This LO was removed for you know what!!! Yippee!! 

My LO from last night, had so much fun. I really do love scrapping. Alot of times I think, 'can't
be bothered, exhausted from the kids and the early evening routine' I really should just sit and scrap. It makes me feel so good. I love this photo of my girlfriends and I. We were all inseperable for quite a few years there. Life moves on of course, but I love them all so much for their different qualities and the memories I hold dear. I know that when we ever get together it is always just the same. This photo is pretty old too, would have had it printed at the time. It used to be b&w. Not any more, and it adds to the charm. (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it)

Look at this gorgeous little face. Those eyes! But not the scabs... naughty gertie. I love you so much Mia and appreciate your help and I promise to remember that you are only 6 years old, ok??? You are loving cuddles at the moment, I think you wish you could fit on my lap like Lexi does, but you are way too gangly for that. You love cuddles with just me and you. You are very gracious (most of the time) when Lexi screams for whatever it may be that you have that she wants, which is almost everything you touch. I'm proud of you!

I got new Ikea bookshelves last week and am in love. My spare room looked like a book junk shop in the meantime but we are getting back to normal... we put all the special kids books away last evening, and Mia was quite excited at the thought that she could read a book or two to Lexi! Very cute! 

And ratbags jumping on my bed this morning. I said to Mia she has her own bed to jump on but she informed me that ours is the bounciest....Oh well, at least they are having fun! 

Pretty excited about this.

I have booked hubby in and informed him that we will be going to Lincoln for it. And he is more than cool with it. We will have a busy start to the year. A wedding in Jan, and another in March, the retreat in April, and other things I have forgotten already.

And for dinner tonight this.

Brenton will more than likely screw his nose up, but seriously don't care. Eat it baby, is what I will say. Or start cooking a few meals a week aswell... I want to cook more food that inspires me. Will take photos. Sadly there will be no coriander as Woolies had a quality issue with the coriander today. POO POO! I love coriander.

Better go and get Mia from school, think there may be some swimming around here this afty. Finally feeling almost back to normal... I've been feeling a bit shit lately...

Oh and has anyone read this??? 

I have started reading it and am thinking it will be good for me! Lists here I come!

Let me know!!

Well well well... 

Where have I been? I've been floundering around with a big black dog, but seem to have lost him so feel a bit better now!!

I have read the Twilight series in the meantime though. I started on the Sun morning of the retreat. Not so sick that I had to be in bed ALL day but sick enough to just sit on my bum and read...and then go back to bed when reading tired me out! (thank goodness Mum & Dad just let me be) And got hooked right in! I am almost at the end of Breaking Dawn, but am finding the end a bit slow... The Volturi are almost there for the confrontation, and I am itching for action... Bring it on!! So maybe I will finish it tonight... 


(The above was Thursday night, now it is Friday) 
The end of Breaking Dawn was good, feeling a little sad that my Twilight reading journey is over though. To make me feel better I pre-ordered Eclipse from Ezy-Dvd today. I also ordered True Blood season 1. Was going to order Seas 2 as well but thought I might see if I actually like the series first before I get more.. I suppose I could get the episodes from the net, but I seriously have no idea how to go about doing that, I would have to go round to the Woody household for lessons from Woody and really still don't know if the info would take in my brain! And besides all of that I love it when the postal lady comes along with parcels for me... I will wrap it up and put it under the Christmas tree for me from the girls. I do that every year. Then I get to buy myself a few things guilt free... not that I ever feel guilty anyway!!

Have a lot of things on my mind atm. I am going to start looking for some work in the New Year which I am fine about... It will be on the part time basis... I just do not want to be away from my kids for too long. I asked Mia last night if she was glad that I was able to take her to school and pick her back up again... And she said yes, and that proves it all for me... I have seen alot of different kids go to school without either of their parents and it makes me sad. I can see the sadness that they have too...
I am feeling very grateful that I have been able to be home with Mia and Lexi. I am happy that we have been able to afford me to be here. You cannot put a price on all the moments that I have seen. I have the rest of my life to work... I can understand Mum's who feel that they need to work for sanity reasons but I just haven't really felt that. I have been able to cook, paint, craft, grow vegies, teach Mia how to do lots of things since I have not been working. And look forward to doing the same with Lexi.
I went back to work when Mia was 5 months which was a financial decision and Brenton was with her anyway so while it was hard, I knew she was with her Dad and saw her Grandparents alot while I was at work... 
Sometimes I feel like I'm not worth what my working friends are worth. I question myself as to why I don't feel the need to be out there in the workforce. Why don't I have the ambition to be out there? I have felt left out of certain conversations about the mine site simply as I don't know as much as people who work out there do. And sometimes that is hard. I did work for a few months but don't count it so much, as Mia was only in childcare for 3 hours 4 days a week. I still had plenty of fabulous time with her. I have only ever had one friend and she is in Lincoln say to me, I wish I could be at home with my kids like you are but I really need to work for my sanity. So I did feel validated by that as I felt she admired me for being at home, even though she herself didn't feel it was for her. 
I am thinking of further education but what?? I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up!! I used to want to be a photographer like my Dad but things have changed since I first had that dream. Digital came along, and it is so much easier for the average person to take adequate photos of their families themselves... And cameras are so much more accessible to the joe blogs out there. I do love it so maybe that is a path. I really don't know what else I would be suited to. I did want to be a social worker/child worker. But I don't think I could honestly deal with child abuse, neglect and so on... I don't think I could cope with the horrible people out there who do horrible things.


