Committment

Those who play along at home will remember that I had back surgery on November 3 - almost 3 months ago - and in that time things have changed A LOT in the orange house.

In these last 12 weeks, Loz and I have between us lost a total of 28kg and have gone from complete couch potatoes to a minimum of an hour exercise each day.  We also used to eat complete garbage, with 3 (and I'm embarrassed to say sometimes more) take-away dinners each week. AND we used to buy our lunch every work day - sometimes brekky too.

We feel SO amazingly healthy and full of energy now, and while Loz has reached his goal weight, I still have another 8, maybe 10 kilo to leave behind.

So...(and this is pretty confronting for me to post here on my house blog) ...I have signed up & committed to Michelle Bridges 12 week body transformation program, or 12WBT.

I am 100% committed to reaching my goals, but they don't just involve weight loss.  For me (us) this will reinforce the good habits we now have, and make sure we keep them for life.
I know this program will take hard work, but I am DETERMINED to see it through & give my back the best chance of a full recovery - by carrying around less of me!


If you want to follow my 12 week journey, you can find me over here.  We're currently in pre-season mode, with kick off in two weeks.  There's still time to join in you want to do something for yourself that could well turn out to be amazing.

Take care,
Reinsey, Raelene, RDub, whatever I'm called these days :)

Knifed in the back

I've had a dodgy back for somewhere between 4 and 6 years - can't remember when it started coz these things don't always have an exact beginning.

Anyway - I thought I'd been doing a really good job of managing it, especially considering we moved 3 months ago.  So when it flared up again roughly 6 weeks ago, I was so incredibly pissed off as I couldn't see what had triggered it.  In true Reinsey style, instead of listening, I pushed through, ignoring the increasing numbness and then pain in my left leg.

To cut a looooooong story short, I actually went to the GP (rare for me) and he ordered an MRI on my lower back.  I had this done on Monday 31/10.  Mum and I had a quick look at the pics and thought holy crap, there's something in there. Go back to the GP on Wednesday morning and I'm sent immediately to Monash hospital.  By this time my left leg is completely useless and the sensation (or lack thereof) is spreading across my body as well.  Freak out meter = 5/10 but I still drive myself to hospital.  As you do!

See a neurosurgeon and I'm on the list for surgery first thing in the morning.  Riiiiiiight.  So can I go home now, promise I'll come back in the morning?  Nooooooooo.  Freak out meter = 7.5/10.

I was so unprepared for this I barely had any charge left on my phone and work - oh God - there was so much I had to get done!

So here I am 11 days post-op and feeling  better than I have in years.  I can't sit down for more than 3 x 20 minute sessions a day.  The rest of the time I have to be on my feet or flat on my back.  But not too long on my back or scar tissue will form.  Not too long on my feet either.  I've just begun working a few hours a day standing at my PC, but man o man am I dying to go out shopping for browny-greeny-white things!!

Turns out the nerves were completed compressed from a severely bulging disc and they performed a laminectomy on my L5/S1.

The best part...my tramp stamp is still virtually intact.

I've been so blessed to have been visited by some incredibly special people (you know who you are).  A HUGE thank you for keeping my spirits up (and for the grouse house mags Kylie). Mum & Loz - you're both amazing :)

Much love,
Reinsey
xxx

Enough already!

Have you ever seen anything like this endless, unrelenting rain? I think we now have Lake Cranbourne in our backyard.

If I can just work out how to teach the four-legged children to wipe their feet on their way inside...  :)

The daily commute

We now have a considerably longer trip to work every day.  I say "we" although Loz and I don't work together. The old boy drives my company car to his work and drops himself off.  Sexist...no!  Scared of me being behind the wheel...totally! Then I finish off the journey, so from door to door, on a good morning it's 1.5 hours. Not complaining, just saying it how it is.

I'm not the greatest of passengers (or drivers, obviously) so at about the hour mark I get really restless and just wanna GET OUT OF THE FREAKING CAR.  So Loz (he's so sweet) and I have been playing a few car games to mark time.  We've started playing "what's the person next door doing" and oh my god, you wouldn't believe what some people get up to in their cars. 

So far this week we've seen people;
Putting on mascara (it's okay, was a female) but not at traffic lights - at 80kph on Princes Highway
Reading a novel - also at 80k

A VERY short woman who seriously was looking between the steering wheel and dash
Several full on arguments
About 12 different versions of people being up to their elbows in their nose

But the MOST entertaining part of the morning drive is when we meet the peleton on St. Kilda Road.  When the sun's out there's literally 100's of cyclists that are supposed t stay in their lane.  It's hilarious to see what they wear, but even more hilarious to watch the jostling for position at the lights to take front position. Anyone would think there's a yellow jersey on offer, but no, just another set of lights 200m up the road.  So as to not offend anyone I won't call them wankers, but seriously.....

