Being a sheep ...

... and following along with the flock doing a "quick" 2013 round up.

January:

• Still (quietly) patting myself on the back for winning Austral Bricks WA Employee of the Year for 2012.  The fact that I managed to (unintentionally) insult the Managing Director and keep my job apparently got me more points than all the work I did, but I'll take the win (and the $1500 Flight Centre voucher .. woohoo!  I can see a nice holiday in my future).
• Actually went out quad bike riding with the boys (all four of them) and didn't kill myself, break anything or hurt anyone else .. go me!
• Celebrated Alex's friend Chris' 18th birthday at Sizzler's in Kelmscott.
• Managed to get some more of the backyard finished and made some quirky crafty items for my upcoming birthday.  Bowls made from old records anyone?

February:

• Finally got the backyard landscaping guy to come back and finish it.
• Turned 40 ... aaaargghh!!  Celebrated with a 70's themed birthday party and had a great time.
• My 'baby' boy, Brad, turned 14!  Where is the time going??

March:

• Painted the 'spare' room for Mum to move into while she builds her new house.
• Tried my hand at fruit and vege gardening...

April:

• Let Alex drive us up to Ikea for a day out only to have his car die on the Cedric St off-ramp .. thank God for RAC road patrol! $250 for a new battery later, we were able to get his car going again just in time to go home.
• Celebrated Debbie's 50th birthday with high tea at Little Nich's Cafe.  Nice food, dribbly teapots and lovely company .. great day!!
• Clare came over to have a ride on the scooter to practise for her trip to Greece.  
• Commiserated with Deb over her baby, Amy, turning 16.

May:

• Had an early Mother's Day celebration with Mum, Clare, Rich and my tribe at the Mundijong Pub.  Peter and Richard went for a country motorbike ride first and met us there.
• Took Andrew and Debbie to see Cirque Du Soleil's OVO show.  Fantastic night out except for the bucketing down rain :-(
• Mum moved in.
• Went to Tasmania for our 20th wedding anniversary with no kids and using the voucher I won. Awesome but tiring (not for the reason you think ... get your mind out of the gutter!)
• Had another Mother's Day celebration when we got back from Tassie.  Love, hugs and presents .. yay!
• My middle baby, Drew, turned 16.  He booked himself in for his learner's test and passed first time ... go Drew!!

June:

• Ate the first apple from the Pinkabelle tree.  
• Got a wild idea to rip my wedding dress apart and use (what I thought was a hug amount of) fabric for other purposes. (Didn't get very far with that .. there was nowhere near as much silk in the skirt as I thought there was ..oh well).  Made Brad pose for photos in the bodice of the dress, mean mummy that I am!
• Painted Drew's bedroom wall with "racing stripes".  He likes it even if no-one else does!!

July:

• Had to race Xena to the vet in the middle of the night once we worked out that she had eaten almost a whole box of dark chocolate.  Got home at 2am and had to go back to pick her up at 8am to avoid paying another day's worth of ICU charges.  
• Went to Sydney for a work trip ... on the same day that I had raced Xena to the vet.  Couldn't sleep on plane so had an early night when I got there.  Found out that the company hadn't paid for the accommodation in advance so got hit with a huge bill on check out.  Thank goodness for 'secret stash' money...
• Took another trip to Ikea and found some inspiration for what to do on the long wall in the family room.  Besta bookshelves are my new best friend ... I think.

August:

• Had a night at the shed, just Peter and I (despite vowing not to go .. a girl can change her mind!)
• Drew had his first official driving school driving lesson.
• Finally got floor coverings in the bedrooms .. spotted gum floorboards.

September:

• My first 'little baby', Alex turned 18 and somehow became 6'1" tall ... waaahhhh!!  j/k .. so proud of him for the hurdles he's overcome and the wonderful young man he is.  Love you son!
• Had a belated Father's Day (as it was on Alex's birthday .. how rude!)
• Drew bought his first car, a Longreach Falcon ute, which was brought home on the Sunday afternoon and then stolen in the early hours of the Thursday afternoon.  Fire brigade found it on fire and reported it to police.  By the time the Police got there, it had been stolen again and still hasn't been recovered.  Thank goodness for insurance!
• Did some more crafty/practical projects that I will slowly be updating over the next couple of weeks .. I promise!

October:

• Took a week off work during school holidays and spent some time with my growing-way-too-quick boys.
• Thought about going to the Perth Royal Show(for about an hour), regained my sanity and stayed home instead.  Saved amount of money equivalent to the GDP of a small African nation.

November:

• Drew got his official Certificate II in light automotive servicing ..well done!
• Took yet another trip to Ikea .. just because.
• Got the windows tinted in our bedroom, the home theatre (or as I call it, the lounge room), the family room and Alex's bedroom.  Makes a huge difference to the amount of heat coming in from outside.
• Peter bought a new bigger motorbike.  Continued to hassle me about getting my bike licence ...

