Almost 2 Years of Blogging

I needed a break. After almost 2 years of almost daily blogging, I realized it was becoming an obsession. I was seeing everything that was happening to us, the kids and me as something that I might want to record/blog and I was feeling a bit weird about it.
So, I decided to step back. Take a bit of time off. See where that left me.
And here I am. Still blogging. Might not be as often. Might be more often. Don't know. But I know that I still want to keep track of what we are doing here. Don't want to miss a moment of it. But I want to make sure that I don't over focus on it either!

Crazy Kookaburra

Tuesday night the family enjoyed dinner on the deck. As Andrew was the last one to finish eating (surprise, surprise) he was the left on the deck alone. We were having Rogan Josh with rice and naan bread -- at Andrew's request. With only a few chunks of chicken left, he was on his way to clean plate club.
Emmalee was in her room getting ready for bed and Jim was on the internet looking at Qantas for cheap flights for his mom to visit us. Next thing I know I hear Jim yelling for me to come quick. Andrew had just said, "I think he's looking at my food" just a matter of factly -- not really afraid -- just stating a fact.

So, we took a chunk of chicken and put it on the railing for him.

From October 2008

And he gulped it down. And a few more. Until he joined the clean plate club, too!

Halloween Preparations

are in full swing...

I have spent the last two weeks organizing the 2nd annual halloween walk. This year I think I may be walking around with upwards of 70 kids and their parents. Uh Oh!

I found seven houses in a two block area and set up a google map of our route. Coordinated the candy drop off in advance. Divvied it up and now have to drop off seven bags of 2+kgs of candy and goodies tomorrow. Now all that is left to do is cross our fingers that it won't rain. Or kill us from the heat. It is threatening to be 93F and humid. So the chocolate Freddo Frogs might melt -- but the squishy eyeballs and witches cauldrons sure won't! Not sure what the whizz fizz or the joysticks will do or what they really are, even????

Can't Live with Him, Can't Live without Him

Jim headed off to his Singapore GM Summit Sunday afternoon.

I can admit it... I sit and complain about his snoring when he is around. I seem to be disturbed quite easily when he is snoring (or rumbling, snorting, growling, purring or whatever other DISTURBING noises he makes). So, he hears about it all the time. It is a rather large surprise in the morning if he asks how I slept the night before and I say I slept well. (Can't remember the last time he heard that anyway!)



So, now he is off somewhere else, sleeping in a hotel bed and I get a nice quiet bed to myself. You would think I would sleep so peacefully. But sadly that is not the case.
When he is gone, I have the hardest time falling sleep. And when I sleep, its lightly so I can hear any noise the kids make. Plus, there is a 50% chance I will have a child join me before dawn.
UGH! But at least I know Jim knows I need/love/want him no matter what! :)

What would you do?

This evening I was sitting here on the internet trying to get creative to write a blog posting. Not working too well, so I was reading other blogs.
I kept hearing a gate squeaking. I was pretty sure I had latched ours shut. After about 10 minutes of noise, I gave up and ducked out the laundry door to latch it shut. It wasn't ours but I remembered the rollerdoor to our storage was probably still open after the d'Souzas changed for swimming back there. On my way up I noticed flashlights and movement at the house 2 doors up from our. At the house that is supposedly empty after being sold for 9.05 million dollars!
So, I went inside and called Teesh to see who I would be best calling to report suspicious activity. She said either dial 000 or the Chatswood police. I watched out the windows for a few more minutes but there was no more lights or movement. Either I scared them off or they were supposed to be there. Not sure which.
Since Jim is in Singapore until Saturday, Teesh called back to check in on me and see what heppened and if I was ok. I felt fine having already double checked all the doors and windows. With the rash of burglaries in the area, the kids are a bit more nervous about our safety.
So I guess the real question is -- would you have called the police if you were in my position? I figured that by the time anyone got here from Chatswood, there would be no one around at that house anyway.

Term 4 Begins

Today begins the last term of the 2008 school year. The kids have 10 weeks left until they move up to year 2 and year 3. Can't believe where the time has gone...

Day at the Museum

Today was a treat as both kids got to go on an excursion at the same time. They are studying dinosaurs in science this term, so both years 1 and 2 combined a field trip to the Australian Museum in Sydney on Monday. Again I got roped into being a chaperone on the trip, so I got the luxury of a fun filled NOISY bus ride to the museum in a standing room only bus on the way there. Only when the doors opened did the grown-ups get a chance to have their ears stop ringing for a moment or two.

The museum was quite fascinating. I think the kids really took alot away from it. Definitely more that I did. But I have to say I am spoiled after years of hitting the Field Museum and Science and Industry. Hard to have much to compare anything else to those really... When Jim got home Andrew and Emme just rattled off fact after fact and adventure after sight so I know they had a great time.

First Stop -- Lake Wabby

After arriving at our 'luxury' beach houses, we set off for our first adventure of the Fraser Island holiday. The boys chose Lake Wabby thanks to its close proximity to our houses and because the tide would be out long enough for us to make it there and back.
John told us it would be a 15 minute walk from the beach, so we all were ready to go. Started out as a whole group and 45 minutes later, all arrived at the inland lake in separate groups. What was supposed to be an easy, short walk sure ended up being a whole lot longer. Kept passing people who said '15 minutes more' and then 10 minutes later met someone saying '25 minutes'. Was a little disheartening to say the least. Try trudging up and down hill thru sand trails for 45 minutes. Its quite a work out.

Just when we got a glimpse of it and thought we were going to be there momentarily, we'd go around another bend or down and back up another hill. Huhhh...

Once we finally reached our destination, you could see how beautiful it was.

That is until some drunk English guy went top over tail all the way down the dunes. I truly thought he was going to break his neck the way it twisted when he went down. Good lesson for the kids tho...
They really enjoyed climbing up the sand dunes and attempting to roll down.

Emmalee and Andrew haven't quite figured out the rolling down. They did more of a corkscrew the whole way down, but enjoyed it and got sand covered nonetheless.

Everyone swam for a long time in the greenish water, along with a few catfish.

It was definitely warmer than the ocean, but I just can't get over the idea of swimming in fresh water that doesn't have the turn-over like the ocean. Still creeps me out, so I just waded in up to my thighs.

Andrew and I set off a couple of minutes before everyone else to head back to the car. It was nice to just walk with him and to enjoy the silence of nature together. And at the end of it, he was still smiling!

Ferry Ride

To get to Fraser Island, there are two ways to travel:

• Via Ferry
• Via Swimming

We chose the ferry. The boys picked up our 'luxury' 9 seater 4 wheel drive Land Cruiser. And by luxury, we mean it has air conditioning and not much else. It has crank windows and is all rusty and the power sockets don't work so we can't listen to music from the ipod.Got to the ferry landing and hit the 3rd queue. Good thing since last on means first off!
The boat captain let the kids each have a turn driving/steering the ferry boat. They absolutely loved it!