Random Rant

Today we finally finished moving and cleaning the old apartment. It has been a long month but it is finally empty and sparkling clean. Tomorrow Cody is doing the walkthrough with the landlady and hopefully we can get the entire deposit back. And then we can finally be done with it all and enjoy our new home!

Christmas this year was not all that exciting for us. We both had to work through the holidays so we weren't able to make it home, and we decided not to buy presents for each other but to put the money we would have used towards something useful so in the new year we are going to be shopping for a new freezer! After 6 years of living with only a top of the fridge freezer, I am super excited! New years will be equally as exciting as Cody and I are both working nights.

I am now in my second trimester in my pregnancy and for the most part I have been feeling pretty good. There are random days when I feel nauseous and sick but most days I wouldn't know any different. Today, however, has been one of those random days, and the worst one yet. I have been feeling sick to my stomach all day. Other than randomly feeling gross the only other real big difference noted, mostly by Cody, is that I have become particularly moody and VERY easily irritable....hard to believe since I was a teen angel! (right mom?!)  I didn't realize I was being moody but once Cody kindly mentioned that if this is what pregnancy is like then this just might be the only baby we ever have, I started to realize just how much the smallest thing would annoy me. So I have been trying real hard to notice when I'm being grumpy and to pay real attention to how I react to things, trying to keep in mind what was once said in a Genereal Conference talk, to act not react. I don't generally like to use my blog as a place to rant but today I guess I just felt the need to do so.

I have always been more of an impulsive person than a patient one, and although everyone keeps telling me that these 9 months will go by super fast, some days it feels like a lifetime, and I still have 6 months left! I have yet to gain any weight and have actually lost a couple pounds, which is kinda nice! I am starting to feel a bit bigger in my belly however, noticing that it is getting harder to zip up my winter coat.

Anyways, I know this post wasn't particularly exciting or really even worth reading, but once this baby comes I might have something worth blogging about!

New House and Update

Over the past week we have been moving stuff from our old apartment to our new townhouse, which we are still renting. It is quite an upgrade from the old place and so far we are loving it! 

This is really the only picture I have right now and it is the front of our house. As you can see it's tall which means a lot of stairs, which I am not used to anymore...Its been a good workout for us both. We aren't quite used to all the space yet. The other day Cody had left the living room and I thought he had gone upstairs to the bedroom so I went down and turned off lights and locked up the garage and the front door. Turns out Cody had gone out to the garage to move a couple more things in from his truck and I had locked him in there in the dark. I couldn't here him knocking and yelling my name because the tv was on so he was out there for about 10 minutes before I realized it. I guess we will have to pay more attention now to where the other has gone! We are still slowly moving things over as we have both places for the whole month but hopefully we will be done in the next few days. We still have to clean the old place. This is the only other picture I have of the new house.

Our Christmas tree and nativity all set up for Christmas in front of the big bay window! I will eventually put more pictures up of the inside but I'll wait until we are more settled and there aren't random boxes and things everywhere. 

In other news I am just entering my 11th week of pregnancy and so far if I didn't know any better I might even be a good candidate for the tv show, I didn't even know I was pregnant! It has been pretty breezy so far with no sickness or really any other symptoms. I am pretty lucky I guess from what I've heard about other people's pregnancies. The only difference is that I can't seem to go all day without having a LONG nap or two and working a 12 hour shift just seems like working a whole week with no breaks. And for this pregnancy I have a goal to stay below 15-20 pounds weight gain which so far I am doing great with! I know its still early but I have only gained about 0.5-1 pound depending on the day. So hopefully I can keep that up and keep the weight gain down! 

That's pretty much all the excitement in our lives right now. It's been a pretty crazy busy few months lately so I am looking forward to a laid back Christmas and New Years. 

Baby Peacock #1

This is our baby at 8 weeks! The baby is due to arrive July 9th and Cody and I couldn't be more excited! 

