The christmas eve family ninner worked a treat despite being so late. I suck at timings but at least there were a lot of yummy nibbly things to tide people over.
Seeing the other sis and bro-in-law and the kiddlings was simply delightful after such a long absence. Who lets kids grow-up like that?? Irresponsible I say.

Everyone came back for brekkie and present frenzy which was also deeelightful. The kilo of smoked salmon we'd bought was demolished which made me happy.
Lovely presents were given and received, the kids only got a smidge too many pressies and then a smidge curious if there were even more.

Brunch at Mim & Richard's was delicious and very very pleasant. I mostly restrained myself and thus avoided the normal sugar coma I struggle through in the afternoon. More lovely presents for all.

We had about two seconds at home in the afternoon (long enough to repack the car and let Torby have a little bit of quiet time before heading over to S&G's to help set-up for ninner.
Sooo much really really yummy food, so much lovely company and we managed to stay awake until at least 10pm.

Hopefully hunnyyydddd will forgive me for eating and running today at lunch (more delicious delicious food) but packing and car swapping and quiet time has been accomplished.
Nw has made a tasty tasty omellette for ninner, I've nibbled on some rocky road ala megzz and now amd so very ready for bed.

It's been a big couple of days.
I've had an absolute hoot (It probably won't surprise any of you, but I really really really love christmas..it's all about family and friends and food and presents and sparkliness - what's not to love?) but I'm glad it's a 365days until we get to do it all again.

So I hope that you all had a day as lovely as mine.
I hope that you felt special and loved and that you had time and opportunity to revel in good company.

brave torbyboy is brave

So last night was immunisation day for Torby.
We'd prepped him that he was going to get 2 or 3 injections and that they may hurt a leetle bit but he had to keep really really still and if he was very good and brave and stayed still until they were done, he'd get a treat (a lollipop was the treat of choice)

Well, he astounded us all by not even whimpering!

Stayed absolutely still and was okay about getting the second one and everything.
Much was made of his bravery and his two (two!) bandaids and the lollipop was devoured in seconds.

I swear he was better at getting the injections than I was about my blood test earlier in the day.

Sometimes he really does amaze us.

m-m-m-m-madness

4 sleeps to go!
4 sleeps to go!

4 sleeps until christmas madness

well, for me it's really 3 sleeps to go.

For us the madness will begin on xmas eve ( DrQ noted that people incorrectly use Xmas as a less religious alternative to Christmas - I use it becaue I am lazy) with family ninner (oh please let the forecasted rain not happen until after bedtime, please, please, pretty please) and sleepovers and the present frenzy with the childrens and then brunch and then ninner and then boxing day bbq x 2 and then in a car for forever and then family campling for a week.

Madness I say! The best kind of madness really.

But first we have to get through Torby's immunisation (tonight), the final pressie shopping, and a lot of grocery shopping.

Bring it!

1!
1 clean, vacuumed bit of floor space in our bedroom.
Bwahahahah!

Now to juts pretend the rest of the room doesn't exist.
Luckily Nw decided to have a nap on the bed thus saving me from being able to do anymore.
Now I get to cook a dish for tonight's festivities and potter about some more.

Then I get my reward of chums and wine and food and surly santa and all sorts of good stuff
Hooray for Chrissie Pissie!
Hooray!

One of my favouritest christmas carols is 'Carol of the Bells' (the other one is Little Drummer Boy)



or a more normal version ...

my baby at his 2nd birthday party

oliver posing, originally uploaded by house of charlet.

awww

he's certainly changed a bit in two years

Chicken Sammiches of Deliciousness

From the Donna Hay wedding magazine

500g chicken breast fillets
1cup whole egg mayonnaise
2tbl salted capers, rinsed & drained
3/4cup finely shredded basil leaves
1tbl finely chopped red onion
1tbl finely grated lemon rind
sea salt and cracked black pepper
125g baby rocket
24slices white bread, crusts removed (I actually assemble the sandwiches and then cut the crusts off. It's easier and you get to nibble on gooey crusts)

Bring a frying pan of water to the boil, reduce heat, add the chicken breasts & poach for 4minutes each side or until cooked (Lies! waaaay longer than 8minutesis needed and that's even after I slice the breasts in half to make them smaller)
Remove chicken, allow to cool and chop finely.
Combine everything except the rocket (and the bread, obviously) and smear on half the bread, pop the rocket on top, the the other half of the bread, slice off the crusts, cut into thirds, use leftover crusts to scrape the bowl clean, make vaguely obscene moans about how good these are and then dash off to the party.

(I may have started writing my instructions rather than hers somewhere along the way..oops)

images

They both made me smile

book book book burk!

This site, booko, is teh awesome.
Type in what book you're after and it does magical things and gives you a list of how much it costs from various places in AUD.

I loves it I do.

It may, or may not have been used to get a Nw christmas present.

Shhh

strangely appropriate

the quote of the day
"Traditions are group efforts to keep the unexpected from happening."
- Barbara Tober

give me lists, lots of lists and the starry sky above...

A comment from Spyd has prompted me to organise myself for upcoming christmas food extravaganza.

Is it wrong to find lists oh so very comforting?

XMAS EVE NINNER

Crab and corn cakes
Beetroot dip
Eggplant dip
cheese/crackers/etc

Butterflied Lamb on BBQ
Cous Cousy vegetabley stuff
Asparagus w/ pancetta
Moroccan style carrot salad.

Raspberry Moscato Jelly w/ spiced cr?me fraiche
Apple Tisane jelly

fish fingers and frozen peas and normal jelly for the kids


BREAKFAST

Bagles with smoked salmon and cream cheese

BRUNCH (M&R)

Egg Florentine bake (PW)

DINNER (S&G?S)

Pork Belly from chinese bbq place (Buy on way to/from brunch)
Turkey from R&J (deliver beforehand)

BOXING DAY (MEL AND STREET PARTY)

Sausages, lots of sausages (buy soon and whack in freezer)

CAMPING

Oh dear god, I have no idea and my brain is now meltiiiiiiiing

Now to figure out the shopping lists and the timings. Oh and the camping food.

To my son on the occasion of his 4th birthday

Happy Birthday Torbyboy,

4years ago today you were born and oh how you changed our lives.

The smile on your face this morning when I wished you a happy birthday a beautiful thing.

The glee with which you opened your presents was deelightful and the hugs and kisses we got afterwards made my day.

I am so proud of everything you've learnt, the compassion you show, the strength and intelligence you possess.

I still marvel that despite our faults, you seem to be growing up okay.

I love you and thank you for making my world a better place.

ZoZo and J "help" make the house more christmassy

ZoZo and J "help" make the house more christmassy, originally uploaded by Miss DV.

the cute, it burnt

all frocked up

Last night was Rowany Yule Feast.

My observations from the evening are as follows;

• All SCA events should be in air-conditioned halls.

• Wearing a big frock is nice despite the many layers and the being squished.

• Food should come out earlier rather than later.

• Yummy food is yummy even if it is several hours late.

• My friends make me laugh. Often at inappropriate times.

• Seeing old friends is quite lovely especially if you don't get to see them often enough.

• My friends scrub up pretty darn good.

• There should be more babies for me to hold. Babies with flailing limbs and thigh rolls. Babies with dimples. Babies who are teensy. Babies who grab my fingers and try to see how tasty they are. Babies who wail and scream about the indignities of life and stop for a few seconds when you start singing to them.

• The post-wearing-fake-hair-and-lots-of-it-headache is always dull.

• it would be desirable to have a child who understood that mummy got home late and is a bit sore and sleepy and no she really doesn't want to come play a game with them, she wants to lie in bed for a few more hours. If anyone has a child resembling this, please contact me ASAP for a swap.
  

I scurried off to my work christmas party yesterday afternoon.
Had a lot more fun than I was expecting.
We did some bowling at a place in Darling Harbour and then onto the pub.
I really only meant tot stay for one drink but all of a sudden it was 7pm and trains had to be gotten.
I blame the niceness of sitting outside near the water on an absolutely glorious summer day. The sky was so so blue, the water so so sparkly. It created it's own vortex I tells ya.

Now to go pull the house and garage apart to find various items to wear to Yule Feast tonight. Wish me luck, this could be painful.

My Saturday by MissDv

There's the riddle/problem solving thing about the fox, the chicken, the bag of grain and getting them all across the river.

Saturday was a case of 4 parents, 4 kids, 2 usable houses, ballet lessons, at least 2 parents needing to prep for the party and I'm sure there was a goat there somewhere.

