On this day in history.

It's Friday afternoon, thank God! Three days of work in a row is too much for a pregnant woman! Greg should've been home a while ago so I called him. His first explanation was that he was still at work, his second included the need to hang around for the meat tray. Work? Meat tray? Seems like a bit of a... what are those things called.. oxymoron.. yeah, one of those. The pub's only a 2 minute walk from the mill... that seems more of a likely story.

I had to have panadol with my breakfast this morning. (Time to go back to the chiropractor. Yesss!! She's nice..) I had a headache behind my eye after work yesterday that persisted the whole entire night. If I don't get a good solid block of sleep while I have a headache it just seems to hang around. And even though I feel like crashing and burning in the arvie, I still spend half the night lying awake (planning my next lessons, wondering what the hell animal is climbing up the screen this time and why my pyjamas are suddenly all wet - Doh! Anakin's wet the bed again and as mentioned, he sleeps that close to me, he's peed all over the both of us! And now that I'm stripped off in the nude, how come it is that my man, who hasn't had me in like, days, can lie jammed up so close to the other side of me without wetting his pyjamas too??). Yep, in some ways it's pretty rough.

But it's still good going to bed coz it's the only time my little baby belly pops up noticeably, otherwise it's pretty none existent behind all the excess fat that's still hanging around there from my last pregnancy 3 years ago! I haven't put on any weight yet, actually I lost a kilo or two due to my cravings to subsist all day on healthy things like cherry tomatoes and tangelo juice.

Well Izzy's spending the weekend here as well as my second cousin and it's nearly time to go collect them. I instructed them both to have a good shower before I got there (Izzy's not real down with our outside shower) and to go get a burger for dinner from the shop. That's going to make my life easier on this Friday evening with a weekend of marking and reporting ahead. XXX

I neglected to put some holiday pics on my blog after our trip to the opal fields but I recently made an album for them on FB - check them out there if you like :)

Nan XXOOXX

4:20 am and I just had to get up to put a load of washing on... okay so the bathroom reno's have taken a far while longer than I anticipated (now the whole septic needs re-trenching as well! Phttt!) and the house is still in a complete shambles, and I just wish I didn't have to be the one to have to constantly try sort it all out! Story of my life..


Nana passed away last weekend. I was at the hospital with my Uncle Barry when they took away her respirator and shared in the last couple of hours she was here. We're all going to miss her like crazy, she epitomized the essence of the quintessential Grandma without even trying a bit! I'd do annoying things, like throwing-up on her carpet in the middle of the night in my sleep and requesting the same movies over and over again at the video shop and... umm.. (well, okay I wasn't that annoying), Nick would get car sick on the way to the creek and complain about our noisy renditions of old show tunes.. (she wasn't that annoying either). She just loved us so much (we decorated her dresser in all these handmade coloured-paper flowers once and she left them there for like over a decade!) and I can't even remember her once showing us the slightest bit of frustration, EVER! She would never say a nasty word about anyone, she just was the sweetest lady in the whole world.


I got to have one visit with her in the ICU when she was conscience and able to talk. The first thing she said to me was "How's the little baby?" I said "Yeah, he's real good, he's over at Chris's place, Chris took a lunch break so I didn't have to bring the kids along.." She said "Not Anakin. The LITTLE baby". I'd barely told anyone I was pregnant and I wasn't really in a rush to tell Nana coz I knew she wasn't real keen on the idea of me having anymore, she liked a lady to have freedom in life... I said to her "How did you know Nana? I've hardly told anyone!" She reckons real slyly and whimsically "I'm a Sage.." I've got the feeling my gf might have let it slip when she visited her previously, but she's not telling me so. She put me to good use that day, rubbing her swollen feet with cream and getting me to slip ice chips in her mouth against Doctors' wishes. Her body was so swollen with fluids she couldn't even lift her own arms. I wish her last few weeks didn't have to be the way they were. It was so horrible for her. Her and Grandad were married for 60 years. Granddad is utterly heartbroken. We all are. She was so beautiful..

This weekend I had an appointment for an NT scan seeing as I have now reached "advanced maternal age" (can that be real??) It was awesome to see Berry on screen although Greg was starting to feel vicarious claustrophobia for the little tacka. He looks all healthy and has a 155bpm heartbeat. The sweetest image I have is of the back of his (?) little skull and his spinal chord trailing down past the two dark kidney patches and ending at his skinny little bony-bum. It's so darling.

I'm so glad me and Anakin are having the day together at home today. Worked with the Grade Five's yesterday so had to farm him out to Auntie Nick again, plus we've been away from home two weekends in a row, we really just need a couple days to potter about and chillax.

