Stay-At-Home-Mom

After 7 years of working for the Government of Canada, as of last Friday, I'm officially a Stay-At-Home-Mom (with no kids...yet). I never would have thought that I'd be off work 6 weeks before my due date. It sure wasn't the plan. But my doctor felt my swelling was too bad to continue to work. He wanted me off immediately, but I went back in for 3 more days to wrap work up and train someone to cover off my desk. I'll admit it, when I walked out of my office at 4:30 last Friday I looked back at my desk and I was teary eyed. But I KNOW I'm leaving to do a much greater job, a more difficult job, a way more rewarding job, an eternal job -- that of being a mother. And I'm so overjoyed to have that opportunity. Both Tim and I are so excited. Not too much longer now. Less than 6 weeks to go!

Here I am in my office my last day. Can't complain about the view I had -- that field usually has a ton of our sheep and lambs out in it, but I didn't get them in the picture:

And a baby bump picture (34 weeks):

Jumping Ship

Last week (May 7th) Tim started a new job. Yes, another new job. He’s now working at McCain. You know McCain…like French fries and stuff.

So he’s doing pretty much the same work he was doing at Lamb Weston (Maintenance Journeyman Electrician), but he (we) decided that McCain would be a better fit for us for the following reasons: a) 17 minute drive one way to McCain vs a 45 minute one way drive to Lamb Weston cuz we all know how cheap gas is these days (ugh) and b) better shift schedule (4 on 4 off schedule vs a 2, 2, 3 schedule). I’m really excited about the 4 days off stuff for camping this summer. Yipee!

So Tim’s been doing Monday to Friday (8 hr shifts) right now while he’s being trained. He’s first day of shift work starts Thursday. And yes, that means he works Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the May Long weekend.

Out with the old – In with the new

Tim quit his job on Monday. And today he started a new one. Not a huge career change or anything like that. He’s been hired as a Journeyman Electrician for Lamb Weston. It’s a huge potato plant ("Where every day's a fryday!") and he’ll be doing maintenance there instead of construction like he’s been doing for the last 5 (or so) years. He’s excited about the change and to learn some new stuff. The crappy part is now it’s shift work. Yep 12 hour days (or nights) plus a 45 min drive to work each way. So he’ll have to work some night shifts and he’ll work every second weekend. Totally crappy, but we both feel shift work will work very well for us when I’m at home with our baby. (That day can’t come soon enough.) I’m so proud of Tim and the hard worker that he is. I hope his first day is going well. It’s so strange for me not to be able to call him whenever. I’m sure I’ll get used to it though.

A Year in Review (2007)

I totally stole this from another blog. Loved the idea, so I wanted to do it here too. Here's a summary of our 2007.

January

Tim started his last year of school

Bought a new car

February

My cousin miraculously survives being in an avalanche

March

Rachel announced she's pregnant

Tim finished school & is now a Journeyman Electrician

Ashlee went to the ER with a kidney stone

Tim turns 27 years old

April

Tim sold his horse Felize

Camping at Fairmont Hot Springs

Tim bought a new Quad

Ashlee bought a new treadmill

Ashlee got her wisdom teeth out

Bought an old holiday trailer

May

Grampa had to go to an assisted living home

Camping at Writing on Stone

Camping at Lewis & Clarke Caverns

Tim fought his first house fire

Jenn announces she's pregnant

June

Camping at Waterton (Belly River)

Bought a new truck

Camping & Quading at Pole Haven

Britnee graduates highschool

July

We're Pregnant

Camping at Writing on Stone

Camping in Montana

Ashlee turns 25 years old

Trent & Tara announce they're pregnant

August

Attended my cousin Kyle's wedding

Grampa passes away

Our 3rd Wedding Anniversary

Attended my cousin Carlene's wedding

September

We lost our baby

Ashlee goes to the ER with fluid on her hip

October

Spent Thanksgiving in Castlegar with Kimmy & Brendan

November

New nephew Dallin was born

December

We're Pregnant Again

Celebrated Christmas in BC

Phew, 2007 has exhausted me! Here's hoping 2008 is AWESOME!

