Hogan Adventures

whats going on....

2008-07-07T13:27:00.002+09:30

Having taken some time yet again to remember the damn password on this thing.......i swear - one day I will write it down!!!

Plenty of time has passed since I last wrote and had time to write and had time to sit and nut out the password business - and so many things happen.

Whats the buzz in our house at the moment?

Well Jon is going for his second interview for a Head Chef job at the Adelaide Zoo.
Actually he is going to that interview in 30mins - so good luck to him!
Hopefully this job - while keeping him doing the same hours in a day and in a week - will also have him doing less saturday/sundays and evenings .... fingers xxxxxx.
Which will be great! I miss going out with him, and he misses catching up with friends.

Other bits and pieces -
- Lucy begins full time kindy next term
- Aimee is 18months old & is being a very normal 18 mth old - destroying stuff, tantrums & sweetness all in 60 seconds - only to be repeated again & again for the 10 hours that she is awake.
- I have had my lovely varicose veins taken out of my leg, & apart from being incredibly painful in the first week or so - the leg is looking better each day.

Mini Skirts will be mine again!!! ha!

Ha.....

2008-04-11T21:38:00.003+09:30

said I didnt have time.... here I am again to prove myself wrong.

wanted to post this picture I our "Tiger" - art work done by Lucy.

Grrrrowwwwwwwllllllll.

gotta love water based markers - they come off with a water - and lots of it.

Ways in which you know your a MUM.... 2

2008-04-01T22:00:00.002+10:30

Your one year old wanders in to see you in the laundry - holding a chunk of POO, and throws in on the floor next to you - as if to say "this would be yours"............

A complete clean out

2008-04-01T21:15:00.002+10:30

Times are busy in our household - and have been so for the last 5 months - ever since Jon began his new job.
Free time is not as readily available and everything gets put on a list to do - scaling from whats important (like family time and household stuff ) to whats not, and unfortunately blogging and facebook are WAAAAAAYYYYYYYY down the bottom - or should I say they are the bottom.

So forgive me if i never reply to your requests for 'chump biting' or 'Likness Ratings' tests... I just dont have time to spend doing any of it. Although for the positive side - feel free to use my name as one on the 20 people needed to find out the results of said quizzes.... I wont be offended.

Having said we have minimum free time - we are almost at the end of a very long 2 months sorting out the girls bedrooms and my study.
Lucy has gone into her own room, which needed painting.
Seeing Jon only has the whole day of Tuesdays to do anything constructive (while Im home from work) it has taken some time. And then the good old heatwave hit - slowing things even more.
It took us 5 weeks (tuesdays) to paint the room white....
Next tues: we had to swap furniture from one room to the other - what a mess...and then sort out clothes, toys and hundreds of drawings of faces, families, dolls, stickers and general scribble.
Next tues: Aimee's room, cleaning out baby stuff, toys and too small clothes.
Next tues: buy the third (yet wonderful!) ikea storage unit, put it together, which by the way was timed.... speed of 45 mins!! He is after all an expert by now...- move crap out of the way and install.
Next tues: today... sort out said crap, put away stuff and throw out all sorts of rubbish.

Wow.

Hopefully it will all be over soon and we can go back it using our dining room, lounge, family room and hallway for what they were meant for - Not as storage area's.

All this brings me to the reason for writing this blog (while Jon cleans the kitchen and other area's up of the evidence that we have small children living here) and feeling incredibly guilty for doing so - so I shall make it quick.

Gift Bags........

Why? When? How come me?

Why do people continue to give gifts in them? Yes I know they are pretty, and cheap - and they make 'wrapping' a gift a whole lot easier.
When did this all begin? Seems like only in the last two to three years - and suddenly we have been overwhelmed with them...
How come me - why do I have the compulsion to keep them, not wanting to throw out such pretty yet handy bags, in the vain hope of re-using them one day.
But never, Never, NEVER even re-using one......

So tonight - they go.

I know Im a hoarder - but only of things that have some purpose, and maybe someday a place on a scrapbook page - but these bags......

So thats it - I have had enough of them and of the laziness and unfunness that they come labeled with. In the Bin.

Please dont be offended if you are a gift bag giver - I have nothing against other people giving them, to me or my children. I just wont pretend anymore that I too shall do so.

I love unwrapping a gift - just ask my family - I am well known as the one who unpicks the sticky tape so to be able to 're-use' the paper, and unwraps so slowly that they all yell out "just rip it".
I love the anticipation of not being able to see instantly what it is - I love the slow revealing of whats hidden inside - and I love the fact that paper can be re-used......

So I am going to stick to that old fashioned way - whether liked or not.

Ways in which you know your a MUM

2008-02-14T14:14:00.003+10:30

* You spend a warm Thursday afternoon trying to pick sticky little Head Lice out of your daughters EYELASHES.......

Yes - we have come home from Holidays at a CP to find that Lucy has somehow been near someone who has the delicate yet determined little creatures - and now has them herself.
We have spent the last week wondering what the little dirt spots are just behind her ears, on her temple and at the base of her hairline... and on the eyelashes of her Right eye...the GP confirmed it - Louse.

ARRRRRGGHHH!

I really assumed that I would not have to deal with this until school days - turns out I was wrong.

Having never had to deal with this myself - yes I have had them but it was always up to good old mum to fix - now 'I da mum' and holy shit I find myself with the problem that needs solving.

We have fixed the hair - and have put off and put off the unfavorable task of tackling the eyelashes. But now it must be done.

We are well prepared - we have googled "how to get nits out of eyelashes", checked the Child and Youth Health website, have been to the chemist, have vaseline, cotton tips, tweezers, face wipes, tissues, a movie, some chocolate for bribing to keep still and best of all a Magnifying glass.

So here goes....

Will keep all those enthralled posted.....

Makes you just itchy thinking about it Huh????

Back...

2008-02-14T14:09:00.002+10:30

Haven't had much time to myself lately to do any blogging - now that Jon has his new position my evenings are mainly spent getting myself and the girls tea and into bed - and sometimes cleaning the house gets a look in. Sounds fun Huh.... you betcha.

But have now found myself with a free hour - bliss - so thought I would come and do a little typing.

Will try to do so more frequently if I can - surely 10 minutes out of my busy day cant be too hard to find.... Can it???

Good golly and gee willakers....

2007-12-18T21:03:00.000+10:30

Dec 18th so my little computer calender tells me.....

My last post was on October 19th - time just goes. You could almost pinpoint that as the date when Jon began his new job at the Oriental Hotel....

Since then free time has been at a premium - and fun activities are listed according to time needed to do them - money - need and a can I-be-fu**ed-cos-Im-too-tired attitude.

I have had to begin a book - empty to start - and now filled with 'To Do' lists....
* some to do this week (grocery shopping - uuuggghhhh),
* some to do in the next 1-2 months ( like roll over super annuation - ugggggghhhhh!)
* some to do over the next millennium ( like cleaning -double triple and quadrupple uuugghhh)
and ohhh lookey I started another list....

This night shift biso has taken some getting used to. Single mum 5 nights a week - (and just plain lazy the other too - hee hee)

Anyway

life is good, we are good, jon is good, lucy is good, aimee is good and I am good.
So there thats it in a nutshell.

bye.

(till next year - heeheeee heehee haaaa hehee and a ho ho ho)

Ahhh - Some free time to blog....

2007-10-19T22:42:00.001+09:30

No matter that it is 10.43pm!!!

Here are some pics from the holiday.....
The view from our bungalow - what a view to wake up to each morning....
This is our island resort - Erakor Resort, surrounded by Erakor Lagoon.
Michelle and Glenn at the beginning of their ceremony.

Well I'm way behind in the Adventures of the Hogan's - and so much happens in such a short time that it would really be too boring to list them all! We have also been extraordinarily busy - both working lots to make up for the time we were away.

So I think I will begin with the most exciting and then work my way down - who knows you may end up reading about my trip to the Gyno!!!
Hmmmmm.

The most obvious and most exciting thing that has happened round here is our little trip to the beautiful Vanuatu...... Sigh..... I can still picture it so clearly.... the warm soft breezes... the lush plants....the tropical cocktails!!!!
What a place - what a holiday.
We went over for Jon's sisters Wedding - to the lovely Glenn (our new brother-in-law), and spent 7 nights on a private island resort - Erakor.

It was a family holiday of giant proportions and the whole shebang went.... oh-but did I forget to mention that our two delightful little girls DID NOT go!!!! Whoooopeeeeee.
My mum (god bless her) had them for the week - took the week of work for it......

What we did: Sailing, Snorkeling, Kayaking, Swimming, Touring, Lazing, Reading, Touristing, Eating and Drinking. For a whole week. Yep I know. How good is that.

The water over there is stunning - still crystal clear @ 8-9 metres deep - and about 23deg. Just perfect.
I had not successfully snorkeled before and was a little apprehensive at first - but am now so glad that I gave it a go... having never seen coral and fish and starfish like that before - I must admit that I was in awe.

Michelle and Glenn's wedding day, was perfect. The ceremony was on the beach, they were bare foot and the waves gently crashing in the background was better than any wedding song I have heard.
After the family photo's, the wedding guests (all 16 of us), headed down for Canapes while they had photo's taken. And then it was onto the reception - a wonderful buffet dinner and some very moving speeches.... I had some tears I gotta admit.

We were all very sad to have to head home to Australia, and other parts of the world, only a couple of days after the wedding - as our time there had been so much fun.
It was also wonderful getting to know Glenn's family, and Glenn for that matter - as I had only met him twice in the 6 years they have been together.

Unfortunately time just slips by and we have now been home for 2 weeks, back to normal life-normal routine and work.

But things are about to change round here again as Jon has another new job....(Michelle if we haven't personally told you about this - we apologise...).
Jon is the new head chef at the newly renovated 'Oriental Hotel' on Magill Rd.
Very Exciting stuff! He starts in 2 weeks time, and he cant wait. I haven't been there yet - but lots of people who have say it is good.

My job is going well, and they have just employed another Pastry Chef. She used to work with us at Michele's Patisserie.... so it is like a reunion there. I am really loving it there - they are great to work for, and are happy for us to give lots of idea's and also implement them.
If you live in the Campbeltown area - watch the space - as this bakery is going places I reckon....

Lucy and Aimee are both happy and healthy.
Lucy is still my delightful (?) little 3 yr old...... not sure how great I feel bout being a mum some days - but other moments certainly make up for it all..... (???)
Aimee is crawling round all over the place, walking round furniture and getting way to confidant for a just 9 month old!

Gosh this sounds like a diary entry....

So that is our adventures for the last few weeks - as usual always busy and never bored.
Jon and I have sat down and had dinner together ONCE! in the last month-and that was last night!
Jon did 65 hours work the week we returned!!! Sucks.
But there you are - thats life huh....

Oh yeah, and onto the gyno..... she had these stirrups.........

4 sleeps to go....

2007-09-25T20:28:00.000+09:30

Come fly with me, come fly - lets fly away!!!

Yep, we are finally off to Vanuatu very shortly. We have been planning this trip for almost 18+ months now... and I cant believe its actually here.

We land in Vanuatu at Midnight, and according to the weather forecast - will wake up to a glorious day of 27 deg, sunshine and low humidity!!!
While our friends back home will wake to....rain.... albeit much needed rain, but rain all the same. Sorry fella's - I would put you all in my suitcase and take you with me... but you know how tetchy the customs dudes are these days!!!

This is just a quicky as I still have so much to do - including Vanessa and Nathan's wedding cake - and only 3 shorts days to do it in!!!!
Heeeee heeee heee heee..........

Walking to the Bay...

2007-09-16T21:33:00.001+09:30

yes thats right - Michelle (from my mums group) and I completed the 6km section of the City to Bay Fun Run - or walk in our case!

And boy were we thrilled, elated, excited & happy all at the same time!

We walked & talked all the way from Kurralta Park Shopping complex to the Bay.
It was a cool, windy morning but it didnt stop 23,120 other Adelaidians from getting out there & doing the same.

Michelle & I completed it in 58 mins - walking 1km every 9.66 minutes.Which i think is pretty good - I did it in 59 mins last year - so to me its a PB!!!

We had a delish lunch of chicken & salad courtesy of the Contours Gym team, froze our tits off in the wind & got caught in the rain while waiting for the bus & were drenched by the time we made it onto the full & steamy FREE bus back to Kurrulta....
All in all it was a great morning- one we will not forget in a hurry mind you! But is well worth the early start, the cost & the slightly sore muscles!!!
If anyone wants to give it a go with us next year Michelle & I will be walking & talking again!!!

Cant look - but cant tear my eyes away....

2007-09-01T19:59:00.001+09:30

Yep am watching the proverbial train-wreck....

Bindi Irwin's special on her dad....

Silly thing is - I know how it ends....

But still I watch.

What makes it worse...

I'm completely choc full of those wonderful (?) girly hormones...

PMT levels are at an all time high...

I know i'm gonna cry...

And yet I continue to watch.

I'm also a mum...

Of two beautiful little girls...

And it would be just.....(words escape me...) to lose their dad - not only for their sake...

AND YET I continue to watch.

Hmmmm better get back to the show - would hate to miss the punch line....!

Time is want to do that - FLY....

2007-08-15T09:33:00.003+09:30

It has occurred to me that I haven't put a picture up for some time of our two cute little girlie's so here is some for you.....

Oh yes and by the way - we have a dog now - she is the one in the 1st picture - no I didnt give birth to a rather ugly child!!!
Her name is Bella - and I will write more on her later.

Things are good at our end, life is pretty busy, fun, sad, happy, teary, tired and all the other things that go with parenting!
Little Aimee is now 7 months old and is bum shuffling across the floor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aggghhhh! its way to early for me..... Lucy never moved till she was alot older - and I know I'm not ready for two movers....

Lucy is...well.... Lucy! she is still wearing all pink - but we have learnt now to just go with the flow and all are happy. When she wears all pink she gets dressed happily and runs off to play. Ahhh.

Jon has just quit his job..........! and now has 1.5 weeks to go till its all over. Thank goodness for that!
It will mean tho that his new job (when he eventually gets one!) will be back to normal hours - which will be tough to get used to - but there you go....

While surfing the net the other night - we have the stumble button- i came across this....

"The nice thing about internal piercings"

What the! Beg your pardon?.....

Gives a great mental image doesnt it?

I would give a link but Im not sure of it - but if you wanted to find out more it was under Body Modification.... I was using stumble - so please dont think I go looking for these sort of things!!!
I must say tho that it was interesting site...

Playschool is finished so i had better be off....

This time....

2007-07-22T20:36:00.000+09:30

I saw this style of blog written some time ago - I loved it & swore that I would do one the same.... & seeing it is our 7th Wedding Anniversary today I thought it would be fitting to do it now.

So here goes - (although it may be best read from the bottom up..)

THIS TIME NOW I am a wife, a mother of a 3yr old & a six month old & a home buyer. I'm not making any cakes but I attend & work at weight watchers, go to 'Contours' gym, go to mums group dinners, mums group play dates, take my nan shopping & catch up with friends as often as I/we can. I am happy, healthy, busy, sometimes frazzled but mostly content.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR I was a mother of one & was newly pregnant with the next. We had been in this house one year, & I had a small but successful cake decorating business. I went to mums group, swimming lessons, kindergym, coffees in child friendly cafe's & lots of friends 30th birthdays.

THIS TIME THREE YEARS ago I was a first time mum of 7 weeks. I was having trouble breastfeeding, was going to bed at 6pm, I stayed in my pj's later then I ever had & I cried alot.
I was recently unemployed & we were living in a house that was only half renovated.
Don't get me wrong, I was learning to enjoy the time of being at home with a new baby & having Jon on holidays for 8 weeks so we could spend some time adjusting to being a "family" was fantastic.

