...It's the ultimate parent cliche, I know, but it's just so true!
It seems like yesterday that we brought Cheyenne home from hospital as a tiny baby, and today I bought her first school uniform shirts.
My baby is starting Prep next year and she's very excited to be a big schoolgirl. I'm excited too...I've been looking forward to it for the last five years! I'm definitely NOT going to be one of the "blubbering-mess" mums, teary eyed about sending their babies off to school alone. I'll be the one doing the "happy dance"...you can count on it!
The Prep kids wear the same uniform as the rest of the school - thank goodness, since it'll probably take her until Grade 1 to grow into her polo shirts!! The smallest size they sell (size 4) is so long that the hem hangs down past her bum, about halfway to her knees! I've only purchased the shirts so far, as I'm still debating the merits of shorts versus culottes. The culottes are definitely more "girly" but due to the material and number of pleats, I can see a whole lot of frustrating ironing in my future if I get them. The unisex shorts are microfibre - wash, shake, hang, sorted! - and also have a drawstring waist as well as the elastic, which is a bonus when your child is a little skinny-minnie with no bum to hold her pants up. Both the culottes and the shorts are school emblem-free, so maybe a trip to Lowes or Big W could be in order. I'm sure they must be cheaper there.
Her orientation day is next week. They only spend an hour and 15 minutes there, but that is probably enough to learn the important stuff - what the teacher looks like, where the toilets are, the general routine, etc. While they are having orientation, there is a coffee morning for other Prep mums to get to know each other. [Note to self: Must make an effort to remember names...]
We've ordered the items on her booklist, so soon I'll be covering and labelling books, like mums all over the country.
When I get around to figuring out the bottom half of her uniform, I promise to post a picture of her in it...just because she looks so tiny and cute and all grown up.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Changing of the guard
Those of you who know Steve will have noticed that he changes vehicles on a semi-regular basis - this includes his boats as well as his cars. In the 11 or so years since we met, he has owned a succession of Toyota Landcruisers - 5 in total... count them - a 75 series ute, a Troopy (for all of about 6 mths !), a mid-wheelbase FRP (fibreglass top), a 60 series wagon and an 80 series wagon (our current Cruiser). He also recently sold his Toyota Hilux, which he'd owned for about a year.
Don't even get me started on the boats - I've lost track how many there have been, including the "absolute bargain, too good to be passed up" that we drove all the way to Bundy and beyond for, which he sold several months later because he didn't really want a tinnie with forward controls, since he preferred a tiller steer !
The way I look at it is that he gets bored easily, but he will never admit to that. He explains it as changing to a more suitable vehicle...but then why didn't he get the more suitable vehicle in the first place? This is not to say that we've ever lost money on any of our vehicles (with the exception of the mid-wheelbase Cruiser, which was stolen from our driveway). On the contrary, we have always paid cash and owned them outright. They have had money spent on improvements and accessories, and have been well looked after. We have always gotten our money back on them when we've sold them, since Cruisers seem to hold their value well.
Anyway, with the world financial crisis looming large, exorbitant fuel prices and inflation increasing other running costs, Steve made the recent decision to downsize our fuel-hungry 6 cylinder vehicles. Our "beach and boat car" (if you left it overnight at the boat-ramp you'd be guaranteed to find it there when you returned since it wasn't worth stealing), the Hilux would be first to go. With some of the money from its sale, we'd get a cheap run-around car for me, so that I'd have some transport when we sold the 80 Series. With the remainder of the money, together with what we get for the Cruiser, the plan is to get a dual-cab 4WD ute with a 3 litre Turbo Diesel 4-cylinder engine.
I'm happy to say that stage one is FINALLY complete. The Hilux sold in 2 days, to the first people to look at it. Steve set a limit of $2500 for our run-around vehicle, so the search began to find something half decent. It was not an easy search. Let me just say that there is a lot of crap out there in that price range. A whole lot of crap. I took my life into my own hands and test drove a couple of dodgy ones, we trawled around several motor wholesalers' yards, we made dozens of phone calls, we went to the auctions and even to the wreckers to check parts availability for the $750 Hyundai Lantra on the side of the road near our place.
