17w2d First Kicks

Our little Tiny Fish has made his/her presence felt. About 16w4d I felt what I thought might be a kick. It was not some subdued flutter or bubbles. It felt like a tapping finger, but inside. The most similar feeling I could describe would be if you tap the inside of your cheek with your finger.

A couple of days after that I was quite sure of what I was feeling and Hubby could feel it too!

Two nights ago I was doing a site change and I suddenly sneezed. I got a right strong internal thumping, and due to my excited yelping Hubby got a nice strong kick on the hand too :)

I'm now getting either kicks or rolling movements every 2+ hours or so. It gets easier to feel when I'm sitting up in bed, or in the recliner with my feet up, or wearing my pants done up (rare, now lol).

It's Sunday night and we've just had a lovely summer BBQ with my parents and the step kids. The two youngest go back to high school tomorrow, with it being the first day of secondary school for the youngest. Eldest step son has finished school and goes to college in April.

My first day of work is tomorrow and although Thursday is a holiday (Waitangi Day) I'm still not sure how I'll handle getting back into the whole work routine - I quite like being able to nap from 2 - 6pm if necessary.

Get to meet the OB on Wednesday, and Tuesday is a training day so it should be a bit of a wasted week.

I did my first ever basal test this morning. My diabetes nurse advised me just to have a carb-free breakfast I think cos she knew a complete fast would be a bit impossible for me - hungry pregnant lady raaaarrr!!! I had 2x boiled eggs, a spoon of peanut butter and a cup of tea. Looking back the peanut butter probably wasn't a good choice cos I went from 5.8mmol to sit around 10 for the entire morning. It was great to see how flat it was on the Dexcom, but I was frustrated not being able to do a correction. I think I should probably repeat this morning segment of the test just to check that the basal is fine and the pb didn't screw up the test too much. Oh well. It wasn't too much of a drama and I'm not worried to repeat it, it just too four mornings to start as I kept going low!!

In other good news, my good friend who has been trying for a baby for ages has just discovered she's pregnant. Very exciting to have someone close to me on this journey too!

I'm just so pleased that Tiny Fish is kicking away in there - it makes me feel so reassured and it just feels so, right. Before, all the weird machinations in my abdomen felt rather alien and strange. Now it finally physically feels like it has purpose.

Here is a belly shot for you. I'm tall, so I'm not sticking out much yet.

Beautiful Saturday

There is nothing quite like the first day of a mid-semester break. Ahhhh the days of freedom stretch out before me :)

Today was magical in its simplicity and I was able to forget work completely.

It started with breakfast in bed, then a nice hot shower filled by drying my hair in the sun as I watched the chickens romping around the back garden.

The morning was spent weeding the rose-bed and maybe getting a bit sun burnt. My Hubby and his youngest son started making a rabbit hutch out of a packing crate, so I made everyone tuna noodles for lunch. Again, in the sunshine.

After lunch we did some grocery shopping, I got a repeat of all my diabetic supplies, and we also visited the pet shop as the cat would not be pleased should we run out of cat-noms!

As we drove into the car wash, I realized that I had forgotten to bolus for lunch. Too much sunshine-brain. A small correction bolus later and we were off to collect the cutest rabbit, and perhaps the only one with a "holiday hutch" where he will reside with us whenever the kids do too. Our back garden looks like a petting zoo!

I cooked a delicious strut fry dinner for 6 then my MIL shared not one but 2 desserts with us. Wild berry pie and an apricot/creamed rice/meringue pie. Oh, and I tore the house apart looking for a lost clarinet.

It took me 2.5 hrs of going through boxes to find it, but when I did step-daughter played her sax, hubby played guitar and we all played together (roughly) for the evening. Very much funski :D

Let it be noted that I am exhausted and slightly redder than I should be!

Overload and low blood pressure

Just because I have not been posting recently does not mean I do not love you all :)

I have still been following you all on Reader, but I have not had time to actually write about what's been happening in my life recently. I've come home early today (Friday) and made time to write to you all!

Life has not been terribly exciting, there has just been lots of it.

I am teaching (creating) 4 papers. I am enrolled in 3 papers. Strike that, as of 2.30pm this afternoon, I am enrolled only in 2 papers. Why does it not feel like a relief? Instead I feel guilty, like I have let me tutor down :( Sigh. Move on. Can't do it all.

I have 2 freelance projects on the go, both websites. One is paid, one is done for love.

