The girls and I went snorkelling on the Barrier Reef. Another huge highlight for me.

This groper was very tame and was rather used to having his photo taken.

Sorry, but there is no way I was having my photo taken in my bathers.

We did a daytrip to Cape Tribulation which is the highest you can travel in Qld without a 4 wheel drive. The kids didn't get a chance to swim. A tourist bus driver said it's too risky even though the stingers don't really come in until November.

Jarryd was very interested - NOT!! He is playing his nintendo under that towel.

The marks in the sand are where the crabs dig their holes.

The swimming lagoon on the Cairns forshore. Most of the bigger cities have swimming pools on the foreshore because you can't swim in the ocean for 6 months of the year. Too dangerous for box jellyfish.

We went on the skyrail to Kuranda in Cairns.

A beautiful journey in a gondola on a cable through the rainforest.

This sign gave us a laugh every time we saw it.

Apparently cassuarys can do some serious damage to cars.

How good is this Water Park in Townsville. It's on the foreshore and it's free.

You can just see Jarryd in the photo of the water coming down. He is on the right with a red hat on.

This goana or lizard of whatever it is was walking around outside our door at our resort in Townsville. He was huge!!

The main street of Airlie Beach. Another beautiful place.
The Big Mango near Bowen. I was disappointed it mango season hadn't quite started.

Probably my favourite place of the holiday. Hamilton Island.

What a wonderful place. Very expensive though.

Ashleigh is standing on the balcany of our room so the view was wonderful.

We swam everyday in 1 of the 5 pools around us.

This was taken at the caravan park we stayed at in Hervey Bay. The grounds were just gorgeous and the kids spent ages feeding the birds and the turtles in the pond.

For us, caravan park accomodation was the way to go. Some of the cabins were more luxurious than the resorts.

Australia Zoo day. We had a wonderful day and I was surprised at how much there was to see and how much walking we did.

Somehow though it just didn't feel the same without Steve Irwin although his face is still everywhere in the park.

The view of the pool from our 22nd floor Surfers apartment. The pool was amazing. It's called Beaches in the sky and it's on the 5th floor.

The other photo is my cousin's backyard in Brisbane. It is a tropical oasis and this photo doesn't do it justice. They have been on so many gardening shows with their garden.

Movieworld day. I thought Movieworld was the best park this time around. Lots of characters for the kids to meet and Jarryd was lucky enough to be picked in the Bonnie & Clyde show.

It was a little rainy but we still had a fantastic day.

A couple of photos from Dreamworld and White Water World.

The girls went on every water ride so many times. They didn't stop all day.

Same with Dreamworld. Every ride and roller coaster.

And you are never too old for Wiggle World.

We had an unreal day at Currumbin.

I went there as a kid and remember the lorikeet feeding.

Jarryd was a bit upset because they jump over your arms and scratched him. Nikki was chosen for the snake show. She was very brave. I'm not so keen to have a snake around my neck.

Back to Reality

Home Sweet Home.

I can't really say I am happy to be back. I loved Queensland and wish I could have had longer, but all good things must come to an end.

I have lots of photos to post but that will have to wait for another day. We got home at 9.30pm last night and after a bit of unpacking and washing today, we had a birthday party to go to so I am stuffed.

Also it's going to take a bit of adjusting to daylight saving. Queensland don't have daylight saving and it was dark by 6.30pm up there. It was coming in dark tonight and I looked at my watch and it was 8.30pm and the kids hadn't even had tea!!!!

So right back into it tomorrow. Kids back at school and Steve and I back at work. Talk about coming home to a huge week. The girls have their end of year dancing concert next Sunday and Nikki has a full dress rehearsal tomorrow night and then Ashleigh's is on Wednesday night. I don't even have all the costumes yet. Let's hope they can remember their moves after 5 weeks off dancing.

I hope I don't have to sew any sequins!!!!

I'll be back soon with a huge photo post.

