A New Blog and Bathtime!

I have started a new blog.. a bit of space for my ranting and raving on various different topics..

But I want to keep it away from the family blog, so if anyone is interested in reading/subscribing to it, send me an email, or leave a comment with your email address on this blog (I won't publish the comment with your email address in it) and I'll send you the link..

And on a different note, we had a great time with Rachel & family yesterday.

Had a birthday party in the morning for a school friend, and then went out to lunch, then a park and then back to their place where Rachel, Josie and Ben had a bath! Got some great pics throughout the day! Will post them once I get them off my camera..

Toodles!

A Hunting We Will Go..

So here we end another weekend of house hunting..

Well to be fair, today was the first day of real house hunting, we were distracted last week by the repairs on the old unit..

So we saw about 15 (yes thats FIFTEEN) rentals today. We took two application forms but I don't think we will fill any in.. there were some good units but nothing that really made us want to go for it..

And we also realised that we have been looking for places in the $350-$400 price range because of the possibility of extra storage, which we sorely need. But we realised that if we get something cheaper, we could potential keep a storage room for up to $50 a week, without going over our budget.

So I will now be looking at cheaper places with possibly bigger rooms and not necessarily a LUG..

I got a call yesterday from the swim school where we want to get a place for Josie, they offered us a casual place for today, which we couldnt take but this means they will be calling on Friday's with a possible place for her on that Saturday. This was very exciting!

So today we went and checked it out, and timed it with Rachel's swimming lesson there. This was great, we got to see Rachel in her class and the teachers in action and it is everything that everyone always raves about.

Tony went to swimming lessons there when he was a kid and its gonna be great for Josie to go there too. So I spoke to the lady in charge there before we left and asked her if we could maybe get a place in the class with Rachel and she said she is confident we could get that place each week. That is just fantastic and I can't wait to start with her next weekend.

The only catch is that parents don't go into the water with the kids. Josie has never had a swimming class on her own before so I am hoping that having Rachel there will be helpful.

Tomorrow is a big day, we have a 4th birthday party for a school friend and then are spending the afternoon with Michelle, Sam, Rachel and Ben. Don't know exactly what we are gonna do but we will see.

Josie had a great time today, while we were house hunting, at the park with Vika, Becka and a friend of Becka's, Alison. Vika said she ran around for 3 hours straight.

We are currently at Uncle Mat's about to have dinner.

Tata!

Weekend Update

Well we have made it through 1 week in the Eastern Suburbs!

I have to say, 15 mins to get Josie to school has been an absolute joy! I love getting to school early, even beat Michelle and Rachel this morning!

We have some BIG news too! We have tenants! 12 month lease was signed on Saturday and they move in on Friday! Thats one big relief! Now we can start seriously looking for a place for us.

So Saturday was a long day. We left Josie with Baba and Vika for most of the day while we intended on going rental house hunting. We had to go to the north to do a few repairs at the old place, and then I had made a big list of opens to see. Well by the time we got finished at the old place.. we missed all the opens. Managed to see 2 places though, one was seriously on the 300th (4th) floor, with NO lift! No chance there. Even if they paid US! LOL. The second place was an old house that was just gross and unlivable. *sigh* House hunting was a big flop this week. Hopefully next week will be better.

After househunting we went to Vika's hung out for a while, picked up Josie and by the time we got back to Baba's she was asleep. So we put her to bed and watched tv for a while.

Sunday was great! We met Michelle, Ben and Rachel, and Vika and Becka at Fox studios. The kids played in the playground for a while, then we went to Bay Swiss for brunch, by which time Ben had fallen asleep on Michelle's shoulder, so she put him in a beanbag they had on display and he slept there for about 45 mins. People kept walking past and asking if he was real or not, and if he was for sale etc. Funny stuff. Then Michelle took Ben home (he was a bit out of sorts) and we took Rachel and Josie and they went on the merry go round, and then had an ice cream and played in the playground for a while longer before we took Rachel home, had a chat with Sam and Michelle while Ben slept in the car, and then went back to Baba and Deda's.

It was a lovely and relaxing afternoon at home. Tony set up the Tivo (WOOHOO!) and we caught up on Aussie Idol. Went to bed around 10pm. It was a nice relaxing evening too.

