Just because I couldn’t be arsed yesterday.

So this week I’m thinking …..

Tuesday – Chicken with fried rice

Wednesday – Rissoles and vegies

Thursday – Pasta bake

Friday – Crumbed fish and wedges

Saturday – Roast chooken and vegies

Sunday – Sausages, mash and vegies

Monday – Chicken and Corn soup

Also CJ wants to have a go at making a large tart of some description too.

Go see Laura for more menu planning ideas this week.

And also we need a bit of a moving plan… I needs to get everyone’s arses into gear or this move just ain’t gonna happen.

*Update hub’s resume

* Sign hub’s up for all the employment services I can find that are available to people not on the dole

* Research costs/needs for transferring car rego, licenses etc

* Find out if we’ll need to swap electricity and gas companies

* Find out costs for animal registration and relevant by laws

* Buy two plastic storage crates

* Declutter my wardrobe

* decrapify the bathroom

* make list of things am hoping to buy from hub’s current work at staff cost before we leave

And I guess while we are going…. major items on the homeschooling agenda this week are

* designing and making a cushion for CJ’s friend’s birthday

* making a bracelet in jewellery making

* doing background research on China as part of our ‘Chinese Cinderella module for English

* Start of new science and maths modules

* continue with current HSIE module and AMEB music exam prep work

And I’ll suppose there’ll be some uni crap in there somewhere for me to do too.

Oh and don’t forget that you can get a $10 Menulog voucher here too.

My hubby is an asshat

doesn’t come home for 3 nights and no kiss hello

then is patronizingly condescending when I complain

And after he rang me while away after getting lost and needing to be found and directed cos he forgot to take his GPS and had no idea where he was going.

Even threatening him with this post did not produce the desired results

hmmp

but he did fix the dishwasher…………

perhaps I’ll forgive him.

lol

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TJ has a friend from school coming over for a sleepover.

We haven’t met this friend before. Don’t know his parents. Didn’t organise it for him.

Awwww, my baby is growing up!

And right now he’s terribly busy cleaning his room so I don’t ring Dyson’s mum back up and cancel the whole thing

I’ll use whatever motivation presents itself thank you very much!

(not his real name, but is his real nickname)

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Had a phone call from cousin J last night – mother of cousin E that the girls hang with during holidays – they have invited Miss Lou for a few days away with them next week.

“NOES!!! I can’t miss Harry Potter!!” she says

“We’ll go see Harry Potter on Saturday instead” I says.

Problem solved, nice break away scheduled for Wednesday.

————————————————————————————————-

CJ’s friend H is still here – she showed up on Monday and hasn’t gone home yet.

Pity it hasn’t prevented CJ’s PMS taking over her mouth.

She’s been snapping and snarling at all and sundry while pouting that she’s being picked at by everyone else all week. NOT FUN JAN!

Next week had better be better or I’ll be sending her home with H!

————————————————————————————————-

Bin’s mum’s funeral is scheduled for Tuesday.

They’ve been madly rearranging the house so that there is room for her dad who doesn’t want to go home without his wife.

Can’t say as I blame him.

—————————————————————————————————-

I haven’t had a great week pain wise.

I’m ok – still have full range of movement, just sore – the whole klutz thing all week isn’t helping.

And we have a house inspection in nine days.

Oh joy oh bliss.

Ugh.

Time to get everyone cracking on tidying up around here and getting the last of the boxes unpacked/put away.

Where did I put that whip…………………….

The strange -

About a month ago I was getting tonnes of spam. I was deleting anything from 30 to 50 a day. Now I’m lucky to be getting one a week.

Did they all of a sudden decide that my blog didn’t meet their criteria, do I not rank high enough to be worth spamming? Not that I mind, just curious

*shrugs*

The indifferent -

I’m still not on top of our house or routine and frankly m’dears I couldn’t give a rat’s fat clacker……… but who the fuck drank all my orange juice?

The ugly -

My brother bringing his kids over to play only to sit in my lounge room for three hours mainly talking about his ex. I mean WTF? We already know she’s a stupid, substance abusing bint! Wise up already and set some decent boundaries!

————————————————————————————————

Much thanks to all for your well wishes last week when I was laid up. The pain has receeded to a somewhat milder discomfort that only requires the irregular use of nurofen and somewhat regular rest.

