I am sooooooooo tired we were full of kids today and full of personalities that clashed big time. I pretty much got stuck with all the cleaning duties today too so my back is killing me lol When I finished I had 3 missed phone calls asking me to come and do relief shifts. I picked the closest who want me to work tomorrow, wednesday and thursday. I tried to call them back to tell them I would take tomorrow and Thursday's shifts but by the time I called them, the centre was closed. So I will have to call them back tomorrow morning and see if they still want me to work.

When I got home from work I found my 2nd baby (my pup) locked in the laundry by the mechanic with no water to drink and no newspaper so he could wee and poo. So guess who got dog shit all over her clean washing?? Though, not so worried about that, more worried about Kadan not having anything to drink. So if I see him again, he's going to have some explaining to do.

The next news our car's oil tank shit itself on Saturday morning, by the time Brent went around to my parents place to borrow the lawn mower and drove back, there was no oil left in there so very lucky the motor didn't blow up. He had to stay home from work until 4pm to get a quote by the mechanic. His first quote was $700 including labour, then he took a second look and apparently it was worse than he originally thought and said it would cost at least a grand to fix. WHAT!?!? We don't have that kind of spare money laying around even if I have just started work. Brent called his parents to ask to borrow their spare car until we could save up for a couple of weeks and out of the blue they said they would pay to get it fixed as part of our Christmas present. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We also got invited up to Burrum heads (sp?) next weekend; Sat, Sun, Mon to spend the long weekend with them at their holiday house on the beach. So won't be around next weekend but will have plenty of photos for sure to share when we get back.

Tomorrow is our house inspection and I'm in a bit of trouble because I haven't exactly asked them if we could have another dog........ I know I know!! You'd think I'd learn but I don't do I?? So I have to try and find a place to hide him until it's over LOL

I was sending a friend of mine a gift today on minti when I took a look at her popular show case and realised she had most of the gifts already sent. Upon doing this I thought to myself “wouldn’t it be great if there was more to choose from?” Then I got thinking of what kind of pictures and ideas we could use...

Such as Happy Easter! Chocolate egg gifts, easter bilby, easter bunny, chocolate coins

Cheer up flower and choccie range gifts

Merry Christmas range gifts such as present, candy cane, ginger bread man, tinsel, angel, star, bible, Christmas ham, christmas tree

A Happy birthday range of gifts such as happy birthday cake, candles, present, birthday card

Flower range gifts such as roses, lillies, sunflower, daisy ect

Gardening gifts ranging from seeds and different gardening tools.

What kind of gifts would you like to see invented on minti?

My personal contribution would be butterfly gifts! With different coloured and types of butterflies

Last night around 9pm I woke Raiden up to spend time with his dad before bed and he couldn't speak and starting breathing really loudly and it was really raspy. Ironically the last advice article I read on here before calling minti quits for the night was about Croup. What are the odds of that happening? lol So we took Raiden to the hospital because he has asthma I just wanted to rule out any chances of him having an asthma attack and to see whether it really was croup and not some kind of allergy. He was given some steroid meds which helped him SO MUCH! We saw improvements in as little as an hour. After the doctor was satisfied that Raiden reacted to the meds, he confirmed it was croup and wrote us out a prescription. We got home about 1:30am in the morning.

This morning when Rai woke up, you wouldn't have guessed he even had it but I rang the day care and told them Rai and I weren't coming in today just to be on the safe side.

Then this afternoon I was asked if I wanted to come in and cover a shift at another centre run by the same company not too far from here and I accepted. So getting paid for an 8:30am-5pm shift tomorrow. Then I remembered Raiden's normal day care is full on Thursdays so currently trying to find someone who will look after him. We tried his nanna, they can't, my parents are both working, his aunty is working and his parents wont answer the phone. So I might have to call them back and let them know that I can't find anyone to look after my son so I can't do it. I don't have any time to get my blue card and certificates signed by a JP either so it might be for the best I've been running around like a headless chook making phone calls so I could get the extra money to put on Christmas shopping.

Kadan and Rai have been following me around all day while I've been cleaning the house LOL it's cute but it's also like having 2 babies. Never knew it took longer than 30 mins just to do some dishes... "Kadan no, weeing on the newspaper not the floor!", "Raiden close the cupboard please you already have toys on the ground" ect Now they have both finally crashed out. Raiden is in bed and Kadan is sleeping at my feet.