We discovered our new car by sheer luck. It was not the car we were stopping to look at. We were just in the right place at the right time. The dealer had only just got it in, it hadn't been detailed and he hadn't really worked out a price yet. A bit of haggling and a "mates rates" deal later (Steve went to school with the mechanic that does their road worthies, so we worked out a deal to pay for our own RWC in order to get a better deal and keep the rego that was still on it) and we bought ourselves a tidy little 1995 Mazda 323 with power steering and aircon, a Pioneer mp3 CD player, and only 114000 kms on the motor. The aircon is out of gas, but that's a minor and relatively inexpensive detail.
Sure, there's the odd dent in the bonnet (someone sat on it by the looks) and minor stone chips in the paintwork, but it drives like a dream, and is now registered in my name, so it's mine all mine! Bit of tint, some alloy mags and new aircon gas and she'll be the perfect little car.
Don't even get me started on the boats - I've lost track how many there have been, including the "absolute bargain, too good to be passed up" that we drove all the way to Bundy and beyond for, which he sold several months later because he didn't really want a tinnie with forward controls, since he preferred a tiller steer !
The way I look at it is that he gets bored easily, but he will never admit to that. He explains it as changing to a more suitable vehicle...but then why didn't he get the more suitable vehicle in the first place? This is not to say that we've ever lost money on any of our vehicles (with the exception of the mid-wheelbase Cruiser, which was stolen from our driveway). On the contrary, we have always paid cash and owned them outright. They have had money spent on improvements and accessories, and have been well looked after. We have always gotten our money back on them when we've sold them, since Cruisers seem to hold their value well.
Anyway, with the world financial crisis looming large, exorbitant fuel prices and inflation increasing other running costs, Steve made the recent decision to downsize our fuel-hungry 6 cylinder vehicles. Our "beach and boat car" (if you left it overnight at the boat-ramp you'd be guaranteed to find it there when you returned since it wasn't worth stealing), the Hilux would be first to go. With some of the money from its sale, we'd get a cheap run-around car for me, so that I'd have some transport when we sold the 80 Series. With the remainder of the money, together with what we get for the Cruiser, the plan is to get a dual-cab 4WD ute with a 3 litre Turbo Diesel 4-cylinder engine.
I'm happy to say that stage one is FINALLY complete. The Hilux sold in 2 days, to the first people to look at it. Steve set a limit of $2500 for our run-around vehicle, so the search began to find something half decent. It was not an easy search. Let me just say that there is a lot of crap out there in that price range. A whole lot of crap. I took my life into my own hands and test drove a couple of dodgy ones, we trawled around several motor wholesalers' yards, we made dozens of phone calls, we went to the auctions and even to the wreckers to check parts availability for the $750 Hyundai Lantra on the side of the road near our place.
We discovered our new car by sheer luck. It was not the car we were stopping to look at. We were just in the right place at the right time. The dealer had only just got it in, it hadn't been detailed and he hadn't really worked out a price yet. A bit of haggling and a "mates rates" deal later (Steve went to school with the mechanic that does their road worthies, so we worked out a deal to pay for our own RWC in order to get a better deal and keep the rego that was still on it) and we bought ourselves a tidy little 1995 Mazda 323 with power steering and aircon, a Pioneer mp3 CD player, and only 114000 kms on the motor. The aircon is out of gas, but that's a minor and relatively inexpensive detail.
Sure, there's the odd dent in the bonnet (someone sat on it by the looks) and minor stone chips in the paintwork, but it drives like a dream, and is now registered in my name, so it's mine all mine! Bit of tint, some alloy mags and new aircon gas and she'll be the perfect little car.
Might take a while to get used to driving a "low to the ground" car again after five years of driving Cruisers, though... I'll keep you posted!
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