G'day there!
Above is the weekly challenge for THE BOXX, use a B&W photo, and B&W with one other colour! I hope that i actually got the challenge right, it doesn't really matter, at least I scrapped!

My scrap area is like a bomb has hit it, I really really need to work out some storage solutions, but what happens is, is that you get your scrap area all sorted and then in about 6 months all those solutions don't work so well anymore as you have somehow accumulated MORE scrap stash! I wonder how that happens! Are we all a bit guilty of having all this 'stuff' to scrap with and then never really having a hope in hell of using it all????

Here I am at 24 weeks, I am actually 25 weeks today and this pic was taken by my friend on Tuesday so to I'm not going to get all technical BUT I suppose I am 24 weeks and 5 days in this pic! I have to print this out and do my pregnancy journal TODAY, it's been too long between journalling in that journal of mine! It's like a lot of things I start, I start them, never to continue, but I had better, this journal is going to be like one big book by the time I have finished! I've decided I might just keep using it once bubba is born, so that when it is older this bubba can read the whole story of it's journey to get to good health in one convenient spot!

Mia's new blow-up easel, that Mum and i picked up in Adelaide last week for $25!! I couldn't leave it behind for that sort of $$$$$. Very cheap entertainment I rekon! Tatum, Lil and Bastian came and visited last week and the kids had a good ol' paint, I think they had more fun painting themselves and each other! Mia had a bath when it was all over... all the kids looked like they belonged in the circus! It's all about fun, fun, fun when you are a kid!

Well, within myself I am ok, my brain is always thinking, sometimes the only time it goes quiet is when I sleep, so I have been going to back to early pregnancy days and having little laydowns in the afty... I could be using my time so much better, but I really don't care, it's working for me and Mia is happy to flit around and watch tele, play with her babies and barbies, and do her thing! It's a little stress relief... and an indulgent part of my day, in a few months I will no longer be able to do this at all unless Bubs is a better day sleeper than Mia was... I'm not even sure this baby will have much of a routine for the first few months, I just know I will be a soft touch and give this little one whatever, whenever!!!!

So, that's about it for the moment, thanks for dropping in, and if you visit Lucy, (cyber granny) I am thinking of you heaps and have been very slack, but you have been on my mind, I hope you drop in here to catch up with us!!

Better go, Mia is cutting and pasting at the dining table and has just deliberately cut her t-shirt! FAR OUT!! At least she is honest and told me she did it just to see what would happen!

xxxx

Not much happening around here... Can't really be bothered to scrap, I know I will get over that and have a burst shortly and pump out lots of LO's.
Mia and I are flying off to Adelaide to the WCH today to have a check-up, this ones more just your routine checkup not anything really to do with the bubs condition, it's mainly because the lovely Beck from WCH felt sorry for me, when she told me that the Dr didn't need to see me until 32 weeks, I became a little bit of a basket case, she immediately booked me in for this vis.. I was feeling VERY emotional at the time, and she took pity on me. I am ok, just thinking alot about it all, I have some beautiful friends who have offered to come to Melb when baby and us are over there, it may not happen, but that these two special friends have offered, well it means the world, at this stage none of us know what is going to happen and when but it's a pretty special offer I think!
I'm a bad blogger, but at the moment, I just am a pretty uninteresting person!

Hope all who pop in here are well!!!
xxx

The above LO is for The Boxx's weekly challenge, my first LO in about 3 and a half weeks, so it felt prertty good to actually sit down and scrap!!

The above LO is just for me, went to Tatums to scrap today and took just one photo with me and this is what I came up with, I'm pretty happy with it!

Mia is soooooo into scissors and cutting at the moment, she goes on the hunt for empty toilet rolls and cuts them up too, then out comes thje sticky tape to stick it all together! Except Mia says Stippy Tape, she's too cute really!

What can I say, I bought myself a Pandora and I'm mighty happy about it, I plan to get a bead every week or two, I'll see how I go with that one! Then by the time baby is born, it should be getting nice and full!

And a Father's Day hug, we had a great day, DH got a coffee machine, which is something I have really wanted for ages but luckily he is pretty happy with it too! LOTS of hot chocolates getting consumed around here at night!


