TRAM Tales

Yes - poor blog you have been neglected....

2010-07-22T09:52:00.006+10:00

....and for that I am truly sorry!

I guess I don't get on here that much because in all honesty I am not sure that anyone is even reading it half the time. It is hard to maintain something when you think no one is interested.

As for house photos - there are still some things that need to be done before I really want to take pics, there is some painting that needs to be finished, and a few little odds and ends. I will get some up soon I promise....I haven't forgotten that I promised them.

In the meantime here are some photos over the last few months...in no particular order.

Cool boy!

Gorgeous Gal

Those packing boxes were so much fun to play in.
Cute - even when throwing a tantrum.
This is our friend Nate giving us his "treasure" face.

Tori at swimming lessons. Just before her first swimming lesson.

BTW she got her first sticker the other day, for floating with a device on her own for 10 seconds....she was pretty proud....or at least Mummy was. The first night in the house, this is how the kids slept! Actually for the first 3 weeks or so they ended up like this because Matthew's bed was all over the room while waiting for replacement parts.....don't ask! Will post a pic of the bed next post. Burying Matthew in the gravel!? Matthew burying Tori in the gravel. Just a cute one of the two of them playing. Do you kind of get the idea that even though they argue like.....brother and sister lets say.....they love eachother VERY much? Well that is it for photos. As most of you know I have resigned from my job. If you want more insight into that I have posted on it here. It was big decision to leave a job that I love, but sometimes a gal has got to do what a gal has to do. I start my new job next week as an non-emergency ambulance attendant....looking forward to it. Sounds like it will be a fairly relaxed and fun type of job.

The house is coming along nicely...but very slowly. We are starting to get annoyed at the lack of progress. There are still things that need to be done and we want them done now...I mean come on. We have been pretty patient, but the patience is wearing thin. Matthew loves it here and he is outside 90% of the time kicking his footy - gotta love that. He is often covered in mud - but at least he is getting some fresh air.

Ray, unfortuantly, has been way too busy at work. With some massive restructruing going on and him having to take on more than one role it seems like we hardly see him. It should settle soon though which will be really nice. Then it will be time for him to get stuck into the new garden.

I have been enjoying my scrapping heaps and for more info on that you can check out my scrapping blog. Something has got to keep me sane.

Tori is Tori - she is a busy 3 year old who wants to be doing something every minute. She is a bright little thing (at least I think so). She says her alphabet, counts to 14 or there abouts, sings so many songs it isn't funny (but my favourite is her version of 'shut up and drive'), knows her colours, writes her name (on the new walls sometimes), recognises some letters....

Nothing else to really tell.

Hope everyone is well. Hugs to you all and please remember even though I am not always blogging, you are all in my thoughts.

MWAH

Anthea

xoxo

An Update

2010-03-22T10:51:00.004+11:00

Gee - it's been a while hasn't it. Not a whole lot going on, March is nearly over and we should be moving into the new house in about a months time. It is coming along very nicely - I can't wait to be in it.

The new kitchen

Ray and I are both another year older....woo hoo :) We both had quiet but nice birthday's this year. Our pressy to ourselves is the house - we decided that there will be so many new things we want to buy once we are in that we will save our hard earned $s till then.

Tori is doing really well. She is finally toilet trained. She is growing 'up' so fast. She wants to do everything by herself. It is not uncommon to hear "NO! Me do it!" She is loving childcare and playgroup and her fun personality is just getting 'funner'. Her favourite activities now are playing outside, annoying her brother, Play School and Dora. She also has developed a fondness for writing on walls and tables. Ughh.

Tori with Alex and Abi from Play School

Tori reading to dad.

Tori on her first fair ride (with Matthew)

Matthew is doing well in school. I still can't believe that my 'little' boy is in grade 5. He is still the kind of kid who doesn't try very hard, but manages to do well anyway - one day I hope he will put some effort in. Matthew is still enjoying his swimming, but it won't be much longer before swimming lessons are over. If he wants to do squad - he will move into that. Football season is coming up and he is looking forward to that. He got to meet some Collingwood players the other day, and although I shudder writing that name, he loves them and was thrilled to get their signatures and his ball, hat, drinkbottle and anything else he had on him. He gave up the playstation for Lent (and has surprisingly stuck to it), but still loves his gameboy.

Matthew with a butterfly

(I STILL Love this photo)

I am right into my scrapping right now and loving it. Although I am not the world's greatest scrapper....I have so much fun cutting and pasting. It is soooo therapeutic. Sometimes I am asked what is the point of it. I guess the answer to that is, not only is it fun - it is a great way of documenting stories for the kids and future generations. Hopefully when I am gone from this world, my kids kids and their kids etc. will kind of know me through what I have written. I also really want to do a photography class.....I just love playing with the camera!

Ray is doing well. Still no hobbies to speak of, but he did enjoy watching Canada win lots of gold in the last olympics. The highlight for him was when Canada beat the US in the hockey in overtime - what a great game. He was hoping to get his boat licence before Easter, but I think he has left it a little late. Ray has to have some surgery on his foot next week to remove a piece of glass that has been embedded in there for about...... 3 months. Crazy fool left it that long to go to the doctors to get it checked out. *insert rolling eye emoticon here*. He will be off work for a week recovering (don't ask me why it is gonna take that long - I think they plan on cutting the whole foot off.)

Anyway - just wanted to let everyone know we are still alive and doing well - hope everyone else is well too.

Hugs all round & MWAH.

Anthea

xox

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2010-01-03T14:04:00.006+11:00

OK, in true typical Anthea style, I am late with the wishes in my title, but I promise they are sincere. I did try to touch base with everyone on FB, but if I missed you....please accept my apologies, I was thinking of you all and I truly wish everyone a wonderful and happy New Year.

