A pox over my house

Sorry for the not posting.
The first week in march lilly came down with the chicken pox. And of course just 3 days after I got lilly back to school Emily also got them.

Emily was quite sick for a few days.
Overall the month of march was a complete write off around here.
I remember lots of lotion
I remember sleep less nights for us all
I remember seeing pox in places i didnt need to see them. Miss emily had them on her tongue!
I remember stinking baths at 2 am when we couldnt stand the cries because of the itching anymore.

And now, I think we have all healed and recovered enough.
Normal life should resume from now..:)
I have my dare for this month to share too, tomorrow now, havent downloaded the photo yet.

corrupt ipod

two words u never want to see after u have spent the better part of the day waiting for i tunes to download the new u2 album that came out today, but u guessed it, plugged in my ipod ready to add the album to my playlist and what message did i get corrupt ipod. WHAT! its not even a month old! after much trying to fix it, it ended up being as simple as pressing two buttons....thankgod!!!!! my trusty little silver nano is on the go again. ps i like the new one,it sort of feels like a mix between their older music and newer music, easy to listen too.

12months on
well this time last year we had just arrived in victoria, had no idea what avoca looked like and were scared stiff about what we were doing.
12 months down the track...part of me wishes we never came and then maybe emily would still be perfect the way she should be, but i know that what happened to us last year could happen to anyone at anytime in anyplace and it cant stop your life. (will i ever purposely seek out a snow get away again...i dont think so)
the first 4 months or so of being down here life was all about looking around and settling in. we went to visit lots of places and vowed to go places and experience all the things we wanted to in our newly adopted state. we started out right. since august we havent really been anywhere. im ok with that we had lots to deal with and a few changes to learn to accept.
for all that went wrong, we're not sad we moved, our lives changed in so many great ways. we see dan so much more than we did in brisbane, we actually have a family life here and many nights a week we even eat dinner together a jones family first (chefs have the worst hours!!), we r in a good financial place right now its nice to have a small morgage and only one car to worry about. i was able to take the opportunity to not work while we have lived down here, a blessing in many ways apart of the obvious (especially after july), i loved being home before lilly went to school it was great to get to know her properly before school and its great now for emily to have her time with me too. its nice..:) and i hope and i think the kids have benefitted from it alot. (i am getting organised to enter vic education system this year, i dont want to lose my skills totally they r so much a part of who i am) the best part of our move is the peace and quiet of a country setting, its fantastic and we r close enough to escape to melbourne for shopping for the day if i want too....:) and we love the weather even in winter..:) we r loving the house we bought and the land that came with it, so much space for all our food trees and veg patch (that copped a flogging in the heat wave...but im on the seedling thing again to get it going again)
overall we r still happy to be here with no plans for changes this year or probably the next.

do you have a scary age??

mine is actually 45
its like what my brain thinks is half way i guess
i will have one child about the move into adulthood, i will hopefully of been married for like 20 years (if were lucky), i dont know....SCARY stuff

lots of things to accomplish before that age...some i already have, some im working on..:) i kind of hope that by that age i will feel like an adult!

whats yours
share it

33

argh birthday - 33, weigh - argh argh argh (but in truth scales r ban on brithdays), calories millions (but its national no diet date due to said birthday), birthday gifts- 2, birthday calls - 1 (hmmmmm calls from father 0, calls from brother 0) very bad, brithday emails LOTS - very good. two well behaved kids, a day spent reading and scrapbooking and then dinner out ... overall pretty good.

ok heh ive been rereading the bridget jones books...so funny, got to love a book that makes u roar with laughter just from the imagines in your own mind. so i just couldnt help myself.

yep i turned 33 yesterday. it effected me more than turning 30 but its not my scary age just yet. thats still over 10 years away yet....:)

school is still going well for lilly. friday we all walked across the road to her first swimming carnival. where she came first in all her prep races. they were very cute kick board races and noodle races. she was very proud.

