What a whirlwind couple of months!

It has been awhile since I've last posted. Things have been busy!

I am back at work now, 3 days a week. That seems to be working well; I am enjoying it. I am considering upping my hours slightly from 24 hours per week to 30 hours per week since then I would get free health benefits again (part time employees have to pay approx. $135/month for health benefits and it is free for full time employees). And I would have to work 30 hours per week to be considered full time. So, it would be worth working the extra 6 hours per week for that. And the extra money would be good too ;)

Things with my uncle have gotten a lot worse. Long story short, 2 months ago, he invited Oma out for coffee and took her to her lawyer instead. He somehow convinced her to change her will and power of attorney documents back to the way they were before she changed them last year. When we found the new papers at Oma's, we asked her about them and she said she never would have signed them since they didn't reflect her wishes. We couldn't understand how Oma's lawyer could go along with whatever my uncle wanted when he was supposed to represent Oma! Last year, she told her lawyer she didn't want her son to have access to any of her documents and that she wanted her daughter to be protected. Then, all of a sudden, he can take her to the lawyer and get everything changed back? After it took months last year to get it changed the first time?

So, we took Oma to a new lawyer the very next business day. She met with the new lawyer by herself on several occasions and what she told her new lawyer was the exact same as she has been telling mom and me over the last few years. So, the new lawyer drew up a new will and power of attorney documents and they were signed less than a week after the one was signed with my uncle.

The problem was, we couldn't relax knowing that my uncle could just pick her up and change it all back again. We didn't want to be in a situation where she could change her will every week. So, she decided to transfer her properties now (home and cottage) to the people who would be getting them in her will. This way, we don't have to worry about my uncle picking her up and convincing her to change her will since now she doesn't own any property. I am so relieved this is all done and we can finally relax. We know it's going to come to a law suit when my uncle finds out, but he won't have a case. Oma's new lawyer has known right from the beginning that this will likely come to a law suit, so she has been very meticulous about making sure that she met with Oma by herself on several occasions to make sure this is really what she wants.

So, after almost a year of this stress with my uncle, we can finally relax.

On to happier things...

Julie is 13 months old now - I can't believe it! She is so amazing. She's got 6 teeth, with 2 more coming in. She is pulling herself up on furniture, so I'm thinking it won't be long before she starts to walk!

Our kitchen renovation is almost done! It looks so awesome!

A New Year

Hard to believe I've been keeping this blog for over 5 years now - wow! How much my life has changed since I started this blog!

This is my very last week of maternity leave. I go back to work on Tuesday. I am actually starting to get excited about going back to work, much to my surprise. I think it will be really good for me to get back into the working world. I am so happy that I'll be working 3 days a week instead of 5! I think it will be a bit of an adjustment at first, especially getting up at 6am so that I have time to feed Julie (probably twice) before I leave for work at 7:30am. After I leave, Carlos will be home for 2 hours each morning with Julie before he drops her off at my mom's on his way to work. Then she'll be at my mom's for 7 hours before I pick her up on my way home. Julie will be fine; it will be me that will have a rough time of it in the beginning I think.

I have been enjoying this week since it is my last week of my mat leave. Tomorrow, I am getting together with a friend, on Friday I am getting a massage, and on Saturday, I have a hot date with my hubby! Should be lots of fun!

Enjoying the Florida sun

It is gorgeous here! Low to mid 20's and sunny! This afternoon, we are heading to the beach and tomorrow we are heading to the everglades to go on an airboat tour. Tomorrow is supposed to be the warmest day yet at 27 degrees. Then it is supposed to be cooler for Thurs and Fri - so you know what that means - outlet mall shopping!

Our house here is absolutely gorgeous. We got the master bedroom since we have Julie and the bathroom (complete with 2 walk-in closets) is bigger than our bedroom at home. We love this house! If we come back again next year, we'll likely get the same house again since it is gorgeous and in a nice quiet area, but close enough to the shopping.

Julie did so amazing on the drive down! It was about 25 hours of driving time and we only lost an hour total due to traffic, which isn't bad considering how long the trip was. Having the portable DVD player in the car for Julie was awesome, it kept her occupied for most of the drive.

We are enjoying our vacation so much, I don't want the week to end!

