Gordon Street Gobbledygook

A busy couple of weeks for us! This week we toured a few of the primary schools in our area and we have decided on Specimen Hill for Oscar...so he'll get to see Trinity & Daria more often! Damien and I (thankfully!) both had the same thoughts on the schools that we saw. We found the staff at Speci to be very approachable and friendly, with a genuine interest in their students' well-being. The grounds are a good size with shaded play areas, there's a garden and plans for an outdoor classroom (it'll be completed by the time Os starts). We were very keen to tour Quarry Hill where my brother's kids go but found they had a very strong academic focus but possibly to a fault - lots of statistics that look good on paper but not that warm, friendly atmosphere of Speci. And Spring Gully... they are a school under development. A couple of great study areas, but then lots of concrete and steps everywhere. And a terrible canteen menu!
As well as school tours, I took Os (& Lil) to a drop-in speech pathologist. He is having trouble with a couple of sounds (S & L) and the pathologist thought it would be a good idea for him to continue having sessions. Just need to get a recommendation from kindy, and then a 6 month wait for an appointment :-/
Speaking of kindy, Os still really enjoys it. He told us he has a girlfriend! She is blonde and had a bunny on her t-shirt. He doesn't know her name ;) He knows Elliot from Lisa's playgroup, but generally he doesn't know names but is happy to play with everyone :)
Lil has her own special appointment next week- paediatric physio to assess her walking... she tends to be pigeon-toed when she walks quickly/runs. Looks like it is a hip-related thing which will hopefully correct itself  by around age ten.
Damien has been working hard, but was still able to look after the kids while I went to the school parent info nights :) And because he started stupidly early this morning he also had time to go out for lunch with us :)
We had Ann & Clive over for dinner last Sunday, and my parents are due back this Tuesday. My sis' boyfriend/our landlord looks like he's returned from his overseas trip, too, so very soon things will be "back to normal" ;)
That's about it I think. I'm sure Damien will fill in the gaps :)

Gordon St Grapevine

"Grapevine" makes it sound like I have some juicy gossip to share, but alas, no, just a regular post ;)

I was going to just post a comment to Damien's post, but I  noticed with Lisa's post that it's saying there are zero comments (at least for me) even though there are four there now. So to be safe, I'll do a new one.

Firstly, geez, Damo! Should have been Father's Day yesterday, I reckon! You have been busy busy busy! And still managed to help out with the kids! Better make sure I think of an extra special present for September :)

So yes, busy week for us, although after reading Damien's post I feel like maybe I could have done a bit more! Monday morning I took the kids for a "quick trip" to Big W to print some photos for my parents to show family in the Philippines. Os had kindy that afternoon.
Tuesday morning Damien took Os to kindy. In the afternoon I drove my parents to the bus stop and waited until their ride to the airport arrived. I then took the kids out to the uni to pick up my sister and she joined us for dinner.
Wednesday morning we went to Lansell Plaza. Os had completed his "toilet chart" and was due for a prize :) He wanted a Thomas toy from the vending machine and luckily he got a "good" one (I personally would have been disappointed if he got another set of boring tracks! ;).
Thursday was kindy morning again, so Damien dropped Os off and I went in an hour earlier for the special Mother's Day morning tea. Damien looked after Lil at home and it was really nice to spend time with my little boy. He brought me a scone that he had helped make and then we played in the sandpit. I'm sure you saw the photos of him buried in the sand! Unfortunately that did mean that there was a few little piles of sand on the carpet later on at home. Haha! In the evening Damien and my brother picked up some shelves from a friend- woo hoo! Shelves in the laundry and the office now :)
Friday was playgroup day. We're always late :p But after a busy week it's nice to let Os have a sleep-in. Os loves running around with Daria, and they both like playing with the toys :) We never seem to get there in time for craft, but to be honest that would be more for me anyway ;) Friday night we had my sibs and niece and nephews over for dinner. I made mini pies- beef Guiness & onion for the big people, and mince pies for the kids, with mashed potatoes and green vegies. My brother's wife brought over a fruit crumble. All of it was delicious (if I do say so myself!). We usually all catch up at my parent's place for dinner Sunday night, so it was nice to still eat together even though my parents are away.
Damien covered Saturday- Oak Forest and Castlemaine. It was a beautiful day! I ran into a primary school friend at the cafe. Haven't seen her for over ten years and it was great to have a chat. After lunch we looked through a cool store that had a lot of bits and pieces for around the house as well as antiques. It was quite a large store even though it looked like a tiny cottage from the outside (think TARDIS ;) Both kids napped on the way home. Yay!
Sunday I enjoyed a lovely morning with Damien and the chickens: breakfast and presents :) Then dinner that night where we ordered a little too much, so leftovers for lunch today. We don't go out for dinner as much as we did in Adelaide, so hopefully we're saving money, but it is always nice when we do. The Dumpling House is our current family favourite, although we really must try some other places for dinner! When we were back home I found another handmade gift for me in Os' kindy bag haha! He had forgotten about it :) All up, a really nice Mother's Day. The kids are at a great age where they can make/do things... it's very sweet :)

