Day Ten of Fifteen

Well, as you've all no doubt heard by now, a terrible terrible tragedy has occurred in Paris where 128 people have been killed and 180 injured after gunmen simultaneously attacked six different sites throughout the city.

My daughter is safe and well and in lock down in her hotel room, where she has been since arriving due to illness .. thank goodness for aeroplanes laden with hundreds of people carrying germs, is all I can say! Who knows where she might have been when the shootings took place, if she was well enough to be out and about last night!

There are no words to describe the level of fear and adrenalin that frequently courses through my veins every time I consider what could have happened and what could still happen to my child while she is supposed to be enjoying her dream holiday.

Thank goodness I've had Chicklet to keep me occupied for the day, although I've been 'short' with her a couple of times while I tried to deal with my inner stress and her outer stress at the same time!

It doesn't matter how old your kids are, you still worry about them just as much, as adults, as when they were defenceless babes.

My heart ached when I knew that Bubbles was huddled on the floor in her bedroom riding out a massive cyclone-like storm that hit Sydney recently that seemed to go on for hours.

I felt like I wanted to throw up when Number One Son was beaten by his neighbour's X-husband not long ago and even sicker knowing that the DVO that was taken out, was just a piece of paper that the violent man could ignore if he chose.

Now, I'm trying desperately to ignore the voices in my head that are continually describing worst case scenarios in Paris and my imagination that keeps playing my own hellish movie productions that never end well.

Thank you to Vegan Chickie, who knows of my fears and is fulfilling my request by texting me every hour to tell me she is ok.

Today has not been the best day for me, but only due to the stress .. any other time, today would have been a breeze.

After our phone call with Vegan Chickie, the Bare-chested Chef dropped us at Civic at about 9.40am on his way to work. My plan was for coffee and a short play in the children's area, before grabbing some groceries and heading home by about 10.30am.

The Barista informed me that the Minions were appearing in the centre this morning and that there were huge numbers of children already accumulated in the play area and around the stage which was set up close to the play area.

Great! Just what Chicklet and I needed, an unplanned event for which we have not been able to prepare in advance. Her level of the 'spectrum' requires planning for these things!

So we head to the play area anyway, buying a Minion show bag on the way for $25 which contained a plastic cup, a plush toy minion, a pack of minion playing cards, a minion cap and a children's beach towel with life sized minion on it. Pretty good value I thought.

Surprisingly, I found a free table to sit at while Chicklet joined the gazillion other kids in the play area. By now, it was about 9.50am and I was assuming, by the size of the crowd, that the show would begin at 10am.

So I sat and I waited, watching Chicklet as she hovered between me and the play area and hoping that this would be over soon .. I hate crowds too .. especially crowds of unruly children!

By 10.40am there is still no sign of Minions, there is a young couple on stage singing Christmas carols, but they are not the slightest bit interested in the children because they seemed to be more interested in how they looked and sounded, taking selfies and quite obviously full of themselves.

Chicklet was now complaining that no kids wanted to play with her, so between us, we decided to leave the area and head to BIG W to find a dinosaur to take home.

After a long decision process and after I declined her request for the $70 T-Rex that moved and roared, we chose a noisy pteranodon with moving wings and glowing orange eyes. We then selected a couple of dvds .. Lady and the Tramp (her selection) and Bolt (my selection) .. before she excitedly requested a balloon.

BIG W at Civic has a whole party section in one corner with a huge selection of balloons which they blow up with helium at a charge of $2 extra. We selected the only dinosaur balloon which was foil and had 'happy birthday' on it. They tied a long piece of string to it and carefully attached it around her wrist and we departed BIG W with the biggest happiest smile ever!

The weather was looking ominous, so we decided to catch a taxi instead of the bus. I called the number and was told that they would be 'right there'.

We waited and we waited.

More than twenty minutes later, Chicklet decided that we should play 'catch the balloon'. It was a great idea in theory, except on the third 'catch', the string detached itself from the balloon and there it floated towards the sky with the ear piercing shriek of Chicklet trailing behind it.

Only Vegan Chickie will relate to the absolute horror that Chicklet was experiencing as she watched the balloon disappear, and as her screaming reached a crescendo, she suddenly turned and began to run - fast - in no particular direction!

MY scream at that moment, was louder than HER scream and it stopped her in her tracks and immediately silenced her, at which point, I grabbed her hand before she could take another step.

So now I had a decision to make .. do I appease Chicklet and take her inside to get another balloon, thereby, more than likely missing our taxi OR do I try to convince her that she doesn't need the balloon,  attempt to get her home thereby, more than likely, tempting a meltdown IN the taxi???

I chose the first option.

We power walked back into BIG W where I was quite rude to the woman behind the counter explaining what had happened. She suggested that they tie the balloon tighter to Chicklet, but I told her that 'as you can see, the string is still attached to Chicklet's wrist! It was the string that you tied to the balloon itself that let go! Thanks to you, I've just experienced my granddaughter's autistic meltdown AND I've also missed my taxi!!'

She was very apologetic and got me another balloon, which she blew up and tied the string extra tight. I attempted to pay for it, but she looked at me with kind eyes and said 'No, just take this one'.

*sigh*

Yes, I overreacted and shouldn't have given her such a hard time, but I my inner stress just took over!

I wanted to say "I'm so sorry, but my daughter is in PARIS!!!!"

We returned to the taxi rank and phoned for the taxi again - I explained what had happened and they sent another taxi, which arrived almost immediately.

We arrived home at about 1.30pm, just ahead of the storms that have been rolling in and over us all afternoon.

We had some quiet time for about 30 minutes.

We played dinosaur games with the new pteranodon.

We made runny chocolate brownies together.

We coloured in the personalised Octonaut pictures.

We watched Lady and the Tramp.

We had GF 'spaghetti with nothing on it' for dinner. Actually mine had chicken, bok choy and creamy lime & cracked pepper avocado through it. Delicious!

We had a quick bath and then two stories. We discussed our best and worst parts of the day and little miss chatterbox didn't want to shut up, until I said "No more talking. It's time to sleep."

I swear she was asleep 30 seconds later!

I think it's time for me to do the same. It's been a mentally and emotionally exhausting day.

Stay safe my child xo

Nite all.





  

Day Nine of Fifteen

Well, Vegan Chickie arrived in Paris today!

Her room with a view ...

... and this was in New York when she attended the opening night of The Colour Purple Musical on broadway ...

Just a little bit exciting!

Today was another good day with my little Chicklet.

The Bare-chested Chef didn't start work til 5pm today, so we all drove to Civic for some play time in the kids area. Chicklet played with three different kids. As one would leave, another would arrive and she would attach herself to them.

After about an hour, Dadu decided it was a good time to leave because she was beginning to get annoyed with the babies .. and we ALL know how she feels about those damned babies!! So they departed and left me to my own devices.

I enjoyed my morning coffee and then headed for the nail salon where I was able to sit down immediately for an average pedicure.

Once the old nail polish was removed, I discovered that my right big toe nail had a bruise under it and part of the nail itself was broken. I have no idea how that happened! I asked for clear polish on my toes and she painted one layer only which is very dull and barely noticeable. The usual foot and calf massage left a lot to be desired and I departed $40 poorer and feeling quite disappointed, although my feet at least look more presentable now.

Afterwards I spent a leisurely couple of hours browsing, buying and picking up some nice items to include in BGWLBH's care package which I sent in the mail today.

I bought the ingredients to make some runny chocolate brownies, which I hope Chicklet will enjoy.

I sat down in my favourite cafe at the centre for some lunch and watched a gorgeous young couple in their twenties ogle each other with love in their eyes. The young man couldn't take the smile off his face or his eyes off her face and I could literally feel the positive energy that was swirling all around them.

Neither of them was wearing a ring, so I guessed that this was a date very early in their relationship, just by the way they were hesitant to touch each other but obviously wanting to and by the way they ordered their meals .. they weren't completely comfortable with each other yet. There was definitely a connection there and they very much enjoyed the 45 minutes spent together in the cafe.

