We made it to day 3!!!!

Wow! 1300kms in 3 days and we are all still happy and the kids are still semi sane. it feels like we have been away for ages. I think because we have squeezed so much in to those 3 days.

The first day was rather eventful. I had only 3 hours sleep the night before so was not fully functioning. I can not cope one bit without at least 7 hours sleep. The night before we left I decided that it would be nice to have some home baking to take, so instead of finishing off the packing and cleaning I wisely decided to make choc chip biccies and cheesecake balls instead. needless to say it was after midnight when I finished all my jobs. when I did get to bed Diddybell decided to be a major pest and whinged all night long. I ended up having to put her in a cot down stairs as she was disturbing bens sleep (i know this because everytime she would whinge, he would growl, followed closely by a sneeze that would sound suspiciously like 'forfu*kssake'). 

So I started the trip in a sleep deprived haze and had drifted off into a deep slumber before we had even left the driveway.

When we arrived in Dalby we discovered a problem (not quite sure what the problem was - I was fading out as ben was telling me due to lack of sleep) with one if the caravan tyres. he had to detach the caravan and drive somewhere to have it fixed. One of the other couples travelling with us also had tyre problems mere kms from home.

After quickly sorting ourselves out we continued on and spent the night in some show grounds in a small town whose name I cannot remember. It was a lovely night and we were lucky enough to be able to hook up to some power so we could run the heater - thank goodness because it was bloody cold!!!.  I think we covered 450kms on the first day, but it took 9 hours because of all the stops and mishaps.  You will be pleased to know that my boxing gloves and pads got a workout that first night (and you might also be pleased to know about my triumph in the public loos but I won't tell you because a good friend of mine told me not to discuss bowel movements on my blog)

Day 2 was a similar distance covered in much less time. We stayed the night in Tambo and I was very excited to show the kids where I used to live and where the school was etc.  They were horrified to find out that I lived about 300m from the school and would drive there every day.  I don't think they realised just how much potential I have to be a lazy bum. We went to Tambo pub that night and i got rip roaring drunk off 2 vodkas. that's what happens when you don't drink for 18 months!!!  I enjoyed myself so much I think I might have to drink more often.

Today we drove fromTambo to longreach. Half of us went to the stockmans hall of fame for a looksee and half of us went to the qantas museum. Unfortunately I was stuck in the half that had 7 out of the 8 children in it so didn't get to do much looking. I spent my time running after toddlers, wiping noses and continually getting drinks out of the pram. But the kids loved the museum. They loved having a tour of the retired 747 and looking at the different planes. To be quite honest I was bored shitless. a plane is a plane, is it not? I'm sure I would have been equally as bored if I had of gone to a car museum... it just doesn't rock my boat unfortunately. at least the kids had a good time....

Tonight we have stayed with one of the other couples at a free campsite 20kms out of town. The rest of them stayed in longreach at a caravan park and went out to dinner. Ben and I were tossing up staying in town but we decided at the last minute to rough it. I'm glad we did. I have had such a relaxing night tonight. We built a campfire and sat around talking. We all saw this massive meteor, which seemed to come down a few hundreds metres from us. The quietness of this amazing country is so soothing.  Sitting there looking up at the beautiful nights sky made me feel so relaxed and full of joy.  The place where we are staying is very quiet. it feels like we are the only ones for hundreds of kms.  it is also very basic. you can get a bit if tank water here and use a drop loo if you so wish (although I choose not to!!).  There are no showers... no people... no shops or traffic....

Anyway, moving on... I am pleased to report that Diddy has been an absolute angel. she sleeps in the car and plays happily when we stop.  my other kids are managing quite fine on the long drives with minimal complaining coming from the back. their busy boxes have kept them busy and we have spent a lot of time playing and talking to them. 

Oh I forgot to mention that we stopped at barcaldine today so con and kristy could pay their respects to the tree of knowledge (apparently this tree has something to do with unions and their union at caltex is responsible for getting them massive pay rises so they needed to detour to worship it).

All in all it has been a great trip so far. I had better get going because I am hugely tired. my phone reception has been awful so I haven't had much if a chance to blog or look at facebook.

