Does Australia Post hate everyone, or just me?

Why is that Aussie post loses our stuff?

Every Christmas this happens

Gifts for the girls that were sent from Wollongong two weeks ago haven't arrived and my gift from New York hasn't arrived...

Poor Glen felt so bad about my gift from him not being here for me to open on Christmas morning, that he spent almost $200 on flowers, wine and chocolates and guess what...............?

They didn't arrive either!!!!!!!!

I can't blame Australia Post on that one though.
But I will blame a supposed top Australian online florist... should I put the link in?

I wasn't going to wait another day, so I rang the florist this morning, they gave me a wark story about "malfunctioning computer due to the number of orders...."
uh huh...riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight....wow malfunctioning for a week.... and I know nothing about anything....

so basically... the florist couldn't be bothered doing the order.
I said "refund him"

We've had so many things go missing that it's a fingers crossed situation every time something gets posted to us. And it doesn't matter where it's being sent from. Stuff being sent now has to be insured and registered, and it shits me when I buy stuff on ebay in America that I can't get here, they get mailed and they end up in some unknown person's possession and I can't buy them again. Like my a standing teddy bear cake tin, my gorgeous highly sort after silver glitter peep toe stilettos (oh how I miss my silver glitter peep toes that I never got to wear!) And crystal dolphins from Prague that my sister sent to me... DAMMIT!!!

I have bought THE dress, yes THE most beautiful dress, it's a dress I found after looking at over 2000 dresses (it was probably more) and I have fallen in love with THE dress, but THE dress has to remain in New York until I can pick it up, there is no way that I will ever let THE dress be posted to me because I have no faith that THE dress will turn up here and I will never be able to find another one. I will post pictures of THE dress when things are set :)

Farewell to 2008.. you were the worst of years, but also the best..

I am the happiest I've been in years!

AND I am the lowest weight I've been since my sister's wedding in 2000 (that would partly be due to the severe gastro I had on Sunday which had me so nauseated, dehydrated and sick that my dad had to take me to hospital on for injections (and I'm allergic to stemetil and maxalon the normal anti nausea drugs so I was given a phenergan injection... and OMG the pain!!!!)...but as sick as I was I lost a few kilos lol... I can always find a positive :)

BRING ON 2009!!!!

Happy New Year everyone, I hope 2009 is wonderful for you all
I've got big news to share soon.. hopefully :)
xx

Ho ho HO One more sleep til Santa comes!

Christmas Christmas CHRISTMAS!!!!!

love it love it love it!!!!

I'm sooooo excited for Christmas this year!
It's my favourite day, has been since I was little. It's not because of the gifts, it's because of how we were/are as a family.

Last Friday night we went to Carols by Candlelight in King Edward Park. Which was fun, apparently screaming isn't singing, thanks for letting me know Boo :P

I love Christmas smells, especially pine, cooking smells and spices. There's also a certain freshly unwrapped plastic smell that reminds me of Christmas when I was little and when the girls were little. I love it.

Christmas was never celebrated as a religious event in our home, we did go to Church (every Sunday etc) But Christmas was all about our immediate family. But tonight I am taking the girls to Midnight Mass, I have my reasons for doing it and I think it will be nice for them to experience it.

My family is German and every year we had a live Christmas tree which we chose together and decorated on Christmas Eve, we spent the day cooking traditional German biscuits, and making all kinds of different foods. And on Christmas morning when we unwrapped our gifts, the house smelled like pine, it was amazing and something I will never forget.

We have our Christmas traditions that were started years ago and this year we're adding another one, The Hunter Valley Gardens Christmas lights, thought it would be nice to take the girls up there for dinner and the lights display.

I believe that Christmas is unlike any other celebration throughout the year. Birthdays are for individuals, anniversaries are for couples, Christmas is about family and friends being equal the whole day.

Financially this year, it's our worst Christmas ever, even with Mr Rudd's Christmas bonus, which was already spent on bills. But I wont let the financial situation get me down.
Emotionally, I'm fantastic. I have two healthy, happy daughters, the love of someone special, a fantastic family and for the first time in years I'm free from any kind of abuse, what more could I ask for :)

I don't care why Christmas started or where it began, there are so many different cultural beliefs, traditions etc that are now a part of Christmas that it really doesn't matter anymore.

It's about love, togetherness, family, friends, celebration, joy and a million other things.



CHRISTMAS ROCKS!

BIG RANT and elf gifts

Very happy with how the gifts were received last night.
Almost everyone came up and said thank you, which was really lovely.
I learned something last night... all the worry meant NOTHING, because when I realised that a few people didn't come up and say thanks, I didn't bother worrying myself as to whether or not they liked their gift, I just thought well if they didn't like it then they should've volunteered to be an elf :)

Now my rant...

