Great weekend

Well, we just had a beeeg weekend!

On Friday, I had people over for a craft space, from 3 to 10pm ish. Enjoyed chatting with Mum and Dad at the end of the evening. When they left, Pete, our house guest got home from his job on a film set (a psychological thriller called Break In - look out for it!), so we talked for a while - I was rather hyped! That's what social spaces do to me! Then right when I was heading off to bed, Gord and Jesse got home. I hadn't seen Jesse for a while - it was great to see him... finally got to bed at 1am! With a few wake ups thoughout the night, of course, and two kids who decided 7am was a good time to get up (others would say this is a sleep in!), I didn't get much sleep.

So Saturday, we had a fantastic brunch at Choi's (our old place, actually), with Samara too. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, to welcome the first day of spring, and that house was always beautiful in sunnyweather. From there, we headed to Mum and Dad's. They looked after the two kids (Jasper for the first time) while we headed off to the movies. Saw the Bourne Ultimatum, which was satisfyingly entertaining. Said hello to my bro, Daniel, at the italian restaurant in Greensy where he works, and had a coffee a few doors up. Had tea with Mum and Dad, and then drove rather blearily to Gembrook, arriving around 9.30pm (not that you really care!).

At around 6.30am, Jasper decided he was done sleeping, after having listened to the kids stomping around upstairs for a bit. I was psyching up to get up, cos I was feeling tired but not grumpy, and I knew Gord was tired AND grumpy (having, of his own volition, slept squished next to Piper the steam engine in a single bed. Why? you ask. Well, he didn't want to be bounced around next to me while I was changing Jas's nappy in the middle of the night! He told me at one point last night he jumped out of bed absolutely fuming because Piper was snoring, the blankets weren't covering them both well enough and he was cold, and he felt like he hadn't slept yet! He paced around for a while, calmed down, and re-did the blankets, but yeah, why woulldya?? He didn't get much sympathy from me - he just made me laugh instead - in the morning when he told me!)

Anyway, what I meant to say was that I was psyching up to get up, but then Jane offered to take Jas. Later Gord got up, and between the two of them, I was able to sleep in til 10.30am, with one feed in there - that felt SOOOO pleasant! Hasn't happened in quite a while...

We were at Gembrook cos there was a stack of wood to be cut up and stacked. An arborist had come along and trimmed a whole lot of trees along one edge of the property, and we were there to do our best to clear the timber off the neighbour's land. I love hauling wood - enjoyed throwing and stacking it while Gord sawed with a chain (or is that chainsawed?). Lovely weather to be outside.

Got back home just in time to hear Samara preach at church - it was really ace to hear what she had to say. Piper was TOTALLY baked, after a whole weekend of full on play, but she got to bed okay, without cracking it.

We just watch Idol (whoo! I'm really enjoying it!) and chatted to Pete. He and Jotara just bought a one-bedroom apartment in Northcote, so that's pretty exciting. I love this sense of relationships developing - makes our life all the richer... And here I am on the couch with my laptop, enjoying having a bit of a rave here. It was a really good weekend, that's why I wanted to write about it. We don't usually plan our weekends this full, but even though it was busy and we missed our relaxed coffee space at the market on Sunday morning, it was still a really satisfying weekend.

Soayeah... betta wind it up... love to all

P.S. This is Jas this morning - check out his perfectly Canadian t-shirt, a hand-me-down from Ilsa and Liam...

Are you true blue??

As you may or may not know, the Australian government is introducing a formal questionnaire to the citizenship requirements for this country, which seems like a load of bollocks, really - half of Australia would probably fail it! They aren't releasing the questions at the moment, so The Age (newspaper) published some real ones, so you can work out if you really understand Australian language and culture! Here are a few of my favourites:

LANGUAGE
> Are these terms related: chuck a sickie; chuck a spaz; chuck a U-ey?

> Explain the following passage: "In the arvo last Chrissy the relos rocked up for a barbie, some bevvies and a few snags. After a bit of a Bex and a lie down we opened the pressies, scoffed all the chockies, bickies and lollies. Then we drained a few tinnies and Mum did her block after Dad and Steve had a barney and a bit of biffo."

CUSTOMS
> Complete the following sentences: a) "If the van's rockin' don't bother … b) You're going home in the back of a … c) Fair suck of the …

> I've had a gutful and I can't be fagged. Discuss

> Macca, Chooka and Wanger are driving to Surfers in their Torana. If they are travelling at 100 km/h while listening to Barnsey, Farnsey and Acca Dacca, how many slabs will each person on average consume between flashing a brown eye and having a slash?




