Random thoughts of the self absorbed kind

• I went to the gym and timed my running session for the first time... and it was pitiful. Unfortunately I got the looks great/not so great at the helping gym person for my session. She pretty much turned the treadmill on and walked away... doesn't she realise I pay good $$ to be fawned over oops I mean encouraged? My time was embarrassing but also so slow I can only get faster. I ran for 1km and it tool me nearly 20 minutes! so If I don't get any faster/fitter it will take me an hour to run an hour and 40 minutes to do the 5km Bridge to Bris run next year. I am going to get both fitter and faster I'm sure ;-)


• I love love love Powderfinger's new album 'Golden Rule'. The song -All of the Dreamers sounds like they bottled the essence of Brisvegas and turned it into a song... or something like that.



• I am reading the most disturbing book. It is called Killer Company by Matt Peacock. The (mainly) Australian company Hardie Industries produced building products right up until the mid 1980's with a product called asbestos which they knew contained cancer and other deadly diseases. The statistics contained within the book that show how many people who worked for the company in its factories as well as builders and home handymen who came into contact with the asbestos products and latter died is staggering. I think books such as these should be compulsory text for business studies in school.
• David and Bear went and watched Australia vs the West Indies Cricket match yesterday and stayed overnight with David's family. I got a few txt's from Bear telling me how good the food was in the VIP tent!
• It rained yesterday and that is fantastic news because we were going to have to buy water to top up our water tanks, hopefully this rainfall will keep us going for a bit longer.

My Amazing Mum

16 years ago today my beautiful Mum passed away. She is missed each and every day. If we were in our home town we would take her some lovely orchids...This is her as a very young Mum playing tea parties with my big sister Angie.

My Dad found this pic just this year when he went to visit his Mum. It's so daggy I love it.

So today is really like any other day where I miss her and I love her and I thank her for giving me my sisters and my brother and I admire her for everything she achieved. I now hope that she is resting in idyllic peace.

Weekend Pool Pics

Lots of gogle adjusting to be done

Someone has to supervise

This child manages to combine eating junk food with most activities, even swimming.

The great white shark... or one way to keep your cast dry whilst swimming. I tried to get a shot of him swimming underwater with his "fin" held up... probably not what the Dr imagined he'd be doing with his cast.

Telling secrets about her brother or kissing for the camera ... hard to tell.

The Weekend

I don't know if its the weather (sunny and warm) or David nearly finishing the landscaping and down stairs entertaining area, or the kids being at a very "cruisy" age or me actually following instructions when it comes to managing my anxiety / stress or David and I making some great plans for next year... but life is really good at the moment.

Of course having just written that I am waiting for the universe to smite me and it all to come crashing down upon me, just in time for the Christmas palaver of course.

This weekend was brill - not that we did anything terribly exciting, but what we did do was good fun and I really tried to savoured it.

