bit of this & that

* Still NO Blue Baby!

* Yesterday saw me sick as a dog with some flu virus. Anthony started demolishing the garage. i had bouts of guilt and dragged my arse off the lounge and carried the rest of the boxes from the playroom to the craft room (aka the shed)

Here is what the shed looks like now...........

just needs a few finishing touches - painting the strip above the window, gutters connected, rainwater tank connected, front step put in and the garden extended to the front.

At least we have privacy from the back neighbours now!

* After we finished working yesterday, Ant and I were out the front and the sky was really weird i had to run inside to grab the camera. The photo unfortunately doesn't do it any justice.

* Shanice came home early from mum's today, so we went down the have coffee..... just the 3 of us girls. Shanice was very grown up and asked for her own hot chocolate :)

We then went into BigW after cause Shanice needed new shoes and a new top and i wanted some herbs. It turned into a disaster picking tops and shoes and we didn't end up with any. But i got my herbs PLUS 2 hanging baskets - 1 with cherry tomatoes and 1 with strawberries - YUM!

We did end up getting 2 pairs of shoes from the shoe shop, but no top.

After some much needed housework at home we waited until it cooler this afternoon to pot the herbs up. They are in pots on the fence next to the shed, and look pretty good. Hopefully they will stay that way.

parsley

dill (looking a bit sad) and thyme

* while i was taking the pics of shanice and my gardening jobs, the boys decided to sneak into my bedroom and watch Spongebob season 4 dvd (we got the other night cause i had to have it) - CHEEKY KIDS!!!

* the 3 of them are now playing the Wii, but are going to be very upset when i tell them its 8pm and time for bed.

not today

No Blue Baby today :(
I have been waiting here at home on tender hooks and it got to 10.45am and i just could wait any longer so i rang Mandy at the hospital for her only to tell me "not today", BUT hopefully Monday.
It probably is a good thing that baby Hunter isn't arriving today as I've got a nasty, nasty head cold and feel like utter crap. so I'm now going to dope myself up on sinus tablets and cold & flu tablets to knock it on the head, so by Monday I'll be healthy to meet little Hunter and give him big squeezes.

Connor is performing today at Mt Druitt Westfield. It's a 4 hour event and they get a sausage sizzle for lunch and heaps of other food and drinks. They are doing a Christmas pageant with heaps of songs and skits. Connor has gone dressed as a shepherd, and looks super cute if i must say so myself, lol

Both the kids are going in separate directions this weekend so Anthony and i can get stuck into the playroom and shed and tidy everything. Connor is headed down the farm with Pat and Michael and Shanice is going up to mums to help put up her Christmas tree.
Once we tackle the shed i should consider putting ours up one night next week. Maybe Hunter could help.

i'm going to see Heidi

i am soooo very super excited i could hardly contain my happy dancing this morning!!!!!

earlier this year i said to my bestie, Miss Trac that i will definitely be going with her to Brissy to attend the Heidi Swapp Create 08. But i completely forgot in that moment that i am Mandy's support person for when Hunter is being born and of course, wouldn't you know it, Mandy's due date is when Heidi's classes are on - bummer!
so now that Hunter is arriving earlier than anticipated i can go to Create 08. Typical!!!!!
Last night i sent an email to Chanel, and i didn't get my hopes up cause i figured they would be sold out................ BUT, guess what....................... I HAVE A TICKET!!!!!!!

Trac and i have be organizing this morning about our grand plans. The every so gorgeous Miss
Sherri will also be there and all the Tarisota girls that Trac can't wait to meet.

I can't belive i'm going and it's only 2 weeks away - YAY!!!!!!

Aunty Kylie

i have lots to catch up on, but firstly and MOST importantly.......... i am going to be an aunty VERY soon. Mandy is due on the 15th but, it looks as though the Blue Baby (aka Hunter) will come this Friday or Monday at the latest if he doesn't come naturally before then.
I am so wrapped! my bag is ready and packed for the awaiting phone call

onto other notes of importance..........................

• shanice got her Blue pen licence on friday, which is a great achievement and something all Year 4 kids hang out for all year.
• Both Shanice and Connor received a Special Award for tokens collected at school this week. they are both 1 point closer to receiving another Principals Award
• i was supposed to be at Nicole's house scrapping today with Nic and Sharon........ but instead i have shanice at home. she apparently did something to her stomach muscles yesterday and has been in heaps of pain all last night and today
• i went to check on shanice last night and received a massive scare. i found her on her back in bed with foamy bubbles all around her mouth. my first thought was she may have fitted, but i slept with her and i think now that it was just bubbles - i HOPE!
• my playroom looks like an atomic bomb went off TWICE! Anthony finished pulling the shelving unit out of the playroom and finished lining the shelves in the shed yesterday. Now we are in the middle of moving it all. i didn't realise there was that much stuff. i think we may need a skip bin to come so we can get rid of all the rubbish
• Anthony is now away for 2 nights. yay, i'm home alone, lol, i can hog the bed and not get growled at

I think that is it for right this very minute. Shall keep everyone posted on the arrival of my nephew, the Blue Baby Hunter - happy dance, happy dance.

