And just like that...

..the holidays are over. These holidays have been the best we've had. We didn't even get to the 'I'm bored' stage. Amazing.We've been so busy, it's been great. Next week I'm sending the big boys to school and Charlie to daycare then I'm putting my feet up!

This is how we spent the last day of the holidays. A quick picnic in the park with Michael while he was on his lunch break. The kids and I haven't really seen him much these holidays. When he's not away at work he's working his second job. So yesterday we packed up some food and picked up Dad from work headed to the park. 

Can't be a picnic without camembert and boiled eggs right? 

William had his first taste of egg and was quite happy with it. Even if he did spread it everywhere. 

I may have made a camembert sandwich. As you do. 

It was so nice for the kids to get to see where Daddy goes to work and spend a bit of time together in the middle of the day. I can't say I minded it to much either. Next week I'm keeping him home for a few days.  

Cheap kids fun

Well it's been two and a half weeks since Michael and I started our money detox. I haven't blogged about it, but were doing pretty badly. Before we even started this happened. Now because Michael hadn't officially started his job he didn't have any holidays up his sleeve so taking a week off to drive fourteen hours away for one day then drive all the way home means we have been chewing through our savings instead of adding to them. That's why you have saving though right? Anyway we knew Michael wouldn't be getting paid for a few weeks and we'd have to be careful so I've been avoiding the shops as much as possible. The end of year sales are killing me!

It's been school holidays here this week (and next week) so to keep the boys busy and happy I bought some cheap crafty activities and they are loving them.

I got this idea from Pinterest, it was done with plastic eggs but that looked like an expensive pain. James is doing so well with his reading and writing since starting Prep and his teacher suggested letter and word games to keep him busy over the holidays so this is my take on that. Find the upper case and lower case letters and put them together. I love craft stuff that doesn't make a huge mess that the boys can do independently. 

So a 100 packet of paddle pop sticks costed about $3. Cheap right? 

My Charlie needs to be in on whatever is going on so I grabbed some $4 textas and made these real quick. It's simple just put the two sticks together to make the shape. He spent ages at the table doing this and telling me 'mum! circwle!' 

Cheap picture book stuck on paddle pop sticks, wait for it to dry cut the sticks apart and tada! Simple easy puzzle. 

Patterns and colours. awesome right? Ice cube trays were $4 for a pack of 2. Pom poms were $2 a packet and mini tongs were $5 for a pack of 3. 

He's got his concentrating face on. 

I love activities that they can get out and put away themselves, is some what educational, and covers all three age groups. This one has been on high rotation this week. Gotta be happy with that! 

Detox

If you know Michael or I you know were bad at saying no to each other. This is cute and funny when your talking about what movie to watch or what to have for lunch but when it's about important stuff it becomes a big problem.
Now Michael's got a proper permanent job we need to stop spending like it's all going to finish and get in a proper saving habit. We had a great plan of not spending any money, only spending money on  the essentials but there was always something, birthdays, mothers day. There's always something. So instead were giving ourselves pocket money for all those little things (Thankfully Dani is out of town for a month so no lunch dates for a while)
For a whole month starting Wednesday we are on a Spending detox. We have a target on how much we want to save (enough to buy Michael's 'new' car). If we can do that I'm going to put us on a slightly more flexible budget and we will save a house deposit.
Over the next month I'll be doing some posts on how to do things on the cheap and how to still have fun without spending so much and how were going.

So who wants to join in? Does a spending detox sound awful but necessary for you? 
Do you have any tips on how the hell I'm going to do this?!

Sssh don't tell my husband

I love this guy. 

I love him lots. 

Even if he does put wine in the sodastream so he can get busy with the boozy fizzy. I'm very sorry Sodastream. 

For most of our relationship he has been working away and were used to it. At the moment he works away for five days and is home for five days. It takes a few days to get used to him being gone, and then it takes a few days to get used to him being around again. When he's gone I miss him like crazy and count down the sleeps til he is home. By his last day at home I'm sick of the chaos and mess and I'm ready to send him back to work. 

When he is at work our life runs much smoother and the house is much cleaner. How is that possible with double the adults in the house is still beyond me.  

When he is at work I am the only adult and what I say goes. I decide what were doing, where we are going, what time were going. I decide what were having for dinner. What were watching on TV. Everything. 

When Michael gets home everything seems to turn into a tornado and for most parts I quite like it, we go out to eat or he takes us or a drive, he is more spontaneous and makes me smile most of the day, and it's great until he goes back to work and I have to spend the next day cleaning up after cyclone hubby whilst muttering obscenities under my breath* Then after I've got the last boy to bed I get to sit in front of some trashy TV with some chocolate and my laptop and it's quiet. Oh so quiet. 

