From the Mouth Of A Babe

Driving back to Vika's from school..

Josie: are we there yet?
Vika: soon
Josie: vika, you are slow
Vika: well i cant go too fast i have to wait for the other cars, cant jump over them
Josie: no you dont have super powers, my dad can, he can do anything, he is super...ahm, special.
Josie: vika go faster
Vika: i cant go too fast or we can have an accident
[a few seconds of thinking....]
Josie: did you know that granny had an accident
Vika: no, what happened
Josie: granny smashed when i took seat belt off, she smashed into a
man with brother and sister and i took seatbelt off because i wanted to
so i did and when i did granny had an accident
Vika: you took seat belt off while granny was still driving?
Josie: yes and she smashed into man and brother and sister.

She is a bit confused..

Josie has gotten in trouble twice in the last week or so, most recently yesterday, for taking her seatbelt off while Granny is still driving the car. She got a stern talking to last night.

On a completely separate occasion, Granny had a small prang while Josie was in the back (with her seatbelt on).

Understandably, Vika was quite concerned when she questioned me about this.. ;-)

Josie, Road Rage And The Jean-Stock

Yesterday evening, having picked up Josie from Granny's, we were driving home. I came to some lights and edged forward to turn right but there was traffic so I didn't have enough room before the light turned red again. Seeing as I was out too far I started back up a bit, the car behind me was quite a way back so there was no problem, however seeing me back up, the silly woman started beeping at me. I groaned.

Mari (looking back): Yeh yeh, I SEE you!

So I back up and wait for the green light. Lights change and I go, having turned the corner, we passed a bus and a truck, who after an altercation of some kind started beeping at eachother. Josie has learnt well what to do in this situation.

Josie (from the back): Yeh yeh, we SEE you!

LOL.

Then...

Driving to school this morning, Josie was reading from her Read-Along Jack and the Beanstalk book. When you open the book and turn the pages, it reads to you. But alas, it has stopped working, so Josie has to do the reading herself, but seeing as she can't read yet, she makes it up as she goes along. Here is a snippet..

Josie: Jack gave some coloured beans to his mummy but his mummy didn't like them so she threw them.. out the window.. but Jack went up the jean-stock and saw the giant and he got scared and came back down.

Pretty succinct, no?

The Perils of Paying BIlls

Ok so my dad is not the only one.. here follows a story from Mat..

Mat: your husband sucks
Mat: never answers his phone
Mat: there is NO WAY that I am related to my mother
Mat: you think your dad is bad
Mat: you have NO idea
Mat: I need alcohol
Mari: LOL
Mari: whats happened?
Mat: oh where do I start
Mari: heheh
Mat: she was trying to pay her council rates online
Mari: oh dear
Mat: so she calls me up to say she's at the Botany Bay council website but can't find any sign of an option to pay rates
Mat: so she tells me the URL and I go there and there's a button to pay your rates
Mat: after some mind-destroying investigation it becomes clear that she's searched for the council via Google
Mat: and is most likely looking at a Google cached version of the page rather than the page itself
Mari: LOL
Mari: ahhh google is becoming the bane of our existence methinks..
Mat: so I click on the link on the page I'm looking at and it sends you to a third-party financial portal
Mat: so I figure I may as well just get her to type THAT URL into the address bar and go there
Mari: lol
Mari: ok
Mat: so .. I begin telling her what to type
Mat: this was painful in itself
Mat: I tell her to select the text in the address bar .. so that begins more pain
Mari: lol
Mat: "Where's the select button?"
Mat: "How do I select?"
Mari: PMSL
Mat: "USE THE MOUSE TO SELECT THE TEXT"
Mat: "Where?"
Mat: "IN THE ADDRESS BAR!"
Mat: "What's that?"
Mari: mwahahahahah!!
Mat: "OH FFS!"
Mat: so I help her to find the address bar (or so I think but that's giving the game away)
Mat: and I start dictating this URL
Mat: "type clearance"
Mat: "clearance?"
Mat: "yes .. the word clearance"
Mat: "there's no ... clearance"
Mat: "IN THE DICTIONARY THERE IS A WORD CLEARANCE"
Mat: "oh you want me to type it out ..>"
Mat: *SOB*
Mat: through much pain she types out the whole URL
Mat: and hits enter at my behest
Mat: page not found
Mari: ROFL
Mat: crap, I think, she's typed a bit wrong ..
Mat: "ok click the back button .. no wait .. don't ... it'll probably go back to the cached page you had up ... what does it currently say in the address bar?"
Mat: "it still says http://www.google.com"
Mat (starting to have a meltdown): "you typed that whole URL into the Google search box didn't you?"
Mat: "What's that?"
Mat: "it's too difficult"
Mat: "No Mum it's not .. it's really not .. kids can do this .. Josie will be able to do this shortly!"
Mat: "What is at the top of your screen ..."
Mat: "There's a box with http://www.google.com in it .. and then Q .. and then there's google and another box"
Mat: "and that's the box you've been typing into haven't you?'
Mat: "yes ..."
Mat: "ok just tell me your goddamn rates notice reference number...." (start to do it myself)
Mat: finish rate payment and bang head on desk
Mat: repeat
Mari: ROFL
Mari: ok are you gonna blog this or am i
Mat: heh .. you can ... I told her i would when I was going through the ordeal .. but now I just want the memory to fade
Mari: LOL ok

lol.. See at one point we all thought Google was the schnitz when it came to getting our parents off our backs when they were looking for something on the internet. "Just google it!" we'd say.. but alas, those days are over.

