Day 366 - The Ending of Another Year

 

"So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

 

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong

And so happy Christmas

For black and for white.
For yellow and red ones.
Let's stop all the fight.
A very merry Christmas.
And a happy New Year.
Let's hope it's a good one.
Without any fear."
 

 

I get this song in my head at this time of the year every year, and it is such a sad song but it sticks for days! Before Maddie there was a time that I did wonder what I had done in the year, and I suppose I could do more now, like go back to Uni and finish a degree in something that I want to be when I grow up, but I don't know what to study. Maybe my new years resolution should be to decide what I am going to do when Maddie goes to school. For now, I have an amazing Fiancee, and a beautiful growing daughter, as well as a great family and wonderful friends. The year has had its challenges, but they have been far outweighed by the many wonderful times and memories that we have created. Looking back this blog is so full of things that in years to come, I will enjoy sitting down to read and remember. It has been a challenge, and there are times that I have gotten so far behind that it has been hard to catch back up, but Ive done it, a photo a day, every day for the whole year and a short or long note to accompany each one. Definitely something that I am proud of. Time to sign off for 2012, edit then send it all off to be printed. I guess I had better start setting up a new blog for 2013.

 

Day 365 - Little Steps

 

I found these awesome bars in Masters last time I was there and finally convinced Nathan that they would work in the wardrobe. I love the look of them, and I love the double level hanging, although now I want matching hangers and the rest of the cupboard finished so I can finish bringing Maddie's things in. I really need to get back to work on emptying out this room so that I can paint it and we can move Maddie in.

Day 364 - Little Baby Memories

 

Sleeping this way looks so uncomfortable to me, but Maddie has done it since she was a baby. She doesn't often sleep like this anymore so its a nice surprise when I go in and she is like this, it reminds me of when she was tiny.

Day 363 - Magniolia Troubles

 

Magnolia's were a bad idea I think, while they look pretty they appear to be quite needy plants. Today we went out to Rodney's to get a replacement for the one of ours that has died. Gosh it was warm out even at 11 am, and Rodney's was totally packed so after we got our plant we went to a cafe in Fyshwick for an early lunch and a drink.

 

Celestino's Cafe in Fyshwick is lovely, although their iced tea comes out boiling hot in a tea pot with a tall glass of ice. I ordered the steak sandwich which looked awesome but it turns out that I am still not ready to eat so it mostly went to waste. Other than the iced tea which I will not order there again the food was pretty good. Maddie's Zucchini balls were my pic of the menu and if we go back that's what I will be ordering for me.

Day 362 - Relaxing

 

Taking a clear photo of something reflective is a challenge on your phone, maybe next year I should do some photography courses and use my phone less. Today I spent way too much of the day in bed reading books on the Nexus. Oh how I love days like this.

Day 361 - Not Moving

 

I think Maddie is a bit worn out after yesterday, it was only mid morning when I snapped her on the couch like this. I love the sock on the hand, such a funny little girl we have.

Day 360 - Christmas Day

It's finally Christmas day, the one day all year that I look forward to, and having Maddie makes it so much cooler. Maddie got up at a reasonable hour and strolled on out to look at what Santa had left. I don't know why Santa even visited, or why we got her anything else. As you can see all Maddie wanted to play with was her new truck and train set by 'Little Tykes'. This is the one present I wasn't sure about, especially after Nathan assembled it and discovered the top part of the hill doesn't go on well. I will have to email them and see if they have any suggestions as it looks like this toy is a winner.

Eventually Maddie opened another present, but it was reluctantly, and it was actually a doll from Santa, she was impressed. Then Amy came in, Drew popped in and then Dad, Yan and Jackie popped over to say Hello. Maddie was super impressed with the dinosaurs she got off Dad, as am I, they really are awesome, I can't believe that they talk to each other, they will provide hours of entertainment for me. She also adores her white dress that Drew got her, even if it is meant for next year she still insisted on wearing it and having a dance in it. Looks like Mr Potato Head was a winner too, Amy, Maddie and Dad played with him for ages.


Off to Mum's for presents before Adams for lunch. I am not impressed that I still cant eat properly, the food was awesome and my eyes were way bigger than my unsteady belly. Maddie stole every ones Christmas hats and played with my cousin Nathan for ages before going to Auntie Cathy for a quieter play. Maddie was pretty impressed with this years Christmas dress made by Mum, when she is older I will change them all into a quilt I think. Maddie passed out pretty quickly on the way home and foolishly I let her sleep. She woke up at her bed time for some dinner and then was still awake at 11pm, I wont make that mistake again. The rule never wake a sleeping baby is a LIE!! Or is it that Maddie is no longer a baby.






