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!!!!!!!!!!!

Birthday Girl! 8th sept

I had my birthday on monday. Thats right i turned 26!
I cant remember what i did other than the usual trying to get something cleaned in the house (floors or dishes), possibly tried to play video games, watch tia play outside and the usual hands-on little bub Alyssa stuff.... i do remember that Hubby didnt say happy birthday to me b4 he left work, i called him in his lunch break and he said that he was the first one to wish me happy birthday at midnight last night (while i was asleep and i grunted..) LOL!
i do remember that i started cooking dinner at 11am, meatballs... this was while Alyssa was asleep and i thought id make it easy on hubby or myself when it came cooking time later that night. (This interuppted and less sleep IS making me nutty!! Me, ok with cooking dinner on my bday?!!!! LOL)
At 4pm i realised i wasnt going to get my birthday present wish in time to make my own cake. (its the breville wizz mix professional)

So us 3 girls headed off to the shops to find a ready-made cake.. to my absolute horror (ok not so bad but still..) ALL of their choc mud cakes had "happy fathers day", "no.1 dad" on them!!!!! So i decided to boycott the woolies taste-like-packet-mix-fake-cake and go get a frozen choc bavarian cheesecake! Hubby left work 15mins early than everyones normal knock off time (he usually does 30mins overtime each day) to buy me a present.. so we met up, had coffee and went to find my present... however it was then somehow 5.30pm and the shops were all closing (as in kicking everyone out closing) Hubby said he was surprised i didnt want take-out to which i said yeah chinese woud be great! lol. So we got rainbow beef, chinese sausage, fried wontons, steamed rice & green chicken curry. YUM!!!!

mum sent me a giftcard & some cards she had made (no pics yet)
my brother rang me yesterday (a day late) to wish me happy birthday, thinking that he had the right date, lol.
also yesterday our gas meter got read, sure to be scarier than the last bill, for sure! EEP!! So might have to put my bday prez on hold?? hmm

whats normal?

For 2 weeks now we have pretty much;

woken, started the day at 10am, breakfast from 10-11am
had lunch anywhere from 1pm-5pm
dinner (altho sometimes just desert as in icecream or a snack as in tim tams) anywhere from 7pm-10pm
sleep for me starts at 10pm-1am depending on Alyssa, whats on tv and what naps ive caught thru the day

For 2 weeks james has had off work, he has made me countless breakfasts, lunch, dinners, drinks and always happy to. For 2 days solid he changed all the nappies (hehehehehe)

we have managed to go out to the shops on a few occassions, ah what fun! Alyssa loves being in the pram, she has looong sleeps in the pram while shopping. However our first time out was a bit of a refresher.. as in babies can sleep and poo/wee at the same time.. never thought of changing her. was glad to get home!!!!

Tia had her last day at little school, i bought chocolates and flowers for her 3 teachers/carers shes had for the past year.. lots of tears!!! Worried and excited that Tia will be getting into a preschool (yes even tho its called 'kinder' down here, this is kinder but the centre is called ... preschool) hope that made sense. I think its just as well that was her last day as sad-to-say there was a absolute horror of a kid who started that day, a young boy maybe 3years old who was nasty to all the kids, pushing them repeatedly and stuff.. just awful (very sad) ive seen bad kids, but this lil bloke takes the cake (in a big way!) Tia actually attempted to spit as we were walking to the shops today, i was shocked!!! Needless to say i told her princesses did not do that, yukky people did or if u swallow a fly perhaps.. and that people who smoke spit in public coz they are sick.. Considering this is a girl who loves to eat toothpaste and not spit it out.. im not sure where she got it from or what she thought it would achieve!

my preggy belly is all gone, totally deflated... however all the sweet cravings have done damage and i'll have to work it off to get back to where i was..

Enjoying this song lately...

House pictures

Found batteries and then found the usb cable. Now ive found the time to do something with all the pictures... (yes i did have tia follow me around the house insisting on being in every photo!)

Chilli burn

i bought a bag of bell shaped chillis (dont know which kinda they were, but i do know that the bell shaped round ones are just as hot if not hotter than their skinny looking cousins) at woolies for $1, reduced. By the time i got around to opening the bag up and thinking about cutting them up to freeze.. they were a bit moudly up top near the stem so i decided that fo $1 it was still a bargain for.. what for it.... chilli seeds! (can u see my problem now?)
All along i was thinking, just wait till i tell the world i de-seeded 14 chillis and that i wont be able to pick my nose for a week!!!! ROFL... oh yeah funny... real funny (ok pretty lame)
and why would that be do u think?
was half my brain trying to tell myself, STOP RIGHT NOW!!!!??
anyways, i got the zillions of chilli seeds, scraping them off...
i washed my hands and didnt think more of it.. just 14 chillis, after all...
i put dinner on and within a hour my fingers were starting to prickle, feel really hot and it was pain!! I washed my hands with dish washing concentrate detergent, relief... then pain. I looked up chili burn on google and found this blog post on chili burn
it was somewhat amusing to read all the additions, other remedies.. etc..

