just plodding along

brown paper

me thinks the next few days will be pretty full on as blackstump draws ever closer.

howie has a lot of stuff to do, and in turn that means i have a lot of stuff to do to help him.

hopefully everything will get done and be ready to go for the weekend.

last night involved brown paper, our projector, a pencil and permanent markers. i think that tonight might be much the same.

hopefully people will go to the One World Cafe and be challenged/inspired/encouraged/provoked by what they can see and hear and do. hopefully God will use it all to make a change in individuals, and in turn, the world.

naming rights

howie and i haven't really started talking about names for when Guido comes along. we do know that Guido won't be written on the birth certificate.

who knows when we will start talking about names, so in the meantime, do you have any suggestions?

door to door

that took eight hours. long day.

3000

sometime within the next 6-7 hours i will be home. that is exciting. i can't wait to go to bed!

farewell tassie!

tests

i had a glucose test this morning, to see if i have gestational diabetes. it's a routine test. they give you a bottle of fluid the drink. it was like flat lemonade - in that 300ml bottle was 50grams worth of sugar! yikes. 20 minutes later, guido went crazy! and has been moving a lot all day. anyway, i had the drink, then waited an hour and they took some blood.

the results are back this arvo or tomorrow, but i only hear from them if the result isn't good, because i'd need more tests. but hopefully i don't hear from them!

meanwhile, i also had my 28 week Ob appointment. he decided that rather than see me in a fortnight, which would be the norm from now, my pregnancy is going so well that he doesn't want to see me for a month. sweet!

wall-e

tonight husband and i went to the movies, using the last of our september expiring movie money. it's ok though - because mum gave howie some more vouchers for his birthday last month. phew!

we saw wall-e. it was a little slow for me, compared to other pixar films. it was still very clever, and there were some funny little bits. pixar are yet to perfect the human image though.

we saw the 7pm session, and i'm glad for that, because i don't think i would have made it through the 8:40pm. i'm so tired.

molar moolah

my new dentist seems like a nice lady. she very friendly, and very excited about babyness. she was also quite enthusiastic to take my money.

my old filling was coming away, as i suspected. and there was more decay in there. so she did a clean of my teeth, and then a temporary filling. no needle for me. and only once did i get that pain that only comes with a tooth being drilled. so my temporary filling and the rest of todays work cost a good $255.

once i'm no longer with child, then the big work begins. they'll do some xrays and make a 3D model of my tooth and make me a new tooth or something. for a princely sum of $900+

teeth suck.

chip

i'm not very excited about heading to the dentist tomorrow. my dodgy tooth has chipped again (not sure if it's the tooth or the filling). so i'm hoping it's easily fixed, not too painful to fix (since I have no pain with it now), and not too expensive. but we will see.

all in the family

tis a bit of a family weekend. after yesterday's grandparent afternoon tea, debbie and james came over for dinner and some card games. james was severely dominated in both UNO and Cluedo - go Gower girls! although he did cook a good dinner, so he can be proud of that. it was good fun hanging out with the noobs. they are good chaps. which is good, since i'm also having lunch with them today at auntie sue's.

i will also be hanging out at my parents to use my mother's sewing machine since mine is still in it's box and i have no thread.

then hopefully there will be a nap in the afternoon - the dog next door kept me awake for a while at 4am growling every 30 seconds or so for ages. he's still doing it now, but incorporating barking into it as well.

a spot of tea

my grandma and grandpa came over for afternoon tea today. it was nice for them to come and see this new place - i think they both really liked it (what's not to like!).

and it was lovely to share some tea, some scotch fingers and a chin wag.

my grandma was also super cheeky leaving me some cash monies on the kitchen bench. naughty girl.

miele madness

our washing machine arrived today. all seemed to be looking positive - the delivery guys were even early and called to check that was ok.

they brought it in, and had no problems attaching it to the stand howie had found yesterday. the problems began when they couldn't attach the hoses because the hole wasn't big enough for them to fit through. the guys were very apologetic, because there wasn't anything they could do about it.

so after they left, we ummed and ahhed as to what to do. in the end howie headed to mitre 10 and got some tin cutters. we both had a go of them, as it was a bit awkward cutting in such a small space. but we got there eventually and then gaffed all the razor sharp edges.

so we'd solved the fitting through the hole problem. next was figuring out which was the hot and which was the cold tap. next was realising that it was a pretty tight fit for fitting the cold hose. but we're hoping it will be fine.

and we were done!

after running the first cycle empty as instructed, we did our first load of washing in our new machine. so far so good.

