scary clown alert...look away now

it was my bright idea to have a 'trashy secret Santa' for the adults in our family. the rules were simple...nothing over $10 (the cheaper the better), trashy items that were to be displayed for 365 days in a prominent position and proof of trashy display on web blog/face book etc...

mick and i had a ball searching for our trashy gifts, laughing so hard that i nearly had an accident...some of the items we found in the thrift shop were just too bad to give to someone and after a long hard search we decided on a very poorly painted and rather large self portrait (artist unknown) and a china angel candle holder which was holding fake and very old flowers. that doesn't sound that bad except that the angel had one hand on one boob and the other on its head as if to say 'check me out'! happy with our purchases we gathered at my fathers house for a Christmas eve dinner. my niece Katie came up with the great idea of numbering each gift and then passing round the hat for us to pull out a matching number so as to get a present randomly. after much laughter and me holding the video camera i was one of the last to choose and had to pick...you guessed it a porcelain clown!!!

now i imagine that 99% of the population has a morbid fear, and rightfully so, of any type of clown especially clowns that could clatter down the hall in the middle of the night with their arms out wide ready to strangle you. well that is EXACTLY the type of clown i was left holding at the end of our trashy session @_@. after looking at all of the gifts that were received mick and i came to the realisation that the clown i was holding looked familiar and was in fact the exact same clown i put back as i thought it was too nasty to give to someone. yes my sister went shopping at the very same thrift shop that we went to! mick was gifted THE ugliest mirror in the world which is right behind me at this moment.

believe it or not this is actually a mirror! what the?

anyhow, not one to leave anyone out i have kindly uploaded some photos of ~ Mr Jangles ~ as he is affectionately known around here for you to enjoy.

WARNING LOOK AWAY NOW IF YOU HAVE A FEAR OF CLOWNS

here he is enjoying a jaunt in the garden

hanging around on the water tank.

while he stood there leaning on the watering can i started to lose my fear and actually had a thought...what if i took off his awful poly filled outfit? would he be as scary??

it worked, i can actually look at him and not feel that automatic gag and goose bump thing happening.

in fact he looks so cute Claudia has fallen in love with him.

she carried him around the room posing him in all sorts of places.

here he is on my favourite chair

smelling the roses

enjoying a spot of music

visiting the Eiffel tower...however not all of the kids are convinced of his new appeal...

lili reluctantly held him for this photo.

anyhow before you go i will leave you with one last image...

is he waving or is he coming to get you??

happy Australia day

our beach trip

firstly can i say, i cant believe that we are already half way through January!! eeeep, this time next week i will be sitting at my school hall being bored to bits by someone telling me something i already know. the only good thing about going back after 16 weeks off is seeing my teaching partner and the rest of the gorgeous staff i have the pleasure of calling colleagues. i know i have said this already, but i think i need a change. i love teaching and it really is the most rewarding job, but i have lost my mojo for it and would rather be doing something much more creative with a little less accountability. i guess the only way that is going to happen is if i win the lottery or someone takes me on in their small business. so i guess i better just 'suck it up fuzzball' as my husband would say and get on with it :)

warning *overload of pictures coming up*

just after Christmas we headed on our annual Christmas holiday to the sunshine coast town of caloundra. we had just under two weeks away thanks to our good friends who rented us their unit at a very reasonable rate. the weather wasn't perfect, in fact it probably rained everyday we were away, but it didn't damped our spirits or keep us away from the water. i remember one day thinking how unusual us tourists must look swimming and sitting on the beach in the rain. of course i was probably doing the 'imagine if we didn't have children' dream of me in a cafe somewhere sipping a nice hot latte :p

it was nice to get away and be out and active each and every day. unfortunately i kept thinking of how much decluttering of our home i wanted to get to get done before we went back to work so i didn't relax as much as i should have, but i did sleep in till after 7 each morning and indulged in reading magazines and several books that i bought while away. (which i will post about on my other blog soon).

i have uploaded a few photos *coughs nervously* of our time away.

before i show you i must say that being away from blog land after Christmas is not much fun, sort of feel out of the loop about all the fun and gifts everyone received. so i guess i will have to do a catch up on Christmas after this post.

Santa was smart and gave each of the girls scooters for Christmas which folded up nicely in the FULL boot of the car and were put to good use along the long and gorgeous boardwalk which runs the length of the beaches in our area.

here we are at kings beach heading along the boardwalk towards the park at happy valley.

the sky is typical of most of our days away but not enough to stop us from getting a bit of a tan and having a heap of fun.

half way along the board walk is a great park with trees to climb and a pirate ship to explore and swings which face the ocean. but the best feature is the COFFEE VAN which supplied us with our afternoon fix everyday @_@

soon after this photo lili was sprayed on the chin by a stink bug which caused her enormous pain and left a red welt for days. she was also stung by a blue bottle the next day, poor little sausage.

Claudia is at a good age where she can roam the park without our assistance and is happy to play by herself or tag along with others.

each day we lathered the kids in sunscreen. even a thick layer of sunscreen wasn't enough to stop Claudia's birthmark from getting darker so we bought a tube of zinc in an effort to lessen it's colour change. here is lili ready for a swim.

what trip to the beach would be complete without a beach bum shot? and besides Claudia is such a ham for the camera i can never get her to pose properly!

i hate photos of myself but i want to put one on here for prosperity and to look back on in years to come. here we are trying to look relaxed...all i look is wrinkled!

we followed a daily ritual of heading to kings beach, in the morning, which has big waves, a public 'beach pool' and a water fountain and then home for a rest only to head out to happy valley in the after noon. happy valley has waves which tend to roll in gently and then there is a sort of catchment area where there are no waves at all but lovely tummy high water for the girls to splash about in.

here is lili exploring the sand while the girls enjoy the thrill of the waves coming towards them.

they can be so pleasant to each other when they want to ...they had so much fun with these waves.

we found lots of things that we wanted to take home and then we found this which was obviously someones new year dinner :)

the boogie boards came everywhere with us. i love this photo of Mia pretending to surf. i cant believe how tall she is getting! she will be 6 this year and starts grade one soon!!

we dug many holes, built heaps of castles and invaded many others :) this hole provided ages of fun for us all.

and sadly our trip has come to an end and seems like a lifetime ago. we really did have a good time away and are already thinking of next time.

the exercise machine is calling me, i have put on 3 kgs since starting my long service and i need to get it off before it gets stuck there for good.

i will be back with another post soon, and i am slowly getting round to all of your blogs, please forgive me if i dont get there soon.

%*_*% rosey

just enough time for a weekend whinge...

hello and happy new year. before i post about our trip to the beach i have 3 hours to squeeze in a weekend whinge. consider yourself lucky i have no photos to share of the topic i shall bring up in my whinge... why oh why am i constantly flushing other peoples pees?!? it is bad enough when i have to do it in a public toilet, actually i usually walk straight back out if it hasn't been flushed, but i am finding it is a frequent occurrence here in my little home. is it wrong of me to be disgusted? are my family simply following the plumbers creed of "if its brown flush it down. if its yellow let it mellow" trying to green the earth (or should that be yellow) by not wasting water. am i eeking and muttering over nothing?? is it so hard to push that button? put the empty toilet roll in the bin provided? place the roll on the holder the preferred way, roll facing out??? i hate being a nag but i am only a nag cause no one is listening! ok whinge over, cant wait for your comments and opinions. the worst of it is that i am raising three GIRLS! what would prospective boyfriends think if at the age of 21 they don't flush? good to get that off my chest. back soon with some gorgeous pics of kings beach. %*_*% rosey p.s. cant wait to visit your blogs, i have missed you.