Anyone got any ideas?? LOL!!! 
ENOUGH rambling... this is the kind of stuff that goes through my head all the time. (do I need help??)


Here is some photos of my fabulous family life. I hope my kids thank me later for being there. I do love them so! And wouldn't want to have been anywhere else...

Ratbags, esp Lexi, blew raspberries the whole time I tried to take photos of them!

 

 Mushed mango, ice cubes, vodka and bitters lemon and lime. My new drink for Summer, it will be my signature drink! 

 Last nights dinner, Sinapore Noodles. Very yummy and pretty easy. And I had for lunch today and will be eating some for dinner again shortly. I will not waste these noodles!! lol!!

Lexi in Mia's classroom the other night while we were getting ready for Mia's concert night. Will post a couple of photos of Mia dressed up in her Mini Master Chef costume soon!! 


 

 My veggie patch is looking very nice. It has helped that we haven't had much heat yet, so hoping that it is well established by the time the heat does come so they cope. Saw an ad for some stuff to sprinkle around your veg on tele the other day so might go purchase some of that then do a big pea straw mulching around them.. I have been loving watching it all grow. I particularly love my Zucchinis. They grow so quickly... I will be stuffing zucchini flowers before too long. It is a long held dream to do that, and give them a tempura coating. yum! Stay tuned for that one.. It is so nice to know that we are here for Christmas and are able to water and look after our plants ourselves. 

 And some flowers in my Kitchen. The white and orange lillies were for Kylie and I from our friend Brooke but somehow I kept them both, and the ones in the middle were from my friend Danni for taking some photos of her partners children while they were here. I do love fresh flowers... They are special!

See you soon... 

  Ok, so here are my 4 LO's from the mini retreat. I am not in love with any of them. Sometimes you do a LO and just fall in love, I have a few of those... These aren't in that catergory at all... Anyway. 

I like them I suppose.

 Scootin Tootin Chicky Babe, love this photo of Mia, and just couldn't wait to scrap it. I hate it when I use a black pen around my letters, then whoops my black pen is on my letters. So I decided to do a fair few deliberate whoopsies all over the letters. Not sure I like it much but that's what I did.

 Coffee and Cake. Self explanatory.

Another photo I love of my ever increasing cheeky little monkey. A fair few little mistakes on here. Not sure about the journalling tags, but again, there you go. 

Had a moment with her tonight when she was snuggled in my arms drinking her bottle of milk, when I thought

'Wow, you are getting so big and even wow-er that you are here even, and I just can't imagine you NOT being here' I shed a couple of tears which she promptly tried to poke out of my eyes... bless!

 Mia on a beach in Phuket in Thailand (duh, obviously Ali) Our friends took us driving all around the island so can't even remember the name, but Mia had a ball there. She made me so proud while we were away, and this is about that.

My dinner tonight. Craved this. Frittata. Not sure if it's the sound of the word. Frit-ta-ta. But it was holy-moly yummy. Brenton is away at Crane Driver School in Adelaide (that's what we tell the kids) so I can eat what I want and that's that. Now that I have an appetite and all. Tommorow will probably be Osso Bucco. Another one I like the sound of. And have never made it so just want to.

 

This little kid sleeps in with me while Daddy is away. She has an ultra wobbly tooth at the moment which I tried to pull out before. Didn't work. It's still there.

She has sores all over her face from mozzie bites which she picks at. I have had enough of her picking them, so told her that I would beat her black and blue ( I AM the Mother of the Year, not that I'd really do it but she doesn't know that) if she kept picking them. That scared her heaps, as she picked them at school today. So instead I told her that I would take her DS away and give it to her friend. She told me she didn't care for it anyway! So then I mentioned taking away her crafty gear if she kept picking her sores and that hit the spot so, hopefully that threat will work. She is such a pretty little girl, I can hardly bear it when her face is covered with her sores.... It happens too often. And I am quite capable of going through with that threat so if she keeps picking she will keep having things taken away. 

So here we have another long winded post! TFL! 

x

 My photo run-down from my ultra mini retreat at Trinity Haven!

Bit sad looking at these, I was on a roll photo wise, so would have gotten alot more crackers than these!

