belated Australia Day

because i was at a Hen's Day on Australia Day we decided that our would be the following day on Sunday.

we headed down to Fagan Park at Galston, which we just LURVE!!!!!

heaps of food, glorious sun, fun in the park, feeding the duck, laughter and just good ol' Aussie fun.

my friend dal came too with her gorgeous girls and hubby. Dal couldn't believe that i was so snap happy and i only took exactly 100 photos, lol

a civilized Hen's Day

before i start...... Happy Australia Day everyone!!!!

my friend skye is getting married next weekend. i think she is last of us to take the plunge out of all our school friends. we couldn't let this special occasion go by without some sort of a Hen's day, so because we are all grown up now and are much more sophisticated (LOL!!!!!) we though we spend the afternoon getting manicures, pedicures and top it off with High Tea.

it was a great afternoon. i really enjoyed myself and so did the other girls.

you should see the menu for the teas to pick from. i think it took us all about half an hour to decide. i highly recommended the Blood Orange one from the last time i went, and this time i went for the Panna Cotta - YUM!!!!! omg it was good.

i couldn't help myself and took my camera along, i did feel like a bit of a dill, but you get that. people must have thought we were most peculiar when we stood in a circle and i took a pic of all our nicely manicured toes!

it was only day we all had free to get together and do it before her wedding, so our Australia Day celebrations got put off and we are celebrating tomorrow instead. we (being us 4, my mum, my sister, anthony's parents, and dal, stu and the girls) are headed to Fagan Park for the day. i can't wait. it's been ages since we've been there. it will be hard to start with as it's a place we all used to meet before dad got sick and there are so many happy memories there with Dad and the kids running and playing and exploring there.

i've made homemade vanilla cupcakes tonight and when they are cooled we will the Aussie touch on them - green and gold baby! i'm putting my christmas pressie to good use tonight testing out the recipes from my cupcake cookbook.

i'll leave you with a few pics from my lovely day today.

quote

"THERE ARE NO ORDINARY MOMENTS"

i love it! it really makes me think about things in a different light.

i went and visited my friend Dallas today. I've know dal since i was Shanice's age. without getting musshy, she's the best friend a person could ever have and i'm so very blessed to have her as a part of my life - she knows why!

my kids are a bit older than her two girls, but my kids (when they are behaving which wasn't today) just love playing with Makayla and Abi, they just smother then, it's like having a little sister they can hand back, lol.

we weren't having the best day today, wasn't connor and i. over the past few days connors behavour has just gotten so uncontrolable, i am just beside myself right now. i feel drained cause nothing i do or say to avoid the anger and then the highs is working. it's trying to find that one little thing again that works, but i'm at a loss right now. of course played up really bad at dal's, but i thought i felt embarrased because of it, but really i didn;t cause i knew Dallas understood and i didn't need to appologise because it was ok. i'm so lucky to have good friends like this.

my "FAMOUS" friend

it's official, my gorgeous friends Tracy has now revealed that she is a part of Scrapbooking Memories Creative Team for the next 12 months.

So proud of you girlie. Now Sheree and i can stalk yet another "famous" scrapper and i can gloat that i knew you before you were famous, LOL!!!!!!

Speaking of Miss Tracy and Miss Sheree they both came over today for our playday. It was great to just sit around and chat. The kids played really well for most of the time except for the occasional disagreement (mainly my two - grrrrr, lets not go there with them!).

It was just what i needed as today (and yesterday) were actually really bad days for me! I'm finding myself yelling all the time and feeling extremely highly strung. Don't know why, i know my anxiety has been playing up real bad lately - deep breaths haven't been doing the trick!.

so you get 3 scrapper in the same room with 5 kids and you "expect" that one of them would have a camera handy wouldn't you. especially when 2 of them are doing a "photo a day journal" wouldn't you? WRONG not one of us had a camera - even me! Anthony had taken mine for the day as he had to visit some sites for inspection. So i pulled out my mobile cause it's got a great little inbuilt camera.