I really do love him, but its nice to get rid of him.

Now to figure out what I'm going to do when we retire. Apart from kill him, obviously. 

*Not so much under my breath, maybe more huffing and puffing and yelling. I don't know where my kids get it from. 

Anzac

Michael and I are like chalk and cheese in most things but occasionally we are in the same boat and that makes life ridiculously easier. 

When I was a kid Anzac day was a big deal, same for Michael. We were both raised by single mothers with our Grandad's as big influences in our lives. Grandad's who both served in WWII and in their own ways taught Michael and I the importance of remembering and being grateful.
As our boys get older were teaching them more about the big wide world and after both of us telling the boys some of our Grandad's stories something hit me. I can't imagine being married to someone who wasn't as passionate about Anzac day as I was. I couldn't imagine teaching the boys by myself about something so important. I would never have put Anzac day on my list of deal breakers, but there you go it is. 

Two weeks later his birth announcement!

The morning of his birthday all ready to go to the hospital. 

None of my boys have ever wanted to come early, or on time. 
They have all been late bloomers and have needed some help getting their little bums moving. I really wanted to experience a natural labour no oxytocin drip, no being strapped to the bed, but I wasn't holding out much hope it would happen. So having my induction date set was a little disappointing but not a huge shock. 
The day came, we got ready, kissed the boys, I had a little cry I knew that would be the last time I'd see them before I bombarded them with yet another brother, then we headed off to the hospital at 7am with a maccas iced coffee, we were ready for action. 
After a quick listen to his heart beat and a check over I got a dose of  prostaglandin gel, we were told to walk the corridors to get things moving and come back at 2pm to see how things were going. Well that's not what I was expecting to hear. I felt like it was a huge waste of time. At 2pm I was getting pretty painful contractions but they weren't regular and my midwife told me all they were going to do was give me another shot of gel and check me out again at 9pm, and probably leave me over night and break my waters the next day. I was not a happy camper at this point. If you've never had gel on your cervix it feels like awful period pain. Not a fun way to spend an entire day. 
Michael and I headed back to my room to wait it out, we decided Michael may as well go home and bath the kids and help mum with dinner and come back afterwards.
I was getting lots of really painful contractions that were lasting for around 10 seconds but they were really irregular so I just waited it out. at 5pm my dinner turned up (gotta love hospitals!) I tried to sit up and eat but I was in way to much pain. I headed back to the labour ward to see what could be done, we decided a hot bath would be a good, and it really was. Around this time the midwives changed shifts and my new midwife came in to check on me, after we'd had a chat and she watched me have a few contractions she asked if I'd like the gas, oh hell yes! 
A few contractions later she suggested we call Michael and get him back to the hospital, we do live a good half an hours drive away so I said sure thing. Then time seemed to stand still. 
I got sick of the hot water and the hard bath so we moved to the bed, my contractions were getting pretty full on and I was glad to have the gas to keep my mind on something else.
A quick internal between contractions and I was 7cms, so much for come back at 9pm! 
I had my eyes squeezed shut and my toes curled over when Michael turned up and held my hand, It felt like hours since we'd called him when in actual fact it had only been 40 minutes.


It was 6.55pm when Michael got there and the next half an hour was pretty hectic. A few more contractions and I knew what was coming, I told my midwife the next contraction I was going to push. She was all alone with a student doctor, this is when they started running around making sure they had everything ready to go. Next contraction Williams head was out along with his arm, two more pushes and the rest of him was out and he was on my chest. I had never been so relieved in my whole life. I remember thinking that is the last time I will ever experience childbirth and thank goodness! 

William Robert was born born at 7.21pm, 55.5cms long, weighing a whopping 11lbs 10ozs. 

William and I a few minutes old.

Happy Anniversary

On this day five years ago I was pregnant and cooking for 12 people for Christmas day. Today is strangely no different, except last time it was my wedding day. We got married on Christmas eve and our movie is Love Actually. 

I never thought about it but we really are Christmas tragic's.

A lot has happened in the last five years, our big boy has gone from a toddler wearing nappies to a big school kid ready for grade 2, our middle boy was born and has showed us what our combined stubborn streak can produce, our Charlie surprised us and now he's 2 and were getting ready for #4 to arrive. We've moved more times than I care to remember and I know we've spent far to much money in the process. It sure hasn't been an easy five years, but this last year has been one of the best, were in the same place and we know each other so well after 7 years together, were in a good happy place. 

