IMPORTANT - Change!

This has been coming for a few months now, the change I mean. I have always blogged over here at Blogger, I stumbled here when I started my first photography blog and then when my sister and I started our business together we blogged here. When I decided to start my very own personal blog, of course I didn't even think, here is where I stayed.

But over the last few months, there have been many glitches over here, that have made my writing more time consuming than it needs to be! Making it hard to upload photos, let alone actually publish a post. But today, I had enough when I logged into blogger and apparently I have no blogs on my reading list! I follow a few blogs religiously, so don't tell me I don't follow any blogs!

So a week or so ago, I got myself a Wordpress Blog and started to play around. Things aren't perfect and I know next to nothing, but I am willing to give it a red hot go. My blog is really basic, but I will build it up from there to be how I see it.

So for the bloggers who I follow, I have bookmarked you and will visit you each day for my updates!! But for those of you who follow me, bookmark me and head over and leave a comment on my new blog so that I know you have found me www.amumsreality.wordpress.com the best part about Word Press that I have found, is my ability to reply directly to comments (like a chat conversation).

So join me

Bel xx

My plan of attack!

I'm not doing this to fit into my wedding dress, no not at all, considering my major fitting is on Monday! I feel blah! I don't like how I feel, how I look in the mirror and how lazy I am. Something has to change. I need a different tack.

Last night it came to me, I'm a planner and a visual learner, so therefore I need to go forth and plan. In the darkness of my study, I made a grid, it started on Thursday (which is today) and goes for a week. I listed the exercise I planned to do for each day, had a box underneath which is blank for me to fill out the duration of time I did it for. Under that, I have another box, it's called "lame excuses", which, if I don't move at all that day, I have to write my reason why.....because indeed, it will be lame, and will seem even more so if it is written down there for me to see.

Then I hit the scales, I weighed myself (though I'm not overly fussed about this number) and then I measured myself too, which I will use as more of a guide for me. This also went on my little document, in black and white. And now it belongs on my fridge door. I also have one hanging in my office at work. Did I mention I also emailed it to a friend - I'll have to answer to her now too!

They say it takes 21 days to start a new habit, this is day one. I feel motivated in my tracksuit gear today. I'm looking forward to all I have planned.

Bel x

These are a few of my favorite things........(today anyway!)

1. My deep mist pillow spray from the Body Shop. I think it works, I can't be 100% sure, but it does make my pillow smell so dreamy. I have two bottles, one in my bedside table, and one in my toiletry bag for when I am away. Phoebe loves it too!

2. Stop! Cuddle time! Phoebe and I often sing this out to each other, and cuggle or huggle time, as we like to call it occurs. Special moments like these I treasure more while I am working so much.

3. Knowing that the 1st of December is right around the corner and the Christmas fun can begin! I have always loved Christmas but now that Phoebe is a little older and understands a bit more, I look forward to it even more.

4. A nice Smirnoff Black when I get home after a hard day at work! Even better when it is coupled with a hot bath!

5. Instagram! Although I'm a photographer, sometimes my camera is just too big and bulky to carry around with me. My iPhone however, is with me at all times. I'll make a photo book at the end of the year to show all the photos I have taken with it, or else, they are going to go to waste and some of the most memorable moments are on there.

6. Friends....some have been extra special this week, with lovely thoughts and gestures that have warmed my heart.

7. My Sister, who despite having her own little man to look after, managed to have Phoebe this week while her Nan and Aunty were away in Bali. You are awesome, and this should prove you are in fact a super Mum!!

What are a few of your favorite things?

Bel x

He has arrived!!

First of all, I would like to say how amazing I think Amazon is, from the moment I ordered my Elf on the Shelf, they estimated the arrival time to be between the 17th of November and the 1st of December. I checked his shipping status, it said he had arrived in the country 4 days earlier, and that the estimated time of arrival was the 17th of November. He arrived on my doorstep on the 17th of November, see, amazing!

I saw him sitting on my shoe rack, Phoebe didn't. I hurried him inside without her noticing and while she went to the toilet I quickly unwrapped him. I seriously think I am way more excited than she will be when she sees him. I wanted to show her that very moment, but with help from my friends, I've seen the error of my ways and have decided he shall re-arrive on our doorstep from Santa the night before the 1st of December. He was also a lot bigger than I expected (I hear the internet can make you look smaller, lol!).

A few of my friends have now ordered their own, some which their kids were now younger. I have sooooo many plans for him!! When he arrives, we have to name him online and adopt him (I hope his name is not Riley, Phoebe has named every doll in this house Riley). Then, each day he looks over her from somewhere in the house. At night, he returns to the North Pole to report back to Santa. But best of all, he can't be touched, it may take away his magic and he might not be able to return!

