Faith, Hope, Happiness & Love

I Love Paint.

2012-01-25T16:03:00.002+10:00

I love the colours.
I love the texture.
I like mixing paint.
I love the feeling of a paintbrush in my hand.
I love painting.
I love paint.

Diary of a Terrified Toilet Training Mummy: Last Post

2012-01-23T09:33:00.002+10:00

It's been a week since we started toilet training Maggie, and she's had 2 accident free days. I know, that's great!!! Everybody tells me that I obviously waited till Maggie was good and ready, and she's awesome. Ergo, it turns out that toilet training is not my favourite part of being Mum to my baby girls :) She pretty much 'has it' now. Most naps are mess-free. She tells me when she needs to 'go' most of the time. She can 'hold it' and 'go' with more control. Apparently there are going to be a few more weeks of semi-regular 'accidents' before she's 'done' done. Maggie's adorable, and I love her like crazy, and she fills my every moment with insane amounts of joy, and it's a good thing too! :) Mum is surprised at how impatient I am with all the mess. I think I had the wrong impression of toilet training.

I really did think that if I waited till Maggie was good and ready, it would only take a couple of days of accidents, (and I mean accidents - not constantly weeing all over the floor because she doesn't 'get it' at all), and then a couple more days for dry naps, and then maybe a week or two then dry nights, and I could wash my hands (and her bottom) of the whole thing!

SO a word to all the pre-toilet training mothers out there: If you wait till your baby is good and ready, you can expect the penny to drop about day 3-4. Before that, they'll just go all the time, and you may catch it in the toilet by chance if you're lucky. When they do 'get it', they'll go to the toilet if they're bored. If they're distracted, busy or excited, they'll do it wherever they are. You have to ask them every 2 seconds or so if they need to go to the toilet, and 'no' means 'yes'! - Take them anyway. It'll take some time. Like, really.

Now, 'Urgh' factor and 'I thought it would be a lot easier and less messy' aside, Maggie LOVES learning new things, and it's so fun and sweet to see her excitement when she manages to 'do her business' the right way. She loves her undies (even though they're not very interesting ones!) and loves running out to tell Daddy or Gran or whoever's around 'Oilet! Wees!! Poo! Me!!!' when she's done.

Maggie a beautiful, wonderful (CRAZY) little girl, and she's turning 2 tomorow!!! :)

When she had her first completely accident-free day, I gave her a big hug before bed, and said to James something about how I can't believe how big she is, she's out of nappies, it's all going so fast she'll be grown up before we know it and we have to hold on to these moments, etc., and James gave a disgusted groan and grunted something along the lines of 'one of those mothers', but I can't help it! She IS our baby and she IS growing up so fast, and I DO want to hold onto each moment because she ROCKS SO MUCH!!! Thank goodness for our little Ana Banana, who is still crawling around and solidly in nappies and big baby smiles and giggles, and our future babies!

So despite toilet training grossing me out, and my disgust at it all taking a lot longer than I expected, by all accounts Maggie is brilliant, and we're over the hardest part now :) Yay for less nappies and our grown up baby girl :)

Diary of a Terrified Toilet Training Mummy: Day 4 Summary

2012-01-19T21:29:00.001+10:00

Zero Accidents

:D

Diary of a Terrified Toilet Training Mummy: Day 3 Summary

2012-01-19T06:32:00.001+10:00

6 x successful toilet trips.
2 x accidents.
Dry nappy during nap.
1 x hopeful mother.
1 x ecstatic dad.

Diary of a Terrified Toilet Training Mummy: Close!

2012-01-18T10:31:00.002+10:00

4 x successful toilet trips.
1 x accident, just before nappy and nap - almost made it through the morning without any.

Not quite there yet, but it's a complete backflip compared to day 1, thank goodness! Everyone says you'll get used to the mess and it won't faze you anymore. I disagree, yeck!

Diary of a Terrified Toilet Training Mummy: Is this happening??

2012-01-18T07:10:00.001+10:00

Immediately after I wrote the LAST post, Maggie was holding herself, so I put her back on the toilet again, where she promptly did her morning poo. We're SOOOOO done here!! :D (fingers crossed....)

Diary of a Terrified Toilet Training Mummy: Woohoo!!!

2012-01-18T06:50:00.001+10:00

I went into the bathroom immediately after I wrote that last post, to find Maggie finishing up her morning wees with a great, big smile!!! Yay!!! SO excited for her :) Are we done? lol :)

Diary of a Terrified Toilet Training Mummy: Is this a Good Thing??

2012-01-18T06:44:00.002+10:00

Maggie woke up with a dry nappy this morning. She's been waking up from her naps dry too. I put her knickers on, and she asked to go to the toilet. She's sitting there now. Cool, yeah?

Diary of a Terrified Toilet Training Mummy: Day 2 Summary

2012-01-18T06:19:00.003+10:00

So Maggie 'gets' that she's not meant to 'go' in her undies, but is worried to do her wees on the toilet. She has not had any accidental poos though, or poos in her nappy since we started - she seems happy to do those on the toilet. Maybe she appreciates how gross it would be for me to scrub one out of the carpet. Thoughtful girl :) Yesterday she did about a third of the amount of accidents all over the carpet compared to Monday. This made me very happy. Hopefully today she will be done? :D Daring to dream...

Diary of a Terrified Toilet Training Mummy: Holding It

2012-01-17T11:32:00.001+10:00

This morning Maggie kept holding it in. Then when it got too much, she'd burst out with 'Wee, Mummy! Now!!!' and we'd rush her to the toilet, where she'd freeze up, say she was done, then go on holding it.

Only 1 accident, and a little one.

Now she's in her nappy having a nap, and I'm pretty sure she's not holding it anymore :)

Diary of a Terrified Toilet Training Mummy: My Mistake...

2012-01-17T06:03:00.003+10:00

...was thinking that if toilet training toddler is ready to toilet train, they'd be pretty much going to the toilet 80% of the time by the end of day one. Apparently I should wait at least 3-4 days for this, possibly a week. Ah. So apparently I should be celebrating a great first day yesterday.... bur I'm too busy enjoying the security that comes with knowing that right now she's asleep with a nappy on...! Gearing up for day 2!!

Diary of a Terrified Toilet Training Mummy: Worth it?

2012-01-16T16:28:00.003+10:00

...within 5 minutes of my last vent, we walked in to find Maggie had done her first ever poo on the toilet!!!

And suddenly it almost seemed all worthwhile!! :)

(almost..)

Diary of a Terrified Toilet Training Mummy: Hmph!

2012-01-16T16:02:00.003+10:00

1 empty toilet and about 27 'accidents' all over my carpet later, and I'm beginning to wonder what the heck is so good about having toddlers out of nappies anyway. And Maggie is LOVING getting cleaned up after every wee and playing in the water. James says 'duh - you've got to let her run around in the wee so it annoys her!'. Yeah, like I'm going to let her sit all over this house without cleaning her up first.

Hmph!

Diary of a Terrified Toilet Training Mummy: Between then and Now

2012-01-16T11:21:00.002+10:00

Maggie has just gone down for a sleep, safely secured in a nappy (sigh of relief).

So far the morning tally is:

Number 1's in the toilet: 0.1 (she jumped off as soon as she started...)
Number 1's in her knickers: 1
Number 2's anywhere: 0 - very rare. Am certain she will awake with a full nappy.

I sat Maggie on the toilet for about 2 and a half hours first thing this morning, because she's NEVER done anything on the toilet (has been sat there quite a bit in the past..), and I wanted her to do something on there so she knew what she's meant to do, rather than have her run around wetting herself without quite understanding the alternative.

After 2 and a half hours the 0.1 occured, so I made a MASSIVE excited fuss over her 0.1 in the toilet, before cleaning her and the floor up and turning her loose in her undies! After about half an hour she was hovering around the bathroom again, and I asked if she needed to go, but she said no. Note to self: 'No' means nothing. I already knew this, but didn't want to force another 2.5 hours on her. Shortly afterward I went into the bathroom where she'd gone again, to find her taking off her wet shorts and knickers. I made a big deal of the fact that she'd come into the bathroom to go to the toilet, and tried to encourage her to come and get me if she needed to do anything in the toilet. Of course I need to keep a closer eye on her - she probably doesn't quite understand the 'come and get me if you need to go to the toilet' thing yet.

After a quick bath Maggie was free again, and seemed to be hovering in the bathroom. I put her on the toilet to see if she needed to do anything, but when she asked to get off shortly afterwards I let her. I was going to let her loose again in her undies when I realised it was well past nap time and Maggie'd probably appreciate a rest. So on went the nappy and in she went to bed.

I am very relieved to have a short window of guaranteed no mess lol :)

I think I'd better clean something before the afternoon round begins!

Diary of a Terrified Toilet Training Mummy: D-Day

2012-01-16T07:06:00.004+10:00

It's here.

After telling Maggie about today for weeks, the day where she takes her nappies off and puts her undies on for good (aside from naps and bedtime - let's not get ahead of ourselves!), is here!

I'm terrified. I have not done this before. James is convinced she was ready to toilet train 6 months ago. I'm still not convinced she's ready. My house is almost entirely carpeted. I do not enjoy scrubbing 'accidents' out of carpet (I don't know this from experience, just anticipation).

Maggie has just woken up.

Wish me luck. Wish Maggie luck!

Here come the undies!!!

25 Things I love about December

2011-12-02T11:59:00.004+10:00

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!

Just Randomly Found and Loved this....

2011-11-24T10:25:00.000+10:00

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 :)

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

2011-11-23T08:03:00.003+10:00

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!! :)

What is Romance? Really.

2011-11-22T09:46:00.003+10:00

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?!

Spring Detox...

2011-11-10T08:25:00.003+10:00

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!! :)

Gripped with Excitement

2011-11-08T11:04:00.003+10:00

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 :)

...waiting...

2011-11-04T13:09:00.002+10:00

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

Dear Electricity Company

2011-10-21T15:27:00.006+10:00

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.

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

2011-10-09T08:59:00.005+10:00

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 :)

Fitness Challenge: THE END!!!

2011-09-30T14:57:00.003+10:00

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!! :)

Fitness Challenge: Week 11

2011-09-19T12:07:00.002+10:00

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 :)

Fitness Challenge: Week 10

2011-09-12T15:20:00.003+10:00

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 :)

Fitness Challenge: Week 9

2011-09-05T10:17:00.004+10:00

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!

Fitness Challenge: Week 8

2011-08-29T15:55:00.002+10:00

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...

4 Years ago today...

2011-08-24T20:13:00.013+10:00

...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

Turn Off the TV and Get a Life!!!

2011-08-22T09:50:00.004+10:00

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

2011-08-22T09:38:00.002+10:00

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...

Fitness Challenge: Week 6

2011-08-16T11:56:00.004+10:00

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

2011-08-16T11:17:00.003+10:00

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!)

Fitness Challenge: Week 4

2011-08-01T15:29:00.005+10:00

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

2011-08-01T10:25:00.004+10:00

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 :(

Fitness Challenge: Week 3

2011-07-25T08:59:00.001+10:00

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.

The Veto System

2011-07-21T10:02:00.003+10:00

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.

Fitness Challenge: Week 2

2011-07-18T13:59:00.002+10:00

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 ;)

Oh, and By the Way...

2011-07-12T08:44:00.004+10:00

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

2011-07-12T08:17:00.003+10:00

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

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

2011-05-24T14:47:00.011+10:00

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!! :)

Maybe just a dream... (sigh)

2011-03-14T08:18:00.003+10:00

Have you ever really, really, really, really wanted something super, uber expensive, even though you could probably pick up a much less desirable, much less good quality, much less useful but probably 'okay' one for like, $400 less, or free?

(sigh..)

But you really, really, really want the $420 version (sigh).

Oh, and you're not rich.

But you're okay, and you could sort of manage to get it, but it would mean obviously cutting out other things that may be a lot more important.. (sigh).

But it's a really good one, and will last forever, and goodness knows you'll use it!!

I want a Storksak Elizabeth (sigh)...

If you've ever been really nappy bag shopping, you'll know what I'm talking about. The rest of you will just think I'm a bit obsessed with an over-expensive handbag.

With Maggie we had a big, very cute bag to be a nappy bag, but our plan is to pop out a bunch more children over the next 10 years or so, and I want a nice nappy bag, that can double as my handbag, that's got all the pockets so I have a place for all of the nappy stuff and never lose anything in it like I did all the time with our other bag, that can go over the bars of our pram so I can stop shoving it in the bottom tray.

I have done a lot of research, and the bag that continues to pop up in my searches is the Storksak Elizabeth.

It comes in many colours, but my favourites are..

The chocolate brown:

tan:

Or 'Lizard'.

The chocolate is on sale on one website for $350, so I was definitely leaning towards it. I can't find the tan any cheaper than $420. The lizard is their latest, and RRP's for $470, so I was not even interested in it, but I found a brand new one on ebay last week that goes off this Wednesday night, that's $265 at the moment, so it went on my shortlist.

They're all leather, apparently they last forever and age beautifully, and all the reviews say they LOVE that they never lose anything in it - awesome :) AND that they look like a handbag :)

Mum's always bought me beautiful, good quality handbags growing up, maybe I'm just spoilt in the handbag department, but I kind of miss it.

James thinks I should go for it and buy one already, and I find myself thinking 'Yeah! It'll be totally useful, it's awesome!! But then I get a strong guilt complex thinking about spending hundreds of dollars on a bag (hard to imagine lol).

Anyway, I just thought I'd share my woes with the world/the maybe 2 and a half people who ever look at this blog.

(sigh)

Abby - 1. Fish - 0.

2011-03-11T09:28:00.002+10:00

I cooked my first fish the other night!! I know, lame, but I don't really mind if everyone else thinks this is lame and non-deserving of a blog post because it is, and you're not in my head so you don't understand the significance!

Since we got our 'Brenda' cookbook for our engagement, the Thai Soy Fish recipe has looked super good to me. Sadly, I had terribly low cooking self-esteem and it took me about 2 years to even try any of the chicken recipes. Over the last few months I've been slowing down as I passed the fish section of the deli, wondering which ones were 'boneless white fillets'. I should mention that I only remember eating fish once at my parent's house, and it was a couple of months ago - we never had it growing up. Last week, I looked up the recipe, put it in my weekly meal planner, and actually bought 500g of basa fillets. I was crossing my fingers that they were boneless and white, and they turned out to be both (phew), which is lucky, because they were the only ones I could afford (happy sigh).

In the recpie, the fish takes all of 4 minutes to cook. 2 minutes on each side, in the electric frypan, sprinkling them with special yummy stuff inbetween. Super easy, and not all intimidating to anyone who isn't me.

I had the bed of Jasmine rice and other bits cooked and ready when James got home from work, and the fish was out and defrosted. Usually I try to have dinner on the table for him, because he eats crazy amounts, and is always hungry when he gets home (or goes out, or is at home, or at work, or anywhere really..). But because the fish apparently only took 4 minutes to cook, I wanted to wait till he got home, so it would be fresh and lovely. So when James got home, the fish wasn't cooked (seriously, the oil was even in the frying pan), but I was all ready to cook my highly-anticipated-for-the-last-almost-three-and-a-half-years fish dish, so when he opened the fridge and said 'Hey do you wanna put the fish away and do it another night if it's not cooked yet? I'm hungry now - let's just get something quick tonight' I gave him a quick but veheminent version of the "Bite me! - It will be ready in 4 minutes I've been psyching myself up for almost 4 years to cook this fish dish for you!! We are eating it, TONIGHT!" speech, in which time frames are appropriately exaggerated, and sent him off to unpack his uni stuff.

4 minutes later, my incredible first fish dish ever was on the table. It tasted, like fish. It was soft, and white, and moist, and yummy, and it even tasted a little bit Thai. I loved it :) I was so happy - who knew, fish could be so easy and quick to cook?? And double good news! - Next time I'm pregnant and craving fish, I don't have to go to the Coffee Club for their $20 delicious Baramundi fillet, or buy local fish and chips and peel off the crumbs!! This is so much better than that!

I didn't take any photos, because I was trying not to be lame (I know - this post has totally ripped that to shreds!), but I could have, because it looked great too :)

My One in a Million

2011-02-23T14:05:00.002+10:00

There are many things you have a 1 in a million chance for, and I'm guessing you only get one or so in a lifetime. So good news - I'm hopefully not going to get some strange disease that only 1 person in a million gets, or die in some weird one in a million freak accident. Unfortunately I'm probably also not going to win the lottery (my chances are quite low anyway seeing as we don't buy the tickets, sigh), or get some great one in a million prize, because I was the one in a million today.

I called Centrelink to make a correction. I allowed myself the usual 20 minutes of hold time before they answer, and then another 10-15 for them to realise what I'm talking about and fix it (I talk to these people waaay too often!). Once the machine had finished talking to me, I sat in my 'on hold' spot, with Solitaire at my fingertips, only to have the phone picked up immediately!! I didn't even go on hold at all! AND the guy didn't put me on hold to fix my problem, I just waited like, half a second and it was done! It was incredible! One in a million!!

