Sunday 30 June 2013

The big move....

A long time ago ... for reasons that now escape me ... we allowed Master 13 to take an old, on it's last legs television set into his room.

He couldn't actually watch TV on it as it had no aerial ... so it was only ever used as a monitor to play the PlayStation.

Then ... as so often happens to TV sets on their last legs ... those legs gave up working ... luckily without a violent explosion ... and it ceased to work for anything at all.

So then it proceeded to sit on the floor of Master 13's bedroom ... gathering dust.

Now we aren't talking some little 30 cm TV ... oh nooo this was a great big family sized set and it was purchased back in the days before tellies got slim ... it was a big fatty. It took up a lot of valuable floor space in his room ... space that could be put to better use ... you know ... to store his clothes on.

Every time I went into his room I managed to knock my shin or stub my toe or trip right over the top of it.

So I asked Hubby to move it ... remember it was one of the big fat old fashioned ones ... and it weighed a tonne and then a bit more ... I could scarcely budge it.

And I asked ... and I asked ... and I asked again ... and more than 12 months went by.

I wouldn't say I nagged ... but I suggested forcefully on innumerable occasions that he move it.

He never did.

Then one day ... Master 13 tripped over and knocked his noggin on the rotten thing.

Then in a burst of strength brought on by adrenaline and frustration ... I managed to drag it out into the hallway ... but no further.

Again I suggested forcefully to Hubby that he might like to move it ... but he didn't and there it remained for several more months.

But this weekend just gone ... something miraculous occurred.

One of my sarcastic comments about the decorative feature in the hallway ... which was undoubtedly accompanied by a dramatic eye roll ... finally made it through the thick nag resistant skin of Hubby.

He called on Master 15 to come and help ... they were going to ... drum roll please ... move the TV.

Remember this thing is majorly heavy ... it's definitely a two man job ... but between Hubby and Master 15 it should be a breeze ... shouldn't it?

There was much cursing and huffing and puffing and banging and crashing ... and then they emerged ... Hubby and his ever so helpful right hand man ... DON'T STRAIN YOURSELF THERE MASTER 15!!

Inferior quality of shot due to uncontrollable laughter of photographer.

And it was moved ... all the way to the garage ... where it shall no doubt remain for another couple of years!!

26/52

"A portrait of our children, once a week, every week in 2013"




Master 15:  Portraits are serious stuff.
Master 13:  Ditto

This time I've tried a little trick,
Ta-Daa ... it's now Week Twenty Six.

Joining in with Jodi.

Saturday 29 June 2013

Raindrops keep falling on my head...

It's been a little on the damp side this week.

Sydney has had it's wettest week in the last six years.

Up here on the Central Coast conditions haven't been quite so bad ... but they did force the cancellation of all weekend sports ... hooray ... which, of course is a terrible shame for the children.

So what did we decide to do on this cold and soggy day ... why we went for a drive to enjoy some sightseeing ... of course ... didn't you?


The conditions were perfect for appreciating our surroundings ...


Somehow ... completely by accident ... we ended up at Ikea ... which pleased Hubby no end.

The weather may have been atrocious ... but so was the Sydney traffic. We wasted way too much time stuck in traffic jams ... but sometimes it's just better to give way to the traffic in front of you...



Thursday 27 June 2013

That's my boy....

WARNING this post contains an alarming level of motherly boasting.

Last week Master 15 had to make his Senior High School subject selections.

As a part of this process every Year 10 student had to attend an"interview" at school.  This involved wearing "interview" clothes and organising themselves a resume.

Master 15 found a shirt and tie he had worn to his cousins wedding a while back.  It looked fabulous ... as long as he kept his arms straight by his sides.  Any movement and the shirt cuffs ended up nearer his elbows than his wrists ... he's done a fair bit of growing over the last year or so.


He thought a suit jacket would be the perfect finishing touch ... but the sleeves of his only blazer were now distinctly three quarter length ... and no keeping his arms by his side was going to disguise that.  Master 15 thought one of Hubby's might do the trick .... but as you can see ...



... he needs a growth spurt of some magnitude before that's going to work for him.

Then he sat down and organised his resume.  "I'll put in a few of my recent awards to "impress" them," He said.

Once the interview was over the shirt and tie were discarded onto his bedroom floor ... along with everything else he has worn in the last week ... and the resume was left lying on the kitchen table.

So I had a sticky beak ...










Just his most recent awards ... I'd have been "impressed"!

Tuesday 25 June 2013

Now I am a fashion blogger .. sorta ...

