Everything Rodgers

New Blog

I have a new blog.

Please visit me now at

http://everythingrodgers.blogspot.com/

Im still updating, and will be adding things to the sidebar so except to see changes regularly. Look forward to seeing you all over there.

Thank You.

November

Along came November, and what came with that was Melbourne Cup day, which was thoroughly enjoyed by my husband. He attended a function in the city, it cost some exorbitant amount (but luckily he didn't have to pay) he was invited to attend by a college; he attends the same one every year but this year he made the most of it, I dropped him at the train station at 10am and he walked back into the house about 1am the next morning. Needless to say he had a rather sore head the next day.

It also seems that the Christmas hype is now in full force. I love Christmas, I love the decorations I love the way the kids get excited when they know that Santa is going to be arriving, I just dont like all the added people that start appearing in the shops. The kids are counting down the days until we can put up the Christmas tree......I told them 1st of December, no earlier.

November has been pretty quiet so far. School, preschool, cricket, pretty much the same each week; though we did manage to buy a letter box, finally, after being in my house for over a year, I did form a great relationship with the postman though, he has been hand delivering the mail in all that time. We also completely de cluttered the little cottage garden area that we WILL have completed hopefully next weekend. Im on the hunt for a wrought iron table and chairs that will look so nice under the balcony right by the front window.

November in pictures:

Arts and crafts fun with Hayley

Hayley calls it hand painting, not finger painting, I guess technically she is correct as she is using her whole hand and not just fingers.

Friday night fun at Nanny and Poppys house

My Dad and the boys play poker usually every Friday night, so all the kids end up at Mums place and basically just run amock for a few hours.

Hayley mid flight, from pillow to bean bag.

Some of the friday night gang minus Alana and Layla (Jack, Christopher, Lucas and Bee)

Alana, Lucas, Bee, Christopher and Jack.

A day at Oran Park

Mart wanted to go to Oran Park a couple of Sundays ago, Jack was desperate for hsi friend Blake to go along with them so Blakes Mummy dropped Blake off here and Mart took the three kids along for most of the day; he had Stevie with him to help but they were all apparantly very well behaved just extremely LOUD!

Blake and Jack

  

Run Hayley, Run up that hill......buggered by the time she reached the top.

Im trying to work out why this is so small on the blog but click on the picture and you should be able to view full size. Ill look into it more this afternoon.

Ill be back later this afternoon to finish up November and start a fresh with a post for today, time is getting away from me and we are all booked in at lunchtime for haircuts, Hayls curls are out of control, I need a trim that really isnt a trim, and Jack needs a good tidy up.

Random October Pictures

Feeding the fish at Aquascence Darwin, this was about 2 mins from our Hotel.

 

Hayley was so NOT scared, she was in there trying to grab those mullet.

Fun time at Nanny & Poppys house.

October

October saw us return from Darwin to a flurry of hype and activities. You know our backyard construction has started, so wont go over that again, Jack returned to school for 4th term, a very short term, or it just seems that way, the kids are all very excited and they have been practicing for their Christmas concert on the 2nd of December. Im not sure what they have planned, each time I ask I get told that its a secret. Jack also started Milo - have a go Cricket. He loves it. They don't play proper games, they just do different activites which helps them develop the necessary skills. They had a mini game on Wednesday, Jack said he was bowler but he has to try not to bend his arm when bowling. It was $45.00 for 12 weeks and it was the best money ever spent, on the first day he came home with a bat, ball, hat, Tshirt and tonnes of Milo, you couldnt buy all that for $45.00

Jack in his cricket gear.

Hayley had her uniform fitting for Pre-K. Cant believe how grown up she looks. I also cant believe that I will be having 3 days to myself next year, though Pre-K follows the exact same school holidays as what they do in Kindergarten and so forth, this means that I will hae them both at home during school holidays at the same time, this may not prove to be a good thing.

