Empress Lynsey's Live Journal

Blargh

2009-11-09T22:41:01Z

Well, since I'm in a high risk group, pregnant women, and soon to be in the caring-for-young-child group, I went and got the H1N1 vaccine. I drove to the clinic, having overslept and getting there an hour and a half after it started, thinking that I would check on the line and not bother if it was too long. There was no way I was going to sit or stand in line for several hours, given that I have to run to the bathroom every half hour and my back is always sore. I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that somehow I'd found the only clinic that didn't have insane lines. There was no one else waiting when I got there, the only delay I had was the time it took me to fill out the form and I spent more time waiting afterwards. (There's a mandatory fifteen minute wait after you get the vaccine to make sure you don't have a reaction.)

The downside of getting the vaccination is that I've had an upset stomach for two days and I was exhausted all day yesterday. Somehow, despite being exhausted, I didn't get any sleep. I woke up this morning feeling awful. My head hurt, my stomach was upset and I had the weird woozy feeling like I was still half asleep. (Like when you wake up in the middle of the night and go to the bathroom, you're awake but everything seems completely surreal.) So I took the day off and collapsed on the couch. I managed to get a few hours sleep, but I'm still tired.

Kicking away

2009-11-05T12:33:12Z

The baby's kicks are getting pretty strong, my whole stomach moves sometimes. They're a little less frequent, but I was told that's normal because he's running out of room. Before he was rolling around and doing a lot of somersaults. Now he just kicks and punches. It's really annoying when he starts punching my bladder because then it feels like I have to pee when I don't. That has kept me up a few nights. He also sometimes responds to my touching my stomach by kicking at my hand, or Mike's. This was apparently quite amusing to Mike the other night while we were watching tv on the couch, he kept trying to make the baby kick by moving his hand around on my belly.

A lot of moms tell me that they miss being pregnant. I'm not going to miss the horrendous back aches, the round ligament pain, the lack of energy or the incredible awkwardness of trying to move around when your center of balance is completely messed up because there's an extra twenty pounds right above it with no counter weight anywhere else. Getting off the couch has occasionally become challenging. I try to go to the gym when the pain isn't bad but when I'm there people stare at me like I'm going to give birth right there. I won't miss the nausea or crankiness.

But I think I might miss the kicking. It's fun to watch my stomach go. I'm pretty sure the other day I felt the outline of a foot against my hand. I'm guessing that's what moms mean when they tell me they miss it.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T13:39:29Z

Our house is in a neighbourhood well populated by young kids, so we get a lot of trick-or-treaters. Luckily, I learned from last year, when we were only saved by the fact that Bill and Jen came over with their left over treats. So we were well stocked. We saw at least 200 kids last night. At a couple of points in the evening we didn't even bother to close the door between kids, they were coming too quickly.

For a costume, I painted my belly like a jack-o-lantern. It's certainly round and prominent enough to work as one now. I mostly did it myself, but required assistance from Mike to even out parts and touch it up. It's not easy to paint on your own stomach, especially when you can't see the bottom of it. The costume was a hit with the parents bringing their kids around, and even some of the kids laughed about it. One kid asked me where I got the pumpkin belly and I told him that I already had the belly so I decided to paint it. My neighbour saw it, took a picture and called his wife out and she almost fell over laughing.

On top of handing out Halloween candy, we had a few friends over. We watched some cheesy movies, most people drank while I made up for the no drinking by having too much Halloween candy. This morning we have a full house, which is nice. We don't have people over as often as we used to.

My back is killing me...

2009-10-31T03:07:55Z

My back has been aching horribly all day, requiring constant position changing just for a few minutes of relief. I tried yoga stretches too and they provided only temporary relief. I'm wondering if the back of the kid's head is pressing against my spine, the nurse in prenatal class said that can cause a lot of back pain and a lot of the techniques she recommended for it seem to work, at least for a few minutes.

We finished prenatal classes last week. Now we're in the last couple of months, trying to get things organized. Kaylee can't seem to stay out of any of the new baby stuff in the house. She keeps knocking over gift bags to smell the the contents and she's claimed a big stuffed duck that Mom sent. Luckily she has stayed out of the crib, baby seat and the play pen. I'm not letting her sleep in anything that baby will end up sleeping in. I don't want a territory fight when I'll already be short on sleep and cranky.

Weird

2009-10-04T22:45:00Z

The top of my belly has a numb spot. It's been happening on and off for a few days. It's kind of uncomfortable, but mostly it's just weird.

