Sunday, January 30, 2011

What a weird and wonderful weekend...

So I know that I said the topic of this blog would be the nursery, but the weekend just been had enough to be the subject of its very own blog. It started with all the warnings about Cyclone Bianca on its way to the South West. Jason and I were both woken up at around 5.30am as the first of a series of storms passed through Perth.

Once I was awake I remembered snippets of one of the oddest dreams that I have had since being pregnant, it involved me attending a course at one of Jason's workmates houses, living in a flat in Perth (with an odd collection of people from past and present) while Jason lived in our old NZ house because we only had one car, converting Jason's mountain bike to a unicycle as it was easier to ride now that I am pregnant (what the???), riding said mountain bike/unicycle up a big hill reminiscent of Wellington and when the hill got too steep just gracefully stepping off the bike and taking the train the rest of the trip, and watching the triathlon world champs which also involved kayaks. Hmmmm it was very odd, but the unicycle part made me laugh, a lot.

So Saturday morning was spent cyclone proofing the backyard and getting rid of any unintended missiles. Following this I dropped Jason off at the stag party he was attending (by 8am)... it was forecast to be a hot and humid 40 degree day so on the way I made Jason drink some powerade, to try and minimise some of the damage the playing paintball in 40 degrees as well as drinking all day was going to do. It was a dress up stag party as well, the theme being the letter b. Lots of the guest went all out, the party featured a Little Bo Peep, Borat, many bogans, a bouncer or two, Bjorn Borg and Jason as the "Box". We left it a little late to get a costume organised so we cut arm holes out of the baby car seat box that we had at home and that was his costume. Not too bad for a last minute (and free) costume. Plus it meant that he could dump it easily when it got too annoying.

So after dropping Jason off, I headed off to pregnancy pilates (loving this class by the way) then back home via a maternity clothes shop as I need some more work tops. It was a shopping fail though as the shop was really low on stock and only had smalls and extra smalls... I am a maternity medium so I was a little disappointed to come away with nothing.

My afternoon was going to be total bliss. I had booked in for the Yummi Mummi Pregnancy Day Spa absolute bliss package (a present form Rona and Ken for Christmas- thank you so much) which I was really looking forward too.

I braved the 40 degrees and headed off to my spa, upon arrival I was treated with a "Soul Mama foot soak" which in itself was so lovely, cold water with peppermint essence and rose petals, I could feel my fat ankles and swollen feet receding as I sat there. What's great about a pregnancy day spa is all the magazines are pregnancy and baby magazines, so I enjoyed reading these while me feet soaked.

Next up was a "Pure Relief" back, neck and shoulder massage using ginger and peppermint to alleviate headaches, pregnancy sickness, and neck/should tension. I was starting to feel really nice and relaxed by now.

I rolled over and next up was "Heavenly Legs", which was reflexology and massage for my lower legs, the aim to ease my aching legs and feet. They used aloe vera which cooled and soothed and also helped reduce the swelling from the last hot/humid week in Perth. During this part of my treatment I must have dozed off as I woke myself up with a snore... hahaha (also slightly embarrassing).

The next stage was slightly odd to begin with, but in hindsight was really great. It was a "Belly Bliss Facial", so exactly that- a "facial" for your belly. Hydrating, exfoliating and soothing oils were rubbed and brushed onto my belly. It was weird but the sensations were great. Poppy seemed to like it as well, and started a little dance in there.

Next up was a total body exfoliation, the "Coconut Creme Body glow", the aim of this is to cleanse, polish and buff away dead skin and unclog pores. I LOVED this part, it felt so amazing. The coconut mix smell made me crave Anzac biscuits.

My day in the spa was nearing an end. I had a shower to wash off all the oils and exfoliation creme and I have to say my skin felt AMAZING. After my shower I got to spend around 30 minutes in the "chill out" room with a cheese and fruit platter and some more magazine browsing.

Wonderful.

As I left the spa, I realised that the day had changed incredibly. I left a 40 degree, humid, blue sky day and walked out into a downpour, the start of cyclone Bianca maybe? Unfortunately the storm didn't do much to dampen the temperature- down to around 36 degrees ish.

