24 September 2010

Big Boy Spencer!

So I've been trying to think of the best way to update you on what's been happening given that I've missed NINE WHOLE MONTHS of blogging!!

Luckily for me, Ky, my partner has been blogging - well actually, she's been blipping - the whole time so I have a good record of what we've been doing all year! Blip is a photo blogging website where she posts a photo each day and writes about stuff, it's really great and Ky's pictures are awesome! So I'll give you a little bit of an update on things, but if you have a few hours to spare and want to see all the pics and read all of the details of our lives you can check out her blip at www.blipfoto.com/cracker.

Hmm...so rather than a chronological update, I'm going for the category based update!

Work Stuff
This has been an interesting and stressful area of life this year! Early on in the year I read a book about online entrepreneurs and this has been the start of a massive learning adventure this year. I've been learning about how to start an online business and about internet marketing. I now have about 14 half baked websites floating about and have been working my butt off learning and trying to get them up and ranking in the search engines. I've learnt so much and feel like I'm just on the edge of starting to make some money if I would just FOCUS on one of the sites rather than spreading myself thinly across all of the sites!

The reason I've been pushing it so much to try to start my own successful online business is that I want to have a business that makes money in a way that leverages my time rather than trading dollars for hours are you do when you work for an employer. I'm still working with my employer whom I've been with for over 5 years now, this is three days per week and I work on my own online business and do some consulting 1 day per week plus countless hours in the evenings as well!

Sailing
The last time I wrote in this blog was way back in January when I was off to the Geelong week regatta! I had such a great time in Geelong, the weather was awesome and I had a great time sailing and eating and drinking with my friends! I've been doing a little sailing here and there over the winter - but to be truthful, winter sailing just isn't as much fun! Hopefully the warm weather is on the way again as sailing is just so much more fun when it's hot!

Spencer
Well little Spencer has grown up to 'big boy Spencer' - he's two and a half now and is going great! His language is awesome for a two and a half year old and he comes out with the funniest things sometimes, it's really cute! About two months ago we moved from the cot to the 'big boy bed' and that went really well....for about 3 weeks.....since then we've had to deal with a few hiccups:

a) Getting up really REALLY early - like about 4am - and coming into our room! We started to train him to look at the digital clock when he came into our room and read the first number. If the first number wasn't a seven then he had to go back to bed (we had to take him back, where he would cry his head off!). After a while we put the digital clock in his room - the idea being that he could look at the clock and if it wasn't 7 then he wouldn't get up. All good in theory, but in practice he still just gets up and comes in....oh well...we'll keep trying!

b) He doesn't stay in bed when you put him in there at night and he just keeps getting up and coming into the hallway. He knows that he's not allowed to so now he just lays down in his own doorway with his head poking out so he can see and hear us in the loungeroom! We put him pack - about 10 times a night - but he just ends up back in the doorway and we find him asleep on the floor in the doorway! Strange little thing - we're hoping it's a phase....

Hmmm...I spend most of my day with a look like that on my face whilst working at my computer - amazing how he has this look down pat already!! This is his little laptop - it was actually a really tiny laptop we bought but never used, so now it's his first computer!

He's such a cute little dude!

At a visit to the Firestation!



Singing happy birthday to mummy kaz!

Holidays
Back in April, we managed to have quite an adventure when Ky and I went to Thailand for 10 days - without Spence!! We had been waiting for the IVF laws to change in January so that Ky could have IVF for us to have another baby, so we decided before we had another baby we would have a nice holiday! After all, it's easy enough to get one child looked after but no one would want to look after two of them so we wanted to take our opportunity whilst we could!
Ky's sister and my mother looked after Spencer at our house, so he was still in his own environment and we took a laptop with us and talked to him over Skype using video so he could see us! We had a great time and Spence was just fine with Aunty Nik and Nana Choop!!
We ended up making a book of some of our photos from Thailand - you can view it here at:



We're just about to head to Queensland for a couple of weeks, which I'm really excited about. It's been a cold winter up here in the country and we're in desperate need of thawing out in the sun! We head to the Sunshine Coast usually once or twice a year and each time we go it's more fun because Spence is that little bit older and we can do more fun stuff!

Life in the Country
We love it here in the country! We have awesome neighbours and have made some friends nearby with young kids as well as some with older kids who Spence adores! It is such a beautiful place and when the sun shines up here there is no better place on Earth to be!
I'm planning on getting the vegie patch going again this summer - it's grown over in the winter so it'll be time very soon for me to get out and dig up the ground in readiness for this year's crop!

I've been running quite a bit too, I was in training for a half marathon but realized about half way through my training plan that all of the sessions were just getting too long for me to fit them in , so I've cut back and am now just training for a 10km run instead.

Family
We are trying for another baby at the moment, doing the whole IVF thing again. It's funny because that's how this whole blog started in the first place. I had a really rough time with IVF and pregnancy and I wrote about it on here as a way to get through it all - as well as record interesting shots of my massive pregnant stomache!!
Of course, Ky lives a charmed life, so she had no side effects of the IVF whatsoever! In saying that though, we haven't had success with it yet. The first embryo didn't work out and we've just had the second one in two weeks ago. Ky had her pregnancy test today and it showed really low levels of the HCG which is inconclusive, so she has another test on Monday. We have fingers crossed but not getting our hopes up too much.

Phew...well there's the round up! I will try to get back here and post at least now and again but if you want to know all the details everyday - I can recommend you head over to read Ky's blog - she writes and posts a photo everyday - www.blipfoto.com/cracker.

I hope everyone out there is well and happy and life is going good!

Kaz

15 September 2010

Back by popular demand!

Ok - since thousands of adoring fans have been contacting me and wondering where I am (thanks Michaela!) - I'm making an appearance to update you!

I can't believe it's been 9 months or so since I wrote - I think I'll need a good hour at least to give the low down on the last 9 months - but it won't be today! Just preparing to go to New Zealand on Monday for a business presentation, but stay tuned, I'll give a big update in a few days.

05 January 2010

Geelong Week

Ooh, I'm a bit excited. I am going away all by myself for a sailing regatta for four whole days!! The regatta is the biggest in Australia and is a great place to be over Australia Day weekend. I haven't been since before Spencer days - so long ago now!!
Ky and Spencer aren't coming at all - so this will be the longest i've been away from Spence and one of the longest away from Ky.

Here's a picture of the boat I used to sail on - just to inspire you! This picture was taken at the start of the Melbourne to Hobart Race in 2005 - I'm the one in the....ahh, doesn't matter!