8 - a good offer

Well after a very restless night, I woke early and decided to get up and get some things done!! I'm a little bit tired now though.

I spent the morning putting together little sets of Lego (with Gregory's help) and then splitting them into small lots so that I could make Daniel an advent calendar. There are 25 ribbon tied little boxes in a basket waiting for him to start on tomorrow. Last year I bought him an Advent Calendar from Lego and that is what it was - each day a mini figure or some parts to a bit bigger set. Last year's cost about $50, so with money beeing very tight here (house saving!!), this year only cost me about $25 and I made all the folded boxes out of scrapbook paper found lying around my unloved craft room. I can now make a folded box in under a minute!!!

Then I HAD to check in with Andrew to see what was happening on the house front - he rang and gave them a good offer - within what they were asking for, but we would like them to fence the pool for us. Just waiting to hear back from them..... frayed nerves.....

This afternoon, to avoid the crowds and the crowded shops ( I am SOOOO not a shopper!), I went online to order Christmas presents. Managed to find some Lego for Daniel and some DVDs for Gregory. Gregory and I would like a new computer so Christmas is very lean this year, so that we can afford that.

Then I went online, with my Bendigo Map beside me to find out where all the Primary schools are so I can go and meet the Principal and hand over my CV next week and hope they need lots of relief work next year. I am hoping to get 2-3 days a week most weeks.

Speaking of saving money and making really cool Christmas goodies, check out www.kimarcher.com.au for her gorgeous Christmas craft online course called Jingle Bells. Too cool!!

Now I really must go and get some dinner sizzling away - Butter Chicken, Rice and Naan Bread... yum yum yummy!

Oh...... My....... Goodness.....

Andrew is putting a price to the real estate agent tomorrow!! Now after all the talking and discussing, I am scared that it is not the right decision!!! What am I to do???
Short blog tonight - gotta go toss and turn all night now!!!

House hunting - bah humbug!!

I am soooo over looking at houses!! I have lost track of the number we have been to see. Every one of them has had something missing or we didn't like. I am beginning to think we are being too fussy!!
Looked at 5 today.
1. on 3 acres, 4 bedrooms, above ground pool -BUT Andrew is worried it is too far out in the bush - 10 minutes from his work in the city!!
2. on 1.6 acres, 4 bedrooms - NO Shed!
3. Older house close to town, self contained studio at the back - needs painting, small shed and yard is a mess!
4. beautiful old house, very nicely done up, shed - TOO much money wanted for it!!
5. right price, lovely garden, big shed -house too small!!

AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Going to look at another tomorrow after lunch and then back for a second look at No 1 from today.

I NEED to find one soon or else you can just ship me off to the funny farm in my pyjamas!!!

Oooopppss

nearly forgot to blog. Technically it is Saturday but I am just heading off to bed. So it still counts for Friday right?
A good clean joke for you.

Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says, "Dam!"

Night night... sweet dreams...

Thursday... Day 4

A nice quiet day here today. We have had the beautiful Dora and her daughter Rosie and Hamish from down the road come for a visit. We ate lunch together and then chatted about homeschooling, Uni study, shopping and gardening. Now, of course, I feel very lazy and don't want to do any of my study or cook dinner, or anything else for that matter!! Wonder where those kitchen fairies are?
We had some wonderful much needed rain today. The rumble of thunder very early this morning was magnificent. Then the couple of heavy showers were amazing too. The garden sure looks happy - brown with a tinge of green happy!!
Oh look I found the kitchen fairy - she is sitting on the chair at the computer - be gone you lazy wretch!!

Day 3 of 30

Does that mean I am a tenth of the way through my "blog for 30 days" feat? Yep it does - yayee me!!
Today was finish tidying the house - why I don't know... the house inspection took all of ten minutes and all was fine! Why do I worry about these things??

Spent the rest of the day doing study. Fun fun fun!! After dinner I would like to do some more as we have friends calling in for a natter tomorrow as well as the plumber coming to fix large leak in bathroom, then on Friday we are off to someone else's place for afternoon tea. Slowly starting to get a social life here in Bendigo.... I always say it takes about 6 months to feel comfortable in a new house or town. We have been here for 2.5 months so things are on track.

