Blogging Laziness

I mentioned in my last post that I was going camping, and wondered how I'd be able to handle it, being 31 weeks pregnant.

Well, despite the FREEZING cold nights (literally) where I had to trek multiple times to the loo, and despite the mummy bag I had to fit into with my pregnancy pillow... I think I did ok! It sure was fun! Good friends, good fun, good food!

Colin caught more fish than I've ever seen him catch. I wanted him to go buy a lottery ticket because it seemed like his lucky day. I think he caught 20 (most were catch and release) over the 2 days. There was one time when he was standing on the shore PRACTICING his fly casting - NOT EVEN TRYING TO CATCH A FISH - and he caught one on the first cast! CRAZY!

Here's where the "Blogging Laziness" comes in. Check out the Vikings Blog for photos of the fun weekend!

Randomness

I have never done a post on randomness. I usually wait until I have something worthwhile to write about and then try to make an intelligent piece of writing about the one topic.

My pregnant brain does not let me do this often anymore so here are my random thoughts du jour.

*****

16 more shifts until my Mat leave!

8 vacation days before my Mat leave!

I wonder how good I'll be at being almost 8 months preggers, sleeping in a tent with -1 degree weather.

Orange Mocha Light Frappachinos are my favourite thing in the world. Too bad I have to remortgage the house to support my addiction. So much for abstaining from coffee.

I wonder if there will ever be a time in my life again when I am not obsessively thinking about my child. Probably not.

I do "Kakuro" puzzles probably an hour a day right now for a few reasons: to try an ward off "pregnancy brain", to help with morning sickness on the train, and because I SUCK at sitting down and not doing anything.

I want a wiener dog.

My child does not have a name yet. Hey, let's play "name my child"! Any takers?

I have not had ANY morning sickness in 7 days! Hallelujah!

My lunch break is finished........now.

Easy Breezy Summer Recipe

For lack of anything else to write about, and since everyone is blogging about BBQing, I have to share a simple recipe we put with all summer meals. It's a low-fat-dip-like-thing that goes with almost everything.

Stir together the following ingredients:

1 8 oz pkg of light cream cheese at room temp
1 single serving container no-fat plain yogurt
3 (or more) crushed garlic cloves
1 tsp oregano (from garden if available)
1 tsp basil (from garden if available)
Salt and Pepper

Viola! So easy, so delicious!

Of course if you are like my husband and don't like low fat stuff, you can always make the "with fat" variety (although I made the low fat one last time and he didn't notice a taste difference..tee hee so sneaky).

I got this recipe originally as a dip for hot buffalo chicken wings. We loved it. So we started using it instead of Tzatziki sauce for our Greek dishes. Now I use it to go along with:

• any BBQ'd meat
• skewered veggies
• rice
• fish
• dip for raw veggies
• maybe even chips?
• stick in a wrap with Greek salad and rice...one of our fave meals
• right now I think it would go great smothered on a toasted sesame bagel with mashed avacados, but I think that's a pregnancy thing

Please try and let me know how you like it!

Input, Please!

Colin and I really want to go on an Alaskan cruise. We've never been on a cruise before. We've heard that the scenery is breathtaking (BC is the most beautiful place on earth in our opinion), and that the food is the BEST of any food of any other cruise.

I thought it would be perfect for us this year! I'm really hot all the time now, so Alaska sounds great about now. Plus, we both love to eat! Especially now!

A month ago I found the best deal ever on Jubilee Travel "best bets". If you booked on that one specific day, a 7-day all-inclusive leave Vancouver, and return to Vancouver was LESS THAN $500 per person, all taxes included! That's a third of regular price!!

So thinking it's some kind of heavenly sign, I booked it! While I was in the process of booking, I happened to mention that I'd be 33 weeks pregnant at the time. Then the travel agent said, "Really? Oh......You know that no cruise ship will let women who are more than 27 weeks on board?".

Me and my stupid big mouth.

Oh well. I get nauseated on the train in the morning so what makes me think 168 hours on a boat would be any better?

Someday...someday....

So instead, we are going to Vancouver Island. It has many similarities to a cruise:

• We must take a cruise ship (er, BC ferry) to get there
• We will be eating a lot of All-Inclusive food from Save-On
• We will be seeing BC scenery
• Even though we're not staying in a cabin on the cruise ship, we will still be staying at various cabins (or are they called tents?)

All sarcasm aside, I am still very excited, even though its not a cruise! Colin and I only need each other to make a trip memorable, adventureous (but not too much), exciting and relaxing! Where we go is just details.

But it's the details that I need your help with.

