A Weekend Away, and a Visit to the Farm!

I had an amazing weekend that started on Friday night, when I headed down to Mamalas to go out to the Club with her. While there, we had dinner - I had lasagne which was watered down so not terribly delicious - and then headed into the Casino part of the club and played around on the poker machines. Well, she did the playing, I sat and watched and chatted.

Until some dude came past and started hitting on me. Me. A pregnant lady. Though to his own credit, he was rather drunk and so probably did not notice. Moron. I describe him as a tomato with legs, being that he was very short and round, and rather red-faced from the alcohol he'd consumed. Needless to say, I was rather short tempered with him and had no interest in making the conversation he so desperately tried to make.

"How's it going?" he cries, slapping me on the back. I half turn to face him as he's walking around to face me.

"Sorry?" I ask, glaring at him for even thinking it was okay to touch me.

"Oh..." He stutters, clearly not expecting my reaction. "Oh, sorry... Sorry you look like someone I know... With your hair. Sorry."

I nod and he shuffles away, and I hope that's the end of it. Unfortunately, it is not. He ambles around the area through the evening, constantly looking at me and smilng and/or grinning like a freaking moron. Perhaps he was trying to entice me with his yellow tooth stained grin, I have no idea. In any case, it wasn't even remotely attractive and quite frankly I was dreading the next time he spoke to me.

Thankfully it wasn't until we were leaving. On the way over to the cash-out area so Mamala could get her coins magically transformed into notes, he says to me,

"Hey sorry about before! You just remind me of someone!" (he was half shouting, because you know, I'm deaf)

I nod in his general direction.

"I was just being nice!" he continues. "Is that okay?"

"It really doesn't bother me," I said, pretty much looking at him like he was something stuck on the bottom of my shoe.

"Is that okay?!" he asks again in his loud voice. "I was just being friendly!"

"It's fine."

"You remind me of someone.. Do you have a sister? I think you have a twin."

"No." I sigh and roll my eyes.

"Are you sure? I think you have a twin sister. I know someone who looks like you. With the long beautiful hair."

"No," I say, rather impatiently.

At this point, one of the guys who work at the Club comes up to both cash Mamala out, and to rescue me from "Max's niceness". They then proceed to have a conversation about me, because evidently I really DO look like someone else and it wasn't just the drunk guy's imagination. Apparently I resemble some girl who used to work at the Club, and this is who the drunk guy was remembering. This information was not new to me though; both Mamala and my sister Tia told me repeatedly there was my "twin" at the Club and that I should go meet her before she headed off to Darwin. I didn't get to meet her before she left.

So that was my exciting Friday night. D thought it hysterical - of course he would; he gets hit on by the hotties and I get hit on by the tomato-resembling drunks. At least I get to come home and blog about it though; he doesn't have a blog. Ha!

Saturday saw my sister heading to work for the first time in about a year or so. Because she's the new girl at the cafe, she got stuck in the kitchen doing dishes for her entire shift. Apparently that's the way it works for the first week of any newbie's "training". Despite that, she enjoyed it and has decided she'll go back next week.

Beyond that, Mamala and I wandered around the Mall for abit and I picked up a couple of baby clothes - pink singlets actually, one with piglet, pooh and eeyore on the front with the words Best Friends painted on it. Of course I went absolutely gaga over it and had to buy it, so it's now with my ever growing pile of baby girl clothes. (Now watch fate kick my ass by giving me a boy)

Today we spent the day in beautiful Murwillumbah at the Crystal Creek Miniature Farm. This was our first time going, and it was Mamala's idea so her and Nanna, and D and I headed down there. It was amazing, and I have heaps of photos up on FlickR to show you - lots of miniature horses and cows and donkeys... They're SO SMALL! It was almost spooky. But it was an awesome day, and we even picked up some terribly delicious Passionfruit Butter they had on sale. Can't wait to have that tomorrow morning on toast!

Now we're back at home, where it's ever so slightly cooler. Much as I love Mamala's house, it's just too damned hot for me because she's right on the water and therefore it's VERY HUMID. However will I survive when summer actually arrives? Argh.

Conversationally...

"Did you just fart?"

"No."

