Jelly Beans...

There's something very reassuring and magical about seeing the baby for the first time.  Even if it does look like a wiggly blob of a jelly bean!  This one is thriving and we were very happy to hear the strong, fast heartbeat while watching him/her squirm.  May I introduce to you, "Jelly Bean Freeman".

Farewell, fare penny!

Well, here's some weirdness... the Feds have just announced their budget and their newest cost-saving measure. The elimination of the penny. Soon. Like this fall!

Basically, the Royal Canadian Mint is going to stop 'minting' pennies. Apparently it costs 1.6 cents to make a penny. And apparently we're hoarders and all these pennies are getting lost in the sock drawers and jars in Canadian households. So they issue more pennies per year than are being used.

So the penny is going the way of the dodo.

And we're supposed to believe that this is going to save billions of dollars for the government and have no impact on us, whatsoever. Apparently, businesses won't even have to replace their cash registers. It's all been well-thought out. Nice and tidy.

Costs will be rounded down or rounded up at the cash register. Prices of individuals items will stay the same. Ending in .97 or .99 or .49 or .29 --- or whatever arbitrary price is associated with the item you want to purchase. Rounding will be done at the end of the transaction, not for each individual item. The cashier will still total up all your costs the exact same way and then apply it overly generous 12% HST (yeah, that's going nowhere yet) and come up with a total that very likely does not end in .05 or .10. Then, the TOTAL of your purchase will be rounded to the nearest nickel. If your purchase ends in .01, .02, .06, or .07, you save some cash. If it ends in .03, .04, .08, or .09, you'll have to put out a bit more.

Here's the kicker, say for example, I go to 7-eleven and buy my family 5 slurpees at $1.49 each. I then pay my 12% tax on them, and my total comes to $8.34. So I get up to the counter and pay with cash... $8.35 --- Alright, that only costs me an extra penny. That's not too bad. But, if I pay with debit, I'll get the slurpees for $8.34.

Hmmm... maybe I'll stop using cash altogether. Because really, we make a lot of purchases... and if I pay a penny or two extra for every purchase I make for a year, I'm looking at a decent chunk of change. Enough to take my family our for slurpees several times a year!

Purchasing with debit... a cashless society. Win win!

I don't know... is it just me or does this sound like another way to gouge the average Canadian family? Do you really think that the businesses are going to happily round down their purchases? It sounds fair, odds are half the purchases will be rounded down and half rounded up. But I'm sceptical. Are these businesses REALLY going to be content to never have tills that balance at the end of the day because they've been shorting themselves, or over-charging the consumers? Or do you think, perhaps, that they'll just increase their prices to numbers that conveniently allow them to always round up?

And once that happens, how long are we going to wait until the tax is increased to 15% to make calculations easier? Cause really, are the Feds going to reduce our taxes to 10% to make for the easiest possible calculations? I think not.

Call me cynical, but I think this is a very bad move for the average Canadian consumer. A very bad move indeed!

RIP Penny

1858 - 2012

9 weeks today

Baby is about the size of a grape now. Very tiny. Hard to imagine. So why are my jeans already so dang uncomfortable. If my maternity clothing wasn't buried so deep in the abyss of our disorganized storage room, I'd already be gratefully donning them. But alas, locating them will be a job for this upcoming extra-long Easter weekend.

So far, this pregnancy has been easier than my last one. I've only had one bout of vomiting and it was blissfully brief. Apparently this bambino does not like salad. Which I kind of predicted having been carefully avoiding salad for weeks now. The thought of it makes me want to gag. Probably because once you've seen salad in reverse, it loses it's appeal if you're feeling the least bit green. But this weekend I gave it a shot... and it returned on me. Making April 1st officially "baby's first barf!"

I have pretty much been riding the nausea waves consistently for the past month now. There is very little that appeals to me and the thought of cooking makes me want to curl up on the couch and groan. And yet... everything is staying down! Including those gigantic, gag-inducing prenatal vitamins. Maybe after three pregnancies my body has finally learned to suppress my desire to purge. Not sure if it's an improvement or not. I know it's better for the baby if I keep the nutrients IN my body rather than in the toilet, however I also know the blessed relief of throwing up and suddenly feeling amazingly well.... which isn't happening. Instead, I just feel constantly icky.

But, as this little one seems to be stubbornly hanging on to everything I manage to gag down, I'm going to have to declare this first trimester journey an unmitigated success. At this point in my previous pregnancy I'd already lost 12 pounds and had at least 8 gall bladder attacks. (Why the hell did I want to get pregnant again?)

So, yay me! I've got it down pat!

Bring on the nausea, I can deal with it!

Four --- it's the new three!

2012-03-26 ---- 7 weeks, 6 days... and counting! :)

I haven't blogged in a long time. I can't. It seems that I can't keep my eyes open past nine on the best of nights. It's all I can do not to crawl into bed with the kids while we're doing bedtime stories and not fall asleep there.

Tomorrow I will be eight weeks pregnant. With number four. Wow! Hard to imagine that in my twenties we tried for three years to get pregnant before we were blessed with our Alexander James... now gap-toothed and pushing eight! Then Connor came along, a nine-month project in the making. And I was thrilled that he took 9 months. Felt pretty womanly after that! :) Kirstin joined our family in the blink of an eye, 16 months after Connor's debut. And here we are... in my mid-thirties with a 7, 5, and 3 year old... doing it all over again. I seemed to have kicked my infertility's proverbial a$$! I am thirty-five and medically speaking, considered a 'geriatric pregnancy'.