It only took 3/4's of the year for Hayley to sucessfully go to preschool, she walks in herself now and doesnt have to be carried, yes this I know is nothing to some, but to me its HUGE! She will experience lots of new things next year at Macarthur so hopefully the transition to wont be as hard. Hoping that Jack being in the same school will make it easier for her.

Ribs and Rumps

October also saw us discover a new favourite restaurant Ribs and Rumps. If your a meat eater its your dream restaurant. This place cooks the best steaks you have ever eaten. Weve been twice so far, once with my parents and the 2nd time with friends. Look at Jack enjoying his ribs:

Christopher and Hayley having a cuddle

The Mixed Grill, the picture doesnt do it justice. The meal is huge. You have chicken, sasuages, ribs, steak and as you can see an egg thrown on top. Its not my type of meal but for our friend Damo, who is our favourite carnivore, its right up his alley. He didnt finish it all either.

Day at Kurnell

We spent a Sunday a day with my parents at the beach at Kurnell. The weather was perfect, wasnt hot, wasnt cold, to cold for me to swim though, for the kids though they dont feel anything so off they went straight in. We also took Mr Clyde, last time he was on the beach he was a puppy, he wasnt to sure about getting out there and swimming but we managed to get him a little wet.

In the car all ready to go (Me, Jack and the dog in the back)

Clyde trying to play with his leash

Our favourite little grasshopper

Mum and Jack

So in a nut shell that sums up October, November being posted soon.

Backyard Construction

After returning from Darwin, we started our backyard construction. The first step was to get the yard leveled down the bottom, and dig the trench for the wall that is being made, do the steel for the wall, and then get the concrete poured so landscapers can start the wall and the stairs.

This took some genius planning, as most of you know Jack loves watching any sort of construction, so we planned this all to take place when he was on school holidays. He spent to days outside just watching what was taking place and being in awe of the machines.

Unfortunately, I cant show you much else cause nothing has changed. There was a delay on the steel, which has only really just arrived, so hopefully, we can get that done and the concrete poured so we can get he wall finished and the stairs done as soon as possible. Hopefully Ill have more photos to show you soon.

One thing I learned during this process is, to never plan anything, cause more often than not it never works out to plan.

Ok, here we go again!

The new blog is still probably about a week away, so I figured Id continue on from where I left off, as I will be importing nearly everything into the new blog anyway, I decided if I wait and get more behind Ill never ever catch up.

Given the fact that I have some time on my hands, Hayley has been awake since 6.08am (AGAIN) and is now back to sleep on the couch, there is no time like the present to start at the very next entry which should be:

DARWIN DAY 4

Day 4 proved to be a disaster. As you know Jack was sick the entire trip, he got through each day on Nurofen, a dose in the morning and a dose in the evening, but Mart woke on Friday morning feeling extremely sick. Our plans for the day were to drive out to Kakadu, I knew Mart was to sick to go but he forced himself to shower and we left Darwin bout 8am. Kakadu is a long drive from Darwin, and it felt even longer when your a passenger and the driver is sick, spiking fevers, coughing and can barely swallow. Kids were frustrated in the back, they just wanted to swim, and you cant just pull over at a waterhole and let them jump in (unless you want them eaten by a crocodile that is).

You can see on the map how far Kakadu is from Dawin, also you can see Litchfield National Park, where we went swimming in all the beautiful Lagoons and waterfalls.

No matter how sick Mart was he was still well enough to drag himself out of the car to have a photo at this:

130kms an hour speed limit, on most roads out of Darwin, dont see that in Sydney now do ya?

Continuing on, we actually made it to the entrance of Kakadu, but then guess what we did, we turned around and drove straight back; Mart was sick, he started getting the shakes, and he also said he had a pain in his back, and his arm was sore, immediately I thought heart attack, he is gonna have a heart attack on me in the middle of no where, we had no phone service,  there was occasionally emergency phones on the side of the road, but that was it. I high tailed it out of Kakadu, was extremely worried, but trying not to show it in front of the kids, and was actually begging him to let me call emergency services at the first rest zone we came to. He refused and just told me to keep driving, and I think I made it back to Darwin in record time. Felt better to knowing that we were around people, and hospitals if the need be.

