A-Z of me.... in case you're interested?

I pinched the idea from Jennifer at "the Toy Box Years"


A - Age: 29

B - Bed size: Queen

C - Chore you hate: Clothes Washing - hanging/folding/putting away - all of it!

D - Dog's name: Wolfie, but he died, we'd love a rabbit though

E - Essential start your day item:  just 5 more minutes sleep ;p

F - Favorite colour: Rainbows

G - Gold or Silver: Silver

H - Height: 165cm.... i think?

I - Instruments you play: None, but i can still play a few basic tunes on a piano

J - Job title: Homeschoolin' Mama

K - Kids: 5 - 1 boy 4 girls

L - Living arrangements: Overpriced rental/ 'single' mama 4 out of 5 weeks /hubby, 5 noisy children. Own home in QLD

M - Mum's name: Lesley

N - Nicknames: None I care to share....LOL

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Nope

P - Pet Peeve: unwarranted anger or apathy and rudeness

Q - Quotation from a movie: "yarrp" - Hot Fuzz.  Not exactly a fav, but regularly repeated by me.

R - Right or left handed: Right

S - Siblings: 1 brother

T - Time you wake up: between 3am and 10:30am dependant on the day/week average 8:30am

U - Unique thing(s) about you:  i have a double jointed thumb, and fairly flexible joints.

V - Vegetable you dislike: salty overcooked ones

W - Ways you run late: being unmotivated. - we tend to be wayy early lately.

X - X-rays you've had: Teeth, 

Y - Yummy food you make: Lasagna/ roast lamb/spaghetti/ mushies on toast.

Z - Zoo Favourite: sloth/otters/meercats/giraffe.... darn it ALL are favourites :)

Anyone care to share their A-Z's?

Can I make you Jealous??

Among the many, many great things about having a large family, do you want to know one of the things near the top of my list??

Our allowable total of books to borrow from the library!! In Cairns, we were allowed a modest 10 books ea, 60 is nothing to complain about absolutely, but at our new library we are allowed 15 items each with a total of 90! books every time! this was this morning's haul after spending the day at the cultural centre down the road. It is still not our full quota and if we ever reach our limit, we can always drag Jamie down and sign him up for a library card, can you imagine that! 105 books. oohh I'm all a quiver ;P

I'm thinking of purchasing a small bookshelf to corral them all - shussshhh! don't tell Jamie :) the basket we have been using is just not enough, and even down right disrespectful to our beloved library books.

While at the library this morning we finally attended a storytime session, i have always meant to do so, even back in Cairns. I was pretty sure we had missed this one, as it took us so long to get our act together , but we ended up being about a half hour early!
The Library lady read the children Wombat Stew and afterwards (I didn't even realise this part!) they all did a craft relating to the story, 1 guess for what it was. They made wombat stew! I had to duck around the shelf for a phone call and came back halfway through, Samuel was helping Sophie with hers and they were all working so beautiful together - one of those heart smiling moments :)

The end result?

Do you see the brown thing in Sophie's hand? it's a wombat Claire and Kaytie made as soon as we got home :)
I had to laugh, When we came home, we discovered Claire had lost her 'emu' feathers from her stew, upon handing her the container of feathers at home, she said "I will have red, because I extremely like red" A little 'Charlie and Lola' rubbing off there i think. :) We sooo very much love Charlie and Lola.

They are still 'playing' wombat stew at the moment so I'm off to dig out our copy of the story for some more fun.

OX(OX)oxoxoxoxox
B(J)slkcs

Oh yes, Jamie is completely fine as he predicted, though he did nearly die of boredom!, he spent all day in his room today sleeping and watching movies in aircon on full pay! ahhh the life hey :) he is slightly annoyed he can't be onsite until at least 7am tomorrow though, - he's normally there around 4:30 -5am

Possibly our new home????

So  as i was saying, "yesterday" we went to Mandurah to see Abingdon Miniature Village and got terribly sunburned at Halls Head beach. 'Today' we were all still keen and headed out on another day trip.

Now on the radio here we keep hearing about this 'chocolate factory' and as well as a old mill that has been converted into a gallery and what-not. so we decided, also on the advice of Grandma Lesley and Steve to visit York, about an hour away from home. Again mammoth planning and camp fridges packed and EVERY other thing Jamie could think of.... including a 'sink'.

