MY BIRTHDAY

I had a little sleep in this morning, and it was miserable wet weather, so that was nice.

Ben and the kids gave me my black knee high boots and some scratchies. All of the family phoned to wish me a happy birthday too.

About 10am I went by myself to the Mt Coot-Tha Botanical Gardens to get "Reflection" photos for my photography assessment. I was a bit disappointed that Ben wanted me to go by myself on my birthday but it was for the best as there were heavy downpours all the time and I can't imagine what the kids would have been like in the rain. I think I got 2 photos for my class.

Came home and then all of my family came over for cake and coffee. It was so nice to see Mum, Dad, Nanna, Rochelle, Rebecca, Breeanah and Zachary. Everyone put in money for me to buy a new rug for the lounge, so I'll have to have a look around and see what I can find.

Then Ben got me some Pasta for dinner, so that was nice.

Another Busy Friday

rush, rush, rush....

Took Kenz to school, still didn't make it to the gym, went grocery shopping with Dom, came home, had lunch, went to McKenzie's Grade 2 Assembly at 1pm. I recorded that on DVD for her - it was their "Are We There Yet" theme and they went travelling all around Australia and told us what they saw and did in different parts of the country.

Rushed home so Ben could go to the photography awards. Then I went back to school at 3pm to pick up Kenz and home again.

Then at 4.15pm I had to go up to the school (yet again) to see McKenzie's teacher for her parent/teacher interview.

McKenzie is doing ok at school, but her teacher said a 15 minute appointment wasn't going to be long enough and I'll have to go see her again in a week or two.

She said McKenzie really aims to please, is trying hard and just needs a little bit of help on some things. But her reading has improved and she has more confidence in her maths, which is good,
since she's going to maths tutors.

Then we came home, had dinner and Ben came home from the photography show. I cooked a really nice beef stroganoff for dinner.

Photography Assessment today

What a busy morning.

Got the kids ready, dropped Dom at child care, took Kenz to school, then raced off to Windsor to pick up my photos from the lab (I forgot to remind Ben to pick them up Wednesday), then raced to the train and then into town.

There were 12 in our class this week (3 missing) and only 7 of us did the assessment and brought in our photos!! That really surprised me.

I did ok, he really liked my Monopoly photo and one of the powerlines and the flag - so that was good.


Raced home, dropped off the camera and went to the hairdressers. Danielle did a great job, I really like the colour, I've gone darker, back to a brown with blonde highlights, but it cost me $213!!! I nearly died!!!

The most I've normally paid was about $140 and I thought that was bad enough. But hey, what can you do once they've done your hair? I had no choice but to pay it!! I wasn't happy about the price, so I won't be going back there again. she gave me the breakdown of it and the cut was $60! For God sake, I have short hair as it is!! And half a head of foils was $91!! And the toner was $46 - that is insane!!!

then I raced to pick up Dom, got home and jumped back in the car with Kenzie to take her to her maths tutors. We got home about 5.15pm and of course had nothing for dinner - so it was boring old noodles for the kids and baked beans on toast for me and I think Ben had a sustagen!

We watched Street Kings (with Keanu Reeves in it) - it was a pretty good movie.

The usual Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

Besides me having the flu and feeling like crap, it was just the normal Monday - Wednesday working week.

So nothing really to report, except for my boss saying I should be working on a certain phone line (call centre) with my husky voice - no offence intended of course!

Mary's Birthday

I woke up at 7am this morning - so had 11 hours sleep. My migraine is gone, but I still have a headache.

We phoned Mary (Ben's Mum) to wish her a happy birthday and sorry that we couldn't make it - with me being sick and Ben having Emma's wedding on today.

Mary's going to Woodlands for lunch (since it was closed last time they weren't there) so I hope her and Rod have a lovely lunch.

I'm meant to be taking the kids to Anzac Park at Toowong for lunch and catching up with Rachael and her twins (they're 6 months old), Suzanne and Susan from work. I hope I feel ok.

Saturday

I've been crap today - I went to bed at 9.30pm last night and woke at 7.30am and then just felt dreadful, coughing, wheezing, sneezing, headaches etc. I went to sleep from 12 - 1.30pm on the lounge and then felt a bit better.

Then we took the kids to Shorncliffe as Ben had a photo shoot on, so I took photos of our kids. (I'll put some in here when I get a chance).

Got fish and chips for dinner, but I started getting a migraine and went to bed at 8pm!!

Gym Program

I went to the gym this morning to finally get my gym assessment / program done. Thought it might be helpful to get some sort of program since I've been at the gym for nearly 5 months now and just mainly did classes or whatever I felt like.

