My bookclub is moving HERE!

I did have a bookclub at an MSN space but I no longer find the time to update this let alone update that. I also find my mac or possibly safari hate MSN and it is so slow when trying to update it. 



So I am moving my Book club here! In general I just like to review the books I read to myself, note what I have read and what I'd like to read, so here is a new chapter in my blog and making it even more boring with my limited selection of boring books!



I shall move some of the post from there to here for my benefit, so apologies if it all sounds old to you all (then again I know no one reads this but me!)



Here are the books I read in 2006:


I lived a Thousand Lives :D


The Bad Mothers Handbook :)


The Graft :(


The Kite Runner :|


Dirt Music :(


Tara Road :)


Stripe Fat in 7 Days :)


The Time Travelers Wife :D


The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time :D


The 10th Circle :D


Minus nine to one :|


Family Baggage :D


A Long Way Down :|


Marley & Me :)


Past Secrets :)


Across the Nightingale Floor :)


Does my head look big in this :D


The book of Flying :)





The smilies represent a quick review, :D = I loved it, :) = I liked it, :| = Not sure(neutral feelings) and :( = Not worth the read.

BOOKCLUB Blog: The Book of Flying by Keith Miller

Today I returned my library books and hoped that my reserved book was ready, but it looks like I shall be waiting at least another month for it. I asked them to send over the book that my sister suggested and I should have a hold of that by mid week but in the intrim I still want something to read.
I grabbed a book on the "New Fiction" shelf called The Book of Flying by Keith Miller, I'm not sure why I ended up with this one as I liked 2 others, but it was 260 pages so I can get through it quickly so I can start on the next book and it is a genre that I generally don't read - fantasy.

Here is a short Synopsis of it: Our hero, Pico, is a poet and librarian, and forbidden to pursue the girl of his dreams, for she has wings and Pico does not. When he discovers an ancient letter in his library telling of the mythical Morning Town where the flightless may gain their wings, he sets off on a quest. It's a magical journey in which he meets a robber queen, a lonely minotaur, a cannibal, an immortal beauty, and a dream seller. Each has a story, and a lesson, for Pico-about learning to love, to persevere, and, of course, to fly.

I finished reading this book about a week ago, I had stopped and started it twice and it was even returned to the library at one stage whilst I finished reading Book2 and Book 3 of the Tales of the Otori. I must admit I didn't really like it in the begin, it was very strange with fictioanl creatures and odd odd lives, but it captured me in the end and I felt so sorry for Pico. I'm not a story give away person, so if you want to know what happens - read the book!

We need rain

It is so hot today and it is only 9.30am, just came back from grilling in the sun at little athletics and am so glad that it didn't last the whole 2 hours. Kids begged to turn on the air conditioning as soon as we got back and I have to admit the house was already heating up.

We really need rain, at least a week of it and then maybe a week off and one, the earth in the back yard is cracking really badly I can almost stick my hand under a huge gap now in the concrete near the pool area. I'd hate to imagine what it looks like under the concrete, I hope all the dryness doesn't make the pool crack. And thank goodness for the pool, even though we have to fill it all the time it is so nice to cool off in.

We were going to head out to SLSLS today but it just going to be too hot by 1pm when it opens, so we will go next month.

Horrible Hosts

What makes a good host? Someone who makes you feel welcome and comfortable I would imagine.

This week we have spent most of it having visitors or being the visitor and yesterday we went to my cousin-in-laws house, she has always been the sort of person you can only take in small doses but her kids seem to get along with my boys so I thought it would be a good idea.

We came over early as the weather was meant to be quite hot that day and it is a long drive there, so when we got there the kids were watching TV at a volume that would be suitable in a movie theatre not a 4x4m room so a headache started to form quickly. My mistake that morning as we were running late was to exercise first then eat breakfast but all I managed was to do the exercise so I was really craving a cuppa and piece of tea cake (that I brought). Oh no, I sat there, chatted politely and then the kids wanted to swim, bugger that, if I had to sit outside and watch the kids swim (and I did bring my swimmers but she obviously had no intentions of going for a swim - and she needs too, IYKWIM!) So I asked her where the kettle was and made my own cup of tea.

She did make lunch, but no drink offered and all I drink is water and I was not prepared to go and get another myself so I just sat there. The kids decided to watch another movie at a deafening level and even Little Man said it was too loud, but it was not turned down. Big Little Man turned into a pest as he was not allowed to play with any other toys then the one allocated to him so I had it, once the annoying show ended, I packed the kids and we went home, really what a waste of a day!

Calm after the storm....

sex fixes everything.

Arrrrrhhhhhh

Kill me I want to be dead!

