A bit of a time line.

My  mother thinks it would be a good idea to put up a year in review.  My facebook year in review looks beautiful - all sunshine and light.  Happy outings.  What it doesn't show is the myriad of phone calls, sleepless nights, stress, STRESS and (well I'm not going up a font size) stress.

Having a part of your property burn is challenging.
No one was hurt, this is fantastic.  But losing ones possessions is hard.  Losing photos and some books that I won't replace is hard.  Jamie losing most of his stuff... hard.

Saturday April 2nd - night of the fire, this was documented below.

Sunday April 3rd - Ben's fifth birthday, we had a party at a park planned.  This went ahead.  Two of his school friends, and family.  Jamie's parents came down from the country, but my parents had started their long holiday.  This was a welcome spot of happiness.  We were able to digest what had happened the night before.  Then most came back to our house and we surveyed the MESS.  At this stage everything stank.  He stench was horrendous.

Monday April 4th - I took the day off to consult with the insurance and the saga of the insurance commenced.  In all we had three claims.  The motorbike (which was unceremoniously dragged down our driveway and hoisted onto a towtruck)    I got a phone call from the vehicle insurance surveyor to ask what was the licence plate of the motorbike, as the one he was looking at was burned and you couldn't read it... well then knowing the licence plate isn't going to help you buddy.... it was char cooked.  I think out of everything Jamie was the saddest about his bike.  It was still quite new and still in perfect condition.
That day I got some stabilising supports for the doorway of the garage and a temporary fence put in by two building companies - to this day I have no idea who the fence came from.

The building assessor came that week.  She was young, disinterested and well not very helpful.  She barely answered my calls - and I didn't make many.

Our claims assessor was South African - and in South Africa.  This was the most tedious part.  We took about two weeks to formulate our list of what was in the garage and the approximate purchase price of it.
Our home has very little in the way of storage, so almost everything was in the garage.  Photo albums - 10 scrapbooked albums of Mark's childhood.  Irreplaceable. Computers, camping gear and tools - Jamie is pretty much a tool hoarder.  All his aircraft tools, gardening, renovation, car maintenance tools.  Then there was the Commodore, and the full extra body kit for it and full second interior for it and some extra stuff as well.  None of that was covered by insurance as we didn't have the car insured as it wasn't drive-able.  Mark and Jamie were starting to do it up for Mark to have for his 18th birthday :(

Time for an update!

Not much has happened since the fire.

Life kind of stalled.

Hopefully will have a super update soon.

Garage fire 2nd April 2016

I'll start with the photos of during.  I felt very wrong taking pictures so I didn't, other than these three.  Fire started about 6.30pm Saturday night.  Mark and Jamie tried to put it out, but it was too intense. I called the fire brigade (as did many others I would imagine) in total there were 5 appliances and 2 ambulances - they checked Jamie and Mark out for signs of smoke inhalation - both of their faces were black.... neither allowed a photo.

About 45 mins after the fire started.  Still a lot of smoke.

Fire truck arriving

Fire truck

This is where it touched the house itself.  Eaves gone and red bricks are now black

Aluminium melts at 660 degrees Celsius.  WTF!!!  Aluminium window frames and bowed tiles

Another shot of the melted verandah roof

Our old VN Commodore.  We were giving it to Mark for his 18th

.

Ryan's bike and melted verandah roof.

Motorbike being towed away :( 

Kiddy Hawk Challenge 6th March 2016

Before the race.  Nice clean boys.

Commando crawling under barbed wire - yes real barbed wire.

End of the race, are you really that muddy?

Ben going through the first of the muddy trenches.

Ryan... do I really want to go in there?

Head to toe - mud

Even worse!

Dubbo to Moree

Tents all packed up and off we headed, this was a shorter 4 hour drive to the central NSW town of Moree.

Bringing the city luxuries to camping.  We had a coffee machine.

Something funny is going on with these two.

