The "Wetting"

ugh so behind on blogging. It's crazy how much guilt i have over this :/


but anyways best not to dwell, time to move forward. how about a wedding, that's a new start a way of moving forward right... haha you see what i did there?? clever right?? yeah i didn't think so either :)

All the children in their finery...

Oh alright if i have too... a family photo

I only have limited photos since my camera was being silly



 Jamie and i have decided that NONE of the children will be allowed to get married, because both He and I will be blithering messes.

Afterwards we had a delicious dinner at Dundees on the Waterfront

Samuel's awesomesomely yummy "Surf and Turf" dinner

There is always dancing at weddings right??...

... and dessert

It was a lovely night, and we are very happy to welcome Warren into our family, we look forward to many many years of enjoyment....and fishing  :) Congratulations again to you both.


OX(OX)oxoxoxoxox
B(J)slkcs

I've had a moving experience.........

.......Literally!!!


I have been out of the blogging world for well over a month and soooooo much has happened in that time!! but the busiest, most time consuming of all those, was that we have moved house!!!....again! you'd think i would have learnt my lesson only 12 months ago!  Those of you on facebook with me will know most of the 'fun' we've been having.  OK, it hasn't been all that bad, but  completely understand why it is high on the list of stressful things to do!..

But anyway, I'll fill you in on the details another time, just a quick update and some quick photos. :D


1st up, in early October, we went to the Perth Royal Show, must admit i was a little disappointed, but it could well of been my own fault, as while i thought I'd planned well,  i was completely unprepared....but i stuck to my budget. but more on that another time.

Samuel's birthday is in 2ish weeks and i know how difficult i can be with present suggestion ideas, but this time  i can be upfront and say he would absolutely love...(and wet his pants over!!) Bunning's gift vouchers!! Our new house has a shed...a H.U.G.E. shed and you'll see in the photos, his space is a mite empty :D.


now for our new house, a long story for another time, but basically, we moved to "the Hills"  in Mt Helena to be precise, though it is around 40 mins from our old house and friends, we are closer to the airport, which means not quite so early for Jamie's airport drop offs. plus it is a rural area, so the children have a yard, so they are ecstatic!! so enough of that... some photos below.


last thing i can think of, Jamie has been home and gone again this morning, so he got to spend his last two days moving house and cleaning :/ oh well, he's gone back to work on a public holiday, so double time and a  half, i think he said his penalty rates are, can't be sad about that ;p

OK photo time now...(courtesy of my birthday Prezzie, a Sony Bloggie, Thank you heaps Robyn!! - I love it!!!)  

The Front Door

only part of the backyard :)

Samuel and Jamie's pride and joy......very empty.......for now :D

We had a few little surprises on moving in day...which by the way, i forgot to mention, was Wednesday. so now you know what  i actually should be doing instead of blogging :-O 

First surprise, under a mountain of weeds, Samuel discovered this....and spent the rest of the day working on it....

I think he did a pretty good job of it considering we had no idea it was even there!!, He also figured out how to get the little pump working, so i have the tranquil sounds of trickling water outside my bedroom..... or the strange urge to pee every time i go to my room :D

the other little surprise, also involving water coincidentally, was not so pleasant, lol and also involved Samuel, funnily enough......

this is Samuel's bedroom window,

 and was fixed the very next day...

at least we hope it was, we haven't had any rain since

Well boxes are calling me to unpack them....or children??? i dunno, something is calling me :D
Well hopefully next time i can show you my house...hmmm a bit of  Déjà vu going on  , hopefully i won't repeat history and fob you off for a few more posts like last time :D

OX(OX)oxoxoxoxox
B(J)slkcs

Well I've been in denial haven't I...

I'll admit now, though it took for me to read it on a friends facebook status for me to believe it...
we've all had the flu...

The children and I  have spent the last week huddled in blankets or sprawled lifeless over the couch or floor, we've lived on barely made peanut butter sandwiches and biscuits.

