Just to make sure...

...that you all know that my blog has moved:

http://carlaandalastairwilson.blogspot.com/

Please come and visit me there!

My blog is moving!

This is what I should have done a few weeks ago... instead of people not being able to find my blog!

You can now find me at:

http://carlaandalastairwilson.blogspot.com/

Sleepover Party

Mairead and Hamish came for a sleepover last night. Donna brought dinner, which was lovely, then I gave the kids a shower (Hamish couldn't believe that we don't have a bath!) - and they even cleaned the shower for me! :P It took them ages to go to sleep - we sat down here and listened to lots of giggling, thumping, etc, and got up several times to settle them down. I ended up having to sit in there with them (and nearly went to sleep myself!). So we woke up at 6am this morning (since they were sleeping in our room), and I brought them down to watch ABC Kids. Alastair isn't feeling great, so I'm being lovely and letting him sleep. :) It's 9am though... perhaps the kids want to jump on him... :)

No Sugar??

Alastair and I are about to give up sugar.

And do more exercise.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

But I am good at procrastinating, and that can be tomorrow. For now, I shall settle down with a quilt, a movie, and a packet of mint slice biscuits. :P

Photos of our little house!

I finally managed to get my act together and take some pictures!

So when you come to visit, you walk up these stairs...


... down the side of the house...
(although our house is actually on your right - this is looking back towards the road!)


...until you come to our back door.
(Please excuse the bag of rubbish at the door, it isn't usually there!)


* * *

From just inside the door, it looks like this:
(The bookshelf with the curtains is our pantry, since there isn't a real pantry).


Various angles of what we call "downstairs":





Through the doorway... to the left is the toilet, straight ahead is to Jim's house, and to the right are the stairs leading upstairs...


... up the stairs we go...


Looking back down the stairs:


At the top of the stairs, this greets you:


Looking into "upstairs". Alastair's computer and my sewing machine are side by side. :)


The bedroom end of "upstairs"


Through the lefthand doorway is our shower and basin. Oh, and we don't have a wardrobe - hence the rack for our clothes. :P


The view from one of the windows.


And another window. To the left of the telegraph pole you can see the lighthouse down at Wollongong. :)


And these are the kind of cupcakes we make at our house!

May 8 to June 8

Where does time go?

We've been married for ten-and-a-half weeks now. In some ways it doesn't feel that long, and in some ways it feels much longer. Like, we're still in the same school term - and it's feeling like a long term. But then... I feel like we haven't had time to just go for drives on the weekend and enjoy each other's company properly. I don't know. It's just funny.

So, since I last posted, I've started working in a pharmacy (3 days a week), we've been to Canberra for the footy, we've paid an enormous amount of money (just like everyone else does, I spose!) to register the car, I've made a couple of skirts for my mum, we've got our professional wedding photos back, and I've had croup (I was SO sick!). There you go, a brief summary there.

Alastair and I seem to have had an over-abundance of challenges... questions... ideas... moral dilemmas... and that kind of thing, which have surfaced recently. It's really quite exhausting, but has caused us to do a lot of praying, reading, thinking and researching. It's good for us to face these things together and decide what we as a couple really believe.

Also, my friend Laura and her family (father and three brothers) need prayer - their mum passed away on Saturday night. Mrs. Edwards had had cancer for quite a number of years, and so they've had a while to get used to the idea... indeed, they've thought it was the end plenty of times. But I'm sure that doesn't make the finality of death any easier. She's gone home to be with Jesus, and she was looking forward to having no more pain.

On a happier note: Lauren is getting married THIS Saturday! We're flying to Brisbane on Friday night and it will be such an exciting time. I bought a new dress last Thursday night. Yay! :)

I really want to post some photos of our little house soon, too. But now I must wash up. :P

Out of the mouths of babes

A conversation between Hamish and Alastair yesterday, prompted by Hamish cuddling the wooden toy lizard we gave him for Christmas... which has lost all its legs...

