Dance baby, Dance.

Hi All,
After watching Brandy dance I can't decide if she has obtained her talents from me or her dad. I know for sure I have no rhythm and if I try to shake my bootee like Beyonce I look like I have something shoved in an uncomfortable place. Tony looks like a frog in a blender, so I guess she gets it from him! You be the judge.

Very cute all the same, no matter where her inspiration comes from. Excuse the bad filming I was copying her, so she would keep doing it for the camera. As usual when the camera came out she stopped dancing. Some of you may also wonder why my kids were in their PJ's at what seemed to be the middle of the day. It was actually about 7pm and they were getting ready for bed, it is daylight savings in S.A at the moment and the transition of getting them to sleep while it is still daylight is difficult.

Bye for now and Happy Blogging.

Bec

Christmas Preperation

Hi All
I am officially FINISHED, and all before the calender ticked over to December 1st. Presents bought AND wrapped, check. Cards written out, letter and photo included, and cards actually POSTED, check, Christmas tree, decorations and lights ALL up and working, check. It's over. All that is left to do now is assemble the swing set on Christmas eve and do a food shop and I am all set. VOILA!!
Bye for now and Happy Blogging.
Bec

Christmas cards, letters and the PHOTO!

Hi All,

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have spent the last 6 years in the middle of nowhere at Christmas time.

In the middle of nowhere the mail plane would come to take out going and deliver in coming mail every Wednesday unless rain had wet the the dirt strip and they were unable to land. Usually if I needed stamps or had a letter to post without a stamp I would either include the 50c with the letter in the mail bag, or I would send in money prior to needing the stamp and they would send out stamps the following week. When it came to Christmas cards however I was VERY UN-organised. I thought it rude to send in 50 cards unstamped with the money attached and getting someone else to lick and stick for me. I also just never got around to sending in the money for the stamps to be sent back to me. SLACK I know. This "slackness" of mine resulted in literally hundreds of Christmas cards being written over time and NEVER posted. One year i found a pile of cards squashed in the glove box of the Toyota about September the following year.

Now I am living in town and the post office is literally walking distance from my house I am organised. I wrote out all the cards making sure not to seal them because I wanted to include a universal update letter of the all happenings in our little family, as well as a nice photo of the girls. I spread the picture taking out over two days and the end result wasn't perfect or what I wanted but it was OK.

As you can see, on the first day I dressed them both up and tried to use a table cloth to make a decorative back drop. On the second day I just washed their faces. I really couldn't be bothered.

Don't get get me wrong I did NOT expect perfect model type photo's, all I wanted was the both of them looking at the camera AT THE SAME TIME, and smiling. Mickalee kept saying smile every time i said it, so me trying to get them to smile resulted in me making all types of weird noises, shouting and waving my free arm like a mad woman. The neighbours must think I am crazy. Eventually I got one picture.

I ordered copies on-line last night, and I printed off the universal letter yesterday so as soon as the prints arrive look out post office here I come.

Bye for now and Happy Blogging.

Bec

I'm Gonna Miss you Mate!!

Hi All

When a part of your family has to go and meet it's maker, no matter how big or small their role in your family was it is a sad loss. On Wed the 19/11/08 I had to make to gut wrenching decision to put my best mate of 6 years to sleep. Bonnie was a kind, gentle natured dog, however her instincts to hunt were always in the back of her mind. On Wednesday morning she jumped the fence and mauled a goat in the vacant lot next door. I apologised to the neighbour and immediately offered to pay all vet bills incurred from the attack. I coped a $210.00 fine from the local council, and made the terrible decision to put her down. People who knew and loved Bonnie could not imagine her doing such a thing, but a dog like her has instincts that she obviously could not control. Even though this was the hardest thing yet I have had to do, I decided it was for the best just in case one of the girls was her next target. Don't miss understand me, she NEVER showed aggression towards the girls and if she had of I would have made this choice a long time ago. I just couldn't trust her after this.

