A house in QLD

So, it’s been nearly 4 months since our last post, and Nathan has grown so much in that short time! Just the other day he rolled over from his tummy to his back. Then today he decided to sleep on his side, twice. His arms and legs are growing strong as he attempts to crawl. And he’s moved in to OO size clothing. He is very alert, tracks people as they move around a room, and is fully of giggles when you play with him (and he isn’t grumpy).

Anyway, God moves in strange and wonderful ways. Tomorrow Sara and I sign the lease for a nice 3 bedroom house, set on 5 acres of property out in Blenheim. For those wondering where Belnheim is, it’s a little spot near Laidley and Forest Hill. There isn’t much point giving out our address ether, Google maps is wrong and can’t find us! We initially applied for a much larger house, essentially a 4 bedroom, 2 study, 2 bathroom, 2 kitchen place. The idea was to rent something large that we could afford by ourselves, so that when Jess and Bunsom get married, they could have a place to stay, or if other people needed a place, the room was there for them. So we applied for this place, up on the hill in Gatton, overlooking town, designed for giants upstairs and hobbits downstairs, recently renovated with a large kitchen and nice new bathroom. The agents approved our application, but the owner knocked us back. Apparently, the owner has knocked back every application in the last few weeks, so we were told by the agents not to be discouraged, and to keep looking at their properties as essentially we were now “pre-approved”. They really liked our application, and strangely enough, most people in the office know who we are now too!

So we kept looking around for houses, visited a few in Toowoomba, had some of them crossed off the list before we even got home as the agents got tenants for them that day! Kept looking through the realestate websites to try and find something that wasn’t dodgy, failing down, or too small. Ideally it needed a big kitchen, and nice large spacey rooms. Then, there was one of the realestate website that we’d been “pre-approved” for, that didn’t have any pictures but sounded nice. So we drove out, had a look from the road, then called the agents, and discovered there was a viewing in an hour! So an hour later we viewed the house with about 5 other families, and really liked it. So did a number of other families from what we heard. We talked to the agents, and thanks to our pre-approval, they could put our application to the owner the same day. And we got it! So thanks to us having applied for a house already, and being knocked back, we got this one even with the competition. God knew what he was doing all along, because had we had to wait for our application to get approved, we would have had to compete, instead God had won the house for us already! AND, it’s about $3000 cheaper a year for us compared to last year, and has gas cooking and hot water, which is something I wanted, and a deep bath for Sara! It’s a very simple country style house, which we rather like. And while the kitchen isn’t anywhere near as big as I would like, it has a large builtin pantry, and has a nice wooden finish. And plenty of space for the kids to run and play in! It has large chook pens already built too, so hopefully we can get some chooks, and have fresh free range eggs!

In other news, our Car is registered and running nicely. It drives nicely on the dirt roads around the place. Sara’s mum thinks it’s a bit of a Tank, which it is, but I like it. I’m slowly settling back into Uni, given that it’s distance ed, it’s taking a lot more effort, and a lot more encouragement from Sara, to keep me going. Also, we got a webcam with birthday money, so now we can Skype people so they can see how Nathan is growing, and changing.

Anyway, that’s all for now. Hopefully our next post won’t be 4 months away, and we’ll get better at keeping updates regular. Feel free to check out some recent photos of Nathan on our Flickr account. http://flickr.com/photos/linuxalien

Tim

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Baby Zelky – 35 Weeks

Well, after many months of waiting to get large enough that people recognise I’m pregnant and not just a little chubby, the time has come. I woke up yesterday with quite a large pronounced belly, and took the opportunity to get Tim to take some belly shots. It’s taken it’s time in showing well, but I really don’t mind. I feel like I’m starting to waddle though. I’m not eagerly wanting bubby to come yet though like I’ve heard many other people remark. Give me a month and I may feel differently. We are now at 35 weeks, so it’s 5 weeks until D day.

I think I’ve just realised how soon that actually is. As we’ve been getting things from people, they’ve been piling up in the spare room/nursery, and just this week we’ve started sorting through everything and making sure that it’s all washed and cleaned. Hanging up load after load of baby clothes really tested the amount of pegs that we have. We’ve been really blessed with the amount of things we’ve been given. We have a good amount of baby clothes, and while most of them are blue, if Zelky proves to be a female, I have no problem dressing her in Thomas outfits. Who am I to say that she doesn’t like cars and planes?

We heard about a baby market in Cannington, which is just about five minutes down the road from where we’re renting so we went and had a look on the weekend. It was incredible. It was basically just people who had tables set up with all of their second hand baby stuff trying to get rid of it, and it was decent stuff. It was also ridiculously cheap. Very helpful. We bought 7 outfits for $3, and then I splurged $4 on an adorable pair of Peter Rabbit denim overalls. While we were there we ran into a couple from our birthing class who told us about a cot, so after sussing it out, we grabbed it for $100. My sister-in-laws were willing to lend me their cots, but I figured we’re going to use it for more than one child, so I really wanted my own. And it’s beautiful. I’m so excited about it. It’s five years old, made in Mandurah, and has been used for two kids. Despite that, it’s in really good condition. I love it.

