Happy Leap Year

Happy LEAP Year!

After a friends thoughtful entry on her blog about the leap year I thought I would do the same.

So there is an extra 24 hours this year. What will you be doing with that time?

Give to yourself, give to others, but just remember these extra hours are a gift!

I am/will do

*watching taped TV shows I am catching up on
*Baked the Chocolate Tort (Easter recipe to the right)
*Cleaned
*Relaxing
*Having Book Club at my house tonight
* oh and Re Propose to Ken as girls can do this on a leap year.

Kalani has also decided that her toy "dog" that she sleeps with and has loved for years - is going to celebrate his birthday today. I am more that happy with that arrangement, I said well you can't have another birthday for him, for 4 years!

So I hope you all have a happy leap year and enjoy your "extra" time.

Ever had an Ugly Day?

Have you ever had a bad looking day? One that you didn't know about until you saw the photographic proof? How long did I look like that? Why didn't someone tell me? I find myself saying this often. It usually happens after I have actually spent some time trying to look good, hair, clothes makeup etc. Then you catch your reflection somewhere and you look hideous! I seem to have skin that sucks makeup up... I put it on and a few hours later it is all gone.... lipstick, blush, foundation - the lot... gone!!

Ok so I am not a supermodel, but these ugly days came to mind after reading a friend's blog about an "accidental" mullet haircut she received at the hands of a friend. There is so much tragedy out there. I still had braces when I went to the year 12 formal, though it didn't really matter at the time. Until years later a guy visiting our house saw the photo and said that I looked like "Josie Grosey"!! You know that Drew Barrymore character that has braces and goes back to school to become cool again! Break my heart (BTW the guy was single... DAH obviously he didn't know how to talk to girls)

Now you will probably all be kind and not say that the above photo is not shocking... but it is only a scan of the original, so I am sparing you all the gory details, but lets just say that the skin is blotchy red, my eyes are not in line, so if I tilt my head the wrong way, I look lopsided, and well I think I was too skinny at this time (2 small children close in age) and this photo was taken at my 25th birthday party - OUCH! Well I like to say, it was late, the lighting bad, and I always look bad in photos taken with a flash... so those are my excuses and I am sticking to them!

So to all my "sometimes" ugly friends out there... You are beautiful!

I have been spoilt for too long

I have never lived in a house with a dishwasher or an ensuite bathroom... My current house has both. You don't know what you are missing, when you have never had something.... but when you do and then it is gone..... BOO HOOO!!

About 3 weeks ago, rushing around, trying to get out the door to get to school, at 8:30am the electricity turned off. The washing machine, TV, computer, and dishwasher all off.... a very quiet house..... NOT NORMAL!!.....

So I go to the fuse box, flick the right switch and everything is back on (It took me a few minutes to work out what to do, where the box is and looking at all the switches to see which one was the right switch - I was pretty proud of this effort - and I only did it alone as my phone for some bizarre reason couldn't call mobile phones so Ken couldn't rescue me! )

Back inside I notice a distinct burnt plastic smell ... not good.... it was coming from the dishwasher. I was too scared to leave the house incase an electrical fire burnt it down... so after turning off the switch ( It was truly dead, couldn't even turn the dishwasher back on... no lights.. nothing) and checking the house, we headed off to school. This was after I put the family photo albums and journals in a box in the garage - it is seperate from the house - so if the house did burn, my memories wouldn't burn with it!! Paranoid - maybe?

Well today 3 weeks later the man came to fix it - I felt sorry for him, cause it smelt soooo bad... it was full when it stopped. I took all the dishes out ( which had already been in over a day - milk is not good in this warm weather a day later ... ewww) and washed them... and then poured some hot water down the dishwasher hoping that would clean it out enough... but it wasn't enough.... 3 weeks later so smelly.

well he looked and then dropped the bad news... he had to take it away, and will see what is wrong - (probably from cockroaches he said the most common problem.. ewwww! they eat the computer chips) then bill the real estate, which will ask the owner what they want to do.... so it could be gone a very long time... boo hooo hoooo :(

So now everytime I look in the kitchen I feel a little sad... I have a gaping hole where my dishwasher used to be (and it was a really nice one with matching front - you couldn't even tell it was a dishwasher there)

I miss you dishwasher!

I love School!