THIS TIME FOUR YEARS ago I was desperate to fall pregnant...
I was working at a well known Patisserie, & then a home wares store & then a country clothing store. We were definite DINK's (double income no kids), we had a wonderful group of friends, played Aqua netball each week - followed by drinks at the pub, & were busy renovating a house that we hoped would become a fantastic investment for us.

THIS TIME FIVE YEARS ago we had finished our time in Rovers, & were on to bigger & better things....like not having ANY commitments on a Sunday evening. And we had begun on our journey to parenthood - too easy, we thought, we will be parents by this time next year.....

THIS TIME SEVEN YEARS ago we were at our Wedding Reception. Sigh. We were 24, in love, working two jobs each & living in a nice unit in Paradise (the suburb - although it was very nice!). Some weeks on we bought our first house & we were settling into a great new bunch of friends, drinking lots of wine, eating & having loads of fun in Rovers.

THIS TIME NINE YEARS ago we were in the heart of Australia, living in a tent in a caravan park. We both had great jobs, we swam in the pool everyday, drank at the pub every evening. I got my first tattoo & a new nose ring. (what funky, hip travellers we thought we were!). We had just gotten back from a job overseas & were newly engaged.

THIS TIME TEN YEARS ago we were newly qualified trades people. I was working for a bakery that sold lots of cakes with cheese in them, & Jon was at the Festival Centre.
We had hardly any money, two cars (??), lived in the dodgiest block of units in a great suburb just out of the city, & had joined a Rover crew (that turned out to be just as dodgy as the place we lived...).
This was obviously the year that we got lazy (two cars & living just out of the city...?) as we seemed to be a bit larger (& larger) in the photos taken at the time.....

THIS TIME THIRTEEN YEARS ago I had begun my apprenticeship, bought my first car & had hooked up with six months previously with one of the apprentice chefs called Jonathan. He had long red hair, was a skater, drank heaps of beer, went abseiling with his mates & was a mad keen Canoe Polo player. Somewhat opposite of me....
We both lived at home & each finally had a stable income. We ate out alot, went on a camping trips, long drives & spent plenty of time...er..um..getting to know...um..each other...cough....

THIS TIME FOURTEEN YEARS ago I was dating some pretty dodgy boys... (cant call them men at 17yrs old...). I was doing a tafe course,was a tiny size 6, worked part time in a bakery, where I was hit upon by a couple of the older (yucky) bakers, & was learning to drive in my dads Datsun 180B.
I was heavily involved with scouting, sailing, rowing, camping, comedy capers, my best friends, musicals & movies. How very thrilling.....
I was living at home, & even had to beg (for a full fortnight) my parents to let me fly to Port Lincoln for my boyfriend's (at the time) 18th birthday.

THIS TIME.... well I think I will save all the thrilling details of my very scouting, non drinking/non smoking parents, private school attending, upbringing for another time - don't you agree?

Putting my thoughts out there....

2007-07-05T22:14:00.001+09:30

I have been meaning to write about this for some time, but these things stop me
1- lack of time
2- not really knowing how to put it down on 'paper'
3- do I want to & what will the repercussions be in the future
4- having friends read about this difficult thing in my life

But the one thing I do need is to get it out of my head & look at it maybe from a different perspective.... hmmm that sounds way to wanky for me....

Well now that I have everyone thoroughly confused & even maybe have slightly interested some people I can finally say what it is....TANTRUMS! Of the 3 year old kind.

Yes we live with them everyday - generally several times a day.
And I will be honest - it is doing my head in.
I am getting to the end of my patience with them & the do-er of them.

This daily dishing out of wails, tears, teeth clenching, hitting, kicking, yelling, screaming, banging on doors/walls & complete frustration (on both sides) must surely come to an end soon otherwise we will go insane.

These 'little' things may start over the most innocent of things like some minor daily decisions - What to eat for breakfast - Cherio's or Toast? Can someone else use the texta's to colour in? What drink cup/sipper bottle do you want to use today?

Or they can begin with the Tele not being turned on or onto the right channel... or the light not being on in the toilet.. or blowing her nose...or not letting her play with my make-up... or not letting her play 'wave the toilet roll brush round like your the fairy god-mother'... or not letting her cut dried fruit with a sharp knife... or unrolling so much toilet paper to use that it would sink the proverbial...or pulling her baby sisters head just that little bit too roughly...or not listening when we say stop.... or daddy stepping on those 'eggshells' just a little to heavily...

But the mother of all reasons as to why tantrums occur in our household on a thrice daily basis....Getting Dressed & it not being PINK enough.

Sounds silly I know - but the colour pink & the tone of the colour pink are HUGE issues to our 3 year old.
She just loves the colour - & will often be wearing pink.... knickers, socks, stockings, shoes, skirt, top, jumper, jacket, headband & clips - all in one day, one hour, one session.
Carrying pink blankey, pink drink bottle, pink bag & pink dressed dolly in the pink pram.
(and I think I have said the word too many times - its starting to sound weird!)

(And may I just point out too that this was really truly NOT my plan for my child to only deal in pink - this is just her putting her stamp on the world.)

I actually don't have any problems with any of the above mentioned reasons - I mean they are a part of my day to day life - saying no to this & that, stopping situations that could become dangerous & guiding her thru these tough years of learning.

But what I have a problem with is the continual Tantrums that result from my reactions of these very simple, every day things.

The tantrums are making everyday a sad/bad day at the moment - with not too much time left for fun. Because once we have gotten over 20 mins of yelling,wailing ....see above... it time to get in the car, or playschool has finished, or her lunch is stale/cold/soggy. Or so many other things.

This is what does my head in.... I have taken time out from working to stay at home to raise our small children in what we think (for us) the best way.... and I find my days to be continually shit upon by the Tantrums.
I have become a sad, frustrated, unloving, uncaring, angry, cross, at a loss and teary mother.
Really quite the opposite of what I wanted to achieve from my turn as a stay at home mum.

People have tried to council me with what to do -staying strong, -not giving in to her, -sticking to my plan of discipline, -listening to her needs, -smacking, -time out & taking away loved items.

And today we did - her all time favourite-nothing can replace-must go most places with her-especially to bed- hot pink 'Blankey' - WENT INTO THE BIN!
And she stood & wailed - "but I love him so much". .it broke my heart.
(i went to the gym & on returning home & kissing her goodnight I did notice that 'he' was once again in pride of place spread out on the bed....not sure who is playing who here...).

Now I think that I am a pretty good mum (doesn't everyone...!) & having watched many others how they conduct themselves in the public & private arena's - I know that I AM a fair, good disciplinary, good listener, a liker of time out & I very rarely smack mother.

But none of this seems to be working at the moment. She just keeps on going.... with the wailing & the crying. Until I get up & walk away - out the front door.
(not for ever...just a little while).
Now I know that while this is an effective way of gaining her attention ('don't leave me mummy...') I also know that it is not a good thing to do & in the long run will be quite ineffective.

So here I am.... admitting that I'm really unsure as to how to effectively parent in these situations... where to go to now (now that blankey is back in the house) & admitting that my love & affection for her is dropping rapidly with each day that contains these tantrums.

Maybe I am missing something that she is saying, maybe she is really unhappy at the moment, I'm not sure.... as there are lots of other things she is involved in but turns into a shy, hiding, silly little girl at the mention of attending them - Ballet, Kindergym, Swimming. Yeah sure she loves it when she is there - but getting her to get dressed to get there.....

I am really hoping that this stage of development is just that - a Stage.... ('they all go through it!'),
& that our happy, productive & fun daily life will return once more -
but you know as it is at the moment I just cant see that happening......

Latest member of the Humphries Clan

2007-06-29T10:24:00.000+09:30

Introducing my gorgeous new niece Gracie Anne Curtis

Born on June 23rd 2.18am
Weight: 7lb 15oz - 3.6kg
Length: 50cm

And pretty cute too I might add.....

Check out my new do......

2007-06-17T09:14:00.000+09:30

Not bad huh????

The spot on the side of my nose is not a pimple - its a nose ring....

Little sister.....& other things

2007-06-15T21:50:00.000+09:30

This is a picture of my younger sister at 39 weeks pregnant.... and for those of you who know her - its amazing huh!?!
Who would of thought that little 'kayls' is gonna be a mummy! She is due in 10 days, and is having their little girl on Kangaroo Island - seeing they live there now.

My mum spent 5 days over the long weekend with her & Dustin & the bump. Kayla was getting restless, homesick and all the other things you get when you are that heavily prego - so mum thought it would be good to spend some quality time together.They had a great time catching up, having cooking lessons and generally taking it easy. We wont be seeing kayla & dustin until after '???' is born - and personally I cant wait till she comes.
This new addition will be the 7th grandchild (the 5th grand-daughter) for mum & dad, & make our family add up to the grand old sum of 17!!!!! Its a big table needed just for a regular evening get together.
People often wonder why my parents bought a bigger house - well now you know.
I reckon as well that the number could be nearer to 20 in the next few years.... (no not me - this shop is shut!!) but other siblings of mine have talked bout having more. Wow, our own cub pack....

Anyway onto the 'other things'....

This morning i found myself being discharged from Hospital. What! Why? you ask....

Well on Tuesday evening I went along to the gym (that I have just joined - our holiday in the tropical waters gets ever closer....) & on leaving I noticed that I had a headache. Unusual but....

Then on Wednesday, while again at the gym my headache started up soon after I began - even more unusual but I carried on.
20 mins into exercising my headache suddenly went into a full blown migraine that left me swaying unsteadily on my feet, nauseous & holding my head - while a particular vein running from the bottom of my skull, up behind my ear & into my temple began thumping in a rhythm that would have rivaled anything WOMAD could have dished up....

Boy oh Boy - does that scare the be-jesus out of you.
I had to call my parents to come & pick me up & then they looked after the kids while Jon took me to A&E.
7pm....There was a four hour wait, & I was given a triage rating of 4 - but upon checking, my blood pressure was high & I had no strength in my right side - so I was quickly put onto a bed & pushed up the list. They were worried that I had had a bleed in my brain... yikes.

After a CT scan, & a visit from a surgeon at 4am - who told me that I would be admitted, would be transported to RAH for an MRI, & surgery would be discussed following that - I was wheeled into a ward at 5.30am.... Yes that was a LONG night is A&E.
(Poor Jon spent the time on a plastic chair & both of us tried to keep away from the terrible blasts of cold air. Turns out I had been put in the infectious diseases room, that has a separate air con from rest of the hospital - fark it was cold.)

My ward had 5 other older woman in it, ranging from 55 to 87, & when I woke at 8am (by the breakfast trolley being wheeled in -rattle,chingching,rattle) I initially thought.... well you know... but it turns out they were all lovely oldies, friendly & up for some chatting.

So my headache had gone (thankfully) & I was feeling great by the time the docs rolled around on their morning rounds, I was quickly downgraded from having an MRI to just (?) having a Lumbar Puncture. And as the day wore on it was obvious to all that I was ok & not in any serious trouble. Was actually starting feel like a complete fool....
My Lumbar Puncture, which was at 6pm last night, was fun.... & as they had suspected was completely clear (both fluid & diagnosis!).
And I was free to leave - only after spending 4 hours lying on my back following the procedure, but as it was past 10pm at night they thought I would have a better nights rest in hosp & be able to leave in the morning - first thing.

And at 10.30 am this morning (funny my first thing in the morning is around 6.30) I was finally given the ok to leave.
Their final diagnosis - muscular skeletal strain. In other words - a migraine. yah. sigh.

I feel ok still, but just have a a bit of a back ache - which is understandable really.

Amazing just what can happen in the space of 36 hours!

The heir to my title turns the Big 3!

2007-06-01T13:35:00.000+09:30

Yes, its true.... 3 years of my life!
Seems like only yesterday that I was worried over whether or not she was getting enough room with my ribs in the way....
And now she is my big girl. And isn't she gorgeous!!!!

Lucy had a lovely birthday - lots of fun, laughter, presents and of course tears.
Isn't every girl allowed to cry on their birthday?

We are now a household of 4 Barbie dolls..... doesnt seem that long ago that I was playing with them.

She just loves them, and of course the Barbie dress that Aimee kindly gave to her (she went to the shops with money and everything!!!).

The dress was and still is a big hit - today is day 3 of wearing it... it will have to come off soon for a wash!

Unfortunately it doesn't come with washing instructions - strange???
Perhaps the makers realise -and correctly- that the little girls (or to be PC-children) who get given the dress will NEVER take it off, so the need to wash it will never arise..... who knows?

Anyway, we are off to her pa pa's house tonight for a family BBQ (in this weather??) birthday dinner for her, and we have an afternoon tea on Sunday with my family for her birthday.
Whew. What a social life that girl has :)

She has been and will be thoroughly spoilt.....
And all I have to say about that is - why shouldn't she........

yah!

2007-05-18T14:03:00.000+09:30

Am off to my scrapbooking camp tonight....
So very bloody exciting!!!!

Jon is staying home and looking after the girls all weekend - and he even has 4 stitches in his thumb......he is such a hero!

He sliced it yesterday at work peeling the skin of salami, and thought it might only need steri strips - but when it had been bleeding for almost 2 hours he thought maybe a doc's appointment would be wise.
Poor thing now has to do the dishes with rubber gloves on. Lovely pink ones they are too.

Well gotta keep moving - camp opens in 3 hours and 42 mins - and I have to finish packing......
Actually I have to still do - the dishes, sterilise bottles, clean the house, finish dinner, pick up lucy, feed aimee, hang the washing out and pack my clothes and scrapping gear.

A Womans work is never done!

Well a woman who is going off to camp for the weekend and leaving the kids with their daddy all weekend has too much guilt not to get all those things done.....

Don't they always say it - the way to ruin the 'Mood'....

2007-05-16T15:21:00.000+09:30

Is to have children....

Sunday morning we are having a sleep-in after a 1.30am night.

Lucy comes in at 7am....
"Can you check my bottom, I've just done poo's".........................................................................................................

Sigh!

Guess what my mum did????

2007-05-08T14:50:00.000+09:30

She threw my purse and sunglasses in the rubbish bin - about 2 minutes before the great big garbo truck came and picked up her bin and took the rubbish away!!!! With my personal things in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my Gawd......

Having re read that it sounds like she hates me and did it to be horrible, but she didn't - it was all a complete accident, a whoops, a monumental cock-up... thats all.

So now I need to begin again.

If you look at the positives I have now got a good reason to go out shopping and buy another cute purse. I have also had a clean out of all those pesky shop loyalty cards (of which about 3 were almost there to getting me "free" stuff) and I get to renew my licence photo, which the old one really wasnt very nice.

If you look at the negatives - well I will cry! so I will only think good things and all the shopping I will get to do! (not - as I have no bank cards...).

Oh Well.
Although another positive is that it is the third thing to go wrong with money with us in the last 3 weeks.... we should be off the list now.

just give me second while I claw my way back up to the keyboard...

2007-04-24T21:59:00.000+09:30

Ahhhhhh.....

Well I'm back. After a short fall from the desk chair into/onto(???) the unknowns of my study/cake room floor - I have finally found my way back.

And how nice it is too - to be once again entertaining the public with the hilarious antics of my wonderful little family.

Well what really happened is that in the process of transferring my 'Blog' to the new and improved Google thingo I forgot the password, and the log in user name. Which I might add has gone from a name to an email address - what a way to confuse a gal.