I headed home and as I was on my own was just going to turn on the aircon and have a nice nana nap. The house was stuffy and hot when I arrived home (the temperature gauge said around 32 degrees) but the aircon would soon take care of that. However, after 5 minutes disaster struck. A transformer fire at the local power station meant a total power outage for our suburb and a number of surrounding suburbs. Unfortunately our hot house was getting hotter and I was starting to suffer... 3.5 hours later I was siting on the couch with ice packs trying to cool myself down and the spa trip was a long ago memory. I was hot, tired, grumpy, sweaty, really uncomfortable and starting to really worry about the power outage being an overnight issue. But around 6pm, just as I was going to head out to a movie theatre (to get away from the incessant heat) the power came back on- I almost cried with relief. I turned on all three air con units in the house and started to get my body temperature back to something a little more comfortable. So it was a mix of total pleasure and pain for my day.

Jason's day was a whole heap different. It started with paintball which was inland from Perth, and according to car temperature gauges, was around 44 degrees. Jason said that one of the party goers weighed himself before and after the games and lost over 3kg in a couple of hours. He had a cold shower, they all dressed in their costumes and it was onto a bus for a pub crawl.

Jason called around 8.30 for a ride, due to some of the risque costumes and general drunken state of some of the guests they were having trouble getting into bars- which suited Jason as he wasn't that keen to keep partying for too many more hours. I picked Jason up around 9pm and Jason started feeling the effects of a day of paintball in stifling heat and hours of drinking.

After we got home we surveyed some of the paintball damage and Jason was in some pain. He had bad hits to his collarbone and lat, but the worst injury was too his thigh. This photo does not do the HUGE welt and bruise any justice at all!!! Its like a golf ball under his skin. All I can say is, boys, stag parties and paintball sometimes shouldn't mix :-)


Once we were in bed I had another pregnancy dream. Unfortunately this one wasn't funny or weird, it was just plain scary and involved a massive spider crawling down our wall from the aircon unit and heading towards my face. I jumped so much and landed on Jason with a yelp of fright (I haven't been able to move that fast since about 15 weeks of pregnancy so that shows what endorphins do). But even with all that commotion and a much heavier and less graceful pregnant lady landing on Jason he didn't stir at all. He was dead to the world in his post party sleep.

So that was Saturday!

Sunday has been nowhere near as eventful at all, we spent the morning cleaning the house and doing the groceries. I them made some peanut caramel slice for Jason's work lunches, prepped for homemade hamburgers for dinner and since then we have spent the afternoon watching movies under the aircon. The cyclone Bianca warnings have been totally downgraded now and its likely we won't even get any more rain here. It is a little windier than usual, but that's it.

Well I hope your weekend wasn't as odd as this one was for us!!!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Christmas, New Years and weeks 20 - 25

So its been a while since I have done an update, sorry about that so this one is going to be a long catch up blog.

Well, I spent Christmas and New Years over in Queensland with my family. While it was fantastic to see my family it rained about 95% of the time we were there. The Queensland floods were devastating and I am thankful that generally my family were all spared any major issues.

We flew into Queensland on Christmas Eve, arriving around 8pm. The flight wasn't too bad at all, but we seemed to be delayed everywhere. Landing, getting luggage and trying to leave the airport carpark. There were so many people travelling.

We had also left Western Australia's clear blue skies and 36 - 40 degrees, with minimal humidity, and arrived in Queensland's downpours, around 25 degrees and high humidity.

Christmas morning was a nice quiet affair before the troops arrived, so I got a couple of garden shots in (in between showers). Did you realise this is how pineapples grow?
I couldn't go all the way to Queensland without a fangipani shot. Unfortunately due to the weather only a handful of mum's 600+ frangipani plants were in bloom!Well Christmas this year was a Hawaiian theme, and everyone stepped up to the challenge.
Here is the Hayek family, they are all looking fantastic! I really love this collage.
Around 2pm (after many hours of stoking the outdoor cooking pit by Jason for the meat) we ate our scrumptious lunch. Mmmmmmm ham for the first time in 20 weeks!!! Fresh and yummy!!!

After lunch I had a lie down as I was pretty tired from the flight, the time difference, the humidity and being 20 weeks pregnant. But the party carried on around me. Here is a few more shots of the festivities.
All in all a great Christmas day, albeit tiring for me. I thankfully fell into a deep sleep around 9pm while the party animals carried on into the wee small hours.

