christmas is over

I am really glad that Christmas is over.

We had a great day and it all really went well but I felt very stressed particularly that morning and there was so much work involved in getting things ready.

Cleaning the house and yard, getting chairs and couches cleaned, purchasing supplies and preparing food.

On Christmas night I had such a horrible headache I could not sleep and only had broken sleep for the whole night.

The next day I was a complete mess and a zombie but luckily after a better night's sleep I was back to being human again.

The day after that I went home to visit my family and have a small Christmas celebration there too.

When I went to bed that night nursing a headache once more I thought I was going to be in for another bad night ... but luckily I fell asleep after about an hour of pain.

I have tried to barely touch salt or sugar since in case these have been the trigger.

So far it seems to have been working.

Now that Christmas is out of the way we are powering ahead with baby preparations ... the office needs to be cleared of non baby stuff and repainted.

Once it has been repainted we can start cleaning and filling it with baby stuff again.

Our new wardrobe is due to arrive in early January so our room will need to be rearranged and all our clothes repackaged and re shelved.

Our old furniture will go downstairs to store all our assorted odds and ends that are currently in danger from B and her teeth.

The computer room downstairs will need to be painted and filled with office equipment.

Progress is slowly being made and the bits of the house that I have rearranged and really thought about what I am doing with them, are looking much much better.

Kt's desk has now been assembled too!

I have been enjoying all my Christmas presents.

Last night I washed and dried my hair with my lovely new and very quick hairdryer.

I cleaned my teeth very effectively with my electric toothbrush which I LOVE!!!

I am reading through my Twilight books from uni, watching one episode of the long way round DVD each night ... and getting ready to try out my new maternity wear.

Not to mention sleeping peacefully on my maternity pillow and successfully carting my shopping around the markets in my trolley!

I am filling my new filing cabinet.

And once I have cleared myself a good working space am looking forward to trying out my laptop!

countdown until Christmas

Well a lot has been done.

Yesterday we got the couch and armchairs cleaned.

I vacuumed the floor in the lounge room and exposed more floor than ever before.

We are keeping it clear and tidy until Christmas and anything that doesn't need to be there has been secreted into other parts of the house.

Today I cleaned and emptied out the upstairs fridge and restocked it with food from aldi and the markets.

The downstairs fridge is full of Christmas food.

Uni has got the pantry downstairs assembled and we are well on the way to filling that up too.

One shelf so far is devoted to Xmas stuff and after Christmas it will hold a stockpile of food so I don't have to go shopping as much.

There are fish in our pond outside, although it is leaking a bit. Uni will try to patch it up over the next few days.

Our menu is sorted, our guests have been asked to bring various things to help with the smooth running of the day.... and I have a to do list with a rough idea of what needs to be done and when.

This morning it poured with rain while I was at the markets. Something I have never experienced before because if it rains on a Sunday I sleep in and don't worry about the markets.

This time though was the last market day before Xmas and would have been to expensive to stock up on everything we needed at the supermarket.

Especially as we have vegetarians amongst us!

There was no rain when I arrived of course and it started to pour when I had my first trolley load of goods.

Everyone huddled under market sellers tents waiting for the rain to stop or ease ... but not me ... I had things to do and food to buy so I just got in amongst the elements.

I love my trolley! It was packed to the brim, but did not hesitate through mud, dirt, puddle, stream (ok just kidding about the last one).

On Friday we even took it down to the beach. It stood beautifully in the sand and was easy to wheel around.

I washed the wheels and frame well to get rid of the sand ... but need not have worried ... as today's downpour would have taken care of that for me anyway!

I found everything on my hefty shopping list, in some cases having to go into stalls I was unfamiliar with. It was a good excuse to look around and seek shelter at the same time ...

Came home soaked to the skin, so I unloaded the shopping and jumped into a hot shower and washed my hair.

Then I tackled putting things away and realized I should also clean the fridge out while I was there.

I am unlikely to give it this much attention for a while again so having so many guests over who may be likely to use the fridge was a good incentive.

go slow

The slow time has begun.

I had forgotten how frustrating it is for me.

Holiday time means that for every activity I need to get done in a day, there are at least two things I need to set up and pack away for Kt before I can start.

Often I will get something set up for her only to have her play with it for 5 minutes and then get bored.

Meanwhile the job that is supposed to be being done is delayed.

And I still need to pack away the activity (eg if it is painting outside) so that the pup will not run off with something and chew it to peices.

Kt is in school withdrawal mode ... waiting for me to tell her what activity to do.

I am getting better at thinking of suggestions, but am missing the quiet time that comes with school.

The quicker I adjust to this slower pace of getting things done the better because it will only continue next year as my belly gets bigger and then once the baby is born, there will be no time for anything but feeding the baby and catching up on sleep.

last day of prep

Today was the last day of school.

Only a few prep kids turned up and both prep a and b joined together along with a few grade 1's and 2's.

I wasn't sure how Kt would handle it, but she is a big confident kid these days and she took it all in her stride.

I found out which one her teacher will be next year ... I have seen her before and have thought that she seems to be pretty good.

I also went upstairs to check out the new classroom. There was mayhem and madness going on in there, boxes everywhere and lots of stuff to sort out.

It will look a lot different by the start of next year!

Since today is the last day I had available for lone Christmas shopping I went straight from school to the shops, shopped all day and picked Kt up on my way home from the shops in the afternoon.

I got plenty of stuff for her and a few bits and pieces for everyone else. I really only need to get a couple of things now and all my Xmas shopping will be done.

The service on the mower and whippersnipper cost $270 so I am not happy about that ... and I have a very small amount available on my credit card, but I think we have managed well this year.

Still 2 weeks to go so I suppose I better not get too cocky.

When I brought kt home from school she mentioned there was a lot of blood in her mouth from her tooth and within a few minutes of walking in the front door her tooth was out.


So that is the second baby tooth gone. Her first adult tooth is almost at full size now, and her second adult tooth is visible and must have been seriously pushing on the other one.

Its a little bit back in the gum (behind where the old tooth was) but now that it has more room it will hopefully be able to move forward to its proper spot!
That reminds me that I have to make sure the tooth fairy can get in tonight!

i can officially no longer bend forward

My belly is so big and hard that I can no longer bend forward and down.

Now I need to squat down if I want to reach the floor.

Today was a bit of a funny day. It was party day at school today.

It started with the prep - year 3 platinum parade where kids who had been good all year and got gold on every behaviour cycle were selected to receive a platinum award, a badge and a certificate.

Uni and I proudly sat in the audience and took photos of our platinum kid.

Then I returned home for 45 minutes and headed back to school for the "party" at her school where each parent brings a plate and is invited to enjoy the party food.

Have never seen so much sugar and sweet stuff in all my life!!!

I thought I would go home after the party and do some shopping and collect Kt in the afternoon, but the cheeky teachers were encouraging the kids to go home at LUNCH time with their parents.

Kt got a bit emotional and didn't want to stay and so I said she could come with me but I had some shopping that had to be done on the way home.

This is how I managed to get my very wonderful maternity pillow from Kmart. This is fantastic as I need it immediately and wish I had had one for my earlier pregnancy too.

I was planning to buy it from the maternity superstore in brendale (they have them for $40) but was going to wait until after the madness of Christmas. This way I got one at a better price, close to home and I have it available for use straight away.

Thanks to some good catalogue observation and a very good mum, who bought it for me!

getting things done

Yesterday I had another antenatal appointment with my doctor.

She listened for the heartbeat which took a bit longer to find today, but was much louder and seemed stronger and faster than last time.

Based on my belly size she says I am measuring at about 18 or 19 weeks, I am actually 17 weeks and 4 days.

My urine sample was fine and my blood pressure was 119 over 80. So still good.

She said my heart rate was a bit high ... but I am not surprised with everything I am juggling at the moment!

Apparently also I am putting strain on my belly when I get up and also get out of the car and this is why I am having some difficulties. She suggested alternate ways to move so I can avoid this. I have trouble remembering sometimes, but I agree it is a better way to do things. eg open the car door, swing both legs out to the side, push yourself up off the seat (Instead of sticking one leg out and putting your weight on it and clambering out of the car). For getting up she suggested to roll onto your side then push yourself up off the bed using your hands rather than relying on your abdominal muscles to lift you up).

I finished quickly at the doctor and only got charged $50 this time (perhaps because it was a quick visit) $34.40 of this will come back to me from medicare so all in all it cost me $15 for this visit.

When I got home I called Redcliffe smash repairs to arrange a time to fit my new taillight. They said they could do it the same day in a couple of hours so I dropped it off and walked to KRing shopping centre to browse for Xmas presents.

I liked the fact that I had to just look and couldn't buy anything because I had no car to store it in.

I also combed every inch of Kmart and slowly took in a few other stores.

I'm really not keen to travel all over the countryside looking for things. Not sure if that is because I am pregnant and I feel a bit more vulnerable or whether its just that there is so much to get done and I don't want to waste time driving here and there.