Yes I will admit that I'm not too computer savvy, and I although I did try the many wonderful and varied ways to write my name, the kids names, the family name and all the different styles of email addresses we have had over the years - I just couldn't get it right. If one was the other wasn't.
So Very Frustrating.
My other rather large problem is that I have two little children. I need not say more but I will.
Time would seem to be plentiful when you don't work and stay home all day - but unfortunately it really isn't.... and I couldn't seem to find a spare hour to sit and nut out my email/password dilemma without one crying or the other coming in to say "What doing mummy?".

But enough whining.... on with the blogging.

Well much has happened in the 8 weeks or so since I fell off the chair (actually its a fit ball - how clever of me to time manage exercise and computerising).

Aimee is now 3 1/2 months old, is rolling onto her side, waving her hands madly round in the air and then staring at them for minutes while she tries to work out just what the hell they are, and is chatting loudly - Yes that's right - two no three big chatters in the family!!!!
She is a pretty cute thing, and is becoming a wonderful member of our family. She is a happy girl, doesn't cry alot and puts up with Lucy in her face all the time but will not sleep thru the night.
While this could be a bad thing, it is the only thing I can complain about so I consider myself very lucky. And besides I get to spend more quality time with her - that is if I could keep my eyes open...

Lucy is closing in on the BIG 3.... wow how time flies. (What a crappy cliche) It really it does.
I'm not quite sure just when in my young and carefree life that I became a mum with a three year old and a newborn.............. a mother of two. Ahhhhhhhggggghhhhh!

Anyway she is great fun to be around. She loves cutting and gluing bits of paper to bits of paper - much like her mum really;), and she now has a couple of imaginary friends.
I'm really not sure how these came about, or who taught her about them but they are part of our life!!!
One is 'Bobby', I think he comes from the story Jon's mum told her about what happened to a man they saw in a wheelchair. She told Lucy that he had been in a car accident, and when Lucy was telling Jon (the great pun man) he told her his name would be bob if he went swimming.

Another is 'Kelly' - she was imagined today - and I had to be careful when opening her bedroom door that 'Kelly' didn't get out.... also when I put Lucy to bed I had to 'yell' at 'Kelly' to get out of Lucy's bed.

See why I don't have time to look for my password - I spend my days babysitting imaginary friends.

Other fun things we have been up to:
*A wedding trip to Melbourne - with no kids. Yipyahooey. What a great weekend. Congrats to Mel and Matt too - thanks for a great day!
*Painted the front half of our house and our bedroom - the colour is great and I (we) love it no matter what other people may think.
*Made many beautiful wedding cakes
*Had a meat fest at Goucho's
*Been camping at Woodhouse for Easter
*Gone on the Dolphin River Cruise at Port Adelaide - only $3 and well worth the queue!
*Had my 31st Birthday
* and my sisters wedding.
So many more wonderful things - but I really do not want to ramble on my first entry back.... ha!

So there you go - for all the people asking just where have I been - now I'm back!
Stay tuned for more thrills people.....

She's here!

2007-02-02T15:46:00.000+10:30

Yes Finally I have time to sit quietly and type up a blog about our newest arrival.... only 3 weeks after the fact! But there you are - thats life with a couple of kids.

Aimee Kate Hogan was born on January 11th 2007 - after a somewhat drawn out first stage of labor and an excedingly fast second stage of labor... that was to quick for pain relief...yeouch!

But thats all the details I'm willing to put up to the world - although if you do wish to know any more of the gory yet interesting details, come and have a chat.

I will put in though that she weighed 8pound 15ounces, or 4060gm!!!!
Which compared to my firstborn - she was 1/2 a kg heavier, that is why I say... yeouch!!

Another way of stating it... If I had a 4kg of watermelon I wanted to buy - @ $2.99 a kg - she would of been $12 worth of watermelon... thats a whole lot of watermelon
Or she was just under a 5kg bag of potato's.....

Anyway, life has settled into a routine already. With Aimee waking to feed at intervals of 3 hours, (the 3am one is a killer!) Aimee is bottle fed - so the greatness of this is that Jon can get up at 3am too and feed her. Yeehar. It is lovely to have 5-6 hours of unbroken sleep. What a man!

Lucy is coping. Just. I think she is harder than Aimee.

The temper tantrums have seriously increased, and so has getting out of bed at night.
C'mon we all remember getting out of bed to *get a drink *go to the toilet *get one last goodnight kiss *come and kiss the teddies *to tell anyone something or other.....
Its just that it wears you down at 9.30pm when you are just as tired.
And dont she know it.

The books all tell you to keep a deadpan face and tone of voice, tell them to go back to bed and walk out. But after the 25th time - its pretty hard not to make an idle threat - you know you wont stick too.
So we battle along. It is nice to know that we are not the only ones to go through it - there have been whole books devoted to the subject.

Its funny when you are not a parent and you watch others do their parenting thing and you say to yourself..." I will not do it that way... they are too tough on their kids".
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ahhhhhhhhhhhh hmmmmmn.
Yep I said it.
How wise I thought I was......

Anyway enough of that.

Jon has just painted our bedroom. Only 12 months after we bought the new curtain material. Tis not all his fault - I had a tough time choosing the paint colour, as it is pink. Not an easy task - cos you dont want it too fairy flossy - and you dont want it too dark so it seem the walls are closing in on you.
But it looks great. Not everyones taste I know - but hell I dont give a hoot.

The ensuite and walk in robe is next on the list - but in a lighter tone. And then the entrance way and lounge.
I cant wait.

Well I have to be heading off as I have a 3 hourly alarm clock sounding somewhere in the house... Will post some pics later.

Hear Ye - Hear Ye

2007-01-10T14:19:00.000+10:30

Well January 10th 2007 is here and I'm officially 40 weeks pregnant.

I can say that I have never ever been this pregnant in my life before - and probably won't ever be again.
A sad thing really.

These last few weeks have been pretty busy (and very slow at the same time) for us.
We got home from a fantastic two and a bit weeks on Holidays at the beach - of which I meant to write about, but I'm not so sure that will ever happen now!!
And we have spent the time relaxing, visiting, sleeping in, changing the house around (of course..) and generally getting ready for our new little arrival.

But just to add to all the excitement my delightful, fully inherited, have had them since I was 19 yrs old, Varicose Veins have decided that they really liked all the aspirin that I have been taking since week 9 of this pregnancy, and they are seriously not happy with the fact that now it is week 38, the good stuff has been stopped and they have had to work on their own to keep the blood flowing smoothly up and down my legs. They obviously all got together one evening and decided to boycott and block up - giving me an excruciating leg cramp from thigh to heel for a day and very painful blockages in the surface veins.

Due to the great fear of DVT ( Deep Vein Thrombosis) now going about, I was immediately admitted to hospital, given painkillers for the cramps and an ultrasound on my legs to make certain no little renegade clot would act like a suicide bomber and make its way up to my heart or brain. Thus damaging me and the little 'lump' (often referred to as "Aggie") I'm carrying around.

Luckily all was ok down in the Deep Veins running below my knee - and I was discharged from Hospital later that day - with the advice to take some paracetemol for the pain - and to come in if the pain gets worse.

Which of course it did. And did I go back in - No. Why? Cos I'm a stubborn one.

I did go back in for my ante-natal clinic 5 days later, at 39 weeks, telling them the cramps and painful blockages had been round for the last 5 days now and my brain was getting very foggy with the pain.
The Doc ran her hand along the length of my calf to 'feel' the blockages and I was left clinging on to the ceiling with my finger nails due to the pain. I was admitted again.

This time they did something better about it and ordered me back onto Clexane, which is an anti-coagulant (I think) which helps to keep my blood from clotting too much (people please do not attempt to write a medical thesis on my notes! I bake cakes remember.....) -but is a bit stonger then the simple old asprin.
But of course I make this out to sound as if it all happened in the space of 2-3 hours... Ha ha how wrong you all are.
I had my clinic at 9am, was admitted at 12 noon and had the first injection at 5pm. Time moves slowly in hosp.

After sitting in an uncomfortable, crunchy sounding, sweat inducing plastic covered hospital bed for 29 hours - I asked to go home. Which they willingly let me - they were busy in the maternity ward.
( Seeing I had a double room and had to listen to a young girl in the early stages of labor from 6pm to 4.30am.....all that moaning and heavy breathing is enough to put you off going into labor yourself!)
But I had to take the Clexane home and inject myself daily. This was of no worry to me as I had to do the same with Lucy's pregnancy.
Funny though that all my 6 injection points are marked with a small red spot - the one the midwife did in hospital is marked with a large ,raised red spot large and an even larger blue and purple bruise!!!

That was last Thursday.... and today I have had anther ante-natal clinic -my 40 weeker. Which was just as uncomfortable.
They wanted me to see the veins specialist - and the ante-natal docs, but unfortunately each doc kept pushing my name to the back hoping that the other one would see to me first.........................................................................................................So they wouldn't have to make the final decision. Keeping me waiting for 2 HOURS.

Oh yes really comfortable when you are on hard plastic hospital waiting room chairs, have a large head sitting in your pelvis and it is 39 deg outside.

Eventually I was seen, after going up to the counter and asking just what was happening, and they had already decided (when they realised their mistake and the time that I had waited) that they will induce me. HOORAY!

So Yes, by the time that this is read by most people I will be yet again sitting in that uncomfortable, crunchy sounding, sweat inducing, plastic covered hospital bed - but this time I should have a little baby in my arms....or so pretty bloody close to it that Jon should be ordering the flowers and some beers.... Ha ha.

So Yeah. Not much else to say now really.

Except that in only 24 - 30 more hours I can take my really attractive, sexy, thick support stockings off for the last time.

And burn the bastards............................ HE HE he heeeee heee haaa haaaaa Haaaa Hoooooo hoooooo Ha ha ha!
(Very manic laughter from someone about to under go immense amount of pain!!!!!!)

See you on the other side people, a side where I can lay on my tummy, Do up my sneakers, wash my legs, and walk for more than 20 metres with out being in pain........

Yahoooooooo.

39+4

2007-01-07T18:34:00.000+10:30

Thats how my pregnancy hand held record reads......

39 weeks and 4 days....

and I'm still waiting!

I have an appointment on Wed, which will make me 40 weeks on the dot, so we will see what they have to say then.

C'mon 'Aggie'.... you know you want to.... all it takes is a little push down.....

Hows this for a big ol boost to your confidence?

2006-12-28T13:20:00.000+10:30

As you can see from this picture - and its not pretty - I'm BLOODY HUGE.....

I have two weeks until I'm due to have this baby and all I can say is bring it on.

Back to the photo... Jon assures me that I dont really look that bad - its just the angle, my slouch and the fact that I'm wearing stripes horizontally.... but I dont really believe him.
They say the camera doesnt lie. Sigh.

It brings tears to my eyes each time I look at it - its that bad.....

If Lucy's pregnancy is anything to go on I should be in labour next thursday night - 6 days early - but who really knows. Its just a waiting game now.

A New Years baby comes with a bank account complete with some cash - if its the first born of the year that is. Not sure how much the account contains - will have to do some Google-ing to find out. If its a decent amount will then have to google all the insane ways to bring on labour.
Im sure Jon wont mind helping out with the most obvious one!

Well enough for now - even sitting at the computer is tough - Im very uncomfortable and restless.

Will keep you posted.

Ya-Hoo-Hey We're Going on Holiday...

2006-12-07T13:49:00.000+10:30

Just quoting the 'Wiggles', although they say 'Ya-Hoo-Hey I'm Combing my Hair Today'... but its still close enough!

Only two days to go till the pilgrimage and boy are we all excited!

We just have to attend my cousins wedding in the heat and charred remains up in Clare and finish packing and we are off! Woooo Hoooo.
Can you tell I'm excited?????

So anyway wanna hear about my day yesterday? On reading back thru this blog I realise just how many of these days seem to happen. Its just not fair.

Will cover it like Jasons....

7.10am: Awoken with phone call from FIL (father-in-law) to say we left the extension of car seat in his boot on Sunday and he will drop it into Jon at work. Ta -thanks-no worries....

8.40am: Bumped into an old (being the correct word) Capers family friend at shopping centre who told me off for lifting lucy and heavy shopping as it will put the umbilical cord round babies neck!!!!
-Perhaps I should have asked her if she wanted to come live with me then - as all I do is lift Lucy and heavy things!!-

8.42am Put Lucy in car where she begins to run around it.

8.45am: Drop keys on front seat (via back door) as family 'friend' continues to go on and on.

8.50am: Say goodbye to family 'friend' - shut back door and realise - FUCK!!!! Doors have been locked by lovable 2 yr old...........................................
..........................inside handbag, keys, 2 yr old and phone (with no credit!)....................................

8.50-8.55am: (5 VERY long minutes) try to cajole, plead and bribe 2 yr old to pull up door lock (without making too much of a scene in getting crowded carpark) while frantically trying to think of what I will do if this and other tricks Dont work....

8.56am: Decide to turn on Girly Water Works (not actually all fake!!) - think that if it works for kids then it may work for me!!???!!

8.56 & 15secs am: Success....... Store that trick in memory bank....

9.30am: Lucy picked up by her Granny so I can have day off - Whew.

9.35am: My nephew dropped at my place so I can babysit him for the day while his mum and dad work and do work related stuff
(Dont get me wrong you two - he was fine and I was fine - Am just telling a story)

10am: Nephew begins to cry....Hmmm what else can it be when a one yr old has clean nappy, biscuit, water & toys???

10.30am: Still crying... Ahh found Dummy - No - he is crying so hard it wont stay in his mouth.

10.45am: Realise its sleep he needs - Begin to rock to sleep.

11am: Asleep - but as soon as I put him down on bed he wakes and begins that cry again. Still cant keep dummy in mouth.

11.10am: Ring mum in desperation. She suggests to use the pram.

11.30am: Asleep again. Ahhhhh

11.30 - 12.50pm: Peace reigns... while I bake 3 mud cakes for aforementioned wedding - make ganache and white choc slats.

12.50 - 3.10pm: Happy child playing with toys - Auntie Lea still baking - Choc everywhere.

3.10pm: Daddy of nephew arrives

3.15pm: Daddy of nephew leaves - on a mission to find a baby car seat to take nephew home

3.16pm: Nephew begins to cry again.......and keeps going and going...................arrrggghhhhh.......

4.10pm: Daddy and Mummy of nephew both turn up - Crying stops. Ahhhhhh.

4.30pm: Quick cat nap on couch

5.10pm: Lucy and Jon home - get woken to be told he has to leave in 5 mins......

5.15pm: Jon leaves for dinner out with old work friends.

5.16pm: Ring and cancel my evening work.

5.20 - 8pm: Some happy and some not so happy playing in pool outside.

8pm: Ring parents for help in buying Nappies.... disaster.... have none!

8.30pm Watch 'Da Kath and Kim Code' - Hilarious.

8.45pm: Lucy finally asleep.

10.10pm: Jon arrives home stinking of perfume......... Assures its just transfer from Hugs.

10.15pm: Me in bed with 2 panadol....... Cant deal with anymore of today.

Anyone wanna swap?????

Mo-Vember is done....

2006-12-01T21:57:00.000+10:30

(Hmmm must work out how to upload images properly - not sure why they are out of order... Bloody computers!)

Well as you can see from theses pics Jon can grow a pretty good Mo - and he raised over $200 in doing so. Bloody good effort I reckon and well done Jonnie I am proud of you.

His team - the "Choppers Choppers" raised about $2000 between them all - not too bad for 5 men with some extra facial hair.
Most people know that all of this excess hair growing was in aid of raising awarness of mens health including prostate cancer, among other things. If you dont then perhaps you had better Google Movember.

