Hello 2012!

Hi guys,

How slack have I been! The good news is that I'm back at work so hope I can get back into weekly blogging! I started back in mid January 3 days per week. 2 days in the office and 1 from home with my mum looking after Asher while I work from home and she goes to daycare while I'm in the office. It's working well so far and I'm quite enjoying have a few days a week of someone else keeping track of food, bottles, nappies etc. I'm job-sharing with the guy who was in my position for the past year. It's a struggle I have to say. We have very different styles and I feel like he doesn't give me all the information. He is also one of those people who seem to know every word in the world and uses them all so much that you really have no idea what he's talking about a lot of the time. I also feel a lot of ownership over my job so I feel like the buck stops with me and frankly I will make final decisions!

This sunday Asher turns 1! Can you believe it's nearly been a year since she was born? I can't. She's such a great kid mostly, with a real personality and she jibber jabbers and sings and dances. Very close to walking, she's taking 3-4 steps by herself but wants to walk holding someone's hand all the time. I've entered into the Bonds Baby Search if you feel so inclined to vote for her - click here. At the moment she's got a chest infection which sucks, it means she can't sleep as well unfortunately although she's still in a pretty good mood. Really hope she'll be better for her birthday. We are having just a low key sausage sizzle at the local park with just our parents, my sisters, GB's brother and my mother's group.

The dogs love her. Well Baxter loves her and Westie tolerates her. Asher & Baxter have cuddles every morning, it's so cute. Westie just had an operation on her knee on Monday. A few weeks ago she snapped her cruciet ligament and we gave it a while on anti imflammatories to see if it would stabilise itself but unfortunately it didn't. When they did the op she also had a meniscal tear in her knee so it never would have healed. So right now's she's groaning under the bed. It's so sad. The pain meds don't seem to be helping much. It's a long road ahead too. The first 2 weeks will be the worst but she won't be back to normal for at least 3 months.

So I know what you're wondering - how's the weight going. Well to be honest, there's not been much change. I'm sitting on around 86kgs which is about 9kgs up from what I was when I fell pregnant and 12kgs from what I was when we were married 2 years ago. But to be honest, I'm lucky. My food is hit and miss. I find the week before my period I can't keep anything down. I haven't been back to the doctor since before Asher was born and I had most of my fill out. I try to do a spin class on mondays and body combat on tuesday nights but I don't like to be out every night of the week. I was doing a pump class on the weekend but I've got bursitis in my shoulder which has been excruciating and the cortisone injection hasn't really improved things so no more pump for me. I will have to try and get back to doing some more exercise on the weekend though. GB is in training this year for the half ironman in May and the full ironman in December both in Busselton. He tries to train in the mornings but usually goes for a long bike ride once on the weekend.

We had a quick visit to Melbourne a couple of weeks ago which was nice but what I'm really looking forward to is Bali for a week in July with a bunch of friends and my sisters and my family from sydney and melbourne are going for my aunty's 60th. We are going to get a nanny to help with Asher so that I can have a bit of a holiday too!

Anyway, that will do for now! I will once again promise to try and get here more often and hope I can touch base on your blogs soon!

Still kicking!

My goodness, I didn't realize how long it had been!

Things going well here. Motherhood and parenting is a tough tough caper. We have good days and bad. All three of us were sick for a week which was hard going! Asher has been teething for months and still no teeth! Makes her a grumpy bub and for a while she was waking up 3-4 times a night but she's back to going to bed at 7pm and sleeping til around 6.30 which is great. She's close to crawling, going backwards but hasn't quite coordinated the forward move! She's just over 7.5 months old now and at 7 months weighed in at 9.6kg so still a giant baby!

We went to Bali for a week in September and had a great time. Asher was a hit with the locals - they all wanted to hold her and kept saying his big she was! I got quite the complex on her behalf!

Weight wise. Ugh. I lost about 5kg on the Michelle bridges program. It should have been more but I found it hard to commit to the training with the weather being too dodgy to do the program outdoors and not having time to do it at home or gym. The program is great and I recommend it if youre not looking after a baby! Still haven't had any fill put in my band because I still struggle with keeping food down a lot of the time. I should probably go back and have a chat and a scan to rule out a slippage but dollars are pretty tight at the moment. I am trying to do some form of exercise at least 4 days a week. Now that the weather is fining up we've been trying to do the 7km river walk at least once a week and then I try to do two classes at gym when Craig gets home from work and once on the weekend. Best laid plans of course!

Speaking of dollars, the plan is for me to go back to work 3 days a week from mid January. As much as I love this kid, I do feel like it would be nice to have something else on my mind! I'm hoping to work one of those days at home and have my mum here to help out with Asher Basher.

Anyway better do some housework while I can! I hope you're all doing well I really do. I'm hoping to get back into blogging regularly and of course reading yours!

I'll try to post some pics, but I'm using the iPad and the formatting looks wonky hope it works!

Out the back sharing toys with Baxter last week

various pics from last couple weeks

Cranking out some shorts while weather is nice

Being Cheeky

Great parenting in Bali

Laughing at Dad

Being a baby is thirsty work

More bintang ? (in Bali)

Pretty in Bali

Perusing the cocktail menu

Striking a pose in a new bali outfit

Walking around in the heat is tiring! (also in Bali)

EDIT - ok posting pics from ipad is near impossible, must see if there's an app!

Long time!

Hey all,

It's been a long time between posts, I know! Hopefully I can find time to post a bit more now that I'm starting to get the hang of this motherhood thing! So what's been going on? Probably best to break this down:

Asher: She's just beautiful. I mean seriously a stunning kid (obviously I'm not biased or anything). She's getting there with her sleep too. She goes down at 7pm and usually makes it to 4am before needing a feed, this morning she slept til 6am! She's 17 weeks old and we've just started her on solids (well rice cereal). Last night she loved it, today she hated it. The look on her face was hilarious. She had her 4 month old vaccinations yesterday and was a little trooper. She's a "giant baby" as I like to call her. Weighed in at 7.8kgs yesterday, but she's also quite long. She's in the 90th percentile on the graphs. Here is a pic of her last week

Westie & Baxter: They're awesome little pooches (when not destroying things) and very good with Asher. They give her little kisses and are very gentle around her. When she's crying they lie by her door or us if we're holding her. Poor buggers are lacking in exercise with the weather being so poop lately and I can't manage the pram and two dogs (especially as Bax walks as if he's never been out of the house before!).

Weight/Exercise: I started the Michelle Bridges (trainer from Australian Biggest Loser) 12 Week Body Transformation about 6 weeks ago. I've lost about 3kgs which should be more except that we went to Melbourne for 11 days in Week 2/3 and I'm finding it very hard to maintain the level of exercise she recommends. I have just joined the local gym though so hoping I can get there when hubby finishes work, although they do have a creche ($5 a visit though) so that's an option too. I've been doing zumba periodically too but feel like an absolute knob!!! I haven't been back to have my band adjusted as sometimes I'm so restricted, I can't imagine having more fill in. To be honest, the shitty eating is mind related and I just need to stop it! 

