Thinking Random Thoughts

* I put a job application in for a job that would be perfect. I really want to make the shortlist. Actually, I really just want the job.

* Why don't people RSVP anymore?? Seriously. It makes organising parties really painful. And when you do RSVP, it should really be to the person who is specified on the invitation. Just saying.

* My daughter is addicted to the dummy. I need a creative way to get rid of the dang thing. She evidently finds it impossible to sleep without it. Today I forgot to bring one with us, and after her crying and sobbing 'dum dum' for an hour I ended up having to go and buy one. As soon as it was in her mouth, she crashed and slept for nearly 2.5 hours. Ratbag.

* Toilet training would be nice, too. Just saying.

* For the first time in like, our whole 5 years of marriage we're going to have money this week. I mean real money. Not I'm-a-uni-bum-and-$20-left-after-the-bills-are paid-Is-awesome money. And it's even better, because apart from our final electricity bill and petrol, we have no financial commitments at the moment. I'm thinking that my hubby should take me on an awesome date- maybe even a weekend away?? Anyone care to drop a few hints for me??

* That's all I've got for you at this time of night, and considering I've typed all this on my phone, I think I've done pretty well. Stay tuned, coming soon I'll have pics of Mayana's first haircut, and some awesome new handmade goodies I've been working on.

Night all!!

Jordan

My baby brother officially finished school today. Forever! He’s the last one of us, and it’s pretty crazy, I reckon!

Presentation night was on Wednesday, and Jordan, who was also the school vice-captain, was the co-emcee. He bagged himself a few awards, too!

He also was in the band for almost all of the items, and as always, did a fantastic job.

It was a proud moment for all of us when his name was called, and he took his place as part of the graduating class of 2010.

Jordan and his (now) girlfriend, Mel.

It was a good, though (as always) long night. I came to the realisation that this was the 13th presentation night I have attended!! And I can’t get over the fact that it’s been seven years since my own graduating presentation night!

Our very proud family. And yeah, Jordan usually is the tallest. I made him shrink so that the photo would look better, ha.

Tonight was/is Jordan’s formal. We went along for the pre-dinner drinks… the fun part where you get to watch everyone arrive and ooh and aaah over everyone’s dresses and rides. Jordan went with Mel, his now girlfriend (as I’m sure we’ll be hearing a LOT over the next few days). Our family has a rule that we’re not allowed to date while we’re in highschool, so J has been counting down the days till graduation for more reasons than one! –(As did I for that matter!).

They made a great looking couple! (Mel’s mum made her gorgeous dress… isn’t it lovely?) Mayana has fallen head-over-heels in love with Mel, and couldn’t get enough snuggles! 

Our ever-growing family…

My very own mini-family…

So we’re all feeling very proud, and slightly sentimental… our baby brother has finished school! Next year there are big plans for psychology degrees, but for now, I think he’ll just be enjoying being Mel’s boyfriend, and be looking forward to his big Perth schoolies trip which he leaves for next week!

Love you J, congratulations bru!

twenty-two

Mayana is twenty-two months old today! To celebrate, I’m going to share with you twenty-two fun facts about the Mayana Berry…

