Friday, December 2, 2011

25 Things I love about December

1) Playing Christmas carols!!! All day, every day :)
2) How crazy the shops are. I know most people hate this, but I LOVE the crowds, and the crazy feeling, and knowing everyone is buying things for other people!!
3) Drowning my little family in new Christmas traditions every day! - Some stick, some we totally forget about the next year - you can only have so many I guess!
4) Swimming!!
5) Everyone smiles more, don't you think???
6) A whole month of joyful anticipation, shared with pretty much everyone you know!!
7) Meeting nice people :) People talk more to random strangers in December :) They love to share Christmas plans and ideas, and Christmas presents they're buying :)
8) Feeling the spirit of Christ in people who don't think they're the religious kind as they smile, and give and love and share joy!
9) The food :)
10) Boxing Day!!!
11) Almost everyone gets some time off work to hang out :)
12) New Years - all the resolutions and anticipation and excitement! :) The turning over a new leaf and a chance to do more and better this year! :)
13) The Ward Christmas Party :)
14) Community events - Lord Mayor's carols, Christmas Markets, seeing Santa in the shopping centres, people singing in groups in shops!
15) Christmas lights displays :)
16) The million feelings of nostalgia you get hearing certain songs or smelling certain smells!! :)
17) Doing whatever you want on Christmas Day :)
18) Wrapping gifts! :)
19) Having fun secrets :)
20) Sorting out little gifts for people! :)
21) Reading sweet Christmas stories that always make me cry :)
22) The Nativity Story :) Acting it out on Christmas Eve growing up, and hopping with anticipation every year waiting for my babies to be old enough to do the same!!
23) Dad & James reading from Luke on Christmas Day
24) Ward Christmas programs
25) The whole vibe, really!:)
26) Watching cute Christmas movies :) And the Grinch. I love that one :) ("Solve world hunger! - tell no one.")
27) Putting out the Nativity set. I used to spend hours looking at and moving those figures around when I was growing up!
28) Ginger Beer and scorched almonds!

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Just Randomly Found and Loved this....

I wonder if we could write something like this for anything we stumble across.



http://www.minimalistmommy.com/Blog/?p=185

The lady who made this didn't write it - another lady in her infertility support group wrote it, but the pictures are of the lady who blogged it, with her son, so it looks like it all worked out :)

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

2 Fabulous Follow-Ups + A Random Piece of 'Yay' News for Us

The first follow-up is from yesterday's post, 'What is Romance? Really.'.

I talked to James last night about it being our anniversary and what I wrote about yesterday, and he wholly agreed about the candles, but when I asked him what he would like to do, he said "Oh, I already have plans so you don't need to worry about it". LOVE it! :)

The second follow up is from a tragic post, called 'Dear Electricity Company'.

Yesterday I spent a few hours (with my poor babies screaming in the background) on the phone to the electricity company asking if they'd EVER give us the deal or if we should go somewhere else, and then he said he might be able to give us an o.k. deal (not as good as we had been promised), and I asked if we could back-date it to the last bill like it should have been, and he said he couldn't, but maybe someone could, but we had to sign up for a longer term contract than I want to be associated with the company for to even try, so I said I'd call him back. I then called other electricity providers and got quotes, then I called James and told him I thought we should just pay that awful bill and switch companies, but he wanted to call and talk to the current company himself, so I said 'Fine! - but I think we should just switch, I don't want anything else to do with them, EVER!' (I had actually been as 'tough' on the phone call with the electricity company as I've ever been. I actually told him that maybe they should look through their tapes of their phone calls which they record all of, and listen to our 20 calls over the last year, being promised different deals and told different contradicting things. Come to think of it he never really responded..I told him I wanted to talk to someone who could actually help me too, and...hm... I don't know why that didn't happen either...I'm not good at this maybe....)

ANYWAY,

James called back a while later, to tell me he'd signed up with our current company for another year at the discounted rate, and not to pay the bill, because they were adjusting it to the rate which they'd originally promised us, and re-issuing it to us...!!!! I was like 'HOW?!!!!' After a year of phone calls, someone could just magically do it!! It seemed impossible.

James told the guy his wife was determined to switch but he wanted to stay with us, but we only would if they backdated everything and gave us a new deal. Apparently the guy was running to his manager every 2 seconds to check everything and they were officially sorry for all the weird stuff their 'colleagues' had put us through over the year, and all that jazz. James told them 'I don't want to have to call you guys back in the next year that we're signed up to you - I just want to pay our discounted bills, and get my electricity provided'. He assured him there would be no need for communication, whatsoever. The only downside to this phone call is that James didn't get the guys name and extension number. I think I would PAY for it after all the people I've talked to in the last year who had no idea possibly where they were even working. Last week a girl I spoke to assured me that the company had never offered the rate that we'd been promised originally, but yesterday they all knew what I was talking about. But no more about that - it's ALL GOOD!!!!! :)

And our other piece of random 'Yay!' news - not a follow up to an old post, so it gets 'random' status - is that....hm...short story: James got a job across the road he can WALK to (his last official job was a 40 minute $10 toll round trip), that is casual full-time, so he might be able to work on the days he doesn't have uni next semester, etc. And he started today :) Off he walked :) He hasn't been working for a long time because he was on prac, so it's a much-needed blessing. Also a blessing because due to a ... uh .... clerical .. oversight by his otherwise fabulous wife, he may have lost his license... :S So to get a job he can walk to?! Amazing! :)

I LOVE it when you see the sun come out again!! :)

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

What is Romance? Really.

It’s our anniversary tomorrow! 4 Years of wedded bliss!! In some cultures (like Hollywood), that’s actually quite impressive, but please don't all contact me at once for marriage advice.

So what to do to celebrate?! Every other year we've gone up the coast for a weekend or so for our anniversary, last year with Maggie too, which was fun! This year we decided to go to Adelaide for my Aunty's wedding back in September instead, so what to do tomorow to mark the fact that once again, it'll be the 23rd of November, and we're intact! - And happy!! :)

I have often, in the past for special occasions done a really nice dinner. I decorate the table and put candles out, and we eat in the 'flickering candlelight'. I was contemplating what to cook for our special dinner tomorow night, when I suddenly wondered what was with the candles anyway? They're pretty around the place and I love seeing a bunch of them lit at parties or weddings, but when I light the candles for a 'romantic' dinner at home, it just seems weird. And we sit there discussing our days (because who really participates in weird romantic talk at the dinner table) in the semi dark, and miss seeing half the mess Maggie's made until it's stuck on like glue. After dinner there's lots of extra cleaning up to do, by which time we're exhausted (this sometimes happens after just a little bit of mess too!), and plans for a board game or movie go out the window. AND it's not really fun, at all.

So why do I do it?! I've seen it on movies. I've read about it.... I've just realised, maybe it's not actually our kinda romance. I know, I'm a little slow. Thank goodness I have eternity to figure everything else out!

If you LOVE the beautiful ambiance created by candles and little heart confetti all over the table, and LOVE sitting at the dinner table in said flickering candlelight whispering sweet nothings to each other, that's awesome! - For starters, you totally don't have my dilemma. But if you'd like to do something cool...and cheap...and at home with the kids, and you've just realised candlelight and a fancy dinner doesn't do it for you, what to do?

So I tried to think of what I enjoy the most. It's sad, but it's true. As much as I am the driving force behind 'We should sit up at the table every night and eat dinner together as a family!' - And I really believe in doing that, especially as children get older and it's the main time in a day that you spend together and bond together as a family, and I could go on but it wouldn't be very romantic.. - my dream evening with James would have to be eating food that was not prepared

1) by me,

2) in my kitchen, making extra mess for me to clean up later.

My favourite times are going out to dinner, or getting fish & chips or fasta pasta and eating it on the couch in front of a movie. I don't particularly enjoy putting the house back together, so I would refrain from moving it out of place in the beginning.

And as for anniversary gifts? Well maybe it's because we're on a budget and can't just go out and buy whatever we want most of the time, but something on my 'list of things I need to buy in turn when the budget allows' would be awesome, IF we were to get presents. James mentioned this morning that he needed to get to the shops quickly to get something for *cough* our anniversary *cough* (he can't drive at the moment so he HAD to tell me so he could get a ride lol), and I feel like I've already had the gift, cause I know he was planning on getting me something, so now he can save his money, not get me a lovely piece of anniversary jewellery that would be absolutely beautiful, and make me feel special, but more great if we had money growing on trees on our little back veranda, and know that I am very grateful that he was planning on getting me something. Having grown up in a home where Dad bought Mum home flowers every other day because she loves them so much, and he loves her so much, I DO kind of have a weakness for flowers - it's like the just mean 'love', so a $6 bunch of bright blooms from Woolies really float my boat. I guess all I need to know is that James cared enough to want to put in an effort and I'm done. So I guess I've already been gifted.

I guess I'll have a chat with James and find out if the candlelit dinners are what have been keeping him around for the last 4 years, but since he's the big advocate of couch eating, I have a feeling that he's been enjoying our fabulous romantic dinners as much as me!

So what's YOUR romance? Any ideas for me?!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Spring Detox...

Yesterday I pulled the vacuum cleaner out and started the vacuuming in Ana's room.

As I started vacuuming, I thought about how Ana's dummy and socks keep ending up on the side of the cot - which always seems messy - next to the wall - which was getting a bit dusty in the corner! - and how annoying it is to move it all the time to get to them, past the rocking chair, the seat of which which I noticed has totally cracked down the middle!!!

