The Search For Childcare

Who knew looking for childcare would become a daunting task for one going back to school or work .... Not me ! I always seen plenty of flyers and ads for childcare in and around our area and many on the internet close enough to home but of course when it's my turn to find someone I easily find out it would not be as easy as I had thought. I phoned countless flyers and ads with much the same response ....." We're Full" . Finally I came across a lady in islandview ,which is about 10 mins out of my way but at this point I was looking out of my preferred area. We met up with this lady and she was great ! very friendly , great with kids, has 3 boys of her own and nice home setting.

Now after scheduling a second meet up , I get an email from one of the ladies I really liked that was previously full but of course NOW has an opening for both girls. What do I do now ? after talking to josh (because this woman is preferred although she's a bit more expensive but she is off hanwell and I like her just one tad bit more then the other lady ) i have asked her if there's any way she can charge less for one of my girls because they will only be there part-time and i really don't want to pay more then the gov'ment is giving me for childcare. So now my question is ... if she says no , is 50 more dollars a week for a very convenient location(and equally qualified provider) worth it ? I think so , hopefully Josh does too ....

Back to School I Go !

I've Done it , i've signed up for college! I'm taking Executive office assitant with medical & legal. and after researching a bunch of schools and talking to many people ,I decided to go to Compucollege for 67 weeks to get my diploma. So far everything's went really well , all the staff were very nice and welcoming ( and yes i do know they want your money lol ) and seem to have an open-door policy with answers to all your questions.

Also ....did you know? If you are on unemployment or have been on maternity leave in the last five years you qualify for funding from the government ! I sure didn't , but I heard from a friend a week ago and signed up right away .... haha You get half your tuition paid , all of your books , all of your childcare costs, gas , and living expenses while your in school . Why not ,right ? There's also a NB tuition rebate program that allows you to claim 2,000$ a year up to 10,000$ , so maybe when i'm back to work i'll get a check back instead of paying in like I usually do

Classes are from 1-5pm(or 8-12 if you choose the morning) so I just have to get the girls a sitter for five hours a day(still working on that )

I can't wait to start ! I think it will also be good for the girls to get out of the house in the afternoon and hang out with someone else for a change (they must get bored of me at some point lol), and it will be a break for me too.

I'll let ya know how it goes ! ttfn

I'm a Married Lady now !!!!

Oh wow ! I haven't had one second to sit down and blog in a whole 2 months !! well here we are the beginning of september and back to the normal routines , which i'm sooooo happy about .....Planning a wedding was alot more work that I had previously expected ...but in the end everything turned out perfect ...We had a beautiful day ( a cool 35' degrees though lol) and then danced the night away. We also had a wonderful honeymoon , oceanfront in PEI.

So now you're probably wondering how the girls are making out ...welll .....Summer is finally getting to be more well behaved and helpful. We've convinced her to keep napping which is making all the difference , but we've changed the time of her naps and have seen a big improvement in her attitude ( now she naps at 3pm instead of 1pm ) , and gives me a break to make supper alone ...hehe

Addison has made some major developments since last time , She can crawl now (very well i might add) and can also get up and walk around holding on to things. She has two teeth (which she had a really hard time with ) and a third one is on the way ...She makes babbling sounds and says "da da" all the time.


Anywho , haven't got many plans for this weekend , other than going to go to the New Maryland yard sale on saturday as long as it doesn't rain . So grab your stroller/wagon/ baby carrier and i'll see ya on the route , Awesome Deals are Guaranteed!!!

And the Festivities Begin....

So this weekend is the first of many wedding events , Josh's Mom & Step-dad are throwing us a wedding shower/ rehearsal dinner this saturday and I'm super pumped !! I't just basically a big family BBQ but fun all the same ... Food and Drinks , what more can ya ask for ? haha


Wedding plans are finally getting tied up and we're coming into our last month ...& My Dress FINALLY Fits !! ....So glad I didn't have to attempt to get it altered ...