Any of you Canadians understand any of that???

You can read all the questions here.

Incidentally, Canada has a formal questionnaire - you can try some sample questions here. (They're far less fun!)

Piper in fight with a lawnmower

Breaking news: Piper got into a fight with a lawnmower last night - here's a photos of the carnage! We'd been talking with Piper about cutting some of the length of her hair for a while. Recently she said she'd be happy for me to cut it, as opposed to a hairdresser, and that she wanted a fringe as well. So last night, after Uncle John left, I got out the scissors and started hacking. I'd forgotten how tricky it is to get a straight line! I just launched in and then had to start thinking while I was cutting! So it's slightly shorter than I originally imagined, but the end result, in the cool calm light of day, is great, I think, even though, if you look closely, you'll see evidence of my amateur hairdressing skills! Piper likes it, and that's what counts. Or you could say she came off best with the lawnmower!

We're off to Gembrook today, so when we get back, I can post some pics of the building upstairs that my dad, Gord and Steve did last weekend.

A conversation with Piper

A conversation with Piper this evening, over dinner, while Jasper was sleeping and Gord was out at a cd launch:

Me: Piper, have you finished eating?
Piper: No.
Me: Well, keep eating.
Piper: (munch, munch) Mum, have you finished eating?
Me: No.
Piper: Well, keep eating.
Me: Cheeky bugger!
Piper: Meeky slugger! Yucky sleeky worm! You're going to slide all over me!

Man, she is so into rhyming, what a cheeky git! I should read the book of Spoonerisms with her!

Recent shots

Thought i'd better upload some pictures! My crafting blog has been getting all my attention lately! Here's Piper making a total mess out of a polystyrene block...

Here she is, posing in a cardigan I finally finished making for her. That's her toy-of-the-month, Nala (from The Lion King), bought for $2 at the Youngeburra market up north...

Piper feeding Jas while I was away somewhere. She's so helpful with Jas, on the whole. If he's crying and I'm busy for a moment, she'll go and attempt to cheer him up - what a champ!


Gord loaded Jas up with rubber duckies one night - he looks mischevious in a double-chinned kind of way!

Now he looks like a home boy, with Jesse on the couch...

Me and Ilsa (with Liam & Jasper) at Samara's birthday...


Piper and Ellen at Ilsa's birthday in the Botanical Gardens. Piper's wearing fancy clothes from cousin Michelle and her family. Couldn't get her to wear the matching hat though...

Homecoming

We're back from visitng family up north, and settling back in. Bit of a shock to be faced with running a household again, as well as just being a mother to the kids. I like the single focus (on the kids, say), and having to multi-task has made me a bit grumpy. Hmmm... The big suitcase remains unpacked, but I managed to clean the bathroom sink yesterday - SO overdue! What made me feel really satisfied was that all I used was water, vinegar and a few drops of lavendar oil, purely for the smell, and it came up SO clean - go the natural products! (I must have been really satisfied to be writing about it here!)

It was a great space with my grandparents. My grandmother just got better and better while I was there, although they've now decided to move into a nursing home ASAP. Big transition but having a leg amputated is a big transition too! Puts other transitions in perspective.

Took heaps of photos, and will put some links to albums up soon, but here's a few for now...

Visiting my grandmother, Ma, on the last day...


My brother Simon and Jas and I...

Gord and Piper posing at a scenic lookout on the road down to Cairns/up to Kuranda...

Family weekend

We just spent pretty much the whole weekend at Mum and Dad's, which was very pleasant! It was Michelle's last weekend in Melbourne before she flies home to Canada (boo hoo!), so we organised to go on a bush walk at Nioka Bush Camp, which is on the Plenty River, very close to Mum and Dad's house. It's hardly what you'd call real bush (it's well on the way to being surrounded by suburbia), but it was still beautiful land and great to be outside. We all had fun, lots of clowning around - in almost all the photos, Gord's pulling some kind of face!

Not pulling a face here though! Michelle, Dad, Kelli, my cousin, Bruce, her boyfriend, and Gord.
Check out more bushwalk photos here.

Mum, Dad and Michelle headed out to a Gala evening on Saturday night. To see photos of them all dressed up, click here. Almost the whole sequence is Dad making funny faces and Mum berating him and cracking up - I love it! Pick your favourite James Bond face!