then this morning an award on parade. i wasnt there but dan was. i was at home with miss emily who has a cold. not surprising really seeing as the stuipd weather is so up and down here atm. its cold (like start of winter cold) and then its heatwave summer hot. noone knows if they r coming or going.and then the first day of homeworking homereading. scary proof i have a school aged child. i would like to say she had an idea of what it was all about, but she had not seen the book and had no idea. thankgod for my reading recovery training. after a breif talk i could tell she had no idea so i was able to start in the right place and make it a positive first reading and homework situation. god help the rest of the kids in her class as im guessing none of them had any idea. (and yes being qld trained i find it werid that prep kids have home readers. i guess i will get used to it)

ive spent a fair part of the last few days scrapbooking. dont die of shock. i really dropped my ball on the whole scrapbooking thing in recent months and weeks. no enjoyment, didnt want to. but a friend asked me to do something and so when the right mood appeared i started with this layout for her to give to her brother when he is married next weekend. and the rest just sort of rolled from there.

its 8 by 10 and going into a silver frame. i hope they all like it, its hard to scrap for other people. i find what i put on the page is just a personal taste. i guess i will find out tomorrow..":_)
a card to go with the above layout.

after that i pulled out our santa photo. and mum i found the extra one here in the santa photo bag. i will put it in the post. im loving that spotty cardstock its pretty cool. emily didnt cry, but she wasnt impressed with santa either in the photo which is sad because when we walked up to the photo booth she was super excited, but seeing santa and sitting on his lap where two very different things.next was this one. i love this photo. it was taken just before her accident last year. she has changed so much in that time its hard to believe. the journalling on the photo is all about her baby giggle and how much i loved her baby giggle. that innocent giggle that babies have, that toddlers lose as they learn to fake laugh.

heres another one, ive had this photo for an age. but have trouble with photos where i can see her left arm the way it should look. but ive been getting over it alot more lately and it didnt seem to bother me today. acceptance of what happened. i guess.

i think the scrapbooking key was the have photos available. not having to print them outhelped. soemtimes i get stuck in photoshop and very get to the print stage. i think i will have a few printed so they r jsut there waiting for me.

week one down, onto two

Lilly is LOVING SCHOOL
she wakes up each morning and just cant wait to get dressed, pack her bag and get out the door. every afternoon she is full of stories about things she has done and learnt.
the first day she came home tell us the sound of g and that it was for girl and the sound of b and it was for boys (lol they had the toilets explained to them)
the next day it was sssss for snakes and the movement of her hand to match. its all so very very cute.
she loved music, is loving going swimming each day (yes preps have started swimming the second week of school....brave) but her fav place was the library. (bestill my beating heart she is going to be a book kid) its the only place she dragged me to by the hand to show me where it was. which is funny considering she could of pointed to it from her classroom. our school only has like 3 buildings...:) 120 kids its very cute.

anyway the said love of the library had to have a new library bag. lillys is the navy one, and the brown one is for lillys friend little school friend.
not bad for days sewing...:)

tomorrow the prep kids have a rest day. woohoo!!! but i will admit that in a small school parking doesnt seem to be a problem at 3:15 when the kids get out..its great (that wasnt something i was looking forward to the whole pick up thing...but its great)

just a quick one

to those that have wondered and called

we r ok
while the fires r now in our wider district (bendigo and horsham) they r not anywhere near us. so apart from dieing from the temp yesterday we are all ok...:)
we saw a cool change come through at about 2 this morning, big storm, electricity outage (which meant i was missing the fan big time for a few hours), but we have woken up to news of 24 degrees and more in days to come...its beautiful here this morning.

our hearts go out to the vic familys that had to pack a car and drive away from their homes and now wonder what they have left. (this is our fire plan so noone need worry) saving love ones is the only thing that matters.

how did i become a school mum!

