Boring

I used to enjoy grocery shopping, now I just pain hate it. I was half way through it today and thought... I gotta get out of here. But I finished it off and now I have so many to put away.
I know you all know how shopping works, but let me recap.

1. Get grocery item off shelf into your trolley
2. Out of trolley onto conveyor belt
3. Back into trolley
4. From trolley into car
5. Car into house
6. Then pack away.

That is SIX time we are handling these items - when are they inventing the all in one mega scanner that you just push your trolley through. It will take off two steps.

RLS Update.

Well its still all very annoying. I sleep good of I take a sleeping pill. The rest of the time its total s***t excuse my language. When you work shift work and finish work at 10.30pm and have to start again at 7am - which means not to bed until close to 11pm and then up at 5.30... can't really take a sleeping pill to get you through the night, cos it'll be too hard to wake up the next day - trust me I've tried and I'm a zombie - would you want your nurse (or your mother's nurse) to be a zombie and non functioning until 9am, I didn't think so. My GP assures me it has a short half life and that I'll "get used to it". But my big question is do I want to get used it? I don't want to spend the rest of my life dependant on sleeping tablets. Its not good, even now at 9.50am my brain is all foggy, my hearing is weird, my legs are ACHING, and I'm just plain miserable.
Luckily those of you in blogland cannot see my house, there is just NO energy to do anything. As soon as I finish this I will try to clean up. Jamie gets annoyed at me cos I'm not pulling my weight - and yes Margie, he helps marvellously and as he puts it, he does almost everything. I still cook and do the clothes washing, but very little else. I really don't know where to go now....
Let me list - for myself and those out there - what I have tried.

• Magnesium tablets
• Hot baths and camomile tea
• Deep Heat rubbed into my legs
• Clonazepam (from the family of Valium) starting at 0.25mg and then anything up to 2mg - very drugged, very very addictive.
• Oxycontin (slow acting morphine)
• Temazepam (sleeping tablet)
• Anti-dopamine meds (for Parkinson Disease - I was EXTREMELY nauseaus - full on vomiting for 4 days, won't try that again)
• Gabapentin (neurotransmitter inhibitor) - varying doses and times of the day, worked at the beginning now its crap.
• Flunitrazapine (supposedly a SHORT acting sleeping tablets but makes me VERY foggy - but I'll get used to it)
• I also slightly tried many other therapies but limited funding has not allowed that to happen.
• Salt free diet - very hard to maintain, especially when one is exhausted from just maintaining an income and keeping up with the laundry.

Just yesterday I could have screamed when I was told by a colleage that her husband "suffers from RLS" and camphor wrapped in a penny under the sheets works a treat. Well I'm sorry, but that will not do with me. I'm SICK, very SICK and its a really stupid illness that is not understood by people and I've had enough.

I don't want to hear about old wives tales of how camphor mixes with pennies and cures me. Its not curable, its something I have to live with and it sucks.

Now I'm so HOT, sweating all of the time, my face burns from heat almost constantly. My legs hurt, my back hurts, my arms ache, my brain is mushy and I'm supposed to care about camphor, I know she is trying to help. But I really want to know what to do to help.

Sorry again this has turned into a rant, but I'm exhausted. Work is so hard, so hot - it would have been over 30 degrees in the room, the patients are sweating so much its rediculous, I have to wear heavy pants and thick cotton shirts and I get so hot. I did a quick shift with only about 3 hours sleep and I don't know what to do with myself.

I did buy some easter eggs today and they look lovely. I'll take a photo of my display when the house is tidy (check back sometime in the next three weeks).

Long time - no blog.

Sorry about that folks.

Just wanted to share a picture of my darling family. Its a really nice one of us taken about three weeks ago at a birthday party we went to.

Mmmmmm Comfort Food.

I was looking for a yummy dessert, so I went to a really daggy cookbook - "The Hants County Cookbook" and found Poverty Pudding. Doesn't sounds too good, but the ingredients - brown sugar mmmmmm
Not as great as I wanted, but yummy hot syrup over ice cream.
Yes I know, the diet the starts tomorrow! Not sure which tomorrow, but its tomorrow Hah ahahaha

Footy Training.

After a huge kerpuffle yesterday which ended up with my two blokes not liking each other.
Today is a different story and I so wish I had photos. We did footy training. Thursday is the first official Junior AFL training session and Jamie wants Mark fit. Tonight we headed over to the swamp park, swatting mozzies the whole way - I'm sure Shrek is down there somewhere.