Last week my mother was trying to find the specs on a Toyota Tarago. She of course googled it, which is great, but then she didn't go to the actual Toyota website when google came back with the search results, so of course didn't get any further. And of course when she rang me for help she told me she was looking at 'toyota page' which I took to mean http://www.toyota.com.au. Obviously she was still looking at the google search results.

Fast forward a few days and I get an IM from my dad wanting to know how to bring up an ebay auction from an ebay auction number he had. Did he go to http://www.ebay.com.au? Of course he didn't. He went to google. When I told him to put the number into the search box in the top right hand corner of ebay.com.au he said there wasn't a search box there. I asked him if he was on ebay's website, and he of course said yes. Was he? No of course he wasn't.. he was on google's search results.

Come on!! Its really not that hard to understand!!

Parents! Listen to your children!! Stay AWAY from the internet!!!

A Hard Day's Night..

We were watching TV in the living room when I heard what sounded like the plastic stool beside Josie's bed moving.. Tony went in to check it out.. and this is what he found..

The four year old teenager ... Oye!

Josie was describing her morning to Rachel the other day while I was driving them to their swimming lesson:

Josie: Mamma got up with me this morning and we were watching tv.
Rachel: Uhuh I like DOOORa!
Josie: Yeah and ... weeeeell I was being naughty
Rachel: Uhuh
Josie: and Mamma ... FREAKED oooout! *complete with the waving of the hands*
Rachel: *Gasp*
Josie: an' I cried.
Rachel: *nods as if to say "yeah, good move. Nice one."*

Update
I thought I would tape Tony telling the story, the blog just doesn't do it justice..

Click To Play

The Cleaners Are Coming! Run For Your Lives!!

We have a couple of guys come and clean once a month, they are really great and we have been using them for a number of years now. You would think that Zelli would have gotten used to them by now.. alas it is not so...

After they left, I, as usual, went to see that the cats were ok.. this is what I found..

For The Love of My Job..

I have had such a busy week.. so much work to do.. and I have loved every minute of it.

This is such a wierd thing for me. To love where I work, and to love what I do. I have never really had very much in the way of career aspirations. I always just wanted to be a stay at home mum and just bring up a huge brood of kids. And job after job I have started off liking, but after a while I just grew bored and frustrated.

But this one.. I am so in my element. I am so content and happy and confident. I am finally happy in my job. Blissfully happy. And I just can't get over it.

Imagine.. looking forward to Mondays!

Mother's *Cough* *Splutter* Day

Well I made it through Mother's Day! With a sore throat, constant coughing, an all day fever and various other aches and pains, but I made it!

And here endeth the Pity Party!

I had a fantastic Mother's Day!

It all started with my present from Josie. It was a gorgeous little silver box with little jewels stuck on the lid, and a hand drawn card with MUMMY on the cover! Just gorgeous ;-)

Then at 10am we met Baba and Dyeda, Vika and Becka and Anna and Jayden at Yum Cha. It was nice and early so the crowds were non-existent and the food was quick and plentiful. For anyone in the Sydney region, there is NO better Yum Cha than at Marigold! It was, as usual, delicious, and Josie loved playing with Becka and Jayden again.

After Yum Cha we went to Granny's for a bit while Tony fixed the gate so that Rascal (the annoying mutt!!) couldnt get out. Its a metal chain link fence. And he chewed through it! Then about a year ago Tony attached some perspex against it and that lasted a while before Rascal finally demolished it. Into itty bitty pieces (ok so Im taking a bit of poet license here). So now he has attached some wood to it so hopefully it will last a bit longer against the might of Rascal the Destroyer.

So after that was done we all went to Uncle Mat's for lunch and games. After eating MORE delicious food, we sat around for a bit while Mat and Tony and Jacqui played with the Guitar Hero, and then we played Cranium for a while before it was time to go as we had ANOTHER get together to get to!

Now since last week I had been telling Josie that she had to stay overnight at Baba's this night because mummy and daddy were going to be going out and we were getting back very late. She wasn't too pleased, she's gotten a bit difficult about staying overnight at Granny's and Baba's places. So all through the day I kept reminding her, and then when we were coming back from Yum Cha (with Becka and Vika in the car) she had a bit of a tantrum cause she wanted to go to Becka's house to play. So I told her that if she was a good girl and came to Uncle Mat's place for a while, then we would take her to Vika's place and she could sleep over there. She uhmed and ahhed and then agreed.