So one-ish hours later at about 8:30 in the morning we arrived in a very quiet little town. The tourist info centre was shut, so we were directed to the council/library office next door. Upon asking the clerk about the chocolate factory, i received quite a blank look LOL, not wanting to waste  our morning getting here, i asked about the town's other attractions,  *faith in idea wavering slightly* as i receive another almost blank look with an almost shrug of her shoulders :) After reminding her of this mill we had kept hearing about, FINALLY we had a flood of ideas and sights to see :D Apparently the chocolate factory is a local lady who makes choccies on site at the mill.  So off we went for a drive around town visiting a great park she had mentioned and for a walk across the "swinging" bridge, apparently a highlight for the town.

Me, trying to get 'evidence' of their sunburn. :O

The ramp up to the  swinging bridge

walking across the swinging bridge

almost as soon as I'd taken this shot, the scared cries started from the 3 younger girls as the two big ones started the bridge swinging.  The water below in the Avon river was far from inviting, full of rubbish/lost hats and various other debris :( while at the park we also noticed a sign advising against swimming (not that you'd want too - yuk!) due to the risk of contracting Amoebic meningitis

Also while at the park we noticed another sign, one that made us a little bit more enthused.

....... a FOR SALE sign.

Our new home???????

Across the road from the park, behind the main street in town, right next door to the local grocery store was a 1/4 acre of land, so while the children played, we made some phone calls. $215,000 would buy us that parcel of land........... with conditions, the first 15 metres of land were designated as 'flood zone' ,ok we can deal with that - the block was over 100m long. but when we got home that afternoon and checked out the email from the agent we discovered.....

Can you see the blue dash dot line on the left hand side of the plan?? that's the "flood fringe" Well, with a stark and very recent reminder that "once in a hundred years" doesn't necessarily mean one hundred years apart! We certainly won't be signing on the dotted line for this one!

It has, however sparked our interest in the little town and we have been busily researching land and even "2nd hand" houses, as Jamie refers to them ;) We are quite excited about it,  as the town is undergoing a surge of development, so there are a lot of people selling to make a profit, but there are also lots of great bargains!! including buying 100 acres for $120k......... as long as we supply our own power and water! LOL

any way back to our day trip adventures.

It was now 'smoko', so we headed back to town - a whole street away ;p back to the mill, we had a wander through looking at all the BEAUTIFUL!! handmade/timber carved OVERPRICED!! furniture and pieces, there was one stunning piece - a table about a 12 seater made from sawn timber, you know with all the 'rough' edges and knot holes all kept for character, how much do you think? i know you're already thinking big because i said overpriced, but are you thinking in the realms of  like $25,000!! just for the table!! the chairs were another few thousand i think, and they were UGLY! like something you'd pick up at the dump 2nd hand shop!!Anyway, we made our way through the ground floor, and as usual with 5 children, someone was in need of a potty break, so we found the toilets and you may be asking "why is she telling us about the toilets?" well because they were pretty spectacular - that's why.

So spectacular in fact, you can buy photo magnets of the toilets as souvenirs! Jamie was correct though, after teasing him and asking if his was better (being stinky boys toilets) he replied yes, so i had to stick my head around the door, it was a much darker timber in the boy's toilet, much more dramatic. Apparently these toilets are one of the most  photographed toilets in ..... WA?Australia? the world??, sorry can't remember which. - the toilets at DREAMWORLD are pretty  awesome too, but you're not allowed to photograph them ????

Then we climbed 3 extremely narrow and very steep stairs to the upper 3 floors, the first 2 floors were galleries, so no photos allowed, and the top (4th) floor was empty open space, great views across the town, i was going to get photos, but after shushing the children for stampeding like elephants, and then persuading Sophie and Claire to NOT climb back down the almost vertical steps without us, we thought it better to head back down anyway :)

At the bottom, outside, was a little cafe, and since it was a scorching day, Jamie stopped in for a beer, but due to licensing laws,  he would also have to buy a meal, so considering we would be waiting, we also ordered a 'spider' for me and 5 baby chinos (yum yum ) so $46 later we sat down to wait for our bowl of chips and drinks while the children played on the playground. 5 mins later, out came a beer, a 'spider', a bowl of chips and a baby chino....... hang on... A baby chino? as in 1? how are 5 children supposed to share 1 babychino? all the children were beside us when we ordered, why Oh WHY would we order only ONE babychino?? lol good heavens! so another  5 mins and we finally had our refreshments. While the children played, jamie and I flicked through a real estate catalogue/book we found, wondering what it was doing in this little cafe, well halfway through the book we discovered that the  old york mill was for sale and going to be auctioned next month, we spent the next 10 mins fantasisng about THAT purchase LOL

How awesome would it be to say "yes dah-link, that's my house over there,
the one that's 4 storeys high, do you like what we've done with it?" LOL

look it even has a dolphin slide! Kaytie would be rapt!! :)

Lily taking photos of her sisters :)

So after morning tea we headed across the carpark to the truck, where, before  anyone realised, Sophie burned her little feet on the stinkin' hot dirt, because she refuses to wear her shoes. Thankfully the truck has a water tank under the tray so we quickly cooled them off for her. We went for another drive around town, before heading up Mount Bakewell to the lookout over the country side.

