for N

is for Normanton

I finished University at the end of 2000, a time where jobs were pretty scarce for teachers. I didn't get a job straight away and that was pretty rough. I spent times ringing district offices asking if there were any jobs available, short term contracts...whatever! I was getting pretty desperate and down in the dumps feeling like 4 years of University was a waste of time while I continued to work in a furniture shop.

Finally the many many phone calls paid off when I was offered a 6 month contract in Normanton. I did not really have much of a clue where it was but given that I was ringing Mt Isa, I knew it was 'up there' somewhere! I quickly grabbed a map and accepted the offer. 

There is it way up in the Gulf!!

It wasn't long before the removalists arrived, the plane ticket was booked and I was on my way! Approximately 2050km away from my family and friends. I didn't have much time to think about it and if I did I probably wouldn't have gone. I started at the beginning of Semester 2, I flew from Brisbane to Cairns, and then got in the smallest plane I had ever been in and flew from Cairns to Normanton. I really am not sure what my first impressions were but I do remember being a little nervous, scared and hot! Yep HOT! It was the middle of Winter so leaving Brisbane I was quite rugged up, I was not quite ready for the muggyness that Normanton had on offer when I got off that plane. 

Normanton is an isolated community in the Gulf of Carpentaria (according to Wikipedia it's population is 1100 people, 60% of which are indigenous). I am not going to lie, it was tough. The kids were tough, the teaching was tough, the isolation was tough, the lack of many creature comforts was tough but I wouldn't change it for anything. I gave me such a great insight into what teaching was really like, it taught me how to be a better teacher, taught me more about behaviour management and differentiation better than any other school I have worked at since. 

I was lucky enough that there were some other young single teachers there in the same boat as me and we quickly struck a friendship. It was also typical of any of those types of rural communities in that it wasn't long before all the young ringers from surrounding properties came to town to check out the new teachers! Like any of those places, life is what you make of it and so many a weekend we would drive north to Karumba, the most amazing place to watch the sunset. We would often just go for 2 or 3 hours drives on the weekend just because we could! It was also nothing for us to drive the 5 hours to Mt Isa for a weekend, a bit of retail therapy and arrive back with a car full of shopping and KFC after people had put in their orders.

I left Normanton after a challenging relationship I was in ended, being in such a small community it wasn't appropriate for me to stay. I did a year and a term in Normanton and although it presented me with lots of challenges and I would never go back, I wouldn't change the experience.

This was home during my time in Normanton, my duplex was on the left. There was no street really as our home was tucked in behind the Police Station in what was dubbed 'Teachers Corner'. 

 Normanton's famous Purple Pub... Yes I did spend a bit of time there..

 Sunset on the Norma River during a Croc watching tour. We had the BEST sunset views from the river and also from our front balcony.

 "Krys the Crocodile" - no trip to Normanton is complete until you've had your photo with Krys the Croc. This is a replica of what is believed to be the biggest crocodile shot in QLD. Krystina Pawlowski apparently shot the Croc on the banks of the Norman River in 1957.

Athletics carnival on the school oval! No lush green grass here and most kids run without shoes (some of them didn't even own shoes) as they feel like the shoes slow them down!

So if you are ever planning a fishing adventure in North QLD, definitely put Normanton and Karumba on the list!

for M

for Missing Child

This is kind of following on from my post yesterday about the time I got "lost". This is a reflection from my teaching career about the time I "lost" a child in my class...

I was teaching a lower primary class - Year 1/2. I had a little boy in my class who was often a sleeper. After lunch each day the students would do silent reading, get a book, find a piece of carpet, lay down and read for about 15 minutes. A lot of the time this young fellow would fall asleep. I figured he obviously needed the sleep so I would leave him there and the other students would just continue to work around him. At the end of the day his older sister would come to the room to try and collect him and it would be so hard to wake him.

One day after lunch we followed our usual routine but when it was time to pack up from silent reading this young lad was nowhere to be found! I called his name... I asked the other students if they had seen him, none of them appeared to have knowledge of his whereabouts... I panicked... I immediately phoned the office to report him missing and sent the Principal and some Teacher-Aides on a full school boy-hunt! There was slight mayhem whilst they searched and phoned the room to see if he had arrived...nope...

After what I am sure felt like eternity I had to phone the office to admit my missing child had been located. The Principal informed me he would be right up, (in my head I thought I was going to cop it), he demanded to know where the student was... I led him to the large metal shelving unit that stored a lot of art and other supplies and pulled back the curtain to reveal the youngen sound asleep on the bottom shelf...

Linking up my A to Z Challenge Post with Essentially Jess for IBOT!

for L

is for Lost.

