lets get caught up, shall we.

I've been thinking that there are lots of little loose ends and stories that I've promised to share and have just never gotten around to, so lets just take some time and get re-acquainted okay?

Baby W.

So we're coming into the home stretch here with 10 weeks to go and the other day I had a small panic attack. I realized that I have nothing for this baby.

Nothing.

No carseat, no bed, no diapers, no clothes, no toys, no wipes, soothers, bottles, nothing. After pleading with Darren that I needed to go and get the basics or else I wouldn't sleep for another 10 weeks straight, I went across the border to Target. (Did I mention that I was flagged for a random vehicle search at the border... I was SO embarrassed with the mess in my van. Let that be a lesson to everyone, clean out your old McDonald's wrappers, you never know when a border guard might be sifting through your old garbage.)

But I made it safe and sound and managed to get sleepers and bibs, soothers, diapers, wipes, tiny baby socks, soap, creams and blankets. Still no carseat, but I feel much better prepared and now this tiny person can come into our lives and have clothes to wear.

In case you're wondering some details about my pregnancy, lets see. My favorite thing in the entire world right now is McDonald's Coke with lots and lots of ice. Oh, so good. It's funny too, because when I'm not pregnant, I don't like Coke very much. But I would say it's my number 1 craving this time. Lucky for me, they usually put so much ice in the cup that there is hardly any room for the Coke. (I'm sure this baby will be born vibrating out of my stomach.

(Okay, so I felt bad that there wasn't any pictures to accompany this section, so I took pity and took some quick belly pictures.)

I especially like Darren in the background of this one, reading his book that he got for Christmas. (I don't like to disturb him when he's reading because he NEVER reads... EVER. So anytime he spends freely choosing to make his brain bigger is okay by me)

 

Now beware, I'm posting a bare belly pic... do you see my blond little buddy in the picture? She can't stand to be more than 2 steps away from me at ALL times.

Other baby news, not much. Had some blood work done today and I have to go the the hospital later tonight to have my Rhogam shot done. After three kids, you just get used to the constant pricks and pokes when you're blood type is negative and your husbands is positive. We're getting more and more excited to meet baby. Although, this time around I'm not too impatient for baby to get here. I've have lots to do and plenty to keep me busy for the next 10 weeks, so bake away baby.

Carpet and Renos

So as you know we got some carpet installed. And you may be wondering why it took us so long to get the upstairs ready for it. But we had to take out all the old carpet, all the under-pad and all the staples. Then we decided that we should paint all the walls before the carpet went down and then on top of that we decided to re-do all the doors upstairs too.

I must apologize for the before pictures, but hey, we're renovating, I'm allowed to have a messy house right?

Here is the hallway before. That is the bathroom door.

 

Hunter's room is on the right, the girls room is the one you can barely see. 

 

Just a bit further back. (I'm standing in our stair well, and our Master bedroom door would be kinda where the printer is sitting.

 

(Do you like my pink Dyson vacuum?)

Anyways, as you can see the doors were all this really ugly plain brown. So instead of getting new doors, I came up with a plan to re-use the ones we have. We bought some thin trim and made two rectangles on each of the doors.

 

Then we painted them with almost 4 coats of paint each!!

 

 

 

I was really proud of ourselves. First, because we saved a ton of $$$ re-doing the doors, and we also saved them from going to a landfill somewhere. They have a huge impact now (I think) plus I like the style of them better than the new doors you can buy anyways.

Here's the hallway after.

 

 

(Sorry it's really hard to get a decent picture with all these little nooks and walls in my way, but you get the idea)

The Stairs

The stairs took the most amount of time, I would say about 8 hours to get all the carpet off and get the 1 billion staples they used pulled out.

 

Anyways, when the carpet installers were here, I was working away in the kitchen, (baking cookies, of course) and I heard this loud crunch. The guy doing the stairs muttered under his breath something to the effect of oh, no. Next thing I hear the "boss" guy of the job comes down and I can hear them whispering to each other,

"Well have you told the owner yet?"

"Not yet, I'm too afraid"

"You do it"

So now I'm getting concerned, and the "boss" guy comes up to me and says we have a little problem.

So it seems that when he was using the knee kick thing they use, he wound his leg back to get a good swing with his knee and ended up putting his foot through the wall.

 

He looked awful and felt so bad about it. I really didn't want to make a big deal out of it, because I know accidents happen (they really do) and what point is there in making this guy feel worse than he already did. He just kept apologizing over and over again. The only thing the "boss" said to me was, all you need is a paint stick and some plaster and it will be as good as new. I just smiled and nodded. (I'm VERY un-confrontational) Darren however was not quite so kind about it. He thinks they should pay to fix it and that it was rude of them not to even attempt to offer us something in re-payment. I sort of feel the same way, and I may just call Home Depot and see what they can do about it. I don't want the guy to get in trouble, but I don't want a hole in my wall either.

(I know I'm going in no particular order, but I'm just remembering as I go.)

My Christmas Gifts

I got 2 new books and a under the counter ipod player this year.

 

I have wanted one of these for SO long. It's great because I can load tons of songs onto my ipod, pop it in and play them for hours without having to change a CD. It also has a radio feature.

My books are awesome. I have wanted the Tori Spelling book for so long and Darren remembered. It was a great Christmas surprise. I'm not gonna lie, I cried. Not because the book was so amazing (which it was btw) but because he remembered something that I had asked for months ago.

