I'm tired ...

... and it's taking a very very long time for the last four weeks of my current job to tick by. On the up side, the MOTH and I were eating dinner last night and I informed him (rather loudly, cos it was really really really exciting !!) ...

"Did you know that in exactly two weeks I will be temporarily unemployed (I start my new job after Easter) and we will be sitting in a restaurant in Auckland with your entire family celebrating S's birthday ?"

Words cannot adequately describe how much that prospect fills me with joy. She is incredibly lucky to have so many people who love her :)

Presenting ...

... my MOTH (from our recent trip to Queenstown) ... ain't he cute ?

I did it !!!!!

Yep ... my very first duathlon.

I didn't set the world on fire, and I know that next time I do this there will have to be a lot more preparation involved (I started off with a hiss and a roar with eight weeks to go ... trained for three weeks and then my training partner piked and I kinda lost interest) ... but I have a starting point from which to work.

I actually entered (I know so many people who said they "were going to"). I did the whole thing myself (not as part of a team). I finished.

Yay me !!!

PS : Have just been surfing the net looking for the next duathlon / triathlon I can aim for :)

It's gettin' closer ...

Only a few days to go now ...

I realise that for a lot of people a little bitty run and a 10km bike ride is no big deal, but considering the last time I did any form of exercise at all was before K was born, it's a big deal to me.

I'm into the recurring nightmare phase now. You know, the one where you wake up the morning of the duathlon and go to get dressed and realise you've left your running shoes at home in Dunedin four hours away ... and so your husband makes you do the whole thing in high heels because they're the only shoes you have with you ?

No ? You don't know ? Must just be me then ...

I quit !

Yep, quit my job this morning :)

I've had enough for a while now ... the lack of respect and total contempt with which the admin staff where I work are treated was enough to make me start looking elsewhere.

As luck would have it, one of the office girls at the MOTH's work is leaving to go to Europe for her OE at the end of March. So I sent the MOTH off to work with my CV and crossed my fingers ...

The MOTH's boss rang me over the weekend and after a chat told me that they didn't think that there was a good fit between my skills and the job on offer. I can't say I was too surprised, it was a long shot and I knew I was grasping at straws ... but they're an awesome group of people so I was a bit disappointed.

What happened next blew me away !!! They've created a job, based on my skills and strengths, the hours I would like to ideally work, and the type of work I enjoy ... and I start after we get back from our holiday up north !!!!!

They created a job for me !!! How cool is that ?!?!?!?!?

Just when I thought there were no more surprises ...

... the MOTH just made our daughter a balloon poodle !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nine years together and he didn't think it was worth mentioning. Who knew ?!?!?!?

And the idiot of the week award goes to ....

In the words of Homer Simpson ... "Doh !!!"

Sorry guys ... I've just re-read the last post and realised that I did, indeed, miss out the vital information.

S was on the playground at school and, assisted by an extremely helpful little boy who thought he'd give her a "really good swing", was hurtling along the flying fox ... the flying fox stopped at the end of the line ... S didn't :(

Apparently she flew through the air quite gracefully ... but you could hear the crunch when she hit the ground.

She's badly broken her left arm (both bones) right through the growth plate at the wrist. This nicely complements the broken right arm (both bones) she received on the flying fox eighteen months ago. Unfortunately this time around she is a lot more impaired, as she's left handed ...

S is now banned from using flying foxes ever ever ever again ;/

Back to "normal" ...

OK ... this was soooo not what I was planning on doing with the early part of my week. I was congratulating myself on how well my new reduced work hours routine was going ... when it all turned to custard.

Monday ...
3.55pm : "Hello, is this S's mom ? Can you please come and collect her ?"
4.15pm : Arrive at hospital
5.30pm : Blur of x-rays, nurses, doctors and sterile white rooms with peeling paint and uncomfortable chairs
7.40pm : Realise that there is nothing I have yet experienced more heartbreaking than watching four people physically restrain my six year old daughter while her piercing screams puncture the air (even as part of me smiles at her temper and fighting spirit ... "Get that needle out of me !! Get it out now !!!" "Go away you stupid doctor!!")
8.00pm : Fabulous new "wonder drug" is, amazingly enough, not so wonderful after all and it's decided S will be spending the night
8.30pm : Head home to pack pj's, toothbrushes and "Meow Meow" (imaginatively named toy cat) and arrange sitter for K
9.10pm : Back to hospital where I sit in the waiting room for 45 minutes while all the orderlies hide so they don't have to escort me to the ward
10.30pm, 1.00am, 3.15am, 4.20am, 5.05am, 6.30am : S wakes up crying and refuses to go back to sleep / wants the bathroom / wants to go home / wants her daddy / wants her Nana and Grandad / misses her dog ...

