Well, it looks like Manchester may be at the start of some decent weather for a change.

It is lovely and warm, the sun is shining, and it's supposed to get even warmer towards the end of the week.

I really should put some washing on the line, but I'm a bit too scared as there are one too many wasps flying about for my liking.......I'm sure I'll pluck up the courage in a bit.

Had a nice day with the kids yesterday, took a picnic out to the park and had a wander round the farm.

Called at  Adele's afterwards so that Mike could see his new niece, he even had a cuddle!

Got a surveyor coming later.  I'm hoping the guy that viewed puts in a decent offer.

Well, lots to update you on....Lily Mae arrived this week weighing in at a healthy 8lb 6oz, and she's adorable.  Adele came home from the hospital yesterday (a bit too early for my liking following her c-section, but she was glad to be home).

I had gone to Mum's at 9am, and we nervously sat awaiting Mark's phone call.  I was a nervous wreck, I felt sick with nerves and I had butterflies.  I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when the phone finally rang, we both jumped out of our seats!!!!

We first saw Adele, Mark, and Lily Mae in the recovery room not long after she had been delivered. Mark couldn't take the grin off of his face, he is such a proud Daddy!  How he's gonna cope with a house full of girls I don't know.

Mum was gutted 'cos when she came out of the room to let me go in, the midwife undressed Lily Mae and put her in a lovely babygro.  I was winding mum up telling her I had seen the baby naked rather than wrapped in a sheet!

Adele looked exhausted, and Mum was really worried as she was shaking violently in the bed.  she had stopped when I went in though but it didn't stop us being concerned and we were worried for the rest of the day.

Mum and I had planned on a shopping trip into Town to get Lily Mae some clothes etc.  We were a bit disappointed as there wasn't much of a selection for newborn babies, and we spent hours going in all the shops.  We did manage to find some lovely things for her though.

We went back to the hospital in the afternoon, by this time Adele was on the ward.  She looked a lot better but still looked tired.  Lily Mae is beautiful, and she's done nothing to stem my broodiness....so much so that later on that evening Mike and I talked about when I would stop taking the pill!!!

I went to see Adele yesterday when she came home.  She looked really well and I hope that she does rest as it's not going to be easy if she's running round after the kids.  Mark is off for a few weeks so that will be great.

Seeing Lucy Mae this week has made me realise all that I'm leaving behind, and it's been quite upsetting for me.  I adore my nieces, and it hurts knowing that I won't see them other than via webcam or photo's.  Lily Mae won't know who I am.  Once we go to Oz, I don't know when we'll come back to the uk for a visit.  But I would like to come back after 12 months if we can......maybe for Mum's 50th.

That's it for now....can't see the screen through my tears - I'm such a sensitive sod!

After it's all been approved this afternoon, the house will officially be on the property market!

We can now join the hundreds/thousands of Brits waiting to sell their house so that they can piss off out of this hell hole!

I forgot my Dad's birthday at weekend...how bad is that!  Because I'm not in work I never know what date it is....I'll have to keep checking from now on.  I still feel really bad about it.  I'm going down tonight to take his pressie....better late than never egh!

It's my birthday too at the end of the week, and for once I'm actually started to feel old.  I'm getting lines around my eyes and the skin on my face is changing. 

We're going for an Italian on Saturday with Carmel and Rick....without the kids!  So that will be nice.

Cannot wait to go to Florida - 6 weeks on Sunday we'll be on our way to see Minnie and Mickey!

I'm really looking forward to some heat....especially on my neck as that's been playing up something chronic.  I'm considering giving an Infrared Sauna a try.  They have one at the local beauty salon and it's not expensive.

Ella stayed at the Daws on Sat night, and they were looking after Anita's sisters dog, and of course all Ella keeps talking about is getting a dog!  Told her we'll consider it when we're settled in Australia.

The hospital re-scheduled Ella's next appointment to October!  Told them we were emigrating in August.  Luckily they've changed it now to July,  We'll have to take copies of the medical notes, as we'll need to make sure the doctor in Oz knows about her history in case of any future problems.

We've booked the flights this morning!

We fly from Manchester on 15th August and will arrive in Melbourne on the 17th.

Booked them with Singapore Air, and I think we got a good deal at £1990 for 2 adults and 2 kids.

This will make it real for everybody now, for our family and friends......it will be intertesting to see their reactions,

We expect to be homeless for about 6 weeks once the shippers have been, so we'll have to split up nd stay at both of our parents.  I will stay at my mum and dad's with Lucy and Mike will stay at his parents with Ella so that she can be near to school.

It's gonna drive everyone crazy, but hopefully it will all work out ok, and we don't get under each others feet too much!

