EXCITED!!!!

Our house is finally being started today...WOOHOO!!!!

Here are some photos...mainly for John as he is away on business and missing it all :(

Got to love Melbourne weather...boiling the last 2 days and pouring rain all day today...lol

Busy, busy, busy

Lets see I have done heaps since my last post...lol

I am trying to get everything organised for Christmas early, as I really am not looking forward to fighting with other shoppers with my belly...lol

So lets see,

we have booked our accomodation for QLD (just have to book accom for the way home)
I have bought all the Chrissy presents for my nieces and nephews
booked a night away for my birthday
bought my birthday present
put a pram on lay-by for bubba
almost got the kiddies organised for Christmas and birthday presents
and the list goes on...lol

Also it was great having the lovely long weekend for Cup Day, the kiddies had Monday off school, so it was a lovely relaxing time. It was also fantastic to catch up with my 2 best friends as well.

The kiddies had their twilight sports on Friday and the weather was beautiful for it. I will have to upload some photos later.

Oh yeah and somewhere inbetween all that John started another new job!

On the house front, hopefully it will start next week. On Wednesday the team for our house will be organising everything, so fingers crossed Monday they will start cutting the block. We just want it finished and to move...i really am not looking forward to moving while 8 months + pregnant, thankfully most of our stuff is still in boxes and stored away...but there is still the unpacking ....one day!

and inbetween that I have found some time to scrap
...here are some LO's that I did for Bons CC last week.

20 week Ultrasound

I had my 20 week ultrasound today and am happy to report that everything is "normal". So happy doesn't even cover it...didn't get tired of hearing the word normal as the lady who was doing the ultrasound checked everything out.

I of course asked the strange question - can you see the gall bladder? and kind of explained why and she found it for us. One more little bit of relief for us, as one of the signs of BA is no gall bladder...so breathing a little easier now.

Well our little bub was certainly being a little wiggle worm and very unco-operative for the poor lady trying to check everything.

Once she had checked everything then she did some 3D pics. They are absolutely amazing. I have some of them at the end of the post. I had never seen them before - I am still amazed when I look at the pics.

And before you ask...NO we didn't find out what it is...as I said unco-operative and even if we wanted to he/she wasn't sharing...lol

OK first a pic of my belly at 19 weeks.

Now a profile of bub

My little thumb sucker

Playing peek - a - boo...lol

and a almost full body shot...

YA-bloody-HOO

Finally....

We got an email yesterday from our builders and FINALLY our garden plans have been approved....Unfortunately where we are building they have strict garden plan rules and the plans have to be approved before a building permit will be issued. So we paid someone to do our plans...anyway 3 times they got knocked back - mostly for really petty things - BUT finally it has been rubber stamped.

So now we can finally start building...only 2 months later than we planned - I am just really hoping that the house will be finished before bub is here.

Back to School!!!!

Well Josh and Teagan headed back to School on Monday, neither of them that excited. I think they liked the staying up late and sleeping in. Back to routine, early to bed and early to rise again.

Well what have we been up to.

Well on Saturday I went to Scrap 'n Chat, it was lovely to catch up with the girls from Bon's. I only did one page, to much talking...lol

Sunday we went for a walk around our Estate, looking at all the houses that are going up and hoping that at the end of the month ours will be starting. I also was grabbing a dose of Vitamin D, as my blood tests showed that I was low in both Vitamin D and Iron, so have been put back on Meds to bring these up. It has me a bit stressed out as I had the same problems while I was pregnant with Rani, and even though deep down I know that it is unlikely, I can't help thinking that it could happen again.

I have booked in for my 20 week scan in November, so looking forward to seeing bub again.

Well not a lot else has been happening, or that my baby brain can think of. I have finally joined Facebook after a number of invites. Still trying to work it out, but if you are on it say HI!

Happy Email :)

Well today I had a happy email awaiting me when I got up.

I won the "that's My Man" comp at 123 Scrapbook....so money to spend...YAY!! - The LO is a couple of posts down.

Well I had a lovely quiet day today, Mum took the kiddies to the movies and I had 4 hours home by myself. I was going to go shopping, but instead had a nana nap and enjoyed the peace....lol

Tomorrow we are off to my Cousins for lunch and she has 2 littlies so the kiddies have someone to play with.

