Time is flying

I expected the days to drag but they seem to be flying....A lot has been happening. Jen is spending most of her time down in Geelong looking for a house for Dave, Miss is at work and I am just busy tying up loose ends. I have finally finished packing and got a final quote of $3030....
The cars leave this coming Monday or Tuesday and then the kids and I leave Wed morn....

The kids have there last day of School on Tuesday and start at their new school on Thursday...

Sat we are seeing Bec to say goodbye and then some friends on Sunday.

I took Oscar the cat back to the vet yesterday so that his stitches could be removed and I was a little concerned as the stitches were broken again, I was exciting more surgery and if that was the case I was going to have him put to sleep...He doesn't have much more tail to remove. But the vet is optimistic, he said there was no point in doing another surgery but he is confident with time it will heal (it doesn't help that the dogs and himself keep licking it)...So he is on more antibiotics and time....

only have 8 days till we fly.....

A very happy mummy

Today has been a very busy, Talia had her excursion to Bendigo and Jen and I drove to Echuca to buy some packing boxes for Jen to start packing...
we also went to Rochy as a friend was holding a kids clothing party...I bought matthew some bathers and Eloise a dress for Xmas...

I also re booked the girls plane tickets so the kids and I will be flying to perht on the 1st Nov...i am so happy.

So a good end to a very hot and windy day....welcome summer....

The FINAL countdown

Can you believe plans have changed again.....
Well Matthew and I are flying out to Perth on the 1st of Nov...The girls were going to stay however situation has changed and I will be changing their flight details on Friday so we all fly together...
So the new countdown is 21 days...... 3 WEEKS

I feel as though I have a constant stress headache

I also took Talia to the dentist today and she needs to go back next week for some work and an OPG....( full mouth xray).....

Fun and games again

The house is back to a war zone again....Fun...Miss is not talking to Jen and she is storming around the house saying that she wants to leave now....
And I am stuck in the middle again...
But before the house became a war zone I was thinking things through and came up with an idea..
Matthew and I are going to leave 2 weeks early (approx 12 Nov) the girls will stay with Jen and finish school. This would mean that we would not have to get a hire car at both ends of the plane trip and I can find and apply for houses so that when everyone else gets there we wont be too much of a burden for Jac and Steve...5 adults and 6 kids in one house is asking to much of anyone, especially the way this one feels at the moment. If I waited until the 26 I am not sure how long all of us would have to stay....

It also gets me out of here 2 weeks early...

So I just have to check with Jac to make sure that this would be ok and re book the flights...

A good day

Well Oscar is now back home and looking very silly. The vet said that when she shaved around the tail she could see the bruising from the trauma…which should heal over time and I walked away with only having to pay $157…I was pleased about that…

I went home and received the quote for the car transport, I was dreading it as I was sure it was going to go up and we should have taken the quote we got in August. Well the quote came in at $1236.90 per car…I am very happy with that…It’s almost $100 cheaper than the last quote. So I rang them back up and booked the cars in…They will be leaving at the end of Oct as we need the cars for when we get to Perth on the 26th. So that’s only 4 weeks away, and then we are down to one car for 3 weeks…. Talk about tactical nightmare…It will all sort it self out….

So yesterday was good…things are getting there, now I just need the countdown to go quicker….

Update....

Well what a few days it has been,
Kids are back at school and they are mighty happy, so is Mummy.
Got the final quote for the removals and nearly fell over!....My stuff alone is $3000 and all I am taking is My bed, the bunks, Matthews cot, fridge, washing machine, dryer, air conditioner, rocking chair and boxes….They have worked on 22 m3…I am hoping it wont go over that with the last few boxes I have to pack. Thankfully I budgeted on $3000 and not my original quote of $2000. We just happen to moving at the most expensive time of year to the most expensive place…..

So today I need to get a quote for the cars and book that as well…I just hope that quote hasn’t gone up as well!

These are just some small glitches before we go. I am sure that there will be many more before we finally get the plane.
The other thing is that Oscar the cat come in a few days ago looking like he had been in another cat fight, all his face was scratched he was walking very stiffly. I kept an eye on him over the next few days as he is prone to abscesses. He slowly got better but noticed that he would growl if you touched him or if he had to jump up or down…I was a bit worried but thought I would watch him as he was getting better and no sign of any abscesses.
Yesterday I rang the vet as even though he is much better he is still in pain around the hips and he has lost all feeling and function of his tail…it just hangs limp and drags on the ground. I thought that he may have been hit by a car instead and has a spinal injury (not severe as he was still able to walk) so off to the vet and she checked him over.
He has severed his spinal column at the base of his tail and has no feeling what so ever, so the plan is to amputate the tail so that it won’t get caught in the future as he is now unaware that it is there. She also thinks that he has a slight fracture in the pelvis and that time will heal that. So he spent the night at the vet last night and will be coming home today as a bob cat….
The kids are upset but I am sure that once he his home and back to his normal self they will be happy.

Ok now I know some of you are dying to know a bit more about my “friend” , I will call him D on here…Even if nothing happens between us once I get to Perth he has been an amazing pillar of strength. I don’t want to get my hopes up as then I am just settling myself up for disappointment but so far he seems like a very caring, sensible, understanding guy (can you tell he is not Australian born)…
So we are planning to have coffee when I get to Perth and then he is taking me to his work Christmas Party…

So that’s what’s been happening here for the last few days. Jen just told me that she wants to have a garage sale in the first week of Nov….more stress…….

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.