Monday, March 28, 2011

Happy Birthday to my Daddy-O

I'm dedicating this post to my daddy-o :)

It's his birthday and he is officially retirement age...55

Since he is in NZ at the moment doing some work on his "retirement home" Can I get away with this as a prezzie?? ;p

Dad,
I may not say it often,
I may not say it loud,
I may not say it to you,
But I am,
Oh so proud.
I'm proud to have you
As my father.
I'm proud to have you,
As my friend.
Dad I'm glad,
I am your daughter.
I'll love ya til the end!

As much as i wish I'd written this it's actually a poem by D. ALSUP

 but it does sum up my love for my dad- we don't talk much, but we always have a laugh when we do. Loves ya dad!! OX(oxoxoxoxox too)
OH I'm SOOO ANNOYED!!! had planned on a huge post with heaps of photos, but Blogger sucks tonight!!! I can manage eventually one photo, and then i check it and it's disappeared!!! HATE YOU RIGHT NOW BLOGGER!!! :(  maybe it'll work in the morning??
hope so, but even if it does, with all the time differences, it'll probably be too late :'(

on another note Jamie is home tomorrow   tonight :) so yay my week is looking fun... not that it usually isn't ;P


OX(OX)oxoxoxoxox
B(J)slkcs

Monday, March 21, 2011

She's here! she's here!!

I have to share this news!!  My cousin Claire has had her baby!! I'm sooooo happy for her!!  understandably both the new mama and papa are exhausted after an all day effort! and have yet to "officially" announce the news themselves, but i am so desperate to share this beautiful new addition to the world, here would HAVE to be the safest place without "stealing their thunder" right????



Is that not the most beautiful new mama photo you've seen in a long time?!?!?!?!?!? and how BEAUTIFUL is that baby girl!!

8lb 5oz        19.5" long    37cm h.c. at 10:30pm Adelaide time

And can you believe this beautiful baby whom has been named Harmony Grace... was born on Harmony Day! How awesomely special is that!! :D

I'm hoping Jamie can handle the tribe for the night so i can "dash" over for a visit he's home on the 28th so hopefully soon :D

I get all teary with joy whenever i look at that photo, but then i've always been a sucker for babies :D

Happy Dreams to all, I know mine will be :D
OX(OX)oxoxoxoxox and one extra for Baby Harmony OX
B(J)slkcs

PS. If big Claire Bear is MY cousin, What does that make Harmony to me and/or my children??

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

My Favourite and my best :)

I just have to share this photo with you!

We went to Sculpture by the Sea on Tuesday, but before i can get around to blogging about our fun (and not so fun) I want you to see my new favourite photo.

Photographically speaking it's probably rubbish, you know appertures and lighting etc, plus the children are blurry because of fingerprints, but i no care! it's my favourite and my best, and has pride of position as my new wallpaper - i even cleared the 'desktop' of all the misc. icons....... into a folder called 'swept under the rug' LOL - i'll get to it one day i'm sure - but i think i have discovered my new 'dumping ground' Heh heh :)


awwww - it doesn't look as good here :( it looks great - in my opinion - stretched out over our 20"+ monitor
oh well i like it still :)

till next time

OX(OX)oxoxoxoxox
B(J)slkcs

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Complete AWESOMESNESS!!! and more happy birthdays :)

Guess who is excited!!!

ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back story first. - Went to the library the other day to return some books, as i was - ahem - overdue, that's ok, we hadn't got to most of them because of Grandma Robyn's visit and i can reborrow, right?

So Monday morning (remember Sophie was off colour today) we lugged our  +/- 70ish books back to the library (Jamie did the heavy lifting heh heh) and waiting, waiting, waiting in line "no dear, i'm not selecting more today, i'll just re-borrow some and pick up the reserves" waiting, waiting, waiting some more. We are finally served and having previously returned 50 odd books through the chute on entering the libray asked to reborrow the ones i had left "sure no problem," says the librarian.
 Uh oh problem, all the cards that were swiped were full and overdue, so another 5 minutes were gone sorting thrrough which had been returned or were still at home. thats ok easy, now lets re-borrow these - cool!.........no, not so cool :( out of the 15-20 books we wanted to re-borrow, we came home with about 5! Two of which, to Samuel's dismay were the wrong ones! it seems we had some popular titles as they had all been put on reserve :( and were not available for me to take home again. Aww mannn! i had plans for them!

