Claire - I still cry for my mum when I see sick people in similar situations - even in movies. It is a strong emotion that you just can't control, but don't try to cover it up or hold it in. Let it out, and feel the emotion for what it is. Grieving is so important, and if you don't allow yourself to do it it will only come back at a later time. All the best for your FIL. I hope he gets better soon.

Kylie - wow, you are going to be a busy lady! Good luck with the interview, and let us know how it goes.

Patricia - Corey is one clever girl! She'll be out on her own before you know it. I hope your boss doesn't need to call you in on your maternity leave. That has come around so quickly! Yikes, where does the time go?

Matty and I have decided to bring ttc forward a bit. We had a bit of a pregnancy scare which turned out to be nothing, but it was good in the way that we are now getting off our bums and organising private health insurance and things like that. So it looks like we might be starting sometime around March/April

Busy busy patricia. I cant believe you are going on maternity leave already! Feels like only a month ago you announced your pregnancy! Thats great news about Corie, she is growing up so fast.

Thanks for the advice, im glad it's normal for me to be crying for one person and not the other, its like you said Lisa, if my Opa was here and i saw him die im sure i'd be grieving more.

Oh thats fantastic news Lisa! I hope you have a short TTC journey!

Claire - Yay on the house settlement! I agree with Patricia & Lisa with the grief comments. I hope FIL recovers quickly

Patricia - How wonderful about Corey riding a big girl bike now, she is growing up so fast. Wow your materinty leave has come up fast!

Lisa - Cograds on bringing TTC foward, I hope it is a short journey for you.

My interview with the agency went ok. The guy was super friendly and so full of advise and tips for me. Hopefully he an find something for me soon I have actually just sent my CV to a temp agency aswell.

i posted a reply here yesterday and just realised it isnt here!

Thats great news about the interview Kylie i hope that you find a great job very soon.

Well FIL was meant to be home yesterday but he got a fever so was going to go home today, but he still has a fever so he might be home on sunday (hopefully).

Im crossing my fingers that your FIL's fever breaks and he can be back home asap.

Hope everyone has had a good weekend, i have been waking up at 6am every morning even if corey is still sleeping and im buggered, i have friends 3 daughters baptism today so i best start getting ready its abit of a drive and i want things ready so chris can still sleep in so when he wakes up we are ready to go.

Thanks Patricia. We saw FIL in hospital on Saturday and they said he wont be leaving till at least Monday (today) as he now has gout in his feet and knee. He is quite upset about it. My MIL said she will call us if he comes home today, but if she doesnt call it means he is still in there.
It's his b'day on Wed so he really doesnt want to be in there for that, he said that if he is he wants us to bring a beer in for him!

So here's hoping he comes home.

B made me/us 4 cupboards for the kitchen and installed them yesterday so that will be handy as there isnt enough in this kitchen.

Hope you got some rest Patricia.

Kylie - well done on the interview. Anything interesting pop up yet?

Claire - yay on the new cupborads! And today is Monday so my fingers and toes are crossed that he is coming out of hospital today!

Patricia - I hope your sleeping pattern fixes itself up soon.

Matty and I are going out to dinner with friends tonight to a Mexican restaurant - all you can eat tacos and fajitas! And if you take your own red wine they will make up sangria for you. So I bought two bottles of imported Spanish wine yesterday and I'm looking forward to a great night.

Patrica - I hope the baptism went well. I know what you mean about ealry mornings. For ages now i automatically wake up at 5.30 (some morning 4.30 now cause of the sun), it can get rather annoying!! I hope you can sleep in past 6 soon.

Claire - Pretzled that FIL does come home today. Sorry to hear about his gout (on a side note, yeast (so beer/bread etc can make the it worse). I really hope he is home for his birthday though.
Thats lovely of B to make the cupboards - did you put the above the rangehood?

Lisa - Tongiht sounds like great fun! Enjoy the meal and the sangria

Thanks Kylie, yep the cupboards went two above the range hood and one on either side of it.

Lisa your dinner sounds SO yummy!

Claire did your FIL come home from the hospital?