You could call that the end of Marts holiday, he couldnt get out of bed until 3hrs before we were to fly home the next day and we were seriously doubting he would be able to fly, I was very close to ringing the airline and seeing what we could do about changing flights etc.

The kids and I had alot of time to ourselves, we explored more of the city, drove around lots and on our final night I took them to McDonalds for dinner, no point going to a restaurant with just the 3 of us. They played in the Maccas playground for a while, I really wanted to make sure they were exhausted so they would go straight to sleep when we got back to the room. That didnt happen though. None of us could sleep as we were listening to Mart vomiting in the bathroom in the adjoining room (we ended up with two rooms as the shower head in our bathroom broke so the staff opened up the connecting door and we had use of two rooms for our stay at no extra charge).

DARWIN DAY 5 - HOME

I let Mart sleep till the last possible moment. We had to be out of the room by 11am, so I took the kids down to breakfast, afterwards they had a final swim and we headed back upstairs to finish packing up our luggage. Woke Mart, he stumbled out of bed, showered, took some painkillers and managed to get to the car. Before heading out to the airport I needed to stop at Marts uncles place to do a quick spot of internet banking, said our goodbyes, and headed back out in the heat of the day (our final day was hotter than all the others) to return our hire car. We had about 2 hrs to spare at the airport, I thought it would drag on and on, but surprisingly enough Darwin Domestic Airport was rather entertaining for my children. Kids ate Red Rooster, Mart slept, I browsed the net, and before you know it we were in flight heading home.

Unfortunately little Miss Hayley decided to stay awake for the entire 4.5hrs, and she talked non stop. I dont even think she took a break to catch her breath at times, and I tell you I was so greatful to touch down at Sydney and get off that plane so I could clear my head just a little.

We got home about 10pm, showered, and every one fell asleep rather quickly; until I got woke by Jack at 2am screaming and rolling around in his bed holding his head. He said his ear was throbbing, but by the way he was screaming I thought it was something much worse. I considered taking him to emergency if the Nurofen I gave him didnt work, but by 4am I managed to get him back to sleep for a few hours.

He woke again in large amounts of pain and Mart took himself and Jackto the emergency on call Dr, (it was a long weekend in Sydney) early Sunday Morning; the poor little boy flew home with an acute middle ear infection in one ear and the other was almost at the same point. Dr was amazed that he wasnt screaming the entire flight home, and Mart well he had a severe case of the flu and for the first time in a very long time got some medication.

So that was Darwin, always wanted to go there, and now well, I can say that I have.

Gone off into the blogosphere....

To much stuff going on, got bored with the design of the blog so lost some, well ok, alot motivation. BUT, I am back, and soon Ill have a new look blog. So stay tuned and Ill let you know how thats all coming along soon.

I still need to finish off the bits and peices regarding our trip, will do so this afternoon, in between school runs, and cricket training for Jack, and looking after a sick little Hayley.

So check back soon, motivation has returned.

Darwin Day 3

Day 3

Thursday we had a bit of a lazy Day. The weather was really heating up, and even after only a few days it can really exhaust you. We had a small sleep in, and then we where off to explore the city some more. We walked the main street, and I think we were drinking water by the litre, we had some lunch, ate icecream and the last point of call was a chemist. Jacks throat was really starting to hurt him so we needed to restock the Nurofen.

Mart had work to do in the afternoon, so we left him to himself in the room so he could finish up quick, and he met us down by the pool with cokes for the kids and cappacinos for us.

On thursday nights, Darwin has a market on Mindl beach. The markets were great, but I wouldve like to have a much better look around, the kids were tired from swimming all afternoon so there patience was a level zero.

We caught a fantastic sunset on the beach, it felt like everyone in Darwin was on that one beach at the same time all waiting for the same thing.

This was taken before all the people invaded the beach.

