The morning didn't start out very promising... but first because this is SO long, I'm going to tell everyone the puppies pictures have been updated, they are 1 week old now and you can see them HERE... they're SO gorgeous I've just been peeking at the photos smiling like a fool for hours! ;-)

Now that out of the way, back to the day... Laurent had been up all night and us with him - again. Egh. Nic took him from 4am onwards so I could get some sleep. By 6am, he'd rolled over, started snoring and promptly refused to wake for love or money, so Laurent and I (very, very reluctantly...) got up and had breakfast. There was a meeting of a bunch of AB'ers at the Melbourne Children's museum today, so we left for that, had a great day with everyone even though I was prolly rather out of it. *G*

Still feeling really bothered by the whole issue of moving. We're definitely moving, having the real estate agents out Monday to discuss our game plan... but not sure where we're going. The furthest I've been able to get Nic to even consider is Blackburn, which is a very nice area and has a lot to recomend it but I'm still longing to move out to the country and have a few acres for sheep, chooks, a veggie patch and the dogs etc. I've felt like this all along but now that it's crunch time and we're definitely going to make the move... well, if it doesn't happen now and we move to Blackburn, it'll be a long while till we move again if we do at all and it'll mean that I'll have to face up to the fact it's not happening anytime in the foreseeable future. Still, we had a great time out today and it was nice to just get away from all this muck and just enjoy the day and the company and watch Laurent have a ball crawling around exploring like mad!

When we got home, things came to a head of sorts I suppose. Not a quarl or anything, just sort of the both of us were ready to verbalize what was in our heads. He said a lot of stuff which sort of explained what he's been thinking and why he's been rather 'internal' the past few days. And I was finally able to articulate a lot of what's been in my head as well and that while I was happy with the things I have been able to get back in some degree in the past few months, I still miss the huge part of my life I left behind when I moved here to be with him... basically leaving my country, my home, my friends, my job, my entire lifestyle and well everything... and feeling really hurt he's was shutting down the idea without even *seeing* the towns first. He knows he would hate living in the country, he doesn't want to be around hicks, there's nothing there for him etc. but he's NEVER been there! Seriously, until I took him to KCC/Skye, he'd never been further than Malvern! If he'd been to them and still found they weren't what he'd be happy with, I could deal with that but that he was rejecting the idea out of hand, which was what upset me!

So that night he shocks the pants off me. Or he would have if I'd been wearing any instead of my jammies. We're laying in bed and out of the blue he says, "What about Tasmania?" *blink blink* Um. I don't know. What about it? "I was thinking about moving and the country... and what about moving to Tasmania?" *BLINK*... *BLINK* I paused to consider if I'd heard him right or if I'd accidentally taken anything that would cause hallucinations. No. Pretty sure not. Maybe this is a really weird dream then? I managed a very erudite, highly articulate, HUNH????? Where'd that come from?!? Geeze. Talk about gobsmacked. He won't consider major rural towns in Victoria because they're too far but thinks Tasmania is a good idea? And again, I repeat... HUUUUNH??????? Well. My. That was interesting.

I chalked it up to sleep depribed insanity and pointed out that at 4 am we ought to be sleeping, not trying to have an in-depth conversation when neither of us even vaguely resembles coherant.

So today we drove around Blackburn having a look and talked about making daytrips out to some of the country areas where we might be able to buy an acre or two... enough for sheep, chooks, a veggie patch and an agility yard. There are still SOOOOOOOO many things I feel conflicted about... hauling him out to somewhere he might be miserable, his ability to work out in those areas, have to be careful it's not an area that doesn't have the type of schools I want for Laurent and we have such an ideal school for him HERE (Preshil) that I feel bad about taking him away from that opportunity etc etc. And so I chase my tail in circles. ;-)

Happy happy joy joy news... I am FINALLY making headway of some of the 9 tons of "STUFF" we inherited from DH's mum and grandfather - both of whom defined the word "Packrat". Seriously, go look in the dictionary, I'm sure there must be photos of the two of them there. I've found postal recipts from packages they mailed in 1979... kid you not. :-O Bits and bobs and scraps of paper and things they figured might someday in someway possibly have a use... some of it's to the Salvos, some to Freecycle and some straight to the recycle bin.

ETA: While driving in Blackburn I asked him what he thought of the area. He said that he was quite happy with it and in a whistful tone added he supposed "if he got homesick for Hawthorn it wasn't too far"!!! LOL Can anyone say "Cancerian"?