Life got suddenly crazy....

What happened....just a month ago I was home nearly all the time!

I slept in this morning - alarm had been turned right down somehow so didn't hear it! Corey has decided that 5am is playtime - ummm NO WAY KID!
So get the kids ready in a flurry of yelling "NOW" - I hate myself when I'm yelling at them must find a better way to get them ready in a hurry - think i might buy a kitchen timer and see if we can race it to get dressed in the morning ready for kinder!
Brett wanted to sit in the toddler seat so we walked fast and having left 5min late actually got there early lol! Thats one way to improve my fitness level!

top50 forum is back online today YAY!!! gallery still down though BOOO! hopefully hosting shop will have it fixed shortly!

Have a meeting this afternoon with early intervention and kinder teacher so thats good. His toilet training has backslid big time since my week long gall stone attack!

House valuation is on Thursday afternoon so I guess I have to do some tidying before then but he seems to think that it won't be an issue at all as we only need it to be $140ish and he says you can't buy anything for that (did mention ours is a fixer upperer) lol! So should be ok and then hopefully can be signing paperwork shortly and getting on with life in general!

In the meantime I think I've neglected to mention of late my Bretty boy - he has grown up soooo much in the last few months. He's a regular little chatterbox (yes just like mummy) once he gets started and he is full of cuddles and kisses - although he is also learning to throw a tanty! oh well can't have it all! It is awesome to see though that he isnt' going to have the language problems that Owen had/has.

anyway more later better get organised or will be late for aforementioned meeting!

Some secrets to happiness...

by no means have I learnt them all - and even having learnt some I am not that great at putting them into action but here goes...

I think the most important - and equally the most difficult - one is to find a balance between work, rest and play! I find some days that I feel the need to 'play' to have a little time for me and when I try to get it my little ones interrupt, I tend to growl and try to shoo them away and it doesn't work and I get more and more frustrated because all I want is 5 minutes to myself. Well on good days I see my kids come in and while I still am a bit frustrated as I want some time alone, I spend some time with them instead - and often they only want 15min of my time and then I'm able to get 15min to myself....a little delayed but hey in the end this way we all get what we need. I'm working on it. A time for housework, a time for computer work & play, a time for my kids, who after all are the lights of my life! ANd when they are in bed well then there is plenty of time for me while still getting to bed in time for enough rest to face the day again.

So its almost 11.30, I've talked to the boys on the way to kinder and to brett on the way home, I've caught up on morning emails/website stuff and I've cooked dinner for later. Soon I'm off to give Brett a swing and maybe read a story before we head back out to pick Owen up from kinder. Then lunch and play and folding some washing and maybe some more stories as the boys are just loving them at the moment and I really love to encourage them to read. We are having more and more TV OFF time too which I love! honestly 3 boys make more than enough noise without the tele on too! I certainly hope that there is indeed a quiet place in heaven for the mothers of boys!

just another ordinary Monday

Monday morning loomed way too fast. Corey had a rather bad night so I was NOT happy about being awake...but life goes on and kids don't get themselves dressed, fed and off to kindergarten on their own. So I got up and showered and dressed, I dressed Owen and Brett and got them breakfast and got Owen's kinder lunchbox/drinkbottle sorted out. Hubby came out with corey a bit grumpy that I was letting him cry....apparently he didn't notice that he had kept me awake most of the night...oh well got him organised and thought a walk in the pram might settle him a bit - which it did yay!

There is roadworks on the way to kinder right next to the school crossing and it's terrible , hopefully they will finish soon as it is a bugger to negotiate with the pram. At the same time the kids are getting to see how to 'fix a road' a bit and they are facinated with the machinery involved (and they are pretty damn good at holding onto the pram so i'm not stressed about them running off)! It was the last day for kinder t-shirt/jumper orders so hopefully we will get them soon as I know he will love them (cause i ordered them both in RED). I'm still being told at least 15 times a day that 'red is my favourite colour, i like red'...cute if wearing a little thin!

Oh well nothing much else exciting happened except a trip to the dentist....no a trip to the dentist isn't exciting, in fact I hate going as much as anyone BUT gettingback into the car and looking in the rear view mirror to see all my bottom teeth in tact and cleaned was well worth an hour or so in the chair....going back next monday for some work on the top ones....smile restorations are almost complete YAY - will have to take a pic of my new smile once it is finished!