I will remember teaching you how to shake hands with small pieces of kit-Kat (before I realised chocolate was bad for dogs.) I will remember waking up in the swag with you when I was sure I had gone to sleep with Tony, you always had a way of squeezing in there somewhere. I will remember the day you dodged 6 bullets fired at you from Tony's gun after stealing a whole rump out of the camp kitchen. I will remember how you played. I will remember how you barked like you had something to say. I will remember how you barked to let me know there was a snake under the house.

I WILL REMEMBER YOU!!

LOVE YOU BONNIE!!

Christmas

Hi All
Yes I am one of those annoying people who loves Christmas. I love shopping for gifts, decorating, wrapping, writing cards and everything. I am officially weird.

My last six Christmas's have been spent in the Gulf Of Carpentaria and have been great but this will be the first Christmas in about 6 years that I have spent with my mum and brothers. It will also be my FIRST ever Christmas spent with Dean. I am really looking forward to it and went overboard as usual. I also found out on Monday that Tony, Mum and Dean WILL be home for Christmas. I will explain the situation a little more for those who don't know it. Dean, Mum and my hubby are all away in N.S.W working on the construction of a wind farm near Goulbourn. Dean and Tony rotate on the same roster they work 4 weeks on and 1 week off, having a day off mid shift. Dean, Tony and mum were all due to fly back to N.S.W on Christmas eve. So to have our family Christmas we were just going to have it a few days early. However on Monday we found out they do not have to return until Boxing Day. HOORAY for us!!

We moved to Jamestown in June and in July Big W had a HUGE toy sale, so I did what any anal planner would do. I got in the car, drove to Port Augusta (were our nearest Big W is) and put all the goodies I wanted on Lay-by. I have been making regular payments and this Saturday just gone mum and Dean had the kids for the day and Tony and I drove over to Port Augusta with the trailer in-tow to collect the lay-by. I said earlier I did go overboard, but I do have a reason for it. Last year "Santa" bought my girls a trampoline for Christmas, but when we moved from QLD to S.A we did not have enough room for it and sold it. We did have full intention of replacing it however when we came across the Swing sets in the Big W catalogue we spend a little extra than planned to get it instead of a replacement trampoline. I was sure they would get more fun from a swing set anyway.

I have no idea why the picture is turned it isn't on my computer but for some reason when i uploaded it, it turned and I have no idea how to change it. I have decided not to put the slide on until the girls are bigger, I think this could cause injuries because they are only 2 and 1 and have not perfected the art of climbing yet. Those who know my girls know they are good at it, but they aren't perfect.

Here are all the presents waiting to be wrapped, there are gifts here for my nephews as well as the girls. All that is left to do now is wrap the presents and double check the battery situation. There is nothing worse than opening a toy that does not include batteries. I am sure these toys however will get pushed aside once the swing set is discovered.

I have done my tree but I the screen around it isn't doing as planned and the girls keep pushing it over. So I will redecorate the tree Christmas Eve before I put all the gifts under it. Putting any presents there early is just asking for trouble.
I have also decorated the back patio, it is hard to see but there is Christmas lights everywhere!! Bring on Christmas and the heat!! I'm sick of being cold!!

Merry Christmas Everyone

Bye For now and Happy Blogging

Bec

First Unit Nearly Over!!

Hi All
I am here, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I have just been busy, very busy. I have completed all the set assignments for my introduction to university course all I have left to do is the exam. That is set to happen on Friday Dec 5Th and Tracy aka Mad Quilter has kindly volunteered (after I begged and promised to babysit) her husband Pete to supervise me. This of course was a huge relief to me because it meant something less to worry about.

So even though the hard part is over, my life is now revision, revision, revision. I had to resubmit my first essay because I was WAY off track but I did a lot better second time around I got a pass. The second Essay is not back and marked yet so I will keep you posted.

