OMG Arte!! That would have been really scary for all of you. Thank goodness you did get up to check on him when you did :hug:
Cass, how is your Mum? I hope her house wasn't damaged or anything - looked pretty bad up there.
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OMG Arte!! That would have been really scary for all of you. Thank goodness you did get up to check on him when you did :hug:
Cass, how is your Mum? I hope her house wasn't damaged or anything - looked pretty bad up there.
Oh Arte, so lucky!!!
Oh arte: i just checked out the pics. How frikkin' terrifying!!! and how scary close it all came to little Miss E??!!!! eeeeppp. i hope that you guys are ok, these things can creep up on you (the shock etc) :hug:
today we are off to the hollywood farmers markets. hoping to put together a picnic and head up to griffith park and enjoy the view over the city...the weather is on our side! i just hope the morning sickness is going to give me a break lol.
Cass, hope you got a bit of rest from the MS for your day trip xx
Excitement is over, just left with a stinky house with boarded up windows lol. Insurance assessor is coming tomorrow, hopefully we will get some windows back soon. I think I will see if they can replace Erin's linen. Her clothes in the drawers don't smell, but her linen was on the bottom shelf of the change table so it was out in all the smoke and I am not very keen to reuse it.
W thought the whole thing was fantastic. He took a few photos for show and tell at kindy today and later on had a crowd of kids around as he did a blow by blow (slightly exaggerated) account of what happened lol. A was a bit freaked out though and spent all of yesterday howling to be carried around the house. She seems a mostly better today though.
Erin got her first tooth yesterday. Oddly enough, she is the same age to the day as W was when he got his first tooth. They both sat at the exact same age too.
The Arte party!
Found out today that the neighbour is not insured. That means that we pay our excess and our insurance company will fix everything up for us, but then they will try to get the costs back from him. Poor bugger is a builder and has lost his entire shed full of all his tools and machines so he has no income now.
I have no sympathy for him Arte, he should have had insurance, especially if he was self employed! That totally sucks that you have to do it through your insurance - I hope they will be able to get the money back from him. Bugger about the baby blankets too :(
Trill, I am wavering between 'well, that is why people have insurance' and 'how on earth is he going to get past this' - he is a nice enough guy, and must be around 60 so would have been looking to retire soonish. There has to be at least 10k of damage to our place. I am wondering if I should give him first option to be the builder to fix it to keep his costs down, or if I should just get an outsider because if he is the one ultimately paying for it then he might try to go cheaper.
And E has no bed now so she is in ours and OMG she is all over the place! It is a super king and she somehow gets from the middle to sideways with her feet hanging over the edge! None of my kids have every wriggled in their sleep before - she is the queen of the co-sleeping H.
Omg Arte!!! So glad you are all safe. How terrifying
Hope everyone is having a great easter or passover
All good here, we have a brilliant sunshine day and when E wakes up we are going to town for an F and C lunch and a bush walk.
DH is away hunting for the week, so we did the easter hunt yesterday. We did a clue one that led to a map with the treasure - lots of fun.
hello girls!
sorry have been MIA we are currently churning up the miles and heading to the north of the US...seattle! meeting up with a fellow BBer :)
Arte: what is hunting on this trip? isnt it venison? i saw a deer today! (like alive and not in a deer park lol)...big moment for little ol' me lol.
my only worry with him doing it is timing. you want to sell the place and dont want to wait for him to do it over a long time ITMS. but then again, i like to keep things happy too...tricky one.
I had to giggle at Es bed antics. i had to bunk in with leila last night and boy that girl knows how to colonise a bed space. i was lying right on the edge of the king size bed PMSL!
Hope that everyone is having a lovely long weekend! we are having a blast...the girls got their first taste of serious snow yesterday and we even got caught in a snowy downpour on our walk to the restaurant!!! it was all quite exciting! nothing like waking up to a blanket of snow...especially when you are warm and toasty inside hahaha. tomorrow we drive up to seattle with a brief stop at Mt Saint Helens volcano. we plan a couple of days in seattle, maybe a trip to canada (there's a ferry) and then onto "twilight" country....Forks etc. i really look forward to it as it is meant to be stunning.