I was taking Josie to school this morning and we had this conversation:

Josie: Who is going to pick me up from school today?
Mari: Vika and Becka!
Josie: *gasp* No WAY! I LOVE Becka!

LOL

Uh Oh.. Zak's In Trouble Again..

Tony went and got the cats last night. And poor Zaki was in trouble again. Zelli decided that the disruption to her life was all his fault, as is everything that goes wrong in her life. Bloody men!

We prepared my parents by getting them to remove all rugs, big and small, from the floors. That way Zelli wont have anything to pee on except the wooden floors.

So Tony brought them in in their respective boxes and of course as soon as I let Zelli out she started hissing and growling at poor Zak. So she went into the bathroom for a while, while Zak, the normal one, got the explore the place.

After a while we let Zelli come out and basically left them to sort it out.

She will have the shits with him for a few days, and after putting him through the appropriate amount of misery, she will forgive them and all will be well.

24 hrs later, she is still hissing at him a bit but seems to have settled down a fair amount.

Josie is at Granny's tonight. Twice a week we've decided she will sleep at Granny's so we can get a decent, comfortable sleep in the queen bed we are using at my parents place.

Ok so bedtime.. gnite!

Well, We're In..

Just!

5 two tonne truck-fulls.. thats 10 tonnes of cr*p !

I am over it. I have decided I am not doing it again. I don't want any of the stuff back. I just wanna start again.

On a more positive note, 15 mins to get Josie to school, and then about 20 mins to get into work. Nice!

Now someone find us a TENNANT! Please!

ps. Thanks for the photos Mat!

The Last Night..

Big move is tomorrow..

I am so incredibly sad to be leaving this amazing home that we have loved for the last 16 months.

I really don't want to go.

I guess we don't have much choice, and everything happens for a reason. Life is going to change quite a bit for the next few months.

We can't find a place for ourselves till we have a tennent, and we dont have one yet. So we will live with my parents for a while.

I guess it could be worse..

Introducing...

My parents..



















Need I say more??

Actually I should say more.. that was a fancy dress party.. my mother doesn't usually dress like a street walker ;-)

Weekends These Days..

We had a pretty jam packed weekend..

Saturday was a lot of packing. We did quite a bit on Saturday so I am happy with that. Still have a bit to do, but we got the big things packed away.

Sunday we packed some more, and then we went and saw Play School at the Opera House. Georgie Parker was in it and it was just fabulous. Josie enjoyed it immensly.

So now we are pretty much moving in with my folks for a few weeks, next weekend. Need to put everything in storage etc.. Am NOT looking forward to it.

And as for moving in to my parent's little 2 bedroom unit.. well.. you can imagine.. don't get me wrong, I'm so grateful to my parents for having us, but geez, if we get out of this with our marriage intact, and not having been disowned.. well that will be great ;-)

Bah..

Rental Updates

Ahh.. finally a normal blog update..

Since returning from the USA I have been busy ringing around prospective rentals and enquiring about whether cats are allowed.

And here comes the tirade..

I am so So SO sick of:

a. Agents who DONT KNOW! For gods sake! Its their JOB to know! I pisses me off completely! And then..
i. Agents who can't just go find out BEFORE calling me back/replying to my email
ii. Agents who insist on us seeing the place, then filling out an application, and wasting our time!
b. Agents who say no without actually finding out from the owner
c. Agents who don't reply!
d. Agents who don't call back!
e. Ads that don't have any mention of whether pets are allowed

I mean seriously! I made sure our agent was well aware that we don't mind people with cats. This means that the information is there should someone ask!

I am just so sick and tired of calling agents who are just.. unhelpful! How hard is it to ring the owner and say: Do you mind if they have cats?

ARGH!

So we are seeing another couple of places tomorrow, but mostly we are packing. We have to be out of our place by Oct 16th, which means next weekend we are moving. This is a scary prospect. If we haven't found a place, we will move our stuff into storage, and us into my parents place. We can't sign a lease ourselves until we have a tennant for our place.

I feel so stressed at the moment. Feel like I am stuck betweek a rock and a hard place and theres no where to move.

And to top it all off, I have to change my PO Box ;-(

Life sucks right now..

Thats IT! I'm DONE!

Good lord I can't believe I am finished!!

All the US Trip posts have been updated with photos but you should really just have a look at the flickr site cause that will have more.

Now back to regular blogging..