leave

i am officially on indefinite maternity leave from one of my jobs. my grandparents told me this morning as i arrived to clean their place that it was the last time they wanted me there. i was a little surprised and a bit sad. because i like seeing them at least once a fortnight. we'll have to find different ways to do that now. but they don't want me pushing myself, and they are able to get another cleaner for a very low price through the RAAF or something. the lovely thing is that they will still be paying me! so that's nice to still have that bit of pocket money coming in.

class of 98

i got an invite to my 10 year high school reunion today. it's in october.

i'm not sure whether i will go or not. it's a bit scary. not so much the 10 year bit, but the seeing school people bit. i haven't really seen or spoken to anyone (besides since the invention of facebook) for at least five years, most for over eight years.

and i'm not sure that howie's so keen to come along either.

at least i have a few weeks to make a decision before RSVPing.

complete, almost

we finally moved the boys yesterday with the help of the hannah van, and howie and james' muscles. it's no easy task. although it was for me coz i couldn't really help with much. so i fed howie and james doritos. what a good wife and almost-sister-in-law.

but ham and pineapple look to have adjusted pretty quickly to their new surroundings. they were keen to say hello to us this morning, and were very keen to eat the food i gave them.

so hopefully their new home in our new home works well for them. they'll have to get used to watching DVDs once our lounge room is set up. piney especially will have a prime view!

in the meantime, moving the boys means we are closer to being completely moved out of barb's house. there are still a fair few boxes of crap in her study. i'm not really sure where they are going to go, but we'll have to find somewhere. the bin with red lid is pretty tempting!

truth

our new premier quoted this good old saying today, referring to himself making an incorrect assumption which the media and mr o'farrell have jumped on:

'When you assume, you make an ass out of you and me'

good on him

ants in your pants

last night when we went to bed howie turned the ceiling fan on for a bit. we're not sure if that was a good idea, as we then noticed two piles of dead ants on our doona. we assume they were blown off the fan, or off the lights next to the fan.

so howie fetched the vacuum cleaner and dealt with that, while i blogged about the great IKEA race.

we then noticed live ants on our pillows. so we moved our bed away from the wall, and noticed a small trail of the little beasts on the floor. i thought there must have been rain coming, because ants are good indicators of that. so we flicked the stragglers off our bed and went to sleep. and the rain did come.

anyway, when i got up this morning and took my computer downstairs with me, i noticed a few ants on my computer. and then a few more. oh dear. they were crawling in and out of all kinds of holes that you find in a lap top - speaker holes, under keys, from behind the screen, and all kinds of other places. this is not good news. i haven't seen one this afternoon so hopefully they've all vacated the premises. i wouldn't be very excited if my computer died because an ant got fried inside of it. like in the simpsons.

lesson learnt - do not leave lap top on the floor of our bedroom overnight.

party hard

today was a fine day indeed.

after some morning errands, including getting the boys some sun, voting and taking our washing to my parents house, we ventured to bicentennial park for debbie and james' engagement "gathering". it was lovely. lots of food, fun and friends. i'm pretty sure the engaged ones had a good time, so that's what counts most.

after the party wound up, we were joined by cathy and grant and debbie and james for an IKEA adventure. we had success! we bought some shelves for our DVDs, and a bench for our kitchen.

after purchasing, we decided cathy and grant should come over, so we bought some food and headed back home.

as cathy and i cooked, howie and grant put together the kitchen table thing - although there were four unaccounted for screws. tom was in some other room using a hammer.

we ate dinner and it was yummy.

then the great IKEA shelving race began. it was howie vs tom vs grant in a race to build a set of the three flatpacked shelves we'd bought.

tom got off to a strong start, but was soon caught up to. it was pretty neck and neck for most of the race

eventually howie declared he had finished. but he'd forgotten to hammer in one nail.

tom claimed victory, but then realised his shelves were different heights to the others.

grant was next on the winner's podium, but he had missed a couple of dowl bits.

so we're not really sure who wins the prize.

perhaps it's cathy who then used cardboard to prop all of them up so they didn't wobble

the rest of the evening was spent chatting and putting our DVDs in alphabetical order in our new shelves. what a night!

pants on fire

i lied in my last post. our family isn't quite complete.

we still need to move the boys. they are still at barb's house - i miss them! it takes a fair bit of effort, and the availability of the hannah van, to move them. so hopefully in the next few days we'll be able to get them here.

i hope they don't freak out too much when we do move them. and i hope that everyone who comes to visit is nice to them. coz they are good little guys.

