Colour Selection

Today was the day that we went for our final colour selection at the tile company. We were picking our bathroom, ensuite and laundry floor tiles, our shower/bath tiles and our kitchen splashback tiles. All in all the selection went well however we had a little hiccup when Mia decided to throw up all over me, the leather couch we were on and the floor of the tile place. My poor little girl! She has thrown up for 3 days in a row now every time almost 3pm on the dot. I have no idea what is causing it. She just got her 8th tooth through so I wondered if it was that or maybe she has a flu bug. I am going to take her to to the doctor tomorrow just to see what she says.

Anyways...here are some of our FINAL selections...on my previous blog you saw the final brick and roof tile so these are just the floor tiles, shower/bath tiles and the benchtops/countertops and cupboard final choices...


What we chose for our shower walls (the tiles are 300w x 600h). It is a bit hard to see the colour but it is a beige kind of tile with a bit of light brown highlights throughout it.


What we chose for the floor tiles in the bathroom, ensuite, toilet and laundry. We weren't allowed to use the 300x600 sized tiles on the floor (which sucks!!) so we chose a big square one that is 400x400. The colour is kind of a combination between chocolate and plum.


What the combination of wall tile and floor tile looks like together.


This is the 2 tiles (wall and floor)with our choices of benches/counters in the bathroom and ensuite as well as the cupboard design. The solid colour swatch on the left is the benchtops and the swatch on the right is the cupboards.


What we have chosen for our kitchen cupboards.


What we have chosen for our kitchen benchtop/countertop. It is called diamond gloss and it is black (the colour is called Skylight).


The tile we have chosen for our kitchen splashback. It is red...hope we aren't making a mistake! We just wanted a splash of colour in the kitchen since the benches are black and the cupboards are white/grey.


The kitchen combination...black for the benchtops, white/grey for the cupboards and red for the splashback.

Mia Through the Months

I have been reflecting back on the last 10 months and how my life has changed so dramatically. It is incredible to think that 10 1/2 months ago I gave birth to my daughter - the time has absolutely flown by! She is the most precious thing in the world. She is the centre of my universe and I couldn't imagine life without her. I have put together a collage of Mia through the months and it amazes me to look back to what she looked like just 1 minute old compared to the beautiful 10 1/2 month old that she is now. She just rocks my world!!

This 'n That

What a crazy time I have had over the last few days!! FINALLY tonight I have the chance to catch my breath and update this blog of mine!!

Firstly, I have finally submitted my final essay for the University course I am taking!! My essay, as mentioned before is on Domestic Violence in Indigenous communities. I think it came together pretty well - hopefully the mark that I get reflects that! I also finished my final quiz so that officially means that I have completed the course!! Thank goodness!! My next course starts in about a week - it is called Understanding Imprisonment (all about the Australian prison system, deaths in custody etc). I am really looking forward to it!

My work from home job is in full force now. I have completed 2 tasks for them already and that will bring in $625 of extra cash for me!! It feels great to be bringing in some extra income. It will certainly make things easier when we start building our house!!

Speaking of building our house, we got our copies of the building contract today which I took straight over to the bank. Now they just need to do their bit and then the builders can get the plans off to council. We have our tile selection appointment on Sunday and we have pretty much picked out what we want. The only thing we are unsure of is the kitchen splashback. We changed what we are using for our kitchen benchtops so now we need to change what we were planning for the splashback. We will make our final decisions on Sunday.

Mia got a special surprise from Grandma and Grandpa today - a swing for the back deck. I have been wanting to get her a swing for AGES but because we are just renting the house we are in I couldn't get one as you have to drill holes in order to hang it up and use it. However, David's mum and dad jigged up a rope system that attaches to the 2 columns of the deck rather than screwing into the top and got a second hand swing for her which is perfect! She loved it!! Now I don't have to take her to the park everytime she wants to have a swing.

Mia had her first proper bubble bath tonight!! It was so cute!!

Long Time No Speak

It seems like forever since I have posted!! I guess it has only been 5 days but it seems longer!! Ok, here is the news...

My job is going well. My first task was to write 6 kitchen renovation articles on things like how to renovate your benchtops, splashback, cupboards, basic kitchen design rules etc. I did 2 articles and sent them to the lady I am working for and she emailled back and said WOW and GREAT in response to what I had done so that is a good thing! Now I can finish the other 4 for her and get some $!!!