Merry Christmas everyone

Day 359 - Exhausted, Sick and Pleased

 

We did it, can you believe it? I can't! So it turns out that being stubborn achieves not only a sub floor being complete and certified but a cranky Nathan too. He did tell me at no stage of this did he want to be rushing the work as he wanted to enjoy the process. Well at no point this weekend did he enjoy the extension process. This morning we were out in the yard at 6.30am, Yes 6.30, I was up THAT early, and we started lining up what we could to start hammering at 7.

 

At 8.30 we had maybe 6 joists down and it wasn't looking good so I called council to see if we could have the last appointment for certifying or cancel the appointment. Amazingly not only did they change their appointments to come later, they actually came after appointments finished which probably meant that the lady finished late on Christmas eve. How nice is that! Amazingly we finished and packed up the tools with about 2 minutes to spare before the certifier arrived. It took her about 10 minutes to check the ant caps were on which are actually built into the Uni-piers, that the spaces between the piers were OK and that it all looked OK. She seemed a little puzzled that we actually went with bigger bits of wood but that was the only note taken, then it was a quick tick and sign and we are OK to proceed with the next steps. Check out the sunburn I got while working like a crazy woman trying to get it all done.

Thank you Dad, Amy and Simon for helping us to get it done in time. We couldn't have done it without your help.
 

 

 

So Christmas Eve is here, and we have been so sick and busy that it feels like it is here all of a sudden. Talking to Maddie about it this year has been awesome, we asked her what Santa would bring and she told us a doll and then asked if he was going to knock on the door. I said yes, and before I could get out that it was while she was asleep Maddie was at the door knocking saying Santa was bringing her a doll. Bed time went pretty well tonight, Maddie put on her special Christmas Pj's and sat by the tree for a photo then knocked on the door again and told Santa to come before she went to bed and actually went straight to sleep. I cant wait to see the look on her face in the morning when she sees all of her presents from us and Santa.

 

Day 358 - Not Looking Good

 

At what point do I admit defeat and submit to the powers that be that are saying that the sub floor isn't supposed to be ready for Monday's appointment? Nathan is still sick so he has been unable to work, I am still sick, but while Maddie was asleep I got outside and nailed everything in that was lined up so something was done, but that only totalled about 7 rows and was achieved mostly with Amy's help.

 

Its hot, have I mentioned that its hot? I waited until it had cooled down a bit and asked Dad to pop in to help me get some things done. My gosh he is a machine three bangs and the nail is in, and straight!! SHOWOFF! Nathan came out to help while Dad was here and they got the ledger in and some more of the joists done before they were hit with a hail storm. Hail!! OMG bugger off, could this be any more frustrating. Dad tried to wait it out but the storm hung around so he went home after getting the whole of the master bedroom complete and part of the spare room.

Neither Nathan or I replied to texts as we were dying so the lovely slave Mr Morgan popped in to see if he could help so out I went again. Simon helped get the spare room done and the trusses ready for the deck, we marked out the edges of the deck and discovered the ledger was crooked all between crazy downpours of rain that we could here coming. Sunday night and the outside joists and the deck joists still need to be installed. I guess we will be calling council to cancel, now that is hard to say!

 

Thank you Slave Army

Day 357 - Fearless Slave

 

Poor Simon, he didn't sign on for being part of our slave army with the extension but it does look like that is what he is becoming. He is up on the roof moving our aerial today, and was nice enough to run all new cables through the house, which meant crawling around in the dirt and cobwebs under the house. Thank you Simon.

We had planned to get a bit of the sub floor done tonight but I got taken out by gastro at about 4pm and had to get Amy to take me to the hospital at 11 as I just couldn't stop throwing up, and as Nathan came down unwell again one of us had to look after Maddie who was being kept awake by my noisy spewing up of bile. We had better get well quickly, Council is coming to certify on Monday morning and we have already lost time having to get longer joists as the ones supplied for the little room are just the tiniest bit too short.

Day 356 - I Am Impressed

 

Nathan's Christmas Countdown is getting hard, not only to find the time to make the card, shop for the gift and come up with something to say, but mostly because I am running out of idea's for the card making themselves. I was pretty Impressed with how this one worked out though, I just hope that he isn't over all the chocolate that he is getting at the moment.

Day 355 - Because Yesterday's Wasn't Enough

 

More wood, it's unbelievable that we need this much just for two rooms and a little deck! Today I went and ordered this while Maddie stayed and played with Leah and Grace. Thank you Leah, it would have been awful having Maddie there!!

Ordering this wood made me realise that Nathan can really not be trusted with a tape measure as his measurements were about 1.5m off and when the man at Pinus was telling me how much I was getting I seriously had to think and say wait that's not right! Turns out I am no better as I ordered the wrong sized joists, which meant that Nathan and Drew had to load them onto the Ute and go swap them over.