 Hayley on Mindl Beach, you wouldnt think so but she was so cranky that night.

Fantastic sunset. It was really hot that night, but noone was swimming due to the stingers.

Mart and Hayley waiting for the band to start.

You know when you push a child to much, and they just go into total meltdown mode. Thats what happened to Bee. She just needed to go to sleep. Jack wanted to stay so Mart had to bargain with him and promise to take him swimming back at the hotel and explained that we really needed to go back and get Hayley to sleep, he was happy with that; when we arrived back at the room I managed to keep Hayley awake enough to have a bath (usually I wouldnt have cared but she had sand in every crevice of her body) and by the time Id made her some milk she was zonked out on the bed, and I think I was zonked out right next to her 10 mins later.

Dawrin Day 2

Day 2

Woke feeling nice and refreshed. Our plans for Wednesday was a trip down to Litchfield National Park to visit some waterfalls, some plunge pools and again just be tourists. It took almost 2 hours to get to our first destination, Wangi Falls. The 2 hours felt like 4 hours because of the constant "how long till we get there" questions.

We saw this sign and for a brief moment though why not lets drive to Alice Springs, but really we were never going to do that.

Arrived at our first stop Wangi Falls, didnt really know what to expect, but what we saw totally left us in awe of this beautiful place. Huge waterfalls and a beautiful lagoon full of fresh clear warm water that you could swim in safely (and not be scared youd be eaten by a Croc). We swam and just relaxed in the beautiful warm water. Jack and Mart swam out to the waterfall, Jack said it was extremely cold underneath and he froze his nuts off.

Mart and Jack under the waterfall

Mart and the kids swimming in the Lagoon

Me and Bee having fun in the water.

My two little show offs, with a fly on Jacks nose.

We left Wangi Falls and then headed towards Buley Rock Pools. Hayley managed a short nap in between stops, it managed to revive her for the rest of the day. Buley was just stunning. It was more difficult for children though, there was alot of Rocks, slippery rocks, and we had to try and cross from one side to the other without dropping one of the children, and losing balance and falling in ourselves. It was worth the scratches and slight bruises that I ended up with though. Jack was jumping off the rocks straight into the plunge pool, it was also fresh water and so clear you could see straight through to the bottom. Hayley was quite happy to sit under a little tiny flow of what she called was a baby waterfall and let the water flow around her. As for me, I was to paniced about Jack jumping off the rocks, Hayley getting swept off the rocks by the pressure of the water, and the bloody gigantic size lizards that kept wandering past my bags.

Buley Rock Pools. We had to cross these rocks to get from one side to the other, the current of the water was alot stronger than what it looks. Hayley would sit on these rocks and just let the water flow around her.

The right side of the Pools. This is where Hayley and I would swim, it was well away from the crazies who were jumping into the plunge pool on the other side. The pictures really dont show how beautiful these places were. There were so many of these little rock pools and waterfalls that you could swim in around the Litchfield Park, but not all of them were safe to do so because of the crocodiles.

We headed back up to Darwin mid afternoon, the sun was rather strong, and the kids were getting extremely tired from all the swimming. About half way into our return trip we noticed that we could smell petrol, really strong smelling petrol and the fuel gauge looked like it had moved alot (we had only just refuelled); once we had phone service we got onthe phone to the car rental company, we requested a new car, which they happily obliged to, and upgraded us to a 4 WD, even better, we havent as yet been charged for the hire car.

We took a break just outside Litchfield at a little tourist park, grabbed some food, and some icecream waited for the petrol smell to disspear so we could enjoy our journey back to the city to exchange hire cars.We returned to the hotel about 5, Jack and Hayley were ready to do more swimming, so I left Mart to himself in the room to take care of some work related stuff in peace and quiet.Dinner that night was at a Restaurant in town called "the Ducks Nuts". Jack was struggling with a really sore throat, so he didnt eat much at all, Hayley on the other hand ate enough to feed the four of us. She mustve been so full she drifted off to sleep happily that night with no fuss at all.