After I mailed BGWLBH's package, I called my personal taxi service at about 1.30pm and Dadu and Chicklet soon arrived to take me home. There is nothing nicer than seeing that excited smile on Chicklet's face when she recognises me as they pull up in the car.

"Hullo Chicklet! How are you?"

"GREAT!" is how she always responds to that question.

She was excited to learn that I'd bought her a surprise and we couldn't wait to get home to see what it was. A little pack with four dinosaur toys, a book and a stage that has a volcano and palm trees as the backdrop and a river and grass as the foreground to stand on, as well as an upper level stage for the dinosaurs to stand or sleep on.

We spent the next hour playing that game. She decided, for some strange reason, that the lizard we bought from Underwater World was going to be a doctor and the four dinosaurs were going to visit and be healed.

The Apotasaurus came to the doctor because he couldn't jump and he might want to jump to the sun one day .. so the doctor told him to go home and practise and that he would get better and better at jumping the more he practised.

The Stegosaurus had a problem with his spinal plates blowing in the wind. The doctor told him to go home and exercise until the muscles got strong enough to hold the plates firm in the wind.

The triceratops couldn't roll because his horns got in the way. The doctor asked why he wanted to roll? Because it looked like fun! The doctor advised finding something else that was fun to do and not so difficult for a triceratops to do.

The T-Rex had skin off his knee .. because Chicklet kept bending the legs backwards and forwards (I'm surprised the legs hadn't fallen off!) so the doctor advised T-Rex to go home and rest and to try not bending the knee for a few days, til it healed.

Suddenly the big laughing penguin was brought into the story to be another doctor and so the game went on!

Soon it was time to play under the snake sprinkler and we chased each other around the house with the watering can getting drenched .. perfect weather for getting drenched! Forty minutes later it was bath time, but she got bored in the bath after about ten minutes, which is unusual!

We dried off and put some clean clothes on, grabbed a big bowl of grapes and lay on my bed watching 'Ribbit' the movie. I paused it about an hour in, so that I could cook my dinner. Chicklet had spent the afternoon eating bananas, grapes, brown crackers with peanut butter and nuts, so she wasn't interested in dinner, but finished off the grapes instead.

We ate in bed and watched the end of the movie. Twenty minutes on the Minion game and it was time for bed. We read two stories, discussed our best and worst parts of the day and five minutes later she fell asleep holding my hand.

An hour of domestic duties followed .. it's amazing how much mess we can make in one day! Got a load of washing done and then collapsed on my bed to kick back and relax.

It was a good day. For the time I was at home with Chicklet, I didn't feel like there were any gluten after affects today and she was calm and happy.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring? Definitely cooking some runny brownies!

Nite all.

Day Eight of Fifteen

A deliberately quiet day today.

Still suffering the after affects of the gluten yesterday, and although there were no meltdowns, she was obviously struggling.

She see-sawed between her Dadu and I all day.

She would watch part of a movie with me in my bedroom, pause it and disappear into the other part of the house with Dadu for an hour or two, then come bursting back into my room wanting to play the Minion game, then she'd run out and ask Dadu to watch the Minion movie with her, then back with me to put stickers under my bed or play the doggy game with all her dog animals, then back out to make another finger puppet with Dadu.

The only time she almost lost it was when she ran into the corner of my wardrobe and smacked her forehead. She really yelled long and hard and demanded that Dadu put a cuddle heart on the wall so that Mama could cuddle her when she got home. She absolutely refused to be cuddled by either of us because she only wanted a Mama cuddle!!

Ten minutes later, she was snuggled under my arm on the bed watching the Ribbit dvd and munching on a punnet of blueberries.

So our quiet day at home had the desired affect - less stress on her (and us for that matter!) and a smooth transition into day three - Vegan Chickie advised me this morning that a glutenous error takes three days from which to recover.

I am going to push my luck slightly tomorrow and take her to Civic and the kids play area in the morning and then catch the bus home. Of course, this depends on how she wakes up in the morning .. I'll make a judgement call then.

The Bare-chested Chef really put in a big effort and served me a restaurant style dinner tonight, which he'd worked on all day. Slow braised beef cheeks done in a red wine sauce with zucchini, onion, purple and yellow baby carrots, fresh beetroot and spinach.

It was 'to die for' and was exactly the type of meal that I would return to a restaurant to order on a regular basis. Absolutely melt in your mouth and so full of flavour, I'm drooling just writing about it!!

That's my day in a nutshell!

For having done not very much at all (should I say, having spent almost the entire day sitting or lying on my bed), I'm feeling decidedly tired this evening, so I think an early night is on the cards.

Think of me Friday night at the club, girls :)

Nite all.

Day Seven of Fifteen

Not such a good day today.

It started badly when Chicklet became upset that I had cleaned her play room. Apparently, she had arranged some special toys in a special way as a surprise for Mama and now her floor was completely bare, much to her dismay and distress!

She discovered this just as Mama phoned from New York, so she had tears rolling down her cheeks telling us about Mama's special surprise being ruined, with Mama on the phone also in tears because she couldn't bare to hear her bubba so upset and not be able to comfort her.

*sigh*

By the end of the phone call, Chicklet was laughing and having a competition with Mama about who loved whom the best.

I promised to help her put everything back the way she had it, but she couldn't remember how it was. She told me that her Octonauts were in a special box, but I know that her Octonauts were scattered all over the floor .. they were probably the only toys that I took any notice of while I was cleaning!

So it was a bad start to a bad day.

We tried to play 'I Spy' in the car while we were on our way to Underwater World, but she got very frustrated when we couldn't guess her 'H' word. Her clue was 'there is one in every car'. Eventually, we discovered that her word was 'people' .. therefore understandable that we didn't get it!

Nonetheless, she was not happy with us.

At this point I got my Intune out and rubbed a drop on her jeans. She was calm for the remainder of the trip and was pretty good throughout the day, sometimes a little manic and it was difficult to get her attention at times because she was focussed on other kids, but nothing that we couldn't handle. She was easily distracted with bargaining and compromising.

We stopped for a break at the kiosk .. first buying a lizard toy from the gift store .. and then Dadu bought her a chocolate paddlepop. At the time, I wondered about the ingredients, but decided that after all this time, Dadu would know what was gluten free and what wasn't, but having looked it up this afternoon, Paddle Pops contain gluten AND they are obviously full of dairy, which we are supposed to be avoiding.

This appears to be the trigger that took us over the edge this afternoon.

After a great day at Underwater World and a quiet trip home in the car, Dadu was exhausted and needed a nap, or at least some quiet time, so Chicklet went to her play room with a plate of egg and salad (which didn't get touched) and I headed to my room and closed the door.

I figured that the two of them would have their quiet time and then spend the afternoon together doing activities and playing under the snake sprinkler.

I had my fan on high, which creates a kind of white noise .. almost impossible to even hear a soft knock on my door, let alone anything that's happening in the house, but there was definitely meltdown screaming happening and her name being uttered sternly many times.

She knocked on my door about 90 minutes after I'd closed it and requested that I play the Minion game and then demanded that we do an 'acivity'. By this time, it was already after 5pm and I attempted to dissuade her, but she was insistent, so even though she wanted to do THREE activities, I convinced her that one was all we had time for before dinner and bath!

As Murphy's Law would have it, she chose the most difficult of all the activities in her drawer! Cardboard finger puppets that required much bending of cardboard and matching of numbers and glueing that was difficult to manage on tiny surfaces!

It took Dadu and I at least 30 minutes to put together one finger puppet each while little madam floated around the table asking impossible questions and expecting instant results.

She decided that she was definitely not hungry for dinner tonight and then there was a mini argument over bathing or showering .. it's important to pick your battles, so Chicklet and I won that one deciding on a bath.

The lessons we have learned today:

• Do not clean the play room without Chicklet's permission and/or supervision.
• Do not feed gluten and dairy laden Paddle Pops to Chicklet .. it's the equivalent of feeding a Gremlin after midnight.

Difficult, but valuable lessons learned.

