Ireland Dreaming

So Much Proud!!!!

2012-02-03T16:59:00.007+10:00

There are moments I am so proud of my kids.

Aiden had swimming carnival today. Aiden can't swim. Aiden is terrified of deep water. Aiden dove off the starter blocks twice today, competed in four categories of swimming and recieved two thirds and a second in his races. I am even prouder as he told me his best friend had never recieved a swimming ribbon before so Aiden pulled back and let him pass him to get a ribbon. How sweet is that!!!

Caitlin made me proud because she saved up all of her pocket money to purchase an iPod. Its a 2nd gen and cost her $118 + $15 for a cover. She took such a long time to do it and paid for it all herself. Now she knows she has to start banking. I am so proud that she understands the value of purchasing big ticket items for herself.

And in other news, my beautiful Titch had her final litter last night. She gave birth to three. Number one was stillborn but came back after a huge effort on my behalf. Number two came out stillborn and was unresponsive. Number three came out kicking and shrieking as all good kittens should. Around midnight I settled Mum and bubs and went to bed. Morning found Number 1 kitten had passed away during the night. I didn't have a great deal of hope for this little soul and I am glad she passed without us getting too attached.

Her brother, knicknamed Tango, is doing well but it is early days. Single kittens sometimes struggle with staying warm but we have a heat pad for the little guy. He is on the right below.

Enjoy your weekend and give your pets an extra special cuddle for me...

Back to School Pics

2012-01-25T11:22:00.002+10:00

So, the kids are back at school, my house is tidy and stays that way and there is no fruit in the fridge. Caitie is faced with the challenge of pulling her grades up, Aiden starts a new phase of schooling, entering Middle School and Conor has a fantastic teacher helping him this year, Mr Gregory, who sent Aiden postcards from around the world.

And with no further ado, here they are in all their glory! Aidens shirt is SO white it has created a halo around him. Lets see how long that lasts!

And this year we are stooping to bribery to encourage good marks. $20 for every A, $10 for every B. My kids have hit the point of wanting to purchase their own stuff so they will be working hard, I hope, to achieve it.

Cindy

Schools Back...

2012-01-22T19:52:00.004+10:00

Its been a long summer with the kids having to go to Vacation care two days a week due to my work commitments. They pretended they hated it but didn't think it was too bad, our provider is a family friend who loves my kids.

Today was the last day before school goes back so the kids and I spent the day making yummy treats for their lunch boxes. I had all three cook as I believe both boys and girls need to learn how to care for themselves. Below are the results.

Caitie made chocolate choc chip biscuits which we sandwiched together with nutella. These were truly yummy and with thick chunky bits of chocolate.

I bought the coolest muffin tin which Aiden and I used to make banana cake. It worked really well and I think square muffins will fit better in their lunch boxes.

Conor and I made the savoury portion of the treats; corn and tomato quiches. The amazing thing was that we don't actually own an oven. Ours blew up a while ago but we make do by cooking on our barbeque. So, yes, we made biscuits, banana cake and quiche in our hooded barbeque!

Tomorrow is a big day for all the kids with new classes, new friends and new challenges ahead of them. Fingers are crossed for a prosperous new year.

3 Towns, 1 City, 2 Days!

2011-12-31T16:57:00.009+10:00

We were invited up to a friends place at Toowoomba. Toowoomba is a beautiful inland city, just gorgeous at the top of the Ranges. A two hour trip and it feels like you are in another world. No sooner had we arrived than we were off to Crows Nest to visit the Antique center.

Meet Jimmy Crow! Jimmy Crow lived in a Gunyah (aboriginal house) which was made in a hollowed Fig Tree. He used to wait for the ox trains to come through and would update the cattlemen on the goings on in the area. The area became known as Jimmy Crow's Nest which was later shortened to Crows Nest.

This is, I believe, a reproduction of the original Gunyah but the kids thought it was pretty cool.Its almost the middle of Summer here and there has been a huge amount of rainfall which has kept the gardens beautiful and green. These lavender were at the entrance to the town "common" for lack of a better word. It was gorgeous circle of lush grass with a concrete path the whole way around which the local boys were having a great time skating on. Then there are sandstone beds and arches of wisteria all topped off with a small fountain in the middle. The most amazing thing was that UNDER the grass was a 360 000 litre tank which earnt the town an environmental award and $1 000 000 in funding!

We then decided to enjoy yet another drive to the sleepy town of Esk. The drive was exhilirating with dense forest, wild lantana (which is a pest but smells soooo good) and the flowering Pattersons Curse.

We arrived at Esk and this is the view of the towering cliffs that surround the town. It is just beautiful to see, you can easily look at the lichen on the cliff face.

Every small town out west has monument to servicemen who have lost their lives for their country and Esk is no exception.

I jokingly told Tony that this was his new stud cat! Freaky looking find at the Antique store.

As we left the weather began to close in with towering thunderheads filling the sky. The clouds were beautiful but only the smallest amount of rain fell.

****

Day two and we got a phone call to say that we were able to go out to our friends farm, which is what we were looking forward to. Mile after mile of cotton, corn and sorghum, all in brilliant health, as far as the eye could see.

This is our friends sorghum. Still a month or so off harvest but the heads have flowered and are about to set seed. When it sets the seed heads become deep red with the resulting seed. Its an awesome sight, especially as the sun sets.

My kids had a run in the cotton fields. Its only baby cotton at the moment but will be allowed to grow until its hip height. Then it will get sprayed to arrest the growth and to encourage it to send out more shoots for more flower heads which will become cotton. There was cotton all over the ground from last harvest and Caitie was especially amazed as, being a city kid, she had no idea where her clothing came from.

The farm cat, Biggy. She is pretending to be dead and doing a very good job of it I must say! As you can tell by her trimline figure there are heaps of mice and rats for her to feast on. More importantly there are a heck of a lot of King Brown snakes out there which are the most fearsome of the Aussie snakes as they have no problem in chasing down anyone that hassles them!

Lunch at Pittsworth was lovely. A loaf of bread, some shaved ham, silverside, cheese and some choccie chip muffins, all washed down with orange juice.

Aiden being a goober and trying to be cool...it didn't work.

Conor being a dag. Pull out a camera and he starts to pull faces.

Again, we are in the middle of summer and the town common in Pittsworth had the most beautiful roses that smelt absolutely divine!

Caitie posing.

Conor posing. They don't get this from me.

The town map showing places of interest. Might consider another trip out to visit some of the weirs and river crossings.

And finally, my lot decided to hide out in these spruces. I daren't tell them that they are usually full of paper wasps. Made a good photo though!

And from there we headed home. The trip was long but worth it. We came home after two days and felt like we had been away a week. It was short break that we needed. Oh and we restocked the shop at Esk.

Cin

PUTT PUTT!

2011-12-28T18:12:00.006+10:00

School holidays can be a trying time, especially when there are five of us to please. I took the initiative today and sent us on a fun filled morning where we played 18 holes of Putt Putt Golf! Scary looking bunch aren't we?

Caitie is very competitive but was super excited when she got two hole-in-ones!

Conor will always be the baby of the family so often gets a chance or two but he too got a hole-in-ine which was no mean feat on this course!

Aiden is our comedic child and enjoyed himself immensely! And got a hole-in-one...are you seeing a theme???I actually love to play Putt Putt so it is NOT surprising that I got a hole-in-one!

My darling husband did NOT get a hole-in-one so it is fair to say that the Putt Putt gene comes from my side of the family! All in all we had a lovely morning topped off with a lunch at Macca's.

More adventures are on our way, we are heading up to Toowoomba on the weekend.

Cin

Christmas Fun

2011-12-22T21:12:00.008+10:00

I had been eyeing off these gingerbread men at Aldi. I finally decided to buy them and the kids and I had a great afternoon designing. To make it a little more challenging, each of the kids and myself were given someone else to design for and we had to make the gingerbread look like them.

This is my effort, it is for Conor. These aren't your ordinary cookie men either they are around a foot long!

Caitie concentrating on getting the icing in the right spot.

Aiden loved using as much icing as possible.

And Conor of course just had fun!

This is for me, created by Caitie.

Conor did a great job of Aiden.

Aiden used a lot of icing for Caitie.

And our verdict was a two thumbs up!

Family Pics

2011-12-07T16:55:00.004+10:00

Its been awhile, I know. The above photo is how I found Aiden the other night. He is still hilarious. Comes out wearing boxer shorts the other night telling me he's cold. So he was going to put on some socks! uuuhuh!

Just thought I would share some of the pics I took for my parents Christmas present.

Piece of My Heart

2011-10-31T14:55:00.005+10:00

I don't make friends easily. In fact I can count my friends on one hand. I'm too shy, too weird, too quirky for most people. So when Tony and I moved into our small house together I think I needed Di as much as she needed us.

Di was a high school teacher. She was passionate about the kids and teaching. She taught me to sew and to cook things I would never cook. I taught her how to make packet gravy and how to laugh at herself. Together Tony and I taught her to not take herself so seriously. Tony corrupted her on her 30th birthday, which was the funniest thing I have ever seen and shall remain a closely guarded secret. We had water fights, tickle fights, Tony and I broke into her house and rearranged her home and labelled everything with post-it notes. She stole our car and pushed it down the road all by herself. Di welcomed us into her family, we played cards with her and her mother Ann, we had barbeques with her family and celebrated the births of her niece and nephew.

She was my best friend.

She took the photos at our wedding and held me as I cried over the appalling treatment dished out by my Mother-In-Law. She celebrated the births of our first two childen with us. Aunty Di was known to yell at them just as loudly as I did when they didn't clean their rooms. She smuggled Baskin Robbins icecream up to my hospital bed the night before I was due to have cancer surgery. We laughed and joked so much she got kicked out.

All Di wanted was a family and we celebrated with her when she finally nabbed the man of her dreams. We then grieved with her when they found out that he couldn't have children. I remember working at the shop one day and she came in and told me she was pregnant...with TWINS! I was so excited. Jessica Ann and Lily Grace came into the world but Jessica wasn't strong enough and went home as an angel.

It was about this time that we drifted apart. Life took us in two seperate directions, she to be with and start her own family, Tony and I to continue with ours. We rang occassionally, we caught up, we moved on but we always knew she was there.

***

The phone rang one morning and Tony groggily answered it. I remember he sat up and spoke a few words then hung up the phone. He looked at me and said, "Di died this morning..." I couldn't and still can't believe it.

Di and her husband Charlie were expecting their last child. Di had suffered a miscarriage previously and this was their last attempt to expand their family. She went into labour and excitedly told Charlie to get her Mum and said to him, "Our baby is on its way!" Charlie went and got Ann. Ann came into the bedroom, her eyes met Di's and Di passed away.

***

I attended her funeral with the largest amount of people I had ever seen. The church was full, the seats outside were full, there was standing room only. In only a few short years we had gone from blowing bubbles at their wedding to mourning the loss of a beloved friend.

I still grieve to this day. I will be driving and a song will come on the radio and I tear up. I can't listen to Vanessa Carlton singing "A Thousand Miles" without losing it. I have to turn the radio off. I hurt, my heart hurts and I wonder why God took her back. I was so angry at Him for such a long time, not only for taking her but taking her unborn baby. That smallest of coffins made me so angry. I think of how much she is missing, all the Mothers Days, all the Birthdays. And it breaks a little piece of my heart every time.

Di, I love you, I miss you, I never got to tell you how much you mean to me.

Tiny Babies and Huge Obstacles

2011-04-26T15:30:00.004+10:00

It has been the hardest first week of my life with these wee babies. Two days in and they had all rapidly lost weight and Mum had very little milk. I was devestated. After having my four previous litters challenge me in every way, I was ready for an easy one but its not meant to be.

These babies are all being sup fed, taking 5ml each on top of Mums milk every time they feed. I don't get to bed until 11.30ish and get up twice a night. I'm tired but can see the results in that after a week we are almost back to our birth weights.

And to just put the cream on the cake, our choc silver has turned out to be a lilac! Fingers are crossed that everything works out. Its still early days. They have all hit their first milestone and thats to be alive after the first week.

POP goes the Devon

2011-04-19T15:02:00.002+10:00

First though, a confession. I had no idea when Titch was due....cause I didn't write down what date she got mated. This is quite unusual for me because I am quite anal about that but she got mated twice. 2times....two....and everyone knows that queens need to be mated at least four times to produce enough hormone to encourage them to release their eggs. ( at least thats what I read somewhere LOL). AND Titch didn't pink up, there were no pink nipples. So I quite wisely deleted the information and forgot about it until she was roughly six weeks along and was quite fat!

That being said though, she remained a bit of an enigma and dug her bed and pretended to have contractions some two weeks before she gave birth.

Last night she was sitting beside me when she gave an almighty push. She gave no other signs that labour was imminent. I organised her crate and sat quietly beside her as she continued to move forward into full, active labour. The first baby was born, a lovely torbie bicoloured baby. Mum seemed more concerned with her own welfare rather than her babies so I quickly took over and revived the little one. Her brother arrived some ten minutes later. He was coldish blue colour with a silver sheen which had me stumped until he dried and became a chocolate silver tabby.

Around an hour later, number three arrived with her Angel Wings intact. She never took a breath, no matter how vigorously I tried to revive her. For anyone who takes breeding lightly and is in it for the money or for the joy of their children experiencing birth? Hold a dead kitten in your hand and marvel at its perfect but stillborn features. Yes, I shed a tear or two because this little one never had a chance.

An hour later number four popped out and is either a cream or white male. At this stage Mum settled down but still had some very strong contractions. By 2am I was quite concerned and bundled the new family up and flew to the vet. It cost me $165 to walk in the door and a little over $110 for the vet to tell me she had a tummy full of food! Cow....(gr)

Home by 3.30, in bed by 4am and now absolutely cactus.

SO...here are our stats.

Torbie girl- 70gr

Choc Silver boy- 90 gr

Dcd girl- 90 gr

Cream boy- 90 gr

A big litter alround!

Mum and her babies, settled in on the heat pad

The wee munchkins after their first bed change.

Now,if you will excuse me,my bed is calling!

I am Nav-Woman!

2011-04-14T19:33:00.007+10:00

My husband and I run an antique store and we often have to either deliver stock or pick stock up. For years now, I have been the navigator, the one who directs us to our destination. I rarely get lost unless we have to go to one of the newer areas where the streets are tiny and crammed in and getting lost is easy for everyone!

THEN, on the weekend my husband came home with a NavMan. I am both angry and somewhat hurt. He says its for when he has to go out on his own. He has the sense of direction of a blind dog. He could get lost in a paperbag that has been left OPEN!

I am still miffed....very, very miffed. Why? Because the first time he decided to use it was when I WAS SITTING NEXT TO HIM! So he lied.

Anyway, he plugs it in and off we go. We get half way to our destination and the damn thing goes flat. I looked at him, he looked at me and then he dove for the refidex while still driving. I mildly said that I would gladly navigate if he wanted me to. And I got us to our destination in no time.

Fast forward to Day 2. Second journey....He tells the client on the phone that yes he can find their house because (dun dun DAHHHHH) he has a Navman. On the way there we stopped in to get a holder for the damn thing. I told him calmly that I would figure out how to attach it while he drove. When the salesman handed us the packet, Husband told him that the "little wife" would put it on. AND he wondered why I glared at him.

So, off we go again. All is going well until the Navman told him to take the left exit in 1.5km. He looked at me while I placidly looked at him. "Turn left in 50m". He glanced at me again, "What, this exit?" I just stared at him as the exit whipped past with the Navman telling him to turn left NOW!

"Was that it?" he says. "How should I bloody know, do I have Navman written on my head?"

4.6 km, one U-Turn and 4.6km back the other way and we were back on track with me looking a little smug and him looking downright peeved! Further down the road he was informed to turn left in 600m. He was in the right hand lane. Turn left in 150m, still in the right hand lane, turn left NOW....and we whipped past the next turn. This time I just gaped at him with complete disbelief.

Around we went again. At the next set of lights, I turned on him. "Listen up you great git, if you KNOW you are going to have to turn left, you get in your bloody left lane!" I poked a finger at the Navman."See that little arrow, look where its going every time you stop at the lights, it actually gives you a bloody warning that you are going to have to turn!"

We turned the corner, him very subdued, me quietly seething. Ten minutes later, less than 1 minute from our destination, in failing daylight, the bloody Navman turned off. "Did you charge it...." I asked through gritted teeth. "It was on all day", he whimpered. That left me scrabbling for the refidex, in the middle of a rabbit warren of tiny streets where I couldn't read the map in the light. And to make matters worse, husband kept on driving. In less than 30 seconds he had us completely lost, I had no idea where we were and I had to get us back. A few wrong turns and we finally reached our destination.

After unloading the stock, we went to leave...and he immediately went to drive down the wrong street. He got lost by just turning around.

As we finally headed home, I said to him, with a fully fledged snarl, "Get rid of the bloody Navman, you've got us lost twice with it, it won't stay bloody charged and for the love of God, if it does turn off...STOP BLOODY DRIVING!"

I think its a fair call to say that his bargain Navman is going to be retired...soon.

Catch Up

2011-03-31T11:36:00.011+10:00

Where to start! I have so much thats happened that I haven't had a chance to blog about. Valentines day found me with my own sweet valentine. Below is the card Conor made for me. It made me go AWWWWWW! Yes, my delicious little man, I will be your valentine! Caitie and I had a girls night in where I cut her a fringe (looks awesome) and we did facials and makeovers. She had her piccie taken with Nightclub style makeup on. Yes, she is 12 but I am teaching her how to wear makeup responsibly and she likes to look girly now and then. I told her to pout LOL, she took me literally. She isn't a fan of heavy makeup and thinks the girls who wear heavy eyeliner to school look daft. Around a month ago our very much loved Devon X Mask slipped out the back door and took off. Tony and Caitie spent ages trying to find him with no luck. We looked for him everywhere and I called and called. We kept an eye on the local pounds all to no avail. Four weeks later I was calling my chickens in for some food when I heard a tiny little Miaow. I kept repeating the call until finally, around the corner of the neighbours shed, came Mask. He weighed nothing, he was all bones and ribs, no muscle. Very weak and sad but very glad to have come home. For a very big cat, there was nothing of him. He is home and we are happy. He has taken to sleeping wrapped around Caitie's head at night. Yes, my 12 year old still sucks her thumb *sigh* He has put on weight, has a long way to go but is feeling fine and frisky. You know, I am convinced all the weird stuff in life happens to us! Coming home from buying chinese takeaway with a friend, we were both startled to see a duckling run across the road. We put on the brakes and both dashed out to see if we could find him. This involved us introducing ourselves to the owners of the home whose yard he had run into. Picture THAT conversation... Hi...we're not crazy, you have a duckling under your house! So, I took said duckling home for the night ready to find him a home the next day. Imagine my suprise when we discovered this the next morning! One of the neighbours ducks, who had got away, heard the baby and figured she would wait outside and see if he would come out. She flew away soon after I took this pic. We found a home for the duckling by the way. I don't like ducks much, they eat and poop, thats it. Conor had a birthday at the beginning of the year and I just had to share this gorgeous photo with y'all. Check out those freckles! And finally, Titch hasn't popped yet. Here she is two days ago looking rather rotund. I don't think her nipples could get any pinker. Happy Autumn everyone. We had a bried spell of Indian Summer but Autumn has crept up on us with soft evenings, crisp mornings and cups of tea. I love this time of year.

7-8 Weeks

2011-03-21T13:32:00.005+10:00

We're preparing for kitten countdown now. Titch has around 2 weeks to go and she is starting to really podge up. She is eating more than ever and has a very low tolerance for the other cats. Her nipples have completely changed shape and are no longer little bubbles. Now they are fat and elongated, like a christmas tree light shape, all the better for little tongues to squish against the roof of little mouths when feeding!

