Erm, Surprise!

To be fair, a lot has been going on. Although, to be equally fair, I have most definitely dropped the ball some in the blogging department.

Although while we're being fair, I dropped the ball because I got one hell of a shock during December, and it's very hard to keep holding the ball under those sorts of circumstances. Especially when I find it hard to hold the ball under normal circumstances, being quite the unco ginger.

Sometime around the time of my last post, we were making excellent inroads into the property and we were generally nose to it - chasing a 2 year old 24/7 (which incidentally feels more like 48/14, or even 96/28), trying to make visible progress on the property, working hard at our jobs and looking forward to the end of the year, holding our collective breath after what was possibly the worst year on record that things were quieting down some.

Yeah.

Then one day I noticed a couple of things ...

My strength was failing me when I tried to pick Cuinn up and carry him. He'd gotten suddenly ridiculously heavy.

I could hardly make it up the stairs without spending a few minutes trying to get my breath back once I made it to the top.

Chocolate made my eyes cross, and not in a good way.

My period was late.

Obviously a good 7 years down the track with a natural fertility more in the range of zero than anything else, I was just irritated that my body wasn't falling back into line after the embryo transfers rather than considering any other option. For about a week, and then it all started to get a bit long-winded and extra irritating. And I started feeling extra crap to go with it. And Fireman Sam made me cry. I'm not generally a person who cries, unless I'm chopping onions. It was very embarrassing. Thankfully the only witness to said blubbering was the little ginger who thinks crying is absolutely hilarious.

Several days later the husband decided that for goodness sake, we needed to do a pregnancy test so that we could book an obstetrician if one was needed.

Yeah, yeah, whatever.

It was a good couple of weeks down the track that I actually bought one and that was honestly because, literally, Christmas was coming. If the world had indeed turned on its head, I did in actual fact need to do something about booking an obstetrician.

Bless, thankfully I bought a 3 pack of the things because I did the first one upside down. Seriously. I triumphantly announced it to be negative (so THERE husband, it WAS a waste of money, I TOLD YOU SO) until I looked a bit more closely and noticed that there was no control line on the test either, and actually, the arrows for the test bit pointed at the opposite direction to the one I ... ah ... anointed? Bollocks.

No rush though. I left the box with the other two on the bench to do whenever, which from memory was either later that day or maybe even the next day. I was still very much not in the remotest bit invested in the possibility of being pregnant.

So, a day later say, I did the second test.

And hell-o.

And then, because I wasn't convinced, I drank half the Wellington water supply and did another one.

Definitely quite the pregnant ginger I was.

My first thought was ... actually best we skip my first thought because this is a family show and all. So, my second thought was that I was, officially, a cliche. Although, to be fair, it shoots right out of the water the theory that all one has to do to get pregnant is relax because, just harking back to possibly the worst year in the history of the ginger, we weren't 'specially relaxed I can tell ya.

Anywho, moving on, as you do, yesterday we went for our first obstetrician visit, without having done so much as a blood test to actually confirm the home pregnancy test results. Quite the novelty when pregnancy and trying to get pregnant in recent years has involved much blood taking, drugging, monitoring, counting of days, scans and wotnot. Of course, not having been through any of the processes I'm both used to and now quite comfortable with, it made it quite difficult to process, but yesterday there it was - a very wiggly little baby, measuring 11 weeks, 4 days, screwing around on the monitor (seriously, I'm pretty sure it gave us the fingers), with a lovely strong heartbeat, and our new obstetrician (who showed us the baby twice and said it was twins, the evil sod) won't be held to it, but is reasonably confident it's a girl.

And that, pals of mine, is why things have been quite of late. The husband and I have been far too busy starting blankly alternately at each other and at nothing in particular in a state of shock because, to be really honest, we were pretty sure we were a done family of three. And, of course, little gingers make me horribly, horribly ill. Horribly. Horrible little gingers. It's hard to blog when you're praying to the porcelain God day in, day out.

