Come back, I miss you!

I’m easily frustrated, but also easily pleased. That last part makes my husband happy.  I’m one of those people that NEED everything in a set or the rest must go, or at least go into hiding until the missing piece resurfaces. I’m having issues with this at the moment. A cooking knife block set that I bought Christmas 2010 has been missing the utility knife for the last few months. The knife block sits right beside my kettle and as I’m a little addicted to coffee, I see this reminder of imperfection in my house many times a day.

Now if you saw my kitchen, you would realise that the missing knife is the least of the imperfections. The lino is so old it’s worn in places to floor boards. The previous owners weren’t the best of cooks and melted some of the paint on a wall cabinet and burnt the ceiling above the stove. When we had our new roof installed the tradesmen went through the ceiling, so we have an unpainted square patch on the ceiling. The kitchen is so small that we literally have to unpack the table and chairs for each meal and then pack them up again so we can walk through to the back door in between meals.  I could go on, but it’s too depressing to think about, which is why I just concentrate on the missing knife.

I really love the design of the knife block as it fits nicely on my itty bitty benchtop and am prepared to purchase a whole new one if need be. I’ve gone back to the shop where I purchased it, but of course they no longer stock them. I’ve looked on the net, but again no luck.

My husband likes that I’m fixated on the missing knife, as it stops me thinking of and designing a new kitchen which we really cannot afford, but after 10years of paying off and living in a house that always needed a new kitchen, a girl can dream.

My previous fixation was an attachment to my vacuum. All my attachments click into the back. After a car cleaning mission one weekend, this particular attachment went missing. Every time I used that damn appliance I was reminded of its imperfection. Over time I was convincing myself I needed a new vacuum.

Near on twelve months I missed that thing until recently when again my husband was cleaning out his work ute and low and behold, out pops my missing attachment. My life was complete for a moment……until I went to celebrate with a coffee and was reminded of that bloody utility knife!

Tooth Fairy

The tooth fairy is pretty bloody slack at our house. She often either forgets or has prior commitments whenever my kids lose a tooth. Between fairy meetings, fairy play dates and fairy balls, when does she expect to have time to collect the baby teeth of the world? In saying that though, she is pretty understanding at times too.

A couple of times my kids have lost teeth in school accidents and the teeth could not be found. My kids wrote heartfelt notes explaining why there was no tooth under the pillow. It was adorable to watch how concerned they were that they didn’t have a tooth to surrender.

One weekend last year, we went on a family holiday at my GrandMIL’s hut at Cape Upstart which is about 30mins boat ride from the mainland. Miss 6 lost a tooth and again the tooth fairy was pretty slack . Who knew she wasn’t keen on flying over water? She was pretty clever though not to mention game, getting a helicopter to fly her over and while we all ran outside to see the helicopter, the tooth fairy snuck down (in broad day light), took the tooth and left money in the windowsill.

Miss 6 was so impressed by the tooth fairy’s effort, she still tells people about this story J

I'm With Him...

On the Thursday before Christmas all five kids had a cold to varying degrees. I got an appointment for the worst two to see a doctor (Master 9wks and Miss 6).

The doctor decided to put bubby into hospital overnight for observation. Which sounds wonderfully attentive of him, but I had four other kids to think about.

My husband was out mowing lawns for our clients and of course it's Christmas so everyone needs their lawns mowed. He was already behind in mowing the lawns due to rain and unexpected overtime at his other seasonal job. My mum had injured herself so she couldn't look after them, my grandmother is 84 and certainly couldn't handle 4 boisterous kids.

I went from the private Medical Centre across the road to the public Hospital. Filled out all the paperwork and was allowed to go home to collect my 2yr old from daycare, bath and feed the kids and wait for hubby to come home before returning to hospital for a sleepover.

Bub and I got room number 1, right near the nurses station. There weren't many patients in the hospital and bub being only 9weeks old all the nurses were coming in to visit the baby. I would have to say it was the nicest stay in hospital I've ever had. For once I wasn't the patient, I was the patient's handbag :)

As our Hospital is a learning hospital I had not one but three Hospital doctors come in to see me in the morning. One of them said that bub's stats had been good overnight and that they weren't doing anything in hospital that I couldn't do at home. I was waiting for him to say that we could go home, but instead he said that he'd come back and check in with us in the afternoon. BUGGER! Here I was thinking I'd be home by 9am.