And that's why I'll never win the lotto.

Little Moments

2011-01-04T09:06:00.004+10:00

I just walked past Maggie's room, where she's lying on her tummy with her head to the side and her buttocks stuck in the air, flopping her arms about a little bit in their final 'sleep throes'.

I can't help but smile. I love the thousands of little moments that make up every day of this wonderful life with this little daughter of God. Her face when I walk in in the mornings to pick her up first thing. Her smile when I finish changing her nappy, hold out my hands and say 'up!'. Her excitement when I bring her in to say 'Good morning' to her dad, and the way she giggles and plays with him. The way she toddles after me as I go about the morning, a couple of books or a toy in one hand. Her coming up to show me her books, then accepting them back with a grin, and walking away to go show her daddy or find something else. Watching her learn how to feed herself, pulling apart her sandwiches and taking small and big bites then feeling it in her mouth. THe way she stares at me with her big brown eyes while she's drinking her bottle, then how she pulls it away, looks at me and giggles when she's done. The way she giggles and laughs when I hold her while I brush my teeth, then sticks her head out in a funny way and puckers her lips when it's time to brush hers. Her delight when I pull out her toothbrush. The way she talks all day, making gorgeous sounds and looking at me and pointing at things, like what she's saying has full meaning and she has absolute confidence that I know exactly what she means. Her fascination with everything. Her spontaneous giggles. The way she actually pretends to be picking things up off the ground and eating them sometimes. Her reading 'noise' and her face when she reads. The way she happily plays by herself with her little toys for ages, and I wonder what she's thinking. Her excitement and interest when I carry her around with me any any chore or task. The way she'll be happily playing by herself and then she'll come to me and wrap herself around my legs, then look up at me and smile. Her spontaneous kisses and cuddles. How excited she gets when James comes home. The loud noises she makes when any environment is particularly loud, just to see if she is louder than the noise. The way she gets really snuggly when it's nearly bedtime. Her love of water and absolute joy when she gets in a bath/shower/pool/beach. Her face when something is new and exciting. The way she stares at strangers without smiling, and they think she's shy, but she's just 'learning them', and then the way she'll stare at them as they walk away, and then wave. The way she loves having us read to her. How she's obedient, and comes when we hold out our arms, and giggles and smiles as she toddle-runs over, like she's so excited that we want to hold her, and we are too. The way she's learning to pick things up, and a million other things. The way she holds out her hand to people, just to show she cares, and can see them there. Her giggles when I use her finger to point things out on a page of a book, especially when we count things. The way she relaxes when I powder and change her after a bath, and seems grateful when I clean her little nose and ears and brush her hair. Her grateful little sighs with dinner and bottle. The way she loves pointing out all the pictures when we read her scripture stories at night before bed. When she kisses and waves at whichever parent isn't actually putting her in bed, and rests her head into the shoulder of the parent who is. The way she's happy to go to bed, and gives final kisses then grabs her little blanket and nestles into her pillow. How we go in and make sure she's in a comfortable position before we go to bed, and usually have to push her bottom down or free an arm from a cot bar or something, because she's gone to sleep in a very uncomfortable looking position and we have no idea how she's managed to sleep that way! And then her little noises again in the morning when she wakes up.

So many people are living wonderful excotic lives, travelling the world, seeing amazing things, meeting new people, working in fabulous jobs. But I love my little life! I love that we get up in the morning, and James goes to work or uni, and I take care of our little girl and home all day, and do little projects. Then I love it when James comes home to us, and we eat together and he plays with Maggie and we're all so happy, and the next day we do it all over again. And sometimes James gets time off and we all get to hang out all day. I love that all James wants to do is be the father and husband and look after us and be with us, and I am doing all I want to do too. And how we could earn more money if I went back to teaching, or did relief or something, but we don't need it, and I can't think of anything more fulfilling than being at home, teaching and spending time with this little girl full time instead. I feel so lucky, and I'm so grateful that it's so important to James that I'm able to spend this time with our children as well. And we can do all that exotic stuff later if we want :)

I can't think of a more wonderful life.

And I'm so excited that soon we'll have 2 of these wonderful little people filling our lives with these moments!!

Wait are my ankles fat?

2010-11-05T06:50:00.006+10:00

Hello :)

It's been a looong time since I last posted, mostly because I've been devestatingly morning sick and pregnant :) (just read back on the entry I wrote here - basically that's exactly what I'd say all over again if I had time :)) (okay cut the school passages, maybe insert 'looking after Maggie' instead?? I am also slightly less emotionally crazy, probably because I'm looking after one beautifully behaved, always sweet and kind child instead of 28 children who may not always have been 100% as well behaved as Maggie, or at least not all at the same time!) I am in a huge rush and don't really have time to blog, but I really should blog sometime, and I just remembered something funny :)

By the way though, we are over the moon, LOVE Maggie like crazy and couldn't bear to put off doubling the fun so we are so happy and excited and it hasn't taken a year and a half to be pregnant this time!! :) I am due May 9th, so Maggie will already be about 16 months old - I'm just over 13 weeks pregnant at the moment :)

Morning sickness is like.... death.... but I'm starting to have heaps of good days, so I think I'm nearly through the worst!! I wrote more about this on my private blog the other day :)

Anyway, last night I had a dream that I had kankles again!! Already!!! (I wrote extensively about them here). I've been up for a long time, and JUST realised it was a dream!! The relief!!! Last time I was at least 6 months pregnant before I had them I'm pretty sure. I'm barely showing yet this time, so I was (in my dream) a little bit droopy about the whole business, and am greatly relieved to find out that it was, in fact, a dream :)

This time around I have my front line of putting-on-30kg-during-pregnancy defence: a treadmill!! :) Am excited hopefully to have 'less to lose' on the other end this time. Wish me luck!!

Summary:
- pregnant
- super happy and excited to be pregnant :)
- have been in hell, but am recovering nicely, thankyou
- James and my family have been wonderful (thought I'd put that in the summary since I forgot it in the main body, even though I know there's not really meant to be any new info here, sorry!)
- do not yet have kankles :)

'Copious Confiding'

2010-08-20T17:12:00.005+10:00

There's a blog I sometimes drop in on, by a lady in America with 5 children whose parents write books on parenting, and I have one she co-wrote with her Mum and saw her blog address in it. I read a post she wrote today, had to comment, and now feel like sharing. Her post is here.

It's about how she saw a mother and daughter in a waiting room, and the daughter was 'copiously confiding' - telling her Mum EVERYTHING about her life. THe blog author was saying how she wants that kind of relationship with her daughters one day.

Here's the comment I wrote. Sorry about the first paragraph Tammy - but let's face it you've always been kinda perfect :)

"When I was a teenager I drew away from my Mum a little as the hormones kicked in, and she was really close to my big sister who I had a hard time living up to, so I guess I turned to friends. We had a good relationship generally, but not a 'copious confiding' one. When I was about 16 my big sister went overseas to study (at BYU) and my relationship with my wonderful mother bloomed. Now I'm married with a little baby and barely go a day without calling once or even 3 times to catch up, chat, ask housekeeping or 'mum' questions, etc. We are (and my sisters) so close, and she is my best friend besides my husband.

"THE SECRET: Even though we didn't always have this relationship my Mum was ALWAYS there - like Heavenly Father :) Even if I had been rude or mean or pushed her away or whatever, she has always been there, my biggest supporter. I love talking to her and hearing her advice and support, and hopefully being as good a friend to her as she is to me. I hope I can have this relationship with my kids one day, it's one of the most important things in my life.

"I should mention Mum never let me get away with anything and if I was doing anything wrong she would NOT let up! :) It's because of that that I trust her so much. SHe's the best kind of Mum & friend."

Just thought I'd share that becuase I LOVE MY MUM SO MUCH and she is a wonderful friend and mother and person. I am grateful that I have such a wonderful Mum to be Maggie's Gran!

(Wedding photos courtesy of Deep Grey. Maggie photo courtesy of me..;))

Do you have a wonderful Mother?

Kaili's Art Giveaway!

2010-08-19T21:22:00.003+10:00

Everybody should head on over to Kaili's art blog and try to win one of her paintings! - a perfect one for kids. She's actually just giving it away! :) It's gorgeous, she's such a talented artist, love her work, totally trying to win it myself :) xo

So Good to go Back!!!

2010-08-16T23:18:00.002+10:00

On Thursday morning I left Maggie with Mum for her first longer-than-a-quick-duck-out-to-the-shops babysitting adventure, and headed out to the Temple for the first time since before Maggie was born! Last time I went was for a sealing just before she was born, and the time before that I nearly passed out from giant whale of a pregnant person-ness, therefore didn't go back for the last little bit until Maggie came.

I was a bit anxious not being 'on tap' for Maggie for a while, but I trust Mum with her completely so I was sure she'd be fine and have a great time while I was gone.

I rushed up to my session, and barely made it in time, but when I finally got in and sat down, it felt so wonderful being there!! I loved every bit of it. Sometimes it was hard to focus on the session because I kept thinking homemaking stuff, but I think I'm just not used to clearing my head because I haven't done it for a while. It was wonderfully peaceful though. At the end of my visit as I sat, I was thinking about how often I'd been to the Temple over the last almost three years, praying that we'd be able to have a baby, and then that the baby would be okay. I remember sitting in a sealing session once and feeling so close to the women in our family who have gone before us, and the girls yet to come, and knowing that someday I'd be able to have a daughter to carry on this line. I felt very grateful for the wonderful blessing Maggie is, and how grateful I am to be her mum!

When I got home Maggie was peacefully sleeping, after what sounds like a wonderful, fun few hours with her Gran. Thanks Mum for watching her and for being so 'you' that I know she'll always be okay and have a ball with you :) xo

Warning: Cooking Post

2010-08-13T08:40:00.003+10:00

I know, I wasn't going to do any more cooking posts for a while because we were all getting a little over them, but I roasted my first chicken the other week (happy sigh). The gravy I made from the 'juices' was AWFUL!!! But after relating the experience to Mother dear we found out why, and I won't make the same mistake twice. On the evening of the meal I made up an instant gravy mix to go with the meal instead, bless Gravox! :)

In other cooking news, I bought oyster blade steak the other day, because it was on sale. Then when I got home I googled 'Oyster blade steak recipes' (because I'd never used or seen oyster blade steak used before - what a random cut of meat!) and found this one, which I made, and it was amazing, and pretty much cooks itself!! I practically did nothing because it just goes in the slow cooker for 6 hours, but it tasted like a real meal my parents would make (the gravy was even slightly reminisce of their roast lamb gravy, silent rapture!). Plus I had I think all but 1 or 2 of the ingredients in the cupboard, so it was quite cost efficient :) Didn't take any pictures because it doesn't look as delicious as it is, haha :) Yummy on a bed of mashed potatoes.

I'm working up the courage to try said parent's roast lamb recipe, went through it with them the other night and got tips, lol :)

I love doing creative 'stuff'!

2010-08-02T09:51:00.004+10:00

This was ages ago, but I haven't blogged on this blog for a while, and thought I'd just throw these up. You'd have seen it all on my Maggie blog if you're on there, but for Beth & Robbie's engagement party at the beginning of June I got to do some fun painting :) Mum asked me to paint some beach huts, and then I got to paint a couple of random 'Congratulations' and 'Dance between the flags' signs (beach theme!). I had a lot of fun. I think everyone else did too - the hall looked fantastic, the food was great and I think everyone had a great time :)

I really enjoyed the couple of days of mess all over my house from huge rolls of paper with beach huts and painting sheets, and brushes, and paints and stuff. Creative mess is one of my favourite things :) James was very grateful when it was gone, I think. I'm grateful to have my art desk which I do all my smaller-scale fun creative work on, and I love that it's old thick wood and we got it for $10 at a garage sale and I splatter paint on it by accident whenever I want (happy sigh) :)

The New Me

2010-07-10T08:05:00.004+10:00

Since I've been a mum, in some ways I'm a completely different person.

In some ways I feel stronger. I've always been a total wuss. Pretty much anyone can attest to that, but if you want an extremely heartfelt testimony of it, just ask James, who is baffled by my constant nightmares and assurances that he needs to check the cupboards and the bathtub in the middle of the night in case anyone's in there. Since Maggie though, if I hear a sound in the night that completely freaks me out, there's no hesitation for me running to see if she's okay, not even sending James first, and I feel like if anything was going wrong I'd be the first to throw myself in front of her and do whatever it takes. I've had some seriously action movie dreams since her birth, and for the first time in my life they don't involve me hiding somewhere while James saves the day. I just feel like 'Don't you dare mess with my daughter'. SO NOT in my pre-Maggie nature!!!

I also care less what a lot of people think about whatever I'm doing with Maggie, because suddenly I seem to know what I'm doing - not with babies in general, just with Maggie. I even feel like I know what to do with her better a lot of the time even than my mother(!), which is a huge shock, cause she's always been super-mum. I still go to her for advice (a lot!), but I feel like 'I got this' a lot too. I didn't know much about babies before her, but it's amazing how you just know all of a sudden!!

It is a lot harder than I had anticipated, to give 'tough love'. Not that I want to be tough with Maggie (at all), but even letting her cry a little when she's going down, or not carrying her 100% of the time if she's just sooking. I do it - I let her cry a little here and there, and I'm okay with it, but sometimes it just breaks your heart! I've sat next to her bassinet in the middle of the night in tears while I let her cry it out - that gorgeous little carefully-designed-to-trigger-the-'RESCUE!'-reflex cry!! (On the upside, she's in her cot, sleeping through now again!)

I am a sooook!! I cry at the drop of a hat. I went to a wedding last weekend and cried in every speech! I see a woman close to giving birth and I cry! Someone says something nice to someone else and I cry! And of course anything parental. Parents send their kid off to college in some B-grade movie, pull out the tissues, please! It's bizzare! I am NOT up for anything actually sad for a while, I don't know what I'd do!! When we ('finally', James would say) moved Maggie into her own cot the other night, I sat on the couch and burst into tears, cause she was 'S-s-s-so-soooo far away!!!!'. Does this go away when I stop breastfeeding??

I love Maggie an insane amount!!! I am trying so hard not to be one of 'those mums', but the fact that I have to try, baffles me. When I was teaching, I looked at all the parents and knew I'd be one of the level headed responsible ones who let their children learn to deal with life, and who was okay to 'let go'. I think I'll still pull it off, but I may have to have James in the background, holding me back. Ah the thought of Maggie starting school, sob!

I'm also a lot fatter, but we're working on that - It's not as easy to zip the last 6 kilos off as I thought, but I'll do it, then get fat and pregnant again, as now is my life :) (happy tear!)

Lol.

My Visiting Teacher

2010-07-08T13:57:00.000+10:00

My lovely visiting teacher brought over this huge basket of fruit and chocolates when she came to visit the other night! I just had to take a photo, it was amazing, we are still eating through the fruit, and, if you can believe it there are still a couple of mint slice biscuits left, but not for long :)

Couches!!!

2010-07-07T10:24:00.008+10:00

Yes, the surprise is new couches! We were very blessed to be given couches when we got married. We were actually blessed to be given almost everything we needed when we got married! The couches have been very useful and we were grateful to have them, but now are super ecstatic to be replacing them!!!!

James found the old couches uncomfortable and I didn't like the look of them, so couches have been on the dream list for ages, but I really didn't think we'd be able to get them for at least another year.

Last Wednesday we decided to go 'dream couch shopping' for the future. We walked in and on the left was a set of perfectly good couches on a fabulous sale! James said "If I can talk them down another $100 can we get them?" and even though he only talked them down $99 we got them :)

We both really wanted leather couches (practical - kids), and I really wanted light coloured couches, because I'm so sick of the dark colour in here, and so I have an 'empty palette' onto which I can place cushions, throw rugs, whatever, to colour the room whichever colours I want, yay!!! So they're not flash or anything - I guess they're probably some of the most budget leather couches you can get, but I LOVE them so much!!!! And James likes them too :) (he's the one who really wanted to buy them on the spot :) Otherwise I would've been all careful and possibly regreted it later :)) Anyway, here they are! A 3 seater and a 2 seater. I obviously haven't decided on a colour scheme and got 'accessories' yet, but Maggie's little pink blanket and hippo are in the corner or the 3 seater at the time of photo!

And even though I don't usually put Maggie photos in this blog I couldn't resist her couch model pose - she crossed her legs herself lol. See how comfy she makes them look? :)

Surprise!

2010-06-30T21:31:00.001+10:00

Made an extremely amazing and landmark purchase today! - Will let you in on it when it arrives and I can take photos. So excited!!! :)

Tonight...

2010-06-25T21:28:00.003+10:00

Tonight James got home from work, and dinner was still an hour way (this is approximately how behind schedule I am almost every day, yet it never seems to stop being a surprise, sigh).

Maggie was down, and soon came back up again for a little while before being really down.

