A walk in the park.....

Today we went to the park. She's at that age now where Activities with a capital A become a priority - no longer is she content to just sit around while mummy watches telly and does some washing.... if I want her to have a decent sleep then Activity is the key - tire her out and hopefully she'll be out for the count. So onwards to the park on this lovely (if not a little windy) Autumn day.




Apparently she hasn't quite realised yet that it's more fun to come down the slide

Welcome to our newest addition!!

Today is truly a magical day dear readers - today we made it into the 20th Century. After we both had ignored the washing up (again) for five days in a row and we could no longer spot the kitchen bench and we'd run out of forks........ I decided it was time to plunge ourselves even further into debt and get ourselves a dishwasher. We haven't looked back. Officially it's my mothers day present (though hubby knows that if I don't actually also get something on the day to unwrap there will be tears..... come on, you know there will be)..... however, I haven't actually had a chance to load it, use it, or unload it yet. Hubby is still in 'novelty' mode and has been loading and unloading it twice a day - I've decided to let him, from past experience this novelty will wear off in about a week or two (the car got washed religiously every weekend when we first got it, now it probably gets washed twice a year!!!).


Now we just have to renovate the kitchen to bring it into the 21st Century - check out that lino!!!

Transitioning to one nap....

Hello dear readers,
My little poppet is sort of transitioning to one sleep - but still quite early in the day - waking about noon. So by 4pm, we really don't like her to go down for a nap (she'll be awake til midnight if we do!!!) but she is exhausted. It's hard to deny her a nap though when this is what happens when you're trying to keep her awake!! And no, she had not had any of the beer you see in the background!!

And so we relented.....



We'll give her half an hour before we turn the telly up to blaring and scare the living daylights out of her


(I'm just kidding people....)

Disclaimer: Barbie products not condoned in our household. This sofa bed being relocated to Nan and Granddad's house at the earliest convenience!!!

Dear Charlotte...

Dearest Charlotte,
It seems just yesterday - and yet a lifetime ago too - that I held you in my arms for the first time. Where has the year gone my baby? You have given your Daddy and I so much happiness over the past twelve months and we love you so very much.

I want to tell you how much you mean to us and how much you make us laugh... that squeal of excitement that we get first thing in the morning is worth the 5am wake-ups (well usually!!).

I want to tell you how much your Nanna would have loved meeting you - and how she is your own personal guardian angel - always watching over you.

I want to tell you how hard it is not to laugh now you are learning the concept of 'tantrum' and how I have to leave the room when you clench your fists and stamp your feet - just so you can't see me smile ... you have a mind of your own and I foresee years of asserting your independence ahead of you!!

I want to tell you that you have changed your Mummy and Daddy's lives forever - and only for the better. The sleep-ins, the relaxing holidays, the dinners without interruption, the countless other things we have 'lost' ..... those things pale in comparison to the endless joy that you've brought to our lives.....

We love you big one-year old girl...xoxo

Happy Birthday Monkey

Our beautiful little monkey turned one yesterday. I had decided to take the day off work to celebrate with her and what a delightful day we had. We spent some time with friends, went and bought some more pressies (because Dave and I had given them all to her about 2 weeks ago in excitement!!). Here is a photo of Charli and I - a bit blurry...... you try holding a one year old still!!



There was opening pressies on first waking up - forgive the 'bed hair'... :)




There was much fun to be had playing with toys that we'd given her - Dave and I may have been having more fun than her - it was hard to tell......

Happy Easter.... again!

Good afternoon dear readers - and a happy easter sunday to you all. I do hope the easter bunny was kind to you this morning. We had lunch at our place with Dave's family today. Charli girl was allowed one egg - she was fairly unimpressed actually and was more interested in trying to fish out the toy that was inside!! here's our family easter photo...


And here she is just playing on her own with her little wagon..... cute huh?

You mean we're supposed to TALK to each other??

What worries me most about this cartoon and the fact that I find it funny is that it's a little too like our lives!! :)

Happy Easter!!

Dear Readers,
here's to you all having a lovely easter - and I hope the Easter Bunny is kind to you all. Dave and I aren't giving each other eggs this year - it's all about Charlotte from here on in. So we got her a KinderSurprise - she's allowed one egg (she is after all, not even one yet). Well actually, truth be told, Dave bought two and has just devoured his now. Mostly I think he wanted to put together the toy that is inside....... we are taking bets on what this little fellow is meant to be.... anyone?

Okay, I'll start the ball rolling..... I'm sorry, and yes Libby I am perverted, but this is definitely a penis on wheels ...... go on, say it doesn't look like a male appendage twirling some bicycle wheels, I dare ya??

Turn it up Mum!!!

Good evening dear readers,
How are we all this evening? I, as per usual, am super-tired, but thought I should take this opportunity while child and husband are both asleep, to update you on my hip daughter - shown here listening to some toons......


In an attempt to capture the 'bopping' that was going on (and hence the blurriness of the photo), I took some video footage..... but haven't worked out how to link that yet..... stay tuned.

post drought

Good evening dear readers,
I've been in a bit of a posting slump of late...... a lot of it has to do with just wanting to enjoy life a bit without having to record it... but I understand there are some of you who are feeling a bit lost without my blogs... go on Lib, you can admit it!! :)

So, a boring post tonight... see these letters?




