It feels like forever October 30, 2007

The last week has been a bit stressful to say the least but I think its fairly sorted for now! So I will try and get the whole story out – bullet points may help! – Last week we found out that Adman didn’t get the job – They gave it to someone who was a volunteer and lower qualified – he was gutted to say the least but the feedback he got was that he was too qualified blah blah blah. – the original job that Adman applied for is being re-advertised but lower qualifications are able to apply this time. – The District operations manager told Adman that if no AP’s applied and he applied then they would have to give him the job -  Anyway the position closes on 9 November so the wait continues……. this brings me to part two of the saga….. Last week after we found out about Adman’s job and it was looking likely that I would be successful in the position I applied for we decided that if I got the job we would move down and Adman would do casual work if he didn’t get the AP position.

But then……. When I got offered both jobs (more on that later!!) Adman suddenly realised that he didn’t actually want to move if he didn’t have a permanent job. Which I can kind of understand as his job means so much to him and for him its more like a calling than just a job… So after several (heated) phone discussions – as he was at a conference and I was at my Mums we decided that what we would do is that I would take the job and ask for a long start date so that if Adman didn’t get the job I could pull out before I had to give notice at my current job.  So that is the plan although I desperately hope that he gets the job as I really think now is the time for us to make the move.

And now for my job. I was offered one role working in public health as well as a new role as a Planner/Evaluator . The planner role is basically liaising with a range of internal and external stakeholders to ensure that when they develop programmes they use sound models and ensure that the programme will met funding objectives etc etc.   I was very flattered to be offered both roles  but decided that I would choose the planner role as it would be a bit more of a challenge for me.

So now the real stressful times start as we have to try and sell our home and move all before christmas….eek!!

And as a reward for reading through such a long and babbling post – here is a shot of the Young Mans new haircut…. Amazingly he had 2 inches cut off!  and yes he often sucks his fingers like that – its his little comfort thing.

got the job….. but October 26, 2007

I found out yesterday that I have been offered a very good job in our home town…. now this should mean excitment and lots of celebrations however the Adman has now decided that he doesn’t want to move unless he has a job as well but that hasn’t happened yet.

I will update more when I get home as I am at my Mums at the moment stealing someones wireless connection.

Its been a hard days night October 15, 2007

Exhibit A – why I suck  as a Mum 

Yip – as the picture shows the Young Man has been in the wars….. his new best friend has been a rubber spatula with a metal handle (all the better for banging on things you see)  but because its his new best friend he has been carrying it everywhere  he goes ……sooo on Saturday afternoon he was pulling himself up using the footstool – with spatula in hand – when he poked his eye with the spatula.  This elicitited  an outburst I had never witnessed before.  It was so horrible seeing your baby  in pain and  him not understanding what it was all about.  But of course I had a secret weapon and a quick feed on the boob made everything seem better.

Of course the Young Man has also been teething something chronic  (although we have yet to see any solid proof of teeth for his hard effort).   Last night he was up at 11pm -when I had to give him some pamol as he was obviously upset and  in teething hell,  and then at 3.30 he woke again – and no matter what I could do he wouldn’t go back to sleep in the end (because he was just awake as opposed to be in pain or uncomfortable) I just left him to cry and he finally went back to sleep at 5.30 only to be woken by the neighbours dog barking an hour later.  Its been a fun morning -not.

Exhibit B – Why no-one in our house has been getting  much sleep

Stolen from Zoot October 13, 2007

As much as I would like to post about something interesting I really don’t have the energy……. Maybe it’s to do with the sudden on-set of insomnia or perhaps because my son is teething and thinks that waking  7 times a night screaming out  is the only way to make it all better — or just maybe its the fact that I have had my period for 2 whole damn weeks and its not showing any sign of stopping….

 Anyhoo the wonderful Miss Zoot  did this meme – and since I am a book-a-holic  I thought it would be fun to do.  So the idea is that you  Bold those you’ve read,  Italicize books you have started but couldn’t finish,  add an asterisk* to those you have read more than once, and underline those on your To Be Read list.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi: A Novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveller’s Wife *****  (oh such a good book – I completely blubbered through the last chapter)
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time* -his second book – a spot of bother is very different but just as enjoyable
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes*
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood
White Teeth -  I really like Zadie Smith’s writing her book ‘autograph’ book is especially good
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

It’s a bit scary really to think of how may of the ‘classics’ I haven’t read….. But then who decides that they are classics?

