Day 109

Wow, today was a big day! As I'm typing this I have a glass of wine poured, kids are in bed, Friends re-runs are playing on TV... this feels good!

Background story... months ago Sam decided to give my iPhone a bath. It wasn't pretty. So out comes the good old Nokia, and by old I mean OLD. I found out once your iPhone is water damaged, warranty is void and from my research, Apple will swap you for a new phone for around $200. Seems easy enough but first of all, parting with $200 or more is hard when it feels like such a waste! and secondly, to get this organised I had to venture into town. 

No big deal you say? Well ... probably not.. but with 2 kids, the thought didn't bring me a huge amount of joy so I have been putting it off for a very long time. After lots of organising, I was originally going to take Sam in for a trip to the city while Pam and Jacob had some Aunty/Nephew time... but in the end it was a real treat to venture into the city as a foursome instead to get to the Apple appointment.

After some rushing down the street to make it to my appointment, we finally found the place... and man, the Apple store is COOL! Walked in feeling like I was cool and funky just for being in the place! ha! Met with one of the cool staff to show her the results of an iPhone that went for a swim.... and you won't believe what she said. 

"As a first time customer with Apple... etc etc etc we will replace your phone for FREE"... I could have climbed over the counter and hugged her! FREE! That's a big deal! Within minutes, she was putting my sim card (oh wait till you hear this.. it took 3 of us to get the darn back of the old Nokia off just to get my sim card out!.. the staff at Apple are probably having a giggle over a drink right now at the woman who was using such old technology..) into my lovely new iPhone.. and I was good to go! 

Thank you Apple, thank you lovely staff member... 

The best part? I was able to recover all my phone numbers and photos that were on my phone! I'm back in business baby! 

Sam had a great time. I think he was most excited about pressing the buttons for the traffic walk. 

Shops I will most likely never shop in...

A gorgeous church.... I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked of the city. But we were hungry and tired and frankly I think my sister Pam was embarrassed about the 'tourist' walking next to her taking photos of anything and everything.. :) 

Love this... Sam was getting tired by this stage and showing off his superman pants while taking a rest. 

I can't finish this post without talking about my sister Pam. Seriously... she is my guardian angel. She really is. If it wasn't for Pam's help I would never get to any dentist, doctor, Apple store etc appointment, she loves my boys just like they are her own, she helps me, she listens to me, she is always there for our family... words just cannot express how much she means to me and my family. She is my angel.

When we pulled into our garage after our big day out, the boys were asleep in the back, the radio was going, the car was still running and basically I was too tired to get out of the car... so took some photos in the mirror. 

It's been a big day.. but thanks to Pam's help, it was productive and Sam told me tonight as I tucked him in... "The best part of my day was going to the city.... and Mummy getting her new phone". Cute, but if he thinks he is even putting one finger tip on my new phone he has another thing coming! 

In other news, I finally finished the book! 'Pillars of the Earth' by Ken Follett, all 1076 pages of it. It was so good. And the best part... there is a sequel. It's sitting on the kitchen bench, just waiting for me to pick it up and start reading it :)

Busy, tiring but happy Wednesday!

Day 108

You know the best thing about a Tuesday? Because Monday was spent tidying and getting organised... Tuesdays are spent playing, chilling out, relaxing and mucking around together.

Seriously.. how can I NOT take photos of the sky when it looks this spectacular? I think the sky is God's way of showing us beauty, like a special present just for us...if only we stop and take a moment to look up.

You will not believe how many photos I took to get this one photo of a rain drop splashing on the slab outside... it didn't happen without sacrifice. Sacrifice of a neat patio... as I was so pre-occupied with taking photos that I didn't notice Sam emptying the lawnmower bucket with the lawn clippings all over the floor "to feed the cows". So thoughtful to think of the hungry cows, but oh what a mess!! 

Day 107

Mondays are reserved in our house for getting the place back in order after the weekend. Cleaning, washing and generally getting organised for the week ahead. I like these days, because although they are busy.. there is lots of time spent outside with the boys while we (meaning I) sweep the patio and hang out washing....and of course there is always time to balance a superhero on my feet while they go flying.

Just before dinner tonight, Sam said to me - "Are you hungry babe?" ..... kids are so so funny :)

Jacob's cute little feet, dirty and dusty as he explores the backyard...

Happy Monday!

Day 106

Ever have those days where none of your photos turn out? That's happening to me today. Every.single.photo ..not one of them blog worthy. So for today....you guessed it - I'm giving you another sky shot. It's all I've got, hopefully tomorrow I'll come out of the rut and be able to take some decent shots!

