Today is Friday-
Here's what i can and cant eat on Monday:
Can Eat:
White breads and crackers
Puffed rice
eggs
butter, marg, oils, vegemite, marmite (but who would,right?!!) 
fish, chicken
white pasta, rice, mashed potato with no milk
Plain Gravy, salt, sugar, syrup, honey
Cauliflower tips, pumpkin with no skin
Marshmallows, barley sugars, sweets
Can drink:
water, black coffee or tea (with no milk products)
strained fruit juice without pulp (apple, white grape, orange)
clear broth
plain jelly without fruits or toppings
carbonated and non carbonated soft drinks
fruit flavoured cordials
clear ice blocks (avoiding red or green colourings)
avoid red coloured drinks

Can NOT eat or drink:
milk, milk products, cheese, desserts
wholegrain bread, wholegrain crackers, milk bread, fruit bread
other prepared cereals, wholegrain cereals
brown pasta, rice
tough meat and sausages
fried, smoked and tinned fish
soup that isn't clear
berry fruit jams
all fruits, including coconut and dried fruits
all seeds and nuts
most other vegetables

On Tuesday:
Do not eat ANY solid food, milk or milk products, and only drink clear fluids from the list above.

On Wednesday:
Do not eat.All day. Even though the procedure is not until late afternoon *sigh*
I'm not really looking forward to the bowel prep...or the lack of food. I really really love to eat and get extremely grouchy more than a few hours without food so i may have to be bulking up on the jelly and lemonade popsicles,just as I've done every time there's been an operation and I've had to fast.

On the plus side, i had another one of those freaky coincidences this morning.
Little Miss is not so little anymore, having turned 4 two days ago. On her birthday eve her Kindergarten rang to say that they have brought her morning kindy start date forward from March 9 to that very day.

Meanwhile i had been racking my brain to think how i could get her to kindy and back on the days i'm not eating because the last thing i wanted to do was work up an appetite by walking MissK there and back.
Low and behold, this morning i got to chatting with another one of the Mum's there.. and it turns out she lives two doors down from me and offered lifts whenever we may need them.
Bless her, we'll be popping over for a visit on Monday afternoon (i'll be taking my coffee black,thanks *ugh*) and hopefully during the course of explaining my situation, MissK and I will be also making some new friends.
Excellent.

Manchilds hand, MissK's feet. Less than 24 hours old

From this to this in four short short years.

Birthday morning with the spoils

Pay it forward 2012

My Sister in Law in Sydney has had this circulating on her Facebook page and i wanted to extend it to my blog readers.

The 'winners' will be the first 5 to comment and leave me their email address (so that i can contact you when i need to send things on).

You can enter from any country - although obviously i wont be making you a cup of tea or coffee if youre on the other side of the world!

 

"This is awesome! Pay it forward 2012.... I promise to make something handmade for the first 5 people to comment. They must in turn post this and make something for the first 5 people to comment on their status. The rules are it must be handmade by you and they must receive it before the end of 2012. It could be as simple as making a cup of coffee for a friend. This will be fun!"

...go on,you know you want to play.....

x Cat

 

My little MissK has been exhibiting some extremely challenging behaviour of late- digging her heels in and steadfastly refusing to do whatevers asked of her until she's been backed into a corner (metaphorically), and i feel like i'm slowly but surely turning into the nagging, impatient Mother that i never wanted to be.
So it might be time to reassess how I'm dealing with my willfull determined offspring.

Strangely i think its the endless days of holidays, sunshine and no commitments that has been her undoing. She is definately one of those kids who likes to have set routines for each day and to know whats coming up around the next corner.
She likes to know who,where,what and when....basically she's just nosey and will probably grow up to be a total control freak.
Maybe thats where our problem steams from because she really should know by now that I'm the control freak in our family and she will have to wait til she has her own family before its her turn.

But lets not talk about growing up because the number FOUR birthday is approaching FAR too rapidly.
At this rate she will be fleeing the nest long before either Manchild or i are ready to let her go....
Maybe now that we have a backyard we can build her her own little house out there so that she never actually has to move away from home.

And if she does leave,the neighbours had better watch out because i might just start collecting cats to fill the void.

Hello 2012

2012! Goodbye 2011- it was nice knowing you.
There were many highs during 2011 for our little family - the best i think being a renewed sense of independence that came with the move to our new house.
It feels a bit more like we are 'on track' for the goals that Manchild and i both have for our family life which is brilliant! Of course the house has gobbled up ALL our money,so 2011 has been a year of scrimping and saving and eating humble pie whenever various family members came to our rescue and offered to help out in the form of finances or groceries.
Lucky that we have a house with a biggish yard, i keep thinking,since it needs a whole lot of regular work (very neglected when we moved in) and doesnt cost a thing :-)

i have to admit that there have been a few lows too-its been disheartening to realise how regularly I'm getting UTI's -even thought I'm still using gentimicin daily- and how often i have to stay at home because the nausea is so bad that i cant go in the car (me! Who's never suffered a bout of motion sickness in her life til now!).
I dont quite know how to change this (thats the disheartening bit) but I'm working on it....

And a few highs too- NZ winning the world cup in rugby, Having major snow fall in Wellington for the first time in approx 13 years.Lots and lots of fun times.

The next few months are going to be busy ones-
My brother,his Lady and their 2 year old son are arriving from Oz on Friday- its the first time they have seen our new house and both Manchild and i are fighting the insane desire to buff n polish it within and inch of its life!! We are all super excited to see them.
My Dad,daughter and Step mum all have their birthdays within the last week of Jan (MissK is turning FOUR!!!!).
At the beginning of Feb i have the colonoscopy and at the end of Feb i have to go in for a bladder study to see if its my bladder that is rebelling and causing all the infections - it seems that if it is,the urologist has other tricks up his sleeve like injecting botox into the bladder (yes,you read that right,botox).
And at the start of March I've got an MRI and MissK starts morning kindy.
And in April we will be travelling up to Auckland to see the How To Train Your Dragon stage show which Manchild got me tickets to for Christmas (Yippee!). It might be a slow trip due to car sickness but hopefully the bladder study will have cleared up a few issues by then (fingers crossed!)

Busy busy busy.
It seems that time has been marching on while i wasnt looking- Manchild and i both celebrated our birthdays last week: Me,35 and him,31. Considering we met when he was 16 and i was 20 its a bit of an achievement to still happily tolerate the sight of each other.
Even after living together for the last 6 years, i still get a warm glow when Manchild tells me that he values me most when i disagree with his opinion and refuse to conform to his ideas (good thing he tells me this because otherwise i would swear that he hates it!).
Its an amazing feeling to be valued for who you are rather than what somebody else wants you to be.

So in the long run 2011- thank you for being a year of growth and normality,its been brilliant and 2012, I'm excited by what you will be bringing our way.
Much love to everyone who has cruised through this blog at one time or another, Thanks for reading and best wishes and happiness for 2012
xx