Black Knee High Boots

I often describe myself as a summer lover, and I am.  I do love summer.  I love havaianas and swimming and sunny days, but I have to say that lately I have been really hating it.  And it occurred to me today that it is not just because I am pregnant, but also because I love jeans and boots more than any other items of apparel in the world!  And when it is a thousand degrees, jeans and boots do not work very well.

Today I bought a fantastic pair of knee high boots.  It certainly wasn't boot buying weather (it's been 33C today) but I was compelled to do it.  They were boots.  Black.  And knee high.  Irresistible really.  Yet I am wondering now just how long it will be before I can actually wear them!  Nevermind.  I am moving to Victoria .. will probably be able to wear them endlessly!!

Too Hot, Too Pregnant

It is far too hot to be pregnant.  Most people around Perth at the moment are complaining about the heat (it is currently 41C ... farking HOT) and they're not about to give birth to a baby the size of an elephant.  I had to go to the bank to do a simple transfer of money today and I waited til I had a babysitter at home, then went out on my own in the heat to the bank.  When I got there, the bastards told me that the transfer I wanted to do had to be done before 2PM (it was 3.30)!  I said, so there is no way I can do this transfer before Monday?  Oh yes, she said ... if you come back tomorrow before 2PM.  I mean seriously!!  How can they not do the transfer NOW and send it or whatever tomorrow??  Are we not in the age of electronics??  So angry!  So damn hot and too farking pregnant!

OKAY .. that's my rant, and I do feel better now :)

Onto more exciting things.  On Monday we take possession of our new house.  How absolutely exciting!  The only downer is that it is in Victoria and I am in WA.  Which means that I have to have someone else collect my keys for me and walk around my new house without me there.  Bummer.  Oh well, hopefully the renovations we do won't take too long to be completed and we can move in .. and start a totally different life!!  Scary.

We plan to move mid year, which means winter.  We will be moving from the warm climes of Perth to the freezing cold of central Victoria ... so I am sure I will be complaining about that when the time comes!  But right now I can promise you, I would give a LOT to be experiencing a big chill!  

Also is fantastically apparent that Germany does NOT experience the Summers that Perth does!  This is evident in the R32's air conditioning.  Seriously .. not efficient enough for here!  Although, again, I am sure come winter I will be very appreciative of the HEATED seats!!  Meanwhile the Toyota Prado we have (yes, my 'family' car) is obviously manufactured in a hot climate, as it's air conditioning will freeze you in a matter of seconds!  Deluxe!

Ah the weather.  It is so true that you could spend hours discussing it!!

Also today, the girls in my mums group starting placing bets on date, weight and sex of the new bub, Smirnoff.  Such a laugh!  So far there is someone who has correctly identified both the sex AND the date ... the weight of course will remain to be seen.  I have informed the punters that the prize is a period of no less than 4 hours straight babysitting all THREE of my children!!  Strangely, no one is keen to win the competition .........

Okay, I have used far too many big words for my hot baby-placenta brain to cope with!  Til next time .... :D 

It's time!

Oh man, I cannot stop looking at the Cleo Bachelors of the Year!  I mean, I know I am a perve .. self confessed!  I LOVE to look, but for some reason some of these guys are just too hot!  And I keep looking at the BAD boys ... the ones with smirks on their faces (I have been told I smirk a lot, maybe that's why).  I have to blame the hormones in my body this time.  I mean, I have also been cleaning.  I know, CLEANING.  Freaky.  Time to have a baby I think.

Massive life change ahead!!

So a lot of changes are happening for me in the next five or six weeks.  Let's see .. in just over a week we settle on our new house!!  Unfortunately we won't be there when this exciting event happens as the house is interstate and we will be too busy here because in just over TWO weeks Smirnoff will magically appear (I know this because I am having a caesarian)!  Then about 3 weeks after Smirnoff enters the world, Hubby will be unemployed as we will have (fingers crossed of course) sold our businesses!!  Talk about a lot of change in a very short period!  And THEN .. we start renovating the new house ready for us to move into hopefully by mid year!  My brain actually hurts when I think of all the things I have to do by then, let alone that I have to do them with THREE kids under FOUR hanging around.  I am going to be very preoccupied methinks :D

Anyway, exciting times ahead .. can't wait to get back to the country and have space to run around.  Can't wait to look at the stars every night and see them shining brightly.  Can't wait to be in the clean air.  Can't wait to get the kids a puppy .. I don't think I have ever looked forward to something this much. 

