14 August 2006

40 weeks and 1 day....

And Jellybean STILL isn't showing any desire to come out and join us in the real world! I haven't gotten any bigger (I don't think???), but my back is really taking this load, and thus my sleeps haven't been all that fantastic as of late. My body is preparing me for those early morning wake-up calls!

Mom sent me the coolest care package for our little JB. She included the Playtex nurser system (which I requested - you can't get them here in Australia), a snugglie security blanket type thing, an elephant towel or jacket hook, some clothes, and some Canadian cashola. It's all so cute! I'm a bit nervous about the clothes though - I don't know how long he'll fit them! One of them is supposed to be for babies 3 to 5 lbs... good gravy, I was 6lb6oz, and that's SMALL by today's standards! We'll see though... she sent 4 jumpersuits, 1 red, 1 orange, 1 yellow with puppies on it, and 1 blue with some cute embroidery. :) All so cute! The security blanket is the fuzziest little thing, with an elephant head, and even has a satiny corner for when he's teething and wants to suck on his blankie. :)

I was telling Todd today that I have NEVER ever been so keen to exercise or do activities in my life! It's probably all due to the fact that I physically CAN'T do those things, so I want to do them more than I ever have... But I have a SERIOUS jonesin' for a TaeBo video... for a Stretch class... to go for a run... to put my pole up and practice all the new moves from our latest DVD SalsaPole! I miss all of those things that I may not have done CONSISTENTLY before, but now I think I'll appreciate my ability to do those things, once I get that ability back! (I hope.) I plan to start being active RIGHT away... going for walks with JB in the stroller almost immediately, and just build my fitness back up.

I HAVE to get fit soon... On Sept 10th, I'm participating in a World Record attempt to have the most people pole dancing simultaneously around the world. (For more info, go see http://www.verticaldance.com) I haven't even been able to practice the routine yet!!! (OOOOH, and I'm so looking forward to it... it's so simple, yet so sexy and good!)

AND... on Oct 14th, I'm running a fundraiser (which I need to finish organising) for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. I've called it PINK RIBBON POLE DANCING, and it's going to be a national thing with all of our Business owners. :)




That's the logo I designed for it... not bad, eh?

Anyway, off to get prepared for a Bridal Exhibition this weekend. (Yes, I'm 40 weeks pregnant, and still working on my business - hey, it's a fairly new business, and if I don't work on it, no one will.) It's one of the biggest Bridal fairs in Melbourne, so I'm hoping that we'll get some good returns on it over the next 12 months. (Bridal fairs are definitely not INSTANT gratification advertising.)

Hopefully my next post will have BIRTH details of my new baby, and a pic! :)

02 August 2006

Decided to do another post...

Because I took two cute pics.... and Toddy took some good ones too.

"Bluebear" is Todd's childhood friend... he thinks his Auntie Jenny gave it to him when he was only a few days old. Todd just got Bluebear from his mother recently, and Bluebear needed a bath, so we gave him one... and this is the end result: (a clean, but "strung out" bear!)


Now, do you notice that he's been strung up by his ears? Is this a sign of things to come for us as parents??? ;) Just for the record, I had him up by his toes, but Todd came out and decided that he needed to be hung up by his ears. (Makes sense though, his ears are thinner and clip onto the line much better!)

And this next one... If the massive beach ball protruding out of my stomach isn't proof enough that we're going to be parents... how's this cute pic work for ya? All of the clothing that we've received, most of it generous donations from other parents and their young boys. (Thanks Tara and Tania!) But, there are a few items in there that we got from the baby shower too (Thanks to all the girls that made it to the shower!), and then some other items are upstairs, already clean and ready to be worn (Thanks Nana Hazel, Grampa Doug and Grama Margaret, and Lenia!).


And one more pic of the beach ball. Todd and I did a "photo shoot" last night, to have a heap of "artistic" photos of me being really big... and we set this one on a timer to take. I think it looks fantastic, and with a bit of photo-shopping, we're going to get it printed to send out with Christmas cards this year me thinks. (Even though I look lopsided!)


Anyway, I'm off to start prep work for dinner tonight... mmmm cream of potato soup. I'm SUCH a soup-aholic!

Love d. :)

01 August 2006

My massive beach ball is ready to pop!

Hello everyone! :)

Long time no post, I know. :P I'm shocking, you all know that! I'm not even going to BOTHER updating everything that has happened since my last post, since that was before Sheri had even arrived... Good gravy. I decided to do a post this evening because I was reading a fellow Canadian's blog - 'cept she's in NZ. Reminded me that oh, I'm silly, haven't kept this updated.

