Its a MAAADHOUSE I tell ya!

Ok so now that I have been fully shamed into updating the blog.. here's the long awaited update.

Lets start with Tony's update.

He had his operation.. the skin cancer was cut out and the pathology report said there was no more skin cancer left. Woohoo! Now he has this scar.. it looks like a paddle.. he's like my very own.. pirate ;-)

But he's fine. Checkups every 6 months. And I'm relieved.


And the other big news.. well after getting a fairly nice tax return this year, we decided to get a Wii. Mainly because I wanted a Wii Fit, as a new and fun way to get exercising, but also cause.. well.. its cool ;-)

So once we had the money safely in our account I started looking around for good deals.. including Ebay.

You know, I remember Ebay a few years ago, and you really could get a good deal.. those days are over.. people are selling things over retail price, plus some! Its insane.

So anyway, I found that Kmart and Big W had their half yearly sales on, so all excited I rang around to see what deals they had. Unfortunately they were all sold out! But Target's big half yearly sale didn't start till the week after, which was last week.

So all excited, on Thursday morning, I stand, front and centre, in front of the closed Target doors, at 745am.

A M !!!!

So I'm standing there, and around me are about 30 people, and that number is increasing steadily. 75% of the people around me, are mothers, both hands firmly gripping shopping trolleys in front of them, their posture in the 'Ready, Set, GO!' position. (I can almost hear motors revving!)

Looking around, I feel very.. intimidated. Suddenly, my heart constricts, as I realise, that I don't actually know how to get to the electronics dept. I usually just wander around.. but wandering is for the losers who dont get their Wii Fit!! Luckily, right near the unopened Target doors, is a store map. I surreptitiously stroll forward to check out my route.

Route firmly in mind, I stand, ready to bolt.

I wait. I glance at my wrist watch. Its 755am. 5 minutes. Its tense. I look around. I scope out the competition. I inch forward.

Suddenly the doors start to rise! You can cut the tension with a knife.

I inch forward.

The doors are half way when a bunch of mid 20's make a break for it under the doors. The mothers with the trolleys growl and hiss after them.

And then we're off.

I got to the Electronics dept in record speed. But I was still about 10th in line. They had two registers open, and behind the desk were two huge metal cages, which I soon discovered were full of Wii bundles, DS bundles, PS bundles and Wii Fits!

I got to the counter and ordered my Wii Bundle and two Wii Fits (one was for a friend at work) and then smugly sauntered off with my trolley chockers full of Wii goodness ;-)

So then I looked around for a bit, before remembering that I was meant to get the Wii Play too because it comes with a remote and we wanted two remotes. So I look around, before it dawns on me, in a horrifying way, that the Wii Play, you also have to line up for.

I look at the line.

I groan.

I get in line.

Again.

Aaaanyway, long story kinda shorter, I get my Wii paraphernalia and then go off to work, to spend the rest of the day desperately trying to concentrate on something other than the Wii stuff in my boot!

The Wii Fit is sooo much fun! I love it!

And the other games I got in the bundles, Wii Sports, Lego Star Wars and Wii Play are all awesome too. Josie just loves the Star Wars game, although listening to her and her father play together sets my teeth on edge.

I have uploaded a bunch of photos to Flickr, so check them out. Oh and I am going to update Mat's post about the Ice Skating with some photos in a minute.. so check that again..

So thats that.. my update is done. Happy!?

Josie On Ice!

Ok since Mari is being lazy, I will tell of last weekend's exploits. At least those I was privy to. A couple weeks ago I suddenly was reminded that I hadn't been ice-skating in a while. No doubt a combination of seeing our cousin Jacqui (with whom I'd last gone ice-skating), and the current cold weather. And it also occurred to me that as far as I knew, Josie had never been.

So last Sunday we all went: Ant, Mari, Josie, Jacqui, Philip, Rebecca and Wendy and I. Being over five months pregnant, Wendy came to observe.

Now I expected that Jo would feel intimidated by the crowd of people. That she'd not like the cold of the ice rink. That she'd have the usual troubles first-timers have with ice-skating. That basically we'd be lucky if she gave it a go and then called it quits. Could ... not ... get ... her ... off ... the ... ice. She loved it!

She was nervous. Until the last half hour she wanted one of us on each side of her, holding both hands. But she was like the energiser bunny and Jacqui and Rebecca had to do a tag team thing as the second support person, while I was more or less in for the duration. In the last half hour Josie was feeling a little more confident and consented to skate around with just Rebecca or I holding one hand. She even went in a limbo competition - with her helpers in tow of course.

She'll need proper lessons before she'll master skating on her own but she looked like skating could be something she could really get into.

Mari, get into gear and post the photos.

(Ed: Yes dear.. ;-)

Jam Packed Few Days

Firstly, Happy Birthday to my dad, who is a sprightly 35 today. He is too! Really!

So a recap of the last few days.

On Saturday I had the onerous task of buying three, yes THREE birthday presents for Sunday. Thats two birthday parties for 3 kids!

So most of the day was taken up with present, and grocery shopping. I got some nice presents and then headed home to do my annual filing.

Throughout the year, documents pile up on the filing cabinet, until July-ish when I file everything away and prepare our documents for the accountant to do our taxes returns. This turned out to be a long and boring task which I happily finished about 2 hours later.

Meanwhile, Tony was cleaning out the spare room, finally! That took most of the afternoon, and now we can actually open the door, and walk into the room!! Woohoo!!

Sunday was long. The first party was for one of Josie's best friend's, Cade. Cade is about 6 months older than Josie, so she turned 6, and her party was at Plaster Master. Josie had a lovely time, and it was also the first time I did a drop off at a party. All the parents left so I did too, and went to mum & dad's for about an hour (where they had a secret stash of pickled tomatoes !!!) and then picked her up. She had ended up painting a plaster Princess, what a surprise!

After that it was straight to the next party at a park. This one was for two of Josie's friends, Ariel and Lily. This was a boisterous party, where there was a man, who turned himself into a clown and proceeded to teach the kids to juggle. This was also a great party and Josie had a ball.

During these two parties, I was approached by four other mums with suggestions for playdates. Next week is gonna be busy I think!

Monday was a normal working day, Josie was at Granny's, and went on a trip to the hairdresser and had her fringe cut, and her hair trimmed.

Which brings us to today.

Today was a very long day. Tony and I had the day off work, for reasons which will become apparently shortly. And Josie had a playdate set up with Cade. And another first, a drop off playdate. We were eternally grateful to Cade's mum, Basha, for taking Josie all day. Josie had a fabulous time, and was just raving about what a great time she had.

So a few weeks ago Tony went to see a skin specialist about a red welt that has been on the side of his head, near his ear, for the last few years, on and off. There was a biopsy done, and it was diagnosed as a skin cancer [Nodular Basal Cell Carcinoma -Ed]. This totally flipped me out and I had a semi nervous breakdown. After I recovered from the shock, Tony organised for the welt to be removed. That was today.

He had day surgery this morning where they cut out all of the cancer, and he will forever more have sexy scars on the side of his head. Awesome! ;-) [Er, hopefully not. That was the whole point of using a plastic surgeon instead of my Dermatologist (who is also a surgeon) -Ed]

Tony is fine now, out of the anesthesia, and on basic Panadol and Neurofen. We are now waiting for the pathology reports, which will report... something [Hopefully that there are no cancer cells around the outer edges of the volume they removed -Ed].

So that was our last few days..

Again, Happy birthday dad!