So I decided to immediately redo the nursery, and make it more 'user friendly' and easier to keep clean.

A couple of hours, plenty of dusting and scrubbing and vacuuming and rearranging and sorting and washing and drying and pressing 'play' on Winnie the Pooh for poor neglected Maggie again, the nursery looked, and 'felt' fabulous. The cot no longer wears its cute valance, or flat sheet, because they were just always a bit messy. The rocking chair is gone :( I loved that rocking chair. I guess I loved the look of it more than anything else, but still. The cot and chest of drawers I switched around, which means the cot's in the middle of the floor, which seemed a little odd looking (although very practical) at first, but now I'm totally in love with it! It's just simpler. It seems bigger, because the space behind the cot is pretty clear. I cleaned off the top shelf, added more books, got rid of the mess, did the skirtings, scrubbed the walls, etc. Washed all the sheets and blankets, redid the change table, etc. I vacuumed the rest of the house and it was so tempting to spring clean everything right then, but our little family wouldn't have had any dinner to eat in their lovely clean environment.

Yesterday also happened to be the first day of a return to the healthy lifestyle I was participating in during the fitness challenge (yes Mum - and most of my childhood!). I had put 1kg back on with a junk food fest and exercise break which consumed the entire month of October, involving my birthday and party and Tammy's birthday and party, and leftovers and cooking from both. So in the evening after I cleaned up from dinner I was back on my treadmill.

This morning I feel great. My children are nice and bathed, their rooms look fabulous (yesterday I also managed to rearrange Maggie's bookcase and wash all of her sheets and everything so it's nice and fresh for now anyway), I feel better health/fitness wise already, and I have big plans for the continuance of this house and body detox! :)

Bless Spring!! :)

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Gripped with Excitement

I'm bouncing off the walls with excitement.

I don't know if my reasons would justify this state of being for everyone, but they seem to be working for me. Here are some of them:
  • Christmas. In 6 weeks and 5 days. YAY!!!!!!! This is more exciting because I am on top of the Christmas shopping, YAY!!! :) And we are going to NSW to spend Christmas with all James' family down there for the first time, so I get to have pre-Christmas with my family up here, yay!! :) (I'm totally going to pretend it's Christmas Day! And then I get 2 of them! :))
  • I also get to visit Beth & Robbie in Sydney for a few days at the end of the trip, YAY!! :)
  • And we are going to James' mission reunion in Sydney, yay!! (more for him, but, happy husband happy ... life? And wife... It'll be fun for both of us, anyway :))
  • Elders Boliver in Japan are doing GREAT :)
  • Maggie and Ana are soooooo cool :) I seem to have been out of the house so much lately, yesterday and today at home with these girls have been so wonderful!
  • James is finishing a big prac, tomorow, his final exam on Thursday, and 1 more assignment next Wednesday. Then he is OURS again!!! He'll go back to work, but he won't have any school homework until FEBRUARY, YAY!!! :) It feels like Ana hasn't bonded with him at this age as much as Maggie was able to cause he's been so busy, so I'm excited for them to be able to spend more time together especially :)
  • Ana's new Bumbo arrived this morning, yay! Maggie has been sitting in it all morning. She loves it. It's a little odd that she's still fitting into it easily at almost 2, and Ana will probably get to fat for it before she does!
  • Ana is deliciously chubby - she's just so healthy and beautiful! :) And such a sweetheart, we love her. Cooking up a pot of potatoes to mash and freeze for her today, bring on SOLIDS!!!! :)
  • Netball tonight - I love playing.
  • Mum and Dad getting there with their house to put it on the market! This one's mixed excitement and 'you can't sell our house!!!!' :p
  • We get our two absent sisters back early next year!!! - Beth's coming up from Sydney (with Robbie, and her baby belly), and Tammy will be DONE with EFY!!! After 2 years I never thought it would happen! Pray for not floods in January, yeah?! :)
  • JACEY was born on Friday, and she's so sweet and beautiful!! - Yay for gorgeous nieces and nephew! Jessima does SUCH a good job :)
  • Bethany finds out whether her little soon-to-be firstborn is a boy or a girl in 3 weeks! YAY!!! :) (think female thoughts! :))
  • I'm making roast for dinner tonight - that means I won't have to cook for at least one night after tonight. Bless leftovers!!! :)
  • Maggie's talking all day long. SHe's so sweet and fun, we LOVE her!!! :)
  • I have been playing with my early Christmas present from James :) It's a Franklin/Covey planner. I have big goals and plans for next year to be a super efficient Mum/Housewife/Person, and this is part of my master plan. James has let me have it now cause the earlier I start the better the lead-in to my year of efficiency. I am LOVING it. I am so pumped! And the binder I got? Totally cute :) You'll hear more about this later.
  • Next year James and I have tickets to all the Harvest Rain Shows - I won them, YAY!!! :)
  • For my birthday, Tammy gave me tickets to go and see Tim McGraw & Faith Hill in concert with her next year, and Jessima is taking me to the Power of Mums retreat that's coming to Australia in March!! WOW!! 2 HUGE presents, and both happening in March! SO exciting to look forward too!!! :)
  • For HER birthday, I'm taking Tammy to go and see 'Annie' in April!! By July I'm going to have been to like 7 or 8 shows/concerts!! So many fun outings!!! :)
  • In January, Jessima's parents are going away and we're able to go up and house-sit for them if we'd like to. They live in Caloundra - one of my favourite places in the whole world!!! I hope we can sort it around James' work - it's a happy year that includes a good Caloundra visit!! :)
  • I was thinking about houseboats the other day. I love them. I want to go on another houseboat holiday with our extended family, if we can find a fabulous big one. I can't wait! :)
  • I just sent off 4 birthday cards - 3 belated :S But at least now I'm up to date! Hopefully we can stay this way!
  • I just got the pictures from my fabulous surprise party and Tammy's fabulous Halloween party off her camera, yay!
  • I have been to some sales recently. I LOVE sales.
  • I made a new slow cooker recipe the other day, a chicken and potato curry. It was aMAZing, and gave us days of leftovers!! The best bit? I don't like curry at all!!! I just made it cause James likes it and I've never made it before... But I loved this one!!
  • It's our Anniversary in 2 weeks and 1 day. I LOVE James! :) And we've nearly been married 4 years! SUCH old timers :) Every other year we've gone away for our Anniversary, but this year we managed to go to Aunty Leah's fabulous wedding in Adelaide instead. Maybe we'll go out to dinner or something. When the tax return came in I bought a few cheap nice meals at restaurants with Spreets, so maybe we'll use one of those :)
  • Today I checked the mail, and we got the Bumbo, some little nappy covers I ordered for Ana a week or two ago, an engagement party invite, and a camera cord (I lost mum's :S But found a replacement well priced online thank goodness). End of mail. NO BILLS!!!! :) And nothing awful or unexpected. Lately I'm kind of nervous to check the mail, so that was exciting.
  • James helped me run a weekly grocery shop last night. I don't have to run out to the shops anymore this week, yay!
  • Maggie and I got up early this morning (definitely her idea!) and made pancakes for James! Yay :)
  • Yesterday morning I woke up at 4:30am and realised Ana hadn't fed! So in my haste to make sure she was alive I woke her up and fed her. This morning I didn't feed her till Maggie and I got up just before 6. Awesome :)
  • I borrowed some of Mum and Dad's CD's and talk tapes. I LOVE listening to them around the house.
  • I am getting a tiny bit more up to date with my housework now that I'm home and focused on being efficient :) BIG yay!! :)
  • I am not humongously pregnant!! I don't know how long it will take me to stop being excited about that one..
  • Maggie's cold is finally clearing up, and none of the rest of us caught it, YAY!!! :)
  • Mums & Bubs Christmas BBQ here Saturday - we have been so much less regular this year with all being pregnant and sick and having second babies, so it's nice to get together, and with our husbands too! Last week at Amy's house the toddlers were playing on Elijah's awesome new outdoor equipment. These ex-bubs are so big and wonderful! And we sat on the back veranda with the second babies :) It was nice. These girls have been such a wonderful and unexpected support base and friendship group since we started meeting. I'm so grateful for them! And Maggie loves them too :)
  • I've been completely useless helping my parents with getting their house ready to sell (this isn't one of the things that's exciting.). We go over and I seem to make more mess with the girls than I'm cleaning up, and spend all my time worrying about them making mess and feeding them, etc. But I married James, who has been a MUCH bigger help. I'm so glad I married someone so willing to help and hard working!!! :) And who can' TOTALLY lift a fridge by himself (only single door though, right, Tammy?) lol.
  • I am teaching a lesson at church on Sunday. I'm teaching Relief Society. I've never taught adults in my life, so it's kind of scary. But it's EXCITING because I have not taught for a loooong time outside the girls, and being a teacher, I've kind of been craving it. So it'll be fun to prepare a lesson. There'll be visual aids. - I don't think I'll ever let go of some of those primary school teaching bits inside of me.
  • I have a treadmill. I know, I've had it for a long time, but I love it. I love using it. I love the results. I love my treadmill!
  • Maggie's currently putting Elmo in the Bumbo. I keep walking in on her sitting at her little 4 seater table and chairs talking to the bears who she's placed on the 3 other chairs. I LOVE that she's becoming creative and imaginative and having so much fun playing alone as well as with other children.
  • Speaking of which, Maggie and Jordan are AWESOME friends. They LOVE getting together. I don't know about Jordan, but for Maggie, I never see her play the way she plays with him, with anyone else. They just seem to 'work'. Like they read each other's little minds and know exactly what they're both going to do, and then they're off! They run around screaming, jump on and over things, into things, under things, with things, they run into each other, and they giggle the whole time. I love it :)
See wouldn't you TOTALLY be excited too?! So many reasons... :)

I'm off to clean up the traces of pancake evidence, put the roast on, and bounce off the walls a little more. Maggie'll probably participate. She loves to get excited just for the sake of it too. We'll probably have a dancing marathon while we work - we're good like that :)

Just turned around to see she's already started on the folding. What a helpful soul :)

xo

Friday, November 4, 2011

...waiting...

