A stormy summer

This weekend feels like I'm in the eye of a big storm. Not necessarily a bad storm, but one that keep you on your toes. Last couple of weeks have been very busy with work and my free weekend was taken up with a two-day prenatal course. Although interesting and worth while, it was also quite tiring and let's not even start talking about the chairs we were sitting on!
This past weekend was Civic Holiday in Ontario, which means we all had the Monday off. It's become a bit of a tradition that I work that weekend at the PRF. And this year was no difference. Luckily it was pretty quiet without any crazy accidents like washed-out roads or extreme dry spells. The highlight of the weekend was probably the sighting of three river otters in one of the small lakes. Really cool! Unfortunately I did not have a camera so I didn't take any pictures.
I spent the second half of the week at the PRF as well, to host the CIF's Teacher's tour (which included some talks) and the next day a presentation for the sustainable communities with CFB Petawawa.
In the meantime Nolan lived the bachelor life while maintaining a smooth household :)
Luckily I was able to work one day at home in between as well to catch my breath, since I sometimes have a hard time realizing that I can't go the same speed anymore as I used to. I am 30 weeks pregnant now, and for the first time I actually feel pregnant. As in, I can really notice my belly and my decreased stamina. Not that I'm complaining, it's been a pretty smooth ride so far, but I guess it's starting to get real now!

This coming week is going to be just as crazy. I'll be spending a good chunk of the week at the PRF again, while we're hosting the Eastern Research Forest Managers Meeting. Since we're hosting it this year, we are responsible for everything from catering to agenda and speakers. Fun! But also challenging. I only have to present at one site, so it's not too bad. And hopefully I can sneak a nap in during some of the indoor sessions at the hotel so I can keep my energy level up!
But if all goes well, this should be the last busy week that involves travelling, and from then on it will be mostly Ottawa based work. And I'll be off work in less than two months :)

This crazy summer work schedule matches some of the crazy summer weather we've had. Lots of thunderstorms, microbursts, downpours, and even tornados (in other parts of Ontario). The town of Petawawa got hit pretty hard a couple of weeks ago with lots of damage to trees and even houses. The PRF had quite a few trees down as well, but not to the same extent as Petawawa itself. And that was the third storm in just as many weeks. The new normal?

Nolan is doing well. He just finished a Java course (computer course, not the coffee!), and is now back into running. He signed up for a half marathon in September, so the pressure is on!
The animals are also doing really well. Zora is still full of energy but a lot of fun to have around and super playful (especially with Murphy).  The cats are really enjoying the outdoors (the backyard is now completely fenced off so they're safe there), and although we have to put Fertile outside, once she's there she loves it.

So all in all things are going really well. Sometimes it's hard to imagine that things will change a lot in a couple of months, and we're really excited about it, but I also feel that there is more to me than 'just' being pregnant.

Update

So, since the big news has probably sunk in by now, we can now go back to a day-to-day basis :)
Thanks for all the nice messages though. So nice to read!
Everything is going well. We had an appointment with the midwife on Wednesday, and she was happy with how things are progressing. She also found the heartbeat, which is always reassuring (we'd seen it on the 8 week ultra sound, but that was almost 5 weeks ago), and weird and special at the same time.

In the meantime life just continues as usual. Work is good and busy, but fun. Spring is around the corner, finally, and I can't wait to spend more time outside of the office! The nice weather is also a great excuse to take Zora for long walks when I get home from work. My favourite walk is in the Greenbelt, where yesterday I stumbled across a coyote or wolf, just enjoying the sun fairly close to the trail:

It kept an eye on me, but didn't move. It was hidden a little bit, but still clearly visible. Definitely cool! And only 10 min walk from our house! Better keep an eye on Zora, she'd make a good dinner :)

Nolan is doing well. Getting excited about the nice weather as well, which should mean lots of running! My running is almost non-existent, but I walk a lot every day so at least I get enough exercise in. And it's great to have Zora. She forces us to get out, and we all love it! We're also looking forward to getting the backyard ready again for the summer. Add some colour and excitement to it. The crocuses are finally blooming and the tulips are coming up as well, so hopefully they'll bloom soon as well. This weekend we're going to cut down the willow tree beside our house (it's too close for our foundation), but we'll use its cuttings to green up the outside of the fence and create some privacy. Hopefully they'll take off!

The cats are doing well too. They're totally used to Zora now. Murphy and Zora play together, while Fertile just wants Zora to leave her alone (and Zora respects that), and she just goes her way. It works!

So all in all life is good. And actually quite normal. The fact that we're getting a little addition to the family still feels a bit surreal, but I'm sure it will feel real soon enough!

Zora

As some of you know by now, we have a small addition to our little family. Her name is Zora and she's four months old. No, we did not go out and adopt a baby, Zora is a dog!

