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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Woohooooooo Under $10k mark



As the heading states, we owe less than $10000 on our car loan :D

I'm so happy!! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The closer we get, the more eager I am to pay it off quicker.

Only a few short months to go and the car will be paid :)

I'm aiming to have it paid off by Christmas.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Liebster award


The lovely Lisa from Mummy's Undeserved Blessings has tagged me for a Liebster award :) I'm going to join in the fun :)



Here are the rules:
  1. Each person must post 11 facts about themselves.
  2. Answer 11 questions the tagger has given you and give 11 questions for the person you tag.
  3. Choose 11 people & link them to your post. (They must have 200 followers or less)
  4. Tell them you have tagged them.
  5. Remember, no tag backs.

11 facts about me:
  1. I had carbonara for dinner
  2. I've had my belly button pierced twice
  3. I have never been overseas
  4. I have an L5S1 disc protrusion
  5. I want a Hummer
  6. I love summer
  7. I hate winter
  8. It'd be cool if mermaids were real
  9. I always order a large otropo meal from oporto
  10. I'm a sucker for kids movies
  11. I was chased by an emu as a kid :D
Lisa's questions for me:
  1. Do you have a regular holiday destination? If so, where? Queensland every year, location varies
  2. What is your dream holiday destination? Tahiti
  3. If you could have a super power, what would  it be? The ability to heal
  4. What is the last book you read? Fifi and the flowertots to my daughter
  5. Would you ever wear ugg boots in public? yep! Not the plan ones, mine have buckles and things on them.
  6. What colour is your handbag? which one? my most used ones are beige, and black and white
  7. How long have you been blogging for? about 16 months
  8. What food could you not live without? potatoes
  9. Is your hair colour real or dyed? real
  10. Apple or Andriod? apple, but android's just at good
  11. Favourite flower? Frangipani :)

Questions for my tagees:
  1. If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?
  2. Did you eat breakfast today?
  3. Favourite TV show?
  4. Any siblings?
  5. Favourite childhood toy?
  6. Are you concerned about the environment?
  7. Are you a naturally organised person?
  8. What's the weirdest thing you've done?
  9. Are you competitive?
  10. Can you keep secrets?
  11. What did you want to be when you grew up?

Tag time!
All in good fun, but don't feel pressured into joining in, if you don't want to :) The blogs I would like to nominate are:

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Time for a change. Or is it?


We've been discussing for a while now, about moving to Queensland. We have many reasons for and against the move, most being for the move.

Mostly, we want to raise our kids in a better area and to have a better quality of life. We're from Sydney, born and raised and we don't feel we can do that here anymore (Sorry to all the Sydney lovers, personal opinion :)). A suburb about 12 minutes away is notorious for drive by shootings. The most recent one, closer to home, was only 7 minutes away.

I know crime is everywhere, but not everywhere is like that.

We used to really love our street. When we bought our house, half of the street were elderly, and the other half were young families. Everyone knew everyone, very friendly and safe, but unfortunately the elderly are slowly 'moving upstairs with the big man', and not so nice people are moving in.We no longer feel safe and comfortable, and after talking with a few 'original' neighbours, we found out we're not the only ones.

The main issues for staying are, work, family and friends. Hubby's in a good job with a decent wage and we don't want to throw that away (transfer not possible). My parents, brother and sister in law all want to move too, but that still leaves my sister, nephew, 2 of my brothers, grandparents and all my cousins, aunts and uncles - We all live within 20 minutes of each other. My In laws are 15 minutes away, and of course friends. I don't know if I could move my family away from all the people we care about.

I won't go into all the pro's and con's because I'll be here all night, but I'm really stuck with what we should do. Hubby's not really much help as he's 'not fussed either way' (his words) but he does feel the same about the above reasons. He did say that if he was guaranteed work that he'd love to move... either way he wants to move, local or not.

I'm really excited at the possibilty. I've been looking at houses, jobs, schools etc etc. I'm got a moving mentality, I don't want to buy or bring anything else into the house, I want a major cleanout - if I don't want to bring it with us, it's going. I've stopped thinking about what needs to be done around here in order to suit our growing family and strangely I'm a lot happier than I have been in a while.

And no, I'm not getting my hopes up, because there's a very high chance it won't happen, but it's still nice to dream :)


Linking up with Jess at Diary of a SAHM for IBOT :)

Sunday, July 15, 2012

I'm lost..

I don't know what to do with myself... the husband is out dirtbike riding with his mates, Miss 5 and Mr almost 4 are out with the in laws, Mr 2.5 and bubs are in bed...

I'm not used to having so much time on my hands..

The only time I get to sit down without interruptions is when they're in bed, and even then I've got one kid or another coming out with what ever excuse they can think of at that point in time.

So needless to say,

I'm loving it :)

But I am lost lol..

So, I'm ignoring the housework, and I'm going to sit down and rest.... ahhhh peace and quiet.. I'd almost forgotten what that was :D

Now if only I was here, that would really make my day :)


Friday, July 13, 2012

Update on Odd jobs and Renovations (older post)



I need to make a start on my mega list of things to do around the house. I don't mean housework (I'd be here forever if I did :)), but odd jobs and maintenance.

I did a post last year about some odd jobs and renovations we'd like to get done around the house. You can read it here.
Here's some things that were listed in that post.