I'm not sure where I left off on Addison's milestones but she's on the move now and into EVERYTHING ! Her and Summer are playing together more everyday (even though i've had the worst couple of weeks with summer , those darn terrible two's ) . 7 Months and Still no teeth for Addison, although it's miraculous she's got hands left with the constant knawing ... I'm starting to sleep train her tonight (there I said it here so I can't just give up ) , so my plan is , when she wakes up NO nursing anymore , i'm still going to try to help her get back to sleep if she cries for more than a few minutes but I know that if I keep feeding her at night she'll never give it up ....

Happy Canada Day!

I can't believe it's July 1st already ! Man , have I got lots to do in the next 1.75 months. I kinda feel like i'm wasting away the summer focusing on the wedding and not just enjoying it ...oh well i guess it only happens once!

Addison made her 6th Month trip to the doctor this past week , and she's 16lbs 8 ozs & 26 1/2 inches long. As for her eye and skin , as always it's still a waiting game to see if they can go away on their own ... Although she also had a clicking in the hip (which i imagine is quite common ) so we're watching that also. I 'm in to the hospital sometime soon to have three moles removed in the next month or so.

Josh is HATING his new job at the nackawic mill ....but really i can understand. Aparently it's super dangerous , they only work inside for 15 minutes of every hour, the other 45 minutes they go outside and wait. There are gas leaks every second day , which means they spend that day outside waiting for it to be safe inside again. It's 100 degrees inside and they have to wear full clothes and gas masks while they work. The money is good but not good enough for him to stay there too long , so we're back to sending out resumes and applications to see if he can get a job out west ....

I was back to the gym this week , had a good workout and then weighed myself (i only do this once every 4-6 weeks) and i now weigh 20lbs less than I did the beginning of March YAYYY!!!
Now i just have to go to mom's and try my dress on again ...haha


Anywho wherever you are this Canada day, Hope it's a good one ! As for us we're hitting the block party and fireworks . Hope to see some of you there!

In 6 Months ....

In the last six months I have rocked, cooed , laughed , cried, kissed, bathed, fed, changed and spent all-nighters with what looks like my last baby girl. To say I am a bit sadened is an understatement in the very least. Is 6 months really to soon to have a baby itch again ??? My only real wish is to keep her this age for the rest of her life , a chubby , wiggly, smiley , happy-go-lucky baby ..forever ..lol.

She's eating baby food now and has so far liked carrots and sweet potatoes , green beans are next on the list. Diaper changes are particularly interesting also ...I now have to peek first before I prepare for the task .haha .. Still no victories in the sippy cup department , but we're working on it ( she has yet to think it's much more than a chew toy ) . We're in to see the Doc next week , and i'm excited to see how much she's grown , and find out some info on the dry rubbery skin patches she has on her arms and abdomen , and her eye that has had a non- stop leak since birth.

I'm in to see the doctor also , because I was supposed to get my back checked out after having addison but still have yet to get in for myself (oops). Hopefully a few spots on my back are only moles and not anything to worry about ...Hate being in the hospital no matter how long the stay ....(long story involving a short cancer scare 7 years ago)

Josh finally got a new job , doing electrical at the nackawic mill ...so it's things are looking up for us ....Here's hoping it continues ...


p.s We are getting married in t- 2 months !!

Need Sleep !

Okay so , I forgot to mention anything about my lastest struggles with Addison in the previous post so....once again here goes ....lol

I Need Some Sleep ! For the past two months addison has completely changed her sleeping routine , and I have no clue what to do. She now wakes up every 2 hours or so in the night ! I'm up 4-5 times a night and then spending at least a half hour in between to fall back asleep (so pretty much up all night ) At first I thought it was a growth spurt I could ride out , because she only wants to eat when she wakes up, but it hasn't quit yet ...Then I moved on to different things I thought might be bothering her ...I make sure she's not gasy or cold or hungry , i've tried letting her fuss a bit to see if she'd fall back asleep , I thought her teeth might be hurting so i've given her tylenol or camilia before bed to see if that would work . We have a bedtime routine , she gets a few spoonfuls of cereal right before bed but nothing seems to work.I'm starting to wonder if it has anything to do with my breastmilk ...