Anyway, that's all I have time for today. Will try to catch up on everyone's blogs at some stage! Hope all of you are doing well!

28+2

Hello friends,

How have you all been? I've managed to catch up on your blogs but had no time to comment so just know, I've been there!

I really hate this time of year. I'm not really a people person and the added pressure to catch up with every single person I know for Christmas really grinds my noodle. Hubby of course is the social king of the world, which just makes it that much harder. I literally had to block off next weekend in my calendar so we don't book something in and so I can do some christmas shopping! Lordy bigordy.

Had a great weekend in Busselton. Ended up coming home on Monday though instead of Tuesday because my mum (who was house/dog sitting) had to have a carpal tunnel operation on Monday so the pooches would have been abandoned! But still it was good to get away although we were by no means having a relaxing time of it! GB headed down with one of his teammates on Friday morning and my sister and I drove down after work on Friday night. We all stayed in a gorgeous house in Broadwater - too bad it was too cold to swim though! Saturday we didn't do too much, breakkie in town, grocery shopping then I cooked up a chicken caesar salad for lunch and a lasagne & salad for dinner (boys were carbo loading and so were the supporters!). Bed early - 8.30pm as we had an early start. The boys headed into the event about 4.30am and we followed just after 5am. The individual competitors started at 5.45am and the team event just after that. Our lads took between 1hr20 and 1hr30 for the 3.8km swim and then it was onto the 180km ride. Because hubby was doing the run leg at the end he decided to go back to the house for a rest so me & my sis went too. Home and dozed for a couple of hours and then back again. The bike leg took about 6hours to complete. Then the run was off! Luckily conditions weren't too bad - it was overcast and not too much wind. Hubby cramped up after 28kms and had to walk a bit but then powered on to the finish. I think it took him about 4.5hrs to do the 42kms. So just about 12hours all up. The pro who one it as in individual did it in 8hrs or something crazy!!!  I was really proud of our guys and stoked they all pulled up ok (not even a space blanket in sight!). It's a super long day for the supporters too I might add. Didn't help that I needed to pee every hour! Ended up getting home around 7pm I think. Ordered pizza for the gang and then we all crashed.

And as I expected, even though he's been saying he'll never do a marathon again, on Tuesday GB said "I want to do the Ironman as an individual". Right, of course you do you crazy freak! We talked about it and agreed that it just can't happen in 2011. It's an expensive event just to enter (about $800) then he'll want a new bike ($3-4k), and I want to be sure he's prepared so there'll have to be coaches and physio and whatnot so it's just not something we can afford with a newborn and one salary. But if he's still keen he can do it in 2012. Scares me even to think about it!

On other news, I had the glucose tolerance test on Tuesday. The OB likes to do the 2hr ones up front so I had to go in at 8.30am, have a bunch of bloods taken, drink a green drink which was like pure cordial, wait 1hr then have another blood test, then wait another hour and have another blood test! All this to test for gestational diabetes! Today I gave them a call and I was given the all clear which is great. So if this baby turns out to be a fatty boombah it's entirely my fault from eating too many magnum icecreams!

Last night we went to see  Bon Jovi. Those boys know how to rock. It was a great concert I have to say and today I bought this online:

bah hahahahahaaaaaa

Weight wise have been up and down the same kilogram the past few weeks which I guess is ok. I really don't want to put on too much more weight. It's not cool. I know it. You know it. The baby knows it. Band is there - I still get stuck some times, but I'm sure it's more about eating too much too fast in too big mouthfuls. Sound familiar?

Anyhoodly, must get a bit more work done before my water aerobics class!

Entering the third trimester

Hey kids,

So yeah 27 weeks today...13 to go. Apparently that's officially in the last trimester. Getting load of movement from bubs. GB was poking my belly last night and she was kicking back - he loved it. End of the day though I'm being poked and kicked in the stomach! I'm off to the OB again tonight - think he'll give me a referral for the gestational diabetes test. I'm sure he won't be impressed with my weight gain - hell I'm not. Despite my best efforts over the past couple of weeks particularly, the scales have continued to increase. It's weird, I'm still in my size 14 work shirts (which yes were quite big to begin with) - except for the last button - but my arse and thighs appear to be where the weight is going. I still don't have the cute round belly at the front either which isn't helping my body image. I have a top tummy sticking out (can still feel my port though), then I have an inward gap and then a lower tummy too (not sticking out as much as the top tummy). I realise a picture would be beneficial here but photography has been banned in our house so you'll just have to imagine it!

Last week I did my pilates class on Wed night, then aqua aerobics thurs night (which was tougher than I thought it would be!) and tried out a "Baby Bump" Group PT session on Saturday morning. I am still trying to recover. Literally. I had to take yesterday off work because I could barely walk. Soooo many squats! My quads are still sore today but at least sitting on the toilet is a tad more bareable. Try being 6months pregnant, needing to pee every 30mins or so but being too scared to because it hurts so bad to sit down!!! I'm still kind of waddling today but it's a lot better. I have an OB appointment tonight and because he's always about an hour behind schedule at least and the aqua aerobics is at the same hospital I might try to squeeze in a class first.

Our baby furniture arrived last week so we did a mad dash to pick it up on Saturday. GB and I talked about it and because we're getting an a/c installed in the nursery plus doing stuff to the walls it would be better to leave everything boxed up for the time being. So while I'm getting changed I hear him call out that he's just going to take a peak. 2mins later I walk into the room to find the chest of drawers completely unwrapped. Then yesterday he decides he wants to put together the cot and change table too. So we decide to pull it into our bedroom so we can have the a/c on (it was 37C yesterday!) while we did it. We had the cot together except for tightening the screws when it suddenly occured to GB to see if it would fit out the door. I had thought of it earlier but incorrectly assumed that my very handy husband would have checked it first. Turns out it wouldn't fit. So we had to take the whole thing apart, move the pieces into the nursery and reassemble it in the sweatbox that the room was! I'll take some pics of the pieces we've got and post them up soon. Still a ways to go but slowly getting things together.

We're off down south to Busselton (a couple hours away) for an extended weekend on Friday for hubby to take part in the Ironman triathlon. I've mentioned before he's doing the marathon leg (42.2km run) as part of a team and unfortunately he's not had a good preparation with a morton's neuroma in his foot and leg pain. He's stressing out about it but I'm sure the adrenalin of the day will get him through - even if he has to walk some of it. Hoping it's not too warm as it's a long event and he'll be running through the heat of the afternoon. Still it means I get a mini-vacay down south - not heading back until Tuesday!

Today is the last day I can eat chocolate until Xmas day. The detox will do me good I'm sure!