I think they all did a top job - but thank goodness though that it is all over!
The money raising I can deal with - the chopper Mo I cannot.
Way to hairy scary looking... too old man lingering near toilets.... and too much like dodgy porn stars in C grade movies.
Phew! we can now all get back to our smooth clean shaven lives - er - Jon that is.

Other photos shown are of the wonderful gingerbread house that my sister Kayla made tonight. I think she was a little unsure at first of where to begin - but as soon as those first lollies went on she just kept going and going and going.
I think it looks great and I'm sure it will taste delish.

Well off to bed now - These 34 weeks of pregnancy are taking their toll!!!!

Gingerbread Fest 2006

2006-11-30T18:46:00.000+10:30

Well here you have it - our marvellous creations.... for 2006!

Wish we had taken photos of last years efforts where the roofs caved in under the weight of lollies!!, but sadly we neglected to.

So this year Google was my friend and I found a great website - gingerbreadlane.com - which supplied me with an 8 page instruction manual on how to bake and build a great Gingerbread House.

And it worked.

So after an afternoon of hard labor - bit of sweat (it was 35deg) and a LOT of lolly eating - we made them. And dont they look delicious.

My family are gonna love eating the lollies - and all that will be left will be the boring as gingerbread..... ha ha ha.

Catching up...

2006-11-14T14:47:00.000+10:30

I haven’t written for a while because life is just soooo busy. And the funny thing is – it’s about to get a whole lot busier!!!

This baby is only 8 weeks away from arriving and the doubt about how easy life will be once she arrives is starting to set in.

We went away overnight this weekend just gone, to Goolwa – and it was great. It was to have been a girl’s weekend, organized by another friend, but everyone pulled out bar me (what commitment!). So we decided to go halves in the cabin – and her family stayed Friday night and mine stayed Sat.

We stayed in a cabin in the local Tourist Park, which I must say is something we never do. Well we stay in Tourist Parks – but only ever camping in a tent or in our camper trailer. I think that this is a throw back from both of our childhoods.

I - Having grown up in a family of 6 – and throw in the Scouting factor – Tenting was the only style of home we knew when staying in a Tourist Park.

And Jon’s family were big on rough-ing it. They didn’t even get to stay in caravan parks.

So on entering into the cabin I knew nothing of the greatness I was about to see…. They have their own bloody toilets and showers!!! How good is that?

And to those of you who have either been or are pregnant – your own personal toilet is wonderful.

No walking across other peoples space, in the dark, at 2.30am to empty a bladder that feels so bursting that you can’t roll over or sleep – only to find that the ‘very full’ bladder only contains about 20ml of liquid!! Arrrgghh.

But anyway apart from wonderful amenities, we did have a great weekend.

We walked down the main street of Goolwa – stopped at the local “Dolly & Lolly” shop (what pure bliss!), and ended up on the River front.

There we discovered a new Brewery, Called “Steam Exchange Brewery”, has only been open for 6weeks and is housed in an old warehouse. It was really funky. Jon sampled a few of their beers – which is made much easier to do so cos they do ‘tasting’ glasses for $2.00. Bargain. He found them to be very delicious. Lucy and I settled in to drink our cool glasses of water and eat the chocs bought from afore-mentioned Lolly Shop.

On our way back to cabin Jon wanted to stop and test out his new, you beaut stunt kite. No expense was spared on this baby…He bought it from those door-to-door sellers for the princely sum of $12.00.

Lucy and I played on the playground while Jon wrestled with the bloody thing. It was a pretty gusty afternoon down in the south – so he was having all sorts of trouble getting up into the sky.

I kinda felt sorry for him struggling on his own – but with a belly as large as mine (I'm 32 weeks prego) its just so hard to keep running after a kite, let alone bend down and pick it up.

He did persevere for about 20 mins and to give him credit he didn’t get cranky at all. But we decided that it is best left in the packet until we hit the beach – where there will be all other family members at the ready to help… Sorry Jonnie – I’m just too ungainly when running at the moment!!!

Sat night was Fish & Chips – ‘Red Faces’ re-runs, a little of ‘Wizard of Oz’ and then all of ‘Happy Gilmore’. Good.Good.Good.

Rarely do we get to sit and watch a movie at home, so just to do this was great.

Sun morning was spent leisurely eating hot crumpets (ooohh that sounds rude – no nothing happened –we have a two yr old and a big fat belly remember), and slowly packing up.

We headed into Victor to catch the Horse Tram across to Granite Island. Which was fantastic. Children under 4 are free – which is even better…

The weather was absolutely beautiful – no clouds and about 28deg. Pity we didn’t take sunscreen!! We hiked up the stairs to the top and posed for some pici’s, and then came down to sit in the shade to await the return trip on the tram.

It wasn’t a long stay on the island as it was just too hot for me to walk for any length of time – but it would have been lovely!

We had a picnic lunch on the grass in front of the Crown Hotel – and headed home.

Stopping at friends in McLaren Vale for a cuppa, Medlow Chocolates for a top up on lollies & Jon’s parents for dinner.

Wow what a great weekend.

Freedom is great - but is it worth it???

2006-10-16T14:21:00.000+09:30

Having just had the last two weekends off from Parental Duty this is where my question comes from....

Lucy has three sets of Grandparents (divorced parents remarried/repartnered) & two out of the three are teachers.
So seeing it has just been school holidays we thought we would take advantage of their time off to ship our little blondie off to them to have some quality time. For us & them.

Lucy spent two nights & two & half days with each of the Grandparents - & as far as everyone is concerned - a GREAT time was had by all.

Going back to my question... is it worth it?
Well yes absolutely but it certainly makes the coming back down to the parental world of responsibility a VERY bumpy, long & tiring ride! You see its so easy to forget how much work a two year old is.

We had only been home with Lucy for 2 hours yesterday when Jon & both looked at each other & said "Oh my goodness - she doesn't let up does she?"
Our house has been quiet, clean & calm for the last 48+ hours & now within the space of TWO it had been turned on its head.

In that space of time Lucy had managed to say 'Huh' about 150 times.

('Huh' is Lucy's response to ANYTHING that Jon or I say. And even if we repeat two or three times what we have just said - we are still met with a 'Huh'.
AAARRRGGGHH!)

She had also cried a very false & annoying cry about 25 times - or each time she just slightly tripped over the smallest speck - or bumped into the merest corner of any piece of furniture.

She commented numerous times 'I want to e-e-eat'.

She changed outfits.

She had stripped off nude.

She had spilt water all over the floor when trying to pour her drink from one cup to another.

She had swept a newly mopped floor & left bits of fluff all over it.

She watched the Wiggles.

She rode her bike outside.

She learnt that when you put your finger onto a spinkler valve it squirts in all different directions...even over yourself.

She pooed in the shower.

She pulled the vacuum cleaner cord out & let it retract back in about 20 times.

Phew! Thats a pretty busy two hour time line.
It certainly lets you know that you have entered the parenting world again... BAM! (thats me crashing into the parenting wall!)
We were stuffed by the time she went to bed at 7.30pm. Only 3.5 hours after she had come home.

So again back to my question... the re-adjusting - from being single, carefree, get out of you car & walk away without getting anything else out of it, coffee without walking round the cafe & sleeping in - to the full on responsibility of a two year old would have to be about the hardest thing you have ever got to do.

But will I pack her off to that wonderful place called a Grandparents home again????
With the knowledge that we will have to go through the trying adjustment period again....

ABSO - F*******- LUTELY.... Bring on the Xmas Holi's!!!!

We all had a wonderful time - & we really do appreciate the time to just be US again!
Thanks Rob & Liz, & Liz & Don - we love you guys!

Long Weekend Recovery

2006-10-03T13:53:00.000+09:30

Well we had a really busy long weekend...but it was good.

Jon had to work all 3 days & Saturday night, so I have been on Lucy shift pretty much full time. I feel I need a holiday now too.
Seeing she is a typical 2.5 year old - the day just seems to drag by about 4.30pm, which is when witching hours begins.

She's bored - she's hungry - she's too awake to go to bed & too tired to be nice. All in all she is just 2.5....

What didn't help matters is that we have been busy either having people over or going to other peoples places or babysitting young friends...so her tiredness was escalating & my tolerance levels were depleting.

But yeah...thats what you get I suppose!

So anyway on Sun night we had two of the girls from my mums group & their husbands & their kids over for a BBQ. It was a fantastic night - with the two girls letting their hair down & getting way beyond tipsy.

Being the sensible prego woman that I am - I kept it down to one small glass of red (sigh!) & sat back & watched the merriment.
Jon too also helped in emptying those 4 bottles of red - & boy what a laugh we all had.

One of the husbands was celebrating his birthday that day & had already spent a great deal of the day at the pub, so his involvement in the merriment was fairly quiet - but he had the odd comment to throw in.
And the other husband was the DD - so he like me - watched three pissed minda's from a sober position. Which as most people know its not nearly as much fun as when you have a few under your belt to loosen you up.

With all three kids tucked into various beds around the house we kicked on to the great time of midnight - wow! I know everyone must be saying - what party animals.
But when you know in the back of your mind that you have to get up to that 2.5 year old in the morning (and its 6.30am at the moment cos of the early rising of the sun!) the mixing of midnight & alcohol - is a BIG thing.

I must admit tho I did give a 'mum' warning to Jon at 11pm to remind him that he had to be up at 6.30am to go to work. Awful I know....
But once upon a time evenings on the piss would be easy - get up in the morning & keep going - but the age factor creeps up on you & suddenly you find that recovery is not as easy as it once was.
But Im sure a couple of panadol, berocca's & some serious bench leaning helped mightily the next day.
An afternoon 'grandpa' nap was taken too - Before heading out again for another get together.
I did notice tho that my bottle of softdrink was being drunk way faster than it should of.
Even hair of the dog gets harder...doesn't it Jonno!

So it was a good weekend... Long but good!

Now honestly...Why wouldn't you have one!

2006-09-19T13:27:00.000+09:30

Children...Ahh!

One of life's little miracles - & also one of the best ways to get comedic stories... to tell her at her 21st.

Lucy, while in the bath last night, was scratching her butt. When her fingers got a little too far round the bend & she commented to Jon...

"Look daddy - Little hole"

No need for Anatomy 101 in our house.

"Its a ......"

2006-08-31T14:37:00.000+09:30

Its a GIRL!!!!!

Yes now I can introduce you to little "aggie"... don't panic - its just a nickname. You will find out what her real name is when she is born!
We even know it yet.

I don't think that I need to put a mud map picture to this ultra-sound - although I could learn to use the scanner on photoshop a little better.
But it is obviously the profile of her little head. That has a circumference of 5cm. Soo Tiny!

I am now 21 weeks into this journey and I am getting larger, looking larger & feeling larger.
Its really amazing how you forget all the little tiny niggly things that go hand in hand with pregnancy. Heart palpatations, terrible dreams, sleeping on your side while your ever expanding gut hangs lopsidedly, head colds that you just cant take anything for..... I shall stop now for fear of putting anyone off.

There are obviously good, no even great things that also go hand in hand with pregnancy - but if you want to hear them - come talk to me later.
Later that is AFTER I have re-folded all the washing - that Lucy has lovingly strewn across the lounge.
Later that is AFTER I have put the rolling TV cabinet and all its viewable inners back in their spots.
Later that is AFTER I have tidied Lucy's room for the second time today - because she didn't feel like going to sleep - she felt like emptying her clothes drawers - her bookcase and her teddy bear basket.
Later that is AFTER I have put all my cross stitch patterns away - and the very expensive $20/Mt Aida cloth away, that she decided to use as a Zebra crossing while I sung the Wiggles song that says about crossing the road...(I suppose I should praise her for knowing how to cross the road...??!!)
Later that is AFTER I have been into my ensuite and cleaned up all the make-up that she has painted, and very artistically I might add, the cupboards with.
Later that is AFTER she has finished her two hour sleep-my two hours of solitary time out - now that she has finally deemed it time to go to sleep (55 mins after putting her to bed & 3 times of me going in getting cross!)
There must be some thing good I could find to say about having another one surely....!

The amazing thing is that we got home from grocery shopping at 12.25pm.... and I put her to bed at 1.55pm.... and she went to sleep at 2.50pm, so if my math is correct and its usually not but we will assume that it is - it only took her 2.5 hours to cause mammoth destruction to the house.
Oh joy - Oh rapture!

Welcome.

2006-06-29T21:19:00.000+09:30

And introducing to you all the newest member of the Hogan family...

A name does not yet exist for the little alien like creature - but Butthead may or may not be used.
We used to call Lucy in-utero Beavis - but Butthead does not hold the same appeal for me. Hmmm not sure why?!

I have included a stick figure to help all those people who can't work out ultrasound pics...they are very much like those 3D images that were a huge craze in the 90's. You either get or you don't!

Some amazing facts and figures:

- it is 5.5cm long <____________________> Wow that's tiny!

- it already has eyes that are fully formed - but are fused shut for the while.

- it has all its genatalia - and a trained eye can work out what sex it is - apparently.
(A penis would be bout 1mm long - wow that's tiny!)

- it wriggles like there's no tomorrow.

-it has fingernails

- it will be coming in 6 months!

Stay tuned!

Is there a Doctor in the house?

2006-06-20T15:51:00.000+09:30

Well my life this past two weeks has revolved around doctors.

Lucy has been plagued by some strange rash/infection that most of them had absolutely no idea as to what it was.
So their best solution to the problem was to prescribe anything... and hope that it works. If not "well Im sure the mum wouldn't mind paying again to come and see us - so we cant prescribe something else that doesn't work"

In the last two weeks I have seen 3 doctors for the problem, until finally I went to the W and C Hosp in the city- and a lovely young doc worked it out.

Meanwhile - seeing this is about her - my poor little Lucy continued to live thru what we now know was very painful and very bad thrush..... all the ladies out there will understand.

But like everything else that has ailed her - she has carried on her life as if it is only a minor issue. Not crying much - or complaining - or whinging. What a trooper...

Although it probably would have been good for her to complain more cos then the doc's would of had to sit up and take notice.
Good news is that she is now on the mend - really was even after 24hours on the latest prescribed stuff - and should make a full recovery to her normal 2 year old self soon.

And news on the new baby - well Im now 11 weeks prego - and am suffering with my version of morning sickness - that happens in the afternoon.
Now I know that many more unfortunate woman suffer far greater than I am - but compared with Lucy's pregnancy (where I got nothing) this is horrible. Very tired, queasy and perhaps even a little moody....

But apart from that - Im well.
Oh not really - my veins in my legs have blocked again - which are quite painful - but nothing too major.... dont want to sound like a whinger!
Its just that I saw 4 doctors last thursday in the space of 5 hours at the hosp app. and plenty more to come.

So Im a little over the whole doctor deal....

Sick & Tired!

2006-06-14T17:37:00.000+09:30

Even though this title may sound like it needs an 'of' added to it - it doesn't.

I'm just feeling very tired - cos of being preggers - and feel sick too.

This pregnancy is slightly differnent from the last because I'm feeling alot worse - and it is strange cos the morning sickness doesn't kick in till 2 in the afternoon!

And by 4pm I'm in desperate need of a nanna nap.
Wow how quickly you forget how a preganancy takes over your body.

The other thing going is my brain -take this blog entry for example. It may look all nice and well written but I will just for one minute type without corrections...then you will understqntd the stupidsness of my brain.
of course noew I cant think of anything eslse to wrtitse about. ( I was alsso a littel scared taht my rwritting fwaws going to be perfecdtr - but no!0)

Dp So anyway...now Ive fucked up my typing completely!!

