A quieter day today

I dropped Kenz off to school and then Dom and I hit the gym - I did the Body Pump class (with weights) which is such a great work out. Hope my arms aren't as sore as they were last week!

I took Dominic to a make up swimming class and he did really well.

Then I caught up with Sharon E at the gym and we did the Body Balance class - I love that class - great stretching and I feel so relaxed (and motivated) afterwards. Sharon really enjoyed it too and is thinking of coming once a week which will be great!

McKenzie starts grade 2 today

Well McKenzie was all ready for school today - and we walked to school in the pouring rain.

We met her teacher (Kenz has had her as a relief teacher before) and she's really nice.

I think Kenz is happy to be in her class.

She said today was just a "settling in day".

It was also Mike R's birthday today too.

Lots of birthdays in January!

Fraser Island

Well we've just come back from a fantastic long weekend at Fraser Island with Mike, Kate, Jess and Abbey. We stayed at an excellent house called "Marloo" which is up at Orchid Beach (so approx 1 and a half to 2 hours drive up Fraser Island - possibly 200klms).

The kids thought it was fantastic swimming at Waddy Point and Marloo Bay.

We almost had a plane land on us Friday afternoon when we were driving up there!! I've got it on video!! I'll try download it to the blog.

And we saw so many dingoes - we have never seen that many before, and Ben got some fantastic close ups of them.

Monday afternoon we left at 1.30pm, got to Eli Creek about 2.30pm, stayed for half a hour so the kids could have a swim and then headed to the Barge - only to have Dominic throw up in the car!! Made the 4pm barge, washed the cars at Rainbow Beach, had a quick dinner there, left at 6.30pm and got home at 9. So a long day but still a great time.

Lots of laughs, lots of sun, food and drinking.

It was Mum's birthday on Australia Day too - so we called Mum to wish her a happy birthday. She sounds like she had a nice weekend.

Fraser Island here we come / Happy Birthday Tracey

Must ring Tracey this morning to wish her a happy birthday! Have you have a great day Trace, and knowing Trace her birthday will last all long weekend long!!

Heading up to Fraser Island today, we'll be leaving in about 3 hours.

Have a Happy Australia Day everyone.

Wednesday/Thursday

Nothing really exciting happened on Wednesday - just went to work etc.

Thursday - went to a new Body Pump class today - it was great (mind you, I got to the class and it had already started after putting the kids into the play centre) and I had to work out the weights as Body Pump uses barbells / weights to strengthen your entire body! It's a 60 minute workout and we did squats, presses, lifts and curls. Our instructor was excellent, very fit and very helpful (she helped me out at least twice).

So I'm hoping to make Body Pump a regular Thursday morning class - I can drop Kenz off at school and then head over for the 9.15am class.

Then we went to the chemist to buy supplies for the first aid box, did the grocery shopping, came home and had lunch and then we took Oscar to the Samford Pet Resort.

This place looks good - much nicer than the last kennel. The staff were friendly, the place seemed nice and clean and I'm happy to pay more for Oscar to stay here. Don't get me wrong, he's not a pampered pooch but at least we felt comfortable with these people. We'll be picking Oscar up on Tuesday - when there are another 90 dogs being picked up that day!! They must be doing something right hey!!

Started packing our gear as we're heading to Fraser Island tomorrow.

Bronny's 40th Birthday / New Furniture

Happy Birthday Bronny - hope you have a wonderful day!

The rest of the our furniture turned up today - the dining setting, china cabinet and empire chair, so we've done a bit of moving of furniture.


Now I just need a hand with finding some cushions, and accessorise, accessorise, accessorise!!! I think it looks a bit bland at the moment......

Dreamworld

Ian, Sandy and the kids asked if we wanted to go to Dreamworld today. So Ben took McKenzie as he thought it would be nice for Kenz to go somewhere before she starts back at school next week.

They all had a great day and at 3pm they went through to White Water World, which I think Ben was very impressed about! He said next time we'd just go there! Ben and Kenz got home after 6pm.

Here's some photos:


White Water World


Feeding the baby animals


Tiger Island


Ian, Sandy and the kids


The crims :o)


Oh I went to work and Dom went to child care.

Later in the evening, I went to do the Body Balance class at the gym. I love that class - so relaxing!!

The Last 3 days

Well the last 3 days have been fairly busy with a lot of running around.

Went to the gym Friday, to the vets (met two other dogs there called Oscar!), then to Aspley to pick up our new quilt cover (which finally came in after about 3 or more weeks), had to buy a new King size quilt as well, bought some sheets for the kids, some bath mats, dropped some kids clothes over to a friend's place, and Dominic had his swimming lesson.

