The week that was and will be

First weekend after getting home with the Tab and we took it away! YAY!! We stayed at a van park in Townsville. Saturday we took the kids swimming at the rock pools and had fun at the waterpark on the Strand. Sunday we went to the markets and then to Riverside/Riverway?? - more swimming anyway which is the thing to do in this stinking hot weather. Speaking of which we almost died of heat exhustion on Friday night, I got absolutely no sleep and had a ripping headache from rolling around in my own sweat all night (and some of Anakins too), We had to go and buy a fan for inside the van and one for the annex too so Saturday night was heaps better. I suppose you can't really classify it as camping when there's a Pizza Hut, Sizzler, Noodle Box, Macca's and Hungry Jacks within a 200 metre radius, but I did cook Jaffles, which got all stuck to the jaffle iron, burnt around the edges and totally sucked, but anyway... We caught up with some much missed friends and visited with Anakin's cousin Toby, it was fun. We packed a machete so on the way home we could stop on the road and cut ourselves a Christmas tree. We were walking along looking for the best one and signing for the truckies to honk their horns as they drove passed. HONK!! HONK!! Hilarious. Just as we got safely home a huge thunder and lightening storm began. The cracks of thunder were deafening and we lost all power except for some power points in our bedroom. So Izzy put his mattress down on the floor, we plugged one of our new fans in and away we went! (To sleep.)

Monday morning I got a ride to Cairns with Nick and Chris to pick up my car (which has been there ever since Greg flew down to Brisbane to meet me). The kids and I stayed up there for the night and Nick looked after them for me for a few hours while I did some damage to the bank account shopping for Christmas. Visited my girlfriend who got me into wedding planning mode googling wedding dresses. Have to post a few of my favs so far.

Got home yesterday and have been hooking in to the house work trying to spruce the place up. The inlaws are coming tomorrow!!! So I've been cleaning under beds, washing all the cushion covers and throws, scrubbing out the laundry, making trips to the salvo' bin ... I've still got SO much to do. I need HELP!! Or just one more day!! Two would be better. I can't wait to have it all done so I can indulge in something a bit more fun - like some sewing, or some Christmas cooking. The yard needs serious attention too but we've been getting rain every arve so there's nothing we can do about it at the moment. We are heading to Kurrimine Beach this weekend so if we can't get it done beforehand we're going to need a bloody slasher by the time we get back!

Anakin has been reciting "Hey Diddle Diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon.." his favourite nursery rhyme to us all tonight. He sounds so incredibly cute. He thinks it's a really funny poem. I bought him a beautifully illustrated book of nursery rhymes (from Nana and Grandad) for Christmas so his repertoire will be a lot larger come the New Year I'm sure.

I bought Izzy a box of decaffinated cappacino sachets to satisfy his current obsession with drinking coffee. He's been drinking them like there's no tomorrow. Except there is, and tomorrow I'm going to be setting a limit of ONE!

I feel a bit ripped off that Christmas is coming up so fast and I don't feel like I've had time to be Christmassy enough yet! We only got around to putting up the tree last night!! Today we set up some colouring fairy lights in Izzy window. Yesterday I bought myself a little Christmas frock from the op-shop and dug out my jingly christmas braclets. Actually we stopped at a servo in Gin Gin in the middle of the night on the way home from Gympie where I bought three CD's of Chrismas Carols. They even have renditions from Lou Reed and The Darkness! I flogged them in the car all the way home don't worry.

End of an era

Today spells the last day of primary school for Izzy and I'm already organising his school gear for next year. There's a bit of guess work involved though because there's no booklist in highschool, I'm just trying to think, practical, organised, easy... What do they use colouring-in pencils at high school?? My entire bookshelves are filled with state of the art folders and binders and document wallets, so I'll be dusting a few of those off and trying to get away with buying as little as possible this time.

I feel like I need to go through this whole house with a fine tooth comb as if we were moving out. The place is a bit of a shambles and it gets on my nerves. I need some serious organisation going on in here.

Well I finished my teaching contract. I'll miss a lot of the kids but I tell ya, a couple of them were SO out of control yesterday. Maybe because it is the last week with lots of fun activities going on and the relaxing of the usual routines. But holy shit, I came so close to dropping this big brute of a child flat on his arse, the vision of it was flashing in front of my eyes just before I dragged him off to the office instead and saved my career. And another misfit of a kid was picking up chairs and throwing them around. The other kids are just use to it and get about their activities sensibly while all this complete bedlam is going on around them, it's quite amazing. It was a shithouse note to finish off on and I tell you if I see either of them in the street in future and they wanna be my best friend I'm just going to have to say "don't ever approach me again, just turn around and walk the other." So harsh hey and I probably wouldn't even. But if you had to deal with these confrontational little shits you'd feel the same I swear.

Anyway my new contract has been approved for next year and my name is even alongside Mum's on the top of the class list. I've taught these kids before, they're mellow as. Anakin's daycare is all organised too and he starts one day a week in early January. We went for a visit on Tuesday and all the little kids were really interested in the both of us and the group leader was a beautiful girl. It's going to turn out real good.

Anyway Iz is hounding me for the computer and Anakin is trying to wipe mayonnaise all over me (his favourite snack??) so off I go for now..

As I was saying..

I was a bit fried after that huge drive and complained to Mum (after she made me drive her around town looking for a gift for Mumps) "are you all going to have to actually witness my physical and mental breakdown before one of you takes Anakin and lets me have a bloody sleep??!!" Well they took him for about 20 minutes while I tried to reorder the neurons! Fark! And I didn't take it too well when my Auntie gatecrashed into my motel room and set up a DVD player for all the older kids to watch zombie movies. I was like "fine I'll just grab all my stuff and move into your room shall I? Fancy sharing it with a 2 year old and a strung out crazy-woman? (I'm sure about as much as I wanted to share mine with a bunch of morose pre-teens) Shove over! He we come!!"
Anyway it was all fun and games, a whirlwind of BBQ's, morning teas, pool parties, tennis, dining out..
Then come Monday afternoon I packed up the kids and headed on down to Gympie, which once upon a time had a reputation as "Hell Town", a name which I refuse to let die, I'm actually single handedly responsible for perpetuating the myth. All the way me and the kids were singing the ACDC song "I'm on the (sing it with me) High Way to Hell!! .....town". Actually it's a really beautiful place where I got to hang out with my old uni mate Jenny and meet her girlfriend (as opposed to boyfriend in this context), who was a real honey too. We all have two boys each! So it was a barrel of fun.
Thursday the T @B got delivered by my best buddy Bill!
And get this bit, it freaked me right out... after all the papers where signed and the transactions complete and Bill went on his (not so) merry way (I would cry too selling such a cool van), this huge thunder and lightening storm rolled in and everyone was talking hail (oh.my.God.) The roller doors to Jenny's shed were too small to be able to get the van under cover and I just stood at the kitchen window with this totally grim look on my face for about an hour (I should have got a photo of it), while the lightening and wind and rain and occasional "tink" "tink" of hail beat down and whipped around my lonely little van, sitting in an increasingly large puddle... oh God... Thankfully it rolled away just as fast and my little Tabernacle was left undamaged... geez, what a freakout..
Friday was Mammoth!! I drove another 1 n a half hours further south and spent the day at the Australian Zoo with the kids visiting koalas and tortoises and wombats and camels and elephants and tigers and cheetahs and pigs and sheep and goats and komoda dragons and crocs and alligators and .. well we bloody saw everything that was there....

Greg had caught a plane to Gympie and a bus to Beerwah and met us out the front at closing time.
Then we took our time driving back to Gympie where we took our time hooking up the van and packing up the car and then we began our very looong journey home.
Greg musta missed me a lot while I was away - after the kids went to bed the first night we were on the road he told me he wanted to marry me! It was a really nice moment actually. We were looking at each other adoringly through the darkness and giving each other big cuddles coz it was just so nice to see each other after a week apart and I said "you CAN marry me." Thinking we were just talking sweetly .. and he's gone "Really! I want you to be my wife! I've got you a ring, it's right here!" I'm just like "are you for real!!!! Oh my God! I wanna see it!!! Where is it??!!" Probably be an eternity before we can actually afford a wedding, but never mind first things first - a rollicking big old engagement part, with lots of food and drink and a bonfire!! Woo-hoo!! You can all come too!!


(I'll come back later and add some pix, it's getting late and it's my last day of school tomorrow

Back with the T@Bernack - The first bit.

Wow, what a week and thankfully made it home, with everyone and everything still in one piece. No traffic fines, no bad misshaps, just all good stuff.

