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!