It is now the halfway point of my babysitting duties and to put Vegan Chickie's mind at rest (and as I explained to the Bare-chested Chef tonight), I am loving my time with Chicklet. Not once have I pleaded with the Gods above to make the time go faster because every day has been a joy for me. She has been an angel (until today's little hiccup) and she has filled my heart with love every single day and what's more, I have been impressed with my stamina!

I hope that we have built some wonderful memories together and I will look forward to Vegan Chickie's future holidays when I will get to spend more time with my gorgeous girl (until she becomes a teenager and then maybe not so much!). Maybe Mama and Dadu can go on holidays *together* while Chicklet and I have fun!

On saying that, I am also missing Adoring Husband and look forward to seeing him in just over a week .. I will need to undo all the damage that he has done with his 'less than vigilant' eating habits while I've been gone!

Anyway, I'm feeling the love for you all!

Nite all.

  

Day Six of Fifteen

I can't believe it's 10.30pm already!

Another successful day for Chicklet and I.

When she came into my room at 7.30 this morning, she seemed a bit manic and verging on losing control, so while she was in my room and before I jumped in the shower I put a drop of Intune on the back and front of her neck.

It took about twenty minutes before she seemed completely settled again .. I love this stuff!!

On his way to work this morning, the Bare-chested Chef dropped Chicklet and I off at the local bakery where I bought my coffee and then we walked down to the new kid's playground in the estate. We had it all to ourselves so we played there for almost 90 minutes.

It's not a well planned playground. A large circle of sand framed with a concrete strip and covered with a large shade cloth sail. There's a climbing frame with a slide at one end, a couple of strange swing seats that are about 3 inches from the ground, another plastic warped table-like contraption that can be climbed on, three strange mushroom looking things that are not even angled well enough to sit upon and I think that's it.

There is an electric barbecue and a picnic table nearby, but no shade or cover for either of them and then over to the side there is a bench seat, also out in the open with no shade. The park is also right beside bushland which is on the edge of a swamp - which I consider could be quite dangerous with young children. Parents will need to be very diligent.

On saying that Chicklet kept herself occupied for almost 90 minutes by herself, so I guess it can't be all bad!

We walked a different way home from the park and it was an easy walk.

First on the agenda when we arrived home was to sit down and play the Minion game on the Ipad until we were rested enough to get into some 'activities'.

I drew a farm and used the farm animal stickers to create a farm ...

... then Chicklet copied me ...

... this is her farm ute with the dogs inside ...

... and finally, one of her dinosaur worlds with mountains and caves (notice a lot of her dinosaurs are wearing necklaces?) ...

Today, we also drew a garden and filled it with stickers of bugs, grasshoppers, bees, wasps, dragonflies, ladybugs, caterpillars, butterflies and other creepy crawlies.  This photo is of Poppy Barry being chased up the tree by spiders and bugs (you can only see his skinny legs and feet) ...

Lunch was followed by almost an hour of quiet time while Chicklet watched some Wile E Coyote in her play room and I lay on my bed listening to the quiet .. a rare thing when little miss chatterbox is around!

The snake sprinkler was now in the shade, as the sun passed over the roof, so we went outside to chase each other with the watering can which we filled up with the water coming from the snake's mouth.

This time I joined in and Chicklet was crazy with happiness as we took turns drenching each other. Sometimes she was laughing so hard that she couldn't stand up and barely had the strength to hold the full watering can! Such fun!

Bath time followed, to wash all the grass and mud off .. I cleaned the bathroom and her play room while Chicklet bathed and Dadu came home for his work break around that time, so he dressed her before he returned to work.

More time on the Minion game, then dinner of boiled egg, capsicum, cucumber and carrot.

Two books for bedtime and discussions about the day. Thank goodness, I wasn't the cause of her 'worst' part of the day today! The worst part for today was walking home from the park, which she claims was 'too far!'

Today was a perfect Spring day, not too hot and with a nice breeze blowing for most of the day.

Tomorrow we are aiming for Underwater World, which should be fun. The Bare-chested Chef has two days off work .. his weekend is mid-week.

I've located a Holistic Dentist in Maroochydore and I missed a call from them this afternoon, so I'm hoping to go visit them before I head home next week. This is a female dentist with 20 years experience and her website talks about 'oil pulling' with coconut oil, colloidal silver for keeping gums clean and healthy and safe removal of amalgam filling with the support of vitamin C and a high protein diet during the process to help the body rid itself of the toxins without compromising the immune system. She has already won me over.

It's almost midnight, so I'd best get some sleep with another big day planned for tomorrow!

Nite all.   

Day Five of Fifteen

Really? Day five already?! How time flies!

I'm feeling a little brain dead tonight.

With the storms and heavy rain last night, I welcomed an addition to my bed at 1.30am when Chicklet came into my room complaining about how loud the rain was and that she was scared. She climbed under the blankets and I told her that as soon as the rain stopped, she could go back to her own bed.

Well, we both fell asleep and I was woken at 4.30am by a little voice saying "Bozzy Wozzy, I fell out of the bed!"

Without even looking, because she sounded fine, I said "Well, hop up and go climb into your own bed. The storm has gone now."

She replied with "Bozzy Wozzy, I need your help!"

I rolled over and looked to see her little head, shoulders and arms were on the ground and she had the palms of her hands on the ground, holding her head and shoulders up, while her legs and feet were entwined in the sheet on the bed and she couldn't move at all!!

It was hilarious! Even more hilarious, was me attempting to untangle her while preventing her from landing hard on her head or face!

I finally managed to unravel her and had her standing upright when I suggested that she now climb into her own bed, so she left my room.

Apparently, she went to Dadu's room and woke him up instead.

He was looking very much the worse for wear this morning because he struggled to fall asleep anyway, and then had his sleep broken by Chicklet.

Anyway, we were still able to get to swimming lessons on time this morning (in the pouring rain) and I watched Chicklet start the lesson very focussed and bubbly and happy and positive, being cheeky with the teacher and doing everything as instructed.

On our way to swimming lessons and talking to Mama on the phone...

By the end of the 30 minute lesson, she was totally unfocussed, not hearing anything that the teacher said and completely scatter brained! Luckily the lesson only went for 30 minutes. She was good for about 23.5 of them.

She really loved it in the water and was reluctant to climb out of the pool at the end of the lesson. She was diving under the water and dog paddling across the pool, kicking with a paddle board both on her belly and on her back and she dived down to the bottom to pick up the pink fish from the floor of the pool. All very impressive.

The teacher did so well with the four young kids in the class. There was Chicklet and another little girl around the same age, who was sobbing before she even got in the water. She hated every second of the lesson and didn't want to attempt any of the instructions that she was given but was making a half hearted effort through her never ending tears. I felt sorry for her. The instructor was firm but kind, so hopefully it will all be worth it in the end.

There were two other children, who were probably between three and four years of age. A boy and a girl, both of whom were very confident in the water and the teacher struggled to hold them back because they wanted to do 'everything' five minutes ago!

After the lesson, we sloshed our way through the heavy rain to the car and I was dropped off at Civic for the morning. I had a leisurely breakfast of bacon and egg and avocado and spinach at the cafe and an extra large latte then strolled through the shopping centre browsing in all of the stores.

I bought clothes and jewellery, stickers and textas for Chicklet, some coconut flour and almond meal from the health shop, got a couple of Christmas gifts to put away and then did some grocery shopping .. which was a stupid move because I wanted to have a pedicure, but by the time I finished, I had too many bags to take into the salon *forehead slap*.

Never mind, I can do that on Wednesday or Thursday when the Bare-chested Chef has his next days off.

He came to pick me and my load of shopping bags up at around 1.30pm and I got to spend the afternoon doing activities with my little Chicklet.

We created a farm with some farm animal stickers, including a barn with chickens looking out of the top windows and a farm ute with dogs.

We used some dinosaur ink stamps on paper and then drew mountains and caves and trees to create a dinosaur world.

We traced around the cardboard dinosaurs that we made a couple of days ago, coloured them in and drew jewellery on them, a shiny red bow tie AND a golden crown on their heads.

We also made some pteranodons and coloured them in too.

