New Skills

Jamie showing Mark the correct way to push a mowe

Going out on his own

The look of satisfied concentration.

Yes you saw it here first, Mark is mowing the lawn! My little bloke is growing up and starting to do "man chores".

We had a very productive Saturday, the room is nearly done (do I sound like a broken record?), the vacuuming for the whole house is done. My bathroom is clean.

Tomorrow I'm going to Lollypops with some girls from work. Very excited about that. Need to get some scrapping done as well.

Happy Birthday to Me

I shall commence this post with a portrait I took of me and Mark today. I wanted to do a family portrait, but Jamie wouldn't play. Yes I agree Mark has big feet!

Today - well now its officially yesterday was my birthday. I'm now the glorious age of 34!
Luckily I don't feel that age, but hey what does feeling 34 feel. I'm still younger than my mum was when she had me! Quite amazing that. So fertility wise I'm not yet on the shelf (no you didn't just hear that Mum). I'm only 4 years into my career and its all going well. Two weeks time I'm on holidays, can't wait for that.

My new year to me resolutions...
Take care of myself.
Not *worry* about my legs so much.
Have some fun (starting by going out with the girls on Sunday)
Prevent dementia by exercising for half an hour 3 times a week.
Think about learning a new language - which one???

The Good, the Bad and the Very Very Annoying.

Good.

Sunny day.
Shortland Festival Day
Gardening.
Hanging out as a family.
Laughing with Mark.
Jamie has made me a customised banner

Bad.

The boat engine won't start.
The house is still a mess.
I think I'm sunburned.

The Very Very Annoying.

The computer room isn't painted yet - but almost.
The banner is a little bit short.

Ooops

I can't believe what I did today.

I left the iron on

Luckily the house is still standing, luckily all the insurances are paid. Luckily I found it now and not in the morning.
I ironed my work shirt at 6.30am and found it still on at 6.15pm. There was a heat emanating from the ironing board.

Challenging

Read this today and think its great!

Genetic Counselling:

"I'm very sorry, I have the results of the genetic tests and they have confirmed our suspicions that your foetus is what we call...Normal.
Some people prefer the terms "Ordinarily Challenged" or "Normal Syndrome". The syndrome can be easily identified by a complete lack of any interesting genetic characteristics. I know this will come as a shock to you, buy you should be aware of what this is likely to mean.

If your foetus manages to survive the rest of the pregnancy and the birth, which is becoming more common these days, he or she will face some daunting challenges. Children who suffer from normalcy are prone to heatlh and psychological problems. It is almost certain that the growing child will suffer a seemingly endless stream of viruses. They will frequently damge themselves, and sometimes others, from their excessive energy.

Their relentless demands will put a strain on your existing family and, of course, your relationship with your partner will suffer, and possibly end in a painful and acrimonious separation. Any children you already have, even if they also suffer from normalcy, will be jealous of the newcomer and all their extra attention. Many siblings are liable to be psychologically scarred by the new arrival.

I need hardly mention the financial consequences, although disastrous, they will be nothing compared to the emotional turmoil your life will suffer.

After a while, you may be lucky and find they can be kind and loving young children. They may find some temporary happiness in things such as music, dancing, food or playing with toys.
But if they survive early childhood, a Normal child is almost certain to grow into a Normal adolescent. Your years of sacrifice will be thrown back in your face as they become disobedient, wild and reckless. Unable to find happiness and contentment, they will treat you with contempt until they manage to leave home. Even then the suffering will continue as they will often return to try and extract money. They will blame you for their own faults and leave you bitter and twisted.

They may well become criminals, over a quarter of Normals will have trouble with the law, many will spend time in jail. Many will have problems with alcohol or drug abuse. Normal marriages are often unhappy and short and over half end in divorce.

Even if they become successful this is likely to be because of the often observed tendency of Normals towards excessive greed. The chances of them sharing their success with you are remote and they will tend to see you as an embarrassment.

Finally, Normal people are likely to die before their time. 23% will die of cancer, 33% of heart disease. Hundreds every year in this country alone are so distressed by their condition that they take their own life. I'm sorry to say that many will have had a lonely, painful and pointless existence.

I am afraid that Normal Syndrome is a genetic condition that affects every cell of the body, and so is impossible to cure."

By Anon. (In the printed version there's a warning at the top to say that this is intended to make a serious point in an interesting way and is not meant to offend anyone, except possibly a few doctors).

I'm doing a lot of blog surfing these days. Thanks for letting me into your lives people.

Saturday evening.

Mark is having a sleep over at Billy's house. Billy rang this arvo and said "Hello, is that Mark's mum? Can I please talk to Mark?"
Next thing the phone was handed to me, and Mark said, "This needs to be a mum to mum conversation!!" OH DEAR.

I double checked the boys would go to bed, and made the boy have a shower and off to Billy's he went. Very excited he was too.




A leg update.

AWFUL. Dr Singh has changed my meds, so now I'm on Sinemet and tapering off the rohypnol. Not happy Jan. What does this mean? I'm not sleeping, terribly cranky and the worst is.... the pain, ache, itch and annoyance of restless leg syndrome is back with 24 hour vengeance. I have a reflex test on Monday afternoon, so that should be interesting.

Pictures

Starting the undercoat. This was the wall where the plaster (Gyprock) was replaced and had to be smoothed so it doesn't look like four pieces stuck together.


More undercoating.


The half finished kennel. Just needs the roof, inside walls, insulation and air conditioning installed. They like it in the rain that is for sure.


Charlie is not very impressed!!



Cleaning off the dirt.