I've gotta try and work out how I'm supposed to get 2 mystery shopping assignments done by Friday afternoon too. Argh, I need to stop trying to take on too much. Yes Arna... I know you told me so :-p but since when do I ever listen? LOL

*deep breath* I'll sort something out.... I know I will!! *puts on thinking cap*

Who would have thought we went out shopping for groceries and instead came back with 0 shopping and a new puppy LOL We went up the escalator and pointed at the pet store saying we should take Raiden to have a look at the puppies bouncing up and down. Well silly Brent went along with it and one special pup came straight up to me and we fell in love at first sight. Nawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. He's currently asleep on the kitchen floor. He absolutely LOVES Raiden. When Raiden runs around, he chases him in excitement and jumps up and licks him. They have been playing together all afternoon and crashed at the same time LOL So there goes Brent's work bonus LOL

He's a 6 week old Kelpie we called "Kadan" which is Japanese (?? some other website said it was Arabic as well) for "companion". Brent came up with it and I loved it so we went with it.

Wanna know the freaky part? Brent was wearing a white polo shirt today and when we got home and gave him a hug, I noticed there was a tiny stitched on dog bone on his shirt. Guess it was meant to be! Synchronicity!

Well today was my first day and I worked with the 15 month- 3 years group. My ears are still ringing LOL but it was fun! Other than when I had to go outside the laundry to find toys the kids had thrown over the fence, where I was stung by some kind of wasp like insect. It definitely wasn't a bee... it felt like someone had just put my finger in fire and the pain surged right up to my finger tip. So now my ring finger has swollen twice it's size and I can't bend it LOL Raiden got distracted, as when he saw me outside he kept going up to the window and banging on it trying to get my attention. The director has put me on 26 hours a week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and paying me on a casual basis. She is going to to teach me to be an all rounder so I know how to do opens, closes and all the age groups. Which means I'm also becoming a relief teacher and an extra assistant through-out the holidays.

More good news, Brent just found out he got a pay bonus today, a one off 2.5% lump sum of whatever his salary totals. So I think I'll be going out soon to celebrate :-)

Tomorrow will be my first day working at Raiden's day care. I'll be working 8am-5pm! I feel so lucky to live just a 15 minute walk away from the centre. Which means it won't cost anything in transportation and I'll be able to walk home with Rai before it gets dark each night. Kylie has approved me for 50 hours a week of Jett so if she ever needs me to come in to work, Raiden is covered and it will only cost me $2 in daycare fees.

Friday I will find out which age group I'm going to work with and as Arna says it doesn't really matter because they'll all be loud, messy and terrifying LOL And I guess I will find out how they like everything to be. I just need to buy some new closed in shoes and a sun hat.

Raiden is so clever. Last week when playschool was on they started to talk about dinosaurs so Raiden went over to his toy basket, starting throwing all of his toys out on to the floor until he found his dinosaur. Then he took it back over and sat infront of the tv making dinosaur noises (rawr rawr rawr). This morning he was watching Jess the Cat with me and he did the same thing; threw his toys out on to the floor until he found his cat and came back over to me and sat on my lap.

The good: On Saturday morning our new bed arrived for one of the spare rooms (we have a 4 bedroom house - I was looking to extend our little family back then) a gift from Brent's mum and dad. They also gave us a box of lovely Christmas decorations so don't have to worry about buying those this year, some new glasses and water jugs, Brent's old racing bike (which will be fobbed off on ebay shortly) and an everlast punching bag that they don't use in their gym anymore (which will also be fobbed off on ebay shortly LOL). We also found $499.00 in Suncorp shares we didn't know about. I also have 4 new ladies (soon to be 5) in my perfume business who have already bought themselves a start up kit and have gone straight in to selling. It's starting to build really quickly these days. Still have a few years to build before I earn some serious passive income dough though. My aim by the end of this year is to earn $200.00 a month passive income without the selling profits included. The chances look to be good so far.

Oh yeah start at the new job soon WOOT the TAFE is sending their signed documents through my Email on Monday morning (about time!)

And I have been totally booked out left right and centre for readings, I am so happy! Once upon a time I used to beg people to let me practice on them LOL And I am so touched by the people who have said it has really helped them in their life xo

The bad-ish: Raiden's grandparents came up yesterday for lunch and spoiled him rotten so he started to throw the biggest tanty's while we were out shopping. Then they decided to buy him some chocolate fudge icecream, which he thought was the best thing in the world! When we got him home that night he was so full of sugar and energy that he wouldn't go to sleep, we finally got him to sleep last night about 1-2am!! No more chocolate icecream for you Raiden!

