Only a few more sleeps till Santa comes!! Pleased to say I am all ready and waiting. Did the groceries today to avoid the weekend rush, the presents were wrapped weeks ago and are all sitting under the tree and I have bought batteries of every shape and size. Emily and Ellas Daddy arrived home today for a week so Haley is relieved as Joe was almost rostered on for Xmas which would have been sad.
Love this picture of my two angels though it took some doing getting a decent photo as Emily likes to pull stupid faces so I have dozens of those photos lol. Ebony is hanging out for her new ipod, its been nearly a month since her last one was stolen so I hope she is more careful with this one...I still cant get over the size of them... a lot smaller than the PYE radiogram I had as a kid! I remember stacking up four or five LP'S and watch them drop to the turntable and the arm slide over to start playing the tracks...a masterpiece of technology though you could hardly shove it in your pocket like they do these days.
I got a new car for Christmas as the head gasket blew on mine and no one could fix it before the New Year and the cost was outrageous for an 11 year old car. When I say new, its 3 years old but the newest one I have ever had so I am pretty chuffed with my XT BA falcon! Martin also gave me 200 dollars to go and buy myself some stuff so he could give it to Eb to wrap for under the tree (He's been working 14 hours a day 7 days a week and doesnt get time) I bought some new clothes and sunnies and a pair of thongs exactly the same as the ones I already have as they were the only ones I could find that fitted my stupid feet.
How are you all enjoying the Christmas holidays!!! The sleep ins are good but you need a money tree to keep teenagers amused. Eb has been to the movies a few times and shopping to spend the$50.00 her Uncle staurt gave her for Christmas. She came home and showed me the bikini top she got at City Beach for 48 bucks...she looked at me stupid when I asked her where the bottoms were (ok to fill you all in, you don't wear bikini bottoms, you wear shorts).....so nearly 50 bucks for HALF a bikini!!!!!!!! Yikes! It looks so tiny too, I remember the days when I could wear a bikini....wouldnt be seen dead in one now, not with the bulges, flabby overhang and cellulite. Now when I hop in the pool its shorts and a tshirt and even that looks gross when its wringing wet and sticking into all the crevices....Geez I have just put myself off my Christmas dinner!!!!
No doubt my New Years resolution will once again be to lose weight...I should take a leaf out of my sisters book...She got herself a personal trainer back in October and has gone from 138 kilos to 96 and is looking terrific...She hopes to get to her goal weight of 60 kilos so I hope she makes it.... I on the other hand am sitting here as I type eating chips...hopeless!
News in brief........
**My mother once again drove her motorised scooter up the street for her shopping (in downtown Toogoolawah) then forgot and caught a taxi home...The Co- op man kindly drove it back to her house
**My brother and his wife recently went into hospital to have their gastric lapbands loosened in readiness for their overseas trip (what the????)
**My middle daughter Jodie won a trophy for her car in a show and shine contest...and no its not a prize for the shiniest car (lol silly me)
**Haley turns 25 on the 30th December.....I gave her birthday money early so she could buy something for her new house.....she bought a mop and bucket, a jug, an ironing board, a toilet brush, a laundrey hamper, door mats and coat hangers??? However I personally don't think that's sad as it's the sorts of things I would buy lol
**Martin is not working for the next 4 days straight....he will be bored out of his brain and when he is bored he thinks of funny names to call me...I wont think they are funny...in fact I will think he's a dickhead
** I cleaned out my pantry and found a tin of curry powder that had an expiry date of 2000...and when I cleaned out the freezer I found Barbie and Ken (will interview Emily about that, I wouldnt be that stupid)
Ok folks, thats all ...have a Merry Christmas and stay safe!

How cute are these little girls lol...Neither of them were very cooperative when I was trying to take their picture...Emily has to have a dozen or so shots of poking out her tongue and pulling faces before I get any good ones...and Miss Ella...well she put on a bit of a tizzy and I had to come back to her lol
And here is our tree in all its pink and purple glory....My decorations were becoming very shabby looking so I tossed them out and bought all new ones and went with a funky new colour scheme...I just love looking at it!!

I have to say I prefer fake trees to real ones for a couple of reasons..One is I put it up so early a real tree would be well and truly dead and brown before the time Christmas Day arrived...and the other reason is I am emotionally scarred by the real trees we had when I was a kid...My Dad used to bring home the sickest, most pathetic trees you could possibly imagine!!! They used to have stalls at the side of the road where you could buy a decent tree but he preferred to aquire (pinch) his own. Man, try making something look pretty when it only has three branches....cannot be done! Another thing I have a problem with is tinsel...just cant get my head around that stuff...no matter how creative I try to be, it always looks like it is strangling the tree...so I go for beads instead.
My Christmas shopping was done weeks ago but last night I took Ebony shopping so she could select her gifts....Love the way their minds work lol...She got her Dad got a Homer Simpson coffee cup with chocolates...Homer is Dads Hero!...Her friends got pooping penguins...little novelty lolly dispensers, and some undie shaped chocolates called Calvin Cleans...too funny...
Emily will be pleased with her Dora the Explorer singing crayons (Mum wont be!) and Ella got some cute little clothes.....She selected nice gifts for her sisters and other friends too along with very expensive wrapping paper...her fifty dollar budget soon blew out to $135 so I nervously handed over my store card fully expecting sirens to go off for being over my limit...thankfully I wasn't.
School holidays are almost upon us and already I am broke...I renewed Ebonys Dreamworld pass as she uses it several times a week during the holidays to go with her friends so its money well spent....no doubt I will be forking out money left ride and centre for trips to the movies and other assorted excursions so scrapping supplies will be few and far between!
Already I am dreading our annual trip to Victoria to visit Martins Mum and Brothers and sisters...Last year we flew but this year we will probably drive again as Martin likes to up and leave on the spur of the moment which you can't do when you have a plane ticket booked....The last car trip was a nightmare...Martin does all the driving as I am way too scary behind the wheel on unfamiliar roads..Eb started complaining not long after we got down the driveway and didnt stop till we drove up it again ten days later...it was freezing in Vic and I had no warm clothes and couldnt buy any as all the summer stock was out...We slept on a blow up air bed which was dead flat every morning and my sister in laws dog insisted on humping my leg at every opportunity....On the way down Martin got confused and was driving down the middle of a tram line, then we got lost and added a further three hours to an already too long trip.....holy crap, I so dont want to go, please dont make me go!
It is so quiet here now Haley and the girls have moved out..Her new home is lovely , a huge 4 bedroom with a massive lounge and family room, fully air conditioned , remote garage ..the works! Joe hasn't even seen it yet, he doesnt get back from the mines till the 18th December...Haley has slept on the floor next to Emilys bed every night as she is scared...poor thing I know what thats like...I laughed when I called around the other day, Emily said I could come in but I had to take off my shoes and I wasn't allowed to jump on the couch....Damn I was looking forward to that....she has already asked when she can come over for a sleepover...and they have only been gone four days!
Well that's about it for now, boring I know, I will try to do something exciting next week to make for an interesting post!

