Bubbles

Smiley in hospital at 8.00am after waiting in emergency from 7.30pm to 5.00am to see a doctor and 2.5hrs sleep.




Me at 8.00am after waiting in emergency from 7.30pm to 5.00am with Smiley and no sleep.



I shall say no more.

Wow it's been a busy busy couple of months.

Business has increased and end of financial year was just crazy. I count my blessings everyday that I work with such great likeminded people. We all just knuckled down and got the job done over a few late nights. There is still a fair bit to do before compliance and audit but the majority is sorted.

On the home front we've celebrated smiley's 3rd birthday, Sunny's 6th birthday and my 39th birthday all in the same week. Thrown a kiddy disco, discovered a rat died in a wall cavity, shuttled kids to and from ballet school for the holiday course, attended a really cool "Tudors" get together and generally tried to keep the household ticking over.

Laundry and housework have been a big challenge. The weather has been crappy and I'm having to dry it all inside using my washing frame, not to mention the dead rat pong in the lounge at the front of the house!

As luck would have it the rat pong is finally fading and even though it's still raining and I had to tell a client to find another agency, it looks like it is going to be a good week.

1. Your Middle Name:
2. Age:
3. Single or Taken:
4. Favorite Movie:
5. Favorite Song or Album:
6. Favorite Band/Artist:
7. Dirty or Clean:
8. Tattoos and/or Piercings:
9. Do we know each other outside of LJ?
10. What's your philosophy on life?
11. Is the bottle half-full or half-empty?
12. Would you keep a secret from me if you thought it was in my best interest?
13. What is your favorite memory of us?
14. What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
15. Tell me one odd/interesting fact about you:
16. You can have three wishes (for yourself, so forget all the 'world peace etc' malarky) - what are they?
17. Can we get together and make a cake?
18. Which country is your spiritual home?
19. What is your big weakness?
20. Do you think I'm a good person?
21. What was your best/favorite subject at school?
22. Describe your accent
23. If you could change anything about me, would you?
24. What do you wear to sleep?
25. Trousers or skirts?
26. Cigarettes or alcohol?
27. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together? (If you have no idea, just say something crazy, it'll entertain me!)
28. Will you repost this so i can fill it out for you?

This is a picture of the autumn veggie patch so far. Frames are up and the broccoli, cauliflower, basil, parsley, chives, tomatos, marigolds, leeks, and alyssum seedlings are in. I've also sown the seeds for the spring onions, brown onions, carrots galore, Zucchini, parsnips, swedes, coriander, snapdragons and beans. In the other patch which you can't see is last seasons eggplant, capsicums, spinach and peas.

There's alot of self seeded buttercrunch lettuce, chervil, basil, marigolds, cherry tomatos, parsley and goodness knows what else popping up. Guess I'll have to wait for them to grow a bit more before deciding on who stays and who goes.

Sunny and Smiley are delighted. They help out with snail patrol and weed plucking. It's lovely to hear them chatter about the different plants, what they will produce and how to tell when they are ready to eat. I'm so proud of them.

It's been lovely the last two evenings. I'm determined to bring some order back to our sunburnt garden even if it's only half an hour each day.

Sunny and Smiley have been helping out with the watering and weeding whilst I try to neaten the lawn edges and garden beds.

Won't be long till it's time to plant the autumn vegetables and I'm so looking forward to trying out the new bean netting when it arrives. This year I'm going for broke and planting intensively. The plan is to have more than we need and actually try my hand at preserving. Should prove to be interesting.

Christmas was so great and I'm so excited for this new year to unfold. I don't care what anyone else says, this is going to be a great year. I feel it in my bones.

Sunny and Smiley have discovered ABBA in a big way and my wonderful friend Mon has organised a Mamma Mia night. Sunny is so thrilled she's been counting down the sleeps with Smiley reminding her all the way that she too is attending It should be a great night. Hubby will be escaping down the pub with Mon's hubby to play pool. Poor fellas. They simply can't cope with too much estrogen in the air.

Lucy's runny tummy is finally under control. Just as well because I think Hubby was close to the edge with all the doggie mess. Shame, she simply couldn't help it. Hubby stayed strong until day 3 and then I thought he was going to crack it if there was another night of Lucy watch. She seems okay now. Boiled rice and meat for a few days methinks.

