My first born

I saw this on a friend's blog, and wanted to do it too.

1. Were you married at the time? No

2. What were your reactions when you found out you were pregnant? Euphorically happy.

3. How old were you? 32

4. How did you find out? My period was due in the morning, that day I gave up smoking and drinking. I felt crook. Two days later I did a pregnancy test from the store and it was negative. I still felt I was pregnant. Two days later I went and had a test done at the doctor's and it was confirmed. I was so excited I nearly ran into a car because I was floating and oblivious to everything around me - a bit scary really when I realized what I'd done.

5. Who did you tell first? I couldn't wait for my fiance to come inside to tell him. We were both very excited. We didn't tell anyone.

6. Did you want to find out the sex? Yes, I needed to know desperately because I so badly wanted a girl and I needed to know if it wasn't, as I couldn't bear any disappointment at the birth. I am so pleased I found out.

8. Did you deliver late or on time? 10 days early

9. Did you have morning sickness? Sick for three months

10. What did you crave?I lived on french toast. I couldn't face meat, and I didn't drink coffee for the next several years.

11. Who/what irritated you the most? I had really bad carpal tunnel syndrome and my sciatica kept me bed ridden at the end. The last several weeks were very difficult.

12. What was your first child's sex? Boy

13. How many pounds did you gain throughout pregnancy? I can't remember, probably about 20kgs - way too much.

14. Did you have any complications during pregnancy? Pre Eclampsia.

15. Where did you give birth? Local General Hospital, they were fabulous.

16. How many hours were you in labor? From the first 'show' 24 hours.

17. Who drove you to the hospital? My husband drove me. We went to hospital at about 9pm at night, about 12 hours after my 'show'.

18. Who watched? My husband was there and my Mum, who was fabulous. DB was hopeless and found it all very difficult as it was a difficult birth. I had a room full of specialists, things weren't going well. The baby was distressed and my cervix was swollen as he was head butting it from being in a posterior position.

19. Was it natural or c-section? Ventouse Extraction. I can still hear the sound of the scissors cutting me.........

20. Did you take medication to ease the pain? Gas, which I couldn't breathe properly because I was in pain. Thankfully the needle numbed 'the area'.

21. How much did your child weigh? 5lbs 4 oz

22. Did your child have any complications? Sore head from the forceps.

23. Why did you choose his name? His first name is after his paternal grandfather and his second name is after his maternal grandfather, which we shortened and hyphenated into 'Billy-Joe'.

24. How old is your first born today? He is 12.

The Mac Love Affair Continues.......

And I'm not talking about the hamburger lol.....

I've had my imac now for over a year and have had a couple of little quirks happen, but nothing detrimental. I love it still and certainly don't regret 'crossing over'. This morning however, my computer wasn't asleep and I couldn't even restart it! I felt sick. I have extended Apple Care, which is warranty for another two years, but still. It's not a good feeling. Primarily because I don't have an external hard drive. Because I'm not on a PC anymore, and problems are virtually nonexistent, I've been lax with backing up my photos and my music. They are of course my main concern. So I realized, I'd finally have to use my external hard drive research and go and buy one ASAP. Added to that I realized that my darling, owed me money, so I knew I could go and get something. After I did the groceries this morning, I saw dear Bunny and told him I was heading out to buy some external memory storage. I had looked into the Time Capsule, Apple's external hard drive and was amazed at its capabilities. Needless to say the price was a bit of a sticking point - nothing Apple makes is cheap. I went into Myer to talk to the staff there. I was very happy to see there is now a Mac guy working there, the equivalent to the US Apple Genius, but their title is nowhere near as pretentious here. The guy was very pro Time Capsule (of course). He was busy and then I went over to check out the other EHDs and the Apple guy came over and waxed lyrical about all the features of the Time Capsule. It's also a router, which means when I get a lap top, it can have wireless internet!!

I ordered the smaller one!

Time Capsule uses Time Machine to run it. It's an amazing program. The initial backup takes many hours, at least over night for the amount of data I have, several days if you have loads more than me. If you're interested, here's an overview of what it does.

I don't have it yet, because it was out of stock. I also ordered iLife 09 which looks fantastic. I love that suite of programs. iphoto is fantastic, and imovie is good fun too. I had actually read that imovie06 was a far better program, and I managed to still find it to download it for free. It has lots more features than imovie 08. I'm hoping that imovie 09 will be a big improvement. Judging by the previews and examples it should be. I also got a new wireless mouse today. There are lots of bad reviews about the Mac Mighty Mouse, but I love it. I love how it feels in my hand, and it works really well. It did take me a while to get used to, and, until I knew how to set it to have right click as well, I was rather lost. Now having one without a 'tail' is just fantastic. The lead was always annoying me.

