Breathe Gently

Back to School

2012-01-29T12:25:00.000+11:00

Somehow the holidays are over, already.

It feels as though I literally JUST packed up my classroom ready for the Christmas holiday break. Suddenly, it's back to work tomorrow - ready for a whole new class, a whole new year, a whole new set of challenges.

This year, my class is going from 23 students to 29. That may not sound like much, but it's a huge increase when you're talking about the ability to work with each child 1:1. I'm kind of bummed about it, but it's out of my hands. All we can do is cross our fingers and hope for some new enrolments that will bring our numbers back up to where they need to be. It bugs me though, seeing as the government is constantly pushing for us to have smaller class sizes - yet they're being difficult and refusing to pay the school the funding to employ another teacher. Politics + education = disaster.

It's back to planning and programming. It's back to early mornings and late nights. It's back to new parents, new kiddies, new responsibilities. Here's hoping 2012 is a great year!

Our Home - Downstairs

2012-01-21T20:03:00.000+11:00

I've come to the conclusion that it's REALLY hard to take decent photographs of our home. One of the perks of our home design was that it came with dozens of large windows, perfect for natural light - not so much for quick snapshots taken on my phone!

Now... how about a virtual tour?

We'll start with downstairs, since that was all I got around to cleaning today.

As you walk in the front door, the formal living room is off to your right hand side. It's mostly empty for now, save a few moving boxes. There are two square windows in the room, as well as the regular windows, and we'll eventually be placing a lounge underneath them. It's on order, and due to arrive in March. Can't wait!

In the meantime, we have a gorgeous glass and timber dining table set up. I'm loving the mirror that we found, too.

We haven't hung much up on the walls yet; we have loads of wedding photos and canvases ready to go, though. Thing is, we've lived in apartments for so long, I'm terrified of hanging things up and ruining our walls! The mirrors were the first thing we tackled, and it took ages. Now, back to our tour...

As you walk through the hallway, the internal garage entrance door is off to the left, while the laundry, linen cupboard and downstairs bathroom is off to the right. I love how our colour scheme in the powder room turned out - which is good, since we opted to do all of the bathrooms in a similar pattern.

And then, my favourite room - the one you saw a sneak peek of a few days ago. It's our open plan kitchen, lounge & dining room. First up, the kitchen. I love how open it is, with lots of cupboards and lots of space.

The door you see there is to the pantry. It's not a full walk-in, but more of a 'lean-in', with a nice corner side shelf for extra storage. If you stand directly in front of the island bench in the kitchen, you look out over the lounge area. You can chat to people sitting on the lounge in front of you, or watch television while you're cooking. Yes, please!

See what I mean about all the light? Oh hey, I just realised Oscar was lounging around in those pictures, too. That's his spot, right there. The lounges are actually a deep chocolate brown {almost black} and the rug is a sandy beige colour. It really pops against the timber floorboards! Off to the left of the lounges is our biggest splurge.

And last but not least, the dining part of the room. The furniture here is matching timber too, and we've kept it fairly simply decorated to start with. There's so much potential to add things and change things around, but that'll happen in time. This is another mirror that I'm in love with {that frame!} - Jase bought it for me just before Christmas, when I fell in love with it in a furniture store. I'm really happy with how it turned out: the size is perfect!

And there you have it; the downstairs of our home, in a nutshell. I'm all unpacked down here; upstairs is a different story! I thought I was done - but turns out I have more work to do. The low cabinet that the television is resting on had a big dent in the side upon installation, so it's being replaced this week. I'll be busy unpacking and repacking those cabinets again soon. :)

So... got any decorating tips for me?

Who Knew?

2012-01-20T09:56:00.000+11:00

... that two fur-babies could bring us so much joy?

... that I'd become a CAT lady - me, who only ever had dogs growing up?

... that Oscar would be such a good big brother?

... that these two would so quickly take over their new house?

These two cats: love them.

Evie & Oscar - January 2012

We're In!

2012-01-15T21:33:00.000+11:00

Why, hello there... from our new house!

We moved in on Thursday - and it's starting to feel a little more like home and a little less like 'the new house'.

There's still loads to do. Blinds are being installed this week, the cable television is being put in, and if we're lucky and the weather is good, the driveway should be laid on Thursday. And let's not even talk about the unpacking, or the cleaning, or the organising. I'm slightly {completely?} obsessive-compulsive about how I want things to be, so it's probably taking me a little longer than it would a regular person... but I hope it'll be worth it in the end.

Oscar and Evie are loving the new place just as much as Jase and I do. They've gotten really comfortable, really quickly - and they've already scoped out their new favourite places. Oscar is up and down the stairs constantly, which we're hoping will help him loose his gigantic pooch belly. Evie is getting bigger every day, and is such a snuggler. The last few nights have seen all four of us relaxing in our new living room - Oscar and Jase on one sofa, Evie and I on the other. It's lovely.

I don't have too many pictures just yet, but I promise once the house doesn't resemble a pig-sty, I'll get a whole batch up here for you. In the meantime - how about a sneak peak? It's not the greatest one, with all the sun glare and what-not, but it's cozy all the same.

M-6 days

2012-01-06T21:37:00.000+11:00

This time next week, we'll be in our new house.

Say... what?

I am counting down the days until Thursday. I'm so tired of running back and forth between our apartment and the house, but that's going to be my life for the next 6 days while Jase is working. We have appointments and deliveries and tradesmen coming in to the house daily, so I need to be there to let them in and to be there if they need me.

We thought we'd get lucky and not have to worry about a real estate inspection before we move out, but we spoke too soon - there's an open home on the apartment tomorrow. So, instead of just relaxing and packing at our leisure, I've spent today cleaning like a fiend and removing every trace of cat fur in the place. (Yes, our two kitties are living here illegally. But only for SIX MORE DAYS.)

The flooring is looking really good - timber downstairs, on the staircase & in the upstairs living room. The carpet is already completed in the four bedrooms and looks great too.

I'm so, so relieved that this is going to be our final big move for a long while. I've packed and unpacked and moved about way too much for my liking in the last three years! :) I don't have a lot of pictures uploaded at the moment, but I promise I'll take more once the new furniture and appliances are in later this week. For now, here's a sneak peek of the floorboards.

Hello, Goodbye

2012-01-01T10:39:00.000+11:00

Goodbye to 2011, which:

... was one pretty busy year!
... will stay in my heart always as the year I married my soul-mate. I'm so happy!
... saw us begin building our brand new home. Stressful, but exhilarating at the same time.
... somehow had me fall into a teaching position where I've never felt quite so at home. So thrilled to be back there again this next year.
... let me get back into a 'bff' routine, seeing my favourite person on a weekly basis. Huzzah!
... saw us adopt Evie and add her to our family of four. Oscar continues to be such a sweet boy.
... brought about some fertility struggles for J & I and just a little sadness in that respect.

But now, it's a brand new year. Hello to 2012, which:

... is going to be the year of the house. I can't wait to get moved in {12 days!} and start making it our own - our house. I can't believe we're almost there
... is going to be about perseverance. I need to keep on working towards the things that I want, without letting myself get dejected and throw in the towel
... is all about baby steps. I'm keeping it simple: eat well, move more
... is going to see us get more aggressive on the baby front. We've tried things out for this past year, the unmonitored cycles aren't resulting in ovulation & I am going to be on the look-out for a new RE in the coming months
... is going to be about saving vs. spending money. Unless, of course, it's house related - in which it doesn't count
... is going to be a cracker of a year. I can feel it in my bones!

2011: The Year That Was

2011-12-28T17:32:00.000+11:00

Another year, another blog, another way of seeing just how crazy life was.

To follow tradition, it's time to get busy re-capping, just like in years gone by: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 & 2010.

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before? Got married. Travelled to Vanuatu. Worked in a brand new school. Built a house. Took out my first mortgage. Began fertility treatments. Adopted a second (!) cat.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I made no resolutions last year. I think for 2012, I'd like to focus on getting healthier - physically and emotionally. This year has drained me & I really haven't been looking after myself as well as I should have.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? An old friend gave birth to twin girls, but that's that. It feels like everyone around me managed to get pregnant this year... except me.

4. Did anyone close to you die? No.

5. What countries did you visit? Just Vanuatu, for our honeymoon.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011? Successful ovulation, that would turn into a successful pregnancy, that would turn into a successful baby. Also, a little less stress.

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? June 11, our wedding day. December 21, the day we received the keys to our new home. December 22, when we brought Evie home with us.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I taught some really challenging children this year, and I came out the other side alive. This is huge for me, since I'd been away from teaching for a few years prior to this, and I wasn't sure how I'd cope being back in the classroom.

9. What was your biggest failure? Weight. It's on, and it's worse, and it's becoming even more difficult to get off. I hate this.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I had an ER visit in April thanks to a bout of gastroenteritis and colitis, and just the usual stack of colds.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Adopting Evie was such a highlight of this year. She chose me, she was the only kitten at the RSCPA who wasn't meowing, or climbing the cages, or shrieking like a banshee, and she just loved all over me through her cage. Seeing her and Oscar together melts my heart.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration? Jason. Again. I was in charge of looking after the wedding; he's been in charge of looking after the house build. He's done such a great job, putting up with me and my impatience, dealing with some tough situations, and keeping calm throughout this whole year. We're a good team, but man, he takes the cake. And also, Kirby. Again. Because being home this year and having weekly {mostly!} best friend visits has been something I've missed so much.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? Certain parents at school.

14. Where did most of your money go? Wedding & House - we picked 2011 to cross two majorly expensive things off our life-list. I wouldn't have it any other way, though.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Finally getting married! Our wedding was all sorts of fabulous, even with the dodgy weather. We're also thiiiiiiiiiiiiiis close to getting into our new home - but that might go on next year's list!

16. What song will always remind you of 2011? Party Rock Anthem. Everyday we're shuffling.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

(a) Happier or Sadder? Happier in some ways. Sadder in others. But mostly pretty blessed.

(b) Thinner or Fatter? Fatter. I hope to remedy this next year.

(c) Richer or Poorer? Poorer. But happier.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Worked out.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? I wish I'd spent less money on ovulation kits and monitors. They don't work, and I would've saved myself the money and the agony.

20. How did you spend Christmas in 2011? Christmas Eve was at my family's place, Christmas Day at J's family's place. We then came home and spent Christmas night at home with the kitties.

21. Did you fall in love in 2011? I stayed in love -- with my husband!

22. How many one-night stands? Just a few. ;)

23. What was your favorite TV program? Ringer. American Horror Story. Once Upon a Time. Grimm. Sister Wives. Big Love. Grey's Anatomy.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I don't hate anyone. Disappointed in a few people, but I don't hate.

25. What was the best book you read? The Hunger Games trilogy.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery? This year I sort of stayed with the classics. I can't think of a single new album that I fell in love with this year, off the top of my head.

27. What did you want and get? I wanted a kitten. We got Evie. Love!

28. What did you want and not get? Pregnant.

29. What was your favorite film of this year? Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 27, and enjoyed it as a newlywed. Jase bought me a GPS for my car.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Ovulating. And also, managing to get pregnant.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011? Same as always: jeans, skirts, flats.

33. What kept you sane? Jason, Kirby, the Weddingbee boards.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Didn't really fancy anyone.

35. What political issue stirred you the most? Australia still hasn't legalised same-sex marriage.

36. Who did you miss? I didn't miss too many folks this year. I have my husband, my family, my bestie & a beautiful little group of friends from the interwebs to keep me smiling.

37. Who was the best new person you met? The staff at my school - they are absolutely lovely, a little group in particular, and it makes going to work every day a real pleasure. I also have a great little group of lady-friends on the WB boards that are absolutely gorgeous.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011. Patience is a virtue... that I'm still working on.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. “It's you and me and all of the people with nothing to do, nothing to prove & it's you and me and all of the people, and I don't know why I can't keep my eyes off of you."

40. What are your resolutions for 2012? Look after myself, look after my family, and do everything I can to be a mum.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T00:41:00.000+11:00

Evie

2011-12-22T19:53:00.002+11:00

You guys, I am in love.

This is Evie. We adopted her from the RSCPA today and she is, by far, the best Christmas present ever. Oscar is coping well with his baby sister, and they've been doing okay so far. They'll be BFFs soon. I know it.

Oh....

And then there's the fact that WE OWN OUR HOUSE NOW.

Yes! Keys were handed over yesterday. We are looking at moving January 12th. Nearly everything is done perfectly, with the exception of the driveway, which {thanks to rain} will have to wait until next year.

2012 is going to be wonderful!

The Gift

2011-12-16T17:04:00.000+11:00

School's out! School's out!

This time last year, I was a little worried about what work I'd find myself in for 2011. I prepared myself for the uncertainty of casual supply teaching, and was more than a little unhappy with doing it - especially after having a break from teaching while we lived overseas.

I came. I casual taught. I cried. And then, the universe threw me a bone.

I started off my year at this new little school, with a beautiful class of kiddies. I didn't know how long I'd be there at first, but I got lucky & with the help of an amazing principal who fought to keep me there, I ended up with a year long job. I'm so lucky to be heading back there next year.

Somehow, the fates wanted me to get back into teaching. I was out of sorts, out of my comfort zone, and I am now so happy to be a staff member of such a wonderful place of work. Yes, teaching sucks sometimes - the parental drama, the lousy pay, the overwhelming demand for paperwork, the programs and guidelines that change every ten seconds... but I'm officially happy to declare myself a teacher again.