My gorgeous Mark

Ben and Zahli with lollypops.  They both got bitten by wasps at this caravan park.

Moree is famous for its thermal pools.  This one was at the caravan park and VERY popular with the grey nomads

Four different pools of varying temperatures

Gwydir Caravan Park  (how do you pronounce that?)

Road trip and visit to Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo

and boom, it is the 22nd of January.  I mean really??

We went on a holiday.  A 2 week driving holiday and it was pretty good.  Here is our holiday in pictures.

Jamie made us "Glamping" t-shirts and the whole family wore them.  Then for some strange reason, we did not take a family picture.

The kids in their Glamping tops.  That is the Parkes Radio Telescope in the background.  Strangely it was worth the detour.

Our tent.  Again strangely we didn't get a "good" picture of our tent.  Jamie and I are not the best photographers.

Something at Dubbo Zoo has caught Ben and Zahli's attention.

Gorgeous Ryan

My bigger two boys on an elephant (not a real one)

Ryan patting a wallaby (yes a real one)

Mark having a nap.

 Toby feeding the Galapagos Tortoise.

Ben patting the wallaby.

Ideas for using BORAX

Home Made Washing powder  - link here

Homemade Laundry Liquid

1/2 bar of Sard Wonder Soap (bought from Woolworths)

1/2 bar of another soap (I used a soap I was given as a gift a few years ago)

1/2 cup of washing soda (bought from Woolworths)

1/2 cup of borax (bought from Coles)

10 Simple Steps 

1.  Grate soaps in a food processor.  Or by hand.  (If you can avoid grating by hand, do it!)

2.  Put 1L of water in a saucepan on a medium heat (1L = 4cups)

3.  Add soap, soda & borax.

4. Stir until dissolved.

5.  Fill a big nappy bucket with 9L of water.

6.  Add contents from saucepan.

7.  Stir until you’re happy it’s combined.

8.  Using a funnel, fill containers with the mix.  Leave 3 – 4 cm gap at the top.  Do this straight away, don't leave it overnight or it will gel up.

9.  The mix will separate (don’t be alarmed, it’s normal), and you’ll need to give it a really vigorous shake before using.

10.  Pour 1/4 of a cup (or about 60mls) into your washing machine dispenser.

I'm going to try it and see if it works for me.  I shall save some milk containers over the next few weeks (we have SO MUCH milk)

-------------------------------------------

Silly Putty - link here

1 bottle of clear school glue (150ml)

The same amount of water (150ml)

1/2 teaspoon of borax

1/2 cup of hot water

Glitter and blue food colouring

1. Pour your glue into a bowl
2. Fill the same bottle with water and then add to the glue
3. Stir until combined then add colouring & glitter
4. In a separate cup mix the hot water and borax and stir until dissolved
5. Pour into the original bowl
6. This is the best part. Stir and watch the magic happen.  Mix until all combined 

I don't understand humans.

Another series of thoughts by me.

I attended a conference last week.  There was a speaker Dr Marie Etienne from the USA.  She is of Haitian descent.  She was talking about the Haiti Earthquake which occurred in 2010.  Most of the country is still living in tents as the infrastructure has not been built yet.

Her wording was "under the tent".  When people live under the tent there is a lack of electricity a lack of private and "of course" violence and sexual assault occurs.

HUH???  Why is this "of course"

Tangent..... (it will come back together), I watch a lot of Law & Order SVU.  Every episode is about rape or some sort of sexual exploitation.  A recent episode had a young drunk almost passed out woman lying on the ground.  A couple of youngish men walked by and looked at the woman, instead of helping her home or to a hospital, they unzipped their pants and raped her.

HUH???


What is wrong with men who don't appear to have control over themselves.  I know that if my father or my husband was in either of these situations nothing would happen. Children would be safe.  Women would be safe.  Why are there so many people out there who think that other peoples bodies are their for their enjoyment.

