It never rains....

Another wet day! We had no power this morning, and people coming to look at the house at 9am - torrential rain, can't vacuum, can't empty the pool that's overflowing and can't clean up much at all - couldn't even make any toast with the thick fruit loaf that Greg brought home for me as a special treat!!

Still - things were travelling not too badly, I managed to get us all out of the house and the house looking okay for the inspection, only to discover (after putting the girls in the car) that the garage door doesn't work (of course - what was I thinking!). With instructions from Greg over the phone on how to disengage the door to do it manually, I thought I'd be okay - but I'm too short to push such a heavy door up to that height - another few inches would have made all the difference. I had my cheer squad in the car - Ellen counting out 'one, two, three - jump Mummy!' each time I tried and Olivia trying her best to clap and cheer (although I'm sure she has no idea what for!). We had to leave though (various reasons) so Greg quickly came home to lift the door to the appropriate height - which worked well, but then something went wrong when it came down again - came down uneven so we had a one metre gap up on one side and about a half metre on the other...not such a good look with people coming to view the house!

The girls and I scampered to run our errands etc. while Greg set about fixing the door - only to discover that the power had been shut off by our pool pump blowing up (not the torrential rain and storm last night). So now we have power again - thankfully, and a call to the pool shop very soon I imagine. In the meantime there's a lovely stream flowing from our pool - not quite the water feature I would prefer!

So as it continues to pour down outside and with another group coming through the house tomorrow morning, I have no doubt that Greg will be out in the rain when he gets home tonight to try to fix the pump...perhaps I'll get the role of umbrella holder?!

Kindy tales

Ellen loves her two days a week at Kindy - she's often telling Greg to drop her off at around 7am - because she's all dressed and ready to go, so why would we wait?!? The teachers were telling us a few stories of her antics, so I'll share just one with you.
On Tuesday this week she organised all the kids into lines with their chairs, then put her chair out the front and took them all on a "bus ride". When a few started getting restless (as 2 year olds do), apparently she turned and told them to just sit still and be quiet, because she had a picnic in her backpack that they could share when they got to the park. Apparently calm descended and it all finished appropriately - presumably they were having morning tea or something soon afterwards anyway, which fit the bill for a 'picnic'.

Rainy days

What do you do on a rainy day when Mum's feeling sick and all the toys seem boring...go outside of course! The girls had a great time in their raincoats - a tad big for Olivia, but she didn't seem to mind. Finally got to wear the new gumboots that Nanna bought for Ellen too - thanks Nanna!

Family catchup

Last Saturday we caught up with Kathryn, Russell, David and Tess for the afternoon and then dinner. The girls had a great time with their Aunt and Uncles and enjoyed all the attention. We had a lot of fun - we don't see them very often, so it was good to catch up - particularly to see Aunty Kathryn, as she and Russell are expecting their first child in December this year. Also a great opportunity for me to offload some baby things that we don't need anymore...that's one less box to pack when we move!

On the market

It's true, our house went on the market late last week, so now I have the challenge of trying to keep it somewhat respectable for prospective buyers to wander through. Doesn't sound that difficult until you add two little girls into the mix, and at 2 and 1, they like nothing better than to help Mummy clean the house - which inevitably means that I take at least twice as long, and have to deal with the mess they create and the tears that are produced via the tumbles and inter-sibling altercations along the way. So the process has begun - already had a few viewings, but the market is a bit unusual at the moment so we'll see - God's timing and will are perfect - not mine (I keep reminding myself of that fact.)
Photo is of Olivia following the girls and my return from Brisbane the other day - we'd been back all of half an hour, I was bringing in the washing and when I returned inside found her happy munching on the banana cake that Nanna had sent home with us - she'd managed to reach it and help herself through the clingwrap etc. (resourceful isn't she). And Greg wonder why it's hard to keep the house clean!! Ellen got in on the action too - I'm trying to clean up and the two of them are trying their best to grab more cake and eat it too. Cheeky little scamps!

Recent news

Back to some semblance of health again for most of the family - I'm still suffering the occasional migraine, and Olivia's sporting a stylish scar on her forehead due to an incident with a doorway...she does take after me, so I shouldn't be surprised!

Anyway - our most exciting news is that my friend Deirdre' has finally received her visa and is able to come and visit us for a few weeks in October. We had been praying for it to come through, as there have been a number of unusual hold-ups which had dragged on the process for months. So via SMS we were doing celebratory 'jigs' on 2 continents. Greg doubts that what Olivia and I were doing was technically a jig, but we're sticking with it!

So we're looking forward to her arrival in early October and now the fun part of planning what to do while she's here begins...her two requests were to see the reef and swim with sharks, so they should be easy enough and we can move on to the more mundane things (feeding kangaroos etc.) after that.

Our other news (not quite so jubilant about this one) is that my work has asked for me to increase my days from 2 to 3 so that they can better utilise me at my level, which we knew would happen eventually, but weren't expecting this soon. So we're praying about that and what it all means for us as a family, keeping the balance, where we live etc. Will let you know more about what's happening when we do...