Quick Update

Hi from sunny far north Queensland!!

We have had the most incredible week so far. Spent the first night in the Sheraton Mirage Resort in Port Douglas. To say this is luxury is an understatement. We had a 3 bedroom apartment with our own pool and it was divine. It cost us 2 weeks pay but hey what's money!!

We could only afford to stay one night so we moved to another resort in Port Douglas which was really nice too. We went up to the Daintree and Cape Tribulation and did a huge walk around Mossman Gorge which I thought would never end. Up and down rainforrest in the heat and humidity but it felt great when we got to the end.

Then we had a night in Palm Cove which is such a beautiful place. We went to the beach at dusk and it was amazing.

Then off to Cairns for 4 nights. We stayed in an amazing caravan park in a cabin with everything you needed. Dishwasher, washer and dryer and 2 plasma screen TV's. Heaps for the kids to do. From there we went on the Skyrail - gondolas on a cable which took us to Kuranda - a small village catering for the tourists.

Yesterday was the highlight. Nikki, Ashleigh and I went on a snorkeling tour to the Barrier Reef and it was amazing. I don't think you can ever know what it's like until you do it. I was amazed at what we saw - swimming with the fish and looking at all the coral. It was one of the best experiences of my life.

I knew Qld was expensive but I don't think I was prepared for how much food and drink costs. They certainly rip off the poor old tourist. We took heaps of water on our Kurunda trip but by the end we needed another bottle of water. $3 for a small bottle of WATER!!

We have just arrived in Townsville. The first stop on our car journey to the Gold Coast. Next to Airlie Beach and across to Hamilton Island for 3 days.

I will have heaps of photos to share when we get home.

See you later.

Nikki's 11th birthday

Nikki had a lovely day today. We went to Fasta Pasta for lunch with one of my best friends and her family who are over from Melbourne for the school holidays. This is Maddie and Nikki.

Nikki and her cousin Maddok cutting her cake. An icecream cake with lots of wicked chocolate around the sides.

After we spent the afternoon catching up with good friends in our outdoor area around the pool. It was a glorious day and the kids had a ball running around with each other in the sunshine.

Nikki was very spoilt and had a wonderful day.

Problem solved????

I have had a play with the settings.

I think it's fixed.

Maybe.............

Where has September Gone??

It is Nikki's 11th birthday tomorrow and she had a bowling party with her school friends. Note she put hair mascara through her hair. Red suits her!!!

The kids opened Steve's last easter egg.


A couple of weeks ago, Jarryd had a soccer carnival and there was sideshows and rides for the kids. There was an animal nursery and I had trouble getting Ashleigh out. She just loves all animals. She was most upset because I wouldn't let her buy a pigeon. (Some of the animals were for sale)

September has been a total blur for us. We have had something on every weekend. Kids parties, 40th birthdays, kids sport and sport breakups.

Yesterday was unbelievable. I had to be at the hairdresser at 8.15am to have foils done and then Nikki had her bowling party at 10.30am. I forgot when I booked it that it was the AFL grand final so I changed it to the morning so we could be back in time to watch the football. Which by the way I am not talking about!!!

Not really. After Nikki's party a friend and I and the kids went down to the Alberton Oval (Port's home base) to watch the grand final. Well we realised early on that there was no way we were going to even come close to Geelong. They were awsome and we were dreadful.

Now I know Port were absolutely humiliated but why do people feel like they have to kick you when you are down. My husband was the worst offender. He had to keep making smart arse comments throughout the night along with quite a few others. I told him the only people that are allowed to pay me out (like it was my fault they lost!!!) are Geelong fans. At least our team made the grand final not like his team - Essendon who didn't even make the finals!!!

I think he realised he had overstepped the mark when I went to bed without saying goodnight and he missed out - lol. Paybacks are sweet!!