H: Look at my lizard!
A: He's got no legs! He's a snake now!
H: No, he's still a lizard.
A: Yes, he'll always be a lizard in his heart.
H: (all forlorn) But his heart is broken...
A: (laughing) What happened to his legs?
H: (looking around for inspiration) Um... he grew out of them.

:)

On being a mummy...

Donna has gone away for a week, so Alastair and I are part of the team taking shifts to look after Mairead and Hamish. We've taken the first (and longest) shift - 5:30AM Wednesday to 5:30PM Friday. It is currently 1:45pm Friday. Just under 4 hours to go. :) They are going to their grandparents' house tonight and tomorrow night, then we're doing Sunday afternoon to Monday morning. Then the other grandparents are doing Monday night to Tuesday night (when Donna gets home). My goodness it's full on being a stand-in parent! I wouldn't say it's hard, but it is full on and very constant. Mairead is a fiesty almost-7-year-old, and Hamish is an adorable almost-3, (we're talking in the next couple of weeks for both of them), and they play well together... most of the time. Hamish is also toilet training - part time. Which means he's toilet training when he feels like it. :P Ohmygoodness - I am fully in awe of people who have toilet trained children now! It's such hard work! Yesterday afternoon he went through FOUR sets of undies in an hour... and STILL no wee in the potty!!! Grrr!!! And Mairead crawled into bed with us at 2:30 this morning - what is WITH that?!?!?! She wriggled, and hogged my pillow until I decided she was going back to her bed... carried her in and lay with her until she stopped crying and fell back asleep.... then stumbled back to my bed.

And now I'm sick with a bad cold. My nose is blocked but won't stop running, and I have a headache. But life goes on. :( Meaghan came down and helped me with stuff this morning which was lovely. Anyhow, the fourth load of washing has just finished... I'd better go and hang it out so the kids have something to wear over the weekend... especially Hamish, seeing as he wee'd in practically every pair of trousers he owns yesterday...

(Have I remembered everything, Alastair? Please comment if I haven't... xoxo)

Stuff...

Whoever knew that becoming a couple in a legal capacity was such a long, time consuming, drawn out process! You can change your name at the ATO with just a phonecall, (no marriage certificate or anything), but to put your wife on your NRMA policies/greenslip/whatever, it takes about a dozen phonecalls and hours on hold waiting for "the next available operator". I've got my new driver's license... yesterday we went to Medicare to change my name and get new cards which have each other on them... and we opened a joint bank account. Man, it's all so complicated!

I started back teaching two weeks ago. Always after some time off, I think that teaching is too hard and that I can't do it anymore... but then I get there on the first day and remember that it's okay. :) It's good to be earning money again too.

Speaking of money - I've been working on our budget, and last payday we put it into practice. Yay... sort of. :P We're needing to be quite careful with our spending. I'm getting used to having to shop fortnightly (my mum shopped weekly), but also, I have to remember that I'm not doing the shopping for mum for a family of 5 anymore - I'm shopping for Alastair and I, and we don't need as much food as a family does. Nor do we have space for it. :P Buying two packets of frozen vegies for $6 just because they're on special may not be the greatest idea... because we can't get through them, and only have a little freezer! Yesterday I just went shopping, but when I got home and unpacked it, I couldn't shut the freezer door. I forgot that mum and dad have a chest freezer that the overflow goes into... :P

So lots of learning going on here.

Last weekend we went up to Gilgandra to visit Joel and Katherine for the long weekend. It was really nice (except for the bed!) and we had a great time. :)

Now Alastair is awake and he's made me a cup of tea. :) We're going to snuggle up and watch a movie. Later on, we're going to the footy - go Swans! What a way to spend a Saturday. :)

Oh my goodness

We've had a lot of visitors, but today I have none. I'm sitting around in my pj's... organising my students for this next term... working on our budget... calling NRMA about contents insurance (wha da??)... sipping tea... and watching TV. It's kinda cool. :)