All Dressed Up With Nowhere To Go

It seems to me that I should just stop 'planning' things. They never work out the way I imagine. Take today for example.Hot on the heels of getting a dryer and doing laundry 'Like a Boss' I got too cocky for my own good and decided that numbers 2,3 and 14 of my 15 Things To Do list were going to get done, today. My Beloved and the older five have been at the beach all day and are planning on camping the night with their nanna, cousins and aunt and uncle.


 The dryer was number 12 and I was certain that THIS time I would actually have a chance of completing that list... I mean lets face it there was nothing exceptionally difficult on it. So after everyone drove away I got myself, Mr Cheeky and Littlest Miss dressed up for town. Bugger it I thought I shall wear my earings and some bracelets and I shall even wear a pair of those heels! I decided on pinstriped pants and black 'singlet' type top with 'bling' around the neckline. 


The plan was simple.


Wear my jewelry.


Do my stock up shop (something I have been trying to achieve for two days now.)


Come home organise all kitchen cupboards and then spend the afternoon doing up a meal plan.


It did not happen. My car decided it was not going to start. No problem usually as I have a Jump Starter in the back. Our cars have always been, hmmmmmm how do I say this 'Battery-ly Challenged' - seriously how do you say that? But the Jump Starter was flat. WTF????


Naturally, as you do in these situations, I lost it big time.


'OMG I am sick of this beeping beep beep' Yes, I said bad words.


 But then I chilled out, because I figure these things do happen for a reason so I unpacked the kids and myself from the car. Went inside and turned the dryer on.

 Hey the novelty has not worn off yet... and the power bill has not come in either!  

The Dryer

Yesterday after trying hard to avoid going into town, blaming things like the fact that the clutch in the 4wd was stuffed and our driveway was too boggy after all this rain to get the van out, My Beloved went in to buy me a clothes dryer. Actually he went in to get the parts he needed to fix the 4wd drive but around here we are pretending he went in for the dryer.


We have never had one. Usually we don't really need one, after all we have a clothes line and it is usually sunny here. But when it does rain (an awful lot more these past couple of years, since the drought has broken) it rains for a few days sometimes even weeks. Thats when you need one. Even if it was just me, I'd need one but with 7 kids and two adults, OMG!


With our front veranda out of service for 2 years (and I think that is forgetting a year!) the option to hang clothes under the roof was not possible. So I used the curtain rods as a clothes line and would hang everything on hangers  place them on the rod and avoid looking at them till they dried, usually 24 hrs, sometimes more. When they were full I'd set two chairs with their backs facing and place the broom stick across the top to hang more.


 Even the wooden play pen had its uses  as an undies and socks drying rack. All of which,as I am sure you can imagine made the place look oh so 'personally' stylized. Oh yes, in raining weather with 7 kids, a dryer is not a 'luxury' it is a damn necessity! 


When he came home well after dark, OK so maybe it had been dark an hour! I didn't take a lot of notice, I was busy. But When I realised he was reversing the van closer to the house however I shrieked like a small child and started running to greet him, you know like all good wives should ;p


'Ashlee. ASHHHHHHHLEEEEEE' I yelled out


'Oh what mum?' he said as he paused his 'funny movie' 


'Go help your father bring my dryer in.' I said


So making those noises of a disgruntled minion he walked out, opened the door to the van and said 'It is a bar fridge.'


'WHAT!' I said 'It better not be!!.' (I don't know why I believe anything that boy says, as he loves to stir me and I seem to bite like a sea bass every time.)


He then carried the dryer inside for me and put it in the laundry whilst I gave My Beloved a kiss and a cuddle. ( only for a second mind, I had to get cracking on the washing and drying!) 


'

Date Night

Found this image in Google search for Vintage romantic couple. It came up with a lot. But I love, love, love this one. 

My Beloved and I toyed with the idea of having a 'date night' tonight. We even went as far as to gather all the kids up and tell them that we MAY be going out for dinner at the local Silky Oak Tea Gardens and that they would be staying home for two hours. ( Mr Cheeky and Littlest Miss would be making it a double date.)