Just doing our thing, waiting to get 'that' phone call to tell us that Jessima's new baby is here!! I can't WAIT to find out whether it's a new little niece or nephew!! Jessima was being induced last night/this morning.

At about 10:30 Jonny called, and I yelled 'WHAT IS IT?!!!' into the phone. He said 'What's what?' and I yelled 'Don't mess with me! - Did you have a boy or a girl?!' and he said 'We didn't have anything yet' so I freaked out and yelled
'Is Jessima OK?!!!!!'
'yes'
'Then WHY are you calling me?!!!!'
'Jessima thought it would be funny'
(sigh)
:)

Nothing much was happening at that point, so they were about to put a drip in. That means that right now, Jessima's probably pretty busy! I hope it's as painless as labour can be!! Jessima had Jordan in 4 hours so I keep waiting for the news to come quickly, I hope this one's not a longer labour! Long labour is...upsetting :p

But we are so excited for the J's and the latest model! :) Sending fast, painless and safe thoughts their way xoxox

Friday, October 21, 2011

Dear Electricity Company

I am feeling extreme dislike towards you (I had to thesaurus 'hate' so I didn't feel so wicked hating. I did this after I had an internal debate about whether it's okay to hate companies or whether it's just as bad as hating people, but then I thought it's probably as bad, because it eats away at me to hate, whether it's company or person, so I decided to go with extreme dislike so I won't dwell on it or let it eat me as much..).

Back at the start of the year, when I signed up with a cheaper company, why didn't you just let me go? Why did you lure me back with illusions of loyalty and trust? Why did you promise me easy transactions and offer to match the cheaper offer of the new company? Why did you display for me your proud Australian history and seem confused and suspicious of a new company who seemed likely to take our money and go bankrupt immediately?

How come every time I tried to discuss our plans with you, you eventually realised I needed to be James? Then why did it take you 6 months and 26,000 (ish...) confused sounding phone calls with various employees to change our account to both of our names? How come you had to completely cut us off as customers twice to achieve this (not that we weren't grateful for the 'Welcome!' packs each time we re-signed up...well, James re-signed up - why, to this day, over 6 months later, can't anyone in your fabulous nation-wide company enter 2 names as account holders even though you all claim you will and then blame 'the last person you spoke to' for the discrepancy?!).

Why did you forget to send our last bill??!

Fortunately for all of us I'm kind of a bill-anticipating crazy person, so I knew we'd probably get 2 all at once, when you guys realised you hadn't charged us yet for last quarter.

But why today, did I get such a GIGANTIC, HUMONGOUS, LARGE bill?! There was no discount!!! Our rate has gone up much more than 10%, and the bills were another third and another half (respectively) higher than any bill we've ever received before!!! I know they've 'upped' their prices too, and I'm not a fan of them either right now, but STOP blaming the government!!

I pride myself on always expecting the worst with financial matters, so that I'm never unpleasantly surprised, but you WON! You outdid all of my gloomy expectations and predictions about the size of this bill. It is enormous :(

And then, after keeping me on hold for 45 minutes just now, why did you offer me a $25 credit? I don't want one! I just want the 10% discount! Aaages ago! When you offered it to me! Back when we were still your customers of nearly four years, before we became new customers, and then new customers again...and again. I might be more excited about the $25 if I really thought you'd ever give it to me, but nothing in our history gives me much hope. And so you tell me to call in 2 weeks, and get the process started to receive that 10% discount, because according to your records, we've just become customers again after transferring to a different company, and you can't give new customers a discount right away. I don't even know what to say to that. We signed with the other company sometime last summer, for 1 day, until I called you, you offered me the same price, and I called and cancelled within my 10 day cooling off period. Really? Just signed with you?

Glad game? Well, I can be glad to finally be able to empathise with people in movies who finally just turn to the closest wall and begin banging their heads up against it.

I think I'll go do that now.

Sincerely,

Someone whose Christmas you just ruined, and who will now turn off her computer, and everything else in the house, before participating in the aforementioned physical activity.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

'Children' (AKA I Love Conference!! :))

Just a quick quote I love so far from one of this years General Conference talks :) It's actually partly a quote from a Christian mother from another faith from her blog, but this is a paragraph from the talk given by Elder Neil L. Anderson called 'Children' in the Saturday Afternoon Session - I loved it. You can find it here.

"Many voices in the world today marginalize the importance of having children or suggest delaying or limiting children in a family. My daughters recently referred me to a blog written by a Christian mother (not of our faith) with five children. She commented: “[Growing] up in this culture, it is very hard to get a biblical perspective on motherhood. … Children rank way below college. Below world travel for sure. Below the ability to go out at night at your leisure. Below honing your body at the gym. Below any job you may have or hope to get.” She then adds: “Motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling. You do not collect children because you find them cuter than stamps. It is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in. It is what God gave you time for.”7"

I really like that last bit :)

I always enjoy going up to the chapel with my family to watch conference, but yesterday we actually came home for the second session so the girls (who were kind of crazy) could go to sleep and cause I wasn't feeling too smashing (hold the cards and flowers, I'm fine now :) And no, not at all pregnant), and I really, really enjoyed watching it at home with James, not worrying about the girls disturbing the general peace!! In fact I liked it so much that we're going to watch this morning's session at home again while the girls nap, and then just go up to the chapel for this afternoon's session :)

If you haven't yet, I highly recomment watching/reading/listening to some - it has been really wonderful :)

Friday, September 30, 2011

Fitness Challenge: THE END!!!

It's all over :)

After 12 weeks of a whole new lifestyle, I lost 7 kg's (still got 1 to go over the next whenever) :) I also know that weights are supposed to be hard, and have even gotten used to doing them :) I've started playing netball. I feel GREAT :) I like eating healthy. I am fit. I like shopping, and I like getting dressed up :) I am more confident. I am soooo happy :)

I know, there should be some great photo of me in my hot new wedding dress right here, except that the photo doesn't exist! I only had my camera for the ceremony before it RAN OUT OF BATTERY!! Sob! So I stole Bethany's for the reception, but she lives in Sydney, and I don't even know if there are any of me on there anyway! BUT luckily the shop has an online shop, and here it is:



I bought it in Adelaide and to be honest it's not exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something flowy and pretty and chiffon-ny but trying to find something flowy and pretty and chiffon-ny with sleeves and easy access for feeding Ana was a little bit ambitious (sigh). We shopped Adelaide city. We shopped for ages. The girls went crazy. Thank goodness we had Bethany with us - she was such a big help! I was about to give up when I found this one. Not my usual style, but it's kind of a cocktail dress, and I've never had one of those before. Purple is usually my least favourite colour but I liked that it was kind of bold :)

Add a black cardi (it was freeeezing!), a black bling ring and some patent black stilettos and I was good to go :)

It was so much fun dressing up in something new, and feeling slim and fit and way more confident than I felt 12 weeks ago!!

And we danced the night away :)

So the fitness challenge is over for now. I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want, and don't HAVE to exercise unless I want to :) But I think I will keep at least a lot of it up :)

I am soooo grateful James suggested we do this again and made me work hard, and I am excited just knowing that I can semi-easily lose the weight that I put on when I had our babies. Hopefully next time I won't put on as much, but I'm excited to do this again to get back into shape after the next baby.

Yay for the fitness challenge 2011, and yay for getting my new dress (happy sigh), and yay for it being over!! :)

Monday, September 19, 2011

Fitness Challenge: Week 11

I am sick of being healthy.

But I have enjoyed losing this weight immensely!

I ordered some maternity recovery shorts. They are my last hope! I wasn't going to, but James thinks they'll help me feel healthy and strong again after each pregnancy (like they're meant to) and is convinced there's nothing more worth it, so he sweetly insisted which is nice of him. He thinks I should also get the during pregnancy ones but they're not cheap, so we'll see how these go first!

I exercised most days last week, until I fell and hurt my shin - it's just a big egg and bruise but it hurts like crazy, still, and is hard to walk on and even though Mum thinks I'm making a big fuss over a little thing it's killing me!!! :P

On Saturday morning I had lost another kg!!!! :) This morning, I had not.... so I will keep going through this last week, and James wants to see me shopping for that dress for the wedding on Saturday :) I have a nice dress but I can't feed in it, which could get awkward for me, or rather upsetting for Ana! :)

So only 1 week to go - I can almost smell the finish!!! :)

I AM getting over it, but I am SO GLAD and GRATEFUL that I did this challenge and that James has helped me so much - it feels sooooo good getting back into shape!! :) This morning I pulled out almost the last of the clothes that now fit me - only a few more items to go. Golly it feels good :)

Monday, September 12, 2011

Fitness Challenge: Week 10

Woohoo I'm down 1 more kg!!

