MISS CATH'S SPACE

Ready to go...

2012-02-12T22:25:00.002+11:00

I know, I know... post overload!

Just wanted to post the pic Jenny Other Mum took before we headed out for drinks. Yes Heidi's arm is in a sling - only my friend could possibly fracture a collarbone by falling from a chair whilst seated - totally sober!

What's ahead?

2012-02-12T17:34:00.002+11:00

Wow another month is nearly half over... it is funny how time works... the last 12 months have been some of the hardest I have had to deal with and whilst some days seemed to drag and putting one foot in front of the other seemed like walking through quicksand the last twelve months have also flown by... I know, I know the two should not work together but somehow they do.

What does life have ahead of us? Well we have so much to look forward to - especially our overseas trip (yes I know you are sick of hearing about it and I try not to say too much but we are very excited about it).

Both of the kids are back at school and Tasha in particular is loving the return of her social life! She has returned to dancing and is looking forward to a full on and challenging year of dance this year

Kyle has been accepted into a special program called Media Makers - He applied last year and we found out he was accepted when he got back to school. It is a special program offered by the University of Wollongong computer studies and media schools where a limited number of places are offered to students from year 10 and 11. This is what it is about:

Shoalhaven Media Makers is a series of workshops for Years 10 and/or 11 students designed to help develop the skills and strategies young people need to ensure their voice is heard on community issues and events important to them and their peers.

These hands-on workshops will cover topics that include video, editing, digital storytelling, graphic design, promotion and publicity. Experts in the fields of communication, community engagement and graphic design will run the workshops.

He is looking forward to it!

As for Tony and I - well the next few months will be interesting to say the least. Tony is booked in for shoulder surgery in just over a week and after the surgery he will have his arm in a sling and have 6 weeks off work! Wow - how many times over the past years have I wanted to have Tony home as a normal part of our family. For six weeks we will have Tony here as part of our everyday family life (even if he is housebound).

I do have to admit that even though this is what I have wanted I also face this time with some trepidation and uncertainty. This will be the longest Tony and I have spent together in 10 years.... Even on holidays the longest we have had together is 3 - 4 weeks and that was with things to distract us. Having Tony around to fit in with our normal everyday life for six weeks will be a test - I guess it will either break us or hopefully it will give him the push to make it a permanent move and get a day job so he can come back to us permanently.

Cleaning up

2012-02-12T17:16:00.003+11:00

What a busy weekend we have had! To start with I had Friday off so it was a much needed long weekend.

But there was no sleep in... I got up early and met Leanne for a coffee/breakfast catchup before she started work. I was wonderful to sit and chat as it has been weeks since we caught up.

Friday was not all fun - as mentioned in a previous post I attended a funeral Friday morning - it was a lovely service and Kipper's sons talked so well when they delivered the eulogy.

Then Friday afternoon/evening Tony, Kyle, Tasha and one of Tasha's friends Holly's went up to the Nowra Show while I went to the Laylands for dinner. Jenny has been my "other mum" for years - back from those tough teenage years! Anyway - Heidi and Scott were in town for the funeral so after having a fun dinner with my other family Heid, Scott and I headed out to bottlerocket for drinks.

Saturday I caught up with Miss Jane for a late afternoon cuppa and de-brief/chat and Tasha headed off to an overnight birthday party.

Busy social weekend! And in the middle of this I spent some time in my craft room, tidying up and sorting out. I finally got around to putting some of my layouts away in albums.... they have been piling up in a drawer in my craft room so it was good to put them away. I am sure most of these I have shared before but I thought I would include some of them here.

And now its Sunday - today has been my retro day - I have spent more time in my craft room listening to my old favourites play list and going through some of my "put - aside" layouts. You know... those photos you have wanted to scrap for ages or those you have started and put aside to finish later. Well I got three of those pages finished - one of which I started about 4 years ago - so I am feeling very proud of myself right now.

Hope your weekend has been a good one too.

The Dash

2012-02-10T12:50:00.002+11:00

I went to a funeral this morning for a very special man. His wife has been known to me for many years and was a friend of my Mum and Dad for a long time. The following poem was read at the end of his service and I wanted to share it with you....

I read of a man who stood to speak
At the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on his tombstone
From the beginning..to the end.
He noted that first came his date of birth
And spoke the following date with tears, 1944-2012
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time
That he spent alive on earth..
And now only those who loved him
Know what that little line is worth.
For it matters not, how much we own;
The cars..the house..the cash,
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard.
Are there things you”d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left,
That can still be rearranged.
If we could just slow down enough
To consider what”s true and real,
And always try to understand
The way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger,
And show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives
Like we”ve never loved before.
If we treat each other with respect,
And more often wear a smile..
Remembering that this special dash
Might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy”s being read
With your life”s actions to rehash..
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent your dash?

A little lovin'

2012-02-09T20:02:00.002+11:00

Thought I better add a little lovin to my poor sad neglected blog!

Hmmm so much has happened.....

the kids are now back to school after being terribly neglected over the school holidays. Its times like this I hate being a working parent. But we made it through.

- The preparation for the big move for work has been MANIC.

- We celebrated Tony's birthday.

- Tony and I reached 18 years of marriage! I have to be honest... I didn't think it would happen, but we made it!

I am going to try and find some time over the weekend to update all my posts and fill in the blanks. I have tomorrow off work and have already planned a breakfast coffee with Leanne and a girls drinks night with Heidi. May need some quiet time Saturday to sit and update blog after a night out!

Looking back...

2012-01-02T21:12:00.003+11:00

WARNING...PHOTO OVERLOAD...

What a year 2011 has been for the Lucas family. We have done so much - we have laughed, we have cried (way too much), we have had good times and bad times. It has been year when we realised just who our friends and our support were and exactly how much we cherished each and every one of them.

We spent as much time outdoors as we could - nowhere near as much as we wanted to but at least we got there. We spent time with friends and family.

The first half of this year was spent between Nowra and Berry looking after Mum and I am extremely grateful to my friends and family not just for the many words of encouragement, the drop off of food, the hugs and the help but mainly for your understanding when I didn't feel I could be stretched any further.
We watched our little puppy grow from a tiny ball of fluff we were given at last Christmas by Mum who knew we would need someone to cuddle when she was gone to a large ball of fluff who is now so much a part of our family it is hard to imagine life without him.
Tasha started high school (yikes) and Kyle went into year 9. We spent as much time with Mum as we could as a family storing up memories and looking after her as the confusion and pain became stronger and stronger. We also spent time with the rest of our family and loved their acceptance of us on good days and bad.

I changed jobs and am so thankful that this opportunity came up. Going back there has been kind of like coming home.

We got away for a weekend as a family to Sydney as we didn't want to travel too far. We went to the zoo and we saw Mary Poppins... Tasha loved watching Matt Lee dance.
We spent time at the beach - even taking Mum back to the beach for one last trip which was the one thing she really wanted to do. We all love the beach and being outdoors.

Kyles smile and hugs warm my heart each day. He greets me often during the day arms outstretched with hug ready to go.
On the 13th of May we said goodbye to Mum and once again were just surrounded by love and amazing friends. Can I say again how thankful we are for your support.

I spent time with my friends and had some great times with them as well as enjoying their understanding in the bad times.
Once again Tony bundled our family in the car for a drive down to Melbourne for a weekend when I was feeling so useless being so far away from friends who were having a horrid year to equal ours. Their 2012 should be much better for them as a family and I hope to spend time with them again this year.

We have enjoyed time outdoors. I have spent numerous hours watching dance lessons/ soccer games.

We entered trivia competitions (and won - go us!) with our wonderful friends and have had numerous catch ups, cups of coffee, drinks etc with these special people

What can I say about 2011. I hope we never have another like it. However the blessings that have come out of this time show me that God knew exactly what help was needed and placed it right where it would be most beneficial. The friends that have always been special to us have become even more so - simply for the care and understanding shown to us when... quite honestly... putting one foot in front of the other even seems too hard some days. My kids are my lifeline - without them I really don't think I would get out of bed each morning.

These last two pics are from my facebook page. I sometimes forget that some of my closest friends miss the entire part of my life that is shared my facebook ... although miss it is the wrong phrase as they are a part of my life every day and hear most of it first hand from me.

Below is photos that I think I have shown above... it is a random selection of pics from my facebook page
And this one is a random collection of my status updates over the past twelve months. It is good to look back and remember the past twelve months and to remind myself that we have laughed as well as cried and that we can go on.
Bring on 2012........

Our Christmas

2012-01-02T20:26:00.002+11:00

Christmas was a quiet one this year!

We drove up to Sydney on Christmas Eve to spend a few days with Mark, Mel and Declan... oh and Ben the dog! We had a scrumptious traditional Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. The weather was beautiful and so we sat outside in the cool of the evening with a couple of bottles of Moet (thanks Mel) and had a great time.
Mel went to great lengths to organise a special Christmas - not only was the food amazing but the house was decked out in Christmas everywhere. She even had a gorgeous little Christmas village which I forgot to get a photo of :(

Christmas Day was nice and relaxed. We opened pressies and our menu for the day consisted of seafood, fresh fruit, cold ham and pork from the night before, salads and chocolate..... lots of chocolate. It was a time I was dreading and I did find it difficult... but when I found myself struggling I just took myself off for a few minutes until I felt I could join in again. Tash has really been struggling with losing Mum and is very aware that of my family the oldest person left is my brother and she really misses that older generation in her life so it was great to have a nice relaxed Christmas that she could enjoy
Then from the sublime to the ridiculous - we went from my small family gathering to driving home ... after calling into Miranda for a catch up with Heidi which always puts a smile on my face. Heidi was one of our "strays" and we have been friends for years - in fact when we were teenagers we just about lived at each others house and I still call her mother "other Mum".

Anyway from there we drove home... slowly.... very slowly.... yuck I hate holiday traffic to be greeted at the Combers by the Lucas family en masse. The scary thing..... this isn't all of them! We only got to spend an hour or so with them as we spent so much time in traffic but it was still great to see them. We got to meet the latest addition Violet (Jeneen's granddaughter) and also to see Mark (Davina's son) who was a surprise attendee.

Pre Christmas

2012-01-02T20:04:00.002+11:00

As many people have mentioned December seemed to fly by in a vague mist. Our December is always slightly mad but this one seemed even more manic than usual.

We spent time doing our annual Christmas tree decorating - each year we get our Christmas hats and shirts on and put on the carols to decorate the tree. It was kind of bittersweet this year as most of our decorations have memories/thoughts of people attached to them. Each year the kids make a new decoration with their name and the year on it and this is also done for those sharing the dressing of the tree with us so when we unpack the box we have not only memories of our kids but also of those who have shared the time with us previously. So we have decorations from nieces/nephews/friends/past housemates/mum etc etc
Also in December I finally got to see Spicks and Specks. I had tickets to see a live showing last year but couldn't make it to the studio so had to miss it - when I heard they were touring I knew I just had to go. It was a really fun night with John, Haylee and Gail and I am so glad I was able to see it. Lots of singing and dancing as well as all of my favourite games from the show.
Tasha had her end of year dance concert for Le Pointe Dance Academy. Once again it was an amazing show - very professionally done. The theme this year was a triple tribute - Elvis Presley, Judy Garland and Michael Jackson. Tasha's dance for hip hop was Beat it and for Jazz was jailhouse rock. She put in so much time and effort in practising over and over and danced beautifully - well done Tasha
As I had the week before Christmas off work and the kids were both on school holidays we headed off on a road trip! Tasha has been asking me for some time to spend some time with my cousins (the only family left on my side) as the last time she saw them was at Mum's funeral and she wanted to replace those memories with happy ones. Tony and I had seen them since but the kids weren't with us. Unfortunately Tony had to work so it was just the kids and I.

We drove out to Cowra and spent time with Dave, Tanya and her boys Lachie and Thomas. It is always wonderful spending time with them and so much fun.

The next day we had planned to go into Canberra for some shopping before heading to Goulburn to see Mick and the kids. As normally happens with Mick there was a last minute change of plans when his kids decided they wanted to do some shopping so we all met up at Belconnen Mall. Then we spent the next morning with Mick in Goulburn before heading home.

Then two days before Christmas we bundled in the car (Haylee, Kyle, Tasha, Tegan and myself) and went out on our annual Christmas light pilgrimage. We had the carols playing and the festive mood flowing...... I do wonder whether Haylee will join us again after not only did Tash and I sing..... loudly.... but Tash also yelled out "Merry Christmas" to EVERYONE we drove past.

Oh and in the middle of all this

* I turned 39 .... scary!

* Work continued to be manic organising building and the lead up to Christmas

* Tony had to travel to Sydney to see the specialist for his shoulder

* I spent a lot of time thinking of Mum as I wrote Christmas cards to her friends

* The kids and I went to carols at the church

Family Photos

2011-12-11T13:15:00.003+11:00

It has been a dream of mine for some time to have a family photo shoot done - not just the single posed shot but a series of photos of us. We had discussed many ways to do this.. we had even looked into Starshots (where they do your hair and makeup etc) but we decided the formal studio setting was not us. We love the beach and the bush and wanted our photos to be more about us as a family.

So we got in contact with Rowena Field at www.willroandco.com I have known Ro for quite some time both through scrap days at the church and through various scrapping websites. We had a ball! We headed out to Callala Beach and (after a slight detour when I turned up at the wrong place) we spent a few hours with Rowena and her daughter Tara. It was a very relaxed afternoon and we had multiple costume changes and lots of laughs.

I love the pictures they got - yes we had some posed ones but we also got some amazing candid shots. It is impossible to pick a favourite of the almost 60 photos taken but I have included a few here.
The relationship between these two was captured perfectly.

This family shot is soooo not your typical normal family portrait but I just love it. It is now printed on a large canvas on our lounge room wall.

As I said this is only a small taste of the photos we got - yes we have the normal posed ones but also lots of candid snaps and fun ones too.

Visit www.willroandco.com if you are interested in doing this with your family - I cannot recommend her more highly.

Busy Weekend

2011-12-04T21:01:00.002+11:00

I am a bit behind with blog updates but hey.. I am getting there!

A couple of weeks ago we had a very busy social weekend. We started with family date night on Friday night. It was a bit of a last minute thing.. but also something I have been working on for some time. Yes, yes I know... who said I had to make sense. ~L~ I guess I should say I had wanted to do this for ages so when the opportunity presented itself I jumped at it.

With my kids busy social lives we do not often have all four of us here and awake at the same time but it turned out we would all be free on a Friday afternoon/evening and as Breaking Dawn had just started that week we had a family movie/dinner night. We started off by picking the kids up and heading straight to the Roxy for a Twilight fix. Then we went to Posties for dinner. The meals were humungous (as you can probably see by Tasha's face)

Then Saturday morning Miss Jane and I met up for a trip to "A Taste of Christmas". It was a fundraiser for SECET and there were a number of craft and home made goodies stalls - entry fee was $10 and that included a high tea. So we sat and chatted under the trees and enjoyed our cuppa and sweets. (until we were gently asked if we were finished so our table could be used.... hmmmm I am beginning to wonder about us when we can be asked to leave a tea party - our reputation must proceed us! ~L~)
Then that night the kids and I headed out to Greenwell Point to celebrate with Jason and Amanda who both turned 40 towards the end of this year so had their 40th birthday parties as a joint affair. Tasha had fun decorating glasses and we had a lovely meal, caught up with friends we hadn't seen in ages, chatted with new people and even had a dance or two. Oh and Tasha and Tegan got up and danced for us AND Tasha sang for Jason and Amanda and..... okay slightly biased mother here.... she did a beautiful job.

Readers of my blog would recognise Tegan as she has appeared in numerous posts before - Jason and Amanda are her parents!
Then... Sunday! We went out to the Combers to celebrate Haylee's 25th birthday. It was a great day. We has a wonderful time, chatted with family and friends. Kyle got to cook the BBQ with Royce (watch out Royce the apprentice may one day surpass the master) and we had lots of scrumptious food.
I found this feature on my camera that I had fun playing with - it is a panoramic shot and takes three photos and joins them all together. Not the best pic as some people were inside etc, but definately a feature I will use again!

Summer soccer???

