Spoiled Rotten

My birthday this year was probably the best one I've ever had. Seriously. I was spoiled.rotten. by the bestest husband in the universe!

On Friday night, we had dinner at Jubilations, a dinner theatre at West Edmonton Mall. To sum it up in one word: fun!! Dinner was delicious, and the show was superb. (We saw the musical version of NCIS, for those that are interested).

Saturday, husband let me shop: I needed new clothes and bras and undies, so I hit up Old Navy for some new clothes, and La Senza for the rest. For dinner Saturday night, we went to the Melting Pot. For those that live in the Edmonton area, and want to have a romantic, out of this world FONDUE meal, go to the Melting Pot. I have a few pictures from our romantic meal:

First up came the cheese fondue

I didn't get a picture of the salad, which came before the entree, which was an oil fondue

the flowers Kyle bought for me (apparently you can have them arrange flowers for you, and placed at your table before you get there).

Your picture is also taken during your meal, too, and they give you a copy of it, placed in a nice photo folder. Here's the picture they snapped for us, just before dessert.

Oops- what's left of our dessert. I highly recommend the brownies with milk chocolate fondue. In my humble opinion- and please excuse me- but its better than sex. No word of a lie. I had three plates of it. All complimentary, by the way.

This last picture was taken just tonight- the girls sang me happy birthday. We put candles in each of our cheese cakes (that was my birthday cake) so that the girls could blow out their candles, too. It was actually kind of funny watching them try to blow it out. Addison somehow blew hers out, but poor Maren (in the purple jammies) couldn't blow hers out. (The cheesecake was delicious, by the way). Hit up Costco for one of those...

In other news, Friday happened to be reveal day over at Lets Capture These Sketches. You can find sketch #156 there.

Here is my take on this awesome sketch:

I had a lot of fun working with this beautiful sketch. I think its one of my favourites! For a little added interest, I stamped the white card stock in the background- I felt that it was too white. I used SU ink in Summer Sun. The hearts are also stamped using the same ink.

My new favourite colour combo (after making this layout) is red and teal- what a gorgeous combination! Yummy! THe one piece of teal card stock is stamped using SU Not Quite Navy ink. Looking back at it now, I kind of think I should have stamped the other teal piece of card stock with the same stamp and ink, but at the time, I like the contrast.

When we took the kids to the air show in town this past summer, one of them fell to sleep in daddy's arms. I think it was Maren, but my memory has become a bit rusty. Anyways, I love this picture and just needed to scrap it! The journalling reads, 'we love to snuggle with you!' The chipboard 'favourite things' helped to reinforce our love of snuggling with the girls, as did the hearts.

Some of you may be wondering how things for me have been going in the recent past. I thought I'd share a bit of an update with you.

At the beginning of September, Kyle and I began seeing a marriage counsellor, to help us break the communication barriers, and improve our relationship. Its helped us out immensely! During the course of our counselling, it became apparent that I've been suffering from Post Partum Depression. I knew that I had it- my ob/gyn told me I was displaying symptoms already when I was pregnant. We let it go, because I couldn't take anything while I was pregnant, and the symptoms worsened after the kids were born. Mind you, Addisons' colic and terrible constipation for their first year didn't help matters, either. Every doctor I talked with after the kids were  born wouldn't listen. They kept telling me I was just stressed out, anxious, and they didn't necessarily think it was PPD. Not until my counsellor asked me about it. She encouraged me to see my family doctor again (which I did- and brought along the depression scale questionnaire I filled out at the beginning of counselling as proof that I did indeed have depression- which she says is severe).

I've been on medication now since the beginning of October, and honestly began to notice a difference immediately. I've progressed to the point where I'm doing things again that I haven't since before the kids were born. I feel like myself again; human again.

I am also researching different discipline/raising methods in regards to the kids. I've began to implement  1-2-3 Magic- which is working beautifully with the kids, and I seriously want to read Raising A Spirited Child. (Though I'd like to read 1-2-3 Magic, too). Any other material/child rearing methods are definitely welcome!

Lastly, we received news today that Kyle is diabetic. Things went south again after I got straightened out. It seemed like we switched roles. As soon as I lost the grizzly bear persona, my husband picked it up. I strongly encouraged him to talk with his doctor again, and have blood work done, and this is the final result. His fasting glucose levels are slightly above what the doctor would like to see, but no matter how high or slightly high it is, its still diabetes.

Life is about to change drastically for us! But, in a good way! Its unfortunate Kyle has diabetes (its hereditary), but now that we've had this wake up call, it'll do us all some good, I think. Once I"m done this post, I'm going to print out some diabetic friendly dinner recipes. Even though it'll be a few weeks till we meet with the dietician, there's no reason why we can't start making lifestyle changes now!

Sorry for the novel!

~a