Saturday morning, back to the gym, but I had no energy for some reason - maybe 3 days in a row is a bit too much for me just yet. Ben had a couple of appointments, and then in the afternoon we drove up to Doonan (near Eumundi) to go to Uncle Russ' 50th Birthday. It was good to catch up with Mum's side of the family. Uncle Jeff even flew up from Tassie. We got home about 10pm.

Today I raced to spotlight and bought some plastic to put over the new dining table (it arrives Tuesday) so then the kids don't get a chance to put pen marks over it! Then to Brookside to return a school skirt of McKenzie's (the elastic had stretched on it and it was falling off Kenz), had a look at cushions, table runners, place mats etc but need to work out what colour theme we want to go, so I'll wait until we have the new furniture. Did some grocery shopping, did all of my washing and ironing (finally up to date) and got everything ready for child care and the working week.

Ben is taking McKenzie to Dreamworld tomorrow - since it's pretty much her last week of school.

The Workshops Railway Museum, Ipswich

Today Ben and I took the kids to the Workshops Railway Museum to see the Friends of Thomas (the tank engine) 2008 show!

Friends of Thomas 2008 - Thomas the Tank Engine and ‘Sir Topham Hatt, The Fat Controller’ return for The Workshops Rail Museum’s annual signature event. Make sure you’re part of all the BIG LOUD FUN as they enjoy their summertime holidays at The Workshops Rail Museum.

We went with Ian and his 2 kids, Amanda (who does some album designing for Ben, her husband Michael and their little girl, and Kath and her 2 kids.

I guess the best way to explain what the museum is like is that it's a wholly interactive rail museum, coupled with the oldest continually operating railway workshops in Australia.

There was heaps for the kids to see and do. As long as they could climb on a train, or play on the wooden train sets (Dominic's favourite), they were happy!! We spent nearly 4 hours here.

After we got home, Dom had a sleep and Kenz and I went grocery shopping, had a look in Loot, bought contact and paper to cover McKenzie's books - she has 18 of them that need covering, and then went home.

Ben didn't have an appointment tonight, so I raced out to the 7pm Body Balance class - it's a great class and I feel a lot more relaxed afterwards. (By the looks of the photo above, I think I need to get to the gym as much as possible! I look like I'm about 6 months pregnant in that photo!!!!)

Pa's Birthday

Today is Pa's birthday and unfortunately he had to start his radium treatment today (of all days!). I'll have to see how he's going after his treatment.

Work was absolutely flat out today!! I haven't been that busy for a long time!!

Kenz went to vacation care and they went swimming (lucky the rain held off) and she could also take her scooter - so she had a pretty good day. She really hates going there on the school holidays!

Ben had a couple of appointments tonight, so Dom went to bed early!

Tuesday

A queiter day at work today but boy, when I got home, I had two whinging, whining, crying children! Dom was beside himself because he was hungry and Kenz was crying because she didn't want to eat the fantastic Fried Rice that Ben made for dinner - so it was a horrible night.

Then Kenz whinged that she wanted a "microwaved" egg - 30 seconds in the m'wave - but of course I couldn't find the container, so I cracked up big time and threw out 2 corner cupboards worth of plastic containers, trying to find the egg thing - and in the process threw out all of my old coffee cups, containers that were broken or had lost lids etc! The cupboard is looking much neater and tidier now!!

My stomach is a bit sore after doing the Body Balance class. I said to Ben on Monday night that I felt like my appendix was sore (which is impossible since I had it removed in September 07), so i think I may have pulled or strained a little bit too hard with the stretching or maybe I have damaged the scar tissue - hope it gets better soon.

McKenzie went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks at the movies today with Vacation Care. She enjoyed it (kind of she says!).

Heavy rain today.

I started contacting McKenzie's school books - boy what a job!! I did 6 books and had enough!!

Body Balance

I did my first Body Balance class at the gym tonight and it was Great!!! It's a mix between Thai Chi, Yoga and Pilates and there's a 10 minute mediation at the end of it. I feel so relaxed!! I'm hoping to go to the class every 2nd week (as Ben also goes car racing on Monday nights) so we're going to alternate.

Work was a bit quieter today, but it's good because I can catch up with a lot of things. I was so tired because Dom woke me up at 5am - I'm not good before 6am, but mind you, I managed to get a lot of things done being up so early, but I don't want to make a habit of it!! It can be Ben's turn tomorrow!!!