As I said goodbye to my children today, the kind words they (& their parents) gave to me really hit close to home. They thanked me for looking after their children. They told me how much their children enjoyed our classroom. They commented on how glad they were that I would be staying on next year.

The parent of the very-new child on the Autistic Spectrum (who only arrived at the school two weeks ago) gave me a hug, and told me that he was so happy that I welcomed them into the school - and that our Christmas concert/singing item that happened last night was the FIRST TIME his son had ever gotten up on stage to perform in an item.

I also received a note and a gift from another parent. This particular boy has been quite a handful all year, being lively, cheeky and witty all at the same time. He and his family are also Jehovah's Witnesses. The gift was a fancy pen that his parents had engraved with my name. The note reads:

To Mrs. D,
Firstly, I would like to thank you for all the hard work, time and effort you have put into our son's education and growth as a 'little' person.
S has absolutely loved having 'Miss' as his teacher. We have certainly seen that in his work and in his day to day conversation. Please accept this small gift as our way of saying thank you.
Also, as a family, we would especially like to thank you for the respect you have shown in regards to our beliefs and way of life. This has had such a positive effect on our son. We are truly grateful.
May 2012 prove to be just as challenging (in a good way!) and exciting for you and your new students.

That, my friends, is what teaching is all about.

On Giving Up Control

2011-12-15T21:36:00.000+11:00

Ugh, guys, I am so sorry I've dropped off the face of the earth lately.

Life is busy. Good, stressful, nerve-wracking, busy. We have so much going on and time is flying and my head/heart are being torn in a million different directions... but it's all okay. I'm trying to take one day at a time. It's so hard when things are out of your control. I don't cope well with not being responsible for making things happen when I want them to. Waiting around has never been a strong point of mine.

I feel like I've been in limbo on three main things: house, work, baby.

All of them will hopefully sort themselves out in time, but that's the thing: I'm sick of the whole 'time' thing. I feel like I've been waiting around for what feels like eons, for each of these things to be resolved - only time keeps on ticking, and we keep on waiting. The waiting, the uncertainty.. it's doing my head in.

On the house front, we're putting all of our good karma into a box and sending it off, hoping against hope that things work out. We are so close, literally, THIS CLOSE, to having the house finished and ready to hand over; in fact, we were promised that it'd all be sorted out by Christmas. Well, that was before the weather gods decided that they'd like this summer to be the coldest and wettest December we've had in FIFTY YEARS in Sydney. Seriously. It has rained constantly this month - meaning our home hasn't been finished. Our final inspection was supposed to have been yesterday, but because of the weather delaying the exterior painting, it's been pushed back to next Wednesday. As in, three days before Christmas. And guess what the forecast is meant to be early next week? PLEASE DON'T RUIN THIS FOR US, WEATHER GODS. If you're so inclined, we would love for a little positive juju and crossed fingers. If the house isn't completed and handed over prior to Christmas, we will end up waiting until the END of January before we can hand over.

On the work front, I'm lucky enough to be going back on class next year. Unfortunately, our school numbers have dropped, which means that we lose a class AND the rest of our classes will be really large. Instead of 24 year 1/2 kiddies, I'll be on 29 next year. That extra group of children will make a massive difference to the way the classroom will run, so I'm mentally preparing myself for it now. I also really feel for a colleague of mine who desperately needs a full-time job, but is waiting around to find out if our numbers will rise - I've been in that limbo myself, so I'm praying it works out for her.

On the baby front, sweet nothing is happening. This one is the hardest of all. It is so, so difficult to watch people around you fall pregnant with what seems like very little effort at all, and to be constantly wishing for what other people have. TTC is all about emotions. You start off with excitement, then uncertainty, then nerves, then anger, then frustration, then hopefulness, then boredom, and so on and so forth. Last cycle, I was back on the 'excitement' train, hopeful that Clomid would do the trick. That didn't work, so this time around I'm sort of numb. If it didn't work last time, why should this time be any different? If the Clomid does do it's job, I'm supposed to ovulate around Christmas time - and I can't think of a more perfect gift than that.

I know that none of these things are ones I can change, but I will keep on keeping on.

Numbers. And Rain. Stupid Rain. GO AWAY RAIN.

2011-12-07T19:27:00.000+11:00

2 days left of stupid progesterone tablets.

I am sick of feeling sick on them. Let's hope that they do the trick and induce my lady-biznas as soon as possible. I'm done with this cycle, and I want to get back on the Clomid bandwagon to at least attempt to ovulate before 2011 is out.

7 days until our Practical Completion Inspection at the house.

That all sounds fine and dandy, except for the fact that we're waiting on a) the outside of the house to be painted and rendered, and b) a driveway to be poured and stencilled.... AND IT'S PISSING WITH RAIN. It's the coldest and wettest December we've had in a long time, and we're basically going to be screwed because of it. Please do your best sunny-weather-heat-heat-heat dance for us? I promise I won't even complain about it getting hot again. I'm so, so worried that things won't be done in time - and the early hand-over we were promised will end up being pushed back again. :(

9 days until the kids are done with school this year.

They are off like rockets right now, thanks to the crappy weather & the fact that the year is almost over. I'm planning on doing a whole stack of Christmas crafting activities over the next week just to keep them busy. Also, to keep me sane.

13 days until the teachers are done with school this year.

The kids break up next Friday, but for some reason, the teachers have to come back on the week of Christmas for two staff development days. Seriously? Who's the brainiac that thought that up? Brain-dead teachers who are exhausted after teaching for the year, and you're expecting us to be functioning for professional development days FOUR DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS? Right.

15 days until we can potentially bring home my early Christmas present.

If you follow me on twitter, you might already know what my gift is going to be? Now to just hope and pray that everything goes okay for the house stuff, so this date doesn't have to change.

18 days until Christmas is here.

It seems both so far away and so close at the same time. Get here already...

Holy Building Progress, Batman.

2011-12-01T21:21:00.000+11:00

Wowsers. Have I got some news for you, or what?

J had a meeting today {while I was slaving away at work} at our block of land, where he & our building supervisor were inspecting everything ready for pre-painting. And, well, we got some awesome news. They are going to speed through and get the house ready for a Practical Completion Inspection {or PCI} before Christmas.

In fact, it's happening soon. TWO WEEKS TIME soon.

Wa-hey!

The PCI is basically the final check-list/inspection that happens before we are given the keys and the house becomes 'ours'. It will be us, the builder, and likely a private inspector that we're going to hire to go over everything that should be done and/or needs correcting. It's pre-appliances, as most builders don't install electrical appliances until hand-over is complete, to ensure goods aren't stolen from new homes before they're inhabited.

Can I get an 'OMGWTFHUZZAHSQUEE!?!'

Of course, our house won't be a picture perfect brand new display home when we're given the keys pre-Christmas. We're doing our own flooring independently, so at hand-over, our home is still going to look unfinished in some aspects. We have our flooring happening in early January. We have appliances being installed in early January. And we'll be finalising the driveway and some electrical additions ourselves, before we actually move in. That will take some time.

BUT.

It means that instead of the home being finished after the summer holiday break and then moving in, arranging flooring, getting fencing, etc etc, we'll be getting a head start. And it may mean that we move in sometime in mid-January. MOVE IN. Whoa nelly!

Most importantly, it means that we can use that summer break to actually get things sorted. I want to start getting our backyard fenced off and turfed, so that we can get it puppy-ready. I want to make sure any building problems that need to be sorted {that we'll find out about at the PCI} are sorted while we're there. And... we can potentially start furniture shopping & arrange deliveries for things while I'm on a break from school.

It's all happening!

I'll keep you posted over the next two weeks but wow. I am so! flipping! happy! right now. How's about a picture of our almost completed spa bath to tide you over?

What are you Watching?

2011-11-27T21:30:00.000+11:00

I've become more than a little addicted to teevee lately; it's perfect for background distractions while I'm doing boring things like report writing and what-not. Here's what I've been busy watching:

Ringer - I love me some Sarah Michelle Gellar, even if the twin scenes are particularly bad. I love looking at her outfits each week & I love how the story is going. I'm hooked!
American Horror Story - This is a guilty pleasure of mine. I watched the first episode and freaked out, and I've been coming back for more since then. Also, I sort of want Connie Britton's hair.
Glee - I have to admit, my patience for this show is on its last legs. I'm still watching.. but barely.
Grey's Anatomy - I'll always have a soft spot for Grey's. It's one of my favourite series, though it's not as great as it used to be. I'm hanging out for the last part of this season, hate waiting around to find out what happens next.
Sister Wives - Is anyone else as fascinated by this show as I am? I started watching during our travels this time last year and I've been catching up online ever since. The final episode {with the birth of baby Solomon} is happening soon, and I can't wait. They're such an interesting family!
Grimm - A fairly recent addition to my teevee list, but I like what they've done with it. The gory bits mixed with the cheesy lines are fabulous. I like it a lot.
Once Upon A Time - I'll admit, I watched all four episodes today, I enjoyed it that much. I wonder how long they can drag this storyline out for? Thoroughly enjoying it. :)

What are you watching lately - have you got any other suggestions for me?

Disappointed Turtle

2011-11-24T10:09:00.000+11:00

Firstly, thank you to all of you superlovelyfabulous people who left me some love on my previous post - I've never felt so emotionally drained as I did this past week, and I think I'll carry that doubt inside for the most part. I'm learning to let go of the things I cannot change. Seeing Mrs. X continue to avoid me by physically hiding after school, well, that just cements my gut instinct that she's feeling guilty about what happened. And so she should.

Anywho, on to bigger and brighter things. The house! It continues to plug along. Next week will see the tilers get busy fixing up the wet area {bathrooms/laundry} floor and wall tiles, as well as the carpenters visiting to install the cabinets and skirting boards. We're due for a visit to inspect the house pre-painting, so I don't have anything fun to show you right now - especially since we now have garage doors and a front door. The house is in lock up mode!

{Can I get a HUZZAH?}

They've been going at a cracking pace lately, which is nice. Unfortunately the external walls of the house still need to be rendered & painted, but with the miserable wet weather that's set in lately, I doubt it'll happen before Christmas, when everything shuts up shop.

Since there isn't much we can really do in the home department right now, I'm focusing on the more important things; namely, hunting down breeders for our first dog. I am so frigging excited to become a puppy mum once again, and as soon as we move into the house & get the backyard all turfed up, IT'S HAPPENING. We were debating between one pup or two, but since Jase hasn't owned a dog before, I figured we'd start small and see how he copes. I'm planning on researching my brains out since we have the time to do it right; if anyone in Sydney can recommend any sensible breeders for Golden Retrievers, let me know.

Say it with me now: PUPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPY.

And that is about that. I'll spare you the horrific stomach flu I'm suffering from today {my poor Twittererererererers have already seen enough whingy tweets to last a lifetime} & focus on the good. So, good it is.

Teacher vs. Parent

2011-11-18T23:21:00.000+11:00

This has been the week from hell - thank goodness it is over. This is how I feel today: half tired/half stabby. Meow.

{Warning: this post is turning into a fairly epic story. Read on, friends.}

For the first time in my teaching career, I had a parent make a complaint about me. I found out in the most round-about of ways, and it's really thrown me for a loop. I pride myself in being careful and empathetic with my parents, so this has been a real blow to my teaching pride. And add in the fact that both {yes, both} of the alleged 'incidents' are a complete lie/misunderstanding, and, well, it just stinks. And I'm exhausted.

Let me share a little background information with you first.

Student X comes from a blended religious family. Mrs X {mum} is Christian. Mr X {dad} is Muslim. Student X is on the Autistic spectrum and has been diagnosed since she was three, and we are currently awaiting a report to see if she also has Aspergers. She is a lovely little girl and has no behaviour problems at school; her Autism presents itself in other ways. There has been talk all year of moving Student X to an Islamic school nearby, as Mrs X admitted that her husband would prefer her to have an independent religious school upbringing. I've worked with Mrs X all year, as Student X is quite a high maintenance child, and I have always done my best to make the parent/teacher relationship as amicable as possible. Fast forward to this last term, and we've still not been told what's going on - so our principal got in touch with Mrs X to touch base and to have a chat about the following year.

That being said, it's onto the good stuff.

Complaint 1: During this phone call, Mrs X informed the principal that I had made an inappropriate comment to Student X about her clothing, that I was disrespectful to their religious beliefs, and that they were pulling her from the school as a result. Say..... what? The words spoken by Mrs X were as follows, in summary: 'Mrs D told Student X that she was not allowed to wear pants to school anymore.' Er.

The reality? We had 36+ degree weather out in the suburbs last week, and it was a stifling heat. I had kidlets in my classroom who were playing outside in the heat with their jumpers on. Of course, they'd come in after playtime, sweating, red faced, feeling ill, and looking like they were about to pass out. As part of our sun safety program, we talked as a class about being smart in the sun - and I informed the class that it would be a good idea to take all their jumpers off before heading out to the lunch and recess, making sure their hats were on as well.

Somewhere in this scenario, Student X has either been a) completely confused and not entirely listening {which is common with students on the spectrum} or has b) taken the jumpers/hats information and misinterpreted it as her long pants needing to be removed as well. Student X has gone home to her parents, relayed the incorrect information, and BAM. Complaint made.

I was gutted after hearing this remark. As a teacher in modern times, you have to be so careful when dealing with different religious beliefs and practices and all that jazz - and I am really sensitive about being on top of this. For Mrs X to go over my head about this issue, without even checking with me first to clarify what had happened, well, I just felt sick. Did Mrs X honestly think I would say something so blatantly disrespectful? This is me, the teacher who just last week approached her after school to seek her approval/permission for Student X to participate in the end of year Christmas concert. Why would I go to the efforts of asking her advice/seeking her opinion as to not offend any religious beliefs, if I were going to slander her religion the very next day? It just makes no sense. I felt like I'd been slapped in the face. I went about my week, and that was that. Until yesterday.

