Happy Halloween!

We don't celebrate Halloween here in Australia, at least not like my overseas friends. You will see some costumes in the cheap $1 stores, and Halloween themed candy etc. but we don't go all out. Occassionally you get one set of kids knocking at the door "trick or treating".

I wish we did though. It would be so much fun having my kids dressed up and going out "trick or treating". My son asked if he could dress up, so he put on his mask he got in a Showbag from our recent trip to the Adelaide Show, and an old cape that his Bio Dad gave him a while ago. So not sure what he is, some scary character, but he thinks he looks cool lol

So, since a lot of my regular blog reads are from the US, where I know you go all out for Halloween, I wanted to take time to wish you all a Happy Halloween, and hope your kidlets get lots of goodies while out "trick or treating"!!!

Blah !!!

My title says it all really. I am feeling a little BLAH!!! I've changed my blog layout a couple of times this week. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and nothing felt right until I spotted this one. Although the "missing you" element doesn't ring true for me, I just fell in love with the picture and the colours. I feel like the girl in the picture. Like I'm just looking out the window wondering what lies ahead.

We still haven't found a house yet. We've looked in all areas, for rentals and homes to buy but nothing is coming our way just yet. It's really making me feel anxious. I don't like not knowing what's going on. I like to have definite plans. I'm definitely not a spontaneous person. I like being organised, I like to have set plans etc.

Mr H on the otherhand is so blaise about it all (excuse me if I spelt that wrong lol). It doesn't phase him what area we live in as long as it's a reasonable driving distance to his work. He couldn't care less as long as we find a place SOON! Agh, MEN!!!

I'm stressing out big time. I want to know what area we are going to, what house we are going to live in, and what school I need to enrol the kids into. Is that so much to ask? I don't work well under stress lol

In other news - I did manage to lose some weight this weigh-in though. Not as much as I thought I was going to lose but it was a loss, so I'm happy with that. Still a LONG way to go, but I'm slowly getting there.

I went for my check-up at the hospital for my kidneys. I still have a couple of stones lodged in my right kidney which is causing my kidney to be dilated. The urology team will discuss my case this week, as far as what to do about the remaining stones. I know I definitely passed 1 stone at the beginning of the year (like I could forget THAT), and the young dr told me today that when I had scans in July, it showed 1 tiny stone in my tube. I am supposed to have passed that, but I never felt anything come out. So I either did without knowing, or it's still in there somewhere. So, for now, I will be on my medication to prevent further stones, and most probably will be for life. And then go back for another appointment in April, 2008.

That's it for now!

A lil update ...

I've been so slack with blogging lately. I apologise to those who actually read this (sorry T.S). All is going smoothly with the sale of our house. So far, so good!!! The following day after the "cooling off period", the buyers paid a deposit. A couple of days after that, we had a bank evaluator out to inspect the house. They normally only do that with serious buyers, AND that process usually doesn't happen for 2 weeks after the cooling off period. So hopefully, that is a good sign that things are moving along fast.

The only dilemma we have at the moment is finding somewhere to live. To save you all the boring details, lets just say ALOT of driving around, from everywhere North, South & up in the Hills. Only place we didn't cover was the West I think lol And we are still homeless, so to speak. We have, however, decided that we will rent while we find the right property, then build. We have settled on a design and a builder, but finding the right block of land is driving us NUTS!!!

We are waiting to hear back about 2 homes we put in a rental application for. I rang the Real Estate and they said they are processing all applications at the moment. So fingers crossed we get approved, and we can at least say we have somewhere to move to.

As far as my weight loss is going. I didn't post a weigh-in for last week because I was very disappointed that I had gained. But a couple of days later it showed a big loss. So I am thinking the weigh-in was marred by a slip of junk food I had eaten the night before??? In anycase, every morning this week I have weighed myself and each time it has shown the same weight LOSS. Fingers crossed again it stays the same or less by official weigh-in Sunday morning (which will make a loss of 4.7kgs - roughly 10 or more lbs).

That's pretty much it for my update. Well, as much as I can type without boring you lol

Our home is almost ....

SOLD!!! I don't want to jinx it but I had to share. We've had the house on the market for 2 weeks, and had our 1st Open Inspection on Saturday. We had about 8 groups come through the house, and were told that we had 2 buyers interested. Our Agent is a good guy and told us right from the start that he wouldn't accept verbal offers, only ones willing to put it down on a contract. So, last night he came around with 2 offers. One was over what we were asking, JUST, but they had a lot of conditions, including selling their extremely overpriced house 1st, and they were only willing to put $100 down for a deposit. WHAT??? The agent managed to talk them into $500, but we all laughed at that and thought "Are these people serious??"