Adele dropped off the new Stampin Up stamps I ordered (which I need to give my parents to give to me for my birthday in October, yay!), then we had a nice dinner together (yeah, not even going to tell you what I made, because my blog lately has been a little too boring - too much food and cooking and...vacuuming maybe), and then we almost snuggled to watch a movie :) I say 'almost' because as soon as I put the DVD in, and the little loop on the 'menu' page started playing, and I heard the scary music, I decided I'd spend the night 'around' James, rather than 'with' him, watching the movie. It's been nice.

My family are all up the coast on a getaway weekend and I'm happy knowing that they're there, they're staying where we always do, and it's so nice there! Dad's about to plunge into tax season, Tammy's up to her ears as usual, and Mum's always crazy busy, and the twins .... yeah, so it's nice that they all get this break :)

The J's are up there housesitting also, so a nice relax for them (yay no dentistering, Jug!), and a great cruise for Michelle and Derek!! :)

James finished his last exam this week, which is wonderful! I think he did really well this semester (That's my man!) :) For the next couple of weeks he'll be working full time, and then we get a week's break and then back into next semester!! It's so nice to live as I do now without one assignment or another hovering constantly beyond the horizon! It's nice that James doesn't have that for a little bit.

I really need to do some catchup on my little Maggie blog, but can't decide out of about 200 (narrowed down) pictures of camp, so am procrastinating. Mum, it's quite hard not to open my birthday present early, it would be a fun procrastinating task!

I also have some catch up on this blog, but again, procrastination wins the day.

Anyway, I'll try to break the cycle and get on to Maggie's blog. I hope this movie finishes shortly - I need to play some happy music before I go to bed..

PS: This movie, has got to have every single scary sound every invented in Hollywood in it - I swear, the slow bass beat hasn't stopped since I put the DVD in!! Ugh, chills. I'm so glad I'm not watching - James just emphatically assured me I would hate it. Who knew orchestra's could make some of the world's best AND some of the world's most awful, scary, horrible music?! Okay well me, technically, but who wants to listen to that?!

On That Note...

2010-06-10T21:11:00.003+10:00

...we also got something last weekend, that I'm really, really, really excited about :) I've wanted one for a long time, and maybe you think it's sad that I'm this excited about a vacuum cleaner, but I do love all things housewifey. I love dressing for and having cool equipment for things. Yes Tammy - I'd love that pink frilly apron sometime to wear around the house and to match the lovely pink cooking utensils you gave me. I love the little pink excercise towel and sweat band James got me with the weights to work out with. I love wearing house cleaning clothes to clean the house, and aprons for cooking, excercise clothes for jogging, etc. But believe it or not, THIS vacuum cleaner is about a whole lot more than my image of a good housewife. It actually works!! When we got married we got a vacuum cleaner from off the side of the road and I sort of hate it, with a passion. In fact, for the last 3 years our floor has only gotten vacuumed when James gets so sick of it not being vacuumed that he vacuums for me, because I really don't like our vacuum cleaner. It's annoying, and annoying, and doesn't actually work, so there wasn't that much of a point vacuuming anyway!

The Good Guys were having a massive stocktake sale. This I know because I heard it on the radio that we have on 24/7 in our house lately, because Maggie goes to sleep to noise, and our CD player broke, and we often don't get around to turning it off inbetween Maggie's naps. Anyway, I grew up with a Dyson and I loved it, and I have been unrighteously coveting my parents' for the last 3 years. They're usually about $600-$900 new though, and that's a lot (okay, if you heard the story about me buying that Kirby for $4000 that was different, and I was tired and they wouldn't leave and I was pregnant and there was a cooling off period, thank goodness). I looked at our finances and we came up with a little budget, even though there wasn't much chance of them having one that cheap there. We went in, and found the Dysons all lined up, ranging from only $500!!!! This was a lot beyond our budget. We had a lovely look at them but I was a little sad. Not totally, because I kinda expected not to be able to afford one. Then, we decided to walk around the other vacuums, and there was a whole little stand on the other side of the vacuum display, of a bunch of Dysons exactly in our price range!!! So we got one!!! Haven't got a name for it yet, but I am going to vacuum soooo often! I love it! Our carpets are soooo clean! If you're over, feel free to lick any spilt food off the carpet. Don't worry - it's clean :) And if you drop some crumbs, no sweat - I'll probably vacuum in a minute anyway.

Finally a Real Woman!

2010-06-10T21:03:00.006+10:00

What could be more housewifey than making chicken pie for dinner?!! It's so delightfully housewifey, I feel like I've reached a landmark in the world of womanhood. Like one of those 'becomming a man' ceremonies some cultures have when boys are 12 and can finally hunt on their own or something. That's how I felt when I placed it on the table for dinner - I made it to womanhood!! Yay! :) Friends of our came over for dinner the other night and she brought an apple crumble she'd made from scratch - I don't think I've ever eaten one with homecooked apple and everything - we're all growing up! :) And now that Maggie's on solids I've been blending all sorts of 'from scratch' baby foods and I get all excited when I taste them and they taste like 'the real thing' :) Finally a real woman :)

:)

2010-05-30T14:39:00.004+10:00

Not a day goes by (since January 24th) that I don't think of that epidural and smile!!! I am so very grateful for it, I can't tell you how warmly I feel towards it. If it were a person, I would follow them around trying to save their life and repay the great debt, kind of gratitude. I know sometimes epidurals don't work properly, or there are random and rare side effects, but when they're good, they're SO GOOD!!!

Here's something for the glad game: I'm glad my labour was so long and messed up, because now, I have something new to smile about, every single day!!!

(Yes, I know I have Maggie to smile about too, but I could have smiled about her if my labour were 10 minutes long and I didn't feel a thing.)

Recipes

2010-05-24T12:24:00.002+10:00

Here's where I got the choko soup recipe - it's the last thing on the page.

http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/2001/archives/2001_archives?p=1320

James said to me last night "That choko soup wasn't that great. Next time, let's just substitute all of the chokos for potatos" (sigh). Maybe it was partly the joy of not having cooked or even served it myself, maybe it just blended perfectly with my flu, but whatever it was, I liked it a lot, and I used mostly ingredients from my food parcel.

Jillina - Honestly I've tried hardly any of those 4 ingredients recipes, but one that I've done quite a few times is their Chicken and Rice Casserole on page 114. It actually serves 4 - usually if there are more than 2 of us I have to double recipes because James eats at least 2 or 3 people's portions, but this one is great. It's super, super easy, you just chuck everything in and put it in the oven for 2 hours and it's perfect, and it's delicious. I would definitely recommend adding onion (even though it takes it up to 5 ingredients lol), I haven't tried adding celery. Maybe even adding vegies would work - I usually just cook some on the side. THe downside is that it's not the cheapest recipe because it involves 4 chicken breasts, but I usually bulk buy them on sale at Big Gun which helps :)

I am excited to try the recipes you've tried, and am definitely going to cut down on the sugar in the cake, thanks for the tip!! I also find the sound of the Aussie BBQ Steak with Vegemite interesting lol. Hey have you got a good recipe for a pineapple upside-down cake? I have a yummy one Mum got from Domonique Rolls years ago - I just thought cause you said you often toss in pineapple, you guys might like it. It's also easy which makes it perfect for me, and uses all normal pantry ingredients so I always end up making it when I've forgotten to plan dessert :) If you let me know I can email it to you :)

10 Things I Love About Maggie

2010-05-21T19:13:00.000+10:00

1 I love that Maggie loves to snuggle :) When she first starts making little sounds at the end of a nap and I pick her up, she nuzzles into me and sometimes falls back asleep. It's so sweet.

2 I love Maggie's beautiful sweet smile. She smiles at many different things. When she smiles just because she looks up and sees me, I feel like I just won the lottery, except way better than that because she's our daughter and she knows us and it feels like she already loves us too. Latey she smiles everytime someone plays 'peek-a-boo!' with her. She's getting to be so much fun!!! Tonight I was playing it with her in the middle of her feed (she was taking her time) and she kept looking at me for a while after I finished, as if she wanted me to keep going, so I did it again, and so did she, until finally I had to stop and encourage her to get back to her feed!

3 I love the way Maggie eats. She is sooooo funny. Sometimes she's really, really intense and attacks her food and ends up choking and spluttering every 2 secons while she tries to continue eating at the same time, going red in the face. Sometimes she very calmly but determinedly sucks, while she stares directly at something else. This is often me, the couch, James if he is nearby (this one's cute - she'll swivel her head to look at him and sort of sucks out the side of her mouth, for ages lol), my feeding cover, or whatever else. Sometimes she takes her time with a meal. She'll have a few sucks, stop to examine a patch of white wall or something, then continue sucking for a bit, take another break, etc. This e-x-t-e-n-d-s her feeds and I half-heartedly try to get her to stop, but I can't help laughing, she is so cute. Sometimes, she's feeding away, then she stops and pulls off, looks at me, then smiles for a bit and goes back to feeding. Again, way to melt Mum's heart, and make me oblivious to the fact that she's taking all day :)

4 I love it when Maggie talks. She just sits there making her little sounds and blowing rasberries. Her little 'talking' sounds are so sweet and happy! This morning I was in bed sick, and I could hear her on her play mat talking away for ages. I love to hear those happy sounds! :)

5 I love how much Maggie loves her nappy changes and baths and little massages. Before we bath her we put everything out, have nice, fluffy towels ready, fill a warm bath, etc., and it's a really pampering little session - cotton wool balls, powder, moisturiser massage, head massage with shampoo and conditioner, the works, and it really feels like Maggie appreciates it all :) She smiles at us and relaxes and lets us take care of her :)

6 I love all of her facial expressions. She is so much fun!!!

7 I love how fast she is learning everything and how much it seems like she loves to learn!

8 I love her stares. If you know her, you know what I'm talking about. I've never met anyone - infant to adult - who stares like she does. She'll sit in the same spot, staring at somebody or something for the longest time, with a very serious face. Sometimes she'll start grinning almost as if she can't help herself, before returning to her serious face. I wonder what she's thinking? It's like she's learning everything and everyone. Try and have a staring contest with her - I guarantee she'll win. She doesn't seem to need to blink like grown up people either. You'll blink first, you can't win! :)

9 I love how easygoing Maggie is. Ever since she was born she's been pretty chilled. She's such a textbook baby. If she's crying, she's either hungry or tired, or in rare cases a little unwell or uncomfortable. There's always something we can do to fix it, she doesn't ever just cry for kicks!! If she's on the floor playing, she'll only start grizzling if she's been there for a while, and I feel like she's totally justified with her 'Hello parents, a little bored now!' cry :) She'll sit wherever, go to anyone, look at anything, sleep whenever (LOVE the whole self-settling thing! Now when we're at home, she pretty much just dozes off as soon as we put her down in her bassinet!). She's always up for a smile or a game or a cuddle. If we keep her up way past her bedtime she doesn't get cranky or anything. She's so easygoing, she's made us think 'Wow, let's have another!' way earlier than we thought, which makes me think that maybe there's another sibling up there waiting, and that's part of the reason she's been so easy for us! I wonder if the next baby will be more demanding and shock us into baby reality lol.

10 I love Maggie - I love the sweet, little, funny spirit we feel from her. I love it when she looks at me and I know she's thinking something interesting or amusing or loving from her little expression. She's so much like her dad it's funny - but she's her very own little person too, and I can't wait till she can talk and tell us all the things that are going on inside that little head of hers!!!

I love Maggie :) xo

The Chokos were Lovely Thankyou Very Much!!

2010-05-20T14:13:00.005+10:00

Okay family members who have written derogatory things about chokos recently - seeing as Tammy I'm pretty sure you haven't even tried them, and Dad (even though you haven't written I got your feedback through Tammy), apparently (and from my recent experience this seems to be true) they take on the flavour of whatever you cook them with, how can you hate them??!

I am sick at the moment (please send the flowers to my usual address - chocolates are fine, I'm never THAT sick unless I'm pregnant, and it's the flu, so no worries), and I had set my 'making choko soup' adventure for Tuesday night, when I first began to feel sick. James came smilingly in early from work having not eaten his packed food in anticipation of the dinner I'd assured him I was making, only to find me sitting pretty much where he'd left me. I let out a sick little moan just to complete the scene. His face fell a little, but he soon got around to realising I was obviously MUCH too sick to make dinner and he'd better get onto it if he wanted to eat. He asked what I would like, and I quickly pulled out the choko soup recipe at the same time as I sighed and assured him I could just heat up something canned because I was so unwell and couldn't expect him to spend an hour cooking after a long evening at work. Much to my delighted surprise, he decided to make up choko soup! I managed to drag myself to the kitchen to spread some crushed garlic over some bread and toast it - gross, but I really, really hate being sick, and the least I could do was add the side dish to our dinner.

Even though at the time I was being a little bit cheeky, I am beyond grateful that James made the choko soup that night! It was perfectly delicious, and absolutely perfect for a cold night with a flu coming on!! Yesterday I was very sick (I couldn't even talk. Everything's worse when you can't tell people about it) and was in bed all day, and James stayed home from work to look after me and Maggie (I really didn't want to get her sick too) and I had that soup again, for breakfast lunch and dinner, and it was just what I would have wanted if I could have had anything in the world. Sadly dinner was the last bit of it, and today I've had to suffer through alternative foods, but I think it's what I'll make anytime anyone's sick from now on, it was so good! So the chokos were lovely, thankyou!! If you google 'choko soup recipe', make the Burke's Backyard one. Oh, except we only had 2 chokos and you're meant to use 3, so we used 2 potatoes in lieu of the 3rd. Don't know if this helped our cause.

THankyou James - you have been wonderful!! I promise I will get off the couch and start looking after you again soon. Did I mention that yesterday morning he scrubbed out the kitchen including pulling the fridge out and scrubbing the floors and walls behind, the microwave out, etc., and he cleaned out the study, and vacuumed (yes Ma, I never did get onto it that day lol..). Isn't he wonderful?

What I've Been Making

2010-05-20T08:22:00.000+10:00

So a while ago we were visiting with some friends, when E invited me to her 'Stampin' Up' party. She showed me the catalogue and informed me her wishlist was $300 long! Her sister Adele had recently become a demonstrator. I looked through the catalogue and said everything was lovely, and accepted the invitation, but discussed the fact with James on the way home that I was only going to go to be supportive, and was not at all interested in stamps. I've never really liked stamps. I like scrapbooking papers and bits and bobs and I love making cards and small time scrapbooking projects, but stamps aren't my thing.

I went to my friend's party, and fell in love with everything. I didn't buy or order anything that night, or make any commitments, but by the end of the weekend I was asking James if he'd mind if I hosted a party myself. By the end of the day Monday I'd emailed Adele, organised dates with my sisters and planned my very own Stampin Up party. I wanted it ASAP, and managed it a week or so later, in March. At that party, I spent more money than I ever imagined I would have (don't worry - James and I had discussed what I would buy before the night! I had the catalogue glued to my hands for the time between my invitations going out and the night of my party when I wanted to put in my order). I love everything though, and when my package arrived less than a week later, I was super excited. I'm lucky its arrival coincided with Maggie's afternoon nap, so I could spend a couple of hours assembling and trying out my new stamps!!!

I'm not very professional or anything, I just really enjoy being creative in my own little way, and making cards and gifts a little. If we were super rich, I would buy everything in the catalogue, because it's all really nice, and totally more-ish, because everything matches and I want the whole set of everything (similar to a certain line of baby clothes at Myer this season - I want to buy everything or nothing, because all the tops, cardigans, jackets, skirts, dresses, beanies, etc. match adn they're totally cute!! (I went with the 'get nothing' option - more cost effective, and there's always another year when we actually need clothes instead of me just wanting excess because they're cute, but that's for another post (sigh)))!

Anyway, here are a few of the little projects I've done since. I don't spend a whole lot of time doing it, but like I said, I really love it :) I'm always reminded of Elder Uchtdorf's talk on how women need to create... hold on here's a link to the Mormon Message about that. Definitely worth a watch!! :) I love to create anything - not just crafty stuff.

Oh and I should mention that not all of this stuff is 'Stampin' Up' stuff - a lot of it is made up of scrapbooking odds which I've accumulated over the years. Oh, and something else - I LOVE the use of ribbon in Stampin up stuff! Their ribbon is expensive though (well it's not too bad, but you sort of have to buy a lot so I wouldn't have been able to afford more than one colour..) so I found an eBay seller from China who sell grosgrain ribbons really cheap! I bought 60 yards (just under 55m) made up of 14 different colours for $2, plus $5 postage and they came adn they are beautiful and I love them.

Most of these are just simple. If you follow the link to Adele's website you can see how the projects can really be beautiful! :)

I based this card on one James' Nana made when Maggie was born, it was very cute! You pull the tab on the left (except sorry the picture's the wrong way around :() and it sort of unfolds as you might be able to see in the picture below..

Sorry I don't know why these are on their side!! The one at the top (meant to be left) is one Lisa or Adele made, so I used the pattern for the other 3 for our Visiting Teaching sisters.