When we got married I was 22, seems so crazy to me now that we got married 2 years after we'd got together, but we had Jack already and James was baking in my belly, it didn't seem rushing at the time, it just seemed good timing. 

Our wedding day 

Us five years later. 

Happy Anniversary my love heart. 

20 in 2011~revisited

I knew a big chunk of our 20 to do in 2011 would be un-doable when we fund out about #4 but I have tried to keep to a few and with the end of the year approaching at a rapid rate I thought it was time to check through the list.

1.  Lose 20kgs (Melissa we have to help each other!)
2. Take the boys fishing/camping at least once a month. (Hubby's suggestion)
3. Go to Tasmania.
4. Save enough to buy a house. 
5. Stop watching movies that we've seen before.
6. Start watching movies we haven't seen.
7. Be more relaxed with the boys. They are little boys it's OK for them to be little boys.
8. Stop stressing about everything.
9. Do more craft activities with the kids.
10. Buy and READ more magazines that are for me.
11. Get more ink.
12. Be more organised, know where everything is.
13. Help Michael quit smoking (I better not be putting this on my list for 2012)
14. Teach the boys how to play age appropriate board games.
15. Make Saturday's new recipe day.
16. Finally finish reading Anna Karenina (or get the audio tape)
17. Have more friends around for dinner. 
18. Have more 'Mummy and Daddy' time
19.  Do some more decorating in the house. 
20.  Go away and experience stuff together more often.

So I failed miserably at quite a few things obviously, I defiantly didn't lose any weight, although I haven't put on that much so I count that as a win. 

Michael quit smoking twice that should defiantly count right? 

With our health issues of our littlest one up in the air I stressed enough for the entire year. I still stress out far to much about everything.

So what's left on my list is a good head start for next years list! 

Do you make new years resolutions? Will you be making a list for 2012? 

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Cheap Fun

Yesterday we had a huge day. A huge FREE day. 

Apart from the cost of fuel to drive to the places we went, but hey we won't count that ok?

When our junk mail turned up this week there was a flyer for an open day at a local display home in an estate, on the flyer I saw the word 'free' and instantly I was interested. 

Kids are expensive, we all know that, everyone talks about it, it's even on the news, they are expensive. Doing anything as a family is usually pretty costly for us so when something is free I jump at the chance.

Snow cones = free

Charlie opted for a leg paint instead of a face paint = free.

James wanted to be the sun = free.

Jack looking like a creepy spiderman with his balloon flower, you guessed it the balloons were free.

The little boys both decided on dinosaur balloon animals = free.

There was also a sausage sizzle and soft drinks and a jumping castle. They really had gone above and beyond for opening their display homes. While we were there we thought we better at least have a look in the display homes. It was then that something dawned on me. We were so out of place, not that we had planned to ever buy in an estate but going to an open day really makes it obvious we would be so un-wanted, the neighbours would say, you know the ones with all those noisy boys and the fisherman's wife. 

I don't think people that live in an estate have more than two kids, or drive a car more than 5 years old, or buy their kids clothes from best and less. Everyone was dressed beautifully with swish looking prams, driving sedans. We were defiantly the only ones with three kids, and we were the only tarago parked out of the front. We need space, and as nice and pretty a new house like that would be we need more space than they can offer us, even after a representative showed us the 'big' blocks of land, I still chuckled, the yard was tiny. When and if were ready to buy our own house it will be an old house, pre damaged walls, huge backyard, space for a pony kind of backyard. 

In case you can't read that it says The Bluewater Lagoon is funded by Mackay Regional Council.

Your donation is appreciated. 

You know what that means, yep its free. A water slide, a kids water park, a kids pool, and two bigger pools. It is one of my favourite places to be at the moment, being in water sure makes my pelvis feel better, and the kids love it. And you know it's free! 

Jack disappears as soon as we get there to go and play on the kids playground, little slides covered in water and a huge bucket that tips out once its full drowning anyone close to it. James and Charlie are still happy to hang out with their daggy parents in the big pool. 

So there you go morning fun, lunch, and an afternoon swim proudly bought to you by the cheapest family I know, that would be us. 

Thank god he's a country boy!

I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again.
I married a country boy.
Today we went to Agrow which is like an outside shopping experience for people who run their own farms, my husband was in his element, talking to people about cattle (that's cows to me, I am not a very country girl), sizing up machinery, getting business cards and show bags. He was loving it.
He is good at his job, makes great money (that we spent very easily) but put him in a checked shirt and boots and he just looks comfortable.
Talk to him about how many sheep you can sheer in a day and he knows who your talking about, and what's an average amount and what's not.
It has just cemented in my head that we need our own land. Space for my hubby to make a chicken coop, milk cows, have a tractor, and teach the boys to ride a motorbike.
So I'm adding to our inspiration board a farm all of our own, cows and all.