December:

• Put up the tree with the boys with minimal grumbling (from me!)
• Drew picked up his new car .. 1999 Lantra with very low km's for it's age.
• Made three Pepparkaka Hus kits from Ikea (otherwise known as gingerbread houses for English speakers).  Used an entire year's worth of lollies and royal icing between the three .. yum!!
• Had Christmas breakfast at home, lunch at Mark and Bec's and home again for dinner.
• Quiet day at home on Boxing Day, then out for dinner with Nonnie and Clare down in Shoalwater.
• For Peter's 47th birthday my lovely boss let me take half a day off so we had lunch at Hog's Breath in Kelmscott, then home for presents.  Managed to surprise him with the Springsteen tickets I'd bought back in September as well as the usual littler presents from the boys.
• Quiet New Year's at home with the boys (Mum went out .. has a better social life then me!).  Managed to see in the New Year, then slept like a log until 9am.

So there you go, a whole year in a rather large nutshell.  Here's hoping I can get my shit together slightly more organised this year and manage to post some of the happenings as (or soon after) they happen.

 A girl's got to have dreams ... right? 

To sleep; perchance to dream ... please?

Brad had a couple of friends over for a sleepover last night ... the same two friends he had over for his birthday party.  I'm kind of regretting allowing the sleepover part.  If my brain was functioning properly, I'm sure it would be beating me about the head mercilessly with whatever large object was at hand, trying to beat some sense into me.

Now don't get me wrong, they are all good kids; not wilfully destructive, not (purposefully) rude, generally good kids.  But, and that's a big but, they are loud!  And apparently nocturnal.  And completely starving ... all.the.time.  Thankfully though, they are all relatively house-trained.

I sat them all down at 9pm and had a little chat re the noise and lack of sleep from last time then gave them instructions to keep the noise down to a dull roar and to allow the brothers (who weren't home last time) to get some sleep.

Alex and Andrew were given the option of sleeping in the spare room or their own rooms.  I did tell Andrew that if he was truly desperate for sleep, he could sleep in my room as Pete was up at the shed.  Alex elected to sleep in his own bed (being somewhat nocturnal himself, I figured that would be the case).  Andrew decided on the spare room but ended up coming down to my room at about 4am as he "couldn't take the singing any more".

We both tried to get some sleep after that but the dog had found a ball and kept barking at one or the other of the boys to play with him.  I took the ball away from the dog and sent the child who was on the elliptical machine back to bed at about 4:15am.

I took the other ball away from the dog at 5am and told him to be quiet or else.

At 5:45am I heard the sound of the kettle and the tea/coffee/sugar jars being opened and closed.  I went out to investigate and found the three of them standing in the kitchen making themselves iced coffees.  Yep .. coffees!  As if those three need coffee ... it would have been like giving a hummingbird speed!  Or a meerkat crack!  Or Hammy the squirrel coffee (Over the Hedge reference there).  Or ... I think you get the picture.

After rapidly setting them straight and telling them to have Milo instead,  I went back to bed and tried to sleep in.  Tried being the operative word there ... made it to 7:15am then was wide awake.  Why is it you can never sleep in when you want to?

Anyway, they all crashed and burned between 9:30 and 10am while I couldn't have gone back to sleep if my life depended on it (well, I probably could have under those circumstances but then again ... the stress of my life depending on it may have put paid to any restfulness ... who really knows?  I'm sleep deprived .. can you tell?) 

So what do you do when you're really tired and you're not thinking straight?  That's right .. you re-arrange the furniture.  Nothing like dropping something heavy on your foot to wake you up!  Even better if it's the bed you should really be sleeping in, not trying to move around the room! 

Oh well, the extra boys have gone, the bedroom is re-arranged and I managed to have a nanna nap this afternoon.  A pretty good day in all ...

Out of the mouths of babes ...

I was taking the boys and Debbie's daughter to the movies today and we parked in the underground car park. As we were walking across the pedestrian crossing towards the entry doors, Bradley said "I wonder what people would do if I put road spikes all along the crossing? You know the kind with really pointy needles in it? Yeah that would be cool!"
Amy responded with "You could even put medicine in the needles for all the kids that walk on the crossing so they wouldn't have to go to the doctor's."
Then Brad came out with "Nah, not medicine. It would be better for everyone if it was sedatives for the little kids before their mums take them shopping. Would make it heaps quieter for the rest of us wouldn't it?"

Out of the mouths of babes ...

Another one of those "I'm feeling so old" posts but about Lurch this time ...

... oops I mean Alex. Peter has taken to calling him Lurch (from the Addams Family TV show) because he towers over both of us and does that shudder/groan/grunt thing so well! But back to the original topic, which was of course, me and how I'm feeling so old!

Alex had his Year 10 River Cruise last night and actually allowed me to take a few photos on the proviso I didn't put them on facebook. This isn't facebook so I figure that means I can post them all here. OK, maybe not all as blogger only allows five photos per post, but that should be sufficient to throughly embarrass him get the general vibe.

Alex and his best mate Chris being 'serious' for a minute:

(Yes Chris is rather tall .. 6'2" at last measure and he's still growing!)

He scrubs up all right, doesn't he?

(even with the silly face he's pulling!)

The whole gang:
Some of the Barbie dolls other girls:

I was sure they would all freeze because it was very windy (and I was cold standing around in jeans and a polar fleece jacket), but Alex said it was warm on the boat and they all did heaps of dancing to warm themselves up, which then prompted the thought that I hoped they all had very good 'support garments' under those strapless dresses.