Yesterday morning, I got up with Greg at the crack of dawn to get organised for work and after getting dressed I noticed Anakin's little sparkly eyes glinting through the crack of the bedroom door. Usually he'd come right out and find us, but he was just hanging-back and peeking, I said "Good Morning Beautiful. What's the matter Bubby? What are you doing?" and then I got real close and could smell pee wafting through the crack. I said "What's the matter Darlin', did you do a wee-wee?" He opens the door to reveal his drenched pyjama's and goes "No, I'm just real sweaty.." Funny boy. He hangs on to me all night like a bloody spider-monkey, he nearly throttles me he cuddles up to me so tight. He still asks for titty too, but is generally happy just to lick me all over the face!

We got some new budgies on the weekend too, they are such little babies. I called mine "Sassy" coz it bit the lady who caught it like a bloody piranha and Anakin called his "Crappy" but has since changed it's name to "Greenie". It's so nice to have birds again.

Greg thinks he's the luckiest man around. Not just once but twice, I initiated Sunday! Must be my aching boobs and the extra blood flow to pertinent areas. Gets me going. Actually it's just him, he's a bit of a spunk.

Into the Wild

Been without the toilet for a few days now. Talk about back to nature. I bet I've got some mozzie bites on my arse though. Greg's clamped a hose onto the laundry tub tap and put a shower nozzle attachment on the end of it, so we've been standing out on the grass near the carport having a good old hot shower. Luckily there's a couple spots in the yard where you've got total privacy from the road and neighbours! Don't even have to wait til it's dark!

The bathroom's ready for tiling now, it's just been such gloomy wet weather that it took an extra day for the waterproofing paint to dry. But I'm really happy with the builder. He took a look at my house plans for the block and he suggested an architect to draw them up - someone he highly recommends from a builders point of view. Plus he straight away noticed some slight modifications I could make to my floor plan to give you better line of sight, etc. He's deadly! It's nice to know someone in the building/renovations business you can totally put your faith in. I'm going to get him to build my house one day.

How's Anakin's form? This is what he did to his brother the other day: He gently lay a hand on Izzy's cheek and turned his face in towards him and said in this beautiful, quiet, soothing voice, "Look at me Brussy, hold still Brussy, hang on, hold still, hold still..." and then he went BAM! and punched his big brother right in the face. Naughty! It really hurt his hand bad and he had to have a cry on his Dad's lap before being sent to his room for his punishment. Poor Izzy had to go outside and spit out blood. Despite theses one-offs they really adore one another I'm sure. Anakin gets on the phone the other night and says, "Hey Bruss-Bruss. You are SO AWESOME! Bye."

How happy was I this morning! My Thai food lady has come back from her holiday so I was able to have my favourite green vege curry with lime leaves for brekky this morning at the markets. YUM! I haven't shopped for so long and I've been living on copious amounts of passionfruits, from the servo, and avocado, from my mum's man, Rowan, oh, and cornflakes. Anakin was just as eager for his chicken satay stick and big tub of sticky-rice. We were both practically chanting on the way "please let her be there!" She is a magical cook, I'm actually jealous of her husband, getting to eat her food everyday!

My niece has a beautiful collection of gemstones that she keeps on a big dish on her bedside table. I thought I might make my own and today I started with pieces of red jasper, mookaite, carnelian, malachite, lapis lazuli and amethyst. My old Granddad was right into stones and had glass cabinets full of them on display in the lounge room of the family home in Gladstone. I dunno how many hours I spent looking at those. Mum actually inherited them all and had lots of the flat ones made up into pendants for the girls in the family. Next I'll be on the lookout for some turquoise and a piece of tigers eye.

Anakin likes to have the same little dialogue with me once or twice a day at least. It goes like this:
A: Hey Mum.
Me: Yes my Sweet-darling-boy?
A: Do you like going places?
Me: Mmm, sometimes.
A: Why do you like it only sometimes?
Me: Because other times I just like to stay at home, with you.. and Daddy... and Izzy.

For some reason he loves that little conversation.

FINALLY, again!

So stoked! My bathroom is being started. YAY!! By the end of the week it should be all spangly and new! No more grungy old vents in the ceiling, no more crappy lino, no more dinky outdated little apricot coloured vanity and gammon frosted glass and crummy tap ware. It'll be AWESOME! Next thing I'd love to do is rip up all the rest of the lino in the house and lay floating bamboo flooring throughout. Plus a new paint job inside and out.

Anakin is actually having a sleep on the couch! (I'll have to put on Parkinson every day at 2pm!)He hasn't had a day sleep for ages, not since the boobie was cut out. It's nice having him in bed at 7pm I must say, but after such a long day together, I'm pretty much ready for sleep then too!

