10 Things About My Blood Test Results September 10, 2009
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This morning I got my blood test results from last week. Haven’t done a 10 things Thursday for a while so thought this week I’ll make 10 comments about them.
1. I had a whole barrage of tests done – LFT, C, UCr, E pGlu, HDL, TSH, FBC, ESR, ANA, IgA, IgG, IgM, and C3/C4 (according to the print out)
2. Total Cholesterol level is flagged (surprisingly it’s actually a bit low!!)
3. IgG too high (due to the discoid lupus)
4. IgA too high (due to the discoid lupus)
5. Mild eosinophilia (due to my allergies)
6. LDH too high (only marginally and can’t remember the explanation the doctor gave, but nothing to worry about)
7. Apparently the rest of me is “normal” – who would have thought that adjective would ever be used to describe little ole me?
8. The Aussie doctors give you the full lab print out from your blood results (they never did that at my UK GP I always had to remember what they said or write it down myself)
9. So now I also have a referral letter so I can go to the hospital to get put on the waiting list for Dermatology clinic (although here they call it Skin Clinic)
10. I hate blood tests 
10 Odd Things about the New House May 14, 2009
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This week’s ten things are ten things that are a bit odd/needed fixing with the new house. Although it may sound like I’m complaining, this is actually only a list of small foibles and we have certainly had worse surprises in previous homes.
1. The phone line: When Optus installed their line for the old owners they cut off the Telstra wire and pushed it under the house
2. Blinds: Almost all the windows have blinds on. They all hang the same way except one which always confuses me as when I go to raise/lower it it always does the opposite to what I expected.
3. Floors: The floors aren’t entirely level. Along with the diagonal carpet/tile edging it really does feel like you are walking at an angle. That part of the house is 50 odd years old.
4. TV: The previous owners had Foxtel cable and no other aerial points in the whole house. There is an antenna on the roof. Hubby managed to get it wired up but the reception is crap (may be something to do with the fact our antenna seems to be pointing at right angles to all our neighbours’ ones and also some of the arms seem to be hanging off)
5. Chimney: Yes we knew the chimney was a bit sqewiff already. It also has an interesting feature of raining. When it’s really tipping down it seems to rain inside the chimney. It’s not pouring down the inside walls but dripping right in the middle of the hearth.
6. Touch up Paint: At various places round the house they have touched up the paint and it’s either a slightly different colour and a different texture. It’s not overly obvious but when you stare at it you can tell.
7. Height chart: In the understairs cupboard there are marks against the wall with names and dates of the previous owner’s kids’ heights. We may leave it and add Evie in. Disappointingly apparently “Craig” was taller than I am when he was 14!! Judging by the names and ages/dates it turns out I am the same age as Craig.
8. Shower drains: There’s no leaking – hurray. The upstairs shower doesn’t quite drain properly. It needs more of a slope towards the drain hole as there is a little bit of standing water.
9. Two way switches: There are none. It’s a bit of a pain when you are going to bed and u have to fall up/down the stairs.
10. Car Modification: The driveway “modifies” your car. Everytime I drive my car up the driveway the first part is just that little bit too steep/bumpy on the crest and it scrapes the plastic moulding at the front of my car. There’s now plenty of white marks on the concrete.
10 Things We’re Looking for in a House March 19, 2009
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It’s been a while since my last 10 things post. This week’s 10 things are 10 things we’re looking for in our next house. The first 5 are necessary, the last 5 are wish list but not deal breakers.
1. Less than $600,000
2. At least 3 bedrooms
3. Family area (not rough)
4. At least some garden (not courtyard style)
5. Easy access (i.e. not having to abseil to get to the front door) and safe for baby
6. Two floors
7. Close to train line
8. Garaging and storage space for hubby’s model railway
9. Near water (beach, river, or reserve etc)
10. Ensuite to master
We’ve been looking for about 2 months and have put offers in on 4 houses so far. Disappointingly none have come to fruition. I think the problem is we have too much choice so dither about and every week there are yet more houses to see within our range. Back when we bought our first place it was easy as we had such a limited budget we were restricted to very few houses and when the right one came along we offered and got – all done on the same day over the phone with the estate agent and vendor. Here it’s a joke. The first house we wanted the vendors wanted far more and had 4 other offers on the table whilst they waited. The second house was odd as it was never publicly advertised and ended up being something like a private auction where they drove everyone up 5k at a time from 550 up to 570s. We got p**sed off around the 571 mark and stopped. Last we heard ours was the second highest offer and that the vendors haven’t accepted any offers (funny that… I wonder if we’re the only bidder and they are just holding out for more). The third house was in a worse area, but closer to hubby’s work. Asking price 575, we offered 570 – they didn’t even bother getting back to us. The last place was simply “by negotiation”.. turns out they want 620+ but seeing as we have seen at least 3 similar houses in the same area all go for 570-580 they are dreaming (and they only had a courtyard garden when others had pools). So we’re gonna change tack a bit and perhaps look at something cheaper but where we can spend the extra money on an extension/doing it up. Buying a house in the UK was simple. The vendor decides the asking price and everyone offers lower (unless u really want it and go all out for asking price, or a little more if others also want it). Here it’s a bloody minefield. First you have auctions – you have no idea what kind of price they want, the vendor can bid (at their own auction??), there’s usually some shenanigans going on with relatives/friends bidding to up things. Secondly there are price ranges – say the house is up for sale 520-550, now what does that mean?? Of course you’ll want it at the lower range, the vendor will want it at upper range why bother giving a range, just say what you want! Thirdly you have offers over – this is a joke as they seem to put them so low in some cases even if you bid 30k over they still want more, why not just say what you want! Yet looking at the statistics it would seem that most houses tend to be sold approx 20-50k under their asking price – funny this statistic hasn’t applied to any of the houses we’ve offered on. I think for the next offer we’re going to say we’ll give them X amount only, they have 48 hours to respond (yes or no, not silence, not um hang on indefinitely while we wait to see if any mug will pay more) and we wanna be in within 4 weeks. We have cash, we have no chain and we can move straight away yet this seems to hold no sway even though everyone says it’s a buyer’s market (obv not in Sydney it isn’t). It’s exacerbated by the first home buyers grant being doubled will June so every man and his dog is looking. Although I have noticed that last weekend there were far less people viewing than previous weekends.