Whoops, haven't updated for a while! Let's see, what has been happening since I spoke to you all last. As you can see, Ella is coming along nicely. Haley says she is much easier to manage than Emily was a baby and sleeps heaps during the day which is something Emily never did. Em is coping much better now but still gets mighty miffed if Ella starts squawking while "her shows" are on.
I have almost finished my Christmas shopping now, just a few secret santa's to go and I am done. So glad to be finished before the mad rush, I hate crowds. Most of the people I buy for are girls, so that's easy as I have had a bit of experience in that area but choosing a gift for my six year old great nephew had me perplexed let me tell you!! Very unfamiliar territory is the "boy aisle". I wandered up and down scratching my head looking at all the scary stuff on offer and not quite getting what half of the things even did.....none of them played pretty music, nothing was pastel coloured and I was getting more confused by the minute. I eventually settled on a Spiderman boogie board (I know he likes him!) and a very lethal looking huge water pistol with built in shield and sounds effects....I am sure his mother will love that lol.
Shopping for Ebony was a bit different this year, now she's a teenager she is passed all the cutie pie stuff she used to love. Got her a LCD TV for her room and bright orange Converse hightop boots....(very flash name for what we used to call gym boots that were a dime a dozen, but now they have become trendy you have to take out a second mortgage to afford them), some clothes that I had to let her pick and try on as my taste is apparently "gay" which is not good. Also some jewellery which I hope she doesn't manage to lose like she usually does and other assorted odds and ends.
Thought that was her done but last week she had her ipod stolen which is comparable to losing limb. The way she carried on you would have thought there had been a death in the family. She looks odd walking around with wires hanging out of her ears. For five days straight she has left for school in the morning and TIDIED HER ROOM before she left. I was most concerned as this is unheard of, she never ever does that, and especially without being nagged to do it...then the motive was revealled when she asked if she could earn money to save for a new ipod...aha, so that's why! I didn't dare tell her dear old Dad has already OK'ed a new one for Xmas in lime green....I am going to milk this cleaning the room bizzo for a while yet!
And speaking of dear old Dad, he bought her a new bed last week, a nice trendy wooden one with a pull out trundle for when her friends sleep over. I was happy to fnally saying goodbye to the daggy old bunk bed but when I realise the new bed came flat packed my excitement went out the window....we all know flat pack means you have to read instructions...men do not read instructions! Just as I thought he upended the three boxes mixing up all the screws and bits in one messy pile and then started with the cursing and hed scratching.....several hours later the bed was assembled but not without many swear words (some I had never heard of) and quite a few left over bits which he assures me are spares.
Almost time to drag out the Christmas tree...then it will be my turn to curse when it comes time to untangle the Christmas lights...or I could do what I did last year and just throw them out and buy new ones. I have to also confess that I let the kids decorate the tree , telling them what a great job they are doing...then when they are in bed, I redo it! Geez you dont hang the big balls at the top and the little ones at the bottom! And you dont put two red things together!!! Then I have to hang the tacky knitted angels at the back of tree...cant throw them away as Mum made them but crikey they are soooo ugly lol.
Right about now parents all around the world are milking the Santa thing for all it's worth. Haley had to make a call to Santa today as Emily was having "listening "issues. Em stood there wide eyed listening to the conversation. I think she was in shock that Mum was dobbing her in to the big fellar! When she got off the phone she told Em that Santa had said that if she didn't start listening and doing what she was told, he would have to move her onto the naughty page and the Whack A Mole game she wants so badly might have to go to someone who does listen to their Mum. Em nodded her head and said "ok Mum, do I have to start today?" lol too cute.
Ok that's about it from me, I have a pile of washing to fold....note I said fold, ironing doesn't happen around here!

Things are improving with the whole "I was here first" scenario and I have witnessed some sweet moments with Emily and her baby sister. I even saw her share one of her toys today...granted, it was one of her scabbiest ones but hey, it's a start! The fact that Ella usually winds up around four o'clock is an inconvenience as thats when Playschool is on...Emily sits there with the remote control turning the tv up louder and louder till I can't hear myself think! I had forgotten what an upheaval it is having a newborn in the house...everywhere you look there is prams, rockers, baby baths and nappies along with Emily's blocks and Barbies...how I haven't broken my neck yet is a miracle, it's like walking through a mine field..you don't know what pain is until you step on a piece of Lego or a Barbie high heeled boot with bare feet....and talking of feet I got stung on the toe by a bee yesterday and Holy clappers it stung like hell...I used every swear word I knew which did nothing for the pain but amused everyone who witnessed the incident....My whole foot is swollen like a balloon and itchy like you wouldn't believe...however getting stung on the toe is nowhere near as bad as the sting I got last year when I sat on on a bee and it got me right where babies come from...try scratching that in public without getting weird looks!
That's all from me for now , the novelty of uploading pictures of the grandies is bound to wear off soon...HA!!

The girls arrived home today!! Ella settled well and slept most of the time but I had my fair share of cuddles. Miss Emily is not taking this well at all, within minutes of arriving home she announced in a gleeful voice "hey, I have a good idea...Ella could go and live in Iceland!" Iceland?????????? She must have thought thats a very long way away lol. We have all been trying very hard to give Ella little obvious attention but our efforts still aren't enough for Emily who has turned into a tyrant and is bossing us all around and is generally most annoyed with the latest change in lifestyle. I know she will get over it, its just tough to share the pedestal. Haley took her to the room today and had a bit of a talk to her and said that nothing will change, Mummy and Daddy still love you the same. It really worked too...she announced the room is too squashy and Ellas cot can go in nannys room....too funny it must be hard being three and I have to say even when she is being a bossy boots, Emily is still the apple of my eye...I don't want to get on her wrong side or she will pack me off to Iceland too!!! I will take some pics when a certain someone isn't looking...after all I have lots of scrapping to do!

Here is my beautiful new grand daughter Ella Grace born at 9.27 am on the 11th Oct 2006 weighing 7lb 2 ozs

Jo arrived home from the mines yesterday afternoon and Haley went into labour at 9 o'clock that night...Talk about good timing! They left for the hospital just after 4 am and I was like a caged animal until they rang with the good news.

When Emily woke up I told her that daddy and mummy were at the hospital and she replied "is Ella getting out today?' kinda like a jail break lol. Keeping Em entertained was real work, I cut her toast into squares instead of triangles which was a real big deal and then I couldn't get the DVD player to work and had to call on the kid next door for help....seems I had the remote control; facing the wrong way lol....as the day wore on her anxiety grew because she though Dad wasnt coming back, which was causing tears every five minutes....I stopped at nothing trying to keep her entertained doing my best interpretation of the song Old Man Emu, playing Barbies complete with sassy accents, made a fruit bowl with fruit out of blocks (ever seen a square orange?) sat through Boobah, Wiggles, Blues clues and countless other preschool shows and even let her make her own strawberry quik...more quik than milk.

I thought she would be so pleased when we went to see Mum and the new baby but just after arriving she asked me to take her home..Didn't want to stay with Mum and Dad....Sobbed non stop all the way home, refused to let me read the books that were a gift from baby Ella (mum tried to plan for everything)...She is really out of sorts the poor little buggar.

Jo is not sending her to kindy tomorrow, he is going to take her to TimeZone to whack crabs (some game she loves) and buy a special baby doll so she can have her own baby to look after (My idea, remember that Golden Book "Baby Dear "?rofl)

Haley just rang to tell me they have put Ella in the special care nursery for tonight as she had several episodes of not being able to breathe...they put tubes down her throat to suck out the mucous which is causing the problems and have assured Haley she will be fine.....Haley should try and get a good nights sleep while the baby is being cared for......geez break out the stiff drinks!!