And if that chick in the little black Honda that cut me off majorly this morning happens to be reading this, get f@#*ed. I mean that in the politest way, of course!

A surprising day

Thank you to all of my bloggy and Avenue friends for your birthday wishes.  I did indeed have a great day with some lovely surprises.

My Dad, who's a big, burly, blokey bloke left me a voicemail message - he sang me happy birthday.  I've never heard him sing before. Touched me pretty deeply.  Love you Dad.

I didn't work yesterday (Thursday is my weekend) so I had lunch with my Mum - at her work.  She packed a little winter-like picnic for us to share in her tea room.  Gorgeous.

My beautiful daughter cooked Loz and I a lovely meal last night.  We shared a bottle of champers while the boys talked all things supercoach.  She even baked me some of her scrummy cup cakes :)

And the man of my dreams (yes thats you Loz) showed just how well he knows me and my routines.  He wrote me about 20 little notes and placed them in the order of my morning housely travels.

Need I say more?

We made it...

after nearly 4 hours on the road, countless road closures, traffic jams, flooded streets, even a set of boom-gates down at a railway crossing...just in time to see...

...my little brother exchange rings with my new sister-in-law. Congratulations Mrs & Mrs little Reinsey. S, you looked so beautiful & handled the whole event with complete calmness. N, I couldn't be more proud of you. Your speech was sensational. "I now get to spend the rest of my life with my best friend". Reinsey was a mess!
As for the bouquet... my darling Daughter & I didn't get the showdown we'd been talking up all week. The rain kicked in again and she had word that the roads were about to closed around her house again, so my Son jumped to action and took her home.

But I wasn't expecting to be out-played by...

MY NAN!!! Ha ha ha. Hilarious!!!!!

Loz, you were amazing yesterday, not only negotiating some pretty intense traffic situations, but a VERY highly strung Reinsey.  You managed to find a way through to pick up my daughter and get us to the church (almost) on time.  I love you so very very much. xxx

A new year...

Just for today, I'm not going to obsess about house colours, worry about finances or freak out about real estate prices. 

Today is all about new beginnings and drawing a damn thick line under all that has gone before. 2010 wasn't the best of years, but there's no point dwelling on it. 

I'll take from the lessons, change what I can, ditch the traits that no longer serve me and move onto a brand new, exciting, life-changing year.

Welcome aboard 2011.  I'm super excited that you're here!!

Unbelievable!!!!!

This is 3 day old news now, but I've been operating under a head-in-the-sand mentality and quite frankly, I just don't want to deal with it.

Loz recently started a new job - 6 weeks ago to be exact - and everything appeared on the surface to be going well...

The monthly pay was due to hit our account on the 14th (you can see where this is going, can't you...) and here we are on the 19th and N O T H I N G. Excuses have been made about company restructures, funds being deposited into wrong accounts, Singapore investors, blah blah blah.

Tomorrow, the business will be placed under the hands of an administrator. It's a start-up company with no assets to be sold, and the chances of December's wage coming through are pretty slim. And with little chance of trading through until their concept is actually income producing, Loz is more than likely unemployed.
I know people say building is stressful, but some of the speed bumps we've faced are just unbelievable, and have me questioning whether this move is meant to be???

I'm trying to look for positives... we have each other (awwwwwwww), which means more than a house ever will, and our kids are all happy and healthy :) Loz WILL find work, but it's a crappy time of year to be looking.

Soooooo if anyone out there in blog land knows of a company (of stable trading history!!!) who is looking for a very competent governance/compliance/risk manager (and a REALLY nice guy), could they PLEASE let us know???

Ahhh... you've gotta laugh :)

This week's grateful... generations!

 Four generations of crazy!

 I reckon I'm incredibly lucky... I've still got my Mum AND my Nan.  And that girl of mine, I could write 28 posts just on her alone.  She's now the age I was when I had her, and the age Mum was when she had me, so in some ways, this photo is a 21 year forecast of our lives.  

And as I'm getting older, I can see more and more of my Mum in myself, both in appearance, mannerisms, likes and dislikes.  Mum has built 2 houses, including their current home about 24 years ago, which she physically built from the ground up.  I'm completely in awe of this amazing woman - probably don't tell her that often enough though!

