Yeah, so I keep getting reminded by my darling husband to blog….  ”You haven’t blogged in X amount of days you know…”  Or I will tell him something that the kids have done which is particularly funny and he will say “Blog it…”

So last night, he was tapping away on the computer and I was trying to sleep and he reminds me again “You haven’t blogged for 50 days….”

Yes, it was a fleeting moment of something new for me but I find it really hard to blog.  I get frustrated with the interface cause I can’t put up a picture or what ever and it in the end it just works out toooooo hard so I give in.

So here it is, on my 51st day of not blogging I have put something down on paper…  Not quiet sure thats what you say when its typing but you get my meaning.

So today Brian arranged via email to meet with a guy on Saturday morning to help him out with a few things.  He CC’s me into the email and in a reply says “I’ll check with the “War Office” later to confirm but I think Saturday morning works for me.”

Now this made me laugh, he likes to think he is under the thumb or something but that is soooo far from the truth.  He has it pretty easy.

So today at Church the lesson was all about Prayer…..  This is something I have a terrible amount of trouble with.  Sure I pray but how do I know that my prayers have been answered.  There is one thing I can’t stand when I go to church, thats when you hear people rabbiting on about how they have been touched by the spirit and how they have had answers to prayers.  Each to their own I guess but sometimes I wonder if people try to hard to be perfect.

Then something happened.  I stuck my hand up and told everyone I sometimes think people try to hard.  Answers to prayers aren’t given instantly, you are giving things to challenge you, make you a stronger person and you can’t bitch about each time you are met with adversity.

I gave the instance of when I had PND after Jett was born.  I woke up every day hating my life and after 18mths of feeling like shit, the darkness lifted and I could see the light again.  Although I question the reasonings for me having those feelings and suffering like I did, I am grateful and stronger for the experience.  So every morning when I didn’t want to get out of bed or when I wanted to crawl back into bed, I would pray to give me strength, wisdom and endurance.  18mths later, I finally received an answer to my prayers.

So after church, this elderly lady came and talked to me.  She shared her story with me about how 50yrs ago she suffered PND and of course nobody knew what it was she was suffering. They just all thought she was going insane.  She told me about how she had planned to take her own life with a concoction of drugs that she had been given until she was prompted to get down on her hands and knees and pray.  She told me that her prayers had then been answered by being put in touch with the Mormon Missionary came to her door.  She told me that she lived in a little English Village somewhere in the UK and the missionaries hadn’t been back to that Village since the days of Brigham Young.

The raw emotion that this lady showed me this morning was extremely touching.  Here this little lady who would have been in her 70-’s I would say was telling me about how she suffered from PND and shed tears about how she was ready commit suicide.  I know that when I went to the doctor concerned about how I was feeling, that idiot doctor told me to go shopping, but luckily for me I had more knowledge on how this all works cause there was more awareness 5 years ago than there was 50 years go.  I could only imagine her pain that she must have experienced and I was grateful she shared it with me.

Last night Ashton went to swimming lessons and she must have gotten water in her ear, past her gromits on her right side.  Either that or she is getting another ear infection which means her gromits have fallen out AGAIN….  Anyway, last night when we went out for dinner for my birthday, she was in a lot of pain, saying her right ear was really sore and she literally cried all the way home.  Once we got home, I dosed her up with Painstop and gave her a heat pack and she layed her sore ear on the heat pack and was asleep in <5min I reckon.

This morning she woke up and she said it was still a bit sore, felt a bit “bubbly” and things are a bit muffled.  She still wanted to go to school.  I can’t see why she should stay home if she isn’t really sick and she is wanting to go to school.  So I went and told the teacher she may be a little quiet today and not able to hear too well, and if it gets any worse I will come and pick her up….

Anyway this is where the smart cookie bit comes into it…..