On Sunday, we went back to Mum and Dad's to have lunch with them and our old family friends, the Vee Dubs. (That's the Van Wollingens to anyone else...) Nice space, very laid back, nice to be part of a crowd at Mill Park - that's not the usual vibe. I managed to finish something I was knitting, cos there were so many people willing to hold the kiddo. Piper of course had a ball, soaking in all the attention. She's been a gem the last little while, probably because lots of different people have invested in her/showered her with attention.


To continue the good vibe with Piper, I decided to go to the zoo today. I was thinking about it, and I really don't think I've been since my hen's thingy, so before Piper was born. Seems crazy, cos Piper's been to the zoo a lot, but that's Pippa for ya! (Thanks Pippa!) So yeah, Heidi Duthie and I took the two kids on this outing. I was glad I wasn't by myself - that would have been pretty tiring. As it was, I almost bit off more than I could chew by arranging to get there so early. Jas woke up at 6.30am, and my alarm was going off at 7am, so I was pretty much awake since then. We got the zoo by 9am, after a dream run in what was supposedly peak hour traffic (this is after planning to take the train and then realising that I probably wouldn't be able to squeeze the pram into a peak hour carriage).

I was excited about seeing the orang-utangs, but they were hiding under a sheet when we were there, so we didn't see much of them at all. We probably spent the most time at the seals. I enjoyed the reptiles. We checked out the bears, which led to this conversation later on at home...

(We'd just been talking about how Opa goes bear hunting, well, bear viewing)
Piper: Does Opa go through the glass?
Me: No, Opa walks into the forest and leaves some donuts on the ground and then he climbs a tree so he can watch the bears when they come to eat the donuts.
Piper: Does he throw the donuts over the fence?
Me: No, sweets, there's no fences and no glass wall in the forest, he just walks in and leaves them on the ground.
Piper: oh... (and after a little while) Is Opa a zoo keeper now?

She just couldn't fathom the idea of animals free in a forest!

Had a pit stop at Heidi's house when I dropped her home, and then was pretty whacked by the time we got back here. Crashed out in bed for a bit, although Jasper took ages to go to sleep. My lesson for the day is, you don't have to get to the zoo early, and more sleep means I'm a better parent, especially at the end of the day. No point having a pleasant outing and then being grumpy back at home (not that I was too bad, but I wasn't all sweetness and light!).

So yeaahhhh. (Can you tell I'm tired, I'm just blahhing away here...) Jasper just screamed his head off in Gord's arms and now he's crashed out in my lap after a bit of boob, but he was so tired he could hardly suck! He's a beautiful boy...

(here he is, my little man! what a cutie!)

On a totally different note, this week, Piper, Jasper, my dad and I are heading to Cairns, which is somewhat sudden. Gord and I had planned to visit my family up there sometime in September, but my grandmother is pretty sick and it seems a good idea to go up there now. She's had ulcers on her legs for ages, which haven't healed. They tried some kind of vein bypass thing recently, but now, after trying everything else, her leg has been amputated below the knee. She had a heart attack after the operation, which isn't a good sign - just a higher chance of more heart attacks happening, post-operative.

Anyway, the long and short of it is, that Dad and I and the kids are flying to Cairns early Friday morning, and returning the following Wednesday (25th). We'll probably spend a night in Cairns and then head to Atherton - that's where my grandparents live, and my brother and uncle and his family are there too. Atherton's about 100km inland from Cairns. Pa will be driving to and from to visit Ma. I haven't seen Ma and Pa since Piper was around three months old, and I haven't seen Phil and Shellie and Harley, my uncle, aunt and cousin, for eight years, if you can believe that, and I haven't seen Simon, my bro, for a couple of months, so in spite of the somewhat grim health stuff, I'm really looking forward to just hanging out with family, and am glad they can meet the kids. If it wasn't for that, I'd consider leaving Piper at home (somehow!) cos dealing with two kids on my own isn't my idea of outrageous fun, but Dad will help!

Funnily enough, Gord's going away for his work this week, from Wednesday to Friday, and I leave on Friday, so we won't see each other for a week. I think he's hoping to fill the whole time with social stuff! And why wouldn't ya? I'll have five days off in a row sometime when I don't have a kid who needs my body for sustenance!

Will be nice to experience some warmer weather! And Piper has her own little pull-along suitcase (a finding Nemo one!), just in time! Anyway, that's enough raving. Here's a few more photos...

(Me and Jasper about to race out the door to catch a tram, on the way to see a movie with Michelle, Mum, Nonna (vee dub) and Joy at the Nova.

A photo from the aftermath of our family gathering at The Duck last weekend - my brother Daniel and Jas...

Celebrating Pete's (our house guest) birthday on Friday the 13th.