Apparently they all had a great time even though it was so windy and choppy that the captain abandoned plans for a cruise down to Fremantle and just did giant bog laps from South Perth to Burswood and back to the Barrack St Jetty. Alex managed to get one picture of the lights ...
which lights I'm not sure but hey, he took a photo for me!

Chris's mum Julia picked both boys up and Alex stayed there for the night and most of the next day while his brothers had to go to school .. a fact he took great delight in rubbing in every time they mentioned anything to do with school. "No more school for me-e! You've got school tomorrow! No more school for me-e!" You'll just have to insert your own visual of Lurch trying to do a conga line on his own while singing the above chant ... you're welcome!!

Some more show photos ...

Brad in his Viking helmet trying to avoid having a photo taken:

Ninja Brad:


Alex's remote control helicopter (purchased instead of a heap of show bags ..
his sugar rush could have been worse!!):



Amy in her funky new glasses and rasta hat (complete with dreadlocks):



Andrew going all rasta (and his shirt matches too!):

We survived the show. However, the post showbag sugar rush has only just started winding down ...

... and I am ready to kill the inventors of M&Ms ... specifically the person who decided bright blue food colouring was the ideal coating for a chocolate filled sugar coated sweet. Alex's teeth and lips are a beautiful shade of mottled blue. If we lived in a cooler climate I would be taking him to hospital on suspicion of hypothermia!

Then the fact that he is a teensy bit slightly OK, majorly 'sensitive' to blue and yellow food colouring, has meant an interesting couple of days. Yes I know I could have taken them away from him, but where's the blog post fun in that? (I tried to get a photo but retreated before he literally broke the camera. Teenage boys don't seem to like having their photo taken, as is evidenced by the number of photos of hands in front of faces that are now languishing in my archives.)

Overall though, we had a great day out and were home by 3pm. We arrived nice and early (9:20am) and managed to look at everything we wanted to see before the real crowds started arriving just before lunch. The first stop was the cake decorating (which all the kids had asked to see .. I know .. wonders will never cease!) We all had a laugh at the look on this groom's face:

and this couple:
Very well made, but my favourite was still the little mice peeking out from all sorts of places in this farmyard scene:

After the cakes, we checked out the sheepdog trials, log chopping, needlework/craft display (for Bec's gorgeous cross stitch sampler) and the dairy pavilion. Then it was on to the worst best part of the show ... sideshow alley. Thank goodness we were there early otherwise I would be writing this from the East Perth lock-up or Graylands Mental Hospital ... no sensory overload issues here!

Brad and Amy went on the bumper cars then had a go at an air powered cannon/gun thing where Brad won his new favourite stuffed toy, Whipper the dolphin. Then it was on to the laughing clowns where he won the only thing he wanted to buy ... a ninja sword. (It didn't stop him from buying another two anyway!) Amy had a go at climbing a horizontal, rotating ladder (and fell off) and Alex made his way around to the Scouting display and tried to go the whole distance around the rock climbing wall without touching the ground. He probably would have made it if there weren't so many little kids .. how rude!! :P

While Andrew ate lunch (no-one else was hungry ... weird!) we watched the dog judging then I sent the kids off to buy show bags while I wandered for a while on my own (bliss!). I checked out the photography and art exhibitions, the "only at the show" specials pavilion and the baby animal nursery before meeting up with the now-broke children. Much to my surprise, they said they'd had enough and were quite happy to go home with their diabetic-coma-in-a-bag spoils.

We caught the train home, where I retreated to the safety of my lounge chair with a magazine for some down time. When it got a little bit too quiet, I ventured down to the games room and found the spoils of the day spread from one end of the room to the other. Oh well, at least they had fun picking out the bags even if the contents only last a day or two.

Now I just have to get a job to pay for next year's expedition!

I need to share some good news and vent as well!

Good news first:

I have been volunteering in the canteen at the boys' school for most of first term and was hoping to get a job there (oh so convenient!) when one of the other girls left at the end of the term. Unfortunately (for me) it was offered to another part-timer who already works in a different part of the school who, much to everyone's surprise, agreed to do it.

She had some health issues but thought that she would be able to cope with working the extra hours but, as she confided to me later, she hadn't realised how much standing up for 6 hours straight would affect her. She decided two weeks ago that she wasn't coping as well as she would like so told the bosses that she was just going to do her original job at which point we all thought that I would be offered the position. The bosses decided to wait it out as there are plans afoot to outsource the whole canteen, but soon realised that they needed the extra person as they couldn't rely on the volunteer (yes singular volunteer! I am the only one!!) to fill the gap.

So, to lengthen an already lengthy story, I received a phone call last Thursday as I was on my way to pick up the boys from school. I won't tell you how I broke the law by answering the phone while in charge of a motor vehicle (it was stopped at the time, just not turned off) but I will say that I very eagerly grasped the opportunity to be paid for something I had already been doing for 3 months!

I will be working Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays for the rest of this term, unless the other part-timer wants the hours back, in which case I'm back on the scrap heap. Let's cross that bridge, climb that mountain, whatever else you can think of to symbolise 'getting over it', if and when we get there. Almost all the money I will now be getting paid will be going straight back to the school to pay the fees, but it's better than having to find it myself!