We bought them for Charlotte to play with on the fridge.... so far I've found them in the tupperware container, in the coke box, under the fridge, in the lounge stuffed under the lounge chair cushions...... at any one time there's usually only 4 letters ON the actual fridge....Dave looked at me while I was pulling some out of the cupboard and said "parenthood isn't anything like I imagined it would be but I love it anyway" - well that's lucky!!! :)

New yard owner rediscovers childhood!!

Evening dear readers - quick post tonight to remind you all just how happy I am with our new backyard (thanks Peter, Peter's sons - Nick and Joel yeah?, and Craig the bobcat man!!). I have rediscovered my child side!! Goodbye anal-retentive, a-type-personality and hello fun-loving mummy!! Every afternoon for the past 3 days has been spent outside, frollicking in the grass with charlotte and our neighbours' little girl (who is one year older than charlotte). Zahri and I have trekked up and down those new stairs a gazillion times (she's in the the 'i love stairs' phase!!). I've tried teaching her to roll down a hill sideways (I had forgotten how much fun that was!!) and last but not least I did a cartwheel, a few handstands and a somersault. Of course, I forgot (having not done one for bloody 20 years!) that you are meant to take the weight of your body on your hands NOT your neck..... result? severe whiplash on my first day of enjoying the backyard followed by 2 days of mersyndol attempting to stop my neck from spasm-ing!!! Dave called me 'old girl'.... my ego was wounded - ha ha ha - I don't feel my age - why should I act it...... anyway just wanted to tell you all how much I love grass... oh and stay tuned... Dave has plans for a treehouse, a suspension bridge, a slide and a sandpit..... backyards rock!!

Take a moment to feel the grass beneath your feet...

Hello dear readers, tonight I write to you with a song in my heart - yes, the landscaping that we've been 'getting around to' for six years now (until we finally came to our senses and paid a wonderful landscaper to do) is nearly completed. Well, okay, the plants are yet to be planted and the sand pit is yet to be filled with sand... but you get my drift. They say a picture speaks 1000 words, so I'm going to leave you with the visual.....


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Day X of landscaping

Okay dear readers - no idea what day we're up to with the landscaping - we lost quite a few days in there when the rains came..... but we're back on track now, the ground had sufficiently hardened (actually baked would be a better word as we have clay soil), and the turf will probably be laid next Monday... but don't hold me to that!!

You'll note the outhouse is still there - well we've changed our minds yet again and we're ditching the outhouse in our kerbside cleanup next week and replacing it with a much more functional (but of much less sentimental value - from an architectural point of view that is) 3x3 colorbond shed - yet to be purchased. We think it's important to have the shed - with so little to argue about in our lives, Dave and I will be able to argue about who hasn't put the screwdrivers back where they belong and why is the tape measure not in the allotted tape measure space. Of course these will all be my issues - anal retentive A-type personality that I am. I even have a peg board in mind - you know, replete with the painted on tool shadows so you know exactly where the tools are meant to be? *sigh*




So here are the updated photos - wall complete, ground ready for new lawn and Carla madly planning which plants are going to go where and how big is my (I mean Charlotte's) sandpit going to be!!

Til next time dear readers....

I always wanted a swimming pool....

the title says it all.....feeling dejected, I'm off to bed.

Day 3 - no photos

Dear readers - I've taken photos I'm just too lazy to post them - its time for my bed!!! But trust me, apart from the dirt and some rocks being in different positions, it really hasn't changed that much since yesterday.... the only hitch? they can't find any fill so it won't be done by the weekend. Apparently, unbeknownst to the average householder, and it really is quite alarming when you think about it, in Brisbane we are labouring under a complete lack of fill at the moment.... eek, I hear you say.... egads. It's a fill famine!!! I questioned the landscaper and the bobcat man as to what creates a fill shortage but alas, they seemed unable to enlighten me.

Ironically, our neighbours (the un-neighbourly ones) who have the pool currently being constructed would have had an entire truckload of fill not 6 weeks ago that they would have had to pay to have taken away......oh the irony.

Day 2..... Progress!!

Good morning dear readers,
It's actually Day 3 of landscaping but I took photos this morning before they started doing any more work - I didn't get a chance to take photos yesterday because apparently my day was meant to be spent cleaning up vomit and poo, the floor, me, charlotte and wherever else said vomit and poo ended up. Yes, we have some sort of gastro bug in this house... well not in the house so much as in Charlotte. Thankfully neither her Dad nor I seem to have got this (touch wood). Anyway, so that is why lack of blog entry yesterday. To keep you up to date - here are some photos from yesterday's landscaping efforts...... progress!!

Day 1... did someone say rain?

Okay dear readers, the big day arrived - Day 1 of landscaping began. We started the day by deciding that we wouldn't stick around to greet the guys - which was lucky because when i called their mobiles from work to check everything was okay they hadn't even arrived at our house yet, so we would have been VERY late for work..... anyway here are the before shots taken this morning (just in case you haven't seen enough shots of our crappy backyard....