The trainer (Dominic) has made it pretty simple with the weights as he knows I only get there a couple times a week at the moment. He wants me to go at least 2 times a week, once doing weights before my Body Balance class, and then do a step or rpm class (cadio).

Then Dom and I went grocery shopping and then just tidied up the house etc. I took some Monopoly photos for my assessment but they just weren't right. Had to pick up Kenzie at 3pm and then take her to Numberworks n Words to do her "make up" class for when she missed it when we went camping.

Watched Grace is Gone on dvd, bit of a tearjerker.

Photography today

I took Dom to child care and Kenz to school this morning and then raced into town to go to my photography course. It's starting to get better as people are actually starting to talk to you now which is good. Today was interesting because we learnt about composition and how to "set up" a photo. We over heard our next assignment will be on Reflections.

I'm still struggling with my Symbolism assessment which is due in a week. Need to take photos of symbols of wealth, power and patriotism.

I think I have enough patriotism photos. Wealth - I've borrowed Monopoly from Stella at work and I'll take some photos of that and Power - I'm really stuck on. I have the one of power lines (which is ok) but I need something else....

After the course I met up with Steph in town for lunch as it's her 2nd last week of work before she goes on maternity leave. We go to this great little pizza place in town - the cafe itself isn't anything flash, but the pizzas are really nice!

Then I had about 20 minutes before my train came, so I went looking for some boots for my birthday. I've had my last pair for about 5 years (if not more) and the heels are broken, so it's time for a new pair!

I went to Novo in town and found a pair that were so comfy I couldn't resist them! So at least I have a birthday present from Ben and the kids.

I feel like I'm coming down with something - getting very sniffly and very tired.

I picked up Dommy from child care and Ben picked up Kenz. Then I took both kids to Numberworks for Kenz to do her maths tutoring. I took Dom to play in the park across the road whilst Kenz was in her class. She got 100% again with her maths which is great - that's 2 weeks in a row now!!

Tuesday / Wednesday

On Tuesday, McKenzie's school was doing rice day to raise money for Burma. Since Kenz didn't want to eat the rice, she just donated $2.

At work we're planning a Secretarial Function in October where we entertain and get to meet our client's PA's / Secretaries. It looks like we're doing a Bollywood theme - so that will be interesting. I'm in charge of finding the entertainment!

McKenzie had her cross country on Wednesday. She told me she came 2nd last and she walked in with one of the other girls. Kenz is a funny kid. She doesn't really care about sports (which is strange since Ben and I were so involved in it when we were young). I might look at starting her in Little Athletics in the summer season - just to see how she goes. The Gap has their days on Friday nights, so at least that will free up the weekend a bit.

Kent's 60th Birthday

Pretty much the normal start to the week except Monday morning I had to have both the kids out of the house by 7am as Ben went fishing with his Dad and Matt (which is nice because I don't think he's ever done that before).

Kenz went to before school care, and Dom to child care and I went to work (and actually caught an earlier train than usual!).

Well it's our wonderful friend, Kent's birthday today, only thing is Kent is living in Melbourne so we won't get to see him.

We sent him a subscription to a photography magazine because he loves taking photos of the animals at the zoo and he's very good at it!

And just the usual Monday at work etc.

When we got home, we had Trudy & Dean and Todd & Alayda (they're all photographers) over for dinner. We had a great night and everyone left at 11.15pm, so I'm sure that's a sign of a successful night!!

It felt like Melbourne today!!

It was FREEZING this morning!! I think it was about 9 overnight and we decided to go into town so I could take some photos for my photography assessment.

Now if you've worked in the city, you'd know it's not the warmest place around!!

We started off at Anzac Square (now I think we had a max of 19 degrees, so with the wind chill factor I think it was about 15 degrees, if not colder!).

I took some photos of the Eternal Flame and flags for my Patriotism shots.

We then walked up the Mall (yes cold cold cold) and headed to the Treasury Casino (for my Wealth photos).

George Street is an absolute wind tunnel and we were almost blown away!

Then we went to a lovely little coffee shop called Dome and Dominic was happy to have his baby-chocolate-chino!!

We then walked up George Street to the Botanical Gardens (so the kids could have a run around) and then back up to my work.

We then drove down to Teneriffe to get some photos of power lines (for my Power shot) and then headed home.

Hopefully I got some good photos, but I still need some more, so I'll have to get them on Saturday.

Oh better not forget this part - Dominic actually did a WEE in the toilet!! Yay first time but he might actually be getting the gist of it!! (Cross fingers).