So the testing began.. i bathed/soaked my hands in lemon juice which was fine until it got warm and my fingertips burned again.
I tried rubbing my hands with table salt, the exfoliation was great, the rubbing i daresay distracted me from the pain i was getting from the burn for awhile.. and rinsing off in cold water.. ahhhh.
I tried a first aid cream the one with added pain relief stuff.. but it did crap all.
I tried soaking my hands in vegetable oil but that did diddly squat and then hubby tells me the difference between fats and oil.. oh well, no doubt after the salt the oil would be nice for the skin..
i tried soaking my hands in vinegar at dinner time, that was interesting juggling soaking time with eating time. Relief with the vinegar until it warmed (seeing a pattern here?)
I then held the bag of frozen peas and corn in my hands which was heavenly until i couldnt figure what was better, sore hands from extreme cold or sore hands/fingers from chili burn.
I repeated the salt rubbing.

This has me big preggy woman up and down all afternoon, getting pretty tired of it all.. then i soaked my hands in chardonnay.... and then gave up... it had been 3hrs of on/off pain due to 14 chillis... the best thing that worked had been cold. anything cold.. never mind the dissolve acid in fat, remove acid with alcohol, remove acid with exfoliation, go acid for acid or try to neutralize the acid...

I gave up, hubby said it shouldnt have gone on for so long in the first place.. something about it burning itself out... said it could be all in my head... PFFT!!!!! So with the pain now much less intense i let it burn, didnt do anything to stop it.. my fingers felt sooo hot, a few places were bright red on my fingers.. and after about a hour. It just stopped!

My hands today show no signs of what happened...

im still around-ish

We have moved into our new place. Had 2? freezing nights without electricity but did have hot water (gas). But now we have all settled in, the central heating is lovely!! (but at what price?) We had the fire going on those cold nights, which was lovely.. it was soft wood, so it did have to be constantly fed and wasnt great for lasting heat.. or heating much more than a metre from the fireplace. We had chinese takeaway for dinner those nights, it was great!!!
Glow sticks and candles were awesome in lighting the place up.
Our new place is big, lovely and comfy!

Been very busy running around getting forms, informing places of our new address. Took awhile to clean up the old place. Lots to do here (as nesting instinct is going crazy!) Have a great back and front yard, with the only grass being out on the nature strip! (great since we dont have a mower) I can feel happy watching gardening programs again, and get my pruning fix (when we get the tools) The kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms are great.. my laundry has purple walls and the toilet near it has bright orange walls.. the other walls in the house are ordinary house green, yellow, pink and white.

Tia is settling in. She loves all the mirrors, she loves the deep bath, she loves her pink walls in her bedroom, she loves that she can play outside!!!!!! She has had a few accidents, but that should go once she settles in and figures out where the toilet is each time.. and all that.

Nori is settling in. She has escaped outside a few times. (her bed and litter are in the laundry which is near the back door) she even escaped before we went out shopping on saturday and i didnt realise she was missing for about a 1 or 2 once we got home. so she spent 3-5hours out the backyard (under the deck no doubt) she came when i called her and ran inside (afraid she would get into trouble? or afraid of being outside?) And since that time, Nori has been wanting to go out again.. and protesting, crying so loudly for that to happen! to the point we started to think at 5-6months she might be in heat... It wont be happening, not as long as i can help it (the escaping outside bit.) Last night she spent the night in the laundry, cut off from the rest of the house, which is the first time here. She usually roams all the house (minus our room, in prep for the baby arrival) at night. But hubby didnt want nori waking Tia up last night..

Last night was pretty alright.. up until i was thinking of sending tia to bed. When i noticed she had her new bed socks on and she danced for a second on the wooden floorbeds and fell flat on her face! And started to cry. the fall looked heaps bad, both hubby and i were up in a instant. Hubby carried her to her room and sat her on the bed. I was terrified she had 1) smashed teeth 2)put her teeth thru her lip 3) broken her nose.

