My boys

Anakin compliments and professes his heartfelt love and devotion to me all day long! He is just the most sweetest child. Greg insists that he coaches him on the quiet, but that's just a big fat lie - coz I reckon Anakin is about a thousand times sweeter. He says the most precious things like "Mum, you are the nicest lady I've never met" (except he means "ever met" of course), "You are my Love", "Mum, you are so soft and cuddly and squiggy and smoogy and SWEET!", "You're my beautifulest", "I'll look after you Mum" and of course "I love you SO MUCH". He is a total darling!!!

He's got some mispronunciations and funny made up words that I've been meaning to record too. He has real trouble pronouncing "breakfast" and has been calling it "breakwurfst" for a couple of years now, it makes us laugh every time he says it. He loves taking photo's and everytime he wants to snap one of us he goes "Smoto!", which basically means "smile for the photo!" It just seems logical to me so I use the expression all the time too.

Got to see Izzy for a brief minute or two tonight and gave him big cuddles (he is the opposite of Anakin and a total ambivalent cuddler, he just hangs there limply while I try wrap him up in my arms.) He's taller than me now! Which makes his cheeks in a real good spot for kissing. I'm not about to hold back my feelings - even if it does make him sqeemish! He just received a totally average report card! Yikes! He is not motivated for school at all that boy. He sends me texts from his school bus like "save me from the clutches of school" and "Not school! I'm going to cut myself!" He did get all A's for Info' Tech' - thank God, a saving grace. And he did well in Man' Arts too but otherwise there was just one C after another. He starts Agriculture next term, Home Ec' and Music too which I think will suit him. His books are so battered from being carted around in his school bag all year, I'm going to organise new books and folders for the new semester. YES! Stationary to shop for when I'm in Cairns this weekend. Not to mention my treasure box at school needs restocking.

I took my special needs kids for the last time today. I'm going to miss my Friday job. Working with small groups is EASY! I had my older boys make playdough today (you can turn a 'reading comprehension" lesson into anything! "Grammar" - not so much). I thought they might like to give it to one of the younger kids or a sibling but they were totally into it! They we're all like "Miss. Do we get to KEEP THIS??!! AWESOME!!" It's been charity work so far coz I haven't been paid as yet (the job bloody started last term!). I've been onto admin' and it looks like they're going to pay me all at once and I'll get taxed big heaps. Which is going to hurt. Well until tax return time anyway...

They say that pregnant women have lowered immunity but I reckon that's bullshit. I've usually got a forcefield of glowing health protecting me actually. Except I've had Greg coughing all over me for the last couple of months. And taking sickies and lying in bed for whole days at a time. (This is a picture Anakin took of him. He says "this is where Dad's being a sook".)
And now, I wouldn't go all out and say I'm actually sick, but I'm not entirely well at the moment. I've got this cough which gets you right in the gag reflex - you go from coughing one moment to gagging the next. I think that's what woke me up at quarter to 3 this morning... and now the sun should me coming up soon and I still haven't gone back to sleep. Plus we're spose to begin our drive to Cairns in about an hour. Better keep the panadols close today..

Dramas and the balm that soothes them.

Me and Greg have agreed that our relationship can't go on like this. We argue over the same shit all the time (Greg actually does some stuff around the place for the first time in a month or so and then he totally lords it on and takes the attitude that he can boss me around for how I spend my time, questions me about what I do with myself all day, how much housework I got done etc and then I threaten to kill him in his sleep if he ever mentions housework again unless he's outlining to me which jobs it is he's about to perform coz I'm actually the only one who does it, and that I never professed to be a friggen Stepford Wife and if it's one of those types he wants, I know a few, I'll point him in the right fucking direction.) And then it goes on. It's shockin'. It's pretty deeply entrenched behaviour and we'll need to work consistently at just easing up on each other and getting off one anothers' cases. Hopefully... I've just got the shortest fuse when someone is bossing me around and Greg seems to resent everyone who is not working hard when he actually is (for a change..). Anyway, hopefully better days are ahead.

Took the two kids for a shop yesterday. Me and Anakin picked Izzy up nice and early and then went to Maccas (just a short 45 minute drive away) for a hearty breakfast and a big play on the playground. (Anakin is getting much more cheerful and congenial towards other kids now thankfully, he was terrible for a while there - growling like a tiger at any kid who came near him; refusing to get out of the car if there was other kids in the park; telling me "Mum! Quick! Get away from those monsters!!", if we went too close to other kids with our shopping trolley! With much coaching he now sees them as potential play mates and smiles and asks names and is cooperative. Phew!) Then we took our time looking around the shops. I bought the kids new shoes and some warm clothes. And then we wandered around the pet shop and came home with the most adorable little guinea pig "Milo". She is so placid and a perfect pet for Bubby.
It was really nice being with my two boys, we had a lovely time together. We ended up taking cupcakes to Grandads, he was at golf but we saw Uncle Barry there briefly before he went to tee off as well. I'm so glad Grandad has his golf to keep him busy. (I think I've mentioned all them blokes on my Dad's side are all mad keen golfers.) It never matters too much if anyone's home there or not, the house is always open so we let ourselves in for a cuppa tea and a trip to the toilet and just leave a note.

We've spent a few afternoons at the block lately too which is always so good. We planted two bowen mangoes, a rambutan and two leopard trees. And today I bought a jaboticava to take out. We cleared the guinea grass right away from the trees and are in the process of cleaning up under the clump of guava trees. Soon I'm going to get a backhoe in to skim the top off the hill and level a house pad. Can't wait for that!!

Anyway I bought some aquatic plants for Anakin's fishtank at the markets this morning as well so I should go and sort them out. Catch ya.

On this day in history.