The delivery of this part was a disaster with the wrong delivery unloaded first, which sucked as the poor man was kind enough to carry it all by hand to behind the gates for me. Then once we got it down I had about half an hour to get it all out of the way before the school kids finished. I don't think Drew and Nathan appreciated me jamming the wood under my car when I ran out of steam and time to put it right down the back. I had two more trips to go when a kid came racing down on his BMX and nearly hit them. I could have killed him for being such a little punk. I think I may be a little tired and sore tonight and tomorrow.

 

Day 354 - Delivery

All of the flooring, frames and trusses were delivered today for the extension, it is a lot of wood! It took Nathan and Drew about three hours to move it all in from ours and the neighbours driveways in more than 30 degree heat. I am a little shocked by just how much wood there actually is involved in it all. Even after moving it all and going back to work for the afternoon, Nathan came home and with Amy's help they put the house bearers in place this afternoon.

Day 353 - Final Christmas Craft

Other than planning that the kids would paint and make pizza muffins I didn't put any more thought into today's activities. Hugh and Maddie seemed to really enjoy topping their Muffins with all of the things that we had prepared, Grace on the other hand kept hers fairly simple and not over topped. Not surprisingly, she was the only one to actually eat hers, as it wasn't a crazy mix of everything on offer.

Leah painted some tree outlines on some of the cardboard the fabulous Claire got for us from her work and the kids had a great time painting on them. I just wish Maddie didn't need to always add to Hugh's art work. That daughter of mine is just obsessed with painting, and managed to get a paint brush out of the sink that was soaking in water to repaint some of her picture and the wall once we had stuck it up inside.

Day 352 - Wonderful Day

Today was an awesome day, with a night that seemed like it was all about me, as I was feeling a little sad that so many people had forgotten my birthday. Nathan and the Morgan's took me out to the Mawson Club for dinner and then we went looking at Christmas lights. Before that had even started though, Maddie made my day when we went grocery shopping and she insisted that she was talking to Santa on her potato phone. It was seriously one of the cutest things that I think she has ever done, even other customers that heard it thought it was cute and funny.

The Mawson club was awesome for dinner, especially as it has the playroom that the girls can play in for ages. It was funny watching Grace actually boss Maddie around for the first time and try to give her a cuddle, when the roles are normally reversed. My favourite part of the day though was the Christmas lights, they are awesome this year, I really hope that we do some next year.

Day 351 - Hiding Spot

 

Somehow Maddie managed to convince Nathan that she should be allowed to hop in the Zoo and hide from me this afternoon. She thought it was awesome and a great joke, and then refused to get back out. After about 20 minutes she had slipped too much and had to be pulled out through the bars like a teddy, but she wanted to be put straight back in. Crazy Kid!!

Day 350 - Weird

 

Seeing as it is my Birthday tomorrow I thought I had better set up my Nexus7 so that I would be able to start using it straight away. This little dude appeared when I allowed it to do an update, he is weird looking. I'm very nervous about learning this Android business, I feel like such a traitor.

Day 349 - Silly

 

While I was outside sorting out things in the shed today, Maddie was out playing in the Garden. She has a great time digging in the pot that the Rosemary lives in, and will dig for ages. Today however she went towards the house and was quiet, I should have known that this meant that she was up to no good. After a few minutes I went to check on her and discovered that she was playing in a bag of concrete mix. OMG did I go into a panic, I was on the phone to Nathan and I all but cut him off and hung up, grabbed Maddie and raced her inside, popped her in the crazy sorting study mess and started the shower while googling how bad it was. Luckily Maddie is particularly attached to her dummy at the moment so none got in her mouth and her eyes didn't appear irritated so I didn't take her to the hospital to get checked. She did get to have an awesomely long shower and then a play in the bath afterwards while I made sure that it was all washed off her. Moral of the story, if the kid is quiet, she is up to no good, and we need to be more careful with the building materials, as Maddie was peeved when she wasn't allowed to dig in the 'sand bag' later. We really must set up her sandpit.

Day 348 - Innocence

 

Children are so amazing, and today was one of those days that I really appreciated just how innocent and amazing they are. Maddie was absolutely delighted when a fly landed on her knee today, and had a great time talking to it. The fly stayed on her for about 5 minutes, so she decided that it was having a quick nap and that we had to be quiet. Its such a shame that she will pick up that flies are gross and to be swatted away. It makes me so much more aware of my responses to bugs, as I really don't want her picking up on my irrational fear of moths.

Day 347 - Shopping

 

Maddie and I did a huge chunk of our Christmas shopping today, which was a total surprise as we were only running in to grab some new underwear for Nathan for his gift to go with his Christmas Countdown.

 

When I told Maddie that we were going to buy Nathan some new 'knickers' she decided that she needed a new pair, as did Simon. Now that was a shock! Being told we were going shopping for knickers for Simon was something that I was totally unprepared for, it was so hard not to laugh. Unfortunately Maddie talked about this for a good 15 minutes and decided that he needed a purple pair with bee's just like hers, and insisted that we try find some. I let Leah in on the story and she thought it was as funny as I did, so I went and found the knickers and looked for a bigger size. Alas it wasn't to be unless Simon could fit into a girls size 12.

