Our first year...

Well, I told you in the beginning that I was not great at keeping a journal, and now I guess I have proven it! Christmas seemed to throw a wrench into a lot of my plans this year. I hope I am back on track now and can get myself organized.

The next story to tell is the birth or our first baby girl, Maren. I guess I should back up just a little and fill in the space between the wedding and the baby. Steve and I were married for almost exactly a year when we decided it was time to expand our little family. Steve worked a few jobs on and off, all the while trying to decide what to do with his life and what kind of career he wanted. He tried all sorts of things. Here is a short list of the jobs I can remember. First was the night shift at the potato plant in Taber(not fun for a newlywed), Safeway, Cutco, Selling frozen gourmet fish, cleaning the research station, and taxi driving. I am sure I missed something. He is always on the lookout for an adventure. I was working full time as well. I started out working at Dr. Mezei's office. That is a story all on its own. Let's just say that my boss was not the greatest. It was a good learning experience for me. I loved everyone else that I worked with and I think that's why I stayed so long. Finally, I couldn't take the negativity and verbal abuse any longe,r so I found a new job at Visual Effects. There were 3 doctors in that office and the staff were wonderful. It was amazing the difference it made...I actually liked my job again.

We also moved quite a bit that first year. We started out in the basement at Clare Bogdan's for the first couple months. Then we moved in to the Bikman's house in Park Royal. They are snowbirds and we decided to house-sit for them while they took off to Phoenix for the winter. It was really fun to start out our life in a cute little house. From there we moved to the London Road apartments - third floor. We loved living there and the rent was great! The only downside was that our apartment was on the west side of the building and got quite hot. So, we moved down one floor and accross the hall. We were happy there for quite a while until we found out we were pregnant. It was only a one bedroom and no kids allowed so we started looking around for somewhere new.

We ended up in the basement apartment of our friends, Wayne and Jasmine Burton. It was really fun. There was the cutest little room - just perfect for a nursery. I wish I had a photo of it. Mom was in living in China when I was pregnant with Maren but she came home for a quick visit and it was so much fun to have her help getting the nursery ready and buying all the stuff we needed. There are just some times when you need your mom. That is where we lived when we brought Maren home from the hospital. It was pretty small, but I like to think of it as being cozy.

I have searched to try and find some photos of the places we lived and the things we were doing that first year. I have come to the conclusion that we didn't take any. I could only find one photo of Steve and I that was taken at his grandmothers 80th birthday party. Now, I wish I had a picture of me in my scrubs at work. I wish we had taken photos of the places we lived. This is why I have started this blog... to remind me and help me document the things that are important.