Better!

Okay, so last night I didn't go to sleep until after midnight.  Which surprised me because even though I am practically always uncomfortable at the moment, I still generally manage to fall asleep straight away!  Anyway, my point is, that I only had 6 hours sleep (I usually have about 7.5) and this morning I have woken up feeling like a new person and entirely un-pregnant!!  Mind you, I did break one of my 'green' rules and had a longer than normal shower.  And by longer, I mean like 11 minutes LONGER than usual.  But it was pure heaven to finally be having a hot shower after months of ice cold ones.  Also, Smirnoff will be a Pisces so I thought I would indulge the bub in a little water on belly action!  So, so far I am off to a good start to my day!  It is 8.20am, and I have a fair bit to do today which will end with not only the excitement of picking up the NEW CAR .. *GRIN* .. but also with our usual Friday night on Cott beach for dinner .. complete with good looking waiters!! 

36 weeks and counting ...

Well, I wanted to add these pictures for my own reference for the future.  I just took these.  I am 36 and a bit weeks pregnant.  In around 3 weeks time I will have a new baby.  I cannot imagine where another 3 weeks growth is gonna go, but there's not much I can do about it!!

I don't look like I'm even pregnant at all until I stand up!!  I will say this though, a guy (granted he was very young) asked me yesterday if I was 'expecting' .. I told him that I had just eaten a rather large lunch!!

She who must be obeyed wins (as usual)

Two things happened yesterday that I wanted to share with you here.  One is making me really angry and I am not entirely sure I can talk about it right now.  Being 36 weeks pregnant is not a good time to voluntarily contribute to raising my blood pressure!  The other is that we FINALLY bought a new car!  Yes, after roughly 6 weeks of test driving nearly every make and model known to man (OK so I exaggerate a little) we finally settled and agreed on a car and bought one.  We pick it up tomorrow night!  Pretty excited about that.  We bought a car totally different to any we had driven, which came as quite a shock to us both.  Hubby wanted performance, I wanted European.  The car that came the closest to that was the new Mercedes C Class (Wheels Car of the Year) but at around $125K (!!!) we were finding it VERY difficult to justify, hence why we stalled for so long.  The other car we liked was the HSV GTS at around $85K, but the thought of dropping $100 of fuel into it every week was paining hubby quite significantly.  So in the previous week, Hubby had been researching the new VW Passat R36 (not yet released) so we decided to visit Volkswagen and check out a Passat to get a 'feel' for it.  Whilst there, Hubby pointed out the Golf R32.  "Honey, it's a hatch" I said.  "And you know that I will forever have to hang shit on you if you buy a hatch.."  But I liked it, I liked it a lot .. it was quite a gorgeous little car.  Anyway, we drove the Passat and I know it wasn't the R36 but it was definately lacking something.  It reminded me of the Audi A4 .. kinda like an old person's car (no disrespect of course .. hehe).  Then we took out the R32. 

The first thing of note was the sound it made.  A real grunt, a rally sound.  It was fantastic!  The model we drove also had DSG transmission complete with paddles for gear changing on the steering wheel!  We took the car into an estate and hubby opened her up.  It was, in a word, sweet!  The acceleration was awesome!  The feel of the car was fantastic!  The sound was pure magic!  All from the tiniest car we had driven!!  We took the car back to the showroom and got out to speak to the dealer.  Before we could say anything he said "you understand that because this is a sports car there is a 6 month wait for one."  SIX MONTHS?!?!  Excuse me but you've got to be fucking joking!!  Mercedes could HAND BUILD a car in less than four months!  Six months my ass!  We'll be off then ...

I was disappointed.  Most fun car we had driven and I could see us tearing up the dirt road to our new house in it (make good friends with our new neighbours ...).  But six months .. no way were we waiting six months.

Then I remembered another VW dealer about 15 minutes drive away.  "Let's check them out", I said.  "See if they have a car in stock and if it REALLY does take six months to get one."

