Category Archives: Family

DIY-Hair (Again) and Other News

Well. OtherHalf took one look at this morning’s photograph while he was at work. And said “it doesn’t look much different”. So, me being me, I went back for more diy-haircutting happiness 😯 He arrived home a short time ago, and agrees it is now “much different”. An absence of disaster at the back of my head has been confirmed, and so I’ll try and get another stunned mullet photograph tomorrow (post nasty-deadline).

In other news, the mailman arrived today bearing gifts for all. For me, another RAK! A big hug for Kelly, who sent me Sweetheart Tree’s Whispers in the Pines – gorgeous. I am overwhelmed (again) by the generosity of strangers. I’m not sure what I’ve done to deserve it, but it makes me happy. Thank you Kelly 🙂

For OtherHalf and I both, new credit cards. With a scary upper limit. Let’s just say I could have a spectacular fall from the wagon with this little bit of plastic. As we had no say in what limit was given to us when we applied, we’re somewhat taken aback, and have every intention of requesting a lower limit. It scares me that credit is handed out with such reckless abandon. People with less sense than us could get into serious trouble. (Though I must say, we had a few moments of fantasy, dreaming about the kick-ass home theatre system we could set up!)

For Finn – and this is bizarre – a chain letter. You remember those – the snail mail equivalent of “Forward this to 496 friends or have bad luck the rest of your life” email. Only this is the 3-year-old equivalent. “Send one sheet of stickers to the person at the top of the list, give a copy of this letter to 6 friends, and within 2 weeks you’ll receive 36 sheets of stickers”. Y’what?

Finn was excited to receive mail with his name on it, but I have no intention of participating in the craziness. I might post some stickers to my friend’s little boy with a “thanks, but please don’t do that again” note attached, and buy some stickers for Finn as well (his bestest thing, don’tcha know!) A chain letter! For 3-year-olds! Now I’ve seen everything.

No Grey Hairs Yet!

At the beginning of this year, I decided I wanted two things on my 30th birthday. To not have any grey hairs, and to have purchased our first house. The big Three-Oh is now two months away.

I’m holding strong on achieving #1 – none to be spied :giggle: And #2 was fulfilled today, hooray! In fact we will settle on the house 6 days after my birthday. I’m so happy that hunting is over. I plan never to look in a real estate agent’s window or website again… until the next time 😆

October is going to be quite the month for me in fact. The 11th is Happy Birthday Mel, the 13th is the deadline for my major assignment in Usability Eng, the 15th is the rollout for our major assignment in Web Database Applications, and the 17th is the settlement. I am scared… very scared. We will probably have an extra week or so tenancy in our current place, so moving can be stretched out a bit, but still…

Our house (our house…. teehee!) is nothing super-special. It will need sprucing up over time, but is perfectly liveable as is. It’s 3-bedrooms, has heating and cooling (big bonus!), and good sized front and back yards (better bonus!) I can’t wait 😎

Good Things, Bad Things

Good Thing: Lending Manager has approved our request to borrow more $$$ 🙂
Bad Thing: Bit scary, that! :blank:

Good Thing: There are 4 or 5 houses on the market in our desired area which may be in our price range 🙂
Bad Thing: One of which sold at auction today for more than we expected 🙁

Good Thing: Played in my stash the other day, found a design to stitch for the Red Exchange 🙂
Bad Thing: Still no actual desire to stitch, no time either 🙁

Good Thing: Have formed a group with 3 other apparently competent people for major assignment in Web Database Applications 🙂
Bad Thing: We all got stuck in an elevator at uni together 😮

Good Thing: Got to see the wee babe again today, and a cuddle too 🙂
Bad Thing: Fatherinlaw is in hospital awaiting eye surgery after a construction incident 😥

It’s been quite the few days. Not feeling particularly chatty right now.

Break Out The Bubbly

I’m an Aunt! Well, by marriage, anyway, but it’s just as good. OtherHalf’s first nephew was born late last night. Finn’s first cousin on any side of the family, young Aidan reluctantly made his appearance after a torturous list of obstetrical interventions (his mum is looking astonishingly well and active, doesn’t resemble at all the medicated zombie I was for 36 hours after my own caesarian). He’s a lovely baby, with his dad’s nose and his mum’s lips – no eyes to be seen, he was a tired little tacker this evening. I finished off this tonight before we went to visit – with name and birthdate below the house, it looks lovely. I have tentatively picked out a mount colour and some frame moulding, and I’ll be framing it sometime next week, if all goes according to plan.

Dot Com Generation

So the precocious 2.5-year-old member of the family has taken to amusing me by chortling “Dot com, Mum? Dot com dot A U? Dot net dot A U… dot com?” all around the house. I tell you, that kid spends too much damn time on the internet :giggle:

Just Call Me Smokey!

Angels_lg
My needle is on fire! Another finish, and this time you get photos 🙂 This is Little Angel Birth Sampler by Sisters and Best Friends. It’s not something I’d usually stitch, and I kind of lost interest for a while, but I think the parents-to-be will like it. I stitched almost all the lettering today, plus 3 of the stars, half an angel, and attached all the charms. Obviously the baby’s name and birth details are yet to come, but that’s only a little bit of backstitching below the house. The babe is due in a month, so I’m pleased I’ve finished early. The image links to a closer look. But wait, there’s more! Check out who actually did the stitching. What a cutie!
finn-stitching-angel
There’s not likely to be much stitching going on in the next day or two. I’ll be doing the finishing on Annette’s gift, and then planning for our camping trip next week. I don’t think I’ll be taking WFS away, but I might treat myself to a new start – something small perhaps.

Are We There Yet?

I think children must come preprogrammed with the “Are we there yet” routine. My son is 2-and-a-half, and it started today. We drove to my mum’s place, about an hour and a half from home. For a while, he was happy to drive me nuts with “hungy.. hungy… hungy” commentary from the back seat. Then, after I gave in and handed over a Caramello Koala (never doing that again… what a mess!) he started in on “where are we… where are we… where are we…?” After amusing himself with repeating the (admittedly humorous) town name hundreds of times, he hit on the big one. “We there? We there? We there? We there?” 😐

I used to think I’d have a reasonable tolerance for this kind of thing. Now I know that just isn’t so. It’s like every single time kids say something, it’s fresh. They don’t get tired of saying the same thing over and over. So first up, I naively answer whatever question he poses. Then I listen to the question for a few dozen repetitions, without responding. Then I figure OK, maybe he’ll stop if I answer him again. Nope. Then I get cranky and ask him to stop… and ask again… and again. Finally I figure out some kind of distraction, and that works for a while… until he figures out the next thing to pester me with.

Hmmm… guess this isn’t gonna stop for a couple more decades, huh?