You would think, after shaving my hair off yesterday, that would be the biggest thing on my mind! It's not but we'll get to what the biggest thing is after since I know everyone is more curious about the hair-thing.

As I predicted, my hairdresser did flip a bit when I told her what she was doing ("No. I'm not doing it! What do you want to do this for?!?") but when she heard the cause she was beautiful and ended up not charging for it. Mary's the best!

I found out after that while La was watching he was sucking his hand looking like he was going to cry the whole time. I can't see without my glasses so when I saw after, he'd sucking so hard from the upset he left a big puffy red welt on his hand. He refused to look at me, ducking his head or putting his hands over his eyes, clinging to everyone and whimpering when I tried to pick him up and hiding his face in my shoulder for about 2 hours. Poor bubba. He's switching between okay and upset this morning so we went to Puffing Billy as a treat.

At any rate, here are the pics of Before

During...

and AFTER...


After comforting him and carrying him around (w/ his face in my jacket the whole time) we took a bit of a shopping spree around the city. I got a 1GB SD card for my camera for $30, went to Lyncraft and got some funky fiber for "fur" to embroider La's scarf, Gamesworkshop for Nic really quick, Breadtop (red bean bun NUM!),t he Queen Vic Market, Clegs and Myer. We got some beautiful china from Myer, which I'd wanted since seeing 3 months ago... a 3 tier
stand, a cake stand, a snack plate and footed compote on sale for what would have been the original price of the 3 tier stand! While there we saw one of Nic's friends mum who is one of natures beautiful souls and found out his friends wife is pregnant! I'm sooo happy for them!

That is actually the biggest thing on my mind. Babies. I've been seriously horribly, terribly, awfully, completely baby mad and clucky as all get out for the past 2-3 weeks. It's started because there are all these lovely pregnant people around me and bumped up a few notches when I spent a few hours cuddling a young baby the other weekend. Two bubbas in my arms was just lovely! Now I am very nostaligic about pregnancy (this is how you KNOW I've lost it, as I spent most of La's pregnancy swearing after he was born I was going to spay myself with a rusty spork), having a bump, giving birth (as much as pregnancy sucked, birth was nice) and having a newborn. If I could, I'd be pregnant tomorrow. I logically do want to wait until La will be old enough to understand "just a minute" and at least developmentally starting to "get" the concept of empathy and others having different desires than his own in case the PG is another bad one and definitely for after when I'd have my hands full dealing with a new bubba but MAN... it's a bloody good thing I physically can't at the moment or temptation would probably win!

Other than that, I'm generally just feeling eager to get my farm together and have been very "up" in general over that. We've had a, hopefully minor, spanner thrown in the works. Since this house was sourced for us by our agent, the legal papers weren't pre-drawn up and wouldn't be till we put in a verbal offer and they accepted. This was done last week, offer was put in, bickered over, accepted verbally at $510 WITH the provision they were to put in electricity underground and pending inspections of Archicenter, pest inspection and termite inspection showing no major structural faults. I was -very- specific about both those terms because I didn't want it unclear and us getting trapped in a muddy contract when it was drawn up.

The next step was to draw up the "official" offer, the one in writing. We did that, using the EXACT same terms used in the verbal offer word for word. At any rate, we get a call back from our VERY brassed off real estate agent saying that one of the owners of the house (the widow, her daughter and the step-son all inherited equal shares when her husband passed) is claiming he didn't understand the offer was with them paying to put in the electricity. Our RE Agent spent the day telling them if they wanted us to pay it they were going to have to come down in price which they refused, so the best he's been able to get them to is if we split the cost, which is estimated at $7000 and over which I'm flipping BRASSED.

I'm halfway tempted to walk. I know that probably sounds extreme but as I've said all along: this house is nice, I could deal with it as a compromise but it's NOT what I was looking for. My view is that this isn't a place I'm looking to live for 5 years and move on. This is a place I'm planning on living till they haul me to granny lock-up, so I'm not interested in compromising my "must haves" and am better off waiting than spending . I'm better off waiting than putting up with something that wasn't right for the next 50+ years.

Nic doesn't like this and has been shitty with me (he says shitty about the situation but it gets directed at me...) and is rather sulky I've pointed out the facts. I've also made no bones that I've had reserves about it since 5 minutes after we pulled up, both about the money they want for it and the layout of the land being not child friendly and crap for agility.

I look at it as the other house needed no repairs, no replacments, no fencing, nothing but move in and relax at $500K and the layout was doable for the sheep and the agility. That was what I was looking for! This one OTOH, is $510 for a house I'm going to have to sink$50K into, is questionable about the sheep (size is okay but 1 out of only 2 pastures is bottom of the hill and may flood seasonally - a recipe for unusable pasture, mosquitos and hoof rot!) and doesn't have space for agility. Despite this, Nic liked it a lot and it was close to FTG Train station and it's nice enough I could deal with that because of how much he liked it but now they're trying to jerk us around for more money? WTF!

So when Nic told me what RE Dude told him, I told him I really didn't like it. It just gave me a really hinky feeling, I was very uncomfortable with where it seemed to be going. Then tonight I came back and told him again,"You know, the more I think about it, the more it really doesn't sit well with me. I really don't like this. I'm VERY uncomfortable with it, I've got a hinky gut feeling."

I have a lot of questions about how much money is being put into this and feel like $510 is already too much because we've got to FIX EVERYTHING. I also have a bad feeling that if the inspections show other damage (beyond what we know about) and we have to ask them to either come down in price or fix it, they're going to cause problems, be unreasonable and difficult to deal with.

At any rate there is nothing to do for it till Monday, so today we went to Puffing Billy and had a gorgeous ride. La is a big train nut so he looovvvvveeeddd it and charged about like a mad creature yelling "CHOOO CHOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Mumma YOOK! Chooooooooooooo choooooooo!!!!" (Yook = Look) At Emerald there was a neat little market going on and I got a bunch of stuff again! First I got myself an awesome hand-spun, hand-knitted cap... so pretty and nice and warm! (Hey, my head gets COLD now!)
I also bought a hank of handspun wool from them - I think it's a blend of merino and silk? Pale white/cream. I want to dye it and make something for ME for a change (vs. 101 Scarfs For La) but trying to decide what colours! I also found an (can you BELIEVE IT?!?) Aussie Shepherd mug... out in the middle of Emerald no less! Colour me shocked!!! And three bars of handmade soap: 1 patchouli, ylang ylang and lavender, 1 patchouli, frankincense, cocoa and organic coffee and my fav... fresh goats milk and calendula petals. Looooooveeee goatsmilk soaps! So. Pics!

Lala and Daddy at Emerald station watching the trains be set up for the return ride

Cheeky Lala LOVING the fact he's on a real train, bopping up and down chanting "choo choo TAIN CHOO CHOO!!!"

More giggling, bouncing, bubbly Bubby Lala. (Stupid whimpy Panasonic flash though...)

