Hairstyles

Okay, this post comes with a warning: it has pictures of my head, with NO makeup, just after I woke up, and with a swollen pregnanty chin. (I must be freaking mad to post this.) So scroll down at your own risk.

However, every risk should have a reward - and, drumroll....

I need help picking a new hairstyle. Something to hide my huge nose, please. I have had issues with my nose since I was a teenager, always trying to look at people front-on, so they didn't notice the profile. You can probably appreciate this could get a little tricky when I was in a crowd. I'm sure I sometimes looked like a carnival clown, swivelling my head like mad.

Apparently bangs are supposed to help, and I think they might soften my face up a little and hide my expaaaansive forehead. I went onto one of those hair trial websites and went mad, and here are the results.

This is me wearing Keira Knightly's hair. I hope she doesn't want it back. If I went with this one it would look a bit less messy, I'm a neat hair freak. This is about the natural colour of my hair, and it also has a bit of natural curl, so I reckon this would work.

This is Jennifer Aniston's hair. If I had this one I would have to straighten it every day, which totally wouldn't work with a brand new baby. The real question is, what do you think of the bangs? Workable?

Cameron Diaz was kind enough to lend her hair. Again, the bangs? Are they ok?

This last one from Faith Hill. I'll wear it with my pearls and fluffy high heels when I clean the bathroom:

So what do you think? Curls? Bangs? Banging curls? Advise me, please....

When will she arrive?

I've started to feel a bit like the bottle that holds the ship. It was relatively simple getting all the necessary bits in, and they arranged themselves in a logical order to create something amazing. But now how do I get the ship back out? And how do I do it without breaking the ship or the bottle? And the ship just keeps getting bigger!

Every morning I wake up disappointed that the baby and I are still inhabiting the same body. I'm starting to experience the worries that I'm sure come to every new mother. Will she be late? Will she be healthy? Am I mentally and physically ready to give birth? More importantly, will I totally embarrass myself during the delivery? Shriek too scarily? Break down and cry? Try to leave? Poop? Will Mr Accident still respect me afterwards?

When I start to worry too much I think about the Queen - if she gave birth and then went on to rule a country while wearing pearls, I reckon I just might be okay.

Pavlova

We're heading out to dinner at a friends tonight, so I made up a pavlova. It's basically egg whites beaten with caster sugar, with a little vinegar and cornflour folded though. It's dried in a low oven and it comes out like a big meringue. (Isn't meringue the weirdest word? Spelt nothing like it should be.) You top it with sweetened whipped cream and fresh fruit. I'm still debating whether this one needs some fresh mango as well - I might just eat the mango all myself, no sharing.

The biggest challenge with pavlova is peeling it off the baking sheet. It always looks perfect on the tray straight out of the oven, but once I've had at it with a spatula and a knife trying to get it into a serving dish it's just a mess. I've found it's easiest to just give up, peel off the bigger pieces of outer shell and then flop the middle across as a mess. Put the shell on, hide the cracks with heaps of cream and voila! No one need ever know. Except now I've told everyone with internet access. I'm so sneaky.

Here is what the BBC says a good pavlova should look like:

Look, no cracks! It's a miracle.

Tinkles, wee and urine

I went to visit the obstetrician today. This always involves wee - it's unavoidable. At my first doctor they asked me to pee in a cup when I arrived. Despite the initial embarrassment of handing a warm cup to a nice nurse, I had no issues with this method. However, on my first visit to the new doctor they gave me my own specimen jar, and they wanted me to pee at home and then bring it in. This was the single deciding factor in my choice of new handbag - it had to be large enough to carry and conceal my wee jar without embarrassment. It's not cool to be running errands and dig through your purse, having pulling out the wee jar in order to reach your wallet. People look at you strangely. It's like carrying a concealed weapon. I guess I could whip it out if I got into trouble; if someone threatened to throw wee at me I would be far more disturbed than if they threatened to shoot me. So anyway, the crux is that every morning before I have a doctor's appointment I need to pee in a little yellow lidded jar.