I've noticed a few new people have joined my list of blog followers (hate that word). Leave me a comment if you also have a blog so I can have a gander! Or leave me a comment if you haven't got a blog and just say hi! Me loves comments :)

Ok kids, better do some work!

25weeks and still kicking!

Hey my lovely blogging friends!
Long time no talk!

Let's see what's been happening?

Sydney - GB and I took off for Sydney on the midnight horror flight from Perth. I assumed given that I feel like I could sleep on a bed of nails these days that I would be ok to sleep on the plane overnight. It's a 4.5hr flight from Perth to Sydney plus 3 hr time difference so we left Perth at 11.45pm and arrived in Sydney just before 8am. And I didn't sleep a wink. By the time we got to my aunty & uncle's place and exchanged pleasantries I was nearly talking jibberish! GB and I took ourselves to bed and slept for about 4 hours which was great. We took it pretty easy - I've been to Sydney many times before although GB only once for a weekend. We took a drive up to Palm Beach for lunch one day which was nice and we ate at one of Sydney's top restaurants - Aria. After I twittered about it earlier in the day Matt Moran the head chef came up and said hello to us. GB nearly jizzed in his pants he was so excited! We spent a few days some 500km north of Sydney at another of my aunties & uncles place. So beautiful up there, no phone reception, 30km from the nearest town so we just got to kick back and relax. Unfortunately we had torrential rain the first two days and I ended up with a fever for some reason for 24hrs and couldn't get warm. I had GB's tracksuit pants on over mine, plus 2 tshirts, 2 jumpers and 2 coats on. I looked like the michelin man! There's a hilarious photo of me on our camera I'll have to post later. Also I couldn't keep any food down. The next couple of days I felt a lot better though. Back into Sydney and we had a walk around the city (plus a trip to the Lindt Cafe - best thing ever!). I was going to catch up with LapbandGirl but the stars didn't quite align - next time for sure!

We went to Bondi Beach and had lunch and caught up with an old school friend of mine for coffee & cake from one of the countries best pastry chefs - Adriano Zumbo. Those of you in Australia may know him for his croquembouche and/or macaroon tower challenge in Masterchef. I'm telling you they were the best things EVER. As you can see, food still a big part of our holidaying experiences!! Add to that, my uncle's business is about filling lolly machines so he had big boxes of M&M's at his place. GB now is sure I'm going to give birth to an M&M!!!

Needless to say, I'm far too scared to step on the scales! Now that we're back to work both of us are trying to get into a routine of more healthy eating and exercise. GB is training for that marathon (tried to do 30kms when we were up in the hills but underestimated the terrain and the water he'd need and ended up dehydrated on the side of the road unable to speak. Luckily my two uncles decided to head into town early (we were meeting him at the pub for lunch) and picked him up. He was unable to move from the back of the ute for about 90mins. By the time I got there, he'd been resting for an hour and they'd given him powerade. I gave him some more electrolytes and the lady at the pub let him have a shower and he started to come good. Bit of a reality check for him though! Anyway he's amping up his training with only 3 weeks to go and has sworn off alcohol until after the 5th December! He's also staying off potato chips and noodles - his two favourite food groups. I'm not swearing off any foods... yet (choc detox from 1 Dec til Xmas day in the works though). But going to get more into exercise. Went to the gym last night for 30mins on the bike and will do that again tonight. Pilates on wednesdays and water aerobics on thursdays is the plan. My gym membership expires in a couple of weeks so I'm thinking about doing pregnancy PT once a week after that. Will check out the $$$.

Baby wise - all is going well. Getting lots of movement, mostly at night when I'm lying down. Unfortunately getting awful heartburn for the past week and the Pariet and quickeze not doing the job they usually do. Also getting a side pain/stitch when I walk/bike so keeping an eye on that and not pushing too hard. OB was happy with everything last time we saw him and said all is looking good, baby is a good size etc. The next test to pass is the Gestational Diabetes test which I'll have at 28weeks. I wonder if my M&M diet will impact on this??? hahaha. Got 3/4 names on a shortlist which won't be revealed till the baby announcement. Happy that GB is finally coming around to the names I like - hahaha! Haven't bought that wall art from my previous post... yet. GB said I could though - YAY! For S who asked - it's called the Cocoon Couture Enchanted Tree from the wall sticker company.

Anyway kids, I've gotta go troll all your blogs - it seems I have 159 posts to catch up on so forgive me if I don't comment!

21weeks

How cute is this:

It's a wall sticker. So cute and yet so flipping expensive! Have come to realise that planning for a baby is much th same as planning for a wedding. Cost PLUS PLUS PLUS! Seriously, a white chest of drawers from a furniture shop might be $200... from a baby shop? $900. Jokesville. Oh but that wall art is fricken devine. I wonder if I can use the excuse of how much we saved on the pram as justification for spending a horrifying amount on a sticker?

On Saturday we ordered a cot, chest of drawers and change table. From the baby store, the quote for the exact same furniture (same brand and everything) was about $1500 (and that was including a 10% discount!). David Jones had a 20% off sale on baby stuff and we managed to get it for $1100. GB was sad that it takes 12weeks to come in because he wanted to set it all up. So I let him pick out some bassinet linen (did I tell you I bought a second hand bassinet for $50? bargain!). Probably not what I would have chosen but gotta let him have a few wins so I can buy ridiculously expensive "wall art"!

Have decided to give our daughter an invoice for all this stuff when she becomes a supreme court judge, or world renowned surgeon so she can pay as back. Fair call I think. GB has also decided it's going to be our new family tradition that all children have to hand 50% of their earnings to us forever (kind of like first born male asians). Seems fair policy.

Been feeling some movement - not from outside again yet though. Probably she's too scared to move in case we bill her :)

On Sunday we successfully did the JDRF walk around the river. It's about 6.5km and I finished in 1hr 22. I think my best ever is about 1hr5 or something but not bad considering its the most exercise I've done in months and it was really warm. Yesterday we went back down to the river - GB ran the 6.5km loop while I just walked to the bridge and back (about 3.6k). I wanted to see if I'd be able to do the fitness test this morning, rather than embarrass myself! Anyway yesterday I did the 1.61km in about 15 1/2 mins. Just scraping in under the required 16min. On the way back from the bridge I was BUSTING for the loo. It was a tough call to get there I tell ya! Anyway this morning at work I officially did the fitness test in 15mins. Last year did it in about 14mins but anyhoo, I am pregnant! I have been absolutely buggered since though! I could nap any second I think! Hubby's foot still not pain free but he said it's about 60% better than it was which will at least allow him to start training. He's doing less than 10km at a time at the moment but will do a big run on the weekend I think.

Things are much better since the fill removal - no PBing at all! Unfortunately my hunger is back with a ferociousness. Added to my carb craving and inability to stay away from chocolate, I'm too scared to hop on the scales at the moment! Got another appointment with the OB next week so expecting to get a telling off for weight gain.

