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

Kettle

Christmas tree with the lights on (8 AA batteries needed) in the dark..

Playing catch up here!! So bare with me!!
Hubby and i recieved a lovely gift this year of a kettle bbq just before christmas. A great suprise being that well, we had been thinking and planning on getting one... probably would have settled for some cheap one from k-mart had we found one.. But instead we were blessed with a big Weber kettle bbq! It meant christmas cooking would be smooth and the heat outdoors (not that it matter we had a very mild christmas day may have reached 25deg cel?The meat on the test run was a lovely bolar blade from the butchers. The woolworths roasts i found had to little fat on the top than i wanted.. I am learning that my butcher has far superior quality of meats than the supermarket/safeway woolies. And i love my butchers diet mince for $9.95 a kg or 2kgs for $16? It truly is diet mince, none of this stuffing around with star ratings that coles and woolworths offer.. anyways getting off track.
hubby out the back with the kettle.. the meat is inside.. and he is pretty much "are you quite alright taking photos of me?!!" (notice the awful amount of cardboard rubbish we have.. with expansion comes rapid carboard.. my recycling bin is always full.. we have more carboard in the laundry too..)
The end product, was delish!!!!! I requested more! (that is more frequent roasts. Not more on my plate) hhehehehe!!!

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??

the end of challenge

:) The No takeaway challenge is complete! Hiccups 3/21 is not bad... one being a anniversary pizza dinner. (hubbys back was thrown out the day b4)
Thank you to Maria for joining on with me! :) That was some great support!
and thank you also to my hubby for reminding me that i was on a challenge when i really wanted something deep fried or home delivered! :)

whats ur opinion?

A few things have happened this week..

A ZIMBABWEAN man has been jailed for two years after he sold urine to residents in a mining town claiming it was cooking oil, according to state media reports.

i would have been pee-ed off (no pun intended) too if that bottle cost me a my precious half billion dollar note too.. (not that i know how much was paid for it) a gross way to make money... beats my entrepreneurship young years of selling bad perfume mixed with swamp water as perfume as a kid... not that i ever got to the door knocking. And not knowing about the legal age of working, insurance, taxes or anything i did try to start a kids-gardening service for weeding gardens at 20c a bucket (full of weeds) (we only advertised bout 4 houses on our street)

Taser guns are being sold in the same way tupperware parties are held in the us. So i guess the next crime wave will be tasering each other.

"Women are asking for it, and there is a lot of interest," Ms Shafman said of the stylish C2 Taser models that retail at $US350 ($364), plus a $US10 registration fee.

"The biggest hit seems to be fashion pink at the parties."

Sure, perhaps id buy one.. but then whats me stopping from going nutters and tasering some guy who looked shonky who walked past? is it really so much safer than a gun, what if something did go wrong? and if i was attacked would i be able to get it out of my handbag in time to save myself? whats stopping it from going off in my handbag? and could i legally taser a dog who wanted a piece of me? they could make a real small model for that for kids for that reason.. but then can u really trust the kiddie tasers not to come out during a petty fight over the remote control? the whole thing is scary if u ask me!!!!
Look at how good our dollar is at the moment! US$350= A $364 whoot!!! How good is the aussie dollar going!!! Hubby is wanting a special 3D mouse... and found while he could order it in from a aussie company for $120 he could order the same mouse in from the usa for us$40 even with the conversion, postage it works out much cheaper?! *linkie for page about 3d mouse with youtube video demo*Then theres the artist Bill Henson in deep-deep-do-do over his nude photos of a young girl and boy. Is it art? Yes it is art. BUT! In this age, alot of effort has been poured into protecting our kids, their innoncence, their vulnerabilities and its not like we need anymore kids or teens in the nude in photos... any child who had been abused in that way would be rightfully offended that someone could do the same and call it art, hang it in a gallery and get away with it!.. If it had been a painting perhaps he may have gotten away with it.. and for sure many nudes painted back thru time sure they weren't accepted by society at the time.. Those saying its art and portraying innocence and exposing their vulnerabilities, i dont believe it requires any talent to take a nude photo of a kid/teen to show that! I think its plain to see that in a photo of a teen fully dressed and under many layers of jackets, lol.. We are also in a time when sexualisation(sp?) of kids is banned in advertising material (and thats them being clothed!) and so u may as well say nude kids/teens are banned full-stop!

today we all went out bed and mattress shopping! whoot! we have 2 furniture places a walk away(not ikea) and then theres a 'bed specialist' place (likely to be more pricey) in the other direction. We found a good bed and mattress. The bed, tallboy and 2 bedside tables in a package was $699 (down from $999 apparently) Hubby also found a new, nothing special, but practical desk to replace the old one we have for $99 (that and he needs a desk to fit 2 monitors on so he can do his graphics stuff better) they are both huge whopping 22inch+ screens ones a old sony one the other is our nice flatscreen one that came with the pc.