Regarding building our house we signed the final contract with the builder on Monday which is VERY exciting! We now wait for head office to mail out our copy and the bank's copy of the contract. Then the bank can finalise our loan, release the money, then we can pay the 5% deposit to the builder and they can get the plans off to council. David and I have been working on our colour selections...this is what we have chosen so far...

What we are wanting to use for our kitchen splashback...

What we are using for our kitchen cupboards...

The colour we have chosen for our kitchen benchtops and our bathroom/ensuite benchtops...

The brick type we have chosen for part of the front, the sides and the back of the house...










The roof tiles we have chosen...




This the colour of our bamboo flooring that we are using...











This is what we have chosen for the bathroom/ensuite cupboards...


















We have also chosen the colour Monument (which is like a dark grey) to use for our garage door and gutters and we are using the colour Classic Cream for our downpipes and fascia. The weatherboard on the outside front of our house will be the colour Exposed Elements which is like a brown/grey just like the roof tiles. Our choices are not locked in yet...but we are liking what we have so far.

Mia is doing great. She is commando crawling now which is exciting! I was wondering if she was ever going to crawl. She can go pretty fast across the floor but I do hope that she progresses to "normal" crawling (I call "normal" crawling crawling on all fours). She is extremely talkative which I LOVE!! Like mother like daughter!!

I am trying to finish my final essay for the University course I am taking. It is on Domestic Violence in Indigenous communities. There is such a plethora of literature out there on it that I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. I need to get some semblance of order going!! It is due in exactly 1 week!! AHHHHHH!!!!!!

I am also very excited because I have designed Mia's 1st birthday invitation. Here it is...





What is missing is that on all the coloured squares I am adding a hand punched white daisy flower with a black centre to give the invite some "texture".

Mia's Birth Story

I know that it seems crazy that I am posting this now since Mia is already over 10 months old but I wanted to post this so I would have an electronic record of her birth. I am doing a traditional scrapbook for her and have put the information in there but I wanted it electronically in case anything happened to her scrapbook. So here it is...

At 7am on Saturday 4th April 2009 I woke up and realised that it appeared my waters had broke. It wasn’t the normal “gush” so I didn’t know for sure if that is what had happened. I called the hospital about an hour later and was told to take my time, pack my bags and come into the hospital and they would check things out.

We arrived at the hospital at about 11am and I was taken straight into a delivery suite. As it was the weekend, unfortunately Dr Whelan (my obstetrician) was not on call so I was told that Dr Stephen Cook was the obstetrician on call. He happened to be at the hospital when I arrived so he gave me an internal exam shortly after I arrived and said I was 3cm dilated. I was not getting regular contractions yet so the midwife, Pat, told me we would wait and see if the contractions would start on their own. An hour or two later the contractions had still not arrived with regularity so Pat told me to go and walk around the hospital and go up and down the stairs to see if that would bring them on. After about 45mins of walking still no luck!

At 2:30 there was a change in shift and a new midwife was assigned to me named Robyn. She went and called Dr Cook to see what to do about the fact that the contractions hadn’t started. Dr Cook advised to put in a hormone drip to force the contractions to start. The drip was put in (it took 2 attempts because the first needle in my vein had popped out and boy did the first attempt hurt!!) and an hour later I was officially in “active” labour.

Stage 2 of the labour process was not too bad. The contractions were strong but bearable. I had decided going into the whole process that I wanted to try and go through labour as naturally as possible and only use pain relief if absolutely necessary. Stage 2 moved onto the transition stage and that is when the fun began. I have never experienced anything like that in my entire life!! It felt like my entire body was going to explode from the inside out and it only got worse from there!! David and my mum were a great help fanning me and helping me keep cool. Dr Cook came and did another internal exam and said I was 7cm dilated – almost there!! It was at this point that I was assigned another midwife named Carly. She was so fantastic in helping me get through the transition stage and the delivery itself.