This morning I was at the RSPCA vet clinic to buy some Advantage for our beautiful cats, and some people walked in with a box, a cute little kitten was poking it's head out.
The first thought in my head was "get out you don't want to hear this"
I wasn't quick enough to get out the door, and I heard the man say

"We just found this box of kittens in the carpark"

My heart sunk, it infuriates me when people are irresponsible with animals.
This is how we ended up with Loki. Because people get animals and can't be bothered having them desexed.
Loki's mum wasn't desexed and she was allowed to wander outside and so was Loki's dad (Loki's dad was later mauled by dogs and Loki's mum was taken to the RSPCA when the family decided they didn't want their six cats anymore) When Loki was born, and Bianca begged me to let her have a kitten, I didn't want to, I knew Arella wouldn't like it and then there's the extra cost. I rang the RSPCA to ask how they were going with abandoned kittens and I remember her saying they were inundated with them, so I gave in and essentially saved a kitten from a needle death.

I searched for numbers on how many animals are euthanased yearly and reading articles on animals in shelters was getting too heartbreaking.

I found this "71% of cats and 56% of dogs never make it out of a shelter" and

"Every day across Australia, 550 HEALTHY cats and dogs are euthanased DAILY"

DAILY!?!!!
That's almost 201,000 aYEAR!!!!!
and doesn't include the animals that are just dumped, left to roam, or taken to the bush to turn feral or die.

One of the main reasons for not getting the animal desexed is cost.
These are some others

• Desexing will change her personality.

• It is better to have a litter of kittens before desexing her.

• I want for my children to see the miracle of birth.

NONE OF THESE ARE A GOOD ENOUGH EXCUSE!

If you can't afford desexing then get a budgie or fish.

There are options for people who don't have a lot of money, you can get discounts

According the NDN these are some Benefits of Desexing

Health

• Reduced risk of getting cancer or other diseases of the reproductive organs, such as testicular cancer, prostate cancer/disorders in males, and cystic ovaries, ovarian tumors,
  acute uterine infections and breast cancer in females, and
  also other diseases like mammary cancer, perianal tumors
  and perianal hamias.
• Females can suffer from physical and nutritional exhaustion if continually breeding.
• Pets generally live longer and healthier lives.

Behavioural

• Pets are less prone to wander, fight, and are less likely to get lost or injured.
• Reduces territorial behaviour such as spraying indoors.
• Less likely to suffer from anti-social behaviors. They become more affectionate and become better companions.
• Eliminates "heat" cycles in female cats and their efforts to get outside in search for a mate.
• Eliminates male dogs' urge to "mount" people's legs.

Cost

• Reduces the cost to the community of having to care for unwanted puppies and kittens in pounds and shelters.
• No additional food or vet bills for the offspring.
• No need to find homes for unwanted or unexpected litters of puppies or kittens.
• Save money from expensive surgeries from car accidents or fights, which are less likely to occur if your pet doesn't roam around.
• Dumping puppies and kittens is an ethical cost, as well as being illegal and inhumane.
• The price of desexing is more affordable to those in financial need with the assistance of organisations such as NDN.

You can apply thorugh the National Desexing Network (NDN) to get cheaper desexing which is what we did when we got Loki desexed.

And after Christmas the amount of unwanted animals is going to be high, because cute wears off, puppies cry at night, cats need their trays cleaned out.

Why wouldn't you get it done, why would anyone want beautiful innocent animals to be born just so they can die unwanted.

It's heartbreaking, it's infuriating and It's evil!!

When Arella (which is Hebrew for Angel messenger) was a kitten, she literally saved my life, when I was so deep in depression after my marriage ended, when I was alone, in tears and in a mind space of there only being one way out... Arella would look for me and climb onto my shoulder, purring and she'd snuggle into my neck and sleep, she got me through my darkest days. Even now, after my surgeries, she stays by my side when I come home from hospital, she is very aware of how I am.

Our animals are our friends, our confidants, our saviours, our laughter and happiness. They are faithful and loving even when they're abused. And they deserve so much better than what some people give them.

If you don't have your pets desexed then you are an irresponsible pet owner

Stress stress stress....hahaha....stress stress

Having OCD issues..

what ifs

worried about Elf gifts for tonight

This is actually a really good thing for me. I've always been worried about never doing the right thing, so taking on the Elf gifts for 25 women has been a good challenge.