A lot of what I want is close by, I just don't always take the time to look locally, usually figuring that I am better off looking in the bigger shops, but when I go into the big shops I often miss a lot or forget some of the things I am supposed to be looking for ... or just get confused and kerfuzzled by the sheer amount of choice.

Decision making always leaves me worn out.

Anyway my tail light was fixed for $270 and looks great. Their paint touch up job wasn't all that brilliant so I will probably buy a small container of grace green mazda touch up paint to keep here at home and will touch up my own scratches, stone chips etc ... I think my efforts will equal what they did.

I have been looking to make a photo calendar for Arthur and all the places that do it want you to do it online.

Finally yesterday while I was voluntarily stranded at the shops I discovered that you can do it instore at Rabbit photo ... I will go there later today and try and get that done.

Yesterday afternoon we also took our pup to the vet for her vaccinations. And got some antibiotics for the cat who injured herself sometime during last week and is not healing very quickly. $115 down for that!

Uni's mower and whipper snipper are ready to be collected from the repair shop ... more $$$$. He went to mow our lush vegetative lawn this last 5 day break and the mower would not even start for him. The lawn has not been mown for about 3 months. Should be done in time for Xmas though!!!

work done

Feeling a bit flat today ... I think it has hit me that school holidays will be on in only 1 week and judging by Kt constantly asking what will we do next just during today, I am wondering how I will cope with 6 weeks of it ...

And then of course how will I cope every day for the next 3 to 4 years with the next one!

I think we will have to revisit the lagoon but early so as not to be surrounded by hundreds of people.

Bella will have to be walked along the beach.

Playgrounds and beach visits will have to be regular as well as visits to the library.

Hmmm think I will have to pay a few visits to nanna too .....

I had lots I could have done today and decided to go easy instead, but feel like the day is dragging by.

Maybe I should have done my heaps of things instead.

I did empty the vacuum cleaner, vacuum the whole house, empty the vacuum cleaner for a second time and then clean the filter.

Now I have to wait for it to dry for 24 hours but after that I will put it into the linen cupboard.

I took a photo of the neatly arranged linen cupboard this morning. I am very proud of it!

I have wrapped a few more presents and I took my new market trolley to the market for the first time this morning.

Very easy to use! It was sturdy and did not tip over and the wheels did not have any trouble on grass or dirt. I did stick to the paths as much as possible this time around but will get a bit more tough on it next week to see what it can handle.

christmas is coming

Today uni got all our Christmas decorations organized.

We put a Christmas tree in the lounge room and one in Kt's room.

The lounge room is decorated with beautiful new tinsel and a few old favourite decorations are scattered around the place.

After a brief nap in the afternoon, he tackled the outdoors, putting pretty lights up on the front of our house.

Suddenly it feels like Christmas time!!!

Kt and I wrapped some presents to put under the tree and I finally finished sorting out the linen cupboard.

It looks lovely and neat now ... hopefully it will stay that way.

Think I will take a photo of it so I know how it SHOULD look! LOL!!!

The sewing machine and over locker will not fit in the linen cupboard after all ... they will have to go up in the high part of my wardrobe, but that should be fine.

I still have a few sewing odds and ends to sort out ... and I still need to empty the vacuum cleaner and clean its filter and then of course vacuum the house again and empty the vacuum cleaner again ... but I think I can tackle that tomorrow.

I have found some great storage containers at crazy clarks and Kmart, and have spent a fortune buying lots of these ... but I think they will help to sort the clutter better since they are see through and each one contains specific things.

On Friday we went shopping together at Officeworks (love that place ... my new favourite store) and uni and I found a great little desk for Kt, a nice new chair to go with her desk and floor mat to go under her chair.

We also bought a filing cabinet for me to keep my records in. (I have been wanting one for ages!)

We were on our way to Super Amart next to look at getting an extra pantry for downstairs and also new cupboards for our bedroom, but were unable to enter the store as they must have had a fire. All the staff were out the front of the building and a fire engine was in the driveway.

So we came home and will postpone that part of the shopping for another day.

My tail light damage should only cost about $270 to fix and that should get underway some time next week, so things are sorting themselves out one at a time.

extra post for today

Having been out of touch in recent days I have decided to do two posts today.

I am taking a break now from cleaning out and rearranging the linen cupboard.

I am about half way through the job and it never ceases to amaze me how I can start one job and end up doing a zillion others along the way.

I have always been like this ... I don't know if others are too?

I cleaned a shelf in the cupboard a few days ago and covered it in contact.

Today I moved the sheets from a lower shelf up to the higher clean shelf.

I decided to strip the bed down and change the sheets at this point,using one of the sets of sheets that I discovered in the cupboard.

After trying to put it on the bed I realized why I hadn't used it before .... it was a set of double size sheets and our bed is a queen size bed.

Well it went straight to my Endos bag for giving away.

Then of course I had to get out another set of sheets and make my bed.

Half the sheet/pillowcases went into the wash because they smell like they have been in storage for a while. The rest went neatly onto the shelf. So now it looks like I have plenty of room on that shelf, but I need to wait until I have washed, folded and put away the "dirty" sheets and pillowcases for the job to be complete.

Then I cleaned the bottom shelf and when it dries I will attempt to put the vacuum cleaner in there.

The shelf above it is now clean as well and holds all our games (boardgames etc) organized neatly (not sure how long this state will last!!!). Some of kt's artwork supplies will go here too if they can fit.

I want to leave some space on each shelf for my sewing gear too, but I wonder if I will have enough room.

Before I put the vacuum cleaner into the cupboard I really also need to empty the dust compartment, clean out the filter (6 monthly job due to be done now) and then of course I really should vacuum the floor too because I can't remember the last time I actually did that .....

See what I mean!!!!

I am also waiting for some hooks that I put in the linen cupboard to completely bond to the door surface before I hang my brooms and mops and things up on them.

Then I will need to try and see if I can fit the folded up ironing board in the remaining upright space ...but of course before I do I will probably need to finish all my ironing, fold it and get it put away .....

Is it only me ....

back from the dentist

I have gone to the dentist for my pregnancy checkup!

Was a bit worried (ha ha OK really worried) about this.

My doctor said a dentist check up is a good idea during pregnancy and I know this is true, but she also said, and if they need to do an Xray they will cover you with the lead apron.

So of course then I started worrying that I might have to have an xray and even with an apron I didn't like the idea ... perhaps I could ask them to put 2 or 3 aprons on ....

I talked to Pat about the frequency she gets xrays and she said once every 3 years and I looked on the net and discovered that some dentists do it about this often, others want to try and do it at every visit etc.

Since you can refuse to have them if you don't want them I decided I would flatly refuse unless there was an absolute necessity and if it was necessary I would ask for every single lead apron they had to be put on me!!! LOL But absolutely NOT JOKING.

Anyway I went in and told them I was there for a check up. Then before the dentist could say another word I told him I was pregnant.

He congratulated me and seemed very pleased, asking if it was my first ....

He also smiled over to his dental assistant to indicate that she was pregnant also and was expecting next year!

I felt instantly relieved that there were more pregnant than non pregnant people in the room!! Although it would mean I would have to share the lead aprons! LOL!!!

As it turned out he just did a visual examination (very thorough) and said my teeth looked good!

Then he did a clean and commented that it was 20 months since my last visit and clean and that's why he was finding it difficult to shift some build up.

Hee hee I probably should go more frequently but I am still a tiny bit(OK OK very very) frightened of going to the dentist so I will have to work on this fear gradually.

He said between 6 and 12 months is the recommended frequency of cleans etc.

Maybe I will just aim for a yearly check up and see how things go.

All in all it was over and I was home within half an hour! Teeth feel a bit sore but very smooth, clean and polished.

$132 dollars down..... and most importantly NO XRAYS

Phew!

tired

Tired today after a big week.

Went to see the movie New Moon with uni. We are both hooked after having watched Twilight on video and then reading the book.

Today was pretty much taken up with movie going with a little bit of Xmas shopping for Kt afterwards.

Then just enough time to eat lunch, have further discussions about the movie and then Uni went to collect Kt from school while I got the house looking respectable (OK well I just got the kitchen looking respectable ... the house needs more than 15 minutes work).

This morning I stayed for prep to year 3 parade and watched Kt and Andrea receive certificates for being Word Wall wizards!!!

They were the only 2 prep kids who got them, many grade 1 students did too, but it was quite a big deal that some prep kids did too.

My wonderful girl had a great big smile on her face! So did her mum!

This evening Uni bought us all ice creams to celebrate!

Her certificate is hanging up on the wall.

Yesterday I had my antenatal appointment (first one) at the hospital. I got to hear the heartbeat again. It took longer for the midwife to find it than my doctor.

First she tried down low under my bellybutton (not a sound ... complete silence) then she went up and to the right of my bellybutton (my left, her right) and she got it.

I felt a "surprised" movement as she positioned the doppler so I knew she was in the right place before I even heard the heartbeat.

