Monday, August 31, 2009

A big hole

After the day's work we had on Saturday, the husband and I had a conversation that went like this

A: are we hiring a digging thing?
H: no, its $300. we will do it by hand
A: I am in no state to use a shovel all day (I was a bit sore from my heavy lifting that i shouldnt have done)
H: hmmmm
A: just hire the bloody thing, it will be money well spent

And money well spent it was. The boys spent all day digging on it, and as an added bonus, it moved the pile of dirt that was at the back of the house.

The start of the trenches...makes for an awesome trip to the loo in the middle of the night!
Peewee playing with the new favourite toy
The pile of dirt half way through the job (check out my window and door in front of my car)
the trenches towards the end of the day



So thats where we were up to until this morning. the boys slacked off today, and forgot to take pictures (damn them), so I will have to do it in the morning. Pin It

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Kitchen Renovations

Yesterday morning when I went to work, my house looked somewhat normal. It had cupboards, looked pretty functional. It had cupboards, appliances, a sink.

What I returned to was anything but!

We now have an extra door, as it would have been a bit breezy until we got the new walls up

Our very good friend, Peewee, helping demolish
This morning's destruction. Husband is doing something up there, possible cutting out the ceiling

Ohh, what a mess!!
Now, just to show the lovely weather we are having, our backyard was puddle free last night, and this is what happened overnight. Guess who was the awesome person who got to treck timber to the fire in the middle of the paddock all morning :(
Missing the side wall and a ceiling
My wonderful father in law destroying the other wall
Oh dear lord, I have no walls. Least I have a floor though

Oh wait, they took that too!! 18m2 of concrete that needed to find its way to a trailer. Thank the lord for fathers!

All cleaned up for the night

So there you go, that was my day. On our couch there is two very sore, tired bodies, that really don't want to be be digging tomorrow. But it must be done I suppose!
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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Sorry :(

Sorry guys, I haven't been around much this week, nor will I be for the rest of the week

I went back to work on Monday to be greeted with a giant pile of work that needs to be done by tomorrow (still not done, I might add), as well as a major meeting on Monday, and somewhere around 100 people that need paying on Monday.

I promise to come back somewhere around the middle of next week with tales of everything that has happened this week. Pin It

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Ikea

Now, I am a bit of a fan of ikea in theory. In real life, I am not such a fan.

I love to look on the ikea website and plan what to buy. In reality, I never make it there, as it is in a terrible spot in Melbourne (in the middle of the city, with shitty parking), the store is always packed with people who stop in the middle of an aisle, holding up 50 other shoppers, and it takes far to long to get from start to finish. Then there is the checkouts. Urgh

I am the person who constantly whinges that ikea don't have an online store (for those who are on my twitter, you know what I am on about). Seriously, it would be so much easier if I could order from Ikea online. Why do they not offer this? Surely it is the way of the future?!?

So, anyway, today I went to Ikea to check out their shelving for the laundry. In the end I came home with a cutlery draw divider thing (for $2), a couple of shoe holder things ($7 each) and some finger puppets for my niece. I was out of there for $25. Very disappointing, especially considering nothing was suitable for our laundry

Until I found the food stall. And the god-like substance that is Ikea Meatballs. I love them, but much to my disappointment, I had already eatten lunch before arriving at Ikea. So 2 bags of meatballs later, I was happy.


So this was tonight's dinner: Ikea Meatballs ala April



Oh, and in all of my excitement about meatballs, i forgot to look for their mash potato. Dammit, why do Ikea not do mailorder? Pin It

How to go crazy on the way to ikea (as opposed to in Ikea)

Image from Flickr

Today I finally entered into the satnav world. I took my time, obviously. Hell, even my mother (who struggles to turn on her mobile phone, little own check her voicemail) has satnav!

So today I bit the bullet. We had been discussing it for sometime, I had been researching the model I wanted (TomTom XL340). And with a trip to Ikea on todays agenda, I thought it was best I buy one.

