Ummmm I'm back!

Ah yes well, to say it's been a while would be a tad of an understatement!

My last blogpost was back on August 30, when I was under the weather. Where do I start from there?

How's about some news?  Something along the lines of WE'RE PREGNANT!!!!

Yes, my under the weatherness from August was also morning sickness, altho I wasn't 100% sure at the time!

We returned from our Honeymoon on August 9, and on August 26 at 2am we got 2 lines on our home pregnancy test!

I had been feeling sick for a few days, and had an odd full/heavy feeling in my tummy, I thought oh wow what if.  So went and bought some preg tests, the first 3 came back negative, but I was sure something was up, so I kept buying & taking them!  Then at 2am on Aug 26, I got up to go to the loo, and thought bugger it I'll test again, and up came the 2 lines, I ran in and woke up hubby waving the stick in his sleepy eyes.

Test 1 - on day 35 of my cycle

Test 2 & 3 - on day 36 of my cycle

Test 4 - day 37 of my cycle

Our GP confirmed our home test by blood test on August 31!

From August until 2 days before Christmas I had dreadful 24x7 nausea and vomiting, I was vomiting up to 20-25 times a day, and about 5 times overnight, I just about nightly awoke with vomit on it's way and had to run to the toilet!  Life wasn't much fun for those 5 months!

At Christmas we drove 15 hours each way to my hometown to have Xmas with my family (we told my family via Skype on Fathers Day, saying that hubby would have a very different Fathers Day in 2012, they got the hint!

Since Christmas I haven't had much nausea and only a few vomits, more related to heat/tired than morning sickness, I think.

We're now at 29 weeks, and have met with the great midwives at John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle, and have been to our first 2 ante-natal classes. I'm reading everything I can on natural childbirth, to try and overcome my birth fears, I want/hope/would like to go as natural as I can, but we shall see.

Everyone has been calling us old fashioned, with us conceiving a honeymoon baby, but we feel so lucky and blessed to have 'fallen' so quickly, old fashioned or not we'll take it :)

So in answer to one of my initial 'Can We Do It Questions'

Ah YEP WE SURE CAN!

Till next time, I promise it won't take so long!

Can We Do It Update - Apr 2011

Whoops, it's 3rd May, so I'm a couple of days past the end of April when I meant to do the update, but better late than never!

Wedding - Everything is on track for our Surprise Wedding in July.  The invitations went in the mail 2 weeks ago, and the RSVP's are starting to arrive, yay!  We are meeting with our celebrant this week, then with the florist & decorator (friends of friends doing it on the cheap for us) next week.  I have my dress (yay) and this weekend Mr Mel and I are going suit shopping (for a hire option), and hopefully picking out and bringing home our wedding rings.

Mortgage - We bought our home in July 2009, We're aiming to have our mortgage paid off in 7 years from starting out, which would make it July 2016.

Update - We're on month 22 of our mortgage, and we're on track, we've got 60.19% equity in our home. Doing our budget for the next few months, wee may reduce our repayments as the bills start coming in for July!

Other debt - Total non mortgage debt includes a car loan (in mortgage package, same $ rate over 5 years), VISA since closed, HSBC card for lounge (interest free, finishes Aug 2011, keeping $ in offset). Our aim is to have everything paid off by mid 2015, and have our only debt being our Mortgage.

Update - We're on month 22 of our mortgage, and we're on track, we have 60.19% equity in our home. Doing our budget for the next few months, wee may reduce our repayments as the bills start coming in for July!

Weight - As per other updates, my weight covers a few areas, getting healthy & fit, getting my body in the right place to conceive (and fit in a near 'normal' wedding dress!!). 

Update - I joined Curves in March, and Mr Mel and I started on the 'Great Australian Diet', in April. So far I'm down just on 5kg, Mr Mel 7kg.  It's happening, yay!

Business - In Feb 2010 Mr Mel gave up his job in Sydney to have a go at turning his hobby into a business. We also launched a new blog/site Hunter Valley Grapevine, which we're hoping we can slowly grow.

Update - The Hunter Valley Grapevine site has been up for a couple of months now, we've had some great feedback from businesses we've blogged about, and the visitors are picking up.  Will ramp things up significantly after July, happy to potter along till then.

2011 - bring it!

