What a week!

This week I ironed my last grey school shirt. This time 9 years ago I was preparing to send my first born off to "big school". I couldn't bear to put him in a nasty grey shirt. A couple of years later Dimples followed his big bro to school. No.1 son duly graduated to high school and yesterday Dimples followed suit, hence the end of the grey shirts. Where did those 9 years go?

The whole school joined to form an arch which the year 6 kids walked under as their final farewell. It is an emotional day for the teachers, the parents, the graduating class and their friends in lower grades. Even the general assistant came out to mark the occasion.

To my surprise Dimples came out of the arch sobbing his little heart out but it didn't last long and don't tell him I said so ;)

Talking of school, the young 'uns have had a great year. No.1 son has been promoted to the extension classes for English and Science. He also had a glowing report which uses all those cliches I usually didn't qualify for: consistent, hard working, polite, talented .....

to top it off he was invited to join the school stage band.

Dimples finished his primary schooling with the admiration of his teachers because he didn't run away from school once this year! His peers voted him "drama queen" and he accepted graciously. That's progress.

The Princess received an award for consistent and conscientious effort. Her report was also glowing with praise.

The Tomboy was awarded for citizenship, her academic effort was good .....

all together I couldn't be more pleased.

The Princess complained of a sore mouth on Thursday night, by Friday she obviously had an abcess. She seemed to be going ok so I told her I would make a dentist appointment for the weekend and continued with my day. Half an hour later she was on the phone with a query about pain relief. The call to the dentist was moved forward, she was relievd of the problematic tooth and I was relieved of $100.

After feeling generally odd for a week or so I took myself off to the chiro for an extra appointment today. "Kylie, what have you done??" she asked me. I don't know what I did, only that her response made me think that at least I wasn't imagining this oddness I had been struggling with. She will probably never fix all of my oddness but I like to think I've been left with the endearing bit!

Finally, I went to the hairdressers for a decent colour treatment. It was a new hairdresser and she didn't listen to a word I said but she did alright with the colour and to the delight of my girls she blow dried my hair straight. I have never had straight hair. Ever. It's kind of nice actually, I could get used to it.

Don't forget that I'm giving $1 to Anglicare for every comment you make. Flattering, thoughtful, cheery, intelligent, even inane rubbish will benefit someone so go on......

write me!

thanks #9

These are my boys with their new cousin.

and my girls with his sister

I can't make up my mind which aspect of this I am thankful for, the tenderness of the boys which is heartbreakingly sweet, the joie de vivre of the girls, my fondness for my own cousins.....

Impromptu Party

You might remember that young Dimples turned 12 a coupla weeks back.......

He organised a party for himself: he invited about15 mates to hang out at the park today. I promised to provide sausage sandwiches and a cake

Then the rain started.
It rained on Thursday.
It rained more on Friday.

Even if the rain stopped the park would resemble a lake.
A change of venue was in order.
Our place.

What do you do with a dozen 12 year old boys when it's raining?

Well, as it turns out, only five have turned up, with another 2 on the way (they're an hour and a half late so I wasn't expecting more but no mind)

We started with drinks

They're watching The Simpsons Movie as I write

And eating lolly kebabs

When the movie is over I'll give 'em all a hot dog

And a piece of donut cake

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIMPLES :)

TWELVE YEARS AGO TODAY THIS LITTLE CHARMER SLIPPED INTO THE WORLD.

THERE WAS A LITTLE GIRL

WHO HAD A LITTLE CURL

RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF HER FOREHEAD

WHEN SHE WAS GOOD SHE WAS VERY VERY GOOD

AND WHEN SHE WAS BAD SHE WAS HORRID!

Ok, so he's not a girl but the rest was written just for him!