Thankyou to everyone who has offered me/us support, an ear, a shoulder, just to know that you are there makes me feel so much better...
I feel more on an even keel, even though I am ALWAYS thinking about Bubba and it's future and what is in store for us all, but I can think more about Bubba's problems and not cry (for now anyway) so I'm feeling that that is a good thing for now, there will be ALOT of tears soon enough!

Anyway, thankyou it all helps... in the words of Witchy, leave me some love if you visit!
xx
xxx

Well after a "i'm not coping" day yesterday
today is much better
there are so many things to be thankful for
an unexpected hug from a friend who has no idea how much it was actually needed
(and how much better it made me feel)
flowers from my 'sister-girl' in Darwin I miss her so much
fresh loaf of bread from the breadmaker, 3 laps of woolies waiting for the bread to be unpacked, and I thought, I can make one myself!
hot homemade sausage rolls from the oven, hearty and yum
sitting on the lounge while the sausage rolls are cooking with a hot water bottle to make my sore back feel soothed
an enthusiastic 4 year old who won't let you feel sorry for yourself for too long
because she wants to PAINT, GLUE and play with pastry offcuts
and
little kicks from inside me reminding me that there will be so much joy aswell as worry but still a little miracle inside me....
xxx

I'm back and I'm feeling ok, for today at least!
It was Miss Mia's birthday last Thursday! Our big 4 year old! I took 6 ultra crappy photos on her actual birthday but my Dad took lots on Saturday when we had her party. It was a rainy kind of day to start with so we had the party inside... It would have been much much better if the kids were able to go outside but oh well....
I got the window hanging from a cheap shop for $2, what a bargain, Mia's Dad put up streamers and balloons and I really hope that all the kids had a good time while they were here. The whole thing was a bit of an effort and I was teary in the morning so I made myself snap out of it and tried to make it a fun day...

Mia running around excited as she knew her friends were coming soon!

Balloons are such cheap fun, except the ones I had here must have been old as they kept popping for not much reason at all and my Mum and Dad did a mercy dash to Woolies to get more! We still have heaps of balloons on the loungeroom floor!

Mia and her 'cake', I had visions of something else, maybe we should have made smaller cupcakes but no-one cared! I wanted it to look like a rainbow, but as I'm creatively challenged this is what it turned out like! Yum though!!

Mia and Lil having a quiet moment! Mia is quite excited to be 4, and I just can't believe that she is 4, she had grown so fast really!!