Ten Things on Evie’s Menu January 22, 2009
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This week’s 10 things (I know it’s been eons since my last 10 things) are things that Evie has started eating. In my crusade to only feed Evie good fresh food I make up her meals for her. She’s almost 6 months and have been weaning her since 5 months (Christmas Day). At first she only had 1 ice cube for one meal a day. She’s now up to 3 ice cubes per meal (I think each ice cube is ~25ml), three meals a day and she’s loving it.
1. Mango & banana
2. Melon & baby rice
3. Potato & broccoli
4. Sweet potato & carrot
5. Sweet potato & beetroot
6. Potato & sweetcorn
7. Potato & mushroom (she doesn’t like that)
8. Banana & mango custard
9. Banana & peach
10. Oranges (whole slices)
She is a total fruit bat. She will eat the veggie based ones with some encouragement, but the fruit she can’t wait for. Especially oranges – she smells it and then cries until you are holding a slice in her mouth for her to suck on.
10 Things Left to Sort Out December 4, 2008
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This week’s 10 Things are 10 things that we have left to do before tomorrow (the packers are coming).
1. Get some sellotape out (need to put some aside so we can still wrap Christmas pressies
2. Small length of plastic drain pipe (d’oh we haven’t wrapped my Robin Hood arrow)
3. Recheck that I know exactly where our passports and important documents are
4. Put the shoes we want to keep into the shoe rack so they don’t get packed
5. Check all the post it notes
6. Look through the cupboards and make sure the right things are in there
7. Remove any extraneous items from rooms full of things for packing
8. Poke hubby and make sure the hobby stuff in the sheds is ready
9. Try and separate the Vax metal tube (two bits are jammed together)
10. Sneak Mocha’s toys in with Evie’s 
10 Things that God has Enabled for Our Move September 18, 2008
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We’re emigrating to Australia in December. For some time hubby and I have been thinking about moving there and we finally bit the bullet in late 2006 and started to get all the paperwork together. It’s pretty daunting giving up everything here and starting again. We prayed a lot about it and I couldn’t explain what it was that was really drawing us to Oz (well, other than the slower pace of life and a hopefully better life for our future kids). I really think that God is taking us there for a reason – he has some grand masterplan, but I don’t know what it is yet. So this week’s 10 things are 10 things that God has put in place for us to move.
1. Getting PR visas
2. Blessing us with Evie (well, this isn’t part of moving, but has worked out to be better as we will have a little more financial ease as I get maternity pay and leave)
3. Providing Hubby with a job before we get there
4. Sending us buyers for our house and not only that, ones who will wait till December for completion
5. Getting Evie’s passport and visa in place
6. Unexpected financial gifts
7. Providing us with accommodation in Sydney
8. Getting flights easily
9. Perfect timing, everything seems to have suddenly fallen into place for us
10. A feeling of calm and reassurance for us
Sometimes at night I can’t sleep and I worry about how things will be when we move to Oz. I sometimes think we must be absolutely mad giving up a comfortable existence here (good jobs, good house, everything sorted out for us) and exploring the new. It feels so risky. However God calms me and He reminds me about the bible verse Matthew 6:25-34. It’s such a wonderful verse and snaps me back into thinking about how good God is and not being so materialistic. God has planted a seed in us and we must follow His will.
10 Things about Evie July 31, 2008
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Well, Evie is almost one week old now – today was her due date. This week’s 10 things are things that I’ve started to notice about our baby. I’ve gone from not really knowing who or what this little pink squishy bundle is to feeling like she’s a little person that is part of hubby and me.
1. She likes to look at the sky
2. She strokes her own ear as a comfort mechanism
3. She has her Daddy wrapped round her little finger already
4. She wants to be held ALL the time
5. She eats every 2-4 hrs
6. She is houdini (she can kick those socks off in seconds without even wriggling)
7. When she is asleep she looks more like me
8. When she is awake and looking upwards she looks a bit more like hubby
9. Her eyes are going brown
10. She makes 3 noises. Wah (in varying volumes), Eee and Meh!
She is absolutely adorable (I know, I’m biased) and even though she is a little trying at times I can’t get angry with her at all. When she is asleep or feeding she looks so angelic. Our perfect little baby.