(This list was in number order)
  1. Paint architraves/door frames and doors. Started/almost finished.
  2. Screen Door - Ordered, deposit taken.
  3. Skip bin - We weren't going to get one but at the moment our whole yard looks like a building site.
  4. Blinds - Quotes done, couple more to go.
  5. Deck Roof - Started.
  6. Sand and stain deck - will do once roof is completed, will be the same colour stain.
(Other odd jobs and reno's that were in the post)
  • Repaint Hallway
  • Repaint Bathroom
  • Retaining Wall
  • Side Fence
  • Metal Lattice (to cover piers)
  • Front Fence/Sliding gate
  • Roller shutters
  • Re Seal Driveway
  • Side Gate (Driveway)
  • Pool - few years away yet
  • Extensions - few years away yet
13 months later, and how we've gone with the lists.
  1. Paint architraves/door frames and doors. Started/almost finished. 1 side of 1 door still needs painting, and still a fair bit to go with the architraves/door frames
  2. Screen Door - done
  3. Skip bin - done
  4. Blinds - done
  5. Deck Roof - Started. and that's as far as it got
  6. Sand and stain deck - not done

    • Repaint Hallway
    • Repaint Bathroom  done (but thinking of painting a different colour)
    • Retaining Wall done
    • Side Fence done
    • Metal Lattice (to cover piers)
    • Front Fence/Sliding gate done
    • Roller shutters
    • Re Seal Driveway
    • Side Gate (Driveway) done
    • Pool - few years away yet
    • Extensions - few years away yet (hopefully next year)

Painting
We've been thinking about paying someone to do the painting, as it's hard to find time with the kids still so young, and with hubby working so much. I'd rather do it myself to save the money, but time is a very important factor, and something we're lacking.

Metal Lattice (to cover piers)
We probably won't be getting the lattice, as we're thinking of closing in under the house. One part as a cubby house for the kids, the middle part as an outside toilet and sink, and the last part as a workshop/shed for hubby as we went to knock down the old garage (it's asbestos).

Roller Shutters
Still something we want to get done, but not just yet.

Reseal Driveway

When the weather warms up, we'll clean off the driveway with a high pressure cleaner and reseal the whole thing.

Pool

Something I'd get tomorrow if we could afford it... and had the space. Ideally, we need to knock down the garage to have it in a space where it would actually get some sun. I would love to be able to have it done by summer. The kids have been bringing it up a lot recently, so maybe just maybe we can get it done within 2 years.

Extensions

We need more room. We're managing in this house, but it's very cramped. We want 1-2 more bedrooms (preferably two but depends if we decide to build up or out), I want a decent size laundry, my current one is a box. I can't even fit the drying rack in there. We'll get the ball rolling for this once the car loan is paid off. So probably early next year. I'm excited lol :)

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Enjoying the simple things.

I've been wanting to spend more quality time with my children, and let them experience being kids. We've been doing something special with the kids each day.

On Friday we took Missy to the movies to watch Ice Age 4. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, us or our daughter :)




On Saturday, we went to a 1st birthday party, where the kids had a blast with all the activities on offer. There was face painting, a jumping castle, a ball pit and slide, bubbles, a canvas of all the kids handprints and other games.








On Sunday, we took the kids to the park






I'm not to sure what he was doing...?

After the park, we walked down to Nanny's house as Missy was having a sleep over. We stayed there for about an hour. We walked the long way home and got some chips and burgers for dinner.

We unfortunately had a funeral to go to on Monday, but we spent Monday night watching movies with the kids.

Tuesday, we took the kids to our local club to watch Puss in Boots (for free! :)). We met up with some friends there. The kids had a blast watching the movie and hanging out with friends, having a 'picnic' on the dancefloor, dancing and rumbling.









We had a 'picnic' lunch at home after the show, and finished the night off with movies and popcorn.

I think Mummy and Daddy has been having as much fun as the kiddies :)


 
And this is how I found the little feller... time to lower the cot I think :)






Linking up with the lovely Jess from Diary of a SAHM

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

3 year plan

I'm a planner. I'm always planning things, setting goals, working out things and more often than not I do my head in lol.. if only this would actually help to keep me organised... but sadly it doesn't...

I'm not adding in little plans/goals, just the big ones.

Here's the plan -

2012
  • Pay off car loan
  • Sell 2nd car and buy a ute
  • Have a small get away in Sept/Oct
2013
  • Either a getaway to Queensland in January, or a muchly muchly desired holiday to Fiji in June/July (Or both would be even better :)).
  • Pay extra onto smaller mortgage (no rush to get it paid off)
  • (Possibly) Start plans for extension - ground floor or second story depending on costs and approval.
    ..OR..
  • (Possibly) An attic conversion - again depending on costs and approval.
2014
  • J Man (Mr almost 4) Off to school :(
  • Extensions done
  • Fiji - if not done (was original plan as it will be our 10 year ''dating'' anniversary in July 2014, and we wanted to do something special ).
  • Get a pool
  • Maybe Baby... :)
2015
  • Mr 2.5 off to school :( (they grow up too fast)
  • Hubs 30th - got something big in mind :)
  • Carport
  • Maybe Baby - if we decided not to try in 2014 

We know things don't always go to plan, we originally planned to have 2 kids close in age, have a 5 yr gap, get a house and then have two more kids. Well that plan went out the window when Mr 2.5 surprised us :)

It'll be interesting to look back on in a few years time and see what we've accomplished.

What are your plans for the future?


Linking up with Jess @ Diary of a SAHM for IBOT