Friday night we had a dinner at our house with my sis and her family and it was great fun. The kids had a disco at the school and my gorgeous niece offered to do the drop off and pick up so I could have a glass of champers. Saturday I thought was going to be a bit of a drama as Bear is suffering the consequences of "not good choices" . He cant play sport because of his hand (he choose to get on a quadbike unsupervised etc) and he cant rent any DVD's for two weeks because he didn't take an overnighter back for 5 nights. Both these things are hurting me as much as him because sport is fantastic for boys to run out all their testosterone and activeness in a positive way. So he is a bit grumpy and crusty at times and his little sister is annoying him more than ever. Saturday was spent just hanging around home and lying by the pool. We went out to a birthday celebration for one of David's work colleague Saturday night and it was pleasant and I didn't have to cook (yay for me).
Sunday was hot so all four of us were in the pool for most of the day after we had a big cooked breaky. It was so relaxing (probably not so much for Dave who was wrestling with the kids) I took some pictures of the kids and Dave in the pool and I will add them later.
Sunday afternoon was so exciting because I had organised a photographer to come to the house to take our family pics . This usually would have been a huge deal with me stressing over what to wear buying 4 x new outfits, dragging everyone to the photo venue etc all to get a fairly ordinary picture. Well Ali(the photographer) and her husband Liam came to our house and it was so CASUAL! On Saturday I went through all our clothes and came up with nice coloured T shirts and shorts for the boys and a dress with nice colours for Lulu. I tried out a couple of outfits (just casual tops and 3/4 pants) and went with the one Dave liked most. Ali was great with the kids and didn't make a big deal of getting us to pose (worst part of getting a pic taken according to Dave and the kids). Ali asked if when we had done all the "normal" shots would we do a fun shot where we all jumped into the pool! The kids LOVED this idea. I did some deep breathing and then said "sure". Well in the end I layed in the floating lilo and David and the kids jumped in ... of course I end up in the water as well... IT WAS SUCH GOOD FUN!. I reckon it could be the shot of the day and I hope I get the pics back in time for me to send it out with my Christmas cards. It was so lovely to meet Ali and Liam and when I get the pics I will put up a link for her services. One of the biggest tips I could give is having your pics done at home much less stress (IMO).
To top the weekend off we ended up going out to our local thai restaurant for yummy laksa's and tom yum for tea. The kids were such good company at tea so chatty and interesting. I get a bit sad when I think they might/will turn into sullen silent teenagers... and part of the reason why I am just loving this time in our lives.

Wow this has been a super long post but its chock full of details I don't want to forget.

I have added these pics to illustrate why I wanted our family photos in our yard. David has done all our landscaping himself... and it has been a huge job and he has managed to turn this into this...

This is how 37 looks on him

So Dave had a birthday and pretty much the whole weekend was devoted to him! We even took Friday off together to run around and do errands ... this could actually have been the best present as it was bliss to be together and have lunch and actually finish a couple of sentences.
Saturday was sport day for David and the kids and I cleaned up and made the curry (that could have just been me). David also managed to do some last minute things in the garden and it showed the garden and downstairs area rocks at the moment.
The kids set the table and the green and white looked lovely. David and I went to the nursery on Friday and picked up some white Agapanthus and Bougainvillea to match in with the yard and table... Aggie are some of my favourite plants/flowers.

My gorgeous Nieces were such a huge help (as always) I'm so lucky to have them.

This is David's wonderful Mum giving him his pressie.

"Happy Birthday to you...'

The menu for the day was

Nibble Platter

Duck and Pickled Lime Balls with lime dipping sauce

Chicken Korma Curry

Prawn Balti Curry

Riata , Mango Chutney and Poppadoms

Triffle

Chocolate Truffle Cake

We all had a fantastic day and I only freaked out once before the guests arrived (this is a huge accomplishment for me) and even then it was minor and the girls just laughed at me.

David rang me on Monday and said "thank you so much for my party" and I said it was my pleasure and for the most part it was!

These Days

Wow some of my blog titles are really lame.
Moving on
Bear: We went back to the fracture clinic yesterday. Our appointment was for 9am so he wore his school uniform as I was going to drop him back to school and try to make it to work for a bit. Haha we walked out of the hospital at 2.25pm. First we waited then saw a Dr (at 10.30am) who sent Bear to get the cast removed, then we waited some more and then got another X Ray then back to the Dr (who looked as pleased as me to be there) then Bear got a new cast put on. I am in no way rubbishing the public hospital as I think they do a fantastic job with the resources they have, but its a bit frustrating as we have private health cover but I cant get a Private appointment for Bear until next year (very helpful)...and as he was admitted through Accident and Emergency they don't want to transfer him (even if I could find a orthopedic Dr to take him).The break isn't healing that well so the new cast is bigger. Poor Bear he is missing swimming lessons at school and summer cricket. This child loves sport so I think the consequences of jumping on a quad bike (when you have no idea how to ride it ) are really resonating with him. Even though the day was long the bright happy spot was we had 1/2 hour before we picked Lulu up from school so we got to grab some lunch together and discuss the pros and cons of Subway.
Lulu: My baby girl is struggling with some social issues at school. It breaks mine and David's heart to see her upset and see some of the physical symptoms of stress (headaches, upset tummy) in her. We went to our wonderful family Doctor yesterday and today I had a meeting with her teacher... It was all positive and has reinforced to us (Dave and I) that all we can do with the kids is try to make them as resilient as possible and equip them with the social skills to deal with conflict etc... Of course its a hard time of year, its hot (35 degrees here today), It's the end of the school year so everyone is tired and there are extra activities going on for end of year concerts and graduation. Its just life.
David: is older... he had his Birthday Party on Sunday and it was brill. Pics to come.
Me: I am struggling this week I think I'm tired from life ;-) not to worry I will be lucky enough to get up tomorrow and try it all again.
Ex

