Another Visit From Alicia

Alicia is my most amazing Hypnobabies doula - thank you, Crystal for recommending her to us. I will never forgot how she was there for me; such a wonderful memory and experience! And I am glad to be able to keep in touch.

A couple of days ago, I messaged Alicia to let her know I have pictures to give her and wondered if she can come by for a visit or if I should mail it out. She decided to come for a visit and see how Maddi has grown.

We love it when you visit, Alicia! We hope to see you again soon!

Later that night, since Henry was away on a work trip... Anne came over to hang out with us. We went to Yoko Yaya to see if they have any more knitting needles for our knitting night next week, then to T&T to shop for ingredients to cook dinner with. On tonight's menu - yellow chicken curry and green tofu curry.

I always get excited going to T&T, I feel like a kid in a candy store... I want EVERYTHING! Since we can only get as much as what the undercarriage of Maddi's stroller can hold, other than what we need tonight, I only got a couple other stuff to have congee with. I'm excited!

Donna

Today, Donna took me out for lunch as I wind down this week before I go on maternity leave.

I first met Donna almost 8 years ago when I interviewed for a Finance clerk position at Peak Potentials in January of 2004. Despite the humble beginnings of a 2-drawer filing cabinet for a desk in a cramped office... those were fondly remembered fun days working in an office that had a culture like no other.

It seemed we had cake every week celebrating someone's birthday in the pit. I loved the energy in the office and no matter how chaotic it was at times, everything seemed to somehow flow into place. It was an environment that encouraged play as much as hard work; where people pulled together what at times seemed to be impossible tasks.

This was supposed to be an in between job for me until I found a career job. However, a testament to how awesome this place is, and the people that work in it... almost 8 years later, I am still here. Despite frustrating times off and on throughout the years when I had thoughts about working elsewhere, I had struggled a lot on the thought of leaving this place at the end of this week.

Without any accounting education background, I've learned on the job and had been promoted over the years to take on more and more responsibility. I have the belief and support of an awesome manager and friend to thank for that.

I have many great memories with Donna over the years that I've known her. She was there to give me advice when I was trying to figure out my relationship with Sean, there at my stagette and wedding, there when I decided to go back to school, and now as I continue on my journey to having a baby. However, the best memory I share with her would have to be one from the Fall of 2004, at the first ever event of that season, when I traveled from event to event. Donna came to that first event. As I took a few bites of my "risotto cooked in red wine" lunch one day while working with her, my cheeks started to feel tremendously warm. I asked if they were red, because I thought I was getting drunk. I had to ask her if I was allowed to grab another lunch, as I can't eat any more of what I've got without passing out. She wouldn't let me forget it since!

Donna, you've been more than a manager to me. You've been a friend and a big sister who I can go to whenever I needed an ear to listen to what I have to say or a sounding board to sort out whatever may be troubling me in my head. Thanks for all that you've done for me over the years, I will definitely miss working with you.

Showered

The picture above is of the amazing diaper cake that my talented friend Anne put together for me.

Today, my awesome girlfriends threw me a most amazing baby shower for Maddi. A big spread of yummy food, adorable decorations, and super fun games. Then, I was SHOWERED with lots of presents for Maddi. Such tiny stuff!

After carting everything from the party room where the shower was back to our place... I started to go through everything, take tags off so I can get them ready to be laundered. As I did this, the pile of stuff just kept growing and eventually I had a mountain of them. It was pretty overwhelming.

I had guests from out of town at my shower, and some of my friends were stuck in a horrible traffic jam getting here. Maddi even got unexpected presents from our friends all the way in the UK, from one of my guy friends who wasn't invited to a ladies only shower, and one of my friends' moms all the way in Ontario. I feel very lucky and grateful to have such great friends and family... who wanted to shower Maddi with so much love.

Lighting Cole

Tonight, I met up with Cole to do a shoot so I could practice what I learned at the workshop last week. Hubby was kind enough to be my lighting assistant, but since there's only one of him, I had to either go without a second light or place the other light on the ground... which is not quite where I would have it if I had another lighting assistant.

This was one of the photos from our shoot. Ideally, I would have the second light held up higher... but I kinda like the dark shadow that is cast to the right of the photo.

I am just happy that I got to get some practice in and play with off-camera flash. Even Sean said he had fun holding up lights!

Channeling Light

Today, our class took a field trip to downtown Victoria. Our first stop was Chinatown, where Scott took us through the very narrow Fan Tan Alley. It had some gorgeous channeled light; here's my shot from it.

Playing With Light

Despite how tired I was last night, I had a hard time sleeping. However, I still had an early start today with breakfast at 7.30am and the first class starting at 8.30am... and another late night tonight with the class ending at 9.30pm. It must've been adrenaline that carried me through the day.

I have taken a one day workshop with our instructor Scott Robert Lim last Fall, so a lot of the lecture material covered in class today was a review for me. The afternoon however, was the chance to put into practice everything we learned in class and the opportunity to capture some amazing images in the school's chapel. Above is a photograph of one of our models, Kendra, to give you a taste of what we've been playing with!

As much fun as it has been, it's also been a long day. It's time to turn the lights out and get some good rest for another amazing day tomorrow!