Two and a half.

Yesterday Charlie turned two and a half.

Two and a half years that he has filled with smiles and laughter, frustrations and sleep deprivation.




But I wouldn't have it any other way.

This boy has changed all our lives, his Daddy loves him to pieces, and I love to see both their faces glow as they go off to play together after Charlie insists "Play cars with me, Daddy" for about the hundrenth time that day.

I see the impact he has had on his two big brothers. Charlie brings out the caring, tender side hidden in the heart of my teenage boys. He's taught them it's ok to show tenderness, he's taught them patience and responsibility and he shows them every day how much he adores them both.

Even if he does call them "stinky willy" on occasion.

I have no idea where he picked up that particular expression from. I think he just made it up himself.

Sometime he's too smart for his own good, is that boy! We're constantly amazed by his language skills. To date he can count in 5 languages already.

Truly.

1. English
2. German
3. Chinese
4. French
5. Japanese

Not just rote learning and repeating the sequence, oh no, actual counting and adding. Even to the point where we can start counting in one language, stop part way and ask him to finish in another language. And he does.

I'm getting slightly concerned that by the time he's five he'll be smarter than me.

He's come so far in two and half years. From the helpless little baby, born with an asymetrical cranium who couldn't feed because is jaw was out of alignment, with a torticollus (crooked neck) and various other problems, to a baby who slept no more than 40 minutes at a time day or night but who learnt sign language at 7 mths old, to a rumbunctious toddler running around at hundred miles an hour who could talk at 12 mths and read at 16mths, to the little boy he is now who greets me each morning with "Good morning, darling, how are you today?" as I lift him from his bed.



I'm so thankful that he's in my life, and that I get to be his mama.

Fashionable and Fabulous Friday

It's Friday again everyone!

And you know what that means, don't you?

After work drinks? Big night out? The weekend????? Well yes, all those things (if you're lucky!) but most importantly it's .......

......... Fashionable and Fabulous Friday time.

I know you wait all week for this moment, people.

Last weekend, Del and I went to a cocktail party. I feel so sophisticated and, umm... I don't know.... something going to a cocktail party. Doesn't it just sound so glamorous? And it was in the city, no less. Such an un-suburban mother of three thing to do!

This is what I wore :


Not quite sure but I felt this outfit had a bit of an 80's vibe to it.
Maybe the pearls and cut of the top part of the dress are bit 80's Madonna-ish?


This fabulous little cocktail dress was a gift from my in-laws for my birthday last month. It fits like a dream and I've been eagerly anticipating an occasion to wear it.

And this cocktail part was it.


Look matching shoes and handbag everyone!
Red, just because I like red.


Actually, I think I may have over hyped this party. Just a wee bit, perhaps.

It was a small get together at the apartment of one of my dearest friend's, to celebrate her upcoming birthday. But there was cocktail food there. I swear.

So we celebrated her birthday, out on the balcony over looking the river. A birthday which she will be away for. She always is.

You see, every birthday she plans a holiday, and this year her birthday rolled around with me slaving away at work, looking after my monsters and keeping up with the drudgery of housework (who am I kidding? I love housework!), she was off cruising the Caribbean. Ah well, I guess someone has to do it.

Jealous? Not me. Much.



But at least I felt I looked good in my new dress.

A big heart as well......

Not only does my boy Kaiden have big muscles, he also has a big and loving heart. Especially when it comes to his littlest brother.

He is so fantastic with Charlie, it makes my heart just swell with pride to see them together. The love and trust between them is awesome to behold.





















It's enough to make me weep tears of happiness.

Perfect days.

Call me crazy.....

... but I've obviously on a whim decided that my life isn't busy and hectic enough these days.

You see, I've finally decided now is the time to get back to my studies. I was only about 3 months into a two and half year course when I fell pregnant with Charlie. I struggled and persevered to continue with study whilst dealing with morning sickness, pregnancy brain and the all out exhaustion of growing another actual human being inside me, but in the end threw up my hands and told Mother Nature that she had won. No more study.

And you know how it is. Once you stop, it is just so darn hard to get started again. Procrastination fueled by sleep deprivation sort of got in the way a bit.

But now that Charlie is getting all good and grown up, I felt guilty enough about slacking off for so long that I rang and organised to start back again.

I opened my workbook yesterday for the first time in almost 3 years, tried to ignore the noise and sweat of Kaiden's Muay Thai class going on around me, and I got down to it.

I read a whole 3 pages.

But I loved it. So that's a good thing, right?