Pause. "What's that smell?"

"I don't smell anything."

"You don't smell that?"

"You're having a stroke honey, just go with it."

It's a Threesome Alright!

Lots of people believe things happen in threes - I'm one of them. I'm not sure why they actually DO happen in that numerical order, but when it's a string of GOOD luck or good fortune, then I love it dearly.

We were lucky to have it the good way. Firstly, D was granted his 4yr sponsorship through the recruitment agency he's currently with. At first we thought we were going to have to pay out a lump sum which included the sponsorship fees (and even then the sponsorship wasn't guarranteed from Australian Immigration), as well as the necessary physical and overall health checkup. Now it seems we don't have to pay ALL of it; all we are up for is the medical bills, which should not be anywhere near as expensive as the whole sponsorship thing. So, that's the first piece of good news.

The second piece came about a few days ago when my brother was offered a full time position in the company he currently works for. He was originally only doing casual time (less than 25 hours a week) so when they bumped him to full, he now gets anywhere between 30-40 hours a week.

The third fantastic thing that happened, came about today. My sister, who is now on the FULL road to recovery with her illness, landed a waitressing job at a little cafe in town that my family almost always eats at. I could not be more thrilled for her!!! This is so awesome, and I know she must be feeling on top of the world about it.

Now add to that a fourth snippet of interest, which I'm not sure I will consider good news, so therefore I won't include it in my three-good-things-that-have-happened. Well, that and the fact that it would make number four, even if I did.

Anyway. D was offered a job in Texas. I'm torn about this. This was a company he's been trying to land a contract with for a few months now, but they always had this way of brushing him off, or not contacting him when they said they would, and making up excuses. He may argue that point, but this is how I see it to be. The contract he was trying to land, would have netted him quite a profit in the year to come, because of the nature of it (I'm sorry I can't be more specific) and would have seen that income double or triple in subsequent years. Now it appears that the owner of said contract/project doesn't want him to partner up, as was the original plan. I can only guess because he's realized what a moneymaker this project potentially is, and has decided to remain completely greedy and rather than ask D to be a partner, now wants him working for the company full time, with a set wage. In short: MUCH LESS MONEY.

I'm torn because on one hand I can see that D really would like the opportunity I think, and on the other hand, I have little to no interest in moving to Texas. I don't know much about the state, granted, but I still don't want to move there. And I especially don't want to move back to the States in the coming year anyway, because that means my family misses out on my daughters first year or so of life. They've missed on the last TEN YEARS of mine, and I don't want to go through all of that again anytime soon. See my conundrum?

So. I'm not really sure what to do or how to react. As we talked about it last night, it's entirely possible I didn't react the way he would have liked me to, but I can't hide how I'm feeling about it. I know he's more secure in the States and/or Canada because he's familiar with it and it's more like home than Australia is - nevermind that we've only been here for five and a half months, and it took me about a year to a year and a half before I got fully comfortable living in America.

I said to him last night to make sure that when he makes his decision, it's not based on the US being more familiar to him, and thus running away from all the hardships and unfamiliarity here. He said the same thing back to me, asking me if the reason I wanted to stay here was because I was familiar with it. I then told him that that wasn't the reason at all; I had been away from my family for 10 years, and I didn't want to go through it again. The conversation pretty well died at that point and I was left feeling confused and upset.

I'm still not entirely sure what's going to be done, or which way he's leaning, but I know the pressure from his mother can't be helping matters. And I know he misses his friends; that never goes away. When you're living in a different country, you always miss your friends and family. But it's also a learning curve, isn't it? An adventure? Somewhere along the way you find out you have the strength to do it (essentially) on your own, and you ARE capable of making new friends (which he's done already) and starting your life over again. Or maybe this is just me being selfish, I don't know.

I Finally Did It

I upgraded to a FlickR Pro account. It's awesome, now almost every single picture is accounted for it's own category. Too exciting. Now of course I have to take ALOT more photos to make it worth the $35AUD I had to pay. :|

I have already uploaded a bunch of new ones, including a couple of me showing off the giant bump. I'll get some better ones soon hopefully.