Now I've lost 6!!!!

And although James continues to tell me it's not important how much I lose as much as how strong I get, I'm loving it :)

All I can think of is a massive bag of chicken breast fillets or mince - that's a heck of a lot of weight that I was carrying around that I'm not! No wonder I'm fitting into my old clothes and feeling great!! :)

Last week I didn't exercise again - this was due to being out of the habit and wasted. I know, bad :S

I am exercising this week.

I did however get back onto the no junk food part of the challenge last week.

So 2 weeks to go, and 2 kg's to lose!!!

Aaaah! Gotta suck it up, wish me luck, I can almost feel the fabric of my cute new dress :)

Monday, September 5, 2011

Fitness Challenge: Week 9

At the end of last week I had a bad attitude.

So this week I did everything wrong. I mean everything.

I ate junk food every single day, even if it was just a few marshmallows to cut off my nose to spite my face (our house isn't stocking much in the way of junk food at the moment...).

I didn't work out once - although I had an awesome game of netball Tuesday night, which I decided to do despite my determination to do everything wrong, because I love it.

I slept in if I could possibly manage it (generally not..).

I didn't drink quite 2.5 litres of water each day. Ha!

I even ate after 7pm.

Shocking, right?

I stayed the same weight I already was. This would have been more fun if I'd lost a kg. But I didn't. I did, however, have a break from my overdoes of health and fitness and I'm kind of okay going back to it this week. I am 2 or 3 kg's out from my goal weight, only 3 weeks left, and just under 3 weeks until I go to the wedding for which I am going to buy cute prize dress if I reach my goal, so I really need to lose a kilo this week and next!!

So this week I will resume the challenge, and next week if I'm not low enough, I'm totally going the 'The Devil Wears Prada' diet. Anyone not know it?? The girl in the movie totally seemed to be working it!

Monday, August 29, 2011

Fitness Challenge: Week 8

Exercised every day last week.

Feel bigger.

Didn't lose any weight.

Over it.

Come on last 2 or 3 kg's - be gone!!!

Only 4 weeks left...

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

4 Years ago today...


...was a Friday. James and I had been dating for three and a half months.

I had a bit of a bad day. I can't remember a thing about it, other than the fact that I was feeling cranky when James came to pick me up. We were going to Jonny and Jessima's for a Korean dinner with a Korean investigator and Jimmi & Anita. I had organised it with Jonny that week.

We drove through Woodridge on the way to their place, and James pulled into Mabel Park on Paradise Road, and got out. He said he just wanted to chill out and talk to me for a few minutes, catch up on my day and calm me down before we went to Jonny and Jessima's for dinner. I was too scared (at night...in Woodridge) to go to the playground or anything, so we just talked by the car for a few minutes. James commented a few times that he was thirsty. He opened my door and as I got into the car he asked me to pass him his water bottle from the glove box.

I opened the glove box and there it was: A beautiful, sparkling diamond ring in it's open box.

I of course, didn't notice it as I grabbed it out with everything else in my diligent search for his water bottle.

I put it all back as I told James that it wasn't in there, and it was only when I'd replaced the ring that I realised what it was. My stomach and my jaw hit the ground and I turned to see James kneeling on one knee, in the Mabel Park carpark. "Abby Munro, will you marry me?" he asked. I couldn't believe it! I really wanted to say yes but didn't 100% know if it was right yet. I had prayed about it a bit, but not in earnest - I was not expecting him to propose for at least another couple of months...! So I just hugged him screaming 'Oh my goodness! You're proposing!' and trying to buy time. Finally he said 'You just have to answer! - Yes or no? Please tell me!' so I took a deep breath and said 'YES!!' ... and here we are :)

The Tuesday night before this we were making time capsules in Young Womens, and we had had to write 'My dream proposal'. I had written 'A complete surprise'. So despite the fact that James had a rather more elaborate and technically more romantic evening planned before I hit him with the news that we were going to a Korean dinner that night, he managed my dream proposal perfectly :) And now our kids can go play where we got engaged!! :)


Beth took some engagement photos of us there too :)

We have had tons of good times!








And now we're no longer just a couple - we're a little family! :) It's the funnest thing ever :)


So I'm really glad that 4 years ago today James asked me a question he hoped he knew the answer to, and I'm so glad I answered right!! :) Happy Anniversary of Our Engagement James!! ;) xo

Monday, August 22, 2011

Turn Off the TV and Get a Life!!!

That's the talk of a John Bytheway talk, and it's my favourite :) It probably helps that I listened to it in the last 2 months - and it coincided with my self-inflicted TV ban.

If you hang out with us a bit, you probably already know that we don't have our TV hooked up, so we can only watch DVD's on it. This would of course be easy to remedy, except neither of us were particularly keen on doing so - I grew up without our TV hooked up, and James thinks it's a waste of time.

I have an addictive personality. For example, I used to be addicted to chocolate, and now I'm addicted to exercise (sob...). I always like having something on in the 'background' while I'm doing my housework, and can 'down' an entire TV series in a few days. In the last couple of months before about 2 months ago I found myself borrowing or renting TV series' and constantly having them on.

The last series I borrowed I jokingly called my 'soap opera'. It was a teen drama and I knew it was pretty terrible, but I 'had' to keep watching anyway, once I'd started. I watched 4 seasons.

I think little by little, the shows I had been watching deteriorated in more than quality - they deteriorated in language and morals as well. I would never want my children to watch that last series I watched - it was terrible!

I realised that I wasn't spending near enough time playing with Maggie with my full attention - there was always a piece of me glued to that set. AND if I was watching something pretty awful, how could I expect our home to feel like a temple and be a place the spirit could dwell?

So then I swore off TV for a while.

I don't know how I ever fit it in.

Our home is definitely more our home. I have not been letting in all those characters and their homes - we do our own thing here.

I am more really there for Maggie, and Ana.

We sing and dance a lot around the house and play good music all the time. Maggie loves it :)

I've read a lot of books while feeding and treadmilling.

I've listened to a bunch of good talks on CD :)

I've cleaned a lot more.

Dinner has been on the table when James gets home most nights.

I go to bed earlier and so I can get up earlier and work out.

In the evenings James plays the guitar and I read or try to catch up on my private blog, and get the dishes done so it's all fresh for the morning. Plus we talk more.

I don't think about random characters who don't exist, and wonder what they will do next (isn't it pathetic that I ever did?!!).

In 'Turn off the TV and Get a Life' John Bytheway talks about a time in college when he used to watch TV for about 2 hours each night before bed. Then one day he decided to go to bed 2 hours early, and get up 2 hours early, and work on a book he'd always wanted to write. He said he exchanged his 2 most non-constructive hours with his two most constructive hours, and he wrote that book - his first one, and it obviously changed his life!

Anyway, I'm loving it. I'm scared to ever watch anything again, because it's so good having all my time to myself! I think it's okay with movies - it's just the TV series that suck me in.

And my mind is clear and free and ready for me to fill it with constructive things! :)

I am loving it :) My head detox :)

Fitness Challenge: Week 7

Has it been that long already?!!

I am down one more KG :) That means I've lost FIVE!!! Awesome :) And only 2 or 3 more till I qualify for my fabulous new skinny outfit! :) I seriously should've done a before and after picture, except, 'Shame!!' lol :)

I love working out.

I had a dessert night with my sisters (and dessert-night crashing brother ;)) on Saturday night and was disappointed to find that my unconquerable appetite for chocolate seems to have diminished. I only ate one profiterole, a little bit of chocolate mousse and a little bit of ice cream and I felt a bit sick! How awful! Am I going to be one of those people who can't eat a whole block of chocolate in one sitting and be keen to go back for more?! Will I need to eat real food before I feel like dessert?! Will really rich desserts be 'too much' for me?! Am I losing myself?!!! Sigh.. Eating chocolate has always been something I'm incredibly good at, and now I feel it slipping away! :S

And my exciting news: I joined a netball team :) First game tomorrow night!! I don't know if I'll be any good at all but the team already let me in, lucky! :) I LOVE playing actual sport, but lately I've been a bit too pregnant to keep up with it, so I thought I'd grab this between-pregnancy opportunity and jump on in!! Yay!!! :)

Oh and just a few ways I'm saving money:

- Chocolate. Or the absence thereof (again, sigh..)
- There are less of my legs to shave, so I'm pretty sure I'm saving on razors...I am also saving on time...
- I am eating smaller portions at dinner, so James gets more leftovers for his lunches, so I don't have to pack as much other stuff for him (the boy needs like a trolley to carry his lunch, sigh)

5 weeks to go until I can eat chocolate whenever I want to again!!.....If I do....sigh...

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Fitness Challenge: Week 6

I have to admit it. I'm addicted to working out. I love it. I hate it when I miss a day. I love that feeling at the end when I'm all hot and sweaty and can almost feel myself losing weight and being fit! And it makes me feel like I'm back in high school at the end of a basketball or netball game (I guess I didn't work hard enough in volleyball..). If I had no children I'd NEVER miss a day, but if I don't get up early and do it in that little gap before they are fully awake and before James goes out so he can help me with them if they do wake up, it's all over. Sometimes I work out at night, but it's nowhere near as good doing it at night.