Last post for 2009 (probably)

This will likely be my last post for the year given that I'm leaving for Florida on Friday and won't be back until January 5th. Although, who knows, I may post while I am sitting by the pool at our house in Florida ;) I'm so excited about the trip! I hope Julie does okay in the car for that long! We bought a portable DVD player to help occupy her for some of the drive.

This is my first time ever going south during the winter. All the other times I've been south have been in August, April, October, and September. So this one will be different because I can escape some of the snow! I have also never been on this long of a drive. My longest drive thus far would be to New Brunswick in 1996.

We had Christmas with my side of the family on the weekend, and it was awesome! We had our turkey dinner on Saturday, then played games for the evening. We played this new (to us) game "Settlers of Catan". Have any of you ever played it? It is AWESOME! We loved it so much that we played it again on Sunday! We had our 'Christmas morning' on Sunday and it was so much fun.

On the 25th, we will be heading to Carlos' parents house for the afternoon and then we're leaving on our trip - yay!

I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas!!!

Great weekend

I had my company Christmas party on Friday and it was a lot of fun. It was great to see everyone again and get to know some of the new people. I was so glad that Julie was okay without me from 6:30pm until almost midnight! She was with my parents and was an angel, she only got a little grumpy near then end and that was only because she was really tired. I'm so glad I can get out in the evenings now! Tomorrow, I am meeting the girls from work for dinner and then we're going to see New Moon. They even made T-shirts so we all wear either "Team Jacob" or "Team Edward". We'll feel like we're 15 again ;) I decided to go with Team Jacob for this movie, but then I'll switch to Team Edward for Eclipse ;)

And then on Friday I'm going scrapbooking with a mom's group that I joined, so that should be fun!

Hard to believe it's only 11 days until the trip now! I'm getting so excited!

It's a lonely world...

... this blogging world is. Seems like I am the only one who is still posting. The rest of you haven't posted since the summer! I'm feeling a bit like the cheese standing alone...

That's a first!

We have our Christmas Tree put up and decorated - and it's still technically November! We put up our tree on Sunday afternoon; our very first Christmas tree of our own! We figured that now that we have Julie, time to put up our own tree! And since we're leaving for Florida on the 25th, I thought we should put our tree up early so we can enjoy it! This morning, I wrapped most of our presents and put them under the tree. We only have 2 more presents to buy (I know what to get, we just have to go out and get them). Other than those 2, all our other presents are wrapped and under the tree. I am thrilled since I hate the crowds in the stores, so we don't have to do any last-minute shopping this year - yay!

I had a lovely birthday weekend. Crop Day on Saturday went very well. We had some last-minute add-ons, so we ended up with 12 of us in total, so we had enough to cover all our costs and a little extra... so yay! Everyone who came really enjoyed themselves and wanted to know when the next one is. So, I'll likely do another one in the early spring and hopefully get some more people out.

We bought our dishwasher yesterday and we are having it installed this week - likely on Wednesday. I can't wait! I am so pumped about having a dishwasher; it will be the first time I've had one since living with my parents!

Julie had her 9-month check up yesterday. She is now 30" long and weighs 18.5 pounds, so she is on the 95th percentile for length for her age and 50th for weight. She's in perfect health and my doctor thinks she'll be reading at 3 since she's so alert.

This weekend, we'll be making a purchase that I am SUPER excited about! We're getting a dishwasher! The dishwasher that matches our new fridge and stove is on sale this weekend only for $100 off, so we thought we'd jump on that chance. So, hopefully we can get it installed soon and say goodbye to washing everything by hand - yay!

I've had one more person sign up for CropDay (they saw my ad on Kijiji), so now I only need 1 or 2 more people to sign up to break even. I still have 3 or 4 solid maybes, So I'm hoping a couple of those people come! Should be a great day!

EDIT (1:44pm)

That person that had signed up for Crop Day just cancelled - what a bummer! I was really hoping to get at least 1 new person out! Sheesh!

EDIT (9:33pm)

I just had another 2 people sign up, so I am really close to breaking even now - yay!

Feelin a little discouraged...