Surfaces Darling

I realise what I like most about having a blog. Instead of a constant stream of random thoughts running through my brain... I write it down and pretty much move on to thinking about the next random aka useless thing consuming my brain.

That being the case I want to chuck out there what is driving me mental at the mo.

We are celebrating David's birthday on Sunday at home in the garden. We would have had the party on the balcony but he did this to it a few weekends ago

(he is ripping it up) (we are renovating)

So back to the part that keeps me up at 3am. I want the garden party to look like this

and I bet it ends up like this

That being the case, its ridiculous the amount of mental energy I exert on worrying about having a few people over who really couldn't care less if the little white paper lanterns and the place setting cards match, especially because the Birthday Boy is the most laid back person on earth who just wants to partake in a cold bevie, a hot curry and his Mum's trifle whilst he sits by the pool with his fam.

Lulu Says

Yesterday Lulu said to me in the car
"Mum is it true that you get amnesia if you crack your knuckles?"
ummmmmm
"Do you mean arthritis Lulu?"
"oh yeah"

This little snippet made my day.

P.S. This old wives tale is sooo old - we use to say this when I was in Primary School!!!

Broken Bear

I think there is a strong correlation between how badly you want to do something and how high the chances are of the universe laughing at you. Saturday rolls around and I drop Bear and his friend off a a birthday party. I drive across town to pick up my nieces for the card making afternoon. I am pretty much at my friends house (who is hosting the craft afternoon) when my phone rings... "Bear has come off a quad bike and has done something to his hand". I take Lulu inside and she skips off to make cards and I turn around and drive back across town to pick Bear up. We (my nieces, Bear and I) stay at the Accident & Emergency part of the hospital for 4 hours whilst Bear gets x-rays and a cast for a broken finger and thumb.
Poor thing! He was on a constant stream of Nurofen for the first few days and is now just annoyed at all the sport and school activities he is missing. I have no idea how Ali (the photographer) is going to hide the cast next weekend when we get our family pics done...
Hopefully the cast isn't on for too long and I find enough cotton wool to wrap my kids in before the Christmas card making class next month!

Colour Me Very Excited

Things in no particular order I'm looking forward to:

• We are getting a proper Oh My Goodness professional photographer to come to the house and capture the gorgeousness that is my family. I haven't told said family yet, I will spring it on them the day before to limited the amount of whinging I can guarantee will occur.
• I'm going to a card making class this weekend. It has been way to long since I have scrapped or did anything remotely crafty.
• I have managed to manipulate David's work schedule / my work hours / and the transport & feeding of children duties so that I can attend the gym at least 3 times next week.
• After ripping all the good ideas off other blogs (hello Brooke) I went and purchased some great new gym clothes and as silly as it sounds I'm stoked to get back to the gym to wear them.

Of course I look just like this...

Things in no particular order I'm not looking forward to:

• Finding 4 coordinating outfits for the family photo shoot. I may have to resort to jeans and plain coloured t shirts (just like most of our other family photos!).
This is NOT a photo of us .... I got if off a Pixi Photo website, but we have one just like it at home!