We played the Minion game on the Ipad again, had rice and papadums for dinner, a bubble bath and then Dadu read a LOT of bedtime books before Chicklet succumbed to the sandman.

No dinner for me tonight - just a bunch of grapes and a big bottle of water. My hearty breakfast kept me satisfied all day long!

Vegan Chickie has checked a few more items from her OS bucket list today. She visited Central Park, walked the High Line, ate at Chinatown and crossed the Brooklyn Bridge.

Central Park ...

It's almost 9.30pm and I think I might turn off the light and attempt a solid night's sleep.

Nite all.

Day Four of Fifteen

A truly memorable start to my day!

4.30am and we were almost thrown from our beds by the most horrendously loud explosion of lightning striking somewhere very close by. I swear that it hit the road outside my bedroom window .. which was open at the time! It hurt my ears and scared the bejeezus outta me!!

It took Chicklet all of five seconds to run into my room and land on my bed! "I'm scared of the loud storm Bozzy Wozzy!"

"It's ok." I replied "come here and I will give you a cuddle."

"No!" was her response "Mama will cuddle me when she comes home. Go put a heart on the cuddle heart for me!"

So up I get in search of heart stickers in the dark!

I told her that if she was going to stay in my bed, she had to sleep and not talk to me. She then spent the next three hours climbing in and out of bed to check the clock next to her own bed. She has a clock that shows a moon face during the night and you can set it to show a sun face at a specific time in the morning. Chicklet's clock is set for 7.30am, so she knows that she can't come out of her bedroom until the sunny face shows on her clock at 7.30am.

Needless to say, I did not get much sleep in those three hours. Surprisingly, it really didn't affect my day too badly. I didn't feel tired and I was still able to keep up with her. I admit that I was grateful for the hour respite that I got when the Bare-chested Chef arrived home for his break mid afternoon, but I'm pretty impressed with my stamina so far!

Mama phoned this morning from inside a Tesla car .. this is Mama and her friend 'King of the World'.

I call him that because he has created a successful life in which the world is at his feet. He wants for nothing, he has many friends and family who adore him and on top of that he is a good, kind and generous human being.

They were driving on the highway to New Jersey when she phoned and excitedly explained how the car drove itself. King of the World didn't have to steer the car, nor use his feet on the pedals. She was in awe and maybe just a little bit scared!

Vegan Chickie is obviously having a great time and I hope that she is relaxed knowing that all is well on the home front.

You may be surprised to learn that we did NOT watch 'Chicken Little' today .. even though I offered twice!

Chicklet's new obsession is the Minion game on my Ipad .. not playing it herself .. but watching me play it. I probably played it for three hours altogether today.

We had plenty of activities going today. We created dinosaur world. We had dinosaurs climbing the Great Pyramids, Big Ben, the Taj Mahal, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Parthenon, Uluru, Sydney Opera House, The White House and many other world landmarks.

We created pictures out of Toy Story stickers, Brave stickers, Monsters Inc stickers, Cars stickers, The Incredibles stickers.

We drew pictures to put the stickers into and then we put stickers down and drew pictures around them.

We ate a healthy lunch of raw vegetables and then for dinner, more boiled eggs and vegetables. She asked if she ate seven eggs, would she have to have vegetables as well? I told her that even if she ate twenty eggs, she would still have to eat 'some' vegetables.

This afternoon we hooked up the snake sprinkler, but this time I sat in the outdoor area and stayed dry .. Dadu arrived home for his break during this activity, so I left them outside and hibernated in my bedroom for a little while.

Tonight, in bed, while we discussed the best and worst things about the day, she said that the sprinkler snake was the best AND the worst thing about her day, because she loves to play in the water, but I didn't join in and let her drench me like I did for the last two days and that made her sad .. she didn't like playing by herself.

Once again, I feel like a meanie :(

We had about 15 minutes today where we did nothing and she kept asking me "What can we do that's fun?" I told her that sometimes it's ok to do absolutely nothing and that we didn't have to do fun things all the time. She advised me that she NEVER does just 'nothing'! EVER!

I've been told.

Tomorrow is Chicklet's day for swimming lessons and she asked if I would come and watch. I'm excited to see her learning to swim!

The weather is stormy again tonight but I'm hoping the worst of it is over. We've had some good rain and a bit of lightning and thunder, but by the look of the BOM site, we will only get rain for the rest of the night. Fingers crossed.

Day four .. another success *happy dance*

Nite all.

Day Three of Fifteen

So ... I've been using an essential oil called 'Intune'. It's used to enhance focus and support healthy thought processes. I brought it with me to the Sunny Coast, along with lavender for sleeping and oregano as an antibiotic.

For the first few days here, I put a drop of Intune on the inside hem of my top, hoping it would help calm both Vegan Chickie and Chicklet. The pre-holiday stress was obvious and of course, understandable. I also put a drop on the pillow on the side of the bed that Chicklet sits when we watch movies.

I felt like it made a difference.

Yesterday when Chicklet started the day in such a manic state, I put a drop of it on the back of her neck and also a drop on the Bare-chested Chef's neck. Both of them asked me what it was, so I explained it to them.

I felt like it made a difference.

Today, I went to put some on Chicklet's neck and she yelled at me "NO, I'm already calm!!' That made me laugh, so I put the drop onto my finger saying "Ok, I'll put it on myself then!" and tickled her neck.

I feel like it made a difference.

I got my usual 7.30 wake up this morning, as Chicklet burst through my bedroom door with a big smile on her face. Usually, I've been awake for at least 30 minutes before she comes in, but this morning, I was still sound asleep and the abrupt start to my wakefulness was not how I wanted to start my day.

My brain takes at least 20 minutes to reach high gear in the mornings, so having a 4 year old hammering me with questions before it's had a chance to warm up, is a mighty struggle.

In a fit of excitement, and as my brain was desperately trying to make sense of the moment, she tossed a stuffed toy high into the air. It got caught on the ceiling fan (which I permanently have on the highest control level) and it violently jolted the fan as it was tossed full speed against the glass panel of the bedroom window with a massive bang!

"Chicklet!" I blurted. "Ooooh THAT was a bit exciting!" she replied. "No that was a bit dangerous!" I said as Dadu rushed in to find out what all the noise was about. He reminded her of the rules about throwing things inside the house, but thinking back now, her response to the actual incident was quite hilarious.

Dadu came to the rescue and suggested that Chicklet have some breakfast while Bozzy Wozzy has a shower and eases herself into the day. Thank you Dadu. I took my time over a leisurely shower and enjoyed my new skincare routine.

Her first request for the day was to watch me play the Minion game on the Ipad, so we did that for about 20 minutes, when suddenly Dadu appeared to ask if we wanted to be dropped somewhere on his way to work .. we had 10 minutes to get ready!

Dadu dressed Chicklet while I gathered my bag, a hat for both of us, a pre-made bag of snacks, a bottle of water and checked that I had the house keys. We were only going to the bakery, which is about 2kms away and a downhill walk home.

We were dropped off at the little shopping centre, which consists of a Bottle O, a hairdressing salon, a mini supermarket and a bakery. I ordered an 'extra large' latte while Chicklet ordered a meringue bug (don't even go there!) and while we sat enjoying our time together, Mama called from New York, so we had a lovely chat on speaker phone.

It was only 9.30am but very warm so the walk home felt long and laboured. I guess having foot races through the forest tracks didn't help much. Every fourth crack in the concrete footpath was our starting point. Ready? Set? Go!!

It's a very steep but short walk from the edge of the forest walkway to Chicklet's house but we were very hot and bothered by the time we arrived home. We sat under the cool fan playing Mrs Fox and Mrs Fox .. a game where we took turns playing the role of Mrs Fox who went shopping and brought home a bag of goodies for the person waiting at home (the goodies being toys and knick knacks from the play room).

Soon it was 'Chicken Little' time again (surprise surprise).

Lunch consisted of apple with peanut butter and strawberries with my version of nuttella.

Then it was activity time.

We coloured in and hung 8 spirally snakes throughout the house.

We created a couple of pirate pics with A4 paper and pirate stickers.

