What up, gang!

I’ve had such a great day today and am just rearing with smiles and positivity. It’s a shame that this morning I couldn’t match my afternoon attitude. Suffice to say getting out of bed at 4:30am to go to the gym was a pretty arduous task for me, however I learned a valuable lesson.

Even if you think/say you are tired. Go to the gym. Convince yourself that when you get there you are just going to do a little bit. Even say that you are just going to take it easy in your workouts. Get your butt on a bike and pedal for 10 minutes. Guarantee that after that 10 minutes your body will have woken up and you are all rearing to get into your workout.

Seriously! I was not a happy camper this morning when Adam very sweetly gave me a cuddle and repeated my name until I woke up. I was downright grumpy bear personified. However, 10 minutes on that bike and I was feeling much better!

We got to have a lazy-ish kind of morning. Adam stayed home until 8AM (late for him) to watch an episode of MI-5 (Spooks) with me and have a cup of coffee. Then I spent the morning faffing about the house and reading “Water for Elephants”.

Did I mention that I just finished reading, “The Help”? Did I also mention that I thought it was fantastic and am dying to watch the movie now? I was captivated after the first chapter. Such an amazing story and it made me cry in parts. Incredible. If you haven’t read the book I highly recommend it!

Lunch today was out at Hoopla Espresso with one of my dearest friends, Emma. 2 hours of chats, giggles, stories, decisions and yummy food/coffee/iced chai. I drove away feeling calm and happy. I love friends and catch ups like that.

So happy that I decided that my next stop would be to pick up flowers for the house. Adam has this theory (and I tend to agree) that having fresh flowers in the house just makes it seem cleaner and brighter. So I bought three bunches of flowers: one for the dining room, one for the lounge room and one I split between the bedroom and our ensuite bathroom. Definitely lifts the mood in the house.

So I wanted to tell you about what I just baked for Adam and I. I had been craving something. Ever get that feeling when you just feel like something but you can’t pinpoint what it is? That was me today. So I thought to myself, “Self. Don’t give in to anything unhealthy.” So I didn’t. I made baked Kale chips instead. Which I realise are not as good (but they’re still pretty amazing) as the dehydrated version but since we’ve not kicked our butts in gear to get a dehydrator yet, the baked version had to do.

You guys totally need to try these. They’re amazing! Incredible! Delicious! And they’re soooooo easy to make.

Here goes:

KALE CHIPS

• Kale
• Olive Oil Spray
• Tablespoon of lime juice
• Cracked Pepper

Okay so first what you need to do is take your Kale and wash it thoroughly and then make sure you dry it thoroughly. This is important. Then set your oven to 180 degrees celcius.

Then you need to remove the Kale leaves off of its stem. You can’t miss this, it’s pretty thick. You can either tear it off or you can use a knife.

After you’ve done that tear the Kale into bite sized pieces. Place it on a baking tray lined with Glad Bake Paper. Give it a quick spritz with the olive oil and drizzle your lime juice over it. Crack some pepper over the Kale too.

This is what mine looked like before I put it into the oven:

Pop your tray in the oven for approximately 10 – 15 minutes. Once the Kale is cooked the edges should be a nice brown, but shouldn’t be burned.

Here’s what ours turned out like (not my best effort but you can see Adam trying to sneak them before I was able to get my picture).

They’re awesome. Light, crispy and delicious. And HEALTHY! You can flavour them with whatever takes your fancy at the time.

Bon Appetit!

Time for some chill time with Adam before we head in to meet Harry, our friends newly born baby! So exciting :-)

What made you smile today?

xx

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Hence why from now on I resolve to cease giving that information to share around. Time to live a bit smarter (and perhaps a little bit more guarded)!

What are you resolving to do in 2012?

xx

And whilst I realise this may not be applicable to you, and like my friend Nadine pointed out when she shared it, dudes…it’s common sense really. I really think you should watch this as a gentle reminder. And for some of you it might be a bit more than just a gentle reminder. But hopefully not like a huge baseball bat to the face because damn you’ve got some stuff going on in your life then don’t you?!

I just had the best day today with a friend of mine and this topic came up in conversation more than once, then I come home to look at the video which is exactly on the same topic of discussions from today and I really just felt compelled to post it as a (funny) reminder.

Enjoy.

What up, peeps!

So today I had a hankering for the biggest bowl of roast vegetables so for dinner I decided to cook Adam a roasted vegetable salad. It’s one of my most favourite dinners as it combines two of my favourite things: roast vegetables and couscous! Yes!

It’s super yummy, super healthy (as long as you control your portion sizes) and is super filling :D

Roasted Vegetable Salad

• 1 cup of pumpkin cut into chunks – truth be told I actually intensely dislike roasted pumpkin however I’ll eat it to be polite. Love the taste of pumpkin in soup (pureed) but the idea of eating chunks just sends my childish “I-don’t-like-the-way-it-feels-in-my-mouth” to pieces. Though I am trying to be more open-minded in 2012, so it was not time to go, pumpkin!
• 2 purple-skin potatoes cut into chunks
• 2 cups of mixed vegetables (add more to this if you are making some for leftovers for lunch the next day) [eg: squash, zucchini, eggplant, capsicum, onion, carrot, parsnip, mushroom]
• Handful of cherry tomatoes
• 1 cup of couscous
• 1 tsp olive oil
• Garlic clove crushed
• 2 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp dijon mustard

Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees celcius.

Gather all your awesome veggies on the bench :-) Check out what ours had in it!

Cut up all your vegetables and place them on baking trays lined with baking paper. Don’t add the tomatoes – they go in the oven at the very end.

Like so:

Lightly spray your vegetables with cooking spray – I used a cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil spray. Place in the oven and cook at 200 degrees celcius for approximately 40 minutes.

Once done add your tomatoes and cook for a further 10 minutes.

Whilst that’s cooking it’s time to make your couscous. I used this one:

So just follow the directions on the packet – I didn’t use butter or oil, just plain ol’ hot water.

After you’ve done that, get your olive oil (not pictured), mustard, vinegar & garlic (I cheated and used pre-crushed)

Now it’s time to put your measured servings of oil, mustard, vinegar and garlic into a small bowl.

Whisk it all together to make the sauce.

Throw all your vegetables into a big bowl that you can serve from.

Put your couscous onto a plate and top with roasted vegetables. Drizzle your dressing over the top and voila!

Awesome dinner.

What’s on your menu for dinner this fine Monday eve?

xx

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Howdy gang!

H2O.

Are you getting enough water into your body? I contemplated this in the shower this morning after spending a good twenty minutes complaining about how hot I was and then stepping under the warm water only to have an indescribable need to drink a glass of water. Lucky I have a pretty obliging husband who tended to my need without much convincing, offering me an ice-cold glass of water through the shower curtain coupled with the simple suggestion of, “Maybe you’re just dehydrated.”

After pausing to marinate on that for a moment, I shot back, “Maybe you’re right.”

So, it really poses the question, was I dehydrated?

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Was my water supply becoming like those droplets on the ground? Slowly evaporating away. Maybe. I don’t really know. Drinking lots of water is one of those things I am torn on. Maybe it comes from being a teacher and having lots of my colleagues throw the phrase “water is brain food” around. I really have to stop myself from quoting neuroscience research at them. Water does not make you smarter or aid you in your quest for brain smarts. In fact, in some instances, it can be considered a hinderance. I cringe when I walk past open classroom doors and I hear teachers making children drink water. Really, you should listen to your body and drink when you are thirsty.

However, I also know that water has loads of health benefits too. Clearer skin, flushes the toxins from your body, helps the prevention of headaches, is good for your hair, your skin tone, keeps you looking bright, helps with dark circles under your eyes, assists in stress management… I just seem to find myself never being able to drink the optimum amount.

Though when I was out at breakfast yesterday (post-triathlon) with Adam, Matt and Magdalena I noticed that Mags always orders water whenever we go out with whatever else she is drinking. I’m not sure why it hasn’t really ever been prominent in my mind before. Every time we go out she makes a point to ensure that there is water on the table. It must be second nature to me, because now I think about it, when we had our Pride & Prejudice marathon on Monday and Tuesday of this week, I immediately served her a glass of water with her tea. I’m not sure if this was a habit that she consciously gets herself to do and now it’s just become so ingrained in her routine or whether it is still a conscious decision that she makes when she goes out. I’m thinking this may just have to be a conversation I have with her when I see her next. If I look at the list of health benefits above, Mags checks those boxes. She has great skin and a great skin tone, she always looks like stress never enters her body and always looks really fresh whenever I see her.

And that got me thinking that maybe it’s a habit that I need to get into in order to avoid the feeling of, “Oh my god I need to drink a glass of water with a volume comparable to the Swan River…NOW.” Plus, with all the health benefits water has, why wouldn’t you want to drink it?!

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Which now poses the questions;

• How do you manage to get your daily intake of water to a level that keeps you hydrated and fresh?
• Is this something that you have to consciously do?
• If not, how did you manage to get yourself to a point where it just became natural to drink that much water in a day?

It’d be great to read what you have to say because I feel like I’m in a rut that I’d like to get out of. Creating better habits and all that jazz!

Happy Sunday, folks!

xx

Today Adam and his friend and business partner, Matt, competed in the Triathlon Series: 2011/12 Race Two Triathlon.

Me? I took photos and played cheer squad!

(This is purely a picture post and I know it’s been way too long since I’ve written so I promise you something half decent tomorrow)

Adam looking serious before the Triathlon started.

Adam & Matt – all smiles before the race started.

Matt post-swim

Adam post-swim

Matt transitioning like a pro!

I think Adam‘s helmet makes him look like he goes faster!

Matt powering towards the finish line – and in awesome time too!

Adam all smiles as the finish line approaches. I think Magdalena (Matt’s wife and one of my closest girlfriends) put it best when she said she had no idea how he could be smiling after all that exertion. Me either, lady.

Kirstie: “try not to look so tired now!”

The boys all smiles after the race. So proud of them both for finishing and doing a fantastic job!

Well done!

xx

So a few posts back I mentioned the Fitz Household Clean-a-palooza. We’re pretty much just tackling each room in the house and cleaning ALL THE THINGS.

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And this morning, that’s what I did. I finished off the last of the bits in our bedroom that needed to be done, I cleaned the bathroom and I also tidied my desk area up. I wish I could say that I cleaned it up because that would imply that it’s completely finished, but unfortunately it was not to be.

We’ve also cleaned the fridge (we bought a new one) and we’ve cleaned the oven (we paid someone to come and do it – which btw, Perth Peeps. OvenU is amazing. $125 for an oven that looks brand new and he spent 2 hours making it look that way. Can’t fault them). We cleared the clutter off of one set of our shelves and cleared the clutter off of our kitchen table. I am in the process of doing the other shelves in our house but honestly, does anyone actually finish a cleaning job in one day? I don’t know about you guys but as soon as I get bored, that’s it. I will literally find any excuse to NOT finish the task at hand.