The next few days in Queensland were pretty relaxing with 4 books read by me and at least a 2 hour sleep every day, however we were starting to get a bit of cabin fever as it was still raining. So Jason and I built some of my younger brother Tyson's K'nex from when he was younger. We ended up building a 6 foot space station out of 3000 pieces. It took us a day to build and a day to dismantle!

New Years Eve gave us the one day without rain and we made the most of it, I went on a good walk with Bella (the dog for those that don't know), Jason mowed Mum and Dad's soggy lawn and Jason and I took the kids to the New Year's Eve celebrations in Mooloolaba. Here are some shots of the kids enjoying the surf.

After the surf we had fish and chips for dinner followed up by baskin robbins sundaes. With the kids all hyperactive we waiting for the fireworks, which everyone enjoyed. The sugar soon wore off and we had a couple of quiet boys in the car on the way home.

We flew back to WA on New Years Day and had a couple of days off before heading back to work. In hindsight the break wasn't long enough and I wish that I had taken the next week off as well.

Anyway, on to Poppy. Poppy was 20 weeks exactly on Christmas Day and up to then I still hadn't felt any movements. But in between Christmas and New Years Jason and I were lying in bed one night, we both had a hand on my belly and YAY, we got a kick. It was great feeling it together and I was relieved to finally feel Poppy.

Since then Poppy is getting into a routine, I tend to get a good lot of kicks around 8pm at night and 3am in the morning. The rest of the time I get the odd kick here and there. If I ever want a kick an ice cold glass of water seems to wake Poppy up :-)

Since the week 19 photos my belly has increased substantially, and sorry if this next piece is too much information, but finally my belly is starting to make my boobs look to be more in proportion, hahaha. I had not anticipated increasing 6+ cup sizes when falling pregnant!! Anyway, here are a couple of belly shots from week 22.

And this is the most recent shot- nearly 25 weeks along now. Sheesh, I can't believe I still have 15 more weeks of growing to go. I have trouble getting up out of our very low bed these days as well as getting out of Jason's low car. So I am not sure how un-graceful I will be in 15 more weeks.Since Christmas I have got myself into a nice exercise routine. I am now walking everyday, anywhere from 4km up to 10km a day. I also do pregnancy pilates on a Saturday which has been really good for me.

We have also done a lot of baby shopping since Christmas, the nursery will be the subject of my next blog.

That's all for now. Until next time!

Monday, January 3, 2011

2010 in review...

So another year has passed and it is time to reflect on the best of 2010. The standout things for the year for Jason and I were:

Family:
Family is incredibly important to both Jason and I, some of the highlights for 2010 include:
  1. falling pregnant with our first child, due May 2011;
  2. Celebrating our 6 year wedding anniversary in August;
  3. seeing Jason's family a number of times (NZ in March and Perth in September and December);
  4. seeing my extended family (Rotorua Tickelpenny's) in NZ in March;
  5. Being visited by Jane and Quentin in December; and
  6. Spending Christmas and New Years with my family (a blog post to come on this).
Friends: Just like family, our friends are also really important to us:
  1. Visiting a number of friends in NZ in March (Megan; Lawrence, Nicci and James; and Blossom and Kate);
  2. Celebrating with Sam and Marnie at their wedding in March;
  3. Celebrating with Natalie and Deano at their wedding in April; and
  4. Celebrating with Melanie and Michael at the engagement party in October.
Travel and adventures:
  1. I had two work trips, one in Melbourne and the other in Singapore;
  2. we spent 3 weeks in New Zealand, spending most of our time in Taupo, but visited Orakei Korako and Waitomo Caves;
  3. I ran a 59.8km epic ultra marathon; and
  4. We checked out some of WA's local sights: the thrombolites, New Norcia, the Stirling ranges and the Pinnacles.
Arts and culture:
  1. I tried my hand at glass bead making;
  2. we enjoyed Drum Tao, the Japanese drum show at the Perth Concert Hall;
  3. we enjoyed Crowded House at Sandalford Estate; and
  4. we rocked with 60,000 other fans at U2.
Other:
  1. Jason bought a new car, "Black Betty".
So when looking back, although it was a quieter year than usual for us we have still done a lot, seen a lot and enjoyed life with our family and friends. We are really looking forward to 2011 with a lot of changes in store for us.