 

Kids are so funny at this age when they get ideas in their head, Maddie was so disappointed but recovered when we picked up a pair for Grace. Now I just have to remember to give them to her when I see her with Maddie around so she can see that they have the same knickers.

Day 346 - OH NO

 

OH NO, OH NO, OH NO..

 

So when Nathan came home last night to survey the work done yesterday, he discovered that the Uni-piers that went in were all 5-25mm out, and that was just in the first row. That will teach me to not check on everything after doing all the research and understanding what was going on. I assumed that the installer knew what he was doing so it would all be correct.

 

The photo is of the lovely Bernie showing me just how far out they were when he came to measure for all of the frames and trusses for the extension. We were told that the frames wouldn't be arriving until the middle of January, but Bernie thinks that people will start cancelling so we will probably have everything before Christmas. Fingers crossed as that will mean that Nathan and I can get out there and get some work done while he is off work.

Day 345 - Installing Uni-piers

 

Another step on the extension started today, with Don starting the installation of the Uni-piers. He doesn't sound very positive about them, and repeatedly told me that we could have saved money by having something made to size, but we stuck with what the structural engineer said and used the Uni-piers. The idea that the house is supported by tech screws is a little weird I will admit, but they wouldn't make these if they couldn't hold it up. There are 28 of these piers all up for the whole extension with 12 of them just for the little deck, which seems crazy to me. Nathan decided to outsource this task as we don't have a laser level and it seems to be such an important part of the building so we didn't want to risk any error.

I can't believe after all this time, that things are actually moving. I can't wait to have all of the extra storage space that we are building in, and a swing on the deck will be awesome too. Poor Tucker is going to lose a lot of space though.

Day 344 - Bargain

 

Leah and I have been doing a little bit of late night shopping lately which has been awesome as it feels like I am actually getting out and doing something out of the ordinary. I am also getting a decent start on the Christmas shopping done, and I may even end up organised this year.

 

The Big W catalogue advertised cool little pools in an on line only sale and offered free freight for purchases over $50, so we planned to get one of those. Turns out that when you read the fine print, these pools, that you could only get at a special price on line didn't qualify for free freight, so you only saved a couple of dollars. I wasn't paying $75 for a pool that Maddie would only play in for a couple of months before I got rid of it and especially after the dodgy ad, so when we saw this for $29 we had to grab it.

 

Maddie loved filling it up and going up and down the slide, especially while Amy waded in it, and swung her up and around the pool and slide. She wasn't so keen on the dragon spraying the water though.

 

Day 343 - Too Much

Tonight's photo was actually taken by Nathan while I tried to change Miss Maddie into her Pj's for bed. It is titled "Too Much" as he took over 70 photos in the space of about 2 minutes.

As Maddie doesn't like to get dressed or changed we have been trying to make it more fun. She loves pretending her clothes are a hat and having a look in the mirror with her tops on like this.

Day 342 - A Very Busy Day

Another day of Christmas Crafts today, which Maddie named her 'Cake Party'. This time the Christmas Crafts involved some baking, stamping and construction. I over shot the kids abilities by miles when I ordered the Reindeer Headbands, considering that they were a challenge for me, but the kids seemed to enjoy the rest of the day. Hunter, Hugh, Grace and Maddie, all liked helping cook the cupcakes and they all seemed to love decorating their own cake. Only Maddie and Grace actually licked a beater which was a surprise to me, that's the best bit!

The kids liked using the ink pads to decorate their stars, and even more for doing fingerprint cards, I think the messier the craft the more Maddie likes it. She went wild with the ink pads trying to take them to different parts of the house while I was preoccupied making headbands. Claire and Leah stopped her every time thankfully, but I am pretty sure Maddie wasn't impressed that she couldn't ink up the whole house.

All of the kids were awesome and didn't touch my Christmas tree which I was pretty pleased about, they learn so quickly these days and can be so well behaved. I totally forgot to 'check' Claire's pockets on the way out though. Its great having someone appreciate my tree almost as much as I do, we will have to make plans to do more visits to the Christmas barn now I know that we have another Christmas lover around.

After the long morning Maddie and I chilled out waiting for Nathan to come home, then we went out to see the lighting of the Christmas tree. It was pretty awesome and Maddie was way better behaved than I was, probably because she had been fed well before 9pm. Poor Nathan had to go hunting for dinner for me to keep me quiet and only just got back in time to see the tree light up. I was very impressed with the images that some lights near the tree projected onto the surrounding buildings, they looked awesome and so festive. Although I resisted going out tonight I am glad we did, it is always good to do something different. Thank you Morgan's for inviting us along