Birthday parties and All the houses we have knoooowwwnnnn

I had a busy weekend involving kids birthday parties, church services and italian suppers.

I have decided that jumping castles should come supplied with some sort of life buoys or safety rails because once they fall down in the big plastic wobbling boinging thing, there's no getting up again anytime soon. And 'down' is under the feet of every other child in the jumping castle, so that isn't much fun either. And what are you going to tell them- jump softly now? more sedately? Well, all the kids went home happy so maybe the adults should all just close their eyes and grab the victims near the edge.
All this activity was at Emmi (my little sister)'s birthday party. We had the family birthday bbq on the saturday and her party for her friends on the sunday. We went to a place where you hire it out for 2 hours and they supply all the activities and some food. I'm glad I went because I figured she's only going to be this old and have birthday parties for so long :) I think she and her brother are going to catch up to me in height soon as it is :D

There's finally someone (Aunty Marjie to be exact, who just up and moved here) working the days I'm not at my old job. So I can stop stressing about that.
I love my new job, if I didn't mention that already.

Pete got his citizenship! I feel like we've been applying for it for so long that it can't have happened yet. Like when we got married and it felt like we were rehearsing for a wedding, and that it wasn't the real thing. Except then you got to go on honeymoon and move house, so you got acclimatised. Maybe I should make pete wear a hat or some large accessory or blow up his certificate and stick it on the front door. I could stick the australian flag to his back. A person-sized one of those australian-owned labels.

The wind is rattling the window-panes. Each of our houses has had its own peculiarities. Our first house was infested with cockroaches, which I unsuccessfully tried to kill with every anti-cockroach remedy known to man, and then some. I even tried leaving all the lights on at night to drive them out, but it just made them poop in the cupboard a whole lot, and made them used to to the light. That house also came with a maths class in the garage (yes that is what I said) and was, as a bonus, awfully big- big enough for us to have our own library room. The back yard, however, was only just big enough for the clothesline.

Our second house was absolutely beautiful and a not so big cottage and had a garden that was like a big park. It had an outside laundry with no hot water and mice, but I plugged the washing machine inside, in the hallway next to the toilet. Big parrots used to visit me and I'd feed them.

Our third house was more modern and had an amazing kitchen and a nice outdoor area, and a separate studio office for pete. It had mice inside, hardly got any sun for some reason, and had insane neighbours. Snails used to eat our mail, even though our mailbox was toxic with snailbait. We also had a resident St Bernard dog that was meant to live next door but used to keep me awake at night drinking from the pond outside our bedroom window (our front yard had no real fence).

Our fourth house was an 'L'- shape weatherboard and used to shake whenever a truck or a fast car went past. The heater and the airconditioner were up the other end of 'L' from the main bedroom, which could get a bit uncomfortable. The yard also was more ant-hill than dirt. The garage didn't keep anything clean. It did have a nice watering/sprinkler system in the garden though. And all the windows of the 'L' meant we got a lot of sun in summer.

And here we are in our fifth house. The power has a funny habit of going off at the safety switch now and then. It's being renovated around us and I can do what I want to the garden. It also has the convenience of being virtually next door to my mother's house lol.

Pete and I have a list of our 'perfect house'. All the houses put together had most of the stuff on the list!

George the cat is having territory issues with Bella the cat. Bella is mine, George is a inherited-with-the-house cat. He technically belongs two doors up since his owner sold this house and moved away, and her son two doors up took him. But George doesn't know that. I think the son/family feeds him. I feed him sometimes. He seems to sleep here a lot. I feel sorry for big fat Georgie.

Update on the lizard for Tor: It was last seen on the footpath near the sheltered corner of the house, and moved away rather sluggishly when I approached. That was the weekend b4 melbourne cup. It hasn't been seen since. But I haven't been here much to see it. I need a lizard movement detecting camera??