Could it finally be happening?????

We've been in the process of building our extension for most of the year...plans, banks, next door neighbors who weren't sure they wanted building work right on there property line(even though it was beneficial to them in the end....) but we finally got the site supervisor in today and WOOHOO we break ground next week.....can't wait...not sure if it will be done by Christmas but we can hope that it will be pretty damned close to being finished by then and that is great

Oh my God....

I definitely have no life....my blog revolves around Australian Idol and Survivor....where is the woman who used to have ideas and thoughts about world affairs and deeper things....oh I know she got married, had kids, and suffered major brain drain!!!!!!!! Or maybe she just doesn't care as much anymore....no that's not true...I think I'm too drained to have interesting opinions...put it down to illness rather than apathy....or is it apathy? I don't know, not sure I care.....

Bye bye....

Emelia from AIdol and Dolly from Survivor....not really suprised that Emelia left...I think she did her dash and Dolly...well if you fence sit and can't make decisions about who you're going to side with well what can you expect!!!!!

Is it all over for

Chanel?...had my fix of Australian Idol and I think one of my favs just might be going home.....dang...I like her quirky ways but I don't think she's been able to pull off the last couple of weeks of comp and she could have sung her last song ...oh well will see tomorrow night....

I survived another....

sleepover party.....no major dramas except a phonecall at 2.30am for one of the moms to come pick up her daughter who was sick...but was I happy when the last girl was picked up and the giggling stopped...and silence reigned....ohhh off in dream land there...silence NEVER reigns in this house

What a week....

Not a good one by any means....the kids are on holiday and I feel like crap....spent most of the week lying around the couch...with covers on socks and hotwater bottles, then throwing them all off because the chilling cold turned into raging fever....what fun!!! Vomiting and a shuddering cough just topped it all off.(poor M who had her birthday this week had the same thing though by her birthday when my fever/chills started hers had waned....what a great way to celebrate!!!!)..so that was my week....not one I want to experience again in a hurry...
but then again....a night with six 12 year olds playing games and singing karaoke watching DVDs and feeding their faces is not top of the list either but.......a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do LOL....joys of sleepover parties....though a lot easier to handle than the future parties I guess....don't want to think about those ones.....well....got to go organise things otherwise no decorations, food or party favors.....and I don't think that would go down well....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY M

today is my daughter, M's birthday, 12 today....WOW where has the time gone...happy birthday sweetie.....

YAHOO it's back.....

FINALLY Survivor is back....I love this show....though I don't think I got much of a feel about everyone yet....no real bitchiness or backstabbing is rearing it's ugly head but it's early days yet....hope to see lots more of it in the future....guys vs girls...been there done that....didn't they do that in the Amazon....hoping for a few more twists than that!!!! My fave...mmmm I'd have to go for Chad...but think he's at a disadvantage...and no not because of the leg...well yes because of it but because people could see him as a threat because if he lasts in the competition someone is going to be worried about going up against him in the final two because people may vote for him just because he has survived so long with a disability.....but I'm hoping he goes all the way either way!!!!

Tasmania vs Hawaii....

well if I had a choice....mmmmm.... tough one...sun and beaches and lava flows or rugged countryside and chillier temperatures.....actually I could have a house in both places thank you very much....but I was thinking of Australian vs American Idol here....Jasmine from Hawaii and Amali from Tasmania....thought Amali was going to last longer as she would have the whole of Tassie behind her like Jasmine did with Hawaii but it wasn't to be and again Hayley was saved....wonder if she can do it again....dare I say I hope not.

Swinging 60s

mmmmmmm I was hoping for something different....something that I saw from the movies of that era or from very vague memories(only had five years in that decade so really not that memorable)...but I don't think this years crop of Australian Idol contestants did that great a job.....Courtney again was fab....and Emelia gets better each week(well so far though I don't know if she'll last through to the end)...Chanel I adore...though maybe she didn't do as well tonight....but I'm hoping she'll be there for a whole lot longer....the rest ....well....up and down on them all I think....

