Pocket Money

The boys get pocket money for an assortment of jobs written up on a blackboard in their room, which Rafe follows consistently and diligently and Will, well he's on half pocket money for last weeks poor performance. And Smith gets 20 cents for being cute, and for not throwing things (remember the apple incident).

In a fit of madness I attempted to go to the supermarket with the two boys on Tuesday, with Smith pushing the trolley badly and Rafe playing with the swing doors and generally creating carnage as well. It was all going as well as could be hoped until we reached the checkout, where once again (in seemingly slow motion), Smith picked up a bag of noodles and hurled them into the crowd. The noodles hit a lady who looked at Smith, then at me.

The check out lady said "I don't know how you cope, I'd go mad". It's ok for me to voice those thoughts but certainly not some 20 year old check out chick. No matter how true.

No pocket money for Smith this week.

Skype

Just had a really uncomfortable skype experience (not as uncomfortable as attempting to pull out a tick though). I was speaking to my web developer on skype and had my video camera on (think it comes on automatically although I'll be trying to turn it off now!!!). Half way through our conversation she started to giggle and I could hear someone else in the background laughing as well. I'm not in my pjamas, I haven't got egg from my lunch on my face, ok I may look a little tired but really?? What was the laughing about? I felt totally embarassed and as quick as I could find it, turned the video camera off. Sheesh, someone find me my normal phone again!

Wednesday

...started off badly, no internet. I attempted to talk in a monotone voice to the voice recognition thing with the broadband supplier people (as I've found that when you yell at in in frustration it doesn't understand), and booked an appointment for a techie. All good. Unfortunately I had a big work morning planned which was never going to happen as things started to get crazy.

We've been playing with buying a property in Sydney. DON"T panic NZ girls, it just means that we'll have a piece of land to call our own in case theres a rush on the banks and everyone has to resort to storing their loot under their mattresses... or whatever. Anyhow the verbal offer we made on a property "kind of" got accepted - we were told "it's a race now, first in best dressed" between us and "someone else" - yeah right. Anyhow I'll bleet on another time about the process so as not to bore you or myself, but it was a day of lawyers, jargon, tense conversations with The Husband in Perth, patronising tones from two agents and a headache. The kids had thankfully rediscovered an old computer game that didn't require the internet and wisely kept out of my way.

That was until I realised that a small painful black thing in my neck may be a dreaded tick.

I screamed for Will, found a kids magnifying glass and a decent light, and demanded he tell me if this was a tick. How a 7 year would know this, I don't care, I just needed an authoritative answer and he was the second oldest person in the house. "Looks like a tick to me Mum" was his response.

Bush ticks fall into the Gross Things about Living in Australia list, along with aggressive magpies, huntsmen spiders in the wheelie bin and possum poo (and maybe rat poo!)on the trampoline. A freakin TICK. NOW? After this CRAP day? You are kidding me???? Thankfully the net was back up so I did some online research (see photo above!) and decided to take matters into my own hands (as that seemed to be the recommended treatment and I didn't trust Will's). I MAY have removed it, OR it MAY have imbedded itself (with my help) deeper into my neck (which is extremely close to my brain!), therefore I may get very ill in 7-9 days. I'll keep you posted.

House? What house? I've got more important things to worry about now!

Got Another!!!

Yay, just got another unsolicited approach by a charity, making my folder and divider purchase incredibly worthwhile now as it can divide the two charities that have approached me. Although, I have to say, the one is a good one, not sure if it fits by intended target genre but I say who am I to turn a worthwhile charity away.

Anyhow I'm too stressed as my super sleuth has just spotted the sabotaged pasta I've just made him - "Mum, you put someone in this, there's seeds in it" - was the indignant wail from Rafe. Now if I really was trying to sneak something in it, it would be a bloody big steak or a head of broccoli, NOT seeds. That child was sent to this earth for a special reason and that special reason didn't include eating! (But if you need to know the time or the weather, then he really comes into his own).

Trying to get motivated to do some training but it's dark and about 10 degrees, still Manly beach, my trainer and my flabby bits are calling....

Not again!

My very technically adept friend Pete has hooked me up to Skype and even had a remote workshop with me last night from NZ to get me sorted. Feeling confident and fiddly, i decided to open up my "address" to anyone as I could previously only accept calls from people on my address list. 1 hour after doing this I had a random, very difficult to hear phone call from someone in maybe Asia somewhere, and then I have just received a 'chat" message from a name I've never heard from " ......... MacLeod"???? Asking how I am (and using my name although my skype address doesn't include my name) freaky! I googled this person and found he may be a relative of Connor MacLeod (as in Highlander 1562) - even freakier, or another guy who sounds like he came from the same part of NZ as me and is about the same age? Maybe he's a high school stalker who has finally through the visibility of Facebook, blogs and Skype..,found me. If that's the case, he must be after my friend KT. They always were!

More later.
In the meantime, I'm back on Skype attempting to turn off whatever I just turned on!

Two Firsts

This will suprise the girls back in NZ! I think another lowlight on Facebook was being nominated the least likely to have an adventure. Now being totally honest for me sometimes the logistics and the fear of making a fool of myself counter the excitement of doing the event. So 2008 for me is about the Year of the Event. I'm starting with a 13km "pub2pub" run - basically along gorgeous stretches of Sydney's northern beaches. I'm running as part of a group with my trainer encouraging 70 or so of us to do the same run, wear t-shirts etc and our training geared towards the run. Mia is also doing it and introduced me to her secret weapon - an ipod shuffle. I've only ever had a MP3 player that held maybe 20 songs that I got as a christmas gift from Westpac where I worked one year, and I never knew how to change the songs that a friend loaded for me. So I dragged my boys to Big W, and bought my own IPod and ON MY OWN, worked out how to download my CDs and buy songs on Itunes. I am so happy with myself.
And on Saturday I went for a great run around the beaches listening to my new tunes.
I too, now have a secret weapon.