It went a little like this ...

The beginning ... (there's also the blog pic to the right)

The middle ...

New step courtesy of a couple of railway sleepers. Eeeasy peasy!! (Unless you want to talk about said railway sleepers causing the trailer to flip while we were going around the corner on a busy road at a busier intersection, buggering the trailer somewhat and requiring us to try and fit said sleepers into the back of a station wagon to get them home, in which case, not so easy peasy at all)

The end ...

Hanging baskets of rosemary.

Our friend Mr Fugly who's keeping the lavendar company.

And the lavender, because we do have a special place in our hearts for lavender (plus I'm practising taking better photos). There's a special place in our tummies too, as it happens. Cuinn's always been a fan, for reasons known only to him, and he even ate the lavender cutting I'd taken from another bush in the garden on the way to the garden centre, then spent the rest of the way there affirming to us 'nom nom nom!'

A big boy haircut and an iceblock

Firstly, this was the head of hair - gorgeous moppy little ginger kid. But, his poor head was getting sooo hot, and it was stupidly tricky keeping a hat on him, so off to the barber we went. The unfortunate creature that he's got in a death-grip there is a kitten we found down on the rocks by the river when we were out walking last weekend. Unfortunately our older animals are all getting a wee tad too grumpy with young 'uns for him to stay with us, so he went off on Tuesday to find a new home. The little ginger thought it was absolute magic, although it was all a bit stressful because I had to keep saving its life - he was rather inclined to cart around by the neck.

The depressing result of the trip to the barber.

And his first iceblock - it went down so well, there wasn't even mess. Took him about 10 minutes to scarf the thing, start to finish.

Stuff that's happening

The ginger kid got a climbing frame (to replace the playhouse we pulled down because it was grooooooooss. And knackered. And stinky), and spent some very happy time helping the husband put it together.

There are a good 10 million other photos to post. I will make time. I promise!

Again with the bullet points

- I ordered all the curtains for the downstairs last week, paid a 50% deposit and was generally pleased.
- Until I got a phone call telling me that the fabric had been discontinued and they couldn't supply enough fabric to make my curtains.
- They're coming back tomorrow with more fabric samples.
- The first fabric I chose was perfect.
- Poos.
- We paid an astronimical amount of money to have the tree that was about to fall down cut down.
- Turns out they under quoted by more than half because it was a really dodgy tree.
- Thank heavens for quotes.
- I still feel a little bit guilty though.
- I bought them some beers to say ta.
- I think they'd probably have preferred having a cherry-picker on site and not being afraid for their lives for about 3 hours.
- Bummer.
- The tree guys told us that the tree was one good wind away from splitting completely and falling down, and it would've taken the side of our house and the sunroom out if it had.
- There was a pretty impressive storm the other night.
- Phew.
- The peach tree came right out of the ground and there was nothing wrong with that.
- Except shallow roots, apparently.