2011-11-16T21:16:00.002+11:00

When Kyle decided to play summer soccer this year I thought it would be lovely to watch him play in daylight... in the sun... without umbrellas and jumpers etc etc. How wrong could I be!

So... we still head out on a Wednesday night (although he plays at South Nowra every week which is lovely - no big drives) but we are half way through the season and so far we have had ONE sunny day. Again tonight out came the umbrella as we sploshed through the mud and puddles to get to the field.

Summer soccer - I don't think so!

Hot, hot , hot

2011-11-14T22:07:00.003+11:00

What a day1 Mad day at work and horrid day at school for Miss Tash. She had to do a presentation in science today on breast cancer. I was so proud of her for getting through it - she managed to hold it together through her speech and finish her presentation before she broke down. WELL DONE TASH.

Anyway - 30 degree heat... tough day... of course it was beach time! This time it was just the girls - we had a fun time and it was just what was needed.
I have to say how proud I am of my girl. As I said she had to do a presentation on cancer and rather than taking the easy way out she not only had breast cancer as her topic (each pair in class had a different type of cancer) but she took the opportunity to share with the class about her Nana's cancer story and included a timeline of Nana's fight starting back in 2003. Apparently she had a tear or two in class but didn't cry until the presentation was finished but she had nearly all the class in tears too. It was lovely that she could share Nana's story in this way. SO PROUD OF YOU TASHA.

October

2011-11-13T23:07:00.002+11:00

What a month! Full of ups and downs - Soooooo emotional.

After lots of hassles, dramas, and trauma - we now have our new Jazz. He is a lovely car - I was initially so excited about this vehicle but after being treated so badly by staff members at Nowra Honda -*NOTE* NEVER buy a car from that car lot - EVER!.* I was feeling quite ill about it. However I must say that when the car arrived the excitement hit fever levels! He is lovely to drive and easy to handle and oh such a gorgeous colour.

His name is Mike..... kind of a long story - will try and shorten it. Friends of ours have a large gorgeous blue car named Sully - with its colour and size it just had to be named Sully after the character in Monsters Inc. Now our car is a smaller version in the green colour so of course he had to be Mike (after checking with Sully's owners when we saw them in July for naming permission)
NOTE TO SELF NO 2. Think twice before sending Tony to get dog clipped! Okay to be fair he did need to clipped very short due to knots and matts in his fur but what a difference - so different Tasha believed we had a new dog!
We have had some gorgeous weather so of course we went to the beach. I hope to get out to the beach at least once a week this summer - I am working more days but knock off at 4:30 so can pick the kids up and head out for a few hours - got to love daylight saving!
I got to catch up with Cass and Annie - we had a big girls lunch in Kiama. I love catching up with these two they always put such a smile on my face!
And then we went back up to Kiama 2 days later for lunch and catch up with Mark, Mel and Declan.
So much more has happened this month.

- Our new building for work is coming along fast (and providing quite a few headaches as well as things emerge that haven't been done/planned or allowed for)

- I had major dramas when my laptop decided to die - I had not done a back up for about 6 months (yes, yes I know) and the last photos of Mum were on here. Whilst I was still in meltdown mode the calm voice of reason came from up North. I got an amazing call from Cass telling me her husband had told her to get me to send it to him and he would see what he could do. I have the best friends ever - not only are they clever but they were willing to do whatever they could to help me in what they knew would be a terribly traumatic time. NOT ONLY did I get my photos back on disc in the mail a couple of days later but I also got my computer back good as new with new hard drive installed and all my programs as they were and ready to go. LOVE YOU GUYS

- I got to catch up with Miss Jane - we called out to show off our new car - and for a coffee and catch up. Love these mornings and yes they will definately become a regular thing.

- This month was Mum's birthday and we had her plaque installed at Worrigee..... long story but oh so hard to deal with....

It has been a month of tears for me - I am still waiting to have a full day without tears but I know it will come.

October

2011-11-02T22:11:00.001+11:00

Ggggrrr - had a months update all done and its disappeared.... hopefully blogger will find it again. If not I guess I will try again tomorrow night.

A social weekend

2011-09-21T22:28:00.002+10:00

Wow what a busy weekend we have had!

Due to the fact we were all travelling out to Bathurst for the weekend we closed up work on Friday to allow travel time for everyone! Tony and I took advantage of this by heading to Cowra on Friday and catching up with my cousin David and Tanya. We had a lovely night catching up with them and I am sooooo glad we could have this time together.

Then Saturday morning Tony and I got up and and headed into Bathurst. We spent some time wandering around town before checking into our motel and getting ready for the wedding. Jessica is the daughter of one of the lady's at work, Michelle, and we have followed her life for years, both through her mum and through her happy smiling face calling in to work. It was lovely to see her and Chris get married. It was a gorgeous sunny day in Bathurst. The service was lovely and the church and reception amazing. It was a fun time and was nice to spend time with people from work in a more relaxed and fun setting.

I had hoped to add pictures but am having disagreements with my new camera - will try and get it sorted.... when I have time...... oh wait ~L~

Then Sunday was another catch up day. We headed off Sunday morning through Oberon and stopped in the delightful little town of Taralga where we had a late breakfast at a sweet tea room which my mum would have adored. If you are ever passing through Taralga call into the Taralgagirl cafe - Taralga is an amazing old town and it is just like stepping backwards in time.

Anyway, we got in Goulburn and spent some time catching up with Michael. Again it was lovely to catch up and we just sat and chatted - it was wonderful. It is mind blowing to think we are all the family left now and so we must make more effort to catch up - we used to get each others news through Uncle Les and Mum so now I guess it is up to us!

All in all a wonderful weekend full of social activities and catching up with special people.

Catch up

2011-09-21T22:16:00.003+10:00

What can I say about the past month? It has been hectic (as usual) and has gone past so quickly. It has been an emotional month but has also had some good moments.

Okay.... scary - my baby is now a teenager! Yes, yes I know with the attitude we thought she already was but now she truly is a teenager.
As is family tradition Tasha got to pick dinner on her birthday so we headed out to Buffet Fusion. As generally happens things got a little silly!
We also celebrated Olivia's first birthday. It was a lovely sunny day and lots of fun was had. Tasha loves spending time with her cousins and was very excited.
Have been busy every weekend this past month and am looking forward to a couple of weekends at home (although now school holidays are starting!) I have been working long hours and extra days and feeling very washed out and flat.

Wow

2011-08-28T19:04:00.003+10:00

What a weekend! busy, busy, busy but a wonderful time.

We started with a trip up to Wollongong after school on Friday - we found a reasonably priced apartment but due to the fact it was much cheaper than the others we weren't expecting much - well we were surprised! It was a massive room and gorgeous! Would definately go back if we needed. Anyway... the reason we were in Wollongong was for Tasha and I to go and watch Southern Stars - a dance and singing spectacular highlighting the talent from schools on the South Coast and Illawarra. WOW WOW WOW. I was blown away by the profesisonalism and the standard of the performance. Both Tasha and I came out of there in awe.

Saturday morning we headed up to Miranda Fair for some retail therapy. After spending quite a few hours wandering in and out of shops we came away with a new outfit for Tash - a new short and jacket for Kyle but no new outfit for me for the wedding in three weeks :(

Then it was a trip to the Sutherland where we caught the train into the city and had 1/2 an hour to get us all showered, changed and meet up with Mark, Mel and Declan for dinner. Aaarrghh - they were 15 minutes early! Luckily they were happy to grab a drink in the bar downstairs and gave us time to get dressed. We had a lovely dinner in Chinatown together before we said goodbye to the Stedfut clan and we headed to Capitol Theatre.

What can I say about Mary Poppins? AMAZING. Okay obvious statement here but boy that Matt Lee can dance! Mary Poppins (Verity Hunt-Ballard) was brilliant and being supported by Philip Quast and Marina Prior as Mr and Mrs Banks just rounds it off perfectly. Apart from the talent everyone on stage just looked like they were having a great time!

We finished the trip off with a quick visit to Pitt St Mall before heading home. Exhausted but well worth it.

Shame

2011-08-21T17:00:00.007+10:00

I hang my head in shame..... my poor neglected blog!

The last three - four months have been hard..... very, very hard.

I have spent a lot of time at Berry with Mum as she got weaker and weaker and then she passed away on the 13th of May, being at home up until 3 days before she died at Karinya Palliative Care. The staff there were wonderful but there is nothing that can make that time any easier. The months since then have been kind of in a fog. At times I did not feel I would get through. The issues and just life in general since have been so hard to cope with.

In the middle of all this Tasha has had more issues at school.... some times I would love to be so anti-politically correct and go and punch some people and tell them to wake up to what their kids are like.

These past few months though have shown me how lucky I am with the friends and family I have. In Mum's last weeks and even after Mum died we had food delivered and left at the front door. Davina and Gail filled our freezer. It was amazing the care shown to us.

My friends have been wonderful. The constant phone calls and messages, the time for meeting up for a cuppa, the love and caring. I must make a very special thankyou to Miss Jane who was there for me whenever needed, she checked in regularly to make sure I was keeping my head above water or to pass me a snorkel if I wanted to slip under for a while (metaphorically speaking). The hugs, the cuppas, the messages and emails have all been a saving grace for me.

In the middle of this period we managed to pile everyone in the car for a long weekend trip to Melbourne just to give my girl SJ a big moving present - a hug from me! (Poor thing - she got a dud pressie hey!) Hopefully our trip down there, even as brief as it was, out a little of sunshine in what has been a tough year for her to.

Anyway I humbly beg your forgiveness for the neglect of my blog. May have to find a challenge of some sorts to get me back into blogging.... 30 day challenge? 20 questions? Photo of the day? Will come up with something - any suggestions?

gggrrr

2011-04-27T19:43:00.001+10:00

yes I know there are spelling mistakes in the post below but blogger won't let me edit them. gggrrrrr

Long Weekend

2011-04-27T19:09:00.002+10:00

What a mixed weekend we have had..... We spent some time with Mum on Fri/Sat and then gave her and John a quiet day at home alone on Sunday. Mum was looking very unwell on Saturday and was extrememy tired. When I rang her Sunday she was quite breathless and somewhat confused but said she felt okay.
Monday however was a different story. I got a phone call from Mum Monday morning checking I still coming over as she was feeling very ill. So I sent Tony and the kids off to the Lucas Family Easter and headed over to Berry. What a trip... bumper to bumper traffic through Nowra then it cleared as I got north of Bomaderry then I hit Strongs Road turn off and from there I got out of 1st gear once! It took me over an hour to get to Mum's! (it's normally a 20min trip) and knowing she was waiting on me to get there it was a rather stressful trip.
Mum was very, very breathless... she was very tired and finding it difficult to speak. We just spent some time sitting quietly together and just being there for each other.

So where are we now? Mum is still very breathless and tired. After seeing the doctors today it was decided to keep her home for now (Mum was so sick yesterday she suggested ringing Karinya which was a MASSIVE thing for her as she has done everything she could to avoid that). They are doing some fiddling with her pain medications and we wait and re-assess on a daily basis. Knowing Mum she is going to keep fighting as long as she can.... after all she has already waaaayyy surpassed the original expectations.

With all the stress going on around here lately I spent some time hiding away in my craft room (yes I should have been doing housework). Mainly tidying up etc.. I hadn't unpacked since going away to the scrapping retreat in February so I did that and then I sat down and scrapped. I had gone in there just to have some time away from the world and was surprised that I ended up actually doing some craft.

This page was put together out of a kit I bought at our LSS when it first opened. It was the biggest rip off I have ever bought and I have actually not bought from there since. This was their opening special "mystery kit" It cost $5 and all that was in it was this one sheet of paper, a short strip of pink ribbon and one silver flower. Every time I have opened this pack I have been frustrated at the price of it and put it away again.
Anyway I sat down and decided to use it. the page is quite simple and basic but hey...... I SCRAPPED!
It says all I wanted to say. My kids have been an amazing support to me over the past few months. The days I feel like I am barely holding on this young lady will cook dinner and Kyle will just open his arms and give me a big hug. They truly keep me from collapsing. I have to stay strong for them and to be there for them.

Bucket Lists

2011-04-19T09:20:00.003+10:00

We have been busy lately working with Mum on ticking off things she had left on her bucket list There were people she wanted to see before she died and at the end of this week we will have managed to get all of them here to see her.
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She finished this beautiful book..... It is a wonderful collection of memories of her childhood, school years, family life, married life as well as dreams, advice for the future generations. She was determined to get this done and we finally got it completed last week.
She had a very special movie she wanted to see and a MASSIVE thank you has to go out to my wonderful friends SJ and Matt for getting this to us so that she could watch it.
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We have sorted out family heirlooms and distributed things to the people she wanted to have them.
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The beach has always been an important place to our family and Mum's dream was to get back to the beach one more time. Yesterday was a gorgeous day and she was having a good day so we headed up to Gerringong. Firstly we stopped at Werri Beach for fish and Chips. Before heading to the beach so the kids could go swimming and John's son could head out on his paddle board to catch some waves for Mum as another thing on her Bucket List was to see him surf. He is a surf lifesaver and does a lot of competitions but Mum had never seen him in the water. We sat Mum up on the beach where she could watch the kids and have her feet in the sand. It was a lovely day and we had a good hour or so with Mum before the pain got too bad and she had to head home. It was a very special day and one I will look back on fondly. Another day on the beach with my Mum to add to the many beach days over my life.

So we have nearly ticked all the boxes on Mum's bucket list. The one last big thing is not acheivable but we have managed to get so much done (Mum's big dream was a hot air balloon ride)

Anyway, it got me thinking...... what would you have on your bucket list? If you knew you were dying what would you do with your last weeks? I think mine would be very similar to Mum's..... Catch up with special friends, leave memories for those left behind and time on the beach.

My long term bucket list includes a trip to England to see where my Mum grew up. I would love to see Venice, learn another language and have a special "Girls trip" - a holiday with my closest friends would be my ultimate dream.

so what is your bucket list?

Happy Birthday

2011-04-19T09:12:00.002+10:00

On Saturday night Tony and I went out to dinner to celebrate a very special 60th birthday. Jenny has been my "other mum" for over 20 years. Heidi and I met and became friends immediately and I was also just as quickly accepted into their family. Through those tough teenage years I often ended up at the Layland's (and in turn Heidi sought refuge at my house when needed). We saw each other through ups and downs. When Heidi left town with the show (yeah, yeah I know... no circus was available at the time) we kept in touch and I still visited the Layland house often. This family have shared so much with me * I was first (apart from her parents) to know Heidi was pregnant * I was there when Adam (Heidi's son) was born * We have seen each other married * When I was baptised in my late teens Jenny stood there beside me as my support person. We have laughed, cried and shared so much together so it was lovely to celebrate another occasion with them: HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY OTHER MUM

Phew - made it

2011-04-18T21:04:00.002+10:00

Yay managed to update my blog before the month was up! Lets start with the mad dog! Wow has he changed and grown. up - putting these two photos together makes it so obvious... did someone swap our dog? The past month has been a hard one. Any spare time has been spent with Mum.... sharing stories, reminiscing, organising funerals, discussing life in general and catching up with friends. A lot of Mum's friends have been over to say their goodbyes and it has been interesting catching up with all of them. Lots of stories of school and early adulthood as well as life as a parent have been discussed and I have learnt lots of news things I had never known about Mum! She is getting weaker and weaker but keeps surprising the doctors who expected her to die weeks ago... boy she can be stubborn! Her pain relief has been increased on numerous occasions and she is very tired most of the day. She has a couple of good hours each day and we take advantage of these to sit and chat (she can stretch out on her lounge). Some days I take a book along and just sit beside her and read whilst she dozes. Its nice just to be together.

In the midst of this my kids have been my saving grace. They are wonderful and try to help out where possible. My house has become a bit of a shambles and they are helping out with a lot more chores to try and keep this place tidy. We were also blessed to have some of Tonys family cook some meals for us and drop them around one day. It has been such a wonderful blessing to have a ready cooked meal just needing to be heated up at the end of the day. Oh... and they were yummy!

Anyway as a thankyou for the kids and just to remind them that life can be good and to put a smile back on their faces we took them away for a couple of days. We had planned on going down to Melbourne these holidays but with Mum getting so weak we didn't want to go that far or for too long so we went up to Sydney on the first Sunday of the school holidays.