Incidentally it was the same spot Kt and I had felt the kick during our play time a few nights back.

Baby is moving on up!!!

Just looked at my recent photos and the bump is definitely growing!

The midwife wants me to have an ultrasound to confirm my dates sometime in the coming week and then another one in about 3 weeks (around Xmas time).

Am excited and a bit worried about having an ultrasound. I am very keen to see the baby but I don't want to have too many ultrasounds and of course I don't want them to find anything wrong.

rearranging finances

Just spent several hours figuring out how we are going to pay for the next few weeks expenses.

Being prepared for different expenses in advance is great, but things still get difficult when your emergency and expense money is depleted and when you get a couple of unexpected big expenses at once.... or even just when a lot of expected expenses arrive together.

Xmas time shouldn't really be one of those unexpected expenses but I think it is impossible to fathom just how much Xmas really costs each year! I have decreased the allocated amount to be spent on each person this Xmas because our family has expanded significantly in the last few years and at the old rate we used to spend (before I had a specific budget organized)we tended to go overboard and we just can't do this anymore.

I am also trying to ask for presents from others that cost less too, as I think everyone else is in a similar predicament.

Either putting all of their money towards a mortgage or for those without a mortgage (or a more manageable one) putting their money towards holiday plans. Jeff and Jill are heading off to America in March next year and Grandma Pat has decided to go back to London and Paris in September of next year. We will have a baby next year and many associated expenses resulting from that and of course my mum and sister both have large mortgages and nice houses.

Anyway things are sorted for the moment and it looks like bella may get her vaccination this month, plus my car got serviced and the tail light will be able to be fixed.

This month we also dealt with rates and rego ... all big expenses.

But NO MORE expenses please and NO MORE suprises.

i am supposed to be sewing tonight

I have done all the ironing and cleaned the kitchen.

I am supposed to be sewing tonight, but once again find myself in front of the computer.

My car has been serviced and I will get the tail light replaced hopefully later in the week.

Service cost $453 ... plus tail light approx $200.

Yuck too many bills before Xmas.

Kt seems better today.

She may go to school tomorrow.

I will go and sew now ... I don't have much to do until I am finished and I need to keep things moving along.

early start

Kt woke up at 5.15 am this morning not feeling very well.

She complained of having a headache all day at school on Friday. Then had a high temperature and a headache on Saturday.

She seemed to improve on Sunday after a good sleep and plenty of rest, but by the afternoon was looking a bit droopy.

Since she woke up so early and I was supposed to take my car to be serviced this morning, I took her to the doctors before hours hoping to be in and out quickly.

This kind of worked, except that you are stuck with whatever doctor is the on call doctor of that day.

Dr Day wasn't too bad, but am wondering whether I should have just waited until later to get an appointment with our favourite Dr Taylor.

Symptoms indicate a viral infection rather than a bacterial one so we are resting and drinking fluids.

Her temperature was 37.7 and she felt very hot all over.

Panadol seems to be helping her feel better.

Once we got home I didn't want to worry about the car service ... I was tired and not really wanting to be without a car in case she took a turn for the worse.

I have rescheduled the service for tomorrow.

Think I will go to bed early tonight.

We are back on afternoon shifts now so not the best time in the roster (for me anyway).

Am just about finished my sewing tasks though and have gathered all my sewing gear into one place (ooops that reminds me I better get the over locker in here too).

Once I have sorted through it and repackaged it I will put it away.

progress

Well we have our new fridge and freezer installed downstairs.

The freezer is packed full of food, the fridge will need to be filled because a full fridge runs more efficiently than a half full one.

We are set for Xmas as far as food storing space is concerned.

We bought a whole lot of pies and things from the last school pie drive of the year, so until we get that order I will not buy anything else for the freezer.

I am still clearing the computer room upstairs ... I am up to the sewing phase now.

Once I finish all my sewing jobs, I will put the sewing machine and all sewing supplies into a new location.

Meanwhile uni spent all of yesterday clearing space in the store room which will become the new computer room/office.

It is in a pretty bad state at the moment, smells awful and still has damage from termite attack, but it is almost empty and uni worked his magic last year to paint and vastly improve the look of the fish room, so he will no doubt do the same to the "computer room".

This room has the advantage of having a door that can be closed and locked(so will be safe from Bella), is raised higher than the rest of the downstairs rooms, so is unlikely to flood. Downstairs is also cooler usually than upstairs, but there is only one window in the room so will have to see how well ventilated it is.

We will still probably get a laptop for upstairs so I can use it in the evenings and not have to leave the kids (hee hee, the kids!) upstairs by themselves while I unwind with the computer at night (hee hee, that sounds a bit odd too).

At the moment our fish room has plastic wrapped baby furniture and other assorted odds and ends all over it.

The baby stuff will have to be unwrapped, cleaned and taken upstairs once the baby's room has been emptied and uni wants to paint the interior walls which have some paint peeling off them.

We are certainly going to be busy!

Uni has also cleaned and filled the pond and introduced some plants into it. The plants are so happy, they are growing and flowering like crazy. The pond leaks from the top, so once he has sealed the interior we will fill it up to the top, let it sit for a week or so and introduce some fish into there. We have noticed an influx of dragonflies coming to investigate the pond!

Yesterday Kt went swimming wearing her new rainbow swimmers!

Very cute!

We also did a lice combing in the afternoon and I didn't find any lice at all. There were a lot of eggs (nits) but 90% of them were ones that had already hatched (and those lice have been dealt with in previous lice combings/lice treatments) and there were about 10% unhatched ones which I believe were rendered useless by the hot hair drying I have been doing.

Very happy ... will now just continue to remove any nits that I can see until her head is completely clear.

Only 3 months worth of work involved in that success!!!

the ups and the downs

Yesterday I did some shopping!

I have really been trying to stay away from the shops as much as possible ... there is plenty for me to do here and I don't need any more distractions but there have been some things I have been wanting to get and things I needed to investigate.

So armed with my list and my catalogues I headed off for a very successful and satisfying shopping trip.

First I got a new Xmas tablecloth from aldi!

Then I went to Kmart to look for some swimsuits for Kt and some maternity wear for me.

Kt's current swimsuits are a touch too small and the elastic on them is just about gone ... not a good combination!

After searching for quite a while for the right section I found two absolutely lovely swimsuits in size 5.

One was a one piece pink with a picture of a fish on it and the other was a two piece rainbow coloured set with a little tankini top and the bottoms are a little skirt attached to the normal bikini bottom.

I fully expected to have to return one or the other for size or style issues but when I brought them home they fitted perfectly and Kt loved them!!!!

I also had a search around for some maternity gear for me. I don't want to go overboard with it, but I particularly needed something cool, comfortable and pretty to wear on Xmas day. I will also need larger clothing for the whole pregnancy and also for the time I am breastfeeding .... last time I went up to a size 14 in tops ... they call me busty these days!!!

I tried on heaps of different things, maternity clothing and normal clothes in larger sizes. Something like 3 trips to the change rooms with 5 things at a time.

I finally settled very happily on two dresses both in a similar style. One was a white maternity dress with blue patterns and with shirring elastic around the bust. I got size 12 because size 10 fits OK (snug) now but in a month who knows. There is plenty of "give" in the top because of the elastic.

The other dress was black with purple and green patterns ... also with shirring elastic at the bust. This one was not a maternity one, but a summery dress which can be either worn as a dress (with straps over the shoulders) or the straps can be detached and the whole dress shifted down to be a longer skirt.

My kind of clothing ... multipurpose and the shirring stretches nicely around a pregnant belly with plenty of additional stretch. This one was a size 14 (normal clothes).

I considered getting it in a size 16 (still fits but has a bit more room) but decided against it because it really is only a summer dress and should fit me fine until about march when the weather starts to turn cold. Then I can wear it again next summer while my breasts are still big and my belly is figuring out what it is doing.

The tag on the black dress read $45 (which is a lot for me to spend on one item of clothing) but Kmart had 25% off clothes this week, so I figured it would come to a more reasonable $30. The other dress was $39 and would come to just under $30 too.

At the checkout the total was much less than I expected (how often does that happen!) and when I got home I was surprised to find that the $45 dress scanned at $30 and then they took a further 25% off to make it actually cost me $22.50!!!!

Wooooo hoooo!!!! what luck.

Even kt's swimwear was 25%off! $27 for two fabulous swimsuits!!!

Very happy!!!

This morning though uni drove my car home from work and because it was dirty decided to stop and give it a wash at the service station.

While he was manoeuvring he backed my tail light into a guard rail (which he could not see) and broke the outer plastic. The lights still work, but the coloured plastic is broken and jagged and there is a small dent in my body work. He thinks he might just be able to get the outer plastic replaced at a smash repairer ... but I suspect the whole tail light assembly might need replacing. OUCH! Don't think that will be cheap.

Hmmmpffff ....

He was very sorry and it was an accident and he was trying to do something nice for me at the time ......

grumble mumble .... husbands :-P ... what more can I say.

