merry christmas

hi all sorry I've not added anything since we moved  we would like to wish you all a merry Christmas and a very happy new year.

 today is 42 its been hot for a few days now but its going to go down to 28 on Christmas day for me it doesn't feel like Christmas that's the thing people don't think about when they come to Australia that Christmas is a family time and to spend Christmas on your own its not the same and i also miss the weather believe it or not i can't cope with the heat some days i don't even leave the house .

it's also that time again SCHOOL HOLIDAYS it's the one time of the year i hate having the kids home for 6 WEEKS i love them to bits but they do my head in when we are stuck in the house all day because it's to hot yesterday they decided to have a pillow fight in the TV room and broke a glass so i gave them a job to do  i gave them all a block of wood and tub of filler and some shells and beads and the end result was the 4 very nice pictures above so today we might make some cup cakes or maybe not 4 kids and a bag of flour ?

a few weeks ago it was the last day of school so it  would have been the 11Th December anyway i picked the kids up from school as usual and we walked it home when we got in i sat down and fell asleep for about 10 Min's and i was woken up by Caitlin when i opened my eyes she looked like a ghost she was covered head to foot in flour her and connor had been having a flour fight in the kitchen i wish you all could have seen it my kitchen was white i have a grey floor and that was white the flour was every were anyway i've got to say goodbye connor is being connor again and i don't mean in a good way .

hi marie and phil how are you? hows the family? we will phone you again over christmas .

hi pauline how are you? hows the family? we will phone you over christmas merry christmas miss you all  lisa 

hi we have now finally moved in to our new house we have been here 1 week and 2 days I'm glad we moved out of that other house when we moved all our stuff we found 3 red backs in the house. never trust real estate agents i think they were put on this earth to rip people off i spent 2 days after we moved out cleaning that red back nest before they came to inspect the house so that we could get the$2000 bond back  and we were told the toilet was not clean enough  there was dirt on the cooker hood  and there were dirty foot prints on the floor but the thing was i had moped the floors just before she came in and the muddy foot print were hers so as of yet we have not got the bond back anyway we seem to be getting this house sorted everyone seem abit calmer here greg does not shout as much so i dont have as many headaches the kids have there own playroom and big garden and we are getting foxel put in there room next week so i should get my tv back and i might just get a bit of peace and quiet for the first time in 10 years. how is everyone doing ? here are some more photos of the new house the furniture you see in the photos are not ours .

hi everyone this is the house we have just bourght we move in september 21 if you want to see the inside go to www.realestate.com
click on sold properties
click SA
enter suburb: banksia park
and it is Marsha drive
weather has not been that good we have had lots of rain it reminds me of back home we have been here nearly 12 months now we have had a tough time there has been more downs than up i just hope buying this house will make us feel more settled so far life has not been better here we have done nothing but argue over everything not just me and Greg but callum and Greg don't seem to be getting on . callum hates Australia he wants to go back to England because he misses his nans and grandad so everything we ask him to do ends in him playing up so i hope he settles in when we move. we still have days when we feel like coming home but if we did we wouldn't have anything Greg job is more stressful here i don't know how he does it i couldn't and to top it off a few weeks ago i was ill with a virus and ended up going to hospital to have a ECG because i had an irregular heart beat but I'm getting over that now .

hi Marie Phil miss you loads
congratulations Suzanne on the birth of your baby boy
hi Pauline how are you ?

hobby

hi everyone this week i took up a hobby you will laugh when i tell you what it is i took up knitting when i finish if i ever do i will post a picture of it i must be getting old you wouldn't think i was only 30 i feel alot older thinking back 10 years ago i spent all of my time in pubs and club 3-4 nights a week i used to drink and smoke and now i don't drink or smoke and i don't go through the door in bed by 11 and I've started knitting that's the signs of getting old .

the house i was telling you about in my last post we missed out on it because the owner would not wait until end of Sept ho well we are now looking at living in Adelaide hill with all the snakes that's what Greg wants anyway i want to live in the foot hills near the shopping centres so i can get a job . Greg got a second opinion about his back it is not as bad has he was told hes not ready for the scrap Heep just yet but he still thinks he can get out of doing thing because he is a man his back is worse than everything a woman could have . anyway i better go and make the kids tea hope the british weather is better than here its winter and its cold and wet its like being back home .

may

hi all things are starting to look up where the house is concerned we are going to see the mortgage company on the 18Th and hopefully we will have a house in no time it only takes about 6 weeks to buy a house here from start to finish

things are still up and down with the family kids are still playing up Connor is becoming out of control today he decided to put pepper in the butter give his self a bath in cold water tip all the ear buds in the bin and put toothpaste all over the window ledge and that's in between being a power ranger and fighting the bad guys (the bad guys are callum,Megan, Caitlin ) so you can imagine what its like here if that's not enough Greg has had a bad back and sciatica so its been like having 5 kids and i've been ill again i've been ill more time in 7 months here than i have in 2 years in the uk it must be all the stress i'm still not sure that we've made the right chose people say it gets better but we still get home sick at leased 3 times a week i hate weekend when gregs at work because i've not passed my driving test yet so me and the kids dont get to go to far away and thats seems to be when the kids play up the most so i have to tell them off so they always want to go back to england

march

hi everyone sorry I've not posted anything for a while but we have had my mum and  dad and Greg's mum over for a 2 weeks it was the the first time Greg's mum has been to Australia i think she enjoyed herself Greg didn't see much of them because work wouldn't give him have any time of instead he had to do more late's than usual the kids loved having them here but it was hard for them when they went home while they were here me and Greg treated our self's to two days away from the kids and we stayed in a nice hotel in the city it was nice to take a bit of time out of our busy life's to do nothing .