Then 2nd offer, which we agreed to, was a little less than we asked for, but we managed to get the price up a little from them. They also don't need to sell a house, as the house they sold is all settled and done with. They have a pre-approved loan from the bank as well as cash savings. So as the norm, they have a 2 day cooling off period which officially ends midnight Tuesday. Then an extended settlement date of November 30th, which I liked because then it gives the kids a chance to finish off their schooling. They usually finish middle of December, so I am not fussed about them missing a couple of weeks of school.

Then our plan is to buy a block of land and build. We have a block in mind and a house design we like. I'm off to get the quote today. We had one yesterday for a house I absolutely LOVE, but with things we wanted added etc, it bumped the price up, so we settled on another design which would save us $20,000 (added costs of extention, closed in garage etc).

So I would love any prayers, finger crossings, good vibes etc that the plans all fall into place, and that the sale goes through unhitched!!! Thank you in advance xoxoxo

Bowling

This afternoon Spiderboy had a birthday party to attend. His friend from school was having a party at a local bowling alley. I thought it was such a great idea, since most parties the kids have are either at McD's or Hungry Jack's (Burger King to my US friends).

Both my kidlets have been begging me FOREVER to go bowling. The week leading up to each set of school holidays the teachers hand out vouchers for the bowling alley. They always end up in the bin. BAD MUM!!! I kept one this time in the hope that maybe Fairy Princess could get a game too and play on the same lane as the other kids. She was over the moon when the bday boy's Mum came up and asked if FP would like to join in. They were playing on the "bumper" lanes.

For their 1st time, both kids did really well. Poor FP though! She is so dainty and girly that her ball seemed to take FOREVER to get to the pins. She was a little disappointed that she didn't get any strikes though, but at one stage she was coming 2nd for quite a while.

SB on the otherhand managed to get 2 strikes and came in 2nd place at the final scoring. He did pretty good too. I did take a few pics but when I went to go load them on the pc just now, realised Mr H had taken out the plug to plug in his new mobile (cell) phone connection grrr So it will have to wait until I have time to find the cord and get behind the computer.

Not sure if I will have a party there for Spiderboy though. There were just so many people there and kids running around, I'd spend all the time panicking lol So now I am left wondering what to do for his bday next month. Could always have another McD's party hmmmm We'll see!

Week 2 Weigh In

I have to apologise to my regular blog readers. I really should make up a separate Weight Watchers Journey blog, but I am a bit slack really lol So you have to bare with me, as I include my journey in my regular blog.

Sunday's are my weigh in and measure day. My plan this week is to go hunting for a digital scale. The scales I have are fairly new but it was hard to see exactly how much weight I had lost this week. It wasn't quite on 102kgs, so I settled for 1/2 kg loss. But it was when I did my measurements that I saw a lot of improvement. Except for around my neck, all measurements had an average loss of 2cm. Funny thing though, I have to measure around my waist, then abdomen, then hips. Now I admit that I have a post baby flabby belly, so was unsure where my guide was. Waist and hips, I was fine. Both showed a decent loss, but when I did around my abdomen using my belly button as my guide point, the tape showed I had lost 7cm!!! HUH??? lol

I do know I have lost weight around that area, as a pair of jeans I have fit better around there, where they would normally be tight, and I have to unbutton the top 2 buttons. They are one of those high waisted jeans with 4 buttons up the front. Anyhoo, that measurement seems a bit weird. I recorded it anyway, and will keep using my belly button as the guide, and see how I go from there.

Overall, again I am happy with my loss. I probably didn't lose as much this week because kids are on holidays so I haven't been walking the 40 minutes a day (10 mins each way to get kids from school). Here's to WEEK 3!!!

We're back on the market!

Yes, our home is officially back on the market. We are now signed up with a Real Estate, and as of last night, our home is now listed on a Real Estate website.

Please keep everything crossed that our house gets lots of interest, and that someone puts in a decent offer. All prayers, thoughts, finger crossings will be grately appreciated!!!

For privacy reasons, I have decided not to put a link to our listing, but if any of my regular blog reads wishes to have a look, please feel free to email me at the below email address (please let me know who you are though lol)

mailto:koalasnooze@hotmail.com