Star Wars

WOOHOO...finally the DVDs of the originals are coming out....I can't wait...my videos are at death's door ..and I want to see what digitally enhancing them has done to the movies....only made them better....in the same respect I don't know about the third of the new movies....I'm hoping that they all tie together but somehow I don't think they'll ever be as good as the original three...watching a documentary at the moment about the making of Star Wars....very good....amazing how much work was involved....and the advances in special effects that happened because of it.....

I've survived...

Day one of the holidays...or does today count as it's Saturday...but with no basketball DS(9) he was underfoot and moaning about having nothing to do...books, board games, computer games, football...even television (apart from his chores) and still he had nothing to do....mmmmmm ....I wish I had a couple of guilt free hours where I had nothing to do...oh if I want to sit and read I do....too often sometimes but in the back of my head I know laundry, cleaning etc should be done first(heck that's what I try and tell the kids...no wonder they roll their eyes at me!!!!!)

Oh no....

how am I going to survive?
The kids are home for two weeks of school holidays.......ahhhhh...get me my strait jacket....my padded room I need to go scream.....LOL
It's not that bad....really it's not.....no having to rush around in the morning getting them organised,no "where's my uniform mum?", no "will you make my lunch I don't have time?", no "hurry up or you're going to be late and you know if you're late you're going to get another late detention", no rushing around in the evenings as they go to all their extra-curricular activities, no.........
NO PEACE!!!!
Four kids at each other's throats all day instead of just the morning and evening....oh no.....put me back in that padded room AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The end of an era...

The principal of the kids primary school left today...retiring after 14 years in the job...she opened the school and has built it into a wonderful place...but she feels like it is time to move on....health issues, a tumor in the spine, is one of the main reasons....she's had a couple of ops and I think they've taken their toll, plus like any other person in the teaching profession ...the job takes it's toll.....she's a wonderful woman and the kids and most parents adore her....she has such spirit and does an amazing job at sex ed talks...(which will be sorely missed...personally we think she needs to be employed in future years just for those talks)...and things will never be quite the same...though the new principal (deputy until then) is a great guy and has the same sort of views and the actual spirit and the feel of the school shouldn't change...at least I hope it doesn't as I have two more to finish their education there ....2DD(soon to be 12) finishes this year and heads to high school but DS(9) and YDD(5) still have a few years to go....
The assembly today...a farewell assembly....was very emotional with kids doing songs and dances, speeches and poems, and I have to say I shed a few tears....like many of the other mothers around me...and I can only hope that the positive influence that JM had will carry my kids all the way through the rest of their schooling and even further into the future
JM I salute you and thank you for the last nine years.....what a great start my kids had in their schooling life

Do you ever feel guilty when....

you turn down another charity that rings you on the phone? I try and do my bit, with cancer foundations, breast cancer, a couple of childrens charites, Red Cross and the Salvation Army when they come knocking on the door but I can't support them all...and I basically hate it when you are made to feel like you don't care when you say NO...
As far as I'm concerned I believe that Charity does begin at home....and if I have to choose between feeding my kids or someone elses...I have to say mine....
I'm lucky in that respect...DH has a pretty good job and money isn't always tight and I can contribute to other charities...but like any other family some months are tighter than others...where all the bills seem to come in at once and the pay check which looked so healthy the previous month just doesn't seem to stretch as far this one....and I don't have a spare $5 let alone $20 which seems to be the minimum donation that some charities seem to want these days(I think it is all to do with charges/account fees etc).....personally I think 10 families contributing $5 each rather than 2 contributing $20 is better...hey do the math....$50 vs $40 ...

Chocolate is.....

delicious, seductive, creamy, tasty, erotic,tempting, mouthwatering, delectable BAD BAD BAD....it sits on my hips, my thighs, my stomach.....its BAD, BAD, BAD....no it's delicious, seductive etc

Straight As.....

