RIP Zelli our Beautiful Furbaby

It breaks my heart to let you know that our beautiful Zelda passed away this morning.


Zelli was 10 and a half years old, we got her to keep Zakhari company. She was always a very nervous cat, and it took a long time to win her over, for us anyway. Zakhari and Zelda were siblings from the get-go. They played, ate and slept together every day. We always said Zelli was Zak's cat.

On Friday she started acting funny. I found her lying in places where she never lay. She was a very habitual cat and things out of the ordinary always signaled something wrong. On Friday night she peed on Tony, as we slept. The first thing that struck me was that she was lying asleep near the pee. Neither cats would ever do that. They would pee and then find somewhere else to sleep. Who ever said cats were not smart??

When we changed the sheets, the pee that Zelli had left us was bright bright yellow. More yellow than I had ever seen cat pee be. On Saturday we took her to the vet. The vet delivered the bad news that whatever it was, it was serious.

They put her on a drip, took some blood and told us to leave her there overnight for an ultrasound the next morning. The vet thought it was either heart disease, or feline flu. Either one was devastating.

This morning we got the news that Zelli had passed away during the ultrasound. There was just too much damage to her heart.

Tony and I are fairly devastated, Josie was also upset. We had the death talk with her, and asked her whether she would prefer to have Zelli buried in Granny's backyard with all of Daddy's past cats, or have her cremated and bring her home. Josie chose the burial.


Rest in Peace Zelli. We will all miss you, especially Zak.

We're On A Roll!

Daddy didn't get home from work till late so he was sitting with Josie while she went to sleep.

And after a while Daddy hears whispers from the darkness.

Josie: Daddy.. it stinks in here!
Daddy sniffs: Smells alright to me.. ?
Josie (still whispering): Must be coming from YOU then!
Daddy sniffs himself: Hmmm, could be from my feet?
Josie replies in a cheeky whisper: Nah.. I farted! *giggle*

ROFL.

To Facilitate Her Mum's Obsession..

After losing the townhouse at Botany, Tony and I agreed that we really like that street it was on and would really love to find something else there.

In order to facilitate that, we decided to write some notes to the residents across the complexes in that street (handwriting apparently attracts more attention) that announced our eagerness to buy there. After writing up about 20 of them we got bored, and decided we should just photocopy the hand written notes.

I got the photocopies done today and brought them home and the thought of having to cut up all the photocopies into the 4 notes per page was giving me chills, so, enter the 6 year old.

Mama: Hey Jose, you wanna do some cutting out for me?
Josie: Yes! Thank you Mama!!!
Mama: No no dear, thank YOU!

lol..

So after about 10 mins of cutting, Tony came home and saw what she was doing..

Daddy: You got her doing your job?!
Josie: Yeh, cause she's harvesting and stuff..

Hehehe.. well trained I say ;-)

A Personal Message to my Mother

Mum, please read below. There is a very important message I wish to impart to you..

Josie, sitting chatting with daddy, has the following conversation.

Josie: Daddy, when you and Mama got married, did Mama take your shirt off?
Tony: What?!
Josie: Did Mama take your shirt off? Did she undo your buttons.. did your shirt have buttons? Were you wearing one of those button shirts?
Tony: What are you talking about? Why would Mama take my shirt off?
Josie: To kiss you all over.. [at this point she pulls the front of Tony's shirt down to look at Tony's chest and says..] even though you are hairy everywhere?
Tony: You mean.. are you talking about when we had our wedding?!
Josie: Yeh..
And Tony thought for a minute.. and said: What have you been watching ?
To which she replied: Bold and The Beautiful with Baba.
To which he replied: MARI!!!!!!!!!

So Mum.. NO MORE Bold & The Beautiful. It is now in the same category as The News.

Geez.. sex education via US Soaps..

She Said What???

So Tony is really sick right now.. bad flu.. not the un-kosher kind..

Josie was at Baba's yesterday and was meant to come home, but we decided it was best for her not to be at home where she can catch Tony's lurgy, but should stay at Baba's overnight and then Baba & Dyeda (who is now retired!!) can drive her to Auntie Carol's place in the morning for their scheduled Big Adventure (tm).