I dropped another kg this week...!! :D That makes me super happy :) I look at my tummy in the mirror and think 'Yeah! I totally lost a bit!' - not that I'd be so sure if the scales didn't tell me I did lol :) I think I'm nearly ready to have another look through my 'skinny' clothes and see if there are any more I can fit back into :) I am now less than I've weighed since I got pregnant with Maggie :) SUPER happy :) AND super motivating!! :)

Last week I had Freestyle for my treat - a chocolate brownie to be exact :) I felt sick the next day (I in no way attribute this to my dessert) and only ate a slice of toast the entire day. This may have attributed to my lost kilo. I'm all for it. (I wasn't trying to be anorexic on this day - I never try to do that anymore, because I have so often in the past, and it only results in me eating more than I ever would have because I can't handle being denied food!! This was legitimate sickness lol).

I love losing this weight.

I was talking to someone the other day about how you're a different person when you put on weight. I know that when I'm even just a bit overweight (Like I was just 6 short weeks ago!!! :D... And still am a tiny bit) I act differently. I'm not as confident. I don't move about as much. I avoid bending down to pick things up off the ground. (I use my toes. But we don't need to go into that now...). I watch more TV. I don't go out as much. I don't dance around the house while I do my housework. I feel like I shouldn't eat too much, ALL THE TIME (annoying!). I don't put as much effort into my hair, makeup or outfit because I just feel a bit crummy (this is a little anti-helpful. Don't do this!). I am embarrassed.

Losing weight is like waking up! (For me - this may not apply to everyone. Some girls look hot with some extra meat on them, but my meat packs itself onto my body in the most unattractive places, and I do not look hot at all.) But getting fit is probably like waking up for everybody!! :)

I dance around my house, ALL DAY - I had to make a new 'dance/housework' playlist on my computer to keep up with me. I get on the ground and pick things up and play with the girls. I get out more. I wake up earlier. It's easy to eat healthily - you don't feel like eating as much junk. I'm super happy. Looking in the mirror or at photos isn't always as shudder-worthy an activity. I want to go out. I feel young. Choosing an outfit to wear isn't traumatic - it can even be fun. This also applies to shopping. I'm more confident. I like dressing up! I feel more... worthy - self esteem I guess.

I'm the same person - it's only been 6 weeks after all, but I feel SO different. Some people might be thinking I'm a bit pathetic and over-dramatic because it's not like I was ever obese or anything, but just that little bit has made such a difference to me both in the putting it on and the taking it off!

And I don't feel like 'frump-girl' or 'frump-mum'! I feel like a young, energetic mum, which is a LOT more fun!! :)

And so even though James continues to tell me that the weight loss isn't important, I continue to reassure him that it is. But I guess it's true in that if I was ever successful at starving myself (it's always irked me that I couldn't successfully manage this, sigh), I wouldn't feel as wonderful in all the energetic, let's go out and have fun kids of ways, SO doing a 'fitness' challenge is a lot better than dieting. And these great side effects aren't JUST from losing weight - they're from being fit and healthy :)

Monologue discourse over.

Fitness Challenge: Week 5

I wrote this the Monday I'd normally have posted it on my blog - but my internet's been down and out so I couldn't post it. Here's week 5:

This week I was perfect until Friday night, when I went to Max Brenner with Tammy, Andrea and two of Tam’s roommates :) You could say my week got better at that stage, but not in any relation to the fitness challenge! :) It could have been my treat for the week, but I’d already decided to bake for Sunday night, so it was counted as junk food. Saturday I missed my workout, and Sunday night I had my treat for the week – pumpkin pie, profiteroles with chocolate cream & sauce, and pineapple upside-down cake :) They were all really good – I’m a big homemade dessert fan :)

Anyway, I’ve actually been feeling kind of fat the last few days – not feeling as good as I was, but thankfully I seem to be just under the kilo mark to where I was last Monday, so I seem to maybe have lost half a kilo – I’m sure if I’m good this week I’ll at least get under that next kilo!

It’s funny how my body seems to be addicted to working out now, and just missing one day felt so bad! I’m not going to think about how it probably has something to do with the Max Brenner I’d eaten the night before too lol :)

I feel like the weight was easy to drop at the start and now I’m starting to plateau, but it was encouraging to see the needle a little bit lower on the scale! I kind of wish I had some pound weights – it would seem like I was dropping it so quickly!! Lol :)

Anyhow, 5 weeks down, 7 to go! I have still only lost 3kg’s and have 4 or 5 to go, so maybe I need to step it up a little! I asked James what to do to lose weight faster and he suggested I cut out most carbs and meat and just eat fruit and veg…. I will save that for the last couple of weeks if I’m desperate!! :)

Have a healthy week!!! :)
(ha-ha-ha!)

Monday, August 1, 2011

Fitness Challenge: Week 4

A lot of this week was great.

On Monday we had Tim Tam slams for Family Home Evening treat, because after last week I was NOT waiting around for a measly peanut slab on Saturday afternoon! They were great. Heaps of chocolate, totally satisfying. I bought a new tin of Milo and 4 packets of Tim Tams to make sure there were enough... :)

On Tuesday I was tired and it was late when I was going to work out, so James suggested we had our 'off day' (ie. day off) on Tuesday instead of Thursday, which we did, so I worked out on Thursday instead of Tuesday.

On Friday everything was still going well, and I hung out with Andrea, who's from Utah, and we had fish & chips for lunch because I thought it was Australian, and when James came home he said I lost my junk food points for eating fish & chips. This had not occurred to me.

Friday night was our date night, so when we went out, seeing as I had already lost my junk food points, I got a hot chocolate and a slice of pecan pie and ate a cookie Mum gave me when we dropped Maggie off to be babysat. THEN when we got home, I went to bed, without working out....!!!! This is the first day I haven't worked out, EVER(inthelast4weeks), AND I didn't read my Scriptures before bed. I was quoting scripture to myself as I fell asleep to make up for it, but when I woke up Saturday morning I realised that I was basically asleep at the time and I couldn't honestly count it :(

Saturday was a busy day, and in the evening we went on our fabulous cousins dinner (and witnessed the World's Worst Date EVER as discussed in the previous post..), and dessert was at Freestyle...mmmmm....and I wasn't going to get a dessert, but then Claire had no one to share with, and being the dedicated, kind, loyal, caring and sharing cousin that I am (reminding myself here of The Lady and the Chocolate - maybe I'll type the text here one day...), I couldn't let the poor girl be left to eat an entire dessert by herself when she didn't want to, and once you've already lost your weekly bonus it's kind of easy to keep losing points, so I shared dessert with Claire! It was really good. But when I got home late again, I didn't exercise again! :S

It's like sin...or Pringles - once you start, you can't stop! Sigh..

Just to prove it, on Sunday night after I had finished dinner before 7 and everything, I was cleaning up, and some cookies Mum & Dad had been given and dropped some over were sitting on the bench and I ate one.

Can you believe it? It was 7:05 - I broke my eating before 7 rule, AND my junk for the day, for ONE COOKIE!!! A little one too! And I didn't even really want it that bad! I just felt like breaking all those rules, because I already had.

Isn't that ridiculous?! I can't report on my weights/walking progress, because I can barely even remember the last time I did it! Sigh...

But back into it today! Fortunately I weight exactly the same amount as last week and at least haven't gone up!

This week I'm not going to let myself slip in ANY area, because if you let yourself slip in one part, you (or at least I!) seem to collapse in every area!!

So watch this spot next Monday for reports of my super impressive perfect week and incredible weight loss!!

PS: I'm pretty sure James has decided to throw the junk food part of the challenge to make his calorie count. Not that I would gloat about him losing some serious points every day, but if I did, I would totally be doing that now...
PPS: So on our date on Friday night in addition to eating junk food we saw Captain America - I can't help but love all these Marvel comic movies - they're not an overload of violence or scariness - they're funny and light and comic strip action rather than horrific stuff, AND I like the whole Mr Stark being in them all and stuff - I can't wait for the one they're gearing up for when they're in it together!
PPPS: There are still some of those cookies on the bench and 2 packets of Tim Tams in my cupboard! - Aren't I just Little Miss Self Control?!?
PPPPS: Tonight's workout is going to be hell!
PPPPPS: Actually I'm sort of looking forward to it a little bit - at least he cardio bit, if not the weights (yeah...not the weights). I love feeling fit - I feel like I'm back in high school and have a strong desire to play sports again.
PPPPPPS: I also emailed the Fitness Challenge to a couple of people who were thinking of doing their own this week - any reports on those fronts?!

The World's Worst First Date EVER

This date was shared by 8 women and a baby, but that's not what made it bad. In fact, I would say we were a highlight. THE highlight, if you don't count the apparently ecstasy-inducing dessert they were eating.

On Saturday night Tammy, our Utah guest-cousin Andrea and I met up with Debbie, Sarah, Claire, Kristy, Kimberly & Kyrie & Rachael for one of our cousins dinners. We enjoyed some tame versions of exotic foods together at a long (kind of conversation killing) table in a restaurant, before heading to a nearby dessert place. Sadly Kristy & Kimberly had to leave before dessert, but the remaining 8 of us pretty much snuggled together around 3 tables in the busy dessert place. It was one of those places with couches along one side of the tables, and chairs around the others.