This is not really a memory or a reflection but it is a story that Mum tells about my childhood. I am not sure how old I was but we had travelled into town for the day to do some jobs and shopping, I was only quite young. It must have been later in the year because, as the story goes, I was pestering Mum to take me to the shopping centre so that I could see Santa. We were at the bank and while Mum was busy with the banking, apparently I slipped out and wandered the block and a half up to the shopping centre in search of Santa.

I can only imagine the panic I must have caused Mum but am pretty sure she knew the first place to look. Apparently I was found by some of the ladies who worked at the Centre and fed lollies until Mum arrived. Given that it was probably the early 80's at the time I think (hope) that stranger danger was not such a big deal and obviously I am still here to tell (or listen to) the tale..

for K

is for Kathy

I have blogged a couple of times about my younger sister Kathy.

Rather than rehash it all over again I am taking the cheats way out and saying that you can read those stories here and here.

Enjoy...

for J

is for Jorja

One of my all time favourite pics of her...such innocence

My one and only niece Jorja made quite the entrance into the world and has barely stopped to take a breath ever since! Renee had already "bagged" being there for this birth but am not sure it really turned out quite like she expected.

I was still on standby to possibly look after the 3 younger children while Renee was with Jody and her husband Gino for the birth. I had just arrived at school and was about to unlock my classroom door when my mobile rang, it was my brother-in-law. At first I thought that they were calling to say they were on their way to Toowoomba and I wasn't going to make it as I couldn't now leave work... He responded by telling me she had already had the baby, but I was confused because he was ringing from the home phone number...it wasn't making sense to me! He tried to convince me that Jody had had the baby at home but in my state of disbelief (and the fact he is known to exaggerate and stretch the truth) I was sure he was having me on, before I knew it he had given the phone to their oldest son, Dominic who promptly informed me that "Mummy's had the baby, she's in the bathroom and it's on her belly!"...

Sure enough Jody had not in fact made it to the hospital and had given birth at home in their bathroom. I managed to speak to my other sister who was there who again confirmed what had happened and assured me that the ambulance was on their way. To top off all the excitement we also discovered that after 3 boys they were finally graced with a girl. 

The birth of Jorja even made the front page of the local newspaper...you can read the article here.

Jorja has certainly brought so much joy to all of us, although she's had to be one tough little cookie to deal with all her borthers, and will need to continue to be with her new twin boy cousins! Poor thing! lol...

Some more pics, just because I love them!

She utterly adores her big brother Jack

Most recent photo of her taken just this past weekend.

for I

is for infertility

This is the post I wasn't sure I would ever write, or not write for a long time anyway, but while doing a blog challenge about reflections of my life I thought it fit and it's time I share this part of me....

Last year I went to my lady doctor for that lovely test we have to get done every 2 years, and while she was performing the necessary tasks to collect what was required she was clearly making small talk by asking me how my older sister and her children were. It was at that point I thought to ask....... I had wondered for a while if there was a way of knowing if I would be able to conceive a child. Not that I had any particular reason for worrying but I just felt like it was something I needed to know. I know that I am not old and people are always telling me I have plenty of time and blah blah blah... but I wanted some facts!

So I asked the doctor if there was a test or some way of determining just how loud my clock was ticking..She explained that there was a blood test that I could take to check my AMH levels. Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) is the hormone secreted by cells in developing egg sacs. An AMH test can give some insight into the remaining quantity of eggs and number of fertile years you may have, but it cannot tell much about the quality of those eggs. I had an agonizing few days wait before I could ring the doctor's surgery for the results. My heart sank when I got the "you need to come back and see the doctor, I can't give you the results over the phone" spiel from the receptionist because you know that NEVER means good news.

So, as it turns out....

Image Source

The news was not so great, and I was referred to a fertility specialist pretty much straight away so he could explain what the results meant and what my options were. My AMH levels were extremely low, the chances of me conceiving a child naturally are very low and I will probably be facing menopause before I'm 40! BooYeah! Triple whammy!

Needless to say this was not exciting news for someone who has spent their whole life wanting to be a mother and all of a sudden I felt a lot like this...

Image Source

I didn't know where to go or what to do...so for a little while I did nothing (well I cried...and then I cried some more, and then I wallowed in self-pity and cried some more).

I finally decided that the sensible option was to have some eggs retrieved (sounds so..weird), basically the Specialist had convinced me that 33 year old eggs were better than 38 year old eggs and the longer I waited the "worse" things would get!

So pretty much on this day 12 months ago I started giving myself needles which would increase my hormone levels and hopefully produce more eggs so that there would be something worth retrieving! Giving myself the needles was something that I was so scared and nervous about and when I really questioned if I could do this alone. Thanks to a wonderful wonderful friend I was not alone most mornings. As the drugs had to be given at the same time every day and to fit in with my work life she would leave her family every morning at 6am a drive over to my house to help me. For this I will be forever grateful.