So into the electrical store I go, pick up the box, hand over the credit card, and back into the car. All works well. Well, after I figured out how to turn up the volume so I could actually hear Jane.

It all went down hill when I arrived in Melbourne. A few months ago they opened a new bypass. A bypass that doesnt exist on my TomTom. So it kept abusing me, telling me to do a "U-turn when safe". And then it went one step to far. It told me to do a "sharp left" into oncoming traffic :O

Now obviously, I realised that I am smarter than a 4.3" screen and a pommy voice, and I kept on going in the correct direction. But it made me wonder about tourist who dont know Melbourns roads. That could be nasty!

Anyway, I continued going on the Western Ring, and it kept abusing me. I would have turned it off, but I needed directions once I was in the tunnel.

What crazy things has a satnav told you to do?
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Friday, August 21, 2009

Bye bye infection. Hello reaction


Image from Flickr

At the start of the year I was diagnosed as being allergic to. Awesome!

So when my surgeon prescribed antibiotics for this darn infection, I was quick to tell him about my allergy. He decided to give me some tablets that have a 5% chance of causing me a reaction.

Guess who is in that 5%! Me!!!

So, the beautiful hands I was admiring at the start of the week, are now fat, podgy, and very very sore! Just what one wants when they return to work on Monday
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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Spotlight on an iPhone - Footy Lite

One of my favourite app's on my iPhone is Footy Lite, made by Slattery Media Group. I do admit, I have a vested intrest in it, my very tallented brother in law created the app. Whilst it has useful features already, he tells me there are more features coming soon, which I am hanging out for with much anticipation.

The free App is about providing the fastest access to live scores. Footy Lite includes:
- Live match summaries including scores, including timezone support.
-Results of previous rounds,
-this week's matches and next weeks matches.
-Includes venue, starting time and TV Broadcaster in your state.
So if you love your footy, and have an iPhone, you must download this app.
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What happens when you spend too long at home

I don't do sitting at home that well.

So, you can image how well I am doing these holidays when I can't do much. I can't lift anything, I cant drive very far, and I am sick of daytime tv.

So today I pulled down our chimney!!!

This is how it looked this morning


After I worked my magic


Now, for you worrying about me pulling down the chimney, I must make a confession, I didnt even work up a sweat. My good friend toot (below) gave the braun, all I had to do was chuck it in the low range and put my foot to the floor. Go toot!


Then it was the husbands turn. He brought out the sledge hammer and went to town on the rest of the bricks.


Now, we have a problem. There is a gapeing hole in the middle of my kitchen wall. Shit. What does one do to fill it? use left over roofing iron, of course! Leaving me with a roller door looking thing. But it keeps the cat in, and the dogs out, so I can deal with it for a week or so.


So there you go, next time you're bored on holidays, try knocking down something that forms the foundation for part of your house. It's fun :D Pin It

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Blog This: Meet the Parents

Sorry about the blurred faces, my stepdad asked to not be identified

Parents: like them or lump them everyone's got them!

share with us your favourite memory of your mother or father or another parent-figure in your life. It may be a wonderful mother-daughter experience you had with your mum, or something special you've done with your children... inspire us!

My parents divorced with I was around 3 years old, and my mum remarried when i was 19. My stepdad is an amazing man, who understood that to be a family member, you have to be a friend first (and that bribery is the best way through to a 13 year old)

When the husband and I decided to get married it was always a big worry about how to include all 3 of my parents in the wedding ceremony. My step father and I are quite close (much closer than I am with my real dad) so it was important to me that he was included. And my mum HAD to feature somewhere as she was the one who raised me to the exceptional person i am (not that I am biased ;) ).

So when we chose our wedding venue, rather than take the short walk down the aisle, I chose to walk up a gravel path, 20 something bluestone steps, and then down the aisle. A process that was quite tiring in my wedding dress. But well worth it when my dad walked the first part with me, until he was joined part way by my stepdad. They both walked me up the stairs, where my mum greeted us. She walked me the final distance and gave me away.