My sister threw me a baby shower a couple of weeks ago. It was very nice. I even stayed over one night and spent time with my sisters and brother and his girlfriend. The ladies all went for a nice walk in the wood lot. My sister Lisa is now in Pennsylvania to start a new job so it will be a while before I see her again, most likely Christmas. She's looking forward to meeting her nephew at that time.

Getting things done...

2009-08-30T15:09:52Z

Well, yesterday I cleaned up the living room, emptied three boxes of junk, took a box of recycling to the depot, swept the living room and dining area, made two batches of blueberry jam, cleaned the kitchen and swept in there. My living room has been sitting half done for a couple of weeks, so it's good to see some progress. I still need to vaccuum the couches and wash the floors.

My goals for today are to finish off those two things, clean our bedroom, keep the kitchen clean and get the laundry done. Mike has done the bathrooms and the kitty litter. I've got the bedroom half done and the laundry started, but because I cleaned under the bed and got a face full of dust under there, I have to take a break until the asthma attack passes. Once I can inhale without coughing, I'll be back at it. I'd take allergy meds but I don't know which ones are safe to take and I never remember to ask my doctor.

I also did my yoga workout this morning. My hip joints are very tight right now and I think that's the source of a lot of the pain I'm getting. Hopefully if I keep doing the workout regularly, everything will loosen up and the pain will go away. I'd like to be able to sleep through the whole night again, though maybe I should just get used to not sleeping.

Trying to find energy

2009-08-29T12:21:47Z

Well, things continue on. Somedays it feels like everything is dragging and other days it feels like it's all happening too fast. I'm no longer getting nauseous all the time, which is good. I am getting a lot of pain in my hips and back, which is bad. I have bursts of energy, but am generally tired and too sore to do much. I'm trying out some prenatal yoga in the hopes that this will relieve the aches. I couldn't find a local class so I bought a video. The stretches feel really good, although I find it gets a little sappy at times when talking about the baby. Maybe I'm not sentimental enough, but to me it often just came off as artificial.

The baby is kicking pretty regularly. Until a couple of days ago, I only felt movement in the late afternoon and sometimes at night. Now it's intermittently throughout the entire day. The other night it was even strong enough for Mike to feel.

Not much more to really add here I suppose. The summer has been pretty quiet. Work has been a little hectic, mostly trying to get through my to-do-before-december list as quick as possible so that I have time to work out any bugs that may crop up. It's busy, but it makes the work day go quickly.

Now I'm procrastinating because I need to clean my house and it seems like such a monumental job that I don't want to do it.... I guess I should get at it, I'm only going to make it seem like more time the longer I just sit here staring at it.

Cleaning frenzy

2009-08-09T03:33:28Z

Well after weeks of good intentions and no action, I finally decreed that Saturday morning and afternoon, and the same on Sunday, would be dedicated to unpacking boxes, moving furniture and some general clean up. I expected with Mike's help to get our living room rearranged today. So we went out for breakfast and started the clean up when we got home. His sisters happened to pop over and, when they learned that we were going to be moving furniture, volunteered themselves and Carrie's husband to assist. So we have all the furniture in the house moved to the correct rooms. (except for the small desk that we're getting rid of.) I also cleaned out the storage space and put a moved some things in there. A couple of boxes have been unpacked and I cleaned the living room as things were moved. The new living room arrangement really opens the room up. Tomorrow I plan to finish the downstairs and that will just leave the office/guest room and the baby room. I'd put the house at about 50% done. I'm going to push for another 25% tomorrow and the rest next weekend. Mike keeps making jokes about me "nesting", but really I just want to get this done before I'm any bigger. The belly is already starting to get in the way just a little bit.

Speaking of the belly. There seems to be quite a bit of kicking going on these days. It took me a while to figure out if it was really kicking or if I was just imagining things. Baby clothes are starting to trickle in. My sister has sent several gifts already, and apparently another package is in the mail. In the next couple of weeks I'm going to have to pick an evening and go register at Toys R Us for baby stuff. (I'm told that there will be at least one shower in September when my sister is home visiting.)

I had my official ultrasound and they said everything looked good. I haven't gotten the official pronouncement from my doctor yet, as he hasn't seen the results himself as of my last appointment, though he has seen the previous ultrasound report. He did comment at my last appointment, which was the first time I met him, that I and the baby both appeared to be quite healthy. He seems like a nice doctor, though everyone kept commenting when they found out what doctor I was seeing that he has really big hands....I was almost disappointed when I met him as they didn't really look that big to me. (I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing...)