Because I had time and I was on my own, I was able to 'play' with a Macbook too. I was very impressed with how well it worked. I found touch pad to be easy to use, and it was remarkably fast. I'm glad I am teaching my Digital Photography Class again because it means I can pay off these things - plus they are a tax deduction for me too. I won't be able to get one probably until the middle of the year, as I will have paid off my camera by then.

The young bloke who served me in Myer, (not the Apple guy) was telling me he had a PC laptop and when it 'died' he was going to go with a Mac. I asked him why? It's always good having an opinion of someone who actually works surrounded by these machines (PC and Mac). He said they are just superior. They work better, they last longer! Always nice to know that you make wise decisions, when someone reaffirms what you believe. Not that I need to justify my choice, but an unbiased opinion carries weight with me.

My girlfriends husband has a Mac, his is a few months older than mine. He just bought Time Capsule a few weeks ago, and it's already helped him out hugely. They have loads and loads of videos from their young children, stuff that's far too precious to lose. He is one of the few people I know who has a Mac. He works huge hours, and I don't see him often, so all his info is passed through his darling wife, who is not computer savvy at all, and it results in the funniest conversations. She's always telling me what he's done, but of course is stumped when I get all excited and start asking questions. Thankfully she is very patient with me, and always remembers to ask her husband, so she is a messenger of all our "MacSpeak". I respect his opinions, so base much about which product to get etc on his thoughts and purchases. I'm just glad he doesn't have an iphone lol......

I came home, had lunch, tidied up and then walked to Billy-Joe's school to pick him up. It was an hour round trip and in the heat of the day, no mean feat. Actually when I told DB that I'd walked, he asked how I got to the school in the first place........I said I walked. He was very impressed! I'm not sure how far away it is, but the hills are deadly. My hip fared okay, but got a bit clicky on one hill that just went on forever. It was really nice to spend the walk home talking to Billy-Joe. We clash so much sometimes, it's nice for us to have this one on one time. It's really precious actually, because we come together, not as equals, but as friends, that just want to hang out together. So it's nice for me too, not to always have the 'parent' hat on. I wanted to walk him home too, in case he ever has to walk himself. I'm still not 100% happy with letting him cross roads on his own, so I taught him the things to watch out for as there's one really busy road he would have to cross. The trip home was quite an eventful one actually. We were walking along the path and Billy-Joe jumps and yells 'Snake, snake'. I wasn't frightened, but couldn't see it in front of me. Billy-Joe continued to yell so I started to walk backwards, not realizing the snake had come out of the grass again and was behind me!! Then I saw it. This green tree snake, (the snake was smaller than this one, but it gives you an idea) but so agro, it wasn't funny. He had his skinny little head about 4 inches off the ground and he was not a happy boy. I just moved away......... Billy-Joe was petrified, and I wasn't too bad, probably not as bad as when I see a huge huntsman inside my house actually.

I cooked a delicous pizza last night. I'll have to update my recipe blog. Actually I've got a few recipes I need to write out. I've taken the photos, but doing the recipe is always of course more time consuming.

Scrapping tonight and my brother, wife and my nieces are coming tomorrow night for a BBQ, so a lovely weekend ahead.

I've exercised heaps this week and am starting to feel much better about my weight. Probably have only lost a little, but it feels good to do something positive, rather than just stressing about it.

Picasa

One of the things I missed when I 'crossed' over to my imac, is the use of Picasa. I don't use it much, but love the collages you can create - perfect for uploading lots of photos. I love these different collage effects. It's uploaded small, but if you click on it, it comes up really well in the larger size.

A new Week

One thing about a treated depression, is that it does improve when the slumps hit. I had a very quiet weekend, just enjoying being home and spending time with my family. It's always back to basics for me when I feel down. I started the week yesterday feeling refreshed and ready to take on life head on again. I have also exercised four days in a row, so I'm sure that helps with how I feel. I am going to continue at my current rate of jogging 4km in 30 minutes. I am working in a better zone and don't wish that I could finish before I've even begun lol......

Both Bunny and I are looking forward to our next holiday, which we'd decided wouldn't be at the same place as we've gone in previous years. We were able to rent a house a little north of here, for $180 less than we paid for our unit last year, and we have booked it for ten days. The house is larger than our own, and has a pool, which will be just awesome. We have found there are some nice restaurants in the town, and a supermarket, and the beach is only a couple of streets away, so we are very very happy. The kids have asked me questions about it every day - I have told them perhaps they need to forget about it as October is a long way away.....

Off to do some tidying.