For my new nephew. A friend of ours sent a present up for Maggie when she was born, and they wrapped it in a baby wrap. Very thoughtful and very useful!! I loved the idea:

This is like a little 'pack' of cards I gave to my sister to go away with - she asked for some 'thankyou' cards to give out:

This is the card Adele & Lisa taught everyone to make at my stampin up party:

A baby card (it doesn't belong to a baby yet - I just wanted to try the cute pram idea James' Aunty Gillies did on a card for us. I think you can sort of see where I've written 'name' in pencil for when I go to use it :))

A few randoms: Oh - the ribbon I did on the very bottom one (again, sorry I can't get things to turn around the right way!:S), I got the idea from Adele again. I ironed it so it would sort of go one way, but I don't think you're necessarily meant to...

This is a 'thankyou' for Dad - he and Mum bought me a packet of cute novelty buttons they saw for my projects :)

Cute little saying:

I love ribbons...

The other day I was reading a book I've borrowed from a friend, and I didn't want to fold her pages so I made a bookmark :)

A '3D project'. Lisa makes a bunch of these on her and Adele's blog (if you follow the link 'Adele' near the top). The sides of the lid were meant to come down longer but I messed up.

And those are some of the projects I've had fun making lately :)

Making use of the 17 Bananas in our Package

2010-05-18T17:50:00.004+10:00

To the banana muffins I added choc chips, to the two long trays on the right I added chopped walnuts, and the two small trays are normal banana cake. It is a good freezer lunch item. James eats a lot though, so it's already almost gone. I wonder if next week's package will involve as many bananas.

I've made 4 massive trays of baked potato pieces (like the ones Dad does with pumpkin too) so far - James eats them as snacks and on sandwiches with BBQ sauce (totally not the way they were intended to be eaten when I made them). I thought of how proud Grandma Taylor would be of me using sea salt in those :)

Tonight I'm making potato bake and choko soup for dinner. I'm learning to be resourceful with the random assortment of foods we've been blessed with. I've been making all our dinners this week with cream-based sauces, due to the million creams lol :) This is kind of fun.

My parents and all my siblings + the niece and nephew have been very ill with a stomach bug this week. I'm giving myself 2 more days before I'm in the clear (I was hanging out with them lots, and it seems highly contageous :S), but I am feeling blessed that none of us here in the little Easthope household have it at least yet, although I feel a possibly vicious cold coming on :S. I hope everyone feels better soon!! xo

$20 Groceries!

2010-05-14T11:12:00.006+10:00

Recently Jillina has been inspiring me to be thinking smart about money with her 'You're Nifty if You're Thrifty' posts. Mum's told me that the local PCYC gives out food parcels for $20 with food they're given, to raise money. I finally took her advice and called last week, and found out they've moved. I called and got the details, and yesterday I finally went. Here's what I got:

I am sooo in love with this place!! The size of the picture doesn't do the food justice - click on it and blow it up lol. First I went around and looked at all the food you can buy individually. The massive can of pineapple pieces you can see back right was $2 - for 3kgs!! I got 2 of them. The smaller cans (which are usually the 'big' cans - 850g) are 6 for $4, when they're usually $4-ish each at the shops!!! Great for food storage!! They also had massive beetroot tins, cheap yummy icecream (cookies & cream), frozen lasanges, and a bunch more. Oh and they sell clothes and stuff too - there's an op shop section.

I got some cans and the bottle of juice, then when I was at the counter a lady came and asked me if I'd like to look at the $20 food parcels. I said okay, and she showed me, and aside from most of the cans and 1 of the bottles of juice, that's what I got for $20!!! You can't even see all the fruit and veg in the box but there's HEAPS - this morning I'm making about 5 batches of banana cake to freeze, because we got about a kazillion bananas, and a million potatoes (oh - you can get as many potatoes as you want, for free! - there's a massive bucket out front!) plus lettuce, onions, something green I keep forgetting the name of but Mum said to just steam it, apples, etc. Then there's the cold stuff - the margarines and cream and yoghurt (you can't see them all, but we got a box of 10 yoghurts), plus extras, chips, noodles, lamingtons, biscuits, juice, pantry items like coconut, stock cubes, ricebubbles, oats, salad dressings, simmer sauces, oh, a cheese platter (yum, and usually $10 all on its own in the shops!), garlic bread, even some Betty Baxter meal replacements and moisturiser samples lol. You don't get to choose what you get, but if you're happy to be flexible, it's very worth it! What they have changes every week depending on what they get.

The place is run by a local church, and it's not just for people who are desperate. They are given the food, and are making money off it to give to the church or whatever, so they're happy for anyone to go!

If you're a local and you're interested in the address, ph # and opening hours let me know. I will be going every week :)

3 Years of Dating :)

2010-05-08T09:31:00.003+10:00

On Thursday it was James and my 3 year anniversary of 'dating' :) We started dating on a Sunday evening after a cottage evening. He asked if I would go on a date with him. I said 'yes'. Then he said he would like to 'date' me, and I said I would too, so we decided to 'date'. And then we got married 6 months later :)
Thursday morning I was very tired, and after I'd fed Maggie we went back to sleep, and I didn't even realise at the time, but Maggie woke up so James woke up with her, and then they came back and woke me up when she was hungry, and James gave me this:

Cute card that he made, huh? :) And he bought me a Bunnykins book - I love children's books, and I love Peter Rabbit & friends, I was very happy, it's very cute and sweet :)

For dinner we had Fasta Pasta (I love it... and I didn't want to cook... and I didn't want James to cook... and I wanted to eat immediately...). We got it take out, and ate it on the couch with a movie, because I was tired. It was nice :) Especially cause James had been stuck in uni assignemnt-ville, and it was nice to hang out without doing uni work! Maggie hasn't been so well, and was having trouble sleeping so we had her out in her bouncinette with us, and we cuddled her lots too! You can sort of see her in one of the photos :) (Please ignore the washing basket and the ugly couches, sigh)

I am super-glad James asked me out :) xoxoxox

I made Chicken Soup!!!

2010-05-08T09:22:00.004+10:00

So chicken thighs were on a great sale the other week and Mum mentioned that they make quite a tasty chicken soup. I LOVE my mum's chicken soup, (actually, if you look to last year's Mother's Day post you'll see that Mum made some for me - it's the best thing in the world for if you're feeling sniffly) and I was super excited to try to cook it! Unfortunately I planned my big adventure the same night we got asked over to a friend's for a movie night. James had to work till 7:30, so I figured I'd cook it and we'd eat quickly and rush over. Sadly it (like all of my cooking!) took much longer than excpected!! The kitchen was a pigsty which I hate (I love having everything look lovely while I blissfully cook away lol), but the soup was great. I added a bit of extra cream because James LOVES cream, and when I tasted Mum's the next week I realised I don't like mine as much, but it was okay. Also, I had a bit of a stock mix up with the dumplings. Oh yes - Mum used to make dumplings with it and the recipe was with the soup in the family cookbook, so I gave them a go too. They would have been better if I hadn't overdosed them with stock lol.

Here is our pigsty of a kitchen when I was done. Ew! And we were super-late to go to our friend's place so I left the mess till after, double ew!!! How I love a clean kitchen!

The soup looks kinda yuck. But it was kinda yum :)

I made 'Steak Diane'!!!

2010-04-21T10:45:00.003+10:00

Those of you who knew me really well in my early days of marriage will appreciate this more than those of you who didn't, because of how disastrous I was in the kitchen due to a bizzare lack of confidence for something so ... not frightening. Since I have overcome my fear of cooking, I have cooked mostly new recipes. Mum and Dad are both fabulous cooks, so I've 'wisely' avoided cooking things from our family cookbook, because then I didn't know how badly I was messing up :) (I was about to say 'makes sense, right?', then I pictured James' face when I say that about something like this).

The other night I asked James to pick up some meat on the way home from uni 'anything! - I haven't decided what's for dinner yet!', and he got 4 big steaks for $6, which I was very happy with. He even said "And we don't even need to eat them all tonight!" It had never occurred to me that we would.

I used the first steak in a stir fry with veg on rice.

Last night I used the second to make Steak Diane, because I passed the recipe in the book, and realised how EASY it was!!! And I already had all of the ingredients, AND it was QUICK!! Sadly for James I had decided to use only one steak each night, so we shared... but it waaas enormous, and we filled up on bread...and this is terrible but we were out of veggies and I didn't manage to get to the shops, so that's literally what we ate: Steak Diane, and bread. Lucky the Steak Diane was good!! :) You should have seen James' face though, when I put one plate with a lone steak on the table between us. Haha.

Tonight, I think I will make Chop Suey with the third, and I will definitely make sure I stop at the shops and get some veggies :)

Any ideas for steak 4??

Our Fabulous Wedding

2010-04-12T10:48:00.023+10:00

I love weddings! My little sister Bethany is getting married this year, and has started planning her day. She doesn't want to have the reception at an ordinary function centre, or in a chapel rec hall. I was looking online at wedding venues and ideas, and I started of course to think back on our wedding. It was a pretty fabulous event.

I woke up on a beautiful Friday morning (23rd November, 2007). I went out to the kitchen where members of my family were running around cooking, sewing and getting things ready, and was shooed into the shower. I spoke on the phone to my Grandma Taylor, ate 2 profiteroles for breakfast, then straightened my hair:

The photographers (deep grey)arrived and started taking photos of us getting ready. I got dressed and Mum drove me up to the temple.

We then got married in a Temple Sealing at the Brisbane Australia Temple. This was the most important and precious part of the day, and was witnessed by a few members of our close family and friends. By getting married in the temple we are sealed for Time and all Eternity, not just 'till death we part'. Because we believe that families who are sealed can be together forever, it is hugely important for us to participate in this kind of marriage.

We got some photos at the temple:

We got some photos across the road from the temple, at the city lookout:

We drove in James' uncle's car to the Botanical gardens and had a picnic lunch:

Then we walked around the gardens for a while for photos:

In Brisbane city there's a giant outdoor stage right on the river, in the botanical gardens. Lots of outdoor concerts are played there, and I've actually performed there in an orchestra. It's called 'Riverstage', and Mum (who should be a wedding planner) had the brilliant idea of hiring it for our wedding reception!

Mum organised chairs and tables, plants, screens, beautiful flower table centrepieces, and did all the food. This was in addition to the wedding dress, bridesmaids' dresses, and a million other tasks! She did everything on the tables - the candles, special pens, place setting cards, programs, everything! It all looked beautiful:

The reception started at 5pm, on the roof of Riverstage, with hors de oeuvres and a string quartet:

You could see the temple across the river from the roof:

We then went down to the stage and after Uncle David explained the temple sealing, we exchanged rings. We did this because James' family aren't members of our church so couldn't attend our sealing in the temple.

After that we had dinner and some speeches. There were no photos taken of the gorgeous table where the amazing buffet was set out, but it was beautiful and incredible! In the photo of Jonny speaking you can sort of see one of the flower arrangments...

Then started the surprises for the evening.

Mum thought it would be special to have some things about the wedding that we didn't know were going to happen. The first one James knew about, as it was him, singing me a song! He has a fantastic voice, but I had no idea he planned to sing at our wedding! He sang 'Always and Forever', by Luther Vandross, and his mum and Tammy sang back up. He made me sit on a chair in the middle which was a bit awkward, but it was 'so romantic!' :) You can tell from my face that of course, I loved it!

Then we cut the cake (I knew this was going to happen):

Next was our 'first dance'. We had planned a fun first dance to a Lional Richie song (we love Lionel :), and had it choreographed. What we didn't know, was that Mum had organised to have boxes of rose petals showered over us as we began!! It was such a beautiful surprise!! (You can see the food tables a bit more in these shots...)

Then we danced with my parents, then James' parents...

Followed by everyone dancing...

...until we were all upstaged by the surprise entrance of Elvis!!! James' Koro (grandfather) loves Elvis, and does all of his songs, in his special Elvis suit Nana sewed for him!! Mum organised for him to pull out an 'impromptu' performance in the evening. He was a HUGE hit:

At the end of the night, as we left, the last surprise was that everyone attending the wedding lined up on both sides of the driveway with sparklers, so that we went through a pathway of them. It was beautiful and fun!!

Sadly the photographers had left by then, and I don't have any photos of it, but it was a beautiful finish to a beautiful night.

In summary, Mum did a beautiful job, and thought of everything. Many friends and family helped her to make it special.

Our temple sealing is everything, but we had a wonderful time in the beautiful, elegant and fun reception Mum and others did for us. Thankyou Mama!!! :)

...and now I'm really excited and can't wait to help with whatever we do for Bethany!! :)

Fantastic Relief Society Fireside!

2010-03-23T12:10:00.004+10:00

On Sunday night I went to our Stake's Relief Society Anniversary Fireside, which was probably one of the best firesides I've ever been to. I got a lot out of it. It was about finding 'Joy in the Journey'.

First a member of our Stake Relief Society Presidency spoke about how sometimes our life's journey takes unexpected turns. She has a son who has special needs, and she quoted another sister who has children with special needs who described what it was like. She said that it was like you've planned a trip to Italy your entire life, and you're very excited. You plan tours, you learn some Italian, you go to the Travel Agent and discuss plans, you save, you book your flights, and finally you're on the plane. When you land, the air hostess says "Welcome to Holland!" - there was a change in the flight plan and they didn't let you know.

So you have to holiday in Holland, and although it's not what you expected, it's beautiful. It's not as exciting, but there are beautiful tulips, and there are windmills, and the people are lovely. So although your trip is totally different to what you expected, Holland isn't a bad place, but it can take some getting used to. You have to learn a different language, read different travel books, book different tours.

There were 7 sisters who are in different life situations who spoke: A YSA, a young mother, a single mother, a single adult, a mother of teens, a carer, and a widow. Each sister spoke about the challenges she faces, but talked about the blessings that have come to her, specific to the situation she was in.

I loved the young mother's talk, because she spoke about how crazy it is every day with her 3 girls under the age of 2 (twins!), but she spoke about how each day is full of moments of pure joy amidst the chaos :)

I liked in the single mother's talk (B!) how she said how much closer she is to each member of the Godhead, because she feels as if they are there helping her teach and raise her sons, every day, because she can't do it alone.

I liked all of the talks. Some of the sisters spoke about how they never imagined themselves in the situation they're in, but they were all uplifting and positive and understanding :) It was a wonderful fireside and I was grateful to be there.

Remember When?

2010-02-10T19:35:00.002+10:00

Remember when I posted that nursery 'before' picture? Well, it's finally done, and here's the 'after'!

I hope it looks like a panoramic view sweeping the room, left to right!

These are the pictures I stressed over painting lol. I think the ribbons are cute - thanks for the idea, Mama!

Maggie

2010-01-30T15:38:00.003+10:00

I did it!!! I had a baby!!! As I've mentioned labour's terrified me my whole entire life, so I feel like I've conquered Everest!! :) Maggie is sooooo beautiful, I can't believe she's ours and we get to keep her and raise her! I had a long labour, but one of the first feelings I remember having after she was finally born was that I would do it all again - they're right about that euphoric feeling you get :)

It is pretty exhausting keeping up with our tiny newborn, we have had a wonderful week! My milk came in (much to my surprise - I was scared I wouldn't be able to feed), and she was back at birthweight within 4 days and is growing every day, very healthy and strong!!! It hurt a lot to feed her especially at first, but it's getting easier!

Last night I was feeding and I looked down at my ankles and realised they are ankles again, not kankles!!! They are fabulous - they are so skinny (compared to the times by ten size they were before) I feel like I need to be careful or I'll snap them lol. I am surprised how quick my recovery's been - I guess it's the first baby thing.

James has been wonderful getting up and helping with putting Maggie back to sleep after feeds, and she adores him.

I've started a private blog so I can put pictures and details up about Maggie and not worry, so if you're interested and not a random, let me know your email address and I can invite you to read about her.

It's the most wonderful feeling in the world, we feel so blessed!!! :)

The Glad Game - Maggie

2010-01-09T14:55:00.006+10:00

I'm now 38 weeks pregnant, which is a little bit exciting! I have enjoyed being at home now that Christmas is over and James is back at work, cooking dinners and cleaning and washing and ironing (baby clothes, yay!) and just doing normal day-to-day things! I also sleep, a lot.

The Glad Game:

I am glad to be having our baby now, instead of when we first got married over 2 years ago when we wanted so much to have a baby, for the following 'Glad' reasons.

James and me reasons:

1. A phone conversation James and I had when we'd been married a couple of months:

Abby calling James...
Abby: James, I'm about 5 minutes down the road from your work, and I have a flat tire!
James: Oh ok - there's a spare in the boot.
Abby: Excuse me?
James: What's wrong?
Abby: Um, I have a flat tire... I'm near your work....
(pause - confusion on both ends)
Abby: ...and it's hot.
James: Yeah... hey look I'm really busy, but there's a spare in the boot, okay? I'll see you here soon!
Abby: Um.. sure.