Happy Birthday Aunty Isadora

Hee hee

lots of LOVE to my very favourite sister on her birthday!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

fancy dress ball

Last night we went to Kt's fancy dress ball.

It was a fun night but Ktdid not get a chance to eat anything until after it was over.

I did not realize how long the lines for food would be.

Parents got to join their kids and do the macarena. I had no idea what I was doing ... but by the time I got home I had peiced the dance together and couldn't get the song out of my mind.

I got quite a few pictures and Kt and all the other kids were very enthusiastic, joining in with the singing and the actions and various dance moves.

We stopped in at hungry jacks on the way home to top up on dinner and then after a quick story and goodnight kiss Kt fell asleep pretty much as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Today I have been out shopping, partly for christmas stuff, partly for research.

I got myself a couple of maternity dresses. I really needed something cool and comfortable to wear on xmas day so I have two choices now.

I also bought Kt a couple of swimsuits and a Xmas tablecloth... and a fitted cloth nappy to try on the baby.

Last time I exclusively used disposables but I may try cloth nappies at least for some of the time.

I seem to remember Kt got into a rhythym of doing poos at a certain time of day so perhaps if I get into the babies rhythym I can use disposables at night time or when I am going out, and whenever i am expecting a poo, and cloth when it will be a wee.

I will already be doing stacks of washing anyway. I won't commit myself either way but cloth should be cheaper, easier to use for toilet training and if it is not too much extra work might be an option.

I have been given an appointment at the antenatal clinic for next thursday ... the same day I go to the dentist .. so it should be a big day.

I am hoping not to have to have Xrays at the dentist ... they use a lead apron thingy to protect your body etc ... but would really prefer not to be anywhere near Xrays in the first place. If he wants me to have them I may just have to refuse. Hopefully it won't even be an issue.

I have also been given and appointment time for 31st december to see a medical officer at the antenatal clinic (I assume that means a doctor).

I was hoping to have gotten an ultrasound appointment too ... 18-20 weeks falls in the two weeks leading up to Xmas. I will discuss that with them on my first antenatal visit.

Was hoping to see the baby just before Xmas when uni will have some time off work.

made myself an ironing board cover

Pretty proud of myself today!

I made myself an ironing board cover.

Not perfect ... in fact made plenty of mistakes and took too many shortcuts but decided to get it done rather than worry about perfection.

For the most part I enjoyed myself.

It took most of today ie several hours (approx 3)and probably would have taken about 5 or 6 if I had tried to do it properly.

I will test it out in the next few days to see if it holds up under the act of ironing!

Funnily enough I planned to make this probably over 6 months ago. I bought the materials I needed, after looking on the internet for instructions.

My main motivation for doing it was to save money ... figured it would cost less if I made it myself ... not happy with the cheap ones at WW and the more expensive ones with padding were around $17.

After I returned from the sewing store complete with swimming elastic, padding, and calico fabric I realized two things ....

1) I had spent more than $17 on materials ... and would now also have to spend time making the ironing board cover.

2) Somehow I was about 10cm short on my calico material.

ARrrrrghhhhh

This is not the first time I have ended up spending too much money trying to save money ... not sure when and if I will learn!!!

Anyway for the last six months or so I have just been using some old cloth nappies over the old damaged ironing board cover with the slightly too short peice of calico draped on top.

Apart from anything that has to fit over the narrow end of the ironing board while being ironed, I didn't really have any hassles with this method of covering.

But ....

The baby coming next year necessitates :-

a) that I get my sewing projects either finished or decide to give up on them altogether.
b) that I find and organize all my sewing gear and find a new home for it somewhere other than the babies room
c) that I have to put the ironing board away after each each use in the linen cupboard so it is not taking up valuable lounge room space ... and of course I can not do this quickly and easily if I have several layers of fabric draped over it instead of securely fastened.

feeling better

Feeling better today!

Uni was home last night and cooked dinner, played with Kt and we all went for a walk with the dog.

Tonight he will be here too and tomorrow night although he will be working but we will be going to Kt's school fancy dress ball in the evening where the kids will be performing some songs. They will have a sausage sizzle etc to raise money on the night so that means dinner will be covered!

I will only have to cook Thurs and Fri night and then half of next week.

It is really hot today and was hot yesterday too.

I have started folding my clothes at the clothes line when they are dry. I used to just sort them into 2 baskets (1 ironing basket and one folding basket) as I took them off the line, but am finding that I can just get all the undies off the line and fold them into the basket, then the same for all the singlets etc.

When I take the folding basket upstairs I just have to put the things away (a much quicker job than sorting them, folding them and putting them away).

I think this is a good way of doing it because it means we spend longer out in the backyard keeping the dog company (and allowing KT to climb and play). I also think I will bring the baby down to enjoy the outdoors while I do this next year.

I finished all my ironing last night Phew!

The computer room is slowly and steadily being cleared at the same time as I sell and get rid of things on my farmville game (which I am still addicted to but trying to extract myself from). It feels like these farm games parallel my life at the moment.

eg. When I was getting the garden sorted I was right into planting crops and flowers in the farm games etc. Now I am very much into removal of clutter in the home and I am also doing the same in the farms (selling whatever I possibly can to make space)!!!.



Kt has been drawing pictures of the baby in my tummy. The first one was a big purple oval shape with a pink love heart on top (this happened a couple of days after I heard the heartbeat for the first time


Today she did one with a big pink oval with lots of pink love hearts inside and all around the outside were orange kisses!

I also got a kiss and a cuddle this morning when I left her at school instead of being pushed away.

Yes! feeling great :-D!!!

time to simplify

I am having some hassles at the moment.

There have been a few clashes with Kt ... she seems to not think I am a very good mum and is very verbal about it. I think she is saying it to try and get a reaction more than anything but it is starting to bother me.

I am feeling quite unapreciated and grumpy and generally unimpressed.

This month is horrible as far as uni's roster is concerned because another shift is on holidays and that means that he is not around much ... no five day breaks until next month.

I think the cloud will lift in December ... but I am going to have to start letting some things go so hopefully I will not be so grumpy or so "unavailable" to KT.

I know I haven't been very playful of late ... she thinks I am a very poor playmate and I understand that her ideas of a good mum include playing all the time, not being bossy (LOL!) making cakes or cookies EVERY DAY and feeding her only things she likes.

While I recognize this as unrealistic ... i think she does have a point in some ways.

I don't play with her for very long or with anywhere near the same enthusiasm as uni or a very energetic and fit aunty (you know who you are!).

I do think I do plenty of other things with her and I do spend time with her reading, doing homework, walking the dog, baking although definitely not EVERY DAY, taking her to the library etc but some of the fun things we used to do don't happen as much (mostly because she is at school).

I am going to try and do a bit more of this stuff with her. I figure if I keep her active and busy she won't have time to complain or argue!!!

Keeping my fingers crossed about this one.

I attended the whole of parade today

Kt now has two kippa paws in that little green reward box, neither of which came out today when I watched parade.

They have announced that there will be a platinum award for those students who have been consistently good all year ... always on gold, always following the rules.

I suspect the last week of term will be a big one.

I will make my pregnancy check up appointments early in the last week of term so I don't miss out on any of the end of year presentations.

Kt handed in word wall 6 yesterday and is yet to be tested on it. She is doing an amazing job!

Next week we have a prep to yr 3 fancy dress ball to attend, where the younger school kids will be dressing up and performing some songs and dances for their parents.

Can't wait! Should be lots of fun.

This first year of school has really been a big one. So much to learn, so much to remember ... not just for Kt but for me too.

Reading the newsletter every Wednesday night in case there is vital information in there relating to the next day. Helping to make hats, crazy hair or costumes for various fundraising or fun days. Bringing back library books and homework on the right days. Packing a good lunch every day and trying not to forget the water bottle ....

Battling lice ....

Incidentally the school newsletter mentioned wanting everyone to check their kids hair for lice in a coordinated effort on Thurs 12th Nov. I did a lice combing (I have been pregnant for 14 weeks on Saturday and we have been battling head lice that whole time)... there was one louse in her hair which I am not sure was even alive, and a whole heap of either old or hatched eggs.

I think it is over! I will continue to lice comb once a week until I find nothing ... but I think that I have finally become effective and quick at lice combing, and because I now tie Kt's hair up in a pony tail at the back rather than two cute little side tails ... there is less hair to hair contact with other kids.

I also drench the ponytail every single day in water with a few drops of lavender oil and tea tree oil mixed in.

This way it is on her hair not her scalp or head or neck and is only on the parts that are most likely to be in contact with other kids. ... and an added bonus is that it smells quite nice.

The final step in the equation is also drying her hair with a hot hair dryer right down to the roots. This is supposed to dry out the eggs and prevent them from hatching and I believe this has worked because a lot of the eggs I found during this last lice combing were intact ie appeared not to have hatched, but the absence of adult lice makes me think the eggs could be old ones that have stayed stuck on but never hatched because they got blasted with the hot hairdryer.

