back to work i go

So I went back to work for my first 8 hour shift yesterday. I went in at 3 pm and Derek stayed home with Alli. It was pretty slow. They went easy on me for my first day. It kinda made the 8 hours drag by. And I was still a little achy in the feet and back at the end. It's weird how fast everything comes back. And really nothing has significantly changed. There is still all the work politics that I could get right back into, the complainers are still the complainers and the slackers are still the slackers...etc...etc...EXCEPT... there is one big difference...

They called us the posse, well we called ourselves that anyway.

Erin, Fatty 9 months pregnant, Sandra, and Tanis.




During the last year or so before I had Alli, there was a few of us that almost always worked together. It made work so much more fun. We got along so well (most of the time, haha) and I have some hilarious memories of night shifts and walks down whyte ave among MANY others. You get kinda crazy when you work a bunch of 12 hour night shifts in a row.

Here we are at Erin's going away party this summer.




But so sad to go back yesterday knowing 2 out of the group are long gone. Ever since Erin and Tanis started on the unit we bonded. Probably because finally I wasn't one of the youngest nurses and we could be immature together. Erin moved to BC and Tanis to Lloyminister and I really miss them. I'll still be working with Sandra I hope, but it just won't be the same as when the posse was altogether. I know you all read this and I really do miss you guys.

I know I still like being a nurse, but I like being a mom WAY more.
I hope I still like work enough to do it a little bit.

i'm rich!

hahaha!
That is a funny and so not true title. But I ask you, how much money have you saved in the last 4 or 5 years without even knowing it? Well, does it beat $32? I know, I know, that's a lot to take in all at once.

Last week I was gathering change and realized all our change spots were full. And about 90% pennies. We always use loonies and quarters for laundry, so none of those ever last. We counted them all up and put them in rolls. It actually only took about an hour. Guess we need a night on the town!



One more month until Christmas. I'm so excited. I love Christmas. Food, family and friends, what else do you need? We did our first round of shopping yesterday, just a quick one. I don't dread going out to the mall at all. Alli likes to get out she's so good at the mall, I think it's fun looking at decorations and all that. I just hate the driving. And right now, the roads are a skating rink, and it is so dang cold out you cannot even breathe, there's no end of it in sight either.

I'm very excited about next Friday. As I'm sure you all know, Alli has blocked tear ducts, she's had them from the start. I cannot stand it. I'm constantly wiping her eyes and digging out crustys morning noon and night. But next Friday, she gets the surgery done to fix it. I have been patiently waiting for this for a year really. I know its mean, they have to put her under and go down the ducts, but you don't understand, how worth it it will be. Alli cries everytime I come at her with a cloth, and they gross me out sometimes. I was going to take a picture of her eyes at their worst today and put it for a memory, but she was having a rough day, and went to bed early. So I found this one from last Christmas I think. Its not even bad. Iwent on a deleting frenzy last week and deleted hundreds of pictures, including every one that Alli had bad eyes. I really had very few pictures with her eyes like that because I'm so crazy about keeping them clean especially when the camera comes out. I'll probably keep checking her eyes for months after whenever we take pictures.



Well, my first shift, back to work on Tuesday. I hope I didn't forget everything. Also, I need another opinion from everybody. Derek made a cute Christmas card in Photoshop, but the picture is one from the summer of all of us. I think we need to take a new one, he thinks its just fine...Stay warm everybody.

a favorite

Alli has a favorite toy these days (not including phones and remotes and calculators etc.) She LOVES this bunny. I tried to force a really cute teddy bear on her to be the "favorite" but it wasn't happening. She reaches out for it every night for bed right before she opens her mouth for her soother. She doesn't want her soother at any other time during the day really, thank goodness. But recently when I get her out of her crib she grabs her bunny and carries it around for a while. She puts it in the toy stroller and pushes it around. Whenever I put her baby doll in the stroller, she takes it out immediately. I have no idea why. She puts all sorts of things into the stroller, but never the doll. But most of all Alli likes to be in the stroller and pushed around. She cracks up laughing and cries when I'm too tired and take her out.




I just had to put a picture of this in. Can anyone believe I have a child with a bit of curl to her hair? I have the thinest bone straight hair. But these curls don't lie. Clearly I married the right gene pool. However, her hair looks like this only every night after her bath, and then it's magically straight when it dries, sad. (Mom, you might now have any slacker babies that didn't walk until they were 13 months, but none of them had curly locks like this! hehe)



Whats everybodys opinion on gel in babies hair? Because I think I might be able to hang on to the curl with some gel. And I think I am willing to do the gel. Is it allowed here and there on a one year old?

