News!

First things first - DOCS finally did our referee checks on the 17th & 18th of August, after telling me they were doing them on the 24th of July. Then I received an email on the 21st telling me about the dates for our training course - YEAH!!!! Even though those dates are in November, at least it's progress.

How do I feel about this? It's a funny thing, I went from being a little bit anxious & eager for them to hurry up & get the referee checks done, to feeling quite nervous now that things are really, really happening. Darren just wants it all to be done & for us to have a child with us.
We were lying in bed talking about our yearly camping trip & he was saying where will the kid sleep? and that we'll need to take a microwave to heat bottles & what about the extra room needed in the car (we pack it like a tetris game now!) And I just had to tell him to put it all out of his head & worry about it later! Otherwise like me - he'll never get any sleep!

I want to start planning - God knows I love a plan & a good list. But - it just feels too early. I'm having a hard enough time trying to make a bedroom out of a store/craft/game playing room as it is. I thought I had got rid of a lot of stuff out of that room, but really it's not enough. I don't want it to feel like we are just shoving the child in anywhere - it has to feel like a real space for them. Also we had a big BBQ on Saturday night & little Abbey was over (she has just turned one) she spent the whole time showing me exactly how to child proof my place! All the stuff we moved out of her way will now need to find a new home. She was very helpful!!

I've had a couple more orders for cards from the nursing home & will have to spend this weekend filling an order for 20. My aim is to try & do double that & then a few more as often as possible to try & build up a bit of a stockpile - that way I don't have to stay up til 1 in the morning trying to get them done on time. Also I want to take some to work & see if there is any interest there.

My birthday is coming up - always exciting. We are booked to see Avenue Q on the 12th so I have booked a room at the Swissotel in the city for the Friday & Saturday night. Darren & I will have a bit of alone time (I'll be dragging him to the Pandora store!) & then Jess & Adam will join us on Saturday night for the show. I'm also hoping to see Yan, Michael & Ayisha before they fly out on the Sunday, but this might be too sad!

Noooooooooo!

So what's been going on?
Let me see - I'll just go back into my calendar & see if I can fill in the gaps.

Friday the 24th of July I had my big work dinner reward thingy in the city at WatersEdge not the Waterfront as I previously called it. We had a really good night - probably because I was half way smashed when we arrived. So there was much frivolity & dancing & catching up with staff from regional offices that I either have never met face to face or that I haven't seen in ages.
The accommodation at the Sebel Pier One was not as fancy as I had expected though. They rely very heavily on the fantastic views available & seem to have let the decor slip. Star City Casino has nicer rooms.

We went from the Sebel to Miranda to purchase a Pandora bracelet & charm for Abbey Rose my Goddaughter/niece. Then home to put our new drawers in our room. This meant a bit of furniture movement & then me putting all my undies/bras/socks/pj's/ etc into the new drawers & rearranging the items that I keep on top, jewelry box, alarm clock etc. Darren has decreed that nothing else is allowed to be kept on top of the drawers - he is dreaming.

After organising our room we went to Louise & Andrews for dinner. We wanted to get together with them & talk a bit about the fostering process. I had initially thought that this would mainly benefit Darren, being able to talk to Andrew - but turns out it was important for both of us.
The topic of siblings came up again. And once again Darren has back flipped on this, only this time he managed to explain to me in a different way why he didn't want to take on two children at once. Knowing now how he really feels about this, I am happy to tell DOCS that we will only take one child initially, and later would consider another. This doesn't mean that I wasn't upset about it, but I'm mainly upset about the way Darren went about this, not the one child bit. So I had a bit of an emotional evening. But we came away from it clearer in our views & ideas & with a few topics to follow up on ourselves.
Darren's major worry - I think has been relieved a bit now, & that is that he will say something in our interviews that will cause DOCS to deny us a placement. And then it would be all his fault & I would hold it against him etc, while he is still nervous about the interviews I don't think he is as worried about this now.

On the 26th we had planned a lazy day at home, but Michael rang & asked us to their place for lunch, he had something to tell us. I immediately knew this would involve them going to KL in September & NOT coming back. And I was right. I was not happy, but I was right. Mum is also not happy. It's not that we are possesive of them at all - we just want to keep them here with us! Thus the title of this post.
So the 13th of September is when they leave - Happy Birthday to me.

How can the steal this from me????

Did out tax returns on the Monday night - getting back nearly $3000 - which will go straight on the credit card of doom. This will bring it almost to zero balance & therefore closer to the scissors.

On Saturday the 1st I made a big roast beef dinner & the folks & Jess came over to eat it.

On the Sunday we had Jaydan & Abbey's naming day & Abbey's first birthday celebration at Adam & Amber's place - it was a really lovely day. The weather was perfect & Abbey was gorgeous in the christening gown that was used by all of us. After that Darren & I went to catch up with an old friend.

I spent the next week trying to flog linen at work, to get some outside orders for my linen party on the 9th, I got a couple of orders, but nothing like I have done in the past.

Friday after work Darren met me at Kmart at Hurstville so I could get some add-on drawers that sit on top of the plastic drawers that I already have for all my scrapbooking/card making stuff.
Then we went & got ready for Jess's "come as what you wanted to be when you grew up" cocktail party. I wore a tiara & Darren donned a lot of FORD racing gear. Michael showed up in a sock stuffed wetsuit & Yan had a Miss Universe sash on - I think they would have won best costume if there had been a prize. I didn't drink this year - but almost everyone else did. I just played steal the baby off Grandma.

Saturday I started ripping apart the 2nd room. My goal is to clear shelf & cupboard space, cull if I can, and have the room ready for either a bed or a cot.
I managed to get my craft drawers into the cupboard getting rid of 2 big tubs in the process. I got rid of 2 boxes of books, an over door clothes rack, one bag of clothes, a box of miscalleneous junk, a stack of board games and one of my tool boxes. A bunch of this stuff went to Jess and the rest we took to the Salvos - I just hope Mum doesn't buy back the clothes I took there & give them back to me!
So the room is still a complete mess - but it's getting there. Once I've found a home for everything I want to see how much it is to get sliding doors on the cupboard, or if that's too much I'll be getting some dow & making some curtains up.

We finally got to see Cindy & George on Saturday night, but we were all pretty quite & Cindy was not well at all. We need to make more of an effort to see each other - I felt bad that Isabella had forgotten who I was. She always knew me & would give me a big smile but on Saturday night she took a while to warm to me. We need to remedy that!! Especially if Ayisha is being stolen from me!

Sunday I held my linen party. I ended up selling around $1000 worth so I got about $500 worth of stuff that I wanted for about $200 - so I was happy with that.

And that concludes my catch-up. I am still going to challenge myself to a blog a day, but I can't decide when to start!