Journals (2015)

December

Well the month started off the the missionaries helping Micah install more hardwood floors. We bought a  sander for the floors so the elders have been trying that out as well. We tried two new dessert recipes, Pumpkin Cheesecake which wasn't that great and Raspberry Cream Cheese Shortbread Cups which was worth keeping! We found a new tv series to watch- Gotham. We are sad only the first season is out on dvd because it was actually pretty good! On the 3rd I had a midwife appointment with the new midwife, Mary (covering for Kelly as she is going away for 3 months). Mary thought I was measuring a little small so she insisted on going for an ultrasound. I went for it on the 7th and it showed that the baby was healthy but small (in 30th percentile). On the 12th (Benji's due date) we went in to Winnipeg for a final date night before baby! We actually spent the whole day watching movies- 3 in total! (Brooklyn, Legend and In the Heart of the Sea). I started getting contractions during the second movie, by the time we started driving home they were about 7 minutes apart. Unfortunately by the morning the contractions stopped! I ended up taking some castor oil to help bring on the contractions again. By the next day, Monday, the contractions started up again but I took a nap and when I woke up they had stopped! I took a trip to Walmart and brought home season 1 of Sleepy Hollow and Better Call Saul. By 8pm the contractions started again and I was up the whole night not able to sleep through them. By 5am the contractions were about 4 minutes apart so we called the midwife to come over. For several hours we waited, but the contractions never got any closer together. Since I was already pretty exhausted the midwife suggested we go to the hospital to get oxytocin to speed things along. Several hours of hell later our little baby Benjamin was born at 2:52pm! He was a pretty small baby, 6lbs 8oz and 20 1/4" long. We were able to leave the hospital pretty quickly and it was so nice to spend the night at home with our new son. The next morning we had to go back to the hospital for Benji's circumcision but it had snowed so much overnight that it was super scary driving, especially with a newborn! After his appointment (he didn't even cry during or after it) I begged Micah to go to Ho Ho's for some chinese food- I still felt pretty weak from the delivery and that's all I felt like eating! So that was Benji's first restaurant experience. Several days later we took Benji to his first movie, Star Wars 7 hehehe. The same day Bekki, the other midwife visited us and took Benji's weight- 6lbs 5 oz. Two days later he weighed 6lbs 9 oz which apparently is very good weight gain. Christmas came without too much fuss, the elders came over and watched their Christmas movie and I made apple pie. On Boxing Day we drove in to Winnipeg and my family was able to meet Benji. On the 28th we had another midwife appointment and Benji weighed 7lbs 7oz, growing very fast! On New Years Eve we took another trip in to Winnipeg for some time out of the house and we saw The Hateful Eight. 

November

November 2nd was the kittens first birthday! They are both very sweet and we are lucky to have them :) This month we were finishing up some projects- painting the stairs, filling in cracks around window trim in preparation to paint, painting front door brown and we got our wood stove upstairs installed! The two missionaries- Elder Owens and Hirschi kindly helped us a lot this month- installing hardwood floors, installing ceiling fans and changing out electrical outlets! 

October

Lots of movies, tv, wood and painting this month! October started out with us watching season 2 and 3 of Sons of Anarchy. Micah started to watch a little of season 4 but refuses to watch any more because it turned so bad! We are renovating the downstairs- I ripped out the carpet last month and this month we got some hardwood to put down (very generously given to us by my parents!). When we were in Winnipeg returning the trailer from the wood, Micah was thrown a surprise birthday dinner by my family at Paradise. A couple days later Micah turned 30! And he has seemed to have broken the English curse of having their appendix burst within a week of their 30th birthday. Downstairs there was wood everywhere on the walls so we decided to paint it white and also paint the stairs. That took a lot of hours to finish those projects. We also painted the closet doors brown. It was very rainy this month- we tried to cut as much wood as we could but most of the time it was just too wet! Hopefully we can get some days in November before the snow comes to finish it. I finished another crochet project- this time I made a little puppy hat and it actually turned out pretty cute! A new branch presidency was called at the end of the month for our branch in Kenora. Roy Landsiedel is now our branch president, Mike Christensen is the 1st counselor and Chris Ambs is the 2nd counselor. Vikings season 3 came out at the end of the month, not as good as the first two seasons but still fun to watch. Micah's hair is looking more and more like Ragnar Lothbrok's! Movies we watched this month: The Martian, Hotel Transylvania 2, Pan, Sicario, The Walk, Goosebumps, Crimson Peak, Bridge of Spies, Hyena Road, Woodlawn, The Last Witch Hunter, and Paranormal Activity.  

