Customer Service

It has been beautiful at night at the moment, because the nights have been clear and the moon beautifully full.  I love the moon.  I love that it gets to travel all over the world in a day and that it is the same moon that watches over my friends and family in Oregon as the one that watches us here!

Jo brought home a toy the other day for Levi.  It was a lighted stick that you shot into the sky and in the dark it was just fabulous to watch.  He had a great time out there shooting it into the sky and then running after it.  They continued until the mosquitoes drove us all indoors.  As you can see, Levi has decided that his hair needs to be short again.  Really short because he doesn't do anything by halves.  He wanted me to cut it, which I did and then he ran his hands through his hair and said that is wasn't short enough because it wasn't 'spiky' enough!  I continued to buzz it until it was in fact, spiky enough!  He loves the spiky feel and I will have to admit that I love the feel as well!

Today I had some interesting interactions with the customer service.  My iPhone has been failing.  It turns itself off without a loss of charge and sometimes needs to be charging to do anything.  If I had to use it while it was charging, it would give you a mild electric shock for the pleasure.  Today I took it to Chermside because it is the only place on the Northside that has an Apple store.  They were great once I actually got through the waiting involved endlessly at Apple.  In fact, after they were able to replicate the charging silliness, they just replaced the phone.  

Now I have to go back to Chermside anyway.  I bought Levi a new bike!  There is more to this story and Levi has been really patient.  His old bike had a few minor problems.  The first is that the brakes are broken, broken so they freeze onto the wheel about once every 5 minutes or so.  The pedal is also broken and in the process of breaking, ripped out the thread.  The only way to replace the pedal without thread is to tighten the new pedal on as far as it will go and try to jam it in there at a funny angle.  It doesn't work very well.  The pedal falls off about every 10 minutes.  Levi didn't really complain but he would have to bring the bike in for repairs every seven and a half minutes or so!  So after being tight for about two months, I finally bought him a Transformers bike.

We took it home and then he and I put it together.  Only to find that the front bike tube was ripped and he couldn't use it anyway.  I had come home early because there was a big storm on the way and I had only computer work anyway, so I could do it at home.

Survivor - Not!

Survivor is back on TV.  I don't know why I do it to myself.  I watch it but it also drives me nuts.  I can't look away.  It is amazing because I know the producers are doing it to me but I still can't stop it driving me nuts!  The producers pick out the 22 people who are least likely to survive, well, anything!  These must be the dumbest 22 people on earth.  It makes me think of Monsters verses Aliens (Yes, all I really watch is kid movies) where they are talking about his lack of brains;

"Turns out you don't need one! Totally Overrated!!"

It is brilliant, but I am reminded of it every time I see Survivor.  I think that some of the time, these people must forget to breathe.  I can just see Jeff Probst going around and having to occasionally remind them to "Suck In".  This must be the hundredth season of Survivor.  There have been so many seasons, they must be running out of locations, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if the next was; Survivor, New York.  But I digress, this show has been running forever and it hasn't really been played any differently, but still, they act as if they are surprised, devastated even if someone turns on them or back stabs them.  Hello, have you even watched this show before?  Still I am absorbed.  What is wrong with me?  Next I'll be watching Days of Our Lives!

Then this is the joke of the week from the Internet, hailed as a true story.  If it is true, Mt Isa is the likely setting!

Drunk Driver True story from Australia

Drunk Driving....THIS is absolutely brilliant! Only an Aussie could pull this one off!
A true story from Mount Isa in Queensland.

Recently a routine Police patrol car parked outside a local neighbourhood pub late in the evening. The officer noticed a man leaving the bar so intoxicated that he could barely walk.

The man stumbled around the car park for a few minutes, with the officer quietly observing. After what seemed an eternity and trying his keys on five vehicles. The man managed to find his car, which he fell into. He was there for a few minutes as a number of other patrons left the bar and drove off. Finally he started the car, switched the wipers on and off (it was a fine dry night). Then flicked the indicators on, then off, tooted the horn and then switched on the lights.

He moved the vehicle forward a few metres, reversed a little and then remained stationary for a few more minutes as some more vehicles left. At last he pulled out of the car park and started to drive slowly down the road. The Police officer, having patiently waited all this time, now started up the patrol car, put on the flashing lights, promptly pulled the man over and carried out a random breathalyser test.

To his amazement the breathalyser indicated no evidence of the man's intoxication.

The Police officer said "I'll have to ask you to accompany me to the Police station - this breathalyser equipment must be broken."

"I doubt it," said the man, "tonight I'm the designated decoy

Trying again

Ok, so I didn't win the photo contest with the last shot I took on the Great Ocean Road, but I haven't given up.  You can enter in subsequent weeks as well.  This is the next photo that I am going to submit in the hope that I can win a holiday.  A $30K holiday no less!  We had to submit it to 'Nothing Like Australia' contest. 

Cross your fingers!

Crystal Mining

Yesterday during the storm, Levi got bored.  Of Course!  So we pulled out one of the things from the 'Bored Shelf'.  It was a present from my cousin at Levi's birthday.  It was a Crystal Mining kit.  Levi just loved it!  He played and played and worked at it for hours.  Today he went back to it and scraped until he had excavated all the crystals and spent the rest of the day sorting them and playing a complicated game involving a lunch box and a 'Guess which Crystal' theme.  He washed them in water and then worked out that the plaster would reset if you added water.  Now he is making concrete, by adding water to all the plaster dust that he got for the crystals.  No wonder I can never keep this place clean!