This used to be an easy proposition, but I now have a sizable belly to contend with. The jar is small, the belly is big, and I haven't been able to see my lady-bits for months. This results in a literal hit and miss affair that consumes my morning. It usually takes a couple of goes to get it right, so this needs a fair bit of hydration, which brings its own problems. Sneezing suddenly becomes a stressful event.

My appointment was supposed to be at 1215 but I didn't get in until about half past one. I tried to be understanding, but it was over my lunch and I was so incredibly hungry, and I needed to pee again really badly, but I was worried about going to the bathroom in case they called me and I wasn't there. When I was finally seen I was so relieved that it was the shortest appointment in history. Baby is well, she still has a head and a spine and a heart beat, and I still have blood pressure. More than that I don't know - we didn't have enough time! I do know I am sitting on the 85kg mark, which is a solid gain of 20kg over the pregnancy, with only 11 days to go until the due date. I'm starting to get impatient!

We need help

My fully grown, manly husband likes to spoon his dog. While she's spooning my dog. Perhaps it's because she is not pregnantly hormonal and doesn't yell "get off me, how can you bear to touch me, I'm the size of a fully grown hefalump who just ate a whole plate of nachos!" every time he tries to show her affection. Hmmmm, I might need to see a psychologist about my pregnant body image issues. Perhaps I can schedule the appointment for the same time as he sees one about SPOONING HIS DOG?

It does make for some cute photos though.

And she's definitely smiling in that last one.

The Nursery Reality

So after hyping you all up for the nursery photos, I got myself so excited I went and took them right away regardless. So, without further ado, here is my totally-not-how-it-looked-in-the-catalogue nursery.

The small white drawers are just chipboard, but I painted them white and they are doing quite a good job pretending to be real wood. I bought the cloth boxes under the change table from Howard's Storage World (I love that place - I think Howard and I would get on just fine). They hold all the changing paraphernalia for bub. Please note though, none of this stuff has actually been baby road tested. My cunning system may fall to pieces in the face of screaming, pooping reality.

I love love love this lamp. It makes me happy. Yes, I am that shallow. It gives out just enough light for night feedings, but probably not enough to read by.

There are plenty of soft toys in the crib at the moment. They will all be moved to the toy box when Bub moves in, but for now they are cute and I love looking at them, thinking of the people who sent them for baby and how many people she will have to love her when she finally arrives.

For some reason everyone seems to have sent pink elephants. These ones are gorgeous:

Since we live in the tropical north, the quilt from the set will not see much use until we migrate south again. Instead, I pinned it to some green fabric I had lying around to make it a tab top, and attached it to a dowel. It fills the wall space well, and I doubt the realtor will notice my illegal, small and very high up nail-holes when we move out.


The mobile in front of the quilt was something I banged together using a bird pattern from the net. I made a couple of leaves and then attached them all to sticks from the yard. It's not very practical, and the birds are always overbalancing, but it was made with love. And isn't that what really counts?

Fantasy vs Reality - the nursery

Well folks, the nursery is finally ready! Are you excited? By far the best thing about moving into the new house was finally getting to spend hours and hours with an allen key putting together very small furniture. Mr Accident and I got the basics set up very quickly, but then I kind of stalled and left a great big pile of hand me down clothing strewn around the room for weeks because I couldn't face sorting it. It looked a little like this, but without any helpfully working women in sight.

Then yesterday I fell into a Mum-to-be frenzy and tidied the whole room.

Before we moved I went all out and bought jungle themed nursery items, including the equally useless bed and curtain valances, and two random little cushions. Here is what it looked like in the catalogue, isn't it darling?

They even offer suggested paint options for the walls:

Needless to say, my nursery looks nothing like this. At all.