Also, remember when my house was clean last week...Well I'm doing surprsingly good at keeping it clean. But we FINALLY got wireless and moved the computer out of Alli bedroom, YIPEE! (I'm so excited about it) And a few things just got piled up in Alli's room on the old desk with the shifting of things, and I never go into the room now, so I'll just pretend it's not there for a while longer.

phew, what a weekend

Phew as in, nice relaxing weekend pretty much a home.

Derek had a long weekend. And on Friday afternoon we thought it would be fun to go home for a surprise visit. We got ourselves all excited, and then I remembered some Sunday commitments I had. I tried and tried to get out of them, with no luck. So we were stuck up here for a freezing snowy weekend with no plans.
Saturday was a lazy day with this and that to do and then friends over for games.

Sunday, I led the relief society in a hymn in sacrament meeting and had my first Sunday teaching the Sunbeams. Six 3 and 4 year olds at the end of 3 hours of church, oh my. This will take some getting used to. Then we went over to some friends for a yummy Sunday dinner.

Monday was another snowy cold day. We wanted to do something fun, but then didn't really want to leave into the cold. So if you can believe it, Derek had a bright idea to clean out a few dreaded areas. So for about 4 hours we cleaned, cleaned and cleaned. It's crazy how many corners you can stash stuff in a little apartment. So after 4 bags of garbage, 1 bag of shoes and 2 bags of clothes, the closets and cupboards are organized, Alli's too small clothes are neatly boxed up, and even behind the stove and fridge is shiny just to give you an idea of how crazy we went. It's such a good feeling going to bed after a day like that, and a whole day later, it's still clean! (Next week I'll be thinking, Remember when it was so clean here?)

And today I had to go into my work at the hospital. I'm starting back casual next week and had to get some things taken care of. I'll be a working mom. haha (max of 8 hours a week I'm thinking, I don't want to overdo it)

Well, I've sure been slacking on the posts lately, no excuses really, just not much going on. The weather is too cold to be out for more than a few minutes. Alli has no snowpants yet, but when I get some, I'll see if she likes the snow. I take her for a 10 or 15 minute walk most days and she doesn't seem to mind the cold. So here are a few pictures here and there this past week or so.


The classic spaghetti for supper. Its a good thing Alli likes it so much since with my great cooking skills, we have something like this at least once a week. It's fun to let her go crazy and then throw her in the tub.



Here is a good one of her teeth. At least the front 2 are coming in now, so she doesn't have fangs.



And, Alli's FAVORITE toy these days. The Phone. She sits and smiles and laughs with it and pretends to talk. And if you take it away...TROUBLE. She freaks out, and she never really freaks out if you take anything else away. The funny thing is, when someone is actually on the other end, she is so quiet and hardly makes a peep.




Yes, Alli is wearing a bit of a Christmas shirt (so cute, gotta get lots of wear out of it), and yes since the first snowfall I have been playing Christmas music, and no Derek is not a fan of this quite so early.

if you made it through all my rambling, good for you. I am a little long winded at times I guess.

happy halloween

Here's lots of pictures because it's 2 days after



So is this the cutest trick or treater ever or what!



I saw this costume on the cover of Parents magazine back at the end of September when I got the issue and wanted it so bad. I went to 2 Childrens Place stores right away and what do ya know, nothing but cows for Alli. I went around to a few other stores a couple times and nothing was very exciting. I was just to crushed and didn't buy anything. So about 10 days ago I decided I better get something for her "first" halloween. (she was around for halloween last year, but we had only been home from the hospital for like a week, and I wasn't expecting to have even had her yet.) So I ventured back to children's place and at the end of the rack there was a glow. It was a glowing yellow costume. Only 1 left, size 0-6 months, I'm so glad Alli is below the 10th percentile! Then, to top it off, as I was buying it, it was half price! Does it get any better?

Well it was freezing cold out last night so we just drove to a few friends houses to show her off. But really, Alli wore the costume so good, she needed more than that. She never touched or pulled at the hat thing, or tried to take her feet off. So we went to the mall. Alli loved it. She was smiling at everyone and looking at all the costumes. There were tons of kids. And we got a little candy for ourselves too!

She's enjoying a sucker at the mall. No need to take off the wrapper, it's still a treat to her.




Alli and Derek eating their chocolate bars, once again, note her wrapper on.




We had so much fun, and I'm a little sad she doesn't get to wear the costume any more. Maybe I'll have to play dress up with her.