im awful at coming up with titles...

While i could write non-stop bout things happening in australia today.. i thought.. maybe.. perhaps.. then i thought maybe i should write about what i've been up too... so i'll give it a shot ;)

Weve all had at least 2 rounds of the cold virus...

Hubby has been loosing weight, cutting back too much smaller portioned meals. I never knew a mans belt (as they gain weight) could hold such a time-line "i was here when we moved to melbourne, here when Alyssa was born" etc. Im happy for him, makes cuddling easier when its just 1 big belly in the way!

Tia has lost 1 front tooth and now the 2nd front middle tooth is loose.. so in 3-4 days she will be lookin' a bit weird with no front top middle teeth! She bought home a bean plant from school, its now in the garden! Wonder what kind of bean plant it is exactly...

Alyssa is up and walking (or "toddling" as we call it) She figured out how to open cupboard doors today! (argh!) She loves cups and tries to drink from them (doesn't matter if they are empty) She chases the cats (at baby speed) and squeals! (meanwhile the cats look scared) She finds them when the curl up in the sun on the floor and mwhahhaha goes in for the attack! She has waved once and is learning & saying "ta" (baby for "please can i have it?" and "thank you!")

My pregnancy is going well. The baby is still pretty active. almost 8 weeks to go. Have my 1st hospital/midwife appointment this month. LOL! Yes i finally rang them up.. TMI- i have 'roids from hell (should be a title of a horror movie!!)
My feet get fat and puffy quickly. My right foot I've hurt, so when i step a certain way or something i get instant pain and then hobble for a hour or two... but usually its fine. My feet will love the relief when this bub gets out! I seem to wake in the middle of the night, needing liquid to drink & needing to pee.

Ive been having alot of Branxton Hicks. I find it hard to believe that some study could come out and say that Sex does not trigger labor... As i get fake labor pains (branxton Hicks) after being intimate... not to mention it triggered off the other 2 births! (i have a laugh when i remember scenes from movies where they with the BH/fake labour pains. think its the real thing, pack up and go to the hospital to end up coming home!) I like how the baby is where it is, i dont need extra effort to feed it, no dirty nappies and it doesnt cry.. it just disturbs my sleep! :) But i am looking forward 2 getting my body and bladder back to myself, the 'roids to go, my feet to not get so puffy, fit into normal clothes, not waddle and loose the reflux & heartburn bleh!! :)

so thats bout it from me... i havent done anything interesting! Not even reading (listening to the kids read their books) at tia's class, as Alyssa has the cold.. and a 11month old can't cover her mouth when she coughs. (not to mention alot of the girls can't keep their hands off her, not kiss her cheeks etc..)

Alyssa will be 1 soon!!! (still blue eyes!)and um we still plan on having Tia's birthday party... even tho that was back in may??!! :)

Stay Swine flu safe ;)

oh and thank you 2 maria for the award!! I w

Tia's 6th birthday

Tia and her present. "Bratz the Movie" on the wii.
Tia's birthday cupcakes/cake
Tia and Anna the cat

Tia had her 6th birthday this month. This birthday was alot different that her previous birthdays..

• First off it was a school day. (monday)
• Her birthday falls on or just off mothers day. (she was born on a mothers day)
• I usually do some sort of character cake.
• Tia hasn't eaten or finished a piece of birthday cake since her 1st birthday. (too much party food? or does slicing up hello kitty give a child nightmares?)
• Im not sure but i think she may have gone to bed without eating any cake (i typed cat then lol!)
• Her dad came home and went out, doctors maybe? can't remember
• We had macdonalds at home. She also had a sundae (maybe why i didnt give her cake)
• Her present was not wrapped (that's daddy style for you)