HUH? Speak up, dearie, I didn't catch that!

And this 'geriatric' pregnancy is throwing me for a loop. I don't remember being this tired last time. Or the time before. Or eight years ago when I was expecting our first. Of course, then I had the luxury of sleeping whenever.... still caught the odd 10am Saturday wake-up back in the day.

So, I thought I'd take a few minutes, before I attempt to tuck my kids into bed and and not get drowsy, to jot down a little update. I've suspected that we're expecting for about 4 weeks now, and I've known for sure for about three. Besides not being able to keep my eyes open, I also can't stand eating. Every thing tastes disgusting and makes me want to gag. But I haven't vomited yet, so that in itself is a huge improvement over my last three pregnancies.

I'm not whining, either. I knew the nausea was a probability. I seemed to have blocked the memory of it though, because I don't remember feeling quite this blah!... But I'm very happy to be expecting number four. Very, very happy. And the children seem relatively cool with the idea, too.

We met our midwives today. I can't go with Karin Gerlach again, because apparently she's on sabbatical in October and November, when baby is due. So I'm attending a new midwifery clinic, "New Beginnings". My midwives are Sarah and Sarah - British Sarah and Canadian Sarah. They seem nice enough. And very respectful of my "seasoned" status. We were in and out of the appointment quite quickly.

Our families know now, as do our children, but I'm trying to keep it to myself as long as possible at work. As long as I can avoid the vomiting, then I should be able to fake my way through the days for a few more weeks. Until I run out of clothing that fits, that it. I've already had to set aside one pair of jeans because I can't close them without wanting to cry. Which is why I won't be publishing the post right away.... pretty sure no colleagues read my blog, but not positive. I do mention it at the end of all my Christmas letters.

So, all in all, at the eight week point, this pregnancy is blissfully uneventful.

Just wish I could stumble on the perfect, gag-less food.

23.5 hours a day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUaInS6HIGo&feature=share


Well worth the watch! Please share the message. It's one we all know, but never really talk about.

Thanks, Tanya, for sharing this with me!

I stand corrected...

Wow... well my rant yesterday may have been premature. As were countless other rants that graced cyberspace.

Apparently, after the news leaked about the couple seeking divorce who learned that their Canadian marriage was not legally recognized, due to their being residents of locales that don't recognized marriage rights for all... (I'm adding three dots here to distract you from the fact that I'm about to write a really long run-on sentence)... the government (or more correctly, whoever is the media spokesperson for the government) came out as publicly stating that the marriage laws have to be re-written so that this kind of thing doesn't happen again. Or something along those lines.

Basically... Yes, so your country (or state) doesn't recognize a Canadian marriage as legal because it's not legal where you live... but here in Canada it is STILL going to be considered legal. Yay! That is a good stance for our right-wing leadership party to be taking. And really, the only stance to take.

Let's all exhale a litttle bit, shall we! :)

It'll be interesting to see how this continues to unfold!

Thank you Eric (my little bro!) for the link that you shared via "comments" on my yesterday post. It was a very interesting read.

P.S. I'm still never voting Conservative!

A step backwards...

Same-sex marriage was legalized in my province in 2003, second only to Ontario. It followed rapidly through the remainder of the provinces and territories and was legalized nationwide by 2005. So, of course, thousands of couples have flooded into our country to have their marriage-like relationships legally recognized.

And we can be proud of that. Sure, it was a long time in coming. But it came. So let's embrace it and be proud of it. Let's hold it up as a shining example to our neighbours that still struggle to fight their own systemic prejudiced policies.

Right?

Wrong.

Apparently, our conservative government has suggested that Canada's stance on human rights only applies if you're Canadian.

And apparently, according to an article in the Globe and Mail, a lesbian couple married in our country in 2005, are now embroiled in a court case because they've been told that they cannot legally get divorced... because they are not legally married. The government appears to be taking the position that if the couple cannot legally be married in their home country (or home state), then they cannot legally be married in Canada.

Huh.

And this is just coming up now? Wouldn't it have been nicer to tell them their marriages are fakes before they paid for their fake marriage licenses?

If I was one of the thousands that had been married here under false pretences, I'd be pissed! Thankfully, I was lucky to be born heterosexual.

At least, I'm pretty sure I am. Maybe I just haven't met the right woman yet?

Regardless, right now, no backwards politicians are threatening the legality of my marriage. No one is even questioning it.

But for my gay and lesbian counterparts who also pledged their love to their chosen partners on Canadian soil... well, now they're suddenly finding their marriage bonds threatened. Because by telling people that their marriages are not legal because they happen to live in a country that hasn't embraced the concept of human rights for all yet, we're also telling people that DO live in Canada, "You're next... we're coming after you next!"

Way to go Ottawa!

And I guess what that also suggests is that we're setting a precedent. A very dangerous one. A precedent that threatens to squash the very thing that makes me proud to be Canadian. Our liberal-minded, national policies. Because now, it looks like if something is illegal in your country, maybe it's illegal here, too. But just for you. Because you're not Canadian. So screw your rights... they're null.

So if you're coming to our country to escape oppressive, sexist or racist policies... you'd better don your burquas and make sure you're not showing us any skin, cause that's not going to fly here.

Nope.

Not in Canada!