So I am now planning for the empty playground. I guess this is the first step in preparation for the empty nest. My youngst is off to kindergarten in August. I attended my first PTO meeting this week, we have kindergarten orientation on Friday and my daydreams are currently filled with “spare time activities”!

I have already been encouraged to be on the PTO team with friends who also feel they ’should’ do it. I opted for the least instructive position as the Vice President, hoping that it would not require consistent work such as the secretary or the treasurer.

Oops…. then i suggested that we did a website. Well, everyone else in the county has a website…we are so technologically disadvantaged! Well the PTO will be no more. The school with staff salary cut backs and all well that is another story all together… there goes the computer lab! But I digress.

I am now the responsible volunteer to get the PTO on the internet. So I was shopping around for a inexpensive (read ‘cheap’) site with easy templates because I know just enough about blogs and websites to be dangerous! I found WestHost and until the end of May they are running a special.

A friend pointed me in their direction and she is happy with their service and has only great things to say about their customer service. I shall keep you posted with the experience. I am sure there will be plenty of gaffs to post on this blog!! None shorter than, “I can’t believe I got myself involved!”

I grew up in the city of Melbourne and went off to college after high school to Monash University. The public transportation system was extensive so not too many of my friends had cars at the time. One friend lived outside the city limits and therefore could not get from home to Uni on the public system. Jenny was one of the fourtunate ones with a car, she had a little suzuki swift. It is little more than a motor bike wrapped in a metal shell but it was dry in winter and it was hers!

It wasn’t long after the school year started that she pulls up to the gas station, back when the pumps were manned, and told the attendant to ‘fill it up’, and added that she needed oil. The attendant of course asked what type of oil she wanted and she replied, “Oh I don’t know, just make the light on the dash go away!”

My 5 year old girl absolutely went nuts over Barbie this year. I had sheltered her from Barbie as best I could until the neighbor shared the delightful girlie experience EVERY afternoon. So I capitulated and got her Barbie for her birthday this year. Keeping her away from Barbie worked just as well as keeping my 2 boys away from guns, but that is another story. So what is up with Barbie’s hair?

Of course my little girl is not gentle with Barbie (and her hair) as she hikes through mud puddles, abseils down slides, and wards off evil creatures (her older brothers) - Barbie leads a very active life these days! You would think the makers of Scrabble would be smart enough to make hair that wasnt an instant mess - I see the slogan now… Just add child and instant mess. Five year olds dont understand ‘bad hair days.’

Of course Barbie dolls come pre-styled, just like mommy visiting the regular hair dressers. Instead of the hairstylist asking that nerve racking question, “How do you like it?” it should be, “Do you think you can recreate it?”

So Mattel, get your R&D team on a solution to the Barbie hair mess and solve my dilema of how to style Barbie’s hair once it has been ‘played’ with!

SAN DIEGO - A large U.S. study has linked alcohol consumption to an increased risk of the most common type of breast cancer in postmenopausal women.

My husband has always been the moderate drinker and just as happy to not drink alcohol as to drink it. It has been me who cares to indulge more than moderately! Ever the helpful husband, today he emailed me the following:

(Found on Yahoo NewsBy Deena Beasley; Editing by Cynthia Osterman )

Maybe I should just point him to the articles on drinking in moderation reduces death rates amongst men (husbands in particular)- I drink and he has a greater chance of living!

Just kidding of course!

So I have been in the house for 18 months now and without purchasing any furniture specific to this home. It has been quite epic to say the least and we seem to be bringing down the neighborhood standard! With interior designers and home makeover professionals living in the street, pot luck meals at our house are somewhat wearisome with all the standing we do. I know I so desparately wanted a house with a kitchen bar so that mingling in the kitchen would be comfy… but I just forgot about getting the stools.

So my game plan is to ensure we have bar stools for the kitchen by the next get-together we organize. So now I have given myself a deadline - 26 January, Australia Day!

It has been a long haul to get here. Friends (and neighbor) have walked through the house. They suggested (and even supplied the manpower) to rearrange the existing furniture. Taken me shopping for accessories that ‘make’ the room. And provided advice on everything from where to buy linens online (overtock.com) to paint colors.

So my barstool search took me all over the web and back and I ended up at the first website I visited, BarStools.com. It seems that there are only so many providers and Barstool.com is tapped into most of them. They have the largest selection and unless you go for custom manufacturer they cant be beaten. Check them out.

Some days you just know you should not get out of bed. Today is one of those days. So my husband is away monday-friday for the next six weeks. Of course he left with the shower head dripping that has now turned into a steady stream of running water.

I searched high and low for the water main to the house. Finally, with neighbors help search and with the helpful information that the ‘W’ in the gutter lines up with the water main - Eureka- we found it! Excitedly we ripped back the cover only to find that the pipe has been installed upside down and was only an old fashioned on that would require a special tool to turn it - IF we could access it!

So a call into the City Water Department had me waiting for a promised service call to shut off the water until the repair to the leak was complete.

In the meantime I found clothes in the laundry that we not finished. Of course they were sitting wet in the washing machine from 3 days ago. I immediately put them back into the wash cycle to get them clean again. Why are forgotten clothes in the laundry never sitting dry in the dryer?

The city water board came promptly to shut off the water. Ecstatic that the response was within the hour, I then attempted to pull apart the shower handle assembly. No luck. I again sort help from a neighbor. While I sat waiting for the neighbor to arrive the washing machine starts beeping. The display code is one for service…OMG the washing machine is broken too?

In tears I fall onto my bed sobbing that life sucks and why me, and this ain’t fair, pull yourself together, what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger - sob sob blah bah blah… Idiot! The machine doesn’t work when with the water shut off!

I pull myself together while the neighbor convinces himself that he can’t help any with the situation. I call a plumber. While I wait for the plumber I begin to spend time tidying the house some including the kitchen. I start to wash the dishes…

A blonde said, “I was worried that my mechanic might try to rip me off.

I was relieved when he told me all I needed was new turn signal fluid.”

On this rare occasion my husband and I went out on a date. Our wonderful baby sitter had put the children to bed and all was good for the night.

We arrived home and I was getting the run down on how the night at home went with the kids. There seemed to only be one hiccup. Ainsley had wanted the babysitter to sing her song about the witch to her at bedtime. The babysitter sang every song she could think of before she gave up. Ainsley was most upset and finally cried herself to sleep.

Ainsley Grace how sweet thou art
to save a witch like me….

We dropped the car off to the auto repair shop on Monday and my week just hasn’t been the same. I organized to have coffee with friend and fellow parent of my daughter’s classmate for Wednesday morning. And then I received an inviation to have breakfast on Thursday with a group of women from church.

So Tuesday morning I got all dressed up for coffee! No go! Then this morning, (Wednesday) I got a ride to the meeting point for the breakfast. Somehow I have been a day ahead so far for each day this week.

I am truly not trying to wish my life away!

Grandpa adores his grandkids and of course he believes they are all handsome/pretty and smart! We were just sitting around chatting one afternoon and Grandpa was commenting about just how my 4 year old girl is absolutely beautiful. He just finds it amazing that we have such a beautiful child. No one in his family is that beautiful, he jsut can’t figure out where her beauty comes from.

I pipe up and say that she gets it from her mother. In a very serious voice he says, ‘Nope, don’t see it!’