Complaint 2: My class was having their talking & listening news time in the morning, when the principal popped by to have a chat with me. He'd had a second complaint from Mrs X about something I had allegedly told Student X, and wanted to clarify with me what had happened. To summarise her next complaint: 'Mrs D told Student X that all pizzas were halal and that she could eat whatever she wanted.' Again, eh?

To cut another long back story short, last week our class won a school competition run by our parents/community committee. The prize was a class pizza party. I had nothing to do with this: I didn't order the pizza, I didn't arrange the notes being sent home - it was all organised by this committee. The one thing I did do was to make sure I requested an allergy/ingredient listing so that the kids in my class could observe what was in each pizza and make the choice as to whether they could eat it or not.

When the pizzas and allergy sheet were delivered, I called my students up with food allergies, religious beliefs or food aversions first, so that they could have their choice and/or head outside with their regular lunch. If they weren't sure about an ingredient, I asked them if they would be allowed to eat this sort of meal at home. Several kids opted out {including one another Islamic student}. Student X chose a pizza slice with no qualms or questions, and that was that. At no time was anything mentioned about our pizzas being halal, as this information wasn't on the allergy sheet I was given. In fact, I made absolutely no mention of that subject at all.

So, two complaints. Two allegations. Two skewed truths and/or blatant lies. Way to kick a tired teacher in the teeth.

Now thankfully, the rest of the staff have filled me in on previous years dealing with Student X and Mrs X. Her teacher last year was a teaching Assistant Principal, and is one of the best leaders I've worked with. By the end of the year, she had tallied up a total of four complaints made against her, on a variety of topics.

The good news is that the rest of the staff, including my principal, are on my side. The bad news is that this ever should have happened in the first place.

I've spent this week flipping from emotion to emotion - anger {as if I would ever say any of these things, bitch please, who do you think you are?}, frustration {why didn't Mrs X just come and speak with me first, so that I could put her at ease}, panic {what if these allegations put my job at risk for next year?}, terror {what if my principal suddenly thinks I'm this awful person?}, empathy {dealing with ASD kids is hard work, poor stressed out Mrs X} and tears {I cannot believe that someone could think I'm capable of being anti-religion} or {I've put so much work into Student X this year and this feels like a slap in the face} or just {I'm suddenly not wanting to be in the same classroom as Student X any longer for fear of bawling}.

I know it will all be ok. The school year will end, Student X will move on to her new independent school, life carries on. But after working my arse off all year and having such a positive, wonderful experience back on-class, this week feels like it was all for naught. For the teachers out there: you are wonderful. Your job entails so much more than just the '9-3' babysitting of kids - you are a carer, a social worker, a lunch lady, a play supervisor, an exam marker, a parent liason, and a rock star. I salute you.

Now, someone please pass the vodka & the shot glasses.

Tired.

2011-11-13T11:00:00.003+11:00

It's that time again.

Time to write my end of year report cards.

They are in full force.

I am losing my mind.

That is all.

Life Snippets

2011-11-05T19:13:00.000+11:00

There are six weeks of school to go. THIS EQUATES TO 30 WORKING DAYS. Yes, I am counting them down. I love, love, love my school (& am keeping everything crossed that I can stay on for another year, if numbers permit) but I am completely exhausted right now. Over the next fortnight, I need to complete all of my end of year reports, which I cannot even begin to comprehend. Ah, how quickly I forgot what it was like to be on class for a year at a time.

Clomid has begun. And now begins now the lovely wait of whether or not it's actually going to do its job. I'm not expecting great things to happen in the first month, but I'm hopeful all the same. That's ok... right?

The house stuff has sorted itself out, thanks to some sweet talking and a case of beer - seriously. The electrical rough-ins passed inspection, the walls have been insulated, and the gyprocking has begun. They were even working on it today - on a Saturday! Impressive, eh? Fingers crossed that it will go well as it continues next week.

A Rant About Building

2011-11-01T12:54:00.000+11:00

/begin rant

I hate this building process. There, I've said it.

I don't hate that we're getting to build - that part I am thankful for, every single day. The home we're {eventually} going to have at the end of it all, is going to be amazing.

Here's what I'm hating right now:

The people we are dealing with at our chosen building company are utterly useless. We have this one 'consultant' who is our go-to person, who basically acts as a shuttle between us and between our site supervisor. We don't want to talk to an office lackey; we want to talk to our BUILDER.

Speaking of which, the site supervisor is rubbish. He doesn't return phone calls. He has never once given us an update on our build. He isn't visiting our block enough - which we have PROOF of, when we discovered a structural flaw in one of the walls ourselves and had to call him up on. What the heck is he doing?

Lying tradesman are assholes. You put your electrical holes in without drills, we've seen them, we've worked with what you did. And now, after it's all said and done, you're going to lie and say you DID use drills, and WE used hammers? I call bullshit.

I hate delays. I hate waiting around on perfectly good building days with beautiful weather - and I hate that they use the occasional rainy day as an excuse to be slow.

I hate our future neighbours on one side, who are constantly causing problems.

In summary, I'm grumpy. I want them to do as much work on the house as they can before they close up shop for five weeks over the Christmas/summer break, because I'm OVER living in this apartment AND I WANT IT DONE.

/end rant.

Have you ever built or renovated before? Have you got any tips/distractions for me?

October Photography Challenge - Day 30: Self-portrait

2011-10-31T17:37:00.000+11:00

Day 30: Self-portrait: I made it all the way through - we started with a self-portrait & ended with a self-portrait, how fitting. Unfortunately I was much more 'well' at the beginning of the month; I've come down with a rotten head cold and feel disgusting at the moment. But the important thing is... it's done!

I've learnt a lot this month. I took my camera off 'auto' mode more & enjoyed fiddling around with the settings. I thought outside the box, and took pictures of things I wouldn't normally take pictures of. And most importantly, I've blogged all the way through - it was a great way to get my mojo back. I'm certainly no pro photog, but I've had fun.

Unfortunately, you're stuck with my sick head for today's picture, but that's me right now: pj's, tissues & a sad face. Thanks for visiting this month & your lovely comments - it's been great sharing them with you this October!

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 29: Black and White

2011-10-29T18:51:00.000+11:00

Day 29: Black and White: Today I was on granny-duty; taking my nan out for the day to keep her company and show her our house-build that's in progress. While picking her up from her apartment, I decided that snapshots from some of her quaint collections would be perfect for the black and white, slightly vintage prompt.

I love all of her random bits & bobs. She has an entire wall dedicated to 'smily' things - that's my nan for you!

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 28: Flowers

2011-10-28T17:25:00.000+11:00

Day 28: Flowers: Since we're a flower-free household, I had to venture outdoors into our apartment's communal courtyard. It's early spring days yet & there are a lot of buds on the trees, but very few flowers blooming yet.

My favourites are these tiny white star flowers, though I'll admit I have no idea what they're called. Pretty, yes?

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 27: From a Distance

2011-10-27T18:20:00.000+11:00

Day 27: From a Distance: I took my camera into work with me today to capture my classroom... from a distance. I took one from my desk facing the kiddies work area, one of some wall artwork, and one from the back wall, showing the whiteboards and my work space. I'm so lucky: my classroom is a pretty good size for grade 1/2 students.

Considering we only moved into this classroom at the end of Term 2, I think that the kiddies & I have done a good job of decorating! We change our wall displays all the time, and I love showing off the awesome work they've done.

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 26: Close-Up

2011-10-26T20:32:00.000+11:00

Day 26: Close-Up: This has been a pretty busy week, so I was challenged to find something lying around the house {that I hadn't already photographed!} for today's close-up. I ended up using a vase of synthetic sunflowers that I keep in our bedroom - Oscar likes to chew on the greenery, so I have to lock them away. No plants in this household.

They're slightly blurred, but I'm learning to be okay with that - I've taken to playing with manual focus rather than always using the automatic option, so it's all good practice. It's not the best shot, but it's cheerful at least.

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 25: Something Pink

2011-10-25T22:13:00.000+11:00

Day 25: Something Pink: I've had this one ready for some time now, because I buggered up the orange & pink days at the beginning of the month. That works just fine for me, since tonight was busy spent watching reality television finales & trying to drive home in crazy rain amongst stupid, stupid drivers.
Anyway, let's move on to something pink - which just happens to be my go-to shade for my nails. I have s many varieties of baby pinks, sheer pinks, glittery pinks: you name it, I've got it, or I've worn it before. Ob-sessed.

Jase thinks my pink nail polish quirk is weird, more so because I don't actually own much pink. It's the right shade that I can wear to work without feeling too over the top, and it goes with everything. Natural nails, for the win.

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 24: Animal

2011-10-24T16:45:00.000+11:00

Day 24: Animal: You knew what I'd be shooting for today's prompt, right? Poor Oscar, with cameras shoved in his grill all the time; no wonder he always looks like a stunned mullet. He's much more mellow in real life.

I'd show you some of the out-takes in all of their blurry hilariousness, but you'd be here for ages. {There were loads.}

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 23: Sunflare

2011-10-23T17:14:00.000+11:00

Day 23: Sunflare: I worried I wouldn't be able to manage this today, as it was hot and glarey outside. As the day progressed, I kept popping out to our balcony to see what I could work with. Thankfully I have our pergola as a prop.

I'm quite pleased with this final shot, as I feel it really shows the sunflare well. That sun shape is almost perfect!

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 21 & 22: Faceless Portrait & Hands

2011-10-22T09:37:00.000+11:00

Oh, I have been a busy little bee lately. Work is insane {insane!}, my parents are moving house, I'm trying to keep my stuff together and not explode in frustration/nervous anticipation. It's not pretty.

Day 21: Faceless Self Portrait: Some days it is nice to not make yourself up at all. I'm pretty easygoing at the best of times, but the days where I'm home alone and can throw my hair back into a messy bun? They are the best.

Day 22: Hands: I've always wished for daintier hands. Back when I was a teenager, I would always have trouble finding rings to fit on my fingers - they're pretty large. This one time, I visited a jeweller to ask him about resizing a ring for me, and as he measured my finger he laughed, and said I had the biggest hands he'd ever seen on a woman. Um, scarred for life much? Thanks so very much for that, asshole.

I was nervous about my ring size pre-proposal, but thankfully my rings fit perfectly after an epic resizing debacle.

Over the years, I've come to love my 'man hands' - they're just a part of who I am, chunker knuckles & all.

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 20: Bokeh

2011-10-20T14:11:00.001+11:00

Day 20: Bokeh: Oh, did I struggle with this one. I spent ages googling, watching YouTube videos, and playing with my settings {which I now know SO much more about, thanks to this challenge} and pleading for help via Twitter. This is where I throw a huge shoutout to Jenna and Bec for their help; ladies, you are wonderful.

Anyway, at Jenna's suggestion, I headed outdoors to find some leaves & make use of the sun behind them to attempt to create the Bokeh effect. I had a prop on hand {one of my wedding 'stache straws'} and spent a while snapping away. I ditched it for a few shots, too. I hoped I had managed one, came inside to look out of the glare... and I DID IT!

I put my DSLR (Nikon 3100 base model lens) on 'A' aperture mode, turned the aperture to the lowest I could get, which was f/4 & made my ISO 800. Then it was just a matter of playing with the manual focus!

Interested in seeing the 'stache attempt? It's not as clear as I would like, but you can definitely still see the blur.

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

Anonyblogger

2011-10-20T13:25:00.000+11:00

A friend of mine is borrowing my space for the day - please make her feel welcome & give her some love. -Aly
--
Dear Internet,

Three years ago this month I met a guy.

(You're cringing now, aren't you? I mean, isn't that how all sad stories start? Girl meets boy, girl falls in love with boy, girl ends up heartbroken and shattered at the end. I promise I'm working on making this a good ending, though.)

Anyway, three years ago, I met a guy. He had just started up at the school at which I'm a teacher, and our department chair introduced us during a fire drill one day. I didn't think much of the initial meeting -- though I do remember he had on a great tie -- until a few months later when he transferred to my department to fill a long-term substitute position.

We started chatting at lunch, bonding over a shared love for our city's sports teams and… well, I don't remember. But I do remember that we shared our first date in April at a sports bar downtown, laughing as he beat me in tabletop checkers again and again. We were almost inseparable from that point on, though our first kiss didn't take place until nearly three weeks later, both of us giddy on red wine and bad movies and infatuation.

There were good times. Lazy summer weekdays spent by the pool or beach. Apple picking and pumpkin carving and Halloween parties. Thanksgiving and snow days and our first Christmas together. I was so happy to have found someone that I ignored the warning signs at first. The rudeness to my friends. The disregard for my parents and family. The way he pouted when I made plans for a long weekend without him. I ignored the shame I felt when I saw how my friends felt about him, the way they reacted to his cold personality which was nothing like how he treated me in private. I ignored the way in which he said hateful things only to take them back after I'd dissolved into tears and apologies. I ignored the manipulation and the meanness and the spite. I ignored how anxious and terrible he made me feel.

After a year and a half I couldn't ignore it anymore. So I ended it. It hurt. It hurt so badly that, though I tried, we ended up giving it another shot only a few months later. We had a long talk about our expectations and our wants and how things were going to be different. Different, we said!

