Anthony Malloy Between Coffees

If you have three kids in your house aged three and under then is most likely what the underneath of your couch looks like.

And if it doesn’t, I want to know your secret.

From www.willdrawanything.com.

He nailed it. All I asked for was ‘me between coffees’.

Time to spice up this blog a bit and to let you all in on a bedroom secret. This is what Rae and I did last night in bed.

We went through the list of our wedding guests and counted up which football team had the most supporters present. How’s that for spice!

For the record it was Essendon with 6 followed by a draw between the Tigers and Bulldogs on 5 each.

Last week when Veronica and Steve had a look at our house (and Daniel and Marita tried to) we were happy that one wall of our garage had bricks on it and there were a few bricks down one side. As we drove out for our weekly inspection this morning we weren’t expecting much, it has been an atrocious week weather wise and the most we hoped for were a few more bricks down the side.

Didn’t we get a shock.

Bad weather or not the house has suddenly had a massive spurt and we were like giddy children running around looking at all that had been done.

In this past week the garage wall was completed, the side wall was completely bricked up, most of the back and other side are well under way, insulation had been installed in all of the walls, the central heating unit was installed, the evaporative air conditioning has been installed, all power points and light switches have been wired, flexible ducting is in place for the vents and some plastering has commenced.

Wow.

Twice this week I’ve had the comment made to me along the line of I must be happy to go to work and leave the kids with mum to look after. Both times I’ve pointed out that actually it’s Rae who works and I’m home with the kids. Both times there’s been the slightest look of surprise before the person regained their composure. Makes me laugh.

Rae’s out tonight so I’m home alone.

SThe kids are all in bed so it’s aged cheddar, bottle of merlot and The Stepford Wives (if you have to ask which version, shame on you).

6 weeks after they were first promised we finally have bricks!

There’s also water and gas pipes and it looks like the plaster goes up this week. Our house is coming along, just ask Veronica and Steve who got the tour today.

Update. Just found out Daniel managed to find the house without a map – that’s impressive Daniel.

This morning I asked Bert what he wanted for breakfast on his birthday.

He paused for a second, smiled and said “Ladies!”

Ah, that may be a few years away yet my boy. I have no idea where he got that from. He ended up with Cheerios and a smiling dad.

I can’t believe it but Bert turns 3 today. 3 years of nothing but joy from our boy, he makes me smile everyday.

Happy birthday young man.

There are many things you have to talk about before you make the commitment to marriage. Do you have common aims and desires, what are you views on children, what do you want from life are some of the things it’s best to iron out before walking down the isle (or watching a movie in our case).

One thing you don’t talk about but probably should is books. Most importantly how you read a book.

I’ve always been of the opinion that books are to be treasured and when finished there should no evidence that you have even picked the book up, let alone read it. A row of perfect spines on the shelf makes me smile. Now, my beloved is of the opposing camp. Twisted covers, dog ears and raggedy spines are her mark of a book well read. It sends me in to conniptions to see what she does to beautiful books; we almost came to blows over her treatment of  Wicked.

For now, while I try to straighten out the pages as I read Wicked we’ve agreed to disagree (and she doesn’t get any of my books!) but what about you? Whose side of the page are you on?