Mari (looking back at Vika): Mum's gonna have a cow..
Josie (in surprise): Did you just say.. Baba is going to have a COW?!?
(hysterical laughter ensues)

Mum actually took it much better than expected..

So after Mat's we go to drop Josie off at Vika's place. She got a bit clingy when we were going to leave but she was ok. Luckily Becka is reading The Hobbit for school, and Tony is in the middle of reading it to Josie each bedtime, so Becka was able to read to her from it.

So off we went to the climax of our night.

Eurovision at Ines' place! We got there with seconds to spare, Brig was already there, so we rushed in and got settled on the couch (the boys on the floor) and took out our scoring papers, and Harri's printed out score sheet.

Yes its that time of year again when Europe (and some tag alongs) get together, choose their wackiest (and I mean WACKIEST) singing sensation, make their politically correct votes and entertain the world.

And may I start by saying WACKY!

Leading the Wacky Pack was most definitely Ukraine. It was a fabulous song, but the act, well, lets just say they used a lot of aluminium!

Runner up in the Wacky Stakes would have to be the guy in the feathers, silver bolero jacket and huge thing around his neck from Sweden. He took his jacket off. That could be bonus points, or it could be loss of points, depending on how you look at it.

I really loved Romania though. No one else liked it, but I thought the song was great ;-)

The voting was the usual politically motivated rubbish. How else would have Serbia won? I mean she was good. Better than a lot of the acts. But I swear the Ukraine should have won on sheer wackiness! They did come second though!

Now having been watching the TIVO'd prelims from the night before as I write this, I have to say, Denmark, I cannot believe they didn't make it into the finals! A man, dressed in a hot pink, sequinned, revealling dress, and feather head piece.. a shoe-in I would have thought!?

So that made for a late night, with Tony lamenting the over abundance of clothing on the female performers, and the lack of clothing on the male performers, but it was a great conclusion to a fabulous Mother's Day!

For last year's recap, click here.

I fell asleep on the way home and went straight to bed because I had to be at Vika's at 7am to pick up the kids and take them to school.

6:20am my alarm went off. With my coughing and not feeling well it took me all my will power and determination to get out of bed!

So after picking up the girls, dropping off Becka at school, then heading down to the preschool, I parked the car and got out, putting my phone in my pocket. Which normally isn't a problem, except this morning it had to be a problem. As I turned around, the phone popped out of my pocket and flew under the car. By this time Josie was out of the car and I couldnt be bothered putting her back in in order to move the car so I left it there.

In we went to a lovely set up of breakfast cereals, assorted bagels, and fruit. We had a lovely breakfast all together with Rachel, Michelle and Miriam, and then went out the back where one of the dads had set up a Dr Smoothie stall (he owns it) and was giving out snow cups in various different flavours, including coffee, which I desperately needed!

After saying my goodbyes, I headed back to the car, where I had to reverse, hop out, grab my phone (thank god it had a plastic cover on it!), and then head off to work.

I have to say, Im still not 100%. Coughing like a madwoman, a fever lingering, it was not a pleasant day at work, but having said that, a non-pleasant day at this job is 100 times better than a pleasant day at any other job I have had so far. I continue to be amazed at how much I love what I am doing at the moment ;-)

Aaaanyway.. this has been quite a long update hasnt it? Happy Mothers Day mum!!

Tonsilitis and Photos

Again! I have tonsilitis again!! Can't swallow, high fever, and tomorrow is Mothers Day!! WAAA!!

I went this morning to the Dr to start on the antibiotics quickly. Im starting to feel better tonight but its still gonna be a bummer tomorrow. We have such a fully day planned!

Yum Cha in the morning. Uncle Mat's for lunch. Eurovision at Ines' at night.

Bah!

So I thought I might stick in some photos to make me feel better ;-)

So first up we have Josie and Jayden when we went to see Meet The Robinsons for Jayden's Birthday.

And this is Becka and Josie on the same day...
And Miss Josie posing as usual..

This one is when we had Shabbat at Mat's place. This little wooden Shabbat set is from the school.

This is Rachel and Josie at Trudy's place.. the girls had a great time and Rachel was a great distraction !

This is Josie in her school uniform for next year! We were so excited to see her in it! She is growing up too fast!

And her sports uniform for next year..

And winter uniform!

So cute!!

Mmmmmmm Chocolate !

Tony and I went to a Lindt Warehouse Sale on Saturday.

We got lots of chocolate. LOTS. We have more chocolate than you could poke a stick at. Not that you would want to poke sticks a chocolate. But I digress...

We drove about an hour to get there, and as we drove past the entrance, looking for parking, we saw the queue, with probably a couple hundred people waiting.. and Tony says "You know, your parents LEFT the USSR to get away from shit like that..".

I somehow managed to convince him to park, and 45 mins later, we were in!

There wasn't a huge variety, but they did have yummy mint, and various different darks, and creme brulee and caramel and lots of milk..

We bought about $200 worth, to sell.

$3 per 100g bar. If anyone would like to purchase, please let me know ;-)

Mari