So, Did I Tell You...

That I'm going to Queensland? Oh yes I am!

After Hubby totally outdid himself with my awesome birthday party he took it to a whole new level with my birthday present - a plane ticket to visit one my BFF's who just happens to live in Queensland. You might remember me talking about the very gorgeous, very lovely and just all round super nice Felicity when we lived up in Red Dirt Central? Her twins are the same age as Offspring #2 and we hit it off straight away. We left Red Dirt Central to come back to Perth and some time later Felicity and her family left to return to Queensland. We've stayed in touch (thank heavens for Facebook which make it so easy to keep up with my friends who are scattered through the country and even the world!) and although I invited her to my party I knew she wasn't going to be able to come.

Hubby to the rescue! As he said, "If Mohamed won't come to the mountain, I'll have to send the mountain to visit Mohamed. Or Felicity." It was one of those completely unexpected, totally out of the blue presents that just blow you away.

So I'm going to Queensland. All by myself. For five days.

And I leave on Thursday.

Oh yeah!

Chookie Paradise

Hubby finished of the chook (chicken or hen, for you out of towners!) pen and then he and the kids headed off to get us some chooks.

Here's the chook pen in all its over-engineered, Taj Mahal like glory.

And the girls' accommodation. Complete with gas lanterns and railings to tie the horses when the roosters ride into to town and call in to visit. No, not really. It's not that sort of a hen house!

And here are a couple of the girls.

They look a bit scrawny and tattered because they're ex-battery hens. Hubby heard from one the neighbours that one of the egg farms sells their hens off for $5 when they're not 'producing as well as they should' ie, they drop down to an egg ever day or two rather than pumping out two eggs a day. We've been told that within a couple of months of space, food and care they'll be back to an egg a day and a couple of months after that they should have regrown their feathers and look a little more, um... attractive. In the meantime they're having a ball scratching in the dirt, pigging out on vegie scraps and exploring their pen.

And the kids are having a ball checking on the chooks every five minutes, reporting back to us on how the girls are doing and collecting the eggs. Because, despite them being considered 'past it' and 'poor layers' the six chooks have still pumped out five eggs each day. I'm hoping that means they aren't too traumatised and are loving their new home.

How Are My Children Different?

Let me count the ways!

They have always been polar opposites in looks but as their own characters form their other differences become more and more apparent too.

Most of the way through dinner tonight they asked "is there any dessert?" When told 'no' boy-child polished off his dinner because 'otherwise I'll still be hungry' while girl-child shrugged her shoulders and declared she was finished - she obviously saw no point in finishing the rest of her dinner if there was no sweet treat at the end.

Gotta Love Holiday Time

We took a break from the house cleaning and chook pen building to pack a picnic morning tea, throw the canoe on top of the car and take the kids to the lake for the morning.

The kids played in the water, we all had a paddle on the lake, we pigged out on fruit, dip and vegie sticks and finished the last of the only-at-Christmas-coz-it's-special coloured popcorn. Then we paddled some more, played more, threw a tennis ball for the boy-child to catch in the water about three thousand times and finally all had an ice-cream from the cafe to top off a fun, relaxing and totally enjoyable family morning.

Here are some of the pics I did manage to get before my memory card was full. I really must remember to empty that thing - Offspring #2's ice-cream smile really should have been immortalised here too!

Happy New Year!

Yeah, I know. Such an original title. Here's a post of random flotsam and jetsam to get me back into the swing of all things bloggy.

We had a very quiet New Year's Eve - partly because I was still feeling a little under the weather and partly because we were just worn out after all the birthday/Christmas/Boxing Day celebrations. Did a bit of shopping with the kids in the afternoon - them spending their Christmas money and us getting as much of their school stuff as we could - then saw Happy Feet 2 (umm... don't bother) before picking up take-away noodles for dinner. Sparklers at 8.30 and kidlets tucked up into bed at 9pm. Lovely. Offspring #1 did kick up a bit of a fuss that he didn't get to stay up till midnight but we told him that 9pm here was midnight on the East coast (ie where his much loved, admired and adored Aunty Carmen lives) so he was in fact celebrating at midnight. And he bought it. Don't think I'll get away with that one next year.

I received lots of vouchers for my birthday and have had a lovely time spending them all about the place. I'll share some pics of my purchases later in the week - it's dark now and if I try to take any photos they'll only look yellow and crappy.

I've done a bit of research on kidney stones and diets that reduce their likelihood. OMG! Don't google stuff unless you want to be scared stupid people. But the main idea seems to be no salt, no dark cola (ie my lifeblood, the coca-da-cola), no chocolate and no potatoes. I know I need to look at it in more detail and will do so in the next little bit, and of course it's all worth it to not ever go through that pain again, but c'mon. Salt and chocolate are food groups as far as I'm concerned.

The ever clever hubby is being his usual ever clever self. He's in the midst of building the Taj Mahal of chook pens. This thing is enormous, a work of art and worthy of holding something way more exciting than four chookies. But, chookies it will hold. And hopefully by the end of the week too. Pics to come.

He was also very clever and fixed the bed when I broke it. Twice. No, I wasn't doing anything exciting but I did learn a valuable lesson. Sometimes you need to ask for help to move furniture. Otherwise it breaks. Twice. Luckily he's ever clever and fixed the broken weld (ummm, okay, both of them) and then put the bed back together before I could break it again.

The reason I needed to move the bed in the first place is because I've been on a cleaning frenzy. And no, not and OCD induced frenzy. This one is a good healthy "Gosh I'm sick of the mess and I need to make the house look like I want it to instead of an episode of Hoarders". I'm working through a room at a time, moving furniture, giving everything a good clean from skirting board to cornices and everything in between. The trailer is filling up with stuff that was either a) general clutter, b) things that serve no purpose whatsoever, c) broken stuff or d) all of the above. I have books for the second hand book store, things for the op shop, various bits and pieces to be returned and stuff to be donated. Tomorrow afternoon is the living room and, if there's enough time, both bathrooms.

And we're taking the kids on a picnic tomorrow morning. There will be water, sun, sand and me and my camera hoping to catch some gorgeous summer shots of the kids having fun.