I'll be honest and say that I've asked myself a million times "what if people don't like them" "what if they hate me for not buying the right thing with their money"

But.. I keep breathing and I know that it will all be ok... I just got used to nothing I ever did being right.. Prince William (world's best counsellor) would be proud of what I'm doing

I was hoping that names on the gifts wouldn't be necessary, and people could get random gifts (apart from the few gifts I bought for certain people) but lovely Lisa squished that one for me lol

There was a slight issue .. but it's all good now

It's hard buying for people that I have no idea of who they are and what they like, there's a mixture of gifts ... handmade ones from the markets, a stunning photo that made me stop walking and I immediately pictured who I would give that to, and others are from a lovely little shop in Berry who were quite patient with Boo, Allira and I taking up an area of their shop for over an hour.

Ahh ... it's all good, chocolate cake told me so

Yay times a million

Yay for summer colds

Yay for sinus, headache, watering eyes and leaky noses that still feel spiky and congested

Yay for advil

Yay for throwing up on myself, which I haven't done since I was 18

Yay for waking up to rain and thinking you can stay in bed feeling crap all day only to remember that you checked BOM last night and saw that the rain would clear and the temperature is going to hit 33 today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! which is not a temperature that makes staying in bed being comforted by the snuggly pillows and the cosy quilt, much fun. So you turn the laptop on saying "please please please have had a massive drop in temperature" and BOM says "hahaha it's 33 today biotch" STOP MOCKING ME WITH THE BEAUTIFUL RAIN DROPS AND COOL MORNING WINDS

Yay for Saturday morning cartoons! I do miss the cartoons from the olden days like Scooby Doo and the Flintstones. CHANNEL SEVEN PUT BRANDY AND MR WHISKERS BACK ON, IT'S THE ONLY GOOD CARTOON FROM THIS GENERATION!!!! ok ok apart from Spongebob Squarepants

Yay for Hannah Montanna!!! yay yay yay, It's true!
I love it and not just because I feel crap

Yay for quiet mornings before I get bombarded with "muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmm it's so hot can we go to the beach??!!!!!!!!"

and Yay for miss 12 who brings me coffee in bed

My baby is going to bigger school

Tonight my beautiful little one had her Primary School Graduation dinner.

It's so wonderful seeing her grow up, I can't believe she'll be in high school next year!

It's true, time does fly.

A few weeks ago we were asked to give her teacher a photo from kindergarten, no idea why, but tonight I saw why.



Oh look at my baby! I almost cried, it bought back so many memories seeing the two pictures side by side. She was a tiny little poppet and so excited about school and now she's just as excited about high school.

My stunning girl wanted a cloak for tonight, so I made her an icy blue one. Her dress was a disaster so we raced out and bought one 45 mins before the graduation was to start, on special occasions she's allowed to wear her diamond jewellery that I bought her for her 10th and 11th birthdays (her birth stone and she deserves real diamonds) and she looked gorgeous. The batteries were running out on my camera so none of the pictures I took of her came out properly, but.......


I couldn't be prouder :)

Out of Order - please come back later

My house is my refuge
my children are my light
my cat is my friend
the other cat is my laughter ...

everything else doesn't matter right now.

I am sick of being taken advantage of
I am sick of people I love lying to me
I am sick of making plans for the future only to have them shot down
I am sick of going out of my way for others and never being offered the same in return
I am sick of questioning everything I do and worrying about whether or not it is good enough for others

I'm not insignificant
even if you think I am

Say hello to OCTree

Our tree this year is so beautiful!
It's sad that it isn't a live tree, the smell of a pine tree on Christmas morning is something that always reminds me of my childhood.

After Christmas last year I went all over Newcastle looking for a particular tree and I finally found it at Mount Hutton (I HATE going there) Our beautiful tree finally came out of the box last weekend, and as beautiful as it looked, we all stood back a bit shocked at how big it is, it touches the ceiling, Allira's first comment was "where's the star going to go?"

I have accumulated so much to decorate the whole house with, the girls have banned me from buying more Santas... pish tosh nasty children :P
We decorate the tree in red and gold and 5 different strands of lights, there are home made decorations, and stuff the girls made when they were in pre-school, pink Christmas balls from when the girls were born and sweet little santas that were knitted by my ex mother in-law who has now passed on, stars, witches hats and brooms (they're really Harry Potter decorations that I bought in NY a while ago) and beautiful glass decorations that I had engraved.

There's lot of sparkly things!

We have a family tradition when we start to decorate...we have plates of snacks, we put Christmas music on, we sing, we laugh, we have fun!

And with a little bit of bending, the Star sits beautifully on top of the tree

I love this time of year.... This will be our best Christmas in years and I love that we can make it last a month