- It makes me a bit nervous when the neighbours are letting off really big fireworks to the background music of bottles clinking into the recycling bin.
- If any of them hit my house, I'm going to plant Wandering Dew in his lawn in the middle of the night.
- He has an awesome lawn.
- Wandering Dew will be excellent punishment.
- Assuming that his rottie doesn't eat me.
- Note to self to take dog treats if Wandering Dew is required.
- We do actually like the neighbours.
- I won an awesome Fun Ho! giant dump truck on Trademe for Cuinn the other day and I'm very excited about it.
- Jazz cat has been out and about, but is still being locked in the house at night.
- I wanted to keep her in for another week, but she was starting to get miserable.
- She seems to be really enjoying the grounds.
- We thought that the dogs would take quite a while to settle, based on a past move.
- They're happy as happy things.
- Excellent.
- It's really entertaining to watch the dogs run laps around the house at top speed chasing each other.
- They also think that the river is the business.
- I bought a persian rug.
- It was 70% off and I loooove it.
- YAY ME!
- We went to Plum (a historically awesome Wellington cafe) the other day, and they've ruined it. It's all shiny and beautiful and everything matches.
- We were most disgusted.
- I have it on good authority (chur Pal Nikki) that Olive will be a suitable replacement for cafe awesomeness.
- I'll let you know.
- We had a marvellous time poking around Petone stores yesterday, then we took Cuinn down to the water to chase seagulls.
- He chased them right into the water.
- Oops.
- Apparently from his perspective, that just added to the seagull-chasing fun.
- I'm making inroads into the dirt, slowly, and things are getting organised.
- We're getting a quote for a re-wire at the moment.
- Especially after we blew the fuse and it took my new computer with it.
- 2 days after the computer arrived.
- ARGH!
- We've got a quote for a heat pump.
- We won't be doing much else except weeding for a while after we do those two big uns.
- I'm really tired.
- REALLY tired.
- I'm trying to remember all the things we've done so that I can bring you up to speed, and all I can think about is going to bed.
- We haven't seen the wood pigeon for a few days.
- We're a bit disappointed about that.
- Although at least the cars aren't covered in undigested berries.
- That's a bonus.
- We got a letter from Fertility Plus yesterday about the embryo transfers, telling us what will happen with the next one when we move ahead with it.
- It seems like a lifetime ago that we were having embryo transfers.
- I feel weird about it for no known reason.
- The husband put up a new washing line the other day and it's seriously in the most awesome spot ever.
- Or it could be that anywhere in Wellington is an awesome spot to dry your washing. Quite windy here it is.
- I really should just go to bed and try to think of the important stuff we've done tomorrow.
- Oh! But before I do, the neighbour wants to drop our chimney and remove our fire place, which is an excellent idea in theory, except it seems that the wooden floors don't go all the way under the fireplace.
- I have no idea what to do about the floor if we do get the chimney and fireplace removed.
- Tiles maybe?
- We're going to put deco lightshades through the entire house.
- Heh.
- I found an awesome pink dome one on Trademe last night.
- Heh heh.
- I'm not joking.
- I'm going to bed.
- Night!