Throughout all of this another thought that was constantly on my mind was the cost of doing what needed to be done. In all the reading I have done about infertile couples and how common it is these days and how many couples have to go down this road, the cost of all of this is often brushed over and I think that is wrong and sad.... While reading back through all the information I was given and looking at all the receipts for all the different appointments, the drugs, the anaesthetist, the day surgery, very little of it was covered by my health insurance I gave up adding it up once it went over the $10 000 mark... and that is just the start.

I find that so ridiculous and couldn't help but wonder if that is the only reason so many couples chose not to have a child. Imagine that, not having a child because you can't pay for the procedure required to have one...so sad.

Luckily for me I have a wonderful father who loaned me the majority of the money I needed to have the procedure done. So the day came when I had my eggs retrieved and my friend was able to drop me off and pick me up afterwards. It was not the most pleasant of experiences and if you read my hospital confessions you'll know that coming out of the anaesthetic is not a great experience for me...This time I took a long time to come around and my blood pressure kept dropping, and I cried.

One of the nurses from the fertility clinic came to see me and I vaguely remember her telling me how many eggs they got, luckily she also wrote in on my hand. A few days later I got a letter explaining they collected 6 eggs, however one had ruptured and one was deemed not suitable so only 4 were frozen. I've been told (quite unconvincingly I might add) that that's pretty good for a first time.

Ever since then I have juggled further options around in my head. Every 6 months I get a letter asking me what I want to do with my eggs, and a bill for $235.00 should I choose to continue to store my eggs. Each time that letter arrives (which it did just a matter of days ago), and about a thousand other times in between, I think about what I should do, I know my clock is well and truly ticking and turning 35 this year means I am another year closer to menopause and another year further away from being able to have a baby without all this drama...

Truth is...once again, I don't know what to do so I am doing nothing....except with this "do nothing" there are lifelong consequences to consider...

But I am so thankful that I made the decision to ask that question that day because at this point I still have options...

Am also linking this post up with A Parenting Life (one I hope to have one day!) for Thankful Thursday..

What are you thankful for??

for H

is for Holly's Hotties

Many of you that have been following my journey for a while know that becoming fit and healthy has been a big focus for me over the past 12 months or more. I've written many times about how I started this blog to document my 12wbt journey. I completed 2 rounds in total last year and it really got me on track to living a healthy lifestyle. You can read about my first round here and my second round here, and how excited I was to reach my goal weight here.

Truth be known (and you'll know it if you've read those posts) exercise was my big downfall during the 12wbt and often I would go days without exercising, because of that I focused a lot on my eating and stuck to the meal plans as much as possible. It taught me so much about portion size as i think that was my biggest challenge, I was eating far too much, not necessarily bad food just too much food.

I've never really thought that I have had a bad weight problem but my weight has certainly fluctuated over the years! It wasn't until I looked back at that photo of me when Dominic was born that I thought...WOAH! 

 Anyway this year I decided to try something a little different, I have always been a member of a gym and I enjoyed going but felt like I needed to take my training to another level. Especially if I plan on running a half marathon this year... so that was when I decided to join a Bootcamp, Holly's Hotties to be exact. It was a bootcamp my sister had done several times before but the times that they trained just never matched with my 'life' times. (Work getting in the way as usual!) But this round Holly changed the times and they were able to work, for the most part. We trained Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 6pm-7pm and Saturday mornings usually starting around 6am. I did miss a few sessions due to other commitments and getting home from work too late but when I could go I loved it!

She pushed us, challenged us and made us do things we never thought possible and despite times where every muscle in my body hurt and I thought I may actually die, I loved it so much I am signing up for another round! We finished a little over a week ago and I miss it! 

Now as far as results go, I am happy to report that all my measurements went down, not really by a lot, but they went down... I lost a total of 8.6cm from my body. I was not over the moon with the results but a loss is a loss and I know that I am fitter and stronger so that's the main thing!

Saturday mornings were a big fave as, despite the sometimes ridiculous early morning start, (4am!) we always did something a little bit different.. One morning we climbed Tabletop Mountain at Sunrise, 

one weekend was a Scavenger Hunt (where my team may or may not have gotten a bit lost and ended up on a 5km bushwalk...) we did a 10km run

and I just loved how these sessions were always just that little bit different and every session was totally unexpected. 

Holly at the front, surrounded by some of the Hotties!

At the end of it all we had a break up barefoot bowls where we all dressed up and just had a fun afternoon!

Myrtle and Ethel having a spot of bowls..

Holly's Hotties No. 4!

Linda and I after we won our Awards. Linda was voted Miss Most Improved and I was voted Miss Under the Radar!

 

So we are having a month off now, with just an online support group still going, before Holly starts her 5th (and final ever) round of Holly's Hotties! I am super keen to give another round a go and look forward to what it has to offer!

What's your exercise of choice? Have you ever done a Bootcamp?