Since we're renting a house where we can't paint anything, and we are not allowed to put holes / nails anything onto our bare and unhappy walls, it kind of limited the design potential. I know Nester would rush in here with a hot glue gun and a big hammer and tell me to get over myself, everything is fixable (especially teeny wall holes) but I'm a little nervous. The realtor is scary!

Anyhow, it's raining with fierce thunder and the light is all wrong for pictures, so I will just leave you in suspenders until tomorrow, when I will post highly disappointing pictures of my totally non-designer nursery. I promise!

I Love Lamp

We recently moved into a new house that had plenty of display space. This prompted me to come up with some space fillers that would quickly and cheaply fill the gaps and make the house look a little more finished. I was able to use lots of things that I already owned.

This is one half of the shelves that flank the dining table nook.

I picked up the rock / coral thingy at the dog beach one afternoon, the picture really doesn't do it justice! The letters you can see there were originally plain browny ones I picked up at the local craft store. I covered the front with scrapbooking paper and modge podge, and painted the back. Now they spell out Mr Accident and my first names and make the house a little more personal. I tried to find the letters to spell out the baby's name, but the store was all out of the crucial letters. Like 'e'. Who would have thought?

This is the other end of the nook, apologies for the blurriness!

Originally I had just the photo frame and the little statue, but it needed more height. I decided to stay with the whole white / natural coloured theme, and picked up the vase and grass from a $2 store. Needless to say neither bit was $2 (why the false advertising?) but they were still really, really cheap.

This is my all time favourite lamp on my all time favourite end table.

I have always loved tiffany style lamps, so Mum bought this as a wedding present for Mr Accident and I. If you're sneaky, you can zoom in and see a picture of me in the frame.

Oohhhhh alright, here it is:



Have a wonderful evening!

A Frog Eating Failure

Wow, sometimes it surprises me how well I know myself. My prophesy came true, and today was not a good frog-eating day. I crawled back into bed after Mr Accident left for work and I was still in my pyjamas at 1130. The upside is I'm now totally rested, and I can kind of justify the sleeping in / laziness thing as wise before having kids (because I know I probably won't get a sleep in for years once the baby arrives) but I still felt off kilter and behind schedule for the rest of the day. I think it's worth waking up properly the first time to avoid that!

Here is picture of a chinese man who is far better at frog eating than I am:

Today I also had to go into the motor vehicle registry to get a new licence, as we have moved and I've changed names to become Mrs Accident. The staff were totally lovely, but my licence photo is TERRIBLE. I look like a chubby, pregnant tomato. I think I will have to 'lose' the licence and get a new picture once the bub has come and my head is back to weighing less than a small planet. I hope that happens quickly!

In other news, Mr Accident has decided to take his lunch to work. Our work provides a cheap canteen and in most locations this is a great social midday break and the food is plentiful and healthy. However, at the new work location the food is terrible and really fatty, more like pub food. It's not really what you would want to eat at lunch, especially since Mr Accident is a bit of a gym nut. He was a little stumped as to what to take to eat tomorrow (today he took some left over lasagna from dinner last night) so I suggested rice paper rolls. He made them himself, for the first time ever. Here's the final outcome, made with vermicelli, roast chicken, avocado, mayonnaise and lettuce wrapped in a rice paper wrap:

Good job Mr Accident!

What do you take for lunch when you're out? Any quick and easy favourites?

The working mother

Mr Accident and I have been struggling over a subject that I am sure many families have faced at this juncture in life. Mr Accident and I met through work. There is a very defined path for advancement in our career, and we are just about even on the ladder. We both love our jobs and we are both doing very well. However we have agreed that having someone at home full time for the bub's first year of life is vital. That decision was straight forward since I'm clearly the breastfeeding specialist.

