My Daughter

I am sitting here at the Ibis, Wollongong on a Thursday evening. Working on some eLearning Mentor Network project material that I am involved with. I produced a quiz on "Administering Projects".

I couldn't remember where I saved the file so I did a quick search on the laptop and found a file that AJ did. She is on school camp this week and I have missed her dearly. I know some Mothers will think what a luxury, having your daughter away for the week. But me, as much as I argue with her until I loose the plot and she drives me up the wall. I really do miss her. She is like a best friend to me, my right hand little person. LOL!

Anyway, I found a file that she did and I opened it. How gorgeous! The file's name is "aj stay out". Oh well that is just the invitation I need, isn't it?????? So as all good mothers do, I opened the file and found the following:

My mum

L ove
E xtreme
I ntelligent
S lim
A lert

My mum is a hero, if I am sick she is there for me all the time. She also picks up after me. She is the greatest mum ever.

How beautiful that is. She know's that I love red and boy did she get the slim wrong. LOL! But everything else is pretty much on the mark. I think I will question the extreme though!

AJ I love you so much and miss you whilst you are on camp, but I do understand that you are probably having the time of your little life on camp. And I hope that you have enjoyed your time away at camp and come home safely to your family. I must admit that I do wish your school allowed you to take mobile phones as I would have loved just to say good night and make sure that you are wearing sunscreen during the day and have put on mossie replenant as well as bushing your teeth.

Remember I always love you, no matter what, sweetie.

Two posts in a row!

Wow! How's that.

Two (really three including this one) in a row. I must be getting my life back. LOL!

Anyway I just thought I should make a special mention of this.

Happy 40th Wedding Anniversary

Happy 40th wedding anniversary Wayne and Merle (my in-laws).

Wow! Forty years of marriage. This now days is a major feat in itself.

To be married to the same person for this long. And you know what they are still in love. Yes they have their fair share of "issues", but we know deep down that they do love each other very much.

Merle said to Wayne today, "Wayne I can give you one of two presents, your choice" "The first is a divorce and the second is your own room". This was all said in a loving tone of course as apparently one member of this couple has had quite enough of the snoring.

You would think after all these years, one would be used to it and just totally ingnore it by now. LOL!

Hope you both had an enjoyable day with each other.

Happy anniversary!

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth! Just hanging in there!

Goodness me! Last post in September. And it's now 10th November.

Where has the time gone??

Far out has life been busy and getting to up date the blog has just been far to hard. But not today.

DarDar!

An update. Well a summary of what has been happening in the past few months.

Well, where to start!!!!!

On the October long weekend the four of us went back to Cobar to help out with the Cobar Rotary Bash. The Cobar Rotary club organises a bash every October long weekend and Troy has always been involved. So this year we all went along.

I must admit I wasn't looking forward to the long distance of travelling. Thank goodness I just love sleeping in the car. Anyway, we started of in Cobar then head to Nymagee for lunch. Then we travelled onto Ivanhoe for the evening. I won't mention that whilst my turn behind the wheel I took the wrong turn. But we still ended up at Ivanhoe all the same.

From Ivanhoe we travelled up to Mungo National Park. Wow! Is that a place you should go to. The changes in the landscape and colour of the earth are amazing. My photo's don't do it justice. From Mungo we travelled up to Pooncarrie for an ice cream then onto "Bindara Station" which is on the Darling river. Bill and Barb Arnold were wonderful hosts. It was such a beautiful place to stay in the middle of now where.

From Bindara Station we travelled onto to Menindee where we stayed for Sunday evening. Mainly for the men folk to watch the grand final of the league. Whilst our stay at Menindee we took a little boat trip on the "River Lady" tours (2 hours) around the Menindee lakes. Yeap! I have lots of photos of bird, dead trees, birds and more dead trees. Nic thank goodness for the inboat service.

On Monday morning we headed off to Tilpa for lunch then started on the journey back to Cobar. It was a big trip with lots of travel, but the kids had a ball. Matthew and Amy-Jane even got to have a drive. Ever since then they both offer to drive. LOL!

During the October School holidays we did the usually of visiting the Field family for a few days. It was great to come straight from the outback to the coast in a matter of the week. I do know what I prefer!

