Tag Archives: Dexter

The 2014 List Wrap Up

Posted in Life, The List by

The List 2014 good sizeWow… another year done, another list being signed off… and to be honest I feel like this year the list has been put on the back burner… not because I have stopped loving it, or because it was no good, but because real life got in the way. Which I actually think is really nice… It’s nice to know that I didn’t need the list to make my year what it was, and that my year was awesome even though I only just scrapped through with just a pass… well maybe a credit.  There was so much jammed into this year and while the list didn’t play as bigger part as previous years it still brought a lot of joy to my life… so here is the final re-cap… which is big because it’s been a while since I did a list up date.

Just like all the other years those that have a blog of their own have a hyperlink so you can just click it and read all about it… and the ones that don’t are all listed below with either an explanation of what did or didn’t happen…

  1. Do the 1000 steps – completed: 26/02/14
  2. Make a loaf of bread – completed: 10/11/14
    It was actually four mini garlic breads 
  3. Use my day off productively – completed: 18/12/14
    It may not have been quite the way I had imagined but I think I did use my days off more productively, with errands, moving house and with work…
  4. Cook dinner at least once a week
    I am ashamed to say that this didn’t happen… there are lots of excuses I could make, but they wouldn’t be worth reading.
  5. Do mine and Dave’s family trees – completed: 29/12/14
    I have done the easy bit – back to our grandparents, including their siblings, but now I need to expand a little and get some more detail. 
  6. Try a green juice – completed: 11/01/14
  7. Go to two weddings – completed: 28/03/14 (Wedding 1; Wedding 2)
  8. Eat something from my veggie garden – completed: 8/02/14
  9. Run 5km without walking
    This one is on the list for next year… running you will not win.
  10. Be a more informed consumer – completed: 31/12/14
    I know I still have a long way to go, but I feel like its better to have started the journey than to know nothing at all
  11. Go 1 week without a sometimes food – completed: 1/02/14
  12. Embrace home cooking
    Again not completed…. And only excuses.
  13. Read the New Testament
    I feel like I should just copy and paste from the one above… I did start this one well, but got distracted and it stopped.
  14. Stop back dating blogs…. Post it when it happens or not at all
    Not always consistent, but better… but probably not quite ‘better’ enough.
  15. Go Low FODMAP for a week – completed: 10/03/14
  16. Do another boot camp – completed:1/03/14
    The George women know how to exercise together! 
  17. Get a sun reflector for my car – completed: 14/01/14
  18. Help someone set up a blog – completed: 09/01/14
  19. Review the books I read on amazon – completed: 31/12/14
  20. Send one handwritten note of gratitude to someone each month
    To be honest… I just forgot.
  21. Complement a stranger everyday for a week (different strangers otherwise it would be creepy)
    We even had this as a goal for our small group and I still struggled with it. I know most days I encourage my clients which are kind of strangers… but not quite what I had in mind.
  22. Break a rule – completed: 27/12/14
  23. Swim 50km, not all at once, but over the year
    This was a disaster… I only swam a km… terrible form…
  24. Update my resume (Not because I want a new job but to reflect on my accomplishments) – completed: 27/10/14
  25. Walk/Run 300km – completed 02/11/14
  26. Buy a house – completed: 3/02/14
  27. Do another fun run – completed: 16/11/14
  28. Cuddle a baby less than 6months old – completed: 17/01/14
  29. Get a massage – completed: 29/08/14
    Thankyou Donvale Beauty! 
  30. Be Vegan for 24 hours
    Nup… just didn’t happen… I don’t think I was committed in my heart
  31. Go in a sea vessel… Kayak, Canoe, Paddle boat… whatever – completed: 31/12/14
  32. Go out in country Victoria for the day – completed: 30/08/14
  33. Build a sand castle – completed: 30/12/14
  34. Write at least 3 letters to my prayer pal
    I think I wrote two… Sorry Tess.
  35. Play a board game with friends
