Ack! It's Monday Again!!

I swear someone keeps stealing my weekends. I go to sleep on a Friday night and when I wake up again it's Monday! Nooooooooo!

Since my last blog my life has been fairly uneventful. Miss 21 and I attended MM's niece's Bridal Shower last weekend. The first of the current generation of young things in his family to be married. It was a Bridal Shower/Tupperware Party so we were meant to buy enough to allow the bride to be able to buy things for her new home which she and her groom just bought. They will marry at the end of October at a Registry Office then we will all be attending a soiree at a nice restaurant at Southbank. Bride to be is a lovely girl and really the least expected to get married as she had never had a boyfriend until she turned 20 (she is 23 now) and this guy is "The One" and they do make a lovely couple so I hope they will have a lovely life together. She has never been one for a lot of attention so a quiet registry wedding is so definitive of her. He is also her first love so she is very lucky in that respect.

Thursday I had my follow up at the doctors to get back all my final test results and guess what?? Everything is normal! Yay me!!! Even my liver is fine although there is some fat there which can be helped with eating well and exercising (which is what I thought I was doing but anyway...) I have lost nearly 20kg since January and the issues I am having now is due to an underactive thyroid which medication is going to help with so all in all everything is going to be fine. I have to take 25g of Thyroxine which is half of the teeny tiny 50g tablet so I am having so much fun trying to split that little sucker in half!

My weekend was the same as it has been the past couple of weekends...time at mum's cleaning and de-cluttering...I never knew that woman had so much stuff! I don't think she realised she had so much either! At the moment everything is packed outside in the patio area until we hire a skip and then it is all going. All the old furninture has been broken up and ready to be dumped. Everything is so old and dad was always adamant it was all still good so he'd be pretty cranky that it's all going. Sorry Dad! There is no way mum will sell the house with so much stuff in it but already she is feeling like a weight is off her shoulders with it all gone.

The puppies are having a ball as well as they now have more play space although less hidey spaces to hide things! We have uncovered most of Coco's hiding places much to her disgust. The look she gives you as she retrieves her "treasure" to hide again is a classic. And she always makes sure Sasha is nowhere around when she hides things. She is such a funny little thing! I'm pretty sure Sasha was a blonde in her last life...she's very feminine but also quite ditzy and she gets very cranky when the teen next door plays his drums or has his band over rehearsing in their back shed. She stands at the back door and barks and growls. Then when they break she goes back to her bed until the band starts up again then over to the back door again to rouse on them. So funny! While this is going on Coco will be getting cross with Sasha and pawing her in the head telling her to behave herself. Sasha just doesn't like a lot of noise at all!

Another Week Goes By....

 

 

 

Well it's been a pretty hectic week or so for me...in fact I seem to have lost track of time with doctors appointments and tests, work stuff, spring cleaning my house, helping mum clean through hers and other social necessities.

My week pretty much started with my doctors appointment. She sent me off for blood tests and I think I told you that there were several areas of risk. She then sent me off to have a liver ultrasound done which I did on Wednesday followed by blood tests to test for thyroid and Hep B & C which was Thursday. I have yet to receive those results but they should come any day now.

Wednesday was also the day of the horrible dust storms in Brisbane. The photo above was taken of the end of my street. It was pretty horrendous and even though we shut the house up as tight as a drum, I could still taste and smell it...never want to experience that again in a hurry let me tell you!

Thursday I had my blood tests done then I went to keep my niece company as she is on school holidays and home all alone for almost the whole 2 weeks as everyone else is working and all her friends are off on holidays. Poor kid has been relegated to dog sitting but she is cool with that...as a typical teenager she has been sleeping till noon then on the computer or watching the Disney Channel all day! Life is good when you are a teen!

The said puppies are pictured up above. They look like perfect little angels there but trust me they are devils in disguise lol...actually they really are adorable but already have everything and everyone figured out and their little personalities are really cute. Extremely friendly at home...anyone who comes to house is greeted with happy little smiles and they tumble over themselves to get to you first...they really are typical sisters...very competitive and get quite jealous if you don't show them the exact amount of attention.

The white coloured pup is Sasha. She is the lady...very demure and not as rambunctious as her older sister but she loves to eat and will eat anything not nailed down! She is also the bigger of the two and is growing quite rapidly and is already getting frustrated that she can no longer fit into her hidey holes even though her sister can. They usually love to hide under the lounge but now poor Sasha can't fit under there and her sister can so when they fight her sister dives straight under and Sasha will sit on the outside and growl at her lol.

