Helpful children. And I thought it was an oxymoron.

So it's time for the apology for being such a slackass this week.

With the flu hitting me...to put it crudely...like a sack of shit both last week AND this week, together with a well-timed cold snap and my son being away, let's just say I've been less than motivated than to do much more than cuddle up in front of the TV and the heater this week. Getting to the kitchen to eat has been as big of a stretch as it has gotten.

And when I finally thought I was beginning to feel better...yesterday a vomiting bug came upon me unexpectedly and very un-welcome-ly (?) 

Nice.

Anyhoo going to work every day probably hasn't helped matters and hopefully my bout of 'presenteeism' will not infect the entire office but at least I feel that I've been somewhat productive, even with the brain, limbs and everything else only on about half strength.

A nice big shout-out to Codral Cold & Flu tablets for allowing me to 'soldier on' this week. Without them I fear I would have been comatose. I should become your new spokesperson, or you should at least give me something as I fear the withdrawals after many solid days OD'ing on your magic tablets will be brutal.

So my boy comes home tomorrow! Excitement!

I don't know if it's because we live in a bigger place now or whether it's because in Toowoomba everyone seems to do the early up, early home thing, or whether it's simply because I now am home in minutes (instead of staggering in shattered after about a 1 hour commute) but I've MISSED E so unbelievably badly this week. It's an awful, awful thing to say but as a single mum who rarely gets a break, I usually thoroughly enjoy the few times a year he spends time with his grandparents but this has been much tougher going than usual.

It doesn't help when I am getting daily phone calls from my dad telling me how ridiculously useful E is being around the motel (he got 'paid' for his work last time so it's a no-brainer why he's turned into Mr Helpful, but still!) and how wonderful he's been with his cousins (minus the lecture he gave his aunt for the bullying tendencies of one of his cousins...hahaha). Dad's been struggling a bit in the -7 mornings and says that he doesn't know how he would have done without E this week. It's awesome that at such an early age he already seems to have the Rumble work ethic firmly embedded (although totally in the name of a paycheque...I ain't fooling myself as to his motivations).  

It's made me want to cuddle him until he tells me to quit it and tell him over and over how crazy proud I am, my heart is full to bursting. Saying it on the phone just doesn't cut it somehow.

So I am sooooo looking forward to seeing my little guy tomorrow. He's going to hate me after I get done smothering him in hugs and kisses, which I fear will take some time. I almost bought him a crazy expensive present 'just because' this afternoon but restrained myself just in time when I remembered that a) his birthday is in a few weeks and b) like he doesn't have enough to play with?

So happy for the weekend and it was awesome to come home and read the inimitable Cathy's latest instalment of her 50s Housewife series. Cathy has been cracking me up for more than 20 years and it's awesome to see her cult following developing. If you're not hooked yet, then just wait until you taste those cake pops...I guarantee they're as amazing as they look.

xx

Cathy's 50s Housewife Friday. And hell yeah to cake pops!

Happy 50s Housewife Friday!!!

Hope everyone has had an awesome week!

Don't have much time to write as I've been baking like a psycho today, have many birthday pop requests and some 'thank you' pops for a special gal for me to deliver tomorrow.

Choc coconut with choc ganache pops vs red velvet with cream cheese frosting pops...can I get a 'Hell Yeah!'.

I was also going to tell y'all a fascinating tale about hitting the KFC Drive-thru last night with the fam only to be told that they had no chicken but then I decided against it...

First track of the day: David Bowie 'Modern Love'.

Possibly my favourite Bowie tune, if I'm force to name a favourite.

'Gets me to the church on time...'

Not me, I was an hour late :)

Am heading out tonight with one of my fav gals to see Snow White and the Huntsmen purely so I can perve on Chris Hemsworth so shall finish getting my bake on and get myself ready to hit the Barracks.

Have a great Friday everyone!

Till next week...

Cathy xx

Cathy wears many hats. Wife, mother of two sons, CEO of Little Monsters Pty Ltd and Cake Pop Queen just to name a few. She subscribes to the theory that Cathiness is next to Godliness. And on Fridays she behaves like a 50s housewife by sedating herself and cooking, baking and ironing, and being nice to her husband. Any other day is 

Who wants a skull cherry pie? Me!

I've been catching up on my mandatory Bachelorette viewing and now it's down to 3 potential 'husbands' (lol) for Miss Emily. My money's on Jef who seems like he's been cast especially for her...ooops cynical much?