Well chris sent me a message last night while at work, he was emailed that he isn't going to Japan they did another finacial meeting and he is the only one not going, chris is upset and embaressed because he recieved an email saing his diners club card was ready to be picked up last night and he was given on monday his uniform for the trip so he told people he was going because because it was all going ahead and also some people heard before he even got told the news. Some crap about not enough money yet the other tool maker is going and they said something else which was bullshit and chris pulled them up on it and they just went ugh um, what pisses chris off is that the other guy going doesn't work as hard as chris, chris works his arse off and does a good job and gets recognised for all his hard work while other people slack off, we think its because the other guy is on the shift with the guy that decides. I know that because he is my husband i think he should go and he is better than the other guy but even if i didn't know chris and it was all written in front of me to compare the 2 i would still be saying chris is the harder worker who deserves to go and get the opportunity to use this experance to better himself in the company, the stories i hear of all the crap work the other people do and all the slack people that show up half way through a shift or do dodgey jobs and chris does his best because he doesn't want his name on a shit job it makes me just cry cos i know that its not a dream job but chris is good at it and he gets nothing for it

Chris and i are now going to sit down and look at other options for him and set up a plan he doesn't want to work at ford anymore but he wont quit untill we have a plan set up and a job and maybe just wait till they offer packages again he said he doesn't know whether to cry or kill someone over this the past 2 months for him have been hard and frustrating the whole process has been tideous(sp?) and he finally got the nod and then they decide to do another finacial meeting and he gets told he is't going after having told people that he was going.

Sorry girls for ranting on

Uh Patricia I am so soory to hear that. Any wonder you and Chris are f*&^ed off at Ford atm. That is really slack of them to do that! I hope you and Chris can work an action plan out soon and good luck to him in looking for a new job (if that is indeed the path you wish to go down)
Don't apolagize for ranting on - that is what we are all here for - to support each other through the good times and bad!
Big (((HUGS))) to the both of you.

Oh Patricia, I'm so sorry it has ended like this. That is definately not fair, especially after waiting for so long for them to make their minds up in the first place - you'd think they would have known for sure who was going and who was not. That's very unprofessional of them, and I can see why Chris would feel a bit embarrassed but he really shouldn't. And it always sucks when the people who deserve to get recognised for the great work they do end up getting shoved around. But things like this tend to happen for a reason, so I wouldn't be surprised if something fantastic comes out of this. And it also means he will be home for the last part of your pregnancy to help you, which is a good thing.

I have some happy news - Matty and I have decided to to start ttc just before our 1 year anniversary! It looks like the right time will be around mid-March, so if things go to plan (fingers crossed ladies) that we will be announcing our bundle of joy on our one year anniversary! It is a long shot to fall pregnant on our first cycle of trying, but it can't hurt to dream right?!

Lisa - Congradulation on deciding to start TTC in march I wish you and Matty and short TTC journey!

Lisa that is fantastic news about ttc, all the best and i hope it is a quick and easy time for you guys,

Talking about our 1st anniversary is the gift something to do with clocks or paper? I bought chris a new watch for a going away gift and i thought i might give it to him for our anniversary now becasue i already bought his christmas presesnt.

Thank you everyone for your kind words, chris had a hard day last night he just has no omph for working there so untill we find another job he will stay on at fords but he said he no longer wants to be there, he was talking to some of the day shift guys and the majority of them think it stinks what has happened and also that they haven't got the heart for fords either because of the way the managers and supervisers are running things - they want it done their way bt when it doesn't work the workers are expected to fix it when they said at the beginning if it wasn't the way to go (which happen to be the same people involved with this japan trip) people are now just showing up to work but not really caring just doing what they have to and then going home, so all i can say its not only chris that has been getting dumped on.

Anyway you where right in saying that maybe this has happened for a reason i prefer to believe that than just staying negative about it, well at least now it wont bother me if the baby is alittle bit early

im officially killing off ford, chris left me a voice message then a sms while at work that they have said to him that he is back on for Japan WHAT THE?????? his voice message said "im back on im going to japan untill they say im not going" he was told the news 30 minutes after he sent me a mesage saying "i walk in the gates and i get angry and sad and i want to smash things" poor thing is going to have a heart attack with this stupid trip, i don't get it men sometimes have no idea of what they are doing i should be in charge i think any female after having planned there wedding have the experience to run a country.

Well girls this week has been fun...not. i've finished work yesterdayand now i have to get a riggle on and start sending off the christmas cards, which thank you claire i got yours in the mail great minds think alike i took a christmas photo of corey to send to people. Chloe is sooooo soooooo sooooo cute.

Uh Patricia - What a topsy turvey, emotional week you and Chris have had!! So do you both know wiether it is absoultly (sp?) set in stone definate that he is going or is it just a "probably/most likely" ?
Wow your now on maternity leave - how does it feel??