Happy Birthday, Dimples!

we love you

XXXX

Joy of all joys

Today was the first real day of the school holidays and all I can say is I hope it gets better. Instructions to feed the rabbits, put dishes in the sink and generally leave the place only moderately pig-sty-ish were left on the table when hubby and I left for work about 7.30am. My Mum and Dad picked everyone up around 10.00 and took them to the shops, then back to "Ma & Pa's"
Ma made Rocky road with the girls while the boys played on the computer and everyone was dropped home to play in their own neighborhood around 3.30.
From 3.30 things deteriorated. Miss P up the road (aged 12) was also home without supervision and she had instructions not to allow any "foreign" children into the house. Miss P talked our Tomboy into going inside, no drama yet, but also phoned some friends and invited them over.
Hubby and I came home to a sane household but at some stage no.1 son got in a right strop. Dimples can be rather obnoxious and self centred (to say the least) and today no.1 son had just had enough. Now no.1 son is a decent young fella but when he gets stroppy it's just a wee bit ugly. The strop seemed uncontrollable so I sent him to the spa (hot tub) for some warm-water-and-alone-time therapy. My plan was a dismal failure. The strop was undissolvable and then Miss P's mother showed up to tell us about the "no foreigners" rule. I agreed to reinforce the rule with my mob and Miss P's mother went off to reinforce it with Miss P.
My irrefutable, non-negotiable, no.1 piece of mother-wisdom says that cranky, naughty, difficult children are probably tired so I sent no.1 son to bed to sleep off his calamitous tantrum. I soon realised though, that I have deprived him of the chance to watch his favourite TV show: Southpark!
Oh no, I have probably condemned myself to a day of retribution for this terrible act of meanness.
So, there you go: Miss P has unauthorised visitors, no.1 son is snarly, Dimples is characteristically unrepentant for his contribution to events and there's only ten working days to go!
I had been thinking of posting on the Weekend Wandering topic "What brings you to tears?" and now I have. Unintentionally :)

I'm Grateful.....

This week I have determined that I should collect all of my awards. When I think I have done that I'll let you know and if I have forgotten any you can let me know.

Bindi graciously bestowed this pretty award on me so I thought I'd make it true by practicing some gratitude.

Today I'm grateful for

• the sound of rain outside
• a job that allows me some flexibility
• a warm bed
• people to laugh with
• enough money for all that we need and much of what we want
• good health
• a beautiful bunch of dahlias on the coffee table
• the Tomboy's relentless joie de vivre
• the Princess's regular gifts to me....little letters & drawings and such like. The Tomboy will be offended if I don't recognise her offerings here, they're also wonderful.
• Dimples' general sweetness and exceptional potential
• No.1 son for our shared humour and his consistent appreciative eating of whatever I put in front of him
• the unwavering love of my "original" family

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.
Maori Proverb

The Hunted House On Nightmare Road

I have been delighted with the way that my precious ratbag bunch (that's a long way to say kids) have taken an interest in my blog and my readers. Dimples often has suggestions for posts so one day recently I offered him a guest post. He refused on the basis that he had nothing to say. That'd be a first.
A couple of years ago Dimples wrote a masterpiece. It took him quite some time and many, many pages. I thought I'd share a bit with you. I'm going to leave it unedited, I'm sure you'll enjoy the challenge of making sense of it.

I enter the house on nightmare road on a full moon then I creap along a hallway full of cobwebs. I open a door my heart thumping I hear a crack come from the floor. I open a wardrobe I'm terrified. A vampire pounces I shreak in horror dodge grab the chiar and smash it on his head stab him with the shap broken chiar leg while he's unconshesh. "That's the end of him" I say to myself. so i run.
I hear a witch crackling away. I hear footsteps coming from behind me I turn and grab a torch off the wall and and blind a one eyed freak while he swings his arms around I grab asword from a knights costume and duck take 2 steps jump and stab him
"one more story for the media" I say to myself.