I trust that you all had a good one. We certainly did. Mum got this idea in her head that it would be fun to go camping for Christmas and New Years. After some convincing (yes it took a bit with some of us), we all decided that camping would indeed be fun. Camping on New Years is not new, but the whole camping on Christmas Day was a concept that even most of us had some trouble with. Deb, Shane and the girls were unfortuantly not with us this year; but by Christmas Eve at around 5ish, Mum, Dad, Shell, Brian, Dylan and Jake (Brian's nephew) and us Englishs' were all out camping at a place called Burrowey Reserve, ready to see in Christmas.

Now, don't get us wrong, just because we were camping doesn't mean that we missed out on any of the luxuries of a good ol' traditional Christmas, we just did it in true Aussie style. Now I know that there are a lot of Aussies out there who would question whether the word traditional Christmas and camping belong in the same sentance, but for some of my international friends I would imagine it is downright unbelievable, so here for you all to see are some of the photos from our week out.......(Just bear in mind there are a few - I have resized them to make veiwing them a bit easier, but it still might take a little while....sorry!)

No Christmas is complete without a Christmas tree...

One of the mini 'wreaths' that adorned each of our caravans

Christmas Eve, we kept with our Italian tradition of seafood - and boy was it goooooood!

Santa found us....despite one young man not being sure he would....and you can't see here, but the pressies and tree were about the only things not to get wet in the rain the night before - Good old Santa knew just where to sit them.

Tori wondering if there was more in her stocking. Yep - she understood the concept of pressies this year.

Matthew with a boat that Santa bought him, how clever of Santa to know that boat would get lots of use on the river.

The pressies that we got for eachother and the kids. Mmmmm - no! None of us were spoilt.

The Christmas table, complete with home made bon bons (The boys all got fishing tackle in theirs and us girls got a keychain with a supermarket trolley token on them and hair clips & Tori got hair accesories).

Yep - Ray got his turkey and to eat it too.....(in case you are wondering, it had to be cut in half to fit in the camp oven)

The food (salads instead of veggies), and yes there are several bottles of champers on the go.

Mum & Dad

Michelle and Brian.

Dylan with his new toy.

Tori modeling her new bathers and thongs. (And before you ask, Tori did have a hat and rashie vest, but it was very late in the afternoon and very overcast and she was covered in sunscreen.) Oh and she did not wear ear plugs and she did NOT get an ear infection the whole time we were there!

The boys cooling off after Christmas lunch.

Matthew showing of his new t-shirt (& muscles).

Well, thats it for now, hope you enjoyed. For the very observant, you will notice some of these photos are larger than others....this was in no way intentional and by the time I realized my mistake I was not downloading them again.

I hope everyone had as good a Christmas as us....it really was fun; very little mess to clean up, a river to cool off in, everyone got to have a drink without worrying about driving, if anyone wanted a nap they could, the food was great (albiet it be simple) and most importantly we had eachothers company for the whole day!!!!!! Other than the fact that we missed Deb and Shane and the girls and of course, all of Rays family, it really was a perfect Christmas Day. So perfect that we might just do it again next year!

I will post more pics later. Love, hugs and kisses all round....

Anthea

xoxo

Just some random pics...

2009-12-14T22:01:00.004+11:00

Matthew and Tysha after the school concert......she doesn't have cooties Matthew!

The veiw from the upstairs bathroom in the new house....I can not wait to sit in that spa.

The house as it stands now...it is going sooooooo slowly.

Tori in my pjs.....too cute.

Me and Dianne - it was great to see you! (I love this pic of us)

Thats all folks...

Hugs all round

MWAH

xox

Matthew is 10!

2009-12-10T12:48:00.005+11:00

OK -so I am a bit slow in posting, but what's new?

Happy Birthday to you Matthew. We love you so very much and we wish for you nothing but the best in life. I can't believe that our baby boy is in double digits now......I remember the day you were born vividly. You were just beautiful with your black hair and blue eyes....nothing except the black hair has changed.

We all love you. Even though Tori is sometimes the biggest pain in the butt to you....I hope that you realize and treasure just how much she truly adores you. I love that on your birthday, you pulled her close and deliberatley cut the bottom of the cake so that you had to kiss her.........it was heartwarming.

I love that you are funny, smart and kind (when you want to be). I love that you still love to have me read to you. I love that you still kiss me goodbye in the morning (with your friends watching) and still kiss me goodnight everynight. I love that you still love to hug me! Even though I get frustrated with your extreme stubborness and dogheadedness (is that a word?), I know and love that will help you go far in life. I hope you know that you can be anything that you want to be.

Matthew, you may be 10 - but you will always be my baby boy!

This is Matthew's last day of being 9.....

This is when Matthew had to kiss the closest girl for cutting the bottom of the cake! (OK - I made him re-do it....but you get the idea!)

Blowing out the candles.....(and yes there is 11 candles....one is to make him grow).

Matthew putting on his new shoes.....(he MADE me take this pic!)

Here is Matthew with 2 of his friends. They stayed over Saturday night and we all went to the movies to see Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. The movie was in 3D and here they all are with their 3D glasses.

That is it for now....

Love and Hugs to all.

Anthea

xoxo

The spoiled under - 30 crowd!

2009-10-22T18:57:00.005+11:00

I got this e-mail again today and it gave me a chuckle (again), so I thought I would share it all with you. Hope you enjoy!

THE SPOILED UNDER-30 CROWD!!!

If you are 30 or older you will think this is hilarious!!!!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking Twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... barefoot... BOTH ways Yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!! There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take, like, a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe! There were no MP3' s or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished and the tape would come undone. Cause - that's how we rolled, dig?