My husband and I officially started a freelance business venture together yesterday, when we got a domain name. It has now turned from ideas and conversations to "this is real".

I made plans for us to travel next August to a design conference I like to attend each year. This has been hard to plan because, well, see the next point...

The interwebs at work have only worked 2 out of 5 days this week. For-crying-out-loud-I'm-the-Goddamn-Web-Design-tutor!!!! W.T.F. Sob.

The step-kids have been going nuts. Mr 16 turned up unannounced this afternoon and gave me a heart attack when I walked in the front door to see the TV on full noise and him sitting on the couch eating my noodles. OK, that shouldn't startle anyone, but when you are having a low blood sugar, and it's NOT a kids weekend this sort of surprise is NOT OK. Miss 14 is being a whiny pain, and Mr 10 has decided to revert to the behaviour patterns of a very naughty 3 year old. Last weekend when they were here I got so fed up with the way they were treating us that I gave them a stern talk about treating us better next weekend, because we like to be around them, but not when they make our lives so shitty. I am NOT to be treated as hotel staff, and my house is not to be used as a backpackers! Grrr. (Small voice in my head reminds me that my mother always enjoyed the thought of me growing up and having teenagers of my* own to cope with, and now she has the sage advice "this too will pass") *I think this is part of the problem - they are not my teenagers, and I am feeling left out of the experience.

I am currently low, as you may have picked up from the previous paragraph-o-rama. 3.3mmol/L

I also have low blood pressure. Over the last 3 weeks Kind Nurse at my new GPs has measured my BP every Friday. It's never been above 110/60. Today it was a measly 90/60. GP has (jokingly, I'm sure?) told me that if the bottom number drops below 60 then that = death.

(As a side note: seems that the 24hr urine test I did last week has come back with acceptable numbers, just a request to check I don't have high blood pressure [duh], so that, at least, is some good news in the week. Means my kidneys are not failing as bad as the GP thought, but no doubt I will have to have an appointment with him to discuss in detail what those results mean. Hopefully I don't have to have another kidney biopsy. I have already decided that the only acceptable time for me to have anaesthesia will be during IVF! Well, one can try to make plans eh?)

It is now the weekend and I am behind in everything. I have 3 logos to design, 3 websites to create, 1 assignment due on my Diploma of Tertiary Teaching course, 2 presentations to make, dinner to conjure, house to clean, dishwasher to fix, garden to weed, washing to put in washing machine and push buttons beep beep wish-wash wish-wash...

Blog Awards! Yay!

I am delighted to receive these blog awards from EBC over at Our New Plan A :D

Thank You!!! :D


They come with a few rules though, so I will do my best to do this right :)