The real challenge comes afterwards - we both need to be able to travel at short notice to stay competitive at work. Mr Accident and I may easily be called upon to travel at the same time, so who takes the hit and tells work they can't make it? Who leaves early when the kids need to go to the dentist? Who takes the sick day when junior has a cold? Do we take turns, sabotaging both our careers in the process? Or do we put one career ahead of the other, ensuring one of us advances and can support the family as well as possible, but perhaps breeding resentment in the other partner?

Since we are planning on having several children, each probably causing a year long gap in my career, it seems that my career will be the one to take the hit. I know this is the obvious outcome and will be the best for the family as a whole, helping ensure a strong start in life for the kids and the possibility of the highest overall income for our family. I am just having a really hard time accepting it!

So much of my identity and self worth is tied up in performing well at work that I am concerned about how I will feel when this is reduced. The wonderful Mr Accident has pointed out that healthy, well adjusted children that love their mummy are an excellent performance indicator, but will it be enough? Our careers are in a service industry that I feel is vitally important, and I have only been fully functional within that industry for four years - have I served enough before taking a step back for my own family? So many questions, and the answers are by no means clear.

So, has any one else faced the decision on career versus home life? What did you take into consideration? Did you make the right choice? Any regrets?

Frogs, and the eating of them

Simple Mom had a great post yesterday on eating your frog first thing in the morning. I tried her theory today, consciously doing my least favourite tasks first up. It worked really well! The sheets and towels are washed, the house is dusted and the furniture polished. However, there is one flaw to her plan that I can foresee- knowing that as soon as I get up I will have to do something that I actively dislike may cause me to stay in bed all day....

Anyhow, on the topic of frogs, our house has a fair variety.

Living in the north of Australia, we have a cane toad problem. They are an introduced species that were originally imported to eat the cane beetle. Unfortunately, they thrived well beyond the cane growers requirements and are now steadily spreading across the north of our beautiful country.

A couple of steps have been taken to try and reduce their impact, as if they are eaten by our local animals they can be lethal. In the Northern Territory, pubs have offered a dead-toads-for-beer trade offer, and community groups run toad hunting days. It reminds me of whacking day on the Simpsons. The newspaper has reported dogs becoming addicted to licking the toads, as their poisonous backs apparently have a hallucinatory effect. I laugh to think of the spaced out druggie dogs addicted to hard frogs, it does worry me having them around the pups because if they eat them they will become seriously ill.

Mr Accident and I keep our yard toad free by scooping them up with a shovel and tossing them onto the road, where almost every driver makes a concerted effort to run them over. I'm head spotlighter, he's head scooper. Here is a picture of one of the little beauties:


I doubt any princesses will be lining up to kiss him! They are one of the few things that really gross me out.

We also have much nicer frogs in the yard, these little green tree frogs:

Cane toads have been known to eat these cute little fellas, and so I always feel like a rescuer when we clear out the toads from the yard.

We also have a shy little white frog that lives in the bathroom and eats ants. We know he's there because we occasionally see him if we surprise him at his job late at night, and he leaves little frog-pebbles for us in the morning. The pebbles are a little annoying (I'd prefer him to be house trained) but they are much nicer that actual ants.

Remember, eat your frogs first thing in the morning!

It's almost sunny!

The weather isn't fabulous, but there is enough blue sky to warrant a trip to Bunnings. Hooray!

A Day In My Life

It's Day in the Life time from Little Jenny Wren. My apologies for the lack of pictures, I'll try and remember my camera next time!

At the moment Mr Accident and I are both on holidays, so our days are super relaxed. We've just moved, and I am really looking forward to exploring the new area. Unfortunately we're kind of on tenterhooks waiting for the baby to arrive, and the weather has been really really crazy. An "ex-tropical cyclone" is hanging around in our neighbourhood and messing with summer; it has rained continuously for the last 3 days and it doesn't look like stopping. The real bummer is that Mr Accident has promised to take me to Bunnings on the very first sunny day. Stop raining please!!!