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it! And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen.. forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel! NO REMOTES!!!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd

Have split my blog....

2009-09-27T15:53:00.006+10:00

into two!

Decided that splitting the scrapping from the other stuff might be in order. Will see how I go. As I get more organized - I will add a link to the other one. But if you are interested - my new blog is redantscrap . Hope to see some of you there.

Other than the usual colds and coughs at this time of the year. We are all doing well. We are meant to be camping, but the weather is so cold and wet it is just not funny. The house is progressing slowly. Just so that I can say I have kept you updated - here is the latest pic - although from what I hear, the trusses are now up and the roof and gutter will be going on this week. Yeah!

Also - just had to show you this pic of Tori. Last week I go to pick her up from child care and they tell me - oh and tomorrow is dress up day. "What? It is 5.30 at night and you are telling me this now?". "Oh there is a note on the door - it's been there since Monday" they say. I am thinking yeah - I love reading through masses of notes to find the one that applies to me....and it is ONLY Tuesday and Tori doesn't go Mondays...... Anyway - I try not to panic. I mean I have NO costumes at home at all and finding an outfit with less than half an hour before the shops close - that will even come close to fitting Tori is really stretching the friendship - OK killing it really! I don't even try!

I do come home and think what I am going to do?

I have a pile of clothes that someone has just given me to go through - I find a red t-shirt - that needs mending. Well, I decide I have to mend it anyway and that is likely to happen - NEVER - so I draw big black spots on it and some wings on the back with marker. OK - now I need antanae! Yes - it just so happens that I have these massive red pipecleaners on hand (don't quite know why) so I attach them to a black headband. I added in some black pants (which as luck would have it,I had bought the day before), some red socks and some black shoes and voille - what do you have - one very cute Toribug. Not too bad - considering the costume was finished and ready to go at 6pm.

Have a good one everyone....and take care.

Hugs and kisses

Anthea

xox

Some recent scrapping

2009-09-13T11:31:00.003+10:00

As usual, I have not been scrapping as much as I would like of late. Between the house, work, kids, etc - just no time.

This weekend however, (between the house, work and kids) I decided to participate in my second Cyber Crop ever and have had a blast. The gals over at Scrapbooking Top 50 have been a blast to hang out with. We are from all over Australia and there is even one gal from the States there.

Anyway - still haven't done a heap of scrapping, as I have been too busy gasbagging with the gals and getting to know them; but this is what I produced on night 2.

This is an all time favourite pic of Matthew and Lily when visiting Canada last year. I reckon they could be models. The challenge here was to have 90% white and the other 10% had to be one colour only - Despite the fact, that I can't get a decent photo - I really like the result.

This second pic is from an online class that I did at Scrapbooking Top 50 about a month ago - I didn't have the kit that everyone else had so had to put it together with my own stuff. I originally did not like this LO too much, but I must admit, it has grown on me. I have included the link to the class if anyone is interested in checking it out.

Well thats it for now! Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Hugs to all and MWAH

Anthea

xoxo

Please - tell us if we are crazy?????

2009-09-02T10:50:00.004+10:00

OK - some of you might already know, but Ray and I have been pretty stressed the past few days over the colour of the bricks that have arrived at the new house.

We ordered a sandstone/cream/beige brick (whatever you want to call it) and we feel we got more of a brown/ tan brick. The 1st and 3rd bricks in this pile are the sample that we were shown and that we ordered (the first brick is slightly darker than the 3rd because we soaked it in water as we were told that is why the bricks were different.)

The 2nd and 4th bricks however is a sample of what has been delivered to the house and the builders have started to lay.

Tell us - and please be honest!!!!!!

a) Do these bricks look the same?

b) If this were your house, would you be happy to take the darker brick (even though you ordered the lighter one), because it is close enough and they are 'only a couple of shades darker?

I really would love some opinions here....from everyone and anyone who visits - we just need to know if we are stressing too much and is this really is an 'acceptable difference' that we just need to learn to live with.

Thanks for your opinions.......

Anthea
xoxo

Some photos

2009-08-17T12:07:00.004+10:00

Not much to share. On Saturday we headed to Walwa for the day to visit Mum and Dad and Shell and Brian who were up there camping. Here are some pics I took (bear in mind they are re-sized for easier loading so the quality is not as good as IRL.

The one of all of us was the best of a bad bunch - guess we are just not that photogenic...not at the same time anyway. Someones eyes are closed, some one is looking away, someones belly is showing. (I'll give you one guess as to who that could be?)

Oh - the concentration just blows me away. We might just make a football player out of him yet.

To really appreciate this, I should of taken some video. This is Tori pretending to be a seagull. The noise she makes is truly horrendous, but gee it makes us laugh.

And finally - my favourite shot of the weekend - possibly worthy of blowing up and framing - the gorgeous Tori in Aunt Shells hat....

On that note - have a good one everyone.

Hugs all round

Anthea

xoxo

All dressed up...

2009-08-10T12:53:00.006+10:00

Ok all, here are some pics of our night out on Saturday. The ball was alot of fun and I think that we all scrubbed up OK! Michelle and I felt great and the boys....well...what can I say? A man in a tux. "Hubba Bubba Baby".

This is one of my favourite pics of the night.
A huge big thank you to our darling sister Debbie who drove and hour and half to come and babysit for us - you have no idea how much we appreciated it. Thank you.

Thanks for looking.