We built Paris and New York with stickers and paper, then stuck dinosaurs onto the pictures climbing the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty.

After we cleaned up all the mess, it was time to play under the snake sprinkler again. It was crazy! Forty minutes of screaming, squealing, giggling, full belly laughing, gasping, running and the whole time focussing totally on drenching Bozzy Wozzy. She was successful, much to her delight!

There were storms rolling in the distance, so I decided to put an end to the outside play and we headed to the bathtub for more water play while she washed the mud and grass off.

That's when Dadu arrived home on his work break and took over Chicklet duties while I had a bit of a break myself. I had time to change out of my wet clothes, tidy the bedroom, bring in the washing from the clothes line and figure out what to cook for dinner.

Dadu's request was for Chicklet to draw some mixed breed dinosaurs while he was at work. Apatosaurus head with a Stegosaurus body. A pterodactyl head and wings, with a triceratops body. The list goes on.

After I got her started on the drawings, I made dinner. Chicklet's consisted of 2 boiled eggs, snow peas, red capsicum, carrot, cucumber, radish and beans .. all raw.  She ate it all except the radish and half of the snow peas.

I had chicken and salad.

We read two books at bed time and chatted about the day. Her favourite part of the day was, of course, the snake sprinkler, but also colouring in and hanging the swirly snakes.  Her least favourite part of the day was when I was angry at her for throwing the toy at the fan (I feel like such a meanie).

It took her all of two minutes to fall asleep tonight.

I've done the dishes, tidied up the 'activity area' and my bedroom, which seems to have become the new toy room!

It's been another full day and I'm still feeling good! Day three a success, despite the poor start.

Let's see if I can wake up before my alarm tomorrow morning!

Nite all.

Day Two of Fifteen

Another successful day .. just!

My 7.30am smiley face Chicklet alarm was good again this morning.

First request was to watch me play the Minion game on the Ipad, which lasted about 20 minutes and it was around then that Mama phoned us from New York!

Chicken Little was next, but it only lasted about ten minutes before she wanted to go outside and I was definitely NOT allowed to have a shower beforehand, so I made a deal .. 15 minutes outside and then I could have a shower.

After my shower, and after some 'on a knife edge' behaviour, we all bundled into the car for an adventure to Civic.

The Bare-chested Chef and I both agreed that Chicklet was a little manic and that today was going to be testing.

So the first stop was for me to get an 'extra large' coffee while Dadu and Chicklet went to the kids play area. By the time I arrived, Chicklet was complaining loudly that there were too many BABIES there and she HATES babies!!

Luckily, fortune smiled upon us and a little girl about her age turned up and wanted to play, which completely turned Chicklet's mood around.

After about an hour, while Dadu got some groceries, Chicklet and I bought some new stickers for the 'safe space' then stopped at the coffee shop for a couple of little GF treats before finding our way back to the car.

Woops! I left Chicklet's shoes behind under the seat near the play area .. luckily Dadu was prepared to run back and find them!

The plan was to sit on my bed watching 'Chicken Little' while eating the treats.. which we did.

Next up was 'activities'!

We drew a shaggy dog with a cut out red paper bow and then Chicklet added 8 puppies.

We made a big black spider out of black wool, with big googly eyes and eight hairy legs, then drew a giant spider web for him to sit on. Of course he needed about 10 flies to be stuck to his web for dinner.

We made a big red, green and black snake with a red forked tongue.

By now, it was lunch time, so while Chicklet and Dadu ate bananas with sprinkles, I hibernated in the bedroom, where I surprisingly fell asleep for half an hour! Next thing I heard Dadu yell out "Bozzy Wozzy, we are going for a walk!"

I took the opportunity to hang out some washing, sweep the floors, put away the dishes and tidy up a little.

Dadu and Chicklet arrived home about an hour later looking very hot and bothered - Dadu forgot Chicklet's hat so I gave him a gentle reminder. Today was very hot outside and they walked in probably the hottest part of the day.

The only remedy for this was to go to the 'activity drawer' and remove the giant sprinkler snake out of the box, connect it to the hose in the shaded area of the back yard and have some cooling down fun in the water!

This turned out to be a perfect opportunity for Chicklet to release some pent up energy. Lots of squealing and running and jumping and laughing and yelling until, after about 40 minutes, she was exhausted!

More water to soothe the savage beast, by having an early bath to wash the grass and mud off.

Apple dipped in peanut butter for afternoon snacks and some more Ipad Minion games!

Dadu headed off to work a bit after 4pm and we watched the rest of the movie.

Boiled eggs for dinner - nice and easy.

We watched half of Chicken Little (we almost know the script by heart!), removed butterfly number 14 from Mama's time line, ticked off Mama's 'to do' list (so far she has flown in a plane, arrived in the USA and visited the Empire State Building), added another heart to the cuddle heart, had story time and then chatted about our favourite and least favourite parts of the day. The snake sprinkler was the clear winner for both of us as our favourite.

She finally fell asleep around 7.30pm .. she certainly fought it for a while.

My 30 minute nap today must have rejuvenated me because I'm not feeling tired at all tonight.

Tonight I'm sending lots of love to my BFF, BGWLBH. Biggest warmest hugs from afar.

Wishing we could.

Nite all.

Day One of Fifteen

I would brand day one a success!

She woke me at 7.30am with a big smiley face requesting that we begin our first activity for the day immediately! So I climbed out of bed and got dressed .. not allowed to have a shower this morning .. too much to do! I heated up my broth and while I drank it, I was instructed to play the minion game on the Ipad.

The first activity was the big book of dinosaur stickers which also included 8 dinosaurs to make out of cardboard cutouts.

We made the dinosaurs and then played with them for about 15 minutes, during which time, we received a phone call from Mama to tell us she was at the airport in Brisbane, checked in and waiting to board the plane. She sent through a photo of the plane for Chicklet to see.

Chicklet and I created a few masterpieces with blank paper and dinosaur stickers and decided to have a 'mailbox' each for Mama so that we could keep everything that we make over the two weeks for Mama to look at when she arrives home.

After we got bored with dinosaur stickers, it was time to watch the second half of 'Chicken Little' .. the first half of which we watched before dinner the night before (yes, we have watched it 3 times in two days, and would have been four if I hadn't convinced her to try a different movie this afternoon .. 'Open Season', which she turned off after 30 minutes).

When 'Chicken Little' was finished, we got dressed and jumped in the car with Dadu. Chicklet and Dadu went to the libraray together, while I spent some time in retail therapy .. always good for the soul.

Dadu and I both thought we had each other's phone number and agreed to text each other when ready to go home, but discovered later that neither of us had any phone numbers, just email addresses!

I found a health food shop and bought some raw organic honey, some raw organic cacao and some organic coconut oil. I'll make some chocolate muffins some time in the next couple of days.

I got myself a couple of tops at 40% off, bought an iron in Big W as well as some more stickers and the 'sad' doll from 'Inside Out', which is Chicklet's favourite character in the movie .. but she wasn't the slightest bit impressed by my choice!

A couple of hours later, I was walking through the mall and looked up to see this little blonde child running headlong towards me with the biggest cheekiest smile on her face! So cute!

We all did some grocery shopping together and bought a mango smoothie and a coffee on the way out before heading home.

Chicklet and I spent the afternoon putting stickers on the frame of her 'safe space', watching .. you guessed it .. 'Chicken Little' .. again .. while munching on mango, blueberries and watermelon.

We played outside and got photos of a kookaburra on the fence (Chicklet guarded the kookaburra while I retrieved my camera from inside). We played on the swing for about twenty minutes and then made a nest out of the washing basket, hoping to lure some birds into the back yard.

Soon it was dinner time and the Bare-chested Chef made a delicious and hearty chicken and corn soup from scratch. Chicklet must have been hungry because she ate a bowl of pasta, some cucumber and carrot, followed by a mango ice cream. She barely spoke during dinner and we could see that she was extremely tired, so she had a quick bath and story time from Dadu before falling into a deep slumber.

I've had a headache for a couple of hours this afternoon but I drank heaps of water over a one hour period and it has almost gone .. I really must remember to drink more water during the day! I have to look after myself while looking after Chicklet.