I plan to try to study in my odd moments here and there, as at present I don't have the 1- 2 hour time slots to study that they recommend (are they for real?). My biggest challenge will be attending the seminars which run on a Saturday for the whole day. I'll have to ponder on the logistics of achieving that, what with a toddler to look after, sporting commitments to run bigger boys to and, you know, a weekend to use for doing absolutely nothing.

I suppose you're all wondering what exactly I'm studying. I'm doing a double degree in Counselling, specialising in Relationships and Children & Parenting, as I would love to one day work with children and their families.

Right now though, I just have to figure out how to work within mine.

Fashionable and Fabulous Friday - The Philosophy & Muscle Flexing Edition

Yes,yes. I know it's Sunday. *waives hand impatiently*

But I could get all philosophical about how time isn't linear, and in actual fact it's entirely possible that it's Friday and Sunday at the same time. But aha, which Friday and which Sunday you may well ask.

I could then wax lyrical about this subject of life only being due to our perception of reality, but instead I'll just cut to the incredibly narcissistic photos of my latest outfit.

Sorry, I know all you philosophy nerds will be severely disappointed.

Anyhoo, here we are, my casual Valentine's Day dinner attire. Just perfect for a quiet dinner at the local Thai.



By the way, I must apologise for the poor photo quality. Wrong camera setting for night time under fluorescent lighting type of shots it seems.



My red hot top is new, a spur of the moment purchase the other week when out shopping with my mum. I was supposed to be buying Charlie a few things but saw this as I walked by, and impulsively bought it without even trying it on.

As soon as I saw it, I had already pictured this outfit inmy mind and knew it would be great.



And assistant photographer credit goes to Kaiden, who you can all see here sporting the latest in 'lazing around the house on a hot summer's night' fashion.

Old loose fit jeans with your boxers hanging out the top and no shirt in order to show off muscles that have been a result of much hard work.

Very now, if you happen to be a 15 year old boy.



All that Thai kickboxing, Army fitness training and soccer certainly gets one fit. OK Kaiden, one, two, three - FLEX.

I'm so proud of my fit an healthy son.



It's such a shame this last picture turned out so blurry, I just love it. Unfortunately I was laughing so hard at Kaiden's antics I couldn't keep the camera still.

Gosh, I love my boy.

And my outfit.

What? Life with no TV?

A week ago a man came and took our tv away. All 97kg of it.

It was rushed away for emergency care. Prognosis was not good, it might not make it. It may even end up in tv heaven.

It's barely 4 years old.

But that is most definitely a lifetime in tv world, it seems.

And with our tv's exit, so began our journey of life with no tv.

The first few nights were well occupied getting Charlie to bed by 8pm (ish), getting some work done, then sitting down to read a book.

A book! In the evening? Fancy that!

With so much spare time I finished the book in 2 days.

I then twiddled my thumbs and wondered what to do next. It was then that I realised I was tired. Very, very tired.

Without the distraction of tv to numb my mind, and put me in a catatonic state, I realised I was tired. So I went to bed.

Only to lay awake for hours. And hours.

And hours.

Frustration would be an understatement at that point.

From what I've written you'd imagine that I was a tv junkie, right? But actually, no. I don't watch tv during the day at all, and only sit down about 9pm with a cup of tea to watch an hour or so of our favourite recorded shows. We don't watch for the sake of it, we record only tv that we actually want to watch.

But going without even that small amount of tv watching, was dearly felt. After a week I realised that there are times where I enjoy just sitting there being entertained and informed, to sit and watch, drink my tea, snack on a bit of chocolate perhaps (just a little bit) and do absolutely nothing after a hectic, long and sometimes stressful day.

So last night we caved in. We set up the laptop in the bedroom, settled in with cups of tea and a box of valentines day chocolate and watched a movie.

It was bliss. We realised what we'd been missing all week. So nice to just sit and watch and relax.

Today Del rang the tv repair place.

We'll get out tv back next week.

Then perhaps all will be right with the world again.

Home Sweet Home Nostalgia

Just for nostalgia's sake, I thought I'd put up these photos of our previous house.



I miss it.

I loved that house.



We lived in a semi rural area about 3 hours south of here, and it was so peaceful and quiet. Sometimes too peaceful and quiet. Occassionally I longed for the lure of the big smoke.

Cafe's to relax at nearby, shops with a large selection to choose from, a good number of restaurants to dine out at. That sort of thing.



After living there for 3 years we did move to the city. I don't regret it one bit, but I do miss this lovely house.

It was our home. It was comfortable, it was beautiful. It hugged you the second you walked in the door. You knew you were home. I loved being surrounded by nature too.

Apart from the venomous snakes that is.

And the scorpions that liked to come into the house.

And the deadly spiders. (I got bitten by a Red Back Spider whilst living there)

Hmmm.... maybe that part wasn't so great after all.