1. Link back to the person who bestowed the awards on you (yup).


2. Tell us 7 things about yourself, for each of the awards (total 14 things):

1. I'm a web designer and graphic designer by trade, and I currently tutor design at the local institute of technology. It's the best job I've ever had, because it tests my problem solving skills and makes me a better designer. I've got a great bunch of people to work with, and my boss was actually my favourite tutor back when I was studying for my degree!
2. I live in New Zealand with my husband of 2 years and my cat, Chomsky. Currently, my cat is outside in the back garden stealing the bread I put out for the birds. He doesn't think I can see him :P
3. I have 3 teenage step kids, and they come to stay with us every second weekend. It's a timeshare arrangement! I have learnt that our house is far too small for 5 people to coexist without killing each other. Our house is still small when they're not here, as their bedrooms are of course still filled with their stuff.
4. Although I am a designer and an artist, I do not have a studio at home: no room. So that is perhaps why I enjoy web design so much now. Just sit anywhere with a WIFI connection and a power source and my MacBook is good to go.
5. Last night I made 58 muffins. Today is ANZAC day here in New Zealand and also in Australia. I made the muffins for ANZAC day lunch. We organised for MIL and FIL (who is 83 and frail, uses a walker) to meet us at the parade in town, and we went to collect the 3 sprogs (as it was not our weekend). It's also Easter weekend. The kids have faaaaaaaaar too much chocolate. I was not amused when they demanded to know where our easter eggs for them were. sigh. (Oh, and MIL brought marshmallow cake from the bakery, so everyone wanted to eat that instead. Yay :S )
6. Hubby and I are infertile as a couple. He has obviously had 3 kids with his ex-wife, and it was also during that marriage when he was persuaded to get a vasectomy. The youngest is now 10yrs, so we know the vas is too old for a good chance at a successful reversal.
7. I am in the strange position of being an infertile woman (in a couple) who is technically not infertile at all as an individual. I have primary infertility (never had a child) while hubby has secondary (or perhaps is it quarternary infertility, since actually he can't get me pregnant with his fourth?). We've been on this journey for a child now for over 7 years. Our current stumbling block is simple: money. We haz none. We have been denied access to publicly funded fertility treatment (for 3 years) because the NZ government doesn't think that being infertile due to sterilisation is enough to warrant immediate attention. Like it doesn't cause enough emotional pain and suffering or something.... go figure. I won't dwell on this stuff in this post, if you would like to know more, check out the archives on the right >>>   :)
8. I love gardening. I've spent the last 3 days with my Mum weeding my vege garden and front flower garden. It's a big job, and it's nearly winter so everything is wet. We got rained on several times. Yesterday I planted cabbages, silverbeet, broccoli, spinach, spring onions, beetroot, carrots, 2 kinds of lettuce (buttercrunch and lollo rosso), and cauliflower.
9. My favourite place in the world is with my husband, wherever that may be.
10. Our favourite place together is probably our little beach hideaway up the coast, where the fishing is ok and the cellphones don't work.
11. I am addicted to my iPhone.
12. I credit my iPhone with a 2% drop in my HbA1c test results. How? I got an app called "Insulin Calculator", which mimics the bolus wizard on an insulin pump.
13. Oh yep, I am Type 1 Diabetic, on Multiple Daily Injections of Humalog and Lantus. This year will be my 23rd anniversary of diagnosis.
14. The house I live in used to belong to my Grandmother. The walnut tree that I'm looking at originally came from her mother's place further up North. So that walnut tree is my link to my Great-Great-Grandmother. It makes seedlings all over the place, so plenty of my family members have got walnut trees growing all around the province now  :)
15. And one for luck: Went to the dentist (finally, after 3 years!) and he wants to book me for 3 more appointments, and a trip to see an orthodontist. Someone asked me the other day how much it will cost. I said "All of it!" :P

3. Award other bloggers 

The Versatile Blogger award is supposed to go to 15 "recently discovered bloggers" and the Stylish Blogger award is supposed to go to 10 - 15 blogs "you feel deserve this award".

If you find your name below, I have given you both! (but you can just do one if you like, or none even! Your choice.)

Hope you've had a great Easter and ANZAC day :D

Christa at http://icantcontroleverything.blogspot.com

Sam at http://pancreasonmybelt.wordpress.com

Vicky at http://waitingforstork.blogspot.com

Layne at http://laynenp.blogspot.com

Juliane at http://mommytobe09.blogspot.com/

http://chasingachild.typepad.com

Bridget at http://ourstorkgotlost.blogspot.com
Kim at http://www.textingmypancreas.com
Haley at http://www.naturallysweett.com
Siobhan at http://clickofthelight.blogspot.com
Kerri at http://sixuntilme.com
Serenity at http://exploringchaos.com
The Mamas at http://bionicmamas.blogspot.com
Cattiz J at http://cattiz.blogspot.com
tbean at http://alittleturtle.wordpress.com
Julie at http://www.alittlepregnant.com
JM at http://accidentalstepmom.wordpress.com
Blair at http://theheirtoblair.com
Marcia at http://www.the123blog.com
Saffy at http://www.t1mommy.com

There, that should keep everyone busy for a while :P

(p.s. this is nowhere near everyone in my Reader account! I didn't realise I subscribed to so many talented writers and bloggers! :D  )

Visits with my new GP and diabetes nurse educator

I am so glad I changed GPs. My new GP was quite happy to spend an hour chatting about diabetes and IVF, and he was very interested in my experiences as an adult diabetic with Type 1.

It's fantastic to have stable, positive GP care again. I've missed that. My last GP went nutso. And then his receptionist went nutso too. Yeah so after more than 6 months of inadequate care from my old doc, I finally have a primary care doctor who I feel I can trust. (Oh, and the nurse-receptionist gave me a flu shot, which has hurt like billy-oh for 3 days now :( wah)

Yep, so that's a load off! :)

I also went along for a very quick appointment to my diabetes nurse educator. Even with a bunch of builders and electricians in the office (some hospital renovation disaster) she was still able to spot the cause of a trend that I haven't been able to figure out. I keep waking up either on target or a bit low, then going high coming into lunch, often having a low at around the 4pm mark, and then just getting really crazy wild variable results at dinner.

