[Shad]

We've moved from Spain to Bavaria!

Our new house.



and because it might get a bit cold during the winter..... the holiday house is on Manihi in the Tahiti group.



More photos below.

If you need to go back to the old place to pick up the kids or whatever, here's the link ......Old place

Will be back to upload more photos later.

[Shad]

A Boy!!!!!!

And I was so convinced it would be a girl. Good thing all those bits I sent over were aqua and not pink then isn't it? Congrats to Mum and Dad and the brothers. Well done! And thank you Teel for keeping us informed. I took a quick peek at the thread before I went to bed last night thinking that something might have come up then but no such luck. I was a couple of hours too early.

We have wind today. A real bruising - let me just blow everything over the yard - knock down a couple of trees type wind. I was forecast last night, lots of strong wind warnings and we had some heavy rain but unfortunately that didn't last too long. Haven't turned the radio or tv on today to see if there was damage anywhere. I went and cut all the hippeastrums that were flowering as I know they don't stand up to the wind too well and the house is full of these large pink and white striped lilies at the moment.

So what is on this weekend? Well I will be working around the house and getting the ceiling ready with more sanding. I have decided to give the ceiling one more go myself and if that doesn't work, I'll call in a plaster and get him to put a skin over it to smooth it all out. That's todays chore. I also need to sit in the Dr's surgery to get a repeat of my monduretics. Such a bore having to do this. But they won't repeat without giving me at least a cursory BP check and taking a look at the legs and ears etc. Then I ought to get out in the garden and take a trip to the gym. I did most of the shopping on the way home last night. Went to a wildly expensive fruit and vege shop, but the stuff there is really good and picked up some fish, chick and lamb from the place next door - again expensive but it will last a while. I'll be doing some LindaT type cooking this weekend.

Good to see Nae back and posting and keeping the communication lines open with the sons. We can't control them anymore, but we can be around to pick up the pieces when it all goes wrong, or just to issue tissues as required or bake the odd biscuit to show off in front of the guys! No communication - no sons or family. It could be a lonely old world lived like that.

[Hollyhock]

Beautiful Shad.

[happy2bme]

I also join the concensus in thinking that surely this poor woman is outnumbered by Testosterone and she HAD to be carrying a girl...

In any regard, congratulations Linus. Hope all is well with you and new baby boy bumpkins. I hope it wasn't too rough for you and you are getting at least ONE good sleep.

Thank you so very much Teel for being the messenger to us. We were all hanging in there just awaiting the news. Sorry to hear that you aren't feeling your best.

Whoa, whoa, whoa Shad. That castle is TALL and magnificent. Is there an elevator to the top turrets? Will take me a month of Sundays to climb up there tho this may be the house the helps me lose weight Thank you for finding us new homes. I'm all up for taking a boat ride in the clear waters of our Tahitian home too. Perfect place for me to set up the smoothie cart

Sorry to hear of the strong breezes Shad. Hope you didn't suffer much damage. Shame to cut the flowers tho it does sound like it prettied up the house quite nicely. Regarding the ceiling. We had smooth ceilings up north - pain sometimes as if the light shown right, you could see imperfections. Down here we have textured ceilings. Hides alot of sins. Not sure I like it as much but I'm getting used to it. Of course I don't have to paint it either. But definitely easier to keep clean if you don't smoke in the house.

I'm quite tired tonight. Long day at work today. Glad it's Friday. I may go to sleep in a few minutes. Found that if I can get to bed by 11, I wake naturally at 5am. Not that I want to get up quite that early - it's still night time then, but I could get up by 6 and get a good start on the day. I have the house to thoroughly clean as mom is coming on Tuesday for a week long visit. I have the neighborhood newsletter to write which I want to get done by Sunday so I can spend as much time as possible with mum next week without distractions. Bad enough I don't have vacation time to take off to be with her but we do have the evenings and all next weekend. I bought some frames in which I want to mount some of DH's pictures but I have to pick out the pictures first and have him print them up. My new computer is still sitting here waiting to get loaded and ready to go. And there is the matter of a few pairs of pants that are still waiting to be hemmed I'm sure it will be late Sunday night in the blink of an eye.