And now for the vent/whinge/pity party for one ...

I am sleep deprived. So, what's new you ask? I mean I'm really sleep deprived as in I only got 3 hours sleep last night in half hour lots. I'm the kind of person who needs at least 8 hours, preferably 9 or 10 hours, to make any sort of sense and be nice civil non-homicidal to those around me. I haven't been this bad since the days of babies and snoring!

Background to the current episode of sleep deprivation: I offered to have two of the boys' friends over to spend the night on Friday. These are the same two boys who have stayed with me in the past, while their parents were interstate or overseas, or just so the boys could have their friends over for a sleepover. Both of the boys fall on the autism spectrum (admittedly at the high functioning end) but they know the rules of my house and follow them, especially the one about 'when I say lights out, that means lights out or I'll put your lights out permanently' (j/k!).

Friday night was relatively late for the boys (10:30pm) but when I said bed, all five of them quietened down and went to sleep (or at least faked it well and, more importantly, quietly!) They slept all night and when I awoke, by myself not by them, at 7am, they were all playing as nicely together as five boys of different ages are able to.

Last night was a wholly different scenario. I had lost one boy to a friend's house for a sleepover and gained one extra, not related to me and who is also apparently not familiar with the concept of 'go to sleep and stay that way for at least 8 consecutive hours'.

Now this child of 11 years is a good kid. He generally follows the rules, has manners, and plays well with my youngest. His mother is a friend from my working days and we have similar attitudes to parenting, which generally makes having someone else's child in your home a much easier proposition.

However, for some reason last night, neither of the boys could get to sleep, let alone stay that way for 8 hours. Once again, I had let them stay up later than normal (to maximise their playing time), and fully expected them to go to sleep soon after lights out at 10:15pm. I crawled into my own bed and, after fighting the dog for more of the doona, was asleep in nanoseconds.

I was awoken by Brad at 12:27am complaining that he couldn't sleep. I dragged my sorry self out of bed, went and checked on the conditions in the room and, upon finding that someone ('not me' or 'Mr Nobody') had left the climate control set at 26 degrees, fixed that, threatened dire consequences if they didn't go to sleep and crawled back into bed at 1:02am.

The threat of dire consequences obviously had no effect as after that I was awoken approximately every 40 minutes with some complaint or another, with the best one being at 3:52am when I was informed that guest child had waited too long to go to the bathroom and peed all over my carpeted games room floor. Bradley had already done a pretty good job of cleaning up what he could so there wasn't much left for me to do, apart from the few little bits he missed, do my best to reiterate the importance of sleep and head back to bed.

There were two more wake-ups after that one which I did my best to ignore, then it was time to get up and wait for Drew to be dropped off at 8am. I'm sure I look like death warmed up, with steamer trunks instead of just bags under my eyes, but I have so far managed to function due to the help of my wonderful eldest child, who has been making me yummy cups of tea without being asked.

The real injustice of the whole situation is that guest child is now fast asleep on the lounge in the games room and, despite the amount of noise we've all been making, is sleeping the sleep of the almost dead. I think nothing sort of an earthquake combined with a nuclear bomb would wake him now!

Hmmm ... I wonder if his mother knows he's turned nocturnal?

Debbie's Delightful Cards

I went to Debbie's first card-making class on Saturday and look what we did:

When I saw the colours we were working with, I have to admit I wasn't all that keen on them. Orange and green are not usually colours I would put together because I'm more of a blues and greens person. Once we'd made the first card though, I was hooked! I'm really pleased with how they turned out and can see so many possibilities for cards and scrapbook page decorations.

Deb was great as a teacher, so patient and easy-going, but I only have one complaint .. she's introduced me to inking and now I want all the different colours! Oh the choices .. where do I start?

House guests ..

A friend of mine, Elle, has been living in Bali for the past few months. She and her two sons had residency visas for 12 months but due to the untimely death of their landlord, who had sponsored them, these visas were revoked and they had to come back to Perth to apply for new ones.

They were staying with her sister-in-law, or as we refer to her 'the anally retentive, OCD, delusional lying bitch from hell', but gave that up as a bad joke a couple of days in (the staying with her part; not the name-calling part). As a result they have been staying with me for the last week.

These are the same two boys who stayed with me while both their parents were sorting out the move to Bali back in November last year and I think that all the boys, while happy to see each other after such a long break, are at the end of their respective ropes. My boys are still in school so they get to get out of the house everyday and see the rest of their friends but the guests are getting a bit bored. There have been a few little incidents and one major hissy fit from Alex yesterday which was aimed at me. How dare I interrupt a Yu-Gi-Oh duel to request that he have a shower! Apart from that, which strangely enough was resolved by me giving him a haircut (don't ask!), it's been so easy having them here.

Elle is the best kind of house guest .. the kind that doesn't expect you to entertain them non-stop or to wait on them hand and foot .. and her stories of life in Bali have kept me in stitches for days. I'm trying to talk her into starting her own blog so I can get my fix of her sense of humour and pithy comments more regularly.

Elle and the boys are out at the consulate at the moment trying to sort out the visa snafu so I'd better go and do some housework and washing while they're not here. I may even attempt some scrapping too ...