Elder Kember

This is Cody and I with Elder Kember. He is a missionary serving in our ward. My brother Steve is serving out in the Toronto mission and will be home in January. Elder Kember is pretty special to Steve and to our family because he was Steve's really good friend and very first baptism! We were able to have Elder Kember and his companion over for dinner last night and it was really fun getting to know him a bit better and to have that crazy connection with him. I'm pretty proud to be able to see the fruits of Steve's labor and to see the amazing results of his hard missionary work. We think its pretty neat that the first area Steve served in, Sarnia, was where he met and baptized Elder Kember, and then the first area that Elder Kember is serving in is here in Fort McMurray!

This is Cody with Elder Kember and his companion Elder Kuntz. It was a good dinner and lots of fun to get to know them both a bit better.

6 MONTHS!

Just two days ago Cody surpassed a big day in his adult life. It has now been 6 months since he quit smoking, which is quite a feat! I am very proud of him! He continues to do well with it and I am very happy for him! I love you Cody!

What Happens When...

What happens when Cody shops a huge clearance sale at a seasonal Halloween store??

A life size (6.5 ft tall) animated Frankenstein living in our spare bedroom (year round b/c we don't really have much storage...)

Converted!

 Last week while making Thanksgiving dinner I got some sort of grease on the stove and it really got baked on. I tried EVERYTHING to get it off, vinegar, dish soap, lysol...I finally decided to try something that I had heard a lot about but never really believed in...

The MAGIC ERASER!!! I have been totally converted! The very first swipe I took the grease instantly came off, and I didn't even really have to scrub. I know I'm behind in the times, but I will definitely be keeping this little gem in my cleaning supplies from now on!

Goodbye Blonde, Hello...RED??

The leaves have changed and that only means it is time for a new haircolour! Being on a budget I decided to dye my hair myself. Let's just say it didn't turn out as I expected...

The colour I thought I was getting:

                               

 

The colour I got:

                    

Moral: When your hair is bleached blonde, probably best to get your hair professionally dyed to ensure the colour goes as planned! 

The good news is it dyed pretty evenly and is all one colour that I actually think looks alright, so for now, I am again a red head! 

October Ensign

This month's Ensign is all about the Book of Mormon, the history of it, timelines, who wrote what, and member testimonies of it. I highly recommend you read it! I had a hard time putting it down and really learned a lot as I have always found the scriptures kinda hard to follow.

A Little Preview...

Halloween is coming and we're getting ready...here's a preview of what Ruby will be wearing. Can you guess what she is??

Fall is Upon Us...

It's that time of year again, the time for gloves and automatic car starters, and a whle lot of darkness. Fall has begun and we are rapidly approaching winter already. I have had to use my automatic car starter twice already after my last 2 night shifts to come home because it is so cold and frosted out and the days are starting to begin later about 7:30 and end sooner around 8.

It makes me wish we were still in BC. We were there just a couple weeks ago for a wedding and stayed on Kimberley for a few nights to make a vacation out of it. It was beautiful weather and our condo had an amazing bathtub and warm pool and hot tub that I have been greatly missing the past few days. Also on our little getaway we were able to stay at home for a few nights and visit with family! We got to meet little Tacey and see Jen's family again for the first time in a year. We are happy to have them living closer to home again...even though we still will only get to see them a few times each year. It was so nice to be back in. Southern Alberta, where we will always officially call home, and it was real hard for us to come back to Fort McMurray this time around because we miss everyone so much down there. But it was nice to be back in our own bed again and have a quiet house to sleep in!

We do have some other exciting news! We went to the diabetes clinic again today and for the past few days Cody has been cutting back on his insulin injections because his blood sugars have suddenly been getting too low. They told us that he could have been going through what they call a "honeymoon phase" which is when your pancreas stops working and then when you start to take insulin it reminds the pancreas of what it is supposed to be doing, which is creating insulin, and then it starts to work properly again. They don't see it very often and they were a bit baffled by what has been going on because he did have such high sugar levels and he has been on the lowest dose of insulin possible, which they say usually doesnt even begin to touch the sugars, and his numbers have rapidly come down and leveled out in just the past week. They didn't really know what to tell us other than to keep cutting back on his insulin and hopefully he won't have to take it anymore! So keep him in your prayers and we just might make it back to a diabetes free life! I think it is a pretty amazing thing and a blessing our lives.