BTW my wonderful tweenies
HAPPY 8 MONTH ANNIVERSARY
I HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A WONDERFUL NIGHT

Oh gosh patricia i cant believe what you and Chris are going through, how horrible that FORD keeps stuffing you around! I hope that something gets set in stone very soon as they cant keep mucking up your family like this.

Lisa thats great about moving TTC so close!! I hope you have a short journey.

Happy 8mth annie girls

Yep FIL came home on monday night (i didnt find out to a lot later though) He seems to be going ok, still doesnt look very healthy though and has lost a lot of weight.

Thanks Patricia, Chloe is growing up so quickly it is amazing.

Hope everyone has a good day.

Chris told me when he got home this morning that the guy that told him that he wasn't going (who happens to be the guy that helped chris get into his adult apprentaship 7 years ago) must have felt bad about what has happened and called the guy in japan and the 2 other bosses in geelong and i guess pulled a few strings, he also told chris that untill he has the ticket in his hand its not 100%, they close up for christmas on the 22nd (i think) so the tickets should be handed out (we hope) sometime during this time. so we are still riding the rollercoaster.

Oh thats nice of him to pull strings and i hope it all goes ahead!

Claire - I am glad to hear your FIL is at home now. I wish him a speedy recovery. He will probably look poorly for a while but that is to be expected. Remember if you need to ask anything medical at all, ask away and I will ask my mummy bear for you.

Patricia - that was lovely of the guy to pull the strings. I hop Chris gets the tickets sooner rather than later so you guys can start planning!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend

Hope everyone had a wondeful weekend, i know i had a great one!

Going to start working on the garden again today and then duck up to the shops if it doesnt get too hot.

xx

Patricia - that's great that it might all still be happening, but a pain in the rear end that it is still all up in the air. Fingers crossed that it all turns out like you hope it will.

Claire - it must be nice that he home now, that must be reasurring for the family. Have fun out in the garden!

Kylie - I can't believe it is past 8 months already! I nearly forgot the annie this time around so thanks for the reminder.

I went to the Sydney nappy making class on Saturday and made a nappy! Clair had already embroidered a strawberry onto a small girls nappy pattern, and I was the only one who wanted to make a small girls nappy, so I was very lucky to get that one. But we started from absolute scratch and end up with our own creations. I now love sewing, and I can't wait to get my hands on my nanna's sewing machine so that I can create more. Here are some piccies of the one I made.

This is the front...




The inside with the snap-in booster



And the gorgeous back with Clair's strawberry



I was very proud of myself cos I have never sewed before, other than making shorts in year 6 at school. It was much easier than I had anticipated, and now I can't wait to get practicing so I can make lots of them and share the nappy love with my friends. Patricia will you be using cloth nappies or disposables? If you'd like one I would be only too happy to make one for you.

I had a great weekend as well CLaire - was great to catch up with you, Brad and Chloe again.

Lisa - WELL DONE that nappy is amazing!!! You have done such a wonderful job! Any chance you could possiably send me the pattern?

Lisa that nappy is so adorable!

Just looked at your ticker Kylie and our annie is so close!

Lisa the nappy is gorgeous, you are very talented, i am planning on using both cloth and disposible, thank you so much for offering to make one i totally appreciate it.

on the weekend i finished wrapping all the christmas presents and yesterday we took corey before bed on a drive to look at the houses with christmas lights, we went past this one that they use the rooms at the front of the house as displays and the lounge (i think) was turned into a lego town it was about 1 meter by 2-3 meters and they had a train that moved as well in the town they had the whole lawn covered in figurenes and lights and the fence had an australian theme with australian animal cut outs, i took corey to the window to have a closer look it was amazing we are goin to take her again but with shoes on this time so she can look around on her own i'll take a picture and show you guys just how amazing this place is

Thanks for the compliments on my lil nappy. Kylie, I will trace the pattern on to some tracing paper for you and post it to you, cos the patterns I have are quite big. There is a small, medium and large. And Patricia - I'll get into nappy making after Christmas. Are you going to find out what sex the baby is or are you hanging for a suprise? And that Lego thing sounds amazing! Some people really get into the spirit

Patricia - That house sounds amazing. It amazes me how much effort some people put into there displays - i love going and looking at them all though


Thanks so much in advance Lisa - I appricate it!


Patricia is having a boy

Ooh thanks. I wasn't sure if she had posted in or not and didn't have the time to search for it. Thanks Kylie. Baby blue it is then

Patricia that place sounds lovely, its no nice when people get into the christmas spirit.

I have some news everyone.....


As you can see by my ticker we are finally pregnant!

