Miss you Dad

Well today is four years since Dad lost his fight with cancer and I still miss him heaps.

I will see something or be doing something and think "Oh Dad you would love this". He was such a proud Pop to Kyle and Tasha and would be bursting with pride with Kyle's school accomplishments. I feel so sad that my kids wont know the special man he was. They never got to meet Tony's Dad and then they lost Tony's Mum and my Dad in a very short period of time. I know he spoilt the kids rotten but he also loved them dearly and would brag about them all the time.

I just hope Dad knew how much I loved him and just how special he was. He put up such a good fight lasting 2 1/2 years after his diagnosis (when the doctors gave him 6 weeks) but when he died he was a shadow of the man he had been.

Love you Dad and miss you more than I can say. I wish I could speak to you just one more time to let you know how much I love you and miss you.

XXXXX Love your little girl

Oooops we did it again.... ~LOL~

Well after doing the whole running into Kay and Brian thing a few weeks ago. Tony and I were strolling through the supermarket doing our grocery shopping and who is right in front of us but Margie Knight! So we stood there for ages in the middle of the aisle having a chat. She was down seeing her dad who is in hospital again.

It was so funny because we had only mentioned contacting her and Greg a week or so before and there she is!

HHHMMMMM lets see who can I run into next !?!

Our holiday - warning long post!!!!!

Well after getting a little nudge I thought I'd better update my blog with the holiday details!

We drove down via the coast road stopping at Bega and Lakes Entrance. Lakes Entrance wasn't too bad - not too much water but still lots of sandbags everywhere! Apparently the place we were staying had the back rooms flooded earlier in the week but the water had all receeded.
This is taken on the footbridge at Lakes Entrance.
Driving through Barinsdale and Sale there was still lots of puddles in all the paddocks but all the roads were clear.

We then stayed at the Hambrecht's in Keilor (out near Tullamarine airport in Melbourne) and got to catch up with Debby and Dayna and Dayna's boyfriend Garry. Dayna is now Tasha's new best friend because she is a great musician and is currently practising High School Musical for her school performance. So she played the piano and sang all the songs with Tasha!!! Friend for life!!!!!! It was great to have some time with Debby too (Ken was away again - we seem to time our visits for when he's away - Is that a subtle hint? lol )

Tasha, Dayna and Kyle

Melbounre was great. We went to the Zoo, Kyle saw Cook's Cottage and caught a tram! Tasha was tour guide for us at Old Melbourne Gaol but the definite highlight of the trip was catching up with the wonderful SJ and family. I was heartbroken when we had to leave after such a short time but whilst I was there we made our plans to meet up again in October and received a wonderful invite for our family and the Allan's to do christmas together so will have to see what happens there. The kids all got on really well together so that was great.

The Mob!!!!

Then we went onto Ballarat. Talk about cold! Very, very cold. We went to Sovereign Hill which was one of the most expensive places and somewhere I don't think I would go to again. The kids had a ball with all the snow and the winter theme but they weren't really interested in the old town and there wasn't a great deal to see. It cost us $90 to get the family in and then you have to pay extra for each of the activities when you get in - very little is included in the entrance price. Pay extra to try the candle dipping, extra to try the old presses, extra to ride the Cobb and Co coach etc etc etc. But having said that the kids had a ball. Tasha loved the hourly snow fall in main street, they got ride down a snow hill on a ski tube and (of course) had a snowball fight or two.

The kids with Mr Joe King at Sovereign Hill.

Feeling a bit flat now we are home. Can't wait to go back to Melbourne to see SJ. Had a bit of a bad weekend emotion wise.

Just thought I'd make a quick post to say we made it to Melbourne - Tony made me drive through Melbourne up to Ken and Debby's place at Keiler (near Tullamarine Airport). Melbourne drivers have to be the maddest bunch of people ever! Mind you his navigating skills have a lot to be desired too!

Anyway we are having fun - went to the Zoo today - having a day in the city tomorrow to do the markets etc and then out to point cook for lunch with the Allan's on Wednesday before heading out to Ballarat.

Catch up with when we get home

MWAH

Cath

Here's my stash!

Here is a pic of Kay and I - I had to take a pic just to prove it was actually her!!!!! (note the braids - they were just on their way home from Bali when she got the call to come to the craft show)

Just thought I'd share pics of my stash from the craft show! Got almost everything on my list so it was a fairly successful shop!

What a weekend!

Well this weekend has been just amazing!

Jane and I got up nice and early Sat morning to go to the Crafy show at Darling Harbour. We wandered around picking stuff up, putting some back down, buying some etc etc. There was a lot of wool/knitting stalls and quilt and patchwork but there was only about 3 stamp stalls and about the same papercraft/scrapping stalls but Art Stamps were there so I still bought quite a bit!

The big surprise was when wondering around I looked up at one of the stall owners and thought "Gee that person reminds me of Kay". I thought about it a minute and was just about to say something when she looked up and saw me and shouted " Is that really you???" It was a good friend of ours Kay Cooper from Perth!!! She had been called in to do the show at the last minute. So we had a good chat and catch-up and then her daughter Tegan and husband Brian arrived. We haven't seen them for about 6 years so it was great to catch up. I sent Tony a message - he would have been so disappointed not to be there! Tony has been wanting to catch up with them for years.

Anyway with all the chatting and shopping we run out of time to look at the quilts.

We raced over to our hotel, had a quick shower and change and headed of to the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. A musical with Marina Prior, Lisa McCune and Magda Szubanski that was just hilarious. It was excellent. It was only a small cast of about 10 and they had a couple of roles but one of the best shows I have ever seen. Poor Magda - about 2/3 of the way through she missed her cue to come back on stage and then they stopped the show because apparently she was very ill and there was someone standing in the wings with a sign saying "Magda is unwell!" But in true professional fashion after about 15 minute she came back on and finished the show - what a trouper.

We did Paddy's Markets today and I got the hats I wanted for the kids so all-in-all a very successful weekend. Seeing Brian and Kay was a wonderful unexpected surprise to cap it off.