Wow Cass! Totally jealous! Say hi to Meow (not that she would know who I am lol) - I would be such a convert to her GAPS thing if it wasn't so much work! Makes total sense to me, we feed our bodies so much that we weren't designed to eat. Like those zoo gorilla's that are morbidly obese (and chain smokers) because they are fed donuts, and everyone laughs at them yet we do the same to ourselves.
DH is out hunting deer. It is a real buzz to see a real life wild one isn't it! I saw one once when we were camping. It came galloping down and stood right in our clearing (while DH was off in the other direction trying to shoot one lol).
Turns out the neighbor has house insurance but says his shed wasn't covered. I am getting his policy number though because I am pretty sure he needs to make a claim - even if his shed isn't covered, his house policy should cover the fence and our damage. They are sending someone on Tuesday to board up our windows properly and measure and quote everything else. Fingers crossed that we keep the good weather for a bit longer!
Cass - we were living in Seattle when Mt St Helens blew. The only thing I remember about living there (I have a really bad memory of my childhood, I was 5 when we were there) - was there was a family of racoons who used to come to the back door each evening and we'd feed them.
Happy Easter and Passover everyone!! Someone was very excited with her Humpty egg this morning, but has had two separate trips to the backyard looking for more (she will be disappointed). We're doing a hunt up at the headland tonight where some bunnies live, then there is one at the botanic gardens tomorrow as well as a new playground opening.
I had Miss K in the bed a few weeks ago and I'm refusing to do it again. I had a shocking sleep and had a headache for just over 2 days afterwards. I've told her if she is scared or similar and needs me, then she can sleep on the floor on her foldout lounge.
Arte - I've never heard of having separate insurance for a shed (unless it was in something like a farm situation)? But then I don't usually deal with that sort of thing.
We got caught in traffic yesterday!! Went into town for the markets and it was just crazy. Spent 10 minutes inching onto the highway and across the bridge. I know it will be busy around the Bay tomorrow with all the Canberra people heading home (they aren't on school hols yet), but wasn't expecting it in sleepy old Moruya. Had some awesome pizza though, made it worthwhile.
Cally, bummer about the traffic jam! We don't get that busy here, but heaps of people are down for easter so town is full of tweens wandering around looking as bored as bat**** lol. There is sooo nothing for them to do here over summer. Bet they are wishing their parents bought holiday homes by the beach instead of the mountain!
I am guessing his shed wasn't insured either because it was not permitted or possibly because it was a workshop/business? No idea really.
In a normal situation you should still be able to claim under the home and contents, but he may have deliberately excluded the shed and contents from the policy to save money. I know we had to cut a lot out of our farm insurance this year because the premiums were scary high. But it was things that were already completely paid for and easy to replace, like the airseeder and sheep. Didn't save a huge amount off the premium but it wasn't necessary to have them covered. I really hope that you can find a way to make them pay for it though.
Cally, that road is such a narrow road (if it's the one I'im thinking of) that I can imagine how frustrating it would be to get caught in traffic there. That area just is not set up to deal with high volumes of traffic.
Easter has been pretty quiet here. Thursday I had to take P back for her post-op check up and everything is great - she's healed really well and he's happy with the way things went. And no more snoring!! So it's definitely helped her and she doesn't have bags under her eyes either anymore. We have no plans for the weekend - DH starts nightshift tonight andI have a heap of uni work to do before we head off to resi school next week. Plus footy season starts so I'm flat out getting organised for that too. And to top it off Telstra deactivated our moedem before we got the new one so I've been without internet since tuesday. I'm really hoping that it turns up on Tuesday or I will be cranky!
And it's our 12'th wedding anniversary today!! It really doesn't feel like we've been married for 12 years. We were together for 15 years back in March! In another 4 years time I will have been with DH for half of my life!
I hope everyone is well and doesn't end up with bellyaches from overindulging in the easter treats ;)
Thought I would pop in and say Hi while I have 5 minutes! Happy Easter/ Pass over to you all.