Anthea

xoxo

Q. How do you end a drought?

2009-08-07T11:25:00.002+10:00

A. Have Ray and Anthea build a house.......lol!

Seriously, it has barely stopped raining since they did the site cut two weeks ago. The block is looking a little like a mini lake (OK maybe not that bad...but you get the idea). The slab was meant to go in this week, but nooooo it rained and it really hasn't stopped and doesn't look like stopping for a while yet. Now for the past few years I have not complained about any rain we have had. In fact, regardless of what was happening I have thanked the Lord above for ANY rain he has sent our way...but this week...my thanks are a little half hearted. I am glad we are filling up the dams, but slightly disappointed about the fact that nothing will happen with the house until that slab gets laid...oh well....maybe next week?

On another note.....we are looking forward to going out tomorrow night. Ray and I will be dolled up to the nines for a black tie ball we are attending. Stay tuned for some pics....nice ones I hope!

A few tidbits and our block.....

2009-07-20T21:27:00.010+10:00

OK - first things first. Beth - this LO was the one that I did in response to the journal it challenge a few months ago. I know, I am a little slow in uploading, but better late than never I guess?

Secondly, the other week with me trying to encourage Matthews new found love of cooking, I asked him to cook us something in the slowcooker. I took him shopping and he picked the ingredients.....(OK - I did recommend the tomato and I forgot to take a pic of the meat, but this is what he chose.)

In case you can't see everything, there is celery, leak, mushroom, eggplant, onion, asparaus, tomatoes, garlic, some herb mixture thingo, capsicum, bok choy and not shown is the meat. The strawberries and cherries were for desert. Matthew cooked and prepared nearly everything - seriously the only things I did were the leek (cause I had never prepared it before), the eggplant, and I the bok choy (cause I didn't want to eat grit). Matthew tried to cut the onions, but gave up very quickly. This is what it turned out like....

Let me assure you - it was DELICIOUS. I am glad I took a photo, cause now we can replicate it.
What can I get him to cook next time?????

Next. Here is a photo of Tori in an outfit made especially for her by two very kind and special people. Sonia, a co-worker hemmed the jeans and added the butterfly as she knew how hard I was finding it to buy jeans for Tori, especially pretty girly ones. The jumper (or sweater for my US friends) was knitted by a patients wife who knew I was having trouble with finding jumpers...(you just can't hem a jumper). She has made it to fit, but has also put press studs in the head opening in case Tori couldn't get it over her head. I gave her free reign on the colours and I LOVE what she had come up with. Thank you to both of you for your very special gifts.....they are truly appreciated and I hope you can see from the photo how much Tori loves them.

Now - last but not least.....some pics of the block before the building begins tomorrow. These first 4 photos are from the 4 corners of the block. Excuse the sun flare in some of them...it was going on sunset. I have had to compress the photos for blogger, but if you are really observant, you will see Ray and Matthew in the 2nd one, Tori in the 3rd one and Matthew in the 4th....but it will take some looking.

This was a photo I took while standing there talking with our builder......this was taken from where the patio will be......This is part of the veiw that we will be looking every day and night while we are living in this house.....This was the beginning of our first sunset on this block. THIS is part of why we fell in love with this block.

And... this is us.....as a reminder of where we are now. Yep, we are worn out and tired from running around today...but this is us.....as we start the next phase of our lives....wish us luck and please pray that this house turns out just the way we envision it and that we will indeed live happily ever after.

If you got this far...thanks for reading. Have a great day,evening or night, depending on where you are and when you read this.

Hugs to all.....

Anthea

xoxo

Good enough to eat??

2009-06-30T10:02:00.004+10:00

Matthew had his foodathon at school on Friday....just thought I would share a pic of what he looked like. Now I am not the best drawer and these are not the best photos, but it should give you an idea!

I think he looked good enough to eat....hehehe.

Hugs to all.

Anthea

xoxo

I've been tagged...

2009-06-24T22:14:00.006+10:00

so without further ado, here are my answers:-

8 things I look forward to:
Catching up with Nonna on the weekend and making sure for myself that she is doing OK.
Catching up with the rest of the family on the weekend.
Going and picking more stuff for the house tomorrow.
Building the house.
Holidays.
Weekends off.
The day that Matthew figures out how to do as he is told....hehe.
Finishing this assignment (yep -I am still procrastinating - I think someone needs to put a bomb under me)

8 things I did yesterday
Worked (hard).
Laughed.
Watched some TV.
Hugged my husband and kids and told them I loved them.
Phoned my Aunt.
Chatted to my sister on the phone for an hour and a half.
Checked my email.
Had coffee with Ray before the kids woke up.

8 things I wish I could do
Wake up feeling like I had actually slept.
Speak Italian.
Cook.
Hire a house keeper.
Help Matthew be a better person (right now it isn't good).
Do my job (but in a voluntary capacity).
Be more patient and less angry with the kids.
Paint.

8 things I’ve watched lately
Play School.
The Night Garden *screws up face and breathes really deep*.
Pokemon.
Merlin (new fav in the house).
Master Chef.
Everybody Loves Raymond
I really cant think of anything else right now.....

8 People who I tag - sorry if you have already been tagged!
Kim
Mejane
Katie
Melisa
Sarah
Sue
Jenni
Dina

Night all....hugs all round
Anthea
xoxo

Master Chef Matthew

2009-06-18T20:52:00.004+10:00

OK - the other day in the supermarket, Matthew announced that he wanted to cook dinner that night. He proceeded to tell me what he wanted to cook. We had to have carrots, peas, red pepper and meat "in strips". I already had a cauliflower in my hand at this stage, so he agreed that I didn't have to put it back.

We came home and the process of creating began. Matthew peeled and cut the carrots, boiled the beans....(yep the peas I thought we had at home were beans)....and helped cut the caulifower. I taught him how to cut the red pepper and Ray helped Matthew cut the rib eye steaks into strips.

