pick one : jenny/jenga/jentle/jengi/itchy/jk

tired

i haven't been sleeping very solidly for a while now. because of growing belly. so i'm finding a nap is a more and more wonderful thing.

after lunch today, where we met the rest of the noobs, both howie and i were super tired. so we got home and went to sleep, which meant we missed church. whoopsidoodle.

fridge

we bought a fridge today. our first fridge after being married for almost two years.

we hope we got a good deal. it was $500 off, and my grandpa has generously paid for it. so that in itself is a good deal.

it's being delivered on monday. but we probably won't switch it on til we move in.

next and last objective is a new washing machine. that's a bit more tricky.

brook

this morning we had an ob appointment. the time we waited was at least three times as long as the time we were in there. all is good. next appointment includes the test for gestational diabetes.

howie was then going to catch the train to hazelbrook to finish off some TEAR videos. somehow he convinced me that i should go with him. and somehow i agreed and decided i would drive him. i think mostly because it's an hour car trip or a three hour train trip if the connections are no good. so here we are in hazelbrook, working from someone else's home.

tradies

i don't reckon i could ever be a tradie. making appointments and running late would drive me crazy.

i came home early today, expecting him any time from 3pm. he just arrived.

he doesn't seem in too much of a rush. seems quite happy to watch the channel 10 news as he works.

and i overheard him on the phone saying he still has another two jobs after this one.

ouch.

see the light

after a lot of trouble, we finally have gotten our hands on a working UV light for the boys! picked it up last night and got it going straight away.

and it was cheap as because it's just a blacklight tube, rather than being advertised as a turtle light. winner!

so the boys shells should be even more happy now.

can't believe it took so much effort though.

new dvds

although we haven't finished our las vegas dvds just yet, tonight we crack open flight of the conchords. woohoo!

if howie was tasmanian

via the rsl

howie and i just went for a sneak peak at our and tom's new place. along the way howie became an rsl member, so he can have his birthday dinner there tonight.

we imagined a bit of where things might go - for the spaces that are "ours". important matters like projector and couch placement will have to wait for tom's input.

i'm excited that guido's room is blue.

it's such a lovely house. feeling very blessed and looked after at the moment. both from above and from around us.

26

happy birthday husband!

some of the stash

tomorrow is howie's birthday so we had a family lunch today to celebrate. here he is with some of the stash

his swans slippers, from debbie and james, are the coolest! they are so warm and comfy and squishy. good present buying.

in other news, we finally unplugged the heater. at about 4:45pm today. so it had been on for a good 53 hours. a bit of WD-40 did the trick. a repair guy is coming on thursday to check it out - primarily to see what's going on with the buttons. hopefully he will easily and cheaply fix them so that it can be used again!

memorabilia

after an extensive search we finally found some guido merchandise.

the two bigger ones (which are still tiny) came as a set. the little one is a dangly thing for my mobile which erica gave me. so cool.

people still seem to not always know who guido is. which is sad. coz he is so the cutest!

quandary

barb has this awesome heater in the living room. it's a gas one, with three different elements, and so can be very effective in warming up the lower part of the house, especially when you have all three buttons pushed in.

yesterday i had it on most of the day and evening coz it was chilly, and when it came close to bed time i went to turn it off. to turn it off, when all three elements are on, you press the buttons from back to front and an element goes off with each button.

well that's what is meant to happen.

the last one won't turn off!! i have tried a million times! so, very anxiously, i had no choice but to leave it on all night. i reasoned we have insurance, as would barb, that pineapple was in water and ham was in a fireproof room. and i prayed. even so, i did leave a message on howie's phone in case the house burnt down while i slept. fortunately i woke up alive and well. although i didn't sleep too good.

and now that i'll be going out to deby and james' engagement party soon, it will just have to stay on longer. it's been about 24 hours now! that can't be good.