I am babbling I will share more when we are all sane again...thanks everyone for the well wishes...I am going to bed to ready myself for the toast routine tomorrow morning!

Well this baby is two days overdue!!!! I asked.....no begged Haley for a photo as she hasnt let me take any pictures while she has been pregnant....all I got was a heap of her being really stupid...trust me this is the best one...she is so naughty! Jo arrived back here an hour or so ago and he has just taken Haley and Emily for a brisk walk...if that doesnt work I will get her to mow the lawn...only kidding!!! At lunch time she was getting a few nigglies, so who knows..it may be soon, I will keep you all posted!

Less than 2 weeks until the new baby arrives!! Haley and I both had a dream on Saturday night that she was having a boy...this could present a problem given that the pram is hot pink, the carseat is hot pink and most of the clothes are pink, with a sprinkle of mint green and lemon.Haley is very organised and has all the clothes hanging up neatly (all on pink hangers, I accidently bought yellow ones the other day and they had to be returned lol) the hospital bag is packed, our plan of action is all worked out....all we need now is the little baby....sooooooo exciting!!!! Emily is taking her big sister role very seriously and if she sees Haley eating something unhealthy she declares "I don't think Ella Grace would like that Mum!"
What a week I have had!! Ebony missed the last week of school (and three of her exams) because she was very ill with a urinary tract infection...Had to call a doctor to the house at 3 am as she was in so much pain she couldnt walk or sit. She cried with pain for three days until her test results came back and she was started on antibiotics...Thankfully they kicked in almost immediately and within three days she was pain free. I have to tell you it wasn't before time, she is a dreadful patient...Everytime I tried to help her I got screamed at in a psychotic fashion and my nerves were wearing thin. Her recovery came just in time for her birthday sleepover on Saturday night...8 thirteen year old girls in our garage for movie marathon...They ate a mountain of food, went swimming in the dark and giggled well into the night...in the morning after a bacon and egg breakfast they began a one and a half hour marathon of applying eyeliner and straightenng their hair before they went back into the garage for more movies. I was expecting the worst but they were all well behaved, no dramas!

Based on my past week I have prepared a little quiz for you
1. Your thirteen year old daughter asks if she can have twenty dollars to go to the movies...you tell her she can if she cleans up her room...she gives you the death look, stomps to her room and slams the door muttering something under her breath...do you
a) Smile sweetly and marvel at how fast she is growing
b) Reef open the door and demand to know what she just said about you
c) Give her the 20 bucks and hope the movie goes all day

2. Husband rings from work and says he will be home late. You ask what he would like for tea and he replies...don't worry about me, I'll have something on toast when I get home. You serve him something on toast and he says "What's this crap?" Do you
a) smile sweetly and tell him its baked beans
b) Hope he chokes on it
c) Serve baked beans on toast for the remainder of the week

3. Your three year old grandaughter asks if you will sit and watch Hi-5 Space Magic for the tenth time today. Do you
a) smile sweetly and sit and watch it for the eleventh time
b) Tell her the DVD player is broken
c) Tell her Pop will watch it after he has had his baked beans

4. There are some new scrapping things you really really really have to have but the budget just won't stretch that far. Do you
a) Smile sweetly and do without because you are grateful for the supplies you already have
b) scrimp on the groceries to stash a bit of cash away to save for them
c) Buy them on your credit card and tell your husband you won them in a raffle

5. You have gained a heap of weight and none of your clothes fit. Do you
a) smile sweetly and be grateful you at least have your health
b) go and buy clothes in the next size up and cut the labels off
c) wear your tight clothes and think evil thoughts every time you pass a skinny person


If you answered mostly a's.....you are such a liar, no one is that nice
If you answered mostly b's ...you are bordering on vindictive and you are a tad sneaky....Go girl!
If you answered mostly c's...you are totally normal

Catch you all later!!

I have been tagged again, this time by Parky so here goes
The rules of the tag are:List 5 weird things about yourself or your pets.Tag 5 friends and list them.Then, those people need to write on their blogs about 5 weird things, and state the rules, and tag 5 more people.Dont forget to let the people you tag know by posting a comment on their blog!
1. I have a driving phobia
2. I can write backwards fluently
3. If I tip my head backwards I fall over
4. I am scared of the dark
5. I gag the whole time I am cleaning my teeth

Other news...Haley has just over two weeks till the baby is due
Ebony is having 8 friends over for a sleepover for her 13th birthday (a few days early)
I am going to start drinking scotch (refer to the above news)

Many thanks to all those who left birthday greetings over at Aussielayouts!! My big day started with Emily tapping me on my face at 6.30 in the morning saying "here's your present Nanny, its a purse! (she had already let that slip a few days prior). Next was a visit from my sister who also had her birthday today! (We were both born on Sept 1st but 2 years apart). We sort of have a pact that we don't buy each other expensive gifts, so I had embellished a metal tin and filled it with a mud face pack and some pretty hairclips and a few other little trinkets...imagine my embarrassment when she gave me a hairdressing voucher and a bottle of Red Door perfume...aaaarrrggghh! (Do you know at 44 this is the first bottle of perfume I have ever owned!!!!!)My daughter Jodie and her boyfriend Duane came over at 10.30 with a lovely bunch of gerberas (see picture) and a new boomerang pillow and six coffee cups....I suggested those ideas much to Jodies disgust....my kids think my love of practical things mean I don't have a life lol.
My sil came down from Brisbane and we went to the local tavern and blew 20 bucks each on the pokies (or 20 sheets of Bazzill cardstock as I prefer to think of it!) I asked Martin not to get me anything as I wanted to go to SWIG in October...woohoo!
In the afternoon, Emily came into the lounge room and sang a stirring rendition of Happy Birthday as Haley carried out a mud cake with 4 candles...which I let Emily blow out, cos she's the best at it. Ebony came home after a sleepover at her friends house totally oblivious to the fact it was my big day and asked "what's for tea?" I think Haley must have whispered in her ear because a little while later she came out with a card she had made...so all in all a great day!
I was talking on the phone today to Mum and enquired about her best friend Enid, who is now in a home because she has alzheimers...she is still going strong...Mum has been through some funny experiences with Enid over the last few years let me tell you....Before she was put into the home her husband Ronnie died. The hospital rang Mum as they knew Enid wouldn't be able to comprehend the information. Mum broke the news to her and over the following days made the funeral arrangements and advised people she would have the wake at her house as Enid wouldn't cope with the catering. After the funeral everyone was back at Mums having tea and cake and Enid said to Mum " can we have some music on, this is the most boring bloody birthday party I have ever been to". Mum said no Enid , this is a wake for Ronnie...Enid says did he die?...Mum says yes, sorry love he's gone...Enid says...well he better not have gone to the pub the old bastard!
Last Christmas Mum went to the Home to have Christmas dinner with Enid as she has no family...Enid didn't remember Mum was her friend and went and sat with someone else so Mum sat with some other ladies she knew. After lunch the residents were taken back to their rooms. A nurse came and took Mums arm and said come on love, I will help you to your room. Mum pipes up and tells the nurse "no, I don't live here". The nurse says I know pet, just come with me...it was only when another nurse that knew Mum saw what was happening that she was able to make her escape lol.
I end this post on a serious note .I was so sad to hear that little Rani Millar lost her battle today after putting up such a fight. My thoughts are with Mel, john, Teagan and Joshua. There are just no words at times like these, I send my prayers to them all

