Kerri’s Awesome ‘Blog

I found my old blog, finally! I only made two posts on it, but I found them interesting, as I originally thought it would take us a matter of weeks to get the house finished. It turns out it took us almost exactly a year.

Written 17 April, 2007:

The adventure starts here. Right here, right now.

I have avoided starting this blog because, I think, it becomes real once you put it down in text.

I am abandoning my kids and moving to a country on the other side of the world. There. I said it.

My “kids” are all old enough and big enough to look after themselves these days. I rarely see them, though they live at home. However, being so far away from them is going to be extremely hard, if they need me to do the ‘Mummy’ thing. Let’s face it, they don’t need me anymore, it’s me that needs them! All I need to do for them these days is find the tomato sauce thats hiding behind something in the pantry or provide a free taxi service. They wipe their own butts, blow their own noses and can open cans, toast bread and boil eggs. My job is done. They are so good at feeding the pets that they often ALL feed them without consulting the others, which is a pretty happy situation for the four legged fuzzy people who share our home.

I currently live in Sydney Australia with my husband Brad and the abovementioned ‘kids’ who are, as of this date, 19, 20 and 22. Brad and I are moving to San Francisco with friends for what may be our big break.

It will be nothing less than a fabulous opportunity to experience an incredible city. There’s very little to lose, really…. apart from my mind!

So, I’m leaving one spectacular bridge, for another spectacular bridge. It could be a lot worse!

Written 27 April, 2007:

Put simply, our house is currently a dump!

For our move to San Francisco, we have decided to sell this house, which is old, large and requires a lot of maintenance, and buy a smaller, newer one which will be more manageable for the kids while we are away. To do this, we have to make a few improvements to the current house in the hope of achieving a higher price.

Every room needs some attention, though some more than others and we have decided to tackle the task one room at a time. The office is one of the worst, as it has been our hoarding ground for the last ten years. Don’t know where to put the portable airconditioner? Bung it in the Office! Where’s the sock basket? Probably in the Office. (Yes, we have a sock basket, let it go!). This is where we have decided to start.

The last week has been spent emptying out the room, sorting things to go to freecycle, the salvos and the tip and taking said items to their respective new homes.

Tomorrow we finish the desk and shelf dismantling and we start painting! DEAR GOD! I can’t wait to get one room finished and looking fabulous to spur us on to the next, because from where I sit right now, this is one damned awful task and so incredibly daunting. Why am I sitting here instead of getting on with it? Excellent question! I wish I had an excellent answer!

On with it, then!

Unfortunately, I have no photo of my Dad in his uniform, so I have posted a photo of my uncle (Mum’s brother) as a second best option, though it has to be noted that Ally was second best to no-one. He was a champ and my Dad’s best mate.

Ally and Dad would get up to no end of mischief together, and when they were too old for the physical mischief, they would reminisce instead, over a few glasses of ridiculously expensive Scotch Whiskey and laugh until they cried.

It was always a complete crack-up watching them together.

I note here that I would write about my Dad’s achievements in the army, however, in his own words, he “spent more time in the brig than in action”, and I can only regale you with tales of him stealing his commanding officers great coat and similar larrikin activities….. ANZAC Day deserves a more sombre tone. I know there are stories that Dad could have told us, but he never did. I can only imagine the horror that he saw but would laugh off with his stories of childish pranks.

Dad was in the Australian Army and was in Papua New Guinea on The Kokoda Trail.

Ally was a Pathfinder based in England in the Australian Airforce in WWII.

They shall grow not old,
As we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun,
And in the morning
We will remember them.

Lest We Forget

I have the best job in the world!

I love doing what I do, I visit people in their homes, play with fabric and colours and walk out with a handful of money. Cool huh?

The best bit is when a customer cancels an appointment and there is little to do. This morning is an example of that.

I work for a crazy, loveable couple (S & V) who treat me and my family like their own family. This could be an issue for a lot of people in the workplace, but for us it works like a dream, mainly I think, because there is so much respect on all sides.

S & V have a young family who I have seen grow since birth and have done the odd babysitting adventure for them. My son has helped S on a few jobs with some labouring work, and we have socialised with them, their friends and family. V makes her special Czech dumplings just because she knows my husband loves them. We are all pretty good mates outside the workplace.