I should post a pic of the beachball though (my tummy), really. It's pretty massive...


See? Told ya.

Needless to say, I'm 1 week and 6 days off my due date (of 14 Aug 2006), but at the time of that picture, I was only 36 weeks and 1 day pregnant. (2 weeks ago) If you can imagine it, I'm bigger now. :P

Well, should I do a quick sum-up of our lives since my last post?

Sheri's visit was great - she fell in love with Australia. We went to the races while she was here (I got to wear a fascinator in my hair!!!), and the Melbourne Aquarium (VERY cool, I want to swim with the sharks!). We also took her down the coast to the beginning of the Great Ocean Road, and showed her kangaroos in the wild. (well, KIND OF the wild - they were lazing on a golf course.) She's hoping to come back for Christmas this year, but we'll see if that materializes. :)

We got Hawthorn memberships again this year, but WHAT A WASTE! They did well for the first 6 rounds of the season, but now they just SUCK, and we're in the same position on the ladder we were last year. We do have a couple of games coming up that we could win, and that could bring us up a spot or two, but to be honest, I'd be shocked.

I haven't been able to do much pole dancing since I started to show :( ... I did my last party in April, and have been ITCHING to do more! I kind of shot myself in the foot during my first trimester, because I was quite sick, so very inactive. By the time the sickness had passed (about week 16), I was too out of shape to really start exercising again. THEN I started to get big, and I haven't been able to do anything, not even pole dance! But, I'm counting down the days: plan is to get that pole back up 1 week after Jellybean is born, and get back on! I miss it heaps!

Because I couldn't do parties, business has been slow for me, but we've done a couple of bridal fairs, which is going to result in a fair amount of hen's nights booked from about Oct/Nov to about March or so. It'll be busy for those of us that did those bridal fairs... yay! :) We have one this weekend, but Rowena (one of my business owners) will be doing it on her own (probably kind of risky standing on my feet for 6 hours straight when I'm 39 weeks pregnant?). Then, Rowena, Mel (another business owner) and myself will be doing the LARGEST bridal fair in Melbourne on the 19th/20th of August. I'm REALLY looking forward to that one. (Here's hoping I give birth on time!)

Anyway... other things to tell:

My life has pretty much consisted of doing small things for my aplof business (because I'm not doing parties, it's been slow), research for getting my business back bumping soon after giving birth (back to when I was doing a party a weekend, woo hoo!), and LOTS of research for pregnancy, labour, and parenting.

For Mother's Day (same day here as in Canada, only Father's Day is different), I got a PRE-Mother's Day gift from Toddy.... a new kitty! He's the CUTEST thing you'll ever see!!! He's now 5 months old, his name is Crash, but we call him the Terrorist. He's VERY affectionate, and very playful. He loves to play fetch, and we reckon he thinks he's a DOG. Here's my little cutie pie:



I had my VERY first scrapbooking workshop with Creative Memories about a month ago. I have decided I LOVE scrapbooking! I got interested in it when I was preparing Jellybean's baby book... It's TOTALLY up my alley... so much so that I think I'm going to give it a go as a consultant in addition to my aplof biz. It's not like other party plans - they don't have ridiculous monthly minimums to remain "active"... so if I only want to do one workshop per month, or even every OTHER month, that's totally cool. You don't make anywhere's near what I make with my pole parties, but it's fun, I would love doing it, and a little bit of extra cash will NEVER hurt. :)

I had a baby shower on the weekend (just small, there was 10 of us I think?), and it was really nice. The girls all had a good laugh at the size of my belly, and Jellybean got some GREAT pressies. It was cool, 'cause it was the last time I'd see some of them before I become a mother... wow, now that's freaky!

Well, it's bed time now... I'm really tired (even though it's only 9pm!). I've been told to take advantage of being able to sleep lots now... ;)

Probably won't do another post until Jellybean's born! See you then, with pics. :)

07 January 2006

Oh my god... TOO weird...

SHERI knows. :( Her friend Jack was reading my blog, saw that I was pregnant, and said "you didn't tell me she was pregnant!"... Jeez! Guys can be THICK sometimes. It LITERALLY happened as I was doing the other post today! I reckon that I jinxed the surprise by typing in that I was hoping to surprise her! (Even though I hadn't published the post yet.)

***Jack, if you're reading this... I MIGHT forgive you, because that was a pretty big surprise I had planned for the airport in less than two weeks. :( Shame shame. Next time, if a girl doesn't know that one of her best friends is pregnant, and YOU read somewhere that she IS... just bite your tongue for a bit, eh????***

Ah well... :P Whatever. I'll get over it... it just might take a bit. Although I do feel better now that she knows... simply because I've almost stuffed up a couple of times and let little things slip.