There was alot of blood in her mouth, she was crying. I then noticed a cut in her lip. When i stopped that cut bleeding, i saw that her teeth were all ok. Her lip however was swelling up. Hubby ran off to get some kids panadol from the shops. She was shaking, in a bit of a shock, tired and in pain. I rugged her up in her blankets. Her nose was bleeding a little bit, i wasnt sure if the nose had got a knocking or if the blood from her mouth had gone up into and out of her nose. (anything is possible when a kid is crying!) Tia fell asleep a few times, settled well and we waited for the panadol to arrive. The cut is on her bottom lip. It looked deep, but with the swelling now the envy of actors and those paying for botox injections it was hard to tell. Tia i noticed would look at the tissues i was using to clean her up/stop the bleeding and getting upset at that. So i made a effort to show her when it had really stopped bleeding (nose and lip) and kept the other tissues out of sight.
She had some childrens panadol and fell asleep as soon as i turned out the light. She woke up a few times thru the night. Hubby stayed up till 3-4am.

This morning, the swelling on her lip had gone down and its healing up nicely. And now there is swelling at the top of the bridge on her nose, with a faint pink mark. Im wondering if its bruised. Wont be able to tell if its broken or not 100% till the swelling goes down.. (and not worth taking her to the doctor till then) I can't say i noticed her nose swollen last night? or this pink line.. surely a broken nose would swell up instantly just like her lip did?

i'd think that 1) she would be in alot of pain with a broken nose? 2)i've seen more mysterious nose bleeds, bleed more than her nose did last night.

Oh and tia turned 5 on mothers day. She got a few nice presents (mainly lollies and clothes) money is a bit tight.. so her bike and helmet will have to wait for a bit.. just like any big present for mothers day for me. (i got bedsocks ^^ )

Still waiting for broadband. Decided to go with TPG. Never heard of them before.. but apparently our new speed will be 3 times as fast as our previous broadband connection. It was a offpeak and onpeak download limit (but both beyond our usual limits we would reach) But until that gets switched on we are on dial-up.. rofl. Im looking forward to this new speed!!! And wont complain about dial-up... just that they charge by the hour.. ugh x.x so stone age!

Hope everyone had a great weekend and all the mums had a great mothers day!

Iron Chef Tia & Chocolate crackles!!!

Ah gotta love em..
Need:
250g block of copha, melted.
4-5 cups cocoa pops (my rice bubbles always go soggy?)
1/3 cheap cooking dark chocolate block, melted.
1 tbsp of good cocoa
1 cup of coconut
1 cup of icing sugar or mixture

a big difference complete with kind scales

Went to the new doctors yesterday, was awesome! the same price=nil, but aircon, pretty, quiet a separate toy room for kids! lol! Nothing to fancy but soo much better than previous doctors!
i guess i didnt get it off to a good start, the doctor was quite friendly and had some sort of european accent, but i couldnt put my finger on which.. its another doctor with a unpronounceable name too! lol! altho this time not of greek origin.
what did i do? i tried to um bypass the pee in the cup pregnancy test, seeing as im 12weeks. he said we were 100% but he wanted to be 200%. So yeah i went and pee-ed in the cup, as you do. ho-hum.. lol.
while i was out, doctor quized hubby on previous pregnancy, twins in family(both do, but the higher chance one is on hubbys side) and how the Tia's birth went...etc
he asked me my LMP(last known TOTM). yay! i got weighed and height measured (kind scales may i add then the ones at home by -6kgs!*shock*) got my BP taken! ankles poked to see about fluid retention, listened to my heart beat and breathing.. so yes it was incredible. lol.. a huge difference! I was told that the ultrasound and checking at 11weeks is mainly for over 30's who have a higher chance of birth defects etc and it would be linked to alsorts of testing.. which im not keen on so i said id rather not have it, which he seemed pleased about. (i like doctors who dont give scripts and things that aren't necessary and just use up tax money)

My ultrasound will be at 18weeks. ;) which makes more sense now remembering back.. he didnt lie about when results would be back (2-3days not a week! geez! and i could use the pathology in the next room and not have to go to the hospital pathology.. always do your own research to what your doctor says where you have to go for tests)
i had a few chuckles with the pathology guy while my blood was being taken etc.. told him bout the old doctors mistake and he said he had a few from his old work e.g asking him to test a pap smear from a male and stuff like that.. lol.. he was pretty darn good at getting blood, with the strap and the poking in my arm no veins really popped up that noticeable, i dont know how he did it but (and i dont know how i managed to watch it actually go in) without super big blue veins popping out he just went in diagonally and filled 3vials of blood.. *felt a wee bit dizzy* I dont hate needles (unless they are the used druggy kind..*shudders*) but i dont normally watch the needle go in, the blood go out, since my year 10 immunization nurse told me to look the other way while she chatted.
Looked for a aircon, had the aircon condenser portable thingy in mind however the sales guy convinced hubby it would not cool down a hot room (then why would you buy it? for use in spring? whats the point?) and said that a different kind of portable air con $600-$800 models would cool down the house. *rolls eyes* im sure it would, but not keen on spending that much. We went to the shopping centre, had iced coffee and bought this whopper 45cm chrome floor fan from target. In comparison to our little desk fans this thing blows!! wow! last night it was too cold to be without blanket(and subject to the low setting of the fan) and to hot under the blanket, lol! what a conundrum! lol! oh and yay for more video games!
It was hot yesterday, its hot already today at like 8am.. sunday, monday and tuesday next week look a lovely 10degrees less hot! woohoo!!!!!