The easter bonnet hat

Noooooooooooooooooo lil birdy don't jump! I found these cute lil chicks at the $2 shop! Painted some dollies(sp?) which was tricky, i'd forgotten how thin they could be. and then glued the edges and dipped it in pink glitter. :)Off to school!
Made the mistake of stapling the cardboard together then to protect her hair getting tangled i put clear packing tape over it and then painted it... so got some pretty tape from Smiggle that i had already.
These are taken after the hat parade. Tia's broke (the ribbon came off) as they were going back to class. Which was great because it meant i got to take it home.. instead of tia having it all day.
Luved the green chicks lol! The creche paper flowers were done at 1-2am easter hat parade morning! eep! Hubby found a website showing how to do it easily. If i started it sooner, perhaps i'd done some Martha stewart pretty flowers..
Tia's class of course was the last one... she also had a fill-in teacher for the week. She got up and said "My hat is pretty pink!". She loved and was so proud of her hat! :)
You could easily tell those whose kids had done their own hats and the ones the parents did... and then there was a few hats from the reject shop! lol... All the kids had a great time, they loved the easter bunny and got a egg and a hug each. Tia even had to tell her neighbour friend that she had in fact hugged the easter bunny!! (Not that we involve the easter bunny or santa here at home)

observations...& a catch up

Been pretty busy! so here's a quick run down of things!

* I had the parent teacher & child interview this tuesday @ 4.25pm. A bit annoying.. seeing as it meant waiting around for 55mins! (by the time we walked home we'd have to walk back and end up being 5mins late for the interview. We could have walked 15mins to hubbys work and sat there for 30mins.. but too tired. Also staying at school meant Tia was entertained with the play equipment, sand pit and various classmates coming and going. She also had all her fruit for the day which she hadn't eaten. So it all worked out to wait around!)

* Tia has started home readers. Interesting considering she has some difficulty saying her alphabet and recognizing letters.. yet surprisingly she knows what some of the words are already! She also wrote "dad" the other day without any help. Weirdly tho she wrote both D's before adding the A in the middle. LOL! Ive noticed that with some words even doing her name sometimes she will write it out of order (like she did with "dad") Im helping out in her class on a monday afternoon while they do hopping, jumping, balancing, stilt walking etc time and tuesday morning i help out in the class, listening to each kid read their home readers, let them pick a new book and mark it off on the list. I might help out on a friday morning as there doesnt seem to be a helper written down on that day... altho that would conflict with a morning friday parents meeting but they were trying to figure a new time seeing as the board member of the spot i declined can't make it that time! lol!

* Alyssa has 2 new teeth. A total of 4 teeth which are all cut thru (2 bottom around 3months. 2 top at 7months) and i can feel and see 1 more bottom one starting to poke thru. She has a very toothy cheeky grin now!!!

* Alyssa got her 6month needles today. A rotavirus imm (rotatek) by mouth (which is meant to be sweet but she hates it) and a needle in each leg of just about everything! They do it now both shoots at the same time, hence why its a nurse and dr doing the injections these days! (you'd hate it, if u hated needles... they um, count it down.. so yeah.) Again tho Alyssa cried right after but after a few seconds was her happy self again! (not like the baby we heard while we waited! GOSH did she scream!!)

* I think it was the bush fire warning sms day.. i predicted no such heat wave. Walked out to collect Tia and swore that we were having a dust storm. made me wish i had a pair of sunnies!!!

* I took a break from video games to go on hubbys pc. Which is moved from office/guest room into the lounge room.. and was a bit freaked to feel the chair and table shake..(i believe i told the boys that the table was shaking... so it was interesting to tell them that it was a earth quake, that they did not notice! LOL!) there was no noise.. the next day i read online that there was a earth quake in melb that measured 4.6 on the scale! That makes 5 or 6 earthquakes ive experienced in my lifetime all in australia!!! (only one in victoria)

*went to a parents etc group meeting at the school... it was there AGM which they changed the constitution. interestingly that some take it all veeeerrrryy seriously while others are relaxed, wanting to make it easier etc... you can imagine which side i'd rather be on! ;) Luckily its not like that normally, im told! I was offered a spot on the board but declined after i thought "can i do it?" and no i can't... I'll have my hands full come august with the new baby and a 13month old... it would take me awhile to adjust to the new bub, feeding, sleeping and collecting tia schedule!

