The journey progresses...

We’re going to look at yet another place today… hopefully we’ll be third time lucky and we’ll both love the place so much that we’ll take it right there…

I just commented on one of the ladies’ comments on my blog about the cat hair issue – my kitties are pulling tufts of fur from their chests, I think they might be frustrated with having so little access to outside lately. There are always windows open for them to go out, but normally when we get home we open the sliding door… and lately it’s just too cold to leave it open.

So if this place is perfect, hopefully our kitties will be happy with lots of outside access. And as for our little Caleb, I hope he will be happy in his surroundings too. We’re hoping for a warm house that gets lots of sun, because we’re freezing our tails off.

And one of the best perks – the neighbourhood is close to work, and Hubby’s as well!

Our future house needs:

• carpets in the bedrooms
• a shower and a bath (it’s hard to wash my hair in a bath with my belly getting bigger)
• lots of sunlight
• space for 2 cars
• easy access to get inside with a baby when it’s raining
• pet allowance

And then I’ll be happy!

I’m so excited about the time ahead – look at what Babycentre.co.uk said…

Congratulations! You’ve hit the halfway mark in your pregnancy. You’ll start growing even more rapidly in the weeks to come, so don’t be surprised if you find yourself slowing down. If you feel the urge to indulge in an afternoon nap, go for it, if you can — you and your baby deserve it. Her hearing is developing, and she’ll be getting used to the sound of your voice. Tiny teeth are also forming in her gums.

So I’m thinking last night, after a friend rather rudely asked me on Sunday what I’m going to do with my cats…. Nothing, you twit! They’re my children too! They ARE STAYING!!

But as I’m looking at the carpet last night, and the couches (material couches, not leather) I realized that she did have a point with regards to cathair being bad for babies. And my two hooligans have long, fine hair…

I can’t even think about giving them away. They love me as I love them. But then we’re going to have to put a serious de-hairing plan into action, especially when we move.

How on earth to you de-hair your house when your cats spend most of their time shedding their hair? I would rather work myself into a stupor trying to clean it up than get rid of my cats…

Then again, a lot of people will ask the question – what is more important, your child or your animals?

Good point… but I’m determined to keep all three.

In other news… I’m skipping a whole lot of articles on the news websites lately, because I’m finding that reading about the following just upsets me and gives me heart palpitations, or that’s what it feels like:

• murder (especially the break-ins and farm murders)
• rape (every time I read this my mind starts whirring about how that poor woman / girl must have felt and it upsets me heavily and I just wanna go out and find the bastard and cut off his balls and stuff them down his throat)
• another child getting killed by his/her mother/father – e.g thrown against a wall, or poisoned
• another child being raped by a sick fuck in their community
• Julius Malema…

Excuse my language… But instead of harming my psyche and soul by exposing myself to upsetting articles such as the above, I’d rather remain ignorant… blisfully ignorant. Might be stupid, but there it is. I can’t imagine how anyone must feel going through any of the above.

In happier news, Caleb is kicking up a storm and I’m 19 weeks today He just looooooooves my bladder, plays bongo’s on them! Can’t sleep on my back anymore, it’s too uncomfortable and it’s rather sore using my stomach muscles (you know, sitting up in the mornings in bed and things like that).

Very chuffed with myself, made sweet potatoes for the first time ever last night! It was good but I think it can be better! I’m expanding my horizons, people!! whoooooo!

Have a great day, and if any of you girls have any advice on the cat hair issue, please share! But please don’t tell me to give my cats away, it’s the last thing I want to hear

Tourmaline

I’m sure every woman who’s ever been pregnant or currently is, has had this thought at least a million times.

And as I’m sitting here, working away, the thoughts creep up on me…

After my tribute to my hubby this morning, I’ve spent some more time dreaming about how our baby will look like, and how much of his father will he inherit, and how much of me.

For instance, he might:

• Have a stocky and solid build like his dad, or be slender like me.

• Have dark coppery-red and wavy hair like Daddy, or blonde and horrendously straight like mine.
• have his Daddy’s unique blue eyes (with the golden ring around the pupil) or just plain muddy brown like mine.
• He might just inherit anyone of his grandparents’ eyes too… I inherited my great-grandmother’s brown eyes, while my mother and aunt have green and blue eyes respectively. My father’s eyes are a watery blue too. Or the mysterious brown-green eyes Hubby’s mother and sister have. The genes will be a great mystery there!
• Wil Caleb’s teeth be skew? (Guess it depends on how we nurture them!) Both Hubby and I had braces in highschool.
• have my straight and loooooong toes, or his daddy’s nik-naks
• He’ll definitely have long fingers, both Daddy and I possess musician fingers!
• I hope he has his father’s calves! Oooooh Hubby’s got the sexiest pair of legs ever! Typical ex-rugby player
• Will he be able to sing? It’s a mystery I can’t wait to start exploring!! Teehee!!
• Will he have a dry sense of humor, or will he be a dry drip? Not likely in the DT family. It’s huuuuuuuge and everybody in this family are naughty and sharp as heck.
• He might have my ears and Hubby’s nose, or vice versa.