September

September was a busier month for us, took a week off of work to get some things done around the house! September 2 was when Chris and Kristin Ambs' baby girl was born! Her name is Arya Ambs. I crocheted a baby blanket for her complete with a purple ruffle. It was really fun to make- my first blanket! Construction of the house: ripped out carpet from downstairs, started filling in drywall where windows were replaced. Started priming outside house with oil based primer (missionaries helped with that!) Painted the wood walls downstairs white. Started painting some walls brown. 8 cords of wood delivered- Micah starts to chainsaw and missionaries help stack wood. We drove down to International Falls to pick up some windows and a door for our garage building. Got a quote for a metal roof for the garage. Finished some garden boxes and moved them over to garden area. Mower breaks down after we try a new battery- still waiting for someone to come take a look. Sold our old dining room table set for $500! Bought Micah his very own euphonium to start playing again. First aid course. Watched season 10 of Supernatural. Started watching season one of Sons of Anarchy. Movies watched: Transporter Refueled, Backcountry, The Visit, The Scorch Trials, Everest, Black Mass, The Intern, Pawn Sacrifice, and The Green Inferno.

August

Kind of a boring month! Enjoying the nice summer weather. The most exciting thing that happened was we found Micah a brand new pair of Osiris D3 shoes on Ebay. His old ones were falling apart and he hates the style of shoes out now. Movies we watched: Mission Impossible Rogue Nation, The Gallows, The Gift, The Man from UNCLE, Beyond the Mask, The Fantastic Four, Vacation, Ricki and The Flash, American Ultra and No Escape. 

July

July started off with our 7 year wedding anniversary and a week off work! Unfortunately my computer broke down and we could not recover anything from the hard drive so everything was lost. It was very sad. Elder Ruth and Elder Binning finished their missions and we went to their farewell in Winnipeg. Eve decided she wants to be an outdoors cat so we let her outside and she caught 4 mice within an hour! We saw quite a few movies this month in theaters- Terminator Genysis, Max, Minions, Selfless, Ant Man, The Lazarus Effect, Pixels, Me Earl and the Dying Girl and Southpaw.

June

This month started off with a vet appointment for Raven and Fang to get their shots! The vet seemed a little embarrassed when she saw how well Raven was doing, but we're just glad he's okay! 3 weeks later Raven and Fang got neutered. They both did great and recovered quickly (the people at the vet love those two kittens!) We made a couple trips into Winnipeg this month and saw lots of movies- San Andreas, Poltergeist, Spy, Insidious 3, Get Hard, Jurassic World, Paul Blart 2, Inside Out, and Pitch Perfect 2. On one of our trips to Winnipeg Micah noticed our tire was a little flat when we got out to go into a store. After we came back to the car and started driving away someone rolls down their window and tells us our tire is flat. We didn't think it was that noticeable but decide to drive to a gas station to take a look. As we are driving we feel that the tire is completely flat! We have to wait at a light then drive in to the gas station on the rim. Luckily the day before I bought an air compressor and left it in the trunk! We filled up the tire and start driving to the movie theatre. While we were stopped at a light Micah looked out and sees it is almost completely flat again! We pulled into Ikea and use the air compressor again as I called Canadian Tire to see if they could take us right away. They could, so we quickly drove there hoping the tire would make it! We had just bought 4 new tires at Canadian Tire last month so they only charged us to put the new tire on. While they were doing that we walked over to the movie theatre and watched Inside Out. After the movie Micah and I both had to use the bathroom so we headed in. I come out and look for Micah who is usually quicker, but I can't find him! I wait and eventually he comes out of the men's bathroom. As we walk outside he tells me the funniest thing ever! So he goes into the bathroom to pee, no one else is there. He pulls down his zipper and realizes that he had been wearing his underwear backwards since we left home! He then has to go into a stall to take off his pants to turn his underwear around and of course a huge group of people walks in. I couldn't stop laughing when I heard the story! Poor honey... What an adventurous day. Near the end of the month we had fun making a video! Cineplex theatres was having a contest to win free movies for a year so we decided to enter! Micah wrote the script using quotes from 3 different movies and while we were in Winnipeg we went to Value Village to find our props. The video turned out great and Micah was super funny! Unfortunately Micah didn't make the top 10 but it was still a lot of fun.

May

We saw quite a few movies this month! In Winnipeg on Tuesdays at Cineplex movie tickets are 50% off, so we decided we might as well see 2 movies when we make the drive in! We saw Ex Machina, Unfriended, Mad Max, McFarland, Home and Tomorrowland. My thyroid dose had to be increased again so I started those pills! We met with my family for Mother's Day on the Saturday before and while we were in Winnipeg we started our tie collecting again! Now Micah has a ton of ties to choose from to wear on Sundays! :) Near the end of the month Raven started to get sick. He threw up for a couple days in a row and started to get very quite and listless (he is usually the kitty waking us up in the mornings purring and meowing in our ears!) We took him to the vet and when the vet felt his stomach she could feel a lump in there. She did an x-ray and said that there was a blockage. She said the only option was surgery ($1500) or to put him down! So I left little Raven with them to do the surgery that morning. When I got home the vet called and said that Raven's white blood cell count was so low that if they tried to do the surgery he would die on the table. She said we should either put him down or we could take him to a vet in Winnipeg that is 24 hours so that they could possibly do the surgery that afternoon. We said we would take him to Winnipeg and they put some IV fluids in him and gave him an antibiotic injection. Micah and I were so sad and worried- the vet said he might not even make the 2 hour drive in to Winnipeg! We grabbed our stuff and Micah grabbed a cat bed and we rushed to pick little Raven up. He layed quietly in my lap on the cat bed the whole drive- I was continuously watching his stomach move up and down to make sure he was still breathing. It was so sad to see him like this and we prayed that he would be alright. When we got to the vet in Winnipeg they put him on IV fluids and antibiotics. They gave him barium to see how far it would move down or if the blockage would stop it all. They decided to keep him overnight.  The next morning they had good news- it seemed like there was no blockage after all! The barium had moved all the way through and Raven was up using the litter and eating again- no surgery was needed! They thought maybe the "blockage" seen in the x-ray was a cyst or something that the fluids and antibiotics cleared up. We were so happy Raven was going to be okay! God answered our prayers for our little kitten :)  On another note, we ate at McDonald's once this month and it made us so sick- we vowed to never eat there again! Well, Micah had warned me not to get McDonald's but I didn't heed his warnings, so now I agree with Micah never to go there again and this is a record stating that. LOL 

