Monday, March 31, 2008

Jarred wins......


Jarred won the 1-4 years Easter colouring in competition at Safeway. They rang on Saturday morning and said he had won and we had to go and pick his prize up. Of course we had to go straight away, as he was so excited. He got a playdough bucket, 2 x Easter DVD's and a Little People animal set.

The floor

What it looks like now (For Mish and Helen)

Please excuse all the dusty footprints in this photo. I mopped the floor for the third time, just after taking this photo (Would have been a good idea to do that before I took the photo's)



Our wonderful neighbour Steve came over yesterday and helped Chris move all the furniture back into the house. I spent the morning washing everything, that goes in my big buffet. It was all covered in dust. Packed that all back into the buffet. Then started to prepare dinner. Our friends are heading up to NT in May and they wanted to get all the inside information of where they should go. We decided dinner and a chat was a good way to plan their trip. I made mini quiche and bruschetta for entree, pasta, salad and rolls for main and pav for dessert. All while trying to get the house back to normal. The food was good and the company was even better. A great night was had by all.

So today, I have the kids TV room to tackle. Vacuum and Mop (again) and we should be back to normal.

Have a great week.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

It's been a while.......

We are now home. There is dust everywhere, and I mean everywhere. I think I will be cleaning dust off everything for the next few months. The floor is a different colour and has a very glossy finish, which I am getting used too. Chris loves the natural timber colours, me....well lets just say, I really loved the old floor. Hopefully it will grow on me, because I don't have a choice. The house still stinks, the coating they use on the floor is so strong. It has turned really cold and wet here, so we have had, the heater on with the windows and doors open, trying to get rid of the smell. It is suffocating. We are still in a totally mess. We have stuff everywhere because we haven't been able to move furniture back into the house yet. Hopefully we will get a chance tomorrow in between showers. Chris has gone to play Paintball today, as part of a 'team bonding' session with work (Well that's what they tell us!) I must say I wasn't too happy with the timing of it. I really want to get the furniture back into the house and try and get back to normal. Tomorrow - hopefully!!!!

Some pictures of the floor in progress.


Oma and Opa sent the kids some money for Easter. We went shopping and they all bought chocolate.



Yes, Miss Kayla is missing. She is going through a stage of refusing to have her photo taken. Blame her not me!!

Good Friday. Chris took the kids to the park, while Kayla and I watched a movie. It was nice to have Austar. That evening we went over to a guy from Chris's works, house for dinner. I was breathalysed on the way there, the kids thought it was so funny. Sam didn't tell anyone it was his birthday. He supplied fish and chips for everyone. He is a young guy and went a bit crazy buying lots of yummy 'junk' food for the kids. They were all on 'sugar' highs. It was a really nice night.


Easter Saturday Tradition - Painting Hard boiled eggs. Jarred and Kloe had so much fun painting eggs. Apparently Kayla and Zac are too old for this tradition now! I'm not, I just love doing this as much as the kids. That afternoon we went for a walk to the Botanical Gardens. We walked around the gardens and the kids had a play on the playground.






Lucky Kloe, look what she found in the yard of the apartment where we were staying.


Easter morning. The easter bunny found us. He left a trail of eggs all over the apartment and out in the yard. Kloe was thrilled the bunny took her card she made. The kids had a great time finding all the eggs. Even Zac joined in the fun. Kayla, was trying to drag herself out of bed and I was told "Don't you dare take photo's of me" The kids ate chocolate all day long. It's the only day they are allowed too. They eventually realise they don't feel too good and need some proper food.






Sunday night we went over to our neighbour Steve and Chrissy's house for a BBQ. It was really funny having to drive over there. We normally just walk across the paddock. Another great night of yummy food and laughs.

Monday we went to the park and the kids had a great time playing.

Almost caught up..........more next time. I have dust to deal with!

Sunday, March 16, 2008

An update in photo's

Already for the floors to be fixed. For anyone that doesn't know, the hose on our washing machine blew off and flooded the house last July. We have Tassie Oak timber floors throughout the house and the water caused the timber to warp. It is a huge insurance job. And a huge job for us. We have spent the weekend moving everything off the floor into the shed. We can not stay in the house while they are working, so I have had, to pack clothes, food and supplies for everyone. I will be so glad when it is over. This is the kids TV room

It has been very hot and very dry. We have had temps in the high 30's for over a week now. Everything is so dry, dusty and brown. You can see all the dust on the deck. We are still on level 3 water restrictions, but I'm sure that is going to change, if we don't get any rain very soon.

This is how many tomatoes we picked on Friday. There was more yesterday and will be more today. So we have been having a lot of tomato things.

I made a huge pot of Spaghetti sauce yesterday with fresh tomatoes. I semi dried some in the oven. I made focaccia bread with the semi dried ones today, which was really yummy. I am going to attempt to start bottling some with the larger tomatoes.

Jarred with his favourite magazine (at the moment) Scrapbooking Memories, only because he is in it!
Kloe made this fantastic mask in art this week

Fresh from the garden. We now have corn. It is so sweet and yummy.


On Thursday Chris and Zac were invited to a corporate box at the Melbourne Grand Prix. Everything was supplied for them, transport, food, t shirt, hat, stubby cooler and of course entry. I was a very long day for them, they left home at 7am and didn't get back until 11.30pm. They had a fantastic time, they were 10 metres from the track. Zac loved it, he could feel the cars going past. Chris asked him what his favourite part was, his response "All of it!" This boy is a serious 'Rev Head'





On Friday, I also had another pages accepted to be Published in Scrapbooking Memories. It is for their 'Teens' gallery. It is one of Miss Kayla, posing with her tongue out!!!
Have a great week

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Scrapbooking Memories Vol 9 No 11

SM is finally out. I have one very excited little boy. He spotted his picture and says "That's me" After admiring himself for several minutes, he went off and played. Only to return a few minutes later, wanting to see himself again. So cute. So here it is. I don't like the 'newbie' tag but hey.......it's taken a while to see it in print, so I'm not complaining.