It was all sorted in the end and due to us ending up with ZoZo for her naptime while Jamie had the other 3 meant that not only did we get a lot of prep done in a short period of time, but also the christmas tree decorated, lunch eaten and I even got to lie down for 30minutes.
Althought the combo of Torby and theNoodle in the morning worked well because they kept each other entertained by making me a garden (dirt in pots with bits of grass sticking out), playing with Bionicles and watching dvd's. Not the same dvd's mind you, but dvd's nonetheless.

Oh and we had our lovely carpenter chum in to do a few final things to the living room windows.

Really, chaos doesn't even begin to describe it all.

Torby and Zozo's party was a hoot. So many children running around the park like mad things. The kids got delightful presents which were unwrapped in a frenzy. There was nummy cakes ala Meg and a fabulous pinata she'd found. Instead of whacking it with sticks, there were dangly strings that you pulled on instead and one of them would open it up. Kinda awesome.

I loved that Torby was so very good at saying Thank You and giving hugs. He did make me giggle by demanding to know if various presents were for him or ZoZo.

MissFliss has some lovely photos on her flickr account. She'll need to have you as a contact though if you want to see them. I took a few and will put them up when I'm home tonight.

After the park, a few people came back to our house for pizza and beverages and more running around for the children. Finally convinced Torby and the nieces to go to sleep at about 8:30/9 o'clock. You'd think that after a such a big day, they would all have a sleep-in? Oh no - the birthday kids were up at 6am and I think bellabel held out until at least 7. Sigh

It really was a lovely if hectic and exhaustifying day. Glad it only happens once a year and maybe the next one will involve less chaos.

It's an important skill

Things To Do

Dot point day

• My dad was in unexpectedly town on Tuesday night (communication is for other people) so we all trotted out to ninner. The highlight of the evening was being given the crystal dresser set that belonged to mum.

• I have just cleaned off the bbq. It was disgusting *shudder*

• It's Torby and ZoZo's birthday party tomorrow. the morning shall be spent making chicken sammiches of delicious doom. Nummy nummy sammiches.

• I never suspected that having a backyard that has a big pile of dirt in it instead of grass would be so very handy. Torby and the other kids (when they come 'round) love playing in it and making mud pies. Oh the joys of getting so very dirty!

• It was the Petersham Bowling Club's Christmas Party last Sunday. The kiddlings had a hoot on the jumping castle and meeting santyclaus (who arrived in a fire engine of course) and running around like headless chooks. Us adults had fun watching them and sitting in the shade and sipping beverages. It was pointed out that we fit oh so neatly within the InnerWest demographic it was scary.
  

• There was a meat tray raffle - I won it. Victory Lamb tastes oh so delicious :)

• Tomorrow will also be christmas tree day! Hooray! We will probably end up buying one from the local fruit & veg store rather than going to the farm and chopping one down oursleves. We appear to have run out of spare time to do the latter in.

• Our living room window have been removed, fixed, painted and put back in all shiny and working again. This brings me great joy.

• I've almost finished the christmas shopping. The last remaining presents just require me to go to MonkeyPuzzle.
  

• I must away and continue trying to get my hands back to the way they were - not smelling like detergent and bbq grease.
  

Oh the difference 24hrs makes

Yesterday morning, Torby was cute and amusing and giggly. This morning, he seems to have woken up with his grumpy jammies on and had whiny cereal for breakfast.

Thankfully he's going to granma and papa's house.
He likes and behaves for them.

baby steps

The window frame in the living room is allpainted now.
Still no windows in it but that will happen tomorrow.
I've also put on the first coat of paint on the doorframe between living room and kitchen.
Once the windows are in and the second coat of paint done, the living room will be done and dusted (it will very uch need the latter)
Okay, okay, it's exciting for me if not for anyone else
*grin*

Now just everywhere else to paint/repair/attach/organise.

zzzzzzzzz

I don't know if it was the quick swim in the pool with Torby and the other munchkins, the ninner at the pub, the two glasses of wine with ninner, the massive sleep debt I carry around or maybe a combo but man-oh-man was I sleepy last night.
We got home, popped munchkin into bed, watched another episode of Big Love and I was asleep by the end of the episode and it wasn't even 9pm.

Now for an exciting day of entertaining munchkin while keeping out of the carpenters hair (Yay we will soon have living room windows of smoothness and workingness and stuffness)

Thankfully Thursday is coffee and bisskits day so we shall have our morning taken care of.

I thought of you MissImpish

iDoom

You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

the upside to vomiting

I got home last night and was informed that Torby had thrown-up...a lot! (Poor thing)
He'd been complaining of a sore tummy all day but hadn't seemed overly affected by it apparently.
Not affected by it until dinner and some lunch reappeared (poor him and poor MrNw who was holding him at the time)

He was all tucked up in bed and snoring by the time I got home and rather than waking up when I jump into the shower around 5:30am, he's still asleep and snuffling away.

Knew there had to be a upside.

This Sunday (29th) the Petersham Bowling Club ( http://thepbc.org.au/
) is having it's christmas thing from 3pm. We'll eb down there with Torby and I think M&J and the girls will be joining us. Anyone else?

A Torby Update

We went to a Fairy & Pirate party for two of the daycare kids on Sunday.
Torby kept switching between wanting to be a pirate or a fairy. In the end he wore a pirate shirt and hat and fairy wings. Yup, my son, the piratical fairy!
Clearly spends far too much time around his nieces.
In truth, I like that he enjoys dressing up and sees no problem about popping on some wings or a skirt for dress-ups. It helps to even out his boyness. He is very vehement thought that there are certain roles tied up in gender. Girls are queens and boys are kings for instance. I think both wear capes and tiaras though.
He's obviously reached the stage where people are becoming different. We often have conversations based around who does and doesn't have a willy. This from the boy who used to wonder where mine had gone to. Mum's willy...missing!

He's becoming more questioning about a lot of things. What is sad/happy/cross/late, what's late, why is it raining, why for is it Monday, what's water, what's the opposite of happy/pencil/dry and so on. It's cute but occasionally frustrating. 'Because I said so' has indeed been uttered by me on more that one occasion. I know, I know, it's a slippery slope and I'm just one step away from 'I'll give you something to cry about'.

He's decided that StampyCat is his sister and AJ is his brother...I don't think I want to know about the logistics of it all really.

Despite having a lovely new big bed, the favourite place to sleep is on his old cot mattress on the floor. If he's also allowed to steal one of Nw's pillows, it becomes the bestest thing ever! Freaky child.

He has pretty much finished with afternon naps. Quiet time is enforced though and does seem to help. If only so I can lie on the couch for an hour and not pay attention to anything. I do miss the hour and a half to two hour naps he used to have. They were deeelightful!
He will fall asleep in the car though. Particularly if it's anytime after 12. It is occasionally tempting to take him for a long drive just so he has some form of sleep. The waking up at 5:30 every morning does start to affect him by the late afternoon.

He really enjoys digging about in our dirt pile at the back and watering the plants. Happily trots about getting muddy and tracking it through the house to wash his shovel in the bathroom sink. I have no idea why, but it's an important part of it all apparently. Whenever we go to Bunnings (which is so very very often in these

Still eats a lot of fruit, some vegies, peanut butter toast, crackers(CornThins) and plain white rice. Fish fingers and chicken nuggets are as close to protein as we get. Will now eat lettuce though. Any new food is seen as a victory by us. Sigh.

He seems to be picking up reading quite well. It's hard to tell how much is just memory of the story/pictures (he seems to have a really good memory and pattern matching ability) and how much is actually reading the words. He does occasionally struggle with sentences so I think that a certain part of it is definately 'reading'. Does that make sense?

I like it when he parrots back the good phrases and hate it when he parrots back the bad ones.
The fact that we enforce good behaviour verbally as well as physically (It's nice to say sorry, it's nice to share etc etc) means that we get these words said back to us in the same tone of voice. Makes me giggle everytime.

Boom de yada

menu plan for xmas eve - so i don't forget

Due to M&J being in deepest darkest renovation land, we'll be hosting Christmas Eve Family Ninner at Casa del Huntington-Smythe
At this stage it's 9 adults and 5 kids
Not entirely sure where we'll seat everyone but I have plans of swapping dining and living room around for the evening if we need to be indoors but hopefully the weather will be kind and we can all loiter outdoors.
I'm really looking forward to it.

I think (I know, I know, I really shouldn't, it just makes my head hurt) that the menu will be;
Crab cakes with corn salsa
Something with smoked salmon (blinis maybe?)
Asstd dips and nibbles

Butterflied lamb on the bbq (maybe marinated in yoghurt and garlic and stuff, I shall be experimenting soon) then sliced thinly
Cous-Cous with pine nuts etc
Some kind of crunchy green..beans and asparagus??