Thanks to Pinterest again, I have so many fun things I can and am going to do with our little guy each morning. I don't know really who is going to be having more fun, Phoebe or I! I love Christmas, and now it is going to be a little more fun and special with this new tradition we are about to begin. Stay tuned from December when I start to blog about his adventures at our house!

Have you got a family Christmas tradition?

Bel x

Family

It's been a busy few weeks, that's why I haven't written so much, between work, after hours work commitments and dance rehearsals for Phoebe, not to mention preparing for Christmas, it's been a little crazy here!

I've wanted to write, I just haven't found the time (ok, a bit of laziness too). But today I want to write about family. There are days when I just think about mine and realise how truly blessed we are to have ours very close to us. My Mum lives in the same town, a quick drive from here, my sister and her family I can walk to in 20 minutes, and Michael's family (which is quite large, seven siblings and one neice in total) also live a short walk away. My Dad and his wife are the only ones that are far, but Skype helps that, ahhh the technology!

When Phoebe was young I always had the support of my sister and also my great ex-next door neighbor (not sure she really knows how much she helped me), not to mention our close network of friends. You know, those crap days, where your baby is crying and your at our whits end and start crying yourself, who do you call? I used to call my sister. But if she wasn't around, I had so many other people to back me up, to come running to the rescue and give me a break.

As soon as I returned to work, well even when Phoebe was just a seed in our minds, we knew we wouldn't have to worry about childcare, Phoebe is lucky enough to be looked after by her Nan and her Aunty. For this, we are so grateful, it is peace of mind for us. We really are lucky! On Wednesday nights her Aunties take her to watch netball, and she is often on sleepovers too.

I know we are lucky, blessed, whatever you'd like to call it, but the last few weeks and it has really been cemented for me. So many people around me either don't have their families closer don't have them at all, some are completely supportive and helpful, others not so much. So I will continue to not take how lucky we are to have a supportive family living so close by!!

Bel x

Don't panic! It might not be a panic attack!

It was years ago that I had my first real panic attack and knew that that was what it actually was. When I have one, even to this day, I get butterflies in my stomach, I tend to get diarrhea (sorry to be graphic but that is my main symptom) which then leads to the cause of my panic .... I would much rather stay at home for fear of embarrassing myself, having to go to the toilet in public (because no one does that do they - see irrational fear!), or being stuck in the car and needing to go to the toilet (which does happen but of course I have never had an accident - which is another fear). When having a panic attack, I let the people around me know by telling them "I'm feeling sick", it's kind of my code word!

But in the last few months I have noticed something different, a key, a clue to some of my panic attacks. So I started my own little experiment to see if I could be right and then of course I saw my Doctor and presented my evidence.

It turns out now, that after all this time, I have figured out that even though I am not Coeliac, I do in fact have an intolerance to wheat. Because wheat is a main staple in ones diet, especially mine, this would then lead to bloating, an upset belly and then of course, the immediate need to go to the loo - which drum roll please, would activate said panic attacks!

Since I have discovered this little key, I can say that I still suffer from the occasional panic attack but I have diminished them by 3/4's!! I even managed a three hour drive to Echuca the

other week, with no medication for my panic attacks and no Imodium (to stop you know what!).

I am still on the path of discovery, one step at a time. What things I can eat and how much (for instance I know I can have a bowl of pasta for dinner but if I have the leftovers for lunch the next day, I am in strife). I am trying to find a bread that I can eat, that is my goal at the moment.

Does anyone know of a good bread or of anything else good to eat?

Bel x

Minor freak out!

There will be no pictures with this post today, because I'm having a minor wedding freak out!! I know I am pretty organized, so that's why I am saying "minor" freak out. It's just because the wedding is in March, I want a lot of things done before Christmas hits!

Almost a year and a half before the big day, we'd already booked the place, the time, the photographer, the celebrant and the caterer! Not to mention I found a dress I loved (freak out one - I hope it still fits!). So yeah, I am organised, mostly.

So today, when I started making a bit of a list, I started my freak out. I think it is probably more because I am working full-time this term and don't have the extra couple of days to do things. That coupled with the fact that every weekend until Christmas is now taken up with parties, birthdays and other catch ups.

So I guess I just need to breathe and start crossing things slowly off the list. I know it will all be fine in the end, and I swear I have been an awesome bride until this point, no fuss what so ever. So off I go, have a bit of online shopping to do!

Surely I'm not the only bride to have a minor freak out!?

Bel x