Anyway, that's all a little off topic. Here's my day:

I woke up before Mr Accident. This is a pretty unusual occurrence, as since I've hit the third trimester I can sleep like a champion. I switched on the coffee machine, which was mighty kind of me since I'm on the caffeine-dry, but since it is a one button on machine maybe not worth a real medal. Breaky was cereal, yogurt and milk, as usual.

In this house we have an awesome double shower. I didn't notice it when I first inspected the place, so it was a really nice surprise when we arrived. It also means I only have to clean my half, and Mr Accident can do his half at his leisure. I leave the necessary stuff around in case he gets the shower cleaning bug, but his real strength is floors. I don't do floors.

After pottering around at home we headed into town, visited the library and stopped into a little cafe for lunch. It's been fun trying out new restaurants and cafes around town, we've found some really nice ones. I also spotted a boutique that is so cute I want to live there. After lunch it was still bucketing down and so Mr Accident kindly dropped me off at council to register the dogs. The council lady was so helpful and lovely, people in this town are really welcoming!

My work moves me round a fair bit, sometimes without telling the new place I'm coming into all the details. That meant today when I dropped in to my new work to tell the guys on the ground that I had arrived, I also has to tell them I wouldn't actually be at work for another year. After the initial confusion they finally got the message, and they took it really well. I'm lucky my work is so flexible with maternity leave and I get my job back when I return, even after a really long absence.

I tried to choose properly edifying books at the library, but I always get one fluff book. Of course I always read that one first, so this afternoon I started reading the Agatha Christie. Once Mr Accident came back from his daily gym trip we headed out in a brief break in the weather to walk the puppies. About a minute later it started raining again, but by then the dogs were so happy to be out of the yard it would have been plain mean to turn back. The lake bridge had turned into a proper causeway with all the rain, but the water has lowered a little and most of the path was good to go. After the walk we headed home and changed into dry clothes. We had chicken kebabs and salad for dinner, then settled in for some quality Las Vegas viewing on TV.

Introductions

Ok, so the first post went well. Now it's time for some introductions.

This is a photo of Mr Accident and Archie the Cavalier puppy.

Archibald has just turned one, and he thinks he runs the house. He is probably right. Yesterday he chewed the toothpaste tube and freshened his breath, and he just chewed a photo album and Mr Accident threw a beanbag at him. I guess he is doing his bit, training us for a toddler, and teaching us to baby proof the house. He likes cuddles and laps and is afraid of fluff, frogs and christmas lights. He is NOT tough, but since he barks bravely at anything that moves he makes a decent alarm system.

This is Baya. She actually runs the house. She is the kind of first dog that every girl should have, and she has totally spoilt me for every future dog ever. She is remarkably understanding of my attempts to train her, and very kindly pretends to carefully follow most of my instructions, if she feels like it.

She is growing older now, and slowing up a little. Mr Accident sometimes worries that she prefers me, but he doesn't see her waiting by the door for him to come back every time he leaves the house! She is a one man dog, and that man is Mr Accident.

I suppose that at some stage I will have to post a picture of me, but I'll need to find a good one first.

Welcome to the interwebs

Hi everyone!

This is my first blog post ever. I have started blogging for a couple of reasons. Mr Accident and I have just married and are expecting our first born very shortly. The blog will be an easy way to keep our families up to date when I am in a hazy new-mum fug, and also I don't want to bore the reli's with endless stories about baby poo until they would rather pluck out their toenails. Here I can write about all that baby / family stuff that fascinates me, and they can pretend to read it at their leisure.
Also, I read plenty of blogs and the whole one-way-sharing thing has started to be a little strange. This way blog type people can check me out and hopefully find out that I'm not some creepy 1000 year old dude that really likes to read homemaking blogs and look at cute pictures of other peoples kids. Eww!
The last reason is that Mr Accident has been bugging me to start a blog, mostly because he loves being famous, and probably wants something to keep me occupied while I make the transition from career-girl to full time Mum over the next year. Enjoy my ramblings!