Onto May…

So part of me secretly wished, even though our baby is due in May, that we’d be surprised with its debut in April — and that is obviously because it would mean an EARLY debut!!  Alas, yesterday was the last day of April, and today is the first of May. I do love May though… A beautiful time of year here in southern Ontario! Our tulips are growing but have not yet bloomed, and there are bunnies everywhere!!

I am constantly wishing for this baby to come (I suppose there is a common theme with my blog posts of late… How boring!!). At my 39 week appointment this past Monday, my midwife gave me my first stretch & sweep (inside the cervix to sweep/separate membranes from the sac & wall of the uterus, to potentially increase the hormone prostaglandin that gets labour going). It was pretty darn uncomfortable, painful even, yet not in a normal sense. Somewhat hard to explain. She gave me the option a few times for her to stop, but I was determined to let it happen for as long as needed! David was thankfully with me, and it gave me a really good opportunity to practise my breathing and relaxation techniques. He admitted afterwards that he was nervous for me to experience pain (heart melting…!), but he does a really good job at not letting me notice. Which is obviously going to be key for when labour comes around!!

David has been getting excited for this baby too. He’s not one for showing too much emotion (unless it’s something like our wedding day… Where he cried first when I walked down the aisle!). When I told him I was pregnant, his facial expression hardly changed, aside from maybe a slight eyebrow raise and a, “Really?”. And then of course it took a little while (like a few months) for it to really sink in for him. When we first started seeing big movements on the outside, he was a little freaked out — but now he says, “I like the big ones” :) I’ve also noticed that he is watching a lot of youtube videos of dad’s doing silly things with their kids. I can only imagine the kind of stuff he will conjure up for videos with his own children!

I have never had any doubt in my mind about David’s ability to be an amazing father. I know he was a bit taken aback at first, with the thought of it no longer being just him and I, and that it was going to cost more money, and he’d lose some freedom (understandable!).  He is amazing with children though.  I know he mostly can’t wait for when our baby is around age 2, and he can play and talk with them.  It will surely be a family full of laughter, due to his unending humour and incredibly silly nature (that I love dearly!).  He of course (being a guy) would love to have a boy first, because lets be honest –we all know they can be easier when they reach those crucial ages!  However, he is one of the reasons why I want a girl — his capacity for love and devotion, protection, and ability to teach but not take things too seriously — a girl would be beyond blessed to have a daddy like him.  Girls need that extra bit, the true assurance and belief in their heart that they are loved, in order to live life abundantly.  It first must come from God, but having an earthly father who loves his daughter through God’s eyes, will bring up one strong young woman.  David is completely capable of that, and it will be a beautiful thing to witness.

So, onto beautiful May — the month that our baby will most definitely be born in!  And officially my new favourite time of year :)

I’ll leave you with a clip of baby’s strong heart beat from this past Monday’s appointment (which will hopefully be our last appointment!!) :)

 

 

In My Lunchbag.

Today I’m off to Calgary to start a 5 day long pairing. I haven’t had one of these, probably since last December!

I would say the hardest thing about a 5 day (aside from being away from home for that long/commuting to work) is the packing. You obviously have to bring a little extra of everything… but mostly, food.

I have been a flight attendant for a year now, and I can honestly say I have not yet mastered the contents of my lunch bag.  Especially, since we have no microwaves on board, and very rarely do we have them in our hotel rooms (when you know there will be one there, you get pretty excited about dinner!).

Also, I have been moving all over the place, previously to being married. I’ve not really had my own stuff, or my own space, for about a year now.  I’m finally starting to crack open my brand new small appliances (thankful for lovely wedding gifts!), and experiment with some recipes that will allow for travel (and taste okay cold!).  I’ve always enjoyed cooking and baking, but took a long break from it when I lived out west.  I wasn’t a fan of cooking for myself — if it didn’t include someone telling me how yummy it was (or not so much!), then what was the point??  David always joked about how skeptical he was of my cooking skills, since he hardly saw me do it.  My answer then, and now, is that I’m excellent at following directions — I know that if I want to make something, I just have to follow the recipe and do it!

So, that being said, I’ve been experimenting since Thanksgiving.  My favourite thing so far to make/eat/travel with, is butternut squash.  Whipped, with a bit of brown sugar, works perfectly.  And yes, I do enjoy it cold.  There is always lots, because David isn’t a huge fan of it.