Here we go.

It's all about the photos!

(and a few smart ass comments from me aswell!!)

 My favourite tools of the whole 12 hours I got to be there! Even bought them home dirty and just got washed tonight! Except for my shaker... it didn't get used but will one day! 

 I call the above photo "three little dicky birds!" It just came to me! Tatum had her tongue poked out ALOT while I was snapping! Wish I could remember what was so funny.... 

No normal champagne flutes for these sisters, oh nooo! Big Mumma glasses! Loved them!

 The scene! Check out the unreal most delicious and deluxe beetroot tzatziki in the foreground, right by me!! lol!! 

 The scene of my little area! 

 Lovely Lou! Sooooooo wanted to get a self portrait, all fun and laughter of us together, but I kinda ran out of time in my schedule!! lol!

 Gorgeous Meredith! Man she loves that microphone, but I will admit readily she is very very good at one liners and sneaky type jokes... love it! 

 Sneaky very sneaky photo of the lovely Amanda sipping on her seemingly never ending Cosmo!! They looked so yummy almost as if they were in a frozen cocktail maker like you see at the pub!!

 The gorgeous Sue, having a laugh at Meredith and her witty ditties! 

 The chickies in the kitchen whipping up a cosmopolitan for us... Check out the concentration on your face Lauren! Priceless... And I did learn something new that day, when juicing your limes in that thing have them the 'other' way round!! Lesson learned!! I did nearly bring my fantastic juicer from the oppie, but common sense won out in the end!

 She's a cosmopolitan woman!! Love the serviettes ladies!!

 Mmmmmmm!

 I am in love with these teeeny tiny straws. What else is there to say!

 And finally, the evidence that Tatum broke the platter!! LOL!!!! Very funny moment! She was horrified and I couldn't wait to dob!! (not really!!)

So, that was my view of my little amount of time at the E2C mini retreat. Still feeling ripped off but the pain and bitterness is slowly fading away... slowly.

TFL. Oh and I will take photos of my LO's tommorow and be back at some stage!

x

Hi...

Well I'm back in the land of the living, it has felt like a while now, although not long at all.

For those who don't already know which I am guessing isn't many, is that I fell ill after only 4 layouts and about 12 hours socializing time at the mini retreat. To say I am upset would be a massive under-statement. These things happen so I am trying not to be bitter but I am... I can't help it, it is in my nature and I'm just being honest... well today anyway!! LOL!!

I was laying in my bed at the retreat talking to Brenton on my mobile after I had become ill, crying and acting like a child, saying things like "it's not fair" "this is my weekend" (as well as 29 other women too) "I just should have stayed home" "I've been soooooooooo looking forward to this for soooooo long" and other things along those lines.. Hubby was supportive, murmuring the right words, dare I say it, at the very right time!! LOL! Funny now that I have had a decent dinner just tonight, and finally feel ok. Ok, I was ok today but still queezy, BUT was able to go shopping for meat from the local butcher (yum), a little spree in the home and kitchen shop, (new springform, cookie cutters, new wooden spoon, (to smack my kids with my dear) and other good things), a heap of crap at Cheap as Chips $80, just like that on Christmas goodies, pool floating lights, cheap washing powder. A mag spree in the newsagent (why can't I buy a Scrapbook Trends anywhere for the last 5 or so months?) and then back to Mum's for a rest!

Just a quick run down of our illness, just for me to remember later on, so don't read if you just don't want to, I understand... ramble coming up!

Thursday when we drove down, Lexi was being weird right from the start, I can throw all sorts of junk food at them in the car, squeels of delight coming from the back seat, and it is gobbled down, all parties happy! But Lexi threw her little pkt of cheese and bacon balls clean away! Now I saw that child eat nearly a whole big packet of cheese and bacon balls on the plane back from Thailand so thought that was strange straight away... She was a bit grizzly, not at all interested in food, her toys, anything really. We stopped at Pt Aug and the kids happily ran around at McDonalds, and then we got on our way. Lexi was fast asleep by the graffiti tanks, although only slept for 20-25 mins. I drove straight through Whyalla, didn't need to stop. 20kms out of Whyalla, Lexi started vomiting, and to put it short had 4 vomits, the poor little mite. She had her last vommy about 20 mins out of Lincoln... So that was that, when we got to Lincoln, Mum and Dad had a bath ready for her, I pulled her out of the car without touching her, and plonked her in the bath, at that stage she only had a nappy on so took that off and plonked her in... Funniest thing was though, as soon as she was out of the bath, she seemed fine... it was very weird, running around like a mad thing, happy, you wouldn't even know what had just happened... 

