This is not what I had in mind when I said I wanted to be a morning person! But, here I am, wide awake. Not sure what woke me this morning...possibly the very loudly purring fur ball curled up on top of me. Lily (the usually anti-social cat) sleeping happily on top of you makes for a very sweet moment once you get past the uncomfortable parts. But it isn't exactly sleep inducing (particularly when she's sleeping right on your big pregnant belly). *sigh* Oh well.

So, a project I've been working on for some time now is my "Mama Book." It's basically a collection of articles and such on parenting topics such as breastfeeding, attachment parenting, circumcision, babywearing, and much, much more. In addition to being an excellent resource for me (for those moments when I say to myself "dang it! I KNOW I read about this somewhere...") it will also come in handy should I be one of those unfortunate mothers that gets criticized, ridiculed or otherwise treated shamefully for my decisions about how I raise my baby. Nothing like having page upon page of research to back you up. Of course, I don't know who I expect to give me a hard time. Certainly not my mother or mother-in-law. They're way too cool for that. But I've heard too many horror stories from other women to assume I'll get by without incident.

But, like I said, it's a great resource for me. By the time I'm done it'll basically be the best child-care manual ever. And I've started including some "motivational" materials as well, such as talks given by Church leaders. This one in particular meant a lot to me. And I've got some funny little cartoons and stuff to throw in there as well.

Adam and I have been meaning to get some sort of oil lamp for a while now (mostly in case of power outages which seem to be relatively common here but also just because they make a beautiful, warm light source). We've settled on getting a hurricane lantern (like this). They're just a lot more cat-proof than the all glass ones (like this). It's too bad the cats can't be trusted because I love the old lamp style. At any rate, we hadn't been able to find one in town. And in addition to wanting to avoid shipping costs Adam was anxious to get our lamp ASAP. So he pulled out the phone book today and called around to see who might carry them. Canadian Tire had hurricane lanterns for about $13 (score!). What they failed to tell Adam is that they were going to be closing in about 5 minutes because of Labor Day (which is weird since typically retail goes crazy on Labor Day). So we got over there only to discover a deserted parking lot and locked doors. Adam was quite forlorn and understandably annoyed at the guy on the phone who didn't think that the early closing hour was pertinent information. At least we had other errands to run at nearby locations so it wasn't a total waste of gas.

I've been told that papaya enzyme is a great way to kill pregnancy heartburn. You can get little capsules or (so I'm told) dried papaya works great. Since I've been battling heartburn a little bit lately (and the Tums just aren't cutting it) I've been looking forward to getting some dried papaya (and hey, the yum factor is a definite plus). So while we were out running errands that was on the list of items we needed. Adam spotted a bag at Wal-Mart but it wasn't a particularly well priced bag. And the papaya slices had added sugar. Believe me...I get plenty of sugar in my diet already. So I passed. After all, Superstore (where we were headed next for our groceries) has a pretty awesome selection of dried fruits...


...except papaya.

I think I might be the world's first invisible pregnant lady. I keep hearing stories about how when you're pregnant strangers treat you differently. Some treat you wonderfully: holding doors open for you, letting you cut in front of them in lines (especially for the bathroom), that sort of thing. Others treat you not so wonderfully (and if you find yourself in the following description you should know that the utter disdain and loathing the pregnant population has for you is quite strong): making comments about your weight, passing along old wives' tales and labor horror stories, touching your belly without first asking for permission, inquiring as to the state of your cervix, breasts, or some such body part, etc. But so far I've got nothing. No nice stories about helpful individuals and no horror stories about people who seem to think a pregnant woman's body is open to discussion or touching. Now, I'm not too disappointed about the latter (although I'm sure such incidents would make for PRIME blog material). But I do find it odd that no-one seems to notice the big round thing attached to my front. It makes me wonder if I could get away with smuggling basketballs under my shirt. It also makes me wonder if maybe I just don't get out enough to be running into these people.

You know what's sad? My cat (Girla) is so fat that I can hear her clump clump clumping long before she actually walks into view. She's not exactly lazy. She gets plenty of exercise chasing specks of light and shadows. But somehow she's just big. She's always been big. I guess she'll always be big. But even fat cats are supposed to be graceful right? Even fat cats are supposed to walk silently (in order to sneak up on their prey) right? Girla would starve to death if her food posed any more of a challenge than walking to the bowl and munching.

I've discovered some added bonuses to living in Canada (besides the whole universal health care thing):

* I still get enough news about the election to know what's going on, but not enough to be driven entirely insane.
* Drivers here actually seem to care about pedestrians. Provo drivers could learn a thing or two from their neighbors to the North.
* People don't think I'm a total hippie because I care about the environment and like to eat organic food.
* We can use the word "eh" without anyone batting an eye.
* I can get poutine.
* People have some seriously awesome (but strange) garage sale hours (this may be a local thing rather than a Canadian thing). Honestly, it never ceases to amaze me how many people keep their garage sale running until 5pm!

And, in closing, I have provided a link to Medicine Hat's Wikipedia page. You know, just in case you were interested or something. (Disclaimer: the teepee is, in my opinion, not just highly overrated, but not really a teepee - if it doesn't keep the rain off or the wind out it shouldn't count).