Winnipeg

Overall, our trip was nice, even though the bugs (Mosquitoes) and weather weren't the best.
On the flight to Winnipeg, Violet was pretty excited to get on the plane, but it was bad timing on our part -- it was right in the middle of her normal nap time, so we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best, but it didn't happen.  Violet started to get squirrelly about 45 minutes into the flight and by about 1.25 hours in, she started to loose it.  Marn decided to try and put her down because she was completely exhausted but wouldn't give in - big mistake!  She started screaming, wanted to be on my lap, wanted to be on Marn's lap, wanted her own seat, didn't want her seat... NOTHING would make her happy.  So she screamed for what was probably 30 minutes while the people around us cringed.. ugh!  Luckily there was no one beside us so we had some extra room to let her go nuts.  Had we been packed in tight, it would have been a nightmare!  She finally settled down, and was fine for the rest of the flight.  Marn's parents picked us up, and about 5 minutes into the car ride, she was out cold... lol

We had a quick visit with Marn's Grandma, then left Vi there with Granny, Poppy and Great Granny and we went grocery shopping for our trip to the cottage the next day.  We had to be there before noon on Sunday as the owners had to leave by 1 and needed to show us some things, so we had to shop on Saturday because the grocery stores don't open until noon on Sundays and there's nothing up north. Weird.

Anyway, the cottage is awesome - it's right on the water on Lake Winnipeg (but you can't see the water because of a huge sand doon that's about as high as the cottages.  The owners (Drew's cousin) have really put a lot of money into it since the last time we were there, and it looks like they're still going.... the interior has been redone with pine board, new windows and doors everywhere, they're reconfigured some of the interior space and made a big master bedroom that used to be 2 smaller rooms, expanded the deck, added a hot tub, have a old 50" projection TV with satellite.... really roughing it there!  The hot tub was only 3 weeks new, which was great timing for us (well, me and Violet - Marn couldn't really go in)!  

The mosquitoes however, were VERY bad.  They've had a really bad spring for Mosquitoes in Winnipeg this year, so much so that even the locals were talking about it... so it's not just us "outsiders" saying that they're bad like we're not used to them.  They were bad.

Friday after the cottage, we were back in Winnipeg for Great Granny's birthday party at her retirement home.  About 30-40 family and friends showed up, so it turned out really well. She was really grateful and happy that we were able to make it out for a visit and for the party, and so were we.  It was great to see and visit with her.

Vacation Mode

I'm not sure I've blogged about this yet.  Maybe mentioned it here and there, but anyway.  We are going on a one week Vacation this weekend.  Where you ask?  The beautiful Caribbean?  Or Florida?  Nope, none of those - we're going to the PEG!  That's Winnipeg. Or Winterpeg, if you will....  I usually get a chuckle whenever I tell anyone where we're going.  It's not typically a place you associate with vacation, is it?  lol  With it's reputation of cold weather, mosquitoes and rain/flooding... we're praying to get nice weather!
We're going mainly because Marn's Grandma is turning 90, so we're going to the celebration and then spending the week up at Lake Winnipeg at a family cottage.  It's actually a very gorgeous location, right on the water with white powder beaches (almost like the kind in the Caribbean), called Victoria Beach. (Lake Winnipeg is very big - about the size of Lake Ontario/Erie).  We were there once before, before we were married (the weather was gorgeous that week). Nancy and Drew are driving, we're flying, and they may join us for a day or two at the cottage. Friday the 25th is the big Birthday party.

We are really looking forward to it because this will be our first real sort of vacation since before Violet was born when we went on the 2 week Cruise with the Asbury's (yes, we did go to Vancouver for a visit last year in March, which I suppose counts as vacation - but there were no beaches, or rustic cottages to be seen anywhere!).
For me, this will be the only extended vacation time I'll have this year because I'm trying to save a week when the new baby comes, a few days for around Christmas, and a few days when Adrienne comes for a long visit.  I may make up a few days when doing upgrades, etc. on the systems here over weekends, but I never know when that will happen (I'm finding it very hard to give up my weekends to do system upgrades these days!!).

New webcam

I've had a crappy webcam for years and years, and with our new(ish) computer, it hasn't worked very well.  It's just too old.  So, this week when Future Shop had one on sale that I had been eyeing for a little while (because it's "out of the box compatibility" with Linux), I picked it up.  It's still a cheap webcam compared to ones that can sell for over $100, but it's perfect for us.
Some of the reason I wanted one is so that we can start using Skype again.  I tested it out with Adrienne last night, and it worked pretty well!  We ended up chatting for 1 hour and 20 minutes.... the call started at 11pm eastern time!!  Anyway, it's my hope that we can Skype with Adrienne and the kids so that they aren't as much of strangers to Violet when they come for a visit in August.  I really want Violet to know their names by just seeing them.  Hopefully it'll also make her less shy when she sees them.

I haven't used Skype in a while and there's a new cool feature that lets you share your desktop, or an area of your desktop screen so that the other person can see it.  It's not "two-way" sharing, though, so I can't take control of the other desktop.  It just lets you view it.  So we tried that out and showed each other pictures that we hadn't seen yet, and Adrienne browsed to some sites to show her kitchen design plans to me.... so cool!

Our Skype name is "amrolt", if you've forgotten, or want to try it out!

Boo to a weekend in the hospital.

I like to work at a hospital, but I don't like being a patient there.  In fact, I hated it.  The nurses were very nice (for the most part...save the one I met today), Doctors were excellent, even the food wasn't too bad but all I wanted to do was come home snuggle my Vi and sleep in my own bed and I was only there ONE night!
Hopefully no more kidney stones for me during this pregnancy.  The nurse said to stay well hydrated and that will help flush my system so off I go to down another glass of water...

kidney stone(s)

That's the prognosis. So far, anyway. Marn will have to stay overnight for this one as they want to keep an eye on things and ensure that she's keeping hydrated. They will most likely be doing an ultrasound in the morning to determine course of action (ie: let it pass, or surgery??)
Anyway, two different people have now said "kidney stones are nothing that you've ever felt before". Awesome

Edit:
Forgot to mention that there is no infection of any kind and that there's no need to continue the medication that we got this morning. So it appears that its "only" kidney stones for now.

beautiful day to spend at the hospital

This morning marn woke up and wasn't feeling well. Had the feeling like she had to pee all the time so suspected that she had a U.T.I., or bladder infection. We called our doctor's office who has a doctors on call service and after talking to them, they suspected the same then gave us a prescription for antibiotics.
After getting and taking the first dose she started feeling worse and started having pain in her abdomen and lower back... and then started barfing. 3 or 4 times in an hour, so we called the doc's back who then suggested that we go to the labour and delivery department at the hospital for more thorough diagnosis and urine sample to confirm an infection. They would fax the info over so that they would be expecting us.

So here we are. Marn's been sick a few times since being here and after talking to the nurses and resident doctor, they don't think anything is wrong with the baby, thankfully. They do suspect that it's a UI or bladder infection, and they've been tossing the terms bladder stones, or kidney stones around. We're still waiting for the urine samples back to confirm anything.

Marn's got an I.V. in now along with morphine and gravol for the nausea and is resting. Not sure what happens from here, but I assume that once we hear back from the tests and once she gets through a bag of saline, we'll be going home. The prescription we have will continue, and she'll probably get something else for the pain.

I'll update later...