Mobile phones cause nothing but trouble, I hate my husband today, he is an over reacting bastard who thinks that I am out to ruin his life, well he is just ruining mine and I don't need that, the kids don't need that. We can't even be out of the house for 2 hours and (God I wish I could just shout and scream and kick and punch and hate hate hate, I can't seem to get out all the feeling I have)

F@ck!

The plan? what plan, oh that one...

Well what can I say other then the plan was working, I was a little tired but the kids and I really enjoyed our morning walks to feed the ducks, I think the ducks like it too. So what happened? This happened:
She is adorable, soft and cuddly and when she is with you and in the house, almost the perfect pet, but at night when you try and show how to sleep it is nothing but a whole lot of frustrated barking at that lovely high pitch puppy bark which after 6 nights is driving me mad.

Yes I did want a dog too, but not with the enthusiasm of everyone else in the house. Peppa was overpriced and after taking her to the vets she was unvaccinated and full of worms. We had to microchip her and then set her up with a total cost of $560. And after having toilet trained my sons I now have to do it all again...yuck! To think I will have to pick up doggy do do every day!
Once she gets her next injections I will be able to walk her, so at least w can both get something out of the pet experience, she does seem very clever and sit and stay (most of the time) when I tell her.

The first 5 nights I had to sleep on the lounge beside the dog crate so that she wouldn't bark her head off and keep everyone up, especially the nights that the man was working. When the Man work night shift, I refused to sleep on the lounge, I gave Peppa the benefit of doubt and stayed till she settled then creep out, but last night I thought it time she settled herself 10 weeks old or not, she has to learn as I don't want her in the house at night. I put her to bed at 9.45 pm and she barked solidly for nearly an hour then sleep well till 6am. I can handle 6am wake ups, good for when we do want to walk.

So in summery the plan is out the window, big little man still refuses to sleep at a normal time but does go to his room when I tell him too, so we are half way there. ow time to get him ready for school!

The Plan - Day 2

I let the kids sleep in today as although things worked yesterday and I had both kids asleep by 8pm, Little Man wet the bed because he really never had a chance to go to the toilet before falling asleep, he literally crash and burnt out on the couch. It is also freezing this morning and looks like it is going to rain.

My main aim is to have them sleeping a minimum of 10hours and I have succeeded for day one. Lets see how the day goes with a 7.30am start.

The Plan

It continues and has been successful so far. Haven't been able to
convince Big Little Man to help tidy up after his bath, but Little Man
crashed on the couch at 6pm, not to bothered as I wanted them in bed
by 7pm and he did have a very busy day with the walk at 6.20am this
morning, 3 swims in the pool and all the other general running around
he does. I need to continue this plan of action for 6 weeks, as it
takes 6 weeks to form a habit and I want all of this like second
nature to them both.

Drastic times need drastic measures

Last night was my last straw with Big Little Man, actually he must of had heaps of last straws but at 11pm last night he was wide awake and arguing with me to continue playing his DS. I was ready to just leave and was tired of telling him to go to bed, he woke the Little Man and I just lost it.

Out came the pen and note paper and a new schedule that he would have to comply with or have a very sorry life, this is what it looked like:
6am - Wake up, then exercise (walk to playground)
7am - Breakfast
8am - School Lessons
9am - Free Play
10am - Free Play
11am - Snack
12 noon -
1pm - Lunch
2pm - Exercise (bike ride)
3pm - Free Play
4pm - Free Play
5pm - Dinner
6pm - Bath and Tidy up
7pm - Quiet room time the story time
8pm - Lights out and Sleep

It was really thought out, but I wanted him to dedicate some time to lessons and away from all the electronic games, I want him outdoors more and I most of all is have him sleep at a more reasonable hour.

So it's now 7.30am and the plan has worked fairly well so far, took a bit off effort to get him up at 6am and Little Man actually got up in a better mood. Took about 20 minutes to get dressed and organised to leave the house and we all went for a walk to the playground. In total we were out for 40 minutes and home by 7am.

I got them to set the table for breakfast and then we all sat together to eat, took a zooming 10 minutes. He did 3 lines of his lessons and I would have preferred 10 minutes so may have to work on that. Decided they behaved well so they can watch TV only no games till 8am. He has been begging for his DS but I am holding strong and no DS till 8am, maybe he can start learning to read time during this time as well.

We have some cousins coming over for a play today but that shouldn't alter too much in my plans, hopefully it should help in making them tired.

Am I being a bitch waking my kids to exercise in the morning? NO just being a parent who is trying to get her kids the most out of life. I have to justify all this of course!

1/4 way to looking like Halle

I recently took some new photo's of myself for a challenge I was taking part in at CK and I must gloat that I don't look half bad. Even though I have been pigging myself over the last 2 months when I do sit back and concentrate and workout My body feels and looks better so it is enough incentive to continue working out.