Had a nice weekend, we really needed to spend it at home. Greg cleaned out the carport and and tidied the shed right up. I freshened up our bedroom, rearranged a bit, washed the curtains etc. We are slowly getting there. If we owned half as much stuff it would make things a lot easier!

(What is it with Tradies talking to themselves?? This teacher aide always does it in the photo-copy room. I spose it's a problem solving technique - self-talk. He's going flat-out I'll give him that!)

Paul brought Izzy over for a visit on Sunday and I had my brother Nicholas here as well, that was good. Greg and Bubby took me for a mystery drive to go and get my Mothers Day present - some new budgies from the bird guy up the road. 'Cept he didn't have any :( And I had to confess to him what happened to the last bird he sold me. He was all "how did you kill a cockatiel? They're like the hardiest birds of the lot." I was like "I spose you wouldn't sell me any budgies now even if you did have some available" And he goes "Well, I don't like my birds dying. I'll tell you that much. Every one is just like my baby." I made Greg give me a good footrub later on, to pay me back for forcing me into a confrontation with the guy. I felt so bad in the first place, I never wanted to actually see him again! Going to the pet shop next time. I don't want to be responsible for killing someones baby!

Finally

Greg broke a piece off the fan inside the computer and it's working a treat now!

Had a couple traumatising weeks with my Nana in the intensive care unit. She had a perforated bowel and was in an induced coma for a while, all was very high risk and touch and go. Thankfully she's conscience now (beyond great odds and expectations!). So each chance I've had I've been travelling to Cairns to go and visit her. The first time I saw her awake again she put me straight to work rubbing her feet with cream and feeding her ice chips against the nurses' wishes. Man, I hope she makes it out of there, I'm going to love seeing her back home again in her chair next to Granddad's. I'll whistle as I'm on my way up the stairs and she'll say "Oh, here's our Little One." I don't want the smell of that hand soap you have to use when you go in and out to be impressed upon me psyche for the rest of my life, like it seems to be now.

I'm going along okay otherwise. Slowly getting back into cooking after having a good solid month of not having the stomach for it all. It's not like Greg's going to cook me a yummy feed or anything, his idea of a meal is dumping a tin of four bean mix with a tin of tuna and mixing it through with some BBQ sauce. How foul! My craving for chicken and sweet corn soup is what lured me back in the kitchen. It was well worth it too let me tell you. A couple of nights ago I made a really nice ravioli, but other than that I'm happy to eat some all bran for dinner, or vitawheats and tomato, good simple stuff.

I'm a bit unhappy with myself because I'm feeling mega lazy. For a long time there I would be watching Greg jump around doing his happy dances for us, just thinking "how do you get the energy for that?", I could barely raise enough to make a smile for my face. I still don't like being too far away from my bed! I wish I could muster enough energy for a daily power walk (like some of us) at least, I reckon it would do me the world of good. I'm worried about my little baby being starved of oxygen in my slow moving, lethargic body. Deep breathes. Inhale...

I'm already totally frustrated with the idea of not finding out the sex. For one Anakin is going to need time to get use to the idea of a sister, if that's the case. Because he's adamant he only wants a brother. I keep referring to Charlie and Lola's relationship and cute little cartoon girls like Millie and Mollie. And secondly I can just imagine being in hospital with a fresh baby girl and being stuck dressing her in apple green and deep purple (which is what I'll be stuck buying!). I'm going to learn to read scans so I can figure out the genitalia myself!

Works been great, I had to take Anakin with me yesterday... that was an experience..

He's weaned now and I'm loving all the night time cuddles I get instead! He sleeps on his back like me with his head as close to mine as he can get it and then he throws his arm across my neck and wraps it tightly right round my head. That's after he smothers my face and eyelids in kisses and butterfly kisses. He is super smoogey.

He's with Greg doing some grocery shopping at the moment. God bless 'em. I hate that shit these days. They'll probably come home with a fresh supply of bean mix and tuna tins and olives. Blurgh! Anyway it's fish-n-chip night and we're suppose to be leaving when they get back so I better go get ready. I'll come back soon.

Wow!