Well I will leave you with a LO that I did recently for Scrapbooking Top 50 Monthly Comp - It was hard, everythng had to be by the one manufacturer.

Thanks for popping by I really appreciate it and the people that leave comments, they make my day. :)

New Week, New Month

It is the final week of the School Holidays here and finally the sun has come out, although we needed the rain.

Josh and Teagan have more on this week than they did the first week. Today Mum and Dad are taking them out, then tomorrow they are off to the movies and Wednesday we are going to lunch at my Cousins. So hopefully that ends the 'I'm bored, theres nothing to do' comments....lol

Well finally we had some movement on our block...so far it has been one muck up after another and our house keeps getting delayed....fingers crossed our garden plans will be approved by Council this week (they have been knocked back twice) as that is all we are waiting on for the builders to start...grrr. Yesterday we dragged the kids out to the display home so I could physically see walls etc, as I was having some concerns about furniture location...lol...it really did help and then we popped by the block to see what the other houses we up to. We were shocked to see that we have a tap all plumbed in at the front of the block. We can't wait to see everything else start.
I am sure from where ever you live you will here me cheering with joy when we get the phone call that everything is approved and building is starting....lol

Last Day

of September and I am not sad to see this month end.

September used to be a happy month, Father's Day and John's birthday and now it is the worst month of the year.

Not just because we lost Rani in September but September 2005 was when our nightmare roller coaster started. It was the first time I ever heard the words 'Biliary Atresia' and believe me I wish I had never heard them. It was the begining of endless blood tests, poking, probing of our little tiny baby. It was when we were referred to RCH for 8 hours of testing on our now almost 1 month old baby. It was also the month that Biliary Atresia was confirmed and we were told about the biopsy, Kasai and one day down the track a liver transplant.

October isn't much better as that is when Rani first stayed in the Hospital first 10 Oct 2005 for 4 days for her Liver Biopsy then 18th October for 10 days for the Kasai.

But September is just horrible as it was the beginning and end of the nightmare that we lived for a year.

More Scrapping

Well perhaps being pregnant has given me back the scrapping bug, but I have scrapped more in the last couple of days than for months.

Well we are halfway through the first week of the school holidays and the weather looks like it is turning...grrr...it has been dark and gloomy all day with little bits of rain on and off, makes it hard to send the kids out to play. So today we went for a drive to see what was happening in our estate and then to a couple of furniture stores to have a look for a new bedroom set for Josh and a lounge suite for the new lounge...the only way I can get Josh to look is by looking for him as well....lol

Well here are 2 Lo's that I have done.

This one is for a Challenge at Bon's - New Daddies
I searched and searched and finally found this photo of John and Josh a couple of hours after he was born - there were no digital cameras back then..lol...I can't believe that the photo is nearly 11 years old.


This one is for a Challenge at 123 Scrapbooks - That's My Man
A rare photo of John and I

Sharing

Well it has been a while since I have shared some LO's...it feels like ages since I last scrapped, so here are a couple of LO's that I have done using some old packs I found and also my M I have altered only have the other 6 letters of my name to go....lol

TFL

Me and Teagan, self portrait, got to love the double chin action....lol




Teagan - she didn't want her photo taken, but it is one of my favourite shots of her



The first of many QLD LO's....they are actually upside in the photo, but Dreamworld printed it up the right way



and finally my letter M

A Lovely Night

Firstly thank you for all the lovely comments and emails we have got about this pregnancy, they have all been lovely. Also thanks to Teagan's teacher and Miss K who bought me a beautiful bunch of flowers for Teagan to bring home from School on Friday when they found out I was pregnant...I was truly shocked and touched by your thought.

We decided not to tell the kids until I had had my 12 week scan, as we told them early with Rani and they couldn't keep their mouths shut....lol...it was very cute...I was sitting next to John and called the kids in and showed them the Ultrasound images and asked them what they thought it was. Both of them chimed "rani" as that was the last images they saw...I said 'no' and winked at Josh and saw that he had worked it out and he ran to John giving him a big hug with tears of joy strolling down his face, it took Teagan a little longer and then the penny dropped. With big eyes she looked and my tummy and said 'is that in you'. They were both so excited touching my belly, talking to my belly and the funny thing that after all the dramas we have been through with Rani I asked them both what they wanted and they said they didn't care as long as this one didn't have to go to the Hospital....