Yesterday I went from home to school office to home to the doctor’s to the hospital to make the x-ray appointment then to school canteen then back to hospital for the x ray then home to drop CJ off then back to school canteen then back to hospital for TJ’s speech therapy appointment and back to home to drop off/pick up kids then to nan’s to pick stuff up then to home to drop/pick up again to PCYC to drop off for sport then home to check on kids then to PCYC again to pick up kids then to Woolies and to the local chinese joint before going back home again then a couple of hours later back out again to pick PSLS up from work.

I was rostered on for canteen at school yesterday but hadn’t counted on CJ’s back not being any better and needing to take her back to the doctors for a physio referral and X-ray request that weren’t done by the stupid doctor we saw earlier in the week. On top of that TJ slept in and was late for school so had to be dropped off in the morning.

Then I was back at canteen today because the manager looked like being short handed. And a good thing that was too. Yesterday and today have been the two busiest days I’ve ever done in canteen in the five years I’ve been helping. There were four of us in there today and every single one of us was flat out the entire time! The manager and I only found time to eat our lunch at 2pm. Usually we manage to squeeze it in before we do the lunch rush at 1pm or have time to eat on the tail end of the high school lunch break, but not today.

Then I opened up the second hand clothing pool after the school assembly.

By the time I got home this afternoon after  appointments on Monday and Tuesday, cadet training on Wednesday, all my running around yesterday and second day today of canteen I was stuffed.

So stuffed that I lay down to read for a while at 4:30 to have a bit of quiet and a rest before getting tea started and slept for 5 hours……………

Good thing my hubby and children know how to fend for themselves!

that I love thee………….

1. You ease my daily workload (unlike my husband and children)

2. You only want for attention twice a day (unlike my husband and children)

3. You clean just about everything perfectly (unlike my husband and children)

4. You consistently bring my sparkle and shine into my day (unlike my husband and children)

5. You always smell nice (unlike my husband and children)

Ah my love……….. I have missed you the past couple of weeks my precious one while you have patiently awaited a space of your own in our new home.

But rest assured that you were never far from my thoughts,  longingly wished for many times through my days over these past long weeks and you are now once again the supreme queen of my appliances…………….. Even if you have to rule from the laundry because there is no space in this kitchen for you.

1. The squeaky floors. People can no longer sneak up on me and scare the bejeezus outta me for no good reason other than their own amusement.

2. The oven and stove top. Which are gas. I love that gas is instant heat – no stuffing around waiting for things to warm up. I love that the oven is on the wall so I don’t have to bend to get things in or out of it or to clean it. I love that our stove top is in the middle of my bench-top with a range-hood over the top with lights and exhaust so I can see clearly what I’m doing without fumes. And the over has a rotisserie in it! Looking forward to trying that out soon!

3. Better layout. Our living area is no longer the main thoroughfare of the house so the carpets shouldn’t get as dirty and not as much clutter should accumulate.

Our second living area includes the kitchen and there is a breakfast bar that people can sit at and talk to the cook from while they are getting meals prepared. This will make it easier to keep an eye on kids doing homework while trying to get tea ready too.

4. The ’surprise’ cupboard. CJ keeps hiding in one of our hall cupboards and popping out when her siblings walk past. I’m not appreciating the high pitched screaming so much, but that other people are having the bejeezus scared out of them for a change is mildly amusing. We have dubbed it ‘The surprise cupboard’ because that sounded better than ‘the scare the shit outta everyone’ cupboard. PSLS giggles every time he hears us call it ‘the surprise cupboard’ but it’s stuck lol

5. The extra storage. The surprise cupboard will easily fit all those bits and pieces that are hard to find homes for if you don’t have a space specifically for them like the vacuum, clothes airer, ironing board etc and also the board games and anything else that doesn’t need to be out all the time.

Meantime I have a separate linen cupboard that will easily fit all our sheets, towels, curtains, spare blankets and pillows in it. In the old house I had one cupboard behind the laundry door that served both functions and not very well.

Kitchen storage is also a lot better with more cupboards and drawers and a massive pantry cupboard to put everything away in.