Sunday night after the Medieval festival, we came home and Lily went down first, Monday morning Samuel and Kaytie were down for the count too.Wednesday It was 6 for 6! WOW I have never in my memory felt so awful....EVER!! to be honest i think i can honestly say until this week i've never had the flu if this is what it's like!!  Tuesday afternoon I reluctantly dragged the children to the corner shop where they sat listlessly in the car while i raced around getting the essentials. it's a good thing i did it then as i could barely move come Wednesday!

Needless to say we have not done a second of schoolwork, we've watched hours of mind numbing TV - did you know ABC 2/3/4 runs ALL day! you could plonk your toddler in front of the box and they can watch endless shows from around 6am until 7:00pm!! crazy!! and there is a huge mess all over the house.

You know i would have much more preferred for me to get sick first, so i would have the energy to tidy up properly before Jamie comes home on Monday.  That's right you read properly. Jamie has been told to cut this shift short, because they don't want him doing long shifts, so he wasn't going to be home for my birthday after all. But he decided to take holidays so he will be home for 18 days instead :)

And since he is going to be home for an extended period, we have decided that now is the best time to sort out my wisdom teeth.... so don't expect any photos of me from my birthday as my appointment is the 13th....
Jamie's the superstitious one not me.....right?

I'm going to head back to my little cave under my blanket on the couch as my panadol is starting to wear off again and it's all getting a little foggy ;)

OX(OX)oxoxoxoxox
B(J)slkcs

i've done it again.....

I try, i really do. So far, tonight will be better then the last 3........so far :/

except it's not REALLY insomnia - i just don't WANT to be in an empty bed....maybe it will change once i get my own 'leccy blankie......but i doubt it, it's just a big empty bed


10 'sleeps' to go i think
wish me luck
OX
B

Due to 'popular' demand.....

I have been getting some not so subtle hints, that i need to update the blog..... not mentioning any names, but she does have the same name as my #4 .......

So here goes......

end of April was celebrated with little Clairebear turning 4 - Due to Daddy coming home and Grandma Lesley and Steve coming over for a visit a few days later we fore-goed (??) birthday cake with a promise of one when everyone was there.......uuummmm i'll get back to you on that one :o

but on the day we did do this...

yes, it's a doughnut

So Clairebear's 4th birthday literally went out with a bang as she popped her first party popper....with a few false starts
 - read as ""WAIT! WAIT! not at Samuel's head...HANG ON! don't cover the end with your hand.. OK now. NO WAIT! sit down Sophie... alright ....now!" BANG!!! ohhhh...little disappointing :S


So as i was saying, Monday rolled around and hurrah! Grandma and Steve turned up. we'd tidied like crazy over the weekend especially Samuel - who was giving up his room (and new bed).

So lots of hugs and kisses and lots of prezzies later - guess where we went???..... IKEA!! the plan was to go round Ikea and head down to the beach for sunset fish and chips....nope. By the time we got through Ikea it was getting on dark ('tis nearly winter you know) and what was supposed to be a quick 10 min drive turned into the longest U-turn I've taken in my life!! you see, Serena (you remember her from our travels??) was in a bad mood today - maybe because it's been so long since she was needed?? but i put in directions but mistakenly turned  right when i should have turned left (note to self- practice left and right "with" Kaytie)
so she took us in this long meandering route... to the exit BEHIND Ikea!! so we took 15 mins to get further away then where we started!! and because we were back on the Freeway (which we'd wanted to avoid) - oh yes keeping in mind, Mum and Steve had their own vehicle and were following blissfully unaware, with the 2 big ones in the back. We were back on the freeway in PEAK (2!) HOUR  traffic!! *sigh* fish and chips were not on the menu THAT night.

So I was supposed to pick Jamie up that night, but due to shift changes and staff shortages his flight home was postponed to the next night. Can't think what we did the next day but I got to go to the airport that night child-free!! you know, after 11+ years, I feel strangely naked without a child hovering around me.

So we did some other stuff - oh we must have done Scitech that day because we were Jamie-less.