We dropped our bags off at our motel (Oaks Harmony Apartments.....lovely!!) and headed down to Darling Harbour where we wandered around, checked out shops, and Tasha managed to walk in every water feature she could find!

Monday morning we got up and walked across the street to Central where we caught a train down to Circular Quay to catch a ferry across to Taronga Zoo. Then we caught a bus up to the front gates and started our day!

We had a great time. It was such a great day and I am so glad we did it. We saw lions and tigers and bears... oh my! We saw birds, baby elephants, wombats, tassie devils, chimpanzees, big cats, reptiles etc etc. The kids had a great time and it was so wonderful to see the fun on their faces.

Then we caught the gondola - sky safari back down to jetty to catch the ferry back to circular quay.

We went down to Darking Harbour for dinner and then went around to the Lindt Cafe as Tasha had been hanging out for a strawberry platter...... to find they close early on Monday nights! We got there to see a dark closed up cafe :(

We caught a monorail just to round off the day.... so in one day we caught... a train, a ferry, a bus, we walked, we went on the gondola and the monorail!

The kids were very excited by the lights and the stalls and Kyle got a new lightsaber (ooops his mum broke his last one!) and Tasha got flashy bunny ears. And then proceeded to hop the whole way from Harbourside to near the big Park (can't remember what its called).

We laughed and had heaps of fun and I am so glad we did it.

Then on tuesday we came home via Miranda Fair.... We headed to the Lindt cafe for Tasha and guess what..... they had run out of strawberry dipping plates!! So the poor girl had to have chocolate mud cake instead. Oh and we got one job out of the way... Tasha and I both got new clothes for Mum's funeral. Thats one more job I can tick off the list!

Whooops

2011-03-21T10:02:00.002+11:00

What a sad, neglected blog I have! what can I say - the last few months have been so full and life has been busy.
I thought I would try and wrap up the last month or so - just so I have the record when I look back.
We have gardened....... we transplanted some plants from Mum's garden to here (yeah okay I didn't include pics of them because they don't look too healthy at the moment) but we also fertilised the lawn and our front garden. Our Geisha Girl has just flourished and looks great now.
Buddy is growing up heaps.... Tasha works well with him and has his training underway. He sits, drops, stays, comes etc etc..... our one problem is walking - he HATES the lead, so it looks like puppy school for Tash and Buddy. I headed off to Melross for our annual girls scrap retreat. I wasn't able to relax so much this time. Firstly, due to concern for Mum but also because I had to come home 2 of the 3 nights so did quite a few trips over the mountain in the 4 day period.
The highlight of the weekend (apart from late night giggles and chats with Cass) was sitting in a paddock talking to Cass when we saw this cow drop it's baby calf... so then we sat for an hour or so and watched this little baby find its feet. It was lovely to just sit and watch.

On the 1st of March I headed back to work with the orthopaedic practice and it feels like I never left (except with much less stress!) It is the place I really feel I fit into and I am so happy to be back.

Then on the 11th of March we were called in to see Mum's oncologist after he had some concerns about her cancer and had some urgent tests done. the week prior we had been told that he felt the cancer had spread to the abdomen and this may give her 3 -6 months. Well when we went back to see him with the results the news was grim. We knew her cancer was growing very quickly but now not only was the liver diseased but the cancer was spread throughout the abdomen and was pressing on the duodenum.

I don't think I have seen the doctor look so serious..... although this was explained when he told Mum that she was no longer suitable for treatment and that this was much worse than he thought - worse case scenario being she may be gone within the week.

She was given some medication which has relieved the nausea slightly and we hope may have bought us a few extra weeks but it is terribly hard to see her getting sicker and sicker.

The day following this news I headed up to Sydney with Jane and Simon to watch Todd McKenney shake his maracas....... Just what I needed. It was a great show and I thoroughly enjoyed it...... oh and in a case of small world - my boss from work happened to be sitting literally across the aisle from us! So this past week has been an emotional one. We have spent a' lot of time with Mum... had conversations you hope to never have.... and generally just travelled along in a bit of a fog.

Friday the 18th Kyle got an early birthday treat. Kyle has (for quite some time) been quite obsessed with Weird Al Jankovic... a pop parody artist. (you may remember him from the 80's with such songs as Like a Surgeon and Fat). So when we saw that he was touring Australia and would be in Sydney the night before Kyle's birthday we knew we had his birthday present organised!

Well........ he LOVED it. Heard all his favourite songs (Amish Paradise, Another one rides the bus, etc etc) and was just so excited about seeing him live. Apparently the show was amazing. Tony and Kyle went up after school Friday - there were multiple costume changes and massive productions. A birthday he won't forget!

So Tasha and I didn't actually see him on his birthday until mid afternoon Saturday - we all met up at Mum's for birthday cake (caramel mud cake) and afternoon tea.

Oh and my boys spent Saturday morning shopping at Miranda Fair. WITHOUT ME!!!!! Funny, Tony thought that would be cheaper..... hmmm I don't understand that.

However, they did come home with a little bag for me from Lindt!

Over the weekend Mark, Mel and Declan came down to see Mum so we got to spend some time together at Mum's and then they came and stayed here so we had a special birthday dinner for Kyle (chinese of course).

So now we head into the next few weeks.... I know there will be good times and hard times but we are just taking advantage of every day we have.

Vent alert

2011-02-12T11:33:00.004+11:00

*warning the following post may contain venting, anger and disappointment. This blog recommends viewing with the realisation that I just needed to get this off my chest*

I believe that Friday's should come with an offical warning. You would think that Fridays would be a happy day - after all it is generally my day off work. This does not seem to be the case and Friday's seem to be our "attract disaster and mayhem" day.

This friday started okay - did some housework, checked up on emails etc. Should have known - lulling me into a false sense of security. Firstly Mum was admitted to hospital today (albeit briefly) as this course of chemotherapy that they felt she needed to do battle with the cancer caused a SEVERE reaction in her and she had to be admitted for IV anti-nauseants and fluid. Sooooooo no treatment next week as her body is too exhausted, we will try again the following week but hopefully they will be able to alter her treatment as she cannot do that on a weekly basis!

Then the next hit to the gut. Tasha comes home from school in tears. She had been in class this morning when the teacher told them they were working with dangerous equipment (technology) so they HAD TO go place their wallets, phones etc in their bags outside the classroom. Now we resisted giving Tasha a phone and she only got it for Christmas recently as there have a been a LOT of issues on her school bus and we needed to know she could contact us if needed. The school state they can have phones as long as they are turned off during class. Anyway - Tasha leaves technology class to find her wallet and phone have been stolen from her school bag.

The school was good - they took it seriously and she spent quite some time with the deputy principal whilst he tried to help her out. She also said a couple of senior students came in and sat with her and chatted to her and supported her. The poor kid then spent the whole day at school upset as she didn't want to ring us because she was worried she would be in trouble. She had been told taking the phone to school she had to accept a risk and if she lost it she would be in trouble. This, however, was out of her control and not something she was responsible for.

The thing that upset me the most was when I posted what had happened the comments that I got back were so harsh. Along the lines of well tough luck she shouldn't have had a phone and well she learnt what life is like didn't she. For me the issues wasn't the loss of the phone it was the fact that this kid has just started high school and now feels violated because of the theft of her purse and personal items. Yes she only had 3 dollars in it but thats not the point. And the fact that this lack of compassion for the victim of a theft came from a local police officer! Well that just made me see red.

Watch this space

2011-02-10T18:09:00.001+11:00

I forgot to mention - I actually got some scrapping done - will post pics over the weekend

What a week

2011-02-10T17:57:00.002+11:00

Wow - what a massive week of ups and downs. We have had laughs, tears and lots in between.

The kids are both settling into school and we have a few dramas..... poor Tasha, sitting my kids down with a box of matches and telling them have fun and play is not something I have thought of doing.... unfortunately in Tasha's first week of high school lighting matches was on the science curriculum and as she couldn't light her match first go and then had everyone in the class watching and laughing it took her some time to light matches with a shaking, nervous hand. Apart from that we have had lots of homework, merit awards, swimming carnival, we have 2 x school camps coming up (one each child) and I am sure there is much more to come!

I have two weeks of work left before starting a new phase of life with much more flexibility to work around mum's treatment etc. Mum has had a rotten couple of weeks with very high pain levels, a MASSIVE jump in cancer markers and starting a new very radical course of chemotherapy.

Tony and I celebrated 17 years of marriage (yes Tony says I can claim all those 17 years as we were married the whole time ~L~) with a lovely dinner out at Red Raven. It was so lovely to have a nice night out with Tony and I wish it was something we could do more often.

Tony is in for a busy time with three weeks of helping one of the posties out so he will be doing his regular night hours (if not more as they have people away) as well as doing a mail run during the day - not quite sure when he will get sleep in. I am away the last weekend of Feb so I pity the poor kids as they have to cope with a sleep deprived Dad for the weekend.

New school year

2011-01-31T13:10:00.002+11:00

Wow - my baby is heading into High School. I have no idea how that happened so quickly. She only just started Kindergarten - I'm sure that was only a year or two ago! Both kids had nerves kicking in the last few days. Kyle is nervous about the changes that come with year 9 and Tasha with starting a new school. She has heard all the regular horror stories about high school so was getting more and more concerned as the days got closer.
This morning she was up at 5:30. Dressed and ready to go by 6:30! At 8 o'clock we left home, dropped Kyle off at school and then headed down to Harry Sawkins Park for a quick photo shoot with her friends Kaysha and Maddy before heading in convoy to school so they could walk in to school together.

Australia Day

2011-01-31T13:05:00.002+11:00

Australia Day this year was a quiet one! We had been planning on catching up with the Baldwin's over Christmas and time kept slipping by so it was lovely to spend time with them on Australia Day with a bbq lunch. Tasha made us a chocolate cake and decorated it - we had fruit, choc mousse pavlova and just had a lovely time. Oh and the girls got into the zinc! Very Aussie!

More school holiday fun

2011-01-31T12:43:00.002+11:00

Wow the school holidays are over. In December when the kids went on hols it seemed like such a long period but boy has it flown. We have crammed lots into this break - movies, days out etc
We have spent quite a bit of time dining "al fresco" at our outdoor table and have watched the frangipani tree flower - this plant is a very special one for me as it was given to me as a tiny cutting about 5cm high made just for me as Jack had heard I loved frangipanis. We have watched this little fella grow up - he is getting so big. Tasha has taught him to sit and to fetch..... we just need to work on stopping him jumping up. He provides us with heaps of entertainment and has so much energy. He loves water, loves chasing his tail and is very cheeky.

We had this guys birthday - and celebrated with a day out

We started at Minnamurra rainforest - where Tasha was devastated to find out that there was no mobile phone reception. she didn't realise that such places existed ~L~

We had a great time walking through the rainforest and exploring .

From there we went on to Carrington Falls which were just amazing. They were flowing really well. I was amazed at the people who were walking right up to the edge of the falls - one guy was standing in the water leaning over the edge of the cliff. Madness!

In a previous post I had a comparison pic of Kyle taken at Barrington Falls. Now it's Tasha's turn. Wow my girl seems so grown up.

From there we headed down to the water at Shellharbour and spent some time just sitting in the sun and relaxing.

Before heading to Hogs Breath for dinner! We had a lovely waitress and when she heard it was Tony's birthday she brought his dessert out with a sparkler in it! Tasha was very excited to see a chocolate fondue platter on the menu for dessert! Happy Birthday Tony.

The day after Tony's birthday we met up with the Layland family - Heidi was my support/partner in crime through our difficult teenage years. Not only did Heidi and I share our thoughts, our dreams, our angsts etc we also shared our families! When she had a fight with her parents she turned up at our place and when I thought my parents were being unreasonable (yeah okay that was quite often) I ended up at the Layland's and even called Jenny and Andrew my other Mum and Dad. It was great to see Heidi and meet her fiance Scott. Oh and to catch up with "little" Adam - Heidi's son who is now 17 and over 6 foot!

We spent some time in the garden transplanting some lilli pilli trees from Mum's garden to ours.

What a great holiday - in between working we got to spend time together - in the sun and prepare for 2011 and all it has in store.

Girls Night

2011-01-17T10:24:00.002+11:00

Saturday night was a wonderful night. I had wondered how I would cope after spending the day walking in the sun but I was soooooo looking forward to a special night out.
Jane and I went out to Red Raven for dinner and dessert..... yes I twisted her arm and FORCED her to eat dessert..... and of course it would have been rude to make her eat it on her own! Hehehe. Oh and there is the fact that Red Raven make the most ammmmmaaazzzzzing desserts. Then we walked down to Bottlerocket for Cocktails (for me) and Mocktails (for Jane who was driving).
It was a great night - we chatted, we vented, we laughed, we mused over some of life's difficult questions and generally just had a great time. I am so glad I was able to do this and it has been such a great benefit to me. Thank you so much Jane!

Family fun

2011-01-17T10:09:00.004+11:00

Firstly...... an updated family photo On Saturday we headed out to Fitzroy Falls after hearing from Davina how well they were flowing. We had a great time exploring the bush and seeing the falls from many different vantage points along the way. The tracks around there have changed so much and are well worth the trip. Unfortunately for those old enough to remember Fitzroy Falls from back when we were kids you can only walk along the rim on either side - you can not go down to the base of the falls any more.

Then from there we headed out to Belmore Falls for another little bush walk and falls lookout. Belmore Falls are beautiful and I love the double drop.

Last time we went to Belmore Falls was about 2 1/2 - 3 years ago. Wow my boy has grown up heaps since then! He has changed from a boy to a young man and I am very proud of the man he is growing up into.
What a great day out. All you need is some petrol money and some planning for a picnic lunch (ours was more spontaneous so we ended up at Robertson Pie Shop!) and you have a great day with fun, fitness and a lot of great family memories.

Next on the plans is a day trip to Minnamurra Falls and Carrington Falls.........

Another holiday update

2011-01-17T09:52:00.003+11:00

We finally got to catch up with my brother - we haven't actually seen him since we met up in Cowra in August for Uncle Les' funeral. He was unable to make it down for Mum's birthday and Christmas. He has recently moved to Sydney so hopefully he will be able to make it down more often to see Mum.
We had lunch together at The Grange. Mum has not been doing very well lately and the day before Mark arrived I really wasn't sure if she could cope but thanks to those wonderful staff at Palliative Care and their magic medication we made it through - she had a rough couple of pain filleddays afterwards to recover but was very glad to be able to laugh and smile with the family. We have had our other daughter with us a lot these holidays and it is lovely to see how well she fits in with us all. The other thing we have seen a lot of lately is salads. The kids love helping making the salad and they always come out with an interesting design and cut in different shapes and sizes each time. We have shared lots of laughs, lots of fun and (unfortunately due to the girls watching Prank shows on TV) lots of practical jokes. No, Tegan has not actually hurt her arm but she went home from here one day with ehr arm bandaged and some extreme story about the girls having a wrestling incident on the top bunk...... luckily her parents realised 1) I wouldn't allow that and 2) she was laughing too much to be in pain!

The other thing to provide us with laughs these holidays is this little chap! Buddy has grown so much and has that puppy cheekiness that keeps us on our toes. He loves running off with laundry.... he seems to have a fondness for Tasha's clothes....He loves running around the backyard chasing blades of grass.... he chases his tail and then walks around sideways because he doesn't want to let it go.

He loves cuddles and being around people...... He growls when you walk into the room but also wags his tail madly at the same time.... Tasha has already taught him to sit and he is ALMOST house trained

He will run laps of the yard if the kids are out there and just loves water.... he splashes in his water bowl, stands under any running water he can find and even joined me in the shower one day (much to my shock)

Holiday fun

2011-01-17T09:44:00.002+11:00

What a holiday so far - I have had one week off but apart from that have only had a couple of days with the kids over these long summer holidays. We have fitted a lot into those days, we have been to movies, shopped, had mother/child days etc etc.
We played Monopoly..... well actually Lucasopoly.... and poor Kyle made the mistake of trying to take on three girls... he forgot the golden rule - girls stick together!!!! These holidays have also included some really hot days and with little money left in the budget the girls found there own ways to cool down. A packet of $2 water balloons kept them happy and amused (and yes they did clean up all the broken balloons afterwards)

And the good old tarp with no name detergent is another favourite. There was a lot more squeals and laughter this time as Buddy decided to join in the fun and would run along with the girls and go sliding along the tarp.