6. The shower. A good shower-head and good water pressure makes for nice showers. And in this house the shower has a freakin exhaust fan! It also has one of those heat lights in there too. Bliss on cold mornings.

7. Toilet Roll Holders and Towel Rails! In the old house the toilet paper sat on the floor or on top of the loo and there were no towel rails in sight! We ended up buying stick on toilet roll holders, a floor standing towel rack for towels in the kids bathroom and over the door hooks for ours.

In this house there is toilet roll holders on the wall next to both toilets and 2 decent size towel rails in the bathroom. Our floor standing towel rail fits nicely under the window for the extra towels, but no need for anything over the door.

8. Lots of coax. You know the black cord that runs from the outside tv aerial to inside? The plug for the telly comes up through the floor in one corner of the living room BUT if you pull on the plug there is enough cord there to run around the skirting board to put the telly anywhere in the room we like. Makes arranging the place in a way that suits us hassle free.

9. Decent heating. This house has a big old gas heater in the front living room and reverse cycle air in the back living room.

We found yesterday that our house is fairly well insulated against cold when everyone visiting commented how cold it was outside and how nice it was inside our place. We also found out just how quickly and effectively we can heat the house up too. It worked so well that we had to turn it off after a while.  lol

10. Floorbloards. The main thoroughfare of the house and second living area is all floorboards. Much easier for me to keep clean with a quick sweep through instead of needing to vacuum constantly.

Our old house might have been dodgy as all get out, but it wasn’t all bad. There are a few things about the old place that I shall miss -

1. The abundance of power points. There were power points galore in every room. One double power point in each bathroom, two in each bedroom,  three in the master bedroom, three in the laundry and living rooms, four  in the kitchen/dining room.

Our new house only has one power point in each bedroom and not all are doubles, two in the living room area’s, one in the laundry and nothing at all in the bathroom. The kitchen is the only room with lots of power points.

I guess we’ll just be borrowing some of the extension cords and power boards from the Christmas lights box.

2. The verandah. It was beautiful despite it’s tendency to flood in heavy rain and ran the entire length of the house on the southern side.  We strung some of our Christmas lights up out there and would often sit out the back in the morning enjoying our breaky or in the evening eating our dinner and enjoying the peace and quiet of the area. It saw many games of handball played, was big enough for the kids to still ride their bikes up and down during (lighter) rain and we did a lot (for us) of entertaining out there.

It also gave hubby someplace to sit out of the weather to have a cigarette (he doesn’t smoke in the house ever). Not sure where he’ll sit at this house. Will probably put a chair and small table just outside the glass sliding door.

3. Huge bedrooms. The bedrooms in the new house are still a reasonable size, but the bedrooms in the old house were massive. At least three of them would be considered double bedrooms.  Our new house doesn’t have huge bedrooms, they are still a reasonable size though and like I said to my mum – we don’t need them to be huge with all the extra living space we have.

4. The large ivy covered carport. We have a carport at this new house, but it’s rather narrow…….. ‘I’m talking let everyone out before you put it in then squeeze the driver back out’ narrow. And no ivy – just corrugated iron. ‘Tis rather bland and boring.

5. Wood heating. Even though the old house was rather hard to heat with all the gaps and high ceilings and the heater being old as moses, I loved that it had wood heating. Nothing like the flickering flames of a fire to make you feel all warm and cosy when the weather turns frigid and frosty.

We’re here!

We’re in!

We survived our first night!

But it was a close thing………….

Somehow, despite my best efforts, some of my things were left behind.

Things that are conducive to me having a good night’s sleep.

Like……… a nightie and a book or failing that the rabbit ears for the small tv or failing that a radio and most importantly my anti histamines to take the edge of the mother of all headaches I had (still have) after being out and about in the mega dust storm that blew threw town yesterday afternoon!

Normally you would be able to see the church steeple, other buildings and a big hill in the background from here (even taking into account the crappy pic)

I don’t know where my nighties went. They were folded up on the back of the lounge at one stage then a pile of clean clothes got dumped onto a chair in the bedroom and I remember putting them in a bag that was meant to come with us on the last load, but somehow it must have gotten missed with trying to get the animals into the car too.

