40 before 40!!

After catching up on one of my fav' blogs i found this and thought what an awesome idea!!  I can pretend all i like, but my chance at 30 before 30 has passed!!  It's now time for *dumdumduuuum*

40 Before 40!!!

1#  Own our first home

2#  Make a meal using only ingredients i have made/grown myself

3#  Teach Lachy to read

4#  Tour the South Island

5#  Have a honeymoon

6#  Prepare a 3 course meal

7#  Decorate a cake using Fondant

8#  Go on a BIG shopping spree (i mean HUGE!!)

9#  Make a 'Babies first year' photobook

10#  Have a complete 'Do' (cut/color/etc) at a fancy salon...you know, the kind that offers you a cappuccino whilst you wait!!

11#  Pay school tuition for a child whose family doesnt have the means too

12#  Run a Marathon

13#  Plant fruit trees

14#  Read 40 Books (suggestions welcome) (0/40)

15#  Complete Insanity's 1 month workout

16#  Be a SAHM til i have kid/s in school

17#  Host a family Christmas

18#  Build a tree house

19#  Volunteer for something

20#  Mystery number :)

21#  Bake a 'Wonkey' cake

22#  Make 20 Pinterest crafts (0/20)

23#  Have a clean/permanently organised pantry and plastics cupboard

24#  Recollect my book case of 50+ books (0/50)

25#  Make some costumes/dress ups (Not part of pinterest challenge)

26#  Learn to play a song on a guitar

27#  Host a blog giveaway

28#  Climb Pirongia and Rangitoto

29#  Go to see a ballet (preferably Swan Lake or the Nutcracker)

30#  Attend an opera

31#  Take a beginners photography class

32#  Pay off all Small bills (Not Mortgage etc)

33#  Take a cooking class

34#  Try Aqua aerobics

35#  Have our first family camping trip

36#  Edit a full photo album myself

37#  Spend Christmas in a country that has a 'White Christmas'

38#  Tour a Foreign Country

39#  Have a Fancy dress party for my 40th!!

40#  Mystery Number :)

So there ya have it!!  The challenge is set, wish me Luck, and hopefully those two Mystery Numbers will reveal themselves along the way!! :)


Toodles!!  :)

'Live for a Life without Regret'

10 Months Old!!

Gah!!  I say this every time i know, but come on!!  10 Months ALREADY???  Where does the time go???  I'm sure just last week i was holding a brand new, squidgy wee monkey-bum in my arms wondering what the heck i was sposed to do with him!!  Now i have a wee giant of a squidgy bum...and to be honest i Still don't know what to do with him sometimes!!

So whats new this month...

#  While Lachys eating hasn't really changed, im pleased to report that most of the food i give him actually gets eaten now!!
#  Iv been slowly introducing dairy and treats giving him yogurt and biscuits to munch on, and he LOVES them with a passion (duh)!!  Ginger nuts are especially good, and have the added bonus of doubling as a teething rusk!
#  Encouraging water consumption is interesting and results in lotsa wet patches on the carpet! He still has 3 bottles a day too, but actually finishes the morning and night ones!!

#  Monkey LOVES crawling around, but he's discovered 'furniture' walking too and seems to resort to this when he's not in a hurry!!
#  He's been standing up unassisted quite a bit now, but plops back down after a few seconds with a shocked look on his face!!
#  Climbing....for some reason it never entered my feeble mind that he might start to climb things, so i was a wickedly a bit surprised when i turned around and found him up on the fire place ledge!! Thank goodness it's not 'fire' weather yet!!  (Fire guard is being installed very soon!)

# We have a TOOTH!!!  Just one (i thought there was gunna be 2!) but i don't think the rest will be far away!!  It's a sharp wee toof, and he still insists on chewing my fingers!!  :(
#  Since that first tooth came through, my boy has been sleeping through the night!!!  That's right!!!  He sleeps at least 10 hours now overnight!!  Whoop whoop!!
#  I have a very social child now it would seem!!  He Loves hanging with other babies (but can be a bit rough sometimes!) and is really good with people he doesn't really know!

What's getting old....

#  Day sleeps!!  I give up!!  he's def' better than what he was, but i still only get 2 x 1 hour sleeps out of him a day (a good day)!  Oh well though, could be worse!!
#  Figuring out what to dress him in at night!!  I'm such a worrier, i worry that he'l overheat, or freeze, sometimes both in one night!!  (You know, he might sweat, then the sweat might cool/freeze...)

So that's where the nappy liner roll went!!

Extras....

#  Lachy LOVES saying mum-mum-mum-mum now!!
#  If we tell him 'No', he looks at us, shakes his head back then keeps going!!(It's soooo Cute!!  I have to hide my mouth so he doesn't see my smiling!!)
#  Birthday planning has commenced!!!  Mickey Mouse Club House here we come!!  ...kinda....on a budget!

Photo Dump!!!

Sigh, Just LOVE this kid to pieces!!!!

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!!!


Toodles!!  :)


'Live for a Life without Regret'

The many faces of Me!!

Is it just me, or do we all spend a good deal of time looking for that perfect photo of ourselves to post on our blogs/fb/where ever!?  I dont know how many times i'v had mini one-man-photo-shoots (you know the ones, camera high, look up, slight smile) only to collapse in a sobbing ball of mess at the crap pics that i end up with, and not one of them good enough to put on my blog!!!! (Cue violin music and a fresh flood of tears!)  

