I was inspired this morning by a post from Carly at Extremely Hyper - because, as she wrote, it's pretty crazy how fast this year has disappeared so far. I've been keeping track of this year in the form of a photo a day (you can see the set here) and it's been interesting to see how much has happened.

January saw us move into our new home in Sydney - our very sweet apartment that we'll be renting until further notice. It's not grand, it's not in a great location, but it's our home. For now, at least!

February was when I found my current teaching position, with thanks to the fates. As much as I'm drowning in report cards and exhaustion from my 6 & 7 year olds, I absolutely adore it.
March went by in a flash! I was busy with school work, and celebrated my bridal shower with some of my best girlfriends. Jase and I also took part in an engagement photoshoot, which was great fun! Our wedding RSVP's began trickling in here, which brought lots of warm fuzzies & the occasional bouts of disappointment.
April brought sickness, a fair bit of it too. I went to hospital for the first time in my life, suffered from two bouts of gastro & colitis, and got knocked around by a pretty rotten cold.
May marked the beginning of assessment season at school - meaning report comments needed to be written, pronto! It's also been the month of stress, lots of wedding decisions, payments and deadlines have loomed, and I've been struggling to keep on top of it all.
And June? Well, June is the month I've been looking forward to now for almost two years. In June, just two short weekends away, I will marry my best friend.

There are 19 days until the wedding. We're in the TEENS, people. Hold me.

After battling the gastro/colitis bug o'doom, I've now got a cold. I feel like ass, I look like ass, and I am more than a little bit whingy because of it all. Any other illnesses that the universe would like to throw at me? If yes, please do so now. I will be gutted if I'm sick for the wedding.

I have 25 report cards to write. Considering there are six Key Learning Areas, plus a General Comment for each child, that equals 175 unique blurbs that I need to write, based on achievements, outcomes, indicators and assessment and observation tasks. I know I don't drink coffee, but I think I'm going to need to start. Now.

People are actually asking me for timelines for the wedding day. As in, for what's actually supposed to be happening on the wedding day. And to that, I am getting a bit twitchy because um, I have no idea yet. And then I look around for someone else to ask but... there is no-one else. I'm supposed to know these things. Bride fail.

We received our first wedding present, and to fit all clichés? It was a toaster. Luckily, it was an awesome toaster that was on our gift registry, so that makes us very happy. I've now started stalking our Myer registry to see if anyone else has bought us anything, which is really naughty and very addicting. Must stop doing this.

I have so much to do. I have to organise programs. I have to get final numbers to our venue in the next week. I need to arrange tables and music and escort cards/place settings. I need to pay our final amounts to our vendors and make sure everyone is happy and has what they need.

It's Jason's birthday on Thursday and I've not bought him a present yet.

Please distract me with some randomness of your own before I self destruct, won't you? (It might be messy.)

I realised that in blogging at weddingbee, I've ended up not mentioning a lot about our planning over here. So, in the spirit of sharing, I've decided to share my bridal shower. It was held a few weeks ago now, and it wasn't just any bridal shower, oh no. The theme was a high tea afternoon complete with 'frocks & hats', and looked fabulous!

Despite there being a few morning showers (before the shower, how fitting!) the day turned out to be lovely - and the set up was just fabulous. My mum & three wonderful bridesmaids had spent the morning setting up, had baked for the past few days and had planned all sorts of lovely surprises. Nearly everyone followed the instructions and turned up wearing some form of hairpiece. It was a really great turn-out.

First things first, the decor. My mum had borrowed a marquee from a friend, and set it up with ivy, tables & chairs, as well as flowers in vases. The girls had set up separate tables for fancy teas, for mismatched vintage tea-cups, and for food - plates and plates of sandwiches, mini quiches, scones and sweeties. Yum!
And then there were the games! As the guests arrived, everyone was given a peg to clip to their outfit - if you said the "W" word (WEDDING!) & someone heard you, you got to steal their peg and whoever had the most pegs at the end of the day won a special prize.

There was also the traditional game of creating a wedding gown - but since it was drizzly, the toilet paper was replaced with garbage bags. These were the top three designs. (The gown on the left won.)
And, best of all, there was a cupcake decorating station! Fresh cupcakes were baked, decorations were bought, and all of the guests had to make their own design - with lucky me getting to choose the winner. I had to have a turn too, although I'll admit, mine came out rather terribly. I fail at piping. Some of them were pretty clever.
The day was so much fun - I ran around like a crazy person trying to catch everyone and make sure I spent some time with them, but I still feel like I missed out on a few things. If this is any indication of what the wedding's going to be like, I'm slightly daunted. But, I was spoiled by my loved ones and thoroughly impressed at how much planning & detail went into the event - I'm a lucky girl.

Last night, Jason & I attended an engagement party - thrown for two of our bridal party members. While it'd be cool to imagine two strangers being thrown together in wedding preparation, falling in love & deciding to get hitched themselves, it wasn't quite like that!

My brother Ajay is one of the groomsmen, and Hayley is one of my girls - they've been dating for a couple of years now. They announced their engagement just a few weeks ago and there's been loads of wedding-related excitement in the air ever since. They're a gorgeous couple, both physically and personality-wise, and I'm thrilled to be (finally!) getting the sister I always wanted.