Which leads me to some tips:

• Do a little bit at a time. I’ve actually found that choosing one thing to do a day is effective. Because of the aforementioned boredom. Just do a little bit in short bursts and let yourself do other things. Like, watch an episode of ‘Jersey Shore’ in between if you are so inclined. Or pin things on Pinterest. Just for the love of bacon (which is quite silly as I don’t like bacon) don’t let yourself clean to the point that you get discouraged because your house will remain in ruins for weeks until you gather any kind of momentum to tackle the beast again.
• Get all the things you need to do the cleaning BEFORE you start. Say you’re going to clean your bathrooms. Go to the shops and get everything you think you need to do it before you start doing it. Why? Because you’ll weasel your way out of cleaning the sucker using the excuse, “Well I could do it if I had the Earthly green organic cleanser of joy” (insert your own product as you see fit). How do I know this? Been there, done it.
• Hydrate. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Cleaning is a form of exercise too you know, and if you don’t hydrate I guarantee you’ll be on the bed moaning, “I cannae do it no more” (my whinging self likes to take on a Scottish persona) quicker than you can say, “Gee whiz!”. Seriously. H20 is your friend, my friends.
• Music. Cleaning would not be cleaning if you didn’t have all the hits blasting from your stereo. I don’t mean all the stuff that would define you as “cool” either. I mean, go into that box you swore you would never open in this lifetime again, dig out your old Spice Girls (or Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, B*Witched, Billie Piper…) CD and blast that sucker as loud as you are allowed to given your current timezone and time of day. Nobody really wants cranky neighbours at 2am. They will not appreciate the awesome-ness that is “Wannabe” when they are trying to get their 8 hours of beauty sleep.
• As an addendum to the above: Everything is a microphone when you are cleaning. ‘Nuff said.

Now, seeing as I have bestowed my wisdom onto you and I have also, coincidentally, done my quota of cleaning for the day, I am off to indulge in some “Lost in Austen” and make myself a lunch time smoothie.

You’re welcome!

xx

PS: Any other cleaning tips you would add to that list??

These are hilarious.

Shit Girls Say: Episode 1

Shit Girls Say: Episode 2

Shit Girls Say: Episode 3

xx

Okay. It’s been ages since I’ve posted pics of the cuteness that is my kitten, Meredith. So here goes. Lately her and Sago (Adam‘s ragdoll cat have been getting quite chummy. One might even go as far to say that they are friends. Oh what the hell, they’re best buds. Revel in the cuteness!

Sago giving Meredith a big cuddle.

Best friends watching the world go by together.

Cuddles.

More cuddles.

Even MORE cuddles!

Okay. So as you can see from the above evidence they are BFF for life.

And I’ll be able to stop posting kitten pictures for a little bit longer!

xx

(found on pinterest here but assume the source is here)

So, this is pretty much how I’ve been ‘wasting’ my time these holidays. Which, really is not technically wasting my time per se. Sure there’s probably more constructive things I theoretically could be doing, but what I’ve discovered is a land mine of amazing ideas for my classroom. So really, I’m simply working through my holidays.

Yes.

At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

You can check out my awesome pinboards here: Kirstie @ Musings of a Happy Life.

I warn you though, it’s highly addictive!

xx

This is so quick because I am so beyond tired tonight. Today was emotionally draining but tonight I felt much more energised and this evening made it all better. We babysat for our friends, Tony & Melinda. Daveigh is just the cutest thing ever. I really just wanted to post these two absolutely adorable pictures.

and

Daveigh just found Adam‘s face hilarious. Which I thought was hilarious. And she’s got this little cough/giggle thing going on which she cracks herself up with and you can’t help but join in. So funny.

Pretty much one of the easiest nighttime babysitting we’ve ever done. Such an easy baby to look after. Once she got over the initial, “Hang on, you’re not my Mum so why are you putting me to bed?” freak out, the whole night was just a dream. Adam and I watched a movie and Adam did some work whilst I played on Pinterest and checked the baby monitor eleventy-billion times too many.

All-in-all, the best end to a not-so-great day.

xx

I really had to stop myself from writing TUESDAY-FUNDAY in the title for this post, because really, this has the potential to get completely out of hand. Every day is a funday!

I finished the second book in ‘The Hunger Game’ trilogy this morning and  again I found myself itching to read more. Seriously, if you have not read this book yet then I implore you to do so. Yes, it’s young adult fiction. Yes, Stephanie Meyer likes it. But dudes, so does Stephen King. Both ends of the spectrum here guys. Plus, you should read it so we can converse about it. A most excellent idea.

Today I spent the morning kind of pottering around the house with Adam, who took a day off from work because we bought a new fridge and it was getting delivered, and really, I’m quite useless with these things. I panic and stumble over my words, that I’m pretty sure Adam would come home and I would have had the delivery guys set the thing up right in front of our front door. Or in the lounge room. Or in the bathroom. Catch my drift? Kirstie is not so good with the whole grown up owning a house thing. So lucky for me, Adam can take a day here and there to be there for these things!

But more importantly, we’ve begun house-cleaning-palooza in the Fitz household. So we’re completely cleaning our house from top to bottom so today was hitting our bedroom and just getting it looking a bit more de-cluttered. Which was a huge success.

I also caught up with one of my girlfriends, Mags. We headed down to the South Perth foreshore, each bringing cut up fruit, and Mags also brought their gorgeous black toy poodles, Baroness & Snake-Eyes. Unfortunately, neither of us realised that the music festival Summadayze was being held down there that day, but fortunately we found a shady bit to sit down, eat fruit and chat. Like I said yesterday, I really am so lucky to have such beautiful people I call my closest friends. It was such a gorgeous afternoon and we had some in-depth chats about life and what our resolutions for 2012 were. It was a nice calming feeling :-)

Then I had the pleasure of babysitting for the mini-Weatherills, Josie and Lucy, for just over an hour whilst Emma and her Mum went to the Tennis. So I got to play for a bit before Mark came home to take over.

Honestly, my friends have the best kids out there. And I’m pretty lucky that I’m allowed to have loads of playdates with them too!

Josie was just gorgeous. A complete angel. We played hide-and-seek, we did drawings, we played with the lego. We went outside and she watered the ‘trees’ (see: pot-plants) and went down the slide and did drawings on the chalkboard and before we knew it Mark was home!

Lucy is getting so big now and so animated. And she was no bother at all. Just happy to laze around and when Josie decided she wanted to play outside, she was happy just laying in my lap watching the world go by.

They were just the easiest kids in the world to babysit. I had a blast. Hopefully if Adam and i ever decide to make mini versions of ourselves they’ll turn out as good as my friends kids. They’ll have some tough competition that’s for sure!

When I got home, the dinner I was planning on making Adam had already started doing so I took that as my cue to finish this.

And all I can say is, Oh my God. Why! Why did that have to be the last one?!? There has to be someone out there who has read them – WHAT DID YOU THINK?!

xx

I’m not going to make it. Happy New Year, bitches!

So far it’s been a pretty exciting start to 2012.

Adam and I hit the gym this morning for the first workout (of many) of 2012.

Look! I spot an Adam on the bike.

No that doesn’t mean I wasn’t working out. I pedalled 10k on the bike too – momentarily pausing to take pictures of my love!

It felt pretty good to hit the new week at the gym! Just need to keep it up :-)

So OMG, you guys. A friend of mine introduced me to ‘The Hunger Games’ and it’s pretty much amazing. I started it last night and finished it today. Which basically meant that I brought it everywhere with me.

I read over my morning coffee.

And it was that good that Adam had to drag me out of bed for the most amazing breakfast ever, and I still read. (Side note: it really was the most amazing breakfast ever. Chop up some onion, garlic and ginger and cook lightly in some spray cold pressed olive oil and throw in some scrambled eggs – up to you how many depending on how many you’re feeding – and some cherry tomatoes  a bit of cumin and some turmeric and scramble it all together. Serve on a piece of pumpkin seed bread. Bellissima!)

So good! Lucky to have a husband who is a bit adventurous in the kitchen. We always have some crazy healthy but super yummy eats!

I finished the first ‘Hunger Games’ book shortly after breakfast and wanted to devour the second almost immediately but I had way more fun plans…

…To hang out with my Smiggles, whom I absolutely adore. No, before you ask, her real name is not Smiggles and she has a perfectly functional and lovely name – we just affectionately call each other that. I don’t have a recent photo of her – but here’s a photo of her and I at my wedding.

Isn’t she gorgeous!

We went to The Imp in East Vic Park. Loved the venue. She had french toast and a latte and I had fruit toast and an iced latte. And it was lovely. For two hours we talked fun stuff, life, schedules, resolutions, travel and by the end I left feeling inspired and calm. I love friends like, Smiggles. We don’t get to see each other nearly as much as I’d like to, but when we do get to catch up it’s like nothing changes. Love it.

At 1:30pm I tottled off to one of my girlfriends, Melinda’s house. No recent photo of her and I – but here’s one from 2007. Oh, the flashback – my short hair!

Seems like such a long time ago now. Ladies, never cut your hair for a dress. Ever. It is singlehandedly the dumbest thing you could ever do. I pretty much spent the next 6 months living with my GHD in my hand as curls and hair that short just don’t play nicely together.

It was such a lovely afternoon. I had cuddles with her daughter, Daveigh, we drank tea and chatted and shared music and again I walked away with a sense of calm and happiness. I really do have the most beautiful people I consider my closest friends.

So then I came home and pretty much spent my day with this.

Which, is my definition of bliss as when school goes back and Uni starts the only reading I really have oodles of time for is academic stuff. Which is so not as much fun as devouring whole novels in a day!

But side track – how amazing is this series? I’ve found it so hard to put these books down. Cannot wait for the movie to come out. Love to see if it does the books justice.

Have you read ‘The Hunger Games’?

If so, what did you think about it?

xx

So it's been about a month since my last post on here. Since then, I've been using Tweet What You Eat just about every day - the only exceptions have been manic days like Christmas or New Years, although it's probably more important than ever to post on days such as those. I've been getting a lot out of TWYE. I find it interesting reading over my diet and exercise choices on the website and discovering some clear trends associated with how I'm treating my body. I think the disappointment that I feel when I write entries associated with poor food choices, and the pride I feel when I reflect on the positive choices I've made, really forms the appeal of this simple program. Definitely planning on continuing to use it in 2012.

I wasn’t going to do a re-cap of 2011 as it probably would go something like this: work, work, stress, friends, adam, friends, work, work, work, work, adam, work, cry, stress, family, stress, cry, work, work, travel, stress overseas, cry overseas, see amazing places, work, work, stress, stress, cry, friends, friends… however through all that I think I learned a few things.