It's a shame I don't have photos of the interior. The inside was as great as the outside.

*sigh* Did I mention I loved it?

Saturdays

Mmmm..... a warm afternoon, Charlie still having his nap. I stretch deliciously.

What can be better than luxuriating on my comfortable bed, listening to the sounds of the afternoon world around me as I slowly awaken after a much needed rest?

I love Saturdays.

I hope your day is as wonderful.

The Secret

Anyone out there read the book 'The Secret'? Or seen the film?

I've just finished reading the book for third time, and it's one I plan to read over and over again. Till it all sinks in and stays there.

In a nutshell the big secret is........

.... the law of attraction.

Like attracts like.

Think positive and it will happen. And all that jazz. It's sounds simplistic and it is. But it's oh so powerful.

In the book it talks about people learning the secret and wanting 'proof' that it works, so they ask for something specific like finding a feather or an unusual object coming to them. Such an unusual and unlikely thing, that it confirms for them the power of The Secret.

So I thought, if it worked for them, it will work for me.

So I followed the steps.

1) Ask : state what it is you want to happen in a positive way.

2) Believe : really really believe it will happen, with no shadow of doubt. Visualise yourself receiving the thing, holding it, seeing it or hearing it. Really feel as if it's already happened, like a memory you're reliving.

3) Receive : be open to it occurring, be aware of things around you. Don't be so caught up in the treadmill of life that you don't notice.

For two whole days I did these three steps over and over, whenever I thought of it, in quiet moments and before I fell asleep at night.

Ask, believe, receive. Ask, believe, receive.

Then I let it go. I thought no more of it, I let the universe take over and make it happen.

Then having forgotten all about it, three days later I was astonished to receive this :



Well, blow me down. The Secret works.

You see, I had asked that within the week for someone to tell me I was wonderful or something I did was wonderful. Call me needy and wanting praise all you like, but when I was trying to think of what I wanted to ask for, that thought just popped into my mind, so I just went with it.

Please have someone tell me that what I'm doing is wonderful. Not just a good job or a thanks for that type of comment, but something extra and unexpected.

And this postcard from Renshi Graham (my martial arts instructor) was certainly unexpected. I had never received anything like it before, and neither had Kaiden or Corey. I was amazed. It worked. It really worked.

Then just to top things off, and complete the lesson that like attracts like and one good thing leads to another, something else wonderful happened.

I went to our local second hand bookshop specifically to buy the first book in a series I love, that I had read but didn't have a copy of. I asked if they had any books by the author but all they had were other ones I had already read. I expressed to the lady that I was a bit disappointed as I was really hoping for a particular book.

She looked at me funny for a moment, then reached behind the counter and pulled out the exact book!

The publishers rep had been to her shop just the day before and left a copy of the book I wanted. It was a 'not for sale' copy, just for the owner of the shop to read if she so wished.

But instead she gave it to me. For free.

I could hardly believe it! Perhaps these are both something that could be passed off as coincidence and luck, but I'm sure you've all heard the saying "we make our own luck".

I'm now trying to apply The Secret all the time. It will take time to be able to learn all the things to apply to my life, to have them sink in and be a natural part of who I am, but I now believe with all that I am, that I can create my life.

I urge you to read the book or watch the film.

At least watch the clip below if you have time (it's the first 20 minutes of the film). I would love for you all to give it a go and see what amazing things happen.

What's For Dinner Wednesdays

It's "What's For Dinner Wednesdays" time again. And I'm terribly unprepared.

Actually, I'm way too tired to take photos of dinner, and then sit down to write a post about it. Hell, I'm way too tired to even cook dinner tonight. Fish and chips anyone?

So instead you now get "What's for Lunch Wednesday". Hmmm...... doesn't roll off the tongue as well though, does it?

Anyway, with the heat we've had recently and will continue to have for goodness how long, (tomorrow is to be 36 degrees celsius again, oh my!) and the fact that I'm not getting enough sleep, I thought that was more than enough cause to indulge myself with my lunch choices.




Brie and crackers, some delicious seedless grapes and a big glass of ice cold water.

Oh, and a chick-lit novel to indulge in also.

To sit down to this, whilst Charlie is fast asleep in his cot for an hour or two, to read and eat uninterrupted is just sheer bliss for me. I could do this every day. Mind you, my waist line won't be so happy if I eat half a wheel of brie everyday.

But other than that - it's pure heaven.

I know, I really need to get a life.

But until such time as I have energy and enough free time to actually get a life, this will have to do. It could be worse. I could have to settle for cheddar instead.

The Mornings

Oh yes, the mornings.