This week we will organise her nesting box. My cats usually use a cardboard box or one of my crates. Some of my queens prefer the complete blackness of the box and the soundproofing it provides. Others prefer the airiness of the crate with a blanket over the top. Either way we have heatpads for the babies when they arrive. My vet is usually on speed-dial and I also have oxytocin on hand. I only use it when a queen has stopped active labour for longer than a few hours.

I usually have a bag of saline from my vet and also have needles. I use the saline solution to hydrate struggling kittens and have also found it beneficial if I need to make up bottles. There is another product I like to keep on hand and its from a company called Rufus and Coco. Its a gut formula called Inner Balance and if I have to bottlefeed I always add a teeny bit to the bottle.

Are we ready, yeah I think we are...now we just have to get through the next three months!

How To Deal With Bullies.

2011-03-21T12:55:00.004+10:00

There is a video that has gone viral which shows a young man taking a stand against a bully and fighting back. The young man has been labelled a hero and a poster child for bullied children everywhere. Much has been said about sensationalising bullying because this footage has been played over and over again. For me, as a parent, I believe the young man is a hero because, when all was said and done, he walked away. He stood there and took the bullying, snapped, gave as good as he got but then he walked away. He could have beaten his bully to within an inch of his life but he didn't.

I found myself on the other side of the coin on Friday when my husband rang me at our shop to inform me that Conor wanted to tell me something. Slightly bemused, I tried to speak to a little boy who could only say "whennoehrjhokdlkfee....uh uh uh". "I don't understand you", I replied. This was followed by another senence of gobbledygook followed by the word "bully". "You've been bullied at school?" I said into the phone....and this little voice, full of tears whispered, "No, I bullied Jack and made him cry and I bullied A- as well...." He subsided into wails of despair. I counted to three, pulled much air into my lungs and roared,"You did WHAT!"

I don't tolerate bullying. I was a bullied child and I... DO... NOT... TOLERATE... IT... IN... MY... HOME! All of my kids know this.

When I got home, Conor showed me a letter his teacher made him write to apologise to me for being a bully. I decided then and there that it simply wasn't enough. It was time to show my school how bullies should be dealt with. I got down on his level, looked him in the eye and told him exactly how I felt about him, about bullying and I finished with "I love you very much but right now, I don't want to be your friend."

Monday morning rolled around and he was marched up to the school, he was made to stand in front of his class and apologise to Jack, to his other victim even though she wasn't there, to his class and to apologise for not being safe, being responsible or being respectful. I spoke to the students and asked them if they could help Conor to not be a bully to the other students because it is not allowed in my home. And I asked Jack if he accepted Conors apology.

Of course, it would have made more impact if His Nibs didn't have a big shit-eating grin on his face at the time BUT I made my point to him. And besides, I made him cry first....(gr)

And this is how I feel parents should deal with bullying. DON'T accept it as a normal part of growing up, don't expect it to make your child stronger, don't think it fantastic that you have the toughtest kid in the school. And most importantly, don't be afraid to haul your little rotter up in front of the school and make him apologise. Bullying can scar kids for life, it affects how they interact with others and it can affect their ability to make longterm relationships in the future. Stand up for your child if he is being bullied but also stand beside him if he is a bully and make him stop! Its what all good parents do...I know because I did!

Pregnancy 101

2011-03-14T17:56:00.005+10:00

I have decided to write a blog on the pregnancy and birth of a litter of my kittens. I'll be featuring week to week updates including birth weights etc. Now, I am a big softy and am liable to cry if I lose any, just thought you should all be aware.

Ok, so Mum-to-be is DGCH Leetamy Shine On, Titch. This will be her second litter. Her first litter she decided to have in a kitchen drawer with a one inch gap at the back. How she got in, I have no idea. We lost three of the six kittens due to being smothered. She has taken a very long time to come back reliably into call.

Dad-to-be is the Chunky Hunky Monkey, Kracken Perfect Storm. Bred by my husband from my lines, this is THE mating I have been waiting for, the litter I have prepared for and bred for. Which means everything that can go wrong, probably will...

Titch is between six to seven weeks pregnant. And below is her first tummy pick. Usually females will pink up, which means their nipples going a bright fluoro pink, at three weeks. Titch decided to pretend to NOT be pregnant and took until six weeks to show off her large pink nipples. The hair has receded around the base of the nipples in preperation for the milk pads becoming swollen with milk.

She is not very big, my guess at this stage is for three kittens. Devon babies range from around 50g to 80g for smaller litters.

I will post more pictures as her belly begins to swell. At the moment I haven't felt any movement but that is quite normal with my queens.

Always Take the Weather With You

2011-02-07T14:48:00.002+10:00

We are Aussies, through and through, we spend our time telling tall tales and watching the sky. Its what we do. And we have had more than enough reasons to watch the sky lately.

Early January saw a vicious flood sweep through our City. Early February saw a vicious cyclone sweep through our State. Still early February and there is soul sucking heat and humidity in Brisbane, there are floods down south, record temperatures in Sydney, floods in Victoria, heatwaves and bushfires in Perth AND snow on the mountains.

The humidity has been really awful for us. No aircon, just ceiling fans. The humidity slowly sucks the moisture out of your body leaving you feeling frail and weak. Sunday was appalling, it was so hot and humid. I nearly fainted while doing housework and had to go sit in the pool before I fell over!

We woke up this morning to a cool change but not before the worst night ever. Hubby opened the door to the boys room and they had moved their bed to directly under the ceiling fan, they were obviously too hot. Thank goodness Aiden didn't get up during the night or he would have been sporting some stitches!

We travelled up to Toowoomba a few days ago and that was a scary, eerie experience. To drive on a road and see the flood markers on fences and know that a few weeks ago you would have been underwater is very humbling. There were areas which looked totally normal, until you came to a creek crossing and looked down into the creek bed. It resembled a giant childs sandbox, with the riverbanks gouged out and trees tumbled like pick up sticks. There was a ute, abandoned on the side of the road, smashed and broken. Crops have been left to die in the hot sun as they aren't salvageable.

Life goes on. I won't forget. This has been a soul changing experience. I am currently running a fundraising Agility trial as there are clubs who have lost everything. Devastating.....

My People

2011-01-15T15:33:00.004+10:00

I compete in agility. I compete in dog obedience occasionally but enjoy agility a great deal more. The last trial I competed at last year was held at the Obedience Dog Club of Brisbane's Oxley grounds. It was teeming with rain and the mud underfoot was like a soggy marsh. It was horrible but we enjoyed ourselves immensely!

The Oxley clubhouse sits at a bend in the Brisbane River so, when we recieved reports the river was rising there were concerns for the clubhouse. Some members went down and removed new electrical equipment and sandbagged the meeting room. And this was the image we were presented with when the flood came through...

Yes, that is water to the eaves. We were camping in that spot between those trees the night of the trial. When the floodwaters receded, the kids and I decided to head out to help with the cleanup.

It did our hearts glad to see Brisbanes Mud Army out on the streets in full force. Cars were passing us full of people with shovels, brooms and gumboots strapped to the roof racks. Utes went past with water guerneys on them. Milton Rd was blocked with traffic all trying to get in to help. To the left and right, down side streets, you could see hives of people coming in to clean up. There were people in shiny clean gumboots passing people with mud from nose to toes, greetings were shared, sleeves were rolled up and everyone got dirty! It took us an hour and a half to get from Banyo in the North to Oxley in the South down the Centenary Highway. Its normally about a forty minute run.

This was the sight that greeted us.

Under that grey looking cover is green grass. The grey coverage is mud. It is a good few inches deep in mud. Everything is covered in a coating of thick, smelly mud. Did I mention that its muddy?????

We donned our boots and hats and got to work in cleaning off the mountain of agility equpment that needed to be scrubbed down. All three of my kids dug in and helped.

Lunch time showed us the depth of human kindness that is welling through the flood zone. A gentleman came randomly in, asked if we needed feeding and gave us sandwiches, homemade biscuits and cupcakes. We also shared a feast of fish and chips bought by the club and offered our food to those passing by. After we had gone back to work we were met with the sight of an elderly lady picking her way through the mud and silt. She came up and asked us if we needed sandwiches. Even though we were right, I gave her a hug and said thankyou. It was the least I could do.

We scrubbed and cleaned and washed and swilled and cleaned and scrubbed some more and yet, there was still another surprise for us as we went to leave. Someone had left a bottle of juice, some choc chip biscuits and a packet of marshmallows on the tray of our ute.

On the way back home we saw more of Brisbane at its worst and best. A McDonalds flooded to the eaves. Playgrounds covered in flood silt. Piles and piles of household goods stacked on the sidewalk like so many broken lives. Shops closed, houses bared for all to see. And the people, out in force like an army of ants, smling, laughing. Those people who couldn't help were on the corners of streets with barbeques making sausages and food for the workers.

I am so proud of my city, so proud of my people...black, white, pink, purple and the strange greyish brown we all are at the moment, these are my people. Thankyou....

Cin

There are moments

2011-01-13T14:29:00.004+10:00

There are moments when you just want to take back what you said. Can I take back that I was sick of the weather, can I take back moaning how inconvenient it was? Because if I could take it back, then maybe we could take back the inland Tsunami that swept through Toowoomba and down into the Lockyer Valley killing twelve people. Maybe I could take back the fluctuating totals of missing from around 50-70 at any given time. Maybe I could take back the devastating stock losses and crop losses which will cripple this country for the next few months if not years....

Leading up to this tragedy, we had weeks of rain and Brisbane was coping. There was isolated flooding but Brisbane was coping. Then a deluge hit Toowoomba at the top of the ranges and turned into an inland tidal wave that swept cars, businesses, animals, homes and sadly people with it. We watched in horror as a family were swept away in their station wagon. Reports have come to light that the mother and child were rescued by helicopter but the father is still missing.

Wivenhoe Dam was built to protect Brisbane from a flood and it was doing its job....until the water hit Toowoomba. Wivenhoe was sitting on 160% capacity and the flood gates had been released. 200,000 megalitres of water was flowing out every hour while 1 000 000 was flowing in. BUT the Brisbane River was handling it. As the flood swept down the ranges, it picked up momentum and the rest of the water that was inundating the South East. All of that water has then dumped itself into an already swollen Brisbane river. And something had to give. The Brisbane River, Brisbane itself and its surrounding suburbs have been swallowed up by a fast rising flood. Businesses have been destroyed, lives lost and people have been afraid.

Wivenhoe Dam in 2008, during the drought.
Yesterday....

Its a scary time for everyone with the river only just beginning to peak. There are around 60 people missing, grave fears are held for their safety. Times to come will be hard as the cleanup begins.

However, through it all, our quirky sense of humour has shone through. Some wag put floaties and a snorkel on our iconic statue of Wally Lewis at Suncorp Stadium. Now that the Stadium has gone under, someone else reckons it'll be a great water polo venue. In flooded streets you can see "Wet Floor" signs. And the Mayor of Ipswich, in true Aussie style, said that looters would get "the shit kicked outta them and then used as flood markers." Thats the spirit!

The last word has to come from our Premier, Anna Bligh, who has stood fast throughout this ordeal, keeping everyone up to date. She said, "We're the ones they knock down and we get up again." We'll survive this, we'll pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off and start again....and look anxiously to the skies as cyclone season rolls in.

I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, of ragged moutain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains. I love her far horizons, I love her jewelled sea, her beauty- and her terror- the wide brown land for me. Thankyou Dorothy McKellar, you couldn't have said it any better.

Pavers and Things that go BUMP!

2011-01-10T15:35:00.004+10:00

Just before this last amount of rain set in, I managed to do one of those jobs that you keep meaning to do but just put off.

I was given a huge pile of pavers to pave my stud pen with and just hadn't gotten around to doing it. I knew I had two girls coming to stay soon and figured it had to be done. So, I bought some sand and raked out the pen. Aiden was busy throwing a spectacular tantrum (I'm NOT cleaning my room and YOU can't make me...yes, I can't make you but I CAN make you stay IN your room til you do!) so Caitie and Conor buckled down and helped me. It was another example of having lovely kids helping out to make a chore go quicker. At the end of the hour it took we had run out of paver but had enough room left to put two lovely grass plants in for the cats to play hide and seek amongst. Tick another job off the list!

and then down came the rain and it rained and it rained and it rained and it rained and are you starting to see a pattern here?

And I want to share another quick story about the kids before I go back to sulking about the rain.

We had about a half hour when the rain stopped so we took Nell, the stafford, to an area down from us where she can go offlead and we could look at the flood water from a safe distance. The kids were around five meters from me and slightly behind me when I noticed movement around a meter or two in front of me. It was a young brown snake.

Brown snakes are deadly. And this one was only small, around a meter long, but still deadly. I froze and called, "Stop, SNAKE" and every single one of my three kids froze in their tracks. Caitie fell apart and kept whimpering, "Mummy. mummy, mummy" but she didn't move. Nell was coming toward me, directly in line with the snake when I dropped one hand, spun on my heel and gave her another hand signal and she ran around to my right, missing where the snake was (gotta love agility hand signals!)

We then quietly turned and walked away. I was so proud that my three kids froze and did exactly what I had taught them to do. We live in an area where snakes are common enough and this one was awfully close. It had right of way and we left it to go where it needed to go without any hysterics on our behalf. Well done guys!

Four Seasons

2011-01-08T14:23:00.003+10:00

I love the changing of the seasons, especially where I live. Living sub-Tropical means that the subtleties of the weather are less pronounced and you need to be in tune with your area to know and understand when seasons end and change.

This year Summer has been a long time coming. We have had squally, windy, rainy days that are just not seen where I live. Its almost Melbourne like! Summer here is days of oppressive heat and humidity where it feels like you are swimming upright. The sun blasts out of a windless sky and sucks the moisture out of your skin. Nothing moves and the cicada's singing in the trees make a strident melody with the mournful moaning of the crows. Summer is school holidays and Christmas, stonefruit and mangoes. Watermelons eaten on freshly mown lawns, with your knees around your ears and spitting seeds at your siblings. Summer is hot but it is broken by a crescendo of sound and lighting that puts any NYE celebration to shame. The storms that roll in are like a Latin Lovers quarrel, vibrant and noisy and shortlived. The world holds its breath as the rain heavy clouds roll in. Then the earth breathes out and the storm hits and lashes with fury. Rain is big drops or massive hail.

Summer nights are either sauna hot, with the mosquitos singing in the dark or spent watching your husband sleep, listening to the rain on the tin roof and seeing him lit up as the lightning races across the sky and the thunder booms into the still air. Ozone is the smell of summer. Frogs making melodies in the pond amongst the raindrops are one of the sounds of summer.

Autumn reminds of a baby with the hiccups. Days of blazing heat at first with a slight catch in the wind. Searingly hot summer breezes soften and relax. The air has a crispness to it that catches you unawares and, before you know it, you are wearing a dressing gown in the mornings and the dog is cold at night. After the endless wringing heat of summer, the world again breathes out, in soft morning puffs of cool air. In my garden Autumn is heralded by the swelling flower buds of the Grevilleas and the Banksias. The birds begin to lengthen their visits as the flowers start to appear. Around the pond it becomes strangely silent as the frogs start to huddle in for a crisply cool winter.

Winter is a time of balmy days and cold nights. Long walks on freezing cold beaches or in the rain followed by hot chocolate with marshmallows and bubble baths afterward. Children with cold noses and sparkling eyes. Slippers and seven cats in the bed at night. My garden has burst into a glorious riot of colour as Lady Queensland puts on her finest for the winter dance. Flowers are heavy with nectar and the bees drone quietly in the soft winter sunshine. While Summer is a season of water, Winter is dry and you can feel it in your bones. Skin is itchy and static is clingy as the August winds sweep in drying everything out and making people cranky. Jumpers stick to your skin and kids spend time shocking everyone with the static electricity from their shoes. The days are too short and the nights never seem long enough. Flannelette sheets make winter a welcome snuggling time.

And then its Spring. It creeps in quietly, one day at a time. The breeze is no longer crisp but warm and welcoming, surrounding you and caressing your skin. The world begins to wake up and stretch but this time with a huge indrawn breath. Early storms march across the horizon and waken the frogs. Night time is busiest with the dok-doks and trills never seeming to end. The soft and sensual introduction to spring never last long and its only a matter of days before the sun is blazing down and we are wondering where winter went.

This years Seasonal Salsa has changed. We have had days and days of never ending rain followed by weak sunshine. Our total has been a week at most of sunshine and heat. And strangely enough, I miss it. I miss that expectation of a good summer storm, of the smell of lightning as it cracks open the sky and lands in the nearby parks. I miss the almight roars as it tears across the horizon. I miss it but I know that it will be back. When the earth breathes in again.

Cindy

Summer.....

2011-01-03T22:22:00.004+10:00

Summer is here, finally and I forgot how truly awful it can be where we live. I am NOT a morning person and, since the kids are on holidays and we own our own business and we're on a weeks holiday, I tend to sleep in. Then when I get up it is already hot, hot, hot!

The unending humidity drains the strength out of you and makes you irritable. Team it with weeks of rain and you have a devastating mix of washing to do, mud, mosquitoes and high humidity. We also have a whole heap of yard work to do which just kills you in this heat. We tend to do what we have to do before 10am and then retire inside to catch up on indoor chores. The kids are I then have a lunchbreak around 12-2 or 3 where we watch a movie, play a game, read or just have quiet time. After 3 its cool enough in our backyard to go out and do some of the endless lopping and raking that a large sized yard offers up.

Today, I tackled the litter pile. We breed cats and cats have to poop and pee somewhere and we are lucky enough to use an all natural wood based product that breaks down and recycles really well. Problem is we have native trees that don't like a high acid soil. Hence the litter pile. It was fenced in on all sides by a corrugated tin fence but that fence had fallen down somewhat and it was teamed with my childrens inability to throw the litter waste into the center of the pile. Said pile had escaped and had worked its way UNDER my washing line. It irritated me no end and I finally had the chance to put it to rights. Before anyone goes all faint and carries on, it was like broken down woodshavings not actual poop. Poop was removed beforehand.

Anyway, I had started to shovel and cart it into the mud soaked chookpen (which is a whole other issue) and was met by Caitie who asked what I was doing. When I told her, she grabbed another shovel and started to help. I could have fallen over! Then, down came Conor....who grabbed another shovel and started to help....this was getting freaky. Finally Aiden came down and was handed a shovel by Caitlin and he jumped in to help as well. At this point toes were being close to being chopped off by four shovels going at once, so I proposed a Conga line.

There we were, Caitie- shovel, dump, back of the line, Aiden-shovel, dump, back of the line, Conor-shovel, dump, back of the line and finally Mummy-shovel, dump, back of the line. I kept the kids motivated by cheering them on and praising the size of the shovelfulls we had to get. It took about half an hour, if that, of solid work and my fence was restored on all four sides, we had had a run in with a legless lizard, numerous spiders and we all had fun!

Tomorrow, I have to do the same sort of thing with the used mulch in my stud cat pen as we have some Layyyydies coming to visit my boy. Lets see if I can get the Conga line started with the promise of iceblocks????

The Eyes of a Child...the Soul of a Killer

2010-12-07T13:37:00.001+10:00

Q has been rehomed. He was fantastic at what he did, he was an awesome working dog. He heeled perfectly and was fast learning everything there was to know about agility. He was my dream dog when it came to performance...and a nightmare with our beloved cats.

Something had to give and it gave with a bang. I had to think of my family as a whole and the right my cats had to live safely in that family. Q was a killer when it came to a cat being outside. Our cats were not allowed to be outside but I have three children and accidents happen, doors don't close and gates are locked before they are shut, leaving them open.