Watching out the windows, looking at the engine as it curves around the track.

Nic has been coming to Puffing Billy since he was La's age so there is a lot of fond memories here and he's loving showing the experience to La. These two aren't the best photos I've ever taken, especially the second which is reeeealllllllyyyyy soft but I'm keeping them as "expression" pictures.

Yawn. Now I'm going to ploink my bum in front of the Smallville DVD we rented and vege.

We got a text from RE Dude the other day saying the family are considering our offer and he'll get back to us. He knows where our maximum is, so if he accepts it, we'll sign the contract and if not... oh well, we'll keep looking. Feeling really philosophical about it all at the moment and moving ahead with my plans for what we'll do with the place we get in terms of animals. Having been researching breeds for the past 2.5 years, now it's a matter of researching where I want to get mine from, so I've been doing that lately, as well.

Saturday, we went to see some Anglo Nubian goats.

This is mum with two kids (one on either side) having a sip. Mum and kids are the colour/markings I like best on these guys! Brown, black and white with white spotting on the coloured bits.

This is one La liked.

It IS eatting a rose. Eyes don't decieve on this one!

Now how can anyone resist this charming invite? After getting a lot of enjoyment out of feeding the goats and watching La interact with them, he was tuckered and we went home quite happy with the day.

Then today (Saturday) was the ASCV's newly instituted herding! I was really looking forward to it but wish these things didn't start so early! Thankfully Sir Lala seems to be feeling better and actually slept the night through, after a week of tossing, turning and being miserable!

(The hairy hooligans waiting and watching the sheep.)

Sierra got another lesson of sorts, which she didn't do as nicely as she has in the past imo. There is a clicker-herding list I reallllyy want to get onto as I think that'd work great for her! I know from experience when she doesn't know what you're asking of her (ie asking a behaviour that's not yet taught) she gets very stressed and worries about getting it 'wrong' or takes it as a correction (no, don't do that it's wrong!) instead of a cue for a different behaviour (that was great, now do this!). She is way more sensitive to approval or disapproval than either Cade or Hope, so even though she's never been punished she stuggles when put in situations like this and I feel a bit unfair asking it of her when I know she does have a hard time with it. (Asking her to stopping or turn hasn't been taught, so instead of looking like another behaviour that's being asked for after she did the first bit perfectly well, it looks like I'm upset/correcting her/telling her the first bit was wrong. When the first bit was moving the sheep, she stops moving the sheep which kind of makes herding difficult! Instead I need to be able to explain "moving them that way is great, can you now move THIS way? Thanks! Good girl!") I have a distinct feeling if I do break the behaviours down, teach them and use access to the sheep as the reward, I'd have a lot more success and that's what I'm hoping to do with my own sheep when I get them. She's SHOWN me this is a pattern in the past (she did the same at agility, freestyle etc but was brilliant once she knew what the cues/behaviours were) and that she has natural talent, eye, ability to assess etc. At any rate, here's a few of the nicer shots of Sierra from today:

This is my favorite shot. :-)

Nubby bums all around!

My good girl at the end.

Now for Hope!

It was also Miss Hope's first time seeing sheep and she got her first two introductions. The first round, after watching the sheep very intently from outside the pen, she alternated between moving after them when they moved and looking rather baffled how she was supposed to get the buggers MOVING in the first place because they ploinked themselves on the side of the fence and did not want to move for love, money or my attempts to haul them off the fence.

The second round she seemed to settle in a bit better and was starting to get it a lot nicer. Started to take a couple of directions, turning, starting to get some idea of balance and not rushing up to them... working at a bit of a distance, instead of straight up the sheeps bums! Was probably most happy with the last part, since I don't like it when they run right up on the sheep and jam them into my knees! ;-) She's more confident overall than Sierra and is able to stay back and assesss things a bit better because of it.

I'd been really wondering how she'd do as I've seen her do things that our pups growing up would do that we had to channel their instinct so it didn't get out of control (eg bumping legs, herding cats, feinting/heeling when you run) and they were working farm bred dogs (NOT trial dogs) that were always mixes with Aussies. (All were Aussie/Blueheelers except one who was Aussie/BC, which was prefered in our area as they were all over. They were great dogs!) At any rate, I think with a bit more training she will probably be my useful chore dog I'm looking for and am really happy with that!

I also got to spend much of the time cuddling a cute little bubba who is much tinier than my own right now! So gorgeous! When I wasn't cuddling (or chasing...) La of course! (Thank gods for slings!) There was also a gorgeous little chocolate Border Collie that was stunning on the sheep... wow-o-wow... not normally a BC fan but that one was a pretty sight to see - keen but not over the top, nice balance, rating, responsiveness etc. So, that said, here's Hope's photos!

Walking up together. Showing nice control but also attention!

My favorite of the lot, just because it's a cute shot!

(Moving the sheep but far enough back they're NOT jamming up my knees!!! LOL Ahhh!)

I don't have a reliable distance down on her yet (haven't taught it) so we simply used a bit of body blocking and firm, "stop!" to halt her. Then when she stopped sent her back the other way.

Good girl, you stop when I ask and I let you go work them again! Yay Hopie Puppy! Again, very nice, moving at a good pace - not too fast, not too slow, enough pressure the sheep were going with me (walking backwards fast is hard!) but not rushing! All in all I was delighted with the little booger! For a 6 month old hooligan girlie she is such a little sweetheart!

We're finishing out the night with a big treat of a movie, Red Rooster and then having Nic's friend Justin over as it's his birthday! That and we haven't seen him in foooorreeeevvverrr!!!

Well as expected, our offer was flatly refused. The real estate agent said he has a feeling they're not willing to move for anything less than their asking price and gosh but wasn't that a huge shock. (Not!) My vote was to simply give them a reasonable offer ($485 simply isn't...) instead of doing a dummy-opener we all knew they were going to turn down but apparently, according to both RE Dude and Nic, this is simply my Midwestern sensibilites arcing up and this is just how business is done here. *rolls eyes*

Be that as it may, I am what I am and this back-n-forth business in an attempt for each party to screw each other over as best they can simply leaves a bad taste in my mouth. An offer you and everyone know is unacceptable seems just plain insulting to everyone involved. If that's because I'm a small town Midwesterner and as the steriotype goes tend toward straight-up, plain-spoken pragmaticness, disdaining beating around the bush, I'm sure I can think of worse cultural traits to have. So I asked Nic to call him (RE Dude) up and tell him that I really didn't want to play games with anyone and would he please just tell the people we'd like the house, here's our best offer (which the guy knew as our best from the previous house, to see if it'd change their minds after they took it off the market) and if it's acceptable great, if not, there's nothing for it and we'll keep looking. Simple eh? Nic still managed to take that single sentence and turn it into a 7 minute spiel. Can you hear me rolling my eyes?

