Back from the dead

When my second baby was 2 years old I started this blog. It was there through some hard times, Some fun times, some happy and some sad times.

Then 4 years ago, I disappeared. 

Don't ask me where or why because I'm not really sure but over time I've thought about coming back and reminding my old friend I'm still here but life and all its joys have been in my way. 

So what's been happening in the last 4 years?

2012 - Steve and I separated.

2013 - Jessie was diagnosed with chiari

2014 - I met a new man, Jessie had brain surgery, I started my registered nursing degree then found out at the end of the year I was pregnant (YES! I totally died of shock at that! Hahaha) a week after we moved in with my parents... yup, they died of shock too! Hahaha 

2015 - The man who shall not be named ended up being the dirtbag who lied, cheated, stole then left me without a backwards glance at 13 weeks pregnant. I've never heard from him again and I'm much stronger from the experience. Understandably, he's not someone I often really about it think about any more because I don't need that negativity to hold me back. 

Then in July 2015, Phoenix Orion was born. 

My gorgeous boy was the missing puzzle piece I never knew I was missing. He had bought so much sunshine and life into our family and I'm so grateful every day he is here. I'd like to imagine eventually he'll sleep in his own bed and stay there all through the night but for now I cherish the midnight snuggles and the early morning eye jabs because he is my last! Hahaha 

2016 - Jessie had a bad case of glandular fever that saw her in hospital for 2 days and then Hamish had surgery on a chronically ingrown toenail. Between that and 8 weeks of hospital pracs, I got my hospital fixes well and truly! Hahaha 

2017 - And now we are here! My final year of my degree, smooth sailing so far this year! Phoenix is due to have grommets in and adenoids out in a week, right in the middle of exam week but my life if nothing else is not boring! Hahaha 

The kids are all doing really well, Jessie is 16 and in year 11. She is currently leaning to drive and enjoying the paycheck with a weekend job at a local function centre. 

Hamish is 13 and in year 8. Playing baseball in the summer and softball in the winter (crazy me is coaching his under 16s team this year!) and being a generally grotty boy! Hahaha 

Makenzie is 10 and in year 5. She's also doing softball in the winter plus teeball and machine pitch baseball in the summer but her true love is performing. She does performance class and shines in stage singing and dancing at dance comps and performance nights. 

Phoenix is 22 months and a terror at times but an angel at others! Hahaha He is very stubborn and independent but loves his mum time (usually demanding it while I try and study! Hahaha).

And as for me, I'm down on friends and definitely not interested in a relationship but for the first time in my life I'm really happy at where I am and who I am so overall, life is good!

Photos will come soon, when I figure out how and I'm hoping to be beck again soon as well because I'm enjoying taking time to think on what I want to say even if no one ever reads it! Hahaha 

A few recent pics

Hamish, Makenzie and Jessie - January 2013

 

 

Hamish - September 2013

 

 

Jessie - September 2013

 

 

Makenzie - September 2013

 

The kids and I April - 2013

2011 to now...

It is funny, I got myself a new computer with my tax return in August after my old one died and I have slowly been going through all the things I *used* to do and deleting old accounts and things because in the last year my life has turned inside out and upside down but when it came time to delete The World According to Mel I couldn't do it.
Who I was when I wrote my last blog post is so far from the person I am today and I didn't want to blog for the longest time because of how life has been going.
Today though, I feel ready...

The last time I actually posted anything of any worth (haha who am I kidding, I don't think much of what I have ever posted is of any worth!) was June, 2011. I had just got my first job after almost 12 years of being a stay at home mum and Husband, kids and I had just moved into our freshly built house.

Two years later and how life has changed... I quit work after 18 months in January 2013, Husband and I are now separated as of October 2012 (Holy crap, a whole year already, how did that happen?!) and we are selling the house early next year.

On top if that, Jessie has been diagnosed with Chiari 1 Malformation, Intracranial Hypertension (The 2 brain conditions that I have) and a 17mm cyst on her brain. I am also going to TAFE full-time working towards a qualification in Nursing. Hamish is  the cheekiest 9 year old you ever met, Makenzie is still her trouble-making self just in 6 year old form and we have a new addition to the family in the form of our crazy cat Shadow.

Why is it I haven't been back to blog again?! haha

That is the VERY condensed version of the last 2 years and I would love to say I will post more detail about everything at some stage but let's be honest, I will probably be back in another 2 years with an equally short post! hahaha

Mel

Random pictures from 2011

So, what I am planning on doing is updating the last year as far as pictures go over the next few days and then when I ahve my next day off I will do a big old blog post about me, my life, my health, my chillens and anything that might come up between now and then.

  

 Now I have got Bali out of the way, the next lot of photos is the random stuff

Jessie, growing up too quick!

Hamish, still my baby.

Makenzie, sassy princess!

Bless, couldn't you just eat her sometimes!

The whole crazy crew

Jessie at her swimming carnival, from memory she came second in this one :)

Easter 2011, Kenz in her always mismatched pj's! LOL

Hamish, he is well know for not wearing a shirt with jammys...no idea why with that chicken chest :P

The big kids, doesn't matter how old you are nothing beats an egg hunt at Nannas!