We went back to the park after this and i had the task of cooking 1 kg of spaghetti noodles in a pot too small ,on a portable gas burner! in the wind! Was all good though. we stayed at the park for ages before heading home at about 4pm

Oh yes, the chocolate factory lady, well we didn't even bother asking about her as York is a 'weekend' town, with lots of activities happening, including local markets every weekend, that are apparently different everytime??

So i will sign off on that adventure, and fill you in on the last couple days.

Since i have dragged my feet in posting this, it is now Australia Day and Jamie has gone back to work as of Tuesday.... straight into TC Bianca!, he rang last night letting me know they were in "Code Blue", than again this morning telling me it was "Code Yellow" predicted upgrade to "Code Red" by 5pm!

Never fear though, he was sent 'home' at lunchtime after tying everything down as well as possible and was on time and a half (or double time??) sitting on his bum watching the cricket all afternoon... in Airconditioning! Though he lives in basically a shipping container, the rules and regs are very thorough and his 'home' is more of an aboveground bunker, he has shown us photos, but i can't find the files .His camp is run on generators so there is no worries about power loss. The predicted Code Red was pushed back to 9pm as 'Bianca' was moving Sth South West, so would hopefully only 'skim' them. My only concern is tidal floods and storm surges as they are right on the coast, but then again, i think everyone is nervous at the mention of water countrywide at the moment?

See that little bump near the K in Karratha? that's where Jamie is.

He was completely unfazed by my concerns and was happy to get to watch the cricket... boys ;)

It's getting late and we are going out tomorrow, so i best head to bed.... unlikely story though as i will find SOMETHING to distract me from sleep no doubt :)

OX(OX)oxoxoxoxox
B(J)slkcs

So WHY are the children so PINK??? Hmmmm?

When Jamie comes home from his 4 week stints at work, he has decided, obviously with everyone in agreement, that we will go on day trips all over this great big state we have adopted. Until we can afford to buy a camper trailer/tent thing-o at least. Than we can head further from home.

As you already know we have been to The Pinnacles Next on our list was going to be Wave Rock in Hyden. At the last moment we decided against it as the temperatures where predicted to be high, and with all that sunshine beaming down on a huge rockface......... well I'm sure you get the picture.

So a new destination was required and after umming and ahhing we decided to visit Abingdon Miniature Village Knowing this wouldn't take all day, we also decided to we would take the children to the beach. for a BBQ lunch.

So very early Thursday morning - but not early enough, as we were 'lucky' enough to experience peak hour traffic! - how people do that EVERYDAY!!! is beyond my reasoning!

So anyway we got there on time, even though "Serena" our ever faithful GPS guide tried to send us past it. side track here, I am pleased to say "Serena" is in semi-retirement, and has been since before Christmas. I am managing to find my way around more and more by myself, and just have her on mute to be safe - I don't need her 'hoighty-toighty attitude if i'm already in a pickle. :) So  we finally got there and assembled ourselves alongside the truck for the elusive sunscreen smothering, but before we could even attempt to find it, we were BESIEGED by mozzies! so doing that German/Bavarian dance we learned back in QLD at the Gotta Go Caravan Park we dashed across the carpark to the entrance where we had to wait, while daddy dashed back to truck after forgetting his wallet, meanwhile mummy is looking around  asking where we are supposed to get our entry tickets from, when no-one was around - completely oblivious to the lady standing almost beside me in the little entry building!!

so after she gave us lengthy instructions about where and when the children could run, she finally relieved us of our biting irritating pests - and NO, i certainly don't mean the children BOOM BOOM ;p

We asked why there were SO MANY mosquitoes, and she went into another lengthy discussion about it all, ......... mentally crossing off this suburb in the house/land hunting searches!

FINALLY, We toddled off to visit the wonders awaiting us beyond the gate :)

All the buildings are handmade and require re-painting every 6-12 months.