  36. Enter a colouring competition
  37. Make a cushion – completed: 20/08/14
  38. Cook fish – completed: 7/01/14
  39. Learn a song on clarinet without Dave’s help
  40. Plant something in the garden – completed: 04/11/14
  41. Play Mini golf
  42. Follow through with Dave’s Christmas present again – completed 15/12/14
  43. Take Dex for a play date with Abe or Diesel
  44. Learn a song on the guitar – completed 16/11/14
  45. Go to Costco – completed: 13/11/14
  46. Try 1 recipe from each recipe book I own
  47. Take Dex for a walk every week
  48. Work as a teacher – completed: 03/05/14
  49. Get some fresh flowers to brighten a room – completed: 22/10/14
  50. Hire a bike and ride around the city
  51. Get a fake tan – completed: 10/01/14
  52. Go to a pump class – completed: 15/04/14
  53. Go to a spin class – completed: 13/02/14
  54. Do something truly Melbournian – completed: 26/07/14
  55. Make my own advent calendar – completed: 26/11/14
  56. Find a train free route to work – completed: 22/01/14
    It is train free, but it’s not all that convenient… I am not sure which is the lesser of the two evils. 
  57. Get a timer for our Christmas lights – completed: 09/11/14
    Although we are a little scared to use it given our old old wiring at home
  58. Go to Bright – completed: 01/11/14
  59. Put Pa’s videos on DVD
    This is still on my wish list though… I am keen to keep things documented. 
  60. Try Pilates – completed: 4/02/14
  61. Use my new paper diary more effectively
    This just didn’t happen… my iPhone reigned supreme.
  62. Be better at visiting my grandparents – completed: 8/12/14
  63. Go to the cricket
  64. Cook all meals at home for a fortnight (no lazy takeaway or eating out just because)
    Again… a fail… maybe next year.
  65. Go fruit picking – completed: 03/11/14
  66. Get awesome Christmas jumpers for Dave and I – completed: 07/08/14
  67. Start my Australia camping pictures map
  68. Go camping
  69. Walk across the bridge in Kilcunda – completed: 10/01/14
  70. Go to a cemetery – completed: 12/01/14
  71. Join a book club – completed: 2/01/14
  72. Read 12 books – completed: 18/10/14
    1. Flash and Bones – Kathy Reichs
    2. Let me off at the top! – Ron Burgundy
    3. Divergent – Veronica Roth
    4. Insurgent – Veronica Roth
    5. Allegiant – Veronica Roth
    6. A Game of Thrones – George R.R. Martin
    7. A long way home – Saroo Brierley
    8. The Fault in our Stars – John Green
    9. The Giver – Lois Lowry
    10. Reconstructing Amelia – Kimberley McCreight
    11. The Rosie Project – Graeme Simsion
    12. The Lunar Chronicles: Cress – Marissa Meyer
  73. Try some regular yoga – completed: 10/04/14
  74. Do 5 different exercise classes – completed: 11/09/14
  75. Do a trail walk/hike – completed: 13/09/14
  76. Go a month without playing games on my phone – completed: 1/02/14
  77. Put some nets on my veggie patch – completed: 15/12/14
  78. Take a photo everyday – completed: 31/12/14
  79. Get there and stay there
  80. Have a picnic in the backyard – completed: 19/12/14
  81. Swim in the ocean at least 5 times – completed: 30/12/14
  82. Actually finish our wedding guest book
  83. Update our displayed photos – completed: 24/05/14
  84. Keep my corner clean – completed: 31/12/14
  85. Pretend to be a morning person – completed: 21/10/14
  86. See the movie Frozen – completed: 12/01/14
  87. Exercise 4 times a week – completed: 31/12/14
    Almost anyway, certainly better again this year, and now that I have joined a gym I have to keep it up.
  88. See ‘Saving Mr Banks’ at the movies – completed: 4/01/14
  89. Have dinner and go bowling with Dustin and Rachel
  90. Do my chores and pull my weight around the house
  91. Just stop picking
  92. Play Super Mario Bros
  93. Save some of my pocket money each fortnight
  94. Cook something from each of my Donna Hay magazines
  95. Try at least one thing from each of my Women’s Fitness magazines
  96. Do my 2012 and 2013 scrapbooks
  97. Wash my car by myself
  98. Go on a push bike adventure with Dave
  99. Finish going through my cooking magazines and either save them or through them out – completed: 22/05/14
  100. Drive a bus – completed: 11/05/14
    There is even video footage of it! 