We steamed, boiled, stir-fried and sauteed the various foods and Matthew arranged them on a plate. Now the meat in strips had to be placed in a glass for a few minutes after being cooked to give it a roundish appearence (that is the best way I can describe it) and put in the middle of our plates in 'circles'. He then cut up the cauliflower and filled the circles and decorated the plates with the remaining vegetables

..... this is his creation.....

So - who do you think has been watching too much Master Chef.....!?

Hugs all round.

Anthea

xoxox

One Lovely Blog.....

2009-06-15T08:48:00.003+10:00

I received my very first blog award from my lovely scrapping friend Sue. Thank you Sue.

Here are the rules:
1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Now picking 15 people to send awards to is going to be difficult...so I am just going to say I nominate everyone who I visit on a regular basis for this award. Everyones blogs are amazing in my eyes. I love sharing a little bit of my life with you all and I love that you allow me to share in yours. So to all my blogging friends, this one is for you!

MWAH

Anthea

xoxo

Busy times...

2009-06-12T11:16:00.009+10:00

Sorry it has been a while...life is justa bit too busy right now.

I have 2 more assignments till I finish my post grad -now 2 doesn't sound like much, but it just isn't happening for me right now. Finding the time and having the inclination to do them is like pulling teeth! Grrrr. If I could find some positive in doing it, that might help, but all it is going to give me is a piece of paper telling me that I can do what I have been doing for the past 10 years! I am not saying I haven't learnt anything - how can you not? I am just questioning the relevance of some of the stuff that we have learnt. Oh well, it can only be good in the end! Just have to finish.

Work is busy - when is it not? Lots of people off sick and too many patients. Seriously - so many new patients of late - not good!

The new house will officially start within a week or two - just finalizing contracts. Will have to get down to the block to get a before pic....ohhhh...very exciting. Yesterday we started picking out baths, taps, sinks, etc. I love this part...am not looking forward to tiles and bricks though - they are hard to change if you make a mistake - lol. Will keep you all posted. Hope it all goes well. We really like our builder and think he is going to do a great job.

The kids are well, Matthew is off today as it is parent teacher interview day. Both him and Tori are driving me mad...! LOL

On a sad note; my Nonna (grandmother) is not doing so well. There is a pic of her in my previous post. She is in hospital right now and not looking to come home for a while yet. I pray she is OK, and ask that everyone spare a thought for her.

On a good note; Rays sister is getting married this weekend - unfortunately with the house stuff going on right now, we couldn't spare the funds to be there with about a months notice as a trip to Canada for 4 isn't that cheap. Nancy and Greg - we wish you all the best together and can't wait to see some photos. We truly are thinking of you on your special day and wish we could be there.

That's it for now - no photos for today. Hope everyone is well.

Hugs to you all.

Anthea

xoxo

Scrapping Fun

2009-05-25T15:16:00.005+10:00

Ok -for those of you that don't know, I dabble in scrapbooking. I certainly am not the best scrapper around, but I have a bit of fun and find it very therapeutic. I also love that it is a great way to preserve history and tell a story. In the year and half that I have doing this, I really am lucky to have created about 20 - 25 pages....and this weekend I did 5!

This weekend I participated in my first ever cybercrop (actually my first crop of any kind) and had a blast. A cybercrop is where a bunch of scrappers get together online and participate in challenges set by the organizers and sponsors. Now none of my pages are by any means good enough to win any prizes but I thought it might be fun to show you what I created. So without further ado.....

Here they are...

The journalling reads:

On this bridge – we played, we laughed, we cried. We shared dreams and hopes. We fished. We put on concerts for the birds. We pretended we were birds. We raced. We waved at Mum and Dad, or anyone else who passed by. We were captains on our own ship. We were famous explorers. We were anything we wanted to be!I *heart* THIS BRIDGE

This challenge was particulary hard....had to use orange, hot pink, polka dots and the word buzz or bloom in the title. I didn't have any polka dots to match..so I made it with paint. The colours are not really coming through, but the heart is bright orange.

This is perhaps my favoutite LO of the weekend...but I will be changing the title to "I'm Here" as in hindsight I think it works better. Here is a link to a you-tube video of the song if you are interested.... "I Volunteer" . Pretty much sums up what I want for Matthew to know.

This challenge was the hardest of them all - producing some of the best pages. You had to use only black and white patterned papers and cardstock, had to use button clusters to accentuate your journalling and the photos had to have a strong connection between the past and the present. I nearly backed out of this challenge, but am glad I didn't as I really like the result.

And it opens up to this.....

And last but not least (according to the judges....cause I just found out this one won!)
A sketch challenge. Tori meeting Alex for the first time. I am surprised it won and figure the judges were just being nice to me - for whatever reason?! There were alot more entries in this challenge that were far more deserving.

If you got this far...thanks for looking. If you were one of the people participating in the CC with me...thanks...I enjoyed your company over the weekend and look forward to another one, everyones work was amazing!

Hope you like my pages. Better go now...and tidy up all the mess I made while creating.

Bye for now...

Hugz to all

Anthea

xoxox

Guess whos 2?

2009-05-15T23:05:00.013+10:00

Tori is - that's who!

The week before last (Yes I have been slack) our darling gal turned 2. The last year has been a big one, starting with her Christening, some minor surgery, a trip to Canada to visit Nan and the rest of the crew, childcare, etc. Somehow though we got through. Thanks to those of you who have supported us through the tough times and laughed at the good times and to those of you who have just been there by our sides saying nothing, but letting us always know you were there!

Tori - from 1 to 2 !!!!

1st Birthday

Christening

First hair cut - she was better with it all by the end.

In LA....(one very tired girl in this photo)

First PIGGY Tails.