AWE-SOME!!! LOVE it there! we got a yearly pass 'cos it's sooooooo cheap!! didn't take too many photos as it was still the 'dreaded' school holidays and it was seriously packed!! even with 2 extra sets of hands it was a challenge to wrangle  my 5 safely. we initiated our buddy system, which seems to need some major work in the Samuel/Kaytie sector!

so for your viewing pleasure...

the Entrance - it's cooler then it looks
Samuel is looking at a sliding periscope type thingy
lots of cameras and tiny screens and such.

this was cool too. they have a "playing with Light" exhibition at the moment.
A projector digitized/computerised your shadow and movements.
Here Lily (or Mum?) is clapping, which made 'fairy dust' and bubbles.

these were great, all made from milk bottles and stuff.
they had lights in them changing colours all the time.

and that's about it. Mum and Steve took the 4 big kids into the Horizon Planetarium, where Mum had to 'argue' with the door lady about Claire actually being 4 or not. As under 4 are strictly not permitted. I hope it was memorable, as i doubt they'll get to go back for another 2 years  : D

So Jamie came home and he and we got to spend a night away together to 'celebrate' our 11th anniversary (next week) early, since he is back at work for another 3 weeks. (make sense??)

We stayed at the Duxton Hotel  ooohh it was posh :) we stayed in the Club Rooms with 'exclusive' lift access and free drinks and canapes in the 'club' lounge - unfortunately for us they had begun renovations on the Club Lounge only 2 days earlier, so it was a section of the regular restaurant 'roped off' instead. We weren't planning on the free drinks etc, as we were going to go to the "C" Restaurant instead. But in the end we decided to stay in our room and get room service instead :) For the price we were paying i wanted to stay in my complimentary robe and slippers for as long as possible :) - even though it was the thickest heaviest robe I've seen in my life! it was like being wrapped in about 3 thick towels!! and i considered turning up the A/C to compensate for it :D.

So the next morning after an 'exclusive' lift ride and breakfast in our 'exclusive' seating area with our 'exclusive' personal attendants, I was quite happy to get back to "our" real world and we caught a cab to the Perth Museum where we met up with Mum and Steve and the children for a tour....but mainly for the AC/DC exhibition. was great...Jamie thinks he must be getting too old, because for him, it was too loud :D
I wish i knew how to add video to the blog - there are some very cute ones of the girls 'rockin' out'

oh my - these are the only two photos i took !

i have about 5 little videos though :)

It was a great display, with hundreds of personal letters and mementos, giving you a real insight into the people behind the public persona.

While we didn't get to tour the rest of the Museum entirely, I'm happy that parking is so accessible for my truck and there is so much more for us to discover - going back to the Discovery centre again is high on our must do list!! plus the Art Gallery and State library are just next door!!  I'm all goose bumpy thinking about it.... or am i just cold?? - time for a jumper i think...'scuse me......


OK back now. Brrrrr getting chilly here....

Was gone again but am back for a bit now... Holy heck!! the last half hour was absolute Chaos!!

JAMIE I ADVISE YOU TO STOP READING HERE, AND SKIP DOWN TO THE NEXT PHOTO!!!