Things weren't different. They were worse. We lasted three more months. We had a holiday season from hell and didn't speak for two weeks. I walked away feeling sad and defeated, wondering how it was that anyone could ever possibly love me.

To make a long story a little shorter, we began messing around after I ended a brief rebound relationship. Without the pressures of family and friends and colleagues, we had a great time. It was like our first summer together: baseball games on the radio and bagel brunches on Sundays and holding hands in our sleep.

"This isn't a relationship," we'd say. "We can't work out, but we'll be with each other until we find someone we do work out with! When we meet other people this will be over and we'll be glad we had so much fun."

It stopped being fun a few weeks ago, when he argued with me over making dinner plans with a friend and not inviting him. The verbal abuse began again, always followed up by sweetness and charm. I began to feel the pattern repeating itself.

I started to wonder what else is out there. I thought about dating. About how I want nothing more than to start a life and family with someone. Someone who loves me. Someone who supports me. Someone who would never lecture me about the way I cook chicken or the naps I like to take on Thursday afternoons.

Someone who deserves me for the wonderful person I am. The wonderful person I will be.

I ended it tonight.

At first I thought it went well. I thought we'd both been honest and I was even a little sad to let the good part of him go.

We said goodbye, and then the text messages started.

"I'm glad I never used the ring I bought you. I was a week away from ruining my life and asking you to marry me two Christmases ago."
"I hope one date is worth it. I hope your panic over not being married is worth me."
"Don't ever talk to me or look at me again. I can't stand the thought of you."

And then the thing that felt like a punch to the gut--

"How lucky. All of those nice photos of you are saved to my phone. I hope no one finds them!"

Let's ignore for now that I was stupid enough to send racy photos to him in the first place. Let's instead focus on the good in this.

(There is good. I promise.)

He was trying to get a rise out of me by saying those things. He wanted me to lash out. He wanted to drag me back in to the mess of our dysfunction. I know this.

But the best part about those things up there? Those things that were said to me in a haze of anger and resentment? Are things that will never be said to me again. Because I know what I'm worth now. I know that I'm worth more than that. I deserve better. I am better.

And now I'm going to prove it to myself.

Wish me luck. I hope I don't need it.

October Photography Challenge - Day 19: Something Orange

2011-10-19T19:52:00.000+11:00

Day 19: Something Orange: Could this prompt be any more appropriate for me? I have just visited a RE {reproductive endocrinologist} for the first time & have been hooked up with a barrage of medications to try and tackle our fertility dramas... and look at the obscenely orange paper bag they came in from the chemist! Huzzah.

I'm looking forward to the next step of this journey: if you want to know more, check out my Operation: Baby blog.

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 18: Your Shoes

2011-10-18T21:37:00.000+11:00

Day 18: Your Shoes: Confession time - I used to have an obsession with buying shoes. I may not buy as many pairs as I used to, but I do still love to look. My staples tend to be comfy flats, low wedges 'aka teaching shoes', thongs (the shoe kind!) & comfy slouch boots - but I do own a handful of impossible-to-wear pretties too. I've noticed that my love of the colour grey {which stemmed from our wedding colours} has begun to take over in the shoe department...

So which one do I choose, when I love them all equally as much? It had to be these.. it's the bow detail - I can't resist!

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 16 & 17: Long Exposure & Tech

2011-10-17T19:32:00.000+11:00

You'll have to excuse me missing yesterday's post - we had a busy weekend helping my parents' move into their new home, so my days were spent moving boxes, gardening, and sanding down wood. I'm completely knackered now.

Day 16: Long Exposure: I was really nervous about this, as I'm only just venturing into the different manual modes my camera has to offer. I attempted night shots a few days ago to practice, and they turned out terribly - so I focused on a few different things on Saturday instead. First up was Bailey, our hyperactive pup, who is constantly running at a million miles an hour - but I couldn't get the blur. I then tried two other subjects; my brother, the drummer, and his new habit of toy helicopters. I think that they turned out okay in the end, though I'd still love to work on this one to get some cool night shots in the future. At least it's having a go at something new, right?

As much as I loved how the helicopters turned out, I think the drummer shots fit the 'long exposure' theme better, since it's definition is to 'sharply capture the stationary elements of images while blurring, smearing, or obscuring the moving elements.' His drumsticks are just a blur, while the drum kit & his upper body are as stationery as could be.

Day 17: Technology: This was an easy one - I have one piece of technology that comes with me wherever I go, my iPhone. It's not new, it's not shiny, it's not going to be upgraded anytime soon - and it's survived the dangerous perils of life in my handbag, as well as that one time last week when I spilled a bottle of nailpolish remover all over it.

Despite being worse for wear, it still functions & will hopefully last me through another year or so. Fingers crossed!

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 15: Silhouette

2011-10-15T11:18:00.000+11:00

Day 15: Silhouette: I took these shots by sitting below J while he was standing directly under the sun in the middle of the morning. The structure you can see behind him is the roof of our balcony - which isn't really a roof at all. It's timber slats - but they're not covered like an awning. Instead, they're just clear. All they really do is act as a perch for the birds to sit on and taunt Oscar-cat in the springtime. They do look nice though, I suppose.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, considering I've never actually taken a silhouette shot on purpose before.

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 14: Eyes

2011-10-14T17:30:00.000+11:00

Day 14: Eyes: I'm yet to master the art of taking pictures of moving animals. I was ready to give up on Oscar and go photograph myself instead, but I stuck with it. His eyes are seriously beautiful though, so it was worth the wait.

How much do I love his wee nose stripe? He's the sweetest thing, and so adorable. {Substitute child, oh yes he is.}

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 13: Yourself with 13 Things

2011-10-13T20:51:00.000+11:00

Day 13: Yourself with 13 Things: I got home late today after a hectic day of school, then home build stuff. The first thing I did when I came home was quite literally collapse on the floor and dump the entire contents of my handbag on the floor, ready for today's shot. {Only, this isn't the entirety of my bag - I lug loads more than this around with me on a daily basis, trust me.} Not pictured for some reason is my iPhone, which I completely ruined today when I spilled a bottle of nail polish remover on it. We're too broke to replace it, so it's a dodgy iPhone for me!

So what's actually pictured here? 1. iPod classic. 2. Peppermint tea. 3. Pink ribbon pin for charity. 4. Pen. 5. My sunglasses. 6. Carmex chapstick. 7. Lip gloss. 8. A box of nerds. 9. Point & shoot camera. 10. My work keychain. 11. Wallet. 12. Tiny notebook. 13. Book. Pretty much all of these things are ones I generally don't leave home without.

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

Letters To Nobody

2011-10-12T20:48:00.000+11:00

Dear You,

You never fail to amaze me - especially when you put up with my psycho mood swings & irrational stabby moods. I'm looking forward to enjoying the mostly freezer-burned anniversary cake with you later, even though it'll taste like crap - because that's just how we roll. You're the best husband I've ever had.

Love,

------

Dear You,

I'm happy that you have the perfect little life, but I also want to cram socks into your mouth every single time I hear you going on, and on, and on about it. Not everyone is as fortunate as you.

Wishing you'd get the hint,

------

Dear You,

I hardly know you, but I think you're unbelievably selfish. You've outwardly mentioned how much you don't want to be working, how you're not enjoying teaching, how you don't want to be at school: but then you're coming back to work 1 day next year just to 'hold your position'. Word is, you've requested your 1-day of work to be on a Friday, so you won't have to do any planning or reporting, leaving the entirety of the programming and assessing to whoever is "lucky" enough to be stuck job sharing with you next year. What a piece of work. It's people like you who spoil the permanent teaching system for the rest of us hopefuls out there. Also, that time you were a casual teacher on my class, you messed up my wall display and caused three parents to complain about you. So there.

Not-so-kind Regards from that temporary teacher who is still waiting around for a full-time job,

------

Dear You,

I feel awkward talking about wedding stuff with you sometimes. It's not because I'm not excited for you, because I am. I have a feeling you're not going to ask me to be in your wedding party, and that's ok, I don't expect you to - but it's still awkward. Hopefully we can work through this, since we still have a while to go.

Still love ya,

------

Dear You,

You're awesome. You really are. And I'm trying really hard not to take things personally because I'm sure you don't mean it... but lately I've been feeling a bit like a leper around you. The things that are getting me down the most right now are completely uninteresting to you, and I don't really know what to do about it. I understand that you might not care about the issue at hand, but I hope that you still care that it's ME going through these things. I just really need a shoulder right now, and I'm scared that I'll lose you somewhere along the way. And so you don't think it's always about me-me-me, just know I'm always here to chat when you need to talk about you - any time. Promise.

Sending warm fuzzies,

------

Dear You,

I love you, but you're making me crazy.

Best,

------

Dear You,

No, I'm not pregnant. No, I don't want to talk about it with you. No, I'm not sharing any details about my sex life with you. No, I don't want to hear about how you had all four of your children by the time you were 30. Yes, let's change the subject now before I cry.

Please stop talking to me about babies,

------

Dear You,

You are one of the hardest workers I know, and I hope that you realise just how amazing you are. I know things are tough for you right now and that you're going through a lot, but I appreciate every little thing you do for me.

Hoping you get some R&R soon,

------

Dear You, and You, and You,

We need to organise another meeting again soon, because I miss you way too much. Now, if you could please start responding to my emails about a time and a place, that would be great - because it's a bit hard to lock anything in place when you're the only one suggesting things.

Hope to see you soon,

October Photography Challenge - Day 12: Sunset

2011-10-12T19:45:00.000+11:00

Day 12: Sunset: I've been camped out on our balcony again this afternoon, ready to attempt snapping a decent sunset picture. Unfortunately our balcony doesn't face the best way to capture one, and the area where we're renting is not the most picturesque (we live across from a railway line!) so these shots were really the best I could do for a school night. I didn't manage to catch the actual horizon, which I was a bit disappointed with.

I love a good sunset - though I'll admit, I don't see them as often as I would like to. This was the best I could manage.

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 11: Something Blue

2011-10-11T20:18:00.000+11:00

Day 11: Something Blue: Yes, we've done clouds already - but today's sky was such a gorgeous shade of blue, I just couldn't help myself. The beauty of having a balcony is that we have a great sky view. Isn't it lovely?

We had better clouds today than on the original day of the challenge. With the beautiful weather we've had in the last few days, I was hoping our house build would've had loads of progress - not much to report there, I'm afraid.

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 10: Childhood Memory

2011-10-10T19:58:00.000+11:00

Day 10: Childhood Memory: I know I've shown you some of my boxsets before, but these recent additions are most definitely a blast from the past. I remember watching some of these old 90210 episodes when I was younger, and feeling like it was all so risqué. Now, it's fun to watch it for the fashion and the cheesy lines. Good times, good times.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm grabbing my leggings, slouch socks & scrunchies: I have some serious reminiscing to do.

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 9: Someone You Love

2011-10-09T13:10:00.000+11:00

Day 9: Someone You Love: Jason never lets me photograph him. He really hates having his photo taken, so having to pose with me for the pre-wedding and wedding day photos was a big step out of his comfort zone. {I'm going to treasure those pictures, because I don't think I'll get him in any more portrait sessions ever again, sadly.} I asked today if I could take some pictures, and he was surprisingly obliging.. for about three seconds. Luckily we have a cute prop in our reach that took some of the pressure off. These two: they're totally smitten with each other.

And because I love my handsome hubster, I've chosen the back of his mug for today's shot so he doesn't freak out.

Although.... I don't think he'd mind if I shared a zombified vampire photo of himself with you, right? Mwahahaha.

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 8: A Bad Habit

2011-10-08T09:15:00.000+11:00

Day 8: A Bad Habit: If you're new to these parts, you might not know this: we're building our first home. We're excited, we're lucky, we're looking forward to the whole thing being over and we're broke. This is our first time having a mortgage to call our very own, and it's a very strange feeling to owe someone a heck of a lot of money.

What's that got to do with my bad habit? Well you see, Jase and I are self proclaimed homebodies - and we're cool with that. We're both fine with nerding out on our respective computers and don't mind staying close to home to keep our spending down. But instead of putting all of my spare dollars towards the mortgage like I should be doing, I have one bad habit that I have a tendency to keep adding to: I buy television shows on DVD. I've gathered quite a collection now, though I tend to favour older shows rather than current ones, probably so that I can watch the entire series and move on from it with some closure. It's kind of ridiculous. I KNOW. That's just how I roll.

On the bright side, we've always got something to watch on a rainy day. The current show of choice is Lost. Huzzah!

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 7: Fruit

2011-10-07T08:11:00.000+11:00

Day 7: Fruit: I've been on a health revamp lately {and am beginning to love green smoothies, though only with spinach} so I had plenty of fruits to choose from for today. I thoroughly enjoyed geeking out and finding fun ways to position it all. Who doesn't want an excuse to be able to legitimately play with their food, right?

It was a tough choice, but for my chosen picture I just had to choose this one. A babuskha AND a strawberry? Win.

Hope your day is all sorts of wonderful, wherever you are!

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 6: From a Low Angle

2011-10-06T15:32:00.000+11:00

Day 6: From a Low Angle: If you haven't already figured it out, I'm a crazy, crazy cat lady. It would be more believable if Jase would let me adopt more than one cat, but until then... Sir Oscar gets all of my attention. Trying to get him to stay still long enough for me to photograph him is a mission all in itself.

I'm sure you'll see Oscar featured in loads of this month's photos - he's such a handsome muse, what can I say?

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

We Now Continue With Our Regularly Scheduled Blogging...

