Who's on your list?

I have a list of potential candidates to take Mel's place, should he meet with a tragic and untimely early demise (by accident of course...). It changes over time, but the other night I was trying to remember who has been/is still on it so I thought it's worth writing down and adding/deleting over time. You know.. so I have it handy in case Mel's plane goes down or something (oh, did I say that out loud? hmmm... I wonder if life insurance brokers are likely to hold this against me. HA!).

So here goes - not in any particular order...

1. Roger Federer ever since he cried winning the Australian Open. Who could not love him?
2. Tiger Woods (and no, they are not all sports people)
3. Mac. You know from the Mac and PC ads. He's the hip young thing. MMMMM my kind of computer nerd.
4. Speaking of nerdy, I have to admit my West Wing addiction has created a slight lust factor for Sam Seabourne. The character, ok? NOT Rob Lowe the person.
5. .....

Damn, Annabelle's awake. Will have to come back to this later. So who's got suggestions? Who have I forgotten? Who's on your list?

Miss Annabelle and friends

I've been conscious of this blog not being All About Annabelle because no-one wants to be one of those boring parents who has nothing to talk about except their kid. But I was thinking that actually it's been ages since I've posted any pics of her or updates for that matter and if I don't write stuff down here I'm likely to forget.

So she is about 2yrs and 2mths now and as cute as a button. She can almost sing the whole alphabet song (with prompting) and can count to ten. Kind of. It goes something like "1, 2, 3, 5, uuummmm 8, 9, 10. YAAAAYYYY!!!" She remembers other random numbers (6, 7 etc) but not usually in the right order.

She sings various songs and will happily sing them over and over and over again. We have video of her sitting up in her little chair, facing the backyard as if she's got an audience out there, and announcing herself before each song. So she goes "Twinkle Star." *pause* then sings the whole thing with actions to the end, then gives herself a big round of applause "yaaaayyyyyy" then starts again with the announcement. "Twinkle Star".

She very happily goes to daycare every day now. I still don't like her being there five days but she is very well loved. She has obviously learned that it's very endearing to run up to a person and ask for a cuddle and this is a good way to get special attention. Each and every staff member - not just from her room but the other rooms as well - has told me that they have a special relationship with her because as soon as she spots them, she calls their name (she's a genius at remembering names. I swear she knows every kid's name in that centre and there's 80 of them!) runs up and asks for a cuddle. I don't know if any of them have worked out that she's got this cuddle thing going on with all the other staff members as well. They all think they are her favourite.

She wakes up in the morning and if Mel has already got up and is out doing work in the loungeroom, she calls out to him. "MEL! MEEEELLLLL!!!!!" Too cute. I've only heard her call out for "Cass" once but I think that's a bit confusing for her because the Team Leader in her room at daycare is also called Cass so she's got that sorted out in her mind. She's Cass. I'm Mummy.

Here are some recent photos:

With Alex and Nathaniel, our old next-door neighbours in Sydney (on our recent visit)

Refusing to take her hand out of her mouth for the picture...

Water play in the backyard.. during the warmer months! (really, this photo is all about the hair)

Sydney again - this time with Ally and James. Ally and I were in mother's group together and James and Annabelle also went to daycare together so they've known each other pretty much since birth, and were born 5 days apart.

If I get slack with updates, remind me in future. They grow up so fast!

My dream

At work there have been some iss-ewes. Without going into too much detail, it seems some staff have had some problems with the new manager, who started a week before me. Since I'm new, no-one really tells me what's going on and I try to stay out of gossip anyway, but I see things... and the manager tends to confide in me since I don't really report to her. She treats me more like a peer than a subordinate which, on one hand totally works for me but on the other hand - if staff have issues with her, do they see me as being on her "side" as it were? Anyway, she told me she'd got some feedback that wasn't positive. She was quite upset by it and is trying to resolve it. The staff are all quite young and all female and the CEO did tell me before I started that the place seems to constantly suffer from personality clashes and politics. *sigh* I'm far too old for it.

