Planning a Holiday.

Jamie and I are planning a trip to HAWAII... how cool is that?

• We both need to get new passports - very sad - they have been gathering dust.
• Book time off work.
• Book flights.
• Book accommodation.
• Work out my feelings about leaving Mark behind. We'll go to Queensland once the baby we are going to have is a toddler, ok feelings are fixed.
• Get Dad up to babysit / get kid to school.
• The SAVE SAVE SAVE SAVE SAVE.
  

A girl I worked with and a Facebook friend from long long ago have both been to Hawaii and are in the process of giving me some good tips. Tanya stayed at Aqua Wave said it was good there, so will definitely check that one out. Rhys hasn't giving me options of accommodation yet, but he will if I ask him.
Must go to a travel agent to get a good deal. Whatever you do, don't tell Jamie this, but I don't completely trust the internet and tv for that matter. I always thought Jetstar would be the cheapest. Well I just looked up Harvey World Travel and .... Qantas is very cheap - and they give you food!!! OH my goodness. I'm in shock.
I credit the pictures to this site.

Enthusiasm

I have just done a little bit of blog surfing. Here, here and here.
How do people keep up their enthusiasm?

Scrapbookers for example, there are names in the industry that have been around for AGES. They are prolific scrapbookers. Chefs such as Gordon Ramsay *yum* how can he keep up his enthusiasm, I can't cook for three people without losing interest.

Well I'm thinkin' deep tonight.

I WANT SOME ENTHUSIASM.

I was going to upload a whole bunch of photos.. but our computer is a piece of crap.
Who could imagine being practically married to a computer nerd and our computers are rubbish.
I guess its the way it goes. Mechanics cars are crap. Builders have broken houses.
Very annoying actually.
I want to paint the doors in the computer room. The rest of the room is a light aqua (nicer than it sounds) not sure what I want to paint the doors though. I would like chalkboard paint, but Jamie is against that (boohoo). Maybe just stick with white. Can't go wrong with white. It'd be nice to surprise Mark and mum with the doors painted.
Mark is having a fabulous time with his grandparents.
Mum & Dad have spent up big in the last couple of weeks. They got a caravan and a 4wd. Not at all sure if this is what the car and the van look like, but hey its a picture. Mark adores them both.
Feeling a bit sleepy now, so I won't tell the very cool story that goes with the Suzuki Grand Vitara. By the way its the car I wanted, not a totally square Nissan Patrol - a very unsexy car.

*Sigh*

I feel icky. As I said to Ella last night, "I feel like shit, a nondescript shit, but shit all the same"
Snoozed most of the afternoon. Did my grocery shop - thank goodness for a really good pay (yipee)
The rent for Feb has finally been paid, found it in our bank as I was writing out the "Notice to Vacate" form. Oh well. I can start again on the 18th, as if he'll pay this month without force.

The boys are off to footy practice, its been a very wet week.

I'm watching Le Journal on SBS and its talking about rising cost of food and petrol world wide. In some asian countries RICE is becoming a luxury as it has doubled in price in the past two months.

I'm getting rid of Mark on Saturday, I'm gonna miss that kid. he's such a delight. He;s off to Nan and Pop's place, he is so excited about his holiday.


* * * ******************** * * * ****************** * * *


Its our 8th anniversary this weekend. How amazing is that? So much has happened in those 8 years.
Jamie has changed jobs about 5 times (Ansett, bizarre little jobs, Forstaff, Boeing, BAE)
I have changed career.
We moved interstate.
Mark started school.
We bought two houses
We now own two cars, a motorbike and a boat.
Jamie is the Football Coach
I'm the treasurer at OOSH
We have two dogs and two fish (after the big fish kill off 3 weeks ago when we had 6)

Ok that is enough. The plan for this year is a holiday (YIPEE) and a pregnancy. Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone and then we can have Brooklyn like Posh and Becks, and hopefully we can call our baby "Puket", "Bali" or "Gold Coast"
And then hopefully we will get married too, 8 years of thinking is surely enough.

Arrrggghhhh

Finally I decided to help out my guys. I cooked tea. Well I put the ingredients in the crock pot and it cooked itself.

I got home from work at 10.30 and there it was still in the crockpot, still cooking.