New year..... New look

2011-01-11T09:46:00.002+11:00

Yes as you may be able to tell I have been doing some fiddling and giving my blog a new look for the new year. Not happy with it yet - will do some more fiddling later today.

New years Day

2011-01-07T12:39:00.003+11:00

New year's day was a nice quiet one with a relaxed morning at home and then I met up with Mum and John to head up to Kiama to see the boys and their families.
We sat on the balcony of the cabin and had a great time catching up. It was something Mum really wanted to do and even though she was not doing well at all she enjoyed the time she got to spend with them. Why is always in the holiday period that things go wrong - I am so glad for the palliative care team and the pain killers they provide to Mum.

The view from the cabins is beautiful out over Kiama harbour. It is a lovely place to stay and if it is at all possible I hope we can join them up there next year.

I had to include this pic - long story but mention Mick and his mop to any of us and we find it quite intriguing. I have never heard a guy (or anyone for that matter) go on and on about how brilliant a mop is - EVERYONE heard about the amazing mop!

David Angela, Mick and Aunty Di

Mum and Aunty Di

Saying good bye to the boys.

Well it is now 2011..... I had thought this year just HAD to be an improvement over the last one but it doesn't seem to be heading that way. I really do not know how much more I can take and I am oh so sick of crying all the time. Oh well I know that life has to pick up from here as there is no way I can cope with one more thing hitting me.

New years Eve

2011-01-04T19:43:00.003+11:00

After a busy day at Jamberoo we headed back to the cabins at Kiama for dinner and to watch the fireworks together. We could not have had a better position. The fireworks were set off at the base of the hill the cabins were on. The kids and I sat on the hill in front of the cabins and watched the fireworks explode directly overhead.

The balconies attached to the cabins are massive and we had heaps of room for everyone to sit and eat.

I had trouble with blogger and my photos tonight so they are a little bit out of whack

We had a great night and it was great to have a chance to chat and catch up with everyone.

Jamberoo

2011-01-04T08:43:00.004+11:00

One thing I had promised the kids these holidays was that we would go to Jamberoo. When I was talking to Dave and Mick and they mentioned taking their kids there we all decided to spend the day there together. What a day we had! Tasha had Tegan with her and the girls went off exploring while Tony and I stayed with Kyle and we had a fun day. I was amazed with the amount of people in the park how often we ended up in the pool or on a slide next to a family member (although there were a lot of us scattered through the park.)

Don't have many photos of the day as cameras and water don't mix too well (note to self: when I win lotto invest in waterproof camera).

The park was busy (as we expected being peak holiday season) but the lines moved quickly and I think the longest we queued was about 15 minutes. We had a great group: Mick, Rylee and Elijh; Dave, Rowan, Henry and Amelia; Tanya, Lachlan and Thomas; Lisa (Tanya's friend) and her two girls as well as Tony, Kyle, Tasha, Tegan and I....... Angela, Steve and Di stayed back in Kiama with baby Dustin.

It really was a great day even if I did think we had lost the girls at one stage - (yeah okay slight meltdown ensued on my behalf at that stage). The girls gave everything a go. No matter how much we tried we could not get Kyle to try the Taipan but the rest of the crowd went on. Must say I had thought it would be...... well not sure what I expected but it was quite tame compared to what I had in my head.

Girls Day Out

2011-01-04T08:11:00.002+11:00

As I have so little time off work these holidays we have tried to fit a lot into this post- Christmas week. We have seen 2 movies (Gullivers Travels and the new Narnia movie) and I promised both the kids a mother-child day each to do what they want together.
Tasha decided to go shopping! She had Christmas money that was burning a hole in her pocket and we went up to Shellharbour and hit the post-Christmas sales. I was very proud of her - she had a set list of what she wanted and how much she wanted to spend and she didn't go silly (although to look at her shopping - below - you wouldn't know it). She actually came home with money. After shopping we called in for a quick catch up with the King family.

Then we called into Kiama to catch up with my cousins, Dave and Mick and their families. We really don't get together anywhere near enough and this is something we hope to work more on from here. It is great for Kyle and Tasha as they have heaps of Cox cousins their age which is something they are not used to so it great for the kids all to get to know one another. Kyle and Tasha have a great relationship with their Lucas cousins and I would love to see this carried over to the Cox side of the family. My fav memories from my childhood are the times spent at Nana's with my cousins playing cricket, laughing, having fun and just being together. My hope for my kids is that they get that sense of fun and comraderie with their cousins I had with mine.

Christmas Day

2010-12-30T22:26:00.003+11:00

Our Christmas this year was very quiet. The kids both got up about 8am and we sat down to open our pressies. I must say we all did very well this year and even with the strict budget and the kids not getting their "santa sacks" everyone seemed very happy. I did have to laugh at one stage - talk about the difference between the sexes. The kids and Tony all got puzzles for Christmas from Miss Jane - you know the wooden have to put it together again type brain teaser puzzles. Well I had to laugh..... the boys immediately started looking and trying to figure it out.... Tasha (being the smart girl she is) immediately pulls out the instructions and starts reading. Buddy loved the paper and had lots of fun playing with it on the lounge room floor. We got our wonderful christmas phone call from Melbourne which always puts a smile on our faces

Then it was time to madly tidy up and get last minute salads etc made in time for a very special Christmas lunch. As I mentioned before this was a quiet one - just the 4 of us, Mum & John. It was lovely to have this day with them both. Oh but in true Christmas style I think we were feeding 20 not 6!!!!! Mum tires quickly so by about 3 o'clock they headed off so Mum could go rest and we went out to Davina's to catch up with Tony's family.

Well that was a short visit! We called in just as Haylee, Erin and Royce were heading off to the beach so we turned around after 10 minutes so Tasha could go home and get changed so she could join them. Was lovely to see you guys - albeit briefly!

Twas the week before the Christmas.....

2010-12-28T21:16:00.003+11:00

....... and chaos ensued!
Yes to call the week before Christmas chaos may just be the largest underestimation I have uttered! With all the personal @!*$ going on around here we added some insanely busy days to the mix.
The weekend before Christmas was Tasha's dance concert. So Saturday we spent hours at the studio waiting for costume checks and photos. Tasha HATES one of her outfits and so would only pose for me at home in her hip-hop costume.
Then Sunday morning we had to be at the entertainment centre at 9:00 for rehearsals which (surprise, surprise) were runnning late and so we finally got out of there about 11:00. We then raced around and picked up Tasha's friends Kaysha and Tegan who were coming to watch the concert before racing home, sorting out hair and make up and then getting back to the entertainment centre at 1:00pm for a concert starting at 2:00! The concert was sensational. Mum and John came along and it was the first time they had seen Tasha dance which was very, very special (especially as we were all aware this may be the last chance Mum gets to see Tasha dance). The dancing was phenomenal - wow the talent blows me away every year!
Then as the concert came out at 5pm and the carols in the park started about then we went over to the park with our picnic blanket. (YEs Tasha was still in full dance costume and make up). We got there just in time for the rain to start pouring down..... so the girls decided to pass on the carols in favour of dinner! We had planned on going back down for the fireworks but the carols were moved to a local church and firreworks cancelled. Instead we had 3 girls to try and get to sleep ( I Gave up about midnight and just went to bed myself)

Then Mon, Tues, Wed and Thurs I worked. YUCK! So after work Thurs I picked Tegan up and the kids (Tash, Tegan and Kyle) and I went out on the hunt for christmas lights

We saw some amazing lights, met up with quite a few people I knew and generally just had a bit of fun.

We called it a night about 9:30 as Tegan wasn't feeling too good so we came home and sent the girls to bed.

Friday - The girls put the gingerbread house together (yes for those of you astute enough to realise we are aware that we put the roof on upside down)

This was done much later in the day than expected as Tegan really wasn't feeling well by now and after getting up about 8am put herself back to bed at 9 and didn't wake until 12:30.

The girls did a great job - especially as the icing in this kit was not easy to use - we had not used this kit before and must send a big MWAH to Cass for finding it for us as we thought we have to miss out this year :(

And then it was Christmas Eve.........

Family addition

2010-12-15T22:59:00.002+11:00

WE have a new member of our family!
We have spent a lot of time lately looking into dog breeds, chatting with people, checking out dogs and today we found our new family member. This dog was going to be a present from Mum for the kids and we had looked into Cavalier King Charles Spaniels as they are mum's favourite dog but with my allergies and sinus issues it was not possible so we looked at non-allergenic dogs like poodles. We had hoped to get a cavoodle but they are not easy to find - then today I was walking past the pet store and these pups had arrived today!

When I got there they had only 2 left and this little boy was ours on the spot. I raced home and got the kids and we went back in to the shop where the kids instantly decided this was the one. Talk about timing. No sooner had we said we would take him and placed a deposit but a friend we know walked in to look at the dogs. She fell in love with our little fella - sorry Andrea but I am glad we got in first! As we left she was looking at his sister so I am not sure if she ended up taking the last puppy or not.

Tony and the kids pick him up tomorrow. Now the hard bit...... what do we name him?

We have spent lots of time tonight discussing names and still haven't come to an agreement.... some possibles:

Spike (he has the same markings as the gremlin)

Buddy

Brutus (yes that is Kyle being ironic)

Murphy

Hercules

and from Tony........ yep Simone you guessed it.... Mutt!

What a day!

2010-12-15T22:19:00.004+11:00

December 14th was a massive day.
Wow I don't think we stopped for air all day. I was met as I came out of my bedroom door with choruses of "Happy Birthday" and lots of hugs. I sat down to eat my very yummy breakfast of assorted fresh berries and custard. Lets just say I got very, very spoilt for my birthday
* I got the hugest box of choclate seashells from Tasha. I didn't know chocolates came in a box that big but there are 12 sheets of 10 shells. YUM
* I got an itunes voucher from Kyle - can't wait to go shopping!
* from Tony I got a new boomerang pillow which I have wanted for a long time.
* I also got to open a wonderful pamper pack from Sandra - now just got to find the time to fit it in.
* Sounds like I got well and truly spoilt hey......... but wait, thats not all........
Next thing I know the kids and Tony come back in with big grins and another present...... I have been saving up for an ipod touch but never seem to get there and now I don't need to! (Yes Sandra the first game I downloaded WAS angry birds!)

* Anyway as soon as Tony woke up from his morning sleep (I spent the morning setting up the ipod touch) we drove to Berry to meet Mum and John for lunch. We went to Jetz cafe for lunch with mixed results for lunch.
* Then it was home in time for Tony to go and pick Tasha up then bring her home to do her hair (we tried to straighten it but it has such a determined wave that even with a massive amount of hair product it did not want to stay straight) and her nails, then we threw her dress on and raced up to North Nowra for her end of year farewell.
Wow.... too grown up. My baby is leaving primary school. How did that happen!

I know I could be biased but she looked gorgeous. I was so glad that she picked out an age appropriate dress - some of her classmates were sooooo overdressed. Short cocktail dresses, high heels, beautician visits and hairdressers. These girls are only 12 years old! Tasha's close friend Kaysha, teacher Mrs Faulks and Tash

Proud daddy!

The two proud mums!

this is what girls look like when you organise a group photo

And this is what boys look like!

* After presentation Tony, Kyle and I headed up to North Nowra Tavern for dinner and Tasha headed in for her farewell dinner and dance. We met up with Jane and Stephen and had a lovely dinner. It was lovely to just sit and chat.

* then we had to rush off as school had told us to be back at the school at 9 to pick up the kids or 8:45 if we wanted to share the last dance with them. We walked back in the school gates at 8:43 to find a very sad girl sitting outside as they had finished up early and when I got there we got to do maybe 30 seconds of the end of the dance.

......... the next few weeks seem just as busy - lots to do but lots to look forward to.

Oh and quote of the day goes to my cousin Michael who first sent me a message to "check on the REALLY old girl" but was then followed up by this:

"you're lucky that age is relative, and all your relatives are oldies"

Hehe - out my generation (siblings, cousins etc) I am the youngest by more than 2 years!

Social week

2010-12-15T21:54:00.002+11:00

Wow what a busy week last week was. Lets see if I can remember it all:
* Kyle had a busy week as he finished year 8 - he started school holidays on Thurs 9th Dec (much to Tasha's disgust as she had another week to go)
* Tuesday was Tasha's last dance class before her concert on the 19th as she will miss dancing on the 14th due to her year 6 farewell
* Thursday night I went out to dinner at Riverside Thai for the NPH Secretaries Dinner. The food was great... had a fun time catching up with people I hadn't seen in ages.
* Friday night was the NAP Christmas Dinner. We went out the Bruce's house and had a lovely meal. We got there about 6pm and after chatting, eating, laughing, listening to some VERY entertaining stories etc etc I took my poor tired night worker husband home at 11:30 (about 5 hours past his bedtime!)
* Saturday was so what the doctor ordered. After sorting out my family here I headed up to shellharbour to be greeted so beautifully by Annie who always me feel soooooo special (as does her special mum). Cass and I spent the day shopping, laughing, eating, shopping, drinking coffee etc, etc. It was a wonderful relaxing day even with the Christmas shopping crowd.
*Saturday night the kids and I went out to dinner as a celebration of both of their amazing reports. I was sooooo proud of the 2 reports that we received this past week. Not only did they acheive well but the teachers comments (especially Tasha's) were wonderful.
* Sunday night the kids and I went to carols at the church. It was a fun night with a sausage sizzle and jumping castle. Tasha loved the candles and glow sticks.
The BIG NEWS FOR THE WEEK was Kyle's new job. Kyle has been waiting to be old enough to go out and get a job and as he hit to magical age of 14 and 9 months in December he had started putting his name down for work around town. Then we got a call Friday night offering him a trial starting the next morning. He did a shift Saturday morning, was asked back Sunday, Monday and is loving it. He is working with Greg at Oysters Galore and is so eager to go to work. I hope he keeps that enthusiasm!

Dancing, Pressies and Froggy!

2010-12-07T21:11:00.002+11:00

These pics of Tash could have been taken on any afternoon. Each day she has been treating the neighbours to her dance music played at full volume repeatedly whilst she practises for her end of year dance concert. She has been putting in heaps and heaps of effort in making sure she has her dance moves down pat (even down to her solo worm in hip hop). She is working hard especially for Nana as this is the first time Nana will see her dance and she is aware that this may be the last dance concert she sees. This week has also seen the beginning of my advent Christmas swap with SJ. I came home from Melbourne with a suitcase full of little pressies and with the help of the kids have been having fun opening a new one each morning. 1) A gorgeous lavendar soap 2) okay so I know I am known for doing the occasional spot of fussy cutting - but now I have these cute scissors for when the mood takes hold 3) this gorgeous reindeer is now hanging on our christmas tree 4) hugs and kisses ribbon. How cute is this.

5) What a great combination. Iluuurve Jelly Belly beans and I am not quite normal so these belly flops are perfect. 6) A little shopping bag for me to slip in my handbag to be filled up when I am shopping. I love these little bags and try to have one with me at all times 7) mmmmmmm pralines.

Can't wait to see what is in store over the next few weeks.

New pets.

We are currently looking for a new dog. Tony and I had discussed a new dog for Christmas and then Mum approached us and asked if she could buy us a dog so we had something for the kids to have to remember her by and also as Kyle found Maggie good to talk to when he felt upset, she felt he may need a talking buddy in the future.

In the meantime Tasha has been quite focused on the idea of a pet frog! They are surely in ample supply around here at the moment but do you think we could find one? Anyway Tony came home from work with this little fella. However, after doing a little research on the care of a frog and the work involved it was decided that maybe keeping a pet frog was not such a good idea and he was placed back outside to resume his life.

And a Merry Christmas to all.....

2010-12-05T21:00:00.002+11:00

I got home from the oncologist with Mum on Friday to find the christmas tree and all the trimmings down from the storage in the roof. So after returning Harry the budgie to Nana and John we put on our christmas hats (well the kids and I anyway) and our christmas shirts (Tasha and I) as we traditionally do for tree decorating and the fun began. This year was a lot quieter and quicker... last year we had Tracy and Jacob and we also had Tegan to help us.