and i'm not sure how to turn it off if the button never works. i've never lived in a house connected to the gas before. in my head if i unplug the heater from the electricity, surely the gas will keep going and fill up the room because there's no flame to burn it off. and that would be a bad thing. so i'm not just going to unplug it from the wall.

i have no idea how or where or if it's bad to turn off the gas supply.

so i am in a dilly of a pickle. hopefully when cathy and grant come and pick me up, one of them will have the skills to turn it off. or if they can't, that howie will walk through the door later tonight, tell me i'm dumb and switch it off first go. i feel like a stupid girl a bit, but i'm sure it's not just me. i've turned this heater off a lot of times in the past with no problems!

i tell you, once it is off, i am NEVER using this heater again.

tasty goodness

mmm raisin toast

fitting

its kind of strange going bridesmaid dress shopping when you can't try anything on and have no idea (but a vague hope) of what size you'll be. interesting!

but it is fun to hang out with brides to be - especially when they are my two best buddies.

staying in the postcode

as you may already know, howie and i have a new place to live and will be moving in a couple of weeks.

it's very exciting news for us, and quite out of the blue (hmmm, i wonder if maybe God had something to do with it!). but we will be living with tom under the second roof of john and jane while learning what it means to live in community.

moving this time isn't as full on - most of our stuff is already in boxes ready to be moved on. but there are still the boys which take a whole day to move apart from the whole day it takes to move everything else we own.

but hoorah for jane and john, and hoorah for barb who's looked after us so well over the past couple of months.

snoozy

i am quite sleepy this afternoon. i'm not getting solid night sleeps much anymore. something to get used to i guess! but it's a bit sad making.

sunday night church should be at a different time to sunday night. it's a sleepy time.

making new relatives

introducing the beautiful elyse

i can't believe we're going to have one of these in four months time. oh my golly gosh.

finishing up

yesterday was our last day in adelaide. one, two, three... mawwwww.

we left our bags at reception after checking out (which was a small source of stress for me because they didn't keep them anywhere secure). and caught the tram into the city. we didn't really have any plans until 1pm. so we went for a slow meander around torrens lake

snack time

we picked up some good advice

then we decided it was chai time, and spent a fair while chatting and sipping outside GJs. we also got heckled by locals for having a Bob the Builder backpack.

after a toilet stop, it was time to catch the tram back to greenhill road for our free guided tour of the Haigh's factory. this was for you ty.

we were a bit early so had a look around the visitor centre shop. soooo much chocolate!

now really their marketing team is full of geniuses. they offer these free tours of the factory where you see them making stuff and they explain the history of the company (which is pretty interesting actually), and give you free tastings, plus tea and coffee. but i am pretty sure that 99%, if not 100% of people who take part in the tour, then spend gazillions of dollars in their shop. very clever. and we were totally part of that!

after loading ourselves up, we trammed it back to glenelg and collected our bags. it was lunch time - i got some fish and chips, and howie got brumbies. i've never seen such a carefully iced finger bun!

it was a bit cold and windy so we decided to bail on glenelg and head towards the airport, stopping at harbourtown on the way. we were very tempted to buy some thomas the tank engine toys, but refrained, and continued on to the airport.

two unfortunate things happened:

1. because our booking number was stuffing up, we had to check in the old fashioned way. and we weren't allowed to take our overweight carry on bags with us. poo.

2. our plane was delayed

but then the fortunate thing happened:

we went to the virgin lounge! and it is way cool. we sat on a comfy couch, watched the olympics, ate free food, drank free drinks, and used clean bathrooms. oh baby. howie had a nap as well.

eventually it was time to board, and the flight home was pretty cruisy. once at sydney, we collected our bags and walked to mascot station (see previous post).

after picking up duckie, we walked through our front door after 11pm. we said hello to our little buddies, and went to bed.

and that, our friends, was our holiday. and it was tops.

take that cityrail

we are on a train heading sort of home. have to pick up duckie on the way.

we saved ourselves $20 by walking from the airport to mascot, instead of getting on the train at domestic. $7 each instead of $17 each. it's a good walk. shame we only just discovered it. so we dogged cityrail.

but cityrail dogged us back. and dogged us good. as our train pulled into central from mascot, we had a look across the way and thought it could be our train on another platform. no point running.

and lo and behold, we get to that platform and the next train going our way is in 30 minutes. poo bum wee.

we miss adelaide already!!