I do have to say that Bendigo, considering it is a city, is one of the friendliest places I have moved to. Everyone I have met so far, including shop assistants and tradesmen have been so easy going and chatty. Bonus!

Ok, off to do the dinner thing - Italian again. Should have married an Italian instead of an Englishman - we all love Pizza, Pasta, Lasagne, Gnocchi, Mozzarella, Gelato, etc etc..... I think they are all Italian food.
See you tomorrow.

Weird??

When I look at my blog visitors counter on the small computer, it shows up as 1213 but when I maximise it, it tells me I have had 12113 visitors?? What the???
Can someone tell me what it says at their end?

Hey to Jill and Lisa, who have both agreed to try and blog every day for 30 days. Woohoo, glad you are joining me. Lisa is the lovely lady who did this a couple of months ago - now she is up for it again. Yayee Lisa!!

OK, Susy and Sandie where are you hiding?? Haven't heard from you two for a while now??

Today was housework time here in a big way!! I am having my first ever house inspection tomorrow. Because we have not rented privately for soooo long - I think the last time I had private rental was in 1984 in Yeppoon Queensland where I had my first teaching position and I don't remember having house inspections. I must say though after looking through a couple of houses to buy that were rented out, this house even on a dirty untidy day looks like an ad for Home Beautiful compared to them. Seriously, the house we looked at on Sunday was disgusting!! The same company that handles the rental is trying to sell it - how they can do that is beyond me!!
Righto that would be Day Two done and dusted... see you all tomorrow.

over 12 000!!!

People have been to read my blog?? The last time I looked it was only about 1000. I think my counter must be broken.... otherwise there are a lot of disappointed people out there who keep checking back in and I haven't said a darn thing.
Well it is a good thing I looked at it- because now I feel the urge to be more productive and blog more often!! Maybe I will try for Lisa's challenge to blog for 30 days!! Anyone want to join me and see if we can do it? Shouldn't be too hard at this time of the year - even if we just blog about the presents we've found for people ( without telling what it is in case the person finds out what they are getting), the cards we've received or the decorations we've put up.
OK, who's in??

Remember Me??

Yep I'm still here. I have a momentous start to the week.
Firstly I made a very hard decision to leave the Inspiration Team for The Scrap Heap. I have loved every minute of my 12 months on the team, but lately I have felt no inclination to scrap at all. Bet that silly mojo returns now!! The part I will miss the most is the comraderie of the other ladies and how caring they are of the other members of the team. Thanks so much to Christine and Beryl for choosing to have me on the team.
I have also made the decision to stop stressing about a house to buy. We need to save some pennies so it will not be such a big drain when we do get a home loan. So hopefully we can just continue to rent this house until something comes up and in the meantime I can pull in the purse strings as well as find a job. This house is smaller than we need but it is amazing how you don't use the furniture you have stacked up in the garage anyway!! There is nothing we have missed or needed to use except the spare mattress when someone came to stay. So there you go - maybe I should just sell it all off?
Today we also decided to pare down the ridiculous amount of money we spend on Christmas. Daniel still wants Lego, so that is fine. Andrew is off to Fleetwood Mac next week so said that would do him for his present, as well as his carton of mixed international beers. Gregory and I would like a new computer so it looks like that may be on the cards now as we don't want anything else. We will spend a little on our Christmas food but as it is only us 4 for Christmas, that is always quite cheap compared to other peoples.
I have rearranged the office space so the computers are together and we can share the laser printer as when Andrew was printing from the big computer, he was using lots of $$$ of inkjet printer ink just for black copies - and that soon adds up to lots!! The little laser printer hopefully will work out cheaper to run as it doesn't need toner for over 1500 pages.
So... lots of decisions and things accomplished in the last 2 days!!
What else is happening in my life?? Well I have jumped in the deep end when it comes to my study - I am going for 2 units over the summer. One on the new literacies associated with all the new technology being used in schools and the other one is very scary - Intro to Web Publishing!! A very steep learning curve there me thinks!! Will make the old brain cells spark!!
I can't think of anything else at the moment. I don't think I have even taken a photo for the last month!!
See you later - hopefully it won't be another month before I blog again!