I love Spring. Although- I do not love the hayfever that comes along with it…
But other than that – I love Spring! The kids spend most afternoons outside, we get to play in our garden and the sweet warm days leading into summer get longer and hotter!!
My grandparents are in the process of selling their house that they built here in Albury 26 years ago. Literally built. Grandpa worked brick by brick to build the house over about a year. He had retired from his job as school principle and built the house. We as young kids watched the house being built – every week exploring new things that had been done, playing down on the new road before the other houses in the area had been built, exploring the gardens that kept growing and developing, playing countless games and doing dramas and performing concerts etc etc. We watched the pool go down into the big deep hole and waited for it to be filled up so we could show off our swimming to anyone who watched and play “sides” and be careful not to bomb when Grandpa was watching.
I loved the way that when I stayed the night – Grandma would “turn” my room into a motel room – with little soaps and towels on the bed. Sitting too close to the heater whilst I was in year 12 and having to turn it up so it wouldnt turn off on me. Going up the road for a bush walk. Eating from the pick tray. The countless summer days that we had swimming in the pool, playing cricket or having home made icy poles. The cold winter afternoons baking in the kitchen and picking the sultanas out of the cupcakes 🙂
So many beautiful memories fill my head from that house – I cant even come close to imagining how they are feeling. Cade and I had our wedding photos done in their garden – every time we would visit we would be given food from the garden to bring home or clippings from a plant so we could bring some of it back to our place to plant it. I watch my girls play on “the big rocks” just the way I played on them with my siblings.
It was a beautiful home with such wonderful memories which we will always have. I hope the new owners enjoy that house as much as we all did.
quit facebook.
Now, to most people this isnt big news, or something that they even care about. But, I LOVED facebook. It was my connection with the outside world – to my family and friends that are spread so far and wide and to share whats going on in my life with them and be apart of their lives and news and events.
But with something good, usually comes something bad, so with that I quit. I deleted all my photos and was actually quite upset – looking back at all the comments that people left when Alice and Pippy were both born, seeing old friends that I hadnt seen for years and was able to reconnect with them… Its been a big part of my life for the last few years and I will miss catching up with people and reading about whats going on.
So, to my 548 “friends” – I will miss you! Im not a facebook hater – this is going to be hard on me, but I think its a positive step forward.
Lisa
My Mum and Dad have just turned 100 – well, 50 each…
I loved going over all the old photos of when they were younger and watching them develop into the people that I have grown to love and cherish.
Here are two photos of when I was a baby, with my Mummy and my Daddy. Happy birthday to the both of you. I love you both!
Had a good birthday. Very different to last year. Cade surprised me with a beautiful present, gifts and well wishes came from as far as Alaska, Port Macquarie and Perth- which made me remember birthdays gone by. 31 seems like a nothing age. The stress of leaving my 20’s is gone and the fear of my 40’s is yet to come – so I can just sit back and watch this year fly by, which it has already started to do.
Here is my annual birthday photo with my girls…
And Nicola and her girls came over for cake!
Due in early November. We are all very excited and the girls are full of ideas for baby names!
gah! I really didnt want this day to come, but it arrived and departed quicker than I expected. Its all over and done now – and yes, I am now 30 – which is harder to say than 29, but I figure that I have purchased 3 houses, had 3 children in 3 years and will have to move again this year for about the 333 time (well..) so I can be out and proud about being the big 3.0.
So, the weekend was a wash out – due to the NON STOP rain in Sydney, but we had a nice time hanging out together and although we couldnt take many more photos because of the NON STOP rain, here are a few…
nats foot and shoe.
QVB
QVB
Cade checking out our room
QVB
this is what we were looking at all weekend!
Today I sat in my bible study group and listened to our Growth Works DVD about idle moments that we have every day that we could be doing so much more with.
Spending the day thinking about it further, I realised I do have many idle moments throughout the day that I could be using better – like reading, writing, talking and just being with God.
Changes need to be made, I know it wont happen overnight, but it will happen.
He will order my days from now on.
When you have started packing the boxes, remember to number each of them and have a master list of what each box contains. This is very helpful when you are unpacking and you need the kids cups and not the high school year books.
Always start packing as soon as you know you have to move. The craft stuff, extra linen, anything in the back cupboards – the sooner you start the better it will be! This also works after you have moved. Try and unpack everything into its own place as soon as possible, its a rush and very tiring, but worth it when you know where everything is.
(Maisie and Talia put the candles in the cake!)
(Alice was asleep at this stage)
I spent New Years day in bed quite ill and by late afternoon when I still could not drag myself out of bed I decided it was time to call some people to get some info on what I should do. The outcome was to head over to the emergancy dept to get a script and get to the chemist to get some medication.
In my head I was just going to die by spending the rest of my life in bed in pain. I felt like I would never ever be well enough to remove myself from my room. The night before was bad – I was hot and cold and didnt sleep well. I could hear Cade and the girls playing and having breakfast in the morning but it was all blurry and weird. I sent them off to Grandma and Grandpas house so they could hang out with their cousins for a bit whilst I slept the morning away.