How adventurous am I? Friday I packed everything up, it was flogging down with rain so I had to park the rear end of the car into our jammed up carport along side of the house to get everything in the boot without getting saturated. Me and the kids ended up setting off for Gladstone at about 2.30pm. We didn't get too far before we had to stop for Anakin's potty time.
Yep, great thinking packing that potty. And then a bit further up the road was an hour and a quarter delay where a semi and the Tilt Train had collided the previous day. Traffic was banked up majororly, every now and again we had to jump in the car and buckle up and drive another 200 meters, then stop, pile out onto the side of the road and chat with fellow motorists before doing that all again about 5 times before we actually reached the detour and could continue on. It was the longest trip just to reach Townsville on dark and I had an entire nights worth of driving ahead of me! At Townsville we raced into Woolies to get some supplies - munchies to supplement the big batch of energy slice I had made, batteries for the torch, sticky pads for Izzy's to draw flick cartoons, chocolate to keep me awake.. I let Izzy join me in a cappacino for the first time ever on the way out and now he thinks he's a conisseour, with preferences for mild roasted and orange mocha's.. We'd gone through the drive through at Macca's for those and get this - they made us wait in the carpark!! God we were so paranoid about hold-ups by then and that extra few minutes waiting nearly killed us! We were banging on the side of the car in desperation and annoyance! They weren't even worth it coz they gave us stupid Extra - some artificial alzaimers inducing sweetener crap instead of plain bloody sugar!!
But we snapped a whole tube full of glow sticks to make us feel better and it did. Watching Izzy trying to take a discreet pee on the side of the road with about 15 glow sticks hanging around his neck and wrists was pretty funny.

We got a little bit lost driving through Ayr and when we entered back onto the Bruce Highway we were driving right behind Mum!!! Her and Nick and the kids where driving together, heading to Gladstone for the family reunion too, but we all left home at completely different times! Wild. We drove the convoy onto Serena were they slept at a rest area till daylight and I just kept on driving.. The coffee and V drink didn't help so much as chewing off all my fingernails... I stopped a few times to feed Bubby back to sleep, but when I couldn't get to sleep in under 15 minutes I just pulled out and kept on keeping on... Had a big brekkie in Rockhampton and finally reached Gladdie at about 8.30am. Thank the Lord.

I didn't catch up on any sleep either as the next two days were spent celebrating Mump's 90th and catching up with all the relies from near and far and wide.

I'm OFF!

You not going to see me around for a bit. I'm taking the kids to Gladstone this weekend for a family reunion - my Grandma is turning 90! And by the end of the year I think she is going to have about that many direct descendants! Fancy that hey. No wonder there's a population explosion when two people can be responsible for the churning out of another 90 in one lifetime. Ho-ly! Anyway it'll be awesome catching up with all the masses of cousins down there and seeing "Mumps" after all these years. Oh and from there we're heading to Gympie to visit with my mate Jenny and... get this bit... PICK UP MY T @B SAFARI CARAVAN WITH ADDED SOLAR PANELS, BIKE RACKS, AWNING, BATTERY PACK, BEER FRIDGE, PORTI-LOO.. Can you believe it!!! After being let down at the impossibility of buying them new here in Oz I posted a wanted add on Gumtree classifieds and last Thursday morning BILL (I love that guy) responded that he just advertised his 2006 as new model!!! I emailed him straight back and he called my mobile after answering the phone "IS THAT YOU BILL??? PLEASE BE BILL!!!!" We sorted out a deposit and WHAM BAM!! There you have it. He's towing it half way for me from Sydney and we're meeting in Gympie next THURSDAY!!!!!!!!!!!! You gotta help me find a name for it and us in it. I'm thinking something along the lines of T @BANACLE, T @BTALITARIANS, something like that! Hee hee hee. I'm going to pinching myself for ages.




Man I really have to go to bed, but I have to tell you I went to a crankin' little send off for a couple of friends who have also bought themselves a camper and are setting off around Australia very shortly (you don't have to be grey to be a nomad). It was very cool to be socialising with some dudes my own age as opposed the generation Yers I'm usually surrounded with. We were fully kickin' old school - jamming on Talking Heads songs together and strumming out on a Eukele. Talking about the days of Docs and trench coats and using solutions of gelatine to make temporary dreadlocks, can't remember what else coz I got a bit wasted. (Bless Greg for dropping me off and taking the kids to bed).

That reminds me - I took Izzy out to the pub for a meal the other night. Think All Men Are Liars or Priscilla, full yobbo pub. But anyway we were choosing a couple songs on the, I think otherwise totally unused, Jukebox and we were getting each other all psyched out talking about how everyone in the whole place was going to judge us on that one song each so it'd better be something that fully depicted us as human beings.. blah blah blah, putting the pressure on, giving ourselves the giggles... I ended up choosing Split Endz "I see Red, I see Red, I see Red" coz I had my period, I was pretty happy with how that went down amongst all the blokey-blokes. He thought Linkin Park was a safe bet, it'd have to be typically youthful, in your face, edgy, whatever, he didn't know the exact song but took a gamble.. It ended up being that "No one know what it's like, to be a sad man..." He absolutely hated being responsible for every doleful, sappy, crappy, mournful moment. He sat there almost dying of shame, demanding seriously that I save him from a shameful death by pulling the jukebox out at the wall socket. I just sat there laughing at him, I nearly peed myself... he was groaning in agony, I was laughing my guts out...

Oh, great news, Lucky Duck's legacy lives on - yesterday morning the girl-duck (Caramello)'s clutch of eggs hatched, now we have a beautiful little gaggle of Lucky-Ducks in the garden. They are SO lovely!!

Did a dinosaur get you?

Took a swim down the creek yesterday arve. God it was nice. It's just heavenly down there. A friend of Greg's came with us. He was riding his motorbike to work recently when a wallaby jumped out in front of him and he came a guttza big time on the bitumen. He's still got heaps of gravel rash all over his knees with scabs like an inch thick. Bubby took one look at him and asked "Did a dinosaur get you?". He reckons "Yep. Dorothy gave me a lovebite." Hee hee.

Stopped in at the block to check on my trees and met the neighbour on the other side. He's a chippie who's just started a shed on his block. He works over in Bali so isn't there too often. He didn't stop talking and seemed a bit cracked-on but otherwise a decent kinda bloke. It was good to meet him.

Greg was all set to sell his boats to finance the purchase of a little caravan for weekends away with the kids but the weather was perfect for fishing all weekend and with one look at the water I think he's changed his mind now.

Me and Mum rode our pushbikes to the beach on Saturday morning then hooked up with some school staff to have a walk through the bush to one of the bays and back. Then we had breakfast at one of the lady's 3 million dollar mansions overlooking the ocean and rode home again. I didn't apply any sunscreen as it was like 6.30am when we left home but I got so fried on the way home. First time I've had painful sunburn in a long while.

This blog must sound like a bit of a stuck record but we had another snake last night and this time Lucky-Duck wasn't so lucky :( The thing that sucks really bad is that the snake killed him and then discovered he was way too big to swallow and regurgitated him when he was only half way down. So it was all a big waste. Stupid snake's eyes where too big for it's stomach. It went and ate some eggs instead. Should of just done that in the first place!

That's Life.

Oh man, I've been so hung up on these retro teardrop T@B campers only to find out that the original German manufacturers went into receivership and the one and only importers in Australia haven't taken advantage of the manufacturers in the US who have got the rights to the product and designs and are still churning them out, or maybe thought it best not to. But anyway bottom line is the last new T@B offroad camper was sold in Victoria a week ago and the boats kind of sailed without me. It so frustrating because all the info' and write-ups and adverts are all right there in my face and yet I can't get my hands on one!! It's freakn me out! If I lived in any other country I could buy one no worries.

Izzy's in his last few weeks of Primary School and I can't hardly believe it. Rumour has it that the local high school has taken a serious downward turn in the last couple of years as well and has all these behavioural issues going on. I've decided to send him to a private college with a much more solid reputation. I hope he gets use to all the religious imagery and ideologies because he's never really been exposed to any yet. I've been equipping him with nice passive words like Agnostic to replace his preferred descriptor Atheist. My one hesitation is the long drive twice a day, but he'll travel in a flashy air-conditioned coach and they put DVD's on too.

After giving Paul an earbashing about the fact that before he knows it his son is going to be grown into a man and he's going to look back and regret not being around all this time and it's time he started making some choices based on what's good for Izzy and basically stop being such and narcissistic tool-head, he decided to move back up here. Izzy dying to go live with his Dad for a while and Paul is willing to live on the other side of the village which will make Izzy route to his new school a fair bit shorter. Izzy only has to be away from home for a couple of hours before Anakin is saying "Okay, lets pick Brussy up now... time to go get Izzy...". It's going to be a bit of a change for us all!