Quick update ..

I had to eat humble pie this morning when Mum showed me a different way to get to the hospital. It's 4 km longer than the way I usually go but only took 15 minutes instead of the usual 25.

Mum is fine but very drowsy. I've spoken to her tonight and she asked that we not visit until tomorrow afternoon because it's too much of an effort to stay awake. I was wondering if she would be upset if I didn't go tonight (homework police are required in full force) so now I don't have to feel guilty. Aren't I terrible?

Jackie shared the news of the addition to her family with me today. Her little one is so gorgeous .. a real little ball of fluff! Milly (or is it Millie?) is so cute it made me want another little puppy .. for about ten minutes then the functioning part of my brain kicked in! One little creature in the house at a time is enough and at the moment I have 4!

The dog has managed to steal another stuffed toy from the boys so I'd better go supervise the chase and subsequent medical treatment of said stuffed toy before the hormonal children start crying again.

I love my life .. I love my life .. I love my life .. (repeat ad infinitum)

The end of my first week as an unemployed bum ..

and it feels really weird. It's kind of like being on holidays so far, but I'm sure that will wear off eventually. Anyway, it's been a very up and down week.

Up: No work on Tuesday (or any other day!)
Down: Sorting through more of Neil's paperwork, realising he's really gone and having a cry.

Up: Spending some time with Peter, without kids, before he went back.
Down: Regretting that I didn't resign earlier to spend more time with him.

Up: Managing to catch up with Jackie for a decent chat .. not a half hour one while watching the clock to make sure I'm not late for work.
Down: That I can't fix her health problems and make her feel better.

Up: Spending the day with Andrew on Thursday (he stayed at home so he didn't get heatstroke from watching the swimming carnival .. again!)
Down: Seeing the look of disappointment on his face when we couldn't bake banana bread because we ran out of time after running all the errands I needed to do.

Up: Catching up with an old scrapping buddy, Sue, for the first time in ages.
Down: Realising how long it's been since I actually did some scrapping, let alone with friends.

Up: Seeing Debbie for lunch on Friday and helping (just a teensy bit) with a scrapping dilemma.
Down: Coming home to find I left my teensy bit of mojo at Debbie's house.

Up: Being invited out to a friend's 40th birthday party on Saturday night.
Down: Going out to my car to go and pick her up, only to find one of the children left the car door open, which left the interior light on, which made the battery run flat.
Up: Remembering there's a spare car battery in the carport that I can jump start the car with.
Down: Finding out that battery is flatter than the one in the car.
Up: Remembering that I'm an RAC Roadside Assistance member and ringing them to jump start the car.
Down: Finding out my membership lapsed last year and that it will cost me $215 to re-join over the phone.
Up: Realising it's still early enough to call a taxi and then getting there only an hour late.
Down: Remembering I left the present at home .. D'oh!!

Up: Going to the bridal fair with my 'baby' sister.
Down: Finding out there's absolutely no parking left at the venue and doing about 9 laps of the city trying to find any parking whatsoever, all while dodging insane taxi drivers who don't believe the lane markings on the roads apply to them as well as the rest of us.
Up: Finding a free street parking spot.
Down: Having to reverse parallel park into said spot which was on a steep hill.
Up: Managing to do it without hitting anything .. not even the curb .. on the first try!! Woohoo!!
Down: Realising we were going to have to climb back up that steep hill after walking around the bridal fair.

Up: Having a great time at the bridal fair and enjoying Clare's company.
Down: Realising how many creepy celebrants and photographers there are out there.
Up: Finding a couple of really good, affordable photographers, caterers, celebrants, DJ's and bonbonierrie (how do you spell that anyway?) suppliers.
Down: Putting up with the creepy, pushy spruikers with crappy looking products and huge price tags.

The major up for the whole weekend though ...

Clare found the perfect wedding dress!

We had looked through all the gowns on display and hadn't found one that satisfied all her criteria. Most of them were too floral or lacy for her (FYI: scalloped lace is apparently big this year .. bleecch!) and the ones she found that came close to what she wanted style-wise were way out of range price-wise.

We'd almost given up and were browsing through the last wedding dress place that had discounted gowns for sale, when we found one that she liked the style of but thought the colour was all wrong. I convinced her to try it on anyway and she fell in love with it. She also tried on two others in different shades but similar styles and it just re-affirmed her initial reaction to the first one. The colour is perfect for her; the design is very,very flattering and the beading is just gorgeous. The saleswoman lent her a veil and some jewellery to complete the look while she was trying it on and she just looked so radiant and happy that I nearly burst into tears.

To top it all off, I got them to knock a little bit more off the already discounted price, so she ended up with $350 off and a dress she loves that fits her almost perfectly (but would still be really easy to alter if she loses the weight all brides swear they're going to lose!) I can't wait to see Richard's face when he sees her in it but I guess I'll have to. The wedding's not 'til December after all!

A lovely weekend ..

Started with dinner on Friday night with three wonderful women who, like me, sometimes struggle with motherhood but are nonetheless doing a fantastic job of raising their kids. I'm the odd one out in that all of them have girls but it really brought home to me just how similar kids are when they want to push your buttons!