I’m sure the list goes on and on….

What did you dream of when you were pregnant, and how did your little ones turn out? Did they look pretty much as you dreamed, or did you get a few surprises?

So curious to hear your stories, but the bottom line is… it doesn’t matter how this child comes out… He’s mine. Hubby’s. Ours.

We love him so much already…

T

I had a normal dream last night! Finally!!

Well, not really sure how normal it will be to go visit your manager’s parents in Newcastle, but there you have it. Hubby was mysteriously missing somewhere during the dream after being there the whole time. I think I found him and Manager Lady in bed together but for once there is a reason why this might have stuck in my sub-conscious mind.

We were watching Erfsondes last night and Kate was having a fight with Chris about him cheating on her with Amoré and Hubby scoffed and said to me “how can people do that?”

“What?” I asked, being busy with my latest culinary disaster on the stove.

“Sleep with your wife’s best friend, or manager! Imagine if I did that!” All this said with a cynical scowl. He does it so well.

“Well at least my only best friend is married to my brother so there’s really no chance of that happening.” I reply, with a joking tone and a smile.

Silence for a moment.

“Yes well there is no one I want to sleep with but you, vlooi. I would never do something like that.” Said very seriously, like he’s warning me to not even think about it.

“I know.” I said and smiled at him.

And I do know.

I know that my husband is not the type to do that. If it ever happens, I will be very very surprised. People probably think “ja, just wait til he lands in the wrong, or should I say the right circumstances and he’ll cheat on you in a heartbeat.”

What people fail to remember as that some people, however little there might be left of them, still have a moral center and possess the moral standards and values their parents raised them up with. My hubby is good to the core, although he possesses a few choice characteristics that might rile me up the wrong way. But I chose to love him despite those characteristics, because when all is put together, he’s one fine man. He’s not conventionally handsome, but his entire heart and soul makes him the most beautiful man to me.

Coupled with a wicked sense of humor that can leave you laughing so hard that you gasp for air, or put you in danger of crashing your car because you’re draped over your steering wheel for support. He’s an amazing cheeseball, and while I take the mickey out of him about it sometimes, I appreciate his sentiment and that he can still be romantic.

His sense of humor is the first thing that I noticed about him when I kuiered with him and my brother in 2008. Hubby had been off the radar for a couple of years, working on the east rand and when he came back, my brother and SIL immediately got together with him. Hubby was kind of crushing on a mutual friend of SIL and I and she was there too that night. I still have the videoclips I took that night of him. He had these hillbilly false teeth that he put in when nobody was looking and started speaking in this real trailer trash Afrikaans voice. Called himself Frikkie. What followed was hilarious and I thought to myself that night that if I didn’t have a boyfriend, I’d like to get to know this guy better.

Known him almost forever, but just as Big Brother’s best buddy. And later that year I got my chance. I went with us to my mother’s party (okay, went with me cos I didn’t have a date – the relationship with Ex crashed and I was overjoyed) and that night is when things started happening. We started kuiering without chaperones and two weeks later, I knew that this was the guy I would marry.

We were together a month, then moved in together (but it was actually more for financial reasons and we just knew it would work, while our families condemned us and our relationship). But four months later we got engaged, and five months later we were married. We’ve been going strong ever since.

Despite the occassional inclination to want to strangle him or shove his head down the toilet so he can feel what taking bullshit is like, I love this man like I’ve never loved anyone before. God truly sent him along my path and I need to start thanking Him more often for that.

Baby, I love you!

Tourmaline

This is getting ridiculous. The latest thing to have joined my dreams are now… incest. I am cringing so bad and the thought of it makes me want to hurl violently.

I’m so f*cking grossed out by a portion of last night’s dream that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look the person in the eye again. I’m not going to say who it was, but <shivers uncontrollably> it was !@#$%^&*_)(*&^%$# awful to dream something like that.

How could a person’s sub-conscious dredge up bullshit like that? Whatever I dreamt last night has certainly never EVER IN A MILLION YEARS crossed my conscious mind because I am normal; sane!!

I’m so angry right now. This has got to stop. If it isn’t family members being swept away by icy tsunami waves, it’s family being murdered and left next to their car in the road. Or viciously unstable idiots trying to hurt my baby and me.