The last couple of times I've seen Paul my interest in any of his viewpoints/experiences/stories were at an all time low. What he's doing and the satisfaction he gets from things couldn't be more far removed from mine. I just don't get someone who chooses to get up and move a million miles away from their one and only child, probably the only one he's ever going to get to chase some lame pipe dream and he needs for me to spell shit out for him. Friggin stupid. And when he's here for a day or two every six months or so, I'm either envious of the time he gets to spend with Izzy like he's on a bloody holiday, while I'm still stuck doing the daily grind for the kids thinking shit I wish I could have three days where I had absolutely nothing to do besides have fun with my kid/s. Or he sleeps in both days and then is glued to the computer uploading photos to Facebook or music to his MP3 player with his kid on the other side of the room watching tele probably counting down the hours til his Dad skips out again and I'm seething away thinking, how can you be so LAME?!! How can you not want to spend every precious moment right by his side???? And then it's made even worse by the fact that Izzy puts all these demands on me and lays all these trips on me and he'd never put that kind of shit on Paul.

After seeing John Lennon on TV the other night it made me so sad to think of him and every other little kid whose parents skip out on them and let them down. I couldn't stop crying all night. Every kid deserves a Dad like Greg. Anakin has got it made in the Dad department that's for sure.

Anakin is such a beautiful child. We were out picking lychees today and he says to me "Haven't seen you today Mum can I have a kiss?" And he pulled down on my clothes to get me closer for a big smoochy one. It was SO sweet. (But we were the only ones home all day.. together..)

Last night we had fish n chips at the jetty. Greg did some casting and threw a line in. Izzy couldn't stop taking as he'd spent a couple nights with his cousin and was filling me in on all the (exaggerated) details of their adventures together. I think he might have eaten too many jube ears and drank too much ginger beer at the corner store over the weekend and was a bit hyped. Anakin was giving me heartattacks. As any two year old on a jetty at night who can't swim will do I suppose. He needs a runner lead like a little dog so he can go up and down alongside the hand rails. Next time I'm taking his life jacket for sure.

What's rolling

Broadband has finally arrived in this little household! "Hurray" wouldn't you say? Poor Greg had to spend ages in the roof shimmying around dropping down cables here and there. No small task for a guy his size. So here's some photo's I've been trying to put on for a while:
My two wise guys the night we caught the first snake. And RIP little Tielio, we loved you..briefly.

Horror heads:
Life around here has been nice and peaceful - except for Izzy going through these testosterone driven tanties about not being able to find his hair brush or a tea towel when he wants to drain his noodles (real crucial stuff like that).

You'll notice I've neglected my food and exercise journal for some time now. That's because I've decided I like morning teas with caramel slice and matchsticks. And my diet of sticky-rice and cheesy muffins.. After showing no improvement on the scales (I hate electric scales by the way) I've decided just to focus on the exercise side of the challenge and can at least say I have been proud of my consistency - walking and jogging with weights and pushing the stroller up and down the countryside and using the cross trainer often. It makes me feel a lot firmer - just not in the tummy area where I still have my baby flap (IT'S MY FLAP AND I CAN DO WHAT I WANT WITH IT!) And a mudguts that rivals Kimmy's...

I sometimes get the feeling things are becoming a bit sedentary and want to shake it up a bit with a move or a change. Me and Greg have been contemplating vacating the house and moving in some tenants while we rough it out at the block. Build a livable shed with one of these parked to the side that we can take to the mountains, national parks or beaches any weekend we like (check it out, how cool is it!! It's an off road on too!)

Oh man!! Getting one of these would be a dream come true! It would be a bit of a costly process. We'd need to put roller doors on the shed here to store a lot of our stuff in and spend a bit of money on the house so it's not falling apart for the tenants, finance the caravan and shed for the block etc.. But rent would cover our minimum repayments for both places and then we could slap on any extra we could as well as having a bit of a boho lifestyle on the side...perfect...

Carry on my wayward sons..

In the car today I was listening to "Dig Lazarus, Dig" (Nick Cave's new album - I'm a fan). Anakin informed me from the back seat - "this guy is really, really shit", (not a fan). What a terror. Sadly everyone else in the family agrees with him.

When I was pushing him around the hills in his stroller this arve, he came out with another realization - "you've got boobies AND muscles". Yep, I'm pretty good.

If he hasn't seen Horton for a day or so he starts acting the story. He runs around chanting "We are here! We are here! We are here!" Then he races over to me with these huge eyes and asks "Where's Joe-Joe" and I have to go along.."He's at the old observatorium. Quick you've got to find him we need every Who in Who-town to be heard in the jungle of Newl!" And he darts off and brings imaginary Joe-Joe back to me in his stroller.. He's always heard singing "Baby I can't fight this feeling anymore.... (on an empty stomach) .."

Man, you wanna see the way my sister pampers Chris. I couldn't be anymore different. Nick takes care of his every hearts desire - lovingly fixing him every meal, massages his feet in front of the telle, groping him and pashing him every other spare second. This, however is a picture of me and Greg:

Greg: This chili sauce is really good! You should learn how to make it.
Me: YOU SHOULD LEARN HOW TO MAKE IT!!!!!
Greg: Well maybe I will.
Me: Good, coz that's the only way your ever gunna eat it..

Last couple of weeks of school have been pretty good. My new Science unit is "Fun with Food", so we've been making fruit skewers in assembly lines, and crunchy cornflake parfaits and cinnamon toast. They've loved it, but now consider it my role to teach them, encourage them, nurture them, keep them safe AND feed them every time I'm bloody there.

Izzy's doing alright. He's been doing sex ed' at school and coming home with stories of how he couldn't get over all the kids who didn't know what a scrotum or an erection was. I heard this week it was periods and masturbation. I'm just glad the Transformers gave me another name for that one, we call it "Sam's Happy Time" around here. He still thinks it's all sick. It's swimming this term which he hates and is not too great at. But I'm proud of him for going and not putting on too much of a turn.

Spent an unprecedented amount at the op-shop last Saturday. In amongst my bounty I scored a retro looking pair of tan pumps, so similar to a pair in the local boutique that I've been eyeing off for ages but for which they wanted $90. They look like the pair Brittany Spears is always getting photographed wearing. I bought a beautiful cornflower blue, cotton Ralph Lauren dress shirt for Greg that is so soft soft soft! He is totally hunky in it and just makes me want to tear it back off again. Oh and a cool floaty long green skirt and a top with a very unusual cut that matches it which is now my new favourite outfit that makes me feel uber cool.

Lucky Duck

Been a bit of a struggle to know what to write lately - everything's either the same as usual or somewhat depressing and strange. We had the duck struggle to get over a paralysis tick bite, which it did thankfully, then last night Greg came in to report that it was dead - all wrapped up in another snake! (NOOO!!) Then he came back to say that it had miraculously escaped the jaws of death once again!! (YESSS!!!!!) He gave the snake a few slaps before going off to find his snake catching pole and came back to see that it had loosened off a bit and the duck waddling away!! Cat-duck.

Can't say our beautiful cockatiel had the same luck though. It died on Monday night after a couple of days of wind and rain knocked it around. I didn't realise how fragile it was otherwise I would've had a heat lamp on it at night and stuff. So sad. I bawled. That's the total of three cockatiels that have died in my care and it totally depresses me. (P.K. was stepped on and Smoochie was eaten by a goanna back in 2000, now poor Tielio.)


At least the budgies chattering merrily in the background is a reminder that I can keep some birds alive. Anyway...


Where is your mobile? In my bag with my lipgloss, wallet and sunnies. It's a beautiful gold and embossed limited edition Nokia that cost me a fortune but is practically useless as I'm always out of range and friends have to put up with my very delayed response to messages.


Where is your significant other? At work as a boilermaker at the sugar mill.


Your hair colour? Honey brown.


Your mother? At work. She dropped in with some curry for us on the way to linedancing last night and has arranged for us to meet at the local pub for a roast dinner after her linedancing class tonight. She loves us. And linedancing..


Your father? He dropped in on Tuesday (!!!!) He'd come down the beach to see my sister for her birthday. He was with his beautiful lady Di, who always finds $10 to give the kids. They were both a bit dusty and grimy as they came straight from work attending the golf greens and fairways about 50 k's away. They had a beer and we sent them home with some homemade nutloaf (from me) and a bottle of rum (from Greg). He's got this special signal he gives me invovling blowing kisses and thumping his chest where his heart is to say he loves me. He calls me Muskin.

Your favourite things? On a grand scale - my land and photo memories. On a smaller scale - my collection of Izzy's baby teeth (another one to add to the collection today!), my kids lego and duplo, my tweezers and concealer, our pushbikes, my two beautiful doona covers and my one built in wardrobe.

