Drama in town

Drama in town

The twins were in a school play the last week, a few days off school and having fun with their peers in a play written out by the English teacher- not much older than my boys!

Their Year Nine reports al la NAPLAN came today, they are above their peers for the year they are in- looks like single dads can have some success. 

Three years to go before they leave school, time is speeding up on me... apron strings- two gone two left.

My boys are struggling on in the big circus of Out Of Home- government and big business are losing my confidence- I hope that the boys have dreams that can be fulfilled without help from them.

It is really weird how the governments are cutting help for the unemployed while big business are having to cut employees. Go Figure.

nanny reads to the gels

Just an old pic on the wall board

But poppy liked it, Tarn's Mum and her gels

Get It? Her girls- Who's gels? Hers! Who? Well, Tarn's and Bev's gels then.

Nanny Bev and my twins- gel#1b &  gel#1a, eldest gel got pink for evermore....

I was asked a while ago to print off a pic of my gels by Tarns's dad when he was around for a meal, oh, about the time of  Mother's Day here in Oz.

"Yep, no worries" I said.

With trepidation. Several thousand pics to go through on the hard drive....

At least I had roughly a time in their growth

1. they were on Nanny's knee.
2. there was no lamp table next to the chair.
3. Nanny did not have a wig on.
4. they were walking.
5. it was well before we lost Nanny to cancer.
6. they loved being read to.
7. pics were not labelled, but all pics were foldered year, month and day.

Today, before lunch, I sat down here and did that calculation above.

Easy peasy. Five minutes or so.
Next was to process the pic, cropping and so on.
Then print off. First print on matt paper trying out the bottom one
Nah, the print was too grey to me, so fancied it up and printed the next one off on Kodak glossy. Shit, nearly late for work! Not really five minutes at all, haha.

Later. "Noice".

original

no tick?

tick?

Next installment tbalance the books, their paternal nanny!

Currently A New Year

Doh!
Oh der Fred Marvin! Catch up!

The kids have started a new school year- #2Son his second last year of Secondary School, and the twins, #1gel and #2Gel have just started their first day at Secondary School. #1Son will soon start second year at the Big Smoke Uni, and in the meantime, has got himself a new single bedroom apartment. For the same price. With a kitchenette and ensuite. One glass and two plates, a set of cutlery for one. I think. Yesterday I dropped off some stuff for his place, but he did not want too much. Mugs, plates. BTW, next week he has jury selection!

The gels had a big summer holiday. Lots of sleepovers with mates here and away, heaps of swimming pool stuff. We did not get to the ocean beach even once. But we had fun I suppose. Sometimes- they had Six gels running around here, [which means I run to my man-cave and bunker in with some HM rum and coke and the teev ...] Movies. Xmas with their aunts and uncles and granparents here and there. But it was a cool xmas day. And filling.  Both times! Ta Dee and bro.

#2Son had fun- FooFighters, Big Day Out, lotsa skaten an' biken' an' time with his little cutey 'L'.

I took my lil yacht out. Once. I went to the pics once, to see A Few Best Men. (not that great, okay tho. Too Aussie).

Last week, me and the gels went around getting the new uniform stuff and school stuff. The dresses and jackets cost a small fortune, got two of each, a size 10 and a size 12 in case there is a growth spurt some time this year. Gotta be prepared! But the smaller size was tailored (for another small fortune) and they looks just fine. The downer was that some one suggested I really should have bought four size 8 instead. Pessimists. Whatever bonuses I received (ta everyone) for getting all this school stuff (for three of them) was not quite enough, och well, and still gotta get some clogs for the #2Son! I mean Skate-shoes suitable enough for school...

Yesterday [at 8am! After a 2 hour drive..] I got to see a specialist about whether I had MS or not. I have a mild case. There. And will see him again. Next year. And drove home from the Big Smoke after seeing Son#1. Back to a crazy work schedule, and then after that, More damn school supplies shopping! At least they had practically everything to start the new year off.

Bearded. After the Big day Out Weegen

Another one-on-one thing we have between #2Son and me is the learning to drive a vehicle... As he has a little delivery job around town, I have started to let him drive me around in order to get some hours up on his logbook. He needs 120 hours worth before he can do his driving test for a licence, and that is a lot of petrol man- work it out. Och well. There is the definite one-on-one time, even if I am trying to stop the car with my mental powers at times... So I thought that with two years, just an hour a week should be fine. Nah, give in a little, and it is two hours a week. Dang. Quarter of the way there already! And we are still alive too. Hmm.

Last weegen, he and his mate Max went to the Big Smoke all by themselves on the train to the Big Day Out, a series of Concerts by big bands and the lesser known newbies. I think he had a good time.  I bought him his ticket months ago and he only just paid it back to me just in time. He had worked his butt off for it too, or else! They stayed at my niece's place nearby, so it was all good- just a hop skip and jump- or 15 minute walk away. Really growing up noo!

I have been left alone in the house a few times the last few months. Strange. Getting close to the empty nest stage. Maybe get to have the house the way I want it. Clean, neat, tidy. Hmm. And just me?

Reintroduce Family Custom

The Old Sunday Ritual
Sock Sorting


Saturday is alright for washing, eh?
And trying to be organised- the "Do As I Say Not Do What I Do" class.


This particular weegen, for some 'weird' reason, a realisation.