I've also been thinking a lot about courses as this has been something I've wanted to pursue since I came over here and had targeted myself to start when La is old enough that he can stay alone with Nic for more than a few hours. (So I have time to go to classes and time to study.) He is coming up on that age, several more months yet but enough that I've got the itch to start my planning again. Still no joy in finding a place that offers a program like what I'm looking for. The land we'll be able to get will be too small to do a full scale opperation but I am looking into niche markets with small amounts of handspun wool, roving and fleece cuttings for various purposes (knitting, felting, stuffing, arts and crafts), lambs seasonally for sale and possibly using the milk for soaps as I knew someone who made *the* most gorgeous soaps out of excess ewe and goats milk! I also need to avail myself of the in's and out's of pasture improvement/management for Australia since I'm sure it's different, especially with different native vegetation and the drought going on. For that, there is an online/coorespondance course I might take but I'm not sure if it's worth the money or just stuff I could learn indepedantly you know?

This will be something that starts off very small, very slowly but hopefully turns into a nice little cottage industry at some point, probably over 5-6 years or so. Looking at the land as I did the other day, I think we're also set on having a goat to take care of the bracken. Hey, the goat can help with milk soap too! ;-)

I have to say that looking back into this stuff usually gets me feeling a little bit unsettled because most people my age have already done the serious-college-student bit if they intend to go after certain types of careers. Me? I'd be basically starting at scratch again. I'd have to build my GPA up because right now it's crap, which was my own doing since I signed onto a ASL course after loosing my hearing and decided I was too sick to keep going and risking the next car wreck I was inviting taking more than just my hearing. This was of course midway into the term, as I'm too darn stubborn to give up when I probalby should have, so it was either take an incomplete (which trounced my GPA) or keep going. Bllllleeehhhh. So long term goals but I can only really worry about the small, immediate steps I can actually control in getting them I suppose. I amuse myself picturing me doing my homework and fretting over my teachers while La is sitting there doing the same. Lends a new image to "study buddies"! *snerk*

While I was busy doing all this sooking over the fact that I've left this till "late" to do (yeah, I know, not really... indulge me in my dramatics, it feels later than I'd have liked anyhow) and maybe I should pick a smaller goal instead of something quite so lofty. As I was mulling that over, I was flipping through the newspaper (which I normally don't get but it had an article on a place we visit frequently) and here is my horoscope:

"You can't be what you are not, any more than you can stop being what you are. You can, though, stop being what you only ever thought you were supposed to be and you can be, instead, what you have always wanted to be. And you have to be very careful about defining what it is that you were not born to be. All too often, we restrict ourselves unnecessarily. We tell ourselves that this or that can never be because it was simply never meant to be. Your future is soon due to be much better than you ever thought it would be."

Hm. Interestingly applicable!

And at some point in all this, I *am* going to get my vacation! Me, Nic, La, three dogs for a nice long weekend at some small town with interesting stuff to do, antique shops to poke my nose through and a big farm where I can run around in circles with La, take in the sights, meander about and enjoy it all. Now I just need to find out where...

First though, this sleeplessness needs dealing with. Sir Bubby Lala is finally feeling close to well again after getting into some dairy last week. He manifested this by being clingy, whingy, unsettled and not sleeping a bloody wink, while nursing 24-7 to the point I'm reealllyyyy rather sore and over it at the moment!

Anyhow. Sounds like Nic has him rocked down, so it's off to bed for me!

House News

Yesterday we were supposed to go and see the property that we'd looked at a few days before. It didn't pan out so we ended up going out there today after picking Nic up from work. Since it'd been rainy and the dogs had been inside mostly, they were itching to romp - especially Sierra and I opted to take her along with me as she adores going for rides. As it turns out I'd left my round/barrel brush in the car on the back seat and when she got out, I noticed she had a "tail". Closer inspection revealed the brush was thoroughly caught and had to be scissored (*cringes*) out carefully. Hope thought this was a great new toy though and had a good chew on the end sticking out. It occurs to me this isn't something that happens to normal people!

At any rate, we got to go see the property again and I walked all over the land, up the bushy bit, down the backlot, around the pasture, and then carefully through the house. The first time I'd been there I hadn't really got a good sense of the lay of the land since it was rather rushed. While Nic was talking to Joe (aka Real Estate Dude) I wandered off and spent a moment just sitting and absorbing the place. I picked up a few leaves, a rock, a feather and a flower and dipped my fingers in the little springs of water in the fairy grove, mentally asking the house and land if it was the right place for us and wanted us to buy it and if so then helping us to do so. I have this feeling like such old places have a sense of life of their own, their own energy and echos of the people who have lived there... all of it adding up to a unique feel of the place or however you want to put it, that we need to respect for it to really be a home.

While wandered I also got a good idea of what would need replacing and was doing a mental tally in my head of what it'll cost to repair, restore and refurbish. I'm conservatively estimating an easy $40K but I expect I'll see that raise a good bit higher. Still... it is a nice property, pretty views, more grazable land than I'd originally thought (it's got 15 years of overgrown jungle, so it's hard to tell!) and a lot of rather charming rockwork and major structures in place that I think I could make this a real showpiece garden... something you'd see in a magazine! (Albeit it'd take a LOT of work to get it to reveal it's full potential.) We opted to leave a verbal offer for the owners putting the electricity in and doing so underground -and- pending a positive outcome of a Archicenter inspection, pest inspection and termite inspection. I fully expect they'll turn the offer we made tonight down and we'll work up to maybe $510-515 or so. The other good bit is that, electricity aside, since they haven't been living there in 15+ years, once we get in an industrial cleaning team (eep!) they wouldn't have a settlement date of their own, so we could move straight in rather than having to rent!

So... all in all I'm allowing myself to feel cautiously optimistic!

Most of my shots I'm not liking lately... I can and have done lots better than I've been turning out. I got this one today that I liked though... taken at our mother's group. The kids had all been playing with the sippy fountain and when the older kids ran off, L and B hung around to have a bit of fun. L is on the right, getting a sip of water, B is on the left. They're just so darn cute together! I need a better flash though, than the one that came with the camera as it's teeny-tiny and useless!

Unfortunately, the boy-o had quite a day and managed to gather a couple scratches and few bruises from tumbling, getting pushed (ah, what I have to look forward to in a few months...) and a spectacular discovery of why you don't run behind swings when he ran over to the back of an occupied swing wanting to push it (which he does with the empty ones at the playgrounds often) and I couldn't catch him in time to move him away. He caught the back of the seat in his face and was knocked down. Thankfully the swinger wasn't going as fast as she could so it wasn't too bad... ge wanted cuddles for a few minutes but no tears. Like me, La seems to be the sort to have to learn things the hard way poor mite!

Never enough hours in the day

You know, before I had a baby, I actually got all the things I had to do in a day done by the end of the day? I worked 2 jobs (1 FT and 1 PT 15-21 hrs/wk) and college and two training classes and still had time to get everything done, cook, clean, garden, watch television in the evenings, sketch, cross-stitch, scrapbook and write.

