First Day of Freedom

My first day of not working was fabulous!

Josie slept at Granny's overnight so I got to sleep in till 9am this morning, and I actually got a good nights sleep, comfort and everything! OMG I just can't wait to be able to sleep in my own bed!!

I went to see two movies with my mum today.

The first one, Children of Men, was a great concept. The world had a bad case of infertility for 18 years, and basically went to hell. Then of course someone did get pregnant and it was a mad struggle to get her to safety etc.

The second one was Keeping Up With The Steins. This was a typical jewish comedy about a kid and his barmitzvah. Very funny, but mostly only if you are jewish.

Tomorrow I am taking Josie to school where they have an open day for the Yoga classes she has been taking, mum and I are gonna watch that and then go to the local shopping centre and then we are going to see this semi for rent. Can't wait!

A Jam Packed Weekend

Yes, the weekend was full of jam!

No. Im kidding.

Well at least I am feeling a bit less stressed now that I can kid! Woohoo!

So we had a pretty busy weekend!

On Saturday we left Josie with Baba and Dyeda and we went house hunting. Only had about 6 or so places to see but we stumbled upon two which really jumped out at us!

The first one was almost at one the beaches. It was a unit in an Art Deco block with a round wooden staircase leading up to the units. The unit itself was quite large with a big sunroom hidden behind one of the bedrooms. The bedroom had a ceiling to floor, wall to wall built in with doors that opened out. The middle door opened to a sunroom. It was quite cool! Plus a large kitchen and space for a dishwasher, and a LUG, was a nice place. But it has carpet.

The second one was a semi near a shopping centre. It was had a big sunroom off one of the rooms, and a big kitchen (no dishwasher tho). The living room was smaller than we would hope, but huge backyard with a shed and lots of street parking. It also has floorboards and pets are allowed!

We are seeing the second one tomorrow and putting in applications forms.

Fingers crossed!

So after that we came and picked up Josie and were going to go swimming, but didnt have time so we went and picked up Michelle and Rachel and went to the swimming lesson. Josie did not cry once! Not once! Daddy stood by the pool with her, but she went with the teacher and did everything so well. We were so proud of her!

Afterwards, Michelle and I took the girls to the swimming pool and we had some fun there for a while until we had to get out and go back home to get ready to go to the Crabshack!

It was a great night and I was up to my elbows in crabs! Heaven!

So Sunday was pretty full on too.

Had a 4th birthday party for a school friend in the morning and then went to Trudy's for Jacqui's 18th birthday!

Can't believe she is 18 already.. geez these kids grow up fast! ... listen to me.. I sound like my mother..

So both parties were good fun and Josie was totally nackered by the time we got home.

A very full weekend!

A Little Less to Worry About..

Well it looks like I have scored a job! What a relief!

The company is an office supplier who provide everything from stationary to furniture to consumables and computers and everything that an office might need.

The position is Catalogue Analyst, and as vague as that sounds, its basically data analysis and database management type of work.

I start on Dec 4th, so straight from one job to the other, which is great, cause we can't really afford the break. And its in the East, so close to home!

I finish with MH next Tuesday and I am taking the last 3 days in lieu so at least I will have a few days off.

So now, back to house hunting.. blergh..

The Craziness That Is Josie..

Here’s another funny one.. from Tony.. October 2005.. Josie is almost 3 years old..

My Wife’s Morning:
=========
Mari says: oh for goodness sake heres the story then
Mari says: noticed flat tire in Artarmon
Mari says: drove back home to swap cars
Mari says: went up to get the keys and stereo
Mari says: got them
Mari says: came down
Mari says: went to put child in car
Mari says: child wet
Mari says: went up
Mari says: child wanted to hold keys
Mari says: mummy is stressed out
Mari says: mummy lets child hold keys
Mari says: change child
Mari says: child leaves key on nappy table
Mari says: go down, put child in car
Mari says: no keys
Mari says: take child out of the car
Mari says: go up get keys
Mari says: mummy going mad.
Mari says: meanwhile child going 'lets try again'

My Morning:
=========
Get woken up every 5 mins by my wife either ringing me to tell me she's about to dump a car with a flat tire on me or tromping through the house muttering to herself and the child about the latest twist to the debacle that was her morning.

And Mat’s response..

See this happens because in general women are always thinking ahead. Women need to have a plan that stretches ahead through the day, and know what they're doing for the rest of the day. Guys concentrate more on the here and now. Women berate us for this, saying that we can't multi-task when they can.

The truth however is that their multi-tasking takes a toll on the quality of each individual task.

They get stressed out because they try to think about too many tasks at once, rather than just concentrating on one at a time.

; )

Ok so now I am off to beat my brother in law about the head.. again.. ;-)

Electronics Wiz..

LOL.. another one from Mat.. March 2005.. Josie is just over 2 years old..

