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

christmas is nearly here

hi everyone its nearly Christmas being here it doesn't feel like Christmas and i just can't get in to the spirit of Christmas it is probably because we are used to the cold weather and here it is 33 today we went shopping for our Christmas food I'm not used to it being just us on Christmas day as we always went to my mum and dad for dinner and this year I'm doing the cooking when i cook for the kids and its not burnt they often ask if its cooked so you can imagine what Christmas dinner is going to be like i think we will have a BBQ and i will let Greg do all the cooking as BBQ are a mans thing .

today i woke up with a bad back so I've been on pain killers and lots of water all day i just hoping it better tomorrow i don't fancy spending Christmas day in hospital . for those who suffer from back pain if you get dehydrated that can effect your back .

callum got a Christmas card today from one of his friends in the UK this made him want to go back home but I've been having the same feelings over the past few weeks i don't like feeling unsettled and at the moment we are renting a house and come march the 25Th we might be moving on and its the thought of packing again and finding a new place to live i just want my own house at the moment we don't know if Adelaide is right for us and we have been looking at moving to Sydney in the future . anyway i've got to go its bedtime speak to you all soon
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

10 days till christmas

hi everyone last week was the last week for the kids at school for 6 weeks the only good thing about this is i don't have to get up early to take them to school i think that schools have to many holidays you are probably thinking 6 weeks but yes in Australia there summer holidays are over Christmas . we went to our first Ozzy Christmas party this weekend with the kids it was no fun because i don't drink and i was in a house full of drunk people i felt sorry for Greg because he was driving and could not drink, i met a few nice people and some that like to drink and drive the police would have had a field day. yesterday we gave the kids one of there Christmas present it is a trampoline ever since i put it up they have been outside the reason we gave it to them was so they burn off all there energy and to keep them from under my feet for the next 6 weeks i have also started helping them with there school work because the education here is differant here than in the uk so the kids are behind with reading and maths so i have 6 weeks to get them up to speed its going to be hard but i think we will get there i will keep you up to speed got to go now . merry christmas and a happy new year it would be nice to see how many people follow my blog so could everyone that reads it leave a christmas message good bye
hi marie+ philip are you ok? are you all set for christmas
hi pauline how are you ? merry christmas give our best wishes to the family i have sent out christmas cards but today i found some that i forgot to post with the rest of the cards so i will post them tomorrow but you might not get them until after christmas

sorry I've not posted anything for a few weeks but nothing much has happened the kids are still doing my head in i know they are still settling in but they are such hard work more so callum i think he has become the bratty teenager abit early he is going through the everybody hates me phase he had a bad day today because its Caitlin's birthday tomorrow he wanted games for his DS because everybody gets toys and he does not but little did he know we went out a got him a PlayStation 3 and a 17" tv to help him settle in because he had to leave his xbox 360 and wii back in the UK until we can get it shipped over i know you are probably thinking that we are stupid and Christmas is only a few weeks away but its a good think because it keeps him and Greg form under my feet because Greg is just like the kids for doing my head in .

about three weeks ago Greg got me a car as i told you in my last post anyway i had to go and change my licence over to a south Australian learners permit all the info on the transport website says you can change your licence over if you are from certain country's and the UK was one of them on the list but nothing in Australia is simple i spoke to someone on the phone at the licensing centre and i was told that could get my full licence in 6 months because in the UK i had my provisional since 1997 and i got up to doing my test before i got pregnant with callum so with that i took my paper work in to the office thinking that it would be simple they would change it over and that would be that but that was not the case i had to wait for 30 Min's then i was seen by a woman that had never seen a UK provisional before so she had to show 3 other people before telling me that it was none transferable and i had to start from the beginning again but ever that is not as easy as sighing a form like to UK she wanted me to sit a test so i had to buy the highway code book from her and a week later i went back and another 30 Min's and 4 people later i got to sit my test i went to do it without telling anyone not even Greg just in case i failed it so i got took in to a room and sat in front of a computer Connor was with me he had just woke up so he spent the whole time screaming and throwing thing i dread to think what thought of me but even with that i still pasted my test so now i have to do 50 hours of driving and another test just to get my provisional 1 then i have to do another test to get my provisional 2 and in two-three years time i will get my full licence so if anyone is thinking of coming to oz pass your test before you come or bring proof of how many hours driving you have done from you driving instructor .