While I was waiting for the teacher to arrive, I was outside Ashtons class room and all the boys in her class were mucking around as boys do.  Anyway they started chatting to me and one of them said “Do you know that Ashton is the SMARTEST in the whole class?”  (she is in a split yr 2-3 class) And then all the other boys started talking about how smart she was, and how she is smarter than them and they are in year 3….  Well then all the girls started in on the conversation also…  BUT its funny how bitchy girls are.  They started making exceptions “She isn’t the SMARTEST in the class but she is the SMARTEST year 2″  or “She is pretty smart but so am I” or “She is pretty smart and can read well but there are others who are just as smart”.  All the while, poor Ashton is shrinking back into me more and more, groaning with everyone discussing her.  So I pointed out that it doesn’t really matter who the smartest is in the class, just as long as you give everything your best shot.  They all agreed and thankfully the conversation stopped there but still the boys turned to me and said “She really is the smartest in the class though.”

I just found it funny that the boys were OK with saying she was the smartest, but the girls got very defensive and had exceptions.  Bitchiness really is learnt from an early age.

Well the kids have been sick for the last three days with colds and sore throats.  This morning they woke up super early while Brian was still home and I knew then that Ashton was perfectly fine to go to school cause she just talked and talked and talked.

I am surprised that she didn’t pass out through lack of breathing or something cause she sure talked from the moment she woke up pretty much to the time she went to school.

One of the funny things she said while I was doing her hair this morning was this…..

“Mum, if my neck wasn’t so long, I wouldn’t be so tall and my hair would be longer….”  and then she just went on and one about having a shorter neck….  Oh my goodness, I am sure my ears were at the point of bleeding and I had to go have a shower to escape her chatter….  So yeah she was all better and ready and willing to go to school weather she liked it or not  Brian would say that she is a typical female, but I am sure I don’t talk none stop from the moment my eyes open in the morning about useless crazy stuff like I heard today.

But having said all of this, I am eternally grateful that she is a fit, healthy, chatty and lets not forget imaginative young lady.  Truth be known, she is possibly like this every morning but I have missed it over the last couple of days cause she had a sore throat, which she described as dry and muggy….  Now she is all better, thank goodness.

Poor little Jett on the other hand I am not so sure about but he is at school today.

So today Ashton asked me what Decoy means and the first thing that came to mind was star wars.  So I described it something like this…..

“Well you know in Star Wars (couldn’t remember the episode) where Princess whats-her-face (Ashton knew who I meant) hops off the Space Ship thing with Jay from Play School, (Ashton was right there and knew exactly what I meant) and then the Space Ship blows up and she dies, well it wasn’t really the Princess who dies, it was one of her maids… Thats a decoy.”

I know there is going to be a few people out there reading this, that will slap me and tell me I should know better.  My husband is the worst Star Wars Freak out there and I don’t know what episode is what….  But I do pay attention when I happen to watch the movies

So last weekend when we were down at Janice and Wendells, the kids were really enjoying the Anzac Biscuits Janice had in her secret stash in the cupboard.  It got me thinking that it might be a nice idea to make some Anzac Biscuits with the kids this week and have a little chat about just what is ANZAC Day.

So this morning I figured we may as well do it today.  I did a bit of googling to find a recipe that was easy for us to make. I asked the kids what they new about ANZAC day, and Jett pipes up and says “Its not a day, its a biscuit Mum.”  So quiet clearly I had some teaching to do about the meaning of ANZAC.

Here are some pictures before they went in the oven.

Side note to my husband:  Yes I know they are sideway,  just turn your head.

When we were up in Atwell, we had the kids doing lessons at Stateswim.  Ashton would do good for a few weeks then lapse back to what represented a floundering old lady trying to swim, then she would improve again and the teacher would change.  It just seemed like we were pouring money into a big hole.  Then she would get sick with ear infections or would require more gromits and we would have to have a break.  So in the end we gave it a miss.  Jett was also getting nowhere and so we pulled the plug.