We are doing the dinosaur thing on winton over the next couple of days so I will let you know how it all works out.

xxx

Preps on Tour 2011

Eeeeek!!!! I am 4 days away from leaving on a 6 week holiday and I am SUPER disorganised!!!! What's more, I can't seem to get myself organised. I just know that I am going to spend all of Friday night running around like a chook with it's head cut off trying to do everything at the last possible second - in true Bianca fashion.

I have been dreaming and planning this holiday for YEARS. Ever since Ben and I got together I have been nagging him for a caravan (filled with lots of children of course) so we could drive around the country together. And I am pleased to report that nagging works! Yes I managed to talk him into having 4 bundles of joy - AND I managed to convince him we needed a caravan. I should have been in sales!!!

This 6 week, through the centre of Oz, trip has been in the pipeline for years. We have been talking about it, planning bits and pieces, discussing appropriate names (I am going for Prep Tour 11, Kristy wants Grey Nomads in Training). Now it is less than one week away!!!

We are heading West from Bris and going to the Northern Territory via Longreach, Winton, Mt Isa etc. We are planning to spend a few days doing dinosaur things in Winton and a day or so looking at aeroplane things in Longreach. Once we get to NT we are going to Darwin via Kakadu, then back down through the centre, stopping to see Uluru and Alice Springs. We finish our trip by heading through South Australia and back up along the NSW inland highway. 10 000km's with 6 weeks to do it in.

There are a few families going. There will be 5 caravans and 4wd's in our convoy. I'm sure you will get to know them over the course of my blog.

Tonight I should have been packing/organising but instead I went to the gym (not for an actual workout - I just wanted to get out of the house so I went to talk to the lovely staff there) and watched a ton of reality tv. The whole time I was thinking about all the things I have to do.

I just don't know where to start. Everything is sort of semi packed and semi organised. But my house is a disaster zone and I keep wandering around aimlessly thinking 'I'm sure I should be doing something'.

Anyway, just to give you a little bit of an insight into the preparation that has gone into our trip I thought I'd share with you a few tidbits of info.

1. Kristy and I prepared 23 meals and vacuum sealed all of them. It took 3 days of work but will be well worth it not to have to cook for at least half of the time we are away. We made lots of stews and curries and added a ton of veges to each.

2. I have made the kids 'busy boxes' for the car. Ben is vehemently opposed to dvd players in the car so my children will have a tiny box filled with note pads and pens, tiny books, mp3 players etc to keep them busy.

3. I am taking most of the food with us so we don't spend a fortune on food in little outback towns. I'm sure it will be expensive enough as it is just buying the fresh stuff. Trying to work out how much food 6 people will eat over the course of 6 weeks was a huge challenge. I have had to do many experiments in the last few months so I can correctly pack the right amount of food. These experiments included opening a pack of rice cakes and seeing how quickly they disappeared and how soon after the kids started complaining of hunger. I also had to train Kylah up to eat weetbix for breaky. She really doesn't like cereal and to be quite honest - I hate it too!! But beggars can't be choosers (well actually I can be choosy as I am the one menu planning and I made sure to include my standard yoghurt and muesli for breaky). Kylah usually has fruit and toast but in the outback I can't guarantee we will have much of either. So I have been forcing her to eat weetbix these last few weeks. The other morning, faced with yet another bowl of weetbix, Kylah asked Ben if she could eat a raw, rotting sweet potato instead. He said yes and she ate it!!!!

4. We have had 3 planning nights with all the families. Two of them were a disaster that ended up with everyone shitty at everyone. Only one night was productive. I am wondering how long it will be into our trip before the first fight erupts and who it will be between.... (past experience has Kristy and James winning hands down but this trip there may be some feisty couples that either fight with each other or other couples!! Hmmmmm..... maybe I will be able to provoke Ben into having a fight with me.... more flash dance pants would do the trick!!!!)

5. I am taking faaaaar too much stuff. On top of expensive linen, latex pillows, body pillows, a whole library of science books, about 1kg of chocolate and 4 pairs of flash dance pants.... I am taking my yoga mat and boxing gloves/ pads. I'm pretty sure Kristy is placing bets with the other couples on how many times (if any) I will use the sporting equipment. I am determined to prove them all wrong. I plan to start every day with some yoga and finish with a bit of boxing. I will probably need the boxing to vent all my frustrations on traveling with other people!!! Actually, we all get along pretty well and have traveled together in New Zealand in a convoy of caravans back in 09. That was the original 'Preps on Tour' trip.