• You can’t change people. People will be who they are. Sometimes they turn out to be not very nice people. But that’s okay because that’s their issues. And if they want to spend their lives being horrible and harbouring animosity than that is their choice and not something you have to own. I haven’t always stuck by that lesson and at times let people get under my skin more than they should, but in 2012 watch out!
• You can only change your behaviour and it is YOU who will make yourself immeasurably happy. No-one can change your life except for you. And that, kids, is the attitude I’m taking in 2012. Time to be less affected by negativity!
• Do the things that make you happy and don’t be bothered by what other people think.
• Be a nice person but at the end of the day do not let anyone treat you like dirt. No matter who they are.
• Happiness is a choice you make daily. Make that choice to be immeasurably positive in all that you do.
• Stress will lead you to an early grave. Don’t succumb. Put preventative measures in place so that you don’t get to a point where you’re sitting in the foetal position in the shower with a bottle of red wine singing sad songs just to avoid things.
• Make time for friends. But make sure they’re making time for you too. Friendship is a two-way street. You might do most of the driving one way, but occasionally they have to come to the party too. Otherwise get rid of the toxicity.
• Love, above all, is what you come home to. Put the effort in. It’s worth it.

So without further adieu, 2011 in review:

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?
Travelled to America. Spent 5 and a half weeks away overseas. Travelled for work (twice)! Started my Master of Education degree (and kicked ass at it).

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I actually can’t remember if I made any last year. I intend on making some for 2012 but I think they’ll deserve their own post when  spend a few days thinking about it. Getting fit and healthy is inevitably on there. Making the most of our gym memberships. I’ll get back to you on this one.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes! Two of my dear friends did. Tony and Melinda had their first baby! A little girl named Daveigh who is just the sweetest thing. And Mark and Emma had their second daughter, Lucy, little sister to Josie. Both their daughters are just gorgeous. I’m also pretty lucky to have friends who gladly let me come around for play dates too!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, thank goodness.

5. What countries did you visit?
Ireland, Scotland, England, France, USA (New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, LA), Hong Kong.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
Strength of mind to be less affected by others’ actions.

7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
30/06/11. My Parents, Adam and I had dinner in the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It was amazing. In fact, that whole time in Paris was just incredible. It truly is my favourite city in the world.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Finishing my first year of my Master of Education degree with High Distinctions. A huge achievement given the headspace I was in for most of the year.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Getting emotionally affected by things that absolutely did not deserve to be on my radar.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Yes.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I bought Adam a bike for his birthday when we go back from our overseas adventure. I also bought amazing sparkly things at Tiffany in New York. That was pretty amazing.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
My Mum’s. She was my absolute rock through all the bullshit this year. She’ll never read this but she deserves a medal. She goes above and beyond the call of being a Mum. Such an amazing woman. Intelligent, fun, caring and at the drop of a hat would do anything for us. If it weren’t for her and Adam, I probably wouldn’t have made it out the end of 2011 this well. Lucky girl.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Not into naming and shaming. I’m sure some political people deserve to have their behaviour labelled as appalling though!

14. Where did most of your money go?
On traveling and on school resources. Pretty much the same answer every single year.

15. What made you really really really excited?
Going overseas. Dinner in the Eiffel Tower. Seeing family in Scotland. Traveling with my Mum and Dad and Adam. Friends and their big events. Seeing Michael Buble. Seeing Breaking Dawn with friends. Shopping on 5th Avenue. Meeting Heather and Chris in LA and spending two amazing days with them. Seeing a baseball game in San Francisco. Finishing my first year of Masters. Seeing Mark and Gordo in London. Drinking with Georgia in the pub after having tears and squeals outside the tube station. Walking up the William Wallace Monument. Spending a week being geeky at the conference with my Mum in Belfast.

16. What song will forever remind you of 2011?
What doesn’t kill you (stronger)

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? about the same. 
b) richer or poorer? about the same.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Reading actual books. Seeing more of my friends. Beach visits. Blogged about the fun stuff. Went to more festivals (can’t believe it took us to Breakfest to actually do this).

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Crying. Stressing out. Feeling helpless. Succumbing to negativity.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
We went down to Bunbury on Christmas Eve and then drove back to Perth Christmas morning to see the squids and my family in the morning at my Aunty and Uncle’s for breakfast. We saw Adam’s mum’s side of the family at lunch for a short while and then set in for the afternoon/night at my parents house. It was a fun, but tiring day.

21. How will you be spending New Year’s?
Our friend Matt was born on the 31st, and since he turned 31 it was his special birthday (31 on the 31st). So we went to Matt and Magdalena’s house to ring in the New Year for Matt’s birthday. Mags made an awesome helicopter cake (with a teensy bit of help from some of us) and it was a super fun night!

22. Did you fall in love in 2011?
Stayed in love with Adam <3

23. How many one-night stands?
Zilch.

24. What were your favorite TV programs?
Ummm…MI-5, Burn Notice, Jersey Shore, America’s Next Top Model, Gilmore Girls, Grey’s Anatomy…

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No, not hate. That’s a horrible emotion.

26. What was the best book you read?
Probably ‘The Brain that changes itself’ by Dr. Norman Doige. I mainly read things for University so it was all neuroscience mostly :p

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I actually have no idea. Oh wait! Last week I was introduced to Elizabeth Mitchell. One word: amazing.

28. What did you want and get?
To travel overseas and see a bit more of the world. Life is more exciting when you are traveling with your best friend, the person you love, and you’re having adventures together.

29. What did you want and not get?
Understanding and compassion in a few situations this year. Mostly work. I’m hoping it’ll be so much more positive this year!
30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part II.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 27 and I went to my favourite brewery in the Swan Valley with my dear friends. Can’t think of anyway better to spend my birthday.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Empathy. Oh, and maybe another holiday ;-)

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
Easy and fun.

34. What kept you sane?
My friends. My Mum. Adam. My family. Travel. Music.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Hmm…I’m not sure. Maybe Michael Buble?

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Unfortunately, I was pretty apathetic about most political issues this year.

37. Who did you miss?
I missed Georgia. I am counting down the days until she moves back to Australia!

38. Who was the best new person(s) you met?
I didn’t necessarily meet a whole host of new people but what I did do was become closer to 3 of the girls I work with and who I now can’t imagine my life without. Em, Amanda and Lou. They were like a refreshing breeze into my life and they were just the best thing that happened this year in terms of coming to some happiness in my professional life. They make school just that bit more sweeter.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:
Scroll up! I gave you heaps!

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Oh gee. Put me on the spot.

“You’ve gotta swim
Swim for your life
Swim for the music
That saves you
When you’re not so sure you’ll survive
You gotta swim
And swim when it hurts
The whole world is watching
You haven’t come this far
To fall off the earth
The currents will pull you
Away from your love
Just keep your head above

I found a tidal wave
Begging to tear down the dawn
Memories like bullets
They fired at me from a gun
A crack in the armor
I swim to brighter days
Despite the absence of sun
Choking on salt water
I’m not giving in
I swim”

How was your 2011?

xx

I have been asked by a few people how I achieved my lovely sugar cookies and as I don't have a lot of time right now here are a bunch of links to things I read so I worked it out myself

My gingerbread recipe

http://sweetopia.net/2010/11/gingerbread-cookie-recipe/

or if you want plain sugar cookies, this Nigella one:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/cut-out-cookies-recipe/index.html

Both recipes hold their shape when baked and most importantly are delicious!

Next you make up the royal icing, which is very easy:

http://cakejournal.com/archives/how-to-make-royal-icing

Then you colour it and thin it to the right constancy and once you decide on your design you start piping and flooding:

http://cakejournal.com/archives/how-to-flood-cookies-with-royal-icing

This is an example of the marbling effect, it also shows a royal icing recipe, but it uses powdered egg whites. It's just easier to use fresh ones as they are easier to get.

http://sweetopia.net/2009/06/cookie-decorating-tutorial-general-tips-butterfly-cookies/

This is an awesome website to get some of the equipment you need, ut I got most of mine from my local Kitchen Warehouse and then Home Providore's bake shop in Freo.

http://bakingpleasures.com.au/

At the very least you need:
piping bag (disposable ones are best)
piping tips (from size 1.5-3) for piping lines
piping tips (from 4-5) for flooding. You can use smaller ones, it just takes longer
Gel food colouring, the colours are far better and much more true than supermarket ones
Couplers, these are the plastic thingos that keep the tip in place, you need one set os couplers for each bag and tip you use.
Cookie cutters. If you just have round ones at home already you can do a lot with them, but fancy ones only cost a few $ each.
Tooth picks to help spread icing
damp cloth to wipe nozzles as you pipe.

Fun things to get:
Pearl dust
food flavourings to make the icing less plain tasting
Edible glitter, sprinkles, balls etc
Edible pens to draw on fine details
And about a million other things if you want to get carried away

I hope that's a start, ask me anything I've missed in the comments.

Happy baking

Just something I came across on Pinterest this morning. Bit of food for thought.

xx

No more workin’ for a week or two….

Or in my case 6 and a half weeks!

It’s the Australian summer holiday break. All the kids are on their 6 and a half week summer break and so that means all the teachers are on a break too.

So, how did I spend my first day/evening on holidays?

Here of course – at Leighton Beach! Crystal clear water, white beach and perfect weather. The best start to a summer holiday!

I went with two of the girls I work with. Katie is one of the Kindy teachers and surfs quite often and Louise is my Year One teacher friend who wanted to learn how to surf. Seeing as I’m petrified of the water (or more so fish) I had no intention of doing anything other than paddling my feet in the water, I packed my gear up and headed down to the beach to watch the surfing lesson and read my Kindle.

Just for anyone playing at home in Australia – you need to get this sunscreen. It smells like coconuts and pretty much epitomises Summer to me. Divine!

Lou did an awesome job for a first timer. Which, is probably pretty presumptuous of me considering I’ve never gone surfing in my life. But I think if everytime you fall in the water (which was al lot for Louise and it was hilarious to watch) you get back up on the board, then you’re doing a good job.

Katie is the blonde in the white hat and Louise is the brunette. She’s standing up on the board which was an achievement for her!

After that I went to pick up things to make ‘Reindeer Noses’ for Adam‘s work Christmas Party tomorrow. Check out how cute they are!

I made 30.

10 red.

10 white.

10 green.

This quite obviously means I spend way too much time on Pinterest ;-)

And tonight we were at my friend Amanda’s house for a Christmas Party. Few people from school and a few people from her social circle. ‘Twas a lovely night!

What are your plans for the weekend?

xx

In any given week our company is typically developing five projects at once, with teams of one to three. We run one-week sprints with a half day planning session on Monday morning, and a review session on Friday afternoon.

A sprint is the basic unit of development in Agile. Sprints tend to last between one week and one month and are a “timeboxed” development effort of a constant length.