Happy Birthday to Shaelie too.

Saturday - what a debarcle!!

I had all intentions of going to the Rocklea Markets and having breaky there with Ben and the kids, but I tell you what, it's almost impossible to get these buggers ready in the morning! Considering I was awake with Dom at 6.30am - I should have just woken Ben and got him to mind the kids and went by myself.

Anyway we finally got to the markets (at about 8.45am) and got the fruit and veges and when we were leaving this guy came up to us in the carpark and told us we should get our back tyre checked (as it was practically flat!). Luckily there was a garage across the road and all the tyres needed pumping up.

Then (I can't believe this!) we were driving along the Freeway through the city and the passenger in the car in front of us hung his head out of the window and started throwing up!!! How bl**dy disgusting!! Amazingly I didn't really get much on my car!!

Then I had to get the kids ready to go to Shaelie's birthday. Now you would think that Kenzie would want to get ready to go to a birthday party - but NO - she dawdles and mucks up and I almost called Liz to tell her we weren't coming.

I don't understand why Kenzie does this!! And of course, Dom now copies her which just infuriates me (not at Dom but Kenz)!!

Ben had a wedding down at the Versace on the Gold Coast, so he left just after we did.

Anyway we got ready and went to Shaelie's 6th birthday at a park at Ferny Grove and it was a nice afternoon.

We left at 4pm just as a storm was starting to brew.

Got home and it started to pour!! Absolutely torrential! I hope Craig and Liz managed to pack up the party in time before the rain started!!

Ben didn't get home until 7.30pm - his bride was late - and considering it was only meant to be a 2 hour photo shoot, it sort of stuffed things up a bit!!

I did about 2 hours worth of scrapbooking too!

Friday again

This morning we took Kenz to school and then Dom and I went to the gym.

I did a Body Step class which was great! She was a new instructor (not the crazy Kiwi one I had last time) and I really enjoyed it. I can tell I'm going to be sore in a day or two!

Then I had to come home and have a shower as I was red as a beetroot!

Then Dom and I went to Keperra shops to BCFs (boating camping fishing) and got some groceries from Woolies.

Home to unpack and have lunch and then go back to school to pick up Kenz.

I felt really tired today (probably because I'm not used to the gym) and I just wanted to sit for 5 minutes.

Then in the evening we went around to Ian and Sandra's place at Milton and we got takeaway Thai for dinner which was really nice and it was great to catch up with Ian and Sandra before they go away to Italy and Switzerland for 8-9 weeks! How nice would that be!!!

Sandra even showed me her scrapbooking and it's got me motivated to get the kids' scrapbooks up to date - I haven't even done Dom's first birthday yet!!

100% for McKenzie

After my photography course and Mum and Dad went home, I picked up Kenz from school and then took her (and Dom) to Numberworks N Words (her maths tutors).

McKenzie was aiming for a pass in Additions to go up to the next level.

Anyway after her class was finished (and Dominic was asleep on my lap for 1 hour) she came out and her teacher said "Did you show Mum your certificate?"

McKenzie got 100% for her additions which is fantastic!

We are so proud of her.

Photography Assessment

Mum and Dad came up from the coast this morning to look after Dom while I went to my course. It was great that they got here at 7.30am, because Kenz got to see them and they walked to school with us too!

Today I had to hand in my 6 close up photos at my photography course. I was quite nervous / concerned about it because I just didn't know what to expect, how good all the other photos would be and if I was on the right track.

The worse part was that we had to put all our photos out on the desk (and there's 3 of us at a table) and then everyone got to walk around and have a look at everyone's!!!!

Then the teacher came around and said - I would have cropped that, that's a bit out of focus, that's good but I would have blurred the background as it's a bit distracting etc etc. Of course our table was the last ones to be looked at!!


Well I must have been on the right track because I got a Brilliant, that's great for my fence paling photo, he loved how it had the texture of the fence, the shadows on it and that the background was dark and you weren't distracted by the background.

He also really liked my sandy beach photo and the rust on the Maheno shipwreck. He liked the 2 others but just said to focus it off centre etc and the last one (which I hated anyway) he wasn't fussed with that one.

Work

Just the usual things for my 3 days of work this week.

Taking the kids to child care and school, catch the train to work, work, come home, go to the gym, get everything ready for the next day.

Trying to find accommodation for Rochelle's wedding in Byron Bay - looks like we'll just book a cabin in the middle of the town, so we close to the reception venue (restaurant).

It was Liz's birthday on Tuesday - happy birthday Liz and it was also Andy's birthday on Wednesday - happy birthday to you too Andy!!

