Too much time - I don't think so

Apparently since I started my blog everyone thinks I have too much time on my hands. Well here is my Friday, as a stay at home mum.

5 am - Woken up by Macy barking at a fox.
5.10 am - Woken up by Macy barking at a fox.
5.20 am - Finally go mad at Macy barking at the fox.
6.00 am - Woken up by Nic's alarm
6.10 am - Woken up by Nic's snooze button.
6.15 am - Woken up by Molly-Mae
6.40 am - Woken up by Charlie wanting me to make his toothbrush flash
6.55 am - Get out of bed as Nic goes off to work
6.57 am - Start drinking my 1 and a 1/2 cups of coffee.
7.00 am - Start watching my new favorite kids program - Word World (truly its for graphic purposes - its amazing.
7.30 am - Turn on my computer.
7.35 am - Check email and start blog.
7.50 am - Get the kids their breakfast
7.55 am - Put in laundry
8.20 am - Get the kids changed
8.45 am - Do the parking lot dance with the cars - to line up the truck with the back gate.
8.55 am - Start emptying firewood from the back of truck (donated by a friend of a friend who had lost their house from the awful fires this Summer)
9.30 am - Get the dogs and kids ready to go to the park
9.35 am - Lift both dogs into the car (old age is getting to them)
9.40 am- Buckle kids into car seats
9.45 am - arrive at park
9.46 am - unbuckle kids and get them out of the car
9.47 am - Lift dogs out of car (60lb and 65lb)
9.48 am - Start the slow pace around the park (pace is dictated by 1 year old)
10.30 am - Stop at playground
11.00 am - Start the move back to the car
11.05 am - Tell kids to get off slide
11.10 am - Start telling kids loudly to get kids off the slide
11.15 am - Bribe kids
11.16 am - Finally get walking at snail pace back to car
11.25 am - Lift dogs back into car - dogs collapse in back from heat
11.30 am - Finally leave park - only half hour after the initiation (not bad)
11.35 am - Get home - lift dead weight dogs out of car
11.37 am - Unbuckle kids
11.40 am - Try to change Charlie's diaper - he wanted to use the potty
11.45 am - Huge jubilation - Charlie POOPS on the potty for the first time - make huge song and dance around the room while carrying nude boy
11.50 am - Call Nic to tell him about Charlie
11.51 am - Nic has to congratulate Charlie in a room full of colleagues
11.52 am - Charlie still laughing down phone at Nic
11.55 am - Pull phone out of Charlie's hands and allow Nic to go back to work
11.57 am - Put laundry in dryer
12 - noon - Start Lunch
12.15 am - Try to serve lunch and hope that it is eaten
12.30 pm - Talk to friend, Jo from UK
12.40 pm - Phone call is stopped by Charlie hitting his head on heater
12.43pm - Nic called to tell me he is going to Indiapolis to watch Moto GP for work (hmmm what a hard few days of work he is going to have - NOT)
12.45 pm - Resume phone conversation with Jo
12.50 pm - Put kids down for nap
12.55 pm - Charlie is asleep
1.15 pm - Still arguing with Molly-Mae whether she needs a nap
1.20pm - MM falls asleep
1.30 pm - Talk to friend, Forrest about some work
1.55 pm - Charlie wakes up - stop phone conversation
2.00 pm - Charlie uses the potty - woo hoo we are on a roll!
2.10 pm - Play with Charlie
2.20pm - Molly-Mae wakes up
2.30 pm - Have to make pirate hat, sword and wand for kids out of paper, glue and stickers (tiara had been made yesterday)
3.00pm - Chased around the house by princess and pirate
3.10 pm - Rolling around the carpet being beaten up by a pirate with a paper sword
3.11 pm - Realize its been several days since the carpet has been vacuumed
3.15 pm - Chasing kids around house
3.30 pm - Need an excuse to stop - offer kids snack
3.32 pm - Talk to friend Gina
3.35 pm - Fold laundry
3.55 pm - Vacuum house
4.00 pm - Play ball, catch and soccer with kids
4.25 pm - Start cleaning up kitchen as Nic is due home and there is paper and stickers everywhere
4.40 pm - Kids want to clean their playhouse - do not argue with that - provide kids with tools
5.00 pm - Listen to news as I start to prepare dinner, McCain has announced new VP for the party is a woman from Alaska - think good move - till I hear she is against womens right to choose and is pro guns - think bad move - also she has a really annoying voice
5.10 pm - Checked out kids playhouse
5.15 pm - Fold Laundry
5.36 pm - Nic calls to tell me he is going to be late - ugh!
5.40 pm - Prepare salad
5.55 pm - Have to check out kids playhouse again
6.00pm - Feed dogs
6.10 pm - Prepare corn for BBQ
6.15 pm - Listen to comments on the news about Obama's speech - wish I could vote - Obama would be my man
6.23 pm - Nic comes home
6.25 pm - Start BBQ
6.35 pm - Start filling bath for disgusting kids (bathwater takes forever in our house)
6.40 pm - Eat dinner
7.00 pm - Put kids in bath
7.20 pm - Cut nails on Molly-Mae
7.30 pm - Put kids to bed - leave Nic to tell the story tonight
7.35 pm - Put dishes in dishwasher
7.45 pm - Finally get to sit down on sofa
9.15 pm - Clean teeth
9.20 pm - Go to bed

So just for all you skeptics out there - being a stay at home mum has been the hardest job of my life - but the best one - the hours are long and the pay is poor - but it is worth everything to me, to be at home and spend time with 2 little characters that mean the world to me. As for whether I have to much time on my hands - you be the judge!