After two weeks of the worst flu I have ever had, today I almost felt normal....well as normal as you could expect from me! Next year I will have the flu vac, make sure you remind me...what a misery it is to have an earache, a nose full of snot and a bladder than loses it every time you cough...I developed the old hunch over and cross your legs routine, every time I felt another cough coming on and all that clenching made my ribs so sore I was prescribed strong pain killers to take off the edge...at least they brought on sleep, or should I say coma. Worse than the cough is the sneeze as it comes on unexpectantly and doesnt allow enough time to get into my hunch and clench stance...enough said!
Busy week these last few weeks, Jo flew home from the mines for his first flyout...he loves his new job working at the Osbourne Gold and Copper mine, where he has to travel 8 km underground to start work (too scary!!). They work one week day shift, one week night shift and then fly home for a week. In two weeks he worked 218 hours, boy thats a lot. He cant believe how good they feed him, his favourite meal is at dinner time, a choice of two mains...he has both...maybe a roast dinner and steak and chips, then there is a help yourself desert bar and home made cakes and slices...it was a rude shock when he rocked up here and we were all sick...tea time was a case of whatever you can spread on bread or open with a tin opener. Tonight he rang Haley to tell her after three weeks he has already been promoted to foreman...way to go! Unfortunately Haley has checked his roster and he wont be home for Fathers Day, the due date of the baby, Christmas Day, her birthday, his birthday or New Years Eve...however he will be home the weekend of SWIG...I feel a bit guilty about that lol.
Emily had a lovely day of dress ups the other day with her Aunty Jemma who is six months older than her...how weird is that...Jo's mum had a eighteen year break and then had 2 more little girls (Aunty Jordy is a year younger than Emily!)
Tonight she waltzed into the loungeroom with a piece of wrapping paper and some ribbon....I asked her what she had been doing and she replied..."wrapping the car cleaning set we bought for Pop for Fathers Day and the purse we bought for your birthday but dont tell anyone cos its a surprise"...lol
Ebony has been really sick with the flu too and had eight days off school...no faking it she was really crook and spent all dy sleeping...she came to us the other night (after the 8th day off) and announced a friend was coming to sleep over on Friday night and could we give them a lift to the Blue Light Disco...Um no, you have been sick! She launched into her "you must be kidding" routine, followed by the tears, then the yelling, " I hate you", followed up by the begging, pleading, offering to clean her room and then the finale of stomping up to the room and slamming her door...and you wonder why I am grey!
Tomorrow we plan to clean out our garage, what a task that will be...we have lived here 12 years and have never parked our car in there and slowly but surely it has filled to the brim with junk...all Ebonys old unwanted toys, assorted bikes without chains and flat tyres, sheets of tin for that fence Martin never got around to building, tins and tins of dried up house paint, Stanely screw driver boxes with no screw drivers in them and a whole assortment of other crap...we have attepted this task many times before so I know exactly whats going to happen....every time something is about to go in the rubbish pile, someone will pipe up and say, "I might use that one day" and it will go back into the garage so at the end of the day we will still have a pile of crap in there but it will just be stacked neater lol
Ok I am off to bed I didn't have my five hour granny nap today....
Could everyone please say a prayer for little Rani who is back in ICU. My thoughts are with you Mel and John

This weekend Haley amused herself by cleaning out Ebonys Room (I would rather walk across hot coals lol) Emily had a fantastic time going through Ebony's treasures and scored some long forgotten toys and books. These funny glasses were one of her finds, she cracks me up when she wears them...I remember my Uncle Bob used to wear the real version of these and when he came to visit, my Mum would give all us kids a stern warning about laughing when he flipped up his sunnies! I actually used to love it when Uncle Bob visited, he always had a big pocket full of change. I would sit there busting my guts waiting for the moment when he handed over the loot and then shoot of to the corner shop to buy sherbet straws, sunny boys and choo choo bars...weren't they a dead give away, left you with big black teeth. On the subject of lollies, how crap are they these days...I hate all those sour gummy things and all the old favourites are a third of the size they used to be and don't taste anywhere near as good...My kids laugh when I tell then that 20 cents used to buy a big white paper bag full of lollies....now you get two measley snakes!
The other joy that has been taken away is the deposit for returning empty soft drink bottles. My bother, sister and I used to make a killing on the weekends....until Mr Brodie the shop keeper realised we were pinching the bottles from behind his shop...I remember we got a good whooping from Mum over that little fiasco...and whoopings...they are a thing of the past, you would be put in jail for that these days. I had my fair share of those over the years let me tell you....the various stages of whoopings were...for a minor infringement you got an open handed slap...piece of cake!!! For giving cheek and back chat the slap got a whole lot harder....and then there was the biggie....the ironing cord...(don't know why it was called that as it was actually the cord from the electric frypan)...One mention of the ironing cord had you shaking in your boots and hoping like hell you would be able to outrun Mum, which just for the record never happened. The welts it left on your legs lasted for hours and you would swear that from this moment on you would be good ...which just for the record never happened either lol. I remember one day it was my brother who was on the receiving end and I was beside myself with joy, as he had just drawn all over my favourite doll....after his beating I smugly commented "serve yourself right" which in turn earned me a beating for being smart. With all this talk of beatings I don't want to give the impression my mother was evil, because she truly wasn't, I deserved all I got and more and back in those days it wasn't considered bad, it was how discipline was dished out...anyway once again I have gotten right off track, can't even remember what I had intended to say now, so I will leave it till next time...bye!

EEK! I have been tagged by Tracey C!! But I know what do do this time lol
1. How old are you? 44 this year, however mother nature has not been kind to me and I look ten years older than that... spose I could just lie and say 58 and people would think I look good for my age!
How many kids do you have if any? Haley who is almost 25, Jody who is almost 23 and Ebony who is almost 13
3. Are you married, single, divorced, widow? Married at 18, divorced at 24, remarried at 28 and still married
4. What is your occupation? I am supposed to be my husbands secretary however my skills leave a lot to be desired...However I am the family cook , cleaner and general jack of all trades, master of none
5. What are your passions? Husband and kids (you have to say that don't you), scrapbooking, my grand daughter
6. Are you a dreamer or a dream seeker? I am just a dreamer, too lazy to actually work at making things happen
7. Are you happy with the way you life has turned out? Yes, I am doing everything I ever wanted to do
8. Are you a scrapper and if so how many hours a week do you scrap? I scrap for several hours a day (3,4,5).....which is why the lawn needs mowing, I don't know where my iron is and baked beans on toast is a delicacy
9. What do you want to do before you die? Write my life story...I have started a few times
10. What is your favorite food? Anything junky looking...chocolate, take away and my fave...biscuits!
11. What is the food you hate the most? that sushi stuff...eewwww!
12. What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you? Ha ha! We don't have all day! Read about it in my book lol
3. What is the happiest day of your life thus far? All the usual stuff, getting married, having kids.....but watching my grand daughter being born....that was the mostest!
14. Are you a neat freak? Or a dirty house cleaner? I am a neat freak but you wouldnt think so if you walked into my house as NO ONE cooperates! It seems that lolly wrappers and chip packets are meant to be tucked down the side of the lounge chair, dirty washing goes on the floor BESIDE the washing basket and no one is satisfied until they have dirtied every plate and glass in the house.....