I'm slowly clearing out our wardrobes, sorting through the kids toys separating into three piles ...charity/skip/ship!

Can't do too much because of my neck and back, but I'm slowly getting through it.  It will make it easier when the shippers come.

I've kept loads of Ella's old clothes, and Lucy's baby stuff - all the items that are in a fab condition.  I've been quite spendthrift over the years, and if my plan is to not work in Australia and be a full time mum then I've got to tighten up the purse strings.

I'm keeping Lucy's pram too as my Grandad bought that, and I can't bear to part with it.

I had a consulatation with a shipping company yesterday, and it's got me all excited!  We went through every aspect of the process.  They think we my get away with having a 20ft container, and will ring on Friday with a quote.

Our neighbour offered us a really low price for the house yesterday - fair play to him but he can kiss my arse.  The day I accept that is the day we are truly desperate.  I m very concerned about the market though and just hope we can sell before we leave.  We've got to have a serious talk about everything now, and look at all possibilities.

The estate agent is coming on Monday to take the pics etc.

Well, best make a move I'm off to pick Ella up from her cheerleading class shortly.

Well we've had the house valued and it's been valued higher than we expecting considering the current climate.

I expect we'll have to drop the price considerably though, as the market is really slowing down.  Our neighbour has been interested in buying it, so we're waiting for him to offer us a price although I know he will give us a price a lot lower than we want.  If he offers a silly price then we'll put it on the market and try to sell it that way.

The estate agent said we have a beautiful home, and should we get any viewings then we shouldn't have any problem in selling.

We've spent 10 years and a lot of money doing the house up, and I got a bit emotional after she left because I love this house!  It's my first home and I'll be devastated when the shippers finally arrive to move all our belongings into the container.

The visas have to be validated before the 6th Dec 08, so we were talking about not moving to Australia until the house sells, but that in itself will open up a can of worms....Ella's schooling, Mike and i will be out of work due to redundancy, the costing of us all going to Australia to validate the visas and the money we'll spend whilst there etc etc

It won't be ideal moving before the house sells, but we'll investigate our options with the Bank nd tke things from there.

Took Lucy to see the health visitor this morning regarding her eating habits;  they didn't seem too concerned but have advised me to get her off the bottles of milk in the morning and evening.  I will try giving it to her in a cup, but it might prove a bit difficult in the morning at first, as her bottle is the first thing she wants and it's a comfort for her.

I've already been trying to take her dummy from her during the day, and she's not doing too bad at the moment.  She loves her dummy, but I've learnt with Ella that if you take it from them too soon then it could cause problems.  Ella still sucks her thumb now and she's nearly 9!  With Ella she went from dummy to thumb!  As she's getting older she only sucks her thumb when she's tired, and not all the time like she used to.  I hve to be careful too, as Lucy has seen Ella do it, and sometimes she does it too!

Well, my little lady is growing up sooo fast, and turned 2 last Thursday.  It only seemed like yesterday when I was pregnant waddling about wearing my lovely support belt!

The last 2 years have gone really fast, and I've loved every minute of having a baby in the house again......well it is almost 9 years since Ella was born.

I do feel broody, and who knows if we will have another baby when we move to Oz....only time will tell.

We had a tea party for Lucy on Friday night, and all the family came round, it was really nice.  Lucy was toddling about in her Minnie Mouse dress and shoes.

The house is being valued today, I've no idea what to expect as the house prices are dropping, so we'll see. 

I've been and bought the girls lots of holiday clothes for Florida, but Lucy is so small that I tried on her summer gear from last year and some of it still fits her.....it's aged 12 months!  So I'm going to take some of the new stuff back for a refund.....You see I can be sensible at times.

We're tearing our hair out with Lucy's eating habits, she's terrible and hardly eats it's no suprise she's so small.  She doesn't sleep well at night, and I'm sure it's because she's not eating well and maybe she gets trapped wind and that's what's upsetting her in the night.

I'm taking her to see the health visitor on Weds for some advice.

I bought her a booster chair so that she can sit with us at the dining table instead of her highchair; it's a good one too as it's a travel one so we can take it to Florida, or when we eat out anytime.

I'm having a fair bit of trouble with my neck and top of my back, and was very suprised to find out that I'm suffering with early athritis.....I'm not even 30 yet!

I'm due bck at the docs in 3 weeks time, and have got to have some blood tests done in between now and then.

Adele is expecting her 4th baby in about 3 weeks time - I'm so excited I can't wait to see him or her!

It will likely be a girl, we've not had a boy in our family for almost 28 years!!!

As long as the bub is healthy, it won't matter if it's  boy or girl, but it would be nice to have a nephew to spoil!

We've not booked flights yet.  Only thing stopping us is we want to make sure we can arrange suitable dates with the shipping company.  They are coming on Weds afternoon.