(will blog pics from today in the morning)

My response

Regarding the following comment that someone anonymously left on my jelly belly blog post:

just and idea, may be you guys should try to save some money rather than travelling around so much, i mean, if i were in your position, i would save whatever left over from Europe trip for the arrival of the baby rather than keep on praying for others to suppiy the need!!
Just a thought!

I appreciate your thoughts - perhaps not so much you not leaving your name with your comment - and can totally understand where you are coming from. I tend to agree with you in a way, and didn't come quickly to a decision to take this holiday.

However, this money was given to us specifically to use for holidays. Sure that doesn't mean we HAD to use it for a holiday, but we chose to and have the blessing of the people who gave us the money, as well as of our boss who is in a similar living circumstance to us.

What I don't understand is, although we both work for non-profit organisations and are not in a similar circumstance to most people out there, why people think we aren't allowed to spend money on ourselves like "normal" people.

Do you spend money on holidays? Going out to dinner? Movies? DVDs? Clothes? Unnecessary items? Other entertainment?

I assume yes. Please forgive me if that is an incorrect assumption.

My old youth pastor and his wife support us financially. He told me when he began that support, that he wanted me to spend it on DVDs or other frivolous things. That's not to say we always do. We put a fair chunk of our income into a savings account. But his point was that he wanted me to have a "normal" life. He wanted me to not feel obligated or guilt-ed into only save money given to me because of the line of work I chose.

That being said, we work hard to save money. Besides putting that fair chunk of our money into savings each month, we also put some specific money aside each week into a special account for holiday use. There are a lot of things we don't do or buy because we know we can't afford it, or don't need it, or would rather use our money more wisely. There are also things we do buy or spend our money on. We aren't irresponsible with our money. Sure we "splurge" sometimes, but within our means, and with thought.

And we are endlessly grateful to those who essentially provide our income. But we know also, that these people are vessels. God provides us with what we need, and abundantly more. As He does with everyone else.

I must say I am incredibly proud of Howie in all this stuff. Coming into our relationship and subsequent marriage, we had very different ways of dealing with finances. He was a spender - often with $2 or $4 in his bank account. I was a saver. And as part of our relationship, we have compromised on how we use our money. I think he has compromised a whole lot more than me - thank goodness :) But he has made the choice to save money, and to give up things he would have normally just bought/spent money on without any thought.

Regardless of how much we spend and save, our income at this stage (and since we were married) will never have us in a position to afford market rent or purchasing in this area, on top of other normal bills. We are incredibly thankful to those who have provided accommodation for us since we've been married, allowing us to save more money and not be faced with that pressure just yet.

Maybe you think it's then irresponsible of us to bring a child into this world. If we can't afford a place to live, how are we going to afford a child?

Let me tell you, these are things we have thought about and struggled with. And I don't have all the answers. But we both believe God has called us into these roles with our two different workplaces. And so we have to trust He will provide what we need to look after ourselves and this little one that will soon join us. And we're going to do the best we can with His help.

As I said, I can appreciate your point of view. I know there are a lot of other people who are of the same opinion. But I just wanted to let you know my thoughts too.