Right then, now I have wawsted so mcuyh time trying to correct six billion spwelling mixstackes I have officially run out of time.

Ciao.

Lock in 'C' Eddie.....

2006-05-15T14:52:00.001+09:30

And this question I ask of you all....

What will Leanne be doing on January 10th 2007?

a) Will she be making a wedding cake?

b) Will she be Knitting a scarf?

c) Will she be in excruciating pain while trying to push out a watermelon sized child?

d) Will she be going out for dinner?

The answer is 'C'..... She will be in terrible pain while trying to have a baby!

Yep IM PREGNANT!!!!

6 weeks pregnant. Due in January '07.

Wow can still hardly believe it myself!

Rest In Peace

2006-04-20T21:24:00.000+09:30

Well today we had to do what most dog owners dread - we had to have Sannie put down.

And let me tell you -IT SUCKED! IT SUCKED! IT SUCKED! and then IT SUCKED some more.

We have had her in our family for 11 years.

We picked her out of the Sat 'tiser, went to a house that was full of stoned boys, and paid the whopping sum of $25 for her - which probably went straight into buying more dope...

She has been a really great dog, very loyal, loves a walk & all the other doggie stuff. But had been getting very cranky in the last few years - old age maybe - new child in the family- terrible arthritis - lots of reasons.

Being a cattle dog she could also be very quick to 'nip' at heels of anyone running by (sorry again Mel!) and we were always nervously watchful whenever children were round.

But the crankiness began to become too noticeable.
She would consistently growl anytime that Lucy came near.... (who by the way is an extreme animal lover - eek)
And had 'nipped' Lucy a few months ago - on the arm.

But when she did it again on Tuesday -this time her face - we knew we had to make the awful decision.

And it was so hard - as we had to have her destroyed on the potential that she may do it again - but next time could be worse.....

Decisions like that you just want to sweep under the carpet and ignore - but I didn't really want to end up on 'Today-Tonight'... (James would never let me hear the end of that!).. so we had to decide.

And unfortunately the Animal Welfare League is only open 10am-4pm, which meant that I had to take her down there.

We could of waited until Sunday - when we both were free - but it would of been just terrible having to count down the days.

Michelle at the Animal Welfare was just lovely and has a 3 year old child- so could completely understand what I was saying - and was so unjudgemental... my biggest worry!

What sucked the most was that because the reason we were having her put down was due to a 'bite' - I had to muzzle her before they would handle her......I know, I know OH&S rules....but it is still awful and she hated it. Its is not the best image to finish with.
(I could have gone and seen her 'after', but I just didnt think I could manage that)

It was a very strange car trip home, and an even more unusual sight to see the back patio door deserted.

I know my head tho that we have made the best decision.

RIP San... May you run free forever.

Stop! Rewind..... I didn't get a mention!

2006-03-28T14:44:00.000+10:30

STOP!

Put the bloody Commonwealth games back on....They forgot to give me my medal!

I have changed 5 Poo-ey nappies today!

Thats a Personal Best - and a World Record in the Hogan household.

Go on - play the National Anthem while I move my lips to look like I'm singing.

'Thankyou everyone, I could not have acheived this without the help of Lucy, my little friend Wil and some very strong bum wipes.....'

The Shedley....

2006-03-24T23:10:00.000+10:30

To even say those two words conjures up a huge amount of memories - some amazing - some interesting and some just down right deplorably cringeworthy (the name Short suddenly springs to mind.....)

Northern Light tonight are opening the "Wizard of Oz", and wow what a show it is.
I only got to see it from the really crappy TV in the top dressing room (more memories..) but it was still looking fantastic.

I was of course helping my mother with - yes - costumes.

A job that she very much loves and never tires of, although the remaining 5 members of her family seem to tire all too quickly.
Dont get me wrong, we all think that it is great that she has a hobby, a creative outlet, developed some wonderful friendships & is certainly not sitting at home waiting for "The Bill" to begin (does it ever end...?) - but it does get a little tricky when her whole life is consumed by them - her thoughts are consumed - the house - the car - her work - my house.....

Ahh but now it is all over, with her saying "thats the last show I'm doing"....for 6months - then its Grease, and then and then...

Well this wasnt meant to be a vent session - but it seems to have gone that way! Right well now thats out I shall move on.

The Shedley... Ahh my old stomping ground.
My early/late teenage years and also my early/late 20's, were spent in and around that building. So many years spent running up and down those concrete steps - with the same silly arrows that no one ever pays attention to!
So many years sliding down the banister to the (former) Brin Whiting Lounge, and sitting around the foyer eating huge triangles of pizza on the first Saturday show.... It all still makes me smile.

It doesnt really matter what show I go to see or am involved in, there is just something about the The Shedley that.... well softens my heart.

I just love being there.

PS Go see the show - and look out for the Lions Cape - I stitched those bloody flowers....

Question Time....

2006-03-09T13:16:00.000+10:30

Ever get the feeling that your day was going to go the same way his did?

NAME: Don Music
BIO/STATS: A frustrated, wild-haired composer.
APPEARANCES: Sesame Street
FAMOUS FOR: Getting taken off Sesame Street for banging his head on his piano keys and setting a bad example for the viewers.
SPECIAL TALENTS: Banging his head on his piano keys.

Here a few multiple choice questions for you to answer......

1/ What reduced this 30 year old mother to tears this morning?

a) A tantrum throwing almost two year old when she was told off for kicking said mother while nappy was being changed
b) A sock

2/ What reduced this 30 year old mother to tears this morning?

a) An almost two year old who 'REFUSED' to put her shoes on
b) Toast

3/ What reduced this 30 year old mother to tears this morning?

a) The iron will of an almost two year old who wanted to eat cereal while standing on a chair at the kitchen bench
b) A chair

4/ What reduced this 3 year old mother to tears this morning?

a) An almost two year old who wanted to 'stir' the bowl of washing up water with a sharp knife, who then "fell" on the floor screaming, writhing and crying crocodile tears when she was told not to play with the knife
b) A ruler

5/ What reduced this 30 year old mother to tears this morning?

a) An almost two year old who wiped snot down said mothers clean top - and then threw a tantrum because she was told not to do that.
b) Milk

6/ What reduced this 30 year old mother to tears this morning?

a) A 30 year old mother who got so cross that she smacked the almost two year old on the bottom and left a terrible red mark of 4 fingers..........
b) the fact that all of this happened before 8.30am!

Cancel all Search Parties.... I'm Back!

2006-03-07T14:42:00.000+10:30

Wow what a long break.... Boy I've Missed you blogger!

This is just a shortie as my 2 year old blonde alarm clock has just woken up, bugger. She is currently shouting "Where you" - so I guess I had better go.....

I'll be back to write more about the Hogans exciting adventures later.

ThirtyThirty

2006-01-23T22:54:00.001+10:30

So in honor of both Jon's and my 30th Birthdays this year we decided to hold the second Bi-Annual degustation (http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Wine/wine_dictionary2.shtml)dinner.

12 pretty funky courses sampled by 14 pretty tanked friends.... Oh boy what a night we had. It certainly will go down in the annals of history.

We started this fine evening of eating at 5:30pm and finished at 1:30am... with 1/2hour in between each course.
And of course we had to choose one of the hottest days so far this year - just a meager 43deg!!
It was really great fun working in our kitchen while our monster of an oven was melting the grout in between the tiles!

This is what the menu contained: the shortened version...

*tom,must and ricotta tarts
*chicken pate, tom relish & lavasch
*Indonesian prawn soup
*pork & prosciutto mignon & balsamic pear
*crab,tom,dill pasta with wine, saffron sauce
*chicken,water chestnut wontons with satay sauce
*herbed whiting with corn salsa, garlic aioli (or Aerioli's)
*shin beef, shiraz pie with chips
*citrus sorbet (serving time: 10:30pm x 43deg heat x 15 bottles of wine = clitoris sorbet)
*rum,raisin pudding with vanilla cream
*Australian cheese
*almond rochers, bundy truffles, cointreau creams

It did seem a bit much for such a hot day, but it was all so good to eat that I dont think anyone minded...well actually the 18 bottles of wine may have had something to do with the 'I dont think anyone minded'!!!

Yes we were all pretty munted. And it was fantastic. We had opted for the 'no children' rule so that everyone could relax and it worked. Most people had to catch taxi's home. Just like the good old days.

There was plenty of talk of previous moots attended, sandblasts attended, conquests that we made and spews that we had. All the pre-requisite old-boy talk. Oh yeah there was also the ever wonderful " 'insert name of old boy' takes it up the arse" phone calls... these are just the best! Had to shut our doors and windows though... neighbours are a little close in these estates!

One young man - who is JUST out of his 20's - aka the chef - passed out at about 11pm!!! hee hee- which was pretty funny. He even had a quick chat on the white porcelain phone to god...
There were of course the obligatory group photo's with the drunk, passed out man, and then he never resurfaced till morning.

I do know that he is only holding up his own tradition - having spewed at his 18th, his 21st and now his 30th. He did comment that he is not looking forward to his 40th!

All up it was a farken good night, and Im sure there are 13 others round Adelaide that will agree...

Can't wait for the next one - 2008!

PS Thanks for our birthday prezzie!

Jon turns the big 30...

2006-01-23T22:33:00.000+10:30

January 17th 1976 - a cute little red haired boy was born..... 30 years on and we still have a cute boy - just a little bit taller - and with a lot more skills.

Happy Birthday Jonnie! Here's to another 30 good years.

Christ that will make us 60.......................................................!

Whiiizzzzzz....

2006-01-16T14:55:00.001+10:30

That my friends is the sound of this month whizzing by!

Jon is about to celebrate his 30th birthday tomorrow, and its 3pm and I still haven't bought him anything.... Eeeeeeek.

My only excuse for this is that I still feel like his birthday is 2-3 weeks away and I've got plenty of time. Sadly it is not. So I will soon have to go and do the male version of shopping and madly run around at 5:15pm hunting for the 'perfect gift'.

We have had such a busy year already, that I cant even think about events happening in the future cos I have so much to think about today!

In year which is only 16days old we have:
* had 3 family dinners
* made one wedding cake
* gardening working bee at Nan's
* had dinners/breakfasts/lunches with friends - several times!
* made one 50th wedding anniversary cake
* been to the pools twice
* been to the beach once
* painted and decorated Lucy new bedroom
* shifted 3 bedrooms round
* and catered for 150 people for all meals in 24 hours at the 24 hour show

Whew! No wonder jons birthday gift is the last thing to worry about.

One day I will slow down (this I have said for many years), I do know it will happen. Just not sure which decade.

Well must be off, as I also have to plan the 12 course dinner (for 15 people) we are having this saturday night in honor of jons (and mine) 30th birthday.

EEwwww!

2006-01-01T12:50:00.000+10:30

We are dog-sitting!
And up until now it was ok... I guess.

The dog is a Kelpie.

We have a blue heeler, so we know that these breed of dogs have a lot of energy. But this one takes the cake. Its like a nervous ball of energy all the time - wandering round and round and never just sitting or lying. It drives you insane after a while, and it does not help that we have wooden floors - so its click-click-click-click......
No wonder the owner always says "Your a fidget".

Let me tell you another thing: this is one well fed Kelpie. Wide Load is another good way of describing her. Im sure she gets fed all the good stuff at her house!

So sent with her for this weekend was one of those dog food 'Rolls'. Im not really sure what is actually in them - and Im not about to begin guessing either!

Now its very difficult to feed one dog this food and not let the other get at it, and seeing as we don't feed our dog anything other than dry biscuits - cos she has a pretty sensitive gut - you can probably guess what has happened.

Yes our dog ate some, and only just 10 mins ago she did some seriously bad explosive craps - INSIDE our house.
As most people know we have a toddler, so we are well accustomed to some really gross things - but this.....

All I can say is EEEWWWWWWWW!

Hmmm. Not so sure I'm into this dog sitting thing.

Seasons Greetings

2005-12-29T22:17:00.000+10:30

Well I hope everyone has had a great couple of days - but thank goodness its all over for another year.

The gifts are all opened, the leftover food is slowly rotting in the fridge and the tinsel on cars now just looks tacky - & its only 4 days after the event!!

We had a good one though, and as with many children round the place - Lucy received way more than she will ever need.
I could get on my soapbox about the huge-ness of marketing, and that its not really about how many gifts you give - or if you are the first person to give gifts to the kids....??? (you know who you are!), But I won't. I think everyone hears it enough.

Before children, Jon and I were very Bah Humbug, but now we have conformed somewhat and it was a great delight to see Lucy enjoying her gifts to the full.

We also have ended the Chrissy Season with a family feud brewing...normally I would say great, bring it on. But this time I'm the one instigating it! Oh dear. Not very merry of me Im afraid.
Im sorry but I wont go into details here. Although those who know my family may well be able to guess who it is with. Hee Hee.

I also did two shifts last week at the greatest bakery in the world.... 26 hours in two days! One was a measly 6 hours, but the other was the full 20 hours. I started at 8am on the 23rd Dec and finished at 4am on the 24th Dec. Ouch! I was on triple time by the end of the shift - Which is now our holiday spending money... I say yah now but wasn't so excited at the time!

Yes it was the dreaded chrissy shift. And every year I swear I will NEVER do another, but this time I mean it!

I have even resigned from my position - for the third time. Pity they don't do farewell gifts/drinks there....
Im onto newer and better things.... My cake business at home, Fanciful Cakes. So if you need a cake - drop me a line!

So little time - So much to do...

2005-12-19T14:20:00.000+10:30

I really wish I had more time for blogging- and scrapping and craft and reading and all the other really great things there are to do when you are busy - (but nothing is appealing when you are bored.)

These last three days were certainly fun filled with everything tightly squeezed in one after the other.
To sum up I have had in the last 3.5 days:
*2 Family Dinners
*1 Christmas Carols - also get Lucy to rehearsals for her part in the nativity as an 'angel'
*1 Wedding Cake (to make and deliver)
*1 Engagement Cake (to make)
* A full house to spring clean before said family dinners
*1 Mums group lunch
*1 Friends dinner
*10 hour shift at work
*2 hours driving time to get to work
*1 Fruit and veg market to shop at for xmas
* Christmas presents to buy/wrap
*18 month old little girl to look after (tupperware & 2nd drawer contents currently all over kitchen floor!)
*And a partridge in a pear tree.......

Whew! No wonder days just disappear - and we get xmas card saying hope we can catch up more in 2006...

Oh yeah and in amongst all that I still have to make time to sleep, exercise and worry about what Im eating so that the scales at my weight watchers meeting say nice things to me....

New Years Resolution.... Slow down and enjoy life more.... HA!

Talk to me in 12 months - (which we all know will feel like 5months!!!!)

Life with Little Lucy Loo

2005-12-09T19:16:00.000+10:30

Lucy loves to 'type', and given the opportunity she will sit and bang about on the keyboard for quite a while - which in 18 month old terms is a good 2-3 mins.... Here is an example from tonight;

,,, ,,, , ,,,fffffvfffff m f,z7i3we8i84e89ed5edsr ucivufyt c8i 0o -p po i9 u mcx , x .flglgptoyhhllg;ghgi hlgkgkmgm nvnvhvjh kk,kkjhhyjj jmv

What an intelligent young thing - I'll interpret... it says "my mummy is the best". Hee Hee

Well actually she is cause she always manages to press the right keys to bring up all those great keyboard shortcuts (of which I can never manage!!), but then gets frustrated that the keys wont type anymore. So she then reaches for the mouse (just like mummy does) and moves it around while saying 'click'!! Unbelievable hey?