Now, I have no paid work, no college, one class and a toddler who manages to ensure I get relatively little else done. I look back at that list and wonder if I was ever that organized and had that much time?!? I have a dozen things to do tonight still and I am far too exhausted to do them.

Laurent got into some dairy a few days back and has been alternating between not sleeping and wailing most of the time since. Once again, I had a sleepless night - every few minutes he was up and unsettled. He nursed for 2-3 hours at a time, tossing and turning. He woke up this morning half-awake and half-asleep, whimpering and sobbing any time I tried to unlatch him from nursing. He spent all morning needing physical contact, curling up in my lap and holding my hand against his chest. Napped for 2.5 hrs (!) curled on top of me, whimpering any time I tried to move away. Was so upset when being set down that I put him in the sling for the rest of the day. (Shameless plug: no baby should come without a sling so go buy one from Jayne!)

I did however manage to FINALLY find a kiddie table and chairs for La! I've been looking for one since Christmas but had a hard time finding one that was wood, good quality, non-character-emblazoned and looked like furniture (ie no funky shapes, weird angles, outlandish colours) and NOT $350! Finally found this one which La loves!

Some pics from the past few days. Have been so lazy about taking shots!

Not the best shot cuz I fudged up but I love the expressions!

"CHARRRRGGEEE!!!" Typical park shot, happens every time he sees someone walking a dog. I keep having to dash after him and tell him we can't pet strange doggies without asking because some doggies might be scared. Which of course he doesn't get. *sigh*

Last but not least, a pretty duck I saw, which I'll look up exactly what it is later. He was splashing about having a great time!

Random mention: I love Colin Hay's Overkill... I've seriously got to teach my dog to slow down enough to use that beat!

A few pics and a ramble about a potential property...

I want one of those little "mood" indicators that you see on a lot of programs. You know, those ones that tell you the tone of the post and have a little corresponding smiley face icon? Mine today would be: muddled and introspective.

Saturday we went to the house in Cranbourne to check it out. 2 acres, 3 bedroom, BV, set up for horses. It wasn't what we were looking for unfortunately, though I did like the neat all weather riding arena... would be an ace agility set-up - good traction, non-slippery and lower impact on their joints. Ironically while we were looking around, we turned and noticed Nikki from ASCV, checking out the property as well.

Then we drove out to Tremont where we were looking at another property. This is one we only knew what the RE agent told us... that it was very similar to the property we'd lost out on, had 5 acres, period house, similar style of property, lightly treed, area for grazing, close to town and transport, supposedly was someones holiday home they decided to let go when he put out feelers for us. I was trying not to get over excited but it sounded too good to be true.

Having seen it, I'm not sure how I feel or what to think. No one had lived in it for 15 years. The story goes, it’s been in their family since the 1920's, the lady and her husbands holiday home but after he died she couldn’t bring herself to come touch it. No electricity at the moment. Interior is semi-gutted because when they decided to sell it much of it wasn’t in great condition. Exterior needs replacing and repainting. All 3 verandahs are partly rotted out from no care and need replacing. The gardens are a tangled, overgrown jungle but I can see the structure there that has potential to be a show-case garden. I have no idea how much of the peeling I saw on the house is just cosmetic and how much will be actually structural compromise. The land is pretty and there are a few things I *really* do like about it... but it's a major lot of work in trimming, removing/repathing, regrading, removing dead trees, major tree maintenance with dead branches etc. There are a 2 massive trees that are spectacular and would be lovely focal pieces to rival anything you'd see in the Royal Botanical Gardens. There are cute little springs that make a fairy grotto and a stream... but I'd say that under an acre is at all grazeable, you can't see it from the house and that's at the bottom of a very steep hill which water runs down to... making me suspicious of how boggy it would get. There is no fencing which means I'd have to put a lot of money into fencing off areas securely for the dogs and La, then running standard post/wire fencing for the sheep surrounding the rest of the property. The agent, our RE Dude's brother, doesn't have any of the Section 32's available. There are only 2 bedrooms and not an easy place to build a third for when we have another child. The owners are asking $500-520 for it.

On one hand, there is a lot of potential in it. If someone has the time and money to fix it, it does have it's charms. And I know myself well enough to know I'd want to personalize almost any house I'd get since it's a pretty rare thing to find someone with the exact same taste as me. (Happened once but I'm not holding breath on those odds striking 2x.) It’s a 2 minute drive from Ferntree Gully Station. However, it does need a LOT of work, potentially a lot of structural work, potentially quite costly. I don’t know at this point. So... I am feeling exceedingly cautious. It doesn't have the area for the sheep and dogs like I wanted, though it's hard to tell since it's such a tangle of growth! It does have nice features to the land though. It doesn't have enough bedrooms or space to add on since it's essentially on a sheer drop. We were looking at $500-510 for the other place, with it finished, enough bedrooms, usable land, fencing existing etc. This is going to be that, plus a lot of money outlaid for fixing it up, for less usable land.

I'd consider the place, I suppose, if it turns out to be sound structurally and financially feasible. I'm not sure I want to spend all that money fixing up a place. That was one of the big reasons we wanted to move from this house, even before I ever thought I'd convince Nic to go to the country - it'd cost too much to restore it properly. I'd wanted to invest whatever we had leftover from this place, not sink it into improvements. Nic likes it a lot, he thinks it's got an electric feel to it. I think it's nice but it's not near as nice as the other place, it doesn't resonate for me really and that's what I'm really after. Maybe that will change, maybe not.

Nic asked if I liked it. I said, yes, it's okay, it has some nice features but I can't work up an emotional response to it, it doesn’t speak to me one way or another. I half wonder if some of the ambiguous feelings aren’t residual energy from the lady who owns it, it’s such an unusual feeling to me you know? Usually I react strongly, instantly one way or another but this... I just had such a sense of melancholy sadness about. It’s not that I’m against it but neither can I really say I’m for it either.

It has a lot of things I'm feeling really reserved about. I could see me living there I suppose. I'm not sure I could picture me living there permanently which is what I'm after and willing to wait for if I have to. He asked if I would be heartbroken if they took this one off the market like I was when they took the other house off the market. I said no. I like it, it's okay but it doesn’t strike me emotionally at the moment. Other times I’ve found places I instantly felt at home. This is a nice (potentially, with renos) home but I’m not sure it’s MY home. He didn't like that much, he wants me to get what I want and it bothers him that we're not able to find it and that I wasn't reacting as he'd hoped or it wasn't as he'd hoped it would be for me to react that way, I'm not sure which.

See? Told you I needed the ambivalent, muddled and introspective smiley. ;-) Maybe a long, rambling one too. And a tired-cuz-La-got-dairy and sooked all night, waking every 20 minutes wailing and clinging one.

Now, for putting up with my ramble:

One of the goofier moments recently... we spent the day on a picnic and went to one of the little tourist shops where I hammed up the cultureless Yankee and turned him into La Dundee. Nic groaned. La thought it was hilarious!