Before she climbed into bed, Chicklet took down butterfly number one off the wall (there are 15 butterflies for each day that Mama will be away and at the end of each day, she takes down a butterfly and puts it in her safe space). That way she can see how many days til Mama comes home.  She also took a small heart (which represents a Mama hug) and placed it inside the big blue heart on her bedroom wall.

There are big blue hearts in various locations around the house and whenever she needs a Mama hug, she has different sized and different coloured heart stickers from which to choose and stick on the big blue hearts. Mama will give her all of those hugs when she returns.

So day one has been a success.

It's not quite 9pm and I expect to be asleep before 10pm because we have another big day planned for tomorrow, including a bus ride.

The weather is uncomfortably warm and even with the window open and the fan on high, I still feel warm, however, it's going to be 3 degrees warmer up north at home tomorrow, so I'll be grateful to be here instead!

I hope Vegan Chickie is having an enjoyable flight.

Nite all.

Ready? Set? Go!

As of 5am tomorrow, Vegan Chickie will embark on her solo holiday to New York and Paris, while the Bare-chested Chef, Chicklet and I attempt to run this family and household without her for two whole weeks!

As daunting as it feels .. due to the unbelievable stress that Vegan Chickie has been experiencing and sharing in the days leading up to this .. I am quite excited about having so much time with my little Chicklet and it will be fun sharing the numerous activities that have been planned in advance, watching the long list of dvds, attending her swimming lessons, enjoying bus rides to and from our coffee dates and creating new adventures together along the way.

No doubt we will have some hurdles (I can imagine Vegan Chickie snickering at the word 'hurdles') along the way, but we will manage and we will survive.

So my final message to you Vegan Chickie, if you are reading this on the plane, is 'WE'VE GOT THIS! Relax and enjoy yourself!'

It has been another full and fun day today.

It started with a smiley good morning at about 7.30ish and an invitation to a coffee date in Civic with VC and Chicklet. We got dropped off at the shopping centre, ordered our coffee and a muffin and sat in the comfortable chairs by the children's club while Chicklet made some friends and climbed over the play gym.

A little bit of shopping for more stickers to put on the 'safe area' and I bought myself a top before the Bare-chested Chef arrived to take us home.

The first priority was to adorn the safe space with the stickers, then we created a piece of artwork each with some more stickers, followed by a game of 'Minion Rush' on my Ipad. She wanted to watch me play the game and offered words of encouragement every time I failed to pass a level. "It's okay Bozzy Wozzy. Just keep practising and trying. You will get better. Don't give up!"

She was right. I must have played for at least an hour, at her insistence, and reached level 6 eventually.

We had a nice lunch and then played with a bunch of her stuffed Octonaut toys, a couple of crocodiles and a dinosaur or two, using our imaginations.

Next on the agenda was a water balloon fight! The Bare-chested Chef spent a good deal of time filling MANY MANY water balloons and putting them all into a washing basket ready for us to play.

I got a couple of pics before the camera needed protection, so I brought it inside and then ventured outside to face the music, or in this case, the water! It was a lot of fun and Chicklet giggled herself silly running up and down the grassed yard, chasing Mama and throwing her balloons, making them explode over us and then squealing with delight.

The fight probably only lasted about 30 minutes, if that, but it was hilarious and Chicklet declared "That was too much fun!!!" when it was all over.

We decided to have an early bath and put on our pyjamas before climbing onto my bed to watch a dvd. She hadn't seen 'Chicken Little' before and it had been a while since I had seen it, so we got comfy with a plate of snacks (pear, blueberries and sunflower seeds) and began to watch it.

Well! She went through the full gammit of emotions! Angry at the people for being mean to Chicken Little, then sad because his Dad didn't believe him and then scared because of the spidery aliens. She was jumping up and down, yelling at the people, hiding her face, calling out to Mama - I was fully doubting this choice of dvd and I kept assuring her that everyone would be happy in the end - much to her disbelief!

Finally, to my relief, it was over and I was preparing for a big debrief to make sure she wasn't going to have nightmares tonight, when she jumped up and yelled 'Can we watch it AGAIN!?'

Luckily, dinner was ready, so we had a break from the movie briefly .. but as soon as we'd finished eating, it was back to the bedroom to watch it again! We got halfway through it before Mama announced bed time.

No bed time stories from me tonight. Chicklet is sleeping in Mama's big bed so that she gets to say goodbye in the morning. Tonight is special cuddles and stories with Mama night.

It's already 10.30 pm and I think it's time for me to get some sleep in preparation for a big day tomorrow.

Nite all.

Midnight Rambling

Well, as you can tell, I didn't get to post an update here last night!

Adoring Husband and I left home at about 8am yesterday to head south to the Sunny Coast. We stopped for a short break in Gympie and then continued through to arrive at 11am.

After a warm greeting from the Chicklet family and then dropping all of my paraphernalia at the house, we drove to 'Sunspace' cafe for lunch. It was a beautiful day and Chicklet got to play in the garden in the sunshine, first with her Dadu, then Poppy Barry and then me.

We enjoyed a pleasant lunch and left around 2pm so that AH could head back home before it got too late. I was sad to see him go, knowing that it will be almost 3 weeks before I get to see him again.

I had lots of play time with Chicklet and we climbed onto my bed, along with Vegan Chickie to watch the movie 'Inside Out'. The Bare-chested Chef tossed up a most delicious salad for dinner, which we all enjoyed very much.

Bath time with more than 50 new rubber duckies followed soon after, then it was story time in bed. Chicklet was very restless, so it was Mama who finally lulled her to sleep.    

Vegan Chickie and I then sat up talking til midnight, at which point, I conceded defeat, turned off my light and fell into a deep sleep for two hours - pee break - more deep sleep for four hours - dozing for an hour and then greeted by my smiley Chicklet!

We had another full day as the Bare-chested Chef dropped us off at Tewantin shopping centre on his way to work this morning.

Norma Jeans was our first stop where we spent about an hour sitting in the reading corner, enjoying a LARGE coffee and reading a few of the available kid's books from the book shelf.

We went searching for some interesting stickers for Chicklet to decorate her 'safe spot' and also did some grocery shopping. The lady in front of us spent $300 and didn't collect the dinosaur cards that she was entitled to, so the girl on the checkout kindly gave us her share as well as ours! She was immediately crowned 'our favourite check out person EVER'.

Chicklet has the dinosaur book and this morning only needed 20 more cards to fill the book (there are approximately 80 cards to collect). With our haul today, she only needs 6 more to complete the book!

After the supermarket, we headed up the hill to the children's park where Chicklet loves to play, but to our surprise, it was being upgraded and will not be finished for three weeks!! That was terribly disappointing for all of us because it was going to be a part of our daily itinerary. I guess we now need a Plan B.

Our original plan for today, was to catch the bus from that park to Civic where there is an indoor play area for kids, and we would have had a leisurely lunch while Chicklet played. Unfortunately, the day was much warmer than expected, Vegan Chickie had only 2-3 hours sleep the night before and I got a little carried away at the supermarket, so we had to carry more heavy bags than expected.

Taking all of that into consideration, we decided to catch the bus directly home. When I say 'directly' home, I mean 'as close to home as possible' because there is still about a kilometre to walk from the bus stop to home.

It's a pleasant enough walk. Even though it's a large housing estate, the streets are lined with tall trees and the houses back on to heavy wooded bushland, so there is shade, the birds are singing and the wind is rustling the leaves high in the trees. The footpath is paved the whole way, so it's a comfortable walk.

We arrived home safensound and after a light lunch, Vegan Chickie attempted to have a nap while Chicklet and I played. Chicklet decided to give one of her new purchases, a rubber squeaky duck, a workout. I expected her to get bored of the squeaking after 5 minutes, however, it was still squawking long and loud and hard 20-30 minutes later, at which time poor Vegan Chickie came skulking heavily through the house with a seriously furrowed brow.

She looked at me and said 'Is that not annoying the crap out of you???' I replied 'Well, I hoped that she would get sick of it before I did. Obviously she has more stamina than I bargained for!'