I tag Christine M who needs to update her BLOG!

I had a bit of a chuckle when I saw the pictures Ebony upoaded onto my computer from her camera. She slept over at her friends house last weekend and I would say they had a bit of fun playing dress ups....either that or they need lessons in applying makeup lol.
Pretty dramatic at our house this week...As some of you know, Haleys partner Jo, went to Western Australia to get a job in the mines....he got one....and when they found out his family was in Queensland they transfered him back here lol. It's still in the middle of whoop whoop at the Osbourne copper and gold mine south of Mt Isa. He will will work for two weeks then be flown home for a week so they have to think about where they are going to base themselves....probably close to me I would say, because Haley needs the company and when the new baby is born she will need my interference...I mean help!
I am not getting as much time to scrap these days as Martins business is getting busier and I am his secretary...if anyone remebers Betty from Hey Dad, I give her a run for money as far as being dumb is concerned. I hate it when builders ring me up and ask me to fax them things.....I have had the fax for 3 years and still can't do it without causing paper jams, sending blank sheets because I have loaded the tray wrong. or worse still fax them disney colouring pages that have somehow got mixed in with the important stuff! My worst nightmare was realised the other day when the red light flashed indicating I needed to change the toner...My God what a drama, of course I cant find the instruction book, (that will be filed somewhere never to be found again). I couldn't even work out how to open the lid thingy (apparently it helps if you pull a lever whatsy) and after twenty minutes I was swearing like a wharfy in a real crazy woman rage. However once I did find the lever whatsy it was quite easy, but I hope this lot of toner lasts a very long time. Heaven help me if I ever have to find a real job, I am unskilled at everything and too clumsy for a lot of positions. My sister got me a job once working at the cafe where she worked...I made my first milkshake and tried to remove it before the spinning thing had stopped which shredded the paper cup and you know the rest...however that was not my fault as the automatic cut off was broken....it WAS my fault however when I over flowed the cappacino jug, set the hotplate on fire and sent five people off with neatly wrapped hamburgers....minus the meat patty. I also remember my first day working at Coles when I was told to "face up " the dairy fridge (pull everything forward to make it look neat). I was standing on an upside down milk crate to reach the high shelves when one of my legs went through the crate....the sharp plastic was digging into my leg and I couldn't remove it...I had to gingerly slide my way to the front desk for assistance which came in the form of a hack saw....how embarrassing!
Anyway I am rambling now, I must be off and do the dishes...have a good day everyone!

Last weekend I had another fantastic time at SWIG. They seem to get better every time and I think it's the best laugh I ever have. The theme this time was country and straight away I thought of a little horsey costume I had seen at Spotlight. It was a bit pricey at fifty dollars, but I knew Emily would just love it when I had finished with it so I bought it along with a funky cowboy hat. Despite it clearly stating on the packaging that it was for 3 to 5 year olds I was certain the stretchy fabric would allow me to get it on no worries. WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!! When I couldn't get it up over my bum I pulled it over my head instead and got seriously and totally wedged with my arms up stretched over my head making it difficult to breath. Home alone I had visions of trying to make an emergency call to Martin which would have been no easy task as my head was covered and I could't see...in the end I had to resort to ripping my way out of the costume Incredible Hulk style. Poor horsey was disembowelled and I had to leave him that way until after SWIG. He has now been repaired and Emily loves him!
I have been disgusted in myself lately as I am 12 kilos heavier than I was this time last year and gain a bit more weight each week. I think it's time to do something about it....Mind you the irony of that statement is I am sitting here eating fruit and nut chocolate washed down with a Nescafe latte! I hate the thought of another summer sweltering because I am too embarrassed to go in the pool. If any other half hearted people out there are interested in joining me in cyber weight loss let me know...I need a bit of back up...

What is it with three year old and toilet paper??? The culprit proudly owned up and said "get the camera Nanny!" Emily also has a fascination with tissues, baby wipes and anything else that can be dispensed and make a huge mess.
I am really looking forward to my weekend away at SWIG, I have had just about as much as I can take of preteen moodiness, Mr Grumpy dh who is working long hours and needs to chill out and that damn swimming pool. I hadn't even so much as vacuumed it since February (shocking I know) but despite the neglect it was looking pretty good. However guilt got the better of me and I gave it a thorough clean and added all sorts of chemicals and with fifteen minutes the water turned black??????????? I do vaguely remember the pool guy once telling me not to add blah blah the same time I add blah blah... I really need to pay more attention to detail. Its dark when Martin gets home from work so he hasnt noticed yet...no doubt he will over the weekend lol. If I was any kind of mother and wife I would have pre prepared meals for the crew for while I am away however I took the easy way out and stuck a pizza hut menu on the fridge....No use relying on Haley to cook while I am gone...she is bad...very very bad....she cooked vegetable soup the other day and asked to taste it and see what it needed...I told her she needed to throw it out lol...She also uses so much detergent when she washes the dishes, if you go to get a glass of water from the tap you end up with a glassful of bubbles.....however she is the queen of clean, my carpets get vacuumed to within an inch of its life everyday!
Anyway, off to pack for my big weekend, hope to have some news when I get back!

I got my camera out yesterday to get some photos of Emily to send to her Daddy in Western Australia and most of them ended up looking like this lol....she is such a ham now and it's hard to get a sensible one of her. She was very excited to get a parcel off her Dad today (after an excrutiating one week wait). Two tshirts from somewhere along the Nullabour, A toy camel and some fairy books. Joe got a job a couple of days after arriving in WA...a storeman in a heavy equipment plant....he hates it but unfortunately all his health and safety tickets, heavy machinery tickets and even his truck driving learners permit are all invalid in that state so he has to sit for them all over again... I dont think its as easy as he thought it was going to be. It's hard on Haley too, I know she is bored out of her brain , her and jo always used to go out to dinner and fishing and stuff so she is missing all of that. I am trying to give her a bit of a break while she is here so she can rest up, she is always tired and has been having a lot of aches and pains with this pregnancy. Miss Emily is a very entertaining house guest and always has us in fits of laughter with her goings on. She loves the fact that Pop comes home every day with blood on him somewhere from knocking himself around at work. Out comes the doctors bag and she gives him a needle and puts a bandage on his sore. Its been a while since we have had a little person in the house, I had forgotten what it was like to here those magic words....I have finished Nanny, come and wipe my bum...if Mum goes to do it she says, No Nanny will do it...lucky me!
Ebony came home from school today with a detention slip I had to sign..Late for class again, so ten minutes detention for every five minutes she was late....she was not happy about giving up her luch hour tomorrow and thought I might write her a note to get her out of it...she thought wrong!
Jody is coming over tomorrow night to get our BAS done and catch up on the bookwork...it seems this is beyond me, I cant even file things properly so I will get to help her by stapling...it is the only job she trusts me with. She is right too, I faxed some job sheets through for Martin the other day and also sent notes for my online class and a few other bits and pieces.
Tomorrow I have to clean the pool, I havent done it for months....its just no fun in winter... I have to wonder what mishap awaits me...will I fall in when I lean over too far to scoop leaves??? Will I whack myself in the head with the pole??? Will I spill hydrochloric acid on my foot (sorry I cant believe Martin trusts me with hydrochloric acid!) .....Then I will have to give some thought to my costume for the western theme at SWIG..I have something in mind so I will have to check out a certain shop tomorrow...
Boy that was a boring post, I will try to do better next time lol