I'm happy to hear other people's opinions too!

gardening

last night we had some dinner in the apartment - lots of veggies like good boys and girls - and then popped out for some copenhagen.

and a wander along jetty road

today we had a bit of a sleep in, and then trammed it into adelaide. i was feeling a bit funny, so we took things slowly.

we went to the botanic gardens.

there were cute little duckies at the entrance

i wanted a lemonade to help settle my insides. and the kiosk man gave it to me for free!

pretty

inside the conservatorium we spotted this guy! looks like it might be a murray river turtle like our boys!

fountain fun

from the gardens we got some lunch and then headed back to glenelg so i could have a nap. whilst i slept howie went out on his own adventure. i later joined him in the city. after looking for a dinner option we decided glenelg had more tasty options and came back again.

daddy's turn

last night, howie felt guido kick for the first time!

after me feeling guido's kicks for almost three weeks, it was finally howie's turn. so exciting! they are starting to get stronger and more frequent, and not always all that comfortable!

o baby

after a wander through rundle mall, and finding some guido merchandise, we jumped on a bus headed for mount lofty. as we climbed into the adelaide hills, the rain began. it wasn't looking promising.

after changing buses, and reaching the summit, there wasn't much to see!

so as we waited for the bus back down, we had a cakey in the cafe.

once back in the city, we decided to ride the o-bahn to tea tree plaza... westfield!!

we had a late lunch - cheese, herb and garlic pull apart that wasn't very well mixed before being baked. howie had a $3.50 coke. hope it was worth it.

the o-bahn is a cool invention.

once back from westfield, it was time for a tram home to glenelg

and as with most holidays we take, howie managed to find some coke merchandise

i am so smart

i just saw this article this morning about some of the opening ceremony fireworks being computer graphics. when those footprint ones were going off in the telecast i thought to myself they didn't look very real and wondered if they were visual effects. seems they were.

although i don't really think it matters - no need for people to get uppity about it being 'fake'. still looked good. once i figured out they were actually footprints and not just fireworks.

shop, beach and port

this morning we caught a bus with our daytrip ticket to harbourtown. harbourtown had been good to us in perth, so we were hoping the same could be said in adelaide. the centre was right next to the airport and had a observation deck!

rather intriguingly balloons not are not permitted

in the end we did pretty well. howie got some new sunnies which were much needed. i bought my first (and hopefully last) maternity clothes. we got some wooden thomas the tank engine stuff. and a chai latte each.

then bussed it back to glenelg to drop into our apartment before some local wandering and lunch

howie on our balcony

the beach

the jetty

after lunch, we trammed it into adelaide with the plan of going to mount lofty. but bus schedules didn't suit, so we decided to go to port adelaide and the national railway museum. we are so cool.

there were a bunch of trains to look at and climb in. and a mini train to ride on as well.

it was a fun little place with happy little volunteer men.

we had a walk around port adelaide, but there wasn't much else to see so we trained it back to the city.

then tram back to glenelg

now we're lounging around a bit. eventually we'll go get some italian dinner. yum!

new bundle

welcome to the world little elyse joan hutchings!!

my cousin natalie and her husband steve became parents last night to little elyse. how wonderful!

that makes great grandchild #3 for my grandma. guido will be #4. i can't believe we're all growing up so much!

SA

this morning we woke up in our fancy hotel room, checked out and walked to the domestic terminal. ah the bliss of only having carry on, and having already checked in online.

i definitely enjoyed my hotcake breakfast.

then we were airborne, bound for adelaide. for some reason i forgot to bring a book, so it was a rather boring two hour flight. it was less boring as we landed, because we were tilting all over the place.

once safely grounded and out the doors, we caught a bus into the city. i love how cheap adelaide transport is. sydney transport is for chumps.

in adelaide we wandered rundle mall (with our bags still!), ate some lunch, got some visitor info, and went for a stroll down to the river where there was a big screen with olympics on it, about 15 people, an over-excited MC man and two port power players who didn't seem all that excited to be there.

there were some swans by the water, so i took a picture

we planned to catch the old tram to glenelg and sat patiently in the cold.

but it didn't come so we just caught a regular tram.

glenelg is a nice little place. we've stocked up our apartment thanks to coles. it's a good apartment. nice size, good set up, up on the 9th floor.

plus the rubbish chute is just outside our front door.

i reckon this is gonna be a good little holiday.

