Diving Head First

Into a sleep in. Yep. I got New Year's day off, and the day after. I'm talking two sleep ins, over the holidays, in summer, during a blimmen rain storm. But heck, at least I didn't have to go to work and get wet! It gave me more of a chance to get over this cold I've miraculously picked up over Christmas, it's still hanging around. Still get a squeaky voice during those odd occasions when I need to speak in public, but hey such is life, no?

Quite a bit has been happening around here, as of late. Dad has taken the Christmas/New year week or so off work to get some things done around here. The idea is that we get some things done before Nick's 21st party that we're holding here on the 16th. But, you know how it is. Everything just turns into a domino effect and yes a fair bit has been happening but it also involves a fair bit of unimportant things too, which is frustrating when you stand back and take a look.
Basically we hired a 5 tonne digger and Dad has done a lot of ground work in our new small section, cutting out a driveway and shifting dirt around etc. While at the same time we've cut off the front driveway/parking area from the lawn by digging in retaining which had a lot of added extras included as we went along - as per normal around here, someone comes up with a new bright idea about the project during the project itself.
So we've now got a retaining wall, and in front of that is a raised boxed garden that we've planted the roses in, and on the back side of the retaining on the lawn side is another, lower garden that will eventually have standard roses in when someone buys the odd one here and there for birthdays and what not, so things are progressing along nicely. It looks interesting, being there. There's always something different to look at around here - that's for sure.

Earlier on we pulled out our old boundary fence and quite literally, shifted it across the paddock to the new boundary and popped some battens on, it looks quite nice. And on Monday when Dad and Nick were playing with the big boys toys, I attacked the small section of old road fence with the ezi-pullers and a bucket, pulling off the battens and rolling up the wires so when Dad was ready he could pull the posts out. Nick and Dad thought I was sick, doing fencing of my own accord. Little do they know, I don't actually mind a small amount of destruction fencing! Little did they also know, that I was in fact sick and that night it seriously took over me!

Why am I always the first and often the only one to get sick in my family? It's super odd.

Now fast forward to New Years eve, the big rain storm was coming in so Dad, Nick and even a neighbour got on the big boys toys to shift all the dirt before everything turned to a slushy mess. Mum and I spent part of our New Years eve day together, painting windows. I really do treasure this time I can spend with Mum. Painting windows is a real pleasure that I wouldn't pass up on joining in with, any day. lol. Actually, the windows look quite good with only one new coat of paint, they need two more in later weeks, and the whole time we were doing it we joked about how we never get any "mother-daughter" time, always going our separate ways in life. haha
I spent part of my day stirring trouble with Dad. I'd been invited to a new years party by one guy I know - I never was going to go, with work and it being during the day and all that. But that didn't mean I couldn't cause trouble about it, asking Dad if he was OK with it, didn't matter anyway I was still going. This guy may be nearly 25 but age is only a number you know, etc etc etc. Mum and I were in stitches when he left the room.
Although, over the recent week with many conversations on similar topics about other people, Mum, Dad and Nick have all managed to blurt out at some stage - 5 years isn't a big age gap. And I just smile to myself, wondering when in later years I might need or want to use that to my advantage. It's quite amusing! ;)


The rain came at about 6am New Years day, over about 3 days of endless rain we managed to get 100mm and as expected, everything has turned to slush that you would somewhat expect in winter, but also not. The whole, the ground-is-too-dry-to-soak-the-water-up issue so it just-sits-on-top-and-stares-at-you problem got a little annoying. The water tank overflowed and I rebelled with the opportunity of two showers a day on my days off, simply because the water was going down the drain anyway, why not?
It hardly rained much yesterday and today we got pure sun so most things have dried out again. Dad jumped in the tractor yesterday to fill the plant boxes with a bit more dirt and dug massive tractor tyre holes all through the back lawn. SO currently, in the wake of attempting to tidy up before Nick's 21st in less than 2 weeks time when we have people here, there seems to be more mess. Things have been done, yes, but there's lots more to clean up now. Brilliant.

Otherwise our New Years "celebrations" weren't anything spectacular, not that they ever are. We actually managed to get some sleep those nights because the big music festival that is held in the next town was hushed from the wind and rain. Usually you see the strobe lights in the sky and the sound travels for miles, banging of the drums, people cheering; I think they have to shut it down at 2am? It would take a good 15 minutes to drive there, but for a crow it's just over the hill, it was pleasant not being able to hear it for a change - although I reckon I might go to it next year. Just for the excitement of it all.

On Saturday I had the pleasure of catching up with Bianca and going out to Chantelle's with her. We went to one of the local museums, had lunch, got ripped off at lunch (I'm positive I was overcharged, but you never quite know at cafe's). Had dinner at Chantelle's house afterwards and came home again. It's nice to be able to get together, and it's also good for there to be three people. I find with just two it's hard to keep a conversation going but at least with three there's always an easy topic going!!

Jackson is getting bigger and bigger, causing more and more trouble. Slowly he's getting to the stage of sleeping through the night and accepting his fate quite quickly, rather than screaming for hours and he and Pippa seem to be getting along OK - chasing each other around the house and such forth which is good. It amuses Pippa where I think that she thinks Jackson is absolutely ridiculous, while at the same time it keeps Jackson occupied, he hasn't accomplished climbing the stairs yet, other than the ones in the kitchen - thank goodness, it will be staying that way for as long as possible!

Although Pipsqueak gave me a scare yesterday when I came home to find her drooling, quite literally, everywhere. I thought she might have a tooth problem and expected a trip to the vets tomorrow morning, when they're open again. But after asking Chantelle (who's a vet nurse, convenient!) she suggested it's more likely my Mip-squiggally-squeak somehow poisoned herself, or at the very least had something stuck in her mouth. Her eyes were still bright, she was still her usual self happily eating and drinking, except that when she slept she couldn't control what stayed in her mouth and what didn't. However today, she seems fine! Thank goodness! Not even a dribble can be seen which is a relief. I'm not sure what happened and if she did eat something, what it could've been but I'm just glad she's OK...I would be gutted if it were otherwise.