What this is leading to is I've been having some weird dreams again but instead of being totally confusing and nonsensical, these ones have been a little easier to interpret. About as subtle as a brick actually...

Last night I was in a house. I don't remember all the details but the things that stand out in my memory are that there was a kind of beach/wading pool thing inside the house. Yes, inside. These things seem so normal in dreams. I started to wade out into the water and suddenly there was a sharp drop and I was in over my head. I felt a bit panicky and quickly fought my way back to the shallow bit and climbed out. As I went to tell someone about the drop and warn them it was dangerous, I noticed two whirlpool things and two children out swimming right near them. The kids were going to get sucked into the whirlpools and drown, so now I really panicked. I started to yell out but before I knew it, two grown-ups were swimming out and saving the children. I was so relieved. My heart was beating a million miles an hour and I went into the main part of the house to tell someone what happened. There was a woman standing in the hallway looking out towards where I'd come from and she seemed to be as wound up as me so I assumed she'd seen the whirlpools too. When I started to say "Did you see what happened?..." she cut me off and started talking about a big incident that had happened between two adults. I'm not sure exactly (don't remember) but something about a big argument and someone yelling and walking out. I was amazed that she'd missed the whole near-drowning thing that had me beside myself with panic.

Hmmm... so let's try some amateur dream interpretation. House. I work in a house. Duh. As for the stepping off the edge and being in over my head, maybe that's a warning? I certainly don't feel like I'm in over my head now - not with the work or with the personal stuff - but the symbology of being out of my depth/in over my head/drowning doesn't allow too much for interpretation. Maybe it's saying I need to watch my step.. not get into anything too deeply. Next: Children in trouble and needing saving. Gee, what could that possibly mean considering my whole job is about helping homeless children?! Interesting that someone else saved them and not me though. I've been feeling a bit frustrated lately that they come and go so quickly (we are short-term) that I don't have time to do anything really worthwhile with them. And finally, the woman being more interested in the argument than what was going on with the kids. I'm not sure that's entirely true of the staff, but maybe it is for some.

I wonder what I'll dream about tonight. I've had quite a lot of these lately. Sometimes if something's going on in my life that is playing on my mind, I can actually ask for answers to be shown to me in my dreams and I will dream stuff that is really symbolic. It can be SO helpful if I'm confused about something. I'll wake up and go "A-ha! Now it makes sense". But I haven't asked for these dreams and I haven't consciously felt stressed or anything so it's a bit odd that it's coming up so often, isn't it? I guess time will tell.

Update on the non-detox

It's been a slightly better week but I really need to drink more water and do more exercise. I've never been a huge water fan so I need to find ways to make it more enticing. Cordial perhaps... but then that's sugar. Diet cordial is full of aspartame and I'm trying to steer clear of that too (not that I'm detoxing or anything). And exercise.. well that's just bloody hard when the mornings are cold and dark until 7am, at which time Mel leaves for work. Hmmmm. And I just do NOT feel like it at night after a long day at work. What to do, what to do? I'm paying for a gym membership and not using it and I hate that. So even if I just go once on the weekends I guess that's an improvement. The other option is to have my gym bag in the car and call in on the way to pick up Annabelle in the afternoon. If I get away from work right on 4pm I can do a quick workout and still pick her up by about 5-5.15pm. I did that once and it worked, so I might try doing that again.

In terms of progress reports, I started off at 68.3kg and after last weekend which involved pizza and hot chips (damn you for leading me astray, Mel) I finished Week 1 at 68.8kg. Aarrrggghhhh!!!!

I'm pleased to report that I've finished Week 2 at 67.1kg. At least the numbers are going in the right direction now.

So this week the plan is to exercise twice and have at least five glasses of water a day. If I could hold off on the vino until Thursday that would be good too but I'm not making promises I'm not sure I'll keep....

Open House

This house we are renting has been listed for sale. They offered us two weeks rent free if we wanted to break our lease and move out but we politely declined the offer. Waaaaayyyy too much hassle to move and we have a lease until November so they can't make us, so ner.

