What a week.

Still hanging out, this week I've been hanging out with Margie and we've talked so much. Quite amazing that we still have stuff to talk about.

I've had my niggly pains all week. They are strong in the evening and then go away. Hurts most going from sitting to standing, means I'm not standing up too straight.

I have seriously thought it would happen during this week, quite annoying that it hasn't. I really don't want to be induced, I'm not looking forward to ringing the delivery suite tomorrow, I feel they will try to talk me out of it. They ALWAYS try to talk me out of it. Quite sick of that really.

Had an emotional breakdown the other night, sobbed and sobbed. All just nerves and anxiety of the unknown. Worried about how to parent two little kids and my almost teenager.

Oh that is some good news, phoned the school to ask how Mark was going as I can't make it to the parent/teacher interview night which is on Monday (the year level adviser said I had a pretty good excuse), so I spoke with Mr Dibley who said that Mark was a bright, polite, respectful boy and his name hadn't come up at any of the meetings - which is a great thing as they really only discuss the troublemakers - so I'm a very happy mum! He said he has been nominated for some academic awards that will be presented at the assembly in the second week back in term two! Doesn't mean he'll get them, but the nomination itself is pretty damned brilliant! My son - an academic award - the two just don't quite go together. But as I have mentioned previously, he did well in his science assignment, has passed the practical part of music, is doing fantastic in PE (well duh, totally the opposite of his mum there), is great at maths, after a serious almost fail on an early test where he got 50%.

Our lives are slowly being engulfed by football. It seems to be the main topic of conversation either between Jamie and I, and of course most of our friends. Its going really well and I do (sort of) hope I can be there for the first game. I get to watch two of my boys play tomorrow (Mark as a player and Jamie as the umpire!!!) so actually its all three of them, because Ryan is a little goer and chases the ball down at every opportunity.

MUST REMEMBER TO TAKE MORE PHOTOS.

A seriously awesome junior football club.

We had a committee get together tonight and it was great. There were at least 9 families (maybe more), heaps of kids and it was just awesome (maybe I'm watching too much of How I Met Your Mother).

First was a meeting which took a little more than an hour and solved lots of niggly issues, and will get lots of equipment.

Then the BBQ went on, I wasn't hungry so didn't eat dinner, but there were lovely salads, meats, bread etc.

Ryan was chillaxed most of the time, the Becks have a very steep home and lots of edges which could be fell off, so he was held most of the time, he played the piano for a bit (not yet musical)/

Managed to chat to some new and old friends. Everyone was enquiring how I was going and were shocked to hear only a week to go.

Made the most amazing desserts - Tiramisu and a jelly/fruit/custard thing. They should be all polished off now. Very proud of my tiramisu, a bit fiddly to make the cream but easy easy easy. Not a cook thing, just an assemble.

Got home close to 9.20pm, changed Ryan's nappy whilst he was asleep and hopefully he'll been down for count until the morning. Poor little fella is teething and is currently cutting molars :(

Tomorrow is a trial game for AFL starting at 8.30am (for Jamie), I will probably go closer to Mark's start time, then head out to the airport to pick up my mother- in-law, who I am actually really looking forward to seeing. Will be nice to have a helper around the house. Not ones that sit on the computer.

Will have to do a vacuum int he morning, but am 90% prepared. Was very shocked to see a 4 week old baby this evening, she was SO tiny and is now the size Ryan was when he was born! Holy shit newborn babies are small.

Really wish I had my camera this evening, would have been nice to have some photographic memories of such a nice night.

Good night, hopefully will report that I have had this baby soon. 39 weeks is plenty cooked enough.

More challenges of raising children.

Once again, this involves my extremely handsome eldest son. This is more for me, as a diary entry, but feel free to read if you want.

Yesterday was the commencement of football training. Mark does not particularly enjoy football, he is quite good at it though. Mark (as I've mentioned before) does not particularly like anything, maybe with the exception of his iPhone.