The photo above is one of my favorites, as it is completely random, but captures the emotion of our wedding. I am disappointed that all of the ones that feature my mum look shocking, but least I have my memories. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, there was no 'pow' moment, but when I look back at the photo I realise how lucky I am to have three amazing parents, who are good friends, who all love me so much to not complain that they didnt get a traditional role in my wedding.

So there you have it, on the biggest day of my life, I realised how much I love my three parents, and how much I cherish them as well as my husband. I can only hope I am as amazing as them when I am a parent
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Surgery: Updated


Image from Flickr

Yesterday I had to make the three hour journey down to see my surgeon in the very beautiful Williamstown. I love going to Williamstown, as there are some beautiful shops, and heaps of lovely little cafes to have lunch on the waterfront.

Unfortuantly, the husband came with me, which limited the shopping and dining experiences to a complete zero.

But my surgeon was esatic at my recovery, I am doing well. The only concern is that I have a minor infection in one of my sites, but it should be cleared up with a course of antibiotics. He is happy for me to move up to mushy food as I please, and has booked me in for my first fill for mid September. YAY!

Now I need to find my gym membership card and get thy bum to the gym. Oh the joy.
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Buttons By Lou

For a while now I have been following Buttons By Lou (who is also the creator of It's Tuesday and I Can't Wait) and contemplating buying some of her hair elastics. I think they are the cutest thing out.

Ok, so I do realise they are meant for little girls, and probably not 25 year old women, but I wear a pony tail to work most days, and well, I wanted something pretty.

So, after a lot of ummming and ahhhhing, I chose these ones


Aren't they cute!!! I am looking forward to them arriving in the post Pin It

It's Tuesday and I cant wait


to go to the home show this weekend.

We saw the ad on tv whilst sitting in the surgeon's waiting room yesterday, and decided it would be wise to have a look see.

It is something we have wanted to do for a few years, but have never got around to doing

If you want to play along, check out Buttons by Lou Pin It

Sunday, August 16, 2009

It's Tuesday and I cant wait


Image from Flickr

For today to be over so I can have the worlds tiniest sip of something. 12 hours without food is a long time in my world. Especially when I cant eat anything before surgery but have to watch my husband eat eggs on toast. I hate him right now.

Best I get used to it though. It will all be worth it in the end.

If you want to play along, check out Buttons by Lou Pin It

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Kitchen Plans

This is our kitchen plans, subject to change (yet again).
I am finally happy with our kitchen layout, it has taken me a lot of plans to get one I am happy with.


Click to enlarge

I am looking forward to cooking my first meal in our new kitchen, its going to be awesome I wish I had a magic wand right now though and it was all done.

Anyone have one I could borrow
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Let the reno's begin (again)

Given I am spending a lot of time on the couch this week (saves waddling around the house like a pregnant woman), the husband has had to entertain himself of an afternoon.

The boy has leave for the first two weeks of September, but he wants to do some small things before he is on leave. like have some timber on hand, the doors and windows and some other bibs and bobs.

The back of our house as it stands yesterday
The side of the house
The very dodgy 'stink pipe' and missing weatherboard (it has been missing for almost 5 years now)
The uber-fancy pipeworks


So that is what our house looks like now/ Stayed tuned for progress. Pin It

Friday, August 14, 2009

Liquid Diet



Image from Flickr

Aunty Em mentioned that she wasnt jealous of my liquid diet. I have to admit, I was terrified at the thought of it. Just so you realise, I have to be on a liquid diet for around 2 weeks, and then move to mushies for another 2 weeks, and then start to move to normal foods.

As I said, I was terrified of the liquid food stage, what the hell was i going to drink? All i could think of was water and soft drink (which was obviously ruled out very quickly). So far, 3 days in, it hasnt been too bad.

My food intake goes like this:
Breakfast: half a glass of orange juice
Lunch: half a cup of soup (pumpkin, chicken and sweet corn, veggie - anything really, just as long as it can be sucked through a straw)
Dinner: half a cup of soup or some custard, depending on how i feel.