I'm off to go and cook a choc fudge brownie and maybe a little scrapping.....................

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.

~Edmund Hillary

party, party, party

i'm exhausted, lol

today we had Connor's 8th birthday party. connor wanted his party at Emerton Leisure centre which is a great place for a party. the kids get to swim, go on the water slide, go on the inflatable, eat yummy party food and just have fun. and the best part is ............... i dont have the mess at home.

connor invited 15 of his friends to come along as well as a few family friends too. It was the best 2 hours. unfortunately i dont have any piccies from the pool as you aren't allowed camera's - which is sad but i can totally understand why.

After the kids had finished at the party we came back home and had a bbq.

i had such a nice afternoon and i think everyone else did too :)

crafting room

my "little" crafting room is almost finished!
it has power and the walls are now lined. now for the painting and the shelves and it's done!

Anthony and i are supposed to be going away next weekend, a romantic weekend away that we never, ever do. we've arranged for the kids and dogs to be baby sat at different grandparents houses. but, now we are having second thoughts. we could really use the time at home without distractions to get stuck into trashing the playroom and moving everything into the craft room.

i can't wait till my house it back to normal, whatever that is

happy, happy birthday monkey man

it's Connor's birthday today!!!!!

he's now 8 years old. and he pronounce that to us at 4am this morning - as he was born at 4am. we managed to get him back to sleep for another hour and a half before waking at 5.30am to open presents. unfortunately there are no photos from this because i could barley focus my eyes let alone operate a camera.

he was very spoilt as per usual............... we bought him :

• Rip Stick skate board - which he really, really wanted
• Series of Pirate novels
• Lego city semi trailer
• UB funkies console starter pack - some game thing for the computer
• and 4 extra ub funkies

He headed off to school all excited with a tray chokers with mini cupcakes with blue icing and 100's & 1000's.

mum and Mandy came over to help completely go thru Connor's room - my little Connor's birthday present to ME! i told him he wouldn't have a party if his room isn't clean. well....... 3 massive black garbage bags of crap later and we were done. he now has a floor and a few spare shelves to put some lego creations on.

we headed to Spur's for dinner, which is our families fav restaurant - very kid friendly. the staff even sang their special happy birthday song to Connor which he loved.

the kidlets are now in bed, completely exhausted and coming down from a sugar high!

i just love the excited look on his face as he opens all his super cool pressies

he brought the smallest exo force lego piece to dinner cause he couldn't wait to start building it. there wasn't enough room at our table so he took himself off to the table opposite us and sat all by himself on his birthday :( but he was sooooo happy doing it!

quote of the week ........

Don't cook.

Don't clean.

No man will ever make love to a woman because she waxed the linoleum -

"My God, the floor's immaculate. Lie down, you hot bitch."

~Joan Rivers

neighbours

what a weekend of dramas with the neighbours.
there is a massively long story to go with it which may get slightly confusing, so lets not go there. anyways we have suspicions that the young kids next door are dealing drugs. dont know what drugs and personally i dont really care. what i do care about is the safety of my 2 little kids.
on Saturday night there was a HUGE blew out the front with a massive Samoan father yelling at the boys for selling drugs to his daughter that was screaming her head off.
I go to panic stations and start dead bolting the door and have 000 pre-dialled into the phone while i sit under the front bedroom window to listen.
it doesn't help that we are the first house on the common driveway and they are the middle house, so all the cars sit out front of my bedroom window.
this goes on all day till 2am in the morning with the bloody "P" platers with their doof doof music, lowered bucket's of shit cars with holes in their exhaust pipes rattling while i'm trying to get to sleep.
what do i do?
do i call the cops or the council? they are going to know it's us
do i say nothing and risk my kids being exposed to that
do i approach the kids and their parents next door?

i just dont know what to do. all i do know is that i dont want it anymore going on right next door to my children and in my driveway.

tick!

i can cross off "THE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING" off my to do list.
it's all done............. well approximately 98% is done. still have to get mum's, anthony's (ordered him 2 contracted paintings - just need to arrange the pick up time) and a few more pieces for the kids stocking fillers.
wooo hooooo.
that's one load off my mind so i can concentrate on the safe arrival of the "Blue Baby", aka Hunter. i can't wait to meet my nephew. the anticipation is killing me. i'm so going to love him to bits and give him big, big squeezes and loads of kisses.

I'm in the middle of scrapping a project at the moment which is bit of a surprise that i can share soon. and i'm loving it!

the shed in the back yard is almost done. Ant just has to:

1. run the power
2. put up the gutters
3. attach to gutters to the rain water tank
4. insulate the walls
5. line the walls
6. paint the walls
7. build the shelving units
8. do something with the floor in the shed
9. fix the garden at the front
10. move everything in

oh dear!!!!! i didn't think there was that much still to do. good thing the lady of leisure is at home most days to take some of the pressure off :)

migraine's SUCK!!!

that's all i have to say bout that right now

needing some retail therapy?