The grand total… 62 out of 100, certainly not by best year, but actually better than I expected…

One Last Goodbye

Posted in Family, Life by

So this week it’s a month since we moved… and I wrote this blog a little while ago but hadn’t posted it for a whole variety of reasons (one being we haven’t had the internet at home… but that’s a blog in itself) but I thought that seeing as it has been a month and I am actually feeling much more settled that I was it might be a nice time to post it now that it is all done and dusted.

We have officially moved out, although there are still a few boxes to unpack at the new place, all of our stuff is out of the old place, everything has been cleaned, and I have checked that the door is locked for the last time. I have said my last goodbyes, and even though I miss it, and it’s super convenient location it doesn’t suck any where near as much as it did… In fact, I think I am slowly adjusting, and not having access to it as definitely helped.

The house

The Saturday after we moved in we returned to the old place to clean and say a long goodbye, only to return on Sunday to complete the finishing touches… and then after church, just for good measure we had a macca’s dinner in the old TV room (minus the TV) one last time. I have been thinking a lot about why it has been so hard to say goodbye, and I know there is an element of me just not letting go, but part of me feels like the house holds many of the memories that without the prompts of the location, might be lost… we had been there 3 years together, but Dave had been there for many many more… starting way back at school with saxophone lessons and then moving into the house for what was going to be a short house sitting adventure.  There have been some really important moments for both of us in that house, some happy, some sad, and while all of the memories are still there in my brain, it seems easier to recall them when reflecting in the room where they occurred.  And while time has started to heal my heart and open my eyes to some pretty awesome things about the new place, I have certainly found closure in the fact that it is done… I can’t go back anymore, it’s not just sitting there waiting for me to return, it is now back in the hands of it’s owners… and even though I am talking about it like it has feelings and would be experiencing all this with me… I know it is just a house… and it doesn’t know if we are there or not.  I do like to think that we showed it a good time though… So I have made a couple of lists to help me reflect and remember and save some of the memories from our time at Junction road.  Maccas

5 Things (actual things, not just feeling things or emotional things… actual things you can touch!) I will miss about the house:

  1. Things I will missIt’s big backyard – it is actually huge, and it was really nice, a nice place to sit, to exercise and to look at.
  2. The Massive tree out the front – there is something quite magical about this tree, yes it was really annoying at times, and it often seemed to make you more wet as you walked under in the rain rather than shelter you, but it is beautiful, the colours, the size, it’s age… it is incredible.
  3. The toilet – I know this one is a little gross, but I will miss the toilet… 3 years in a house often means some significant toilet bonding time and if you don’t have a good toilet it can make some rocky times even more difficult.
  4. The open fire – who doesn’t love an open fire? No one… that’s who!
  5. My giant oven – the house had a massive oven, big enough for everything… I could have 4 massive roasting pans in there at once and still have room to spare… now I am going to have to work out how to do things on a smaller scale.

Honourable Mentions: The little green fence, it’s number ‘100’, the Island bench, the wooden blinds that let in beautiful morning sun and heating system that worked on a timer!