She explained that if I increase my insulin to carb ratio for breakfast, from 1:14 to 1:12, this would give me a slightly larger breakfast dose of Humalog, which would help prevent the highs at lunchtime. Having a more normal lunchtime test would mean I don't over-treat the lunchtime dose, which will in-turn help prevent dose stacking and 4pm lows. No 4pm lows will mean a more stable dinner test result. Well, that's the plan. I will give it a crack :)

Oh yeah, I've also finally gotten around to it, and booked an appointment with my dentist. It's only been like, what, 3 years!! :P

As you have probably guessed, I have a sore tooth. Not too bad, but enough to make me pick up the phone and call. It will probably hurt my bank balance more than it hurts my jaw.

My GP, just to hop back a few topics, was interested in our struggles to get funding for IVF, and interestingly enough he got to talking about doctors he had trained with. Turns out the chief of Fertility Associates was in his class at medical school. So he's suggested I write a letter to him directly.

Yes, you have heard me say that "I will write letters" before. And you know that it takes me bloody ages to get around to actually doing it. That's because life makes me tired, teaching makes me tired, diabetes makes me tired, thinking about IF makes me tired, and getting the strength to sit and write a coherent and convincing letter, which I know will in all probability only result in a polite form letter or brush-off, is hard. It's hard enough just to think about it, let alone turn the events of the last year and a half over in my head without breaking down into a sobbing mess.

But I have to make time to write the following letters:

• Complaint letter to CEO of Fertility Associates
• Letter requesting review of our case, with special consideration of our unusual case, to head of the local district health board
• Perhaps a letter directly to the Minister of Health, as he didn't truly "get it" when my local MP contacted him. In fact, he completely missed the point.

Yep, I will get there eventually. Surely, sooner or later, someone in a position powerful enough to fix this mess will see that logic has just escaped the building when they decided to discount the medical facts.

Work has been a bit manic, with all my students preparing to submit their first design projects this week. Oh the craziness and tears and wailing and "I can't do this" (them, not me) and "I've lost my design mojo"! Ha! It's great! :P It's the time when my students finally figure out that what I've been teaching them is actually useful, and if they are one of the students who pay attention and put in the hard slog, then presentation day is a blissful relief. Of course, it's always the 20% of students who cry and wail and stamp their little feet which make it all so exciting. Getting them across the line is all part of the challenge. I get to be a design tutor, a counsellor, a life coach, and a technical help line all in one. And I love it. I love figuring out what makes them act the way they do, and how I can best use that knowledge to help them learn. But by jove is it tiring. I tell all my students I am on call 24/7 (whether I answer then is another matter :P  ) but most of them are taking me up on the offer, and actually coming out of their teenage shells and COMMUNICATING with me, which is fantastic! :)

Easter is coming up, and I got in early and bought a bunch of yummy chocolate eggs for the step-kids. Goddamn! 3 teenage kids can eat a lot! But they haven't found where I've stashed them yet. I don't think...better go check!

p.s. sorry I've not posted as often as I normally do - we've had some severe interweb connectivity issues :(

So proud! :D

This is my step-daughter Olivia singing with her two friends as part of the "Busting to Busk" talent competition in the Park. The song is I'm Yours by Jason Maraz.

Every year the park is lit up with thousands of colourful lights, and there are always plenty of things to see and do. This talent comp was for 13 - 18 year olds. Olivia is 13!!! Look at her go! [She's the blond standing on the right, with guitar. Sorry about bad video quality :(  ]



The girls chose the song that afternoon, so about 2 hours rehearsal and they're all ready to perform in front of 500 people. She's getting really confident now, and her pitch and timing are great, shame about the "interesting" drumming by her mate! haha

They won an award for Best Audience Participation. So cute! :D

Bike ride, hot sun, faint!

We are back from our holiday up the coast (more on that in the next post), and the kids are here for the weekend.

We are very lucky in that both of our sets of parents live within bike-ride distance, so we packed up the kids and pedaled off to hubby's parents. About 3km away I guess, with a couple of gnarly hills thrown in.

We took off and it was all going well. After the first hill however I didn't feel too flash. Not very good at all! We stopped and I did a test. At 9.8mmol/L it was not a low, surely! But with a spinning head and nausea, it was reasonably similar to some of the low symptoms I get. I sat in the shade while hubby gave me water to drink. I would have fallen down if I hadn't already sat down! So faint. So hot. So want to feel not sick and just finish the ride!!