Today was a strange one.  He had a party for one of the boys in his class at school, but after playing on the trampoline for about half an hour, suddenly went a bit white and then wanted to go home, feeling sick!  After we were home and he had a bit of a rest, he was fine again.  I have no idea what he is doing but he seems to perk up after a little bit.  I am hoping that whatever is upsetting his stomach goes away soon. 

Gods of War

Today the heavens have opened and it is pouring!  They have also released the Gods of War though because it is thundering like there is no tomorrow.  This means that Levi and I have some time here where there is really nothing to do but snuggle up and watch TV and make games.  Levi came up with a game to play.  Well more accurately, design, make, colour and play.

First of all he drew a picture of what the game was going to look like and changed and added until he was happy.  It is a math game.  You start in the middle and then pick up cards that have problems on them.  If the answer is a positive you go in that direction but if the answer is negative, you go in the other direction.  If you hit the end in either direction you win!

Then we got a piece of cardboard and redrew the game board.  Levi followed my lines and then we wrote the cards.  Mostly sums like 5 + 6 and such as they can't add up to too much.  The board was too small for large solutions.  The negative sums were things like 8 - 12 and other smaller sums.  Then we placed the cards on the board and it was finished!  Every now and then there are cards in there, that say 5 X 5 and such, but I think Levi snuck those in.  They are a match winner by themselves!  Then we played the game with little 4 X 4 Lego pieces as our tokens.  I love this game and I think (and I am totally not bias) that it would be a great teaching game for kids Levi's age.  He loves playing it and although the sums are easy for him, because after all he wrote most of them, they will help him learn them visually and quickly.  Now I need to make a flash card one and we will be all set!

We played the game until he was tired out it, but I think we will bring it with us to dinner tonight.  They have a couple of kids around this age too.  I am sure it will be a hit.  I have to bring dessert as well and I think I am going to bring the ever popular 5 minute chocolate cake and icecream.  I might branch out and get strawberries as well!  Then the kids can make their our desserts in pairs and it will entertain them as well!

If you were wondering if Levi was actually still in his PJs and robe in the photos, yes, yes he is.  In my defense, it is raining, we live on a farm and even though it seems like we have done a lot, it is only 9 in the morning.  He does wake at the crack of dawn, even when it is dark and stormy.  He also is sitting on the sofa, eating popcorn, drinking a popper slushie and watching TV.  Yes I'll never make a Mum Blogger!  He goes to public school and loves it.  He gets his immunizations on time and his mother lets him stay in jammies and eat popcorn.  Ah well, lucky I am relaxed about not being the perfect mother!

Term Off

The last few days have been, who knows!  For want of a better word - tiring.  I am sick with a low grade thing that is not worth even whining about but enough to make it hurt a bit to breathe and to wear me out more than I should be.  Levi has been a bit off too but it doesn't look like he is sick or getting sick.  He and I are just getting back into the routines required for the next term.  He was having trouble going to sleep so I let him fall asleep on the sofa beside me.

This is a free term.  It means that Levi and I are not doing soccer and we are not doing swimming.  He is not starting judo or karate.  We are just having a stress free term.  We are not having to wake up at 7am on a Sunday morning.  It has been a fabulous first week.  We have slept in most mornings.  I am thinking there will come a time when taking a term off will no longer work, but for the next few years Levi and I are going to take Term 4 off.  It just makes sense!

Riding and Jumping

We had a whole flock of these grazing beside us!

 Today we went bike riding!  There is a BMX track in Caboolture that is just fantastic!  If you go early enough there are no big kids there and really for much of this morning our boys had the track pretty much to themselves.  This track is quite long but has lots of jumps and turns.  Levi, who only this time last year, I was despairing would ever learn to ride a bike, loved it.  He has started to jump hos bike and loves to slide out on turns.  He still isn't as confident as some of the other kids but he is doing well.  Frankly he is happy and that is all I really care about.

I love his helmet hair!  He went round and round the track until he was bright red and exhausted.  The other two boys weren't any better.  But there is not much that a rest and a Coke Slushie won't cure! 

There is a skate park at the same place.  Levi actually rode around and jumped out today!  This was the first time that I have seen him do anything that daring.  It is fun to watch him gradually pushing the limits.  Admittedly, it isn't how I did it.  I pushed limits for sure but there wasn't anything gradual about it!  Where Levi pushes his limits with a gentle hand, I tended to push my limits with a hammer!  I love watching him 'do it differently' even though I have to gag myself or sit on my hands at times to stop from trying to shove him forwards.

We start Term 4 in a couple of days and I am looking forward to it, more because Levi's bedtime drops back to 7pm from 8pm and I get more time at night.  I am selfish to want that so badly but I do treasure the time at night.  Time for me and the things that I want to do.  Admittedly most of the time it involves cleaning and vacuuming, but still at least I have fewer demands at night!  In Term 4, Levi starts swimming as a part of his PE program.  I love that the school starts to take over some of those tasks as well.  They start to make sure that everybody can swim.  

I called Cheryl this morning and Nate is doing well.  No rash.  No problems.  Just a tired little boy recovering from a bad day!