When we moved down here, I thought it might be a good thing to give a new swim club a try so we went to Kirby Swim. The difference in the technique taught is amazing.  The ease that both kids picked up swimming was unbelievable.  Jett has gone from someone who doesn’t want to even lay back in the water to going under the water and he is almost swimming by himself.  Ashton had an assessment about 4-5wks ago and almost passsed.  The teacher said she almost passed but has to swim the whole length of the lane they have set up for them (which is maybe 15m) without stopping.  She was gutted and thought she would have to wait for the next assessment week to pass.  Well today, the pool manager came and watched her swim and she was really impressed so she went up today.  She is now a stingray and mighty chuffed with herself.

Jett has a little way to go, I think once he starts swimming with confidence by himself he will be well on his way.  He just needs to believe in himself that he can do it.

I can’t wait for the day when Ashton will be too old to bring nits home from school.

I have suspected for a few days now that she had them and every time when she would scratch I would ask her to look at her hair and she would say it wasn’t itchy for nits, she was just itching.  I have had a look a few times in her hair but wasnt’ able to see anything and then she would pull away.  She has been in the past, pretty good at telling me her head is itchy so I let it slide.  Well, Saturday over the Easter Break I did her hair and what disgusting little creatures they are.  I have never seen so many, its no wonder she wasn’t carried away in the middle of the night by them.

She then went off to the footy with Brian and my mum and all that afternoon I was scratching, I straighten my hair pretty much every day and if I don’t straighten, I have the hair dryer out.  I really think this is what has kept me safe so far from the little buggers cause I read they don’t like that sort of heat. But I was still itching about 2 hours after they went so I did my hair.  Thankfully I never found anything which was a relief….  All mind over matter.

Just to be sure, I redid her hair on Sunday while she had large Easter Egg in hand, which was still bringing out a few of them still alive and again on Monday which was pretty clean.  I will do it again at the start of next week just to make sure  that we have killed everything.

Well then it was Jetts turn.  That mob of curls must have been hiding something in there but he wouldn’t let me have a look let alone run the nit comb through his hair so I gave him a ultimatum.  It was either the comb, just to be sure or the clippers…..  He took the clipper option and is now a bald nut like his dad.  If only Ashton’s treatment was that easy.

So yes, I am looking forward to the day when Nits will no longer be a problem in our house.  Not quiet sure when that will though.

So its school holidays, Janice (Brians mum) has asked to have the kids for a night or two.  The kids were all for it so we arranged something for this week.  I met Janice and Wendell in Bunbury this morning at Big W and they headed off down to Dunsborough and I returned home.

Since I have been home, I have done a bit of cleaning, cleaned the kids room and bathroom and done a bit of shopping. Other than that I have been walking around in circles wondering what to do with myself.  I realised on the way down to drop them off that this is the furtherest away from us they have ever been.  Sure they have had sleep overs before at my mums house and even stayed with Janice and Wendell when they use to live in Perth but now they are 2hrs away.    I was a bit shocked at how unsettled this made me feel.  It wasn’t cause I didn’t want them going, I know they will get spoilt rotten and have a ball, but just on the off chance that something happens to them we are 2 hrs drive away.

So then the next hurdle to over come…..  Brian and I have always been of the opinion that we agreed to have kids so we should be the ones looking after them.  Hence why I haven’t been back to work yet (fingers crossed that will change soon) and don’t agree in dumping our kids for the sake of dumping them.  I think the last time we had a night to ourself was at Dave and Natalie’s Wedding, which wasn’t really a night to ourselves as it was a late night and we were totally stuffed by the time we got back to the hotel room we just crawled into bed and was woken the next morning by my mum on the phone to say she had the kids in the car on the way back into the city.  Prior to that I just can’t recall.

Now we have a whole night to ourselves and we are both scratching our heads wondering what exactly to do with our time.  Our discussions have gone along these lines:

 What do you want to do tonight now the kids wont be home?

I dunno, what do you want to do?

I dunno, what do you think we should do?

Gee, how sad are we that we can’t think of anything to do that doesn’t include our children….

Yeah true….

So after much toing and froing we have decided to head out to the local tavern for dinner and come home and watch at movie.  Not exactly the most romantic night out but it will be nice and relaxing to have a meal minus the kids and come home to a  nice quiet house.