I had closed the bedroom door, but apparently, it didn't make any difference to the sound. Oops.

We coaxed the duck out of her hands by promising a swing out in the garden. Her stamina did not extend to swinging today .. it lasted about 3 minutes. We played catch for about ten minutes and then hit the sand pit for about 15 minutes.

An early bath time seemed like a good idea and calmed her down somewhat.

Chicklet watched Wile E Coyote cartoons while I prepared dinner .. just a simple chicken, broccolini, asparagus and sweet potato dish. Chicklet tried sweet potato but declared that it was 'yuk'. She wasn't very excited by my choice of dinner, so after a few slow mouthfuls, she decided that her play room was more exciting than the dinner table.

She fell asleep before we could even think about story time tonight. It seems we wore her out!

Adoring Husband experienced a bit of unexpected excitement at home this afternoon. A bat and her baby got caught in some netting that we had around our peach tree, so he called the RSPCA who sent a couple of ladies out to rescue them ...

AH was very impressed by their efforts and when he discovered that they were volunteers who even had to pay for their own fuel when rescuing our wildlife, he made a generous donation to the cause.

We had attempted to net our peach tree this year because we didn't get any peaches from it last year due to the birds. We had a small piece of old netting (apparently you can get 'bat friendly' netting these days) that AH had in his shed and it wasn't even big enough to protect the tree. We should have taken it down because it actually served no purpose at all .. except to trap unsuspecting bats obviously.

We have plenty of fruit trees in our back yard that the birds and bats steel from. Mangoes, mulberries, grapes etc. I guess they can take our peaches as well.

Well, it's almost 10pm, so I will attempt to get a better (or longer) night's sleep tonight. I'm not sure what's on the agenda for tomorrow, but as long as there is good coffee, I'll be happy.

Nite all.

Hello Wine (Halloween)

It was an early start for Halloween yesterday. I decorated the front garden ...

... and filled the witches hat with lollies.  I had tape across the pathway daring the children to enter and had the ghostly skeleton guarding the lollies.

The first kids began arriving at 5pm!

I believe we had approximately 50 children trick or treating. I had to fill the hat twice and luckily saved some lollies for Lady Lynn's grandchildren, who were the last of the kids to appear. I was really hoping to get a photo of them, but it was too dark by the time they arrived and the batteries in my flash are flat so that was the end of that idea! Bugger! Next year :)

I jumped on my trike and pedalled over to Sonny and Cher's for the big 70th birthday bash. It was well and truly pumping by the time I arrived.

Mum H was there, as were The Speckled Hen and Dirty Old Man. The Pool Guy and Mrs PG were there too. Mr and Mrs Builder were in attendance, along with Mr and Mrs Club. Seriously, half the town were there.

Cher got me a wine and then showed me where to get more if I wanted it and after a short chat with some of the locals, I set up the camera on the tripod and the different family members came and stood in position for their shots.

Afterwards I wandered around the party and took some happy snaps of the guests and of the cake and speeches and the gift opening.

The food was good - especially that deconstructed pavlova!! The music was my era and I think if people had been dancing I may have joined them, but there was no dancing to be had.

It was a much later night than I expected. I thought I would be home by 8.30 or 9pm but I think it was well after 11 when I pedalled home with Mum H right beside me.

Poor Adoring Husband had to make his own dinner.

Today has been quite hectic attempting to get everything organised before I leave tomorrow. A few loads of washing done. I finally 'unset' the table and put the new dinner sets in the cupboard - so the dining table is clear except for the gorgeous flowers that AH bought me on Friday.

I made up an extra batch of dog food for while I'm away. Baked a chicken for dinner tonight which we ate with fresh beans picked from the garden. AH can eat the leftovers tomorrow night when he gets back from the Sunny Coast.

We took down the Halloween decorations, AH finished building the new chook pen and I've packed everything but the kitchen sink! The car is going to be filled to the brim!

Unfortunately, I have done something to my neck and I can barely move. I have an idea that this injury occurred yesterday when I stepped into a hole while decorating for Halloween. I felt something jar across the top of my shoulders at the time, but I had no pain until this afternoon when I sat down for a break and suddenly felt this muscle cramp in my neck.

I don't think I've ever felt such pain! It's not a constant pain but it comes on suddenly and frequently. I've rubbed my neck with the oil that 'Beauty' left for me the other day, but it hasn't had any effect. I've used the electric massager, which also had no effect. I'm sitting with a neck cushion at the moment - it helps a little.

I hope that a good nights sleep will rest the muscle enough to heal it overnight. I may even need pain killers tonight! I will attempt to sleep without them, but if it continues to cramp even while I'm lying in bed, I'll have to try something!

This means that the sweet goodies that I was going to make for AH didn't get done and I'm a bit behind with my packing.

I need to sleep and get up early to get everything done.

*sigh* Why did this happen now??? Worst timing EVER!!

Nite all.

Magical Day

It was a terrible start to my day .. that seems to have been a common thread this week .. and we left home for our adventure much later than planned.

We needed to leave by 9.45am to be at our intended destination by 10.30am, as per the email instructions.

My day began with opening the laundry door for Colli (it is where she sleeps at night) to discover that she'd had diarrhoea during the night, so a clean up job was to be had for me and then I needed to bath the dog. NOT the most pleasant way to start my morning, by any stretch of the imagination!

To save time, AH was going to buy my coffee while I had a shower, until he reminded me that the staff at Foodworks were dressed up for Halloween, so I wanted to go with him and take photographs.

 
There are other photos to show in tomorrow's post.

Then we drove by the Seat of Knowledge to call out good morning to the boys but they told me that the Tawny Chick was out on a branch, so I climbed out of the car with my camera to capture the image, however, I had the wrong lens with me and didn't get a good enough pic to share .. hopefully tomorrow will be my lucky photography day.

AH then decided to park the car and visit the boys while I photographed - which we simply didn't have time for!

By the time I dragged him home, ironed his clothes, washed and blow dried my hair, applied make up, filled my handbag with essentials, located my glasses and swore at AH for dropping my camera lens, it was 9.55am!

Of course Murphy's Law dictates that the traffic in front of us should drive at least 10km below the speed limit, just to slow us up a bit more!

As we finally approached the Boat Club, our luck seemed to change. We found a 'rock star carpark' and made our way to the function.

Obviously everybody else was running late and as seats were not allocated, we selected a table right at the front of the room and chose seats that would face the small stage. We were very happy with our timing and selection.

Others soon arrived and asked to join our table. We had some lovely friendly couples seated with us and I enjoyed some light conversation with them before the first speakers took the podium.

We had to listen to an hour of 'financial planning' information, but the speakers were entertaining and and it was much more interesting than I expected.

The main meals arrived before the speeches were finished. I had beef cheek with mash and asparagus with a red wine jus. AH had a stuffed chicken breast served on rice and roasted capsicum.

Soon Wayne Bennett arrived and stood up to speak.

He was hilarious and related some funny stories about his coaching and some less than intelligent footballers. He then compared coaching with financial planning. He talked about risk and comfort and ethics and honesty and being accountable. He was warm and engaging, funny and light hearted, honest and inspiring.

He spoke for about an hour, but it seemed like only twenty minutes! When he called for questions, I told him about AH being a staunch Sharks supporter and I asked him if he would consider moving into Cronulla Sharks territory to help the Sharks win their first premiership. He responded with the fact that even the great Jack Gibson was unable to help Sharks win a premiership!

AH got to ask him a question about his 'father-like' role with young footballers.

Dessert was then served - we were given a GF chocolate mousse with strawberries and cream - then we were all invited to come forward with any paraphernalia that we wanted signed and to have our photos taken with Wayne.

I didn't have anything to sign. If I hadn't been running so late in the morning, I may have remembered that I had Wayne Bennett's autobiography in my bookcase. I could have had that signed.

Ah well.

Prior to this function, I already had the utmost respect for Wayne Bennett, but now my admiration has increased beyond my expectations. He really is a great and honourable man.

