cinnamon girl.: 33 Weeks

i'm not impressed that i'm wearing a pink and white striped shirt (two different ones) two weeks in a row! grr.

robyn and russell left early this morning. i think that was the first time my sister and i have spent time together without other family members or friends around! of course, our significant others were with us, but you get what i mean. it was nice to be able to catch up and hang out for almost a whole week straight.

we spent a decent amount of time at the beach (as much as russell's sensitive skin would allow! he got burned), did some running around and errands, visited the farmer's market, went up to davison's orchard and fed the goats, hung out in the backyard, and participated in the watching of olympics! all in all, i think it was a successful trip, and i hope they had a good time!

i don't think there's too much new, pregnancy-wise. i can't believe that potentially in as little as 5 weeks, our little guy could be here! in 9 weeks, max., we'll be a little family of three (+2, for the kitties). is there anything super important that i've forgotten to buy??

one thing we must do in the next couple weeks is figure out how to install the carseat. we shouldn't have to worry too much about it, as long as our homebirth goes according to plan... but *IF* we end up in the hospital, we'll definitely need the carseat installed and ready to go! it's so surreal to be talking about packing a hospital "just-in-case" bag, adding a waterproof liner to the bed (in case that's where my waters decide to break), and gathering all our home birth supplies. how did we make it to this point so quickly? where has the time gone? aren't i supposed to be sick of being pregnant by this stage? i love having the cashew in my belly.. but i am super excited for garrick to have more time with him.

*some of you have already heard me rant about the following. skip over it to avoid redundancy!*
now that work is done with, it was time to apply for maternity leave benefits. who would think for a second that it would be easy to get money from the government? of course it's not a simply process. i did the online application, that took about an hour to finish up. i was a little concerned because it wants you to apply using the name shown on your SIN card. well that was the one thing that i never switched to my married name.. so i thought maybe that would cause a problem. i had to go to the service canada building to give them copies of my two paper ROEs, and while there, i inquired about this SIN card thing. well they tell me i need to update the name on the card before they can proceed with my benefits. in order to do that, you need your birth certificate and marriage certificate. well my birth certificate hasn't been seen in years. so i need to apply for a new one first! they give me a form to fill out and send to alberta to apply for a replacement (which costs $40.. plus $25 to have it rushed.. cuz i need to apply for maternity leave within the month). when i get home, i find out that the copy of the form that the government office gave me isn't the most up-to-date! good grief. so the registry office faxes me the appropriate one. and guess what? they no longer want you to send a photocopy of your ID with the application. you must go to a notary and have them confirm your identity. which of course costs more money, and takes more time. long story short(er), i won't be able to finish my maternity application for approximately two weeks until all this other stuff is done first. how frustrating.

i've been pretty exhausted after all the running around i've been doing the last few days, so today is a bit of a recovery day for me. There are a few things around the house that i need to do, but other than that, i'll be resting with my feet up!

i think so far i've proved myself to be a pretty good housewife! every day i've done a bit of housekeeping.. cleaning bathrooms, dusting, watering the plants, washing sheets, wiping counters.. a little bit every day! i've gotta earn my keep around here, you know? lol.

and finally, some pictures from this week!