a interesting time..

Been a bit quiet haven't i? I must admit ive been busy and having fun! ;)

My anniversary went well, hubby got a few hours off in the morning on friday so we could have breakfast together. breakfast was sooooo good! I decided The Coffee Club, yum. had a Mocha & a bacon, egg & cheese on a toasted focaccia bun for $9.50. Normally any breakfast that i didnt have to make is amazing, but this was really good. nevermind that it was a friday and the last day of Tia in childcare for the year, so we did have to wait until she was dropped off at 9.30!!! I was starving!

We then looked at jewellery shops and i didnt find anything i liked, but i did get my engagement ring polished and cleaned for $2. The guy who did it (typical blacksmith look) was cheeky and kept going on about how i must be gripping something metal alot to get so many marks and scratches. *rolls eyes* no i don't.. its just had 6 years of ME! lol!

I decided i'd get something nice to wear for the christmas management party that night, i've seen all the maternity clothes before in the other shops and nothing was dressy enough! So i decided i'd go to this shop called Big City Chic! lol! ;) The lady was so helpful, i couldnt stop smiling when she said i looked like a medium! nevermind that a medium in this shop is a 18-20. ;) i tried it on a nice white top with polka dots, black lace band under the bust and sleeveless.. it didnt look flattering, just a tad to big also. So in a hurry i decided on this black sleeveless top with the beads and sequins (the other one in the pic is a dress) Lots of room for a bigger bump later! ;) Grabbed another coffee (or in my case a cocoa locco) from gloria jeans and headed back with hubby till we had to split, him off to work and me back home.
Picked tia up and went back out shopping deciding that i need a new pretty hair clip, saw a few in diva but $2 bux more than i wanted to spend, found what i wanted tho in a different shop!
It was about time to leave or call a cab, but the line was busy! doh!!! So i walked in my normal joggers and when we almost go there i changed into nicer shoes, that i havent worn in completely! haha! Everyone was there, the girls and the boys in 2 different groups! lol! I had apple juice everyone else was drinking beers or some nice wine the boss had picked.
It was a interesting evening, a shame towards the end. So much food! gosh!

For drinks there were apparently the best ever prawn crackers & cashews. Entrees were spring rolls, prawn battered & deepfried on a sugar cane stick, prawn & veg rice paper rolls, pork balls and basil leaves and lettuce leaves! 1st course was satay chicken and rice, 2nd course was a interesting mild viet curry veggies and a bread roll to use as a dip, 3rd course was a DIY meat & veg fondue? lol! There were portable gas stoves with a boiling pot and we got little special spoons to place meat (chicken, beef, squid, prawns, fish, scallops) and a plate of veggies to put in & some vermicelli noodles and a nice terriyaki & sesame seed sauce. we were all quite full as you can imagine. (i didnt take my handbag so i had no camera! doh!)

It was awesome, i don't think i have had Vietnamese food before but this was great. then there was a fruit platter and later tea and biscuits but we never got to that, by then it was 11ish! Tia was really well behaved, the boss of the restaurant had a little boy around 5-6ish who was a real gentlemen and drew on the tables (the food is quiet messy so theres paper covering the tables) with her and played. she was upset at leaving, nevermind it was way past her bedtime!
It really was so kind of them to put that kind of a dinner on! gosh!

Also good news, i'm 9 weeks pregnant so i will go for my ultrasound after christmas, perhaps early new year since we come back on the 28th. james really wants twins! thats crazy! lol! I also chickened out of living thru morning sickness and bought anti-morning sickness tablets basically ginger and vit B6 in the tablets. I tell you what they burn they are so hot! have to get them down very quickly! They are working pretty well, however some things will make me sick whatever i take!
is it 1 week till christmas today? i still havent done any cards for family or sent any gifts to qld for christmas! My bad! Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Another great chocolate trip.. i mean city trip ;)

What a day! Im glad to be absolutely energy-less! :D
We missed our train that would have gotten us there on time, it seems they have put more trains on in the morning (as usually there was a train 1 hr after that one) so there was only a 15 minute gap between the one we missed and the one we got on! (which was waiting already) The morning was awesome! Windy, cold-ish and some light rain! What a break from the heat and sun!