Anyhoo, here's a pic of the pooches in the aforementioned $50 bassinet:

In other news, I had a dream last night which I recall very little of other than the fact that Amy W was in it! Bizarro!

Well I better pretend to do some work for another couple hours. 3 months 9 days till at least 6months off - woo hooo!

What a difference 3 weeks makes!

Last night we went and had the 19week anatomy scan. The sonographer started by asking whether we wanted to know the sex. I told her yep our OB had told us a few weeks ago it was a boy. She said "was he confident?", Me: "Seemed fairly confident", Sonographer: "It's pretty clearly a girl", Me: "What's that now?", Sonographer: "It's definitely a girl".

So yeah, it's a girl. I of course am stoked - poor hubby nearly needed to be carried out of the ultrasound place! Had to shout him dinner and a beer. He's all good about it but like he said - if we were told three weeks ago it was a girl, no issue. But in the last 3 weeks he'd been making plans with his son in his head for the next 40 years. So he's having to backtrack. The other thing is that we'd actually managed to agree on a boy's name and now I have to put all that effort in again to bring him around to the girl's names I like! mwah ha haaaaaa.

The rest of the scan was good. Amazing the detail that was available. 2 feet, 10 toes, 2 hands, 10 fingers, brain, heart, kidneys, eyes, nose, mouth. She freaked us out by switching into 3D mode. That picture is bloody freaky deaky!

Other than that things are going ok. Band being a bit of a bitch for the past week, not being able to keep much down at all for some reason - but dinner last night finally stayed down so hopefully have turned a corner on that.

Fire Coordinator just told me she's expecting me to do the fire fitness test still this year even though I'll only be around for part of the season. It's a 1.6k walk in 16mins. Last year I did it in 14mins. I reckon this year I'll be luck to do it in 30mins! bah ha ha! But I'll give it a go!

Started pregnancy pilates last wednesday night. It's good as it's only 45mins and there's a lot of stretching and pelvic floor exercises and was sorry to see the crab is still ok to do. I flipping hate that exercise! But still, I felt good after doing it and will go again tonight. May start antenatal aqua aerobics either tomorrow night (if my boardies fit) or next week too. Bought some maternity bathers online which are great so will also be able to do laps. Weather fining up in Perth too so I'm thinking some weekend walks with the pooches may be in order. Speaking of:

Gotta cruise, sorry haven't been commenting on blogs lately but I am trying to read them all! If I'm not following yours please leave a link in the comments :)

Anyone still stopping by?

Pity party, table of 1. Have I become even more boring than I was before being preggers? Am I not posting enough band related info? Is there something more or less I should be writing about? Just let me know folks.

Anyhoodly, remember Friday? I was feeling "fabulous". I miss Friday. Today I feel shithouse. I'm not sure what is band related and what is pregnancy related anymore. For the past couple weeks I've been struggling to keep much of anything down. Not sure what to blame it on. I'm hoping things will work out without having an adjustment to the band. I've managed for the most part to keep crackers & cheese down for lunch. I'm not hungry AT ALL. Dinner time though has not been great.

Last night and today I've had a shocking tummy ache, which has just added to how unfabulous I'm feeling today. Today about 10.30am I ate some yoghurt. 12.30 5 x cheese &crackers. 2pm Threw up yoghurt. Cheese & crackers stayed down. How weird is that!

On the positive side I managed to do 30mins cardio at the gym Monday & Tuesday after work. Can't imagine making it tonight though as I'm seriously contemplating locking my office door and having a kip under my desk! Really want to try to do at least 3 days this week though so fingers crossed I'm better tomorrow.

Anyway I will distract you from my whinging and moaning with this pic of our two pooches!

A good day!

Hey kids,

I have been feeling god awful for a couple of weeks now but today I feel fabulous! This past week I have barely been able to keep any food down - band has felt tight as a fish's arsehole. And in between all the PBing, I've been nauseaus. Not fun at all I can tell you! The ginger pills & bikkies seem to have done the trick though. The other problem is that when I do have food I'm craving carbs big time. All I want is pasta and potato! I've been having a bit of it too which hasn't been to kind to Mr Scales (even including the stuff coming back up again!).

Went and saw Bowater (Fill doc) on Monday and filled him in on my latest situation. He's a bit of a douche. I get a lecture everytime I go there and I feel like saying. Dude. I've been banded for 2 years now. I know what I should be doing and what I should be doing, but I tell you right now I'm not going on this strict eat by the time of the day and only what you say BS you're going on about. If I wanted to and could live my life on a strict diet I wouldn't have needed the band! But I don't say that, I just nod and say what he wants to hear and get out of there. I told him I didn't want any fill, even though some days I feel quite hungry because I don't want to make things worse when the band is tight.

I had a shocking night of reflux the other night too. Fingers crossed everything settles down this weekend. Ironically it is the week I would have been due for my period if I wasn't up the duff. Not sure if that has anything to do with the added restriction. Could be that because apparently my body is producing a heck of a lot more blood for this whole baby making caper, I've got period-like bloating impacting on my band. Who knows. So if the nausea dissipates and the tiredness stays at a manageable level I'll be feeling fine. Other than that not much other pregnancy stuff. Except my libido is GAWN. Poor hubby. He was reading in one of our books that pregnant ladies get horny as hell, unfortunately it seems to have had the opposite effect on me!! He's been a little champion though and a major support which I really appreciate!

Managed to get to the gym once this week. Which was once more than the past 3 weeks! Given I'm feeling so fab today I'm going to go tonight after work if the tiredness stays away.

Weekend plans - Finally finish off my thank you cards from the wedding (how slack am I!) and maybe check out the Mundaring Truffle show.

Anyhoo, back to Friday Filing at work!

6ish weeks

Hi gang,

Have been trying to keep up with your blogs and posting comments when I can! Been so busy with work , I've barely had time to scratch myself.

So my calculations were that I am 6w3days today. This morning I went for an ultrasound (mainly just to set my mind at ease that it was in the right spot!). The scan was booked for 8.30am so at 7am I had to empty my bladder then drink 1.5L of water before 7.30am. That simply wasn't going to happen! I tried my best but I felt like I was drowning! I managed about 1.2L by 7.45am and then hopped in the shower and got ready. Basically went straight in for the scan once we got there. Goo stuff on and it was go. The chick tells me I have a retroverted uterus. Apparently 25% of women do. It means it points towards my back rather than to my front making it difficult to get a picture. I could see where this was going. Some of  you may want to stop reading now coz I'm about to venture into TMI territory.

She explained that she needed to do a transvaginal ultrasound instead which frankly is like a dildo cam. So gross. Anyhoo, from there we could see the gestational sac and the yolk sac and the 'blob' which is apparently what will be the baby! The blob measured 3.8mm which puts it at 5w6days and had a heartrate of 93bpm. So far so good. Still some time before we make it through the dangerzone and announce it to the world but it's a relief that everything (aside from my uterus) is where it should be.