As she was going to bed, Josie lay down, but kept tossing and turning.

Josie: I can't go to sleep!
Baba: Why not?
Josie: Because my tooth is wobbly and if I go to sleep I could swallow it and choke!
Baba: But you would be asleep, how would it come out?
Josie: Because as I sleep, my tongue might play with it and it might pop out and I might swallow it and choke!
Baba: So what are we going to do???
Josie: Hang on a minute.. Let me think..

(some time passes silently)

Josie: I know Baba.. you can take my tooth and I won't swallow it then.
Baba: But how can I take your tooth if its in your mouth??
Josie: Oh its not anymore!
[Josie hands Baba a bloody tooth]





We now have three missing teeth up top and one down the bottom. I am finding it very hard to understand what she says! And I am a little concerned at how long its taking for the top two front teeth to come out..

School Photos

Just as I was starting to wonder where Josie's School Photos got to, they arrived today!

Here is my little First Grader.

G.I. Josie

So Josie found Wolf3D on my iPhone.

We're driving through Coogee and we hear from the back of the car:

Josie: Sorry! Sorry! I have to shoot you or you'll shoot me! Argh! Sorry!

So after we recover from the fits of laughter we have the following exchange:

Daddy: Josie I don't think I want you playing that game.
Josie: why not?!
Daddy: you know you're not really shooting ppl right? It's just a picture?
Josie: yes I know that. (in the duh! What are you retarded? voice)

Time passes with much grunting and exasperated utterances when the final little perl drops out:

Josie: argh I hate this game!
Daddy: so why you playin' it?
Josie: 'Cos I love this game! I just can't always find the bad guys! I tried for ages with the blood searcher.
Daddy: the blood searcher?
Josie: yeah, the guy....blood squirting all over the place...the searcher. (In her best distracted monotone).

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

So Thats That Then..

The townhouse has sold, and not to us. It went for $582K. That's 2K above what we were going to buy it for, and 42K above what the idiot valuer valued it at. Thank you idiot valuer.

Needless to say, I am not taking it very well.

It's Saturday so we are of course house hunting again.

I didn't think I would be doing this again so soon. I can't seem to get very excited about anything though.

Oh well. That's life I guess.

Back To The Drawing Board..

So the bank valuation on the townhouse came in and it was $40K under our agreed purchase price. What this means is that the bank won't loan us enough to be able to purchase the property.

We tried renegotiating with the seller but he wouldn't budge. We needed him to come down 15-20K. We have rescinded our offer and he has relisted the property and will see how he goes.

I have a very smaller glimmer of hope that he won't find anyone willing to pay that amount and will come back to us and accept our offer.

Meanwhile we are house hunting again.

And I am just... devastated..

And now..

Some photos from the new house!

Josie's room. I am hanging to get her bunks like this.



The third bedroom, now officially Becca's Room ;-)


Part of the HUGE bathroom upstairs.


The main bedroom. Ours. Josie gets the biggest room though!


The Walk-Through robe, this joins our bedroom with the bathroom.


View from the front door towards the dining area and kitchen and courtyard.



The kitchen.Yes! Thats a DISHWASHER you see! After almost 3 years of no dishwasher, my dreams are about to come true!!


The stairs looking down.


The stairs looking up.


This is a storage room under the stairs.

The garage looking in. Its got some shelves, and Tony will put up more.



We are hoping to put in a gate here to stop the cats from going into the main part of the garage, cause we'll be using that for the car, but the litter can go before the gate.


Tony in the courtyard, with baby.


Everyone in the living room.


September cannot come soon enough!!

Bollocks!

So we're watching Funniest Home Videos tonight and one of the videos is of some teenagers creating bottle rockets by shaking up 2litre soft drink bottles and throwing them to the ground lid first, and of course for one of them, the bottle shoots straight up into his crotch.

To which Josephine responds (with her usual amount of paying attention):

Josie: What happened?
Daddy: The bottle jumped up and hit him in the.. PENIS!
Josie: You mean the BOLLOCKS?!