The Village Green
 all the little 'people' are playing cricket

The little train went the whole way around the 'lake'
Mentally realising WHY so many mozzies about with lots of stagnant ponds about!

My two BIG boys pushing my two little girls in their strollers.  naaawwwww

All the miniatures are based on real buildings in the UK, this one
apparently has a tradition of the town leaders throwing
sweet buns off the roof, to the people during celebrations.

And my almost favourite part of the park.......

It WOULD have been my favourite, if it wasn't for the fact of the mozzies swarming us again as we went through!

This is the entrance to the 'secret garden'
 haha not so secret if it's on the map
i know i know, it's reference to the story ;)

See Jamie? cheeky boy, saw me with the camera
 and quickly turned before i could snap him

This was Clairebears choice of attire for the day,
both her and Kaytie have a 'thing' for socks and sandals at the moment!
uurrgghh ;)

Last but not least before we left (there was plenty i have saved you from ;D ) was another of my favourite parts the running labyrinth (you know i THOUGHT they were for slow, meditative thoughts?)

After we finished and escaped the mosquitoes we headed under "Serena's" so called guidance, we really need to remind her about the size of our truck! We drove past all the bazillion dollar homes and arrived at Hall's Head Beach, we are definately NOT beach people, and reluctantly let the children into the water to paddle - there was NO WAY we were going up to the patrolled section as a) we couldn't fit the truck any where and b) there were too many people and not enough space! So we allowed the children to go waist deep, where they had a great time being thrown about but the waves, except Sophie, who after feeling how cold it was and seeing it 'chase' her preferred to stay clinging to Daddy's leg. Claire also preferred to stay on the edge enjoying the sand moving  under her feet each time the waves broke on the shore.

I didn't get any photos as i was reluctant to take the camera near the sand and salt water.

The water was a big change to the beaches in Cairns we are used to, though where we were wasn't as clear as everyone raved about to us, due to all the seaweed and 'junk' (not rubbish) washed up on shore. Oh and STINK!! phew! that took a while to get used to!

The other big highlight was Kaytie (and everyone) finally got to see dolphins! we saw about 3-4 surfacing on and off for about 15 mins before swimming out of sight.

We spent about 2.5 hrs (prob. more?) there, spending the last half hour or so at the playground so Mummy and Daddy could have some shade, as Daddy mainly, doesn't have a decent hat and is now as red as a lobster!

I will leave it here as again i need to clean the kitchen up after dinner as again everybody is in bed.

We have had a little (and i mean LITTLE!) rain tonight, so that has been refreshing as i sit by the window here. In less than 20 mins it will be Sophie's 2nd birthday and i will no longer have any babies in our family :( but how exciting as things are moving forward and the rhythms in our home are ever evolving.

 Other babies though, are EVERYWHERE about me, an old high school friend of mine just had her second daughter 8lb 5oz - Tabitha Eve. And we can't wait til March when big Clairebear has her 1st bubby girl also!! seems to be the season for girls? i just remembered another high school friend is due to have TWIN girls next month!

I truly must go now, next time i will tell you where we went on the Friday (the next day)

OXOXoxoxoxoxox

BJslkcs

PS now It's tomorrow!

Happy Birthday "Soapy baby" mama loves you

2 years has gone too fast for my liking Sophie Rose, I'm not ready for you to be a big kid yet :)

Finally the PROPER big reveal..... Our House :)

Have you got your cuppa ready, this will take awhile, it's a big house,
c'mon then, time for a tour.

The Photos are all a mish mash over various days/weeks and are mostly 'au naturale' so brace yourself ;P

The Front (no?? really???)

Through the front door

To the left of the front door is the front room
AND the Perfect spot for my craft desk...........
now i just need time to use it! :o)

The Children's play area - it WAS our 'formal dining area (HAHA!)
but the afternoon sun comes through those blinds and *sniff sniff*
completely warped our handmade table with the dry heat.
It has been almost fixed.  But was very traumatic for Jamie,
so i didn't take photos of how bad it was to remind him more. :(

OH I am SOOO loving the packaging from our IKEA visits! we have made some awesome things from it all.
You can see their shop/puppet theatre. we also have the cubby house outside (on the side bar then and NOW photos) We also made a jellyfish out of plastic packaging for our vacuum box tortoise to eat! There are so many other things, but they are the best ones :o)

So next up, walking through the door opposite the front door is our lounge.

the door i was talking about is opp. the white wall.

see the space behind the lounge on the white wall?? it's real weird, it's a planter box with tinted mirrors ceiling height behind it. maybe if we PUT plants in it it wouldn't look so odd. LOL
Oh FYI, the children are all watching an AUSLAN dvd and are doing sign language, we are using AUSLAN as our LOTE requirement for the year. (LOTE stands for Languages Other Than English)

the door to the right of the tv is back into the front room.
and yes that is Jamie's beloved wobbly  almost level table

to the left of this space is the 'schoolroom', i'll get to that last ;P so forward ho through the 'blue' door is the L shaped hall to the childrens bedroom, and laundry and main bathroom.