Forecast is for 41C this weekend. HOT! My lily white skin is going to frazzle. No way we are going out in that. Hubby is burnt already from painting the eves this week. We shall have to become night owls for a few days.

I'm addicted. Couldn't help myself.

It was like the beating of a drum that called to my soul. I felt myself drawn to the fridge as if there was an invisible cord pulling me closer and closer. Day old trifle. Does it to me every time. Delicious.

Now of course I am suffering from trifle overload. I'm going to swear not to do it again with absolutely no conviction whatsoever.

So I'm sitting here feeling very bloated and with my sore fingers throbbing from yesterdays dramatic candle burn.

One of our lovely swedish candle holders decided to set itself on fire and collapse in my hand when I tried to attend to it quick smart. T'was all very dramatic. Thank goodness for Germolene. Ointment of the gods. Sunny was my doctor applying the ointment very seriously and advising me to stay brave. "Just pretend I'm a doctor mummy" she said "I'm a nice doctor and you are in my office". "yes" said Smiley holding my other hand. "She won't jab you. Be brave".

It has made me think about two things. One, how strong my motherly instinct is. I managed to shield Smiley from the splashing hot candle wax and made hubby check both Smiley and Sunny were okay before coming to my aid. Not to mention pretend I was okay when all I wanted to do was faint. Two, how brave burn victims truly are. They deserve a hell of alot of respect from the rest of us. Somehow I think I won't complain too much about my trifle bloat and germolene laiden fingers.

Smiley all of 2 years old advised me "mummy you really shouldn't play with candles. Flames are not toys". "No" I said "I shall have to remember that".

I have a fluttery feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I'm dicing with danger tonight.

Got home from dinner this evening and quickly got the girls ready for bed. In all the rush Smiley has gone to bed minus a pull-up. Eek! By the time I remembered she was fast asleep and I don't want to wake her to put one on.

The rational side of me tells me that all will be well. After all Smiley has been dry off and on for a while now and her pull-up has not been wet once this week so far. Not to mention I've already put a waterproof mattress protector on her bed.

The paranoid side of me tells me that I haven't prepared for this. If Smiley does wet she will not be terribly happy and maybe I should have bolstered her up a bit first. Smiley is so much like Sunny in the sense that she takes things much better if she knows in advance what to expect. Bless her. I don't think I'll sleep a wink tonight for worrying about it.

It's been such a busy day today.

Sunny had her graduation concert which was fantastic. Her whole class sang a few songs and then showed a movie they had prepared about their year in kindy. It was brilliant. All the kids are so gorgeous and Miss D had a few tears in her eyes when she told us how wonderful the year had been. Then the headmaster presented each student with a graduation hat and certificate. Sunny was absolutely thrilled to bits. Not only is she a pre-primary now but santa had visited the school this morning and dropped her off a present!

"I told Santa he had forgotten to put his magic watch on" she told me "I think the elves must not have remembered". "Oh dear" was my response. "Yes" she said "but Santa was very good about it. He said golly gosh". I'm not sure why but this response seems to have pleased Sunny immensely.

Smiley wasn't too impressed to hear that Santa had visited big school. After all she is his bestest friend. She wanted to see him today as well. He is going to give her a lolly pop you know. Now last year when we visited Santa, Smiley was 18 months old and he gave her a little bag with a lolly pop in it. It blows me away that she remembers this so vividly. She's so clever.

So not wanting to disappoint, hubby and I took the girls down to Maddington to visit the Santa there and have dinner. Well, what would you know! As soon as we walked into the shopping centre there was Santa sitting on a bench just outside the christmas decoration shop. Smiley was stunned to silence. Sunny kindly offered to hold hands and to go with her to speak to Santa. Without hesitation Smiley agreed and they quickly raced off to where he was. As soon as he spotted them he opened his sack, greeted them and asked if they would like a peppermint stick. Smiley took hers and nearly fell over Sunny in her haste to rush back to the safety of Hubby and I. It was so sweet. Like meeting your idol and finding yourself so stunned you just want to run away and hide.

Later as we were leaving, Smiley called out to Santa as she sat on Hubby's shoulders "Santa, Santa, Santa". Even though he was sitting on the bench handing out sweets to other children, he still took the time to look up and wave back to her. After that Smiley might have been sitting on daddy's shoulders but inside she was sitting on cloud nine.

It's this sort of moment you remember for the rest of your life.

