Sorry for being MIA for so long. I actually completely forgot about the whole blogging thing in amongst everything that I’ve had going on.
In August and September, I was helping to prepare, organise and enjoy the Australian Wiccan Conference – we had an absolute ball. It was an amazing energy with incredible people that I’ll never forget. Considering it was my first large gathering, included my first large ritual (ie more than 5-6 people) and my first national gathering, it was a real eye-opener for me, and a really emotional, spiritual experience. Loved every minute of it. The energy was just awesome.
So most weekends in August and the start of September was taken up with preparing decorations and small items for the Conference. I loved every minute of helping to organise the event and would do it again in a heartbeat.
My parents left for Europe on Saturday just been and it’s been really quite strange without them around already (it’s only been 4 days out of a 3-week trip!). I’m trying to keep an eye on my brother after last time without being too overbearing. I know that was over two years ago but I’m still not sure if he’s grown up much since then.
Unfortunately, at 2:00am Monday morning, Michael received a phone call that his Grandma had passed away. 2011 has not been a good year for us in terms of loss – I’ve lost more people close to me in the last 6 months than most people do in 5+ years. We’re not sure when the funeral will be, most likely next Monday or Tuesday, but that will mean a trip to Adelaide for Michael – we can’t both afford to go so just him and his sister will be attending.
So really, it’s been a hectic couple of months, hence my only posting now. Hopefully life will get back on track a little more and we can live some normalcy for a while. I’m trying to get in touch with myself again, spiritually. Finding it difficult to focus with everything going on but will try my best.
If you follow me on Twitter at all (I feel like I seem to start every entry with that line nowadays), you’ll know that Michael and I are looking at buying a house in the not-too-distant future.
We have looked at quite a few, and two of them have stood out for us. The first is a 1930s house with three large bedrooms, a built-on kitchen and bathroom, and a reasonably large backyard. It is on the market for $210,000.
The second is a property that was a house, again built in the 30s, converted to a dentist’s surgery. The house is completely empty, has a reception area and a waiting room (which would be the living room), and has potential to have three bedrooms (two of them previously being the rooms in which dental surgeries were carried out). It needs a bathroom and a kitchen put in (which, to have a functional kitchen and bathroom, would realistically take no more than a week), BUT it’s on the market for $190,000.
After weighing up the pros and cons of each, and talking to our bank, we put an offer on the second one. Our reasons were, that it would be less money spent on the actual property, leaving us with money to play with to put the kitchen and bathroom in. Additionally, it’s about 5 minutes walk to Mike’s work (along with shops), and probably less than 10 minutes to mine. The first house would have been 15 or so minutes to my work.
So, we are just going to get a builder (my uncle) in to have a look at it, to ensure it’s structurally sound and that kind of thing, then we’ll sign our contract and forward it to the owner who’ll then tell us if our offer is high enough or not. We’ve deliberately started low ($155,000) so that we have room to negotiate. Thankfully, when I said the offer to the Agent, he didn’t flinch, so it’s obviously about what he thinks it’s worth (!).
I’ll keep you updated on the progress of the process of us buying our house – it may fall through at this point, who knows – but it’s a learning experience for both of us.
Well, not really. Because the things that people wanted to hear about are things I’ve already posted about 
So for reference, here are the posts about the bigger events that happened in 2009.
The New Place – moving back into our own space was excellent, after living for something like 9-10 months at my parents’ place. We’d lived together on our own before, so it wasn’t a particularly outstanding achievement or event in itself, but it was a regaining of our freedom and independence.
New Beginnings – moving to Terri.nu was a big change – I still use the name ‘Inspirata’ for my website design stuff, but I felt it was time to move to something bigger and better. Terri.nu was a domain name I’d wanted for a while – it’s me, of course, and my name isn’t changing any time soon! Again, not much to this event, but it was something I did that stood out this year.
The Wedding Post – and of course, the biggest thing that happened in 2009 was our wedding. What can I say but it’s the start of the next phase of our relationship, true commitment to each other. The happiest day of my life.
And that’s about it. I did get a job in 2009, as well, which I am grateful for. I didn’t listen to the radio at all, unless I was in the car with my parents. I watched far too much TV and spent too much time playing The Sims 2 & 3. I lost 8kg in 12 months without even trying.
We lost Layla in February, whom we miss dearly (RIP Mama-Puss), which was a real breaking point for me, since I loved her so much.
Thankfully, though, Layla was our only loss this year – I wish it could have gone without any losses, but I suppose when a person’s or animal’s time has come, there’s not much you can really do about it.
In general, 2009 wasn’t bad. But, bring on 2010!
…that I’m never going to be a tidy person.
I just spent an hour cleaning the laundry and kitchen, and it still looks terrible.
I’ve resolved to clean a room every night after work, but I know that by the time I finish the last room, the first one I cleaned will be back where I started.
It’s so hard, too, when my hubby is a messy person. He’ll just step out of his clothes and leave them on the floor. I’ve tried to resolve this issue by putting the hamper in the bedroom, but it doesn’t help.
And another thing that is preventing me from being a tidy person is my perfectionism. When I clean, everything has to be perfect; there cannot be one thing out of place, ie. a spot on the kitchen counter, and if there is and I can’t do anything about it, I get so frustrated and upset with myself. This is particularly true when it comes to making the bed – if the sheet isn’t central and the doona cover isn’t on straight, or the doona isn’t even in the cover (like the corners not going into the corners, etc.), I get really annoyed.
I need to look at everything unbiasedly and just throw shit out. I don’t like living in clutter, but it’s how I’ve always been. Like my Dad said in his speech at our wedding, “Being tidy isn’t a priority in Terri’s life. She knows where everything is, so what’s the problem?”, but it’s kind of sad when you’re known as ‘The Messy One’ in your family…
[Part of this is cross-posted from EcstasyMB - you'd better join 
]