Often when we are at home during the day the house will fall silent, and that is when I know I need to begin my room to room search and rescue. A search that involves rescuing the room that the door was left open to!
Most often she tries the door to my cake room, where she knows that I keep buckets of chocolate. Many a time I have found her in there stuffing as many choc buds into her mouth as she can - and then tries to grab handfulls too. We have a choc-o-holic on our hands!

Tonight the silence was DEAFENING.

No she wasnt in the cake room, but was in our room - nappy off - weeing on the carpet! Yah!

Ahh parenthood...

Perryn Samuel!

2005-11-27T21:47:00.000+10:30

1.5 days old!!

Hooray, My new nephew has arrived...finally.

Name: Perryn Samuel
Weight: 7 pound 8 (3440kg)
Length: 52cm
Born on: Thursday 24th November - 2:40pm.

He's is looking a little angry in this photo - but I think I would be too knowning from just where I had been and had now come to - via 'that' way!! EEwwww.

Anyway, we have just had a great weekend.

Lucy stayed at her Granny and Grandpa's overnight and all day today while Jon and I went up to Clare and had dinner at Neagles Rock with the Gringo and other great mates.

And Whew! what a meal it was. Makes me feel full just thinking of it. Absolutely delish.

There was also some great wine and some great JOKES, and dont let me forget the great amount of snoring (with 8 of us in the Gringo's two bedroomed unit) and the great amount of AGB's done the next day! What a fun night tho.

Well Im off to bed, and its only 10pm. Just shows you what a GREAT weekend does to a 30 year old body!!!!

Why are we waiting? We are suffocating...

2005-11-21T20:23:00.000+10:30

Well my last post was on November 7th and I was saying that my future little nephew still hadn't poked his head out (eeewww that's gross!), and now its November 21st
and he still hasn't arrived!!!!!!!!!!!

Whats keeping you Perryn (his name when he is FINALLY born)?????

I think Adrienne is being induced on Wed this week, so by Thursday it should be definite.

Anyway life here in the Hogan household is all good.
Jon has just finished a mammoth month of working, spending most Friday nights and full weekends at the uni. I know that all the funtions went off without a hitch and everyone attending were most impressed with the food - I didn't expect much different really - as we all know what a great chef he is...

Our beach night last week was good and this time we were joined by kaz, james and will.
And by the way if you are looking for a council BBQ (either free or 20c) along the beach front - don't bother looking - just go to the ONLY one- which is at the West Beach sailing club (its a free one too).

After much searching up and down looking for the one Jon and I had bbq'ed at some time ago -
In jons memory it was only a short while ago and it was a council one- in my memory it was 9 years ago and we had bought our own!!!!!- we finally sat down to eat delish "McMummies" hamburgers.
We then walked to glenelg and back, partaking in Mc Sundaes. Yum.

Lucy and I also attended the TTG Christmas pageant, which was good fun. We caught heaps of lollies and waved at the strange people sitting in their tinsel covered trailers...it was just like being at the city one...
I am really excited about xmas this year - Lucy saw a lit up christmas tree the other day and was fascinated, Hooray only 33 more days to go....

Waiting...

2005-11-07T22:10:00.000+10:30

Oh yeah,

Forgot to say that the Humphries family are all eagerly awaiting the arrival of our new little son, brother, grandson, great-grandson, nephew and cousin.

Hurry up bump... we want to meet you.

And mummy is sick of the tummy pains and false alarms....

Under Pressure

2005-11-07T21:49:00.000+10:30

Am feeling the pressure to blog... only from myself though.
You know- your own worst enemy yah yah yah...

I feel like I have nothing of interest to put out to the big wide world but I'm sure that when I begin it will be good/ok.

We have decided that one night a fortnight will be beach night. We never spend enough time there and every year when summer ends we complain about it again.
So this year is pro-active year...

Last weeks jaunt was great. I had severe PMT so it was good to walk in the wind and have it blow all your anger away.
Could have done without all the flies though. Jons back looked like one of those yellow t-shirts from the nineties with all the flies on it- slogan reading "No flies on me mate!"

We had a home made pie and hot chips for tea (the salad I was making was almost thrown at the wall - refer to paragraph 4 - word no 9!).

We then walked from one jetty to the next - which was great - after hot chips. Walked off the guilt.
Then we had 'Heaven' ice-creams - return of the guilt... oh well, it was a great night anyway.

Stay tuned for the next enthralling installment of "Hogan's Hit the Beach".

A Pox upon us all....

2005-10-21T21:55:00.000+09:30

Have been in quarantine this week - as lucy has the dreaded chicken pox dum dum dum!

And what an exciting week it has been :( This is my poor darlings face....

Funny how is goes - when you are flat out all you want to do is stay home all day, in your jarmies, and do nothing.
BUT when you are forced to stay home and go no where near other people - it sucks like a....well to quote steve "it sucks like the monkeys choad"!

And we still have about 4 - 5 more days till she's not contagious... Yah!

Do you remember when you had chicken pox?

I had forgotten that unmistakable smell of Calamine Lotion, its crusty white goodness for itchy skin.
We are also using Pinetarsal, which is stinky-yellow stuff for the bath, it smells like old people, and looks like someone has done a wizz in the bath after they have downed 3 Beroca's!!!

What fun chicken pox is - those little spots venture everywhere.

When I had chicken pox, my two brothers had it at the same time...my poor mum you say.
Well she was actually in hospital having a breast reduction!

I think I should say my poor dad!!!

Anyway my whinge clock is chiming....

Gotta go and administer some drugs... peace for a few more hours!

Is it 3 O'clock yet?

2005-10-11T22:25:00.000+09:30

Was at the park at the end of our street today, swinging Lucy on the swing - when I spied one of - you know - umm how do I put this - ummm... well lets say she was well short of her full picnic basket.
There is an employment facility nearby that employs mental and physical disabled people.
She was chatting to someone who was mowing their lawn.

I then noticed that she was walking away from lawn mower man, next second I hear her plastic bag rustling behind me...
'hello - do you know when the bus comes'
'no sorry - i have never caught it from here'
'I need to catch it at 3 o'clock - do you have the time of the minute?'
'Yes its 1:45'
'So how long to 3 o'clock?'
'one hour'

Awkward pause...

'Is it 3 o'clock yet?'
'Umm... no'
'Do you live here?'
'Yes up the street'
'So do you know when the bus comes - its coming at 3 o'clock'
'Is it nearly 3 o'clock?'

The giggles had begun...

'I tried knocking on all the doors - but no one answered - do you think they will call the cops?'
'To see if there was a bus soon?'
'Yes - but no one would tell me - is it 3 o'clock yet?'
'Its 1:50'
'So will it come soon'
'Im sure it will come soon - perhaps you should wait at the bus stop?'
'No its coming at 3 o'clock'

Very Awkward Pause...

'When did you work at (insert name of employment facility)?
'I have never worked there'
'Really'
'Well your lucky as they are all weirdo's who work over there'
'You dont say!'

Next she points at the play equipment...

'Leigh Grant played on this'
'Oh yes'
'Do you know him?' (all excited)
'Yes he is a friend of the family' (gotta have some fun..)
'Really - when was he here?'
'Last week'
'Really - he's not allowed to play on this is he? Is he chunky looking?'
'Im not really sure'
'Is it 3 o'clock yet? - I have to catch a bus'
'Ummm no.... its 2:01'
'So is it nearly 3 o'clock?'

AAARRRGGHHH!!
'Yes nearly'
'I had better go and wait at the bus stop then - I need to catch a bus at 3 o'clock'

aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Hey - long time - no post!

2005-10-07T21:29:00.000+09:30

Well its almost been 1 month since I last sat down with 20-30 minutes spare to blog... Either time flies - or I have too many other things on the 'more important to do' list.

Well Im in my PJammers, and sitting comfortably so I shall begin,

mental block...

nothing funny springing to mind....

maybe I need to be in a hurry to be able to write something?

I guess I could tell about my really wonderful day of work at the greatest bakery in the world - and yes I do know that I quit 5 weeks ago - although my ex-bosses don't seem to understand the word.
So anyway when quitting 5 weeks ago, I foolishly said that if they needed someone to work desperately to give me a call and I would come in if I could...
Today was my 2nd friday shift - I only had 3 weeks off!

And as per usual it was a freaken shit fight from the minute I began till the minute I could escape.

The day I resigned there were 5 of us working the cream cake and mud cake section - this is how it progressed down hill from there....

Week 1; I left to pursue other things
Week 2 after I departed; Cara left having secured a job with her new qualifications - and good luck to her
Week 3 after I departed; Damien the supervisor of the section resigned having finally been given a long awaited position elsewhere
Week 4 after I departed; the new supervisor (1 day into the role) went out on STRESS leave!

Leaving only 1 personwho cant write on a cake and is a very slow decorator and is opening his own business in 3 weeks and is leaving then too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OH MY GOD! The greatest bakery in the world just cannot keep good workers, and although I often say I don't know why, I certainly do after a shift there on a friday.

You seriously just battle all day - Its running out of mud cake (pretty important thing in a MUD Cake section) by 10am and the sponge/mud maker boy just shrugs...
Or its that orders for 3 tier iced wedding cakes are still being faxed thru at 12:30pm for saturday weddings!....
Or that the upstairs office girls swear they sent down a particular ribbon for a birthday cake on tuesday and 'if you cant find it then thats not my problem' (hey Im only there to help after all...)
Or that the volume of the radio has to be so loud to be heard over the noise of ovens, mixers, trolleys and 40 employee's that you cant even hear your mobile phone in your pocket..

It really wears you down by the end of the day. A shit fight.

They offered me the position of supervisor too, said they would pay me hansomely - how's $50 bucks an hour and a car sound??? hee hee- seeing there is no one else who wants to do the job. When I first got there this morning and was refreshed from 6 days away from the place I seriously thought about doing it. Was perhaps even having wishfull daydreams that I could be at work and jon stay at home and be a house husband... Hang on a minute now!!! Another 11 more hours of work sure cured that fancy....

So anyway the poor suckers down there are still working as I write - and probably will be there till midnight (they started at 5am) - hmmm why dont I want to keep working there?
Luckily I have a one year old to get into bed on time - otherwise I would of still been there to.

One of the bonus' of working there is that you walk around alot - and on my pedometer today I did 21,000 steps. Whew. And I resisted all temptations of mud cake off cuts.

Well I had better get this posted, and pop off to bed - hard day at the office and all....

Did you know Gullible has been taken out of the dictionary?

2005-09-15T22:27:00.000+09:30

Here is what happened at Jon's work the other day:

Sharon (a cafe waitress) to Jon: "What are Chick Peas?"
(now for those who don't know Jon very well he can't resist throwing out that baited hook..)
Jon: "Well they are female peas"
S: "Huh?"
J: "There are female peas - called Chick Peas, and male peas - called Bloke Peas. The chick peas are ok for human consumption, but bloke peas are inedible and are fed to cattle.
S: (confused pause) "So what about the green peas then?"
J: "Well they are baby peas. When they reach maturity, there sex is decided - hence bloke and chick peas."
S:(pauses while digesting this marvel of nature) "Its all just too confusing" (and walks off shaking her head)
Jon and his co-worker could barely contain their laughter....

Jon was relaying the story to another worker a couple of days later, who then mentioned to Sharon that Jon was perhaps pulling her leg with the Chick Pea story...
Sharon replied to her that no he couldn't be lying as she had told friends at a dinner party the night before, about the Chick and Bloke Peas, and none of them had said that she was wrong - in fact they had all been impressed with her knowledge on the subject of peas....

Hee hee hee

Addicted.

2005-09-09T16:13:00.000+09:30

I'm addicted to Hi-5!!

After watching Oprah do a show taday on 'Addict Moms', I felt the strong need to come and tell all about my addiction.
Its pretty serious, and has some very bad repercussions. Like wasting hours of my weeks, taking precious time away from Lucy, not attending to cakes that need baking (and that Im getting paid to make!), it makes my arse larger and my eyes squarer...

Lucy has gone to my sister in laws for the day, as I have four cakes for this weekend, and having a fifteen month old hanging off your legs all day makes it very difficult.

So I have been on my own since 9am - running around, baking cakes, making chocolate slats and doing all the things you need to do to decorate a cake.

And as per usual I watch (and maybe cry a little) Oprah at 2-3pm, at 3pm Hewi is on, who I hate but he is just background noise, and then Judge Judy is on at 3.30pm, which is when I normally turn the TV over to Hi-5 for lucy to watch while I have 30 minutes of 'free' time.

So today being on my own and all you'd think that I could just turn the tele off after Oprah and go right on with my cake making.... no! I found myself turning the channel to see what song they were singing at the start of the show and then SITTING down to enjoy it.

You see you gotta check out what funky outfits the girls are wearing, how cute Tim is looking, what stupid moves Nathan does, what jup jup steals from Kathleen....

Mmmm thats Bad!

(The worst thing is I forgot what Tims name was, and just went onto their homepage (no its not in favourites!) to find out and then started looking through their webpage, its pretty good.)

I have also found myself on days when Lucy is home and she is watching Hi-5, sitting down to enjoy it with her. This is generally when she decides she has had enough and wanders off to find something else to destroy and I just sit there still watching.

According to Oprah, you need councelling if you have an addiction, wonder if there are any that specialise in this field?

The meaning of Life - well my life anyway!

2005-09-02T20:04:00.000+09:30

Well my news this time is that I have resigned from my position at the Greatest ever bakery!!
Hoo-bloody-ray!
I have been threatening to for weeks, well maybe months, and now it is done. My last day is on Sunday and hopefully it should only be a 3 - 4 hour shift.

We made this rather large decision on tugs evening, after I spent the day madly running round getting things organised for the next four, as I had to work extra days due to that special day just for men with offspring!
And my poor little Lucy was left to her own devices - which is not good for a 15 month old who can have the attention span of a goldfish with ADD!

By the end of the day we were both exhausted. Me from doing the washing thru to mopping floors and Lucy from trying to my attention all day. Then I had the prospect of getting up at 5.45am and going work.

Sooner or later somethings gotta give - and regrettably Lucy wont go back in!!

They were a little disappointed that I was leaving, even asking what they could do to get me to stay! And while this is the best compliment they could of given, there still is nothing so great that would keep me there. OH ok maybe for $50 an hour...

And anyway how could you NOT stay at home all day with this cute-drool encrusted-bather wearing on the outside-happy little girl!
I realise now that my time is meant for her and her incredibly fast, sponge like brain, and I can go to work outside the home when she is at school.
Also I'm lucky to have a skill that can and will be used at home, and now have about 8 cakes booked in for the next 6-7 weeks.

Already tonight I feel a lightening on my shoulders, and all the projects I have been meaning to do are suddenly popping back into my head, perhaps now I'm a 'lady of leisure' I should re-organise my superannuation... Now there's an idea for a quiet Saturday evening!!

Who knew that the ATO could help enhance your life!

2005-08-09T17:39:00.000+09:30

Notice something new???? Yes the colour has changed and a photo has been added.. and surprising as it may all seem the ATO really did help me to do this.