I know I say this every time we manage to have one of these dinners but we really need to do them more often, even if it's just at someone's house. A very smart person I know (Hi Jackie .. waving madly .. ) suggested that to me a while back but it kinda got lost in all the self-pity and angst over 'the incident' and various other assorted daily dramas. So people, work with me here. Let's start some sort of roster or a tentative plan ... oh no, the dreaded four letter word: 'plan' .. something's bound to go awry now!

Anyway, now the word is out there, let's try to organise something. We can even give it a name .. "Friday Night Freak Show" .. maybe not; sounds a bit creepy. "Sanity Savers" or "SS" for short. The kids already think we're some sort of nasty secret police.

Or something simple .. I know .. "SIMPLEST":

Shitloads of
Insane
Mothers
Pleading
Lowered
Emotional and
Sanity
Thresholds

What do you think? Probably just a bit too long, isn't it? I know it needs work but we can always get to that after doing the dishes, washing, mopping, vacuuming, refereeing fights, making breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks, weeding, etc, etc, etc ...

^ ^ ^ Look what I got! ^ ^ ^

Lita, the wonderful darling that she is, sent me the beautiful header up there ^ ^ ^. Isn't it just gorgeous? She makes such beautiful crafty things and even some that you can touch and hold too. Check out some of her other great things at: http://litabells.blogspot.com/

I love it 'cos it's so bright and cheerful which is just what I needed at this very moment in time. Thanks heaps Lita .. you're a legend!!



(Oh and just for Lita and Debbie, I made the countdown a bit smaller and moved it away from the middle of the page. I had to ... it clashed with the lovely new header!)

The end is near!

No, not "the end of the world as we know it" (REM anyone?) .. just the end of this very long week.

Long for all the reasons listed in my previous posts. (Five boys. Count them with me: one, two, three, four, five boys! I honestly don't know how anyone with more than three boys survives daily life.)

Long because of the children being awake at 9:30pm and wanting to play because it's still light outside. (Have I mentioned how much I hate daylight savings?)

Long for all the days of dealing with the "same old, same old" at work. (Not even going there because I'm sure blogger has a limit on how many times the words moron, cretin, imbecile and plain old dumbass can be used in a single post. If they don't, they should, just for people like me dealing with people like 'them'!)

Long because of all the people asking me "is it too late to pay you for the Christmas party?". ("Um, yeah. The last day was last Friday. I can see how you may have missed the bright red sign with font size 60 stating the date of last Friday as the last possible date for payment. You didn't see it? That's odd because it's stuck to the side of the sign in clock .. you know, the one where you clock in and out every shift.")

Long due to the waiting for said Christmas party. (Roll on Saturday night .. woohoo!!)

Thank goodness the end is near! I don't think I could have survived another day ..... without being carted off to a mental asylum anyway!

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In all seriousness though, this week hasn't been too bad with the kids. It is certainly different having an extra couple of bodies in the house .. ones that aren't related to me in any way, shape or form. I'm fairly sure the novelty has worn off for both lots of kids judging by the number of niggling arguments and fights in the last couple of days. Just a wild guess, but I think the visitors will be glad to get home into their own space and my boys will be glad to go back to the usual two on one fights, instead of the four on one fights of this afternoon. No-one ended up with broken bones or is missing any body parts so I think we can call my foray into home long (there's that word again!) daycare a success.

Work, on the other hand, could not be called a success this week. I was 'this' close to telling them all where to stick their attitudes and guess what people, the sun doesn't shine there! Each of the three main offenders could have been handled on their own but putting them all together is a recipe for disaster. Each of them excels at delegating their jobs to other people and then claiming the credit. Of course the flip side is that they are also experts at shifting blame for the things not done. I'd finally had enough and starting saying no and meaning it (apparently that makes all the difference!) and they all got a very rude shock when I walked out on time today having finished my job and none of theirs. I'll probably pay for it next week but right now, I don't care .. insert childish singsong voice here .. na-na-nana-na!

Good news time: Alex got an award at the school assembly this morning. He's in the top 0.5% of students in the whole of Australia for his year level in Chemistry and the award was presented by the head of the WA branch of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. Well done Alex!! He asked me to come to the assembly as he walked out the door this morning and wasn't very happy with me when I said I didn't know if I could but I would try. (just love that 20 minutes notice thing!) I managed to make it, and get photographic evidence to prove I was there because he didn't believe I had made it. I was so glad I made the effort because he was so pleased with me for being there even if he didn't see me. I love making my kids happy with me!

Still on Alex, we saw the psychologist on Wednesday morning and she has basically said the problem isn't him, it's the bullying tactics of the other students. He is reacting in the only way he knows how and then being penalised for it. We are going to continue to see her for some other issues related to things at home, but she has said the school needs to do more to support and help Alex and less 'trying to shift the focus away from the fact that bullying still happens in their school.' I spoke to the deputy principal today and while she seemed a bit put-out by the psychologist's opinion, she is still wanting to put more people and procedures in place to support Alex next year. Hopefully it will make a positive difference for Alex and those around him. (Kind of pointless for the rest of this year, because he's only got 3 days left!)

