As you have probably noticed i haven't been here in a long time. Sorry for that. I'll try to fill you in as to why i have been away for so long. It's gonna take a while so i'll do it in a few different entries.

First of all, some of you may know that we had a small house fire on the 19th of May. This was nothing huge and we only lost pots and pans. That sort of stuff. But what you didn't know is this. We were robbed 4 nights later. Due to the smoke damage we couldn't stay in the house so we stayed with my mum. (That's anther long blog in itself!) I was there the day berofe with my insurance man assessing the damage. That night we were robbed and we found it the next day when we went back to grab a few things. I was shattered.

They took over $12,000 worth of stuff. But i didn't care cos they were just material possessions and i still have the most important things in my life, Jeff, Iesha and Julius. But it's a horrible feeling knowing that someone has been through all of your things. Including your unmentionables.

We were told the repairs would take 6 weeks. It actually took them until august for them to even start. 3 months. This time took its toll on us. We had to live like gypsies until we found the place we are in now. I will fill in more details in my next entry.

Anyway it has taken me all this time to get back on here. I've been missing you all. I hope i haven't missed too much.

I'll try my best to catch up with you all asap.

Then we get frustrated because our children are not old enough, and that all will be well when they are older.

Then we are frustrated because they reach adolescence and we must deal with them. Surely we'll be happier when they grow out of the teen years.

We tell ourselves our life will be better when our spouse gets his/her act together, when we have a nicer car, when we can take a vacation, when we finally retire.

The truth is there is no better time to be happy than right now. If not, then when? Your life will always be full of challenges. It is better to admit as much and decide to be happy in spite of it all.

For the longest time, it seemed that life was about to start. Real life.

But there was always some obstacle along the way, an ordeal to get through, some work to be finished, some time to be given, a bill to be paid. Then life would start.

I finally came to understand that those obstacles were life.

That point of view helped me see that there isn't any road to happiness.

Happiness IS the road.

So, enjoy every moment.

Stop waiting for school to end, for a return to school, to lose ten pounds, to gain ten pounds, for work to begin, to get married, for Friday evening, for Sunday morning, waiting for a new car, for your mortgage to be paid off, for spring, for summer, for fall, for winter, for the first or the fifteenth of the month, for your song to be played on the radio, to die, to be reborn....before deciding to be happy.

Happiness is a voyage, not a destination.

There is no better time to be happy than........ NOW!!!!

Live and enjoy the moment.

Author Unknown.

Does anyone know how much a bladder of a 2 and a half year old can hold?

I don't know exactly but i just found out it can hold a lot. My beautiful Iesha was playing and was so ingrossed with what she was doing, that she totally forgot about the potty. I have never seen so much come out of her. There was a huge puddle on the floor. She was quit upset. I then got her to go sit on her potty, not thinking that there could possibly be anything left. Boy was i wrong. She still left a large amount in the potty. Surely the girl is empty now!

Luckily it happened on the lino and not on the carpet. My carpet would be soggy for ages if she had. Bring on the days of no accidents. Just when we think she has it, there it goes.

Well finally an end to a very long day. I have been up since 6am and had my induction day with woolworths. Anyone else done this? I have now done it twice. Most of it is common sense and very repetative. And lots of sitting. But that's over now and i shouldn't have to sit through it again.

I missed my kids a lot today. It was so different for me to be at work and not with my kids. Especially on a saturday. Your heart really does grow fonder when you are absent from those you love and care about the most.

Cherish your children everyday. I know i do.

I'm about to go to bed. Very early for me. I have a big drawn out day tomorrow. I have an 8 hour induction day at woolies. This is for my new job. I have sat through this before and it was so hard to try and stay awake. it starts at 8am so that means i gotta be up at 6 to leave by 7 to get to the place where they hold the induction. This will be the longest i've been away from my kidsin one sitting. I'm going to miss them so much tomorrow.

Hope all is well in your world.

Night.

ZZZZZzzzzzz.......

My interview on monday went extremely well. So well in fact that i got the job. As i have blogged earlier, it is for a console operator, service station work. Its great because i will mainly be working weekends so Jeff can take care of the kids. As happy as this news was in our family, the in-laws weren't to impressed. If you have read my blog in one of the groups you would know what i'm talkin about.

