The perfect chair?

How about this eh? Feel like kicking back with a good book? Bought to you from Popgadget - the Bibliochaise. Actually the other chair on this blog looks quite funky too.

Popgadget is a blog about personal technology and innovative lifestyle for women. :) Sounds like cool to me!

Preparation

• Christmas puddings. Check. Yum, yum, wanted to eat them as soon as they were cooked!
  
• Christmas cake. Check. Feeding it with rum now... hick.
  
• Sew some breastfeeding tops. Check.
• Take up second hand maternity skirts so they aren't around my ankles. Check.
  
• Bassinette set up. Check. *sentimental sweet moment*
  
• Drawers in spare room cleaned out. Check - 2 bags of rubbish removed! But what do I do with all this writing paper I never use anymore?
• Baby clothes in cleaned out drawers. Check. *another sentimental sweet moment*
  
• DS clothes weeded so the too small stuff is now in storage. Check.
• Tidy up garage shelves. Check.
  
• Clean out cupboard in spare room and store stuff on the garage shelves. Check.
  
• Scrapbooking & sewing stuff packed away neatly in cupboard. Check. Boo hoo! But at least I can get it out easily enough.
• Make extra at dinner time so I have some meals to freeze. Check. Should do some more though.
  

Stuff still to do

• Christmas shopping - this week and next
• Pack labour bag and DS's "going to Nan's house" bag
• Clean kitchen cupboards and venetian blinds (ick ick ick)
• Weed garden, plant more lettuce and radishes, stake tomatoes and get more netting for beans to climb on. Plant more veges.
• Clean windows.
• Wash baby clothes, sling and baby gym stuff.
• Sterilise breast pump and accessories.
• Take DS's kindy enrolment form in

Haven't been blogging much because of all this stuff to do.

Thoughts on finishing work

Tomorrow is my last day at work... paid work that is. It's a bitter-sweet moment.

Sweet

• I'm proud of what I've achieved while I've been working here. There's been a number of projects I have either been asked to run or have initiated.
• I've developed as a librarian professionally and also in terms of my personal development.
• I have enjoyed working with a variety of hard-working, friendly colleagues.
• The tertiary institute who employs me has been a mostly benign and sometimes even generous employer for whom I would gladly work for again.

Bitter

• I won't miss the various frustrating issues that have had me despairing of ever bringing this library into the Web 2.0 era
• I won't miss the awful coffee in the staff room and the ludicrously priced food there. ($2.00 for a small pot of yoghurt? I don't think so!)
• I will miss my pay packet and am not looking forward to having to live on one income
• I will miss the interaction and intellectual stimulation from working with my colleagues and our clients.
• I will miss the opportunities for career advancement and professional development
• I will miss the validation and affirmation that paid employment brings to my sense of well-being

Sweet

• I can look forward to meeting my new baby
• My week will not be so stressful because I won't have just 2 days to run errands! Well, that's the theory.
• I will be able to do stuff with my other SAHM friends that I've had to decline in the past

These last few days have been tricky. On one hand I've been a little bored because things are quiet. Obviously starting a new project is not really worth it because I can't follow it through and my replacement won't start immediately. At the same time, there are a few projects that will continue without me and I won't be around to see them come to fruition which makes me sad.

People mean well when they say, "Oh well, you won't have to worry about that" but I'm afraid I am a bit over sensitive about such comments. My brain doesn't just switch off. I am still a person capable of intellectual thought and reasoning. My focus and priorities are going to change, it is true, but I retain an interest in my profession.

On the whole I feel positive about the next 12 months. I don't think I'll be returning to work (it's not financially viable to work part time with 2 kids in daycare), but if necessary I could. In the meantime, I'm going to focus on my family, friends and try and enjoy the challenges life throws up!

A meme for fun

Feel free to do this meme I found ...

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
It wasn't a concious thought but would have been something like:"Get comb ... comb out wet hair".

2. Favorite planet?
Earth - never been anywhere else!

3. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?
My Mum/Dad's number.

4. What is your favorite ring tone on your phone?
It's not a phone with fancy rings so I have it on a plain one.

5. Do you “label” yourself?
umm.. I s'pose I do. I stick myself in several boxes.

6. What does your watch look like?
Silvery. It was my engagement present from DH. It is at the jewellers getting a new brain right now.

7. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Possibly sleeping, possibly visiting the smallest room.

8. What did your last text message you received on your cell say?
"Hi - just wondering how u r & how your day. Love N." From SIL.

9. What's a word that you say a lot?
Indeed.

10. Last furry thing you touched?
*snicker*

11. Favorite age you have been so far?
26 maybe. But I don't feel too much different from then so get surprised when I think about how old I am.

12. Your worst enemy?
Oh - me for sure.

13. What is your current desktop picture?
An old layout I did of DS.

14. What was the last thing you said to someone?
"Where?" *trying to see some suspected thieves in our library*

15. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly what would it be?
Give me ze money. Then I can fly whereever I like! LOL!