Last week was the first open house. I spent hours cleaning the place as if it was my own house for sale. The owners are a nice young couple and I wanted to do the right thing for them. We put all the kitchen bench things away in cupboards so it was clutter-free and looked un-lived in. Same with bathrooms, same with laundry. Not even clean folded clothes were in view. We put Annabelle's bikes around the side of the house out of sight. We vacuumed, mopped and scrubbed. Well... that stuff needed to be done anyway but still - we could have done it on Sunday, right? But we made sure the place was spotless for the open house. We then had to vacate our home for an hour while they opened it up. Who has 45 minute open houses?? Not in Sydney that's for sure. And it was a rainy Saturday afternoon and we had nowhere we needed to go - no friends to just drop in on - and as I already mentioned, Annabelle was in top form last weekend so husband was up to his eyeballs by the end of it. In short, it was all hugely inconvenient and it sucked.

As I might also have mentioned, we will probably list our house for sale in Sydney and we also have a tenant and she also has a lease until the end of the year. We have already decided in advance that if/when we list the house, we will offer her a substantial rent reduction in exchange for the inconvenience of people traipsing through every week, and with the hope that she will go to the same kind of effort in the way of tidying the place up for "show". We don't have to offer her cheap rent of course, but the thing is she's a bit of a whingey pain in the butt type so we'd like to head off any potential problems up front. So I guess part of my making all the effort with this place is because I know I'd appreciate it as an owner so maybe I'm hoping I'll get some karma points or something. But more to the point I'm just trying to be nice.

What all this is leading to is after our efforts last week, we left a note for the agent telling her that we will offer our tenant a discount on her rent when we sell and asking her if she would put to the owners that maybe they'd do the same for us. Mel pointed out that he travels a lot and gets not much time home with his family and that this is quite an imposition and we're happy to do it but really we don't have much incentive to go to so much trouble. She left a note in return saying something along the lines of "Same time next week for the open house. After that, I'll check with the owners re: rent". Ummm.. HELLO! It's not up to you to decide when to check with the owners, love. So Mel phoned her on Monday and told her he'd like her to ask them NOW. We got a formal letter in the mail saying that while they appreciate our efforts, we are obligated to make the property available for prospective buyers and right now they are working around us in regards to our baby's sleep times (whatever..) and that they can actually open twice a week and they're only opening once and for now, the owners choose to "exercise their rights" and won't be giving us any rent reduction. But if it goes on beyond what is a reasonable time, they'll consider it. Oh and if they get someone wanting to inspect during the week, they expect our full cooperation to let them in with 24hrs notice. She pointed us to our tenancy agreement. So we checked it. Turns out that what she said in her letter is wrong and the guidelines (not law) say that for a property for sale what is "reasonable" (subjective term and up to tenant and landlord to agree on, depending on individual circumstances) is one open house per fortnight OR two inspections by appointment per week. Not two open houses per week.. in fact not even one open house per week. There are different guidelines if the property is being auctioned, in which case one open house per week is considered reasonable. This house is NOT being auctioned. Not that we've got any issue with one open house per week, mind you. But sheesh, don't point us to the tenancy agreement and then misquote it, you stupid woman.

Mel and I worked together on a draft response pointing these thing out to her, but chose not to send it. You know.. karma points etc.

So the second open house was yesterday and as annoyed as we both were, we went to same trouble again. It didn't take so long this time after the major clean-up last week but still, we were nice. Another note on the bench when we got home to say "Same time next week."

Hmmm..... I can't be sure there won't be some folded washing in the laundry next week, or even some dirty washing for that matter.. perhaps some plates draining on the dishrack and toys scattered across the lounge-room floor...

What is it about Wednesday?

See previous post re: my new healthy habits.

Last week all was good... until Wednesday. I can get through Monday and Tuesday without even a passing thought about wine. Or be content with a small glass with dinner. It helps that Mondays I can go to meditation group so that's my form of relaxation, I guess...