My Nan, who has recently had her 85th birthday, is still a ripper.  She lives independently, still gets out in her garden, goes to aqua exercise classes every few days, and still is mad for her beloved Collingwood.  She would have loved to have built a house, but never had the opportunity, so this one's for you Nan!

So... to the women responsible for making me the determined, resourceful individual that I am, I will forever be grateful.

This post is part of maxabella's "blog hop", and I quite enjoy reading about what others are grateful for.  Puts a :) on my dial it does!

Thanks for reading,

Lucky me

One of the non-building blogs I make time for belongs to the delightful Maxabella.  She's a little bit quirky, creative and upbeat.  But the nicest thing about it is the regular Saturday post, "this week I'm grateful for...".  I can raise my hand as guilty when it comes to rushing through life and not celebrating little successes and not always acknowledging those day to day things that make my life pretty darned comfortable, if not deliriously joyful.
So this Saturday I'm going to share three things I'm grateful for...
1 :: the internet.  For all the obvious reasons, but mostly for providing a means of connecting with fellow Avenuers and the community that's being built as a result.
2 :: the man.  For his left-of-centre sense of humour, cheeky smiling, eagles t-shirt wearing, duck face when he's typing, decor-shopping, colour co-ordinating, non-drawer closing, significant other supporting,  personality.
3 :: the furkids.  And their verging on hysterical greeting when we get home.  Their face licks to wake us up and remind us it's time for their breakfast - at 6am.  Their goofyness, predictability and unconditional worship.

What's made you grateful this past week?

Some much needed R & R

It's stressful business this whole building thing - and we haven't even turned the first sod yet.  So we manufactured an opportunity to have a few days rest in a quiet little spot off the Great Ocean Road with amazing views of Apollo Bay.  What a great base to explore the area!  We drove, we walked, we talked, we laughed, we sang (badly), we ate, we slept.  And after hitting control-alt-delete for a few days, the wait doesn't seem so hard to swallow.

How orange feels

Going into this build I was mad for green, and with our cancelled PD build our scheme was based around it.  But when it came time to do our Carlisle selections, I actually listened to the man (and discovered he has quite the eye for colour) and followed both of our gut reactions to colour.  So now that all of our selections are finalised, I couldn't resist a bit of analysis on the memories that these orange images brought out.

I've always loved autumn.  The weather.  The colours.  The leaves.  One of my earliest memories (probably because there's an old photo somewhere) is of Pa and I raking them up into piles, scooping them into the barrow with squares of masonite, and then he'd put me on top and race me around the yard on route to dump them in his roadside fire.

Oranges used to smell and taste sweeter when I was a kid.  I remember half time oranges at netball games in the freezing cold.  The juice would run down your arms and your hands were sticky making you much more effective in the second half.  Do they still do that at half time these days?

lilies just make me smile.  Two very special women in my life both have an obsession for them - my big sis & my little girl.
This move is bringing me geographically closer to both of them, which brings the promise of indescribable happiness.
My big sis (my lovely man's sister actually, but I've claimed her as my own) is the warmest, kindest, loveliest person I've ever met, and many a homewares shop will be the beneficiary of our joint shopping exploits after the move.
My little girl isn't that little anymore.  Almost six feet tall, 21 and about as independent as you could be.  It's not very often she lets me play, but when she does, it's like winning a premiership for me.

This ball to your left has been life changing for me.  I've worked with it, slaved to it, encouraged it and protected it for 22 years.  In return, it's brought some amazing people into my life, put food on the table, challenged me, disgusted me, delighted me. 

My big grown up by came to live with me when his Dad and I split up.  It could have been because there was always coke in the fridge, a bowl of M&M's on the table, and an impromptu "gathering" of friends a regular occurrence.  One of the motivations in building a big house was to give each of them somewhere to call home.  He assures me he'll never need a bed, but I'll keep it made just in case.


When my kids were really little and I was studying and interest rates were pushing 20%, money was pretty tight.  All I could afford to buy Mum for Christmas was a mug that I filled with her favorite chocolates.  This became a bit of a tradition, and as the years flew by and finances were the least of my worries, I still found myself buying her a mug. When you open her cupboards, there are literally 19 coffee mugs in there.  I think that's enough now.

Sunset over Cradle Mountain in Tasmania.  The first holiday Loz and I had together.  1 beautiful undisturbed week of tranquility, bush walking, eating, discovering, getting lost but mostly getting found.  We'd just bought the new Eagles CD and played it on repeat for the week.  Anytime I hear one of those songs I'm reminded of that great trip.  They're touring soon (The Eagles) and we have amazing seats.  Can't wait.