They didn't realise that it was there.

So what did they eat? A chocolate bar and coke from the servo on the way to cricket.

OH DEAR.

Hospital at home.

This is a scary big spider near Rocket's workshop. Needed a picture again.

Daniel, he's our neighbour from two doors down and is Marko's current best friend. They spend every moment of time together when they are not at any football training. He's a lovely Sudanese boy, so polite.

Anyway today he and Mark were playing out the front and he tripped and fell onto our brick fence injuring his knee. Mark came inside screaming.. he just stood there looking terrified, he thought his bone had come through through skin. It didn't bleed though, just pushed the skin back, like a superficial graze. But on his super black skin his knee looked white like the bone was poking through.

I cleaned him up - not that it needed much cleaning. Jamie got some padding and a bandage from his fishing kit (hmmm must raid work for some supplies for a real first aid kit) and off he hobbled home with a bandage around his knee. Poor kid he was so brave.

Must remember to check out my emergency nursing technique and investigate his knee tomorrow or Wednesday.

Not sure what to title this one!

Thought I'd just say hello again.

Suffering from insomnia again - only 12.30 - but its annoying.

I had some funny stories about Mark but I can't remember them.

Something bizarre that happened yesterday. After work I was SOOO exhausted that I went straight to bed. It was 3.30pm. That is just wrong really. Poor Mark had no idea what was going on. Jamie was watching the footy - his beloved Kangaroos got smashed, despite winning early in the game. After I woke up we decided to go to the beach as Marko wanted a swim, we went to Horseshoe Beach alternatively known as *The Dog Beach* and the puppies had a swim. Charlie loves the ocean, she tears in after the ball and swims out to bring them back. Marky was swimming with them. Skye just barks like as crazy man. My thought is he is protecting Charlie or Mark when they are in the water and wants them to come in. When Charlie swims out, Skye follows him despite his better judgment just to protect her.
Anyway after the swim we went back to the car and Charlie got diarrhoea (arrgggh just like work). Now a dog with the squirts is a really weird thing to see. Anyone have any idea what would cause that???

Ahh the Magic Bullet infomercial. That reminds me of a time Mark and I went to Centrelink - he yelled at the top of his voice "This is my favourite ad" he found a chair and sat and watched it. Well surprise surprise we now own a Magic Bullet and it sits in the cupboard gathering dust. HMMM why do I succumb to infomercials.

Got to try and get some sleep. Hopefully tomorrow I will get some batteries and upload some new photos. Got some great ones from easter.

Bye
PS. Is that better Kathryn??

Happy Easter

Hello and Happy Easter.

Resting comfortably.

Hello and welcome to Tuesday evening.

I've been sleeping so well - its confusing.

Afternoon nap on my days off.

My rubella level is low, so I need a booster shot.

We had a beautiful dinner tonight. Got it from Good Taste Magazine. Pork chop, coleslaw (with apple) and steamed beans. All plates were empty.

Jamie won at Indoor Cricket.

Back to work tomorrow arvo.

A Victim

Sunday at 11.30am Mark and his friend from two doors down Daniel decided that they wanted a hamburger for lunch. They asked if they could scooter up to the fish and chip shop and buy it themselves. They travel all over together, so going up the street to the chippie shop wasn't a big deal. On their way home near the pipeline (those familiar with my house understand the significance of the *pipeline* its the local hangout), a group of boys, about 8 of them on bikes all around 10-12 years old started to circle Mark and Daniel saying they were gonna bash them up.
My boys replied that "no they weren't" and I think Daniel said "Why would I fight you pussy's" (not too helpful Daniel). The gang also made a cutthroat signal. There were more words about wanting to fight and the boys ran home, Mark to our place and Dan to his place.

Mark came inside and said he had a lovely hamburger and.... "Mum, can you come here please??" This is the bane of my life, he always wants me to come to him, but I reckon he should come to me if he wants to say something, but I digress.
When I finally relented, he told me the whole story.

We went to Jamie and told him... in Jamie's usual style he said "What did you do Mark? The kids wouldn't want to fight you if you did nothing" Sometimes Jamie is so naive, there are generally bad people in the world, people who succumb to the gang mentality.