I am co-hosting a Crop Day (scrapbooking) in a couple weeks with my leader. We decided to do this to increase our client base. We rented a hall and advertized in the newspaper, on kijiji, put posters up around town, through facebook, and sent invites to all our personal contacts. After ALL that, we only have 6 people signed up (2 of which are my mom and Oma). VERY disappointing. I just joined a local Business Network and went to a networking meeting last week to try to make some new contacts. There was certainly lots of interest, but nobody signed up for my event. I also joined a local mom's group, and have posted my event there. So, it's certainly not for lack of trying! I don't know what else I could have done!

I am just really disappointed because we need another 2 people to sign up to break even. The space we rented can hold 26 people, so we still have 20 spaces left! So, I am really discouraged. At least 7 or 8 people have told me that they would really like to come, but can't make that particular day and would like to know if I run it again. I'm thinking maybe next time, I'll have one at my mom's house so it won't cost me anything. We'd be limited to 8 people or so, but at least I wouldn't have to pay for a hall rental if not many people show. And I could reduce the cost to people that way too.

I am disappointed that I didn't get a single phone call from all the advertising we did. I guess in hindsight, it's probably not a good time of year for people, but I thought people might like to work on Christmas gifts or cards.

I just wish people would give it a chance. Because the products are absolutely amazing and there is something for every level of creativity. There are really simply albums where everything is included (papers, photo mats, stickers, etc.), so no thinking required. There are even albums where all you do is slide in your photos! I just need to find a way to get it across that you don't need to be creative to do scrapbooking. There is even digital scrapbooking for those who don't have a lot of printed photos, but have lots on their computer. This is a great way to get your photos from your computer to being enjoyed; also make great gifts for people. I just created my first digital scrapbook and had 5 copies printed for Christmas gifts... made shopping really easy!

I just realized that when I go back to work in mid-January, I will have a total of 4 part-time jobs - yikes! I will have my regular job 3 days a week (24 hours a week), my Creative Memories business, looking after Oma 2 evenings a week (8 hours a week), and my marking job for the local university, which is 44 hours per semester (works out to ~4 hours a week). So, when you add all that up, I will be working at least 40 hours a week! But, only 1 of those jobs means being away from Julie, so I'm happy about that.

WOOHOO!

My Dad's passport came in the mail today! I was at my parents house when it was delivered and mom and I were totally floored that it arrived exactly a week after we mailed that paper we were waiting months for! We thought it would take 4 - 6 weeks to get his passport.

The Austrian Embassy was really on the ball! We thought they were waiting for the Citizenship record search before they sent the application to Austria, but they must have sent it back in August when Dad applied and then when we sent the Citizenship record paper, they sent us the passport right away. Amazing! So, Dad is coming on the trip for sure now! We still have to apply for the Permanent Resident card, but apparently as long as we can prove we have applied, that will be good enough for getting across the border. But, with 6.5 weeks until the trip, that may be enough time to get his PR card, especially since we can have it rushed since we have proof of travel plans. YAY! I am so glad he can come! He totally deserves a vacation!!!

Julie is 9 months old now, I can't believe it! She is 30 inches long, so she is the length of an 18 month old! Gonna be a tall girl!

I LOVE my new software. I can create scrapbooks, calendars, cards, etc. I have been working on a scrapbook since they are on sale 25% off this month (so my 20 page scrapbook will cost me $15 to have it printed). All these pages are pre-designed, so I just drag and drop photos and write some text - the rest is done for me! SO EASY! I'm going to have a whole scrapbook printed, but this is my favourite page so far:

Update on various things

I heard back from my company, and they have accepted my proposal to work part time. They will be sending me a letter sometime soon with the details, but I'm going to be working Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays (24 hours/week). Which sounds good to me! That way I will have Mondays and Thursdays off to be with Julie and I also can do some work from home on those days if needed. I will try not to make a habit of it, but it's good to have that option if I need to. So, I have mixed feelings about returning to work. Intellectually, I know I should go back since we will need the income. I will give it a try and see how it goes. So, my official return to work date is Tuesday, January 19, 2010. So, I still have 2.5 months of mat leave left, so I am going to enjoy it to the max!

Good news: my dad will be receiving that paper he was waiting for within the next couple of days. Our local MP's office was really pushing them, so they finally processed that application. So, as soon as it arrives, my mom is going to send it overnight to the place to get his Austrian passport, which takes 4-6 weeks. The trip is 8 weeks away, so we should be okay there. Turns out we can also apply for his PR card at the same time, which is awesome. The current processing time for the PR cards is 4 months, but we can have it rushed since we have proof of travel arrangements. And our local MP's office will help us again with the PR card. So, it is actually looking hopeful that he will be able to come on the trip after all! I'm sure it will be down to the wire, but it may actually come out in our favour!