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quote of the week.......

If you wonder where your child left his roller skates, try walking around the house in the dark.

~Leopold Fechtner

my backyard

it's looking like a bomb site right about now.

a while back i mentioned we were going to do some massive renovations to the house, well............... after 2 quotes and a real estate agent later, then finding out some horrible news we decided to stick with what we have and just make some minor adjustments. Then in a couple more years we can re-evaluate and move!

so in order for anthony to reclaim his garage back and move in 2-3 minis to restore, i am getting a shed! and not just any shed. this shed is bigger than our bedroom and is taking up a fair chunk of our backyard.

Anthony has done the footing and is now building the frames for the walls. It will be fully insulated when finished with power, so eventually the kids could use it.

After the shed has finished Ant will then move the false wall in the garage o i can still have an office area in the house.

And then.............. we are going to convert the back veranda to a queensland room so the kids can have that area for all there "stuff".

With fingers and toes crossed it should all be completed in January. Until then, we live in a shambles, lol

Here are a few pics of what the shed looks like so far

and because i was outside this morning taking photos, Dutch posed for me but Indi was a little shy

baby shower

Yesterday we had Mandy's Baby Shower.

the weather held off and we had the most perfect day. Mandy and the blue baby (aka Hunter) got completely spoiled and showered with so many lovely gifts.

We played some very novel baby shower games and i went a little berserk with taking photos. between me and trac we took about 250, lol.

I made some scrummy frufru cupcakes from scratch and then spent about 2.5 hours icing them on saturday morning. apparently they were delicious but i was a bit apprehensive and thought everyone was being nice. so for morning tea today i had to see if they were all lying and just being nice and OMG they were great, and i dont like cake!

i made a little tag book and got everyone to write a wish on it for mandy and hunter. i thought it would be a lovely little reminder of the afternoon we all enjoyed.

Mandy is now 35 weeks and it's not long now.

payback - mandy always used to grab my tummy and razz my kids up when i was pregnant.

mum, mandy and me

some of the very cute pressies

a duck with a blue bow - dont ask!

my fru fru cupcakes - yummmmmmm

Trac brought the kids up for the baby shower and she spent the night too. it was a full house at mums last night, lol. the kids had an absolute ball. and this morning, more like lunch time, just as we were going to leave mum took the 4 kids next door to visit the animals and feed the chooks and the kids decided they all wanted a swim. i said "no", mum said " to go in their undies" so shanice took her shoes off and jumped in with ALL her clothes on. it was too funny

we drove home this afternoon all exhausted from all things baby. Anthony was out the back building the shed. He's laid the timber paneling for the floor and is now making the frames for the walls. Connor decided he wanted to help so he donned his carpenter gear and went to help dad.

I have had a fabulous weekend and i'm now going back to reality with doing the washing up and the ironing - yuk! but with fingers crossed i am going to scrap too :)

hope you all had a great weekend too

an OMG!!!!!!

Earlier this week i was madly trying to put the finishing touches on my Scrap Girls newsletter so i could get it out at least before mid November, lol. i sent it out to all the scrap girls customers and quickly did a post on the Scrap Girls Blog.

The OMG moment came when in a matter of 3 hours i doubled our ladies for the March Cropfest and completely SOLD OUT AGAIN!!!! i was so overwhelmed - those girls certainly do love coming along to Castlereagh :)

it is just a gorgeous little place and perfect for a scrap camp. Twin share accommodation in great cabins that are very clean. A new scrapping room with great amenities, a separate dining room for us to use, and the many different options that scrap girls offer to make your weekend just the way you want it. I also think it's the idea of scrapping for 4 whole days non-stop :)

It made me do a little happy dance and then get the wheels in motion to start preparing for another retreat in May 2009. so if you missed out, don't despair cause in 6 very short weeks after the March retreat you'll be able to come to our May retreat. It will exactly the same conditions wise.

So right now, i've taken connor to his swimming lesson, come home to make dinner, washed connor's hair and dressed him (every now and again he likes his mum to baby him and get him dressed after his bath) and now it's off to shanice's swimming lesson, come home, pack the truck and drive up to mum's for Mandy's Baby Shower tomorrow.
I cant WAIT to meet my nephew!

lady of leisure

that's me!
today was my very last shift at work and i am now a stay at home mum OR lady of leisure. I am sooooo loving the idea of this.
i can go around saying to everyone that i dont need to work cause i have a hubby that earns oodles and can afford for me to now stay home and still have shopping spree's lol. did that sound snobby or what! LOL
yay - i'm so chuffed right now

quote of the week...........

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal,

love leaves a memory no one can steal.

~Unknown

1 year

the first 12 months have past.

the year of firsts has now gone - the first christmas, the first wedding anniversay, the first birthday, the first fathers day............

i miss you dad, i miss you so much

i hold a special little piece of you in my heart. love you.

it doesn't get easier, it hurts like hell. but you just accept that they are now at peace a little more with each passing day.