Down one end of the table along the couch sat Andrea, then Tammy, Sarah, Rachael, then on chairs going around, Claire, me, Kyrie & Debbie next to Andrea.

We were all enjoying our time together beautifully, when we were joined by the two participants in said world's worst date EVER. I say 'joined', because the lady came and sat on the couch at the next-door table, and the man tossed her bag on the seat and explained that he'd much prefer to sit close to her - so Lady is pushed up suddenly against Andrea, as Man snuggles up next to her. Lady got progressively more snuggly with Andrea throughout the evening as Man got progressively weirder, and snuggly with Lady. Andrea and Debbie cover open mouths and turn the other way.

Sadly, I cannot do this date justice, because Claire and I were in what turned out to be the bad seats, exactly opposite the date, while Andrea & Debbie were pretty much on the date, and Tammy and Kyrie had a pretty good placement to catch half of it. Therefore Claire and I only knew at times the severity of the date's condition through the faces of Debbie and Andrea, which were not exactly poker faces. Also, Debbie's periodic text messages with Man quotes, which revealed to some extent, the content of the date conversation...

Man is very excited to be on the date with Lady - Man is staying with his mother temporarily - Man bought a very expensive bottle for Lady, wouldn't she like more? Man pushes lady incessantly to drink, lady does not - Man has drunk entire bottle of expensive wine except what was in Lady's glass - The dessert arrives. Man warns Lady that before they begin, she needs to prepare herself to 'experience ecstasy' (the 4 cousins closest to table turned away and shook violently with hands covering open mouths at this assurance) - Lady has been looking down at the table the entire date - Lady ends up pouring the wine from her glass into Man's glass, Man likes it so much - Man has realised he has been talking the whole time. Man launches into explanations of all the things he'd like to know about Lady without stopping - Lady has not said a word the entire night - Man intensely probes lady on every previous relationship she's ever had - Man says they should go out sometime, Lady says they are out, Man says another time, lady says nothing - Man would like to go out for more drinks, Lady needs to get home - Man gives Lady his number and asks her to text Man right away so he gets her number. This means Lady cannot give fake number.

We couldn't leave the restaurant until the date was over, as Debbie and Andrea were glued to their seats with their open-mouthed faces pointed in opposite directions. Oh and I didn't mention one of the slightly more hideous things he did, because I don't want to have to put ratings on my blog posts.

We tried to interpret Lady's silences: I'm going to kill Friend for setting me up with Man...I'm never even having dessert with an internet hookup again...In fact I don't think I'm ever going to date again...Would it be too obvious if I went and sat on the other side...I'm pretty sure the entire table next door are listening to every word Man says...I am so glad I have 8 women and a baby backing me up...Um, are they really taking pictures of the two girls sitting in front of us, or are they taking a photo of the worst date I've ever been on in my life...I wonder if they'd give me a copy so I could show my friends...I am not drinking a sip of anything alcoholic on this date, nice try, Man!...Go out again?! I don't know what to say!! Say nothing...Experience ecstasy?! I'm so weirded out right now...This is an incredibly bad date...I wonder if those are real diamonds in his earring...

Actually I'm pretty sure at least Man knew the photo was of them - he remarked to Lady when we were taking it "We're about to be uploaded onto Youtube!", and seemed pretty excited about it.

Tammy felt sorry for Man, because we were all shocked and horrified and admittedly amused by the date, because she thought Man was probably nice, and probably just finding it hard to date or something. Somebody needs to make a 'How to Lose a Girl in 10 Minutes' movie to help poor Man out, in that case, because we're pretty sure that's just what he did. When Tammy said she felt sorry for Man on the way home, Andrea emphatically disagreed, and said she couldn't remember even half of the awful, not okay things he said and did on the world's worst first date ever, but she was very concerned about how he kept pressing Lady to get drunk, and all the details he wanted of previous relationships. When Man went up to pay lady sat in obvious discomfort waiting (I wonder if he'd notice me sneaking out past him...), and Sarah called 'Do you wanna come with us?!' - but to Sarah's disappointment Lady didn't hear, or at least pretended not to.

And so now we are left wondering.

Did they know 8 women and a baby were on their date with them? Did they enjoy our company as much as we enjoyed theirs? Did they enjoy their cuddles with Andrea? Will there be a World's Worst SECOND Date ever?! If so, we didn't get their numbers :(

Monday, July 25, 2011

Fitness Challenge: Week 3

I am 1 kg less than last week!!! :)

That makes me the weight I got down to after having Maggie. So I've lost all of my Ana baby weight, and I have 4 to lose to get down to how I was before Maggie. Sadly I was a few kg's up when I became pregnant with Maggie, so all up I've got 5kg's to lose until I reach my goal weight, or 6 or 7 before I'm ecstatically happy with my weight and can definitely fit into everything I want to :) - And 9 more weeks to do it in!!!! :)

This week when James asked me to do step-ups onto our coffee table carrying an insane amount of weight I again told him that I could not do it - but this time I was impressively accurate in my prediction. I was trying not to argue and annoy him, and to trust him, but he got sick of lifting my wobbling form up onto the coffee table and down again (he's a great spotter), so he gave me the next weight down - about 5kg's off, and I was able to struggle through it on my own. He did seem very puzzled - apparently I really should be able to do it, but I guess that I'm not as staggeringly strong as I must look!!! :) Also, I upgraded to 30 lady push-ups a session instead of 30 table push-ups. If I ever get to comfortable with these, by my very intricate calculations the next step is man push-ups, so must be careful never to divulge comfort levels to PT.

My muscle definition continues to impress me - I have muscles in my arms, legs and back. Now that I think about it, it's quite beyond me why I'm not getting any comments on my hugeness. Maybe I intimidate people.

My stomach is still quite er...swollen...and saggy. Actually it's becoming increasingly saggy as the fat under it eats iteslf. James has poked my belly and declared there's not much he can do for me there - he thinks there's still womb sticking out because (under the layers of fat which we definitely can do something about) it's hard. I think there's a possibility that it's just my huge abs chilling out under there, but we'll see. Hm, what detail!

Onto happier and less graphic pastures - all week I kept 'saving' my treat, positive that something fabulous would come up, but sadly I got to Saturday and realised I hadn't had a treat, and I had no time (or inclination) to cook anything yummy!!! James wanted apple crumble for his treat (that's practically fruit salad!) which I was not having - actually wanting a treat that isn't disguised as - and cousin to - healthy food. We grabbed some things at the shops on Saturday afternoon and I grabbed a Wittakers Peanut Slab for my treat. That's all. My entire treat. I love these, but it was nothing compared to my massive bowl of profiteroles last week, I really need to be more organised in this department to ward off disappointment. James ate an entire apple crumble and tub of cream on Saturday night. I think it helped him with his calorie count. Tonight we're having some girls over for Family Home Evening and Tim Tam slams. I am going to buy plenty of Tim Tams and Milo to make this week's treat way more the-only-treat-I-get-in-a-whole-week worthy.

3 weeks down and in all sincerity I feel awesome - picking things up off the floor, dancing around the house, walking around for hours at the family fun day we went to on Saturday, running around with Maggie - all so much easier and more fun!!! I feel healthier - making sure I drink at least 2.5L a day I think helps with this... I guess the no junk food thing miiight contribute... I really feel like joining a sports team and getting back into basketball or netball, but I don't want to wait too long to have another baby so I don't want to commit to a team and then have to pull out. Am thinking of calling an old friend whose team I used to sub for when they were down a few players. It feels good! :)

Not eating after 7 continues to be my quetzal feather, sigh.

And yesterday I wore a cute skirt from YSA to church, with a little cardigan which totally buttoned up without me popping out of it!!! :D

9 weeks to go!!!


PS: It turns out James thinks this fitness challenge is actually being detrimental to him - he's only working out 5 days a week instead of 6, he's not eating junk therefore not putting on as much weight as he'd like, and he's doing too much aerobic exercise and is worried that he'll keep losing weight. I hope you all feel appropriately sorry for him.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

The Veto System

Last night I went out with Tammy for dinner. We're both vaguely pathetic when it comes to making decisions. This is okay though, because we have a system.

As we approached the piazza this is kind of how our conversation went last night (and most nights we hang out):

Abby: I veto the pub place.
Tammy: Okay I veto McDonalds
Abby: I veto the Mexican place - Cactus Jacks
Tammy: Huh, how come?
Abby: I don't feel like it.
Tammy: You always veto that place, interesting....I veto Sizzler - I hate that place!
Abby: I don't hate it...I veto...Addiction Cafe.
Tammy: How is that still open, does anyone eat there?!
Abby: I went there with friends once...of course I ate before I went...I bet James'd love it, he likes Asian food...
Tammy: Okay I veto the food court. The entire food court.
Abby: It's not even open!
Tammy: Well I veto it!
Abby: That's dumb
Tammy: I veto the foodbar at the bowling alley
Abby: I veto both chicken places.
Tammy: You can't veto two at once! Wait one of them's not a chicken place - I think it's Italian!
Abby: But we love Italian! How come we've never eaten there??
Tammy: I don't know - let's go walk past it. But I am not committing!
Abby: No way we're eating there on the night of our first walk-by - what if we don't like it!
Tammy: I veto Zarraffas.
Abby: Too late - you already did
Tammy: No I didn't!
Abby: Yes, but when you vetoed the foodcourt and it didn't count, I decided to transfer your veto to Zarraffas.
Tammy: But I transfered it to the bowling alley. Your veto.
Abby: Well, we just have Hog's Breath, the Coffee Club and La Porchetta left - I veto Hogs Breath.
Tammy: How come you don't like Hogs Breath? We never eat there!
Abby: I do like it, I love it when I'm pregnant! I just don't feel like it at the moment.
Tammy: Okay, I veto La Porchetta
Abby: Coffee Club it is!
Tammy: Thankgoodness for the veto system!
Abby: I know - we could never make a decision before it!

