And the bedroom debate continues

So today I've moved out the couch so I can have a better look at what I'm doing in there.

Picture 1 & 3 are taken from the same spot and picture 2 is just to show the amount of room on the floor if I left the expedit sideways.

I really wanted it to work sideways, but now I'm leaning toward against the wall.

Oh and please excuse the messy expedit - I'm still moving stuff around everywhere.

A little bit more work in Imogen's room

Well that empty Expedit from my last post, is now in Imogen's room and I'm having a bit of an internal debate over where to put it.

So for the time being the bedroom is set up like this:

Picture 1: Standing in the doorway looking right. Now my idea with this area between the expedit and cupboard was to have different frames and a mirror all a kid height. I was even considering on getting one of those wall stick on chandeliers to sit above the pics.

Picture 2: Is standing next to her cot looking back the other way. This pic is really to have a look at the height and to suss of how it's looking on that angle.

Picture 3: Is standing in the doorway looking horizontally across the room. Now bear in mind that the couch is not staying. I've taken this photo more so that you can see the edge of the Expedit to get an idea of how it's going to make the room pan out. So the plan is, in the corner next to the window will go the chair I'm reupholstering from this post with the cushions you see on the couch. I'm thinking of either buying or trying to make some ginormous floor cushions to go up against the wall between the chair and the expedit.




Ok, so eye for detail people what are your thoughts? Is having the expedit on this angle just crazy and making the room look too small? Should I just put it flush against the wall where the couch is and push it closer to the cupboards so that I can still put my chair in the corner? What does everyone think?

Oh yeah and for those that have noticed, I was trying out different handles on the drawers to see if I liked them. I think I'll go with the silver handles, but in a brushed finish rather than all shiny.

What does one do with an empty expedit you may ask?

Well in this house we pretend that Mummy is a fancy ass photographer and play stick the kid in the hole.




Or at least that's what we try to do. :P

To the baby sister I've never known

Given that today is the International Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day it's got me thinking about you.

I wonder who you would be like?
Would you have blonde/brown hair like me and your big brother or red like your little brother and sister?
Would your eyes be hazel like me and your big brother or blue like your little brother and sister?
Would you have the good ol' childbearing hips that me and your sister were lucky enough to inherit or would you be a string bean like your brothers?
Would you have been an avid reader like the rest of us are?
Would you have found some imaginative way to dispose of peas when Mum and Dad were not looking like the rest of us did?
Would you have followed the insane Hungry Jacks family trait?
Would you have added to our brood of nieces and nephews?
Would you...

_______________________________________________________

Sarah Beth Robinson
Born 21/01/1980 too early, too small, too precious but to last a few hours in this world

"Sara, Sara, no time is a good time for goodbyes" - Starship

Home renos - bodgy style

Working on a shoe string with minimal space is not normally something that I would call fun, but I'm actually enjoying toying with the prospect.

So really I'm not renovating, more interior decorating. I've been looking at various internet sites and I'm hooked on Real Living magazine and between the two I'm starting to formulate more ideas.

So my boys room...well it usually looks like a bomb has gone off in it and there is not enough room to swing a child in there. Here's what it looks like on a usual day:

And this is little Miss's room (on a particually bad day when I was folding washing in her room):

So my big problem in the boys room is lack of space, but after reading this months Real Living mag I think I may have a solution. I came across these pics of a shared bedroom. It'd hard to tell from the photos (as it wouldn't scan so it's a photo of the pages), but the beds are pushed up to each other with the bedheads at 90 degree angles. Like so:

So I'm currently trialing it with the bed kind of like this - now just to do the rest of the room.

In beginning Imogen's room I've got a 4x4 white expedit from Ikea http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/40047675 and a few boxes for the drawers. I'm watching a toddler bed on Ebay but I'm happy to keep her in a cot for a while still. My latest purchase is the one I'm the most excited about though. I managed to get a Eames style armchair on Ebay for a whole five dollars. While it's been recently upholstered, the pattern is horrible and I have these grandieur ideas of recoving it in maybe a white and pale pink candystripe. Hmmm, not sure but I'm sure I'll know the material when I see it.

This is what the chair currently looks like:

So there is the beginning of what might become either beautiful bedrooms for my kids or a nightmare for myself. Hopefully not the latter.

For the non-facebookers

I guess you guys won't know that I bought myself a little present (well to be correct the bank did), so it's out with the old and in with the new.

Goodbye old friend, you served me well ♥ ♥

Hello, new little beast

Swimming in September, who would have thought??

The first day of school holidays I ventured out to the far side of town to join some friends at a beach. The weather was nice, but typical Melbourne in September day. The kids were all dressed in jeans and jumpers so who would have thought the day would have gone down this path?

The moment the mother of every little girl is waiting for...