It's Friday afternoon, thank God! Three days of work in a row is too much for a pregnant woman! Greg should've been home a while ago so I called him. His first explanation was that he was still at work, his second included the need to hang around for the meat tray. Work? Meat tray? Seems like a bit of a... what are those things called.. oxymoron.. yeah, one of those. The pub's only a 2 minute walk from the mill... that seems more of a likely story.

I had to have panadol with my breakfast this morning. (Time to go back to the chiropractor. Yesss!! She's nice..) I had a headache behind my eye after work yesterday that persisted the whole entire night. If I don't get a good solid block of sleep while I have a headache it just seems to hang around. And even though I feel like crashing and burning in the arvie, I still spend half the night lying awake (planning my next lessons, wondering what the hell animal is climbing up the screen this time and why my pyjamas are suddenly all wet - Doh! Anakin's wet the bed again and as mentioned, he sleeps that close to me, he's peed all over the both of us! And now that I'm stripped off in the nude, how come it is that my man, who hasn't had me in like, days, can lie jammed up so close to the other side of me without wetting his pyjamas too??). Yep, in some ways it's pretty rough.

But it's still good going to bed coz it's the only time my little baby belly pops up noticeably, otherwise it's pretty none existent behind all the excess fat that's still hanging around there from my last pregnancy 3 years ago! I haven't put on any weight yet, actually I lost a kilo or two due to my cravings to subsist all day on healthy things like cherry tomatoes and tangelo juice.

Well Izzy's spending the weekend here as well as my second cousin and it's nearly time to go collect them. I instructed them both to have a good shower before I got there (Izzy's not real down with our outside shower) and to go get a burger for dinner from the shop. That's going to make my life easier on this Friday evening with a weekend of marking and reporting ahead. XXX

I neglected to put some holiday pics on my blog after our trip to the opal fields but I recently made an album for them on FB - check them out there if you like :)

Nan XXOOXX

4:20 am and I just had to get up to put a load of washing on... okay so the bathroom reno's have taken a far while longer than I anticipated (now the whole septic needs re-trenching as well! Phttt!) and the house is still in a complete shambles, and I just wish I didn't have to be the one to have to constantly try sort it all out! Story of my life..


Nana passed away last weekend. I was at the hospital with my Uncle Barry when they took away her respirator and shared in the last couple of hours she was here. We're all going to miss her like crazy, she epitomized the essence of the quintessential Grandma without even trying a bit! I'd do annoying things, like throwing-up on her carpet in the middle of the night in my sleep and requesting the same movies over and over again at the video shop and... umm.. (well, okay I wasn't that annoying), Nick would get car sick on the way to the creek and complain about our noisy renditions of old show tunes.. (she wasn't that annoying either). She just loved us so much (we decorated her dresser in all these handmade coloured-paper flowers once and she left them there for like over a decade!) and I can't even remember her once showing us the slightest bit of frustration, EVER! She would never say a nasty word about anyone, she just was the sweetest lady in the whole world.


I got to have one visit with her in the ICU when she was conscience and able to talk. The first thing she said to me was "How's the little baby?" I said "Yeah, he's real good, he's over at Chris's place, Chris took a lunch break so I didn't have to bring the kids along.." She said "Not Anakin. The LITTLE baby". I'd barely told anyone I was pregnant and I wasn't really in a rush to tell Nana coz I knew she wasn't real keen on the idea of me having anymore, she liked a lady to have freedom in life... I said to her "How did you know Nana? I've hardly told anyone!" She reckons real slyly and whimsically "I'm a Sage.." I've got the feeling my gf might have let it slip when she visited her previously, but she's not telling me so. She put me to good use that day, rubbing her swollen feet with cream and getting me to slip ice chips in her mouth against Doctors' wishes. Her body was so swollen with fluids she couldn't even lift her own arms. I wish her last few weeks didn't have to be the way they were. It was so horrible for her. Her and Grandad were married for 60 years. Granddad is utterly heartbroken. We all are. She was so beautiful..

This weekend I had an appointment for an NT scan seeing as I have now reached "advanced maternal age" (can that be real??) It was awesome to see Berry on screen although Greg was starting to feel vicarious claustrophobia for the little tacka. He looks all healthy and has a 155bpm heartbeat. The sweetest image I have is of the back of his (?) little skull and his spinal chord trailing down past the two dark kidney patches and ending at his skinny little bony-bum. It's so darling.

I'm so glad me and Anakin are having the day together at home today. Worked with the Grade Five's yesterday so had to farm him out to Auntie Nick again, plus we've been away from home two weekends in a row, we really just need a couple days to potter about and chillax.

Yesterday morning, I got up with Greg at the crack of dawn to get organised for work and after getting dressed I noticed Anakin's little sparkly eyes glinting through the crack of the bedroom door. Usually he'd come right out and find us, but he was just hanging-back and peeking, I said "Good Morning Beautiful. What's the matter Bubby? What are you doing?" and then I got real close and could smell pee wafting through the crack. I said "What's the matter Darlin', did you do a wee-wee?" He opens the door to reveal his drenched pyjama's and goes "No, I'm just real sweaty.." Funny boy. He hangs on to me all night like a bloody spider-monkey, he nearly throttles me he cuddles up to me so tight. He still asks for titty too, but is generally happy just to lick me all over the face!

We got some new budgies on the weekend too, they are such little babies. I called mine "Sassy" coz it bit the lady who caught it like a bloody piranha and Anakin called his "Crappy" but has since changed it's name to "Greenie". It's so nice to have birds again.

Greg thinks he's the luckiest man around. Not just once but twice, I initiated Sunday! Must be my aching boobs and the extra blood flow to pertinent areas. Gets me going. Actually it's just him, he's a bit of a spunk.