So my question could be, Is it wrong of me to perhaps next time borrow an awesome book, and then reserve it again and again, alternating each of our six library cards? Sure i'd have to take it back every 3 weeks, but i could do it.......Right? I guess if i have to ask, it just probaly isn't right LOL

So that was about 20mins gone! - and as most of you know us, Jamie doesn't tend to have the most patience for the boring and mundane....or very slow!

OH CRAP!!! i've just spent the last 20 mins (i'm a slow typer ok!) writing all that and i've come to the realisation, that it has absolutely NOTHING to do with why i'm excited!! D'oh! oh ok it has to do with the library - but that's it . Ha Ha Ha - i couldn't bear to delete - it was 20 mins after all!

So why am i excited then?? Well, while at the library again, we borrowed a tonne of DVD's, one of which was "Sculpture by the Sea - the 10th anniversary"
We, ok me, I have been feeling a bit 'arty' at the moment, and thought i'd try introduce some ideas to the children. Dvd was a big hit ( i was a bit annoyed by the "children's short film" included - bah!)
So talking to Daddy about it that night and - bless his heart :} - what does he tell us? "that's on at the moment!? it's been all over the radio"
SO COOL! How is THAT for timing!!! - i swear my guy knows more about whats going on in Perth then I do! and he's half a state away!?! And right he is! March 3 - 22 "Sculpture by the Sea - Cottesloe Beach" here we come!!

On another awesome note, guess what we have discovered!!!





This place was so cool!! it was where we met for our last homeschool group on Friday, except we met around the 'corner' at a smaller quieter beach. It's Hillarys Boat Harbour (Hillarys is a suburb) Its a cross between Sugarworld and Southbank and a touch of sideshow alley? to the left behind the trees they have awesome waterslides, a huge rope  climbing course and rockwall and trampolines and kiddy chair swings and, and , and ,and everything!! it's called the great escape and then they have that awesome free SHADED playground (a rarity in WA??) on the 'beach'. TOTALLY WICKED!!!! :)

But like i said we were 'around the corner' in a little bay, the water was about knee deep for a good 10-15m and only gradually got deeper i think about 50m out before Samuel was chest deep??

But get this.... it's a BOAT HARBOUR!?!?!? to the right is a huge long jetty/wharf? separating the swimmers and the boats, but the water is sooooo clear!! so clear in fact that we spotted this, yeah ok it was in shin deep water, but still!


JELLYFISH!!  :)

We think it was dead. I'm pretty sure it would have been after Samuel kept throwing sand on it to see if it was dead!! -ugh! boys ;)

Well Karma got him back, because when we were at the big beach he thinks he was stung there. he says he spotted 5 jellies + the one that got him + a crab + 100's of tiny little translucent fishies darting here and there. I spotted a couple (maybe same?) fish jumping about out of the water here and there. Apparently jellyfish have been pretty common this summer because of the extra heat or something, with lots of people being stung.  Well thank goodness we aren't in QLD as it could have been a LOT worse - but then again in QLD they wouldn't have been in the water at the beach! Samuel has vowed NEVER to go into the ocean again! we'l see how long THAT lasts LOL.

 a BIG  Happy Birthday xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo to my handsome hubby mwah!

Sadly he is over 1500 kms away at work for another 3 weeks :( but we did get to skype and chat on the phonea couple times :)

Darn it was just trying to upload a photo of my handsome hubby , but blogger won't let me :(

So on that note i shall depart, and go and properly watch my fav. show.

OX(OX)oxoxoxoxox
B(J)slkcs

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

What have we been up to ??

Well, since i last posted we have been really busy, but not really?? Let me think............lets go back to Friday the 18th the day after i last posted.....


Fridays are our new homeschool group day and were meeting practically around the corner in a nearby park. We were first to arrive but there was another car parked nearby, thinking it was a new family arriving, i parked nearby to let them know we were homeschoolers too (we were a bit late) We got out and started unloading the truck, when another family turned up, meanwhile the  person in the original car got out of his car - zipped up his fly !?!?!?! - and next thing 1/2 dozen people and a big dog were about??? CRAZY?? both ourselves and the other HS family,were a little "Huh??" all the other people quickly disappeared into the flats/quadplex/units along with the big dog, and the bloke in the car hopped back in and drove off?? weird?

