Well, another week goes by and not really a whole lot to tell. Ray and I have been running around talking to builders. Hopefully by the end of March we will have started building our new home, or at the very least, finally picked a builder. (I will take bets on the fact that we will be no futher ahead then, than we are now.)

Matthew has had a rough week at school, trouble settling in and getting to work. Any ideas on how to get him 'interested' in learning again would be appreciated. On a positive note, he did get a personal best for the 400m at little aths last night - so that was great. Ray and I were cheering him on (well yelling/screaming him on) and it seemed to have an impact - will have to try it again next week! (If the powers that be don't come and take us away for noise pollution, as we were really rather loud).

Tori has had a good week; on Monday we saw the maternal health nurse and Tori is doing great. Tori is doing everything her average height friends are doing and more! The only thing she has trouble with is climbing and walking down stairs...but hey with legs like hers, I don't blame her. As for the stairs, she can still get down them, she just does it in her own way and that has GOT to count for something. I figure it doesn't matter how you acheive it, just that you do acheive it! I was really thinking Tori might need speech therapy, but in the past few months, since grommets and the ear infections pretty much stopping, she has come ahead in leaps and bounds. At 21 months she has a volcabulary of 75+ words; and that my mat. health nurse assures me; is great!

Toris measurements are doing exactly what I don't want them to do, going up in the weight, and down in the height. She now weighs 10.75 kgs/23.65 lbs and is 69 cm/27" tall. That puts her above the 75 percentile for weight and at around the 35th percentile for height....making her look somewhat like a very cute, minature version of the Micheline Man! If Tori would stop eating for even just a second of the day it might help, but take away her food and you know all about it. Again, any tips on good low joule, low carb, low salt snacks would be very appreciated. Fruit is good, but too much of it and other problems arise....if you know what I mean.

Just to end - I thought it appropriate to put up a couple of pics of the beautiful Tori...so without further ado -

The first photo is one of the very first in ages that I got of Tori looking at the camera and smiling. The second...well...she looked so cute knocking on Nan's door that I couldn't resist. One of my hopes for Tori (and Matthew for that matter) is that no door is ever an obstacle and that they will always find a way of discovering what is on the other side.....

Be gone Paparazzi....

Ok...I said I would try to get some pics of the cupcake making experience, so here they are.

Matthews decorated cake is on the left, Toris on the right....can you see the big difference between them?!

Now what would be a cupcake 'making' experience without a cupcake 'eating' experience to follow...so here is the pic of Tori after she had finished eating her cupcake....can you tell she doesn't get chocolate cake too often????

Now you might be wondering about the title of todays blog?

Too bad if you're not, I am going to tell you anyway.

Today while I was in the shower Matthew decided to take some footage of Tori saying, "Ray". Now the video taping isn't that great, and you actually will only hear Tori say, "Ray" twice, and you cant really see her face that well. But you tell me - do you think Tori has the 'Get that camera out of my face' and 'Paparazzi be gone' thing down pat?

I have to give Matthew some credit here....he did what she wanted right away...but then again...with that attitude, who wouldn't?

Bye for now and MWAH!

Happy Valentines Day!

Not much goss today, we made some cupcakes and had a candlelit dinner for four .... hmmm ... really romantic! Will try to get some pics of the cupcakes and Tori eating one, up here tomorrow - seemed to have misplaced the camera right now (oops).

Ray had a good day speaking with both his Mum and sister, Nancy. It is always good to catch up with the Candian contingent. Today is hard for them and us, being that it was this day, 5 years ago that Rays Dad left us for what I believe to be a better place. We all still miss him lots and I hate the fact that he didn't get to meet the wonderful Tori Rae, even if I do know he is watching over her! I think he would of loved her dearly.....like he loved all his grandkids.

Now, oddly enough, today is the day that Tori has learnt to say "Ray". Well, it comes out more like 'Way', but she is most definatly saying Ray! For those of you that don't know; our Ray is actually Raymond, and Raymond's dad is Ray....this is where Tori got her middle name, so how uncanny is it that she learnt that name today? Kinda nice really!! IYKWIM! Gee I am rambling....sorry....I have got to learn to stop doing that.

Anyways, better go. Hugs and kisses all round with extra big ones to our Canadian family today, we are with you in our thoughts and wish we could be there. Love you all.

Get Real

Last night while checking out some scrapbooking blogs, I came across Lusi Austin's blog. I have only ever seen some of Lusi's work in magazines and have never met or spoken with her, but she threw out a challenge that I feel compelled to attempt. She challenges us to 'Get Real' - to get real with not only ourselves, but to those around us. She challenges us to share the things in our day that wouldn't normally make the cut on our blogs because they make us look 'less than perfect'. So here goes, my first 'Get Real' post:

Really .... when Tori woke up at 7am crying as Ray was walking out the door, I prayed she would go back to sleep and was a little bit miffed when she didn't.

Really .... at 9 years of age I wish that Matthew could get ready for school without having to be yelled at every morning. (I mean really .... how hard is it to get dressed, brush your teeth, make sure your homework is packed and eat your breakfast?)

Really .... my house is a pigsty and I don't really care, except if someone comes over, then I'll 'just die'.

Really .... I didn't want to wake Tori up to go to work on my day off, for a one hour inservice on a new computer program - but I did, just to make my boss happy.

Really .... I saved my grocery shop till today, as my shop is donating all profits today to the Bushfire Appeal. Really .... I got carried away and did my Easter shopping too, when I probably should of donated the money I spent on eggs to the Bushfire Appeal.

Really .... I am having second thoughts on if I should post this.

There you go. My 'less than perfect' post. Hope all is well on this beautiful Friday afternoon. Congratulations to Mark and Kat on the safe arrival of their new baby girl.....woohoo....a new cousin for us!

Up in flames.

Wow - I am not sure what to say. I had a big week of news for all and tons of photos, but the fires that are rampaging our state at the moment have struck a chord with me. We drove home from Melbourne yesterday and had to come through Wandong, which is shown in photo 1 (and we were on the side of the Hwy least affected) one of the worst hit areas. It was truly the most devastating sight I have ever seen. Houses along the side of the road - gone! Farms - gone! Trees - gone! Animals - gone! The area was black, with only shells of trees and houses left in the fires wake. Even the houses that somehow (miraculously) remained standing, left a hole in my heart. I can not even begin to imagine what these people felt...the fear, the shock - it just blows me away. Dad has a very good friend in this area and he and his house are OK, but I wonder at how many friends he will now see suffer, how his community will suffer. I pray that God is with him and everyone affected at this time. Once we past through the area we realised that the smoky haze in photo 2, was to stay for the remainder of our drive home. Whilst our house is about 40 minutes away from the nearest fire right now, our town is filled with smoke which is a constant reminder of what is occurring right on our doorstep. This last photo is what I took last night out the front of our house as the son was setting. The camera couldn't capture the colour of the son, it appeared to us a red ball and was actually one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. It is amazing that even when disaster is present, beauty can still be found! Sorry for my ramblings...guess I just needed to share. Please spare a thought or prayer for those who need it most right now.