2 minutes later, James calling Abby...
James: Hey, are you okay? You sounded kind of upset before.
Abby: Not really - I'm on the side of the road, 5 minutes away from your work, and I have a flat tire.... and I'm hot.
James: Yeah but I'm at work - and there's a spare in the boot!
Abby: I can't possibly change a tire!
James: But I showed you how!
Abby: But you have to be strong! And I wasn't watching! Why would I need to know how to change a tire??
James: Um...
Abby: I'm just down the road - can't you borrow a car and come and rescue me?
James: But I'm at work!
Abby: But I'm on my way to pick you up! You finish in 2 minutes!!!
James: Um.. I'll see what I can do. You really can't just change it yourself?!
Abby: (Silence)
James: Okay. I'll try and come.

After a few minutes James came and changed the tire. Both of us were a little shocked with each other lol. Now we know waaaaaaay better :) And now we have RACQ.

2. When we first got married, James couldn't believe how emotional and 'girly' I was. It drove him crazy if I ever cried, (maybe once in a blue moon) and couldn't understand it at all. In the last nine months I have cried every other day or so - not for any hideous reason, just the hormones going crazy. It took a couple of months but now James knows better than to ask me 'why' I'm crying, and especially to try to push the point! - He generally checks if there's a reason or if I just want a hug, and gives me a hug lol. He doesn't try to understand it anymore, and he's better at picking the times when he can laugh at it, and when laughing at it will result in bigger floods of tears. If I had actually been emotional at the beginning of our marriage, we would have gone crazy, and he may have left me (I'm sure he wouldn't have, but he may have been tempted..).

3. Basically James grew up around guys and is not used to anything or anyone being a 'girl'. He couldn't believe how much of a 'princess' I was (I kept telling him he was lucky he didn't marry someone who actually was really girly!) and I couldn't believe how 'mean' he was sometimes. We had a lot of learning to do lol. Now we're having a baby girl - hahaha :)

It feels it's just gotten better and better between us though, and now it feels perfect, but I'm sure it'll just get better. James is so understanding and kind and nice to me, and he's all squishy when it comes to Maggie lol - I predict some serious finger wrapping.

Financial reasons:
I was going to drop out of my final year of uni and have our baby. But I finished, then worked for a year, and now I unexpectedly qualify for maternity leave. As my Dad said upon hearing that news: "You can't say you don't get blessings for paying your tithing". James is not a citizen, and studying full time he's not making a heap of money, so this is huge for us. We didn't really know what we'd do financially, but Heavenly Father sorted it out.

Spiritual:
Maybe I needed to learn patience. Or have it be reinforced that the Lord works in His own ways in His time, and that he knows what's best. Maybe we also needed to pray really hard for something for a really long time and to finally have that prayer answered, and know that it's an answer to prayer.

Education:
I got my degree!! And maybe at times while I'm 'Mum' over the next few years I can study by correspondence and get some post-grad qualifications. Now that I'm qualified, and especially since I've worked a whole year, I can always go back if I need to.

There are other reasons to be glad that I won't go into now, but I'm sure there are kazillions.

Oh one more shot at being glad.

I am glad to be an obese whale who can't touch her toes or barely roll over, because it is a good contraception for obesity. I will never get unecessarily fat, and will even try not to get as fat next pregnancy.

Oh, I'm also glad because it means we get to have a baby.

xo

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!

2009-12-19T15:25:00.003+10:00

There is a dead end street about 15 minutes away from where we live, that James and I stumbled across about this time last year. Each of the 6 or 7 houses is decorated in the most spectacular fashion you can imagine, and not just with lights - their garages are full of interactive displays, there are giant Santas kids can get photos with, reindeer who totally 'graze' by themselves, etc., etc., it's HUGE!!! Christmas carols play from the houses. You can't get a park cause there are a million families walking around taking photos, and the street itself is blocked off so people can walk around and through all the displays. James and I went as part of Family Home Evening this week, and it was gorgeous! There are actually little booths at a couple of the houses, raising money for the RSPCA I think it was. James thinks they should turn off all the lights and donate the money they'd save on electricity, but that wouldn't be very festive or exciting or fun for families. I can't wait till next year when Maggie's almost 1 and will be old enough to enjoy this street when we take her back - she seemed less than impressed as a fetus. We took a kazillion photos but they are all terrible and none of them allow you to on any scale see how pretty it is, so I'm not going to try too hard..

The only sad thing was that only one of the houses had anything to do with the nativity - a tiny little three wise men lights display on a roof. But the feelings of happiness and sharing, and community (Tammy!) were there, and it was really nice. I love those feelings every year at Christmas!

It's funny how the world doesn't connect the fact that it is the most wonderful time of the year, and that it promotes family, and love, and warm fuzzy feelings, and sharing and giving and happiness, with the fact that it's the celebration of the Saviour's birth. Of course it's the most wonderful time of the year. But we can feel these wonderful feelings at any time, if we focus on Jesus Christ.

Mum, Dad and the twins have been away for 4 weeks, and I miss them, and I'm glad they're about to board a flight to come home to us before Christmas!!! I think they have had a wonderful trip though, and I'm so glad they got to go!

Just in case I don't post again before Christmas, I hope everyone has a wonderful day and season and holiday!!!!! :)

xo

Bump

2009-12-05T07:33:00.003+10:00

Here's me side-on at 32 weeks. Now I am 33, only 7 to go, yay!! :) Today we are going to a class where they teach me how to breathe as I experience hell, and they teach James how to hold my hand and remind me to breathe as I experience hell. It should be helpful, and they serve lunch :)

Only 1 more week of school left, and I'm getting to the stage where I'd do anything to not miss a day, because I'll miss my kids!!! THey get more fun the more I realise I'm leaving them!! I am a bit exhausted though, so I will be grateful when it's over! Lots of Christmas activities mixed with maths and english, it'll be fun :) And on Friday the kids are encouraged not to come, and if they do only to come till 11am so the staff can have a big lunch in the hall!

We decorated for Christmas the other night, it's so fun! Can't wait!! 3 weeks until Christmas!! :)

I'd better go so I can make this class, it's a 9-5 day, I hope I don't fall asleep!! :)

Baby Shower!

2009-11-21T08:31:00.015+10:00

Last Saturday (14th Nov) Mama put on a fabulous Afternoon Tea baby shower for me and nearly baby Maggie :) We started at 1pm, and went outside where a mass of scrapbooking stuff awaited us, to make cards for little baby Maggie's 1st - 21st birthdays. When the task was accomplished, we went inside and played a made by Mum and I think Tammy version of baby Mad Gab (a game Tammy brought back from America), and everyone guessed how fat I am with string, and I opened some gorgeous presents, and then we sat up for our afternoon tea, which was amazing! Mum had set a beautiful table, with bunches of flowers and savouries, sweets, punch, etc. I was hungry by then (I usually am..) so it was delightful to sit and eat with lovely family and friends! About half of my guests were family, and the rest were friends, most of whom don't know each other because they're from different random walks of life but it was really nice, and now they do :) Here are a couple of pictures of the fabulous table: (see Mum's blog for more)

Mum made me a fabulous nappy cake (below), and little Maggie will be decked out in many gorgeous outfits! She's got some new toys, and a fun bathtime kit (yay!), and nappies and creams and a car seat and all sorts of things! I was so excited when I got home, to unpack everything into the nursery! One of the presents I really love a LOT and I was sort of honoured to get, was a painting by my lovely friend who is an artist, Kaili! You can check out Kaili Art. As you can see from my picture, she's very talented, and we love the painting a lot (thankyou Kaili!!). James and my dad sat looking at it for ages afterwards, commenting on the details and how good Kaili is these days lol.

We hung out at Mum and Dad's for a bit afterwards, then got home late, but I was too excited to go straight to sleep - I played in the nursery unpacking for a little bit. Here are a couple of little corners. The sad thing about our nursery is that it won't be done until just barely before Maggie gets here (hopefully right on time!) because apparently our cot and change table are literally on a slow boat from China. But we are getting other things ready and it's still fun :) I don't have any photos of it yet but we put up the cute little wooden-framed canopy bassinet on Thursday night, and yay!!! :)

So only 3 more weeks of school to survive (I'm dying - it's been 35 degrees celcius this week and it was soooo not a good idea to get fat at this time of year!! Why do Oz schools not have air con?!!), then 2 weeks until Christmas, then 4 weeks until we get to meet the girl (it will be beyond hilarious if she is in fact, a boy lol :)). I have taken up swimming each morning before school, and often after, because the amount of relief from the heat and from not being able to move very well outweighs my shame in looking like a whale :) On Monday it's James and my 2 year wedding anniversary and next weekend we're going up the Sunshine Coast for the weekend, yay! :) So all good things to look forward to.

Thankyou Mama for the wonderful baby shower, it was gorgeous and fun and I think everybody loved it. You are the best. And you and Maggie can have afternoon tea dates when she's a few years on, like in that book ;) xo

Kankles

2009-10-31T00:12:00.001+10:00

Has anybody had them before?

I feel your pain!

Very weird, and not so attractive (sigh)..

Holidays, Birthday & Baby :)

2009-10-17T08:05:00.018+10:00

My school holidays were fantastic, and ended two weeks ago. I spent a lot of time doing fun house stuff like spring cleaning and shopping for baby stuff. We finally got a few things done that have been on my 'to-do' list for forever! One exciting one was buying some shelving to go in a little space in our laundry which was spare. I was a bit frustrated at the 'perfect' cupboard being exactly 9cm too wide to fit in, and eventually decided on one without doors, but with plenty of depth, which we had room for and so it would fit a lot in. We've had a lot of trays, dishes, nice glasses etc that we don't use every day stored in different spaces in the house and I wanted it all in the kitchen area (the laundry is right next door). This also made room in the kitchen for more pantry space, which has been very helpful :) I love having everything easily accessible!! :)

I also finally took the blender I've wanted for years that Mum and Dad bought us on the last day of August on its maiden voyage! I went and bought all the nice smoothie stuff I could think of, and blended it up! Our blender was fabulous, but I may need a few tips on good smoothie recipes, because my invention somehow just wasn't quite right. I finally feel like a real housewife though - everybody needs a super blender, and I am sure it will get a LOT of use in the years to come :) (thanks Mum and Dad!!)

Our baby room is coming together - for my birthday Mum and Dad, the twins and Bethany all contributed to my nursery happiness, providing a gorgeous quilt set that I'd been wanting, matching little curtains and window valance, basket covers, etc., and even an adorable teddy bear for little baby girl. James went out and got a great deal on a really really really really nice cot set that I'd loved but that had been very much expensive that he gave me for my Birthday, and it will arrive in about a week! :) We also went and picked up a cot - we went for a Phil & Tedd Sport in the navy blue :) It's very easy to use and lightweight, and James put it up the other night in our early excitement, so now it's sitting in the baby room ready to go :) I loved the big sign on the box that said "Baby not included". I think it was Tammy who said she's a bit worried for the people for whom that sign may be necessary. We also have a bassinet which is a wooden folding leg one with a little canopy - that is a pov explanation, but I loved it when I saw it and James walking into the shop 5 minutes later pointed out the same one and said he loved it, and my little previously anti-bassinet mind turned 180 degrees so we got it, justifying its use as a port-a-cot becuase it folds up :) I've since had dreams where I'm asleep and that little dinosaur cry newborns do starts up and I reach over to the bassinet to get out our little baby girl - I can't wait till it's not a dream! And finally we have a bouncinette - one of the little old school woven ones which I've always wanted :) I'm not taking any pictures though until the nursery is done, and we have a few decisions to make about walls, etc. Apparently baby girl is now about 1.6 pounds and 14 inches from head to toe! Apparently her hearing is pretty good too, and she'll be ready to make her big entrance, ETA 14 weeks :)

Speaking of my birthday - sorry I got a little ahead of myself - I had a lovely brunch, courtesy of James! I went to bed early and got up late, and during those times he got extra chairs and an extra table in, put lovely tablecloths on, decorated with a birthday sign, balloons, even did little name tags for everyone at the table including 'Maggie Girl', and cooked chipolatas, bacon, eggs, toasted turkish bread with egg, tomato and asparagus, juice, coco pops, etc. :) We had my parents, Tammy, Jonny, Jess & Jenna, Beth, Ben and Oliver over - James' parents had to work last minute. It was lovely! Tammy took some pictures which I know she emailed to us, but James in his clean inbox thing has deleted it and I can't find where the pictures are saved! :S It was wonderful though! :) I'll try to add some if I find them soon.. And as well as the quilt set Mum and Dad arrived with a bunch of other little presents, including nice hair products that I love using and try to buy on sales, lovely face creams that I'm afraid to use in case they run out, a little bit of make up, chocolates, etc. James bought me some pretty earrings and a 7 lucky rings necklace as well as the cot set which he rationed out to me over the day, Jonny and Jessima gave me a beautiful home-covered special box which will go nicely in the nursery with something baby inside, Tammy of course took me to Melbourne on the best little trip ever to see 'Wicked'! I got some lovely home-made jewellery from my teaching partner, cards and chocolates from some of my kids (with instructions to 'give at least one piece to Mr E' lol), cute pink PJ's with a stretchy belly bit from James' parents, and overall little baby girl and I got completely spoiled!

I am glad to be 23. It is a much nicer number than 22.

Now I am back at school with only 8 weeks to go before holidays which will last for a looong time, even though they will grow to feel less like holidays and more like 'mum' life before too long :) Our baby girl keeps kicking like crazy, sometimes I worry that maybe she's stressed or something cause she kicks so much, but hopefully she's just really very active and keen to come out and meet us! :) I am getting funny pains in my back and legs, which hurt and make me walk like a weirdo, but which I secretly don't mind, because I'm growing a baby.

My kids at school are so cute and interested in the whole pregnancy business. It's a really nice age they're at (10-11), they're really sweet, and all starting to show their big personalities and growing up. Yesterday I walked to the front of the room to find they'd put a chair out for me to sit on so I wouldn't have to stand and my 'ankles won't get as fat'. They dive to pick things up if I drop them and look horrified if I start bending down on my own. One student drew an uncharacteristic (for him) picture of me with a basketball-looking belly saying "My waters have broken", and 'Mr E' next to me, saying "Oh NO!". I am constantly asked if I have cramps, and if I'm really hot, and I wonder what their parents are telling them at home lol. Yesterday one of my girls said "Mrs E, if it wasn't for your big tummy sticking out, you would look really pretty today!" I said "Thanks R, if it wasn't for your...". They want to know middle names, how I'm going to get to the hospital, how I'll know when I'm in labour ('heck, good thought! - I have no idea! I assume it will hurt?'), if I'll have to get my stomach cut open, whether I'm going to punch Mr E when I'm in pain in labour or not, exactly how dissapointed Mr E is to be having a girl ('Boys - it's not a tragedy for Mr E to be having a girl! He's quite excited!'), whether I'm going to paint the walls to the nursery pink or not, am I craving chocolate, is the baby really eating my brain ('Yes!'), do I feel her kicking now? And now? And now?, etc. These questions are usually blurted out in the middle of calculating compound area or something like that, sigh.

Anyway, James still isn't home so I can't probe him for the location of the pictures of last week's birthday brunch, but I'll post this now and maybe add them if I find them.

Hope everyone is having a great SpRiNg!! :) xo

Catch up pictures...

2009-09-28T12:59:00.014+10:00

I just found my camera cord :)

A couple of pictures from the birthday afternoon tea we put on for Mum a few weeks ago - I only took a couple, I wish I could show you the deserts :)

Here are a couple of pictures we took of my bump at around 18 weeks for a Father's Day puzzle thing - it's a little bit huge, I know, plenty of old ladies and my doctor have told me so and I'm getting a complex :) I'm 23 weeks now and it's only getting bigger! But baby girl's a perfect size so all good :)

Here's a cute pic of Jenna getting ready to show off her swimming skills at our little BBQ Saturday avo :)

And finally, a 'before' picture of what will be our little nursery for baby girl - at the moment it's covered in storage and mess, and I am currently cleaning it out. This will make an 'after' picture much more impressive :)

Oh I almost forgot - here's a photo of the picture we got from our baby scan - it's terrible quality but hopefully you'll be able to make out her little fist and side profile! :)

I love school holidays!!! - "LOVE"

2009-09-26T08:13:00.003+10:00

One of my favourite bits is that the dreams about my kids have stopped. This is extremely useful because I get better sleep, and I don't feel like I've just come home from work every morning. Also, it's a bit weird.

James has been working full time in his holidays, and so far seems to have had meetings or something on every night, so we haven't been able to spend a whole lot of time together. He's working in a pretty full-on job with high needs kids vacation care and he's enjoying it and learning a lot. Tonight he has the night off, so we get to hang out :)

I have been spring cleaning and shopping for things like baby change tables, storage containers, pantry cupboards and groceries. After one week of being a housewife, I agree with the amusing but jerky guy in 'About a Boy' - I really don't know how people fit jobs in!! I can taste the finish line! 1 more week of housewife, 10 more weeks of teacher, housewife. I have also spent time hanging out with mum (she came with me to my doctor's appointment and heard our little girl's heartbeat and had to listen to the 'pros and cons of getting the new swine flu vaccine that the doctor in the end recommended that I get regardless of all the scary cons' speech, then we shopped in baby shops and had lunch and went to a movie :)), babysitting, cooking dinner for my sometimes home-cooked-dinner-deprived husband, babysitting (fun!) and reading a ton of books from Mum's.

