38 weeks & 3 days

Here I am at 38 weeks & 3 days - only 11 days to go according to the countdown on the right... Assuming Jellybaby is born exactly on his due date which is not very likely...

So, what's been happening? I've survived 2 weeks of maternity leave, it's been both nice to be at home and not have to worry too much about work stuff and also hard because uni is starting and lots of exciting things have been happening. 250 people signed up to join small group bible studies - awesome!

I've also spent the last 2 weeks obsessing about and learning to drive - I had 2 driving tests and managed to pass the second one - yay, so now I have my red P's and theoretically can drive a car all by myself... I haven't actually been out by myself yet, I'm still a bit scared, but I will soon, I promise!


Time off has also meant time for organising Jellybaby's room, I've washed all the clothes, sheets etc and put them away - he has so many clothes already! They're so tiny, it's hard to imagine anyone would actually fit into them... I can't wait to try them all on him.


I made the cot up today, we've decided he will sleep in his cot from the beginning as the room is very close to ours - you have to walk through it to get to us. I know I've made the cot up all wrong for a newborn but the blanket and sheets are so cute I couldn't resist putting them on.

I've also started reading through Barneys prepared readings for lent I've never done anything for lent before. It's always been one of those weird Anglican/Catholic things that seemed old fashioned and unnecessary. But I decided that as I have time (at the moment anyway) and I havne't done anything structured in the way of spending time with God lately, that it would be a good thing to start.

It's been fun so far, we're reading Matthew and it's been good to read some of the things Jesus said and see them as part of the bigger picture of His life and ministry. It's also fun to know that there are a bunch of other people reading the same thing, hopefully we'll get a chance to talk about it together.

Well, this is very long post to make up for my lack of posting over the past couple of months - hope you enjoyed it!

Brain in a whirl!

So much to do, so little time...

Only 7.5 weeks until JellyBaby's estimated due date 11th March! I'm staring to feel a bit overwhelmed by all the things that need to be done, work stuff, organising baby room/clothes etc, catching up with friends, much other stuff and learning to drive!!!!

I still have about 18hours to go before I can do my P's test... Anyone for a roadtrip?

To make matters worse, I don't seem to have started nesting yet which means if I'm tired and overwhelmed I'm more likely to sit and mope than get anything done. Although Stu seems to have picked up the nesting bug and has been having fun painting walls, making bookshelves etc. At the moment he's sanding an old bookshelf/cupboard thing we inherited when we moved in so it's ready to paint.

Oh well, at least I have a very organised to do list...

PS My friend Gail and I went to the aquarium on Thursday and saw the dugongs - they are really cool!

Why I Need to Learn To Drive

On Sunday night, after a busier than usual weekend, we were driving from Stu's mum's house to church.

Stuart decided that he needed to go home and do nothing in order to be ready for work the next day. I wanted to go to church, but that meant I would need to work out a way to get home afterwards...

Walk - 30mins, in the dark, in the cold - no
Get a Lift - briefly think about who could drive me home, most people already drive others home so no room in cars. I don't want to stay late, others I think about usually don't leave church till late.

Decide to go home with Stuart

Why I need to learn how to drive and have my own car... Part Two

Read Part 1 first...

So I got up early and head out on the train to Lidcombe, it was rather a pleasant journey and not too long but then... After getting off the train I discovered that regular streets don't really look like the streets on whereis.com, it looked like I would have to walk down a long stretch of busy road beside the graveyard with no footpath to be seen anywhere. I phoned Stuart who looked at a map and confirmed that I was heading in the right direction.

Half an hour later, hot and sweaty and still recovering from a nervous dash across the busy road without the aid of a pedestrian crossing I arrived at the repair place. I handed my laptop over and was told it would be ready to pick up in 3-5days (nb. the words "pick up" are very important to the rest of the story).

Just in case I asked Mr Acer-repair-man if Lidcombe was in fact the closest train station, to my dismay it turned out it was not, Flemington was much closer... It was also a much nicer walk, there were footpaths and pedestrian crossings and everything!

6 days later, I phoned to find out if my laptop was ready yet, it had been 3-5days and I had heard nothing. The lady on the other end of the phone assured me "yes, it had been finished yesterday" "so," I said, "I can go and pick it up?" again I was assured, yes.