*Im now 18weeks preggy! whoot!!!! Have my first drs appt tomorrow! If started to feel it kick, usually when im trying to go off to bed! Time is flying! Now that morning sickness is over, i dont really feel pregnant, to me i dont really look pregnant (altho i do, as hubby keeps going on bout the mummy tummy) i guess it comes down to me remembering the last few weeks of enormous mummy tummy and yet its not like that yet! I just look fatter! LOL!

* Congrats to Maria & Paul! :) God bless your family and all the best!!!

Observations today!

* spotted a pair of undies on the footpath on the way to the drs.. suppose someone is missing their spare pair? lol

* 2 Ladies (in separate places) with awful dress sense.. imagine blue pattern pants mixed with a old looking bright floral pattern t-shirt!

* a sign read "hot chips" "charcoal souvlaki" yumm burnt souvlaki anyone?

* another sign said "no alcohol zone. Max fine $2000" now thats a expensive drink!

* the new dr on days of our lives (given that Australia is waaaay behind thanks to cricket, tennis and golf) looks like Ben cousins!

* bought hubby a new razor today. interestingly it has a personal trimmer at the bottom powered by 1 AAA battery. Is shower OK.... Im not keen on the facial hair thing he has going on and he is pretty aware of it. If its there i prefer it short.. im just not into feeling facial hair when i kiss him... bleh!!!!!!!!!!!

Tia's first day of school! :)

On Monday 2nd of feb we had a interview/assessment time with Tia's teacher. We had to bring all the books and things we bought via the book list thru officemax or something like that. I was unsure whether the books had to be covered... in my school years it wasn't until high school or year 6 when they HAD to be covered. (i think because young kids go thru the books so quickly perhaps? but then our books were free and supplied by the government/school)
Anyways we did a crazy dash and had these covered just in time to leave! 8 books and 8.8m of contact later.. lol Tia wanted lil bratz covering. But i thought it would be to distracting.. i could envision her in class just looking at the bratz pictures and tuning out everything else! So I found a optical illusion pink and red metallic contact instead and cute lil bratz name stickers.

Its a good 30min walk to her school. Its lovely when the weather is nice.... but in the heat there isn't much shade on the way :( She has a school hat, supplied by the school that stays at school. So i bring along a hat from home so she has some sun protection on the way home.When tia gets to school she puts her bag in a line and goes off to play in the sand pit or equipment in the fenced off prep area. When the bell goes she has to get in the line, take out her classroom water and a piece of fruit & put her bag on. Once the teacher says they may go in she walks in to the bag room and puts her bag in her cubby hole.Then she is meant to put her class water bottle & fruit on her name on a special desk and sit down on the floor. The past 2 days (friday and monday) ive noticed she skips putting her bag away (as she has her hands full already with the water and fruit) and puts her water and fruit away and then the teacher or aid will notice she is in the classroom (about to be fully dsitracted by kids, toys etc) with her bag on her back! LOL!

If this was...cake??!!

then i would NOT have a weight problem! lol!

The above picture was taken on wednesday.. i believe it is cottee's orange and mango crush cordial (straight) and milk.. its curdled and was pretty chunky.

This is what Tia made while she was waiting (impatiently in the kitchen) to make some betty crocker cookies with me.. she did come to me asking for some eggs.. i can only imagine how much worse this could have been? lol

More of Christmas 08

chair decoration
Christmas dinner meat on the table
hubby with his big helicopter.. flown it once and shredded a butterfly :/
Asha not sure on the new "carpet"
Alyssa chewing on a little box.. girls with santa hats on.. Tia got one with "bah-hum bug!" written on it.. not knowing how 2 read or what it meant she didnt care..

Christmas 08 phots just a tad late..

Happy bubby in her new dress! With Granma Rose
Tia in her new dress with a bubble blower from Grandma Kay
Alyssa eating christmas wrapping.. (i knew i 4got 2 serve something at christmas dinner lol!)
Uncle Mat & Grandad Leo with their helicopters
Alyssa approving of a picture? lol..