Eventually I was ok to hop back on the bike and keep going. At the grandparents house I did a test and got 6.5mmol/l. Also not a low, but when you consider that was a fall of 3 points in only ten minutes, the funny feelings start to make sense. It was a blood sugar crash! I had just caught it higher up than normal.

12g carbs in he juice box and a cup of tea 4g sugar did the trick. I looked back in my meters memory to see what the lunch time test was: 15.9mmol/L - no wonder I felt so horrid! That's a drop of ten points in about 2 hours. Coupled with strenuous exercise ( for me! ) it was all just too much.

The ride home was great :)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Happy New Year!

I spent New Year's with my family, as hubby was working in the mad throng of downtown (sound engineer for the local Irish band). We watched the royal variety show (a bit of a tradition in our house) then said our goodnights and "happy new years". Out the window of my parent's house the valley was filled with fireworks, and it was wonderful to sit back and watch out of the huge windows.

Summer is truly here, and I've spent the last couple of 2010 days biking, fishing, walking, and getting a little sunburnt! Oops! Never fear, industrial strength sunscreen is here - and I need it, what with the  Roaccutane and my playstation-like-tan.

Tomorrow (I mean today, well, in the morning) we go on holiday and I can't wait. Just a week of relaxing by the beach, fishing, swimming, reading, and pretending to know how to play tennis.

Oh, and the food! The last week has been gloriously scrumptious, with THREE Christmas dinners spread over two days, and then a ten year old's birthday lunch, plus several trips to eat out when we can't be bothered cooking/have eaten the cupboard bare, and New Years Day lunch booked in with my Aunt and Uncle tomorrow. Now you see why I've been riding the bike! I think I've mentioned it before, but here we have a long coastal walkway, paved, and mostly flat. It's 7+ Km long, and it's a joy to ride along on a sunny summer's day :D

Throughout all the food and dining, I've been paying reasonably careful attention to my blood sugars. Although, I wasn't at ALL surprised when I spotted a few 20mmol/L's creeping in! Oh well, just deal with them and get on with it. It's definitely the strange, rich food, and different daily routine causing the trouble.

I have been trialling a new iPhone app over the last week, and it seems pretty swish. Diamedic is a pain in the a$s to enter details into, but it does give some nice useful graphs. And, I have to admit, I am much more likely to sit in front of the telly with the iPhone and enter the day's results out of my paper log book, than I am to use a web-based system (been there, Log for Life: Please fix your iPhone app! And stop charging a monthly fee thhhpppppppps *raspberry*!). So, for now anyway, Diamedic is a win. It's not perfect by far, but it has already enabled me to see trends such as how I am sitting too high before lunch and dinner, but doing well with the before breakfast and after lunch results, on the whole. It's a bit finicky but once you get the hang of it, you see how many features it offers. You can get it here.

Oh, and if any Diamedic folk happen to be reading, can you please figure out a way to retain all the features, but make the entry system multi-item friendly? So when I enter my morning bolus, I could also, say, enter the basal, carbs, and whatever else, all at the same time? Ta muchly. :)  /end request.

The year that's just been: I would not want to repeat it, but I am glad I went through it. I "lost" my job, but got a fantastic new one which is much better. I found out we don't qualify for publicly funded IVF treatment here in NZ, but I now have some hope, and another year up my sleeve. Hubby and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. All my step-kids are now in the double-digits (wow! when I met them, the youngest was only 3!!). I had an operation which may or may not have been strictly necessary, but I'm healthy and happy now.

This new year, I am hoping to achieve a pregnancy. If not that, I want to be on the official wait-list for IVF. Sad, I know, but at the moment, just the chance to get on the wait-list would be wonderful! :S In my professional life, I will be studying for my Diploma in Tertiary Learning and Teaching which is exciting and daunting, as I've not been in formal study for 9 years now. I am also hoping to grow as a tutor and raise the standard of design in my town. Well, someone's got to! The rest of the tutors in the art dept., lovely as they are, are either fine-artists, animators, or last practiced design when the ark was a-floating and dino was a-stompin'. :P I love them, truly! And they love me too because I bring them cake and chocolate. Noms. It's all good. It actually give me a great chance to make my mark on the department. I am starting off with a website (naturally!) and some social media awareness. Only one of my colleagues has a blog, and one of them doesn't even have a FB account! Shock horror! Watch this space... :)

In my blogging, I want to continue sharing my life with the world, because I get so much back from you guys, and I really enjoy being a part of your lives too. It's a cool community online here. Thank you.