6. Ben and I were almost headed to the divorce courts over my decision not to cancel foxtel for the 6 weeks we are away. He does not see the point in having to pay an exorbitant amount for tv when we are not home. I mean while, can not stand the idea of not taping Australia's Next Top Model, Project Runway, Teen Mom and Wife Sway USA while I am away. Do you have any idea how excited I will be to return home to 100 hours of trashy tv?!?!?! If I do not tape these shows on my IQ box (which I am quite certain is called that because it actually lowers IQ's) then I will return home with a whole lot of washing and cleaning and be on a big downer because I am no longer on holidays. Besides, I need something to watch while Ben is at Fraser Island fishing. Yes, we get back from holidays and Ben leaves to go on a fishing trip. (Just to be clear... I don't mind him going on the fishing trip - he better bring me back a ton of fish though!!!)

Anyway I had better go to bed. Tomorrow I am getting my legs waxed and on Wednesday I have to take Diddy back in to hospital so the Dr's can work out a safety plan for our trip (I'm not sure what a safety plan will involve but it sounds like something that will be good to have!!!). In between all that I have some friends visiting, who I hope will read this and force me to do things while they are there. I am quite productive if I have someone to talk to while I am busy, especially if they make sure I stay on task.

I plan to update this blog regularly while I am away. I don't plan to do anymore blogging this week but as I have so much to do I'm sure I will. It appears that when I am faced with a huge amount of work, rather than tackling it, I beeline my computer to blog about it. But I ALWAYS get things done... eventually!!! (and maybe not quite up to the standards of others!!!)

xx

Standards

It has been really hard for me to let go of the idea of 'standards'. It is so ingrained in me, from my years of teaching, that I started out constantly comparing Kylah and Jazzy to the standard that they should be working to, as dictated by the curriculum.

Now that I have seen the light, and no longer worry about what other kids their age can do, I feel so free and liberated. In fact, the very idea of standards seems so ludicrous to me!!

Kylah and Jazzy work at their own pace. We don't have to rush through things to keep up nor do we have to hold back so we don't go to far ahead. I make sure that they get every single concept before we move on to the next.

I have a few friends who have had to put their 7 year old's in tutoring classes, because they can not keep up with the other kids. I have also witnessed children bawling over homework or parents stressed because their child isn't achieving.

I used to be the same. Kylah was behind in her reading to start with and I was in a huge panic about it. I am extremely diligent about making sure we get all our work done each day and I couldn't understand why she wasn't making the progress that she should. She was one on one with a qualified teacher. Why couldn't she read????? Then one day, out of the blue, something finally clicked in her head and she was ready to learn to read. Rather than it being this massive chore that took hours of our time each day, she picked it up extremely quickly. Obviously she hadn't been ready to learn when I started with her.

It made me wonder what would have happened to her if she had been in school. I'm quite positive she would have been aware that she was behind most of her classmates and I think she probably would have ended up in learning support. These two things would have lowered her self confidence and hampered her ideas about her own intelligence that could have lasted a lifetime. Because she hadn't gotten things at the same rate as the rest of the class, they would have moved on without her and she would be even more lost.

It is quite a shame that this happens and makes me very thankful that I home school. I no longer even entertain ideas about whether the girls are behind or advanced in different subjects. I am just pleased that they are both working to the best of their abilities and mastering each concept.

I have been wondering whether or not I will get Kylah to sit the year 3 test next year. Part of me would like to so I can see where she is at compared to the rest of the state. But the other part doesn't really give a rats arse.

I would like to know what other homeschooling mums are planning to do about the standardized testing. Is it worth it to put my child through a mind-numbingly boring experience just so I can pat myself on the back?? And if I did put her through it, should I spend months in advance giving her practice tests so she is not at a disadvantage??? I know for a fact that schools spend an awful lot of time preparing the kids for these tests. Is that not a waste of Kylah's and my time???

Big questions... but really... it is just a grade 3 test, which in the grand scheme of things is nothing.

Cakes!!!