Will be back tomorrow night with more, early morning tomorrow - have to start work at 7am :-/ - and I have a meeting with the CEO of the company  (Should be interesting!) so need my beauty sleep ;-)

Mel

Going back to Bali 2011...

So I have just read through my blog to see what I had talked about and what I promised I would do and never actually did and figured I would start with Bali 2011. I say 2011 because Nayd and I also went this year so don't want to get confused! hehe

Me, up close and personal, with a snake...something about an albino something something snake...It was hot there and I had snake around my neck (Which, if you can't tell, I was very excited by! hehe) so didn't ask for too much info! Hahaha

No really, I loved it!

Steve at dinner one night

 Me getting a tattoo done. We called the March 2011 trip "The Tattoo Trip" because, although we hadn't planned it, we spent so much time with the tattoo guys over the 5 days that it felt like all we did was get tattoos. The tattoo guys ended up being really good friends who we now visit on every trip over and despite MANNNNNY people telling me about "the AIDS" and things I am going to get, I would not go anywhere else now!

Nayd getting her "Sister" tattoo done, we got the same tattoo (Mine is pictured lower) on out shoulders, hers on the left mine on the right, that is a celtic knot which (obviously) means Sisters :)

One of mine finished, it is a latin phrase - Fortitudine Vincimus - which means "By Endurance We Conquer". After all I have been through, health-wise, it is something that really rings true to me.

Steve getting his first one done by Aif. All together his took 15 hours, at one stage both Aif and Bowo (In the other photo with Nayd) were doing an arm each so it could have been longer if he had them done one after the other! Crazy man! LOL

My other wrist tattoo, kinda self explanitory :P

Me getting my "Sister" tattoo

My finished "Sister" tattoo, not the best picture, it had only just been done.

 Steve and I on safari :)

 Mel

Remember me?!

Welcome to 2012!!!
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What?! You seriously think that June 14th is not a good time to say this?


HHMMM, perhaps you may be right BUT This is the first time since May 16th 2011 that I have:

1.  Been able to use internet in my own home that last for more than 5 minutes and takes less than an hour to load a page
2. Had any kind of memory of my blog
3. felt any inclination to come back! HEHE
4. had more than 5 minutes to call my own to get back here

But, it is safe to say I am back so welcome to 2012!!! LOL

Over the next week I am going to try and get my blog caught up, share a bunch of photos, and basically bore you silly with the who's, what's, when's where's and whys!

So, hold on to your hat, get out your glasses and be prepared 'cause there is going to be lots happening in the next week!

Mel

I AM BACK AND HAVE JUST FOUND THIS POST, HALF DONE, SO AM POSTING NOW...APOLOGIES FOR IT'S UNFINISHED STATE! LOL

I have been so flat out these last few weeks, I keep meaning to come in and do a post and add some new pictures of the kids but things have been absolutely chaotic!
As I said in my last post, key hand over happened on the 17th of May, the day Steve flew out to work after 5 weeks off (Convenient if you ask me ;) LOL) and since then most of my days have gone like this: Get up and get kids to school, drive to the house and paint, finish at end of school time to pick up the kids then onto activities, dinner and bed. Repeat for 3 weeks straight! LOL

Anyways, Steve flew out the day we got the keys, after we got the keys we went to Bunnings to get sealer and laundry and toilet tiles only to find we had no money in our "money" account! Steve had only bee paid the week before so it was very far from normal to have no money so we paid for the "savings" money and I got straight onto the bank website. We found $1000 had been taken out the day before from Centrelink so instead of going straight to the house like planned we had to come home and Steve was stuck on the phone till he had to fly out.

After lots of to-ing and fro-ing between Centrelink (Who was claiming they hadn't taken money and call the bank and scamwatch) and the bank (Who were claiming it was legit and we needed to contact Centrelink for more details) it turned out that back in February when the fires came through we were each eligible for a $1000 "relief fund" payment (and $400 for each of the kiddos)from Centrelink. We all applied for it just and just before we went to Bali Steve's payment came through.

Apparently, someone gave the wrong bank account details and gave our bank details instead of their own so the money that went into the account (My money went into the savings account and Steve's into the spending account) that we presumed was for Steve actually wasn't. He was supposed to receive a letter telling him to go into CL to verify his ID and then he would receive the payment. We didn't get that letter and the payment went into our account so we thought nothing more of it. Fast forward to May and CL realised they had given Steve the money by mistake so took the money back out! No one contacted us to tell us this was happening and the bank authorised it without confirming it with us so we end up with over drawn fees when our direct debits came out and there was no money in there and we had to wait for a week till Steve came home again to be able to fill out the original ID form (Which came as soon as we told them we hadn't got it!) and get that money back!

Meanwhile, I was flat out sealing and sealing and more sealing on the house so by the time Steve came back, a week after we had the keys, the whole house was sealed. We then moved on to real paint! It was so much fun to pick the colours and I am really happy with the way they came out :)
We went with Dulux "Blind Date" as the main colour everywhere except the kids rooms, their toilet and the laundry...