Pic of Hope from last weeks show. This is the only point she wasn't being a total nutter!

And a rather dirty Sierra after digging in my pot a few days past. As you can see she is terrified by my grumbling how I'm going to trade her in for a nice, quiet, well behaved goldfish if she does it again. lol

When I was leaving to go to Sif's for an AB get-together, I ended up seeing my neighbors gorgeous fluffy grey tiger cat get hit.

This is a cat that's been napping in the sun on the walls for the past 3 years and we see in and around our house often. He was a lovely sweet boy, so to see him meet his end like this was heartbreaking. He was hurt so extensively I'm not sure how he didn't die instantly. His face was barely recognizable, his skull crushed in, ribscage collapsed, legs mangled, probably a tremendous amount of internal bleeding and blood in the lungs foaming everywhere. La ran towards him as he wanted to hug the cat, having no idea what happened. I grabbed La, quickly put him into the pram and turned him around. The poor cat was so damaged, dying, hopefully not even aware anymore but hung on for a few more minutes before it finally died. More than the state itself I think that is what's really getting me. There was absolutely nothing to do, no way to help. He couldn't have survived long enough to get to the car and even with treatment he'd not have survived but I couldn't do a damn thing. Not even relieve his pain. I had to watch till he finally died, just talking to him. I wish you could take a test and be authorized to carry an injectable painkiller so that if something like this happens at least they don't have to suffer. Yeah, I know the legal implications are a nightmare but... it sucks.

A lot of other things actually happened during the day but this is the one that has been stuck in my mind. Especially since after having indoor-only cats for all my life because of how dangerous living outside is for them (cars, dogs, wild animals, poisons from cat haters etc) I just dealt with it, like working at a vets again I guess... you just go into clinic mode and deal with it to do what you need to, but am feeling low right now.

It also kept running through my mind and freaking me out when we were at a meet-up with a bunch of AB'ers today and the kids kept unlocking the gate and going out to the street, leaving doors open for the very littlies who don't even understand to stay on the sidewalks. I was kind of flippy about not letting La wander out of my sight I guess. Even with us watching they still managed to unlock the gate a couple times or one of the older kids going out would let a littlie out after them when they left the house.

*sighs* Hug your furkids a bit closer tonight guys. And remember to keep them safe.

Free to BAD home, vivisectionist prefered

Okay, the line was a joke stolen from one of my dog lists but both Sierra and Hope are free to the wrong home at the moment!

Sierra - she who was a perversely good puppy and unnaturally well behaved dog, Sierra who has never done anything wrong in her life... for some reason unknown to gods or man decided that while I was getting my shower this morning she needed to knock over the pot from the top of the grill and then dig up my iris! The same ones Hope had dug up a few weeks back which were just starting to look like they might think about pulling through. I got up this morning to see that she was an absolute MUDBALL from it. Hope had nary a fleck of dirt on her so I know she had no part of it.

Then after not being able to find La's shoes, I found one of them outside. On the grass. The elastic chewed to pieces. The little booger fetched them from the front of the house when I was getting her leash, plucked them off the table where they are stored to keep them OUT OF her grasp - past the gate, which was undone to go get the leash - and took them outside to CHEW UP! Freaking $60 pair of kids shoes that I hunted for WEEKS in 8 different stores over half of Melbourne to find a green pair of freaking soft-sole shoes and which they DON'T make any more! She certainly didn't *need* to take his shoes to chew... she could have chewed any of the other el cheapo, easily replaced pairs here or heck, for a lark, the 3 big cows femurs I got the dogs the other day -or- their icey pole blocks that were also out there with them.

Arrrggghhh... dirty (literally), rotten, little ingrates!!!

I tell you, it's a VERY good thing these dogs are so stinking cute I can't get mad at them. I'm convinced the cute-factor is one of those things they've evolved for just this sort of reason! They pull stunts like this and what do I do? Yell, scream, stomp, threaten to sell them to the gypsies? Nah. I go get the camera. (Will post the pic later!)

Un. Am. Us. Ed.

Today was Cade's annual well dog check up and when I called I forgot to specify to the new receptionist I wanted to make an appointment with my specific vet Dr. K (easy to forget when she was the only vet there for a long time) so they made my appointment with the new guy she hired.

I don't *like* this new guy, the two times I've seen him he's been fairly useless and I've just had to come back to Dr. K after anyhow. At any rate, by that point I'd managed to drag myself, three dogs and the toddler tornado to the vets so I simply went in. They had the vaccination ready, which I told him that at 9 years old I wasn't doing as I follow Dr. Dodd's protocol. The vet quickly took his temperature and ran his hands over him checking, looked in his ears and mouth real quick and pronounced him fine except for a pinker than normal belly skin, which probably means he laid down in the newly mowed grass and it irritated him.

I pointed out that his teeth actually probably need a dental. I scraped them recently but obviously couldn't polish them or get above sonic blast or irrigate the gumline obviously. The gums look irritated around the edges on a few, there's a higher pocket than there ought to be when I probed and some recession around the front incisors. Oh no, he assures me, they're not too bad at all, only some minor build up on the very rear molars. I replied, yes, I just scaled them like I mentioned a minute ago but he's been off his food and for Cade, chowhound that he is, that means it's time for a dental. Oh. Hm. Yes. He muttered something I didn't catch but nothing more about actually making an appointment for a dental. Wow... um, should I be having to TELL this to a vet? Personally I wanted to talk to the vet about testing his saliva for pH and production levels since even though we brush and use raw bones, Cade is prone to needing dentals yearly due to tight lips and a relatively dry mouth but I think that would have floated right over this guys head.

Then I asked, since he's a senior shouldn't we do some bloods? He looks at his file and goes hm, well yes, he's had some bloods last year. Um. Yes. Keywords: last year. This is a 9 year old dog - he qualifies as a senior, which means a baseline should be standard part of his check-up. He's on metacam, where blood draws to monitor tollerance and the health of kidney and liver should be considered routine and good standard practice. So a blood pannel should be an absolute no-brainer. Hm. Ah. Hm. No bloods. Just some stupid cortisone cream for his belly which is absolutely fine and a worming tab. I didn't even get to ask about her thoughts on his having a chiro or physio for his leg injury, which is causing some muscle on one side to become more built up. At the end of this, the bill was $96. Quite frankly for that amount of $96, I can run my own hands over the dogs body and tell you there's no unusual lumps or bumps, his heart and lungs sound clear, his temp is normal and he has clean ears. :-(

Still feeling rather "out there" atm. Spent all of Saturday checking in with the real estate agents. No joy there. We went to drive out to some of locales that we may rent in (will be cheaper, maybe more open to dogs) but are further out than we'd buy. (Too far for me to drive La to school from.) Anyhow, we went from Belgrave out towards Emerald, Avonsleigh, Macclesfield out to Cockatoo and then Gembrook which Nic insisted he wasn't lost and had me take a "short-cut". I'm in my whimpy, suburbanite, non-4-wheel-drive SEDAN without even a few wooden planks and bag of cat litter in case I got stuck in that muck on what ended up being a dubiously 1 lane, washed-out, dirt track hacked into the middle of the bush. We did eventually, with a few interesting driving tricks, make it to Monbulk, Mt Evelyn etc.

