Growing Up

Yes, it's true, Dobby is growing up. High school next year. She is looking forward to getting away from most of the girls that are giving her grief this year, and moving into a larger group of girls so she can pick her own friends. She is very positive about it.

The week that was, was in fact quite low key again this week. Sunday, when I picked up Dobby from her friend's house, they reminded me that Monday was a pupil free day. Could the friend stay over night and spend the day with Dobby? I was hesitant. But agreed. Probably won't do that again for awhile. Apparently when Fluffy got home they had left the place in quite a mess. They had also eaten me out of house and home. And used my video camera without my permission. *note to self, tidy that up and recharge it before the Christmas caravan rally in 3 weeks...*

Anyway, after work Monday I also had a doctor's appointment to take a couple of biopsies on some suspicious skin things. Again. He took one from my arm, and one from my forehead. It was freezing cold in there, and he took ages. Because the one on my forehead wouldn't stop bleeding I had to lay there for over half an hour with pressure on it. Needless to say, it bruised...

So, anyway, home for spaghetti bolognaise for dinner. Dobby's friend was collected about 9.30 and we all went to bed.

Tuesday and Wednesday Boss was in Sydney so work was slow. It always seems to go slow when he is out of the office.

Thursday Dobby had her first orientation day at high school. At first she was a bit moody because there were 4 girls from her school and 3 of them sat together and none of them came near us. She felt they were talking about her.

We all got divided up into groups and we got to visit the uniform shop. Dobby's been looking forward to that for so long. We actually spent less than Fluffy anticipated we would, so he was happy. For $247 we got one tartan skirt, one cotton blouse, two navy and one white polo tops, one pair dress shorts, and a polo and shorts PE set. Plus a pair of long socks. There is a place not far from the post office I go to for work who sells the uniforms, so we are going to pick up winter clothing from there later - long pants, jacket, jumper, and a rugby top. Its a nice uniform and looks good on Dobby.

Dobby models the dress uniform... nice, hey? This skirt looks really good with the navy blue polo top too.

As I said, she was moody at first, then we got separated and us parents went to a presentation thing while the kids sat a kind of test. She came back very happy and full of beans cause all the other girls had gathered around her and included her in the group.

After the orientation day, I had to drop her off at home, make her lunch, then race into work. The rest of the day, needless to say, went very quickly. On the way home I had to stop at CMI Toyota because Fluffy was getting a new work vehicle.

His old one had to go back and someone had to pick up the new one, but he was going to be too late to get there. He asked the fellow if I could pick it up. No problem. When I worked at Cadbury Schweppes a few years ago, I used to manage our office fleet of vehicles. Turns out the fellow who I had to see was the same guy I used to deal with then. He remembered me too. Nice to catch up. As I was waiting for him to be free, Fluffy called. I told him I was still waiting, and if he wanted to, he could stop by and drive the car home. As he wasn't far away, he decided he would do that.

Once at home, we grabbed the dog and walked down to the school. Sports day. Dobby had yellow spray in her hair, and a Sponge Bob teeshirt on. She looked great. She had phoned me in a panic because she had forgotten her hat, and school rules state she couldn't participate without one. Luckily someone loaned her one. Yellow team won overall on the day so she was happy. Walked home, and had Tacos for dinner. Yummo!

Friday Boss was back in the office. It poured rain.



After a lovely sunny week, Friday was wet. Why? Because Dobby plays netball Friday night, of course. She played in the rain for the 3rd week in a row. Although the team didn't win, she played really, really well. I am very proud of her.

Saturday she and I had to go find her bathers. After waiting for her to get up (10.30!) then to clean her room (another hour), we finally got to Marion about lunch time. Holy Heck! Surely we missed something? The place was super crowded! Not one spare car park anywhere, and more cars lined up out on the street trying to get in! Just like Christmas!

Stuff that, we headed back to Big W for a look. She didn't find anything she liked there, except some swim sorts, but we decided not to buy them yet. Next stop was back to Castle Plaza to Target. Tight finding a car park there too. But managed to get one in an empty corner.

We found the togs she wanted, and although she didn't show me what they looked like, she chose a nice one-piece in royal blue, with a frill running down the centre, gathered around the bust and hips, and adjustable straps. Also, we found a couple of pairs of cheap shorts.

I then had just enough time (after waiting for 35 other people in front of me at the checkout) to dash up to the doctor to get the results of my biopsies. Turns out the patches on my arm were changing so he froze them, but the spot above my brow, which I ignored last year, has to get surgically removed. Last year it was a patch to be frozen. See what happens when you ignore it??

Anyway, on the way back home we made another stop at Big W for the swim shorts to go over the bathers. One happy kid. Also bought a present for Fluffy for Christmas but I'm not going to say what it is here in case he reads this :-)

Sunday was quite. Fluffy had been at his course in Mawson Lakes all week, and had final exams Saturday. I don't know how he did, he won't know for another week or more, but he doesn't feel confident. Apparently there is a very high fail rate. I think he grasped the concept of the formulas by the end of the week, so I guess we'll see. Fingers crossed.

Sunday he went into work till lunch. Dobby didn't get up till 11.30 after I woke her up. We will be putting a stop to this, let me tell you! So I didn't do much. Just the sheets, some washing, and later in the day, swept the floor and vacuumed the carpeted areas. I just couldn't be bothered moving much. Read a lot. Watched TV with Fluffy in the afternoon. It was nice to have him back with us.

Oh while I think of it too, through the last couple of weeks, my two standard roses down the back have been prolifically flowering. They look so lovely so have had fresh cut roses inside for about 2 weeks now. Lucky, aren't I?

This is one of the first batch of roses. I have had 4 so far.

This is my latest bunch, which sits in the middle of my dining table and smells absolutely divine!

These are the two standard roses. The one on the right came out with even more flowers, which is where most of the above photo came from.