Arte how scary for you all. I hope that your neighbour can sort out the insurance.
Trill we had our 15 years and half our lives anniversary in Feb, its a pretty cool milestone I think. Happy wedding Anniversary.
had to lol at the bed sharing stories. L comes into my bed most nights when DH is away, he sleeps great though. Z on the other hand likes to sit and talk and if she does sleep she is all over the place.
I hope you all have a wonderful long weekend.
Congrats on the anniversary Trill!
Hi Oz, long time no see! I have been wanting to say for ages - your photos are just amazing! I always thought they were awesome, but recently a friend had some professional pics taken and they just didn't compare to yours. There was something off about nearly every shot - framed wrong, lighting wrong, pose wrong etc. You are very talented.
I ate a few small easter eggs the other day and E was squirmy and grizzly all night. Guess sugar is still a no go for me. On the bright side, I am under 70kg for the first time in ages and I only need to lose another 2.5kg to be in the 'healthy' range! I am really hoping to do it before I turn 30 next month.
Procrastinating while I should be doing my toy library work. Going to give it up at the agm because I should be using the small amount of free time I have to study. I need to get into that, still haven't started for the year! Seem to have lost my motivation somewhere.
Is it school holidays over there? Slowly getting through them lol. Went to the city on Tuesday for an appointment for W, only to have it cancelled after I was already there. Grrrr.
DH is back on Saturday, so only a couple more days and then I am having a sleep in!!
Hope everyone is having a good week and are basking in some lovely autumn days. Except Cass, hope you are enjoying snow! So the Cullen house is real? Did they build it for the movies? Or as a tourist thing? I didn't even know Forks was a real place.
hello girls!
we are still in transit, so havent been able to reply as much as normal...but i have been reading!
Trill: happy anniversary to you guys! putting in some good innings there girl! woo hoo! is there any hot date planned?
super news about Ps recovery. i bet she is glad to have it all behind her now.
Cally: oh we went and visited St Helena! it was so spectacular. but far out, the damage it caused is just mind-boggling. just massive tracts left in the ground where the gas and lava decimated the forest. quite spooky really.
that is cool about the racoons. we stayed at Meow's place and they also have a resident racoon!
Oz: great to see you babe! i cant believe that Z is a miss chatterbox lol. my girls are just bed hogs and impossible to bed share with lol.
AFM: all good here. apparently there was an earthquake off the coast today...now wishing that i didnt choose the motel on the beachfront :rofl:
we had a fabulous time with Meow and family; seattle seems to be a really funky place that, if it werent so cold, i reckon i would fall in love with...but man, they know how to do winters there!
the cullen house we stayed in was super duper cool! (Arte, yep, Forks is a real place! as is La Push where the reservation is set!). the house is an original built in 1916. it is the only house of that magnitude in the area (poor farming area) and she describes it in her book to a tee. it is actually fun reading the book and then seeing all the places she talks about. although the tour buses doing poses with cardboard cutouts of the characters in front of the house were slightly discroncerting lol.
5 days! Is this the longest that there has ever been no posts in here?
Hope everyone is well.
In my defence I have been extremely busy Arte :lol:
Res school has been great - so much fun and it's been really beneficial. Great meeting people IRL and putting faces to names too. I love how you just find the people that you 'click' with - found a great bunch of people that are really lovely and we've had heaps of laughs.
On the downside Alister has quite a nasty gash on the back of his head from playing around on the bunk beds and he feel off the top one! So off to Armidale ER we went to get it stitched up. They have to stay in till Monday. He's OK though apart from having a sore head. Just not exactly what I needed to deal with while we're so far from home though.
Hope everyone else is well xoxo
i reckon it is an all time record Arte!!! Last night i woke up and got worried about it hahahahaha :rofl: (no, i am not kidding lol).
we are back in the land of concrete and gross smells that is LA. missing the gorgeous redwood forests (which house some of the tallest trees on the planet!!!). we didnt see any bears (much to leila's chargrin). but overall it was just magical. in a few weeks we are off for the final trip to kansas where we stop at the grand canyon and Las Vegas baby! and then we are outta here!!! :dance: although i have had a great time, being pregnant has made me realise just how precious good food and home comforts are lol.