Hope you have had a wonderful weekend... here's to a great week ahead! x

Date Night

Stewarts is our favourite restaurant ... ever... the food is always gorgeous, the service is always perfect. After a very nice long nap this afternoon, we got ready and headed out for dinner. 

Lewy is so patient with me when it comes to photography... he didn't mind that I pulled over a number of times on the way to the restaurant so I could take pictures...

We had a great night... it's so nice to be able to sit and just talk without the usual busyness of being at home with the kiddies.

This is my favourite....the sky was amazing...

Being the party animal that I am... now that it is almost 9pm and I've just had my last sip of red wine, I'm off to bed for an early night, knowing that I have a rare sleep in to look forward to tomorrow...I told my sister Pam my plans for the evening, she responded with "so you are really living it up then?"... ha! 

Goodnight all... hope you are 'living it up' tonight on my behalf :) x

Day 105

I'm totally soaking up the peace and quiet right now. My boys are having a sleep over with my sister Pam and my parents... Lewy is watching the footy, and I'm loving the fact that I can update my blog without having little hands grabbing my legs or trying to take the mouse off me.

Tonight Lewy and I are going on a date ... to our favourite restaurant of all time. I'll try to take pics and post some tomorrow.

Before I left my family with my boys this morning, we all headed to the shops.

Pam and Mum bought Sam a new top (to replace his jumper that got covered in jelly at morning tea time!) .. it says "What happens at the playground, stays at the playground"... love it!

I love this photo of my parents (and Skip the dog!).... it's a big week for them, their anniversary and mum's birthday all in the same week. 

The moment I got home, I came inside, grabbed my book and went back outside to put my feet up, enjoy the weather and read. 

I may even do something I never get to do... take a nap! Oh what a treat it is to have some time to rejuvenate.             Thank you to my wonderful family for this much needed break! x

P.S If you feel like a laugh, check this website out.. http://damnyouautocorrect.com/ For anyone that has an iPhone you will understand how the auto correct can sometimes cause you to write crazy messages! I know Val received some strange messages from me when I first got my iPhone thanks to the auto correct! This site made me laugh... hope you enjoy it!

Day 104

The trouble with blogging.... is that it can sometimes (or a lot of the time) give a false sense of what your life is really like.  You can pick and choose the photos you add in, the information you share, and how you portray your days. 

When I started this blog, it was really for photography purposes only ... to get me taking more pictures, which then led to me taking photography more seriously and gave me the challenge of practising as much as I could. So of course ... I would only post my 'best' photos.. the edited, finished, better quality ones. 

Then I started to add more information about our daily lives... alongside my 'best' photos. This combination, I have recently become aware, portrays my life in a much more edited, clean, smooth-sailing, cruisy light than it really is!

The life you see through this blog.. is the best bits, the edited, clean and happy bits. Which is fine considering the theme for my blog has always been photography..BUT today's post is going to go against the theme and be dedicated to the other side of my life....the real, unedited, unclean, messy side of my life. 

All the photos in this post are unedited, not set up, and I even used the FLASH for some of them which I hate hate hate doing. These are pictures I took this morning, they are 'point and shoot' to capture our morning and no effort whatsoever has gone into taking a decent photo! 

What I don't include in this blog, are photos of the days where things go really wrong! For example, moments like:

-Going to an appointment recently with the boys, and Sam was so naughty, and I was at the end of my rope and cried the entire way home, 

-or the days where everything goes wrong... the kids are irritable, I am irritable, the house is messy, and all I can do is sit on the couch and put my head in my hands and wish the day would hurry up so we can all go to bed. 

One of my biggest flaws (one of MANY!) is that I'm pretty bad at admitting when I'm struggling... not because of pride... it's more... self-preservation. When I'm at my worst, is when I usually put on my biggest smile. It's a bad habit... I'm working on it :) 

So my life is most definitely not all parks, sunshine, smiling happy children,yummy food, playing and laughing.... don't get me wrong, those moments are absolutely real, and those moments are the ones that get me through the not-so-pretty moments in life and make it all worthwhile. 

There are lots of time-outs, yelling, tantrums, telling-offs, stress outs, noise and chaos...

but there are also the fun times, the sweet, quiet times, where Sam will hug and kiss me and say "I love you sooooo much Mummy" and Jacob will crawl into my lap for a hug, where we are all laughing and are happy enjoying being with each other.... those are the moments I like to capture for this blog :)

Right, that's enough 'real' for one day! x