I worried about him, went to work, talked to my friend Brad who has two kids of a similar age to Mark, just to gauge his opinion of him as a parent and a man.

This morning I talked to mum (again) and she suggested I call the school, the police and talk to Daniel's mum as well. Two out of three ain't bad. Mrs Skillen was very helpful and she talked to Mark today in a discreet way.

The police station, I must admit, was fun. The police women were so beautiful I really felt like I was in an episode of "The Bill". I was invited into an interview room and she took my statement. Mark now has his name on the NSW police computer as a Victim of Crime. My little baby not yet 10.

When I collected Mark today from OOSH, he said to me "Mum, you remember what happened yesterday, it was actually VERY serious, Mrs Skillen talked to me and said it was really serious". She talked to the boy who goes to his school who was part of the gang and Mark thought that Jarrod had confessed to Mrs Skillen (as if). He wasn't mad at me for calling the school or the police.

Well all in all, it was an interesting day. The boys went for a scooter ride this arvo, and didn't run into any trouble.

If you got to the end of this post - I congratulate you.

Survived it.

Don't you hate it when work consumes you?
That has been my week.

When I started as a nurse about 5 years ago now, I considered my pay good compared with other jobs I had worked. I knew in comparison to other jobs its pretty well paid. I know that compared to admin jobs, the pay is crap. But I'm not too interested in sitting at a computer doing goodness knows what. I'm happy to be in a job that people understand (to a point) and respect.
Now I'm a little bit further in my career. I'm considered a *senior staff* member and as I'm not a kid, I have that in age as well. I am now responsible for teaching junior or newer staff, I think I'm doing a pretty good job. But now I'm thinking that nurses are just not paid enough. It really takes over your life when work gets tough.

Oh well not really sure where this is going. Maybe I want more pay. Maybe I need to quit again (no I've never quit this job). Nah I'll just calm down a bit.

What the????

I have someone from Morocco looking at my blog?

Changes.

I'm being better about my exercise. The Biggest Loser is rubbing off.
I've lost about 4kg from my heaviest, so I'm pretty happy about that. Speaking of TBL, I'm sick of the advertising. I thought there was going to be a big fight tonight between Shannan and John, but it wasn't that at all... they just beat everything up and its quite annoying.

My ultrasound was "interesting", don't think I'm happy to share the bizarre details here, but those that see me have heard the story. Its pretty funny if you ask me.

Marko conned me - he gets tummy aches in the morning. If I have the day off.. and I've had a bad night, well what the bother. He was a delight at home. Not sure the reason behind the tummy aches. I inquired and he isn't bullied, he doesn't bully, he doesn't get yelled at, he doesn't get in trouble, he has enough friends and other than getting graphic, I can't think of any reasons. Oh and he enjoys the work.

Jamie is catching up on sleep. Three nights in a row he has fallen asleep on the couch. Last night was at 9.30pm. Tonight - get this - he fell asleep on the couch at 5.30, he missed his cricket game, his captain called to ask where he was and he slept through the phone ringing (and he doesn't do that!!) he woke up when he snored at one point (taking after my dad, snorting himself awake), woke up when I poked him in the tummy. He didn't even have dinner. Went from the couch to bed and is still snoring!

Me - well I'm all over the shop. I'm totally scared to go to bed. Had a full on panic attack in the middle of the night Sunday night and it scare the shit out of me. Jamie *again* slept through it, so he wasn't helpful. So in reality I'm in need of sleep but am scared to go to bed. How stupid that that.

I really need to take some photos, or have some photos taken - any takers?

I need to plan something FUN... any suggestions???

AND I think the mouse is back, or I'm so tired I'm hallucinating.

Just when you think you've got it figured out.

I thought my legs were good - and they were. Now I'm going down the road of self medicating - doesn't work. Now I'm sleepy and jumpy.

OOSH is complicated. I'll share more later.

The kid is gorgeous. Love him to pieces.

Sunday Evening

I'm freaking out watching *Underbelly*
Please stop reading if you live in Victoria, banned due to legal restrictions.
Pretty yucky what happens in the underworld.

A tidy house.

Can you believe it?
My house is tidy. Took a long time yesterday. The lawn has been mowed and it looks good (I wish he'd use the catcher though). We don't look like a rental anymore.

