tagged... twice!!

OK - Ruth & Lucy both tagged me so I'd better do this! 7 random facts about me.
1. I am 33% geek according to a geek survey I did.
2. I love gardening but am terrible at weeding.
3. I would like to take up painting (as in art) one day.
4. I wanted to be a surgeon when I grew up but changed my mind when I didn't get into med school, (thank goodness). Then I wanted to be a marine biologist for a while but I get seasick while snorkeling. So I am one of the few librarians with a science degree.
5. I am a New Zealander but also have citizenship in Australia -my folks came to NZ to live and I was born here, but my Dad registered me in Oz too. I have had an Ozzie passport as well as an NZ one though I've let it lapse at present.
6. I started school at Primrose Hill Primary School in London. My Dad had a sabbatical there when we were little. I came home with a British accent. People tell me I still don't have a strong NZ accent.
7. I want to travel some more around the world but get air sick really easily. I've tried so many remedies!

Out 'n' About

Yay - DD is finally able to sit comfortably in the back pack so we're able to get out and do a few more active things together. Here we are in the bush (aka forest/woods for those in the upper hemisphere).

Easter is finished

This time last year I discovered I was expecting DD. I suppose it's appropriate given Easter originally is a fertility festival. Personally I blame those pagan fertility buns (hee hee!). Well, some folks claim they pre-date Christianity. I don't really care either way and would eat them throughout the year! Bron Marshall has some nice recipes for them.

The E-bunny only visited DS this year. I am helping to prevent child obesity by filching his mini-eggs.

Ouch

Yesterday was such a lovely day we went to the beach for a picnic. On the way back to the car I managed to catch my foot on the edge of the path and sprain my ankle. So now I'm hobbling around and taking panadol for the pain. I'd take something for the swelling but everything seems to be contra-indicated for breastfeeding so looks like I'm stuck in that respect.

After coming into our room and seeing this... I decided it was time to move DD to a proper cot. After panicking because I couldn't find the cot screws, DH calmly brought them out from his "safe place" that he'd stowed them when we took it down last time. So now the cot is squeezed into the room with DS. We sure do need more room around here. We've been trying to work out what is our best option.

• Selling?
• Sub-dividing and getting some cash that way?
• Renovating?

I visited the council to get a copy of our original house plans because we would like to put on a deck. We have a ranch slider that opens out into thin air and mistakingly assumed that this meant the original plans would have provision for a deck and thus we wouldn't have to get a permit for it. How wrong we were! It seems that in 1966, the latest thing was to have a ranch slider opening out into thin air. Nice.

While I was there I inquired about sub-dividing our section but we are just a tad too small for that to happen. So that option is out.

We could sell up. But it's unlikely we'd get the amount we'd need to get the kind of house we would like. So that would mean borrowing more which might be an option once I go back to work.

So it's possibly best for us to investigate renovating. If the cost of renovating is less than the NZ$200,000 extra we'd need to buy the house we'd like then it's probably the way to go.

I do get sick of stressing about money. It's times like these I feel like I should go back to work. I know it's just for a season while the children are small, and they probably don't notice the lack of space. But DD can't be in the same room with DS once they are older.

Money, money, money as the song says...