I don’t tend to have a type of book that I like to read – but when I do go to the library I always make sure that I get at least one non-fiction and one book by a New Zealand writer – in an effort to expand my knowledge.  Probably my most favourite author is jostein gaarder  who wrote ‘Sophies world’ – although ’solitaire mystery’ is my favourite.

bullets October 9, 2007

My life has been so frantic lately that I have wanted ( needed to really - as posting gives me free rein to vent!!)   to post but I just haven’t had the chance to do so… until now – but I still really don’t have time as I am meant to be preparing for a presentation on Thursday and I have only just decided how I am going to do it so now I have distill about 50 pages of information down into a five minute presentation.

So oh hail the great bullet point for the ability to briefly outline what we have been up to.

• The Young man is truly crawling now and is beginning to pull himself up on furniture – we have had to install a barrier gate between the lounge and kitchen as a baby in the kitchen whilst trying to cook is not a good combo
• The Adman had a job interview yesterday for a job in our home town that he REALLY wants – it would be the perfect job for him  and I know that he would do it fantastically so hopefully the people who make the decision think so too.
• They told Adman that they would get back to him early next week so we have a whole week of putting up with the anticipation
• I have a job interview for a position in our home town on Thursday ( its what the presentation is for) initially I wasn’t too excited about it but as I have  began prepping I am beginning to think that it would be a very cool job – the only down side is that the salary range is about 10k less than I earn now.
• My BFF left for Dubai on Friday – it was not nearly as bad as I expected and already we have chats via facebook which is fun…. gee with facebook we can even have a pina coloda together
• Isn’t facebook weird – I still don’t think I use it to its full extent but its a great communication tool.
• My Mum is currently on her final week of her trip around Europe – she is currently in Rome and is heading to the Vatican today to catch up with the Pope!!  I have been getting  regular postcards from her but they have made me extremely jealous however the likelihood of us travelling to the other side of the world anytime soon is very remote
• The most devastating news of the weekend has of course been the shock loss of the All Blacks to the France in the quarter finals of the rugby world Cup – Scare Bleu!!
• and finally I went to the optometrist this morning who informed me that I have a micro aneurysm behind my right eye — although in her words its nothing to worry about unless I get more (great!!)

Well thats about all I have time for – however I do have future plans to post about the weird growth on my foot and  the fact that I seem to have lost the ability to cook any thing nice — stay tuned its all riveting stuff

I’ll cry if I want to… October 3, 2007

Its my birthday today and I have to be honest and say its been pretty sucky.  Birthdays are usually a big deal for me and I  look forward to  celebrating anyones birthday but this year its all been a bit – meh.

 The Adman has made much effort that my 28th birthday  is full of lots of fun and pressies and this morning when I woke he gave me a beautiful locket with a lock of the Young Man’s hair in it.  Its really beautiful and is something that I will treasure always.  The other great (not)  present I got was my period (which I was pleased to get as for some reason I had convinced myself that I was pregnant even though there was no way I could be)  and it wasn’t really the type of present that I enjoy.  I have got really bad cramps and all I want to do is snuggle down in bed but there is no way you can do that when you have  7 1/2 month old.

The other reasons that I am a bit bummed out today is because its only another 2 days until my bestest friend moves to Dubai.  Tradition for my birthday usually is that Steph and her family join us for a gourmet dinner cooked by the Adman and Steph supplies the most decadent chocolate cake she can find.  This year will be the last year we will be able to this and its really getting me down. 

When I first met Steph 3 years ago we just clicked.  We have so much in common and can have the type of conversations when sentences never get finished because   the other person knows what you are saying – we often get mistaken for sisters because we are so alike.   So she is leaving me – and although I know its going to be a fantastic experience for her family I can’t help but be a tad selfish and wish she wasn’t going.

Steph and I are going out for lunch today and I know that will cheer me up.  So I guess my birthday can only get better from now on in.