Will see what I find next week anyway and that will either confirm my theory or prove me wrong.

all the family knows

OK well now the news is out and everyone who should know does know about our new arrival due in May.

It will be a relief to just be able to talk freely about it to whoever now.

Especially since it is fairly obvious now for anyone who knows me and has seen my belly.

Tomorrow I have a doctors appointment where I will hopefully get to listen to baby's heartbeat! I am going at 13.5 weeks rather than 14 weeks, but I imagine that should not make a difference.

And I believe, my next appointment will be at the hospital for the 18-20 week ultrasound.

reluctance

I am half way through packing my keyboard away and I am fighting such strong feelings of reluctance and resistance.

I am not sure if it is only to do with the piano (my desire to play since childhood)and the fact that me putting it out of reach, shelving it, is also shelving my plans to learn to play.

I have had it ready for use any time I want it for at least 3 years without having touched it so I don't completely understand where this feeling is coming from.

It is accessible (with a bit of work) if I really want to get it out and play it again as will all the things that I find new "homes" for.

I guess maybe I am resisting the removal of my/our computer/study/hobbies room.

Or maybe like with everything I just can't help procrastinating.

I read in one of the blogs I follow that a lot of people procrastinate because they are afraid of not doing things perfectly ... so they don't start things.

I wonder if there is an element of that to some of my procrastination. I don't necessarily think perfection is what I seek, but I do always want to try and do things "the right way" and often I have no idea what the right way is.

The blogs answer to this challenge was to just do it, done not quite perfectly (or in my case not quite right)is better than never started or never attempted or not done.

I like the idea of this. Just wonder if I can put it into practise.

I was planning to sew uni a heat pack and have been putting off starting because I am worried about the look of the finished product.

Hoping I will be able to start it this week.

Another truth about me is that once I do actually start something (although I have started many things and not finished ... ) usually I am gripped by a strong urge to get it done ... as long as I don't start something else more gripping in the meantime.

LOL!!!

OK feeling better about the keyboard now ... and the rest of my rearranging ... I have got the christmas things out of the cupboard which temporarily make it look like I have plenty of space in there to put things into.

Am thinking that Christmas stuff no longer deserves prime placement in the upstairs so it will have to find a new dog proof home downstairs after Xmas this year.

I have also looked up and discovered that we have a lot more (out of reach places) than I am currently using that could take assorted chemicals and cleaners etc that were placed on high shelves when Kt was a baby, but are now sitting virtually untouched taking up prime real estate ...

mornings

I got up semi early to go to the markets this morning and I paused in the garden on the way out.

All my flowers look particularly good in the morning when it has not yet gotten too hot.

I can see the effect of my plantings last year.

I put lots of blue flowers and white flowers and purple flowers together in the front parts of the garden along the front fence.

And the big garden in front of the pond has a mixture of colours like pinks, oranges, reds, yellows and the occasional white flower too.

I think it is looking really nice.

Not too haphazard. And of course it has just rained this last week so everything is pretty healthy.

Yesterday I was sneezing and had a runny nose and watery eyes. I am feeling much better today after a sleep, but am not sure if I have a cold or if it was a really bad case of allergies.

The fact that I had been vacuuming 10 years worth of dust off the wardrobe the day before probably did not help ... nor did me going through my cupboards trying to find things I can get rid of to make space upstairs.

Hmmmmmmm

There is a raffle on at the school and they want parents to donate prizes ... I have dusted off things that I have been given and never used ... or barely used ... even somthing I rescued from my sister's clean up ... and then never ended up using myself.

Less and less of my clothes are fitting now and I am in a quandry as to whether to keep them for the one and a half years to two years it will take me to fit into them again, or just make space by getting rid of them.

A lot of my stuff I have repaired and repaired, only to have it rip or otherwise need more attention.

Perhaps I should just get rid of it now, make space and deal with not having any pre pregnancy clothes in the future when it will become an issue again.

I seem to remember there was quite a long period after Kt's birth where I seemed to have hassles finding things that fit me properly ... perhaps I will opt for lots of elastic and drawstring waists until I am back to a predictable size again.

making room

I am on a mission.
There is nothing that is a more effective motivator for me than a deadline .. and I have one in May!

I have to look at everything in the house and decide if it really belongs where it is and whether we need it or whether something else could do the job better.

We purchased a second fridge and a freezer for downstairs. The freezer will replace the 30 year old one that we were given by Unis family. Uni remembers looking up at the freezer when he was a little kid.

Hopefully by replacing this freezer we will also get rid of the short circuiting problem that sets off our safety switch and shuts off power in the middle of the night at a frequency of about once a month.

If it doesn't fix the problem I will be going after the heaters in the fish tank as the next probable culprit.

The downstairs fridge and freezer will help us to stock up on food and store it effectively so that we don't have to keep everything upstairs in our current fridge.

At the moment our fridge is full to the brim from Sunday to about Wednesday and then slowly empties from Thurs to Saturday.

I used to get around this problem by market shopping on Sunday and spacing out my other shopping (Aldi and WW) over a couple days, but it started to feel like I was shopping all week and I kind of like having days when I don't have to go out anywhere.

I believe it will be hard and not very desirable for me to go shopping a lot with a new baby in tow ... or an older baby or even a toddler for that matter, so I think I will try to stock up on the days that I do go shopping and reduce the number of shopping trips.

Will take some organization but I think I will get there.

Uni has also suggested we buy a free standing pantry to put downstairs as well with the fridge and freezer ... because quite frankly I have been stocking up on non cold items and our upstairs pantry is a nightmare!!!

Absolutely full at all times and things are impossible to find!

I am loving the idea of an extra pantry ... maybe even two or three ... LOL!!!

I have to clear out the computer room and distribute its contents all over the rest of the house.

The linen cupboard will get an overhaul too because a lot of stuff is just stored in there haphazardly and these days any space upstairs is prime real estate and definitely not to be wasted!

In this vein of thought, I vacuumed the top of my wardrobe and will wrap up my keyboard and its stand and store them up there.

There are a lot of things I do not want to let go of, but having things out on display and ready to use at a moments notice hasn't really worked.

Uni wants me to find a place for the vacuum cleaner (I think he trips over it where it is) and I am thinking that maybe I should put away the ironing board too (at least every now and then).

Sure hope there is room for these things in the cleaned out linen cupboard!

We also have to find places for the computer and mine and uni's desk.

He wants the computer to go downstairs, that really won't suit me at all. He has suggested that we get a laptop for me. I am just not sure. More expense and I am already kind of attached to the current computer.

I don't want it to go downstairs where there is potential for flooding, Bella mischief and where I am unlikely to be able to spend much time using it (especially at night when the rest of the family will be upstairs).

I am not completely averse to the idea of a laptop .... just not sure ...although it seems to be common these days that people each have their own computer not a shared one.

Uni wants to get Kt a laptop of her own too when she is old enough to need it.

Yikes .... more expenses.....

missed it by that much

Well it turns out that I did miss something big yesterday on parade.

Moments before I got there to watch, the principal of the school made a special mention of Kt and how she has been well behaved all year and he congratulated her and asked her to come up and get a CUDDLE from Kippa canine the school mascot.

Not just a piece of paper but a real live CUDDLE!

All by herself, the only one up on stage .... and I missed it due to being frazzled and dithering about.

Very unhappy!

I am NEVER going to miss another parade again!!!!!

arrrrrkkkk hectic morning

This morning I was suppposed to leave some paperwork out in the letterbox for arthur to collect.

I was going to do it on the way to school, but he arrived at 7.30am.

I was in the toilet and didn't catch him. I sent him a text immediately and went outside in pj's to put the papers in the mailbox.

He came back about 15 minutes later.

Then Kt complained that her blister covered in a bandage was too painful to walk in wearing her current shoes, so we dashed off to Kmart to buy her the next size up.

We had only just gone shoe shopping a week ago but the ones she liked were way too big ... like clown shoes and she kept tripping and falling every time she wore them.

We have kept those for next year and now she has a good pair for now that hopefully will not aggravate her blister too much.

I don't think I've done so much by 9am before in the last 6 years!!!!!

I dropped Kt off at school and decided not to stay for parade, drove home and then thought "what if she gets her kippa paw today or gets an award for her great word wall performances".

So I quickly put on sunscreen and walked back to school just in time to see some kids being given awards.

Kt saw me straight away and waved and blew kisses. Once again they only drew out a tiny number of Kippa paws from the box and her name wasn't one of them ... but at least I went!

Yesterday Arthur dropped in twice to catch up with us in the morning while Kt was at school and then again in the afternoon to chat with Kt after school.

He has the windows version as us (Vista) and I showed him how to do a couple of things on it.

He asked me if I knew how to resize photos so they would be easy to email and I told him that was something I was still struggling with ... but after he left I had a go and found three different ways to do it.

