A reason, A season or A lifetime?

Life is an amazing thing.....

I thought I was happy single and that I didnt need anyone is my life to complete me....Well part of me is right, I dont need anyone but it is mighty nice when you do...

I am not making much sense....Ok I will fess up....

A few months ago I joined yahoo singles so that Miss wouldnt mind that I joined her up so that she can meet a few people before she moved to Perth.....I really didnt expect anything of it.

I have met someone nice, well not in person as he lives in Perth, but we have been in phone contact.

And thats all I am going to say.....

School Horrordays are here!!!!

Wow can you believe that 3rd term is over and the holdiays are here....Well we only have 10 more weeks till we fly...This means that the kids only have 8 weeks of school left.
Last school holidays we took the kids to Sovereign Hill and we missed out on the carriage rides, Eloise was devastated and I promised her to return the following holidays and the first thing we would do was a carriage ride...

The girls have been looking forward to these school holidays for this reason. Unfortunately I received a phone call from Talia's teacher last week. She has been telling lies again at school, this time it was about her homework. I told him that I would talk to her again, so I have been thinking of a way to teacher her how serious lying is and that it breaks peoples trust and that is one of the hardest things to get back..
We sat down again and had a big talk and because I wanted her to realize the seriousness of lying I told her that she has to stay home when we go to Sovereign hill.

It was one of the hardest things I have done in a while, driving down the road away from my daughter who is in her room sobbing because we left her behind, but I knew that if I gave in that would be worse...She ended up having a nice day with aunty jenni anyway..

So Melissa, Eloise, Matthew and myself went to sovereign Hill, we all went on the carriage ride and we also went to the underground mine tour that we missed out on last time...

We all had a great time and when we got home Talia came out and gave me a huge huge and said that she missed us and that she was sorry..

A big surprise

Well for the last few weeks I have been hitching up my size 14 stretch jeans and boy has it been annoying, then the final straw came the other day when I went to put them on and one of my buttons had come off.....Off to the shop I go in search of some new button fly jeans....NONE......Well none that are not hipsters....Hello I have hips, I know I have hips so I don't need to show the rest of the world my muffin tops....

So I came home in my old and broken faithfuls.....

Today I had to go back to town to take back a size 14 top that is way to big...I thought what the hell, Matthew and I have all day I might as well try on some jeans...Not buttonfly but for $20 I can complain...

SIZE 12 fit like a glove......I am one happy little camper!!!

The scales show me as a porker...72 kg (bit of a slump at the moment) but my clothes tell me that the weight is coming off. I know who I believe more!...Everyone knows that scales lie....

P.S.....Our Robbbie T-shirts came today...we have tickets and now shirts for the concert......yipee

A budding photographer.....

Ok just a quick post as Im off this morning to take Matthew to play group, I really dont like playgroups as a general rule but the only way he is going to learn social skills is to be around kids his own age and socialise....

Any way yesterday afternoon I gave Talia the digital camera and told her to take as many photos of me that she wanted... she was having a hoot and after about 25 shots this is what she came with....

The kids in August

Here are some photos of the kids this month

Gee has it been that long????

Well i had written a nice long post but blooger lost it..

so now all i am going to do is post some photos and I will fill in the blanks later

Hello again

weigh in this morning and I lost a total of 1.6kg, which is my biggest loss to date which brings my total loss to 11.8kg
the weather is beautiful and sunny today (almost feels like spring is in the air) which is good to get the washing done but we badly need rain!

Matthew and I are finally off to his hearing test tomorrow, after the last appointment was cancelled due to his cold.

Other than that things are quiet.....

Just for some fun

I did Miss's make up yesterday as she wanted a nice photo of herself so I thought I would do my self at the same time (plus all the kids had some on as well) I took some nice photos of her and she took some of me....the poor girl has no idea how to focus a automatic digital camera and nearly every single photo came out of focus, bless her heart.

But one did come out .....

So this is me at 32......

The kids at the doctor

Eloise had to go see our doctor yesterday just to make sure that her ear was responding to the antibiotics. Matthews chest was sounding yukky so I asked that Matthew could be seen as well (saves a 120km round trip) and he was seen too.

Eloise's ear was still infected so she is on 7 more days of antibiotics, if this still does not clear the infection the doctor was talking possible grommets......

Matthew has a chest infection so he is also on antibiotics for 7 days.....