It's as if the children were secretly playing Tag-Team Terror!!  Everything has settled down again, but at the time it was incredulous how (I hate to say it!!) stupid each thing they did was! I mean if it had all happened one at a time it would have been fine - so much easier to deal with, but it was like *POW!*  *POW!* *POW!,POW!,POW!*  all at once, one after the other! (is that an oxymoron??)  It started with the usual 'round-up' for bath time/dinner etc. Samuel and Lily had been in painting a huge calico map they had planned out and had been told to pack it up because the little girls were coming inside, meanwhile the three little girls had been outside playing in the sandpit - unbeknownst to me - with water.  So i 'bust' the girls for playing in mud and send them for their bath.  Samuel walks past to put away his scooter and I ask him "what's that smell?, Why do smell so strongly of soap?"  "Oh it's um, I, arr, it's my shirt" "Why does your shirt smell of soap?"  " I umm, used it to get paint off the wall..."  - *Blood Pressure Spikes* calmly (truly i was!) i reply "Why was there paint on the wall???  " uum well, it was yesterday when the little girls were in there and i found some more today while we were cleaning up..." by now i have arrived and found the clean up attempts and start wiping the wall down properly, all the time asking how it all allegedly happened when i notice the skirting boards have barely had a wipe over and their seems to be an awful lot of paint about for the accidental flick as suggested and i also notice I'm NOT crouching to clean!! this paint was about 5 foot high!! *Blood Pressure Spikes again* mostly calm... I 'pounce'  "Why would you do something like this??? WHY would you blame it on your little sisters...!!"   (when it's out of their reach)  - wondering why I"M doing the cleaning I hand the cloth back to the culprit and head off to the laundry to rinse out another cloth, check on the little girls etc etc On reaching the Laundry i discover the machine is on, curious as to why, I discover that another child has put it on, noticing the still overflowing dirty basket, I ask what's in there, and discover that a child who has been using the washing machine since before we left QLD has put on a 'load' with a high and hot water level......for ONE THING!! - We NEVER use the hot water setting and have the fuzzy logic thingo for automatic water levels so it wasn't a confusion in settings. meanwhile the decible level of 3 little girls in the bath is becoming deafening so i poke my head around the door to shush them and i discover... They are using the TOILET BRUSH to clean themselves!! EEEWWWWW!!!....


Have just had a 'discussion' with Samuel about his attitude and arguing back after putting everyone to bed. Upon hearing a drip drip type noise,  I've just discovered that all the pipes at the back of the house i.e the laundry, toilet and main bathroom are backed up with filthy dirt/sand coloured water....from exposure to children is, as yet, undecided.....it has been raining - it HAS to be that, surely it can't be them AGAIN

*sigh* excuse me but i think i might finish this enthralling update of our life, especially the last 2 hours, and go have a lay-down....

wake me when it's over :S

B(J)slkcs   and the Terror Team.

How we 'do school'?

This is always a work in progress, but so far our routine is,


1st up our 'back to school pledge'
I have always liked how patriotic Americans can be and wanted to incorporate something like that in our routine. I had at one stage downloaded a citizenship pledge spoken by immigrants, at their 'naturalisation ceremonies" but alas, it is lost in the abyss that is my hard drive!
But all hope was not lost, as just as we were gearing up to start school again, a site i am subscribed to posted this! AWESOME! since we are not in a classroom setting, we changed it out a bit to suit us.

Next, on my suggestion and now on the children's insistence, We sing the National Anthem - both verses! also on their insistence for the 2nd verse. I have shown them all 5 verses, and that the 2nd verse is actually the 3rd, but considering the other 3 verses, i can see why nobody knows them! :-o

I'm normally standing right there beside them - lead by example right?

After our pledge and anthem, Sophie goes off to bed, as it's about 10ish at this time.

We all go 'downstep' to the 'schoolroom' where we work on our calender,
Samuel, works on ahead, while Lily and Kaytie work from their SAXON math books called meeting books, which suits us. They include the date, written in various forms, the weather, the temperature, pattern work, and number drills. My teacher book is all scripted (awesome!) but i rarely stick to it as it is not at all how i would speak/teach to them. Claire also has her own meeting book, which she colours in and traces the numbers i have written in for her.By now, the primary school down the road, bell siren has gone off for their morning tea - they start at 8:30am -urgh, we barely got to school  by 9 when they attended, how would we have coped trying to get there a half hour earlier??!!!? so yes, the siren has gone off for morning tea, and Samuel, without fail pipes up with "alright break time!" "uuummm no, we don't follow their siren, you'll break when you done dear boy!" have all schools changed over to an almost bomb raid siren for their bell? or is it  just a west oz thing? - certainly freaked us out the first few days we were here till we figured out what it was! After the 'morning meeting' I work with Kaytie doing her 'Learning Language Arts through Literature" program. I'm really liking it so far, it uses some really old nice books i remember from my childhood, such as "mike mulligan and his steam shovel" and "harry the dirty dog" among others. While i do this,Samuel and Lily do their copywork, as their handwriting is ATROCIOUS! and once this is done, Samuel generally slinks off to read his 'graphic novels" more commonly known as comics, our library has a great selection of them, with great classics turned into comic form, he has read widely through this medium, and surprises me regularly with little tidbits of info. Titles in his 'repotoire' include "Oliver" "The Call of the Wild" The Invisible Man" "the Trojan Horse" various Sherlock Holmes, Shakespeare and other Dickens Classics. another great resource from the library is "playaways" He has listened to Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and.......ummmm, oh there have been so many i can't think of any at the moment. lol

Any way back on track, Samuel slinks off to read, and Lily works with Claire doing various activities, while i work with Kaytie, then we stop for a break, and then we do math lessons and bits and bobs.