Our sprint planning session is broken down as follows:

• Product owner – prioritise and explain highest priority items in the product backlog (we use Pivotal Tracker). The team can ask questions at this point.
• Product owner – set a sprint goal (what are we achieving this sprint).
• Team – select Pivotal Tracker stories you can commit to, to attain that goal.
• Team – demonstrate a solution to each story in the sprint and ensure no outstanding questions.

Our Friday afternoon review session:

• Product Owner and Team  - demo all completed stories.
• Team – Review estimates from the sprint and note down how you went and how you can improve (if target not met).
• Team – Review points missed from the sprint and why, and how you can improve on that for next sprint.

If you’re running sprints in your organisation do you do things a little differently? Drop us a line in the comments.

It really is the little things. And today, it was this thoughtful Christmas card from one of the amazing parents in my class that set me off in a puddle of tears. I can quite honestly say, a card like this completely makes my day and all the extra hours of my time that I give up for this job worth it. That’s all. No big fancy gifts or huge gestures. A small card with thoughtful words makes everything worth it.

What’s made you happy today?

xx

I seriously have an amazing group of parents of the kids I teach this year. Collectively, they’re so supportive over what I do and are vocally appreciative of the time and effort I put into their kids. It’s been such an enjoyable year.

And I got one of the best presents I’ve ever been given as a teacher today…a day spa voucher from 3 of the parents in my class. Amazing. Time to book in some “me” time :-)

If you’re a teacher, what’s one of the best gifts you’ve been given?

xx

Just a quick note to say that this will be my last post for awhile, as I'm going to be giving Tweet What You Eat a go as of tomorrow. Writing in this blog has been hugely beneficial for me, but it's also quite time-consuming every day, so I think that using Twitter as a food diary will work much better for me as a sustainable online tool to help me with establishing healthy habits. Bye for now :)

1st December

I enjoyed my RPM class on Thursday night, and even managed a walk afterwards as I didn't have enough time to do one beforehand. So exercise was smooth sailing, as usual but I did learn some food lessons from the day's events.

It all started on Thursday morning when I decided to have some light mozzarella and tomato cheesies on wholemeal for breakfast. I normally have a couple of eggs and toast for breakfast, but I mix it up with cheesies about once a week. Once it got to recess time, my breakfast choice posed a problem for me, as the recess I had in the fridge at school was cheese and crackers! To avoid getting a lactose reaction from too much cheese consumption, I needed to leave those for the next day. So, I headed to the canteen to check out what alternatives were on offer. Muffins, apple pies, hash browns, white bread rolls, icy poles and cheese and crackers were pretty much the options. Not exactly a nutritious selection, with the cheese and crackers being the best out of the lot, but that had already been cut out as an option. So, I went for the hash browns, thinking they'd be the most filling. That didn't end up being the case at all, and I should have realised that the lack of protein would have made that so. I had a smallish lunch (turkey and alfalfa on rice cakes) so I ended up being starving for the rest of the day, and stopped at a petrol station on the way home to get some Grain Waves. All the salt left me feeling pretty ick.

The lesson learned is to plan my recess better on the days when I have a cheese-based breakfast, as the school canteen isn't exactly a goldmine of nutritious and satisfying cuisine.

2nd December
I ended up making yesterday my rest day from the gym / pilates, as Matt and I headed out to a 7.20 screening of The Inbetweeners and got some Hahn's beforehand, meaning I wasn't able to make my usual 5.30 pilates or Step class. With the day being as hot as it was, I kind of enjoyed having my only exercise be a walk with B & SE in the evening.

Food was again a bit tricky yesterday, as I was out at a retreat for the day so my recess and lunch was dependent on the choices of the person who coordinated the day. The retreat itself was awesome, but predictably, the foods on offer were not. Recess was various cakes, slices and chocolates: bad luck for anyone who's trying to eat healthily or avoid a sugar crash in two hours! Lunch was a bit better, with various Subway subs on offer. The meatiest ones were on white bread, which I normally try to avoid because wholemeal just leaves me feeling full for so much longer. So all in all, it wasn't ideal, but it could've been worse.

I gave myself a mental pat on the back as I left school yesterday, because of managing to avoid any of the junk food stuffs laid out at staff drinks after school. I stuck to my mid-strength beer and was happy. I definitely need to put more effort into breaking my popcorn and Pepsi Max habit at the movies, though: seems that I haven't been able to cull that since last week. I think I actually need to bring along an alternative to make that a habit I can break.

This may very well be the most hilarious thing I have seen in awhile.

Quickly followed by this.

Are you laughing? I bet you are. I think I almost peed myself laughing when I saw it. Especially the second one. It’s now a running joke to be a velociraptor in this house. Particularly when one of us is going in for a kiss. To the point where Adam and I have stitches from laughing. I apologise, Jenna, I realise this is not the intended purpose of “the face” or its associated actions.

(As you can see I have finished my reports and am quite clearly indulging in zero work tonight!)

Enjoy, my pretties! I’ll be back to regular sane blogging tomorrow!

xx

Yesterday confirmed that I am definitely not a Body Combat girl. I'd been to a couple of classes awhile back and thought I remembered mildly enjoying them, so I thought I'd give it another go yesterday evening. Despite being pretty fit, I found it to be really draining and also pretty tedious and repetitive: not a winning combination. With my lack of engagement in the class, and finding it so tiring, it took a bit of will power to not give up halfway through and just go and do some cardio on the equipment in the gym. But, I persevered and got through it, secure in the knowledge that I would not be attending that class again :) I think the only Les Mills class I haven't tried is Body Attack so I might read up about that and give it a shot next week.

I am hopeless at “WIAW” so I’m going to do Katie’s “WILW” :-) And since I love Katie and her blog that seems completely fitting!

I love my new kitten, Meredith. She just gets cuter and cuter (except when she wants to play at 2:30am. That’s not that cute).

I love my new shoes from Novo. They’re super comfortable and the kids at school think they’re cute. Well, the girls do anyways ;-)

I love my gorgeous husband, Adam. Especially this week as it’s student reports time and he’s had to deal with my utterly psychotic mood swings and unpredictable behaviour. What a champion.

I love gorgeous Christmas Cards from beautiful kids and parents in my class. This one made me cry just because he’s been the most beautiful child and we’ve put so much work into him, all his therapists and his parents have been over the moon with what we’ve done with him this year. Just made my heart smile.

I love MOR‘s Italian Blood Orange hand and body wash. Such a nice citrus wakeup in the morning.

I {still} love my Kindle. Seriously, that device is amazing. I’m currently scheming ways to convince Adam I need the Kindle Touch… ;-)

I’m loving my Morroccan Oil Shampoo and Conditioner. That stuff is seriously awesome. My hair feels absolutely incredible after I use it. Couple that with the Morroccan Oil leave in treatment…amazing!

I’m also loving that tomorrow reports are handed in and it’s all over! That’s probably the best bit!

What are you loving at the moment?

xx

I've recently started following Women's Health Magazine on Facebook and have loved reading the daily posts from there, so yesterday I decided to buy myself a copy of the latest WH edition. I wanted to remind myself that there are ways to treat myself that aren't food-related, which is difficult because food tends to be used as a reward or form of celebration so often in our society. But, I don't normally buy magazines, so picking up a copy of WH definitely felt like a little treat for my efforts over the last week and a half. 

I mentioned to Kirstie the other day that I've fallen into a bit of a weekday rut, basically following the formula of exercising, having dinner, and chilling on the couch every night. So, after heading to Pump class and going for a walk last night, I decided to head to Dome with my new magazine and get out of the house for a bit. I ended up having quite the relaxing evening there, just enjoying my own company and my reading. It showed me that it's very much possible to indulge myself and reward myself in ways that have nothing at all to do with junk food. I'm going to be doing more of that :)

Sign the petition here.

On Sunday night, I did my usual end-of-weekend routine of going to bed too late, then waking up predictably tired on Monday morning. I ate well during the day but still felt pretty blah from not getting enough sleep, which was a worthwhile reminder of the importance of sleep in the healthy living equation.

After dragging myself out on a walk and then to RPM class, I finally felt alive and refreshed for the first time all day. Full of energy after my burst of exercise, I embarked on some salad creating. First up was a nectarine, peach and watermelon salad to enjoy as dessert during yet another episode of the addictive "Beauty and the Geek". Next was a chick pea salad with some roast pumpkin, roast asparagus, garlic, dill and lemon juice. It's a 12WBT recipe that I'd never before tried due to being scared off by the lack of meat. But, I picked up some lean honey leg ham to throw into the mix and I'm really looking forward to trying it at lunchtime today :)

It’s student report time, so I am presently drowning in report comments and ticky boxes. It’s all over hopefully by Wednesday when I submit them, so my life can regain some sense of normality.

Meredith’s first night went well. Since we’re trying to slowly introduce her to our other cats, we had her sleep in our bedroom. We set up a separate litter tray and her bed, her food and water. However, when we woke up this morning (super early) this is where we found her.

She soon moved over to me.

Such a lovely thing to wake up to. Kitten cuddles!

xx

Yesterday marked a full seven days of Mission Healthy Life kicking off.

• Pump and my first CXWORX class on Monday
• RPM and a 10 minute walk with Baroness and Snake-Eyes on Tuesday
• Pilates and a 20 minute walk on Wednesday
• RPM and a 20 minute walk on Thursday
• BodyStep and a 20 minute walk on Friday
• A strength-training workout at the gym on Saturday
• A 40 minute walk on Sunday, my rest day from the gym and classes.

I think having Sunday as my rest day is a worthwhile way to go - gives me more energy to do housework stuff like gardening and washing my car, and it also gives me more time to myself on the weekend. The only thing I'll change this week is avoiding walking Barony and Snake after RPM class, like I did on Tuesday. I'm just way too drained to do any more exercise after that class so the walk needs to happen either in the morning or before heading to RPM.

Food wise, I'm definitely happy with how I went Monday through to Friday. I upped my vegetable and fruit intake and kept my meals low carb / high protein to keep myself full. The effect of that was that I felt awesome both mentally and physically. I let myself down over the weekend, making a couple of less than ideal food choices whilst having a few drinks out at Five Bar last night. The effect of that was leaving me feeling a bit similar to how I did last Sunday night, when I started this entire change. This weekend has allowed me to realise that yoyoing between nutritious food during the weekdays and not-so-nutritious food on the weekends isn't a pattern I want to continue. That means I'm going to need to put some more planning into my food choices on the weekends, like making sure I have a high-protein snack before heading out to a bar next time.

So, goals for week two are to:

• Maintain my daily walks
• Maintain my gym workouts / classes for Monday through to Saturday
• Plan and create healthy meals for myself on the weekends, not just the weekdays
• Put more effort into planning my snacks on the weekends.

Onwards and upwards for week two :)

Hey gang!

So today was pretty exciting for Adam and I because (as you’ve been hearing alllllll week) we got to go and pick up our new kitten, Meredith.

