That's going to be full on G! It was soooooo wonderful to meet you and the boys the other day! It was like we'd been doing it for ages wasn't it? I guess 5 years of talking online helps a lot though . I didn't end up stopping at Richmond on the way back because by then all the school girls from Melb Grammar had gotten on the tram with all their backpacks and I couldn't be bothered walking over all of them to get to the door. But I had a great time shopping in the city and brought myself some Birkenstocks finally! Just the flip flop massuer style ones.

Arte, I'm not surprised you're feeling the way you do about him. Anyone in your situation is going to get to that stage You are going to just have to make him stay at home while you leave for a bit of a break because you need it so badly. You can't be an effective parent to any of them when you are this stressed over what is going on. Besides, you deserve to have a bit of time out yourself

MD, is DH home yet? LOl at the ferrals teaching her how to wrestle. A loves mucking around like that with L. Last night L was doing this thing with him where he was getting A to run at him flatout in the hallway and at the last minute L would spin away, A would rebound off him and into the wall and bounce off again. I waited for tears but A shouted "THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!" :rolleye: and wanted to do it again.

So the trip was fantastic! Had a night out with Rouge, Sushee and Divvy on the monday night and then caught up with G, Jols and Lenny on Tuesday at lunchtime. Then I did some shopping afterward lunch and then went back to the motel to have rest before the concert - which was the most spectacular thing I have ever seen! I'm so glad I made the effort to go. I don't think I will ever see a show like that again! The motel was pretty fancy too which was lovely - I love being in a motel on my own. Sounds weird but I feel like I can truly relax in a motel kwim? I even ordered room service for dinner before I went to the show. MD, you'll be happy to know that I spent a small fortune in the Haigh's shop in Hawthorn before I met up with G. But some of that was for MIL too (in my defence!)

About the othotics, E has had them since she was 5 - her ankles have always rolled in terribly so she got them when she started school. We thought L wasn't as bad, but when he started having his back problems we realised it was caused by his feet rolling in and putting pressure on all his joints and spine, so he got orthotics then too. They are both really flat footed as well. Lately L got quite bad wtih pain in his achilles tendon so we decided to have the custom orthotics made for them instead of the shop brought ones we had been using because they just weren't supporting them properly. When they were at the podiatrists, and she was getting them to walk barefoot for her, I could see how bad they were without shoes - both of them had achillies that look like a banana they were that bent! But with the customs made they have perfect alignment which is a huge difference! Big bonus that the health fund paid 80% of it too, so the final cost to us ended up being what we'd be out of pocket for shop brought ones anyway. It seems like a lot of trouble to go to, but you only get one pair of feet in this lifetime and they are far too young to have such severe foot problems that could impact them for the rest of their lives kwim? Once they get older we're hoping that the orthotics will have paid off and they will have minimal problems. I'd feel like **** if they ended up with major feet problems as adults because we were too stingey to pay for proper ones. Luckily P and A don't have the same problems though.