Your dream last night? Wouldn't have a clue. If my recent dreams are anything to go by, probably a dirty dream about Greg.

Your dream/goal? To have my house built.

The room you're in? The study/dining/lounge room - there's not that many room to choose from in this little house.

Your hobby? Op-shopping.

Your fear? Loosing a child or them loosing one of us before they can really cope with it. Speeding - car wrecks. CROCODILES. Thankfully not snakes.

Where do you want to be in 6 years? In our new home, happily paying off our mortgage without having to sell here. Hopefully experiencing more job satisfaction.

Where were you last night? Exhausted from a day of school, a stint on the cross-trainer and a walk around the hills. We ate reheated curry and veges. The thing with the duck. I gave Izzy a foot squeeze and put Anakin to bed after a bit of Horton, I must've fallen asleep with him because I can't remember anything else happening after that.

What your not? 50 kilos

One of your wishlist items? A campervan.

Where you grew up? At the end of a long dirt road in the bush.

What are you wearing? A cherry red boobtube and a pair of cotton, chocolate-brown drawstring pants.

Your TV? A newly aquired Sony Bravia that came with a free Playstation 3. Just put on Horton while Bubby eats his sandwich and so I can actually finish this.

Your Pets? One recently expired. Two chirpy budgies. two adventurous ducks, 5 hens and a rooster. Snoop-Dogg the black F2 labradoodle, who has been a pain in my arse ever since I bought him 4 years ago. (I'll never have another dog!)

You computer? A Dell. Bought a few years back when I was doing my fourth year prac'.

Your mood? Kinda slack.

Missing someone? Hayley and Crystal and Jenny.

Your car? White Ford Festiva, covered in bat shit and spew. Remind me not to park it under the lychee tree overnight!

Something you're not wearing? A shirt.

Favourite store? Earlville Quality Lifeline. (No guesses there.)

Your Summer? Dripping with sweat.

Love someone? Yeah, Brendan Flowers, from The Killers and Eddie Vedder.

Favourite colour? Lilac.

When is the last time you laughed? At Anakin with his knickers on his head.

When is the last time you cried? Monday night when my bird fell off my finger and I had to bury it in the garden :(

I tag Jenn at Learning to Walk in Stilettos

He Hearts Horton

Well I've joined a few members of staff in trying to lose 5 kilo's over the term. Besides the trip to the all you can eat buffet last night (where me and Bubby shared a playground with Lisa McCune and her kids) and the fact that Nick visited the patisserie in Townsville and insisted on sharing around all these panniers and cream eclairs when she got back, I'm not doing too badly. I weighed in last Monday at 54.6kg, by Wednesday I snuck in another trip to the electronic scales and had gone up by most of a kilo, by Friday I had my period so I'm not really sure if I will have shifted any weight this week. I might start another blog with my food and exercise journal to keep me honest.

Bubby has fallen in love with the movie "Horton Hears a Who". He's been watching it every day for about 5 days! He goes around muttering "Come on guys, we're all mammals." and "Look at you. Yuk. Look at your face. And I bet you don't look so good with a stapler sticking into your head!" (I wish he hadn't have picked out that bit to repeat! For someone who generally loathes sitting through kids movies I think it's pretty cool myself.

Holiday Breakdown (A breakdown of our holiday)

Tomorrow spells the end of my school holidays and looking back I accomplished most of what I set out to do: I was really keen on spending some time sewing and I ended up making Bubby a couple of pairs of really cute duddies, cutting the patterns out from a couple of pairs of linen pants of mine that I'd previously dyed. This time I added a little flare with contrasting cuffs and waistband. They turned out cool, considering my fairly limited ability. It was odd too - my sewing machine needle snapped on the very last stitch of the second pair. (Otherwise I would have felt as frustrated and ripped off as I did on Sunday when we got the footy time mixed up and missed half the bloody finals! I was totally ropeable!)

I also redrew the plans of the top floor of my house design. That turned out very enjoyable and I think very successful too - I'm heaps happier with it now. Now comes the super enjoyable task of scrapbooking all my favourite ideas from Better Homes and Gardens, Sanctuary and My Home mags. (I took one of those occupation ideas tests that schoolies do - all my answers reflected a desire to be in the 'creative' industries specifically architecture and interior design. I'd love to be a draftsperson at the moment - specially with school in the morning ;)

I decluttered Izzy's room and packed away a lot of toys for Anakin - making it a lot less of a kids room. And I set up our spare/folding laundry room as a lounge room for Anakin - shifting all his toys out of the actual lounge room. He LOVES it in there.

I did two Cairns missions alone with the kids and managed to order our vanity, bathtub and tiles for our upcoming bathroom reno'.

As well as having multiple school friends over for Iz, running him around a bit, advising him on the sensible way to spend his birthday money etc. Attending all the weekend markets and the Aquatic Festival... it was all very fun.

Mum has been cleaning up all my old home movies for me and burning them onto disk. It has been such a spin-out seeing Izzy at Anakin's age. They are SO alike!! They would have made the best little buddies cruising around together too. At the moment all Izzy can do is annoying things to make Anakin shriek "Mum!! Izzy's STIRIN" ME!!"

Unwanted Visitor

Check out our dinner guest. We did have two roosters and since coming of age they have been fighting furiously with one proving to be the lessor opponent. As a fringe dweller he'd been sleeping in the carport instead of in the chook house with the others. This was his fate. (Okay just imagine a big snake swallowing a rooster..) Anyway it came back last night, we came home from Mum's just in time to see it making it's way to the chook shed! Greg and Izzy wrangled it into a big esky and relocated it in the national park. It was exciting!
I can't wait to be able to put some pix up but things aren't really working out for me today, technologically or otherwise.

Today has been one of those frustrating days where everything seems to be one step forward two steps back, you know the kind where you're trying to get all the louvers and screens cleaned with the help of a two year old who keeps hogging the hose and sprays straight into the kitchen window for a good few minutes while you're 'round the other side of the house, leaving a big mopping job to do as well. You've just caught the dog on the freshly washed throw rugs and then he shits himself on the freshly sprayed concrete while you're giving him a good flogging. The chickens are relentless and scratch up your garden and you rake all the mulch back in not once, not twice, but five freaking times. Your happy when the oldest child's new baby cockatiel discovers where it's seed bowl is finally, but then when it flaps around in there and sends it spreading all over the floor, you're only kinda happy. You fold a big pile of washing but there's another pile waiting for your in the drier and another one on the line... and some more in the dirty clothes basket... the washing up is endless. You got rid of one zit but you got three more. You finally get around to blogging but you can't upload the photos you want so your post really lacks the impact you desired and the autosave is playing up so there's probably another 30 minutes of your life you're never going to get back again.. sound familiar? (except for the dog part, I know..)

If

If I didn't eat so much Deb Instant Mash Potato Powder when I was a kid, maybe I wouldn't have a stutter.

If I called Mum's Paul to ask him about my faulty computer like I intended, maybe he would have felt a bit more connected in the world and not gone off and poisoned himself on carbon monoxide fumes that night.

If I had of taken Careers Day a bit more seriously instead of jumping the fence and drinking cask wine down the creek maybe I wouldn't be such a late starter in the work force, maybe I would be a property mogul by now.

If it wasn't for the bus driver Jesse being willing to drive all us bush kids to the movies on a Friday night maybe I wouldn't have turned out to be such a great kisser.

If I didn't yank pillows out from underneath Gregs head maybe he wouldn't think I'm such a bitch.

If I didn't have unprotected sex those two times I wouldn't have two babies.

Still here

Me and the kids are still in Cairns. The excitement for Bubby has been pretty intense. We've been to "muddy-mud skippers" where he went totally ecstatic - squirting dry mothers standing on the water fountains, chasing around seagulls, marveling at the awesome sea sculptures, spotting helicopters and so on. He called his dad on the mobile to share his enthusiasm over the pelicans he was checking out but having my two year old strutting around the boardwalk talking into a mobile was a bit too shame-job for me so I had to cut them off. And then back to the lagoon this evening. He's been on jumping castles and his favourite amusement rides. He checked out everything in the petshop with "Brussy". I made him eat a passionfruit and half an apple before we hit macca's for brekky this morning so he could play on the plastic fortress of joy. (Issy's rubbing off on me - everything he says is like "to the depths of the dooms of the underworld...") Bubs awake again, am I never going to have time to say everything I want??

Happy 12th B Day Izzy!