Here are few pics from today of the 5 kids.

did we scrap - NO! i think i did stick a few bits of pp on a couple of jumbo playing cards (a future Scrap Girls Project). But it was a lovely day - thanks girls

Tomorrow we are off to my friends Dallas's. My kids love playing with her 2 girls, and they're not doubt hoping it's warm enough to go swimming.

mmmmmm.......

i'm just starting to get into the swing of these school holidays and are really enjoying them.
and now there is only one week left! I think i'm already for the kids to go back to school. I know i still haven't gotten them school shoes, but i'm pretty sure their ones from last year still fit so i'll wait till the rush is over and get them in a few weeks time.
Anthony and i have been looking into getting Base lessons for Connor this year. he is super keen to be like Mikey from MCR, but he'd be cuter as the lead singer i reckon - biased mum here! I think from what we've been told that he'd have to start off with a guitar first and in a few years progress to the base - something to do with the strings being thicker and harder for his little fingers to manipulate, can you tell i'm not musically minded. Ant said he'd go for lessons with him so they could pratice together!!!! I wonder if i can convince them to sound proof my scrap room and get a lock from the inside, lol.
Speaking of Anthony...... it was our wedding anniversary today. 8 years!!!
We spent a lovely romantic evening having pizza from the food court and then going to see National Treasure 2. I honestly dont care if it doesn't sound romantic cause it's "us". Both of us aren't into all that stuff, so it was just fitting. He did spoil me though, buying me some great pressies and i felt a bit guilty cause i didn't get a chance to go and get him anything, so today me and kids raced down to the local game shop and bought him a PS3 game he wanted. There goes my spare cash for the rest of the holidays, lol, they are so expensive!

I'm so glad that i did that calendar poster for the kids at the start of the holidays. It has worked so well, i'm even considering doing it for each month of the year. the kids never asked me what we were doing they always just walked up to the poster to check instead. Plus with it being there, i felt guilty if a day was empty, so it was quickly filled up, so we've have pretty much been flat out all school holidays, whcih has been great.

I've been very slack though with taking photo's though these holidays too. i think it's been both me and the kids, i forget to take the camera and when i do the kids aren't interested in getting their photos taken and wont conform!

We have another busy day tomorrow with both Tracy and Sheree coming over for lunch. Crap that reminds me to go and buy lunch stuff, lol. i forgot today! it should be great. we've got some fun things planned for the kids to do too. so they should be entertained while we chat.

well i'd best get my butt into bed so i remember to get up early and clean the house before my visitors arrive. i will take photos tomorrow and share them - i promise.

what is with.....

....... this CRAZY, CRAZY Weather?

Yesterday we were all dying of heat exhaustion and today it's raining and i sent my kids off to the babysitters with jumpers on! Is it me, or is it just pure craziness? LOL

Now i promised myself this is a short one, lol. The house is quiet with everyone in bed so i thought i'd sneak on the computer, do a blog entry and load an million things onto ebay so i can get my friend a gorgeous wedding gift instead of a OK pressie. And it has to be quick cause i brought home the preview to "elizabeth-the golden age" tonight and i've been dying to see it, i loved the first one and i just think cate blanchet is the most phenomenal actress ever! Big statement coming from someone who has been in the industry over 17 years! LOL

Oh and i want to cook banana bread too while i watch it. Mum bought me about 10 banana's late last week for 70c a kilo - bargain! they are starting to turn so i'd better do something with them instead of watse them.

How Random am i tonight? it must be the lack of sleep catching up with me.

Yesterday in all that heat - all 38 degree's of it, I took the kids up to the Reptile Park at Gosford. We love it up there and go a few times a year. well, i bit the bullet and bought and annual pass. It worked out to be 2 and a half entries, so that's a great saving i reckon. i probably think we'll go again before school goes back as it was really too hot yesterday to see much.

We left just after the crocodile feeding and we were going to the beach, but it was too hot to go, so we promised the kids slip and slide in the shade at nanny's instead, which was fine.

the new saltwater croc - ELVIS

the memorial of Eric

I was having a sticky a little while ago at Tracy's blog (hi trac, see you tomorrow!!!) and she has got a "word for 2008". I did laugh and thought to myself that i dont possibly have time for a word for this year, and then i thought "SURVIVE" might be a good one, lol. Let's see if i can survive yet another year, to make it thru with all the obsitcles that life throws at me (and there already has been a few big ones) and come out at the end happy, cause that is my main aim!

a just because reason.....

............. i reckon is good enough to blog about!!!

I had the nicest day today. Don't know why it particularly nice, it just was.