Here, There, & Everywhere–A Random Post

I don’t have a very exciting post for you today. My mowed lawn, empty sink, swept floors, and newly painted deck (all of which and more have been keeping me busy) don’t make for a very fun post. Life has been busy. Between real work, yard work, house work, church stuff, and exercise my days are zipping by. Midnight sneaks up on me every night. And 6am hurts every morning. But I’m not complaining. Things are going very well for Tim and I. We have plenty to do each day, but we get to slip in some fun stuff here and there.

I taught the RS lesson on Sunday. It was on food storage and gardening. Well my food storage is weak. Tim and I could only survive about three months on the Kraft Dinner, soup, and flour stored in our basement. And my garden just doesn’t exist. I guess I should add these two to my "To Do" list. Is it too late to plant a garden? Is it too late to sell my dogs so that they don’t dig and do their business in the new garden?

Did I tell you about my treadmill? I got it back in April on the same day Tim got his quad. Ya, that was a spendy day. Anywho, Tim has become the treadmill Nazi. You see, it’s a rent to own treadmill. So anytime that I don’t use it Tim threatens to take it back to Flaman Fitness. Ya, I totally whined for it and said I’d use it tons. Well, I do love the treadmill and I actually enjoy running on it...when I get there. It’s the lacing up the shoes and getting my butt there that’s the problem. My evenings are full so that only leaves mornings for my run. Have you ever tried running at 6am? I’m pretty sure I’m running with my eyes closed for the first 5 minutes. So I do my thing there and then get ready for work. Tim phones me on my drive to work to see how my run went. So what it all comes down to is that I don’t want to return the treadmill so I run on it daily out of spite.

Feeling Hot Hot Hot Hot!

Last Tuesday when Tim was on his way home from work he noticed smoke coming from Stirling. He drove to where he saw the smoke (a few blocks down from our house) and noticed a house on fire. He went straight to the Fire Hall. The other firefighters had just arrived there as well. I went and tried to get some video of Tim fighting his first fire on the Stirling Fire Department. It was pretty hard as the house was surrounded by trees and there were barricades up so I couldn't get very close. I did get video of the water Tim was spraying on the house and of him climbing the ladder with the hose over his shoulder. I have put captions in the video to point these out. Please don't mind the shaky videoing as it was super windy out and the blurriness is because I didn't realize the digital zoom was on.



They fought the fire for close to 5 hours. Tim was really tired when he got home. He said it was hard work. The house is pretty much gutted. It was too old and was falling apart so they couldn't get inside to fight the fire--just had to spray it down from outside.

A few weeks ago I told Tim that the Fire Department should make a calendar. Then on Tuesday I saw the rest of the firefighters and well let's just say that they should NOT be in a calendar. But my husband was hot, hot, hot, hot!

He Did It!

Last night Tim got a phonecall from his boss. The Alberta Apprenticeship Board has sent Tim's marks for his Provincial and Inter-Provincial exams to his employer. We already knew he passed his Provincial and we found out last night he didn't just barely pass as he suspected. He did awesome on it! And he also passed his Inter-Provincial. Yep, he's now got his Ticket and Red Seal. He did so well on both exams. I'm so proud of him.

Tonight I will take him out for dinner to celebrate...Chinese Food of course (Tim's favorite). Which will be better than yesterday when, at his request, I had to call him "Red Seal Journeyman Man" all evening long. Hey, whatever floats your boat right?

Oh Ya Baby!

Tim wrote his FINAL exam as an apprentice electrician today. He called me to say it was super hard and he passed. Which is AWESOME! We won't know his actual mark as they will mail that to us. They test administrators just tell you pass or fail. My husband is now a Journeyman Electrician. Sweet stuff! I'm so proud of him and all the hard work he put into his apprenticeship these last 4 years. Good job Tim!


