Crazy Beautiful

I have neglected my blog since the big ‘tree change’(that’s what the locals call it because we’re in the middle of nowhere - not near any sea of any kind, just lots of trees!). Don’t get me wrong, I have fully intended on blogging but it is near impossible to get into here on dial up unless I wait at least 15 minutes for a page to load up.  Oh how I miss my broadband, never fear, we are having satellite broadband installed soon - the beauty about where we are is that we are eligible for the broadband scheme offered by the government which entitles us to free installation of our satellite(saving us a whopping $3000!).

Anyway, everything has been great. The kids are loving their new school of 40 odd students - such a big change from a school of 800! They are being little angels, so I am completely sure that this move has been the best thing for them.

It has been awfully cold here, minus 3 degrees the other night(my friend Karin couldn’t even do her washing the next morning as her laundry pipes were frozen). We have been rugged up inside by the open fireplace…so lovely!

As for business, well we are still working on organising suppliers. I had an order of food arrive today, but we will still need to get some fresh fruit and vege when the opening date gets nearer. The main thing now is getting the alcohol here and as long as everything goes to plan, it will be next week sometime.

Even though we haven’t officially opened yet, we have had 2 lots of guests stay and a few more bookings already. It’s all very exciting, but the commercial kitchen is a bit intimidating to a novice like me(remember, I am no domestic goddess). I always get nervous cooking for people outside of my family, but so far I have cooked for 4 guests as well as the lovely woman who owns the property here and I’ve had the thumbs up from them all. Fantastic! Not sure how I will do with a full dining room to cook for though, but I feel a bit more confident now. As intimidating as the kitchen is, it’s great having such a big space to work with and all the baking I can get up to in there!

Seriously, I have been packing for weeks now, the boxes are piling up to the point where I have to dodge them when I am walking in and out of my kitchen. Walking around in the dark is a serious hazard with random boxes all over the place. So why does my house not look any closer to being packed up than it did when I started?!

I have done my best to cull what I can. We are moving into a much smaller space so unfortunately not everything can come with us. I’ve given away things on Freecycle, I’ve given stuff to family and friends. Luckily we also have a general curbside junk collection starting next week, so we can get rid of bigger items that are broken and no longer working.

It’s a bit scary, this move. I have moved numerous times since I left home at 18. I’ve moved continents as a child because of my dad’s job. But this time, we are moving 4 hours away to a place without our families.

Being homesick in the first few weeks is a given, I will probably cry myself to sleep every night. It is a HUGE change, but it will be worth every second of it.

I can finally announce that we are moving to the country! It’s all been quite sudden. Only two weeks ago, I went to see a friend who was up from the country during the school holidays and I was telling her how outrageous the price of our rent was($350 a week for those that are curious). She then told me there was a house for rent in her town for only $120 a week! But the only problem with that would be that Matt would have to travel 4 hours from there to Perth to get on a plane to head back out in almost the same direction(it would be a 7 hour drive from the town to his work) - then the reverse trip to get home. Then jokingly I said, ‘If the pub needs a manager, then we’re there!’. Lo and behold, her husband mentions that the pub is actually up for sale.

Within a week, we had put in an offer on the pub and over the weekend our offer has been accepted! We are due to settle on the 1st of June.

So we are moving to a small farming town called Moorine Rock. It’s about 400km East of Perth, right before Southern Cross. When I say small, I mean SMALL! There is a general store, the pub and a primary school. Oh and farms…that’s about it! This will be a HUGE change from us, the city is all that Matt has known besides living on a mine site. As for me, I’ve lived in a little village in the north of Thailand where my mother was born. It’s going to take a while to adjust to the country life, especially for the kids - the city is all they know. I am really looking forward to it though, they are going to thrive in a school of 40 students as opposed to a school of 800.

Anyway, there is much to do before we go. This is the list so far:

1) Give notice to our real estate that we are vacating the premises.

2) Matt has to give 4 weeks notice to quit his job.

3) Organise to go up there soon to check out what paperwork, etc is there.

4) Apply for various licenses.

5) Set up accounts with suppliers.

6) Set up a bank account.

7) I have to sit the liquor license course to be an approved manager and obtain my responsible service of alcohol cert.
Notify the kids school that they are leaving.

9) Enrol them in their new school.

10) Pack.

11) Organise a truck to get our shit up there.

12) I think I’ve made my point.

This weeks theme is Triangle. Bailey recently acquired some ‘Magnext’ and he loves to build things with it, his favourite thing to build are these Triangles:

Check out some other photohunters at: http://tnchick.com

I went out to the local shops this morning to get some bread and milk for my inlaws who have just gotten back from a 3 week holiday in the UK. Of course, with hubby being away at work I had to take all 4 boys with me. So I am wearing Jye in the Ergo and Owen is in the stroller, the two big boys are walking along side me. We hadn’t even reached the door yet when a lady calls out, ‘gee you have your hands full’. I replied with a ‘yeah’ and rolled my eyes. Nothing that I haven’t heard about a thousand time before.

I pick up the milk, a loaf of bread and some hot cross buns, lined up in the check out, only for another lady to look at me and say, ‘are these all yours?’ with her eyebrow raised. I nodded yes.

