Mum's birthday

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!

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

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.....

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!
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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!).

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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

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!