Tuesday ...
7.15am : Nurses arrive to prep S for surgery
8.10am : Try not to cry (or laugh) as three doctors hold her down with a mask over her face as she struggles and kicks
8.30am : Phone call from surgeon (while trying to find all day parking for the car that won't involve a huge fine, or mortgaging the house to pay for it) - surgery over, all OK
8.50am : S wakes up ... grumpy as hell and hungry
9.10am : Icecream, jelly, iceblocks and chocolate milk ... for breakfast !!!
2.30pm : Escape !!!!!

So now it's Wednesday night ... I slept like the proverbial log last night while the MOTH was up and down like a yo-yo. The MOTH spent today at home with S, and we're all back to school / work / "normal" tomorrow.

The tragedy of all this ... and bear in mind this is a six year old we're talking about here, so I don't consider use of the word "tragedy" to be overly exaggerated ... S will be in plaster for six to eight weeks, and we leave for the nationals in exactly five ...

It's 12.05pm ...

And I'm still in my pyjamas and have just had breakfast :)

Yay for weekends !!!!!

Because weekends are for relaxing ...

Someone-who-shall-remain-nameless decided that it would be a good idea for the rugrats to have swimming lessons at 9.00am on a Saturday morning. The same someone-who-shall-remain-nameless has now started working Saturdays (whoops, did I just give it away ? my bad) so I have the pleasure of hanging out at a swimming pool early in the morning ... yay.

I set my alarm for 7.50 this morning, to give myself the luxury of one "Snooze" setting before I had to get up at 8.00 (am I the only person who does this ?). Unfortunately I pushed "Off" instead of "Snooze" ... and the MOTH's dad woke me up when he rang at 8.25 with his weekly "Hi-how-are-things-how-are-the-kids going ?" phone call.

So today went like this ...
- Swimming lessons
- Drive thru McDonalds breakfast for the rugrats (because bad mommy didn't get out of bed in time to make it for them before swimming)
- Butcher
- Visit to The Warehouse to switch the MOTH's thermals (why is it that men refuse to try stuff on and then get all pissy when they get it home and it doesn't actually fit ?)
- Grocery shopping with what seemed like the entire population of Dunedin (I always take a list, written in order of store layout so I can work my way through the store in the minimum amount of time ... it still took me two hours !!!)
- Home to throw the frozen food in the freezer while the rugrats changed into their BMX gear
- A two hour coaching clinic at the track
- Laundry
- Housework
- Friends over for dinner ...

In comparison, going back to work on Monday looks positively therapeutic :)

?!?!?!?

Polar blast continues unabated.

Sitting on the floor in front of the fire (it's March ... what happened to gently easing into winter ?!?!?) ... both rugrats are warmly wrapped in flannel pjs, slippers and polar fleece robes.

Me : "dessert anyone ?" (thinking along the lines of custard, fruit pudding, Milo and cookies etc etc)

K : "Cool ! Can we have iceblocks ?"

?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Polar blast ...

“It’s sunny and we’re having gorgeous weather” says I.

Slap me with a wet bus ticket and call me a big fat liar.

Gale force winds, straight off the snow and ice at the South Pole, sleet, hail, torrential rain and grey sky … third day running.

I have to take the rugrats shopping this weekend. K has the grand total of one pair of jeans that haven’t had the knees ripped out of them, and if S doesn’t stop growing, I’m going to have to take a second job just to keep up with clothing her … she doesn’t have a chance to get bored with her clothes, she wears them twice and then they don’t fit any more !!!

At least the cold weather has meant the canteen at BMX is doing a roaring trade in hot coffee and Milo :)