Christmas Party #1

Ive actually got 3 'parties' to go to this year. Thats 3 more than any other year!! I went out and bought a new top and pants and after party #3, these items will become work clothes!

A trip on the harbour was the destination for Bretts work party. This is the Harbour Ballroom. Guess who forgot they get seasick!? I went downstairs to the loo when we first boarded and it was soooo hot and stuffy down there, I raced back up to the top deck as quick as I could cause I knew if I stayed downstairs Id never last the night. I went back inside for the meal and just kept going in and out. Gorgeous views, Bretts workmates are pretty kewl and hilariously funny at times. No wonder he likes his job!

We definately have the best harbour in the world!!

Trimming the Tree 07

(Pics from the weekend)

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!





This decoration was made by my
motherinlaw, many years ago.





Finishing Touch!

Woohoo, 2 days in a row

Busy at work. Everyone is winding down their business for the year so of course don't want audits lol


Maz popped in with Sandy for dinner. We'll catch up with Sandy again on Christmas
Eve.


Tomorrow Bec if off into Sydney for lunch with her Food Tech class and Nicola is
going to Windsor for an Art day so needless to say, I can't go to work.

Been a while

I can't seem to stick to the Blog thing. I love reading other peoples and stuff does happen during the day that I would like to remember as my memory is S*&T!

Whats happened since February?

Im now 40 lol. We've had 3 Birthday parties including mine. Bec is already planning her 16th for next February.

The girls are doing great at school. Both N & R are receiving awards at the end of School presentations so that should be kewl. Bec will graduate Year 10 in 2 weeks and then school is done for her. The others have 3 weeks left.

I am taking N to see The Veronicas this Friday as part of her Xmas present. I bought tickets for Bec and S for Kelly Clarkson for Christmas although the concert isnt until March next year.

Chez is pregnant with #3. She is also 40. No way could I do the baby thing again. I have every intention of getting slightly clucky with her bub though.

Three quarters of the Christmas shopping is done, we are seeing Matt and family on December 22nd and then Bretts family will be here on the 24th.

Oh and we are still broke

Swimming

Went to Riverstone pool today for the Swim Carnival. N did very well yet again and will probably go to District for Freestyle and the relay. I managed to convince her to swim Backstroke as she didnt want to, it only cost me $3 lol. She seems to enjoy the swimming. This year she swam 100m freestyle and came first in the Junior girls section. The District Carnival is around March 14th I think.

Finished the school shopping yesterday afternoon at Westpoint. Both N & S got new school bags and S finally got some school shoes. Must remember to get D to pay half of a lot of the school stuff like I did last year.

R is now bored with School. She is apparantly tired of the teacher reading stories and also says they only have green paint in their class. N asked her what she did today at lunch time while she was at the swim carnival and she said she went to the library with friends and played checkers!!!

No car day

DH took the car in to work with him so as to give to new owner after work. We don't pick up new car (used car) until tomorrow night so this means 2 days of walking to and from schoo. Grrrr and TYPICALLY it was at least 35'C this afternoon. Getting to school took about 35 minutes as R only has little legs. I remembered to wear a hat back to school in the afternoon when picking up the girls and for the trip home made N put hers on. We stopped a number of times coming home and poor R was sweating like crazy. Even with a hat and a bottle water I still managed to get a killer of a headache so doped up on a couple of Nurofen Plus and had a lie down. If tomorrow is going to be as hot I think we may have a day of School.

Bloody Homeside still haven't deposited the extra money we borrowed. They have of course set up the new Mortgage account etc.....gee there's a surprise. This will be the last time we bother with Homeside. This is not the first time they have mucked us around but it will be the last.

Having no car today meant I postponed my midlife crisis hair cut till Wednesday. Thursday is Swimming Carnival and Friday is the infant assembly and then lunch with J & C. Looking forward to that. The L's are coming to stay this weekend to help us finish painting the downstairs of the house. Should be fun.

Need to get a quote from a gardening place to come and clean up the yard and do a bit of weeding before my 40th B'day party. Also need to get one of those skip things as we have a huge indoor clean up to do as well. If we end up moving it will be a big help to clean out sooner rather than later.

Invites to my party should go out in the next few days. Ive given DH all the email addresses. Funny how times change. Everyone I want to invite is on the other end of an email. Although DH said if someone doesn't have internet they aren't welcome in his house rofl. Well its my house too!!!

Im a Soccer mum

Bought a new car Saturday morning. Just under $7K. The lease payment on the Honda was just killing us so its bye bye Honda, hello 1995 Toyota. Not very exciting but it will (hopefully) get us from A to B for the next year or so.

Finally signed up N for soccer. She will play on Sundays with a girls team but sometimes may be asked to fill in on the mixed team. She is very excited. We may also sign R up in a couple of weeks. They have a muster type thing for the little ones where she can play a little and see if she likes it. It won't clash with Little A's so she should be ok. I realise I will have to get out of bed on the weekends before Midday but I guess this is a sacrifice Im prepared to make.