The Man Child and Big Miss were rather put out.


'What?' Big Miss said 'No, please go! Leave us here to die.' she joked.


'I am in charge everyone.' the Man Child said as he tackled Little Miss onto our bed and started to pretend to pull her arm over her head.


'Stop it!' she squealed. Mr Cheeky jumped up and landed on top of them and before you could say 'stop that' everyone was wrestling on our bed. I looked at My Beloved and said what we were both thinking out loud.


'Well this is what they will be like, I am not leaving them.'


' They have the car and a phone so...' My Beloved said, trying to hold onto what was fast becoming a unrealistic goal.


'Nope I said look at them!' I pointed to what was basically a ball of arms and legs. With the Man child picking up Mr Cheeky and softly slam dunking him on top of whoever happened to be in the way. Littlest Miss was watching and laughing from the safely of my hip and I left the room.


Looks like #11 on my To Do List is not happening any time soon then, Pity I was looking forward to it.

Objection!

It is Wednesday afternoon.I am stuck in the house because it is raining. I like to get outside. But instead, I am in the house with seven screaming kids. In the middle of the school holidays with a fully packed camping trailer ready to go.

 I am forced to listen to my wife's blogs, everyone she has ever written, TWICE! Waiting for a patch of blue sky, not game to get my hopes up OR make eye contact for fear of hearing another blog. I figure if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. There is nothing on telly, we have watched all the DVDs 100 times over. There is nothing to do. So here I am.

She has been nagging me to write something and though I don't mind talking.
Putting pen to paper is not my style. After hearing her posts I would like to clear up any confusion as to what I am really like. I am not accident prone. It  just seems when I stuff up, it makes it on to this blog or Facebook, picture and all!

I know this because the other day a complete stranger asked me if I was 'better yet'. I wondered how does she even know this! Another time I went to climb a ladder at work and was told 'We have heard about your ladder expertise you better get off'. I have only ever fallen off one ladder! Everyone has fallen off a ladder once... haven't they?

There seems to be this misconception that i am Tim the Toolman, this is not the case. Even though there are about 500 jobs still half completed... I blame the finance department.

Here I am getting ready to take the girls on a little sailing expedition.

I object to the nature in which our camping trips are portrayed. These false allegations of doom and gloom and calamity is just simply not the case. Camping trips are my Forte. Granted, I may want to go camping more than the average person and even have been called Alby Mangles from time to time. I am not a nature lover or a bird watcher. As I take, TVs,DVDs Generators and the even kitchen sink. No literally, when we first started building the house it happened to be just before a camping trip so I took the kitchen sink and Emma's gas oven camping. Even she must admit a roast dinner on the beach was the envy of the point.

I take a lot of pride in setting up my camping spots, something with which SHE would know nothing about. It might look like random placement but if the planets would all just align my spot would be hard to beat! And I have pictures to prove it! As  I keep telling her I am a paid proffessional, I do this for a living! Emma IS a stick in the mud. There will be sand. Sand will get in the tent and in your arse. If it rains, yes you will get wet. As for sand flies, can someone please tell her about insect repellent. 

The kids love camping everyone is always smiling and having fun. My camping trips may be a cross between Malcom Douglas and Russel Coight but it is not a camping trip unless there is some blood. I enjoy getting lost, breaking down and getting bogged. As long as you appear calm in these situations people seem to think you know what you are doing! I think this is where my Emma and I differ. As she likes to control the universe wants to know what time we are getting there, eating, leaving, the activities planned for the day  and where the hell can she plug her computer in. Heaven help us if we are behind schedule.

She drives herself mad asking me these questions. As I do not know and do not care! She may not like to admit it but she does seem to have fun on occasions we do have photos of her enjoying it, though not many . I am pretty sure she dives out of the camera range to avoid confirmation!

We got to see the little hut made to shoot the xxxx comercial a couple of years ago.
If we had not have gone, imagine the wonder the kids would have missed ( and the free hats and stubbie coolers)

 UPDATE******* I found another picture of Emma Camping and smiling. Thanks to Tania for taking the photo. 