There are other goals I'm setting myself, but they are quite mundane in comparison to the ones above.

Anyway, welcome to the New Year!! As I write this it's 1.30am in New Zealand. Time for a nap :)

Jaffas attaaack!

With only one week of work left before Christmas, the weekend proved to be both exhausting and worrying.


We had the step-kids come to stay as usual, and the youngest (9yrs) developed a fever. It started with some uncharacteristic bad behaviour at lunchtime on Saturday, when he refused to eat his lunch at the Grandparents. It turned into a bit of a drama, and by the time we got back to our house, the family was pretty tense. I left to do some Christmas shopping (nightmare! soooo busy), and Hubby sent me a text saying that Mr 9 had finally eaten his lunch.


At bedtime, the kids were exhausted and went to bed no worries, but Mr 9 woke with a headache and very high temperature at about 11.30pm. We got him water and some kids liquid panadol for the fever, and put him back to bed. Hubby checked him several more times during the night, and we made plans to go to the emergency doctor's in the morning.


Come the morning, the fever was mostly gone, and the headache had abated. But his chest hurt to breathe, and he had developed a bit of a cough. With the fever going down, it seemed the worst was over...


...Hubby took us out to lunch at a local favourite cafe, and Mr 9 was looking a bit green around the gills. We ordered a fluffy for each of the 2 kids with us (eldest stayed with his grandparents), and then our coffees arrived. I gave my marshmallows to the kids, while Hubby played with the jaffa on his saucer, picking it up on his teaspoon and passing it back and forth, via teasoon, to each of us at the table. I should have just eaten the damn thing, cos next thing I know, Hubby put the teaspoon to his lips and inhaled the jaffa. Yes. Inhaled. Choking. Wheezing. Purple. Very. Scary. He stood and left the cafe, and I followed after about a minute. I told the kids to stay put, and just to start eating their food should it arrive.


Hubby was not looking so good, he was leaning against a railing, and he had turned a funny colour. He told me that he'd given himself the Heimlich Maneuver, and got the jaffa out. His throat hurt and he had tears in his eyes. We went back to our table and had a slow lunch. Oh but it was scary. It's not everyday a sweet chocolate-orange candy treat tries to kill your husband!


And he's been talking differently this weekend too. About how he wants to be a father...again. :)  It makes me feel very warm and fuzzy to know that he's now wanting this as much as me. :)  With some hope that it may indeed happen, we've been talking about whether we'd like a boy or girl (human, please!), what each of our preferences are about finding out the sex of the baby before birth (Hubby: no, me: probably not). It's still a dream, but now I definitely know it's one we are both thinking about. :D


On the diabetes front, dropping the nighttime Lantus by one unit (to 8u) has so far worked much better than it did previously. I've had two acceptable breakfast tests.


Well, I have had enough unpredictability for one weekend! Back to work for one last, hopefully cruisy week, and then I plan to get stuck into preparations for the Christmas lunch we're hosting.


How was your weekend?


p.s. Mr 9 has made a full recovery :)

Rollerblading and ducks

After my first week back to work after the holidays I've had a really good relaxing weekend.

I've read a few books. I have had a couple of "Aha!" moments, which I will explain in another post :)

I went rollerblading with Hubby and a selection of kids, at the local roller rink's family skate night. There nothing like flying round and round the rink listening to badly distorted emo music at full blast to make you feel 13 again! haha

Hubby and I had the kids to stay this weekend, so we went to collect them on Friday night. We were early, so they weren't all at their home yet. Olivia was busy finishing off her horse ride, so we drove down to the fields the pony club uses and watched her riding her horse, then washing and feeding her (the horse, not Olivia - although she [Olivia] did admit to taste-testing the horse feed!) As we drove back to the kids house the road passes over a small creek, and there, walking merrily in the middle of the road, was a mother duck and her five ducklings! How cute! Traffic was stopped on both directions, with orange hazard lights on. A lady walking her dog came out and shepherded the ducks off the road so it all turned out happy. :)

I tried skate-boarding for the first time! Well, I didn't go very far, but I didn't fall off either! Very pleased with myself. Ok, I will admit I had Hubby standing beside me letting me cling to his shoulder, but it was still lots of fun! :) It was cool to have most of the kids (and some mates) skating down the seaside walkway together. We ended up at the local skate park, where suddenly parents became V-E-R-Y uncool. Ha! Anyway that's where we got the idea to go to the family skate night, cos the roller rink is right next door.

