Christmas Joy

With Christmas less than a month away, holiday songs are on the airways and all stores are decked out with Christmas items. There are many different views on Christmas shopping and decorating; where do you stand?

I am someone who loves Christmas decorations, decorating the house, Christmas baking and all the sparkly glittery items and of course twinkle lights. I even love the smell of Christmas, baked goods and pine trees…yum! I would decorate for Christmas on November first if my hubby would let me, he would be happy with decorating on December twenty fourth and taking them down on the twenty sixth. I feel that is just not enough time to take in all the sparkly Christmas glory.

Now I’m not so crazy over Christmas that I am playing the music all day long, wearing a Christmas sweater and drinking hot cocoa as I write. But I am a lover of the spirit of Christmas. There is something magical about a warm fire, light snowflakes gently falling outside, curled up eating baked goods and wrapping gifts. I love that it is the time of year that family and friends all come together, travel home and spend some amazing times together. I love all the different family traditions and memories created singing carols and making gingerbread houses at the age of 30.

I have yet to decorate for Christmas, not of my choosing, I work two jobs, attempt to blog semi regularly and have a loving husband, families and friends to spend time with, oh and my dog. So I am hoping to get my decorating done this week…can’t wait!

How do you feel about Christmas? Are you a decorating fiend or a crazy Christmas baker? Are you more of a scrooge then a happy elf? How do you feel about this special time of year?

I love hearing about everyone’s family traditions and stories from Christmas, so hopefully you will share.

I think that with anything in life we can make what we want of it! We can focus on the stress of travel, cost of gifts and time spent decorating or we can focus on time spent with family, the joy on a special someone’s face when you found that gift that was meant for them and memories made decorating the Christmas tree. I think as we get older most for us lose the magic of Christmas, so in my opinion get it back. Stop rushing around without stopping to take in all the splendor of the holidays, stop worrying that you didn’t get enough gifts or spend enough on a person, because that’s not what it’s about. Try and remember what it was like for you as a child and go back to that sparkly, new, happy place. Let go of the cynical views of the commercialization of Christmas and enjoy the JOY!

Because trust me, it’s never a bad thing to have too much joy in your life, so share the sparkle! 

Lotsa Love,

Natasha

To share or not to share?

With Twitter, Facebook and smartphones at everyone’s disposal personal information is now much less personal. Many people screen what they put online; some share a little, some share a lot and others over share. So as a blogger or a user of social media how do you make the personal choice of what to share with the world?

As a blogger and recent winner of a very public radio station contest, I find that I share much more than I ever have before. I still have my boundaries, but am much more open to personal details of my life; especially when it comes to my issues with fertility and my upcoming IVF treatment.

I decided a while ago that I was going to share my struggles with fertility and ivf, once the contest was out Ryan and I talked about it some more and agreed that sharing our story and bringing you through the process with us, would not only be good for us but may even help people as well.

Fertility is one of those things that most people don’t talk about, people tend to blame themselves for their problems or think they are alone; well you are not to blame and you are not alone. I also feel that there are a lot of people who have no idea what IVF is or what it entails for the couples going through it.  Not to mention the fact that I find writing to be therapeutic.

I am incredibly lucky to have a wonderfully supportive family, friends and new founded group of amazing people to go through the IVF journey with. I know many people are not as lucky as I, so I would like to offer up my support and share my experiences with you. I will try to be as open and honest while going through the process of ivf so all the supporters during the contest and anyone considering IVF (or anyone at all) can be part of mine and Ryan’s journey.

There are many aspects of my life that remain mine and the great thing is I have the choice of what I want to share. I absolutely believe you can over share and that there are just some things you don’t need to post. But I also think that the people who push the boundaries and take risks are the people who make our world a better one to be in, so who am I to judge what’s an over share?

I think as long as your comfortable with what you are putting out their than go for it. Because, it’s just as much everyone else’s choice to read it as it’s yours to post it.

Lotsa Love,

Natasha

Friends in new places

As a child we make friends faster than we can tie our laces; were BFF’s in a matter of minutes…Friends at first site. Somewhere along the line as we get older and more stuck in our ways most of us seem to forget that we can make new friends and that there is a whole big world out there filled with interesting people to meet.

I think part of the issue is when we get older we fear more; we become defensive and put our guards up. Strangers who talk to us while out are “strange” and our alerts go up; we rarely strike up a conversation little own make eye contact with someone we don’t know.  We fear rejection where as a child that never crossed my mind.

We make excuses like we are too busy, so there is no way to fit anything or anyone into our lives, our lives are fine the way they are why do we need to make the effort to make new friends?

BECAUSE! Every new person that we meet teaches us something new; about ourselves, people and gives us the opportunity to teach as well.

I love my close BFF’s; I couldn’t imagine my life without them. But do we all share every interest or are we all going through the same things in life? No, that’s what makes a collage of friends so interesting. You are all different and bring a different dynamic, a different flavor to the group. So why not add another, try a different flavor combination?

I just recently had dinner with an amazing group of women, my Win a Baby top five winners. Other than meeting for the first time at the radio station and chatting through Facebook, this was our first time all spending time together. What could have been a quick and awkward dinner between strangers was in fact a three hour long amazingly comfortable dinner between friends. The time flew by and I know I left dinner happy and excited by what’s in store for my very near future. We may have been brought together by very unordinary circumstances, but we chose to exchange information and we all make the effort to stay in contact.