Adam

Under Construction

It seems to me that everything is always under construction around here and if the house is not enough to be working on, I have to add this blog to the list! First of all I must (for the sake of giving credit where credit is due, if nothing else) give you links to the places I found all the changes. Free blog bling I call it.


Go to Shabby Blogs to find wonderful backgrounds, headers, blinkies and buttons for your blog. With SUPER EASY instructions for those people like me who, have ABSOLUTELY no idea what they are doing! 


You can also get fabulous buttons,blinkies,layouts and more fromThe Cutest Blog on the Block and they do custom designs, turn your blog into a book and even have some FaceBook Timeline covers to download.


I even found a great place where the fonts are free with instructions to use them on your blog ,something that will require total child free time to get done ,for me at any rate, so it will be a while before you will see them here. But go and check out Kevin and Amanda to see what you can do.


Even if you do not have a blog, if you scrapbook, digitally or otherwise they are great places to visit and follow the links to other sites too.




Ok so it has not been quite 24 hours since I started the revamp and it still needs tweaking BUT so far so good. But the same can not be said for My Beloved. He is feeling a tad unloved and even referred to the laptop as 'my second husband' last night as it was in bed with me.


 I think the straw that really broke the camels back was when I pulled the charger lead over his head to plug it in seconds before it ran out of battery. Of course if he had of given me a second I would have pulled the lead off his head and put it behind his pillow. But he didn't. He had a sook. And I turned the computer off! Ohhhhh honestly!   


So to acknowledge his pain and torment when I found the blinkie that says 'Behind every great blog is an unfed husband' I had to add it.  It put a smile on his face. ;p

Your Patience is Required

OK just in case you have not picked up on it, EVERYTHING I know about blogs/computers and design you can hold in the palm of a small infants, newborns even, hand. Anything I know I taught myself through trial and error and a stubbornness that is sometimes, actually useful.

I have discovered away to to change the look of my blog. For FREE go HERE to suss it out for yourself. I will be changing things till I like it. Please be patient with me. Also feel free to comment, but be nice. I have a problem with rejection ;p.

THANK YOU!

Oh and yes... I know the name is missing... I am working on that now! 

'Cheers me dears'

15 Things To Do

I have reading a lot of blogs lately ( this one is kinda more like a diary then a blog to my mind) I have noticed that a lot of them have To Do lists and things. 

I love TO DO lists. I love thinking about all the things I have to do, love writing them all down and especially love the way that once you have written them down it is like you have already done them! (That is my most favourite bit of all!)

So I thought I'll give it a go and put it out there for the whole world to see and then i will have done them I will have to do them. So with out much more ado I shall write my list of 15 things, as 10 is too cliche and 20 seems to difficult for a 'first timer' and 5, well that's just plain lazy really!

1 Hang the winter curtains up before winter is actually over!

2 Actually sort out my kitchen drawers and cupboards with everything in it's place (and getting placed back there).

3  Write up and stick to a meal plan AND shopping list. AFTER the 6      monthly food stock up shop.

4  DE CLUTTER the boxes in the hall cupboard and then find more

things around the house that can either go in the boxes or be  gotten rid of.

5 Sort through ALL of my clothes and Big Miss' clothes and give away the excess. ( Oh and maybe buy ourselves a couple of 'cute' winter must haves.)    

6  Hit the gardens HARDCORE. Weed, replant, thin out, what ever needs to be done. STARTING with the mess outside our bedroom.

7 Get a haircut. Something you may not expect to see on a To Do List but I need a trim baaaaaaaaaaaad.

8 Get Miss Independents ears pierced. She is 8 now and around here you get your ears pierced at 7!! She even has her gold studs in my jewelry box waiting.

9  Start Mr Cheeky on an actual bedtime routine. Usually until they start school we don't have one for the little kids, but we have seven children now and if I want to go to bed before 12 within the next 6 yrs I may as well start now.

10 Get out to see friends (with or with out kids) more often. I don't mean a raging social life as I don't think that is possible with kids, well lots anyway. But once a month seems doable. 