I know some babies take a long time to sleep through the night but she already was from 1 month to 3-4 months , and i'm not sure what has changed . She has two to three naps in the day , but not for more than an hour.

With the wedding coming up, and the stress that comes along with it . I'm feeling run down.
At this point I really wouldn't mind her even just waking up once in the night for a feeding but 5 times! I know I can't handle it much longer . If you have any insight PLEASE share it !

It's Crunch time!!!

So now we're less than three months away from our wedding and things are really coming together more and more everyday. It's starting to make me so excited !! I know I won't sleep for a week before the big day ..haha Just today I booked our flowers, which was a huge sigh of relief because I really wanted real flowers and was starting to run out of options and might have opted for fake flowers instead ..phew! We also just heard from the lady that's to make chocolates for the wedding instead of fudge , which is sorta a disapointment but oh well , Can't say I hate chocolate so it's better than nothing lol . We're also picking up our marriage license tommorrow yay! So really all that's left to check off is decorations, rings , order of events , reading selection, jewelery , tux picking and fitting , babysitters and mani/pedi appt.

Addison is growing way too fast ;( , she'll be 6 months in a week and a half , and on to real food . I'm starting to get so depressed that I may not have my own little baby ever again ...but then again i'm happy to see us be able to get out as a family more and more everyday and even on my own once and awhile .. Speaking of out on my own , My parents Anniversary was two weekends ago and addison stayed at her nan's for most of the night without me and did perfectly fine , to my astonishment ..The party went over really well and was a nice night out away from the kids .

Addison first tooth is just about to emerge (after months of teething ) , and my poor boobs are feeling the brunt of it ..lol I Hope it holds off as long as possible for my sake at least lol
Summer is getting along good too .. lol everyday we're amazed with the things the child comes out with ...lol like a few nights ago when she was having a hard time getting to sleep a few nights in a row ..so josh had decided to go into sleep with her just for the night to calm her down ...in the middle of the night he said he woke up and looked over and summer was in the rocking chair reading a book to him while he slept ...i almost died when he told me the next morning ...ahhaha

anywho i'm off to go do some dishes and BBQ some food ..till next time ....

Five Years Ago ....

This year was my third Mother's day being a mom , and i really can't believe it .... 5 years ago if you would have told me that in five years i'd have two girls, be a stay-at-home mom and be gettting ready for a wedding I really would have rolled on the floor laughing. Five years ago this month , I had just met Josh and we had begun seeing each other on occasion, We were both getting ready to graduate highschool. Me , extremely excited to move out on my own and go to university and Josh beginning his career in electrical work.



Boy, did my plans change .....I had planned to go to university for a few years until I was old enough to apply for the RCMP ( I went to university at the ripe age of 17 ) . After one year of university i realized i was wasting my money and not getting any further ahead , so i decided not to go back and to just work full- time to get ahead , until I could apply for police school. Me and josh were together for two years when we decided to move in together in an itsy bitsy apartment in the middle of harvey , while i worked at the restaurant right beside our building. A funny tidbit : our rent was 275 $ haha Anywho after awhile he had moved into fredericton to be close to my new job and a year later one thing led to another and we were pregnant.



I still dream of going to police school , never really knowing how or when it would ever be possible . I Love being a mom to our children and never regret anything that's happened , but on the random day I think to myself what would have happened if i had applied and gotten into the rcmp academy ... what would my life be like ? Would me and josh still be together ? Where would we live ? etc ...




I will go back to school someday , not sure what for , but right now i'm content to stay home and be with my children during their younger years. So this Mother's day I'm Happy I got to share the day with my family and look back on what got me to this wonderful day. Happy Mother's Day to everyone and Hope you had as nice a day as I did.

Party Time !!