She’s so adorable. Extremely affectionate and quite playful. We got her from a breeder named Lucy, who owns and runs Kimara, and breeds both Russian Blues (like Meredith) and Abssynians. The thing I liked about Lucy was that Meredith was chosen for us when we went to pick her up based on her personality and our life. And so far she’s a perfect fit.

She cried the whole 20 minute drive back home once we picked her up, but as soon as we were inside and she had gone exploring she was feeling right at home. I managed to get a blurry iPhone picture of her playing with the toys we bought her.

But she soon wore herself out and decided that Adam made the perfect bed.

And then that I made the perfect bed.

She’s absolutely gorgeous and we are so smitten with her already. Haven’t introduced her to her big brother and sister yet but after a few days of settling in I’m sure they’ll be just fine!

What a cutie!

What have you guys been up to this weekend?

xx

Friday morning tea in the staffroom: a nightmare for anyone trying to establish healthy eating habits.

Howdy peeps!

Today was such an incredibly, super, packed-full-to-the-brim kind of day. But I loved it.

Adam set an awesome tone for the day by making us feta scrambled eggs for breakfast and coffee. Yum. My brother came over and Adam and Liam hit our home gym for a bit of a workout whilst I gave myself a facial and then settled in and caught up on some blog reading/commenting (hey! It’s my gym rest day today).

After that it was time to head to City Farmers to pick up the last remaining bits we needed for the arrival of Meredith tomorrow.

We walked out with kitty litter, a bed, some more toys, some more food, a no-scratching spray and some christmas crackers for our puppies. Adam proved to be good for carrying stuff :-)

And he made an excellent target for attacking with one of Meredith’s new toys!

Yep, I’m immature enough to walk around the whole store and out to the car attacking him with a cat toy :D

After that we headed down to the shops to see if we could purchase new drinking glasses as we seem to be in need of a new set. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any that we both agreed on so that task was left to Future Adam and Kirstie to sort out. It wasn’t a complete waste of time. We got to drive around a bit which is always fun!

Coming home I debated whether or not to give my shoes of awesome ability to make me fall over another go, whilst taking photos of the things we bought from City Farmers.

All of Meredith’s stuff has now been purchased and the puppies were happy with their early Christmas Cracker gifts :-)

After getting ready we headed out to Salt on the Beach for lunch with my parents, siblings and my second cousin, Kirsty (yep – we have/had the same first and last names for awhile there) whom we met in Scotland in June this year. Kirsty was out for work so a lunch catch up was definitely in order.

Oh and if you were wondering, the shoes won and I gave them another go ;-) (and I didn’t fall over once)

Salt on the Beach in East Fremantle is one of my absolute favourite venues. It overlooks the beach and is so pretty during the day.

We were the second ones to arrive and we were pretty close to being on time, which meant I thought we were going to be late. But no! My sister, Rachael, and her boyfriend, Josh, were already there.

And a pic of Adam.

My brother, Liam, and sister, Catelyn, rocked up soon after that.

Then came Mum and Kirsty (and Dad but somehow I’ve not got a photo of him!).

Lunch was awesome. We shared some smashed garlic bread and some turkish bread with dip and dukkah.

Adam and I both had the mushroom risotto (which was like 3 serves and neither of us even made a dent in finishing it).

However we had super loads of fun.

And the view was so pretty.

After lunch my siblings went their separate ways and we decided to follow Mum and Dad to take Kirsty up to see Kings Park, which has the most amazing view of Perth City, the Swan River and the South Perth foreshore. It’s one of my most favourite places in Perth. It’s where Adam proposed way back when in November 2009!

So we headed up there and I tortured Adam with my obnoxious awesome taste in music. All the hits were there! Arriving in Kings Park it was super, super windy.

And Kirsty spied a shop which Dad pointed out was closing in half an hour so we went into the shop and browsed at all the awesome bits and pieces. Some of it was naff but there were some seriously interesting and quirky stuff!

Adam waited outside with Dad and got a coffee whilst Mum, Kirsty and I browsed the shop.

Since Christmas is rapidly approaching they had all their Australian Christmas Story Books out. It was funny and kind of cool to see so many tourists buying them with all sorts of different accents.

Kirsty found some absolutely gorgeous baby books with a May Gibbs gum nut babies theme. So adorable.

Oh what’s that? That’s the sound of our collective uteri beating.

I talked Kirsty into buying ALL THE THINGS :-)

Once we’d all maxed out our credit cards we headed out to see the war memorial and look at the city. So pretty.

The Flame of Remembrance.

And from behind.

The Great War War Memorial.

And the view overlooking Perth City.

Such a gorgeous view.

We got a picture of Kirsty and I together.

And then it was time for goodbyes. Kirsty is contemplating moving out to Australia in February next year to write her new book so that’ll be awesome (for her and us) if that that eventuates. She’s a firecracker of fun!

Mum, Dad and Kirsty went back to Mum and Dad’s house whilst Adam and I headed to the cinema for…

Sparkly Cedric!

Though I’m not convinced I want to be either Team Edward of Team Jacob. I think at one point I asked Adam whether I could be Team Jasper…?

Sorry about the blurriness of these photos! Hard to get a decent cinema shot!

We went to see Breaking Dawn with our friends Matt and Magdalena.

We all seemed to enjoy the movie quite a bit. We dissected the movie and the week’s events over green tea and then went our separate ways about half an hour later.

Sunday, you’ve got a lot to live up to considering how utterly awesome today was.

What was your Saturday like?
Have you seen Breaking Dawn? If so, did you like or not like it? Why?

xx

I’m sure that title made more sense in my head.

So today’s dilemma is: how to work out your workouts.

After going to the gym every morning for the last 5 days, I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to actually set myself up with some kind of direction as to what I’m doing at the gym. My current plan of action is: Go to the gym, do stuffs, sweat, push body to the limit. Which, you know, isn’t all that bad really. However, I think I’m going to get more out of this if I kind of have a little bit of direction as to what I want to do.

So, my question to you today is: How do you decide what it is you want to include in your workouts? And, why did you decide that’s what you’re doing?

Happy Saturday, gang!

I’m off with Adam to go to City Farmers to pick up the last of what we require for the incoming of Meredith, then to go have lunch with my second cousin from Scotland who is out here on business, and then it’s Sparkly Cedric time. Breathe! What a mouthful!

Have a great day.

xx

So, Adam and I are preparing for the incoming of our new kitten, Meredith. Which, is a pretty involved process. One wouldn’t think it would be considering we already have two cats, Sago & Lucy. But when you live with someone who is as ridiculous as I am, it’s a pretty lengthy and involved process of making sure she has all the things and the house is not a death trap for a curious kitten.

It was my planning day at work today which means I used that day to get up to date on paperwork and do referrals for kids and what not. But my brain break included a trip with one of my girlfriends at school, Emma, to go up to the shops to buy books for our kids for their Christmas presents this year, but also to City Farmers to buy all the things for Meredith (as she needed things for her puppy Bingle too).

Check out the haul!

Almost everything a new kitten could need. Besides a bed as I’m an indecisive individual who can’t seem to get her act together and just choose a bed for her! Adam and I will just have to go tomorrow.

We’re so excited to pick her up on Sunday!

What are you excited for this weekend?

xx

It seems like new habits form pretty fast :)

I watched another episode of "Beauty and the Geek" with Matt last night, and took 5 minutes to make a watermelon, strawberry and apple salad to fill that space where I would normally start thinking about having some junk for dessert.

A fresh fruit salad was the perfect companion for a warm spring night, and I think I would've actually felt gross eating anything heavier. After enjoying Trish's Not So Naughty Nachos (a Michelle Bridges 12WBT recipe) for dinner and my delicious salad for dessert, I really didn't even feel like I was eating health food. I felt like I was enjoying a tasty, filling meal that didn't make me feel disgusting afterwards. Perfect :)

What I've taken from this is that it's worthwhile taking the time to seek out delicious and healthy alternatives, to avoid feeling deprived in circumstances where unhealthy habits would have previously prevailed.

Our primary focus at The Frontier Group is web and mobile applications, but we do find time to design a website every now and again. We’ve added three websites recently completed to our case studies section of the site.

You can see them by clicking the links below:

Australian Mines
Ramelius Resources
BatteryLimits

Howdy dudes!

So proud of myself for making it to the gym for the fourth day in the row, especially when Adam offered me a leave pass to stay in bed as I wasn’t feeling too crash hot. Consequently, I feel amazing!

Foursquare made me feel super awesome too :-)

There’s loads of things that are super awesome at the moment!

First being getting my Semester Two University grades. High Distinction for my last assignment which means I got a High Distinction overall for the unit. Keeping my High Distinction average in tact :-)

Secondly, I’m just about to go get my hair did.

(source)

Thirdly, I’m going to see Sparkly Cedric on Saturday night with friends and have a drink afterwards. It’s been a bit of a tradition to go La Premiere and see the Twilight movies with us so I’m looking forward to it heaps!

Ooooer!

Fourthly (?) Adam and I pick up our newest addition to our family on Sunday morning, Meredith the Russian Blue kitten. And no, before you ask, we did not name our kitten Meredith after Taylor Swift’s kitten Meredith. Whilst I am a huge Taylor Swift fan, I’m a bigger Grey’s Anatomy fan. And my Mum has two Russian Blue kittens named George and Izzy so it was only natural we got Meredith. Yes, I realise this makes me a huge dork. No, I do not care. Yes, prepare to be bombarded by the cuteness that is the kitten when we pick her up.

Happy days, lovelies, happy days!

xx

What’s making you smile today?

"We are what we do repeatedly." Last night, I found myself being reminded of Aristotle's words in my efforts to break an old habit and create a new one.

The most unhealthy habit I'd developed over the past few weeks was vegging on the couch after my evening gym workout, watching a few episodes of this TV show or that one, and consuming some junk food while I was at it. It may have felt indulgent and 'well deserved' at the time, but afterwards it would leave me feeling exactly the way I felt as I wrote my first post in this blog: as far as possible from the best version of me.

So, I've been aiming to minimise my TV time this week to avoid long periods of time on the couch. That worked really well until last night, when Matt told me that he'd downloaded a series of this TV show I've been wanting to watch for awhile - with the intent of avoiding public ridicule, I won't reveal the title of that. I convinced myself that I could get through an episode of this show without seeking out junk food to accompany me. And, I did!

Green tea, a carrot, an orange and two Vitamin C chewables replaced the junk I would have consumed at this time a week ago. Yes, I was tempted, repeatedly. But reminding myself of the long-term gain I'm creating for myself made it possible to overcome that temptation for some unhealthy short-term gain.

After last night, I feel like it's really possible for me to break this habit. It's a good feeling :)

If you’re working with subscribed calendars in iCal, and find that you can’t see a subscription in the pop-up selector (I’m on iCal 4, on OS X Lion - yours might be different) then it might be because there are no items in that calendar.