We took Julie to my parent's house tonight so Carlos and I could go out on a date. It was really nice; we should make an effort to do that more often! Julie was dressed up and looked adorable! We also took her to visit Thom and his girlfriend, also to Al's place, and to our neighbours. She was quite a hit! She was a little leopard:

I received a response

I got an email from my boss this afternoon which said the following regarding my proposal to work part time upon my return in mid-January:

"In concept it should be workable. We’ll be back to you with the details next week regarding a change to part-time employment. Talk soon."

I had a feeling he would come around once he thought about it a bit and talked to the other senior staff. So, it is looking promising that I will be able to work part time. I will wait and see what he sends me next week. I am hoping he is okay with a 24 hour work week, that would be me working 3 days per week. I think that would be the best option. It will still be very difficult to return to work, but with 3 days a week in the office, that means I would have 4 days a week with Julie, which is certainly better than 2!

Feeling a little lost

I had my meeting with my boss yesterday in which I told him I would like to work part time. He said he wasn't expecting that and he would have to think it over and talk to senior staff to see what they thought. I made it very clear that I was willing to take work home with me if there was something that really couldn't wait until I was back in the office. Turns out they just hired a hydrogeologist/senior project manager last week and he is in my former office. Which means when I go back, I won't have my own office anymore, I would be sharing. I couldn't expect them to keep my office for me, but when October came around and it was still empty, I thought there was a good chance I'd get it back! Oh well. If I am going to be part-time, I am totally okay with sharing an office since I won't be there all the time.

I told my boss I am flexible on the details but that I would work a minimum of 3 days per week and he agreed that 3 days in a row would probably be best for the company, so we're thinking Wed/Thurs/Fri. He seemed positive, so I am sure he will come back saying it is fine. He asked me whether this was just in transition or whether this would be my new hours permanently and I really couldn't answer that. I don't know whether I will be back full time down the road or if I want part time forever (at least until kids are in school).

The meeting yesterday really made me realize something: I don't want to go back to work at all. Which doesn't make rational sense since I like my job and love the people I work with. I just felt this tug on my heart saying that I don't wan to leave Julie at all. I would love to find some sort of job where I can work from home. That just doesn't seem to be an option right now.

So I am feeling very lost because I'm not sure if my boss will agree to part-time and if he doesn't, I'm not sure I will say yes to full-time, in which case I will be out of a job. I would be very surprised if they let me go, but on the other hand, I don't even want to go back. It's just a money thing. So, I'm feeling a little lost.

I feel like I could rip my hair out!

More drama on our vacation. We booked the rental house in June and at that time, I asked everyone to check their passports to make sure they are still valid. Everyone said they were good, so I didn't push the issue.

Yesterday, I checked Oma's passport and Thom's and Oma's expires soon and Thom's is already expired. No problem. I took Oma today to get her passport photos taken and I printed out the form and filled it out with her and I will take her next week to submit it. Since her passport was issued less than 6 years ago, she can go through the simplified renewal process - awesome.

Thom on the other hand, his passport expired in September 2008, so he will have to apply for a new one instead of the simplified renewal process. His passport was issued in September 2003, so if he had renewed his passport a month ago (or in June when I told everyone to check their passports!), he would have still been within the window of being able to do the simplified renewal. Fine. I printed off the longer application and was filling it out with him and he needs 2 documents as proof of identity and the only 2 on the list that he would have are driver's license and health card. Well, I asked him for these 2 documents, he handed me his driver's license and a little piece of paper with his health card number on it and our conversation went like this:

Me: What is this? Where is your health card?
Thom: I don't have a health card; I never have. This is all I have.
Me: You MUST have a health card. What do you show when you go to the doctor?
Thom: They never ask for it.

Mom looked in her files and he got a letter saying he had to renew his health card immediately, but there is no date on that, so it could be years old. I phoned right away and I got him an appointment for tomorrow morning. I am taking him down there to make sure it gets done and to ask them if they could rush it since we need that in order to apply for his passport. I will also ask if we could use his temporary one that he will get to apply for a passport.