Rhubarb and Yoghurt Fool or maybe get the recipe for Cranberry jelly from DrQ or gelato ro something..man I suck at desserts!

oh and fish fingers and frozen peas for the kids..of course :)

Any suggestions?

I like that other than the fish fingers, the oven isn't involved, a lot of it can be done beforehand and assembled quickly and I have time to experiment with the few new recipes beforehand.

the jasmine that Snerg planted in the garden bed down the side of the house is being delightfly stinky.

It makes me smile

Nom

I treated myself to a Crunchie. It was for fundraising so it makes it good right?
Anyway, It was all fresh and still realy really crisp.

I'd forgotten how good they can be.

Nom Nom Crunch Nom

My Monday ?I?m at work and avoiding doing anything? post...It?s practically a tradition

Stampy?s toooomur kinda sucked all the energy out of the first half of last week. We?ve come to terms with it all a bit better and will chat with the vet on Thursday (we have to take her back in to make sure the infection in her bladder has gone after this course of antibiotics) about what we should look out for and possible timeframes etc. Still makes me sad to think about it but we really don?t want to put her through surgery when it may or may not help and she?s an oldish cat to start with.
I had a big walk around Newtown on Wednesday and got some good thinking done. Sorted out some stuff in my head, got to eat really yummy lemon, lime & biters gelato and a delicious veggie burger and a teeny smidge of Christmas shopping done. Was a productive morning in it?s own way.

We had our housewarming party on Saturday. I had a hoot and I?m assuming other people did as well. Despite the yard being more dirt than grass and our front area having a certain rustic ghetto chic. It was verah nice to see people and getting to show people our house is a big thrill for me. Weird I know.

Sunday we were big slugs around at M&J?s place. Well, we?d had the cousins sleep over on Saturday night so there was wrangling of 3 children for a few hours in the morning and a house that needed cleaning and hangovers to get rid of and then Nw had to go to work for a few hours...but mostly slugging.
Was nice to not be doing anything for a day.

We?re getting an air-conditioner installed on Sunday. Squeeee!! Whilst our house seems to cope well with the heat, it?ll be nice to have that extra level of coolness available. It?ll be Nw?s birthday pressie from his lovely parents. Hooray for lovely parents!

Next week a carpenter friend is going to do some work on our windows and make them less peely and flaky and sticky and won?t stay open-y.

Looking forward to Turkey Day on Saturday. Just need BoM to stop trying to give us a thunderstorm on the day. I should make a complaint!
Oooo I found Pumpkin Pie Mix at David Jones last week. Now I can follow the recipes that say ?add 1 can of pumpkin pie mix to one store-bought pastry shell and bake?
I?ll also make a proper one from actual pumpkins. From Scratch!
Still need to find a suspicious side dish to make as well.

Okay, no more rambling from me. For now at least

:(

The lump on Stampy's tummy is a malignant tumor.

Bellabel modeled her new school uniform last night.

The cute, oh how it burns!

Mitchell & Webb Look - Brain Surgery

I do so love the view from my desk. Two office buildings, a lot of trees, some houses, splotches of purple from various jacarandas and a large amount of sky.
It's a pleasant thing to lok at while trying to figure out why Excel isn't doing what you tell it to (for instance)

Last week involved;

The cranky pants getting a good wearing - I think they've now been relegated to the back of the wardrobe again - hoorah!

A trip to the vet for Stampycat. She had pink wee when we first moved in but then we thought it had cleared up.. the spotty wee on the bathroom floor on Friday morning proved otherwise. The lovely vet was also worried about a lump on her tummy so she had needles poked into her all over the place and a morning stay there. She now has antibiotics and some pain reliever (luckily she's fine with us smosshing them through her food so we can retain all our fingers). Should get the results from wee and lump test soon.
We also had the 'so, how much are we willing to spend and what lengths do we go to' conversation. Hopefully our limit won't be tested.

Shelves being put on the wall in the living room - hooray for storage and displayness.

Torby's swimming lessons and my laps on Friday afternon - good thing the water is heated. The laps are becoming easier and my arms are slightly less jelly like afterwards. Oh how I suffered the first week after such a long break.

Saturday was the day of kids birthday parties. Two in a row and both boys started with J - made me laugh.
Both were different - One in a backyard and one at a indoor playground called Corner Cubbbyhouse, One involved a lot of friends and one involved parents and kids we see when dropping off/picking up at daycare and once a year at the birthday parties.
Both were a hoot.

It was really nice to see Torby at play with his daycare chums. The boys running around together is amusing to watch and also got to witness the friendships that have formed within the group. Jhett and Torby are best mates and Dylan and Anthony are best mates. Then they form a pack of 4 that is invincible!
It was especially nice as Dylan no longer gets looked after by A but his little sister does so the other boys don't get to see him very often.
I think I enjoyed watching them all because I hear about all these kids but so rarely get to see them interact.
The parents are really lovely and chatty and it's nice to catch-up with them and compare notes and hear about what's been happening in their lives.

We were only slightly knackered (yeah yeah, okay, totally and completely knackerd maybe closer to the truth) at the end of it all. We'd left the house at 9 and got back at 3, having consumed a lot of sugar in between.

Nw then deserted me to go to a cocktail party in Canberra. The bastard! He had a fine time and it was nice that he got to go out and have fun and be sociable.

I got to potter around and make pie and enjoy wine o'clock with Megzz n Smurg and sleep like a starfish in the bed. A pleasant way to spend my night of single-motherness.

Went to feed the ducks and eels (aka swamp monsters) at Olympic Park on Sunday afternoon. The pelicans and swans also graced us with their presence.
Pelicans really are funny lookin' critters wheras swans really do have a certain grace about them.
I was just gleeful that Torby chose to wear his blanket as a cape to the park. I love the sight of little kids out in public in their spider-man/batman/pirate/all of teh above outfits. I forgot to take my mobile with us so didn't get a picture of Super-Torby feeding the swamp monsters. Good thing I have lots of other embarassing photos for his blackmail folder.

I just want to know if they remove the signs when their child isn't in the car

Made me snort my cup of tea

sleep is for baaaabies

I woke up at 1:30 this morning for two reasons.

One was that the cool change had finally come through and I was getting a bit chilly without a sheet on.

The other reason was there was a light on in the house and the hallway was glowing. I then noticed noises coming from Torby's room. I figured it was just because his window was open and his blind thumping about in the gustys of deliciously cool breeze.
I got up to investiate and discovered that he'd turned his bedside light on, collected and set-up his laptop and was playing a game.

AT 1:30am!!!!

I was very mean to him and took the laptop away and made him get back to bed. Cruel, cruel mother that I am. No wonder he prefers Nw to me.

He was then up, bright-eyed and bushy tailed soon after my alarm went off at 5:30. He'd only gone to sleep at about 10pm (happily playing in his bed until then apparently)

Sleep is for other kids apparently.

I look forward to our days at home together tomorrow and Friday when naptime can happen. Sweet sweet naptime.

Just looked at the weather for tomorrow

Forecast for Tuesday
The chance late shower or thunderstorm. Hot, fresh and gusty northwesterly winds ahead of a cooler, gusty southerly change late afternoon or evening.

Precis: Mostly fine. Late change.


City: Min: 20 Max: 35
West: Min: 18 Max: 35


UGH!

The weekend that was and a bit of Monday

Saturday was the day set aside to kill the Hills Hoist that dominated our backyard.

Nw had borrowed an oxy-acetalene torch from work and Jamie turned up with a crowbar and a jackhammer.

I wisely stayed inside the house with Torby and had a nap.

I woke up to a backyard full of holes (a path had also been removed) but much more open and useful.

I later got to hear the stories of bolts being removed with blowtorches because the right sort of screwdriver couldn't be found.

It's possible they might have had some fun.

We celebrated with bbq. Well, the others celebrated with bbq. I celebrated by having a tummy bug that meant I gratefully crawled into bed at 9pm being glad that I'd already thrown-up.

Sunday was a day of much driving for Nw but resulted in a new bed for Torby, a lack of old washbasin in our house and some dirt and supplies to fill in our backyard. Oh and a return of nieces to their parents and everyone's car at the the right house.

My tummy also settled down enough and I then got to enjoy bbq leftovers and sausage rolls from a baking extravaganza a few weeks ago. I also got to enjoy killing badguys in Warcrack and getting to bed at a reasonable hour.

Torby loves his new bed.
He may love it less this morning after he fell out of it at 5:30.
Doofus child.

In the dark this morning I put on my cranky pants by accident. I think the effect may have worn off a bit but still felling a bit twitchy. I hates that!

my baby is growing up

He'll soon be in a big bed and everything!

