Home Sweet F***ing Home

Well those of you who have been around for a while know that I don't really swear...well not out loud anyway...maybe a little in my head.

But this week has been worthy of a stream of expletives...believe me!!

As you know we have been away for 3 weeks on holidays...a simple little holiday on the coast an hour and a half from home that nearly didn't happen when 2014 kept presenting us with financial challenges....in fact the final payment on our holiday accommodation was only made the day before we were due to arrive!

Anyways as a result it took a little while to relax into it...but hubby and I got there and by the last week we were feeling pretty relaxed.

Sadly the last day came and we packed up and headed home...

Now I'm not one of those people who loves to return home after a holiday...I think I am part gypsy because I could live out of that suitcase forever.... I totally love holidays and never want to go home!  I want to capture that holiday feeling, the carefree nature, the relaxed days and bottle it....I want it to last forever!

As we drove home hubby and I recalled how we had had an electrical issue in the days before leaving so hubby had turned the power off to avoid the house burning down while we were away.  We groaned a little because that meant that when we arrived home not only would we be faced with unpacking but we would also have to clean out the fridge and the chest freezer and get them running again.  I'm pretty sure hubby drove slower with this realization!

After a few pit stops to check the trailer load and a few toilet breaks we arrived home.  The cats were still away at their boarding holiday so we opened up the house, carried in the bits and pieces that had been jammed in under feet or inbetween children and the girls were relishing the thought of their first wi-fi in three weeks!

Less than 5 minutes later we were all gathered on the front verandah covered in....fleas....oh my bleep bleep fleas everywhere!

It was like the relaxed state that we had managed to achieve on holidays had been sucked out of us in an instant.  How were we going to deal with a house full of fleas.  

Hubby decided that he needed some lunch to enable the thinking process so we unhooked the trailer, pushed it into the garage and drove to the local shops for hamburgers...and bug spray!  We returned home, ate lunch in the car and then hubby and I made our way into the house armed with a can of spray each.

We sprayed under beds and over carpet, into nooks and crannies....then we had to sit outside with the girls and air the house out.  Eventually we all tentatively went back in.  There were still a few fleas fighting but it was a huge improvement on when we had first arrived home.

We had left the house in quite a state of disrepair....it literally looked like we had rummaged through our drawers, pulled out the clothes we wanted to take on holidays and left the others spilling out onto the floor! 

Lethargy set in though and we decided to do the bare minimum tonight...clean the fridge out, plug it back in, buy some bread and milk for the morning, grab some take away for dinner and leave everything else hoping it would all look better with the light of a new day.

The light of that new day was dim, very dim...overcast and a bit of rain...kinda appropriate because we then came to the realization that the fridge was not working...and on top of that I had a bag full of wet beach towels and cossies....all needing to be washed....

Hubby was a refrigeration mechanic in his early days so he spent a few hours tinkering with the fridge...a colourful collection of expletives could be heard coming from his direction!!

I spent the day washing towels and cossies and hanging them all over the house.  Now I regretted buying the girls those huge sized, super thick beach towels!!

Ice was purchased and the esky became our temporary fridge.  The deep freezer was cleaned and turned back on....thank goodness that still worked!  I went off to the supermarket in search of a wonderful selection of freezer meals and microwave meals...oh yum...and hubby endevaoured to mow the lawn after three weeks of absence.  When I got back home hubby's face told the story....yep....the lawn mover had packed it in half way through the front lawn.

So nearing four days later there is still the odd flea here and there, we are still waiting on a part to arrive to fix the fridge....though hubby is doubtful that it is going to work.....the esky is still in operation for milk, butter and juice....all of our meals have been devoid of fresh salad and vegetables...and we are getting to the point where we never want to see another frozen sausage roll as long as we live!!! 

Home Sweet Home.....NOT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Take me back to holidays.....pleeeeaaaaase!!!