Good to hear from Nae and Teel, forgive me for not commenting individually. Will wait until you all get back here. Dance in the rain for me Mel, we're sure not getting the rains here. Run in the rains Tig but be careful not to slip. Snow on the mountaintops Nae? Pretty but brrrrrr. It's still in the 90's here but getting cooler in the evenings. Holly I'm surprised to hear that you were not dancing in the rain yourself. I can see you leading the parade singing in the Are you seeing rain too Meadow? Trees turning colors out your way yet?

Will pop my head back in over the weekend, enjoy everyone.

[MELODY525]

A BOY!!!! I KNEW IT!!! LAST MONTH I TOLD KIRSTY I THOUGHT SHE HAD ALREADY SAID TO ME IT'S GOING TO BE A BOY. kIRSTY SAID I THAT MUST HAVE BEEN SOME DREAM I HAD!!! ROFL!!
CONGRATULATIONS KIRSTY & ANDY!!! WELCOME TO 3FC BABY BUMP!!!

TEEL THANKS FOR THE MESSAGE AND I HOPE YOUR CHEST FEELS BETTER VERY SOON. HANG IN THERE. THINK GOOD THOUGHTS AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

SHAD~ THANKS FOR THE NEW HOME AND SORRY TO HEAR ABOUT THE FLOWER CUTTING. HOPE THEY DID CHEER UP THE OLD HOMESTEAD AT LEAST.HOPE THE DR VISIT WENT WELL TOO!!

HAPPY~ THIS IS THE SILLIEST STORM WE HAVE EVER HAD. GETS DARK AS NIGHT THEN A FEW DROPS! LOL THUNDER IS MISSING TOO NOW. ALL THIS BRUHAHA FOR NOTHING! LOL
BUT IS IT EVER MUGGY!!! I CALL IT FUGGY. (EFFING MUGGY)

MEADOW~ RALPH HAS TOUCHED A RAW SPOT MANY TIMES!! I HAVE THEM DELIVERED TO MY MAILBOX AND READ HIM EACH MORNING WITH BREAKFAST. GETS ME GOING. LOL CONGRATS ON THE 4 MILE TAPE!!

NAE~ GLAD THERE IS COMMUNICATION GOING. IT'S HARD TO FIND NEW WAYS TO BE A MOM. WAS THE TOUGHEST THING FOR ME TO DO AND I STILL FIND MYSELF FALLING BACK INTO OLD PATTERNS!! LOL GOOD LUCK! THAT LITTLE DOG WAS LUCKY YOU NDID FIND IT BEFORE IT WAS SOMEONE'S DINNER!!!

HOLLY~ I JUST SAW AN AVON LADY THE OTHER DAY IN THE COMMUNITY ROOM. SHE'S A FRIEND OF THE LUNCH LADY. SOME OF THE SENIORS STILL BUY FROM HER FOR XMAS AND I WAS THINKING OF YOU!

[Hollyhock]

crash and burn.
It was bound to happen. I coldn’t sleep at all last night because of all the stuff I need and want to do.
Needs: bathroom is beyond unsanitary,little boys pee everywhere; dishes;laundry;we are sticking to the kitchen floor;Avon deliveries;collect some Avon cash;help DS with school work;make calls for handbook to get final changes( wish these people would follow through the deadline was yesterday);make SS attendance charts

Wants: to make dill pickles(very late but still may get cucs);clean up toys clutter everywhere;to have a nice party for DD’s Bday; to have a sucessful career with Avon;the put time into Avon to make this happen; my son to be a happy light hearted little boy*sigh*

The needs and wants get blurred. DH and kids have not been helping for 2 weeks with housework. DH is gone 12 hours a day at a new job. That also means he is earning more.He has had a cold. He has been taking DS to hockey 3 Xs a week.
DD started gymnastics last night. It is an hour. I ran to Sam’s club for potatoes,bread, milk ,bananas and fruit during. Afterwards, us girls went shopping. I have had the same spring/fall coat for 9 years. It is a red windbreaker style. I cant get the dirt out of it anymore. I cringe to look at it. Franky it was never quite my style. So I found a perfect black wool/polyester blend pea coat with a double row of buttons.And then I bought a thin raincoat that is pale green and only $9. DD got a new pair of pants.