So that's what Tim was up to for 3 hours this morning. And he had to go back again this afternoon at 1:00 for a 4 hour Red Seal (Inter-Provincial) test. When he passes that test he'll be able to work not just in Alberta as a Journeyman, but in any province in Canada, except Quebec of course. They've got their own "French" ways there.


Well, that's our good news! Tim's back to work on Monday with a 25% pay raise (yes, not only does he get his entitled 20% raise from becoming a Journeyman, but his boss gave him an additional 5% raise). Well, I guess we're on to Phase II of our lives now....

Just Stuff

Well I’m away on business this week. Yep, living out of a suitcase. The hotel bed is about as good as Papa Bear’s–it sucks. I prefer Mama Bear’s (so soft). Can’t sleep a wink without my husband next to me. And to top it all off....my shower this morning was ICE COLD! It took my breath away. I just love travelling for work.

Next week I have a dentist appointment. At 24 years old my wisdom teeth have decided to finally make an appearance. So I’m crossing my fingers that the dentist will say that I have room for my new teeth and that he won’t yank them. I’ll keep ya posted on that.

What's New?

Haven’t posted in a while...no good stories to tell I guess. We got our satellite installed last Thursday. If I wanted I could watch Oprah from 8:00am until 11:00pm (Oprah’s not my weakness, but for some that’d be awesome). I do love that I can watch Days of our Lives in the evenings now though. Way more channels and much clearer. We had three "snowy" channels downstairs in our living room and four "kinda clear-ish" channels in our bedroom upstairs. We’re really moving into this new age stuff. Tim has TSN now and loves it. Boxing is on all the time.

What else? I’m still working away. So nothing new there. Tim’s still at school and we’re surviving on one income (I guess it’s practice for when I’m at home with our baby). But all is well. At least he'll be completely finished with schooling when he's done this time.

We’d like to buy a new car. Actually a new, used car. We’re not sure that’s the wisest thing to do right now while Tim’s in school. But driving the truck 100 km every day for me to get to work is not so nice on the pocket book. Truck = 20 mpg and Car = 50 mpg....and you wonder why we’d like a car. However we would keep our truck as well cuz we have dogs and horses you know. The car dealership was trying to talk us into leasing a car (not so smart for us). Our families live out of town and WE live out of town. Getting to work and trips to see family last year alone was 32,000 kilometers on our truck. And we only lived out of town for 6 months. However we did drive to Vegas.

Tim’s super busy with the Fire Department. Not putting out fires...mostly just training and other courses. He was gone all last weekend and will be again this weekend. Not to count the meetings he has on Wednesday nights. In March he gets to start some of the EMT courses. He’s wicked excited about those.

And I made this matting for The Living Christ and A Proclamation to the World. Took me forever as I'm not too crafty. I ended up hanging them going up my stairs. They look pretty darn good. Except for the non-matching paper. I'm going to have to buy some paper to match the Proclamation and print The Living Christ on it. They look silly hanging on the wall two different colors.
And that’s that.

Merry Christmas

Well we had a very busy Christmas and it flew right on by. We had a good time though. We spent Christmas in B.C. at my parent's house. Before Christmas we made a trip up the mountain on my dad's snowmobiles. It was pretty fun, but super windy up there. And it was snowing so we didn't get a good view that day.

We also went on a hay ride around town to check out all the lights. The little kids loved it and we all about froze to death by the end. We saw some pretty amazing Christmas lights though.
On Christmas day we got some sweet gifts. Tim bought me a video camera and I got him satellite TV. You see out in Stirling (in the middle of no where) you can't get cable. The cable companies call it a "dead area". Tim tried putting up with the rabbit ears on top of our big screen HD TV, but I guess the three fuzzy channels didn't cut it. And I have been wanting a video camera for ages. We got many other super nice gifts from our family as well.

