• I got fitted for contact lenses yesterday. It turns out, my left eye (the one that’s obviously bad to me) is still bad. No biggy. However, I also learned that my right eye has astigmatism. What? So, now I have a special contact for my right eye, and a not-so-special contact for my left eye. That should be fun if I mix the two up!
• Also eyeball related: Contacts are going to take a hella-while to get used to. Hella.
• Kyle and I are going to a play tonight. How cultured are we?! We’re going to see Lorne Cardinal (A.K.A. Officer Davis in “Corner Gas” – if you’re Canadian and don’t know what I’m referring to, we can’t be friends) act in “For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again” because we’re fans of his. I’m looking forward to it!
• The company that did our taxes last year f-ed up and now we owe the stinkin’ government $200. Bastards. They’re lucky we’re using an actual accountant this year, because there’s no way I’m going back to them after that. Jerks.
• I’m ridiculously excited for my ultrasound next Thursday. Like, seriously cannot-wait-for-that-day-to-get-here excited. Eeeee!
• I finally picked up the Book of Negroes from the library and I can’t put it down!
• There were three police cars and an ambulance at a house down the street from me and I wished I was at work so I could hear on the dispatch scanner why they were there. I’m going to be one of those little old ladies who sits by the scanner for all the going-ons in town.
• Kyle’s mom and her BF are hosting a game night tomorrow evening and I’m super stoked for it. There’s prizes and everything! I’m making stuffed mushroom caps and I may just hoard them all for myself. I’m pregnant, so I’m allowed.

What are your weekend plans?

Synopsis, from Goodreads.com:
To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world… It’s where he was born, it’s where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it’s the prison where she has been held for seven years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in this eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But with Jack’s curiosity building alongside her own desperation, she knows that Room cannot contain either much longer.

Room is a tale at once shocking, riveting, exhilarating–a story of unconquerable love in harrowing circumstances, and of the diamond-hard bond between a mother and her child.

 —

Room was one of the two books I picked up from my local library. I had seen in stores but whenever I read the book jacket I was apprehensive to actually buy it. I put it on hold at the library and a few days later it was available to pick up!

The story of Jack and his mom (Ma) is told through Jack’s eyes, a sheltered 5-year old who has lived in “Room” all his life. His mom was kidnapped by “Old Nick” when she was 19 and is kept in a garden shed-turned-makeshift house/shack.

To be honest, it took me a while to catch onto Jack’s unique language. Because he’s only ever lived in Room with just his mom, he has no sense of the “real” world. To him, Room and the things in it are the only thing that’s real. Once I got used to the way he describes things, it was a lot easier to follow along.

I don’t know if I loved the book, but I didn’t hate it either. It was definitely a lot different than books I normally read, and it had quite a few shocking and “REALLY?” moments. Really, I kept reading to see what happens in the end because the story of Jack and his mom and what they go through together is pretty amazing.

If I were to rate the book, I’d give it Three out of Five. It was good, but it wasn’t amazing.

Have you read Room? What did you think of it?
Do you plan to read it? 

Ah, Pinterest – so full of pretty little things that I probably never will try! Very rarely do I actually do any of the crafts or DIY projects I find (except for this one) or try out any of the recipes – Until last week!!

A few weeks ago I came across this pin:

Which actually from blogger Leana at A Small Snippet. So – if you visit her blog post here, you’ll find the whole recipe.

It’s actually quite delicious!

Changes I made to better suit my tastes:

• I omitted the peanuts because nuts in meal-type foods are not appealing to me
• I also omitted the sesame seeds and sesame oil (I just used extra veggie oil) because I didn’t want to buy sesame oil
• I added a little less than 1 tbsp of red pepper flakes because I’m a spicy food wimp AND it was still too much heat. (However, I accidentally let the flakes heat for waaay longer than two minutes, which probably didn’t help)
• I threw in some sauteed shrimp for a little extra oomph and protein
• I used 5 tbsp of maple syrup instead on 6 tbsp of honey because I was told to avoid eating honey when you’re pregnant
• I served it (to myself) hot because it was dinner and it was freezing outside when I made it

It was SOOO good and I have lots of leftovers too!

Other food stuffs I have my eye on to make one day:

Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercreme icing and chocolate ganache from Bakerella.

Salsa fresca (my favourite “style” of salsa) from SmittenKitchen.com.

Pink lemonade pie. IT’S PINK! And it’s from PreparedPantry.com.

What are YOU Pinning this week?

So, I present to you, Things I hope I never do:

- Before baby is born, I don’t plan to have my ultrasound photo as my profile picture. Because someone did that once when the baby was not very baby looking and it looked like a vagina. Sorry. I’ll post it to Facebook, but won’t make it my profile picture.

- Take photos of them using the potty and post them on Facebook. That’s just horrible and cruel. Yes, “Everybody poops”, but not everybody needs to know that little Timmy just went #2 for the first time in the potty. I know I’d be embarrassed if my parents did that to me.