I have decided to do a blog about the cakes I have made. All of these I have either made on my own, or collaborated with someone more skilled than myself. I will try to explain each one.

This first cake is Diddy's Christening cake. It is white chocolate mud cake with white choc ganache and strawberry choc decorations. I decided to do chocolate decorations because I don't like eating sugar decorations and making them is so tedious. If I am going to invest a large amount of my time making decorations then they had better taste nice when I'm finished!!! Taste is more important to me than appearance. After all, it's what is inside that counts!!!


Kristy deserves the credit for Rohan's 3rd birthday cake. Even though I was the one who found the picture in a magazine and spent hours making the little cakes (50 in total, we had a combined party and Jago had a cake that was in the shape of a 2), Kristy was the one who put together the little teddies in the cars. It took her hours and she spent the entire time whingeing about it. But she did do a fantastic job!! They look so cute.












I decided to do a camping cake for Rohan's first birthday. I googled and googled and could not find anything suitable to copy so I used bits and pieces from pictures of cakes I found and threw in some of my own ideas. I was quite pleased with the outcome!









This next cake was the first and last time I made sugar flowers. Actually, I lie. I was MEANT to make the sugar flowers but mum and Kristy ended up doing most of them because the chalky feeling of them made my blood run cold. Mum gave Kris and I a lesson and I spent more time complaining than I did flower making. I think mum had to rework all the flowers I made anyway. The cake tasted delicious and for all the hours we spent making those stupid little flowers, I think they were chucked in the bin. I have not met anyone who likes to eat them. It was after this cake that I vowed never to waste so much time on aesthetically pleasing things that taste like crap again!!!


This is the cake I am most proud of. I made it for mum's 6oth birthday. The cake itself is caramel mud cake with white chocolate ganache. The photo is made from icing. You can upload your pic on to a website and they turn it into icing. Kristy spent about 40 minutes trying to get the picture on to the cake. It was soooo difficult!!! The two cakes are massive. They don't look like much here, but they are huge. Just making the cake alone was a 1 day job. Then making the frangipani's took me another whole day. I'm sure if you were the type of person who is not easily distracted then you could probably accomplish making them in a much shorter time though. Luckily Aunty Barbra was on hand to help me ice the cake. She did the piping around the edges as I had neither the hand strength, technique nor inclination to learn either to do the job. It was a mammoth task to ice it. I had my cousin melting chocolate and James's mum giving me colouring tips. But it turned out to be spectacular!! Worth every man hour I reckon!!

You will notice that I am quite fond of decorating cakes with chocolate. I think it comes from my love of chocolate!! This dinosaur cake was made for Kristy's belated 10th birthday (it was very much belated. I think it was 17 years late!!). Kristy has never let anyone in the family forget that her 10th birthday was overlooked. So we decided that to stop her constantly bringing it up we would throw her a belated one. As she was into Jurassic park when she was 10 I did a dinosaur themed cake. It is just a basic mudcake with a white chocolate dinosaur. I made the dinosaur by drawing a picture of a raptor on baking paper and then painting it with white chocolate. Once it has hardened you just pop it on the cake. Easy!!

Koby's christening was the day after mum's 60th birthday so his cake was just thrown together. I had pre-made the cake and the chocs so all we did was slop a bit of ganache on and pop the choccies on top. It doesn't look anywhere near as good as it tasted!!!






Kylah had a Wiggly Party for her third birthday so I just bought a cake topper for her cake. Those things are such a pain in the rear to get on a cake. Not much to say about this one.....











We took Kylah to Sea World to swim with the dolphins for her 7th birthday so her cake was sea and dolphin themed. The chocolates are coloured with special powder you buy specifically for colouring chocolates. I also used strawberry oil in them to make them extra delicious.









Another one of Kylah's cakes!!! Although I guess out of all my children she has had the most birthdays! This is 3 round butter cakes stacked on top of each other. It took my sister in law, Eliza, and I about 5 hours to make. The amount of butter in this cake is insane!!!








Kylah's fourth birthday was a Thomas theme. Yes, Kylah was right into Thomas at four. I think I copied this one from the womans weekly kids cake book.










Kylah's first birthday cake. This butterfly was HUGE. It took me forever to do but worked out pretty well. It was very tasty!!!