Now we're back home and working again. Those six days that I took just zipped by. Today is Tim's last day of work for the next three months. January 2nd he starts his 4th Year Electrical schooling. By the end of March he'll be a Journeyman. We're pretty excited. However it'll suck for the next three months without Tim's paycheques. The EI he gets while is school is pretty terrible, but at least it's something right?

Brrrrrr

Oh ya, it's freezing here. It's been super cold for almost a week now. Yep, the weather station said with the wind chill our high will be -39 degrees Celsius today. Nice eh? Oh and for our family in the US, that's around -38 degrees Fahrenheit. Yes, we're freezing in Southern Alberta. We actually have snow too. I'm sure we'll have a Chinook soon and it'll all disappear. But right now it's pretty.

I don't think our pets are loving it though. Their water keeps freezing. Which leaves Tim and I to haul buckets of water to our two horses and the dogs daily. We do have an electric water heater for our horses water trough, but in order to get it to work we have to string an electrical cord across our backyard and the problem is we have Dexter who LOVES to chew everything: hoses, buckets, sprinklers, extension cords, etc.

Tim's been working outside some lately, so we bought him some nice outdoor work clothes. Now he has insulated pants and coat. He says it's much warmer. The thick material stops the wind from blowing right through him.

And November's Here

Well November is now upon us. I don’t have much of an update for everyone. Things have been pretty much the same for Tim and I. Tim’s still having fun with the Stirling Fire Department. It’s keeping him extremely busy on top of his regular job as a electrician and church stuff. I’ll have to get a picture of him all dressed up. And what I am up to? I’m not really sure. My days zip by and I feel as though I get nothing accomplished.
We don’t get to do a whole lot with our horses these days. It’s dark when we leave for work and dark when we get home. Our foal, Jet, didn’t care for the snow last week and now he’s super fuzzy with his lovely winter coat. He’s friendly and loves people (which is nice). He’s also really good around our two crazy dogs. They’re pretty wild and yet Jet is fine with them (his mama is the same way). Jet will let both Diesel and Dexter eat out of the same bowl as him. And I don’t know why my dogs like grain, but they do.
With it now being November, we’ve started looking around for a few Christmas gift ideas. A lady told me last week that her house already has all her Christmas decorations up. I’m not quiet there yet. I think I’ll leave my Fall pumpkins and scarecrows up for a bit longer. I don’t have Christmas fever yet. I think it’s because all our snow melted last weekend. When is it okay to put your Christmas decorations up? My neighbor has his lights up. Is it too early?
So that’s a little update from us (well mostly me). Tim’s my silent partner when it comes to this whole Blogging thing. Occasionally I can get him to sit down for a second to read what I post, but that’s about it.

Just Another Day

So what have we been up to? We’re just busy, busy, busy. There doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day anymore. It feels like we’re always running. Here’s a typical day for the Nilssons:

6:00am We’re up! Tim starts getting ready for work while Ashlee goes downstairs to make Tim’s lunch for the day.

6:20am Tim’s out the door and goes to feed the horses while Ashlee cleans up from the morning and gets herself ready for work.

7:30am Ashlee leaves Stirling for the 35 minute drive to work.

4:30pm Ashlee leaves work and does all her errands in town (appointments, groceries, returns, Wal-Mart stuff, etc).

5:15pm Tim finishes work (if it’s a good day) and then he does his errands in town before heading home (horse feed, dog food, vehicle maintenance, helping his wife, etc).

6:30-7:00pm Tim and Ashlee both arrive back home (that is if the errands go quickly). Ashlee starts dinner while Tim feeds the dogs and exercises them while going over to check on our foal (and feed the foal again).

8:00pm We eat dinner.