Before he was born, we bought a lovely cot that converted to a toddler bed. It's been useful and cunning to just remove the sides and drop a level of the base and headboard.

However, he now only just fits, especially when he adds a bunch of pillows and scrunches down.
Looks pitiful.

So today we took oursleves off to Ikea to get a mattress (and some other stuff) and to ebay to find a trundle bed.

Mission achieved in both cases.

*sniff*
he's getting all big and stuff
*sniff*

The Good
Seeing the laaaadies at Fight Club last night after a fortnights absence. We even had extra interstate laaaadies. Was lovely and giggly.

Lunch yesterday with Megzz at nummy Japanese place near work.

Going out to ninner on Friday with my lovely husband. We shall get Torby settled at M&J's then drive over to Perama, eat and drink nummy stuff (mmmm pork belly baklava) and trot home. We are celebrating being bourjois landowners. Oh we will indeed be first against the wall when the revolution comes.

The Bad
Waking up at 5:30 to get to work on time and sneaking quietly around the house only to have Torby wake up anyway.

The moistness in our garage and all it's moistness. Bring on the sunshine to dry everything out.

The WTF
Lass on the train this morning who glared at me all the way to P'matta. Everytime I looked up, there she was giving me the evil eye. As we stepped opff the train she pushed past me and flounced down the stairs. I have no idea who she was or whe I killed her grandmother or ran over her puppy.

ah-choo!

Just swept the massive pile of dust (made by the electricians) in the laundry.

Sneezed for 10minutes straight..I think it's all out of my nose now.

ah-choo!

apparently not

eewww

In all the excitemnet of last night (Bellabel & Zozo came for a visit and putting 3 munchkins to bed for a few hours whilst trying to eat ninner and get ready to kill badguys is a bit of an adventure..fun, but an adventure nonetheless), Nw forgot to put a nappy on Torby before he went to sleep.

This was discovered at 5:30 this morning when Torby came and joined us in bed because he was awake and whingy.

Cue stumbling, zmombie parents trying to deal with a now cold and unhappy child who is covered in ick.

One warm and toasty shower with me while Nw stripped the bed and burned the knickers of disgustingness, followed by fresh jammies, a dressing gown and Maisy and the world was a better place for him.

For us it was still far too early to be dealing with that much energy and ickiness.

I had to be awake about then anyay to get to work but I do feel sorry for Nw who should have still been tucked-up in bed and not now lying on the couch being forced to pick the enxt maisy episode.

Here's hoping that tomorrow morning is less dramatic.

Oh and Torby & ZoZo's birthday party will be on 5th December..we think.

Probably their last combo one before they get too old and what parties of their very own.

Can't believe my munchkin is nearly 4.

I would say we must stop feeding him but he currently survices on nutritious aircalories at the moment anyway.

I take comfort in the fact that Nw and his brothers all went through this stage apparently and they all lived to tell the tale and are no longer quite so picky.
It's what helps me through the day.

Don't wanna unpack more boxes and you can't make me!

ahem..better now.

As we were driving home this morning through a humongous storm I mentioned that I might pop my head into the garage just to make sure no water was seeping in.

Nope, not seeping.

Gushing would be a better word.

Water, water everywhere and not a dry spot on the place.

I cursed, I moved things up off the ground, I cursed some more, I realised that somethings weren't worth moving because they were already waterlogged and therefore buggered and would be good to at least support other things to stop them getting wetter. Oh and then I cursed some more.
I also scooped bits of stuff out of the guttery thing we have before the backdoor of the shed (it helped) and opened the roller door at the front so at least the water had somewhere to go. It continued running across the floor and dripping from the ceiling.
Hateful water.
Thankfully I got most boxes up off the ground in time..the bottoms of them are sodden but the books inside are mostly okay.
There are some fabric boxes that will need investigating and washing I suspect.

Nw has gone back to the old house for the final clean-up.

I've put Torby to bed, turned my music up loudish (bought the album of a band called Mumford & Sons and am really really loving it. Kind of folk-rock. The guy's voice is awesomelly gravelly) and am spending the evening unpacking and cooking sausage rolls to be frozen for later and finding clothes to wear to work tomorrow and wishing that we had lots more money so we could knock down our garage and build a better, shinier, more water-proof one. Instead we shall fix this one ourselves. For we have the technology!

Oh and procrastinating.

Let's never forget the procrastinating.

Click to embiggen.
If you need the address, let me know in the comments.
Yay for parties

Just went for a walk and got to admire the sprinkling of purple that's appearing everywhere. Hooray for Jacarandas and their colourful ways.

Eeeek

The calender is starting to fill up.

Which is lovely.

But scary.

We also want to organise 2 parties in in the next 2mths.

Our housewarming will be on the 14th November
and I think Torby's birthday on the 13th December.

and there will be Turkey Days(I assume) and Chrisse Pissies (I assume) and Christmas and Boxing Days and Family Camping and all of a sudden it will be 2010.

It's scary.

I

have spent a lovely day hanging with Hunnyyddd and Finn and the girls.
have made a test batch of what will probably become christmas presents for people..it tastes rooly rooly good.
have heard sad news.
have heard happy news.
have made a room for Torby.
have seen splendiforously coloured bugses.
have swept and mopped and rearranged and hung pictures.
have laughed and chuckled and giggled.
have a shed a tear not because I was affected but because I dread it ever happening to me.
have marvelled at the cleverness of my friends.


goodnight

The house posts will stop soon, I promise

Things about my house I love

My new-to-us dishwasher. Nw made it work last night and oh how delightful it is.

Having a toaster (the one in the old house exploded taking a power-point with it.

Distinct lack of cockroach infestation (the nice pest control people are coming along tomorrow to make sure it stays that way)

The prickly heat lamp (IXL light/heat/fan combo thingy) we put into the bathroom.

Meeting the lass at the florist/cafe/dressshop down the road and buying a bunch of ranunculus' and having a chat on the way home.

Looking out at our little garden and having Torby be excited about planting and growing things - maybe he will manage to keep plants alive despite my black thumb.

Everything on one level..no great big steps into the living room, no backyard down a slope. Much better flow to the house.

Having the hallway down one side of the house as opposed to swapping at the living room. Means that it's a much more usuable space.

Having room to have our computers together on a real desk.

Gas oven/stove. Oh how I hated cooking on electric stoves of slowness.

Continuous hot water - I may never leave the shower again.

A garage and all it's delicious storage opportunities.

Wooden floors instead of carpet.

Things that could be better

Kitchen with lack of bench space and no draining board attached to the sink.

Narrow bathtub (that also needs repairing but that is in the works)

Oh and the amount of painting/unpacking/fixin' that needs to be done but that goes without saying.

Icanhazsleeptimenao?

Well, after much painting and heavy lifting(thanks MegzznSmurg) and contractors tromping through and sweeping and visits to ikea and munchkin being elsewhere (thanks M&J), we've moved into the new house. It was even christened with pizza and wine and laughter.

There's still so very much to be done (painting and demolishing and bathrooms, oh my) and the old house still needs to be emptied and cleaned but it's nice to be in our house.
I'm loving that the layout is better and the backyard is much more accessible and useful and my computer is on a real desk and we have more space and a garage and it's ours, all ours (well, the bank's)

We moved Stampy across last night and she even emerged from under the couch a lot and lay on chairs and near the heater a fair bit. She seems to be coping okay. Brave Brave SirStampy.

I was asked this mornign if it was restful to sleep in our new house. I just laughed manically.

The first night we crawled into bed at the late hour of 9:30 and the bed broke. No, we weren't shagging, munchkins jumping on it for 2hours solid earlier in the day may not have been good for it. So we dragged the mattress into the living room and slept there. Last night (after fixing the bed) we slept amongst the delicate sounds of Stampy's collar jingling as she scampered about the house and Torby snoring and snuffling).
Tonight, we remove the bells off her collar (she's wearing it in case she escapes and doesn't know her way back, the tag is the important bit) and I put another coat of paint on the walll in Torby's room thus getting us a step closer to having the room to ourselves.

but for now I'm at work (luckily I could find enough clean work clothes to assemble an outfit) and about to go get a second cup of coffee and dreaming of not having to paint and unpack at the new house and the really trying to not think of the work to be done at the old house.

Denial is not just a river in Egypt apparently.

Awesomeness

Carrie Fisher is "apologises" for not looking like a 20yr old anymore

Torby is well and truly on the mend..hooray!
He's pretty muych returned to normal (bouncey bouncey normality)
Is a stark contrast to the last week when he really was all sick and floopy.