Got in and waited for the other special people to arrive, read in a directory about the clock how it does this marionette opening thing on the hour. maria and jenna arrived and we waited for the clock thing.. and so was 2 different school groups and other tourists.. it was 3 minutes late! funny!Off to the usual chocolate feast place, max brenners. Jenna had a Popsicle fondue (very interesting!) Maria had a 1/2 or 1/4 strength cappuccino in a kangaroo mug, it has a extra pouch at the side of the mug where melted chocolate can be licked.(photo below) (Tia had a milk hot chocolate (which i didnt actually ask for, but oh well.. she can consider herself spoilt for the day) and a chocolate lick now $2.20 (gone up 20c)I had a dark chocolate mocha which was rather on the dark bitter side than i expected and a rich brownie(which the waiter forgot about til i said i was still waiting on it, she still did a good job remembering our order off the top of her head, how many times did we test her? lol).
Tia enjoying the ribbons from the presents Maria & Jenna gave us! Also wearing her funky necklaces that she got! *forgot to try out the torch tonight, will have to try it tomorrow. ;)Maria and I!
Presents i received. YAY! presents! =D Much appreciated! A Tea towel with christmas theme, (we have survived with only 2 tea towels all year.. lol!) a purrrty basket with mini christmas puddings inside, a good health magazine (which i thought would be great to read on the trip home, but spent more time pointing at 2 pages that were 100kj & 400kj with tia pointing out chocolate, chips, strawberry, cheese, sushi etc lol!) a sample of some special baby bath stuff and some stickers! whoot! ;)

A trip to krispy kreme while the queue was short picked up a chocolate glazed creme filled, to share with hubby.Breadtop for lunch! Wishing there was a local one! Love their little buns, rolls, donuts not keen on pork floss buns or chicken & mushroom donut lol! But they have alot of yummy stuff. Also decided to pick up for later. Some choc chip buns & some Red bean Mochi.Central Groceries? Is the asian imports grocery shop where i stock up on mens pocky and look at the daifuku & other mochi (made in taiwan tho, i rather either Japan or Aussie made.. picky arent i)
A visit to L'Occitane, came across a Honey Massage nectar.

Light and soothing. Blend of propolis, royal jelly and honey from Provençal hives soothes; linden extract and bisabolol extract calm and help reduce irritation. Natural honey aroma pleases the senses. Use as a comforting massage lotion or as a body lotion. Suitable for adults and children ages three and up.

On my wish list! Not oily which is great, i hate giving a massage only to get oily hands and think about how terrible it is for hubbys skin.. especially if he falls asleep. Smells good, not over bearing like some cheap stuff!

It was great day! In L'Occitane Tia was asked if jenna was her sister, lol! And after that Tia was very happy to call jenna 'sister'. Tia cried when went to go home on the train, she wanted her sister! lol! Very cute.

Now to get some sleep... Night all! ;)

Melting

Summer has hit! After months of nice cool weather and lots of rain we have had like a week without rain, and its been so hot!
The kind of hot weather that you wish you had a pool, beachside apartment, air conditioning or a car! Walking in the heat is a pain, especially with the flies! I keep telling myself i will be ok if i keep my mouth shut! That doesnt stop flies going kamikaze up my nose or full throttle at my forehead.. whats with those weird ones?

Today has been a Godsend! Rain! Storms.. all very pleasant, nothing very close, no downpours just a constant drizzle of rain!

Im not a summer person! In fact if i was a billionaire i would spend winter in the northern hemisphere and get a freaking white christmas and spend winter in the southern hemisphere!

Did you know dominoes pizza now has salads on its menu? Theyre like $7bux.. i wish they would just bring back the lite cheese! lol!

its only just lunch time and so far today i have eaten:
3 pieces of raisin toast, 2 pieces of peanut butter toast, pieces of watermelon, 1 choc chip cookie and for lunch 2 pieces of cheese on toast melted with satay sauce (my favourite) with the weather so nice i might have a coffee for the first time in ages!

hubby was sick saturday night, i stayed up till 2am just to make sure he was ok, knowing that if i slept he would probably wake me each time he had to race to bathroom.. heheh i thought i was the one meant to be vomiting?! lol! Tia and i spent the night eating pizza and watching the movie Elf, which she loved!
during the day when hubby was still well we went out shopping had iced coffees, did some ddr, enjoyed the air conditioning and bought a christmas tree and some LED lights.. its the biggest tree our lil family has ever had 91cms and cost $17.99 from k-mart on special! whoot! We got battery operated LED lights that are low voltage, which means they arent glass or going to break easy and Tia can touch them. However i was in a rush and it was only a pack of 10! lol! so we have this big empty tree with 1 line of lights lol! Oh and we have plenty of gadgets all hogging up power boards in this house so the lights running off batteries is awesome. If ever i build a house i will have power points on every single wall!!!

i got tagged

I got tagged by Tina for this meme.