I don't think so......
Eldest DD(13) is no A grade student....never going to be....but I know if she made the effort she could do a heck of a lot better but....I can't stand over here with a stick and make her work, I can encourage her and hope she does the right thing, I can ask her if she's done her homework, even help her with the editing of it, help her find the research or steer her in the right direction etc(done that before), but I can't do it for her....
I know teaching is a damned hard job..(and I admire the dedication and effort that it takes to teach and I know I wouldn't be able to do the job...I'm sure too many parents would object to me yelling constantly at the children and sending them to corners or timeout LOL hell I struggle with my own 4 let alone someone elses 23+)....and it's a damned hard job especially in high school where a hell of a lot of kids really don't want to be but..I sometimes wish the teaching was a little different like the approach they take in the younger children's primary school of teaching the child not the subject(yes they still teach the subject....but in different ways ....they look at the kids and go I think a more hands on approach would work better for these kids or rather than just using a textbook get ideas from life as to how each subject is relevant....I know it is harder in highschool where each teacher has a hundred and one students....(or however many) and not in the earlier grades where a teacher only has one classroom full but there must be ways to make kids want to learn...ahh don't ask me I'm not an expert .....

She'd be so much better at school if it wasn't for.....

her attitude.....(parent teacher interviews at the high school....what a joy)
gee I wonder where she gets her attitude from.....HER FATHER....well okay maybe not...maybe it is ME....my mistake...I encouraged my children to speak and have opinions....(knew I should have gagged them at birth :) )It wasn't that I was afraid to speak up as a child...no that's not true...I was....I get on really well with my mother and can and still talk to her about most things....but let's say the choice of stepfathers wasn't the best...and I think I hid away in a world of make believe and books rather than step out and voice my opinions and wanted my kids to be different...to have their say...I might not agree with them but they have the right to say it....but trying to teach a balance of your rights and respect is not always easy...and trying to teach them all that there are times and places for ways of talking...for example over the last school holidays I went to visit a friend on two different occasions, on the first there were other people there who don't swear (or very little) and on the second occasion was with the group that are a bit more casual about their language and I knew that the first visit I had to be a little more careful about my choice of words....something at my age I'm used to doing I guess and something that my kids still have to learn that that how you talk and act with your friends is different how you do with your teachers/workmates/some members of your family etc....so attitude has a lot to do with maturity too....and how far you can stretch the boundaries and what you think about other people.....
DD(13) doesn't think too highly of her English teacher and while I understand that (I don't think I do either) but I've tried to explain that having "attitude" (anyone with kids especially teens knows what I mean about "attitude") in class isn't going to help....I've also told her that they best revenge is to do the unexpected and get a damned good grade in English, too pass with flying colors and show her teacher that she's wrong about DD(13) and to try without the "attitude"

To write or....

not to write? That is definitely the question...
I sometimes feel like I am hitting my head against a brick wall....I know I have plenty of ideas and I can write...needs a lot of work but I know that there is potential there....but not sure I have enough drive and discipline to do it....which is damned stupid really as I have been wanting to write since I knew that words formed stories....but I have let my own inadequacies and fears get in my way.... that is not going to continue to happen...I am going to make a success of it...no matter how long it takes me to do it or how many knockbacks and rejections I recieve along the way....I know I don't want to look back on my life and think what if.......

Don't you just hate it when......

a parent comes to your door saying your son(9) was throwing dirt at his daughter when the kid standing next to him,(the daughters big brother(11)), had your son bailed up against a wall with his fist in your son's face.....mmmmmmmmmmm....
...lets say I was cool, calm and collected when I wanted to smack said smirking son(Brat 11) myself....and the father too...
I told my son off...(actually it was another kid he was walking with) but thought I would make sure that the father knew I wouldn't stand for something like that but I wondered what he did when he got home with his own son(I told him about the fist.....)well heck I didn't have to wonder too long....just saw the kid walking around the street with his bike....hell if it had been my DS he'd be in his room grounded....or at the least not allowed outside playing....
..I know my kids aren't perfect...hell I live with them....and I am the first to ask them what they did before I find out what the other kid did.....but you wonder why there is so much crime around....because nobody takes responsibility for their actions...and no consequences come from them.....my kids know better than that....hell they push the limits...more often than I care to admit but they know that when they go too far I'll come down on them like a ton of bricks.....
I'm calm now....

And the Academy award goes to......

my eldest daughter (13) who is lounging around at home with her foot up on cushions with hot and cold packs around her. She went over on her ankle in sports class today at school.....and couldn't walk on it.....yes it swollen...but puh-leeeeeese......could we make more of a deal about it ...I know I should be a sympathetic mother, kind and caring but....LOL.
..ooops here i go again to change the ice-pack for her....(gee I wonder how much mileage she is going to get out of it .

