Netball Bonanza

If you haven't worked out already, my life atm is about kids, their sports and my work! And exciting stuff it is!

Last weekend, Miss Nine's netball team was invited to play a junior demonstration game at the half time break of the latest Firebirds game. For those of you who don't know, the Firebirds are the Queensland netball team so to be one of two teams show-casing junior talents is a bit of a privilege.

Miss Nine was a bit blase about it all, until the actual moment of impact, apparently, when she put her feet on that swish timber-floored court and had to show her stuff. To her credit, she did well and was involved in a fair bit of the action. Ok she played Centre, so was in the thick of it all, but at one stage, she batted the ball out of play, effectively interrupting the other team's momentum and was clapped by the approx 5000 audience members for her efforts! Woo hoo!

The game only lasted about 10 minutes and sadly, our team was well behind in the goal-shooting. (Thank goodness it wasn't a game for points!). The girl's however had a blast and even got to gather autographs from the players at the end of the game.

Now, don't even get me started on the unfairness of money and women's sport. As an audience member, it was apparent what skills the Firebirds members have. All I can recommend is that you have a look at a game sometime on the HD sport channel and see what you think!

The Dinner That Should Never Have Been!

As a working mum,cooking meals each night for the family are a real pain but usually, I make the effort. Tonight, however, given that Dear Husband has been unwell and the fact that I was feeling completely overrun with work, I decided to sneak in some simple heat-and-eat supermarket meals onto the menu. So on the way home from work, I dashed into the local supermarket and bought some easy meals....lasagne for the kids and a very plain fish for Dear Husband and me.

I should have known that it would end in disaster when I was barely in the garage and the Superteen met me at the door begging to make home-made nachos! Ummmmm....not a hope, I told him!

Then the fun began. After complaining throughout the whole cooking process that he was 'STARVING', the Superteen grabbed his lasagne off the bench as soon as it appeared from the oven and - you guessed it - up-ended the whole lot on the floor! One mess, a lot of tears and a couple of happy dogs later, Miss Nine graciously offered to give him her lasagne if she could go down the road to a fave corner store and buy spaghetti bolognaise. Dear Husband, who was feeling much better, took her.

After their return, Miss Nine set herself down to eat when Dear Husband took one look at his fish and unceremoniously threw it in the bin! His excuse....I smelt it and it smelt weird so I threw it. Ummmmm....it was done in light herbs, of course it smelt different! Mine was really nice, thank you very much! I was sooooo not happy!

Naturally, the kids thought that all of this food drama was hilarious! They followed me into the study to tell me that dad had thrown his food out! Soooo not usually an acceptable behaviour in this house!

As I walked out of the room, I noticed a flash of movement at the dining table. Imagine my horror when I realised that it was the dog sitting up on Miss Nine's chair and eating her newly bought meal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All it was missing was a napkin on and knife and fork in its paws!

Arrrrrghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! Next time, I'm giving in and going back to cooking dinner! The drama of easy dinners are sooooo not worth it!!

Lest We Forget

"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them.
Lest we forget."

Easter?! Did Someone Say Easter??!!

It's hard to believe that I have been ignoring my blog! I love my little blog....it is my own little private (ha!) space in my otherwise mad, crazy life! However, I confess that life has gotten away from me and so, too, has the time to write anything here!

Forgive me for such a huge lapse. It is one of those situations though, when someone says, 'Well what have you been up to?' I have to think very carefully and usually end up replying with 'Awwww, nothing much!'. Sad excuse, I know!

Easter, however has passed us by. The Easter Bunny/Bilby (whatever your flavour!) bypassed our place when the 9 year old left a note on the front door informing all and sundry that 'Mum and dad already got me something!'. Actually, 'something' was the latest limited edition Beanie Kid which apparently far outstrips the popularity of one egg delivering bunny/bilby anyway!

Prior to Easter we travelled back to visit our friends (and Miss 9's Godfather) in Toowoomba. It was a couple of days of doing nothing but visiting, chatting, eating, reading and resting! Sounds perfect, doesn't it?!

The previous term has been filled with much of the same. The Superteen has now been selected in his school's soccer team (yaaayyyy!) and Miss 9 has restarted netball games and training. I have been incredibly busy at work and Dear Husband is devoted to his job as usual.

My rest time has been filled with reading the J.R. Ward brotherhood series (seriously can recommend this one to all romance readers out there!) and listening to the new Bob Evans cd! Nice one, Bob! Love your stuff! As well, I've restarted my family history search which both makes me want to tear my hair out and fascinates me at the same time!