For this pairing, I wanted to make sure I had more of a variety of foods, plus some leftovers that David could enjoy while I was gone.  I tried a penne alfredo recipe — I couldn’t find the seasoning that it called for, so I had to pull the lazy card and just grab some pre-made sauce.  I did however add some diced tomatoes, parmesan and chicken.  I made a LOT of noodles, so the sauce didn’t end up being extremely thick, but it was enough to cover it all.  There was enough for David and I to each have a serving (David had two), enough for my lunch, and enough for another few servings of leftovers for David.

I also made some sweet potatoes, cubed, and tossed in a bit of oil and tex mex seasoning.  I baked them for 45 minutes, and voila — delicious cold snack (David isn’t a fan of these either so I was able to take the whole amount for my lunch).

I decided to pull out my blender for it’s first time, and attempt to make a smoothie with a bunch of fruit I had frozen previously (learned to do this from my mother-in-law — if I hadn’t sliced and froze all this fruit, it would have gone bad since it was too much for just two people to eat that quickly).  I made enough for David and I to have a glass, poured some into a mason jar for my travels, and left a bunch for David while I’m gone.  It wasn’t the most delicious, as I am a huge sour/tart fan, but I’m chalking that up to not having enough raspberries.  Also next time I’ll try adding some cranberry juice (or any juice for that matter!).  Regardless, it’s a healthy snack for me to have on the road, instead of spending $6.00 every day at booster juice.

Next, was homemade pita chips.  Every time I go to Pita Pit I end up devouring a couple handfuls of the pita chips, always dipping them in the tzatziki.  I decided to make my own, by brushing the pita’s with oil, then slicing into squares, placing on a baking sheet, and seasoning with sea salt and garlic powder. They turned out so good, I ended up eating a bag (sandwich bag size!) later that day.  Mmm.  I picked up some tzatziki sauce and I am looking forward to snacking on those on one of my longer flights!

I also made some bean salad; misc canned beans, oil, balsamic, and tex mex seasoning — learned this from my mom.  Turned out great, but unfortunately, I completely forgot to pack some to bring with me!  This happens way too often.

Of course, I always pack some plain greek yogurt with frozen raspberries.  Makes a VERY yummy breakfast, and healthy.

I am always looking for more idea’s and ways to eat healthy, and travel healthy.  I’d also very much prefer to not have to spend all my per diem ($$) on airport food (that is, unless it’s the pizza in YWG or the smoked meat in YUL!).

Speaking of healthy, and a completely different subject, I’ve started using samples of some Arbonne products.  I can honestly say I’m so far happy with the results.  Arbonne also boasts to be pure and natural products (no animal/human testing, vegan/gluten free, collagen supportive, paraben/parafen free), I’m neither vegan nor gluten free, but everything else sounds pretty good.  I don’t have absolutely horrible skin really, but I do need a lot of healing, as well as a product that will help with random breakouts, and keep me nice and hydrated while I’m always in the air (which is extremely drying!).

I was raised in a health and wellness conscious home (sugar free, milk free, spelt bread etc… ), so it comes as no surprise to me that I’m falling into it not unlike my mother.  I’m thankful to be learning these things before I have kids, so that I can already be somewhat learned on the subject.

Anyway, stay tuned for more of that later! This post has become long as it is.

Time permitting, I think I’ll try to blog at least once or twice more during this pairing.

Thanks for reading!

During our engagement shoot with Stephanie Koo Photography  this past May, David brought along an old Super8 camera and took some film rolls.  The footage turned out beautifully!  Love that we now have this keep sake, along with our gorgeous engagement photos!

+1 month in!

Wow, time flies when you’re having fun!

Okay, I can’t lie.  It hasn’t been all fun.  In fact, my selfishness has never been so out in the open as it has been since we’ve been married.  Our true colours are shining through.  Not that we didn’t see each others flaws during the dating/engaged stages of our relationship, but wow — living together, and being together every single day — will inevitably show you all truths of who you really are.

If you’re part of my generation, you’ve most likely seen the movie ‘The Neverending Story’ (and if you haven’t, please do so! You won’t be disappointed!).  While talking with a special friend about the first year of marriage recently, a scene from that movie came into my mind.  When Atreyu gets to one of the gates, that he must pass in order to succeed in his mission — the gate that is the mirror, that shows men their true selves.  In the movie, it is told that most men run away screaming, terrified of their horrible selfish nature.  I won’t give away what happens to Atreyu… but this image resonated with me when it comes to being newly married.

It’s like looking into this mirror.  You can either accept what you see, and take the necessary steps to start making changes in your behaviour in order to benefit someone other than yourself, or you can run away, screaming (aka, blame someone other than yourself).