The mad clean

I spent 2.5 hours cleaning out McKenzie's bedroom and wardrobe. I got rid of clothes, crappy little toys (like the little things you get from Maccas), put things in containers and labelled the containers. I've attached a photo of her new white butterfly bed and quilt.

I ended up giving away a bag full of clothes and 3 bags of toys to Lifeline.

Then we caught up with Kristy and Adrian and the kids for 3 hours, which was great! It's so nice to catch up with them. Kristy gave the kids lovely Christmas presents.

We came home just after 6pm and took Oscar for a walk.

Tonight I listed our dining table and display cabinet on ebay - I already have 2 people watching the dining table and they've already put a bid in.

Ok, I'm off to bed now - it's 11.20pm!

The family visits the gym

We were all enthusiastic this morning and we visited the gym at 8.30am! The kids went off and played in the creche and Ben and I worked out for an hour at the gym. I've booked in for Thursday to have my assessment - so I can't wait for that, so I can learn what I need to do and do a bit more than what I am at the moment - but it's good to do things slowly and gradually - I'm not getting any younger!

The queen size bed and beside tables went this morning too.

After lunch we went to Babyco to buy Dom a bed rail so he doesn 't fall out of bed and we bumped into Shane (and they had borrowed our bed rail) so Shane said to come and collect it as they aren't using it any more - so we went around and visited them for about an hour.

Then we went to Bali at home and i think we should get shares in this place!

We were looking at the dining table and saw the New York Display Cabinet and we loved it - it will match the tv cabinet and dining table - so we bought them! We had some cash on us and you gotta love the Plastic! We also bought a large seat for the front deck and we also bought a small statue for the new table.

We took Oscar for a walk in the afternoon and I ironed for one and half hours!!!

"I shoo fly!"

Was Dominic's funny comment at dinner tonight - but luckily Ben actually saw him shoo the fly away, otherwise we wouldn't have had a clue what he said!

This morning McKenzie's bed arrived from Freedom Furniture.

We had someone from ebay pick up some furniture.

Then I took the kids to McDonalds (yes again) to play in the indoor centre with Dena's 3 girls. The kids had a great time - they just all needed to get outside of our houses and run some steam off - since the rain has been pretty constant and keeping them indoors for ages.

Then we raced off to Dom's swimming class and he did really well.

Then we came home and pulled McKenzie's bed apart to get it into Dominic's room. The reason we did this (and not buy Dom a new bed) as he'll be going through toilet training soon and I don't mind so much if he has accidents on the old mattress.

So I set up Dom's bed with his new quilt cover - the same jungle animals as his curtains (which I bought on ebay about a year ago!) and I think it's looking pretty good.

Then I set up McKenzie's room with her new butterfly bed and the butterfly quilt cover and that looks pretty too. I need to take another photo of McKenzie's bed as the photos came out a bit blurred. I'll post that tomorrow.

Anyway, Dominic went to bed around 7am and it's now 8.35pm and he's still not asleep and won't stay in his bed. He gets out and I keep putting him back. He sneaks into McKenzie's room and lies down the other end of her bed. I don't mind that, except they start giggling and carrying on. Now they are both in Dominic's bedroom.

I think it's going to be a looooooooooooooong night!!

I made it to the gym

I headed to the gym for an 8.30am start - booked the kids into the creche - and off I went with Dena and Renae to the treadmills. Ok these guys have been twice before, so I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with them - and there was NO way I could run for 20 minutes on a treadmill - so I managed to walk and jog for 11 minutes (ok the walk part was part of my warm up, but I still lasted for 11 minutes!). Then I got on the bikes and then I did a 30 minute circuit.

I actually felt quite motivated after doing an hour of exercise and I guess it's really "MY time" as I don't have to rush around after the kids and I don't have to think of anyone or anything else besides myself - nice!

Then we raced off to do the grocery shopping, had morning tea - I was famished - and then we met Stella and her 2 kids at McDonalds Cannon Hill - but I was good - I had a garden salad, cup of tea and some fries. Afterwards we went back to Stella's house at Belmont (I haven't seen it before) and the kids had a great time together - I couldn't get McKenzie to leave. Dominic was totally worn out and was asleep by the time we got to Cannon Hill!

Dom woke up when we got home and he was quite cranky, so I fed him dinner, got him bathed and he was asleep at 6.30pm.

Kenz on the other hand, wasn't that easy to get to sleep - I think she went about 8.20pm.

Resold our queen bed and the pram on eBay - so hopefully they go this weekend.

I joined the gym!