We started talking seriously about a dog again when we came back from Europe, and we've been regular visitors of the Humane Society lately. Part of it was to make sure that Nolan would also be comfortable with dogs, and of course to see if there was anything that piqued our interest. We'd been checking the website as well. Regularly I might add... And a little puppy showed up about a week and a half ago. But of course, puppies are popular and within a few hours she was listed as 'adoption pending'. Fine, we were not too sure about a puppy anyway. But the next day, she was still there, and available for adoption.  That was Thursday, and by the end of the day, she was 'adoption pending' once again. By then we were sure that someone had picked her and would give her a good home. Well low and behold, by Friday evening she was available again. We'd decided to go to the Humane Society first thing Saturday morning to check her out, but more to reassure ourselves that she was not the puppy for us (we've thought before we thought the right dog, but then saw it in person and it was not 'our' dog. Well, Zora was different. It was pretty much love at first sight (but then, who doesn't love puppies?!?!). She was much smaller than we had anticipated. On the website she was listed as a German Shepherd/ Shiba Inu mix. So we expected a pretty stocky dog type. But she was anything but that. She was small, thin but fairly long legs and skinny. But super cute and friendly! When we met her and spent some time with her, we both fell in love with her. So when Nolan said that maybe we should look into adopting her, who was I to say no?? I really wanted to make sure that he was comfortable with it, since it's a pretty big commitment for both of us, especially a puppy. So we started the adoption process, but decided to pick her up on Monday so we would have time to get the house ready, and not rush into it by picking her up end of day Saturday (we couldn't pick her up on Sunday).

Since she's not house trained we bought a crate to help with the house training, and a pen to give her extra space when we are home, and to give Zora and the cats a chance to get to know each other without direct contact right away.

So far things are going really well. The cats are adapting, especially Murphy is very curious and spends a bit of time every morning and evening checking Zora out in her crate or pen. Fertile is a bit more shy, but she's the type of cat that if a dog is too close, she'll let them know so we're not too worried about her. They both seem very relaxed, and are doing much better than we'd anticipated. It probably helps that Zora is just a puppy (and a small one), so she's not too intimidating. And she doesn't bark or get excited when she sees the cats, so that helps as well.

The house training is going well too. She seems to be picking it up quickly. Nolan and I are taking turns being on 'puppy' duty, which really means working from home, and getting up at night, but she's worth it. And we're both lucky that we can work from home (especially me). My boss is a big dog fan, and most of the people I work with are not in Ottawa anyway, so it's very easy to work from remote locations (i.e. home).

Of course some pictures:

We had a pretty big snow storm yesterday (which was great because now all the holes underneath the fence are covered so she doesn't have to be on the leash in the back yard anymore), and by the end of the day, we had so much snow that Zora pretty much had to swim through it. But it didn't slow her down! She is incredibly fast, and loves to explore the world. My mom said that she might be (part) whippet. It would definitely explain her small paws and physique, as well as her speed and her quiet character (when she's not playing!). It means that she might make a really good running partner! Anyway, we are very happy with her, and think she's a great addition to our family.

 Talking about running... We haven't done much of that lately. It's partly the weather, travelling, busy lives, now a dog, but we're planning on getting back into it soon :)

Everything else is going well, so there is not much else to report on!

Is it Friday yet?

This week feels long. Already. I also know that this week will be long. It started Monday evening with a meeting in Renfrew. Luckily it didn’t run late, and I was home before 11pm. Tomorrow night I have to go to Belleville for a meeting. I don’t have to drive, so that will make it easier. Hopefully I can sleep part of the three-hour-drive-home. Just to be clear, I am not complaining! I’m just not doing very well when I don’t get enough sleep, and it doesn’t happen very often that I have two evening meetings in one week.

But tonight should be different. JoAnn is training for the half marathon in Ottawa this month (did I mention we did too but decided to sell our bibs due to a lack of training?), and she asked if we wanted to come out with her tonight. The plan is to run along Dows Lake (yep, lots of tulips!), and then loop through the Arboretum. Chance will that we enjoyed a tour of the Arboretum last Sunday, and the Magnolias are blooming and look magnificent! So something to look forward to! It also helps that the weather is finally starting to look more like spring. We spent all day Saturday in our backyard, fighting the war against dandelions and other weeds. We even had to cut the lawn for the first time! It’s definitely rewarding, but also frustrating if you see little yellow flowers popping up again.

In the meantime we’re starting to feel like a zoo… We have birds now nesting in our bathroom vents, there is still some evidence of mice in our house, we probably still have raccoons in our backyard, there are a lot of bunnies around, and of course our own two cats. Never a dull moment for sure. So far we haven’t seen any damage, so that is good. We will have to do some work this summer though. Once the birds are gone, we’ll put a mesh cover on the vent, we’ll try to scare the raccoons away and then prevent access underneath our deck and shed. And those mice… Well, that’s why we have cats, right?

Invisalign time!

Today was (finally) the day that I could pick up my first set of Invisalign aligners (see previous post on Invisalign here). They are clear, so they are not super obvious to see, but you can definitely tell they're doing something. And they are really hard to take off, so I'll only take them off for a meal, but will have to cut down significantly on coffee and snacks. However, that could be a really nice side effect!  I wonder if my teeth will really be as straight and perfect as my dentist makes me want to believe. I guess to be continued?!

This past weekend we were in Brockville to celebrate Aimee's birthday. It was a fun, relaxed and great weekend. We ate some amazing foods, albeit too much, but it was  worth it!  I'm very blessed with my in-laws, that's for sure.

Not much else to report on. The weather has been pretty good, and the forecast is even better so hopefully some of that snow will melt soon. I went for a run on the trails today, and that was challenging, trying to manoeuvre between ice, slush and deeper snow where the sun doesn't hit the ground. But it was really, really nice to get out there again!

Oh, I guess one last thing. We have some additional animals around the house. With some of the snow melting, the raccoons decided to get out of their hiding places.  Not sure we're very happy with them, but they make for some cute pictures:

I guess it's time to bring the bird feeders in...

Good night!