OK I stopped laughing now.

Instead of working billable hours today I spent most of the morning organising the kids autumn acitivites. Coz I hate paying for anything full price I searched all the discount sites and got some great deals. Wish my social life was as exciting as the kids is going to be. 

I only have a couple of weeks till full time work starts and I am going to try and go to as many classes as possible. 

I was looking for a school prep class and the cheapest one I've found is $350 per month per child. At that price why wouldn't I just send my kid to a private school? 

It's all a bit fooked up. 

Since Labor Day came and went we have retired our white seersucker (yeah, not really) and are prepping for the wonders of autumn. I LOVE AUTUMN! 

I'm going through cupboards and drawers and just chucking out anything that has been in there for more than 1 yr and not been used. It's a glorious feeling. Bags and bags are on the outs. 

This is in response to not being able to move thanks to kid crap everywhere. Enough is enough. I am taking the apartment back. We are creating a little sitting area in our bedroom so we can read and what not in quiet. I am calling it my mumcave

How do you prepare for the next season? 

PreK and K doing my frikkin' head in!

When I was a kid ... wait for it .... this wasn't so complicated. You turned up to the first day of school, sat in gym and then went off to your classroom.

I just spend hours trying to work out if my kids fall in the right age group for state pre K (seats are like fairy dust or winning the lottery but you gotta have a dream, right). Then I came into a whole new level called 'testing criteria'.

We are going public all the way but there are some institutions that whilst public, run like a private. My future nobel award winning toddlers have to get tested for  .....

five areas assessed both verbally and non-verbally (ten subtests in total)

• Fluid reasoning
• Knowledge
• Quantitative reasoning
• Visual-spatial processing
• Working memory

The verbal subtests of the SB5 test require facility with words and printed material (reading or speaking).

Verbal Domain Subtest Information:

• Fluid Reasoning: early reasoning with pictures, analogies.
• Verbal Knowledge: vocabulary. Includes toys, identification of body parts, Verbal Quantitative
• Reasoning: contains five different levels. tapping number concepts, problem solving, and figural-geometric/measurement estimation problems
• Verbal Visual-Spatial Processing
• Verbal Working Memory: memory for sentences and last word.

The nonverbal subtests for the Stanford-Binet test require understanding spoken instructions and allow for pointing responses, how to work with puzzle-like pieces, and manipulation of toys to indicate correct answers.
Nonverbal Domain Subtest Information:

• Nonverbal Fluid Reasoning
• Nonverbal Knowledge
• Nonverbal Quantitative Reasoning
• Nonverbal Visual-Spatial Processing
• Nonverbal Working Memory

Skills required to do well on the Stanford-Binet test include:

• Listening ability
• General knowledge
• Language development
• Mathematical achievement
• Mathematical knowledge
• Spatial relations
• Visualization
• Induction
• Working memory
• Memory span

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha .. oh wait I'll ok ... ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha 

no chance! 

Weigh In and catch up

Wow, its been a crazy week.

I went to Canada to meet some new work colleagues even tho I don't start my new full time position for quite some time.  It was two days and I was really nervous but they were great. They are smart,  funny and friendly people. Very competitive but I can handle that :)

There was lots of food. I ate carefully and drank tons of water. Down 1.8 pounds.

The kids missed me and I didn't make time to Skype with them (I only had 30 mins free time) but on  Friday I took Mimi to her first ballet class. Just Mimi and mummy. I sat outside the studio and watched as my little one ran around in tiny ballet slippers and a tutu. She and I loved being on our own (this is the first time). When we got home Pip was asked when his mummy time was but his class doesn't start for a while. I gave him all sorts of love and cuddles to make up for it.  It's so much fun having twins but the alone time is so special. An so easy!

Looking forward to alone time with Pip although I bet he asks for Mimi the moment he realizes she isn't coming with us!

Oh and it was my birthday yesterday.

Yup, quite the week.

Give away update

For those that were interested in the car sear give aways when I took the car seat and stroller bottom into the shipping place it ends up being over $120 due to bulk. The whole thing is less than that new.

Sorry about that guys. If you are still interested please let me know and we can email each other. 

Saturday weigh in (drum roll please)

I lost weight :) -4.8 pounds which for someone over 40 is not to shabby.

I am so pleased with myself.  I tracked and exercised. Enjoyed food and slept great. PHEW.

the regular leader is back. She is on TV quite a bit and that means we get 'WW tourists'. This week was a couple from Texas who were pretty shocked by all the F-bombs flying around. Sorry guys. They had a blast though which was cool.

The meeting I go to is pretty tight. Long termers and lifers. They asked what had happened to me and before I could think I said "I took a job that  I allowed to take over my life in a very bad way. Basically I had a breakdown. One day, my boss confronted me again and I fought back. I quit. I told her to get a package together coz I had her on tape and she did".

The room erupted. People were hugging me and shaking my hand. They had said that the last time they saw me they were worried for my health and sanity and that they were proud of me. From a tiny moment of vulnerability and a little bit of shame I feel lifted on the shoulders of those wonderful people. I have been lift out of my shame and embarrassment to a strong healthy place.

What a frikkin amazing WW meeting!!

Ballet pas de deux weeks

I love watching ballet. So when I had a little girl that also loves to prat around with her arms in the air I thought "hell, yes"

I waited till a great deal came on-line and bingo! 10 ballet classes with the S.wiss American Ballet school. It was supposed to start two weeks ago.  For two weeks we Mimi's mop of brush hair back (with magic gel) and don pink tights (no shine) white leotard (spaghetti strap only) little ballet slippers and a sweet white band for her head and trot off to the other side of town.

Each week the snotty teacher cancels.

They have the nerve to mandate a strict dress code and then not have the frikkin class! WTF. Next Friday better be something out of this world.

I called the teacher and said "we are at the school for the 10am class but there's no-one here?"
"Oh darlin' you 'ave to confirrrrrrrrm et you did not"
"I see, so paying for the class isn't the same as actually confirming the class. Good to know. Let me confirm for next week now  so we don't score a triple on the return shall I?"
"oh you must confirrrrrrrrm ze day before"
"no, I must confirm now, coz I took the day off work to be here and it costs me a great deal of money and my kid has been disappointed for the second week an a row so, madam, aller en classe la semaine prochaine, d'acord!'

There was another little girl that came for class - not ballet'd up (ha, tourist) but she only spoke French so my kids yelled at her,  y'know, they being American and all.

Bug bite

Mimi has an couple of bites on her leg. They are large round and hard. Today they started weeping. I went to the chemist and she gave me some stuff.

Amazing how something so little can worry me so much. I love being a parent, even tho the weight of the worry is unbearable at a moments notice.



On the weight loss front - I ran today. Ran like the clappers. Furthest ever in shortest time. Was it fun - hell no. Am I proud. Hell YEAH.