Last night I hung out with Tammy and Bethany, Wednesday night I hung out with Bethany and Jessima, Thursday night I went to hang out at my parent's and accidentally fell in the middle of the twin's double date (kind of fun - the twins are cute dates lol - but I did go and hide after a bit so as not to cramp style. It was funny when I walked out later and saw the twins and their dates on the big couch in the middle of the lounge room watching a movie, flanked on either side by mum and dad - I think I just caught it at a funny moment though cause I don't think they were there for long). I guess life will change and I'll just hang out at home more when I have Maggie, but I can't think of a better little person to hang out with! Apparently she's just over 11 inches long at the moment and weighs just over a pound - I think she'll grow a bit in the next 17 weeks before she comes out though.

Anyway, I don't have anything to write that will be hugely exciting to most people, but I really, really love the chance I get in school holidays to do the wife/nearly mother thing :) - and spend time with family :) Today some family and friends are coming over for some tennis/b'ball/swimming and a BBQ, then one more week of blissful holiday existence before school starts back up :) Have a great week! xo

IT'S A GIRL!!!

2009-09-14T16:35:00.004+10:00

This morning James and I went to get an ultrasound and confirm that the early ultrasound's 'guess' was correct, and that we are having a little boy.

We were shocked to discover that growing inside of me is a perfect little baby GIRL!! :)

The ultrasound lady was 95% sure that she's right, and we're stoked!!! I couldn't stop smiling and laughing all day, and we got ultrasound pictures too, which I'll put up as soon as I get a little scan of them at mum's house. James thinks she has my nose :) lol

I am sooooo excited!!!! I hope we have a boy next, but am so excited to be having a little girl!!! There is a 99% chance that we will be calling her Maggie :) She is going to have the cutest wardrobe!! :)

Can't believe I am 21 and a half weeks! We will get to meet her in just 4 months!!! Am over the moon! These school holidays I am going to spring clean our house and make room for her things, then plan for her things! I have been concentrating on school during school but the holidays are for baby planning and preparations :) I can't believe it's a girl!!! :) xo

PS: She is kicking like crazy right now! Maybe she's saying 'hi'?! :) xo

It's Too Early!

2009-08-19T20:31:00.000+10:00

Earlier this evening I was sitting at the computer proofreading James’ uni assignment, when I scratched my tummy. To my horror, as I scratched a little patch of skin next to my belly button, I felt something that should not yet be possible! I lifted my shirt up a little and looked down, to see, for the first time in my memory, my belly button: sticking out. In shock I pulled my hand away, and my outie went back home. I tentatively reached back and pushed the skin around my belly button in gently. Out my little innie button popped again! I have since checked on it several dozen times, and sure enough, it willingly pops ‘out’ whenever invited. Is this not too early?! Should my belly button not remain decidedly ‘in’ for at least the next couple of months? Some people’s belly buttons never even come out at all! I am afraid that it will pop out, and then spread so thin that I lose my little belly button completely!! I am a little worried about it, and feeling a little sad. I guess you don’t always appreciate little things like your belly button, until you feel its days are numbered! I will do my best not to let it stretch away.

I'm sorry, my nose is tilted so high in the air I can't see you properly down there...

2009-08-09T09:08:00.020+10:00

So, this week my fabulous sister Tammy was in Melbourne for a business trip. She stayed an extra night, flew me down to stay with her an extra night, and take me to see 'Wicked', for my combined Birthday and Christmas presents this year!!!

Our ritzy weekend began as soon as I got on my Qantas flight. I have flown budget airlines for so long, it was shocking to be offered food, headsets, pillows, blankets, and anything else for my comfort, for free! Lol... my nose raised itself a little in the air. I also have huge amounts of faith in Qantas pilots - I get the brand name thing from my dad always buying Kraft peanut butter and Kellogs and Colgate, but I legitimately think the pilots must be better.

Upon my arrival at Melbourne airport, I saw a man standing by the baggage carousel holding a little sign with my name on it! I picked up my suitcase and he led me to a big, fancy, black car. I got in the back seat, to find a bunch of roses for me, and magazines and water for my convenience. I rode with my little nose pointing upward at a 45 degree angle all the way to our hotel.

When I got to the hotel and my chauffer pulled my suitcase out of the car, I began to lift it up the front steps but a man in a little hotel uniform suit ran out the door to assist me. I asked him to take it to the room where Tammy and I were staying, and found Tammy reading and waiting for me in the foyer. I had to lower my nose for our little 'Oh my goodness the chauffer was sooooo funny - were the roses you? Qantas food is free! This hotel looks awesome!!' reunion and catch-up.

That afternoon we were both tired, but I felt a little too 'wired' to have a nap! Mum had warned Tammy though to make me have a nap so I didn't fall asleep in 'Wicked' (my usual bedtime being curtains up for the first act), so we (also being starving) ordered a room service lunch and put on a movie. The room service was adorable! A cute older man wearing coat tails brought it up, and the silver domes just make food taste better! We got some gourmet sandwhich bites and salad, I had a club sandwich and Tammy had a steak and egg sandwhich, and everything was absolutely divine! :) This is me, excited about our lunch delivery. (Please note the tall bottle that looks like it contains alcohol. That's how they served my spring water - I actually had to figure out how to use a bottle opener to get it open!) And below, is the gorgeous Caesar salad, the sandwhich bites (photo for you mum! lol :)), and my club sandwhich (just so you can feel like you were there with us! :)):

After our scrumptious meal, and a bit of 'Fools Gold', we were both ready for a nap/half asleep, but room service came a knocking and we never say 'no' to people who want to clean up after us, so Tammy said "Oh yes we were just leaving", while I struggled to open my eyes and put my coat on, and we left to let them clean. We decided to explore the hotel for 20 minutes, then go back and have the naps we were both now ready for. Our hotel was awesome. It was adorable 5-Star service, but had last been redecorated probably in the 50's was Tammy's guess, and it has a lot of cool things which make it charming. Some of the ones we found on our sleepy afternoon are the original elevator shaft, old stained glass doors on the really big rooms with people's names on them (we're sure this must've been a relative), the hallways, and the original staircase with tiles on the floor that Tammy loved, because of the way they added to the atmostphere.

We thankfully retired to our room (which looked lovely! - Here's a shot of my favourite part (curtains! Chair!) and a part Tammy thought was hilarious (what a creepy way to hang two tiny pictures on a big wall!) Oh no! - Just realised I didn't get a good photo of the wall pictures. Imagine a huge wall, with two tiny photos hung right next to each other, right in the middle of the wall. It was pretty funny.

So we had a good nap, then got up to go to our show!!! We took a taxi to the theatre (a couple of blocks away), and thought we'd get some sort of little snack before the show (lunch was basically going to cover dinner). We found a Starbucks and got hot chocolates and one piece of raisin toast to share, then got in trouble cause Tammy made me sit at the next door restaurant's outdoor seating right in front of their doorway when Starbucks was full and they didn't have any customers themselves, so we sat at in a pretty little (slightly freezing) outdoor area to eat, and discuss the greater things in life. We then went back around the corner to the theatre.

I wish I could've filmed the show, so you could all see how fabulous it was, but after I got in trouble in the theatre for puting my drink on a wooden ledge, I got in trouble for taking photos, so I put my camera slightly grudgingly away and I can't show you anything at all. But it was awesome!! :) The first act was the storyline I knew more about, but everything in the second act was a surprise which made it fun. There were also heaps of pretty hilarious bits, and I loved the dancing! Tammy loved the singing! I also loved the singing, but Tammy says she loved it in a way that makes me think she might have loved it a tiny bit more than me. She wants to be reborn one day (totally not what is going to happen, according to our beliefs lol) with a broadway voice. I have no desire to be reborn with a broadway voice. But the girls in the show were amazing and hilarious. I loved it! I think it's a bit criminal that they won't let you take photos or record, but totally understandable, but I hope they record it sometime and sell the DVD's, because it was awesome and I wish I could watch it again and again!!! Hopefully they make a movie of it sometime, but it wouldn't be the same as the show! We enjoyed it immensly, along with the red drinks and green pringles (very witch-y snacks ;) If you ever get the chance, it was amazing! (Thankyou soooooo much Tammy!!!! :) xoxox)

We made our way back to our hotel, after a few long detours to look for taxi ranks, as my wraparound skirt undid itself and started to fall down underneath my long coat and my blisters from my lovely new shoes (thanks Mum!) burst and regrew. We were both blissfully exhausted, and went straight to sleep.

The next morning we did some more internet research on what to do in Melbourne, but we didn't really find anything different, and I was convinced we should just ask the concierge at the front desk, so we got ready to leave the hotel, packed our bags, and then called to ask if the hotel could keep our bags after we checked out, before we went to the airport. A bellboy came to our room to collect them, and we again expressed to each other our love for 5-star service.

We went downstairs to the hotel breakfast buffet, which of course, was fabulous. (Thanks Mum and Dad for shouting us breakfast!!). We had a course of hot food and a course of fruit, and I went back for another one of their mini sausages and bacon because they were so good! One of the cute things they had on their buffet all round the fruit section, were little shot glasses of strawberry smoothies!!! Cute!!! And yummy! :)

Then we saw the concierge, who gave us a map of Melbourne and suggested we take the 'City Circle' tram around the city, to get to see the whole city (about an hour round trip), and showed us a few places were it would be interesting to get off and look around. I have never taken a tram anywhere before, so this was a little bit exciting. We got on the first City Circle of the day, right outside our hotel, and enjoyed the speakers in the tram (it's a tourist tram) telling us what we were seeing and passing, and recommending cool tourist-y things to do. So many of them sounded interesting, but time consuming, and we only had a few hours. By around a quarter of the way into the journey, the tram was absolutely packed. Tammy and I had squished together on a small seat, and there were people sitting and standing everywhere. I had issues with their smells, and became convinced they all had the swine flu, which seems to kill pregnant women, so became a bit uncomfortable. We passed at one point a new Harbour Town outlet, which looked comfortable (secretly we both would've been happy getting lunch and watching a movie, but we were trying not to take the Melbourne thing for granted), and interesting places like the immigration museum and the original prison, where Ned Kelly was executed and you could 'walk the gallows' or be 'arrested' and put in a modern cell. We decided to take the whole round trip, then come back and go to the Harbour Town. When we got back to the starting point, the tram was so gross and crammed that we pushed our way off and caught a taxi back to Harbour Town. Taxis are lovely and uncrowded, and they take 8 minutes instead of 45 minutes to get to the same place.

Tammy bought some cute shoes I wanted, and I bought a cute maternity dress, and we had an extended lunch and chat at the Coffee Club - perfect for us :) We braved the tram back to the hotel, and decided that if we ever came back to Melbourne, we'd go to the Ned Kelly prison, because it sounds awesome :)

Here is our over-crowded tram just after we escaped the second time, our hotel from the outside, and me and Tammy (just to prove Tammy was there!) out the front of our hotel. You can see Parliament House behind us.

All in all it was a fabulous trip and we loved it. I've since had plastic surgery/James mocking me surgery to get my nose back into place, but whenever I start remembering the chauffered car, the 5-Star service, the amazing show, taking taxis, Qantas not charging me for their food, lol., it starts to raise itself again just a little bit.

Thankyou Tammy for the awesome trip! When I'm rich, we'll go again sometime ;) Love you! xox

My MOST FABULOUS NEWS!!!

2009-07-28T19:08:00.005+10:00

Okay so we're pregnant!!!! :)

I haven't had anything to say on my blog for the last couple of months, because the most exciting thing in the world was happening and I was so scared something would go wrong I didn't want to say anything about the baby yet so I didn't say anything at all :) Now I will tell you all the things I wanted to tell you, but didn't yet...

1) Morning sickness is amazing, and it is not in your head! It is horrific! The constant nausea and having to eat all the time to calm your stomach but there's nothing in the world you can think of that you want to eat because you're so nauseous and you feel like setting the alarm for the middle of the night and eating to make sure you don't feel as sick in the morning, but don't bother because chances are you'll be woken up being sick anyway! And not wanting to make any plans to do anything, ever, in case you are suddenly dreadfully sick in the middle of it and need a quiet corner with a bucket - oh, and the bucket, which has resided permanently by my bed and in my hand/car/wherever I am since the end of April, is like my best friend. I feel totally insecure without it. It's wearing off a little now - I don't take the bucket everywhere, and I am going whole days at school without feeling it again until I'm at home :)

2) Cravings are also amazing and not in your head. Sooooooo not in your head! If you are around a pregnant woman, and she says 'Oh, I'm really craving _____', what she means to say is, 'If I don't get some _____ within the next 5 minutes, I will die, and I may take you down with me'. It feels like you'll just die if you don't get whatever it is you want and it's not fun like I always imagined, it's torture! And expensive!!! We used to have a budget that catered for all sorts of things, now we just try to save a tiny bit each week, because I am eating my way through all of our money! I always pictured lying on the couch saying to James "Dear, I'm craving chocolate - could you please bring home 7 blocks?", but it was more like "I need a chicken drumstick NOW, please! Quick! I know it doesn't sound realistic but I am going to die if I don't get to eat one and who cares if you're not wearing shoes and you're in the middle of your dinner and - (bursting into tears) - why aren't you in the c-a-a-a-r yet?!!!"

3) When people say you will feel emotional, they don't really explain it. I have never felt so out of control - it's not like you can just say 'suck it up!' to yourself very easily at all. James says "Hey sweetie did you have a good day?!" and it's like the end of the world has come and I can't stop sobbing, and when he tries to ask "What's wrong, why are you crying?!" as he does his best to comfort me which seems impossible, it just makes it worse, because I can't explain what's wrong or why I'm crying, and it seems awfully unjust of him to ask. One night James was out home teaching and I needed a ham and cheese toastie, so I went to the shops and got bread, ham and cheese, then I collapsed into tears in the car, because it felt like the task before me was absolutely 1000% insurmountable, and there was no possible way that I could make myself a toastie! I was around the corner from mum and dad's, so I went there, and when my poor 17-year-old little brother Ben answered the door, I collapsed in a sobbing heap, begging him with all my heart to make me a toastie. He was lovely - he made me a fantastic toastie, and he will make a great husband one day. It's hilarious now, but it's no joke at the time, I can't explain it!

If you can't tell - even though I'm describing these symptoms as terrible, I'm in heaven (okay a lot of the time it really does feel like hell, but at the moment I'm pretty good, so it feels like my life has never been better! ... I sound bipolar... I feel bipolar... ).

There are two amazingly especially wonderful things about being pregnant:

1) I'm going to be a mum!!!! James is looking forward to January (when our baby is due!!!!), but I am looking forward to February (when labour is behind me!!!) :) I can't believe it!!! I can't wait for every little bit of it, including being absolutely dead wasted from night feeds, and scrimping like crazy cause we have no income with James still studying, and wiping dirty nappies (I've avoided it my whole life)! I'm going to read to our children from birth - actually I might start now, and I keep listening to music that I think might make it happy, and I can't wait to homemake, and do all the ironing straight after it's dried instead of just before it's worn, and cook dinners and just everything. But there'll be a little baby there always! And I can't wait for it to wriggle and squirm then smile and roll and giggle and crawl and walk and jump and play and make funny faces and grow it's little personality!!! And then we'll have another baby and we'll all play together, and then another, etc. :)

2) I've discovered a whole other level of James. James has been like this amazing angel for the last 3 months. He was always wonderful, but I mean he's really been amazing!

- Every morning I wake up early and rack my brain for something I can eat. James rolls over as soon as he hears me stir and says 'what can I get you?', as if he can't wait for me to put him through early morning torture. Then he gets whatever I feel like I can eat for me in bed. Often this has meant he's had to go to our corner shop as soon as it opened at 6am, and picked up ingredients, or go to McDonalds to pick me up a bacon and egg mcmuffin (sooo gross, but soooo often craved against my will!). The sad thing is, he'll bring it to me, and just as often as not I take one bite and realise I can't eat it, and need something else. Some mornings I've had 3 or more breakfast plates with 1 bite out of each stacked up beside me and I've been beside myself trying to think of something I can stomach, while he patiently and gently offers suggestions and gets me anything else I think might work.

- Because I've felt so shaky, James has driven me to work every day and picked me up again for months, and even though this combines with the amount I'm eating in wasting our budget, and wasts about an hour of James' day, he hasn't said a word about it, except to offer and help and reassure and be otherwise wonderful.

- When I get home from school I'm always exhuasted, and James has taken care of dinner since the day I fell pregnant basically! I have had trouble seeing food before it was ready to eat, and he has just cooked and cooked and cooked. I had the bright idea to invite mum and dad over for dinner and I'd cook for them in the holidays (I figured if I had all day...), but he ended up happily taking over, and he always does. Today I got home and he was already halfway through the stir fry I had suggested, and he even made brownies for desert, and he seems sooo happy to be doing it, even though I know he doesn't like cooking one little bit.