Oh hang on, the kitchen

Heh heh Clairebear 'washing up' for me

not particularly informative, but really it's a pretty boring layout,
which doesn't work overly well? oven to the left, pantry
 and fridge space to the right. oh and door behind me to the garage.

 The Children's Bedrooms

this is was Kaytie's room, it's now Lily's and looks a lot different.

see what the darling "cherub" drew on her bed
into the varnish! I am now torn as to
whether we DO sand them back and re-finish them?

I seem to have left out Lily's bedroom?, but that was probably because she will get a "new" decorated bedroom for her birthday in 3 weeks. We have had a big bedroom shuffle with the girls, Lily is in Kaytie's room above, Claire now shares with Kaytie, and is in Lily's old room and Sophie now is alone next door to us at the front of the house. but anyway.....

This is Samuel's room, bet you NEVER would have guessed :)

It now also looks completely different, so
I will update you all after Lily's Big b'day reveal.

Now back to the very front of the house and off the front room on the right is to Sophie's and my bedroom which I also seem to have forgotton about? probably because my bed was unmade :), i did however get my ensuite, which opens up into the room... outside that screen door, is my own little "retreat" space - though it is very bland, looking at an empty garden bed full of dirty sand LOL

I think Sophie's favourite place in the house
is IN the spabath, no water, just her or with a couple toys.

and what is now just sophie's  closet room,

Sophie has her cot back now as we bought lily a new bed ($59 from IKEA!!! ) as part of her room makeover, but she(sophie) will have to 'tough' it out in the travel cot a bit longer as i'm going to makeover the cot too, i think i will give Soph a room makeover too for her 2nd birthday this weekend :)

So if we go back to the main living area, where the door to the patio..... oh alright i'll show the 'school room' before we go outside :)

It has 4 stages we are in stage 3 at the moment

1st stage - i.e the week we moved in.

ok it's more like the 2nd week we moved in, as the 1st week
EVERY box for the whole house was in this space!

2nd stage

3rd stage - where we are now :)




"au naturale"



This is after an afternoon of 'school', as i told the children we have 'started' already. Jan 5 to be exact Mwah ha ha haaaaaaa ;p I am still waiting for curriculum to arrive from various places as they have ALL decided and want to do more bookwork/schooly stuff this year, which is hard as i now have to find stuff for Claire to do which is similar but not the same, as there is only so much colouring in a girl can do, even if i tell her that's what she'd be doing if she went to  kindy :)

Do you see my rug! I LOVE MY RUG!!!!! it's my favourite and my best!

we still need a few tweaks before stage 4, but i will go through it all when we get there :) oh i'm excited :)!!

So if we turn around and go out the screen door behind us we will be on the patio.

This is at the very end of the patio (d'uh lol) you'll have to excuse our washing on the line, as if we turn to the left you will see the full extent of our yard, and at the end of the yard you will see the pitiful excuse of a clothesline provided with a 5 bedroom house!!

you see it up there on the shed?? how about a close up?

?????????????      Crazy, I guess the people
who put it in must use the dryer alot?
It doesn't even fit a single sheet across the width!

this is down the other side of the house,
my 'retreat' is right at the end at the fibro fence. :)
The children have been banned from coming down here
(mainly for the neighbour's sake ;p) there is also a
BEAUTIFUL frangipani tree down here in constant flower!

Well that's my house hope you enjoyed the tour, you'll have to have another cuppa now... and how about a choccy bikky or cupcake?? 

I will leave you with my "entry" photo for "mother of the year"!

You see her little arms;and nose;and cheeks; and legs; even the tops of her feet! :( (ps, she was dancing in this shot lol) We saw an AWFUL lot of sun yesterday and today, and guess who forgot everone's sun cream? everybody is a horrible shade of pink, but brightside is, no one will complain next time the sun cream comes out!!

As for why we saw so much sun and are so pink........ next post sorry, i have a kitchen to clean as everybody has gone to bed.

OXOXoxoxoxoxox

BJslkcs