We're telling my sisters tonight as it's one's 30th bday party tonight and she's already made a big song and dance about  how we better be getting a taxi so we can party on. Sadly my party days are over til March! Then Sunday my 2 sisters, a friend and I are off to bali for 5nights. It'll be sweet - even though no cocktails! It'll be nice to be out of this ice cold weather Perth has been having the past few weeks!

Generally I'm feeling fine, except that about 2 or 3pm a wave of exhaustion hits me. I've had a few spells of dizziness and yesterday arvo felt very queasy for a couple of hours. Hence, pretty much zero exercise in the past week. After bali will try to get back into it though!

Hope everyone is going well!

Fill er up!

Hey kids,

Just been to see Doc Bowater this morning. Did not want to look at the scales and I really wish I hadn't! Lordy bigordy. I'm even too embarrassed to type the number here. Any hoo we added 0.75ml into my band taking it up to 3.75mls. This is still 0.5ml lower than what I was before the whole pouch dilation episode the week before the wedding but hopefully enough to curb my appetite and portion sizes. Geez that man can yabber on too. Yes I know what I should be doing but I'm too farking hungry! Give me back that period where I didn't think about food and wasn't hungry till 2pm! He wants me to be in a place where I start to get hungry around 12 midday which would still be better than where I am at the moment - which is hungry every second of the flipping day! He also wants me to only eat sweet foods (ie chocolate) one day a month! I can't wait to tell hubby this coz he will laugh his arse off. I know I'm eating far too much chocolate and icecream and milo at the moment so I am going to try to cut this down to once a week.

I think I'm going to give the City to Surf a go too. I've walked it twice and it's not a fun track. It's 12kms and about 3 real doozy of hills. I'd like to try and "run" it this year. It's in August. I've signed up for the weekly training schedules and I looked at week 1 and nearly cried in fear!! It's going to be tough but I really need another goal to keep me motivated. Because apparently being bridesmaid for my sister in September isn't enough!

Was going to put up another batch of clothes today but left the list at home so will do it tonight or tomorrow so check back! If any international readers are interested you're more than welcome to the clothes if you pay for postage!

Have I mentioned that I'm off to Bali in like 6 weeks? My sister is 30 in july so 4 of us are off to Bali for 5 nights. Look there's another goal I should be heading towards- need to fit into my honeymoon bathers!!

Well better get stuck into work. Short week this week as we're having Friday off and heading to Yallingup for the long weekend. I can't wait!

New day

I've been wanting to do it for a while, but with a wedding looming, its not the best time to go all Felicity with your hair do, but yesterday I finally got the restyle I've been hanging out for! Chopped off about 3 inches, layered & texturalised into a concave look at the back and coloured my hair dark. It feels amazing! Here's a dodgy pic I took in the loo when I got back to the office -


Should have weighed myself before and after, coz I reckon I would have dropped a kg! Gave GB shit about it all day telling him to put my GHD straighteners on ebay and how good it felt to have shaved my head. When he saw me he said "wow that's dark, I thought you were getting a haircut?". Men! He did say later that night that he really liked it so that's good.

Remember how I weigh myself everyday, well I haven't done that this week. I just knew it would be all bad and I just can't look at it. The good thing is I'm feeling a lot better this week, have been to the gym Monday & Tuesday after work too. My eating? Well I think it's been better but I'm honestly not sure anymore. I'll weigh on Friday and see how I'm doing. Still definitely need another fill, the question is, how much? I actually bought some Biggest Loser shakes to try for lunch or dinner.. Haven't done so yet though.

My sister in law got banded last week. I hope it goes well for her. GB and I tried to give her all the information we knew because we know how hard we've worked exercise/eating wise and we also know that she'll expect the weight to come off without the exercise and I'm sure she'll eat crap. We tried to instill in her that she will have to work hard with the band and that it's a tool, not a miracle cure. Anyway, I wish her the best with her journey (not that she read's this blog).

Anyhoo, hope all 15 of my readers are going well!

Wanted: Restriction

I have stopped weighing myself. I know I'm putting on weight and I hate it. I have zero restriction. I'm hungry half an hour after I eat and all I can think of is FOOOOOOD! It's really quite depressing. 2 more weeks before my next appointment.

On the good side, I'm starting to feel a bit better. Last week I had an awful headache that lasted the full week. But now my cough is really improving and asthma nearly all gone. A friend and I are doing the HBF run for a reason on Sunday. We're doing the 4.5km course and I wanted to run it but now not sure how I'll go because I haven't done any running training since before the wedding. But I'm going to give it a red hot go anyway.

We took the pooches to the RSPCA Million Paws Walk yesterday. Baxter was so well behaved (thank goodness!) Here's a pic of GB with Baxter & Westie.


Anyway, I am reading all your blogs, but I've been so busy with work I haven't managed to comment on too many, sorry about that. Just know that I am reading!

Blech

Hey guys,
Sorry for the delay between posts, been busy with work and life.. you know how it is! Anyway just to let you all know I saw Dr Bowater (who frankly is a bit of a sanctimonious twat) who agreed to put in .5ml fill. Not much change though which is a shame. Got another appointment at the end of May so will get in another .5ml. I'm taking it easy because I don't want to get to the same probs I was having before. He did give me this nugget of information in curing those 3pm sugar cravings. Red Wine. Apparently red wine actually will satiate you whereas white wine makes you want to eat and chocolate is.. well.. not good for you. Unfortunately I can't stand red wine, also not sure how the boss would like me sitting in my office with a vino! Anyway, it may help others so I'm putting it out there.

This week I'm finally starting to feel a bit better (7 weeks of being sick is really farking frustrating). Still got a sniffle and a bit of a cough but I'm down to using my puffer only once a day which is great. I'm on a mission to work out 5 times this week. Managed 3 trips to gym last week plus pilates once. Not at full steam though. Yesterday I did my HRM program on the bike for 30mins and burned 300cals which is pretty good. Was planning to get back to the C25K program but got a solid headache with about 10mins to go on the bike so talked myself out of it. Spewing a bit about the running. I'm doing the HBF Run for a reason in a couple of weeks - doing the 4.5km and wanted to run the whole thing, but doubt I'll be able to do it now. Will give it a red hot go of course though!