Have a look at this before and after shoot, this is also a huge incentive to never ever return to the size that I was. In the before shot I'm actually 8 kilo down from my heaviest, so I would have look much worst. I am really proud of myself, it's nice to hear little man say "your beautiful mummy" as I believe it now.

I also got my rollerblades, well I won them off ebay and just need to go and collect them, then I can start skating and tone those glutes!

Rollerblades

Do you all recall the day I wanted the bike trailer? Well today I want Rollerblades, my reasoning is very similar to the bike trailer, but this time I follow the kids on skates. Great idea and so much cheaper!

I've seen a pair on ebay, $5! How can I not consider them, even if I only wear then once and hated it, $5 is a cup of coffee theses days, so what to you think?

Yeah, bid!

Christmas is 9 days away!

Where has the time gone? It's not like the year has past me by without me noticing but it certainly seems to have flown by awfully quick.

I had one glorious day where both the boys and the man were at pre-school or work, I was amazingly bored as we have run out of funds to go shopping or do anything, but at the same time the peace and freedom to do what I liked was brilliant, I can not wait for next year when big little man is off to school 5 days a week and little man is off to pre-school for 2 days...oh I'm all smiles!

Christmas shall be dull this year with the man working, but I think the lack of parties to go to might be nice too. Not really getting anything for Christmas, bought some clothes already and hoping to get my hands on the Nintendo DS we bought for big little man as the man got himself a PSP and big little man already has a game boy. I don't need it and I don't really like games, but you can get the SIMS on it and that sound like fun, especially on the days the kids are driving up the wall.

But that's it, life is boring - oh wait! I met the CK ladies, they all seemed nice but we were al quiet and didn't say much, I wouldn't mind going on one of those city walks to find out more about them, but making the man watch the boys for an entire day is another challenge all on it's own I'm just not ready to tackle yet. Maybe 2007 will see him loosen up a bit and let me live a life...as so we wait.

toot toot, time to put the kiddies to bed, will blog again soon!

Update on my cat: It seems that he had a very close call and it's thankful that cat's have several lives as I'm sure that my kitty lost one over the last week. Kitty stopped eating altogether then disappeared for about 3 days, after hours of searching and assuming the worst I found my very sick cat under the house in an impossible to get to spot. But I did get him and have discovered that a cat drinking chlorinated water doesn't fair to well. So with lots of fresh water, in about 5 bowls all over the yard and house he is back on the roads of health. He is extremely skinny but I'm feeding him 3 times a day and he should be back to his old sleepy self in no time. I'm just glad that he didn't die, I wasn't ready for that.

Cat Depression?

Is it possible that a cat can be depressed? My cat has been acting
very strange since my parents left, he just sits there all day, head
to the ground and won't eat a thing. He is an old cat, over 10 yrs old
but it's only something I noticed the other day.

He still goes about his everyday business, sleeps near the pool, moves
away when the kids come, he meows if you call his name but it's like
he is just not there in spirit. Sick? not sure at all. I've given him
some soft food for breakfast which he usually doesn't get and will see
if it is eaten when I get home if not then it is likely something more
serious and a visit to the vet may be in order.

Poor Kitty.

Frumpy and Lumpy

Since my parents left over a week ago I have done nothing but eat, we have celebrated little man's 3rd birthday 3 times and with my uncles and mothers birthday, a total of 5 cakes have been consumed and my arse is showing it!

I just can not find the motivation to move and exercise properly again, all I do is very much incidental and it is just stopping me from gaining huge amounts but I really wanted to be at my goal at Christmas not over it. I have exactly 19 days till Christmas day and want to, HAVE too lose 2 kilo's to be back in my 57-58 kilo range, will be heaps happier if I can be in the lower end of 57 as at this weight I feel taught and not so lumpy. It's weird that I feel lumping at 59 kilo's when I lived my life so long at 80+ kilo's.

The man has really been nice the last few weeks and has agree to meet the CK girls at a Christmas get together on Sunday, should be an interesting day as many of these people I chat with online feel like friends and would be nice to see if we click in the same way in person.

That's it, will blog again soon, was very hard doing the blog when there were so many people about, but time is returning so you should all here from me again soon.

Peace

Well it's well over a week since I've had a real chance to blog, it was so nice to have my parents here with me and spending time with the kids, but at the same time it is nice to have the house to myself again.

I have to praise my mother, she is a true hero. I have don't know where she finds the patience to deal with my dad but I am amazed as I would have just lost the plot if I were in her boots. Since dad's illness he talks incessantly, never shuts up and is always correct. He argues about everything and is so defensive you just have to look at him and he thinks that you want to fight with him. The kids loved him though, they never saw too much of that adult goings on and maybe that is why the innocence of childhood is so valuable. They simply just loved their grand dad and he had no faults.

