License to Print Money!

Today we were at the shops and Ashleigh asked if I could buy her something from K-Mart.

I told her that we were on a budget and that I didn't have any spare money.

She looked at me and said "well just go to that machine and get some money out" (meaning the ATM)

I explained to her that you had to have money in the bank before you can get money out of "the machine" and that it didn't give you money for free!!

If only it was that easy!!

Oh, how sweet it is to be young and oblivious!

It's the last day of summer tomorrow - not that it's been a very good summer for us this year. It was actually quite cold today and I was in my element. I love the cold weather!! Bring it on!!

Hope you all have a great Friday!!

Nothing Much To Say

Not much to say today.

I decided not to register Lauren with the modelling agency.

I was talking to a friend who was telling me that she registered her daughter with the same agency last year and what they don't tell you is that once you've paid your $550 to register them they slap you with a $300 portfolio cost.

Of course you can't get any work without a portfolio so once you've paid the $550 you have no choice but to pay the additional $300 for the portfolio. So it's all a bit too costly for my liking.

Ashleigh's last tooth fell out yesterday. She was very excited. It's been dangling for about 2 weeks so it's about time it fell out!

This time the tooth fairy didn't forget to come. She has been a bit forgetful the last couple of times Ash has left a tooth out. Ash was devastated the last time she left a tooth out - she woke up in the morning with the tooth still sitting on her side table. I told her that the tooth fairy must have been REALLY busy and didn't get time to come to our house. Luckily she remembered it the next night! What a slack tooth fairy!!!

I will leave you with my favourite video at the moment. It makes me smile everytime I watch it.

Bye for now!

Model In The Making?

I took Lauren to Bambini Models today. They loved her. She hammed it up for them - she smiled when they asked her to smile, put her hand on her hip when they asked her to and spun around in a circle when they asked her to. She was just brilliant.

I was asked to take in a photo of her and below is the one I took in. They loved it! Apparently they don't have very many girls on their books with curly hair like this. They said it would be a huge feature for her.





Only problem is ...... it costs $550 to register her with their agency!

Hmmmmm, I told them I needed a week to think about it.

Not much else going on at the moment. I'm off to a Gift Fair tomorrow in Darling Harbour with a friend. Should be good - I'm looking forward to it.

Have a great weekend!

Happy Birthday To You...

Yesterday was Lauren's 4th Birthday.

I can't believe she's 4 already! I still think of her as "my baby". I have to stop doing this - she's never going to grow up if I keep thinking of her that way!

She really enjoyed her birthday this year. I think it's the first year she has REALLY understood it's her birthday and that she was being celebrated.

Everytime somebody wished her a Happy Birthday she would say "Happy Birthday" back to them with a huge smile on her face. She just loved it being her birthday. She sang Happy Birthday all day - "Happy Birthday dear Lauren, Happy Birthday To You". Very cute.


In other news, Aaron has recovered from his weekend illness - vomiting again!

Ashleigh is doing really well at school. I met with her teacher for the first time this week and she seems like a really good teacher - firm but nice.

What is going on with this weather? Every time I do a load of washing it decides to pour with rain. It's driving me nuts. Lauren vomited on our sheets today (must have caught Aaron's bug) and our laundry stinks of vomit but I can't wash anything because there's nowhere to hang it!

Anyway, I'm off to make Ashleigh's lunch for school tomorrow and then I'm going to bed! I need a good book to read. Anyone got any ideas????

Take care.

My Brush With Fame ...... Literally!

Not much is going on. Aaron's on the mend and I'm feeling great as I cleaned the house from top to bottom, left to right, upside down and inside out yesterday. It's the cleanest the house has been in months!

Yesterday I was up at the local pharmacy when who should happen to brush my shoulder as she walked past me? The one and only Bec Cartright (not sure of the spelling - the chic who married Lleyton Hewitt).

So there you go, that's the most exciting thing that's happened to me this week.

