2ND ROUND OF CROSSING FINGERS

meh....  after yesterday's stress out, today WILL be the day we find out if the sale goes unconditional.

I just hope we don't have to wait till almost 5pm!  That would just suck big time.

To keep myself occupied I'm going to go do some more packing.  I might go to the Pottery Class too.

And that is all I have for now... catch ya later.

ONWARD...

12.22 pm:  I've kept myself busy this morning... trying not to clock watch!
I took myself off to Pottery class and had a lovely 2 hours chatting and seeing what others were making.

 ABOVE:  One lady had made this largish pot, but wasn't sure what to do with it next.  I told her I'd 'bling it out'!  So then I had to show her what I meant.
The tutor took my earrings and attached them to the rim of the pot.  The lady who made the pot didn't like it, but I sure did.  *smiles*
Of course, now I have to sterilise me earrings before I can wear them again.  lol

ABOVE:  a few more projects on the go... the bowl is something I would make.  It's similar to pots I've made in the past.

After class I took myself off to Whitford and bought an item of clothing that I can wear ONCE I've dropped 30 kilos!  Nothing like inspiration and a goal to work towards eh?

So, it's now lunchtime and I might just investigate what's to eat in the house.  z

I have a  sinking feeling.  Our Estate Agent can't get hold of the buyer... she's left messages and not heard a thing.  Does not sound like he's got his finance if you ask me.

Our 2nd buyer is chasing up on what's happening as well... If we hear nothing by 5 pm, the house goes to the next buyer.  

And then we have to wait again.  OMG can this get any more stressful.

UPDATE:  1st buyer needs more time to raise finance.
2nd buyer is pissed off and wants out of his contract.

I'M DONE. I am not going to even blog about this anymore.  I'm just DONE.

The 2nd buyer... (with the back up contract) has cancelled the contract. He got angry with having to wait. So now we are up shit creek with a buyer who may or may not get finance by NEXT WEEK SOMETIME. TOTALLY over it, upset and don't even want to think about it anymore.

FINGERS CROSSED FOR TODAY

Obviously, the biggest thing on our minds today is... will our buyer get his finance and be able to go 'UNCONDITIONAL' on our home?

If he can't get his finance, we have to then go on to our 'back up' offer, and then wait another 6 days to see if HIS offer goes unconditional.

It's all IF IF IF.... 

My toe is still bloody sore.  Wasn't too bad overnight thanks to Tramadol.

After lunch today I'm picking up some wool for Bex, she won it on Trademe from a lady just up the road from me.

I shall drop it off to her after I take Tallulah to the groomers.  Next week is Coco's turn to be groomed.

So, that's me plans for the day... trying to keep busy and not dwell on the IF'S.... time will sort that out.  I'm prepared for the 1st offer to fall over.  I will be upset, but there is nothing I can do about the outcome, be it good or bad.

If it's good... I will be so happy though.

ONWARD...

I have a feeling that we won't know if the house sale is going unconditional till the last minute!  I'm sweating buckets.  Trying not to stress out.

I will go out soon to drop Tallulah off at the groomers... hoping I don't get stuck in traffic on the way home.

My tummy is doing flip flops!

3.51 pm:  No news.  I was lucky and managed to get both dogs groomed today.
I'm now home and clock watching. 
If he doesn't get his finance by 5pm, his contract falls over.

And I will be beyond livid.  I hate, hate, hate this waiting.

I JUST got a text from our Agent.  She got the day wrong!  We WON'T find out until TOMORROW!!!


OMG I'm so crabby now!

Only good thing?  I've probably lost a kilos cos I've not been able to eat today, except for an Easter Egg at Bex's.

BRING. ON. TOMORROW.  sorry for making everyone wait... NOT MY FAULT.  *sniff, sniff*

Another anxious day to look forward to tomorrow.  Oh Yaaaa.

KIDS STILL HOME

Easter may be over for most people, but not school kids.
Well... MY school kids at least.

They have today off as well.  So, I might just have to set them some tasks to do around here.
Make them earn their pocket money and all that.

After doing a few jobs around here this morning, we might go out for  lunch.  We will see.

I just want today to go FAST.  Tomorrow our 1st house contract is supposed to go unconditional... and the suspense is killing me!

I just hope it's not a repeat of 9 months ago... that would totally piss me off I can tell you.