Now I’m quite happy to sleep naked, but being our first night in a new house with new noises I was half expecting a child to try to hop into bed with us during the night so wanted something on for modesty’s sake and I was tired enough that not being able to find the clothes I wanted was a big deal but I ended up finding an old singlet to sleep in.

Then I realised that my books didn’t make it. I have always been someone who reads before going to sleep. Sometimes for an hour, sometimes for just a few minutes.  It clears my head and I can drop off easily then. It doesn’t much matter what I read either, whether it’s a new book or a well loved old book as long as I have a book.

Somehow  none of my books managed to come with us despite me having a small box of them in the bedroom that were marked for moving yesterday.

So, if I couldn’t read then I would have been ok watching a little telly. Yes we have a (small) tv in our bedroom. Yes I know it’s not meant to be a great idea. But just like some people have the telly on through the day for company, I have mine on for a little while at night for company. I never have a problem with that during the day but night times are a slightly different matter. I set the sleep timer on the tv, turn the volume down to three and drift off quite contentedly without hearing every little sound that the house and the neighbourhood makes. Now the telly came with us in the last load, but we are stuffed if we can figure out where Uncle S stashed the rabbit ears (antennae)  for it!

We couldn’t even find a radio that worked – they were still at the old house too!

So it’s after midnight and I’m overtired, lying in a strange bedroom with strange house noises and fussing cats trying to climb into the window sill behind the metal venetian blind making a racket with the front of my head feeling like it was going to explode and could not for the life of me drift off to sleep knowing full well that I had to get up at 5:30 to take PSLS to work ………………….. so PSLS wisely resorted to the only other thing guaranteed to make me sleep.

Sex.

Yup.

Sex.

I find all those jokes about men going to sleep straight after sex hilarious because in our relationship, that’s me not him.

I figure that those women who complain about their significant others going to sleep straight after a little rumpy pumpy are doing it wrong cos hot damn! A little roll in the sack relaxes me  and puts me straight to sleep every. singe. time.

Doesn’t matter if it’s the middle of the night, middle of the day or first thing in the morning. By the time he’s come back inside from his post coital cigarette I’m curled up fast asleep……… much to his amusement (and the inflation of his ego)

And true to form I was asleep before he climbed back into bed last night. Not even the cats could disturb me after that!

So, first night done, dusted and survived……………… and now I’m off to the old house to collect my anti histamines, my box of books and to find the damn rabbit ears for my telly cos PSLS ain’t home tonight!

1. The creepy crawlies. ESPECIALLY the spidies that make their webs from the back table to the roof on the verandah and under all the chairs, across the path to the garden, or between the really badly pruned conifers on either side of our front steps, but most especially the ones that waltz inside under the gappy front door and scurry into my bedroom as it is the closest!

2. The dust. Everything is always dusty. PSLS reckons it’s cos we don’t have real ceilings here. I’m thinking all the gaps wouldn’t help either.  I’m also wondering if that is contributing to all the sinusitis problems I’ve had over the past 18  months.

3. The ceiling that isn’t really a ceiling and makes rain deafeningly loud. You know I was sitting in my bedroom the other week when we had a storm go through with the volume on the telly turned up to 40 trying to listen to it. It’s normally on 12.

4. The lack of floor water drainage in wet areas. Seriously. Who doesn’t have floor drainage in the bathrooms and laundry? It has changed the way I clean, but ….. yeah.

And the floors are sloped towards the middle of the house FFS! The last time our laundry flooded from a leaking tap for the washing machine the water seeped under the laundry wall into the bathroom, pooled around the toilet before seeping under the next wall then ran off down the hallway soaking the carpet.

5. The front and back verandahs flooding during heavy rain. It makes for a horrible mess on the front one that needs cleaning up later – the water just pools in the middle of it drawing with it all the accumulated dust/dirt/leaves etc from the area. It also makes for mad dashes out to the back one to rescue the dog food bowls and other things that may float away or not appreciate a good soaking as the lowest part of the verandah is BELOW the  level of the yard.

6. Living in a mobile phone dead spot. We HAD to convert all our mobiles to Next G to get service when we moved here. Normal digital mobile service was only gained by standing in a particular spot on the front verandah whilst doing contortions with your phone on speaker so you could yell at it – fine if you wanted to call out, but no so good if someone was trying to get you! Our TV reception is also quite dodgy at times, am so glad we have a set top box because the analogue signal is often unwatchable.