Skye looking for a way out


Our hydrobath. Makes washing dogs a pleasure... Sort of in the background you can tell I've got a pigtail, my tiger stripes are only barely noticable too.

Monday Musing.

• I hate passwords - you can't use the same one for everything, but you need to have a few, so trying to remember what one for which program is quite tiresome.

• Its really raining here

• I'm on Facebook. If its a fad, I'm there!

• Only 14 days to my birthday.
  

Some News.

No not pregnant yet!

Its only 17 days until I turn 34.

Yes I still get excited about my birthday, is that a crime.

Father's Day this Sunday, we got Jamie a new computer room chair, similar to the old one but without his *ass groove*.

Obsessions of the Lantz/Storer Family.

Jamie:

• Talking on the phone to Rocket - like every day
• Talking on the phone to his father - like every day
• Obsessing about his computer business MyNetHost
• Playing Battlefield
  
• Drinking tea or coke.

Christy:

• Tetris on Mark's game boy - my best score is 71,205 - bloody brilliant
• TV
• Blue Bazaar
• Blogs - my new favourite is Parkers
• Talking on the phone to my mum - like every day

Mark:

• Watching the Simpsons
• Playing the front yard with his "posse"
• Riding his bike
• Trying to weedle his way out of doing what he is supposed to do
• Asking for STUFF
• Looking at cool car photos on the internet
• Thinking about Christmas presents.
  

Messages

These are some pics from the Hunter Wetland Centre that Mark and I braved last weekend. It was lovely. I kept saying "ahh the serenity" from The Castle which suitably annoyed the boy. Mark took these photos himself, chose the locations and is happy with the results. Just after we left the wetland centre, it RAINED for two whole days.



















Love notes from Mark.

We are LIVE

Jamie and I have a new business. Webhosting and domain names. Very helpful staff, enthusiastic and full of suggestions.

Check it out here.......... MyNetHost

Special deal for readers of my blog!

Half price on annual webhosting plans

Contact me for discount code.

Check the site out and let me know if you'd suggest any changes.

Grumpy bums.

This morning I felt a bit assaulted. I brought it upon myself, I went to the American site 2peas which is scrap related. A few weeks ago there was a HUGE storm about Elsie Flanagan getting a divorce, now its all about Heidi Swapp moving to China, and a course I seriously considered doing, but the cost put me off. The girls on the 2peas forum are so nasty. I can't believe people actually act that way, saying horrible things about other people. Its like the Paris Hilton, or Lindsay Lohan, Brittany, just cos they are in the public eye means that they are ridiculed. I don't get it at all.

Gorgeousness

What do you reckon? He's getting his real face back (oops I haven't told the story in blogsphere - Mark stacked his bike and grazed his nose and he's had a REALLY bad case of chapped lips), his hair isn't as short and he's beautiful.




How about those eyes??

Can you tell....

My legs are playing up. Its 1.45am and I'm hyped up. Need to watch a movie or something. Ahh my taped version of Criminal Intent.

Hired "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and realised two things.... I have never seen it before, and I really don't like it, not even a little bit. Do like the demeanor of Frankenfurter though, very camp and funny, the rest of it... not so much.

Gone a bit mad.

I'm blog crazy at the moment. Not sure why. I want to express myself and well this is my way. Wish I was as into scrapbooking as I am into blogging. Need to share some recent LOs soon.

The Syndromes.

This is a funny conversation I had with Mark a couple of months ago. It was when I was in a bad part of depression, and had some *strange* thinkings... if you know what I mean.
Anyway I was reading the newspaper about how children call 000 (or 911) for their parents in case of emergency.

Me: Mark what would you do if you found Mummy on the floor and you couldn't wake her up.

Mark: I'd call 000

Me: What would you tell them.

Mark: My name and that I couldn't wake my mum.

Me: They would need to know where we live.

Mark: OK I know that (I won't put that info on the internet at this time)

Me: They would also want to know if Mum has any health problems, do you know the name of the illness Mummy has?

Mark: Oh yes I know that one, you have Down Syndrome

Me: Close, its called Restless Leg Syndrome. Sheena has Down Syndrome.


He was so proud of himself knowing what my Syndrome was. He's a clever little chook, he understands to his level Sheena's condition, he recognises other people in the street with DS, and not in a bad way, just recognising that they look similar to his dear little cousin. He dutifully looks whenever Nan or Aunty Jo sends through a picture of Sheena saying "OOOH isn't she cute"

When I told him we'd be going down to Melbourne together for the holidays... oh not again. I explained how I really want to see Sheena... "Mum she looks just like in the photos." But I can't cuddle her I explained.

"Cuddle the photo"

The newish me.

Hair.

I'm going to get my hair done today.
My greys are showing a bit too much for my liking and I haven't had a colour for a LONG time. Going for some foils... should be interesting.
My hair has gotten quite long, I can pull it back in a pigtail, but the sides still fall out, so not quite there yet. But its at the stage where people are starting to say "ooh your hair is long now".
Ooops forgot Mark's eyedrops this morning. He has lingering sore eyes from his flu episode, and the doc prescribed eye drops. Mark went into his normal PANIC and didn't want me to put any in... so I said to him, put a drop in my eyes and see my reaction. I have not put anything in my eyes since I was in year 11 at school! I couldn't remember if it hurt, but the things we do as a mother. He was surprised by my reaction. I guess he thought that if I didn't die on the spot, it would be ok for me to put the drops in his eyes.
Crying and a bit of panic... one drop in.... a grimace and then oh... that was ok. Now he happily opens his eyes for the drops. He is a very odd kid. Probably not, but he's eccentric!

Scroll down.

Photo of Mark E Lantz with his haircut!!!