The christmas list

Tia has gone into bratz. We have avoided the barbie/bratz thing for awhile now and now she is old enough that she is influenced heavily by her friends, tv advertising and what she sees in the toy section whether its k-mart or the tiny toy section at safeway/woolworths. Our next door neighbour has bratz everything... and to Tia she is a bratz and every other girl is a bratz and sometimes even her mum is a bratz.. lol! I did want to get her a 6-7 pack of disney princesses (made by mattel?) this year they even had a mulan doll? i missed out last year as target sold out.. and ive probably missed out this year too.. considering b4 they went on special there was just 3 left! They were $45 on special and $59 not on special. I know that she is getting a Yasmin doll today, but considering how every bratz comes in glamour, skii, etc themes... ah well i'll find out soon enough which yasmin it is..

James is buying himself a bigger remote controlled helicopter. he has checked them out and says they wont fly around in circles like his mini ones!

Alyssa gets??? well lol, she has been spoilt plently already... but ive bought her a dress for christmas day, and goodness knows maybe she will get the matching mummy dummy set to her current "daddys little girl", "i love my daddy" dummies... however much it makes me wince that the 2 cost $13-$15! (for dummies???!!! that get lost all the time.. lol well not that these ones have!)

I will get??? ummm.... perhaps some new jeans and another pair of shoes??

Christmas is here..

Our christmas tree went up on the 2nd of december.. so ive been meaning to post for awhile now! ^^

We have the tree up and decorated (well there are some more decorations around somewhere along where the stockings are hiding)

Only enough batteries for one string of lights! >< We have i think 3 or 4 strings of LED battery powered lights. I have been tempted to buy some cheap plug in lights, as they have come down in price heaps this year! But no... its bit dangerous with the kids, the kittens and the battery ones mean the tree can be anywhere and not somewhere near a power point!

This christmas i do intend on getting a battery recharger, but finding the right one that is good enough (the come with numbers now 2550, 2650 etc) to recharge batteries for the digital camera & wii remote is a must!

James put the star on top of the tree, he enjoys doing his little contribution..
that portrait photo of us on the wall was taken when we were engaged! We were both so young & skinny back then! hehehe

Excited about school..

Tia is growing fast. Her speech is getting better, her vocabulary is getting bigger.. All good to hear! Yesterday after dropping tia off at kinder, i stayed and did "kinder duty" which is staying to help for a hour and a bit while they do several craft things. My table was making cards. Basically sticking a recycled christmas card front picture onto a piece of red carboard decorating with sparkles, sequins and little christmas tree & star sprinkles with the glue in pots and then using a glue stick to stick a little piece of paper that said "To my family, Merry christmas Love" on the inside.

I had one little boy (not going to prep next year) with the best manners stubbornly decline any decoration! I had one little girl who wanted the card to be horizontal and open that way. I had another girl who would only use the glue stick. I had a little boy who decided that using 10% of all decorations on offer should be put on his card. It looked so blinged! The teacher told him that was a bit silly as they would not all stick.. And then someone up-ended one of the sequin containers onto the floor and i was down after that picking them all up! lol!

Alyssa was pretty good.. up till the end. I had her in the bassinette pram thing (basket with canopy(think like a convertible), held in pram by 3 clips) and then on the floor towards the end so she could roll around and see more than just the ceiling..

The other 'stations' were making angels (painting and using glitter) and making christmas trees (threading and glitter) This all comes home on the last day which is also the concert/party day... i think i might stay and do kinder duty again that day. as the note says drop off the kids with morning tea as usual @9.15am and come back at 11am with plate of party food. It takes me half hour to walk there or back home.. which means i'd spend less than a hour? at home b4 walking back.. I'll just take a bottle that day, i think. (Yes Alyssa is having on average 1 bottle. Basically for when i'm inconvenienced(trying to run out door), think im empty (only been 2hrs) or know she will bite me (so impatient!)..

Wrestling with time management.. etc

well..

wow..

its been awhile since ive sat down and blogged.. for me it feels like its been forever.. *fingers crossed this wont stay a draft..*

Ive been busy... and looking at that sentence.. i almost feel like its a half truth, (while trying to ignore my semi-dictionary mind telling me that is soo cliche) and boring. Seriously how boring would blogs be if all they said was "ive been busy.." or something along the lines of .. ive been absent, forgive me.. read me again.. i promise i'll try to be more interesting, more pictures, more often.. only for your concious telling you.. dont commit.. you can't do it.. nows not the time for a big blog project.. x.x And then for me i feel like i'm stuck.. in between what i want to do, what i want to achieve and what i know i can do.. and what other things take priority.