Anyway, So we had a quick chat and decided to move our cars to a shadier position, and also after concerns from the father of other family, had a scout around the park for 'yuckies' and broken glass etc. after the previously mentioned 'weirdness' it was a concern, but an unfounded one. So happily playing in, i must admit, a pretty neat playground. drawing all over the softfall with the new chalk we'd just bought. Kaytie had been 'off colour' that day - more whingey then usual. Now I was sitting comfortably chatting to the other mums, when next thing Kaytie runs towards me and "BLEUURGHHH" throws up all over the edge of the softfall !! Thankfully away from anyone or their belongings!! Now i didn't see where she came from but when i think back about it, i just have to have a giggle about it - imagining she was on the slide....... Can you imagine it LOL  wheeeeee BLERUGHH!! LOL Sorry for anyone with weak constitutions LOL From reports to me though i believe she was upside down on the monkey bars... That'll do it!  So then clean up time  :/  I had to throw our bottle of drinking water all over the target area' to try wash it all away - easier said then done! I then had to take Kaytie 100m or so to our truck in it's "shady" (not!) spot. Luckily i had bought Claire a new shirt that day and we also have a water tank on the truck, so she was cleaned up with fresh clothes. :) Drama over for THAT day !

The other ongoing drama at the time was whether Jamie would even get home or not!! TC Carlos had decided he did not like Darwin and headed 'around the corner' to Jamie's place
There was concern that the airport would be shut by Monday and he would be stuck onsite for an extra week. Thankfully again, commonsense prevailed and the site was evacuated down to skeletal staff and I was able to pick him up Saturday morning :) less than minor predicament meant we were now 1 seat short in the truck to pick up Robyn that night! Problem 'solver-ed' As Robyn's flight was late - 9:30pm - Jamie stayed at home with the children and i picked up Robyn alone. a nice surprise for her since she was not expecting to see Jamie so soon - or at all :) So things went smoothly for a day or so, Sunday was a quiet day at home, Monday saw Jamie and i duck into Perth to pick up a hire car for the week - a KIA "Grand Carnival" very nice if i do say so myself!!

Tuesday saw us going to Fremantle A nice day i thought - We spent WAY too much money and only really had sunburn to show for it! We took the sights of city via the "hop on- hop off tram tour" not sure if it was value for the price tag, but was very good and informative - i suppose it was, we were able to catch it at various times through out the day. And the drivers commentary varied by their styles, so even though we saw some things a few times, each time we learnt something a little different.





The whole tour, without hopping off takes about an hour and half. and takes in most of the city, not in order but this is what i remembered.

The Docks oh really! you don't say! a major working port city and they take you to the docks - Brilliant!!  never would have guessed!!  :P

I still struggle to get over how blue and clear the water is after living in Cairns all my life!



This clever little spot was inside the ferry terminal, next to where we had lunch.
The children saw a crab on a jetty post and are convinced they saw a jellyfish?
It took me a few good minutes to spot the crab so I'll have to take their word for it. :)

As you might know, Fremantle is a very cultural/arty type city, so there were great sculptures all over the City. along the docks were these below, apparently each has a story behind it, but our driver only told us about the one on the left - with the diver. 


Apparently some port tax was levied and this sculpture represents a dock businessman hiding his tax receipts in the bay?? the driver telling us was a bit of a larrikin, so not sure what to believe??

There was also a monument to fishermen whom had lost their lives at sea, each of the pylons have the names of those lost engraved on them. Over 1500 i think he said?? There are a lot of brass sculptures going on in Fremantle? must be the medium of choice?

(not my photo)

The War Memorial









Haha look! there i am - i was there ;P




Most of the hedges surrounding the monuments were rosemary (for remembrance) the council were there trimming them at the time so you can imagine the beautiful smell in the air. It was really interesting as so many different squadrons (??) were immortalised (??) /tributed???



We didn't go in as it would have been another added cost to the day, besides that we just wouldn't have had time!!! but as you can imagine it was big and imposing! So definitely another excursion to explore all of that!