Trill: oh far out these kids!! So was he kept in hossy because he banged his head or allowed to leave?
so cool about the res school. is that part of the structure of the course?
Hope everyone else is well! i miss our wee group catch-ups :)
It's because Blabbydean has been busy elsewhere! Lol. Be back later for better catch up. Xxx
hahaha, yeah your absence has been noted young lady. i expect a letter from home, you hear?!! :lol:
not much to report on for us. we took a trip to the bad-ass side of town and chowed down on 2 tacos for a $1 lol. sooooo so so so so goooood!!!
Is anyone else noticing that their kids are definitely showing signs of needing school? i wonder if it is because i have DD1 at home full-time but she is really starting to need that big kid interaction i reckon....
double-dip.
Cass, I know I am showing signs of needing him to start school lol
But yeah, I think he is super ready. He is too bored with whats on offer around the house now.
Trill, hope A is feeling better. Have you got all the kids with you?
MD, looking forward to hearing what you have been up to :)
AFM, nothing overly exciting. Moving house this weekend hopefully.
Not much excitement here. We're up in Canberra for a few days, I've been hitting the shops and also fitting in a lot of 4wk old nephew cuddles! Sis and BIL cooked us a Jordanian feast last night - they did a class while they were there on their honeymoon and it was all just so scrummy!
DD rode her bike without training wheels the other day - that was excitement! She was so pleased with herself.
DD is still enjoying the preschool experience rather than showing signs of being bored there.
Arte - good news on the house move. What's the update on the house repairs.
Cass - Mmm, tacos..... Can you still drive through the redwoods, I remember doing that.
Cally, Yay for no training wheels! Amazing how much faster they can go when the trainers are off!
Nothing to report on the house repairs - they came to board up the windows properly and that is all. Actually can't wait to get out of here, I have a cough that only happens in the house and it is all dark and dingy with the windows boarded up.
Just found out today that the house that we are moving into was the site of a home invasion where the mum was held and raped in front of her family. There is a home security system with panic buttons in the bedrooms and trip sensors out the door of the main bedroom and peek holes and locks on all the bedrooms - poor lady must have been terrified afterwards :(
holy moly arte :o i reckon a cleansing ritual will be in order! buy the burning sage today lol!
cally: yip, you can still drive through them! so cool!
Far out Arte, that's a bit freaky! So is the move happening this weekend?
Well DH and I got back from Canberra yesterday - 2 hours before a landslide closed the highway. Not looking like it will be open until at least Monday, so we don't know when K will be returning. The plan was for tomorrow, but the detour adds a few extra hours to the trip on a not very good road. Hoping that it's clear sometime on Monday and DH can meet her somewhere - assuming Granny is coping!!
Miss K has been collected - she had a wonderful exra holiday and is informing everyone that she will be back in 20 days.
We are all very quiet in here....
I'm coming down with a cold - what's your excuse??
I'm way behing on EVERYTHING! Housework, study, the lot. So that's my excuse LOL.
A started speech therapy yesterday. She agreed that he's no where near as bad as P was and it's only two issues we have to work on so she thinks we'll only need a few appointments and she'll give me enough materials to keep working on it with him at home.
Cally, glad K is home now. I laughed at her telling everyone when she'll be back. She must have had a good time
Helloooo my darlinks! I soooo wanted to pop in a for a good yarn on the weekend but I've been doing battle with some very nasssssteh malware - it's taken several days and rounds of disinfection to get on top of it. Worst case I've ever had (actually have done pretty well considering I've been online since 1995 and had fewer viruses than I could count on one hand in that time). Anyway all gone now but i was a bit scared to turn the lappy on today in case it was baaa-aaack! (just like a horror movie).
Cass - omg i have been in total RAPTURES reading about your roadtrip and pics etc to Forks. I nearly wet myself when I read you were staying at the actual Cullen house! Sooooo good. Thank you my darling for allowing me to live vicariously through you. xxx So how's stinky LA now that you're back?