I have found a great home for my boy. He is living on two acres with no cats and no birds. He has a teenage family to play with, young adults who are responsible and respectful and he will live happily, I know this. It doesn't make it any easier but, as I said, its not fair on my family to expect them to live in fear.

Cin

All the Pretty Horses

2010-12-07T13:20:00.006+10:00

After being a parent to a twelve year old girl, I have come to the conclusion that its like breaking a horse in.

You need to focus on the rules and expectations to start with, learning the correct way to do things and correct expectations on behaviour. You can't just gallop through life headfirst and pray you don't hit something. Start by taking quiet steps into the world, stretch your legs after you have stretched your mind and it will all come together.

Caitie is at the stage where we are galloping into puberty and its like trying to hold onto a galloping horse. You need all of your skill to pull those reigns in tight, and then let them slip a bit, pull them in tight and let them slip a bit. At her age there is more tight than slip. Occasionally, we will let the reins go fully and she can have a glorious gallop through freedom from responsibility but we always come back and tighten them up again.

Tony is hopeless at this little game. He wants to keep those reigns tight at all times, directing her constantly through her life, correcting her and pulling her back into line but if you don't relax the reins, how will you know if the lesson is learnt???

With her father, Caitie is in constant battle with him, pulling at those reins and seeing how much give they have. She is literally chaffing at the bit to try and get away with as much as possible. With me, the reins aren't as tight and she gets away with that little bit more. Sometimes she runs with the bit and I have to haul her back in but its not a regular occurence.

I see some of her classmates who haven't got the same respect for their parents that our children do. Twelve year old girls turning up at school wearing more makeup than their mothers do. Thick eyeliner, short skirts and attitudes up the bazooka. It will make for an intersting dynamic next year as Caitie heads for the Teenager Target.

I know Caitie is not as mature as her classmates and I can only hope that my Pretty Pony can handle herself amongst all the Pretty Horses.

Cin

Tea Time

2010-11-16T22:40:00.002+10:00

There is a company which has just recently perfected a kettle which makes the perfect cup of tea. My thought was, "Does it also bring the wisdom with it?"

In my house I have a huge old camping kettle. It's enamel and has seen its share of triumphs and tragedies in its day. It came to us through a garage sale and is big and brown and full of personality. It holds around twenty cups of water which is enough for a really long D & M session.

To me, a cup of tea is not just about what you are drinking, whether its green, red, black, oolong, herbal or chai. It's the making of the tea, the process. Our kettle goes on the stove. You have a good fifteen minutes to air your problems or share your joys while waiting for the beast to boil. It doesn't whistle to interupt the conversation, there are no beeps or burrrrs to tell you its time to brew, just a soft, steady stream of steam.

Then there is the making of the tea. Me? White with two and leave the teabag in. Herbal it has to be peppermint, a tea that Aiden really likes as well, two sugars there too. Tony has his medium strong, white with two, Caitie and Conor tend to like weak and milky with one. And give it time to brew. An extra few minutes to think of the right thing to say or offer the right words of sympathy.

A cuppa is all about change as well. As I said before, I like herbal and prefer it to normal black tea. If I drink black tea, it has to be English Breakfast, unless I have a cold and then Earl Grey clears the sinuses. I have recently discovered Rooibos and like it with a dash of vanilla. My dad used to drink his tea white with two, always white with two. Then he and my mum seperated, divorced and he met my lovely stepmum. Now its black with one, she thinks he needs to be healthier. I find that sad, someone dictating your brew.

Tea holds memories, like no other liquid can. My kids all had a cuppa tea in their bottle when they were starting to wean . My day usually starts with my husband handing me my brew, it kick starts my day. Piping hot tea off an open fire was how we always had it when camping as a kid....and then there was that Monday, 9 years ago, in September.

I had changed to a tea called Invigorate, a succelent blend of mint and lemongrass, vanilla and thistle. Aiden was just over one, it had been an awful year for us, I had been diagnosed with Cancer and we had bravely fought and won that battle. On this Monday, I had my tea out on the back stairs and I remember thinking what a beautiful Spring day it was, so very quiet. It never occurred to me that it was too quiet.

I went in to turn on the tv as we normally did and I wondered why they were playing a drama movie at that time of the morning... at that point the first plane flew into the twin towers and our world changed forever. I will never forget that cup of tea, as long as I live.

Tea brings happiness, that hot cup taken while having your makeup done on your wedding day, or anticipation, sipping while waiting to hear news of a new baby. It gives solace when there are no words and also gives those of us who don't know how to grieve something to do. We make the tea, we follow the ritual, we give our offering and the recipient knows that that humble cup holds more than tea, it holds the feelings "I know, I understand, I will be here for you." It builds bridges and creates bonds, it makes a philosopher of us all.

And may it never grow cold....

Cin

How did I get to this????

2010-10-31T22:26:00.003+10:00

Ok, I know I've been a little maudlin lately but I had to share something that confuses me.

I was bullied in High School...not just picked on but seriously bullied, I am talking about hit, spat on, had dead reptiles thrown at me, abused and denigrated. I know my tormentors don't remember the hell they put me threw when I consider the amount of them who want to friend me on Facebook. I sit here and think "You called me a useless whore, a bitch, a slut and every other name under the sun. You hurt me physically, emotionally and mentally and NOW you want to be my friend?" Unlike High School I can now choose to delete you from my life!

Thats not what confuses me though. Like most people who had a traumatic upbringing of sorts, I have quite low self esteem. Most people who meet me don't know this, all they see is the quirky, funny woman I have become. However, put me in a room with ten strangers and I will be scratching my nails to the quick trying to get out!

What I don't understand is why so many people seem to like me? And no, before you ask, this isn't my way of asking everyone to come out of the woodwork and sign my blog, telling me how great I am...though that would be nice! Its more a case of meeting people for the first time and having them decide they really like me. I'm not used to it. AND I've been out of high school for many, many years. (twenty but who's counting).

We went to a garage sale the other day and it happened to be around the corner from me and I felt, like I usually do, that I was never going to see these people again so I was my usual weird self. Husband then chose to drop in again on the way to work and the wife mentioned she would love to have a couple of glasses of wine with me just because she loved my sense of humour! I am not used to having that affect on people! I have another friend who is younger than me and sees me as a mother figure...she told me this.

I am not used to being liked and respected, its weird...I'm just me, crazy, quirky, funny, round me!

Cin

Happy? Oh, there you are....

2010-10-17T12:24:00.003+10:00

I found my happy...it was in a funny place and took a rainy walk on a sleepy Sunday to bring it home.

We were expecting some really rough, dangerous weather to hit that night and all Monday so, after a week of torrential rain, I took the slightest break in the weather to take the two stircrazy dogs for a walk.

As you know, I have found it hard to interract with them lately, due to the tragedy that unfolded last month. So, I went out in my usual sad state and concentrated on enjoying the break in the weather. The regular pace of my dogs soothed me in a way I hadn't found in a long time, the steady trot lulling me into a peaceful mindest.

At our usual haunt there is a storm culvert in the large open park and it usually has an inch or two of water in it. Due to the recent rain it had a good two foot of still water, no current and the park itself had large open puddles. Once I released the hounds Q and Nell took off like bats out of hell, running in gigantic circles, pouncing on each other and being fools. Q ran through the puddles and grinned like a teenager, his tongue lolling out of a huge smile, jumping in puddles just like a big kid.

And then.... both dogs tried to run across the storm culvert at the exact same time and two dogs sunk like bricks, leaving two black noses just above the water. The turn around time was a fraction of a second and then the water exploded with Q hurtling out and Nell doing her usual washing machine impression of swimming. The look on her face was priceless, she was most indignant and THAT is when I found my happy....deep belly laughs billowed out of me, guffaws shook me and there I was, in the rain, wiping away tears of laughter.

We continued our walk home, with my happy settled next to my heart, two wet dogs and a sense of peace I haven't felt in ages........I found my happy!

The Naughties

2010-10-17T11:47:00.003+10:00

We have to deal with alot of customers in our shop, some good, some bad, some really bad but you know that you've finally lost it when the bears begin to revolt!

We have three bears made by Russ, a toy maker that most people have heard of and these three terrors are collectively known as the Naughties. They scale the furniture, they chat up the dolls, they take over the quilts, they try and steal stuff from the jars; they are just plain naughty!

And I have proof!

Scaling the cupboard so they can see.
Thats a honey jar and they HAD to see if there was any left!

A recent rainy day and they huddled under the quilt. The first time I have seen them still...

See, people have the nerve to tell me I'm crazy but I know those bears will be the death of me!

Lost...one happy...if found, please call....

2010-10-05T19:28:00.005+10:00

I can't find my happy...I've temporarily lost it. I can't find it.... but I know when I lost it.

One month ago our lives spiralled downhill. For anyone who knows us they know that our animals are our lives. Tony and I breed and show our beloved Devon Rex. Tony had the number 1 Devon in our cat council, a stunning tortie girl called Marble.

We have an automatic door closer that wasn't functioning as well as it could. My male stafford Q had figured out how to open the door and the door then hadn't closed. Marble went outside and sometime during the day she was killed by my dogs. MY dogs...the dogs I had plans to breed and continue my bloodlines.

Tony fell apart, his world was shattered as Marble was his beloved pretty girl. She was a gorgeous typey girl who we had big plans for...and my dogs ended her life. I can't get the image of that out of my mind. Or of Q bringing a small part of her fur to us as his trophy, he was so proud of himself. I had to deal with some of the remains while dealing with my own grief. Everything I knew and loved about my dogs had turned around and bitten me in the butt.

I immediately contacted Q's breeder and asked her to rehome him. Nell was in season and we were mere days away from preparing for a litter of pups but all those plans came to a screeching halt. I couldn't look at my dogs or touch them for three days.

And during this time I fell sick, I fell very,very sick. I had a cold before all of this and all of the stress made it settle on me very heavily. I was heartsick, I was emotionally sick, I was physically sick and I was mentally sick...I was broken.

A month has passed and we have dealt with our emotions and our feelings of loss.I returned to dog training with Q this week. I made the decision to get him desexed and I haven't regretted it. But I have discovered a side effect from all of this stress....I've lost my happy. I've lost the joy of training Q, of working with him and seeing him enjoy working with me. I came home from training last night and wept in my husbands arms.

And, I don't know where to find it or how to get it back.......if you find my happy, can you please let me know?

Little Bears Don't Bounce

2010-09-21T18:09:00.004+10:00

Conor has spent a fair amount of time recently falling off, over and through various things, including taking regular dives off the trampoline. I have discovered that when there is no blood and no obvious injury the best cure is a Mummy hug and a hot bubble bath....

He obviously has NO brain injuries to speak of....*sigh*

Broken

2010-09-09T19:19:00.004+10:00

Yes, I know my last post was about how Superhuman I am, how I can take this mans world and rock it blah blah blah but....after two days of solid working my arse off, I broke.

We moved the houselot on Tuesday and I worked at my regularly job as a dog groomer on Wednesday, came home to two devestated little boys who wanted to go to the school disco but weren't allowed to because they hadn't cleaned their room and their kept on crying and crying and moaning and crying, dinner wasn't ready, I was supposed to leave to go to Agility training in 15 minutes and...I...broke.

Like a windup toy without a key, I stopped working. I made dinner, sat down and literally couldn't move. I was so awe inspiringly, gob smackingly tired, I couldn't move. I couldn't go to training even if people were depending on me. I sat down, I vegged, I read a good book and went to bed where I slept deeply and dreamlessly.

Sometimes, we need to not just wind the key but oil the soul as well.

I Am Woman, Hear Me &%#.....

2010-09-07T18:55:00.004+10:00

My husband and I own an antique store. This means that, on a regular basis, all five foot of me gets to lug around peices of furniture which are several times my size. I have had two hand surgeries this year and still have gripping issues, my back regularly clicks out but I don't complain. I get to it, I pick huge wardrobes up and pop them on the back of our ute. I single handedly carry items that would make a grown man whimper. And then, after a full day of rearranging furniture, clearing houselots, loading and unloading robes etc, I quite happily wander off to agility and do it all again with the agility equipment.

Today we cleared a house. Today we moved around fifteen large peices of furniture including wardrobes, dressers, washstands, beds etc including a massive maple wardrobe that was twice my height and twice my length. Being twice my height and length means I couldn't lift it to clear the ground, and neither could husband, but I still managed to team lift it with hubby out the house, down the stairs, we both dropped it spectacularly through a shed (one of the mirrors broke dammit all!) and onto the ute. Hubby and I looked at each other in pure disbelief that we managed to get it on there! Everything was tied down and moved to the shop.

Once at the shop we unloaded it, it fell on me and pinned me to the ute and still I didn't complain. We loaded it onto a furniture trolley, which was exceedingly dodgy and managed to man (and woman) handle it around the corner and ready to go into the shop. Thats where we hit the first hitch, it was a half size again the height of the door frame. So, we laid it down on the trolley where it promptly started to slide off.

And that's when my knight in rusty army arrived. Rather than address the fact that the thing was sliding off due to the weight, he proceeded to try and get me to LET IT GO so HE could lift it. When he realised exactly how heavy and awkward it was, he sniffed and said, "Thats why I only collect little things," pushed past us and went into the shop.

Together hubby and I got it into the shop and finally into place. Standing back and looking at our handiwork, we were interrupted by the Knight saying, to husband, "You see, there's you're problem, other dealers hire a young man or two to help them but its harder when you've only got your wife." At that point hubby started looking madly at the ceiling while my temperature started to rise.

I fixed this idot with a steely glare while he continued to tell Tony that I couldn't possibly be as able bodied as a strapping young man. I continued to hold my tongue as tact and diplomacy are not my strong suit and I have REALLY been working on them. As he continued to wander around the shop I started to ask Tony to pull things down for me because "I was JUST a WOMAN and I couldn't POSSIBLY do that MYSELF".

I think it was a mere half a second after he left that I lost it and began bellowing about sanctimonious arseholes who wouldn't know a real woman from his blowup doll....and husband started laughing...he told me he was counting the seconds until I up and bitch slapped the wanker LOL!

ROADTRIP!

2010-09-05T21:28:00.003+10:00

When I was a kid we used to go camping. Every September we would pack up and head somewhere. When we lived in the bush it was always to a farmers property where we could camp on the banks of a river and enjoy your morning cuppa with a cow or two and occasionally a horse would steal your coffee or toast. When we lived closer to the city it was to caravan parks, camping grounds etc and no matter where we went we had a ball.

I had the opportunity to take the Noodle and the kids up to Maryborough for the weekend, chasing that damn elusive Gamblers title and also running Agility, Jumpers, Snooker and Strategic Pairs(dog sports huh!). After clearing it with hubby I made the booking for a small camping ground on the outskirts of Maryborough called the Country Stopover Caravan and Camping Ground.

The journey was a mere two and a half hours but it was worth it. We arrived to a closed main office with a sign stating " Open from 9am to 10pm- If office is unattended, pick a spot...we'll catch up with you later!" This illicited a huge belly laugh from me at the honesty this implied! Off we toddled and chose a great spot under shady trees, near the amenities block (why is it that one of the taps never turns off...ever? Is it a quirk of fate or the Camping Gods just messin with ya?) The kids hit the swimming pool, it was tiny, saltwater and absolutley freezing but they swam and splashed like fish. I even jumped in and froze my bits off.

We then headed on out to the first of the two day trials. What a fantastic event! The judges were laid back, the atmosphere was friendly, the kids had two whole football fields to run around and act like fools in and we came away that night with two Q's, a third and a first place! The only thing was it ran very late. At one point Conor fell asleep in a full upright sitting position with his chin in one hand. Myself and several friends spent several minutes trying to figure out why gravity was apparently NOT applying to him! He did eventually shake himself awake enough to roll into a little ball where he was trodden on by a wayward whippet, checked over by Dan-Dan-He's-Our-Man, the lovable Lhasa owned by the adorable Bec and cuddled by Nell.

Back at the tent we realised quite quickly that shady trees don't work at night when you are less than twenty metres from a major highway, also known as a trucking route. The trucks were hideously noisy but we were so tired it didn't really matter.

Caitie is a doona hog as is Nell! I woke up to find myself covered in the dog rug having frozen during the night and Caitie was wrapped up in one doona, Nell was laying in between her and Conor, on her back both snoring and farting and the boys were sharing the two remaining doona's!

Breakfast opened a whole new high for us...the camp kitchen. I don't care about the prickles, the weeds, the rusting hulks of cars behind the managers residence, the dodgy looking demountables, the scary amenities but that camp kitchen was schmicko! It had a running sink, fridge, free gas barbeque, wood stove, huge picnic tables and even a tv! I was in love.

And to me, that was the sign of a great camping ground. It wasn't about perfect amenities, it was about the things that made camping easier for everyone. I happily told everyone about our "dodgy camping ground". You know, we actually packed up and left without even seeing the owner or paying for our stay????

After the second days trial, I did go back and pay...and he even undercharged me! Would I go back, hell yes, and the kids had a ball as well! And still...that damn Gamblers title eluded me again!

FOOD FIGHT!!!

2010-08-29T21:36:00.004+10:00

'K, so, when Aiden was five, I made a rather rash promise to him. I said that for his tenth birthday he could have a food fight. I figured he would forget all about it....and the joys of living with an Aspie kid get better and better. They don't forget sh*t!

First day of year 1 he invited his whole class. I had to put the brakes on it and told him to wait. He waited with patience and a diligence I have yet to see in his school work...and this weekend, we had the biggest food fight our 'burb' has ever seen.

We started with pulling a single lolly out of a pile of flour with their teeth, the winner went on a "grudge list" where they could choose the first missile fired and at whom in the final food fight. The second game was a Freddo frog game which involved moving half melted Freddos from one plate to another and back again and then eating them without using their hands.

The third game was spaghetti hair styles. This was hilarious as we had an odd number and hubby had to jump in and help.... he kept complaining the pasta was cold LOL.

This was followed by games such as finding one lolly in a bunch of balloons filled with flour, water, sauce and a combination of all three. There was a sauce flinging targetting game, lemonade roulette and the final game, which was an absolute cracker....

The Jelly Dunk!

Take one big deep plastic container and set 12 packets of red jelly in it. Add a packet of lolly snakes and, when set, whisk with a handbeater (this breaks the snakes up and makes the whole thing look like red vomit, very appealing to boys). Finally, hide an entire 20 pack of Freddo frogs in said jelly and you have the setting for an absolute hoot. The kids had to dunk for frogs with their hands behind their backs. They had ten seconds to pull out as many as they could. And trust me, that stuff was cold! The first round the kids were really tentative, by the second round we had full head dunking and jelly in ears, eyes, mouths!

Then it was time for cake and the final all in brawl! 11 kids, numerous plates of spaghetti, baked beans, custard, flour, macaroons, strawberries, tomatoes, jelly, leftover cake and you have one heck of a big mess....luckily we have chickens and dogs to clean up!

All in it was a fantastic boy party, one that will be talked about for a while. And most importantly? My shyboy got out and partied with the best of them.

Spring is just around the corner, I can nearly feel it!

A Whole Heap o' Hurt

2010-08-28T22:15:00.002+10:00

I don't get along with my parents-in-law, in fact we are estranged from A's parents completely. This is through no fault of ours but through the stubborness of two very difficult people. Hubby and I have had to fight our way through the tons of bullshit hefted our way, regularly and with a football sized shovel and still I was never good enough.

There were times he held me while I wept. You see, I get along with pretty much everybody. If I don't like you, I will still treat you with civility. I turn the other cheek so often I only have a tan on one side of my face! All I ever wanted was a M-I-L that I could share our troubles with, maybe a S-I-L that I could have coffee with and share a whole mess of cousins. Even a F-I-L who would show my boys how to do "stuff" and coo over our girl. Instead, I recieved hate, mistrust, rudeness and an ability to cause pain that would make a dentist needle look obselete.