This morning started off a bit early as i had to open the shop, so the kids came with me and mum picked them up. They were going to Castle Hill to Alvin and the Chipmunks, but when they got to pay for the tickets they only had front row left so decided not too as the kids necks would be bent so far back for 2 hours.

After work i took the kids up to mums cause mum had an appointment with her financial planner. It became quite warm so we wandered up the shop for an ice cream and then came back home and went on the slip and slide! the kids just love it. And when the water pools at the bottom instead of wasting it (which i soooooo know we shouldn't be doing - but it's only for 15 minutes and its a trickle) i scoop it up in the bucket and water the plants! No wastage at our house.

When mum came home we headed off down to Brooklyn for a play in the park and fish and chips for dinner. Typical me, took my camera up to mums but that's where i left it, but i managed a few happy snaps with my mobile - the piccies are fantastic on it.

Nothing special, it was just a really nice day.

Last night Anthony and I had an appointment with a child psychologist about Connor. We just don't want him starting the new school year with Mr Anger/Anxiety coming back and rather than leaving it and hoping it will go away we're on to it like a flash.

Our session went for an hour where we had to paint a picture of him. We all know he has funny little quirks, but it seems we were painting him out to be this little monster which he isn't. And it's not all the time that he behaves badly cause the majority of the time he is a loving little boy and i'm not biased cause i'm the first to tell EVERYONE that my kids are feral and are naughty, they aren't perfect - but who is? Maybe i'm just too honest and up front, and maybe i should pretend like everyone else! Crap, i'm waffling.

Anyways, i asked Jita if we were making sense to her, and she said from little things we've mentioned it could be Autism. HELLO, rewind! When we first saw a psychologist 2 years ago we had a sneaking suspicion it could be but Connors characteristics were very minor and it wasn't picked up on then, so i hadn't thought about it again. She said if it is, which it probably isn't, it would be a form of autism that only a specialist could detect and diagnose.

So the past 24 hours i have been watching everything he does with a different set of eyes on. We have to now fill in 2 observation forms as well as my mum and sister filling in them too. Once we return them she can determine which tests we go to from there - Autism one or Behavioural one.

I can deal with it if he does a form of Autism, that's fine. But to have a stigma put on him, i dont think i'll like. There's certainly been a lot for me and Anthony to comprehend in the past 24 hours! We thought we were going there because of our quirky little guy who needs some better methods of dealing with his quirks, anger and anxiety!

2 to share

while the house was quiet last night - I SCRAPPED!!!!!!!

i only managed to finish 2 and half start another which i hope to finish today with trac.

Tracy is on her way up to return Shanice!

for some strange reason though, my scanner is scanning them a bit blurry. Note to Self : look into that, lol!!! more like get anthony to fix it when he come home tomorrow

can you hear that?

NO!!! neither can i. It is the sound of quiet.
That's right, i have the whole house to myself tonight.
I went down to visit Tracy yesterday and she said that one of my kids could stay a couple of days if i wanted. Well Shanice was very quick to put her hand up to that one.
My mum came over today to help me go thru the kids waredrobes and sort thru all their old clothes, 3 garbage bags for vinnies and 1 massive bag for ebay later. Anyway Connor wanted to go home with her.
And that leaves Anthony! He headed off to Canberra at lunch time for Summernats.
So here i am at home alone, in the dark cause i'm to lazy to get up and put the lights on, and i dont have too cause no one else is here!!!!
What have i done all afternoon while it's been so quiet - well i ironed, vaccumed, then sat on my bum and watched a movie "No Reservations" while eating sara lee ultra choc ice cream, i cried just because i hate doing it with everyone else around, then i finally decided to go and scrap, so i've pushed a few bits of paper around and stuck some down, lol.

So that's it!!!! Dont know how well i'll sleep tonight, as i can't sleep anyway, but we'll see how i go

calendar of events

every school holidays, without fail, my cherubs ask me continuously "What are we doing today mum?". So last night i sat up and made a massive January 2008 calendar.

It is huge, i used a massive sheet of butchers paper.

We put on there all the things we already have planned for the next month and i'm sure there is more to come.

