Our calendar at home has said ‘busy’ on the 21st of December, so I suspected something was on, although Monique had dodged the question pretty well.  So while wondered vaguely who it was that was busy, Monique had organised my Christmas present -  a trip to Spamalot, as well as a night at a hotel, and the kids to stay over at Mark and Bern’s for the night. They had originally organised it as a total suprise, Mon was going to knock of work early and pick me up without telling me where we were going, but then they decided on Thursday night that the kids wanted to give me the present too.

The secret was really well kept, Mon had packed for us, and the kids had packed and shipped their stuff over to Mark and Bern’s earlier in the week, and I was oblivious.  Even Beccy had kept the secret from me when I picked Ash up on Wednesday.

We had a really great night, it’s so good to stop and really spend time just with each other, and you don’t get to do that in the normal week, even if you do sit down together you’re just so wrecked from work and parenting.  It’s good to take yourself out of ‘reality’ for a while and reconnect with each other.

We had dinner at 1884 Wine and Steak Bar in Little Bourke St, good food and friendly staff, then after the gut bustingly funny show, we pretended to be grownups and went back to our room at the hotel.

It was a great night, hope your Christmas is half as good as that!

A week or so ago, me and the scouts were going to the Bayswater Roller rink. At about 9 though, I fell and broke my wrist. It hurt and I was hysterical. The staff called the ambulance, when they got there they gave me the magic whistle to take away the pain and it made me feel funny. Of course, being me, I would find a way to break a bone at a harmless scout activity at a roller rink.

We had to go back to the specialist yesterday to make sure the bone was in place still - otherwise I’d have to have surgery to get it wired. Fortunately it was and I get the cast off the week after new years.

Last weekend, Mon and Ash performed in our parish revue, entitled ‘A Load of Wild Bullocks, How the West was Spun’.  It’s run every two years, and is a variety show with sketches, musical and dance numbers and stuff, kind of like Gang Show if you’re familiar with Scouts. Might see if there are photos for you at a later stage.

It’s a good fun show,  extra value cos it’s people you know from the church and school community, and a lot of the material is written in house too, with a Pythonesque, faintly bent sketch comedy style, with the usual lots of cross dressing and that kind of stuff.  Other sketches include “The Man Without”, which starts with a gag Pratchett readers may recognise and our show included some audience participation by an unsuspecting audience member (why do I always end up with tickets in the front row?  at least the lipstick came off ok…)

Mon was stunning and confident of course,  amongst other things reprising her role of Sammy Newwoman in ‘The Netty Show’ from the previous revue, and in the medley at the end singing a powerful rendition of Hallelujah, *swoon*. Also, while I like a bit of space in a relationship, by the time I go to see the revue I’ve barely seen Mon for a week and I miss her so much that I want her to be in every number so I can see her more!  Also she gets so tired from her back pain and stuff all the time, but she comes so alive for the days around the performance, it’s wonderful.

This was Ashy’s first time in the revue, and we were really proud of her. She performed so confidently, sang strongly, danced enthusiastically, you wouldn’t have known it was her first time on stage, barring a small part as a ghoul in the primary school’s The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe last year. Her stage presence really was excellent, she projected well, smiled all the time in her dance numbers, and held together in a sketch that was struggling in the performance we went to.

Well done to both our girls, Connor and I are very proud!

Ash was in the study designing a cover page for her assignment, and Connor came into the kitchen all excited and said “You have to come and see Ashleigh’s homework, it’s so good!”.  It’s so sweet when they have such joy in each other’s achievements.

Mon  followed him to the study to see, and from the kitchen I heard Ash say ‘Connor!!!!’ and Mon start laughing - Ash had been playing Lemmings, and Connor had stooged her good!

“Thanks clouds” I shouted to the clouds. Of course actually I don’t think I want to tell you about my vegie patch. Nah, just tricking. I thanked the clouds because they gave us lots of rain and our carrots are just starting to poke out of the ground.

While I’m already Uncle Jase to Bec and Liz, Mark and Bern’s kids, as of Wednesday Tuesday May 8 I’m now an official uncle. Mike and Rach had their first baby, after some reluctance to be born Rohan James Parlevliet entered the world at 12:17, weighing 3.4 kg, or 7lb 8oz in the old money and measuring 50.5cm or roughly 20″. Of course they’re in Port Macquarie so I haven’t seen him yet, but it’s still very cool!

I’m getting my wisdom teeth out tonight. They weren’t working anyway…

I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow maybe.

UPDATE : Friday - Not much to tell, it all went very smoothly, not much swelling, no bleeding. Taking Mersyndol Forte every three hours, and a Nurofen in between sometimes if it still hurts, but the pain is nothing like having the ENT pull ther dressing out of my sinuses. Had to sleep on the recliner though, to keep my head up a bit and minimise swelling. Slept in the bed the second night, but that was a mistake because by 5:30 in the morning my jaw was killing me even after the drugs, so for night three I’ll go back to the couch I think. That’s about all really, pretty routine stuff!

UPDATE 2 : Tuesday - Oh I was so wrong! If I had read the supplied literature properly I’d have noted that the swelling peaks around 48 hours after the extraction, and I wouldn’t have eaten something chewy for dinner on Friday night. Like it was only hash browns not steak, I couldn’t really chew at the back of my mouth or anything, but the exercise of bruised muscles just moving something harder than yoghurt was a bit of a mistake. So Saturday and Sunday were spent with a pen and paper, no talking, no chewing just yoghurt soup and custard. Now it’s much better, the body is out of shock now so I’m not having to rest every couple of hours or anything, and the main swelling is gone. The bottom two were impacted, so there’s an ache there which is from the bones being drilled and I guess I’ll have that for a few weeks.

Oh yeah there was also a bit of weeping from the site, which we though was an infection, but the dentist was certain that was just normal weeping from the site, possibly caused by food caught in the wound (”make sure to use the irrigating syringe to clean that out”) as I’m already on penicillin they give you straight away, and he’ll be more worried if it was five or six weeks after the extraction. Hmm okay, either way it’s stopped now so I guess he’s right.

Connor’s pie was cooked on the oven rack. He picked it up and dubbed it :

Wolverine Pie!!!

Ashleigh is gone for two weeks to the 2007 Scout Jamboree. That’s an awful long time for our little girl to be gone, but it will seem like just a few moments to her I guess. There’s some awesome activities, shows and stuff, she is gonna be exhausted when she gets back. Lucky we’ve all taken that week off so she can sleep!

We love making exciting cakes for the kids birthdays. This year, Melbourne Storm cake for Connor :

Click here for full size. This was made with soft icing, rolled out and cut into shape, and loads of agggravation on my part when I thought it didn’t look as good in real life as it did in my imagination. Sorry for the tantrum, Mon…

Ash had a scrapbooking party. Bernie is a Creative Memories consultant, (email me and I can send you her contact details) and ran the party for Ash. Between me, Mon and Jacq we designed and came up with this scrapbook page decorated cake :

Big version here. Instructions for making the scrapbooking cake, after the jump.

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