Anyway now that I'm starting to slowly get over this lurgie, feeling slightly better day by day, I've been throwing myself into work whilst missing #1 son soooo much! Awesome to get a call from dad to find out that my son has not just been helping around their motel but basically doing much of dad's job for him this morning while dad was having problems getting going in the -7 degree weather! Whoa, and here I was freezing my bits off this morning at 3 degrees...something to be thankful for!

And something else to look forward to...my favourite 50s housewife reckons she's making this for me...excited! How awesome!

xx

Being Debbie Downer. And counting my blessings.

I realise I've been doing more than my fair share of whinging lately, heavy on the negativity. You don't realise how introverted and completely selfish you become when sick. For a few days there my whole world was just me, me, me and what impact it would have on, ME.

Debbie Downer much?

For example, on Saturday I drove my pretty damned perfect son down to Warwick to do a halfway handover with my dad, so that he can spend a week of his school holidays in Tenterfield with his grandparents and a bunch of his cousins.

Did I mention this oh just slightly important fact on my blog? Uh....

I woke up this morning not feeling like death warmed up (mind you, it was 1 degree so it wouldn't have been warmed up, just death. But I didn't feel it). Not saying I jumped out of bed and started singing and dancing to rival some lame-ass old school musical but I woke up. After sleeping for a solid 8 hours. Without waking up. Wow.

And I realised that perhaps, just perhaps, the world didn't revolve around me. Maybe.

(this has not yet been confirmed, of course).

Groundbreaking stuff.

Now that the cold and flu tablets seem to be embedded into my very fibres and I'm finally starting to feel on the upward rise of this dreaded lurgie, it's time to clear the cobwebs and count my blessings again. Yes you may breathe a sigh of relief now that I can finally breathe at all. So here we go:

• It might be freezing, but it's the most beautiful perfect day outside. Blue skies, gentle wind and nary a cloud in the sky. Gorgeous.
• I haven't had to rush my son to hospital two nights in a row thinking he's stopped breathing, like a friend of mine. Couldn't imagine anything more frightening and I thank the universe for the prognosis being OK. Thinking of you xx
• Whilst I miss E like a missing limb, to hear him excitedly tell me about his day every night on the phone makes me smile and warms my heart. Some of my favourite memories are of school holidays with my grandparents and terrorising the neighbourhood with my cousins. For E to have the opportunity to spend a week with four of his cousins are lifetime memories in the making. Doesn't hurt that he's the oldest and like the Pied Piper, with all the littler ones following him around like Justin Bieber! He's also loving the novelty of staying by himself in one of the motel rooms at dad's motel like an adult. So cute.
• If I haven't mentioned it before, I really, REALLY love our new house! Yes it's cold and yes the toilet is an ice-skating rink expanse of tiled floors away at night and yes we've experienced water, electrical and god knows what else issues in the short time we've been here but none of that matters. I LOVE it.
• E's birthday is coming up in a few weeks and for a while now he's been asking for a bigger bed as due to his growing-like-a-weed habit that he just WON'T quit, and the funny way he sleeps with his arms thrown over his head, his feet are already hanging off the bottom of the bed. It's times like these where parents with a motel come in very handy. Dad's ordered a commercial quality queen size bed for about half the price of the dodgiest one at the shops. So I'm waiting for a phone call any day to organise delivery. I really hope it gets here while E is still at Tenterfield as I'd love to have it set up and made and everything, just to see his face when he comes home. Very lucky that his room is way big enough to accommodate the bed too!
• Speaking of E's birthday, we've told him because the bed is so expensive (and grandparents/myself are going halves) that he won't be getting anything else. Because he's such a darling, he's completely cool with that. Of course I wouldn't let him NOT have something to open on the morning of his birthday so I'm on the hunt for the perfect thing. I've found this utterly awesome Lego Kombi that I absolutely think must be on the list. Can't decide if it's more for me or E though!
• Looking forward to having an indoor campout (which sounds way cooler than 'sleepover', yeah?) for E's birthday. We're having fun trawling through Pinterest looking for cool party ideas and have come up with a few things that will look awesome. Can't wait.

So there you are, Negative Nelly is gone. At least for today!

xx

Feeling human and hilarious.

After an entirely miserable weekend battling with that nightmare called THE FLU and after imbibing greater than the recommended dosage of Codral Cold and Flu tablets for 48 of those interminably miserable hours (so sue me) I am slowly and finally starting to resemble a human being, or as close to it as I'm ever capable of.