Mummy laughs.
Daddy laughs.

Josie: I have a BOLLOCKS!
Daddy: You do NOT have a bollocks!
Josie: I do have a BOLLOCKS!
Daddy: As I have told you already, you will have to wait to inherit mine from Mummy.
Daddy: You dont even know what a Bollocks is.
Josie: Yes I do, its your front bum.
Daddy: No its not.
Josie: Iiiiiiii-ve got a BOLLOCKS!
Daddy (shaking his finger at Mummy): BLOG that! BLOG that now!!

Addendum:
Josie says: I've got a BOLLOCKS and I LIKE IT! Write that down!

Just When We Thought it was Hopeless...

... we found a home!

It was hiding from us the whole time! Around the corner and down the street...


So I can't believe how lucky we were with this place. First of all, it was being sold without a real estate agent, privately. That in itself is worth an extra $10K ;-) It was such a different experience dealing directly with the owner.

So.. we exchanged with a 10 day cooling off period yesterday! Its a 2 storey townhouse, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2 car. Ground floor has a good sized living and dining area (DINING area! Finally, to have people over again!!). The kitchen is electric, with a dishwasher (WOO-bloody-HOO!), laundry, WC and exit to the garage and courtyard. The first floor has 3 great size bedrooms, enormous bathroom (with room for a Spa in the future!!) and seperate WC. The main bedroom has a walk through closet, into the bathroom. Josie's room is painted pink and purple, and has a built in, and the third bedroom has a built in.

The townhouse is in a gorgeous complex with about 80 properties. There is visitors parking all over the place. Mostly owners, and mostly older people.

We are so excited! And so nervous! But SO excited!!

So its a long settlement, as per the seller's request, but suits us just fine cause we are able to save a heap of money in those few months! We move in for my birthday mid September!

Best. Birthday. Ever!

And The Hunt Continues..

So the 2 bedder is gone (it started 20K over our max at the auction, and there were so many strata issues..)..

And now we're onto a 3 bed 2 bath 2 car townhouse in Botany. Also in our price range.. seeing it tomorrow.. being sold by private vendor and not real estate.. should be interesting.. ;-)

More later.. ;-)

Soul Destroying..

Yes we are once again on the house hunting trail.. and once again, despite the reports, its soul destroying..

Going from a 2 Bedder, to a gorgeous 3 Bedder in the north was awesome. Going from the gorgeous 3 Bedder in the north to renting a 2 bed semi in the east was depressing.. trying to now find another home to buy is just.. well.. we're a little stressed.

We've found a lovely 2 Bedder in the east, with slight water views.. only 6 units, lovely street, enclosed wrap around balcony, floorboards, 2 toilets, great sized laundry and living area.. bright, cheery.. they want $500-550K. And its going to Auction. I have a feeling it will go over $550K.. and unfortunately that is our limit. We are going to go ahead with trying to get it, pre-auction offer.. negotiating.. but its just.. soul shredding.. I am so over the stress, and its only been a couple of weeks since we started all this!

Cross your fingers, wish us luck ;-)

And Now A Word From The Holy Land

From Becca:

Mum had texted Baba to go on MSN so I could talk to her, but Dyeda came on so quickly I didn't know if they got it or if it was a co-incidence that he came on at the same time.

Becca: Hey!
Dyeda: hi it is deda
Becca: Is this both you and baba?
Dyeda: baba looking now bold and ....
Becca: haha
Dyeda: me to xaxa, cant helpet
Becca: deda go ask baba if she got mama's text message.
Dyeda: tell me how it was last day
Becca: It was good we saw grisha and kids
Dyeda: How they are
Becca: the girls are gorgeous
Dyeda: baba read your block but no any other messages
Becca: I am just about to write a new blog about yesterday now
Dyeda: good
Becca: go tell baba to check her mobile if she got a text...but you dont touch because you dont know how to read the text
Dyeda: and we now how you get last day by reading blogs
Becca: sigh... deda just do as you are told, go and tell baba to check her phone because mama sent her a text..
Dyeda: I talk to baba, she open phone and show me message: GO AND CHECK MSN, REBECCA IS ON LINE
Becca: okay so is that why you came online
Dyeda: i have phone on my hands, yes
Becca: okay thats good
Dyeda: now I have skipe nose

I tried and tried but to no effect, I could not establish what a skipe nose is...
____________

Completely unedited.. I swear..