Which leaves me with time management..
and..
fessing up..
toTRUTH!

What do i spend my time on? Where am i most of the time?
(*insert noise of rusty cogwheels* as tiffany tries to remember what she did last week..)
hmm...
Well i cant recall exactly what i did all last week.. i can recall the weekend.. pfft! that is easy!
Saturday james and I played fable II. Alyssa had a good day but with a annoying trend of snack feeds at 5pm, 6pm, 7pm and 8pm before finally going to sleep.
Sunday james and i played fable II co-op doing the troll (like a very fat treeant), balverines (think werewolf) mission, spire mission (think evil gothic looking cornetto building). Alyssa had her annoying feeds, had a chicken satay stir-fry and the girls had a bath together.. it was hot and yukky..

but generally.. my week days..
i've worked out equal a load of washing every day. (not including towels or sheets)
generally some house work (not always the dishes.. as i loathe it..and put it off) my spring cleans i seem to be doing thru the weekdays end up with more mess as i dont always find a 'home' for something and i get distracted.. and it doesnt go anywhere....
Some relax time which includes lunch, watching the view or playing video games
do revolve around getting tia to and from kinder on those days..
do revolve around alyssa and whether she is happy fed, dry, comfy, entertained, cuddled and close by.. anything noisy waits till she is awake!!!!!!!
my weekends.. no housework gets done, i struggle to cook most of the time, generally do stuff with hubby games, dnd.. usually doesnt feel right either until we have all gone out to the shops together at some point during the weekend (even tho im trying to stop that 'want' as it ends up with blowing the budget and going on the evil (but not as evil as some) credit card!! x.x

lately been doing major spider killing.. and dead/dying spider avoiding.. i am completely paranoid. (i did wake up one morning and looked up to see a daddy long legs quite close to my pillow on the bed head bit.. too close for comfort!!!!) there was one daddy long legs (rather huge) that i never got around to killing as it was always on the move.. never stayed in one spot.. i did a dumb thing and watched it for a bit and then lost where it went.. i feel my spider woes make for a whole blog post in itself!!!!! EEP!!!!!!

What i'd like to get done:
Blog wise- New layout, colours, pictures, update side bits, twitter, visit & read more blogs more often.

Health wise- Manicure & pedicure, Wii fit every day, keep to planned meals, go to bed before 11pm no 11am and 4pm snacking on junk.. eating more salads (with help from growing our own)

House wise- Clean and organise and keep it that way! Kill all spiders, Work on folding & putting away clean clothes and not just have baskets of clothes everywhere.. Kill fleas in the house (where on earth did they come from??!!) start packing away winter clothes, blankets and wash summer stuff

Garden wise- Keep it weed free, grow grass back on nature strip, get my seedlings to grow bigger, get some lettuce & spinach seeds, encourage james to finish his backyard project, dig up a garden patch for veggies, get a lattice thingy for jasmine to climb, kill all red back spiders..

Family wise- have some planned outings, especially since tia is old enough to appreciate a trip to a zoo, movies or aquarim etc, more time with tia working on her sounds, counting etc. Get to church every sunday! Send out thank you notes (still), Stick to budget, take more photos & remember to upload it onto pc. find tia a dance class or activity to do with other kids. exchange details with the parents of tia's friends from kinder so she can play with them over the holidays

Christmas wise- organise & finalise meals/menu, organise sheets etc for guests, think about table piece, where christmas tree will go etc, find & do christmas cards, think about presents & budget, keep buying a few christmas food stuffs each week, Does anyone know a good whisky and brandy to cook with?????

Shopping wise- Stick to budget, buy only whats on the list, get some new shorts and t-shirts for summer, buy another fan for summer

hmm... think i will have to print this out and put it on the fridge!!..