On the first few days of school, I took quite a few photos. It was the first time at school for Anika, and Kalani was going into Grade 2. She would finally have a sister at school. She sometimes visits the Prep and gets to see Anika. She buys iceblocks and shares them with her sister.

I love this photo and hope that they continue to be sisters who love each other.... afterall why else would you have three kids - to keep eachother company of course! It was a little sad to have both of them at school, but mostly it was happiness.... I love school!

Less is More.... they haven't learnt yet!

Face painting drawn by her sister

Self administered mascara - whoops missed my eyelashes!

Self applied Lipstick - going for the clown look

They were "meant" to be painting on paper, while I had a rest, I come back 10 mins later to find this

'MY' blush applied to a little more than their cheeks

Yesterdays Hair effort - She wanted to wear all these to school

So I am still trying to teach my girls that Less is More - when it comes to makeup and accessories. I'm sure they'll have it down when they get older - when embarressment factors matter.

Parent Guilt

I have a thing about being on time, if anything I am usually early. This makes for a lot of hanging outside places, waiting for the right time because I am 20 mins early. I think I have issues, that if something goes wrong, I have the time to still be on time. I think this drives Ken crazy, as about 2 hours before we have to be somewhere, I am annoying him about getting ready - well I know how long it takes to get 3 kids organised!

I always arrive at the girls school at 2:40. I sit and chat with some of the other parents, but I am nearly always the first one there. Very boring, I try to delay myself at home, but it seems if I leave at 2:13, 2:20, 2:30 I still get there 20 mins early.

Well except for today, as Ken gave me the car, and I also had to drop him for a job interview before 3pm, so it was raining, meaning the school carpark would be a mess, but I got the last car park - stroll into school with like 2 mins remaining - Monday is the school parade - so I go over and see Kalani sitting in her class group and she is grinning madly -

She won student of the week ! All those weeks of clapping for other children and the one day I am not there, she goes and gets student of the week....Whoops! She isn't upset, I think she might have thought that I was there... phewww..

Parental guilt... how many years do we have to endure?

Life Ain't So Bad

Thanks for all of you who were worried about me, in the previous post about all our walking and the complaining that sometimes accompanies it. I will attempt to put your worries to rest and you can all sleep better now.

One of the upsides is that I get to walk past this view 4 times a day! For those of you who read this who go to the same church would know that this makes me smile and feel warm inside. I can't walk past without my spirits being lifted. Some days a big storm cloud is behind, some days glowing in golden sunset... but always beautiful.

So life isn't so bad... oh except that I am writing this at 3:50 am while I am up feeding Gabrielle cheese and milk to get her mind off the fact that I am refusing to nurse her anymore!

Hottest day in 4 years?

Well today was Hot... it was very HOT!

It was also the last weekend of summer. It has been raining like nonstop all summer, so to have the last weekend of summer with clear skies and hot, everyone was hitting the beach and the pools. The news reports were filled with worries of too many people heading to the beach.

Well Ken was busy nearly all day with work, church and grocery shopping ( I have an awesome husband who has decided that since he should be the "hunter/gatherer" he is now going to do the shopping on saturdays to save me going with the kids and/or save me from walking for hours!)

So once he was free we set off to his parents for a swim. A lovely swim in perfect temp water. The kids had heaps of fun doing bombdives. Gabrielle just jumps in over and over again...even when you aren't looking... and she can't swim, so you gotta watch her... she is so crazy.

A perfect way to end the hottest day in 4 years.

The Butter Experiment

Anika's prep class made butter last week at school. The teacher sent home directions, so we could do it at home again, or have something in which you could converse with your child about. Since it was pretty simple, we decided to give it a go on the weekend.

You Will Need:
100mls heavy cream
jar with a tight cover
3 marbles

Directions:
Put the cream in the jar with the marbles. Screw on the lid. Shake the jar in a figure of eight motion for around 10 mins. ( All take turns)
Butter will form all of a sudden; drain the butter from the buttermilk (whey) and keep shaking. Add a little salt and shake a little more until it looks firm. Refridgerate to harden.

What Happened?
Cream is an emulsion of fat in water. The fat droplets are held in suspension by the milk protein. When you make butter from cream, you force the fat droplets to join together.
This process is called coalescing.

If you ever happen to see a lot of cream on sale - you can make your own butter, before the cream expires. eg herb butter, garlic butter, cinnamon butter etc.

This was very fun and I didn't know how easy it would be. A good "food" experiment!

