Daddy's New Patient Arriving January 2014

 Ok, so to say that I am a little behind on blogging is a bit of an understatement....but, I have a good excuse!

For the past three months we have been keeping (TRYING TO) the biggest secret of our lives...

Daddy checking on Cocoa Bean!  Daddy just finished the step (literally about 2 hours prior and I could NOT wait any longer to announce!!!)

Come January there will be a new addition to our family and we are BEYOND excited!

We're both a littler tired from a long day (Daddy finished the step) but we couldn't keep our secret any longer!

While Dave's parents were visiting Grenada in May, Nana Ilceski took a few 'Announcement' photos for us...this one is right on Grand Anse Beach!

We had a bit of a rough beginning with the pregnancy, something that I think once our baby has arrived I will share in more detail, but it was because of these reasons that we wanted to wait until we knew that everything was fine with Cocoa Bean (hahah our baby's current name...it is a Grenada baby after-all).

So, for three LONG months I stayed off facebook, didn't write a blog and was short in conversation with tons of people...hahah I apologize!!!  Me being quiet and trying to keep a secret is a difficult task!!!

We found out May 5th, 2013 that we were expecting....haha let me tell you that it was a bit of a shock. I would LOVE to say that I had this amazing surprise planned for Dave (hahah something that I literally have been thinking about for years) but we simply did not think getting pregnant was going to happen while we were in Grenada; I had even booked an appointment with my family Dr. for when we returned back to Canada to see if there was something that could be done.  Instead, I simply walked out, after seeing the results, in shock and held the stick out and just stared at Dave...he had no idea what I was doing!!!

It says: PREGNANT!!!

We could not BELIEVE IT!!!  And so this is the result of that 'state of shock':

Number Two lol!!

And number three!

Three pregnancy tests later and we started to get really excited!!!

Pregnant in Grenada!

We're so EXCITED!

Going out the night we found out we were pregnant...and couldn't tell a SOUL!!! So difficult!

We have waited for this for years (literally) and are feeling beyond blessed!

Cocoa Bean's first set of 'scrubs'! (Auntie Pammie sent these to us in Grenada at Christmas!!! She was on to something!)

Our first ultrasound in Canada, when we got to finally hear our baby's heartbeat, was on May 21st, 2013. 

Cocoa Bean at 6 weeks and growing with a strong heartbeat!!!

Unfortunately, I had to come home early from Grenada while Dave stayed back to finish up his finals; it was a very emotional and stressful time to saytheleast.

But, thankfully through prayer and begging,  our ultrasound technician allowed me to bring my Ipad into the ultrasound room and have Dave skype in; with his parents who were visiting in Grenada.

Hard to make out...but Dave took a screen shot from the computer while we skyped. They are hearing Cocoa Bean's heartbeat for the first time!

Dave finally made it home to Canada and this was his 'WELCOME HOME DADDY" surprise.

Cocoa Bean's First photo, Grenada Chocolate (since we were in Grenada when we found out) and before we left England I bought these two little outfits to surprise Dave: I love Daddy and of course a Newcastle United Jersey!

And Mitch greeted Dave at the door! When Dave proposed 6 years ago, Mitch was wearing this same 'tuxedo shirt' and had the ring (in a bag) around his neck! Now he is announcing the babies arrival!!!

 And now begins our journey of parenthood...prepare for the incoming posts lol!!!

On this episode of...

Grenada grocery shopping:

On Sunday I needed to get a few groceries. It was one of those mornings where I did everything possible to get out of going, but in the end, a hungry husband and an empty fridge won.

I got the essentials ready for the grocery adventure: wallet, grocery list (and the back-up list of meals for the items that simply cannot be found that week...TIG), backpack, and reusable bags.  Forgetting any of these items, as anyone without a car in Grenada can attest to, means an even sweatier walk to IGA and back.

Usually, if I only have a few items to purchase, I head to Foodfair which is only about a 2 minute walk from our apartment. However, since it was Sunday, the only store open (really, the only store open near Grand Anse) was IGA.

I did the dreaded walk (I know, being a bit melodramatic) and searched for the items I needed. I decided to splurge that day and buy 6 cans of soda...we totally didn't need this, but after the last couple of weeks we have had, we could use the sugar lol!!!  Surprisingly, I found what I was looking for with ease (I have stopped looking for butter, altogether) and headed to the check-out. 

As the items started going through check-out I thought: "maybe today I will take a reggae-bus home". I was exhausted, sweaty and just plain cranky...maybe a reggae-bus would make my day (yes, never thought I would think that either).  As I stepped out of IGA guess what I saw....NO REGGAE-BUSES IN SIGHT!  I started the walk home and thought "really, not one bus doing the slow drive by asking 'hey pretty lady, want a ride'?" Yes, this pretty (sweaty-mess) lady did want a ride...where were you reggae-bus man?

By the time I reached the end of the street, near CIBC (for those who are all too familiar with this walk) I decided I could just suck it up and make it home. As I am nearing closer, counting my final steps to freedom, I suddenly realize my bags are much, much lighter and this is what I discovered....

The entire bottom of my reusable grocery bag had ripped open and my groceries were now up one end of the sidewalk, with cans of soda rolling into traffic. (It is moments like these that I must remember to always pack my camera).