- James has also packed all of my school lunches, including bunches of food (because I never know what I'll feel like come lunchtime :P) and tuckshop money just in case I don't want any of the food I have packed.

- Every time I'm being sick, James sits with me and rubs my back and helps me and quietly cleans up after me. He doesn't make me feel like I'm gross and horrible (which I promise you I am at those times!), he smiles at me and asks what he can get me and helps me back go bed or to do whatever I need to.

- James has done all of the cleaning in our house for 3 months. I'm not joking. Cooking, dishes, washing, vacuuming, you name it. I seem to spend everything I have making it through the day at school, and I fall apart when I get home and on weekends (I am getting a LOT better now :)), and he has been doing everything, so cheerfully and it seems gratefully!

- James is sooooo happy! When I'm lying in bed with horrible nausea for hours on end and I know he must be itching to go out and do something sporty or just something other than sit at home, he comes bouncing in and asks how I feel, and I say 'oh just nauseous', and he grins and says 'That makes me so happy! That means the baby's healthy! Is there anything I can get you or help you with to make you more comfortable?!' Then he'll sit with me and talk to me and reads to me. I would have thought James would get sick of me being sick and doing everything for me (I am!), but he seems to have neverending patience! Even sometimes when I know I'm being unreasonable and demanding, and I'm upset or worried for no reason and asking for things that are difficult but I'm finding it hard not to, I see him almost get a little tiny bit frustrated, but then he'll go out and come back a second later bouncy and happy and loving and I feel like he must be crazy for being so nice to me! He makes me smile and be excited all the time, no matter how I feel!! I love him so much!

I am sooo blessed to have such a wonderful husband, and he constantly amazes me. At this time when I am so much at my worst he just seems to be growing more wonderful before my eyes. He's gonna be a great dad!!! There are a million other things I want to say about him, but I do realise this is an epic entry and everyone but my mum has skipped it all :)

Final points
- I am due January 22 :) That means I will be very hot and bothered during the last few weeks of pregnancy lol
- We cannot WAIT to find out the sex of the baby so we can plan plan plan! :) Will let you know when I do!
- I am getting fat! :) So fat in fact, that the doctor thought I was 20 weeks pregnant and thought it must be twins because I'm only 14. I really got my hopes up, but it turns out I just 'carry big'. I am fairly sure it is just my fat, but the lovely doctor is telling me it's all baby - again, just 'carrying big' lol.
- When we went to go check for twins, we got to see the baby (just one!) and we think it may be a 'he' even though the ultrasound guy said not to take his word for it because it's too early to tell properly. He was moving and wriggling like crazy so it took ages to get the right pictures the ultrasound doctor needed. Go our active little baby! He looked so healthy and his heartbeat is strong!!! :) He has all of his fingers and toes and a spine and a heart with 4 compartments and everything! You should have seen James when we were looking at our little baby - he was so excited!!!
- I felt the baby kick about a week ago even though it's super early! I've been so paranoid hoping that everything is okay, and I prayed hard that I would feel the baby and I did, and then the next morning I could feel it again and I called James and he put his hand where I said and he felt it too, and I said "are you sure are you sure?!!!" because I was afraid I was making it up in my head, but he was 100%, and I've felt it a few times since, usually when I'm lying still trying to, but today heaps at random times!!

I have never been happier, and it feels like an upwards slope! :) Our families are so excited too! You should have heard the conversation I had with mum when I was telling her about yesterday's ultrasound and how the baby was moving and we think it might be a boy, etc., we were squealing and it was fun! I can't wait to go maternity clothes shopping (some more!) and baby clothes shopping together! And I can't wait to put together a nursery, etc! This is the funnest time ever!!! :) My dad has been making me the most amazing steaks in the world recently as I've been really craving red meat. I really wish I could share the taste with you so you know exactly how good they are. Even the fat is delicious! I keep thinking I hope they love our baby! I know our baby will love them, they are so wonderful!!!

We're gonna have a baaaaby!!! :) xoxxoxoxoxox

Bits & Pieces

2009-06-12T18:02:00.014+10:00

We used to have 'Bits & Pieces' for dinners sometimes. We'd pull out cheese and nuts and dried fruit and meat pies and dim sims and leftovers and kabana (which we'd grill...mmmm) and whatever we could find, and eat it. Like our Boxing Day breakfasts, but less yum...

I had a dream the other night in which we had a baby and it was really cute and everybody liked it! I have a complex that we all love my adorable niece so much that nobody will really like my baby when I have one, because how could it compare with Jenna?! This dream was very comforting.

My kids make me laugh, a lot. They are so funny! Especially when they're not trying to be. One of my favourite moments of camp was when one of my students who feels constantly that the world is against him (sometimes for good reason at home I think) refused to come out of his cabin. I went and knocked on his door and asked him to come out. He came out with one of his grumpiest expressions on. I asked him what was wrong, and he explained that he'd really hurt his head (he said it like someone was to blame for it in a BIG way). "Oh no, J", I said "What happened?" "Well," he explained, "I was jumping on the table in the middle of the cabin, but I hadn't realised the fan was on!". I cracked up laughing (a somewhat unintential reaction), he couldn't help smiling, and we went to breakfast.

We are in a cold snap. Bring on hot chocolate! :)

I haven't been well lately, and James has been an angel. Every morning for the past week he's gotten me breakfast in bed!

I have received 3 bunches of flowers in the last couple of weeks, and all are still alive and in vases at home. Tammy bought me some, James bought me some, and my basketball teams at school bought me some today. I inherited a great love of flowers from my Mum. They are so beautiful, what wonderful creations!

Today we ran some sports day heats at school, and I was starting the 200m. At the end we stacked up all of the cones we'd marked the starting positions with, and the pink, white, yellow and green cones ended up in a cute rainbow patten.

Ben and Oliver will probably be ON their missions in 2 years. They've always wanted to go to China, even though it's not open yet. I heard the other week that a new ambassador from the USA to China has been appointed and he's a church member. We've said before that maybe the twins will be in the first group of missionaries sent to China, but at this rate it might be there before they are!

Air fares are soooo cheap! A friend of my mother-in-law just went to England for $400 return! We could hop across to NZ for that price!! Dad saw return tickets to the USA for some insanely small price, and there are $200 2-4-1 tickets to Japan! Global Financial Crisis + Swine Flu?

Yesterday I was waiting in the car as James ran into the shops for something, and there was a lady in the car next to me with two kids. She had a little boy on her lap who was probably 1, and a little girl next to her. The little boy was leaning back funny, and each time the lady and the girl laughed. The boy looked quizzical at first, but soon recognised it as a game, and starting 'playing' - leaning back funny and waiting for the laughter. It was cute :)

My little sister Bethany is studying primary school teaching. She didn't enjoy her first year much, but she just had an awesome prac and 2nd year seems to be going better. I hope she loves it because I do, and hopefully I'll go off and have babies and she can have all of my teaching 'stuff' until she goes off and has babies too! :)

James is doing well at uni, and loving it :) I'm so glad!!!

A principal at another school called me to see if I was interested in teaching at their school for the second semester. I went and checked it out and met the principal yesterday, and spent the whole of today being grateful that I'm at such a wonderful school with such wonderful kids! I don't want to leave. The only thing that really dampens my opinion of our school is the tuckshop. A sandwhich is about $5, and it's not that good. As my teaching partner put it, 'If you want to buy tuckshop, you're pretty generous to donate all that money to the school'. Even at private schools they're much more reasonably priced. I don't know how this tuckshop isn't more infamous.

I've always wanted a pair of black stiletto boots, really nice quality ones. Last year I said to James that if we didn't have a baby by this winter, could I have some? He laughed and agreed. Earlier this winter I bought some. They were obscenely priced and they're beautiful. They're just really hard to walk in. Sometimes I practice. I've only worn them out once, under jeans on a date with James. They don't seem to go with anything in my wardrobe... Maybe I'll spend the rest of my life wearing them around the house. I love them! :)

I recently read 'The Host' by Stephanie Meyer - Twilight author. She has a way of making really messed up things sound perfectly normal and excessively interesting. I like telling James about them and listening to how messed up he thinks they are. It's funny how normal it seems when you're reading it! I really enjoyed it! I am looking forward to reading the Twilight series and The Host again in a few years when I've forgotten them :)

I'm feeling very 'What a Wonderful World'. What a great song that is, too! When you start brainstorming nice things to write about, I guess it's like "Count your Many Blessings" and it will surprise you what the Lord has done! It does every time! :)

James and I are going out to get kebabs and a movie. I love Friday nights!!! :) I love chicken!!! I love everything right now :)

xoxoxoxox

Girls Night Out!

2009-06-12T17:39:00.003+10:00

A week or two ago we received a very exciting email from Tammy, inviting all the girls of our family to join her in enjoying a 'Girls Night Out' together at the movies. There was a special preview screening of 'The Proposal' at the movies, and she got us tickets, and made up cute little gift bags for us and everything!

The gift bags were adorable - Beth and Jolea got HSM3 (If you don't know the initials, you are way out of touch with most 13 year olds!) bags, and I got a Barbie bag (yessss!), and I'm actually not sure what mum and dad got, but they were full of tissues and popcorn and chips and chocolates and fruit and little bits and pieces like fun lips and hearts clips and water and ginger beer, etc. It was a treat being at the movies together (on a school night no less :o) and I just wish Tammy hadn't had to ditch at the last minute to fulfill her calling (sigh. In a 'I'm-glad-you-fulfilled-your-calling' kind of way!) - we missed you!!!! (That is why Dad was there, despite not bing a girl...).

Apart from the accidentally naked scene and the very, very scary bartender it was a really cute movie. I enjoyed it a lot!

Thankyou Tammy! We will have to have a girls night out again soon, and you can come, and we'll make you a little gift pack! Love you heaps! :) xoxoxoxox

I'm soooo tired!!!

2009-05-19T18:09:00.003+10:00

For the sake of the privacy of my lovely class I can't really tell you much of what's been going on at school, but I'm sooooooooooooooo tiiiiiired!!! :) Yesterday was a very crazy and a little disheartening and sad day!

Didn't go on strike today. I am so grateful to have such a well-paying job when so many people all around me are losing their jobs. It is a pretty innapropriate time to be rallying for a pay rise when people need whatever money can be spared sooo much more than us well-paid lot! It is a little sad that we're behind other states, but not THAT sad! If I have a serious issue with it I'll move interstate - the pay rate is public, so you know what it is before you get into it. That's my banner lol :) I just babysat the few kids who turned up to school, sorted out issues from yesterday (seerious issues - sad!), and caught up on a lot of marking and planning.

I wonder how tomorow will go!

Goodnight, I'm going to go to sleep on the couch watching a DVD while I wait for James to finish rugby training :) xo

Ode to Netball...

2009-05-14T18:16:00.010+10:00

Growing up here in an Australian school, netball was hard not to play,

I played from a young age, continued through highschool and that's where till now, it stayed.

Volleyball and basketball were also on the cards, but netball was probably my best,

Basketball's easier to play casually, so I really gave netball a rest.

This year I joined a mixed touch football team, 'Slim Pickings' our proud team name,

I wrote about it a few weeks ago, said I'd update you after the first game,

But it was so bad, I felt so very dumb, I wanted to quit right away,

There's a kid from my school and my dad on the team, whose yells threaten to keep me at bay.

"Who the heck is that number 3 there? RUN UP RUN UP 3, NO! NOW RUN BACK!!!"

I couldn't figure out which direction to go, which was the up or back that I lacked.

And then last game I mixed up the times and arrived as my players walked off the field,

They seemed a little grumpy, I wonder if shame is all my turn on this footy team will yield.

Last night I was called by a friend who needed a player on her netball team,

I knew I'd be worse for not playing 6 years, but was eager and bursting at the seams,

The time drew close, I got pretty nervous, I drank water and cut my nails short,

I've been making a fool of myself on the field, hopefully I'd be better on the court.

They needed a center and a goalkeeper too, I used to play center a lot,

But I jumped in goal keeper so I could watch the game and remember the rules I've forgot.

3 seconds in saw me standing in eagerness at the third line which marked my prison,

As soon as my first touch of the ball in defence all my sleeping autopilot knowledge had risen.

After first quarter I was bucking to get out of my third, I gratefully swapped out of keeper,

And jumped on as center much to my delight, then quickly found the skills needed much steeper!

I switched again to GA for the last half of the game - my shooting has not yet awoken,

Actually that's an understatement - that part of me actually seems to be broken.

But I love the game, the whistle, the court, constantly being told to 'stand aside',

The defence player trying to trap me out of play, secretly jabbing me in the side,

The fact that when I shoot the players stand three feet away,

Intercepts, center passes, rebounds and sprints, it's the game I most love to play.

And whenever I did something not completely stupid, I could almost hear in my head,

My dad yelling 'THAT'S MY GIRL!!', as he used to, but all I could hear instead,

Was James who'd come along and joined the husbands who are on his rugby team, cheering,

And they shouted so enthusiastically for their wives that they received a preliminary warning.

They only have 2 more games this season but are down 2 players next week,

So I'll probably get another chance to enjoy a game in which I feel less like a geek.

And next year when 'Slim Pickings' starts picking up, and getting ready for the season,

I WILL SAY NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! And hopefully play netball somewhere. Bethy? Tammy? Mama? Jessima? Anyone? :) xo

Bits & Pieces

2009-05-12T06:20:00.015+10:00

One and a half years later, still sort of edible...

Taking up about 1/6 of our freezer for the last one and a half years, has been the beautiful top tier of our wedding cake. We have been waiting a long time, for an appropriate occassion to eat it, but have not experienced one, so a week or two ago, we decided just to eat it a) for kicks, b) becuase it was Sunday night and we didn't really have much food in the house, and c) because I wanted my freezer space back. We cut big wedges in it like it was a birthday cake, but being excessively rich we really couldn't eat probably even half of our pieces. It was a tiny bit funny tasting, but was good warmed up with ice-cream. I called mum the next day, and offered them the rest, which mum accepted, as I predicted, for sentimental reasons. I'm pretty sure it's still in her storage fridge.

Coming Home!

Last week I was away on school camp, which was awesome and hilarious and I wish I could tell you funny details of the kids and put hilarious photos up but that might be a bad idea. Anyway, as awesome as it was I was stoked to get back home to real life and my wonderful husband. James was at work when my adorable sister Bethany dropped me home, so we hung out for a bit, then she left and I unpacked and washed my camp 'stuff''. James rushed home after work, with the most beautiful flowers (a bunch of those buds opened up yesterday and they're bright pink and just beautiful!!), and then we went and got fish'n'chips and snuggled up on the couch to watch a movie - I love being home!!!

Mothers' Day

So this Mothers' Day was really fun! On Saturday I got sick (comes from spending a week living with 250 children, sigh..), so on Sunday, when James and I were due to cook brekkie for his mum, he left me in bed and only woke me up when it was all ready to go! We had a lovely morning with his parents - we got his mum an exotic-looking pot plant which she seemed to like. We dropped by my parent's afterwards because my mother had spent all mothers' day morning cooking me chicken soup (there's nothing like it in the whole world!) to help me feel better (it does. Instantly). Mum had also gotten me 12 beautiful yellow roses and a wonderful book, called 'The Ultimate Career'. I thought it was a cruel present when I first read the title, who wants a career when they could be a mum and housewife??? But it turns out that it's talking about the mum/housewife career, and it's awesome :) I can't wait to participate in the practicle part of this education more fully. I ate soup and read my book and looked at my beautiful flowers (we can't afford many flowers so I don't usually have any, but right now I have 3 vases full! :)) It was such a mothers' day for me even though at the moment I'm just a daughter!! I decorated mama up a little coffee table photo box - ready for photos. We had dinner with a surprise visit from Aunty Linda and Uncle Steve which was cool - they've never been to Brisbane before so it was wonderful. Sadly I piked on the lounge, feeling rather unwell, and we left early before the end of dinner or anything. James gave me a wonderful gift too, one of those times where it was the thought that counted. He wanted to get me something just cause i'm a girl and I wanna be a mum, but we had no budget left, and he'd already and gotten me flowers which were not in our budget, so he felt bad and didn't get me anything :) Sweet. I love sticking to budgets :)

Good times xo

When I Grow Up, I Wanna Be a Homemaker!!!

2009-05-02T23:12:00.005+10:00

Dear Blog Diary,

Today I went to the 'Stiches and Craft Show' with Mum, at the Brisbane Convention Centre. I didn't know it existed until Mum called late last night and suggested the outing, but in a spirit of homemaking and a visit with Mum, I was eager to go.

Once we got through the doors, and to the very first shop, we were 'gone'. Into the world of crafting heaven!

About 6 hours later, we departed excited and giddy, arms full of wonderful and still slightly mysterious packages containing materials for new projects, crafts and techniques.