I'd left the 'puter for a bit because I felt sick (part and parcel of being pregnant I'm told), and while I was lying down, got a message from Sheri that just said: " :) CONGRATULATIONS!!! " I mean, it was SLIGHTLY possible she was talking about something else, like something to do with the business... but highly doubtful. I called right away, and after she said hello, I didn't say anything but "how the &%*^ did you find out????"

So yeah, I've felt crap up this afternoon until now (10pm)... which SUCKS, because now I know I'll be up late tonight. :P I even got sick again today... Again, I jinxed that too I reckon because I said to ROBYN and SHERI that I hadn't been sick for about 3 or 4 days... I REALLY have to shut my trap.

But, Todd and I are going to go over to ROBYN's and visit - her folks got in tonight after their little holiday to Holbrook NSW. They're staying here for a bit, and then off to Hong Kong to visit her sister... I can't WAIT to retire!!!

I sent a message to one of my Grandpas to tell him that he's going to be a great-grandpa... haven't gotten a response yet. Have to call TINA soon... she's going to .... well, I don't know really. Ha ha. I also have to tell LEN, and AMANDA, LAURIE, SHELLEY and TINE.... It's just finding time in the day when I feel NOT sick long enough to make a phone call longer than 10 minutes. :P

Anyway, I'm off to shower, and off to Robyn's. Probably won't do another post until after my first appt at the RWH (the 14th of Jan)... and probably not til after Sheri gets here either. Not much exciting happening until then.

Bye bye!

06 January 2006

We've told most of the family....

Just a few left. And quite a few friends left to tell too. It's so hard to motivate myself to pick up the phone, because I feel really ill still... I'm getting the sweats just sitting at the computer!

There are a few friends I don't want to tell for awhile... that I wish I could tell in person... but I doubt that will happen... especially since I'm on the other side of the planet to them. :( But, SHERI will be here soon, so I'll tell her when she walks out the door at the airport. :D Hee hee... I just hope she doesn't read this before then. Which probably won't be a problem, since I was so crap at keeping this updated, that I doubt ANYONE even reads it anymore.

.....

01 January 2006

OOOH, I'm CRAP at this, TRULY

I am so bad. :)

I'll be better, I PROMISE. Especially now that I have more reason to keep it up... despite the fact that I'm no longer traveling (since I now LIVE in Australia - my Permanent Residency should come through within the next 6 months), I have another FABULOUS reason to post on a regular basis --- I'm PREGNANT!

So much has happened since my last post! To sum it up:

--> in April we moved to Melbourne from Geelong

--> I had a job with a company called Ultramix and MCI. Unfortunately, due to my work visa restrictions, my last day with them was 4 Nov '05. I started work there in February, so, after 3 months with the recruitment agency, 3 months with MCI, and then 3 months with the sister company, Ultramix, I had done everything I could legally do in order to stretch out my employment... They were a great mob to work for, lots of fun, and I made a couple of really great friends that I'm sure I'll have for life.

--> we got memberships to the HAWTHORN HAWKS to watch all of the home games for the 2005 season (we did terrible - 3rd from the bottom of the ladder - but I still LOVED it!)

--> Todd and I got married on 23rd July, 2005. A small, intimate ceremony, with a small get-together at a restaurant/pub afterwards.

--> Todd and I bought a business for me in August. We were aware of my visa situation (I won't be able to LEGALLY work longer than 3 months for an employer until my new visa comes through), so in a rare feat of forward-thinking, I started looking into self-employment options in June. I was seriously considering Tupperware - it's a good company with great products, and a very well-established company.... But I didn't want to be doing parties when I was a mother of a new baby (again, more forward-thinking)...

The day after we got married, thanks to SHERI, I checked out this business.... a POLE DANCING business! To make a long story short, we purchased my Regional Directorship (I'm the RD for the state of Victoria) in August, but due to the fact that I was still working full time, I didn't do much with it until I was done at work with Ultramix. I knew going in that I would have to put my business with A Pole Lot of Fun on hold (at least partially) until I no longer had the barrier of a full-time job to get in the way.

--> we moved, AGAIN. 10 Sept '05 we moved into our current place, which we are hoping to buy in the next year or two. We LOVE it here! We have a flatmate (Adrian aka Fluff aka Millsy) who is moving back to the USA in June '06 to get married to his fiance Teri. After he moves out, we'll keep the house to ourselves.