5 Things (actual things, not just feeling things or emotional things… actual things you can touch!) I am glad to say goodbye to, but will probably still deep down miss about the house:

  1. The back door – it never wanted to shut nicely, it always did shut, but sometimes it was a bit tricky
  2. The front door – ok so once, when I thought I had locked the door properly I pushed it just to check the lock had caught and it opened… it was locked… but it opened… It turns out that the door had warped  a little with the weather and just needed a little adjusting… but this started a long term paranoia that it would just open… and so a lot of door checking followed from that day on.
  3. The unfinished bench – in the kitchen there is a patch of bench that is missing the laminate… I won’t miss that bit…
  4. Sharing my space – being a house sitting situation there were quite a few things left in the house that belong to the owners and while over time, some of these were stored elsewhere it still meant that I had to share some wardrobes and bookshelves and cupboards.  Don’t get me wrong, having a furnished house that was already warmed and lived in was really nice, and I had more than enough rooms of my own things, but I am excited about the fact that the next house will only have our stuff in it and I will only have to share with Dave.
  5. The lights above the sink – the lights above the sink stopped working and it turned out that it was going to be a massive job to fix… so we decided that we didn’t really need them… but it will be nice to be able to see the dishes that are being washed.

Honourable Mentions:  The gate on the side of the house that blew open and scratched my car, the piece of chip board covering the missing bits of wall on the outside of the house and the control panel for the heating that was just a little to high for me to read without standing on my tippy toes.

10 moments that happened in the house that I don’t want to forget.  

  1. Things I will miss 2Christmas lights – I loved setting up our Christmas tree and lights at the house, not only because I love Christmas, but also because it was new and just ours  and the lights around the mantle looked pretty awesome.
  2. The night we broke up – although it’s not a nice memory, it’s an important one and it happened in the house.
  3. Coming ‘home’ to the house after our honeymoon and realising that I lived there now too, it wasn’t Dave’s place anymore, but our place.
  4. BBQ Wednesday – these are the best and they all started at Dave’s place!  Way to many people jammed around the table with meat and salad and drinks moving back and forth, sometimes outside, sometimes inside but always fun.  At one time they even included a couch on the back step… ahh BBQ Wednesday!
  5. There are at least 3 of these, but I am lumping them all together, but the nights I went a little nuts… and brought back crazy amounts of stuff from 24hr K-mart or went running in the rain… they are both long stories, but still memories to keep.
  6. Making red meat casserole and cakes for Dave’s birthday… learning to be a bit wifey.
  7. Tuesday Morning Prayer – this was a really neat time in the house, meeting with some friends to pray together so a specific purpose and period of time. It was just nice to be able to offer our home for this and for those prayers to be answered the way they were.
  8. Dinner Parties – again there are a whole heap of these being lumped together, but this was the first time I got to through proper dinner parties, I couldn’t do it in Castlemaine because my little house was just too small, but it turns out I really like it.  I like having people in the house, showing it off a little and cooking… I just love the whole thing and that was where it all started.
  9. Dave surprising me with my study – when I started my dip ed dave cleaned out the end room for me to use as a study, he put up the whiteboard, cleared the desk and had it all set up for me one night when I go home from work.  It was such a nice surprise.
  10. One more lumped one, nights at home with just Dave, Dex and I and a movie in front of the open fire – they say it’s the simple things that are the nicest… and I think they are right.  I know this is something we will have at the new house too (minus the fire place), but when I really look at what I loved most about that place it was the fact that we were both there, it was our space.

Honourable Mentions: So these didn’t happen in the house but they are just a few extras that I will miss… the fact that it is walking distance to one of the best cafes ever and that it was walking distance so some of my best friends places which meant lots of walking together (I know this won’t stop either, it just takes a little more planning now).

So there you go… Junction road… our time there has come to an end, and I am actually ok about that… As my school would tell me… it’s not good, it’s not bad, its just different.  Different memories, different places, but the same people (maybe some new ones too along the way) and the same love… just housed differently.

I will still miss that house, and I know that at least for the next little while I will probably think of it often, but as I get more and more used to the new place, and make new memories there, I will also get more perspective and I know everything will be ok.Us and the house