The little brown pup is Coco...she is the tomboy of the pair...she already has learnt to jump up on the lounges and jump from lounge to lounge. Quite the little acrobat she is...she is not likely to grow any bigger than she is now. She is already a very fast learner...has learnt to sit already and is very patient at meal times. Sasha is normally fed first as she gulps her food down but Coco will sit patiently by her bowl until Sasha gets hers and then will eat her meal very sedately and with more manners than Sasha. Coco is also the more intelligent of the two I think...we watched her the other day when Sasha had a bone that she wanted. Coco sat and watched her eat it for a bit then went and got a toy and sat the toy in front of Sasha and started to play with it...as soon as Sasha got distracted with the toy and dropped the bone, Coco had her paw out pulling the bone towards herself then picked it upo and walked off with it! Was hilarious to watch! She has a lot of cunning. Coco also hides her favourite toy or bones from Sasha then when Sasha has finished off all her bones, Coco will go and find her bone and sit in front of Sasha to eat it and gives Sasha a look that says "Keep away you greedy pig" lol...

They are lots of hard work but so entertaining to watch!

My Hot Date with Patrick a Few Years Back

 

*Sigh* sadly he preferred his beautiful wife Lisa...but I could still dream =)

Here we go again.....

...back to the grind of doctors appointments, tests, needles, medication and all manner of other horrible things that come as you get older and take less care of yourself than you used to... *sigh*

Got my test results back from the blood tests I had done last week and went back yesterday to the Doctor so she could give me my results. Let's just say if I was a dog I'd be put down! Well ok...maybe a slight over-exaggeration but needless to say it's going to mean a whole lifestyle change for me and well, I really HATE change...

My doctor showed me my test results on her screen and all the numbers were in RED...not a good sign apparently. I have: low blood pressure, high cholestorol, high iron content, underactive thyroid, high haemoglobans (not sure what that means but caused by high iron content apparently!) and liver disfunction. Great!! This doctor is nice...she is female and Indian so I do have a little trouble understanding her but I ask her to repeat and she is very patient and tries to explain everything to me. She is now sending me to have a liver ultrasound done and I need more blood tests done (yikes). She wants me tested for Hep B & C (Say what?) I tell her I don't do drugs, have only had sex with one man for the past 12 years so how could I possibly have either Hep B or C. She tells me it is highly unlikely but because of the high iron content she needs to rule everything out. Also she told me one of her patients actually got it from public transport...all it takes is to touch a spot of someone's blood with a paper cut on your finger and you can get it. Oh great...as if I don't hate catching the train already! So now I have to tell my boss I need more time off work to do all these tests. This is just the start...after the ultrasound I may need a liver biopsy and then a visit to a haematologist plus all kinds of assorted tests down the track. I told MM we needed private health cover! Anyway I really need to follow it all through this time. I have promised MM and myself that when this is all done we will go to Fiji in June/July next year...he seems keen on the idea and I think we will need it.

Oh and the good news is on top of that my doctor weighed me and I have lost 15 kilos since February...I was 85kg and now just under 70kg. No wonder my clothes are falling off me!

Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner...RIP Patrick!

Just heard that Patrick Swayze has died...Oh my goodness how sad...one of the better actors of our generation and seemed to be a real gentleman...

People should not be allowed to hoard....

...Well ok...I know I am one of those people but no-one can be worse than my mum. Clutter must be her middle name because I swear she has never thrown out anything in her life...I have found stuff that she and dad had long before I was born...that's how old the stuff is. Why am I grumbling about clutter and hoarding? Well mum wants to move house. She wants to sell up and move to a smaller (hah!) house...one that is low set and doesn't have so many steps because her knees and hips can no longer tolerate all the steps. And I agree she does need to downsize. My parents house is massive - six bedrooms, double storey, upstairs/downstairs bathrooms, inground pool, quarter acre back yard etc...way too big for just her, my brother and Miss 16. So it really does make sense to move. She would love to stay but apart from the size issue she also can no longer afford the mortgage so she would need to sell the house for enough to pay it off outright and still have enough to move into another home and pay it outright as well. BUT in order to sell and make it look half way decent we need to de-clutter it. Every room has stuff in it and mum just can't bring herself to do it so she is allowing me to go in and be brutal and just clean from top to bottom! Yay...my favourite thing to do and I say that without sarcasm because I really do love to clean other people's places...can't stand to do mine but mum's house is a gold mine and I bet there's all kinds of groovy stuff for me to pick through!

