and it’s been torrential around here of late.

I’m feeling decidedly guilty that not only do I have the full-on flu, complete with chills & sweats, body aches, inflamed throat, gastly cough etc… but I went out with a group of lovely bloggers on Sat night and left early as I was starting to feel decidedly unwell. I know feel completely responsible for the fact that Shae, Naomi, Shelley and potentially others have also been knocked over by the full-on flu. I am so very very sorry! I had no idea that I was getting sick when I headed out.

Sigh

In other news we found a new plumber last week as we had a blocked drain. Good thing too because since then our entire hot water system has had to be replaced, last night our toilet started to leak and today our washing machine started to spark.

Yep, when it rains it pours and at the moment it’s kind of torrential.

Maybe next week will be better. In the meantime, I will smile kind of dumbly at the gorgeousness that is….

I want to thank you all for the lovely support you offered me on Thursday. I am hoping to get  a chance to respond to you all today though I seem to have come down with some sort of flu/lurgy that saw me alternating between cold sweats & shivers all night last night and has left me a little wobbly.

I am so sorry that so many of you have had your own tearful moments of late too. xx

In the meantime, I can announce the winners of a couple of comps…

The winner of the Museum Pass is…

The winner of the Kmart $100 Gift Voucher is…

I cried because I am sick of dealing with narky, snarky women.

Then a lovely woman helped me and I felt guilty so I cried again.

Then another lovely woman helped me and I cried some more.

I cried because the enormity of all of this finally hit me today, and I had to let it out

then I cried because I was only crying because how this affects me and I should care more about how it affect Bliss*

Then a doctor abruptly told me it would be another 4 weeks til Bliss gets her cast off,and I wanted to cry but instead I asked for a second opinion

and the most lovely orthopedic surgeon came and sat next to me and talked to me like an adult.He respected me as a fellow intetlligent person, and as a mother. For the first time since all this started someone took their time to explain to me…

to explain that it takes 7 years for a broken bone to completely heal and that anything shy of that is a compromise

to explain that another 4 weeks offers Bliss the best protection, but that she will still be at risk of re-breaking it once the cast comes off

to explain that because of that, if he were treating her he might take the cast off above her knee but leave it over the calf for anther 2-4 weeks just to be sure

to explain to me that we may be having x-rays through to December until they are sure the bone is strong enough

to apologise to me that because of the public system I will see a different doctor each time and they won’t care what anyone else thinks and will each have a different opinion

to apologise to me that even though we would be willing to go privately, no doctors will take us because she doesn’t need surgery and that’s what ortho’s do.

Then he looked me in the eye and said, so kindly “You know she’s going to be OK don’t you?”

I came home, Bear vomited all over himself, me the floor (overfed, nothing serious) and I was about to lose it when The Architect walked in and I handed it all over to him and took myself to bed

which is where I am going back to right now.   xx

*Bliss is coping amazingly with this, she is so resilient – she inspires me every day.

Today, the event little boys and girls everywhere have been waiting for arrives. The opening of Cars 2!!

The Architect, Miss Bliss, Little Bear and I headed off to Hoyts Victoria Gardens on Sunday for a special preview screening of Cars 2, courtesy of Disney.

The Architect and I really enjoyed the movie! It’s light and clever – lots of jokes in there to appeal to the adults in the audience. It’s your classic action flick – fast cars, babes, machine guns, explosions, a cute lesson at the end and the 21st century edge…sustainable energry! At first the climate change angle surprised us as it seems such an adult theme, but it’s actually perfect for primary school aged children for whom the earth and environment is a key learning area.

It’s a very different film to the first one but it’s lots of fun! Though it’s definitely a movie-dream for boys it’s got wide appeal that doesn’t limit to a “boys only”.

For those wanting a more techy/blokey review this is what The Architect had to say…

“Excellent animation! It was the first movie I’ve seen in 3D that actually made artful use of the 3D technology – it was integral to the story and the overall art direction of the film, which made it enjoyable rather than a distraction. It looked to me that they’ve learnt a lot from game design rather than cinema direction.”

Miss Bliss loved the experience of being at the movies but to be honest, was too young to really “get” the plot…her current fixations on all things “Princess” probably didn’t help.

To win your family pass (4 tickets) simply leave a comment below telling me why you are a fan of Cars and I’ll draw a winner on winner on Wed 29th June using the WordPress plugin “And The Winner Is…” to give you something to do in the second week of the school holidays.

To enter: leave a comment below.

You don’t have to follow this blog…but it’d be nice if you did.

You don’t have to tweet or FB share this comp…but it’d be nice if you did.

Open to Australian resident only.

Cars 2 opens in cinema’s across Australia today, Thursday 23rd June.

You can catch a preview of the film here:

Many many thanks to Disney for making this giveaway happen!

Congratulations to Kym from Mumma’s Mini Me’s on winning the Little Super Hero Cape!

It’s times like these that I am very thankful for WordPress plugins that can choose a winner for me as I just want everyone to win!

Back in March I was invited to lunch with some lovely Mum bloggers and unfortunately couldn’t make it. Thankfully I was able to get all the information from the presentation though, and I learnt something truly horrifying…

Did you know that Pneumonia claims the lives of near 2million children under 5 each year?

Did you know you can save a life using Facebook?

Vicks is running a campaign to help save the lives of these children, and with winter upon us now is the time for us to get involved! There are three pretty simple ways we can help out.

1. Buy any pack of specially marked Vicks product and for every pack sold Vicks will fund 1 measles immunisation.

 

2. Join the Vicks Road to Relief Facebook fan page. For every fan, Vicks will donate an additional measles immunisation to UNICEF. Click here to join

 

3. Help be our voice and start a conversation encouraging others to support Vicks Road to Relief, tweet with #vicksroadtorelief

You can find out more about how Vicks is involved in bringing immunisations to children in developing countries, where pneumonia is the number one killer of children here

Honestly, what are you waiting for? You can like Vicks on Facebook RIGHT NOW and safe a life.

(Don’t forget that if you have a FB fan page then you can Like the Vick Road To Relief Fanpage with your personal profile AND page profile. That’s two lives just there!)

And don’t forget to spread the word via Twitter and Facebook!

Erik Thomson is this years Road To Relief Ambassador