Lounge Room~Before and After

 Now I realise that there are far more important things going on in the world at the moment and I'm struggling to drag myself away from the updates and news its unfathomable to me. BUT One of my 20 to do in 2011 was to decorate the house and I'm making a start by rearranging our lounge room, although its not technically decorating it made me feel better.
For Christmas I bought the boys their own little lounges and they love them, I knew they would only problem is I didn't really think about where they would go or how they would fit in the room (talk about retail coma) and as we have three door ways 2 sets of windows and a TV that cant be moved I was pretty limited.

Before:

View from the corner of the lounge room towards the hallway

From the kitchen

From the hallway towards the corner.

After:

The view from the hallway.

from the kitchen, the boys enjoying the fruits of my labor!

From the front door.

Although it makes the room feel smaller, we seem to fit better. The baby gate isn't quite so accessible to Charlie and we don't have a corner dumping ground. Always a good thing!

later in the year I'm going to do a bedroom re arrange.. Jack turns six in April and we've decided he gets his own room. So trouble one (James) and trouble two (Charlie) will be in together, I know I will be kicking myself when we do it, but Jack needs it. 



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!

Nanny's Birthday!

For the first time in a long time my mum and I got to spend her birthday together. Although I wasn't organised enough to make a cake or a special dinner (I know I suck) we still had a nice day. The boys made her a special card and we dragged her out for dinner even though she didn't want to go. My mum decided a couple of years ago she was 49 and there was to be no more birthday's, that all well and good but it may get weird soon. This year as my sister turns 36, just don't count.

Giving Nanny her card.

Showing us the duck face. You crack me up lady!

Mumma and me. Mum with her serious face trying to see where she's meant to be looking without putting her glasses on.

I'm not adopted but you can see why when my sister told me I was when I was little I believed her. 

P.S. Did I tell you we made it home? No? A bit late sorry about that!

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!