 

And my last book was Cookie Craft. I've only had the chance to play around making these cookies once, but it was fun and I look forward to getting better at it the more practice I have.

 

It was a great Christmas and I was thrilled to death with my gifts.

Alright, onto the not so great stuff...

So a couple weeks ago I had mentioned some news about identity fraud. Well I received a phone call from a man, and he asked to talk to Amy C. (my maiden name) I told him that was me, but I've been married almost 8 years and didn't go by that name anymore. Then he started throwing all these accusations at me about how he's been trying to get ahold of me when I lived in BC and Brooks. That they have been looking for me so they could press charges and that they were trying to get a garnishee on my wages.

I have never felt so confused and helpless at the same time. I clearly knew that I hadn't lived in either of those places, and since I'm a stay-at-home mom, I don't work. (even though he said he had been in touch with my previous employer at the meat packing place...LOL) Anyways long story short, somebody stole my identity and has been me for almost 4 years. Opening bank accounts etc. etc. Writing bad cheques and basically trashing my (maiden) name. He told me that the banks were coming after me for the money and one cheque was for over $10,000.

Lovely hey.

So after convincing him that I was definitely NOT this person, that I was a victim of identity theft, he then told me that the next step was getting physical proof that it indeed wasn't me that opened those accounts by getting bank surveillance videos, documents etc. He told me we would be in touch in the New Year and that's where it all got left off. It's funny, because he had all sorts of information on me, like where I went to High School, he found out my married name and he even managed to track me down here in Ontario. It's quite scary, because he found all this information on the Internet. It almost made me close down my facebook account and make my blog go private... crazy world we live in people.

Sick

Ava has been very sick these last couple of days. Doesn't it seem like there is always one kid in your family that gets EVERYTHING... they are always the sick ones over and over again?? For us it's Ava, even as a baby she was sick a lot. Anyways, this time it's some kind of fever/flu/vomiting everything virus. We are paranoid about her getting sick on the new carpet, so she has been spending her days confined to the couch, where yesterday she threw up all over it not once, but twice. Enough to projectile onto our rug, which I lovingly scrubbed up. Let me tell you two things that don't mix... easily nauseous Mommy and puke.

No, thank you.

So how about a cute picture to get those yucky images out of your mind... okay.

 

Goodness she is getting so grown up and sassy. It's hard to believe that I will be sending her to school in 8 short months. That time will fly by, I'm sure.

So, I don't know if I'm forgetting anything else, but I'm sure by tomorrow there will be something new and exciting to share with you.

Hope you have a great weekend! XOOX

Comments

[Robin]

Your doors look GREAT! I was hoping you can tell me how did you attach the trim to the doors? Did you glue? Use finishing nails? If so, what size nails? Then you filled with caulking I presume? Just wondering how you did what you did- they look fantastic!!

[coral]

wow I love the hallway doors! What a great idea! Can you tell me what the layout of them is, the spacing for the trim? I want to do the same thing in our house! Also what colour of paint did you use? Thanks

[Crystal]

what a great update. I enjoyed reading your blog this morning with a cup of coffee. YOu house looks amazing. You should be proud of all that you have done in there.
You will love your ipod dock.. I have Bose dock in my sitting room/ dining room and it is on "all" the time. Cookie craft. I cant wait to see what you make and decorate ... I love this book. Your belly is adorable. YOu really look amaizing. everything must be agreeing with you.
Stacey and I are taking our staff to the hotel we went to in Canmore the scrapbooking retreat. We are going to go shoping and eat and play some team bonding games. really looking forward to it. talk to you soon.

[leanne]

Your little baby belly looks so cute. You will love that picture one day. The doors looks great, wow what alot of work. You guys sure are making that house awesome. That is really scary about the idenity thing wow.... I heard it is really hard to fight. It is so weird to google your self and see so much info there. it does make you want to go into hiding of some sort. Almost scary really to know what someone could find out about you and use. Hope Ava gets better soon.

[allison]

carpet and doors look great!. We can't wait to meet the new baby.

Hopefully you get all that identity stuff figured out soon.

[amanda]

Interesting... all of it... you are too much like your parents, with all the renovating stuff... you really should know better :)

Nice preggo pictures, I think little baby Workman needs some baby stuff sent from his Aunty... and requests? You might as well tell me what you want, because I'm sending stuff either way!

Ummm... and interesting book choice, what on earth is all that about? :D

[Aia]

thanks for catching up...you look so super busy! question about the doors...did you sand or prime before painting? i would love to tryt his, but hate all the 'before' work.

take care Amy!

[lynn Crapo]

Fantastic Post!!! I sure had fun catching up!

NICE carpet!!!

Love the new door ideas! You are SO smart!

Cute belly you have there! I would have panicked too not having anything for baby. You are So lucky to live so close to Target.

Nice hole those guys put in your wall...NOT! I can't believe they didn't at least try to fix it or give you a HUGE discount!!! I'm with Darren.....make that call and get them to fix it and pay for it. Of course, in a nice way. Yes, accidents DO happen.....but my mamma taught me to make restitution for all my mistakes.
(Okay...off my soap box....how can you tell I am dealing with something like that now too. : S)

So sorry your little one is so sick. Hope she gets better soon!

And I hope you get your identity theft situation taken care of too! YIKES!!!! I HAVE lived in Brooks and I grew up with a lot of people in Brooks. That town is just not the same anymore. And this world certainly isn't either. Too scary!