Tomorrow we might even go out in public.
That way people can admire the mighty bruise he's sporting from running in the bathroom and cracking his head on the toilet.
Lucky people.

According to Dulux, Grand Piano is an off-white colour...not at all stark black or white like you'd imagine.

It's also going to be the colour we paint our walls.

It will (hopefully) look like these walls except smaller and with less of view...dammit!

:(

He's been sick and whingy and tired since Friday but no rash was visible until this morning when Nw took him to the doctor.
Apparently having a plain old cold or teething issues is too passe for him, it's got to be something more thrilling like measles!
Measles!!
A mild dose but measles nonetheless.

This would be what my sad face looks like
This is also what my worried face looks like.

Poor munchkin.

Our new house (new for us anyway) has had the yicky carpet removed and the wooden floors have been polished and made to look beaustiful! Oh how I love them.

It also now has 3 bits of furnbiture in it after a trip to Ikea on Sunday.
Remind me to never go to Ikea on a Sunday afternoon again. It was like hell's own waiting room only with more annoying people.

Nw is home with a sick Torby this morning and hopefully fixing our farked router. I need to call the beloved A soon and let her know Torby will not be joining them today.

Also need to book an Optus person to come and put cable internet into new house and chase up the electrician for his quote and the glazier for a time and and and...

We will move all the big stuff into the house next weekend (this one is Nw's party and maybe a spot of painting on Sunday) Then we will have a week to clean up the old placve and move the last few things across. Good timing on Nw's parents to be in Perth for a while so we can run away with the station wagon. *grin*

Hmm I wonder how much babysitting I'm going to owe M&J after I try and convince them that they love Torby and want to look after him while we do painting/moving/etc. A lot I suspect. Baybsitting and wine.

Soon we will be in teh new house. Soooooooon.
As long as we don't go mad from the stress of actually getting there.

stuff of a random nature

The internet fell over at home yesterday afternoon. Oh how I mourned it's passing. I called tech support and they made me do the unplugging/replugging dance and agreed I wasn't doing anything wrong. A technician was booked for early this morning. Daen wakes up this morning and decides to try replugging it all back in.
Tha bastard made it work!
Hrmph
and Yay!
but a smidge of hrmph

:)

It does mean that I don't have to spend the morning loitering at home waiting, waiting waiting.
I can come along to then new house to see how the floors look now that our floorman has removed carpet and made the wood all shiny.
I can also drag us all to Bunnings to look at paint etc.

We also get to go to the chemist for some medicine for Torby. He was a bit sick and freaked out last night at M&J's and woke up a few more times when we got home. He's a bit hot and is complaining of sore teeth. We suspect his very back molars are coming through. Poor thing.
He's opted out of swimming lessons and is curled up on the couch with me instead. He's a really good hot water bottle.
He's also still got a lumpy head from where he fell and cracked hi head on the toilet on Thursday. He's really not having a good time of it. I ahte not being able to make it all better instantly.

The dust came back!
Sky was all yellow (not the bloodred of Wednesday thankfully) this morning and the dusty taste is in the air.
Shoo!

Being at work on a Thursday (normally a day off with Torby) is made a lot more pleasant by having the boys come and visit me for lunch.

Torby then came up to my desk so I could collect some stuff to sned back in the car rather tha lug home on the train. He was much admired. I did enjoy his conversation with an Inspector in the lift about the fact that the man was wearing stars.

Now, back to making spreadsheets look pretty.

I like these disney princesses, they're eviiiil

from comics alliance
via
i09

make with the clicky on the links to see more piccies.

The walk to the station and then to work was so very gritty. Felt like I was back at Crossroads.
Now I must run away and attempt to hack up a strangely orange lung.

The sky is all orangey.
Freaky.
So very freaky

My last 5 days

Thursday
Wake up early, get into car, go to airport, get onna plane (big big bigger plane) fly to exotic Melbourne with the munchkin.
The weather was horrid when we got there but we braved a walk around town after checking in. Got to have nommy Lord of the Fries for lunch. Who knew vegetarian burgers could taste so very very good?
Spent a few hours at the apartment lounging around watching a dvd and generally trying to have quiet time.
Noticed that we were right around the corner from Koko Black so we went for some hot chocolate (I was getting bored of the apartment and had dried out sufficiently from our last foray)
Later that afternoon lovely chums came and visited and there was dinner at a nommy (if horrifically slow) chinese place up the road and games and frivolity.

Meanwhile in Sydney, Nw had picked up the keys to our lovely house. Hoorah for nothing going wrong in the last 6weeks!

Friday
Weather was much much better. Sunshine and pretty clouds and everything.
After much indecision we decided on the the farm rather than the zoo.
The farm is Collingwood Childrens Farm and it was the awesome.
Paddocks to wander about it in, animals to pet and feed and tell off for making messes (the chickens didn't pay any attention to him though) and especially the goats to be mobbed by.
Another light snack at the Farm Cafe fortifies us for the trip to see Spyd and AJ.
Afternoon of the boys running around like porkchops and playing games. A hoot was had.
Friday evening was the warcrack gathering of delightfulness.
Much pizza and even more dessert was consumed. Much chatting and giggling was heard and enjoyed. Torby even slept through a large chunk of it.
The cab ride back to town was badly timed - a football match had ended and the roads were full of stripey people. Pesky stripey people

Saturday
Up sparkly early to get washed and dressed and breakfasted and packed in time to meet Megzz n Smurg for the drive to Ballarat for H&A's wedding. A pleasant drive later, we check into the hotel and wish for the rain to go away and get ready for the ceremony.
H&A were beautiful and radiant and oh so happy. Everything you want to see in a couple on their wedding day.
After it all wrapped up we retired back to the motel and made dinner plans for the place next door. Whilst being very convenient, the food was nothing to write home about but there was a playground for the children to be entertained in.
We then gathered back in the apartment bit of the motel we were staying in and chatted and had some snacks and some beverages. A few of us managed to stay awake until all of 11pm like the grown-ups we were.

Meanwhil in Sydney, Nw is spending an unanticipated 5hours with a very chatty locksmith who is changing all the locks at our new house. Lucky Nw!


Sunday
After Torby commandeered my bed halfway through night as his was too cold (kicking all the blankets off will do that) we woke up in different beds but he once again he hopped into bed with me. I soon realised it was not out of affection, I was simply closer to the dvd player and he wanted to watch his dvd. Horrid child.
Breakfast was had, packing was done, coffee was drunk, waiting happened, Speedy, TDN and D drove us to the airport, Torbynaps happened in the car, meltdowns happened at the airport. All to be expected really.
The flight was uneventful (what more could you ask for), Torby threw up about 2steps into Sydney airport (drinking too much juice he claims - I think it was that and the fact that he was knackered by this point) but swiftly forgotten when we finally got to see Nw again.
Despite a lot of really lovely moments over the weekend, seeing him made me the happiest I'd been.
The boys trotted off to the park when we got home and I had a bit of a rest. mmmm rest.

Monday
Torby woke up at some ungodly hour and Nw got up to keep hoim quiet in the living room once we realised that he really wasnt going to lie next to us quietly.
An hour later, I roused myself so we could wish Nw a happy birthday and lavish him with presents and kisses.
I may or may not have then crawled back to bed after calling in sick and exhausted to work.
A lot more sleep was had and the world became a less painful place.
Nw returned home from a morning at work with some beautiful smelly roses for me and we went up the road for a yummy lunch to celebrate being married for 7years.
the afternoon passed pleasantly until it was time to collect the munchkin from daycare and go to the new house (mainly so I could my new keys in my new front door - There may or may not have even been a happydance) and go to 'the restaurant with M&J andthe girls for birthday ninner.
Candles were blown out and then relit so each of the kids could blow the out by themselves.
After returning home, we curled up on the couch and watched some more Big Love
Yes the strangeness of watching a show avboit polygamy on our wedding anniversary was not lost on us.

So in the last 5 days, I've had big adventures, managed to wrangle a short loud person in a different city, acquired a new house, acquired a 40yr old husband and racked up 7years of marriage. No wonder I'm a wee bit sleepy.

Oh there's a few photos from melbourne here. Mainly of the farm.

Now I really should cease procrastinating and get dressed for work despite really wanting to crawl back into bed and sleep for another few hours/days/weeks.

3 sleeps to go...

.... until Torby and I go on our great Melbourne adventure.

Squee

Plans are starting to come together.

I have chums visiting the apartment on Thursday night and keeping me entertained so I don't get homesick the first night.

Friday evening will be a gathering of my lovely fellow warcrack nerds. There will be much geekyfun and amusement and food and beverage and catching up and no homesickness that night either.