when lilly was born school seemed like something i wouldnt have to think about for so long!!! but 2009 had a way of creeping up on me and this morning i had to face that moment when your first born child is no longer a baby, no longer at home with me each and everyday and has suddenly become a school girl. in her words a BIG GIRL! how did that happen! im sure i didnt allow it! heh

i had only one moment during the whole process. and thankfully it didnt involve crying (i was shocked) and it happened before taking her to school. must be somehting to do with the uniform i think. they look so big when u put them in a school uniform! the scrapbooker in me knows how lucky she is to have a red and navy uniform..:):):)

she has been super excited about this moment for weeks, months even and bored at home for even longer. she wants and needs to learn. i cant wait to see what she thinks this afternoon and again when she gets up in the morning knowing she has to go to school again. when she lined up with her class (a straight prep after all...we were expecting a composite but we had some incoming students during the holidays which changed everything...:):) ) she only looked back once to check i would pick her up at the end of the day and she was gone. her face was eager and bright and my heart soared. i wasnt even sad (well in that moment anyway..:))

no real super great photos. she could hardly stand still. she admitted to being a little nervous and was so funny pinching her fingers together to show us how much she was nervous. lol and of course she was up during the night, school playing on her mind and was up long before the 7am alarm went off that i had set just in case.

i would love to know what she is up to at the moment..:) when they walked into class i had to sneak a long peak. sitting inher classroom on the floor in a circle with all her preschool friends already interacting and putting her hand up to answer questions. (ive witnessed children do this year after year of my work life, i was and am always amazed at the people they r, but seeing your own child, the one u worked on their whole life to get to this point is not really something i have words for. like every parent this morning...i was so proud of her, she took it all in her stride and made it look like she belonged there.of course the said jumping around..:)
and even my blond curly bear was in on the photo taking action this morning, posing and smiling for the camera! shock! SHE is missing her sister and saying goodbye to lilly and then taking daddy to work was a little to much for my girl who very much wears her heart on her sleeve..:)

it is amazingly quiet at home, its going to take some getting used to i think

queensland, scrapping and being just plain lazy

were home
have been for a week. lots to do in a house about the start the journey that is formal schooling for the first time. there has been much shopping! uniforms, shoes, socks, lunch boxes, book packs the list is endless. we r starting to look organised for it but.

so organised that i finally decided that today i could scrap the day away.

its not an exciting page at all, these are photos from lillys preschool year. they were on display during the year and as a fundraiser the photos taken r sold to parents to repay the printing costs. i came home with 7 of them! they r just random pics of miss lilly from during the preschool year at some of the different things they got up too.

this is my happiness canvas. i was just going to add a word to my pin board but part of my happiness promise to me was to rediscover art so a mixed media piece seemed to make sense. it came together so easily i was shocked. art is one of those things u love it or u hate it, i am happy with this end result. on the green cardstock is the definition...i liked this one, characterised by good luck, fortunante - enjoying, showing or marked by pleasure satisfaction or joy - being especially well adapted, cheerful. it felt like everything that im trying to bring together. ive been doing some positive visualisation before going to bed at night (i know i know its way out there) but its working, im sleeping well, im eating properly and im feeling 100% on top of everything and im smiling!...its great

our holiday at home looked alot like this all the time. plenty of time in the pool, plenty of spending time with family and friends. we had a blast!

on holidays

were on holidays this week
we will be back on the 20th

enjoy the few weeks left before school starts and i will be back soon..:)

street parties and more

heres some of the things from our first country family christmas.
Our lovely town held a street party. it was provided free by our local business group and council. it was a blast. local bloke dressed up as santa arrived on motorbike with presents for all the children in town, there were christmas carols, rides for the kids and dinner plus entertainment in the form of whip cracking, u really know your in the country when thats the entertainment. next year we will take chairs! i tell u CHEAP family fun. it totally reminded me of a eaiser time in life many years before it took more money than sense to enjoy the season.

i sometimes wonder if things r difficult for my little miss. never allowed to go in the jumping castle all for obvious arm reasons, but still it makes me sad that she misses out on some things she would dearly love to do. lucky for us there was plenty of iceblocks and popcorn around to make her smile. i think i will scrapbook this so she knows that we knew it wasnt fair, but that we couldnt change it either.
heres lilly life of the party enjoying said iceblock and popcorn and nearly losing it to the camel puppet she didnt even know it was there lol

and on the bucking bull ride. she was scared stiff (in a good ride way)and all i could do was laugh she was so funny. almost lost her top at the end. its nearly 8pm in this photo if u can believe it...we r still not used the whole day light saving thing, dont think i ever will be, but we do enjoy being outside later into the day thats for sure. we went home not long after this to get ready for the big man to come visit our house. lilly was excited by the chimney thing. and wonder which he would pick, the one in their room of course so thats were the milk and cookies was left. lol (yes we have more fireplaces than sense. 5 of them! all working open style each with their own hand carved mantel)


