In this blog: we were getting ready for big school, still working at the election office, attending gymnastics displays and birthday parties, getting stalked by songs on the radio and reading horoscopes which blatantly lied!

Enjoy!xo

Monday:

My horoscope said this:

I’m a Scorpio by the way (probably explains a lot!)🦂

and absolutely nothing exciting happened today!🎉Praying for an uneventful week!🤞

Tuesday:

Fat chance!  I had an emotional therapy session this morning, where we discussed our marital turbulence and strategies going forward.  I am the closest to being done with the relationship that I have ever been, but expressing that to someone out loud is pretty emotional.  I want to keep trying, but at the same time there is only so much arguing you can take!  And then there is Mia to think about… Oh to be a kid again!  Being an adult is just too hard sometimes!😩

On the car journey home, the Post Malone song “I fall apart” came on the radio and that’s exactly what I did!  Silent tears streamed down my face and I sobbed, all while making sure Mia in the back had no idea to avoid an awkward conversation.

I got on with my day of election paperwork, tutoring and ferrying Mia to gymnastics, where my friend, Jane, who is an absolute legend by the way, donated a whole bag full of school uniform to me, as they have just moved house and her kids have changed school from the one Mia is going to start at in January!  I had asked her how much she wanted for it all and she said “give me $50!” but when I got home and realized how much was actually there I felt like I was completely ripping her off!  She finally agreed to let me give her $100 but it would have cost me about five times that if I had bought it all new so I still got the bargain of the century!

She could not wait to try her new uniform on, but the bag is almost as big as her so makes her look like a tortoise!🐢🤣

My friend at Pilates noticed I was quiet, and made the mistake of asking if anything was wrong, so it all came tumbling out like verbal diarrhoea.  Half an hour later when we were still stood out in the street in the same position, my stomach reminded me I hadn’t eaten dinner yet, so I thanked her for being my sounding board and I took myself home, when “I fall apart” came on the car radio again!  I’m not sure whether it’s a coincidence or it’s trying to make itself my anthem!🤔

Wednesday :

“Just keep swimming!  Just keep swimming!”  School visits, Zumba and a cute selfie on my phone from Mia to keep me smiling!☺

Thursday:

This morning was Mia’s prep orientation morning!  We were excitedly up early to make sure we were ready to do our dummy school run!  I am pretty nervous about her ability to get up in time for me to drive us right across town to school because this kid loves her sleep and has had to be woken up for kindy regularly!  I am also not the most functional person in the morning!  I have to shove my thyroid tablet in as soon as I open my eyes and groggily surf the internet before it starts to kick in and I can actually move!  I am much more of a night owl!

Anyhow, we arrived with plenty of time.  One of Mia’s main worries (and mine) was that she wasn’t going to know anyone in her class as nobody from her kindy was going there, but we walked in and straight into her little friend from swimming class!  Phew!😅  Her name is Maya and there is also another Mia in the class too!  I was pretty disappointed at that fact (growing up in England as an Emma, I’m used to having a common name!🙄) but Mia had the best attitude about it and said “Great!  Maybe we can all be friends?!”  I can learn a lot from this kid!

We had a great morning making crowns, dressing up, dancing and singing and playing on the playground and now Mia can’t wait to start school!  Too bad she has 2 months of holidays to get through first!  She hugged her new teacher and teacher aide goodbye (not sure if that is still appropriate in primary school, but she is extremely tactile!😬) and said “thank you for teaching me!” which was pretty sweet!☺Eek, my baby is growing up!😭

It was at that moment that Maya realised she was friends with the class clown!🤡🙈

Friday:

After just commenting on how late Mia can sleep in, she was up at the crack of dawn this morning!🙄This was because it was the first of December and she was ridiculously excited about opening her Smiggle advent calendar!

Day One loot!