OK on to our night. Well as it was John's big 4-0 birthday last week I decided to splurge on his birthday present and booked us a night in the Crown Promenade last night - the plan was we could spend some time together, get some dinner and I would go to the room and sleep (10.30 is my bed time now...lol) and John could go to the Casino and play Poker, as he loves it.

So we checked into our room at about 2.30, went for a walk around the Casino and Southbank, window shopping and trying to find somewhere to have dinner. Came back to the room and decided to have dinner in the Hotels Restaurant - YUMMY!!! - then went back to the Casino and had a New Zealand Ice Cream for dessert - a yummy ice cream cone...I was full and tired, so John walked me back to the room, got his stuff ready for Poker and headed off.

I took some pics of our room and our view - although we were only on the 7th floor, wish we were higher, but my camera battery has gone flat so will add photos later.

View from the room....and our room

Josh and Teagan love it when we go away for the night, as Nana and Grandpa take them up to Maccas and they eat in and play on the equipment and of course Nana always has lollies....lol

What a Suprise!

Let me give you the short story...

John and I made the hard decision to try for the 4th child I had discussed while Rani was in Hospital (when we thought it was a short stay and that she would be coming home soon!). As it took so long to fall in pregnant with Rani (5 years) we knew that I probably had a problem. I went back to my Gyno/Ob and told him that we wanted to try again and he thought I had PCO - which was confirmed via ultrasound.

I was to be monitored every month with a blood test to see if I ovulated...5 months - 5 fails (no ovulation = no chance to get pregnant) which was becoming very depressing...so IVF was mentioned as the best way for us to have another baby. Both John and I had decided that we weren't going to go down the IVF road, as we already have 2 beautiful children.

So after leaving my Gyno with the disappointing news of another fail I had told him that I was going to take the next month of monitoring etc as we were going to QLD and I wanted to enjoy myself and not stress about dates ect.

Well don't ask me why sucker for punishment or womans intuition I bought a pregnancy test while I was shopping at Coles. I left it until the afternoon and thought what the hell....I have done many of these and was used to seeing one line. So you can imagine my shock and disbelief when there was 2 lines staring back at me.... I was in shock, thought maybe I was making more out of it so took a pic on my mobile and SMS'ed it to John, he saw the 2 lines as well....lol

I rang my Gyno/Ob straight away (shaking the whole time)...the receptionist told me to go to my GP and get confirmation and a new referal...I was suprised when later that night my OB called me to say Congrats.

So there you go...we left for QLD the next day with a baby on board....lol

It has been a pretty uneventful pregnancy - no morning sickness..I'm really not feeling pregnant at all - which annoys my friends that are pregnant and suffering...lol

So I am 13 weeks pregnant and bub is due 25th March 2008....we are cautiously excited about this pregnancy and very scared at the same time with all the things that can go wrong...so we are just hoping for a happy and healthy baby in March. The only sad part is that I had to pull out of my Best Friends wedding as I will be eight months pregnant...but she was over the moon for us when we told her.

So here is a pic of our bub from our Ultrasound today

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to my Sweet Husband who turns 40 today.

Last night we went out to the Coach and Horse for dinner with about 40 friends, it was a lovely night, they have a huge play ground so no one saw the kids except for dinner and when it was time to go home. The night went way to fast and it was difficult to try and catch up with everyone as we were spread n 3 tables, but I hope everyone had a good night. I know that we did.

So today is a nice relaxing day, with a cake tonight.

Thank You

for your lovely comments, emails, SMS's and pink candles that we saw on Blogs in memory of our little angel, it really is appreciated.

Well Saturday was quite a busy day, we wanted to keep a normal as possible routine for the kids - so the went to WuShoo - karate - in the morning, then we went out to see Rani and then they had a birthday party to go to.

