How Kids Sleep.

For those of you with kids, you will understand. For those of you not with kids, make sure when you do have them, that you keep your camera handy at bedtime. Because kids sleep in the weirdest of ways. At tables over their tea. In bed upside down. Sitting up while watching a movie. And if they are anything like my two, you will not need to walk up to them to know, coz you'll hear them snoring from another room!

Holidays in my Tiny Mind

As you may have noticed, I haven't written on this blog for AGES. This is because I am obsessed. Obsessed with planning, picking, organizing, packing, choosing, selecting, writing, typing, ringing and what shoes I might need. Yes people, you guessed it. I'm going on holiday.

Well, we're going on holiday. 3 and a half glorious weeks away from the Hedland doldrums (and my mothers group ladies coz I need a break, more on that later) and off to the cold, leafy green slack-jawed yokel-populated south west. And mid west. And mid north. All around WA to be precise.

Every year my family goes on holiday down south. Every June. When it's freezing. This is because my sister Jodie's daughter Tayla was born in June, so it started as being a visit to coincide with Tayla's birthday, taken by my Mum and Dad every year. When I moved to Hedland, Shane and I joined them in the first year and basically continued each June. Later, Jodie politely obliged us by giving birth to Marlyn in June as well. So both the kids get us for their birthdays each year. Nice pressie huh?

Now I happen to love this time of year. Living up here we don't really experience any sort of winter, although it definitely does get colder. In Perth, I got the chance to bust out the woollen coats, boots, scarves and gloves. Once, I even wore a beanie! The only chance to wear a beanie up here is when you go camping in winter and you're sitting round the fire talking about fishing. Then it's freezing coz you're 300 km's inland. Admittedly, 3 months into the chilling winds and rain, I end up slightly over it. But after sweltering in 40 degree heat all year, it's nice to experience some cold and sit around fires drinking Milo (me) and slightly less colder beers (Shane).

Now our itinerary. I won't post the exact dates we are leaving and travelling on, in case someone out there is a burglar and wants to know when the house will be vacated (fat chance, we've got a housesitter!).
We travel from Hedland to Mt Magnet on the first day. This is the main drive as it will take 8 to 9 hours and is very boring, being on the inland road. So, bring on the portable DVD player for the kids, and lots of magazines for me.
The next day we drive through Perth, stopping at the KFC in Midland to have lunch and meet my sister, who is coming down from Geraldton the day before. Then on through Perth and to Narrogin, where both my uncles live.
The next day it is only 3 hours to Albany which is where Mum and us 3 kids were born and all our family still reside. Albany is a beautiful town, with ACTUAL white sand on the beaches. We are lucky enough to be staying at a house on the beach (imagine that, with 5 adults and 4 kids - uproar!), so we plan to do lots of walks along the trails and foothpaths there. Shane's sister in law and kids moved to Albany at Xmas time as well, so we are going to see them and I can give Narelle the scrapbooked photo frame I made a couple of months ago as their housewarming present.
After a few days, we leave Albany and travel to Walpole to go on the Giant Tree Top Walk. We went there with Mum and Dad 2 years ago and LOVED it. This time Cassidy is older and Tayla and Marlyn will be there too and they haven't been, so we are very excited to see the reaction of the kids to the heights and swinging walkways. At the end we will get certificates signed to commemorate the occasion as well. Then onto Bunbury. This is particularly exciting as 2 of my close girlfriends, Justine and Mel, both live in Bunbury now so we are all spending a morning together to see each others kids and catch up.
Another few days more and we drive onto Perth. Mum and Jodie are staying with my Auntie and Shane and I are off to our hotel in the city. Hopefully we get another room high up like last time, as we had a beautiful view of the city and down towards the WACA. Another special place to visit as I get to catch up with my best friend Ani and talk... well, about special things, but more about that later as well! We are also taking all the kids to the Perth Zoo. I haven't been since Tayla was little so I am really looking forward to this as well.
We then move onto Geraldton for a relaxing 12 day break. This, theoretically, should mean less running around and more relaxing. But it never works out that way. There's always one more shop to visit and one more feed of Subway or Hungry Jacks to get. There's also a scrapbooking shop in Gero, but let's not go there!
We are staying at our old haunt which is a house on the beach. It's nice, an old place with brick interior, but plenty of room to spread out and a little patio area out the front where we can sit and watch the water, and sometimes the dolphins!
When we leave, we travel 5 hours to stay in Carnarvon overnight, then we have 8 hours back to Hedland the next day. It's a big trip, a big drive, but I can't wait. Shane my hero will be doing most of the driving, poor thing. Even worse if we realise our dream and buy a campervan while we're away. But I'm not sure about that; at this point we need to take out a loan just to buy petrol! Sigh.

I'd better go. I have been packing for 3 weeks and I still haven't figured out how many pairs of tights Cassidy will need, let alone what colours. And I've got to decant my shampoo and conditioner into tiny little bottles. Phew. I'm exhausted. Hmm, I might just check that my Mahjong game is working first, heh heh. TTFN.

