It's time to sing!!!

Happy birthday to you.....

Happy birthday to you.....

Happy birthday dear Tasha

Happy birthday to you......

Happy birthday sweetie. Hope you have a great day.
You are growing up so fast - 9 years old today!!! (Although sometimes you act 19!)
Don't forget that life is to be enjoyed - don't wish it past too quickly gorgeous girl BIG birthday grins
Getting birthday wishes
The birthday girl with her daddy (Who's Daddy's Girl?!? - She loves her daddy)
Cuddles for hopalong - oops I mean dear big bro

Busy weekend ahead!

I am having a nice peaceful day today before the madness! Just pottering around doing some housework before meeting mum for lunch. I need the quiet time to try and recharge - been feeling a bit "wrung out" lately. I took time of work for me time to try and sort out what I want and who I am etc but havent had much quiet time at all. Don't know how I fitted work in before ~L~

This weekend will be busy but I am really looking forward to it.

Starting tomorrow - Tasha's birthday. So we will have all the excitement in the morning then it's driving the kids to school. The bus was such a wonderful thing now its a 30 minute trip morning and afternoon until Kyle gets confident enough on the crutches to catch the bus. I am working tomorrow then pick the kids up and we are going out for dinner (Tasha's choice).

Then the fun starts! The girls from up north (the ones we meet in Sydney for our girls weekends) are coming down here for the weekend!. So Friday night we are going to Husky Pub for dancing and laughs. Then we will be doing some sort of touristy thing Saturday before dinner out Saturday night. I can't wait to see the girls again. It is always so much fun when we get together.

Then father's day on sunday (and it would also have been my dad's birthday).

Whew - feeling tired already. But can't wait to see Kath, Tina and Sheridan - and spend time with Jane as well.

Yep It's Broken!

well..... took Kyle to school this morning and had a word to Mrs Wade about his ankle then raced in to work. Rang the GP and got him in this afternoon so Tony picked him up from school and I met them there. And......apparently there is a fracture at the lower end of the right tibia. Which if there is going to be a break is better than it being the ankle.

Kyle is really disappointed - he was hoping to get the all clear and be off the crutches by now.

So anyway the doctor couldn't tell us what to do next or what needed to be done and the hospital x-rays weren't clear so I ended up telling her to just give me a referral for new x-rays and then I rang Dave (Gee it helps knowing an orthopaedic surgeon!) and he is going to see us tomorrow between cases in theatre. By this time tomorrow we will know if he can survive with just the backslab (plaster cast 1/2 way round his leg held on by bandages) or if he needs a full cast. I am hoping the backslab will be fine!

Oh what a night.

I was looking forward to an early night last night but it just wasn't going to happen!

Kyle had an early game of basketball so we all went along to watch. He went after the ball and fell and when he was lying on the ground with the ball under his foot so his foot was up in the air another player fell onto his leg. Poor kid was in agony. So we dropped Tony and Tasha home and I took him up to casualty.

So theres me sitting in the waiting room of cas all flu-ey and coughing and sneezing while Kyle sits beside me playing his gameboy!

They took Kyle off to x-ray fairly quickly and then sent us back to the waiting room. After 5 1/2 hours we finally see the doctor to be told "We think it's broken but we don't know for sure because the x-ray machine isn't working and even though we took his x-rays we can't read them"

So they put him in a backslab, sent him home and we have to go back again this morning!

Our day at the Zoo

Phew what a day!

I didn't get much sleep Wednesday night - one because I had the worst throat and cough and two because I kept thinking I'd sleep through the alarm so I was checking the clock every half hour! Doh!

I got up at 5.30 and had my shower etc then woke Kyle up at 6.00. We had our brekkie and then headed off at 6.30 to school. The bus left Nowra at 7am. 60 hyperactive kids YAY. WE headed off watching the Wild Thornberrys Movie - very mind numbing then we got to Kiama and turned around and started home because they forot to pick someone up in Berry! Anyway - back in the right direction again! We got to the Zoo about 10.30. (After also watching Spongebob Squarepants!)