I’m doing some development, where a calendar has three types of entries. It has standard appointments, recurring appointments and a special type of recurring appointment, that a user has assigned to them if they’re in a role for a period of time (think rotating roster). I have the first two types of entries sorted out, and disabled the output of these for testing purposes. This meant that the calendar was empty, and iCal hid it from the list of subscribed calendars. When I tried to add it again I got the error:

This is a duplicate calendar. This subscription calendar already exists in every account that supports subscription calendars.

If you’re having a similar issue, it might be because of this. On reflection, I can see why they’re hiding the calendar if there’s nothing there, but it made my debugging painful.


My new pink iPod Nano busted this out this morning when I was on the bike.

Loving that song today!

What songs are you currently digging?

xx

Temptation.

Yesterday was chocabloc full of it.

Temptation #1: A health-conscious individual at school decided to lay out a huge tray of Arnotts biscuits on the staff room table, and I had to walk past it at least four times during the day on my way to the bathroom. I found it pretty easy to brush aside the initial temptation to reach for one because of the positive energy I was still charged with from Monday, but by the end of the day when it'd been a few hours since lunch, I had to control my inner dialogue a little more consciously to be able to brush the temptation aside.

Temptation #2: Around the middle of the afternoon, a niggly little headache started turning into a nasty one - I put it down to sugar withdrawals. By the time I got home at 5.30, I had to really talk myself into throwing on my workout gear and making my way to RPM class. In a case of mind over matter succeeding, I talked myself into believing that the oxygen flow I'd experience from my workout could only make me feel better, and I got myself there. Having started the class feeling sub-human, I didn't feel as amazing afterwards as I did after Monday's Pump / CXWORX combination. But, I progressed from sub-human to human and was able to leave that class with a spring of accomplishment in my step, knowing that I hadn't let a minor body ailment hold me back from my goal.

Hey gang!

Gym this morning super revitalised me and I’ve just been on the biggest high today. You probably can’t tell the cheesies that are being done behind this screen, but that’s my smile right now. A big ol’ cheesy grin :)

Busy day at work and then I babysat BJ after school for a few hours, headed to the shops and then came home to make dinner with Adam. I don’t mean to brag or anything, but what we made was absolutely stupendously awesomely yummy.

Quorn Balls.

Yeah, so the name isn’t all that appealing but they’re flavoursome, amazing and super filling!

So here’s how you go about making these balls of awesome.

You will need:

A packet of quorn mince

3 slices of multi-grain bread

1/2 red chilli

1 small red onion

1 cup of 97% fat free semi sundried tomatoes

1 teaspoon paprika

4 cloves garlic

2 eggs

2 tablespoons of mixed dried herbs

Got that? Excellent.

So first you need to make the bread into breadcrumbs with a food processor.

Then transfer your breadcrumbs into a separate bowl.

After that you need to process the Quorn mince also. Then transfer that to a separate bowl (make it a big one so you can combine everything later).

Once that’s all done chop up the garlic cloves, onion, chilli and sundried tomatoes into blendable pieces.

You’ll also need your herbs.

And your eggs (cracked obviously – no shells in this recipe!).

And then pack them into your food processor and blend all of the above.

Mix the quorn, breadcrumbs and the new wet mix into a big bowl.

Make palm sized balls in your hands (my gorgeous husband played the part of my hand model this evening).

And then place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Make a whole tray.

Don’t they look awesome?

Bake your balls in an oven at 180 degrees C for approximately 25 minutes.

And then check out the finished product.

So amazing.

We served ours with cous cous and some natural greek yoghurt. I can safely say they were amazing. I’m sure that Adam would agree with me.

So what do I plan to do with the rest of my night?

My new pink iPod Nano arrived in the mail today! Woohoo! So I’m currently updating it with new songs and making a super awesome playlist for the gym tomorrow morning.

And reading the latest Frankie magazine!

My idea of heaven :-)

What are you getting up to on this glorious Tuesday evening?

xx

No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.

Speaking of words to live by, I was having a discussion with my kids in my class about marriage. Don’t ask how we got onto the subject or why as I seriously have no idea. We tend to have some really bizarre conversations in the mornings.

But it was on marriage and one of my kids (boy) did the usual “Ewwww! I’m never getting married”. So naturally I asked why not. And his response?

“Because I want to play video games all day and not get in trouble!”

Bless.

xx

Today was a crap start to the morning and whilst this blog was never created to blog about the negativity in my life, I wanted to remember this, how I felt and how I overcame feeling so crap.

I woke up pretty early and started doing the usual mental stress of, “I have to be awake because I’m going to the gym at 4:45am and I have a full day of teaching to do and if I don’t sleep now I’m going to be exhausted and then how am I going to get all my work done tonight…” It’s a pretty pathetic and depressing spiral which I usually succumb to and end up pacing around the house feeling more and more frustrated deciding that work is more important, canning the gym and taking a temazepam and trying to get a few more hours of sleep.

Today, I still felt frustrated and tired but instead of immediately removing the gym from my days events I decided to go anyway. I’m pretty good at talking myself out of the gym if I go in the afternoon (my job pretty much ensures that I have a mountain of work to do in the evenings) so I know that mornings are best for me.

So Adam and I packed up our stuff into the car, with me scowling and all. I know, I’m such an awesome wife. And we headed to Jetts (our gym).

After an hour of weights, cardio and stretching the grumpiness was all behind me and I was feeling on top of the world and ready to face the day.

I really feel like I’m on my way to creating a good habit and really feel like I’ve redefined my priorities in the last week.

What I was most proud of myself was throughout the entire workout, I employed lots of positive self talk to get me through it. Lots of positive mantras about being a strong person who could do anything she set her mind to. Lots of “you can do this, you can do this, you can do this” and “push harder, push harder, push harder”.

Because really in the end:

So, my questions to you are:

• Are you a morning workout person or an afternoon workout person?
• What do you do to get yourself motivated to hit the gym?
• Do you have any little mantras to get you through your workout?

Happy Tuesday, gang!

xx

To my wonderful, wonderful, amazingly wonderful parents. 30 years today. Amazing. I can’t wait to be sharing that with Adam.

And if Adam knows what’s best for him, he’ll be doing what my Dad did for my Mum today. 30 long stemmed red roses delivered to work. I am in awe. They’re absolutely gorgeous.

And she deserves every single one of them.

My parents are absolutely incredible people and such incredible parents. I’m a lucky girl!

Happy Anniversary, Mum & Dad! Here’s to the next 30 years.

xx

I feel on top of the woooorld!

The contrast between last night and tonight seems pretty damn extreme. What's happened between then and now?

• I cooked up a healthy breakfast (two boiled eggs with one piece of wholemeal toast) to start the day
• Packed a healthy lunch (three thin rice cakes with turkey breast, avacado and snow pea sprouts) last night to take to school today
• Exercised my use of the word 'no' whilst being repeatedly offered cake and other such progress-inhibiting junk at an afternoon tea I attended
• Cooked up a healthy dinner tonight (beef and broccolini stirfry - a Michelle Bridges recipe)
• Wrapped up the day on a mega high with 30 minutes of Pump class, followed up with an impromptu attendance of my first ever CX Works class. It was undoubtedly the hardest exercise I've taken part in all year, but the rush I'm still riding makes it 100% worth it.

I think it's safe to say I've well and truly deviated back to the right path :)

Heavy. Lethargic. Bloated. Unhealthy. All words that describe my present state of being, as a result of the last few weeks of reckless food choices and inconsistent exercise I've allowed myself to revert to.

This past year, I've proven to myself that I'm capable of creating the best version of me through the thoughts, foods and exercises I allow to shape me. I've experienced the immense benefits of being that person in, honestly, each and every realm of my life.

Tomorrow, I begin walking back along the path that leads me back to the best version of me.

It's hard to believe that my pregnancy and birthing journey with Lucy is already over. It seems like only a few months ago it was Josie's turn to pop into the world, and now BOOM I have two daughters.

My pregnancy with Lucy was very similar to Josie's. No major complications, just the things a pregnant woman is expected to put up with: aches and pains, floppy joints, reflux and a bad case of the grumps. I ended up putting on less than 10 kg by the end, but now less than 4 weeks later my wriggling belly and invisible feet are a distant and rapidly fading memory. Now might be a good time for you to settle in with a cup of tea and a biscuit, because as you can probably already tell I'm going to potentially bore you by waxing lyrical about Lucy's birth for as long as I like.

I thought I had done a lot of preparation before Josie was born. I read a couple of books, went to the hospital birthing classes as well as a natural birthing workshop. Giving birth is one of those things though that you can only learn so much about from books and seminars. This time I had an experience to build on, and true to my perfectionist personality I was determined to make it the BEST BIRTH EVER! No pressure though! I read much more about natural birth and was inspired by the stories of babies born essentially on a farm commune in the 70s, in Ina May Gaskin's book "Spiritual Midwifery". Reading about the amazing experiences of these women, their midwives, doulas and partners sent me on a search for a way to make Lucy's birth a truly special moment for Mark and I. This led to me reading "Baby Catcher" by Peggy Vincent. Anyone with a vague interest in birth, babies, women's rights or medical malpractice insurance would enjoy reading this easily digested and entertaining book. That's not to say there's little substance to it, that's far from the case. I found it very difficult to put down as it chronicles Peggy's journey from the medically over-managed, degrading hospital births she was first part of, through becoming a midwife, to her self-professed calling of helping women to give birth their own way at home. Her stories made me realise how much I have to be grateful for, that I was able to choose to birth the way I want, with who I want there. With dignity, with the respect of my carers, and experiencing every part of the process.

That brings me to the main difference between Josie's and Lucy's births. Many people talk about labour in terms of hours, or in terms of vaginal vs C-section. My comparison is of the little things that I made sure I didn't miss out on this time. Granted time had a lot to do with it. By the end of Josie's 18 hour, (12 hours active), labour I was too tired to care about anything except getting her out. With Lucy I birthed her without missing an entire night's sleep, and so was able to communicate better with Mark, the midwives and my obstetrician. I remembered to open my eyes to look at Lucy when she was born! But I don't want to ruin the ending so early in the piece...

*As a side note, I'd like to remind you that this is a story about childbirth. Blood, vaginas and poop will be mentioned. You have been warned.

In retrospect, my labour with Lucy started about 3 weeks before her due date. That would be the first of five false starts that had Mark packing my bags for Graylands. Each of these times I would start the day with light “pre-labour” contractions which felt more painful than Braxton Hicks tightenings. They would continue for a few hours, then fizzle out into nothing. Everyone, including my obstetrician, was expecting me to go into spontaneous labour well before my due date, as Josie had arrived on her own just over 2 weeks early. The 38 week mark went by. Then 39 weeks. 40 weeks was approaching, unthinkable! The day before that magical estimated due date, (EDD), I woke to cramping and light contractions once again. By this time I had learned not to get my hopes up that labour was starting, as the disappointment of all those other times had left me an emotional wreck. We took Josie out to Hyde Park for a play, and Mark chased her around while I sat on a bench like a geographically confused beached whale. The cramps continued, I continued to ignore them. I had convinced myself that, "This baby is never going to come out!", and when we got home I exploded in a hormonal mess of tears and frustration. Mark cancelled our afternoon plans with friends Adam and Kirstie, (most likely out of fear that I would stab them, or him, or set fire to my hair or something). As I laid down for my routine midday nap, I expected to wake with tumbleweeds blowing across my uterus as I had those five times before.