And you know what, I can deal with that. It hurts to be completely ignored when you speak but try that shit on my kids and I will bitch slap you from here until Christmas and don't think you're stopping for Thanksgiving! We were estranged for a few years when the death of A's beloved Grandmother brought us back together as a family. Not for long.

I watched as the P-I-L came over to help with some tree lopping and my M-I-L fawned all over my daughter....while ignoring my three year old son. He sat there with his big brown eyes and a worry on his tiny face because he was getting no attention and I broke. I broke for him, I broke for the years of pain this could potentially cause and I broke for my husband. How two nasty people could produce a loving and caring individual such as my husband is astonishing beyond belief. I know he didn't learn his compassion from them!

Why this lengthy evil P-I-L bashing session?

They live not more than five minutes away from me. Husband and I helped them renovate great whopping swathes of their home. We helped build the bar, refurbish the lounge room, build the rotunda for the spa, the deck for the back of the house, I even painted a mural in their downstairs toilet. Before all of the niceness ended we had great times there. The only way I learnt about A's childhood was from sessions spent with a quiet port around a roaring brazier as stories were swapped. It was insightful and eyeopening but I felt I knew him better.

Yesterday I saw their house for sale in the paper. It has been sold. And my heart hurt. It hurt and it cracked and it broke into a million pieces. Why? Because once they move, we won't know where they will be. It will be the absolute end of one branch of our family tree. Before this, that branch was there but it was diseased and mis-shapen. If only they had of asked or extended a hand, we then could have pruned that branch back into shape. Now, the branch will be gone and there will be no going back.

Try and explain that to a twelve year old who remembers riding the lawnmower with her Pop, a ten year old who needs love and constant reassurance....and a six year old who they don't even know exists and who they don't know his name, his age or even his sex. Go on...just try.

Cin

Boils, Toils and Little Boys

2010-08-20T10:27:00.006+10:00

On the 18th of August, 2000 my father was visiting and removing a garden path which he had a particular use for. It was late in the afternoon, a lovely warm winters day and Tony was at work. Every time I moved my dads eyes would shoot up to me and he would ask, with some concern, "Are you OK?" He is sweet and funny and had every right to be concerned since I was pregnant with my second child...very, VERY pregnant. At that time, on that day I was pretty darn sure I was in the early stages of labour. My back was killing me and I was getting regularly short little contractions. He asked if he could take Caitie home with him for a sleep over with him and Nanna Jen and I was happy to oblige.

No less than ten hours later I was in the labour and delivery ward giving my son away. Nope, by that stage I had had enough, the contractions were incredibly painful and I was not doing this any MORE! So I told Jen she could have him, yup, lock, stock and two smokin barrels, he was hers!

Ten years on, I hafta look back and laugh at that early recollection of Aidens birth. I was supremely disappointed I was having another C-section and was dismally aware of what a failure of a real woman I was. Couldn't give birth normal, couldn't breast feed normal...I sucked...and yet, I had one of the fattest and happiest babies of all. He had long roo feet and acted like a koala. His first nickname was Drop Bear because he ate and slept. Placid, content and rarely fractious.

Caitie adored him from the start and we used to sing a song to our boy as he was being bottle fed....

Baby, don't cry

Baby, dont cry

Its alright now

When the world is getting you down

And you don't know what to do

I'll be a friend to call on

I'll be there for you, so

Baby, don't cry
Baby, dont cry
Its alright now
Its alright now...

Her sweet voice always got me.

And then, tragedy hit our family. Aiden was 11 months old and I was diagnosed with Cancer of the tongue. Apparently I was swearing too much (grin) Nine days in hospital with 25% of my tongue removed, a scar from one side of my neck to the other, up and around my ear. But we got through it, just in time to celebrate Aidens first birthday. By that stage he had become a happy, healthy, bubbly bundle of joy who earnt his second nickname, Tootle, for the way he wandered around on his little trike.

And time marches on. This kid has been in the wars like all kids. He fell over in the yard and gouged a hole in his knee which was fine until he visited my Uncles farm and let every bacteria known to man in it. When he got home, the whole knee was hot to the touch and the sore itself was black. It took me sitting on him and Tony holding him down to lance it! And then there was the time he decided to paint the bathroom floor with soap....he jumped out of the bath, looked at his toes as they zoomed past his ears and cracked his chin open on the bath...or when he had croup so badly he was close to dying. His body was fighting for oxygen, he was blue around the mouth and making no sense as his brain was starved with air. I got him to the hospital just in time.

In 2004 we welcomed his baby brother Conor to the world...and these two have been as thick as thieves since. Where there is trouble there is one dark head of hair and one blonde usually hunched over the top of it. Naughtiness is second nature to them, bodily emission jokes are fantastic and when a fit of the giggles comes on, nothing can stop it. Conor still sneaks up into Aidens bed of a night time. Conor fell out one night, hit the floor with a thud that scared the doolies out of the both of them. Now, Aiden makes sure Conor is on the inside of the bunk bed.

School has been hard. After three years of something being "not quite right" we got a diagnosis. Aiden is an Aspergers Kid. He sees the world different to us. Sometimes we have to let go and see the world the same way. He is funny with it though. He won't eat tinned fish because he knows its cat food. You can't tell him any different. He is terrified of deep water and it took two years for him to jump off the diving blocks because he was convinced that the water didn't have a bottom. He has the attention span of a gnat. But when something catches him, it catches him hard and fast. He loves researching the weather and loves trains.

And he loves his girl. She is his best friend at school and these two are stuck at the hip. A is naughty, sassy, spunky and full of fun. And A loves him dearly (though she won't admit it). She mothers him like a Mother Duck, tucks his shirt in and makes sure he has everything. They are so sweet. She hugs me when she sees me and I love her to bits because she sees past Aidens problems to the fantastic person he is inside.

And now he is ten! He comes out with the funniest things. Calls his sister Miss Fersnickety. He makes me laugh and hurts my head all at the same time. I hate it when he gets frustrated because I can't help him. I have to stand back and let him fall and then be there to pick up the pieces. I have to teach him to control his wildfire temper. I have to be there to make sure he doesn't let it go and accidently hurt someone, usually Caitlin. Its a tough road, paved with stones but occasionally? We'll hit a stone with a hidden gem.

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!

Boys and Body Odour

2010-08-14T13:26:00.002+10:00

Yep, I'm going there, into the green misty world of the foul and fetid.

As well as issues with #2's, A also has a severe intolerance for dried fruit....which he has used to devastating effect.

Not long ago the kids had a mixed bag of dried fruit and nuts with their school lunch and A had around three prunes. They gave him gas that bad that the flowers in my garden went out in sympathy. Our air quality was seriously affected. His dad went off at him because A quite often dropped and ran. So, A then broke into the fridge and stole more prunes just to prolong the agony! Devious little mite he is.

Anyway, I bumped into his teacher at school the other day and Mr G told me he had a problem with A.

Me: Yes, what now...*sigh*
Mr G: He's farting.
Me: Well he does have some issues with certain foods......
Mr G: No, you don't understand, I don't mind if he takes himself outside and farts its just...well
Me: What? (looking puzzled)
Mr G: Umm, he dropped one, went outside and locked all the windows and doors and told his class mates to "Enjoy it boys."

I had to turn away. I had to slap my hand over my stupid mouth because I was in danger of erupting into fits of giggles.

His father was quite proud...*sigh*

Cindy

Big Fish Little Fish

2010-08-03T16:01:00.002+10:00

I am a member of a Dog Obedience club and, without bragging, I could say I am one of the "Big Fish" there. By that I mean that I am the Equipment Officer, I'm an Instructor in both Obedience and Agility and I get to wear a funky club shirt. Its a big deal. It means that the new people listen to me, they come to me for advice and listen when I give it. I kow the ins and outs of the club, have my own keys, occassionally get to yell at people and know people and their dogs by name...they also know me by name.

I am also a trainee Judge for Shorthair cats. As a trainee judge, it means I am a little fish....actually, I am krill. And thats really hard to deal with. I have to be the one listening, showing respect, curbing my personality and being someone totally different than I normally am.

It is so darn hard! Actually, you know what it reminds me of? Grade 7....when you are the head of the school, you can pick on the little kids and you are a god...then you hit high school and you are an amoebe. A germ I tells ya! Its a whole new world full of watching your p's and q's and learning how to handle yourself.

Unlike high school however, I get to be a Big Fish twice a week. So, I reckon its worth it.

The School Mosquito

2010-07-29T15:53:00.002+10:00

Strange name for a post but this is what I feel our school has become. A blood sucking mosquito. My kids are coming home regularly with their hands out for money for excursions, assignments, classes the works...AND THEY AREN'T EVEN OUT OF PRIMARY SCHOOL YET!

Caitie and Aiden were told they HAD to have the school diaries. $10 each when I had bought them both a perfectly good generic one for 97c down the road. Each child is being charge $80 to do sports off campus. Why? Because they apparently compete against the other schools in the area. Caitlin is being charge $20 for Home Ec...but she brings her own ingredients. $50 each for computer studies when the computers were donated to the school. Conor was charge for an excusion that was cancelled. Aiden has an outstanding account of $3.60 for another excursion. I ALWAYS pay for the excursions up front, so explain to me why I am being charged????

Add to that the daily torment about their uniforms and I am ready to rip someone apart. Detention for wearing tracksuit pants with a formal shirt, detention for wearing the wrong length sock, detention for wearing a coloured HAIRBAND or headband.

It has to stop...why? Because my kids go to a State School. Not a private school, a bloody state school!

C

Stone Angels

2010-07-24T15:10:00.003+10:00

K, so I'm not a religious zealot and I have my own faith thankyou very much Mr Knock-On-My-Door-At-Dinnertime. I just wanna know when we turned into such horrible people!

I am in gobsmacking awe of just how bad people have become. Famous examples...Lohan who believes that she shouldn't HAVE to go to jail when she was told to quit drinking and had a purdy bracelet to stop her...the nutcase Venables who figured that he had a new name, new life so he could pose as a PARENT and offer his "daughter" to other perves and download porn from other parents...I just found a website on a church that protests outside FUNERALS of soldiers killed in action cause hey they don't believe in any war effort and tough poo its your fault you got killed and you're going to hell.

On the homefront, people who don't listen and learn and then whinge when everything goes pearshaped. People who believe that a position of authority equates to power and then wield it like a sword trying to cut everyone down who doesn't agree with them. Twats on Facebook who believe their opinion is the be-all and end-all and if you disagree wrath doth rain down. People who join any form of club as a hobby and denegrate other members, run the clubs into the ground, throw tantrums that would put a two year old to shame and fling around law suits like they are yesterdays washing.

I have one simple message for you....GROW UP!

As I said, I ain't religious but lets just look at what the Ten Commandments, or ten life lessons can teach us...

1)You shall have no other Gods before Me- Roughly translated, there is A god...you can believe in whoever you want, whether it be black, white or brindle, just stick with one and stop flinging different beliefs in...oh and that means one ain't biggerer or betterer than the rest.

3) Make no idols etc etc etc- Wellll, maybe that means can we please take Australian Idol off the air, puleeze??? Cause its taking off all the good shows.

3)Taking the Lords name if vain- Can we just try to cut down on the swearing and the cussing? When I hear my six year old yelling, "Oh for Gods sake..." Even I wanna smack him one. If it ain't your God or belief don't use it, you'll just piss someone off!

4)Remember the Sabbath day- as much as I wish it means let me sleep in, I firmly believe that it means take one day, whatever day it may be, to honour and cherish your family and faith. Whether its the Catholic Church, Jewish, Islam or even just going for a walk in the bush and drinking in all that Mother Nature has to offer. Take time to worship your life!

Now we get to the gritty stuff...

5)Honor thy father and mother- This is not rocket science. We have been here far longer on earth than you have and we are still alive therefore we must have done something right. What we say goes, unless you can come up with a reallllllly good reason why. Its our perogative to listen to you, nod wisely and then say no....because we said so.

6)You shall not commit murder- Well doesn't that just explain itself???? Who the heck thinks they are so important that they can take someone else's life away. Or someones Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, Best friends life away. Put down the knives and the guns and talk stuff through. Don't be killin someone cause they gave you plain salt instead of chicken salt on your chips.

7) You shall not commit adultery- If you want to dip your wick in someone else's candle, DON'T. Not only will you hurt yourself in the long run but you will also hurt your kids, your friends, your family...thats what fantasies were invented for. Close your eyes and picture Angelina Jolie.... or Brad Pitt if you're a wandering female or both if you're undecided.

8)You shall not steal- Why on earth do young people believe that the world belongs to them??? When did it become passe' to take stuff. Bring back the slap-upside-the-head-coppers I say. It doesn't belong to you, so leave it be!

9)You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour- in other words, unless you know something for a fact, shut the hell up! So many people indulge in idol gossip these days that is hurtful and denegrates people. What do you think school bullies do??? Just quit it.

10)Don't covet nothing!- Ok, I changed it somewhat but I sooo wasn't typing about your neighbours ox. Roughly translates into- you got your own stuff, leave everyone else's stuff alone. If you want it, earnt it, stop sitting there googly eyed cause you can't have it.

Ok, so thats my version of the 10 Commandments.

It just kills me that so many kids are adrift, so many people are lost in our society today. When we took away the Church, we took away the simplest of life lessons. We didn't have to have a bible to learn to be good but we do need a list of rules. Take away the rules and people don't have boundaries and don't know how to act. Again, it comes down to one hard, concrete fact....Be true to yourself, act in a way you would like to be remembered, practice tact and discretition and you will remembered as being a good person...and isn't that what we all want? To be good.

C

Suffer the Little Children

2010-06-24T12:19:00.003+10:00

A teacher is a person we entrust our children to for six hours a day, five days a week. He needs to convey a sense of leadership whilst encouraging a nurturing environment in which the students can learn. He needs to share his wisdom and teach his philosphies with integrity, diplomacy and most importantly, passion.

In 2008 Caitie was subjected to six months of abuse from her Grade 5 teacher. Her entire class was subjected to this evil man. This "teacher" threw chairs and desks, called the children filthy names under his breath, yet was heard by the students, he grabbed one child hard enough to create bruises and he knocked Caitie to the ground as she stopped to do up her shoelace. He then laughed at her. He clipped students around the head and called them idiots. This man was not, nor will he ever be, fit to be a teacher. Two years ago we campaigned to have him removed from the school. He left on stress leave and we were told he was never to return. After months of holding my daughter while she cried and begged to stay at home, I had a happy girl again. After six months of failing grades, Caitlin found that school could once again be a safe place and she blossomed under her new teacher.

Yesterday I was given the news that this man was returning to the school to take over Conors year 1 class. A man who could not handle a group of 9-10 year olds is being given the job of teaching 6 year olds. In 2008 he took a group of 4-5 year old Prep students for a swimming class and was screaming at them to get dressed, causing quite a few to burst into tears. This will be the third teacher for the class due to the first teacher, Mrs S going on maternity leave. This wonderful educator took quite a few weeks to find the perfect teacher, Miss H to take her place. Now, her choice of teacher is being pushed to the side to make way for a monster. In a meeting with Miss H to discuss the students, she asked him if he wanted to return to teaching, he said no. Was he happy to be back teaching, he said no, he was biding his time until retirement. A committed, enthusiastic young teacher is being replaced by this man who is using Year 1 as a placeholder until he can retire.

That is just the kind of person I want in charge of my childs education.

As Bertrand Russell once said, "More important than the curriculum is the question of the methods of teaching and the spirit in which the teaching is given."

I couldn't put it better myself. Let him back and suffer the little children.

Sadly

Cindy

The Return of Super MUM!!!

2010-06-03T22:30:00.002+10:00

Life has been insanely frantic lately. We are leading up to a huge weekend and this week has been manic. Monday I worked as well as gromming, delivering furniture and organising my next few weeks off training.

Tuesday we delivered furniture and picked furniture up from Ipswich. When I got home I discovered I had forgotten to groom one of my favourite clients so had to race to school, pick up the kids, then groom Fleur the poodle, race home in time for a wonderful lady to come over and choose her new fur baby.

Wednesday dawned with a flying visit to a friend and our work partners home to pick up shelving for the shop and visit with Fairy Mouse, her daughters companion Devon who left our home for her house and likes to eat our cake!

Thursday, furniture deliveries to Eatons Hill and back to the shop where we rearranged the entire shop and cleaned out the store-room, THEN flying out the door to deliver repairs and other stock which we no longer needed.

Friday will be another nightmare day with my final hand surgery happening at 10am. While I spend the rest of the day resting (yeah right) husband will be tending to the shop as well as delivering two lots of stock in the afternoon.

Finally, Saturday and Sunday will bring no less than six Agility runs per day! Nell and I are competing for our Novice Agility, Jumping Dog Excellent, Snooker Dog Novice, Gamblers Dog Novice and Strategic Pairs Excellent titles or qualifications. I am going prepared with plenty of toys, a new collar and some yummy chicken wings for Nell to help keep her strength up. There is going to be good food, great company and fantastic competition all weekend.

BRING IT ON!!

Cheers!

A Huge Day.

2010-05-16T21:40:00.008+10:00

At the end of the Summer holidays, the kids and I went to the Museum and, on a whim, followed through to the Gallery of Modern Art. There the kids came in contact with an artwork by Australian artist Ron Mueck. It was a gigantic sculpture of a woman in bed. The realism was amazing at it blew my kids away. So when we found out that he was having a display at the Gallery, well we had to go!

We went around the entire display and I asked each child to tell me their favourite piece. The kids were enthralled with each work and amazed with the depth of detail each one had.

Aidens favourite was the newborn baby "A Girl". It was gigantic and so realistic.

Big Head is another favourite of all three of my children. Each individial bristle had to be hand placed into microscopic pores. He even has his teeth in place and nostril hairs!

Another interesting fact about this piece is that it is a like a giant mask. There is not substance to it, it is literally a mask!

We all found this one to be quite disturbing, mainly for the fact that the subject seemed unaffected by the fact he had been stabbed and was bleeding. There was no emotion. This one affected Caitie quite a bit.

Now we all know boys love gruesome stuff but even this one was a bit gross for my boys. This dead chicken, called Still Life, is about the size of an elephant and hangs inelegantly from a butchers hook suspended from the ceiling.

It is gory and real yet strangely puppetlike. You expect the thing to suddenly start flapping! It was a magnet for alot of children.

If you went around the other side of the bird, you could see where its throat had been cut and all the innards exposed. Very clinical though, no blood.

This gentleman, in his big boat, seemed cold and grumpy to the kids. He held little interest as he was not on their eye level.

Caitlins favourite piece is "In Bed". She told me when she first saw it that she thought the lady was very sad and unhappy. She kept coming back to it though. It was interesting to watch how many people copied her hand position without realising they were doing it. I find her disturbing and heartbreakingly sad.

This is a very jolly lady, attuned to her work. Mind you, there is no way I would be picking these up in the nudy! The balance was excellent, symmetrical.

One of the more "controversial" pieces to show children. It is called Wild Man and Conor liked him immensely. (He secretly told me he liked that he was in the nude. Caitie said that she thought he had a small penis for his size LOL). I did tell my kids before going in that they would be seeing graphic nudity and they already knew what a willy looked like. After a few little sniggers, they settled down to look at the sculptures as a whole rather than just the rude bits.

Yes, I did blank out his bits for those who don't really want to see a gigantic big willy. This was another confronting piece. The title suggested someone who was used to being on his own and the subject seemed anxious and uncomfortable being thrust, naked, into the spotlight.