He started out the school holidays by loosing another tooth! Before he went to bed tonight I reminded him that he'd better go brush the remaining 5 or so that he's got left. He's reckons he's over having birthday parties so he had a great day spent flying kites at the beach, hanging out at the markets, eating watermelon at the creek... all those things that make a childhood good and wholesome. I bought him a beautiful bronze coloured, art deco looking dome-shaped birdcage that stands taller than me with a couple of gorgeous budgies in it. (Man they have been making the happiest little chirpy sounds all day long, we've been spoiling them rotten with sprays of millet, chopped-up snowpeas, paw-paw and strawberries, the best budgie-treat-sticks money can buy, calcium and iodine perches, and we've woven all this foliage from the bottlebrush trees and fruit trees through the bars in their cage. They're livin' it up!) And "The Encyclopedia of Marvel Superheroes". Greg bought him another controller for the PS3 and his dad got him Guitar Hero. He also has accumulated a large wod of cash from the relies to spend in Cairns when we head up there tomorrow.

Actually we've had a nice start to the holidays. Yesterday I took the kids for a look at the animals and stuff at the stockfeed place, followed by a visit to the library and a trip to the cafe for iced chocolates and chips and gravy. Then I took the kids home via The Block (grass is getting long again), stopped at the creek for a play (where I nearly knocked myself out with the end of the rope swing) and then went to "fish-n-chip night" at the CoastGuard for tea. (Anakin uses this fully bunged-on Aussie voice to ask "Goin' d fish n chip nIGHT!?" He says it all the time. 'Cept fish-n-chip night's only on about once a month. So then he asks "Goin' to the BISTRO!?"

Will keep going with this when I can but Bub's woken up and Greg's bugging me that it's my bedtime.

NooooOOOO!

Well Greg's gone off to some Marlins Basketball reunion thingy and won't be back 'til tomorrow arve, I gave him grief before he left and in my defence told him I had underlying abandonment issues. His retort was that they weren't exactly UNDERLYING - that they were pretty much right there at the SURFACE! Fair enough - I think I'm turning into one of my bratty Grade Three-ers, instead of my obvious maturity and zen-likeness (I wish) rubbing off onto them.

I've got this one troublemaker who the other kids are always dobbing in for various reasons, whether it be hiding things that don't belong to him in his desk, being rough, calling names, saying inappropriate things in the toilet, rubbing his skin condition onto other people.. he always acts completely offended with this horrified look on his face and then he goes "NooooOOOOO!" I've started doing it too (not the other things just the "NoooooOOOOO!" - it's like a knee-jerk response.)

I've learnt to use Anakins enjoyment of role-playing to my advantage. "Baby Kira" is a breeze to take to the shops, not like Anakin himself. He asks to be put in the baby capsule trolley and then he just lies there all limp an agog. It's awesome. When he's being all squirmy and I'm trying to get his nappy on I just suggest he be a dead wallaby and he lies there all limp and staring into space again! He saw a wallaby getting hit by a car out the front of our place a while ago, Greg had to drag it off the road and ring the council to collect it (what a job), there's always dead wallabies on the side of the road around here so it's not that I'm sick or anything - it's one of the things he likes to pretend being a wallaby that's "deadybones" and needs to be dragged off into the bush. I'm just glad he takes it so well, when Izzy found out about death and dying he almost needed a child psychiatrist.

Izzy's set up camp outside - he's got a mattress inside the tent and the big camping mat spread out in a prime spot with all his necessities, he's been bathing in the wheelbarrow, doing some gardening and getting all in tune with nature. He was suppose to sleep out there tonight but he's doing the complete opposite - he's in his Mum's bed with Anakin! He's squeezing in with us tonight.

I'm sending out the vibe to the universe to make a choice campervan come my way. So far today I had a Toyota Hiace Hightop park in front of me with a for sale sign on it - I chatted with the owners. Latter I rang up a guy who had a Nissan Family Campervan advertised for real cheap in an old Exchange just coz I was bored and waiting for Anakin to finish on the potty (he spends like 20 minutes there 3 times a day reading books, pretending he's canooing etc. He LOVES it!) Anyway this guy had sold it but had a Toyota Coaster for sale, I told him it wasn't suitable for us as it only had 2 seatbelts and there's 4 of us and I'm not really interested in anything with a shower and toilet because I reckon it takes up too much room, I just like the real simple uncluttered layout blah blah blah, anyway he asked if I was in any hurry and I said no, I'd been looking on and off for like a couple of years. So he's got this mate who's going to be selling his in a month or two - 4 seats etc, sounds like what I want and he's going to give me a call as soon as it becomes available. Something to look forward to. Sounds like he's going to have a reasonable price on it too, some people try to ask SO MUCH for Coasters, it's an '84 model so I just hope it's already got a reconditioned motor.

"We're like.."

I'm seriously lacking sleep. Bedtime Saturday was like 3am Sunday morning (think of me in the company of lots of very cool chicks, and one hen, at the nicest place cut into a mountainside with a beautiful view, indulging in an afternoon of pampering, sharing a delicious meal, switching on the fairy lights and lighting a mass of candles and a bonfire come night time, cranking up the amp, snapping the glow sticks and hopefully not making a big flattened mess of John's lawn by using it as a dance floor to carve up. Sharing precious stories about one another and exchanging words of wisdom. Wouldn't I like to do that on a more regular basis! How cool!)

Sunday morning I got to sleep in a tiny bit and then greeted the day with a big pint sized jug of water with some aspirins fizzing in it. Took myself and the boys down the markets for a supersized pancake with fruit salad and icecream, then we went for a drive out to Dad's. Mucked around there for a bit. Took the kids for a walk to feed my Uncle's horses then went for a look down the creek. As is usual these days Anakin was doing his impersonation of a platypus only this time he didn't have to imagine his natural surroundings he was actually in them. He went straight in for a swim. Crazy kid, it was bloody freezing. Greg and Izzy schemed ways we could move out there for a while. I'll be right - it's at the end of a long and corrugated dirt road.

On the way home we stopped in at some people's place who have a horse for sale. It's 18 years old though and I reckon about to die, no wonder they want to sell it. I had a bit of a ride around on it bareback and was still feeling like jelly from the adrenalin most of the way home, I realised I'm shit scared of riding horses and in no position to be in charge of one. It went okay, it's just that every other time I've ever been on a horse they've bucked, bolted or tried to scrape me off onto something. Then I had my delicate foot bones broken when I was stood on once and one of my old friends needed reconstructive surgery when she was kicked in the face. Not the best track record. I think I'll just stick to riding my bike.

Other remarkable points of the weekend include me weighing myself to find that I'm 6!! kilo's too heavy, need to cut back on the tuna chili pasta I make with a bucket load of cream, the yummy black forest cake I've just learnt how to make, the curry I make with a bucket load of coconut cream, (actually the main ingredient of most things I make is cream!), the best sticky rice in the world, sour cream and onion thinly cut chips... but it's all too good and I don't really think I can cut back on any of it... Man, there was this chick at the party though, she had the most gorgeous figure, made me feel inspired to get stuck in and do something about this body of mine, I remind myself of a little overweight pygmy.

Nicholas came over for a marathon of Soul Caliber with Izzy and disturbed us by choosing all the female characters to fight with so he could knock off their layers of armour and perv on their scantily clad (very ample) breasts (And I let Izzy spend all his pocket money on this game (!). I'm like "Nicholas they're ANIMATIONS, they're NOT REAL!" He's like "So. Neither are Pamela Anderson's." ?! (Do I sound like Kylie Mole? "And I'm like... and he's like".)

Oh yeah and Nick found out she was preggas so Anakin is going to get that double cousin I anticipated.

Contrary

Chased down a lady in her Toyota Coaster this arve to see if it happened to be for sale or if it ever would be (every time I see it driving by I start drooling). She reckons "No. Never ever. It's my home!". Can't help but try..

I missed out on a Clydesdale this weekend too, that was suppose to be perfect for a nervous rider or beginner (that wouldd be me). Sad face.

I know my two fixations don't really go together. A motorhome for taking trips and a big pet beast that needs attention daily.

Ka-Ching

Just worked three days in a row for the first time in a couple of years. Had Thursday and Friday with a couple of different year 3 classes and they were such a pleasant breeze compared with the mob I take regularly. I swear I have the rattiest kids in the district along with the dingiest, cramped classroom and there's just no way to cheer it up. Just having a bright, spacious classroom makes the world of difference, and then getting paid double time to teach these angel children was almost a crime. Hopefully I'll be getting a contract there next year. (If I can keep Greg from planting his demon seeds.. jokes). It was the kids regular teacher's birthday today (she took the day off to have an 18 week pregnancy scan which I reckon is a pretty cool way to spend your birthday) so we made a bright and oversized card for her filled with lots of colourful birthday wishes from them all. They were pretty impressed with the way it turned out. She's gonna love it.

Whenever I tell Bubby he'll have to spend the day with Auntie Nick - that I have to go to work he goes "Nuh. Auntie Nick work. Mummy stay home with me". But he has fun-filled days with his Auntie and I don't think he really minds too much.

