Catch Up

Yes I know it's been a while... but we've been hitting the internet a bit lately and I'm sick of paying the extra fees... Time to find a new provider I think..

So....it was Regans birthday on the 21 July, her best friend Darcy and Darcys' brother Zac joined us for a show at the library by National Parks (Aaron got to be a mozzie), a ice choc at Raw Sugar Cafe, lunch at the park, a game of bowls and a wonder down the riverbank before I took them home to Darcys farm stay, where we spent another hour or so meeting all the cows, sheep, horses, goats, alpacas, pigs, rabbits, chooks etc etc...



Check out the face..... She got a strike....

Regan and Darcy are right into Turtles - Sea Turtles - to be exact at the moment so I made this cake...



a great day was had by all....



Do you remember the old screen saver with all the pipes going forever across the screen... well thats what my backyard looked like last weekend ... Shane had finally got a spare couple of sunny days to plumb in the new shed, put a few taps around and connect all the downpipes to the new watertank.... now believe it or not we would like rain to settle the dirt again and fill up the tank.... never satisfied



Aaron has been making his bed lately and is getting quite good at it if you ignore the blanket going the wrong way across the bed.... apparently it's a hard job and I shouldn't have to do all the hard jobs ...... got to love him.

Todd has bought himself out of his exile that has occurred since we got Koda ... he hasn't been spending all his time right down the back of the yard and .... every now and again I even catch him doing this......



he doesn't like us to know that he is actually getting on with and enjoying the company of Koda and will often stop playing when he notices us watching... I'm sure they will become the best of mates..

Whats this you ask? Look closely... it's actually a beautiful scarf made of flowers that mum knitted for Regans birthday.... gorgeous eh..



It was my neices 18th last fri night so I made her this to take to the party and get everyone to sign.... I did suggest on the way in instead of when they are stumbling out?!?





and last but not least a double page layout from Chrissy when we took both the Quad and Motorbike to Aunty Karens farm..



Till later.... but not that later.

I got these....

for my birthday on Thursday, actually they came to the shop on Wednesday (Shane had sent them from Armadale and knew I would be at home on Thursday) and not to say that he isn't romantic at all ... but well ... even the girls didn't think they were from him...
Must say I was very pleasantly surprised.



I also got this... it was a bit of a joint pressy from the folks, in laws, Shane and the kids, and my old bosses (I used the bonus they gave me when they left) and I'm very much liking it.... so many choices with the beads....

and of course the obligatory scrap page ... Aaron last summer enjoying the sun and a bit of a hose down...




It's Regans birthday tomorrow and we have a few days of celebration planned... it started with a nice joint birthday lunch on Sunday with the family and will continue on with the movies tomorrow with the cousins and a wildlife show and bowling with her girlfriend, her brother and Aaron on Wednesday .... so much for 'no your not having a party this year'....

A day off work

I am lucky enough to have a couple of days off work these school holidays and I must admit I miss the routine of not having a routine.... not getting up, packed and organised... being able to take a leisurely walk to the mailbox as soon as the mail comes... and getting dressed just before we have to leave the house at 2pm...

So on my day at home with the kids we....

said a sad goodby to the old Subaru... she will be missed (photos of the new car when I get around to washing it)



made spaceships, aliens and turtles out of this weird air dry styrofoam stuff...



got the kids hair cut .... Regan had her fringe cut back in... it's only tiny but it's a start....



and I bought this mighty fine ultra warm jacket for mum ... what a bargin for $40... hope you like it!



Mum, just to let you know how much she will appreciate her birthday pressy... here's a picky of Regan at her uniform free day wearing last years scarf...




And yes, we have stuck with Koda although I have a terrible habit of calling him Jeda or sometimes Yoda (it must be a starwars thing)... he's very well behaved - so far - and is a bit of a collector of thongs... so far he hasn't chewed anything yet but every morning we wake up to this...

Hi, Moody's ....... Don't forget it's a school night!!

Welcome .... ?!????

I didn't find it this hard to name my children... This is '.....' our new 8 week old German Coolie pup.. He was named Chip by the RSPCA (his brother was Dale) Regan likes Jett, Aaron is very keen on Blackie (go figure), Shane wants Jed and I'm partial to Larry.... Anyway we called him Chip for a while and then Bailey because of his colourings, this lasted about 1/2 a day, then Ed... because he has markings like the Hyienas on the Lion King..... no he's not an Ed so we went on to Koda ... one of the bears from Brother Bear ... we're still not sure so at the moment it's here mate!. What terrible parents we have started off as being.









How gorgeous is he....

and yes I've even scrapbooked.... Aaron has been spending just about every afternoon out in the front yard playing with his stick.. He walks (or runs) up and down the driveway for hours holding his stick and making sound effects... some may think that it's weird but I love the fact that the kids have such cute 'quirks'.

Didn't stand a chance......

What happens when you mix a wet wet weekend and a husband that can't sit still?...

My new caravan that went from this....







.... to this in a few short hours...





and it didn't stop there the poor girl is gutted right down to the flooring and gas lines... overall for a 23 yr old shes in pretty good condition and will be 'the bees knees' by the time Shane is finished with her... I now however am praying for rain for the next four weekends so he will continue on with the work and not head off to other more fair weather jobs...



..am loveing this tree this year its the first time in a long time that it has changed colour and droped its leaves without getting a weird disease on it....

Gave Regan the day off school to come up to Port with us for Aarons last visit with Karen ... check out her boots... if your there Pip, thank you.. they look great...





.. and of course on the scrapbooking front ... finished this one with part of Cut and Pastes' Nov pack...



