Friday, August 5, 2011

August's Challenge

I am writing to say, once again, that we did not complete our last month's challenge. It has turned our stomachs inside out knowing that we have failed miserably... again. Instead of taking this challenge into August, I thought that we will still work on the video challenge in August, but add something easier as well.

As August's 30 Day Challenge I will be soul searching. I know, it isn't that over the top awesome, but it is certainly a challenge. Each day we will write down 30 things about ourselves. Hopefully by the end of August some wonderful memories will have found their way back into my heart, and it is with fingers crossed that I hope to find out what it is I truly want out of life.

So, here is my first list.

30 Things About Becca:
1. I have a daughter, who was born asleep, named Annabelle.
2. I have a life partner, who is named Ian.
3. I am 19 years old.
4. My birthday is December 18th, 1991.
5. The sun makes me very, very sleepy. In fact, everything makes me very sleepy.
6. I have the best Mom in the World.
7. Family is the most important aspect of my life.
8. I have a variety of religious beliefs. I think it's safe to say I believe and don't believe in nearly everything.
9. I sleep on the comfiest, squishiest bed ever!
10. I want so badly to make a huge difference in this world.
11. I work in a call centre for Charter Communications - employing Canadians to act as technical support for those in the US who actually have their services.
12. I hope to be pregnant with our rainbow baby in the next 2 years, at the very most.
13. I love my little 3 person family. Together, Ian, myself, and Annabelle are a strong and united front.
14. Although I have had a child, I am still treated like a child but a select few individuals, and I absolutely despise it.
15. My favourite colours were once blue and purple.
16. Since learning about Annabelle, my favourite colours have changed to pink and yellow (the sunset, sunrise, sunshine, like her).
17. I never trusted anyone until I met a fellow "BLM" (baby loss Mom). I trust all of my friendly BLMs.
18. My hands and my feet are always cold.
19. Cheerios with strawberry milk is my favourite breakfast food (thanks, Mom).
20. Ladybugs are beginning to remind me of Annabelle. They have popped up everywhere over the past year.
21. I love my mac :)
22. I'm going on a trip to Europe with the love of my life for 2 months, leaving October 1st.
23. I have a graphic design diploma.
24. I do not want to be a graphic designer.
25. Because of graphic design school, I am now $5500 in debt and was told it will take 90 months of $75 monthly payments to be rid of this evil amount of money.
26. My Dad may not always show it, but he loves his children and I will forever be thankful for that. He isn't perfect. No one is.
27. I wish I had time to lie in the sun and tan.
28. I spent $16 on shitty sunscreen today - eek!
29. I wish I could spend more time with my cousins.
30. I love Aveeno hand cream.

I will posts Ian's 30 things later tonight! :)

Friday, July 22, 2011

Videoooooo

Just wanted to give an update to all of you wonderful people. We are still undecided about how we want the video to work out. It's been a difficult month (close to Abby's 1st Heavenly birthday) but if this was easy, it wouldn't be a challenge - duh!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

July's Challenge!

July's Challenge is..

Create a music video in 30 days!

AH, hard work! We're starting to write a "beat" so we can put it to a video ~ super exciting!!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

New Words~Wahoo!



Here is our latest video update...

Welcome ~ Merhba
How are you? ~ Kif int
I'm good, thanks ~ Tajjeb, Grazzi
And you? ~ U int?
Good, thank you very much ~ Tajjeb, Grazzi Hafna

Thanks for watching guys :) Like we said at the end of the video.. we bought our first tickets for our trip to Europe in the Fall! A one way ticket to Malta is about $1000, but a one way ticket to Rome is only $378.. from Rome to Malta we can get a plane ticket for $100 at the very most, so option two is obviously most economical. WAHOO CAN'T WAIT! I definitely can't wait to see the different sunsets and sunrises on that side of the World.. those are what remind us of Annabelle most!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Why Malta? Why Maltese?

Not many people know where Malta is or why we even want to learn Maltese.

Malta is an island located just south of Sicily, Italy. It's gorgeous.. and small. From one end of the island to the other is a mere 60km. My Nana and Nanu (Nana means Grandma in Maltese, Nanu means Grandpa in Maltese) lived nearly half their life in Malta and moved to Canada right before becoming pregnant with my Mom. While growing up, I learned plenty of Maltese as my Nana and Nanu were my babysitters. Yep, my Nana retired after my Mom had me to help my parents save on babysitting. European grandmas rock.

I have always wanted to visit Malta with my grandparents, but unfortunately my Nanu died 3 years ago due to esophageal cancer (cancer in the esophagus). He was given 2 months to live but was tortured by this cancer for 2 years. It was devastating, frustrating, and saddening. Since then I had planned on going to Malta with my Nana sometime after high school; however, in January of 2010, 7 months after high school graduation, I found out I was pregnant. What a blessing this pregnancy was! I watched my boyfriend turn from a boy to a man. In the back of my mind I knew this would postpone my journey to Malta with my Nana, but I really didn't mind. As long as I went before she became really ill and couldn't travel anymore. She was only 72 at the time (turned 73 this past December).. so I knew it had to be sooner than later. I planned everything out in my mind. We would have to wait until baby turned at least 1.5 - 2 years old because her first year of life would be spent with many doctor check ups, and I wanted to go before the terrible twos set in. So, my plan now changed to going to Malta sometime in 2012 instead of 2010. No problemo, I thought.

Then we found out we weren't going to leave the hospital with a baby. I was exactly 31 weeks gestation on August 2nd and had not felt my baby move at her usual times. The excited part of me thought, "Wow! This is great! Baby's getting so big that he/she doesn't have room to move around anymore! They must be really healthy!" ... 5 hours later I had an emergency cesarean section due to a concealed placental abruption.

So, I leave the hospital empty handed sometime in the beginning of August. My life has turned from awesome to schmuck. Everything sucks, my dreams are crushed, and I never want to get out of bed again.. until my boyfriend and lovely sidekick proposes the idea of taking a trip to Malta in 1 year. This was sometime in September of 2010. I got out of bed, called my Nana, and began to plan the trip. Our trip to Malta has now turned into an entire Euro Trip! We will be spending 2 weeks in Malta, 2 weeks in Greece (to climb Mt. Olympus), followed by 1 month of backpacking through numerous other European countries. It's all very exciting.. heart wrenching because we have to do it without our Annabelle, our little monkey, our pretty girl.. but there is still a small piece hidden inside of me that is excited.

When I go to Malta in October I know that I will be surrounded with love by distant family members. I can't wait! This is going to be one of the best adventures of my life (the only other "best" adventure was my pregnancy).. and, to make it even better, we have to learn some basic Maltese! I can understand most because my Nana and Nanu always spoke Maltese around the house.. but I can't speak it for the life of me. I have 14 more days left to learn this language before we move on to a different 30 day challenge. I can do it, I WILL do it!

I love you Annabelle.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Found a VERY cool website to help us pick up our Maltese. My 4 wisdom teeth were extracted yesterday so it was difficult to learn these but the website makes it so easy. Well, kind of easy. It shows the word, how to spell it, and creates a game out of everything to help you remember--but there isn't an option to hear what the word sounds like. Darn!

Anyway, this is the website in case anyone wants to learn some different dialects:
http://www.digitaldialects.com/Maltese.htm

Peace.
Becca

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Where did May go?

May came and left so quickly.. we barely completed our challenge. We learned a few words, but didn't have the time to blog about them. This month I PROMISE I will be a blog-a-holic and give regular updates on our Maltese progress :) Yep, this month will be a continuation of last month's challenge... ahhhhh!