Sunday Sunday....

another Sunday has rolled on by. I was up early as per usual - if I don't get up kids make a huge mess and they are loud enough that there is no hope of sleep anyway. I have miraculously been much better at tearing myself out of bed in the morning for them though. So I took Owen with me for my run to the supermarket for whatever we had run out of - I didn't really shop this week at all so we were out of laundry powder and bread, got some crumpets too - yum i love crumpets...speaking of which don't you love the way these days crumpet packets say 99% fat free (or is it 97? anyway) yeah right i'm thinking - they are until i SLATHER them in butter!

Got the extra paperwork the credit union wanted for the mortgage refinancing faxed so hopeful of a preliminary answer as early as tomorrow (will be pending a valuation) but that is one step closer to my new (2nd hand) people mover yay! I'm a bit excited about the prospect of actaully owning a car in my own name for the first time EVER!

I got some scrapping done last night too when a friend came over to scrap. Was good to be scrapping again even if one layout took me forever. Hopefully some of the girls will make it next weekend - I'm planning to get some pics printed out through the week so that I can be ready to go for friday and saturday night.

Toilet training

well Brett has shown a bit of an interest and after all the dramas with Owen (who is still regularly having accidents) I really didn't want to push - encourage but not push....well today was pretty worm - low/mid thirties so he was playing naked because HE wanted his nappy off! He has learnt to climb up on the toilet himself - if somewhat slowly - lol but he is VERY excited about the whole thing and went a few times today. I did catch him starting to go once when i was feeding Corey but told him to do wee's in the toilet....and he DID! woohooo! Still a long way to go but definetly making some quite good progress there!

thats about it for today - except to recount a funny story.
Owen told me the other day - after I had been yelling at him for being naughty, that mummy was sad. I told him yes Mummy gets sad when Owen and Brett are naughty boys...so today he runs in and says 'i do wees on the toilet - i make mummy happy' - very sweet...then brett says 'i make mummy happy tooo, i do wees on the toilet' and so yet another sappy reminder that even though my boys may unroll a brand new roll of toilet paper, empty 4 boxes of sultanas on the floor, get ice and leave the freezer open and generally be quite naughty a lot............they also light up my life with a few sweet words and a smile...........and Corey - even though he threw up ON MY FACE this evening (ugh) he did it with the hugest big baby smile that I just couldn't be annoyed (although I DID shower)!

my day and some random thoughts...

I spent the entire day at Lost in Time annoying Sue today lol! I went on the pretence of repping the new AED Bubs n buds range (yum go check it out) and showing her some stuff online etc but you know I did maybe 30min of what I intended to do and managed to spend the rest of the day just nattering! (next time will take my scrap stuff and play) in fact I think I might actually head over one day JUST to play for the HELL OF IT! It was fun and I think I needed some time out with all the crap going on lately.

so updates on the crap
paperwork faxed to credit union minus a couple of things we coudln't find hoping it will be sufficient anyway guess I'll find out tomorrow!
Results of scan show no stones where they shouldn't be so got the green light for surgery - yay - umm I think lol! Now just have to wait for a date from the hospital - apparently I'm on the urgent list but don't know how long that is ?!

and some random thoughts...
isn't it funny how when you make a major decision in life things change even while they stay the same...sometimes just making the decision (even before you act on it necessarily) makes everything seem easier and lifts a weight you didn't know was there....like nothing has changed except for your perspective on life and yet at the same time...everything has changed....I don't know if I am making any sense at all today so if you have no clue then just pretend you didn't read this bit rofl!

Just a boy and a teddy

Just a boy & his teddy ....or so it seems....

Well in all the cleaning and moving Owen today found this teddy. Mummy's teddy. Yes that's right he found my teddy, the teddy that Santa brought me when I was 4 (incidently the same age Owen is now). I told him that teddy's name was John and that he was old so he'd have to play carefully........then he came running in to tell me that John was having a swing! Ok so this may seem like nothing special but to me it is just amazing. Amazing that my teddy can still bring joy to a 4yr old....amazing that somewhere there may well exist a very similar picture to this one but with me in it instead of Owen...amazing that John is still in one piece (well thanks to mum sewing back together a few times I guess). You see I remember playing with John, we did lots of things together when I was younger. Also amazing that my boy is displaying such an awesome imagination!