My 10 year old nephew had a terrible accident last weekend. He was playing cricket with some friends and was hit above his ear with a cricket ball. He was knocked out. Throughout the night and the next day he was vomitting so was taken to the local country hospital. He was flown by air ambulance to Adelaide last Saturday and they found out he had 2 blood clots in his brain. He was in surgery at 3am Sunday morning and had a 4 hour operation to remove the blood clots. 30 something stiches later and plates and screws in his skull he woke up and has been doing well up until he got an infection during the week and has been put on antibiotics. Then to make matters worse he picked up gastro and has been put into isolation.

Nikki had her netball presentation today and got the runners up tropy for best and fairest. I was given a wine cooler bag for coaching which was nice. It will definitely come in handy to take away to put cool drinks in while we are travelling.

This will be my last post before our holiday. Tomorrow is Nikki's birthday and we are having a family lunch at Fasta Pasta. I also have to pack at some stage tomorrow. Then I am working all day Tuesday and Wednesday and on Thursday at 8.30am we will be on a plane to Cairns. Yahoo!!!!

We are all so excited. It's been planned for so long and now it's finally the last few days before we go. I will have to try and get on a computer along the way to check emails and blogs. I can't possibly go a whole month without a computer.

I also want to wish Beckie all the very best for her upcoming role in 'The Singing Bee' I know she will do well and I've got everything crossed her her to bring home the big money.

I hope everyone stays happy and healthy while we are away. I'll have plenty of news, adventures and photos to share when we get back.

As usual blogger isn't putting spaces through paragraphs so I apologise for it being so hard to read. Also I knew it wouldn't put my photos with the comments about the photos?????

Any ideas how to fix this. It's happened the last few times I have posted. Bugger!!

Long Time No Blog

Thought I would try some portrait style photos of the kids and I think they turned out well.

Would have been nice if Jarryd had smiled!!

Another Huge Weekend

Nikki and I went to see Port play West Coast on Friday night. It's her birthday in a couple of weeks and I bought her a guernsey. Jarryd plays soccer with one of the player's sons so I got him to sign it before I gave it to her as an early birthday present. I don't think I have ever had a bigger hug from her. She was thrilled.

Do you recognise this lady? It's Sarah, one of the wild cards from this years Australian Idol. Unfortunately she didn't get into the final 12. She was singing outside the kids area at the football and Nikki asked if she could have her photo taken with her. She is gorgeous and we had a good chat to her.

The football was nailbiting again. Our team like to do this to us. We won by 3 points but it was very close for the whole game and very exciting.

On Saturday I picked up my friend Kris and her friend Claire and we drove to Goolwa for the weekend for another friend's 40th. Kris and Claire came over from Melbourne for the party. Goolwa is about 90 mins from our place. Steve took his motorbike so it was just us girls in the car. We all stayed in a motel for the night minus kids. They were staying with mum so it was a night to let our hair down and party. Luckily I forgot my camera - hahaha.

What a huge night. Lara (who's 40th it was) Kris and I used to party together in the before kids, before marriage days. We all had far too much to drink but what the heck, how often do you get a night away from the kids. The only problem was we all suffered very much on Sunday and I had to drive back to Adelaide feeling very sick and hungover!!! I swear I will never drink again LOL.

We also caught up with another friend who's birthday it was on Saturday before I took the girls to the airport. After picking up the kids from mums, I came home and collapsed into the armchair and had a nap. I still feel tired and not quite right. It's so sad that we don't recover like we used to. I doubt I'll be doing that again in a hurry.

Chris H asked in my last post how our front garden is going. Well I am sad to say there hasn't been a lot of progress in that department. First we had a lot of rain in July and early August and then from mid August right through until we go away, we have something on every weekend. This is by far the busiest time of year for us. But I will get into it again when we get back from holidays. By then I will be complaining it's too hot to do gardening!!