How about a few cute photos of Archer?  Yeah, why not...

ABOVE:  I got that bike from the hospice shop a long time ago.  Sadly I must have packed up the power cord to charge it up... so the boys can only sit on it and be pushed around right now.

They don't seem to mind luckily.

ABOVE:  The person having to push it might mind though!  I know I can't do it, my back won't let me bend over like that at all right now.

So... time to go and find some jobs for my kids to do, and I will go down to the dungeon and find stuff to take to the Hospice Shop.  I'm sure by the time I've finished there is going to be heaps that ain't going to make it to our new home in Hamilton.  ONCE we have a new home!

ONWARD...

3.11 PM...I've been packing a few boxes.  I'm taking a break now:

ABOVE:  I managed to trip over a fan on the floor in my wardrobe, and it kinda cut down through the top of me toe till it was halfway through my nail.
It bled HEAPS... so I might just have to go to the Dr.  It's literally cut my toe in half from the top down to the middle of the nail.  Ikkky.  

And it kinda HURTS! 

As I have to have a diabetes check up this week... I will get the nurse to check out me toe then.  Right now it's kinda gone numb.  Brylee put a dressing on it and taped it up to the toes either side of it to make it stable.

I doubt I will get a tetnus injection... cos the last time I had one I had a nasty reaction to it.

I got a massive swollen arm, with a large, red,  hard lump for over a month.  So... NAH.

So frustrated.  There is so much I want to get done... thought the toe was fine, it had stopped bleeding.

Then I needed to go piddles... so hobbled up the hallway to the loo... and looked down at the offending toe.  It's clearly pissing out blood again!  Grrrrrr.  

So, I'm sitting on the couch from hell (it's SO uncomfortable) with me foot up on a dining room chair.  *sigh*

OMG I can't wait to be able to get our comfy lazy boy chairs back!

Well... it's the end of the day and I think I'm in for a long night.  My toe is really, really sore, bound to bother me overnight.
Oh well... shit happens.

DON'T MESS WITH ME

So... on our way to McDonald's last night, we were waiting at the lights right outside/beside McDonalds.   Waiting to turn and go into the car park and have dinner.

This man was standing at the side of the road, he was a 'window washer'... you know...  A person who comes up to your car at the lights and tries to wash your windscreen for money.

Anyway, this guy comes up to our car and starts pouring water on our windscreen.  Stew and I both wave our hands indicating 'NO' ... we don't want him to wash our windscreen.


He kept pouring his water on and was trying to wash the windscreen, so Stew turned on the windscreen washers.

That idiot kept trying to wash the windscreen, mouthing off at us, trying to dodge our wipers with his squeegee!

Then he seemed to get the message and walked in front of our car, and I thought he was going to leave us alone.

But NO, he then tries washing MY side of the windscreen!  By then I was really incensed, so I grabbed my phone and tried to get a photo of him.  

ONLY then did he leave our car alone!

Man was I mad.  We got into the McDonald's and I rang the cops to make a complaint.  I'd heard on the radio that was what you were supposed to do if a windscreen washer was annoying or intimidating.

After watching that man annoy heaps more people in cars at the intersection right outside the McDonalds, a 'mufti' cop car arrived and the cop spoke to him, gave him a ticket and confiscated his bottle and squeegee washer.  The guy then left the area.

He had it coming I tell ya.  I am sick to death of them harassing me and others at intersections.

So that was our little 'drama' last night!

I'm hoping today to get a few things done around the house, as I didn't get much done at all yesterday.
I always start out with best intentions, but sometimes they just fizzle out by the time I get going in the morning.

It's lovely that Stew is still home, he can spend some time relaxing.  I shall try not to load him up with jobs!  *smiles*

ONWARD...

1.30 pm:  It's been a lovely quiet day so far.  All I've done is teach Griffin how to make waffles, and clean up the mess afterwards.

He gets to make them again next weekend ON HIS OWN.  That might be interesting.

Sadly my back is still giving me grief... so frustrating.  I know it will come right in a few more days, then I can get on with some bigger jobs  around here.

Some cute photos of Dante that I took last night:

ABOVE:  he has really enjoyed staying for a sleep over.  Stew got woken at 7.30 with Dante yelling "Granddad" in his face!  ha ha.