Surprisingly, light contractions carried on when I woke but I still wasn't bothered by them. Mark in his infinite wisdom had correctly predicted that a sleep would see me feeling much better and had not cancelled our plans to have friends Duncan and Nikki around for dinner. I also suspect he didn't want to see all the fish he had bought and prepared that day go to waste, so was determined for dinner to go ahead. At this point I received a text message from my friend Pepper who had the same EDD as me, she had birthed her baby that afternoon! Of course I was pleased for her, but it made me even madder at my own stupid body for not getting on with it! We ate dinner, contractions annoying me more and more throughout. Finally when we were eating dessert and I realised I had to stop talking during each contraction it actually dawned on me that I was probably in labour. I made a dash for the loo as my body decided to, ahem, clear out the back end, (as is a common thing in early labour). I was convinced then, and let everyone at the dinner table know what was going on, (about the labour, not the toilet activities). I think Duncan and Nikki were a bit baffled by how calm Mark and I were given the hysterics portrayed in the media whenever a woman is in labour. I popped the kettle on and made everyone cups of tea, but I had ants in my pants and kept wandering around the house. Our guests commented that they were unsure as to the correct social protocol. Is this a case where it’s acceptable to “eat and run”? Or should they stay to be polite? Nikki very kindly kept offering to get me something, though I’m not sure what either of us thought that thing might be! I reassured them that babies very rarely just pop out all of a sudden, and that I’d let them know when it was getting heavy and it was time to go. Having some company to keep me distracted from clock-watching was a good thing. It was probably only another 15 or 20 minutes though and the contractions were getting to the point where I wanted to breathe and concentrate through them, so it was time for our excited but perhaps slightly bemused dinner guests to head off. We swore them to secrecy and got ready for the ride ahead.

At some point earlier I’d phoned Mum to let her know what was going on, I can’t remember now how that fits into the timeline. I told her to come on down to our place as she was going to look after Josie, but not to rush. She said she’d be about an hour. It seems like once I gave my body permission to go full steam ahead though that’s exactly what happened. All I had the attention span for was to get changed into more comfortable clothes, the list of things I was yet to add to my hospital bag was abandoned and to me seemed like the most unnecessary thing in the world. Hair straightener?! What was I thinking?! Mark commented, (very cautiously), that the contractions seemed really close together. We timed a few: 2 minutes apart. Mark got back on the phone to my mum and told her to hurry. He didn’t really need to emphasise the urgency of the situation, as I was yelling in the background, “Come now! Hurry up! Hurry up!” I wasn’t worried, but was rather finding it amusing that Mum was now getting the cliched urgent phone call after so many false starts. Mark called the hospital, and with the confidence of a second-time dad told them we were coming in within the hour. He must have sounded like he knew what he was talking about, as this time the midwife didn’t even ask to speak to me or suggest having a bath and a cup of tea. In fact, she said she’d better let my obstetrician know what was going on since my contractions were so close together. I hope he wasn’t enjoying a dessert that we interrupted. I toddled downstairs and paced around the lounge room, leaning my hands on to the couch and swaying for each contraction. My phone rang and it was Mum. “WHY ARE YOU RINGING ME?!” was how I greeted her. She was quite taken aback as she thought she’d had a missed call from me that she was returning, and she wasn’t expecting me to have turned into a labour beast just yet. I can’t remember if I managed to apologise or not, but she certainly got the message and let me know she wasn’t far away. Mark came downstairs and helped my by massaging my lower back during each contraction and we loaded up the car, (including a towel on the seat in case of membrane rupture, and a bucket in case of an unexpected spew, neither of which were needed in the end). Oh the glamour! Mum arrived and starting chatting to Mark and I, to which I promptly replied “SHHHHHH!” as I was having a contraction. I’m so sorry Mum, I’m not usually that rude! I appreciated the rapid silence, other than Mum making some sympathetic noises. I reassured her, (once my next contraction was over), that I’d already done hours and hours of this with Josie’s birth, she just hadn’t seen it. Her daughter and new granddaughter were going to be fine. A quick kiss and a hug for Mum, and Mark and I were off to hospital.

I kneeled on the front seat facing backwards, with my bottom resting on the dashboard. I can clearly remember thinking that I dare any police officer to pull us over and argue with me about not wearing a seatbelt. I remember getting onto Graham Farmer Freeway, but after that the rest of the ride into Subiaco is a blur. Before I knew it I was arguing with Mark about where to park, (sorry Mark, seems I’m a bit of an angry and entitled woman in labour). Then I was snipping at Mark about taking too long to get the bags out of the car, and I just wandered off towards the hospital entrance by myself. As I stopped to lean on a tree for a contraction, a nurse starting her shift walked past and made sure I was ok. “Off to the labour ward are you?”, she asked. “What gave it away?”, I replied with a smirk. She led us to a card-access staff entry which saved traipsing through the hospital to get to the labour ward. Up two flights of stairs and we were right there. It felt a bit like checking into a hotel. A nurse came out and met us at the desk, asking what she could help us with. “Having a baby”, I replied. I’d been standing behind a high part of the desk and she couldn’t see my bump. It seemed like the lights went on in her brain, and she connected us to Mark’s earlier phone call. Mark came to my rescue again and remembered to ask for the family birthing suite, and we were led down the hall to that familiar room. It was a very odd feeling to be labouring in the room where I had Josie. So many amazing memories came flooding back and I couldn’t wait to do it all again. There was no putting me on the monitor this time, it was quite obvious I was in active labour and a quick internal exam revealed I was a “stretchy 5cm”. The midwife said that this was common for second time around, that I was only dilated a few cm but she could easily stretch my cervix out to 5cm open. The midwife who was going to stay with us for the birth then came in, and I instantly felt she was going to be awesome. She introduced herself, Jenny, and as I had another contraction she put her hands out for me to hold onto and swayed with me silently as it washed over me. Some words of encouragement came my way, and she convinced us that although the family birthing suite was big, if I really wanted an active labour then one of the rooms with a more maneuverable bed was the way to go. She seemed to really know what she was talking about in terms of labour and birthing positions, so I went with the good vibe she gave off and we moved down the hall to room number 3. Jenny gave us a demonstration of all the things the single bed in this room could do that the double bed in the family birthing suite couldn’t. That thing was like a transformer, I kept waiting for it to turn into a giant robot and jump out of the window. I hopped up onto the bed and found my favourite position was with the back up as far as it would go, so I could kneel facing the wall with my arms hanging over the end of the bed. I was introduced to a student midwife, Aleisha, who I gave permission to deliver Lucy if all went well. She needed nine more deliveries under her belt to complete her training, which I was more than happy to help out with. Jenny said that my obstetrician had standing orders to rupture membranes after 5cm was reached, and that it was up to me if I wanted that done. She could feel the sac bulging at my cervix with each contraction. We decided to wait as I really hadn’t been going all that long, and breaking my waters was what really brought on Josie’s birth fast. Contractions were getting heavy now, I thought about all those amazing women I had read about and their incredible births. I pictured myself being like them, empowered and awesome, remembering everything I could about their births that was positive. I even had a few contractions where I felt an amazing power surge through me, like I could do anything in the world. It was almost a pleasurable feeling and those contractions were not at all painful, just an incredibly intense sensation and emotion. I turned to look at Mark and it really felt like we were taking some ridiculously powerful drugs! Now I know what all those 70s women meant when they said their births were “psychedelic” and “telepathic”. I moved my pelvis around, and at the height of each contraction I bellowed like a whale, then roared like a lion. It must have been quite entertaining! I don’t think I could make those noises now even if I tried. After a while I had another internal exam, 9cm! I was ecstatic! We talked again about membrane rupture, but I realised I was scared. Jenny reminded that I was actually doing an awesome job, and what exactly was I scared of? I could remember the intensity of contractions reaching their peak during Josie’s labour immediately after my membranes were ruptured. I was scared of being in more pain, scared that I wouldn’t cope, scared that I would let myself down when I had done so well to that point. Another contraction came, and I realised that I couldn’t imagine them possible getting any more intense, and that I had already ridden through loads of contractions that were just as intense as the ones I experienced during that transition period with Josie’s birth. I could do this! So my membranes were ruptured artificially again, goopy amniotic fluid dribbling onto the bed, and I carried steaming on towards my goal. I was starting to get tired, and I remember saying to Mark, “I’d quite like to not be doing this any more”. Some women get very profane in transition, it seems I become ridiculously polite. Aleisha and Mark suggested a few times that I try the nitrous, but I was convinced that it wouldn’t do anything and was being very stubborn. Within a few contractions I felt like I needed to push. The midwives had a look, still 9cm. If I started pushing now, it would cause my not yet fully dilated cervix to swell and I could end up in theatre having an emergency C-section. Another contraction, and I tried not to push. It felt like holding my breath when there was a room full of perfectly good air to breathe. Mark and Aleisha coaxed me into the shower to buy some more time. Off came my clothes, (no time for being bashful when giving birth), and we rolled a fitball in for me to use. The warm water brought the intensity of the contractions down a notch, but the urge to push was getting stronger and stronger. I was leaning over the ball singing out with each contraction, Mark says I was hitting some quite tuneful notes. Aleisha kept suggesting I sit on the ball, but for some reason I was fixed on being in that position and nobody could make me move. I ploughed on for as long as I could, but eventually me chanting “Don’t push, don’t push, don’t push” stopped working, and I told Jenny that I couldn’t hold off any longer. “Well you have to”, was her response. Nooooo! This was the point where we decided to call the anaesthetist for an epidural. While the pain was intense, it wasn’t getting any worse and I could cope, albeit loudly. The urge to push was so strong though that I couldn’t help it, so wanted the epidural to take that sensation away so my body could open up completely to let my baby out. Jenny made the call, and let me know that she had told the anaesthetist I may well be fully dilated and pushing by the time he arrives, so he may not be needed, but if not I’d be “very happy to see him”. He would be at least half an hour.