The stories I could tell

Thank heavens for bullet points.

- The people who owned this house before us lived here for 15 years. I think it was last cleaned just before they moved in.
- The oven was so disgusting we had to throw it out.
- Both toilets need to be replaced. Fortunately the worst one was near a sink, which was handy for throwing up in when I tried to clean it.
- They built the kitchen around the fridge. I kid you not. The fridge was so stinky we bought a new one of those too, except as I found out yesterday when the new one was delivered, the kitchen went up around the fridge and it has to be dismantled to be removed. So I now have a new fridge in my lounge and the old one still sitting in its cavity waiting to be dismantled.
- They took all the sink plugs.
- All of them.
I kid you not.
- They also took the light fitting from the master bedroom.
- I emptied the vacuum 3 times doing the master bedroom. The master bedroom isn’t that big. I emptied it twice doing the bedroom opposite, and that’s only a little over a door width wider than a queen sized bed. Thank heavens there are only 2 carpeted areas in the house.
- I scrubbed the stairs old schools (on hands and knees with a scrubbing brush) and I’ve never seen water turn that colour before.
- I also slid down them shortly afterwards because I scrubbed off all the filth/grip.
- Whoops.
- Cuinn absolutely loves the hideously over-grown garden. He also loves that he can throw something into the greenery in front of the deck and it disappears from view. There’s now a lot of stuff in the greenery in front of the deck.
- The inside walls of the house need to be yellow.
- I really want a Persian rug, or something like it for the lounge. We were going to carpet, but have decided to go for a rug instead.
- Persian rugs, or anything like them are REALLY expensive.
- Poo.
- I still want one.
- This house loves clutter. That’s going to take some getting used to.
- The weather has been absolutely beautiful since we arrived.
- All the fuses in the house come to a single point. Thank heavens said point has a circuit breaker.
- There is no washing line.
- You can’t run the dryer if anything else in the house is on, or it blows the fuses for the entire house.
- I don’t like the way the circuit board crackles.
- A rewire is not going to wait.
- The previous owners say they are going to get all their crap out of the garage on Saturday. I don’t believe them, so I’ve ordered a skip for Sunday.
- Just joking.
- Sort of.
- I was told that putting vanilla essence in a dish and placing it in a room helps to absorb smell, so I tried it. It works fantastically, and this house smelled really bad.
- If you use the vanilla trick, don’t try sniffing the vanilla to see how well it worked.
- I can’t find our electric jug, all my baking trays or a particular saucer, and I’ve unpacked all the kitchen stuff.
- That’s not good.
- I’ll post pictures once a box pick-up has been done by the movers because at the moment, all you can see is boxes (and the new fridge in the middle of the lounge) so there’s no point.
- Caffeind in Petone does excellent coffee.
- I ripped my favourite jeans yesterday.
- The previous owner provided me with measurements to get curtains for the upstairs bedrooms because the house came with no curtains at all, just some knackered wooden blinds.
- She buggered up the measurements for one room.
- I had very expensive curtains shortened too short. Like, 15 cm odd off the ground.
- Am spectacularly furious.
- Unless curtains are deliberately short (fall below the windowsill), they look stupid.
- My pear curtains travelled with me from Auckland and now frame the French doors. They look awesome. Home is where the pear curtains are. As soon as they went up, Al and I started to feel better.
- Cuinn’s room is the sunniest in the house, looks awesome (apart from being painted pink, walls and ceiling), and is really cosy. He loves it.
- I need a draught excluder for his door because it finishes about 3cm off the ground.
- I’ve found the perfect one.
- It's expensive.
- Even in pounds.
- Al and I are homesick, but these things take time. We do like it here, we just miss our friends and workmates and workplaces.
- The husband loves his new job – apparently there’s a coffee machine in the smoko room and that’s all that matters.
- There’s no dishwasher, and no room for one.
- I kind of like it.
- At this stage.
- There’s a wicked Chinese takeaway up the road. Uber wicked. Best Chinese takeaway I’ve ever had. Fried rice isn’t oily and vegetables are perfectly cooked. Most impressed.
- I've had Chinese takeaways twice this week.
- I also want a door stop to match the draught excluder.
- The credit card is willing, but the husband will squeak.
- We really miss our dogs and our cat, but by the time they arrive on Friday night, the house will be set up and our influence will be stronger than the last owners’ and hopefully their stress will be less.
- I’ve only heard one car travel fast past our house since we arrived.
- There’s a wood pigeon that hangs out in a tree above our driveway.
- Cuinn looooves it.
- Parking a car under where a wood pigeon hangs out is not a good idea.
- The cat door is entirely metal.
- There’s a big rottie next door that the dogs are going to spend much time talking to I imagine.
- There is no TV aerial. Or there is, but it’s knackered.
- Either way, we have bunny-ears in our lounge so we can get kidzone.
- The telephone line had been taken down.
- There are telephone jacks absolutely everywhere.
- They’re really ugly.
- I have no idea how they talked to anyone on the phone with no telephone line.
- I’m going to start repeating myself if I keep going.

I'm hiding in the corner of my kitchen

The final day of packing up my life is in full swing, and I'm trying to stay out from underfoot as a small army of packers loads my life into boxes. There are a LOT of boxes. I had to climb over about 20 just to get to the corner of the kitchen so I could hide, and I only started on the other side of the kitchen.

We decided to camp one more night at the house tonight (should be interesting with the little ginger) and then that's us - on our way to Lower Hutt to meet our container at our new house come Saturday morning.

My house looks weird with nothing in it. It feels friendly, and yet there's no suggestion of the living that's gone on in it. It feels like there should be a suggestion of the living. Although, I just realised I left needle mountain in a kitchen cupboard, and the packers would have come across that sometime yesterday. That's kind of funny - how would you record that on an inventory ... ? Heh.