Bye for now and Happy Blogging
Bec

Sunsets

Hi All

I managed to get a few pics of the sunset her on Friday night, as I said my camera is not the best but they turned out OK. Finally a sunset almost worthy of those we experienced in "The Gulf of Carpentaria".This one was taken about 7pm
This was also around 7pm

This was taken later about 7.15 and I was standing on a chair so I could get a good shot.

This is the cropped version of the photo above, this is my favourite one.

This was the last one I took, after bathing the girls, it was about 7.45pm. A little blurry but you get the idea.

Bye for now and happy blogging

Bec

Dora Concert

Hi All
I know we went to the Dora concert nearly a month ago now, but I have been meaning to blog about it ever since and just have not got around to it.

Firstly I will say I am SO glad I organised a baby sitter for Brandy there is no way she would have sat through it as I had expected. As it was I had difficulty getting Mickalee to keep still. She saw all the kids and just wanted to play with them and run around. To solve this I folded her chair up so she could jump and dance in the little space in front. I was amazed at how many people struggled to get little ones to sit and watch, some babies surrounding us were under one. They were with their mums and in most cases were not accompanying an older sibling as one would have assumed. I will say though that I never heard a peep out of any of them. At a kids concert you expect a certain amount of ruckus, crying and screaming, I never heard any. Except of course when it was over and it was time to leave, lots of tots wanted more of DORA.

The performance I will say was GREAT however it was not what I expected, I assumed it would be like the pirate play DVD, which my girls have watched a million times, they know all the songs and love it but it wasn't the same. Mickalee loved it just as much though. The costumes were excellent, but I have just one question "where was Benny the bull?".

There is a little red glow above Mickalee's left shoulder, that was the stage, my camera did not like taking pictures of something so far away in the dark.

Bye for now and Happy blogging

Bec

Visitors

Hi All

It seems that this past month I have done more kilometers than you average truck driver. OK, OK that was a major exaggeration but I have been to Adelaide 3 times in for weeks. The girls and I went down for the Dora concert, which also happened to time in with Tony flying in from Canberra, so we stayed for two nights so we get some much needed summer wardrobe updating done.

I then went in again a fortnight later to pick up Tony's mum from the airport, she stayed with us for 8 days and the girls enjoyed having nanny Betty visit.

I then returned to put her back on the plane. As she had a 10 am flight we went in the day prior so we were sure not to miss her plane, I knew my kids can be unpredictable and didn't want to risk travelling from Jamestown. I pre booked the accommodation for 2 nights, as my mum was due to fly in the day Betty flew out, so the girls and I were going to spend one night with mum. As it turns out her reason for travel was cancelled and her visit fell through. I had booked accommodation at "Adelaide Shores Caravan Park", so we could be close to the airport, and when mums visit fell through I thought rather than cancel the room I would arrange to catch up with some friends instead. The facilities were wonderful and the girls had a blast in the pool.

The pool we went swimming in was .5m deep and that allowed the girls to walk freely without being held, they both fell over a few times and couldn't find there feet, but myself or friends were right behind them to pick them up.

Mickalee with my cousins Lisa and Jessie

We also had a major break though in the toilet training the day we went swimming, I thought there was no way Mickalee would tell me when she needed to go, so I just asked her regularly and hoped for the best. After being in the pool about 20 minutes she came up to me and said mummy I need to do a wee. By the time I organised someone to supervise Brandy and got out of the pool, she had gone off again with Bradley. So while Zack watched Brandy I sat with Carol thinking Mickalee had either forgotten what she needed to do, or had done it in the pool. Then to my surprise she came up to me again and repeated her need to go to the loo. So I took her. I honestly thought to myself that this would be one of those times you took her and she didn't do anything, but to my surprise she did. My two and half year old got out of a pool to wee. OMG!! I was so excited for her.

Anyway, back on the road again next week, need to go back in on Wed to get Tony off the plane, then he is home for a week, so back in again to put him back on it.

Bye for now and happy blogging

Bec