Jazzy's 5th birthday cake. Jazzy was supposed to have a pony party for her 5th birthday but it got rained out. She is horse obsessed so I decided to make her a horse cake. I had delegated the job of cake making to Ben, but at the 11th hour he made a deal with me that he would do all the housework if he didn't have to make the cake. It was only 1 week since I had left hospital after having Didabell and I was in no condition to do housework so I accepted the deal. Luckily it didn't take too long to make.



These are just little cupcakes that Kylah and Jazzy took to dancing one week to share with their friends. They have chocolate roses on top. Yummo!!!












Jago's first birthday cake. A piggy. I could have done a better one but I wanted it to kind of match with the ducky cake for Rohan's second birthday and the cow cake for mum's 59th birthday (the three of them had a combined party). The duckie and cow cake should be below somewhere. I think the piggy cake was a butter cake with butter cream icing. I made the cakes in advance and froze them so all I had to do the day before the party was ice them. It took mum and I a good 6 hours to ice the three cakes. And by the time we got to the last cake, the cow, we were so over it that we did a pretty crappy job!!







Here is Rohan's duckie cake. And it is bleepingly obvious that mum and I ran out of steam when we started the cow cake. It is a bit of a disappointment.





































The one and only cake made solely by Ben. Jazzy's 3rd birthday was a mermaid cake. I copied the idea from someone on facebooks pictures of their child's birthday. I'm not sure where they got the idea from. But it was a big hit. Well done Ben!!!!









Jazzy's second birthday was cup cakes decorated with flowers. The flowers are made out of marshmellows and smarties.















Jazzy had a My Little Pony cake for her 4th birthday. She was/is Pony mad!!! Again, those icing pictures are so painful to work with. I do not recommend them at all!!!!!! They don't taste very nice either.









Jasmines 1st birthday cake. This was much harder to make than it looks. I had left it till the last minute because I had been so consumed with Kristy's wedding, Jazzy being ill with a feeding tube, me being in intensive care with bird flu.... crazy times!!! But mum helped me put this cake together at the 11th hour and it turned out ok.













Kylah's 6th birthday cake. This is supposed to be a dancer on her cake made from chocolate and mosaic-ed with broken freckles. I was feeling quite artistic at the time!! The idea and execution was all done by me!














I plan to keep adding pics to this post with my latest cakes. Or maybe I will have to wait a year or two and then do a cakes#2!! post. I love making cakes and plan the children's birthday cakes months in advance. I'm sure a lot of people moan about how I go overboard with the kids birthdays (and I do admit the jumping castle AND petting zoo at Rohan and Jago's 2nd and 1st bday might have been a tad overkill) but I really don't see the harm in making their birthday's fun and enjoyable for everyone.

When my kids are older they are going to look back and have so many wonderful memories from their birthday parties. Heck, I'm sure a lot of other kids are going to look back and have so many wonderful memories from my kids birthday parties. I get just as much enjoyment from planning the ultimate day for them and the perfect cake each year as they do from experiencing it. I truly believe that you can't spoil a child by giving them things or planning elaborate parties. I believe you can spoil a child by accepting rude or bad behaviour. I don't believe my children act spoilt and they have a LOT of toys and always have huge birthday parties. It is because we teach them to appreciate what they have and never to expect anything from anyone.

Anyway it is late at night and this post has taken me a lot longer than what I had planned. I didn't realise I had made so many cakes over the years!!!

xx


(since I have written this blog I have added a few more pics.  The first one is the cake from Rohan & Jago's combined party - Snips and snails and puppy dog tails themed cake.  The second one is from Diddy's 1st birthday party, which was nursery rhyme themed.  The third is Jazzy's smash open cake.  )

Grandma's Date Cake (especially for Sig!!!)

This Date cake is super dooper yummy!! Always a hit!!

Ingredients:
300g chopped dates
1 3/4 cups water
1/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups S.R. flour
1 tsp bicarb soda

Bring dates, water and bicarb to boil. Reduce heat and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool.
Beat butter and sugar. Add eggs and mix well.
With wooden spoon add date mixture and flour, stir well until blended and mixture is soft.

Bake at 180 deg for 30 - 35 mins in a loaf tin. Cake will feel soft when cooled.