The day before turning 2

Yet again - I am struggling with blogger...uggh. Melisa I tried to use the windows video maker and was doing great until blogger wouldn't let me load it due to its 'extension' - any ideas on how to change it to an AVI?

Hope you are all well.

Til' next time....

Hugs and Kisses

Anthea

xoxox

For Mum...

2009-05-13T20:01:00.020+10:00

Mum - as promised - here are some of the long awaited Easter Pics - sorry it has taken soooo long! Warning to everyone else....heaps of pics in this post!

Firstly - some pics of Easter Sunday....it was all kind of fun cause it was the first year that Tori really understood that something fun was happening. She found her stash fairly quickly and it took her a whole of about 2 seconds to figure out what to do with the eggs! The expressions on her face were priceless.

Secondly, for those of you that don't know, we do a kind of annual Easter camping trip with my family. This year we headed out the week after Easter and had a pretty good time, the weather was good and Ray and Moi enjoyed the new/old van. Tori was pretty sick for some of the trip - but by the end of it - she was right into it! Now, I took over 500 photos of the Easter trip...so you will only see some of my very favs here today...but for anyone out there who knows how....how do I do a slide show thingy? I think it would be a heap easier than downloading a ton of pics????? HEEEELLLLLPPPPP please!

Pic 1 - The veiw we woke up to every morning .... oh how I would love to wake up to that every day of my life. (PS; This pic was taken minutes before a dust storm, hence the hazy look to the pic!)

Pic 2 - What is camping without a campfire...(very well contained I promise)...couldn't choose which fire pic to upload, so I kind of closed my eyes and clicked.

Pic 3 - Not a particulary good photo...but one that shows I am not lying when I say, Tori was 'pole dancing'.

Pic 4 - what is and always has been referred to as 'THE BRIDGE'. In years gone by, when Shell and I were younger than Matthew now....we played on this bridge for hours and hours. I love this pic....perhaps my favourite of the whole holiday!!!!!

Pic 5 - Michelle trying to get on to that darn old tree stump that we are both soooo sure was never so hard to climb when we were 8!

Pic 6 - Me - showing Shell how it is done...???!!! (Different angle of course)

Pic 7 - Just a cool pic of Matthew on the bridge. (Does he ever take a bad pic?)

Pic 8 - 'Just let me fix my hair'. Michelle so 'not' intentionally posing for the camera.

Pic 9 - My gorgeous Mum....yes it is blurry...but I still love the photo!

Pic 10 - The worm that Matthew caught with a fish!

Pic 11- Now this is what camping is all about - mud castles by the campfire...hehe.

Pic 12 - My daddy!

Pic 13 - Matthew taking the phrase 'go climb a tree' literally!

Pic 14 - My gorgeous nephew with a snake around his neck..................................................................(no not really.... he'd probably freak, it is just a tyre tube....I think!)

Pic 15 - Ray.....Love the hat babe.

Ok - that is it! There were, as I mentioned, many more pics to choose from - but I think this bunch gives a reasonably good idea of our holiday. Brian and Adam managed to avoid the camera somehow but I do solemly swear that I will catch you both one day! Hope you enjoyed. Will be back soon with some Tori b'day pics!

Hugs and Kisses

Anthea

xoxo

Happy Easter

2009-04-10T21:36:00.016+10:00

Hi all, I am a bit slack on the blogging this week but intend to catch you all up now.

First things first, Tori's visit to the specialist on Tuesday went well. After a later start than planned, we got to the Children's Hospital with only about a minute to spare....(not bad for a three hour trip!). Thankfully the doctors were running a bit late so we had time to catch our breath. As soon as we got into the waiting room, I realised that there was another young LP in the waiting room with her family.

Me, being so shy and all (I was really quite nervous), went up right away and introduced myself. It was sooooo nice to personally meet another LP family with a child under the age of 10 who lived in our state. That might sound crazy, but seriously, I have only ever met adult LPs or the parents of LPs. It turns out that their daughter is 6 and they live in country Victoria. They still live hours away, but hey....who cares? We swapped emails and I hope that we keep in touch.

We then met up with all the geneticist, orthopaedic guru and social worker and Tori got a clean bill of health. In fact, she is doing so well they don't want to see her for another year (unless we need to of course). They are going to arrange for a dietitian consult and try to organize an OT for us. The OT will hopefully give us some ideas for bikes, etc. We also are not sure if we should start introducing stools - we know we will have to eventually - but when Tori climbs up on one, it scares the living begeesus out of me, she is not so good at the height concept yet and most stools I have seen are really quite high. Maybe some of our LP friends can let me know what you did? Also, what did you do for beds? Did you lower a bed for your LP child or did you just let them climb up onto a regular one? Right now Tori is still in the cot, but at almost 2, it will soon be time to move her out.

Anyways, with the appointment over, we all jumped in the car and headed to one of the local shopping centers and did some retail therapy. We didn't buy too much, but we did manage to find Tori a really cute pair of sneakers (joggers for some of you) that fit really well. I was very excited by this buy, as buying shoes for Tori is a nightmare - although I must say, in the last month she has amassed quite a collection. The trip home was uneventful, and we arrived home safely at around 8ish. Pretty good effort for 12 hours if I may say so myself.

Well....other than that, nothing much happening. I did today finally finish that rotten assignment I was working on. I don't imagine I will be topping the class with my effort, but I am pretty positive I will pass. On Monday we did manage a trip to the park, so my pics today will be of that, be warned, the kids had an egg hunt and there is chocolate all over their faces!

Now, I was going to end it here...but while loading these pics....I saw some others from last week that I wanted to share with you all, for no other reason than...I like them!

And these are of Matthew with the Boomerang he made at school as part of his indigenous people studies last term.