So now the tree is up and decorated although the presents will be a little on the light side this year.

Apart from that not much has been done this weekend. I had planned to spend some time scrapping but it just didn't work. No mojo! I did, however, spend time in y bedorom cleaning and sorting out drawers that have been left for waaayyyy to long. I would love to have my urge to scrap back but apart from a couple of days shared with Cass and Jane it just hasn't been happening for months. Life is getting me down and I am just plodding along with one day at a time. Sometimes it seems hard to keep my head above water.

We are heading into the mad season and it seems like every day for the next 6 or so weeks is full. The mad rush in the lead up to christmas and then the few weeks after. Then we will be madly getting Tasha ready to start high school and Kyle going into year 9.

Melbourne part 2

2010-11-30T18:56:00.003+11:00

It was another glorious Melbourne day (ie lots of rain) as we headed into the city on the train for a girls day out with Miss M.

We did some touristy things, took photos, shopped at Body Shop and Lush, and had an ammmmmazing burger lunch at Grill'd. You seriously need to try these burgers.

Then we caught the tram to Bourke Street where we saw this statue of Santa........ well actually no it was a man dressed up as a statue santa and he was amazing. He just sat there for ages while kids walked up and touched his hand and people checked out his costume. Miss M really wasn't sure what to make of him!

Then we joined the queue to check out the window displays at Myer in Bourke Street. This year they did the Nutcracker and each window had a different part of the story. The detail and little bits in these displays was just gorgeous.

We stood in line for ages at Myer so Miss M could go on the kids train to be told she was too tall when we got to the front of the line so we sent Santa an email and then ooohed and ahhhed over all the Christmas decorations in the christmas section at Myer.

Then another tram down to Flinders street and we walked over the Yarra river. Hmmmm not sure I would like to go swimming in there in a hurry.

The christmas light show at Crown Casino was amazing. We walked through just about every part of the casino with SJ stopping to ask directions every time we saw a man in a suit and we finally found the lights just at the beginning of the display. Could not have timed it better. The show was really cool with lots of lights and sounds.

Then another tram trip up to Lygon Street for Gelato. YUM YUM YUM.

Then it was time to drag our wet bodies and sore feet home.

MONDAY

It was time to head home and after a quiet morning with the Allan's we headed to the airport with my suitcase laden with shopping and christmas present. I was a bit worried about excess baggage - I had travelled down with just over 11kg in my bags and with a limit of 20kg for my bags I placed my suitcase at the check in counter and............... 19.8kg!!!!!! I think I did that last time I headed home from Melbourne too! After a short delay (surprise, surprise - I don't think I have EVER flown out of Avalon on time) I headed back to NSW and was met at the baggage claim by what sounded like a herd of elephants but was infact three children running full pelt towards me (Kyle, Tasha and Tegan - yes the Baldwins are back in Nowra! Surprise as Tasha wasn't expecting them until the 18th of Dec)

Once again I have to say thankyou to the Allan's for letting me become an extended family member again and especially to Matt for all the running around he did this weekend. MWAH love you all.

Melbourne Weekend pt 1

2010-11-29T19:58:00.002+11:00

After couting down for so long suddenly it was time to head to Melbourne. After mega amounts of last minute text messages everything was organised. We didn't get to go to Spicks and Specks which I was MEGA disappointed about but when I got the final email from them they had moved the filming forward and it started about the same time my flight landed at Avalon so it was not possible. Oh well hopefully I can make a special trip down there for Spicks and Specks next year!

So thurs morning we got the kids off to school and then Tony and I headed up to Sydney Airport. A short flight later and I was in Melbourne and then with the amazing Allan family. What a blast we had. Thursday night we went to see Keira get an award at the school end of year night. Wow.... I love her school!
Friday Sandra drove us into Docklands and we hit the DFO's. I found my new favourite shop, TYPO.

Then we hopped onto a tram and headed around to Swanson Street to a wonderful thai restaurant that SJ had told me about. YUM, YUM, YUM. This is their lunch special!

Oh and Miss Jane I bought a bag! I know, big shock hey!

And true to Melbourne after starting in a nice sunny morning just after lunch as we headed back to Docklands the skies opened and we got drenched. Of course 1/2 an hour later the sun was out again!

............ more to come...............................

Melbourne

2010-11-28T22:02:00.002+11:00

Wow what a weekend! I am home....... tired........ exhausted......... looking forward to some sleep.
Will update tomorrow night

Another "C" week

2010-11-24T22:51:00.003+11:00

Wow what a busy weekend. On saturday I picked Miss Jane up and we headed up to Shellharbour to do "CRAFT WITH CASS"...... Okay, okay - we did coffee, then went out to lunch then went back to Cass' and did some craft (which I can't show here because it's a surprise for someone who may read this blog) and then we had yummy dinner with the King family.
Isn't she just the CUTEST! Oh and some CHOCOLATE CAKE for dessert

with special DALE COFFEE. What an amazing barista Cass has at her house!

Then Sunday Tony the kids and I headed out to the new CORRECTIONAL CENTRE at south Nowra. They are due to take their first lot of inmates early December and had a series of open days. We all found it very interesting although Tasha felt it was quite a nice place to be! Lets see,

* your own room

* Hairdresser

* Beauty salon

* Dental Clinic

* Medical centre with x-ray

* tennis courts/ gym/ ping pong/ running track

hmmmmm one major downpoint - total loss of freedom! Oh and the fact that you can still go to school/uni there.

I am now getting ready to head to Melbourne. soooooo can't wait to see the Allan's. We last saw each other in sept last year which is waaaayyyyyy too long to go between visits. Long day with lots of travelling tomorrow, we need an airport much closer than Sydney!

Now just got to find a bride, a bag and some ice cream to complete Miss Jane's challenge....... (long story)

Letter of the Week

2010-11-16T21:27:00.003+11:00

This week was sooooo big it had to be brought to by two letters! So this week is brought to you by the letters "B" and "S". And yes there was plenty of that floating around as well! :)

Lets get all the "S's" over with in one day! On Wednesday I drove up to SHELLHARBOUR and did some SHOPPING for christmas before heading to the King's for SPECIAL LUNCH (thank you Dale for letting me crash your day off and have lunch with you and Cass). Then I headed up to Wollongong to the SPECIALIST with Mum where it was decided that due to the trouble she has been having and the little benefit it was doing we would SUSPEND her treatment until she returns from holiday and then we will see him again early December to work out where to go from here. She has been seen by the Palliative Care team and hopefully we can keep her pain free.
So that just about wraps it up for the S's. Lets move onto the B's

BON VOYAGE
We said goodbye to Mum and John as they head over to New Zealand - John has a son in NZ they have talked about going to see for ages and this is something Mum really wanted to do so whilst she is feeling slightly okay she decided to listen to Nike and "Just do it". I am concerned about how she will cope but I spoke to her on the weekend and she seems to be doing okay so far.

BUDGIE SITTING
Whilst Mum and John are away we have their budgie Harry. He has been providing us with much entertainment listening to him chatter away. He has quite a few fluent phrases and sometimes gets them confused. My fav is his confusion over Christmas and you hear "Merry kiss me quick"
BAGS
Okay, okay I have a "small" thing for bags. I have checked out this pattern with Jane on numerous occasions and was surprised by Mum when she presented me with the completed project! Love it sooooooo much. The framing job was shocking so it has to go back to the framers this week but it will soon be hanging in my room for reference for Tony when a new bag appears! Hehe

BOILING

What a weekend! 30 degree temperatures . Yuck!

BOLOGNAISE

Part 1 of Kyle's dinner. Kyle cooked dinner for us on Sunday night. He picked the recipes and ingredients and cooked everything from scratch. We had spaghetti bolognaise that was a little over cheezed but tasted quite yummy

BERRIES

Part 2 of Kyle's dinner. Fresh berries with chocolate mousse. Yummmmmmyyyyyyy.

Our "C" week

2010-11-07T19:58:00.003+11:00

Well it seems like this week was brought to us by the letter
C
Let's see..... To start with we had Cathy's career consuming too much time. It was another week of working lots of extra hours. I am sooooo looking forward to next week when I am only working 2 days.
.
This week we had
Cooking
With Tasha in her Coles apron and chef's hat. Tash was a great help to me when I came home exhausted from work and helped cook dinner. She is getting to be quite skilled in the kitchen.
On Saturday Jane and I headed up to Cass' house for a Christmas Card making class with Brigette. I had a great time. Lou came down and it was great to catch up with her as well. After the class Jane, Cass and I headed into Shellharbour village for a
Cafe lunch and Coffee

Then Sunday we had a knock on the door with a face that we were very excited to see - which brings us to the next C

Cousins

Paul is my sister Jo's son and we haven't seen him except to briefly say hi to in the street for quite some time. He felt like catching up with his cousins and walked out to our place!!

It was so good to see him and he and Kyle spent hours together - it was just like old times.

Cards and Craft

I actually spent some time this week working on cards. They are all variations on the same basic card but I am actually quite happy with them.

Oh and lets see I am sure there was another "C" in there somewhere......... oh yeah..... that would be COUNTDOWN! It is now 2 1/2 weeks before I am zoom zooming to Melbourne. Can't wait.

Now I wonder what letter this coming week will be sponsored by? We have oncologist appointments, Mum heads away for a couple of weeks and I hope to get some scrapping done so we will have to wait and see!

Mum's birthday

2010-10-31T14:22:00.003+11:00

Wow what an amazing day - my mum's birthday party.
Okay first we need a little history lesson. 8 years ago when Mum had breast cancer she said that if she made it to the age of 70 she was going to have a BIG party. Well last year, her 70th, for many reasons it got put off and put off until it ended up being Tony, the kids and I taking her out to dinner. This year her cancer has returned with a vengeance and she has bony metastases in numerous places and has had radiotherapy and chemotherapy but we have been told that we cannot stop this. Anyway to cut a long story short she commented how she really regreted not having a get together with her friends for her 70th. To which my response was "Well lets have a 71st!"
This may be the last birthday we get to celebrate with Mum so I wanted to make it special so the guest list included those that had been so important to her. We had a lunch time party at my house (Mum doesn't cope well by evening time) and we managed to gather most of her nearest and dearest.
* Noelene and Keith Larsen - They were at school with Mum and Noelene played basketball with Mum as teenagers/young adults for many years. They have always been great friends to Mum and we spent many a school holiday with the Larsens and the Riggs
* Dorothy and Tony Rigg - have known Mum for about 35 years since they moved in around the block from us in North Nowra.
The Larsens, the Riggs and our family spent holidays, christmases, birthdays, weddings etc together. They have always been a massive part of our families lives and great support to Mum.
* Gloria and Col Horn. Another couple who were neighbours of ours and who became in integral part of our lives. Gloria and Col moved to Sydney as part of Col's job in the police force.
We have many a funny story to tell growing up and 99% of them involve these above three families.
* Joy Herbert. Mum met Joy when both their boys wer einvolved in scouting and they became good friends who have supported each other through the tough years of raising teenage boys and through heartbreaks and good times.
* David and Tanya. Dave is my cousin and Uncle Les' oldest son. Mum's biggest regret was knowing that her brother would not be able to join us as he passed away recently. When I rang her to tell her Dave and Tanya were coming over from Cowra she was soooooooo excited.
* Michael, Rylee and Elijh. Uncle Les' other son. This one was a surprise - Mum's face just totally lit up when she saw him. He had worked a night shift in Goulburn and then travelled down just for Mum.
I am so grateful to these two boys for the effort they made and for being there for Mum.

It was a big undertaking and took a lot of organising and work and I really could not have done it without the help from people who assisted with the cooking and especially to Tony who not only spent time srubbing and cleaning during the week as I worked every day but who spent hours in the kitchen and cleaning up . I seriously don't think I could have managed this without him.

But the work was all worth it to see Mum so happy and she said she was so blessed to be surrounded by those dear to her.

Happy Birthday Mum

The twins turn 2!

2010-10-31T14:15:00.002+11:00

Yeah, yeah I know I am a bad blogger! I am only about 2 weeks behind with this post - but hey I got there eventually.
Wow hasn't time flown. Isabella and Jackson Pignataro turned 2. You wonder how that could have happened so quickly but then you remember they have a little baby sister and you realise that yeah maybe time has past.
Tasha and her friend Kaysha sat down in my craft room to make birthday cards for the twins and they did a great job. The twins are growing up so much and developing their own personalities. Tasha did Bella's hair for the party - she loves doing it like this because it makes her look like Boo from Monsters Inc. (so cute)

Tash has a great relationship with her cousins. She just adores them and they love her. These are her favourite photos from the birthday - getting big squeezy hugs from her Bella-Boo.

Gifts and Giggles

2010-10-10T20:38:00.002+11:00

Lots of fun and exciting things around here.
First has been my "Oktoberfest". Each morning I have had a little parcel to unwrap and they have been full of gorgeous goodies. Thank you so much Cass - you are such a sweetie. We have had school holidays this week and the kids have been at home with Tony. I had planned on having some time off work but actually ended up working extra this week instead. I did take some time out on Wednesday when I went into town before work to meet Miss Jane at Coffeelicious for a fresh cuppa before work. It was lovely and something we will definately have to do again.

Over the weekend Tasha had Kaysha over to stay and they had so much fun. It is amazing how you can combine two girls, an old tarp, some water and some detergent just how much fun can be had. There were squeals and giggles coming from the backyard for ages.

And exciting news! this time in 46 days I will be in Melbourne! Wooo hooo flights are booked and I can't wait. After a few knocks this week something to look forward was just what I needed so I sat down checked out flights - did some checking with SJ - and now the countdown is on.

20 years on.....

2010-10-04T20:32:00.004+11:00

Wow....... 20 years since we left high school (well to be honest it is 21 1/2 years for me - I left half way through year 11). I was sooo stressed and anxious about it and as I mentioned before catching up with Candy and Kylie earlier in the day was great. The three of us arranged to meet at the club about 1/2 an hour before things started to have a drink together and work up some dutch courage!
.

It was actually a great night. Took lots of pics - did heaps of catching up with people - oh..... and got a dance or two in! There was lots of laughs - lots of fun. We had 98 people turn up which was amazing (we were missing a small group as the "cool" group from high school decided to hold their own seperate reunion and have a beach party at Huskisson. Gee pity it poured with rain hey!......hehe now we really sound like we are back at school). In true form for our year at school we got shut down by the club an hour early due to over intoxification (against RSA to continue to serve us alcohol) and behaviour not welcome at the club (although in our defence it was the husband of one our classmates that caused the trouble... not actually one of us!).

.

Sorry about all the pics but this is seriously just a portion of them

This first pic is of Kelley and I. Kel was my friday/saturday night skating buddy, my smoking partner, and sharer of many a bottle of passionpop (and whatever else we could raid from our parents liquor cabinets). I don't know how she managed it but she hasn't changed a bit. Kel and Tracey. Tracey was the main organiser of our reunion and a member of our "group" at school.

Myself, Kathryn and Tina

My saviours of the night - couldn't have got through it without them! Kylie, Tracey and Candy

Kirsty, Candy, Kathryn and Tracey

Talk about flashback! When loking through the photos taken on the night this one brought back memories - there is a very similar one of the three of us at our year 10 formal!

Tracey, Aneta and I

Tracey and her wonderful husband Rod

Kel with her 2 Rods (Her hubby and Tracey's hubby)

Of course we did the nutbush!!!!!!!

More of the old gang. Tracey, Tina, Stephanie, Tracie and Raquel

Wow - this girl and I spent sooooo much time with each other - both at school and when we left school. We had our own special nicknames for each other and our own hieroglyphic code that we wrote many, many letters to each other in. We hadn't caught up for about 18 months so it was great to sit and chat (and yes we will make more of an effort)

Yeah not the best pic but more guys from our old gang. Mick, Matt and Mick.

Yep we have all grown up..... apparently! We shared lots of old stories..... including some which totally mortified Candy..... she couldn't remember getting up to some of the mischief we had in the past and spent a lot of the night saying "Are you sure" and "Did we really do that".