There was a 20 min wait at the chemist so the kids and I walked around to the local lions park in Rochester to let them have a play, letting Matthew out of his pusher he walked over to the play equipment and stopped. Then I realized that this was his first time on play equipment.....I felt like such a bad mother....He is 2 and this was his first real taste of swings and slides and climbing.
He climbed up on his own and played with the driving wheel and then slid down the slide....He was having a hoot.

Even though we live 50km away from the nearest good park I am going to start taking him more often. Of course it depends on the weather and the price of fuel...
Things like this will be so much easier when we get to Perth....122 days till we fly

Its the flu season...

Another week has gone so quick,
Wed - came out to find that the puter had a hissy and I couldn't even get into safe mode...ahhhhh
Thursday - the computer tech came out and tried to fix the puter but alas no go and I had to reinstall XP so that meant that Jenni lost all her photos...Everything..The school nurse rang and I had to go pick up Eloise early as she had an ear ache
Friday I had Eloise at the doctor with an ear ache, this ending up being and infection/borderline abscess, antibiotics and a return trip next Wednesday
Sat - Miss and I went and did the food shopping without kids, both Eloise and Matthew were full of the flu
Sun -a quiet day at home

My week wrapped up, one good thing is that we have bought the plane tickets, it is now official, we are leaving at the end of Nov.....Its going to come around quick!

Matthew had his assessment

Yesterday was the day that Matthew had his assessment with the SIRT (specialist information referral team) and everything went well. It took about 1 and half hours but Matthew had fun playing some games and now it is a bit of a wait for the results .

How ever just observing and talking to the assessor, he is not that delayed. His fine motor skills and gross motor skills are average for his age. But he is only slightly delayed in his social and communication. He was able to recognize and name at least 2 body parts and name 3 familiar things on flash cards ( car, cat and bird) His words are not as clear as most 2 year olds but he definatly recognized the objects and the words that he used started with the correct letter.
He was also able to follow simple instructions
So this is good news, he will be going on the wait list for the speech pathologist and an education advisor to help with social skills. There has been a new speech therapist start there so hopefully the wait wont be to long.

I also bought a new DVD player as mine blew up.....This means this house has destroyed 3 DVD players in the last 12 months.

We have also made the decision, and I feel so mush better inside with it, that we are all flying to Perth and are putting the cars on a truck....It will cost about the same and instead of a 5 days trip it will only be a 4 hour plan trip. I think the kids will cope better with this and I wont have to worry about my car (which has been a bit temperamental this year) breaking down in the middle of the Nullabour.

Happy 6th Birthday Eloise

Eloise has been counting down until the 15th for ever and yesterday morning she was so excited. It was nice to have some happiness in the house as we found out that on Friday afternoon that Dave's father had died.

Eloise patiently waited all day for her birthday dinner and cake. We decided that the kids would have party food and us adults would have something kinder on the waist.

I made her cake in the afternoon and most of the family from interstate rang, Eloise was a bit disappointed that no presents had arrived for her yet .

Just before dinner she opened up her presents, She received the High school Musical CD and saddle Club sunglasses from Miss and the game Frogs in the Bog from Aunty Jenni and Uncle Dave. Then she received a Horse round up game from Gran and finally monopoly Junior from Talia, Matthew and I. She was pretty happy.

The kids had the usually yummy things for dinner and then came cake. I made a plain cake and put a My Little Pony cake topper on....

we sang happy birthday and Eloise was one happy 6 year old

Happy Birthday

A bit about me....

Now that I have caught up with all the happenings of the last 2 weeks I can catch my breath.
After my little hissy the other week things have settled down and basically gone back to the way things were, this time though Jenni is helping a bit more and I am making a huge effort not to be so obsessive and martyr- ish (is that a word? , well it is now). I am a huge list maker and I like to know what is happening. So I have been leaving everything and just going on my merry way...OMG it has been so hard. I finally had enough the other day and cleaned the puter table when everything fell on top of me.
Dinner times have been interesting as no one knows who is cooking and who is doing the dishes when, but I'm trying my hardest not to make a schedule as I was before. Don't get me wrong things are working out but it is still the case that Jen and I are doing all of the house work. Gee my strike didn't last but I am feeling a lot less stressed.

Other than that I feel good at the moment, all us girls are on WW until we leave to go to Perth and I am doing at least 45 min exercise every day...Alternate days of walking on the treadmill and low impact aerobics. This is making me feel better as well.