Caitie and Aiden assessing the gigantic baby. They found the blood and placenta traces to be both fascinating and appalling in equal measures.

While I appreciated the detail, I found this one to be the most unrealistic of all the pieces.

And finally, my favourite piece. Titled "Old Woman In Bed", it is an elderly woman who appears very ill, sleeping huddled under a blanket. It is beautiful in a very sad way. You want to walk up and gently brush the hair off her brow and whisper quietly that it will be alright. It captures a moment between life and death and the Gallery had it hidden away around a corner. Absolutely beautiful.

So, there we have it. The Ron Mueck exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane. Its a must see if you are in the area.

I will post more of my kids trip to the city at a later date. I am tired right now....

Cin.

Long Time...No Post...

2010-05-12T14:49:00.007+10:00

Yes, it has been a while. Yes, alot has happened, yes we are busy and yes I think I keep forgetting to breathe!

Four weeks ago Aiden was swinging on one of the huge 20+kg benches we have in the kitchen and flicked it forward whence it fell and smushed his toe. Having three accident prone kids makes one slower to react, so we both sat there and looked at him with a "you're a twit" look on our faces...until he started bellowing that there was blood pouring out. After looking at it we both agreed it was my turn to go to the hospital (yes we take turns, that is saying something doncha think?) Result? Aiden ripped the nail OUT of the nail bed then pushed it back through the quick. He also split it right around the top but didn't manage to break it. After three weeks of constant trips to the doctor, antibiotics and him wearing only one shoe to school, the toenail finally fell off and it started to heal.

And this is it after three weeks of bandaging and after the nail fell off. A week or two later and he is actually wearing shoes and healing well!

Conor had a disagreement with his bed...this provided another fantastic photo opportunity cause hey, I don't have enough pictures of my injured kids! I should start a collection.....(hmmmm)

Mothers Day was spent going for a bushwalk with my three peeps who decided half way around that fighting like banshees was a preferable option to enjoying the fresh air and autumn sunshine. Isn't that what most Mothers had to put up with?

This, of course, was taken prior to WWIV breaking out. See, they can act like normal loving children occasionally.

Q is growing into a handsome young man who is loving life in all its glory. He is funny, silly and very cute as well!

And finally...if I hear one my child telling me...Its not fair, I'm not doing it, how come I have to...I will scream!

2 Boys = One Bed = Trouble

2010-03-24T21:56:00.002+10:00

Aiden and Conor are really bad at cleaning their room and end up playing typical boy games. This was the result of their last one...

That is a fantastic bruise on Conors behalf and within a few hours had become a gorgeous black eye. No sympathy from me!

On another note, whilst training my rather large and rather exhuberant male stafford to do the chute tunnel at training, he bit me. He came through the tunnel like an express train, knocked me over and play mouthed me with one of his canines going through my lip...yes it hurt....(sigh) and I wonder where Conor gets it from!

Cheers

Winning Isn't Everything

2010-03-06T20:57:00.003+10:00

Aiden can't swim. I mean, he can swim a bit but he is really bad at it. The boy has no internal flotation devices. If sinking was an Olympic sport it would be gold, gold, gold all the way.

He is also terrified of deep water. He fell into the ocean and nearly drowned as a toddler and was saved by Fred. Fred is the gnome that lives in my head, he wears stripey socks, hobnailed boots and lederhossen. (Hey if Pinocchio can have a cricket, I can have a gnome.) Anyway, we were at the beach and Tony was looking after the kids. Aiden wandered off the edge of a submerged sandback and was face down thrashing. Fred booted me in the ear and made me look around. I got to him just in time.

Ever since that day, Aiden has been scared of deep water. If he can touch he is like a dolphin but take him deep and he will climb up your body and sit on your head screaming, "Get me back, get me back!" Every Friday during summer we go to the school pool and have a play. Each child is challenged to do something above their comfort zone to earn money. Ok, its bribery but it works. Caitie swam a length of the pool, Conor swam underwater and Aidens challenge was to jump into the pools deep end. I knew he could do it but he was terrified. It took him nearly two months to get up the nerve to do it. Yes, he did it and, on the day he did, I told him good job, nonchalantly turned away and wiped a tear away.

So, Aiden can't swim, okay?

Sooo, I got a phone call from the school asking me to bring his swimmers to school. Puzzled, I did it, only to find that the "swimming" was the schools tryout for the regional trials. I explained it to him, his teacher explained it to him and he was adamant he wanted to have a go. I shared a bemused glance with his teacher and went home.

That afternoon, Aiden came home, tears welling in his eyes and said, in a shaky voice, "I did one swim and they told me to hop outta the pool." I broke....

I told him that I was so proud of him for having a go, for trying, for just doing something so out of his comfort zone and I...was...proud...of him!

And do you know what I was most proud of (and I told him this) he figured out a way to get out of his classroom and into the pool on one of the hottest days of the year. He grinned... yep, got him figured....

Cheers,

Umm...Pardon?

2010-03-04T22:38:00.002+10:00

The sign on Caities bedroom door this evening....

I love her, I really do, she makes me laugh!

I, Superhero

2010-03-04T14:42:00.005+10:00

I am six days post-op from having my carpal tunnel operation on my right hand.

For those of you who don't know, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is caused by repetitive motions with the offending limb. For those of you with your minds in the gutter, go and have a cup of tea and come back when you're sensible.

TYPING caused mine. The tendon in my hand collapsed onto the nerve and caused burning, tingling, loss of strength and other nasty symptoms. So, I went in and had the tendon removed...under local cause I am woman hear me roar! Ok, its was more of a whimper or an OWW, hey that hurt, but you get the drift.

Six days out of surgery. I am just starting to get the movement back and some of the strength in my hand. So, ask me what I did today? Go on...ask, you know you want to.

I cleaned my laundry, replaced one of my dog crates, fixed same crate, swept the floor, picked up the bits of fluff from a torn cushion, hung the washing out and took some off the line. I'm sore.

Why is it that woman feel the need to don our superhero outfits when we should be resting? The day I came home from having a tongue dissection and lymph node removal from my neck (yeah you should see my cool scar!) I was hanging out washing. The day after that ...I was back in the hospital blown up like a frog cause I did too much. Its a woman thing, the world will fall down around our ears if we don't pick up the reins.

Its got nothing to do with the fact that our men are slightly in the useless department when it comes to keeping the house schmicko. Oh they will do their best but its not the same as if we
had done it! And its not quite as good as we would have done it. But, if are going to be anal retentive, thats what we have to do. Because no-one else can do it like we can. So we feel we must wear our Wonderwoman accessories to keep our homes in order.

Now I've said that, I'm going to go and rest...until I notice Tony has folded the towels wrong!

Cheers,

Hanging By a Moment

2010-02-20T20:51:00.003+10:00

Like most siblings, my two oldest fight like cats and dogs. They can spit like the crankiest cats and bite like the snappiest of dogs. They niggle, they tease, they boss and they annoy.

And yet, this afternoon we were taking the dogs for a run at the beach. On the long trek back from the low tide line, Caitie and Aiden walked, hand in hand, heads together, talking quietly the whole way. They were in their own little world and it was magic to see.

My internal mummy camera took a picture and I will remember that moment for a long time.

Cheers,

Cin

Feelin' the Lurv.

2010-02-20T15:43:00.003+10:00

Like all kids, mine say the darndest things at the darndest times. Caitie, at 11, was walking along the other day and absently rubbing her chest. I was concerned and asked her what was wrong. To which she replied "Aww, I've got a boob comin' in."

I wet myself.....

And Conor was in the pool with me the other day. I have Carpa; Tunnel Syndrome in both my hands and have cortisone injections to keep the symptoms manageable. I told him he had to be gentle with me because the injections weren't working and my hands were really sore. He gazed lovingly into my eyes and said, softly and quietly, "Suck it up princess!"

I heart him, I really do!

Cheers,

Cin

A Decade of Life...

2009-12-31T23:01:00.004+10:00

1999 ended with a bang. At least, I think it may have? I was asleep, having been up with my young daughter and being just pregnant with our second child. I remember Christmas was awful that year with many clashes between ourselves and my husbands parents. I nearly lost the baby due to stress so the last thing I wanted to do was celebrate. I was woken by the hulabaloo at midnight, yawned rolled over and went to sleep.

Y2K didn't happen, the computers didn't die, the world didn't end (at least not then) and the next ten years would be filled with life, love and loss.

My greatest triumphs were my children. Caitlin Marie, a spitfire with a heart of gold. She adores her brothers and loves to drive us bananas. She is now 11 and we can just see glimmers of the young woman she will become. The time goes so fast.

Aiden Anthony, my special boy. A lovely bear of a baby, fat as butter with a rollicking laugh that would send everyone into fits of giggles. He was an easy baby, a dream of a toddler and emerged into a slightly off center child. Diagnosis this year is of Aspergers Syndrome. We now have the help we need at school and I can see a bright future for him.

And Conor James. Last but certainly not least. Full of fun and sure of his good looks and charm, Conor adores everyone and everyone adores Conor. He makes friends wherever he goes, is slow to cry and quick to forgive.

I love you my babies!

We have had ten years of memorable moments and those moments we would like to forget.

June 2001 found me in a battle I could not hide from. Diagnosed with tongue cancer, I had to endure two operations on my mouth, removal of a large part of my tongue, learning to talk and eat again and, the worst part of all, being seperated from my children for nine days while in hospital. I am now clear of the cancer and have been for the last nine years.

In 2003 we lost Tonys adored Grandmother. She was the only member of Tony's family who welcomed me. A prickly old curmudgeon, she loved all her grandchildren, loved me and simply worshipped her greatchildren. Our world has been a little darker since then.

2004 heralded the birth of baby Conor, making our family complete and throwing interesting challenges to us. Caitie started school and had to be pulled out on the second day because I selfishly went in to labour! It was also a week of horrendous temperatures followed by massive storms. The final outcome was worth it though LOL! Initial prenatal scans revealed a possible problem with his kidneys and scans at 6 weeks confirmed it. It was heartbreaking to watch them strap my tiny baby boy into this massive machine. The results were conclusive though, Conor has only one functioning kidney. He lives with it well, only requiring extra fluids during excessively hot weather.

2005 was a year that I could cheerfully forget. We put the back deck on our home, endured argument upon argument with the builders....and then...

My beloved baby boy, not quite 2, climbed over the railing and fell four meters, striking the handrail as he fell. I heard him scream, couldn't find him and finally looked over the balcony to see him, hysterical at the bottom of the stairs. His face was covered in blood. I screamed for Tony to call OOO. Tony was the one who scooped him up. I couldn't look. His face was split open and I was convinced he was going to die. I spent the next twenty four + hours holding my child as he was prodded, poked, X-rayed, given needles, stitched, bandaged, vomited all over himself and then re-bandaged. Four stitches. Thats it. Four stitches, a humdinger of a black eye and a scar that chicks are going to love!

And that wasn't the end of it either! A few weeks later, he hit the corner of his eye on a coffee table...one stitch (wasn't really worth the effort was it!) And then he fell off the slide and headbutted the only piece of concrete in the entire yard. I rang husband, told him to come home, the ambulance was on its way! Super glue that time. Dangerous child!

Like all families we have had breaks ( 2 at last count, both Caitie, both arms), infections (Aiden has a snodger of an infection in his knee), burns (yeah me and fat don't mix), one bout of cellulitis (stupid husband stood on a stupid nail), illness, colds and flus but the scariest had to be croup.

Caitie came down with croup at around the age of six. She was coughing so hard she was vomiting. She was turning blue. I called the ambulance. I then proceeded to be abused by the ambos for NOT taking her to the hospital. They put her on oxygen and we were quickly taken to the hospital and back home again. The following week Aiden got croup. Alot worse. His head was bobbing, he was uncommunicative, making no sense and lapsing into unconsciousness. Heeding the warning by the ambo's, I put him in the car and drove to the hospital like a mad thing. Luckily I put the heater on in the car. He was rambling and making no sense. When we arrived at the hospital, it was to have him immediatly put on steroids. Very scary and a lesson well learnt. If in doubt, ring the ambulance and ignore the sarcasm.

Together, Tony and I have celebrated twelve years of marriage, a second surprise wedding, enough hassles to last another ten years and at least twenty worth of bad luck. A little good would be nice around about now. I am looking forward to something good happening in 2010.

Happy New Year to Everyone

Cin

Peace on Earth...or at least my lounge room!

2009-12-25T07:57:00.003+10:00

Christmas morning, up with the birds. Presents unwrapped...and Peace On Earth reigns in my household....

Ahhhh, the blessed silence four Nintendo DS consoles can bring.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Cindy

Running out of Firsts

2009-12-13T18:15:00.004+10:00

When you have children, their lives are filled with firsts. First bath, first night home, first smile, first steps, first christmas, first bicycle.

The firsts start to slow down as your child gets older and the firsts are more important. Conor has just experienced a special first for him.

Conor lost his first tooth. And he was very brave. The tooth has been loose for a little while, with an adult tooth pushing through from behind. Today, he asked if we could pull it out. Daddy tried cotton but Conor wasn't feeling particularly happy with that. So Daddy tried to dry it with a paper towel and pull it out on the sly! Nope, that didn't work either, all that happened was Conor bled like a stuck pig!

Finally, I told him he had to be brave and see if he could pull it out himself. There were tears, there was much forehead wrinkling and then...he squared his shoulders and pulled it out himself.

Tonight he will be anxiously waiting for the tooth fairy...or the Molinator as he likes to be called!

Cindy

BeTWEEN a Rock and a Hard Place

2009-11-19T21:57:00.003+10:00

When I was 11, I was a little girl. I played little girl games and dreamt little girl dreams and had a little girls respect for her parents.

Caitie, on the other hand, is a Tweenie. She is between being a little girl and a teenager. And it comes with all the attitude that a teenager has with a pinch of angst and alot of anger. Everything is so unfair, I'm so horrible, everyone else can do this or that. And when she doesn't get her own way, she throws the most appalling temper tantrums. Bad ones...kicking my solid wood antique dining table across the room bad. Throwing herself against my fridge bad. Destroying things bad. And I don't know how to deal with it.

She is sweet and funny and was fantastic helping out at an Obedience trial the other night. The committee couldn't say better things about her. That, I suppose, is it. Is the one thing I should be proud of. She respects her elders, is polite, goes out of her way to help.

I reckon I can put up withe the next seven years of "I don't like you" if she is good when she is away from home...at least I think I can!

Cin

Cousin It!

2009-11-07T18:33:00.005+10:00

A week ago, Caitie asked me to plait her hair. So, being the wonderful mother I am, I obliged...it had nothing to do with the fact that I knew what it would look like after she brushed it out. *snort*

Enjoy,

Cin

Sadness by the bucket load

2009-11-07T18:10:00.003+10:00

The problem with breeding anything, cats, dogs, horses, chickens, fish...kids is that eventually your heart will get hurt. Your heart will be ripped out, stomped on, wiped through the mud, torn to shreds and put back in your chest just for the hell of it. It hurts...it hurts alot.
Our first litter of the season was born in a kitchen drawer. Mum managed to squeeze through the back, all two inches of it, and gave birth in the smallest drawer possible. The first two babies died after Mum laid on them. Of the surviving four, the smallest perished after a few days. The remaining three have grown and prospered and taken the hearts of others. They will go to their new homes soon, fat little butterballs they are. Super sweet and naughty too!

Our second was a tabby litter of six. The littlest girl died after a long struggle. Her five siblings, two girls and two boys were doing fine until the choccie girl crashed and struggled to stay alive. I was NOT going to lose yet another kitten so we fought long and hard and she is doing well. She is somewhat smaller than the rest of her siblings but is doing very well. Her brothers are below.

Our hardest litter was born last. We lost one boy at birth. We lost one boy at around a week and a half old and we lost another boy at two weeks old. We had to bottle feed these babies and I fought so HARD to no avail. It really hurt, these kittens meant the world to me.

The last two are putting on weight and are fat as butter. I hoped that was the end of the bad luck...but the kids had other ideas!

Last week Caitie was supposed to be cleaning her room and snuck out. She then went down the road and borrowed her friends roller blades. The first we knew of it was when her friend came running up to the house in a panic. Caitie had fallen over and broken her arm...(sigh)

Can the world just stop for one second? Please?

Cin

Endings and Beginnings

2009-10-06T19:25:00.004+10:00

Long before we owned and bred Devons, we were loved by Dax. Dax was a silver tortie tabby moggie of indiscrimanate breeding. Mum was purebred himalayan and dad was lucky. She arrived on our doorstep in an esky, a freebie from the paper. It was love at first sight.

I have a favourite photograph of Tony eating icecream with Dax sitting on his shoulder as a wee kitten, trying to scoop the icecream off the spoon into her mouth. Dax lived through having her jaw broken by a dog, a massive foot infection, abscesses and numerous puppies. She was our resident puppy trainer, teaching them respect for cats. Every Monday night, home from Obedience training with Nell, Dax would meet me at the gate because she knew I would have one leftover treat in my treatbag just for her. She never met me on Wednesday nights because I didn't take treats then! Clever cat.

Thursday afternoon Dax was hit by a car. Dax was road savvy and had been an outdoor cat her entire life. She was found by Caitie who believes if she found her sooner Dax would have lived. The damage was too severe and Dax passed away that evening aged 15 years old. We badly miss our Meow Cat, who never learnt how to Meow completely. She either said MMM or Owwww!.

Yet life goes on and we welcome our new babies. Two litters have arrived, the first a litter of six were born in a kitchen drawer (silly Mummy). Unfortunately we lost three due to complications and being born in a small environment. The surviving three are thriving under the lovig attention of their mum, Titch.

And this morning, at 4am, we welcomed our second litter of six tabby babies! Three girls and three boys. They are doing well but its the first day.

The circle of life in its most heartbreaking and joyous forms,

Cin

Art Appreciation 101

2009-09-30T15:50:00.005+10:00

September school holidays have been long and boring most of the time for my kids as I have had to work quite often. We've managed to fit in trips to the beach, the park, the Water Park and today I took the kidlets to the Museum and Art Gallery.

The museum is the boys' favourite place to visit. Aiden and Conor both love the animals and seeing all the bones and gross bits. I love identifying the birds that are around our area. Today they also had science experiments where the kids made whirlybirds and balancing clowns.

We also popped into the Gallery of Modern Art where the kids came across this giant sculpture by Ron Mueck, titled "In Bed". They were all fascinated and you could see them itching to touch and explore. I think we spent a good ten to fifteen minutes looking at this huge woman. Caitlin said that she thought the woman looked cold. Not a bad observation for an 11 year old.

After we came home, I showed them some more of Muecks work and the kids are absolutely fascinated by him and his take on humanity. A little bit of culture for the kids!

Cheers,
Cin

Persistence Pays Off

2009-09-21T17:29:00.005+10:00

It was Aidens birthday last month and he had been hoping to get a Ripstick for Christmas. This skateboard on two wheels is very difficult to learn to ride but lotsa fun when you get it right. Aiden told me he had learnt to ride one at his friends place and was really good at it.

So we surprised him with one for his birthday instead and the very first thing he did was fall off in spectacular style! There was blood, there was torn flesh, there were tears...turns out Aiden told me a furphy. He thought a little lie wouldn't be noticed, much.

Anyway, he has been practicing and practicing and practicing...

So, he's not ready for any gnarley jumps or anything and he's no Tony Hawke but geez I'm proud of him!

Cheers,

Cin

One Piece of Tape

2009-09-13T16:58:00.004+10:00

They say a picture tells a thousand words. Well, I'm hoping this picture saves us thousands of dollars!

Caitie went to remove a piece of tape from her wall, accidently leant on it and broke the wall. She flew out of her room in tears thinking she had done this horrible thing. In truth, if she hadn't of leant on the wall, we wouldn't have discovered the horrible truth.