OktoberFest

2010-10-02T15:49:00.002+10:00

You have to love happy mail. And happy mail that you are not expecting is wonderful.
This week has been another stressy one with doctors visits and the lead up to my school 20 year reunion so it was very exciting to get a parcel from the wonderful Cass (so wonderful it is part of her name ~L~) In it was my own special Oktoberfest, a special package with little parcels in it. One to open on each day. Will post pics later.

Now speaking of reunions..... is there anything in the world to provide more stress and self analysation than getting together with a group of people who knew me at my worst. I ummed and ahhed about whether to go or not and even this morning was still unsure. Then this afternoon I turned up at the club to help Tracey and Aneta with the setup and in walked Kylie and Candy. It was so great to see them and catch up on all the mad things we got up to together. The thing that it reminded me was that there was a period in my young teens when I was happy and life was good before everything went wrong. Now I just have this evening to get through!

Busy Weekend

2010-09-26T18:46:00.002+10:00

Wow what a mad weekend. The boys headed up to Sydney to see Ben 10 Live show at the Entertainment Centre. It was good to see the boys doing something together (although with trains being replaced by buses and timetable muck ups etc they didn't get to spend much time in Sydney).
As for the girls... well... originally this weekend was supposed to be taken up with Tasha's dancing Medal and Scholarship day but due to all sorts of muck ups and politics at dancing we didn't end up dancing this weekend. So what does a girl do to cheer herself up? Of course we went shopping! It was going to be just Tasha and I but at the last minute Kaysha joined us too. The girls had heaps of fun - I think we looked at every pair of shoes in Westfield Warrawong! They had lots of laughs, took pictures together in the photo booth, climbed on kids rides and generally just had a fun day out.
And to top the day off we called into see the King family on the way home!

Sunday was our hard work day. Mum and John had a large pile of crushed terracotta delivered for their new garden paths and needed it moved around the back! Kyle and I shovelled and Tasha and Tony did the carrying and we actually got the job done in just under an hour which was a lot less than we had expected (mind you we did all kind of collapse after as we just kept plowing through the work). The finished job looks really good.

Last weekend Jane and Cass came over for a catch up and I did get some scrapping done. Not overly happy with it as it seems very basic but it is the only scrapping I have done recently so I thought I had better share!

Aussie Gal

2010-09-24T19:52:00.003+10:00

I had to put this photo up just for Miss Tash. She went to a lot of effort and was upset that no-one got to see her so I told her we could post it here! Today is the last Friday of the month which means monthly get-together with the Combers and the Hutchburys..... the theme this month was aussie bbq so Tasha went into OZ overload. I forgot to take full length pics but she had "beach hair", her aussie bandanna, a singlet top, boardshorts and thongs!

We raced around to get ready in time to drop Kyle off at youth group on the way to dinner. The problem was that when we got to Gail's we found out they had postponed dinner until next week :(
So we had grumpy old man here as he had gone down town today to spend money that we really didn't have on groceries to make something to take along to share. Hmmmm NOT HAPPY JAN!!! And a cranky Tony is not fun..... Anyway we got to come home and have some of the yummy seafood pasta that Tony had made and it was decided that it was so yummy it was good we didn't have to share ~L~ Oh and now we have enough for leftovers for tomorrow!

The birds and the bees.....

2010-09-23T19:07:00.002+10:00

Well birds and the flowers really!
Just a couple of pics to share with you. The first one is a pic of our shed! Over the past month we have noticed two seperate nests show up - clever birds.... tucked away from the wind, roof over their heads etc etc. Both had eggs and we could see them from Tasha's room without going near to disturb them. This week we saw our first chick. Okay it looks a little scruffy and scrawny but we can't wait to see it grow. These flowers were a gift from my wonderful friend Jane. I love fresh flowers and I couldn't tell you when I last had a bunch in my home. They are beautiful, glorious colours and an amazing scent. Thank you so much Miss Jane.

Weekend part 2

2010-09-21T20:33:00.002+10:00

Sunday was a really nice day and after taking the girls down to Nowra Fair for a spot of window shopping we headed off to Lyrebird Park for Kyle's soccer presentation. Tasha and Tegan headed straight to the trees and started climbing! I got a few pictures of the girls that I was really happy with but this would have to be one of my favs.

Kyle has been playing for Shoalhaven United Youth B team this year. They have been lucky to have tow great coaches in Dave and Jason who have supported and encouraged the boys. Under their coaching Kyle's game has improved dramatically and he was rewarded with the coaches trophy for best and fairest player. Well Done Kyle!!!!!! Can you tell I am a very proud mum?

Then we headed home and the girls headed off to the park to go visit their "secret place" which is actually a treehouse built beside a playground just near Tegan's old house. The girls then came home in a panic as there was a grass fire near her old house. The girls were in a bit of a flap so we went back to make sure her place was fine. By the time we got back the fire brigade had it under control (even though they had managed to get 1 of the 5 fire trucks there bogged!!! Good thing the fire didn't change direction!

Then I took the girls out to McDonalds for a final play together before Jason and Amanda came and picked Tegan up Sunday night. It was over way too quickly but I am sure Tasha loved the surprise and she is now counting down the days until January when Tegan will come down and spend a week or two with us!

Stunned.......

2010-09-19T20:47:00.004+10:00

I have been reading through a series of books lately by an author named Lee Child and quite fittingly was reading this excerpt a couple of days ago
"Present somebody with an astonishing sight, and it takes about 3 seconds to develop. That was his experience. They look at it, they see it, their brain rejects it, their eyes bounce it back again and then it sinks in." Tripwire, Lee Child
We got to see that first hand on Friday night when Tasha got a massive surprise. Her best friend Tegan who moved to Qld 3 months ago walked in our front door! We had 3 -5 seconds of Tasha sitting totally still (luckily I had been pre-warned so I had the camera ready to go) Then she jumped up from the lounge and the squeals and the hugs began! She still claims we were trying to kill her by giving her a heart attack!
Tegan stayed with us from Friday night until Sunday night - way too short a period but it was great to see her. These girls have a great friendship and talk a couple of times a week via MSN. They tend to end up buying the same clothes and quite often come out looking like twins (although we did note that although they had bought matching jumpers Tasha's was in Black and Tegan's in pink.) Their t-shirts, however, were exact replicas.

Saturday also involved a catch up with Jane and Cass which was lovely. Unfortunately as per usual I forgot to get the camera out whilst they were here. :(

Family weekend away

2010-09-15T17:00:00.004+10:00

Wow what a weekend - our annual family weekend away this year was a big one! what an emotional ride we have been on over the last few months so it was nice to get away and just have fun.
I drove to Sutherland and managed to park the car without collecting any random cyclists or adding any bumps or dings to the car (YAY ME) then we hopped on the train and headed into central.
After a slight detour when Tasha saw the Raben Footwear shop we went and checked into our motel. This seems to be the place to stay. Cass and I have been here a couple of times and we have come here as a family before as well. Convenient location... literally across the road from the doors of the Sydney Entertainment Centre... just across the road from Paddy's Markets.... a block from Capitol Theatre... and easy walking distance to Darling Harbour and Cockle Bay..... oh and Tony's favourite -- an amazing buffet breakfast. The other big plus for the Holiday Inn..... Just a couple of doors along is Cold Rock which (thanks to Haylee) is Tasha's FAV place to call in. If you haven't been there before basically you pick your favourite ice cream flavour, pick what extras you want ...... hmm lets see choices include smarties, flake, mars bar, strawberries, nuts, fudge brownies, sour worms, caramel, mars bar, raspberries etc. etc. etc..... then they mush it all together for you. Sounds kind of weird but tastes YUM

Then we headed to the Capitol Theatre to see the matinee show of Wicked. As usual just happened to bump into someone from Nowra. Hope you enjoyed the show Janelle!

It seriously was just as good the second time around. Interestingly this time the cast was quite different. We had Jemma Rix as Elphaba, Bert Newton as The Wizard and Tim Campbell as Fiyero. When Cass and I went these three parts were played by different people. Have to say Tim Campbell doesn't fill out the costume as well as Rob Mills but he does dance a lot better! Everyone loved it. Tony even stated afterwards he could understand why I wanted to see it a second time (which from him is HIGH praise). Kyle was mesmerised and Tasha thought it was "Brilliant but they kept talking about feelings - YUCK!"

Then we wandered over to Darling Harbour to get some dinner and have a look around. The kids were amazed by the buskers and the amount of people walking around (oh and the fashions - "Does their Mum let them out looking like that?" ~L~)

Then after we had some dinner we introduced the kids to the Lindt Cafe at Cockle Bay. Mmmmmmmmm Lindt.........................

Kyle had a caramel tart and I had a blueberry/chocolate mousse layer cake.

And this is the scary result when you introduce Tasha to a strawberry dipping platter! Talk about sugar high. this girl does not need alcohol when she gets older. Just give her a spoonful of sugar! After polishing this off she was singing and dancing and jumping around Darling Harbour.

Sunday we had a relaxed breakfast at the hotel before heading over to Paddy's Markets to do some shopping and then heading back up to the trian station as Tony had to be home by about 2pm to get ready for work.

We're off............

2010-09-11T07:42:00.001+10:00

....... to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz!

woo hoo - some slightly excited people here (oh and the kids too ~L~)

A week in review

2010-09-08T17:19:00.002+10:00

Wow - so much has happened in the last week and my blog has been sadly neglected. I have posts in edit mode just not quite up to publication yet. So lets see if I can update:

* Tasha turned 12 and had a 5 day celebration starting with a party/sleepover on the Fri before her birthday, a special birthday party with Nana on the Sunday and then on her actual birthday (Tuesday) she had a cake at school (loooong story - will catch you up on that one when I get around to publishing her birthday post), then she had cake at dancing before racing home getting changed and having dinner out with the family .... which included her Dad which was a massive treat, it is not often we have dinner midweek with Tony.

* Wednesday was counselling appointments for Kyle and we are slowly getting there - working out programs for school etc.

* Saturday morning we had an early start as Tracy and Jacob moved out into a place of their own (well shared with her brother Ben) so the weekend involved lots of carrying, moving furniture and then some more unpacking

* Sunday was spent de-cluttering our lounge room and setting up the rumpus room for the kids (which has been Tracy's room for the past 12 months). I wish I had a pedometer to count the number of trips I did between the lounge room and the back room with armloads of books etc. We were also able to pull the boxes out of the shed that were filled and thrown in there in a hurry 12 months ago.

* Sunday was also the day of the big winds were we spent the day without power. The power went out briefly about 9am. Came back on long enough for Tony to go around and reset all the clocks before it went out completely! We rang Integral and got a recorded message saying it would be back on the next morning. The kids took advantage of having the rumpus room back and the boxes out of the shed to play board games.

* We rang Integral back late afternoon and spoke to someone who told us the power would be off until Tues. So out came the candles, torches and camp stove (which didn't work). After a nudge from a friend we treated ourselves to takeaway dinner. Then as we headed home we noticed the streetlights starting to come on! YYYAAAYYY Power. We got home just in time to hear everything starting to turn on and warm up.

* Sunday night Tasha's runny nose suddenly escalated into a fever of 39 and 2 days off school (including her first day off dance classes in 2 years - thats when you know my girl is sick!)

So today is Wednesday - Tasha went back to school today - still has a runny nose but the fever has gone. Tomorrow is a trip to Wollongong for another specialist appointment. This weekend is our big family weekend away! We try and do something as a family once a year and this year it is a thank you to the kids for the way they have coped with the changes in the house. So we are heading up to see Wicked on saturday afternoon - can't wait!

Tasha Party (pt 2)

2010-08-29T19:09:00.003+10:00

Well after our late night a sleep in would be in order right? Haha. I had warned the girls that they were not to emerge from the bedroom until 7am. However, we did hear voices coming from there way before this time!
Once everyone was up we sat down to a brekky of pancakes with lemon + sugar, jam, nutella, butter...... thankfully not all on the one pancake!

We then headed out in the sun for a game of charades (or sardines as Tasha kept calling it ?!?) This was the catalyst for lots of laughter and fun Next we played the chocolate game.... if you haven't seen this before it is heaps of fun. Bascially you need a block of chocolate, knife and fork (the blunter the better), a dice and a costume (we had an apron and funny glasses). You take it in turns to roll the dice. If you get a 6 you get to put on the costume and start cutting the chocolate. You cannot eat until you have cut a piece off smaller than one square and you cannot use your hands. The fun/frustration of this game is when you have just cut a piece off and someone else rolls a six so you have to put down the knife and fork. In some instances another 6 can be rolled before you even get the costume on.

And then because you never can have enough chocolate we had fondue for morning tea before taking the girls home.

All in all a great fun time with lots of laughs.

Tasha's party (pt 1)

2010-08-29T12:32:00.003+10:00

Wow - where has the time gone? My little girl is ALMOST 12! Instead of having a big birthday party she just wanted to have a little sleepover and invited three friends over. They all came home on the bus from school on Friday. I did offer to pick them up but they chose the bus!
Of course first thing on the agenda was to check out her birthday cards and pressies. Then we played dress ups with a difference! The girls were each given a garbage bag, a roll of streamers and some sticky tape and they had to design a dress. They were really quite innovative and not only did they make their dresses but boy the accessories were amazing.... we had headbands and bracelets and Kaysha even made Tasha a pair of sandals out of streamers! Oh and we had a massive mess at the end of it!

Then for dinner we cheated! Tasha's dinner of choice was McDonalds so we all headed out to South Nowra. Tash took advantage of the fact that she isn't 12 for 4 days and the girls played in the kids playground for ages. They were having so much fun playing and running around.

Then we came home and watched the movie "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" and then the girls had a game of murder in the dark before heading outside at 11:30 at night for a game of spotlight which didn't last long as the noise levels kept getting louder and louder!

About midnight the girls were told it was bedtime - this is how you fit 4 girls in Tasha's tiny bedroom for sleeping. Apparently Tasha and Courtney got to sleep about 12:30 and Maddie and Kaysha finally dropped off about 2:00!

to be continued.....................................

Goodbye

2010-08-22T15:40:00.002+10:00

Yesterday we had to say goodbye to a much loved member of our family. She has only been with us for three years but she is such a part of our lives.
If the kids are outside you will find Maggie trailing along behind - she loved being near people and adored the kids. She made it to the amazing age of 17 and we had her with us for longer than we had first hoped for. It doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye though. We will all miss her terribly and there have been plenty of tears here this weekend (from all of us)

Love you Miss Maggie May

Oh NO!

2010-08-18T13:53:00.002+10:00

Just to add to the dull life we have around here I was out South Nowra yesterday when a woman walked into the shop we were in to let us know she had just run into the side of our car as she was pulling into the parking lot!
From near the boot along the back panel and along the back door is now a BBBIIIIGGG dint, and scratch marks.
So Tony ducked out this morning to get quotes etc to get it fixed. Oh well, at least it is still drivable (oh and Cass - it is on the other side to bike mans dint!)

Beginnings and endings

2010-08-18T13:04:00.002+10:00

Well this week has been another big one. Last week I worked Mon, Tues, Wed so I could head off to Cowra on Thursday with Mum and John. Mark flew in from Brisbane and we all happened to arrive at the motel within about 20 minutes of each other! Then we headed over to Dave's to catch up and spend some time together. Mick and auntie Di were there too so we had our own family reunion.

Friday morning we got up and headed to the church for Uncle Les' funeral. The service was lovely - David and Michael got up to speak and actually got through everything (eventually) and then Mum got up to recall some of the moments she had growing up with Les. THEN I had to get up after all that and do the bible reading - not an easy job! We headed out to the War Cemetery at Cowra for the burial and then back to the church for lunch. I was so glad the boys had been able to speak and get through it - it wasn't easy and Mick had to stop and ask us "to bear with him" but those boys did such a great job. And they don't scrub up too badly either!..... Dave (Uncle Les' oldest son), Mark (my brother), Rod (Mick's mate for years and pseudo member of family) and Michael (Les' youngest son and my old partner in crime)

Then we went out to the club for dinner - here is a photo of Mick and Dave with Mum

And (some of) the kids. Not all of the kids came to the funeral.... and yes Henry's hair is blue (it was originally orange). Rylee (on the right) is Mick's daughter and almost exactly the same age as Kyle... hehe I won by one day!

