2010 in review

2010 has been a pretty good year for us *touch wood*. My dad's illness has obviously been very stressful but most other aspects of our family life have been great. Joe & I had a child-free, all expenses paid holiday to the Gold Coast in February courtesy of his work. That was amazing & so relaxing! My sister got married in April & is now expecting 2 new little babies anytime in the next 5 weeks. Our girls moved schools in May which was stressful but ended up being a great decision. I'm continually finding new things that I love about our school & we're so thrilled with it. The girls have all settled in really well & all received fantastically positive reports for the end of the year. Throughout the year, I personally "delivered" 13 babies & assisted in the births of around another 20 or so. And I've recently been offered the Assistant in Midwifery job which is something I've been hoping to do since I first started my course. My clinical skills & confidence have progressed a lot over the past 12 months although I still worry about whether I'm ready to cope with the pressure & expectation that comes with being a 3rd year student.

Unfortunately though, I didn't meet my health & lifestyle goals that I set myself for this year. I don't have any excuses & can't really explain why, I just didn't. Of course, I only have myself to blame for that one but I'm really going to work hard to make sure that I am healthier & weigh significantly less by NYE 2011 than I do now.

Hopefully 2011 will see me finish my degree & score a graduate job at either Lyell McEwin or Women's & Children's hospital. All going well, I hope to play a significant part in the birth of my niece and nephew in January sometime and in order to complete the requirements of my course, I need to actively participate in at least another 27 births between now & this time next year. I plan to go to Dubai for 3 weeks in October for an overseas placement (if I get accepted!). I also hope my Dad gets his new liver sooner rather than later & recovers well from the surgery so that he & Mum can get their life back to normal.

I'm not making any resolutions this NYE. Every year I promise myself to lose weight, spend less time on the computer, be a better wife & mother etc, etc. This year I'm just going to celebrate the end of what has been a pretty good year & look forward to whatever 2011 will bring for me & my wonderful family.

Gifts for Boy George & Girl George

My sister, Tanya, is 32 weeks pregnant today. She's doing really well considering she's carrying two good size babies in there (at last measure they were already both just a smidge under 2kg & measuring a couple of weeks ahead of dates). I wanted to make something little for the babies for Christmas just on the off chance that they might have decided to join us before now. Thankfully they've stayed where they belong for now but I still gave Tanya the gifts anyway.

Meet Penelope the Empathetic Monster made with love for Boy George...


And Daphne & Delilah the Momma & Baby Monster made with love for Girl George...



They're not perfect but I think they're pretty cute & if my girls are anything to judge by, they will be well loved by my new niece & nephew down the track. My girls are already nagging me to make some knitted toys for them now!

Merry Christmas!

Wow, it's been a long time since I blogged. We have been busy with a capital B! The last 2 weeks of school were hectic with swimming lessons & excursions. Add to that, final rehearsals & then the ballet concert on the 12th & we were all glad when December 13th finally rolled around.

The first 2 weeks of the school holidays have been equally as busy with play dates, Christmas preparations & family stuff. My dad hasn't been well & was actually re-admitted to hospital yesterday because he was vomiting up blood and was extremely lethargic & confused. It's very sad that he's in hospital for Christmas Day but he really needed to be there. We'll be going in to spend time with him after lunch today. It's so sad watching him deteriorate like he is.

It's quite ironic that the first chance I've had to sit & update my blog is actually on Christmas day itself! We usually have family here pretty much all day but since Dad is in hospital Mum, my sister & her husband are going there this morning. They'll then come here for lunch & this year, my IL's are joining us too. So we've got a few hours to wait yet before anyone gets here.

I finally got my uni results earlier this week. I managed to scrape through with a Distinction which was a relief. I thought I was definitely shooting for a Credit so I was very happy with a D. There were huge issues with the marking of our final assignment & out of all my friends I got the highest grade (a Credit). All of my friends got P1's or P2's which was a huge shock because we're all usually strong students who consistently achieve D's & HD's. I was disappointed with my C until I heard that others had done much worse. According to our lecturer, the assignment was "handled very poorly by most" & apparently many people failed. It was worth 45% of our final grade and consequently the little grade distribution chart tells me that approx. 11 people (out of 47) either failed the subject or have an incomplete grade. It was brutal. It's lucky the exam was relatively easy & most did really well otherwise I'm sure many more would have failed the subject.

Joe's just handed me a Tim Tam. It's 9 o'clock in the morning. I guess it's a sign of what's to come for the rest of the day lol!

Merry Christmas!