Missing the sunshine

2009-07-19T20:28:57Z

Last week I went to PEI for meetings. It was nice. Mike came with me so the evenings were like a mini vacation. We went shopping in Charlottetown and out to the beach a couple of times. It was nice to actually go swimming in the ocean, haven't done that in a long time.

One morning last week, I did discover a pair of my dress pants that didn't fit. Over the last week, the rest of my pants have followed suit. I bought an elastic at a maternity store that lets me wear my normal pants with the buttons undone and the elastic over it, covered by my shirt. Means I have to make sure I'm wearing a long enough shirt, but it's more comfortable than a pinched belly.

The morning sickness came back, but it's manageable. Tuesday is my ultrasound. I will possibly find out if it's a boy or girl.

This week was life as usual. Played some WoW and watched some tv shows. We're on season 3 of Babylon 5, a friend loaned us the entire series. We've also been watching How I Met Your Mother, which is hilarious, and we watched the first season of Dollhouse. The latter was really good once you got past the first six episodes. For not having cable, we sure watch a lot of television...

The days crawl on...

2009-06-30T02:27:19Z

I had my first appointment with my new doctor today. Well, actually with his nurse, I didn't meet the doctor himself. I answered a whole bunch of questions that I seem to be constantly answering these days. And I got to pee in yet another cup. She scheduled my actual official ultrasound for the end of July.

Other than finding the summer to be a very uncomfortable time to be pregnant because I'm constantly overheating, I'm trying to enjoy the weather. I'd like to do a little more walking outside. I'm going to be in PEI next week for work, and hopefully will get a little beach time in the evenings.

Sore and sleepy

2009-06-11T14:20:02Z

I've been getting cramps lately. It drives me crazy. I read that it's normal, things are stretching and growing and that's causing some discomfort. The nausea was starting to ease up, but now I'm getting a little sicker again. I'm worried that it might be the flu. What sucks is that I can't take much of anything for it, at least not without checking with the doctor.

Other than that, life continues on. I'm doing some gaming a couple of times a week. Judo is winding down for the summer. Sadly, I won't be able to participate much next year.

I need to get some work done around the house, but I'm largely lacking in the energy by the time I get home from work. I need to get started soon though. I'd like the rooms upstairs rearranged before we get any baby furniture, which my mother was looking in to. Plus I need a place to put the gifts my sister sent.

I can't decide...

2009-06-09T17:21:12Z

...which I hate more today...MS Access or MS SQL... Probably Access. If this app had been built for SQL in the first place, I wouldn't be having these issues...

Big news

2009-06-05T15:41:18Z

Well, for the last little while I've been frequently tired and nauseous. On a trip to Halifax with co-workers about a month ago, I slept almost the entire five hour trip and still went to bed early that night. This little voice in my head kept suggesting what it was, but I figured I was just jumping to conclusions. On the second evening of the business trip my manager organized a poker night. Since I knew there would be drinking, I decided to silence the little voice in my head. So I bought a home pregnancy test. The result was positive.

So I went and played poker and refused any drinks. On the upside, I was really good at bluffing that night because nothing was going to phase me. Even though it was my first time playing poker, I won it all. (The whole seven bucks in change that we were betting.)

The next day I made an appointment with my doctor and when I got home I told Mike. He was quite shocked, but said that it explained a lot of things, like my sudden aversion to the smell of popcorn. I saw my doctor the following week, who sent me for blood work. They took eight vials of blood out of me that day and I got the results a week later. All the tests showed that I'm quite healthy, and pregnant.

We only told a couple of people early on, kind of had to because they came over with a couple of cases of beer and I had to explain why I wasn't drinking. Once the bloodwork came back I told my parents.

The original due date was December 30. But earlier this week I started having some worrying symptoms, so we ended up in the emergency room. The doctors checked me for a potential miscarriage. That meant lots of tests and blood work. (My arm is all bruised up from the needles.) It also meant two ultrasounds, one with a portable machine in the ER and then one the next day with an actual radiologist. They measured the size of the baby and told me I was further along than thought, so the due date is December 17th. (Which made me laugh because that's my sister's birthday.) The problems I was having were from a separate problem that they found on the ultrasound, which may or may not be related to the pregnancy.

So far things are good, thankfully the morning (read: all day) sickness is finally starting to ease and I have more energy. Today, if the doctor's calculations are correct, marks the end of the first trimester.