We also got to meet David's girlfriend Tanya who is just lovely. You know how sometimes you can just click with a person - well she fitted in with us so well and we have already arranged a catch up at Christmas.

And here is what is left of the Cox/Reynolds adults here in Australia. Kind of scary that this is all thats left. Oh... and because it was Mick's 40th birthday last week I am officially the only young, irresponsible left. (Although the boys did argue they may not be young but they could always be irresponsible).

We got home from Cowra late Saturday feeling exhausted and washed out etc etc.

Then Sunday was a celebration of soon to be new life with Mone's baby shower for her little girl Olivia who is due on the 3rd of Sept. It was a great day - nice and casual, lots of laughs, chats, the kids had a great time playing and we had very yummy lunch. What more could you need?

Speed dating......

2010-08-12T07:00:00.005+10:00

Hehe thought the title might get your attention. I went to parent/teacher interviews at Kyle's school last night. Now I have been to many P/T interviews over the years - but never a high school one before and oh what an experience.

Firstly you must log in online and tick the boxes of the teachers you want to see and then it gives you a schedule of appointments which you print off and bring with you - each in 10 minute increments.

You walk into the hall and all the teachers are seated at desks spread out in a circle around the outside of the room facing inwards. The parents walk into a group of chairs laid out in a square facing outwards... (I was tempted to call out "Musical Chairs" and start skipping around but didn't think that would go down well)

At your alloted time (mine started at 5:00pm as I finished work at 4:30) you head over to the first name on your list then you sit down and have your interview (which went well by the way) then in exactly 10 minutes a bell rings and you get up and move onto the next teacher on your list until the bell rings again etc, etc.

Felt like I should be rating each person for future reference..... gave me a great experience of speed dating (hhmmmm should I be upset that no-one wanted to see me again?)

What a week

2010-08-11T21:58:00.002+10:00

Well this week has been one of ups and downs - sounds like life as usual around here!
Sometimes you think you just cannot take any more knocks but then they just keep coming. When the phone rings at 10 o'clock at night you know it can't be good news - and then you realise it is your mum on the phone and you KNOW it is bad news. Mum's brother Les passed away and was found in his home by his son. Les and Mum have always had a really close relationship - they came out from England when they were teenagers and only had each other and their parents in a strange new country. He will be very sorely missed by us all.
This pic is of Uncle Les with his Grandson Henry and son David. Then the next day we headed up to Wollongong hoping for good news from the specialist but unfortunately the drugs they were trialling have not worked so now it is on to the next trial. Praying that this one will work!

We have also had a house full of flu-ey people with Tony having a shocking dose of flu and me just the headaches and runny nose/sore throat and then Tasha decided to join us as well.

However there has been some highlights to this week and some fun social times:
On saturday we headed up to the Kings for lunch and some time just hanging out with the King family. I love this family - they always make us feel welcome and loved. Tasha and Annie played finger puppets and all sorts of games with the boys playing Wii games and even all the kids heading outside for some cricket and soccer (ooops sorry for the mud on the carpet Cass - hope it came out okay)

OH and of course we had a game of Flippin Frogs.

Then saturday night I got a call inviting me out to dinner. It was a really good night. We went to Wing and a Pear and had a 3 course meal for $30 and the food was oh sooooooo yummy. Will definately have to do it again - I miss our times together and our chats. MWAH.

Worked Mon, Tues, Wed - but still had time for some catching up. Was able to meet Jane for lunch on Tuesday and it was so just what I needed with all the upheaval of this week trying to organise getting us to Uncle Les' funeral.

So we head off to Cowra tomorrow - Mark is flying in and will meet us there. Mum, John and I are travelling over together and heading home on Saturday. It is really sad that it takes a funeral to get us all (cousins etc) together.

A girl and her dad

2010-08-04T16:20:00.002+10:00

Yes you guessed it - spent some more time in my craft room! Some days (okay, okay lots of them lately) I just find it difficult being around others and just wish I could sit on the lounge and relax but that is not possible around here so I tend to shut myself in my craft room as I just don't want to talk. The upside of this is that I am getting some scrapping done.

These pics were taken 3 1/2 years ago and I have been waiting to scrap them. Tash and her dad have such a great relationship and she is such a daddys girl. Another thing I have had lying around waiting to be used is these chipboard swirls. They are so gorgeous and I knew this was just the project I wanted to use them on.

Oh and I got to use up some of my new alpha stickers (thanks Cass- they have made me and my family smile, laugh, ooh and aahh!) with the phrase "any man can be a father - it takes a special man to be a daddy"

A Berry good weekend

2010-08-03T08:21:00.002+10:00

Wow - time to take a step back and try and find time to just enjoy life. Last weekend we had a nice quiet one planned so after having a rough night Friday night we decided to get out in the fresh air. Saturday morning we headed over to have morning tea with Mum and John to wish John a happy 85th birthay. The kids had a ball playing out the front (my girl is so camera shy hey!) I know Kyle's face is all screwed up in this pic but I love this photo anyway.

Mum has her new garden going well. They are working on a vegie garden at the moment but the major gardens are established. Had to share this gorgeous camelia (I think - my knowledge of flowers is very limited) from Mum's garden. Aren't the colours just amazing!

We then headed up to Gerringong and had a wander around and Tasha felt she had found her place in life at Natural Necessity. Hmmm pity she doesn't have the wallet to go along with it.

Sunday we headed back over to Berry to wander the Berry Markets. We used to do the market thing regularly but haven't been for a while. Apparently we didnt get the memo that said 1) you have to take your dog with you to the markets and 2) don't forget to take out a bank loan before you go.

Scrapping

2010-07-30T13:47:00.004+10:00

One good thing about all the hibernating I have been doing in my craft room lately is that I have been getting some scrapping done. Admittedly it is nothing flashy and all very basic but I have scrapped!
This first LO was using a pic taken of Tony sitting on the beach at Vincentia. The tag above the photo comes out with some journalling I wrote for him. The Life is Good rub on is one I bought at a craft show in Melbourne. Kyle and his cousin Mark. I have been wanting to do this LO for ages. Just to get the story down. Kyle and Mark had an amazing relationship and when Kyle was younger he totally hero worshipped his cousin and he was the only one who was allowed to call him by a nickname.

And what LO of Gail would be complete without Basic Grey papers and lots (and I mean lots) of fussy cutting - and of course I had to use Romani - the first papers she fell in love with! I was going to call this Lady in Waiting but the look on her face doesn't seem to patient so I thought I'd better not!

7 years

2010-07-30T13:46:00.004+10:00

Wow... is it really 7 years since we got THAT call and raced over to Karinya to say our final goodbyes to Dad.
I guess with things the way they are at the moment it all seems so much more real and the loss really hit hard this year. My dad was a tall man, to others he was gruff, non-tolerant and set in his ways. To me:
* He was the man who ran along beside my bike over and over until I had the confidence to take off by myself
* He was the gentle man who would sit and share tea parties with me and my dolls
* He would read to me at night and shared a love of stories with me

*He was so proud of the fact that I was the only girl in his family for generations (and with a big brother and 2 older male cousins the only girl in my generation)...... even if he didn't believe the hospital when they told him I was coming.......okay so maybe I did make my entrance slightly early! * He would always play "just one more game dad".

* He taught me to drive - but first he taught me to change a tire and check the oil before I got behind the wheel

* He was so excited at becoming a grandparent and totally spoilt my kids rotten. He was the proudest Pop around and loved to introduce Kyle and Tash to anyone who would listen ~L~

He was my rock. He was not always easy to get on with but then who of us is? He was always there. Sitting in HIS chair in the corner of the lounge room - watching sport on TV and fiddling with his coins or his stamp collection. I had some of the deepest conversations with dad sitting at his feet whilst he had his coins or stamps spread out on the table in front of him and we would chat and sort for hours. If any of you have seen my little Paseo driving around you will see my number plates "CS1937" dad's plates - proudly displayed on each car they owned and now on my car.

Love you Dad.

Flying High

2010-07-30T13:45:00.002+10:00

Last weekend Tony, Kyle and I headed out to the Fleet Air Arm Museum at the local Navy Base. We had promised Kyle a trip out there for a long time and decided on the spur of the moment to drive out there.

He had a blast! Not only does he love all things history based but he was excited to see the Seakings and BlackHawks his school sports teams are named after....... oh and of course lots of guns, torpedoes and other weapons of war!

We spent a lot of time wandering around photo galleries, looking at all manner of planes and helicopters and learning more about our local base and the armed forces.
And Kyle got to go in the helicopter simulator which he LOVED. Although I have said before after seeing his driving skills I wouldn't be getting in a car with him - watching the way his helicopter was spinning out of control I probably won't be flying with him either!

Chez Tash

2010-07-30T13:44:00.002+10:00

I found these pics and just had to share. I have two great kids and they have been so supportive and considerate lately. As I mentioned in a previous post I had a particularly shocking day with doctors visits etc and basically I came home - went into my bedroom - and just sat in there - just didn't want to deal with people. Tasha had mentioned cooking dinner one night and had made sure we had all the ingredients.
Anyway this Friday she came into my room - gave me a big hug and told me I was not to come out until she called me. Then she went and cooked dinner all by herself (well she got Tony to help her drain the pasta) and this is the amazing meal she came up with:

Pasta Bolognaise for herself, Tony and Kyle And nachos for me with freshly made guacamole. What better comfort food could she come up with for me!

Oh and thats not all........... she then followed it up with these amazing fruit kebabs - again all cut up etc by herself.

This is another pic I had to include. Tash is rapidly understanding my world...... with Tegan now in another state she realises why I cherish phone calls, emails and text messages. I would be completely lost without them. Ah technology - it's no substitute for the real thing but it does make it slightly easier dealing with the distance. (Counting down the days till November sweetie!)

School holidays

2010-07-18T12:58:00.003+10:00

Wow - I am sure there were school holidays in there somewhere but they have disappeared!
Kyle's holidays started a week before Tasha's (we pay to send him to private school and he gets two extra weeks of holidays each year - go figure!) and we planned to have a mother/son day. Kyle decided he wanted to do Bomaderry Creek walk but as I had been unwell I suggested we do the shorter walk to the weir rather than the long walk........ Good plan...... except we went the wrong way and ended up on the 3 hour creek walk! We actually had a great time - he headed off on "A quest for adventure"... we ducked from imaginary ambushes and travelled through portals etc, etc.
The other problem was when we faced a sign telling us that Mossy Gully Bridge was closed due to flood damage... the problem was that this sign was at a T intersection with no indication of which way that was. So we had a quick discussion and headed off along the path on the left. Well for future reference once you walk for ages that way you come to the closed bridge and then you turn around and walk back again ~L~. I came back exhausted and feeling like I had been run over by a train but we had a great time (next time I am feeling so sick I will make sure I read the map properly!) Unfortunately due to circumstances that couldn't be avoided I ended up working nearly every day of the holidays but we did head off one weekend for a drive and stopped at Werri Beach for some takeaway lunch. The fish and chips was lovely and the kids couldn't figure out why I was so excited that the food came wrapped in newspaper! TRADITIONAL FISH AND CHIPS!
The weather was a bit chilly but we went for a wander down over the rocks and checked out the rock pools and beach.

The other really cool thing we did this holidays was go to see Aladdin at the Nowra Players Theatre. All I can say is WOW - there is some amazing young talent in this town. This was a youth production so all but 3 of the parts were under 18. We knew Bella who played the lead role of Princess So Shi and I know I am biased but that girl so so talented. Not only does she speak clearly, and sing beautifully but what a professional performer. In the middle of major personal upheavals she continued to perform shows with no sign to the audience of the turmoil and heartbreak going on behind the scenes. Well done Bella - Papa would have been so proud of you.

We also found a nest tucked away on top of the cupboard in our shed with an egg sitting in it. Tasha has loved the fact that she can see it from her bedroom and watch the mumma pigeon sitting on the egg.

Jhorjie came down and spent a day or two with us over the holidays as well and it has been lovely to spend time with her (although she is growing up waaayyyyy too quickly)

In the last week of the holidays I had a day off and Tasha and I headed off to Shellharbour for a girls day. Shopping, chatting, checking out shops, lunch out and then we headed to the Kings for afternoon tea. It was so what we both needed after the last couple of weeks. We had yummy chocolate cakes and donut holes. Tasha, Callum and Annie played Kerplunk before we all (yes Cass and I too) sat down to play Flippin Frogs! It was lots of fun, lots of laughs and just some light hearted time.

Well the holidays are over - both kids go back to school tomorrow. Kyle on monday, Tasha on tuesday. There are more difficulties looming on the horizon after some majorly bad news from the specialist on Friday so it looks like life will be very busy with lots of trips to Wollongong for treatment and doctors visits. Hopefully blognesia can be avoided but at the moment really am just working from day to day.

Blognesia

2010-07-13T08:52:00.002+10:00

Blognesia:

A common disease where blog owners forget to update; leaving their readers with nothing to do, particularly on slow work days. (paraphrased)

Ooops sorry - life has been kind of mad. I do have lots to update - will try and get it done tonight.

What a week...

2010-06-28T14:50:00.003+10:00

Yes, yes I know I am a bit slack with my update but I am getting there now......

We have had a fortnight of ups and downs...full of doctors visits, lunch with Cass and Annie, a daytrip to Sydney with Cass and Jane to check out the craft show...(oh and the Lindt cafe *insert blushing face here*)... and over the past fortnight we have had either Tegan at our house or Tasha at the Baldwins. We were given a reprieve of an extra week before they left and in the interim the girls have barely parted from each other. I think out of 11 nights they had 2 apart - we even allowed sleepovers on school nights (after all Tegan is an honorary Lucas now - even to the point where Tony and I get called Mum and Dad). It has been heartbreaking to see them leave. To see the girls distraught and doing the whole "Goodbye".."Goodbye".. "Goodbye".. "Goodbye".. etc. etc. as we drove down the street one afternoon. Tasha stayed with them on their last night here and I went over and joined them for brekky before they headed off. It was sad for us as well - as I said Tegan is often referred to as our second daughter and they will be missed. I am so glad for Facebook and MSN to keep us in touch.

In the middle of all this Tasha had her dance competition (and yes Tegan came along and cheered her on!). the studio comp is basically a chance for the girls to get up in front of an adjudicator and show what they have been learning without the strictness and pressure of exams (basically a practice run for exams next term) and a chance to get dressed up and dance!

Tasha did both Jazz and Hip Hip and did both her dances with her friend Emily who is in her classes. I love these photos I took of Tash whilst she was waiting to dance. Not only did the teased hair and head bands bring back vicious flashbacks of the 80's but I can so see a page with these pics title "This girl has attitude!" She danced so well and got Highly Commended in both dance styles.

Think thats all our news. No doctors visits for 2 weeks so its just a case of wait and see. Thoughts have been turned towards Melbourne so much lately and it looks like a catch up has been organised (can you hear the squeals?). Tony's friend Ken is in town for a couple of days with his work so we will be catching up with him too.

Oh and Cass.... I am totally wearing out my Wicked soundtrack. Thinking of you everyday whilst listening to it!

Yes......

2010-06-14T12:33:00.002+10:00

I did sit and scrap a page just for me. It is a bit eclectic, lets see there is Jillibean Soup, Kaiser, Making Memories, Buzz and Bloom and Bella. This page is just for me - it wraps up all my feelings from this week. These girls have shared some of my best times with me and we have had some amazing, mad times but when the chips are down and life gets hard they are my support. Their help, support and love is awesome and something I cherish so deeply.

Love you girls

MWAH
xxxxxxxxx

Girls Weekend

2010-06-14T12:24:00.002+10:00

This weekend was a bittersweet one for Tasha. Saturday night we had Tegan here and then Sunday night Tasha went to the Baldwins. The girls have been cramming so much into this weekend. They wanted to do all their favourite things as this is the last weekend they have together before Tegans family move up to Queensland. Funnily enough most of their fav things revolve around water.

It is the middle of winter and we have had some very cold weather but not only did they wash the car but then decided they wanted to go to the pool! Madness! Yes okay it was Bay and Basin so it was heated but still......

They had a ball - it was so good to see the smiles on their faces as they laughed and played.