I’m taking a stand. SUB-CONSCIOUS, I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME. STOP YOUR BULLSHIT. I’D LIKE TO GO BACK TO DREAMING ABOUT STEALING PEOPLE’S LIP-ICE! I’LL DREAM IT EVERY NIGHT UNTIL IT BECOMES A NIGHTMARE IN ITSELF. BUT STOP MAKING ME DREAM SUCH KAK!!!!! I AM NOT FOND OF ALL THE TERROR AND DISGUST YOU ARE PUTTING ME THROUGH!!

Thanks for all your advice on the dummies…. I’ve read up about them and also read all your posts carefully on yesterday afternoon’s blog, and have made my decision. There seem to be as many pro’s as there are cons to using a dummy as a soother, so I guess the best thing to do is have one or two on hand and test it when the time comes. When Caleb refuses to sleep. If he doesn’t want to take it, I’ll clean it and put it back in its bakkie and give it to someone who needs it.

Thumb-sucking is probably normal, but does it only appear with children who used dummies when they were babies? Or does it occur with children who didn’t take a dummy?

Questions questions….. grrrrrrrrrr!!

Thanks for reading ladies, and please don’t be put off or scared by the extremely weird blog contents today. I’m just as disturbed and nauseated as you are. BLEAH

Have a great day!

Tourmaline

Any thoughts on dummies? To dummy or not to dummy? Good? Bad? If good, what make?

Thanks New Mommy for the nomination! I know I mostly complain about a lot of stuff but receiving this makes me feel not so much like a klakous!

The conditions of receiving this award are:

Thank the person who gave you the award

Reveal 7 random facts about yourself

Choose 5 other people who you believe deserve the award and pass it on

7 Random things about myself 

1. My hubby is my brother’s best friend from primary school and my brother is married to my best friend from high school. Whee!

2.  I’ve never broken a bone, came close to breaking my small toe once.

3.  I’m unofficially allergice to bees (last time one stung me my foot got swollen horribly and I had a rash – they needed to put me out with celestamine) and I’m horrendously allergic to dog and horse hair

4.  I don’t like spinach or liver!

5. I watch a movie stukkend, I’ve always been like that to the point that my mother wanted to take me to a psychologist.

6. I can’t sleep without some form of noise in the background. Be it a fan, heater, Dribuddy or radio. Silence wakes me up and freakes me out.

7.  I wanted to be an actress. I loved drama classes in school and was looking at courses (did one after school but never got the certificate) – was told by the graders though that I’d make a good bitch like Sandra from 7de Laan or Cheryll from Isdingo) Har har har… they said I just have that kind of face and personality, but I’m as friendly as can be!

I nominate the following fellow bloggers for this award:

1. Juffrou Flooi – love reading about your adventures (and sometimes mishaps) in the UAE and how you deal with being a woman there. You’re an inspiration!!

2. Sanna – Your dry sense of humor and excellent writing style has me laughing every single time, even when you’re serious!

3. Mrs C – for all you go through and the strong person you still are!

4. Marmalade - for your progressive and uplifting comments!

5. Emve - your supportive comments always make me laugh – you seem just as keen to ‘moer them’ as I am sometimes

And everyone else, there are really no favorites.

Sorry for the partial horrendous title, but that seems to be the consensus of the day with me. My nose just stuffs up randomly and once it’s stuffed, that’s the way it stays. Nothing but Iliadin nose spray opens the doors to breath, and Kiepie forgot it on the living room table… so today will be a long day of looking like I’ve got pink eye and sounding like a an elephant with a knotted trunk.

It was an amazing weekend! Busy, but amazing! We found a gorgeous semi-neutral camping cot with a matching stroller – and the stroller’s got a plug-in car seat! Awesome! Thank goodness my mother was there to guide us because we would have been lost without her. Bought some Tommee Tippee bottles too (blue ones for our little boy ) just because they’re so cool and also anti-colic and a couple of bags of diapers. Bought a maternity pillow as well (for me and my SIL) so we had fun! Caleb is really busy, I even felt him this weekend. Normally he only nudges about 3 times a day over a weekend. The maternity pillow is great but makes me more uncomfortable, actually. I’m not big enough to fit into the u-shape just yet, so I’m still sleeping with a pillow clutched to my stomach. My stomach muscles are really sore though. Partly due to the round ligaments stretching, and also due to some antics Hubby and I got up to. I swear, there is nothing like a good romp to make bad vibrations good again.

I’m still being plagued by strange and upsetting dreams. Dreamt the other night that we find my father-in-law’s bakkie on the corner of Onderstepoort and Lavender Road, with his body lying wrapped in a red blanket, right by the robot. It was so upsetting. I can’t understand why I’m dreaming of death so much. Last night’s dream was also weird. I was about to get on a plane but was called away and when I found myself again, I was in my car on the highway, on the way home. The plane suddenly came overhead at a weird angle and crashed about a 100 meters away from me. I just knew it was my plane.  Why all these dreams? What do they mean?