So now I just have to:

• get through tomorrow morning with all five boys,
• pack up two boys to go back to their auntie's house for the night tomorrow night,
• finish their washing so they can pack to go back to their auntie's house,
• pack up the other three to go to Nonnie's for the night,
• find something that's comfortable and looks good to wear for tomorrow night (which will involve shopping, trying on everything in sight, getting frustrated when nothing looks even halfway decent, pulling out my hair and then stressing about how to fix my hair to cover the bald spots),
• make the house look semi-presentable again,
• food shopping (or there'll be nothing to eat on Sunday .. minor technicality as I'll probably be sleeping anyway!)
• catch up on some sleep tonight so I don't fall asleep after dinner tomorrow night,
• drop the kids at Nonnie's,
• be at Mina's house to pick her up by 6pm,
• be in Northbridge by 6:45pm to secure a good table away from all the morons, cretins and imbeciles that insisted on coming to the Christmas party, and
• stay awake after 9pm so I can actually enjoy a night out without the kids or the hubby!

A girl has to have dreams .. may as well dream big!!

Positivity

In direct contrast to my last post, I have decided to talk about positivity (which probably isn't even a word but I am fine with that!) Here's some of the good things that have happened or been overheard recently:

• I've changed the header picture to something a bit more upbeat .. tulips in springtime. It was taken at Araluen Botanic Park in September of this year on our yearly visit.
• When hanging out the washing today, I overheard the neighbours having a sing-along to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. They were half-sozzled and getting all the words wrong and it made me laugh so hard, I had to take a potty break!
• I got to catch up with Debbie this morning as well as yesterday afternoon and have a good chat. So good to be able to just talk and enjoy her company.
• Andrew got to have a sleepover at Debbie's last night so I took the other two to McDonald's for a breakfast treat. I even let them have an ice cream for morning tea .... sssh don't tell anyone!!
• I had a wonderful chat with Jackie last Wednesday and am hoping to see her again this week. It's amazing how we can go so long between seeing each other and yet pick up where we left off. I'm so grateful to have her in my life even if I don't get to see her as often as I'd like.
• I managed to scrap a page today! Nothing spectacular but I did it start to finish and even did the journalling, which is a big deal for me. That's always an "I'll do it tomorrow" job but this time I did it today! Yay me!!
• I heard a thump from the bathroom and called out to Brad asking if he was ok. His response was "It hurts but I'll be ok. You get used to pain, living with Alex." Made me laugh! Ah, realism hurts but is funny too.

All little things when looked at on their own, but good things nonetheless. Hope your weekend was good too!

Random stuff ...

• I managed to achieve some of the things from the list in the previous post. Numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 12 and 13 all got done or are almost finished. I know, I know .. don't count your chickens before they hatch .. but they are this close (insert finger and thumb placed about 1/2 cm apart) to being done.
• I really enjoyed number 12 (which for those who haven't read the previous post .. tsk, tsk .. was Debbie's visit). We both tried to do something creative, me with my albums and she with her cards, but we just weren't channelling very much mojo so we gave up and had cuppas and brownies (number 5 completed!) instead.
• Bradley was explaining some very in depth specifications on his Mechquest warrior and at the end, after understanding absolutely none of what he had just said, I said "whatever floats your boat darling." His instant reply was "not concrete; that just makes it sink."
• Andrew and I were having a (pretend) war of words when he said something rather cheeky. So I told him he was a cheeky little boy to which he replied "I can't help it. You made me with four cheeks. That's what makes me cheeky!"
• I'm trying to decide whether to look for another job as I'm really unhappy where I am. I like the job and most of the people but the change in management has really affected morale and everyone is just miserable all the time. I realise there's politics in every workplace and that some people will just never get along with others, but surely not every workplace is this bad. Then again, maybe it's just another stage .. a "this too will pass" situation. Here's hoping!
• I managed to start a layout about Brad losing his first tooth (four years ago!) so hopefully I will be sufficiently motivated to finish it tonight.
• Andrew and Brad both love reading the "i can has cheezburger" site. The study has been ringing with the sound of their laughter for the last 20 minutes. Such a glorious noise!
• All in all, a pretty good day. Oh and the brownies were really yummy! They'll be even better heated up with some ice cream for dessert. They were supposed to be for snacks during the week but they're nearly all gone already. Oh well, I can always make another batch when the kids have gone to bed .. and tomorrow morning .. and tomorrow afternoon ..

Things to do ..

..hopefully today. The joys of a long weekend!!

1. Get rid of headache
2. Find material and zips for Alex to make himself a new pencil case
3. Get Alex started on making pencil case (so he'll leave his brothers alone!)
4. Washing, washing and more washing
5. Bake some goodies to tide the kids over during the first week of the holidays
6. Help the kids start (and hopefully finish) the mini album for Pete
7. Hang new curtains in my room
8. Help Andrew finish sorting out his room (I'm sure a paper bomb exploded in there!)
9. Pay bills
10. Vacuum games room .. again. (I hate dark carpet .. it shows every speck of dust!)
11. Water potted plants
12. Enjoy visit from Debbie
13. Scrap .. if I have time!

I thought that if I wrote at least some of them down, I might have a chance of completing a few! Numbers 1, 5, 12 and 13 are taking priority right now so I'd better get started.

Random stuff ...