Julius had his 6 month check up on Monday. He won't be 6 months till the 15th but thats not far away. He is a healthy happy big boy. He weighs just over 8kg now and is about 70cm long. He's just so sute. He is starting to teeth and i can deffinately tell the difference between girls and boys. Iesha was cuddly and sooky when she was teething, Julius being a boy, gets mad and cranky. He gets really fired up. It's actually kinda cute.

First i would like to thank those who left such kind words of support to me when i was feeling really down.

Next, i would like to say that i have a 2nd interview on monday morning. YAY!!! I have applied for a job at a local service station. I worked in one before i had Iesha. Not sure completely of the hours but i do know that they work around me and my family commitments. I had my first interview last saturday. I felt so out of place. Is it a written law somewhere that you must wear black pants and a white top to an interview? It was a group interview of about 12 people and i was the only one wearing something different. Not just different but bright. I stuck out like dog ....... You get what i mean. Hopefully i get this job.

I got the call yesterday that i had a 2nd interview. My husband was happy too. He took Iesha out this morning to do the food shopping while i stayed at home with Julius. He was sleeping. Anyway, my husband came back and he had bought me a gorgeous butterfly necklace with mother of pearl in it. It looks stunning. He said that he had bought it to show how proud he was of me and so that i had something to wear to the interview as a good luck charm. Also something to remind me of how much i am truly appreciated in my family. I absolutly cried like a baby.  I was so touched by this gesture. My husband always knows how to make me feel better.

I'll let you all know how the interview goes. Fingers crossed!!!!!

Feeling really low past few days. I having been searching for a job for about 3 months now and still haven't found anything that works around my hours. I feel like i'm letting my family down by not contributing finacialy to the family. Even though i take care of everything else in my household i still feel i'm not doing enough because i'm not working.

Then to add to my troubles my family aren't speaking to me. my eldest brother told me to get  (swear word that i dont use) and not to go there anymore. And that i should stay at home and look after my own kids. By the way he is 32 and still living with mum and dad. He doesn't pay any board or lift a finger around the house. The only responsibilities he has is his car and phone bills. He told me not to go to my mum's house. How rude! Anyway i told mum that i would not go there anymore if he is because i will not be spoken to in such a manner. And i dont want my kids subjected to that language. Seems like they have all taken his side and noone will speak to me.

He doesn't realise that i do look after my kids!! Noone else does!! Except husband of course. I have never stood up for myself when it comes to my eldest brother. I hope i did the right thing.

i can't believe it has been so long since i last blogged. So much has happened i barely know where to begin.

Ok, lets start with Iesha.

Since the new year has strated my little girl has grown up so much and has developed heaps of new things. If you remember we were getting constatnly hounded by the out-laws about her speech. Well, now she can sing all the words to twinkle, tiwnlke. Her vocab has exanded so much in the past few weeks. The funny thing about that is, she will openly talk infront of most people but when it comes to the out-laws, she barely says a word. Good judge of character i guess.   It just makes it harder for us to get them to drop the subject and trust us as parents. The next huge step Iesha has taken is that she only wears a nappy to bed now and if we go for long trips in the car. It took us a while to get her use to the idea but once she understood what we wanted her to do, something in her brain just snapped and she worked it out. So proud of my little girl. That's just the short version.

Now, Julius.

He is getting sooo big. He was already 7kgs at his 4 month check up! And he just keeps getting bigger. Today he is 5 months old and so handsome. He's gonna be a heart-breaker. He has been rolling over for about 3 weeks now and when he does he tries to get up on his knees. he doesn't like to lay down anymore, he loves to sit up and will pull himself halfway up holding onto our fingers. Strong little man.

This is a little of what has been goin on, i'll add more in stages.

hope you are all doing better than we are. I have been in the hospital with julius since 3am tuesday. he came down with really bad gastro and wasn't able to keep anything down. he is doing a lot better now and they have sent us home. i'm exhuasted because i have barely slept since he became sick. And now i come home to Iesha with a runny nose, a horrible cough, refusing to drink and a temp of 39.2. If she doesn't improve and start drinking i will br back at the hospital with her tonight. Part of the reason why i'm writing this is to keep myself awake to look after and monitor them. Oh, and i have a job interview at 4:30 today. Won't i look great.

Hope nooone else out there has this.

Take care. And get well soon to all those not well. Big and small.

Well, we had Iesha checked out today for a speech delay, based on the In-laws' opinions. And as we suspected, she is learning at a normal rate and there is no need to be concerned at this time. We were told to monitor her learning and that if she has not improved at the age of 3 then go back and see a speech pathologist. God it felt good telling the In-laws that we were right and her speech is fine for her age. Put them right back in their place.