Finally, I bit the bullet and decided to join Healthworks. I've paid for the year so I need to make sure I got at leasts 2, if not 3 times a week!! Dena has joined as well, so hopefully we will be able to motivate each other to go. The good thing is they have a creche (child minding) so I can book Dom in for an hour whilst I'm training. (Oh when I say I joined the gym, I actually just went there, signed up, paid my membership and left).

Tomorrow at 8.30am will be my first session.

I can't get my hands on the book Fed Up by Sue Dengate (about food preservatives and food colouring) ANYWHERE! Apparently a new version of the book is coming out in February.

Ben has asked me if I can take care of (control) his Blog for his website (Ben Clark Photography) so think I might be a bit busy with that in the next couple of days getting it all ready - but I'm quite excited about being involved with the blog.

I Need Some Sleep

What a shocker of a night.

We went to bed at 11.20pm, next thing McKenzie is walking in at 12.30am and Ben marched her back to her room.

Then Dominic was awake from 1am until nearly 2.20am - I think because it was hot that he wanted to come out and get a drink (which he did) but I took him back 3 or 4 times and was starting to lose my patience! In the end he ended up in our bed and I took him back once he was asleep.

I'm finding that since he is in his port a cot at the moment (because we sold the cot) that he just climbs right out and I don't know how to stop him! So it will be very interesting to see how he goes once his bed arrives!!!!

Then Dom woke at 5am (can you imagine how impressed I was) and I just gave him some milk and put him back in his cot. I have no idea if he went back to sleep or not (but I did!) and he came back in at 6.30am - my little alarm clock.

McKenzie decided to sleep in.

Work was really busy today and I was a bit grumpy from lack of sleep.

I had lunch with Steph and she told me that her and Brad are having a baby - which is wonderful news!! I'm so happy for Steph.

Kids were in bed early tonight!

Monday

Off to work this morning. Dropped Dominic off at child care and McKenzie stayed home with Ben and watched kids shows most of the days - because Vacation Care isn't open until next week.

We got the plasma tv stand (entertainment unit today) and it looks great.

Nothing much to report today!

Flash Flood

Well we've just spent at least an hour and a half cleaning up after the flash flood that we've just had.

The thunderstorm itself wasn't that bad, it was the neighbours yard actually flooding our back yard, it was crashing over our retaining wall (fence) like a waterfall!! The water was almost lapping at the bottom of the studio and laundry doors and all of their bark and dirt from their yard was in ours (over all the pavers) and all of their water has pushed the stones into our drains and blocked them all up! We've got some video footage of it, so if I can get it to work on here, I'll upload it!

I went and saw James next door (who rents the house) and told him his backyard was flooding and flooding ours (as he had no idea). He was really good though, he's calling his real estate tomorrow, and he got some black mesh stuff and nailed it to the fence, so the bark and gravel will at least stay on his side of the yard. They even called a plumber (no idea what they could do) but they have realised they don't really have any drainage there!!

We've just checked the radar and it says another storm is coming in about half an hour - just great!!!

Lots of places are really badly flooded. It's getting really hot and muggy (like it did before the first storm) so it won't be long before it hits again!!!!

This is from the radar..

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING - SOUTHEAST QUEENSLAND

for FLASH FLOODING

For people in parts of the
Southeast Coast Forecast District.

Issued at 3:58 PM Sunday, 6 January 2008.

The Bureau of Meteorology warns that, at 4:00 PM, severe thunderstorms were detected on weather radar near Esk and the area south of Esk. These thunderstorms are moving towards the east. They are forecast to affect Mount Nebo, Highvale and Lake Somerset by 4:30 PM and Brisbane CBD, Ipswich and Strathpine by 5:00 PM.

Very heavy rainfall and flash flooding are likely.

Boys Toys

Today we had people turning up to collect the stuff we sold on ebay. The cot, change table, tv and tv cabinet went. The poor tv cabinet went on a small box trailer and we thought for sure it wouldn't have made it to their place in one piece - geez I hope it did! I loved that cabinet - we've had it for 8 years and moved it 5 times! One guy didn't tturn up to pick up the bedroom furniture so I'm a bit annoyed about that - he didn't phone or email - so I don't know what his story is!

Then the new plasma tv arrived - wow it's massive!

Whilst Ben was setting it up, I took the kids to the Rivers Clearance centre at Lutwyche to buy McKenzie some school shoes, but they didn't have any her size. The good thing is I can order them on the Rivers website - thanks Dena for letting me know about the sale and for ordering a pair for McKenzie(when you order the shoes for your girls).