11 Date night. Self explanatory really and with the Man Child turning 17 and Big Miss 15 and a local 'eatery' only ten minuets up the road surely we can leave the kids (not Littlest Miss) with those two for an hour or two once a month.... though that one WILL be a hard one for me.

12 Hmmmmm it is starting to get hard now...  ummmmmmmm oooooh I know! Buy a clothes dryer!!!!!

13 Ok this one and two more to go... Find some scrapbooking time... Yep I can do that.

14 Actually wear all those earrings I have in my jewelry boxes, especially the BIG ones and hell while we are at it the bangles too!

15 BUY MORE SHOES! I used to have heaps of shoes and bags. Used to, now I have four pairs... 2 are heels I never wear, 1 are thongs/flip flops and 1 are wedges... ooh I do have steel cap  work boots too!

Well I think that should cover it... Of course photographic evidence will be forth coming as each one gets ticked off the list...

 

Playtime Places

We are very lucky here. We have 'land,lots of land' which is a good thing as, to quote my dad 'they're not making anymore of it!' So our Little Australians can run riot outside from sun up to sun down without disturbing neighbours and, apart from the deadly wild life factors, without a worry. 


               I have pics of more wildlife and will add them 'one day'

Red Belly Black Snake

Echindas

A Coastal Python

Cane Toads

Koala (with baby but very well hidden)

 That does not stop My Beloved however from 'making' play areas. When the Man Child and Big Miss where little we had a fort/cubby house with a sandpit underneath. All made from round pine logs. the walls and roof were green shade cloth and the stairs ramp was two brick pallets leading up to the fort. Worked well for a while. Then it was pulled down and we  made gardens in its place. The kids have played in every area of the 'yard' in every kind of weather!

Out the back in the mud.

In a tire on the 'west' side of the house.

Out the back,back with friends.

Out the front after two weeks of rain!

Out the back again.

Out the front in the rain!

So a play area has never really been required, not like it would be in a smaller yard ( Oh how we REALLY could not live in suburbia again... EVER!!)


But My Beloved likes to 'do' things and last week whilst recovering from the flu and before he came down with the poo and spew bug, he re-did the play area he made earlier in the year.

He filled the sand pit he had started a few days earlier. Note the fashionable attire he is donning.  Once upon a time he wore only slacks and dress shirts and shoes... can you believe it?

    When Mr Cheeky realised what was going on he could not wait to 'help'.

.


Littlest Miss was already outside supervising the proceedings. In the shade of a gum tree that My beloved had 'saved' from the slasher many years ago, long before any of 'us' had come along because he thought it was 'nice'.

                            
                           It was knee high then but not anymore.

Naturally the sand pit has been a favourite and I especially LOVE the washing it creates! But even Big Miss and her friend found it entertaining the other day (though they seemed to be having an important 'girly' convo at the time!)

The trampoline gets the most use and causes the most crying and fighting as well. I hate, hate, hate trampolines and can completely understand why my father and My Beloved's father were never fans. Dangerous contraptions!

The play area is right where I want the 'visitor parking' to be situated BUT as the kids are still little and My Beloved has gone to the effort of a concrete edge and to fill it with bark. It shall remain the play area.


 BUT AFTER THAT... Well. Parking area it will be damn it! ;D

School Holiday Shenanigans

Every year during School Holidays we camp. Everyone loves it, except mummy. Now the theory around here is. 'It is because she is a stick in the mud.' But that is simply not true. If for example we were to 'camp' the night (or many more) here I'd be Little Miss Blue Lagoon!

But we usually camp in accommodation that inspires a more Sea Witch persona in me. The reality is usually more like this. Granted after  storm and a king tide, but I think you get my point! 

'You used to like camping.' My Beloved says to me when ever the holidays draw closer and I start muttering under my breath about the camping holiday that he, and his family start organising. ( It seems to be because that is what they 'do' everyone else in the world wants to as well.) Though it must be said they have always camped when ever possible since childhood so it does seem very strange to learn others do not like camping.

Some even claim it is relaxing...

'Really?,' I say 'was that before or after we had children?' 

or if I am particularly miffed I say other more 'colourful' things.