Pyjamas on a Tiny Mind...

Further to my earlier post on wearing my pyjamas to the shops, I copied it into a discussion on the Facebook page of my ABC Mums Group. And guess what? So many mums loved the idea, we're having a pyjama morning tea! Ha ha, told you I'd start a trend.

Bubba... do you have the remote?

My bubba looks like she's hiding something...
Every day she has more personality, more smiles and more jumps in her development. She loves to stand up but hasn't gotten used to sitting (supported) in her walker yet. She smiles heaps, often without anything being said to her, you just glance over and she's grinning away. What can I say? I think she's gorgeous and I'm SO biased!

Continued Musings of a Tiny Mind...

Ever want to stay in your pyjamas? All day? I do. Not because I can't be bothered having a shower. I am lucky enough to have a good baby girl who always naps after her first feed, giving me time to shower, eat and look human again.

No, I'm talking about for comfort. For style. For the ease of not having to change when you go to buy bread and milk at Coles.

You see, I just got myself ANOTHER pair of Peter Alexander pyjama pants. I've become quite addicted this year and have bought a few pairs of pj's from his online store. This particular pair are easily the Most Comfortable pair I have ever owned. Yes, I put it in capitals. They deserve it. They are now officially labeled 'Most Comfortable'. I may have to give them their own special drawer.

I'm being totally serious about this. Many is the time since I received that exciting PA package in the mail that I have thought, why change to go get bread and milk? To go pick Cassidy up from daycare? To go to work? Would anybody notice? Or care? It is only Port Hedland after all. Should I just buck convention and venture out of the house in comfort and style? Not to mention ready to have a nap at the drop of a hat? Or would the shopping centre security make me go buy jeans like people who don't have shoes have to go buy thongs?

So I'm wondering about experimenting and trying it. If I can get up the guts. I'm thinking I could start off at my Mothers Group. Surely they'd understand about staying in your pyjamas all day for comfort. Who knows, maybe I'll start a new trend. I'll keep you posted.

Signing off, The Thrillseeker.

p.s. did I mention these pyjamas are pink and purple zebra striped? Do you think it matters?

p.p.s. and what other clothes go with zebra anyway?

B.. B.. Bling!

As recently mentioned during one of my bitchy musings, I lately had to (HAD to) purchase some bling to replace a small portion of my gold jewellery that was stolen. So here's a picture of the 2 rings I bought; luckily in Karratha they have a Goldmark store. I wasn't interested in a $500 or $600 massive thing and certainly didn't have the funds to buy something like that anyway. I wanted something simple and inexpensive, and set my budget at a couple hundred dollars. To my delight, they were having a sale! So I got both the gold filigree and citrine stone rings for $200. I am very pleased with myself and my purchases - Noice!

D. O. R. O. T. H. Y... Dorothy the Dinosaur... la la LA

On Saturday, I took Cassidy, along with my sister-in-law Jessica and her 2 kids, to see the Dorothy the Dinosaur show at the Matt Dann centre. And I'm not ashamed to say that I think I enjoyed it as much as the kids did! It's great when you know all the songs and can sing along with the kids. I really enjoyed watching Cassidy jump up and down like an madman with the excitement. So here's some cool photos I snapped. Enjoy. Or don't. Let's face it, we're not all Wiggles nuts.

Supersize It!

You know, I really hate living in the pilbara. And it's not just because of the heat. Over the last 12 months, we have had a centipede infestation in our house. Actually, a pest guy told me that they live in little sand mounds outside, so it's not so much infestation, but visitation.

This week, we've had 3 of the bastard things in one week. Last Saturday, there was a small one on the floor of our bedroom. Now, when I say small, I mean, about 5 or 6 centimetres long. Then on Monday night Shane saw one outside under my car in the carport which was massive, about 14 cms long. So he smashed it with a rock.

Then last night, the worst; one in Cassidy's room. She'd gone to bed and was sitting reading with the light on. Shane and I were in the loungeroom, and I'd just put the bottle into Devon's mouth when Cassidy started screaming. Shane opened the hall door and started swearing, so I put Devon down and ran, thinking if Shane's swearing, there's blood, she's fallen and hurt herself. By the time I got round the corner, Shane had picked up Cassidy's toy laptop (the closest thing to hand) and was smashing this centipede. And it was alive. Like I mean, it was lively and trying to run off, and it was fast. It was about 8 or 9 cms long and was as fat as your finger, so gross.

Thank God Cassidy brought our attention to it rather than try and pick it up, which she's done before (to bugs, not centipedes.) I questioned her thoroughly about where it come from and whether she'd touched it, if it had been on her bed or anything and luckily, it had only been on the floor. But this is my biggest fear; that one of these bloody things is going to bite one of my kids, coz that's what happened to me last year.

I was sitting on the lounge with Shane and felt a pinch, like an ant, on my back at my armpit. When I leant forward and looked back at the lounge, a centipede crawled out, about 7 cms long. I immediately rang the hospital and then Health Direct, as I was 7 months pregnant at the time. I was fine though, just a sting like an ant, and no effects for me at all, so I was lucky. I wonder if maybe it just pinched me, rather than bit me? "Get OFF me lady!"