1st Anniversary

1 Year ago...

It's been one whole year since we were married and we can't believe how fast it has gone by! There have been lots of good thing and not so great things (ie...Cody's sudden diabetes) but it has been a really wonderful year nontheless. To celebrate we did a whole lot of NOTHING! We literally sat around on the couch and took turns napping all day. It was nice. We did get up to take Ruby out for a walk and made it all the way around the building once before we decided to come back inside because it was too hot and Ruby was already panting! Later that night we got all dressed up and went out to this new restaurant called Atmosfere. It was really nice and very delicious! We were home by 9:30, watched Big Brother and were in bed by midnight. Re-reading this post just proves that we really are already an old married couple but we couldn't be happier! 

Also to celebrate our anniversary I got Cody this Fossil watch...

He hasn't had a nice watch for a while and has been through a lot lately so I really wanted to give him something nice.  Luckily he really liked it! 

For me Cody got this beautiful anniversary ring for my right hand...

I do love it! We are grateful for all we have and for the wonderful year this has been. We look forward to many many more!

In other news, our fish Larry died the other night. It was a very sad day but he lived a good life with us for almost 8 months. 

Diabetes For Dummies

This is sort of how we feel right now. Over the past 2 or so months Cody hasn't quite been feeling up to par. He has had unquenchable thirst, extreme fatigue and has lost over 30 pounds. I had a guess at what it might be and finally last Wednesday Cody went to see the doctor. He went back for a followup just two days ago and was diagnosed with just what I thought...DIABETES! I was hoping it would be Type 2, easy to treat with diet and pills, but no such luck. Cody has been officially diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, which means he will be on insulin for the rest of his life. It has thrown a whole bunch of other things out of whack as well but hopefully as he gets his blood sugar levels back to normal they will sort themselves out. 

Today we went to the Diabetes clinic and they got him all set up. These are pictures of Cody's new toys. He has to monitor his blood sugar at least 4 times a day and has to give himself insulin shots daily as well, which will eventually increase to around 4 times a day as well. It has been a lot to comprehend in the past 3 days but soon enough his diabetes care will become just a part of his everyday life!

This isn't really an exciting post but we are happy to know what's been going on with him and to be able to do something about it. We are also very grateful that it was something that he will be able to manage and not something more serious, so with that we will stay positive and happy and just go with the flow!

The Summer Thus Far...

First I wanted to say congrats to my sister Tiff and Chad on their new baby girl that was born just this morning! I am excited to come home and meet little Tacie Rae! 

Well it has been a LONG time since I have written anything, turns out blogging isn't really my forte! But I thought I would do a quick update on some things that we have been up to. This summer has mostly been filled with work but last month we finally got a new roof on our house in Magrath! It is so nice knowing that house will no longer leak when there is a morning dew! 

A couple weeks ago my mom and dad came up for a visit. It was a lot of fun and we did a lot of things that I might not have done had they not come. Cody took us out to the oil sand sites, as far as we were allowed to go, and we visited the Discovery Center which has all sorts of interactive activites to help you learn about the history and process of the oil sands. We went to Heritage Park and saw old buildings and learned about the history of Fort McMurray. And we did a lot of driving around and exploring the area. Here is a picture of some of the equipment that is used everyday in the oil sands

The trucks they use are huge! Much bigger than the biggest truck in Sparwood. We really enjoyed having company up here and were sad to see my parents leave!