The only thing that is bothering me is the housing situation in Perth. There seems to be a huge shortage of rentals due to the 18 month wait for a house to be built (something about a brick shortage) so this has me a little worried. What if I cant get a house, what then....
I am going to start and apply for rentals as of the begining of Oct and if I have to pay double rent for a while I wont mind...But if I have been applying for 6 weeks or so I may just have to re think my plans....

Can you tell I'm a planner? . I like to know what is happening, going to happen and everything in between.

So all in all things are good....

Happy 2nd Birthday Matthew

I know this is a bit late but we have had computer troubles over the last 12 days. It has been in the shop being fixed. During this time I bought out my computer to use and hunted through my packed boxes to find my dial up modem so we could still talk to the world. I found the modem in the last box that I looked in but alas no software disk, I keep them all together for those reason but the only one that wasn't there was the one that I needed...So no modem...No internet.

A kind friend lent us one which came with no cable (I went out and bought a new one) installed the hardware but when I went to install; the software it was not compatible with XP, so that didn't work either, we were destined to be without internet......

Meanwhile the starter motor in my car died.......Surprise, surprise. Luckily my BIL managed to find a recon one and fitted it for me. I managed to come away only $156 out of pocket this time.

The SIRT ( specialist information referral team) finally rang back about getting Matthew assessed for his speech and we had an appointment for Monday the 10th but come Monday morning they rang up and cancelled and we have been rescheduled for this coming Monday, so fingers crossed.

This appointment is only to assess him, once they know where he is they will decide what skills he is delayed in and he will be put on the appropriate waiting list.

Back to Matthews birthday, which was Thursday 6th. I managed to make a cake for him on the spur off the moment and we sang happy birthday and Talia helped him open his presents. Matthew was a bit bewildered with it all.

the girls and I bought him the Play School Everybody sing DVD and a Baby Einstein DVD and a new book. Aunty Jenni bought him a new book and Miss bought him a tonka tow truck which he just loves...

So that has been our 2 weeks, Eloise's 6th birthday is on Sat and she is hanging out for it.

Photos from Sovereign Hill

As blogger wont let me add photos to my post I will have to add them in a new one...just hope this works

Guess what

WE GOT ROBBIE TICKETS!!!!!!!


30 th Nov in Perth........cant wait


I'm excited

A day at sovereign Hill

I had been using star charts with the girls as a reward, also to coerce Eloise to eat her dinner. At the end of the week if they had a certain amount of stars I would take them to Sovereign Hill in Ballarat. A reconstructed gold mining town from the 1850's. During the school holidays they were going to have snow making machines in the main street so it all depended on the weather being fine. Ballarat is know for being cold and wet.

Well Sunday morning came and the girls had earned their required stars and were very excited so I thought what the heck. Bundled the kids up warm and headed off for the 3 plus hour drive (also being a test run for the Nullabour) Half way there I realized that I had forgotten the pusher and there was no way I was going back! Miss and I would just have to carry Matthew.

We got there in 2 hours with the kids fighting the whole way. Then I realized that the whole place was built on the side of a hill and we were going to have to lug a 12kg toddler up and down those hills. There was quite a line up out the door and it was cold but sunny.

Thankfully for our arms there were hire pushers and the cost of our tickets included a return visit. The first thing Eloise saw were the horses pulling the carriages so I told her the last thing we would do is have a carriage ride. I knew otherwise she would be side tracked by horses if we went on one now and thought it would be a loverly finish to the day.

We had a terrific time. The girls got to dip candles, watch lolly making, we watched a $50 000 gold pour, went down a mine (we are saving the large mine tour for next time) visited all the old shops and we waited in the main street and 1pm for the snow.......Well technically it did look like snow however it was just fine bubbles (it was cold enough for real snow) but the kids loved it.

We went down to the little stream and panned for some gold. I managed to find a speck so I secretly put it in Eloise's pan so that she could find some but it got away...So much for luck.

I was getting close to home time so we walked up to where the carriage rides left only to find out that we had missed the last one of the day by 5 minutes....Well poor Eloises face, the poor kid was devastated and I was the worst mother on the face of the earth. The whole day she had been waiting patiently (well as much as a 5yo that is horse mad can) and I had let her down.

So I have promised and crossed my heart that next school holidays when we return that the fist thing we will do is go on a carriage ride.

We left and had McDonald's for dinner then drove home in silence as all 3 kids were asleep.

Just when I thought things could not get worse!