As husband went to repair the very small break in the masonite, he turned to me appalled and said those awful words...."We have termites!" Ohhhh, crap! After destroying a fair amount of wall inside as well as removing the capping on the side of the house outside, he determined we had caught them just as they were starting to build. There was no damage, just alot of mud and some really annoyed crawlies. Its hard to have a Happy Sunday when you've just been sprayed with insect kill.

Now the bets are on for how long it will take for him to FIX the wall!

Cin

Dump and Burn, Baby!!

2009-09-12T19:51:00.010+10:00

Today was the start of the Brisbane River festival, a three week long celebration that highlights life in our River city. We spent it, and a belated Fathers Day, down at Kalinga Park. It is a stunning park, interwoven with a burbling creek that attracts kids like moths to a flame. Today the kids even saw two clutches of ducklings bumping along the creek with their Mother and a big water dragon!

This park has special significance for our family as Tony and I were married there, along the banks of the creek where we loved to run the dogs, playing in the shallows and exploring. We hoped to bring our kids to the playground and watch them grow and explore as we had. It wasn't to be as vandals burnt it to the ground.

We hadn't been to the new playground in some months when we came to the Park one day and were met by a kids absolute wonderland! The playground now nestles amongst the trees, inviting the children (and parents) to indulge in wild games of tag, fanciful imaginative play and exercising young minds and bodies....and its great fun too! Its consists of four tree houses, all interconnected with slides, ramps, moving bridges, ladders and firemens poles. There is also a large sandpit for the toddlers to explore and build in.

We enjoyed a simmple picnic lunch sitting under the trees and watching the birds come down and pilfer our scraps for their nestlings. The park was alive with the sounds of children playing ball, bicycles, scooters, laughter; quite simply, it was a beautiful spring day.

After lunch the kids and Tony went down to paddle in the creek. Caitie of course got thrown in while the boys splashed around like seals. The water was cold today but the boys still had a blast. I was quite content to enjoy the scenary, our own little piece of the bush right in our backyard!

I had to include this fantastic photo of Caitie who loves to mug for the camera. She is getting so big. At one point her father was pretending to throw a ball at her while she was on her bike. When she got close enough, he did throw it, where it promptly bounced off her and beaned him fair in the head. I don't think I've laughed that hard in ages...the look of shock was priceless.

Tony took the opportunity to have a ride on Conors scooter where of course Conor had to help him. They were so cute together. Papa Bear and Little Bear.

And here's the three rats, together, probably planning something naughty!

After we came home, it was time to plan for the nights entertainment. Every year, the River festival is started with Riverfire; a showcase of fireworks set off in time to music. This year we had halo's, hearts, happy faces, waterfalls from the bridge and lots of OOOh's and AAAAh's. We have enjoyed it every year, watching from home for one very good reason.

DUMP AND BURN BABY!!!!

Sorry, I get carried away with those four words. The dump and burn is the F1-11's screaming over the city and doing a fuel dump, blazing across the sky. It can be clearly seen from our home and is the highlight of each year. Sadly, after this year, the F1-11's will be retired and its the very last dump and burn....but gosh darn, it was fantastic!!! Right at the end of the clip you can hear the roar as the jets fly over heard, two small fireballs that lit up the sky.

It was a poignant end to a great day. Happy River Festival everyone!

Cheers

Cin

These Little Wonders

2009-09-04T22:41:00.006+10:00

I watched the movie "Meet the Robinsons" again the other day and heard the song "Little Wonders" by Rob Thomas and the lyrics gave me pause.

Our lives are made in these small hours

These little wonders,

These twists & turns of fate

Time falls away,

but these small hours, these small hours still remain

I suppose what hit me was that, when our children are wee babies, time is measured in the tiniest increments, a sigh here, a smile there, each moment is remembered with perfect clarity, each tiny memory is cherished and put away to bring out in our darkest times.

This week has not been dark but quite dim for my oldest, Caitlin. She has aphthous ulcers, which means her mouth is full of ulcers, shockingly painful ulcers and there is nothing that can be done until the virus runs its course. As a mother, it is killing me that I can't do anything. I can't take the pain away, I can't eat for her and I can't stop her friends drifting away as they are scared of this thing that has turned her into a mumbling, dribbling, foul breathed child. I can't help her...except in these small hours, I can hold her and let her cry.

But it made me remember, as did the words of this song, the other small hours. Those moments when I had stumbled from my warm bed to feed a crying baby. Wrapped in a quilt, in my rocking chair, there were just the two of us. Whether it was Caitlin, Aiden or Conor, there were only the two of us, in the small precious moments of the starlit evening. We were in our own tiny world, nothing existed except the sleepy contentment of a milk-drunk baby and a mother, holding that which is most dear and precious to us.

So, I thought I would share two of my favourite photos of my kids...they were only little then and now, they are big kids...but there is always room in my arms for a hug that heals all wounds.

Aiden on the left, our Michelin Baby and Caitie on the right, adoring big sister.

This is my all time favourite photo of a newborn Conor taking his first cautious peep at the world, safe in the arms of Dad.

And my three now...they may not like each other but I know they love each other!

Cheers,

Cin

Q..Who Knew!!

2009-08-29T18:29:00.004+10:00

For many years I have loved a particular coloured stafford and that is those that have either a full white face or a white head. After the passing of my beautiful Besa, I had plans to bring in a new pup and ached for another male. And then...I found one!

We would like to welcome Alangrove Qupids Arrow or Q as we call him. Q is a lovely puppy and a really good boy too. He has leanrt to sit on command, come when he is called and wait at the door or for his dinner. He is learning the heel position and also how to return to the heel position. And did I mention he is a gooooood puppy?
When he arrived, he slept with me the first night on a mattress in the lounge room. And we progressed night after night, moving him into his crate. Then into his crate with the door closed and finally outside with the big dogs.
Today, we went to the beach for the first time and it was a bad day to go. The wind was high and blowing up fairly sizeable waves (at least sizeable to a fourteen week old puppy!) I thought Q would be a little bit hesitant but no, he jumped right in, wasn't worried or scared and followed the big dogs like he had been swimming forever!

I'm looking forward to having him attend puppy school in two weeks time. A new adventure awaits us!

I was concerned about how well Nell would react to a pup and she was snarfy to start with. Now, they get on well mainly because he has really good puppy manners.

On an aside...Nell gained a Quali in her Snooker run this weekend. One more and it will be her title. She has also achieved enough to gain her her Gold Super Dog Medallion this year.

GO THE NOODLE!!!!

Cin

A Candle for Isabella

2009-07-27T22:21:00.005+10:00

A dear and close friend recieved a beautiful gift last Thursday. Her first grandchild, Isabella was born 7 weeks early and entered the world with complications and a fighting spirit. Izzy is doing well but could use a pinch of Prayer Power. Please, if you have the time, the inclination and the faith, let Him know that we down here need this little girl and love her dearly. Help her on her road to recovery...please.
Cindy
(hugs Maree)

A Tropical Winter Garden...ie Silent Sunday!

2009-07-26T13:55:00.003+10:00

Cindy

p.s. Ok, I couldn't do a wordless Wednesday but a Silent Sunday...!

A Farm Girl at Heart

2009-07-15T12:29:00.008+10:00

I grew up on a farm. Actually I grew up on many farms, piggeries, massive properties, the works. It was always my job to look after the chickens. Of course, as a kid, any time not spent playing was wasted so I hated it.

I was also a lonely teenager who lived in a small country town where most of my friends lived outside of town and I had no transport, therefore no friends whom I saw after school or at the weekend. And there I found my first love of chooks. I loved their orderly lives, I loved that they would take any bit of garbage and turn it into fresh eggs. I loved that mine would come running when I called out 'chook, chook, chicKENS!' I loved seeing them delve with much pleasure into table scraps. I loved the feel of their feathers and the sheen they had in sunlight.

And stupidly enough, I learnt to understand how they worked in a flock. I learnt how to round them up and get them to go where I wanted them to go. Chooks are a bit like sheep, they follow the leader and the slightest body movement changes their direction. My kids don't understand this and it frustrates me. And my kids also don't get that chooks need food to produce eggs and clean water to stay healthy...this too frustrates me.

But all in all, I just love having them around. I love to indulge my passion for chooks by spoiling them with a new layer of mulch or some oats in their food. I love that they are undemanding, that they make the coolest noises and they are just plain pretty. I love that they can live in small backyards as well as they can in huge open barns. I know, its strange but thats the kinda girl I am...

The girls enjoying the "muck billy"

Did I mention how much I love black chooks??

The girls having a gossip "Did you see Mabels egg this morning it was sooo tiny"

"Yes, I knowwwwwww"

And the ultimate gift, farm fresh warm eggs. They are all natural and aren't dyed.

This was going to be one of those wordless Wednesday posts but HA! I couldn't shut up if you paid me too!

Cin
p.s. hugs to Gen on the loss of her Nanni. Chin up chook!

Diagnosis

2009-07-13T11:19:00.003+10:00

Well, Aidens appointment was moved up with Dr S. After discussing our concerns and having him talk to Aiden, he agrees that he has some form of Aspergers. There are many differing things that make up an Aspie child, Aidens is that he can't handle crowds, says inappropriate things at the wrong time and in the wrong context, he is brilliant at some things and quite bad at others, he has concentration issues, clumsiness, is easily distracted and he has alot of trouble making friends. Forty years ago he would have been labelled as quirky or eccentric. Now we know there is a reason for it.

Treatment at the moment is more maintenance than a cure: there is no cure for Aspergers. We are working with him on channelling his behaviour, thinking before he speaks, removing himself from confronting situations etc. We will be putting him on fish oil to help with a healthy brain and in a few months time Dr S will have another look at the situation. We are also waiting for the school to send in their information as well.

Its all coming together, now we know what we are dealing with! Now comes the learning!

Cheers,
Cin

Birthdays and Louses

2009-07-13T10:44:00.005+10:00

Happy 11th Birthday Caitie!!!

So, in our household, if its your birthday you get to choose what you eat all day. Caitie decided she wanted pancakes for breakfast and I decided to overindulge her tastebuds with a 3 stack of pancakes. The first stack had melted chocolate on it, the second stack had marshmallows and the third stack had more chocolate with sprinkles in an 11. It was grossly yummy with enough sugar to light an entire city! Teamed with a hot chocolate with marshmallows and sprinkles, she was one happy kid!

Gotta love the huge amount of marshmallow that was dripping down her face.

Her main present was one she recieved almost a year ago now. It was her very first breeding queen, a devon rex called Ch Leetamy Dreamcatch Me. Muu and Caitie sleep together and they really do love each other. It is my tradition that I give her jewellary for her birthday and this year it was a necklace and pendant with the words Special Daughter on it. And she recieved a Pea Pod...ok its not really called that but it has to be the smallest ipod I have ever seen! It holds around 1000 songs and Caitlin has it glued to her ears as we speak!

***************

On another completely different subject....Smallish Bear has headlice. He has had headlice for the last two weeks and I simply cannot get rid of them. I have been conditioning and combing till my hands are numb but on Saturday night I pulled out at least a dozen adults, totally grossing me out. Then last night, I went through again and there were more...at which point I freaked out completely and reached for the clippers.
No sooner was this photo taken than Aiden decided he too needed a crew cut and off his locks came. Checking this morning I was amazed to see eggs still in Little Bears head, so I spent some time picking and popping them..ewwww.

Normally, using both shampoo and conditioner laced with eucalytpus oil or tea tree oil and lavender oil and then combing them out knocks them on the head but this time it called for drastic action!

Now I have two nekkid headed boys running around!

"Dam" Another Holiday!

2009-07-04T15:12:00.008+10:00

We have a large amount of insanity in our household and decided to go camping with a good friend and her two kids...in winter....it was hell....

BUT, there were highlights and I choose to focus on those, so here is our holiday in pictures!
We went camping at Somerset Dam. It rained on the first night and all the first day which was a little depressing but it was lovely going to bed listening to the rain creating a soft tattoo on the roof.

On the second day we were there, Conor got sick and tired of waiting for someone to push him on his bike...so he took off, literally! By the end of the trip he was pedalling around like a maniac. Now he is home, the kids territory has been extended and they are allowed to ride outside, sans parents! Helmets are a must at home though....

The wildlife were amazing! The very first night we were marauded by mice, pillaged by possums and bombarded with birds! There were bunnies and plovers and magpies and tawny frog mouth owls and whipperwills and butcherbirds and possums and mice and..and... lots of critters!

A very pretty nest of plover eggs we found, on the ground, in the middle of the picnic area. The eggs were gone the next day, I would guess they were plundered by possums.

This cheeky character spent his time either hassling the girl possums for sex or hassling us for food. He was an expert at stealing loaves of bread, his tally at the end of the trip was two whole loaves and numerous part loaves! He was also an expert at breaking our heavily fortified barriers and pilfering food from the tent. Are you beginning to see a pattern here? Possums are exPerts at anything starting with P! Plundering, pilfering, pillaging and peeing! Yep, he even pee'd on one of the large boxes we used as a pantry (see that darn P again). He enthalled our neighbours who consisted of two families, one of which was full of English tourists.

This glorious bird is a tawny frogmouth and there is currently a bit of a mice plague happening out that-a-way at the moment. The first night I went to do my teeth and spat my toothpaste out and just missed a widdle mouse. He had the longest whiskers! The owl was well fed and beautiful. We also saw one in Sydney as well and I love these birds!

Speaking of lovely birds, the magpies have always been my favourites. They are polite most of the time and, after they have been given some food, they always reward you with their unique carolling. Just gorgeous! I fed one at one point and he politely ignored me until he had broadcast the news about the food and was then joined by the rest of his family.

It was very cold at times and below is Aiden wearing his beanie and doing his hobbit impersonation. He didn't realise that it made his ears fold down LOL. Funny kid.

As with most holidays, there were accidents aplenty. The kids came off their bikes more often than they stayed on them. Aiden took bark off both knees, Caitie scored a snodging bruise...

And poor Conor had a meltdown one night when he fell over and scraped his toes. Even a shower with Daddy couldn't settle him so he was wrapped in a blankie and we sat by the open fire singing the songs I sang to them as babies. Morning Town Ride was a favourite as was My Happiness by Powderfinger. Hours were spent sitting in front of the fire, toasting marshmallows, sipping hot drinks and gazing at the flames.

We took a long drive one day, with the sole intention of getting away for a little while. Travelling through the gorgeous winter countryside we saw plenty of cows, horses, sheep, brown paddocks and then we found the most beautiful forest area. We all got out and went for a walk down a firetrail breathing in the air. It was so cold it burnt as you breathed in! And the scenary...

Another day trip was to the Somerset Dam wall where we took some family pics.

As a final droplet of interesting information, South East Queensland is coming out of one of the worst droughts we have ever had. At one point our dams were down to under 12%. And finally the heavens opened and we got rain, rain and more rain. On the way to the front shop, there is a billboard which features photographs of the dam prior to the rain and after. It was an eyeopener as today Somerset is sitting on 94% full. That is one heck of a lot of water!

This holiday taught us quite alot.

Family time is very important

Wine is not the answer to everything

Our children, not matter how feral they can be, are angels compared to some

There is no such thing as possum proof

Sex is impossible on a blowup bed that squeaks every time you breath out.

Never tuck your pyjama top in to your bottoms prior to holding a child with a full bladder in the throe of night terrors.

Walking to the toilets in urine soaked pyjamas at ten pm is mighty cold.

If you start a game of tag with two adults and five children, every child within a 2km radius will turn up to join in.

Kids who don't know each other tend to respect the rules of tag.

The size of the firewood is determined by the size of the campoven.

Will we do it again? On our own, yes. With the same family, not unless hell freezes over. Are we still friends, yep but I have a new respect for our skills as parents and how we are bringing our children up.

After all, respect and manners are the cornerstones of solid citizens.

Cheers,

Cin

Happy Families Don't Exist

2009-05-16T10:48:00.004+10:00

Over the recent school holidays, we went to Underwater World on the Sunshine Coast. It was a great day, even if we lost the boys a few times! We then went to the beach, had fish and chips
and played in an out of the waves. I took the shot above to remind me of the great day we had.

This is what I would like our family to be. Like this photo, all smiling and happy....but those of you with children will know its alot different.

At the moment the lot of them are harassing each other, screaming at each other, slapping, hitting, swearing (yes I know, I'm appalled) and generally giving each other grief. Caitlin is busy backchatting every-damn-second-of-the-day. Conor has become a whineing, annoying brat who is delighting in driving his siblings to distraction and Aiden is copping it left right and center.

Is it too much to ask that the kids be nice to each other?

***

And on another note. They were actually playing nicely just before and part of their game was telling each other what to say and do etc...Aiden calmly stated to Caitlin that his person was "fatally in love with her". I cracked up...ah to be young and be fatally in love with anyone!

Cheers,

Cin

The Easter Bunny Brought Eggs and a Cold!

2009-04-13T11:37:00.004+10:00

Happy Easter everyone! We were spoiled this Easter as we spent Easter Saturday with our friends Trace and Wayne. Caitie is best friends with their daughter Tegean and the kids all get on well. We were pampered with prawns, barbequed haloumi (which we had never tried YUM!), a huge barbeque and potatoe bake, broccoli gratin, salad and home made proccuito and parmesan bread. We topped it up with copious amounts of fine drink, laughter and the most decadent chocolate mousse pie!

Easter morning, the Easter Bunny had brought the kids new slippers for the Winter and a big egg in one shoe and the other shoe was filled with little eggs. The boys over indulged during the day and it was like trying to catch jumping beans that night!

I musn't have been a cold girl this year because the Bunny bought me a cold. A nice snuffly cold, with copious amounts of snot and a rip snorting cold sore to boot. Ah, the joys of changes in the weather!

Caitie has kept me feeling better with cups of tea and I have been trying to sleep in...a little bit LOL.

Happy Easter all!

Cin

A Different Kind of Normal

2009-04-08T11:59:00.003+10:00

A few weeks ago, our sons teacher called us up to the school for an interview. There had been an incident which involved swimming, locker rooms and nudity (sigh), all you typical boy stuff. We went prepared to deal with it and move on. Her first words threw me for a loop and I stiffened in my seat.

"I think Aiden needs to be tested for ASD." Ms L said. Tony asked what ASD was and we were told it is Autistic Spectrum Disorder or one of the many behavioural types that come under the Autistic banner. Wow......

She proceeded to highlight areas of his behaviour which mimic those of an ASD child. It was like a lightbulb went off in my head. Putting inappropriate items in his mouth, check. Excellence in some areas of school but poor performance in most others, check. Lack of friends or trying to make friends, check. Unexplained violent behaviour, check. Susceptibility to noise in a class environment, check. Inability to concentrate in a group situation, check. Unable to handle change, check. Poor toileting habits, big check. Inability to follow directions or gets distracted from tasks easily, check.

We always joked that Aiden had Bright and Shiny Syndrome...you know those kids that will be talking to you and then, "Oh LOOK, bright and shiny!" and they drift off? Seems it may be more. The more we spoke, the more I realised that this could explain so much of Aidens behaviour. Last year one of his teachers found him slamming his head repeatedly against a wall, exclaiming he was stupid over and over again. I have asked her to write a statement about that incident to take to the paediatrician.

I'm lucky that I have a solid friend base and home base to help us during this time. We have specialist appointments booked but they all take time. Meanwhile, I have been logging any incidents that happen and potential triggers to see if I can find a pattern.

And, I have been loving my boy for the person he is, even if he is a different kind of normal.

Cin

Funny Girl

2009-03-18T10:40:00.002+10:00

This child of mine has the wickedest sense of humour and is forever cracking me up with the daft things she says.