Finally, at 10:00pm it was time to push. At this point I had made it through with no pain relief – not even any gas. I started pushing and again the pain was incredible. I pushed and pushed and 1 ½ hours later Dr Cook came back in and did another internal exam. The pain of that exam was the worst pain of the entire process. Eventually I screamed out at him to stop because I felt like I was going to pass out. It was at this point that he advised me that Mia's head would not fit through my pelvis on its own. He told me I had done a great job pushing but that there was nothing more that I could do and Mia was starting to get a bit distressed so he advised I would have to be taken into theatre where I would be given an epidural and they would try a forceps delivery and if that didn’t work I would have to have a caesarean. It was such a shame that I had to have the epidural because I had done so well to make it through to that point without having any pain relief!

The anethetist Dr Len Cox arrived and walked me through the epidural process. By this point I was pushing every 30 seconds and was completely exhausted. They took me into theatre and it felt like the longest time before Dr Cox got the epidural in but when the drugs started flowing it was the best feeling in the world! The pain was gone. They put my legs up in stirrups and it was the weirdest feeling because I couldn’t feel a thing. All I could see was people lifting my legs and I couldn’t feel it! Dr Cook then told me that I needed to push. I said “how can I push when I don’t feel anything?” He said he would tell me when to push and he did. I pushed twice more and Dr Cook managed to deliver Mia using the forceps. David then got to cut the cord.

It was strange. It seemed so real and yet I had dreamed of that moment for so long. It was the most incredible feeling when they gave Mia to me. I fell completely and utterly in love with her. I knew she was mine. I knew we were meant for each other. The love I felt for her was like nothing I have experienced before.

Mia was born at 00:17am on 5th April weighing 3340g and 50cm in length. We named her Mia Jacqueline Hooper. Her middle name, Jacqueline, was my Memere's name (my dad's mother).

Covenant Approval

I am so excited!! I got an email from the Covenant Administrator from the estate we are building our house in. He sent through the approval letter to say that our plans have been approved!! Yayyy!! Now we go in to see the builder and sign the contract, wait for the bank to give us our money and then the plans get sent off to Council. Once that happens then we can start building!! Hopefully within the next month to month and a half and we will see some progress!!

Correction

I have just received a phone call from my dad in Canada. He requested a correction be made to my previous post about my vacuum cleaner. In that post I stated that my parents had injured my poor vacuum cleaner when they were last out here for a visit.

CORRECTION: My MOTHER injured my poor vacuum cleaner. My dad had NOTHING to do with the injury. He just tried to fix it...

My Poor Vacuum Cleaner

First the exciting news - I officially mailed off our house plans to the Covenant Administrators for their approval. Hopefully it will only take about a week and then by that point the contract from the builders will be ready to sign and then I can give that to the bank, they can release the money and we can get the plans off to council. Can't wait!!

The bad news is that my vacuum cleaner is dying a slow death. We have never been one to spend A LOT of $ on a vacuum even though I know the more money you spend the better quality and the longer it lasts. Our vacuum gets quite a workout as I vacuum at least once a day - sometimes twice. When my parents were out here visiting from Canada when Mia was born they did the vacuuming one day and by accident snapped the plastic bit attached to the metal part of the tube. My dad, being the fix-it man he is, put duct tape around it to put it back together. I do remember when I was a child we had a really old vacuum and by the end of it's days it had so much duct tape around the tubing it looked like it was an alien from outer space! Now this duct tape that my dad put on our vacuum has been working pretty well however lately it has started to not work and the tube is actually bending so I have to bend over really low to hold lower down on the tube to do the vacuuming. I have tried putting more duct tape on it to give it more support but unfortunately it is beyond repair. To use a quote from the movie Cool Runnings (which was on the other night)...

ME: "Hey vacuum...you dead??"
VACUUM: "Ya mon"

My poor vacuum...

Our House!!

I am so excited today!! We FINALLY got our final house plans from the builder. Now we have to send them off to the Covenant Administrator for their approval and then it gets sent to the local council for final approval. Once that comes back they can start building!! This process has been going on for what seems like forever. We have had one setback after another since we began this process. Finally it seems like everything is coming together!!

Here is our house design...



Our new house has 4 bedrooms plus a study, a media room, a living room, a family room, a dining room, a kid's activity room and a retreat in the master bedroom. There is a nice big patio and we have a cathedral raked ceiling in the family/kitchen area. I can't wait to get it built!!!

Mia's New Toy!