And here is the original.


It is very exciting because my very talented friend Rach is in the same issue. Way to go sweetie!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Blogger is not playing fair!

I have been trying to upload photo's for the last two days, but blogger is playing around and not letting me.

I have more fresh garden produce to show you. We have cherry tomato's coming out our ears. We are all going to look like a tomato. If anyone has any recipes for cherry tomatoes please let me know. I need them. We are still getting 2-3 zucchini's every few days. So yesterday Kayla and I made another cake and slice. I also tried to freeze some. I researched and they say it works, but I'm still a bit sceptical. Will have to see how it goes.

The weather has been HOT! Yes, you read right! HOT! We are expecting a week of HOT weather. I really need to soak it all up because it is going to get really cold, very soon. We went looking for a wood heater on Saturday. It was a bit funny because it was so hot. We are not spending another winter being cold.

Ok, so it is going to make a liar out of me - It just let me upload photo's
Look at these little beauties!First Tigerella Tomato's
And I made this mini album.

We have a long weekend, here this weekend. So today we are spending a very lazy day at home.


Thursday, March 06, 2008

I've been tagged

The lovely Susanne has tagged me. Sorry it's taken a while. I'm not good at being tagged.

A: The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B: Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C: At the end of the post, the player then tags 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 Years Ago: I had been married to Chris for almost 6 years. I had an almost 4 year old (Kayla) and a 2 year old (Zac) We were in our second home. I was working 3 days a week as a PA for the General Manager. The other two days, I was looking after the GM's son along with my own two. Life was 'normal' Who would have know that within a year our lives would change so much

Things on my to-do list today: Wow! Were do I start? Get up and make bed, tidy room/bathroom. Make lunches for school/work. Put first load of washing on.Get dressed. Wake kids up. Make breakfast. Check emails. Load dishwasher. Wipe kitchen. Tidy house. Help Jarred get dressed and do his hair. Put washing on the line and put a load of sheets in. Drive to school, drop Kayla and Zac. Drive to Kindy, take Jarred in and stay for a while. Speak to a friend and cancel our day due to Kloe being sick. Go to chemist to buy more medicine for Kloe. They don't have any, so I have to drive to the other chemist and get it. Go to Medicare, while I'm there. Put another load of washing on the line and a load of towels to wash. Print Kloe some Easter pictures to colour in. Update blog and upload new layouts. Hang wash. Re make beds. Fold and iron washing. Pick Jarred up. Prepare dinner. Pick Kayla and Zac up. Wash lunchboxes and drink bottles, repack what I can. Chris has a farewell dinner and drinks on tonight, so drop him off. Cook dinner. Load dishwasher and wash up. Clean Kitchen. Homework. Bath Kloe and Jarred. Put them to bed. Hopefully make or create something. Go pick Chris up. Have a shower. Tidy house. Flop into bed, ready for another day!!!


What I would do if I were suddenly made a billionaire: Pay off our mortgage. Share the money around and make lots of people happy. Buy a house somewhere warmer and travel.

3 of my bad habits: I am a 'neat freak'. I have trouble saying no. I hate asking for help.

3 places I have lived: Only 3???? Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns, Jabiru NT and Hamilton.

5 jobs that I have had: Admin Clerk, Purchasing Officer, PA, Childcare Assistant, Pre-School Assistant.

5 Things people don't know about me: I have to create something everyday. I wear contact lenses. I have to have a tidy house before I go out or to bed. I am very shy. I prefer sweet things over savoury.

Ok so I tag: Rach, Helen, & Vicky

I'm slowly catching my breath

This week has been filled with Kindy Duty (all day), afternoon reading in Kloe's classroom, sports carnival (M &Z) sick kids, gardening, cleaning and a tiny bit of creating!

The last few weeks have past by and it has been just a BLUR! Yesterday was the first day I seemed to catch my breath. All the kids were well and at school and Kindy. The house was quite and I got stuck into catching up and cleaning out. I planned on doing the same today.........never plan anything around here because it doesn't work. Kloe was up during the night with Croup. The poor little darlin' just can't seem to get on top of this sickness at the moment. She has had 6 days off school already this term. And she has been SICK! So we now have more antibiotics (this is the third lot) So fingers crossed she will get better. She seems to come good for a few days and then go back to school (with all the germs) and then she goes down hill.

Some pages from the last few weeks









And these little Noddles boxes were whipped up inbetween cooking dinner last night (I kid you not!) I bought a pack of 5 noddle boxes for $2.95. A pack of easter eggs for $2.95, used some scrap paper and ribbon and for under $2 they make the perfect pressies for the teachers for Easter. Jarred wanted to take them to his teachers today. So for the next two weeks, he will be asking "is it Easter yet?"






This weekend is a long weekend. Which I'm really looking forward to. We have more work to do in the garden. It is slowly coming along. We have Chris's cricket presentation on Sunday and both Kayla and Zac are having friends stay over.
Oh and I almost forgot to say, after a very long delay, Kayla's chicken has started laying eggs. She kept threatening it, she told it she was going to take it to KFC. Poor chicken. It has layed two eggs and they are very odd shapes.