Oh the half ironman. GB was amazing as were all our friends. He would have been happy to finish in under 6.5hrs but was aiming for 6hrs 5mins. He did it in 5hrs 50mins! And that was with a shithouse start to the morning when 10mins before his swim was about to start, his wetsuit zip broke. This meant he had to swim in the freezing ocean in just his tri suit. More than anything it messed with his mind, he was fuming still after the 1.9km swim! And it wasn't near his best time for that distance either. But he made up for it with a blinder in the 90km ride and a solid 21km run. I made signs to hold up as they went past - will post some pics when I get them from our friend. The other boys who did it did well too. 1 did it in 5hrs 36 and the other in 6hrs 20. My friend from highschool, Alison, has been sick for 6 weeks too and managed to do it in 5hrs 37. She's phenomenal! Unfortunately GB and one of the other guys ended in the medic tent on completion which was a bit scary when we couldn't find them for an hour. We went in there to find his mate laying on the floor and GB on a bed, wrapped in space blankets and looking very pale. Apparently they were really dehydrated (GB forgot to apply sunscreen and got burnt and heat stroke) and started vomiting. GB had a needle in his leg to stop the vomiting (he complained more about how sore he was from the needle than the actual event!). They were both dizzy and had the shakes. After a couple of hours though they were feeling a lot better and against the doc's advice still had a couple celebratory beers. They all pulled up amazingly well too.

GB's next plan is a marathon - he's doing it as part of a team in the full ironman in December but might try the Perth marathon in June too. He's a machine. If you'd said 3 years ago at 127kgs he'd be doing triathlons and marathons he'd have laughed his arse off!

Anyway we had a fabulous 5 days away down south. Went and caught up with our wedding photographer who showed us these gorgeous but outrageously expensive wedding albums. We hummed and haa'd about it for a couple of days. Did some research on the net and couldn't find comparable albums any cheaper so decided to go for it. Our photos are slowly going up on the online gallery - hopefully they'll all be up by the end of this week so we can start designing the album.

And we've booked a trip to Sydney! Jetstar had a "friend flies for free" deal which meant we got 2 x return tix with extra baggage for about $430. Bargain. We'll be over for 10 days in November but will hopefully be visiting my aunty & uncle up past Port Macquarie for a few days too.

Bridal stuff back on our agenda with my sis getting married in 4months. We finally found our bridesmaid dresses on Saturday thank goodness. They're nice too - a one shoulder, full length number - unfortunately not on their website and we forgot to take pics. But my even more noticeable lumps and bumps made me realise I need to pull my finger out and drop this weight I've put on since the wedding!

Anyhoo, busy busy at work so must get back to it!



PS - My previous post was more a reflection on how I'd rather think I was pregnant than admit that I'm putting on weight because of what I was eating, as opposed to disappointment about not being pregnant. For the record, I'm off the pill but not trying to, or not trying to conceive. What will be, will be. But thanks for all the comments!

hehe I have comments!

Wow the immediate effect of switching to Blogger - I've had more comments than ever!

Official weigh in this morning had me down 1kg from last week which is fabulous I know, except that I also know that I was down to 76kg flat on Monday and today was 76.5. I did do pilates yesterday afternoon - which I completely sucked at - even apologised to the instructor as I was just so weak I couldn't hold anything together. Also dragged my fat arse to the gym after work for a barely sweat raising 20mins on bike and 10mins on treadmill.

Cara may be right though, I've heard that some brides get post wedding blues because they live and breath the wedding for so long they don't know what to do with themselves afterwards. I don't know, I HATED the whole organisation of the wedding, Glad I don't have to think about it anymore actually! But it is hard after the high of the wedding and honeymoon to be back into our normal life routine I guess. Or maybe it's just my usual TTOM blues (due next week :)). I don't want to make excuses... But I will!

Sally - don't know where I found this template in the end - I googled "Free blogger templates" and searched around. I can't seem to adjust the labels though so I'll prob change it again soon. Hope to catch up with you over here soon! How lucky are you going to Chicago!

Long weekend this weekend - hooray! And because we're heading down south for the 1/2 Ironman triathlon next Friday, it means only a 3 day work week next week! WOO HOO!

Must write up a post on the Biggest Loser supersets I did on Monday which have crippled me all week but burned some serious calories. Speaking of BL, found the Friday night Masterclasses really interesting and also was surprised to hear the Dr saying that the contestants should weigh themselves every day to ensure they keep the weight off! Quite surprising.

Anyhoo, is it ice coffee time yet?

Thanks for all your comments, I'm sure I won't sit in my funk for long!

Em :)

I'm back - grab a cuppa it's going to be a long one!

Hey guys,

Thanks for all your comments on my photos. I mentioned facebook having more photos so if you want to add me as a friend that's cool but pls don't publicly say anything on my wall about lapbanding because as you know, it's a bit of a secret! I've added a little avatar thingy to the right which if you click on it will give you an email address for me - not sure if you can use this to search for me on facebook or not but if you flick me an email we'll work it out between us!

I've started wading through all the blogs I've missed but I'm a bit all over the shop. I use this RSS feed toolbar that scrolls across my browser with unread posts but they're not in any sort of order that I can tell so it's a bit like Blog Post Lucky Dip! I'm especially loving the ones about "lady bits"! I will comment when I can but until I get through the backlog I may not - don't be offended! If you're on my bloglist I'm reading you!

The last 6 weeks have been so insane I don't know where to start! I'll start with my hens night the week before the wedding. My sisters had planned the whole thing and I knew some vague details but that was it. They picked me up mid afternoon and we drove to some hotel apartments in the city. They'd booked a 3 brm apartment for us to stay in over night for the 3 of us plus 2 of my close friends and my cousin who lives in Sydney who came early just for the hens night. We had a few cosmos and some nibblies and then I was told that I had to sit in a seat and they were going to tie me to it and blindfold me. I was having none of that shit! I refused to be tied up but sat there blind folded. They knew I didn't want a stripper so I wasn't too stressed and then someone came in behind me and I think they were playing "You can leave your hat on" and someone started blowing in my ear and giving me a lapdance! I assumed it was one of my girlfriends and then my blindfold was taken off and in front of me was one of my best friends from England! My sisters, dad & mum had paid to fly her over for the wedding! It was amazing, there were tears and screaming! After more cosmos we all frocked up (we all wore masquerade masks and caught the bus to Northbridge for dinner with about 20 other friends and family members. After a bit of kerfuffle about where the table was located, we tucked into some champers and dinner. During the night my sisters had arranged rounds of Emma Trivia. It was heaps of fun. Then about half of us headed off to a karaoke bar where as usual we got shitty about our songs not being picked and were almost about to leave when we finally got some on. We partied on there (numbers dwindled) till about 2am, then headed to a club which had an area upstairs playing 80's' & 90's music. There we came to an epiphany. The girls of today wear FLAT shoes!! Here we were being all hardcore in our ridiculous heels and they've smartened up and worn flats! Anyway at about 4.30am we decide a trip to Fast Eddy's (24hr cafe) is in order for some chips and sundaes (what else would we eat at 4.30am?). We walked back to the apartment and finally fell asleep at about 5.30am. I could only sleep for a couple of hours and I'm telling you I was unwell. I'm far too old for those sorts of shenanigans!