• If at the card making class we make Christmas Cards ... I will begin the countdown to Christmas panic, this involves devoting alot of time and energy to worrying about christams gifts, decorations and meals but not actually doing anything about it.
• I have booked a session at the gym for a trainer to time me running, to get a baseline for how unfit I am. This will hurt - both my ego and my body.
• Getting the bank statement for new gym clothes.

Parenting: the ultimate competitive sport

So Bear is off to high school next year... hand on a sec, I'm pretty sure I just gave birth to that boy and then pretended he wasn't mine as he threw a tantrum in Target...
Anyway around our parts choosing a school for your child is not so much about finding the school that best fits your child's personality, your family's financial circumstances or even your proximity to the school's location and appropriate bus timetables. Its not even about acting on passionately held beliefs about private vs government run vs religious schooling. No here in La La land, choosing a school for your kids is all about one up man ship in the parenting stakes.

We have decided to send Bear to a private college (for lots of reasons, NONE of them being to impress other punters). One of the biggest reasons is that after meeting the Principal and Staff we all felt that this was the 'right' place for Bear to negotiate the hell that is/can be high school and I would actually stack shelves at Woollies to make this happen. This post is prompted by a conversation I had on Saturday Night with another Mum at the kids school and sums up the highly competitive not to mention petty nature of choosing schools for kids.

Other Mum "Where is Bear going next year"

Me " Our Lady of the Dorky Teenagers College" *

Other Mum " Oh I didn't know you were loaded"

What I should have said 'You know you just didn't think that thought... you actually said it"

What I actually Said " Yes we are extremely loaded ... didn't you know"

It was at this point I walked off (to burn $100 notes for fun) .



I love this article as it says so much about how my generation parent ;)

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/your-childs-gifted-you-say-thats-nice-my-kid-has-nits-20090407-9zj3.html



Rant over and now I get why Mums have blogs, it feels great to express opinions about life. The Good Bad and plain Stupid!



* this may not be the actual name of the school ;-)

The Weekend of Lu

Bear and David play sport most of the year but in Summer it really ramps up, this means that Lulu at times is dragged to sports ground, training and trials and most of the time she is pretty laid back and patient with it. This past weekend Bear when to church camp for the weekend ... so David and I (ok me) wrote Lulu a letter telling her it was the "weekend of Lu" and she could pick any activities that floated her boat for a change. We had tea at out local Thai restaurant , had spaghetti jaffle for breaky, and I tried to say yes to all her reasonable requests ;-)
For her big "thing" she decided that she wanted to go to the zoo (with Mum as David had Sport). So off we went. This pic was at the end of the day, and it shows her doing her "most favourite thing" hand feeding the wallabies and kangaroos. We spent all up about and hour doing this.We kept comming back to their part of the zoo. She LOVED It.

This one is in the koala lounge...

Here she is on the shuttle , it was Halloween when we went and they had Face Painting set up all over the zoo ... she chose the spider web and tiny spider. Classic line of the day an English tourist asked if the Koala's like being patted and the keeper said "no not really" so the English lady patted away... This was after Lu had taken this shot ... I would not have patted it if I had known!

Obligatory Croc pic...

My favourite.. the elephants. These three elephants were the same ones I saw as a child (they are all approx 60 years old) in a animal park. I was actually quite emotional seeing them, and I love how they just roam around now and eat... no more circus tricks or performing for the punters.



The Kids Zoo... was packed... with adults.

Feeding the locals again... look at that face pure happiness!

Watch out for giant crocodile slides....










Such a great day was had by all. And there were tears at the end of the day (but only from Mummy) just pretend ones from Lu.

We all think our babies are special, but sometimes it takes a day off the treadmill of life to fully appreciate them. Lu "rocks" and I was lucky to be able to spend a day at the zoo with her.