Happy New Years!!! :)

Had the best New Years Day yesterday!! :)  I've been wanting to get some jobs done lately that just seem so 'big' in my current state!  It was James' last day of holidays and he was SO wonderful, bless him!  And the girls, who have had a crazy last few weeks, amenably slept for hours, so we could just 'do our stuff' :)

First, we got rid of Christmas!  Our house looks so lovely and clean and neat!!  We put away all of the Christmas decorations and cards and cushions, and everything else, and put out our usual house stuff.  Especially after the final vacuum, taking with it the last of the pine needles, it felt REALLY good! :)  I organised all of our Christmas things into new storage and organising containers I recently bought a million of, and love the new organised system!!! :)  I cleaned out the rest of the top of Ana's cupboard while I was there :)  We also managed to find places for ALL of the Christmas toys the girls received - no small feat!!  And I reorganised (even though they'd only had it for a week!) their little kitchen, and when they woke up we went through it together so they KNOW where EVERYTHING goes, and hopefully it's not as crazy in future! :)

Then, we organised everything Baby Boy :)   Until we move in the next few months, he gets 2 drawers to his little name - and a bassinet, if all goes according to plan and it EVER gets here! (We order through a shop which sell everything SO MUCH CHEAPER than everywhere else, but Maggie's cot, which we ordered over 3 months before she arrived, didn't arrive until well after they told us it would, after her birth!  They told us the bassinet would be here before the end of December, but alas - now they're saying end of January - and this boy will be here before then! :s  Hopefully it arrives just after he does?!!).  Anyway, I pulled out all of the lovely boy clothes we got for Christmas, and blankets, and toys, and organised them all :)  This is one of the FUNNEST parts of getting ready for baby :)  I put all of the clothes and blankets in the wash, and then used the drier instead of hanging them out, because it makes them so much fluffier and softer!! :)  I plan on having an ironing day this week, and getting them all beautifully ironed and folded and put away :)  It's so fun doing 'blue'!!! :)   With organising Boy's things, came organising my things too - to pack our hospital bags :)  I'll finish up properly when Boy's clothes are ironed and ready :)  It's all pretty exciting though!  I know I'm not quite in the 'nesting' stage, because as much as I love and was loving getting things ready for him, the urge was not accompanied by any kind of burst of energy, and I had to keep sitting down abruptly and resting cause I felt like I was going to faint half the day! :p  So hopefully that comes soon, and I can have another useful day or two before he gets here :)

We also managed to get out for a little grocery shop in the afternoon, including our first pack of newborn nappies ready to pack into the hospital bag :)  Sadly by that time I ended up sitting on a couch in the shopping centre and James running in to get the groceries (I love grocery shopping! :)), but we did it :)  James had (between helping me get things done all day) also been 'Mr Fix-It'-ing, fixing up a bunch of odd little things - he's always so onto stuff and handy, I love it!  :)

By the time we put dinner away and the girls went to bed, I felt fantastic!!  Everything is so clean and neat and organised right now, happy sigh!! :)  I sat on the couch and ate watermelon and read a book, and at some point fell asleep until James woke me up and took me to bed.  He used to carry me, but the whole 9 months pregnant thing seems to have ended that for now lol :)

So Happy New Years Everyone!!! Hopefully this year is as clean and fresh and exciting as Day 1 was for me!! :)  Bring on our Baby Boy and James starting teaching and everything else - 2013 is looking like our best year yet!!! :)

A Love Affair.

Tammy introduced us, 14 days ago now, and it was love at first sight.

I didn't even try to resist - I was inspired, besotted. I resisted instigating actual contact, but have internet stalked to my hearts content, only to fall more deeply in love.

Because I'm not actually writing for Days of Our Lives, I'd better introduce you to the object of my affections...

kikki.K

I have always loved stationary. I love pretty notebooks and vibrant colours. I love pencils and crayons and pens and paints. I love quotes and diaries and organisers.

Nerdy?

I think not!!!

(James thinks yes.)