Sat down for morning tea all together and were then sorted into our small groups. About 11.30 we were finally allowed to go off looking at animals but not for long as we had an education session at 11.45. My group did a quick (and I mean quick - like there it is - seen it - lets go) trip past the Lions and Tigers and Bears (OH MY) before racing to our education program

This was cool - we were talking about rainforest animals and got to pat a bandicoot - see a stick insect - pat a frog - pat a snake (Yes I did! Very proud of myself! - Couldn't look like a wuz in front of all those kids!) - and pat a sugar glider.

Then we had another 45 minutes where we went to the gibbons, gorillas, bird enclosure, giant crocodile and Fishing Cat - Yes thats right a cat with webbed feet that likes swimming to catch its food! Then we raced back to meet up for lunch.

We had planned to go to the seal show after lunch but we ended up going on a the chairlft as a big group so we had to wait around for an hour for everyone to finish lunch before doing the "Sky safari" chairlift.

After that we had just enough time to race down to the meerkats and red pandas before seeing the Bird of Prey live show. Unbeknownst to us we positioned ourselves just near the eagle perch so when they flew over down to the keeper and back they swooped right over us - one even came so low it knocked Kyle's hat!

Then we raced back up the hill (and that hill is a shocker!) to meet the bus at 3.30 to head home. Coming through Sydney at peak hour isn't fun and then we ran into roadworks so we finally got back to Nowra at 7.30.

Totally shattered I went to bed early. It was a long day but it was great too. Kyle wants to go back up in the school holidays and see all the things we missed!

Oh did I mention that it poured rain most of the day! SO my little cold has just catapulted into something much worse!

Its a bit scary!!!

Wow what an exciting but extremely scary time ahead for my family.

Heard from my brother yesterday and they have definately to move! Looks like things are moving full steam ahead and they should be gone by the end of October.

He has accepted a job in Dubai!! .......Dubai is located in a fairly risky part of the world. It is located across an expanse of water known as "The Gulf" (yes that Gulf) from Iraq. I know it is a great opportunity for him - he will be in charge of offices in Dubai, Egypt and Saudi Arabia but it is still a bit scary for me to think of him, his wife and son living in such a risky place. I looked it up on the government travelling website and they list it as "rethink your travel plans" or 4 out of 5 on the risk scale!

I know I will be praying for their safety a lot over the next 3 years!

His family will be coming back home (he is over there at the moment) to catch up with us all before they leave.

We are trying to teach mum to use the puter now to keep in contact - she actually sent an email the other day and received one back! Sounds pretty simple but it was a great cause of celebration for us - she was very proud!

BBQ at Davina's

On the weekend we were invited to Davinas for a BBQ lunch to say thankyou to all the people who helped them with their house renovations and moving. It was a lovely meal and a relaxing time.

I just had to share these pics of my little Nephew Dominic who arrived with his Mum Simone. Don't you just love the cheeky look on his face - I love it!

Dominic with his Aunty Cathy!

Playing with Aunty Gail - Hmm not sure who's having the most fun here!!!

Yum yum

I love these! Aren't they divine! The new BG mellow range. I sooooooooooooo want some. Have seen them online and just fell in love. Yum yum. This is just a few of the range - check them out if you can - There are a few new ranges but this is by far my fav.

What a day!

Wow what a mad day!

We headed off about 9.30 to go to Milton as we had been told about all the great gift shops down there and we planned to do some serious shopping! (Apparently the shops are very much like the Berry ones!)

ANYWAY I don't know where they hid the shops but we only found a couple (and this is a small country town so I don't know where they put them!). We stopped for a cuppa and had a beautiful cappucino at a cafe on the main (hehe - just about only) street then went shopping! Now the theory to shopping away from home is that the time spent in shops should at least be equal to the time spent driving there!! We fell short today!

We went into Ulladulla for our lovely lunch on the harbour and the lunch was lovely but I'm not sure about the harbour as it was raining so hard we had to sit inside and we could barely see the boats at the dock! I'm sure it was a beautiful view just wish I could have seen it!

Then we did a quick look through the shops and came home EMPTY HANDED
Yeah I know - very scary don't think I have done that before!