Here are the rules:

When tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list eight random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to eight other people. It’s fun. Give it a shot. It’s also a great way to get to know other bloggers.

OK, so 8 random things about me:

• I cant read music!
  
• I'd love to have a drum set
  
• I really wanted a microscope in my teens for christmas, i got it the next christmas after..
  
• I dont listen to radio at all..
  
• I like quiet
  
• I wake up thru the night to hear DH sleeptalk and then fall back asleep
  
• Never had stitches or any operations or broken any bones
  
• i like cosplay (japanese adult dress-ups!!!)
  

Tag: Christine, Maria, shar

If I didn’t tag you and want to play along, please feel free

i have a surprise up my sleeve

I'm awful for not being able to keep my mouth shut about happy, good news.. i've dropped a few hints already.. ;) i'd like to think i've hidden them all to well.. hahaha!
Im a shocker aren't i?! LOL!
anyways...
as requested a new photo of me and my haircut?
yup. the same, just all fixed up!

yawn

Theyv'e figured out how to clone things, but yet the theories are still out on why we yawn, what happens when we yawn and why is it contagious.
Wikipedia:

"Hypothesized causes of yawning

1. A means of cooling the brain.^[5]
2. An action used as an unconscious communication of psychological decompression after a state of high alert.
3. A means of expressing powerful emotions like anger, apathy, apprehension, remorse or boredom. ^{[citation needed]}
4. An excess of carbon dioxide and lack of oxygen in the blood. [1]
5. A way of displaying (or indicative of) apathy.
6. Tiredness

A recent hypothesis raised in 2007 by Andrew C. Gallup and Gordon Gallup of the University of Albany states that yawning may be a means to keep the brain cool. Mammalian brains operate best when they are cool. In an experiment, he showed several groups of people videos of other people yawning. When the subjects held heat packs up to their foreheads while viewing the videos, they yawned often. But when they held cold packs up to their foreheads or breathed through their noses (another means of brain cooling), they did not yawn at all. ^{[5] [6]}

Another recent hypothesis is that yawning is used for regulation of body temperature."

"The yawn reflex is often described as contagious: if one person yawns, this will cause another person to "sympathetically" yawn.^[3][10] Observing another person's yawning face (especially his/her eyes), or even reading about or thinking about yawning, can cause a person to yawn.
You could possibly be yawning from reading this section or looking at these pictures.^[3][11] However, only about 55% of people in a given audience will respond to such a stimulus; fewer if only the mouth is shown in a visual stimulus.^[12]
The proximate cause for contagious yawning may lie with mirror neurons, i.e. neurons in the frontal cortex of certain vertebrates, which upon being exposed to a stimulus from conspecific (same species) and occasionally interspecific organisms, activates the same regions in the brain.^[13] Mirror neurons have been proposed as a driving force for imitation which lies at the root of much human learning, e.g. language acquisition. Yawning may be an offshoot of the same imitative impulse. A 2007 study found that children with autism spectrum disorders, unlike typical children, did not yawn after seeing videos of other people yawning; this supports the claim that contagious yawning is based on the capacity for empathy."

I've been having trouble sleeping lately, i think its due to the all-of-a-sudden summer-like weather. A few hot nights and a few sunny hot days. Today was a yawning day, couldn't stop! perhaps i should have gone for a short walk to get some fresh air, but ive been busy surfing the web, reading blogs and stuck into my book! ;)

I think the santa parade was today in Melbourne? i havent seen any pictures of it in the news or on the web, so perhaps its a bit of a non-event? Even the Melbourne cup parade hardly got any time on the news, no apparently politics, and all the yukky awful stuff that goes on is more important.. bummer

DH is enjoying his work, especially making his databases for his work.. *yawn*
I tried out the nandos hot peri peri sauce and didnt expect it to be quite so hot! but it was! im impressed, now i know not to use so much next time! ;)

So has the summer heat hit your place? how many times have you yawned while reading this post (more than usual hahahaa!)

thursday

this could easily turn into a very big post but here it is in short form!

1) Tia is booked in for a $85 full hearing assessment next week.