I’m not saying to talk to everyone you meet or befriend every stranger you pass by. What I am saying is open yourself up, put yourself out there and see what’s out there.  Meet new people, have new experiences and break out of your bubble. Let someone new in or 4…lol If you have a hobby join a group or talk about in on twitter or Facebook it’s amazing the people you will find that have the same hobbies as you. If you’re dieting join an online group and get support from people going through it with you. If you’re at a bookstore and you see someone struggling to decide to buy a book that you’ve read give them your opinion.

Open yourself up and you’ll be amazed at all the new adventures and opportunities that open up for you.

Lotsa Love,

Natasha

Update- Being Couple A

Since the announcement that all five couples won the IVF treatments through The New Hot 89.9 Win a Baby contest we have been on a super happy cloud built for two…or ten. J It’s not only great that the radio station gave us all the prize, but they also gave us all a great friendship.  Since the day of the contest announcement we all hall been in touch, almost daily, keeping up to date with everyday life things and of course our IVF progress and I feel very lucky for it.

Photo of all five couples taken the day of the radio announcement.

Ryan and I have just had our first (overwhelming) appointment to sign consents, agree on embryo numbers and work out my hormone treatment. I have never been so happy to sign so much paperwork or be called the “egg donor” lol. After discussing everything with our DR we still need to complete and online course explaining my type of hormone therapy (Agonist), that we should be able to complete in a week or two. The clinic is closed for a week in December, so this brings us to January.

In our appointment our DR brought up a funny topic (funny to me because I just blogged about losing weight). He recommends that I loose between 20-40lbs before I start IVF hormones and after the numbers he gave me on miscarriage, diabetes and overall health of the baby and me, I agreed.  So being that the absolute earliest we could start anyways is January I’ve got great motivation and determination. I’ve worked it out; if I lost 2lbs a week (which is still in the healthy range) I could lose 20lbs by the time I would need to start hormones in January.  YAY

So if you see me going near a fast food restaurant honk at me… don’t let me eat my mom’s shortbread and no I do not want chocolate…lol  If you see a very unhappy runner in the snow, it’s probably me and I would just stay clear…lol

We are just so over the moon about this whole opportunity that not even weight loss and dieting can bring me down. I am happy that I have a great new group of friends who will all be hormonal and crazy alongside me and that Ryan has a bunch of great guys (the husbands) who can understand what it’s like to deal with one of us.  The girls from the top five are meeting up in the near future for the first time since the contest for a fun girl’s night and I cannot wait, we will all have had our appointments and know our treatment plans by then.

So thank you Hot 89.9, all the people who support us and the wonderful staff at The Ottawa Fertility Clinic. I have never been more excited to be poked and prodded at then I am right now!

Lotsa Love,

Natasha

From Big Macs to Big Salads

I used to watch what I ate, worked out and tried to be healthy. After we were told we couldn’t have children naturally I stopped it all and went on a “gonna eat what I want, I’m angry” binge. Now that we have won IVF treatments the prospect of carrying a baby is closer than ever before so we decided to eat healthier, stop drinking and cut down on caffeine; it’s been interesting…lol

I absolutely know the importance of eating healthy all the time, I know I feel better when I work out and know that booze and coffee aren’t always good for me. However, doesn’t mean I don’t like deep fried anything, love coffee and really enjoy a glass (or two) of red wine … oh and lounging on the couch.  The idea of staying in bed all day all curled up makes me happy inside… the idea of getting up when it’s cold outside and going for a run…not so much.

I have to say that out of all my failed diet/eating healthy attempts I have the greatest motivation this time, I have always dieted for me but my motivations may have been a bit more vain in my previous attempts. I know that being healthy (eating right, getting rest, exercise, water) is incredibly important in having a baby and knowing that my IVF treatment could begin any month now is motivation enough. Being wacked out on hormones is hard enough on the body when you are being nice to it on a regular basis little own mistreating it.

So what am I doing? Well booze has been cut out altogether (empty calories and booze + hormones…lol), I’m trying to cut out deep fried/fast foods, packing snacks and lunches, taking my vitamins daily and trying to eat balanced meals. I haven’t gotten back on the exercise train yet, but I do want to get back into yoga/pilotes, get my stretch on.

What I have learned from my many years of dieting is that ultimately you have to do it for you. Am I putting a rush on getting healthy because I know I could be getting preggers soon yes, but do I “HAVE” to…NO! Many people have children all the time without ever making a change to their eating/lifestyle habits. I am choosing for me to be as healthy as I can be in my normal life setting, no extremes. I know that if you try to diet for someone or something else other than yourself it will not work. Projecting what you think someone else wants or needs will not work, in fact will probably fail epicly.  Because, you are the one eating that salad, you are the one out running and it’s you who will succeed.  Plus eating healthy doesn’t have to be boring or celery and water, have fun with it explore, learn about foods and exercises...you might even have fun.

So, use something or someone as inspiration or motivation but in the end be healthy for you. Be happy with who you are today and aim to improve your health, increase your energy or to complete a goal (5k race). Make your goals obtainable and realistic when changing your lifestyle and do it in baby steps to avoid crazy fallout binging…lol.  Have fun with your foods and exercises, join a club or an online group and make it a lifestyle change instead of a flash diet.  Love who you are and aim for a healthier version of you today!

Lotsa Love,

Natasha