Snuggled up with Anakin to put him to bed last night and he didn't even ask for titty! Not at 5:30 in the morning either when he usually has another bit. I think my agonised groans of pain when he attached has helped him realise he doesn't want it anymore. It was only going to be a matter of time when I'd need to start refusing him the way my boobs are. Ouch!! The body's mechanism to get that huge kid off the boob when there's another one on the way I suppose. I think my supply is pretty minimal too. It'll be interesting to see how he goes at nap time today. Man I really would enjoy the next 7 months with them back to myself! Greg can have them whenever he likes though ;)

Sweat or Scales (North or South)

Anakin has developed a real sense of humour (I think heightened by the boredom of whole days spent driving to and home from NSW in the last week or so). He gets this evil glint in his eye and says "Sooo.. I've got this new name for you Dad." "Oh yeah, what's that?" And then he'll fart! Or make up some silly rude name like "Brown Wind", "Mulberry Stain", "Cow Nipple", "Bumgrub" or "Poopdeck". The challenge is teaching him that it's not okay to launch right into these kinds of dialogues with strangers. His favourite joke to recite is: Q -"What's invisible and smells like bananas?" A - "Monkey farts!" (Yes, farts are a reoccurring theme stemming from his old man - Greg's been getting around going "Pull my finger!" for weeks now and he never fails to get a huge laugh out of it. Oh to be so easily entertained.) Last night at dinner he put barbeque sauce on his fingertips and then said "High Five Dad!" Hee hee hee. Any opportunity for a laugh. He knows sharks totally freak me out so he gets his shark book and while looking for the biggest, ugliest one that's launching itself out of the water with it's teeth bared and it jaws gaping, he says "I'm looking for your best buddy Mum, I'll find him in a minute."

He's funny and a complete little sweetcake too. He still tells me I'm SOOO beautiful at least 5 times a day and that he loves me SO much. He gives beautiful cuddles and kisses all the time. And apologises heartily if he accidentally hurts me.

We had an excellent holiday. Anakin spent everyday as happy as Larry feeding the birds with Pa and traipsing around with us. (The only bad day he had was Easter Sunday where the main part of his dietary intake was chocolate and his main activity of the day was crying emotionally. Proves how important your diet is!) We rode around the opal fields on our pushbikes every day and "noodled" at the dump. We took in the Goat Cart Races in Lightening Ridge and I was surprised at the fashion saviness of these local women, living in the middle of absolute nowhere. Half of them are probably opal millionaires and holiday in the fashion capitals of the world. Actually there was this row of humpies around the corner from where we were staying called "Millionaires Road". Greg spent a couple of days down the hole with his dad, I reckon it was a bit like scratching a scratchie for him, but one that goes all day long. We made some friends who showed us the impressive amount of valuable opal that they'd found since Christmas - I mean they could probably buy a house with it! And you realise how addictive that lifestyle must be. They all live in shacks and dine at "The Club in the Scrub" and meanwhile they're completely loaded! And I think there's just as many wannabe bushrangers, burning each others camps down and erecting signs like "Dead Men Can't Steal" and "Watch Your Heap" too. It was an eyeopener!

It was a nice change of pace too. Greg's Mum fully looked after us and with barely any jobs for me to do I got a chance to do some fun stuff - Played Upwords and did Crosswords, I drew up an alternative house plan, in case the two story plan comes in way too exy. And I made three friendship bracelets (remember them from high school - the ones you knot out of embroidery thread?) - one for each of my kids! (Yep I'm carrying the third one!!! Me and Greg went from "thinking about trying to conceive" to "trying to conceive" in just a bit more than a fraction of a second and it only took that one time!! I did a pregnancy test after my period was a couple of days late, the verdict being two hot pink lines!! Holy Cow I know!!)

And I guess that whole confession deserves a bit more attention than just a blurb in brackets! I think I'm about 6 and a half weeks along. I haven't even been to see a doctor yet. I've been really well except lately have become a real finicky eater. All I feel like is fruit - gold kiwi's, oranges and bananas, Special K (the cereal I couldn't get enough of when I was pregnant with Izzy and haven't eaten since!) bake beans, and toasted cheese sandwiches. The thought of eating a lot of things is quite unbearable - meat, the fruitcake Greg's mum sent home with us that I was devouring in small truck loads just days ago! Greg has his heart set on keeping the baby's gender a suprise this time, that's going to be excruciating for me come the 20 week scan! I don't mind one way or the other but I'd REALLY like to know ASAP! He's coming up with some really shit names I must say (my apologies if you've ever named someone these) - Logan and Linc! Yelch - how soap opera! Actually his favourite has been "Mookie" - I told him it sounds like a pet name for a ladies vulva, he agreed, and still likes it, I don't mind it really but as a nickname. Apparently it's the name of some basketballer who Pearl Jam named there album Ten after - here I was thinking it was because it had 10 songs on it. It probably doesn't even, I never counted...

At the moment I love the name Montesa for a girl and Wylie for a boy and Maurice for either. Greg won't let me use Oprah :(

I'll come back and add some flix.