One of the main worlds opened up to me today was the world of embossing! I am beginning by using dry embossing, but would love to progress to using embossing medium which I love! I would have bought some today but my budget had already been murdered, so I hope to start it up in the future (it's the start-up fees that kill me!). Thanks mum for buying me the embossing tool and the sanding flowers! Also the picture of the small bug-like creatures that fascinated me so much, I love them and can't wait to get started!!

We picked up a sample of 'Snaps Australia' - a little machine which in one brief movement of a lever attaches presses and snaps into your material - idea for baby clothes, doona covers, anywhere you need a button but can't be bothered sewing one on... :) very effective , and the buttons/snap/presses can't come off! They come in a massive set with the press machine starter kit for $110. I suggested to mum that we (all of my sisters and sister-in-laws and mum) could all put in $20 or so and get a family one, but we never followed it up. I wonder how often we'd use it!

We also spent some time examining quilt stands, where mum was trying diligently to suss out which types of quilts I like and would want for a quilt she may make me someday. Sadly most of the quilts I saw were sort of ugly, but I assured Mum that hers were not, and as long as it's not dull and dreary I'd be sort of honoured just to get one.

We had a lovely lunch, consisting of slightly terrible food and lovely company (obviously the loveliness of the company in this case outweighed the badness of my salad and the bacon it contained but shouldn't have...)

Now I am at home. I told James about blowing the budget, and thanked him for letting me have so much art stuff. He pointed out to me that he hadn't had much of a choice in the matter at all, and rarely did, but I thanked him for buying it for me in the past, and having one of the spare rooms set aside for my supplies and workspace. I still struggle with not being able to be home much and not doing very well at fulfilling my role as wife and mother (Yes I know, I'm not actually a mother - this is most of the issue with fulfilling this roll, and most of my 'struggle' in life!), but when I am in my little artsy room (or spread out all over the house!) painting and making cards and handstitching and cooking and cleaning and scrapbooking and reading and being creative, it feels like I'm just that little bit closer to becoming one. I know we don't have kids, but I have decided to make up a little chipboard photo booklet ready for photos to be pasted in when they come (I have decided to have twins first). I'm going to get onto this embossing thing and continue to hopefully pick up some more sewing here and there. I'm going to cook the museli bar slice mum used to make, as well as her homemade marshmallow becuase I think James will love these. I will continue to learn how to cook. I will try to fulfill my goal of having the dishes washed every night and then extend it to having other things clean all the time too! I want to buy some of the gorgeous cross stitch patters and do it sometime when I'm sick at home with morning sickness too, then stick it up in the nursery I'll create with James if we ever get baby news.

I can't wait to be a housewife and a homemaker!!

xo

Slim Pickings

2009-04-25T14:35:00.019+10:00

On the very first teacher development day at my school, which was my first ever day of work, I was sitting at the 'year 6' table, getting ready to start work. I had just met the year 6 teaching team, and could barely remember their names. I was very shy and nervous. There's one guy on our year level, a nice family guy, who asked if I liked sport. I said I did, and then he said the staff were forming a touch footy team to play in a club competition, and if I was keen they'd be happy to have me. I said 'OK', and suddenly I was eagerly trekking down a path that would lead me through embarressment, then onto ... hopefully fitness and new skills.

In highschool I played netball, basketball and volleyball. I danced a LOT and was pretty fit overall. I am very bad with sports involving bats. As soon as there is a third party involved, my hand and the ball begin to disagree. I end up looking like an idiot, as I make contact with tennis balls at the part of the raquet enclosed by my fist. I have a hard time judging the distance and where to make contact when something other than just my hand is involved. Touch, however, does not involve much besides players and the ball. I have cheerlead for leage, union and AFL a lot in the past, so I thought had a bit of an idea about footy games in general... Touch, as I understood it, simply required fitness, and as I have had fitness in the past, I figured I'd pick it up quickly.

Little did I know the 'fitness training' aspect of the lead-up to games would be quite so public and humiliating. On the last day of school last term we had a scratch match against the best touch players in the school, including a few district players and a kid who just made the state league team. I jokingly asked if we couldn't just have training after school somewhere where nobody could see us, but I wasn't joking at all.

It was a little bit of a disaster for me personally. Here are some things I learnt:

I am unfit.
There are 6 players on each team.
I am... excessively unfit.
When you are touched with the ball, you simply place it down on the ground between your legs, and if necessary roll it backwards a few inches. If you throw it backwards between your legs, your teamate will end up running backwards to pick it up, cursing you all the way.
Impressively unfit, even!
Touch has a whole other language! If you don't understand it, the excessively fit woman beside you who is twice your age but could run 20 laps around the oval for every one of yours will at intervals between speaking this language at the top of her lungs suddenly burst into action in front of you, murmuring 'don't worry Ab, I'll just do it myself!'
If there were a word, which meant 'unfit', but more, that would be me.
In touch, you basically have your own player to mark. If you don't realise this and start running in the opposite direction, they will get past you (despite the hasty attempts of cranky teamates) and score a try for their team.
If unfit were a competition, I would actually be in the running for first place!
You can sub anytime you want. The only catch is that if you decide you're going to sub with a teamate when you are back on your line in defence, as you obliviously stroll off the field whistling, you're leaving behind a rather conspicuous gap, through which the other team will inevitably score. When I explained to James the way I learnt this rule he looked at me as if I were crazy. How was I supposed to know??!
I am so unfit that when I run, my face turns such a peculiar shade of red, that my class and other students in the school think I have a rare disease.

I learnt all of these the hard way, in front of the entire school. My class were so cute and hilarious. They were soooo supportive, screaming "GO MRS E!!!" over and over, then as the game went on and it became increasingly apparent that I was incredibly unfit and had no idea what I was doing, they seemed to become almost embarressed for me, and the encouragement became constructive critisism and instruction, and "Don't worry Mrs E, we'll teach you the rules!!!".

Our first game against an actual team of people who are not 11 years old, is on Tuesday night. We are wearing shirts, in which we will glow in the dark. Although I laughed out loud when I first saw them (much to the dismay of our team captain who ordered them) and asked whether we were doing community service or playing touch, I am grateful that I will probably be able to recognise who to pass the ball to in the dark. I am number 3. James just got released from YM and into Ward Mission Leader so he has Tuesday nights free and can come and play too. I am excited for this because I will feel more useful to my team, as bringing him along will compensate for bringing me along! :) I will let you know how we go :) xo

My New Calling in Life!

2009-04-20T15:43:00.004+10:00

This is possibly going to be the most exciting post to date! - Not just because it's the first one after a looooong drought, but because my life has changed, been renewed, I have finally found my purpose!!! - It is.....(drumrolls all over the world...) to be a hairdresser!!!!

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!

I made myself laugh, becuase I imagined Tammy's face as she read that... I'm just joking. I'm still happy to be a teacher, and can't wait to be a mama, which is more my purpose in life than anything else, really! On Saturday our brother Michael got married (yay!! :)). That morning I offered my darling older sister a haircut 'on me'! :)

Backtrack maybe 6 months...

I really wanted a haircut, and I had decided to deviate for the first time in my life, from the straight across haircut I've always had, and go with slight layers (adventurous doesn't even begin to describe me!). I mentioned it to mum a few times who said she'd be happy to help. One day I felt like I needed it done immediately. I called mum and she was busy at that moment, so she couldn't do it. Assumedly, I really really needed it done right then - I can't exactly remember why but something must have been coming up or I was going through an ID crisis or something, but I turned to James and asked him to please please please cut my hair.

James agreed to cut my hair, and suggested I look @ google to see if there was a 'how to' website. There are many many websites on how to cut hair, and millions of demo videos, but the helpful tip I found most helpful after searching for 'how to layer hair', was:

"Bend over, flipping hair towards the floor. Comb hair out straight and smooth. Make a cut straight across your hair."

These three sentences gave me the best haircut ever and saved my day. Since then James has re-trimmed it in the same style and I'm loving it. He's also cut my sister Bethany's hair this way, and Jessima (another sister) got Jonny to cut her hair the same way - she looks really cute.

........RETRACK TO SATURDAY MORNING.......

Tammy wanted to join the club - it was really turning into a sister thing! I agreed, and Tammy followed the instructions to stand bent over with her hair out...just as I was about to 'snip snip snip', Tammy mentioned that she'd like a trim and not to be afraid to take any length off.

I decided to follow her advice, and took of about 8 inches in parts. It was sort of an accident, in that it looked like 'just a trim' to me when I first began, but it very quickly became obvious that I was fulfilling nightmares. Once you start though, you can't stop with half the hair long and half short (as I learnt about 2 years ago now :)), so I continued, almost laughing and almost crying.

Tammy is one of the nicest people in the world. She didn't get mad. Not even when she looked in the mirror and saw a mullet looking back at her. Not when she realised I'd given her a punk rock chick 'do', and not even when she noticed that she practically had a fringe - a random line of hair coming halfway down her face!

3 happy report items to finish this sad tale:

1. Lesson Learnt: It turns out you should always just cut a modest amount of hair off at a time, because it dries even shorter than it is when it's wet.
2. Okay so it's actually really really cute when Tammy's got her sunnys on her head pulling back the weird short bits at the front! The layers kick and curl around Tamster's face and it's adorable! Even mum said so!! :)
3. When I was approximately 3 years old Tammy (on two seperate occassions) played 'hairdresser' with me, and I eneded up looking more than interesting. Very interesting frinege length consistency especially. She thought I'd forgotten after all these years... muahaha :)

So I'm not really going to become a hairdresser, but I'm happy to complete some private business on the side, just give me a call! :)

PS: Tammy I really really really am sorry! I love you!!!
PPS: I would have posted some pics of Tamster's cute 'do', but she has a 'no photos' policy (sigh)...

xo

It's Possible, Pig!

2009-03-15T11:49:00.005+10:00

Okay so the 'Pig' bit is just a family/Princess Bride thing, but it is actually somewhat relevant to this post. My lovely brother and sister have been eating very sensibly and exercising a lot lately, concentrating more than usual on being healthy, despite busy schedules as Jonny's in dentist school. I was there the other night and Jessima offered to share their evening meal with me. I usually like to think of salad as a side dish, or more realistically, an optional side dish, much to my pro-health husband's dismay! When Jessima revealed that dinner was to be a salad, I'm nonplussed to admit I was more than a little skeptical, and thought of it as the 'entree', for the dinner I'd have to have again when I got home later to fill me up and satisfy my tastebud intake for the evening. When, however, Jessima brought out the salad, it looked like it does in the picture, but better, because things do in real life. Lots of chicken, olives, and tomatoes and cheese. This salad reminds me of my Mama, who does yummy salads too. I think if you put chicken, cheese, and olives in your salad (as dominant ingredients...like, the first 3 listings on the side of the box...), it's possible to have a delicious meal out of it, and be so full and have your tastebuds so satisfied, that you don't even need to go home and re-eat dinner afterwards! This salad was delicious, and I think Jessima even added love, which is probably just as important as the chicken(!) :)

Thankyou so much for having me come and hang out last Tuesday Jessima, and for the delicious meal! I enjoyed the company as well as the food immensly, and hope that we can do it again! :)

xoxox

And the Winners Are...

2009-03-12T17:51:00.006+10:00

Kaili gave me a blog award! I didn't know they existed, and I was a little intimidated to see a link on her blog which is full of artists and other very important people, to my blog, which is full of really long blog entries about my little world, but I like it, and I have decided to continue in this noble tradition, and award some of my favourite blogs, blog awards:

So the lemonade stand awards go to...

Sandy Speak
Tammylorna
At Home With Jonny and Jessima
Fun at the Cook Shack
and
(I don't think you're supposed to do this but you really deserve it Kaili. You would definitely get a blog award if someone else had given it to me so I don't think the fact that you've already got one should count you out from getting this one as well!)
Billy and Button

These are blogs that make me happy, and that I like to check a lot :)

If you want to participate these are the rules:
1)Put the lemonade award logo on your blog or post.
2)Nominate 5-10 blogs that show great attitude and or gratitude.
3)List and link your nominees within your post.
4)Let them know they have received the award by leaving a comment on their blog.

Of Grandparents...

2009-03-05T18:51:00.010+10:00

This is my Mother's Mother. I was tossing up between a few photos for which to introduce Grandma Taylor with. This picture of her is cute because she looks like she's dancing, which she probably was. Grandma has never acted her age, and I mean that in a good way. She's a lot of fun and she always has been. It is this Grandmother who taught me many important things in life: How to hoola dance, how to tie a scarf in many different ways, how to last hoola hooping for as long as I want (obviously good with all things hoola), how to do foolproof cardtricks, and most importantly, something I can't seem to master but which Grandma does brilliantly, how to play the 'trumpet' with a comb and a piece of gladwrap. In fact, I think I have a video of that... okay I went to put the video up but then I got scared of all the terms and conditions and the whole putting a video of my Grandma on the internet for everyone to see and I thought I'd better get permission first! On the upside, I get to see this Grandmother very soon, but I'll tell you more about that in a minute. Another thing I like about this picture of Grandma is that it shows her cooking a fabulous 'goodbye' breakfast for me and James from when we got to visit her in Adelaide last year. She has a heart of gold, and loves to serve in any way she can. Grandma's not very well, so it takes a lot of effort to cook a feast for people who eat as much as us, but it appears that she'd rather die trying than not make the effort :) Here's a picture where you can see the fruit platter, but it misses out the bacon, eggs and chipolatas which accompanied, and I kid you not, James was full before all the food was even gone! A third reason that I like the above photo is that Grandma's wearing her 'World's Best Grandma' apron. Doesn't it look lovely on her? :)

Grandma Taylor is our only surviving Grandparent (on my side - James still has Great-Grandparents in New Zealand! :)). Dad's Dad passed away when I was 9 years old, in February, and then just last year his beautiful wife passed away after having lost most of her memory over the last few years. Grandad Munro (from what I can remember) was a quiet man. I remember when I was staying there once in their home, Grandma walking into the room and noticing in some degree of horror that he was attempting to tie my very long and unruly hair into a ponytail with an actual rubber band. He seemed a bit bothered by the whole business. He called Grandma 'Mum', and had a 'secret' jar of jellybeans in the workshop under the house, which he used to give us 'when Grandma wasn't looking' (it's only occured to us in recent years that perhaps Grandma did know about this jar.....). Grandma was very proper. She always spoke nicely and wore stockings and pretty dresses. Grandma was also very funny, and it was all the funnier because you didn't expect it from her, so it took everyone a while to catch onto her jokes. Grandma and Grandad Munro ate pizza with a knife and fork. You could tell Grandma missed Grandad a lot, so being able to be with him again is wonderful, we are very happy for them both. A few years ago Grandma typed up her life history for each of her children, and it is a beautiful story of simple faith. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful heritage.

Grandma Taylor remarried and so we were blessed with 2 Grandfathers on Mum's side. Grandad Taylor was Grandma Taylors second husband, and he was a jolly man. We'd dance on his toes and he'd always sing. He had a song for everything you said. You could say "Gee, Grandad, the other day a trolley slammed into me as I was walking down the road and a kangaroo jumped out and started boxing me!" and he'd break into a song written 56 years ago in which just that seemed to have happened. It was amazing, and kind of fun. He loved to hear us sing and play our instruments, and he always used to tell us we'd make it big with them if we just believed in ourselves.

Poppa was Mum's Father, and Grandma's first husband. They obviously didn't work out and Grandma was remarried when mum was pre-teen, but near the end of his life when Mum and I were able to visit Adelaide to see him twice when he finally had to go into care, Grandma came along with us to visit him a time or two, and they enjoyed each other's company. Grandma made him a cute card with chocolate bars stuck to it, and Poppa kept asking if 'Pat' was coming in to see him. He was a nice man and I wish I knew him for longer. He loved having us to visit, even if he pretended to be grumpy, and would flirt with all the nurses when he was in care. He was hilarious, and I'm so grateful that I was able to get to know him even for a short few years. I can't wait to see him again sometime, and I hope he's accepted the gospel by the time we all get there!

Anyway, what brought along this trip down grandparent lane is the fact that Mum and Dad flew yesterday down to Adelaide, to pick up Grandma and drive her up here for a good, 2-month long visit. We are all very excited to have her come, and can't wait to see her. Grandma is too sick to fly (she was sicker than any of my grandparents from the day she was born, but has outlived all, and will probably outlive all of us at this rate), so it's hard for her to visit. They will arrive up here this Wednesday, so they're not taking the drive too quickly, and will get to see part of the Great Ocean Road on the way up.

I'm sure you'll hear more about my wonderful, hoola dancing, 'trumpet' playing, and I like to think slightly eccentric Grandmother during her visit. I think we'll have a ball.

Thankyou for joining me in a lovely chat about my wonderful grandparents. Writing and remembering these things (along with a few stops along the way to reminisce by looking at photos and videos) has made be remember how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family, not just now, but in the past. I can't wait to meet more of my ancestors (one of the few good things about dying), even though I've always been a bit scared that not all of the ones who have died already will completely like me, from what I know about them from their photos (no Jonny and James, I do not have a complex).

xo