A poke in the eye (would be fine on its own)

Yesterday after I stopped puking from the anaesthetic I was still feeling less that average so I took myself off to see Edward again.

So I now have a chest infection and I'm on the roids (or maybe just garden variety antibiotics). Fabulous.

Last night after a wonderful relaxing dinner where Bear acted like a 2 year old because he didn't like what was being served up for tea (more on that and its consequences later) I felt a burning sensation in my eye.

Is there anything worse than having a scratched eyeball ? Possible having a cyst removed, stitches with no baby to show for it, a chest infection AND a scratched eyeball.

To be honest I have no idea what is in my eye but after an hour of dicking around with eyewash and eye drops and with no relief I took a horse tranquilliser and went to sleep. (Apparently I woke David up during the night and told him " my eye hurts like a MotherF#cker") Descriptive and informative.

So this morning my eye isn't as sore but it is almost swollen shut and looks like black eye with out the black. The eye itself is a nice shade of cerise.

I'm not making this shite up.


Hopefully I am going back to work tomorrow (just to feel like a normal person) if I can make it through the night without appendicitis or a broken leg.

Team Edward and Team George

So its been a plague on both our houses (except we only have one) lately. First Riley got sick and just as he finished his antibiotics and went back to school Lucy started coughing and feeling like crap and last Wednesday I started coughing and carrying on. On Thursday night I had a huge coughing fit that ended badly with lots of pain in my groin area (vague enough for you). On Friday I went to see my Doctor, Edward. Edward is beautiful. But really who would be a doctor? You study for 20 years, meet nice people and have to stick your hand up them. Poor Edward. Anyways Edward thought I may have a tear in a place you really don't ever want a tear and prescribed antibiotics rest ice packs and panadol. I coped with this until Saturday morning at 3.40am when I may have screamed at David that I wanted to go to the hospital NOW. Cos it was David fault obviously. We did go first thing Saturday morning to see Edward who took one look at me and rang his friend George at the hospital. Over to the hospital we went. Dr George was beautiful too. Except George said it wasn't a tear and it had nothing to do with the coughing and by the way he was operating on me at 2pm.
and he did. and he removed a very large cyst. from inside me. and I didn't die from the anesthetic. and now I have a lot of stitches.

Today I am back at home a little bit sore and a little but pukey but mostly just so THANKFUL to Edward and George and Selengor Hospital and the fantastic country I live in that meant from diagnoses to operation was only about 4 (very painful) hours.

Wow is anyone else impressed I didn't type the V word once? and can anyone guess just how much pain medication I am on ?


I'm off now to eat the yummy little choc cakes Vyc made for me last night. Thanks Vyc.

What I Wore Wednesday

Of course Mardi and Kymmie do this much better but here is my contribution...

I like to wear this outfit with my fake smile...

Best part of the outfit... Toes by Lulu.

My photographer and my pedicurist.

The Deets

Shirt dress top = Ally (Op Shop)

Jeans = K Mart

Shoes = Thailand

Beads = Just Jeans

Ring = Diva

For Lauren

Dear Lauren,

A popper is a tetra pak box full of fruit juice or if you are my kids... sugar.
I think you call poppers juice boxes or if you are my kids ... sugar boxes.
I would have taken a picture of my kids drinking a popper but the only poppers I could find are all empty and under their beds, under the couch or in the back of my car.
Love from Elizabeth x

Springing

Last weekend was pretty close to perfect. The weather was sunny and warm and we spent most of the days downstairs and in the garden. Riley and I spent heaps of time weeding and gardening and the garden is starting to come out of its winter blah.


It was warm enough to go swimming.

I got a new hydrangea. It has white flowers and I am so hopping they stay white once I plant it.

Hydrangea's are my favourite flowers and my other plant has small pink flowers.

These herbs have survived a winter where I didn't go near them.


I pulled out the thyme which David hates the taste of and planted some chives (which we all love the taste of) sort of seemed like good sense.



My stellar helper (can go either way super helpful or super painful).

Lucy spent most of Saturday on the couch watching tele as she caught the cough that Bear had a few weeks ago. She seems to be on the mend now.

Sunday night we had Cath and the girls and Vyc and the boys over for tea. David cooked a barbie with the help of the blower lol (something about coals) and it was a fantastic night.

To be honest I am sort of still struggling with how this year is turning out but the weekend REALLY helped me get my shite together. It was the combination of the sun shining and having Cath, Vyc and their bebes over and working really hard in the garden and seeing the plants look better... It all just made me feel more positive and looking forward to the coming months.

Attracting Nutters one isle at a time

Firstly let me start this long boring story with a bit of info about my friend Annie. Annie attracts people. If we ever went shopping or out to tea people would always ask Annie for the time or stop her for directions. Even if Stuart or I were closer to them, peeps would go past us to talk to Annie. It was the same when we worked together ... customers loved Annie. Lulu reminds me a bit of Annie in the way that she engages with people when we are out and about. It is usually Mum's with babies that talk to her.


