Catching up

Happy New Year. - All you bloggers have been blogging heaps over the holidays. I have been so slack. Actually this post started as a draft on Christmas Day, it just didn't get finished.

I have just got back from my first client training session of the year, I had 2 weeks off. The kids are still in bed so I thought I should catch up.

Christmas Day - Our day started briefly at 1.30am when our youngest got up sick. This was not unexpected as the other 2 had been sick the 2 previous days. Luckily some panadol got her back off to sleep until about 6.20am when she got up, closely followed by the other 2.

It was such a lovely day, the kids are all at an age to enjoy it fully. We started with opening presents while munching strawberries - no breakfast champagne this year. Then called our relatives in the UK. It was still Christmas Eve there and they still had Christmas Day to look forward to - Obviously!!

The kids got heaps, they were totally spoiled, but they are good kids (mostly) and they deserve it.

After Christmas we headed up to Port Stephens for a week and had a great time doing nothing except, sitting on a beach, cooling off in the water, eating (moderately) and drinking (not so moderately) and catching up with friends.

I am still trying to get on top of the laundry. I took too many clothes for me and the kids and for some reason, even though we didn't wear most, I still have to wash them all. Is anyone else like that. And don't get me started on ironing....

I hope you all have a fantastic 2008, keep working towards your goals it will be worth it.

Happy and sad news - both made me cry

I must admit that it doesn't actually take very much to make me cry.

Last week a close friend of ours went into hospital for a (fairly) routine operation. We obviously sent our best wishes and expected to see him back at home the following day. However the operation had complications and he is not too good at the moment. His brain is swollen and as you can imagine he is not himself. This is not good news for anyone at anytime but the week before Christmas and with 3 young children this has hit all of us, not least his family hard.

We wish him and his family well and hope for a speedy recovery.

The second news is much happier. A friend of ours has just had twin baby girls. These were/are very good friends of ours from England. Our keeping in touch has not been the best this year and we didn't even know they were expecting. I am so happy for them, they have a 2 year old boy and now 2 girls. I know the pregnancy was difficult so hope that the babies are kind to them now.

So the happy and sad elements of life.

Too many lollies

With almost certainty my son throws up from too many lollies and juice and excitement on Christmas Eve, he has done it every year since he was 2. It happens at various different times during the evening. The worst time being just after we have gone to bed and after Santa has been.

I try and tell him not to eat too much junk, even church has been guilty of providing such food.

This year it happened early. Last Friday night, again he got a lolly bag at Little Athletics, got very excited at having a bag of lollies all to himself and ate them all, then a few hours later, just as I was going to sleep, it happened.

He may have learned his lesson this time. He got a gift of 6 chocolate bars from a friend at school and out of kindness and fear of being sick, he shared all but one with other friends and the one he kept for himself he shared with his sisters.

You never know, I may get a Christmas Eve off from cleaning and I can't say I am looking forward to him experimenting with alcohol later.

Christmas Party

Last Saturday, we went to my husbands works Christmas Party. We were very dubious about it before we got there, but really could not have imagined the course the evening took.

The band was awful (I'm not going to say who it was because my intention is not to offend people) they were the wrong side of oh at least 65 and they dressed up as different acts, being , Elvis, Roy Orbison, Dusty Springfield. They were not my cup of tea at all. I was very relieved at the interval and was looking forward to catching up with some people I had not seen since the last party. But......... the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate. I filled my wine glass up and off I went with many others to the car park.

An hour and 3 fire engines later, we still could not go back in. People were starting to get a little aggro (not necessarily from our party but generally, it was a big venue) because by now the drinks they had brought down with them had gone and the free drinks were inside, and we were in a car park. It also didn't look like we were going back inside anytime soon.

Jon and I don't go out together often and decided that spending anymore time (what took us so long) in a car park was not a wise use of our time and babysitter so off we went to another bar. We only had one drink and then went home. Never mind, if we are lucky there is always next year.

Deep voice

My youngest daughter aged 2, has and always has had a very deep and unusual voice. We just thought it was a quirk about her that we loved. However as she became more vocal, more and more people commented on it and asked us if she was sick or had a sore throat. After a while, these comments got me thinking and I took her to the doctor, really for her to say I was being silly and nothing to worry about. But she didn't, she took the safe road and said that it wouldn't hurt for a specialist to look at her.

That is where we went today. The specialist said that yes, she has a very deep and unusual voice but that there were no other problems to suggest that there was a problem. If I wished, I could have her vocal cords looked at to be 100% sure but that would mean she had a general anesthetic. No thank you - not unless I really need to.

She did suggest we see a speech therapist, just to monitor her voice and get her opinion over a period of time. So - all happy, she is just quirky.

Chocolate Advent Calenders

Do you remember when you were a kid and you got a chocolate filled advent calender. How long was it before you ate all the chocolates? Or did you wait and have only one a day? me I used to have today's and a bite of tomorrow's. Back then there was always 25 little windows so I figured I would get plenty on Christmas Day that I didn't need that 1/2 of one.

This year my daughters lasted to the 10th. Today we woke to scenes of devastation as the realisation hit that eating all the remaining chocolates yesterday might not have been a good idea.

Tonight I am off to bare foot lawn bowls with the girls from playgroup. I have been offered a lift so I can have a drink and I merrily accepted. I have just remembered though that I have a 6am client who lives 25minutes from here so an early start. Not sure about the lift now - don't want to have to stay late - but then again - it is Christmas.

Sad day for my veggie garden

Today is a sad day for my veggie garden.

On Saturday I picked and enjoyed my first home grown veggies - snow peas - really yummy and the kids loved them too.

Yesterday a huge hail storm swept through our garden and has totally trashed the veggie garden. All the tomatoes are squished as are the snow peas. The zucchini plants are no more. I'm not sure if anything at this stage can be salvaged.

Our brand new pergola even suffered minor damage.

Luckily both Jon and I were not home so our cars escaped the residual pockmarks.

Lazy days

Did I just was a whole Saturday or did I spend valuable time relaxing, chilling and recharging?

Predictable

Whilst my children surprise me daily with their actions, activities and knowledge, they are also very predictable. We went out as a family yesterday to the first Children's Christmas Party of the year.

They had a fantastic time and loved everything. On the way home in the car, I asked each of them what their favourite part of the day was.

My youngest loved the jumping castles and slides the most, and given that at 6 months old we knew she had a destiny to be a base jumper, her answer was very predictable.

My eldest child is saving hard at the moment for a PS2, I know he will never buy one though because he can't bring himself to spend any of his pocket money, he just likes to see the $$$ grow. His answer was therefore very predictable - all the free stuff, slushies and rides. He didn't figure that we actually had to pay (albeit a small amount) for the tickets.

My middle child has a passion for nature, flowers, animals, insects, our veggie garden etc. I knew then that her favourite part would be the snakes and crocodiles, she held various species and her face was a picture.

I love my kids so much and we had a really lovely day with them. My son even looked out for his sisters instead of arguing and fighting with them. I was very proud of him.