Let me tell you, when you spend a small fortune on 6 cans of soda, you better believe that I am running after them all; those suckers are liquid gold.  Thankfully, we only lost one can. I was too embarrassed to chase after it, as it rolled along the road, against the sidewalk, spraying soda in every direction.

For those that may have heard about the crazy white lady running after her groceries on Sunday afternoon, yes it certainly was me!!

The hole

Down a soda

hahah they were all dented! Thankfully no one ran over any.

The inside damage

Until our next Grenada adventure...

Birthday, Midterms and Kickball

It has been another busy few weeks and it's about time that I shared some of the latest adventures (Julie, this is entirely for your reading pleasure)!


Birthday:

Over Easter break we celebrated Dave's birthday! Sadly for him, much of his weekend "off" was spent studying!!! However, we were able to get a few of our birthday traditions in including: birthday pancakes and cinnamon buns, the infamous 'birthday boy' pin (which Dave hates lol) and of course the 'Birthday center piece' that has travelled with us since our first year of marriage!

Getting things ready!!! Take note, I bought balloons that said "Happy Birthday" on the package. When I opened them they said "Happy New Years". TIG

Birthday breakfast almost ready!

Birthday Pancakes

Our 'Birthday Center piece', the 'Birthday Boy' pin in the back, and homemade cinnamon buns.  We didn't have the 'boot glass' this year, so we settled for the Grenada mug, but still with orange juice.

Bottom of the Cinnamon buns! Raisins, butter and cinnamon...so healthy!!!

Rolling the dough!

Our house smelled so delish! 

Before being cooked!

Fresh out of the oven!

We went out to dinner on Friday night (to Umbrellas of course hahah) for Dave's birthday dinner and without fail he got the umbrella burger (his favorite).  Saturday morning we headed to the beach to spend some time in the sun together, and simply for Dave to just get a bit of relaxing in...WITH NO STUDYING!!

 Let me tell you, Dave certainly got some relaxation time in!!!

You can barely make Dave out, just floating away in the ocean!

Doesn't this look relaxing?

 How he spent his birthday in Grenada! Sigh, we are going to miss this!

"Happy Birthday" Dave! ("Happy" was washed away by the waves).

Midterms:

This past week has certainly been another tiring and stressful midterm week for Dave. But we are so happy to say that he has finally completed and finished his LAST EVER midterms!  For the first time since being on this medical school journey, I saw just how tired and worn out Dave is.  Thankfully, after a very LONG week of studying and test taking, we got to spend some time enjoying the island; Dave certainly needed the break!

These photos pretty much sum up Dave's week! Between studying for four midterms and preparing for the USMLE he was pretty much going crazy lol!!!  And obviously so excited about me taking his photo to document these adventures!

I was so excited for Dave to be finished midterms (I could tell it was a long week for him), that I thought a little celebration was in order. When he got home I had made a sign celebrating being done midterms and had balloons up. I went to a local bakery in the afternoon to purchase some treats to go along with the celebration (I wanted cinnamon buns, but they were out so cookies had to do). However, I forgot to take a picture of all this! So here is what remains of the sign. You can see that I had to cover up a few areas where we ended up scribbling notes on it...and on the other side, writing a sign for Dave's mom who did AWESOME in a test that she had this week at school, as well!!!  But you get the idea!!!  LAST MIDTERMS EVER!! (hahah or so we think....)

When Dave arrived home friday we headed out for dinner at Umbrellas (surprise, surprise) and met up with Phil and Kimmy.  It is sad to think that these moments are quickly coming to an end, and that last two years enjoying this journey with so many incredible people, will be no more.  We truly are so grateful that we got to spend this medical journey meeting greet friends, and building forever friendships. We decided after dinner that we just wanted a night in.  So we made popcorn, curled up in a bed and watched movies...it was GLORIOUS! We went to bed so relaxed and glad to have been able to finally spend some time together.  Unfortunately, our wake up call came way too early!

Without going into great detail we were woken up at 4am thinking someone was breaking into our apartment. It turns out a drunk med student was trying to locate his friend and told our security guard that his friend lived in our apartment. So they began banging on our front door.

At one point, we heard them trying to take off our screen and open our front window (which turns out the drunk guy thought would be a great way to yell in and see if his friend was ok!!).  Nevertheless, we had quite the scare, which included me getting our our machete. Thank goodness I have a calm and rational husband who had the sense to grab the phone to call the police. Then listen to make out what the two men outside of our door were saying, and to look out the side window to see who it was.  I was ready to swing the machete but Dave realized it was our security guard. I was sure to tell him that he almost lost his life that night lol!

KickBall:

Saturday morning we got up (well Dave slept in for the first time since probably being on the island) and I got my things ready for a kickball tournament. I have been playing on a kickball team with some friends from the KBT program. I was asked a couple of months ago to join, because they needed some more girls, but I wasn't entirely sure about playing as I had no idea what I was doing! But it turned out to be such a fun experience. Dave ended up coming all day Saturday to watch our games, which I was excited for, and we spent most of the day on the field at SGU (so much for Dave having a break from the school lol).

Hahaha Keith trying hard!

We're so intense!

Jimmy ready for action!

Anil and his amazing pitching skills!

Smitha was ready!

Tariq after his grand slam and Ali being so kind to him!

I think I was actually dancing at third base !

Action shot!

Anil made it to first base!

Our team photo right after our big (FIRST and ONLY) win!

My jersey..."Mrs." since I was the only married one on the team.

The Mr. and the Mrs.