Without a TV in the room, I got to lye in bed all day and read my book (that I was given at Christmas 2010 and I'd taken into hospital with me when I had bub in Oct but still never got to read). I read the whole book while I was in there and was only really interrupted for feeds....mine and his. Don't tell my hubby this, but I LOVED it! I got uninterrupted sleep and food brought to me. For once these holidays I didn't have someone calling out "MUUUUUMMMM".

If I'd known that I'd be in hospital all day though, I'd have got hubby to drop us off at the hospital so at least he could have the family car. Now not only did hubby have to take the day off work, but he was literally stuck at home with the kids.

4pm came and I asked a nurse if the doctor was coming back. All she could tell me was that he'd be over after he'd finished at out-patients.

8pm came and I asked a different nurse and explained the situation of having more children at home to take care of. She kindly went off to find and speak with the doctor. He came back apologising, but also making the comment that he'd have been to see me earlier if people would stop trying to kill themselves.

I guess that puts my problem into perspective.

He told me to take bub home and said that if it were up to him we wouldn't have been admitted in the first place. I said that I was hoping he'd have let us go home in the morning. His reply was that he thought I wanted to stay in.

Maybe the dark puffy rings under my eyes made him think I could do with some sleep? lol

Where's the Wisdom?

I was one of those thumbsucking kidlets. I really really wanted to stop but just couldn't kick the habit until a really bad cold made the choice for me. I was 11yrs old and if I wanted to breathe, then I couldn't suck my thumb. I remember sleeping with my hand under my bum, propped up on a pillow willing myself to sleep. After the third night, it was a new habit and you'll be glad to hear I haven't looked back since :)

Now as most know where there's a thumb in the mouth there's usually dental bills to follow. In year 12 I was taken to the orthodontist who told me that I'd need 6 teeth removed ( four wisdoms and the one behind the eye tooth). Then I'd need spacers put in between my bottom teeth and a butterfly clip thingy attached to my top teeth to spread them out over time. Then I would need braces.

Being 16 this was all a bit daunting for me and my narrow mouth. I opted not to do it, putting up with my overbite. I now know it was a very silly mistake to not have had all the work on my mouth done. Why? I hear  you ask... those bloody wisdom teeth are driving me crazy. At least 3 times a year my bottom RHS tooth gets infected and is so at the moment. It is so very very painful. Good for weightloss though as I really don't feel like opening my mouth....

In 2010 I again went to the orthodontist to see what could be done about my overbite and nothing much has changed. I was given the same advice as last time, which I kind of expected. Unfortunately for me, now I would have to fork out the money for it, instead of mum and dad.

On the advice from my dentist, I went to see the oral surgeon. He was happy to do my wisdom teeth removal telling me that my teeth were in a good position and should be easy to remove.

At the same time, I was also booked in to have lap band surgery, so I figured I could do a two for one surgery and as the recovery is the same for both ie: no solids for at least two weeks, I could come out of surgery being a "new" me.

Both surgeons were happy to do this for me, I was so very excited. Then the bloody anesthetist refused to do it. He was worried that I'd get an infection from having two surgeries done at once. Pfft like what's it to him?

I really needed that lap band, so the wisdom teeth removal went on the back burner. By the time I was physically able to go back at have the wisdom teeth removal, I was pregnant.

My bub is now 11weeks old and I've already warned my husband that this year those wisdom teeth are going. No excuses!

2012 Day 1

What a great start to the new year. I was up with my girls  after the midnight fireworks finished, watching Can't Stop The Music. A childhood favourite of mine. We spent the afternoon at the beach. Some of us fishing, some playing in the sand, some going for walks. It was a really lovely afternoon. What I really dislike about beach trips, is all the sand that comes home with us. In the clothes and sometimes nether regions. In the carpet and car seats ggrrr. A day at the beach is usually followed by a day cleaning the car. Same goes for boats and atv's though and my husband wonders why I'm not keen to buy either.