But by the time we get to Wednesday, I feel like I've worked a full week. Seriously... is it just me adjusting to work again? Because last week I got to Wednesday and my one glass of wine turned into something like FOUR. Same on Thursday night. Ironically, when I actually did get to the end of the week, I'd had enough drinking and was back to moderation again. What's with that? I am strange.

Recording it is good though, because at least I can see these patterns. Last night... same again. Came home feeling like "Man what a week. I need a drink!". At least I was conscious of it this time. But yeah.. there's something about Wednesday...

Serenity now

I finally got back to my Monday night meditation group tonight. I have to miss it when Mel's not around for obvious reasons.. (though surely it can't be long now until Annabelle's cooking her own dinner??) and last week I got home late from work and didn't think it was fair to turn around and leave again in the evening when she's only just getting used to full-time daycare.

So tonight I went, despite all her protests... and I feel sooo much better for it. I think I need to add meditation onto my daily tracking sheet. And yes.. we'll get back to that - the daily/weekly tracking I mean. It wasn't a good first week but I think this one will be an improvement. Well it couldn't get much worse. HA!

Now I'm home.. feeling peaceful and relaxed, bub is in bed and I'm going to join her. Literally. She's asleep in our bed. I know I know... rod, back, yada yada...

Men

Mel's been complaining all weekend that Annabelle won't give him five minutes peace. Shopping yesterday was torture. He took her out in the morning and couldn't even get inside Bunnings to buy some stuff he wanted because she had a major tantrum. I'm thinking "Welcome to my world, dude. Why do you think I got a job?" but managed to refrain from saying it.

Today the three of us managed the Bunnings outing together but when we got home, Mel realised he needed some more bits for his creative project. He knows I want to go to the gym today or do some kind of exercise (after my disastrous weight loss effort this week but that's another post).. so he just came to me and very kindly.. thoughtfully... utterly full of positive intent.. said to me "How about I race out to Bunnings now and you can go out and do some stuff while she's asleep and I'll stay home with her?" No kidding, he thought that was about the most special, gracious offer in the world. HA HA HA!!! I looked at him with raised eyebrows and he was taken aback. "What? Why are you looking at me like that? Don't you think that's a good idea?". He so did not even get it.

Is it a sign?

Someone told me once (or I read it... or I made it up) that if the universe is trying to give you a sign, you'll get the same message three times. I'm not sure you actually need to wait for the three signs if you hear or see something that resonates with you, but from what I can gather if you DO get the same message three times, well that's really a sign. A big one.

So how's this? I was at work yesterday and a colleague asked me how many glasses of water I'd drunk for the day.. since I'd told her earlier in the week that I was trying to be healthier. Another colleague overhead and said "Do you know what you need? Lemon detox!". She went on to tell me that she'd heard all about this fabulous lemon detox thing and that there's a book that follows the same principles written by some doctor. All this talk of detoxing when all I said I was trying to drink more water and less coffee during the day!

So then my friend Danielle emails me this morning and says "Hey check out Dooce. Heather's detoxing too!" So I did, and it turns out Heather is indeed detoxing. Not lemon detoxing.... she's doing some 21 day Vegan thing endorsed by Oprah. I actually like the idea behind it, which is conscious eating - but I'm not sure I'd have the internal fortitude to sustain 21 days of veganism. I'm actually not sure I'd survive even one day to be honest.. which is why I'm not detoxing!

After catching up on Dooce, I skedaddled along to a hair appointment, bought a large coffee (note: one doesn't buy large coffees when detoxing) and waited for my name to be called. As I sat in the chair, I noticed an old version of New Idea on the little table in front of me. It was opened up at the page showing Oprah Winfrey talking about her 21 day detox!!! Aaarrgggghhhh.... that's the third sign!! Isn't it? That's the universe saying I need to detox! And I don't want to detox. Waaaaaa!!!!! Do I have to???

My new niece is here!

Welcome to the world, Miss Rhiannon Paige Rhys. Born 18th June at 7.51pm and weighing in at 10lb 5oz (or 4.93kg) she is a gorgeous healthy little thing. Nice work mum on doing it drug-free. Now that is impressive! We all can't wait to meet her and have some squishy cuddles. :)