The next day I once again began a trek to the Acer repair place, this time getting off at Flemington station and walking . It was I knew going to ake 2-3hours out of my day and although I had many things to do before staff retreat the next day it would be worth it to have my laptop back.

The nice man behind the desk looked up my laptop on his computer "oh", he said, "it was couriered on Monday" he didn't seem like such a nice man after that. After more investigation it turned out it had not infact been couriered on Monday (3days ago) but in fact had left the warehouse just 20mins before I arrived. It would be delivered to my work sometime between 3-5pm.

I headed back to the train station feeling more than a little bit grumpy...

At the office I waited... 2pm...3pm...4pm... At 5.05pm I phoned Acer, who could phone the courier company but they would be closed right now, I could try and call them if I wanted. I did want so I got the necessary numbers and phoned. Someone answered the phone so I assume they were open... It turns out my computer was stil in the couriers warehouse, there was something wrong with the package and they would send it back to Acer in the morning! I asked if instead it could be sent to me, she said she'd try so I gave her my details and hoped for the best.

It did indeed arrive the next day and now the whole drama doesn't seem like such a big deal after all...

Why I need to learn how to drive and have my own car...

Yes it's true, I'm 28 (almost 29) and I still don't have a drivers licence. Last year I sat for my L's and passed so now I have my third Learners Permit, although the last one I had expired in 1999. Learning to drive is just something I haven't really gotten round to doing yet.

I also have a lovely little Acer Aspire 3620 Laptop, not the most sophisticated piece of technology but it does all I need it to do and recently I've discovered it's kind of hard to do my job without it.

How are these two things related? I hear you ask. Well, Ihave had my laptop for about 8 months and for most of that time it has had a small gray splodge on the screen (aka an abnormal block of colours), it's speakers also made a high pitched buzzing noise whenever there was nothing playing through them. As I have a 12 month warranty policy I decided I should ring the Acer support people and see if they would be kind enough to fix my computer. They said they would, however...

The Acer repair place is located in Flemington, opening hours 9am to 5pm, and it was my task to get my computer to them. This is where the whole drivers licence plus car thing would be helpful, my usual chauffer (aka Stuart, aka husband) was unable to asisst me as he has other regular commitments between 9-5 on weekdays (aka full time employment).

My only option then was... Public Transport!

On the map it looked like the place I was going to was very close to Lidcombe station, convieniently located on the Inner West Line, as is Stanmore where I live. I packed all I would need for such a long intense journey and set out.

What will happen next? Will Bec survive her trek to Lidcombe? Wil her computer be repaired? Stay tuned to find out more...

Finally, she says something!

I know, I know, it's been so long since my last post... But that's because I've been on holidays :-)

Stu and I went to Bathurst (very cold) to visit my Aunty Lyn and see her new house, very nice! Highlights were playing "up words" and Rummy (I think Stu played more games in 3 days than he has in his whole life), eating way too much food at a crazy rib and steak restuarant, driving round Mt Panorama race course (well, Stu did the driving) and for those of you who keep asking how my driving lessons are going I actually drove on a long a stretch of road (not the race track) at 50km/h and turned at an intersection and everything!

Then we came home and bludged a bit and headed to Cessnock with a bunch of Credoites. We ran an ISCF group and a special Wednesday night church service to get people excited about NTE mission - which worked I think!

Stu and I stayed in Cessnock to play with our furniture - a beautiful table and sideboard we've been restoring in Dad's garage. We went into town and decided to check out the local Vinnies (Liz had told me there were cheap leather lackets for sale, alas, they were all PVC and all too small for me). Anyway while looking at their second hand furniture, we found chairs that are an exact match to our table! The nice lady at Vinnies gave them to us for $3 each! So 5 chairs for $15 later we piled them into our car and drove them home to fill Dad's shed with more clutter.

In other news, our lovely little flat in Ultimo is up for sale - anyone interested in buying? Which means having to keep it neat and tidy for open houses (Thurs and Sat at 10.30am) and the possibility of being asked to move out by the new owners... After the quiet and space of Bathurst we had been talking about maybe trying to find a quieter and bigger place to live and arrived home to the letter from the Real Estate agent with the news... Perhaps it's a sign from God??