So yesterday I took the kids grocery shopping. Lately I loathe this task. Lately I loathe all tasks but last time I looked peeps needed to be fed so off we went to the plaza to blow cash on canned goods. Fun times.

Normally we go to the Woollies next to the kids school but the thought of doing that yesterday made me want to poke myself in the eye so we went to the Coles at the plaza. In hindsight I would have been very happy with a poke in the eye.

It was situation normal with Bear pushing the trolley and me regretting never having a proper meal plan and Lulu just fluttering along next to me. Somewhere along the tinned tuna isle I got separated from the kids for about a minute as they had stopped to fight over popper flavours or some such thing. Next thing they are both next to me looking very sheepish and sort of doing that nervous giggle thing. Bear tells me that a lady in the next isle keeps looking at Lulu. I really don't think that much of it. My kids are not rude or loud so I didn't think they had done anything wrong (especially as I had been with them less than a minute previously). We keep shopping and then a lady comes past us with her trolley and is indeed staring at Lulu. Like stopping in front of me staring at Lulu. I asked her if she was ok or alright or something like that and she says "Is she laughing at me?" Lulu is now hiding behind me and I am sort of starting to freak out a little bit. I said "no I don't think so" and the lady says "she is laughing at me isn't she?" she then goes to touch me (or Lulu who is trying to make herself as small as possible and burrow into my back). I walk past the woman (holding onto Lu) but realise that Bear is rooted to the spot with the trolley and now the Nutter is between me and him. I go back (with Lu who is crying behind me) and say to the woman "look sorry... she isn't doing anything". I grab the trolley and haul Bear as fast as I can up the isle. Thankfully the woman disappears. Bear is probably scared but starts to tell me off for talking to the woman and Lu is in tears. I myself want to ditch the 3/4 full shopping trolley and get the hell out of dodge.

It doesn't seem like a big deal but we all felt quite flustered by the experience.

After a bit of a talk to the kids about stuff like that happening and it being no ones fault (except the Nutter!) we continued on shopping.

We get to the last two isles and Lucy finds $30 on the floor. She picks it up and turns around to me to tell me about it and out of nowhere comes another lady with 2 little kids in her trolley(this is my blog and I am going to say it like it is she was WHITE TRASH of the finest order) and grabs it out of Lulu's hand saying "that's not yours, I saw who dropped it". This makes Lucy cry again because she assumes everyone will think she stole it (Lucy has previous found money twice at our local shops and handed it in and then when it wasn't claimed 3 months later she got to keep the money). Why are people such a holes? Why doesn't anybody trust kids? Why do adults feel good when they make kids feel like crap?

We quickly finish up, pay our millions to Coles and go home.

Today I am seriously looking into online shopping with home delivery.

House Progress

There has been a fair bit of progress on the house especially in our bedroom and the ensuite and WIR.


This is a pic of the bulkhead and lighting David put in.


Also the sample pieces of the timber flooring we may use (David loves it but I think it looks a bit orange).






This is looking from our bedroom to the bathroom with the WIR on the right hand side.

Another shot of the down lights from the bulkhead.

Our stone arrived for the new bathroom. Anyone else think it looks like a freckle faced kid? No just me then.


We are full steam ahead with painting this weekend (if I can find a off white wall colour paint that I like cos I have found a lot of $9.95 sample pots of off white wall colour paint I DON'T like.)

and he's back!

Last Monday morning at about 4.20am Riley came into our room and said "Dad I feel sick" at 4.21 am I bolted out of bed and pushed him away from our wool carpet.

Turns out he was sick and for the last week he has been crook as a dog.

Monday I stayed home with him and fed him nurofen and vicks. At about lunchtime he turned into a seal. For the next 7 days (and counting) he continues to bark.

On Tuesday he actually appeared to get slightly better (I am putting that down to being high on nurofen and vicks).

On Wednesday at about 3.30am I found him crying (and barking) in the bathroom. I haven't seen him that sick since he was about 2 and had a double ear infection. I took him to the Doctor Wednesday morning and the receptionist (whose son plays cricket with Bear) said "He has been sick since Monday and you only bought him to the Doctor today... Mother of the Year hey".

I wanted to punch her.

He had a throat and chest infection and Thursday and Friday were spent barking, shivering, sleeping, TV watching and drinking a lot of poppers.

Saturday and Sunday the antibiotics finally kicked in and although he was still barking and sleepy he felt a lot happier within himself.

This morning at about 7.50am he hid his sisters glue pot and was teasing her about it saying her teacher would probably give her detention if she didn't find it and take it back to school.

At 7.51am with Lu whingeing and whining about being teased it occurred to me

... he's back!

Grief is Grief is Grief

In the lead up to the 10th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attack on America you couldn't turn the tv or radio on without the "911 specials" being advertised. I found it all a bit strange. The soundbites were all Americans speaking about its effect on them and their country. I believe it was a huge event for Americans that should be commemorated but as Australians maybe we should have also been focusing on how that day effected us. The attack on homeland USA saw our Prime Minister invoke the ANZUS alliance and send Australian troops to war. A war that was deeply unpopular with most Australians at the time (in fact David and I were in the minority as we actually supported Australian soldiers being send to fight the Taliban).