What a pain! I am starting to feel like if I didn't push everyone, it would only be me, Carlos, and Julie going to Florida. Which wouldn't be such a bad thing, I suppose... but so not the point! This is supposed to be a family vacation and nobody seems to be putting in the effort to get their travel documents in order!

Grrrr - stupid government!

We have a family vacation to Florida planned at the end of December. We are all really excited. The only problem is I don't think my dad will be able to go. All because the government is being incompetent! My dad is a landed immigrant and his Austrian passport JUST expired in July. So, he had to go to Ottawa in person to apply for a new one. The only thing he is missing is his citizenship record search, which my mom applied for in mid-July. Well it STILL hasn't arrived. And he needs that to get his passport and he needs his passport to apply for a Permanent Resident card. We were getting really worried that we wouldn't get this done in time, so my mom called the office of the local MP and got in touch with someone to help. Well that lady phoned to see what was taking so long with the citizenship record search and they are REALLY backlogged and are currently completing requests submitted in April. So, at this rate, he won't get it until December and then his passport takes up to 6 weeks, and then he needs his PR card, so there just won't be enough time. The lady at the MP's office is going to try her best to push them, but it's not looking hopeful.

I am so sad because my dad really deserves a vacation! I will be so upset if he is not able to come!

You'd think that 5 months would be plenty of time to get travel documents in order, but apparently not! It's going to take that long just to get the first of the 3 steps required!

Julie is great!

We had the follow-up appointment today and it turns out Julie has a small ASD (Atrial Septal Defect) and the doctor said it is no cause for concern and the small ASDs almost always close up on their own. We need to have her re-tested if it persists in several months, but the doctor said she could barely hear the murmur today. I am hoping it is well on its way to closing up and perhaps by her next check-up with our family doctor on Nov 24, it will be completely gone. So, I am very glad that everything is okay!

Julie is now 8 months old and here are her stats: 18 lbs and 29 inches long! She is off the charts in terms of her length and is around the 35th percentile for weight for her age. So, the doctor said she is at the age where she should be getting a good portion of her daily calories form baby food, so I guess I have to up her intake of babyfood and cut back on the nursing a tad. I guess I only have a little over 3 months before I go back to work, and then she will need to be on babyfood during the day and only nursing morning and bedtime.

I had a nice weekend away at a ladies retreat with Julie, mom, and Oma. Julie was a real hit! So many people asked me "is she always this good?" She was an absolute angel!

The only downer was that Oma cried the whole time and said she wanted to go home. And we were 2.5 hours away from home. Yet when I asked her what was wrong, she would reply with "I don't know". Then I would tell her if she doesn't even know why she is upset, she should just decide not to be upset. Then we would have the same conversation 5 minutes later and again and again all weekend. I have really noticed a change in her in the last month or so. She just seems so depressed and sad all the time, yet she doesn't know why. Mom is taking her to the doctor tomorrow to get the doctor's opinion on whether Oma should go through the mediation process, so I think we will have a list of things to mention to the doctor. It is so sad to see Oma go through this. It has gotten really bad now she cries all the time and says "I don't know what I'm going to do". Yet she doesn't know why she is upset. And it's gotten to the point now that mom has to bribe her to shower and she refuses to wash her hair. I think we'll have to take her to a salon to have her hair washed once a week because she absolutely refuses to wash it herself yet she doesn't know why she doesn't want to. This is really hard on us all. I am looking after Oma the 2 evenings a week mom has to go to work. Tomorrow, mom is going to a support group for caregivers, so I really hope she gets some good support there.

On Thursday, we have Julie's follow-up appointment with the pediatrician to go over the results of her echo cardiogram, and I really hope everything is okay. I will be so relieved after that appointment.

On Saturday, one of my childhood friends is getting married. She and her fiance are getting married exactly one year to the day after their first date. I am looking forward to the wedding and then enjoying 2 turkey dinners on the weekend as well!

We had a great time at the Toronto Zoo on Friday. It was a gorgeous day and I finally got to see the Tundra exhibit – yay for polar bears! Julie was WAY more interested in looking at the other kids and not so interested in the animals… except for the monkeys – she loved them!