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

D&T.......WOWEE 20 years today.......truly, truly amazing in this day and age. so my hat goes off to them....and even more so because they've been together since D was 15....she's the same age as me now...39...twenty four years with the same man.....hey D did you know you'd have got less for murder :) :) :)
Saying that I hope that you have many many more anniversaries that is(not husbands ....world cruises, baseball bats and RLC mags not withstanding LOL

Do you sometimes wonder.....

WHY YOU BOTHER??????
Okay venting time, I know my DH works odd hours and doesn't always sleep very well when the kids make too much noise(but hey they're kids and there's four of them and the television isn't working in the family room so they are in the front lounge which is near the bedroom.....roll around that extension being finished and the new TV going into the family room so we can all be down there when DH is sleeping) but it was his birthday today so could he at least have made an effort and not been stroppy with the kids....they were only excited cos they like other people's birthdays as much as their own....) At least he liked his presents and the cake and managed to crack a joke or two with them so I shouldn't complain....much LOL
And the bank thing.....he moans and groans when I haven't done something which is delaying the extension stuff....but when I ask him something simple to fax info to the bank from work....well.....does he do it....NO!!!! So I'll be out in the morning getting the info the bank needs faxed out to them.....again roll around extension...when the office is set up properly instead of a nook in the front room I'll be able to set up the fax properly....
Hell if I don't go to bed...I'll never get up early enough to get the hundred and one things(including getting that fax out) I have to get done today before I spend the day at the kids school doing a sausage sizzle (bbq) fundraiser

How Embarassing

Okay I know that the Unforgettables in Australian Idol are there because they are exactly that but NOT in a good way, and to be honest some of them really weren't that bad....the heavy metal bloke didn't sound much different from some of the other metal bands I've heard, and the sisters ....well if I'd been at a pub with them singing Karaoke I'd have cheered them....and Flynn...Australia's answer to Edward Hung(but better) was ....likable....and poor Georgee....he so wants to be Madonna....and if he hadn't of been singing he might have been quite good
.......but the poor girl who thought she could sing opera...or something like that....couldn't her mom or her best friend have let her down gently and said honey...maybe you shouldn't......I have to say the namby pamby judges who sit on the fence annoy me....tell it like it is...they're not good enough...okay try and say it in a tactful way instead of really hurting their feelings by telling them exactly how crap they are....but then again some of them only understand if you hurt their feelings.....

I don't like .....

the color red .....too much of it on the hard copy I took to dancing practice with the kids.....edit/cross out/add/edit/ewwww yuck....okay not bad.....that's kind of what it was like in streaks of red all over the pages....but suprisingly enough I was happy with the result....gee I just might be able to turn this into something readable :)

Really I have been writing....

honest I have....do I sound convincing.....not really...okay....
but I do have a hard copy of m/s which I am taking with me when take kids to dance class....one DD does singing at one school and forty minutes later the youngest DD does dancing at another and rather than coming home I usually stay and read my book....but today will take m/s and red pen....and do lots and lots of editing and try and fix it up when I get on here later....after tackling the kids for the computer....roll on the end of the year....(or early next) when the extension is finished and the kids will no longer have to fight me or each other for computer time......going to leave now before the school rush and park up as close I can to the gates cos it is about to bucket down and I don't think the girls will have much fun dancing when they're drowned rats..

Okay it's official......

I'm addicted.... I know the novelty will wear off...(it did with SIMs) when I first started playing that....but I am riding the waves and enjoying it....forgot how much I liked journalling....and being nosy reading other peoples blogs.....I can always pretend it is research....finding out information about other people could help me with story ideas or ...awwww hell I'm kidding myself....I'm enjoying this just a little too much....and I have too many other things that I should be doing....

Yep......