Tastes yummy with lemon icing.

ENJOY!!!!!
I wish I could add pics but it is always eaten before I get a chance to grab my camera :D

Diddy update #6

We're back!!! Yay!!! So glad to be home.

What an ordeal. I have had such a good week. First thing I did when I got home Monday night was go to the gym for 1 1/2 hours. I then went to the gym 2 hours on Tues and 2 hours on Thurs. Who would have thought?? BIANCA exercising for fun and stress relief?!? It is weird. I have always hated exercise because I associated it with stupid diets. My whole mentality was that it was a waste of time to go to the gym if you weren't on a diet. I have no idea where that idea came from. But this year I decided it would be a nice escape if I joined the gym and had some 'me' time.

Monday night at the gym was just what I needed. Kylie and I talked and talked our way around the whole circuit and the treadmills while Ben dealt with Diddy at home. I came home feeling a million times better.

Diddy has been really sooky and clingy since we came home. I was a bit teary about it the first few days because she has always been such a happy baby and back home she just seemed miserable. But she is slowly getting better. She knows now that mask means sleep. I think her protests are more about having to go to sleep and less about the mask.

I purchased an oximeter the other day. She has started snoring even with the mask on. The nurses did tell me that the pressure they have given her on the cpap will need to be increased at some point (a task I cannot do - the machine is locked to her pressure) as she adjusts to having it on. So rather than stressing out about her oxygen levels I spent $500 on a machine that will monitor them for me. It may seem a bit excessive, but it's better than stressing about something that may not be anything. $500 is a small price for peace of mind I reckon!!!

We have also had to make some altercations to our caravan to be able to run the machine even when we are not at a powered site. It is actually quite good. We already had a kick arse battery in our caravan that ran the fridge. Now we have power points attached to it so I CAN TAKE MY HAIR STRAIGHTENER on the trip!!!!!!! Actually the power points were put in especially to run Diddy's cpap machine but an added bonus is I can charge the lap top and use my hair straightener!!!! I know, I know.... I usually look like I haven't even run a brush through my hair - let along a straightener!!! (truth be known usually I haven't even run a brush through it). But every time I wash my hair the intention is there to straighten it and do it nicely.... I just always run out of time - or get distracted!!!

I have been a bit down this week, which has made me do a lot of shopping and chocolate eating to ease the depression. I am pleased to announce that it has worked - or HAD worked until this afternoon (I will fill you in on that later). The shopping sprees have led me to discover that I really like Lorna Jane. I always thought that it sold cheap sports clothes for middle aged ladies. I was looking for some new yoga pants and when my usual shopping haunts couldn't provide for me (Target, Kmart - yes I am not trendy AT all!) I decided to go have a look to see what they had available. Oh wow!! It is definitely not cheap!!! I can't believe people pay that much for gym clothes!!! I can't believe I spent a fortune (sorry Ben) on clothes there!! I bought these new pants called 'Flash Dance Pants' and they are the most comfy pants I have ever worn. I feel like I could climb a mountain in them then put on a nice shirt and look presentable for dinner at a fancy restaurant. I bought them in two colours and am seriously considering going back for more. For me fashion is all about comfort. If I find something that is comfortable then I will buy it in every colour available. I'm sure you are all well aware of the 3/4 sleeve, v-neck, light cotton shirts from Target that I have in 5 colours and wear continually! It is all a delicate balance though. I'm still waiting to decide how much trouble I will get in from Ben if I go back and spend more money on 'Flash Dance Pants'. Once I am certain he will not leave me if I buy more, I might go and get them in blue. Hmmmm.... I think I might add 'Flash Dance Pants' to my list of favourite things I wrote on my first ever blog (all about me - and my 4 little distractions). I am a bit concerned that since I wear Lorna Jane now that I might be officially classed as 'Middle Aged' though.