And this is what we were confronted with when we arrived home from work this afternoon!! I was stoked - it looked so cool - and reminded me of my childhood when I would have thought all my Christmases had come at once, running around the backyard in the mud, slipping and sliding down this huge hill of dirt...... alas, I am old and sensible now and had a baby in my arms, so I just stood and admired how much work they had done - in a very grown up way!! :)






And here I sit - listening to the rain BUCKET down... a week too early - we need this next week when the turf is laid *sigh*

That's downright un-neighbourly of you.......

Hi all,
Well, I've not blogged for ages dear readers and I know that this has left a hole in your lives.... so rest assured I am back - and with some good news. You may remember from earlier blogs that one of my 'to-do's' on my ever growing list of things to do in my life, was to landscape the backyard. You can refer to an earlier post here explaining the back breaking hours I put into sledge-hammering the concrete in our backyard. You will all be suitably feeling sorry for me when I point out that all of that labour was in vain. Apparently what took me days to achieve, the bobcat will be able to complete in about 2 minutes - if that. Still, all that work was back when we were going to do the landscaping ourselves. We have since come to our senses (and found not one but two credit card companies silly enough to lend us even more credit) and found ourselves a fantastic landscaper......(I would give him a free plug here but he insists he has too much work on as it is!!!) so wait for it ............ drumroll....
............
...........
the landscaping begins TOMORROW!!!! I am so darn excited. Seriously, it's not actually normal that one should be this excited about getting a new backyard, but so few things in my life are actually completed these days that I'm easily pleased. (Can you imagine the party that will be thrown should I ever complete my thesis???).

But the road thus far has not been easy. Those of you following my story will have already heard me complain about lack of finances (stick around, you'll be hearing that woe plenty more times in the coming months as we struggle to pay off credit cards at 18.5%!!!) and the trouble we had finding finance. Well once we had that sorted out, the next set of problems began.... access to our backyard. Down one side of our house, for those of you dear readers who have been here, you will remember is a sharp drop - the likes of which no bobcat is going to be able to navigate. The other side of the house - a carport. Not a great carport granted, but one that does the job in protecting our car from the elements and the hail that tends to hit Brisbane with alarming frequency during the stormy, summer months. And so the negotiations with neighbours begin.

I have wonderful neighbours on both sides of us (Hi Mel, I know you're reading this!!). After scoping out both properties, we decided one of them would have to be too damaged if we took a bobcat down the side of their house (I'd like to point out here that these neighbours were still trying to figure out how to help us out despite the fact that they are due to move to Canberra in about a week and are trying to rent their house - and still they were trying to help us out!! what friends!)... the property on the other side looked hopeful, but then we realised that there was not enough room between the fence and the hot water system.... so alas no luck there. Those neighbours were even willing to let us drive a bobcat over their vegie patch so that we could get a bobcat through.... again, how wonderfully neighbourly is that?
Finally, the bobcat operator suggested the people over the back - their yard feeds straight onto ours, no walls or anything to negotiate - in fact they don't even have a front fence AND their yard is currently pretty torn up because they are having a pool dug in. What infinitesimally small amount of damage that MAY have been done to their existing garden was going to be professionally fixed by my landscaper for free. That's right folks - re-landscaping your garden for free... no cost to you. So what was their response when I practically begged them for access to their yard?

NO.

That's right.

NO.

Well that's downright neighbourly of you folks thanks. Let me just go and rip my carport down so that we don't ruin your grass - oh that's right YOUR GRASS IS ALREADY RUINED BECAUSE YOU ARE GETTING AN INDOOR POOL DUG IN AND JUST HAD A FLIPPIN' BOBCAT RUN OVER YOUR GRASS NOT 4 WEEKS AGO!!!!!.... thanks for your help.

So after lamenting to our landscaper of our neighbourly woes, he gave up his Sunday today at no extra cost in our quote to help my darling husband and his two mates dismantle our carport (no mean feat as you'll note the jungle that had to be removed from the top of the roof!!).



He will also be helping us to put it back up when he's done AND is giving us some new roof sheeting as the stuff we tore down was pretty old and rusty. Now don't get me wrong, I know this guy is making a profit on the quote he gave us - and so he should, he's running a business. But nothing in the quote said that he had to help us out with our structural problems AND help us re-build a carport. No wonder the guy doesn't need any extra business, with customer service like that he must be in hot demand.....



The garage after 'the jungle' was removed.

So here's what it all looks like now - bare huh?



Now we just hope everything from here on goes smoothly.... and that the bobcat can fit through (we have measured it six times but the way our luck has been running who knows!!).

So hopefully by the time I get home tomorrow our backyard will no longer look like this!!!





here are the boys working hard - and after a hard day working, the boys deserved a beer - charlotte girl thought she would get one for them. he he he




Stay Tuned for Daily Updates (hopefully!)

I can fit.....I just have to hold my head right....

not content to just play quietly while I try and get my thesis written, charlotte has now taken to climbing in and around my computer desk to get my attention. I have a laptop so don't require the space where the computer case would normally go. Charlotte has decided it makes a neat cubby.....