On Saturday, something happened that made us realize that Oma has deteriorated even more to the point now that she will need to be with someone all the time when she’s awake. Mom had a fitness class, so she was gone from the house for 1 hour. My dad was home so Oma wasn’t there by herself. My brother Thom was in the dragonboat races out of town, but for some reason Oma thought they were in town. She went to ask my dad several times if he could take her there and he kept telling her the races were out of town, but she kept forgetting and thought they were in town.

My mom came home from her fitness class and was going to take Oma to go pick up a prescription and Oma was nowhere to be found. Dad said he hadn’t seen her in awhile, but thought she just went to lie down. Mom looked everywhere, but no Oma. She also noticed that her purse and cane were missing, so Oma must have left. My dad said he didn’t see a vehicle come, so they had no idea if she just wandered off or what happened.

Just when my mom was getting hysterical and thinking she may have to call the police, Oma came home and she was crying. She told my mom that she wanted to go see Thom in the races and started walking to the spot she thought the race was. We do have dragonboat races there every June, but Oma did not understand that Thom was in a race out of town. We have no idea how far she walked before she turned around. She was very upset that she couldn’t find Thom.

Now we don’t know what to do because we can’t have Oma wandering off. She could get mugged or something… I’m sure there are people out there that prey on the elderly because they can’t defend themselves. And the area she was walking in is not the best area.

My mom doesn’t know what to do because now she feels like she can never leave Oma and she obviously has to leave her to go to work. Luckily, there is a support group here in town for caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s/dementia, so my mom is going to go to the next gathering and I really hope she gets some good advice and support there.

Glad that's overwith!

We went for Julie's Echo Cardiogram this morning. It was basically a very detailed ultrasound of her heart. The hardest part was she had to sit still! Trying to get a 7.5 month old to sit still for 45 minutes while being poked and prodded was no easy task! But, they finally got all the measurements and we'll get the results at our next appointment with the pediatrician on October 8th.

Julie still has a bit of a cold, so I'm not sure whether to take her to her music class this morning. I would hate for her to miss it since she enjoys it so much, I'm just not sure how the other moms would like it if I brought her since she is still sniffling a bit. But I doubt she is contagious anymore. Hmmmm... dilemma.

A couple weeks ago, we had some family portraits done. We did some 4 generation pics with Julie, me, my mom, and Oma. We also did some of Carlos, Julie, and me... some of Julie and me, and some adorable ones of just Julie. I get to pick them up tomorrow and I can't wait!!!! I will try to scan some in so I can post them on Facebook because some of them are just TOO CUTE!

We're all miserable around here!

Last weekend, Julie was a grumpy girl because of teething, this weekend she has her first cold! It started Thursday evening when I noticed she was coughing and had a bit of a stuffy nose. She also woke up several times during the night on Thursday night, which is a rarity around here, she usually sleeps though the night. Yesterday, she was obviously uncomfortable and very congested. Which makes breastfeeding difficult since she needs to be able to breathe through her nose! I used some saline drops and a bulb syringe thingy to try to clear her nose a bit. It is working well enough for her to be able to nurse, but I feel so helpless that there isn't much I can do to help her. Last night she slept with us in our bed since she was waking up every hour or two. Poor ju-jube.

She is looking slightly better this afternoon, but she's still quite congested. She had a mild fever yesterday, but that was gone today. So, I hope she is on the mend!

And an update on the situation with my uncle... we are not sure if we will proceed with mediation since she charges $200/hour and wants a $2,000 deposit. Oma keeps saying she's not going to pay $2,000 to talk to her son, so I'm not really sure how we are going to proceed. We are willing to participate in the process, but we're just not sure who is going to pay for it. And my mom is not speaking to my uncle, so we can't ask him what he thinks about it. I think my mom may talk to the mediator and ask if she has any indication from my uncle whether he would be willing to pay for it.

Perhaps a family meeting would be better since it won't cost any money? And we could ask a friend of Oma's to be there as a '3rd party'. Although most of Oma's friends want to stay out of it, so I'm not sure if we would find anyone. And we're not really sure if we should put Oma through that since she gets really upset easily and even has trouble breathing when she even thinks about my uncle, so I can't imagine how she would be if there was a heated discussion going on. What a mess! I just want this to all be over and move on! It has pretty much ruined our summer and I don't want it to ruin our fall as well!