Star Trek (spoilers)

2009-05-14T14:32:28Z

One of the most important friendships of my young life was founded on Star Trek. The day we both admitted to being closet-geeks was a very defining moment for me. (We caught each other because we were on the phone when the show came on and we could both hear the theme music in stereo.) After that, I became much more comfortable with being a geek, after all I wasn't the only one. We quickly became best friends, largely because we would hang out to have someone to talk to about Star Trek and those conversations gradually expanded to other geek topics. She and I are still in touch today, and both of us remain unrepentantly geeky.

Now with that sappy intro, on to the Star Trek movie. In short: I liked it. Though I can see where some hard core fans might have a problem with it. (The Onion parodied their reasons quite well with the headline "Star Trek fans complain new movie is fun, watchable.") It didn't have the same heavy handed moralizing that Star Trek can have, although if you looked closely you could find a little bit. It did have a lot of fun with some old characters and some fun action sequences. (Something I think Star Trek could use a bit more of at times.)

Some big spoilers ahead.

I liked the fact that, even though there was time travel, there was no ret-con. Everything that happened, no matter how universe-changing it was, actually stayed. There was no reset, and they didn't pull punches. I was very surprised at the things they did, and impressed that they had the balls to mess with the universe that much. Even though part of me continues to disbelieve that they actually blew up Vulcan. (Or sucked it into a black hole anyway...there's probably a way to reverse that....)

I particularly enjoyed McCoy and Spock. The actors really seemed to nail the character's mannerisms and inflections. And I chuckled every time they had to interact with each other.

Snow?!

2009-04-14T01:17:26Z

It has been storming for the last two days. Not just a little bit of snow, but great big flakes coming down like it's mid January. Fortunately, it's not staying on the ground for long...but seriously, what the hell?

I took an extra vacation day on Thursday for an extra, extra long weekend. I used that extra day to kick off some crazy spring cleaning. (Though looking outside, it looks like I jumped the gun on the "spring" part.) I've been in my house for just a couple of months shy of a year and there are still some unpacked boxes. I decided to get started on changing that. So I opened the door to the bedroom that we've been using as a storage area and actually started opening boxes. My hope is to get it all finished by my one year anniversary of living here.

Fizban

2009-03-24T03:18:46Z

My mother called me tonight around 11. Fizban, the family cat, died tonight very suddenly. It appears that he had a heart attack. He had heart problems most of his life. He was only about eight years old I think. I remember when he was a kitten, picking him out from the litter of kittens that a family friend had. I held him on the car ride home and he meowed a lot and chewed on my hair. He was never good around strangers and was terrified of small children. (Comes from being born into a house with toddlers in it, I suspect.) But he had the softest and thickest fur of any cat I've ever met. He was black and white with long hair and a very pouffy tail. He was not a fat cat, but he was a really big cat. When I was still living at home he would come in to my room at night and lie across my pillow over my head, chewing on my hair and purring. His arrival in our home gave our dog a sort of second puppyhood for a little while. They would run around and play with each, rolling around and wrestling until Bart got too old. Now Fizban can keep Bart company again.

In the land of 16-bit nostalgia...

2009-02-17T16:57:04Z

It's been a long time since I've written any updates. Not really much to say, honestly. There is one bit of big news, that I alluded to in my post on New Years but I hadn't gotten the official papers yet so I didn't want to post it online. They made my contract permanent at work. I signed the papers and it's all gone through now. This takes a lot of stress off.

Other than that things have been pretty routine. Kaylee had an allergic reaction to her rabies shot a couple of weeks ago, but weathered it fairly well. She threw up a lot and I had to take her to the vet for a shot of benadryl to make sure the reaction didn't get worse. I also had to buy some in case she needed more the next morning, which she ended up not needing. Still, it was funny to see the look on the pharmacist's face when I told him that I was buying it for a cat.

I'm home sick today. It started yesterday afternoon, actually. My head just started to feel fuzzy and my eyes really heavy. This morning I could barely get out of bed to call work. I'm better now, after several hours of sleep.

A couple of days ago, we downloaded Super Mario World onto the Wii. I forgot how much fun 16-bit can be. I'll have to go hunting for some other old games I used to love.

Goodbye 2008

2009-01-01T01:12:25Z

This year had its good and bad times. My apartment was broken in to. I lost a lot of writing and some special earrings as a result, not to mention the general trauma involved in having your home violated. I didn't sleep for a month straight. Then my car was hit by a garbage truck. I've been dealing with the neck injury ever since. There were several other things that at the time seemed overwhelmingly frustrating.