And that started a downward slide that week. I assumed it was lack of sleep and a hangover but all of a sudden food was revolting - I couldn't stomach anything (YAY I hear you say? Not that much fun in reality). Then the reflux started again and it was BAD. I was nearly in tears each night. Tuesday I called Watson's rooms and they didn't have any doctors in that day but got me in the next day. I saw Maria Ingram (think I blogged a bit about it). She was concerned because I didn't have that much fill in to begin with. She took out about half and said she'd left about 1.7ml in - which is less than you have when you're first banded. As I mentioned she sent me for a barium swallow in case I had a slip. I might add that trying to fit in time for a doc appt and a barium swallow while you're trying to get the final bits of your wedding organised is NOT easy! Anyway it turned out I had a band dilation which is a stretched pouch probably caused when my band was too tight (regular readers will know I've had quite a bit of probs with this). Dr Ingram called me while I was having my nails done to say she got the report and basically I need to get back to basics to relieve any pressure on my band to allow the stomach pouch to retract to its normal size. Which has not been easy as the hunger has slowly returned and my portions are getting back to pre band sizes!!! Hard to manage while you're on your honeymoon! Anyway I decided to put that all aside to concentrate on the big day.

I had the beginnings of a head cold that week before too. Then on Friday (day before wedding) I woke up with NO voice. Pretty hard to say your vows when you can't speak! Over the day it came back, scratchy but back. Thursday night we picked up all my family who were coming in from Sydney & Melbourne. It was a great reunion. Friday we all headed to Margaret River (about 3hrs south of Perth). I should mention that since December Perth has had virtually no rain and the weather has been ridiculously warm. Well in Margs on Friday it was cool and overcast. I was not impressed. Everyone said though that its good that there's clouds because it makes for better photos! Anyway, Friday night we all surprised GB with one of his best friends from England. He was over at Christmas and told me he was going to try to come back but with his job and $$ it may not be possible, but it all came together. GB almost lost his mind! Fri night it was a friend's birthday so 10 of us headed to Must Winebar and had dinner (yummo). Saturday morning arrived and GB took off first thing for golf with his friends - the last I'd see him before the ceremony.

A little bit later my sister called from her apartment to see if i wanted to walk into town for a coffee. So we did that. We also had to go to the chemist to see if they had anything to numb her throat. She had the WORST case of pussy tonsils I've ever seen! So bad that one of her glands was so swollen that it was causing a massive lump on the side of her neck! She really wanted to have a good night. The chemist suggested this spray thingo which we used and she said it was immediately better. From then on we moved all the dresses to my apartment, the hair/makeup lady showed up at 11am to get us all started. The day seemed to go quite slowly, and then all of a sudden it was 4.30pm and we were all rushing around to get ready!

I knew that I'd lost a couple kgs in the past week from being so ill but hoped it came off my arse. As soon as my sis did up my dress though I knew my boobs were smaller than at the last fitting. Sure enough I had to keep hoying it up after the ceremony, during the photos!!! Luckily I'd had spaghetti straps sewn into them so I pulled them on for the reception and it was smooth sailing. We arrived at the winery and that's when I finally had a meltdown - I couldn't stop the tears! It was almost funny. I think I was so overwhelmed that the time was finally here! I pulled it together and got the show on the road. To be different, both the boys & gal's walked down either side of the guests (rather than a centre aisle). It was a bit hairy walking in heels on grass and down a few stairs (and I stepped on my dress a couple times), but I had a great laugh when I looked over to see my fiance doing a dance down the stairs to the music. (All you need is Love - The Beatles). The ceremony was pretty quick and I managed to hold it all together! Although it was a bit cold outside it all went really well.

From there the bridal party had a few pics and then returned to the winery for the cocktail reception which was fabulous. We got the 2 very quick speeches out of the way and then did our dance. GB and I danced for a minute to our song (Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol) but as that's a difficult song to dance too (no beat!) we had been practicing with the rest of the bridal party to do a evening quickstep sort of dance to Love Will Keep Us together. There was a bit of confusion at the start but we pulled it together and apparently it looked fabulous! Can't wait to see the video! Then the party got started in full swing. Our DJ was fantastic - I had to ask him to play a shit song so I could go and pee!. The cocktail food was great and everyone seemed to have a brilliant time. We'd set up a kind of photo booth with a backdrop and camera on a tripod for our guests to have photos in front of and there was a little white board for them to hold up messages. It was a bone of contention between GB and I which I won and it was a massive hit! We've had really good feedback that it was one of the best weddings they'd ever been too. After the reception we all hopped on the bus transport we'd arranged back to the hotel and then partied on in my sister's apartment till the wee hours again!

It was like a big 3 day party. The next day we had a lunch just with our immediate families and then put the word out that we'd be having a bbq in the middle of the apartments for dinner which a lot of people rocked up for.

Monday we took my Aunty from Melbourne to a few wineries and the chocolate factory and slowly headed back to Perth. That was the day that Perth was hit by the hail storms and a few of our friends have bad damage to their cars. We were lucky that we were late enough just to hit torrential rain.

Tuesday night we headed off for our honeymoon. Details of that I'll leave to another post.

Today I did an official weigh in and I'm back up to 77.5kg which is disappointing but it has been 4 weeks with basically no fill in my band and drinking wine like it was water and eating out nearly every single day.. oh and no exercise, so a 3.5kg gain is understandable! I've been pretty much fluey this whole time but this past week my asthma has been chronic. Went to my GP yesterday and he put me on antibiotics & steroids. I haven't slept properly in 3 nights which totally sucks. Was planning on getting back into exercise this week but just haven't been able to. Did do pilates on Tuesday and also went to the gym after work for 45mins cardio where I thought I might actually pass out. Will give the weekend for the drugs to kick in and hopefully will be full steam ahead on Monday.

Well that's enough for one post!

Talk to you all soon!

Mrs Em :)

Kicked that plateau to the curb

SOOOOOO close to my wedding goal! I even did a few star jumps in the bathroom this morning - which, FYI, is not a pretty look when you're doing them naked! So today I weighed in at 75.1kgs. A whopping great loss of 1.7kg this week! I can't remember the last time I lost that sort of number in one week without it relating to TTOM. To  be honest I haven't been doing anything massively different except for that Couch to 5k program and also last weekend I was REALLY restricted. I even did this loss still eating my chocolate and drinking my light iced coffee!

I made an awesome and super easy salad last night for dinner out of the Woman's Weekly Salad book. Here's the recipe:

Goats Cheese, Fig & Proscuitto salad

150g Goats Cheese
4-6 large figs
6 slices of proscuitto
180g rocket

Grill the proscuitto till crispy and drain off excess oil, roughly chop.
quarter the Figs
crumble the goats cheese (put it in the freezer for 10mins to make it easier to crumble)
Combine and toss!

Dressing:
1 tblsp wholegrain mustard
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tblsp olive oil
1 tblsp honey

Yummo! This served 4 of us as a side salad (a main for me) comfortably.