On Sundays we like to have Takeaway food for dinner and on this particular night it was Kentucky Fried Chicken. On the way home, Caitie was talking to something, saying, "Hello, how are you? Are you having a good day?" My glance slid sideways and I said to her, "Just who are you talking too?"

Her reply?

"The drink bottle, Mum...after all, its always nice to make new friends."

I almost drove off the road!

***

A few years ago, a friend of mine informed me that she was expecting her sixth child. On hearing the news, Caitie exclaimed, "Six kids! Lordy, she's gonna run out of plates!"

She makes me laugh and smile. She is the only one who I play slappies with...and she loses with all the grace of a buffalo! (Slappies is taking a sneaky chance at slapping a bare bit of skin on a leg or a butt or a thigh...it hurts like billy-o but it IS funny, as only random pain can be!) And when she scores one on me, by jove she can run fast, giggling the whole way.

Most importantly, I have to say that I am extremely proud of the way she has knuckled down and taken her studies seriously. Last year Caitlin had a teacher who was , for lack of a better word, appalling. He was a bully who liked to yell at the kids, slap desks in a threatening matter, deny them access to the toilet, throw chairs...get the idea? Caitie learnt nothing and her abysmal maths results took a dive for the worse. This child was suddenly getting lower than a D in maths.

And had absolutely no interest in school.

This year, she has a fantastic teacher, with a wicked sense of humour, a fantastic teaching style and she is blooming.

So, I hafta say, "Thankyou Mr K, thankyou from the bottom of my heart."

Cin

Sometimes there are happy endings.

2009-03-09T11:48:00.003+10:00

They say a picture can tell a thousand words, well this one heals a splintered heart.

Last night, after another day of sorrow for our grieving Mum, she settled in under the bed, on her own. A few minutes later, there were distinct slurping sounds coming from under the bed. An inspection revealed three bundles of fur who had decided, "Hey, if no-one else is gonna use this Milkbar, then we sure as heck should!" Puddin had two of the older 8 week old bubs and the 7 week old polar bear snuggled in and she was purring her head off with a smile from ear to ear. The other mums are happy to have a break and she is beside herself now that she has some babies.

All is right in her little world and it makes me glad.

Cin

Grief is Universal

2009-03-08T20:53:00.004+10:00

One of our beautiful Queens was expecting this week. After a visit to the vet on Friday, Puddin proved to be in first stage labour and we settled in to wait. By Saturday afternoon she had started contracting and we were anxious to see the new arrival.

Around 5pm, Pudd gave birth to a stillborn black tortie female. The little one didn't take a breath at all and appeared to have been in some distress. Watching her clean her daughter and try to get her to breathe was heartbreaking and I sat there with the baby in my hands and wept. I allowed Pudd time to cuddle her baby and then quietly took care of the body.

Pudd is such a fantastic Mum that the loss has hit her hard. She has been calling for her baby and mothering the other kittens. Her cries break my heart and the anxious way she checks on the other babies and paces the floor have proven beyond any doubt that my baby girl is grieving and grieving deeply. This evening she curled up half on and half off my lap and just looked at me. Her ever present smile was gone and their is a look of puzzled hurt in her beautiful green eyes.

Animals feel pain and joy, sorrow and grief, they share our triumphs as well as our tragedies and no scientist with a clipboard will tell me any different. Her baby is in good hands, sleeping with our Arthur Bean at Rainbow Bridge.

Pudd will recover. She is going to be desexed and enjoy retirement with a loving family. Cuddles will be forthcoming as long as she needs them.

In happier times with an earlier litter.

Cin.

Bananas and Oranges

2009-03-08T20:42:00.004+10:00

The lovely weather continues though the heat has come back..sigh. I want to bring out the doonas'!

For the first time in a very long time, we had a full weekend with the children, rather than having to work on Saturday and then do the market run on a Sunday. I decided it was the perfect oppotunity to whip out an Orange Poppyseed cake and for Caitie to make a banana bread. We had a ball with Conor helping as well. The results were edible and we have enjoyed them immensely, with enough over to bolster school lunches this week.

Cheers,

Cin

2009-03-05T11:25:00.008+10:00

We woke up this morning and the air was crisp and clean. It smelt like snow...or as much like snow as Australia can smell like! The wind was whispering through the Silky Oaks and I felt myself settle and become calm. I had an overwhelming urge to break out the stockpot and make Potato, Leak and Bacon Soup and put flannelette sheets on the bed. I just stopped myself from spontaneously singing Kumbaya!

For the first time in a long while, we had breakfast on the back deck and I treated everyone to homemade Double choc, berry and coconut muffins with lashings of hot tea and juice. I know, chocolate for breakfast buy hey, the kids are only young for a little while and soon they will be too "cool" to even eat breakfast! It was glorious with the wind whispering through the Silk Oaks and the native birds calling out.

I love this time of year. While most gardens are becoming bare and barren, mine is gearing up for a floral burst, with the Grevilleas and Banksias in full flower to feed the hungry hoardes of native birds that come down to indulge in the sweet nectar. I remember a neighbour commenting how her garden was sad in winter and I smiled because mine is bursting with life and colour. Did I mention I love Autumn??

Silky Oak, a favourite of mine. We have just planted one. Ok it will be taller than the house but I don't care!!!

Banksia Integrifolia with its unusual green flowers that turn yellow and then become evil Banksia Men. For years I hated Banksia trees as they were the most awful characters in May Gibbs famous "Snugglepot and Cuddlepie". Now I see the beauty in them and the fantastical shapes they become once they go to seed.
You can see where May got her inspiration from!

And here is my absolute favourite. Grevillea Honey Gem, a medium sized shrub with gorgeous bracts of huge flowers. Absolutely stunning, the contrast of the dark green pinned foliage to the eye popping gold is just awesome!!!

So happy Autumn everyone! I'll be thinking of all the American readers who are going into summer.

Cheers,

Cin

Pirates and Soap Bubbles

2009-03-02T10:41:00.004+10:00

I know I've been slack, I know I haven't popped in but it has taken us two weeks to pack up the shop and move the whole shebang home. Add to that the customers are still coming thick and fast and you could say I've been slightly busy.

Conor had a Pirate Day at Prep on Friday and we used some cardboard, paper, tape and a whole heap of imagination and came up with...

Yes, he has tattoos, yes he is wearing an earring (an idea he had on his own) and no his front teeth are still there, just blacked out! Far too cute, thats for sure!

Caitie is working very hard at school, in fact I don't think I've seen her work so hard before. Her writing is alot neater and she is even attempting maths! Its fantastic to see her struggling yet overcoming what, to her, is goobledygook. She is attending tutoring twice a week which will be scaled back to once a week soon.

And Aiden? Well, Sunday night found us settling if for a night of tv. The boys were in the bath when Aiden came out, dripping wet and soapy saying, "I don't know what happened?" I'm scanning him trying to figure out what was going on when I saw the blood running thickly down his throat. Oh, snap! Tony grabbed a wad of tissues and we mopped up the blood, took one look at his chin and I said, "I think its my turn for the hospital run?" I went into the bathroom for a quickfix bandaid only to discover the floor had been liberally painted with soap! Yes, SOAP!! No wonder the silly bugger fell over. Luckily it was only a small gash, about a centimeter so all it required was some glue. The biggest punishment has been that he can't go swimming this week. Some life lessons are learnt the hard way.

Have a great week!

Cin

Little Beginnings

2009-02-16T13:03:00.002+10:00

Firstly, I want to say thankyou to those who contacted me about my last post. The aftermath of the fires have left alot of people raw but there are the little things that make you smile. A family found their pet peacock after it was featured on the news. Devestating footage of a man walking through his yard, filming the carnage only to turn the camera between two water tanks, their taps on full, and his wife and two children sheltering from the fire. All were safe, their house was gone but they were safe.

Together, the country has pledged $100 million to fire relief. It is overwhelming.

***

We started to clear out the shop after a massive sale on the weekend. My husband has come to the realisation that working from home means working with ME! I think he had to go have a rest to get over the shock. Our first conversation went something like this-

C- Why is it you never listen to any of my suggestions?

T- I do...

C- Then why aren't you seperating the glass and china into seperate boxes like I suggested?

T- You didn't suggest that...

C- (sigh)

I heart him, I really do!

A Year of Endings

2009-02-12T11:41:00.002+10:00

My throat is raw, my eyes are dry, everything aches...and I am not one of those who have suffered in the worst fires in Australia's history.

Over 180 people are dead, entire towns destroyed. The loss of property, life and love is an enormous burden. Words fail me.

180+ people are dead. Entire families are gone. Now stop and think about that for a second. Words on a page cannot express the horror of those two sentences. Look at your family, look at your loved ones, at your friends and imagine that in less than 5 minutes they are gone. Imagine that they are not simply gone but die amongst immense heat and fire. It is too tragic to comprehend.

My heart bleeds for the families left to mourn. My heart bleeds for the Triple 0 operators who had to listen to people begging for help as they were dying. My heart bleeds for the people who said that the night after the fire, all they could hear were the native animals screaming in pain. It conjures images I don't want to face. And yet, this is my country and I will face it.

Nothing will stop this fire except for rain. It burns on, threatening to converge into a massive fire storm again. And yet, left behind, there is a different shower for the victims. An outpouring of love, compassion and empathy has rained down on the survivors. We are Australian, this is what we do...and I am bloody proud. To date, the country has rallied and raised over $40 million dollars. Trucks full of clothes, food, toiletries, shoes, toys and general household goods have been donated.

From the bottom of my heart, I want to say thankyou. Thankyou to the little girl who donated $55 out of her moneybox and from her Confirmation money. Thankyou to the woman who donated $20 000 from money left to her by a relative. Thankyou....

***

And our own personal "little death". After five years of fun, laughter, giddy highs and devastating lows our family business is closing down. I thought we had it made. I thought we had passed that magic milestone and it was hard work but not hard slog from hereon in. I was wrong. The economy crashed and took our business with it. We will be trading but from home. Ebay will become a family friend.

I'm sad, very sad. I just haven't shared it yet.

Cin

Happy Birthday Conor!!!

2009-01-29T12:56:00.001+10:00

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Conversing with Men

2009-01-29T11:48:00.002+10:00

Sometimes you wonder how they managed to evolve, really!

Sitting down to watch some tv last night, I was concerned by a nasty large scratch on husbands leg. Conversation follows, with C being me and T being husband.

C- How did you get that scratch on your leg?
T- Where?
C -(looking at him strangely) The one on your elbow...

*sound of crickets chirping*

T- WHAT?!!!

I heart him, I really and truly do....

Cin

First Day and Aspergers Ramblings....

2009-01-28T12:54:00.004+10:00

Tuesday was a big milestone for our family as Conor went for his very first day at Prep School. Prep is what used to be preschool and now goes from 9am to 3pm, a big day for little people, especially when its five days a week!

All of my kids were up at 5.30am too excited to sleep. Caitie was very excited as she now is in the Middle school of our P-12 school. It meant a new uniform, new area of the school campus and a new format for learning. Aiden was excited too as he had a new teacher. Our aims for all of the kids this year are neater handwriting, more diligence in the classroom and NO MORE BULLYING!! Caitie had actually been assigned to the same class as a girl who viciously attacked her last year and I made it known that if she were to stay in that class, I would be removing her from the school. The Principal had her moved to a different class, with a teacher she likes alot...which is a plus. She's tough as old boots, is Caitie, but there is only so much a young lady can handle.

A huge thankyou to Nana Jen for helping me hem her skirt and take in her shirts (in other words, Jen did the work and I cheered) and for making her headbands. I have orders for more (grin).

All three in their beautiful new uniforms. Please take note that they are wearing white socks and Caities blouse is white...it'll probably be the last time ever that they are ALL wearing matching clean socks and her uniform is pristine. She got home yesterday and somehow managed to get chocolate on the BACK of the blouse.

As an aside- Anyone care to comment? A friend of mine has a child with Aspergers Syndrome. AS children have a lack of empathy to others as one of the symptoms. Its seems that many more children are being diagnosed with this area of the Autism spectrum these days than previously before. Is it because we know a little more about it? We understand that children with AS are not willful, disobedient children who have little care for others? And this is the ponderings of a mother who doesn't have a child with AS- Could some of our more horrific crimes of old have been committed by those with AS as they had no concept they were doing wrong and had not been diagnosed? I ask in all seriousness and fully understand that I will probably upset some parents with AS children. I am not saying that AS kids are mass murderes or rapists in the making...just a tangent of thought that hit me. Rather than bottle it up, I was curious as to the concept??? Has anyone any thoughts on this?

Cin

Fantastic Parenting Article

2009-01-26T10:59:00.003+10:00

I'm the first to admit I don't have all the answers. Frankly, half the time I don't have a clue with Caitie but the following made sense to me. I read it at the Mother and Baby website. The article is titled "Argue with Me."

"Why would any sane parent teach his kids to talk back? Because, as one father found, it can actually increase family harmony.

Those of you who don’t have perfect children will find this familiar: Just as I was in line at a bank, my 5-year-old daughter chose to throw a tantrum, screaming and writhing on the floor while a couple of elderly ladies looked on in disgust. (Their children, evidently, had been perfect.) I gave Dorothy a disappointed look and said, “That argument won’t work, sweetheart. It isn’t pathetic enough.”She blinked a couple of times and got up, pouting but quiet.“What did you say to her?” one of the women asked.I explained that “pathetic” was a term used in rhetoric, the ancient art of argument. I had happened across the subject one rainy day in a library and become instantly obsessed. As a result Dorothy had learned almost from birth that a good persuader doesn’t merely express her own emotions; she manipulates her audience. Me, in other words.

Under my tutelage in the years that followed, Dorothy and her younger brother, George, became keenly, even alarmingly, persuasive. “Well, whatever it was,” the woman said, “it certainly worked.”Sure it did. I’ve worked hard at making my kids good at arguing. Absolutely.

Let’s face it: Our culture has lost the ability to usefully disagree. Most of us seem to avoid argument. But this has produced passive aggression and families unable to discuss things as simple as what to watch on television. Rhetoric doesn’t turn kids into back-sassers; it makes them think about other points of view. Whereas the goal of a fight is to dominate your opponent, in an argument you succeed when you bring your audience over to your side.

The three tools of argument.

To disagree reasonably, a child must learn the three basic tools of argument. I got them straight from Aristotle, hence the Greek labels: logos, ethos, and pathos.

Logos is argument by logic. If arguments were children, logos would be the brainy one, the big sister who gets top grades in high school. Forcing my kids to be logical forced them to connect what they wanted with the reasons they gave.

“Mary won’t let me play with the toy car.”
“Why should she?”
“Because she’s a pig.”
“So Mary should give you the car because she’s a pig?”

Doing this makes your kids think logically.

Ethos, or argument by character, employs the persuader’s personality, reputation, and ability to look trustworthy. My kids learned early on that a sterling reputation is persuasive – a parent is more likely to believe a trustworthy kid and to accept her argument. For example, if both kids deny having eaten the last cookie, ethos becomes vital.

Me: “One of you took the cookie.”
Dorothy: “Have I ever stolen cookies before?”
Me: “Good point. George?”

Then there’s pathos, argument by emotion. It’s the sibling who gets away with everything by skillfully playing on heartstrings. In rhetorical lingo, Dorothy’s tantrum wasn’t “pathetic” enough, because she was thinking too much about her own feelings and failing to manipulate mine. When a kid learns to read your emotions and play them like an instrument, you’re raising a good persuader.

Dorothy: “Dad, you look tired. Want to sit down?”
Me: “Thanks. Where did you have in mind?”
Dorothy: “The beach.”

So one example, using the three tools, would be:

“Mummy, I deserve an ice cream sundae because…I need a lot of extra calcium for my growing bones.” (The logos method.)I was just thinking about that time you were late picking me up from school…” (The pathos method.) I just cleaned my room – and my little sister.” (The ethos method.)

Admittedly, a toddler might find it difficult to apply logos, ethos, and pathos, but as with every other useful skill, you have to start young. Instead of “Use your words,” I would say, “See if you can talk me into it.” When my children made an honest attempt to persuade me to let them watch television, for instance, I gave in whenever possible: the win felt doubly rewarding to them. Indeed, as my children get older and more persuasive, I find myself losing more arguments than I win. They drive me crazy. They do me proud."

I found this article very helpful to understand why my kids often chuck a wobbly. They just don't know how to argue their point well enough. If you enjoyed this, check out part two on the website!

Where Did All the Nice Kids Go?

2009-01-26T10:33:00.007+10:00

We spent a lovely day at the Beach on Sunday, a day before all the crowds would decend en masse' for Australia Day. After having a simple lunch of sandwiches and softdrink, the kids, with two parents in tow, hit the water. It was a gorgeous day, the sun was shining, the water was cold. It was just what we needed to blow out the cobwebs prior to jumping back on the school rollercoaster.

At a later part of the day, Husband and I meandered across the road to check out an Antique Store, leaving the kidlets to play in the playground. One item of fascination was an adapted flying fox which whizzed around on an almost oval track, sending all the kids into screaming fits of laughter.

As we came back across the road, it made my heart soar when I realised that Caitlin was helping all of the littlies to get up on the swing and was gently pushing them so they didn't fall off when it bounced back. Aiden was helping to pull it back up to its starting position and they were both making sure that everyone was taking turns. That is until a rotten little child of about seven, barged in and kept trying to get in front of everyone else. My dad was watching the kids and told Conor he couldn't have a go as he was too little. I explained to Dad that if he got hurt, well tough bikkies, he had to at least have a go. So, after wretched child had a turn, I went to help Conor up. And Brat promptly tried to get back on. I told him politely that he had just had a go, we were all waiting and he too could wait his turn. Needless to say, Conor had a go, didn't fall off and was way chuffed with himself.

It led me to the question though, "Where have all the nice kids gone?" Are mine the exception to the rule? I make my children say please and thankyou, they hold doors open for the elderly or ladies who are pregnant or with prams. They stop to pick up things others have dropped. Are they so rare these days? While swimming, occassionally the play was too rough so they were sent out for a time out. Again, am I the only one who stops my kids from doing wrong?

Brat child came walking back some time later with a huge icecream cone that my children were wistfully eyeballing. One by one they all came up and asked if they too could get an icecream. Unfortunately we hadn't budgeted for that for the day but I did counter offer with icy cold slices of watermelon. Well, my three were as happy as Larry, piling into the sweet slices and smearing it all over each other.

You know, this past year, Caitie was particularly rude to her teacher one day and was sent to the office to think about her behaviour. Admittedly her teacher was an idiot who was abusive to the children, threw things and was just awful BUT I made her write out an apology and give it to her teacher because he deserved her respect. I've done it with Aiden before. How can our children learn right from wrong if, as parents, we allow them to get away with so very much. Respect is an easy word to spell but a difficult concept to grasp. I hope that I have put in the hard yards and my kids learn these lessons now, to stand them in good stead later.

More Kids Saying the Darndest things

2009-01-24T12:05:00.004+10:00

Conor came into my bedroom after his bath the other day and calmly stated he was allowed to get dressed in there as he was now a Big Un....

Aiden came to the shop to deliver my morning tea and said, deadpan, "don't blame me but Daddy said we nearly got a bus up our arse." I couldn't yell at him cause I was laughing so hard. Besides, it was Daddy's fault.

And as an aside, both Caitie and Aiden are beginning to call me Mum and to call Tony Dad. I miss the Mummy and Daddy. The first time stopped me in my tracks. I know they don't do it forever but I'm still going to miss it.

