Well things have been a bit hectic in the Mandy household (well at least in my head! hahaha).  My wonderful husband has gotten the opportunity to act as a team leader within the organisation.  So while that see’s him on his career path advancing along nicely (I can’t complain about the extra coin).  It means he is working longer hours and doesn’t work from home one day a week and we all miss him.

To be honest Monday is a right b*tch for all of us.  No one wants daddy to go to work and while daddy is enjoying his job more he doesn’t want to leave us either.  Monday seems to start off easier if he has left before the babies wake.

Miss two is about to start her first Kindy dance class.  Not that I think she understands yet but Friday will hopefully bring much joy and excitement and exhaustion! hahahahah

Mr 7 months is coming along nicely.  We have started the teething journey and can I say I am not enjoying it much?  Is it me or do boys seem a bit less tolerant of pain than girls?  We have had a week of hell nights with him and the panadol has done nothing.  Meanwhile he still hasn’t cut any teeth! ahhhhhh  I have gotten him one of those Baltic Sea amber teething necklaces.  He has it on for the first time today, hopefully this helps in some way.  Where Miss two got very clingy with her teething (oh and she has been cutting her 2 year old molars and we didn’t even know!) he just gets really angry and cranky and frantic with shoving anything in his mouth.  Shows how different boys and girls really are.

I think someone has been visiting Mr 7 months during the night.  The last couple of nights we have had chatting and singing from 4am for about 45 minutes.  While it isn’t an ideal time for us because we all want to be in sleep land, I can say that I love listening to him babble and sing.  Pulls a few of those tender heart strings to be honest.

Now for the big news… No I am not pregnant! hahahaha We are looking at selling and buying / building a house! You see we live in a 3 x 2 and it just isn’t big enough anymore.  We have been looking around casually for a little while but last weekend saw us make a decision to do some serious research into the cost of actually doing it.  And it looks like we are.

It will be really sad to say goodbye to this place.  We started the journey of our life together in this house and there is millions of memories here, but alas it is time to say goodbye and move on.  We need to make a few touchups to the place to get it “market ready” but it won’t take long and then the selling / buying adventure really begins.  Wish me luck will you!

Back at uni next week.  Doing 2 units again, but will just see how it goes.  So there you are, all up to date on the Mandy happenings.  Must be off, I think there might be a pooey nappy in my immediate future!

So I am a bit of a gadget junky.  Some people in blog land might just start sending me voodoo spells after this post, but I pretty much love all things Apple.

It started with the humble iPod.  Used it everyday on the way to work (and at work sometimes as well).  Then I HAD to buy a stereo for my car with an iPod adapter so that I didn’t have to carry CD’s in the car.

Then came my first Apple laptop.  Pre-order of the Apple Macbook Pro (back in 2006 mind you).  God how I loved that machine.  Spent many a night cramming for assignments and exams with that baby.

Next came the Apple t.v.  Don’t ask me about that, that’s the husband’s domain, but let me tell you since having it we have cancelled Foxtel and don’t watch free to air t.v. EVER.

Next came an upgraded iPod (love you wonderful husband for that Xmas present) with the Nike kit as well.

Along came another laptop, because lets face it 3 years is a long time to have a relationship with a laptop.  So upgraded we went.

Then out came the iPhone! OMG I had to have it.  Think of all the space in my bag I could save if I had one device for a phone and iPod.  (The real excuse to get wonderful husband to get it was that it would save space in the nappy bag, plus he had one and wasn’t sharing).  Still having a relationship with the iPhone but the iPod has now been delegated to storage.

Latest purchase has been the iPad.  Yes I have one! For all those haters out there, this thing rocks.  Does music and games and surfing the net (particularly handy when trying to stay awake a night during those feeds!!).  Blog from it, read, you name it does it. My PSP and DS have now been retired because lets face it, this device is pretty awesome!

