Another Year Down

There comes a time when you realise that although your children are thrilled to be getting another year older, their age is actually starting to make you look very old! To say that I now have a fourteen year old does make me feel suddenly 'middle aged' but not enough to stop any celebration surrounding the Superteen's birthday!

The day was particularly quiet as he is having friends over on the weekend, however we did celebrate with family.

What, btw, do you get a fourteen year old boy? Vouchers, of course! And a singlet-type jersey of his favourite basketball team!

And what do you feed him? A Dreamy Donut stack cake covered with lollies (gummy ones are the only way to go, apparently!) and candles!

The day was going well until the Superteen decided to play a football kicking game at the end of the driveway. Somehow he managed to stub his toe so badly that we thought he'd ripped the complete top of his toe off (it was hard to tell with all of the blood) and an urgent trip to the doctor's was needed. Three numbing needles, no stitches and lots of bandages later, he was home to show off his birthday war-wound!

Yep, just another day in my busy life alright!

Dust Storming!

I woke today (the Superteen's birthday but more on that tomorrow!) to news reports that Sydney was shrouded in a dust storm. I watched the images on television as I looked out the window and was thankful that it wasn't here.......that gloating feeling lasted all of about an hour when I looked out the window and realised that the sun was nowhere to be seen. Somehow the incredible mass of dust had found its way to south-eastern Queensland and to every manageable space of my neighbourhood!
(There is a hill with a water tower hiding behind those trees in amongst that dust somewhere!)
There are some things that I have learned about dust storms. The first is that it gives everything an eerie glow. For us it was a golden-orangey colour. The second is that it decreases visibility so that you are lucky if you can see anymore than a few hundred metres in front of you! The third is that everything...and I mean everything....becomes completely covered in a fine layer of dust. Even though we stayed inside and I closed all doors and windows, the tiles still feel like they have a layer of fine, powdered dust on them. And don't even get me started on allergies and asthma - the fact that I have a sore throat tonight means that I'm hitting the hay fever meds! All I can do is thank God that we didn't have any reason to be out and about in it today.
(And here, behind the trees is Moreton Island...somewhere!)
The news reports are saying that it's the worst dust storm to hit eastern Australia in years. It certainly was an experience and one we'll never forget!

Have You Ever Blog Surfed?

Have you ever spent the time clicking through the 'next blog' icon at the top of your blog page?

I tried it today.

Sometimes it takes you to the most interesting sites. Today, I've stumbled upon a German person travelling through Australia, a Taiwanese sketch artist, a Japanese person who was tripping through somewhere (no idea where cause I can't read Japanese!), a Malaysian woman who is 14 weeks pregnant, a guy from Philadelphia who blogged about everything from snowboarding to rat pranks, Ingrid from Adelaide who blogged about her family and someone who was blogging about the televisions show, Fringe. And this is just to name a few!

Beware though, 'blog surfing' comes with its pitfalls.....namely lots of spam-type sites and the occasional unsavoury one! Not to mention those that just make no sense whatsoever!

But it does make you realise that the world really is an interesting place and it's made up of an assortment of fascinating individuals!

So what did you stumble across on your blog surf?

My How They Grow!

The Superteen decided recently that as he was approaching 'employable' age, he would like to put his name down for a few casual, after-school-pocket-money-type jobs.

I was hesitant to agree at first as he has such a full life with school and sport already and I was sure that somehow this job thing would probably mean more work and running around for my already full life!

It appears, however, that he has convinced me. A few weeks ago, he sat and registered himself on numerous web sites belonging to companies that employ high school students for casual work.

I didn't think much of it when he got a couple of notices about job vacancies, although I did help him write a resume - what type of resume can you really write for a never-employed semi-child? And I stoically drove him along to a couple of interviews so that he could get a real feel for what he was getting himself in for.

I can now tell you that he was actually offered both of the jobs that he interviewed for!

The Superteen is incredibly excited. He is especially thrilled at the prospect of his having his own money which he can use to expand his ever-growing shoe collection (And they say that women are into fashion!!! Not when you are a Nike fan, apparently!).

Yes, I am excited for him. But, like any parent, I worry that about so many things: his ability to handle the responsibility that comes with gainful employment, his ability to juggle school, sport and work, his ability to manage his own meagre income, his ability to remain a fairly sensible kid even though he is now 'cashed up', etc etc etc.

But I think the thing that really gets to me is even simpler than that. It's the fact that I no longer have a child. The child that sprang, screaming, from my womb only a few short years ago is now suddenly someone else's employee! Ok, I know that I've watched him grow into a six foot tall teenager, but deep down, he is still that little baby who looked soulfully into my eyes almost from birth and who I vowed to protect and adore. No longer is that boy under my total care. Now he is making decisions without me and now I have to let him.

It's times like these that I wish they came with a manual!

It's Been A While.....

.....but I still love Robbie Williams!!!!! Here is the new song off his soon-to-be-released album (btw, have no idea why it overhangs to the right on my blog but meh...it's still worth the listen!):