2) I went out shopping, i was going to do a big shop, get a home delivery BUT i forgot my re-usable green canvas shopping bags. doh! and also realised there wasnt any urgency for food anyways.

3) I found a nice new pair of black pants! they are quite odd in that the waist band
can roll done/up. no fly or buttons (or belt loops) they could easily be mistaken for maternity pants! (as they cover the belly if unrolled!) Theyre called 'bengal pants'

4) i decided i'd go to the hairdressers!!!! *dont die of shock there!!* (i dont like salons!) i sat down and waited, i knew which person i didnt want to get and of course i ended up getting that hairdresser.

5) i got shampoo, cut and blowdry for $32.. i did not think that was possible! ah the wonders of 'just cuts'!

6) the woman was brutal, it must be coz my scalp should be getting sensitive?, the way she dried my thick long hair ended up giving my hair knots which she would brush out.. OWW!!!!

7) its been years since ive been to a hairdresser. in that time i had a church friend who is a hairdresser, she did my hair for the wedding and when i won a makeover at a church raffle.

8) I visited DH work. He didn't notice my hair cut!!!!!! LOL!

9) We went out with Dh boss & his wife (who also works there as a boss) do you know any employer that is truly that generous?! it was to celebrate DH 30th birthday! We got picked up in their nice mercedes 4WD 6:15pm(i didnt know mercedes made 4WD) with lovely leather inside! Went to a italian resturant called Michelangelo's.

10) we had a garlic focaccia bread (that was round), they had marinated olives, salt n pepper squid and i tried some dukkah and turkish bread. tia had a kids lasagna and salad. Tia and i had pineapple juice and the others had some nice wine.

11)i had chicken parma, james had a steak..

12) they organized a sparkler in a scoop of icecream for the birthday boy.

13) we got dropped off around 10pm! it was a really good night, altho the men could have talked for hours and hours if we had let them! ;)

14) i had the worst night sleep ever!

DH 30th Birthday

it went well yesterday. I got a call early in the morning from DH telling me how his office was decorated with metallic big paper cut-outs of 30's everywhere, a cluster of balloons with the number 30.

Tia and i? well we were off to the beach, but we had to go to go-lo or reject shop to find a cheap bucket n spade for the beach!

Tia was sooo very happy and excited she was going to the beach! So i used a few times to remind her to behave.. or maybe i used it as a threat! hahaha!

We had to get home to order pizza online to arrive for DH lunch. DH asked me later how the pizza person knew it was his birthday and i said i had the name for the order as 'birthday boy' hahaha!

He had cake at his work that the boss's wife had made! (he bought home 2 pieces for Tia and i) I havent tried it yet, but its a orange and poppyseed with a strawberry and chocolate on top of the icing.


When we got home, i played some video games, cleaned the house, put tia in the bath. Then told her to get ready for DH birthday party and helped her into a cute dress. ;)

I put the bought yum-cha in the oven, started on a beef stirfry. I made sure we had some nice sauces for the yum cha, sweet chilli and plum sauce! I love my plum sauce. Unfortunately only the spring rolls did not contain fish or shrimp! Tia loved it, DH loved it. All good! ;)

I decided i'd do something light for DH birthday dessert/cake, i knew he was having cake thru the day, i knew i didnt want to be stressed or in the kitchen all day and i knew i didnt want anything 'heavy'. So i decided on a pav/meringue thing, i did have egg whites in the fridge BUT i dont have a electric beater, so i decided to be lazy and buy some nests all done! After dinner i decided to keep with the birthday cake tradition and so i put this interesting thing together with toothpicks, however they did crack it did hold altogether for as long as it needed to! I decided on caramel top n fill, since hubby isnt into berries that much.. he is a BIG caramel fan tho.
So i was surprised with Nestle top n fill caramel!(hadn't tried it before) i could pipe it! woohoo! And it tasted exactly 100% like the caramel filling from a bakers for caramel tarts or caramel eclairs etc. It was gorgeous! Its so deadly! I could so live on it! lol! only its not very kind calorie/fat wise! He blew out his candles, dished it out and put some double cream on top! yum!
DH got for his birthday: slippers with mario (a Nintendo character) on them(which he then told me he doesnt like slippers), A bottle of Galliano Amaretto & The godfather blackhand edition game for the wii. (he bought himself the game tenchu z for the xbox 360) and thats about it.

Feelin spoilt part 2

all the mobile charms & capsules from the vending machine (and only 1 good guy!) 8 I love egg, 1 disney princess, 1 hello kitty surfing edition & 1 gundam something. i think we got a bit carried away we eventually ran out of $2 coins.. lol!
(pic~ more-than-likely-bootleg hello kitty & charming kitty mobile charms that i put on my bag, since my mobile is already very crowded.. it was from a small shop in a arcade i think.. buy 1 get 1 free for 2bux.. and now i cant sneak up on people and make a constant jingle where ever i go).