Bubbles

What is it about bubbles that brings so much happiness. No matter what type of bubbles they are - they always bring pleasure and laughter. There are of course the bubbles that are excreted from various body orifices. You know what I am talking about, those little pockets of air that pop out when you least expect it and always provide you with a little smirk and often hilarity (depending who you're with and where you are). Of course there are some that can consciously let out bubbles (not me of course), and they always do it at the most inopportune moments, like weddings (you know who you are)!

The best type of bubbles are the ones that are made of glycerin and causes squeals of delight from those of us young and old that are entranced by the iridescent colors, those tiny little rainbows that float up to the sky. Those circles of delight that are so graceful and so languid and light and best of all free. I love the way everyone whose around bubbles reaches out to capture one hoping that this is the one, this is the one that won't pop. The fact that these little magical circles of life lasts seconds, never seem to disappoint us.

Bubbles are my little bottles of magic, its cat nip for my little ones. They can't get enough of them. So for those days when I am having a moment with Charlie and Molly-Mae and nothing seems to be working, there are always bubbles and once those little air pockets are released, tears and tantrums float away in seconds.

The 70's

I am currently trying to archive some of my millions of photos and after my comments on the 80's yesterday, I thought it was pertinent to talk about the fashion of the 70's, after all why should I be the only one in my family to have a fashion faux pas on the internet.

For a start the 70's seemed to be about mixing as many colors and patterns together in the one outfit as you could. (Hence the pic of me with an outfit that really is quite amazing, at least I had cool shoes)!


As for flares, they didn't look good on us in the 70's so why the fashionistas thought it would be good to bring them back recently I just don't know. For the average size person they make your butt look as wide as the flares. Who thought in the 70's that wide collars would be a good thing, really, they just bring attention to your ears, and for some reason they had to be the opposite color or pattern of the sweater you wore on top. Of course there were the compulsory stripes and look Dave they match your hair!

The one thing that has remained the same from the 70's till now is the polo neck sweater or jumper as we say in Britland. Your head appears from nowhere!

Looking at this photo of Sue and I, I think I saw that wallpaper on Tori and Dean, Home Sweet Hollywood last week.

So I have saved the best photo for last, that of my lovely husband and his "Oh so smashing purple shirt". For a start we have the wide collars, no need to say any more about that, and then there is the lovely lilac cowboy effect on the chest and shoulder area.

I am not sure what my mother in law was thinking when she dressed her young son in purple, but it has got Nic in touch with his feminine side.

Aah! The 70's a time of free love and bad taste!

The 80's

Yesterday my brother kindly published a pretty bad photo of me taken in 1989 on his facebook page. I have to say it caused much delight to some of my friends and family, as there I was sitting on top of the bonnet or hood of my first car, a Vauxhall Chevette, with huge 80's hair, a red matching outfit of shirt and shorts and best of all white shoes.

It got me thinking about the 80's, what was it about this time that we could wear anything we wanted and thought it looked cool. Seriously, there were leg of lamb sleeves, leg warmers with stilettos, ra ra skirts, jeans that were so tight they cut off circulation and if they weren't tight enough, we took them in to make them tighter and best of all the 80's hair. Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet you have a lot to answer to.

Let me just point out, I have learnt from my mistakes (I think), for a start, white shoes should only be worn on your wedding day (well except if your me, I had to wear black, you try finding a pair of white shoes in the middle of October, in your size with a week to go to your wedding and didn't cost a small house to buy). I no longer wear red ever! I know my colors now and believe me, red is not for me. As for the hair, what can I say! For some reason girls in the 80's thought perms were cool, why, I am not sure. For a start you have to sit in a salon for 2 hours with your hair in rollers looking like a chipmunk, the smell of the perming solution making you want to heave, only to come out with your head twice as big as you went in. Aah, the memories, sitting in front of the mirror, moussing and backcombing my hair to make it look bigger. For some reason big hair was a happy time, it is a happy time now, just a different happy, it's an embarrassingly, funny, happy.

Boy Bits

Why is it that little boys are obsessed with their boy bits. Yesterday I took Charlie swimming and the moment I took his diaper off his hand went to his boy parts, pulling, stretching and generally fiddling with his manhood or boyhood at this point. Now normally I don't worry about such displays, but yesterday the changing room was full of scantily dressed women, if dressed at all. Isn't 1 a little young to be looking at women and playing with your parts, I ask myself. Or maybe this is the start of things to come (excuse the pun). What is going to happen when he gets to 2?