The Oh my god!: Raiden decided to pull his pants and nappy off somewhere in the wee hours of the morning and paint himself  and his cot in poo!! Argh!! this is the second time now!! So Brent slipped on his pink rubber gloves, held his breath, got out the pino clean and has been a busy man this morning.

I was just thinking today that it would be awesome if there were another 2 "top friend" slots as there seems to be room there for another 2 *hint* *nudge* Don't get me wrong I'm not thinking of it as a competition or anything silly like that but I was thinkin that I have gotten to know 2 more girls really well who are awesome and when I saw the room up there it got me thinking LOL

I've had ENOUGH!! Only a couple of friends of mine would know that my relationship has been on the rocks for quite a while now but I've been too proud to talk about it. I've been trying to hide it and pretending that everything is okay and I'm tired of pretending; everything is NOT okay!

I fell in love with an ambitious army man who was extremely active and motivated and had goals, aspirations and dreams!! Someone who used to tell me he loved me every day, helped around the house without asking and bought flowers just because. Now I'm living with someone who doesn't give a shit about anything and sits on the couch every single day playing games on that stupid gaming console!!!!! I'm tired of cleaning up after his lazy ass and trying to make things work! I can't even sleep in the same room as him anymore! Spare rooms are supposed to be for house guests not to get away from frustrating fiance's!

He has become so lazy, unmotivated and depressing that I feel like jumping off a bloody cliff whenever we try to have a conversation.

He just doesn't care anymore he throws his shit on the floor, puts on the tv or gaming console and neglects our son, whenever I suggest we go to the beach or go to the park so Rai can have some fun he whinges and complains and all he wants to do is sit on his ass and do nothing.

Sorry but I did not accept his marriage proposal to spend the rest of my life with someone who has no dreams!!!!!! All he is doing is holding me back in life at the moment. I can't stand to be around him anymore. He is draining my patience and every ounce of positive energy I have left to give.

I'm tired of talking and trying to make things work. A brick wall gives me more emotion and response. Once I start work in day care, I'm moving out.

I thought this man was my soul mate. And now we aren't even best friends anymore. He has become everything I hate in life.

I highly doubt he'll read this. He's not interested in anything going on in my life at the moment. He's just swimming in his own pool of misery.

I'm off to go for a very long walk, at least one of us has found the strength to get off their big fat butts and do something about it!

I haven't really been doing much so I haven't really had anything to blog about so this will be a bit of a ramble as a personal blog is way past overdue.

Raiden got his needles today. They should have been done 3 weeks ago but there was a lot of stuff around with Brent's work as well as finding a suitable time with the nurse/doctor to get them done.

Our closest married friends Kel & Paul are moving to upper QLD somewhere, her husband got accepted for an apprenticeship in the mines. YAY for them as he could be earning up to 100k a year but they're going to have a lot of trouble moving all of the animals up to the new house. They have about 12 tanks of lizards, 2 cats, 2 dogs and a cockatoo. So I guess we won't be able to see them as often as we used to. We normally see them every Friday or Saturday night to hang out, even if it's just to watch a movie at home together.

The mum I met at Minky's wedding a few weeks back sent me a text message this morning so I finally have her number. I'm about to add her to facebook in a minute and maybe even invite her to minti, her name is Jess. She lives about 20 minutes away from me so we should easily be able to hang out often.

I'm left feeling really confused about when I start work. A few weeks ago she was really fast forwarding things and seemed really keen for me to start ASAP. She hasn't mentioned anything since so I'm going to see her tomorrow and try and get a time frame as I was under the assumption I was ready to start as of this week. She already has me on the pay roll and everything...

I was offered payment for a couple of my readings. I was really proud of my work as I managed to blow the two girls away with the information I had given them. I don't want to enclose any details about it as it may be personal but Lui was one of the girls if you want to know what was said, you'll have to ask her. She is going to help me start a big facebook group to attract more like-minded people to do readings for. She is the sweetest woman ever when you get to know her!! I wanted to do the reading for free but she wouldn't let me because she said it would de-value my talent.

Brent is whizzing through his Diploma of Justice. I took Rai over to see his grandfather for the day and he had finished every, single assignment for 3 subjects as well as read 3 text books. He is so freakin intelligent!!!!!!!!!! And he has been approved for a whole heap of prior learning so he can apply for training with the police force very soon! I am so proud of him! I never wanted him to give up his other jobs to work behind a desk. I am so glad that he is out there chasing his passion again.