I took him to down to the daycare to check it out the other day. He thought it was pretty all right. I might have to book him in for a day a week next year in case Nick bails out on me. I'd be more reluctant but the daycare is practically attached to the school! We'd be a minute away from each other!

Izzy got his Senior T-Shirt today with all the year 7's names on the back. The admin' lady was telling me she allowed him to put his name down as "Izzy" - his nickname but that she wouldn't let him drop my name off his hyphenated surname like he wanted to. Hmphff! Little bugger!! Favouring the absent father yet again! Speaking of Paul, I let him know how I felt about Izzy moving away from here so he's agreed to settle down close by so we can all see each other everyday. Woot! Woot! Mum was saying "it's got to be about what Paul wants too" and I'm like "Bullshit! He's done exactly what he's wanted for the past how long??!! Now it needs to be about what's good for Izzy before he grows up and doesn't particularly need his dad around anyway!"

We were suppose to go camping for Greg's birthday this weekend but the weathers turned bad. So I suppose it'll be a weekend of housework and mowing and the PS3 has arrived in the mail so probably some gaming marathons too. (Not me!)

We bought Greg lots of clothes (thanks for the perseverance Tiff!) and a huge woven camping mat. Today I found him a magazine called "Sanctuary" - all about environmental homes and sustainable living. Great reading - I wanna back order the previous issues too... mmmm might go finish it off... did I say it was Greg's mag?

Anakin's Personas

I wanted to mention that we MOWED the block last weekend. It's only ever been slashed before so it was a bit rugged and fairly slow-going but the end result was pretty fantastic I thought (if a dusty hill is your kinda thing). Dad and his lady Di met us out there with their Lawn King so we had two ride on's going for over two hours to get the job done. I had dust on my teeth and grass right down in my knickers but it was a bloody good thing all the same.

Anakin has been right into role-playing for ages. He two most favourite "personalities" are "Baby Kira" which he usually plays after his warm bath - he makes us wrap him up tight in a towel and we have to pass him around all gushing over him and remarking what a beautiful little newborn baby he is. He won't talk when he's being Kira - just looks around all wide-eyed and serene. It's nice to actually nurse him like a proper baby coz when he was tiny we'd try and lie him back in our arms like most babies are held and he'd do stomach crunches to try to get upright. Anyway maybe he thinks if he pretends he's Baby Kira he can go on having Titty as long he likes, considering I've been letting him know that he can't go on having it forever, that he's getting to be a bit too old now.

His other favourite is "Frisky" the puppy dog, when he can get away with licking everybody. He pants and scratches and runs from one of us to the other, all hyper, he burrows his nose down into things looking for lizards and toads. And we pat his tummy and give his bum a good scratch. (Or the other way 'round I should say.)

He spends most of the time being someone else and if you call him by his name he'll correct you going "No. Luke! The Coconut Man." (Luke is a friend of ours who is always dropping in green coconuts.) Then he pretends to chop open a coconut for you and you have to pretend to drink it up.

He's also in the habit of riding to the shops on his bike with his pockets full of money. We all put our order in and he goes and picks up the fish burgers with pineapple and mayo' and the vanilla milkshakes....

Speaking of food, Greg worries about Anakin not eating enough. But it's just that he eats massive amounts of breakfast (huge bowls full of mulberries, cherries, toast, wheatbix, nuts, black sapote smoothies...), then goes fairly hard at lunchtime (crumbed fish, tuna and crackers, peanut butter sandwhiches, noodles...), then he kinda tapers off by dinnertime when Greg is home, opting for things like toothpaste and lipgloss rather than fettucine or vege curry?? If Greg contemplated the whopping Jabba the Hut poos Bubby leaves behind in the potty, I don't reckon he'd concern himself again.

Just call me Girl Interrupted, I think I'll have to settle for lots of shorts posts..

Absent note

I'm having a hard time keeping up in here. I have a tendency to open up a dozen other windows and get preoccupied googling "gonks" to see if they look like I remember them, replying to emails, checking out Facebook and of course keeping up to date with favourite blogs. Then the toilet is beckoning to be scrubbed the washing machine is bleating away, the car needs packing and unpacking, the floor needs vaccing... you know how it is.

I've also been thinking about buying a horse, and being what my cousin calls "horse clueless" I've been spending a fair bit of time looking into all this horsey stuff. I really would love a Gypsy Cob - but they are way expensive still so am looking for a really quiet breed like a Clydesdale, maybe crossed with a Quarter Horse, probably an older horse that's been used for trail rides or used with a sulky - a really passive, gently one. This fella here was going to be perfect, but I missed out on him.

Gotta get moving, have to organise the kids for a birthday party down the beach. Be back to finish this post later.

My real Babies

Well, after their last teary farewell Izzy's dad, Paul, has decided he's moving back up this way towards the end of the year and Izzy has decided he wants to live with him. I know it's about time Paul did some actual parenting but I'm pretty worried about the prospect. I don't think he's had much practice at thinking of anyone elses needs but his own. Izzy's never been left waiting, lost, injured, he's never gone to school without enough lunch to feed about three kids, he's used to saying "What's cookin' Mumoola?" and having a good dinner at night. I've known Paul to cook... twice! I know he'll try his best - I just hope he has it in him!! It'll mean a big heap of changes for Iz - he's going into high school next year, which is enough of a change in itself, but moving in with Paul means that he'll more than likely be going to a different high school - where he'll only know one other student - a girl, three grades above him! So he'll be going to high school as a "new kid", without his Mum around to help him get himself organised (he needs help too, a result of all the over pampering I've done through the years. If Greg hadn't of come along I'd still be doing up his laces and pulling his clothes on for him). Anyway I suppose I'll put off stressing out over it until when it actually happens. In the meantime there's an info night I'll have to attend, lets hope it's better than the options around here.

Anakin's acting deaf at the moment and then when he does realise what I'm saying he disagrees with me. It's like this:
Me "There's usually a horse in that paddock over there but he's not there today."
Anakin "What?"
Me "There's usually a horse over there behind that fence, but I don't see him now."
Anakin "What Mum?"
ME "I usually see a horse in that paddock but they must have shifted him because he's not there anymore"
Anakin "What?"
Me "The horse, he's usually over there."
Anakin "No he's not."

We just got back from a drive into town to share a piece of crumbed fish and drop my wobbly tyre in at the bike slash toy shop. The last time I was in there I bought Anakin a little cheapie stroller for his doll "Bockie" - it was the best $14 I ever spent, he loves pushing around his babydoll. Except his doll is pretty lifelike and the last time we went to the markets, there were trails of gasping people all around us, hanging onto one another and talking behind hands. Dead set they thought the doll was real and here he is half falling out of the stroller and me swinging it up over my shoulder when Anakin had had enough pushing. I few times I'd stop to talk to marketeers and I'd say "Yeah some oldies over there thought it was real and told me I nearly gave them a heart attack" and they'd be like "Oh My God! That's what we thought, we were about to ring the police!"

Randoms

I have been tagged by Elemental at "Follow the Gleam" (see my bloglist) to list 7 random things about myself. The rules are that you:
List the 7 random things.
List the set of rules.
Link to the person that nominated you.
Also let that person know when you have written your 7 Random things list.
Tag 7 other people to play.
And leave comments at those 7 people blogs to say that you have tagged them.

I can't do quite a few of those things right now coz every time I try to visit peoples blogs at the moment my computer gives me drastic messages. But here's what I can do:

Seven Random Things About Me
1. I buy Lego for the kids, but it's really for me.
2. At an all-you-can-eat-buffet I start eating from my plate before I even make it back to the table.
3. If I'm buying undergarments that come in twos, I take them off the hangers and swap the colours round to suit myself.
4. I love drinking a whole glassful of passionfruit.
5. People often associate me with the smell of patchouli oil, but these days I only ever wear Lolita Lempika.
6. I can be pretty indecisive - I always ask cafe and bar staff to recommend something.
7. Back in the late 80's I overkilled The Doors so bad. Nowadays I'm guilty of thinking anyone with a Jim Morrison shirt on is majorly lame.

Hey that gives me a question: Do you still have shirts of your favourite bands/singers etc? (Not-Goth I know you have some of those grunge T-shirts somewhere in the closet) At the moment I have a shirt with Johnny Cash giving the finger and a Countdown T-shirt. I really wanted the AC/DC one "For Those About To Rock" but mainly coz it looked so soft and comfy, but $29 seems like a rip-off when you're an op-shopper.