Dinner was a really yummy chicken/bacon pasta dish.  It went down really well with everyone, with leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

HAMILTON YESTERDAY

Yeah,  so we went to Hamilton yesterday, saw Amanda, Kelly and Russell and grandkids.  I took a 'few' photos:

ABOVE: Our adorable little Liam.  He's a real character.  It was just so lovely when I arrived,  he immediately ran at full speed into my arms.  I got heaps of hugs and kisses. ♥ 

ABOVE:  Liam, Emily and Keera, eating food they helped themselves to, out of the pantry.  Cute little buggers.

 ABOVE:  Kelly and Keera having a cuddle.

 ABOVE: Liam on Amanda's walking frame.  She broke a bone in her foot playing netball a few weeks ago!

 ABOVE:  4 of my five granddaughters.... There was another little girl in the photo, Kelly was babysitting her and her toddler sister.  Rena is holding Lady, Amanda's little dog.

 ABOVE:  Amanda looking less then glamorous in her moon boot.  Dreadful photo sorry!

 ABOVE:  Amanda sells Younique makeup, so I asked her to put some on me....

and she did this! ....

ABOVE:  She drew all over my face with an permanent felt pen!!!!   I was like "What the fuck are you doing???"

So then she showed me... she used these wipes:

ABOVE:  SHINE wipes... it took off the felt pen in a single swipe!  Amazing.  I have ordered some. 

ABOVE: Little Liam enjoyed cuddling up to his Granddad for ages.

So, that's all from yesterday.
Today?  Well we were supposed to be having an Open Home, but all the Estate Agents cancelled on us.  So hopefully we don't get anyone turning up on the doorstep to view the house this afternoon.  

The only visitors today should be Steve, Bex and the boys.  

I'm going to do a bit of packing of kitchen stuff I don't use, and some china, glasses etc.  

I have so much more energy now that I'm getting a decent night's sleep!  I feel ALIVE again.

ONWARD... 

OMG have I not been on here ALL DAY!!!

Well... we have been happily lazy.  Took the family to McDonald's in Greenlane for dinner.  The guys and Bex chose to 'design' their own burgers... you can at that McDonald's store.
This was Stew's:

 ABOVE:  It was HUGE!!!! He had to halve it and eat it with a knife and fork!    I still have not tried the design your own burger at Mc Donalds.
Anyway, after dinner we went home with Dante in tow, and Steve, Bex and Archer went home too.

They will come back tomorrow and pick up Dante.

Stew and I watched 'Saving Mr Banks' on the TV tonight, it made me cry again at the end.  I love that movie.  Anything with Tom Hanks in, is awesome as far as I'm concerned.

There was a little bit of 'drama' kind-of at Mc Donald's tonight too.  More on that tomorrow.

Time for bed.  I'm looking forward to getting a good night's sleep again.  *smiles*

SATURDAY OF EASTER... MIGHT GO OUT

Our plans are pretty up in the air for today.  We are thinking of going for a tiki tour somewhere a bit later on in the day.

As we don't have an Open Home tomorrow now, we can actually relax for the weekend.

Yaaaa.

Some photos from yesterday:

 ABOVE:  Steve annoying the shit outta Bex... which he does A LOT.  lol

ABOVE:  Happy wee Archer, smiling at his brother.

 ABOVE:  TEDDY!  With Stew and Shane.

 ABOVE: Shane, Gayle and Teddy.  They are just the most loving family.  We are so lucky they could adopt him... and we still get visiting rights!  It's like an 'Open Adoption'.  *smiles*

 ABOVE:  The boy of the hour.  I think he loved visiting us.  Coco sure loved him, she wanted to play, but he didn't.  Tallulah didn't like him at all, and at one point she tried to bite him, so she was banished to the hallway.  Naughty girl.

 ABOVE: Coco with Gayle.  

 ABOVE:  Our evening visitors... Karen on the left and her friend Margaret on the right.  They had spent hours and hours on a bus coming up the country for the 'Mrs Brown's Boys' Show at Vector Arena.  They are going to the show tonight.

ABOVE:  I got spoilt!  Karen brought up some funky fabric for me.  Lots of batiks which I love.  THANK YOU Karen, you rock.

OK, that's all I've got for now, I'll be back later.

ONWARD...