Last Thursday night Martin, Ebony and I went late night shopping...our mission....to buy Eb a pair of shoes she had seen on a previous shopping trip. When we found the shoes they didn't have her size and straight away she developed the dreaded teenage tanty...crossed arms, sulky face and snappy one word answers. Ever the optimist Martin thought we should try all the other shoe shops to see if we could find another pair she liked...12 shops later still no success. There was tension in the air and Ebonys mood had gotten worse if thats possible. I was starting to lose it, she was being a real brat! Martin wanted to keep looking and I on the other hand wanted to grab her by the scruff of the neck and frog march her back to the car and get her nothing. In the end I sat on a seat while they kept looking and eventually they came back with a pair of shoes she "sort of liked"..aaarrrgghh! We had planned on grabbing a bite to eat while we were there but somehow we had lost our appetites, wonder why lol. As we were leaving I spotted a gorgeous suede vest on sale at Pumpkin Patch and bought it for Emily. She is wearing it in the photo above. Don't know why she is pouting, maybe she has been hanging around Ebony for too long!
Ok I have got that off my chest, am I the only mother of a brat???

I love this photo of Ebony and her friend wearing their matching hot pink tiaras.....last week it was halos, the week before that grass skirts. The last day of the holidays, woohoo!!! Maybe my house might start looking tidy again, though I am going to miss my sleep-ins. I woke up this morning half roasted. I turn my electric blanket onto 3 to warm the bed up always with the intention of turning it off once I turn in....but you know how it is, you forget and nod off. All through the night you toss and turn because its so uncomfortably hot but you never quite wake up enough to turn the damn thing off. I was almost gasping for breath by the time I finally woke up and I was dripping in sweat, such a great way to start the day.
Tomorrow I am off shopping as dh has had quite enough of my baggy, holey tracksuit pants and stretched and stained jumper which are both wash and wear jobs. He has given me some money (which I would love to spend on scrapbooking stuff) to buy a new pair of jeans and a jumper. I absolutely hate breaking in new clothes, they are always so stiff and uncomfortable and it takes months to stretch the bum of new pants! I am fashion challenged for sure and have already been warned not to come home with black or brown (comfort colours?). He has told me to buy something pretty....so not me, I always bypass the florals and feminines and gravitate towards the earthy grungy non descript section lol. Well thats all for now, I have a new scrapping mag to read so I plan on a hot shower and turn in to my nice warm bed and this time I will turn off the blanket as soon as I hop in!

After months of not being able to access my blog I got onto the support team who pointed out I was trying to log in with the wrong user name...d'oh!
So much has happened in the last few months. As most of you know Haley, Jo and Emily are relocating to Kalgoorlie for work prospects. Jo actually left last Sunday in the wee hours of the morning loaded up like the Leyland Brothers. He has only ever been as far as Northern NSW in the past so it was a huge adventure driving to the other side of the country. Haley and Emily will now stay with us until sometime after the new baby is born (due Oct 8th the day after my daughter Jodie was born). It's an absolute joy having them here, Emily is just the sweetest little thing and very well behaved for a three year old, though she doesn't shut up from the time she wakes up til the time she goes to bed. She is a wealth of information....I have learnt all about farts and the comings and goings of fairies, and how you make purple when you mix red and blue (that was done on my dining room table with tubes of paint I had left lying around lol).
The school holidays are almost over and I survived relatively unscathed. We seem to be the house for sleepovers and on any given night over the last fortnight we have had teen girls sleeping over and giggling into the early hours of morning....man can they eat, its been a constant trip back and forth to the shops for chips and chocolate and yet they are all built like bean poles! Ebony went on a shopping trip today with one of her friends (and a purse full of money thanks to dear old Dad...). She came home with a pair of skinny leg jeans which are apparently a hot fashion item, a thin little jumper that won't keep anything warm, a pair of tracky dacks which cost more than three of mine put together, a hot pink tiara???? and black tights...she bought talls so more than half the legs have to get tucked inside her shoes lol.
When she goes back to school I will have to get stuck into painting her room. She pointed out that it has been 12 years since her room was last painted and she has outgrown the teddy bear wall paper border. Against my better judgement I let her choose the paint which is lime green.....yikes....how I will ever get to the walls is beyond me, as she one have to be the messiest person I know, I feel ill when I walk into her room...clothes all over the floor mixed with wet smelly towels, chip packets and lolly wrappers scattered everywhere and ...well you get the picture.
I took the photo of Emily the other day while she was playing dress ups...She gave me an impromptu ballet performance which brought tears to my eyes lol...her collection of dress up clothes is growing rapidly and we often head off to the shops dressed sa princess or hula girl (her not me)...I vow to keep my blog up to date now I remember my user name so I will see you all in a few days!

Happy Mother's Day everyone. I had a quiet day today as Haley and Jodie came to see me yesterday. I received a new top from Haley (a week ago, she got the dates mixed up lol) and from Jodie I got...wait for it.....NEW FLANNELETTE PAJAMAS! Posh ones too! Came from a lingerie shop wrapped in tissue paper in a pretty box. Ebony seemed to let Mothers Day slip by...she did ask me yesterday if she could get an advance on next weeks pocket money, and assuming she needed to buy me something I gave her 10 bucks...she came back from the shops with a Dolly magazine and a roast pork roll, neither of which was for me rofl!
I don't want to get my hopes up but it seems Jo may be leaving for Western Australia in a few months time and Haley will stay with us until the baby is born as she would have no one to mind Emily otherwise. It would be fantastic to at least have the new baby around for a few weeks until she has to leave. I had a most entertaining day with the Devine Miss Em yesterday. I bought her an elcheapo beauty kit to muck around with and she had a ball with it, I just love watching her put on the fake eye shadow...it seems you have to pull your mouth to the side when you apply it. Even the cat was made over, much to his disgust. Her new saying is "are you thinking what I'm thinking?' She is usually thinking she wants me to push her on the swing or get her another packet of m&m's, not really what I am thinking! I can't believe she will be three in a few weeks, time has gone so fast...

ok I have been tagged by Chrissy and Susan so here goes!