I stuck it on the wall down our hall way were we have all the time tables posters, blending sounds, space posters and Connors shark posters. All the sight words have now been taken down as they both dont need them any more. Even though it makes our kitchen/living room look a tad bit messing it has been invaluable as they pass this wall all the time and look at it. You might not think it works but just glancing at it 20 times a day, it starts to sink in after a while. And i figure our place isn't just a house its a home!

i can hear them now, in the kitchen, unsupervised making Milly Milkshakes in shanice's new milkshake maker! Oh i can just picture the mess, lol. But at least they are having fun.

a new year.......

i am so pleased to start a new year a fresh. 2007 had to have been the crappiest year ever and i dont to ever go though anything like that ever, ever again.

we entered 2008 with a few tears and a little emptiness. but i have someone so wonderful looking out for me up there that i know that this year will be tough but it will bring good things.

so i have been informed by sheree that i really need to update my blog, lol!!! i promised her i'd do it 2 days again but i got distracted - AGAIN!

so here goes

the week before Christmas we went up to Smiths Lake (near Forster). We rented a lovely house right on the lake. I could so move up there, it's so peaceful and every ones nice and in no particular hurry. We went late night shopping on the Thursday night - the Thursday before Christmas mind you and we got a park right outside the door and it was great! You certainly don't get that here in Sydney.

We didn't do a great deal for the week. we went to the beach, went fishing on the lake, had lots of cups of coffee, we to Seal Rocks to the lighthouse, went into Forster and hired a aqua bike, went to the movies and saw Bee Movie, went to the beach some more.

It was exactly what we needed. To get away....... we even took Dad with us so he didn't get lonely at home by himself.

We arrived back home on the Saturday before Christmas. The following day the kids and i were headed off down to Tracy's for a Chrissy BBQ. All the kids had an absolute ball playing together. We arrived at about 10.30am and swear it was about 10pm when i walked back in the door at home. It was a long day, but i just love going down to Tracy's. We chatted and laughed, ate far too much food and took some crazy photos which was well over due of the 4 of us!

I had to work for a few hours on Christmas Eve which was fine. Not that i had my thinking cap on at all, lol. i think the majority of my customers that came thru the door just shook their heads at me, lol. It worked pretty good working cause it meant i could pick up all those last minute items from Woolies. I was so surprised in there too, outside they were cued at least 1km to get in the car park, and yet in Woolies itself was rather empty, i got in a cue to pay with no one in it! Go figure

We had a quiet one on Christmas Eve. Just before bed the kids sprinkled reindeer food all over the back lawn which they thought was the bees knees. Because of the excitement doing that we forgot to leave out a beer and biscut for Santa, but i reckon he probably got enough to eat at all the other kids homes.

Shanice arose Christmas Morning at about 5.30am. We could hear her tossing and turning in her bed, and then she went and got Connor and told him to come and wake us so she wouldnt get in trouble, lol. We all got up at about 5.50am which is far too early for me!

The kids had all their presents opened in record time by about 6.20am, god love em! Thank goodness this year Santa didn't have a lot of gifts with excess packaging to unwrap.

My inlaws came over about 8am with more presents in tow. Cause they weren't spoilt enough already, lol. They we had a lovley bbq breakie of bacon, eggs, hash browns and baked beans - YUM!!!

We tidied up a tad and packed a bag each and headed off to mum and dads for Christmas lunch. We had decided to stay the night at mums because it's going to be hard enough for me and mandy this christmas let alone mum and we need to be there for each other - isn't that what christmas and families are all about?

well...... more presents were to be unwrapped when we arrived! I must say the kids were very spoilt this year especially, but thats ok i reckon! Even i was spoilt, i just love all my beautiful pressies.

Photos will come soon as i just realised that i deleted them off my memory card by accicent! DERRRR...... i thought i'd uploaded them already and deleted them off. Good thing i put them on mums computer. So next time i go up i will put them on the flash drive and bring them home.

We've had a nice week at home. Anthony's been home for the past week too. He starts his new job tomorrow which we are both very excited about. I'm so pleased for him. The money will be excellent and get us out of a bit of a whole but the main thing is he will be happy and he will be using all the knowledge he has to the best of his potential - does that make sense or is it getting late and i'm waffling?

Oh! i scrapped too while we were away at Smiths Lake. Here are my few Chrissy layouts for Scraploot. I am hoping to get some more done in the next couple of days too. Fingers crossed