wow... so much has happened around here.

We ended up moving. To the house I was bitching about not getting lmao. All kind of last minute and stuff but we did it and we love it here. The girl child has started at a new school and already I can see how much happier she is. Its awsome.

So while there are still a few boxes to unpack and so on life is good. We are pretty much settled in and now all that we are waiting on is for me to get a job at the new coles being built around the corner. So fingers crossed for that one.

Ive decided to take up scrapbooking. So far so good. Need to win lotto though because there is sooooooooooooo much stuff I want lol.

Will do a bigger update etc later. Have to go take boy child to dancing.

I hate real estate agents who treat renters like utter crap.

Do they not realise that some of todays renters could be buyers or sellers one day?

When this renter is buying and selling in the future she will remember how she was treated by agents... and right now there arent many who will be getting the commissions then.

Suffice to say we did not get the house we applied for. (see previous entry)

And further to my anger about real estate agents... this agent did not ring us back once! Hubby went in to the office today (we put the application in on monday, rang on wednesday and hadnt heard anything so figured we would just call into the office) and the agent says she has an appointment with owner this arvo and she would ring us this afternoon at the latest. Fair enough.

BUT she didnt. So at 5 to 5 hubby rings her to be told no sorry the owner decided to go with the other applicant. Thats fine. Disapointing but his choice etc.

What totally and utterly shits me to tears is the fact she would have gladly gone home for the weekend with our life basically in her hands without a second thought. That we would have been here all weekend wondering and hoping had we not rang her.

Very very very poor form and unprofessional to say the least in my opinion.

Am contemplating sending a complaint to the licensee of the agency once I calm down.

So tomorrow we start searching again. Sadly there isnt much available in the area we want.

We rent... bad decisions and being a single income family (at the moment) means we wont be able to buy something for a few more years yet. It sucks but its a reality I have finally come to terms with to a point. We have been pretty lucky... the last house we were in for almost 3 years before the owner decided to put it on the market. Then we moved here and have been here for 19 months.

We made our last payment on our car in May and our current lease expires next month... and we always said once the car was paid off we would look at getting a bigger house. Knowing a bigger house would cost a few more $$'s.

So realising our lease will be up soon we are looking for something else. We currently have no garage at all so high on the list of priorities is a garage. I would dearly love a family room or 2nd lounge room too.

So we find the most perfect house in the next suburb... an extra $60 a week... but not only does it have a DOUBLE garage and 2 lounge rooms... it also has air con, a dishwasher and an outdoor entertaining area and is walking distance (infact almost spitting distance) to the local school. There is also a new coles being built on the other side of the school and hubby has already applied for a transfer there and I have applied for some part time work there for next year when the boy child starts school.

So... it would be just PERFECT if everything works out the way we want it.

BUT there is the small problem of being the pond scum of the real estate world. A RENTER. We have found over the years that we have rented that you really are a second class citezen in the eyes of real estate agents. Especially when applying and looking at rental properties.

First of all you are lucky if you can get a property manager to answer your call or ring you back when you enquire about a property. Then if you are lucky enough to get an inspection of the property (before the agents cousin, brother, neighbour, best friend or whatever snaps it up) they rush you through as though they dont even want to show you at all. Your lucky if you get five minutes to look.

Then there is the whole application process. A set of forms that would rival cenus and centrelink. And they want even more info... ok so photo id and tenancy records or the like I understand, even pay slips or whatever I think ok fair enough. But why would they need a medicare card, car rego papers, an old electricity bill. And on top of that they want THREE personal references?

So we have applied for this house.

And now we play the waiting game. Sure I know they have to run their checks on us and I know these things can take time, and I know they have other people and stuff to deal with and I know they then have to get hold of the owner coz they get final say. But its sooooooooooo fustrating.

How long do you wait before you ring them and ask whats happening?

I figured 48 hours from putting the application in... so hubby rings this morning... property manager not there... leave a message. Wait all day and nothing. Hubby rings again at 4.30pm and shes now on the phone... receptionist will ask her to ring us as soon as she gets off phone. OK. 5pm comes and goes... and nothing.

I dunno... its a fine line between being keen and being annoying I know. We really really really want this house. We were the first ones to put an application in. And we are sitting here not even knowing where we are at... has she even started to process our application? Is she having trouble getting hold of the owner? Has someone else got the house?

Ugh I hate this part of renting more than anything else!

Happy Birthday to me

Happy birthday to me

Happy birthday dear desperatehousewife

Happy birthday to me!!!!!!!

wow... i have finally entered the last year of my twenties! Scary thought that one.

Have had a pretty quiet day. Boy child is still sick and I have officially added cleaning up spew and poo to my list of things no one should have to do on their birthday... mind you being the mum I had no choice. Poor kid. He has picked up a bit now so fingers crossed we are over the worst.

Got some lovely pressies... dvd's, a gorgeous vase, a really good hair straightener. My best friends sent me some gorgeous flowers which was lovely. Lots of phone calls and text messages. Im feeling very loved today.

So now I am waiting for hubby and the girl child who have gone to girl childs dancing lesson and I think they are going to get dinner on the way home.

Might have a few vodka's tonight once everyone is in bed.

Boy child has spewed several more times. Saw doc this arvo to confirm what I thought... he has a bug. Poor kid. Gave him some panadol at bed time and he is sleeping soundly at the moment. Hopefully the good nights rest will do him the world of good.

