I've been trying to avoid bombarding all of you readers with all things baby-related, but this has been and will always be my place to ramble about all things, so for all of you that are not interested, you can just skip over any post that is just too "baby" for you. After all, this is about Mr and Mrs M, and really little peanut is forefront in our brains all the time!
I've always been intrigued with the idea of cloth diapering, long before we were actually pregnant. I liked the idea of saving tons of garbage sitting in a landfill for hundreds of years, and saving our bank accounts hundreds of dollars (on average about $1000-1500) over the diapering life of our little peanut. After all if my mother could cloth diaper two of her three daughters with old-school prefolds and diaper pins, and a ringer washing machine, then with all the almost high-tech by comparison cloth diapers now I was sure to be able to manage right? Not to mention, I own a modern washing machine, so I can dump the laundry and go!
There are just so many options out there! And although we will be saving ourselves a ton over the course of a couple years, we will have to put out a large chunk of change as an investment in order to be able to make this venture work! I also wanted something user-friendly if you will so Andre will have no excuses about not changing a diaper. I quickly figured out that this involved some research. Thankfully I have friends both in real life and online that have been cloth diapering their little one's so I have been asking questions, and visiting websites that they have suggested. I've also been doing comparison shopping, trying to find the cheapest price on my favourite cloth diaper so far, BumGenius.
I have also been researching cloth diaper samplers, basically a collection of whatever type of cloth diaper you have chosen, in different brands so you can choose what diaper works best for you and your little one. The best part is that I've found a company that is Canadian (yeah!) and only about 45 minutes away that offers this, so I have bookmarked their site to save for this spring. Who knew that finding something to cover a baby's bottom would be so confusing!
Monday, September 27, 2010
Good-Bye Summer...
...hello Fall!
Otherwise known as my favourite season of the entire year. There's just something about having to break out the sweaters, and jackets, the freshness in the air, and the rich colours all around. I love getting out the cozy blankets that can be snuggled under in the evenings, and warm duvets to curl up under all night.
Just this week I brought out a spicy vanilla candle and let the whole house smell super yummy. Today on the agenda was breaking out the duvet for the winter. I think it will still be a little too early for me at least since peanut seems to be keeping me fairly warm while sleeping at night. I'm sure Andre will appreciate the extra warmth though.
We're getting ready for Thanksgiving around here as well. Last year Andre and I were holiday-dinner-hosting-dynamos after hosting Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, but this year Thanksgiving will be the extent of our hosting duties. I'm not a fan of hosting Christmas dinner, and will never do this again, and I will be too busy with a newborn to host Easter dinner this year. My mom has agreed to take over the hosting reins once again for these holidays. We also got news that we will be having house guests this fall! My friend Laura and her little girl joined us for a few days this summer, and she asked if we would be willing to offer them our guestroom for a few days again this fall. We're looking forward to it!
We've also been busy researching and planning all the things that will need to be purchased for our little peanut! For updates on all things baby related you can visit our baby blog at: http://ourlittleonemcg.blogspot.com/
Otherwise known as my favourite season of the entire year. There's just something about having to break out the sweaters, and jackets, the freshness in the air, and the rich colours all around. I love getting out the cozy blankets that can be snuggled under in the evenings, and warm duvets to curl up under all night.
Just this week I brought out a spicy vanilla candle and let the whole house smell super yummy. Today on the agenda was breaking out the duvet for the winter. I think it will still be a little too early for me at least since peanut seems to be keeping me fairly warm while sleeping at night. I'm sure Andre will appreciate the extra warmth though.
We're getting ready for Thanksgiving around here as well. Last year Andre and I were holiday-dinner-hosting-dynamos after hosting Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, but this year Thanksgiving will be the extent of our hosting duties. I'm not a fan of hosting Christmas dinner, and will never do this again, and I will be too busy with a newborn to host Easter dinner this year. My mom has agreed to take over the hosting reins once again for these holidays. We also got news that we will be having house guests this fall! My friend Laura and her little girl joined us for a few days this summer, and she asked if we would be willing to offer them our guestroom for a few days again this fall. We're looking forward to it!
We've also been busy researching and planning all the things that will need to be purchased for our little peanut! For updates on all things baby related you can visit our baby blog at: http://ourlittleonemcg.blogspot.com/
Thursday, September 16, 2010
The Journey
I don't know why I was reminded of this yesterday while at work of all places. But I was and figured maybe I thought about it because I was meant to write about it and share it with someone out there who needs to hear it. Who knows, it could just be the hormones talking!