It's been attack of the rampaging hoards today!A few days of cold rainy weather and the snails have ventured out in force and eaten a squash sprout and my one and only japanese cucumber seedling. Rotters!

I don't know what made me do it but I decided to suss out if anymore seedlings had made an appearance this evening and literally witnessed a tidal wave of snails marching towards all the newly sprouted seedlings. It was like battle of the titans as Sunny and Smiley raced for an empty flower pot to catch as many of them as we could. Where were the devils hiding I ask myself? Here was I thinking that our late night snail hunt on the weekend had lessened the population. Stupid Stupid me.

I'm so annoyed the Japanese cucumber bit the dust. It took 2 weeks for that baby to pop out and 24hrs to get chomped. I don't have much time left to get a seedling established and mulched before we are hit with the summer heat. The pressure is on folks. I can see I'm going to have to up the bounty on snail corpses!

Other than that I'm feeling less in the grip of the lurgy. My coughing has finally abated and I'm less dizzy with the freaky inner ear infection. All I need to do now is hack up the ton of phlegm I've collected and all will be well.

The Americans have a new president today. Mr Obama. He seems like a fairly sensible fellow which can only be a good thing. Of course our Rudd was quick to spout his piece on national tele. I wish that man would get over his own vanity. There is something about him that gives me the creeps. He talks too much.

I went to the doctors this afternoon with smiley. Primarily to get smiley's chest checked now she's had the last of her antibotics and then to get myself looked at.

It's been over a week and this cold seem to be getting worse. I'm coughing up a storm now and experiencing strange dizzy wierdness for no reason.

Well wouldn't you know it. A quick eye test and I'm told it's an inner ear infection. Now you could have blown me down with a feather, I always thought that ear infections meant pain. Not so, I'm told. Apparently you can have an inner ear infection and not feel a thing. Rather it puts your balance out of wack. It's all very mysterious.

Oh and I have a virus that's probably going to keep me coughing for another 5 weeks. Lovely!!

Thank goodness for usana. I'm sure it's got something to do with my lack of symptoms.

I'm all pooped out today. It's been a busy weekend.

I swear I am not touching another drop of wine for a while. I enjoyed the BBQ yesterday with Lance and Nancy but it definately wiped me out. Especially since I can't sleep-in with my 2 early birds wanting a chat and a cuddle. Luckily there was no hangover. I'd have been dead meat if that had appeared.

The days of the unadulterated sleep-in are over. Those were the days and I really enjoyed them. Perhaps not enough now that they are gone. Yes I still get to sleep-in a few hours on the weekend but it's not quite the same when the early birds wake you and you have to make sure hubby is up to handling the chatter before you can go back to sleep. Ah the joys of motherhood.

I managed to squeeze out a chicken pie with roast potatoes for sunday dinner. It was good and the girls helped by cutting pastry shapes to decorate the pie top with. Sunny's side was teddybears whilst Smiley did stars for hers. T'was a beautiful job. Yummy too. There's also enough leftover for my lunch tomorrow!

I've tried to watch the new St Trinians movie 3 times this weekend and fallen asleep each time. Granted sunday morning was not a serious effort but wondering if this does not bode well for the movie in general. The last movie that had this kind of effect on me was Ocean's Eleven and that's all I'm saying about that. Perhaps I will try again in a while. I'm nothing if not persistent.

If you're on my friends list, I'd like to know 35 things about you. I don't care if we've never met or never talked. You can copy and paste this and then fill it out and post this as a comment.

1. Are you currently in a serious relationship?
2. What was your dream growing up?
3. What talent do you wish you had?
4. If I bought you a drink what would it be?
5. Favorite vegetable?
6. What was the last book you read?
7. What zodiac sign are you?
8. Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
9. Worst Habit?
10. If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
11. What is your favorite sport?
12. Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?
13. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
14. Worst thing to ever happen to you?
15. Tell me one weird fact about you.
16. Do you have any pets?
17. What if i showed up at your house unexpectedly?
18. What was your first impression of me?
19. Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
20. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
21. Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
22. What color eyes do you have?
23. Ever been arrested?
24. Bottle or can soda?
25. If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
27. What's your favorite place to hang at?
28. Do you believe in ghosts?
29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
30. Do you swear a lot?
31. Biggest pet peeve?
32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?
33. Do you believe/appreciate romance?
34. Do you believe in God?
35. Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?

It's going to be an early night tonight. I'm knackered.