Camel Racing

When the horse flu came to NSW it pretty well crippled the racing industry and the harness racing club at Harold Park started running camel races as a way of recouping some of their losses.
Now that the end to the flu crisis is in sight I realised that the camels won't be racing too many more times and decided to take the kids out there for a night.
Dimples and his father refused to come so the rest of us set out for an adventure. No. 1 son helped out with the navigation ( it's a long time since I've been to that part of the world) He did a superb job and we arrived just after the first race.
I have never been to a racecourse, or in this case paceway, before so that was new. We wandered down and took some seats right at the front.

The camels all had glittery sequin-styled saddle "blankets" and the compere was dressed up in a robe and fez.The camels are quite funny to watch when they race, they tend to swerve across the track, slow down and speed up unpredictably and only stop for their feed bucket.
At one point there was a delay between races so we went to get some drinks and snacks. While we were there I made an entry in a draw to ride a camel.
Some time later I received a phone call to say that my name had been drawn!

I lined up with my competition....a strong, fit young bloke who asked my strategy. My answer "to stay on" was closer to the truth than I could have imagined.
We signed our disclaimers and made our way down to collect our silks. The sight of the ambulance parked near the track suddenly became a bit uncomfortable.

The handlers asked if I had ridden a horse and when I said no they promised me a quiet animal. She had a fantastic glittery purple saddle cloth which was spectacularly fitting with my rainbow silks and lime green cap. The kids called across the track asking me what number I would be riding and I was so excited I couldn't remember how to hold up six fingers!

I hopped on and the handler walked us around for some time. I was waving and blowing kisses to the kids, having a grand old time. The MC announced to the whole crowd that "Kylie hasn't ridden anything for some time" What, do I have a tattoo or something? My camel man kept telling me that I would need to shout at this girl to get her to run.
We started wandering toward the start line and were still a distance away when Mr camel man turned us around, let go of the reins and shouted "GO"!!

My girl started to run, swerved left and my foot slipped out of the stirrup, swerved right and my helmet fell over my eyes.
"Hang on with your legs, hang on with your hands, squeeze with your legs and hang on tight" I told myself. It was like a mantra.
After the longest few seconds of my life she slowed down and I realised that I might just make it to the end. What had that guy said about shouting at her? I couldn't have done that even if I'd wanted to!
After about 15 seconds the race was over. Second last was good enough for me!
I wondered if my legs would hold me when I got down. I dismounted very slowly. It had been utterly terrifying. And exhilarating.
We all shook hands and had a photo. I handed my fabulous silks back and after that there was nothing left but to go home.
I have sore muscles and rainbow bruises to remind me of my stint as a champion camel jockey.
Would I do it again?
Does a camel spit?

eating: red jumbo snakes. yum.

Adventures for the Utopians

In January we have the Festival of Sydney, one of the major events of the festival is "Jazz in the Domain". It's a free concert in one of the major parks in Sydney's CBD and yesterday 80 000 people were expected. I managed to convince my family that it would be a good thing to go to, packed a picnic and off we set.

The trains weren't running on our line so we got a bus to Sydenham (an inner suburb) then a train to the city.
We arrived at the Domain an hour before the featured band was to start and started looking for somewhere to sit. It was wall to wall people, law of the jungle, there was NOWHERE. There were little spots for a couple but for a family of six, forget it. We wandered through the crowd and soon realised that we had lost Dimples.
"Where's Dimples?" I asked
"I thought....." said Mr Kylie

Mr K took off to look for him, I stayed with the others to make sure there were no other casualties and so that we might be somewhere near where Dimples last saw us.
I knew that the boy would probably not seek help, that he would be terrified and panicky and that his panic would probably be what saved him. I thought that when he became visibly very distressed someone would come to his aid.

I saw some police and asked if there was a meeting point for separated groups. No, there wasn't, but they would take details and put a call out, which was duly done.
I called Mr K to let him know that there was some positive action happening and he asked why I had reported it so soon. In a crowd of 80 000 we needed all the help we could get, I reckoned.
Anyway, Dimples did panic and someone did come to his aid, it was reported to security and within about 20 minutes we had him back, shaken but fine.
Hallelujah!