First of all was jog - sprint - jog - sprint - jog - SPRINT. He thought that was it.. but no Jamie had other plans. We handballed it to each other, ran and jumped and kicked and avoided the dogs who were chasing each other through the whole thing. The we did some tackling, marking, more running and by this stage I was fully involved too... I ran the length of the park (well maybe half of the length) lots of kicking and running. Then we did some situps, pushups, star jumps, more sprints. It was actually fun and Mark after initially thinking the whole world was against him is now very happy with himself and happy to be playing real footy.

The best part was near the end - Marko collapsed on the ground in a "snow angel" type of fashion with a huge grin on his face. I wish I had the camera - there in a split second - was the perfect scrapbook page ever. :( I missed it again.

Question for the folks in Melbourne... who has our big "normal" camera?

Very cool.

Saw this on Kathryn's blog, and it has reminded me I have SOOOO much more travelling to do in this world. Can't wait for Jamie and I to be able to travel.

Pop on over to this site and check it out for yourself. Shows you where in the world you have been on a map. Very cool.

Part III

Hmm, now its Sunday morning.

• Woke up about 5am. Lay there for a little bit and then decided to quietly get up so as not to wake Connie. No such luck she was already awake as well, so we showered and then went back to the scrap room, it was very strange to be scrapping and watching the sun come up. We chatted - yes I know that I actually mean I talked poor Connie's ear off - and it was so wonderful to catch up with her again, I so miss living just around the corner from her -as I have written on one of my LOs, its so wonder to actually like your family and your in-laws as well. I must be one of the luckiest people in the world.
• Decided to skip the TaiChi class, just couldn't be bothered.
• Breakfast of bacon and eggs YUMMMM. Have I mentioned that the food at the Country Place was marvellous and if anyone out there in blog land is looking for a nice place to hold a function or convention, I would recommend this place.
• Back to scrapping again. I did a total of around 15 - 20 projects for the weekend. I finished off my friend Joanne's wedding album. About 10 LOs of my own. Covered the Smiggle diary that we were all given. The Urban Lilly class which were delightful little boxes with mini books inside. I loved making them but am now unsure what to do with them.
• Then it really was just pack up and head home.

Unfortunately this is when my life turned - for want of a better word - to shit. I had an almost total breakdown on Sunday night. I think I cried to mum for about 90 minutes, that is a really long time to cry. My Restless Leg Syndrome is so bad that it is ruining my life. The lack of sleep is what is worst, RLS is a sleep disorder mostly, not a neurological or muscle problem. Its so frustrating because so many people think its funny, why would moving your legs a little bit worry you so much, why don't you try magnesium, have you tried ............... and the list is endless. Yes I have tried them all, and not much helps. I'm currently on Gabapentin and a sleeping tablet and for the last 4 nights its been ok, not great but ok. Its still worrying me so much that I feel quite sick most of the time. Daytime napping is quite rediculous, and night time NOTHING isn't so bad, but I keep on remembering all the times when its 3am and I have not had a wink of sleep, I'm so exhausted from pacing the floor and the only thing on television is that stupid QuizMania (who invented that show). So I'm now taping everything I like and rewatching my favourite shows... I have the whole current season of Greys Anatomy on my hard drive and its so easy to rewatch, if you are the tv junkie I am.

Anyway RLS has hijacked this post, so I'll leave it there and will go into more detail another day, I might even take a picture of my legs for a scrap page about my suffering one day! Could be quite therapeutic, but will have to shave my legs first don't you think.

Man that has been a ramble and if you have gotten to the end of it I congratulate you, and if you leave me a comment, I might even send you a Freddo! Actually lets aim for a record - the 10th comment WILL get a Freddo and something nice that I will make for you in the post. Come on (as Lleyton would say) lets get the comment section on this daggy little blog happening. I can make a pretty fancy bookmark you know!

Love you guys, lets see those comments roll in!

Part II

Where was I up to....

I'll start again at Saturday morning.

• Had a poor night's sleep, woke up at 6.45am had a shower and decided yes I would go on that "walk" with Connie, Bec and Julie. Hmmm darn near nearly killed me - I knew I was unfit, but that unfit. Went downhill to start with and then UP, my breathing got worse and it was very embarassing. Went so red in the face - had to have another shower to cool my body down and I'm now all recovered.
• Breakfast was lovely, a smorasboard of cereal, fruit, compote, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, toast and Liz brought her own "Kiwi honey". I had Just Right with a spoon of mixed berries YUM.
• Back to the scrap room. Fun.
• Did a class with Katie Toland which was really nice. I'm so in love with painting chipboard and putting little white dots on it. There is a picture of the LO on Katie's blog, they all turned out beautiful, but when you are working with such a talent, there isn't much hope of it failing.
• Then back to general scrapping.
• I had a massage - felt really good.
• Then back to general scrapping.
• Dinner - REALLY yummy lamb cutlets and a passionfruit pannacotta for dessert.
• Then back to general scrapping.
• Went to bed at 10pm - one of the earliest in the room.

