Just what I was hoping for.....

Glamorous, with just a hint of tragic and clumsy.   Seriously, could they make the dressing any more obvious??   I think next time I manage to get something manky attached to my retina,  I'll just go straight for the Stevie Wonder shades....much cooler.  

Reading Jan 22-28

is for reading

After writing off the last ten days or so because of my committments at the evac centre, I am once again back into my books.  This week saw me putting my Kindle to one side for one of the Cynthia Harrod Eagles Dynasty series,  The Foreign Field.  This series starts with the Wars of the Roses and the volume I'm currently reading deals with WW1.   Each and every book in the series (and there are more than 30 at last count) is a mesmerising read, bringing the charactors in the Morland family into contact with real life royalty, political figures and other notable individuals from the varying time periods....everyone from Henry VIII to Florence Nightingale and Anastasia Romanov.    Brilliant.   If there are any other Dynasty addicts out there, I can proudly claim to have completed a full family tree from The Founding to The Foreign Field.  Obsessed??  Just a lot.   In other directions, I have also completed The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis, plus probably every separate adventure that Thomas the Tank Engine ever had, heehee.  Not that I'm adding them to my list (can I do that??), but it was neat to find that Thomas was such a hit with the kids at QE2 (even if half of them didn't speak much English).  

Next up I'm looking at starting my audiobook challenge with the Sookie Stackhouse series on mp3.....loving me a little late nite fang.

Quiet

in my house.  I can hear the fan turning.  Second son is back at school and Firstborn is making the most of his last hours of freedom by spending the day in bed with headphones attached.  I will admit to missing second son very much this morning.  He's good company.  And he drowns out the quiet.  I think I'm lonely.  Sigh.

Beginning of the end

It's the last night of the school holidays.  My kids have to go to bed at a reasonable hour and get up at an unreasonable one tomorrow.  I have to work the crossing.  And make an appointment to see second sons's new teacher.  And get into the whole daily routine again.  Lunchboxes,  band practice,  swimming kit.   Bus passes and permission slips.   Uniforms and detention slips (hopefully not too many this year, heehee)  Assignments and report cards.   Counting the days till Easter.......

Out with a bang.....

We're going to Dreamworld.  Kicking and screaming all the way.  (Me, that is, not the boys.  They love it.  I don't.)  I figured after all the lost evenings with me at the evac centre, I owed them a good day out to finish up the holidays.  It would be an even better day if I could take a book and sit under a tree somewhere while they ripsnort around like rabid monkeys, but we all know that's not gonna happen.  Second son has been more or less permanently attached since I've been volunteering....just a touch jealous, methinks.  Still, I like to have him close.  He makes me laugh.  And doesn't force me to defy death on any of those godawful rides.  We're train/vintage car people as opposed to Giant Drop afficionados.  And we like it like that.   It's starting to rain, so that's obviously my cue to load up the car and get moving.  Later.

Mama Time....

Today I am treating myself to a couple of hours of A grade Mama time.  Firstborn is going bowling with his girlfriend and a couple of mates and has generously offered to take Second son along with them, leaving me alone for the afternoon!!!   Top of my list is a complete overhaul of HBC which is looking more like "Wedding Central Bombsite" atm....I've got to stash all my wedding stuff to one side so that I can at least make  a start on editing the photos from last Sunday's shoot.  I really need a bigger room.....or maybe an editing suite.....or a scrap house....sigh.    However, just being able to find my desk and actually view both monitors without moving stacks of paper, invitation templates, order forms and material swatches will be a reasonable start.  And I'm nothing if not reasonable.....

Another bedtime story.

Tonite is probably going to be my last night at the evacuation centre.  They're rehousing people at a truly amazing rate, leaving only those who have absolutely no one to call on.  A large percentage of this last group are Somalian refugees,  who have no relatives to ask for help, no long time friends to lend a hand.   They are doing it hard....to come from nothing, to start from scratch and then to be wiped out again, in a strange country, with limited knowledge of the language and no back up system.   And their children are doing it right along with them.  I spent last night with a two year old on each knee and a four year old wedged in between them, reading stories that they didn't understand, but insisted on hearing.  Over.  And over.  And over again.
And singing!!!  I've always sung to my kids, but I'm not performance material by any stretch of the surreal.  But these kids just love to be sung to.  Three choruses of  "Down by the station" and I had a little braided angel in each arm,  out for the count.  It was really hard to leave them there and come home, and I will admit to shedding a couple of late night tears over my own boys later that night, out of sheer thankfulness that we're safe and together.  But I'm truly glad I went....even if the biggest benefits of all were mine.

Mesmerising

Is this not the most amazing performance of Swan Lake??   I saw it years ago, and it was playing on the Studio channel last night so I taped it.   Much more Swan-like than the original.   Love me some fierce!!

Revving up

for the new school year.....as I'm carless today, uniform shopping has had to be postponed for later in the week.  Firstborn needs new everything after another monster growth spurt over the holidays.  I managed to get over two years out of his last set of uniforms, so can't really complain.  Heehee, the funniest bit is his knee socks which barely reach mid calf on him now....all his height is in his legs.   Second son, fortunately is OK for uniforms, thanks to Firstborn handing down a stack of primary uni's in good nick.  The books are bought (but not covered yet....bleagh) the laptops are charging and Second son has been granted the highest of growing up priveledges.....a house key and his brother's old mobile phone (for emergencies only!!!!)   Neither boy will submit to a hair cut,  and nobody at either school has sent me an ultimatum so Firstborn  looks like Hairy Maclairy and Second Son is one good combing away from joining the Jamaican bobsled team.   I choose not to sweat the small stuff. 