Jane @ Flight Platform Living has started up a brand new linky party for her Shiny T Tuesday posts.  She invites us to share our fave fashions ... inspired by a prompt.  This week it was pattern.

So I looked down at my Tuesday attire and realised that I couldn't be further from pattern if I tried ... really hard.  I looked as if I was heading off for a funeral.


But there was a method in my madness ... a reason for my dullness.

It's Tuesday ... my day out .... lunch @ Noodle Express ...and I fully intended having the Laksa.


Now anyone who's a fan of Laksa knows that black is the ONLY practical colour to wear during it's consumption.

Then as it turned out I was actually at a funeral.  Due to an exorbitant increase in rent ... thanks so much Westfield ... my favourite little noodle joint is closing it's doors at the end of the week.

I am shocked and grieving.

Plus, I never made it all the way through their menu ... which was my intention ... so one of my life goals has been thwarted as well!

But I digress ... a really long way.

This afternoon, to cheer myself up I searched my cupboards for a pattern ... one that speaks to me ... one that makes me happy.

And then I found it.

When I originally found it in the end of summer sales it was the colours that attracted me ... then the way the pattern draped drew me in a little further ... and then the red sales tag pricing it at $24.95 sealed the deal.

I don't wear it very often  ... but when I do it makes me feel like some free love, seventies era, kaftan wearing goddess.



It cheers me up ... and today I really needed some solace.

RIP Noodle Express ... I'll miss you


 My thighs on the other hand are breathing a great sigh of relief.

Sunday 23 June 2013

25/52

"A portrait of our children, once a week, every week in 2013"



Master 15:  Practising his soccer skills ... IN THE HOUSE!

Master 13:  Everything big brother does ... he does ... hence the beanie.

A couple more photos ... I had to contrive,
Believe it or not ... it's Week Twenty Five.

Joining in with Jodi.

Friday 21 June 2013

Baby loves to cha cha.....

Master 15 asked me to give him a lift up to the local oval.

"Why?" I asked ... as Mothers do.

"There's a whole group of us meeting there," he replied.

"Why? " I repeated ... with growing suspicion.

A group of teenagers up at the oval ... sounds like guaranteed reckless shenanigans and juvenile delinquency to me.

"We want to practise our dancing."

"You want to WHAT??!!??"

Pffttt ... does he think I was born yesterday?  He'll have to come up with something better than that if he wants to put one over me.

"No really, we have a dancing assessment for PE ...and we all want to practise."

"Mmmm ....reeaalllly?" I returned with heavily laden scepticism.

Master 15 is the football type ... not the dancing type ... not that there's anything wrong with that.

"OK then ... what dance will you be practising?"

"The cha cha," he replied with confidence.

Mmmm ... he's clearly done a little research in preparation for this conversation.

"Well then ... if you know how to do the cha cha ... you won't mind doing a bit for me now ....WILL YOU??"

And then he did ...


Maybe I need to work on my trust issues!

Wednesday 19 June 2013

Choices ... great , big life determining choices....

Master 15 ... as his alias suggests ... is 15 years old.

Believe me ... I don't know how that happened ... because I swear it was only a couple of years ago that I took this picture.


And it might have been about 6 months ago that I took this one.


But apparently time fell into a black hole somewhere and now he is 15 years old.

And this is the age ... according to someone ... that you must decide what you are going to do with the rest of your life.

Master 15 is currently being bombarded with careers information, Subject Selection Evenings and University Open Days.


By the end of next week he has to have decided which 6 subjects he will take for the next two years ... the final two years ... of High School.  These subjects will decide what ... if any ... courses he will be eligible to take at University.  Which will in turn determine what his future career may or may not be.

Nothing like making a few simple, life changing, future altering decisions at 15.

So far he has decided on Advanced English, Advanced Mathematics,  Chemistry and Biology.  He wants to do medicine.  He'd like to use it somehow with either sport or forensics.  He clearly hasn't decided to take the easy path ... like his mother.

I remember being faced with these choices at a similar age ... I didn't have a clue what I wanted to "do" with my life then ... and I still don't!

What do you want to be when you grow up?


Monday 17 June 2013

A catastrophe ... of epic proportions ...

I have a major catastrophe on my hands ... and it is growing in magnitude by the day.

It all started last week.

Buster had a little hurl ... alas ... he chose the cream coloured carpet in the formal lounge as the ideal place to deposit his regurgitation.

As is the way of such things ... the puke bore little resemblance to anything he had been fed ... instead it was a fluorescent yellow colour.