2011-10-06T00:00:00.000+11:00

Oh, do I have a lot to tell you.

The wedding is over, the recaps are done, life has gone on... and now I can catch you up on what else is going on around these parts. So what's been happening?

I've been working. Working so, so hard. I love the school that I work at (pink fluffy heart love it, in fact) and my Year 1/2 class are sweethearts. That being said, this has been the hardest term of my teaching career. When I came back from our honeymoon & the school holidays that almost immediately followed it, I was greeted into Term 3 with two new faces in two weeks. The first kidlet was an import from a local Catholic school, who supposedly had no behaviour problems, but was just a 'cheeky' child. Ha. He's a right little worm, actually. But he's manageable - unlike the second kidlet, who is just... off the scale.

He's a foster child with a history of abuse, and is completely and utterly emotionally unstable. The child was removed from two public schools because of his behaviour, but has no funding from any government agencies for support, as he has no diagnosed problems. Since the beginning of this term, he has changed foster homes no less than 10 times, has been removed from my classroom repeatedly, has done multiple 'runners' and has left the school grounds & tried to walk across the highway that is adjacent to us, has strangled animals at his carers' residences, has physically trashed school and office buildings. The kidlet is seven, and is able to physically and verbally intimidate other kids AND adults. It's a scary situation.

Then there's the whole baby thing - which has proven to be as completely irritating in reality as I'd always assumed it would be. Another joy that we've discovered in the past year is that as well as all the glamorous side effects of PCOS, I'm not ovulating. And as any fertility-savvy person would know, no ovulation = no baby. Well, that just sucks. In December, I visited my doctor to complain about things not working and to get some answers. I was told to continue taking my Metformin tablets and to 'give it some time'. In July, I visited my doctor again because I felt this waiting was pointless, as things still weren't working. I was told to increase my Metformin dosage and to 'wait for another six months, things will work themselves out'.

By September I'd lost my shit, so I went back in with my cycles, BBT charts & OPK results, and told them I was tired of waiting. I've been on a wait-list to see a RE for a fertility appointment since then, and my first meeting is scheduled for mid-October. (I KNOW. WAITING. ALWAYS WAITING.)

I'm relieved to finally be doing something about this, even though the wait sucks. This journey is going to be long, frustrating & probably boring as heck, but I have everything crossed for some answers. In the meantime, I've started an offshoot blog for everything TTC-related, because I don't know how much or how little you guys want to read about the journey - especially when every second post I want to write is a whinging one. But if you're so inclined, you can visit it here.

Other than that, we're just plugging away at life together as newlyweds. I am pinteresting way too many potential furniture designs, craft ideas, and heck, even future animals, because it's all I can do at the moment. And then there is the random photography stuff I'm playing along with during October... and the (almost finished!) 365-project I've been working on over at my Tumblr blog. Busy, busy, busy.

Oh... and did I mention that our house is coming along nicely? Slowly, but nicely.

So tell me.... how have you been?

October Photography Challenge - Day 5: From a High Angle

2011-10-05T16:57:00.000+11:00

Day 5: From a High Angle: I began today's prompt out on my balcony, looking down below me to street level. Unfortunately, aside from a few garbage bins and some random work vans, there wasn't a great deal to photograph. Instead, I decided to stick closer to home and opted to find a prompt inside to use instead. These worked out great!

More random wedding goodness! Our initials - which Oscar loves batting off the cupboard at all hours of the night.

Chosen photo:

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 4: Something Green

2011-10-05T09:58:00.000+11:00

Day 4: Something Green: I'm a bit of a moron, and for some reason assumed that today was 'Something Pink' day {that's later in the month} - I had my pink pictures all ready and waiting to go live today! They'll have to wait, though. Because we're renting this flat, hardly anything is decorated either - so we live in a world of beige and grey.

There's nothing wrong with these colours; it's just hard to work with them. We also don't have a lot of greenery inside our unit, because Oscar tends to eat anything plant-based, so we've made do with a few artificial plants that live in the bedroom where he can't gnaw on them. I decided to use these to photograph today.

I used these glass bottles filled with carnations on our wedding guest book table. It's nice to use them again!

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 3: Clouds

2011-10-04T09:44:00.000+11:00

Day 3: Clouds: I actually took these pictures yesterday {the afternoon of October 3rd} because the weather here in Sydney was all kinds of random. Windy and stormy one second, overcast the next, then bright blue and sunny a few moments later. These were all taken from our apartment balcony in the late afternoon. Spring weather is weird.

I ended up really loving the random power line in the last cloudy shot, so it became my chosen image:

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

October Photography Challenge - Day 2: What I Wore Today

2011-10-03T12:29:00.001+11:00

Day 2: What I wore today: I bought this dress to wear to a wedding a few weeks ago, but Jase didn't like it AT ALL. It's sort of turned into a more casual one now. It's not quite time for me to *gulp* bare my shoulders just yet, so it's paired with a black cardigan and some black wedges. Word to the wise: please excuse the un-brushed hair.

I quite like the idea of having a handful of my favourite images per day. Good times!
The chosen picture:

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

You and Me: The Sparkler Send-off!

2011-10-03T06:49:00.013+11:00

You have no idea how long I've been waiting to share this picture with you.

Yes, after all the worries and the dramas and the last minute express postage costs, we managed to organise the sparkler wedding send-off that I'd always hoped for.

So how did it work? Well, as Jase and I were finishing off our private dance upstairs, our guests had been arranged in two lines outside the venue, while our bridal party quickly started handing out the huge sparklers. We found out afterwards that they had been told to wait until we'd begun walking downstairs to light them, but apparently my new father-in-law got a little lighter happy, and set one end off too early.

That led to everyone panicking and lighting things on fire - but they eventually had them all done. This picture of my little brother looking cheeky with a lighter cracks me right up.

As Jase and I walked down the stairs, the doors were closed, so we couldn't see what was happening outside - but the foyer was FULL of smoke. It was pretty funny, actually. (Word to the wise: if you're lighting sparklers, move away from your venue! It was raining, so our guests were forced to stay huddled under the balconies.) The doors opened up and BAM. SPARKLERS. Magic.

We squeezed our way through the light show & posed for a few photos - some more flattering than others!

(Well, I was EXCITED!)

And because I'm way too obsessed with gifs that move, how about a face pulling visual?

We hugged our parents & bridal party members, waved to our guests and headed for our getaway car. And as the sparklers continued to burn down, we were scooted off towards our hotel room, as we said goodbye to the wedding & hello to married life!

Above two images via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

The Jaguar wedding was over.

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.
Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.
We finished off our last minute projects at home.
I had some girly time the day before the wedding.
I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.
A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!
The girls had their hair and make-up done.
The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.
It was finally my turn to get beautified!
I put my dress on & became a bride.
My bridesmaids and I rush, rush, rushed to the church & arrived early!
The wedding began with a processional...
Our guests waved us out of the church with our home-made ribbon wands.
We took some bridal snapshots in the wind and rain.
I took a few moments with my new husband, just he & I.
Our bridal party posed with us as the daylight began to fade.
We relaxed in the bridal suite.. and I got sewn into my wedding dress
All of our wedding details came together beautifully.
The Jaguar bridal party made their way into our reception...
And on the way there, I took a tumble & landed on my butt!
We were spoiled with gorgeous speeches from our loved ones.
Mr. Jaguar & I snuck out to take some evening portraits.
We got tangled up in champagne toasts & cut our lovely cake.
Our first dance, to 'You and Me', was a bumbling success.
We got our slow dance on & opened the floor with a little jazz.
The party started & our guests put on their dancing shoes!
Our wedding celebrations continued with lots of fun shenanigans.
Mr. Jaguar & I had one last private dance together.

October Photography Challenge - Day 1: Self Portrait

2011-10-02T10:45:00.005+11:00

A couple of days ago {back when I began freaking out that it was almost October, what?} I spotted a challenge floating around the webs, brought to you by Nellie and Ali from Our Wired Lives & His Birdies Nest, respectively.

I needed something to distract me this month from all of the 'not happenings' that are happening around here, so on board I jumped. You can see the challenge info below - but I'll probably be posting once a week, with the pictures I've taken all grouped together. What better way to start off than with a good old selfie?!

Day 1: Self Portrait: I decided to keep it classy by taking a picture of myself just after waking up, in my lovey dovey dressing gown. Let's face it: this is what I look like 90% of the time. :)

I couldn't decide on just one, so you get three. And yes, Oscar just HAD to jump in for a cameo!
The chosen picture:

For more information & to check out the other participants, click on the image below, or follow the Flickr stream.

You and Me: Our Private Dance

2011-10-02T10:37:00.001+11:00

If I had to choose a moment from our wedding day which left me reeling emotionally, it would be our private dance.

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

I first heard about the idea from fellow Bee bloggers, Mrs. FroYo & Mrs. Elephant. I fell in love with the thought of spending some personal time with my brand spanking new hubby during the precious last seconds of our wedding day and the idea worked perfectly with our event conclusion. After our last moments partying with our guests, our MC cleared the room for us. Our bridal party gave us a few final hugs before heading downstairs to get our send-off ready. The only people left in the room were our videographer and our photographers. And us.

It was easy to choose a song for this dance. We wanted one that we loved. One that was as romantic and as sappy as we wanted. One where it didn't matter if our guests would 'know' it, or would care what it was. This one was just for me and my husband. The lights were dimmed. The piano acoustic started. Jase and I held hands, and we danced. Press play and follow along in pictures, if you'd like:

Till my body is dust, till my soul is no more - I will love you, love you

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

Till the sun starts to cry, and the moon turns to rust - I will love you, love you.

But I need to know, will you stay for all time, forever and a day?

Then I'll give my heart, till the end of all time, forever and a day.

Till the stars fill my eyes, and we touch the last time - I will love you, love you.

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

It was around this point that the tears started. And soon, after some snuffles and some laughter, our private dance was over.

I remember looking around at the room, filled with all of our carefully planned decorations and projects, looking beautiful but looking 'used' - with half drank glasses of wine on tables, chairs untucked, and napkins unfolded. The party was over, but the marriage was just beginning.

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

You and Me: Wedding Shenanigans

2011-10-01T08:02:00.000+10:00

Our wedding reception seemed to disappear in a flash before my eyes. One minute we were just being introduced, the next minute we were dancing and mingling and it was almost time to leave. How did that happen?

We spent some time mingling with our guests and attempting to get to every table, which is way harder than it looks. Jase and I grabbed each other's hands and made the rounds, thanking our friends and sharing our excitement.

Meanwhile our guests continued to boogie...

... and mingle with one another on the dance floor.

It was at this point that Jase kindly offered to go and get me a cold beverage, since we were parched from all of the schmoozing. He headed towards the bar, I began chatting with a friend... and after a while, I realised that my new hubby had been gone for some time. Where'd he go? And where was my drink? A little searching, and I found him.

Well, lookie here: a certain someone got sidetracked at the open bar. But he wasn't alone...

Those sneaky groomsmen!

It's ok, though. I also made my way to the bar. And why wouldn't I, when we had these babies waiting for us? Mo-straws! Made with love by my Maid of Honour & loved by all!

But, like all good parties, the wedding festivities were about to come to an end.

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

You and Me: Dance, Dance

2011-09-30T13:51:00.001+10:00

I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't worried about people having a good time at our wedding. We had an eclectic mix of young and old guests, some I knew well and some I didn't. How was I to choose the right kind of party music to get people dancing?

The best advice I can give you is to be random. We had classic jazz followed by top 40 followed by rock and roll followed by the occasional ballad. Sometimes people danced, sometimes they didn't, but the floor was hardly ever empty. And there was shuffling. Oh yes, we Party Rocked it up, my friends. (Although I'm pretty sure we were all doing the running man rather than the shuffle.

There was random jigging.

There was general merriment.

There were group numbers.

And then there were the surprise moments, like my friend C, who stole the show when 'Billie Jean' came on and she whipped out all the dance moves. Someone even obtained a hat, perfect for her routine.

But for the most part, there was just plain FUN!

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

Feel like a sneak peek at our dancers? Well, alright then!

All photographs bythe team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.
Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.
We finished off our last minute projects at home.
I had some girly time the day before the wedding.
I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.
A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!
The girls had their hair and make-up done.
The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.
It was finally my turn to get beautified!
I put my dress on & became a bride.
My bridesmaids and I rush, rush, rushed to the church & arrived early!
The wedding began with a processional...
Our guests waved us out of the church with our home-made ribbon wands.
We took some bridal snapshots in the wind and rain.
I took a few moments with my new husband, just he & I.
Our bridal party posed with us as the daylight began to fade.
We relaxed in the bridal suite.. and I got sewn into my wedding dress!
All of our wedding details came together beautifully.
The Jaguar bridal party made their way into our reception...
And on the way there, I took a tumble & landed on my butt!
We were spoiled with gorgeous speeches from our loved ones.
Mr. Jaguar & I snuck out to take some evening portraits.
We got tangled up in champagne toasts & cut our lovely cake.
Our first dance, to 'You and Me', was a bumbling success.
We got our slow dance on & opened the floor with a little jazz.

You and Me: Lullabies & Crazy Love

2011-09-28T18:54:00.000+10:00

It was hard, hard work choosing a song for the father/daughter dance.

Choosing a dance for Jase & I was easy - but for my dad? I struggled. My one request was that the song wasn't a country music song, because I've heard one at nearly every wedding we've ever been to. My suggestions were upbeat, with my two favourites being 'My Girl' by the Temptations and 'Here Comes the Sun' by the Beatles. He didn't have any connections to those songs, and shot them down. After a lot of coming and going, he sent me one option that I quite loved: 'Lullaby' by Billy Joel. And so, it was.