TREAT 'EM MEAN KEEP 'EM KEEN

This is what I feel like lately. The cleaning lady.

 I feel like all I ever do is housework and organise everyone.

I have had my good wife pants on lately, but this week I say pfft to good wife, I'm opting for bad wife instead. You see it seems the nicer I am to my darling hubby and the more I do for him the more he expects of me and the more he leaves things for me to do. Isn't he kind? Like leaving his work clothes that need washing, randomly scattered around the house.  Plastic containers that he takes to work, left outside. His coffee cups, strewn around the yard. His plate so kindly left on the kitchen table for me to take to the sink.  You get the picture? Its a bad picture.

So this week I am treating him mean, leaving him to wash his own work clothes and make his own lunch. Maybe then he will take the bin out without me asking (nagging) a bazillion times. Or change a dirty nappy without me having to get him the child, nappy and wipes (seriously its not that big of a house).

Please tell me I am not the only one with a lazy husband!



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Wedding love

On Saturday the boys and I were lucky enough to head to the beach to watch our friends get married at a resort, what a good way to get married! Next time we get married I'm defiantly looking into resort weddings.

The big boys in their wedding clothes, even though they only came to the ceremony I still wanted them to look nice.

The bride and groom saying their vows. I love weddings.

The beautiful bride as they left the chapel, she looked stunning.

Our little man who ended up with a gash on his head after rolling down a hill and hitting his head on a garden bed edge then falling down some stairs. Note to self, double check your husband has packed the pram before you leave home.

Michael and I, I wish I'd gotten a better photo of my dress, I love it.

Jack and I hanginh out in our room between the ceremony and the reception. The kids went to the kids club at the resort I think there was only three kids left at the wedding and they were all tiny. Such a good idea, the boys wanted to go back the next morning, well worth paying $45 for each child to go.

You can dress them up...

....But at the end of the night your still married to a bogan.

V Day

Being the wife of a miner means we often celebrate special occasions before or after the actual date. Jacks first birthday, Christmas, anniversary's, valentines day you get the picture. This year is no different with Michael working and not getting home til 7pm we decided we'd put valentines day off til Wednesday when he'll be home.
That's all well and good, but I think we'll celebrate today anyway. Why not?!

This isn't a new recipe so I wont add it to new recipe Saturday (which will start this week, stay tuned!) but I'll share with you and the lovely Rhi from hummingbirds song.

Wrapped Chicken with honey mustard sauce.

2 chicken breasts
small quarter wheel of Camembert
2 middle rashers of bacon
2tbsps honey
2 tbsps wholegrain mustard
1 1/2 cup cream

Pan fry chicken breasts til golden, but not cooked through. Slit the chicken breast to make a pocket, fill pocket with slices of Camembert,wrap with middle rashers of bacon, secure with skewer if needed (don't forget its there when you've cooked it!) Bake in oven for 25 mins at 180 or until chicken is cooked. While chicken is cooking add cream mustard and honey to a pan until cream reduces. Pour cream sauce over chicken serve with roast potato's and steamed greens. Delicious!

Browned Chicken boob

Stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon.

Finished product, mmmm...

Love

This is what Michael an I do at spackdonalds. Exactly. When I saw this ad I admit it made me a little teary. Then I had to show Michael straight away. I know its only an ad and I'm sure there are millions of people around the world that eat their spackdonalds like this but I still feel special and like we'll still be eating our spackdonalds like this in 40 years. I hope so the pickles are my favourite : )

Home again Home again

Thanks to Amy for letting me know I hadn't done a post about us coming home from our 'second honeymoon' now were home it doesn't seem so bad, but at the time it was pretty horrific.

For those of you who weren't bombarded with my facebook updates or tweets, Michael and I went away for one night which turned into NINE.
It all seemed perfect at the time, Michael and I were invited to a friends wedding, mum was still visiting and she offered to have the boys for the night. Sounds good right? Well it all went horribly wrong when we attempted to get home only to be flooded 80kms from home. There were three roads that were cut between us and home.

This is not my photo but this is Comet Bridge. Not that you can see the bridge only the train bridge which before this was under water also. Comet is 35kms from home and it was the last hurdle we had to get through before we could get home. I think it was the longest 35kms I've ever driven.