‘Wow’ she says, ‘and is the baby a boy too?’.

‘He is.’ I replied. She exchanged a glance with the check out lady and asks me if I would be trying for a girl.

I don’t get it. First I get the looks from having four children and then in the same breath they want to know if I will have more. I should have replied with, ‘Yes, we’re going to keep popping them out til we have a girl’. I understand that I have more children than the norm, but don’t pity me, DON’T comment on the fact that I have my hands full. I know this already. I CHOSE TO HAVE 4 CHILDREN. Yes, I admitt that sometimes they can be a handful but you know what? I love every moment of my big family. There is SO much love in my house and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Baby number 5 is not totally out of the question. Perhaps one day we will have room for one more, but it will be because we want another CHILD, not to have a girl. If it IS a girl, that’s great and if not….I will love that baby just as much.

Being a mum isn’t for everyone I guess, but I really love being a mum, it’s all I ever wanted!

So I can no longer use the excuse of having a newborn baby for not having a tidy house. I am really ashamed at the state of this place at the moment, I just can’t find the balance of doing the parenting thing, socialising with my mummy friends AND keeping a clean home. If I could afford a cleaner, then I would hire one but we really can’t afford it.

I found using my blog in the past has helped me keep on track, so it’s time I utilise it again.

On todays agenda is to clean the lounge room and get rid of the clutter build up and to give my kitchen a thorough clean(yes that means doing all those dishes that have been piling up).

No before pictures this time, it’s far too embarrassing to let anyone see this place.

While I’m cleaning away, I would love to hear some tips on balancing the household duties AND having a life outside of the home!

This weeks photo hunt is hands.

These are the hands of my two eldest boys, they are only 19 months apart in age and are the best of friends.

This is my youngest, Jye, he is 3 1/2 months old and his favourite thing to do is to eat his hands!

Check out the other photohunters here.

As you probably already knew, Jayden and Bailey are from a previous relationship. Their dad lives near their school and they spend every second weekend with him. He has another son with his current girlfriend and also a daughter with his exgirlfriend.

His girlfriend has 2 children to a previous relationship and her eldest son also goes to the same school as my children, so it’s not uncommon for us to bump into each other before and after school. I wasn’t surprised when she stopped to say hello to me on Wednesday. She proceeded to tell me that they probably wouldn’t be having the boys on their next scheduled weekend. I rolled my eyes at this, the usual excuses are that he’s too tired or they want to go out. So imagine my surprise when she tells me that he had been in court the day before and spent the night in Hakea Prison, he was getting extradited to Adelaide, South Australia that very afternoon. I honestly had no idea what to say to her, I was afraid to even ask what he had done.

She told me that the exgirlfriend’s(the mother of his daughter) cousin is accusing him of raping her 4 years ago. I’m still in two minds on whether this is true or not. For one, why did she not say anything sooner? Is this just a payback thing because he is refusing to pay his ex child support? Then again, he has done some pretty horrible things in his past, so should I be surprised?

So he is gone, for how long I’m not sure. I haven’t had any other information, I don’t know if he is in jail there. I don’t know if he has been to court. All I know is that I have two children that will be wanting to see their dad soon and I have no idea what to tell them. I am praying that they won’t ask until after he’s been to court. Maybe he’s innocent and he’ll be back before then and they will be none the wiser.

If he is guilty and goes to jail, how do I tell them?

I don’t really know how I feel about all this. I feel sorry for him, but at the same time I feel like this is karma coming back to get him for all the terrible things he has done. Mostly, I am glad I got out of that toxic relationship with him all those years ago, I am glad my children weren’t there to see him disappear.

I haven’t participated in the photohunt for a while now, but I got a new camera and it’s inspired me to join in again! Photohunt is so much fun!!!

The theme this week is yellow.

yellow paper wasp

This is a yellow paper wasp. They have been really bad at our place over the summer, thankfully only hubby has been the one to get stung once and not the kids! We have a car out back that isn’t running and they have been living behind the back brake light.

They also live in one of the trees out back, it’s a cross between a lemon and an orange tree, the yellow ones taste sweet and the orange ones taste sour! Go figure.

Lemon/orange tree

Check out some other photohunters here.

I know I have been awfully quiet here and that can only mean one thing…I’ve been eating naughty foods and have been avoiding this place so I don’t have to admit it. So I admit I haven’t been eating great the past few days, it’s always so much harder when hubby is home as he likes to eat out alot.

Last night would have done the most damage but it was so worth it. I actually got out of the house without any kids to have dinner with some of my other mummy friends. We went to a Mexican place called Pancho’s.

I made sure I had enough expressed breast milk for Jye so that I could treat myself to a fishbowl cocktail.

That’s me on the left and I promise that was the one and only drink we had that night!

Dinner was a yummy chicken and mushroom burrito. It was absolutely divine, but I shudder to think what the calories would have been! Dessert was a banana wrapped in a crepe and smothered in Kahlua…delish!

My beautiful friends

None of us get out much to have dinner and drinks with friends so I think that’s what made the night so wonderful! Good food and great company! I would gladly give up the diet for a night to spend time with these lovely women!