I've already started clearing out our wardrobes for charity....we have so much stuff it's ridiculous.

I'm torn on what to do with all my baby stuff, and all of Ella's old clothes that I've been saving for Lucy.  Do I sell it? or ship it?  Really don't know.  Think I will keep the baby stuff....just in case Baby No 3 does come along in the near future!

Well we did when we spent our first night of our Easter break in a caravan in Yorkshire!

I should never have booked a caravan, but never mind.

We arrived in Yorkshire on the Monday lunchtime, and was starving after the journey so we went to the on site cafe bar for some lunch.  After over an hour of waiting I complained and got a refund.  We went to Burger King as it was the only other food option and must have waited at least 30 mins to be served, and then the burgers were cold!

We should have got back in the car there and then....it was a sign that this break was going to be a nightmare.

We couldn't collect the keys until 4pm, but the queues for the key collection were massive at 3:15pm, so I joined the queue whilst Mike nd the girls went for a look round.

After a really long wait, we finally got the keys to the caravan.....and it was bloody freezing!

There was a small gas fire in the lounge which took ages to heat up the room, no heating in the bedrooms and the beds felt like ice.  I told Mike that I wasn't unpacking....I hd a bad feeling about it all.

Anyway, we got well wrapped up before bed time, and i mean wrapped up but it was still freezing, it was like sleeping in a fridge.

After a horrendous night, Littlelegs awoke in the morning and as usual wanted her milk straight away......there was no running water!  We had no water to fill the kettle to warm the bottle (no microwave).

We rang reception and someone arrived within 10 mins to tell us that the pipes had frozen because it had been so cold in the night, and all we could do was wait for them to defrost naturally.

i went to reception at 9am promt to see if they had any upgrades available - we thought we my be able to get a caravan with heating in the bedrooms.  There were no upgrades, and they had run out of the heaters that people could hire.

There was so many people in reception complaining, we had decided now that we were not going to spend another night in that caravan, and that we would cut our losses and go home.

We came home on the Tuesday and decided to have a couple of days out to make it up to Ella, although she was happy to go home as even she ws suffering with the cold.

We went to a Haven caravan park when Ella was younger, and we said we would never go again, but we thought we would give it a try for Easter, and it was a disaster!  Never again.

Got the call from our agent yesterday to dvise us that we've been

GRANTED OUR VISA'S !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've always wondered how I would feel if and when we got our visa grant.

Would it be a reality check, and would I start to doubt the move etc etc.

When we got the news yesterday, it was such a relief I burst into tears. We can now sell the house, book flights etc and do the things we've been waiting to do.

I don't feel scared or anything but I know that will come, I'm just raring to go. 

Well we've fnished work today until a week on Monday, really looking forward to a break from work.

I can't tell you what a relief it is to know I've got a decent break from that shit hole where I work.  I don't know how much more I can take, the fact I know my impending redundancy is getting nearer just makes me want to go now!  11 weeks to go - I'm on my countdown.

We go to Yorkshire on Monday for 4 nights, so it'll be lovely to spend some quality time together as a family.

Still no news on visa, decided to just take each day as it comes, and hopefully the outcome will be a positive one.

As i type this I'm eating a creme egg, and the fondant centre has dripped onto the keys and made them all sticky!

Think I'll leave it for Mike to clean up when he goes on Red Issue later on!

x

p.s. message for Dad...sorry for the swear word!

For those that may read this that don't know us, Ella is our daughter soon to be 9 years old.

We discovered 4 years ago that Ella has got a duplex kidney on her left side (basically this means that her kidney is split into two, with two tubes leading to the bladder instead on one!)

In 2006, Ella went into Pendlebury Hospital to undergo tests to ensure that the kidneys were functioning properly, and that they were not causing any reflux, which can cause scarring.

The results were that the kidneys were working fine despite the duplex system. however she was to remain on daily antibiotics to avoid any infections, of which she is susceptible to.  After a few allergic reactions to the antibiotics, we finally found some that she agreed with! 

A routine scan at the end of 2007 showed that Ella also had a duplex system on the rights side as well as the left which left us really baffled...why wasn't this diagnosed earlier?

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I took Ella off the antibiotics about 12 months ago, and to our knowledge she's only had one water infection - all be it it was a bad one, but she's done well to only have had one.  Luckily the Consultant agreed to keep her off the antibiotics unless she gats any recurring infections however he also said he had not ruled out any further investigation.

Ella was back at the hospital this morning for another scan, to check that all is well.  I'm pleased to say that the lady doing the scan said that all seemed well, and the duplex didn't seem to be causing any problem.  We go back to see the Consultant in July, and we're hoping that it will be our last appointment there as we hope to be in Oz in August!