Saturday will be fun and frivolity in Ballarat and no homesickness.

Daytime activities may involve going to the Collingwood Childrens Farm and a bunch of cunning playgrounds. maybe even the aquarium or the Museum if it rains a lot. I shall also go and release hi upon poor unsuspecting

I have to do some shopping when we get to Melb for Torby food and some beverage for moi. I'm hoping that we can do part of this at the Queen Vic markets so I can also nab a hot jammy doughnut or twenty.

I've been madly printing out maps and plotting how to get between things. Bwahahah.

It's one of the hardest things about planning things to do with the munchkin in a foreign town..the knowledge that I can't just nip over here or go on a big walk over to there or just zip back that way for an hour. Instead I'm planning things in zones. Thursday is hanging around close to the city as we have to be back at the apartment to meet chums and Friday is Go East Young (Wo)Man! time.

I'm also very aware that half our plans will not be realised and it's all dependent on weather/grumpiness/sleepiness/need for quiet time/ public transport/distance a toddler can walk versus distance I can lug a toddler on my shoulders etc. I just like to have an idea where things are and how to get there if we do get an opportunity. I've also only locked in a few plans and they all involve either the apartment or someone's house.

I've also found some games and activity books to keep him entertained on various forms of transport and we've borrowed a kids didgital camera from M&J for him to play with. So many forms of entertainment, so little time.

I'm also very lucky to have awesome chums who have volunteered/been talked into/bribed to get us to Ballarat and back. The thought of having to do it on PT with Torby was making me weep. You think I kid. I am indebted to my friends for a very long time.

I've been discussing it all with Torby a lot to get him used to the idea that Nw won't be with us but we get to do fun stuff and we'll meet some new people and get to see lots of our friends etc.
The main thing he's excited about? Brushing his teeth! No really. Strange strange child.
The second bestest thing is seeing AuntySpyd and AJ though. But that may be only so he can show them how to brush their teeth. I'm not quite sure.
It really does worry me what goes on his head sometimes.

All-in-all, I think we'll do okay. I'm really looking forward to it.

*yaaaaawn*

11pm - fall into bed and start snoring.

4am - wake up with whistley/bubbly lungs (must be better at using nasal spray to help stop this)

4:15 am - Torby cries out because he's clonked his nose on a toy. Get out of bed, go deal with that, lie back down and curse at lungs for not behaving.

4:25am - Torby cries out because his blankets are crooked. Go deal with this, lie back down, cough some more to make lungnoise stop.

4:45am - Torby cries out that he needs our help. Send Nw in to deal with him as you have finally found perfect position and are finally drifting back off again.

5:10am - Torby comes in to the room complaining that his 'busy' (the laptop) is gone. Tell him it's still sleep-time and to come lie down. He climbs into bed and starts whinging and jiggling and telling me to shush when I start coughing.

5:20am - crawl out of bed to go have shower and resist urge to sell child to the gypsies.

5:30am - emerge from shower, rescue Torby from Nw packing him off to the gypsies.

6am - finish breakfast and getting dressed, succesfully avoid dialling the gypsies.

6:14am - Torby turns the cuteness on just in time for me to stagger out the door to go to work.

7:15am - first of many cups of coffee for the day hits my system, world becomes slightly less fuzzy.

It's going to be a looong looong day.

The swimming lessons paid off

Torby took an unexpected swim yesterday at Mel&Rusty's yesterday.

It was going to be him or the other little girl who was there..we all knew it would happen. They were wandering around the pool poking the water with sticks...as we said, inevitable.

The splash still made my heart still skip a beat. Nw was close to him when it happened and easily fished him out. Towels and hugs and kisses were swiftly administered followed by fresh clothes and chippies. It's quite amazing how quickly a handful of crisps can dispel the shock of it all.

I was very proud of Torby for trying to keep himself afloat and not sinking like a stone, hooray for swimming lessons actually working.

It's one of those things that had to happen eventually and I'm glad it did when there were a lot of adults around and hopefully he remembers not to lean so far over water next time because that next time there may not be anyone around to fish him out.

teehee

It made me giggle..a lot.

Because I will lose the bit of paper again...

Chicken w/ spicy onion sauce

1/3 cup plain flour
1tsp paprika, tumeric, cumin, coriander, chili powder,garlic salt (smidge less than a tsp)
8 chicken thighs
oil
2 onions cut into wedges
2tsp grated ginger 9oh okay, about 3)
1/4 cup mango chutney
1 cup chicken stock

Combine flour and spices.
heat oil in pan and cook chicken in batches until golden brown.
add more oil, cook onions and ginger until tender
add chutney and stock and throw the chicken back in.
cover and simmerfor about 15mins
uncover and coo some more to thicken.

Is good and nummy and has a slight hint of heat (only slight) and the onions turn all yummy and it all just works. especially with some brown rice and vegetables.

I got it out of some recipe book but I have no idea which one - sorry

After a thrilling weekend of packing things into boxes I can report that;

We own far too many books.
We own far too much fabric.
We owned far too many baby clothes.

We have discovered;
- some jewellery that I thought I'd lost, hello again big red pendant, oh how I've missed you.
- my Certificate of Credit for a science comp I entered in 1990, I'm sure I could use it as ID instead of the birth certificate that's still missing, right?
- that I owned 4 copies of Jo's Boys by L.M. Allcott, I've kept the oldest of them all,
-that a lot of dust collects on things when you don't move them for 5 years,

Nw has dropped off a large collection of baby clothes and paraphenalia to the vinnies (or equivalent).
We have an ever growing collection of books to be taken to vinnies as well. If anyone wants a large collection of trashy sci-fi and just plain trashy boks, feel free to rummage through the boxes out the front of our house. Or just visit your local Vinnies in the coming weeks. It's where most of them came from after all.

Tonight we go to visit the lawyer to sign more stuff (contracts for our souls or something like that). Our reward will be yummy food from somewhere on King St.

Hopefully, in one weeks time, we'll be signing the final document and getting the keys to our new house.
The fact that the following day we're having a locksmith come and change the locks won't ruin the significance at all, no sirree.

hurray for the father of my child

He gave me sleepin this morning after I'd had night of bad dreams
He enjoyed his card and present from Torby
He decided we all needed yum-cha fro breakfast/lunch
He mocked me as I complained of eating way too much.
He joined me in putting lots of stuff into boxes.
He has requested duck pancakes and salad for dinner

Oh and

He is partly responsible for the Torbyboy and that's a pretty cool thing.

NorMaL

I went to see my lung specialist this morning whil Nw entertained Torby at the shops.

Accoirding to the blood tests and the respiratory function tests, I'm normal.

NorMaL!!

I have some drugs to take for a bit and I'm to keep using a nasal spray and in theory it should all go away soon.

Oh and an x-ray soon and follow-up appointment with my gp.

but, cured! cured I tells ya. I can go on thoise cross-country runs I love so much without my lungs exploding.

Or not.

Now for this pesky headcold to go far far away and the house to be settled and the moving to be done and the new details for getting to/from wedding in Ballarat to be confirmed and and and

Oh and I love my friends...I luv youse all

the lurgy approacheth

Over the course of the day, I've started coughing a bit more, shivering a bit, my head has become fuzzier and my bones are starting to get achey.

I think I might be getting a lurgy :(

I'm looking forwatrd to home time.
I'm looking forward to dosing myself up with lemsip and having a big sleep in the hope that it all goes away and this isn't really the cold I think it's trying to be.

It has begun

The Great Packing Expedition has begun.
5 boxes down and so very very very many more to go.
We have too much stuff
We have far too many books (4 of those boxes are books and I've barely made a dent.

I'm now discovering further joys of these broken lungs of mine..the dust makes extra wheezy and cough-y.

Icanhaznewlungsnao?

The mantra I repeat to get me through this is that we'll never have to do it again. I'm going to be buried in the new house I tells ya.

Have also organised for bathroom people and a floor man and a locksmith to come and visit the new house the day after we plan to do the settlement thing. Locksmith man will change the locks and the other two will give us quotes and hopefully be able to start soon after. Just need to find an electrician and we're (mostly) set. Well, except for calling the bathroom refinishers to also come and quote and then get started. That will be tomorrow's task.

As this seems to be the last weekend for a while that's pretty empty, I'm planning on using it to do an obscene amount of packing in. Anyone want to feed us on the Saturday night? We'll be dusty and sweaty and in desperate need of wine o'clock. Hmm maybe staying home is better in that case. Oh well, we shall see.

Now to load new songs onto my ipod and then have an early night. This packing lark is exhausting. Especially the procrastinating bit.

