Thursday, August 30, 2012

ashman!

look who came to town! my sweet sister ashley came for a short visit and it was really wonderful. i was especially lucky since she was here for my birthday. 


we did all sorts of things. we ate cupcakes, went for walks, played games, watched shows, ate dinner, and jumped around on icebergs. 


it was a pretty cold and grey week but it didn't rain too much. 


if you're wondering how fat i'm getting, here's an update:




Thursday, August 23, 2012

on not being special

i like being pregnant. i like not having to use my ab muscles all day and every once in a while i get a funny belly touch from a stranger or an awkward colleague which really makes me laugh. since i got pregnant, i haven't vomited once and i don't feel inconvenienced by the little nugget kicking my bladder. 

to me, finding out i was pregnant was like falling asleep comfortably in my bed and waking up in a small boat in the middle of the ocean. how did i get here? where am i? how do i catch a fish? is that a spider? it's like going from a comfortable normal situation to one in which everything is a big giant question mark. why am i sneezing so much? is my hair getting lighter? why can't i poop? is my skin getting drier? did i come from lizard ancestry? what is labour going to feel like? when i finally poop will it be on a hospital bed in front of my midwife? and don't even get me started on my fear regarding actually raising a human being. do they really just let you take home the baby you deliver? in my brain, bathing a newborn baby is like trying to hold on to one of these toys: http://bit.ly/SjGWsD

the day i found out i was pregnant i called my sisters and my mom. we had fun exciting phone parties and then i got down to business asking my mom questions. she gave birth to three cute little girl babies naturally and she talks about it like it was no biggie. this might annoy some people, but to me it's very reassuring. my mom says things like "labour is work! that's why they call it labour, but by no means is it the worst thing in the world." and "billions of women have done it! it's no biggie!" basically what she's saying (whether she'd admit to this or not) is that i'm not special. i'm not the first girl to get knocked up and i won't be the last. my fears are not unique and my labour pain won't be unique either. i'm not the only one wondering if at some point i might pee my pants when i sneeze and i'm not the only one finding out that pants really do have a limit. 

not being special makes me feel better. it's like when i was learning how to drive, anxiously clutching the steering wheel and darting my eyes around like a crazy person. sandy said to me "jenessa, look at all of these people around you driving around like they own the place. at one time they didn't know how to drive either. but people do it every day." duh, i'm not the first person to be a beginner at this!

i am excited and i am terrified and i am blessed, but i am definitely not special. yahoo!

Monday, August 20, 2012

iceberg, right ahead!

have you ever wondered if you've heard someone say the words "iceberg, right ahead!" a-la-titanic enough times in your life? if your name is ian bitton, the answer would be no. on saturday we flew back to iqaluit from our month long vacation in ontario and what a sight this place is! the wind is blowing in an unusual way, so thousands of icebergs have come into the bay from the ocean. yesterday we went out to explore. 


iceberg, right ahead!


after a little while, we got chatting with some clam diggers. they told us that the wind and icebergs brought in a polar bear over by the causeway. so we went on a polar bear hunt!

here's ian at the causeway, on polar bear watch:


sadly we didn't find the bear.

after the causeway, we went down by the beach to climb on the 'bergs. they're really close together so it's surprisingly hard to find a path to walk through. i can't imagine being in a boat out there. all of the ice is actually quite inconvenient for people waiting for things on the sealift boats. the first barge came in early july but since then all of the boats have been delayed. they're thinking that each boat will be delayed about a month because of that dang ice. 



cheeeeeeeese!


it was 4 degrees and misting/raining when we walked around so it didn't feel great after a month in 30 degree weather. just kidding, it felt nice to not have a sweat-stache for once. 


Sunday, August 19, 2012

sandy's buttday

here we are! august 13. the wonderful day on which my sister sandy was born (30 years ago!). 

oh wait, am i not fooling anyone? i know, it's august 19. i'm the worst! i just hate my blog. but i absolutely do NOT hate my biggest sister sandy. she's so big! i wonder at what age it becomes a bit taboo to refer to someone as "big" like that. my feeling is that it's always okay under two circumstances:

1. they're not fat, and 
2. they're your big giant sister. 

anyway, all this is to say that last monday sandy turned 30. yahoo!



sandy is the funniest person i know. she's sweet and loyal and very good at investigating. she's an amazing writer and she loves pizza. sandy is both the glue that sticks our family together and the boss of all of us. she's witty and kids love her. she loves exploring and nobody (i mean nobody) knows how to panic about timbit flavours like she does. oh, and she's pregnant too! 

here she is on the right not wearing pants:


here we are just a few weeks ago:


happy birthday, cindy.