Happy Mother's Day

Dom decided to wake at 5.30am again but Ben put him back to bed (as I refused to wake up early this morning!).

Ben and the kids woke me at 7.30am so it was nice to have a sleep in. Kenzie gave me her presents she bought from school - some earrings, wine glass decorations and a hair comb. I had already received the car cooler and Dom also gave me a lovely terracotta pot with a little seedling in it - so I hope I don't kill it and I manage to see what the plant is!! :o)

We didn't go to Minden unfortunately as Rod called at 9am to say Mary had a middle ear infection and was too sick.

So we stayed home with NO idea what to do as so many places were booked out and usually packed on Mother's Day (like Southbank).

Finally we went out to Samford for a drive and went to the Lyell deer farm out there. The kids loved feeding the deer and Ben and I had venison pie for lunch.

Came home and I had to take more photos for my photography assignment - as I thought I only needed 1 photo but I needed 6!!! There's not much to shoot in our backyard, but hopefully they'll turn out ok.

Peugeot Problems / Early Mother's Day

Ben left early this morning for his wedding (would you believe the groom arrived in a helicopter!).

The kids and I were leaving at 8.45am to go to the coast to see my parents and Nanna for an early Mother's Day catch up.

I got into the car and it would not start. It was totally dead. I rang Peugeot assist and they came within 20 minutes to tell me the battery was flat. He jump started the car and I drove around the block and it was fine. I went upstairs to get the kids and when we went to leave again, the car wouldn't start again!!

So I had to wait again for the mechanic to come back, and then thankfully he put a new battery in the car. You wouldn't think an 18 month old car (which was serviced 7 months ago when we bought it, would need a new battery just yet!).

Anyway an hour and half later then when we were originally leaving to got the coast we finally left! Got to the coast about 11.15am and spent some lovely time with Mum Dad and Nanna.

Got home about 5.30pm and Ben got home from his wedding around 6pmish.

I won 1st prize!!

Ben had a wedding today.

I decided to stay home and do nothing today with Dom!! I did a few loads of washing and Dom and I played outside on the trampoline and swings etc, but I didn't want to go anywhere!

We went to school and picked up Kenz and I talked to a couple of the parents there. When we got home the house alarm had gone off and there were several messages that the back to base security mob were sending security around (but I cancelled that) as there was nothing wrong at home. It's always McKenzie's room that seems to go off - but I don't know why it did this time.

Then child care phoned to say I had won First Prize in the Mother's Day Raffle! I couldn't believe it!! I got a huge basket with a dressing gown and slippers, a big box of Whitman's sampler chocolates, a bottle of champers and some white musk body lotion and shower gell.

So we raced off at 4pm to go pick them up as I wanted to have them for Mothers' Day!

I cooked corned beef for dinner - the meat was wonderful, but the mashed potatoes and the white sauce were another story. Very hard to cook a roast dinner when the kids are mucking up.

Ben got home from his wedding around 6.30pm.

I ironed for 2 hours!!

Full on Thursday

Dom woke me up at 5.15am this morning - I wasn't impressed!

Ben went to his usual photography breakfast meeting.

I dropped Dom to child care (even though it's not his usual day) and then dropped Kenz off to school and then raced into town to go to my photography course.

The course is good and we're learning a lot of technical stuff but I think everyone is getting itchy feet because we all want to take photos and we don't get the chance to do so in class.

I came home about 1pm and felt quite light headed - probably didn't help being woken up so early and then rushing around that I only had toast for breakfast.

I then raced out to go grocery shopping (the last thing I felt like doing) and then came home, unpacked and then had to pick up Kenz from school.

She had a quick bite to eat and then we went to her math tutoring at Chermside.

I spoke to Rod and Mary and we've arranged to go to Minden on Sunday for Mother's Day.

Ben picked up Dommy from childcare.

Came home from Numberworks (tutors) and then had to do the dinners, baths etc. I did some sorting of washing etc.

What a busy day - doesn't help when I have a middle ear infection too!

My 3rd funeral

This morning I went to work and left at lunch time to go to Steph's Mum's funeral. It was a lovely service but also very sad.

Steph was incredibly strong and she talked about her life with her mum, which was a lovely insight into the lives they had together.

Steph, may your Mum rest in peace.

Poor Oscar

Ben picked up Oscar from the dog sitter today and not only did she charge us a fortunate, she clipped and shaved Oscar down to practically NOTHING!!