5.44 pm:  Well, we ended up going to Hamilton for the day!
We visited and/or saw all three kids that live there, and grandkids too.
It was lovely. 

We also viewed two houses that were on the 'list'... but neither were suitable.  

Lunch at The Base was crazy... never seen the mall so busy before!  

I've taken a few photos of kids ... but will post them tomorrow as right now all I feel like doing is relaxing.

We are having left overs for dinner, so no work involved, yaaa.

YET ANOTHER BIRTHDAY!

Sleeping in.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Kelly.  We hope you have a lovely day.

Yes, I slept in... till 9.40 ish!
It was wonderful.

It's Good Friday?,  I ACTUALLY KNOW THAT ANON.  So what?

I'm not a religious person at all, so to me it's just another holiday.  *smiles*

Each to there own.  I won't force my opinions on you, and you can keep yours to yourself too.

We are expecting Steve, Bex and the boys sometime this morning.  I will be making scones for lunch.

Then this evening we have visitors from Wellington for dinner.  I better go and get something out of the freezing for dinner!  

OOOOH we have had the most lovely day so far!

The kids were here for lunch, then Teddy and his Mum and Dad came for afternoon tea too.
They stayed for a lovely long visit, it was just so nice to spend some time with them all.

I took photos, but might have to wait until tomorrow to post them, as we have more visitors due soon.

Karen and her friend from Wellington have come up to go to 'Mrs Brown's Boys' in the city.  They are here for dinner.

I'm making beef 'n' bacon pies and veges.

Our last visitors for the day duly arrived and we spent a few hours happily yakking, eating dinner and so on.
They have now been taken into the city by Stew and the kids while I stay home with the dogs.  

I will post some photos tomorrow, right now I'm hot and tired, and off to bed very soon.

EASTER HOLIDAY STARTS

The kids school is closed today, they start their Easter Break early.  AND they don't go back till Wednesday next week.

So a whole week off.  I wonder what I can do to keep them occupied?  Hmmmm... maybe some packing?

lol  I'm sure they will love that.

Depending on how my back feels today, I might do some sewing, get that cushion finished.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how it looks with the other two.

Some good news... I'm sleeping again!  Such a relief after having broken sleep for months.  Thank god for Amitriptyline!  I am sure it's easier to cope with stress if you are not exhausted all the time.  

Well... that's it for the day so far... pretty short post!

ONWARD...

Grrrr... our Open Home has to be cancelled this weekend after all.  The Agents who were going to be running it can't... so looks like we are going to have a quiet weekend.
I should be happy, but I'm not.  We've  had several 'drive bys' this week, and two ladies standing outside the house for ages looking at the house.

Hopefully if they are interested enough they will book a viewing instead.

It's very quiet  here today.  The kids are doing their own thing, and I'm just sitting on the couch nursing my sore back.  

ABOVE:  I got the applique' cushion finished.  It's pretty yes?
I was going to make another one, but I think I might not.  More is less and all that eh.

ANOTHER BIRTHDAY!

Well it's been a week of them!
And not to be forgotten... our darling Teddy is celebrating his birthday today.

ABOVE:  Happy 8th Birthday darling.  Hope to see you this coming weekend with your family.

There's a few things I hope to get done today.  One is a visit to Spotlight to get a zip and cushion inner for the applique cushion I'm making to match the other two lounge cushions.

I'm popping over to our storage unit in Botany to see if I can find my other lounge cushions (in a box)... hopefully I won't have to buy another cushion inner?

After that I've got to drop off a form in Manurewa, I'll probably have to stand in a freakin' queue for half an hour just to drop it off knowing my luck.  *sigh*

Then I can come home and finish that little cushion, then show you.  Yaaa.

I might pick up a few more boxes from Stationary Warehouse too.  There's heaps of stuff I want to start packing up... you know... JUST in case we actually DO sell this house!

ONWARD...

1.40 pm:  and I've had a successful morning.  Got all me little jobs done while out.
The weather is stormy, wind and rain... and COOL!!!  I'm loving it.

I ain't doing any packing... my back is giving me massive grief right now.  Grrrr.
If it's not one thing, it's another eh?

We have not heard any more from our 1st buyer, he's been working on getting his finance for the past few days.  Something tells me it's not going well.
I'm literally waiting for that contract to fall over.

