I love it!!

I'm sure you're all surprised to see me writing right now. Especially given that lately the only time I hit this old blog up is when summoned by the great Karen at Baking in a Tornado to write for one of her awesome series.  Well it's almost 11 o'clock at night, and I'm the only one still out of bed, and I've suddenly been hit with the urge to write to you guys. So firstly sorry for my neglect, and thank you for your patience. I hope tonight's inspiration is not short lived and that I can get back into the swing of things. Especially since I feel so good right now. It's been a long time in the making but I can honestly say I love life right now. It feels amazing to finally say that I am happy. This doesn't mean I spend my days singing from the roof tops, or even that I smile 24 hours a day. I still have bad moods, I still get tired, and I have a chest cold right now, so even at my absolute best things aren't perfect, but they are still pretty damned good.

So just because I am such a giving and thoughtful person, I thought I'd share the love with you guys, and let you know what the go is around here, and why I'm so darn happy now.  So the first bit of good news is I finally finished my studies. I have no idea whether or not I've passed yet, I won't get the results from the final exam until next month, but I've submitted my application to graduate next year with the rest of the class, and all I can do now is sit and wait for some kind of confirmation.  The final exam was nothing short of a shambles, first off I missed the exam date because of a screw up with messages from the school, and I had to organise with my tutor to "re-sit" the exam. Then on the day I had the exam booked the servers at the TAFE all crashed, so I couldn't access the system to actually take the exam.  The joys of being totally reliant on modern technology.  I was offered the choice of coming back another day, or going somewhere with free wi-fi and a borrowed laptop and going ahead with the exam on the day. Given I was already two weeks late to sit, I decided against trying again another day and my tutor and I headed of to McDonalds and I took my exam accompanied by the smell of fry oil and pre-schoolers enjoying a trip out with mum and dad.  I can't say it was my easiest exam to get through, but it certainly was the most memorable. I'm sure I'll spend my twilight years regaling my grandchildren with stories of the day grandma took her final exam next to the play equipment at Maccas. Then we will all sit back and laugh at my wild antics as a youngin'.

Now I'm sure you're all thinking I decided to sit back and enjoy all the free time that not being a student affords me. That would be true except for two things. Firstly I never actually studied until the eleventh hour the whole year, so there hasn't actually been an increase in free time for me, and secondly, I have gone completely insane and decided to fill in the non-existent free time by opening up a business.  I am now an independent Kaszazz consultant, which means that I get paid to make scrap book layouts and beautiful cards, and then sell the products that I used to make my art.  It's still early days at the moment, but I've already held one workshop which was open to general public, and started regular private workshops for a select few people (read my big sister and sister in law.)  Once I'm more confident in the stock I'm actually meant to be selling and the skills I need to hold the workshops, I'll start expanding and actually hold more public workshops and hopefully make more sales.  It has been a huge learning experience already, and it can only go up from here. Except for my bank account, that will definitely keep shrinking because I can't help but keep buying every thing I see in the catalog.

I'm still also employed part time at the law firm, and despite it being as depressing as you could imagine spending your days facilitating other people's divorces and custody battles, I am loving being so busy eight hours a day. I start running the minute I get in the door at 8:45 and I don't stop until 5:30 some nights. It's hectic, stressful and some times confronting, but at the end of the day I walk out the door knowing that I've done a good day's work and earned my wage for the day. And the screams and cuddles I get from Miss K when I go to pick her up are always the best part of the day. And all of the worrying I did before I started that she wouldn't adjust, or that it would make life difficult for her were all for nothing. She is of course in the best hands possible being left in the care of mum and Sam, and I usually spend the first five minutes at my sister's house being shown the latest art project they did together, or hearing the new words she learned today. She's always so proud to show off to me, and it's great to see her getting to try things that she'd never get to do with me.

The rest of life with Miss K is pretty peachy too right now.  Of course she's a typical 2 year old, which means she pushes her luck every chance she gets, trying to learn her boundaries and expand them when she can.  We're still learning every day what it means to be a mum and daughter, and our relationship is constantly evolving, and of course I have to do a lot of mean things as her mum, like make sure she eats vegetables on a semi-regular basis, and pick her nose when she has a cold, and enforce rules, even when I don't feel like being the bad cop today, and there are days where it takes a lot of chanting "it's for her own good" to myself to get through another temper tantrum, but we always come out the end of it happy.