Anyway, you ladies must have a great day. Please pray that my day stays relatively good…

Tourmaline

I’ve never done these before  so while I’ve got a minute, here are my DUF’s:

Downs

• got a royal k*kout for being ‘incompetent’ – just because I’m not trained to work with UIF, salary adjustments and increases (which you all know was royally kak. The people in this company can’t believe that the HR manager will go on leave and leave someone who doesn’t know ‘anything’ in charge. I’m doing the best I can!!
• Nearly got squashed by a filing cabinet. Had a huge fright, but luckily New Lady was there to save me and to push it back!
• Back still aching rather horrendously.
• Missing Hubby, I drove on my own this morning and the thought of driving home alone this afternoon depresses me.

Ups

• Hubby told me last night, quite strictly yet cheerfully, that on Sunday, we are going baby shopping – for a pram, a carstool and a camping cot. I nearly fell off the couch. But I can’t wait!
• Caleb is very active, it feels like he’s doing bollemakiesies… It’s so wonderful to feel my baby move like this!
• It’s FRIIIIIIIDAAAAAY!! Late sleeping tomorrow and a kuiertjie with an old friend while Hubby goes to watch the rugby with Chum.
• Had another doughnut and it’s divine…

Forwards

• See reason 1 and 3 above in UPS. 

Well there you have it! Thanks for all your support and comfort on this morning’s post, y’all have no idea how much it helped!!

Tourmaline

Our lease agreement expires end of August. And while our landlord is a gem, the house we’re renting is colder than a freezer and it’s better to rather sit outside than inside. He’s hoping that we would renew our lease term and stay on, but there is no way in heaven or hell that I would bring my child into that place. That place could freeze hell over.

So we’ve started the search gradually, looking at certain areas and sending out queries. And we looked at a lovely place in Montana yesterday. I love the kitchen, the tiles, the private yard, and the fact that the room has carpets (!!!!) and the bathroom a bath AND a shower. It’s big enough for all three of us. We’ve got a washing line outside (something we do NOT have right now) and also a garage and carport. I’m thinking we should take it, but Hubby is digging in his heels. He wants to take time to see more places, and while we’ve got time, we might not get a good place such as this one. It’s 20 km from my work, as opposed to the 31 km’s we’re driving now. Close to my mom and stepfather, and still within a good distance from the in-laws. Close to everything.

So we’ll see what happens!

Yesterday afternoon a guy phones me – he was retrenched from the factory and Manager Lady sent him his UIF papers so that he can claim it. Turns out the dates on the papers were wrong and he waited four hours at the UIF offices just for the one single person attending to how many people to tell him that it is wrong and that he can’t claim without the correct ones. He’s obviously very upset and sometimes he was almost comical in his rants. He even chuckled once or twice with me and I was very sympathetic to his plight, as we all know how useless the UIF offices are. But then he changed his tone and said that if he had a weapon, knew where our offices were situated and if Manager Lady was here and not on leave, he’d pay us a visit… it sent chills down my spine.

I’ve only dealt with one mentally unstable person before in my life and while I pepper-sprayed the hell out of him that night (along with a couple of other people he threatened) And this person was the star of last night’s nightmare. I dreamt that I was at some sort of kuierplek with my brother and SIL (both of us pregnant still) and this creep showed up, in his shorts, plakkies and jersey (like he always was). At first he engaged us in conversation normally, but later as he started drinking, got unhinged and went from nice to evil. He whipped out a huge hunting knife and went for my SIL and when we jumped in to stop him, he turned on me instead and stabbed me in the stomach. I woke up shaking, clutching my stomach and groping to feel if Hubby was there. Realizing that it was just a horrible dream calmed me down, but I’m still feeling uneasy about it. I can’t help feeling that Creep will somehow show up again in my life. He’s the only person that I’m afraid of; he’s mentally unstable and borders on being a skizo.

May God protect me, my husband and my child, and the rest of my family! I will not give in to fear and let the Devil steal from me.

My mother nearly hit a rooibok (Impala) on her way home yesterday. On Zambesi drive, underneath the N1 bridge, she suddenly saw the bok jump in front of a car… no one knows where it came from but the car it hit is a write-off. Luckily the driver is okay, and unluckily the bok is not… But if she wasn’t speaking to me on the phone and was driving faster, she would have been the one to hit it. Thank God for His angels, and mercy!!

I’m rather unsettled today, and I hope it gets better soon…

Tourmaline