--> I finished work at Ultramix, and started a new chapter in my life - that of the self-employed businesswoman. At the beginning of November '05, I jumped into my business with A Pole Lot of Fun HEADFIRST, and have been flat out ever since!

--> In late November '05, I joined a networking organisation called BNI. The contacts I've made through BNI have helped to propell my A Pole Lot of Fun business to areas that I thought it would take months to get there... when in reality, those contacts (including Dr. Janet Hall) have helped me to get on Australian National TV only 5 weeks in!!!

--> Also in late November, the CEO of A Pole Lot of Fun came here from Canada to work with me, train me, and essentially help me get my business on the go (as the company does with ALL Regional Directors). During the span of his 5 days with me (and the 1 week following), we got us in the paper in Brisbane, on the radio on the Sunshine Coast, and .... on A Current Affair on Australia's National TV Network, NINE.

--> I was filmed doing a party for Dr. Jan on 7 Dec '05. I was SOOO nervous, but it turned out great, and I had a blast!

--> On 8 Dec '05, the day after filming for ACA... after 6 months of trying... I did a Home Pregnancy Test (HPT), and got a very FAINT positive!

--> Also, that same day, I flew to the Sunshine Coast to do a party for radio personality Caronline Hutchinson from MIXFM, and on 9 Dec '05, I was a guest on her morning radio show with Mark Darin. Because I had flown up specifically for them, Caroline asked me to be a BIG part of the show, and I was on air for about an hour and a half promoting A Pole Lot of Fun. Again, was SUPER nervous at first, but by the end, just LOVING it!

--> Did another HPT on 14 Dec... WAY darker!!! :) Had my first GP appointment that morning, and did a pee test there too... and the test line came up positive before the freakin' control line even did!

--> Had a tour of the Royal Women's Hospital (Melbourne) Family Birthing Centre on 21 Dec '05. They have a "non-interfering" approach to childbirth, wherein the mother and father do the delivery, with help from a team of midwives. Because it is just a FLOOR in the hospital, literally sandwiched between the two maternity floors, there is ALWAYS an obstetrician, etc on site, and you can be moved to the regular maternity ward at any time if medical attention is needed. But, the approach is designed to limit the amount of recovery time that mum needs, and get you back home with your new bub asap. Todd and I have decided that we're going to go that route, provided that I have a "non-complicated" pregnancy. (Can't see any reason why complications should arise - we both have a healthy family history in that aspect - knock on wood!)

--> Christmas eve - BOZZA's mum guessed I was pregnant. Jeez, didn't even ask if I had eaten anything off... first thing out of her mouth: "you pregnant???" AND, Fluff proposed to Teri at Carols by Candlelight... shocked the crap out of her, she thought he was going to propose in March. :D

--> Quiet Christmas... the last quiet one we'll have for YEARS I'm SURE. I cooked a turkey with REAL gravy, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, baby carrots, and T made FABULOUS mash. Just like Christmas dinner in Canada... except it was THIRTY FIVE FREAKIN DEGREES!!!!! Next year will be good grub: We'll be up in Forster with Doug and Margaret for Christmas '06. :)

--> 28 Dec had another appointment with GP to get blood results - I'm healthy, pregnant, and good to go thus far. :)

--> New Year's - we had a TOGA Party here with a few friends. Found out that two of our closest friends started DATING each other 4 weeks ago and didn't tell us. :P I'm happy as a pig in sh*t for them, but still kind of sore that they lied to me. (And yes, you did R :P) APPARENTLY I didn't see heaps of signs. :P Oh well, I need to build a bridge and get over it... right TWATTS?

--> And today??? Well, SICK AS A DOG, as I have been for the last 3 weeks. I've only been sick twice so far, but the nausea is the KILLER. Ya know when you get so drunk that when you close your eyes at the end of the night, you get room spins? And then you sweat, and get that salty icky taste in your mouth???? Yea, well try having that for ALL DAY SICKNESS! The dr. gave me a 'script for Maxolon, the anti-nausea drug... but it just makes me worse, and all shaky. Yuck. So, it's been, tea, FORCING myself to eat (even though I get gas just from drinking WATER!!!), and just napping when I feel tired.

I'm hoping that it'll be gone soon... SHERI gets here from Canada on the 17th of Jan, and she's here for almost a month.

I think I'm going to go have a little nap. I told TINI I'd call her back at 2pm my time, and I want to rest for a bit before, 'cause I'm sure we'll have a good chin-wag session -- I haven't talked to her in AGES!

:* MWAH!