Observations of a Newly* Living Together Full Time** Couple

*Newly as in properly, as opposed to just staying at each other's houses.
** Living Together Full Time as in as close as you can get when one half has a fly-in fly-out (FiFo) roster


It has been interesting to note some of the things I've noticed since moving in properly with Mr Rock.  We really are a classic case of opposites attract, thankfully while also complementing each other and not getting annoyed at each other.  I think the FiFo roster definitely helps to some extent as we haven't been used to residing in the same house so there have been some things to get used to.

Firstly, there is the spending time together thing.  Last year (and the years before that) I lived in the country and MR lived in the city as well as worked away.  So time together was at a premium and we saw each other approximately one weekend out of three.  We made the most of those weekends and spent a lot of time together.  Now, we see each other one week out of three (wow, luxury!) so we are getting used to being in the same house but not necessarily both doing the same thing.  And going out and catching up with friends/family by ourselves.  We did the latter before, but not much of the former.  It is strange being in one room reading and knowing that MR is in another playing playstation.

Which brings us to the differences and the other random observations. 

I like quiet quiet time (reading, blogging without TV or music on).  MR likes noisy quiet time (tinkering with his car/bike, Playstation, TV, whatever it is, must have either music or tv on).

I don't mind doing the dishes, MR hates it.  When he does do them it is lovely, but I really don't mind that he doesn't too much because it turns out I'm quite particular about the order of and how my dishes are washed/rinsed/drained.

The difference between washing clothes for one and washing for two seems to have somehow quadrupled.

Clothes brought home from the Pilbara need washing again, even if they are clean.

Boys socks s-t-i-n-k.  Particularly work socks.

I eat really slow.  MR eats really fast.  This has been very much highlighted by our decision to eat dinner at the table at least twice each time he is home (as opposed to on the couch with the tv on)

It really truly is awesome when you don't have to cook dinner every night.  (One of our similarities is that we both enjoy cooking)

Gardening can be actually be quite enjoyable if the weather is nice and you have someone to do it with (and to do all the hard heavy lifting stuff for you)

I don't get on the computer as much when MR is home.

Boys are handy to have around the house when something needs fixing.  Particularly boys with a shed full of power tools.


I'm sure there are many more, these are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head.  Oh, and it is also handy when you are in need of some quiet quiet time to catch up on blogs and relax that you can give a Go-Catch-Up-With-Your-Mates Drinking Pass and have both parties entirely satisfied with the results.  I'm off to catch up on my blog reader now!
 

I am Lost in a Cloud of Weariness

via weheatit

Life is so uneventful in my world at the moment.  I drag myself out of bed, stand in the shower for way too long, throw on some clothes, have some multigrain toast and vegemite because my tummy is has been feeling a bit unsettled early in the morning and vegemite doesn't seem to bother it more, and head off to work.  After work I come home, collapse for a hour or two with a book or blogosphere, drag myself out of bed to organise some form of dinner, perhaps (if I'm lucky) do a few chore like the dishes or some washing and then head back to bed. 

On the weekend (and Fridays) there is sleep, sleep and more sleep.  There are pyjama filled days.  There are groans at the thought of leaving the house.  There is not much housework going on.  I am definitely going to get a cleaner, I just have to locate some energy to ring around and find one...

Last weekend the highlight was going to Ikea and spending a few hours doing some craft room unpacking.  But then I was so knackered for the rest of the weekend that I didn't even have the energy to make it to Brown Owls on Sunday.  Very sad.

I am getting incredibly bored with being tired all the time.  I had yesterday off because I was feeling very nauseous and I slept for most of the day and still today at work people were saying I looked really tired.  *sigh*

I want to wave a magic wand and have some relatively normal energy levels back.

I know I shouldn't whinge because in the scheme of things, I have it relatively easy.  But I miss the old me.  The old me who back in those days I thought was always a bit tired, but now I know better.

What do you miss about the 'good old days' when you didn't realise how good you had it?

 

Progress

The rose bush in our front garden has bloomed, I have been eagerly awaiting this moment since moving in the find out what colour it is.  I like roses in the garden but have never really been a fan of them in bunch.  I especially like roses covered in rain drops in the morning after a night of rain while I was all snuggled warm and cosy in my bed.
 

The tomatoes are going strong, this plant at the front especially so...

 ... and the snow peas have sprouted and are about 10cm high with a few little curly tendrils starting to appear.

The craft room is also showing some (minor) progress, from this to this below.   A trip to Ikea for some more shelves and plastic tubs definitely helped with finding some room and places to put things and thanks again to my sister who came over for a few hours yesterday to help me with some organising (because otherwise it wouldn't have happened).  

 

And in other progress news, my medication is working so well that after only two weeks on it, my white blood cell count is back to a normal level! It went from 86000 to 54000 to 6600.  (Normal levels are between 4000 and 11000) Incredibly good news, my haemotologist is very pleased with the results and now I just have to wait for the 3 monthly blood test to see how BCR-ABL test goes.  That test (from what I understand) checks the levels of the mutated leukaemic cells in my blood which should be 0% and was 140%* before I started the drugs.  

* don't ask how it can be at 140%, I have no idea!

 

Today...