moved

well here we are in our new house after our first night here. yesterday was a very full on day. thankfully we had my dad and michael helping out, seeing as i'm almost completely useless, unable to carry anything much. although i did make the boys lunch, so that must count for something.

we did two trips with the moving truck, and there's still a bit of stuff at barb's house to collect over the next few days - including the boys!

but the place is a mess of boxes and bags, which is very slowly getting sorted. we are very fortunate to have so much stuff, much of which was given to us. but we think we need to start culling things. a lot of it, although great, is unnecessary. so as we unpack, we'll see what happens.

tom moves in today. which is fun. then our new family is complete.

moving day

today is moving day. i'm moving into my fourth home. it's howie's 16th or something.

yay for my dad and for michael who are helping us. here's hoping for a smooth-running day!

romance

we had work til 6:30pm last night, and didn't really have any special anniversary plans for afterwards.

so guess how we celebrated our two year anniversary... eating dinner and watching a DVD with tom at the french's.

such sentiment!

2

Today celebrates 2 years of me having a husband.

2 years of cleaning undies, socks and other clothing items for him, plus mine

2 years of meals prepared for him, and me

2 years of fun adventures

on the other side of the coin, 2 years of having someone to lift heavy things, be the handy man, open jars of stuff and cook chicken and tofu on the BBQ for me

I think i can handle a few more years of having a husband

howie bought me this shirt months ago and i almost fit it now.

civilisation

we're back home from the 'dale. took about six hours. it'll probably never be that fast again.

was a nice, if not fleeting, visit. those in laws of mine are good sorts (and i'm not just writing that because i know they now read my blog).

i should ring my dad now and say happy father's day. my gift to him will be that the swans won last night. what a thoughtful daughter.

new england

it's wonderful to be in armidale and have internet on demand. what a lovely thing.

we had a wet but incident free drive up yesterday. last night we had spag bol and played pass the pigs and monopoly. howie's dad dominated.

today's plans involve an eco shop for Guido, harvey norman and retravision to look at washing machines, dinner at some restaurant, and who knows what else armidale will offer us.

especially for jo

seems i have a bit of a belly

At 25 weeks and 1 day Guido is going well. S/he's moving around a fair bit. I read yesterday that around now you can start playing with the baby - like trying to tickle it through your skin, and rolling from side to side on your back to see how it reacts. I have started poking him/her - sometimes in response to them poking me, and sometimes coz I want them to wake up. sure won't be doing that when they have popped out and are sleeping.

jo, this should be the third or fourth different pic you've now seen... hoorah!

fully sucks

i'm so sad fully stoked is closing down!

nesting

apparently a lot of mums-to-be go through a nesting phase - a time where they prepare their nursery, gathering the various bits and pieces that will be needed for the baby and generally cleaning up and organising things.

i haven't really been able to allow myself to do that because of our living situation, although we have bought the car seat and stroller (hoorah for sales!!).

anyway, today was the first official opportunity for nesting i reckon. a lovely couple from our church have given us a secondhand cot - which they brought over today and put together. and it's a beauty! it makes me excited to gather the rest of the bits and pieces we will need. thankfully a number of different people are offering us different pieces of furniture, which takes the pressure of a bit. and thankfully we aren't really into themes for the nursery - so are quite happy to bring Guido into a higgildy piggildy world of blues, reds, whites, turtles, poohs, and whatever else crops up.

I'm hopeful that this nesting instinct that i'm meant to feel won't amount to the following:

"Nesting brings about some unique and seemingly irrational behaviors in pregnant women and all of them experience it differently. Women have reported throwing away perfectly good sheets and towels because they felt the strong need to have "brand new, clean" sheets and towels in their home. They have also reported doing things like taking apart the knobs on kitchen cupboards, just so they could disinfect the screws attached to the knobs. Women have discussed taking on cleaning their entire house, armed with a toothbrush. There seems to be no end to the lengths a nesting mother will go to prepare for her upcoming arrival.

This unusual burst of energy is responsible for women ironing anything in the house that couldn't out run them. Being preoccupied with ant killing, squishing them one at a time for weeks on end. Packing and unpacking the labor bag 50 times. Cleaning the kitchen cupboards and organizing everything by size to the point that you make sure the silverware patterns match when it's stacked in the cutlery drawer. Sorting the baby's clothes over and over again is a favorite theme. Taking them out of the drawers and re-folding them, putting them away and doing it over and over again."

i don't think i'll quite get to that. well, i hope not!