Cally - were you a bit distressed at being separated from K for those unexpected days? I think that would've freaked me a little bit. Wow on the bike-riding. E doesn't have a 2 wheeler, probably a good thing because she's had such a massive growth spurt we'd be buying a new one anyway. I think FC will be bringing a bike this year ;). BTW - will you be Canberra on or near the Mother's Day weekend? Yours truly will be spending a week there doing something very exciting so if you're going to be around we might have to wangle a coffee.
Trill, I'm way behind on everything too, and that's after having a couple of weeks off work. LOL I have no excuses at all. School holidays just eat up my mind. That speech therapy sounds like it will be pretty doable, you're seasoned now. BTW I thought of you when i saw Dirk Gently was on the telly last night. I know you're such a bit HHGTTG fan, I wondered if you were tuning in.
Arte - how are you doing? That's pretty shocking about the house's history. How do you feel about moving, now that you know that? I"m with Cass, you definitely need to cleanse that whole place through - get an expert in if you have to. When are you moving? Does it depend on repairing the fire damage? What a freaking complication.
Ginger - how are your boys going? Have you been able to catch up with JM lately? I would love to hear how she's going, such a busy mamma.
Oz - congrats on your 15 years anniversary. I hope you celebrated by buying a hideous giant chicken LOL. I can't cope with having E in the bed, she thrashes/sits/chats/limpets/pats me, etc etc... you're lucky L sleeps like that.
MP - how are things with you? I'm guessing your busy with your new role, steep learning curve but I have no doubt you are taking it all in your stride. BTW a little while back you said about finding your boys face painting with yoghurt, and it must have triggered something subconsciously because I've been experimenting with yoghurt as a face mask medium. LOL. Haven't perfected my recipe yet but my test hand is smoother and lovelier than the control hand.
All good here -but it took a good week to get over my extreme brain fry... am headed for another before the end of the semester I think LOL. I've been busy, helped present a writing workshop, started another blogging adventure (in case you didn't see the link on FB). Speaking of blogging adventures, I'm about to tick "B is for...." off my list! Heading off in couple of weeks to do a week long masterclass with none other than Australia's biggest selling author. How excited am I??? And before that i'm having a quick soujourn in Sydeneeeeee ... all by myself! Leaving Saturday. Nervous but excited.
There you go. A nice long one. That's my penance for turning up without a note from home :lol:
WOW MD! I'm jealous of your masterclass with Bryce. I think I may just have to send you a book of mine and see if he will sign it for me? It would have to be The Power of One - the first book of his I ever read and it just blew my mind. Also jealous of your soujourn in Sydney too, but then I did have one in Melb in Feb so can't complain too much. I haven't had time to watch TV either - assigments are like a black hole atm and are sucking all my time, not to mention all the footy club stuff I've had to do as well. It's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel atm.
Started root therapy on a tooth today - I had it filled a few weeks ago and it's been a PITA ever since and has been super sensitive. L had a checkup/mouthguard appt today so I asked if he could have a quick look and the xray showed that the filling was very nearly on the nerve, which made it very reactive. So I could either pull it out, have the root therapy or wait and see. Considering that I've been putting up with it and it's not getting better I ruled that one out, and I already had the wisdom tooth out so that left the root therapy. Once the local wore off it was aching something shocking so I took a few digesics. Not from the therapy, but from all the injection sites! He used 4 vials of anaesthetic! But so awesome that I can have a hot or cold drink without having to peel myself off the ceiling afterwards :lol: DH doesn't know yet - I left for town and then he went into nightshift. Can't imagine that he'd be too happy with the extra expense of it all ATM though.
Trill :hug: I had a root canal a while back - very owwy but a huge relief once it all calmed down. The expense is a massive pain too. I'm re-reading The Power of One - it only seemed right even though Tandia was the first one I read all those years ago LOL.