Today is a much better day, the medication has started to work and I have been up for most of the day and feel a lot better. It has made me very thankful for all of the doctors and nurses and chemists and other health care professionals that work on public holidays to help look after those who are sick and are in hospitals and nursing homes.
that I am 39 weeks today and cannot do some of the things that I would like to be doing like sweeping the floor or cleaning our bathrooms.
So, I have a list written and its now on the fridge and if people feel like helping in any way whilst I lay on the couch, its there full of things that I am not able to do at the moment.
Other than that – I saw the dr today and he said everything is looking good with heartbeats and blood pressure etc etc, so expect a baby sometime in the next 3 weeks!
has been the question that I have asked myself on a number of occasions about topics regarding personal issues and things that the kids do or my wonderings about certain things. What will people say or think about what is written is the first thing that comes to my mind – which after 28 years, I really shouldnt worry about. So, this is a part of what has been going on with us over the past few months..
After our 20 week ultrasound that sounded and looked fine, we were told that #3 had “delayed growth of the femur and humerus bones”. I learnt this as I was leaving a clinic appointment by the midwife announcing in front of a full waiting room of people that “there is a problem with the scan”. I, naturally being dramatic, went straight home and “googled” what she had told me. Every single listing came up with reference to Down Syndrome with the short bones being a soft marker. To say I was shocked is an understatement. I sat on the floor and cried for my baby and more selfishly cried for myself.
The hospital said that we needed to see a specialist, which we drove to Canberra for. They confirmed the growth was delayed – it was measuring 4 weeks behind the rest of the measurements of the baby. The professor told us that it could be 1 of 6 different things – some bone problems, it would just resolve itself, down syndrome or it could just be a short baby. They offered for us to have an amnio test done, which would determine if the baby had down syndrome or not – but we declined. There was no other testing that they could do to figure out what the problem might be, so we began a waiting game that has seen some days become a lot longer than other days.
It has taken me almost 20 weeks to try and get my head around what will happen if the baby is born with anything “different” from all the other babies born every day. The pressure that society puts on babies being “healthy & perfect” is unfair and this is really the first time I have ever thought about it. I always just assumed that everything would be fine. The unknown stuff is the hardest stuff to try and get your head around – because we feel that we have the right and the power to be able to “know” everything and try and correct it if it seems like its not “normal”.
I have always found it hard to leave things in Gods perfect hands – but this last 20 weeks has really taught me that there is nothing that I can do and whatever the outcome, it doesnt matter. Everyone is born differently, raised differently, taught differently and loved differently. All that we can do is pray for the strength to be the best parents that we can be and pray for and love all of our children unconditionally.
Our baby will be born in a few weeks time and will be a precious gift from God no matter what.
When we were kids, we used to have an ongoing battle at the start of each swimming season to see who would be first in the Grandma and Grandpas pool. Although it was never talked about openly (apart from the back seat of the yellow bus), we were usually upset if one of our cousins beat us in – and we would vow to do better the next year.
The other day the girls and I were visiting the Great Grandparents (Mary & Bert as Maisie calls them…) and it was quite warm so we thought that we would just “put our feet in” in the pool to see how the water was feeling. It ended up with Maisie nude and Tali in her nappy and Grandma having to jump in the water to try and keep them on the steps.
The next time we arrived Maisie greeted them both with “I put my feet in the pool maybe?”, again ending in a full swimming session. So, I can proudly say to my siblings – we were first in the pool this year, but it looks like we wont be able to go back to the “put our feet in” now!
I am not one that really understands all the carbon footprints that we are making and the positions our country on global warming or how driving greener cars really makes a difference and all these “new ways” of trying to make the world a better cleaner safer place.
I signed up to get our electricity turned on at the new house and the company offered a special deal of using “green power” instead of “black power” at only a $1.00 more a week in which I would be saving the environment by using the “green power” and somehow offsetting 70% of my carbon footprint.
So, I thought about it and said yes, I would be happy to sorce my “green power” from windmills and other environmentally friendly things and then when she was done connecting both the gas and electricity I said “So, will my gas and electricity bill come on the same bill because they are now both thru the same company” and she said “umm, no they wont they will come as separate bills”. So I asked “Well, can I have them emailed to me” and she said “ummm, no, they will come in the mail”.
Back in my day saving the amount of paper that we used seemed like an important thing to do and recycle recycle recycle was the message that we got drummed into us, but now it looks like there are “better” ways of making the world a better place – and it comes at a cost of $1.00 per week…
Is a question i keep asking myself this week…
Being pregnant, packing and moving is annoying, but I know that it will all be over soon.
Being pregnant and having hayfever is also annoying, so I hope that they hayfever clears itself out soon – I had forgotten about the evil pollen dust that we had escaped when living in Sydney.
Being pregnant with two under two is interesting, especially when a one year old girl coughs all night long and decides at 11:30pm that its time to be wide awake and wants to play with her Mama for about an hour (which did stop the coughing for a little while, so that was good).
Being pregnant and almost to the 34th week with no real labour or hospital stays is AWESOME – it has been a milestone that I was hoping that I would get to after the dramas with Tali, so I am more than happy to keep being pregnant for as long this baby wants to stay warm and snug (although I may not feel that way in 6 weeks…).
Diet coke just doesnt hit the spot and it tastes really weird.
I hate making decisions. I am really bad at it. It does my head in.