It has been a long time between posts but I have been a bit under the weather emotionally. This week started good I have had my car fixed, the timing chain has been replaced and it was running like a dream and then the starter motor started to play up.....Great I have just finished up paying for the last lot of repairs ($600....Cheap) So I am again I am without a car and I truly believe yet again I have bought a lemon. I am seriously thinking of putting it on a car carrier and flying over to Perth just in case it doesn't make it across the Nullabour. I will just have to wait and see.
So it is still at the start of the week.....Then the phone goes and according to Telstra it wont be back on until for a few days.....No biggie just a pain in the ass.
Tuesday the power started surging in and out and then we ran out of water. For those of you lucky people who live in civilization who turn on a tap and have a constant supply of water please count your lucky stars. We are on tank water....And it hasn't been raining.....So no washing, no showers .....Nothing but drinking water for 3 days. Easily fixed we just called a water tanker (the phone was back on) and for $180 our tanks are now 3/4 full. The next morning it started to rain and we have received 20ml of rain.
But that's not the end of it. We now have water and as we all went to have a shower...Gee wizz no hot water!!!!!
We are now out of gas. So another $88 and a phone call to the local general store and a gas bottle was delivered. So crossed fingers we have phone, electricity, water and gas....Life is now sweet.

So putting it midly this week has been a bit stressful and as I ususally do I bottle it all up. Since getting out of hospital Jen has only been able to do basic tasks (if that some days) but good ol me has taken up the slack. Miss and I have been taking in turns with cooking and dishes (Talia has been drying them most nights) but as for everything else it has been left to me. It has been like looking after 3 extra children. Ok if I wasn't living here I would be doing it all anyway but there is 3 other adults living in this house.
So when Jen, the kids and I got home from shopping yesterday and yet again I was left to put away the shopping (with help from Jen) that I shopped for with the list that I had to make. I snapped and said apart from cooking and dishes when it is my turn I am going on strike. Well that didn't go down well with Miss and it ended in a screaming match....Yes very childish I know but I have been ready to fall apart for some time now and something had to give. So I am sitting here this morning and all I have to do is cook dinner tonight and do some washing.... No feeding animals, no getting firewood, no cleaning out the fire place, no floors or cleaning bathroom, laundry, bathroom, toilet, kitchen, the list goes on.....Simple you may say but you have no idea how much clutter and mess 3 kids and 4 adults make.

So I admit I have been extremely childish and I could of handled it better but I am going to TRY and stick to my guns and have a month of , I am just a bit worried that Jen will try and do too much. I am worried about the extra stress I have now caused her.

So If you have gotten this far you need a medal but some good news is that there have been more Robbie tickets released so maybe we are in for a chance this time. The last lot sold out in 8 min....Wish us luck....Something has to go right.

Robbie goes on sale today!!!!!!

Just a quick catch up, I will do a longer one when I get a chance. The big news today is that Robbie Williams goes on sale today for his Perth concert. Melbourne sold out in 4 hours so we are hoping that we might have a small chance.....Just a slight one.

I am having to go to Bendigo to get some tires for Miss's car, she made the appointment at the same time as the ticket sales start so Jenni will have to stay home and man the phones for us....

I took Matthew back to the child health nurse and she is really pleased with his progress, however he still has social delays which she believes is due to his speech delays. So I am in the process of playing answering machine tag team with the speech therapist.

Anyway better go, will write more soon

A Wonderful Surprise

I have an amazing group of friends that I met online...These women are inspirational, caring and I feel so proud to be apart of. I have been a part of Friends Of Remember When for about 18 months now and even though they are a chatty bunch of girls (sometimes 400 emails a day) when I don't get to chat I feel as though my arms are chopped off.
We all have one thing in common and that is scrapbooking and sometimes a LO get shown :)
But most of all we are there to support each other through life's tough and happy times. We are spread out over Australia but you know if at any time you feel the need to off load there will be someone that will listen and if needed will offer some advice or just a well needed cyber hug.

One thing FoRW are fantastic for is PIFFING....For those who have seen the movie "Pay It Forward" it has the same idea. It can be as simple as popping a card in the mail for someone that is feeling under the weather or as much as a plane ticket for those who unable to afford one at the time.

One of the ladies who happens to live up the road popped over the other night to drop off some flowers and a gift from the Body Shop as a PIF for Jenni. Just to say that the ladies on the group are thinking of her.

To my surprise Debbie went back out t the car and bought in a beautiful display of flowers and a Body Shop gift for me....I had been PIFFED.

I feel so undeserving of these but knowing that I have friends that are willing to do this means sooo much....Just to say "we are thinking of you"

thankyou to all you ladies