Big Little Man has been moving onto his grown up world with his orientations at his new big school, he seems very excited and I am so glad that I signed him up to LA as the 2 boys he knows there are also going to the same school, he told me that his "friends" were going to go to school with him and that he was very happy, nothing more could have pleased me that day.

Little Man is also turning into a big boy, today he went off to pre-school for the first time and they said he was a real champ. Some how he managed to have a yoghurt fight with his brother, but hey they are my boys after all, who ever said they would behave in the care of others!

As for myself, my mothers lovely home cooking has seen 2 kilo's creep back onto my bottom, so now I'm attempting and failing but getting back up again to lose the extra weight but also go back to my healthier ways. It's amazing how quickly you can let things go and how hard it seems to get back on track. Hopefully I am back there by Christmas, although it shouldn't matter to much as we aren't really doing anything anyway.

Well, boring as I am, that's it, nothing more to say!

Secrets

Oh I'm thinking that my secret blog is really necessary as I'm feeling a bit smothered by the man lately. Since I have lost my weight he thinks I'll leave him and no reasoning seems to help, this is his own personal self esteem issue and I love him although most of the time all I want to do is bitch about him, but deep down he a good man just has some OCD and paranoia issues, if he was so bad I wouldn't have stuck about for so long, kids or not.

The reason I feel I really need this secret blog is because he has started to read my email and questioning the email's I send, hello that is going a bit far I think... I feel a discussion then a fight happening tonight, thank goodness I created this secret email to go along with my secret blog and myspace, OMG what will happen if I get busted?

Note: The above was posted via email yesterday but it fail to get here so here is the update:

We had a talk, there were some tense moments, even a few quivering voices about to burst into tears (me) but then he seemed to click inside and understand my need to still be an individual, that it is possible to be a partner, a mother and me. He seem to finally understand that there will always be things we will never have in common and that as a loving partner we just lump it and not let get in the way if it doesn't effect anything.

SO over all it worked out, I had to cancel going to a meeting at the pre-school which ultimately started this all off as he hates my commitment to things that don't mean anything, that I just do things because I feel obliged not because I want too. But he cooked hand-made gnocchi for me, we drank to much beer and vodka and ended up having wild sex on the kitchen floor...too drunk to recall how we ended up there, but we did!

In Laws

Everyone has them if they choose to have a partner, even if it is the
family of a close friend they are like in laws and they tend to have
some facet of them that total drives you nuts.

I think I get along fairly well with my in laws, but they are so
particular that the smallest thing can upset the balance and it's
rocky seas ahead, well I can't recall if I told you about my incident
and it is certainly not a little incident but lets just say I caused a
Tsunami about 6 month ago and the effects of it seem like they will
never fade. Regardless of what occurred and who was wrong or right at
the time I have plain had enough of the guilt that should be and would
rather them just exit my life then pretend to like me in front of my
face, they all walk on egg shells when they are around me, like they
are playing it safe, what bloody for!

I had one incident with BIL4 but every member of that clan has taken
his side but never ever asked us what occurred, he has always been the
god loved brother, there is always one in a family, ours is my sister,
she can never do any wrong, but that is beside the point for the
moment and it is just shitting me beyond all ends I just want to
scream when ever his name is mentioned.

The man likes to make little jokes and believes his family are in the
wrong but when he starts to get effected by their stupid ways it
upsets him and in turn it upsets me too. I'm not sure why I'm blogging
about it, I think because it is caught in my mind and it is ruining
Christmas plans.

Oh to early in the morning to start thinking of it all again, will
just concentrate on myself and my family as we are all that matter.

BOOKCLUB Blog: Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn

Firstly I am sort of reading 2 books at the same time, I'm not saying The book of Flying was slow or boring, I just started to read the book that my sister mentioned Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn which sucked me in and I just couldn't put it down. I can't even describe what makes this book interesting, it is the story of Japanese clans from days gone by, where women were delicate and serene and men were warriors, villans and hero's. It is a 4 part book, and I have just collected the next title in the series, but I shall wait and finish the first book I borrowed, after all I am a fair reader. I'll also wait to report on it once I read al the books or maybe before i start the 3rd in the series I have also borrowed "Raising Boys by Steve Biddulph" in a vain hope to see if i help my boys become happy and well-balanced men, just as the subtitle states.

Turing into Miss Piggy

59.6kilos! OMG, I was 56.5kg 2 weeks ago, my parents are making into Miss Piggy! I'm not eting nothing today unless it is a veg and healthy - gezz I have to do something!