Honey we’re home

Well my goodness it has been a while since we last chatted hasn’t it?!  I was just too busy hanging out with my sister in NSW to give you guys a second thought… sorry!  Actually that isn’t completely true.  Internet wasn’t all that great and there wasn’t any phone service at my sisters house.  I didn’t want to use up all of her internet so thought it best I lay low.  Turns out that her internet may well be worse than ours.

I really have been off the radar the past couple of weeks.  What have I missed in the world of social media?  I really do take my hat off to all of those bloggers who live in town and have to do all of that busy town/school stuff and still manage to punch out the blog posts like there is no tomorrow.  How on earth do you do it?  Wowzers town life is busy, or should I say farm/town school life.  Between hair cuts, footy training, little athletics (which thankfully was cancelled both weeks I was down there), sleep overs, cricket, shopping blah blah blah there isn’t time to blink really.  I am quite thankful to be back up here where I don’t have to be up packing lunch boxes or ironing uniforms.  The most I do in the mornings for the kids is make their breakfast and then yell at them until they brush their teeth and wash their faces.

We had such a lovely time down in NSW though.  The boys absolutely loved going to the little school with their cousins in Gilgandra.  What a brilliant school St Joseph’s is.  We were so thankful that the boys were able to attend.  They really did love it and were very sad to say goodbye to their new friends when it was time to leave.  I am sure it has done them the world of good.  Especially Tom who is off to boarding school next year.  He is now so excited about going away.  All the sports he will be able to play and the massive sleep over that boarding school will be, he can’t wait.

On our last Friday that we were down there the boys were both invited for a sleep over with different families.  They were just beside themselves with excitement.  Wow – a real sleep over.  Of course they had an absolute blast.  My sister has some wonderful friends and I feel so lucky to have finally met them all.  Boy they are good fun.  Such a great little community.

Now because my boys lead such deprived lives and don’t have motorbikes they had such fun hooning around my sisters farm doing burn outs and “760’s” as Tom told me.  I did not want to hear about it I can tell you.  It was so funny, Will was on the bigger bike, Tom on the middle one and poor Harry was on the little 50.  It was too funny, Will and Tom were off, checking the dust behind them and then about 3.5 minutes later Harry would come putting along like a scene from Dumb and Dumber, this big head in a helmet on a tiny bike.  He was being so careful too, I am pretty sure there weren’t any burn outs done on that 50.

So this time last week was our last day with my sister.  The boys had one last day at school and I helped my sister and her husband with some cattle work.  Then we packed up and headed off at the crack of dawn for our trip home the next day.  We did 2 big days in the car because I was keen to get to Mt Isa on the second day.  So day one we travelled to Tambo, day two it was Mt Isa and day three we were home.

All I can say is THANK GOD for Harry Potter and the audiobooks I downloaded.  They really did make the trip quite enjoyable.  If the boys didn’t have their earphones in listening to Harry they were arguing about something, so needless to say they had those little earphones in nearly the whole way.  I rolled 2 audiobooks: The Lost Girls and The Dressmaker.  Loved them both.

I tell you what it is very lucky that we came home when we did because there has been a bit of rain around.  The roads have been cut between Longreach and Winton so I was lucky I came through when I did.  We have also had over 3 inches of rain since I returned which means my dreams of a child free trip to Alice Springs for the annual Northern Territory Cattleman’s Association Conference is off the cards.  (raining again as I type this).  I know I sound like a total princess whinging about rain (especially when there are so many people who are desperate for just one drop) but I have been looking forward to this trip away since last year.  It is one of the few times Mr Chardy and I get to go away together…. not to mention child free.  The rain is absolutely beautiful and very very welcome but that 160km of dirt road that we have….. well lets just say this is the only time I wished that we lived on the bitumen.  Well either that or owned a private lear jet, hell I would even settle for a Cessna.  Anyway, have fun my friends – and have a drink for me please.

Internet has been ridiculous trying to do this blog post.  Still have heaps to catch you all up on but we will get there.

Are you getting rain?
Are you going to the NTCA Conference in the Alice?