If you thought today was bad, you should have seen Yesterday..

As you all know we walk, we walk alot. Most of the time my lovely girls are very patient with the fact that we don't have a car for us to drive in. We can spend anywhere from 1 hour - 5 hours a day walking depending where we are going. However some days they have just had enough!!

I have stories a mile long about days where they just can't do it, but I am only going to tell todays and yesterdays. Yesterday was parent teacher interview day. The teachers were very optimistic in placing parents into 10 minute slots. Since I have 2 children I had interviews at 3:50 and 4:10pm. Well the optimisim didn't work out and we ended up being at school 30 mins more than we thought. It was almost 5pm by the time we set off for home.

Cheerful children that were happily playing in the school playground for an extra hour turned into whining, crying, tired MONSTERS! Anika could just not go on, she was so tired. I spent time coaxing, begging, pleading that she walk home... we have no other alternative and I dont have a mobile, so can't call anyone to help us. She plonked herself down on the ground numourous times saying she can't walk anymore. I was pulling her up and carrying her. I even got a few laughs out of a truck driver who was parked on the side of the road and gave me a pity glance.

In the end she ended up on my back for half the walk home and on my shoulders for a few minutes until I begged that she get down as my neck was going to snap. It is very hard to push a pram and hold a child up on your shoulders hoping they don't fall. When we finally got home after a mammoth 30 min trek I was exhausted, and when Ken arrived home at 6pm I said where were you half an hour ago! In the end I found out she had many infected mosquito bites on her legs and didn't feel very well, so I felt guilty for all my pleading and telling her off.

Today I cleared out the basket on the pram and due to not being able to wear shoes because of her bites, she deemed the ground too hot to walk on and promptly hopped in the basket contortionist style and relaxed for the long walk home.

I just tell myself... I can't afford to or have time to go to the gym... this is my gym... this is my gym.... this is my gym..

or some kind of torture!

Chicken Nuggets

Well this blog is going from attempting to be humourous, to a recipe blog. Well the sad fact is that I spend most of the day cooking. I walk about 2 hours or more a day, come home, put Gabrielle down for a nap and start cooking our dinner at lunch time. The children are very hungry early, so when we get home from school they can have a bath and have dinner - so thus my life is consumed with shopping, recipes and cooking.

We haven't made them for a while and Ken suggested it would be a good idea to get the kids to cook once a week and their favourite thing to cook is.... Chicken Nuggets! So tonight they set up their assembly line and made chicken nuggets for the family.

Cut Chicken breast into pieces. Arrange 3 bowls with plain flour, beaten eggs, bread crumbs. Place Chicken in flour, then egg and lastly breadcrumbs. Then fry chicken nuggets in a small amount of oil. Hope you enjoy making them as much as we do!

How strong is a piece of string?

I walk past this everyday on the way to school. At the end of our lane on each side of the street were these barriers that are stopping you from tripping on the cracked, wonky side walk. I actually saw a man fix the other one over 6 months ago. These two corners have been like this for over a year or more.

The thing that I find the funniest is that barrier is secured with an orange string. What was the road works man thinking? I'll tie this 1 meter tall metal barrier with one tiny piece of string. Surely this will stop people stealing it or the wind blowing it down? Well to the road worker out there.... your thinking has worked, so I can't mock you. These barrier has been there for a year, and it is still standing!

Just a shame we can't walk on the path.

No Junk Mail Here...

In a bid to support my daughter I am currently going -

- without junk mail! Yes, hard I know!

Anika decided that too many trees are wasted in making junk mail, and that we needed a NO JUNK MAIL sign. Daddy and her made this a project and produced, printed and laminated their own homemade sign.

Now I have previously thought about doing this (after I watched a Greeny episode of Oprah that told of all the waste junk mail produces) but there were just a few catalogues I didn't want to give up! Being in the city we receive a LOT of junk mail... sometimes I wish I could make a sign that says " NO Junk Mail { except for X and X and X } I don't really need the cars guide, 2 of the local magazine wannabees, liquor mart, most restaurants, massage, hair, 2 men and a truck removalists, etc etc but I want the Target, Big W, KMart and Myer....

So we have been junk mail free for 3 weeks now... and I can say .... IT feels GREAT!

Nothing to throw in the bin (and with all this rain, most of the junk mail is a sopping mess) nothing to think about buying and I don't know that I am missing any great sales! And Anika feels good every day she checks the box and says YES! No junk mail!

