Day 121 - Dorothy's Beach Party

One of the many perks of being a Mum is getting to go see Dorothy the dinosaur in concert, and playing at parks, today, I got to do both. We started the morning off meeting the Morgan's for breakfast at McDonald's to let the kids have a run before the concert. I love the confinement of the Macca's playground, but this morning it was very hard to navigate with freezing wet floors where ever I needed to go with the girls. I've never tried to bend in more awkward ways than today, trying to stay dry for the Dorothy concert.

I'm sure in years to come  I will enjoy the wiggles less, but for now I love having an excuse to sing in public and see Maddie enjoying herself dancing. The concert was pretty good, although I disliked the main actress, I assume she will grow on me like ex yellow wiggle Sam did. Maddie enjoyed the concert and danced a little. She was overwhelmed in parts when there was too much talking and not enough music and had to come hide on our laps, but otherwise she did really well for the hour, well, other than crushing poor Grace with a monster hug.

Day 120 - CIRCUS!

O.K so I might have been a little excited this morning, unlike everyone I went with, it would seem, but excited, I definitely was. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside the tent, so the couple of shots that I sneakily took are fuzzy from having no flash on. The Lions were awesome, although not out for long enough and the acrobatics were a little terrifying at times. I thought that the clowns were hilarious but Maddie was terrified of them, I will be surprised if I don't have bruises tomorrow from her clenching me so tightly while she shut her eyes and buried her face. 

I think other than the animals, Maddie's favourite part was the teacup ride with Leah and Grace

Day 119 - My First Weekend Off

For my first weekend that I am not working I thought we would fix the paver's. Unfortunately I got sick last night and stayed in bed until after one this afternoon. With Gail's help we managed to pull all of the paver's up this afternoon ready for digging out the old sand and road base. Looks like we will need to get a mini digger in again, I think Nathan is excited as he enjoyed it last time. The picture has the Kelly's wheelbarrow in it, they borrowed ours about a year ago and today they had it full so we borrowed theirs.

Day 118 - Project April Started, Injury

Today I started to paint the lounge room, nothing like leaving things to the last minute. Maddie was pretty excited by the rearranged furniture and decided to turn her ball pit into a jumping castle. I had hoped to do a lot more work tonight but cold chills and a sore back tell me I've overdone it. I just hope its not my disc, as I used to get chills when it was bad.

Day 117 - Fuzzy Pictures

All of the photos that I took today have turned out fuzzy. That's so frustrating! We had a busy day with kinder gym, Gail arriving, shopping and dinner but Maddie was super well behaved all day. Turns out I'm too soft, as when we went shopping Maddie took home this Dorothy toy, which she really didn't need, but really didn't want to put down

Day 116 - My Last Day

Today was my last day as Manager of Sandler at the DFO. Considering I only agreed to stay until the end of January I guess its been a fairly long while coming, but it still seemed to creep up on me. After putting in so much effort first, setting up and opening the store, then keeping it trading with some truly fantastic team members, (and some others that taught me some interesting lessons) then coming back after maternity leave with PND and  regaining the confidence from knowing that I was doing something well, I have to say handing the reigns over to Nessa was hard. With a few lovely emails, customers, phone calls and flowers there were a few tears shed today. I do have to say I am so glad that today is over, and it is nice at this stage knowing that I have some time off.

I counted my shoes tonight expecting to have about 80 pairs, and I have to say that I am disappointed that I only have 67 pairs. So with that in mind, and my first Internet purchase a success, its time to hit the web and find another 13 pairs!

Day 115 - The Cold Weather Hits

Maddie and I spent close to an hour rugged up outside this morning playing and tidying up the shed for Gail who arrives Thursday. After we came inside, and stripped a very dirty little girl down, she ran away before she could be redressed and went and climbed into our bed to watch the wiggles on the iPad. After a good half hour rest, snuggled in a warm bed she got up, had some lunch and then went to sleep for 3 hours and 20 minutes. That must be a new record for a day sleep in this house. It must be the horrible cold weather that has arrived much too soon.

Day 114 - Visitors and Cuddles

This mornings weather was not walking friendly so Leah, Cass, Grace, Hunter and baby Mackenzie dropped in for a play. The kids played well despite being tired, although Maddie was a little rougher than usual. Poor Hunter had Maddie sit on his lap when she decided to walk backwards to sit on her couch and landed on Hunter. Still makes me laugh.