Their engagement party was 'red carpet' themed, and everyone looked awesome in their suits & ball gowns.

Needless to say, the night was filled with lots of mingling between the two families. And the question for Jason & I that was on everybody's lips? Are you ready yet?

It's funny, because you can take this in a few ways. In a literal sense, no. We're so not ready. We have oodles of things we haven't done yet, I'm doing my best to get things done in the right priority order, and we're both working full-time. I think props have to go to anyone planning a wedding and working at the same time, because finding the time to do everything is no easy feat, especially in the final weeks. The next few weeks are filled with little bits & pieces that need to get done - and it's amazing how quickly time is flying. Sometimes I really do wonder how on Earth I'm going to get everything done.

But then, I'm oh so ready. I've been ready for this for years. It's a little cliché to admit it, but I knew I would marry Jason very early on in our relationship. And whether you've been with someone six months, for two years, three, six, eight, nine... you just know when its the right person. All these countdowns, all the waiting during our long engagement, waiting for the 'right time', yep, I'm ready. I'm so ready. And best of all, he's ready too.

One of the hardest things to deal with in our waiting phase was not being on the same page. I was ready, he wasn't. I nagged, cried, drowned in a sea of other people's engagements, and he waited. It hurts when you're ready, but they aren't - it makes you doubt yourself, makes you think you're the one who cares more in the relationship, or that your partner doesn't feel the same way you do. Looking back, I know now that he still loved me and wanted to the same things that I did - it was just the timing wasn't right. Now that we're so close, hearing Jason tell me that he's looking forward to being married, well, it gives me the warm and fuzzies.

So are we ready yet? We're as ready as we'll ever be. And even if we scrap a few projects, or cut a few corners, or just plain turn up on the wedding day in a dress and a suit, we'll be ready.

It's been a while since I mentioned how our plans for home building are going so far.

Last time I spoke about it, we were getting ready for our meeting with the building company, to sketch up our plans and to figure out our internal and external colours. That was back in March. Since then, it feels like not much has happened - which is apparently normal in the grand scheme of things. We waited for weeks for our builders, Allcastle Homes, to finalise our official plans and to work out our electrical pricing and BASIX certification, and it was finally, FINALLY, sent off to Blacktown City Council on April the 8th.

So what happens now? Well, we wait some more. (Of course!) I am the most impatient person ever, so I am finding this whole process horrific - and it only gets worse once the actual build gets started.

I was optimistic and hoping that by the time the wedding rolled around, we'd have already gotten our approval and had a slab laid ready to get working on, but now I'm not so sure. The reason we got started on this build last December was in the hopes that it would be completed by this December, but every agonising day that we wait around, that dream is looking less likely.

If you're up for sending some good building juju our way, we certainly wouldn't say no to it - here's hoping our council approval happens sooner rather than later so we can get on with it.

Do you want to actually see the home we're planning on building? Here it is!

There will be a few things we're tweaking on our design - the windows will look slightly different, and we're getting panelled garage doors - but the look of the place will be the same.

I can't wait to share more details about the process with you, once more is actually happening. :)

What happens when you're trying to take on too many projects at the same time? You end up stressed out, being mostly useless at all of them, and becoming slightly delirious.

So... remember that pre-wedding photo session we had a few weeks ago? The one that I was feeling super self conscious about, and how I was terrified that it would turn out awful?

Well, the pictures are back and the verdict is in.

I officially spent so much time freaking out about it for nothing. We were in a beautiful location, we did our best to mellow out and enjoy the experience, and our super-awesome-fantastic photographer, Andrew, captured some really beautiful shots, if I may say so myself.

Enough rambling from me, here are some of my favourites!

It was a perfect afternoon & I love how beautifully all the photos came out.

I am so incredibly excited to see what wonderful things the Follans come up with for our wedding day pictures: just think, only a couple more weeks now and we'll be back in front of that camera again, hamming it up!

The next step is wondering how to sneak my tiny Jaguar figurines into our wedding day, mwahahaha. And yes, Weddingbee reference, ftw! Can you believe I've been blogging over there as Miss Jaguar for seven months now?

Now comes the hard part: we have to choose one of our favourite shots to be enlarged as part of our package - which one should we pick? Your advice would be very much welcomed!!

I had pretty boring plans for the end of my school holidays. I wanted to lay low at home (easy, since Jase has been working the whole time and has taken the car) and finish off my teaching programme for the next term, while watching a few Melrose Place episodes for good measure.

Sunday threw a bit of a spanner in the works: while most people were enjoying their Easter morning, I spent the day sick as a dog. I'll spare you the descriptions of what kind of sickness it was, but to give you a rough idea I wasn't able to eat much that day without it coming straight back up again. I finally managed to have a small meal of oats that evening, and had an early night to catch up on some sleep.