Here are some guilty facts for you all!!

*Each year, 100 million trees are used to produce junk mail

*250,000 homes could be heated with one day's supply of junk mail

*Americans receive 4 million tons of junk mail every year - equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months

*Americans pay $370 million annually to dispose of junk mail that doesn’t get reycled

*Americans throw away 44% of bulk mail unopened, yet still spend 8 months per lifetime opening junk mail

*The book 50 Simple Things You Can Do To Save The Earth listed stopping unwanted junk mail as its number 2 recommendation.

*out of 5.6 million tons of mailings generated each year, 4.3 million are thrown in the garbage; 340,000 garbage trucks are needed to haul away all the junk mail that doesn't quite make it to the recycling bin.

I <3 Peanut Butter

Gabrielles favourite food is Peanut Butter. She is just learning to talk so all I hear half the day is "Bah, Bah, Bah" which I had no idea what it meant at first until one day I had the cupboard open she pushed a chair over and got out the peanut butter.

Oh - Bah - Peanut Butter!

She eats it on a spoon, with her fingers (if she gets the jar while I am not looking) on sandwhiches, loves it on pieces of apple, spreads it all over the floor, bench, walls etc. She eats it numerous times throughout the day. Today I snapped these pictures of her at 6am in the morning!

When I cooked the Valentines cookies for the Girls classes I was worried as one class in a Nut free class due to a girl who has a severe allergy esp if she has peanut butter or touches it, or if she rubbed it in her eyes or something. So after I made the cookies and dropped them to school I was worried because of Gabrielle she might have left traces of peanut butter on the kitchen bench or something... what if it were on some of the cookies?? Well there were no emergencies so I assume that didn't happen!

She doesn't eat too much else, so I am hoping there are enough nutrients in peanut butter.

GIVING..... what can YOU do?

"Everyone can be Great because everyone can serve" - M.L.King.

"The world is awash in divisions rooted in the human compulsion to believe our differences are more important than our common humanity - the next time you are tempted to give in to the thinking - that you can't make a difference with your time, money, or new beginnings - remember what has been done here"

I have just finished reading "Giving" by Bill Clinton. It pretty much tells how you as an individual can help change the world.

It was a great "give you a kick in the pants/ movitvational" read. So thus I am now looking for... people/places/organisations/etc.... to give my.... time/money/things/etc to.....

However I NEED HELP!! So if you or your... family/friends/aquaintances/pets/etc.... know of somewhere/someone I can help, or an idea I can start please forward your ideas onto me or leave a message.

I recommend reading Giving, though I will warn that it can get a little tedious as it is just like a philanthropic university paper, listing indiduals/groups/corporations that are making fantastic contributions throughout the world. It does tell their stories, so there are a few amazing tales of what YOU can accomplish if you try. Anyways I loved the premise/idea of the book, so am glad I have read it and now motivated to try something. Look at http://www.kiva.org/ for one of the organisations listed.

Now I will leave you with a clip of a little baby that has made a difference in the world, and that if we have nothing else, the one thing we can give is love. Check out this link (I got off a friends cousins blog) it is very moving and you wont be the same person after you have watched it.

http://www.ignitermedia.com/products/iv/singles/570/99-Balloons

Hopefully together we can all change the world!

Caught out by the Local Governement

I am in the bathroom straigtening my hair, getting ready for an engagement party.... I hear a ladies voice say to my kids on the varandah...

"Is mummy or daddy home?"

"MUUUUMM.... there is a lady at the door!"

As I walk the hall I see an older lady talking to the children. As soon as I get into the light I see that it is our local government representative Helen Abrahams.

I have hair straight on one side, bouncy on the other, 2 of the children are only wearing underwear. The older two have been playing with lipstick while I was doing my hair... and with my kids it is usually all or nothing - so they both have huge clown type lips, I look at this scene as I go to the door and all I come out with is

"Girls .. this is Helen Abrahams she works in the government."

The girls look at me and then her, nod their approval and go back to playing. How embarrassing to be caught out like this. Helen asks any opinions I might have for the area and comments that she had 3 sons, we talk and they are exactly same years apart. 6,4, 1.... I say well 2 close together makes you leave a gap before the third. She was surprised I knew who she was, and asked how, as most people don't. Just from the brochure and the local paper (I sometimes have a photographic memory for completely useless information - though came good this time - useless facts and celebrity garbage but unfortunely this ability doesn't extend to the scriptures or church quotes)

And that was the day the local government Rep caught us in our underwear, bad lipstick and bad hair.