Earlier today mother called me. She was unable to display a DVD on the TV and wanted to know what we'd changed yesterday .. when we were watching DVD's. I tried talking her through checking various things but she was unable to give me even a halfway decent description of what the hell she was seeing on the screen and on the VCR readout. Eventually we decided to wait until tonight when Ant picks up Josie and then he could fix it.

She just called me and told me Josie had fixed it.

I don't know whether to be scared of Josie's abilities with electronics or sad that a two year old can operate appliances which our mother cannot.

LOL.. thats too funny..

Uncle Mat's First Babysitting Assignment

Here's another old email.. from November 2004.. Uncle Mat was assigned to watch Josie (almost 2 years old) for a few hours at his house..

Well let's see. I had the XBOX all set up with Spirited Away and thought we'd sit and watch, and I'd feed her. HA! Little did I realize this was the daughter of my brother I was dealing with. Not interested in Spirited Away. Shrek 2 managed to hold her a little longer but then the cat came to visit and all bets were off. She ate one mouthful of the cereal stuff Mum brought over and then she was off. Chasing the cat round the backyard, with me barefoot and in shorts. Bloody cold it was. SHE was all dressed up warmly. I on the other hand ...

Then she wanted to stand in the front yard, propped up by the fence, and watch the cars and the buses go by. Then it was time for more cat chasing, only the cat had meanwhile made itself scarce so it was back to watching Shrek 2 for a bit. Finally Mum got back and managed to convince her to eat a bit more.

At one point she discovered the dustpan and brush. Thought she might make herself useful and clean my house. Very surprised that after wandering around the house with them, she then proceeded to put them back where she found them.

She has very long and complicated conversations with cats. Presumably because they don't argue.

See its not all kisses and cuddles.. ;-)

Reminiscing..

From an email from Daddy in October 2004. Josie was almost 2 years old and I had just gone back to work..

Fine, I poo'd she poo'd we all poo'd together....again.

I was sitting on the can trying to read my comic when she comes to the side of the door way (just outside you know?) and starts pushing her little bottom out and screwing up one side of her face and staring intently at nothing etc. And I say "Hey Jos', did you do poodies?" and she goes "nah!" and scampers off.

So eventually I get out and I open the gate and I open the door to her room and she takes 2 steps towards the doorway and stops and realises this is likely to involve a nappy change and turns and tries to make a break for it into the lounge room.

So after retrieving the child from her escape attempt I get her changed and we get out of the house at 8:15am.

I forgot a dummy. *8(

Half way there she starts complaining and I THINK I'm out of rusks (there are in fact two rusks wedged into the tissue box in the center console but I took the box out without looking (I was driving) so I could feel around in the console for the rusks!!! So I didn't find them and am trying to placate her with various toys/water bottles etc (all of which she plays with for 5 seconds and then hurls from her). Eventually she starts squealing and eventually I was squealing right back at her. This sometimes confused her and she stopped to think about it and sometimes just made her more hysterical and she started flailing about and slapping herself in the head.

Then I gave her a book and she settled down and read the book.

Then I found the rusks.

But by then she was engrossed in the book and didn't need so I hid them again. No doubt I will fail to find them again next time.

When we pulled up at mum's she looked up from her book and seeing we were at Granny's she says "yaaaAAAAAYYYYY!!!!" as she does.

She barely acknowledged my presence thereafter.

When I left she saw I was going and made a bit of a protest but she was engrossed in her stacker cups by that time and went "heeeeeyyyy!....oh bugger you then, I have stacking to do, see you tomorrow" and went back to her cups.

I've been out of sorts since. *8(

Hehehe.. I am going through old personal mail at work and ran across this.. might have some more to post too..

Over Licked Muffins..

Now theres a wierd title for a blog post!

Anyways, I was checking my email this morning with Josie on my lap and opened up an email from Josie's school with Thursdays and Friday's daybooks in it. They send out a page of photos and description of what they did all day. Fantastic thing I reckon!

Anyway, we saw a picture of one of the teachers' niece, who was visiting the class and showing them how to make muffins.

Mari: What did she make?
Josie: uuuhm.. muffins! But I didn't like them [great big pout].
Mari: Did you try one?
Josie: I did! I licked it soooooo much, but I didn't like it.. [another great big pout!].

At least she tried it! I hope she didn't put it back after she had licked it though! LOL.

Our First School Excursion !

Josie had her first school excursion today. They went to a famous Aussie park.

The morning was the morning from HELL.

After the weekend's Animal Expo trip (where she insisted going on a couple of rides that she did not enjoy at all) she decided that the bus trip that the school had organised to take them to the park, was going to be scary like the rides. We tried in vain to convince her otherwise but she would have nothing of it.

So we dragged her out of bed and into the car, all the while Josie was crying and calling for daddy.

I took her to school while Tony went to work and when I got there I thought Rachel being there would help, but no, while she was pleased to see Rachel, she REALLY did not want to go on this excursion. She was really scared.

At home we told her that if she was still scared after seeing Rachel that I would go with her, but I knew right away that this was a bad idea. The teachers strongly disapproved of my coming along, and I agreed with them. She needed to learn independence and my coming along only justified her fright.