But the year is ending well for me. I have a new car. And I bought my first house. The neck is slowly healing. I went to Scotland, and had a fantastic time. I'm expecting more good news.

So I guess the sum is the year started horrible, stayed pretty rough for a most of it and ended pretty awesome.

Scotland Day 5, 6, 7, 8

2008-11-29T00:39:59Z

Tuesday was a relatively uneventful day. It was spent shopping and then hanging out in the pubs. We started at O'Neills for breakfast, shopped and then headed to Blackfriars to meet my sister and brother in law for a post-work pint. Apparently Blackfriars is in a building where Mary, Queen of Scots watched from a window while a man reputed to be her lover was executed. Then back to the flat for more drinking and some rock band. Sylvain got it for his birthday.

Wednesday we hopped in a couple of rented cars and headed for Inverness, the home of Loch Ness and Urquhart castle. It was a long drive to go hunting for Nessie. Sadly, she didn't show her head. Urquhart castle is a castle in ruins on the shore of Loch Ness. It was blown up by its in owners in...the 18th century? (I think) They blew it up rather than allow their enemies to breach its walls.

Thursday we were up early to catch the bus to Edinburgh. We explored an ancient cathedral, wandered through Edinburgh Castle and shopped along the royal mile. We had dinner in Greyfriars Bobby bar. In front of the bar is a statue commemorating a dog who sat on his master's grave for twelve years until his own death.

Today was my sister's graduation. We attended the ceremony and then headed out to a Greek restaurant, called Christos, for supper. It was delicious. Then it was off to the Illicit Still for a few drinks.

Scotland Day 3 and 4

2008-11-24T22:03:08Z

We headed off in the morning to catch a bus to Stonehaven, a town about 45 minutes away from Aberdeen. From the bus station we hiked along the coastline about a mile and a half to the ruins of Dunnottar castle. On the way we stopped at the war memorial. Sadly, because of the snow, the castle was closed, so we could only look at it from the outside. Still, it was pretty impressive.

Today we hopped on the train to Stirling. First stop we Stirling Castle. We took the guided tour. The guide was great and very friendly. After the tour he asked us some questions about Canada. We then headed off to the William Wallace monument. The monument is located at the top of a large hill, and it's a steep tower with something like 264 steps in a big winding narrow staircase. The top was really cold and windy. We stopped at the William Wallace pub for a drink and then jumped on the train back to Aberdeen. Lisa was waiting for us with spaghetti. (Awesome!)

Scotland day 2

2008-11-23T10:53:33Z

Our luggage caught up with us, although it took all day to get it delivered. Most of the day was spent relaxing and trying to recover from the jet lag at my sister's flat. In the evening we headed out to take in the Scottish night life. Our first stop in Scotland....an Irish pub called O'Neills... Some of Lisa's friends met us there and we got some stew for supper. We watched rugby on the big screen, which was fun as the locals take their rugby very seriously. My Mom headed back relatively early. Sarah and Dad left a couple of hours later. After the irish pub we set out for a couple of other place. One was called the Wild Boar and the other was called Revolution. The latter played a lot of dance music. I noticed several buildings that looked like churches, but had lines of people dressed for clubbing waiting to get in. Lisa told us that yes, they used to be churches but had been converted in to bars. The drink of the night was Guinness Red, which we are very disappointed that we can't get back home. A couple of drunk Irishmen informed us that the best Guinness was in Ireland, where apparently it's smooth as honey and cream. These same guys also thought Dad looked like the guy from Goodfellows and when he found out that Lisa, Sarah and I were sisters, he congratulated Dad on being a good breeder. We made an attempt to try a few different kinds of beer, I believe there are photos of each thing we tried.

Scotland is experiencing some unusual weather, snow. Not just snow, but snow that is staying on the ground, a whole 2 cms. So we saw many impromptu snowball fights last night.

I will be posting some pics soon, of course. And a couple of videos of my family singing along to some Irish folk tunes, and an accoustic version of Shook me all night long. (Which was just funny.)

Today we're off to our first Scottish castle.

Scotland

2008-11-22T00:00:09Z

Thursday was a flurry of last minute packing, wrapping up some work stuff and rushing up to Fredericton to catch the flight to Halifax. We were in the Halifax airport for about two hours and then got on the plane to Heathrow airport in London. We had about six hours before checking in to the flight to Aberdeen. So we checked our luggage in and headed for the Tube. I put forth the suggestion for the Tower of London. Sarah, my brother Graham and his girlfriend Katie were all agreeable. My parents did their own thing.