So I decided to try a different tactic to help Mia start enjoying standing up for longer periods of time so I found a 2nd hand Leap Frog Activity Table on Ebay and got it for her. It is really neat and plays all kinds of songs and sounds. It is music based and has a rattle, piano, guitar, trombone etc for her to interact with. She seemed to like it and was doing quite well standing on her own while playing with it. She still flops down on her bum quite a bit but she is getting the hang of this "standing" thing!!

The big news in my life is that I got one of the jobs I talked about in my previous post!! I am going to be working on a trial basis to start basically as an Admin Assistant/Graphic Designer for a Property Investment Educator and Renovations company helping design their material for their various workshops, organise their monthly newsletter and doing some writing of articles and research for them. I am SO excited as I get to do all this from home and still be a full time mum to Mia. I just couldn't bear the thought of putting her in childcare so this is just so perfect and it will really help with our finances (I will be making $25 an hour to start)!! I will be starting probably on Monday as they are hoping to get me the background for my first task to me this weekend!!

I am so sick and tired of my air conditioner being broken. It is SO hot here at the moment and with no ceiling fans in the living areas we are sweltering!! The repair men are coming on Tuesday but they said over the phone they have a feeling that the entire system has "blown up" and it will need replacing. As we are in a rental property while our house is being built who knows how long the owners will take to replace it.

We were hoping to pick up our final house plans from the builder today however they haven't been sent over from Head Office yet. Hopefully Monday or Tuesday next week. We are building through a company called Perry Homes but we aren't using one of their standard designs. We have basically designed our own home. When I get a proper electronic copy of the plan I will show you all!

A Catch Up

Gosh I haven't been on here in a few days and there is so much to catch up on!! Firstly, 3 nights ago we had quite the shock! We were sitting on the couch and I looked out the window and I could see something crawling around on the outside window ledge. I just assumed it was a cane toad as we seem to get tons of them in our yard thanks to the rock retaining wall we have...but to my surprise it wasn't a cane toad...it was a mouse!!! A MOUSE??!?!?!?! What the??!?!!? Of course my dogs were outside and Alex especially took a liking to the mouse and after it ran away wanted to find it at all costs. It hasn't come back since then...thank goodness!!!!

Karrah and Kailin from www.eggsdontbounce.blogspot.com came over for a play 2 days ago and the girls had a very nice time together. I was hoping that Kailin would show Mia how much fun crawling is and Mia would just start crawling but no luck yet. Mia is 10months today so hopefully crawling will come soon!!! Check out the pic of our girls...



Our air conditioner has broken down so we have been sweltering in the house in the heat. There are no celing fans in the living areas of the house so it has been so stinkin' hot. I am waiting for a call from the repair men but they sure are taking their time!!!! Mia had a very nice swim in our friend's pool 2 days ago which she loved and yesterday she had a swim in the shell pool in the backyard - she just loves the water! She is starting to pull herself up using the edge of the pool which is nice to see because normally she just sits and rotates while sitting and splashing! At least she is starting to pull herself up like most other babies!!

Big news here is that our final house plans for the house that we are building are FINALLY ready!! I spoke to the builder yesterday and he said we should be able to pick them up from him on the weekend. Then we have to get the plans approved through Covenant and then through Council and then it is time to build!! This process has been going on FOREVER so it is nice to finally see some progress!!

I have also had some possibly exciting news on the job front. I have been trying to find a work from home job for quite a while now. I sent off an email to my old workplace offering my services as their graphic designer/formatter and I totally expected to be told an outright no but the boss is actually considering my offer and I should find out her answer any day now. Fingers crossed! Another development is that a while back I registered with a company called Elance (check them out at www.elance.com). Nothing has come of it since then but the other day I got an email from a lady wanting me to submit a proposal for a job she has going. After speaking with her via email she is very impressed with what I do and is hoping that she can give me work through the company she works for. It would be all work from home doing graphic design, document preparation, event organisation etc. It sounds FANTASTIC!!! Fingers crossed again....she has to talk to the boss guy and see if he approves!!

Today I have to pick up a toy I bought for Mia off Ebay. I sold a few books of mine for about $40 and bought this toy with my profits - can't wait to show it to you all - pictures will come probably tomorrow!