On August 1 Cody turned 30! To celebrate we took a 2 night trip to Edmonton and shopped. He got a couple new CD turntables that he has been wanting for a while and has really enjoyed playing around with them! We also got a few new items from IKEA to make our home a bit more livable. We finally have kitchen chairs and can eat at our table! It is always super nice to go on a little getaway back to civilization, even for a night or two!

In other news I have been offered a Maternity leave position at the hospital and will be taking it. I don't know just when I will be starting yet because there are 2 different Mat leaves and I'm not sure which one will be mine, but it will be nice to have a set rotation and a fixed income for the next year.

Anyways this post is pretty long and probably boring, I am not very good at taking pictures. It is something I need to work on so my posts aren't so lame...But I will be back probably soon. We are heading out to BC in a couple weeks for a wedding and have some other things going on too so I will try my best to blog about them.

VIVAAAA LAS VEGAS!!!

While we were home for grad we decided to take some vacation time and fly out to Las Vegas. We drove to Great Falls and flew out from there because it is about 3 times cheaper than flying out of Fort McMurray. We left on Sunday and got in Vegas around 5 PM. The first night we walked up and down the strip and just took in the lights.

This was our hotel. It is one of the older ones but it was nice enough.

Here's Cody taking in everything.

This is the Volcano eruption in front of the Mirage.

On Day 2 we woke up fairly early and started our trek down the strip. We went in almost all the hotels and also stopped by Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. It was crazy how life like the wax figures are. We had a lot of fun walking through and taking funny pictures with them.

I married George Clooney while I was in the museum. It was a special day.

Cody with Chuck Liddell

This picture was for Steve. Me and Michael Jordon

Here we are with Pres. Obama in the White house. No big deal.

 There are lots of weird people on the strip who dress up and impersonate famous people. We saw Elvis, Michael Jackson, Jack Sparrow, and a Superman that we could have sworn was our bro-in-law Scott!

Cody with the sketchiest Mickey Mouse ever.

On our second day we also went to M&M World, which is massive, and continued on down the the Luxor where we went to the bodies exhibit. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the exhibits but it was really interesting to see all the different parts of the body on real people. And a little creepy too if you really started to think about it too much. It was really neat too that by looking at the bodies facial structure you could tell if they were Asian or Caucasion. Most were Asian, the guide told us that the exhibit mostly came from China. 

M&M World

The lions at MGM Grand. They are in a soundproof habitat and there are trainers inside who feed them and play with them. It was really neat.

The roller coaster at New York New York. It was tons of fun but also a really rough ride! My head and muscles were sore after riding because you are thrown around so much! But it was sooo fun!

This is the Luxor where we saw the exhibits.

 On our third day we went to the Titanic exhibit again at the Luxor. We couldn't take pictures inside this one either but it was really interesting to see all the artifacts they have brought up out of the ocean from the ship. At the beginning of the tour you get a paper with a persons name on it that was on the Titanic and what class they were and if they were with family, etc. After you look through and experience what it was like on the ship you find out if your person survived or not. Cody's name did not make it and mine did, which wasn't a surprise as most men died because they were trying to save the women and children first. In the exhibit there is an exact replica of the Grand staircase from the ship as well as a real piece of ice to show you what an ice berg is and how cold the night was when the ship went down. It made the experience very real and put into perspective what an amazing and terrifying night that must have been.

On our third day we also went to the top of the stratosphere and the Eiffel tower at the Paris hotel. Cody didn't want to go on the rides on the stratosphere, although I don't know if I would be able to do them again either. They have a new one now too, you get hooked on to cables and then jump off the top of the stratosphere and free fall to the bottom. It looked more fun than I thought it would but I don't think I could ever actually do it!

View from the top of the Stratosphere.

Cody at the top.

Me walking through the most luxurious and modern hotel, the Wynn. Super fancy.

By the third day my feet hurt so bad and had huge blisters on the bottom from wearing my super flat sandals the first 2 days that I had to put on my runners. This is how ridiculous I looked and I got lots of funny looks from people and Cody made fun of me....hey at least my feet didn't hurt AS bad anymore!