Our birth classes have been running for three weeks now, and are loads of fun. We are getting along with everyone really well, and they are predominantly younger than I expected them to be. Still in their twenties, early thirties, but its a really relaxed funny environments. The blokes are getting really into it too, which lightens the mood of the whole thing considerably. It’s a very varied group of people, we have couples from Holland, Russia, England, America. We even have a gay couple which was a bit of a shock to me. It’s the one thing I’m looking forward to most weeks now.

Katherine, Tim’s sister, held a baby shower for us on Saturday. She did the whole thing marvellously. The invitations were purple, with a blue strip on them (Apparently it’s quite difficult to do unisex invitations) and the whole night was a lot of fun. We got together with just the family earlier on to have a BBQ which was the first time we’ve had a sit down dinner with all of us in a while. The games were a lot of fun, (imagine trying to convey ‘milk drunk’ with a only a blob of play dough) and it was really good to enjoy everyone’s company. Thanks to you guys who put time and effort into it, and who came along to support us.

We had our last ultrasound this week, just to check on the baby. They noticed at our 18 week scan that the cord was around Zelky’s neck. It’s not a rare thing. It’s just rare for them to pick up on it so early, and for it to stay there through the entire pregnancy. So it’s still wrapped, but only once. Blood flow is good, and it’s not tight, so nobody is worried. It happens in about 20% of pregnancies. Other than that, baby is growing well. They’re estimating the weight at about 2.4kg or 5.3 pounds. It’s head down, optimal position, so all’s go. Everything is fine, no complications, and I’m still a low risk pregnancy. We have a new midwife now who is absolutely lovely. She’s really supportive and very experienced. My mum will be flying into Perth in a month. She’ll be staying for 3 weeks, so we’re hoping bubs will show up somewhere in that time frame.

I had a blood test a week or so ago which showed I have really low iron levels, a big surprise for me. We eat SO MUCH red meat it’s not funny. But apparently our baby likes to steal my red meat supplies too. That explains why I’ve been so tired, but now that we know, we can focus on getting me up to speed again. The test also gave me the best bruise of my entire life, with the exception of that point blank paint ball I got hit with in grade 11. Never going paint balling again.

So that’s been the last week in a very large nutshell. Everything has been baby focused. We’ve been taking quite a bit of time to focus on where we want to be going as a family, and what is important to us, and who knows, we may see some changes come out of that. Life is getting busier, but we don’t expect it to slow down. Not soon anyway.

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Dixon Wedding – 23rd January 2010

Sara and I had the privilege of taking the photos at Jacinta’s wedding earlier this year. While rather nervous about doing the photos (because no one wants to stuff up someones wedding photos), we prepared by taking the camera’s away with us to QLD and playing around with them taking photos of her family.

The day was perfect for photos, slightly overcast (with a few drops of rain when Jacinta and the Bridal Party arrived) which made lighting conditions perfect for photos. Getting the group shots done was a bit of a hassle trying to get all the family members for each shot together, with some people wondering off thinking their photos had finished when they had only just started! Eventually though, it was just us and the bridal party, and the fun photos could begin! We also did the reception photos which was a learning experience, but overall rather rewarding in the end.

I think the most fun though, was going through the 2000 photos when we got home, (some that same night, the rest the next morning), then going through them and editing our favourite ones into artistic shots.

You can see a selection of the photos online, but we ask that you don’t reproduce (print/copy) them without permission. To discourage this we have uploaded lower quality photos, and the original high quality photos have been given to Jacinta. If you wish to make prints, please contact us or Jacinta and I’m sure we’d be more than happy to give you high quality versions at no cost, so you can make decent prints. Commercial use of the photos would be decided on a case by case basis.

Tim

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Away with Billy (The Paj)

Holidays here we come! Off to a late start, but better late than never. We are going away, down south to D’Entrecasteaux National Park, near Pemberton. We are taking our new car, Billy (The Pajero), to try and visit WA’s largest freshwater lake, Lake Jasper. We’ll be back in time for Christmas, but other than that, we are out of contact while on holidays! Boxing day we head to QLD for a few weeks, so you won’t be hearing from us much, or seeing us around much!

Merry Christmas all, enjoy your holidays.

God Bless

Tim, Sara and Zelky

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House Warming – 28th Nov 09

Ok, so this time it SHOULD happen!

House warming, our place, in Queens Park, 28th November 2009. From 5pm till probably about 10pm. All food and drinks provided.

Please let us know if you are coming via phone or email, or the contact form. If you need the address, we’ll give it to you when you let us know that you are coming.

Hope to see you soon!

God Bless

Tim

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