Camping 2006

I hope you all had a great Christmas! I had lunch with my family and dinner with Nathan's family, one of the nice benefits of being married, especially when your MIL is a good cook. There was a lot of really good food!! Needless to say, I ate more than my squished tummy actually wanted, but it was still a good day. It was fun watching all the nieces and nephews open their new toys, and I was given a few nice things, too. Mainly chocolate and books!

On Tuesday 26th we got up and packed all our stuff into the car. It was a squash! The tent doesn't pack into a very small space; we got a large one that can fit 8 people... for future family use, and a big esky that takes up a lot of room.

I fixed up the guinea-pigs: There are 6 females/babies in the big new hutch Nathan built for me, 3 girls in the 2 hutches down on the green grass over the septic line, and 8 boys running around loose on the same grass. They have huts to go into, but they don't leave the septic line grass, because it's long (and they can hide in it) and it's the only green grass for miles! lol. Nathan gave his galah (Velvet) lots of water and seeds. My mum said she'd come out on the Thursday to make sure they all had water.

Simon and Esther and the kids turned up at about 11:30am. They had so much stuff in their Kia they said they considered leaving one of the kids behind to make room. He he. We all headed off to Port Fairy, stopping in Warnambool for lunch.

We went camping at Port Fairy last year, too, but it was quite different. For one, it was hot enough to swim in the ocean. It was also hot enough (and close enough to the river) to be infested with mosquitoes!

This year it was a little cooler, but still pleasant. We were at a different camping ground, a much nicer one, as it happened. It was smaller, but there were a lot of things for the kids to do. There was a Jumping Pillow, which was this enormous inflatable pillow, anchored into the ground, which 15 kids could easily jump on at once, just like a trampoline. That was very popular! There was a playground next to it, so that the little kids (like my nephew Ben) could play on it when the older kids on the Jumping Pillow were a bit rough. There was a recreation room with pool tables and video games, which we didn't have any time for, and a mini golf course. Nathan and I played some mini golf; he's much better at it than I am! There was a heated indoor swimming pool, which we all tried, but it wasn't as warm as I would have liked. Poor Ezra, who is 16 months old (and therefore didn't do much exercise in the pool except get carried around) was so cold he was shivering. Pity, because he would have loved it if it was warm enough. I spent lots of time in the tent, reading a book Matt had loaned me. It was a novel about a time traveller who goes back to the time of the Bubonic Plague (accidently!). Very interesting and graphic.

We also went to the beach, but it was too cool to swim. We walked out to the lighthouse on the mutton bird reserve instead. The kids went wading at the edge of the ocean and collected a jar of blue shells.

The first two mornings there was a riot of squarking: about 200 cockies live there, and they go for a screech around the camp at about 6am! Lasted about half an hour each day. I was up and showered both times, as I found it a bit hard to sleep. They didn't turn up on the last morning; don't know why. They are fun to watch, actually. A lot of them jump onto the very tip of a gumtree branch, which, of course, bends, and they are left hanging upside down by their claws. It doesn't seem to bother them at all; they just hang there, nibbling the ends off the branch. Or they just hang there with their wings out, relaxing, looking like white bats!

There are empty paddocks nearby, and Ben and Tim and I would have breaky early, then go off in search of rabbits. We saw 6 on the last morning. It's hard to keep a 3 and 5 year old quiet, but I figured all the people trying to sleep in tents were already awake after the cockies!

We packed up on Friday morning and headed back home. Had fish and chips for lunch and checked on the pets, then we unpacked, cleaned up, and sat on the couch the rest of the day! It was lots of fun camping with the kids, but they're pretty tiring at times. Abby (6) and Tim (5) were old enough to entertain themselves a bit, or play Uno with Uncle Nathan, but they'd also misbehave at times Ü. Ben (3) didn't misbehave unless he was very tired and didn't want to go to bed, but he could entertain himself... by wandering off! He tells the funniest little stories. Ezra (1) is very cute. He's blonde, grins at everything, waves at everyone, and likes to explore. You have to keep your eye on him! He's pretty well behaved, and usually only cries when his older siblings take something off him, and then only for 10 seconds until he is distracted by a feather on the ground or Nathan throwing him the pink tennis ball or something. Ü

Happy New Year, all!

