Day 59 - Oh Mickey

The picture says it all. I really did sing it!

Day 58 - Way Too High

I am sure that Nathan pushes the swing too high when Maddie is on it and here is the proof. Is it proof that it is way too high or that Maddie loves it though?

Day 57 - More Clean Up

What we thought was going to be the last load to be taken to the tip after the Australia Fay flood left today. Unfortunately after David from Stainbusters left with a trailer loaded up so much that it wouldn't shut, I discovered another book shelf and a few more chairs that are damaged. So much mess! I am getting to be a little over it all.

Day 56 - Cool Shoes

We picked up these cool shoes that Kel decorated for Maddie over the weekend. They sure are cute, Maddie loves them, if only her feet weren't growing so fast! She has gone up 3 shoe sizes in 5 months.

Day 55 - Big Bed Shopping

Between crazy heavy downpours we went out to look at big beds for Maddie. We didn't decide on anything other than a bright pink seat for her room, but she does seem to like the idea of a new bed. We also had lunch with the Morgans before heading over to masters for a quick look. Poor Leah wiped up a spill on her stationary pack only to discover that it was Maddies gigantic wee that was all through everything. That sure did take a lot to clean up, it was so bad we had to leave the cardboard boxes for the kids castles behind.

Day 54 - Clean Up

Nathan cleaned up the trees he cut down last weekend today. I can not believe how much bigger it makes the front yard seem. Now we just have to work on getting everything started on the changes to the house that will be happening out there so we can put up the rest of the fence. It will be an awesome little area by next summer.

Day 53 - Shock

I am lucky I was sitting down today when I called Aami to chase up our tools and the rest of the insurance claim. I actually got hold of someone helpful who went through my entire claim with me over 2 hours and actually started the process to start paying it out so we can get started on fixing it. I can not believe how much replacing things like carpet costs! Now I have to get "quotes" on all of the contents items to sort paying them out. The world of online shopping sure does make it easier. It looks like they will be getting lots of emails with all of these photos.

Day 52 - Screenshots

Sitting here going through my photos I keep coming across screenshots of Maddie's colouring pictures. I wonder when she learnt to take a picture of her iArt, and if it means that she thinks that it is really very good

Day 51 - Shopping

Maddie and I went to check out the specials at Super Toy World on our way home from swimming. We picked up a couple of Peppa Pig toys, a Littlest Pet Shop Pack and some matching cards before we wandered over into the pet shop. The aquariums in there are awesome, Maddie was particularly impressed with the turtles that popped their heads out of the water to say hello.

Day 50 - Attention Please

Another day visiting the circus animals today, I really do think Maddie wants to live with them. Maddie was pretty impressed with this little horse as he came up to the fence and asked for a pat. When we walked away he followed us and kept asking for attention. It was pretty cute.

Day 49 - Time Waster

OMG this game is terrible! I was stuck on this level for ages. The answer was Devine, but I could not work it out for the life of me. After this game flooded my Facbook wall all of last week I had to see what the fuss was. Wish I didnt, I am totally addicted.

Day 48 - Trees

So we have discovered that the chainsaw has seized up from being wet so our plans for tasks today were revised a few times. Firstly Nathan decided it was too hard to cut it by hand, and I have to say it was hard, but I kept my nagging up and a few hours later Nathan tried again, and this time had some success. Its pretty awesome how much it opened up the yard, and that the very first part of the front of the house changes has been completed. Now I better remember to add the chainsaw to the list of things that we know did not survive the Australia Day Flood.

Day 47 - Circus Day

It is finally circus day today and Maddie was super excited about it, until we got there. We very quickly had our photo taken with a baby lion, well at least Maddie and I did, Nathan didn't want to be in the photo for some reason, then we sat down to watch the show. The lion's were a little intense, one of them seemed super cranky and I was nervous for the guy in the cage with them, then the clown came out to help pack away the cage. Maddie was scared of clowns until half time so she missed a fair bit of the show burying her head in my neck and sobbing whenever they were out. Thankfully she managed to overcome her fear of them by saying hello to one making coffee and realising that he wasn't scary after all. She loved playing the carnival games out the front of the tent and is pretty pleased with her crown. Hopefully tonight cures her obsession with the Circus and our need to come down every day to see it.