Things are starting to slow down sport wise for the kids. Jarryd played his last soccer game last Saturday. He has a carnival weekend this weekend and then it's all over for another year. Nikki's competition netball is also finished. They lost their final last week so now they are out. That starts again for the summer season in mid October. And school netball only has one week left - YAHOO!!!!!!!! I will never volunteer for that again. It has been a nightmare. Apart from the time I am giving, we have struggled every week to field a team because of the slackness of the kids and parents in honouring a committment. Don't get me started on that!!

Just over 3 weeks until Qld now. It is flying by. I am so looking forward to our first night in the Sheraton Mirage in Port Douglas. Absolute luxury.

Have a great week everyone.

What is it about blogger that won't show the spaces I am putting in between paragraphs???? I have gone back and tried to fix it a couple of times now but it's not being nice. How frustrating!!

Weekend Update

We had a fantastic weekend. We went over to Steve's parents for Fathers Day. It is 2 hours from Adelaide in a small beachside town and it was a perfect weekend.

We all get so spoilt when we go over. Steve's mum is a typical country mum who can't do enough for you. I just wish we had more time to spend over there. We will definitely make more time over christmas.

The photos were taken at a new playground in Yorketown, about 20 mins drive from Steve's parents. The community raised all the money themselves and built this amazing playground. It cost them $100,000. The kids all agreed it was the best playground they have ever been to and let me tell you, we have been to quite a few. It is about 3 times the size of the area the pictures show. I wish I had gone across the road and taken a picture of the whole area.

Steve was very spoilt with lots of hand made things from the kids and a few things I bought for them to give him. I think he had a very relaxing day.

Father's Day was full of very mixed emotions for me. I lost my dad 2 years ago now and I really struggled this year. I thought about dad so much and had a lot of tears. I don't know why but it seemed to hit me harder this year.

Nikki had her netball semi final tonight and although they played a fantastic game, they lost by 6 goals. Considering this team beat us by 30 goals last time, they did an amazing job. So now they are out of the finals and finished 4th out of 12 teams. Poor Nikki was exhausted by the end. The school had a walkathon today and she walked 9 kms so I had to just about carry her home tonight.

This week is 'Be Active' week at school. Today was the walkathon and on Thursday they have sports day so it's going to be a very busy week.

We have another crazy weekend happening here this weekend. Jarryd has his last soccer game Saturday morning and then we are dropping the kids at mums and Steve and I are going to a friend's 40th party at Goolwa which is about an hour from Adelaide. We get to party without the kids so it could be a big night. Friday night Nikki and I are going to cheer our AFL team on against West Coast. GO POWER!!!!!!!!

Only 4 weeks and 1 day until our holiday now. And counting. It can't come quick enough.

Good News at Last

This is what the girls and I got up to last night. Cleaning out the dress up box.

As you can see the girls had a ball, trying on heaps of different costumes.

Nikki got this devil costume in her showbag a couple of years ago.

The orange skirt and top Ashleigh is wearing is about 5 years old. I have a photo somewhere of Nikki and Ashleigh wearing matching outfits when they were 4 & 5. The skirt barely goes around her legs now - lol. Ashleigh's friend Mikayla is in the middle.

I got my test results back yesterday and I am very pleased to say my iron levels have nearly doubled in 6 weeks. I was so relieved and very happy because I have been doing all the right things to increase my iron rich foods. And it has paid off. The doctor has now taken me off of the iron tablets and I have to go back in 3 months for another blood test.

It has been another incredibly busy weekend. Yesterday we had Jarryd's soccer game in the morning and then I had to get Nikki from a party she went to at Glenelg. Then rushed back to get to the doctor. Ashleigh had a friend sleeping over last night. I thought it would be fun to get the kids involved in a job I have been putting off for ages. Cleaning out the dressup box area in our family room.

It had gotten to the stage where it was overflowing with crap like old shoes and bags that I cleaned out of my wardrobe when we got our new robes earlier this year. plus there was heaps of old clothes that the kids don't dress up in anymore so we put a lot of stuff in a goodwill bag and a lot of stuff in the bin. It entertained the kids for hours and got a long overdue job done at the same time.