On Saturday night my whole family all went to the Coach and Horse for dinner. It is great as we can sit and chat and there is a huge playground so the kids can play and not be bored. We had a few drinks for Rani and a lovely dinner and check out Josh and Teagan - they had free face painting in the playground.











Fathers Day was a pretty quiet day, kind of highlights that we don't have one of our children to give Daddy a kiss. Josh and Teagan came down and gave John their presents and then we went upstairs and gave Dad his present, went for a drive, did a bit of shopping and the day was over.

Tuesday was Mark's Funeral - John went by himself as it was late in the afternoon and I couldn't get back in time to get the kids. :(

Then that night everyone came to Mum and Dad's for a BBQ (kind of late Fathers Day) as some people had to work. Heaps of food we were so full, lots of laughs and just general chit chat.

Here is Dad with Josh and Teagan (can you tell that my dad hates having his photo taken...lol) cooking the BBQ with his BBQ apron that my brother got him for Fathers Day.

Today

a year ago was the beginning of the worst day of our life...an end to the worst week of our lives.

I am still in shock that it has been a year since Rani passed away, it doesn't feel that long, maybe because today the pain feels the same as it did when she left us forever.

I still have so much anger over the whole situation and still believe that the system for liver donation (well organ donation) needs to be looked into...for the only time that Rani was able to get a liver nationwide was when she was in ICU and the catch to that situation she was way to sick to get one. In my opinion if you are too sick to go home (especially like Rani who spent 5 months in Hospital waiting for a liver) you should be nation wide. Perhaps then I would be typing something happy, like it has been a year since Rani got her new liver and is doing fantastic...how I wish.


Thank you everyone for your emails, SMS's, coments here and cards they truly are appreciated.

It is today (well most days) that we try and remember the good times that we had with Rani. We want to thank friends and family for their support through this all and also the staff at The Royal Childrens Hospital especially the Nurses on 5W who became like our family and will always have a special place in our hearts, as will Rani's dedicated team from the Gastro Dept.


Edited: Sadly our friend Mark lost his 13 month battle with cancer this morning. Our thoughts are with his family. He will be missed.

Happy

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY

My Sweet Precious Angel Rani

Not a day goes by that we do not wish that you were home with us, or that you are not in our thoughts.

Miss You, Love You

My sister arrives

TOMORROW

I am excited about seeing her again.

Also I am pleased that the wedding that she is coming for allows her to be her for Rani's Birthday and Anniversary as I am sure it will help her with a little more closure, as I know how helpless she felt being in London when Rani passed.

So bring on tomorrow night :)

Dreading

the next couple of weeks.

I am not sleeping and when I do sleep I am dreaming of that last horrible week of Rani's life. I can not believe that nearly a year has passed and the pain I feel is the same as the day we lost her.

I am dreading her birthday, to have to go out to her plot to wish her a Happy 2nd Birthday and then one week later placing flowers for the 1 year Anniversary.


I am still so angry that a liver didn't come in time, that her life was cut short, that she was in so much pain, that we didn't get to pick her up for the last couple of months because of that pain. It brings me to tears still and will do forever. I have said it before and it is so true - "you are not meant to outlive your children".

We all feel so robbed, we should be watching her grow - not mourning her, it is just not right.

My sister will be out here from the 24th of the month, as she is in her Best Friends Wedding, so it will be good for her to be with family on her Birthday and Anniversary as I know she felt to helpless being in London when Rani passed, so a little more closure for her.

So I am guessing that I am going to be very quiet trying to deal with the emotions and anger (which is a daily thing) but magnified due to the time of the year.

Thanks for reading my vent - I hope it made sense.

Our Holiday

A quick run down of our trip.

We left for QLD at 5.30pm on Tuesday 24th July....arriving on the Gold Coast and driving to our Hotel and basically going to sleep...lol

Wednesday morning we went to Movieworld...today is the day I realised I have big kids and not babies anymore - they wanted to go on every ride and were both extremely disappointed that they were just that little bit to small for the Superman Roller Coaster and Lethal Weapon Roller Coaster. But neither of them have any fear and with Daddy they went on every ride at Movieworld. Josh and Teagan's favourite was the Scooby Doo ride and they went on it about 4-5 times...the great thing about going off-season is there were no lines for any of the rides.

