You wonder whether you are truly up to the task. Are they right to place so much trust in you, and all their faith. It seems so daunting to have that asked of you. What about all the things out my control??? What if I can’t change everything???? What if the world won’t be right, what if I can only make it a little better, is that enough???

And then those huge, brown eyes look at you. The eyes that are so deep you could drown in them. The eyes that are so filled with hope, love and trust and just a little bit of a smile, because Mum is there holding her hand.

At that moment, you realise that you have to be up to the task, you have to do what it takes, you have to have the strength for the 2 of you.

She is trusting me and I have to do my best. I have to keep going, no matter how hard or futile it seems. I have to believe in myself for her sake, if nothing else. I have to believe that I can make a difference for her, she is still too young to do it herself. There are some battles she can fight, but not this, she doesn’t really understand the battle, but she knows something is happening.

To my Daisy, I love you and I will fight for you for as long as it takes. I need to see that smile every day, to see your eyes smiling as well as your face. And I will hold your hand for as long as you need me to.

1. There are 2 main providers for home phones here, Telstra and Optus. And in the interests of full disclosure, our home phone is with Telstra.
2. We have Caller ID, ironically it seems, provided by Telstra
3. When someone calls and they have an unlisted number or businesses (like Telstra) who don’t want you to know what number they are calling from, it comes up on the caller ID as “private number” . When someone calls from overseas, it comes up on the Caller ID as “Out of Area”. Remember these OK?
4. My parents are overseas at the moment. I have one foot in the dog house because my Mother called last Friday, I saw “Out of Area” on the phone and didn’t answer. She started to leave a message and then I realised it was her. Oooops.
5. At 6pm tonight, I had a guy at the front door trying to sell me some irresistible deal from Telstra. Don’t they think that we need to prepare and eat dinner????

So when the phone rang tonight, Tiger picked it up and told me it said “Out of Area”, and of course I told him he had better answer it, in case it was the Grandparents and I end up with 2 feet in the dog house. 2 seconds later he hands the phone to me, rolls his eyes and says “Telemarketing Mum!!!”. I get on the phone and this is how the conversation went:

Me: (in a slightly annoyed tone) Hello?

Her: Good Evening Ma’am, I’m calling from Telstra. Are you with Telstra or Optus for your home phone?

Me: Well, you tell me. If you’re calling from Telstra surely you know whether I am a customer or not.

Her: Sorry Ma’am, we don’t have that information, we are calling from the sales department.

Me: And where are you calling from?

Her: Telstra sales department

Me: In India right??? (i’m venturing into dangerous territory here, they all deny using overseas call centres)

Her: No, from Telstra in Sydney

Me: BULLSHIT!!!!

Her: I’m sorry?

Me: BULLSHIT!!!!!

And she hung up on me!!!! Amazing, it worked quicker than I thought it would. And I didn’t dare to dream that she would hang up on me. That worked like a dream.

What annoys me though is that we have Caller ID as I mentioned, so when are the Telco’s going to realise that their customers aren’t stupid and know the difference between a private number and an overseas call????. Apparently not soon enough. And don’t start me on the Federal Government’s “Do Not Call Register”. Does that mean I would be getting more calls if I wasn’t registered???? What a waste of time that is.

Bring it on then. I like a bit of verbal altercation with telemarketers. It makes the evenings more interesting.

I swear on the bones of my ancestors if one more person emails me to ask why I haven’t posted today I will start posting pictures of toe fungus, or fecal murals. You wanna test me? Assuming I don’t get distracted by counting my chest hairs..

I know, it says I wrote it, but I didn’t. Honest. Its from The Lazy Bloggers Post Generator, launched today over at Aussie Bloggers. The possibilities are amazing so go and have a play and see what you come up with.

Its been just over six months since the Forum was launched and the Blog was launched 3 weeks later.Its a great place to meet people who are willing to share a wealth of information about blogging. THere are also lots of other discussions going on about a huge range of subjects from “What’s for Dinner” to Dexter which has just started on free-to-air TV over here. Finally, I can read the Dexter thread

So if you’re an Aussie, a blogger or just want to meet a great bunch of people and learn more about blogging then wander over to the Forum and say “Hi”.

Happy Birthday Aussie Bloggers !!!! Here’s to many more months of success and fun.

After the first two interviews there seems to be a bit of a theme happening - our darling Evyl is feeling rejected.

When Javaqueen answered this question:
If you could pick any man in the world to have one night of unadulterated passion with {and no recriminations} who would it be, and why?

it seems Evyl was disappointed that it wasn’t him.

And when I answered these questions:

Have you ever been tempted to have an affair since being married {or have you already??}

and Evyl wasn’t at the top of the list he seemed worried that it was becoming a disturbing trend.