Today Nikki had a dancing competition. She had to be in town at 1pm with hair and makeup done so as usual with us, it was a mad rush. Her troupe got a 1st place for their hip hop routine. I forgot my camera so no photos.

Then I had arranged to meet a friend I only get to see a couple of times a year at Norwood. Monique and I lived together about 20 years ago and our worlds have gone in such different directions but we have always kept in touch. She married a pilot and has travelled the world before coming back to Adelaide about 3 years ago. When she first got married they moved to Tonga and then a few years later they moved to Oman near Saudi Arabia. Her kids are a bit older than mine and are both at high school. It was great to catch up with her although we only had a couple of hours together. We had coffee at a cafe and my kids had an amazing piece of 'Death my chocolate' cake which they shared. I took a photo with my phone but don't have a computer connection to get the photo on the computer so I will try and get a lead and post the photo later because it looked amazing.

The best part of the day was watching my football team beat Geelong in an amazing finish. Luckily the cafe had 2 huge plasma screen TV's. GO POWER!!!!!!!!!

So now it's 10.20pm, kids are finally asleep and I'm ready for bed. The new week begins again. But the good thing is we are getting closer to Queensland. Only 5 weeks and 4 days to go!!

No Results Yet

Sorry for the lack of updates again, but it is an extra busy time of year here.

Firstly I get my test results back on Saturday so I will definitely post the results then. Thanks Am for asking and a huge congratulations on your exciting news.

Nikki has her dancing competition on Sunday and as usual it's been a mad rush getting costumes organised. Luckily Ashleigh's group weren't ready to be entered into the comps so I didn't have to worry about her costumes.

I can't believe it's only 6 weeks today until we go on our Queensland holiday. It's been a long time in the planning and now it's so close. Unfortunately we haven't saved as much money as we would have liked but thanks to extra money in our tax refunds, we should get by.

I'll be back on the weekend to let you all know the results of my iron blood test.

What a Week!!

They say things come in three's. Well that sure came true this week.

On Wednesday Steve jammed his thumb in a forklift he was working on at work. He was sent for x-rays to see if it was broken but thankfully it wasn't. Just a bit squashed!!

You may notice from the photo that Jarryd has lost both his front teeth. Well there's a story to that. He was having a shower on Thursday night and I heard a thud followed by screaming. I raced in and he had slipped over and he was holding his mouth. There was blood pouring down his arm and all he could say was "my teeth" I grabbed a towel and got him out of the shower and shoved the towel in his mouth not realising that both of his front teeth were on the shower floor. The shower was still running so I rescued his teeth, turned the shower off and wrapped him in another towel. He was still screaming. I have never seen so much blood. Steve wasn't home but Nikki was wonderful and helped me out. He sat cuddled on my lap until he had calmed down enough for me to have a look at the damage. He had also cut inside the bottom of his lips in 2 places and I could see marks on the outside under his lips so he must have been mightly close to putting his teeth through his skin before they came out.

One of the teeth was wobbly but the other wasn't. I wasn't prepared to seeing my baby losing both front teeth. But as you can see from this photo, he is pretty proud of himself now.

Also during the week Nikki had a very heavy fall at school on the arm she broke in 2 places a couple of years ago. She has a huge graze around her elbow and as a precaution we took her to the doctor but after having a good feel around, he didn't think there was any damage. He told us to keep an eye on it and if it got painful or started to swell up, to get an x-ray done. Well of course, last night exactly that happened. She was in so much pain I decided to get her up to the childrens hospital to get it checked out. Mainly because they had all her records there from last time.
After an x-ray and 3 doctors looking at it, it was decided that there was an area of concern but it probably was normal gowth. Apparently elbow injuries in kids are hard to diagnose but they were happy that it was ok. She did have to have a tetnus injection because the graze was so bad and there was a risk of infection.

So it was one hell of a week!!