Sunny and Smiley have woken me up early every morning this week with a huggle-fest and I'm on my last legs. It's at times like these when I curse my husband's earlybird genes!

It's been a bit of a struggle balancing the chores I need to do whilst still giving my babies the attention they need.

I managed to get a large majority of the vegie patch weeding done whilst fending off the attentions of Sunny and Smiley. I love my girls with every breath of my being but there are some things I just want to do by myself. A little bit of time was scored when they decided to raid the snow peas for 15 minutes. Gotta love those snow peas. They can take a bashing from my two and still pump out the goods.

It's such a pleasure to eat fresh vegies from the garden each night. I love planning a meal to include what is available that day. At the moment it's mainly Pak Choy, Beans and Snow peas with a bit of spinach here and there. Hopefully it won't be long before the broccoli and other brassicas get going. Did I mention how much I love my garden?????

Okay so I haven't written in ages.

Life is pretty full and to be honest when I have five minutes of peace I'd much rather catch up on my reading list. There is a stack of books haunting my side table that I still haven't managed to open.

Summer will be here before we know it. This week has given us a hint of the days to come and by all accounts it's going to be a hot one.

There is so much on my to-do list I'm just taking it one step at a time. Rome wasn't built in a day type thing.

This is the greatest time of the night. Both the girls are in bed snoozing away. Hubby is tippy tapping in seventh heaven on his new laptop and I get to relax.

So far I've managed some supremely yummy nibbles, glass of wine, magazine or two and now I'm updating my blogs whilst downloading some photos off our digital camera. Sheer bliss.

Birthday Calculator
Your date of conception was on or about 14 October 1969 which was a Tuesday.

You were born on a Tuesday
under the astrological sign Cancer.
Your Life path number is 4.

Life Path Compatibility:
You are most compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 2, 4, 8, 11 & 22.
You should get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 6 & 7.
You are least compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 1, 3, 5 & 9.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2440774.5.
The golden number for 1970 is 14.
The epact number for 1970 is 22.
The year 1970 was not a leap year.

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 2/6/1970 and ending 1/26/1971.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Dog.

Your Native American Zodiac sign is Woodpecker; your plant is Wild Rose.

You were born in the Egyptian month of Paopy, the second month of the season of Poret (Emergence - Fertile soil).

Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 3 Tammuz 5730.
Or if you were born after sundown then the date is 4 Tammuz 5730.

The Mayan Calendar long count date of your birthday is 12.17.16.16.10 which is
12 baktun 17 katun 16 tun 16 uinal 10 kin

The Hijra (Islamic Calendar) date of your birth is Tuesday, 3 Jumadiyu'l-Avval 1390 (1390-5-3).

The date of Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 29 March 1970.
The date of Orthodox Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 26 April 1970.
The date of Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) on your birth year was Wednesday 11 February 1970.
The date of Whitsun (Pentecost Sunday) in the year of your birth was Sunday 17 May 1970.
The date of Whisuntide in the year of your birth was Sunday 24 May 1970.
The date of Rosh Hashanah in the year of your birth was Thursday, 1 October 1970.
The date of Passover in the year of your birth was Tuesday, 21 April 1970.
The date of Mardi Gras on your birth year was Tuesday 10 February 1970.

As of 1/28/2007 7:30:36 AM EST
You are 36 years old.
You are 438 months old.
You are 1,908 weeks old.
You are 13,354 days old.
You are 320,503 hours old.
You are 19,230,210 minutes old.
You are 1,153,812,636 seconds old.

Celebrities who share your birthday:
Michelle Kwan (1980) Cree Summer (1969) Shelley Duvall (1949)
Ringo Starr (1940) Doc Severinsen (1927) Pierre Cardin (1922)
Robert Heinlein (1907)

Top songs of 1970
Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel I'll Be There by Jackson Five
Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head by B.J. Thomas Close to You by Carpenters
My Sweet Lord by George Harrison I Think I Love You by Partridge Family
Ain't No Mountain High Enough by Diana Ross American Woman by Guess Who
War by Edwin Starr Let It Be by Beatles

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 5.226614481409 years old. (You're still chasing cats!)



There are 160 days till your next birthday
on which your cake will have 37 candles.

Those 37 candles produce 37 BTUs,
or 9,324 calories of heat (that's only 9.3240 food Calories!) .
You can boil 4.23 US ounces of water with that many candles.