Came home and Ben has the tv set up and the surround sound - so we actually watched ET on it! It's incredible and the sound is amazing! Now we just have to fight the kids off it as they always want to watch kids shows!

Poor Dom threw up tonight (about 8pm just after he went to bed) - not sure what caused it, but I think his pasta dinner has something to do with it! Poor little man. We stripped him and got him in the shower, stipped and cleaned his cot and then put him to sleep on a mattress in McKenzie's room - mistake no. 1. Dom went back to sleep until about 11pm and then woke up and didn't want to go to sleep unless Ben or I laid down with him. And of course his crying woke up McKenzie - so from midnight until 2am Ben and I were both trying to get them to sleep!!! they'd better sleep in on Sunday!

Happy Anniversary to Rod and Mary

It's Ben's parents' 44th wedding anniversary today - Congratulations and like Ben said "you deserve a medal or something".

Ben had a wedding today and it was pouring rain (yes it's meant to be good luck if it rains on your wedding day - I wonder how many times they heard that today!). I had a quick look at some photos and they looked great with them walking in the city with umbrellas!

The kids and I decided to make a chocolate cake (what else do you do in wet weather?).



I've decided I'd like to join a gym - so I am looking at about 3 gyms nearby. I really like Healthworks as they have a creche there, which means I can put Dominic in for an hour, 2 days a week, and actually get to do a workout! Only thing is it's so expensive and I know what I'm like - I'll last about 3 months, get bored, tired, exhausted or just have too much on my plate - and not want to go!!!!

But I do so desperately need to get back into shape. I think I'll have to sell more stuff on ebay to pay for the membership (a LOT more stuff on ebay)!

Dominic started back at swimming lessons this afternoon and he loved it!!! I think having the week up at Rainbow Beach and swimming in the pool every day, really helped him with his confidence! He was in a class with twin sisters who were 3 and a half, and he wasn't upset about getting his face wet!







Then this afternoon, Denise from the next street over and her sister Jacqueline who is the lovely lady from Sydney who kindly took Matisse off our hands, came over for afternoon tea. It was so nice to have a cuppa and some chocolate late on the deck, listening to the rain on our tin roof and chat the afternoon away!!!

Ben didn't get home from his wedding until nearly 8pm, when we finally got to ring his parents, then he had some dinner and downloaded the wedding photos whilst McKenzie and I emptied the tv entertainment unit. I have no idea where I'm going to put the dvd's, cd's, trophies, the kids Christening presents etc as they were all displayed nicely in the cabinet. I'm going to miss it - we bought it with money from our wedding - so we've had it for just over 8 years and we worked out we have moved it 5 times!!

Ebay

Not much has happened today. The wet weather (which we so desperately need) is driving the kids stir crazy as they can't get outside to play. We only went out once to do the grocery shopping.

All of our furniture sold on ebay too which is great, so hopefully (all going well) everyone will pick up their items of furniture some time on Saturday morning.

We did manage to take Oscar for a walk (the first in ages) in between rain showers.

There's a house 2 streets away from us which is selling for $850,000 - it's a great house, with a pool but it's in a pretty average street - it's practically the best house in the worst street scenario. Will be interesting to see how much it sells for!

Back to work today

I dropped Dom off to child care today and he started his first day in Pre-Kindy (so a new room, new teachers and some new kids and a great big playground!).

I went to work and it was pretty quiet there as most people come back next week. Nothing overly exciting happened though.

Ben looked after Kenz today and took her to the gym and then they went to Chermside for a little while.

I've started reading "Fed Up" by Sue Dengate (about understanding how food affects your child) - and I'm finding it pretty interesting.

I'm going to go and read some more now.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Well we all managed to sleep in until nearly 8am which was great!!!

Dan, Wendy and baby Libby came around about 9am - they had driven down from Rockhampton had spent some time with their family in Toowoomba and then were visiting us for the day.

We went out to the Samford Hotel for a fantastic lunch!! They have a great play area for the kids and they played out there, when it wasn't raining!

Then Dan and Wendy came back to our place to have a few drinks on the back deck. They left at 4pm, so it was really nice to catch up with them.

After that, we just did a tidy up, and I had to get things ready for me to go to work tomorrow and Dominic to go to child care.

We've registered on a couple of house swapping websites as we'd like to go to Melbourne in July and thought it would work out cheaper if we could swap houses - so we're trying to find a house and a family close to the Melbourne CBD - should be interesting and fun to try find someone suitable.

Oh and I have started my New Year diet too. Need to lose about 6kgs!