Today we had a show for Hope at KCC. A fair number of Aussie's there, got to see Jezza and Hondo et all again! Jezza, is the size of Hope now! We got to see two 12 week old Puli puppies and Oh. My. GODS... being that adorable should be a SIN! I'd have happily stuck one in my purse to take home! And best of all I got to meet Kate's little baby Cameron and got all horridly clucky over having a nearly-newborn to hold again! ;-p What a cute little chappy he is, blowing spit bubbles, gurgling and smiling up a storm!!! Hope & I did nothing as far as placings went... 2nd of 2. Hope totally deserved to place last as she was hopping, forging, crabbing, galloping and generally doing everything BUT gait properly, the booger! Point taken - no more slacking off training because I'm busy obsessing over finding a house, else she'll end up completely feral. X-P

Meanwhile I finally sat down to fill out entries last night and realized I've missed every entry-closes-by date except for one on the 31st of March. So apparently we won't be showing at all till April. *sigh* The saving grace to that is that there is at least quite a few herding events on in March and maybe the house thing will be resolved by then. Till then, there's Southern's instinct test, then ASCV's training day, then a VHA test day (which I think is beyond our current training) and then the weekend after the end of march the ASCV test day.

Because we'd been out to Skye, it made me think about looking in that area. Cranbourne and surrounds certainly aren't my first pick of place to live but what the hey, can't hurt to look so I took a squiz and found THIS HOUSE on 2 acres, 3 bedroom BV house, set up for horses for $495K The house is okay, not even close to what I'd design if we custom built but not completely yarg-worthy either. I suppose the paddocks could be fenced for sheep and dogs, the arena could do as an agility arena and stables could transform eventually into kennels. I'm not wild about it and half-way wonder if I'm selling out on my dream for the chance to have something sure/safe now (better a bird in hand...) but I suppose we'll probably look at it and look at the area as I don't know what it's like beyond the few times I've driven through one street of it to get to KCC or go to Toora. There was semi-affordable land in Beaconsfield Upper - 7 acres lightly treed for $399,500+ but it looks too far out for Nic to deal with transport. (Pakenham would be the nearest train line I think which is WAY too far for school!) Anyhow. Time for sleep. I've had crappy sleep the past few days and too little of it so time to haste me to the bye.

Heads up! (Or shaved at least!)

That's right... I'm going to be shaving my head for The Worlds Greatest Shave to raise funds for leukemia this March. Anyone interested in pledging to this very worthy cause to see my hair get shaved off, go to http://www.worldsgreatestshave.com/profile.php?id=300943 and follow the prompts! Very easy to do! I'm registered under Amanda Orbitani in Victoria!

Had a nice day today, escaping the heat and having a lovely time watching Bubba Lala play at Amber's with Bryn and Sif. I'm really astounded at how verbal La is getting now. Not just words as such but using them to communicate and that he's taking it from single words to the beginnings of sentences. He's gathering words all the time on walks by toddling up to something and asking "Mum?" "Yes La?" "Mum, uts ah?" (what's that) and pointing to an object he wants named.

I found two songs I *really* like for Freestyle and would like to do routines with! "Imma Shine" by Youngbloodz and "Show Me The Money" by Petey Pablo. 'd need to focus a lot on my own dancing skills first... which suck... hazzard of being HoH and having a vestibular disorder I suppose. And have to admit I haven't trained the dogs much lately anyway because I'm just too obsessed/anxious... about what to do about this moving issue and how it's going to affect us financially to focus on anything else at the moment.

Had a lesson which I probably should have canceled because my head wasn't on that matter and my heart wasn't into it. I wasn't able to focus on the new material and was making really supremely bone-headed mistakes on the old stuff. My instructor was wondering what the heck I was doing because I was all over the map and we both KNOW I can do far better.

Have been chasing my proverbial tail in circles trying to figure out what to do with still no property on the market which fits the bill.

Move to a little place for till we find a place or land to build a house, then rent it out? But properties make less than 5% returns and that's not likely to cover the loan we'd have to take out on the eventual land/house when we find it. Buy and then sell again later, hoping it works better next time? Unless you stay 4-5 years, it's a money loss and the time frame makes that bad idea. Rent till we find a place? There is maybe 1-2 places who are okay with the animals but it's a huge money loss. Move to a nice place and give up the dream for the time being but that's not something I'll ultimately be happy with.

At the back of my mind during all of that is that if I'd not delayed that 24 extra hours in making an offer I wouldn't have to deal with any of this crap... I'd have a lovely, perfect home with everything I want.

And to add to the weird energy swirling around me at the moment, Nic, Mister City Slicker, the person who was adamant he'd never survive the country, was aghast when I suggested BLACKBURN because it was "so far out in the sticks!" and in the first 23 years of his life never ventured further from the City than MALVERN... has for no reason known to gods or man, done a turn around and is now as gung-ho over the country as I am, saying he really doesn't want to live in the suburbs, he totally hears what I was saying about the energy of wild places and the energy of the suburbs being stiffling etc. It's positively freaky! I keep having to resist the urge to poke him and check if he's a pod person.

And to end this post, I'm sending out HUGE RASPBERRIES to Myspace.com who has decided to delete photos posted by mothers of breastfeeding their infants as "publically indecent" and removing their accounts, while allowing photos of genuinely pornographic material to go unchecked. I'd been considering transferring my blog to Myspace. I will not be doing so and will be boycotting the site unless and until Myspace both reverses this badly thought out decision and issues a public apology for an action which only serves to harm and criminalize breast-feeding mothers and their children for the act of NOURISHING A CHILD by likening it to public indecency. On a personal note, Myspace should be ashamed of endorsing a policy of discrimination and one based on an attitude which mercifully expired many years ago and for which discrimination laws exist to protect mothers and children against such idiocy in every other area of life. Such persecution and discrimination should be abhorrent to every person because supporting the discrimination of one person or group of persons is no different than discriminating against people for their race, religion, sexual persuasion, gender or any other matter. Myspace: REVERSE YOUR POSITION AND APPOLOGISE TO BREASTFEEDING MOTHERS FOR CALLING THEM CRIMINALS!

La inspecting some Queen Anne's Lace flowers

View of the vineyards in the distance

"Honey loooookkkk, sheeeeeep!!!!"

"Finally, they let me out of that carseat!"

Close-up of La's Queen Anne's Lace he picked.

When you're feeling a bit low, best therapy in the world is to watch three crazy dogs playing with one crazy kid and take lots of photos! LOL

Mister Bubby Lala insisting he can walk Cade all by himself thankyouverymuch!