This year we decided that we would go to an accountant to lodge our tax, but at the last minute changed our minds and downloaded E-Tax off the net.
Having then spent an enthralling Saturday evening completing this tax return for both of us, we tried to lodge it on line, but this stoopid little error bar kept coming up showing that I had an error in sector/quadrant/ clingons-on-the-starboard-bow -V9999, and to go back and check all my 'imported data'!
(Having checked it 4 times it still wouldn't work, so we rang the help desk - ahh negative captain - they don't operate on weekends.)
So I rang today and got thru to this chick who couldn't pronounce her R's, which is almost funny when she starts to say things like quadruple - coming out something like Quadooople - hee hee.
Now that little error was sorted, another came up. So rang the help desk again, quoted my job number only to find that I would need a new one - thank goodness I don't have to deal in computer nerd speak all day it would drive me insane!
It turns out (after much promting to go into the little help word at the top to of your internet explorer) that we are running version 5 and not version 6!!!!!!!
So I then download said version 6, on a dial up, taking a grand total of 1 hour 17 mins. Finally its done - (but then I had to wait for the stupid installation)
My good news is that we are all lodged, and expect to be delivered something tidy from tax dudes. But a further bonus is that I now have the funky little bar thing at the top of my blogger screen and I can put photos on, hooooraaay!
So that means that you are now privileged to view recent masterpieces from my little lucy.... We like to call it ' Poo's afloat'.

Waiting...

2005-08-03T20:52:00.000+09:30

Having just spent quite a few hours with Karen this arvo, all I can say is 'Hurry up wigglebum and get the hell outa there!!'

We spent our hours today lazing about in the pools of the Adelaide Aquatic Centre, which is undergoing a desperately needed upgrade.
It was actually really good there, as there were hardly any ratty kids about, and we had the pools to ourselves - almost.

We then headed back to Kaz's, for mugachino's - yum. And a good browse thru the days junkmail and a little bit of ebaying...man I Love not working!

When I left they were getting ready for their appointment with "Dr Karen", and have since heard nothing... so maybe!

Anyway all I really want to say is 'good luck to the both of them'. I know it will be a tough few hours/day/s but in the end it will definately be worth it, and unbelievable all the pain will be forgoten as soon as 'wigglebum' emerges.

Cheers Karen, You wont beleive how strong you can really be!

...and then a big brown shark came...

2005-07-25T21:04:00.000+09:30

It was just a regular bath time, ducks were happily swimming, the flannel was floating and the tommee tippee squeezie fish were a squirting.
Happy giggles of laughter arose from the aqua playpen (otherwise known as 'bath'), and a cute little girl gleefully splashed her daddy.
Mummy was wandering round gathering the discarded toys of the days play, laying out fresh(ly ironed - NOT!) pjammers and fluffing teddy bears in readiness for a peaceful nights slumber
WHEN this idyllic family scene was shattered by the terrified yell of daddy....

"Ahh, gonna need a little help here!"

Well now it had to happen. We have all heard about it, the myths, the stories, the legends.
And finally it was our turn...

Lucy SHAT in the BATH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eeeewwwwww!

I raced in to find Lucy on the outside of the bath and on the inside of the bath a rather large sharkie and some bubby ones too.
All I could do was laugh, and I almost wet myself. Jon was giggling and Lucy was excitedly jiggling cos of all the commotion she had caused.
By the way Lucy was now on the outside of the bath as she had been intent on grabbing her new bath toys.
Eewww-eewww-eewww!

"What do we do now?"
Well we do what every good scrapbooker does - we take a photo!
After all this is a first in our small daughters life!

THEN we worry about just how to clean it all up.

Having never had to worry about this sort of thing before I pose this question to all our faithfull readers out there, Just how do you clean up shit floating in a bath?

Do you A: Scoop it out like a mature adult and dispose of it
thoughtfully

or B: Use that pasta server utensil thingy often found in drawer
no 2, that no-one ever uses!

or C: Pull the plug, let the water drain and squish it through
the grate, after all pipes are pipes - right?

Well who really cares cos I left that wee jobbie (hee hee poo joke) up to jon, as it seriously has to be a mans job!
He did mention tho that poo amazingly does not smell while under the cover of water, but regains its full power when dredged from the depths.
My face cheeks are hurting with all the giggling we have done tonight, as it has to be one of the funniest things I have experienced as a parent/adult.

Well must be off, BB uncut is on!!

Ohh and Jon informs me that it is possible to leave skid marks under water....not speaking from experience of course!

Strange...

2005-06-13T21:37:00.000+09:30

You know how excited I was to discover the funky setup by blogger... well bugger me but it doesnt work on my computer - obviously only on my dads! Come on Nerds help me out here!

My story today was going to begin a little differently, so please now ignore what you read above about me being very inept around these new fangled computer things, and read on....

SO I went to work this morning at 6am, which was pretty scary as I was the only one on and its been 3 years since I had arrived in the dark to a workplace all on my own, and seeing that this is in Richmond I was a little weirded out.
(FYI My work is four doors down from cart mania - yeah awful part of town)

I will go back a few hours in time and tell you that when I went to bed at 10pm I did say to Jon that I was worried about being there all on my own, and arriving in the dark.
I was worried for a few reasons -
1: I had to get out of my car and unlock the front gate
2: No-one told me if there was an alarm
3: N0-one had even told me where the light switches were!
(No-one being my 21 yr old, not yet qualified, superviser. Ha.)
I had a strong gut feeling, and they are usually right. Jon did say that if it was just a little later he would get Lucy up, and drive me down there, but 5:30am is just a tad early to be starting your day off with a one year old.

SO I arrive, get out, unlock the gate(alls ok no weirdo's hanging round). I unlock the front door (no alarm yet), change and go down to the bakery to begin work.
Luckily someone left 'A' light on, so I could just see my way round. So I skirted the walls looking for light switches, found many (8) only two worked, what a workplace!. Phew, I can see to work.
I cruised past the lockers, stopped, turned around and noticed that yes all of them were open and EVERYTHING that was once in them was now on the ground. You know that feeling you get when things just 'click' into place... well I got it.
Dum Dum Dum, our bakery had been ROBBED!
SHIT! I was here alone!
I then continued to look around, and saw other things that I had just walked by and not even noticed - the coke machine was smashed in, some food colour/flavour(very bright orange) was splashed across benches and the floor, and trays of pies had been walked across.
Bloody Hell. As if I was'nt freaked out enough...
I then heard a noise way down the other end of the bakery(otherwise known very fittingly as the dungeon - its very wet and dank as the crates and trays are washed down there).I didnt think much of it as I had been told that one of the workers would be coming in early and he always got in without a key! Great Security.
5 minutes later,he still hadnt wandered in.
FARK, hope it wasnt the robbers leaving...
So I did what any scared chick would do - I rang Jon and woke him up.
He said to call the police, but I didnt think it was my place. I would call the boss and let him handle it. But of course both bosses had their work phones off! (well it was 6:30am on a PH)
I thought that maybe I would lock back up, and go and sit at Cafe De Villis for 1.5 hours, as I knew someone was coming in then, and at $35 an hour I thought that was reasonable. But I also didnt wish to be at work for hours on end.
So I turned the radio up really loud,kept my bag and keys close by and peered round every corner before going round, Boy was I spooked!

At 8 the next lot of people came in, and all said the same 'wow' at being robbed', 'wonder what time it happened', everyone also felt a little freaked out to be there not long after it happend.

So the manager of SA's finest Bakery finally turned up at 9,and came down into the Bakery. He came and spoke to me first, which is odd in itself as Im the last person to be employed there???, didnt realise he liked me so much!
The first words out of his mouth were "So what about the burgulary hey?, We could'nt believe it when we got here yesterday"

WHAT THE....
Yes my friends, it happened the morning before and they left all the shit around for 24 hours so they could bring their camera in to take photos!
I was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
PISSED!
My words "Perhaps you could have left a note, so that all of us here this morning wouldnt of had to freak out so much! You wanker...(didnt actually say this, but really wanted too!)
He replyed by saying they didnt think it was necessary. Hmmmm - Got any work going steve?

So yeah, SA's finest bakery is a great place to work, they really respect their workers and try to do the best by them at all times. Yah Im glad I work there.

Thats my story, good huh?

PS: Sorry it was a long one.

A Review...

2005-06-12T11:06:00.000+09:30

Wow Ive just logged on and discovered that Blogger now has this fantastic new setup where you can change colours, fonts etc. Thats great!
Ive come to my mums to bake a fruit cake, as our oven and new kitchen situation just isnt moving very fast. And seeing that fruit cake takes about 3 hours to bake, I thought that it was a perfect time to sit and blog and catch up and Lucy has her container of sultanas and dried apple, so she is quiet.

So our new house is just great. We have settled in really well, and are even up to 'doing things' in the back garden like pruning and tidying, and putting a side gate up.
Our neighbour over the back is extending the height of the fence by about 30cm, as he can see Jon in the kitchen cooking. Jon did comment that he would have to remember that when he was cooking naked!! Ewwww. So if your ever over for dinner and you find a hair in your meal....

We had Kaz, James, Jacquie and Ella over for dinner last night, and started what we hope to be a long standing tradition of a card night every month or two (or three or four!). We didnt actually play cards, but we played a form of scrabble called "take two", which is faster moving.
We had a great night, with garlic prawns for tea, and kids asleep all over the house.
Stay tuned for the next date for cards...

Well my two cakes are now cooked and Im off home to do some maintainence. Well Im actually off to buy a composte bin, doorbell and a washing line - sigh! The young guys at work asked me if I had been to the new casino bar....? Hah! With a shopping list like the one above I dont think so sonny!
Catch ya when the mud dries mate.

We're In.

2005-05-31T21:15:00.000+09:30

Yes we finally made it!!
And its bloody fantastic, especially the ducted central heating. Sorry steve. Will write more later.
Lucy's first birthday went really well, the party was fun, and packing the dishwasher with all the dirty cups and dishes was even funner...
Will write more on this too, but later.

10 - 9 - 8...

2005-05-14T21:10:00.000+09:30

Well in just 10 whole days we will finally be in our new home. Hoo-bloody-ray.
We originally signed the contract with Michelle and Paul on the 24th Feb, and ironically are settling on the 24th May.
3 Months. Not anywhere near as long as Kaz and James, but still long enough to live in limbo land.
Our house at Fraser is looking very bare, as we begin to live on the bare minimum. And after this long weekend is over we will almost be living on the bones of our asses... (Ha - We wish).
We get the key to the garage on Mon and we will start moving our boxes and general crap in there, with only large items of furniture spending the last few days alone in the place while we clean.
Wow, have just re-read this and it is really boring... am going to go and get some sleep I think, as Im yawning so much its like Im chain yawning!!
Night...

SOLD-SOLD-SOLD

2005-05-01T20:46:00.000+09:30

Yes this time its definate! Hoo-bloody-ray!
Our settlement date is May 24th, but hopefully we will be able to get in on the long weekend. Stay tuned for more details.

Anyway on Friday 29th April James, Karen, Lou, Jon and myself toddled off to see the always funny Ross Noble at the playhouse.
My God! I have never laughed so hard that I got a headache! It would of have to have been the funniest show I have ever seen. And I know four other people who would state the same.
Our jaws and sides were aching, and this was only by interval.
It was $40 bucks well spent! Im so glad we went.

Well this can only be a shortie, as we have two weeks to pack and get the flock outa here. Yah.

SOLD!!!

2005-04-26T10:06:00.000+09:30

We think....

Well a long weekend is great, its probably even greater if you work full time, but still was good for me.
Both Jon and I had to work on Monday, and seeing as we were both being paid at $50 and $34 dollars an hour who can complain.

The weekend started off by me doing a mamoth 12.5 hour day on Friday, something that has'nt happened in 3 years, and boy was I knackered.
So saturday was a lazy day including coffee, the paper, bacon and eggs, my neices 2nd birthday party, yummy kids party food and karen and james for chicken and salad tea.
Sunday was spent in the garden for a much needed clean up, watering, composting and fertilizing session.
We had pretty much given up all hope of this damn place selling, so thought that we should start paying attention again to the garden in case we had to go on to the market in a few weeks time.
But of course karma always comes back to get ya, and just as we were coming inside at about 5.15pm with sore backs, aching hammys, dirty fingernails and a freshly planted vegie garden, our buyer Michelle rang.....
They had had an open between 3.45 and 4.45, and had just received an offer and they had accepted. Haleyuhiah brother!!
Of course no paperwork could be signed cos of the public holiday (bugger it), but if all goes according to plan it should be signed, sealed and delivered today.
Im still not getting my hopes up till later on when I officially hear the contract's signed, and then not till Thursday when the cooling off period has expired, but am still excited.

So if all goes to plan a settlement date should be set for 3 - yes 3 weeks time...
We want to move one week before the settlement, so we can clean this hovel up, so that means moving on the may long weekend, ARRRGGHH!
Of course we have packed NOTHING so far, as we didnt really believe it would actually happen. Will it didnt hippen overnight...

So yes my friends, we shall soon be in our lovelly new home. So be prepared for many a dinner party, BBQ (we are buying a new one!)and of course the 12 course degastation dinner...keep october in mind.

Well must dash, as my little blond alarm clock it going off.

PS. Is everyones bedside alarm clock as unreliable as ours? Do they all just forget to go off sometimes? Or is it just our bad luck, as this is the third one to do it...
Two mornings in a row we have been late to work!

gktlkl*ljl( lsjg$lkms@ gja''j..................................zzzzz

2005-04-18T20:44:00.000+09:30

Phew...thank goodness that fortnight is over! My brain is completely scrambled due to lack of sleep and well just doing what I do best, squeezing far too much in. Hence I had no idea what to call this blog, so I wrote what I was feeling.

My fortnight of hell started thursday 7th April...first day back at work in 11 months.
Then friday it was up at 5.50am, an hour of the day I hadnt seen ohh in 3 years, to do it all again.
Then off to scrap camp, scrapping scrapping all day till 1am.
Coming home only meant wifely stuff... washing, ironing, none of that!! and plenty of etc.
I then had to begin and finish (in 3 days) a wedding cake, that was in the planning for 6 months but the procrastinating princess like I am left it all to the last minute. I had SIX mudcakes to cook in our crappy oven (Shhh dont tell the new owners!!)and icing flowers to finish.
We went to Kaz and James for tea on Wed, came home and got ready for that exciting event called 'work'.
Thursday saw me decorating from 8am until midnight, and up at 6am to work again.
Had a quick 20 min granny nap on the couch, before going out for dinner, bed midnight.
Saturday was planned by the hour. Up at 8, finish cake!!! Leave at 11, to deliver cake to Outer Harbour, Meeting at 1 - enfield, hair app. at 3.30 - TTG, dinner out at 7.30 - elizabeth ( Lucy was cued to spew at 7 and she did! Hooray.) Bogan party to attend until 2- magill. Call me the Layland brothers.
Sun was meant to be a monarto day with Jac, Cam and Ella, but due to a lucy attending a sleepover at nanna's, and a hangover that grabbed jon by the balls, we slept in till 9.30am (a very quiet yah, cos it really was exciting to sleep in so late)and had to give it a miss, mainly due to a time and cost of petrol equasion, and one VERY grumpy miss.
We spent the arvo with Jons mum and don, then hurried to a very draining meeting with the 'perhaps' future owners of our house, and then hurried to house warming at my sisters new rental flat!!
Ye Gads! We just didnt stop. I really thought that our life would slow down after scouting, but it just doesnt!!
Ohh yeah I forgot to mention that in amongst all of that I had to feed, wash, change nappies, entertain, cuddle, pat to slee[, chase around, tell off and generally look after a 10 month old.
Its no wonder tah t (whoops) I feel brain dead. I have had 7 cups of coffee today and still dont feel any better.
Must go now and sleep, wake me when its all over!

PS Congratulations to Neil and Adrienne.... Pitter Patter, Pitter Patter :)

Scrapped!