We swayed for a while, and I can't for the life of me recall any particular conversations we might have had - but it was lovely. The nerves I had of dancing in front of people had dissipated after Jase & I's first dance, and I enjoyed the moments spent dancing with my daddy.

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

I had arranged that during one of the instrumentals of the song, we'd have Jase and his mother invited to take the floor with us - this worked out beautifully.

And afterwards, during another instrumental, the MC invited the rest of our bridal party couples out onto the floor to sway with us for the final few moments of the song.

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

As the song concluded, we decided to put on a nice jazzy number to encourage folks young & old to join us on the dance floor. My pick? 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' - the Buble version. And, lo and behold, it worked! Our dance floor was PACKED! Is my nanna not the cutest thing you've ever seen?

This picture of my new father-in-law cracks me up every time I see it.

It's official: weddings & Buble go hand in hand.

And best of all? I managed to keep Jason, Mr. 'I don't dance EVER', out on the floor for just a while longer. Huzzah!

We were ready to REALLY get the party started!

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.
Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.
We finished off our last minute projects at home.
I had some girly time the day before the wedding.
I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.
A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!
The girls had their hair and make-up done.
The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.
It was finally my turn to get beautified!
I put my dress on & became a bride.
My bridesmaids and I rush, rush, rushed to the church & arrived early!
The wedding began with a processional...
Our guests waved us out of the church with our home-made ribbon wands.
We took some bridal snapshots in the wind and rain.
I took a few moments with my new husband, just he & I.
Our bridal party posed with us as the daylight began to fade.
We relaxed in the bridal suite.. and I got sewn into my wedding dress!
All of our wedding details came together beautifully.
The Jaguar bridal party made their way into our reception...
And on the way there, I took a tumble & landed on my butt!
We were spoiled with gorgeous speeches from our loved ones.
Mr. Jaguar & I snuck out to take some evening portraits.
We got tangled up in champagne toasts & cut our lovely cake.
Our first dance, to 'You and Me', was a bumbling success.

You and Me: Our Song

2011-09-26T19:19:00.003+10:00

Did you know I've been blogging over at Weddingbee for a year now? (Holy smokes, that went fast!) One of the first posts that I wrote there explained how Jase & I first met. To quote myself from back then:

Girl hears song on radio, girl falls in love with song, girl stalks band online ands finds their forum, girl makes friends online including a sweet Australian boy, girl develops gigantic crush, boy and girl eventually swap mobile numbers, girl text messages boy during a particularly boring uni lecture, boy calls girl that night, girl meets boy at movie theatre, girl thinks boy is adorable, boy thinks girl is okay too…and the rest is history.

It was only fitting, then, for our first dance to pay homage to the band that brought us together. Without them, after all, I would have never met my best friend.

The song, You and Me, is the message behind my recap titles. It was the perfect one for us to sway to as husband and wife for the first time.

Images via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

Seeing as both of us are not dancers & were sure to be stuck in the 'awkward sway/shuffle' category, we learnt a basic step routine from my parents in the weeks before the wedding. Jase and I practised every evening before the wedding until we had it down - we even had one or two twirls thrown in for good measure. We were sure we'd be fine.

Well, it started out okay, as these two guest photographs show.

But then, as the musical beats started - my mind went blank. All of our practised moves flew out of my brain, I got the timing all wrong, and I began, you guessed it, the awkward sway/shuffle. Jase was laughing hysterically and asking me what I was doing, and I was all ... 'just go with it!'

The shots of our first dance are therefore not romantic at all, and instead show us giggling like loons.

Regardless of the giggles, I still love them.

I was worried about spending the full three minutes and thirty seconds dancing out there on the floor, but time really did fly by. I'm so glad we decided to stick it out for the whole song.

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

With our awkward sway/shuffle over, our folks were introduced onto the floor with us.

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.
Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.
We finished off our last minute projects at home.
I had some girly time the day before the wedding.
I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.
A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!
The girls had their hair and make-up done.
The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.
It was finally my turn to get beautified!
I put my dress on & became a bride.
My bridesmaids and I rush, rush, rushed to the church & arrived early!
The wedding began with a processional...
Our guests waved us out of the church with our home-made ribbon wands.
We took some bridal snapshots in the wind and rain.
I took a few moments with my new husband, just he & I.
Our bridal party posed with us as the daylight began to fade.
We relaxed in the bridal suite.. and I got sewn into my wedding dress!
All of our wedding details came together beautifully.
The Jaguar bridal party made their way into our reception...
And on the way there, I took a tumble & landed on my butt!
We were spoiled with gorgeous speeches from our loved ones.
Mr. Jaguar & I snuck out to take some evening portraits.
We got tangled up in champagne toasts & cut our lovely cake.

You and Me: Cake & Champers

2011-09-25T06:30:00.002+10:00

After we snuck outside for a few couple portraits, it was time to get the last formalities out of the way. We were ready to hack into our cake!

There is nothing funnier than the audience you have while cutting into the wedding cake. We were facing an entire wall of cameras, all ready to witness the slicing and dicing.

Because the majority of our cake was fake, we had to look carefully for the tiny fondant 'cut' tab - real cake had been placed in that spot, so our guests would have the illusion of the cake being whole. Despite the cutting hint, I was still really nervous that we'd slice into foam in front of that wall of cameras - awkward!

Thankfully... it worked! There was cake inside! Crisis averted.

Now here's another stupid bride-brain moment that happened on our wedding day... after we chopped into our cake slice? We took a few pictures together, and moved on to having a champagne toast - but we never actually had any bites of wedding cake together. That means no dainty cake eating shots and certainly no cake smooshing either. Sad face. Speaking of those champagne toasts...

Oh sure, it LOOKS easy.. but the twisty arm-linking thingy is harder to do than it looks!

Now, I've hinted before that I am the queen of pulling obnoxious faces - so it would only be fitting for me to share a visual from our wedding videography trailer, right?

Face pulling & nervous laughter - yep, that sounds about right!

Guest Photograph

And when we finally managed to have a sip of champagne each, it was followed by camera flashes, giggles & smooches. Perfection!

Guest Photograph

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.
Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.
We finished off our last minute projects at home.
I had some girly time the day before the wedding.
I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.
A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!
The girls had their hair and make-up done.
The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.
It was finally my turn to get beautified!
I put my dress on & became a bride.
My bridesmaids and I rush, rush, rushed to the church & arrived early!
The wedding began with a processional...
Our guests waved us out of the church with our home-made ribbon wands.
We took some bridal snapshots in the wind and rain.
I took a few moments with my new husband, just he & I.
Our bridal party posed with us as the daylight began to fade.
We relaxed in the bridal suite.. and I got sewn into my wedding dress!
All of our wedding details came together beautifully.
The Jaguar bridal party made their way into our reception...
And on the way there, I took a tumble & landed on my butt!
We were spoiled with gorgeous speeches from our loved ones.
Mr. Jaguar & I snuck out to take some evening portraits.

You and Me: Sneaky Night Shots

2011-09-22T06:30:00.020+10:00

If you happen to have some spare time during your reception, use it to steal away for a few minutes & take some time to yourselves. Some of the photographs we got from that super short session are my favourites of the evening. Sure, the rain had just stopped and my dress was getting saturated, but for those moments - none of those things mattered.

Before I get too far ahead of myself though, let me backtrack a little. After the speeches were over, we snuck out of the reception room for a few official family portraits in the foyer - it was still raining at this point, so we were forced to make do indoors. I'll spare you the many, many shots we have of our loved ones: Jase & I looked the same in every one! (If there's any occasion where you'll have to perfect your smile, it'll be your wedding day.)

Our guests also used this time to snap a few selfies with us, which was good fun. They also captured some nice simple shots of the two of us that I really love!

But once that was over? It was all about the two of us. We stole away onto the balcony with our photographers, and canoodled it up.

It might have been night-time, but the venue still made for some lovely photographs.

If you couldn't already tell, I was completely & utterly smitten with my husband. Still am, actually!

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.
Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.
We finished off our last minute projects at home.
I had some girly time the day before the wedding.
I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.
A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!
The girls had their hair and make-up done.
The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.
It was finally my turn to get beautified!
I put my dress on & became a bride.
My bridesmaids and I rush, rush, rushed to the church & arrived early!
The wedding began with a processional...
Our guests waved us out of the church with our home-made ribbon wands.
We took some bridal snapshots in the wind and rain.
I took a few moments with my new husband, just he & I.
Our bridal party posed with us as the daylight began to fade.
We relaxed in the bridal suite.. and I got sewn into my wedding dress!
All of our wedding details came together beautifully.
The Jaguar bridal party made their way into our reception...
And on the way there, I took a tumble & landed on my butt!
We were spoiled with gorgeous speeches from our loved ones.

You and Me: Speeches, Love & An Awfully Big Adventure

2011-09-19T06:30:00.025+10:00

After the falling-off-my-chair-in-front-of-our-entire-wedding-audience incident, we got down to the good stuff - the food. We snacked on the most scrumptious cannelloni, yummy chicken & herbed lamb, and the most gorgeous pastry slice for dessert. Amazing. Soon after that, it was time for the most beautiful part of the evening - the speeches!

Being a bit of a control freak, I have to admit: I was a little nervous. Not being able to know what our family members and friends, and even Jase himself, were planning on talking about in their speeches was scary - but turns out, those fears were completely unfounded. You guys, they blew me away. I laughed, I pulled faces, I cried. It was amazing. And seeing pictures like this one, which was my beautiful mum's reaction to my dad's speech, just make my day.

First up was my dad - who did such a great job! Sure, I may be biased, but I do believe I have the cutest father on the planet. He was a little nervous - but his speech was beautiful. He only threw in a handful of 'dad jokes' too.. something which we always tease him about mercilessly.

Jason's dad was up next - he spoke so well, and absolutely loved having the microphone! His speech was lovely & heartfelt, but the highlight was when he finished with: 'Aly. Thank you for loving my son.' Sob!

After the traditional speeches from the dads, Jase had his turn with the microphone. He'd shown me some of his speeches, so I could help him with the thank-you's, but had saved the best part until last. The card he'd gifted me earlier in the day had been a cute cartoon revolving around the general theme of 'Once in a Lifetime'. Jason's speech was gorgeous - telling me he was so excited to have me as his wife, and that I was his once in a lifetime.

Jason's best man & brother followed with another awesome speech - made all the more special, since he'd flown out from London to attend the wedding.

And then, the tear-jerker of the evening - my lovely Maid of Honour.

Miss K started off so well, telling our guests how she'd known us for nearly our entire relationship - and then teared up, as she continued. It was so gorgeous. She made mention of her favourite quote in her speech: do you know where it's from?

“To love would be an awfully big adventure.”

Hearing her kind words about what sort of a friend I was to her & what we'd been through together... it was really humbling. I'm so lucky to have a best friend who has been there through thick and thin with me, who's travelled with me & survived to tell the tale, who's crashed on the floor of my apartment, and who appreciates what Jase & I have.

If you want to Miss K's speech in its entirety, it made its way on to our wedding highlights video that you can see here.

With the speeches over, it was time to face the wall of cameras to cut our cake!

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

You and Me: The Bride Who Fell On Her Butt

2011-09-16T06:30:00.019+10:00

Please tell me I'm not the only one who used to imagine all of the wedding day mishaps that could potentially go down on their wedding day? Falling down while walking up the aisle. Having a dress related mishap. Falling into a random pool, aka this couple. You name it, I'd thought of it. I even had the crazy wedding nightmares going!

Well, before I say anything else, I think it's appropriate I start this post off with a lovely memento I have from our wedding day. What do you reckon: blow it up on a canvas?

Oh yes. THAT happened.

(Special mentions to a) my boobs practically exploding out of my dress, and b) my brand new husband who thought this was the most hilarious thing he had ever seen.)

So... you want to know how I ended up down on the floor in a puff of ivory lace?

Right, let's rewind a little bit. We'd just walked into the reception room, our music was playing & we each walked our own separate way around the bridal table to our seats right in the middle. Everyone cheered and clinked their glasses, and the MC invited us to take a seat. All went well. We sat down. We looked like this.

I'd sat down with Jase and was checking out our lumie table numbers as well as the floral arrangements around the room - it was the first time I'd seen it all come together, after all! The rest of the bridal party had sat down too, and everything looked calm. It was then that I looked up and saw my mum gesturing wildly from the side of the bridal table - I stood up to see what she was talking about, realised it was that two bridesmaids were sat in the wrong order, didn't care about it, and promptly sat back down.... except, my chair wasn't there any more.

I let out a WOO! shriek, banged my butt on the side of the chair, and ended up sitting on the floor of the venue in my wedding gown... absolutely mortified. Helpful note to venues everywhere: don't team your chiavari chairs up with new spongy carpet - they will fall down. ALL THE TIME. (It wasn't just me: we had a lot of guests have chair issues over the evening - not good.)

The funniest thing of all though? Other than my bridal party and a few concerned wait staff, nobody saw me fall. Seriously. I remember sitting back in my chair afterwards, red in the face and completely positive that I'd ruined the wedding - that the reception would be remembered as the one with the bride who fell on her butt. Lucky for me, apart from the trusty photographer who just happened to be hovering by & thought it was hilarious (though he did ask my permission before he snapped the shot, good man) everybody else was too busy settling themselves into their own tables - I managed to plan my fall at the one moment that most of our guests' eyes were NOT on the bridal table!