Us in VEGAS!

A table we saw in one of the stores that was going for $30,000. It was a pretty crazy table, but a way crazy price!

The Bellagio fountains from the top of the Paris building.

 On our last day there we sat by the pool for a while, went to a buffet at the Monte Carlo, saw a show and went down to Fremont Street.

This was our pool. It was so relaxing to swim for a bit and then lay by the pool and tan! I miss it.

Our buffet here was Awesome! Really good food and cheap thanks to Tix4Tonight!

 The show we saw was Cirque Du Soleil's Mystere.  Neither of us know what the story line was or what was happening during it but the acrobatics and everything they did was so amazing and crazy! We were just mesmorized the whole time and there was so much going on you just didn't know where to look. Next time we go to Vegas we will definately be seeing another show, hopefully "O" the water one.
The only pictures we were allowed to take were of the stage before the show started then cameras were not allowed at all.

This was the stage before it started. Two baby carriages and sounds of babies crying for like 20 minutes. 

Fremont Street!

 On Fremont street there was this guy Tony Vegas who does paintings with only spray paint and crude tools like paper and old rolls of duct tape. He does each painting in less than 8 minutes and they are really very amazing. He was super cool and I could have watched him all night.

Tony Vegas doing his thing.

This is one of the pictures that he did just to show you how amazing he really is.

Every hour on Fremont they do a light show on the big canvas above your head. The night we were there they did tributes to different bands. We saw tributes to the Doors, Queen, and Kiss. This was a picture I got of the Queen light show. It was lots of fun!

Here we are with Tony Vegas and his assistant. That is the picture he painted specifically for us. It is supposed to look like Canada. The picture is Awesome! 

Vegas was so much fun! It was Cody's first time and he had a blast! We were sad to have to come home because even though we did a lot of things there was still tons we wanted to see. But we will go back one day. Now we are back home in Fort McMurray smothered in smoke and working hard. But Summer is here and I love it!

Grad

During May long weekend we were able to drive home and watch Cody's sister Sasha graduate from high school. Unfortunately we didn't have our camera with us so I don't have any pictures yet but she looked beautiful and we are very proud of her for completing this milestone in her life. It was a lot of fun to be home and visit with her and our families and we wish her the best of luck in her bright future! We love you Sasha!

NO SMOKING!



As many of you know Cody's biggest vice in life was smoking-make note of the word "WAS" It has now been 12 days and 12 hours since his last cigarette and as shown above he is now SMOKE FREE FOR GOOD!!! I couldn't be more proud of him! He had a small non-invasive procedure done called laser therapy to help him quit. Basically it uses laser and electric impulses on your acupuncture points in your ears and hands. The point of it is to take away the symptoms of withdrawal when you quit. The first few days were pretty hard for him as he has had to re-learn how to be bored but he is doing very good! The cravings still come but instead of staying until they are satisfied they go away in just a minute or two and life goes on. He was so nervous and excited to get rid of this nasty habit and couldn't be happier to have been successful at it. So as of now Cody is smoke free and will continue working hard to stay that way. As I said before I am very VERY proud of him and love him all the more! So to celebrate we are heading out to Vegas in the morning for a little vacation! Stay tuned for updates on our trip!

Goodbye Blockbuster

For those who don't know, I have been working part time at Blockbuster for the past few months. At first it was just something to get me out of the house and to have some extra spending money but as time went on it wasn't about that anymore. It became all about the FREE MOVIES! I love watching movies and as an employee of Blockbuster I was entitled to 10 free rentals a week, which never went wasted and came in real handy for my nights shifts at the hospital. And I got to take home all the new movies a week before they were released.

Today was my last shift. I am getting too busy working at the hospital to try and juggle a shift at Blockbuster in too and though I am relieved because I really didn't want to keep working there, I will greatly miss the benefits of never having to pay for movies. So goodbye Blockbuster...you have treated me well!