Happy leap day!

It did not even cross my mind that today is a leap day! Until now. I wonder if many women proposed to their boyfriends today?

This is what I had for lunch today… Two slices of light Salada crackers. A couple of slices of light cheese, a little ham and a few slices of cucumber. They were surprisingly very yummy! I love the crunchiness of the crackers with the ham. It honestly beats a ham sandwich. I used to attempt making ham and salad sandwiches for lunches at work – but I never lasted more than a day or two… It always just seemed very boring. And there’s nothing more I hate than a boring lunch. I think the crackers liven things up a little so I may give this lunch option a go at work over the next couple of days.

I did my second C25K session at the gym today… I’m pleased to say that it’s going pretty well! I was actually eager to hit the gym today as I wanted to see how I would go with the run/walk session… Today’s session was definitely a little tougher as I had an extra 5 minutes of running time. But I made it. And again, I felt good. I really have to try and keep at it. I honestly want to be able to run. The program says it should take me 8 weeks to get there… 8 weeks it is!

Tomorrow is rest day so I’ll be catching up with a girlfriend after work instead of the gym. Now that I’ve gotten my body interested in the C25K program… It’s time to try and keep up the healthy eating. Sometimes I feel that the food part of losing weight or keeping fit and healthy is harder than the exercise part of it. If only I didn’t love food so much :)

Here’s to almost Friday! I can smell the weekend and I can’t wait!

I want to renovate!

I came home to these last week… Pretty :) Marc and I got into an argument and we were both extremely frustrated with one another. The next day he got me a bunch of flowers. Why is it that he is so damn freaking good at saying ‘sorry’? And I’m not? I am making such a conscious effort to be the one that apologises first… Not because he always does but because I need to learn to get off my high horse sometimes. I don’t know if it comes with being a Leo – too much pride – but my heart melts and l feel guilty to no end that in 90% of our bickering or arguments, he is the first to make peace. Bless his good, good heart.

Anyway! The point to this post is… Remember the house that we were extremely interested in a few weeks ago? It went to auction last weekend and it was passed in. It didn’t sell! Which means no one made a bid! Hmm, maybe we should’ve put an offer in… Maybe we would’ve had a new house to play with now. Maybe!

I’m just itching to renovate… I already know what my next kitchen is going to look like. I can’t wait to have a house big enough to entertain more than six people at any one time. I told Marc that our next house is where we’re going to have people over to celebrate our birthdays. At the moment, we have always celebrated our birthdays out and about, mostly at restaurants.

I just hope when we’re ready, there will be a perfect home for us… Somewhere out there.

Wedding randoms

I have spent most of the last two nights sorting out our wedding invitations – writing out the guests names, writing out addresses, sticking stamps on… stuffing envelopes… and they were finally all ready this morning. I mailed them out just then :) It felt completely weird doing that. I was a little sad. I am so, so happy with how my invites have turned out and my sister did a magnificent job on them. Since they were delivered to me almost 2 weeks ago, I have been so attached to them. Though everyone in our lives have known we’ve been engaged for over a year now, mailing out the invitations today somehow made it all the more official – we are getting married! Come to our wedding! That’s what it screamed. As cheesy as it sounds I hope it screams ‘completely in love’ too!

I feel like I look at my organiser a lot. Especially lately. Something always pops into my head and I always need to check if I’ve written a reminder down or if I have something else planned on that day or if I need to organise something to be done. I don’t really know what I would do without an organiser! I’m sure my head would be one big chaotic mess without it. Over the next few months, I’ll be trying to organise accessories for the day – both for myself and for my girls. I’ll also be trying to work out what my page boy and flower girl are going to wear – I was happy to get those organised now, but my sister pointed out that it may be best to get them later on as kids do grow very quickly in a short amount of time. I’ll also be getting my bridesmaids to start the planning on my hen’s day! I don’t really know what I want to do at this stage… but hopefully I’ll have an idea soon :)

I have slowly started back on an exercise routine again leading up to the wedding. I don’t anticipate losing a lot of weight prior to the big day, but I just want to keep up the healthy exercise and diet routine, just so that I feel better and calmer. The last few weeks have seen my exercise levels drop a little and I have also been pretty stressed out and snappy. I know Marc being the only person who lives with me feels it the most and I’m completely aware on how difficult it must be to live with a stressed out person. A girlfriend of mine suggested seeing a naturopath which she says has helped her relax and stay calm in times of stress. I’m definitely considering it. But I think exercise does help too. I went to the gym today and did a running session – I’m trying out the C25K program – I actually did one session of it a few weeks ago and made it through okay, barely! I did another session today (at least 4 weeks later) and though it took a fair bit out of me, I didn’t think it was as painful as it was last time and I felt extremely good. Dare I say it, it was actually kind of… fun. I may need my head checked because I have never referred to exercise as fun. I’m hoping to do another session tomorrow and we’ll see how I go with that!

Are we ever ready?