Day 46 - Flowers

Yesterday, for Valentine's Day Nathan bought home these lovely flowers, then put them all in vases for me. Such a lovely treat seeing as we purchased each other something on the weekend and agreed that there would be no gifts on the day.

Day 45 - Park Play

We went out for dinner tonight and also took Maddie to the sensory park for a play. Nathan takes Maddie to this park every time they go to a park as she just loves the swings and today she spent ages on them. We went for a little walk where a bug flew at my head, I shook my head and sadly my brand new sunglasses flew off my head and onto the concrete path. I am not sure who is more peeved, Nathan or I, that my expensive new sunglasses have several chips in them.

Day 44 - AGR

Another Wednesday gone already, is it just me or are the weeks really flying by? Maddie did really well at swimming today, she is listening more and more.
The boat and pirate gear is surprisingly still a hit, although the boat has seen better days, especially the door that I added for Maddie. She insists that it is closed properly, and well that's not possible for a bendy cut out, so it has gotten even more out of shape. We are definitely getting into dressing up in this house hold at the moment.

Day 43 - Bye Bye Pram

Another few hours sorting out the flood mess today, and another trailer load off to the tip. Thankfully I didn't cry when the pram was loaded on, instead the crankiness that so much is damaged kicked in. Yep I am peeved, especially as they still have to come back and take more. I am so over it! its been weeks and still no sign of it being finished and finalised. On the plus side, some things are actually going to be salvageable. Nathans prints from Paris will need to be taken to a restorer, but they will actually try to fix them.

Day 42 - The Circus Arrived

Maddie learnt to pedal her bike today and she is super proud of it. I really should have let her try that a while ago, but as I am lazy and wasn't interested in walking it didn't happen. Today a new week starts and with it a goal to actually exercise a few times a week kicks off. While we were out walking Maddie saw that the circus was rolling into town and boy was she excited. We must have stood around and watched them set up for at least an hour before I was allowed to take her home. Enabling Maddie's bike so that she could actually use it, may not have been the best idea while my back is out, as when she doesn't want to move she can stop it. Sure did make the trip home a lot more difficult than it needed to be.

Day 41 - Cardboard Creations

As usual I had empty cardboard boxes laying around, this time from Maddie's Nappies and the new bike so I thought that I would try to turn them into a boat for Maddie. She is really into treasure at the moment so I tried to make a pirate ship for her to play with for a few days. Nathan and Amy don't think my boat is nearly as cool as Maddie and I do, but I am pretty impressed with how it turned out and Maddie is having an awesome time playing in it and pretending to be a pirate.

Day 40 - Organising the Chaos

I spent a good chunk of time today in the Shed trying to sort out the chaos into piles. Not in view is a few things that we can keep, some speaker stands and a computer desk, there is also the coffee table and the TV to add to that list. All of the electrical's lined up have all been deemed unsafe and have to go, and  the back pile is everything that needs to be assessed on Tuesday to see what can be salvaged. What you can't see behind me, is the giant pile of things that is going to the tip this week, I cant believe how much damage we sustained, all I can hope for is that I don't cry when they load up Maddie's pram to take away.

Day 39 - Balance Bike

We ordered this Balance Bike only a few days ago and it has already arrived! That must be the fastest Catch of the Day delivery ever in history! After Maddie really took to Graces bike we thought that we had better get Maddie one, she seems to have more confidence on Graces than her own, must be the helmet she gets to wear over there.

Day 38 - The Royal Hotel

Boy does this house stuff sure get in the way of our regular Thursday night social life. It was pretty exciting to get the night off building and make it to the neighbourly catch up down at 'The Royal Hotel' this week. Maddie started off at the kids table, but she doesn't have the experience to be able to sit still and not want us, so I ended up confining her to a high chair so that I could eat my dinner and she didn't rum amok. The hotel is really nice inside, and the food was OK for a pub meal, it was nice to catch up with everyone, its amazing how despite living literally next to each other we can go months without seeing them.