kids have finally settled into school callum has made friends he likes his new teacher Caitlin loves school Megan loves school  and Connor is still a power ranger .

this last few weeks its been hard for me and Greg because the lease was up on the house we are renting this month and we were so we sighed the lease for another because we wanted to stay here for another 12 months  so we don't have to move the kids as they were starting to feel settled but the new lease was only for 6 months so Greg signed it and took it in to ask if we could extend it to 12 months then to be told they the owner intends to knock the house as soon as they get planning permission and to top it off last week the coating on the bath started to bubble and we were told the owner does not want to spend any money on the house unless it becomes a health and safety problem and the other day was the last straw when harry (the dog) killed a rat in the garden we were all set for coming home because up to now we have had spiders, mice ,cockroaches , lizards and now rats all in 6 months 

heat wave

hi everyone since Christmas  we have had some really hot weather 2 weeks ago it was as high as 45 they say it was the hottest day in 70 years it just our luck it happens the year we decided  to move here   we have not had much luck since we came here the house we are in we have had red backs and white tip spiders and now we have found a mouse I'm now just waiting for the snake to top it off

 last week we were told we could only get a$200.000 mortgage you are probably thinking that's alot but the only house that will buy is one that's falling down the average house price is $300.00-$360.000 this means that we will have to stay in this house for another few years our lease is up in march we now have to decide if we are staying in this house or move on but moving on could be a problem because we went and got the kids a dog   and alot of rentals don't allow pets so we might end up staying here  and on the same day Greg crashed the car into the garage wall and damaged the car that day we just wanted to go home we seem to be having alot of them days but when we have a bad day we take the kids to the beach and  that reminds us the reason we came here 

 i started my driving lessons on Saturday and i have drove for 2 and a half  so far just another 47 & half to go.

callum as starting to settle in at school now he has started playing cricket  at dinner times with a few of his class mates 

Megan as gone the opposite way she hates school and her behaviour at home is terrible we just don't know what to do with her 

Caitlin she started school and she loves it she is a pleasure to take to school she gets all her own stuff ready for school not like the others if i don't do it it doesn't get done 

Connor is out of nappies and he has started Aussie rules this week he loves it he got a free ball and water bottle he starts play group this Friday he can't wait for that

Greg has had stressful days at work because of the heat everybody is going mad so he is fun to live with at the moment 

and then there is me I'm just me plodding along trying to keep everybody happy  i suppose its true what they say the first 12 months you will hate it  in 2 weeks time my mum and dad and Greg's mum are coming over for 2 weeks so that's something to look forward to the only thing is Greg's works wont give him any time off when they come  anyway got to go  i will keep you updated 

christmas is over

hi sorry I've not posted anything sooner but Ive had a bad time over Christmas and new year everybody keeps telling me that's normal if someone gave me a plane ticket in the weeks running up to Christmas i would have gone back to England i think I'm getting over that now and look forward to what 2009 has to offer its not been that good so far we have had nothing but bad luck so far but it can only get better .

CHRISTMAS DAY

on Christmas day we spent it at home just us and the BBQ me and the kids were in our PJ'S until about 2 o clock the kids were really good they only got up at 8.30 and wouldn't open there presents until i got up witch was really good of them the only thing was when they opened there presents we couldn't get in to the living room for toys her is a picture of what is was like it took us all day to clean away the mess we are still getting rid of the boxes .

BOXING DAY

we spent at Helen and Tony's house just us and the kids we had a lovely meal and i had a few glasses of champagne and 2 glasses of wine and for me that alot as i don't drink and they got the kids a present Connor was funny when Helen gave him his dinner he came to me and said i don't want my dinner but has Helen got us anymore presents .

NEW YEARS EVE

was spent just us and it went down hill from there we were supposed to have been going out with a couple and there kids to the park but they canceled at the last minute then Greg ended up at the doctors you can just imagine trying to find a doctor on new years eve it took me an hour of ringing around to find one that would see him and at mid night we were killing a white tipped spider so new years eve was not much fun and i just wanted to go back to the uk

NEW YEARS DAY

we took the kids to the park for a few hours then we took the kids out for a meal and ice cream in semaphore it was nice to sit and have a meal with the kids when they are being good i enjoyed it

we decided to go for a trip to Murray bridge for the day it took us an hour to get there and when we did we were there for all of 20 Min's there is nothing much there and most places were shut so we had something to eat at red rooster then we made our way home and on the way home we spotted a wildlife park so we took the kids and half way around Greg wanted me to take some pictures of him so as we stopped and as he past the camera to me i put the strap around my neck and i felt something sting me Greg told me to stop being soft and take the photo he said it was my chain then i felt it again and again so i put my hand on the back of my neck and pulled a big bull ant off the back of my neck so we had to go to the cafe to get some vinegar to put on it so that was that we had to go home i had a slight reaction to it it always happens to me I'm just waiting to be eaten by a shark or bit by a red back I'm the most unluckiest person i now

this week I've started to potty train Connor for the hundred time on Monday he took his nappy off for a few hours but screamed to have it back on we have a green potty for him but when we moved here we woke up one morning to find a white tip spider in it so he wouldn't go on it after that so what i tried this week it was a no go so yesterday i took the kids to the shopping centre because it was to hot for them to play outside in it reached 41 anyway i was in Kmart and i spotted some wiggles underpants so i got him some hoping i could get him to wear them and then when we went to the till Megan spotted a wiggles potty so i had to get it as you can probably guess he likes the wiggles and now i Carnt get him off the potty and he only wears nappies at bed time