhere, but there are no bottles or cans in our fridge or cupboards. This has been very good. We also haven't been buying a lot of junk food. I just bought my second bag of chips since getting here and it was only because I was having an extreme time 'o the month craving for them. Eating healthier is great and I can see results already. I can't wait to continue down this path! 

5. I finally get to decorate a baby's room! One of my biggest regrets has been the fact that I didn't get to do a nursery for G. Nesting is SO important, and I would cry every so often because I didn't get to do it properly. It was like something was missing. But now I've been adding to G's room bit by bit and I love it and I feel so much happier. 

Now, I'd best get to work on finishing the invites for G's FIRST birthday! I'll do a separate post about that another day.