3am that morning saw me woken up with crazy stomach pains. They continued every hour, on the hour, until 6.30am when Jase woke up to find me freaking out and hyperventilating because my abdominal pains were so bad. After a bit of worry about what to do, with Jase pacing the apartment talking to my parents on the phone, and with me rocking on the bathroom floor hugging the toilet, he made up his mind - we were going to the emergency room.

I'll admit, I was more than a little nervous. Aside from visiting, I've never been to a hospital before as a patient - and I wasn't sure if it was the right decision to make. I was freaking out and in pain, but didn't want to go to hospital if it was just stomach cramps. At the same time, I didn't want to stay home and do nothing while I felt like I was dying. And so, we went. Off to the hospital, in the wee hours of a rainy and miserable Easter Monday.

The regular side of the hospital was closed, so I had to be admitted as an emergency patient - which made me even more panicky about being there. I mean, I watch Grey's and ER: from all I know, the emergency room is for traumas and dramatic stuff, not for tummy pains! But then, there was me with my giant swollen abdomen and shooting pains, so tight that I couldn't get my jeans to do up - so I figured we'd just go with it.

It was pretty deserted and after going through the motions of my history, I was shown into a bed and a very, very unflattering gown while they took some blood and did a few tests. After a while, I was given morphine (whoa, burny light-headed feeling, jebus) as well as some anti-nausea and stomach-cramping medication. As you can see, I'm not very technical. ;) They also hooked me up to a blood pressure monitor as well as started a bag of fluids.

My official diagnosis was gastroenteritis, colitis and dehydration - all of which were combining together to form the abdominal bloating and pain. I stayed there for most of the morning and some of the afternoon, and several shots of morphine and a few litres of IV fluids later, I was set to go home. After Jason's big efforts to get me there and treated, he had to shoot off to work - so my lovely folks (who, I might add, stayed by my side all morning to keep me company) took me back to their place for the rest of the afternoon.

Thankfully, the pain relaxed and I managed to keep down some crackers later on. And to finish off my random, random day? A few games of Bananagram with my parents was the perfect way. There is nothing cooler than word games and shouts of 'peel!' 'dump!' 'BANANA'. It's enough to make anyone feel better!

I've been meaning to write up this review for the past few weeks now, and it has just kept slipping my mind. I'm blaming the wedding. I figure I might as well use that excuse now, while I can!

A few months ago, I was sent two packs of EucoFresh Laundry Powder from Bosisto's to sample and enjoy. Being honest, I'd not heard of the brand before - but we'd only recently moved back to Australia at the time, so I was experimenting with a few liquids without favouring any one brand.

• Leave a comment telling me how often you do your washing - are you slack like I am?
• Follow me on Twitter (@BreatheGently) & share the contest news with your friends!

Today started out like any other holiday.

I slept late, lounged around the house in my pyjamas, lazily arranged plans to get out of the house & had a wonderful afternoon - I caught a movie with the bff and ambled around a local shopping centre, not really looking for anything in particular and enjoying some company. Later that afternoon when it was time to go, I did what I always do: walked Kirby to the door, and stood with it mostly closed, saying goodbye.

Usually, Oscar sits behind me and watches through the crack. Today, he shoved his head out the door - so I had to nudge him back inside out of sight, since he's not really supposed to be here, and I'm always frightened of our neighbours hearing/seeing him. All was well, until he decided to make a bolt for it. Oscar flew straight out between my legs and onto the landing - and that's when panic ensued. Kirby stayed guarding the stairs, in case he tried to make a run for it and disappear, and I lunged out of the apartment after him and grab him while he was close.

I was successful - I swung out, grabbed him up into my arms and breathed a sigh of relief. That relief turned into panic, when I saw the door swinging closed out of the corner of my eye. I ran for it, but like in slow-motion, it slammed shut literally seconds before I'd got to it.

So. There I was. Standing in the hallway of our apartment complex, holding onto a terrified cat who is not supposed to exist. Kirby looked on in panic, as I frantically tried the door knob several times, realising with a sinking feeling that my keys, phone and handbag were all just inside the door... which was locked. What else was I missing? Why, my shoes, of course. I was barefoot and freaking the eff out.

First things first, we hid in a stairwell. I couldn't risk Oscar being seen, and we didn't want to leave the entire apartment complex because otherwise would have no way of getting back in. We rang Jase from Kirby's phone, explained the situation & asked if he could leave work early to let us in - except that he was in the middle of a deployment and physically couldn't leave the office.

We ended up hoofing it to Miss K's car and driving to his work with the cat sitting on my lap - talk about some strange expressions from people in surrounding cars! Oscar coped remarkably well, making friends through the windows and being pretty calm about it all considering the situation. I think I was more stressed than he was. We met Jason at his work, grabbed his keys, and headed back for home.

Honestly, talk about an eventful evening. In the end, we managed to smuggle Oscar-cat back upstairs, thankfully not running into any neighbours on the way, and sat down to laugh about it all. Talk about a random way of ending the day! I'm so thankful that Kirby was there; it tells you a lot about a person, if they're willing to shuttle their friend AND their cat halfway across town of an evening.

Moral of the story? Wear shoes, always. Keep an eye on your naughty feline. And always, always unlock the door's dead-bolts before opening it - just in case.