Summer is now officially Two years old ! Where has the time gone ? ...........This past weekend we had her birthday party with some of her friends and a few family members and it went off without a hitch ...To tell ya the truth I was a bit nervous to host a kid's party , as i've never done this before but to my surprise it went wonderful and I think summer really had a good time. We played some games with prizes , opened her presents , had some BBQ food & cake and then handed out some treat bags( all with no major disaters !) . And to boot , nobody got Lost on the way out (to harvey) , which I was sure would happen.

It is Josh's birthday on wednesday so he got some gifts too , we got him a belt , shorts , and a new watch (cross you fingers this one doesn't get broke , drown, or get lost ); he got a fishing rod and some gear from his mom and some money from my parents.

Now for a wedding update : the invitations have been picked up , one bridemaid dress is finished , dj is confirmed, bought 300 coconut tealights (which i have no idea what i'm going to do with ) and we're on the final month countdown to THE dress being in.....Things are really starting to come together !!! I'm getting sooo excited !!!

Oh the Fun of a Toddler , a Baby and a Wedding

Oh man , i'm sooo bad at trying to keep up with this lol , but really can ya blame me ? Now that I'm home alone for seven weeks I guess I SHOULD be able to keep this darn thing updated lol. So , if ya haven't guessed already Josh is now in moncton doing his fourth block for his electrical liscence. I really thought these stupid blocks would never end , it's a complete interuption in our finances when we were already behind a bit. Alas, this is the last time he'll be going so i guess we'll get through it.

Summer is now daytime potty trained (hooray !), and she puts a pullup on during nap time and bed time. All it took was two weeks straight at home in panties , a few accidents, and alot of laundry but she finally gets it. Addison has been teething , so i've been trying different techniques to help with the pain , when lo and behold the tried and true tylenol is the only thing that seems to help any . I bought the very expensive Camilia thinking if it helped at all it would be worth it and used the max dose of 3 mls in 45 mins with no difference in pain (that I observed anyway). She's not old enough to hold anything in her mouth to chew on and I haven't heard any good things about baby orajel, so tylenol has been my only saviour.

and Once again I have a dilema that i'd be very grateful to you (that means especially you , cindy !) to give me any ideas on .....so here's the story .... Breastfeeding addison is going extremely well , she's four months this week and I always knew I would nurse her exclusively till six months but ..now that it's going sooo well I would really not mind continuing to nurse till a year old (or as long as it continues to go well ) . My problem is with the wedding (she'll be 8 months old then), I really want to be able to enjoy the wedding & dance and have a few drinks without feeling guilty , also we'll be going on honeymoon for a week , now I know I could attempt to pump enough milk for a week's worth and give that to her then..... but then during the honeymoon i'd have to pump every 3-4hours just so I wouldn't leak everywhere. I even thought if I didn't get enough milk pumped I could just give her a bit of formula then continue to breastfeed when I got back , but I would still have to pump the whole time to keep my milk supply up ...ahhhh I feel like i'm being so selfish but is it selfish to want to enjoy your wedding and dance ?? HELP!!!