greg took me out for my first lesson last week on a car park he wont take me on a road he had me driving up and down up and down stop start i ended up giving up after 25 mins he was starting to shout at me it didnt help having connor and caitlin in the car and every time i stoped they took there belts off and wanted to get out the car and go the park and since then he has not offered to take me out again and to top it off he has offered to pay for my 50 hours driving do you thik he trying to tell me something .

i forgot to tell you connor has started to sleep in his own bed this week for the first time in 3 years he has done it for a full week and we are now trying to get him out of nappies but its like pulling teeth trying to get the nappies off him because he wont wear underpants he hates them and screams the place down if there is a potty of some underpants in the room because the first week we moved into this house Connor found a white tip spider in his potty so he wont go near it now so i had to go out and buy him a wiggles toilet seat up to now he has used it 5 times and that was only because i ran out of nappies so i keep my fingers crossed that he will be out of them by Christmas anyway got to go now if i don't write anymore before Christmas MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

hi Philip and Marie sorry Ive not got round to replying to your email how did your weekend go
hi Pauline how r you how is rach and baby
hi Gerry got your email this year Ive made a DVD for you all so that will be sent out this week
i will be sending you all some Christmas cards and DVD that i made myself of the Golden's in oz I'm hoping you will get it before Christmas anyway bye for now

sorry Ive not posted anything for a few weeks but we've had trouble with the Internet because when we arrived in Australia we signed up with a company called telstra for the phone Internet and foxtell and ever since we have hat nothing but trouble with them over the Internet package we have had 3 bills in the since the 25th Sept bill 1 $39.99 bill 2 $127.00 and bill 3 $1014.00 and here they pay there bills every month so Greg has been in to the shop a few times to try and sort it out and every time he is told that the bill has been wiped clean but it still shows on the Internet that we owe it I'm shore that we will sort it out soon also we are not the only people to have this problem so if anyone is thinking of coming to Australia shop around.

this week we have had a few bad days both with the family and the weather on Saturday the day started off good we were going to have a nice day out looking for my Christmas present i will tell you about this in a minute anyway we were all set to go out i was getting the kids ready and next thing we hared a bang i looked up and looked at the TV and there was a big crack in the screen with it being a LCD TV it looked like it was a cartoon crack as we were watching cartoons at the time but it was the TV that was cracked so you can imagine what happened next it turns out that callum , Caitlin and Megan were stood in front of the TV and Connor asked them to move and they wouldn't so threw the remote at callum at this point callum moved and it hit the TV so that was a $1000 TV down the drain so we had to go out and buy another $1000 TV at this point i didn't want to get another TV i sat and cryed and i could quite easily got on the plane back home so none of them got any treats that day.

MY CHRISTMAS PRESENT
after the TV incident and i stopped crying we went and got the TV and then we went and got my present you will never guess what Greg got me ?

he got me a new ford fiesta its coming tomorrow you are probably thinking i didn't now that she could drive the answer is i Can't so that's my next job to learn to drive the only thing is Greg is teaching me you can imagine what my first lesson is going to be like he will probably give me one lesson and not want to give me anymore so wee will see i will keep you up dated with my progress .
christmas feels funny here we are not used to having sun at christmas alot of people here have got there christmas decorations up already back home we only put ours up a few days before because they didnt last very long in our house by boxing day there would be nothing left of the tree anyway ive go on for long enough goodbye
hi marie and philip how r thing i hope philip is feeling better tell him we are thinking of him say happy birthday to vincent for us
hi pauline how r you rachel and baby? tell chris hello

a few pictures for the family

and here is greg with his new toy 



hi mum here is the pictures you asked for this is my house