Also, how is rape enjoyable.  Surely a woman or a man who is "liking what you are doing" is so much better.

Decisions.

I work as a nurse in a GP clinic and well over half of my patients need to lose weight.  Most of them discuss it with me.  Everyone is nervous to hop on the scales.  Some are lighter and some are heavier.  Every one of them I discuss about having to make a decision.

The decision to lose weight.

My weight has been steadily increasing over the past 6 years.  Reading back recently over this blog, it might even be over the past 10 years, maybe even 15.

Why won't I make the decision to lose weight?  Why do I sabotage myself all the time.

I'm now close to 20kg heavier than I should be, and I am still a unsure as to whether a decision has been made.  I need to exercise, I need to eat healthier stuff, my downfall for the past year has been bread and chocolate.

How do you "make the decision" to actually try, not just put in appearances to get people off your back.

TV

I love TV, I shouldn't love TV, but I do...  my current favourites are

We have loved this one for several (or a few) years now.  Violence, sex, confusing story lines and lots of killing.  Just finished the latest season and it was OMG

This is very similar to GOT, sex, violence, violence, violence and an interesting story line, based on historical events.  LOVED IT.

I'm new to this series, and I'm almost through the first of three seasons (need to finish it before we cancel Foxtel.

This is the little boys favourite, they enjoy the magic and the sword fights without people bleeding or actually being killed, Its funny when the boys say "did he get dead?"

Another instalment in my trews.

Closing the Gap.  I know it through the healthcare system.  Aboriginal people in Australia are entitled to more services that non-Aboriginal people due to their increased health needs.

Right now in 2015, the average life expectancy for an Aboriginal man is 67 years.
The life expectancy for the rest of the Australian men is 82 years.
That is a massive gap.  Healthcare and education is one way to close this gap.

Imprisonment rates:
In 2014 there were 33 thousand people in prison.  Of that 9200 were of ATSI descent. 27% of the total prison population are Aboriginal.
23 million people live in Australia and 669000 are Aboriginals, therefore almost 3% of the TOTAL population are Aboriginal.

What the discrepancy.
I have an as yet not researched theory.  I do plan to research this.. might do a PHD on it.

Mark turns 17 on Friday, if he went out on Friday night and got blotto, the police I would imagine would bring him home (or call me to get him) and he'd sleep it off, get yelled at by me and then not much else.

If Anthony* the Indigenous young man of 17 did exactly the same thing, he would be arrested for public drunkenness and have to go to the cells and then the magistrates court and so on and so forth (in the words of Dr Gredina)

Which means if one is Indigenous you are much more likely to be sent to prison for a "silly" crime than one that is more serious.

I shall now workshop my thesis with myself.

My Trews

Russell Brand has a YouTube show called The Trews, this thoughts on the news... news isn't true, the trews is news (I made up that tagline)

Anyway there are heaps of items from the news that makes my blood boil.  But I'm not very sure how my friends are going to respond, or if they are interested, so I will do my version of the trews here.

#1.  Cancelling ones citizenship if fighting for ISIS.
This is a massive news item.  That being said, I can't find a link to anything easily on the ABC news site.  Except maybe here.   My thoughts on this.  It's a huge thing to do, to strip someone of their citizenship, its an even bigger thing to do it if they don't have another nationality or really don't have any ties to that community.  Say for example me, I could be stripped of my Australian Citizenship should I ever to fight for ISIS (of course I am not), and then "they" say well I could go back to Canada or Germany even.  Yeah, I have huge ties there!  Anywhoo I am getting off track.  Who is this law going to apply to... at this stage, maybe 20 people.  Parliament is practically stopped over an issue that is relevant for 20 families.  Stupid.

Ashamed to be Australian.