Which one is Chicken Little?

Kalani received a Chicken Little Talking soft toy for her birthday a few years ago. (Lucky the movie wasn't a hot hit, and I got toy for $14 at Mr Toyworld instead of the real price of $50) It was played and loved for a few months, and once it stopped talking it was relegated to the Toy Box.

Fast forward a year and it has been refound. The girls desperately wanted to take off his glasses which were stitched on. I said no to doing it for them. After a couple of months they took matters into their own hands and got down the scissors and chopped them off. So now they all take turns in wearing these green glasses. Anika even wore them to school for a day (are they trying to be like their daddy??) I think she likes being the class clown and making people laugh in the bright GREEN glasses.

Well now Gabrielle has taken a liking to them.... and Ken said quick take a photo...

Doesn't she look just like Chicken Little? And yes I have to agree... She is so cute.

What a Surprise!!

"If I had a flower for every time I think of you,

I would walk forever in a garden"

My wonderful husband suprised me tonight with a bunch of beautiful long stem roses. They are absolutely gorgeous. I have never had LONG stem roses. They are huge. So tall that they are almost falling out of the vase I have to put them in.

Ken messaged me the above quote which I didn't get until after I saw the flowers, so it really was a surprise. I said, I blogged today that I would kill Ken if he spent $50 on flowers and these are really fancy so could have cost up to $100.... well it turns out I can't kill him - just admire him for his skills... he said remember I have friends in the industry... wink wink...

Ahhh yes, a YSA who works in a flower factory - thankyou

You make me love my husband even more!

Lovers of Animals, Defenders of Maggots?

This is another story that happened on the "Cookie drama day".

It has been raining almost daily for about 8 weeks. I walk in the rain to and from school everyday - about 25 mins each way. Yesterday it was raining quiet heavily, on the way home so we got very wet. My shoes were so wet that my feet were sliding everywhere inside my sandles, that I nearly twisted my ankle (more foot problems - not what I need) so I took my shoes off. To anyone that has had the misfortune of seeing my kids and I walk to school, I feel pity for you.

This is what we look like... Pram with bags piled on it, this time wet shoes too... blankets hanging off it to protect Gabrielle from the rain, me with my hat on (it is too hard to push a pram and hold an umbrella - so I wear a hat to stop the rain going on my face) this time, me with no shoes on (gutter trash come to anyones mind so far?) then trailing behind me is Anika and Kalani with umbrellas, raincoats, no shoes on Anika, usually they are holding sticks, rocks, flowers, seed pods etc etc... anything they happen to find on the walk. And there is often some fighting going on if they are tired from school. Pretty much the whole neighbourhood knows when we are coming.

So it is raining hard, and we are finally about 2 blocks from our house, when I look around and see that they aren't behind me. I say "Come on Girls" for about 2 mins then realise they are not going to come. So I back track to them and this is our conversation

"Come On, lets get home!"
"We can't!"
"We are saving Animals from being washed down the drain"
(this by the way is not unusual - we have saved worms, bugs, ants, lizards, snails etc)

So then I walk closer to the gutter and see that they are saving maggots which are being washed down the gutter from a bin further up the street. I had to laugh so hard. Anyone who knows my girls know they are semi-tomboys and also love animals and bugs. Now Kalani was using a stick... but Anika was picking them up with her hands. She had one on her palm. EWWWWWW!!I would have taken a photo if I had had my camera with me ( I so wish I had so when she is older I can tease her) so I found the above picture on the internet for some visualisation for you.

So after laughing so hard I said they are just fly babies and we don't really need to save them, as we dont really like flies and Australia has millions of them! So Kalani squashed the one she had, only for Anika to start almost crying saying "Its a baby fly... Don't kill it!!

So it was a perfect ending to a day filled with bugs (see earlier post) EWWWWWW!!

True Love on Valentines

As Ken and I celebrate our anniversary the week before Valentines, we never really celebrate Valentines... anyway isnt it just propaganda for the shops to make money.. and I would kill ken if he spent $50 on a dozen roses which you can pick up before or after valentines for $15!! crazy..