2005-04-11T11:49:00.000+09:30

Well its now boringly monday morning - The day always seems like such a let down after one really good weekend.
As most people know I went Scrapbooking ALL weekend, and it was GREAT!
It was held up at Mylor Conservation Park, in the YHA hut, which got a little hot and humid on sat. Especially with 14 women all sitting in an area the size of my lounge with NO airconditioning.
Lou came with me, and we both had a funny, yet productive time.
Sat night was themed, as all good camps are, and this one was 'enchanted forest'. So of course lou and I planned to go as naughty pixies.
But as the day got warmer and warmer, a beer run was organised (by us of course), and by the time it was time to dress up we were both pretty giggly, HEE HEE, So our theme then had to change to 'drunk pixies that had been kicked out of the pixie clan for selling mushies'.
It was a very funny evening, and when photos of us all were being taken, of course it was very clear we had to keep up the 'act' of being naughty and be naughty!
Eventually a vote was held for best costume, and unsurprisingly Lou and I came second and first.
It turned out to be a pretty productive weekend for both of us, and we had a great time too.

Jon had a 'daddy-daughter'weekend and looked after Lucy from Friday evening to sun arvo. Im sure they had a fun time too, but jon got a taste of what its like for me all the time at home, Hee Hee. Things never seem to go as planned, do they Jon?

Michelle had another open on her house this weekend, and we noticed that they have dropped the price by $5000. Hmm its no bottle of grange, but its a start.

BTW I got a job!!!! Im now back at Micheles Patisserie, working on Thurs and Fridays. And I had my first two days there last week.
It was very strange to be back, almost 3 years to the day that I left, and it felt like I had never left. Although my back muscles noticed that I havent worked for a year, and they soon told me!!

Well I must be off, as I have a wedding cake to do this week and time is ticking away...

Owning Up!

2005-04-04T17:29:00.000+09:30

I would really like to take all the credit and applause for my geniusness at being able to work out how to do the links, but it all must go to my dad. Who I might say didnt know how to do them either, but is clever enough to figure it out.
I on the other hand was setting the dinner table and still have no idea how the hell it is done. Will work it out one day.

On to other news... I am beginning to set myself up for dissapointment. Michelle only had 4 couples thru her house on the weekend :(
For some unexplained reason people just dont want to buy her house, even though it is a really nice place, selling for a really reasonable price. (I know someone else feeling the same frustration!)
She had 3 different couples come thru DURING THE WEEK last week, and not one has put in an offer.
Our settlement date is drawing ever closer, May 5, but she has to have a contract by April 21st. ARRRGH.
Soon Im going to have to start relying on those stoopid chain emails for good luck!
Hmmmm.

RES-ERECTION

2005-04-02T17:28:00.000+09:30

Un-fricken-believable!
How can a person forget their blog password TWICE!

Well kiddies (as the gringo is known to say) Im back...New password and all, Ahh you can all breathe easy now.

Lots has happened since I forgot my password, my little lucy is now 10 months old, we have sold our house and hopefully purchased another - much nicer one, and gotten lost in the bush. An all round busy time.

Another thing that happened was that I celebrated my 29th Birthday. Now it may not sound that great, but Im pleased its not my 30th, How OLD are those people!Hee Hee.
I received lots of wonderful gifts, in particular the saffire ring from jon, but the one I really want to mention is the...
brace yourselves cos Im gonna have to nerd it up... USB Flash Driver!
Jons dad lent us a 'zip drive' so that I could 'back up' all my recipes I had 'data entried' and all my cake photos I have 'scanned', as we dont have a 'CD burner' on our computer. I hadnt even got around to using it when we went to their house for lunch to celebrate my birthday, and my present was a 'USB Flash Drive'.
Its pretty cool, although I must admit that I had no idea what it was when I opened the present, I did the typical comment for presents your not really sure about - "ohh, its a Flash Driver?".
But once it was explained, I was pretty pleased with my nerdy self.
I was even more pleased to discover that even James (gadget king) didnt even have one!
(We have just realised that if I was a true 'nerd' I would have James' name highlighted and linked to his web page. But I honestly have no idea how that magical kind of thing is done.)
So anyway, today marks 27 days since receiving said 'USB Flash Driver' and I still have no idea how to work the bloody thing!
I have put the little 'CD' in the little ini-outi tray in the 'tower', have 'installed' it, but from there *shrug of shoulders*. HELP. I may have to get a true 'nerd' to come and help me.
Jons dad is another gadget king and would have insalled it and played with it on the very day he received it, not this little black duch though. It took me 24 days to even get it out of the packet, and he thinks I have been merrily using it all along. Whoops. Will have to lie at the lunch tomorrow.

Well gotta go and be a mum, but let me warn you - I have BIG plans for this Blog. Im about to go and learn how to put photo's up on it -I know, I can hear you all saying 'nerd' under a cough, but you just wait and see...

Boot Party Bloo's...

2004-08-31T11:57:00.000+09:30

Well the question I first off have to ask is that were the Rover parties and Boot parties better when we were in rovers, or is it just because we were in Rovers (and not oldboys)?
If I had been asked that question 5 days ago I would have replied that Rover parties are fantastic, lots of laughter, fun and for some parties nudity. There is drinking, and being stupid and endless other great things.
BUT now I have just been to a 'current Rovers' party, Im now very unsure of what my answer would be.
The party in question was the Boot party of our dear friends Jel, Gemma and Jay. While it was a good party, and lots of laughter was heard and lots of drinking and being stupid was also being done, it just didnt seem to measure up to the parties we were reminiscing about. So was it that our era's parties were better or just that we are older and have different types of parties? Hmmm one to ponder over a wine...

I will pass one comment on the activities at the party, there was a rousing game of hakey sac being played indoors...! Laughter was heard while watching , and people were holding drinks, not sure what kind of liquid though. I know they were having fun, but outside (yes just out the doors) was a steaming, bubbling hot spa - completely empty!!!
Perhaps there was a large amount of prize money being awarded to someone when they won the game of hakey sac(?), or maybe they just missed seeing the spa on their way in?
Or maybe Im older then I really feel!!

PS. We did have a great time though, us old boys ( and a few current older rovers) happily chatted outside while watching other old boys in the spa!!
Oh yes and the two children at the boot, slept in their prams pretty much the whole night!

Lea
xx

Feeling Old!

2004-08-27T22:14:00.000+09:30

Yes thats right, tomorrow night we are off to the one event that can only make you feel older and older each succesive one you go to... a Rover Boot Party.
We are off to spend a 'quiet' evening with some Rover friends reminising about days of old. And boy am I looking forward to it!
Bloo Rovers are booting Jel, Gemma and Jay, hence the JJJ Boot and Spa party. Quoted by Jaquie Rhul as legendary.

The strange thing about this boot party though is that this will be the first one we attend as dum dum de dum PARENTS!! OMOI Gawd Habib!
I remember the times at previous boot parties seeing other 'old' rovers bringing their littlies along, putting them to bed in a sleeping bag in the back room, and going home a little earlier and a little less drunk, and thinking 'man, what a strange place to drag a kid along too'.
Funny how the wheel of life has turned and Im now that 'old' rover.... I sit here gumbled (?) ah I mean humbled, and tired too!

Well little lucy has now learnt to put those great things that wave in front of your face (hands) into her mouth, and that they taste good too.
Good for sucking on when all other things fail to amuse.
She is also a very determined young lady who is not happy to be lying down anymore when she can sit up and view her world. She even strains forward and grunts (much like doing poos - sorry non parents reading this!) when she wants to sit up!
The mobile above her change table also continues to be a never ending round and round of amusement, she loves it so much it makes her chuckle and snort with laughter. She especially loves the cow, or she may not and its just her insane parents-who-think-thay-have-the-most-intelligent-baby-ever-syndrome.
Now that I have actually written that she snorts with laughter, Im left wondering just how she knows that (snorting) is a good thing to do when laughing? Hmmm.
It sounds absolutely hilarious though.

Well must be off, my crying alarm clock has just paged me!!
Lea
xx

Television Viewing at its Best...

2004-08-18T13:02:00.000+09:30

Well now that the school holidays are over and Big Brother has finished, the viewing on evening TV has become 'deplorable', to quote BB itself!
On Saturday night the big movie feature for Channel 9 (I think), was the good old back up, yes you guessed it "TRUE LIES". Only showing for at least the 100th time. It is a movie that even I could recite word for word, and thats saying something!
Then last night (also channel 9) was 'Fear Factor' Playmate Special, no words are needed for this. And this coming Saturday nights movie is "Paulie". Again. Even CSI is being run from the very first episodes, and they are advertising 2 hour specials. Is there nothing else? So as you can tell its prime time viewing, it may well be time to start going out again...

I also wanted to put on this blog about one of my other interests at the moment, weight watchers. Im trying to shift the weight that I gained from being a lazy slob while preggers with my little honeybear. The problem with my weight that it will NOT shift.
I just weighed in this morning only to find that I have gained a kilo, shit.
I have been so good this week, walking most days, eating right, watching my portion sizes. It does not want to budge. I have been attending for 6 weeks now and I havent lost a thing, I have put on one kilo! I was so depressed this morning that i cried...
Although I know that I cant give up cos that will only make it worse.
Oh well will have to keep plodding along again this week and see what happens!

Lea
xx

The Final Bonfire

2004-08-15T19:09:00.000+09:30

Well yesterday we had the final bonfire up at One Tree Hill. And it was a beauty!
We cooked a stew with dumplings, and also had soup (reheated on the fire) and bread, and I did a spiced apple damper, followed lastly by toasted marshmallows. What a feast.
I also downed TWO cans of bundy rum... which is a big ask. Its been so long since Ive been able to do that, so long let me tell you, that I had forgotten about the, ahem, little morning after ritual after drinking copious amounts of bundy. And apprently two cans was a copious amount for me!
So after spending a day scrapping, a bonfire was a great end to the day.

The other thing that happened today was that I had the feeling of joy about my very settled and domesticated life.
Kayla is house sitting my parents new rental property until they move in on wed this week, she has been there since last thursday, and has made herself very much at home living like it's her first place after moving out of home.
While there today, after dropping a load of goods off, she offered us tea, and said that she would cook.
When asked what culinary delights she would be serving up, her reply was "chevapchichi's", intrigued we then asked what would be accompanying them, her reply.."bread".
'Just bread?' "Yeah chevapchichi sandwhiches, how good are they?"
'Perhaps you might like a little butter or sauce with those...? '

Thankfully I can come home to my own very domesticated, settled
(and some may say boring) home and have a great meal of sweet potato and lentil curry and rice for tea!!
I had forgotten the about the foods of the young and newly moved out!

lea
xx

Big Raspberry to Jon..

2004-08-13T13:40:00.001+09:30

Just wanted to add this comment in to jon... my loving husband???

MY BLOG SITE DOES NOT LOOK GAY! ITS PRETTY AND PINK AND GIRLY, AND FOR THAT MATTER IS MINE! AND I'LL DO WHAT I LIKE.

(insert big raspberry blowing sound, cos if i could spell it i would!)

lea
xx

"I have hands"

2004-08-13T13:18:00.000+09:30

Yes, my litte honeybear dicovered her hands this morning...

Last night we could see that she saw something moving that may or may not be conected, but today when her hands moved her eyes followed and a look came over her face as if to say "what was that?", and the process repeated until a smile appeared, ooh ahh.
Very Exiting progress in the world of a 11 week old.

Well this week has been exiting week, cos we finally got our car back from the crash repairs, after driving round in a 2 door barina for the past 2.5 weeks!! And it looks lovely, but feels like driving a semi after the little shit box.
The other exiting thing was that Jacquie, Ella, Lucy and myself went on a day trip to marion shopping centre. Which is an amazing place, if you love to shop.
We really didnt get much shopping done as we spent most of the day feeding two hungry little girls, always at odd times too. But it was still a good day, with a few bargains thrown in from Pumpkin Patch.

Tomorrow lucy and I are off to my mums for the weekend to stay. We are helping them pack up to move on Wed next week, and although it is easier to drive back and forth then pack for a weekend away, we know it will be the last weekend we stay up in one tree hill. Quite sad really...

My weight watchers is going ok, I lost .9kg this week, and am determined to lose same again if not more nextweek. I am only having 18 points per day all this week. Very low. But it is really to pay back the points we had on Wed. At marion Jac and I both had chinese for lunch, so when I got home I cooked a veg rissotto for tea, but not sure what I did cos it was DISGUSTING! No flavour, and the vegies all tasted liked they had been boiled for a week.
I had also used up all veg in the house,so we couldnt cook anything too healthy and by then we were really over cooking anyway, sooo
we had Hungry Jacks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and by god it was delicious!
So now Im paying for it! But it was truley worth it.

Well must go and have a healthy tuna and salad sandi for lunch, before begining the mamoth task of packing for 2 large people and one very small people (who's lugguge is strangley the opposite way round??)
Lea
xx

Begin Again...Begin Again...Begin Again..

2004-08-12T13:42:00.000+09:30

So, I have!

I stupidly forgot to write down the pass word to my other blog, and have forgotten it!
And after contacting the 'help' department, I got a website address like this

"Pp9a-yzj6McxcdCq&u=4144003"

Which led NO WHERE!!!!
Man who would be a computer nere anyway, its far too confusing.
So after many attempts of both jon and I typing in as many catch words that we could think of, there was still no luck in discovering the correct password to the old blog. So I did the thing that my dad (and all good computer jokes)always says helps you out of any sticky situation with a computer 'get out and get back in again!'

So here we are with attemp No 2. And yes I have managed to write down the password this time.

Cheer's
Lea

Hogan Adventures

whats going on....

Ha.....

Ways in which you know your a MUM.... 2

A complete clean out

Ways in which you know your a MUM

Back...

Good golly and gee willakers....

Ahhh - Some free time to blog....

4 sleeps to go....

Walking to the Bay...

Cant look - but cant tear my eyes away....

Time is want to do that - FLY....

This time....

Putting my thoughts out there....

Latest member of the Humphries Clan

Check out my new do......

Little sister.....& other things

The heir to my title turns the Big 3!

yah!

Don't they always say it - the way to ruin the 'Mood'....

Guess what my mum did????

just give me second while I claw my way back up to the keyboard...

She's here!

Hear Ye - Hear Ye

39+4

Hows this for a big ol boost to your confidence?

Ya-Hoo-Hey We're Going on Holiday...

Mo-Vember is done....

**Gingerbread Fest 2006**

Catching up...

Freedom is great - but is it worth it???

Long Weekend Recovery

Now honestly...Why wouldn't you have one!

"Its a ......"

Welcome.

Is there a Doctor in the house?

Sick & Tired!

Lock in 'C' Eddie.....

Rest In Peace

Stop! Rewind..... I didn't get a mention!

The Shedley....

Question Time....

Cancel all Search Parties.... I'm Back!

ThirtyThirty

Jon turns the big 30...

Whiiizzzzzz....

EEwwww!

Seasons Greetings

So little time - So much to do...

Life with Little Lucy Loo

Perryn Samuel!

Why are we waiting? We are suffocating...

Waiting...

Under Pressure

A Pox upon us all....

Is it 3 O'clock yet?

Hey - long time - no post!

Did you know Gullible has been taken out of the dictionary?

Addicted.

The meaning of Life - well my life anyway!

Who knew that the ATO could help enhance your life!

Waiting...

...and then a big brown shark came...

Strange...

A Review...

We're In.

10 - 9 - 8...

SOLD-SOLD-SOLD

SOLD!!!

gktlkl*ljl( lsjg$lkms@ gja''j..................................zzzzz

Scrapped!

Owning Up!

RES-ERECTION

Boot Party Bloo's...

Feeling Old!

Television Viewing at its Best...

The Final Bonfire

Big Raspberry to Jon..

"I have hands"

Gingerbread Fest 2006