Amazing

Just had the best weekend ever - maybe not ever - but it was great, The Scrapanalia Retreat in the Dandenongs.

Went down on Thursday at midday, got Marko's new birth certificate from BDM with his real name. When we changed his name just before starting school, I had one then, dont' know what happened to it. Now I have a very official looking certificate which says "Mark Emmanuel Lantz" formerly known as Mark Emmanuel Orset. Glad that is fully sorted, now I can open him a bank account in his REAL name.

Jo and the most amazing, wonderful, delightful, funny, gorgeous, round, talkative, almost sitting, playing games Sheena Tara Geary came over. Had a great time with the girls. Jo and I shared in my old room and Sheena got kicked out to the office. It was so nioce being home with my mummy, daddy and little sister, felt so normal and nice. Had some lovely cuddles with Miss Sheena, found out that longish hair and babies who GRIP are not good friends, by hair survived. Sheena has discovered that when propped up in a sitting position if you get a good rock going and then flail your arm up you will fall backwards - then you put your little hands up and then do it all again. Very cute.

Friday arvo we went to Olinda to the retreat and it was amazing. The place was gorgeous, green, and fresh. Rooms were nice - shame about water restrictions as the showers were lovely. Dinner was equally amazing, silver service - Salmon on loose lasagne YUMMY. Then to the scrap room. We scrapped the whole time except for meals and sleeping, we worked it out to be about 28 hours and I'm not sick of it.

To be continued.....

A great weekend.

Yes its been a really good one. One that make me super happy to be a part of a great family. We may be small, we may be isolated from our family, but we are a great team. I'm finding my place here in Newcastle, I'm happy here (except for the mugginess). I would return to Melbourne in a flash, but there would be things I'd miss now. Two months ago, I would not have found one. I have friends now, a good bunch of friends. Jamie has heaps of friends. Mark is settled in school.

Anyway our weekend.

• A 10km bike ride with Jamie - found out the teeth on the gears are stuffed, that is why its SO HARD to ride up hills and the fact that the chain CLUNKS all the time is very unnerving. I quite like the feel of riding a bike, I like the sailing down a hill (not too fast), I like the idea of riding a bike as well. I know its so good for me that I will make the effort - once the gears are fixed - to ride regularly
• Had a lovely heatlthy dinner of salad and chook YUM
• Watched Better Homes and Gardens and now want to build a shed made out of doors - it looks so cool, but Jamie says we can take the same principal and make a nice shelter for the puppies.
• Did some gardening. My whole front garden is trimmed and weeded, the soil (or should I say sand) has been turned over. Now I want to plant some bright and happy flowers for near the front door. I felt hot, dirty, wet and satisfied... never thought gardening would do that for me.
• We had another healthy lunch of salad and chook - does that sound like leftovers.
• Went in our 4WD to the Stockton Dunes. It was great fun, put the dogs, boogie board and some towels into the "forby" and off we went. We decided to take the slightly longer, but less steep track - its the one you went along mum - but we rounded a corner and we could see two cars stopped in front of us!! Jamie got out to see if he could help. According to those drivers there was a car completely bogged in the very soft sand and there was 15 cars in a line waiting. We then decided to go the shorter/steeper track again there was a slight holdup. 5 kids (18-24) in a really cool open topped 4WD could not get up the hill. Jamie and another bloke got out to help - Mark and I stayed in the car. The sand was BURNING hot. Marky and I were chatting when out of the corner of my eye I saw about 10 people all dressed in black shorts and tshirts one of then carrying a baseball bat. Oh dear I thought we are in for a rumble. Instead these 10 people helped move the red car and then they decided to go home. So a very sheepish, new, red 4WD drove past us int he opposite direction to the dunes with its tail between its legs. We got up the hill in one go and our huge sand tyres were at 15psi, that is REALLY low, what you would normally call a flat tyre. Then we went swimming.

I'll finish this post tomorrow, I'm just about to fall asleep and I'll make heaps of mistakes.

Thanks for reading.

Some more random photos around the theme - my home.

Valentine's Day

Stupid stupid idea. Forcing love on a particular day. Florists make a killing.

But I got a lovely bottle of wine!

Doing a little happy dance about that.

Thanks.