I think with all the recent time and effort I have devoted to learning the new programs and recording all the steps i take, I am in a much better position to get things done.

I wrote him some instructions step by step and am feeling very pleased with myself.

My next blog will include those instructions so I have another record of them!

Kt swimming

4 weeks on from saying goodbye to Cameron, Kt is starting to benefit from her training with Tammy.

Cameron definitely laid the groundwork and Tammy is a bit harder, nice but less friendly than Cameron,or perhaps more demanding.

The girls will be asked to do something for one whole lap of the pool, then repeat it on the way back and repeat it again and all the way back a second time.

They are really swimming now!

At first Kt was upset that and felt that she couldn't do it, but Tammy flat out refused to let her think that. She just kept saying you are doing it you are doing great ... and there wasn't much Kt could reply to that.

The drills she has been given are really paying off. This week her strokes and movement through the water were so beautiful and so graceful it was like watching a dancer.

I could not take my eyes off her. She was delighted to hear this when I told Nanna, and she herself really noticed a difference this week in how she was going.

What Tammy is trying to reinforce is the correct head position to use when taking a breath ... keeping her ear tucked close to her outstretched arm and rotating her body but still keeping it in one long line from fingertip to toe.

She has tried to get Kt used to this in a number of ways, either holding onto the kickboard with two hands and turning her head to the side, or holding the kickboard with one hand while the other rests on her leg.

She has had to do it without the kickboard, wearing flippers and I guess in the coming weeks she will be trying without flippers.

There is certainly something to be said for practice and muscle memory and all that.

Kt can read!

In the last few weeks the realization has sunk in that Kt can read.

I asked her to read some pages in a dr Suess book and she was able to read or quickly sound out most of the words.

I sat watching and listening in amazement.

Her teacher has started giving the students that are good readers word walls. These are lists of words that they can read themselves and when they return them to the teacher, she tests them (points to words and asks them to read them back to her). If they get the words right she gives them the next word wall.

Kt handed in word wall 4 today and has basically done one a night since they were first given out.

She is so enthusiastic, picks up the information so quickly and is just amazing!!!

Rain overnight

It stormed last night and Kt and I had a candle lit dinner (candles were out just in case the power went out).

The thunder and lightning were quite loud so I promised to stay with Kt in her room until she fell asleep.

I had just finished commenting on how I love sleeping when there is rain outside (particularly heavy rain).

Then I rolled over onto my other side (I was lying on a bean bag beside Kt's bed) and promptly fell asleep.

I slept for about an hour to an hour and a half and woke up quite surprised. Kt was silent so I imagine she had been asleep for a while too.

I headed out to watch TV and catch up on my tidying up.

By the time I got to bed I was very tired, but could not get to sleep.

Probably should have gone back to Kt's room!

This morning the pond was about an inch and a half full of water and I drained it with buckets and gave the garden a good watering.

It took me about an hour, but it certainly beats carrying bathwater from Kt's bath down the stairs and all around the garden.

Many things are starting to bloom ... I am amazed how quickly plants respond to rainwater!!!

Some of my plants are flowering for the first time ever, even though I have had them for a few years.

I am surprised to see that the agapanthus I transplanted earlier in the year are actually starting to flower before the established plants that have been in the garden for over a decade!!!

And my blue salvia, which lost all their flowers and i thought were finished their run have bloomed again!

The tanks were 1/4 filled by the rain although there was a leak so we probably had more. At the moment Uni estimates we have 500 litres of water in the tank.

I will have to drain it so that uni can do some repairs ... but I think it will only take another day or two for me to do that.

I also need to mulch the garden while there is moisture in the soil.

more lice

KT has been under attack from lice again.

I picked out two big ones that I just saw crawling on her hair while she lay in bed.

Head and ears and neck were covered in bites.

I did a lice treatment on Sunday and left it on for 1 hour instead of the minimum 30 minutes.

I covered every single bit of her scalp, every single strand of hair, not one was missed and put extra in the spots she said were itchy.

when I washed it off in the bath I also conditioned her hair with conditioner that had tea tree oil added.

I then dried her hair with the hairdryer on hot and I didn't just dry the hair I dried each portion of hair right down to the scalp.

I guess I was maybe looking for lice?

One big one had fallen out into the bathwater but I hadn't seen any others and was certain there had to be more.

She was wearing a white shirt as I dried her and I suddenly noticed a couple of very dead black lice had landed on her shirt.

I also found two lice stuck on her scalp "feeding" I presume, and I pulled them out by hand. They were alive and waving their legs at me. I put them in a solution of water and tea tree oil and they were motionless in minutes.

As soon as I removed them Kt said that she had been particularly itchy there.

I think I got about 8 adult ones in total by doing things this way.

It relies on you actually looking with your eyes and getting them while they are stunned from the lice treatment (or perhaps the heat of the hairdryer).

When you do lice combing, the hair is wet with conditioner and you can' see anything, you just have to comb through every section and see what you pick up.

I kind of like the idea of being able to hone in on them and nab them! Gotcha.

More hunting satisfaction I guess.

Will have to do a lice combing today or tomorrow to catch any eggs and any small lice that have hatched in the last few days.

Really thought I had eradicated them last fortnight but there was one day when I forgot to put tea tree oil and lavendar in Kt's hair ... wonder if a whole lot jumped onto her then.

still on the subject of wmv's

It has occured to me that since I have had troubles in the past with quicktime and also that kodak easyshare does sometimes appear to be unreliable (shutting down regularly and not responding), I might actually be better off converting my MOV files to WMV's so they can be viewed regardless of what is going on with quicktime and easyshare.

It will make it easier for me to share with others too, without requiring them to download quicktime.

I have decided to, that due to the sheer volume of photos I take I am going to have to be more discriminating about what I keep.

At the moment my photo DVD's have about 999 photos each and that is for a period of one year ...

It is not uncommon for me to have 12 pictures on one subject each one a little different and me being reluctant to get rid of any.

I will have to add a culling stage to my photo sorting and be ruthless!

wmv

Well it turns out that I didn't give the newly created wmv files a chance.

On their first run through they play in a stuttered fashion with vision pausing and then skipping ahead to try and catch up with the audio ...

But on subsequent viewings everything straightens itself out!

So it appears that I can make the DVD's that I want to, in Windows DVD maker and mix digital camera videos with digital camera still shots.

I have already backed everything up now so I will not redo it for the sake of putting video and photos together ... but for the next one I attempt ... which will be photos (and video) from 2009 I will have a go.

I also discovered that in picasa I can quickly and easily create a little video made up of photos and it automatically saves it as a wmv file (which is how I stumbled onto the fact that my wmv actually does play properly after the first time).

Picasa also seems to allow you to quickly burn a cd or dvd using photos so I may play with that at some stage ... although I will admit that having spent so much time using and working out windows DVD maker I am not sure that I want to try too many others.

My computer also has cyberlink dvd suite which looks pretty good but perhaps a bit complicated ... allows you to slice video etc. And another program which is similar and again looks a bit complicated is windows movie maker.

Photo sort

I have been intensely working to get my photos sorted. I have made backup copies of all of Kt's photos from birth to the present and I had a go at making a photo slideshow DVD using Windows DVD maker.

It allows you to have a title page with a play button and scene selection buttons just like a normal DVD and then it plays your photos as a slideshow and you have the option to choose your own background music or how the photos change from one to the next, how long each photo is shown for etc.

I have made 4 DVD's in all this past week approx 6 hours worth of stuff from the last 6 years worth of photos!

Last year I also made backup copies of all the video uni took of her while his video camera still worked.

I am going to create a photo box to store all our DVD's, photo CDs etc and put them with our photo albums so everything is all organized.

I will also put in CD's and DVD's that others have given us eg Wedding photos etc.

I am having a bit of trouble with backing up and keeping video taken by my digital camera. It is saved by Kodak software as a Quicktime movie and quicktime is not compatible with windows photo editing software.

I tried changing my MOV files to WMV files which are compatible with windows but the quality of the resulting video was unwatchable.

I will attempt to make a Cd or DVD of my MOV files using Kodak Easyshare software and if this does not work I will have to try some other avenue ... perhaps AVI files.

It would be lovely to be able to have my photos and videos on one CD or DVD, but I will have to see if that is achievable with Easyshare or not

Our last day in the bunya mountains

On the Friday, we woke up early and packed up our things.

Everyone helped, even KT

Once we got the bulk of the work done KT watched "James and the Giant Peach" on the kids TV and video and uni and I took care of last minute things.

We were out by 10.45 ... check out time was 10am ...but I think that's the best checkout time we have ever achieved and this time we did it with KT in tow!

On our way out of the Bunya mountains we took a 2.7km bushwalk from Westcott along the "Koondali Circuit".

We stopped at Blackbutt for lunch (yummy) and a quick pitstop at Kilcoy.

Since we would be back in the neighbourhood just before the dog kennels opened we decided to pick out pooch up on the way home and all arrive home together.