swans and swanky

tonight's swans game was edge of your seat stuff. if i'd been a few more months pregnant, guido might have come to join us! it was pretty tense. but thankfully we won. just.

after the game, dad dropped me at central where i met howie. we caught the train to mascot and walked to our hotel. the stamford is pretty nice. we're in a cheap room, and it sure ain't that.

beats having to catch a train at some crazy hour to get to the airport. this way we can get up at a reasonable time and walk! then it's hotcakes time!! wooooooo!

good night all.

anticipation

one of the things i'm most excited about with our holiday is that on sunday morning we will be getting breakfast at the airport. and i will be getting hotcakes.

i have wanted hotcakes since i was in dubai airport in may. that is a long time to be craving something.

so sunday morning is gonna rock.

plan

tis a bit chilly today. looking outside at the grey and windy day from our study.

i don't think we have to go out much in it, except to check our mailbox, so today will be a cozy inside day. perhaps.

we're making pizza for lunch with tom. yum. the pizza i mean.

fridays are strange days for us. they are kind of nothing days that could hold anything... cleaning, working, clinicing, resting...

boy oh boy

we had to get a new globe for the boys to get some UV light into them. the tube we bought didn't work so we sent it back. the guy said it did work for him, so he sent it back to us.

so we thought maybe it was our light fixture, so went to buy a new one at an aquarium shop today. we took the tube to test in it. and it didn't work in the brand new fitting either. how frustrating.

so now we have a tube that doesn't work, for us, in two different light fixtures, but a seller man who says it works for him.

hopefully he'll exchange it or something, because it's of no use to us!

we also had to buy the boys a new thermostat because the old old one went kaput. it should be more powerful this time and keep their tank warmer. winter is a tricky thing when you're trying to keep 300 litres of water at about 23 degrees.

jelly belly

i am getting bigger. in the tummy that is. it's kind of weird, and kind of cool.

getting comfortable in bed is getting harder. i can't imagine how it will be in a few months time! and then it'll be years of not even being in bed much. oh dear!

i'm thankful for a few different people who are offering different things, which saves us monies. we've been given a bassinet, cot, portacot, bouncer, some maternity clothes... and others have offered to buy different things that we will get over the next few months before guido arrives.

if you are of the praying kind, please pray for our housing needs. living with barb is going really well, but we can't stay here with guido - it's not very fair on her! and we're not in a position to buy or even rent locally. so it's all a bit up in the air with no clear way forward.

thank goodness God knows the go. i'd like Him to share that information with me sometime soon though!

the bank job

howie and i went to the movies tonight with sam and lachie. we went to see the bank job.

it was an ok film. there were a lot of 'bits', and a fair bit of violent hacking. i was hoping it would be funnier. but it was still ok.

poopy nights sleep are poopy.

we are both very tired today.

blue gum, beach, and board

last night was much fun to be had. i'm not sure if that is even a sentence.

anyway, we began the evening with a drink at the blue gum with buddies, before david heads back south. after some table swapping it was almost time to leave.

sam drove howie and me back to our house where lachie met us. we waited and waited for debbie and james. then decided just to meet them at newport because we were hungry.

so off to newport for some chicken plus. it was a fun car trip in lachie's vehicle. much silliness had already begun, and it wasn't about to slow down anytime soon.

the boys got burgers and i got wedges. we sat on a cold bench in the cold wind of a cold night and ate our hot food. about a thousand years later debs and james turned up. lachie went for a spin in mickey (james' mini), before sam got some heavy duty man touch, and we all got icecream.

back to debs for some board game fun. we played 'the australian game of the year'. it took just about that long to play as well. thankfully james had starburst and clinkers. parentals came home and marvelled at the silliness of the boys. dear oh dear.

lo and behold i won the game - go team me! - and since it was approaching midnight, it was home time. thanks for the lift lachie!

atissue atissue we all fall down

i think i'm getting a cold. it's all up in the sinus at the moment. a bit in the throat. poop.