16. Do you like someone?
Well duh! yes!

17. The last song you listened to?
Something they were playing at daycare - probably something like Bob the builder.

18. What time of day were you born?
Around 3pm I think.

19. What's your favorite number?
Don't really have one - maybe 7.

20. Where did you live in 1987?
At the beginning of the year we were in Germany and then England, and then we came home to NZ.

21. Are you jealous of anyone?
Sometimes. It's usually a temporary thing. I have a pretty good life! LOL!

22. Is anyone jealous of you?
Dunno. I'd hardly think so.

23. Where were you when 9/11 happened?
Asleep. I heard about it on the radio going to work and we spent the a lot of the day at work glued to the TV and internet. After a while it just got too much and we turned the TV off. Everyone was subdued.

24. Do you consider yourself kind?
On the whole yes.

25. If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be?
Somewhere where it could be covered like my butt. I'm not into tatts.

26. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
French/German/Chinese

27. Would you move for the person you loved?
Of course!

28. What's your life motto?
Not sure I have a permanent one. "It won't matter in 100 years" is sometimes helpful. "Do unto others etc" is a good 'un.

29. What's your favorite town/city?
I'm a homebod. I like Auckland. But I liked Wellington when I lived there for a while. I think I could be happy enough in most places in NZ. Indigenous people don't have a monopoly on "connection to the land". I've noticed that when I've been overseas and come back to NZ I always have this big feeling of relief to be back on NZ soil. However interesting the other country may have been, I feel displaced until I'm back. Another funny thing is I feel odd when I'm in a landlocked place... somehow the coastal areas always seem so much more comfortable.

30. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?
Do Christmas cards count? I sent a bunch on Friday last week. I used to write a lot of letters but now my communication medium of choice is email/IM/Txt etc.

31. Can you change the oil on a car?
Nup. I can change a tire though. And put petrol in the car. And drive it.

32. Your first love: what is the last thing you heard about him/her?
He got stranded hang gliding off some cliff.

33. How far back do you know about your ancestry?
Um - Mum's been doing some stuff on this and I think she's got back (so far) to the early 1800's. Not sure about the dates on Dad's side but we know where they came from in England so that would make it mid-1800's anyway. It's neat looking at the old photos - I have an interest in genetics, so I'm always comparing them with me.

34. The last time you dressed fancy, what did you wear and why did you dress fancy?
Fancy? Depends on what you mean by fancy. I get dressed up for church on Sunday so if you count that it would be a maternity skirt I made plus a plain white maternity blouse. If you mean fancy/schmancy then it would be at my wedding in 1999! LOL!

35. Have you been burned by love?
Oh yes. Got to kiss a few frogs before getting the right one ;)

T-layout

I was going to use this layout for the NZ Dare #10 but finished it too late for the submission date. Then I thought I might use it for the Kiwiscraps customer challenge but I don't think it fits all the criteria.

But never mind! I used some papers from my October Tarisota kit for this one.

On the countdown

I'm 32 weeks, coming up 33 weeks on Friday 10th Nov.
- 7 weeks until my due date
- 6 weeks until Christmas
- 3 weeks until my last day at work (13 days of actual work since I'm part-time)

I'm measuring on track though I do think I'm smaller this time around. I'm hoping that is because my eating habits have improved since my last pregnancy. I need to weigh myself at my appointment on Thursday but I'm pretty sure my weight gain has not been so significant like with DS.

My midwife has recommended drinking raspberry leaf tea now and has some other herbal/homeopathic remedies up her sleeve for later on. She says she likes to do this for second-timers, especially for those who had difficult births for their first. With DS I had some problems relating to the fact he was posterior. One day I might post his birth story, but basically it was quite a long labour (26 hours), my cxs were inefficient so I had to have syntocin, 2 x epidurals, 5 bags of IV fluids, and ended up with a ventouse extraction because I could not push him out.

I am so hoping that this time will be different. I don't know that I have the strength of character to go totally natural, but even if I can get away with no augmentation and a normal vaginal birth I'll be happy.

We have got 2 more things to borrow or buy - a changing table and a new pram. Our old pram is fine, but bulky and I'd like to sell it. DH would like a mountain buggy one which has a shorter wheel base and can be taken on bush walks more easily. Plus the accessories for it a easily obtainable here.

This pregnancy has gone so fast. Unlike the first one, I've no time to daydream about the new baby. I'm trying to savour the little moments now - the movements of the baby within, the stretching of my tummy, the calm before the storm!

I'm so lucky that I have had 2 easy pregnancies. Of course there are the normal aches, pains, irritating things. Like turning over in bed - it takes me about 3 movements! My hips go numb after a while and I am also getting leg cramps. But so far things have been textbook normal.