So, that's pretty much our week. In between those things I have been working on my resume and doing baking (nothing interesting.. mostly healthy stuff for the kids). The kids have been good. Os has been sharing his dreams with us, practicing writing, helping me with baking, and Lil has been... a cheeky little monkey :) She still likes to chat, sing, climb, play with her babies, mimic us and most importantly eat a LOT! :)

Hoping this week is a little less busy for Damien, with maybe lunch out and some quiet time to catch up on Game of Thrones & Downton Abby :)

Gordon St Gossip

These last couple of weeks have been a bit nuts for me. As I posted on Facebook, as a freelancer I don't get holidays (at least not if I want to get paid) and I can't really get sick. After a week of being sick, I could have really used a holiday ;) Unfortunately it was about then that a job I'd quoted on weeks back came through. In true form the client left it to the 11th hour to confirm the design, so on top of my usual 7.5 hours a day of GDD work I had to squeeze in another 8 hours of work for this guy. I also had an illustration job (2 hours) pop up, and a mail form (another 2 hours) due today.  Suffice to say I've had some late nights and early mornings but I've got it all done. On the plus side, at least I get paid.

Of course there's no point doing all this work if it causes me to neglect my family, so I had to work around the kids being awake and helping Cheryl out with them.  Most mornings I'll get the kids dressed and fed, and Tuesdays and Thursdays take Os to Kinder. Also Thursday I looked after Lil for an hour in the middle of the day so Chez could go to Ossie's Kinder for a special Mother's Day morning tea - I'll let her fill you in on that. Saturday morning we made the most of beautiful weather and went to the Oak Forest out near Harcourt for a bit of a look, then on to Castlemaine for some lunch. The food was exceptional.

Sunday morning the kids and I made Cheryl breakfast in bed (which, as all children do, they helped consume) and they gave her presents. Then after a trip to the supermarket and more work we headed out for Mother's Day dinner.  Again, I'll let Chez post about the Mother's Day stuff.

Anyway, the point of all this isn't to have a whinge, just to say it's been a bit crazy and I'm not entirely sure what we've done this week. Except I know I got all my extra work finished while still having time to play with the kids, so that's good :)

Brooklea Park babbling

The sun has come out this afternoon so we're sitting on the veranda making some much-needed vitamin D, drinking some vino and listening to random old music tracks on B's computer (remember Love Shack anyone?). :-)

So what have we been up to this week?

Monday I was in a school with SIAS. Tuesday was full of meetings. I worked from home on Wednesday but still had a full day. I was away early Thursday for a very important meeting in London about funding for the SIAS scheme in Wales (it went really well) but I didn't get home until late because I took the afternoon off and wandered around Covent Garden and Leicester Square. After the long hours I've worked lately I took yesterday off but met the girls after work for a quiet drink (or not so quiet.. we were out until after 1am!).

I still have work to do on the work-life balance but I do see a light at the end of my extremely busy tunnel. Another upside is that I've recently been given a pay rise. Yay! Think it's time to book some more holidays! ;-)

B hasn't done much - still working at the school and not really enjoying it. Keep your fingers crossed next Wednesday - he's got yet another interview.

This weekend is a long one - May Day holiday - so we're going to Caldicott Castle on Monday to see a random battle reenactment thing. :-) should be fun.

"Tin roof rusted!"

Shaft St Sh*t

Yeah, ok, so my attempt at jumping on the update bandwagon isn't as clever as the rest of you LOL  Of course, I'm pretty slack at doing this mainly because I don't think our lives are quite as interesting as the rest of you.

I'm working Monday to Wednesday, and I'm enjoying it. I just wish I had more time at home. Thursdays I shop with Tania, though I'm trying to get out of it occasionally. It's just so busy when we have tea with mum before Jared goes to karate while I set up playgroup, with Julie-Anne's help of course. Then we get home and have to get the girls in to bed. Friday is playgroup from 9.45am until about 12, though by the time we've packed everything up it's often 1pm before we leave. Trinity finishes school at 3.15pm but to get a car park I need to be there by 3pm, 2.45 to get a park in the side street, I usually miss out on one of those when I'm working.

This weekend is the Relay for Life so after picking Trinity up we headed out to the Flora Hill track to help decorate the BCA site and then I hung around for the opening. Carolynn and Jared walked the carer's lap on mum's behalf, hope that was ok :)  Then Trinity, Daria and I walked the 2nd lap before coming home. Carolynn tells me performances start around midday so I have tomorrow morning to get caught up on housework. That's about all I get done these days, catching up. I'd love to be able to get ahead of it and actually declutter. I'm waiting for the holidays, despite the fact that the last ones zipped by with very little accomplished. In terms of house-keeping that is. I chose to take the kids out to meet friends and check out stuff in town instead so I've no-one to blame but myself.

Adam isn't well. He's really breathless a lot. Hoping the doctor he sees next Monday will listen and send him off for some tests, I for one refuse to believe it's "just asthma".

So that's it here... busy but boring.

Something nice though... my boss is leaving us (that's not the nice part, we'll miss her) and she was going around talking about those in the office and about me she said that when she goes around to see people it amazes her how many people know me and speak highly of me. I thought that was nice :)  I said "I get around apparently" LOL