I even force Hubby to get in on the deal!  It goes kinda like this....

Me:  Pleeeeease, i NEED some nice photo's of me for my blog!!  There's like, none!!

Hubby:  You don't Like the photos i take of you...

Me:  That's just cause you always get me in a bad mood!

Hubby: ......

Me:  Pleeeeease, just a few!!!

Hubby:  Ok, where you want them?

Me:  I dont know....here?

Hubby:  Ok, Smile :)

Me:  Well i cant just smile on cue you know!!

Hubby:  ......(camera clicks away)

Me:  Never mind, i'm not in the mood to smile now (*angryface*)

Today, after a search for the perfect "About Me" pic for my blog, and a repeat of the above conversation with Hubby i thought Stuff It!!!  The angles are all wrong,  half aren't my 'Good' side (Do i Have a good side??), and to be honest, i just couldnt bring myself to be serious!!  I pulled faces, and discovered that i dont even have a very good array of funny faces to pull (sigh, no duckface).  Below are the best of the best, untouched photos from our mini photo shoot!!

* There is some photo shopping but only to crop the pics!!

(Yes i do realise i put the same photo twice....like i said, i dont even have a large array of silly faces!)

After having fun with these i thought, Hey, we actually got a couple of alright pics!  Lets have a play with photo shop and see if i can make myself look like Miranda Kerr.....So nope, i couldnt, but i had a good play and prettied myself up a wee bit!!

Isn't it Fantastic!!  Wrinkles and Pimples erased!!  Teeth whitened!!  Skin tone evened out!!  Lips colored prettily!!

I gotta say, i cant decide whether photoshopping these pics was Fun or Soul Destroying!!  I felt a wee bit of both as i smoothed away my wrinkles and 'bleached' my teeth!!  I think the end results looked neat (odd, but neat!) but at the same time i know that it's only a pic' and the reality of me is in fact wrinkles and colorful teeth!!  No wonder models have so many issues!  Look how much they get photoshopped every single day!!!  

So i guess the moral of this story is.... i have no idea!  Maybe not to expect too many photoshopped photos of me?? Cause these 3 pics took freakin ages and i just dont have the patience!!  Or maybe it's that, perfect pic or not, photoshopped or not, we are all beautiful, just 'cause that's how God created us!!!

Toodles!!  :)

'Live for a Life without Regret'

Ummmm....

Can anyone who happens to be reading this tell me what the heck is going on???  I cant access Links to other peoples blogs, my fav' blogs are disappearing off my blog role, followers are disappearing and i cant see Link-up parties that i'v already joined!!!  I dont get it!!??  Is this a GFC thing??  Anyone out there know how to fix it cause i'm completely clueless!!

Thanks in advance!!

Memories as a new nurse!!

Tonight i'm linking up with Renee and Anna for Memories As A New Nurse!! 

 I gotta tell ya, when i first saw that Linky my mind just Exploded with memories!!  Since then, i've been debating which stories to pull from my partially fried brain!! I decided that, since thinking in short sentences is best at this time of night, that i'd give wee snippets of memories!!

So here goes....

#  Trying to be all cool and professional whilst feeding a patient their mooli (pureed) dinner....Feeling quite successful as she hadn't been eating a lot...perhaps showing off a wee bit for the builder working outside the window...Patient sneezing and coating my face/shirt with the very large, very orange mouthful of pumpkin id just given her....Builder falling over laughing at me!!

#  Hearing the sweetest sounding giggle, then realising it came from the very large, tattooed man sitting next to me....and i couldn't hear who was making him laugh....(Psych rotation)

#  Learning the true meaning of a 'Code Brown' the hard way (Dementia unit)..... And finding all the different places a person can hide their business....

#  Seeing my patient stroll into the 'lounge' completely starkers with his soiled incontinence pad under his arm (kinda like a newspaper really) and having to follow the trail of leakage to find where his clothes were!

#  Watching one of my 'peers' showing off her skills, then popping a rectal thermometer in her mouth!!

#  Fainting on my first day...And not a dainty swoon type faint, I stepped out of the patients room (halfway through cleaning a pressure ulcer) my vision disappeared, i staggered across the hallway and headbutted the kitchen door before sprawling across the floor in front of patients/staff/visitors!!  All class i tell ya!!

#  Staring blankly at the patients saying 'Excuse me, Nurse?' before realising that they were talking to me....and that i was in fact a nurse!!

#  Inserting my first Cannula!!!  It looked like a seen from 'Hostel', but it was in and flushing!! :)

#  Being terrified by the stories from my new work mates about the 'strange' things that happen during the night shifts in our super old building!!  (The elevators often went from the basement level to our ward during the night, always empty...)

But Seriously....

I love that i get to do my dream job, and i love that every day i'm there, i have the opportunity to make a difference to someones day/week/month, and sometimes even life!!  I've been truly blessed with my profession (and my strong stomach!) and i hope i never take the skills i'm still learning for granted!!

I also hope that my sense of humor never dulls when the pooh (literally) hits the fan!!

Thanks Renee and Anna for such an awesome Link up!!

Toodles!!  :)

'Live for a Life without Regret'