So when Andre and I were going through treatments I all but stopped going to church. I couldn't do it. Couldn't handle seeing all the families. All the new babies. All the families that were blessed, when I thought that somehow God had it out for Andre and I. Going through Infertility is hard. It tests your faith, your marriage, the very core of everything you thought you ever wanted out of life. Needless to say church was too hard. For some during the hard times they are drawn to church, for me, I feel pushed away.
Since finding out we were blessed with this incredible miracle, (Yes, even though we used modern technology to get pregnant, it makes it no less of a miracle for happening.) we have slowly started going back to church. Some days are really easy, others a little harder.
In our church the ministers usually take the whole month of July off for vacation. We went a few times in July, then we went back again the first Sunday the ministerial team (a husband and wife) were back from vacation. I honestly believe that I was meant to be in church that day, to hear the children's story of all things. That Sunday there was not one child in the place. Go figure, they didn't want to be sweating in church! The minister still did the children's story. He said it was for "the big kids".
Him and his wife had gone to Southampton that year to go cottaging. He showed a picture on the big screen of his wife standing near a beach fence with an expanse of sand and water behind her. He talked about how the sand was so hot that year. How when you walked over the sand to get to the water you kind of bounced from foot to burning foot, kind of howling. All the while getting closer and closer to the nice, cool water. He talked about that journey to the water. How painful and long it seemed in that moment, but how once you got to the water, it didn't seem to matter. In fact, once you got there you would totally do it again in a second. In the end, it didn't matter how hard and painful the journey was, it was always worth it in the end.
The tears started. I couldn't help it. Hell, now that I'm typing it out the tears are coming again! I couldn't help but think of every failed cycle. Every follie check when the tech would tell me how none of my follies were growing. I thought of every needle during that last cycle, along with all those follie checks at the beginning when nothing was happening but I was told to keep going.
Then I thought of the day when we finally had one little follie. It was freaking amazing. I then thought about that morning when I saw those fainter than faint lines, then the next morning when I saw those words that I had been dying to see.
In the end yes, our journey was hard. I know that there are some out there that have gone, and are going through worse. But don't lose faith, even though it is so easy to lose faith. Yes the journey is hard, but the end, the end is worth it.
So when Andre and I were going through treatments I all but stopped going to church. I couldn't do it. Couldn't handle seeing all the families. All the new babies. All the families that were blessed, when I thought that somehow God had it out for Andre and I. Going through Infertility is hard. It tests your faith, your marriage, the very core of everything you thought you ever wanted out of life. Needless to say church was too hard. For some during the hard times they are drawn to church, for me, I feel pushed away.
Since finding out we were blessed with this incredible miracle, (Yes, even though we used modern technology to get pregnant, it makes it no less of a miracle for happening.) we have slowly started going back to church. Some days are really easy, others a little harder.
In our church the ministers usually take the whole month of July off for vacation. We went a few times in July, then we went back again the first Sunday the ministerial team (a husband and wife) were back from vacation. I honestly believe that I was meant to be in church that day, to hear the children's story of all things. That Sunday there was not one child in the place. Go figure, they didn't want to be sweating in church! The minister still did the children's story. He said it was for "the big kids".
Him and his wife had gone to Southampton that year to go cottaging. He showed a picture on the big screen of his wife standing near a beach fence with an expanse of sand and water behind her. He talked about how the sand was so hot that year. How when you walked over the sand to get to the water you kind of bounced from foot to burning foot, kind of howling. All the while getting closer and closer to the nice, cool water. He talked about that journey to the water. How painful and long it seemed in that moment, but how once you got to the water, it didn't seem to matter. In fact, once you got there you would totally do it again in a second. In the end, it didn't matter how hard and painful the journey was, it was always worth it in the end.
The tears started. I couldn't help it. Hell, now that I'm typing it out the tears are coming again! I couldn't help but think of every failed cycle. Every follie check when the tech would tell me how none of my follies were growing. I thought of every needle during that last cycle, along with all those follie checks at the beginning when nothing was happening but I was told to keep going.
Then I thought of the day when we finally had one little follie. It was freaking amazing. I then thought about that morning when I saw those fainter than faint lines, then the next morning when I saw those words that I had been dying to see.
In the end yes, our journey was hard. I know that there are some out there that have gone, and are going through worse. But don't lose faith, even though it is so easy to lose faith. Yes the journey is hard, but the end, the end is worth it.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Chicken Enchiladas
I work in a chiropractic office. The owner of the clinic and her husband have quite the vegetable garden every summer. Much more food than the two of them could possibly eat, so she brings in baskets of veggies for us and the patients to take home. I just happened to pick out a green, orange, and jalapeno pepper, and decided that was a perfect excuse to make up some Chicken Enchiladas for dinner.