So what's the moral to this little story? It doesn't matter how much you prepare for your wedding day, there's a pretty good chance that something random will happen. My best advice for brides-to-be out there is to just laugh it off. Smile, wave, check your boobage is in order, and then take a moment to celebrate the occasion. It may not be the most typical of wedding photos, but it's certainly one of the highlights of our evening.

Did you have anything unexpected happen during your celebrations? Do tell!

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

You and Me: Getting Our Reception On

2011-09-13T06:30:00.000+10:00

By now, our guests had been mingling in the foyer for about a half hour. While we prepared ourselves for our reception entrance, our friends and family members began making their way into the function room and finding their tables. The central focus as they walked inside was to be the cake - the cake I'd been lusting after for months and months of planning.

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

Unfortunately, the venue let us down with the cake itself (which I'll go into later, promise) - but it was still a nice enough entry point all the same. Our guests were seated and our MC began making introductions; though the following picture sort of looks like he's telling someone in the naughty corner to sit down and shut it!

I spent ages deciding what sort of music I wanted everyone to walk in the room to - it's one of my favourite highlights at other weddings, I love clapping along. I've seen everything from super slow entry songs, to novelty songs like 'I'm Too Sexy' or 'Baby's Got Back': both of which were used at the last weddings Jase and I attended! I couldn't decide on one song for everyone, so ended up compromising by picking three favourites. I let the DJ know well in advance what timing I wanted the songs played from (mainly from the chorus, but some were instrumental bits) & just left the rest in his hot little hands. Feel free to click & play along if you want a little background music!

First into the room were both sets of our parents. As they received their introductions, I waited impatiently in line with Jase & the bridesmaids, bopping around nervously to the music. Song choice: Open Your Eyes, Snow Patrol.

Next up were our bridal party members. Song Choice: Use Somebody, Kings of Leon.

And then, it was just us! I picked a personal favourite song of ours for this entrance, one that I've loved for years and years now. Song choice: Look After You, The Fray.

We made our way to our bridal table which was set up and waiting for us, while our guests gave us a lovely round of applause. Mr. and MRS! Huzzah!

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

The hard part was over - we'd managed to get to our seats without anyone falling, any cakes topping over, any major mishaps... or so we'd thought!

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.

Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.

We finished off our last minute projects at home.

I had some girly time the day before the wedding.

I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.

A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!

The girls had their hair and make-up done.

The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.

It was finally my turn to get beautified!
I put my dress on & became a bride.
My bridesmaids and I rush, rush, rushed to the church & arrived early!
The wedding began with a processional...
Our guests waved us out of the church with our home-made ribbon wands.
We took some bridal snapshots in the wind and rain.
I took a few moments with my new husband, just he & I.
Our bridal party posed with us as the daylight began to fade.
We relaxed in the bridal suite.. and I got sewn into my wedding dress!
All of our wedding details came together beautifully.

You and Me: Wedding Details

2011-09-10T06:00:00.006+10:00

Some of my favourite moments from weddings gone by come from getting the chance to see some of their pre-wedding plans come into fruition and be captured on film during their event. I hope you'll enjoy seeing some of our little details as much as I've loved seeing them in the past.

Let's begin with a snapshot of our invitations - which I am still lusting over as the months go by, because omg, the paper. So soft. So textured. Swoon!

To match the invitations and our grey, green and ivory colour scheme, I created (& had help assembling) our home-made wedding programs for the church ceremony. I love how they turned out.

While we're still talking about the ceremony, there were our lovely ribbon wands which you've already seen in all of our church exiting images.

As for our reception venue, well, the room itself looked amazing.

One of my main wedding goals was for our wedding space to be filled with candles. I stocked up on mini votives and tealights from Ikea and made sure they were scattered all over the place. Added to the already very-pretty room, they ensured it was literally glowing.

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

I elected to have the chiavari chairs provided by our venue decorated with a simple and sheer organza ivory sash.

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

The tables were round, kept simple with ivory linen tablecloths and decorated with a simple low-lying floral arrangement (made to match our bouquets) which sat on a mirrored plate with even more candles.

Guest Photograph

Our table number lumies looked amazing, if I may say so myself! They lit up each table, since each was placed over a small candle.

The table menus also turned out great; these were the ones I'd created using the Ikea Tolby frames (for $1 a pop!) & a little Microsoft Publisher action.

The last thing set up on each table was our charity favour pins, which also doubled as place cards. We were thrilled to see our guests wearing theirs throughout the evening.

Our venue wanted our guestbook table to be outside of the main function room, but we had plenty of space so I insisted it stayed inside. I wanted as many guests as possible to visit it and use it throughout the night.

I made sure I had brought my favourite artistic portrait along from our little apartment - my way of incorporating Oscar-kitty into our wedding day.

The lovely Mrs. Gloss hooked me up with a fantastic scroll for our guests to sign, which turned out amazing. You can see it fairly clearly here.

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

I paired that with a plain guestbook style album for the more traditional older guests who wanted to leave a message.

To match the guest scroll, Mrs. Meerkat created a poster to help our guests locate their tables. I ran around like a mad-woman the week before the wedding, trying to find the right sized shadow frame to match. It turned out really great!

If there's one thing I'm grateful for throughout my time spent blogging for Weddingbee, it's the generous and helpful spirit of my online wedding friends. You've seen the fantastic graphics that Mrs. Gloss and Mrs. Meerkat helped create for our wedding day, and it didn't stop there. There were the Bee charms, also shipped lovingly to Sydney from Mrs. Meerkat to be sewn on to my bouquet. There was my 'Something Borrowed' from Mrs. French Fries; her beautiful cathedral length veil that I wore for our wedding ceremony.

But there was one other borrowed item from a Bee that didn't quite make it into our wedding day, not for lack of trying. One of my many, many favourite Bee weddings was that of Mrs. French Bulldog; I'd been swooning over her birdie theme for the longest of times. Well, she offered to loan me some of her gorgeous lovebirds, shipped them all the way to Sydney town and got them all ready to go on the side of our cake. Until, that is, the venue forgot to put them on. Sigh. No birdies for us. Turns out that they'd forgotten to put them on Mrs. Frenchie's cake, too. They just weren't meant to be!

While the birds never did get their chance in the spotlight on our wedding cake, I did manage to snap a photo of my wee Jaguars in their nest for good measure. The thought was there!

Did you incorporate any 'Something Borrowed's into your wedding day?

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.

Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.

We finished off our last minute projects at home.

I had some girly time the day before the wedding.

I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.

A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!

The girls had their hair and make-up done.

The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.

You and Me: Relaxing in the Bridal Suite

2011-09-07T20:12:00.000+10:00

When it comes to weddings, even the best laid plans can go astray - which can be hard to take if you're an obsessive-compulsive planner, like I am. Our plan upon entering our reception venue was to relax in the bridal suite for around half an hour, having a drink with our bridal party and taking a moment to catch our breath. While we were doing this, our guests were due to arrive and begin their cocktail hour on the balcony.

Well, down came the rain. And in came the guests to get out of the rain, early. And oops! Someone at the venue misplaced our bridal suite booking - so we were left standing around awkwardly in the foyer waiting for it to be sorted out. That's just part of a story for another day... suffice it to say that we eventually found ourselves a quiet spot to relax in for a little while with our bridal party and our parents.

And after that, relax we did! We had a glass of champagne, nibbled on a canapé or two, took happy snaps together and bounced around like balls of nervous energy, listening to all of our guests outside mingling in the foyer.

Some of the pictures that our bridal party took during this time turned out to be some of my favourites of the day, including these hipstamatic shots that I plastered over everything in the days after the wedding. Swoon!

Our make-up stylist, Jenny, was also on hand - she was a guest at the wedding and popped in to take a few pictures for us. She charmingly offered to quickly touch up our hair and faces, which were looking a little worse for wear after our pictures in the rain. She gave me the option of changing hairstyles for the reception, but I'd grown rather attached to my sde 'do and decided to stick with it - it was perfect up off my face for dancing! Jenny is responsible for these next two pictures, both of which I love.

Seriously, are my girls not stunning? What beauties - inside and out.

Now... for a bit of a backstory.

I wasn't particularly fazed about my dress bustle. I know lots of Bees stress out about how they're going to tie up the dress during the evening, or have trouble deciding between which style bustle works the best with their dress... but I didn't mind. As long as I could hook it up and out of the way before the dancing, I was happy.

Our seamstress added in a ribbon/button hook ready to just link up and tie, and it looked quite nice when it was yanked up and tied. Don't ask me what style it was: it was pretty much style-less. Let's call it the 'hoisted train bustle', shall we? You can sort of see the top half of it here:

Anyhoo, that didn't end up going so well... as when I got out of the wedding car to take our photographs in the rain, that button snapped off - leaving us with no bustle option AT ALL. My mum whipped out her creative genius and ended up looping the skirt ribbon up over one of the lower buttons on the gown, and it held... for about ten minutes. Jase and I were practising our first dance together (first time with a big skirt on!) when PING! The buttons flew off and the train collapsed.

I wasn't quite sure WHAT to do next - it looked as though I'd be holding up the train the entire evening. Luckily, I had a few seamstresses on hand to help patch me up. Enter my mum... and my new mother-in-law! They whipped a sewing kit out of thin air and began literally sewing the ribbon/bustle on to the gown.

I never imagined I'd have so many hands up and under my gown before the reception had even started!

After some panicked moments and a few deep breaths, the dress was bustled - and I'm thrilled to say that it held up all night. So well, in fact, that I actually needed to have my mother cut the thread at the end of the evening so that I could get out of the gown!

With the bustle situation sorted, it was almost time for our reception to start!

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.

Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.

We finished off our last minute projects at home.

I had some girly time the day before the wedding.

I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.

A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!

The girls had their hair and make-up done.

The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.

You and Me: We're All In This Together

2011-09-04T07:00:00.015+10:00

Ah, our bridal party. Our super, easygoing, hilarious bridal party. They endured the rain, the wind, the freezing cold weather, and did it all with a smile on their faces. Both Jase and myself had our share of disappointments in the early days of wedding planning, with 'friends' letting us down. The final six that we had were the real deal. We are so, so lucky to have had them standing by our side on our wedding day.

I was excited about the reception venue that we'd booked. It was a gorgeous building, an old heritage one with plenty of photo locations - or at least, that's what I'd thought. Without going into too much detail for the moment, we eventually managed to find a few places where Andrew and Sarah and our videographer, Amy, could grab some group shots.

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

It was still raining quite heavily, so pictures in the grounds were out - but we ended up having some group shots taken under cover of the balcony.

I can't get over how amazing the bridal party looked when they all came together. The floor length dresses hung so beautifully, matched perfectly with the flowers and looked beautiful next to the boys and their black suits with grey ties. And, without meaning to, they fit the wet and rainy day pretty well!

All too quickly the light was fading - one of the perils of a winter wedding. Our photographers grabbed these snapshots of the girls & the guys before the sun went down completely. I love the expressions - they go from serious and posed, to laughing and relaxed. My favourite kind of photo!

All portraits done, we headed inside the venue to 'relax' before the reception.

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.

Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.

We finished off our last minute projects at home.

I had some girly time the day before the wedding.

I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.

A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!

The girls had their hair and make-up done.

The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.

You and Me: My Love

2011-09-01T07:00:00.001+10:00

This post deserves words, lots of words.

It's so easy to get caught up in the details of wedding planning. The ideas, the guests, the finances, the colours, the dress! But during our day, I couldn't get over how much in love I was with Jase - I spent 99% of the day clutching his hand and very, very rarely let go. Being married felt different, felt secure, felt whole, as silly as it sounds.

But instead of providing the words it deserves, since I could never accurately summarise how I felt on the day (and still feel, now) I'll stick with pictures.

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.

Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.

We finished off our last minute projects at home.

I had some girly time the day before the wedding.

I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.

A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!

The girls had their hair and make-up done.

The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.

You and Me: Wet and Windy Bridal Portraits

2011-08-29T07:00:00.000+10:00

The clouds had blown over, the rain had started... it was time to make some decisions about our wedding photographs. The loose plan was to head to a fairly close location that had nice scenic views of Sydney in the background and then head to our venue afterwards for a few formal portraits. The weather was very unpredictable though - rain showers, followed by grey skies, followed by more drizzle. We decided to risk a few outdoor shots, and see how the weather held up.

Besides, I had a secret weapon up my sleeve that I couldn't wait to test out!

Yep, those are the most obnoxiously bright and cheerful gumboots I could find the day before the wedding. And, I have to say, they were SO comfortable. After a quick change of footwear and a little dress drama (the bustle button snapped off.. more on this later) we hoofed it across the park to take some pictures.

Being a mermaid style dress, I tended to hoist it from the waist up to make sure the bottom ruffles didn't touch the ground. I was so precious about my dress back then (ah, such a bride) but by the end of the day? That dress was all kinds of wet and miserable! You call it dirty; I call it well-loved.

Our photographers snapped a few shots of Jase and I walking along the foreshore, with some beautiful Sydney views in the background. If you squint, you can just see the city skyline... and the Harbour Bridge!

You can't really see it in those pictures, but the rain had really started to come down at that point, and the wind had whipped up too. Our bridal party had been patiently waiting while we took those quick couple shots, as one of our groomsmen had gotten lost on the way to the photo location. The next few pictures are missing him, but are some of my favourites of the day - our guys and girls were real troupers, despite the rain pouring down!