And an update on my day....I slept in the master bedroom last night at last! I had my mrcp scan this morning. No one had thought to tell me that it involved a hospital surgical type gown - well the paperwork with details arrived in the post when I got home - so....there I was being asked to strip down and put a gown on - only leaving my underpants oh Yay!....so there I am reading the cars guide (because i'm hoping to buy a new 2nd hand car soon) and i'm thinking that had I known about the whole gown thing I would have shaved my legs and put on nicer knickers lol! oh well all done just waiting for results.....

and now trying to find a pile of paperwork to fax to credit union for mortgage refinancing (and extra for my new 2nd hand people mover).

One tiny step for mankind...one BIG step for Jude

I've mastered the black hole!

Just have to mop the floor then steve can move the bed in there tonight and I will be able to walk aroudn the bed without breathing in! AND Corey will be able to sleep in the cot ...that bassinette is getting squishy lol!

a funny moment.....I thought that we might have kept Brett in the cot a little too long, I suspect I was right....today while I was clearing up he gave the cot an affectionate cuddle and said 'my bed, my little bed' lol....except I'm about to put corey in there aren't I so I told him that he had a big bed now and asked him if corey could have the little bed - thankfully he was ok with that! which reminds me - this morning I was feeding Corey and Brett came and sat on the arm of the chair and announced 'I love MY Corey' followed by 'I tuddle MY Corey' and then one more lovely little sentence 'I love MY Mummy'...........and while we are on kids being cute today I witnessed an arguement over lunch that went something like this...

brett 'that's MY mummy'
owen 'No that's MY mummy' (repeat both lines over and over with increasing intensity) lol it is nice to be faught over by two such gorgeous men I suppose!

Slowly but surely...

I'm getting on top of life again.

Have lodged the application to refinance the house. Have asked for enough to consolidate all our debts and extra for a 2nd car. I'm looking at 2nd hand people movers - possibly a kia carnival. It will depend on a valuation but really should be ok - hope so because I'm getting excited about the new car. It will be MINE (here in vic you can only register cars in one persons name and I've never had one in my name). Will be HEAPS easier to get the kids in and out - atm the carseats are all so close together that getting owen's seatbelt done up requires a lot of one handed fiddling and biting back of words not fit for childrens young ears!

Making progress clearing out the black hole known as the master bedroom that I'm meant to be moving back into as well...slowly but surely - will get there soon then will have room for Corey to move into his cot and as an added bonus I will be able to comfortably walk around the bed again!

and just to add to that....kids - they are funny little critters aren't they....I am loving watching Owen and Brett use their imaginations lately. Owen was a little slow at the whole imaginative play thing but of late I've had two little dinosaurs, two little puppies and I've had teddies being doctors and looking out windows and all sorts of things. Both the boys are progressing so fast with speech it is almost frightning....and yet some things seem to go a little backwards....I thought owen was basically toilet trained but for the odd accident but we are back to daily accidents and sitting in wet undies....or we get them off but won't get dressed again - funny how he is happy to play naked without a care in the world..........oh if only we could stay like that (no I'm not suggesting we all play naked) - just wouldn't it be great to have only the insecurities of a 4yr old....a world where we aren't afraid to be ourselves, don't care what others think of us and where a kiss and a cuddle makes all the hurts go away.

a quick update

my morning - got Owen to kinder 15min late - it was raining! That was unexpected and I still can't find Owen's raincoat - which really is too small and has to be handed down to brett but i've yet to buy him a new one either! So we all got wet - he had to change his pants when we got there poor boy. HE seemed very nervous and didn't want to play much but I suspect partly that was because I stayed to feed Corey. He said he had fun and he brought home some artwork which indicates that he did join in eventually. I do worry about my boy sometimes. I know that his social skills are way behind (because of his speech) and I so don't want him to feel left out and alienated through all of his school years. But I don't ewant to be the overprotective mummy either. I so wanted to stay and ask how he was doing etc etc but pick up seems so rushed and I felt a bit in the way of all the other mums too so will let it go for a week or so til things calm down.