On what was meant to be our last cycle (we then decided we were going to do one more) and a cycle that i thought we had stuffed up we are now officially UTD!

CONGRATULATIONS



That is great news, im soooo happy for you guys, what a fantastic christmas present. Whats the round about due date?

WOOHOO!!! Congratulations beautiful girl, I am super excited for you

I'll be busy making nappies for everyone soon enough

Kylie - how did you go with the job interview?

Thanks so much patricia and Lisa. My EDD is the 25th August but i will have to have a ceasar so i will have the bub a week or two before that.

Oh it is so exciting and feels like a dream!

CONGRADULATIONS CLAIRE & BRAD
Pete & I are sooo happy for you both!

Lisa - unfortunatly I didn't get the job . But out of 106 applicants I was in the top 2! I am proud of myself for that.

Thanks Kylie.

Im so proud of you with your job, to be considered so great on your first interview. (well i already knew you were great!)

Sorry about the job kylie but that is good that you where way up there for it,

Well chris is officially going to Japan he has been sent his flight itenary and also his tickets via email he has to print them and thats what he uses i don't know how that works but at least he is going, He leaves on the 13th and rturns 4 weeks later on the 9th of Feb, lets hope in that 4 weeks we can safe enough money to pay off the TV, bed and laptop we didn't want to use any of the baby money we get for Jake but if we have to we will.

Chris sister in townsville is due on christmas eve and i sent her a message 2 days ago to see how she was goin and i haven't heard from her, i want to cal but i remember when i was in the last week i was kinda annoyed with people calling all the time to see if anything was happening, bugger it i'll still give her a buzz

Thanks Claire and Patricia

Patricia that is wonderful that you guys definatly know he is going now. Atleast you can start planning for that. E-tickets are quite common and all he has to do at the check in counter is show the E-ticket and photo id (pass port) - just make sure the name is spelt exactly right.
I would still give your SIL a call, i think she would appricate it. Please let us know what she has

I just finished talking to my SIL, she is having a boy they are going to call him Thomas. She went and had accupunture done to try and induce the labour she said she can feel a difference in the movements but nothing yet and she has another treatment tomorrow, the guy said the quickest time he had from treatment to labour is 6 hours and the longest is after 3 or 4 treatments the avearage is about 2 days. I wish i would have know about that when i was overdue with corey.

Have i mentioned to you guys that we bought corey a guinea pig last week? her name is Peppa Pig Corey named her after the cartoon Peppa Pig, she is a little cutie she is brown black and white,

How is everyone's christmas preparations going, i can't believe its only round the corner then new years im trying to think of a resolution or something i can do to make myself a better person i never did resolutions in the past but i watched a movie where it has inspired me to do one, funny i can't remember the movie though. Have any of you thought of one?

Kylie - you did amazingly well! You must feel great to have been in the top 2!! That job obviously wasn't meant to be for you. A better one will pop up in the near future, I'm sure of it.

Patricia - I'm glad that he has his tickets. That makes it set in concrete so you know finally what is going on. All the best to your SIL. And peppa pig sounds like a cutie.

No new years resolutions for me this year, but I will come up with one on NYE.

Patricia im glad C has his tickets and peppa pig sounds like a cutie!

No resolutions for me, i dont think i have ever made a resolution!

Patriica - Peppa Pig sounds like a cutie and I bet Corey her.
I got you card yesterday in the mail. Thanks very much for that. Wow Corey is so adorable!

Lisa - Thanks babes. I am proud of myself for the effore and I know something better is out there. I will start looking again in the new year!

Not sure on my resolution for this NY. Normally I make it and always break it. However last year, my giving up smoking conincided with NYD and i am proud to say i have kept that up!

Well my lovely tweenies. My wonderful husband has just finished his last hour of work which offically means our business and therfore us are on christmas holidays for 3 weeks!!!!!!!!!
I have hardly seen Pete in the last few months (has been working loong hours) so I am looking foward to spending some quailty time with my hubby. (This is the first time off we have had since the honeymoon). As a result, I will hardly be online for the next few weeks. I will try and pop in a few times for a catch up though!

I want to wish all of you and your familes a

I hope you all have a safe festive season and I look foward cacthing up with you all again in the new year!

Merry christmas and new year to you as well Kylie. Thats so great that P is on holidays and you guys can all catch up finally, i hope you all have a fantastic holiday.

As for everyone else i hope yu all have a fantastic holiday too.

Merry christmas Kylie and Pete,

Chris also started his 3 weeks holidays last night at 4am, he is at the work break up at the moment.