It was at this point that we realised that things were just going to get wetter and that the rain had well and truly set in, so we decided to call it a day and head back to the car. I was really disappointed, since the winter daylight hours and overcast skies were eating up our best photo time, but what can you do? Sometimes you've just got to go with the flow.

The next few pictures were snapped walking back across the field to the carpark, and sum up that portrait session beautifully. We were wet, cold windswept... and married.

Ah, how much do I love the close up of this shot?

We made our way back to the car and the rain stopped... for about a minute. I ditched the brolly and had a good old frolic in my gumboots.

Not for long, though. I think this about sums up my feelings towards the weather on our wedding day. Grrr, rain. Grrr.

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.

Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.

We finished off our last minute projects at home.

I had some girly time the day before the wedding.

I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.

A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!

The girls had their hair and make-up done.

The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.

You and Me: Church Celebrations

2011-08-25T18:00:00.000+10:00

As we exited the church, I couldn't stop myself from looking at Jase - constantly. We were married! He was my husband. And I had suddenly been turned into a wife.

As our bridal party and our parents followed us down the aisle, we took a few shots in the entry way and then made a hasty (and sneaky!) run up the side of the church to the alternate entrance.

If you're wondering why we disappeared so quickly, it was to give our guests time to prepare for our ribbon wand exit! Our bridal party handed out wands to guests as they left the church and gathered around to see us again.

In the meantime, we waited around the corner for the church to clear. I could hear our second processional song being played by the string trio, which made me all warm and fuzzy - 'All You Need Is Love' by the Beatles. I started singing along and then we realised that Jason's videography microphone was still hooked up - aaah!

Not too many people get to walk down the aisle of their church as husband and wife twice, but we did! We got a signal from our bridal party... and off we went, again!

We were greeted by yet another aisle to walk down and with all of our guests brandishing the ribbon wands I'd made all those months earlier. And they looked absolutely gorgeous!

Guest Photographs

The clouds were rolling in at this point and our photographers very quickly (and wisely) gathered everyone together for a few groups shots.

Our guests came over to start congratulating us, there were lots of hugs and well wishes - and that is when the heavens decided to open.

Our photographers whipped out their cute bridal brolly and we decided we'd better leave for our photographs then and there, in case the rain got really bad. As you can imagine, I wasn't particularly happy about that... but what's a girl to do? (Other than pull some more tragic faces, of course.) We jumped in the cars and headed off to our chosen photo location.

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.

Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.

We finished off our last minute projects at home.

I had some girly time the day before the wedding.

I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.

A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!

The girls had their hair and make-up done.

The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.

You and Me: We Wed

2011-08-19T07:00:00.000+10:00

We always knew we would have a traditional Catholic ceremony. We opted to have ours without a full mass/Eucharist and focused on keeping the wedding as much about love and about 'us' as we could, all the while remembering that in the eyes of the church, marriage is a holy sacrament.

I'll admit, there was many a time over the course of our wedding planning where I longed for the freedom of writing our own vows or expressing our love in a less scripted way. On the day though, I was so filled with love and warm fuzzies that it wouldn't have mattered what reading was shared or what psalms were sang - we were getting married.

Father Christopher began with an introduction and welcome, as well as an opening prayer over us as a couple.

This was followed by our chosen readings.

We opted to have our bridal party also act as our readers, which worked out beautifully. If you're curious, we chose a reading from the Songs of Songs for our first reading and the ever-popular letter from St Paul to the Corinthians for our second reading. Our psalm was 'The Lord is compassionate to all his creatures.'

Jason and I were seated on the opposite side of the altar as our readings were shared with our guests. I remember trying my hardest to stare straight ahead and not ogle Jase during the ceremony, though this shot seems to capture him doing the same thing to me! Also note the awkwardly bunched veil: I was too scared to sit down normally in case it fell out, so tucked it over my shoulder for the majority of the time.

I believe this was about the time that my super awesome Maid of Honour got nervous and fumbled her lines in her reading. Instead of saying 'love is patient, love is kind, it is not pompous...' poor Miss K read out 'love is never patient...' - oops! (Though it's kind of fitting: I am the least patient person I know.)

Father Christopher then read from the Gospel before beginning his Homily. It was a lovely one, too - focusing on the commitment we'd made to each other, and about staying strong as a couple through the summers and winters of our lives. He made it very personal and appropriate for us - I suppose that's the perk of having a cousin for a priest!

Our priest made a comment about us being really nervous, something neither of us usually are!

After this, we began the Rite of Marriage.

Aly & Jason, the promises you make to each other today are serious, because they will bind you together for life. You take each other through the best and worst of what lies ahead, and commit yourselves to each other forever.

I, Jason, take you, Aly, to be my wife. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honour you all the days of my life.

I, Aly, take you, Jason, to be my husband. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honour you all the days of my life.

Rings were exchanged and we were pronounced as husband and wife.

And oh, THE KISS!

I remember wondering how we were going to do it - should we practice? Who would lean in to who? Which way would my head tilt/your head tilt? Would there be lovey-dovey head grabbing in a fit of passion?

Well, there was just a blur - and we instinctively clutched at each other and smooch/laughed our way through our first kiss as a married couple!

Guest Photograph

After the clapping died down, we stood squeezing each other's hands as the Prayers of the Faithful were read by two of our groomsmen and as our Priest gave our final solemn blessing.

Just like that, in what felt like a blink of an eye, we were married!

Our string trio started playing more beautiful music as we made our way up behind the altar to sign our marriage certificate.

The final details were completed. The announcements had been made. We were given a last message from our priest, and then it was time to leave! Our strings began playing our recessional music - an instrumental of 'Bittersweet Symphony' - and we made our way out of the church.

Guest photograph

Married.

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.

Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.

We finished off our last minute projects at home.

I had some girly time the day before the wedding.

I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.

A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!

The girls had their hair and make-up done.

The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.

It was finally my turn to get beautified!
I put my dress on & became a bride.
My bridesmaids and I rush, rush, rushed to the church & arrived early!
The wedding began with a processional...

You and Me: Walking Down The Aisle

2011-08-16T07:00:00.002+10:00

For all of the fuzzy haze I was surrounded in on the wedding day, our wedding ceremony stands out in my mind in perfect clarity.

I remember standing at the entrance to our church, thinking that it had a much longer aisle than I remembered and suddenly getting nervous.

I remember watching my first bridesmaid head off down the aisle at the speed of light and wondering whether Father Christopher would be cranky about it.

I remember watching my second bridesmaid begin her walk, cupping her bouquet of flowers under her hand to be sure no water spots would get on her dress.

I remember watching my Maid of Honour start walking, wondering vaguely if she would make it all the way down the aisle upright in her super high heels.

I remember hearing the string trio strike up the traditional Canon in D and telling my Dad that 'this was it'. It was time to go.

I remember nervously peering down the aisle, trying to see if Jason was as anxious to see me as I was to see see him.

(He was.)

I remember walking, walking, walking, nervously clutching my father's arm.

I remember getting to the front of the church and seeing my best friend standing there waiting for me with a smile on his face.

All of a sudden, I wasn't nervous anymore. I quickly swapped my bouquet into my left hand and my father placed my hand in Jason's - a quirky take on an old tradition of being 'given away' without actually saying as much.

I remember watching while the boys did some crazy ninja hand-shaking and hand-over moves, kissed my dad on the cheek and all of a sudden it was just my beloved and I, hand in hand.

Guest photograph

And with that, we faced the altar and our smiling priest... and our wedding began.

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.

Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.

We finished off our last minute projects at home.

I had some girly time the day before the wedding.

I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.

A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!

The girls had their hair and make-up done.

The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.

It was finally my turn to get beautified!
I put my dress on & became a bride.
My bridesmaids and I rush, rush, rushed to the church & arrived early!

You and Me: The Earlybird Bride

2011-08-13T07:00:00.001+10:00

The dress was on. The veil was in, albeit roughly. The girls were dressed. It was time to go. But was it? You see, this my friends, is where bride brain kicked in.

Instead of relaxing and taking some portrait shots with the girls, I was busy worrying about being late. I forgot to take a moment to drink our champagne, even though I'd made sure we had glasses and bubbly ready to go. I didn't even think to grab our props, the ones I'd specifically bought to use with my bridal party in pictures. If I had one regret about the morning of our wedding day, it would be not taking the time to breathe and remember that there was no need to rush. I was a bride: people would wait for me.

The only close-up picture of me prior to the wedding, taken by MOH Miss K.

But alas, I am the most time conscious person on the planet, so we left. Early. In that haste, I didn't have any bridal portraits taken, nor did I get any photographs with my bridesmaids - both of which I'm really disappointed about and could kick myself over, looking back in hindsight. Friends, be ye not so stupid. RELAX.

We left not without a little excitement though, as my Maid of Honour spectacularly fell over her own feet and crumpled in a heap on the doorstep of our hotel room. This picture makes me laugh - if you use your imagination (or zoom in on your computer) you can see her on the floor, while I look on, unable to bend in my mermaid gown, while my bridesmaids helped to hoist her up. Turns out this was the first of many stumbles to be had on the day!

See how awesome the hotel lobby was? Wish I'd taken some pictures with the girls here.

Getting to the church was surreal. I remember...

Sitting really, really awkwardly in the car - bending in a mermaid gown is ridiculously hard
Trying not to move my head, in fear of causing my veil to fall out of my hair
Cars honking their horns and lots of waving passengers when they saw the bride!
Realising that I'd completely forgotten to have our photographer take a picture of the beautiful gift Jason had given me.
Being really, really worried that I wouldn't be at the church on time.

Speaking of that gift - Jase had bought me a gorgeous card along with a necklace - the most beautiful white gold and diamond pendant on a dainty silver chain. I wasn't planning on wearing a necklace on the wedding day, but it was so perfect that I couldn't not wear it.

While we were on our way to the church, Jase and the boys had already arrived. Our florist had decorated the first few pews with some simple babys breath bouquets and the church was as beautiful as ever.

The boys handed out programs and greeted guests as they arrived at the church.

The string trio we had booked set themselves up and started playing classical music.

Our parents made their way into the church, while the boys got comfortable waiting for us.

In the meantime, my girls and I had arrived... dead on time. 2pm. On the dot.

Unfortunately, just because I was on time? Didn't mean the rest of our guests were. To my horror, there were loads of friends and family members still slowly making their way inside the church - and there I was, sitting in full view! I got nervous then and made my lovely bridesmaids act as human shields for me, as well as hiding behind my bouquet.

But in a few minutes... Father Christopher was on his way to see if we were ready.

A little bit of veil adjusting...

Right everyone... let's go get married!

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.

Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.

We finished off our last minute projects at home.

I had some girly time the day before the wedding.

I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.

A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!

The girls had their hair and make-up done.

The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.

It was finally my turn to get beautified!
I put my dress on & became a bride.

You and Me: Putting The Dress On

2011-08-10T07:00:00.012+10:00

With the boys on their way to the church and with the girls' hair and make-up done, there was only one thing left for me to do. It was time to get the dress on.

The girls had already changed into their beautiful grey bridesmaid dresses while my hair was being finished off. They looked stunning, seriously.

I snuck into the bathroom to get my sassy sucky-inny-undergarments on. When I returned, it was just my mum and my girls waiting in the room, ready to help me slide into my wedding gown. As soon as she saw me, my mum took it upon herself to get teary and come give me a hug. I not-so-gently replied to her cuddle with a 'GET OFF THE DRESS' outburst, which caused us to get the giggles while I attempted to keep the unbuttoned dress from falling off.

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

It was time to do me up, buttercup. I was so, so nervous about the dress fitting me.

I've never sucked in my guts as much or held in my breath for as long as I did during those few minutes. As soon as I knew the dress was going to zip up and close after all, I relaxed.

Image via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

We borrowed an old silver button-hook from my grandmother to help us with the tiny buttons down the back of the gown.

My dad hadn't seen the dress before - I loved seeing his reaction for the first time.

Next up, the most awkward part of the dressing stage - shimmying into my lace bolero! Some of the expressions I pulled wiggling in to this thing were priceless. (Seriously: watch the wedding video.)

Images via Amy Nelson-Blaine Wedding Cinematography

It was on! It fit! My boobs were snug! Huzzah! With me done, I helped my dad pin on his simple flower corsage. (When I say helped, I really mean 'fumbled stupidly thanks to my long nails', but you get the idea.)

After all of my indecisiveness, I decided on just one pair of wedding day shoes after all - the ivory ones! My Maid of Honour helped me into them while I hoisted the lower layers of my dress up out of the way.

A little wedding day perfume was sprayed on - not without more face pulling, of course. I chose j'adore: it's feminine, light and will forever remind me of our wedding day.

We were just about ready to walk out the door, but wait... what about the gorgeous veil I had borrowed from Mrs. French Fries to wear for the ceremony?

Well, in the heat of the moment, I completely forgot about it. As in, hadn't even given it one single thought. And.. uh oh, our make-up and hair stylists had already left - with all the hair pins. Yikes! The girls improvised to get it wedged into my hair style, MacGuyvering it up with pins from their own hairstyles to keep it firmly in place.

With the veil wedged in as good as we were going to get it, it was really time to go!

All photographs by the team at Follan Photography unless otherwise noted.

Let's start at the very beginning - it's a very good place to start.

Our wedding rehearsal went by in a flash.

We finished off our last minute projects at home.

I had some girly time the day before the wedding.

I checked into the bridal suite and spent the evening alone.

A prank call woke me up... to my wedding day!

The girls had their hair and make-up done.

The boys relaxed and took it easy playing pool.

It was finally my turn to get beautified!