Over for another year

I couldn't connect with Christmas at all this year. Put up the tree, wrapped the presents, spent the day with loud and drunken family members ... and all I got was a lousy headace. And if my sister talked to me ONE MORE TIME about thebabythebabythebaby like she did all day, there was going to be a family rift. I don't mind answering questions and getting advice (she has two children) and I think it's nice that she's excited about this baby but ... hey! HEY! What about me?
Anyway. My mother seemed to have a good day, spending time with her grandchildren and getting proportionally louder as the day went on. For myself, I was glad to get home again.
J and I exchanged presents the night before, when all was quiet. We set a limit of $30 for each other, as things are a little tight this year. I got J the DVD of Sky High and I got Evanescence's new CD and a box of chocolates. Things could definitely be worse!
This year got completely away on me, after we unexpectedly lost Dad in January. After that, it kind of felt like one thing after another.
My sister had her baby in February; I switched shifts at work; J was out of work for a while after the works season finished (he's back at the supermarket now); there was Chloe's ongoing health issues with her leg; and we found out we're having a baby of our own. I'd just like to crawl under something and not come out some days.
But Chloe recovered, the baby's healthy and because J works part-time he does all the housework and the cooking, so all I have to do is go to work and pay bills. I don't have a lot to complain about, really, it's just that some days are better than others I guess.
Next Friday will be a year since Dad died, so that'll be a hard day.
Speaking of things getting away from me ... I'm going to try setting monthly goals again, see how I go. For this purpose, I'm counting from today until January 31. If I wait until December 30 to do it, I'll talk myself out of it for sure.
So I've been thinking about what I'd like to get done in the next month:-
-Write 1000 words a day; see if I can get my mojo back
-Finish the page I'm on and the next one of the Iris pattern for my friend S's wedding
-Get as much possible done of window on cat pattern for the baby's room
-Start DD's Here Be Dragons as your 2007 January start
-Make a list of everyone's birthday
-Finish Pandora's Star and Lord of the Rings
-Read one or two review books; write the reviews every Wednesday or Thursday
-Find out about ante-natal classes
-No Starbucks!
-No buying tea at work
-Get credit card under its limit
-Do one thing off 101 in 1001 days list
That'll keep me off the streets, I think!

The Day Before Christmas

Don't worry, I"m not even going to try and make a rhyme out of it. It's just a handy title because it's Christmas Eve. We don't have a lot to do because we're travelling tomorrow to have dinner with family. And I WON"T go into that particular saga, I"ll be here all day. But my sister is driving me crazy. It's our first Christmas without Dad, which will be hard enough for everyone, but she's made it all so much harder than it needed to be. And she's winding up about Mum being alone tomorrow night, after all the Christmas stuff is said and done. The thing is, my mother is FINE. She's actually pretty resilient and probably hasn't even thought about it. But that doesn't stop my sister from rambling at me on the phone about it. Grr. Grr. Grr.
So I'm calling a time-out today. I'm going to work on the cat picture for the baby's room and do my Lord of the Rings marathon that I've been promising myself.
Merry Christmas.

Monday I have Friday on my mind

The Friday at the end of this week, not last week. Because AFTER this Friday, I have three days off (woo hoo!). Saturday (obviously), Sunday, because there's no paper on Christmas Day AND I'm rostered off on Christmas Day. I want to work all the other stats but wanted Christmas off because it's Mum's (and our) first Christmas without Dad.
We're going to name the baby after him _ we've already started calling him Patrick.
So it'll be Patrick Ross, after my Dad and J's Dad. He's started to move around a bit more, and really seems to like it when I'm at work, for some reason. I think of him as practising for being a person out in the world :)
I have Plans for the weekend and I just hope the Universe is looking in the other direction, otherwise something will happen and I'll end up running around like a chicken.
We don't have a tree up yet, because of the cats, so Saturday's to-do is putting up the tree and wrapping presents :)
Sunday, I'm planning an LOTR marathon and some stitching. Monday, of course, is Christmas and we'll be with family, so all bets are off for Monday.
I signed up for the Beta-blogger thingy which seems to be working...
That's all I have for now. :)

Queen of the Post-Its

My computer desk is blooming in pink and yellow. I've taken to writing down everything. EEEEEEEEverything. Because otherwise, things fall through the hole in my baby-brain. And, shockingly, I still have Stuff To Do. I can't just sit around on the couch all day and all night, throwing things at poor J. I still have to work, and stuff like that. Who knew?
Anyway. The anatomy scan.
All is well. Heart, brain, kidneys, all functioning normally (yay!). And *ahem* ... I was wrong. And my mother was right.
I thought the baby was a girl. But nope. It's a boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So I was a bit shocked to start with, but at the very top of my list, is the fact that he's healthy. Anything else? Don't care.
It has felt like go go go this week, and it seems like we've hardly been home. So we're not going anywhere today; apart from me to work, obviously.
My friend who is over from Aussie and I went up to Dunedin on Wednesday to catch up with another friend and we had fun, getting out and about on the road.
Did my usual pilgrimage to the University Bookshop, although we didnt' spend enough time there, as far as I was concerned. Then on to Baby City and Arbuckles, where I got some stuff for baby.
Back home, and we had to take Piper to the vet. She has a skin infection on her shoulder, which means antibiotics AND anti-inflammatories. So many kinds of yay, I can't describe them all.
Peace out.

Yay!

The midwife came today and the baby's heartbeat is as strong as ever :) Also, he/she is moving around really well. For some reason, I had it lodged in my brain that the heartbeat had stopped for some reason. I think because I know I"ve been lucky so far and so I keep expecting something bad to happen. Tragic, but true.
I have felt little 'flutterings' though. So that's good as well :)
The anatomy scan is Monday and we're both looking forward to that; hopefully baby will be co-operative so we can find out what we're having _ then I'm going shopping!!!!!
What else. Work is fine. I've given up on waiting to hear about the job. It'll either happen, or it won't. That's it. So that's a whole bunch of stress I've managed to let go of (I hope!).
The cats are all well and happy; although they really have nothing to complain about!
I'm still working away on the iris for my friend's wedding next year, and she's FINALLY set a date (hooray!)
What else. Eh, I got nothing. :p