The dreaded lurgie always rears its ugly head at the worst possible times, like when you're new at your job and still trying to fool convince your boss that you're the wonderfully capable efficient shining star you worked so hard to portray yourself as during the gruelling recruitment process.

Well there goes that.

Nothing says awesomely amazing employee of the year like the red nosed (legally) drugged sniffling coughing machine that has presented itself at the office the last few days.

Attractive.

Although it turns out there is an unreported side effect from OD'ing on cold and flu tablets and going about your business drug-addled...apparently it makes you hilarious. All day via email, on the phone and in person I have been personally responsible for completely unintentionally cracking people up wherever I tread my dainty little feet, leaving a trail of laughter in my wake.

They should really put that on the packet.

You're welcome.

I only wish I could remember what made me so damned hilarious so I could bottle it. Although probably best to just leave it alone or I may discover that my heretofore unknown hilarity was simply the result of people laughing AT me. Hmmm...

Best compliment of the day: 'You're very switched on, aren't you?'

This from the boss. Not bad on a day when putting a simple thought into coherent form was a struggle. Here's to feeling human and hilarious!

xx

Small things amuse small minds when on cold and flu drugs.

So the wonders of hot yoga still remain a mystery. I was forced to cancel due to a shocking case of flu that has left me all but comatose excepting waking up every 10 minutes to blow my nose AGAIN, culminating in an emergency drive around Toowoomba at 10.30pm last night on a desperate hunt for an open chemist for some cold and flu remedies so I could SLEEP. Only to find the pharmacy that proudly proclaims 'first to open, last to close' considers 10pm to be an acceptable time to shut itself off to the sick and desperate.

Huh.

Sucks to be me.

It was perhaps a gross error of judgement to choose last night to remedy my fire virgin status. Due to my extreme ineptitude which caused much mirth as I monitored my progress via Facebook (glad to be of service), I had to keep opening the door to add MORE kindling, firelighters and anything else flammable in an effort to keep the damn thing burning (tepee shape my ass). As a result the residual smoke went straight up my nose and simply exacerbated the sneezing/coughing/nose blowing scenarios outlined above.

Feeling special.

This morning the house smells like smoke so I'm sitting in the sun and have opened the house in an effort to air it all out. The simple act of walking into my lounge simply brings on yet another sneezing fit.

There's a visual for you.

So fire fail. But they say the first time is the worst haha.

This morning after canceling yoga (boo) and having been too tired and sick this week to remember to call the washing machine repairer, it became fairly obvious that unless I wanted to show up to work wearing some especially unflattering back-of-wardrobe fare this week, another Laundromat excursion was the first priority. So looking especially fetching in said back-of-wardrobe attire, complete with running nose and this season's sleep-deprived-due-to-coughing-and-sneezing-all-night dark circles look, off I went.

Luckily for me a chemist that was actually OPEN (a novel concept) was right beside the Laundromat so I doses myself up with the recommended cold and flu drugs (ah drugs) and zoned out while the washing machines did their thing. Now I'm a big fan of the cold and flu remedies when all else has failed but it shows how far gone I am when the magic tablets have only succeeded in simply taking the edge off for an hour or so. Bah.

Anyhoo after the washing was finished I realised that my measly 20 pegs weren't gonna cut it for the 3 loads of washing I was hefting so thought I'd simply 'pop' into Bunnings to pick up some more.

Big mistake.

It's been awhile since I've required anything hardware related (due to unit living) so I'd forgotten the chaos of Bunnings on a Sunday.

Well in Toowoomba especially it was like taking my life in my hands simply to drive in, park and make it to the front door. Heaven forbid having to wait 2 seconds to give way to a car or pedestrian DARE hold back these diehard DIY-ers.

Frightening.

And who 'pops into' Bunnings? Dumbass. The place is so big I could have disappeared in there never to be found again.

Anyhoo by the time I got my pegs and risked my life just to exit I was pretty shattered and ready to get home.

In an effort to amuse myself when hanging the washing on the line (by which stage I felt dead on my feet), I deliberately mismatched all the pegs, having a giggle that any OCD friend would be having conniptions right about now.

It's the drugs.

Now I'm planning to sit outside until I can enter the building without sneezing. And I think it's time for more drugs.

xx

Sick of being sick.

Dear flu

Screw and the horse you rode in on.

That is all.