Till next time..

A whole month

I do so envy those that can make good use of their time.....I am busy like everyone else but I have a terrible habbit of ' I'll get that done after I have this cuppa or after I watch this show... and suddenly the end of the week arrives and I'm cramming everything into the last minute... and with that in mind I found this poem..

Today is here, I will start with a smile and resolve to be agreeable.
Today I will not waste my time because the minutes I wasted yesterday are lost as a vanashed thought.
Today I refuse to spend time worrying about what might happen - it usually doesnt. I am going to spend time makeing things happen.
Today I am determined to do things I should do. I firmly resolve to stop doing things I should not do.
Today I will stop saying 'if only I had time'. If I want time I will make it.
Today I will make a success with what material I have.
Today I will act towards other people as I would like them to act towards me. I will not wait for tomorrow.

I did find time to write it.... now lets see if I find time to put it into action.

So anyway what's been happening...

The girl guide training weekend wasn't as bad as I thought ... although we did have to sing bad songs around a campfire... I also learnt why the girls seem to love me so much ... 1. I basically have no control and .. 2. I'm not actually teaching any of the traditional guide 'stuff'.

The weekend away with mum was great ... lots of girly things on offer and a fantastic party organised by her friends which included amongst other things a great cruise around the marina - (Lots of money in Port Lincoln) - a trip to the local Indian resterant in full Indian Sari's.... very funny... and of course lots of party games...



yes I know mine's not quite right - I triped over it running from setting the camera and all the pleats untucked from my pants..



I made this card for mum a few weeks before and sent it over for signatures .... I wish now I had remembered to copy down some of the sayings and poems her friends wrote in it including a fantastic one signed by dad about their time together... I't was so very obvious that he didn't write it ...but so very much them



I seemed to spend more time on planes and in airports than with the folks but it was definantly worth it....

while I was there Shane was driving down to Wollongong in the pooring rain to pick up the caravan we just bought .. yes thats right a caravan... its locked up in the shed at the moment so I will post photos when we bring it out... don't get too excited though... it is a 82 model.






Life has been going on as usual with sport and so on.... Aaron has been spending ages playing outside... I think he enjoys the cold weather a lot more than summer.... on the topic of Aaron... we had our last visit with his old Speech therapist this week.... I am very sad and scared to say goodby to her but it is proving harder and harder... not to mention expensive when you take into concideration a day off work as well as the petrol and fee... to do the drive to Port Maquarie ... our new lady seems nice and she is able to see Aaron at school which will benifit him heaps I'm sure.... she's definately not Karen and their methods are worlds apart but hopefully, fingers crossed, I haven't made the wrong move...



I've decided to give the kids a reward jar to try and get them to do some extra tasks around the house, each stone is worth 20 cents and they get one if they do something I ask and two if they do it without me asking... so far so good.

and yes I've even been scrapbooking......





you'll have to excuse the colour of the photos... don't actually know what happened but the look like something from the 70's..




Till next time..... which wont be as long I'm sure.

Persistance....

These are the trees we had cut down a few months ago....isn't it amazing that they would grow back tiny little shoots where such a big tree one stood.... got to give it to nature...

Not much to report family wise... all is going well... getting rather cold here at night now....
I'm out of town for the next few weekends.... This Sat I head to Newcastle for my "Girl Guide" training.... when I first took over we had 4 girls which has now grown to 15 great girls and I love working with them but the whole 'training' thing is freaking me out a bit.... I'm not exactly very -gung ho- about it.... lets just hope they dont expect me to put on a skit on Sat night....
To happier things the following weekend (and a few days into the next week) I'm off to visit my mum in Coffin Bay for her 60th.... very much looking forward to that one... Shane and the kids are staying at home..... I don't know if any of you have tried to book flights lately but I'm sure it's not as simple as it used to be.... to get the cheapest deal I'm flying out of Newcastle to Melbourne to Adelaide to Port Lincoln but on the way back I'm going Port Lincoln to Adelaide to Sydney to Port Maquarie.... thats 6 flights on 4 different airlines and departing and arriving in two differnt towns.... and as of last night all but one of the flights has been amended by the airline and I'm cutting my times finer and finer each time.....



What do you think mum? something like this could be just what I need... it would also give me somewhere to store all the winter quilts I've got from Denise..



.... and of course I've done the bare minimum of scrapbooking ..... look out 2009, not far off now. This LO looked quite nice at home, but now I've seen it here it's a bit plain.... might need to fiddle a bit.

Look like us??

I finally got my little family... they are handpainted bu Gemmielou who has a shop on Etsy.... how cute are they??? she has had a bit of a backlog so I've had to wait quite a few months for them but worth it I think.... I also got Grandma and Grandpop done but they will have to wait until I get there to see them...





I've been scrapping some of my older photos this school holidays, both of these are from mid last year... I normally only scrap events , special occasions etc but these photos were both so gorgeous I just had to scrap them for no particular reason...

We went camping @ sandbar last weekend, the weather wasn't the best but with Anzac day and sports starting again soon it was our last chance.....we did heaps on the Saturday but had to pack up in the rain on Sunday which always makes the boys less than happy...



Check out Aarons shirt.... it was pretty windy up there.... he walked all the way up and back on his own...










I also forgot to mention that it was Shane and my 10th wedding aniversary while we were in Sydney.... I honestly wasn't expecting a pressy but he outdid himself and had a eternity ring made for me....how bad did I feel when I had nothing to give him...we had decided that he could have his bike jacket but he hadn't picked it out yet..... Regan and I had scoured the shops for something made of Tin but had come up empty handed..... I was forgiven...