More contractions, more singing, more urges to push. I was mostly resisting, but a couple of times I gave in and just let my body push as hard as it wanted to. I didn’t do a very good job of fooling the midwives, and they helped me out of the shower and up onto the bed so they could check me again. Drumroll... fully dilated and ready to go! Pushing at last! The anaesthetist was called off, (5 minutes away apparently), and my obstetrician was told to get his skates on. I laid on my side on the bed and pushed with everything I had with each contraction. I felt Lucy move down quite quickly, that first bit is so satisfying and not like the last part which stings a bit. Her head felt about the size of a tennis ball to me. Soon enough she was crowning, and at some point my obstetrician arrived as well. It’s funny that during a contraction and while pushing, the whole outside world disappeared and I focussed completely internally on the job at hand. Then in between it was like we were out for a coffee. My doctor walked in and said hi, I said “Oh hi Michael, you’ve had a haircut”. He gave me a very odd look, replied that yes, he had recently had a haircut, then I went back to pushing. It did sting as I stretched to let Lucy’s head out, but it was inconsequential compared to the desire to push and have her born. In between contractions again I remembered to ask to feel her head, which I had completely ignored during Josie’s birth. Jenny guided my hand to my baby’s crowning head and I felt all her hair between my fingers. Amazing! Excellent motivation as well. My team did their best to help me pant through each contraction now to reduce the pressure and my chance of tearing. I listened... for a bit, then had a glance at the clock. It was around 10 minutes to midnight. I made up my mind then and there that this baby was going to be born TODAY. I pushed as hard as I could, everyone told me to slow down and pant, I pushed as hard as I could again. Everyone gave up telling me to pant and just went with it, lots of voices chimed in, “That’s it! Push now! Keep going!”. I felt a release of pressure and called out, “What’s happening?”. Jenny, ever the cool head, replied “You’re delivering”. I looked down and saw Lucy’s head poking out. Let me tell you, that is a very bizarre experience in hindsight, but at the time it seemed perfectly appropriate and normal to have a baby looking up at me. (Time to quote Clancy Wiggum, “The baby looked at you?”). Lucy let out a little gurgly cry. While her body was yet to be born. It was the best sound I’ve ever heard. Only one more contraction and she was out and passed to me for a cuddle. It wasn’t as surreal an experience as when I first held Josie, instead it felt natural and like everything was finally right. Fatigue and relief washed over me, and I was powerless to decline the offer of nitrous while I had a few superficial stitches put in. Labour pain is purposeful, manageable, anticipated and intermittent. Having stitches put in your hoo haa is not an empowering moment that needs to be fully experienced! I was then poked and prodded on the labour ward for a couple of hours until the staff were satisfied I wasn’t going to bleed to death. I was able to give Lucy her first feed well within an hour of being born, which was really important to me.

It was fantastic that it was all over with so quickly. As I was wheelchaired up to my room on the maternity ward, holding my new baby girl in my arms, I felt such a sense of achievement and completeness. I had no chance of getting any sleep that night. We had just become a family of four. BEST BIRTH EVER!

Josephine's birth story here.

If you’re looking for an engaging and interactive way to learn Ruby, I’d recommend Ruby Koans by EdgeCase. I think that the koans are especially interesting if you’re coming from another programming language like PHP or Java, because they rely on some basic programming knowledge, but don’t presume any Ruby-specific abilities.

The Koans walk you along the path to enlightenment in order to learn Ruby. The goal is to learn the Ruby language, syntax, structure, and some common functions and libraries.

By manipulating and building upon Ruby’s TestUnit framework, the EdgeCase developers have created a step-by-step process for teaching Ruby through the practice of “Red, Green, Refactor.” They’ve added some simple game mechanics too, by showing your systematic progression through the 270+ challenges (puzzles). Reaching enlightenment results in a pretty ASCII graphic, and a legitimate sense of achievement.

Before you start with the koans though you’ll need a working Ruby installation. I recommend you take a look at the excellent rvm project, which will allow you to install multiple rubies (1.8.7 and 1.9.2 for example, alongside each other) and multiple gemsets in your home directory. Former Frontiersmen and 2011 Ruby Hero Award winner Darcy Laycock was heavily involved in this project as part of the 2010 Ruby Summer of Code, so we really like rvm at TFG.

The GitHub repository even includes a handy Keynote presentation, which I used as the basis for my talk about Ruby Koans at last week’s Ruby on Rails Oceania Perth meetup.

Lastly, if you’d like to have a play with the koans before diving in too deep, they’re available online through your web browser at Ruby Koans Online. This is a no-risk way of trying out Ruby (hint: team them up with why’s Try Ruby project) in your browser.

I was thinking earlier that it would be great if XBOX Live save games and gamertags were available “in the cloud.” With more and more gamers having multiple XBOX consoles, and the need for data portability across these consoles is high.

It seems that the smart folks at Microsoft are already on the case.

It’s interesting how this company went from being Geek Enemy #1 to almost the underdog in a few years. Their gaming platform really is head-and-shoulders above the competition.

The Frontier Group is a boutique software development company based in West Perth. We have a strong focus on web software, and utilise Ruby on Rails and JavaScript to build web applications, and Objective-C for our iOS projects. We’re looking to take on experienced iOS and Web Developers and also a Development Manager (at TFG that means you’re a part-time project manager who also writes code).

Is this you?

You understand the difference between websites and web applications, and you want to write apps that matter for people that care about them.

You’ll have a track record of working on completed projects, and if you’re a Development Manager, you’ll have delivered some of these projects personally. You’ll have a few years commercial experience, probably working as part of a team doing solid but under-appreciated work. You will have experience with Mac, Linux or UNIX, but it might not be your daily environment. Similarly you will have an opinion about vi vs. Emacs or Python vs. Ruby, but you’ll understand that they’re just opinions.

You’ll care about your tools and will take real, genuine pride in the quality of the code you create. You won’t consider automated testing and continuous integration as optional components of a project, and will appreciate automated deployment procedures too. Learning new programming languages and getting more out of the languages you already know will excite you. Efficiency will be important too, and you’ll be looking for ways to automate your workflow and push the repetition off to a script.

You’ll be confident in your programming ability, regardless of the language you prefer, yet humble enough to seek guidance when needed. You’ll know how JavaScript can be used to enhance the web, and will have demonstrated experience with a leading JavaScript library. You might even care about SASS and HAML, if you’re really cool.

Using the right tools is important and we realise that. We don’t have a parent company dictating how we do things or what our “standard operating environment” is – you’ll get to make those decisions with us. We all use MacBook Pros for development, but you might want a new iMac, for example. You’ll keep up to date with current trends and care about using modern techniques and practices, as well as tools and technologies.

What we give you

• Variable salary, dependent on position (Starting at $63,000 on probation)
• 9% superannuation (on top of salary)
• A MacBook Pro with SSD (yours to keep, replaced every two years) ~$3,500
• $1,000 travel allowance per year (parking, bike servicing, public transport)
• Internet and mobile allowance ($80 each per month)
• Current and relevant books, training, tools and gear
• Opportunities to work from home/flexi-time
• Pay reviews every 6 months with no ceiling on earning potential
• Freedom to grow your role with our organisation

What you give us

• Agreed units of production (standard working week)
• Your creative genius and passion

How to apply

Send a short email to jobs@thefrontiergroup.com.au and reference your Github and Stack Overflow accounts, along with any Open Source projects you’re involved with. Include a resume if it’s three pages or less.

*International applicants are also welcome

Earlier this year we began working on an internal e-commerce product that would appeal to our existing customer base, as well as new customers. While there are a myriad of options already available for businesses looking to move sales online, our experiences with them over the years has always been hit and miss.

Taking into consideration the needs of our customer base, we decided to integrate e-commerce facilities into our existing CMS platform. This has the immediate appeal that our customers do not need to learn yet a second content management platform. For new customers it’s great that they can now build a website with us and immediately sell online using our pre-built systems.

If you’re looking for a way to sell your products online, enquire about Madison Shop with your new website.

Why Choose Madison?

• Take control of your entire website and online store with a simple content, product & sales management system.
• Give your customers the shopping experience they need with a custom template created by our design team.
• With support for most Australian (and international) banks as well as PayPal you can collect payments right away.

I'm going to take some time out from whinging to record all the things I love about being pregnant. Might come in handy if we ever decide to have another one!

• I love, love, love my bump and not having to suck my stomach in when I've eaten too much. It's also useful for sitting cups and plates on.
• My hair is shiny, nails are healthy and skin is glowing. Not sure if this is due to hormones, or prenatal vitamin supplements.
• The hair on my legs seems to have stopped growing. Bonus!
• I'm having a great time nesting, getting everything together for the new baby and decorating her room.
• I love feeling the kicks and wiggles, every time I feel my baby move I fall in love with her a little bit more.

Today we bring you the first in a series of guest posts on our TFG blog. This post is written by Peter Cooper, editor of Ruby Inside and Ruby Weekly.

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You’re using Capybara, right?

It’s an acceptance / integration test framework for Ruby that superseded Webrat and makes it easy to automatically interact with Web applications but at the user level. It’s now the de facto way to do request / integration / acceptance testing (seriously, it gets called any or all of these) in Rails 3.

Capybara supports using different ‘drivers’ to run the scenarios you specify and by default it’ll use Rack::Test or Selenium (which uses Firefox’s Gecko engine). capybara-webkit is a library by the guys at Thoughtbot that gives Capybara a WebKit-powered driver using the WebKit implementation in Qt, a popular cross-platform development toolkit.

Why?

Why get WebKit involved with your integration tests at all? Perhaps your userbase is primarily made up of Safari and Chrome users (both WebKit-powered browsers) and you want to focus on them. Or perhaps you’re thorough and want to ensure the JavaScript on your pages works fine with your tests in a WebKit scenario too.

Installation

Here’s the bad news. You need Qt installed in order to install capybara-webkit. If you’re on OS X, grab it from here (pick the Cocoa: Mac binary package – the 206MB version). You can install via homebrew too (using brew install qt), but Thoughtbot says it takes forever (well, almost).

For other platforms, check out Qt’s Downloads page.
If you’re on CentOS, in particular, check this article.

Once you’ve installed the Qt toolkit, add this to your app’s Gemfile:

gem 'capybara-webkit'

Then run bundle and you’re off to the races.

Usage

Once everything’s installed, you can set Capybara’s JavaScript driver to use Webkit by default, by adding this to your normal Capybara config options (or if you have none, in spec/spec_helper.rb in most Rails 3 cases):

Capybara.javascript_driver = :webkit

Then, if you’re using Cucumber you can add the following tag to the header of your scenario to trigger JavaScript usage specifically (it’s not done by default):

@javascript

In regular RSpec code, you can do something like this:

feature "The signup page" do
scenario "should load", :js => true do
visit new_user_registration_path
page.should have_selector("form.user_new")
end
end

You could also use the :driver option to specify :webkit if you want to choose the driver on a per scenario / describe basis. The same applies to @webkit in Cucumber.

If you’re on OS X, when you first run tests using capybara-webkit the OS X firewall might go a little crazy since it works by connecting over a socket. Just approve it and you’re on your way.

You may also have issues if you’re using transaction fixtures. If so, read the “Transactional Fixtures” section of the Capybara README.

August 2011 is going to be a significant month for me, and us*.

You’ll see.