I was furious when I saw him - this lady said she would just trim his bum and face and she just took it into her own hands to clip him all over, bath him and cut his nails! So instead of a basic $10 clip, she had the AUDACITY to charge Ben $45 for the botched job she did!!!

Not only that, but he slept outside (don't get me wrong, Oscar isn't a spoilt dog) but we do keep him inside at night so he doesn't bark at possums all night long (plus he lived indoors when he was in Canberra).

Anyway this lady had him sleeping outside at night and she TOLD Ben that he was barking at a cat at 5am in the morning, so she hit him with a fly swatter!!!

Now that really pissed me off!!! How dare she do that! And what worries me more is, what else did she do to him that she hasn't told us!!!

So anyway, I rang Michelle (she used to mind Oscar and Matisse when she lived at Gaythorne) and this was her recommendation as this lady works for Michelle. I called Michelle in Sydney and complained and said I wasn't happy and I won't be sending Oscar there again!! Michelle totally understood where I was coming from and said it wasn't good enough!

So now poor Osc looks like a little poodle with a tiny head and a big body!!

Not impressed at all.

Sunday / Monday

Even though the nights were quite cool, the days were just lovely. It's so nice and relaxing staying at the house. The kids are safe on the big deck and they also rode their scooters under the house, but they didn't go downstairs without an adult, as there were fresh dingo tracks every day.

Trust me, these 4 can get pretty noisy together, so I don't think a Dingo would be game enough to come around when the kids were playing!

Mike's uncle who lives at Orchid Beach came and had dinner with us for 3 nights, so it was nice to have a chat to him and hear about interesting Fraser tales.

Monday lunch time we had packed up and were on our way home.








We stopped at Eli Creek so the kids could have another swim and some lunch - and the water is freshwater and FREEZING!!

We had a pretty good drive back down the beach and to the barge. We just got off the barge at Inskip and Dom started saying he had a sore tummy and then he said he was going to throw up. And of course he did!! Poor little man - that's twice now coming home from Fraser he's been sick! So not sure if it's car sickness that he gets or if it's because he drinks a lot of milk! so we cleaned him up and headed to the underbody car wash where Mike and Kate were waiting for us. Amazingly there weren't too many cars in front of us (considering it was a long weekend) and we got through relatively fast.

Then we went into Rainbow and had an early dinner and left Rainbow at 5pm. We got home just after 7.30pm and then I spent the next hour unpacking everything and putting on washing etc and getting everything ready for school, child care and work for Tuesday.

All in all we had a lovely relaxing weekend.

Champagne Rock Pools

It's the first time we've taken the kids to the Champagne Rock Pools and the kids loved it!! We also took some photos with Indian Head in the background (Ben and I had our photo taken here when we first came to Fraser in December 1994!) (I'll see if I can scan that photo in).

Five Fabulous days on Fraser

We had amazing weather on Fraser.

On Friday we took the kids to the beach but thought it might be too cold to swim - but of course, Kids don't feel the cold, so off they went and jumped into the water - fully clothed.


Mike Kate and the girls arrived about 2pm and then we had a bbq for dinner.

It happens in Threes

Tresona phoned me to let me know, sadly, Steph's Mum had lost her fight with Cancer.

The sadest part is, is that Steph is 32-33 weeks pregnant, and I just wished that her Mum could have seen Steph's first baby.

I guess being a mum, this makes it really hard for me to accept, because it would have been a tragedy if Kenz and Dom had never met their grandparents.

Our deepest sympathies to Steph and all of your Family.

Happy Birthday Rod

Today was Rod's birthday (Ben's dad). Happy birthday Rod we hope you have a lovely lunch at Woodlands - it's a beautiful venue.

www.woodlandsofmarburg.com

We leave at about 7.45am to head up to Fraser Island. We got to Chermside when Ben realised he left the permit at home, so we had to turn around and get them.

So we left home again at 8.05am and got up to Rainbow Beach around 11am.

We had lunch and got the last of our supplies (hot chook, fresh bakery bread etc) and then drove up to Inskip Point and got the barge over to Fraser island. It's like a 10 minute trip on the barge to Fraser and costs $85!

Anyway we head up Fraser and it's 100klms long and we're travelling really well until we get stuck behind this massive bl**dy boat who is bogged on the one way track!

We were stuck behind it for an hour (and we were only 10 minutes from Orchid Beach - so that was really frustrating, but the kids were pretty good.

We got to Marloo (the house) and unpacked and the kids played happily and then we had an early dinner and early to bed. Lights go off at 11pm (as it runs on a generator) so it's a good excuse to go and get some shut eye!

Mike and Kate come tomorrow.