Bum chums.

One of Cade... I'd really been looking forward to pictures in this park but because of the water restrictions the fountain and pond were drained. Still managed to get a few cute shots of Cade, who is 9 YEARS OLD on the 24th! I can hardly believe it... seems like yesterday he was a crazy, wired-for-sound, hell-fer-leather, devil-may-dare pup! (He was never what you might call a 'normal' IG! LOL)

A closer up shot of Emperor Cade, High Lord of the Stuffies, King of the Foodbowl! Believe it or not, the collar he's wearing is the one I made him as a pup! LOL Still wearing it, still fits!

A decent one of Sierra, though I liked the other picture I took of her better in terms of lighting, I cut her feet off. Lesson? ALWAYS CHECK YOUR FRAME! Der.

And last but not least, the hardest to photograph of the lot... Miss Hope! She is a pistol to get a good picture of because she isn't used to being my models as much as the others are - they listen when I say, "up, stay, move right, lay down, ears!" Plus everytime Laurent squeaked or waved she wanted to dash off to check-up on him (alien invaders might be stealing him youn understand) instead of sitting still!

First, let's start off on a cute note. For Valentine's day the bonnie, bubbly, Bunny Lala painted his first picture for daddy after being well-smocked! Cute eh?

On the house-front: if something doesn't pop up within the next week or so, we have relatively few options. The two best, aside from the people miraculously calling up and tell us they changed their minds (a reoccuring fantasy) is that we could buy land and build, renting until it's finished OR we could buy an inexpensive house and put the balance into investments till we find a place we like, either selling or renting the smaller place after.

Buying land and building is an idea that I both like and dislike. It appeals on the level that I tend to have specific ideas of what I like and choosing everything from the ground up does have it's appeal. On the other hand it means renting while it's built, which is a big unknown. The idea of attempting to rent for A.) a shortish period of time and B.) with 3 dogs, 1 cat, 4 birds, 2 ferrets and a toddler sounds like a migraine in the making. I'm very worried about costs spiraling if estimates go over, things take longer than planned to complete, unknown/unplanned for/hidden costs arise etc. I'm also loathe to move only to move again in a few months and there's not a huge lot of blocks of land that are affordable in the areas we'd like. (To be precise, there is one.) So it'd be *possibly* more risky financially and is a daunting amount of research and legwork to do in a VERY short amount of time.

The other option would be buying an inexpensive place out there now and put the balance into investments till we find a place we like. Then we have the money for desposit available instantly, get a bridging loan (but then, those bloody things nail you for like 21% or something...) or standard house loan and could then either sell the first place or rent it out if we'd make enough to make it worthwhile and cover the monthly loan payments. Safer I suppose in some ways but still involves moving 2x which I really don't want to do and again more expensive than simply buying and moving 1x. The downside would be that if we opted to sell the first place we'd incur more fees from conveyancing etc. (It's cost us $26K into our profits to sell this place!) If we opted to rent, it'd have to cover fees rates, insurance, repairs and maintence of the property and the agents who'd manage it for us.

So to sum up: May the great god Murphy take a powder and the kinder gods of the universe bless us with an affordable dream house so we don't have to do either of those options and may they also ensure that I have the time/comprehension/connections to suss out how viable either of the alternative options are. ;-p


Random picture: My valentines day roses, aren't they purdy?!?

And after Nic gave them to me, little mister cupid holding them. All he needs is the wings.

Doggy Stuff - This pic just says it all!

(That's count 'em, one little white spirit cat and three hooligan dogs all flopped out!) We've just been hot and not really doing much. Have been working on Sierra's freestyle - doing circles around me, refining bows, backwards heeling. Hope is doing whatever catches my fancy on the spot, little bit of work on stacking and free stacking, need to start getting her to give attention on cue to the judges. (Last show, she maintained gave nice attention and eye contact but only to me... even when the judge was trying to elicit attention... which is exactly what we've trained for in *other* settings, DOH!) Cade is being a couch weight, his favorite passtime and one he does with great panache!

La Stuff:

Lots of new words. To wit - "CHOO CHOO!!!!!!" every time he hears a train. (His daddy jokes that Puffing Billy says "Choo Choo", the ones outside our home say, "...Connex appologises for any inconvience...")

And since we have sheep toys and statues aplenty..."La what's the sheep say?" "BAAAAA!!!"

He looks at the dogs who are hot and lounging, opens his mouth and *pant pant pant pant*

New word that's very appropriate: BUHON!!! (Button. As in, what he's always pushing...) ;-p

"Chews" and "chocs" (shoes and socks) and GEEN! (Green shoes and socks!)

When we went to pick up our dog food, the shop owner had one of her Standard Poodles (which I utterly adore her dogs) there and La was delighting in getting kisses from Teddy. "Sisi!" he chirped as he's trying to feed air-treats. "No honey, that's not Sisi, that's Teddy." "Teh-EE!" When we saw a black poodle on the street yesterday, he lit up and cried, "TEH-EH!!!" (Close kiddo...)

On the Aussie Shepherds list, one person sent through a photo of her 2 week old Aussie pup, La spied it and yelled "BEBE!" Then hopped up and chanted "Bis bis bis!" before giving the screen puppy a big kiss.

Last, as everyone knows the dogs all know various "spin" tricks for freestyle. Sierra, Hope and Cade learned single spins, multiples, off the left hand, off the right hand, we dabbled a little bit with getting Sierra and Hope to spin in unison and finally... inadvertantly... I've taught La to spin. ^_^' A few days ago I noticed whenever I cued the dogs to spin, La would twirl and grin at me. Heavens help us, this child turns more into a dog everyday!

Yucky moment tonight when we went out to get dinner. La was whinging so Nic took him out leaving me to wait for the order. The guy had something to ask, still not sure what... but asked the question 6x which I still couldn't hear/understand and had to keep asking, "Sorry, what was that?". The more I had to have him repeat himself and couldn't figure out what he was saying and the more impatient I saw him getting, the more I panicked. So instead of asking him to write the question down (which tends to get scowls anyhow) or explaining I'm HoH (which why should I have to explain to get a humane response... why shouldn't I receive equal patience if I had some sort of neurological deficit or didn't speak English or any of a thousand other reasons?!?) I panic and felt so embarassed. Five years on, I forget about my hearing until something rubs my nose in it. I don't mind explaining to people I know but I hate having to announce it to all and sundry every time I go shopping, make an order, have to make a phone call etc. HoH throws people. Some expect you're Deaf. Some expect you should be able to hear fine since you've got some hearing. I'm not Deaf of course but sometimes I think it'd be easier if I were. People know how to deal with Deaf somewhat better, it's easier to understand I guess. If you've got some hearing though, people don't understand how to treat you, you're not Hearing, you're not Deaf, they don't know how much you can or can't hear as one HoH person varies from the next. So they just get impatient and very often end up being demeaning or patronizing. They don't mean to, quite often they've got the best of intentions and don't even realize how insulting they're being but it just takes up more energy than I've got to deal with them sometimes yk? My thought of the day: It'd be nice if the world came with captions!