OK - Blogger is just not working for me tonight, I can not get this set up the way I want, so I hope you can forgive the big mess it is making, cause I give up, time for beddy byes for me! Hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend and that the Easter Bunny hops on over to where you are.

Ciao for now.....

Anthea

xoxox

This week - Part 2

2009-03-30T15:50:00.018+11:00

...actually last week was this week at the time and so now this week is now last week and next week is actually this week and .....are you thoroughly confused yet?

As promised here is some photos Ray took on Friday...like I said some of the BIG BOYS will be envious....

Yes, on Friday Ray was lucky enough to be taken to Melbourne for an all expense paid trip to the Grand Prix....needless to say he had a great time. He had to remind me that in these pics the cars were moving at 300kms per hour....(I am not sure if that is exaggerated - but somehow I doubt it.) My fav is the RedBull one! Oh - and the police car was in the infield....I feel a career change coming on.

Now today has been a big day...firstly Matthews class ran assembly for the entire school and did a bit of a presentation. Matthew's job was to hold the microphone for his friend - he did it very well! Here the are on stage....thought I had better blank out the other faces for privacy reasons...

And last, but not least - here is Tori at the Play School concert....wow.... I didn't decide to bring her until about an hour before it started and the race was on to get tickets....eventually after some running around....we found out you could buy them at the door. Let me tell you it was the best $27.00 I ever spent - Tori had a blast - she sang, danced, screamed, stomped and clapped with the best of them. Now the photos didn't come out that great, but I wanted to show you how much fun she had so I have put together a bit of a 'collage' for you...Hope this works...here goes...

Ok - that isn't too bad - it is the best I could do anyway! Hope you get the idea! She did this after a morning at playgroup, so needless to say she was pretty 'stuffered' when we got home!

Ciao for now & MWAH!

Anthea

xoxo

This week - Part 1

2009-03-28T19:36:00.009+11:00

As usual, I haven't been keeping up to date on the news of late, so I thought that I would try and catch you all up. First things first....hello to Diane and Pierre in Quebec- glad to know you are reading this blog faithfully, even if you are not leaving messages! It was very nice to speak to you the other day. Thanks again for the gorgeous flowers, a lovely surprise. As promised - here is a pic of the flowers you sent....

These were taken with my new camera! They were the perfect subject for getting some still shots in - my new camera is the Canon 40D, and it does some amazing things - now I just have to learn how to use it. I imagine most of todays entry will be showing you some pics I have taken with it.

For those of you that hadn't guessed from the fact that I got flowers and a new camera - it was my birthday last week. Michelle & I were both spoilt rotten with some lovely gifts and being taken out for dinner....thanks guys....we enjoyed it! Here is a pic of the both of us with mum. I had to include mum cause she is after all the one who carried us for 7 months (we were 2 months prem), pushed us out (and found out after delivering me that she was having twins), and then raised us (to be two beautiful, gorgeous women - just like her!) ....hehehe...self praise - don't you love it!?

Ok - enough about that! Here are some pics I took of the kids the other day....

Wow - these new pics are taking ages to download....the first is of Tori screaming for her soo soo (short for soother in Canada, which is a dummy for my Aussie veiwers!). The second is of Tori about 30 seconds after screaming for her soo soo! The third is of Tori running to Matthew after she got in trouble for hitting me (no I will not tolerate being hit by my kids!). The fourth is an edited version of the third, that I like! The fifth is Matthew deciding he wanted to get in the way of the camera which I think is a great photo. The 6th is a typical Sunday morning at our place, Matthew on the playstation, Tori in the back ground playing and watching him playing.....don't you just love the blurred effect?

Well - I was going to add a bit more, but have to have the computer off in 10 minutes as earth hour starts then! This page will probably take ages to download now. Will try to get back on tomorrow to put on some pics of what Ray did yesterday - I imagine that alot of the big boys WILL be envious.

Hope I haven't bored you all too much. Karen a big hello and Happy Birthday to you, hope you had a great day!

Hugs all round...

Anthea

xoxox

A little story...

2009-03-27T21:33:00.002+11:00

...because Jaime's last blog about Caty's princess party reminded me of it and it made me laugh all over again, for those of you that have heard it before, sorry!

Just after Matthew had turned 4, we had the following conversation in the car...

Matthew - "Muuummm?"
Me - "Yes Matthew?"
Matthew - "For my next birthday I am going to have a PRINCESS party!"
Me - "Thats nice Matthew!" (For lack of a better response in 'the' moment.)
Matthew - "Yes - I am going to have a princess party and I am going to be the KING!"

Moral of the story: Keep your princesses away from Matthew!

More tomorrow....

Anthea
xoxox

Introducing baby Alex

2009-03-20T12:36:00.000+11:00

I finally got permission from Kaz to put a pic up of Alex - so here he is with Tori, do you think they might be the best of friends??? Probably not, cause Tori will smother him with love....

Aren't they adorable....?

Hugs all round -

Anthea

More ramblings...

2009-03-16T21:14:00.000+11:00

Wow - it is March already, where does the time go? We have been busy doing a whole lot of nothing the past few weeks. Ray had a birthday! He was very happy when I finally gave in and got him a milkshake maker. I was convinced that the blender would do just as good a job, but noooo, Ray had to have a milkshake maker. He has enjoyed whipping us up ice coffee, chocolate and strawberry shakes and I must say they are DELISH. We didn't do much for the event, but did have a cake which I decorated.....yes....that is right....I, as in ME, MOI, MYSELF! Here is a pic of the amazing piece of art that I created....drum roll....ta da....