I doubt they will discharge Ella, but we'll have to take copies of all her medical notes to Australia with us, and I need to find out if she will need to continue with the scans etc once we're in Oz. 

This could cause problems in the future so I need to be sure she has regular checks if necessary.

For now though, really good news and hopefully she won't have any problems as she gets older.

Talked to our agent early hours of this morning via email, couldn't sleep as I was really anxious about his last email.  I feel loads better as he's stressed to me that he sees no reason why anything is untoward with our application, and he will go quite high up with the dept of Immigration should he need to, if anything does go wrong.

Glad it's the weekend, really needed a break from work after such a naff week.  The girls stayed at their Grandma's last night, so we've woke up to a very quiet house this morning!

Got the Massey's coming tonight, so no doubt Mike and Dave will get very drunk on red wine.

Going to see my Grandad at some point this weekend, and also going to my Sister's new house as I've not been yet.  Other than that not much going on, trying to save some pennies!

I'm also trying to diet....it's not going so bad at the moment, but whenever I'm feeling a bit down (which is quite often at the moment), I just turn to junk food lke chocolate and crisps.

We're off to Primrose Valley at Easter for 4 nights, and we've been told the surrounding area's of Yorkshire are lovely, so we're really looking forward to it.  We've not been off work together since xmas, so it'll be really nice to spend some quality time together.

I finally went for my medical on my foot this week.  I injured it when some foreign muppet crashed into a moving car which then nearly crashed into Mike and I!  Luckily we weren't hit but I hurt my foot, and to this day I'm not good wearing high heels!  the doctor is recommending physio, but I'm hoping this is something that will get sorted out fairly quickly.

Best sign off now, want to get to Asda before it get hammered!

Our agent chased up the CO a few days ago by way of an enquiry, and he's been given the following response:

Notes on file indicate that, as you advise, all documents requested have been recieved. This application is now undergoing checks which should be completed in approximately 6-8 weeks.

This has made us so mad! 8 weeks takes us to 9th May, and then how long will it take after that for the decision maker to decide our fate?

We were hoping to go early August, and I know that it could still happen, but at the moment we're really worried and confused as to what is going on.  We're in for a crap day now.

Once checks are completed the file will be allocated to a Decision Maker who will finalise this visa application."

Well, for starters we still haven't heard anything about the Visa, although our agent is going to chase up the Case Officer by way of an enquiry, so I'm hoping this might hurry them up a bit!

It's so frustrating.  We can't sell the house, book the flights or our short term accomodation until we have been granted the visa.  It's all we think about, and it's driving us crazy.

I'm having a really crap week at work.  My Senior Team Member has been off sick since Monday, and it's a really busy time at work, so it's left me in a bit of a mess to say the least.  I cannot wait to finish work, and if all goes to plan I will be finishing at the end of May (this redundancy has turned out very handy for us!)  It can't come quick enough for me!

I booked Ella's birthday party yesterday, she's having a pamper party with four of her school friends at the local Beauty Salon.  How times have changed egh!  I want to make this birthday really special for her so I'm booking a pink limo to take them back home for a buffet.

Littlelegs (Lucy) turns 2 in a few weeks, I can't believe how fast that has gone!  We're having a teaparty at home with all the family so that will be nice, and of course Lucy will love all the attention!

Ella is back at the hospital on Monday for a scan on her kidneys.  They've not ruled out any further investigation so I hope and pray that all will be well, and that she won't need to go back to theatre for any more tests or treatment.  I was hoping she would be discharged before we emigrate but I don't think that will happen now.

Anyway, lunchtime is over, better get back to the grind:(

Laura

I thought I would begin by introducing Mancfamily......

I'm Laura (29), the boss of the family! and i'm married to Mike (36), the brains of the family....hopefully it will be his skills as an Accountant that will get us our visa!  We have two beautiful daughters Ella (8), and Lucy, whom we affectionately call 'Littlelegs' is nearly 2.

Since 2004 we've talked about emigrating to Australia, but it wasn't until July 2007 that we actually did something about it.  After a few months of preparing paperwork, having Mike's sklls assessed etc, we finally submitted the application on 12th October 2007.  It was a huge weight off our shoulders when the visa app' was lodged.....now the waiting began!

We were allocated  a Case Officer on 30th January 2008, and we're still waiting!  It's a frustrating time, and also a scary time....what if we don't get the visa, what will we do?

Like I said, emigrating has been on the cards for a good while, so we've gone past the stage of having doubts umpteen times a day!  We've set our hearts on moving to Australia, and at the end of the day, life can be too damned short to have any regrets, so we're going for it!

Subject to a positive Visa outcome, we hope to arrive in Australia sometime in August...so watch out Melbourne!