Yesterday after the baptism, we were at a friend’s house where all our other friends and their children came along…

I turned around and snapped this cute photo of Marc and one of our friends’ 6-month old son. I couldn’t help but smile.

Marc loves kids. I think he always has and he’s only learnt that over the last five years or so since some of his friends started having kids and since Dylan and Lara were born. He adores kids and I swear, just knowing this makes my heart incredibly happy and content.

Me? I have loved kids all my life. When I was younger, barely six or seven, I remember helping my aunties out with my little cousins… Whether it was helping bath them, change them or feed them. I wanted to be there either watching or helping out. I also have many memories of tirelessly carrying my baby cousins, hours on end, never wanting to put them down. Mind you, these ‘baby’ cousins are now in their early twenties!

Today, a colleague of mine who just had her second baby not long ago, brought her newborn in to the office for a visit. Boy did I swoon and gush. Though it’s not surprising because I adore babies, I still do feel surprised about just what my insides are feeling when it comes to these tiny, little newborns who only know how to cry, eat, sleep and poop.

I go for days feeling like there’s no way I could be a parent – it’s just too hard, too much work, too much responsibility, too much pressure, too much of a lifestyle change selfishly, and let’s not forget they’re expensive!

But then, on other days, it’s like – I want one of those now! Today! Let’s have a baby now! Am I crazy?! I fantasise about the idea of Marc and I becoming parents for the first time and what our baby would look like and whether he or she would be laid back and care free like Marc or would he or she be stubborn like me? Today was definitely one of those days…

Mostly I can’t wait to have a family with little people in it but I think I’m still a little stuck in the selfish phase of my life where I don’t want to be responsible for another human being just yet… Partly because I’m just not ready to give up the freedom to do things when I want, wherever I want, to not live by a sleeping and feeding schedule, to be able to just go to the movies spontaneously one night… And partly because I am terrified like hell. Terrified that I would not have a clue how to keep another dependent human being alive for at least the next 18 years… Terrified that I would do a horrible job as a parent… Terrified that I will not be the parent I dream of being… The one who raises her kids to be independent, confident, passionate, kind, happy,
respectful and successful individuals.

It is just plain scary is all.

A non-stop weekend

This past weekend has been non-stop! I am dying for a weekend of ‘nothing’… I’m looking at my organiser and I don’t see one for awhile.

So what did you get upto over the weekend? Mine was hectic and hot but I loved it! Friday night, after work, I had dinner with a bunch of colleagues in Chinatown. There is just something incredible about Chinese food on a Friday night. To me, there’s no other perfect way to celebrate the end of a long work week than by feasting on yummy Chinese! After dinner, my colleagues headed to a bar and I normally would’ve joined in but I decided to head home instead. I had to be up early the next day for a big, big hen’s day…

Early the next morning, I woke to do a load of laundry because laundry gets crazy at my house very quickly. I’m surprised I even had any underwear left in my drawers. After laundry, I headed out to meet a bunch of girls to celebrate a girlfriend’s hen’s day. It was a bus tour to the Yarra Valley wine region here in Melbourne.

Because it was forecasted to be a scorching hot day (38 degrees! Yikes!) I was anticipating the worst… But luckily it wasn’t so bad. Yes, it was ridiculously hot but thank god for air conditioning on the bus! We went to four different wineries to do some wine tasting. And we stopped for lunch at a beautiful winery. I’m not a wine drinker but I thought the wine tasting tour was actually quite fun.

We ended the day around 6pm and I had to quickly get home to have a quick shower as we were meeting some friends for dinner. We ended up going to Cookie in the city where the food never disappoints – but because it was still extremely warm, the restaurant was just a tad uncomfortable. I also found my new favourite dish at Cookie – deep fried five spice chicken! Of course the yummiest food has to be deep fried.

On Sunday, we had a baptism to go to and because it was a Greek baptism in a Greek orthodox church, it actually went on for awhile. Later, our friends invited us back to their home for a lunch where we spent most of our afternoon at. Marc has a big circle of friends and it seems like we all tend to catch up collectively as a big group only at big, special occasions like weddings, engagements or birthdays. Lately, the engagements and weddings have died down a little – Marc and I are one of the last couples to get married! So the chance to catch up with everyone is a lot further apart.

Now that the hot weather has left us, the rain has come instead… It’s been raining all day… I love days like today.

Hot hot hot

I like standing under shady trees . Omigod. It is crazy hot in Melbourne! We’ve been having over-35 degree weather the last few days and it is getting just a little unbearable! I wonder if we’re having a ‘late’ summer? Is it still really cold in the northern hemisphere?

Yesterday was one of the only over-35 Saturdays we’ve had all summer and we couldn’t head to the beach as I had an all day hen’s party to go too. What a shame! My goal to head to the beach as much as possible this summer hasn’t taken off too well. Unfortunately our beach weather have been falling on weekdays when we’re both at work. Gah!

I’m off to do my grocery shopping in the heat… Signing out.