Lately I've been wanting to put together a pinboard, just for me. I want to put up my favourite photos that just I want to look at, without worrying what anybody else entering my house will think. I want to put up quotes I love and that inspire me to work harder and be better. I want to put up pretty pictures, and notes to self, and dream places to visit one day, and other dreams. I want to hang it up somewhere where I'll see it all the time. I want to have my art desk under it, and organise and create in my own little corner. It's just that that spot doesn't exist yet, so my whole pinboard project is on hold.

(Yes, I know about Pinterest. But I just deleted my Facebook account and have ruled that Blogging is my only internet time investment for now, so I'm not going to open something so tantalisingly fun and addictive looking! :))

When I went to Tammy's house before we went and met up with Faith & Tim the other week, Tammy had changed her room around, and on her wall, was my vision!! - a fabulous pinboard, full of cute pictures and quotes and 'things'. I should've taken a picture of it for this blog post. It was awesome. I loved a lot of the cute quotes and pictures Tammy had, and she told me they were from kikki-K. She'd gone there and found the board, then found so many cute things to go with it, and there'd been a MASSIVE sale on, and she'd ended up with a totally cute 'inspiration board' (as they call them at kikki-K). She also showed me a 'Gratitude' book she'd gotten from there to be used as a special diary, complete with cues, ideas, quotes, and a bunch of 'thankyou' cards at the back. AND she GAVE me an inspirational quote book exactly the same as the one she'd bought herself and cute quotes out of for her inspiration board! (the sale had been a 'if you spend this much you get it all half price, so she went wild :)). She also gave me the Gratitude Diary cause I liked it so much, and James said he'd love one too sometime because it was so awesome, but then I felt too guilty (!) stealing it so I gave it back (I know Bethany, I'm growing a conscience, shocking, but don't get your hopes up it's not developing rapidly or anything...). Anyway, I loved everything, and have been kikki-K online browsing ever since!!

Meanwhile, Tammy went on a trip around Australia for work (she should TOTALLY WRITE A BLOG POST about it - especially the 4 days in Tassie which Dad joined her for and they went sightseeing and had lots of fun), and in the Sydney airport she found a Gratitude Book and bought it for James, since she never bought him a birthday present!! (a fact nobody had remembered but herself lol :)). THEN, she bought me one too, and may have accidentally bought me a couple more things...

So here's my wealth of amazingly cool kikki-K things:






Don't you love it how they put 3 bookmarks in every book???!! I do :)

James and I both started writing in our gratitude diaries last night, and Tammy'll probably have an adorable kikki-K gratitude journal 'thankyou' note or two soon! :) The inspirational books and twine will to-tally be used on my inspiration board when I have it one day (in the not-too-distant-future, hopefully!!), and I've been commissioned to make Tammy some cards with the inspiration stickers :)

And check out some other random cool kikki-K bits and pieces (there are a few pics of their inspiration boards..:)):


Isn't stationary fun??!!! Isn't organisation fun??!!! Isn't inspiration and gratitude fun??!!!! :) Isn't Tammy the most generous and creative big sister??

Spring Detox...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bless Spring!! :)

Gripped with Excitement

I'm bouncing off the walls with excitement.

I don't know if my reasons would justify this state of being for everyone, but they seem to be working for me. Here are some of them:

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

See wouldn't you TOTALLY be excited too?! So many reasons... :)

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

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

xo

Turn Off the TV and Get a Life!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

So then I swore off TV for a while.

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

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

I am more really there for Maggie, and Ana.

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

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

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

I've cleaned a lot more.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am loving it :) My head detox :)

Abby - 1. Fish - 0.

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 :)

Little Moments

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!!

Warning: Cooking Post

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 :)

Couches!!!

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? :)

Tonight...

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...

...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!

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 :)

Recipes

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 :)

Making use of the 17 Bananas in our Package

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!

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 :)

I made Chicken Soup!!!

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'!!!

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??

Holidays, Birthday & Baby :)

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...

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! :)

xo

I love school holidays!!! - "LOVE"

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