We got this recipe from a Milk Calendar about five million years ago and it's one of Andre's favourites. Who knows, maybe it will become one of yours?
Chicken Enchiladas:
Ingredients
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 chicken breasts, cut into cubes
1 green pepper, chopped
1 red (or orange pepper), chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped (optional)
Note: If using jalapenos, please be careful and use gloves when chopping to avoid having oils on your hands and then touching your face. Trust me I have done this, it HURTS.
1 cup salsa
1/2 cup water
1 tsp cumin
1/2 cup shredded low fat mozzarella cheese, shredded
Whole Wheat tortillas (about 5-8)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place chopped onion and garlic in skillet over medium heat. Cook until golden.
We got this recipe from a Milk Calendar about five million years ago and it's one of Andre's favourites. Who knows, maybe it will become one of yours?
Chicken Enchiladas:
Ingredients
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 chicken breasts, cut into cubes
1 green pepper, chopped
1 red (or orange pepper), chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped (optional)
Note: If using jalapenos, please be careful and use gloves when chopping to avoid having oils on your hands and then touching your face. Trust me I have done this, it HURTS.
1 cup salsa
1/2 cup water
1 tsp cumin
1/2 cup shredded low fat mozzarella cheese, shredded
Whole Wheat tortillas (about 5-8)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place chopped onion and garlic in skillet over medium heat. Cook until golden.
Add chicken and cook for 3-4 minutes.
Add peppers, salsa, water, and cumin. Continue to cook over medium heat until most of the liquid has evaporated. About 15 minutes.
Fill tortillas with meat and veggie mixture, and a little bit of cheese. Roll. Place in 9 x 13 pan.
You are suppose to have some liquid left in the end of all of this to pour over enchiladas. I never have. Usually I just sprinkle the stray veggie mixture over, then add some extra salsa, then sprinkle with a little more cheese.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Serve with Mexican rice and salad, or side of your choice. If you're a tired pregnant woman like me just throw an enchilada on a plate and eat.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Resort Review
Okay, so I have some very strong opinions on the resort that we stayed at while in Aruba. Let me start by saying that this was our second trip to Aruba. We love Aruba. We love Aruba because it is out of the hurricane belt, the weather is always spectacular, you can drink the water right out of the tap!, it's so safe you could hop on the city bus right outside your resort and go shopping downtown, these are just a few of the reasons off the top of my head.
The first time we visited Aruba was almost 3 years ago. It was for our honeymoon and we stayed at the Riu Palace Aruba. Over the last three years we had met many other people that have been to Aruba and love it as much as we do. A number of these people have stayed at the Holiday Inn Sunspree. Some of these people will only travel to Aruba after visiting many other tropical destinations and when in Aruba will only stay at the Holiday Inn. We thought if these people will stay at this place every year then it has to be good right? Well, partially. The Holiday Inn was much more reasonable than the Riu, so we thought we would go for it, and stay at the Holiday Inn.
Throughout my review you will find me compare the Holiday Inn to the Riu. This would be because this is the only other resort in Aruba we have stayed at to compare it.
Flight: Different carrier this time. The first trip we flew with Sunquest. This time our flight was through Canjet. What can you say? It's a long flight, between 4.5-5hrs each way. The food was better with Sunquest. The flight attendants were a little nicer with Sunquest too. Flight was on time going to Aruba, and was delayed over an hour for our flight home. This happened three years ago too.
Shuttle to Resort: AMAZING! We were in our shuttle bus to the resort literally within 30 minutes of the plane landing on the island. It was great. No complaints here.
Shuttle from resort to airport: DISASTER. It was chaos in the lobby, luggage and people everywhere, and it seemed very unorganized. To avoid the craziness we paid $25 for a taxi to the airport. I think it was money well spent, Andre complained about spending the money.
Check In: Organized. Above the desk there were labels organized via alphabet to tell you where to line up. We lined up and got our little booklet. Our key wasn't ready, so we went to have lunch, and came back an hour later to pick up our key.
Our room: We requested a king sized bed and instead got two doubles. I wasn't terribly surprised. I really wanted a bigger bed than at home, but we're used to a double, so it was not biggie. The room was clean and had a fridge to store our snacks and water, and satellite tv. We also had a balcony with two chairs and a little table.
My biggest complaint with our room was the proximity to the elevators. There was only one room that separated us from the main elevator. We would hear this elevator all night, every night. If it wasn't for me not wanting to pack up everything, I would have demanded they switch our room. Looking back, packing up our stuff would have been totally worth a good night's sleep. Live and learn.