We arrived.  We talked to the salespeople.  It was obvious immediately that they knew a helluva lot more than the last place we were at.  "Do you have R32's in stock?" we asked.  "We do." 

So after more talk on the car, a more thorough run down of the features, and more insane grinning from my hubby (who was imagining the fun he was gonna have in the car) he said to our guy .. "Can I have this one?"  .... and that is what happened ... we will be in possesion of our gorgeous deep blue, dark tinted, specced out R32 tomorrow night.  And I am driving it home. 

PS On another note, the R32 was also the cheapest car we drove!  Never before have I chosen the cheapest option.  I mean that .. never.  And it has everything we wanted on a car ... under $70K.  Ah, happy days ahead :D 

It pays to shop around!!

So I went into the city on Friday morning and discovered a gorgeous pair of Manolo Blahniks in Myer.  Only trouble was, at $1325 I couldn't really justify it.

So I came home and decided to check the same pair out on Neiman Marcus.  Here is what I discovered ... with the current exchange rate, I could actually buy the Manolos, a pair of 7 for all Mankind jeans, and a La Perla bra and g string all for about the same price including shipping costs! 

So I learnt a valuable lesson today ... 

I LOVE ONLINE SHOPPING!!!

Proud Day

Every now and then, actually, all the bloody time, my kids do things that amaze me.  This morning, Sprat has been writing not only his name, but that of his best friend as well.  The amazing thing about this is that Sprat is only 3 and a half.  I am beyond proud at this moment.  This has been a truly goose bump inducing moment in my life.  I always knew that the time would go so quickly, but it seems like only yesterday we were watching Sprat enter this world, and now here he is writing his name and our third bub is about to enter the world .. The funniest thing about this all is that I feel like a younger person today than I did 3 years ago.  My outlook on not only my life, but the lives of my kids has changed profoundly.  I know I am a better mother today than I have ever been.  And I know that I have never felt prouder than I do right now.

Happy Valentines Day!

It's Valentines Day again, and people around Australia are complaining that it's another commercial holiday, we spend too much money, blah blah blah.  But I disagree.  I love Valentines Day.  It is an opportunity to show the person you love that you appreciate them.  Yes, I know you can do this any ol' day, but why not have a day celebrating it?  Hubby and I have always made Valentines Day something special and we've been married 11 years so it certainly hasn't been worthless has it!  Unfortunately, since he works stupid hours and leaves before I even get up, we don't do Valentines Day until he gets home, but it gives me something to look forward to!!  I was hoping that this year he would outdo himself and buy me a Mercedes, but so far, no luck LOL ... although there's a lot of hours in the day to go yet!!  And yes I did buy him something, something very symbolic and romantic which I can't say in case he reads this before he receives it!  In fact I was SO organized this year, I bought his present a couple of weeks ago :D

Anyway, just a quickie to say that I celebrate Valentines every year and love it.  And why not?  It's good to be loved!

Waiting for Smirnoff

So it is early February, and I have a little over 4 weeks to go until Smirnoff arrives.  I am watching my belly grow each day it seems and I am excited to get to meet this little person growing inside me.  There is something awesome about not knowing what my baby will look like, although with each pregnancy I have hoped that they would be cute bubs and not little gorillas!!

I remember when Sprat was born and we were lucky enough to have a cute little boy (a little yellow from jaundice but cute .. he looked like he had just come from a holiday in Broome, hehe). At the same time there was another baby in the nursery who the midwives had nicknamed Big John!  He was an ENORMOUS baby with a ton of black hair and not very easy on the eye!  Now of course all mums love their kids regardless, I am not disputing this, but I know I am not alone when I say that I hope my babies are cuties!!

Anyway, along the term of my pregnancy I have been lucky enough to have regular scans of my bub.  My ob/gyn has his own sonograph machine so he performs scans as part of my regular check ups.  His machine also takes 3D images of the baby, so I actually have a pretty specific picture of what my baby will look like (to a degree of course).  My last scan revealed chubby little cheeks and arms and a cute button nose .. awww!  As the baby grows the 3D scans look even more awesome and on Monday I will have my next check up which should yield some great shots (providing Smirnoff is co-operating and faces the camera!). 