What scrapbook products/lines do you dislike? I love patterned paper more than anything else..when I die I want to be buried under pp. Dislikes?? I hate fibres, I never know what do do with them
What technique do you use more than anything else? I have had to think about this...I would say stuffing up...and maybe handcutting
What is the smallest scrap of paper you save? I am very wasteful ..big bits get shoved in a drawer where it is destined to remain forever...or until Ebony uses it
Have you had any scrapping related injuries? Geez don't get me started!! I have dropped my fiskars soft touch scissors which landed pointy end in my foot..I still have the scar. Stapled my finger, stabbed myself sewing, machine sewed the hem of my shirt to a layout, skidded across the room on a scrapbook magazine, fallen off my chair and got a blood nose...you get the idea
Finish this sentence…'If I weren’t a scrapbooker/stamper, I’d spend my money on.....the kids, not that I dont do that now anyway
Give your best storage organisational tool. My fishing bag tote which was given to me by my friends a few years ago. Inside has six boxes with compartments..I store all my bits and bobs in there, it sits under my desk
You just won a week long scrapping cruise for 5. Who is going with you? I am going on my own...I will scrap till two in the morning and not get out of bed till late in the afternoon. Then I will dine on prawns washed down with icy cold Pepsi Max. I will spend the entire week in my elastic waisted pajamas and thongs. Becky Higgins will call me on the phone but I will tell her I am too busy to talk right now...and then I will go to the souvenir shop and buy tea towels for all my friends
When you received your first publication notification, who did you tell? Martin...he said "yeah and"...


Ok Tess I tag you!

Sorry I have been missing in action but my life has been a little hectic lately and I have had some news that has left me a little sad. My eldest daughter Haley and her partner Jo are likely to be moving to Western Australia in a few months. Needless to say the thought of my little buddy moving so far away is devastating not to mention the new little grandbaby due in October. Anway I have already spent most of the week crying over that so let's move on shall we? What do you think of the pink sunnies? Ebony spent two weeks pocket money on these little beauties which are very big, very pink and have sparkles all over the arms...I nearly died when I saw them!! Fashion is leaving me behind big time I can't keep up with it all. I went to Citybeach the other day with Ebony to look for new shoes (for her not me) and I had to leave the shop after five minutes... swear to God they were having a rock concert in there, the music was so loud I could feel it thumping in my chest...I want to yell at them to turn down the damn volume...However it's probably just a clever ploy...Mum can't stand it, throws kid money and waits outside..or at least that's what happened in our case.
The whole loud thing must become a bother when you reach a certain age. As a teenager I attended heaps of concerts with loud music...did you know Angus Scott from AC/DC flung sweat all over me?? One of the highlights from way back then..It's a wonder I didn't pass out..I was wearing jeans so tight, the zip could only be done up by lying flat on the bed and reefing it up with a coat hanger..geez those were the days!
Being a teen in the seventies was a blast.. a date with Prisoner and Restless Years twice a week (Bea Smith was my idol), surf mats, flops (does anyone else remember these odd thongs that had a woven bamboo inner sole and velvet straps?), John Paul Young, and Countdown every Sunday night..Life was good! Anyway I am off to clean a little...Em slept over last night and I am still finding barbeque shapes in every nook and cranny
Catch you later!

My pajama pants are officially dead. Today when I hung them on the line I realised this was the end. Martin will be so pleased, he is always telling me off for getting around in rags. It's not that I can't afford new stuff I just seem to get my favourites and wear them into the ground. If I know I don't have to go out anywhere I will slob around in pj's all day...there is something comforting about elasticised waists. It's almost as if they are saying "you know I think you may have gained a few pounds, but dont't panic I will just stretch a little further!"
The only thing worse than my daggy wardrobe is my shoe collection...I gave up on trying to buy new shoes years ago, my feet are just so broad and two different sizes so I just buy thongs. I have my every day thongs which are three years old and like my pj's are almost buggared. Then I have my shopping thongs which are a little tidier but nowhere near as comfy. Then last of all there's my going out thongs. Thankfully we don't go out to often as high heeled thongs and me don't seem to get along so well.
I think I will wait till my pj's are dry then I will carefully cut them into strips for polishing the car....may they live on (and on and on and on!).

Don't know about you guys but I will be glad when the Easter eggs are all gone. Every corner of my house is littered with foil paper but no one is owning up to them. I feel like all I do all day is pick up after everyone. I am going to screw towel racks to the floor because thats where all the towels end up and instead of folding the washing I am going to roll everything into balls and chuck it in the corner because again, that's where most things end up. While I am at it I will have a shower and drop the washer, razor and cake of soap on the floor to meld into a soggy mess, make a sandwich and leave crumbs and scraps of ham on the bench......and then (I am on a roll here) I will fill the kitchen bin till it is piled up like the leaning tower of Pizza and still try to cram more in. I am going to read the newspaper and leave black fingerprints on the handle of the fridge, all the cupboard doors and the table and then I will get the empty toilet roll cylinder and shove it on the handle of the damn toilet brush. While I am at it (betcha wish you hadn't got me started) I will make a coffee and spill sugar everywhere and leave half a dozen brown cup rings on the bench. I'll leave the lid off the biscuit jar so the biscuits can go all soggy, leave the screen doors all open to let the flies in and when Martin comes home after work and asks what I have been doing all day I can tell him to go to buggary!!!!!

thcuse me ith I'm talking funny but I'th jutht had a tooth out..Was just my luck to get a horrendous toothache the day before Good Frday. Today was the soonest I could get an appointment, so I had to endure agony all over Easter. It was one of those toothaches where when you drink or eat anything hot or cold your mouth gets like an electric shock....yowzers! The dentist told me that there were no cavities but the nerve was dying...I cant afford six hundred dollars for a root canal at the moment so I bravely told him to yank it out. My bravery was brief!! Sucking desperately on the nitrous oxide I endured the three injections with relative calm...until the moment I thought I was going to choke, I felt like I was trying to swallow a tennis ball. Gagging and carrying on I sat up in the dentist chair grabbing my throat thinking this was the end....no glamorous departure for me...I was going to kark
it in the dentist chair. The dentist tried to calm me telling me he had injected my soft palette and although it felt like I had something to choke on there was nothing there at all....to try not to swallow, it wasn't going to hurt. I felt like grabbing him by the ears! Then with an assortment of instruments and several of his fingers in my mouth he proceeds to ask me a question...HELLOOO! Not only am I choking on a tennis ball I have a gob full of objects....now is NOT the time to be asking me questions!!
After several minutes of yanking at this tooth it was obvious it was going to give up without a fight...he tells the dental nurse to steady my head....yikes!! More pulling and tugging..He has to stop every few minutes to catch his breath, we now have another nurse holding my shoulders down...I feel like saying..'Um you know what?, my tooth feels fine now, let's not worry about it" But nooo, this becomes very much like a dog playing tug of war with an old sock. Finally after twenty- five minutes I hear that sickening crack and the tooth was out...i was told not to eat or drink for four hours and I might like to take some pain killers. Might???? Went straight to the chemist for some heavy duty action. I have just woken up after an eight hour coma. I have decided that dentists rate right up there with pap smears and taxation officers!

Mum is staying at my place tonight. This afternoon she asked if she could ring my nephew Cody and leave a message for his Mum. She didn't realize Ebony was already using the cordless phone in her room at the time. Conversation as follows..
Mum: Hello is that you Cody?
Ebony: No its Ebony
Mum: Does your mother know you are there, its nearly dark?
Ebony: Yeah she knows
Mum: Could you please put Cody on?
Ebony: Cody isnt here
Mum: Ok , I will call again later

Rofl!!

Tuesday night her favourite show is on... Dancing With The Stars. Martin was very gracious and sacrificed his usual shows so she could watch it...I can't believe he sat through the whole program! She also sat in his recliner so she could rest her cup of tea on the coffe table beside it, so he had to sit on the other recliner which is rarely used and doesn't have the comfortable bum groove it has taken him ten years to mould.