The food: Hmmm, I think I'll start with breakfast. Breakfast was good. They had everything from fruit and cereal, to juice and eggs. They had everyone covered for breakfast. The one issue is that the island does not have skim milk. Their idea of "light" milk is 2%, I did not drink a drop of milk the entire week because of this.
Lunch-It was okay. They always had to meat choices. A fish (all was good except for the Mahi Mahi, way too fishy tasting for me), and a meat. The only time they had chicken was when they had chicken legs. I have not eaten chicken legs since I was five. I don't like dark meat. Otherwise they were always serving beef or pork. Only one day did they have turkey breast. There was always a rice or potato and veggie, and pasta and kiddie options as well.
Dinner-SUCKED!! I don't know whether it was the selection (or lack thereof), the cuts of meat, or what, but it was bad. Bad, bad, bad. Everyone that we talked to felt the same way.
The A la Carte Restaurants: The reservation desk opened at 8am, we never had a problem making a reservation for either the Cafe Di Vinci (Italian) restaurant, or the Seabreeze (outdoor grill) restaurant. Cafe Di Vinci was horrible. Service was slow, and the food just horrible. Andre's chicken was overcooked and tough, my lasagna was 1/2 cheese, and too rich to finish.
The Seabreeze was wonderful. The ambiance was wonderful sitting overlooking the beach and sunset. The food was always great, and the service good. We ate here three nights.
Hut Reservation: The towel hut opened at 7am. Andre would be in line every morning by 7:15 with our towel card to get fresh towels and reserve our hut. I love how this resort reserves huts. There is a board with a map of all the numbered huts. You pick a hut based on location (or availability) and they put your room number beside the hut number. It was so great to get a hut everyday. We also had the same hut, which was close to our room. I think this is the fairest way to get a hut.
The Pools: Honestly we didn't spend much time at the pools. The resort was crawling with families, and we just aren't ready to have to deal with cranky, hyper children yet, so we stuck to the beach for the week. From what we did see though during our travels during the day was that the pools were small, but there seemed to be enough loungers, and and adequate amount of shade available. The huts around the pool were first come, first serve. There were two pools, one for the kids, one for the adults. Every time we went by the pool, the adult pool was crawling with kids.
The Beach: Tons of huts, beautiful sand, beautiful cool water. It was great. It was our home the week we were there. The hut reservation process was super easy and organized, so we always had shade while we were on the beach making my stay that much more comfortable (Andre says "Thank GOD!!!"). There were always plenty of loungers available as well.
Evening Entertainment: Crappity, crap, or non-existent.
Casino: Didn't go.
Miscellaneous Complaints/Comments: There was no bottled water supplied with the rooms. When we visited the front desk she told me this was because you could drink the water right out of the tap. Well that's great, but because the water lines don't run that deep, the cold water from the tap is luke-warm. Ewww. Thankfully we had brought our Clean Kanteen's from home, but you would've had to buy bottled water otherwise. We bought a litre bottle of local bottled water, and between the three containers always had cold water available for the two of us.
Overall Opinion: Andre says that he would stay at the Holiday Inn Sunspree again in a second. I'm undecided. I think that if you're going to pay the price to stay at an All-Inclusive resort you shouldn't have to eat off the resort (like we did one night) to avoid the shitty dinner buffet. The buffet is included with the price, and as such you should be able to enjoy it. We weren't the only guests that felt this way. The beach is awesome though, much better than the Riu, and more expansive than most of the other resorts that we walked past.
So there you have it. My review of Aruba!
The first time we visited Aruba was almost 3 years ago. It was for our honeymoon and we stayed at the Riu Palace Aruba. Over the last three years we had met many other people that have been to Aruba and love it as much as we do. A number of these people have stayed at the Holiday Inn Sunspree. Some of these people will only travel to Aruba after visiting many other tropical destinations and when in Aruba will only stay at the Holiday Inn. We thought if these people will stay at this place every year then it has to be good right? Well, partially. The Holiday Inn was much more reasonable than the Riu, so we thought we would go for it, and stay at the Holiday Inn.
Throughout my review you will find me compare the Holiday Inn to the Riu. This would be because this is the only other resort in Aruba we have stayed at to compare it.
Flight: Different carrier this time. The first trip we flew with Sunquest. This time our flight was through Canjet. What can you say? It's a long flight, between 4.5-5hrs each way. The food was better with Sunquest. The flight attendants were a little nicer with Sunquest too. Flight was on time going to Aruba, and was delayed over an hour for our flight home. This happened three years ago too.