Uni and Kt had also decided it might be fun to go out for dinner to Mamma's restaurant so we wouldn't have to worry about cooking.

Excellent plan!!!

I pretty much unpacked and put away everything on the night of our arrival home. Admittedly a lot of our stuff was destined for the washing machine, but I still think it was a terrific effort.

The mound of washing and ironing followed and I think I have commented on that already in this blog.

sorting out emails

Just came up with a great way to sort out my emails and must record it somewhere or I will forget how I did it.

Ok the first step is to go into my mail click on the first email in a given month eg 1st sept then go to the last email of that month and click shift and then the last email.

This selects all the emails from 1st to last day of september ... from there I go into edit tab and click on move to folder.

I created a new folder with a title like sorting out emails
and then a subfolder within this folder called september 2009.

All my september received emails are now in this folder. I also go into sent items and do the same to my september sent emails. ie. click on the first one for september, then go to the last one for september and click shift then the last email.

Again I go into edit, choose move to folder, select september 2009.

When I have all the september emails in September 2009 I sort them according to subject so that I have sent emails and received emails on the same subject one on top of the other. I do this by going into view tab and then choose sort/then click on subject and also either sort ascending or descending.

I can now easily compare emails with the same subject and decide which one to keep so I don't have double, triple or quadruples of the same information.

When I have gotten rid of duplicates etc I sort the folder back into date order again

view/sort by/date received/descending or ascending.

Anything I want to keep in its entirety gets moved directly into my information to keep folder and all that is left in my inbox and sent items box is the current months emails!

I will still of course need to transfer July/August and September emails into my email diary, but this should be easier when everything is all in one place and in date order etc.

Very pleased with myself!

Really glad I studied part of that computer course at home. Unfortunately I didn't finish it but have got plenty out of what I did do!

On our next day in the Bunya Mountains

After our late night at the observatory, we (uni and I) were in no hurry to get up early.

Kt of course had other ideas and surprised us by only sleeping in for one hour instead of the 2 to 3 we were expecting.

I got up reluctantly and we had a normal breaky while uni slept in. He would be making pancakes for us later, but rather than wait without breaky until mid morning I decided to just have two meals.

After pancakes we sat in the kids lounge and watched a video of Snow white and the 7 Dwarfs, which we all really enjoyed.

Then we ate a spaghetti and sausage lunch before finally leaving the house at about 3pm!

We went for a short 500m bushwalk before arriving at the starting site for our Clydesdale horse and cart tour to the top of Mowbullan Township.

This was a 45 minute cart ride, with 2 beautiful Clydesdale horses. The views were spectacular, the pace was slow and steady and Kt along with the two other young girls on board, got to sit up the front up high near the driver.

Kt even got a turn holding the reins. We have a photo on uni's camera .... will have to try and figure out how to get it from the camera onto the computer!

We all had a great time, Kt in particular!!! We were very proud of her for volunteering straight away to sit up the front. She is such a brave girl these days!

That night was meant to be our dinner at the Cider Gum restaurant but when we got back from our ride there was a note slipped under our door to say that dinner was cancelled as they did not have enough bookings to keep the restaurant open.

If we had wanted to we could have ordered from their menu and had them bring the meal to our accommodation, but we decided to just make a meal at home instead. Their prices were pretty high ... much more than normal take away would be.

We had a great night, Kt and uni cooked dinner together and we had a delicious dessert. We had a much earlier night and started preparations for packing up in the morning.

rain and play doh

I have just returned from the markets and the rain held off until I came home.

It has rained very little in the last 3 months and it is lovely to watch the grey sky and gentle rain and listen to it in the background.

My plants really need it ... and it gives me an excuse not to start painting the fence this morning.

Yestereday KT and I made pink play doh.

We haven't made play doh much this year ... we were doing some once a month last year when she was at kindy but usually we have only made it in the holidays this year.

I had pink food colouring from the cake supplies we bought for this years birthday. She was pleasantly surprised when she asked if we could make pink play doh and I said yes!

We started early and Kt did most of the mixing and pouring in of ingredients. I only helped with the stirring when it started to get hard to stir.

We had perfect playdough in no time and it was a fabulous colour!!!

Making your own playdough is definitely a money saving way to go ... it costs about $10-15 initially to get your materials and they should make at least a years worth (12 batches, 1 a month) of playdough instead of buying playdough at $10 for 4 small tubs.

If you only make one colour at a time you also avoid the inevitable mixing of all colours to make one brown lump!!!!!

I felt like baking today ... something about the weather ... but i did not have enough butter .... hmmm might have to go shopping but not really in the mood

On friday I had a fairly hectic day ...

Went to visit nanna in the morning and had planned to miss that day's school parade but when I told Kt my plan she said she thought I might miss out on seeing her receive a kippa paw. She had been caught doing something good in the playground fairly recently and thought it would be close to the top of the box.

I ummed and aahhhed for a bit and decided I could delay my visit to nanna.

On our way out the door I made sure I had my handbag and a shirt that I needed to return to nanna, since I intended to go straight from the school to her house.

I also thought I had better make a last minute toilet visit. Once i got in there I flushed it to clear it and was horrified to see the contents of the toilet rise up towards the surface.

After a moan of annoyance ... as i was now running late ... I unblocked the toilet, finished my own contribution and held my breath as it flushed normally.

Then we ran out the door and headed off for school. I got out of the car, got my handbag, looked for Kt's school bag and couldn't find it. Of course it had been left behind at home ... i usually only carry one bag to school and since I had my handbag over my shoulder I completely forgot about Kt's bag.

Back in the car we headed back home through unbelieveable school traffic, got home, got the bag and returned again to school.

We managed to park a bit closer and I got out of the car only to discover that Kt had wound down her window for the 2 minute drive to school. I put her out of the car with both bags, started the car and closed the electric window ... in the meantime the car in front of me had moved out of the way so I drove further forward and even closer to the school. Kt followed on foot carrying the bags!

Then we rushed up past the parade area and I tacked Kt onto the end of her class line just as they were heading to their spot.

I couldn't put her brain break or drink bottle in the classroom because it had been locked, so I decided to let Mrs Sands know where it was once I left the parade.

I was hoping they would do the kippa paws early and I could leave before the end of parade.

No such luck though, as it was a whole school parade, the first one of the term and of course there was plenty the principal wanted to discuss.

After a quick text to nanna I found a spot standing up at the back so I could make a quick getaway.

I made eye contact with Kt and waited.

They started handing out kippa paws at the end of parade at about 9.30. When there didn't seem to be any more I prepared to leave, but then they brought out the playground boxes. You should have seen Kt's excitement, so I waited, hoping her name would be called out.

Unfortunately they only picked two names from the P-3 box and two names from the 4-7 box and neither of them was hers.

Then parade was over!!!

HMMMfff

I waved goodbye to Kt, found Mrs sands and then headed to nanna's house.

I stayed there for about 1 hour before heading back home to go out with uni to look for a new fridge and freezer for downstairs.

We had a look at the goodguys and as usual, discovered that the price we wanted to pay was not going to get us the product we wanted.

We want the new fridge and freezer before Xmas so we can store our Xmas food in it .. so we will have to keep an eye out between now and then.

temporarily cut off

I seem to be temporarily cut off from my main email addresses at the moment ... am hoping this will sort itself out on its own.

So if you have sent me any emails today or yesterday I will not have received them.

You can try my live address instead I should be receiving mail there.

I had a good day yesterday sorting through Kt's stuff. I have been purchasing clear plastic storage containers to put all her Lego, little people farm animals, etc in. These containers are small enough to slip in under her bed and each one is for one type of toy so I am hoping to restore order to her stuff and avoid having to spend hours searching in various different places to find x my little pony or y farm barn/tractor etc.

I will probably do the same for some of my stuff eg bellydancing gear etc that is not being used at the moment.

Under the bed in a dust proof container sounds like the perfect solution.

I really do find it hard to get rid of things or throw things out ... especially if they cost a lot of money in the first place, or would cost a lot to replace if I change my mind and restart an activity later down the track.

I'm not too keen to sell stuff on eBay anymore because I did tend to spend a lot of time there and would easily find other things to spend my newly made money on ... and that kind of defeats the purpose of clearing your house of stuff only to bring in new stuff!!!

Yesterday while I was out shopping for storage containers it started to pour with rain!!!

My clothes got an extra rinse out on the line ... my garden got a much needed soak ... and to my delight it rained heavily on my way home from the shops too so I was able to get my car washed for free.

It still had a fine mist of dust on it from the last two dust storms, but now it looks fabulous!

Maidenwell Observatory

Last Wednesday night at 7.30pm we headed off to the Maidenwell observatory for the "moon and stars" show. http://www.starsabove.com.au/

It is about 30 minutes from the Bunya mountains to Maidenwell, but it took us more like 45minutes.

All of the brochures for the show had pictures of everyone rugged up wearing beanies, scarves etc, so we made sure we were fully protected.