1. She is super-beautiful, and takes my breath away pretty much every single day.
2. She is still a little petite mini. She’s still not quite 10kgs!
3. She can now drink out of a big-girl cup!
4. Her favourite music is the Wiggles, and even when it drives me nuts, it’s still worth it to see the gorgeous smile it puts on her face.
5. She’s a crazy climber, with absolutely no fear… just like her Papa.
6. She counts like this: “un, two, four, six, five, eight”.
7. She loves to eat “Ber-ber” (bircher) and “yo-yo” (yoghurt) for breakfast every morning.
8. Apparently brooms make far better horses than sweeping instruments.
9. She loves water, and will play in any water that she can find. For example, my sister just found her with her hands in my other sister’s fishbowl, trying to catch the fish (sorry Alexie!!).
10. She loves to paint, and ever since she painted one at daycare, she always wants to paint a ‘Croc Snap Snap!!’
11. Drawing is one of the few things that will keep her occupied for more than 5 minutes at a time. She now likes to point out different elements in her drawings, like bubbles, snakes, and Kami.
12. She’s an awesome sleeper, and sleeps for almost 12 hours every night, as well has having a 1-2 hour day sleep every day. Bless.
13. She lives to ‘help’, though sometimes the amount of actual help she delivers is questionable.
14. She adores animals. At the moment, her favourites are owls and snails.
15. She loves bling. The other day, I walked in and found her with about 12 of my necklaces hanging around her neck. It doesn’t have to be a real necklace though, even a piece of rope can be “pretty” when Mayana wears it around her neck!
16. She draws on walls. It’s very naughty, and she knows it.
17. When we ask her to smile, she pulls this really weird face where she scrunches up her eyes and nose. It’s so funny.
18. She loves to play outside, any chance she gets.
19. Tea-parties are one of Mayana’s new favourite things to do. She’s amazingly good at pouring ‘tea’ (water) into her tiny tea cups.
20. She is getting really clever at her colours, and the ones she always gets right are orange, white and blue.
21. She thinks stickers are really cool. They don’t have to be sparkly or colourful or particularly pretty. The other day, she put the barcode from her new shoes on the back of her hand and proudly showed off her sticker to anyone who would look.
22. She loves her family. Very much. She might be a tiny girl but she loves to hugely!

Happy 22 months to my gorgeous princess Mayana.

Resilience.

Kids just reek of the stuff!

Mayana has coped so well with this whole crazy moving thing. Better than me I think. Aside from a strange (and thankfully short-lived) vomiting episode, she seems to have taken it all into her stride. In the last week and a half, she has slept in 4 different houses, been in the car for over 9 hours and hardly seen her Mama and Papa. 
  

She even ‘helped’ with the cleaning… 

She has said goodbye to her bed, and her room, and her familiar spaces and faces. She had her last day at daycare (and nearly had all her carers in tears), and said goodbye to her little friends. She’s still asking to play with Livvy (her best buddy), and it makes me a little sad, cos I’d sure like to see Livvy’s mummy, too!!

Being a bronco rider at Liv’s house last week.

But all in all, my little darling has been such a trouper. She just takes it all in her stride, and keeps that gorgeous smile on her dial.

Her sleeping patterns are a little mixed up, but it’s just a matter of getting her back into routine. She’s eaten far too much crappy convenience food – but we’ll get back into our family breakfasts and mealtimes, and it will all be good.

 
She is loving being back in Noosa, with her family and all her favourites. She’s in heaven – and so is everyone else with having her here.

 
I think we’re all going to like being home.

(Unofficially) officially finished!

Today I got the grade back for my Last Ever Uni Assignment (you know, that 4000 word pain-in-my-butt???). This means that I know all of my grades for the semester, and know that I’ve completed and passed every course in my university degree, but it’s not officially official until the 26th of November, when our overall grades are officially released.

But I got 60/65 for the Evil Report, and I unofficially know that I have earned a HD for both of the courses I did this semester. And through my genius mathematical skills (Thanks of course to John Green, my uni maths lecturer), I have found that my graduating GPA (grade point average) will be *just* under 6.5. Out of 7. I’m beyond thrilled with that, and so proud of my hard work. It was my goal to graduate with a GPA of 6 or higher, so I feel somewhat triumphant.

It’s all official enough though to apply for my teacher registration, which is pretty exciting!

Dude, I’m a TEACHER!

There’s no place like home…

And home is where we are!

The last few weeks have been INSANE!!!

We packed, we loaded, we drove, we unloaded, and drove some more. Then we scrubbed and cleaned and polished, and became exhausted, oh and then we drove some more.

We have never left a rental before, but I have memories of my mum with a pot of Gumption in hand, scrubbing walls… and last week I’m sure history was repeating itself.