April

April started off with General Conference, which is always really nice. This month we have been trying to watch some of our older movies so we can grade them and continue with our "Top 10 Movies of the Year" videos. Some new movies that we went to see in theatre were Furious 7, True Story and Age of Adaline. We also finished watching The Walking Dead Season 4. At Shoppers Drug Mart where I work you can earn Optimum points by buy stuff. I saved up enough points to buy a Nintendo 3DS for Micah! We got a couple of games for it and Micah will write reviews of the games when he finishes playing them! The weather has been pretty good, it did snow one day near the end of the month but other than that the snow has melted- much better than last year!

March

Hmm, March wasn't too exciting! There were two birthdays this month (or I guess 4 depending on how you count). March 2 was Sassy's birthday! She is my sister Brenna's childhood cat- and she just turned 22. It was also my birthday and Brenna and Stephanie's! We turned 29 and now I feel really old. However on almost a daily basis I get "you look too young to be a pharmacist" so I guess I still don't look old. Micah and I watched some more TV shows; Game of Thrones season 2-4 and The Walking Dead seasons 1-3. At the end of the month we had a birthday dinner with my parents, Brenna, Kenley and Stephanie which was really nice and I got to see Sassy! Poor thing is so old but still cute :) The presents I ordered for Brenna and Stephanie didn't come in time so Micah and I picked up some Orchids so we wouldn't come empty handed! We were also celebrating my Dad's birthday (which is April 2) at the same time- we got him the movie The 13th Warrior since he likes Vikings! Dinner was very good and as per special request we had an Oreo Cheesecake Blizzard Cake for dessert. Yum! :)  Took a pregnancy test, which came out negative, then took another one a week later because my period didn't come- still negative. We have an appointment booked at Heartland at the end of April so we will see what our next options are. I have a new family doctor in Kenora and I went to see her to get my thyroid levels checked. I had to increase my medication strength a little. We found a new dessert recipe that is really good- Banana Bread Brownies- try it if you like Banana Bread!

February

February started out cold with a lot of snow! Unfortunately the car got stuck in the driveway because the truck wouldn't start (too cold, no block heater) and we couldn't plow :( Micah came to the rescue though! My Grandpa took us to his museum one day when we went into Winnipeg. He has a collection of things, some personal, some not, that he has on display. It was fun to see his war uniform and my grandparents' wedding outfits. Later on we went to visit my Grandma at the nursing home and then we went out for dinner with my parents to The Keg. It was a nice day (topped off with seeing two movies in the theatre!) We worked a little bit on the bedroom downstairs- we built one of the two bunk beds for the room and put together a bookcase. The room is starting to look good! We finished watching Supernatural season 9 and upon recommendation from my dad, started to watch Vikings. It's our new favourite show! Another cold spell near the end of the month caused me to be stranded at work when the car wouldn't start. A co-worker drove me home but the next day the truck wouldn't start so I was stuck at home! A different co-worker was sent to pick me up to drive me to work and we had various people jumping the car to get the battery to hold a charge. Not fun! Another disaster struck our house a couple days later- we had no running water! Eventually we were able to get a plumber out to fix the problem. He found that the heat tracer hadn't been plugged in and when he did that we had water 5 minutes later. So dumb, but better that than a frozen line or broken well pump! We started playing a co-op game; Divinity: Original Sin. Fun old school style RPG game. Here is the review Micah wrote about it.  No letrozole this month and no pregnancy either.  

January

Nothing too much happened in January. So far the winter hasn't been too cold and we are keeping toasty warm with our wood stove. We bought a snow plow for the truck and had it installed. We also found out the truck needed lots of work on the brakes and such so the total cost of that plus installing the plow was $1800! Yikes. But we are happy to have the plow so we won't get stuck in our driveway this year. On one of my days off work we spent the day making lasagnas- we now have about 5 in our freezer! It was lots of fun. We watched a lot of movies this month, in theatre and renting from Redbox. We re-watched all of the Taken movies to prepare for Taken 3, but that movie was terrible! So sad. I had the stomach flu at the end of the month but Micah luckily escaped it :) I had to take Provera to get my cycle going again and we started another round of Letrozole. By the end of the month we found it another no go.