I chased up my scan appointment - 9.15 am monday morning. So will have that done and hope that nothing shows up where it shouldn't be. Surgeon will give me a date very soon and it will be full steam ahead.

meanwhile I put the online application in to refinance the homeloan. We are hoping to get enough extra to buy a 2nd car for ME - a people mover (2nd hand) been looking about and think I can get a decent one for around $15000 but even if I can't get that much extra will look for a cheaper one. It is just too hard to do up Owen's seatbelt with the seats jammed in so tight - and it would be nice to have room to take their friends places too as they get older.

Now i'm off inside to try to do some clearing out!

Tagged again again...

thanks Rach!

1. First time you got kissed: hmm I think I was 12, 13 maybe...Danny and I went out for 3 years, whole school was stunned when we broke up seems they all thought we'd get married lol!

2. First time you drove a car: With my Mum - we went to the tip. She made me stop and she leaned down to the floor - hand motions and all and said "judes' foot this is the accelerator, accelerator this is Jude's foot....now that you have been introduced could we go a little faster" (so it's her fault I'm a bit of a lead foot now isn't it? lol! Everytime I wanted to drive she would load the car up to go to the tip - I knew that road well by the time I got my licence. She gave up teaching me when we tried reversing though - too stressful perhaps.

3. First time you scrapbooked: at Sue's CM party in 2001...and then had to drive home among phillip island motorcycle grand prix traffic NEVER AGAIN!

4. First time you went on a date: an actual date date....dunno danny I went to a school dance together once - it was terrible he had to be the worlds most embarrasing dancer lol!

5. First time you fell in love: Danny - I was 12 - we split just b4 my 16th birthday.

6. First time you cooked for someone: not sure but was always cooking as a child - just now starting to rediscover a look of cooking - i leart to make rissotto yum!

7. First time you got on a plane: I flew to Sydney to meet up with friends for the weekend about umm dunno before owen was born but after i got married so somewhere between 97-01

8.First time you shaved your legs: i was 12 mum wasn't impressed but i kept doing it

9. First time you put on make up: don't remember don't wear the stuff now hate it

10. First time you moved out of your home: uni i was 18

I forgot........I got mail

Opened the mail today to find something very exciting for me.....

A business registration certificate for "Scrapbooking Top 50 Australia" so it is all official now! I think I will frame it and hang it on the wall about my pooter!

It's coming out soon

I went to see the surgeon today in two minds. Part of me (having felt good for a week) thought that if he didn't think it was urgent well it mustn't be urgent let it go (the part of me that is terrified of the thought of surgery that is)! The other part of me was thinking about mentioning that I have 3 kids to look after and can't afford a repeat of last week - ie can't live on panadiene forte or be in constant pain.........I didn't get a chance to say much before he looked at me and said it has to come out soon. He then went on to explain why. He was VERY VERY good, as in reassuring and understanding etc which was great. Says small stones (like I have) are more dangerous because they move about and cause problems elsewhere etc etc. So I'm off for more tests soon (hopefully Monday) to see if there are stones where they shouldn't be (apart from in my gallbladder) and then if that is all clear he will give me a date for the op ....in 'weeks not months'. If there is a stray stone then I have to have two ops (one to get the stone and another for the gallbladder - apparently they have to be done separately - bugger)...I forgot to ask but I gather if that is the case it will be pretty quick too. So there that's it....have to have it done, no way out.....lets just hope the tests come back ok as one op is more than enough.

oh and Owen loved kinder, had a great day - he did a painting apparently........you guessed it 'RED' he didn't bring it home though...next time.

and repping - well that was fun but dh had problems giving Corey a bottle which is a worry for the surgery. Not sure what is going on there as it is the 2nd time he has had problems but other people have had no hassles giving him a bottle - dunno if he is playing up for daddy or daddy is just doing something funny?! gunna have to sort it out though as can't take Corey when I go in for tests and he may need to be bottle fed for a day post op. Surgeon couldn't give me a straight answer on that one but said to talk to anethisist at pre admission clinic.

I'm NOT ready....