So I extricated myself from her visor like grip, handed her to her favourite teacher, and went out to the front room, where I could see her but she couldn't see me. And I could see that she was already settling down.

It was heartbreaking leaving her. It was harder than when she first started school because she wasn't absolutely petrified then.

I drove off, and got a phone call from the director saying that Josie settled down completely after I had left, was laughing and playing, and got on the bus with no problems. This was a relief.

And I just got another phone call from the school saying they were back and Josie had a terrific time, and enjoyed herself immensely, and even went on the train with everyone.

I am glad I made the decision to leave her. It is better for her to learn to deal with her fear, to face it and overcome it. The teachers know what they are doing and this only reinforces my trust in them. We made a good decision when we sent her to this school.

Josie-Speak and The Weekend

In the car yesterday:

Josie (singing): oh I just can't wait to be king..
Mari: Oh sorry honey, I forgot my ipod.. I dont have that song here..
Josie: I didn't ask you.. if you had your.. ipod.. with.. I just can't wait to be king on it.. I'm just singing..
Mari: Oh.. right.. go on then..

LOL

We had a jam packed day on Sunday.. in the morning we went to The Animal Expo at Rosehill Racecourse with Vika and Becka.. we saw heaps of dogs and cats and farm animals.. Josie was a bit tired and out of sorts though..

When we got back, we went to Rachel's place for a play and dinner. Josie and Rachel had missed eachother so much while Josie was off school for a week with her ear infection. We took the kids to the park and they played on the equipment and then threw them all in the bath while we had dinner. Going home was a problem cause Josie just did not want to leave.. but luckily she fell asleep on the way home.

I don't remember Saturday much.. I was so tired all day.. not sure why.. at about 1pm Mat called to say he and Wendy were going to check out the Sculptures By The Sea at Bondi and did we want to come too.. we started preparing to go and we actually made a start but we had so much trouble finding parking we decided to go back to my parents place so I could change my pants (I had worn jeans and it was just too hot), and then Tony went to the bathroom and by the time he came out I was asleep on the couch! We gave it up at that point and I went to lie down in the bedroom.. that was about 330pm.. I woke up at 730pm.. Nackered I was.. obviously..

So this begins my third last week at work.. Ive got a bunch of jobs bookmarked and will be sending my resume out today..

Also, had an appt with a couple who may be interested in buying the old unit with the tenants.. cross your fingers.. if this comes off, it could seriously save us from the poo.. we will see by the end of the week hopefully..

hooroo

Tales From The Josie-Meister

From the desk of Uncle Mat..

Josie: People are ... BAD
Ant: Why?
Josie: Because .. big girls .. don't wear nappies!
Ant: Well when you stop peeing in your pants at night then you can stop wearing nappies at night.
Josie: ... Oh...

Josie: .... (stuff going on .. people talking to Uncle Mat in grandpa's bedroom .. Josie not getting the attention she wants) .. MAT .... (comes over next to Uncle Mat) ... MATTY! MATTEEEEEE!
Mat: Yes Joseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Mat: she showed me her lucky rock ...
Mat: we had fun for a while where I was trying to convince her it was "RUCKY LOCK"
Mat: and she kept having to correct her derranged uncle

Mat: oh yes .. there was one point where she threw her lucky rock up in the air .. hit herself on the head .. and stood there rubbing her head looking perplexed
Mat: think she just invented gravity

Mat: When I got there Ant was trying to help dad use a new credit card with his TAB account .. he was on hold and had been for some time ... then he made me take over .. I was then on hold for 25 mins with no idea of what I was doing
Mat: When we eventually talked to someone, Dad had to identify himself to them .. again ... so he's trying to hear what's being said .. Josie is jumping up and down on his bed and singing Shabbat Shalom at the top of her voice
Mat: Ant is trying to convince her to be quiet while Dad's on the phone
Mat: Josie's looking at him as if he's gone completely mad and shaking her head saying "Noooooooo" with that look on her face that says "you obviously don't understand how the world works daddy"


lol..

Because Our Lives Aren't Exciting Enough..

So.. along with..

• having to give up our home

and

• move in with my parents

and

• all sleep in one bed

and

• trying to find a rental

and

• not finding diddly squat in our price range with our List of Requirements (tm)

.. we have had the most exciting weekend!

Firstly, Friday morning, I was told that I was being 'let go'. Thats psychologist talk for "I'm firing you, not because of anything bad, simply because I don't have any more work for you and I can't afford you anymore".

And then Sunday Josie comes down with an almost 39 degree fever!

Somebody up there is honestly playing some weird practical joke on us. Seeing just how far I can be stretched before I lose my mind and go on an American style shooting spree.

And to add to all that.. I can't seem to catch up on my Tivo..

I think its time to drag out my favourite saying..

"Everything happens for a reason.."
"Everything happens for a reason.."
"Everything happens for a reason.."
"Everything happens for a reason.."

..doesn't it.. ?