We are IN....

Yay! We finally made it.

It has almost been one month since my last blog post. So you are in for a ride.

After much anticipation we moved in on Friday 28th Sept. Well really Thursday 27th.
We were suppose to move in the Friday earlier but at the final hr the carpet hadnt arrived and the plumber wasn't finished. So we had another week in the apartment.
So by 11pm on the Thursday 27th and after plenty of begging from the kids we all slept in our room on freshly layed carpet.

I had the worst nights sleep but it was memory making stuff as we all layed in bed (well actually the floor)  chatting to each other while looking at the Gold Coast skyline to well past 1am.

So with the house almost complete inside i now feel like i am renovating and not living in a new home. I am keeping all the new furniture i have ordered on hold untill EVERY tradie is OUT! Fingers crossed it will be a few more weeks.

Waiting on my mirror splash back and new fridge.

I enjoyed watching all the men put this light together. Many frustrated men!

Main bedrooms bath

Thank GOD for our local Zarraffas coffee shop - owed buy our friends Darren & Deanne Marek - For all the times the electricians turned the power off and i needed that coffee fix.

Painters have plenty to do.

I refreshed all my labels. One even still had a  "rusks" label on it.

I have washed and labeled all my tupperware.

We met the neighbour hood kids.

Here are some watching the rugby league grandfinal.

I have been heading out walking at 5am on weekdays. Such a great suburb. Friendly people everywhere.

Oh and did i mention the HILLS

Stalking garden ideas.

And maybe trying to keep up with the Jones's on this lawn. Check it out!

I have been cooking the tradies mini pizzas.

I won this gorgeous Penny Ball on Let's go Moerkabout blog page (I am calling it my Perfect Penny)
It will be a family treasure i can pass down to future generations.

As it has been school holidays. The boys have been to GC Compound a few times. The best place on earth my boys would say.

Here is James. He just stacked it. Of course i take a pic first before going over to him ;)

It took him a few long minutes before he went back out onto the ramps.

Here is Jack about to head into the foam pit.

And about to land in the pit.

James back at it.

 Boys played their first game of cricket. Jack un13s and James un11s. I have sat for many years when the kids were babies watching Jason play. Oh how FUN that was (wink wink nudge nudge)
he is back playing over 40s and the boys went along with him last year and decided they would play this year.

Jack hit a 4. But it ended up being the only score he made. He enjoyed it immensely.

Here is James bowling. I missed him batting - oops maybe i was on Instagram hehe..

On a more exciting note. I went out and did something i have always wanted to do. I brought wooden coat hangers.
Gee what a difference it makes.
I brought them from Kmart for $6 for 6. I went to the cheap shop they had them for $3 for 4 but they were really crappy.

Before

After

 As all of our things have been in storage for the last 7 months. It is so exciting unpacking things i love.
My mum over the years has made these gorgeous quilts for us all.

This is one of the first ones she made for Gaby

This is another one which has fabric from my mums bedspread when she was a little girl.

One of the boys

Oh and it is BLISS i tell you BLISS that my kids can now catch a school bus. The traffic in and out of the suburb is crazy at school time and i am so happy not to be stuck in it.

OMG.
I have to tell you all this. Just as i had finished this post i was Preview - ing it. I then went back into it and changed a few spelling mistakes and accidentally pressed DELETE.. So after that long time consuming post that i have been waiting to do for the last month. I had to redo it all over again. Thank GOD i didn't go out of my Preview page otherwise i don't think i would've done it all again.

So while i am sitting here about to finish. I have electricians here, i have a guy putting up the glass balustrade, i have a digger in the back and front yard doing footings for fences and a paths, driveway etc...

I hope you all survived my long post. Thanks for reading. I promise i will never leave it that long again...

Pen x

Black sink OMG!

Here it is my black, yes BLACK sink.

It still has a little chrome piece to go in the centre to finish it off.

 I need a few more days to see if i totally love it. Don't get me wrong i like it, just not in love with it yet!

The sinks are all in, doors are all hung. Skirtings and architraves are going on today. The tiler is there and the painter is there. The renderer is there doing tidy ups.

Looks like that double/triple batch of pizza scrolls will go pretty quick tomorrow afternoon.

I am off to lunch with a girlfriend who is leaving the Gold Coast to head back to her/mine home town next week. That country life is just too good.

Pen :)

Cupcake challenge

The kids had the day off school yesterday due to Catholic teacher strike.

Jack who is in Year 7 had to make cupcakes for a Year 7 Cupcake Challenge.
They had to either film or take photographs of them making them and decorating them.
He wanted to make cookie monster ones and our daughter who had done the challenge herself when she was in yr 7 said "everyone does cookie monster ones"
So Jack searched the internet and was trying to find something that was EASY but hopefully no-one else would do.