Saturday was a non-starting day because I had promised to get Miss 16's hair done so mum, Miss 16 and I went to her favourite stylist so she could have her hair done before Riverfire that night. She was going out with friends and wanted her new hair. Three hours, many coffees for mum and I and $170 dollars later she was done. I nearly died when I was told $170...I have never spent that much on my hair in one year let alone one sitting! But it does look really good...it's died black with gold and silver tints through the fringe with the fringe cut on an angle...looks very trendy. The first time I saw her while she had foils on it looked so blonde and Miss 16 was really worried...it looked so white! But it really isn't very blonde at all so she is very pleased with the look. I grocery shopped afterwards as mum had to take Miss 16 to her friends house so they could catch the train to Southbank and meet up with friends. Mum and I decided to tackle her house the next day (Sunday).

I took my groceries home and after MM and I unpacked the car and put everything away we veged out the rest of the afternoon watching "True Blood" which MM downloaded for me. It's a TV show that is apparently big in the US and if you are into vampires like me, you will love it :) Very gothic and they must have had a small budget as some of the main characters stay naked a lot of the time and there's lots of boinking in it so really not suitable for anyone under 18! But it's kind of sucked us in and we are now up to Season 2 of the series.

Sunday was the day to head to mum's so I went over and we decided to start with the storeroom under the stairs because we reasoned that we can get rid of any junk in there and then we can re-pack what she wants to keep and pack anything else she is is not using right now that she wants to take with her. The storeroom was a huge task! I filled my car boot with stuff for the Salvos or Lifeline, there is another huge pile of junk that will go into the industrial bin I will order for the weekend and all the other boxes belong to my sister who was storing her stuff with mum so I rang her and told she had to either come get her stuff or dump or whatever but it had to go. She wasn't happy with that as her place is very small with little room but that's not my problem...Mum isn't going to be taking that stuff with her.

We've also decided we will have a garage sale as there is lots of really good stuff that can be sold to make extra pocket money for mum. There's all the baby cots/prams/high chairs etc that belonged to Miss 16 and mum was saving for me when I had kids (no chance of that happening now!). Plus there is a whole pile of gym equipment - exercise bikes, walking machines, bench press etc that also might make a few dollars - anything to get rid of it.

Just before I went home I dropped off the stuff to the Salvation Army holding yard and now we start on another couple of rooms next weekend. By Monday morning my muscles were killing me but I think mum will start feeling better once we get rid of all her junk. Once the place looks nice and tidy then we can put it on the market and when time comes to move she hopefully won't have so much.

Now my MM is starting to talk about us moving as well but after this I think I might leave it a while!

Oh my goodness I feel so bad...

...about forgetting Miss 16's birthday yesterday! Sweet 16 is such an important birthday and I had really wanted it to be special for her considering it's her first without her grandad. Even mum and my brother had forgotten until her best friend, who lives across the road and walks with Miss 16 to school every day, came over with a birthday present. Mum felt so awful and my brother actually rang me last night to subtley remind me it was her birthday. We all felt awful poor kid. But she said she didn't mind as she had received dozens of text messages from her friends all day but its kinda sad her friends remembered while her entire family forgot!

But I will make it up to her on Saturday as she really wants her hair coloured again but mum told she couldn't afford it so I have offered to pay for it for her birthday so she is absolutely thrilled as that was all she wanted for her birthday anyway.

Mum took her shopping after school yesterday and bought her a beautiful ring from her grandad because that is what he would have wanted to buy her and mum bought her some other jewellery as well to go with it which Miss 16 chose herself. My brother will take her shopping on Saturday after she gets her hair done and then she is heading off to Southbank with friends for the Brisbane Riverfire so I think she had a great birthday anyway.

I actually had yesterday off as well as I had my blood tests done as well as getting my eyes/sight looked at as per the doctors instructions. The good news is my eyesight is great...not perfect but not bad either so no glasses still for me...YAY!!! The blood test results should get to the doctor by Friday so I will call them up on Monday to make another doctors appointment and find out what might be wrong. Hopefully nothing too drastic! I have had no more dizzy spells so touch wood it may have been just a virus or something.

All in all though it's been a quiet week now that work has settled down again. Now we start planning for the next big 3 day conference in March next year...Bring it on!