Also in October Troy's newphew Aidan was baptism at "Saviour's Catherdal" here in Goulburn. That is such a beautiful place to visit. Aidan had a great time and wasn't grumpy at all during the service in fact I think he really enjoyed it.

Other than that it has been work, work, work. It is starting to slow down, thank goodness. I am working hard at making sure that I have all my rollbooks, lessons and marks organised so I don't have that big rush at the end of the last week of TAFE.

Mmmmm! Well just see.

Anyway here are some of my favourite photos from the past two months.

One the way to Ivanhoe for the first night.

The main railway track on the way to Ivanhoe

I actually by luck managed to capture this photo.

The boy having his driving turn. He was very nervous but also excited.

On the way to Bindara Station we came across a Station's mail box.

At Bindara Station, the station dog "Kanga" loves climbing trees for attention.

Some of the many trees at the Menindee lakes.

We brought a canvas which was painted by one of the Cobar Public School students.

Still haven't hung it up anywhere as yet.

This is what travellers see before they first enter the township of Cobar.

See just like the canvas we brought!

Amy-Jane and Holly being crafty with their bikes.

Amy-Jane on the swing near the boat ramp at Callala Bay.

My brother in law "Garry" with his son "Aidan" at Aidan's Baptism.

Isn't he just gorgeous.

Southern Stars - Yes it did happen in August

Amy-Jane's school participated in the Southern Stars 2008 event which was held at the WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong.

This meant that for the best interest of the children that the said Mother.... ME! Spend from Thursday afternoon (28 August) til Sunday (31 August) down at Wollongong. These were long days for the children.

The children had practice on Wednesday and Thursday, then had a practice performance on Friday. Saturday consisted of two performances, a matinee and an evening performance.

So lucky me got to play tourist on Friday and Saturday mid afternoon. All by myself mind you. It is really hard to take a decent photo of one's self and the light house! or anything else mind you. So hence the photo's of Wollongong's most renowned tourist sites without accompanied people in the background. LOL! Here we go, The light house, the smelter plant and the views from the light house point.

During the performance AJ had a few friends spend some time with us which consisted of shoppi9ng, eating, tourist sight seeing and playing on the equipment near the WIN Entertainment Centre.

I had a great time with my daughter, and even enjoyed the evenings. Troy and Matthew came down on Saturday afternoon as we went to see the performance then. Wow! Does the Illwarra have some talented young people that God has blessed.

It was a fantastic show in which I would highly recommend to everyone to see. I hope AJ participates again next year.

July in Review - Better Late Than Never!

Just one word to discribe life over the past couple of months......BUSY! That's it, in a nut shell! BUSY!

Well lets see, July in review. Got a new dog, which has been a little unsettling for Cash. She seems to be the dominate female. Just don't know if that is good or bad thing! Had snow in Goulburn and Amy-Jane just couldn't wait to get out and play in it. I just loved that she had on kitchen gloves underneath the warm woolen gloves! Other than that Work, Work, Work! Hockey, Hockey, Hockey!

Scruff turns the big 40!

On Saturday 19th July, we headed down to Batemans Bay (South Coast) to help celebrate one of our friends 40th birthday.

We meet the Field family before hand and caught up with them and chatted over lunch then we all drove to Mr Furner’s home to begin the celebrations.

It was really good to catch up with Scruff and the Furner kids. We didn’t get to spend as much time as we thought we would catching up with Scruff as he was playing “Host with the most”. Buzzing around making sure that everyone was enjoying themselves, sending around the nibbles, etc.

All the kids got along really well. They did the usual thing….all the boys played together and all the girls played together. It was good.

Other funny little things happened, but the Mr and Mrs Field will keep these things to themselves and we won’t mention the word “Toaster”! LOL! Oh Roz we have to have something laugh about!

Troy, Scruff (Brett) and Bill

Scruff and his boys Callum, Harrison, Troy and our Matthew

Brett and his girls Teagan (blue jacket) and Chloe (pink jacket), Troy and our Amy-Jane, Bill and his girlsTara (demin fluffy jacket), Matilda (dark jacket) and Grace (little pink jacket)

Note that the mummies where on camera operations!