Our weekend plans have changed.  Because there is a massive advert for our home in the latest Property Press (Front Cover and Full Page ad)... we are having an Open Home after all.
Our Estate Agent is going away, so we shall be having two other agents from Barfoot and Thompson running our Open.

Our 1st buyer is still waiting for his valuations, hence the hold up.  He still MIGHT have an answer by the end of the week.  Who knows... miracles can happen!

When Stew got home we went out for dinner to Carl's Junior.  I was disappointed, all I wanted was some of their crisscut fries, and they had none.  

We went to KMart and bought a couple of wheat bags for my back too.  I don't know if they will do any good, but it's worth a try.

HOSPICE RUN

This morning I'm going to go through stuff that's in the dungeon (storage room under house), and get ruthless.
Anything that's not 'precious', is going to the Hospice Shop.

Now that I'm living in a fairly sterile house (ornament/clutter wise), I'm actually enjoying it!
I realise now that I have far too many useless bits 'n' bobs.  I shall only be keeping what is really precious or that I LOVE.

So that should be fun eh?  Nothing like de-cluttering.

After lunch I have a Dr's appointment.  Time to get my medications sorted out.  I want to get some decent sleep again!

So that's me day sorted out I suppose.  Expecting a Builder to arrive either today or tomorrow to do a builder's report for our 2nd 'buyer'.

***HAPPY BIRTHDAY to RENA***, 8 TODAY!

ONWARD...

I've been productive today:

ABOVE:  I finally made the 2nd cushion... AND feather stuffed inners to fit.  What a job!  I had to cut open the feather pillows I'd bought and drag the feathers out and stuff them into the new cushion inners.  Feathers EVERYWHERE.  Luckly I had the foresight to do it in the garage.

The mess was fairly easy to vacum up.

I'm now going to make a little applique cushion to match the two bigger ones, then I'll be done.

ABOVE:  Tallulah's latest favourite sleeping position.  Very cute.

Before I forget again... here's a few photos of Dante doing his bit to get the house ready of Open Home on Sunday:

ABOVE:  He did a very good job.  Cute little bugger.

7.23 pm:  Well my Dr's visit went very well.  I'm back on Amitryptiline, and off the 'new' antidepressant and Clonidine.  
I hope that within a few days I am back sleeping at night, and the hot flushes ease again.
While I was there, I had my quarterly diabetes blood test... Yaa me!  Usually I get the form and kinda put it off for a few weeks.  Not this time.  I did it right there and then.

I cooked a delicious chicken rice risotto for dinner... and there's enough left over for Stew's lunch tomorrow too.  Score.

Looking forward to a quiet evening and a good night's sleep.  Fingers crossed.

OUT 'N' ABOUT

First thing this morning I'm taking Griffin down to the train station to catch a train into the city.  He's on a class photography trip all day.
I bet he has fun.

I will be picking him up this afternoon.

This week will be tense... waiting to hear if our 1st buyer has got his finance or not.  Never ending stress.

The stress is wrecking havoc on my health.  I'm going to try and see the Dr today, I need to get something to help me sleep.  I literally wake up every hour... all night long.  Hot flushes... they have come back really bad since I stopped taking Amitriptyline.  I am sure I need to go back on it... it helped me sleep and eased the hot flushes.

If it's not one thing it's another eh?

ABOVE:  Yeah.  I feel like that.  17 YEARS today since we lost my brother Vern.  I can't believe it's been that long.  Feels like yesterday.

Right, I better go and get dressed, sort the kids out and get Griffin to the train station on time.  It will probably take me 30 minutes in rush hour traffic to get him there, when 'normally' it would take me about 5 minutes to get there.
Auckland traffic sucks.

ONWARD...

2.00 pm:  I decided to go back to bed after dropping Griffin at the train station.
I fell asleep.  And.... I JUST woke up!!!!!

OMG.  Now I'm NEVER going to sleep tonight.  Dammit.

Looks like we have two more interested viewers on our house, as I've just had to send our Builder's Report off to two new people!  I couldn't be happier.

I just have to share... Bex crocheted a hat for Archer last night:

ABOVE:  How adorable is our youngest grandson!

I pulled finger tonight and cooked a lovely roast lamb chop dinner.  Then we just chilled watching tv for the evening.