We are slowly working up to adding in new things each day - most on the children's insistence. They all decided that we would do more "schoolwork" rather than the natural learning style we had been doing. I think someone on the Perth HS forum mentioned it as "benign negligence" LOL. That seems a good fit for what we were doing. In organising the big move over here, i tended to leave them to their own devices, which while it worked great, and they learnt heaps! i think they have decided they want more structure so structure it is! Plus Kaytie was never one for 'finding her own way" and has always been at me constantly for schoolwork" and i think the older two are just following suit. Claire also is demanding "harder and harder "tulle-work" and can not be convinced the things i am giving her to do, are things she would be doing if she attended Kindy. I'm actually considering including her in Kayties lessons to appease her? we shall see....

We are trying out 'All About Spelling" this year, will let you know how thats going when we start doing it regularly. We are using 'Story of the World" for our history. Auslan for LOTE (Languages Other Than English) Living in the 'real' world and excursions for our SOSE requirements (social studies) and at the moment our entire science 'curriculum' consists of DVD's - Mythbusters/magic school bus/ Experimentals. etc  EVERY SINGLE experiment we have attempted has been a DISMAL FAILURE!!! i can't even manage the cola/mentos fountain for goodness sake! So to avoid any disillusions to science we are sticking to  our dvds and  trips to SCITECH when funds eventually allow. We haven't given up completely to the natural learning concept. One of the children's favourite games at the moment is plating up meals for me with all the pretend felt and timber foods we have. which has turned into big discussions on healthy V. unhealthy foods. and now compete with each other on how bad or good they can make meals for me ...... with me acting appropriately after each plate. lol. Other fun things they've initiated, the other day we had a huge storm roll through - around the time of TC Bianca - it was a hot and humid day even by our "cairns standard of humidity" heh heh complaining about wanting the A/C on, when we heard the pitter patter of rain on the roof top, well everything was abandoned for a play in the rain, and how did they play??? they got out buckets and drums and started rain dancing!!

It was actually quite funny as every time they slowed down the ruckus, the rain would slow. Every time they sped it up, down came the rain. The singing and dancing stopped once the thunder and lightning started, but they still enjoyed the refreshing rain standing under the overflowing gutters along the patio.

Once they had finished, they talked about where rain dancing comes from, how the weather is actually what makes it rain and safety in an electrical storm etc etc - talk about a hands on lesson LOL!

We have discovered that about 6 streets away is another homeschooling family, though her 3 children are under 4. We have also started up - with other homeschoolers, a weekly get together, with children ranging from 12y down to 3 months - Finally Samuel has a boy his age to play with

Another thing I have noticed, is that the majority of homeschoolers in WA are Christian homeschoolers, whereas in Cairns it was the reverse. Neither here nor there in my book, just an observation :)

We have had some irritating news which has put a dampener on our move over here. Jamie's ( and everyone else) hours have been cut back to 10 hours a day, which means we have lost about $900(gross) a week! or $140 a day! Lets just say Jamie is seriously UNIMPRESSED! We are hoping that his job at Barrow Island comes sooner than later - he has been sent for his medicals, so that's a positive.

We are coping OK and are looking on the positive side - it's still a heck of a lot more money then back in Cairns.

I've lost my train of thought as i can hear chaos coming from the front room as they are supposed to be sorting out the washing.

Grandma Robyn turns up late next week, and Daddy is home the Monday following, Lily's 9th Birthday is also next week, so  a busy couple of weeks for us. Looking forward to it. :)

Anyway ,till next time

OX(OX)oxoxoxoxox

B(J)slkcs

ARGGHHH!! dontcha just HATE that!!