Owen has his first day at kinder tomorrow - he is very excited and his backpack is ready to go. He only goes for two hours with the transition timetable but he can't wait. Meanwhile I can't find my chequebook to write a cheque for his kinder t-shirt & jumper. His clothes are laid out and ready (trying to teach him to get himself dressed in the morning) but mine are still in the dryer. I do have my camera batteries charged but I have to make sure it is in the house ready to go. But really a transition start to ease you into kinder and still he has to be there at 8.30! Ok I can do it surely - I can get one kid ready and out the door by 8.15am surely, well 2 kids if Corey is due for a feed but really just one. Poor Brett though I think is going to be quite sad, I keep telling him that he isn't going to kinder but I'm not sure he believes me. It appears he has developed a 'determined' streak!

Well I guess I had best turn the computer off and go pack MY bag for my first day of kinder in the morning.........I can't believe my baby's all grown up!

I'm READY Mummy

so kinder had asked that I get Owen to draw them a picture to take on his first day....his drawing skills have improved HEAPS in the last few months..so we got out the textas, pencils and crayons and gave him the special sheet of paper the kinder asked him to draw on and he drew around his hand then he wrote his name (it doesn't seem to occur to him to put all the letters in a row when anywhere in anyorder will do - it's cute) and then he turned the page over and a drew one very very interesting looking dinosaur in RED - cause 'red is my colour mummy' ...well I could take that it was all very cute and brett happily sat drawingtoo. then we put the picture in his new backpack so that we wouldn't forget it on Monday. Then he went outside with his robot boots and his new red sneakers 'they got flashing lights mum' and was pretending to be a robot........I popped out to check my emails etc when suddenly a 4yr old approached, backpack on his back, and announced "I ready mummy" although it sounded a bit more like "I looooouuuurdy Mummy"! READY? today? for kinder? kinder doesn't start until Monday!

Really I am glad that he is excited and really I think that kinder will be just exactly what he needs but ready? hell I'm not sure I'm ready for him to be grown up enough for kinder....but the really really scary bit was still to come..........in comes Brett my little 2.5yr old baby with the biggest smile that could just melt any heart, backpack on his back and he says 'i ready for kinder toooo"................NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooo you are just my baby boy brett -as Owen would say 'no brett tooo little, i big'

February...already?

where did January go? It seemed to vanish too fast. It came to me last night while looking at some pics that oh my goodness Owen is FOUR and about to start kinder.....oh yes I know some of you will be thinking that hell he was four in october what are you talking about dear but I guess that I was busy having a baby and while we had a party and presents and taught him he was four now well it just didn't HIT me at the time how grown up my big boy, my first baby had become. Yesterday we went to buy a new drink bottle and lunch box and a new backpack and some new sneakers all for Owen. He was very excited and he wanted RED (well Mummy shouldn't have left it so late do you know how hard it is to find a red lunchbox the week school starts back)! But we are now armed with a blue and red backpack with cars on it, a red lunchbox, a red drinkbottle and shoes with red on them and red flashing lights (well he really wanted RED shoes and they weren't THAT expensive lol)....not only is my little man about to start kinder but he has a favourite colour now...when did that happen...just in the last week or two!

And then we were off to speech therapy again today for the first time since xmas and finally after a little over a year of speech therapy Therese has said that it is time to start working on his sounds (when he started we were mostly trying to work on getting him to actually SPEAK, then to join words to make sentences, we've worked on concepts of boy and girl and in and out etc etc) but now we are working on actual sounds and getting them right!

man....4 already....next week I'm sure he'll be waving L plates and asking for car keys!

Just a quickie

...just a quick one as I have to go do the pick ups in an hour and I really want to get some washing put away.

Just thought i'd reassure everyone that I am back to myself again. Pain has all gone (for now). I had more bloods taken this morning (although i'm sure the results will be normal now) and will see the surgeon on Monday. Of course now it has all eased I will probably be waiting a year for the op but I can live with that if I'm not in pain at least! Even so will try to get it done faster as I really can't afford to have a repeat of last week - it just isn't fair on the kids!

Well off to fold a weeks worth of washing....am hanging to scrap but there is to be a mini cyber crop on friday at ksk it appears and a full cybercrop at top50 on Saturday so hopefully somewhere along the line I will get a chance to get some scrapping done!