Yesterday as I was driving the kids home from gymnastics the radio started broadcasting a "911" special. I put "911" in brackets because Aussies don't even say the date this way, we say day month year . September the 11th 2001 is 11/09/01. Riley made a comment that the segment was so over the top it was silly. I agreed and said I didn't think it was how we should be honoring those involved. It was lazy. A sound cloud sent directly from the US.

Late last night David and I watched the ABC program Rebirth about five people affected by the tragedy. The show revisited these people each year to see how they coped in the years that followed. It was uplifting and honored those people who died and those left behind. The images were as shocking as when we first watched them 10 years ago.

I was reminded of where I was when I heard about the attack and how devastated we all were.
My sister Ang rang me in the morning as I was getting ready for work and we both couldn't believe it. I tried to call Joel who was living in Nova Scotia and couldn't get through. I went to work pretty upset because I really wanted to make sure Joel was ok. I took the kids to creche and one of the Sister's hugged me and Lucy (who was 15months old). I didn't want to leave them and Sister Mary came out and took Lucy and told me to go.

So even though I was disappointed with the Australian coverage of the anniversary, I realise that the world changed 10 years ago and for lots of people (like the Aussie troops and their families) it has stayed changed. I also hope that 10 years on Afghanistan is a better place for all their sacrifices.

I also hope that the services held across the US help and give comfort and recognise the amazing bravery of many involved on the day.

Looking to Ke$ha for hair tips...somebody stop me!

Sometimes I forget that I am a nearly 40 year old mother of two with very average hair (not to mention a limited "beauty" budget) and in my wildest fantasies I have thick long voluminous hair. Just so you know Matt Damon and a zero mortgage also feature heavily in my fantasies.



Anyhoo lately I have been seeing feathers and colours strips in people's hair and thinking "I could rock that look". Yeah I need help probably.




I like the idea of fake hair and feathers 'cos I think it would add volume to my fine dull nearly 40year old hair... unfortunately it would probably scream Loser rather than Hipster.







The pink hair ribbon below is an initiative of an Australian breast cancer charity with a percentage of the price of the pink hair ribbon going to the charity. Unfortunately there are no hairdressers doing it in my town... I think I could get away with a few pink ribbons in my hair if I could say it was for a good cause (as opposed to being for my vainess).







If I did go the coloured hair tips path it would most likely be disastrous and I would end up looking like this.




Can you believe money and access's to stylists was no problem and she still ended up looking like Cruella Deville?

Also because I spend an embarrassing amount of time thinking about my hair I have noticed this style is popular amongst the young starlets.

This is call Balayage. Balayage is french for "I'm so rich I get some hairdresser tool to make me look like I am too broke and white trash to get my roots touched up" .

Probably a good thing I cant afford it.

It was so good until it wasnt

Once upon a time we went on a holiday to Queenstown New Zealand.


And we loved it.













Brisbane Airport at our preflight club also known as the food court.

We hired a car

and some ski gear (and by the way the swish swish sound you hear whilst skiing isnt your skis on the powder its the cash leaving your bank account).

We ate a lot of good food.

Some people skied.

Some people admired the view from the apartment.

We found any way to keep our ears warm especially at night on the way back from the restaurants.

We went up the mountain on a cable car (Lulu's face is priceless).

We sat up here and admired the whole of Queenstown for about an hour it was so peaceful and stunning.

This is the day we left to drive to Dunedin to catch the flight back home.

The weather was predicted to be bad ... and it was.

By the time we got to Dunedin it was snowing heavily and the temp outside was -5 deg.

We did go through customs and immigration and even get onto the plane ... and we sat on the runway for about an hour while the airport decided if they were going to let the plane take off.

They didn't. They closed the airport. We were lucky enough to get a ride into the city (by a very good Samaritan who was offering 4wd lifts from the airport as the roads were all close to taxis etc). The airline put us up at a swanky hotel but David and I were a little too stressed out to enjoy it.

We didn't get much sleep ... this pic sums it up.

Sam and Brett were our fellow cancelled flight/4wd drive/hotel adventurers.

The kids played cards for hours the next day whilst we were waiting for the second plane.

This is the cows that were right next to the runway!

Finally we were off ... this is out the plane window.

Things I loved about our NZ trip.

The total break everyone got.

The cold water seafood dishes. Seafood Chowder, fish and chips, fish tacos Yum yum yum.

Seeing the kids skiing improve.

Seeing Lucy (who we called the Red Rocket) totally love skiing.

The weather. Until the end we had perfect sunny (but very cold) days with David and the kids skiing for four and half days straight.

The very friendly people.

The cute resort town of Queenstown.

Things I didn't like that much.

The cold at night.

The flight into Queenstown. I cried alot.

The End.