It was funny, when we saw them after the check they were sure of themselves that Iesha had a problem. But when we told them the result, boy did they go quiet.  Hopefully now they will trust that we know are daughter better then they do and that we will get her the right help when and if she ever needed it. I know they only said something because they care, but the way they went about it was over stepping the mark. My father in law likes to be in control of everyone, and we clash a lot because i dont let him control my family in the way he would like to. He says jump and everyone says how high. I'm the only person in the family that will stand up to him, my husband has only just started to follow my lead. Of course i get blamed for anything that my husband says that doesn't go father in laws way. Oh well, he will get the picture soon enough.

Julius definately has bronchitis, poor little guy. Took him to doc yesterday. She suggested sleeping in a recliner with him to make it easier for him to breathe. I'm not getting him use to going to sleep in my arms, theres a bad habit waitng to happen. So instead we put a pillow under is mattress to give it an incline. Worked a treat.

We had to bite the bullet here and start to get really tough on Iesha and her bad sleeping habits. We decided that we would try shutting her door. She hates this and it breaks my heart to hear her get so upset. Once she is quite we go in to check on her and tell her we love her. We then leave her door open if she gets out again we repeat the process but leave the door closed longer each time. And wouldn't ya know it, we weren't woken up once by either kids last night. Iesha stayed asleep in her bed all night. It felt great to sleep again.

When she got up this morning we praised her up so she realised that she did the right thing last night. She seemed proud of herself. Tonight has been a bit harder to get to sleep but hopefully once she's asleep she will stay there. Fingers crossed.

Julius still has a chesty cough and is really wheezy. It sounds horrible and he has it all day. I've questioned the In-laws, a nurse and an ambo, and they seem to think that it might be the onset of bronchitis. My poor little man.

How was everyone else's weekend?

Ours was hectic. I feel like i've only just sat down to relax for the first time since Friday. My husband played cricket on saturday, which takes the whole day to play. Not they he did much, he made a DUCK! LOL! I shouldn't laugh but its hard not to. especially when he has won the duck trophy 4 out of 6 years at his club, Sandy Creek.

We had a 1st birthday party to go to on sunday. Lots of fun. The birthday girl got given a kiddie pool and it was set up in the backyard. We didn't know that it would be there, and of course what is the first thing Iesha wants to do when she sees it? So, in she jumps, clothes, nappy and all. Very cute but has anyone seen what happens to a nappy in water? It was gross. In the end she was only wearing her dress. Everytime she bent over you saw her cute little cheeks.  Luckily with the weather so hot she dried off real quick. Once we managed to get her out of course.

Julius is sick at the moment, so e's grumpy a lot of the time but he does sleep more. He has a very stuffy nose which makes it hard to feed him and he wakes himself up a lot with choking on the snot running down the back of his throat. Really yucky. Any remedys out there to help clear nose a little quicker?

Well, i have made the decision. i am going to look into getting Iesha to see a speech pathologist. After reading your helpful comments, i decided that it wouldn't hurt to get her checked out for a speech delay. And it will keep my In-laws quite too. If there is anyone here from Adelaide that knows where i should start, i would love the info.

And on another topic, my 1st wedding anniversary will be in February, ( i know thats ages away but with kids you need to plan well ahead). Has anyone got any suggestions of where we could go or what we could do? Child freindly? There's a question, Do we take the kids? Just take Julius, due to him being so young? Or leave both with family?

I live in Adelaide if that helps your suggestions.

Thanks for reading!

Anyway, Iesha (2 1/2) has been a slow talker. She isn't saying sentences yet but is really trying to develope words. She can say around 50 different words and a lot of half words. The In-laws sat me down and basically told me she had problems based on what they know about their son with disparxia. And told me i should get her tested for it.

I don't beleive that she has a problem, yet they are hounding me to get this test done. Which at her age might not prove anything anyway. She is learning well and we are teaching her colours at the moment. She has an active imagination and has great problem solving skills. She just isn't pronouncing a lot of words or forming whole sentences. I beleive all kids grow and develope at different rates anyway and shouldn't be campared to other kids their age.

But, what i really want to know is; Are my In-laws RIGHT?

Should i have her tested?

My second is only 3months old and his name is Julius. He is such a good baby. He sleeps through the night already. Which has been great, especially since i have recently gotten a cold and am tired all day, it gives me plenty of catch up sleep.