R went to her first School friend Birthday party. Not bad for only 3 days at school but this was a Preschool and now School friend. She had a good time. The mum plus the grandma said she was great fun and they couldnt believe how chatty and confident she is. I guess R being tiny is quite deceiving.

Went up to MIL for dinner. Her sister/husband were there and one of their daughters. Also my FIL. Had a good evening. R was a bit of a pain after she saw a moth. She is still very tired from starting school so we forgave her a little bit. She did insist on being carried throughout the house which was annoying.

Didnt do much today except washing and tv watching. The buyer of the Honda is getting the car tomorrow and we aren't getting the Toyota until Tuesday evening so it means 2 days of walking for me and the kids. S is very angry as this means she has to walk home from Basketball training on Tuesday afternoon plus we can't go School bag and shoe shopping tomorrow afternoon. I did offer on Friday evening to give her the money to purchase both these items over the weekend while she was with her dad but she chose not to. B on the other hand did accept the money and bought herself quite a nice bag! Grrrrr @ Teenagers

Im annoyed about the car too cause I had a hair appointment tomorrow but I can get my Mid life crisis hair cut on Wednesday instead.

Holidays??

Gee, Im less busy at work. Did the vege co-op shop today. Another lady and I spent $389.50 on Fruit and Veg and then went back to her garage to divide it between 13 families. It was exhausting!!!! By the time I had driven back to her place, me stopping on the way to answer phone (see yesterdays post grrrr!) she had unloaded most of the boxes which is bad as she is about 4 months pregnant! I had the watermelon on my car lol. It took us about an hour and 1 coffee to sort everything out. We had Carrots, Zucchini, Bok Choy, Apples, Rockmelon, Salad leaves and much more. We ended up with 2 boxes of stuff per family....maybe I will be able to follow my dream of being a Vegetarian by the end of the year.

S had her first Basketball game of the year last night. They won 14-12 (woohoo) and Smanaged to fall in the first few minutes and graze both her knees. She also ended up with a headache which did wonders for her general mood (NOT!) Her dad goes next week and then we alternate. I must remember not to take R as its hard to watch the game and keep an eye on her at the same time. The daughter of the coach seemed happy to play with her last night, she had a electronic toy called something like 'DS' or similar. R just calls it a thingamijig and is demanding one for her birthday which isnt until July so maybe she will forget about it by then.

Made the trip out to get Dh's bike back from the repairers. Now he is a happy camper although he is now going to sell this bike and get something better and low maintenance. Even the repairer told him it would be a good idea.

When I picked R up from Day 3 she started to cry and rub her tummy, my first thought was oh no she can't be sick, but she looked at me accusingly and told me she was starving because I didnt give her enough food today. I must admit she had less than the last 2 days as we are pretty much living with Old Mother hubbards cupboard till the weekend but she had exactly the same amount of food she always took to pre-school. Guess she must be using it all up quicker this year!! I promised her she could come shopping with me this weekend to fill up the snack box.

Took R to little athletics tonight. She is so tired and grumpy from school so maybe it wasnt a good idea but she did enjoy it. We missed the last 2 weeks and I really want her to get a medal at the end of the season for all her efforts so don't want to be told we didnt attend enough times. All the kids get a participation medal which is really kewl.

R has a Birthday party tomorrow plus we are car shopping plus we have a dinner BBQ at Maz's house tomorrow night so a busy day it will be!

....and the phone rings again!!

I had absolutely no idea how many times the phone rang at home during business hours. I remember DH mentioning his surprise once before but today was ridiculous. Telemarketers, wrong numbers, friends ringing on the off chance, even sms messages on my mobile from Teen 1 for timetable info. Its much less stressful at work!! Chatted to a friend from my previous job and we have arranged to meet next Friday for lunch at another friends house. I haven't seen Friend 2 for over 12 months....how shocking...Im really looking forward to it. Also organised with Friend 1 to get information about Soccer registration. N decided she wants to play Soccer this coming season (whenever that is!) so we will sign her up on Saturday. The $110 reg covers shorts, socks, Insurance etc...although Im not sure what 'etc' actually is but Im sure Ill soon find out as I enter the world of Soccer. Having 4 daughters, I never thought it would be world I would visit...how sexist of me!!
R survived Day 2 of School. There are now 12 kids in her class with another day of Kindy intake tomorrow.
I booked in at the hairdresser to have my Mid-life crisis hair cut on Monday @ 10.30.