I pulled my pork *snigger*

So, I made Spicy Shredded Pork last night. Shredded pork sounds sooo much better than Pulled Pork which is another name for it. Pulled meat is ust wrong, Shredded meat on the other hand..nomnomnomnom

Served it with corn salsa, mexican rice, guacamole, sour cream, salsa and tortillas.

Oh and I only changed the recipe slightly (it's a disease I tells ya). I added ground coriander and some ground ginger. It seemed to work.

I need this on my desk at work

XKCD of amusement

Just so you know...

Minties and Green Tea do not as good a combo as you might think.

Not that I would be foolish enough to take a swig of the latter after chewing on the former.

Nope, that'd just be foolish

a haiku on this morning's weather

windy windy wind
whooshy wind is windy, yup
it goes whoosh, whoosh, whoosh

Awesome isn't it?

I want this costume!



via Blame it on the voices


And I have some squee-ing to do about Avenue Q but it will have to wait until I'm bored at work...for now, I must get out the door and head off to the saltmines.

a three day catch-up

Today

Nw is out at the pub (I'm deserting him on both Saturday and Sunday so it's probably fair that he got to pick a social engagement to go to tonight..probably)

Torby is asleep (in our bed, It's very similar to his own bed except it's his favourite and I just deemed it easier)

I made cheaty-pants oven paella (added chorizo and more prawns and some paprika) for ninner.

I had chocolate cake and icecream for dessert

I now have a glass of wine and am tucked up on the couch with my book and the lovely dvd's that MissImpish sent to me. Dollhouse and Krod Mandoon and No Heroics...Oh I am so very spoilt.

Yesterday

A rare day off for Mr Nw occured.
So, there was a trip to the lawyer for him to sign things for the house, lunch in newtown at the fabulous mexican place, Guzman y Gomez I've been wanting to try for forever... It was sooooo good. So so very good. Torby and I then went and gorged ourselves on icecream while Nw did important things. Although, really, what could be more important that scoffling icecream??

To round out the day of eating and slugging, we went to the pub for dinner M&J and the girls. Because cooking would have involved effort.

Tomorrow (well, the weekend)

Saturday I'm off to trundle about the Craft show with MissMegzz and mock the scrapbookers look at stuff of a crafty nature.

Sunday I'm off to see Avenue Q with the gang. Squee

I'm reasonably sure packing should figure in there somewhere. That or planning how we can inconspicuously set fire to the place so we don't have to move anything.

I really like the latter option.

Never have I enjoyed looking at bottoms less

Winkers!

Pants that..wink

via UglyCrap

You may thank me later..

A Torby update

Picking Torby up from daycare and grinning as he throws himself at me with a 'Mamma I've been missing you for sooooo long'

Walking home and him trying to write his name as he wizzes on a tree. Such a boy!

Ooo Ooo I know, I have a really good idea.... How about we... It's nice to share...

I called a good boy...You're a good boy Mamma. He now realises that some people are girls, but not me apparently.

When he is allowed to have two straws to drink his milk with at night...He decides that they are his sisters and they are often called Harry and James. Cracks me up every time. I kinda like that gender really doesn't mean anything to him at this stage.

He's still really looking forward to going to Melbourne in September. Still a bit focused on brushing his teeth in Melbourne as well. Freaky child.

And now he is awake so I should stop reflecting on the things he does and watch him as does them.

I just went and sat in the sunshine for a 10minutes. Now I'm warm and so so sleeeepy....

bathroom adventures

The bathroom in the new house needs a-fixin' so we spent various bits of the weekend looking at bathroom pron.

We're getting bathroom re-finishers in to spray and waterproof the place and make the bathtub look noice again. So very much cheaper than stripping bathroom of bathtub and all the tiles and starting again.

In all three places we visisted, Torby had an absolute hoot running around and pushing the buttons on the toilets.
In all three places, he would then decide he had to use the toilet and start pulling down his pants.
In all three places our cries of 'nonono bunny, not that toilet, lets go find a real one' could be heard.

I think that my way of shopping is being transferred to Nw. Despite us not officially owning a house yet. we now own a bathroom vanity (cunning corner unit that will fit, give us more space than a standard one and was the last one (ex-display) in teh shop and on sale) and a over-bath shower screen.

If house falls through, the criteria for next house we try and buy will be that the bathroom needs renovating just so we can use them.

funkiness

Megzzz and I went to the Young blood designers market on Saturday.

The line-up to get into the Powerhouse was huuuuge but it was a beautiful day and standing around in the sunshine in winter is never a bad thing.

The markets were full of pretty stuff and some funky stuff and some..stuff.

I forgot to steal Nw's wallet before I leapt out of the car so was slightly cashless. This was mostly good as it meant I didn't buy lots of stuff. But bad because, well, there was some very funky stuff.

A coffee cup for my coffee at work (megzz bought me one- I'm looking forward to using it this morning)

Butterflies! Butterflies made from plates! (can't link directly to the butterflies but go to the online store and then click on Ornamental and then Chrysallis)

Sticky things for the walls - soon I will have a new house to decorate and everything!

Also a lot of nice jewellery, beautiful fluid looking woodwork stuff and some lovely frocks that would look hideous on anyone above a size 8 or who had boobs.

Was a great way to spend an afternoon.

and that's how you do it, mummy

and that's how you do it, mummy, originally uploaded by Miss DV.

and then you pour them in here

and then you pour them in here, originally uploaded by Miss DV.

You scoop the beads

You scoop the beads, originally uploaded by Miss DV.

Computer says Yes

Yay, our home loan has been approved! Yay for the bank letting us pay them money for the next twelvetyfive years of our life.

Quote of the Day

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye.
- Miss Piggy

house musings

We went and stuck our head in the (hopefully) new house last night.
Mainly to get measurements so we know if things will fit etc. and so we can get rough ideas what it will cost to fix up.
It was useful to me because I'd pretty much forgotten what it looked like.

It's smaller than I remember. It scares me to think how we're going to fit everything in and then I remember that it has a garage for storage and is better designed than current house. It'll all be good.

We got to Petersham early so went and had a play in the park with Torby. We then trotted up the road to the house saying hello to all and sundry.

Is such a weird feeling coming back to an area (the very same street we used to live on in fact) that we lived in so many years ago. So much has changed since then. Different things have become important in where we live. This place will be awesome with the park and pool so close by. Come summer, I suspect we may live down there. We have the bowling club almost next door and a few other pubs with walking distance (Inc. the Newington which is about halfway between us and M&J - soon there shall be walking up to 'The Restaurant' for dinner). There is now a Thai restaurant where the corner store used to be. Not as convenient maybe, but more delicious. The main strip of Petersham has remained mostly the same as I remember but now with added grocery store. Hurrah!

I'm going to miss the uber-convenience of living in Burwood. Having a supermarket and shops between the train station and house is pretty handy. Major shopping centre down the road was nice. So much good chinese bbq (mmm ducky goodness) and veitnamese bakeries and the handmade noodle place of deliciousness and a really good fruit and veg shop. Walking distance to two major train stations is nice.

But now (assuming nothing goes wrong between now and September) we have a great park and pool, we're closer to M&J and the girls, I'm still on the trainline I need to be for work, access to great portugese chicken and custard tarts, a new pretty area to explore, a great street to live on, lovely schools for Torby to attend. Oh and a house that has a gas stove, a little garden that is more useful than our current expanse of lawn, walls that we can paint as we like and put holes in wherever we like. Oh and we never have to move again.

We just have to get there.

I scanned a few old photos in

me in 1978, originally uploaded by Miss DV.

Click on the piccie to got to the land of flickr where there are more

randomness

Tomorrow night we get to see the inside of the hopefully new house. Measurements need to be done so we can start getting quotes on new bathroom etc.

Tonight we went to 'The Restaurant' with M&J and the girls. 'The Restaurant' is more commonly known as Newington Inn. Poor kids and their warped view of the world. Camping involves big frocks and painted floors whilst going out for dinner involves a local pub.

Torby did his first representational piece of art at the pub. Not just numbers or letters or shapes. We got faces. All with big ears and sticky uppy hair. I shall scan some in and pop them on flickr tomorrow night. Is kinda cool.

And now there is wibbly-wobbly jelly to be eaten and trashy shows to be watched..

Le Yawn, Le Cough, Le Wheeeze

We got to visit the hospital on Saturday morning for the eleventy billionth time since having Torby.

Long story cut short, he inhaled some rice cracker on Friday night and it got into his lungs.

Despite the 4hours we were there, he handled it very well. Saying ?cheeese? as he got his x-ray done was the highlight. The cute, it burns.

We both had big big naps when we eventually got home. Mmmm nap..