There i was, "happily" organising our curriculum plans for the year, printing away, planning this, googling that, (hole)punching here, binding there

116 pages.... oh ok only 58 because it's duplexed

and what do i discover when i turn over our new 'workbook'
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*wait for it..
*

*
*
*

D'OH!!

I could always re-bind it and have 'pretty' edges, maybe i should just give it to the 'leftie' in the family for revision??

Keep your smiles up

OXO B

'Hay' look what we did in Bathurst

Bathurst to Hay - did you like my 'joke' or did you just think Bad Speller! ;p


While in Glen Innes i also for got to mention this

You remember that?? you can add that to our list of unfortunate events also, as well as this....

Can't believe i forgot about this - crazy!

m'eh. just a spider you say, well miss spider here, had some friends!

albeit tiny ones

You see all that? they are miss Spider's babies...... they were EVERYWHERE!

Might i just add, that spiders themselves don't really bother me - unless they touch me, but i'm mighty happy i'm not the sort to go blindly into a dark room without finding a light first! Some F.Y.I to -  RID also works great as 'fly' spray, though Miss Spider wasn't impressed with us killing her babies and chased after Karen and I...... neither of us screamed like little girls......... no we screamed like two big girls being chased by spiders!! EEEEEKKKKKKKKK!!!!!

Anyway back on the tracks little red caboose

So we were in Bathurst and got off to an early start, We had a goal in mind for our slight detour to Bathurst............ We (Mummy) wanted to drive the racetrack! It was fantastic the only way it could have improved was if we had of remembered to take photos!!

Now let me try paint the picture for you, as you might already know, the race track is actually a public road with a -heh heh- 60km speed limit, with driveways and businesses etc all along it.

So we drive up onto the track and as we are coming up to the "start line" there is other  traffic racers on the track. We unfortunately missed out on 'pole posistion' and were 'starting' in '3rd' place. Heres the sort of commentary from the truck as we drove around -edited slightly so you can "get" the mood we were in. :D

Lady and children, Start your engine......

and they're off .........

around  Hell corner and up Mountain Straight

 the F250, making a great start. That'll be the one to watch today viewers

Oh no the little hatchback is into the wall ( Samuel's idea!!) -a resident pulled into their driveway-

Round Griffin's bend and onto Reid park

Oh  look out! yellow flag at Sulman Park (roadworks on side)

Oh now look at this, the F250 is making a move on the BMW,... yes! a clean pass at skyline (BMW pulled over for photos/lookout)

through the Esses and over the Dipper (OH MY GOODNESS!! how they do THAT at speed! WOW!!!)

Oh dear someones spun around at Forrest Elbow (someone coming the other direction)

And down they come Conrod Straight reaching top speeds of up to  100km *ahem*only ever 60km ;p

Through  the Chase and oh my the F250 is a little bit sideways! the last part of the 'chase was a surprise, so the wheels squeeled a little as i corrected :o LOL-

And across the line comes the F250 in 1st place! what a great day for FORD what a great achievement for the W.A.cko Team, they'll be celebrating in Hay tonight!!

It was seriously awesome!

I hope it comes across as exciting and fun as it was for us!!

After our exciting "race" we headed over to the  BIG gold panner - who would have thought the ?Bathurst area was famous for something else ???  never coulda thunk it ;P

The big Gold Panner

After Bathurst we headed for Hay, was nice and quiet lovely scenery, peaceful children - oh by the way, do you wanna know what the BEST thing we did while driving?? we got rid of the DVD players- just after brissy!! no more "it's not fair, i don't want to watch that one! or it's MY turn to pick the movie, or from samuel, It's not fair they get to watch and i don't!" - his dvd kept stopping or going flat. BEST THING EVER!! yes there were a few "I'm Booorrrrrrrreeeddd" 's but all in all, it was alot more pleasent and quiet! i.e not arguing!!