Went into coles to grab a pumpkin to go in the casserole. Stupid forgot that it was thursday. There were people EVERYWHERE! So I head into the veggie section and there is this kid. She would have been about 5 or 6 I guess and she is going around hugging the veggies. She picked up a bunch of celery and hugs it! omg. The mother is telling her off and Im doing all I can to not laugh at her. But... in fairness if it was one of my kids I would have probably been going off at them too and saving my laughter for later. lol

Grabbed a hair dye while I was in there. Bright red. I mean FLAME red. (My hair is naturally dark brown). So I did that between cleaning up vomit lol. Looks good. Very bright but thats what I was after so all good.

Been a big day so hoping to get an earlyish night tonight.

Oh and tomorrow is the big day... MY BIRTHDAY!

This morning the boy child wakes up and has spewed through the night. Great. He seems ok though so we have a shower and get dressed.

We then go to the girl childs school to speak to the deputy principal. I dont think telling her to "stay away" from a child who has punched her in the back every day for the last week is adequete... fortunately the D.P. agrees and will look into. Also arrange counselling for girl child. She hates school, hates her teacher, thinks the teacher hates her, the bitchiness of the other girls in her class seems to be getting on top of her, puberty has begun and after going through this all year hubby and I are just lost as to what to do with her. She is currently grounded for throwing a water bottle at hubby and screaming that she hates him because he asked her not to do something. I have spoken to our family doctor who put it all down to hormones. She's 10... ffs whats it going to be like when she is 15? Im scared.

So boy child and I come home and he spews again! UGH.

Clean him up and settle him in front of the tv.

Started on tonights dinner. Yummy casserole. Smells awsome.

Do some washing.

Start eating lunch. Dad turns up.

Dads just about to leave and boy child spews AGAIN!

So clean up again and ring doctors. Get SQUEEZED in this arvo. I think its just a bug of some kind. Im not too concerned but would just like to check with the doc.

So thats the day so far... can only get better right?

nothing overly exciting happening today.

hubby home sick, kid #1 at school, kid #2 at pre-school.

was planning to spend today watching a dvd and relaxing after spending the last few weeks working on an essay for uni that really drained my brain. But with hubby home sick I ended up going and doing grocery shopping. I also took the chance to try and find something for hubby and my dad for fathers day.

man my dad is hard to buy for. I wish he would take up a hobby. After 29 fathers days he has more than enough socks and undies. And I do think there comes an age where its kind of embarassing as a daughter to hand over undies as a gift to your father.

Im making a vow now... he either starts giving us hints for stuff or he is going to get vouchers from now on... fathers day, birthday and christmas.

Hubby is only slightly better.

WTF is it? Have I just the most boring men in my life or are men in general really hard to buy gifts for?

So dad is getting a dvd and a mug with dads mug written on it. (They didnt have any that said "im really hard to buy presents for so my daughter got me this mug.")

Hubby is also getting a dvd, a shirt and a mug that says "#1 dad". (They didnt have any that said "Im only slightly better to buy gifts for than my FIL".)

So fathers day presents are done. grocery shopping is done. and today is almost over and I still didnt get to watch that dvd.

I have not long begun a bachelor of arts degree through open university.

Tonight I found out that I had recieved my first distinction!

I know this probably sounds a bit lame but to me (a almost 29yo, mum of 2 who hasnt studied in 11 years and who is doing this by corrospondance) this is a pretty big achievement and I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooo HAPPY!

Well this is something that really pisses me off at times and baffles me too... and in my thoughts today about exactly what to write about here I thought about saying something about this. So here goes...

Over the 5-6 years Ive been online Ive participated in numerous forums, message boards and discussion groups. As a mother most of these have been aimed at mothers or parents in general. Generally these sites are great for developing friendships when we are sometimes stuck at home or limited in our ability to get out in the "real" world for one reason or another. Some have been fabulous for accessing advice and ideas when faced with a unique challenge in my kids. Some have just been simple escapism from the mundane housewife routine. So rest assured I am not bagging or knocking the very real and valuable part these sort of sites provide to people in general. Also bearing in mind that what I am about to discuss also occurs in "real" life.

Why do we, as parents and people, feel it is our god given right to critacise or belittle other parents choices?

It seems to me more and more that as parents we are dammed if we do and dammed if we dont in soooooooooo many aspects of parenting and the choices we make every day. Working mothers are accused of neglecting their children and letting someone else raise them, stay at home mothers are accused of sitting on their arse all day eating chocolates and watching days of our lives. If we choose to breastfeed we are critacised for feeding in public and if we choose not to breastfeed we are told we are depriving our children. If we allow our children to eat junk food we are breeding a generation of obese adults and if we limit our kids junk food intake we are depriving them of the joys of childhood.

The list of comparisans could go on.

The way I see it...

we (parents) are doing the TOUGHEST job in the world. Every day we are faced with choices... some are easy and some are very bloody difficult. We ALL love our kids, we ALL want whats best for our kids.
We ALL make our choices based on what works for our families, what we think or know to be best for our children and most importantly our choices are made with the love we have for our kids being first and foremost. We all make different choices. This does not make them WRONG... it just makes them DIFFERENT.
Parents should be suppporting each other, sure we can offer advice, impart our own experiences and so on but in the end we can not tell another parent that whats right for us and our kids is going to be right for them and their kids.
Its called respect.

Well with my 29th Birthday fast approaching (three more sleeps!) I thought about starting a diary... sad part is after years of internet my handwriting bites and to be honest this is much quicker.

I dont really have alot to say right now... Im sure there will come a time when I will have plenty to say about something.

Until then...

have a fabulous day!