Haley will come for a visit tomorrow so Emily can catch up with Great Grandma. Mum has 15 grand children and 18 great grandchildren so I am guessing it will take Mum all day to get her name right..she has been calling me Jen all day!

I forgot to mention that Chrissy and Tess helped me get music on my BLOG. This is Ebony's favourite song and since she won't let me put her picture on here, I figured it could be her contribution. She plays in over and over in her room, I should be well and truly over it

At the tender age of 55 my sister-in-law has just got her drivers licence. Not that she is a novice-she has been driving without one for thirty-five years! Naughty naughty naughty!!!

At least she drives with confidence, not like little old me..I am the queen of driving phobias both as a driver and passenger. I do not drive on highways, I do not overtake under any circumstances, I do not drive over big bridges...the list goes on. That is why I will never be able to have a fight with Wendie or I won't be able to go to SWIG. (We take my car but she drives.). Martin gets annoyed if I ever have to drive him somewhere as he reckons we take the scenic route via Darwin becauseI avoid scary roundabouts and busy roads. He gets even more annoyed when I am the passenger because I am the back seat driver from hell!

oops!!! I know what you are thinking but it wasn't me. Martin started to back down the drive way not realising his sisters car was parked beside him. If it had been me he would have said "you idiot ...don't you check in your side mirrors...blah blah blah" However because it was him it was his sisters fault for having the audacity to park beside him. Her car is jinxed, it has only just come out of the panel shop after its last bingle!!

My Mum is staying on the Coast for a bit of a break over Easter. It's good to catch up with some of my brothers and sisters while she is here, we love to throw around stories from our childhood, which I have to say was a very happy one indeed. My youngest brother recently told a tale that I loved...He says it was the day he knew that I had "made it". We were a really poor family with seven kids and Dad on a minimum wage. Our clothes were all home made or hand me downs and although we ate very well as my mum was an excellent cook, the budget didn't extend to certain luxuries. When I was fourteen I got a part time job working at the little corner store. After my first week there I received my very first wages...I can't remember how much it was but it wouldn't have been much. With it I bought a bottle of coke and a packet of bacon. My brother says he will never forget how I walked through the front door and announced "I have bacon!" (We never had bacon). He then tells how he and my younger sister sat up on stools in the kitchen and watched as I cooked the bacon in the frypan, the whole packet. He says he had never smelt anything so good. They then followed me to the kitchen table and watched as I ate every last piece, washed down with the entire bottle of coke. Although my brother was only ten at the time he says he remembers feeling immensely proud...he thought that anyone who could buy a packet of bacon had definately done well for themselves and that's why he didn't ask for any...it was my moment. I thought it was such a sweet story...then I told the one about the time I found him in the cubby house with his tool kit playing doctors with the little girls from across the road....forty years old and it still embarrasses the hell out of him!

The other day we bought Emily a swingset so she would have something to amuse herself when the weather gets too cold to swim in our pool. She thought they were pretty cool and played on them for a while....till she found my mop and started playing horsies...isn't that always the way?? I remember when we were kids there were no sofisticated toys, just a big back yard and a vivid imagination. I can't believe it when Ebony tells me she is bored and has nothing to do...she has a laptop, ipod, mobile phone, ps2, karaoke machine, DVD and TV all in her room. When we were kids a piece of rope was all it took to keep us amused for hours. I must be getting old I am sounding like my mother!

I couldn't put it off any longer....today I had to go for a haircut. I always leave it until my hair has gotten to the embarrassing stage, in my case it had grown into a mullet. I'm not into the whole hairdressing thing, I just want them do do their best and let me out of there. I don't particularly want to indulge in idle chit chat with the sixteen year old apprentice wearing her bum crack jeans, I don't want to read the old issues of New Idea and I am certainly not interested in the leave in conditioner with a SPF factor of fifteen plus. No frills, just cut my hair so I can go home. I stopped off at the chemist on my way home to get a hair colour....something to cover up the skunk strip of grey that has taken over the front of my fringe. How confusing!!! Not one of them say "light brown " on the packet!! Moccha Delight, Honey Gold....they sounded like hot beverages! In the end I went for one that had a picture of an older lady on the packaging and hoped like hell I wasn't going to end up with light mauve hair. You would think applying this stuff would be dead easy but straight away I came up against an obstacle. The gloves they give you are flat little things stuck to the instruction sheet....My big fat hands don't even come close to gliding inside them so they end up in the bin. I just squeeze the gloop all over my head, mash it around a bit and wait twenty minutes and voila! Brown hair!...and brown ears...and brown palms! No more haircuts for me now until SWIG in July!

I had to give Emily her Easter goodies early as I won't see her on Sunday. She got some new winter pj's, a My Little Pony tin with marshmallows and a fairy tin I made for her with a few chockies. The bunny lost his head almost immediately!

Did you know the quickest way to be a size 10 is to cut the labels off your clothes??
Did you know that the day you wear your daggiest undies a fluke gust of wind will blow your skirt up over your face??
Did you know that if bread is mouldy , you wont realize until you have eaten ninety percent of your sandwich??
Did you know that kids won't remember that you asked them to clean their room but WILL remember you promised them they could go to the movies??

How are you supposed to pick a good shopping trolley??? They all work perfectly when they are empty but as soon as it is half loaded it develops an annoying squeak and the wheels decide to go their own separate ways. Add to that the frustration of being held up behind the undecisive shopper who leaves their trolley in the middle of the aisle while they spend five minutes trying to choose between three ply toilet paper with pictures of labrador puppies or two ply scented with jasmine. It's not over until you have queued for ten minutes only to find you have just scored a trainee checkout operator who doesn't know the PLU code for broccoli. I hate shopping!

Today I decided I need to give up smoking (again). I purchased a pack of nicotine paches and dutifully applied one according to the directions. After less than five minutes it fell off so thinking it was a dud I applied another only to have the same thing happen again. Not to be beaten I drove to the shop and bought a packet of band aids and used four to stick around the edges of the patch. At this stage I was certain of a positive result, I wasn't having the urge to have a cigarette at all. Then the patch fell off again..off to the shop again to buy some fabric band aid strips as I was certain they would have better sticking power. I was wrong! I put the patch in the bin and had a cigarette (or two)

It has occured to me just how many mundane every day happenings are actually quite scientific. I discovered this whilst dunking biscuits into my coffee. If the biscuit isn't dunked long enough it will still be required to be chewed...which of course defeats the whole purpose of dunking the biscuit in the first place. However should you dunk the biscuit for too long the top half topples off and drops into your coffee leaving a slurry at the bottom of your cup which is not a good thing. For those interested I have found that counting to four is exact scientific formula for the perfectly dipped biscuit. My biscuit of choice at the moment is oat and fruit which contains less than 1 gram of fat which of course means instead of having just one you can have three, four or even five!

Did I mention I have a very cute little
grandaughter??? Emily...or "The Devine Miss Em" as I prefer to call her is almost three and expecting a baby brother or sister early in October. I am very experienced at this whole Nanna thing now and try to have Emily sleep over once a week. It's not at all unusual for me to be sitting up at three in the morning watching the Wiggles and singing along with Jeff, Greg , Anthony and Emily's personal favourite Murray!