okay so , I'm in need of a good vent and I'm hoping this forum will be the perfect place to get it all out before I go bonkers ... so here goes :
As most of you know we are planning for our wedding this year in august. When we decided to finally get it over and done with my Mother said that her and my dad would really like to help out and would like to pay for the dress, the hall and the food for the reception. I happily accepted and continued with the planning thinking nothing of it ....then came the dress shopping .....I looked everywhere I could including four dress shops in and around fredericton and countless websites for THE perfect dress. After I had gone to a couple shops, I was very disapointed that most dresses I liked on the shelf looked horrible on me ...and like any mother would she told me to press on , the dress for you will show up eventually. Then comes our trip to wild orchid , with her and my maid of honor we chose 10 dresses to try on (all ranging from 700-1300$). I tried them on and found one that was perfect ! ...Still I decided to keep looking just in case , and even looked for the same dress for cheaper ..anywhere ..to no avail . I then get a call from my mother saying that she thinks I should wait and look in moncton , st. john , bangor ..etc . I try and explain to her that I don't want another dress I wanted that one (and the extra money in all the traveling would pay for the dress itself ) and I understood it was expensive but that I would gladly pay for half if they couldn't afford it ..We had to order it then , because it takes 4-5 months to come in and she's closing her shop in june ....So that was fine , we ordered the dress , and she paid for all of it after i knew she secretly didn't want to. Then comes the church and reception hall , which she argued that she wanted it to be in fredericton ,not in harvey where we live , and where josh's grandmother is buried (which is very important to josh )because it would be inconvenient for Her side of the family. Then music for the dance , which she wanted a band (because she could get one for free) and we want a DJ, so that we can have all different types of music instead of just one. Then one day I was looking at invitation verses and told her about one I liked with summer & addison's names in it with ours , and well she kinda flipped out ...saying that their names had to be on it and that was how it was supposed to be done ..etc etc ...which i don't even really mind , I just never knew it was quite sooo important. I also received a call from my grandmother after that conversation with a great big guilt trip about how much they are doing to to help me out , that I should at least mention them on the invitations ... and i felt like saying ..I'm sorry that because she insists on paying for everything that I can't let her make all the decisions as she aparently had believed when she told me ...Add on to that that we're trying to figure out who will be the master of ceremonies , and after me and josh discussed it we thought that one of his uncles would do a great job , my mother didn't agree...lol ..She informs me that the MC has to be from the bride's family (which I know is not true because our aunt and uncle just got married and the mc was from our family not hers) . . I'm to the point now where I think a beach wedding somewhere hot would be alot less stressful.

Amongst all of this , the girls are getting baptized this weekend and we're having everyone over for dinner afterwards , my parent's 25th wedding anniversary is this year and we're planning a huge surprise party for them in may , so I have to keep dodging remarks about their anniversary so they won't figure it out. Josh is going away to school in a month so we need to pool our money and pay bills so we don't get behind all while trying to save money for the party and the wedding ....lol . And Summer's and Josh's birthdays are coming up , i'm trying to get my brother out of jail (another story for another day) for a few days to come to the party .....As you can see on on the verge of pulling my hair out ...so if ya see a bald lady running around crazy in the grocery store with two girls , you'll know that's me .....

I Think I've Lost my Mind!

Ok so lately ( well since i had addison) i've completely lost my mind , i feel like some days i must have left my brain at home. Just this week I was in town all day and josh got home before me , and when i did get home josh informs me i left the front door of our house wide open on the way out ..lol .... then on wednesday i forgot Summer's cup and a snack for her to eat at the gym , so i had to buy a new cup and a sandwich for her ... and yesterday when i was talking to mom on the phone i forgot what i was going to say mid-sentence ...i had to call her back a half hour later when i finally remembered . and that's not even the beginning ! Having two kids to watch , clothe , bath , feed , put to sleep and read to , is taking a toll on my brain ! The simpleist of things just get lost in the shuffle .... Does this happen to everyone or is it just me ?

Ok so i haven't written anything in forever so i thought i must inform everybody how we're doing and what's been going on in our neck of the woods .. Wedding plans are going swimmingly (that's a word right?) , bridesmaids dresses have found a maker , wedding dress has been picked and ordered, priest has finally been contacted and met with , addresses are being acumulated and the Pei honeymoon cottage has been reserved.

Speaking of dresses , i ordered mine two sizes too small so that's really been my motivation to get back into shape and lose some weight ...which lead me to join the gym at the superstore southside ...So i have been going to workout with a trainor three times a week ...and i really love it !!! the kids get to play (or well sleep for addison) in the daycare center for an hour or so and i get to work my butt off (literally) kid-free . Plus they have tanning so i can get a little color before the wedding / honeymoon.