I was awake til after 4 am worrying about my son. He is not able to do his school work in class. He is agonizing over every detail, afraid to make mistakes. He is saying things like I am too dumb and I just want to die. I am devasted. DH and I are talking a lot and helping him. His teacher wants to help DS too but he wont let her.
I have a looooong list but not a lot of commitments. I need to breathe. I had my little cry.
Kids are currently playing happily.
Food ,water,wash away the tears and 1 thing at a time.

[Roseblush]

A sweet baby boy for all his wordly aunties to love.... how great. Hope Mom and family are doing well. Can't wait for the pictures and all the bragging to begin.
Well, I found out who owned the little dog. It is the family that lives behind me.... the woman doesn't like me because I had to fired her sister at one time.... so since she has been up here we haven't been very neighborly..... so the little dog went home thurday afternoon from the shelter where I left him....they didn't think he could even survive the wilderness so were surprised. Guess who is at my house when I come home for lunch on Friday.... so happy to see me and to be a part of my little clan. That family has not called to say thankyou or now to inquire if possibly he is down here again..... oh dear!
The weather has changed and we got a great rain last night but some hard wind too. Shad I hope you garden can recover from your storm.
I am trying to motivate myself to get busy this morning feeling kind of lazy and sleepy.... getting up all night long to let the kids out.....
Hope all is well and try to enjoy your days.... I remember the days of being a busy mother with kids and projects and it does seem it will never end but it all does end...enjoy but make time for yourself.
Love to all of you,
Nae

[Meadow]

Whoa! Crazy King Ludwig's castle! I used to have a poster of that in the snow on my wall when I was a teenager. Now I'm living there, woot!

Congratulations Linus! May your little fellow bring you much joy and have helping hands when he is bigger to bring you a nice cup of tea and a biscuit when you have your feet up

Weather here is sunny and beautiful, a bit cool in the evenings but no storms as yet. I have noticed the leaves turning on a few trees but the big onslaught of leaves falling isn't here yet. I was wanting to plant some spring bulbs, but there isn't any around in any store here. The local hardware store only ordered one box of crocuses and some silly looking tulips so they were sold out in a trice. I mail ordered some hopefully they will arrive before the snow flies. My husband was getting an earfull because of course I blame him for the lack of stuff here for me to buy. I know it isn't logical but did I ever claim to be? Emily got lots of "my little ponies" and a sticker book for her birthday. We had baked salmon, baked potatoes and steamed carrots and her special request was white cake with strawberries and whipping cream for her cake. Her grandfather said "strawberries in September, hmm" as he was raising the spoon to his lips Hey, you are only 6 once

[Hollyhock]

Slept like the dead for 9 hours
And I more than needed it. Hope I can swing it again tonight. Just me and DD right now. the boys were up at 5am to go salmon fishing.

Sometimes DH is brilliant. He doesn’t say much and he is gruff and when I talk it seems like he doesn’t listen BUT yesterday he spent the whole day hanging with DS ,went to hockey, had lunch together, took both kids over to a friends..... Last night he told me he figured taking DS fishing was way more important than SS cause DS need to sit on a river bank and relax after the week he had at school. DH pretends not to care and be a little dense but it is all a cover for a smart, sensitive guy. Spose that’s why I married him.