Interesting stuff...

Spent the day ploinking around playing with La and goofing off looking at interesting stuff on the net. I'm dealing with everything by not dealing with it... la de da! Mature? Nah. But I'm taking the day off. I'll go back to responsible-adult-looking-after-my-future tomorrow.

• An implicit technology of generalization - complete paper on-line. Originally from Journal of Applied Behavioural Analysis in 1977 but still an intersting read. Snurched from one of my lists where the question of generalizing a behaviour (well, concept...) in humans was asked.
• Unilateral hip dysplacia for dogs article
  
• Pogostemon helferi - pretty plant, want to get some for my aquariums! I'm looking for tiny, tiny, fine leafed plants beyond the usual stuff for my nano tank! Even anubias v. nana and crypt wendtii are too big! Another plant I want Cladophora aegagropila. *drool*
• Hope's half siblings , The Drinks Litter at 8 weeks! Lovely!
• Hope's litterbrother overseas!
• This is a Aussie I've liked for a long time... the way she's described reminds me of the dogs I grew up with and I think she's gorgeous to boot! I love the Roanoak dogs in general and have drooled over her for a few years!
• And because I'm such a time-short, lazy arse I just FINALLY got Hope's pedigree up. Not fancy but functional. I might actually get her webpage done sometime before the next millenium! :rolls eyes:
  

The House

Today was the day we were supposed to hear from the agent on how the meeting with the home's owners went. I spent all day half-hoping, half-imagining I'd get an estatic call from Nic saying he'd got the call and had good news, the house was ours and what a lovely belated birthday present.

Time ticked by until Nic was off work - no call. Nic came home and still nothing. Either it was bad news or Nic was going to pull out a bottle of bubbly. I watched him trying to gauge if he was upset or hiding excitement. Dinner came and went, no bubbly, no announcement. Finally I broke and asked him if he'd heard from the real estate agent or not. He did. The owners weren't interested. Even with the extra offer. He'll keep us in mind, keep an eye out for something that matches our needs blah, blah, blah. Whatever. Who cares. I know I need to care because I need to find a house and I can't just hang myself up on this but right now, for this moment... I really don't care and I can't bring myself to either.

So. That's that. I'd love to go back in time and strangle myself for not moving on the property faster. I wanted to wait so we didn't seem too eager and inflate the price. Yeah, I couldn't have known, yadda, yadda... but the fact remains if I'd just moved on it straight away, the contract would have been signed and we'd have a home.

So we're back to looking. There is literally not a single house in the market I'm even remotely interested in and I've been haunting the real estate websites. Now we've got to consider what happens if we don't find a place in time. Do we rent until we find a place? I have no idea how to find a place that lets you have multiple animals or where or if you can rent without having to be in contracts for a set period or what the fees are like for breaking contract and moving early. Or do we settle somewhere that's got a decent house but not enough land for what I want and move later. Both ideas gall me, the later in particular. And if we're going to settle in a house without the land I want, should we just stick somewhere in the inner burbs where it's better for N & L or still be in the country but without the country? Or do we consider other reigons completely... but it's still got to be close enough to the city and transport for Nic, close enough that I can take L to school, close enough to training and eventually to classes for myself etc. Too many things to consider and weigh and my head is spinning with matters I thought I'd settled when we found this house and put in the offer.

What compromises do you make when no compromises are acceptable?

Ballarat show & B-day

I'm whipped so here's the highlights:

• Went to sleep at 1:30 am
• Got up at 6:15am, started bathing dogs because if you're going to bathe one you might as well do them all.
  
• Left at 8:00
• Arrived in Ballarat at 11:00
• Show was SUPPOSED to start 12:00
• Show started at 1:20ish, Judge Mr I. Hinde
  
• Hope=Best Baby Puppy of Breed of 1 (lol) After being pretty calm previously today she bounced, pounced, leaped her way around the ring (hey, they're looking for movement right???lol), stopped to take a piddle, noticed the judge and had to give him kissies!
• Almost got Best Baby Puppy in Group, judge was looking back and forth between her and the little ACD tyke and in the end chose him. Ah well! Pics below, me minus my jacket because it was too warm!
• Had pizza and ice-cream for b-day dinner but we didn't get to go to any antique shops or stop anywhere else because the judging took so long and La was more whingey than he's been in um... ever.
  

L-R: Aust Cattledog, Me and Hope, Border Collie

Closer up one of the Wild Mexican Jumping Bean in a better behaved moment! ;-p

Congrats also go out to Hope's dad Courage who got Best of Breed, her half-brother (through sire) Myriahill Red River aka "River" who got BOB and half-sister (through her dam) Cuebiyar FollowURDream aka "Jahz" who had three first place qualifying rounds in agility, the last of which was done in less than HALF the allowed course time! :-D

No show today for me and Hope! Called the show secretary Friday and was told there was only one baby puppy bitch entered and 'twasn't mine. Apparently a few peoples were lost by the post according to the lady.

We are however going to the Ballarat show tomorrow! So at least I get to spend my birthday at a dog show! I plan to indulge myself and have junk-food I normally wouldn't: pepperoni pizza and cookies-n-cream ice cream and if I can find it a lemon-custard donut. I've been looking forward to that for 3 weeks now! LOL And on the way back we're going to meander around Ballarat, Castlemaine, Woodend and look at antique shops etc.

News on the house-front... (Recap, the people on the house we'd decided on jerked the house off the market unexpectedly just before signing the contract, I demonstrated my colourful vocabulary.) After skulking my way through Wednesday, we decided this was just too important and we'd asked Real Estate Dude to speak to them in a few days, hoping they'd reconsider. We gave him a nice juicy $25K hike in the offer as incentive. So RE Dude's called them up and asked to meet to discuss things and they agreed to meet with him. So..... we wait. Nic thinks it's a good sign, because if there was no way they'd reconsider, why agree to a talk with RE Dude? Me, I dunno. I refuse to speculate until they've signed the contract or told us to take a flying leap.

I do however feel it's all going to work out one way or another. Wednesday my mind played out every 'what if' scenario, uselessly chasing it's fictional tail in circles and well, let's just say none of the scenarios ended with, "and they all lived happily ever after" you know? Then I went to sleep, meditating using this big golden crystal I have as focus and just felt this tremendous sense that everything would work out somehow. I do believe that when you pray for something, you oughtn't simply request X object (delivered by Y date and giftwraped please...) but be open to the possibility that the universe might have something else in store for you, hence, "I'd like this house or for the right one to be revealed to me." I DO believe that. But. Um. I must admit, before I could stop myself a tiny, somewhat squeaky voice in my mind added... "but, um, I'd really like it if THIS one is the one that's right for us."