So instead of mentioning him in my answers, I thought that I would go one better and dedicate a whole post to him. If you’re feint of heart then his place is not where you want to be seen visiting. But if you have a great sense of humour with a bit of a twist then you will love it at his place. If you haven’t already been, then call in and say “Hi” and tell him I sent you. And he may even let you shout him a beer. And keep your eye on Anonymum’s place - there are plenty more interviews to come and it promises to be great fun. Finally, I would like to dedicate a song to Evyl. Mwah, love ya honey:

Now I am 6 assignments, 15 online quizes and lots of reading down the track and exams start tomorrow.

Its been at least 15 years since I have done exams, if not more. I think that I did some TAFE exams but I can’t remember for sure, it was that long ago. It all feels very daunting for me. The kids and DH are feeling a bit neglected because every spare minute I have been dashing off to the study to do some more work. If I am out, one of my text books is a constant companion in case I have a few minutes to read.

My first exam is tomorrow, the next one is the following Wednesday and the last one is June 24. So, I may not be around much. I will try and read all your blogs but probably won’t have much time to comment. Don’t think I am ignoring you all, I am just distracted and a wee bit stressed about it all.

Take care of yourselves and I will see you on the other side of the exams. I can’t wait because that means I will have some time off for mid-year break, the kids will be on school holidays and I will be able to sleep in. What more could I want?????

This is my first ever post for Screw Up Tuesday - the brainchild of Bettina. I will admit to making some stuff ups but none of them have been quite as idiotic as this week’s lot. So, in no particular order, here they are:

Tiger had an early Rugby match on Saturday. I dropped him at school at 7.30 and then went home to get Daisy up, dressed and organised then rush back to watch the game. DH was sitting outside having his morning coffee and reading the paper. I went out to kiss him bye, grabbed everything that I needed and rushed out the door with Daisy. As I was getting in the car, DH appears in the garage and frightened the life out of me. He asked me to make sure that I had left the study door open as I had locked the sliding door after I said bye to him. Ooooppss - I had locked him out - every single door into the house was locked and I had done it without thinking. Its habit because I do it every day when the kids and I leave home. Needless to say DH was not happy, but lucky he caught me before I left.

Thursday last week at work I emptied my office bin into a plastic bag to put into the big outside bin. Only trouble is, I forgot that I had emptied the “holes” out of my hole punch into the bin. Ummm, they went all over the floor in my office. There was more “confettit” on the floor than at a wedding. DH had to vacuum it up for me on the weekend, as the vacuum is too noisy to use when every one is here.

My final stuff up for the week: yesterday morning at home my feet were getting really cold on the tile floor at home. Instead of going back upstairs to get my slippers, I put on my very flat, very comfortable shoes with the intention of changing into high heels for work just before I left home. When I got to work I went to do something and accidentally trod on the bottom of my trousers which were hanging on the ground and all of a sudden, way too long. Looked down and I still had on my very comfortable, very flat shoes with my very long work pants that need high heels to stop the bottom of them dragging on the floor. Oooops. I had to stay like that all day as I didn’t have time to go home and change. How embarrasment…….

So, some spectacular blonde moments this week. Watch this space, because at the rate I am going, there is sure to be more stuff ups next week to keep you entertained.

 I just wanted to do a quick update to let you all know what is happening, as a couple of people that read my blog have asked how things are going.

Step 1 of many happened this afternoon. I had a meeting with Daisy’s class teacher and the school counsellor. I thought that it would be about half an hour. Guess again. It was an hour and a half. I don’t think as a parent, in fact I know for sure, that I have ever had that length of time to discuss anything with any of the teachers that either of my kids have had. WOW.

To be honest I lost track of time, but I knew that it was more than half an hour. So the three of us have discussed lots of things to do at home and at school and lots of follow up too.

I also have an appointment for Saturday afternoon for Daisy to see a Speech Pathologist. This is because she has been regressing with her speech and has gone back to speaking with a lisp. She had some speech therapy 2 years ago and at the end of about 6 months seemed to be on top of it all.

I also have an appointment with another psychologist on Wednesday afternoon to discuss in more detail what we need to do and what the next steps will be. I have also spoken to her about some other concerns that I have and I will see what she says about them. Thats a bit cryptic I know, but its a hunch of mine and I promise I will reveal all later.

 So, thanks everyone for all your wonderful comments, and for the messages and support in the meantime. Daisy seems much happier the last few days with some minor changes so I will possibly start to document what we are doing so that we can track what works and what doesn’t.

 I will keep you all posted on what’s happening. Oh, and she smiled at me today - “that” smile, the one that I have been missing. And when I went to pick her up from gymnastics, she ran towards me and I picked her up, and almost threw her in the air.  That’s my girl.

My Daisy will be home soon, I can feel it in my bones.