I tag the adventurous Jenn (Learning to Walk in Stilettos), the infamous RJ Keller (Ingenious Title to Appear Here Later), the inspirational Ruth (Mary and Bob's Journal) the tenderhearted Not Goth - now that you've got those center pieces sorted, the miracle making Kim (City Chick Living in the Sticks), the passionate Mel (The Things I'd Tell You) the one and only Vanilla (Once Upon a Dream), the peace seeking Shel (Wanna Be Hippy). The roaming Whiney, the Transplanted and anyone else please - I know I can't count but I don't know who comes here much so I figure the more people I tag the more chance 7 of you might respond!

Ridin'

Greg's been using describing words like "scintillating" when referring to me lately.(Talk about brag!) I didn't realise he knew irregular words like that ;P We came excruciatingly close to being sprung by Mum the other night! She always appears at the front door late at night after her dancing, seemingly out-of-nowhere. Fancy your climax being met with the recognition that your mother-in-law is spit seconds away from joining you in the room! We didn't get away with it completely, she was straight up "Did I catch you with your pants down?" Poor Greg was hilarious bouncing his way to the laundry with his pants caught up around his ankles. I was trying to have a serious conversation with her about school-related stuff and kept having to bury my head into the throw rug and laugh at the thought of him, and my embarrassment and the fact that it could have been so, so much worse.

He keeps bringing up another baby. I don't know if I've got enough patience for three! I'm not real good with chaos - I need my peaceful alone time desperately or I feel like I'm doing my head in. Although friends have got this most mellowed out, adorable little cup-cake-of-a-girl, I could handle on of those!

I just went for a pushbike ride with Mum. 46 k's this time! The last bit was gruelling coz I'd stopped at the servo and with the dicky valve I've got in the back tyre I didn't realise I over-inflated it and had to ride half the way home with a hugely warped, misshapen tyre knocking into the bike frame. We went all the back roads the 23k's to my block, where we stopped for a drink of water and a wander 'round. Mum reckons I can probably stop paying for slashing and start hitting it with the ride-on now. (I always consult her for all things yard and lawn related.) Then we rode about another half hour into town for lunch at the coffee-shop. Then about an hour home! I've got a sore bum don't worry.

Showtime

Yum! I made the yummiest roast vegies last night - took them out at the last minute for a sprinkle of roast vege seasoning, soy sauce and Parmesan cheese - mmmm. Not to mention the steamed potato's I mixed with olive oil, feta cheese, semi dried tomatoes, parsley and Celtic sea salt, and the yummy corn cobs from Rusties and the marinated, crispy, fatty, tasty roast chicken pieces. I just ate some left overs, mmmmm, that was after two pieces of finnan bread with avocado and tomato.... Can't see myself shifting any weight any time soon eating like this!

Cool. Grand Designs is on. I love this show.

Amazingly the weather stayed beautiful for the show on Friday. We met Mum there so checked out the pavilion and all the school displays first. Bub was big enough for the little kids' rides this year. I made myself sick going on the teacups with him (I'm bad with motion sickness and the carnie lady was spinning us around heaps in these tight little circles. Blurgh!).
And he was happy as Larry sitting in the engine of the little blue train.
He won a ball-gun scooping up ducks with Greg.
Izzy wasn't in the mood for rides (his two cousins were dressed like emo's with heavy eye makeup and painted-on teadrops so he was doing his best to disassociate himself from them and just stayed hanging-out with us) so that saved me a bit of money. We stopped for dinner under the pavilion and ate good chicken curry and drank tea courtesy of the Girl Guides or Rotary or some organisation I'm grateful to for supplying us with real plates and cups and cutlery.
Then backed dinner up with some good carnie food - waffles and mock-cream. We rode the Ferris wheel, checked out all the chookies,
watched the fire works, and it was hard to do all this without stopping every 5 meters to talk to people!

With a block of chocolate fudge and some honeycomb in easy reach on the dashboard we made the drive to Cairns after the show. Greg's parents where up over the weekend so we caught up with them at the family home. But Greg's ulterior motive for the trip was to buy an LCD flat screen - Sony was giving away 35,000 Playstation 3's and we registered our purchase when they were down to like 6! (Thousand - phew!) He makes these grossly expensive purchases and I'm just happy picking up a few bargains at the op-shop. Which I did, of course. Got to visit the park without throwing up in it. And have a cuppa and a Ferraro rocher at my gf's brand new place. All these small things make me happy.

My Baby's 2!

I was called in to work Friday so party preparations where taking place deep into the night. Check out the front cover of this month's Better Homes and Gardens mag' to see Bubby's birthday cake - and here's me with only one round cake tin having to cook each of the three layers one after the other!

Anakin was so keen for his birthday to come around. Every night for ages we've been talking about it and he listened entranced as we listed who'd be here and the food we were planning... As soon as there was a pause he'd be saying "What else Mum? What else?" "There'll be balloons and party decorations" "What else?" "You'll have a cake and we'll sing happy birthday and you'll get to blow out your candles.." "What else?"..


So when the day finally arrived he was in such a happy delirium. I barely saw him once the party started, he made the perfect host mingling from crowd to crowd. It was a beautiful day. Heaps of lovely people, heaps of delectible food (my fruit skewers where an art form),
kids running around everywhere, the weather stayed good and Anakin had such a memorable day. Sunday he was sitting up on the bank of the garden and I could see him looking around and remembering all the fun and busyness of the previous day, he started clapping and saying "Hurray for the party! Yay!" Could you want anymore thanks than that? So I'm pretty sure he had a good time, and all of his 50 odd guests too.

Sunday made for a perfect day as well with a trip to the markets. We didn't really need anything but headed down for a leisurely breakfast of thai curry, taro chips and the best sticky rice I have ever eaten. Bubby had a bounce on the jumping castle a run around on the beach and a play in the park. I bought a cool beret and a felt one for Izzy like the guy's from Myth Busters. He's into hats - like me. I realised we were missing Anakin's favourite present when we were packing up the car to take off home and had to backtrack my way asking all the marketeers if they had noticed a toy oxy-torch anywhere. I was about to give up when I heard "Yoo-hoo. Is this what you're looking for?"


Our family relations are back on track again and I'm feeling much better after several successive days of us all getting on fine. It just takes some focus sometimes with a bunch of personalities like ours living together.

Man I've been trying to finish this post for like three or four days now. I'm just going to end it here and mas later.

Clever - Less.

Wednesday at work is out of the way, (4 out of the 6 naughty ones where away today - we did experiments on surface tension for science, aerobics for daily fitness, used "paint" in the computer lab to airbrush pictures of fruit and veg' and other healthy food choices, figured masses of double digit subtractions... all without so much as an interruption. If only it was like that every week.) so now it's time to ramp up the party preparations. I want to make all sorts of food, that kind of has to be left to the last minute though. I've planned activities, with jumbo chalk, squirty bottles, bubble blowing, duplo in the tent, play doh, dressing up, face painting, Izzy's going to staple lollies to an old shirt and have the kids chase him around, then we've got the tramp' and the sandpit etc. I think I've invited too many people and if it rains (like it has been for the last four days I'm totally focaccia-ed!

I think my milk supply has pretty much dried up. Bub goes from one to the other going "Nat ones not workin', other one Mum. Nuh, that ones broken, other one.." I'm like "I've only got TWO!" Then he laughs and counts on his fingers "One, two, eight.."

I'm totally pissed off at Greg. I want to call him all sorts of names right now, all the worst ones. I fkn hate him sometimes. Izzy's been fighting back tears all afternoon, ever since we dropped his Dad off, not to be seen for another friggin' eternity probably, so I asked Greg to show some sensitivity and not to say anything mean to him (friggin' common occurrence.. GRRRUHGH), or upset him further, explaining that he was feeling pretty fragile (he's so neandathal I had to explain to him WHY he was upset when Greg KNEW we'd just gone down to drop Paul off at the bus station, idiot.) Within the hour he tore into Izzy about not feeding the chickens, when I'd only just reminded him myself that he has responsibilities around the place, especially for the animals. But Greg got totally stupid about it raising his voice and carrying on like a toolhead with this totally weird angle, "Whose idea was it to get those ducks Izzy. And who paid for those chickens hey?" ??? WTF!! We all know that we ALL wanted some poultry. And Izzy looks after them in one way or another every bloody day - sometimes he just needs reminding. He was a total arsehole about it and had Izzy bawling in about 1 minute, shouting "I hate you Greg!! I wanna go and live with my Dad!!!". Just the very thing I asked him to help me avoid. Prick. I've always had issues with the way he interacts with Izzy, and he's so wonderful with Anakin that it further highlights what a c*nt he can be to Iz. It's hard to be the Mum of two kids with different fathers. The shit I've got to put up with..

I was getting a bit clucky too (totally out of character for me) with all the talk of dressing up little girls and stuff. Well he sure put a stop to that feeling!