I am so proud of the person Miss K is becoming, she is so fearless and she charges through life head first at all times. She loves meeting new people and charms the pants off everyone the moment she speaks to them.  She actually met her Nonno for the first time a month ago, Ady finally having reconciled with his father and they are speaking again for the first time in years. I'd never met his father the whole time we dated, and I wasn't even sure if he was aware when Miss K was born, so we're making up for a lot of lost time at the moment, and in December Miss K and I have been summoned to meet the rest of his family at their annual family reunion. So far Nonno seems to be a doting grandfather, and there are always presents for Miss K whenever we visit, and mysteriously they are always perfectly suited to her. We went down this weekend and there were colouring pencils and Little People figurines waiting in Nonno's kitchen for her.  I have no idea how he knows exactly what to get her, but Miss K certainly always appreciates the gifts and I appreciate the effort and thought.

Things with Ady are going smoothly at the moment, and we've managed to navigate our way through several issues without everything dissolving into screaming matches and name calling lately. I can't say that everything there is perfect, because there are still all the reasons why we never survived as a couple staring us in the face, which does sometimes make it hard to get along, but we're trying to work together for Miss K's sake and so far it's going ok. We're now starting to talk about Miss K staying with her dad by herself, and we're aiming for starting the visits after Miss K turns 3, so I've now given myself something new to stress about. Yay!

Well that's all from me for now, I should probably get to bed too given I need to be up in 7 hours to get ready for work again, the daily grind continues.  I hope to be back again soon, but until then, stay awesome.

Secret Subject Swap - Dwarfed

Hello again my lovelies, it is time again for yet another Secret Subject Swap. We are gathered here today for take one of the November swaps, and I am plum tuckered out right now. In my true style, I have decided to leave writing this post until the absolute last minute, which for me means half an hour after I undertake a two hour drive through Melbourne and to the suburbs so Miss K can visit with her Italian family. So you'll have to forgive me if this post descends into madness pretty quickly tonight, as both Miss K and I are pretty tuckered out right now, and it's past both our bed times. (OK so technically it's only past Miss K's bed time as I usually stay up until midnight anyway, but tonight, my guest bed is looking pretty darn inviting. Even if it is only a single bed that I have to share with a squirmy 2 year old.)

Anyway, on with the fun, first allow me to introduce you to the other players in today's proceedings.  All of these lovely bloggers are incredibly brilliant, and they all deserve your visit as much as I do.

http://BakingInATornado.com                        Baking In A Tornado

http://themomisodes.com/                         The Momisodes

http://www.justalittlenutty.com/                     Just A Little Nutty

http://followmehome.shellybean.com              Follow me home . . .

http://mooreorganizedmayhem.blogspot.com/    Moore Organized Mayhem

http://thesadderbutwisergirl.com                The Sadder But Wiser Girl              

http://dinoheromommy.com/                            Dinosaur Superhero Mommy

http://crazyasnormal.com                                     Crazy As Normal

http://singlemumplusone.blogspot.com                   Searching for Sanity

http://dawnsdisaster.blogspot.com                           Dawn’s Disaster

http://www.menopausalmom.com/                               Menopausal Mother

http://www.eviljoyspeaks.wordpress.com                           Evil Joy Speaks

Ok so today my subject is You’re having a bad day. The doorbell rings, you go to answer it and . . . And this topic was given to me by none other than the big cheese herself, Karen from Baking in a Tornado.  I was so excited to hear I was finally being selected to write about the grand master's (Mistress?) subject of choice I could have jumped for joy. (Of course if such a thing was possible, damn my ample, doughnut loving backside for keeping me so firmly rooted to the ground.)

It's days like today that make me wonder if I wasn't totally insane for taking on a full time job.  The dressing down I got from both the office manager and my boss for making a simple mistake in one tiny letter was bad enough, but then when I went to pick Miss K up from my big sister's house, I was gravely informed that she had been hitting my nephew in the head again. I made my excuses and left her house pretty quickly after she told me that, promising that I'd have a word with Miss K about keeping her hands to herself, and joined the peak hour traffic to get Miss K home and to bed. When I finally got home, I found out that mum had not managed to cook the roast tea she had promised before she went out to work, and it was now my responsibility to try and pull a meal out of the meagre findings in our pantry. I was busy dusting off the bags of loose pasta hiding in the back of the cupboard with one hand while pulling Miss K away from the plastic bags on the bottom shelf when there came a loud knock at the door.

