The Real Reason

The real reason I temporarily dropped the blogging ball was that I spent much of the last month being distracted by a photo challenge and becoming more and more obsessed with Instagram (mobile phone app ((application)).  Every time I waved my phone anywhere near my kids they rolled their eyes and mumbled something along the lines of "O I guess that'll end up on instagram!"
The challenge listed a topic every day for the month of August which your photo should be inspired by.  I made up my own rules though and instead of taking a photo each day I sometimes brought one out of the archives to give the technological touch too.  I loved how some of them came up, but moreso I had a lot of fun doing it. 
All over now so I can make phone calls safely in my kids'  presence without the eye rolling and sarcasm - and hopefully get back to blogging.

O and I know there are more than 31 photos here so I chucked in a few extra to fill the grids.

Right Back At You Dad!

The creative blogging juices have not been flowing so freely of late, as my beloved Dad pointed out to me recently, so I thought I had better rectify matters.
The final piece in my trilogy of domestic appliance meltdowns eventuated in the form of my washing machine ceasing up one day, of course when D wasn't around to deal with it.  A super efficient repair man turned up on time the following day and sorted it out for < $100 which was pleasantly surprising.  Another pleasant surprise was the removal of an underwire that the machine had swallowed about 10 years ago...  it wasn't the cause of the problem but just an extra discovery in the investigative process.
My cousin recently sent me a photo I hadn't ever seen before...  besides the mystery man 3rd from left, it is my "Other Nana" (my Nana's Mum), my Grandpa (who my Dad is the spitting image of himself these days), Mystery Man and then My Dad - complete with a full head of hair, something else I hadn't ever seen before!  The mischievious look on his face reminds me of a face my sister pulls.
So in testing my family blog audience...  I never thought my Dad looked much like my Grandpa but he has slowly morphed into him, same goes for my brother, I think he is slowly morphing into my Dad.  My sister definitely does not look like my Dad except for that funny cheeky face in the photo.  I now understand where my daughter maybe gets her blue eyes from if the colours in the photo are accurate.  Not to let myself off the genetic hook, the older I get the more I remind myself of my Mum too, I love you to bits Mum but it's still a scary thought!

Waiting for the Third One

Now before you go falling off your chair, I have not gone mad and am definitely not contemplating any little additions to our family.
"They" say things happen in threes... firstly my beloved coffee machine finally squeezed out it's last brew.  A difficult day given I had a sick child at home and couldn't escape to source my fix elsewhere.  After gathering my thoughts I remembered the Aldi coffee machine we had purchased to install at Grandma's house in Adelaide this Christmas was sitting idle in the garage.  Got it up and running in time for afternoon tea - voila!  Even better was the discovery that Miss I could operate this one and as such excessive amounts of caffeine have been consumed ever since.

Second to go was the "second" fridge, the one that keeps all the beer cold and the meat frozen. Not ideal timing as we had just done a big shop at both the butcher and Dan Murphy's, luckily we had the camp fridge on hand and all produce was saved.  One phone call and $275 later and the fridge was saved, we justified the spend in that we weren't going to be buying a new fridge for anywhere near the same cost and even if we could find one it wouldn't magically appear within the next week.  Another bonus from having a fridge expert in the house was that he also fixed the problem with the main fridge at no extra charge!

All the while I have been humming Monty Python tunes... always look on the bright side...

So now I wait... what will be the third appliance to go...  and how will it be magically saved...  odds are it will be the tv and it won't be salvagable and we'll be getting that even bigger screen that D has been dreaming of ever since we moved in... just in time to miss both the Olympics and the footy season.

Season Ends on a High Note

Miss I's netball team, STPNC (St Therese's Parish Netball Club) Gold Stars, played one of the best games I've seen this season, if it wasn't for roughly a 30% height disadvantage they may have even had a chance of winning.
Seriously, check out the height difference in these pictures!
Talk about a challenge, first they had to be able to see around Gigantor #1 to know where to pass the ball and then had to pass the ball precisely enough to stop it being intercepted by Gigantor's team mate, Gigantor #2. 
The girls worked really hard - taking their time with their passing, chasing down loose balls, manning up like they were wearing velcro and with the same enthusiasm from the first whistle to the last siren.  Such great attitude and determination from them all and not one word of a whinge!

Backyard Stoush

Since we moved in we have noticed a few cats hanging around, rather big cats to be precise, but in the absence of any noticable territorial marking smells we haven't bothered too much about it.  This week we decided to pay particular attention to the new neighbours and have counted 4 of them. 
On sighting we usually run outside yelling and hissing to scatter and deter them but last weekend I suggested that we should see if they seemed friendly at all - big mistake.
The very next day after said experiment I caught one of them abluting in the back corner of our yard so I immediately returned to charging at them growling and hissing.
On waking this morning, 2 of them were hunkered down in the not so recently mowed back "lawn",  maybe fantasising that they were African lions on the plains, strange choice though given it hadn't stopped raining overnight and was < 10 degrees outside.  We observed them for a moment but then I couldn't resist charging at them again to see what happened.
The pair of them ran straight for, and up, the back fence, not a bad feat for what I originally thought were some over loved pets.
We watched eating our breakfast quite leisurely as they faced each other off for @ 15 minutes, eventually Mr Grey started to back away.
I got bored with the stale mate so charged at them again, they both leaped over the fence and disappeared.
So, I think I either need to get a dog or a nerf gun...  figure the latter might be quite a bit less maintenance and expense, any suggestions appreciated.

 Round 1

 Round 2

 Round 3

A Little Olympic Inspiration

Every week I drag myself and my progeny off to swimming lessons, they don't particularly like it and whilst I don't mind it in a "something a mother has to do" kind of way, it is one of the more tedious hours of my week.
We have no expectations of our children ever being olympic swimmers, that will never happen if only because their mother struggles to rise before the sun does, but feel that they should be confident swimmers as we like to take our holidays in warmer climates, preferably near a beach or a pool.
This week I had the pleasure of the company of my beautiful friend C, who also happens to be Miss I's Godmother, we'd spent the day doing grown up things and she hung around for some family time.  So whilst my kids are slogging it out in the pool we were yacking away on the sidelines and I totally missed my youngest swimming her first full lap unassisted...  Mother of the Year award coming my way!!!!!
I didn't feel so bad after my little swimmer was so impressed with her achievement that she didn't bother to collect her certificate until I reminded her.
Very proud day though.

100 days

Doesn't seem like much in the general scheme of things, but when you're celebrating your first 100 days of school it's a pretty big deal according to St Therese's Preps.
The countdown clock has been on since the beginning of the year and they have been preparing and rehearsing since the end of last term.
Invitations went home and when the day finally arrived they were all super excited.
Parents arrived to be greeted from some very fine Year 5 hosts at the door, we were given our instructions and told where to sit, then the stars of the show arrived all dressed up and ready for action.
We were treated to some fine speeches, lovely singing, beautiful decorations and very funky dancing. There were also activities to do with the children so they could showcase just how much they have learnt in 100 days.
Pretty impressive was the general consensus and lots of fun too!