8:30pm Ashlee cleans up dinner while Tim starts on his "Honey Do" list (leaking toilet, mow lawn, clean dog’s pen, hang mirrors, finish our deck, etc)

9:00-10:30pm Tim continues on his "Honey Do" list while Ashlee attempts to get some housework done (baking for Tim’s lunch, laundry, vacuum, clean bathrooms, etc).

10:30pm We call it a night and decide to stop with the chores and such. Tim will finally get his shower. If we’re not too tired we’ll go in our hot tub before bed, but if it’s been a rough day then we just say goodnight and fall asleep watching CSI.

And it all starts again at 6:00am. Yes, that’s a typical day for us. The days when we have home teaching, visiting teaching, firefighting meetings, and Elders Quorum meetings are even worse. I feel as if I’m running on fumes. Our weekends are packed so full we don’t get to recuperate during them. I'm sure the majority of you are going through this as well. I know we're not alone with a busy schedule. Maybe things will slow down a bit this winter........maybe.

Uneventful...

Well I have to say things have been fairly uneventful this past week or so. Thanksgiving was great and Tim and I hosted 14 people for dinner. And then my week was super quiet as Tim had to go out of town for work. I did a whole lot of nothing.

Tim got home late Friday night and then all day Saturday and Sunday he had a Firefighting course. Yes, Tim’s a firefighter in Stirling. But that’s a story all to itself. So Saturday while he was away I caught a ride with my parents who were in Alberta again to go and watch my sister Britnee play volleyball in Taber.

Sunday was a little more eventful as we went to church in Lethbridge for my cousin’s homecoming. Church was at 9:00am and while we were in sacrament meeting someone broke into a bunch of cars in the parking lot and stole tons of stuff. Pretty bold of the dude to smash windows in the daylight, but he did and he got away with it. No one saw a thing.

And that’s about it.

Summer Update

Okay, so I think I've finally got this thing figured out -- maybe. Well I'll give you a quick update of our summer.

We'll start with June. June was a write off...completely. My sister Kimmy was married on June 17th to Brendan Yuill from Cardston. It went very well (even though it was super windy the day of). In addition to Kimmy's wedding, Tim and I found a house out in Stirling that we just loved. So of course, we had to put our house up for sale and pack and move (all in June). We listed our house and we sold it for $5500 more than our asking price in three days. Then we needed get banks and lawyer and all that fun moving stuff in order. We packed and moved and were living in Stirling by July 6th. Also Rachel and her family moved to Lethbridge. We love having them near by.

Now July...we got moved to Stirling, but we needed to unpack. We've got most of that done now (yes I know it's September). Our garage looks like a tornado passed through it still. But there was some outside stuff around the house that we needed to get done before it got cold. First we had to build a fence to keep our two dogs from running around Stirling. Tim also took our little balcony out back and made a huge deck for us. We had to (yes, had to) get our hot tub pad ready for our hot tub (I brought it with me from Lethbridge) and Tim hooked that up too. And that was our July. We got the house set up (and had my birthday).

Then onto August. We needed a break so we took a week off of work and headed to Las Vegas (it's a very long drive). We had a great time with family and then we spent two days on the Strip. It was soooo hot there though. When we got back to Canada I thought I was going to freeze to death and it was 27 degrees here. I guess I got used to the 45 degree in the shade in the desert. On our way home from Vegas we stopped in Salt Lake City for a day. We were able to go camping only once this summer. Shauna had a baby boy, Thomas. He's a cutie. However, Tim and I are now really falling behind on the baby count.

Now it's September and Fall is here. The summer seemed to fly by. I forgot to mention that Tim also switch jobs in August as well. He's still doing the same thing, electrical, but now he works for a company here in Lethbridge - Midland Electric. This winter he'll have his ticket and we'll be all done with the apprenticeship. Me...I'm still working for the Government. I really like my job (as far as jobs go anyways). The Mad Cow problem so far this year as well as the Anthrax outbreak in Manitoba this summer has kept us super busy. Keeps things interesting, right?