I'm in the process of organising Lauren's Birthday on Monday. Still not sure what to buy her. She has everything she could possibly need. She'd be happy with a packet of pegs to be honest. Such an easy kid to please!

Valentine's Day tomorrow - I hope Aaron's feeling better by then, I might get pizza delivered! he, he, ha, ha.

Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day tomorrow.

Don't Ask

So today's our 8th wedding anniversary and well, let's just say it's been "memorable".

Aaron came home from work early today as sick as a dog. He's got a really bad case of tonsillitis so we had to cancel our dinner plans and get take away instead. Story of my life! But that's OK - this way I didn't have to get all done up - I could lie around in my pjs and enjoy myself while Aaron slept.

Here's a funny story ....

One night last week after I had just put Ashleigh down to sleep she came running out to the kitchen.

Crying she said "Mum, I just accidentally swallowed a marble." "Am I going to die now?"

As she caught me at a bad time - the end of the night when I'm the most tired I replied:

"Yes, Ashleigh. Now go and say goodbye to Daddy."

Aaron looked at me mortified. He couldn't believe I had just said that and in hindsight neither can I. I'm such a bad mother.

Anyway, Ashleigh finally excreted the marble on the weekend with a big plop in the toilet. I've never seen her so happy in all her life!

Oh, by the way, we did explain to her that she wasn't going to die. I'm not that bad a mother.

I'm off to bed now. It's been a long day.

Meet Fireball!

This is Fireball. Ashleigh's new siamese fighter fish. She named him herself - I was actually quite surprised.

She went for something completely different to her last fish Ben. I think I might move it away from Furby though - Furby looks just about ready to eat it!! I don't want it to die of a heart attack!!

So my weekend ended up being horrible! After all that build up.

Friday night - dinner with friends - what a nightmare. Five minutes after arriving at the restaurant I got a massive headache and a wave of nausea just hit me. I told our friends that I had to go and lie down in the car. About 10 minutes later Aaron came out to the car and said we're going to get take away and leave so I can go home to bed.

As soon as we got home I was so ill.

I was hugging the porcelein all night. I swear I have never felt so sick in all my life! I don't know what it was but I was so sick.

At about 10.30pm I asked Aaron to call a friend of ours who had some 'miracle chinese pills'. She told me about them once a few months ago but never thought anything more of it until I actually got sick!

Aaron drove over and got them straight away (lucky they were home). As soon as he got home I took them. I nearly threw them up as I was taking them but I was sick enough to try anything. They smelt disgusting and tasted just as bad but boy did they work a treat! Within an hour I felt like normal again as if nothing had ever happened.

So for those of you out there looking for amazing nausea pills (even kids can take them) they're called:

Po Chai Pills.

The box is all in Chinese but they are incredible!! Everyone should have a box of these in their cupboards just in case!



On a happier note .....

Tomorrow's our 8 year wedding anniversary! Aaron's planned something special for us - I just hope I don't get sick this time!

I'm really looking forward to going out and spending time together for a change. It doesn't happen as often as I'd like but that's the joy of having kids!

Anyway, have a good night peeps. Sweet dreams and I wish you all a very happy Tuesday!

More Photos

T.G.I.F!!

I'm really looking forward to this weekend.

Out to dinner with friends tonight - Thai my favourite!

Tomorrow a friend from Melbourne is up and I'm spending the day with her. I haven't seen her in over a year!

And a relaxing day on Sunday - church in the morning and the rest of the day time to relax!

I'd love to paint the girl's bedrooms but I don't think I'm ready for that kind of commitment just yet. I need to build up to doing that!

The weather has been horrible lately! We had the BIGGEST bolt of lightning and clap of thunder yesterday - I swear I felt it go right through me. Very scary!! These storms have been so ferocious - scary but exciting at the same time!

We had better weather in New Zealand. Speaking of NZ, here are some more photos!



The girls chasing "Chook" Poppy and Nanny's pet chicken!