Addison's been doing really well , she had a six week appt. with our doctor and was 10 lbs 6 ozs last Monday , a pound bigger then summer was at the same age and summer was a pound bigger at birth ...haha she was also an inch or so longer and her head had grown too . Breastfeeding is going fabulous ! i'm feeling so much more at ease with it this time around and have pretty much rid my fear of nursing in public , and right now hate the thought of her getting any older lol

We took the girls to church last week for the first time , and it was actually better then i expected it to be ..Summer was fairly good mostly b/c i was a smart mommy and brought some snacks ..and as always addison slept through the whole thing ... and we spoke to the priest about having them baptized and he said " How about on Easter sunday " .. So i can imagine how thats going to go ...lol

Josh has still not found a consistent job ..which is making us once again search for work out west ...although he doesn't have too long to go because he's back to school in april ...

Oh and i won bingo again last night ! yay! although aparently i can't go ever again ..lol josh was watching the kids and addison cried for 20 mins while he tried to get her to take the bottle ..so no more bingo for me for awhile .... ;(

Addison can hear ...amongst other things ..

So we went to the audiologist yesterday and lo and behold she passed the test , thank god !

And me ? well i'm knee deep in wedding plans, invitation lists , dress designs, etc ,etc... but it's going quite well and i pretty much have things picked out and thought of just need to gets things bought and paid for ...

i've also officially started to get summer potty training , we're starting slow though ...she's pretty comfortable sitting on it , with or without her diaper on ..now just to teach her what she has to do on it ..lol when she sits on it ..i'm like "ok pee!" , and well she looks at me like i have four heads ..so i've come to the conclusion that i need to get her on it every hour or less so that sometime , someway , it will happen on it's own and she'll magically discover what the pottys actually for (haha yeah right !) Once again , wish me luck !!

Oh and just a note for all you breastfeeding mums out there, i've been meaning to let ya know about the new breastfeeding room at the regent mall . If ya haven't already checked it out you really should ! It's so convenient and clean , a tad bit small , but has big comfy leather chairs , a sink and a diaper changing station WITH WIPES!! . I've even used it just to change a diaper , because i hate doing it in the public bathrooms ..ick ... The room is in the new entrance down by sears , you just go into the new mall customer service place and you'll see a room with a picture of a baby and a door hanger on the door and voila~ peaceful feeding place away from the crowds ..

Three week growth spurt ~

....so we've made it three whole weeks and now we're in the midst of a full blown "eat every 20 mins" growth spurt ..and i just keep telling myself ..it will be over soon just hang in there ...but other then that everything is going much more smoothly , summer seems to be calming down , supper gets made most days, and the laundry is not overtaking the house anymore ..Josh is also back to work , good thing too because we were starting to run out of money ..although he's not liking it much and back searching for a good job out west .

We've decided to get married this summer (date to be announced soon)so we're needing some extra money for that ... and he's off to school in april to finally finish his apprenticeship out. Still have yet to take out the girls by myself but i'm thinking about trying it this weekend ..wish me luck !!

First trip to the doctor's office

Do ya ever think there's something obviously very wrong with your child and come to find out everything's either normal or there's nothing you can do to help them .....Well today i had that kind of day ....

Addison is a wonderful baby ...sleeps very well , almost never cries unless she's hungry ,has caught on to breastfeeding instinctively , smiles all the time, and is overall very content ...amongst what i assumed was a cold , an eye infection , and some mild feeding issues ( on my part) but to my surprise they were all normal /"there's nothing you can do because she's too young " symptoms ...but still i'm feeling unsatisfied. Her nose is very congested , her eyes are swollen and have a discharge , she gags, chokes , and vomits during and after feedings (from overactive letdown & oversupply ) but aparently this is all "normal" . On the bright side she's 8lbs now (she was 6'5 in hospital and 7'2 last week) and an inch longer....

Summer on the other hand ....has turned into quite the handful ...wants attention at every second of the day and finds the peaceful feeding sessions to be the perfect time to get into EVERYTHING...here's hoping this is a phase ........!