... at school, a group of my kindy kids did the loveliest thing. 

I work with children with language impairments.  My kindy kids (3-4yrs) range from unintelligible babble, to parroting the last word of what you say, to producing one word themselves up to a sentence of about 2 parts (eg. 'The dog is sitting', although in their case it is mostly more like 'Dog sit').  With these language delays also comes poor comprehension, memory, fine motor skills and listening skills so some days you really wonder if certain children in the class are actually taking in what you are saying/teaching/playing.  Their social skills are also weak as they don't have the language to engage/join in/negotation/converse with their peers.

So we keep activities short and sharp, very oral language based, very game like and hopefully 'fun' to keep their interest.

One of the activities we have been doing a bit lately is Memory Tray.  You know, where you put some items on a tray, get the students to look at them and then cover them up and take one away.  They have to guess what is missing.  This activity helps them learn the names of objects (currently vegetables as our theme is Food) as well as improve their visual memory skills.  They get so excited when they work out which one out of 5 or 6 items is missing. 

just like this from here

So anyhow, this afternoon we had free play happening while the students were taking turns to come and make a collage using orange coloured things.  One of the kids asked if he could get the rug off the doll's bed and when I looked over next he had gathered four of his friends and they were playing Memory Tray together using coloured blocks.  I was just so proud of them.  They had remembered the rules to play the game, they were taking turns and they had used social skills to ask others to play with them. 

It is so nice to see that evidence that they are learning and that things are sinking in!
 

This week I'm grateful for...

... minimal side effects from new medications - I'm ever so very tired but apart from that the effects of starting on the drugs has been happily nothing major.  And I'm getting better at swallowing those tablets too

... living in Australia - really, we are just so lucky to live here and have a relatively good government (compared to many other countries) and health system (again, compared to many others).  My medication costs $1000 per month, but I only pay $38.50 of it.  I am never going to complain about paying tax again.

... three day weekends - I'm taking Fridays off for a while, my first one off was yesterday and I slept until 1pm.  If I wasn't so tired I would be feeling lazy telling you that but by Wednesday it feels like every second person is mentioning how tired I look (most likely because I do, but not needing that reminder right now thanks!)  On Friday afternoon after the humungous sleep in I went to the chiropractor and he said 'You look like you've had a busy day'  Good to see that mammoth sleep did something for the bags under my eyes...

... doctors - who give me letters so I can take those Fridays off and use some of those now very precious sick days, thank goodness I have over 40 of them accrued.


Explore some more gratefulness over at Maxabella's  
 

I've always been a bit of sook.  The sort of person that tears up at certain soppy commercials, and last tonight during a couple of those Logie winners' speeches.  Wasn't Hugh Sheridan's just lovely? 

Now I'm not normally one to post on so called popular culture and to be honest this is the first time I have ever sat down and watched the whole Logies, or any award show in its entirity for that matter.  So this post isn't really about the Logies, it was just what prompted my thoughts.

I was a bit of a late comer to Packed to the Rafters but I watched every episode from the second season onwards right up until the one where Melissa died.  In fact, I didn't even watch the one where she did die, because I knew someone was going to die and I didn't want them to.  If I didn't see it, it didn't happen.  Right?  And I haven't watched one since.  There just reaches a point with TV shows where I give them up because it's all getting a bit too upsetting.

Karl Stefanovic said it exactly in his Gold Logie acceptance speech.  No more deaths, please!

I get emotionally invested in the characters, their families and their lives.  I am fully aware that it is all pretend.  I just can't help it. 

When Claire died on McLeod's Daughter's I gave it up, then came back to it a few seasons later only to give it up again when Alex died. 

Brothers and Sisters was great but then Kitty cheated on Robert.  Well, I don't know if she actually did because the ads were hinting at it and I got annoyed at her and stopped watching.  And then when I started watching it again there was that incredibly upsetting final episode last season with the car crash and Robert dying. 

Likewise with Grey's Anatomy.  This show I watched every episode right from the beginning.  I have them all on DVD.  But the end of last season was just too much emotional investment, I don't think I have ever been so tense watching a TV show in my life and since then I haven't really been able to get into this season.

Totally crazy I know.  But sometimes I feel like I have enough negativity happening in my life and I really don't need anything extra to bring me down further.  Even if it is pretend.

Do you feel the same?  Have you stopped watching a TV show for some reason?
 

In the Hoop (Creative Collective May Project)

I was wandering blogosphere over at brownpaperbunny a little earlier and came across creative collective, which I hadn't actually heard of before.  But it turns out it is quite a cool little group of girls and one of the things they do is run a project for each month. 

This month's project is to make something with an embroidery hoop.  I have some embroidery hoops.  And embroidery hoops aren't big things, which means this would be a project that I could actually manage without having to commit to too many hours.  And even better, I found out about it on the very first day which means I have lots of days left to make something.  I like!

I am going to make something for my craft room.  Which currently looks like this. *hides face in embarrassment* 

Perhaps it might give me some much needed motivation to get it unpacked and organised? (Please note: the mess on the floor is me attempting to unpack boxes and find homes for stuff...)  Maybe I'll just call my sister back in.  She is the Queen of Organisation.