After doing everything at Movieworld we came back to the Hotel and went for a swim and then we had yummy seafood for dinner.

Thursday and today was Seaworld - I think out of all the theme parks this is the most boring - not really much to do or many rides. We watched the Dolphin show and then went on a few rides. The only problem with going off-season is that rides are closed for maintenance and the whole water park was closed and the Bermuda Triangle wasn't working. So the kids did the Roller Coaster 5-6 times. We went to Shark Bay, saw the Polar Bears and were done by 2pm. We went and got some food for a BBQ, as Dave and Karen were coming over for dinner...We were very excited as it was the first time I was meeting their 2 year old daughter...naughty me forgot to take photos - but we had a lovely night.

Friday was Dreamworld (Today was the day that I started with the first symptons of our colds) We met Dora the Explorer when we entered and got a photo with her, then John and kids headed straight for the Claw...then a couple more rides. I headed to the car as my head was killing me and John, Josh and Teagan continued with the rides. I came back in and we decided to get the $10 return tickets and come back another day. So we drove out to Cedar Lake where we were spending the rest of our break and I had a nana nap - before we headed to Dave and Karens for the night - they made us a beautiful roast dinner, we went for a drive in Daves big truck and hit the beds about midnight - again no photos...naughty - Karen you will have to send some photos down....lol

Saturday we had a relaxing day back at the resort, John and kids went out on a canoe, also on the paddle boats and went for a swim in the pool.

Sunday after a lovely sleep in John and the kids went down and hired some golf clubs and had a hit on the 9 holes. It was lovely to sit on the verandah and watch them play golf...certainly no Tiger Woods in my future....lol Then we got ready for dinner at John's parent house. We hadn't seen them for almost a year. Again naughty me no photos - Josh and Teagan played in the big park across the road with their cousins Tamia and Tre and we had a huge BBQ dinner...it was lovely to catch up.

Monday I couldn't get out of bed - my cold was full blown, so John took Josh and Teagan back down to Dreamworld and they had a ball...and my good little husband took some fantastic photos for me to scrap :) and he also called into the pharmacy and picked up some meds.

Tuesday and Josh had come down with the cold. We were meant to be catching up with some friends - but they cancelled...so John took the kids down to the movies and they saw The Simpsons. This is Teagan feeding the ducks and geese that came up to the back door every day at 4pm for some bread. On the first day Teagan was feeding them and put some of the bread behind her back and one of the geese came up and took the bread biting her finger as well, so this is why she is on a chair...lol

Wednesday and now Josh is still sick and John is also in bed with the Flu...the only healthy one is Teagan...lol...so it was a quiet day at the resort trying to get healthy. Now didn't I say that Teagan was the only one healthy...lol...well at 2am Josh woke us up to say that Teagan was throwing up - so the whole family was sick!!!!

Thursday - Thankfully today is the day we go home...lol...We went for a drive to Kallangur to show Josh the house he lived in for a little while and also to Redcliffe to show him the Hospital he was born in and then went home. None of us were feeling very bright and cheerful but we had hours to kill. We packed our bags and headed to the airport at about 8.30pm as our flight was meant to be leaving at 9.20pm...but when we got there we were told it had been delayed and hopefully we would be boarding at 10pm.

We finally boarded just after 10 and just as we are about to sit down, Josh throws up...great start to our flight home - thankfully that was it...both Josh and Teagan slept pretty much all the way home and after circling for a little while we finally landed back to the freezing Melbourne weather. We finally had heads on pillows at 2am.

Friday Josh was still throwing up and coughing and Teagan had her worst day of the flu...so it was good we were home.

So even though the last couple of days were a blow out all in all we did have a lovely trip away!!!

We are Home!!!

Tired and sick...lol

We had a fantastic time in the beautiful hot weather, hit the theme parks, caught up with friends and family and then I managed to catch a cold and it went through all of us which put a little bit of a dampener on the last couple of days of our trip......so we are all happy to be home, as the kids have it worse today.

So just popping in to say Hello and will update properly later.