So, back to today.. S arrives and I am playing on Twitter, he comments “ah, working hard already are we?” I grunt and nod while shoving a pack of chocolate chip cookies in his face. He responds “My turn to make coffee then?” I grunt and nod again, refreshing the Twitter page. He knows me too well, I am NOT a morning person!

My first appointment had cancelled the night before, so I had a couple of hours to kill.

S arrives with coffee (hazelnut flavoured today) and he gas bags without taking a breath we chat about the Real Estate he and V were looking at over the weekend.

I start to do some actual work and note with some smug satisfaction that this is the case and he throws me a shocked look “Hell, we can’t have that! More coffee?”

Gotta love the man!

V, I don’t know how you put up with him, you are a saint!

P.S. When the work is on, we all run around like blue ass flies…. REALLY! LOL

Thanks to Frog Ponds Rock for this one

Kelley, I hope you’re proud!  My daughter tested “Near Death - have delusions of Godlike Power”.  I must have done something right!

Created by OnePlusYou

In 40 minutes I leave to take my 20yr old baby girl for her driving test. She is the last of the gaggle to have to attempt this and I should be used to it by now, but my guts are in knots.

Yes, this is her on holidays with us in Hawaii, Christmas 2001. She always has been, and always will be, a great big dag!

She also has her medical for her potential new job this afternoon. The job of her dreams is riding on this medical, so it’s a pretty big deal . Lets hope all the party drugs are out of her system by now! *rolling eyes*

It’s ridiculous how your childrens’ lives can physically affect your well being.

I’m seriously a heap right now!

Xbox4nappyrash and ET, are you SURE you want to put yourselves through this? It sucks…. BIG time!

With two cats in the yard… yada yada yada

Our house is about to go up for sale. For those who have been keeping up with the program, we have done a lot of work on it over the last 12 months.

It’s such a relief to have all the work done and to have everything back in its place again.

These pictures show the fruit of our labours.

Feel free to ooooooh, and ahhhhhh in utter amazement at the beauty of our home. Heheh

Also feel free to bite me if you dont like it!

Oh, and the photos are all sucky and stuff because I took them with my phone. I keep forgetting to charge the battery for my digital *sigh*

Comments are fucked and links to Flickr are all over the place… *sigh*

It’s time for a little maintenance.

Stay tuned.

 
Since I was teensy (and teensy is something I can never remember being) I have always had animals around me and I will be a little lost without a pet once we get to San Francisco.

Like it or not I am going to share my puppy and kitty love with you all

So, go hither and see what a really dysfunctional family has as pets.

We are on to the last room in the house and I have two fabulously ripped workmen in to get it finished.

OK, they are two cute boys I roped in from the street. OK, OK, they are my son and his mate (the one who wrote of his car by driving it into a roof - its possible, trust me!)

So, these two have been working on the room all afternoon, beers in hand, and a few games of World of Warcraft to fill in the drying time. We should have the room done tonight, with just the trim left for me to finish over the next couple of days.

I cant wait to get it set up as an office for 4fthawaiian so he can be happier at work. At the moment he is stuck in the bedroom all day and night. Not good for the morale.

The colour you see around the edges is a deep slate blue, this is currently being filled in :). We did another room the same colour, and it looks amazing.

Hopefully, the house will be on the market next week! WOO HOO!

Oh, please note the fabulous yellow scaffold in the background. We were going to hire scaffolding when we started painting as the ceilings are so high, however decided to buy one as we needed it for such a long time. It’s been the best investment we ever made! TIP: if you are doing a lot of renovations, invest in a scaffold!

LIVE UPDATE! 10:00pm

1st coat is on and waiting to dry, so more World of Warcraft and more beer!

Susan, Larry, Emily and Rosie playing Wii

Originally uploaded by Kerri McCrorey

I just found out that I can blog through Flickr, so I thought I would give it a go!

This photo is a shot taken at Thanksgiving last year. This is post turkey, working off the booze and monstrous portions of Tom and his accessories.

Susan, Larry, Rosie and Emily playing Wii, it was a crack up!