Birds and Bees and Kittens

2009-01-24T11:52:00.004+10:00

I have always been straight with everyone, I don't sugar coat stuff but I do explain things to the best of MY ability and to suit the age of the person I am talking to. I have often taken my kittens up to the kids school to show them off to the littlies in Grade 1 and Prep. So its fair to say that I often get sex questions from little kids. And I tell them as much of the truth as I can, if it gets too indepth or I feel its something their parents should be involved in, I tell them that its a question for Mummy or Daddy to answer.

That being said, Pearl went into labour while Caities 11 year old friend was over. Teag's was more than interested in the whole process but was hindered by Pearls desire to have the baby in the smallest darn space possible. Because I couldn't see what was going on, I had a feeling it was going to be a difficult birth. Poor Teagan and all my kids got to see the hard part of giving birth when the babies bag broke long before it was going to come out, it was a breach birth and the baby just wasn't coming out! So, in the absence of all politeness, I told them all to "Move, move, get outta the way!" We then had to drag the Mum out into the light (sigh) and help her to have her baby. Every push would produce a very purple pair of legs, caused by the circulation being cut off by the vulva contracting back around them. I gently grasped what I could and pulled steadily with Mums contractions. No she wasn't happy about that and told me so! Finally we had everything going well, baby was almost out...and then we discovered he had a huge boofy head. That took some getting out, with Mum yowling, me swearing, the kids gasping and finally, amid a gush of placenta and birth fluid, he arrived. And promptly sat up, gasped once, flopped down dramatically and stopped breathing!

Another sigh on my behalf and we went to work on him. We do it often as we don't like to take risks with our babies. Tony snipped the placenta and we kept it to look at later. Vigorous rubbing produced more gasps and then he took off. We placed him with Mum and the kids starting talking amid questions. They all were grossed out by the placenta until I unravelled it and explained how it worked and then it was just fascinating!
All the kids were fantastic and handled the tension well. There were no tears or dramatics and we ended up with one lovely little boy, who is at the moment nameless and four excited kids.

When did they grow up?

2009-01-22T15:51:00.002+10:00

Every now and then you stop and think, Wow, where did that time go?

Caitie had her very first grown up, Can-I-Choose-It-Myself haircut just before Christmas. Aiden shows maturity in the way he plays with Conor. And just the other day, Conor told me he was getting himself dressed cause he's a "big un". LOL.

Conor is now dry at night too. Having a slightly broken child sometimes means that milestones take a little while to arrive. Conor has a polycystic kidney and drinks alot of water. It meant that by the age of four, he still wore nappies at night. During our time in Sydney, he stopped wearing them...just like that...just like Conor!

You blink and suddenly they are leaving home!

Laughter is the Best Medicine

2009-01-17T13:43:00.004+10:00

Its been a long summer, a very, very long summer. With three kids, all with different personalities under the same roof I expected the fights and tantrums. I didn't expect the humour as well.

Caitie was having a huge whinge that she was sitting at the table for dinner while Aiden had managed to sit in the lounge and watch the news with us. He walked past her and muttered something which cause an even bigger hissy fit. I asked what was going on and she spun around and yelled, "Tell Aiden to stop calling me twinkletoes!!"

I spat my water...

Flying High and Home Again

2009-01-03T13:13:00.005+10:00

What a Christmas! As mentioned previously, we all lobbed onto a plane on Christmas day and flew down to Sydney. All bags arrived, all children were unharmed and the flight was a breeze.

The following day was our 2nd Christmas and we enjoyed a hot day followed by a small summer storm. Nothing as fantastical as the Queensland storms but a cool change none the less.

My mum lives on a very steep hill with an evil hook to the right at the bottom of it. Since the kids took their scooters with them, they were under strict instructions NOT to scooter down the hill...they were given strict instructions ,twice. While enjoying the cool afternoon, it came to my attention that three children were flying past the window at warp speed. Contrary to former death threats, they were indeed scootering down the hill, hitting Mach III. My rather worried Mum asked if she should go out and tell them not to. You know, we could have done that. You know, we then would have had an entire week of telling them over and over again not to go scootering ....you get the drift. So, I said no. They have to learn...the hard way.

Sure enough, not five minutes later, there was a crash followed by Caitie screaming. Yup, the evil right hook had got her. She had swept round the corner at devastating speed, wobbled, lost control and hit the grass which effectively stopped the scooter cold. When a scooter going at over 40km an hour is suddenly stopped, the law of inertia means that the child ON the scooter keeps right on going...over the top. She had a massive graze down her leg, a small graze on her elbow and more worryingly, she couldn't move her arm. We bandaged it and watched her over the next few hours. There was no swelling, no pain on bending, so it was quite obviously a sprain.

Mind you, they didn't go scootering down the hill again!

The following day we spent wandering around Taronga Zoo. I will post more photographs and info about that another day. I will finish however with this truly lovely photograph from the Zoo which has the infamous "Nuns In a Scrum" (aka the Sydney Opera House) as well as one of the Tall Ships sailing through the harbour.

Cheers,

Cin

A Life Well Lived.... The first Christmas in Twelve Years without my girl...

2008-12-20T11:41:00.005+10:00

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The End of the Year

2008-12-13T12:09:00.002+10:00

I don't believe that the Year ends on the 31st of December. It makes no sense. Businesses close, schools close, clubs break up...all in the middle of December. So, here's to the end of MY year.

Caitie finished Year 5 in style, being sent up to the office twice for verbally fighting in class. She has now been told that the bully who has been driving her nuts all year is, from this point on, invisible. I told her to pretend this evil child does not exist, to ignore all things from her even if said in friendship. Here's to a Year 6 where I have asked that Caitie is not in the same class as her.
Aiden finished Year 3 with a report on his Report Card that his a dreamer with excellent imagination and literary skills. His handwriting is appalling (thanks Uncle Wayne LOL), his concentration is nil and he gets aggressive when he doesn't get his own way...(sigh).
Conor is gearing up for Prep next year and enjoyed going to see everyone in his new class. Bring it on!
Obedience broke up with a bit of a whimper. The break up night was too quiet and I felt a bit dismal this year. Oh well. Bring on 2009 with plans for instructing Class 4 only and a new puppy!
Agility broke up with a ton more fun. We had a pizza night with lots of laughter and joking. I look forward to going over the notes for the agility class and making it bigger and better next year.
Christmas tree is up, presents are bought....Chrimbo is all go and we are on a countdown to Sydney! Woohoooo.
I am working my tush off at the moment and the money is coming in awfully handy. I must say that Summer is fantastic weather for a dog groomer.
And lastly, here's to a year full of good news, healthy animals, happy kids and booming business!

Cin

Merry Elfmas

2008-12-13T11:36:00.001+10:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A Family First

2008-12-06T13:37:00.003+10:00

I rarely have photographs with me in them as I hate having my photograph taken. However, we got a professional family photo taken through our day care center and I have to say that I am way chuffed with the resulting pic.

Its great to have a halfway decent photo of my insane kids and husband. We are always on the go so getting us all together, dressed nicely and without any major injuries visible is a plus. Mind you, the day before this pic, Caitie went swimming and came home the colour of a fresh young beetroot. Luckily it settled down over night.

I mentioned about the storms that hit us the other night. Well, here is a quick look at them through our camera. Today is particularly hot and humid so no doubt we will get some more weather through tonight.

Cheers,

Cin

Too much...and a little bit of sanity returns

2008-12-04T09:58:00.007+10:00

I was going to dwell on what has happened this year but enough is enough...so, in the spirit of the Season......MERRY CHRISTMAS! Santa is due in just over 20 sleeps and my little people couldn't care less! Well, its only because we will be flying down to visit my Mum and Other Dad on Christmas day. Typical kids. It has made it a little easier though, they aren't so focused on the Big Red dude. Here are the kiddos dressed up for their Carols night.

A few things to report. One that, looking back, is kinda funny depending on where you were sitting at the time. I mentioned earlier about Caitie's horrendous temper tantrums and how destructive physically, mentally and emotionally they are. Well, she got her comeuppance last week. Caitie had been horrid all week, tons of attitude, slyly being mean to her brothers, backchatting, tantrums, the works so I told her quite calmly she couldn't go to a friends house for a swim. That led to a complete meltdown with warnings from both of us for her to settle down. Eventually, her screaming tantrum got to Husband, who gave her a crack with a wooden spoon around the butt.

She then proceeded to stand in her bedroom and scream, at the top of her lungs, "Stop bashing me, I hate it when you bash me, you're always bashing me...." It took her a good half hour to settle down. I finally got her to settle and, as we were discussin her behaviour, I heard a car pull up...then a torch came through our front yard...then the knock on the door...

"Excuse me M'am, but we have had a report of a domestic disturbance, anything happening around here?" Nice young policeman he was. All I could do was be honest and tell him that my ten year old daughter had thrown a wobbly and was screaming at the top of her lungs. And do you know what the Nice Policeman did? He stuck his head around the corner and told Caitlin, "You're ten, do what your told!" I could have fainted. I then went on to explain that she had a meltdown as she had been horrid all week and I wouldn't let her go to a friends place. He was very kind and wished me a good evening...then said, quite loudly, "You're ten, you don't get to go anywhere!" I could have married him!

After they left, I burst into tears and hid in the bedroom as it was so overwhelming that one of the neighbours thought we were beating our child. After I came out, Caitie was standing there, dead white, eyes as big as saucers and whispered, "I'm so sorry Mummy." Finally she understood that screaming that out, which she does, will get her taken away from us. Eventually she asked me to stop crying cause I was scaring her. I think the lesson sunk in.

This week, she has been quite good. No complete meltdowns. A few minor squabbles, but nothing huge.

As I mentioned, we had the kids christmas carols last night. A great family night, which I thoroughly enjoy. Ok I had to drag Husband by the short and curlies but he enjoyed himself as we got to watch the latest summer storm roll in.

The storm hit soon after we got home. Caitie didn't get to sing as the storm was moving too fast and we all had to bolt. After we got home, we had the best light show. At one point, we heard the lightning sizzle through the air and then *CRACK* it hit only a few streets away.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=QFp_EYo4uL0 This is a link to some lightning footage I took last night. Some excellent strikes, especially at the 24 second mark and the 36 second mark, where a double strike is.

I hope everyone continues to be safe as we have yet another storm predicted for this afternoon. I don't mind the storms so much as the high humidity that proceeds them!!!

Love hurts.....

2008-11-22T11:10:00.006+10:00

Today, we lost another friend. This year alone, as a family we have said goodbye to three of our much loved fur friends. Too much for one year, too much pain and far too many tears.

In February, our Granma Besa, head of the dogpack, suffered a stroke which left her dazed, confused and unable to either get up or go down our very high back steps. She had been diagnosed with massive tumours the previous December and we knew we were running on borrowed time. Unfortunately, time stops for no man and her time ran out. I'd like to say she went peacefully but Besa fought me the whole way. That was just the kind of dog she was.

On the 20th of August we lost Arthur Bean, the one-eyed Pirate Cat. This little fellow filled our house with love, laughter and naughtiness. He left a huge hole, a huge, deep, dark, scary hole that we didn't think could be filled.

Now it is November and our hearts are shredded again. Our darling Kai, the blonde of the household, my Chickendog has gone. Kai suffered horrendously from skin allergies her whole life and by the end she was mostly blind, deaf as a post and I believe had numerous outbreaks of cancer throughout her tired body. We chose to do the right think, knowing that with a heart as big as hers, she would not succumb but would continue to fight in her quiet, stoical way.

Rest easy, Princess. At Rainbow Bridge you will be whole and healed, you will be young and strong and Besa is waiting for you. Go bravely.

I can't make the pain go away, I can't stop the hurt but I can be there for when the night gets too quiet and a furrever friend is missing.

Please stay safe....

2008-11-20T13:16:00.005+10:00

This past weekend has been huge. Nell and I competed in Obedience CCD on the weekend with Nell receiving a qualifying score, her CCD title and a 2nd place trophy! Well done to my Mighty Midget.

Sunday dawned bright and hot. It was so hot in the catshow hall that the kittens were overheating a blushing a deep hot pink. Devons only do this when they are seriously hot. The day went really well with the new kid Analise winning four devon kitten of breed placings and never being unplaced in the groups.

So, after a fantastic show, we headed home, only to be greeted outside by the most threatening sky we have ever seen. By the time we got to my fathers house to pick up the kids, the storm had dropped onto us with the sky being a deep aqua green. We barely had time to secure the house and the cars before the storm hit. We had vertical rain, wind gusts of up to 150km an hour. It lasted for a good half an hour and by the time it was done, it had almost wiped one of Brisbanes suburbs off the map. The Gap is in a hell of a state with trees and houses ripped apart. One photograph showed what looked to be a miniature tornado descending.

We thought we were in the clear until last night when another storm dropped onto us. It hit around 2am with all the subtlety of a freight train. Vertical rain, vertical trees.

Above is a screenshot of the storm as it came through Brisbane. The hotpink dot is where my family lives. And at last look, there are more storms building this afternoon...

Saturday Snuggles are the BEST

2008-11-15T09:53:00.004+10:00

We actually had a rare lie in this morning and after T got out of bed, I called everyone in for a mass smash on the bed. At one point I had Caitie beside me on the right, Aiden on the left and Little Bear Conor on my front. That kid is like a limpet, permanently stuck to some part of me. We had hugs and tickles and slappies and kicking off the bed. Only a few quibbles but they were soon nipped in the bud.

As I went to go to work this morning, Conor raced to the door and gave me a few kisses on the cheek. He is such a sweetie!

This is a typical Conor photo, those big blue eyes and that even bigger cheeky grin. He is so funny. Today he took me by the hand and we went into the boys bedroom. After leading me into their room he said, "Ta daaaa," with a flourish with his hand. "I made my bed!" Yes you did little man. Just don't do it again cause you are growing up tooooo fast.

He starts Prep next year, Aussie version of preschool, the year before grade 1. He still looks at me and says, "but sewiously Mummy," and I melt. He rarely chucks a tantie and when he does they blow over relatively quickly. Denying him my "friendship" works to clear the blues away and I usually get a "sowwy Mummy." Damn I am going to miss those w's when he gets his speech right.

The End of the Season

2008-11-13T13:58:00.003+10:00

This year has flown past with the speed of chickens in line for a free meal. This weekend we will be having our very last cat show for the season. And the most exciting thing is that the newest bunch of babies will be entered in their first show! The adorable baby below is Tony's new stud boy, Leetamy Just Jameson. He is a sweetheart with a deep love for nose bumping.

We are also entering his equally edible sister, Allabout Analise, the very pretty Pearl, head of the fun Police Titch and Super Muu. A very exciting show is planned thats for sure.

This weekend Noodle and I will attempt, once more, to gain her CCD title. Last trial she entered the ring with the enthusiasm of a toddler for the dentist, dragging her toes. Sod of a dog!

On a plus side, she has managed to teach herself how to enter the weave poles on the off side using an "Around" command followed by a weave command. Very impressive. Fingers crossed!

Froggles are HERE!

2008-11-09T13:03:00.002+10:00

We have a gorgeous pond out the front of our home. Australia has a huge problem with vanishing frog species so we put in a pond to help the little critters along. The frogs have been laying many frothy egg nests and we brought one upstairs to show the kids the frog process.

After two days our eggs have hatched and we now have lots of tadpoles swimming in a beautiful big glass jar.

Those little upright splots on the glass are the teeny taddies. I'll post some more piccies when they get bigger.

PMT and Growing Up Sane.

2008-11-06T11:13:00.001+10:00

I'm pretty much convinced that my ten year old daughter Caitie has started PMT. As yet there is no obvious sign of the M but batten down the hatches folks cause the T is in full effect. And frankly, the screaming sessions, the abuse, the throwing of objects and slamming of doors is wearing me down. And wearing her father down. And traumatising the boys. And she just...doesn't...care!

There has to be a better way than this ever growing cycle of anger? We had a doozy of a fight the other day which ended in my totally losing it. I found myself screaming right back at her, angry spittle being flung from my lips. And in that one moment of crystal clear insanity, I knew that I hated her.

Don't get me wrong, I love my daughter with all my heart and soul. I can't wait to see her grow into the person I know she is capable of. Her empathy toward other children is deeper than the ocean. She is a calming influence on the smaller children at Vacation care. She cares deeply for her littlest brother Conor. But, in those moments when she has lost all ability to listen to reason, has switched off and has gotten on the "Its-not-fair" carousel, I can't deal with her.

The whole episode left me exhausted, her emotionally shattered and my husband and I completely overwhelmed. As parents, it is our job to bring our kids up safely. Bit hard to do that when you just want them to stop screaming abuse at you. She actually ran through the house screaming, "You hate me, you've always hated me!" (sigh) So, together, T and I sat down and decided how we are going to handle these meltdowns. It came down to one simple fact. We are the parents and she is the child. At ten she is on the cusp of young womanhood but she is still a child and needs structure and direction. The rule is simple but it is ever so hard to enforce. What we say, goes and no arguments will change that.

We had the perfect opportunity to try it the next day when the arguments started from the topic of the previous day. She had to wear her brothers formal shoes as hers were too small. With six weeks left of school, I flatly refused to purchase a new pair when her brothers were the perfect size and almost brand new. "I want my SNEAKERS", began the familiar whine. I faced her and said in my calmest voice,"No, Caitlin." And the arguments began to heat up. She sat outside my door whining in her most annoying pitch. T went to argue with her and I stopped him. "No means No and you don't need to say anything else." It took half an hour but this time there was no throwing and no screaming. Just an acceptance. She gave up because we remained a united front. In that moment I was proud of myself, my husband and, strangely enough, my little spitfire. It may be a small victory but its a start.

Peace reigned for a small period of time...Hallelujah.

Ireland Dreaming

So Much Proud!!!!

Back to School Pics

Schools Back...

3 Towns, 1 City, 2 Days!

PUTT PUTT!

Christmas Fun

Family Pics

Piece of My Heart

Tiny Babies and Huge Obstacles

POP goes the Devon

I am Nav-Woman!

Catch Up

7-8 Weeks

How To Deal With Bullies.

Pregnancy 101

Always Take the Weather With You

My People

There are moments

Pavers and Things that go BUMP!

Four Seasons

Summer.....

The Eyes of a Child...the Soul of a Killer

All the Pretty Horses

Tea Time

How did I get to this????

Happy? Oh, there you are....

The Naughties

Lost...one happy...if found, please call....

Little Bears Don't Bounce

Broken

I Am Woman, Hear Me *&%#*.....

ROADTRIP!

FOOD FIGHT!!!

A Whole Heap o' Hurt

Boils, Toils and Little Boys

Boys and Body Odour

Big Fish Little Fish

The School Mosquito

Stone Angels

Suffer the Little Children

The Return of Super MUM!!!

A Huge Day.

Long Time...No Post...

2 Boys = One Bed = Trouble

Winning Isn't Everything

Umm...Pardon?

I, Superhero

Hanging By a Moment

Feelin' the Lurv.

A Decade of Life...

Peace on Earth...or at least my lounge room!

Running out of Firsts

BeTWEEN a Rock and a Hard Place

Cousin It!

Sadness by the bucket load

Endings and Beginnings

Art Appreciation 101

Persistence Pays Off

One Piece of Tape

Dump and Burn, Baby!!

These Little Wonders

Q..Who Knew!!

A Candle for Isabella

A Tropical Winter Garden...ie Silent Sunday!

A Farm Girl at Heart

Diagnosis

Birthdays and Louses

"Dam" Another Holiday!

Happy Families Don't Exist

The Easter Bunny Brought Eggs and a Cold!

A Different Kind of Normal

Funny Girl

Sometimes there are happy endings.

Grief is Universal

Bananas and Oranges

Pirates and Soap Bubbles

Little Beginnings

A Year of Endings

Happy Birthday Conor!!!

I Am Woman, Hear Me &%#.....