We dropped Eldest Step Son off at his Grandparents, and took Two Youngest plus Loud-Mouth Friend home and made dinner - I tried making "Jerk Chicken" (Question: why is it called "Jerk"??) which was very tasty and met with silence - a good sign meaning kids are eating! :)

Here is my recipe:

700g chicken nibbles (small chicken wings and mini-drumsticks)
1 onion
2 - 3 Tablespoons of olive oil
portuguese chicken seasoning (mix of paprika, salt, chilli, oregano, lemon)
finely chopped fresh thyme (from my freshly replanted herb garden :D )
2 - 5 Tablespoons of your favourite dark soy sauce
1 Table spoon cornflour/cornstarch

Mix everything (except the soy and cornflour) together. I just put it all into the glass roasting dish and massaged it together with my hands. Messy but fun. Wash hands. Cover the dish with tin foil and put it in the oven at 200 degrees C.

Leave it for about 20 mins, or until the chicken is no longer pink. The tinfoil should keep all the moisture in, and the onion should mix with the oil to create a runny liquid.

Take the dish out of the oven and put it on a heatproof surface. Remove the tinfoil. Add the soy, more if you like saltier things, and make sure the liquid level is about half way up each piece of chicken, so they are half-submerged. This will let the top half go nice and crispy in the air. Mix up the cornflour in a little water and mix it into the sauce.

Return to the oven for another ten minutes, and put it to fan bake/fan-forced to speed up the crispy-ization. :) Serve with mini-roast potatoes, pumpkin, carrots, and fresh baby peas. Yummy!

Talent show update

My step-daughter took part in her first talent show on the weekend, and at 13 yrs I think she was the youngest contestant. She was competing against high-school students and professional musicians!

She did really well, and we were all really proud of her. She performed a song she wrote herself, playing the guitar to accompany herself - no small feat when there is an audience of 100+ people and bright lights shining in your eyes! She looked great and sounded very confident. It was very cute when she dashed off stage straight after playing, the judges had to ask her bak onstage to give her the feedback! hehe :D

While she didn't win her section, all FOUR of her parents thought she did really well. :)

It was a bit surreal having a night out with hubby's ex-wife and her new husband! I suppose it just goes to show how well we all get along, which is great for the kids.

I've been looking at booking a holiday in a tropical island somewhere, just because I need something to look forward to after all the disappointment of this year. We had one nearly booked, but then we did the sums and realised it would mean eating bread crusts for a while! haha :P

I can't wait for this week to be over, then it will be mid-term break! Yay! I shall go out digging in the garden.... it is spring here, or at least it's supposed to be spring, she says, shaking her fist at the raining sky!

Hope you're having a great week. Sorry for the general bloggy-slackness. Work really has been keeping me busy! :)

A telling blood test

I'm watching Ocean's Eleven on telly, so this post may be a bit erratic as I type-and-watch at the same time :P

I talked about how I went to get my last pre-fertility-clinic blood tests a couple of posts back, well, Hubby got his test done today :) I'm so proud! He's not a big fan of needles.

And, the best part was that we have the kids to stay with us this weekend, and in order to get everyone in the car in time to get to the lab which closed in half an hour cos it's a Saturday (breath) Hubby ended up explaining to the two littlies why he was getting a blood test. So know everyone in our family knows the plan, and they all seemed really happy about it. :)

Youngest step-son even asked "Is IVF that thing we saw on telly last weekend, on the Sunday show, with Jay Jay and Dom?" YES! Well done! (he's 9yrs old) :D

They got a quick explanation of what it involves: taking a sperm from Hubby and a egg from me, and mixing it in a dish in a laboratory (not a lavatory, which caused much laughter!). Of course that involved a quick explanation to 9yr old step-son about why it was all necessary. Cue: a quick description of a vasectomy. Honestly, it was one of the most surreal moments of my life. :)

And then it was off to the lab for the blood test, and then off to the supermarket to get lunch.

p.s. in case you're wondering, llittle sister hasn't written her boy a Dear John letter just yet.

Pasta, Puzzles, and Lawyers

Got myself a lawyer today. A really nice one. Yes, she is going to charge me the earth :P

But it feels really good to know that what my boss did to me was officially very illegal. I'm not crazy, and you can't just offer someone the choice between resigning or taking redundancy. It just don't work like that! So now I have some backup, and a plan, and I feel much better.