Has anyone ever been to a great campsite, B&B or hotel on the Island that they'd recommend? Preferably something that costs less than $150 per night, and nowhere near Tofino. We might splurge on a night or two but will most likely stick to the tent the rest of the time.

Looking forward to your input!

Our Garden

One of the reasons we really wanted to buy a house with a yard is to have a garden. In our apartment we enjoyed growing flowers and veggies in pots on our deck. I love getting my garden gloves dirty and watching seeds and seedlings grow a little more every day. And I love being able to go outside to get the ingredients for dinner.

We've been at this house for almost 2 years, but last year we just didn't have enough time to build our garden before planting season.

We were determined to get it done this year.

The concrete blocks we used to build it were 36 pounds each, and I lost count at about 100 blocks we needed. So Colin got weightlifting training by having to lift every block into the truck, and load every one on the wheelbarrow, load them onto the ground and then lift again to get it into place. He had help from a friend for one load but other than that he lifted TONNES. Literally.

We also needed 2 truckloads full of gravel and 3 truckloads full of soil. I must admit that I over-did myself and helped quite a bit with the shovelling of gravel and dirt, which are probably both on the pregnancy "no-no" list.

I was amazed at how Colin was able to build this wall on a sloped surface, and get it perfectly level! He did a great job!! I shouldn't be amazed though, he's good at every home reno he tries.

Here is the end result:

Notice the back left corner in the above photo. I went out for a while one day a few weeks back and I came home and Colin had done this:

He put in a pond! I had so much fun planting flowers around it!

In the garden we planted leeks, chives, basil, cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, chili peppers, green peppers, jalepenos, carrots, eggplant, zuchinni and rhubarb. Along the retaining wall I planted sweet peas and sunflowers which I hope will cover the wall. Then of course in the corner of the garden is the pond and flower section.

We have sketches that we did last year for our garden ideas and it looks almost identical to our plans.

This clematis is in our front garden, not the back one, but I had to put a photo of it anyway. It's covered with about 15 of these gorgeous 6" diameter flowers!

The flowers in the front yard (in planter boxes, pots, hanging baskets and in the garden) make the house look so cheerful, and the garden in the back is our new little piece of tranquility.

Fly Away, Jay

Blue Jays and us generally have a rocky relationship. Last year, they lived in the tree immediately beside our bedroom window and would wake us up early every morning. Since then, a family of racoons moved into that tree, so they had to move to the other side of the yard.

We've enjoyed them this year. They're beautiful, and we love watching them go about their birdy life in our yard.

Yesterday after work, Colin and I were in the backyard watering the garden. I noticed a blue jay sitting on the grass, not moving. So we went to check it out to see if it was alive. When we got close enough, we realized it was a baby jay! It was so cute, all fluffy with baby feathers!

He was alive, but it was apparent he hadn't learned how to fly yet, as he flapped his cute wings trying with all his might. He must have fallen from his nest.

We have a lot of cats in our neighbourhood (doesn't everyone) and we often see racoons on the prowl at night, so we were very worried for the well-being our our new little friend.

We've heard that if you touch a baby animal, the parents will reject it, so without touching it, we sort of chased it a few feet into an area of our yard that is covered by branches on the ground. At least there it had SOME protection.

Since it was hot, we ate dinner on the deck. We could still see the little guy sitting right where we left him. As we ate, we heard it's parents on the opposite side of our yard, squaking in their nest. They sounded upset that we were even outside. Colin tried to get a closer look, but just about got divebombed, so moved away again.

As we watched, the parents took turns taking food to their lost baby on the other side of the yard, and then quickly moved away from it, as if to avoid drawing attention to it's whereabouts. They would watch over it from different locations: the trees, the fence, the grass...always being careful to not give away his location.

We had to go out for the evening. I must admit I thought about it while we were gone. When we got home, we were relieved to see that it was still ok! Colin surrounded it even more with twigs and branches in hopes that it would stay safe for the night.

Colin's paternal instinct is kicking in. A year ago he would have said "Who cares, let nature be". But now, he feels bad that mommy and daddy Jay might lose an offspring.

This morning, as I was eating my breakfast with the back door open, I noticed a white cat in the backyard with a bird in its mouth. I freaked out. I ran outside and grabbed rocks and threw them at the cat so he would drop his fresh catch. I went to go see what bird it was and luckily, it was not our little Jay.

I searched the area where the Jay was the night before, but I couldn't see it. I didn't know exactly where to look though, as Colin was the one who tucked it in for the night. So I updated my sleepy husband on my findings, and then had to go to work without knowing exactly what happened.

Colin emailed me when he got to work saying, "I looked for the Jay this morning and couldn't find him. Maybe he found his wings".

I hope so.