The reason that I am bummed this afternoon is because Kris and I went to visit Sammy. We took Kylah and the babies with us and had a bag full of craft stuff to do with her. When we got up to the ward she wasn't in her bed. So I asked the nurses and they told me she had been moved to intensive care. So down I went to see if I could go in and see her. Unfortunately, since I was not family, I could not go in to visit her. Her own family hadn't been up to see her in intensive care yet so I was quite upset. Kris and I walked around Southbank for a while and then went back in. This time they let me in as they had rang her mum, who had given permission for me to visit. She didn't look very good. She was sedated and didn't look well at all. My heart broke. I couldn't even give her a cuddle as she was asleep. I am hoping and praying that she will be well enough soon to move up to the ward so we can go back and see her. Poor little thing. It isn't fair that someone so young has to experience so many difficulties.

I came home from the hospital all teary and depressed. Ben suggested that to get out of my rut we could do my yoga dvd together followed by some boxing. So the kids Ben and I all lined up in front of the telly and did 25 mins of yoga. Jazzy piked about 2 mins in and Ben didn't last much more than 10 mins. But he said he enjoyed watching me do it - lol!! Then we followed up with me letting out some steam by hitting Ben with boxing gloves. Amazingly, Ben was right. I do feel a lot better now!!!

As far as managing Diddybell I am back to normal now. I don't feel restricted in any way, having to carry the cpap around. I am not easily phased. Kristy pointed that out this afternoon when she said "not much bothers you. Most people would be bothered by the washing pile at your house but you don't seem to be".

Anyway, I am going to sign off now. I have just organised for my kids to have a play with some of their friends tomorrow arvo so I thought I might bake some muffins for the occasion.

I don't think there will be anymore Diddy updates anytime soon but I will aim to keep going with my regular blogging. I have decided to blog my way through the Northern Territory and we leave in two weeks!! I will have to do a couple of blogs about our plans before we go.

Might try to do them after I get the muffins in the oven.

xx




I h

Diddy update #5

You can all stop worrying about smashed face syndrome. the dr this morning says Diddy should be fine as long as I don't put the mask on too tight. He also says he likes to call it mid face hyperplasia (not sure about spelling of that), which sounds a lot nicer than the alternative (he may have thrown in a fancy word for mid face too). failing that, my mum has decided that she will pay for plastic surgery for her if she needs it. lol!!! she WONT need plastic surgery, its just my mum trying to make me laugh! actually, funny story - when Jasmine was born ben was in the air flying and my mum took me to hospital. as ben wasnt there mum was the one who cut the cord. Jasmine now has a quite prominent 'outie'. my mum confided in kristy a while ago that she feels so much guilt about jazzys belly button she is going to pay for plastic surgery to have it corrected when she is older. lol. mum was convinced that she must have cut the cord wrong and that is why jazzy has an outie not an innie!!! it has been a running joke in our family ever since. So she is adding Diddy to the plastic surgery fund and had also decided koby needs his ears pinned back.
so I am completely over those dramas. I have managed to let it go!!!
We are leaving tomorrow! YAY!!! I have mixed feelings though. I have become quite attached to 'Sammy' who you may remember from previous posts. I have been mothering her these last few days and it is going to be hard to say goodbye. I asked sammys mum if its ok if I visit her when I leave and she said that is fine. poor little pet is so lonely in here. she spent most of today waiting for her mum to come and visit. her mum didn't make it here till dinner time and by that stage she was beside herself with worry. her mum is lovely. she had kids at home who she can't just leave and lives a long way away. sammy has been in here for months and won't be going home anytime soon.
On a more positive note I have had such a good day today. I havent been upset at all (except when I got teary a few times when sammy was upsett). I am managing to work Diddys cpap well. although really l don't think its anything to be too proud of - it isn't rocket science!!!! basically you put her mask on and press 'on'.
Kylie came up in the morning, and we drank diet cokes and gossiped, then kristy came up, again more diet cokes, yogos and gossiping. then Anne Marie came up with diet coke, noodle box AND baskin & robins!!!!! again more gossiping and laughing.... actually we weren't really gossiping, just chatting away happily.
Yesterday I had Jason, Jo, Melissa and Nicole visit. and the day before con and karen came. that is on top of all the texts, phone calls and facebook messages. I certainly feel very loved.
Anyway, back to reality tomorrow. hopefully we see all our drs early so I can make it to the gym in the arvo. goodness knows I need it after all this laying around eating chocolate!! what do you think the chances are of the ENT specialist, respiratory specialist and cpap lady all coming to see me before lunch time?? I would say slim to none but I have all my fingers and toes crossed!