Had a morning tea get together with some of my mates from my ex-work. They are pretty shaken up about the whole thing. Giving me big hugs, lots of advice, and telling me how they're now looking over their shoulders all the time. That's really sad. I will be ok, but I'm worried about them having to continue working under those conditions. There are not many options in our little city.

One of my good friends brought her young son, and as she is currently on maternity leave, I hadn't seen her in about a week. She's the same friend who was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Her little boy has grown up so much since I saw him last, he was running around and generally being adorable. And of course, she looked absolutely radiant! I talked to her about how I wasn't sure how being unemployed would affect our plans for IVF. Especially since I will now not get maternity leave. She basically said it wasn't that much money anyway, and being on a single income shouldn't really stop us from doing what we want. Made me feel good anyway, stopped me thinking that my life depends on work!

We've got the kids this weekend, and I made a yummy pasta bake which they basically slurped up before it was out of the oven! After a was-jig puzzle and some telly, I am sooooo ready for the weekend!

Once again, thank you to everyone our there on the interwebs for your supportive comments and emails. You rock! Gold stars all round! :D

Watching an IVF show with the family

It was really weird watching this: http://tvnz.co.nz/sunday-news/jay-and-dom-s-ivf-battle-3568371/video with my Hubby and 3 step kids.

At first I was sitting there in my armchair, a bit nervous and shaky, cos I didn't know how they would react. My eldest stepson had an idea of why we wanted to watch it, but the two younger ones were just confused as we were missing a new episode of The Simpsons! :P

But then, when the show got to the part where they were showing Jay Jay getting brave and injecting herself with hormones, everyone laughed when I said "Oh come ON!". (As a diabetic, I find it really curious watching non-diabetics trying to inject themselves :P )

Hubby and I thought we might broach the subject with the two littlies, but they were pretty tired, it's a school night, and it just didn't feel right to tell them something like that when they go "home" to their Mum tomorrow.

Overall I feel really good :) Had a great day and learned quite a lot from watching the show. Thanks to Jay Jay and Dom for sharing their journey with us.

Soooo relieved!

Sweet Husband and I were discussing my blog the other night, and he mentioned that he has let his eldest son/my stepson into "the know" about our plans for IVF. I couldn't be happier :) It's not that we've been keeping it a secret, but it's not something that you just throw into a conversation with anyone, you know, just to spice things up! Yeah, na. It usually takes me ages to work up the nerves to discuss IVF stuff with my close family (Hubby, Mum, Dad, Sister), and they already know about it in general.

Apparently Stepson reacted quite well, he's happy. I am SOOOO relieved. I was really worried that the kids might be upset. I'm not sure why. But I hated the idea that they could ever be upset or worried. We do pretty well as a blended family at the moment, so the last thing I was to do is screw that up.

Hubby said he was asking about me, and the whole operation issue came up:
Stepson: "Yeah, but what's the operation for?"
Hubby: "It's... woman stuff"
Stepson: "Yeah, what?" He's more grown up than I thought. So he got a fair explanation about the hysteroscopy, and the background story about it being part of the prep for IVF.

I am proud. He's 15yrs, and the first thing he said was really down to earth:
Stepson: "Where will we put a baby Dad?"
Hmmm, yeah, our little house is empty most of the time, but every second weekend when 3 kids descend on us, it's suddenly WAY too full! But Stepson and Hubby were pragmatic as ever. The sleepout could be converted back into a bedroom (currenlty it's an office) and that would give us a little bedroom in the house back. Just one of the many considerations which need to be worked out.

We will be celebrating with all the family round for chinese food tonight, it's Hubby's birthday! Woohoo! That means kids, parents, grandparents, the works. Maybe we will also get a chance this weekend to talk to the two younger kids, and see how they feel. It gets awkward about there, as one is slightly too young to know about the birds'n'bees stuff yet. Perhaps we will "keep the talks high-level" for now :P

In other good news, Hubby has expressed an interest in contributing to the blog. That would be cool. Give a guys point of view to all my ramblings! But that would mean... dum dum daaaaaaa! A BIG REVEAL. Yes, I am currently considering "unveiling" who I am, so I can also post photos and videos of me and Hubby, as we go along in this process. What do you think? Do you want to know who we are? Do you care? Does it matter in the grand scheme of things? I would love to hear your thoughts...