- Announce every day/week/month, “OMG, I can’t believe my baby is x weeks/months old!”   Also: “Happy 1 month!” It just bugs me.

- Change my Job/Occupation to “Stay at Home Mommy” or “Mommy.” I don’t know why this one bugs me so much, but it does. Maybe it makes me sound like a feminist, but being a stay at home mom is not something I’m setting out to do.

- Post about baby being the the “90th percentile” or whatever for weight and height. I don’t even know what it means, really, and it just sounds like bragging. As long as the doctor isn’t saying stuff like, “Oh my, what a sack of bones/little porker/midget” I’ll be happy. I’ll also be happy if the doctor says my kid is tall/long. Kyle and I are both short, so we’re cheering for a genetic anomaly that our kid is somehow tall.

- Have every single status update be baby related. Maybe I’ll throw something in about my dog every other day, but I definitely don’t want to have a timeline full of, “Love my baby!”, “Love being a Mommy!”, “Baby this, baby that, blah blah blah.”

Now – if I happen to do any of this I give all of you permission to send me hate mail and report my posts as spam on Facebook.

And I’m going to apologize to any readers who have actually done any of the above mentioned. I’m just going to assume that your pre-pregnant selves thought it was just as annoying. If not, then maybe I’m just a mean and awful person.

So, now that all that is covered, let’s move onto our regular programming!

How far along? 18 weeks

How big is baby? He or she is about 6″ long from crown to bum, and weighs about 7 oz., according to BabyCenter.ca!

Total weight gain/loss: At my doctor’s appointment last Tuesday I gained 5lbs! I’m actually a little excited about it, to be honest.

Maternity Clothes? My total is still two pairs of pants (one pair of jeans and one pair of work pants) and one shirt. I went to Walmart to find cheap pants ($25!) but I don’t fit their smallest size. Boo.

Stretch marks? Still none! I bought cocoa butter lotion Saturday to help prevent them.

Sleep: I’m sleeping through most of the night, only waking up about once per night. Win!

Movement: I can feel little bubbles moving about in my tummy, which is definitely baby! It’s so surreal, and it made Kyle feel like a million bucks. I can’t wait to feel actual little kicks!

Food cravings: Nothing out of the usual really. It’s probably because I’ve always gotten weird food cravings. Oh well.

What I miss: Not being scatter brained. My spelling and grammar skills have taken a shit kicking; it takes me at least three tries to type out a single sentence these days.

What I am looking forward to: Sleeping on my stomach. Is it weird that I miss this the most already?

Milestones: Feeling definite baby bubbles It’s so amazing! Also, not really a milestone, but the doctor to delivered me (we’ll call him Dr. F) is subbing in for my doctor (Dr. O) while he goes on vacation next month. Dr. F was actually my doctor before he retired too, who referred me to my general practitioner (we’ll call him Dr. W). Because Dr. W doesn’t deliver babies, I started seeing Dr. O. Confused yet? Basically, things have come full circle, and I’m pretty excited/thrilled that Dr. F will be seeing me while Dr. O is gone.

Photo: 

1. Wednesday night after Kyle and I went and seen a movie I needed to get gas for my car.  We pulled up to the pump, I turned my engine off (as you’re suppose to), and Kyle pumped my gas. When I went to start my engine to leave, my car wouldn’t start. WHAAA? It was dead. D-E-A-D. Dead. In -20 C weather! So, after calling the MIL and driving up and down the hill to our house (once to go get the jumper cables and again because we forgot the garage clicker to get into our house), Kyle got my car started and home. And now? She  starts just fine again. FML. I hate my car.

2. Kyle and I are in Phase 3 of our doggy adoption process! I haven’t blogged about it because I don’t want to jinx our chances, but we’re planning a day-trip to Vancouver to meet the dog we want to adopt. Daphne gets to come with us, so it will be an interesting road trip!

3. It seems that just because I say “day trip to Vancouver” people think it means, “day trip to visit people!” Umm, no. You don’t plan two 4-hour trips in one day to visit people – you do it because you have a damn important thing to do! I hate to say no to visiting, but I just don’t have the time. Plus, with Kyle and Daphne with me it’s not fair to drag them all over the place. One day I’ll get my travel on and visit people! Maybe in the spring when the roads are ridiculous.

4. A co-worker has a loon ringtone and it’s really throwing me off at work. Nothing like the wilderness inside to make you confused.

5. I have a feeling that Monday’s Pregnancy Update post is going to make some people mad, not that I really care all that much. Really, I’m just trying to set the rules for myself. I swear I’m not a stone-cold hater of all things. We’ll see how it goes I guess!

6. I’m really thankful that my favourite shows are back on TV. Nothing like Mind Rot to make an evening just lovely!

7. I still have no idea what colours to paint my baby room. I’ll probably change my mind a thousand times before I get ready to actually paint. Several more trips to the paint store are probably going to happen, as well as several more hours staring at the “wall of paint swatches.” Who would’ve thought picking colours would be so hard?! My brain hurts just thinking about it.

Happy Friday everyone! What are your weekend plans?