I wore long johns under a pair of fleecy trackpants, thick socks and joggers. I put KT in thick woolly tights under a pair of fleecy trackpants too. On the top half I wore a long sleeved thermal undershirt with two more light long sleeve layers on top and a big heavy jacket. Kt wore the same configuration. We also took gloves and beanies.

We arrived early and there was only one other car load of people ... we thought that would be it, but by starting time there were something like 25 people!

First we headed outside to view the stars that Astronomer James pointed out with his green laser pointer. Maidenwell apparently has had all its streetlights changed to allow maximum view of the stars with little interference from other lights.

Then we headed "inside" the shed where he keeps his telescopes.

There were three big telescopes set up in a row and there was bench seating all around the perimeter of the shed. We had to divide ourselves up into three groups to share the telescopes.

Jim turned off the lights, started up the theme from "Space Odyssey" and before we knew it he was rolling back the roof of the shed to reveal the night sky. I think I would have like to see this from the outside too!!!

He had a ladder set up beside each telescope so that kids could climb up and easily look through the eyepiece, the ladder was also there for the adults to use to steady themselves so they didn't go crashing into the telescope.

If I had a better memory I would be able to relate all the things we looked at, but what I do remember was that each picture was different and interesting.

I think the first think we viewed was one of the the stars that makes up the pointers ... to the naked eye it looks like it is only one star but through the telescope you could see that it was actually two stars side by side.

Kt had a look and could not see it and we worried that the night would end up being a total loss for her. I looked next and could see two very bright lights ... like two torch lights.

We both tried to help Kt be positive about the whole experience and we told her she would have to take her time and look into the eyepiece and adjust her head position and move her eye around until she saw something. I told her to imagine she was a detective looking through her magnifying glass.... looking for stars.

We held our breath as she looked at the next site which was a star system/galaxy ..... she looked in for a minute and then she said "I saw it" and with great delight she continued to fully take in all the rest of the stars. This second one was really spectacular, it looked like a burst of yellow fireworks. There were so many stars and they were in a spiral shape ... it was like an explosion of little lights. This one was my favourite!!

The next one we saw was an open cluster of stars and this looked like a smattering of very bright stars a bit like diamonds scattered on a dark velvet cloth.

We also got several close ups of the moon. It was incredible to look at its whole surface and then focus in on all the craters. It was really bright to look at too, Jim ended up putting an orange and a yellow filter on it to cut out some of the glare.

Uni was really impressed with the close ups of the craters while I particular liked being able to see the whole of the moon ... we were about 2 nights off a full moon so most of the moon was visible.

Jupiter was right next to the moon and very very bright ... at the moment it is directly overhead in the night sky.

We closed in on her and 3 of her moons. They were all the same size and in a perfectly straight row .... quite fabulous! Jupiter was kind of stripy and apparently egg shaped although it wasn't obvious to me!!! LOL!!!

Overall the show went for 2 hours and by the end Kt was getting tired. She did look at everything though and got up onto the ladder by herself ... often looking for longer than either I or Uni.

I was keen to find the nearest toilet .... and uni was keen to buy merchandise!!!

We came home with this years and next years calendars with information on where the stars will be in the night sky etc. He also bought a couple of solar system DVD's which should be of interest.

I think it was a really amazing and magical night and I have caught myself looking up at the stars much more regularly!!!

By the time we got back to Pepperbury and got Kt to bed it was 11pm. Neither uni or I were quite ready for bed straight away although I was tired.

We watched a comedy DVD and ended up falling asleep at about 1am.

I fully expected that we would all sleep in the next day ... so I wasn't worried about the lateness of the night.

Little did I know Kt would only sleep in for 1 hour ... waking up at about 8.30am!!!

tidying and sorting

I spent the morning sorting through KT artworks from this year.

I have kept one example of each type of artwork (sometimes 2 or 3 ... as I could not help myself), but the rest have gone into and filled up the recycling bin.

I am yet to decide how best to store the pictures I am keeping ... and there is still 1/4 of the year left to go so I imagine there will still be a few more to come.

I noticed that the prep classroom has things very well organized eg labelled boxes which say what kind of item is contained within them (for things like sequins, paper chain pieces etc) and they have their bigger blocks and things in larger clear or see through boxes.

It got me thinking that perhaps we can do the same thing here eg ... all the leggo of a certain size could go into a large clear box, all the little people farm toys could go in another etc.

At the moment I just stick things into boxes with other things that are the same size, but it makes it very difficult to find things as there is no particular or order to putting things away.

I think I can store some of these boxes under kt's bed or in her new wardrobe too, so that we have more space in the loungeroom.

I was supposed to write about our holiday today but I might leave that until tomorrow.

Kt came back from her 3rd and final visit to the school dentist. The good news is that her teeth are good and they didn't have to do anything! I am very very relieved!!!

Another little boy in her class came out this afternoon and told his carer in an excited voice "i have really bad teeth" hmmmmmm as excited as he sounded I didn't want to hear the same news from KT and since she looked a bit tearful this afternoon when I picked her up I was a bit worried.

Tomorrow Kt starts swimming at school so I am off to label all her swimming stuff and do another lice combing this afternoon.....

soap fairy ...

Before I continue my holiday log I will just mention that today is the first day of term 4, so KT is back at school after 2 weeks holiday and it is also the first day back at work for uni who has had the last 4 weeks on holiday.

The house is quiet and very messy, my routines all went out the window over the last few weeks and I have a strong urge to re-establish order.

We are planning to host Christmas this year so I have the next 2and a half months to get things sorted out before the holiday period begins again.

I also need to finish painting that fence!!!! I don't think I have gone near it for about 2 weeks!

Ok enough of the good intentions ... back to the bunyas ...

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On our second day we woke up bright and early (me and KT) and had crumpets for breakfast.

We dressed warmly for the cooler mountain air and once Uni had also woken and breakfasted, we headed down to explore our surroundings.

Uni started us on the 4km scenic loop bush walk. When we went to take our first photo of the trip we discovered that my camera battery was dead. I have to have it recharging right up to the moment I want to start taking photos. Very disappointing, but luckily uni has a camera phone so we did get an occasional holiday shot.

As always the Bunya mountains bush walks are lovely. There was a lot less water there than last time we had visited (before KT was born) and in fact the water fall was only a trickle which took us a bit by surprise.

After about half an hour of walking we passed some older girls and their parents who informed us that they had been walking for an hour an a half. I smiled at the girls feeling certain they were exaggerating the time. We had only been walking for half an hour and I thought we were close to half way at the time.

Another hour and a half later when we finally cleared the rainforest I realized that they had been accurate!!! LOL!!!

We did stop a lot to look around and to allow KT to climb the stranger fig that Uni had climbed 20 years back when he was a kid etc.

By the time we were done I was ravenous! Also very keen to use the toilet since we had completely depleted our water bottle supply.

And so continues the legend of the soap fairy .....

I often feel frustrated when we go for adventures out and about and find that after going to the toilet there is no soap for washing your hands especially when I know we are about to stop for a picnic lunch. I thought I could overcome this problem by buying a product from avon that is in a tub and you carry with you and wash your hands with it ... but I found it messy to deal with and only used it once.

I came up with my own solution to collect the slivers of soap left in the shower once you have used most of your bar of soap.

I don't like to waste things that I think are useful and I had no drama using soap up until it was nonexistent after which I would stick it onto the new soap.

Unfortunately Uni does not share my passion for using every last drop of things (soap, toothpaste, tomato sauce, milk etc) and for some unknown reason it would drive him absolutely crazy when I attached a tiny slice of old soap to the new one. :-P Men!

Anyway after his regular objections I started to collect these little bits of soap, leave them to dry on the bathroom basin and put them into a ziplock bag.

I thought we could use them when we go camping .... and of course now I can carry them in my handbag when we go far afield and take one out each time we use a soap free public toilet and then leave it there for whoever else comes after us to use too. If I think I am likely to return to that toilet again I leave a bigger soap sliver, if it is only a one time visit I use a smaller sliver!

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After returning from our bushwalk we had a late BBQ lunch at "Pepperberry" at 3pm.

Just as we were finishing our meal we got a visit from a friend KT had made the previous day.

It was a king parrot .... these guys are green with a red head and are very friendly and not afraid of people at all.

They have regular feeding sessions at the bunya mountains kiosk area, but we brought some bird seed so we could feed some birds off our own verandah.

Uni went to get KT a handful of birdseed while she chatted to the bird, meanwhile I continued to eat my lunch as I was still 1/4 ravenous!!!

When uni poured a handful of food into Kts palm the bird leapt onto her arm and started eating it.

Kt was delighted! She stayed perfectly still and let the bird eat and it was hilarious to see and hear it cracking and dehusking each seed with its beak.

It wasn't long before its mate joined us and uni filled his own hand with seed and joined in the feeding.

I still wasn't prepared to be parted from my lunch and continued to nibble away, but things got cut short when I crunched on my carrot and the birds took off in shock!!!

Oooops .......