From my lips to Gods ears!

Or beware what you wish for..... I drove home last night having a chuckle to myself after a crazy week at work.  A fortnight ago when we had no kids and were knee deep in cleaning, several of us bemoaned the fact.  I did mention that we should wait till the next full moon, and bingo, no sooner said than we had two on our doorstep.  Then the two left and nine arrived, (mentioned in last posting ).  I got to work yesterday to find four of the nine were moving on but before they left at 4.30pm we had two new little folk delivered. Talk about a one armed paper hanger, it was so crazy for one hour with so many comings and goings (staff changeover and after school) one lot were forgotten in the school pick up run (until phone call from school, -ooops, red faces).  It was like army manouvers for the rest of the shift.  Children delivered to new carer (the four), baths and showers run for seven, and dinner on the table with everyone in their pyjamas just before 6pm, and everyone in bed and mostly asleep by 7.30pm.  My boarding school experience has not gone amiss, lol.  I have cooked dinner the last two nights, good old cottage pie (mince with potatoe topping and lamb stew last night with mashed potatoe and pumpkin, carrots, onions and peas in the stew mix.  I made a baked lemon pudding the night before but last night settled for ice cream cones (mostly one scoop) dipped in sprinkles and chocolate hail which was a little easier to manage. 

Have had fun with my car over the past few weeks.  As I went to leave work after several night shifts in a row, I noticed oil on the grill of my car and my heart just sunk completely as I  mentally ticked off  blown head gasket, maybe worse. With a deal of trepidation, I lifted the bonnet and was utterly gobsmacked to see the oil cap off the motor,  wedged in on the top of the radiator. Also when I went to check the oil level, there was no dip stick!!!!  What was worse, I had driven around for over a week  since the last visit to the service station!!!!.  I drove very slowly about 2 k up the road to the servo where I  had got petrol and oil the week before and went to have a chat about getting more oil etc receiving  a wonderful response from the owner.  The woman apologised profusely and said I had to leave the car their to have the motor steam cleaned, new oil top up and get a new dip stick.  As I was heading home from work, she offered me her car to drive home and then her mechanic would deliver mine once work was completed and conversely, pick hers up.  She said in all the years she had worked in the service station she had never lent her car to anyone but I looked like a trustworthy person.  I guess there are some compensations for reaching nana looks, lol.  Anyhoo, that is what happened and at no extra cost to myself.  By working back to my last visit, I remembered two people had been involved checking my oil and putting petrol in so somehow in that mix, the oil cap did not get put back on properly and heavens only knows what happened to the dip stick.

But wait, there is more.  I zoomed over to work Wednesday early as we had a staff meeting before I started work proper.  I parked the car and it wasn't until nearly 6 hours later when I went to get something out of the car, I realised I had knocked the lights on, and therefore had flattened the battery.  Fortunately I had my trusty jumper leads in the car and got jump started from co-workers car  at the end of shift.  Now, you would think a 15 minute drive home would be enough to charge the battery, but when I went to go to work yesterday afternoon, the car made a feeble sound as it tried to turn over and no zoom zoom that I wanted to hear.  Fortunately (again), this time Jude had just driven in from work so managed to get a jump start from her.  This was however, after I had tried reversing down the one in one gradient that is my drive to jump start from in gear, except I misjudged where I was on the driveway and ended up too close to a wall to straigten up and with the rear wheel stopped by a couple of rocks on the side of the drive way.  I had started off by leaving 5 mins early for work and ended up by being 10 mins late.  I am happy to report that driving to work during the day, with no need for heater or air con, and no lights, this time the battery was charged once I reached work.

I have had two phone calls now from my special little lad who has moved on to other carers.  I had rung the carer during the day to arrange a suitable time after playing phone tag a couple of times.  He was very impressed with my tale of breaking down in friends care and being towed.  He seems to have settled in ok and I hope to have a quick visit one afternoon next week.  The carer got on the ph after the lad and I had spoken and said when she told him I was ringing that evening, he said "I know, I had a dream last night that Lynn was ringing today".  One of those awwww moments.  The second one was when there was a silence as we were saying goodbye and then he said, I am sending you a cuddle.  Awww again, lol. 

Due to extra children with a baby in the hospital now under our care, I got asked to come in for an extra shift tonight (11.45pm - 8am).  I had just caught up with Jude as she got in the door from work when the phone rang from the ex workmates to say youngest son Hayden was getting confirmed at the Cathedral at 6pm and would Jude and I like to go.  Help, there was my sleep time going out the window.  I managed a doze between 2.30pm - 5pm and am still awake 12 hours later.  It felt like a Tardun moment being in church on a Friday night and then back to the ex workmates for something to eat afterwards.  In one of those, you are now in another generation moments, Jude and I both commented on what the young girls wore for their confirmation as they were mostly in black and clothes that  wouldn't have gone amiss in a nightclub if only they were 10 years older. Only one girl was in white dress - a far cry when at a similar age (12 yrs old) you absolutely wore a white dress for confirmation and if I remember correctly, a blue type of veil over our hair.  Hayden was very pleased we were there and Jude and I both got big hugs.  After a snack type repast and a coffee we departed between two torrential downpours.  We have had several more and had to drive to work in one.  There was so much water on the road, I nearly aquaplaned coming along the water front.  All I can say to that is rock on wild flower season.