Lots of major stuff happening in 07. So many of my buddies are preggers - here and overseas. Just got wind that another friend may be pg and asked if I could support her labour in august. I don't know if i can support anyone's labour since Trin is still very needy for the breast at night.

That aside, and looking into my crystal ball, here's the major stuff happening to me this year:

1) Change car. The kids are getting bigger and so the fishbowl we travel in is getting smaller. hmm, could be a matter of perspective of course. But our current car is also giving us problems. Got a chesty cough when it starts up in the morning; sometimes steering wheel gets locked for 3 seconds while in use (frightening, this one!) and there is a leak in the radiator somewhere which sends the temp soaring up once in a while - which also means we gotta give it a drink once in a while before starting it.

So we sort of figured that changing a car is a sooner or later thing. We've looked a couple and the cheapest mpv on the market is the kia carnival which is going for 65k. The other 'better' cars ie the toyotas, the hondas etc are waaaay out of our sad budget. Still, the kids and i love the space in the Kia - they are thrilled with the aisle space. At 2.5l, its a much more powerful car than the one we have now. Looking at the financing etc, looks like we're able to afford it - minor increase in monthly installments and of course, the increase in road tax and insurance. So that looks to be in the picture sometime this year.

2) Reno the house. About time! as mom said. We're living in a hole of plaster and paint concoction that is slowly but surely falling down around our ears. So I got a main contractor to come in and have a look. To change the back gutter and bit of roofing, to change the whole of the porch roof (thats the one where the wooden rafters have rotted through and one of them fallen, taking with it the wiring and lighting - but thats another story, for your own safety, just don't stand too long under my porch roof) and to fix the water-proofing of the walls, painting etc, the whole damage comes up to 16k. Which was less than i feared. So I am wondering if I should do just a lil bit more eg change my bloody leaking toilet bowl.

From previous posts, you do know that it went on strike and we're on the bucket system - ie throwing water to flush... just the other day, someone must have done a real explosive poo and the stuff got stopped up. (Stop reading if you're not partial to descriptions of stopped up toilets - it ain't pretty) Which of course, my dear husband did not see and went on to contribute to. So we've got poo upon poo stopped up in there. Yes, the stink was unimaginable. The stuff legends are made of. He threw some of those anti drain clogging powder in there, left it for half a day and went to work. When he came back - tada! - the poo was flushed down and our risk of dysentery and cholera significantly reduced!

Aaaanyway, this adds to my point - gotta do something about the toilet bowl!!

3) Hanoi looks like its shaping up real nicely. So we will have a nice vacation somewhere that actually involves getting on a plane.

4) I am actually getting off my lazy butt and doing something productive abt birthright. sent my designer text for the web pages. so hopefully, birthright won't stay stagnant and may actually grow a teensy bit?