Now we're back into the swing of school and having to be organised, mornings have once again become busy.

Every night I resolve to wake by 6am the next morning, in order to have a shower and cup of tea in peace before Charlie wakes up raring to go for the day. But every morning I just hit that good old snooze button one more time and try to justify it myself that the extra 20 minutes or so of extra sleep will make a HUGE amount of difference.

Plus, now that summer is at it's height Charlie thinks waking at the crack of dawn is the done thing (that's around 5 - 5.30am at the moment).

Needless to say, mornings are a rather sleepy affair for us all.

Most mornings we look like this :


I think Corey's still asleep..... hehehe.

I did not included myself in this photo due to the fact that no-one needs to be subjected to the sight of me before having my morning shower.

Once again, I will set my alarm tonight, in the hope of actually getting up early and getting a great head start on the day.

Wish me luck at actually managing to achieve that.

School Daze

Yep, we're in a daze.

Well, I am anyway. The kids are back at school after 2 months off. Back to having to be organised and on top of things again. Way too much pressure if you ask me.

Too much pressure for me, that is. Not for the boys.

I want to go back to the lazy days of summer where breakfast was whenever we felt hungry and there was nothing more pressing to do than figure out if we wanted to swim in the pool that morning or that afternoon.

Or both.

But as change is the only constant in our world it was inevitable that wonderful summer holidays would be well and truly over, and the new school year would begin.

And by the end of the first school day the boys brought home a bazillion notes for me to read and sign, and organise, complete with dates to write on the calender.

Again, way too much pressure. I want summer holidays back.

This year (finally) they are both at the same school again, as Corey has started Yr 8 and moved up to High School.


Corey : 13 and growing up too fast.


Kaiden has started Yr 11, which is his second last year of High School.


Kaiden : Now at Senior School and Mr Cool.

Of course I had to take the obligatory first day photos, especially on the occasion of Yr 8 and Yr 11 starting.

And as per usual, Charlie had to get in on the action.



He even insisted on wearing his little back back and stated he was going to high school too. He was bitterly disappointed when Kaiden and Corey jumped out the car and went into the school without him.

So we're back to having to get up and ready by a decent time, and having to pre make lunches again. Gone are the lovely days of lounging around in pajamas and playing xbox half the day.

Time to study. Time to work.

But time to have a little fun too, I suppose.

As they say "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

But I must say, life is certainly not dull around here. Not by a long shot!

Wax On, Wax Off

Today's cryptic blog post title is an attempt to lead into talking about my martial arts training via a Karate Kid reference. But somehow I don't think my mind works along the same lines as other people and therefore the post title relating to the post content connection may just come across as a bit lame.

Ah well. I can't be bothered to change it now. Lame post title it is.

You never know, I might get a whole new readership from people searching Google for things like 'best way to wax my car' or 'how to put leg wax on'.

A big shout out to all those car cleaning enthusiast and leg waxers out there. Welcome to my blog. Sorry to disappoint but I don't tend to mention car wax, leg wax, or other type of wax very often.

In fact this is probably just a one off wax mentioning time.

Ok. So back to martial arts training.

So how to start this? Oh yeah.... ouch.

And more ouch.

I have bruises and pains, tired muscles and a head chock full of techniques.

And I also now have my blue belt.

Finally, after such a long time to get there, due to unexpected time off for illness (mine and Charlie's), I finally achieved my blue belt. Things start to get serious now. I'm half way to black belt, a goal that I aim to reach in 3 years.

Now that I've moved up in the martial arts world (in my mind at least!) we are doing lots of technical stuff but also lots of fun things too.

For weapons training we're focusing on the nunchucks for the next few months. They're a great weapon to use, lots fun as long as you don't knock yourself on the head mid swing. Not so fun then.

Last night we were learning Brazilian Ju Jitsu, which I love doing. It's hard, in a very controlled way, and totally different to all the other types of martial arts I've done. Slow and controlled, relaxed but strong. Rolling around on the floor wresting with the others reminds me of being a kid - you just got to go with the flow and enjoy it.

Before my training session last night, Kaiden had his Muay Thai (Thai kick boxing) training, which I watched, only to have my Renshi (teacher) try to convince me to give it a go myself. Kick boxing isn't something I ever thought I would want to try, but the more I watched, the more I thought to myself "I could do this".

So I've decided that next week I'll do back to back sessions. An hour of Muay Thai, followed straight after by an hour of Zen Do Kai.

Call me crazy.

Alright now, everyone say together : "You're crazy!!!"

So there you have it, a rambling, nonsensical post about my dreams of black belted glory and delusional perception of physical capabilities.

Welcome to my blog.