Oh yes we also stopped by The Shipwreck Museum AWESOME!! unfortunately no photos allowed... Sorry :( oh we picked up an awesome 'living' book - put together by WA primary schools, with a 'script' at the back for a play, if we do so desire - Can you believe it 50 cents!!!! that's right $0.50!!! how could i pass it up!!
the one on the left was pretty good too - contains all the photos we weren't allowed to take
but at $7 doesn't compare to $0.50 !! lol :)


So after a busy hot day, wanting to avoid the peak hour traffic (again!) we decided to stay for dinner. We went to Cicerello's  which is apparently WA's #1 fish and chip shop? To be honest, WA must have very low standards or we were there on a bad day? For the price of the meals and quality of the meals, i definitely don't rate it as my #1 - for example if you claim to be #1 and are situated in the port of an extremely busy fishing harbour, with trawler boats on your doorstep - why Oh WHY would your children's meals contain processed frozen boxed fish????????  at $12 a pop ( x 5!) you would think it might just even resemble fish???, but anyway the biggest excitement of the meal - besides the price and beautiful aquariums inside.......... Not long after the meal was ordered  and everyone had settled down. Claire, the lovely little poppet she is, decided her lunch hadn't agreed with her after all and brought it up..... all over herself and the stroller!! EErrkk!! thank goodness the sea gulls hadn't spotted her!!!! !!
So i had to do a dash to the car gratefully spotting a public bathroom on the way, where i tried to clean her up as best as possible :( - pity i didn't have the truck and it's handy dandy water tank!
So it seems Claire had caught Kaytie's 'bug' from Friday :(
I had a change of clothes for her in the car luckily.

Claire then spent the next 5 days laying listlessly on the floor either throwing up or sleeping - poor little mite. Halfway through the week when i thought she was recovering i weighed her - she was down to 12.4kgs finishing the week up at 12.1kgs! now don't forget that Claire will be 4 in April so you can imagine how scrawny and small she is at the moment! - Sophie who is nearly 2 years younger - weighs in at 14kgs. the average weight of a 4yo girl is 16-20kgs.

Unfortunately for Grandma Robyn - we seemed to have passed on our head cold from the previous week, we thought we had gotten over it - i guess some bugs were still lingering on :(

So some more quiet days in store, to recuperate for Friday when we headed back into Perth for a visit to The W.A.C.A. Both Jamie and Robyn are avid cricket fans - so is Samuel too i guess. We toured the small but in depth museum (and BEAUTIFUL aircon!) and then went for a drive to find some where for lunch, i'm not sure how many circles we drove around in, but we ended up only 6.5 kms away - I SWEAR it felt like 30+ km's away!! we had a 'quick' lunch - took much longer than expected! and dashed back to the WACA for the 1pm grounds tour

Was very informative and i'm sure it was interesting...... IF you like that sort of thing LOL no i'm kidding it was pretty good - i REALLY enjoyed the air conditioned parts! LOL

There was also a walk out onto the grounds - i chose to leave that part out - I don't DO sun! - I stayed behind with Claire and Sophie.


There's my team heading out to the wicket.. YAY!! GO TEAM!!! woo woo!

That's all the photos i took, but after that... or was it before? we toured the home and away teams dressing rooms and 'boxes' You know (if you watch cricket) the players rooms when they zoom in on them - on the exercise bikes or the massage table??  i 've we've been in there! - I touched the exercise bike and sat on that massage table  heh heh heh ;) it was kinda weird, you know seeing 'famous people' stuff, but because they weren't my kinda 'famous people' it was just, well, weird?? I felt i should have been 'star-struck" but i wasn't LOL.  Apparently the WACA is going to undergo a whole new transformation over the next few years, completely change it up a bit!! not sure i liked the drawings, but it could appeal to a fair few of the population i imagine??

So that was basically our week, dropped Robyn back to the airport Saturday night,  Sunday we planned to do the BIG grocery shop before Jamie headed back to work, but Sophie spent the day throwing up - Strike 3! - She's a bit tougher then Claire it seems as Monday while very sleepy and sooky she managed to keep almost everything down (so we did the groceries - on high alert LOL!)  And by Monday night she was fine..... for a 3:30am wake up call this morning!!  I'll never get used to that - Jamie does it EVERYDAY while on shift - so he can get himself breakfast at the 'mess' without all the noise and bustle of a zillion other workers - now his hours have been cut back, he then goes back to bed for a half hour or so nap before starting at 6 am - i think he's planning on swimming now also Brrrrrrr! i hope he means after work!? - but then again, it'll be just as cold! double Brrrrrr!

I'll leave it here as i originally got online to prepare for school tomorrow - MON/TUES are our 'weekend' we do school on Sat/Sun to make up for it. But Alas i am STILL waiting on another parcel - i got so excited when i received the smaller one on Friday - i would have expected the rest by now :( it always has the bits i want most - the ones that come late! D'oh!

OH well stop Procrastinating woman!!

OX(OX)oxoxoxoxox
B(J)slkcs