Day 1

I woke R up at around 7.30am and the first words out of her mouth were 'am I going to School today' I said yes and she started waving her arms about 'yeh yeh yeh' Took the annual first day of school photo of the girls outside and with slight co-operation from B it went well. MIL arrived after other girls went to school and we headed off to School for our 9.50am start. Met the deputy head who is new this year and then we went to R's classroom. Met her teacher who is N's teacher from Year 2. Nice but firm. Perfect for R. She settled down to do some colouring so we left. I wasnt upset until saying goodbye. She was sitting with her back to the door and didnt turn around as we left which is what she used to do in preschool as a coping mechanism as she looked very overwhelmed. She was very tired after school and didnt have much to say but is keen to go again tomorrow. One of the girls from Preschool will be in her class when she starts tomorrow so that will be good. She was nearly asleep at 5pm but we gave her a bath and she played on the computer a bit before dinner. I think she was asleep in 5 minutes when her head hit the pillow.

1 more sleep

My baby starts big School in the morning. I was actually crying on the drive home as Im now on holidays from work for a week and a half which is only because she is starting school. She is so excited. Very annoyed that she couldnt go today with N. N said that she will know her Year 4 teacher by Thursday. Also they have finally got a couple of more male teachers. Bring the total to a massive....3! Also the swimming carnival is next Thursday, during my time off..woohoo! I think this year I will also volunteer to help with time keeping. N has said she will try 100m Freestyle, plus 50 Free and 50 Breast. Doesnt want to do the other two. Last year she was fine with Backstroke and we talked her into Butterfly so maybe she can be talked into 1 more this year!

At 9.50am Iwill be a mass of tears!

Ants in the Kahlua

Decided to have a drink with dinner, highly unusual, made it myself (also unusual lol). Has one of those measure things on the top, poured into a glass, poured the milk in, quick stir and WTF!!????

Little black things floating in MY Kahlua!!

We are having an ant invasion here, tiny tiny little ants apparantly brought out by the heat. Managed the long trek to the booze cupboard and into my Kahlua! Those pouring things (Im sure they have a technical name) have little ball things in them and ants couldnt really get past them so Im told the ants are probably not actually in the bottle.

Im not convinced.

2007 is here!

School holidays continue. School goes back January 31st. All four girls!! Renee starts 'big' School at 9.50am. She is very excited. I on the other hand have schedule a week and half of holiday from work so I can mop my tears up in Private.

Business is slow. Still umming and ahhing about giving up! Depends on my mood. Ive put the whole store on sale and have 2 sales in the last 24 hours.

Ill update again later.

Robbie....

Brett got me Rudebox by Robbie Williams...need to be prepared for December 9th!!

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!

You drink coffee when????

You Are an Espresso

At your best, you are: straight shooting, ambitious, and energetic At your worst, you are: anxious and high strung You drink coffee when: anytime you're not sleeping Your caffeine addiction level: high

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

HOT!

So bloody hot!

Tomorrow is supposed to be worse!!! At least Ill be at work in the AirCon considering our is shit and doesn't work anymore...grrrrrrrrrrrr!

Took Renee to the final day of School Orientation today. Also bought her a couple of uniforms plus a hat. Just need School shoes and she is ready to go. She starts January 31st @ 9.50am.

Pass the tissues please.

Movies anyone?

Your Movie Buff Quotient: 40%

You're a very typical movie goer. You like movies, but you are by no means a movie buff. You've seen many of the biggest blockbusters, but you haven't really started digging in to the classics.

Are You a Movie Buff?

New Shop

Well, since Bigpond decided to no longer support an inet store (or whatever the reason was) I have had to use SiteShop. Im sure its a good system but the support from the Bigpond technicians is abolsute CRAP. I was trying to add a new category the other day but there was no 'root' parent category to list it under. I rang for help...the guy put me on hold...the 'root' magically appeared...the guy came back and had the nerve to tell me I didnt scroll far enough. WTF!!!!! Of course, whilst adding the 'root' he also managed to get all the Categories to appear twice...GEE THANKS!!!

So I am now on the lookout for a new shopping cart system and hosting. I have 3 quotes so far...all pretty reasonable ones from people on Businessmums.com. Im taking my Domain name and running as far away from Bigpond as possible!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

She's 5

My baby turned 5 on the 12th! The School enrollment forms are on the noticeboard...I haven't filled them out yet...Im in denial.

Winter

Grrrrrr I hate it!

We FINALLY got the AirCon/Heating back up and running. $1500 later which I had to borrow from my mother and that phone call took a few strong drinks to make!! School holidays have just finished and Ive managed one day at work this week. Renee was sick Tuesday, Nic yesterday and then Renee again today. Bec sounds really bad this evening so will no doubt be off tomorrow (but I don't work Fridays) She had a week off last winter with a shocking dose of the Flu so hopefully this won't happen again. I wish Id remembered to get her a Flu shot. Neighbours dog has been wandering around the yard the last couple of days. With the recent spate of Dog attacks on kids its got me worried. A told us ages ago she actually hired the dog for protection so it obviously would do some damage to a child. Brett will go over and let her know the Dog is loose (as if she doesn't know) and if I see it again Ill just call the Council or Dog Catcher (is there such a thing in Sydney??)