So imagine my surprise when I hear my little angels at 6am (!!) discussing what they are going to make me for breakfast in bed. It is valentines and we love mum... lets make her breakfast. Maybe all my guilt talk last night worked! (Everytime they whinged about something, or accidently bumped me I did well to remind them that I had a SORE foot!!) Well I hate breakfast in bed so I begged for it to be Breakfast on the recliner, thats almost like laying down isn't it??

I won!! Look at my wonderful Cheerios, heart cookie and juice....

The way the Cookie Crumbles...

The Valentines Cookie Drama

Alright, so it sounded like a good idea at first. I saw the recipe and thought that would be nice to make with the girls and for us to have a little fun for Valentines Day. This evolved into making some for them to take to school - 25 each. Easy I thought.

Well I went to the cupboard and got out the flour. I have had a couple of those pesky little moths that love to live in the cupboard and lay little worms (are these weavels?) anyway I was wondering where they could be as everything is in containers... well I found out.. Inside an unopened packet of flour. In the fold were two little worm bug things.... EWWWW!! gross.... they can sneak in anywhere..... So off to the shop for more flour....

I decided to make up the dough, so when the girls got home, we could get right to business cutting out the hearts. Then I thought I will just make up a few to test the recipe... well I forgot about them (they cook in under 10 mins) and subsequently burnt the first batch!!

On the way home from school (25 mins in the pouring rain) I noticed my foot was a little sore. I have no braincells left that I vaguely remember Gabrielle dropping something on my foot earlier, but I cant remember what or where. So hours later my foot starts to hurt alot. I cant put any pressure on it, so am now hopping around the kitchen.

After cooking all afternoon, with the kids eating cookies as they're being baked, some cookies breaking, my foot hurting, I stop to count all the cookies - only 30!! This is when you think... why did I tell the teacher I would bring cookies tomorrow....

So after the kids are in bed, I am up finishing up another batch of cookies, icing dipping in sprinkles all so I can teach my kids about love and the real meaning of Valentines Day!

What was I thinking!

Valentines Special Coming Soon...

Watch this space for our attempt at the cookie recipe on the right.

The girls and I are baking hearts to take to school and for us to celebrate Valentines Day tomorrow. We shall see if ours turn out as nice as the photo.

For anyone interested in Valentines day cooking....go here

http://www.joyofbaking.com/other/ValentinesDayDesserts.html

it lists lots of yummy treats to make for your loved ones

Good luck!

** Update

I thought I woud make the dough ready for when the girls come home, so they just have to punch out the hearts.... I also thought I would do a trial run and cook one batch.... :(

I was too busy blogging... that I let them burn !!

9th Wedding Anniversary

9th Wedding Anniversary.

As Ken is very busy with work and church commitments he made me a nice dinner on the Monday night ( A night guarenteed that he would be home) before our anniversary on the Tuesday 5th February

I am so grateful for a wonderful husband. He is such a darling and funily enough not the same person he is in public. I am lucky enough to know the real Ken and how devoted he is to his family. This is a picture of the present I made.

9 years down, hopefully 50 more to come.

I love you Ken.

Sizzlers Birthday Party

Miss 4 turned 5 this week.
When asked what she would like to do for her birthday she said she wanted to go to Sizzlers. Over the last week these are a few of the conversations that have happened.

"Sizzlers is a good restaurant"

Yes my kids actually think Sizzlers is a fancy restaurant. I suppose it is not like McDonalds or KFC, so they are kinda right

"You can get your own food....

and you can eat dessert whenever you want!"

This one was told to their Nanna (greatgrandmother) who is in hospital. I said ohhh don't be mean, nanna can't come with us. To which they answer

"It's OK, we will bring back a dessert or some lollies in a bag for you"

Well in the end they both got huge desserts and didn't even eat them... obviously the thought of it all was more enjoyable than actually eating anything... they just played with the present grandma bought her...

Atleast it kept them quiet while the adults ate.

So I went and got a blog

Ok, so I relented and started another blog. My friend Janell has the funniest blog that makes me laugh so much, that I have decided to compete with her. Hopefully I will be as funny (probably not)

I will still have my travelblog, but felt that it should be about travelling, and not the personal boring day to day stuff with kids. And travelblog is for the whole world to read (some of the posts have had 500 views - and no it wasnt me clicking on it all the time, well only about 20 times are mine!) At the moment this blog is public, but I might make it private just for invited people to read - ie all of you!

Hope you enjoy it!