So yesterday Mark and his mate M came to our place together. I'm unsure of my position about M anymore, he was gorgeous last year, polite, friendly and generally nice. He has become much more worldly now. Mark says he is at his friends place very often, they spent most of the school holidays at the pool - as far as I can tell unsupervised. These are 12 year old boys? I don't get it. But anyway, M said hello to me and that was about it. They came out here to use the computer, I did a couple of spring in visits to make sure it was appropriate - must remember to check the history on my profile. They were just Facebooking another boy from school. Anyway I think Mark feels this boy is super cool... and needs his approval.

Jamie arrives home, Mark refuses to feed the dogs or check the balls to see if they are pumped up (note: Jamie already mad at Mark) because he has a friend over. When they finally arrive home from training around 7pm. I could hear the yelling in the car. When they come inside:
J: Tell mum what you did?
M: silence
It turns out, one of Mark's team mates B came to Jamie after the training to chat, Jamie was talking up the team, saying there are some real guns this year, ready to play their hardest. B then said "if only the kids wouldn't muck up at training, it makes it so hard" he's talking about Mark, M and C (a very wayward chap, who is quite charismatic). Mark was refusing to do what his coach asked, he didn't want to do a lap, or do sprints... or it seems do anything.

The coaching has changed this year, Ross is the coach of the U14s and not Jamie (he's coaching the littlies U10 - a very disciplined team). Ross has the hard job. These boys are in puberty, several challenging children, and attitude like nothing else. The boy mentioned above C, is the worst offender, if he was the only challenge it is a HUGE challenge. Ross does not need Mark helping C out by mucking up. And blah blah blah on it went.

We'd made a deal with Mark only a week or so ago, that if he tries his hardest, he can have an XBOX 360. Jamie said one more training session like that and the deal is off the table. Mark then made the face and I said to him "don't you dare say you don't care" and there was a little smirk, yes that was exactly what the face meant.

Then I added to it... if the back answering and disrespectfulness continues at football, he will lose his iPhone - forever, not just a week. OMG! That is kicking him where it hurts. He said something along the lines of ok.

This morning I asked what he thought about our discussion last night. He said it wasn't fair that I was taking his iPhone away from him. I told him I have no such intention and it was completely up to him. All he has to do is concentrate for 1.5hours twice a week, so what his coach asks of him and try his hardest. As long as he doesn't muck up, he keeps his phone! Easy, its good parenting.

I was then told, "No mum, its actually really bad parenting" I love it when he says that. Like he knows!

************

Anyway we all made up soon after, Ryan gave us all cuddles. This was extremely cute.

He was laughing and crawling around like a maniac, I called him over and put my arms out "Ryan come for a cuddle", a HUGE smile came over his face and he crawled over, climbed up and gave me a cuddle and a kiss. Marko then sat onto the floor about 5 Ryan steps away from me and put his arms out, he stretched his arms out and walked over to give Mark a big cuddle and maybe a kiss, then Jamie arrived and did the same thing, and he gave his dad a big cuddle. Then it was back to me. Some of it he walked, some he crawled. But man it was cute.

My Footy Club is Awesome.

A slight side bar to start with: I love the word awesome, I'm sure it comes from two parts of my life, its truly a Christian word, and I still consider myself a Christian and more obviously its from "How I Met Your Mother" where quite cool people use awesome a lot. I've taken to using it again.

But back to the topic at hand. My footy club "Wallsend Junior AFL Club" is seriously awesome. The committee is full of really motivated people. Something that Jamie and I are not. Our president Jason is brilliant, he's on the ball, excellent letter writer, excellent thinker, a bit of a stress head but gets the job done. Maybe that's why he's wanted to step down as president for the past 3 years without success.

Next come Russ and Sharyn. Talk about motivated, they have called all the schools in the area to confirm they have flyers about our registration day this afternoon. They also put a lot of thought into what's needed. Russ practices with his kids and local kids, he plans his training sessions and generally worries about how the club is going to fare.

Jamie goes with the flow, he doesn't really instigate anything, will help out, do what is required, but a leader... umm not really. I'm not a big fan of getting involved either. Quite happy to have an excuse this year. BABIES.

WTF??