MD - not looking like I will be around Mothers Day. Bummer. I wasn't distressed at being separated as she was always going to be staying up there for a few days. But I was conscious that it was an extra 2 hours to get there if we needed too and that the return journey when she did come back was on unfamiliar roads with some of it unsealed (and not in good condition with lots of recent rain and excessive use). It's also weird not having that link with Canberra healthwise - apparently the chopper has been really busy this week transferring people because they just can't go in the ambulance for a 4+ hour trip!
Trill - ouchy on the teeth!
And now we all seem to have a cold (mine is worse). Nice quiet day here I think with a bit of a bike ride when the rain clears.
I'm assuming Arte has moved as she has been so quiet on FB and here.
Hi everyone. Moved over the weekend, phone company stuffed up our phone/internet so I am parked up outside the library stealing wi-fi to check emails lol.
MD, that is super exciting! Hope you have a great time xx
Cally, we get stuck here every once in a while.
Not too worried about the house history, it was someone else's nightmare. For us it will be a fantastic family home :)
Best be off, got to make scones for some kindy catering fundraising tomorrow but my new oven is crap and first batch was a total fail.
Arte I hate having to get used to new ovens. LOL at you stealing wifi. Will they have it fixed soon? How are the kids settling in to the new home? Lots of new things to explore I imagine.
Hellllllooooooo lovely ladies!
Sorry that i have also been MIA! i have some long lost family visiting and we are having a fabulous time catching up and laughing at our similarities :)
MD: Go the Bryce! I am so impressed by you chicky-dee; loving it even more that you dont need Oprah to realise some of these dreams! you are doing it :dance:
i missed your link...must go to FB and get it!
stinky LA, is, well, Stinky. I am totally over it. my 11 year old cousin's son complained that Beverly Hills took his 'cool happy' away today because of all the sadness in the people he saw :(. such a perceptive kid....so yeah, quietly counting down the days until we leave. i really really am beginning to dislike the blandness and difficulty of a city with no soul ITMS.
Cally: wowsers, you guys musta been having quite some rain :o. i can't imagine that road being closed....it's the life-line of the place...where do all the canberrans go for the weekend now :rofl:
and i also had to giggle at her "20 days" for leila it is either 1 day or 100 in her time references lol.
Arte: did the move go ok?
Trill: ouch but YAY on the root canal! i have some dental work to get done too when we get back and this baby is born...i have two wisdoms coming through and there is a too big a gap from the brackets of the braces on my back molar and it is causing quite alot of pain, so need to have that filled in (had one side done last year...but the other side is now crap too).
AFM: all ok here. cracked it majorly at DH today as i am EXHAUSTED beyond belief and need to have a wee break every now and then,
ok, sorry for the double post...something weird was happening and i wasnt able to type....weird computer glitch...hopefully MDs malware hasnt come for a vist :rofl:
ANYWAY, so yeah, cracked it lol. thankfully i got some respite with my cousin as DH took all three kids home so we could have some retail therapy. H&M is now my favourite place lol. cheap clothes that i can use for maternity wear as it is all stretchy material etc. so after that i feel a bit better :lol:
i sooooo need a sojourn....
OMG Cass I was a total nervous nellie about turning the computer on again after I'd had THREE ROUNDS with the malware! But no, all gone now. I'm glad for you that your time there is drawing to a close, even though you've had a few adventures and made the most of it, what really counts is that connection. Bit how I felt leaving Canberra, actually.
Trill how's your mouth? Hopefully much better now.
Cally I hope your colds are all getting better. Seems to be the time of year for it, all of a sudden.
Arte - happy home warming! I hope you're settling in nicely, it must be such a novelty to be so close to town again. Even though I know how hokey 'town' is. :) What's the decor like in your new house? Does it have curtains etc or do you need to bring/sew/purchase new ones? Did you get the scones sorted out? BTW I'm very impressed with your wifi "stealing"! Having no internet is like missing a limb these days. Do don't notice you have it normally but you sure feel it when its gone.
AFM I'm putting off my trip to Sydney by a day, in the end I didn't want to fork over $400 for a single night's accomm (I had assumed they would give me the conference rate, but no).