I am still here.....

Hi everyone, thank you for your comments regarding Hubby's impending job loss.

Sorry I have been missing in action, part of the reason is that I have been feeling a little, I don't know, "lost" could be way to put it and partly it has been just due to the usual Christmas madness at this time of year with kid's school things.

Hubby's job continues to cause us stress.  The guy from Queensland has already left, he got time off due to the stress of it all and they basically just paid him out until the end of the month straight away.  The guy from Sydney is working up until close of business on Wednesday then he joins the unemployment queue.  Found out that at the same time they did this they also fired the guy from Tasmania which is especially cruel given that he moved his whole family down there 2 years ago to start up the operation and in that time he lost his mum a few months ago and his daughter just 2 months ago and now this.  My hubby has given them a counter offer in a bid to save his job and they are considering it,,,,,,,,they won't give us a definite answer though, which is so frustrating.  He has offered to run as a one man band (which makes life very hard when you need to be on the road as well as in the office/warehouse at the same time) and take a pretty large paycut (which I am still trying to juggle things to cover that possibility).  Jobs right now are hard to come by in Hubby's field, doing what he does.  His job is safe till end of January, we know that and we know we have pay until end of February so we have 2 months breathing space but it doesn't stop me worrying.  I have been out of the workforce now for 13 years and naturally I also stress that to make ends meet our family life will have to be turned upside down.  Hubby and I would love to do something together but finding something that fits and doesn't stretch the budget too much is also a problem.  As you can see, right now my head is spinning.

Christmas is usually a time of year I love, this year, not so much.  Our usual Christmas light display is a mere shadow of its usual self.  We don't have a huge display but I normally feel proud of our little display that we put together.  This year our huge inflatable Santa ended up with a huge hole in it and that kind of put a dampener on our display and hence it never really got finished which is a shame.  Still we do have some lights up along the gutters and around the windows so I guess it is better than nothing.

Luckily we were organised on the present side of things and we only have a couple of things left to buy, 1 for my brother and 1 for Mr14.

I look around my house though and feel like everything has kind of just been thrown together this year, maybe its just me but it doesn't have its usual Christmas cheer and sparkle.  I am just putting all my efforts in to making it a special time for the kids, regardless of the pressures of life.

Last night we went on our first of 3 Christmas light tours.  We went to see the Brewery lights, the huge Xmas tree in Victoria Square in the city and then to a few sets of house lights on the way home.

Tonight we will go driving around to various other houses which have been decorated and tomorrow night we will go down to Ethelton where there is a street that really goes out to impress with their light displays and then go around to some local one which are computerised to music and are absolutely brilliant.

Last week we had my Mr11's Karate grading for his Orange Belt.  He proudly wears his orange belt now :-)

Last week we also had Mr11 and Mr9's POP day which is like a Christmas concert.  Mr11's class did a Hula Hoop demonstration which went really well and Mr9's class sang a couple of songs,,,,so cute!


Also last week was Miss12's Christmas Concert and then her Year 7 Graduation.  Next year she begins High School.  I can't believe it!

I had a dress in mind for her but had to leave it up to her mum to do the dress shopping.  I wish that I had just bought the dress for her, her mum couldn't be bothered and rushed out on the day of the Graduation to get her something.  Miss12 wanted a purple dress and nice shoes,,,,instead she ended up wearing what appear to be her mum's sandals :(

We have my stepkids this weekend and Miss 12 has shared with us some news about happenings at her Mum's house which she isn't very happy about so I think there is going to be some trouble in the wind very soon.  We have been watching this unfold over the last couple of months but she hadn't said anything to us.  This weekend she has told us that she isn't happy and doesn't really want to be there.......this could be fun....NOT!!

 What is the saying,,,it never rains but it pours or something like that, mind blank sorry! lol.

I will be back during the week to share some Christmas Light photos.

I hope everyone is getting into the Christmas spirit and enjoying the lead up to Christmas,,,,,,just 6 sleeps to go!!