Another football story.

We take two kids to football twice a week. Once for training and to the games. There is a little 8 year old called Ricky and his 11 year old brother Jake. Jake is a lovely boy, Ricky well he's a little bit feral. Nice enough though.
We drive the kids cos #1 the car doesn't work. #2 Dad got "done" for drink driving and lost his license.
My WTF comments are such.
The mum doesn't come out of the house to say thank you, they don't ring to make sure its ok we collect them, its now just expected. Mum or dad don't thank us after we drop them off or make sure the kids behaved themselves. They show ZERO interest. Very annoying.

The last two weeks the boys have not had breakfast. We collect them about 8am and drop them home about midday. They are playing a very physical game of AFL. Last weekend I felt sorry for them and got them a packet of chips - good nourishing food. When I thought about it, why is it my responsibility to buy them a snack, they should eat before they come, they should have a snack with them or money to buy one with. So I said no this week. Poor little Ricky was starving. But they are not my kids. At the end of the morning the canteen had too much food and was giving it away. So my point to the parents wasn't as good as I would have liked it to be.

When we dropped them off I went into the house, introduced myself, said the boys had a great game, which was true. I then mentioned that it would be a great idea to make sure the boys had breakfast before they came or had a snack...
"That's their own fault, they should get up earlier and have something to eat"
Again, not a thank you.
Do I make some vegemite sandwiches to prevent the annoying "I'm starving, have you got any money?"

OH DEAR... these poor boys have not got much hope in life when the parents care so much.

Football Family

We spend so long at football each week. This morning we set the alarm at 6.30am went to collect 3 other kids whose parents do not drive. Then drove off to Medowie for a 9am start.

The under 10 team (Mark plays on this team) played ok. They were completely thrashed, but that is ok. Only one kid cracked a 'nana about it. It was one of his first games. Not entirely sure of the score, but I think we only got about 7 points.

Next was the Under 12's and there was a parent barney. The coach, Ricky, is only 17 and he drives me NUTS. He is so over the top, loud and opinionated.... but the kids seem to love him and are desperate to please him. Well, it is a rule that all the kids wear mouth guards - that makes sense - well kids being kids - forget their mouthguards. Mark was one and another boy forgot his. The dad of the other kid (from now on referred to as Dad A) said its ok Kid A can just play without his mouthguard, and he wouldn't sue the club if anything happened to Kid A. Ricky said "I'm the coach, and am here for the kids, and no kid is playing without a mouthguard". Red rag to a bull, Dad A cracked the sads, and blew up at Ricky. Not entirely without reason. But made it EXTREMELY uncomfortable for all involved. Jason (Club President) and Jamie (Coach of U10s) were trying to smooth out the problems.... OH DEAR. Not sure if that was understandable, but trying not to be libelous. I'm on Dad A's side!!

DAMN our tv is not working, its completely scrambled. Our oven broke yesterday. Petrol is very very expensive.

A tidy house.

Can you believe it?
My house is tidy. Took a long time yesterday. The lawn has been mowed and it looks good (I wish he'd use the catcher though). We don't look like a rental anymore.

Took the boat out for a little spin yesterday which was nice.

Had a Biggest Loser fest with Mark. The weeks worth of TBL that I had taped, watched it all in one hit. I really don't like the Red Team. Rachel... I just don't get. Sheridan giving in to the temptation just does not make sense. Well that my thoughts on TBL, Mark just wished I'd shut up. I'm so glad Michelle doesn't train me... oh that's right, I don't train.

Umm today we are hoping to get the car seals done, but I don't like out chances. I want to get "Singstar" or "Buzz" for the Playstation we got last weekend.

I went on a card making frenzy last weekend, made about 40 cards. If anyone needs any, just let me know. Stuffed if I know what I'll do with 40 cards. Desperately want to make some more. Will attempt to scrapbook. But don't have much inspiration to do that.

Tomorrow is the "Come and Try Day" for the AFL. I really hope it will be good day. Some drills for the kids and a mini-game. I've got to get Jamie organised with some fun activities.

Christy xx