You know what i found out yesterday, as you know victoria at the moment isn't doing to well with bushfires and we need all the help we can get well the army has a fire fighter division which my SIL husband is in and their boss spoke to Head Office in sydney to see if he could send his boys down to help as they are trained firefighters and the Head Office guys said no so we have a big group of boys that could be helping instead they are sitting on their arses (exact words my SIL and hubby both used) doing nothing because they have no assignments or excersises or jobs to do. I don't get it why are people that have valuable tools sit on their hands and use politics and money as an excuse to not get their hands dirty, i can say i don't mind paying with my tax dollars these guys to make the trip down from QLD to save a few lifes and land and animals. Why wouldn't the gov step in and do something im just soo pissed off a the moment

how was everyones christmas? i hope everyone had a good time. Our christmas was busy with celebrating my families christmas on christmas eve then chris family on christmas day, corey had a blast we thought we might of being able to get into mum and dads pool on both days (we hosted chris family at my mums) but we had wet weather which is what victoria needed.

Corey loves all her pressies and has been out in her cubby everyday playing with her new kitchen and kitchen appliances she has a blender toaster coffee maker and mixer, she gets our 2 dogs in there and closes the door so they can't get out.

We have started toilet training corey we are on our 3rd day she seems to be going really well, on day 1 and 2 we had several accidents but she also did wee's in the toilet or potty but today all her wee's where in the toilet or potty and with one of them she stopped weeing stood up sat down again wee'd some more stood up sat down and then finished her wee, so hopefully she can keep up the work im so proud of her, we are doing what Dr Phil said and whenever she does a wee we call somesome for her to tell them and we skip around the house (all 3 of us) to celebrate signing corey did wee's in the toilet.

Well that is my christmas update, hope everyone has a good new years. See you all in 2007.

Patricia im glad you had a good chrissie and corie sounds like she is growing up fast. Chloe got a cubby for christmas too. Im glad Corie is going so great with toilet training, i want chloe toilet trained by the time bubs arrives too but if she isnt ready for it in 8mths then there is nothing i can do. I tried recently but she isnt ready so i will try again after her birthday and see how she reacts.

Hi ladies.

Patricia - I'm glad your Christmas was great, and the toilet training sounds like its going well. How cute with the skipping and singing. Dr Phil is a clever man.

Our christmas was good. We went up to Forster and saw Mattys dad. Then for new years we went up to Terrigal, then down to Jervis Bay for a week where I celebrated my 29th birthday. It was soooo relaxing - lots of swimming, kayaking, eating and napping

Happy new year to you all xx

I wrote a post yesterday and it didn't work, what a bugger i can't remember what i wrote,
Chris leaves for Japan on saturday i have to drop him off at the shuttle stop at 6am in the morning, this is going to be a hard 4 weeks, im as big as a house and running around after corey i don't know how im going to go on my own, it will go quick, what is the longest time you girls have gone apart from your hubby's, 2 nights for me and chris in 5 1/2 years and chris has only been away from corey for 1 week during our honeymoon, im printing out a whole bunch of photos and putting them in a album for him to take, it sounds corney but corney is my middle name

Claire how is the pregnancy going? Here is a pic i took of my forever growing belly this morning

Happy Birthday Lisa, i was going to post a happy birthday post the day before but decided to do it on the day and then forgot sorry im so slack. Your time off sounds wonderful and relaxing.

Patricia the longest B and i have spent away is just over a month, he used to go away a lot for work. The longest he has been away from chloe is 2 weeks. Wishing you the best for saturday, i hope you cope well with Chris being away although i know how hard it will be. Does he still have phone communication? If you need to talk at all you know where to find me. Im glad you have your family support close by too. But i can imagine how hard it is with a big belly!
Your belly looks so cute!

Pregnancy is going fairly well, getting all my symptoms alot earlier and already showing. The doc said that you get your symptoms alot earlier, worse and they stick around longer with your second. Plus my belly popped at 6 weeks! So that was scary! In qld you only have one scan and thats at 20 weeks, i couldnt possibly wait that long to see if bub is ok! So my gp sends his patients for one at 9/10 weeks so im going for one next friday. Will have my first hospital appoint on the 9th feb, and my 20 week scan around our annie.
My sickness is starting to ease, still quite tired and have trouble sleeping, been getting headaches and cramps in my limbs.
It still doesnt feel real though so hopefully the scan next week will make it feel real.
Still getting no support from my family which is upsetting as i didnt get any with my pregnancy with chloe either.

Claire xx