So it's already Jan 10, and I'm only now getting around to putting 'pen to paper' re my 2011 goals.  I have put a bit of thought to it over the past weeks, some goals more than others.

So let's see, forgive the typing dribble, but I'll just blurt it all out then try and make sense later, perhaps!  I think I'll go for 6 month goals at this stage.

Health - a major goal is to get healthy, it effects so many aspects of life, it's something that I have overlooked, well more accurately, accidentally on purpose, ignored!  With not great results.  I'm now 37, and not very healthy, I need to lose a fair lot of kgs, and I need to build my fitness up, I work with horses, and over the past year have been doing alot more physical work with them, and my lack of fitness has been glaringly obvious (see my previous post on herding cattle!).  I need to lose weight and get healthy to give my 37 year old ovaries the best chance of producing viable eggs in the next 12 months, with Mr Mel & I wanting to start a family (hopefully!).  Plus I want to lose weight for vanity reasons too, I'm sick of frumpy granny clothes! So let's put a number on it, you read everywhere that you have to define your goals, so here goes, by 30 June (end of fatty year not financial heehee), my goal is to lose 20kgs. After 30 June I'll look at a Xmas goal!

Finances - Mr Mel have been going well, paying almost triple our minimum payment on our mortgage, after 18 months of owning our home we have just over 57% equity. We have made paying our mortgage down, a high priority, we're both in our late 30s and if we want to have kids it has to be asap, and we want a buffer financially, and our thinking is if we can build a buffer in our mortgage, if we happen to fall pregnant and lose 1 or 2 jobs, we'll still have a good 6-8 months of breathing room before things got desperate. So my goal is to be at 60% equity by 30 June.

Business - Mr Mel and I set up our own P/L business last year, he works as a sub-contractor/consultant, and we have invested in broodmares (my speciality), under the business banner.  This year our plan is to expand the business to include a new blog, I can't give too many thoughts away until we get everything registered etc. Our goal is to have our new blog up & running, with 50 followers, and 1 advertiser by 30 June!

Investments - Mr Mel and I have a small share portfolio, we have been quite lucky/fortunate, depending on how you look at it, Mr Mel invested a chunk of cash when the market crashed, and he has managed to double the investment, we took the profit and left the original investment in the market.  This has helped us get to our current 57% equity in our home.  I invested $5k in a speculative share (on the advice of a client in the business) and that share has gone from 0.335 to 0.810 in the past 3 months. Our long term goal is to buy some land, say 10 acres, and build our dream home & farm, so there's no real goal at this stage.  Well actually there is, our goal is to keep on planning for our dream home, it will happen!

Work - While I love my job (most of the time!) I'm getting more and more drawn to working for myself, in my industry I don't know if it's a realistic goal, but I do more than a passing interest in another industry that I could end up working for myself in.  I need to decide if my 'passing interest' is worth pursuing, I need to research and meet with an expert in the field to investigate further. My goal is to by 30 June have a meeting with a local expert and get more info re my possible career change.

Personal - I want to get married, there it is, Mr Mel knows it, he wants to also, but he just seems to get distracted, and forgets to do the whole proposal thing!  Our plan (yes we're planning but not proposing!!!!) is to have a surprise wedding, we will invite loved ones to an engagement party and then get married at the party, it might be a bit risky given most of my family will be coming from interstate, but we've been working on ways to get them here without giving away the surprise.  Our goal is to get bleeping well engaged asap, not by June 30, now damn it!!  :)  Then hopefully preggers will follow!! :)

Home - After having rented my way through 16 years, 14 houses and 2 states, I still have to pinch myself when I look round our home and realise yes it's mine/ours!  The major downside to being a renter for so long, is that I lived those 16 years in a continual state of packing/unpacking, so I never really settled anywhere.  I've found it hard since we moved into our home in July 2009 to try and put down roots, I still think I shouldn't nail a picture hook into the wall, etc.  The end result is our home is a bit of a schmozzle, will no real identity, it's homey enough, but I still as usual have a spare bedroom full of boxes. So my goal is to have no removalist boxes in the house/garage/anywhere by 30 June.  Time to get nesting :)

So there they are, my goals for 2011, well for part of 2011 for now, I'm sure I will edit/add over the coming months!

Till next time,