Took the boat out for a little spin yesterday which was nice.

Had a Biggest Loser fest with Mark. The weeks worth of TBL that I had taped, watched it all in one hit. I really don't like the Red Team. Rachel... I just don't get. Sheridan giving in to the temptation just does not make sense. Well that my thoughts on TBL, Mark just wished I'd shut up. I'm so glad Michelle doesn't train me... oh that's right, I don't train.

Umm today we are hoping to get the car seals done, but I don't like out chances. I want to get "Singstar" or "Buzz" for the Playstation we got last weekend.

I went on a card making frenzy last weekend, made about 40 cards. If anyone needs any, just let me know. Stuffed if I know what I'll do with 40 cards. Desperately want to make some more. Will attempt to scrapbook. But don't have much inspiration to do that.

Tomorrow is the "Come and Try Day" for the AFL. I really hope it will be good day. Some drills for the kids and a mini-game. I've got to get Jamie organised with some fun activities.

Christy xx

Sorry

Today is a pretty big day in Australia's history. Finally the government has said "sorry" for the stolen generation. I think every single school child watched the speech.

Mark said to me yesterday, "What do you think is important about tomorrow?" and it was the Sorry Day speech. He was very excited to get to school to watch it with his friends. More importantly he was interested in what it meant and why Kevin Rudd had to say sorry = he didn't do it.
I think that is why so many Aussies have a problem with the apology, why should be apologize for something we didn't do, or that was done with the best of intentions at the time. Well it still doesn't make it right. I'm happy that we as a nation have apologised, it was necessary. I might not be coherent in what I'm talking about, but I wanted my tiny two cents worth.

The photo came from the ABC website. I tried to find one of some Aboriginal people, but then decided against it.

Doctors.

Just a quick note...

Tomorrow I'm seeing my Neurologist again - just to get the results of my sleep study, should be interesting. My RLS is quite good at the moment, I think cos I'm sleeping better due to the wonderful invention of sleeping tablets.

I need to see my GP or a chiro about a new pain in my hip/back. I was in agony tonight with it, felt nauseous and taking panadol every 4 hours (or less) didn't help. How on earth do people live with chronic pain? Do I sound like a nurse? No other theory than the worse case scenario. As flippant as that is... our friend Doug passed away from a secondary in his spine that "just happened one day" My horoscope for this year said I would have problems with my feet. But I remember now, I don't believe in horoscopes.

Thursday I'm off to an ultrasound to see why my "girl bits" aren't giving me a baby! Oops I mean why they are not giving US a baby.

Blood test the following week.

Rain, mozzies, boats and work.

Newcastle (for that matter Australia) is raining. But its a hot, muggy rain and its bloody awful. The puddles that persist mean that mozzie's breed and then they bite ME. I'm sure they bite other... but more importantly... they bite me.
BOAT is finally in the water. A huge engine overhaul - lots of foul language and LOTS of driving to Tanilba and back... our little family took it for a spin on Sunday morning. It was really nice, having the salty air in my hair, coolish outside. Mark as going to attempt fishing, but in true *I don't need you to tell me how to do it fashion* he cracked. So now our boat in safely back in our backyard.
Work has been awful. Patient illnesses are getting worse - thankfully they have looked at hte medical situation. So we now two interns (junior docs), one ward based registrar (next level up) and two overseeing senior registrars as well as the 8 consultants. So my thoughts are the patients SHOULD be cared for. Now we just need to get nursing right.
Mayb'e I'll leave. find a job in another hospital.. but end iwh the same shit, but not know anyone. Ok I'll stay in gastro.

===========================

Next bit of news is a bit personal (so stop reading now). As you might be aware Jamie and I are trying to have a baby. SOmewhat unsuccessfully so far. So I'm having an ultrasound of my girlie bits next week, then a blood test, followed by an operation to check for endometriosis.

Doctors, doctors and probably heaps of blood tests.

Tomorrow I am going to a fertility doctor. I'm quite excited and nervous.

I think I'm nervous, got so anxious that I felt nauseas - took a pregnancy test - negative as per usual. But that would have been my luck. Cheaper luck though.