I am Blessed - It's a GIRL

Still feeling crook, got woken up with Phill's snoring and my coughing and couldn't get back to sleep, earplugs are not nice with a head cold.  So I got up and went out to the lounge room and watched the early news and tried to get comfortable.  I'm boiling hot, then shivery cold lately, it's not pleasant.
I dozed off but then he finally got up and came out for the first of his three thousand cups of morning tea, at about 8.30 and I immediately high-tailed it back to bed for some more sleep which I got till about 10.
Then it got busy, Em had therapy at 1, but wanted to make shortbread for the therapists and I had to go and get groceries as we were out of everything. We had our last group session this week and were having a little party (if you could call it that) so had to get stuff ready for that at least.  In the middle of all that the phone rang and it was Ali, my oldest.  Phill answered the phone and I knew she had news as it is that stage of her pregnancy when she can find out the sex of the baby.  Yep I am going to have a GRAND DAUGHTER.  I can't describe how happy and excited I am.  Ali and I both wanted a girl this time around, more than we would tell anyone but each other, of course if it had been a boy it would have been wonderful, but the truth is we really wanted a girl.  This will no doubt be her last baby, and I won't get any more grandchildren for a very long time.  It touched me that she rang me first as soon as she got out of the ultrasound, she said she knew how excited I would be and that she wouldn't bother telling anyone else until they asked.  I feel that this is going to be what bonds us now.  I adore little Harvey, her firstborn, and I need to make a concerted effort now to get up to Sydney more to see them and be part of their lives.  I can't help feeling that this is the beginning of something really wonderful, so long I have struggled with my relationships with my older three.  The other two may come around some day, but this will do me for now.  I might not be able to make things up to Ali, but I can be the best granny I can possibly be to her two children.   I went and did the grocery shopping and got a little pink Wondersuit and pink socks.  I am going to make up a basket of baby things like I did for Harvey.
Other good news today is that my oldest niece has been accepted for paramedic school.  She is 8 years younger than me and has raised four kids and is finally doing something for herself.  She was more like a little sister to me.  I am so happy for her and she will make a great paramedic.
Friday Morning......
I'm so glad I got the presents sorted early, Phill has had little work and almost no overtime in the past couple of weeks so the pre Christmas pay was pretty dismal.  It's the way we've always lived, it's either feast or famine with us, and in a way I'm kind of glad we have to be frugal from here on in.  The excesses of this time of year leave me feeling uneasy.  We were going to wait till the last minute and buy a fresh turkey this year (we say that every year) but I decided to get a frozen one yesterday so that if nothing else, we'll have a hot turkey dinner on Christmas Day.

I usually get the smallest size as there's only the four of us but the size 70 (7kg!) was only two dollars more, I actually considered it but then didn't know if it would even fit in our oven.  I've never cooked a large bird and don't know if it would dry out too much either.

Posted Kate's pressie off yesterday, I'm so excited and hope she likes what she finds in her little Christmas stocking.  She is having an "orphans' Christmas" now it seems, she's found some other people who are far away from family so that makes me feel better.  She is ambivalent about the whole thing but having grown up with a mother who always went over the top I'm sure there are aspects of it she still enjoys.

We were thrilled to find a beautiful blue tongue lizard in our backyard the other day.  He was so tame, actually walked between Phill's feet and waddled down the path.  Someone told us yesterday that they tend to make a garden their home and I heard some heavy rustling yesterday when I picked some parsley so I'm hoping he's been able to dodge the cat and dog.

Well this entry has taken me about fourteen hours to get done so enough for now.

Can't believe I'm going to have a GRAND DAUGHTER!!!!