Christmas Eve

Today is Christmas Eve, which means I finished work yesterday! It also means Christmas is tomorrow. Ü

We had our "20 week" ultrasound last Monday, which was quite interesting. The baby's moving around quite a bit, and was well behaved this time, but we still got a good look. The sonographer had to measure so many different things, it took half an hour anyway. We found out the baby's sex, and now we have to try and keep it a secret! I was pretty happy, though. I had the slightest twinge of disappointment, I confess, but only until I realized that it was because I wanted both! Can't have both with one baby, of course, so I was just being ridiculous.

I had a dream two nights ago where someone at work found out what we were having and told everyone! I was SO angry that I couldn't go back to sleep for about 3 hours! So please don't try and trick me into saying anything, ok?

Tomorrow we're going to my parents' for lunch and Nathan's mum's for tea. In the last few months it hasn't taken much to fill me up, but lately I've noticed I can eat a heap. Maybe it's because the baby has abandoned the squishing of my stomach for the stretching of my belly... it's starting to stick out a bit more, now. I still don't feel like it's changed much, but that's probably just because I see my stomach every day.

I have to cook a chicken for lunch, but luckily I'm not the only one! So there'll be some nice food, too: ham and lamb and stuff. Can't wait to see all the kids with their presents; that's fun! We'll go to church tonight instead of tomorrow, and sing carols for a bit. Tomorrow I'll sleep in, and then cook some chook.

On Boxing Day we're heading off to Port Fairy again. We're camping with Simon's family, which should be even more fun than last year (as Ezra will be running around, too, and it's a slightly more fun caravan park). Hope the weather will be warm enough to swim; it's turned cool the last few days. I bought fat bathers and shorts and a top, so I want a chance to use them.

Well, better go. I'm getting another Sim Grandchild soon... he he.

Midwives clinic

Had my "first" appointment at the midwives clinic yesterday. That is, I've had one where I had to do paperwork, and one where the doctor checked my blood tests, but this was the first one at the midwives clinic. I was going to join the primary care midwives program (PMCP) where you see the same midwife on each visit, and then she's there for your birth. But apparently I can't join it now, because it's booked out, and I didn't do my paperwork for it. 6 weeks ago, when there were spaces, I said I'd like to join it, but noone gave me any papers to fill in! Oh well... The midwives at the clinic seem friendly enough.

This one asked me how things were going; told her my stomach was sore at times, as though it were being stretched by... er,... someone inside. She said that's perfectly normal, and, of course, that is exactly what's happening. Then she took my BP (perfectly normal) and listened to my stomach with the u/s probe. I heard his fast little heartbeat for a second, and then 'whoosh'... "Oh," she said, "I had it nice and clearly, but the baby turned!" After that, every time she thought she'd found the heartbeat, he would 'whoosh' around again! Funny! She said he was a very active little thing, but I can't feel anything definite yet. Apparently it feels like bubbles moving, but I felt that before I was pregnant, too. Don't know what's bubbles in the guts and baby doing backflips. Nice to know that he is doing backflips, though.

I've finally finished my 6 days in a row, and now I have 3 off! Can't believe what a tired old granny I've turned into! I used to do 6 days all the time. And it's not like I'm working that hard; Brooke, my extremely organized preceptee, hardly needs me (and doesn't want my help) at all. She feels confident because I've let her do everything herself, something most nurses struggle to do, she says: they always start interfering when it gets busy. (I struggle, too, because I feel guilty, but I try not to help too much!) But now I only work 2 of the next 8 days, and then I have 5 in a row, two off, two on, and I'm finished! (Louise couldn't give me the week after Christmas off, so, as we've booked in our holiday, I had to resign again; she didn't mind at all, but told me I had to name the baby Louis or Louise!)

Am still reading silly "Don Quixote"! It's so silly that I don't feel too compelled to read it often. Thus, it's taking forever. I stopped for a while to read "The bronze Horseman", which Liz said was a good look at Russia during the second world war, but turned out to be a mushy romance and the first of a series! How many half-read series am I waiting to finish now! He he. Never mind.

Well, I must go clean the kitchen. Then, when the sun's a bit lower, I'll drag 4 or 6 buckets of grey-water down to the garden. I've got a row each of corn, lettuce, pumpkin, cabbage and tomato, in 5 ditches covered with mulch. So far so good, but watering them is a chore. Then I'll move the guineas. There are 17 now. I had Luna, Lupin, Lily, Padma, Parvati, Minerva, Poppy, Hokey, Seamus, Dean, Charlie and Heidi. Then Poppy had triplets, Fred, George and Snape, and Heidi just had 2, which I called Nick and Myrtle. Think I'll have to sell some soon!

One of my nurse-friends, Tam, has just started again, after being in England for 6 months. She says I'll call my baby either Harry or Harriet!