Later, at the Coffee Club...

Abby: I veto the breakfast page...and the drinks page...and the kids club/dessert page.
Tammy: I veto the alcoholic beverages
Abby: I veto...the pastas, and the two steaks in the mains menu... and do we need an entree?
Tammy: No
Abby: Okay, vetoing the entrees...and the salads section
Tammy: Wait! What if I want a salad?! Are you vetoing for me too??
Abby: You can do your own vetoing if you want..??
Tammy: Okay...I veto...
etc. etc.

And that's how we roll.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Fitness Challenge: Week 2

So I started off this week feeling aMAzing! On Monday when I did my 'unassisted squats' (ie. not the ones with my back pressed up against the wall - fancy term I know - I have trouble keeping up myself! :P), instead of feeling like an underqualified bowl of jelly wobbling my way up and down in agony and helplessness on the verge of collapse, I actually felt muscles doing what they're apparently meant to do, lifting me up and down, and I had a brief glimpse of why superfit people with muscles don't hate exercising!!

I even told James about it!

BIG mistake!!

Apparently, if it's not hard, it's not working. That's what James says. What he means is, if you don't feel like a hopeless mess who's on the verge of collapse, you're not working.

(sigh)

By Saturday's routine I was actually sobbing between sets.

YOU try squatting with 15kgs! (If you do this all the time, I don't want to hear about it.)

After picking the weight up I put it back down and started laughing - I really thought it was a joke. James looked at me like I was a little left of center and assured me he wasn't joking. I realised he was serious and tightened my position - "No James, I literally, can't do that! I can barely pick them up, let alone lift them as part of an exercise!". James then looked at me very seriously (but still like I was a crazy person) and promised me I could do it. He wasn't budging! I tried to reassure him again but he remarked with a little irritation that I just needed to stop 'sooking'. I think that's when I lost it - I wasn't sooking, I was serious!! So James said 'Okay, do whatever you want then' and walked away (to go and do the dishes - isn't he great? lol) leaving me to it. So I channelled my immense anger at his overconfidence and the 'sooking' remark into sobbing through 4 sets of squats, lunges, pull-ups and some arm thing that absolutely killed with the horrible impossible weights wobbling at the ends of my pathetically weak arms!

I then began my tread-milling with a vengeance, but sadly my heart rate was high from the crazy weights and I had to walk a ridiculously slow 0.8k/hr till it calmed down. It was like trying to make a dramatic exit and closing your dress in the door behind you or something - a little bit pathetic. It did calm me down eventually though, enough to apologise to James for getting upset when he was trying to help me. I did point out in my apology that he was pretty hard on me though! James: Hard on you?! You did 4 sets, completely unassisted! I was being easy on you, you just need to stop sooking and do it! (sigh). We are definitely from different planets lol.

BUT guess what ?! I am 2kg's down!!! Only 6ish to go!! And I look better and feel better and fit clothes better!!! :)

No matter how much I complain to him when I feel like he's giving me impossible tasks, I am so grateful that James is helping and supporting me so much, and watching the girls to give me time to work out!! I'm going to have to stop trying to tell him things are too hard because he said he doesn't want to have to argue with me every day and may stop helping me if I keep 'sooking' (hmph!). James assures me building the weight won't make me look too muscled, just help me be fit and strong, so I'll try really hard.

This week some friends came over for dinner and I made chocolate profiteroles for dessert for my one treat for the week and I've got to say - having one fabulous treat a week instead of lots of everyday treats may even be worth the wait! And the weight! :)

2 weeks of this crazy fit lifestyle down, 10 to go - unless I become bodywashed and have to keep it up! I wonder :)

PS: I'm sooo winning this - I get like, 500 bonus points for every kg I lose! Our children are going to be sooo impressed by my name on that trophy ;)

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Oh, and By the Way...

Did I ever mention I got that fabulous nappy bag? In the tan. I love it. Everything has it's own spot and I never lose anything in it. It is plenty big enough without being gigantic, and it looks amazing. James loves it because it's practical and doesn't look too girly. I just love everything about it. Thankfully internet buying ninja Bec was able to find it for me for only $330 on a website including postage (thankyou!!) and Mum helped me out in getting it (thankyou!!) :) I am soooo glad I got it :) It really is fabulous :) And it has that nice smell, mmm :)

Fitness Challenge: Week 1

SO I really am very motivated to lose weight right now. I don't want this whole getting fat when pregnant thing to accelerate till I'm just fat all the time, so I really want to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight quickly before I get pregnant again!! With Ana I put on WAY less weight than I did with Maggie, but I was already too fat, and I've been eating too much post-labour and putting it back on! :P I know, I know, it's not like I'm huge, I look fine, 'like a mother', bla bla bla, but regardless of all the lovely things people say and think, I don't feel good at this weight, and I would really like to fit back into that cute pre-pregnancy wardrobe sitting in a box in my cupboard (sigh). Oh, not to mention be healthy and strong! :)

Enter our Family Fitness Challenge! Back in 2007 my family did a fitness challenge and it was really fun, and some members of my family are re-doing it at the moment, and James and I decided to do our own :)

My goal is to get back into my pre-pregnancy clothes at my pre-pregnancy weight before we head down to Adelaide for my Aunty Leah's wedding (yay!!!) near the end of September, and James wants to put ON at least 6kg's lol - I could TOTALLY do that! :)

Each day I need to get up by 7:30am (It should be earlier but I get a late mark until night feeds stop, yay!), eat no junk food (with the exception of 1 treat per week - please, I'm only human!), drink at least 2.5L of water, do my weights training that Mr PT James oversees with authority Mon-Wed and Fri-Sat as well as at least 1/2hr Heart Rate pace on my beautiful treadmill (I almost feel guilty for how much I'd prefer to run inside on my treadmill than 'enjoy nature', but I detest running outside and I LOVE my treadmill :) I enjoy nature a lot more while sitting amongst it...), not eat after 7pm (this one's hard to keep - I'm always breaking it by accident - not by late night fat snacks in bed, but just by like, living, and every dinner being held at 7pm), say personal morning & evening prayers and do personal scripture study daily (getting our spiritual fitness up also :)).

Of course there are points and a winner - plus we both get prizes if we reach our goals. It's a little bit lame how much more motivated I am by points than by getting healthy and slim, but it really works for me! - I seem to be able to easily say 'no' to chocolate, and haven't missed a workout!!

Sunday marked the end of 'Week 1' of our 12 week challenge.

I lost....(drumroll)............. ZERO KILOS!!!!!

(sigh)

But my fat seems to have gone down, so apparently the weight is the fat turned into muscles. That's all very well and good - it would be fun to have some little muscles for a change, and in fact when I tense my arms right now, something actually happens - one bit lifts and there's an itty bitty bit of definition checking itself out down there, but I would also at some stage like to lose this weight?! I complained to James and he told me to stop eating so much bread, which I may or may not have replaced junk food with - I really like bread. So this week I'll cut down on carbs too (sigh). I do feel pretty great though, and I do actually fit a couple of things better, so maybe I'll be able to fit some of my clothes even if I have bulging muscles stopping the actual weight loss thing from happening - it's hard being this strong!!

Wish me luck in week 2!!! :)

PS: I reckon I may be able to kick James' buttocks and get the trophy (yes, we're actually having a trophy lol) - it turns out it's hard to consume 3500 calories a day like he has to, without losing his 'no junk food' points - ha! :)

xo

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Up and Back Again!!! And a new Personal Best :)

I did it! I gave birth, again. Last time I gave birth I wrote about how I felt like I'd conquered Mt. Everest, because childbirth has terrified me my whole life - sooo not keen on pain! :P Now I feel like I've done it twice. It's the most incredible thing to go through, but the view from the top totally rocks!! (as in, the baby you give birth to..).

I really dislike reading other people's 'birth stories' because they are not pleasant and they freak me out and are often way too detailed. Maybe I won't mind after I've given birth for the last time, but while I know I've got several ahead of me, they're like horror stories that could quite possibly happen to me, so I'd rather not entertain thinking about them. If you're anything like me in this regard, stop reading now! (Although this was a pretty awesome labour...) I'm probably not going to read back on this too often, but I found with Maggie that when I wrote out my labour experience in my journal, it was like therapy, and then I didn't have to think about it anymore, but typing's faster, and I'm going to write about what happened, here.

***TO SKIP THE BIRTH PART AND JUST GET TO THE BABY BIT, STOP READING NOW, AND FIND ANOTHER BIT LIKE THIS FURTHER DOWN!!***

So at 32 weeks I was sent to get a growth scan because the doctor wasn't sure the baby was as big as she 'should be'. When I got the scan, they said she was in the 3rd percentile for size, and was about 2 weeks behind in growth. At 20 weeks she had been kind of average, so they decided to do weekly scans and make sure baby was still growing. By 36 weeks (going to the hospital twice a week for scans and appointments) she had reached the 19th percentile in size, so they stopped scanning me, although I still had weekly doctors appointments at the hospital. They decided to do a final scan just before my due date, because if she was still small they didn't want me to go too far past my due date without being induced.