I went to the market and then went back to bed. I have a cold and had a low grade fever. At 1 I got up and felt much better. DH did the stinkin dishes and then I sorted Avon stuff.I bought a file box on Fri to set up my files. I listened to tunes. In the aft I watched skating and had popcorn and hot chocolate for lunch. Can you say comfort food?
I did make a bunch of calls and got through about 1/2 of my to do list. I can probably finish it today.
SS at 10:15 and then horse back riding for DD at a neighbours for her birthday gift from us.Party next Sunday.
Much cleaning and puttering to do.sigh. I think I am going to hire a cleaner to fall clean the kitchen.
School Council Mon night. Hair appts and an Avon appt Tues. I have 2 toddlers for a half day on Mon all the others are in school. Tues I will have all 8 kids for a full day.
I am still super worried about DS and his anxiety about school. DH talked to DS about it and DS told him it was fine. So what is the real story?

I made rosemary lamb chops and baked potatoes and peas for supper.MMMMM!

1 more coffee and then hit the shower.

HUGS you glorious women!!

For our new baby!!

[MELODY525]

Meadow~ I think I forgot to wish Emily a happy birthday! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY MISS EMILY! glad she got the strawberries. Good for Mom! Yes you are only 6 once!! Aren't catalogs a wonderful thing?
Hope they get there before the Big Freeze!! and then you need a pickax!!

Nae~ mayber that dog gets treated better at your house!!!! How funny he came back!!! It's all to teach that woman a lesson in life she is ignoring! How to be HUMAN!!! lol does my heart good to see you posting and being here

Holly~ Next time you will listen to Momma Mel and Momma Shad!!! Having done it ourselves we are very good at recognizing the symptomes of crash and burn. Hope you found Holly time.

I have been wondering how Kirsty and are doing. Hope she gets some kind of rest. As much as I like kids.....not the nappy, vomiting, or up late at night parts!!! Thank god for menopause!
I love ARE YOU BEING SERVED on PBS TV. I also loved the short show that followed..ARE YOU BEING SERVED, AGAIN. So I ordered it when I found it on sale and it arrived Friday. Just in time for the weekend. Have watched all 12 episodes already! And loved every minute of them Monday is Mall day and haircut time. Hope they don't screw it up! LOL But it grows so fast it really doesn't matter anymore.
Well girls I am off and better move before I fall asleep at the keys! Not even 9AM and already tired! LOL ust enjoying the time in our new home!!! did I say thanks Shad?!?! Mellie loves castles!!!
Happy Sunday!!

[Shad]

I came back,

Sorry, I've been a bit busy this weekend. We had a storm on Friday night - with heavy wind gusts. It did a bit of damage to some places around town and the boats etc. etc. No damage at my place, but just around the corner a big tree branch came down and smashed through the neighbours fences and came to rest on top of their car. Apart from the fence not a lot of damage done. Scratches to paintwork only on the car. I'd picked all the blooming bulbs and flowers so that they wouldn't get blown to pieces and tidied up all the stuff that was lying around. Still I ended up with someone's laundry in the yard. I put it out the front on a bench thing made of old tree trunks and a plank. The laundry went and darn it all so did the bench. Strewth it was only a temporary thing to put the missing laundry on. Some folk will take anything that's not nailed down.

Paid for my ticket to Japan last week as well. Now I just have to get the money sorted, pick the ticket up and wait for the sleeps to pass. It gets exciting once all those things are done. Waiting, waiting for the 27th October.

Saturday I went to gym and did some shopping and cooked meals for the freezer. I now have a weeks worth of marinated chicken for a salad and some lamb shanks cooked in stock and red wine which I took off the bone and froze the meat. All I have to do now when I go home is to reheat the meat and cook up some veges. I also experimented with some salads as well. They turned out quite nice and will be made again for lunches etc.