Oops, turn head to side.....it just 'gorgeous' isn't it? Ray says it is the best decorated cake he EVER had? Brian says it looked like the New York city skyline, Michelle thinks it was the best cake she had seen in ages, Matthew was ogling all the lollies (candies for our international friends), Tori was mesmerized by the sparklers and Dylan just laughed. Me - well I am still amazed that I actually decided to even attempt decorating a cake, the fact that it was a store bought cake is a pretty good indication of how much I love baking, etc! I wont tell you what the cake tasted like, except that after half a piece of cake each, we had all had enough!!

My darling friend Karen finally had her baby...it was a boy...he was 9lb 4oz and 58.5cm long.....he is going to be soooooo tall! (Tori and he will make quite the pair!) I would love to post a pic here, but I haven't asked her permission yet...so we will have to wait. He is absolutely adorable and he is cute enough to want to eat! Congrats to Kaz, Shane and the boys on their new addition.

I had my last week away for my post grad. I now only have about a billion assignments to do before May....(OK, a billion is a slight stretch, but I am sure you know what I mean.) Anyone out there want to write an essay on breast cancer trends since the 1930s? No takers....no...I didn't think so.

Over the weekend, I got a bit of scrapping done (for any scrapping friends that come here), I got a bit creative and even made some of my own papers (with the computer), this was my creation....

We also got our 'new to us' caravan cleaned up a bit. Will put some pics on here when we get it looking a bit better....it still needs a bit of work. We also got an amazing downpour of rain - got some amazing photos of it but cant seem to upload anymore right now....maybe I have put too many on in one post....(I don't think that is it, but I cant think of a better reason right now??)

Well, I have rambled on enough....will try to keep more up to date with this blogging thing....but I aint promising anything. With a family, school, work and more, I sometimes am easily distracted. Oh...for our LP friends....Tori finally has an appointment next month with the geneticist, orthopaedic guru, social worker, etc. She hasn't seen them in almost a year, so I am praying everything is OK, wish us luck!

Bye for now...

Anthea xoxo

2009-02-22T09:42:00.000+11:00

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....

2009-02-15T17:57:00.000+11:00

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!

2009-02-14T21:51:00.000+11:00

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

2009-02-13T14:37:00.000+11:00

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.

2009-02-09T13:30:00.000+11:00

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.

Heatwave....

2009-01-30T14:30:00.000+11:00

It is so hot here it is just unbelievable, and from what I can see on the news, we aren't getting it as bad as those in Melbourne or Adelaide. Yesterday was a high of 43 degrees (in the shade) with it hitting 44 today and tomorrow. For those of you that don't believe it can get so hot - here is a picture of the thermometer reading in our car ...

...For those of you that have trouble seeing, that reads 51!!! That for the visitors in the US is 123.8 degrees fahrenheit - I kid you not!

Anyway - due to the extreme heat I decided to take Matthew and his friend to the local pool last night. We all enjoyed the cool down and didn't leave till close, at 9pm. Here is one of my favourite pics of the night. The kids had a blast splishing and a splashing. You may notice that Matthew's friend is wearing a head-band, this is to keep the water out of his ears, as he has grommets (ear tubes). We were lucky enough to be given one of his old head-bands to try on Tori which fits like a charm. I think we will be off to the pool with Tori sometime soon to try it out. (We would of tested it last night, but I am thinking 8pm was a little late to be taking a 21 month old out swimming).

Well, that's it for now, love to all and hugs and kisses all round. Stay cool!

I'm a happy little Vegemite!!!

2009-01-27T21:26:00.000+11:00

Wow, between the heat (38+ degrees) and a sad one at work, I am feeling a bit drained, so I thought I would chill out here in front of the computer for a bit.

In my excitement about finally having and figuring out how to run a blog, I think that I may have committed a 'blog faux pas' by linking to a couple of people who hadn't given me permission, so I have deleted them from my list at this time. I do apologize if I have offended anyone.

I really don't have much more to say, except have a great day, night or whatever. Oh...and I am going to add a photo...I wanted a good Australia day one, but didn't get around to it, so I thought in keeping with the theme I would add this old one of Tori eating a vegemite sanga! It's a pic I love and look forward to 'scrapping' one day. Hugs to all and MWAH!

Happy Australia Day

2009-01-26T12:18:00.000+11:00

Just wanted to say happy Australia Day to all us Aussies out there. Hope you are enjoying the day whatever way you want to. Us...well...we are sitting around doing a whole lot of nothing right now, but I will soon be doing a bit of a clean up around here to get ready for the upcoming week. I hear on the grapevine that my cousin and her partner from Brisbane are coming for a visit this week and I want to be able to sit and enjoy their company...and maybe take them to see some of the countyside? Take care all. MWAH.

MagMyPic

2009-01-20T22:51:00.001+11:00

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

MagMyPic

2009-01-20T22:48:00.001+11:00

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

River Ratbags

2009-01-18T13:41:00.001+11:00

Matthew just loved collecting cicada shells and Tori just had fun getting VERY dirty at the River this weekend. Watching and photographing the cicada coming out of it's shell was the one of the highlights of the weekend - something that I don't imagine too many people get to see up close and personal. Ray managed to get this awesome shot of the cicada in its changing state!

Playing in the Park.

2009-01-18T11:00:00.000+11:00

Hi all wanted to put some pics up from the trip to the park on Friday....it was a nice day for it and as you can see, the kids enjoyed it. Tori specially loved the slide with her BIG brother and as much as he wont admit it - I think he enjoyed it too.

First Post

2009-01-16T13:18:00.000+11:00

Here we go, This is my attempt to get a blog up and running! Hope this works for me, cause if it does it will be a great way of keeping everyone up to date on the goss....and a good chance to show of some photos! This first photo is probably my favourite from the Christmas shoot, but not quite what I was looking for as "The Photo" to send to everyone. Hope you like it too!