Shuttle to Resort: AMAZING! We were in our shuttle bus to the resort literally within 30 minutes of the plane landing on the island. It was great. No complaints here.
Shuttle from resort to airport: DISASTER. It was chaos in the lobby, luggage and people everywhere, and it seemed very unorganized. To avoid the craziness we paid $25 for a taxi to the airport. I think it was money well spent, Andre complained about spending the money.
Check In: Organized. Above the desk there were labels organized via alphabet to tell you where to line up. We lined up and got our little booklet. Our key wasn't ready, so we went to have lunch, and came back an hour later to pick up our key.
Our room: We requested a king sized bed and instead got two doubles. I wasn't terribly surprised. I really wanted a bigger bed than at home, but we're used to a double, so it was not biggie. The room was clean and had a fridge to store our snacks and water, and satellite tv. We also had a balcony with two chairs and a little table.
My biggest complaint with our room was the proximity to the elevators. There was only one room that separated us from the main elevator. We would hear this elevator all night, every night. If it wasn't for me not wanting to pack up everything, I would have demanded they switch our room. Looking back, packing up our stuff would have been totally worth a good night's sleep. Live and learn.
The food: Hmmm, I think I'll start with breakfast. Breakfast was good. They had everything from fruit and cereal, to juice and eggs. They had everyone covered for breakfast. The one issue is that the island does not have skim milk. Their idea of "light" milk is 2%, I did not drink a drop of milk the entire week because of this.
Lunch-It was okay. They always had to meat choices. A fish (all was good except for the Mahi Mahi, way too fishy tasting for me), and a meat. The only time they had chicken was when they had chicken legs. I have not eaten chicken legs since I was five. I don't like dark meat. Otherwise they were always serving beef or pork. Only one day did they have turkey breast. There was always a rice or potato and veggie, and pasta and kiddie options as well.
Dinner-SUCKED!! I don't know whether it was the selection (or lack thereof), the cuts of meat, or what, but it was bad. Bad, bad, bad. Everyone that we talked to felt the same way.
The A la Carte Restaurants: The reservation desk opened at 8am, we never had a problem making a reservation for either the Cafe Di Vinci (Italian) restaurant, or the Seabreeze (outdoor grill) restaurant. Cafe Di Vinci was horrible. Service was slow, and the food just horrible. Andre's chicken was overcooked and tough, my lasagna was 1/2 cheese, and too rich to finish.
The Seabreeze was wonderful. The ambiance was wonderful sitting overlooking the beach and sunset. The food was always great, and the service good. We ate here three nights.
Hut Reservation: The towel hut opened at 7am. Andre would be in line every morning by 7:15 with our towel card to get fresh towels and reserve our hut. I love how this resort reserves huts. There is a board with a map of all the numbered huts. You pick a hut based on location (or availability) and they put your room number beside the hut number. It was so great to get a hut everyday. We also had the same hut, which was close to our room. I think this is the fairest way to get a hut.
The Pools: Honestly we didn't spend much time at the pools. The resort was crawling with families, and we just aren't ready to have to deal with cranky, hyper children yet, so we stuck to the beach for the week. From what we did see though during our travels during the day was that the pools were small, but there seemed to be enough loungers, and and adequate amount of shade available. The huts around the pool were first come, first serve. There were two pools, one for the kids, one for the adults. Every time we went by the pool, the adult pool was crawling with kids.
The Beach: Tons of huts, beautiful sand, beautiful cool water. It was great. It was our home the week we were there. The hut reservation process was super easy and organized, so we always had shade while we were on the beach making my stay that much more comfortable (Andre says "Thank GOD!!!"). There were always plenty of loungers available as well.
Evening Entertainment: Crappity, crap, or non-existent.
Casino: Didn't go.
Miscellaneous Complaints/Comments: There was no bottled water supplied with the rooms. When we visited the front desk she told me this was because you could drink the water right out of the tap. Well that's great, but because the water lines don't run that deep, the cold water from the tap is luke-warm. Ewww. Thankfully we had brought our Clean Kanteen's from home, but you would've had to buy bottled water otherwise. We bought a litre bottle of local bottled water, and between the three containers always had cold water available for the two of us.
Overall Opinion: Andre says that he would stay at the Holiday Inn Sunspree again in a second. I'm undecided. I think that if you're going to pay the price to stay at an All-Inclusive resort you shouldn't have to eat off the resort (like we did one night) to avoid the shitty dinner buffet. The buffet is included with the price, and as such you should be able to enjoy it. We weren't the only guests that felt this way. The beach is awesome though, much better than the Riu, and more expansive than most of the other resorts that we walked past.
So there you have it. My review of Aruba!
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