Last year, heavily pregnant with Littlest Miss I refused to go point blank! 

'No way in hell am I going to sit in the sun with sand and summer storms, king tides and sand flies FORGET IT!' I said, with quite a few 'bad' words peppering that sentence.

Now don't get me wrong everyone has a great time. This was Christmas lunch one year.

I did not regret it for a second and I even let all the kids go with daddy for a few days. Naturally they all enjoyed themselves. Though daddy did bring the youngest four home earlier then expected and was quite glad to be home... A case of reality strikes, I figure. 

Even though we are not camping in this pic that is usually what I look like and if I don't it is what I feel like! ;p

This year we are camping again but not until the second week of the holidays and not at the beach either. We found an awesome local camping area. No where near the beach and actually just up the road from some gorgeous rock pools.

 Not that we will visit them I'd say as a river creek runs through it (the camping area) and it has awesome things to do. Even has its own cute little 'beach' i.e sand dumped along the waters edge for the little kids to play in whilst the bigger kids swim, canoe,fish,bush walk around and mum sits in a camp chair playing with the grass under her feet (as opposed to sand). Just hope there are no mossies out.

The only worry I will have, is the drowning worry, but as I have that at the beach when camping and I tend to be a helicopter parent when ever the kids are not at home ( I am better and at home I tend to let them play in their rooms without feeling the need to check every five seconds... now it is more like every couple of minuets) we should be right!

They even have tents already available and set up ( I can only assume you need not worry about storms or king tides destroying it, though trees coming down in a storm would be a concern I'd have ;p) We, however are getting an un powered site and setting up our tent, though My Beloved did mention something about taking the caravan down... which, as it is winter, may not be such a bad idea!

I am excited bring on next Sunday!! :)

 Click http://www.cobb-and-co-nine-mile-camping-grounds.com/luxury-camping.html and check it out. When faced with the fact we had seven kids the owner was not phased or horrified in fact he said great! We want a family atmosphere here. So I guess the more the merrier was what he meant! ;)

We went into town to buy a present for a birthday 'dance party' tonight. Excitedly, Little Miss and her friend, Miss thinker and Miss Independent 'helped' as I put Littlest Miss in the carrier and unbuckled Mr Cheeky. Off we went to the nearest 'cheap shop'.

Before we went in I told everyone. 'OK do not touch anything!, Do not ask me for anything! We are getting a present from you all and that is all! OK?'

'OK.' they all said in unison. Not even five seconds later Mr Cheeky ran off shrieking for me to 'see' something. It was naturally a whole shelf of very breakable figurines.

'Get away from there!' I said in my 'in public' voice, you know the one that is just slightly higher in tone than your normal voice.

He did and moved on to the magnets,situated in the crockery and glassware isle. WHY? Meanwhile the four girls were bombarding me with questions, opinions and general chit chat. I gave Mr Cheeky the basket to be in charge of and listened to the girls intently. By the time we had progressed down the isle I wished I had only half listened. My stress levels had jumped from zero to 60 and I just wanted to say 'SHUT UP.OH DEAR GOD PLEASE! SHUT UP!'

A pink purse and a flashing bouncing ball had made their way into the basket and I didn't care. I was unable to concentrate and I just wanted to go home. I gave Little Miss the Ipod at that stage to take pics as I just was not able too think of it. As we browsed, discussed,argued and in one instance cried (not mum but only because 'big girls don't cry) we managed to get most of the presents sorted. 'That will be $32.50' the lady said. Yep here take the money I thought as I paid her and waited for the receipt. There were 'fake' Barbies and bowling set and bangles and pony set, which Mr Cheeky had decided was for him and refused to put down (The crying). Pens and other bits.

'But I didn't pick anything Miss Independent and Miss Thinker whined. 'Oh for goodness sake!' I wanted to say, but instead I calmly said. 'Thats OK, we are spending $10 each so we will go in here and spend $10.  OK!'

'Two tens are twenty mum' Little Miss said.

'Yes it is. Thank you Milly.' I said and kept walking.

Enjoy Little Miss' Photography