I got a bargain last week. This is the TV unit I bought off of ebay for $130. It is solid timber and it took 3 men to get it into the house. The photo doesn't show how big it is. It takes up nearly the whole wall of our lounge room.

I have been selling lots of the kids clothes on ebay. I have bought lots of things but have never had a go at selling and I have done very well in my first week. It has inspired me to go through all the kids drawers and have a clean out. I haven't even touched Jarryd's room yet.

Life is as busy as ever. We seem to have a kids birthday party nearly every weekend. This weekend Jarryd has 2 parties to go to. It sure gets expensive.

Speaking of money. This year I decided to do my tax online after doing it though ITP every year. We never have much to claim. I did mine first and it worked out I would get around $300 back which is standard for me. When I did Steve's it said he would get back nearly $4000!!! I was convinced I had done something wrong but we got our returns within a week and they were both correct. We can't work out why his was so high. He must be having more tax taken out than he should, but I'm not complaining about that. It has paid the school fees and the rates for the year and we have some over for our holiday. Yahoo!!!!

I have another blood test next Friday for my iron levels. They better have improved. I have been doing well with my iron enriched diet. So time will tell. I don't want to think about where we go if they have dropped again.

Steve is away playing golf this weekend. It was my brother's birthday yesterday and we had afternoon tea at mum's today. It was so good to catch up with my family. We just don't see each other enough. I see my mum a few times a week because she picks the kids up from school twice a week, but I hardly see my brother and his family. They don't love that far away but because of both our busy lives, it's hard to get together that often. So it was a great afternoon.

We are going to see Steve's family for Father's Day this year. They live in the country about 2 hours away and again we just don't get to see then enough. It was easter when we were last over there so it's long overdue.

September is the busiest month for us. I have 2 of my best friends who are having 40th's and we have about 10 other birthdays that month, Nikki's on the 1st October and then we go away on October 4th. So the next 8 weeks until we go away are going to be busier than ever. We sure will deserve a holiday after that!!

Have a great week everyone.

I am such a bad blogger!!

I haven't had the urge to update my blog at all lately as some of you have noticed. So this update is for Tania. http://taniasjourneytogoal.blogspot.com/ Tania has been hassling me to update - lol.

I guess the last couple of weeks have been rather boring. Because it has been school holidays and because of lack of money, we have done very little. The kids have had a good break spending time between my mums, my wonderful next door neighbour who is a 24 year old kid who my kids adore and friends. There hasn't even been any good kids movies on these holidays. They are hanging out to see the Simpsons movie which comes out on Thursday. We've had the usual run of kids birthday parties. It seems we have one nearly every weekend.

I am hating this cold weather. I have been hibernating. Getting in my pj's every night around 7pm and sitting in front of the heater with my granny blanket. Only 10 weeks and 4 days until we go to Cairns. I am not looking forward to everything starting again this week after the holidays. Especially the night netball. It is so freezing standing there watching.

I am plodding along with my diet. I am still eating lots of iron rich foods so I really pray my blood test on the 17th August shows an improvement.

Steve went to Sydney last weekend. He has a mate who is moving to Darwin and wanted to bring some stuff back to Adelaide so Steve flew over and they drove back. Things is they drove back via Melbourne so it took a lot longer than they had planned.

Nikki and Ashleigh had heaps cut off their hair a couple of weeks ago. Nikki has been wanting to get hers cut short for ages and each haircut has got shorter and shorter. But this time she did it and it looks great. That is her in the photo. Ashleigh has had very long hair for years now and she had hers cut to just below her shoulders. Thank goodness. I got so sick of the dramas of brushing her hair every day. It is a breeze to brush now.

My front yard makeover has stalled a bit because every weekend I've had to do it has been raining. We have had an incredible amount of rain this winter. Like most of the country, it is much needed.

I'm enjoying this time of year. We have no family birthdays in July so it has been a bit quieter. I even went to the Kmart toy sale last week and put some things on layby for christmas. I just wish I had got a bit organized and did a bit more but I'm sure there will be many other sales between now and christmas.