So anyway as i was saying,After Bathurst we headed for Hay, it was nice and quiet, lovely scenery, AND  peaceful children, and not to many trucks! Well, that all changed as soon as we got to the Newell Highway!!

when we pulled up to the intersection Holy Smokes! i think we must have counted about 12 trucks in a row - a 'convoy' i do believe the term is :D well, didn't my heart go Ba-Doomp Ba-Doomp at the thought of trying to pass all those trucks!! well it seems our luck had finally started to turn around as  not one single truck did i have to pass!! Everytime i geared my self up to get past one of these road trains, they would 'disappear'  some pulled into rest stops some turned left here or right there, but the best part was the longest train 'disappeared' on a heavy vehicle bypass through a town that we drove through, and we were able to get through the town and in front of it even though we crawled through the twists and turns of the town at about 30km p/h!

after our.... can't really call it a 'run-in'.......Our  avoidance of the trucks it was the bright sunny open roads of NSW for us! along the way we passed this

LOL, could you imagine living there? heh heh, i know i know it would be the same as any where else, but it's still funny. :D oh yes and you see my dirty windscreen? all those smears? they are LOCUST GUTS!! that's the other 'thing' we passed! I could see this mass hovering on the road and then WHAMO!! I went "WHAT THE HEY!! what was that?? either, we just hit a tonne of bugs or we were just 'bombed' on masse by some very clever birds!!!" there was a circle of smears right in front of me - they couldn't have been in the middle or Samuel's side?!?

Not much else to say i think, fairly uneventful through to Hay, where i cheated again and paid for accomodation if you are ever in Hay i hihly recommend staying at the Nicholas Royal Motel it was a lovely little family run place - with free internet (and electric blankets!!)

The only other major thing was EVERYWHERE were fields and fields of purple! for ages we assumed it was lavender, but when we finally were able to stop next a patch close enough to the road we discovered it was not so. if anyone knows what it is i'd be most appreciative if you could let us know?? for it has baffled us so.

I have been terribly naughty and not been to bed at all this morning/last night, and i'd best leave it here as  it's 7:30am and the majority of children are awake - i have had one particular child beside me chatting and reading over my shoulder since 6am - yes it takes me that long to blog, because i tend to get sidetracked on other things online also.

(*.*)  Personally I think pulling an all-nighter every now and again is good for you :) seriously :D - like every 6-12 months. 

Today's question is : Do we take Jamie up on his 'idea' of spending money? and go to IKEA or do we hang around the house and try get it sorted a bit more?? I know what i WANT to do, and I know what i SHOULD do, but it's still a little bit hard to decide :D oh if only all of life's decisions were this 'hard' , but i guess we'd take it all for granted then

Good night Morning

OX(OX)oxoxoxoxox

B(J)slkcs

Remember what happened at Mission Beach?

So wednesday dawned bright and early, thankfully earlier then the children who slept in just a little. :)

Now just a reminder it's been 3 weeks since we left home on our westward journey, but in 'blogtown' we are only up to day 7, and do you remember what happened to us on day 1? you can refresh your memory here if you want.

Soas i was saying, Wednesday dawned, with only one thing on MY mind, ridding my truck of the horribly, wet musty smell, and give it a good clean out!

I believe tuesday night we saw (heard) a pretty good rainfall. and I opened the truck to discover some nice surprises. It seems my patch job in townsville wasn't quite thorough enough as i only did the front half.

I'll stop waffling and just show you shall I

Now to just explain a little further, sitting on top of this stretcher bed, was a foam mattress which when i pulled it out, weighed at least 3kg more then when i put it in there : / and then you can see the mat underneath? well that's 100% wool, and it was 100%  WET! and urrghh! the smell was stomach turning  blearghh!!

Karen now has some woolen mulch for her vegie gardens, as after 3.5 days in the sun being flipped regularly it was still very damp even if it was just in one corner :P

remeber how i said i could find the silver lining in all our grey clouds?? well that very spot where we now had swimming pools, was the very spot where we keep all our clothe bags and linen while we drive, so if  we hadn't taken them inside we would have needed to stay with Karen an extra week just to get the washing all dry!