Now I am anxiously waiting for the iPhone 4 to arrive on our shores.  Yes I am getting one even though they have a “signal problem”.  If I know Apple, by the time the phone hits the market here they will have sorted it out, plus Australia has better telecommunications that the USA, so probably isn’t going to be a big drama.

What will happen to my current phone you ask? Well my 2 year old daughter will probably get it.  See she loves gadgets too, and likes to look at photo’s and play games on my phone, so she can have it and I will get the upgrade!

Oh by the way, my husband also has all of these gadgets.  Yes that does mean we have 2 Apple laptops, 2 iPods, 2 iPhones and 2 iPads in our house.  Hey what can I say, we love technology.

We even converted our bestie’s to the way of the Apple!! Evil I know, but hey once you try it, you will wonder why you ever bought anything else.

So what about you? are you an Apple fan? Do you own any Apple products, or are you a Apple stalker, want it but not sure about buying it?  Would love to hear from you…

Last night was mummy time. I went to Rock the Ballet with my mum. And it was. AWESOME.

The program said its Ballet for the 21st century, and you know what, that was so true.

6 guys (with totally rockin bodies) and a beautiful female kept me and the rest of the audience entertained for just on 2 hours.

Modern music (think Black Eyed Peas, Coldplay, U2, Michael Jackson and Queen), with simple outfits and video footage in the background.

The lead male, who happens to also be the main choreographer and company director is a creative genius. Mixing modern, contemporary moves with comedy as well as emotionally moving routines.

Sometimes I find contemporary a bit repetitive, but not this guy. I dont think they repeated a combination once.

And the moves. These guys went hardcore for the whole show.

If you like So You Think You Can Dance you will love this!

Oh and if you can get them to do a couple of encores its totally worth it for your viewing pleasure!!

Rock the Ballet on YouTube

Dear Hoons,

I am starting to wonder if you have anything at all in your life, like at all? something that entertains you and makes you smile and keeps you happy besides burning rubber through our suburb late at night?

What is it about our suburb that is so attractive to you people? is the road smooth? does it have the right bends and turns in it? what is it?  When I find out what it is I am going to do everything in my power to change it because  I. AM. SICK. OF. YOU.

Come on, 10pm last night we had Hoons doing burnouts and others on dirt bikes tearing through the neighbourhood.  And its not just on the weekends and its not just in the middle of the night.  5am on a Monday morning on your way to work, you feel the need to do burnouts.

I am sorry but I am a bit of an oldie, might be that I have two small children that like to get up early in the morning, like mummy and daddy to be full of beans ready for action to go and do things and play and run around and ask for lots of energy.

Not only do you wake me up with all your noise but you also wake up my babies.

I am also figuring you either earn more money than you know what to do with, or you aren’t very good with your money and waste it on rubber, because you must be having to buy new tyres on a very regular basis.  I am willing to show you how to save money so that you can buy a house, or go on a nice overseas holiday.  Somewhere far away from me.

I am waiting for the night that you miss judge your car and end up slamming it into something, then your going to want me to help you clean up your mess and get your butt to the hospital because you have hurt yourself.

Be warned hoons, I am out for your blood, well more like your oil.

Sorry for the disappearing act but I have been kinda snowed with the whole uni thing of late… Assignments, presentations, exams this time of year is a bit stressy in this house to be honest and its all because of mummy (how sad I know). anyway….

So those of you that don’t know I am studying for my Masters Degree in Information Systems Management (not as scary as it sounds… ok wait some of it is!).

The thing is that I am learning so much more than just my units at uni.  I am meeting these amazing people from all over the globe and getting the opportunity to understand their religions and cultures as well.

My uni group is made of people from all over the globe.  We have people from Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Phillippines and India to name a few.  And its so interesting!

Learning about arranged marriages, different foods and beliefs, some of the restrictions that they face in their country that we so take for granted here.

These people are really brave in my opinion.  They leave their family and friends and come here to further their education so that they can provide more support for their families in the long run.