I hated to leave and would have loved to hover and stalk him for another hour or so after the function was over, but we had errands to run.

While grocery shopping in Coles, I assisted a lost looking young man choose some sanitary napkins for his wife who recently had their first baby and wasn't prepared for a 'mishap' during their first outing as a family. That was another highlight of my day! He was most appreciative :)

We were running so late coming home, that AH dropped me off at the club on the way. It was an enjoyable, but not a winning night.

Just three more sleeps til I make my way south to have some quality time with my little Chicklet!

Right now though, I am going to make my way to the bedroom and sleep soundly til morning.

Nite all.

A Gathering

What a day!

The Motivator and I had organised our first Jeunesse presentation for today and I was feeling very nervous because my favourite girls weren't involved.

The first thing I did when planning this gathering, was create a preferred list names of who I knew I would feel most at ease with, and who I knew would not feel obliged or pressured by the occasion, so that I could relax and practise.

Unfortunately, the first two I invited, already had other plans and simply were not available, so I decided that if I couldn't have them all together for my first presentation day, I would invite a different group and save my favourites for the next one (you know who you are .. so don't dare believe that you've escaped my clutches!).

In my discombobulated state this morning, everything I did took much longer than it should have. I was supposed to prepare two dips and some sweet energy balls, but I only 'just' managed to make the dips and I still couldn't get to The Motivator's house (where the gathering was taking place) until an hour later than I'd promised.

The Motivator was struggling to be organised and The Holistic Healer, who was supposed to be leading this presentation, was also  running late!

Then two of my guests arrived 10 and 20 minutes late! What a crazy start to the morning! Worst of all, I left my all important folder and Ipad at home! *sigh*

Amazingly, the tricky start didn't deter us and it all ran fairly smoothly from there.

The Holistic Healer kicked things off and The Motivator and I both had input. Through it all we learnt a lot and I think that the two of us working as a team is going to suit us well.

While I expected to be out for approximately 3 hours, the day ran much longer than that for The Motivator and I! After five hours, I finally departed and headed straight for a coffee .. funny that I should need coffee and NOT alcohol to unwind!

I arrived home just in time to help Adoring Husband prepare for an SES meeting, so we barely crossed paths today.

Tomorrow, he and I have a big day planned. Lunch with The Brisbane Broncos coach, Wayne Bennett. I am very much looking forward to that!

It's fast approaching midnight and I believe that I can hear a pillow calling my name!

Nite all.

Nerves NOT of Steel

What a great day on the Sunny Coast browsing and spending at Eumundi Markets.

Adoring Husband drove me, The Motivator and Mum H to the service station at 6.15am where we boarded the bus.

It seemed to be a pretty quick trip down there and the weather was mild and overcast which made the drive very comfortable. There was lots of chatter going on as everybody caught up with each other's news.

We arrived at about 8.45am and all excitedly spilled out of the bus to, firstly, use the rest rooms, and then to scatter in all directions in search of bargains and any lovely goodies that took our fancy.

I stuck with The Motivator for the day because it was her first time with the lady's group and also her first time at Eumundi. She had a great day and declared that she would like, very much, to join the ladies every month for our luncheons.

I bought some jewellery, a top, two hats and a slate vase .. very difficult to describe, but I will create some floral art with it and take a photo over the weekend to post here. It is Adoring Husband's christmas present to me - even though he had no choice in the matter! I did text him to get his ok, but he didn't respond quickly enough, so I had to make an executive decision.

We were very lucky that the rains didn't come until we were leaving the markets. It was certainly coming down as we arrived at the Noosa Yacht Club for lunch! It rained the entire time we were there and was still raining lightly for most of the trip home.

I sit here in my lounge room now listening nervously to a very nasty storm descending upon us. The storm caused a lot of damage in Chinchilla earlier today with large hail stones and strong winds and has taken a few hours to reach us.

The Higgins Storm Chasing site has warned that there could be tornadoes lurking within this storm, so I'm about to go store my electronic devices in the walk-in wardrobe and prepare for the worst. I'm using the power of my will to force the storm to weaken before it reaches us, but I don't like my chances.

We experienced a brief but wild storm during the night last night. We had three dogs huddled in bed with us for two hours as we waited it out.

I'm not keen to end such a lovely day on such a scary note. Wish us luck!

Nite all.

Happily Productive

A visit to the Seat of Knowledge.

Morning tea with the girls (minus Lady Lynn), including some yummy coconut lemon balls made with love by Mardi.

I arrived home a little after 10am and popped a whole chicken in the oven so that it would be ready to eat for lunch. First I slid some butter, garlic and thyme between the skin and meat of the breast, then stuffed the chicken with some lemon wedges, sliced garlic and some butter. After the chicken was cooked, I used tapioca flour to thicken the juices that were left in the pan. Delicious.

While the chicken was cooking, I purged two extra large garbage bags and one small grocery bag full of expired, stale and unwanted items from the pantry. Yes!! That's right!! I finally cleared the pantry!!

I completely filled the dishwasher with 'locknlock' containers after I emptied their contents into the bin.

At the same time as all of this was in progress, I made up another bottle of colloidal silver.

Once that job was complete, I had to make up a batch of dog food, so I chopped and cooked a giant pot of pumpkin and made 16 days worth of doggy goodness.

My plan for this evening's meal is to make some chilli chicken meatballs.

It will be an early night for me tonight because we will be on a bus tomorrow at 6.30am heading south to Eumundi Markets! I'm looking forward to a great day with 21 other ladies. We will shop til we drop and then eat lunch at Noosa Yacht Club before heading home mid afternoon.

That's it! My day here is complete.

Nite all.

Honest to Goodness

This is legit ...

*********

Here is something that I read today, and I know that there are a bunch of you out there who can SO relate to everything I'm about to write ...

You may be diagnosed with A.A.A.D.D. (Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder)

This is how it manifests:

I decide to water my flower tubs.

As I turn on the hose, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.

I go to get the car keys off the hook and notice the mail on the porch table.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the bin under the table, and notice that the bin is full, so I place the mail back on the table and take out the rubbish first.

But then I think .. I can run down to the post-box when I take out the rubbish, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my cheque book off the table and notice that there is only one cheque left. My extra cheques are in the computer desk. So I go into my office to my desk, where I find the can of soda I've been drinking. I'm going to look for my cheques, but I need to push the can of soda aside so that I don't spill it.

I notice that the soda is getting warm so I decide to put it in the fridge. As I head toward the kitchen with the soda, a vase of flowers on the window sill catches my eye. They need water.

I place the can of soda on the ledge and discover my glasses that I've been looking for all morning. I'm going to put the glasses away, but first I need to water the flowers. I set my glasses back down on the window ledge, go fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote. Someone has left it on the kitchen table. I realise that tonight when we go to watch TV, I'll be looking for the remote, so I decide to put it back in the living room where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers.

I pour some water into the vase, but some spills on the floor, so I set the remote back on the table, get some paper towel and wipe up the spill.

Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:

The tubs aren't watered.
The car isn't washed.
The bills aren't paid.
There is a warm can of soda on the window ledge.
The flowers don't have enough water.
There is still only one cheque in my cheque book.
I can't find the remote.
I can't find my glasses.
I have absolutely NO idea what I did with the car keys.

Then when I try to work out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all darn day and I'm really tired. I know this is a serious problem and I try to get some help for it, but first I check my email!

*********

Adoring Husband had an uneventful return train trip to Brisvegas today for his specialist appointment.

On impulse this morning, I walked into my hairdressers and I explained that I wanted to make my grey hair stand out more by highlighting it without making it 'obviously' coloured. So she gave me an appointment for 1pm and I walked out at 2.40pm feeling slightly disappointed. 

She changed my greys to ash blonde.

Luckily, she only put in minimal foils, so most of my original greys on the top of my head are still there, and luckily the ash blonde doesn't look terrible, but I'm disappointed that my greys at the front of my head are now slightly hidden by the blonde.

I wish I'd made the effort to get my old hairdresser in Griffith to do it while I was down there in August.

Ah well. I don't hate it.

Time for sleep.

Nite all.