2013: The year that was!

It is only an hour and a half away from 2014. A new year! Fresh! The beginning of a new page in the beautiful life of Jo.

As I close the chapter on 2013, I reflect on the craziness of the year that was - 2013.

I would most likely describe my year to be crazy! I started full time work this year  meaning that Eliza also started attending daycare at the tender age of 9months old. Both kids attended daycare 4x a week with having Thursdays off to be minded my either my Mum or Dad.

When Noah started going to daycare, he did get sick so we were expecting Eliza to also have her sick days. Little did we expect that Eliza would be sick almost every 2 weeks from January to July. Apart from the regular cough and colds, Eliza also acquired pneumonia, hand foot and mouth disease, bronchiolitis, asthma and nits. I became very familiar with the Triage procedure at the Emergency Room at Manly and the Royal North Shore hospitals.

Apart from Eliza being sick, I too fell very ill at the beginning of the year. I was asleep for almost 4 straight days, suffering over 40C temperatures and could not keep anything down. Tim took me to the hospital but was not admitted. Based on my symptoms, Tim unofficially diagnosed me to have onset of mild meningitis - possibly getting it from Eliza's hand foot and mouth disease. We later learned that there were other cases in our area at the same time.

Thank God for Tim's work allowing him for a bit of flexibility as without that, I am not sure I would still be employed. This year I managed to use up ALL of my 15 days of sick leave. Never in my entire career history have I taken so much sick leave from work. Let's hope that 2014 is not as bad!

2013 is also the year when Tim and I travelled to the UK with both children, Being in the UK, attending 2 beautiful weddings of 2 very special couples, spending time with our families and watching the children create brilliant memories in the 10 days that we were there was amazing but oh my goodness, Tim and I never expected the travel to be as painful. Doing long haul with 2 young children completely wrecked us, especially as we were only there for such a short time.

2013 is also the year when I had my 2 minutes worth of fame on paper and tv. Despite having more than enough on my plate, I agreed to being the champion to fight against increases in our day care fees from our Council run centre. Nothing came to fruition but we fought for our beliefs and cannot wait to show Noah and Eliza the newspaper print photo and the video again when they are older.

This year, we finally bit the bullet and joined the Sydney property market. We knew that we had outgrown our 2 bedroom Fairlight rental but was not prepared to move until after our UK trip. House hunting was fun to begin but that did not last long. After 3 months of spending almost every Saturday afternoon driving around, Noah was over it and told us that he did not want to see another house again. Tim and I felt the same, watching 30-50 groups of people go through open houses with us and learning of places selling at least 20% over their asking price! It was ridiculous! Thank God that we did find our house when we did as we could not do another open house and get our offer rejected again.

In as much as for most of the year, Tim and I felt like we were riding the roller coaster of life, trying to manage and balance the kids and work (and constantly feeling that we are shortchanging one), I think this year has brought Tim and I closer through the challenges we have faced and the decisions we have made.

This year we also saw our kids grow so much closer. They truly have started to become friends and have each others back. We have heard Noah refer to Eliza as his best friend or no longer his best friend when  she chooses to not listen to him.

Tomorrow, I will be waking up and it will be a fresh year. A year that Tim and I are looking forward to. We are hoping for a more settled year especially in our new home - a year where we will continue to grow as a couple but hopefully also manage to pursue our own individual interest (which Tim and I have had to forego this year). We can only hope!

So my dear family and friends, I wish you a wonderful 2014.

Cheers to what is ahead. May God continue to reveal His great plan for each of us and may we always be happy, healthy and completed blessed in His presence.

With lots of love.

Our first Christmas at Chez Stentiford

I would like to officially introduce our new home to you.

Today, we spent our very first Christmas here.
Sadly, we were not blessed with the beautiful sunny weather that is depicted in the above photo. However, having more than enough space in our new home has provided us  with a pleasant, comfortable and "happy to stay indoors" type of day! Happy to stay indoors to eat, open presents, eat, open presents, eat and open presents!

Surprisingly it was already quite late when the children woke up. I have been waking up pretty early the past few days despite not necessarily having to. I think it stemmed from the week when Tim went away. That week, I made the effort to be awake at least 15-20 minutes before I expected the children to wake up, meaning needing to be up 5.30AM! Ugh!

Anyway, the first thing I heard from Noah this morning was "Did Santa come?"

I let Tim guide Noah through the loot the Santa brought and let him explain what Santa and the reindeers ate out of the feast he left for them. I wanted Noah to come up, to wake me and Eliza up, to excitedly tell us that Santa did arrive!

 

Once the mess had been made in our bedroom upstairs, it was time to move downstairs.

After breakfast, it was inevitable that the kids wanted to open more presents so Tim and I agreed to let them open their presents from us.

I can seriously say "Thank God we now have the space to accommodate this craziness, which included having a water table with an umbrella in our lounge room and a race track in the rumpus !!!".

As Tim was scheduled to be on patrol at North Curl Curl beach this afternoon, we hosted my parents over for Christmas rather than going to theirs today. Of course, despite the rain, I was adamant that we (he) would still be bbq-ing!

Luckily it was not too wet when Tim got started so he was still agreeable!

Lunch was a lovely feast. We missed Chad, Bambi, Ate and Isaac as they are away but we will be doing Christmas round 2 on Saturday with them. I think Tim and I agreed that we needed to get a bigger dining table soon!

Tim had to leave for his patrol for a couple of hours leaving us behind to digest our meal, and open more presents.

Of course when he got back, we opened more presents (and made more mess!) and ate more chocolate!

The kids are now in bed fast asleep, probably relishing the wonder of today, despite having to be indoors all day.

They did not even miss their new trampoline which is still a work in progress. Rain dampened plans of completely building it today.

To all our family and friends, wishing you a wonderful Christmas day, just like the one we had. May we all continue to be blessed and guided by God's loving spirit. Thank you too for all the wonderful greetings, cards and presents that you have showered our family with. We are indeed very blessed!

Merry Christmas!