Just imagine it for a second, you leave everyone you love and know, go to a foreign country that speaks a different (difficult) language, has different methods of education, the pressure to not only study but work to live (read that as don’t work too much, you can only earn a certain amount while your here as a student). So so brave if you ask me.

I am starting to wonder if mother nature is trying to tell the world something.

From memory the world has recently had a few earth quakes (Kalgoorlie, Adelaide, Los Angeles and I think South America?)

Wild storms with flash flooding and hail the size of golf balls in Melbourne and Perth recently, plus the erupting volcano in Europe somewhere.

I just think she is sending us some strong messages.  I think its time the world leaders stopped and took a bit of notice and made some serious decisions to get the planet back on track before there is no planet left (or at least no people left on it!)

So I was reading this post from Quioxtic Life and it inspired me to look in my hand bag, and guess what that lead to? me doing a bit of a life assessment and deciding I might just be a little bit vain!

You see the contents of my hand bag is mostly made up of teeth / braces based things.  For those of you who haven’t seen me in person, I have braces.  Yeap early 30’s with braces…  So here is the story about how the braces came about.

One sunny day (little miss still just a little miss) off to the Dentist for a check-up and clean.  Hmmm dentist says teeth are good (no fillings thank you very much) but the shape of your jaw at the back is not so great and it is causing a bit of decay on your back teeth (in reality your not cleaning your teeth very well).  Those wisdom teeth need to come out so that your other teeth don’t suffer.  Ok no dramas, I’m a brave woman (with a whole heap of drugs and knock out juice thank you very much).

So off I head to the maxiofacial surgeon (and yes she does also do face lifts and botox!!) anyway some x-rays later and the surgeon says wisdom teeth easy job, but that eye tooth has to come out…  Umm beg your pardon.  That adult eye tooth that is laying across the top of your jaw.  Now I still had a baby tooth in my mouth.  You see the adult tooth decided it didn’t want to see the light of day and do its job but instead spend all of eternity just sitting in my gum or so I thought.  Seems the little / big bastard decided to move and is now pushing against my front teeth causing all sorts of damage to the nerves.  Surgeon says if that tooth doesn’t come out you will be looking at crowns down the track because it is slowly stopping the blood flow to the front teeth.  Riiiiighht. Okkkkkkay.

Alright ok take the damn thing out while your in there.  Well if I take that out your baby tooth is going to fall out and your going to have a great big hole in your smile.  So why don’t you talk to the dentist about a strategy for fixing that…. Okay….

Get home and have a good look in the mirror and realise that that big whole is going to be really noticeable.  Right so the dentist’s strategy goes something like this.

6 teeth to come out (wisdom teeth, rogue eye tooth and baby tooth).  Then you can have a titanium inplant put in with a fake tooth attached.  Right ok. Ummm is this going to send me broke?  Nah the teeth extraction will be on private health but the inplant will be $$$$ and so with the fake tooth.  Ok lets do it then.  Right well to do it you had better go and see an orthodontist about getting your teeth aligned so that the gap is the right size.  Okkkkkkayyyyy  (meanwhile the teeth are still in my mouth, we have had no action except a whole heap of appointments where everyone is telling me my smile needs fixing!)

Right the orthodontist says no dramas we can put some braces on and move your teeth to make the gap big enough, plus while we are at it I will fix your overbite (my what, I have a what?) and I will straighten your teeth so that they are in the centre of your smile (ok so now my smile is wonky).

So a lot of $$$$ later I have braces and all the accessories that go with it.  Electric tooth brush, springs (boy that was a fun time, imagine only being able to open your mouth a small amount and not move your jaw left and right), elastics (make talking so much fun, drooling all the time, and bedroom antics even more so), wax for the bits that stick out and into your mouth (tastes crap by the way so take it out before eating), little christmas tree cleaning things to get all the food out of the braces.  You know braces give a whole new meaning to the “is there something stuck in my tooth”.