Summary of the day: Had a fabulous night (had to wake up for feeds, but she went back to sleep quite quickly again after resulting in approx. 8 hrs sleep for us), Midwife came to repeat Guthrie test (still not enough blood so they’re coming AGAIN tomorrow – if there’s still no joy we’re going to cut our losses as I don’t want them to keep pricking her every day), Tidied the kitchen (what a mess), Relaxed in afternoon and had brief catnap, Defrosted lasagne leftovers for dinner, Had visit from friends, Felt knackered again (joys of new parenthood)!
10 Things I’ll Look Forward To July 18, 2008
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Ok, this week’s 10 things are a bit late as it’s now Friday! Since being pregnant there are lots of things that I’ve missed doing/having and hence the 10 things are things I’m looking forward to again:
1. Alcofrol/el vino!! I would really love a nice cold glass of Rose (not too dry though)
2. Pate. I never really ate that much, but oh how nice it would be to have some Ardennes on fresh crusty bread
3. Going for rambling walks. I’ve missed going out of walks with Miss Mocha. Sadly she has to make do with playing fetch in the garden lately as I can’t seem to walk for more than a few mins before I get huge Braxton Hicks.
4. Choice of clothing. I wear the same 3 pairs of maternity trousers (which are now a bit small) every day and now wear one of about 3 or 4 T shirts (even the ones I pilfered from hubby are too small now). I would so love to wear a nice summer dress.
5. Shoes. I love my shoes – especially in summer when I have lots of lovely strappy numbers. I’m now reduced to either my pull on trainers or flip flops!
6. Not having to accompany every movement I make with some kind of groaning/loud sighing noise. I can’t help it, it just comes out. Everything is SOOOO much effort now I am as wide as I am tall!
7. Being able to pick things up off the floor (I’m making do with using my special opposable toes to pick stuff up now)
8. Butt cramp/indigestion/etc etc
9. Cuddling. I miss cuddling properly. At the moment we can only spoon or when we cuddle I have to lean my head inwards while pushing bottom outwards to get bump out of the way. It also doesn’t help that hubby seems to have developed a sympathy bump too.
10. Just being me! As much as I love having Shrimp inside me wriggling about, it will be a relief once she’s here and I can go back to feeling like me again.
Summary of the day: Made char siu pau from scratch (yummy experiment), Had massive fight with hubby (suddenly he felt the need to sneak out and buy flipping Guitar Hero III – yeah that’s exactly what we need when we’re going to have 1/2 our usual income AND baby things to buy??), Hubby smashed his laptop as he was so angry so now we need to buy him a new one, Got extremely stressed out, Various friends came round and had takeaway and played Wii, Tidied house before bed
10 Current Hopes & Fears July 10, 2008
Posted by graciek in 10 Things..., Family, Life in General, Pregnancy.Tags: hopes and fears for baby
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Well the three of us (hubby, Shrimp and I) have made it to full term! We’re 37 weeks today. She’s been squatting in me for 35 of those weeks and there are only 3 weeks left to EDD. So she could be here any time from now onwards and will definitely be here 5 weeks (they induce you at 12 days over at QMC). I am so excited. This week’s 10 things are my current hopes and fears for baby:
1. Shrimp is totally innocent and perfect now – once she’s here it can only go downhill!! We don’t know what we’re doing and don’t want to mess her up (note don’t want to end up having to appear on Jerry Springer in 15 years time where they blame the parents for everything)
2. I want Shrimp to be happy and not have to worry about anything. I want her to have everything she needs, but at the same time I really don’t want her to end up spoilt.
3. I hope and pray like mad that Shrimp hasn’t inherited all my sickly genes (esp not the eczema as I can’t bear to think that she is suffering like I did and still do)
4. We want Shrimp to be brought up in the church and develop her personal spiritual relationship with God. She can make her own decisions once she’s older.
5. I hope she doesn’t turn into a Kevin and Perry or worse still a Vicky Pollard!
6. Seeing that both her parents are scientist/engineers she will probably inherit some practical skills, but I also hope she gets to appreciate and enjoy the arts and culture too (I’m going to teach her to play piano once she becomes interested).
7. Of course we want her to do well academically and use her intelligence, but I also wish for her not to have to stress about it and to be well rounded. I want her to know that her parents are proud of everything she accomplishes.
8. I hope that she manages to make friends easily and always has someone she can talk to
9. I hope that she finds a husband who is at least as good as her daddy
10. This one’s a bit shallow – but I hope that Shrimp won’t be “hit with the ugly stick”!! (I’m sure as her parents though we will think she is perfect no matter how she looks)
So not the most surprising list in the world. I guess most parents want these for their children.
Summary of the day: Woke up at 3.30am (boo), Blitzed kitchen, Got laundry done, Did washing up, Went back to bed, Did work in the afternoon, Made a huge lasagne (mmm), Got major butt cramp all evening!!