Arising from the dead slumber of a sleep-in,
getting out of the system the usual Satdee morning ritual of
screaming
"dirty clothes! dirty clothes!"
at the TV zombies and at the
teen that had had a late night, and
before a cold coffee
[filled but forgot to Boil the kettle before sitting down for brekky After Hanging Out some washing], and
while hanging out the washing...


I realised I may have overlooked a key element in the accruing of millstones around my neck...


There was TOO MANY SOCKS TO HANG OUT. Why?


Three kids and me, say, a pair of socks each per day- 28 pairs- say nearly 60 actual socks? Okay 56... 5x3=30 white school socks, plus me and weegen stuff... should be less than 56!


As the socks came out of the laundry basket to be hung up, I realised that there was MORE than usual...
So I started counting- [shut UP Muttley] and got to about 50 with still more to come out of the Magical Basket....And more smalls than you can poke a long long pole at!
And this was just the first load, the whites...


ARHGHGRG!#$%%^


What have I done?


Time to delegate? Why should I spend time sorting whites, coloureds and goth* clothing out, but really? Can't they do it all now? And then watch out that it doesn't rain on the dang drying clothes as well.
although does seem to actually make sense to have the Internet and the Rain Radar. Worthwhile? Oh yeah!

Thinking- a friend of the kids stayed over, so there was a quick bedroom clean up before the spare mattresses were laid out, and the lounge had a few socks in the armchair creases [Muttley, Shut Up]. And under them too...?

So then I was thinking too, if there are all these socks, should they be tested before washing that the things were actually worn? A [uhg] smell test... I just throw things in the machine if they are are in the laundry hamper... And today there was stuff about to be rewashed that were definitely not seen in the fashion parade this week that were done last weegen...

Which was followed by the [groan] idea that when the dry stuff comes off the drying line and back into the house, there should be a ritual- Sock Pairing, like we used to do after dinner on a Sunday night many years ago. I am not sure why or how I let it go, but necessity and inventiveness and better things to to do are inevitably and indubitably overcome by laziness and laizes affaire*, I guess.

So. More discipline on the parents hands... on the other hand, less screaming? On a Satdee morning? Nah, that shows we are communicating, does it not?

Sunday night for sorting sox.
And putting Away, sox.



Goth- All the black clothes, but not Gothic style.
Sox- many pairs of socks, like in a Murder of Crows, a Mob of Cattle, you know?
* no idea right context

Painting painting painting

Painting with Rollers

Some one on one not really.

How does instructing teeners interior decorating sound?
Terrible?
Yep.

Results- great!

The journey... Needed to bring the ladder back for a few accidents on the ceiling borders. A few THICK spots. practically nil drips on the carpet. Skill set- new! For kids, they did a great job. And the overalls!

Is that all? Did not hurt at all!

It took 2 weeks to sort out a limp...
The limp was from a walkathon done at school for the school...


The tip TAP tip Tap down the hall before breakfast said it all.
It does hurt Daddy!
Well, I thought a sprain should have gone by then too.
Thinking back on my friend's girl- well, I better do something, she walked around with a broken bone in the foot for six months, must be a sore point with her Mum now...

A change over

But who does the Change?
And then. When it's done... what is missed.

Son#1 left the Hoose [temporarily] in February to stay in The Big Smoke for tertiary studies, sharing a place with some other noisy YAs.

He was supposed to sort out what he wanted to keep here for when he came back home and to sort the junk out so that Son#2 could have his room... He was going to use the Piano Room on his return home, not as big as his old room, but as he sleeps all day and parties elsewhere all night- only needs a sofa bed...

Uh oh, it's .....here

The Kid Doc Prog...
Looks Like "We are There"

Penultimate visit, climatic moment, the pre bit is over, now I am in for the Terrible Teen Twin Syndrome.
Fer Shure...

With luck, some nice female rels I know may bail me out, by taking them away? Or being on permanent Red Alert (hint) for the next two years. I am prepared, bathroom cupboard has essentials, and by last weegen phone calls, the bitchy part of nature is starting to reveal itself too I think. The recent sweet school photos are hiding something, or maybe I am paranoid. Since Easter..... things are changing.

Son#2 was or can be even now a sullen sob at times, and now that I have been through that shite/going thru I can see the "evilness" coming upon me. Woe is me. Why was Son#1 so easy at this stage. Or. Was. It. ? Hm.

I am in no position pike out of it either. It is somewhat amusing that I keep thinking now, "Tarn would be/do/not/hoping/glad/panic/...etc/etc"

I may even have to enlist some of the boy's female friends to find out whether I am on the right track or not.

The kid docs prognosis is [twilight zone music or gremlins?] that we, they, are officially not far off a visit to.....

Myers Bra Outfittery?

T-shirts and Religions, A Clash

A double row of plates down her back.




Growing up, and deciding what is what

Remember Charlottes dinosaur tee shirt, the ridge back thing? Maybe you don't, but somehow or other, she has one that has purple stegosaurus plates sewn in a row down the back. I do not know whether Stegs were yellow or had ponytails and a snagglely tooth, but the current walking talking one does.

Drop-ins and shopping spree...

Busy day yesterday- the baby had banged her foot on the first day of the "Feaster Weegen" and been limping all week long- so Thursday I managed to get a doctors appointment- I prompted an emergency need like I thought she may need a x-ray? And only had to wait 25 minutes, and then off to th ex-ray place. No call about a broken foot last night, that was good, but;

Surprise telephone call last night. From my brother [another one] who also has a motor bike, one of the latest Triumphs too.

A ten o'clock drop in tomorrow? Sure I said, sure.