A week of soccer

2010-06-12T11:51:00.002+10:00

Wow with the mad week we have had you would think that not much else would fit, right? WRONG! This week has definately been soccer week in our family.
Starting with Tasha - Tash made the school rep soccer team which she was very excited about. they have been training hard and had their first game on Monday vs Shoalhaven Heads. They had a great game! The first half they played soooo well but just could not get the ball in the net. But they made up for that in the second half and won the game 3 -0!

Then monday night we headed out in the cold night to South Nowra for a make up game for Kyle as their game last week got rained out! Unfortunately they were unsuccessful but Kyle had a great game.

Wednesday night we headed out to Huskisson for another soccer game for Kyle. Talk about chilly! Husky is always cold but at 7 o'clock at night in the middle of winter it is freezing. You should have seen us (I forgot to take a pic) we had jumpers, warm jackets, scraves, gloves and hot chocolate!

Shoalhaven United were again unsuccessful.... they always have a blinder second half and in both games this week the second half score was 0-0 its just the goals they let in the first half that get them! Now we just need to figure out how to get them to play that well all game.

Then Friday is was Tashas turn again and they had a very exciting match against Callala. Illaroo ran rings around them but just couldnt score. Score was 0 -0 at full time so they went into overtime. Still 0-0 so it went into penalty shoot out which is a really bad way to win or lose a game but we came out victors 2 -0!

And now the World Cup is starting!

Soccer anyone??

Scrapping

2010-06-12T11:35:00.002+10:00

Wow it was only a week since the scrap day. Somehow it seems like so long ago. this week has been a loooongggg one! Anyway thought I'd better do a bit of show and tell to prove that I actually did do somescrapping in amongst all the chatting, coffee drinking, eating and ..... oh yeah ..... some more chatting!
Looking at my latest pages I realise how back to basics I am getting. This hasn't been a conscious decision and I do still love all my fussy cutting/layering fancy stuff. I guess I am aware of trying to explain the stories behind the pictures so people can just pick them up and not need me here to explain them.
Hmmmm may have to spend some time this afternoon creating a layout just for me!
WATCH THIS SPACE. hehe

Just had to say........

2010-06-11T08:16:00.002+10:00

Thanks to my amazing angels - don't know how I would have gotten through the last couple of days without knowing you were there. Your love and support is simply wonderful and at times all that keeps me putting one foot in front of the other. Thank you for always being there.

If you knocked on my door right now.....

2010-06-01T11:18:00.002+10:00

you would find........

* me in my daggy jeans with my hair not done
* 2 baskets of ironing in the middle of the lounge room
* a pile of cooking magazines spread all over the coffee table (working on this fortnights menu)
* me sitting in my craft room - watching episodes of Numbers on the computer and going through scrap magazines for inspiration
* The kids bedrooms slightly untidy with unmade beds
* the vacuum still sitting in the dining where I left it after using it
* Fresh cookies in a container on the kitchen bench
* piles of photos out - trying to sort out what I am doing at scrap day this weekend
* the scent of apple martini wafting through the house (oil burner not the cocktail!)

Another one!

2010-05-26T19:45:00.003+10:00

Last weekend we headed off for another weekend walk. This one was Tasha's choice and she decided on this place.......... I must admit we did cheat slightly and only started at the showground not down near the bridge but it was still a decent walk. The amazing thing....... Tegan willingly joined us again! I thought after dragging her around the bush at Currarong she would never come back!

We had a great time - did a lot of walking down memory lane - the kids loved hearing stories from both Tony and my childhood (even though there was quite a gap between said childhoods ~L~)

Wow the place has changed a lot but there was also a lot of familiar sights. The rope swing. The river crossing. The suspension bridge.

And yes again - a good amount of clowning around, hamming it up, laughing and rock climbing. (Including a discussion about the Ministry of Funny Walks from Monty Python!)

Well this weekend we will be heading up Georgia on Woodhill Mountain for the massive clearance sale. So probably no walk for us this weekend :(

Scrapping

2010-05-19T19:17:00.003+10:00

Yes you read that title right - "Scrapping". I actually spent some time in my scrapping room over the last few days and got some work done. As opposed to just sitting in my craft room with the door shut to pretend that the rest of the world (or at least the house) doesn't exist.
The scary bit..... I used Basic Grey! I have been feeling kind of overdosed on BG and had kind of avoided it a bit lately but the bittersweet papers jumped at me so out came the scissors (sorry Cass) and away we went! The first layout I did was using some photos from a couple of years ago. Tasha's biggest complaint was that it should have been titled "the weird ones" ~L~

Then with the left over bits I did a layout of Tasha and I. I keep telling myself I am going to try and do the minimalist type layout but this definately needs something added to it....... just got this far and the scrappers block kicked in - so it is in my pile to look at again at a later date.

Glimmer mist........ I love this stuff! I don't know if I should thank Kim and Cass or yell at them for teaching me about it and helping me to fall in love.

And a very, very simple, plain album full of family pictures. Still needs some tweaking but I'm liking it so far.

Bits and pieces

2010-05-18T11:48:00.005+10:00

Yes I know I have been slack - but Jane you should be careful what you ask for..... hold on tight as we head off on the update ride.

Lets start at Mothers Day....... I was reminded that I havent done show and tell yet so here you go. Firstly my nice warm boots for standing out on freezing cold soccer fields in the middle of the week in winter at night time. Having done the test last Wednesday they work well. I got new purple slippers for around the house and........ my gorgeous now black boots! JJJJAAAANNNEEEE........ they need a dance night! Now back to our normal viewing ~L~ Saturday morning we went up to Georgia - this is probably the last chance we will have to get photos etc. Next time we go up the mountain will be for the monster garage sale and clear out.
These hills are a lot of the reason Mum and John are leaving the mountain and heading down into town - imagine walking these hills a couple of times a day (at the age of 85).

We had a photo session with the kids in different places on the property. I love the relationship these two have. Yes they fight, argue, bicker etc....... but you take on one of them you take on both! I love how protective they are of each other. The other night I stuck my head into Kyle's room and they were playing a game of tetris with 3d blocks and the laughter coming out of there was wonderful.

Pity the grass covers half the faces but I love this shot. I was down one of the hills and looked up to see everyone standing at the edge of the driveway - love this pic.

The kids down at the front gate.

After spending some time at Georgia (and seeing some of Mum's old friends from school - one couple were one of the families we spent so much time with at Currarong, Noelene and Keith Larsen) we headed over the mountain to Kangaroo Valley and then up Barrengarry Mountain to Morton National Park and Manning Lookout.

Who said my family was normal??? They hammed it up something horrid at the "look out".

The view into Kangaroo Valley was a surprise - normally this view is a glorious bright green. I was shocked how brown the valley looked.

Oh and I have done some scrapping today! Will take some pics later if the light gets a bit better for show and tell!

Our little stroll

2010-05-09T20:17:00.002+10:00

Little stroll.... PPPffffttttt!
Friday night Tegan came to stay and since it was such a lovely day on saturday we decided to head out for a little bushwalk out to the wreck and back at Currarong.

Currarong has always held good memories for me as it was where we went nearly every school holidays as I was growing up. Mum, Dad, Mark and I would head off to our "holiday house" - (read tiny, tiny shack - had a look on the weekend I am sure it wasn't that small back then ~L~). We spent hours each day exploring the beach and climbing over the rocks. We were usually joined by other families - mainly the Riggs, Larsens and Stuarts (in their own places - they couldn't fit in ours!) and I always think back on those times very fondly.

So with this in mind I decided to take the kids for a nice walk out to the wreck of the SS Merimbula which I visited many, many times as a child. A nice easy stroll through the bush with a short climb over the rocks to get back. The problem with our plans? We took Tony!!!!! Usually it is just the kids and I who head out and we have a nice little stroll, look around, chat and enjoy the sunshine (and if we find some sand to play in then all the better). With Tony not only do you keep walking you "just go down this track" and "we may as well go this way" and 4 hours later you get back to the car.
So yes we were very exhausted and it was with sore feet (all the girls) and one sore ankle (yes - me!) we got home.
Having said all that we did have a great time and the kids had a ball exploring the rocks and wlaking along very narrow and extremely high cliffs. We found spiders, lizards, crabs, plant life, seaweed, and even a knife and fork and toothbrush! It was great to see the kids having so much fun in a place I had such good memories about.

I was amazed at how little of the wreck was left. Hmmmm I am sure it isn't that long since I was out there as a kid.

What a weekend

2010-05-04T12:06:00.002+10:00

Well what can I say - after last week and all its ups and downs this weekend started with a bang - LITERALLY!
After picking Cass up at her place and driving up to Sutherland we had just about made it incident free and were pulling into the car park near the train station when... WHAM... a guy on a pushbike cut up the inside of me using a footpath and as I turned into the drive way he rode full speed into the passenger side door. Poor Cass - big dint in the door, side mirror broken. That would be a shocking way to start the weekend right.... oh but wait...... theres more. I was still quite shaken and not quite with it so after booking in at the hotel I turned and walked straight into the ropes they use for the queue and then....... somehow managed to sit in bird poo at lunch time (yes I had black pants on!)

Oh well the day had to head up from there! And it did! We went to the Capitol Theatre and bought our Ozmopolitan cocktails whilst we waited for the show to start. Wow what a show (note * these are not my photos - I cheated and used publicity shots). The costumes, the voices, the lighting - Rob Mills poured into tight tight pants that looked suitable to be worn by Gaston from Beauty and the Beast! I LOVED the whole thing. The story line was incredible - it confronted racism, bullying, friendships and incorporated the Wizard of Oz in such a way that I will never watch it the same again. If you get a chance you MUST go see Wicked.

Now last time we were in Sydney they kindly put on a fireworks display for us as Cass and I both loooove fireworks. Well they must have known we were coming because for this weekend only - Fireworks at Darling Harbour! YAY

Oh and what trip to Darling Harbour is complete without a trip to the Lindt Cafe!

NOTE* I thought I was doing okay after the car accident on the weekend until I was sitting in the driveway on Monday waiting for the garage door to open and poor Tasha knocked on the passenger side car window. Only for me to totally lose it and sit there in the driveway bawling and shaking. I just heard the bang and saw a person at the window and it brought it all back to me. Poor Tash!

Mad week

2010-04-30T14:51:00.002+10:00

What a totally insane week. Very busy and heaps of emotional stuff going on too.

Counting down to Wicked weekend with Cass. WOO HOO. The scary thing....... I am leaving tomorrow and have been feeling so bogged down etc that I have barely even thought about packing and ...... wait for it..... wait for it........ there is NO LIST! AAARRRGGGGHHHHH

NO packing list, no thought of what to pack. Maybe I should just take an empty bag and go shopping! ~L~ Yeah right

What a weekend!

2010-04-27T11:28:00.002+10:00

Phew.... time to sit and relax.... yeah right!

What a big weekend. Saturday was spent cooking and preparing for our annual bbq lunch. Setting up tables for 32 people is fun! Yeah - fun like root canal surgery! ~L~. It was going to be a smallish gathering of people we count as our friends - those who play an important role in our lives and who we spend time with during the year - sort of blew out to a bit more than that.

Then Sunday we hit the ground running (well tried to) I got up and finished organising food. Was hoping to have some help from Tony with setting up but with his mucked up sleep pattern lately it was almost 11:00 before he got out of bed. So then he hit the ground running as we had just received a call from a family of 5 telling us they were coming so we had to find another table/chairs etc.

It was a mad day and I don't think I got outside much at all. In fact I only saw some people when they walked in the door and then when they came to say goodbye! I did get to spend some time with Cass and Jane and we set up a "learners corner" in the kitchen for Jane to help Cass with her crochet and me with my knitting!

Then Monday (after finishing the clean up - wow!) the kids and I headed out to Vincentia for some sun and fresh air. We did the short bushwalk from Greenfields beach to Hyams beach then we went walking out on the rocks before spending some time digging in the sand (the kids not me ). After a couple of hours of walking, climbing, and sand sculpting we headed home for Kyle's soccer training. Hmmmm it is starting again - cold, dark nights hanging around soccer fields 2 nights a week - YAY!

And now..... the countdown is on - 4 days until Cass and I head to Sydney. Wish Jane and SJ could have joined us.... next time girls - all four of us will hit Sydney (boy will it survive ~L~). I soooooo need this weekend. Can't wait.

Gotta love the postie

2010-04-20T13:04:00.003+10:00

Well at least when he brings special mail like this anyway!

I love getting cards in the mail and treasure each and appreciate every one of them (as anyone who has been in my craft room can attest - who needs decorations when I can decorate with cards) and I keep thinking oh I need to put this on my blog when they arrive.... but knowing how good I am at regular blogging ~L~ it doesn't seem to happen.

Anyway enough waffling. This arrived in my mailbox and I just had to share it with you. Not only is it special because it came from the most amazing friend who, even though we are miles and miles apart, always seems to know when life is difficult and when I am struggling to keep my head above water - I had to share it becasue this girl continues to inspire me in so many ways. She is a marvellous mother, wife and the most totally awesome scrapper. Love ya girl.

Check out this gorgeous creation she made!

Isn't it just simply gorgeous!

Countdowns!

2010-04-20T12:57:00.002+10:00

Wow - life never seems to slow down does it? But at least I have lots of things to look forward to!

Firstly our traditional "oops we missed Australia Day - lets try Anzac Day" BBQ. This is a great chance to catch up with people - some we see regularly, some we only see this once a year - I don't know that I am looking forward to the work involved but the catching up bit I look forward to immensely each year. I am determined that one year the Allan's will join us..... it just doesn't seem right having a "friends" gathering without them :(

Then the weekend after that I am heading to Sydney with Cass for a totally wicked weekend!! The official story is we are going to see Wicked the musical but I like my version better. ~L~

Next on the agenda is my friend Gail, who I used to work with, is due to have her first bubba. What an exciting time to come (and living literally 10 houses away she has close babysitters!).

This is where I would love to be adding "and my next trip to Melbourne is...." but so far nothing is organised. Sweetie I promise I will get down there this year. Just not sure when - I keep checking for cheap flights so beware you may get a last minute guest!

Sssshhh.........

2010-04-20T12:46:00.002+10:00

Sssshhh. don't tell anyone.................
The kids are back at school and I finally have a day off work. I know I should be getting stuck into this total pigsty of a house but ~hehe~ I snuck into my craft room.

These first few layouts I can't really claim as today's work because they were started when I was away for the scrapping weekend at Melross - all they needed was some journalling or a title but hey they are now completed layouts..... so that counts doesn't it ?!?

This one was totally today's effort. Was going to call it "Ladies with Class" but figured that was stretching it a bit far ~L~. I always have a great time when we get together for our annual girls weekend.

And...... i made a card with my leftovers straight away rather than putting in the "later" box and then never getting there. Fairly plain and simple but it is a card made of left overs so it qualifies!

What a night

2010-04-14T22:36:00.002+10:00

With the kids still at mum's tonight it was girls night!
First I went to Kohlis Indian restaurant and got some of this........ Then went around to the place Tracy is staying to watch the projector TV. Mmmmmm wall to wall, roof to floor werewolves and vampires. Yum yum. Sitting back in our recliners drooling.....

Then a spin in the amazing massage chair. Wow this thing is unbelievable!

Now back home with a glass of wine and some left over easter eggs.....

What more could a girl need????

Mother and Son

2010-04-11T22:30:00.002+10:00

Well I must say the house seems very quiet right now! Not only are we still short Tracy and Jacob but Tasha has gone to a friends place for a sleep over and Tony has gone to work so it is just Kyle and I!

We have had a fun night - we watched TV - ate some amazing fresh fish - and spent some time together in the kitchen making home made sausage rolls ready for dinner tomorrow night. With the budget so tight we have been sticking tightly to the menu plan and tonight we spent about $20 on ingredients and made enough sausage rolls for 5 meals!!!! The best bit is I know exactly what went into them (hehe LOTS of carrot and zucchini - then when I serve then up with vegies tomorrow they get a double dose! ~L~)

Working at the car wash....

2010-04-10T22:27:00.002+10:00

After their water fight we put the girls to work washing the car! Hmmmm think just as much water went over the girls as the car ~L~

Thanks girls - It looks great