We have had a very hectic and upsetting 2 weeks, I am still coming to terms with it all, but am feeling strong and positive today, full of optimism for the future....
On the 18th of August we were in Port Lincoln for what we thought was going to be a routine scan, my biggest worry was that the sonographer wouldn't be able to see what sex the baby was..looking back I think I was naive but then again, you have no idea of what's ahead, you just don't know. You just presume that all is going well.... We had a normal scan, everything was looking good, but the lady couldn't get a proper look at Bubba's heart... we went away twice for walks hoping that the baby would get into a better position, and bubs still did not get into a good position. So off we went, we were to go back when the sonographer was in her lunch break, as it turns out I went back on my own, but again, how were we to know! Hubby had to go to the dentist for a toothache... It was while I was on my own that the sonographer said that she wasn't seeing the heart like she should be and I would need to go to Adelaide for further scans and to see specialists over there. What a shock.... I started babbling, 'put me on a plane right now', and other things too... It was a huge shock... I walked out and sat in the dentists waiting room for 45 minutes with my sunnies on quietly losing it....
We had an appointment in the afternoon with the Dr that I THOUGHT would deliver bubba, he made a a few phone calls and we had two appointments made for Adelaide at the WCH for the next Monday, I was not at all happy about waiting a week but what can you do? We waited the week out, finally to hop on a plane on the Monday morning. I knew that the Hospital was huge and was feeling very scared that we would get lost and not know where to go. We did walk into the wrong dept first and the lady was a bit confused and so was I, I was just a total bundle of nerves... I started crying when they couldn't find me on the system...great start.
We did get to the right dept and they knew all about me, and what we were there for...We had a scan, which confirmed something was definately wrong with bubbas heart, and the paediatrition (sp) was wonderful, although it was so much to take in... He suggested an amnio as babies with these types of defects also have a risk of chromosomal problems as well... It was all too much. We had an appt with the Cardiologist at 2 so we went outside and sat in the sunshine, my teeth were rattling and I felt like vomiting, AN AMNIO????? We talked about our options and decided to go ahead with the testing...
We went back for the 2 o'clock appt with the sonographer again and the cardiologist aswell, they looked at the bubbas heart for at least 45 minutes, it really amazes me what they can tell, very special and skilled people! We went into a room and Dr Robertson expained what was happening with the bubbas heart. At this stage is has been diagnosed with DORV+VSD+GA+Co Ao, which means Double Outlet Right Ventricle with Ventricular Septal Defect with Transposition of the Great Arteries and Coarctation of Aorta! Sounds scary, huh! I am not stupid enough to think that that is a definate diagnosis, there is still alot of weeks before baby is born and more echos on bubbas heart and more trips to Adelaide... I do realise that things can and do change, and will take it all in as it comes...
And then life will not be the same once bubba is born, but that is another story, and I will write more about that when I know more.... Birth will be in Adelaide and bubbas operation(s) in Melbourne....and that is all I know so far...
We have had one lot of good news so far, we had the first test results from the amnio, the FISH results and so far there are no other problems, we are waiting on the full screen results which will probably be another week away but am feeling optimistic....
The two Drs that we saw in the WCH last Monday were fantastic and compassionate, we really can not say Thankyou enough... Our road is long but if there is one thing to be grateful for is that this is all known now. At least preparations will be put into place when the baby is born for all the best care it can get. If we didn't know now, all hell could have broken loose, at least now we can be in the best place possible....

Last Tuesday night, we were happy to be back home and i was happy to have a shower in my own shower, and to have my jammies on! I am 20 and a half weeks here.

And the little hole where the amniotic fluid was taken, it was a scary procedure, not painful but just really scary... I just had to get a photo of it, DH thought I was mad!! Note the piece of crap that I still have floating around in my camera!

Bubbas room, it is getting there, I want it to be done and all set up very soon, I want to have some sort of bags packed and organised soon too, you just never know, and I don't want Hubby to have the stress of having no idea where to find things if we have to leave in a hurry! You can never be too prepared!


Sorry for the hugest ramble, but this is as much for me and my memory as it is for you... I feel good for getting it out... I better go and do something around the house....

Thanks for visiting! xxx

I AM around, just not ready to blog properly... I'm up and down and all over the place. I'm tired and over it... My parents are here at the moment and I love them dearly, but I want my own space..... It's not them, it's me, I don't know what I want.
I will update soon, and it will be a BIG EXPLOSION of all kinds of things... stay tuned! xx

Hi, the above is for the weekly challenge at THE BOXX, 7 facts about yourself and a pic of yourself! I've done a few LO's on myself bow, so it wasn't too hard to ramble a bit about me!!

Another LO, just for fun! I love Leeann Pearce's idea of using felt on ghost letters and all manner of things really, so I tried it out!! You should check out her blog, I will put a link up in my side bar shortly coz I am not smart enough to put it HERE!! (turns out I am smart enough so you can use the link... Wonders will never cease)

Mia's birthday invites, don't you love how I've used paintbrush to immaturely scribble out out address and my ph number!! I thought I was very good at it.... NOT!!! Anyway she is having a rainbow theme, as that is the easiest for me, and she does not care either way!!
Below are the loot bag thingies that the kids will take home... I will put names on them when I know exactly who is coming... I am organised early as I am going off down south for a scan to see what the bubs is up to in there!!!

I have got all sorts of party favours to put in the chinese boxes, if you want to go and look at a great party on-line shop, go HERE,

and now I think I am a smarty pants as I have put 2 links in my text!
But seriously, the Party Parlour is a great shop, go check it out through my link!!
Leave me a msg if you come to visit!!
xxx