In one word…. May 9, 2008

I can describe my life at the moment….

BUSY.

My life is nonstop from the time I wake until the time I finally fall into bed.  And when I finally do get to sleep all I dream/think about is work.  I know that I am balancing on the point of just coping…  just a little push will see me toppling over into a mess of un-coping -ness. 

The Adman has been away duck shooting this week so I have had to do all the normal stuff as well as deal with laywers, real estate agents and banks.  Tonight I can rest safely knowing that until Monday there isn’t anything I need to do that’s  new land/ building related.  Once Monday comes around it will all be back on.  Oh well at least I will have two days of relaxation… oh wait I have a fifteen month old so relaxation doesn’t exist!!

Home Alone April 17, 2008

For the first time since we moved in with my Mum I am home alone with the Young Man.  My mum is in Dunedin at a Conference and Adman is away working.  Its going to be just me and the boy until Sunday. 

I have been spoilt over the last few months as I had forgotten what it was like to do the dinner – bed shift with the Young Man by your self.  Luckily he was in a fairly good mood so it wasn’t too bad.

I had plans that once the Young Man went to bed I would have some tea and then get on my newly hired exercycle for half an hour or so.  That was until I opened the fridge and saw that Adman had made me some nibbles ( carrots and celery and dip) and I spied some cadbury’s fruit and nut choc at the back as well.  For about 1/4 of a second I thought well I could eat that stuff and then ride the bike.  But the little devil on my left shoulder who I seem to listen to far too much told me there would be no point and I should just enjoy my night and do the biking tomorrow.   So that is now the plan.

In much more exciting news there are now 4 women at work who are pregnant.  I am worried that there must be something in the water and I hope that I am not number five!!  As much as we would like to have more children its just not something we can consider at the moment.  And I also have this thing where I only want one child at a time in nappies.  At the moment our plan for child numero deux is waiting  until the Young Man is about 2 1/2 before we start trying.  Of course if something happened before that we would deal with it and be happy.    As much as we like to think that we can plan these things sometimes you just never know.

TGIF April 11, 2008

Life seems to have been getting on top of me lately.   The last two weeks have sped by in the blink of an eye.   Although the purchase of our land is going through several problems have arisen around it.  Basically due to the unstable nature of the land ( which we were assured wasn’t the case) and the size of the power cables needed to be upgraded (despite what we were told – see the theme here?) we are looking at having to spend about another 30 grand than we expected  before we can even start building.    So basically now we are going back to the vendors and saying that they have misrepresented what they sold us and they need to drop the price significantly.  Its a rough time  as there may come a point where we will have to walk away from it…. Now that will be a hard thing to do as it basically meets all our criteria for what we wanted… close to town, close to the beach, no neighbours, water that attracts ducks… pretty much everything we want.  Adman and I try and live my the adage that what will be will be and we just have to let it  happen and the right  thing will happen.

On top of all the land issues I have also had a huge week at work – luckily Adman has been working from home as I have only been able to pick up the Young man  once this week.  I hate having to work late  and I hate not being able to pick the boy up and seeing his happy face.   It won’t be forever  but in the meantime its pretty crappy.  

Bring on the weekend I say

On the phone February 28, 2008

Out of the eight hours I spent at work today I spent 5 of them on the phone .  The worst part was that for three of those hours I was on the phone to my boss who works in an office downstairs.  We are currently working on implementing a new IT system for project planning.   The best way to work out all the kinks was for both of us to sit at our computers and talk through the changes that were needed.

 Those three hours have given me a great insight into IT geeks.  It took us three hours to work out how we wanted it to look – goodness knows how long it will take  for them to actually make the changes.

Today was one of those days where I felt like I was just treading water.  I went from one meeting to the next with no time to consider what had been discussed or even to review what the next meeting was about.  I  am beginning to enjoy my new job and I even think that I might be doing okay at it.  But its days like this that sometimes I wish that I would be happy to be a stay at home mum ( oh and also being able to afford to be!).