3am Friday morning, Mia gets up to the toilet, I had to turn the bedside light on for her so she could see where she was going... when she came back I asked my usual question, "wee or poo" and she says "poo" and something about how it was yucky and made her tummy feel yucky, when BLERRRRRRRRRRRRRCHHHHH! In the bed Mia lets go, poor little thing.. I haven't seen her be sick for about 3 years, so it was heart wrenching... she was so so sick! Then more out the other end, it was full on, changing sheets, and trying to comfort her the best I could. But back to sleep she went eventually went and woke up ok, bit quiet but seemingly ok... I guess I should have known that I would get sick too, but was trying to be positive and keep it uplifting... I just wasn't going to get sick. But I did, and that's enough about it all...(oh except my Dad got sick too from us)

I did take my camera and started taking lots photos... Last time I took stuff all, I wanted selfies of me with Lou, me with Sandra, me with heaps of you.... Love my photos of Meredith on that glorious microphone, Tatum and Lauren whizzing up cocktails and a bit of the glorious scrapping mess on our table... But I tell you those sisters, man, they spread out like an eagles wing span... funny!! I looked at a few other tables, and they were no where near as messy as ours!! Love it!! Photos later, didn't except to be here blogging so left my camera cord at home...

All I will say about all the illness now is BRING ON APRIL! 

So, anyway, back on the Highway tommorow, can't wait to get home. I love my home and can't handle being away for too long especially in times like this...

If you read all of this leave me a comment and I will fall off my chair!!
x

Well back off down the highway tommorow, just me and my little chicky babes, I'm off to the Escape 2 Create mini retreat on Friday. It starts at 1pm and I can guarantee you that I will be there oh about 1:01pm!! LOL! True story! I tell no lie! 

Anyway to say I'm excited would be a massive understatement!! I have set myself a personal goal of 10 LO's for the weekend, let's see if I get even close to that. There is alot of talk of cocktails for this weekend, my esky is CHOKKAS, if I get through it all I will be off to A.A. next week. Although I am a big sharer so will share whatever I have. Which is Johnnie Walker, Vodka, Midori, Blue Curacao, and various accompaniments! Plus mini bags of maltesers and also mini corinthians.. Will be making a dash to the continental shop too for other yummy things... Mmmmmm!

I have scrapped one LO since I was here but I subbed it and it got picked up, so off it went in the post today. Another very exciting thing in my life, what a lovely feeling that is! I feel a little validated IYKWIM? My DH always comments favorably, as he should. It's like asking 'does my ass look big in this' and he says YES. (which would never happen if he knows whats good for him anyway) Of course he is always going to like my scrapping... Sweet thing that he is!! So anyway, yeah I feel good... 3 LO's, anyone would think I won a GOLD in Delhi! Ha! 

 Blurry but cheeky pic of my little chick, she is getting more and more naughty and cheeky everyday! Phew! 

 Some of the gorgeous Sturt Desert Peas... a mutant type obviously.

 My gorgeous big girl amongst some wildflowers, am intrigued by all the growth around our area atm...

Mia had a friend over for a playdate in the holidays, made them a fruit platter and thought it looked good! LOL!!

Seeyou at the retreat or back here after! 

YAY!

I'm around the place, but busy busy busy! I carted my very full scrap tote 600kms and back again just incase I wanted to have a scrap, but it was a busy time with lots of coffees, family catch-ups and catch ups with good friends. Finally had some yummies from 5 Loaves bakery in Cummins, and had a delicious meal at Del Giornos in Lincoln for Brentons birthday. Lots of drinks and laughs! We had a brand new nephew to snuggle and our other toddler nephew to snatch a cuddle of too! No scrapping here and I'm sad about it, but I had not one ounce of oomph to get it out while I was away...

Our beautiful nephew Ethan... (my brother's son) So cute... 

McDonald family gathering at SIL's place... nice afternoon with pizzas from Del Giornos and a bushie... straight home for a shower after though...

Brenton had a birthday while we were away. A family gathering at the Marina, and of course a selfie.

 Snuggles with new baby Logan, Brenton's sisters new bubba! 

 Cute pic of this little chicky! 

 

Horsey ride with Pop! Then dumped on the lounge.

 At P/L foreshore playground, with the McDonald clan again.

 Catch-up with friends for the AFL Grandfinal take 2. A great afty, with a chick cooking the barbie and yep you did a mighty fine job Jacinda!

McDonald gathering at Coffins on Sunday. All but two in this shot are our clan.

Waving bye bye to Sissy who was off for a canoe ride with her uncle... Very cute that Lexi waved goodbye!

Lots of fun in the water for this little one, fell down a couple of times onto her bottom and got a bit of a rude shock, it was a bit cold, but she had a ball! 

This little chick was spoilt with a new scooter while we were in Lincoln, so she was zooming around everywhere on it! Bless her, beautiful little soul!

Hopefully I will be back with some scrapping soon, maybe in a week or two, but love to update photos and what we have been up to. I do like to look back later on. Thanks for popping in if you do.