I'll have to leave it there now as I'm feeling carsick again, and i'd rather not have to ask jamie to pull over so i can throw up behind a bush :P

OXOXoxoxoxoxox

BJslkcs

Itinery Update

This is more of a memory jogger for me, but you might like a sneak peek at what's coming up??

Thurs 21/10  Home to Mission Beach

Fri   22/10 MB to T'ville

Sat 23/10 T'ville to "Gunna Go"

Sun 24/10 "Gunna Go" to Rocky (heh heh there's so many ways that name is funny with what you put after it,doesn't get tired for me :D - but then you know what they say.. "simple things......" :D

Mon 25/10 Rocky to Lakeside

Tues 26/10 Australia Zoo Scenic drive and back to house

Wed 27/10 Lakeside - Sort out WET WET WET truck

Thurs 28/10 Australia Zoo

Fri 29/10 Brisbane/Science Centre/ Museum/ Truck Service

Sat 30/10 Lakeside to Glen Innes

Sun 31/10 Blue Sapphire Caravan Park - Target Country

Mon 1/11 BSCP - Sort truck (AGAIN!)

Tues 2/11 BSCP - retravision (new laptop!) warm clothes op shopping

Wed 3/11 Glen Innes to Bathurst

Thurs 4/11 Bathurst to Hay (that's today!)

Fri 5/11 Hay to Adelaide (hopefully!!)

Sat 6/11 Enfield to the Beach house(prev. Magic Mtn) for Samuel's "b'day party"

Sun 7/11 ?????????????????  Adelaide Zoo to see the Pandas

Mon 8/11 ????????????  Sort the truck before Jamie   sees how disorganised it is  comes back.

Tues 9/11 Pick up supplies and then Jamie at Airport

Wed 10/11 Drive to Perth

Thurs 11/11 Keep driving to Perth

Fri 12/11 Hopefully arrive in Perth

Sat/Sun 13-14/11 House Hunting???

Mon 15/11 Samuel's 11th Birthday

Tues 16/11      5:30 AM flight back to Karratha for Jamie :(

then 4 more weeks of 'single parenting' - hopefully not 'homeless' for to long

Thurs 18/11 'house' arrives from Cairns??

How much do you bet this plan is able to be stuck too??

Send us your good vibes for ALL of it PLEASE :D !!


oxo B(J)slkcs

Problem Solver-ed

I have a new laptop YAY!!, but it's 10:30pm, and I'm driving to Bathurst tomorrow, an 8.5 hr drive, thankfully to another house courtesy of my aunty Cathy and Uncle Chris <3 thank you!!

will hopefully be in Adelaide Friday arvo - fingers crossed!

thanks for your comments and encouragement,
tomorrow night maybe??    I'll write when i can, not making assumptions/predictions etc anymore - it's too expensive :D

Good night
OXO
B(J)slkcs

wanted to add some more photos, but haven't transferred files yet

The best laid Plans of mice and (wo)Men often goes astray!

Remember how in the last post I said I would get everything up to date, and your eyes would be dry from the amount of reading you'd have to do??? I think the photo will speak for itself...




that big brown triangle-y section is actually white with a
 very pretty vertical candy stripe type rainbow  thing going on :D



It seems, somehow, someone or something has damaged the screen and the little LCD's are having a great time mixing and merging all over the place :D It definately has nothing to do with samuel dropping it on Friday. oops, sorry can't remember if we told you that or not daddy?? 8o

Well I'm sorry to disappoint you in regards to reading my ever so long post/update, but really you had to be expecting something right??, we have had something go wrong EVERYDAY!,  nothing major, just the little things.It seems fate might be trying to tell me something, with all the little mishaps we've been having,  but unfortunately for them I say NYEH NYEH! to the fates and can see the silver lining amongst them all, this for example, I am just happy that i am  able to show you what has happened, and it is possible - only just- to be able to work in 1/3 of your computer screen, AND, jamie says i can get a new one :D fingers crossed!! I must hurry as it is getting worse as i type and i am running out of room!

So i will leave it there apologise for any spelling errors or jumbled sentences but I'm rather having a bit of difficulty with the laptop tonight ;P

oxo B(J)slkcs