Yesterday was spent in the garden. I have a patch of grass where the lawnmower can't reach very well so I dug out the grass and levelled it off and next weekend I will get some cement mix and pave the area. I'm going to put pebbles and mondo grass between the pavers to make sure the weeds don't grow through the paver joins. Then I dug up some of the lawn which was very weedy and put some good turf in there as well. Fertilised the lawn and watered everything. The vege patch is growing quite well and I will be harvesting the beetroot and basil shortly. The rest of the lettuces went to seed so I put in more as couple of weeks back and they are going okay as are the strawberries, but I need to do something about the mint - it is not looking good and I love mint in fresh fruit salads, and with couscous salads.
My shoulders are feeling the digging.

I been meaning to add some more pictures to the new homestead. Mel has a special place in the new house. Her apartment is called the Singing Hall. There is a nursery set up for Linus and bump. The families with children will enjoy holidaying on Manihi because they can swim from the front verandah in the lagoon. Sea temps don't get below 21C and the lagoon is full of wildlife like rays and sea cucumbers and turtles for them to converse with and feed. Also - get this - the coffee table in the burre lounge is made of glass and is open to the sea below - they can lift up the top of the coffee table and feed the fish (kids, it's a great way to dispose of all that good breakfast stuff that Mum insists you eat). Happy can make smoothies and deliver them across the burres - there are interconnecting walkways to each one. Anyway, tonight I promise I will put up the rest of the pictures.

Better go and try working for a living.

[Hollyhock]

Yawn. Nighty night chicks!


A little Tahiti sunset to sooth your soul!

[Tig]

Hurray! A BOY!!

[happy2bme]

Originally Posted by Shad

Also - get this - the coffee table in the burre lounge is made of glass and is open to the sea below - they can lift up the top of the coffee table and feed the fish (kids, it's a great way to dispose of all that good breakfast stuff that Mum insists you eat).

Smoothies, woo-theees. Guess when your drink doesn't arrive, you know where I'll be found. Shad the new digs sound like the BEST effort. You should go into real estate! I think I'll hang out at the hut, lovely as the castle is, don't know if I want to do all those stairs. And I just the idea of feeding the fish.

Busy weekend for me too. Getting the house in order. Mum arrives Tuesday for a week long visit. Most meals are planned, groceries bought, house tidied up. Hoping to have time for ironing and mending tommorrow.

I was running late from the store (so what's new ). Dinner tonight was a rotisserie chicken (from the store), tossed veggie salad (from the salad bar) and cut up fresh fruit - grapes, pineapple, melon (from the produce take away). I must say it was quite yum even if I didn't cook it myself. Dessert was a scoop of cherry limeade sherbet.

Evenings are getting pleasantly cool. Time to reinstate our evening walks I think. Maybe I can do so with mum, she's more my pace - DH wants to go too fast for me.

I figured I would just pop my head in for a sec, still a few things to do before bed in an hour. 'Night little chickies...

[Hollyhock]

Slept like the dead for 8 hours. Woohoo!!!!!!
Yesterday was relaxing. I was still feeling monumentally burned out but not over the edge of reason. I think hubby is feeling neglected. We need to schedule a date. I again spent lots of time one on one with DD. We have so much fun.
A lot of the time I am dealing with DS behaviour and don’t get to enjoy her as much. We did go for her Bday pony ride. And the 2 girls that came with us gave her ponies to play with. It was charming.
I ripped up the hallway carpet upstairs and the under-pad was GLUED down. AAAAH! Freaks. Everything in the house was done *** backwards. Much scraping had gone on.
I am signing up a new Avon rep for my team this aft and another tomorrow. Weehee. That gives me 4 ballots out of 25 to win a 27 inch TV and 2 towards a diamond ring. Gotta love the incentive stuff. Plus i will receive a $250 bonus for signing up 5 people in less than 8 campaigns!!!!!!!
I am gong to hire a cleaner to do a fall clean with it!!!!!!!!!!!!
I rock.
Okay vacuuming and laundry to fold this morning. I have the aft OFF!!!!! May just dance around naked to some Doobie Brothers.

Have a footloose day!!!