The biggest bridge in Emerald once it was down enough for us to drive over. What the water is covering is a park that we often take the boys to, can't even see the top of the swings. Crazy.

A train bridge between Emerald and Capella.

While Michael and I were waiting around to get home we went for a sticky beak at the lake at Emerald. This is the picnic area our table is under water.

We made it to Emerald on Monday. A whole week after we'd left the boys, we were told that they were going to open the big bridge in Emerald that morning, and I got so excited! Then we found out that Comet was still bad, that's when I saw the aerial photos and knew we weren't getting home that day. So Tuesday morning we went out to the road closed sign to quiz the roadtek guys, after all they are on the ground and know whats going on, they said it should be open that day but they needed to do some serious work on the road. After a few hours and phone calls we were told there was no way anyone would be driving over it.
By this stage I was so upset I thought we were never going to get home. I was probably being very over dramatic but I was really feeling that bad.
So Wednesday I had no hope that we were going to get home but we went and bought a few supplies to take home, visited some of Michael's family one in particular who is quite high up on the main roads who told us that afternoon to go out to the road closed sign and ask nicely if they would let us through. Thankfully we didn't need too as they were just about to open the road anyway! 
After nine days being trapped away from our crazy boys I forgot how loud and smelly they were but it was so nice to talk to them face to face and have big cuddles. Jack and James were quite happy to hug us both, Charlie saw me and started walking backwards, broke my heart but really after nine days away I'm not surprised. Luckily it only took him half an hour to give me a big cuddle and squezze then he became my shadow, every time we leave the house he holds my hand and gives it a squeeze like he's not going to see me again even if I'm just hanging out washing.
Never going away ever again!

20 To Do in 2011

Last year I was fascinated and inspired by Melissa from Sugar Coat It and her 20 to do in 2010 so when she posted her 20 to do in 2011 I knew I wanted to have a go as well.

1.  Lose 20kgs (Melissa we have to help each other!)
2. Take the boys fishing/camping at least once a month. (Hubby's suggestion)
3. Go to Tasmania.
4. Save enough to buy a house.
5. Stop watching movies that we've seen before.
6. Start watching movies we haven't seen.
7. Be more relaxed with the boys. They are little boys it's OK for them to be little boys.
8. Stop stressing about everything.
9. Do more craft activities with the kids.
10. Buy and READ more magazines that are for me.
11. Get more ink.
12. Be more organised, know where everything is.
13. Help Michael quit smoking (I better not be putting this on my list for 2012)
14. Teach the boys how to play age appropriate board games.
15. Make Saturday's new recipe day.
16. Finally finish reading Anna Karenina (or get the audio tape)
17. Have more friends around for dinner.
18. Have more 'Mummy and Daddy' time
19.  Do some more decorating in the house.
20.  Go away and experience stuff together more often.

So what's on your list for 2011?

New Years Day. What The.

If you had told me twelve months ago this is how Michael and I would be seeing in the new year I would have called you a liar. But here we are.
If you haven't picked up on it this week, I'm not in a very good place emotionally.
I've been crying like I do when I'm pregnant (I'm not pregnant). Randomly and in waves. I'm having the worst case of separation anxiety I have ever had.
In six years I've never had time to myself like this and now I am so glad that Michael and I are parents. It keeps us in a good place. We eat better, drink more water, exercise more, try our best to be better, without even realising or making a decision to do it.
This week I've had a sneak peak at what we would be like if we didn't have children and it's not pretty. I'm very thankful that we never had the choice.
I'm also very grateful that we can spend this much time together in a very small room without killing each other. We haven't snapped once and we are defiantly both under a bit of stress. Last night a few locals told us that were now part of the community and they want us to come back with the boys. We even had a look at a few houses for sale. I don't think we've ever been welcomed into a community quite the same.

So have you ever....

This is the sign Michael and I were joking about on our way to Mackay. Serves ourselves right.

Road closed sign between Capella and Emerald.

My honey bun showing me how the electric windows work.

All these cars were empty. it took us a few seconds to realise all the stranded people that we met that had been choppered out of here would obviously have left there cars here. Was very eerie.

So close yet so far. So rude.

I have become a crazy weather watcher I have a million websites in my head. RACQ, 131940, CHRC (Central Highlands Regional Council) , weatherzone. The list goes on. At the moment I know the river has peaked and is now falling, in the last 24 hours its dropped from 16.4mtrs to 15.6mrts.The water is 1.2 mtrs over the bridge and there is no way we'll be home before Monday if not Tuesday. BUT there is light at the end of the tunnel!