• I've been back at work for 2 weeks and four days and it feels like I haven't had a holiday in years!
• We have a new manager at work who is driving everyone crazy and not in a good way. He managed to last all of 3 hours on his first day at our store before he had to "go and sit down somewhere quiet with a cup of coffee" for two hours!! And he talks so much about absolutely nothing, the other office girls and I have resorted to asking him if he wants syrup to go with his waffle. I think he still doesn't get it because he just smiles and nods!
• Had parent-teacher interviews for Alex on Tuesday night. What a surprise .. he hasn't been doing his homework (can you see the sarcasm dripping??) I resisted the urge to say that it was because I didn't have the patience to stand over him with a big stick for the entire time he wasn't actually at school to try and make him finish it. Instead I said something along the lines of "I've finished high school and I passed. I don't need to do it again. It's his turn to step up and take responsibility for his own actions or lack thereof." (Doesn't that sound soooo much better??) Now I'm just in the running for the "Neglectful Mother of the Year" award. Yay, something else to dust!!
• Andrew is going through an 'overly emotional' stage (who needs a teenage girl for mood swings?) That usually means he's about to grow so maybe he'll finally grow out of the uniform shirts he's been wearing for the last three years. Poor kid is hanging out for the day he reaches my chin. Not quite sure why .. it's nothing spectacular to look at!
• I have finally managed to catch up with Jackie for a coffee. It's been so long since we sat and had a counselling session .. oops, I mean chat .. but we just picked up where we left off last time. Either we both need to get new, more interesting lives or rejoice in the fact that our friendship can survive, even when we ourselves are floundering. Thanks Jack .. love ya!
• My littlest darling is being rather forceful in expressing his opinion at the moment. I have had to remind him several times that this house is not a democracy; it's a benevolent dictatorship and that the level of benevolence can change very quickly when the dictator is pushed too far. He now understands what "going Amish" means in practical terms!
• Last Monday was the 8th anniversary of Dad's death. Mum wanted us to all be together so we had dinner at her house, then watched a very old video (1985) of our holiday in New Zealand. Bradley was fascinated by the footage of Dad and Andrew was happy to hear his voice again. They all asked why he was speaking 'funny' though! (Dad's from Liverpool, England and had quite a broad accent at times)
• I had some money left out of my and Peter's tax returns after paying the council rates and water rates bills ($2200!) so I splurged and bought myself a pair of new earrings. I figured I could always pawn them if I needed to. (Just kidding!!)
• Scrapping has taken a back seat to reading at the moment. Trashy romance novels are the theme of the week so far because escapism is a wonderful thing! I'm still trying to find the rest of the Stephanie Plum series at the library so I might just have to give up and buy them instead.
• Only have to put on one more load of washing, start the dishwasher, fold the washing on the table ready for tomorrow, clean up the kitchen, take the garbage out and turn out all the lights the kids have left on and then I can go to bed. Night all!

I'm surviving .. just!

Having this many boys in the house is actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

The two older ones have tried giving me attitude a couple of times, especially Alex, but I think I've pretty effectively squashed the attempted uprising, at least until they gather their minions and form the army they're always talking about.

The two middle ones are quiet most of the time, unless they're refusing to be the minions of the older two, in which case they're very loud indeed!

The younger one is happily tagging along behind the two middle ones and is trying to recruit them to be his minions instead. They, bless their little cotton socks, are loudly resisting him as well.

If I could just have the two middle ones, things would be right with the world!

The next couple of days ...

should be interesting. I have five boys in the house at the moment, which may not seem like a lot to some, but it's most definitely a lot for me! Add in the fact that 3 of them are on the autism spectrum and it just gets better. Two attitude-filled-almost-thirteen-year-olds, two slightly quieter but just as sassy eleven-year-olds and my rather loud and unco-operative (at the moment) nine-year-old. Paradise!

A friend has had a death in the family on the other side of Australia and asked if I could look after her two boys so she could go to the funeral. Flights to the Eastern states being what they are (that is, unavailable at short notice unless you leave and arrive at dark o'clock .. aka midnight), she was planning to drop them off on her way to the airport at 10:30pm and pick them up on her way home from the airport at roughly the same time.

In a moment of inspired madness, I talked her into dropping them off at dinnertime tonight and picking them up from school as usual on Wednesday, so that I didn't have to wait up for them. (I like my sleep but I'm sure we've covered that numerous times before.) Judging by the noise level now roaring through the house, it wasn't one of my better ideas, but I seem to remember that they sleep well, when they actually go to sleep, so there's hope yet!

The noise seems mostly to be about the Wii. Four remotes and five children is never a recipe for peace especially when they're all boys, but they seem to have reached a compromise with a two player game that they are all taking turns with. It's really quite enlightening listening to all the instructions being thrown around and yet, none of them seem capable of following their own instructions. I hope the games consoles (and my eardrums) survive the onslaught!

In all seriousness though, they're all good kids (most of the time .. no-one's perfect!) and it shouldn't be too bad. As I said to their mother, "I'll get them back to you in one piece physically. You can send me the bill for the therapy later!"

I'm off to try and send them all to bed and to find the bottle of port from Margaret River. I have a sneaking suspicion I'm going to need it by 9pm.