And today has been a momentous occasion as Jasper had his first official (ie I didn't have a go at hacking into him with the scissors!) haircut! And isn't he a cute, cute puppy under all that white fluff! He makes us laugh....except of course when he jumps up in excitement and scratches half of our legs away! Lol!

So, perhaps I will be back soon to post here - I hope so! If only someone could invent more hours in a day that were designated only for rest! Wouldn't that be lovely!!!

Garden Visitor

When I first saw this little guy (or girl, or whatever it is!), I thought that it was a snake. Easy to do, given the colouring, scales, head shape, etc! But on closer inspection, you can see that it definitely has legs! Phew! And double phew considering that Ruby had it bailed up out by the rock wall. There is a family of them that lives here, in my garden.....and it's a family that both dogs do not like! Too bad though...they just have to get used to these sweet, placid little blue tongue lizards!

All The Better To See You With, M'Dear!

When your nine year old comes home from school one day and asks you get her eyes checked because she is having trouble seeing the board, you kinda sit up and take notice.

When, after a few days, she comes home and declares that it is all ok because the teacher changed whiteboard marker pens and she can miraculously see again, you kinda wonder if any eye check is necessary.

But, when you decide to go ahead with the eye check 'just to be on the safe side' and sit and watch that same nine year old fail many of the obvious eye tests, you kinda realise that there is a problem.

And so, we now have glasses! Being a worldly and experienced mum (ok, read 'paranoid' and 'seriously trying to avoid more stress' type, instead!), I elected to spend the extra money and get two pairs.....one for school and one for home! Extravagant? Perhaps. But I know Miss Nine and remembering to bring home a pair of glasses each day from school and return them the following morning is just never going to happen efficiently! And who wouldn't want groovy, trendy glasses when they come with cases like this:
And this:

A Very Black Day for Sport!

Most people who know our family know that we love cricket (ok, with the exception of the 9 year old, of course, but we are working on her). I guess that as the mother of a cricket-playing and sport-loving son, many would think it was inevitable that I focused interest on this sport.

In fact, my love of cricket goes back to the time that I was 13 years old. Back in those days, Australian homes usually had only one - two if you were lucky - big box black and white television sets and long hot summers where sport dominated daytime television. In our house, at that time my slightly younger brother somehow managed to dominate the daytime television viewing over the school holiday period. I remember that summer of my 13th year very clearly. Prior to that, cricket was typically on my 'boooooring' list. But at that particular time, we were living in an inner city Queenslander that was so hot during the day time that we tried to escape to the backyard shade as often as we could. Somehow, my brother and father managed to lug one old television set down the back stairs and had set it up (with the help of a very long extension cord) under the shade of the backyard mango tree....how typically Queenland-ish!

Faced with the choice of sitting in the wooden hot house for the day time or lazing under the backyard shade watching cricket, I very sensibly chose the cricket. I decided upon that age-old philosophy of 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!' And hence my cricket loving years were born.

Throughout the years, I became obsessed with following this summer sport. Sitting at the 'Gabba on the sun-filled hill (which has since been built upon) during teenage summers or sitting at home watching Australia play the likes of India, Pakistan, England, the West Indies etc became a regular pastime. As a young teenager, I obsessed over players and their statistics (ok, and their hot bods! I did say that I was a teenager! ;) ). In fact, I had a cat that I named after England captain, David Gower at one stage and names like Imran, Garner, Richards, Logie and the up-and-coming Waugh brothers stand out as players who I loved to watch.

Today, as a cricket follower and the mother of a cricket-mad son, I feel sad. Sad, because one of cricket's blackest days seems to have descended upon us. To hear that the members of the SriLankan international cricket team were injured during a terrorist ambush which deliberately attacked their team bus in Pakistan is shocking. Although many countries have refused to play in Pakistan in the past number of years due to safety concerns, the thought that any cricket-loving persons would choose to attack men who are doing nothing but playing sport and entertaining people is abhorrent. Certainly, sport and politics have been entangled for years, but this is the first time in cricket that lives have been at risk. Suddenly, the sport that speaks an international language has faced evil in the eye.

For the past five nights, in our house we have been lamenting the lack of cable television to view the Australia vs South Africa test match from Johannesburg. We have been walking around the house with radios plugged into our ears to catch current scores. Yes, we are that mad! I guess that listening so intently to the progress of our team, makes us acutely aware of the reverence that cricket is placed in in so many households around the world. Given that, it just makes the whole situation in Pakistan today so much more shocking.

Yes, it's a black day for cricket and sadly a black day for those innocent citizens of Pakistan who enjoy watching cricket played in their country! My thoughts and prayers are with players, the deceased and their families.