Darwin Trip Sept October O8

We are home. Totally exhausted, and both boys in the house are extremely ill, but we still had a wonderful time. The day of our departure proved to be extremely long, imagine two kids asking every 15 mins "when are we leaving, what time is Daddy coming home". By midday I was ready to cut both their tongues out. After what seemed like a very very long day, Mart arrived home from work and we headed straight out to the airport. For the first time in ages we didnt have to rush through check in, we were able to sit back, have some dinner and had about 45mins to spare before our flight departed at 7.40pm. The kids were extremely impressed with the plane we were on, it was big, two aisles to stretch your legs and heaps of leg room. Hayley talked my ear off for the first 2hrs, she talked and talked, and I swear she she didnt stop. Finally the last 2.5hrs she fell asleep, and stayed that way until I had to wake her as we were starting out decent into Darwin. Jack played his Nintendo, watched a movie, listened to music and slept for the last hour of the flight. The flight was really good, was a bit bumpy out over western NSW, but nothing to scarey (for me)! :)

Trying to keep Hayley coherant to get her off the plane was hard. She decided to lay straight down on the floor in the middle of Darwin Airport cause "I so tired Daddy".

We found our luggage rather quickly, picked up our hire car rather painlessly, and headed out into the steamy HOT darwin night. It was midnight, and it was so hot. I cant describe how hot it was, the humidity was so high that I immediately broke out into a sweat. I was ripping clothes off so fast to stay cool.

It took no more than ten minutes to get to the hotel, checked in and then trying to calm the kids down enough to get them to fall asleep was a huge effort. They were both extremely tired, but extremely excited at the same time. In the end I just gave up switched the lights off and said SLEEP! It was a rough night, they were both restless kept wanting to know how long it is till day time. I got 3 hours of broken sleep.

Day 1

There was no chance of a sleep in, so we were up had breakfast and I let the kids go swimming just so I could sit and stare at the world for an hour (and drink endless coffees to try wake up).

 

Our hotel; the Holiday Inn Darwin.                             Jack the first morning on the balcony.

The hotel was simple, definately not 5 star but it was clean, and had everything we needed for our short holiday. We were on Level 6, with a balcony over looking the Coral Sea. I hated the balcony, Id panic each time the kids wanted to go out so the rule was that they werent allowed to step one foot out that door unless I was their to supervise.

The view from our room. We woke up to this every morning, perfect blue sky, no clouds and the sounds and smells of the sea. Across the road was a huge park and walking track, you could walk for miles and miles. We usually went across in the afternoons to explore but I didnt like to go to far as the Aborginees would start to surface late afternoon.

Swimming pool fun with Hayley and Jack

After barganing with the kids to get out of the pool we went and did some exploring of Darwin. Darwin is not big, really you can drive Darwin in 10 mins, any further than 10mins and you are really out bush. Its not a city as you would imagine, there are no high rise buildings, I never saw one office complex, other than council buildings, all in all its a definately a toursit town. It has heaps of pubs, awesome pubs, did I say the pubs are great :) and the restaurants are amazing. There are tonnes, you would never have to eat at the same place twice.


We decided to be real tourists and visit the Crocodylus Farm. Yes, it had tonnes of Crocs, and Australian Animals. It was pretty average. Maybe we would have enjoyed it more if it wasnt so hot but I was struggling with the heat at that time. Kids seemed love it, especially Hayley after she realised that the crocodiles really arent going to eat her.

We werent there long, an hour tops, I had to go back to the hotel and try and get Hayley to have a sleep, she was starting ot have a few meltdowns, and I was starting to feel sick from the lack of sleep.




I managed to get at least an hours shut eye whilst Mart and Jack went back down to the pool, Hayley slept for 3 hours and had to be woken so we could go and get some dinner.

This is what you look like after only 3hrs sleep the previous night.

Thankfully that night we all slept like babies. Stay tuned, still sorting pictures and cooking dinner, lots more to come.