To my mum!
Where would I be without you? Thank you for listening to me for an hour on the phone this afternoon. Blathering about my boring life.
I know that I'm worth it.
I know that I'm special.
I know that I'm a good mum.
I know that I deserve to have a full nights sleep.
I know that I am good at my job.
I know that I'm as good as a $20 note.

This is the email that mum sent me to cheer me up. Keep going with those inspirationals mum.

A speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?"
Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this. He proceeded to crumple up the $20 dollar bill. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air. Well, he replied, "What if I do this?"
And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. "Now, who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air.
My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20.
Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who DO LOVE you.
The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but by WHO WE ARE and WHOSE WE ARE.
You are special - Don't EVER forget it."
Count your blessings, not your problems.
Remember: amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic.
If God brings you to it - He will bring you through it.

Scrap for a good cause.

To the Victorians out there: There is a blog for it here.

Friends of mine are are having an All Day Crop to raise money for the Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal. We would love for this to be a huge event within the Victorian Scrapbooking community and hope that you can all help us achieve our goal of donating a sizable amount to this very worthwhile cause.

Crop for Kids

The Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal

When: Friday 6th April 2007

Where: Mulgrave Community Centre

355 Wellington Road, Mulgrave

(MelRef 80 D1)

Time: 10am - 5pm

Entry Fee: $25

We hope to reach our goal by holding raffles, auctions and competitions throughout the day. Please check back next week as we start to add some very exciting news about the event. Also if anyone has any ideas or would like to help out please contact us at cropforkids@iprimus.com.au

Some other photos of my life.

Its so muggy here at the moment, that all my photos of Jamie are topless. Should I put them in???

Mental photos.

This is a photo that Mark not only took, but completely set up. He looked like a professional photographer adjusting the distance the camera needed to be and how it all looked in the viewfinder. I think it looks pretty cool as well.
This is an extremely tired me. Yes I have a spout. It was hot, hair was getting in my eyes, so for the photo a day comp I decided to show a "this is really me" photo. Usually its only Jamie and Mark who get to see me like this, but now its out there for the world to see.

General stuff.

Good afternoon,

I'm really just here to put up some photos. I'm doing the Photo A Day Competition being held by Blue Bazaar, not so much a competition, but a challenge. First week is all about me or my style.
So again, wondering what the heck blogger will do with my photos.
I have taken a self portrait, feel a bit strange about it, but its me and that is what I look like.
I have also taken a photo of something the ladies out there might be familiar with, the pregnancy test.... alas still negative. This will be that last photo of something like that, I won't be announcing it to the world the day the stick turns blue.
Then there is my Marky, he crashed his old bike on the weekend, so we got him a new Repco one with gears and what Mark calls hydrolics but really they are shock absorbers. Its gorgeous and he's VERY happy. This is him trying it out at about 8.30pm last night!!!!!!!!!!!

Third Day of School

Forgot about photos on the first day back.
Mark is now is in Year 3. Looks like his teacher might be Mrs Millar, not sure what that means, but Mark likes the idea. Here are some photos of the kid in his uniform and new school bag.

More stuff that makes me happy!

To contrast from my post from a couple of days ago... I shall prove I'm not about to *crack* it.
So, in no particular order here is the stuff.

There is a photo of bread rolls in my freezer (yes that makes me happy) that means I do not have to make lunches for about 2 weeks, and I know that Jamie and Mark are having a good lunch.

MAIL - Elsie Flannagan calls it happy mail. There is a calling card from the post man - most likely from my wonderful company Scrapanalia. And the parcel is for my mum. ITS HER BIRTHDAY TODAY. Sorry didn't post it on time, but its becoming my signature. Must work on changing that. Love you mum and Happy Birthday.
Mark's room all tidy. I signed him up for the House Fairy. I know that he is 8 and shouldn't believe in fairies, but if he keeps his room clean when the House Fairy comes to visit and sprinkles her fairy dust, she either leaves a surprise or doesn't - depending on the state of the room. Any parents out there, start them off at about 4 years old. It'll be worth it.


This is the car carrier that I'm making Mark. I have about 40 pockets sewn on so far, about another 50 to go. The (what should be) first photo is of the entire thing, then a close up of a pocket and then with some of the stars from the movie Cars - you may see Lighting McQueen, Sally, Doc Hudson and I can't remember the other cars name.

HE'S BACK.

Ahhhh isn't that nice. A gorgeous little boy with great big cuddles.

Poor chap had a huge stack on his bike today - about 2.5km away from home and needed to walk it back. I'm sure he'll sleep well tonight. Luckily he only grazed his knee and probably bruised his ego.