Day 37 - Mystery Ladder

I am sure that when I went outside this morning to meet the assessor and walk him through the damage, that this ladder wasn't there, but when I walked outside later I discovered it sitting right there. Nathan never did tell me where it came from or how it got there, so it is still a mystery to me. One that creeps me out a little as I didn't hear the gate and the dog alarm didn't go off.

Day 36 - Trusses Up

The rest of the trusses were put up in close to their final positions tonight. It is pretty exciting to see so much going on. I really need to get cracking on the window quotes.

Day 35 - Clean up

A couple of hours of really hard work by a Gardener was all it took to clean up the chaotic mess from the Australia Day storm. The yard looks so much better and makes the whole ordeal seem a lot easier to deal with. The gardener took a whole trailer load of mess to the tip for us, and removed most of the red chip so that if we flood again the mess will hopefully be a little less.

Day 34 - More Progress

Mark and Nathan were busy beavers again this morning putting up the larger of the trusses with some help from Simon. - Thanks boys!

Maddie didn't sleep much last night so I cant imagine how tired Nathan is today after getting up at 6.30 and getting straight to work. He did get to have a little bit of a break before he jetted off to help put a new fence up at M&G. Isn't It awesome how much work occurred over the weekend, the extension just seems to have popped up all of a sudden.

Day 33 - BUSY

The worker slaves sure were busy today, with Mark arriving at 6.30 am and getting straight to work so by the time I got up at a little after 8 the first frame was secured in place. It seemed like such a huge exciting thing to me, but Nathan and Mark were so blazee about it. Nathan had to zip across the road and wake up Chris to get a third person to help lift the second frame to go in as the window ones weigh so much more than the others. Poor Chris, he seems almost as anti social in the morning as Maddie and I are.

Only and hour later I went back out to supervise and discovered that they had actually managed to put another two of the frames in place. I can not believe how fast this bit is happening, it is insane! I have to say going with pre-fabricated frames is definitely the way to go, it has saved us so much time. I am loving the little windows more than I expected, as so much heat comes in that end of the house hopefully they will help keep the house that bit cooler in the summer, and they are just a bit funky! I am starting to wonder how we will go getting the blinds that we have in mind for them though.

Once the door frames was in place and the back wall for the bedroom was on, I stopped freaking out that the small room we are putting in was going to be too small, its actually an OK size, so I'm glad we didn't cut into our room. With those walls up, the boys put all of the big frames into the structure as well as all of the trusses which has freed up our driveway and yard finally so that Maddie can play out there and the storm clean up can begin.

The final frame took quite a bit of work to get into place as it only just fit in the area, it took all three men holding and hammering to get it into place, and was very exciting to watch. Maddie loved being able to get up in the house and make sure that everyone had done their work properly. She spent ages hammering on as many pieces as she could reach and seemed to think the work was acceptable. 

 Maddie is definitely loving learning about building and being able to get out into part of the yard to play again. She now comments whenever she hears someone hammering or sawing and wants to get out and watch or help. It is such a funny experience for us watching her fascination grow with the extension.

I still can not believe how much happened today, while Nathan said it was the easiest part, it does seem to have happened super fast and seems like such a huge part of the construction. Thank you to Nathan (head slave) and Mark for spending the whole day out there working, and to Chris too for popping over whenever any heavy lifting was required, even when it meant almost walking back home just to turn one truss around!

 



Day 32 - Bye Bye

David from Stain busters came by this afternoon and took almost all of our carpet, the arm chairs, the linen, cushions, travel bags, baby gear and our cardboard pile. It was pretty hard sorting through everything and realising the full extent of the damage, it was really hard not getting emotional when we had to get rid of Maddie's play mats and bouncer. All done now, 3 giant fans in place to dry it out and just the couch and the bits that the assessor needs to deal with. Bring on next Wednesday and some answers as to whats happening with the rest of the contents.