For the past year or so, I have been listening to my radio about the Royal Commission into the Institutional Response to Child Abuse.  This means the Catholic Church, the Salvation Army, the Boy Scouts, elite private schools, they all have a very dark history of child physical and sexual abuse.  It has been harrowing listening and I hope they give the journalists following it some counseling as on my drive home, I am often in tears.  Anyway, this royal commission has just finished its public hearings and they are in their discussions to make their report to the government. 

Whilst this has been happening.... there have been subdued reports followed by very public declarations that sexual abuse is occuring to underage asylum seekers on Nauru and Mannis Island.  These are detention centres for people fleeing their home country to make their lives in Australia - granted some of them are economic refugees, but most of these refugee get asylum status after what is normally quite a long detention. 

So far there has been many reports that long detention CAUSES mental health problems, there are huge instances of self harm, self neglect and suicide attempts.  Yet the Australian government put CHILDREN in these centres, the government that I had a hand in voting for (it wouldn't matter what side I vote for, the policy is the same).  I don't want to be associated with a government that voluntarily sets people up for life long mental illness.  But they are also covering up the sexual abuse that is occurring there.   So our government which is condemning the catholic church of covering up the pedophiles is doing exactly the same thing at the same time they are trying to find out what happened in the catholic church. 

As an individual person, what can I do?  I would like to vote them out, but the other side will do the same.

Things I don't get...

Two posts in one day, cos I gotta get that pic off my front page. WHY do I take such horrible photos (that is an interesting question, but not the topic of this post)

Why do "ordinary" people have haters.  I am grown woman of almost 42 years old.  From what I can work out, no one hates me.  People I know might not talk to me, they might find me dull.  But I don't have people who hate me.

People from that wonderful group called "My Facebook Friends" seem to have people who hate them, people who talk behind their backs, people who have other people making their lives hell.  I can't figure out why.

Do you think it is from marriage break ups, so there are a group on the exes side that is against you.

Well as I have titled this.... I just don't get it.

Things that bug the crap out of me #45

Easter, when did it become what it is today!  I sort of get Easter Eggs, but what I don't understand is LOTS of Easter eggs, or worse still - presents!  My Facebook feed is full of people giving a lot of presents to their kids at Easter.  UGH.  Please excuse the dreadful pic of me, but the boys are cute.

My eldest turns 16

Mark turned 16 years old today.
He has had a huge week.
Got his first part time job at McDonald's at Tullamarine Airport yesterday - interview and offered the job straight away.  Orientation starts on Wednesday.
Today was his birthday.
Got his learner's permit on the first try and went for his first drive with his uncle.

Some time off.

Having a bit of R&R, forced R&R due to some surgery.  Hopefully it means I'm fixed, but I'm not counting my chickens before they are hatched.  No more details ok.

I miss my younger two boys.  They have been at my inlaws for the last week.  And I miss them.  I miss their squishy faces, their enthusiasm for life.  I miss every detail about them (ok maybe not the whining)

Superheroes

Wrestling!

So two weeks ago, we had a car accident.  I was travelling along Sharps Road and a car pulled out of a side street without checking and into the side of her car I went - BAM.  Me with two little kids in the backseat and then a written off car.  Six days later we were paid out!  Still can't believe that the insurance was so quick.  

Car at the car cemetery.

My beautiful baby, love love love.

Feeling proud

My sister and I have a business.

You can visit is here.

We have sourced product, some great, some well quite terrible. 
We have written business plans, budgets, partnership agreements.
We have opened bank accounts, PayPal, merchant accounts.
We have (with my husbands assistance) made a wonderful website.
We have learned so many new things.

Personally, I became the photographer.  The quality of my photos have improved remarkably.

My first ones were terrible.  Poor background, poor depth well just awful.
Now I can say I'm proud of my photos, they are what will draw people to our jewellery (did I mention it was selling jewellery?)

The pics I am most proud of are:

A nice stretchy bracelet

I love this sparkly and pink bracelet set

I love the blurriness of the hair and it was styled just the way I wanted it.  Cute earring too.

This pendant is just beyond beautiful