I was due on Monday 9th May, and on Friday 6th I went in for my scan. James had been to I think every appointment until that one, but he had a prac lead-in day, so he didn't make it. In the scan I noticed that baby was measuring about 35 weeks, and then when I saw the doctor and he graphed her growth, he looked alarmed, and said she'd barely grown since the previous scans, and that he wanted to induce me as soon as possible. He went to check with 'the bosses' when they could book me in, and I sat there freaking out and thinking how much I wished James had come with me!! When the doctor came back he booked me to come in on the Sunday night, to be induced then/Monday morning. He told me all about being induced and then sent me on my freaking out little way.

It was kind of good in one sense being booked in, because James was starting his big teaching prac on Monday 9th, my due date, so at least he could tell the school for sure which days he needed off, instead of being on call for the first part of his prac, which may have been distracting.

I spend the weekend freaking out, then on Sunday night James gave me a blessing, we dropped our precious Maggie girl at Mum and Dad's for her first ever sleepover (she loved it of course!), and headed up to the hospital.

They began inducing me Sunday night with the gel, which some women go into labour from, but I didn't (I couldn't stop shaking all night I was so scared - my labour with Maggie was a little tiny bit awful and long, and just sitting there waiting for it to 'kick in' was terrifying for me!). Just after 6am they took me into the birthing suite, and broke my waters. By 7:30am I was starting to have some real contractions, and at 7:50 they started me on 'Synto' which is a hormone I think, which makes your body really go into labour. At least it did with me! The midwife started me on a dose of 3ml/hr, then went up to 6ml/hr at 8:20, then turned it off completely at 9:05 because my contractions were going insane. He said though, that he had a lady at 72ml/hr the other day, so those were pretty low doses. Apparently each labour, you need less, because your body makes more, so if I ever get induced again, I'll ask for none!! :)

Anyway, I don't know what time, and I can't remember whether or not I already had the Synto in me, we were sitting there having a nice old chat with the midwife. I had just found out I was 4cm dilated and was ecstatic, because with Maggie it took me 2 days of waaaaaay worse contractions than I was having to get me to 4cm, and I was totally handling it, thinking 'Heck! I won't need any drugs if this keeps up!'.

[Side story: We actually noticed the midwife's surname was Allred, and he had a pretty religious first name too, and he was from America (everyone from America seems like a church member... plus he was clean cut and wearing a wedding ring lol), so we asked him if he was any relation to Sylvia Allred. He leaned back and said 'Noooooo.. but I enjoyed her last talk at General Conference' lol. So we asked what ward he was in, and he's in the next Stake over, and we told him our ward and he mentioned he was the Stake Executive Secretary in his stake, so he had wondered how we were members whose names he didn't know cause he knows most of the names in his Stake, and then James said 'Hey Abby's uncle is Stake President of that stake' and I clicked, and it turns out he works with my uncle a lot, and he said he actually met Dad the other day, and I had a moment of 'Oh no, I could see this guy again one day and I have to give birth in front of him! And it's a him!' but don't worry - by the time I was giving birth I was dying so much I didn't care, plus he was an awesome midwife, so it was great, and just nice to know he knew where we were coming from a bit. And he was totally not weird. Plus he was like a buddy for James - they enjoyed laughing at me together when I got really high on the gas..]

ANYWAY, so there we are having our chat, and he was asking about my previous labour, and he asked at what stage of the labour I had the drugs (I had a lot of everything), and I told him how long I'd been in labour and yadiyada. The contractions were getting worse quickly, and then I went to the bathroom, and I had 4 death to the world contractions, and came out begging for the epidural.

At this point I kind of felt like I'd failed, because I needed it already - it had come on soooo fast!! But the midwife was like 'I'll send for it right away, it's okay Abby we're all about helping you with the pain here!' but I kept apologising but begging for it too lol. They put me on the gas right away while I was waiting. I didn't like the gas at all when I was in labour with Maggie, but the epidural this time seemed to be taking ages, and my contractions were going nuts and I was sitting on the edge of the bed ready for when the epidural came, and I heard Israel say 'Take a deep breath now, Abby... and another... and another', and it was like a little thing I could concentrate on, so I suddenly got super high, and clung to the gas like crazy. Apparently I was saying a lot of pretty crazy things to everyone in the room. The midwife said 'Do you know what planet you're on, Abby?' and I remember thinking 'Is he stupid?' So I told him I was on Earth, duh.

A doctor came to tell me risks or whatever and I told him in no uncertain terms that I wanted it, no matter what, now. Then finally (after lots of desperate begging on my part, - they had to call him twice) the anaesthetist came but it seemed to be taking forever for him to get ready. My room was being renovated, and a couple of things he needed were missing and they had to send down to the pharmacy for something, and then it seemed to take forever for him to put it in! So I was sitting on the edge of the bed, trying to hold still, while I was going through awful contractions, and I kept thinking surely it would be the last contraction I'd feel! The epidural with Maggie seemed to take 2 seconds - it was all done between 2 contractions I think, so this was agony!! I was dying. And James said I was very blunt, and kept calling out 'Epi Man! What's the problem?!! Why can I still feel everything! I can still feel everything, please hurry up Epi Man, please hurry up, hurry up!!' Which probably didn't help the poor guy!! :S When he first arrived I told him I loved him though. I also, in my very high state, told one of the midwifes who came while my midwife was on a break and was telling me to 'breathe' to 'Shush!!', I told the other two that I liked them a lot. I told them I loved Maggie and the baby, but 'James the most!', and apparently I got very protective of the gas and wouldn't let anyone touch it even though I kept declaring I hated it and couldn't imagine why people got high because I felt awful and like I was going to be sick. Apparently I also made James hold my feet, and then kept kicking him in the face during contractions and a bunch of other weird stuff.

Anyway, when the guy finally got the epidural in my back (second time lucky apparently - he put it in once and it wasn't right so he did it again, eek! And I was having crazy contractions so I was moving a tiny bit, as hard as I was trying not to, I feel so blessed I had no bad effects!!), they all helped me turn so they could hook it up to the machine, and then the head midwife lady (who James thinks our midwife called because he was worried I was going to get paralysed by the epidural guy) said to our midwife 'She's pushing!!' and then they ran around and threw a couple of things to each other and the head was out, and then they said to push, and I could hear James saying the head was out, and I said 'Are you sure?! Am I dilated?' and they said 'Yes, push!' and then the whole baby was suddenly out!!!! (I gotta say, 3 and a half hours, even without the epidural, TOTALLY rocks compared to 3 days with all the drugs!! Posterior babies are awful to give birth to, I'm going to be a crazy sit forward person every pregnancy from now on)

And then they put her on my chest and I burst into tears and for the next 5 minutes I kept saying "Oh I love her so much! Where's the epidural?! She's so beautiful, but I can still feel everything! Where's the epidural!!" and I think it took a few minutes for the gas to get out of my system and for me to get over the fact that the epidural never got hooked up, and to realise that my wonderful, perfect, beautiful daughter was really there, all born, finished!!! Also, the horrible pain was gone, because I was no longer in labour lol.

***YOU CAN START READING NOW, I'VE HAD THE BABY...***

She was born at 10:52am, and we named her Anamaria Sophia. We named her Anamaria because James wanted a Maori name, and I don't know the language or anything, but most of the names were difficult to pronounce, and I didn't want her to have to repeat it for everyone a million times her whole life, I wanted people to be able to say it. Anyway, the name is used by Maoris, and it's the exotic pronounciation, although already most people call her Anna instead of Ana, which I guess she'll get her whole life after all :P And Sophia is James' Mum's name. Everyone thinks we're into Spanish names lol! :) But there it is.

Ana was 6 pounds 13 (only half an ounce less than Maggie - so not underweight!) and healthy and strong. I remember James crying out to me "She's crying right away! Abby, she's crying!!" which is exciting because Maggie had to be resuscitated, so it was awesome that she was all good :) Her head circumference was 34cm, and she was 49cm long (2 and a half shorter than Maggie). Although Ana's not as startlingly like James, she looks a lot like Maggie, so we think people will definitely be able to tell that they're sisters, lucky because I think they're both beautiful :)

I don't usually put photos on this blog (I can invite you to my private blog for further viewing if you let me know!! I will soon be flooding it with Ana pictures :)), but here's our new little family:

We were so fortunate in our midwife! At the end he even pulled a few strings to let us stay in the birth suite for an extra hour so Mum could bring Maggie up to meet her little sister, because visiting hours in the wards were over. Maggie was wonderful, and she adored Ana from the start. She's uber over-protective, and the first one to make a move if Ana starts crying! The only problem is that Ana needs to be subtlety rescued from being completely smothered quite often, because Maggie just wants to lie with/on her and cuddle and kiss her.

I can't even tell you how happy we are to have little Ana join our family - we really, really love her :) How awesome is having a family?!! :)

I'm worried this entry is jumbled and I may come back and edit it later but I just wanted to finally get it up. We are so happy and we love our little baby girls so much!! :)