Soul Kitchen or a Ramsey Nightmare

Izzy's lost two more teeth! That makes it a total of four during these school holidays. Meanwhile he's in Grade 7 and has only got 8 adult teeth so it's been on the cards.

I'm sitting here in the dark, everyone else has gone to sleep - Izzy has his Dad bunking down in his room and his Nana camping in the lounge. Yesterday we had his two Aunties come down from Cairns with their families so along with all the other relies we've seen these holidays it's been non-stop around here - especially in the kitchen. I've had days where it seems like I went directly from cleaning up the dishes from the big pancake breakfast (I really do feed everyone pancakes) to launching straight into another big bake-up while taking mental notes on what needs to be bought for dinner! I'd been so busy with other catering demands that it took me three days to finally get around to making myself a birthday cake. Anakin got some practise in and helped me blow out the candles and he sang Happy Birthday so beautifully and sincerely (and has sung it to me every day since) where as the other clowns (Greg and Paul and Izzy) were so dud I made them sing it twice more and it still didn't get any better!

There's been times when I've been "Get out! Kitchen's closed! But with Anakin's birthday this weekend the madness is going to continue. Let's hope I have the stamina!

Pupil Free Day today. The fact that I enjoy my job more when the kids aren't actually there makes me think I'm going to need a career change in the future, that maybe I got into the wrong field. Doh! A really well paying one where I can dress-up and look all glam. Something creative but not too stressful. Any ideas for me coz I don't have any?

Auntie Bec brought down her hairdressing kit with her yesterday and gave me this sweetest little bob, it's not concave, has basically no layering, just this cute Chicago 'do. She was so thorough. It's the best cut I've had for ever. Yay!! My new stylist is in the family!! Next time I might book in for some colour!

Did some work out at the block on the weekend. I was so happy to be out there raking and whipper-snipping in the midday sun. When Greg and Bubby came to pick me up we walked to the creek together (5 minutes!) and Bub got in for a swim! It was SO stingin' cold his little naked body went red like it'd been slapped all over. It was priceless though - watching his enthusiasm and enjoyment. Then again, he's like that mainly every day!

Greg took the kids out on the boat yesterday morning and all I've been hearing about is this massive crocodile they saw. In Anakin's words "HUGE!!" All the talk about it gave me a bad dream :( Anyone want to trade a deadly caravan for a 16ft V-bottom?

Sunday

That was MY name! I'm really dirty on her for using it too. My sister is talking baby names already and I reaffirmed yet again that "Sunday" would be my little girl's name (hypothetically) about 4 hours before I heard the news break. God! How would ya be?

It's my birthday today! Greg bought me a new Victa Pushmower! I was stoked (I was dropping hints a while back, it's a funny thing to want for your birthday I suppose). But it was cool coz I was wandering around the yard with Bub looking at the skinny little abiu tree struggling to compete with the grass, thinking to myself, if I only had a mower with a catcher I could mulch all around it with clippings and it'd grow heaps better. I followed Anakin up to the shed directly and caught sight of my birthday present BAM! the exact same thing I'd been thinking of! (Greg leaves too early for work and I didn't get to bed 'til 3.30am after picking Izzy's Dad up from the airport and driving home so we were all fast asleep when he left for work... Well mostly.. I do remember him whispering affectionate things to me and giving me a nice back rub at some stage there.)

Mum bought me a very cool rug for the lounge room with a huge peacock feather motif on it. And I also got to spend up big at the op-shop yesterday with lots of birthday money from the rest of the family. I scored big time - pants mainly - a pair of Bubblegum, Just Jeans, Portmans and Crossroads, ALL with their tags still on! Some cool tops too. My 15 year old cousin is visiting from Brissie - I'm going to have to go through my clothes a little bit more severely than last time and see if I have some choice items for her.

Anyway I'm missing out on that spunk from Ong Bak, I'm off to join the couch dwellers.

Party-Days

It's 3 o'clock in the morning, one of those times where the quiet time in my own (little) head space is worth trading in for sleep. We just concluded yet another splendid Saturday in the tropics - spent it out at Dad's having a barbecue for all of us Cancerians in the family (my Nana, my Uncle Barry and me). It was also a bit of an introduction for Chris who hasn't met some of the relies yet so I had to endure yet another barrage of comments on how our two guys could be mistaken for each other which I received by crossing my eyes and poking my tongue out to the side. Mature hey?

I made a huge batch of energy slice (have to post the recipe one day for you), a massive banana cake with fresh whipped cream and a mammoth tuna salad.

It was fun cruising all through the yard with Bubby, checking out the huge golden orb weaving spiders and taste testing things off trees. Different parts of the family (my dad, my brother, his dad and my uncle on Mum's side) own land right at the end of this dirt road backing onto forestry and world heritage rainforest, so Izzy and his cousins basically just free-range all over the place out there - they love it.

Izzy and all my sisters family stayed out there but me and Greg and Bubby headed off to the Coastguard for "fish n chip night" with Mum and one of her many, many sisters Maree, who is visiting with two of her three kids. So it was a big family day all round and tomorrow will be the same except I'll start off with Mums family at the markets and finish it off out at Dad's place. Divorced parents ... geez, I have to do so much running around.

I started thinking about plans for Anakin's birthday party, that's why I can't sleep. (That and the fact that Greg and Anakin were squashing me out of bed.) I'm trying to think of a concise way of saying "No presents please but a plate of snacks to share will be warmly received." The recipients of invites will be like - new born babies, one year olds, two year olds.. so inevitably the whole family might come along, I've never under catered in my life, but just in case I thought inviting people to bring a share plate would rule out the possibility, coz it's hard to guess numbers sometimes. What do you think?

Bubby often speaks in sentences now: "Mum's freaking-out Dad" (He kept leading me down onto the sand at the coastguard and I was worried about crocs'!) "Party-day at Poppy's, coming Izzy?"

Spel chacks nott werking..

Saturday was good. We helped celebrate our little mates 10th birthday at the Centenary Lakes in Cairns (and my only trip to the shops was to buy him a prezzie!) and then we headed up to Wongetti Beach, stocked up with good food from Rusties Markets, to visit my good old mates Mick and Karen, our biker friends, who I love to bits. On the way up the coast we did a little nostalgic drive-by past the townhouse where I use to live with Izzy all those years I was at Uni. I loved that place so much, it was perfect for us at the time. We had great neighbours and friends, we were one street away from the beach, our rent was really reasonable and didn't increase the entire time we were there. Karen was my walking buddy and we'd yack, yack, yack all the way around the streets of Trinity Beach.

They had some other friends 'round too, so we met some lovely people. We had a great night cooking up a barbie, having a jam and a sing-song and catching up on news. There was one chick there who has worked at the Croc' Farm for about 15 years and she had some hilarious stories about dressing up in a kangaroo suit and trying to do the croc feeding shows without being mistaken for the croc' food. She cracked me up.

But Sunday was shit. I think I dropped the 2 kilo's I've put back on recently, spewing my guts up after a few too many of Greg's moonshines. (Charming hey?) Man, what a miserable waste of a good Sunday. I woke up Okay, probably still a little drunk from all the frangelica and lime juice but then I became steadily worse. The cheesy smell of the empty chip packet I spewed into, on the drive back into the city helped matters along, as did the 7 or 8 massive round-abouts we had to drive through. Later I drowned a bug in my vomit as I watched the kids in the park, it was on it's back kicking away with it's legs in the air, scorching in bile, I spat on it for good measure and because I'm all class. Then I had to endure the 2 hour drive home sick as a dog, but once home, the rapid transition I made from bringing up plain water to feeling much better and gobbing down three pieces of cold pizza bordered on miraculous.

You might think I'm a total alcho' but seriously it takes barely anything for me to get a huge hangover. Ask anyone. I think I'm actually alergic to alcohol. On the rare occassion I actually feel like a drink, I think two's going to be my limit from now on. Anyway in this book I'm reading these two heroin junkies are trying to go through a home-detox, having that hangover yesterday made me more sympathetic to their horrible sick and miserable state of being.

As for the kids. Izzy has become the manifestation of Guitar Hero and lost 2 teeth on Friday. He's going to spend the first half of the school holidays hanging out for his Dad to come and visit. Bubby is constantly asking the question "Nat noise?" and we dutifully fill him in "that's the chooky laying an egg", "that's the sound of the fridge Bubby", "that's the culew-birdie singing out", "that's the garbage truck coming", "that's Mummy spewing into the cheezels bag". And then he's always asking "Matter Mumma?", "Matter Daddy?" and we reply "Nothing, it's all good Bubby", or "You just threw a truck at my head is the matter Bubby?" etc.

Please disregard the entry below. I'm not always a whingeing brat.