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!!

finally April 23, 2008

After a week of to-ing and fro-ing we have finally come to an agreement over a revised price for the land.  YAY  now the fun starts!!  planning our dream house and building it!! scary!

 

 I have been addicted to googling  strange things again…. today’s latest one was “is 14 months too young to do forward rolls?”  Yep that’s right the Young Man is now successfully doing forward rolls ( or rolly polys as we call them in NZ – do they get called that any where else?)  He thinks its the most funniest thing and if I hadn’t packed the video camera away in one of the  several thousand boxes being stored in my Mum’s garage I would have recorded it for prosperity and attempted to post it up here ( that would be a full learning experience in itself).

Other googling  that has taken place has included searching for venison recipes that include beer (long story but the Adman was very pleased with himself for catching a wild deer and decided that he wanted to cook it in beer – who know why!?) remarkably there were several recipes and the one we ended up using was a success!!

 

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

Our land March 26, 2008

Well its official we own the land we were after…   stage two ofliving our dream complete

Sold March 18, 2008

Well it’s official – we are now debt and mortgage free – but not for long.  We have found a piece of land we like and will be putting an offer on it later this week.  I am feeling a bit nervous about and worried that building our house will be very stressful… but as a friend said this morning we just need to remind ourselves how lucky we are to be living out our dream.  Not many people can say that they are doing pretty much exactly what they would be to be doing!.

I will try and get some pictures of the land this weekend and post them.  It’s a really nice site and has some wonderful views.  I can already imagine our kids playing on the lawn and running around – just how we have always planned it.

family March 12, 2008

Something I haven’t written about much is my family.  I actually have an older brother who lives in the same town as we do now.   When we were kids we were as good as friends as a brother and sister can be.  Sure there were times when he would try and suffocate me with a pillow and there were times when I would hit him over the head with my cabbage patch kid – but mostly we got on well.

When my Dad died it was hard on us all but I think my brother didn’t really deal with it.  About two months after dad died my brother (who was 18 at the time) moved out and slowly distanced himself from us.  Since that time  he hasn’t had anything to do with us.  Its been hard and has broken my Mums heart but its something that I have dealt with. 

Since we moved back home had I hoped that perhaps we could have enough of a relationship that at least our kids could get to know each other.  Today was his daughters 5th birthday  so the Adman and I went out with the Young man to drop of her present.  I was nervous as we headed out there as I wasn’t sure what the reception would be and if my brother would even let us inside ( its that bad - in fact once he literally through my Mum out of his house when she went to drop off his 21st present).  When we arrived my brother wasn’t there and his wife was on the phone so I just went inside with the Young man and started talking to my Niece about her first day at school and helped her open her present ( also this was only the second time I had ever met her so she didn’t really have any idea who I was so I tried to explain that I was her aunt).  Once my brothers wife got off the phone she didn’t even look at me.  So after a few more minutes I told my Niece that we were going and told her to say hi to her dad. 

As we left my brothers wife came out and asked us not to come back.  I asked her why  and tried to say that I thought it would be nice for the Young man and their daughter to know each other.  She started going on about how I don’t know what has happened and I just have to leave them alone.  This got me really mad as she didn’t know my brother when my dad died and she definitely doesn’t know what happened during that time.  Sure she might  know what my brother has told her  – but its far from the true story because the true story is that nothing happened apart from the fact that our father died and he didn’t deal with it.

Luckily the Adman just bundled us into the car and drove us away.  I was so mad and so upset.   How could someone deny their child love – a relationship with their cousin and Aunt?

As Adman said they have poisoned themselves to believe their version of truth and there isn’t anything we can do about it.  I want to write more about this but I am still so upset about it.

I guess I just have to come to terms with the fact that there will be no type of contact with my brother and his family  ever – well unless he needs a kidney of course – maybe then he would contact us.

Bitterness is such as horrible thing to live with and I hate to think how his life must be having to deal with it everyday. 

Maybe one day my niece will be old enough to start asking questions and being able to make her own decisions.  Until then we will keep on loving her – she just won’t know about it.

sucky day March 10, 2008

All I can say is that I have had better days…. five hour meetings, getting my period and have a splitting headache do not make a happy me.

 Roll on tomorrow.

You have got to be kidding… March 7, 2008

This week has been one of those weeks  when all the routines I thought we had in place have gone out the window.