And FYI, so I lock myself in, more events for me this year include a 10km run over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and a sea swim from the Opera House. Just watch my Face Book rankings climb!!!

My First Charity

My magazine article about the business must have been published in NZ as I had a charity approach me unsolicited on my gmail account and asked to register on my website.

This was SO, SO exciting that I soon zoomed to the local newsagent where I picked up a new ring binder and dividers and stuck on a "Charities" label, then printed our all the correspondence and stuff I could find on this charity, and waited for the rush of others to approach me.

Maybe their magazines haven't arrived yet.

Anyhow, I knew I'd always have to go out hunting for the charities so this was an lovely unexpected suprise. I'll fill that folder yet, you watch!

School Hols

I have a rare moment almost on my own, the house is messy but quiet. I need to work, my new website layout is here, and I'm on a deadline to finishing at the end of July. But I'll just take a moment to post a wee post because if nothing else, I've really missed just writing....I love to write!
Yesterday, we stumbled across a science camp just perfect for Will, so packed him and his friend Tatum away for the day - one child and $60 down but giving them the chance to do something fun and educational! Feeling the two other wee guys don't get to do as much fun stuff I booked them in to a Playschool show. If you know me you'll be probably working through the logisitcs for me, but then you'll have worked out that I wouldn't be doing it unless it was logisitically easy. Which it was. So 10 mins before the doors opened the boys and I got out of the car at the RSL where the show was and slightly pushed our way near the start of the queue to secure our seat. There was a kids space on the floor and a slightly elevated seated area. I put Rafe and Smith on the ground and got a seat for myself (which was also the backup plan for when they got bored), I could see them perfectly and they sat there happily waiting with Rafe taking on the role of supervisor to Smith.
Then along came a large woman with a big kappochi baby backpack (you know the kind that parents carry with their first born that has a change of nappies, change of clothes, food, toys, drinks, warm blanket stuffed into it - Sheree I'm specifically thinking about your winnie the pooh one that you used to make Pete carry - that man was a saint). Anyhow backpack lady decided to sit down right in front of Smith. Do you think she didn't notice him, didn't care or just wanted his great view? Now Smith has developed a temper, if it wasn't a bit serious we'd think it was cute, but frankly someone's going to get hurt one day (not including his brothers and mother who have already) and when he gets annoyed, angry or sad, he throws things.
There I've owned up to it. But he doesn't bite, and noone wants a biter!
So as I could see a situation brewing I quickly made my way to him just in time to see him throw his largely uneaten apple into the crowd. And I had to laugh when I heard someone in the distance say "ooh, where did that apple come from?". But the backpack lady still didn't register her blocking my baby boys view in his first ever show, nor the near miss of an apple thrown hard at short range.
Relieved, I shuffled the boys along a smidge and the drama was over.
But when I told Will and The Husband later, we all had a chuckle as we know how accurate he can be with his throws - perhaps she got off with a warning.

The show was a hit and my boys were otherwise angels.

Slabs

I have had a crazy last few weeks with Rafe's 5th birthday (and first ever real birthday party), and The Husbands 40th, with our friends Pete and Alex over from NZ for the last week. I decided early in the planning process that organisation was going to be the only way of not buckling under the stress of clean houses and fun events. For those that know me, the birthday cake situation was fraught with high risk and high stress. Betty Crocker was not the answer this year.

I have this fabulous friend Mia. Mia kind of rescued me one day from a post pre-school playground get together and dragged me into her group. The fact she was 2 days away from having a baby and had been in our area only 4 weeks longer than me made her effort even more impressive. And she totally won over The Husband by introducing herself with a "Hi, you must be Rafe's dad, I'm Mia". Anyhow she is gorgeous, positive, friendly and a very dear friend.

And she has introduced two new innovations into my life.

The quote board.

The Slab.

Rafe went to her little guys birthday and he had a very acceptable birthday cake. Now Mia is the type of person who has 4 boys around for a playdate and gets them to make a chocolate cake so I assumed it was a home made job. "Hell no" was her response, "I just picked a slab up from Manly Freezers" (a little frozen food catering shop in our area). I grilled her - price, varietals (Rafe doesn't eat chocolate cake), process.... I was sorted, I had a birthday cake plan. So 3 days before Rafe's birthday party, I did a practice run, checked out the slabs, parking, bought some smarties to put on top. All good. One day to go, I went and purposefully bought the frozen slab, and at Mia's suggestion, went to put it in my freezer to be defrosted the next day. Problem, my freezer wasn't big enough for it - to many shelves, not enough large flat spaces. Panic call to Mia, who once again rescued me by keeping it in her freezer for me.

The result - one smartie laden 5 year old birthday slab. And did he eat it?

Nup.

But all the kids at the after school playdate ate the OTHER slab I bought in my slab frenzy.

Hey

Justa quickie, will post again soon - have friends staying where our computer is so can't do my normal stuff but will post again soon. In the meantime all I can say is a 5th birthday, a 40th birthday, a house full of people and now school hols - plenty of fodder for blogs!

Will be back in a bit