Deep Freeze

I survived my first day of -40 weather here in Edmonton and I have to say it's not so bad when you're dressed properly. I would have liked to have had some snowpants, though, as the long johns I was sporting didn't quite do the trick.

I'm home with an upset stomach today. It seems to be getting better, but at least I'm not infecting any kiddies. I had a terrible headache last night and it was lingering this morning when I woke up, but of course I can't take anything (not entirely true; I could take Tylenol, but I'd rather not).

My cousin Christphor has arrived in town to do construction work. I plan to invite him over for supper and make sure he has a home-cooked meal. He's younger than me by a few years and we we've never been close, but my maternal instincts are kicking in and I'd like to make sure he's doing ok.

I don't plan to do much today, but the dishwasher needs some loading and unloading and I need to get started on the scarf for the girl at work to whom I am a "Secret Santa".

Jasper

I've been wanting to write about our weekend in Jasper for a while now, but I've been pretty busy. Jasper is my favourite place in Canada and it was so nice to go back for Scott's birthday. It was relatively quiet in the park since it's the off-season, but there were a lot of skiers at our hotel. This picture is from a little lake we hiked to. It was so peaceful and serene.

My weekend starts to get busy tomorrow. We meet with our doula tomorrow night for the first time and I'm really excited about it. On Friday night we're going to the hockey game, Saturday morning I have a meeting at church and I promised to make a quiche (which I'm totally regretting now), and then that afternnon I have a bunch of shopping to do. Then on Sunday we're going to the Oilers super skills competition. It should be a good weekend, but I wish I could skip the meeting at church. I took off next Friday at work so that I can get some stuff done here because I'm feeling quite over-whelmed. I don't like working full time very much.

My baby at 15 weeks

I don't have any new belly pics to post here because I'm really not showing much yet. I just had my second doctor's appointment today and it was really exciting because we heard the heartbeat. It's beating at around 150 beats per minute which is apparently in the normal range. It was so comforting and exciting to hear it since I haven't been growing very fast. I've only gained half a pound since my last appointment 4 weeks ago. But there really is a baby in there! He told me that since I'm tall I won't show as quickly as some other women and I'll always measure smaller.

I thought it was cute that the doctor found the heartbeat and then lost it because the baby moved away really fast.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

These are some of the cute things the parents have heard their kids say about me:

One mom told me her daughter will be upset when I go on mat. leave because I'm "so nice" and when they play "daycare" she always has to be "Marlene".

One of the boys told his mom that daddy loves Marlene.

A dad told me that his daughters named their pumpkin after me. That's my favourite.

Kids are so good for the ego.