So I am waiting with a fair bit of excitement right now.  Smirnoff moves with more force every day (sometimes enough to hurt me!!) and makes it increasingly difficult to sleep and go for longer than an hour between toilet stops!  I have constant late night indigestion which means eating copious amounts of Rennie tablets and sleeping almost upright!  I long to sleep on my tummy again and wear my non maternity jeans once more.  

However, I also know that this will more than likely be my last pregnancy so I am savouring each moment that Smirnoff is inside me as it truly is a miracle to have a person growing inside of you.  

So, in 4 weeks time, it will be back to interrupted sleep, and an extremely dependent baby.  Tiny growsuits and little bitty nappies.  Snuggle wraps and tiny tiny fingers and toes.  And all too soon, the baby stage will be over and I will have another little personality marching around the house!

Music and Lyrics

Music has always played such a huge part in my life.  I have blogged about this in particular reference to Bon Jovi, but it is a much broader occurrence than that.  There are many many songs that feel as though they have been written just for me and for my experiences.  I am sure that it is the same for many people the world over.  For me, this is one of the reasons that I dig bands like Bon Jovi so much .. I like the story telling aspect of their music. 

Each and every moment of major significance of my life has a song attached to it.  When Sprat was born, he would often only settle to Jet singing 'Are you gonna be my girl?' ... Babygirl spent a long time in the Neo Natal ward when she was born on oxygen and the Bob Evans song 'Don't you think it's time' brings it all back to me, every second watching her in her cot, oxygen being breathed into her through a machine, tubes in her nose to feed her .. hell it brings tears to my eyes even now just thinking about it and hearing the song in the background.

And isn't it for this reason that we pick a song to dance to when we are married?  The first dance as husband and wife and the song you choose is important for that remembering aspect later in life.

Music is a release from the every day too.  It takes you away, allows you to dream and imagine things you may not ever have the chance to experience.  Songs can describe your euphoria and your pain, reduce you to tears, turn you on or just make you laugh.  I just cannot imagine a day without music and lyrics in my life.

When I was younger my brother and his friends had a band and I used to attempt to sing with them sometimes and it was just pure fucking magic to be able to do that.  I even penned a few songs, one of which my brother recorded (he wrote the music, I wrote the lyrics) and to hear that played through my CD player was awesome.  I penned many more, but they never saw the light of day, my insecurities about my writing ability always stopped me from showing anyone, even though writing was my best subject.

I know how it must feel for a writer to have their work appreciated and acknowledged, which is why I suppose I blog in part.  I just wish I could get past the whole insecure phase and promote myself sometimes!!  

So, I will head back into my past, and look to my future and think about the present and listen to my CDs and browse through iTunes and find the songs that bring back all my memories.  The happy ones and the sad ones, the ones that made me laugh and the ones that helped me overcome my anger.  And I will thank the people who wrote them.

There are so many things that I want to blog about.  Unfortunately most of them fall under too personal a category and therefore I am not willing to publish them!!  The thing is though, is that this is really addictive and so so easy to do.  To sit down and write about the stuff going through my head is doing me a world of good, to be honest.  Now I understand why so many mums have blogs.  I'm sure not many of them are doing this for the fame (I'm certainly not, I'm too sscared to even advertise that I have a blog!  It's mentioned in some of my profiles but that's all I can manage!  I would like to tweet when I have written a new post but can't bring myself to do it yet!), but I am positive they are all blogging for an outlet.  An escape.  Or a chance to use their brains in a similar function to what they used to be used for!

I have so many dreams and aspirations for my future.  I am lucky to be almost giving birth to my third and most likely final baby, and I am only 31.  In 4 years time, Smirnoff will be at kindy and I will have time to be me again ... and I will only be 35 (by the way, 30's are the new 20's).  All this appeals to me.  However,  I am not going to leave it that long to start something new.

I have a few ideas, but no idea where to start.  Which really sucks.  I need to do more research this I am sure of, but I just don't know how to do it .. I suppose that's where google comes in handy really.  Really must use it more ...

Anyway, there are things in the pipeline ... hopefully I might even be successful, make a bit of money out of it.  I may finally have the career I have always wondered about ...