Was going to post some more gratutious pics of Baxter but for some reason I'm having huge issues uploading pics from work so may have to try a different way. Baxter is a great little dog, going outside to do his "business" most of the time and he's sleeping through the night. We have come home to a few messes though. On Wednesday it was drizzling rain all day which made our mulch wet which meant we could tell exactly where he'd been all day! Also the same day he decided to eat the bottom of the bin out (we just hang a plastic bag to the pantry door) so there was rubbish across the house and backyard! And he's enjoying eating the agapantha plant out the back too! oh well!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="277" caption="Puppy footsteps"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="277" caption="Rubbish!"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="277" caption="Baxter"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="277" caption="Another Bax pic!"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="277" caption="Westie, Baxter and their Dad"][/caption]

Sneak Peak...and a long diatribe about the new puppy!

So I popped on the scales this morning to see..... 75's.... NO SHIT. First time in a LONG time that I've weighed less after a weekend from my Friday weigh in. Of course it could have something to do with the fact we got called out to Dwellingup (100kms south of Perth) for a fire yesterday. So had to be up at 3.30am and worked till 7pm. Had a salad for lunch and PB'd the thing all afternoon. Not great. Decided to go with a cold milo for dinner when I got home which did stay down thank goodness.

Last week I restarted the Couch to 5k program. Already had the podcasts downloaded from when I attempted it a few years ago and after 4 weeks was only on week 2! But feel better about it this time around. Did the week 1 program, three times last week. Normally when I run I do it around 8km/hr. Not terribly fast...especially when I walk around 7km/hr! So decided to up the tempo this time around (was on the treadmill at the gym so it is easier to regulate). Week 1 is intervals of 60seconds running, 90 seconds brisk walk. So I ran at 9km/hr for 7 intervals and then for the last one I ran at 9.7km/hr! YAY! On the 3rd session on Thursday I even did the last interval at 10km/hr! I kept the walking to about 6.7km/hr. Tonight I'll start on the Week 2 program so will see how I go.

In addition to the running I've been doing the bike at the gym still (30mins if no running, 20mins if running). Still pilates on a Thursday too.

And yes we got our new pooch, Baxter on Friday! We've been looking at getting Westie a friend to keep her company and had started enquiring with breeders. We thought we had one sussed that would mean she'd deliver pups in Feb and they'd be ready for pickup after the wedding. Unfortunately, that pooch decided not to go on heat as planned and so subsequently didn't get preggers. We made some more calls and found out we'd basically have to wait a whole other year for a puppy as they'd just gone through their cycles and we'd missed it. Then one of them recommended an unregistered breeder who had puppies in Geraldton ready to go. We had a talk - spending some of the wedding money now - what would we do with 2 dogs while we're away? etc etc. Decided it was meant to be. So we drove up to Gero - took just under 4hrs - and went to meet this lady. She had 3 males to choose from. They were all great dogs. The one we chose was actually the biggest. We thought we'd choose the runt of the litter but his ears were already up and GB wasn't happy with that! I have no idea why. Anyway "Mr Yellow" (she had paint dots on their heads to tell them apart) came straight up to us for a cuddle, then went and played with his mum & dad and brothers and then came back and sat on my foot. So he became - Baxter.

He's been a fantastic dog so far. He's 11 weeks old. He's already worked out the doggy door at our place. He was getting in ok but struggling to get out so GB decided to make him a ramp. He was measuring it up and cutting the wood and Baxter just started bounding in and out the door to see what he was doing! So obviously doesn't need the ramp! He's had a few accidents inside but has been going outside too. He's been only whinging for 5mins when we put him to bed in our ensuite (we've put a divider across the door to keep him on the tiles) and then he sleeps most of the night, only waking to cry to tell GB he needs the toilet - goes outside and then back to sleep til about 7am! Awesome! He's got TONNES of energy though. He goes psycho nuts playing, chewing whatever for about 30mins then he crashes and sleeps for an hour.. then repeats it again!

Westie was happy on Friday when we brought him home, then standoffish on Saturday when he hadn't left yet but they're firm friends now. She even pushed his bum through the doggy door and helped him up the stairs! SOOO cute! He can't get down the stairs yet though. Gotta enroll him in puppy preschool this week, try and train him a bit!

Anyway, better do some work I guess! Have caught up on most blogs, but haven't had too much time to comment, sorry. Oh I installed firefox (as opposed to Internet Explorer) on my PC and am now finding it heaps easier to comment on blogger blogs which is great. I've also set up RSS feeds for everyone's blogs whom I'm following so I get a notification if you've posted a new blog! YAY for technology!

Em :)

New Lowest Weight Ever... FINALLY!

Well well well... this morning I weighed in at 77kgs exactly! Saw 76.9 pop up but it wouldn't come back. Either way I'm super stoked because I've finally got away from the high 77's and posted a new lowest ever weight. I'm pretty amazed (even though it is TTOM) because although I was planning to put in a big effort exercise wise this week it didn't eventuate. Started off well - on Monday at lunchtime GB and I went on a 5km walk (with a few hills) - it was bloody hot but I'm glad we did it. Then late on Monday night we both got the call that we were needed for the Moore River fire at 5am in Wanneroo. I didn't finish till about 8.30pm that night and GB even later and then had to be back at Wanneroo early on Wednesday and again finishing late so no exercise at all (aside from walking back and forwards to the printer). I tried to be sensible with food - avoiding lollies - and as it was basically couldn't keep anything down, not even water, at all for the 2 days so spent a lot of time in the loo - not fun. Yesterday marked the first day back at pilates and oh boy was it tough. What little strength I'd built up seemed to have vanished again! After work GB and I walked Westie down to Tomato Lake and I decided to try for the elusive 5km jog.... which was more like a shuffle! The lake is about 1.6kms around and the 2nd lap was particularly tough - felt like I was barely moving, had cramps, my knees sore and I was truly going to stop after 2 laps but decided to push through and then did the bit extra to make it to just over 5kms. Ironically I only did it a few minutes faster than our hilly 5km walk on Monday! hahaha Anyhoo today I feel like a cripple!

Chocolate challenge is still a goer... although I won't lie I've had chocolate in other forms but I haven't had any chocolate bars at all which is a MASSIVE thing for me! GB is still off his chips too. Poor bugger put on a few kgs over christmas/new year but now that he's back in full training for the triathlons I'm sure that will melt back off him in no time at all.

Big weekend on - date night tonight (GB's turn), then tomorrow up at the crack of dawn to look at flowers with my friend who's doing our bouquets, then helping my sister move most of her stuff into storage and move her in with our other sister, then 80's party at a friends place. Sunday should be relatively bare - thinking about going to see either Avatar 3D or Sherlock Holmes.

Thanks for the positive feedback on my invites - I really love them too.

Anyhoo, best be getting some work done!

Em :)