Day 113 - Shoes By Kellie

Maddie's foot has gotten big enough to wear her first pair of shoes by Kellie. Aren't they awesome!

Day 112 - Nudie Greetings

With Maddie still unwell Nathan took today off work to look after Maddie while I worked my last Saturday shift. Turns out today, while I was out working and subsequently missing out Maddie learnt how to get her bodysuit off.. She seemed pretty pleased to be running around with only a nappy on.
With us all not sleeping for the past three nights we are all super tired. Nathan zonked out in the chair just after 8, ruining my movie!! Maddie has already needed us to go into her twice and it's only a bit after 10, poor girl.

Day 111 - Sorting

A day late, and not an exciting photo, I finally remembered to do my blog. Maddie is unwell at the moment with a virus and I suspect teeth as well, so she is very miserable and not sleeping. This morning while Maddie was in reasonably high spirits we sorted out her room. These 5 containers are filled with size 2 clothes that Maddie has been given, either as gifts or from Elsie. Needless to say, when Maddie's room changes to the study, she will be getting a bigger wardrobe with more draws.

Day 110 - Shopping Fun

Maddie didn't sleep much last night, despite coming to bed with us at dark o'clock. At about 1.15 she thought it would be fun to body slam me, I was not impressed! I think she settled at about 3 but woke again at 630 for the day. Needless to say she was tired and cranky this morning so we went into Bunnings. Maddie loved pushing the trolley around and had quite a laugh pushing it along smashing into the shelving. Unfortunately Maddie came down with a temp this afternoon and has been a very unhappy girl so I didn't get to use the 2 big tubs I purchased to sort out some things before the extension starts.

Day 109 - An Unwanted Pet

This lovely spider has been hanging out above the kumquat tree for a couple of months now catching bugs and expanding the web. It's taken me days to get a photo of it that you could see some of the colour on its legs and body and while this photo shows some of it, it just doesn't do it justice.

Day 108 - An Odd Site

While shopping up at IGA this afternoon I let Maddie push around our basket. Only half paying attention while I was grabbing things Maddie got my attention very quickly when she started barking. Turns out down the isle we were about to walk down there was a lady with a dog.. I have to say seeing this really put me off buying groceries from there, especially when it was a little pug that growled and barked at us. I contemplated saying something but the lady walked up behind me at the counter.. Turns out the little dog is a companion dog and you should never be judgemental.

Day 107 - New Shoes

I am feeling very spoilt and excited today. Not only did my new shoes arrive from America, but I was able to still use my shoe allowance despite that fact that I am leaving, so I grabbed a new pair of heels and a cute pair of sensible flats. I had to get the flats as they are called Perry and once I tried the natural coloured heels on I had to have them, so comfortable. Only 4 shifts to go, I wonder how many more pairs I can buy in that time.

Day 106 - In Over My Head

Yesterday I looked at the lounge room to see what kind of work I have ahead. To say I am out of my league is an understatement. Figuring I put a lot of time and effort into the laundry of all
Rooms, getting it perfect before damaging it twice, I think the lounge room should be even better. The picture is of the ceiling, where the past owners have obviously done some terrible patch job.

Day 105 - Evolution Of The Sock

Another photo taken at the last minute as I realise I haven't done one for today. Maddie's attachment to her socks has expanded recently to include one on one or both her hands as well as one over her eyes to sleep. At least it means she doesn't lose one overnight and they are replaceable, but it really is an odd habit to be in. PJ's by Grandma, this years Easter present instead of chocolate, which I think is a great idea.

Day 104 - My Exciting Day

Today was a fantastic day even though I was still running around trying to do too much in one day.
The definite highlights were this afternoon when we popped up to see Cass Stephens new baby Mackenzie and we were lucky enough to catch Julia's baby Freda also.
It was also very exciting to get the first of the preliminary plans for the extension. I love the idea of the window seat in our room!!
Maddie still loves her socks but now when she is tired she likes to out them on her hands and only on her eyes to sleep. She is a strange one!

Day 103 - A Nice Visitor

This week has been unbelievably busy for Maddie and I and we don't seem to have achieved much at all because of it. This morning we had a lovely quiet morning with a visit from my Auntie, who is also one of Maddie's God mothers. Auntie Dianne is a maternal health nurse now, and is great at putting any nerves I have at ease. She also got accepted very quickly by Maddie, who spent almost the entire visit sitting next to her.

with only 4 minutes to spare I'm getting my blog in just in time as Amy just reminded me. I should be able to hit the sack in about half an hour! It seems that other than dinner I haven't really stopped this afternoon / night.