...mmmmm hmmmm....what am I doing? And what should I be doing?....
Okay....... what I am doing........ reading email, surfing the net, blogging and being nosy by reading other peoples blogs
and what I should be doing....... well housework....the place is a tip and will be worse soon as we are having renovations done(hopefully...and that is another saga in itself ) but need to straighten things up and pack things away so builders can get into the damn place.....
and then I should be writing....or rewriting as the case might be.....got a m/s to edit.....(badly needs it.....my first foray into writing two years ago....sent it out and it got soundly rejected....my heart was broken and I decided that my writing career was over.....) but then I read it again a few months ago and realised exactly why it was rejected....can utter CRAP give you an idea what the story was like....great concept, but CRAP writing....okay maybe it wasn't that bad....it is certainly redeemable but I've got a heck of a lot better since then and I want to dust the thing off....make a better job of it and send it back out there for someone else to look at ....and maybe....well.....who knows?

Another birthday in my house.....

......today is my husband's ......HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEIL.....

Another one bites the dust

....watched Australian Idol and another one left.not one that I wanted either...Dan O'Connor who I thought was kind of cute and had great potential...but as they say poor song choice for a Pop show....I kind of knew he wouldn't be around until the end but hoped he'd be around a little longer to show us what he had and knock at least one other off before he left..the person he was in the final two with.....oh well....there's always next week....or maybe she'll grow on me and I'll back her all the way to the end....but ...I don't think so :)

What a drama....

....rush, rush, rush....looking forward to the holidays and I don't need to rush around on Monday nights playing taxi service to the kids...(and getting organised for DH's birthday tomorrow.....my own fault if I had sorted myself out last week I wouldn't have been rushing around like a blue-arsed fly :) )
Have half an hour to get dinner finished and the kids sorted so we can park ourselves in front of the television for our Monday night ritual of seeing the next Australian Idol being kicked off

I so don't have a life.....

I'm surfing the net while tracking IVAN on television and hell.....I don't even live in the US ......I should be trying to write instead of playing but trying to tell myself that I only have 18 minutes left before I have to pick up the kids from school and take them to dance and drama class....but what was my excuse 2 hours and 43 minutes ago when I first got on the computer.....mmmmmm.....not the dedicated, professional writer I am trying to be.....

Happy Birthday Mum

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM.....HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT ONE....AND WHO KNOWS MAYBE AFTER SATURDAY WE'LL BE CELEBRATING EVEN MORE lol

Sunday Drearies

WOOHOO another Sunday....listening to kids squabble, DH moan and me try to write while surfing the net and chatting online.
Today not so bad as parents over, both celebrating birthdays so lots of cake(too much for someone like me who just needs to look at food and the weight goes on at the hips...yeah, yeah....it's September now and I jump on the scales and go.....well do I swear and moan and groan....well yeah but it doesn't do me any good....still the same weight I was on New Years Day....suppose I should be grateful that I haven't put any on....but the scales are tipping way too high....way way way.....so high don't even want to think of it here....)
Watched Australian Idol...an obsession for me....just waiting for the next one to come on TV....Survivor....although have to try and stop myself from reading the net ahead of time....we get the show a couple of days later here so terribly tempted to go on and find out who has left.....temptation....mmmmm too many of those...chocolate cake and Survivor......LOL

A day to remember

Three years ago.....I remember ...sitting up all night(we are 16 hours ahead of NY) watching the news channels...watching the horror....and wondering what on earth would happen because of it....wondering whether our lives would ever be the same again....I've experienced terrorism before ...been in London and Paris when there were bombings ...in Israel to see suicide bombers but never before seen anything like the scale of 9-11....I cried watching the television....and cried again when the names of the people who died were read even though I didn't know anyone....last year I was in NY and went to Ground Zero and laid a rose....and cried when I overhead a little boy asking his daddy why his mommy wasn't coming home.....and cried some more at the reverent hush that surrounded the site....I cried again two nights ago while watching a documentary about two brothers...one a fireman one a policeman who both died that day.....and I cried again today when I watched the memorial services and thought about how the lives of everyone have changed so much because of that day.
A day to remember.....that terrorism must be stopped

Virgin Blogger

Well my first foray into the world of blogging and I wonder how long the novelty will last. Terribly bad at keeping up a diary/journal even though I have to admit it was damned good for venting when I was a kid and would probably save on the vocal chords at the moment (if you've got kids you know what I mean). Or putting all those dreams down and hoping that one day they'll all come true.