Sleepless Nights

Author: Veronica

  • I do love chocolate + giveaway

    Cadbury has recently released a new range of chocolates, their “Marvellous Creations” range. I was lucky enough to be sent one of each kind to try and once I emerged from my post chocolate haze, I agreed to do a giveaway as well.

    Can I just point out that pretty packaging actually makes a huge difference in how I feel about a product? I mean, I was always going to love the chocolate, but the purple tissue paper and ribbon were just that added something.

    It doesn’t take much to look like you try, is what I’m saying.

    The chocolate is delicious for the record. A little hard to share with children, because the pieces are larger than in a normal block, but the easy solution there is don’t share.

    Because Cadbury are great to work with, they’ve offered me 10 packs of chocolate to give away. Each pack contains the three blocks of chocolate as seen above, as well as a Cadbury apron. Just in case you feel like getting really messy with your choccie.

    To enter, simply comment below and let me know what flavour chocolate you would call a “Marvellous Creation”.

    a Rafflecopter giveaway

    You MUST fill out the Rafflecopter widget in order to enter. One entry per household please and prizes can only be mailed to AUSTRALIAN POSTAL ADDRESSES, so please don’t enter if you don’t have somewhere to send it.

    ***

    I received Cadbury chocolate in return for posting about this giveaway. I think that’s a fair trade. What can I say, I like chocolate, a lot.

  • I am so beyond thankful

    This:

    This might not look like anything special to you. In fact, you may be wondering why I’m posting a photo of a very normal toilet. But I am excited.

    We’ve lived in this house for the last four years and had an outside toilet the entire time. Finally, we bit the bullet, replaced the entire grey water system, had new trenches dug, put in new piping and got a toilet put inside. See here for photos.

    It was an absolutely huge job and half of my front yard remains nothing but clay and mud (we’re hopeful we can put grass seeds in soon) but it’s DONE!

    My friend, the ever lovely Lucy, dropped her husband in it and suggested that he could put our toilet in for mates rates. I am beyond grateful to them both, not only Tom for taking the time out to plumb everything in and make it work, but for Lucy letting us borrow him and being so generous with her friendship and support. Also, Mum for offering to make the ceramics to pay Lucy and Tom with.

    Sometimes, the people you meet are simply amazing. They really really are.

    It’s been a busy few weeks, but it’s all done now and guess what Internet – I can pee inside. No more am I freezing myself at 3am because the baby bounced on my bladder.

    So beyond thankful.

  • 27 weeks and still not capitalising on my extended girth.

    It’s a shame isn’t it, that pregnancy is so exhausting. Apparently if I’d thought this through before the vomiting and the exhaustion and the waist expansion, I could have made this into rather a money spinner.

    Instead, I am celebrating the beginnings of stretchmark growth and elasticised support underwear that come up to my boobs.

    Way back when I first started taking pregnancy photos, I had this idea that they’d all be taken in the same spot, in front of my blackcurrant bush, and through Summer, Autumn and Winter, anyone paying close attention would be able to see the changed in the bush that mimicked the growth of my stomach.

    Of course, now that it’s actually Winter, that idea seems like a terrible one – especially when I headed outside to take the 27 week photo, only to be hit by icy cutting wind and a desire to go back inside Right Now.

    Then the problem was finding somewhere inside my house to take the photos. Nathan recently bought new creamy coloured curtains – so score. Playing around with the camera to actually get a photo that wasn’t a mere silhouette, or terribly blurry – that took a while.

    So! I have a new stretchmark and that is the most exciting thing to report for this week. It’s not really “new” in that it’s a continuation of an old stretch mark left over from the last time I put myself through this. I’m thinking though, if I’m really lucky, it will cross over my belly button and leave an interesting looking cross in the middle of my stomach.

    It’s the little things.

    Nothing interesting to report. The uterine dweller continues to mimick an octopus, my blood pressure continues to sit at a ridiculously low level and my pelvis continues to fall apart.

    Pregnancy is boring.

     

  • Crap, my children are growing up. I’d best hurry up and have another kid in order to keep my blog running

    Internet! Why didn’t you tell me that I was doing it all wrong? Here I am, firmly up the duff and yet I didn’t have a sponsored post and giveaway announcing the pregnancy, nor have I managed to effectively monetise my bump.

    And don’t think that I am talking small sidebar advertising – no, I want branded maternity wear and a whole new wardrobe for this kid. Not to mention, a new cot and pram and assorted fripperies.

    I hear that fripperies are the absolutely latest thing in baby fashion and I want to know why I’m not being drowned in offers to fripperise my nursery. Babies only need somewhere to sleep, boobs and clothes? PFFT. They need the latest FRIPPERIES I tell you.

    I’m 27 weeks pregnant now, my blog should be nothing by All Baby, All The Time. I need to throw out all of the toys that my children keep in the spare room and turn it into a tastefully decorated nursery, complete with mobiles and a thousand dollar rocker (that some nice sponsor will gift me).

    Pregnancy is the best thing that can happen to a mummy blogger, according to everything I’ve ever read, and I just want to know why it isn’t doing anything for my page views. Is there not enough drama? Am I too busy retching in the garden and collapsing into bed to actively seek out these opportunities?

    Will I look back on this pregnancy once my kid is born and regret bitterly not capitalising on my fertility while I had the chance? This is going to be my last pregnancy ever, surely I should be leaving the world of child bearing with a bang, rather than a whimper?

    I absolutely will not take responsibility for my own pregnancy and buy anything myself. It should all be laid on for me. The baby clothes that I was planning on putting on this child are (GASP) third-hand now and have been well loved prior. This isn’t good enough, Internet and I want to know why nothing is being done.

    And are we forgetting my poor autistic children. Surely I only gave birth to them and their quirks in order to monetise them effectively. They don’t make me laugh regularly, or cover me with kisses – no, they’re merely blog fodder.

    Don’t you know, it’s all about the page views? Pregnancy, babies and children with extra needs are all big business and I can’t help but feel that I am missing out on a giant opportunity here. Not to mention my broken joints. Surely I only blog about those for the extra attention, not for the education factor. Who wants to educate people about autism and hypermobility? Not me. I just want free shit.

    Obviously, I am doing it all wrong and ought to be kicked out of the club.

     

  • This photo pretty much sums up my parents

    This pretty much sums up my parents. I’ve just stubbed my toe and am sitting on the ground crying at Nan’s. Dad is patting me while he tells me to be tough, it doesn’t hurt that much (HOW DO YOU KNOW? IT WASN’T YOUR TOE!) while Mum stands in the background, trying not to laugh at me.

    And people wondered why I was weird.