I want to send a huge congratulations to Adam and Hayley on the safe arrival of their precious daughter Miette. Well done Hayley. I'm looking forward to hearing all the news after a very long labour.

So there it is. Life in the last couple of weeks has been very boring and I've loved every minute of it. Back to reality tomorrow when the kids go back to school.

Another Update

I went to see my doctor last night and she has agreed to give me 6 weeks to try and get my irons levels up with diet.

I'm not sure if I am putting off the inevitable but I'm going to give it a huge go. It can only be a good thing. But it has made me realise that it shouldn't take a health scare to start healthy eating again. I've had a good start because I am 1.5 kgs lighter than this time last week.

The kids finish school for the term tomorrow thank goodness. Everything stops for 2 weeks so I'm going to try and get out for a walk on the days I finish early because I won't have to be rushing around getting kids to sport. I love school holidays.

I was pretty impressed with Jarryd's latest creation - a robot he made at school. The kids have brought so much stuff home this week that they have done during the term that I am going to have to sort through it when they aren't around. I just can't keep everything.

We had some very scary weather here last night. We live near the coast and there was a king tide last night. There was a lot of flooding in our area but luckily we weren't affected though our local jetty is destroyed and will need to be rebuilt. I had to drop Ashleigh's friend off home from dancing and their street was flooded and the SES were sandbagging everyone's driveways. They were predicting 120 km per hour winds but it didn't get that bad thank goodness.

Only one more working day this week. Roll on weekend. It's going to be our first quiet one in months.

Good News????

Just a quick update to say I had my ultrasound yesterday and although I don't see my doctor until tomorrow night for the results, they did say all looked ok.

So I guess we'll see what my doctor says tomorrow. She did mention if this all came back ok, the next step would be an endoscopy to see if anything is going on in my gut. Obviously this isn't an option I really want to explore.

After having a really good think about things last night, I realize that my diet has been pretty poor over the last 3 months. I think going onto iron tablets made me subconsciously think I could relax with increasing my iron naturally. I really need to make a concerted effort to eat lots of food high in iron. I have been googling for some ideas. I eat very little of all the foods listed that are high in iron. So hopefully the doctor will agree to let me try this for a month and see what the next reading is. Then if it is still bad, we can go down the other path.

Am I crazy thinking I can do this by myself? I am trying to think very positive thoughts. I will let you know what happens after tomorrow night.

Thanks to everyone for the messages, emails and phone calls. It's much needed.

Worrying News

I'm not sure how many of you are aware that I have been having blood tests for a low iron count. Six months ago I had a routine complete blood screening which all came back normal except my iron levels were on the low side. The doctor asked me to try and increase my iron naturally by eating more red meat and green leafy vegetables. After 3 months I went back and my levels had only increased by point something. The doctor then asked me if I was bleeding anywhere. I wasn't apart from normal monthleys that have been getting heavier in the last few years so she put me on iron tablets.

I went back last week for another blood test after being on the iron tablets for 3 months and the levels have dropped from 12 to 9 which is of huge concern especially after being on iron tablets for the last 3 months.

So now we investigate the bleeding internally avenue. To say I am terrified of the worst is an understatement. I have to have a pelvic ultrasound tomorrow and go from there. The most likely cause is fibroids or something girly related. But the last couple of days I have had a continual pain in my left side under my rib cage. It's like very mild contractions that comes and goes, so I'm not sure what that might mean. My sister suggested to google my symptoms, but I am too scared to do that. And that is the only symptom I have and that has only started since Friday. I haven't even felt that tired as you would expect with such a low iron count. No more than a normal working, running a household of 5 people mum.

So I will keep you updated. I am not looking forward to the ultrasound tomorrow. I think it is just fear of the unknown. I am one of these people that always thinks the worst of everything so you can imagine what is going through my mind.