Monday morning saw the Young Man waking as  usual at around 6.30 am.   Off he popped to care at 8 am and I went to work.  When I picked him up at 4.30 Diane told me that he had only had one  sleep so was a tad tired.  By the time dinner time came around he had hit the wall and was in the horrible stage when he wants a cuddle but doesn’t want to be held… where he wants to sit on your knee but wants to play with his toys – all the time while crying.  That night we put him to bed at 6.15 and he went straight to sleep.  The next morning he didn’t wake until 7am.  I can’t tell you how excited Adman and I were about this.   That day at care he had a great day and had his usual two sleeps.  But then came night time… he went to bed at 6.30 as usual and seemed content. Half an hour later he was crying and banging the sides of his cot (a sure sign he is uber grumpy).  Adman went in and settled him and he finally went to sleep at around 7.30.   The next morning he woke at 5am and would not go back to sleep.  At 5.30 I gave in and got up and gave him his bottle with the hope that he would settle back down but uh ah – no way.   So up we got and spent an extra hour of playing  (which was kind of nice really -despite his tiredness). That day at care he only had one hours sleep…. and it continues – a vicious cycle where lack of sleep creates a grumpy baby and the grumpy baby is so over tired he doesn’t want to sleep.  This morning when he woke at 5.30 I just rolled over to the Adman and sighed and said “You have got to be kidding”.   Luckily he was settled enough and was happy playing with his toys until 6am…. and of course  he only had one sleep today  at care.

I never realised it but sleep really is a cyclical thing.  When he has a good nights sleep he has 2 decent sleeps during the day.  When he doesn’t  sleep well at night ( or have his full 12 hours) his regular day sleeps go out the window.   I know that soon he will only need one sleep a day, but at the moment  he still needs his two sleeps and when he doesn’t have them everyone hears about it.

 In much more exciting news we think we may have found a piece of land to buy and build our ‘homestead’ on.  It is half an hectare and is about 15 minutes out of town.   We have decided that once we settle on our property next weekend we will make an offer on it and see how we can.  We will have to offer less than the asking price as we need all the funds we can get to actually build on.  Its an exciting time but very  nerve racking at the same time.

Six things I have forgotten to talk about… March 1, 2008

1. We have sold our house – we ended up selling it for a lot less than we wanted but its sold and now it means  we can move to the next stage – buying  a section and building  a house.  In two weeks time we will be debt free for the first time in our relationship.   Although we didn’t get as much as we wanted we  have ended up with enough to pay off our car loans and also pay back my Mum the money she lent up for our deposit when we brought our house.  Although it means  our deposit won’t be as big as we hoped it does mean that  our next mortgage will be our only debt.
2.  Although I haven’t officially made the decision to flag the charity bike ride I haven’t been able to train for the last two weeks so it kind of means that I am running out of time.  First of all my bikes gears gave up the ghost.  Of course it took over a week to get fixed and in the meantime I have done something to my hip which means if I try to rotate it I am in extreme pain.  My chiro is slowly making it better but biking is just out of the question.
3. Up until Tuesday of this week we hadn’t had any decent rain since late December.  Since Tuesday we have had constant rain.  Its been a g*d send as it means relief for  the garden as we were having water restrictions which meant I wasn’t able to water it so my lettuces, capsicums and  beetroot were beginning to gasp.
4. The Young Man has really taken a step up with his eating lately.  Now he wants to try and use a fork or spoon and his taste buds seem to be ever expanding.   The other night a gave him an olive  to see what he would do – well he scoffed it down and put out his hand for more.  Tonight he had homemade chicken fried rice and he ate probably about a cup of it – followed up with jelly and icecream for a special Saturday night treat.
5. The Adman is away this weekend  working.  I used to dread weekends when he would have to work out of the area but now that we are back home its  not a problem.    My Mum is here and she helps out so much and makes  all of our lives so much easier.  This morning  she even got up to the Young Man  and let me have a sleep in to 8am – bliss!
6. As a way to celebrate  selling our house  I am planning a night away for the Adman and my self.   We have never had a night of luxury before so I am planning a flash hotel and  some spa treatments for us as well as dinner at a very acclaimed restaurant.  Of course the Adman is working for the next 3 weekends so it won’t be happening for a while but it will happen.