Day 102 - An Important Work Day

Penny, my boss is visiting today for a sign off store visit and I must be nervous as I not convinced that I slept last night. Either that or the mocha I had was super laden with coffee. Definately very tired today as Maddie woke up earlier than usual at 530! And I was still awake at 340.

Day 101 - A Clever Girl

This morning Maddie decided she needed to have shoes on right now, and as I was in the shower she had to do it herself. Once she was done she came into the doorway lifted one foot at a time turned around, shut the door and ran away. The shoes are on the correct feet, and a pair, I'm impressed

Day 100 - Home

After what seemed like the longest trip home in our history today we finally made it home to freezing horrible weather. Part of the way home we were stuck behind this police car, whose driver had their own rules particularly in relation to indicating.. The driver didn't use them once!
I can not believe that this is the only photo I have taken today!

Day 99 - Easter Sunday

Today was a very lazy day for us, I have had a belly ache all day, without eating chocolate so aside from going into town for the parade we have had a quiet day at the house. When, as Nathan would say, I finally got up, I set up an egg hunt for Maddie.. She didn't quite grasp looking for eggs before wanting to eat every single one.
The parade was great I loved this Hogwart's express train and the wizard of oz one was great too! The last photo was taken from the bathroom shower as Maddie had a shower, I wish it better showed the colours in the sky.

Day 98 - Mogo Zoo

Today we visited Mogo Zoo with the Morgans. The park was pretty good, especially the monkey island with the cute little baby on it. I did think that the zoo was heavy on monkeys, especially the really little ones but it was definitely worth a look. The Meerkats were so cute and as always my favourite, although I have to admit the crazy otters were pretty cute too. We are all exhausted tonight, I think I can hear Nathan asleep on the couch already and it's only 8pm.

Day 97 - A Day At The Coast

Today we spent the day relaxing at the coast. Maddie has recently started to really enjoy quiet time on the bed playing with her animal sounds app so we all rested in the morning. We met the Morgan's for lunch at the beach hut at Mollymook then took the girls down to the Beach. Maddie had a great time swimming, running around and falling into the water and pretending to swim.

Day 96 - Easter Coast Trip

Nathan, Maddie and I headed to the coast today for a few days of rest and relaxation. When we finally arrived Nathan very quickly lay down on the couch and despite my best efforts I couldn't keep him awake or Maddie quiet so we went for a walk. I thought I would see how Maddie does walking instead of getting the trike out and she initially went the wrong way, thinking running down the hill near the water would be much better. As we picked up a dog on our walk I shortened the walk, so maybe Maddie was right, we should have just played out the back.

Day 95 - A Big Scare

This is what greeted me when I turned the PC on about 15 minutes ago. Needless to say I will be spending a lot of tonight backing up my photos and this old thing will be retired next week! Definitely the push Nathan has been waiting on.

Day 94 - Easter Parcels

Today when I pulled into the driveway I noticed that the gates closure wasn't sitting properly, which meant that someone had been through it. For some reason this always creeps me out, even though logically I know that it is silly. As I am waiting on a couple of prints to be delivered I suspected that they had finally come, but instead it was an Easter Parcel for Maddie from Nanna. I have decided that Maddie is way too spoilt, getting 2 Easter presents yesterday and another 3 today.

Day 93 - Shopping Online

As a manager of a shoe shop, I am forever hoping that customers wont shop on line, as when they do, and they will all, eventually shops wont be needed. I hate shopping, but have no problem finding shoes to add to my collection while I am at work, after all, if I know more about them they are easier to sell. Today I purchased my first pair of shoes on line, and from America at that. I am very nervous about the sizing but I did my research and I am hopeful that I am correct with these ones. With prices ranging from $34-$154 I was pretty pleased to get them for $65 including freight. I already have 3 pairs of glittery shoes, in my 74 pair collection, but not one pair are purple. I cant wait for them to arrive!

Day 92 - My Next Project

Another month beginning and a new project underway. I have decided to tackle the least scary, while seemingly huge project of the lounge room. As much as I have tried to talk Nathan into removing the wooden panels on the wall I can't convince him that it's a good idea so I'm going to try paint them when I do the rest of the room. The archway Nathan squared off for me just needs finishing off so thankfully that should be easy enough.. With work finishing up on ANZAC day I'm hoping to finish the lounge by the end of the month