After having two boys first, the day is finally here.....the day that I've been waiting for...

Yes, that's right, Miss Imogen has her hair in a pony tail. How cute and how little is it? Oh and how much does it look like business at the font and a tied up party at the back. LOL

Test photo blog

Just doing a test.

And from the mouth of babes

Yesterday while driving down a ford (Cottrel St for those in the know) Jack made an interesting observation.

"Mum, I like driving down here. It makes me doodle go down"

Okaaayyy then. What do you say to that other than "That's great Jack"

One can't help but laugh at other's misfortune

I know there are so many "Funniest home videos" naysayers. Those that don't understand how someone hurting themselves is funny. I'm not one of them. Yeah I don't laugh if someone really hurts themselves and there is even stuff on the show that I cringe at - but this, this IS funny.

This is Jack learning to play footy.

Can't . Keep . Eyes . Open

I could so do with a little rendition of Brahm's lullabye right now. I'm struggling to keep my eyes open while I'm typing this and it's only 10.30am. I think I'm officially partied out.

We had a Maccas party on Saturday for Liam and his school friends and yesterday was a family and close friends party for both the boys. The kids had a ball though and that's all that matters.

Here's a few snaps from the weekend:

For lovers of the paranormal

Usually I try to keep my blogs lighthearted with a bit of humor thrown in for good measure, but it's not everyday that one has a paranormal experience.

Let me start by saying that I've always been the type of person who reads all the paranormal stuff and wishes it was her that it happened to. I've been on ghost tours, I've sussed out supposed haunted places but I've never seen or felt anything. That is until tonight. And it scared the hell out of me. Scared me enough that I felt physically ill. Scared me enough that my hands were shaking for about 10 minutes. Scared me enough that I was on the verge of crying in front of the rest of the staff at work.

Now at my work people talk about a ghost that haunts the place. I've always had a bit of a chuckle about it if it comes up in conversation. It was always Chinese whispers and seemed like massive exaggerations. Although that said, recently one of my Duty Managers (who is a pretty laid back sorta guy) left the store in a big hurry when noises of doors slamming around him freaked him out.

So anyway, I work in a supermarket as a night fill supervisor. So in reality I spend a heap of time in the storeroom moving around stock. About a year ago the store was renovated and what was originally our meat room (the room out of sight where the butchers cut up all the meat) is now just a storage room. It still looks like a meat room, it still has the hanging beam thingy that the carcases would slide along, it still has benches - only difference is we put cages of stock in there now. The meat room is located right at the very back of the storeroom in the left corner. You need to walk up a little hallway to get into it. The windows are all blacked out (well whited out to be exact), so you see nothing until you enter the room.

So I'm pushing a cage of boxes up the back to the meat room. There is no one in the storeroom except for me. Everyone else is out on the shop floor. As I reach the doorway I see the light is off in there but there is enough light behind me to push the cage in while still seeing fairly clearly. Pretty much at the same time I register that the light is off, I notice the room looks kind of smokey/hazy. Initially I thought "Oh my god, something is on fire" and continued pushing the cage forward so I could get inside and check. It didn't occur to me that I couldn't smell anything burning. Almost immediately the hair on the back of my neck stood on end and I felt like I was going to simultaneously vomit and start crying. I turned and ran out and quickly got out onto the shop floor. All this happened so quickly, like in a matter of 30 seconds.

I ran over to the Duty Manager and was trying to tell her what had happened, but I could hardly speak I was so freaked out. I have honestly never felt like that in my life and I hope to never feel like that again.

I'm still shivering just writing this out.

Sometimes I wonder...

...did I read way too many books about serial killers, phychopaths and the like during pregnancy. Have I caused some sort of freaky cross over in my children.

I ponder these things at 3am when I'm woken by a 6 year old who is dreaming about his brothers eyeballs coming out. WT????

I also ponder these things in the car when my 5 year old tells me that Mr Men are bad. They are bad because they go into peoples houses and put things in there. Even in Mr Strong's house. Mr Strong doesn't like that - so he kills them all. Allllllllrighty then. What is up with that??? I swear we were watching the same Mr Men cartoon yesterday, but he was obviously seeing something I wasn't.

I guess I can joke about it now, but um yeah - bit weird.

What a brilliant way to return to blogging

After a huge hiatus, this was just too good not to blog.

Liam is really into drawing at the moment. The kid would draw all day long if I let him. He's not too bad actually - definitely didn't get his artistic skills from either his father or I.

So this was last nights masterpiece:

It's a bus. Nice eh?

Take a closer look - notice anything out of the ordinary for a 5 year old's drawing?

Maybe this might help:

I saw it and it took me quite a while to realise what it actually said. It's actually his brother's name - Jack. But with the "J" written backwards and the "A" looking more like an "O".