It was only a little purge ... I would liken the size to a 50 cent piece.


Nothing to worry about ... right??

Now I am somewhat fastidious when it comes to things like marks on carpet ... you might call me a little fussy ... you might even call me a full blown raving Obsessive Compulsive.  If you did call me that you'd be spot on.

So I removed the offending upchuck ... and pursed my lips in distaste at the little mark left behind.  I went to the cupboard and found a spray-on carpet cleaner ... followed the directions ... and tended to the carpet.

Imagine my horror when the stain remained ... and had in fact doubled in size.

So then I tried a powdered carpet cleaner ... which did precisely nothing ... the stain remained.

I moved on then to the old tried and true white vinegar and bi-carb soda remedy.   The stain grew ... and grew ... before my very horrified eyes ... it was without a word of a lie around ten times the size it had started out as.

I panicked a little ... okay I panicked a lot.

So then I went out to the pet goods store and purchased a carpet cleaner for pet type stains ... and returned home $30 worse off.

I followed the directions ... and watched in horror as the stain grew yet bigger.


There was a major risk of hyperventilation at this point ... so I had to walk away.

But every half hour or so I went back to check ... in the hope of a miracle having occurred ... it didn't.

By now I was in a permanent state of high stress ... and couldn't go near the lounge room without a migraine threatening.

There was only one thing left to be done ... in my mind.  I went out to the shops ... and paid around $300 an awful lot of money for a carpet shampooer.  Which I have used every singe day for the last three days.

Here is the exorbitantly expensive catastrophe as it stands today.


A little lighter ... BUT EVEN BIGGER!!

I will continue to shampoo this piece of carpet until ..

  1. the stain disappears 
  2.  the carpet wears away 
  3. I am admitted to the closest psychiatric ward 
... whichever one comes first!

Does anyone have a perfect, fool-proof, carpet cleaning remedy they can share??

Sunday 16 June 2013

24/52

"A portrait of our children, once a week, every week in 2013"




Master 15:  Yes ... it's that time of the week again.
Master 13:  Feeling poorly ... with his take everywhere accessory ... a bucket.

Are you sick of my photos ... here are two more,
Specially taken for Week Twenty Four.

Joining in with Jodi.


Saturday 15 June 2013

House proud ... maybe not ...

You know it has been too long since you last dusted ... when you pick up your granny style doily .... and find another perfect one underneath ...


Oops ... no good housekeeping awards for me!

Friday 14 June 2013

Good Morning....

There are countless ways in which you can be awoken from your slumber.

A gentle ray of sunshine inching it's way across your bed ... the musical trilling of a bird outside your window ... what the heck ... even the subdued drone from Hubby's shower creates a gentle calming way to re-enter the land of awareness.

But I'll tell you one way you don't want to be awoken.

Rudely and abruptly by the sound of Master 13's shout,  "MUM ... I NEED A BUCKET" ... followed by alarming, unnatural bodily sounds of guts being heaved back from whence they came.

That is my most definitely unfavoured way to be awoken.

Your body reacts within a micro millisecond and throws itself from the bed in a single motion. Your ears are somehow processing information faster than your brain, because your cerebellum is yet to kick into gear.  Your eyes are still closed ... and yet somehow you find yourself running through the house, blindly, in search of a bucket ... because when you need them in a hurry they are NEVER where you left them or where they belong.

Once the bucket has finally been located ...then you have to locate the source of the shouting and heaving ... because it's not where you left it or where it belongs either.

By the time you find the subject inexplicably in the family room on the lounge ... you make a graceless dive across the room ... with the bucket held aloft in front of you.  And somehow you manage ... with a final inward one and a half pike rotation .... to slide to a stop ... with the bucket positioned perfectly to capture the entire noxious stomach contents.

Good Morning Mum!

Welcome back to the House of ill ... not ill repute ... just ILL!




Wednesday 12 June 2013

You're never too old......

... to play in a box.

We all know that babies and toddlers love to toss aside their new toy and play with the box instead.

Master 13 is a box lover from way back.


So when Hubby unpacked his new home theatre, sound thingamajiggy ... and left a great big box lying around ... it was only a matter of time ... until Master 13 found an alternative use for it ...




Of course he couldn't rely entirely on his imagination ... there was STILL a screen involved.


And now my hallway is littered with said box ... and I have been given strict instructions that I am "NOT TO THROW THE BOX AWAY".


It's all going to end in tears ... it's just a question of whose.