7. The acrobatic aeroplanes buzzing our house for hours on end when they test the planes built at the local hanger before sale. We are like……….. half a kilometre from the airport. The barrel rolls and loop de loops were entertaining the first few times, but now, for hours on end first thing on sleep in Saturday mornings……. meh.

8. Our fucktard neighbours. Well only two of the neighbours are fucktards – Firstly the young bloke next door who plays loud music when his g/f stays over so his mum (whose house it is) can’t hear them doing the wild thing (they have a toddler and I’m pretty sure his mum didn’t buy the whole ” we found it under the cabbage patch story”). He and his mates also uses our driveway instead of their own spreading cat-heads onto our lawn because they don’t worry about keeping those things under control.

Second lot are the ferals two doors down who have raging domestics any time of the day or night and whose kids like to tear up other people’s mail, bully my kids on the bus, let their dogs roam free occasionally to terrorize everyone else’s pets and are just LOUD! All. The. Time!

Our other neighbours are all quiet, lovely people and we can only hope that we are so lucky in our next place.

9. The not-any-longer white carpet. All. Through. The. House. We have children! ‘Nuff said. I won’t even start on the damn mulberry tree planted right at the main walkway through from the garden to the house and the resulting pink stains all through the house during fruiting season.

10. Dirty water. This has been and continues to be a big issue in our town, but it wasn’t one that we had to contend with before we moved here. While the council has been undertaking all sorts of measures to fix the recurring problem it still happens quite regularly. We have a freestanding water dispenser to filter our water for drinking as some days the water is brown. I’m talking really-silty-river-water brown. I’m talking freak-the-kids-out-and-make-them-think-they-have-shit-black-coal-into-the-toilet brown.

I have light coloured clothes that are stained from washing in the dirty water and the girl’s white school shirts need regular soaking to try to keep them clean. It’s not an issue up in the north part of town where we are moving too and one I’m looking forward to not having to contend with any longer.

What are some of the things that annoy you where you are living?

We have a house!

A four bedroom house with AIR CON!!

And built in’s in the main bedroom!!

And two huge storage cupboards in the hallway!

And two living type area’s!!

And room up the back for a good sized vege garden!!

And grape vines!!

And a second toilet!

And a sandpit!

And a basketball hoop on the shed!

And it’s only ten minutes walk from my mum’s, PSLS’s sister’s,  the school, the piano teacher’s house, the gym, the skate park, a sporting ground and a corner store.

And the living room is purple!!

Purple!!

I can hear Widdle Shamrock swooning in envy from here!

And we can move in straight after Easter!

Some of the things I particularly like besides it’s close proximity to many things places we frequent are the shower stall not having a recess or being over a bathtub, the ramp down to the backyard, floorboards instead of carpet in the living areas and the wall oven. All these things will make life much easier for me on painful days.

There are a few things I shall miss about the house we are in now. It has represented freedom to me since the day we moved in. Freedom from being stuck in our financial situation, our past, our circumstances…….. so it’s a little special to me. Not that we are giving up that freedom, we are simply moving forward from that first step that this house represented.

And I’ll miss our HUGE verandah that we’ve had so many bbq’s and hosted family gatherings under. And I’ll miss the kookaburra’s on the power lines out the front, seeing rabbits on the road driving home late at night, watching the occasional horse gallop up the street after having bolted from it’s owner and the quiet and serenity of being near the edge of town and out of the way.

I won’t miss the creepy crawlies constantly getting into the house because it’s full of gaps, the thunderous noise that  heavy rainfall makes on our roof with no ceiling,  the little bastard yap yap dog next door that barks at me every time I use my en suite, kitchen or go outside during the day while it’s owners are at work or how cold this place gets in the dead of winter (again the gap thing). BRRRRR!

And I’m very much looking forward to starting our next chapter. We’ve had a lot of changes so far this year with bringing Miss Lou home,  both the girls starting at the high school, TJ needing to start speech therapy again and hubby’s work not having it’s usual slow period so this is just one more. I’m looking at this like another fresh start after a rough couple of months. Something to get everyone focused on working together then building our new routine in our new home.

But first…………. I’d better get packing!