I think it qualifies for a "What The??" if ever I saw one.

This is the post that never ends...

....it just goes on and on my friends. He, he lets see how long that gets stuck in your heads.

Anyway peoples, it's been a long, long time between posts so here's a massive one for you to let you know what the Brodrick Bunch has been up to.

So my last post was all the way back in November when Liam caught Chicken Pox of Jack and I was thinking that he might have it mildly because he was immunised. WRONG! For some reason unbeknown to me, Liam was never immunised. I thought he was, but no. So the poor little man was sick, really sick in fact. Although he's smiling the the photo, this was probably the first smile I got in a week. Poor thing pretty much lay on the couch for a week straight.

And moving on to the first week of December we have a big case of Deja vu when Imogen decided she wanted in on the action.

So as you can imagine, this house was a barrell of laughs for a few weeks. As for the rest of the first week, I had a ball with my Aunty and her partner over from New Zealand. It was fantastic catching up with her, I'm kicking myself for not getting any photos. It was the first time my family had met her partner Dave and I have to say they seem so happy together and he is just lovely. I hope the feeling is mutual as our family can be pretty hot to handle at the best of times.

The second week of December turned out to be quite emotive for me. Starting off with Liam having a fitting for his school uniform. I can't believe that my little man is going to be a preppie. I managed to keep my composure and not cry infront of the shop lady, but damn I was close. I always look at him and think how big he is now, but in the uniform he looks tiny. I know come first day of school that I'm be a complete blubbering mess.

Liam had his Kinder excursion this week. Every child had to have a chaperone with them, so I left if to Liam to choose whether he wanted Mum or Dad to come - of course Dad was the chosen one.

Still in week two of December we had a Christmas Party at an indoor playground with a group of my online friends. There was a brilliant time to be had all round.

That same day, Liam had his prep orientation. I thought he'd be a little shy and clingy since there was no kids he knew there, but we were lucky enough to find that one of the Prep teachers (Mel) had done some training at his Kinder so her knew her. He was pretty excited to see her. The kids and parents were seperated for about 45 minutes. I had nothing to worry about since Liam just said "Ok Mum, see ya!" and ran off to play. He seemed to really enjoy himself. I'm not too sure how well he mixed with the other kids though as he seemed to cling to Mel.

Then that same night we were meant to go to Bess's house to celebrate her birthday. Both me and the kids though were way too buggered, so a big sorry to Aunty Bess.

After all that we still had a party to attend on the Sunday. One of my cousins turned 18 and her sister turned 14. My Aunty's house was packed with just as many little people as there was adults. Between my brother, my sister and myself we have 8 kids - 4 of them being under 9 months. So it was babies galore. Was a great day but I was absolutely exhausted by the time I got home.

It was the most full on week I'd had for a while. Made even crazier by the fact that Brian was pretty much working 7 days a week.


Week three of December started off very quietly but went of with a bang. Liam had his last official day of kinder. It was so sad seeing all the kids say goodbye with none of them realising that it really was goodbye. We don't live near Liam's kinder and as far as I know, only one child from his kinder is going to his school. I think I was more upset about the whole thing than him. Here's some pics of his last day.

The friday night was the Christmas Party for daycare. The kids all had a ball when Santa turned up. Liam asked Santa for a Night Guardian, which was great since Santa was bringing him one. Jack asked Santa for a Speed Racer game. Hmmm, Santa was not bringing a Speed Racer game. Santa didn't even know what a damn Speed Racer game was. Looks like Santa would be joining the returns queue in Target to return the other Night Guardian and stalking the shelves for some kind of Speed Racer game.

On the Sunday I decided to brave the movies with the kids for only the second time ever. Myself and a friend got tickets to see the Wiggles. What the deal was that the Wiggles were playing live in Sydney, but it's broadcast live to different cinemas. It wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. There wasn't too many people there, maybe 15 adults and about 20ish kids. Most of the kids ended up down the front and running up and down the stairs. My kids thought that doing laps up one side, across the back, down the other side and across the front was more fun than watching the Wiggles - much to my embarassment. Oh well, mine were not the only kids doing it.

Heading into week four was actually quiet. Christmas Eve we had a friend and his kids over for dinner, I had a little too much to drink and ended up still wrapping presents at almost 2am. Ooops. Finally the end result looked like this:


Then on to the complete madness of Christmas day.


All the family had a great time and my lounge room was an absolute sea of presents - it was crazy.







And last but not least - the food. Mmm,mmm,mmmmmm the salads table was delish. I'm just kicking myself that I didn't get a photo of all the meat we had. It was a carnivor's delight.


So now that we've caught up to the end of 2008 - I will return soon with all the trials and tribulations (and some good stuff too) that 2009 has so far bestowed.