Meltdown

• Mum isn't coping
• Dad is booked into respite care - tomorrow
• He doesn't want to go
• Both my brothers are away or about to be away
• I thought working some occasional immunsiation shifts would be a good idea
• My dog loves digging
• It's been raining
• My courtyard is a mud puddle
• I'm fat
• I drink too much
• I love my dog
• My husband is amazing
• I love him, too!!!!  More than the dog, even
• I am not going to renew my nursing registration. 
• My 'job' has to be my parents

Mea culpa

I know.  I'm a lousy updater.

The parental issues get quietly worse.  Mum is now wanting dad to go into respite again.  I can organise it but I'm damned sure that when the time comes and he refuses she will say she can manage.  Drinking is becoming a huge issue ( it's a wake up call when you go to different grog shops when buying your PARENTS' booze!!)

Dog is gorgeous.  A bit of a problem with barking but we're working on that.  Most of it is when he and Tom tease each other through the cat door.

I'm doing a bit of immunisation work and after my first gig yesterday am loving it.  Shame it's only for a couple of months.

Two is still living with us.  Three is still with his GF - not happy but not my business.  One and Ebs are going strong.

Himself is OK.  He had a major meltdown the other week.  Put a deposit on a dodgy red convertible.  Mid life crisis anyone?  He's since bought a lovely car and is seeing a psychologist.

Me?  I toddle along.  Weight is as high as it's ever been.  Eating is crap.  Mental state is rather porridge like.

But ... hell's bells, I'm alive, I'm loved and I love.

WOW I found my blog!!

I've been struggling to get used to a PC set up after my mac(s).  With my mac my blog was right there in front of my face.  Not that that ensured regular updates!  I'm still working out the best layout of my new machine.  Yeah ... excuses excuses!!!

So, life plods along.

Mum and Dad are not doing well but neither will admit this.  Dad thinks everything's hunky dory and has no idea the stress that Mum is under.  And Mum is struggling.  But it's all because Dad doesn't walk fast enough.  And eats noisily.  Dad thinks Mum is really bright and cheerful.  *sigh*  Mum says she needs help but rebuffs offers if Dad objects.

My boys are good.  Two has settled back into living with his parents and I do enjoy his company. Three is hardly ever home.  One has some issues but we're working on them. 

I am about to do some casual immunisation work.  I doubt I will return to "proper" nursing again and am not even sure if I will work again after this gig.

Angus is getting to be a very big dog.  On the whole he's OK but last Friday I took him to the beach (as I had done every morning that week) and Angus decided to be a disobedient adolescent on a beach of precious small dog owners who wouldn't have been happy even if he was the best behaved dog in the world.  I have decided that there are dog lovers and small dog lovers and the latter aren't necessarily the former!!  He wasn't perfect but he didn't deserve the vitriol that we received.

Dinner ready.

see you all later

I still think he's gorgeous

Rain rain go away

Yes, I'm back.

I had a fabulous week ++ away. 

Unfortunately we (Australia!!) have been hit again with shocking weather.  Cyclone in Far North Queensland, fires in Victoria (although nothing like 2 years ago thank god) and heavy rain and flooding in lots of other parts of Oz thanks to aforementioned cyclone.  And we're a bloody big country.

The Aunt was evacuated from her house in coastal (read: on the beach) FNQ .  She is OK.  Her house is OK although many others were not so lucky.  The clean up will be horrendous as will the cost and the impact on our fruit and vege supply country wide. 

I spent some wondeful days with Other Brother and Mrs Other.  Sooo relaxing and just what I needed.  I then drove up to the Hunter Valley and caught up with 8 other wonderfully wicked wine wise weight watching women.  It was bloody hot (as was Canberra when staying with the Others) which did mean we couldn't do a lot of things but we spent a lot of time nattering and forging really strong friendships.

VR (a fellow WWer with whom I have become very good friends) and I then drove home via a country New South Wales coastal town to catch up with another WW online buddy.  Great fun and beautiful scenery.  Then onto another country town through recently (so recent the road was just opened) burnt bushland.  Then the rain started so the bbq dinner with yet another WW friend and her husband didn't happen so we all decided to adjourn to the local pub.  Great food, good wine and a very easy on the eye singer!

The rain caused so much chaos in suburban Melbourne and we drove home through the results.  The above photo was taken just before I was about to slowly drive through water over the highway.  Note the two cars abandoned on the other side of the road and the water up the side of them.  One of them is a Rolls Royce ... guess noone is immune!  If you look at the cars ahead of me you can see the wave generated from tyres and the depth of the water.  This was the 4th crossing we had to make to get home.  It was the longest and the fastest flowing but not the deepest.  When I was nearly home I found the road flooded near the local sewarage treatment plant (aka poo farm).  That was really scary as I think it had just happened and the water was quite deep ... and smelly!!!

Our river is running swiftly and full. 

Idiots keep putting themselves in danger and tying up emergency services people.  4WD drivers are arseholes when they drive through flood waters at great speed to the detriment of all other drivers.

My dog has grown.  My cats aren't speaking to me.  My sons all came home for dinner ... that my husband cooked.

Life is good and I'm so glad to be home.

fleeting

I killed ... or at least severely maimed ... my macbook.  I took it in to the Apple store and they said it would cost more to repair than replace.

*sigh*

The wonderful Himself bought me a new pc.  Not an apple (don't need it and too expensive) but a compaq and i love it.  I just have to remember how to use windows!!!

I am waiting for Two to fiddle with stuff and hopefully be able to transfer all my files from Mac to PC.  In the mean time I'm trying to remember my fave sites and finding others from them.  Time consuming but I will get there.

Life trundles on.  I'm going away for 10 days leaving on Thursday.  A few days with Other Brother and Mrs Other then 3 days with some WW buddies and then the pretty way home over 3 days with a Melbourne WW friend.  I am so looking forward to just being me.  I have given Mum necessary phone numbers and Dr Teacher a list of what he needs to do.  I shall call in when I can and I shall pretend I have no phone reception if I don't want to talk to people!

And on that note I shall toddle off and try to find some more websites.

Life is good

Two and GGF are over but are still best friends.  Unusual, I know, but they are unusual people.

Three will be here tonight without his girlfriend.  HAPPY DAY!  I really really really don't like this one.  She is by far the worst any of the boys have been out with and that's saying something.  And, NO, that's not me being a possessive mum!

Himself had his hernia repair yesterday and is home but tender.  Sitting down, taking it easy, relaxing.  NOT!

Angus has discovered mud.  In our back garden.  Big time.

Thank god we live near the river.  Now he's just covered in sand!

One is good.

Parents are coping.

Right now this very minute all is right in my world. And right now this very minute is all we ever have.

Happy New Year.

2011 will be a good year.

We spent the first part of NYE with friends but left just after 11 and walked home.  We don't like spending NYE with people we don't know and there were a few there.  I was under the impression it was just going to be the 6 of us otherwise we would have spent the night with Dr Teacher and his lot.  So Himself and I had a lovely walk along the river and came home in time to watch the fireworks from our balcony.  Most pleasant.

The kids were out and about doing their own thing.

Two is staying with us at the moment.  Looks as if he and GGF are finished which is very sad but I haven't seen Two so happy in a long time so that bodes well for the future.

Not sure what the year holds but I promise myself I will look after me cos if I don't then I'm no use to anyone else and there are a few at the moment who need me.