Bedtime Stories

Tonight I'll be reading bedtime stories and tucking kids in for the night.   Not that different from ususal except these kids are living at the evacuation centre and are in serious need of a little TLC.   It's a scary deal when your life turns upside down, especially if you're not old enough to voice your concerns.   So a little escapism via a favourite book can be just what the doctor ordered.   I remember my mum reading me to sleep before she went to work each night, and Second son and I still read together every night (he's 11).
I've picked out a few of my all time fave kids books and will let you know how it went later tonight.

Project 365 - Runoff

The normally dry creekbed at the end of the street.

40 days and 40 nights.....

and I had to decide to take the boys and mates to a movie at a part of Brisbane that will probably be rezoned as Jellyfish Flats sometime this afternoon.   And we didn't get to see the movie because the power went out.  That was enough of an A-ha moment for me, thank you very much.  FF managed to get home at lunchtime and won't be in to work tomorrow, even if it's still there.  West End is swamped, they're evacuating from there and Caboolture and about a dozen other suburbs.  Phones are down....roads are cut.
And still it rains.  And rains.....and rains.

Project 365 - Hello Kitty

Reading 9-15th January

                             is for reading

Sunday and time for an update on my progress.  Well, I got through 6 of my Carpathian novels in between shopping and gaming and all the other holiday stuff my boys insist on, so I'm pretty happy with that.  Joined a couple of reading challenges just to help keep me on track.  You can see where I'm up to on my sidebar.   FF downloaded the latest Carpathian novel onto my Kindle, so after looking out my window, I'm thinking a quiet Sunday afternoon with a glass of red could be the plan.  Sometimes rain is just what the doctor ordered.  
Other things.....finally finished my centrepieces, as well as two long boughs for the main table, and they're looking fairly sensational, so that's one more thing off my list.  Also managed to finish up with a few more details so things are moderately well under control ATM.  
The tribe are knee deep in all things microchipped, which makes for a reasonable peaceful house which totally works for me.
The optus fairy dropped off my new modem, so now my internet has an olympic calibre pedigree, gotta love it!!
I finished my laundry!!!  All of it!!!  Bow down to my overwhelming sense of achievement!!!
and now, back to your regularly sceduled programming.....

Project 365 Firstborn/Roadtrip

A simulated tragedy.

Hansel is dead.  Tragically barbequed in his own kitchen due to my reluctance to teach him how to cook.  The fact that I forgot to install smoke detectors and a phone in the house probably didn't help either.  It's not easy running the universe.  I can see why that dude in charge of The Trueman Show eventually lost control of the whole deal....it's easy to do.  Gretel is heartbroken.  It's hard being a widow.  It's especially hard being the Widow Dogbiscuit, because for some reason Hansel's mortal remains are sitting in the middle of the lougeroom and I can't move them.  They're in a smart silver urn, which could easily be mistaken for a bowling trophy, except that Gretel has this compulsive urge to weep over it every time she walks past.   Which is putting a serious kink in her social life, because Mortimer from the swanky house on the hill has been a regular visitor up until the aformentioned tragic event, and he's not big on overt displays of grief.  Neither is he big on tact.....his solution is to tell Gretel a dirty joke and then try and get her to join him for a few laps in the hot tub.  Nasty little germ.  Maybe I should arrange for a lasagne related incident in his kitchen.    Bwahhahaha......I think I'm power hungry.   Today, Sim City....tomorrow, the world!!!!!

Scratch and sniff

Gingerbread scented....

please don't lick the screen.

Travellin' Man

Is this not the coolest bag

in the universe??

My kids have exquisite taste.  Now all I need is the matching hat and jumper.

Whisper Stories In My Ear - Audiobook Challenge

Since my hands are full of wedding decorations and cookie dough, I thought that this might be a good one to try.  Time to give my MP3 player a workout.  I'm hoping to get twelve book and reviews finished by years end.  Time will tell.

100+ Challenge 2011

Signed up for this

Just for kicks....and to see if I can really do it.

Wake up call

arrives in my bed as soon as FF's alarm goes off.



Reading 1-7 January 2011

                  is for reading


I'm starting the year with a re-reading fest.....this week I'm trolling through the Carpathian series by Christine Feehan.  I think I've got 20 in the series.....I'll update in a week to let you know how far I got.  Love me a dentally enhanced dead dude.

Birthday Beast.....

 Guess who.....

had a birthday this morning????



Yes, second son is officially eleven years old and knows it all, thanks to this....

the Oracle, also known as the ipod touch.

Guaranteed to answer questions you never wanted to ask.

(fingerprints optional)

and people wonder why I'm a fan of the natural look.

I promise

....not to make any promises I have no chance of keeping.  It's depressing, and I won't do it. 

I feel better already.   Today found me waking late (and loving it) followed by some wedding-ish work on my centrepieces, and putting the finishing touches on my boots.

I picked these up at a discount shoe shop a couple of weeks back, after much fruitless interwebbing in search of the perfect midwinter handfasting footwear.

They were originally a very Daisy Duke denim, but several bleach brushes, a coat of cream paint and some stamping has turned them into the ultimate in pixie chic.  Functional and funky.  Love it!!

Second Son turns 11 tomorrow.  We're going shopping so he can spend his Christmas money and cash in his Borders vouchers, followed by dinner at Sizzler.  He has no idea what he's getting, with guesses ranging from motorbike to ipod to lego.  I'll leave you in suspense until tomorrow.

Start your engines......

and we're off.......