David and I have an interesting arrangement, as he mostly works from home, and when I am not flying, I’m home too.  So since I’ve been off work until recently, we have been home together, every day and night.  Let’s just say we’re learning a lot about each other!

The most amazing thing though, is realizing how much we truly love each other.  How much we’re willing to sacrifice, and give up for the sake of the other.  How imperfect we are, and how badly we need God in our lives and marriage.

I am thankful for that.

I learned recently, that God didn’t design marriage to make you happy, rather He designed marriage to make you Holy.  I really liked that.  If you break it down, it means that marriage is designed to make you depend more on Him and build your relationship with Him, because you won’t be able to be rid of all of your selfishness just on your own (and if you can, well, kudos to you! But I sure can’t!).  Now this doesn’t mean that you can’t have a happy marriage, it means that if you seek Him first, happiness will filter through after the fact.  When you seek God, your desire to be like Him inevitably grows, and therefore your desire to serve grows.  The more you serve, the happier you’ll be (well, that’s what I’m going with for now at least!).  Personally, from my small amount of experience, when I am serving my husband, he responds with a great amount of love for me.  Why wouldn’t I want that?

I am happy to be in a position where my character is being challenged daily.  If my character isn’t growing, then as far as I see it, my life isn’t going anywhere soon.

All in all, I really have nothing to complain about.  I am blessed with an amazingly generous, loving and forgiving husband, a steady job (that I enjoy!), and a beautiful house to call our home.  Our families love and care for us, and we have the freedom to choose our futures.

Our future is beautiful.

Yes, dress!

Turning on TLC and watching ‘Say Yes to the Dress’, after I’ve already chosen my own, is kind of interesting! I’ve always enjoyed watching this show, and sharing in other brides’ experience in dress shopping. It makes me feel amazing to watch it, knowing that I’ve already said yes to my own dress, and that we paid a whole lot LESS for it than any of the brides on that show… I seriously don’t get why people would pay that much… let alone how much mine cost!!

The bad thing about the show, is that it kind of sets up a false expectation for how your own experience should go.  I was certain that I’d always want to have a fair sized entourage with me when I tried my first dress on.  Then my mom and I had a conversation, and we agreed that it would be better if it were just her and I.  It turned out wonderfully!

I’ve been dreaming about a specific dress since before I was engaged.  I actually started looking at wedding dresses online probably 3 years before I was engaged haha! I’m glad that I did that, because my style changed over time.  It wasn’t until spring/summer 2011 that I knew exactly what I wanted.

Having a specific dress on your mind can go great, or bad. My mom and I found my dream dress at La Creme in Guelph (yay!), and made an appointment to try it on. I was fairly nervous, since I didn’t have too many backup dresses in mind, if the dress I wanted didn’t go well.

Thankfully, my dream dress was perfect!! Of course I tired on some others, just to be sure, but both my mom and I knew there was something extra special about my dream dress. She could read it in my smile!

A week later I went with my sister Hilary, David’s sister Rebecca, my mom and future mother-in-law to a store in Toronto to try on more dresses, again just to be sure that there wasn’t another dress out there for me.  One could probably try on dresses for years and find at least 50 they liked… so I had told myself I would only go to a couple of stores before making my decision.  I think I tired on about 6 dresses, all of which were gorgeous.  My crew told me I looked great in all of them.  There was one in particular that made me feel amazing, and I was torn between that one and my dream dress.  They were similar, but had subtle differences.  I knew it was a decision I’d have to make myself, after a couple night’s sleeps.

After a day or two, it became less difficult for me to make my decision.  I went with my gut, and of course chose dress #1!!  My mother and I went back to La Creme to give it another try, and I knew I was making the right choice.  The dressing room in La Creme is gorgeous by the way — warm lighting, chandeliers, vintage white furniture, white flowers… My mom really enjoyed our experience there. As did I! They even gave me a bag of gifts after we made our purchase: A vintage picture frame, 2 garters, a cosmetics bag labeled ‘Bride’, and a mini wedding notebook. Such a nice touch!!

I wish I could post a picture of my dress to show you, but it’ll have to wait until the big day!  I can’t stop picturing myself walking down the aisle with David waiting for me at the end, and wondering what his reaction will be!

I’ve already decided that I don’t want David to see me until the ceremony.  Lots of couples these days see each other before the ceremony for timing purposes — if their ceremony is late afternoon, it makes sense to do the photos beforehand.  Personally, I’ve just always dreamed of my husband-to-be not seeing me until I walked down the aisle.

Anyway, I’m off to Vancouver tonight, and Toronto tomorrow!  Better get packing!!

Love, Mrs. Schuurman-to-be