I was still needed to work at the election office as postal votes were still coming in and there was A LOT of paperwork which still needed sorting.  I hadn’t bothered getting a babysitter as since no general public could come in anymore, Mia was fine to come with me and sit quietly…which was fine for the first hour, but then she got bored!  Well, the saying “boredom breeds creativity” couldn’t be more true!  Every so often I would look up from counting and see a new DIY creation flying past…literally!🙊

Homemade masks are pretty scary!👻

An angel apparently!😇

We had practice for Mia’s gymnastics display that evening, which, as last year, also happened to coincide with Ian’s work Christmas party!😬  Last year was not pretty!🤢  I did try to be the voice of reason that the hot and sweaty PCYC and hangovers didn’t mix…

Saturday:

…but when has he ever listened to me?!🤷🏼‍♀️I was so determined to get us there early that I forgot my phone which meant A) that I couldn’t take any photos/videos of the gymnastics display, but also B) that I couldn’t tell Ian where we were sitting when he walked off to get some hangover cure breakfast and I went to save seats!😬Whoops!

Luckily he managed to find us, but is possibly the least impressed person in the world when it comes to kids showcasing their talents.  From the number of times I have had to say “Ian, she’s only 2/3/4 years old!” at various dance and gymnastics events when he was vocally underwhelmed, I was a little nervous for her now she was the ripe old age of 5!  But she had practised so much I thought it would surely go smoothly!  Well, I must remember that she is my daughter and we are accident-prone to say the least!  I’m not sure whether it was the plait on top of her head that threw her off or all the eyes on her,  but the forward roll into the routine which had been a piece of cake thus far, suddenly went sideways, which put her in the wrong position and out of time with everyone else!  It was all a bit messy,  but she finished and we gave her a thumbs up when she looked over to see if we were watching.  The second and third pieces she did were much better, but then we had to wait while they gave out prizes, which was too much for Ian’s hangover and he went to sit in the car!🤢Mia was very proud of her participation certificate, but still didn’t understand why she didn’t get one of the huge competition trophies this year!  “Maybe one day!” I told her! (Highly unlikely, but I’m not going to crush her dreams just yet!)

Very proud of her certificate (taken at home when I actually had my phone with me!🙄

It was Mia’s little friend Ollie’s 4th birthday party, so we went to Laurel Bank park for that and were planning on going straight from there to a birthday dinner for my friend from work. However, Mia lost her headband and trashed her outfit, so we quickly had to duck home to get her changed and jump straight back in the car!

We went to park on the roof of Grand Central, as we normally do, but the automatic doors weren’t letting us in!  We had got back in the car and were just about to drive down a level when someone was walking out of the doors, so we quickly ran and jumped through while they were still open!

After this catalogue of errors, we were around 30 minutes late arriving for dinner, so they had already ordered.  We were at Vapiano, the new Italian restaurant, which had only opened a few days previously, so we were expecting it to be busy, but it was ridiculously packed and they clearly couldn’t cope!  They brought our meals out in takeaway boxes as they hadn’t realised we were joining the table and then the manager refused to put it onto plates, so we looked like kids that couldn’t be trusted with crockery!😐 They brought me the wrong meal and Mia’s pizza was jus the about on the right side of charred!  I had gone to get a straw for my drink and was told I had to queue up at the bar, so I didn’t even bother trying to take my meal back and just ate what I was given!  I won’t be eating there again until it settles down and their staff have been trained with customer service skills at least!

They didn’t have a toilet so went to walk to the shopping centre ones and saw Mia’s old Gymnastics  teacher out for dinner with her husband.  “Where do I know you from?!” he said.  “Um…PCYC?!” I replied.  “…No…you look familiar…Oh!…like that actress!  What’s her name?!”  “Drew Barrymore.” I replied.  “I wish I had her money!”  I used to get that quite a lot back in the day, but I’ve obviously been looking way too haggard to get it recently!  People used to generally add “from E.T.” when they said it anyway and I certainly don’t look like an 8 year old girl anymore!👧🏼🙊

Just for an extra bit of fun on the way home, we got in the nearest lift and realised it didn’t go up to the roof.  We got out at level 2 to try to find a way up, but if there was one we couldn’t see it, so admitted defeat, went back to the ground level and had to walk past the birthday dinner again!  “We went the wrong way!  Nothing to see here!”😳

Sunday:

Finally a day with no plans spent lolloping at home.  Well, I started getting the overseas parcels and Christmas cards ready, but other than that it was pretty chilled.  The horoscope didn’t come true, but maybe it was saving up the serenity for a future week.  I can but dream!

Plenty of time for bed selfies today! Hooray!🐰