I was so determined (but not very hopeful) that we would pass our inspection first time round. We have had SO many issues with the very awful real estate / property manager we have been lumped with the the last five years, and I was incredibly nervous about it all.

The owner sent painters through, and I was quite peeved to begin with, but God knew what He was doing … it turned out to be a great blessing, because it meant that I didn’t have to clean down any walls or skirting boards, and the house just looked so lovely and fresh with its new lick of paint. We were also very blessed by some of our beautiful friends, who offered to have us stay with them for our last week in town, so we didn’t have to camp out in a furniture-less paint-fumey house.

On Thursday, the carpet cleaner came through, and we did the finishing touches, took a deep breath, and returned our keys. I was so nervous about the inspection, and that they would discover the small hole/dent in the door of Mayana’s room where my guitar case had hit it, or the little patch of damage to the lounge room carpet where a candle had dripped hot wax onto the floor and melted the cheap plasticky carpet.

Praise God, the inspection couldn’t have gone better. The owner and his wife were with the property manager (a woman who reduces me to jelly, by the way), and as soon as we walked in, they (the owners not the PM) began raving about how wonderful the place looked! They even asked if we’d had professional cleaners to do the windows… Pete was pretty proud to tell them it was all his handiwork (Windex and newspaper, in case you’re wanting to know his secret). They didn’t notice the door or the carpet. Of course the property manager couldn’t help herself, and when the owners left the room asked me to clean some imaginary finger prints from the inside of one of the cupboard doors – BUT, the good news is, our bond should be back in our account by Wednesday, in full. Once it’s safely there, I’ll be telling the world which real estate they should NEVER use if they can help it.

For now though, we’re safely ensconced at the in-laws, and all of our belongings are stacked in a 6x3m storage shed (who knew my whole house could fit in such a space!!). We’re not sure how long we’ll be here, but we’re hoping for not too far into the new year. We’re praying that God leads us to the right jobs… we feel like we’re meant to be back here, but there aren’t a whole lot of jobs going at the moment. I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m feeling drawn towards supply work, but it would be nice if at least one of us had a more stable/secure job lined up.   In the meantime, Pete’s going to do some work with his dad, and I’m going to chase up my teacher registration now that my final grade has been released and see if I can’t get one or two days relief before the Christmas holidays.

I’m also going to be sewing like a mad-woman, and I can’t wait! I’ve got quite a few orders lined up already, and would love some more (hint hint). And of course, spending time with my gorgeous daughter, who is growing up more every day.

Apologies for the mammoth post, but we had a lot to catch up on!!

What have you been up to lately?

Ummm, can anyone say CUTE!?

Yay! Finally enough hair for plaits!

My self-proclaimed pretty girl…

On the phone. This morning, she (in her imagination) spoke to ‘Taam’ (Kami), ‘Lala’, ‘Boo’ & ‘Jay’ (My sisters & brother), ‘Nana a Pop’ (who she is missing very much), and ‘Shane’ (her uncle on Pete’s side).  She was actually quite chatty, which is a big change from when she is really on the phone – when she sits in complete silence, waiting to be spoken to.

Aaah she’s so cute!

Things I Don’t Want to Forget

This post is totally inspired by Katie. I want to adopt it and make it a regular thing, cos it’s the loveliest idea!…

So these are the things that I don’t want to forget from last week…

1. I finished my last ever uni assignment. And I did it in two days! That was a great feeling. And will be an even greater feeling when I find out that I’ve passed it!

2. Mayana playing Tea-Party with her Kami. She’s obsessed with “Cup-Tea”, and we’ve had one every day since.

3. Finishing uni!

4. Watching Mayana be all mother-hen with her Bubby. She checks her nappy, puts her to bed, and gives her lots of cuddles and kisses. It’s so cute.

5. Celebrating finishing uni with the most awesome bunch of people EVER!

6. Last night, I kissed Mayana goodnight, turned on her music, turned out her light… as I was walking out the door, she called out to me “I love Mummy!”  Best moment … possibly ever…