I've discovered the Art and Love of Blinkies. Dear, dear me. It figures I'd have to clutter up my brand new design with blinkie crap and slow down the loading of the page, eh? Ah well, something has to fill the white space, it might as well be that.

Nothing new to report today so far... I'm having a nice relaxing day which is about to be interrupted by going to do some laundry. There's alot to be said for having your own washing machine where you CAN do your own laundry whenever you want to!

I Think She's Going to be More Active Than Any of us Realized

And of course by this, I do mean the parasite. She's been moving around a whole lot today, poking and prodding and tumbling and fumbling and god knows what else. I know she was kicking, actually physically KICKING me since I actually saw the skin of my stomache pop out a couple of times. If I hadn't been so swoony over the fact that my daughter just made her first physical kicks, I would have sworn I was impregnated by an alien, and this alien child now wanted out of its cocoon to let leash its fury on the world.

And quite possibly, that could still be my daughter wanting out already. I don't rightly know. But I'm absolutely thrilled that I got to see my tummy jump with her movements today, and I can't stop talking about it. It's the next best thing to having a constant sonogram. Without the goo.

I had remarked to Mamala I thought this was odd because I'm about 5.5 months along and I didn't think it would be this early I would start to see physical movement. I mused that perhaps she's bigger than we all thought, but according to all my tests and all the sonograms, she's perfectly healthy and at her correct weight for her age so far. This then, leads me to think she's going to be extremely active and energetic. Or violent.

Who knows, I could be at this very moment, carrying the next generation's leader of the trenchcoat mafia. What a proud parent I shall be!

I Love Mrs. Fields Cookies

Particularly the white chocolate macadamia ones. OMG yum. If you haven't tried them, get out of the dark ages and do so. But if you become a Mrs. Fields-aholic, then that's not my fault.

Okay anyway, so I have a few things to ramble about today and in no particular order, either. I'm going to start with the dream I had the other night. It was a particularly erotic dream, involving Britney Spears. And it wasn't like the make out session I had with Jessica Simpson either. No, this one was more full on, full NUDE body contact with the Britster (pre-pregnancy). And I have absolutely NO idea why or where this dream came from, only that I woke up feeling rather disoriented and a little bit scared to think I'd been having a rather sexual dream about this woman. I blame it solely on pregnancy hormones.

Rant removed.

I Should Be Careful What I Wish For

Yesterday I mentioned how wonderful Mother Nature is, what with her avoidance at doing any type of damage to my home or the surrounding area where I live, and I also mentioned about how much we needed some good soaking rain. I was being purely selfish when I mentioned that however, because since it's been so dry and hot and it isn't summer yet, my grass has gone to hell. Actually, it was well on the way TO hell when we moved in, and now it's most of the way there; just a couple more stops to go.

Though maybe not so much now after last night. We got our soaking rain. It drizzled for most of awake hours of last night but I did wake up a couple of times hearing it come down harder. Music to my already tired ears, it surely was.

Now as I sit here typing thing out, having come from a fresh clean shower in which I washed my hair and shaved my legs (which was ... an experience now that my stomache is protruding more and more) I'm wondering if I should have perhaps asked for some light cool winds to come along with the aforementioned rain. It's uncomfortably muggy now; or possibly that's just me. I tend to feel the heat more than the other people around here, so it could very well be that I'm just being more selfish than I have a right to be, when it is indeed, quite lovely outside.

And, in accordance with it being "lovely" and the rain we had last night, we have had 2 more spider incidents: one last night while on the phone to Mamala, and one this morning. I had Garth and D with me last night, so I was MUCH MUCH (times infinity) braver than had I been alone, and that spider was rather large and nobody knew what type it was. It was gassed almost immediately and then I felt badly afterward. Probably all it wanted to do was come in from the rain - not that it would have found any live food in the house. And then this morning I saw another spider that I thought had longer legs than a typical Daddy Longlegs, however as it turns out after I sprayed it, it was only a Daddy and then I felt much, much WORSE. Those spiders I try and leave alone because they eat all the other spiders that come into the house. I have one in my bedroom that I'm leaving alone, and one in my kitchen I'm not going to spray either. It won't make up for the few lives I've already taken since being here, but it's a start.