Yesterday i could only manage a few teaspoons of food at each sitting, so it took me 4 hours to get through my half cup of soup, which meant by dinner time i wasnt overly hungry, and just had 50mls custard.

It is amazing to think that just last week I would have drowned that entire 400ml tin of soup in one sitting with a bread roll or something. We had 'dinner' at my father in-laws house last night, and he made the comment that he likes cooking for me, as i eat so little, and I bring my own food :D

Suppose he has a point now.

Oh, and as an added bonus of the liquid diet, I have lost 8kg since last Friday
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Thursday, August 13, 2009

A new begining

I am starting a new life, a new beginning in my world.

For many years I have struggled with my weight, nothing would ever help me lose the weight i needed to lose. I ideally need to lose around 40kg, but I could never get past 10. So, we made the decision to look into lapbanding. I looked at other options, stomach sleeving, gastric bypass, but decided lapbanding was the best option. So i did my research, up'ed our health insurance, and waited for the year to pass. I saw a dietician, talked to as many people as possible about the surgery, the pro's the con's and everything in between.

Tuesday came, and off to hospital we went. Apart from the nerves, I help up pretty well, and the surgery was a breeze. According to my specialist, I have beautiful anatomy on the insides! That made me giggle and cheered me up.

So, here I am, two days after surgery, feeling rather fragile. I debated for a long time about telling people, and I am cautious on who I tell on the outside world. But i figure that this is a journey that is much bigger than our renovations, and I am not ashamed of having to have the surgery.

So, this is me on Tuesday (well a stimulation of me, I'm not too keen on posting my real self on the internetz)


So, lets raise our juice glass (because all i can eat for 2 weeks is liquid food) to a new beginning!


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Friday, August 7, 2009

Spotlight on a Mac - Ted


My new favourite program is Ted.

Now, if you aquire your television through your computer (of course deleting them within 24 hours) this program is for you.

ted can find episodes of any TV show. Just add your favorite shows to ted and it searches for them, and the best bit, it downloads them for you!!! So, when you leave your computer on overnight to make full advantage of the huge amount of data your ISP gives you for free, it just downloads them for you to watch in the morning.

It even comes with a list of shows you might like, but if they don't have what you want, you can make custom lists.

Beaut!
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Thursday, August 6, 2009

Laundry: Update

I was asked to swap my days around at work, and had today off instead of tomorrow (which totally ruined my plan to take today off as well as tomorrow, giving me almost three weeks of leave for the price of two)

So my plan of attack was to get into our laundry and paint it before the new dryer goes in.

Hmmm, seems I cant find a before picture on this computer, and well, I am too lazy to walk to the office to search the hard-drive, but it structurly hasnt changed, it was just plain white

we temporally put everything back in (mainly because I wanted to shower in the next couple of days before i can paint the back wall)
Just so you can see the difference in paint colours



Now, technical issue, should I paint the back wall Toffee Fingers brown, as per our loungeroom
Photobucket
Or just paint it the same colour as the other walls (Dulux's Hogs Bristle Half)?

Opinions???
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two little ducks

Picture post of my morning today

Two happy ducks looking for bugs in our (overgrown) grass


One jack russell who would not stop barking at the ducks from within his kennel

Until he chased them away


And that was the end of Benny's activeness, he soon went and curled up on a pillow in the shed, more than likely dreaming of ducks
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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

It's Tuesday and I Cant' Wait

Image from Flickr


Over the weekend, I brought a new clothes dryer from ebay. It is practically brand new, rarely been used, and was local (a rarity), and best of all, $250 cheaper than the one we had been looking at earlier in July.

So, I cant wait to have the old dryer moved out, so I can paint the inside of our laundry cupboard, and have the doors installed. I am thinking of painting it the same colour as the rest of our house, with the back wall the same colour as our lounge feature wall.

If you want to play along, check out Buttons by Lou Pin It