I’m not sure what this is going to turn into, whether this is a blog for the sake of publishing or just a good old cathartic brain-dump during peaceful moments, during which I really should just be sleeping because our little one is likely doing the same. Regardless, I figured this has got to be written down because it’s a bonkers-bananas time, and I want Felix to know how bizarre of a world it was while he was a baby during a pandemic. Lord knows that if I don’t write it down I’m likely to forget. Thank you, newly acquired mom-brain!

We had our son, Felix Douglas Ash Ruzek on April 11, 2020 at 5:36 AM at the Chinook Regional Hospital, in Lethbridge Alberta. He was a healthy little duffer weighing in at 3.4 kg, measuring at 51 cm long and a boggin’ measuring at 36 cm. Our little man was born during extraordinary times and he is certainly anything but ordinary. I mean, check out his parents!

I’m a first time mom who is definitely still figuring out this whole parenting gig. Before having Felix, you could catch me popping some yoga poses on a mountain top with some of my rad friends after a session of shredding the gnar on our mountain bikes. When I’m not juxtaposing some of my more extreme passions, you can catch me in the tub full of epsom salts, with a good book, a glass of wine or craft beer, and chill hop jazzing up the atmosphere in my bathroom. Our household has 2 dogs, one sassy senior pom/shih tzu (14 years old) named Lola, a full of vim and vigour German shepherd/Rotti/Shar Pei? pup named Finnegan, and an older cat name Matej (that’s Matthew in Czech). 

I’ve had a myriad of jobs since I was 16 years old, from burger flipper and pizza tosser to a reservist in the Canadian Military as a gunner in the Royal Canadian Artillery. Once deciding that full-time military life wasn’t in the cards for my future, post secondary was the natural progression in my 20’s. I got my start writing many years ago in college when I attended Lethbridge Community College; see that’s how old I am! My college went through an entire rebranding since I graduated in 2007. I graduated with my Communication Arts diploma majoring in print journalism. Little did I know that while I was attending college, my future husband, Jonathan Ruzek, was working, at that same time, in the Marketing Department of Lethbridge College .

I did some freelancing here and there for a few local magazines, landed a job selling advertising for a community magazine, and fast-forward a few years later, I’m working for a non-profit, hiring individuals who are experiencing episodic to chronic homelessness in #YQL. A very distilled version of my life, but you at least you get the jist of who I am as a human being.

Today, it’s been a little over 4 months since I have given birth, and being a mom is by far the coolest thing I have ever done. This little boy has enriched my life in a way I have only been able to dream about and now it’s real life. I wake up almost every morning wondering how the heck I got so lucky to land this gig being a mother and wife. Getting to watch this little man discover this world and grow so fast has been something else, let me tell you. Being a parent I’ve come to realize is by far the coolest and longest adventure of my lifetime.