My mobile kitty collection by ~o0dust0o on deviantART


(pic~ look its the melbourne central cone view from swanston st from memory..)
Re the hot rods: had some more today weren't as hot.. or as hot as wicked wings, definitely differ from batch/store etc.. ^^

Re: hello kitty shop is (im sure DH would luv me to edit him out so there is no proof he looked/was there but i'm 2 lazy) the real thing, no bootleg stuff here! (it wasnt open when we 1st walked past, had to come back later)(pic~ My hello kitty membership card! and a free sticker!)

Forgot to get pocky at central, so found them cheaper in chinatown.. ^^ Got 2 boxes for gifts, but the rest is for us ;)

Unfortunately the bottleshop in chinatown had no Goshu 40 sake (finest sake) so DH went without :( but he still has his other cheaper sake! ^^ but it would have been nice, considering its the only place that we found that does/did stock it.
We walked back towards flinders, as we decided to visit Magnation (in another attempt to get DH 3d world magazine) which we did find, YAY! And i found this awesome magazine Kateigaho internation edition of KIE its all about Japan's Arts & culture! Its so hard to read!! (its in english) but its hard to read coz its overloaded with awesome stuff, pure overload! you look at the pictures or start reading one page and your mind says 'whats on the next page? why dont u stop reading and go back to drooling over each page again.. over and over'.. and argh! So i havent read much, its a seasonal magazine (Thank God) but im wondering how much 9,520Yen is as thats a 12month (4 magazines) subscription! (jus checked $91 roughly.. phew!)

(pic~ bitter dark choc truffles from patchi, 1 box is a gift ^^)

Then I think we headed home, had some lunch and I asked for a perfume! ^^ (I’ve been wanting it since I saw it on special for half its usual price!) so that’s another perfume to cross of my list ;) hehe! (perfume~ Hillary Duff with love)

(pic~ Max brenners, 1 dark Venezuelan hot choc & 1 milk Venezuelan(sp?) hot choc & the all-famous chocolate lick for Tia. I quite liked both, the milk was sweet, the dark was rich n heavy, also DH had a different theory on how to hold a hug mug by drinking from the pointiest end.. who knows?!)

(pic~ flinders st station, pidgeons & seagulls)

Got home (best train trip back from the city ever! The time flew past!), tried to have a nap.. but couldn’t fall asleep so I stayed up and played poker online (not real money) and lost $900 ouch! (thank goodness its not real! I don’t gamble with real money!!) played more games, made dinner.. ate & watched iron chef the sardine battle.. chen wins even with a sardine, sour cream icecream! Played more video games with DH now and then went to bed.

Sunday was cool! Playing video games with DH, then out shopping (for sake) played some DDR. It’s a super hot day! Like a summer day, the spring we have been having was more winter-ish since its rained a lot. Even today is overcast, but its hot! (think I got sunburnt, dammit!) talked DH into getting a Wii.. got it home and then found out it wasn’t turning on, so DH had to walk back (not happy bout that) and get another one. While out, it was surprising that Tia saw something she wanted and asked for it!(she doesn’t normally.. but has started too) Very cute.. it was a Disney princess game for the wii but its not out yet unfortunately, although a 4 year old doesn’t understand why they have a box but no game!

(pic~ street entertainer near chinatown, i promise to show u more of this guy soon! ;) Sound and all..)

Tiffany my name google game

Tina tagged anyone who wanted to play
Here are the rules:
1) Go to Google.
2) Click on Google images.
3) Type in your name and search.
4) Re post (w/ a link) the picture of the oddest, craziest, strangest, coolest, oldest, etc. person that shares your name. Post multiples if you find a few you like.
5) Pass it on to at least 5 other people

The tiffany rock, only found in Utah!
The chucky bride, rawr me in the morning! >< (i really dont want to watch the movie now) CYclone Tiffany of W.A in jan 1998! how did i miss this? ive been waiting for this and it already happened.. darn! oh wait im the living cyclone Tiffany!There are 46 pages of google images for 'tiffany' i went thru them all.. tarty looking chicks, to lamps, rocks, shoes, dogs, LLAMAS!, a cow,really pretty rings, tiffany & co buildings, a suburb in St louis usa.. and 2-3 famous tiffanys.. meh

consider yourself tagged if u have the time..


----------------
Now playing: Gary Jules - Mad World (Donnie Darko Soundtrack) 1
via FoxyTunes