"Perfect" I grumbled to myself, "Kim's forgotten her bloody keys again hasn't she?" I stormed to the door, and threw it open getting ready to give my little sister a serve only to find there was no one there. "Bloody kids" I muttered to myself, getting ready to slam the door, when suddenly I heard a small voice say "We're not kids thank you very much, we're dwarves." I looked again, but still saw no one. Then another voice called out "down here." Well imagine my surprise when I looked down and saw not one but seven little people standing in my archway. "Can I help you?" I asked, trying to keep the surprise out of my voice.

"Actually," said the oldest looking one at the front, "We were hoping to help you." 

"And what exactly were you hoping to help me with?" I replied, still desperately trying to sound like it was normal for me to be speaking to seven very short men. 

"We've been watching you for a while!" snapped another of the men,  "And you clearly need all the help you can get!" I was getting ready to tell this rude man what I thought of his opinion when the old man spoke up. 

"Never mind him, he's always grumpy.  But he is right, you do need help. And that's what we're here for, to help you." 

I was getting ready to refuse their offer when Miss K came running to the door holding her cup. "dink, dink" she yelled, clearly forgetting that she'd already had one drink since we'd gotten home. At the sound of her voice I hung my head and opened the door to the men, ignoring the fact that I was quite possibly allowing seven axe murderers into my house, purely so I didn't have to pour another cordial for Miss K.

"So how does this work?" I asked weakly, admitting defeat having sapped the last of the energy from my body. 

"Well" said one of the men with a sniff, "how about you go and have a shower, and by the time you get back, everything will be taken care of."

While I was unwilling to admit that the prospect of being naked with seven strange men in my house was unsettling, I was willing to admit that I did need a shower, having missed my morning shower already today with sleeping in and running late to work, so I turned away from the men and started towards the bathroom. As I shut the door I could hear Miss K yelling "Dink, dink" at the top of her voice, and one of the strangers leading her into the kitchen to grab her a drink. "At least I don't have to worry about Miss K getting into anything while I'm in the water" I said to no one in particular as I tested the water with my wrist. I stepped into the shower and stood under the hot water for longer than I care to admit, just happy that for once I didn't have to rush so that Miss K wasn't left unsupervised for too long. Even if her supervisors were only a few inches taller than her.

Once I was finally showered and dressed again I hesitantly stepped out of the bathroom and braced myself for the worst possible scenario. After all I had just left my daughter with seven strangers, I could only imagine what hell I was walking into.  But to my surprise the house was still standing. What's more, it was clean. I walked into the kitchen and found a pot of tuna casserole slowly simmering away, nearly ready to be served. I walked down the hall to Miss K's room and found her playing quietly with a baby doll, the hurricane of toys that had been left there earlier this morning was no where to be seen, and the pile of dirty nappies and clothes I'd added to the bottom of my to do list last night were also missing.  But where were the little men? I rushed back through the house, terrified that they had left us, but when I got to the lounge room, there they were, putting the last of the magazines back on the table. 

"Thank you!" I gasped, not used to walking so quickly any more, "what you've done for us is amazing."

"We know" grumbled the grumpy one. "It's just what we do."

"And now that we're finished," said the old one, "we're going."

"What?" I gasped again, "You can't leave me, I need you."

"No," replied the grumpy one, "what you need is to get your lazy butt off the computer once in a while and do some house work."

"But that's boring" I moaned. "I'd rather play jigsaw puzzles online."

"Well that's too bad" said the sniffly gnome, "we've got you started, it's up to you to keep it up."

"Don't worry" said another one with a kindly smile, "it's not that hard, you just need to whistle while you work and the work just flies by."

"I don't know what I'll do without you little men" I said sadly as they walked towards the front door. "You've really spoilt me tonight."

I was about to say thank you again when the front door opened and mum walked in. I was about to introduce her to the little men when I looked down and noticed they had disappeared. I was terrified I had hallucinated the entire thing, but when I turned back into the lounge room it was still clean. 

"Well at least it wasn't a dream" I said to myself.

"What?" asked mum?

"Nothing I replied. "Are you hungry? There's tuna casserole on the stove and the lounge room is nice and clean for you."

"Thank you honey, you're an angel" mum said with a sigh as she pulled her apron off. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

I was about to admit I had nothing to do with any of it, but I decided to keep my mouth tightly closed. I guess it was better to have a huge reputation to live up to than to make her think I was losing my mind.