Jack came across the Hamburger. At first glance i was like NO WAY.
Once we enlarged the image and really looked at what went into it. It was really simple.

I went and brought the ingredients.

Cheese, lettuce and tomato

Jack cut the vanilla cup cake in half as it was to be the bun then cut a slice of chocolate cupcake as the beef then layered the lettuce, tomato and cheese holding the layers together with Betty Crocker icing.

He is pretty impressed with the final result.

In the fridge to set over night.

Pen :)

I have stairs...

The stairs are in! and i LOVE them.

I couldn't vision how they were going to look. I kept thinking that they were going to be so steep.
Not to be, they are perfect.
I have never seen how the stairs are put in and i was very impressed.
It only took the guy two days.
Very efficient!

The guy told me that the first step was always the worse to put in. He was on the floor for awhile.

My doors arrived too! Nice and solid.

Vegemite scrolls

On Friday afternoons i have been taking Pizza scrolls to the tradies. Last Friday i made Vegemite ones. The tradies loved them.

Looks like i need to double/triple the batch this week.

Not long now:
Pen x

Perfect Penny

This is Perfect for Penny (that's me hehe)

Over at Let's go Moerkabout there is a great Giveaway happening.

The prize, your choice of goods from Moerkey etsy shop to the value of $45.

Please feel free to enter in any of the following ways.

Each step = one entry

1. Visit Moerkey Etsy shop, come back here and leave a comment about your favourite item.
2. Post the giveaway picture on your blog.
3. Post about the giveaway on facebook.
4. Tweet about the giveaway.

The winner will be drawn at random and announced on Monday 24th September.

Good luck!

 

Pen x

2 weeks till we move in & Jacks Grandfinal Day

Yes! It is almost time.

With 14 sleeps to go. Kids will be on holidays 2 days after we have moved in. So it will be nice and relaxing while we un pack with no running around making lunches and ironing uniforms in the morning or for afternoon ballet lessons and football training.

Although there will be loads of work to be finished outside the house. All the inside will be complete.

I will have to organise my curtains ASAP as i will have many tradies still onsite for awhile. With the snooker room and retaining walls, pool and garden still to be completed. As well as the side fence which i think we are doing with besser blocks than rendering....Not sure on that one.

Most of the scaffolding came down today.

 It was like unwrapping a present. Steve the builder sent me this pic as soon as it was down. He is really happy and excited with us and for us.  I LOVE IT...
Obviously there is painting and a small amount of rendering to be done and the glass balcony to be installed but it is all coming together nicely.

Another day of tiling

So with 14 days to go. It is hard to believe it will be finished in 2 weeks but it is all running to schedule so i guess by the end of this week we will see a huge transformation.
....................................................................................................................................

Other happenings:

Over the week end we celebrated Fathers Day.

James brought Jason a radio pen at the school fathers day stall. It actually is pretty cool and works really well. 

Good job James!

It was a busy morning as we had to drive 1 hr to Beaudesert where Jack was about to play in his first Grandfinal. His team have been undefeated all year.

In the apartment lift on the way to the car.

We left early and with 10mins to go before we arrived in the small town of Beaudesert James threw up strawberry milk (which looked like strawberry yoghurt) all over himself in the back seat of the car. With no change of clothes and nothing to clean it up. We continued on to the first servo we came across. Windows down and all with our noses blocked we found a servo with a very helpful young man who gave us a bucket of warm water and disinfectant. James got the wash down and i found a can of Linx to spray all over him.

With about 40 teams at Burleigh Bears from under 7s to under 17s only 7 teams from Burleigh made it to the Grandfinal and only 3 had won. So the pressure was on to get the stats up.

Burleigh White give it all your might.

After having not lost a game all year the boys were finally beaten 12-8 by Parkwood.
Guttering :(
The boys played well...(oh gosh they got close but not close enough)
Jack played so well and we were so proud of him. The boys are all a great bunch and have become great mates as not many of the kids knew each other at the start of the season. 4 out of the 15 had played together. Some even came from soccer and AFL.
A really great effort by all...

In the papers today and over the news last night the Gold Coast Junior Rugby League have come under fire. They hired a professional photographer to take photos of the games and banned us parents from taking photos of our children or they would take our cameras.

Front page of todays Gold Coast Bulletin

 Junior rugby league bosses say the ban protects the privacy of kids and upholds the religious beliefs of some parents.
SORRY totally disagree.
What is this world coming to?

Pen x