Going out on the boat at "The Batch". So much fun!!


Lauren hugging dog's again - this one is Cujoe - grandma's other dog.



I hope you all have a great weekend! I plan to!

R.I.P Ben

We had a bit of a tragedy today.

Ashleigh's pet siamese fighter fish "Ben" died today - at the hands of her younger sister Lauren.

This fish has suffered a great deal in his short lifetime. He was knocked off the dressing table and tossed around the floor by Thomas (our cat). He survived us going away for 2 weeks to New Zealand (with Uncle Nay Nay watching over him of course) but today he gave up the ghost ..... and for good reason!

I had fallen asleep on the lounge this afternoon as we had a bad night's sleep last night due to Lauren waking up 3 times and Lauren came up to me and said "Mum, Mum look fishy".

I smiled at her and said "yes, good" and closed my eyes again not realising what she had actually said to me. Then after about 3 seconds of processing what she had said I jumped up off the lounge and ran over to her - sure enough she was holding Ben in her hands with a HUGE smile on her face, so proud of what she had done. She got bored and decided to go fishing!

I grabbed the fish and ran it back to Ashleigh's fish bowl. He started breathing again but very slowly. There was a second I actually thought he might survive the ordeal but when we got home from picking up Ashleigh at school she noticed he was dead.

Oh, the tears. And then after finding out what had happened, oh, the anger. She screamed at Lauren for "killing" her fish.

After about an hour of grieving and flushing him down the toilet Ashleigh was excited about the prospect of buying a new fish! How easily things can be replaced at this age!

So we're off to the pet shop tomorrow to choose another fish. Fun, fun.

I'll leave you with a few more photos from NZ.


The girls at grandma's house.



The girls with grandma(Aaron's grandmother on his Dad's side)

This year Aaron celebrated his 34th Birthday in NZ - the first time in about 11 years!

Oh No - I'm Officially Old!!!!!

Yep, like I've been saying the last couple of months I'm really starting to see the signs of old age!!

First it was the crusty heels on my feet.

Then it was the food getting stuck in between my teeth after almost every meal.

Then I started noticing it's getting harder and harder to lose weight - no matter what I do it has been impossible to lose weight!

Now, the final straw!!! I found my VERY FIRST grey hair this morning!! AAAAAAAHHHHH!

There it was, right smack bang in the middle of my forehead - screaming out "LOOK AT ME!"

OMGosh!! I NEVER thought I'd be plucking grey hairs out of my head at age 32!!

It's a sad state of affairs my friends!

Lucky for me, I still feel the same but my body's rebelling - wanting to show the world that I've hit the big 3 0!!

What's gonna happen when I hit 40!!! I dread to think!

Oh well my friends I will leave you with a couple of pictures of our trip to NZ whilst I go and inspect my head for more scary grey things!



Ash enjoying an ice cream - they are the best in NZ!



More beautiful scenery - driving from Waihi (Aaron's Mum's farm) to Kati Kati (A's Dad's Farm). Such a beautiful drive. We did this drive quite a few times - you NEVER get sick of it!




Ashleigh found someone she could connect with.

Up, Up and Away!

Our trip to New Zealand was fantastic! We had such a great time.

It was Lauren's first time on a plane and it had been so long since Ashleigh had been on a plane that she was just as excited.

Our day started very early with a 5.30am wake up!



Lauren made a new friend while we were there - Muzza the dog! She just adored her!




I just love the scenery in New Zealand. Everything is so green - gentle rolling hills and water everywhere - you're never far from a stream or a river or the ocean in New Zealand - it's very tranquil.

I wish you could have spent some time looking around NZ Gloria - it's soooo pretty!

Ashleigh and I at Whangamata (pronounced Fongamatah)

The view from "The Batch" in Opoutere. What a great holiday house! We did lots of fishing, walking, swimming and rides on the boat.

Anyway, I've got to go and do a mammoth grocery shop now so I'll blog more later!