We were going through the shopping high withdrawals so to help the cravings we made a detour on the way home to Sanctuary Point to the scrapbooking shop and (YAY) finally spent some money! Got home about 4pm and raced into work for a lesson on the new software program at work - which is so simple and even though I had never used it before I ended up figuring it out and teaching the girl who was supposed to be showing me how to do it!

Tonight the kids and I did some more cooking (made coconut rum balls and brownies!) and yeah Tasha ended with chocolate smeared on her! She did say it was better than the flour fight we had cooking in the weekend so that was okay! Have a Stampin Up party on Friday so have been cooking nibblies for that.

I am going on an excursion with Kyle next week to Taronga Zoo (3 hours by bus up then all day at the zoo and 3 hours back with 60 11 and 12 year olds. Not sure how sane a decision that one was!

Looking Forward!

Well today was a bit of a shocker at work. Came home feeling very frazzled and flat but then I sat down and thought about all the things I have to look forward to and the smile just leapt onto my face!

Firstly I have a day out with the lovely Miss Jane on Wednesday. We are having a girls day out in Milton for shopping and then heading into Ulladulla for lunch on the harbour. It will be great to catch up!

Tony and I have a weekend away planned in Sept JUST THE TWO OF US!!!!!! Will be great! Although Tony is organising it so that could be a bit of a worry - we could end up anywhere!

Then (drumroll please) I'm back in Melbourne for 4 days to go to Paperific and spend time with the Allan's! I always have so much fun in their house and SJ and I just seem to "get" each other. Isn't it cool when you find a friend like that!

And in the middle of all this I'm waiting to hear from my brother about his job. Looks like we wont have to go to Brisbane this year they will probably be moving again! SOOOOOOOO exciting

So whenever things start to get on top of me I just think forward!!!

Another Congrats

Went out and bought my Handmade magazine this morning to have a look-see at Gail's tins (Although I had had a preview!)

Congrats Gail on your first publication!!!

CONGRATS

Just have to say congrats to one of the most amazing scrappers I know.

Well done SJ for being published! (Pg 32 of the latest SM mag)

You know I love all your work (your minibooks and tag books etc are just amazing) and it's great to see your work out there for others to see as well.

I am sure this will be the first of many

Pics from Scrapping with Soul Weekend

Gennie gettting her gift from the scrap of faith girls
ALl the scrapoffaith girls at the SWS weekend

Rowena, Gennie and Tracey

My "Date"

Had a special day out yesterday.

Simone and I went and saw a movie called Amazing Grace which was a really interesting movie. It was about the abolition of the slave trade and about the guy who wrote the song Amazing Grace. Very confronting but very thought provoking as well. (and it did bring a tear to my eye)

Then we went to lunch at Postmans Tavern for a beautiful meal (and we splurged and had dessert too - yum yum).

All in all a great day.

SWS Weekend

Well what a weekend. I had a great time at the Scrapping with Soul weekend.

I was really concerned going into it but it was just amazing.

Gail and I met two of her friends from scrapoffaith.com at Maccas at Bomaderry. Tracey and Jeanette were just the nicest people. I immediately felt at ease with them and we chatted there for a while. Then we headed off to Waterslea.

We met up with Cass there. She is an absolutely beautiful soul. I just felt like we had known her for ages. We also met Gayle from Scrapbooking Memories who is just great. I sat at one end of the table with Gayle so we got to chat a bit over the weekend.

Also got to catch up with Lin from the scrapping camp we went to in Canberra.

It was a great weekend. Got a special project finished that I wanted done and 4 pages. AND I came second in the card making competition. That one blew me away. I really didn't expect to get a prize so it surprised me but I was soooo excited.

The Scrapping with Soul team are always so friendly and helpful and welcoming and organised things beautifully.

Anyway am very tired now so I think I'll sort these kids out and have an early night.

Will post some pics later.

Thankyou

I would just to say thankyou to you all for leaving messages on my blog . It meant a lot to me to see that people not only read my blog but that you cared enough to leave a message so thank you very much.