christmas morning. i love watching the kids on christmas morning, they r both so different and so funny in approach. lilly is in one and all ripping at presents and opening until the pile of boxes and paper is bigger than the pile of presents, Emily is totally and i mean totally different. she opened each one slowly looking and paying attention and stopping to play with each item. it took her forever to open the presents. we were all desperate for breakfast by the time she was happy with her opening.
if i can just point out the hobby horses. on the dress up rack there. thank you my very lovely friend daisymum(who made them), the girls love them. they r a big hit around this house.
here she is taking her time. funny little thing she is. all her presents were all picked generally because they had to be manipulated with two hands. all secret she doesnt know shes doing it therapy! this wooden velcro fruit set with cutting board and knife came from http://www.entropy.com.au/ its a charming little toy shop with a shop front in townsville. they were FAST, toys were wrapped and reasonable with prices and range. it was a fantastic shopping experience. we will be using this store again. they stock mostly your traditional educational type toys...i wont hide the fact that i dislike most things found in target, kmart or big w as a waste of space and money!!!
we also bought some wooden eggs in carton to add to the kitchen and some wooden threading blocks for emily (great therapy for her again this last one).

thanks nanny and pa. the girls love the climbing frame and emily hangs from it with two hands just as we had hoped she would. More therapy for her arm gifts! im not sure why they have the trampoline there, maybe because the no shoes thing? we could do with some more rain clearly!

edited to add:

wedding anniversary today

9 years

eeek i nearly forgot!

Happiness

well hello 2009!
how easy it is to take a blogging break and become totally out of habit with actually doing it!!!
we haven't been doing much. obviously.
Dan was home for a few days between Christmas and new year. it was nice. we just hung out at home. from Christmas day I've had my nose stuck in not one but four books. twilight series. oh so loving it. my favourite thing was the midnight sun draft, there is something so very funny about the story from Edwards eyes. heh. today went and saw the movie while Dan and the kids saw something more kid appropriate. i was i will admit more disappointed in the movie. its never what u see in your head is it? I'm so very glad i read the story first. the book is way better.

summer seems to of finally found us down here in vic. it took a while. but the last few days have been warm with a cool breeze its lovely really. i haven't been doing much but enjoying the sun and reading books...odd to of not touched a piece of paper, double sided tape, photo or a sewing machine in this long. i can see that changing. esp since i have my December daily book to work on now i have a few pics to add to it.

no photos this post. next time!
i wanted to intro my 2009 word.
last year i went with home. i was so far away from my own that i needed a word to remind me that home is where u make it. it stills above the cupboards in my kitchen now. and i look at it often and think about what it means to me.
this year...
i wondered on a few
healing, family, love

but I'm going with

HAPPINESS
i used to be a fairly happy easy going person, or thats what it felt like anyway.
after all the drama involved during my 2008 i think i forgot how to be truely happy. dont get me wrong im fine with everything in my life. but i seem to have to work on happiness quite a bit to get it and i dont seem to be able to pull all the parts of my life together so that im doing everything well therefore making me happy. something seems to fall away. i would say since emilys accident my health has suffered and my weight has sored. im not one to promise myself things at this timeof year so i like the idea of having the year to work on just this one word. happiness to me will mean finding myself totally once more during the 2009 year and enjoying not just doing all the parts of my life again. im going to add this years word to my pinboard in my craft room. so i have a nice big visual reminder of it.

anyway
im sure i will be back in the next few days to share my dec daily album.
and my potato harvest that im thinking i should deal with before i go on holidays. im thinking it would be better to wait but i know that dan wont deal with while im gone. i put them down in october...about the second week so they have been down for about 10 or so weeks..???maybe more might be more like 11 this week....we have no idea if thats enough time, they r out the top of the gargabe bins thats for sure and i cant do anymore hilling....anyone got ideas on this??
speaking of the garden, we r harvesting lettuce now, having zucchini anyday and tomatos and carrots too. will share when we do the pull..>:)