The Divide

So today Dad and I went on the House & Garden Tour which is a fundraiser for the Alberta Ballet. It's not that we are passionate about the ballet, heck, I am not sure if either of us have attended the ballet. But I do love open houses. I love seeing places people live. Not just fancy places... I mean, I love going to open houses in my own humble little neighborhood. There's just something about seeing people's sanctuaries. The places people go to lay their heads or to read a book or watch a movie. So a couple years ago when Stinx was just a small wee babe I heard about the Alberta Ballet's House & Garden Tour. I really wanted to go but Stinx was just too small. Now that he is a "big boy" he had plenty of fun with grandparents while Dad and I enjoyed our tour.

I was expecting big fancy homes with beautiful gardens. And that's pretty much what we got. Million dollar homes in fancy schmancy neighborhoods. Two of the homes are currently on the market. One for 3.5 million, the other for 5 million. CRAZY. All of the homes had crazy huge en suite bathrooms and gigantic walk in closets which were more like the size of a normal bedroom. Seriously! Who needs that much closet space? No one wears THAT many clothes. It was ridiculous. They all had beautiful kitchens too.

In one home there was 3 children's rooms which each had en suite bathroom and walk in closet. Dad commented, "Just imagine all the extra cleaning they must do!". I was all,... "Honey, these people don't clean, they have maids... silly!" And it's so true. The work it would take to clean these houses would be a full time job in itself.

We went to an "eco-friendly" in-fill that was pretty cool. I liked the design on that one quite a bit. They had some really cool art work that was truly inspiring. They were clearly creative people, or.. they just have good taste.

There was another home in the lovely neighborhood of Scarboro which had a really modern architecturally design. Dad really liked that one.

So most of the houses blew us away, but the gardens... not so much. Out of the 7 properties, it seemed only 2-3 had nice gardens, worthy of attention. I mean, they all had nice landscaping and everything, but to be called a House & Garden Tour, I was expecting more from the gardens. Oh well.

It was a fun day despite my cold, morning sickness and exhaustion.

Afterwards though, I really couldn't help but think, of how differently MOST of us live. And I was definitely thinking of my friends who live at the shelter. It's crazy what a rich city I live in, yet the homeless population is always on the rise.

I've spent years of my life working with the homeless. Most of them only own a backpack full of their possessions. If they're lucky they have a locker to store extra things in. Maybe some clothes, shoes and books. Certainly they don't fit fancy cars, giant flat screen tv's, or king sized beds in there. It's just crazy to think that someones "closet" is the size of a room that would hold 8 people at the shelter. Crazy to think that people have such huge closets full of clothes they probably don't wear when people are in need of clothing.

It's just crazy. What a crazy city I live in. Tons of millionares. Tons of homeless.

Fainting

So on Saturday afternoon I stopped in at Superstore to buy a tub for Dad. It was about lunch time and usually I dread being there as it is so busy. But there was actually no line up in the self check out isle. Yippee! I ended up back there on Saturday night at about 9:30pm. The line up was crazy for the self check out. There was actually 2 line ups and I definitely picked the worst one. I kept having to kneel to the ground as to not get dizzy. By the time it was my turn to check out my hearing was going and I was getting pretty faint. I felt like I was going to pass out. After my transaction I sat on the next weigh scale which wasn't in use so I could rest. A lady came over and said I looked really pale and that she was worried about me. I told her about the low blood pressure and how I'd be fine, I just need to sit for a few minutes. It was nice that someone was actually concerned. And of course I felt fine after resting for a few minutes. So lesson learned, no more standing in long line ups!

This is just another reason why I should not go grocery shopping. Tis why I am in the midst of coming up with a grocery list for Dad...

Whine-o

One of my least favorite things to do while pregnant is groceries. Since getting knocked up doing the groceries has been painful. And somehow it seems I've been having to do them with Stinx during the week days. How can this be? That just seems like a recipe for disaster. Pregnant woman with low blood pressure + 2 year old toddler + grocery shopping = unpredictable outcome.

We managed today though. We survived the trip without any tantrums or whining. Just Stinx running around crazily.

And now we have food. Life can continue.

Baby!

So yesterday afternoon I had a 12 week ultrasound. I finally got to see my baby! Yay! There really is a little baby in me!! This trimester has gone so fast and the only reminder that I have that I am pregnant is the nausea, which hasn't been so bad lately. It was so nice being able to see the baby. The tech showed me the baby's heart beating but I didn't get to actually hear it. And I could have sworn I felt a little flutter while she was doing the U/S. It's crazy to think there is a baby moving around in my body and I can't feel it. I suspect that I will start to feel this baby a little sooner than I noticed Stinx moving around. But yeah, it was wonderful seeing the baby moving around in there.

Now I can't wait to find out what I am having!! Only 6 or so more weeks until the next U/S.

Bum Genius Snap Conversion

It's only been about 10 months since I started using my Bum Genius 3.0 diapers and the Velcro/aplix tabs are starting to bug me. They still stick to the diaper and it functions fine, but I can't stand how the Velcro comes off the tab spot in the washing machine. When I pull them out of the washer they're all stuck on each other. I am starting to see why some people prefer snaps. So I decided to try getting a couple of them converted to snaps. Michelle from A Lovely Start offered to try this out for me. She converted two of the diapers. One in a single row of snaps that can be pulled over each other and the other diaper is a double row of snaps. I am very excited to try these out on Stinx and see how I like them. If I really like them I might consider converting the rest of the diapers. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Earth Mama Angel Baby

I'm not a tea person. Nor a coffee person. I prefer my beverages to be sweet and cold. Like apple juice. or Ice Tea. But I do have to say that the Earth Mama Angel Baby product "Morning Wellness Tea" is very good. When I do drink tea's it's usually the herbal fruity type. Once the morning sickness started people kept recommending Ginger tea. I tried it and it actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but still not something I enjoyed.

Then I came across the Morning Wellness Tea. It is good. REALLY good. The first ingredient in the list is ginger but I can't taste it. I can only taste the spearmint and peppermint. It's delicious.

And on another Earth Mama Angel Baby note, I love their Angel Baby Bottom Balm. It's a salve for your little baby's bum but made of all natural organic ingredients. And the best part, it's totally safe to use with cloth diapers! and smells delicious.

So basically, I love the Earth Mama Angel Baby products. They're amazing.