I was in London ten years ago on a school trip. We only got about an hour at the Tower of London, nowhere near enough time to see it all. At the time I said I wanted to go back and see it all. So today I finally got to do it. We walked through all the open towers. I found the carvings made on the wall by John Dudley when he was awaiting trial and the carvings of the name Jane that is believed to be carved by the husband of Lady Jane Grey. We saw the crown jewels, still amazing. Mike finally got to see the giant gold punch bowl that I told him about. (Can't take pictures in the crown jewel exhibit sadly.) I watched some annoying teenagers get booted out of the crown jewels for taking pictures without the flash and trying to hide it.

Sadly, there wasn't a way in to see the White Tower, it's being restored. But we saw all the others, I even finally got to see the torture chamber that had a rack and a form of tortured I'd never heard of before called the Scavenger's Daughter.

All of my family slept on the plane from Heathrow to Aberdeen. We were all exhausted and messed up from the time change. We arrived safely, but sadly not all of our luggage did. One suitcase is missing. We reported it and then got in line to catch a cab to my sister's place. We have to call them tomorrow and hopefully they'll find it by then. Aberdeen has been hit by a snowstorm and it's quite chilly. We joked that we must have accidentally hopped on the wrong plane and ended up back in Canada.

We have neighbours

2008-09-05T15:17:33Z

The final unit on our townhouse sold. We met them yesterday although they don't move until the end of the month. They're a retired couple and seem quite friendly.

I'm still not feeling super good. I'm wondering if my stomach problem has returned or if I've just got a flu that won't let go. I called in sick yesterday. But today I had to come in, there's too much going on that I can't really miss a beat on. I'll be glad when mid-October rolls around though, because a very major project will be over with.

My legs feel like they're coated in lead today. I was walking to work from the bus stop this morning and I just wanted to sit down. I have no energy at all. That's going to make the gym today rather painful. I haven't been there all week though, so I need to get back to it. I'm hoping to drop another clothing size by my birthday, so I've got to get at it.

A small update

2008-08-28T02:25:14Z

Not much new in my life. Car is driving nicely. House is nice, especially now that we have an actual driveway and the start of a yard. And apparently we will soon have new neighbours. The last unit has sold finally.

I'm trying to write a new story. It's different from what I normally write. Unfortunately I haven't been in a good writing mood in a very long time. I'm trying to force myself to write a little bit everyday, just to get me back into the habit. Hopefully if I do it enough, then I'll get back into the groove.

I've been feeling sick all week, on and off throughout the day. It's made going to the gym frustrating. But I've been doing well about going to the gym otherwise. I've started jogging on the treadmill again, trying to get my cardio back up. Judo is starting up in a couple of weeks. We had a couches meeting yesterday to discuss possible changes to the curriculum and the focus for this year. Our club did very well in tournaments last year and we want to keep that trend. For myself, I want to get more fights in this year, that'll whip me back into shape pretty fast.

Weekend craziness

2008-08-06T00:59:33Z

Friday morning I drove up to Fredericton for my sister's wedding rehearsal. There was the expected chaos of the day before a wedding. My Dad told me a rather funny story about my sister taking her two bridesmaids from the UK over to meet my brother. My brother happened to be having a party at the same time, and was dancing on the front lawn, completely drunk, and also completely naked. My sister wanted to kill him. We all laughed about it afterwards. There was also some last minute running around. After the rehearsal there was a barbecue. Then I drove home.

Early the next morning, Mike and I drove up so I could meet my sister and the other bridesmaids for our hair appointment. Mike was roped in to helping my Dad run errands for Mom. It took about an hour to do my hair, two hours to do Sarah's. Then it was back to my parents to finish getting ready. We had some wine, and then some champagne in the limo on the way down to the chapel. The ceremony went off without a hitch.

The reception was a lot of fun. We stayed until the very end, dancing and drinking with my family. We attempted to play a prank on the newly weds by hanging a string of bells along the back of the mattress in their hotel room. But sadly they found them, they were suspicious by the grin on my brother's face when he brought Sylvain's keyroom back. (We'd used the excuse of taking their bags up for them to get the key.)

Monday we drove up to Fundy park and to the Hopewell rocks to go hiking with my sister and her friends from the UK. It was a great day. It's been a long time since I've gone hiking. It was also the first time I'd seen the Hopewell rocks.