Bon Voyage!

My sister and niece are off on a big month long vacation today. They will be visiting Israel and England.

We hope they have a lovely time and will miss them heaps.

Dont worry, we will make sure the cat enjoys midnight strolls in the neighborhood and the Tivo is shut down for the month ;-)

Mwahahahaha!

Uh Oh. Another Hill Roadtrip!

We are on the road back from Wyong where we and Roman, Helen and Stacey went to a place called Amazement.

It was great and the girls had an awesome time. They had mazes and games and animals and great big board games.

Going through the mazes was great fun, pretending to be lost, but I think the girls enjoyed the animals the most. They held bunnies and ducklings and guinea pigs.

We are now on our way to dinner at Ramsgate, completely exhausted but satisfied.

Photos to follow.

Mobile Blogging from here.

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Weirdest Dream Ever

I had a dream last night night that my sister was making dinner. She had a large pot on the stove and in the pot was a huge fish. The fish was descaled, covered in some kind of batter and was boiling in the pot. The only problem with this was that the fish was still alive and breathing and looking forlornly at me.

I was incensed. I couldn't believe that Vika was being so cruel!

I asked her why she was being so cruel to the fish, and she said she was making sushimi, so the fish had to be alive.

I was just horrified and began yelling at her that she must kill the fish to stop it's suffering, so she took a large BBQ fork and stabbed the fish in the stomach.

I think the fish died after that but I can't be sure cause I can't remember any more of the dream.

This whole thing stems from guilt I think.

On Friday, one of the girls at work got an aquarium and a Siamese Fighting Fish for her birthday, which she put on her desk. We got a mirror and put it in front of the bowl and made the fish think it was facing another Siamese Fighting Fish, just to see it puff up. Deep down I think I knew I was being a bit cruel to the fish, and finding it a bit funny.

So while I think it was really ME cooking the big fish alive, Vika, please don't cook fish for dinner for a while ;-)

Third Tooth Loss !

Many months after the last lost tooth, Josie has now lost her third. Its her top right tooth and it came out last night at a dinner at Baba's place. Auntie Vika had a hand in it:

I came in and Rebecca said to Josie to show me her tooth and how wobbly it was.

She skipped over and moved it with her finger. The tooth was almost out as I could see half of the root already detached from the gum and the tooth hanging by few threads. She was playing with it all the time so it was just a matter of minutes before it came out.

I told her it would be easy if she did it herself and just pressed on the tooth inwards and it would just pop out.

The answer was no.

I then asked her if she wanted me to take it out, and at first she said no, but I could see she was not afraid and wanted it to come out, but afraid to do it herself. So I called her over and said let me see again. She let me. So I just took it into my two fingers, pulled it down and it was over in 2 seconds. It started to bleed, we ran to bathroom, she washed her mouth with cold water for 2 min and that was it.


The excitement was pulsating out of her she was absolutely ecstatic, running all over. I sent her to look at herself in the mirror, she looked so cute with front tooth missing. I asked her if it hurt and she said nope.

Apparently multiple Tooth Fairies arrived immediately – special case for a special girl and she got 4 gold coins.

We put the tooth and coins in a plastic bag for safe keeping and decided that she would not tell mum and dad what happened and will wait until they had arrived. She would just start talking and see if they notice.

Lucky she did not have to bubble over for too long and first mum and then dad arrived and of course both noticed straight away with appropriate amount of excitement. Huge day for Josie!!

So there we have it. My big 6 year old has lost her third tooth! Thank god it didn't come out at school. I was having nightmares that she would lose it ;-)

On the street!

Hear 'ye, hear 'ye. I am blogging from the car en route to Mat's!