I am half way along the path to the beautiful smile.  All the teeth are out and the braces have been on for a year and a bit.  Another appointment for the dentist to be scheduled for new moulds to start making the fake tooth and so the surgeon knows where to stick the implant.  And yes I will be getting my teeth whitened after all of this.

what was the topic again, oh right… So the contents of my handbag is made up of emergency elastics, yummy wax,  tree thingo for cleaning, toothbrush and tooth paste and compact mirror in case of emergency.

And my decision, yeap I’m vain I could have just had the teeth taken out and had a gap and used the money to go on a big overseas holiday with the family!

This is probably really appropriate considering the Easter Bunny arrives on Sunday, but how do you get a toddler to actually clean their teeth?

Little Miss two likes to suck on the brush.  I have tried brushing for her but she takes after me and is way to independent for that.  We have tried making up  a brushing song, we have tried in the bath (although the actual bath is still a bit of a struggle).

A friend of mine suggested all of us brushing together (yet to try that one).

What things did you try to get your toddler to actually brush?

Don’t you just love Facebook?  It can show people’s true colours and their ignorance by the groups or pages they decide to become a fan of.

Take my sister in law for example: Today she has chosen to be a member of the “I didn’t go to the shops to listen to your child’s tantrum” group…. Ohhhh I hear all you parents out their gasping (which is a sight more polite than what I did when I saw that news update and the fact that this particular group exists I can tell you!)

And then I realised as I swore and thought of all the things I could have commented about her joining that group… she is ignorant because she isn’t a member of the “I have kids and I love them no matter what” world like me, and I remember what I was like when I was in my mid twenties and unattached and childless.

Picture it, young single girl out at the shops spending my hard earned cash on such necessary items like a new outfit for the weekend (because that’s what lots of cashed up young single girls do, remember those days?) and there is a young child having a tantrum in the middle of the mall because his/her mum won’t give them an ice cream.  Young single girl thinks “just give it to him/her, what are you stingy or something, its just an ice cream and if he/she stops crying all good”!

Fast forward 10 years and now Mature married lady with kids thinks ” oh that poor mother trying to deal with a tantrum in a public place with everyone watching, hope no old fart goes over and tells her what she should be doing to handle the situation, nosey bee’s that they are”.

No matter what you say to someone that doesn’t have kids (childcare workers and teachers excluded here) they just won’t understand that type of situation and show compassion until they actually experience it as a parent.

So if your proud like me to live in the “world only a parent understands” stand up and shout it from the roof tops!  See if we can’t drown out that damn Facebook page!

I know I hear you all gasping in shock… how could I hate something that my husband loves.  I try and be supportive of his love, but I can’t, I just can’t.

I hate that damn coffee machine!

My husband has a bit of an obsession with his coffee.  He has a coffee machine and grinder and all this other coffee related “junk” so that he can make himself good quality coffee’s at home.

Now I know it saves us anywhere between $5 and $10 a day because he now doesn’t have to buy good coffee at work (so obsessed he has a grinder at work now so he can have freshly ground beans when ever the need arises).

I know its something he enjoys and I try and support that, but the damn machine and its mess and its smell drive me up the wall.

In coffee’s defense we were never going to get along, you see I don’t drink it.  I don’t really like the taste, or the smell, and it does some crazy things to my body if I actually drink it.  Like a racing heart, and a mouth that won’t shut up.  Basically coffee for me is like drinking a can of Red Bull.

But the machine takes up precious space on my kitchen bench, and now the new grinder thingo is so heavy that I can’t move it if I need more space.  And he is now wanting a “whole” draw in the kitchen to store more of the “junk”.

And don’t get me started on the grinds, I find coffee all over the kitchen.  Today I have been greeted with coffee on my clean dishes! the clean dishes, you know the ones in the dish rack drying and waiting patiently for me to put them away… Well now I have to wash them again! ahhhhhh

I love you wonderful husband you, but that machine…