Then around to Megzz&Smurgs to taunt the chickens and piggies and eat yummy meat onna stick and even yummier cr?me brulee and drink nummy wine and forget about the stress of the morning.

We lost his dummy that night and he seems to be doing okay without it. (shh, I found it at the bottom of my bag but we won?t tell him that). Had always planned that this nuk would be the last one, just wasn?t expecting it to happen so soon or in such circumstances. Hopefully he won?t adopt one of the other nuks we have lying around and this will be the end of it. Hopefully.

We?re all a bit slow at the moment as Casa de Huntington-Smythe. The broken slep is doing us in. I am looking forward to Torby?s lungs getting rid of the added crunchiness and my lungs getting rid of extra mucus. Poor Nw has to deal with entirely too much coughing and feebleness I think.

nom

I need to make these...mmm sweet crispy nibbley things

randomness

Tonight is the first Friday in ages that we won't be feeding anyone or doing anything. There is stew to reheat, Easy Virtue to be watched, Warcrack to be played and sleep to be had instead.
Hooray!

I saw Coraline today. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Visually amazing and great story. I have a great fondness for movies made from Neil Gaiman books.

Now off I trot to collect the munchkin from daycare.

Away, away, my pants on fire...

Oh and we have finished the cooling off period of house buying..now for settlement to go smoothly and in 6-ish weeks, a house will be ours.

a photo of the new house

hallway, originally uploaded by Miss DV.

Assuming nothing goes wrong between now and settlement..this hallway will be ours.

Nw took a few photos when the building inspection was done. I've put some of them on flickr

Vendor says Yes

Soon we shall owe the bank a large amount of money.
Soon we shall have to move.
Soon we can put holes in the wall wherever we like.
Soon we will be home-owners assuming that nothing goes wrong between now and having the keys in our hot little hands.

Woot! (and eep)

Sign at Addison Rd markets

Sign at Addison Rd markets, originally uploaded by Miss DV.

Finally got a picture of the sign at the markets that always makes us giggle

i am teh sleepy

It's been a big big weekend for us little Huntington-Smythers.

Pre-school disco's
Kids running around like porkchops
40th Birthday Parties of T'rifficness
Morning sleep-ins and alone time
Markets
Late nights
Indian Food
Fizzy wine and lots of it.
Chicken sammiches of delicious evil
Breakfast with Nw
Meltdowns due to lack of sleep (mostly from the under 5 set)
Stoopid people who need to get over themselves.
Lovely people who are lovely.
House deposits
Waiting, oh the waiting
Lovely, happy shiny announcements
A big big Sunday afternoon nap

Yeah, that mostly covers it I think.

eep

at 6pm today, Nw shall be visiting a real estate agent and handing over a deposit for a house in Petersham.

This is of course assuming that no-one else puts in a deposit before us.

It's a 2 bedroom little house at the end of a street we used to rent on.

It has a garage and gas and a teensy backyard.

It has a bathroom that needs redoing, floors that need discovering, wiring that needs replacing and windowsills that need to be fixed.

But soon it may be ours.

Eeeep

Bunnies, it must be bunnies

Torby had a freak-out last night when we got back from FightClub over not being present when his milk was poured.
"Daddy, pour it, out - I want to pour it" repeated loudly and often and hysterically.

Nooo, not at all over-tired

This meant he didn't get to choose a straw for the offending glass of milk. This lead to further hysteria. After much tears and recriminations, he eventually fell asleep.

Fast forward to 3am and what does he wake up sobbing...

....you guessed it....

"I want to pick my straw"

Finally got him calmed down and asleep but now I'm wide awake.

I'm consoling myself with the Buffy musical episode. It's a pretty good consolation.

Two links of amusingness

Garfunkel & Oates - Comedy Folk Duo

and

Simon's Cat - A new animation has been released. Woot!

These are a few of my favourite things (this past week)

Cooking birthday ninners for chums

Nachos, nachos night

Sunny winterey days that defrost my toes and make my scalp feel all warm and tingly

Clotheslines full of clean dry clothes

Playing Settlers of Catan with the fambily

Sunday morning markets with the fambly and the friends and the childrens

Toddlers in matching pink snuggleysnoots dancing to Playschool

Raspberry and passionfruit marshmallows of intensity

Friends getting in to sleepschools for not-at-all-tired-but-thanks-for-asking-myohmy-it's-hard-to-sleep-with-all-this-screaming-going-on babies

Discovering that we have a living room floor under all the mess

Helpful people on the end of the phone

Dumb Farm Town App on Facebook in all it's addictiveness

Happy songs getting stuck in my head

Vases of flowers that stink up the house

Friends having overseas adventures

Regaining some of my lung capacity as the gunkiness dissapates (hopefully)

Oh and

whiskers on kittens and brown paper packages tied up with string. It's traditional after all.

teh happy

from i can read and via MissImpish

the husband of awesomeness

Not only can the lovely MrNw make a kick-arse omelette but he can do the flippy swishy thing with the pan to turn it over.

he can stay.

Deelightfulness ensued

Have had a very busy, very fun, very delightful weekend.

Friday was cooking sticky spicy porkribs and catching-up with Megzz'n'Smurg and the hours between 9pm and 1am dissapearing.

Saturday was roast vegie cous-cous with haloumi and chicken w/ Meg &Jamie and MrAndrew and MissJimmy.

Sunday was markets and seeing Mouse&Tops&Jasper and then running away to the pub sans munchkin to catch up with my warcrack nerds including one up from Melbourne. Utterly beautiful weather for lounging around a beergarden, laughing and chatting. A few of us ended up at dinner at the always nummy Thai Phothong on King Street. nomnomnom.

The price to be paid for all of this is the return of the cough o' doom complete with throwing up. Seemingly I'm not completely cured and big big weekends make it all worse. Oh so worth it though.

I got to cook and eat and drink and most importantly of all, see a whole bunch of people I hadn't seen in a while for one reason or another. I feel a bit more connected again.

when we go to Melbourne..

...we'll be taking our toothbrushes and toothpaste and brushing our teeth.

So sayeth the munchkin

Adventures, Ho!

Torby and I are going to go to Melbourne for an adenture in September.

There will be H&A's wedding
There will be flying on a big big big biggest plane
There will be finding cool kids stuff to do.

There will be the finding an apartment to stay in - want to have separate living/sleeping areas
There will be finding a way to get from Melbourne to wedding and back again.
There will be much bribery involved.
There will be convincing people to come and catch-up in said apartment because we can't be out past bedtime.

There will be fun and adventures

and

There will be a well-rested MrNw to come home to who can tell us all about his adventures of being alone for a few days. I expect these adventures will centre around, sleep, save world, go to pub.

I'm looking forward to it.

I have been in touch with my inner 7yr old...

...and we're having jelly and icecream for dessert. It makes us smile.

the funkiness

Woman's girdle, about 1540-80, Italy or France, Museum no. T.370-1989., originally uploaded by Medieval and Renaissance - V&A.

Kind of in love with this girdle.
The flickr set has more info.

I like big arses and i cannot lie..

Adrienne's Arse of Enormity, originally uploaded by Hunydd.

Miss Hunnydd took some photos on the weekend (yay) and now that she's home again, she finally put them up on flickr for us. This is my favourite one of me and my frock (why must i be pulling a dumb head in every photo?? Why??)

Yay for frocks and photos of them and yay for ginormous arses and puff sleeves!

Clicking on the piccie will take you to her flickry site.

I love our PM

I was watching the news today in the waiting room. StKev uttered the phrase 'straight to the pool room' in relation to some thing he got for submitting a bid for us to host the next Soccer World Cup.

It was the awesome

I had my appointment with the lung specialist today.

The phrase 'it would be extremely rare for someone your age to have cancer' is comforting, but not quite comforting enough, if you know what I mean. She's definitely ruled out emphysema though, which is nice.

The new theory is that the shadow on my lungs is a bunch of gunk leftover from the pneumonia and it's being kept there by a lump of mucus. I have a month to make it go away (hello nebuliser and decongestants and coughing regime) or I have to go get a tube shoved down my throat to see what's really there.

Oh, the excitement. Oh, the glamorousness.

In other news..

I've stopped getting my emails from my optusnet address to my email readery thing. It was full of spam (why yes, yes I would love to satisfy my woman and hear her scream my name with delight at my ginormous love rod whilst I read my especial messages about bank accounts I don't have and send this money to that nice widow and ooo what happens if I click on this link, something good I hope)
My main email addy is my gmail one. It has been for a while but am now making it official. The other one will get checked occasionally.

If you don't have my gmail one one, leave a comment and I'll send it to you.