Today was also the first day that I had to work late.  Luckily Adman was able to pick up the Young Man from Care but by the time I got home it was bath time and then bed.   I feel cheated out of quality time with him.  No time to play with him and his blocks, no time to chase him around the house.  At least we got to brush our teeth together.

Do you know the answer to…. January 29, 2008

My reliance on google has reached massive proportions.  In fact on Saturday night when Adman and I couldn’t remember the name of a friends sister we actually googled her last name and  the word lawyer (since we knew she had just graduated as lawyer) and guess what we found out her name and that annoying  feeling – of a name being on the tip of your tongue but not being able to remember it- was gone.  

During the last week I have also been tempted  to google the following….

‘how do I get my 11 month old to stop pooing every time he goes to sleep?’

‘what gastronomic delight can I make with 1/2 kilo of mince and 2 carrots in 15 minutes?’

‘how do you stop a dog from snoring?’

‘full words to ice ice baby -Vanilla Ice’

My life is full of unanswered questions.  

Yesterday was the Adman’s 30th birthday – all day we were teasing him about getting old and beginning to fall apart from old age.  This morning he woke a ‘pain in his neck’  which has meant he has become one in mine.  He can hardly move and of course he thinks that taking pain relief is for wimps and he will just grin and bear it.  Its the little cries of pain every time he moves that get me. So after a full 8 hours at work I have come home to a grumpy  tired baby and a husband who needs constant  back and neck rubs and his wheat bag heated up every 20 minutes or so.   I guess this is my come-uppance for teasing him about getting old.  One day he is a healthy 29 year old and now  two days later he’s a thirty year old acting like a 80 year old  who needs full time care.

Back to the Grindstone January 9, 2008

Today was my first day working at my new job.   I went through  thinking ‘what the hell am I doing?’  about halfway through this morning to thinking this afternoon that everything was good and I was really going to enjoy it.  By the time 4.30 came around I was tired, had sore eyes from reading all day, and all I wanted to do was go and pick up my  little boy.  Which is exactly what I did.  And he was glad to see me.  He had had a lovely  day with his carer  playing in the sand pit and  hanging out with the other two children. 

He was a tired wee chap though and was well  and truly ready for bed  by 6.30.  So off to bed  he went with a smile on his face and his fluffy blanket in hand.

Since he was about 2 months old the Young Man has sucked his two fingers on his left hand.  It has been a godsend as unlike with a dummy if he wakes up he can just shove his fingers back in his mouth and off he goes back to sleep.

When he was about 8 months old we were given a purple and blue mohair blanket that he took an instant liking to.  At night when he is put to bed he snuggles up to it and pulls the fluff off and rubs it on his face.   When we moved house we found balls and balls of fluff under his cot, that he had discarded.  Often when he wakes he has fluff on the two fingers that he sucks so I hate to think how much wool he must ingest.

I believe that every child needs a ’security blanket’.  I am just glad that the Young Man has chosen  a woolen blanket as opposed to my girlfriend’s little girl who had become attached to one of her bras!

‘Get away from the blanket’

Surf and sand January 4, 2008

Since we moved home one of the things we have been wanting to do was take the Young Man to beach.  Finally today we were able to.   My Mum finished work early so we headed over the hill to the beach and while my mum watched the Young Man, the Adman and I had a swim.   The water was fairly warm although Adman took a while to  acclimatise and was not impressed when I splashed him and pushed him into the water.

The swim was also a good opportunity to try out my new swimmers.   Just floating around they manged to cover all the bits they were meant to however when jumping through the waves  their containment skills where severely lacking  -at least twice the surfers near by got a view they weren’t bargaining on!

Going for a swim was just the what the doctor ordered.   Afterwards both the Adman and I felt much more relaxed and  positive.   This weekend is the last few days of our holiday as Adman goes back to work on Monday and I start my new job on Wednesday.  The weather had been perfect – if a little too hot at night.  But reality hits again next week and  its back to the grindstone.

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.