August Already...?

Where has this year gone?

Seriously, I had good intentions of keeping my blog up to date this year.  Clearly that hasn't happened.  I could try to tell you that life has just gotten in the way, but that would be less than true.  To be honest, I've just been very slack.  

That's not to say I didn't have anything to post about. 2012 has provided me with plenty of blog-worthy events (I even had titles for potential posts rattling around in my head).  I guess I'll just have to do a quick roundup post to bring you all up to date.

Shortly after Christmas, Steve hit triple digits on the scales and decided he needed to do something about it.  Over the last ten years we've both gradually put on the kilos, so we figured we'd do this together.  We jump started our weight loss with Optislim shakes, decreased our portion sizes, ate less pasta, cut out fast food and increased our exercise.  This effort has seen Steve lose 12 kg and I've lost 10kg.  I am finally back to my pre-baby weight.  We've been a little slack during the cooler months, but as the weather warms up we'll go on family bike rides again regularly.

I have a "real" job. (Yes, sadly there are some people who believe being a mother doesn't count... *looks pointedly at my darling husband*)  In an effort to stop Steve whining about me "not working", I started applying for casual jobs.  While Cheyenne is still in primary school, I prefer to be there for her before and after school, so that does reduce the pool of available work.  I found a night job doing retail merchandising.  The money was great, the work was good, the people were a wonderful bunch to work with, however the hours didn't really suit our family circumstances.  9pm to 5am sounds doable until you discover that the company considers the end of shift time to be merely a suggestion and that you could be working anywhere from Caloundra to the Gold Coast and out as far as Redbank.  Often the rest of our team worked until 7 or 8am and I had to keep asking to be let off "early" at 6am so that I could be home before Steve left for work.  Couple this with the fact that Steve leaves home at a different time every day depending on where and when he's due to start his first job of the day, and you can see why I was destined to give this job up after only two and a half months.

I'm now working one day a week, during school hours, doing admin work for my tax agent.  Sure, it may be only 5 and a half hours at a lower pay rate than the merchandising job, but I enjoy the work, I'm learning MYOB and some tax software, I can still do the school run, and (the best bit) I have no travel expenses since work is only 6 houses down from me.

Other things have happened this year, obviously, but those are the important things.

I promise I will try to post more regularly from now on.

New Year, New Room

After a nice long reprieve, Operation Room Swap could be put off no longer.  Steve decided that Cheyenne had to move into the front room because her room at the back (that she’d had since she was born) was too cramped and far too cold in Winter.  We decided it would need to be done during the holidays, since there was a lot of shuffling of furniture and the front room needed to be painted before that could happen.  Cheyenne picked out the paint colour she wanted for her new room.  A nice pink called Paper Daisy.

Cheyenne spent a week on holiday with Nanny and Poppy at a caravan park, so we took advantage of that week to get everything done. 

The "before" shots of the rooms.

First we had to move everything out of her old room. For the better part of a week we had to live with her bookshelf in the hallway, her dismantled bed in the rumpus and the rest of her furniture in the lounge room. Then I had to empty everything out of my craft room and move it into her old room.  Then the hard work began. 

Over the next few days, while Steve was at work, I sugar-soaped the walls then got stuck in to the painting.  I would highly recommend not painting on the two hottest days of Summer if you can help it …especially with gloss enamel for the trims.  That stuff is not my favourite at the best of times, but in stinking hot weather it is tacky and nasty and a bugger to apply.

Walls done. Now for the trims...

By the end of the week it was ready to move her furniture back in, including the new tallboy we’d bought her.  Steve had been worried that the pink paint was too dark, but it’s a nice contrast to her white furniture, and hopefully she’ll be happy with it for several years.  The trick will be trying to get her to keep it tidy.  So far, so good.

Fit for a princess.

 

I would also like to add, that despite my reservations, I’m rather pleased with my new craft room …even if it isn’t quite finished yet.

Steve even surprised me by attaching some pieces of alloy angle to each cube, so my over-desk shelf could finally be installed.  Only took him about 5 years, lol.