ANOTHER ONE THAT IS HALF DONE, I AM WORKING ON AN UPDATE FOR THE LAST YEAR SO THIS WILL HAVE TO SUFFICE IN THE MEAN TIME ;)

Hi there...
Soooooooo, it's been just over 10 weeks since we got the keys to the new house and as you can see from my sorely neglected blog I have been flat out!
We have been officially in for just on a month and life if moving along swimmingly :)
Not to brag or anything but I am so in love with our house, it is so good to finally have space and storage and room to move...but it turns out it all comes at a price. Since moving in I have been some kind of Suzy Homemaker, freshly squeezed juice and all, but apparently the shine of that role wore of quickly because last week I decided it was high time I got a job. Makenzie is at school 2 days a week and I am finding have such a huge house when it's empty and clean and sparkly gets kind of boring...especially with no tv reception, home phone and limited internet.
So, like all of my whims, I  went for it fully...for about 10.5 minutes, sending out my recently made resume to about 15 companies who were advertising (Including one photography studio ~Insert vomit sounds here~) and then got bored so moved on to something else (Most probably Facebook I'd imagine) and thought nothing more of it.
Two days later I got a text message saying "Thank you for your application to X, if you are still interested in a position please call Y by 3pm today or Monday morning" Of course it just happens to be 3:25 when I get the message (Love my iPhone, quirks and all...right?!) so I have to wait all the way through the weekend before I can call.
Monday morning I dash to Mum and Dad's to use their phone (Another quirk of my iPhone is it likes to shut down after 5 minutes of being on the phone so important call now need to be made at Mums) and call Y back. Have a phone interview with him and at the end he says "We only have 3 more positions to fill and the last of the interviews are tomorrow morning, will that work for you?"
"Sure" I say, while inside my head I am going "Oh crap, I need to get my roots touched up, eyebrows waxed, clothes sorted etc...No way I can do that!"
I had to fill out a psych test and things online, which was kind of cool to actually use my brain a bit, before the interview but I managed to get everything sorted and was organised for the morning.
Went into the interview, which went really well from what I could tell, and after the 2 hour interview was over I left feeling proud to have survived my first interview in 12 year but not really caring either way if I got the job or not.
30 minutes after I walked out I get a call from Y, who works in Sydney as the company's recuitment manager, to tell me they loved me and just needed to ring my referees to make sure all was good at that end and they would get back to me soon.
Yesterday (The day after the interview) I get a phone call from my new manager :D to say I got the job and training starts on the 8th of August! I am still a little in shock at how quickly it all happened!!!

I am so super excited today! On Friday we had our second Practical Completion Inspection on the house (Yes, I know the house blog is terribly out of date, I had photo issues! Oops!) and aside from silicone being needed around the sinks (Which has now been done) the house is FINALLY finished!!!
So we have an appointment with Content for 10:30am tomorrow morning for Handover and the house is then officially ours :D
We still have masses to do and it will probably about a month before we can move in but it is so good to finally have an end date, to have something to focus on and know that by x time we will be in the house :D

Even better than that, I just got interupted while blogging by a phonecall from the guy who did our driveway paving to give me a quote for the cross-over and it has come in way cheaper than we had expected so that is so good! We have been trying to save while we are staying here with mum but these last couple of months with Hamish and Makenzie's birthdays (Photos to come I promise! LOL) and Easter, Mother's Day and Dad's birthday thrown in our savings have taken a bit of a hit so to get things for less than we expected is a huge relief :)
Anyways, better run, have to get the kiddos in a minute but just wanted to update with my exciting news :D

Mel

BE AWARE! NEW SCAM!

Anyone who knows me knows I am not one to blah blah about scams and viruses etc. on the internet because so many stuatuses on Facebook and emails that go around are bogus but this one happened to my family this week so I really wanted to get it out there and make as many people aware of it as I can so no one else can get ripped off by these people!
My Mother in Law was contacted the other day after putting a caravan for sale on the classifieds.

The man who contacted her claimed to be working on an oil rig up north so had no phone access and wanted to pay through Pay Pal. My Mother in Law, being unfamiliar with the internet, phoned me and asked what to do so I gave her my email address for the man to use my Pay Pal account.

Yesterday I recieved and email claiming to be from Pay Pal stating the money was ready to be tranferred I just needed to do a Western Union Money Transfer of $950 to his courier for shipping the caravan.

I, thankfully, have been using Pay Pal for many years and had alarm bells ringing so contacted Pay Pal because the whole thing seemed a bit suspect.

This morning another email was received by the man telling us to do a transfer of $2500 so we contacted the Scamwatch people.

They knew all about it, the address we gave that the man had told us to send the money to was well known to them.

Basically, it is a new scam happening where they are contacting people through classified ads and attempting to scam money from them.

I am so glad my Mother in Law had us there to help her out or it could ahve been a very costly mistake for her.

Please pass this on and be very careful when selling things through classifieds as I would hate anyone to get scammed!