In 1970 there were approximately 3.7 million births in the US.
In 1970 the US population was approximately 203,302,031 people, 57.4 persons per square mile.
In 1970 in the US there were approximately 2,158,802 marriages (10.6%) and 708,000 divorces (3.5%)
In 1970 in the US there were approximately 1,921,000 deaths (9.5 per 1000)
In the US a new person is born approximately every 8 seconds.
In the US one person dies approximately every 12 seconds.

In 1970 the population of Australia was approximately 12,663,469.
In 1970 there were approximately 257,516 births in Australia.
In 1970 in Australia there were approximately 116,066 marriages and 12,198 divorces.
In 1970 in Australia there were approximately 113,048 deaths.


Your birthstone is Ruby

The Mystical properties of Ruby

Ruby is said to open one's heart to love.
Some lists consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources)

Carnelian

Your birth tree is

Fir Tree, the Mysterious
Extraordinary taste, dignity, cultivated airs, loves anything beautiful, moody, stubborn, tends to egoism but cares for those close to it,rather modest, very ambitious, talented, industrious uncontent lover, many friends, many foes, very reliable.



There are 331 days till Christmas 2007!
There are 344 days till Orthodox Christmas!

The moon's phase on the day you were
born was waxing crescent.

V cool site... http://www.paulsadowski.org/BirthDay.asp

What a blast the day has been.

We were up at the crack of dawn this morning, fed the kids, jumped in the car and met up with mum and dad at the City Council Australia Day Breakfast.

The place was packed by 8.30am and after waiting in line for the petting zoo and face painting, we opted out of waiting in the brekky queue-a-thon and took off to Mcdonalds around 10.00am.

Realistically we couldn't have stayed there much longer. Although it was windy it was hotting up for a scorcher of a day already. It's almost 11pm now and it's still 35C. Yesterday it hit 49C.

We hung around mum and dad's place for a short while before heading home so the kids could take a nap before jumping off in the car again for a pool party at Linda and Rob's place.

Sunny jumped in the pool with her pals and had a absolute ball. I paddled at the edge with Smiley at first and then Linda popped her in a baby float so she could giggle closer to her sister near the deep end.

It's at times like these that I wish I could swim. It's strange. I have no fear of being in a swimming pool but I just have a total mental block when it comes to learning to swim. This all boils down to getting a fright when I was small and my parents not realising how badly it shook my world. Now the adult me just has a block about the mechanics of swimming. I seriously have no idea how and zero confidence in my ability to be able to. Weird I know. Maybe I'll be like my aunty Clair and learn to swim in my forties. We will have to wait and see.

Anyhoo...when I saw how well Sunny and Smiley managed in the swimming pool I was so proud. They both took to it like fishes in water.

Hubby steered as clear away from the swimming pool as he could without being antisocial. Last thing he wanted was to be stuck in this heat with blisters from the chlorine. Although he did manage to console himself quite well with many the ice cold beer and man talk.

We headed home at 8.30pm and the girls are now out for the count (thank god). How they can do it in the humidity is amazing. Even with aircon it's still hot!!

Might be a day filled with lots of icey-poles tomorrow.

Well my resolution to try online grocery shopping has bitten the dust big time.

I got all excited for five minutes at the thought of ditching the fortnight trolley brigade but alas it is not meant to be.

Electrolley does not deliver to my suburb. I repeat, Electrolley does not deliver to my suburb. I'm crushed.

One street away from grocery bliss.

So close yet so far away.....

Where did the last twelve months go? 2006 seems to have flown by.

Sunny and Smiley were throughly spoilt by Santa. We've eaten scrumptious food, relaxed with good company and kept up all our traditional fun and games.

2006 Highlights
Healthy arrival of Smiley;
Hubby's romantic gestures;
Sunny blossoming in big sister role;
Sunny learning to read;
Business going from strength to strength;
Farmor's visit;
Arrival of permanent cleaner (yay!);
Discovery of Dstore.com.


2006 Dramas
Recovering from anticoagulant therapy;
Treating Smiley's granuloma;
Mum saga (currently in lull);
New blinds;
Visiting mouse in the roof void;
Hannah's death;
Leaving Lucy loose in the hoose!


2007 Resolutions
To try online grocery shopping;
Work on my book outline;
Paint the Ensuite;
Avoid getting a second dog;
Learn to use my IPOD Nano.