The accompanying photos are an example of another bug we have a lot of. We get these tiny little black bugs and, as Cassidy found out recently, they bite. They have pincers at the front and can give a nasty little nip. This huge bugger was just outside our back door. Shane and I were amazed, we've never seen such a large version of a common bug before. And these photos don't do it justice, I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised if it'd started talking, it was so huge. And don't worry, we didn't kill it, we set it free in the backyard!

So in the last 6 months, I've been bitten by a centipede, have trodden on a snake (a baby brown snake in our backyard), so all I need now is to wrestle a crocodile and I'll have a trifecta! I have to go now, am ringing our pest guy to organise our next annual bug spray. Sigh. I hope he's got extra...

If you don't think you're a very big Thinker, what does that make you?

More Musings of a Tiny Mind...

I have a habit of talking to myself. I was going to write that I have a bad habit of talking to myself, but from what I understand, lots of people do. So I won't say that I'm weird or kooky or insane. Let's just take it for granted that lots of people talk to themselves, whether aloud or in their head, and move on.

I have a running commentary going on in my head about 2 main things. Firstly, what I would say to people who have pissed me off. Driving in my car is a classic example. Why road rage when you can road vent in your head? "Yes Mr Policeman, his car did cut me off. Luckily I am an extremely careful driver and was paying extremely close attention, so when he brazenly pulled out in front of me and I had to slam the brakes on, I cleverly managed to avoid hitting that aged pedestrian and side-swiping that young skateboarder. Yes sir, book him, by all means!"

And secondly, what I would answer when asked questions about myself. For example, if I was being interviewed on The View, or by Molly Meldrum or Parky or someone like that. So. Let me elaborate...

Last year we were broken into and some of the things that were stolen from our bedroom was a handful of all my gold jewellery. This included a tiny bag full of all my labret jewellery (my chin piercing). It had the original post I was pierced with, which is a small one I used when my current larger one gets irritated, and also the coloured gems I could swap around depending on my mood. The awful thing is that this bag has always lived in my purse, but about 2 weeks before the break in I took it out and put it on the dresser near my jewellery as I was scared I would lose my purse and lose the bag. So go figure.

I am obsessed with why oh why they would take a useless bag of jewellery, because basically, unless you also had a labret piercing, this jewellery is useless to them. You couldn't sell it really. I'm also obsessed about checking out the jewellery that strangers wear, as my gold was quite distinctive and I would know it anywhere. A favourite thumb ring had a flaw in it. A very treasured moonstone ring was a one-off item bought from a crystal shop and was to help me through the birth of my daughter. A butterfly shaped gold ring was bought for my birthday by Shane, the only piece of jewellery he has given me. There is no second-hand dealers in town at all, so my jewellery has vanished into thin air. The day after it happened, I walked up and down the ditch next to our house scouring the ground in case they threw it away or dropped anything. All I found was someone else's stolen purse.

I imagine, while driving home, while vacuuming, while in the shower, just what I would say to the kids (we're sure it was kids; they stole smokes, cans of coke and crap DVDs too) if I ever met them. The other day it was just one line. I would look them in the eye and say "Do you realise just how much heartache you have caused me?"

I try not to think about this theft too much as I get instantly upset and teary. And yes, we do have contents insurance, and yes, I do have the receipts for a lot of the jewellery and items stolen. But... the contents insurance was taken out by my mother-in-law as it is her house and she cannot find the papers. She hasn't been able to find them for 4 months now. I don't know if she's even bothered to look. Apparently she found them once but then she lost them again. Never mind that none of her stuff was stolen, it was mostly my things that were taken. My Ipod. My gold jewellery. My daughters portable DVD player worth $3o0. And some crappy DVDs of Shane's that cost $6 each. My mother-in-law said it doesn't matter because you have 3 months to claim for stolen items. Then she said she doesn't think her contents insurance covers burglary. Ridiculous. So yes, I get teary. Shane won't mention the break-in to me as I bite his head off about his mother's apparent lack of interest in replacing my belongings. Okay, breathe. And move on.

On a lighter note, I often run through what I would respond with in answer to questions about me. Totally selfish right? Like, if Ellen said, so I loved your latest movie, where did you get the inspiration from? Or, tell me about your favourite pair of jeans? Why do you love the Foo Fighters? Who should star in the next Jane Austen movie? How would you cook an omelette?

I narrate quite in depth, involved, hellishly long and hilarious answers as to why that lipgloss is my favourite and where I got it, or why I believe that Monica Lewinski is a tart and shouldn't wear a beret. I am always incredibly witty and delightful in my replies. I get great satisfaction from knowing that someone wants to know how and why I tick, even if it is only imaginary. I find myself extremely fascinating, so why shouldn't others?

The weirdest and wonderfullest answers can be given when no-one is listening. Well, I'm sure Devon is listening when I elaborate my answers out loud, but bless her, she hasn't complained about the noise yet.