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It is Sunday evening yet again. I really don't know where the week goes! It has been a bit of a topsy turvy kind of week actually. I ended up getting a stomach bug late Monday evening which basically had me ill and laid up until Thursday, although still not feeling 100% from it yet either! It truly knocked me for a six and I had to cancel so many appointments, which I hate doing. Anyway, no-one else got it which is good, although Ian has complained of a tummy ache a few times but luckily it never progressed from there.
There seem to be quite a few bugs and illnesses going around at the moment. I am thinking that it must be the humidity, just a hot, sticky breeding ground for all types of germs and bugs! Even though we are having our fair share of rain at the moment which has been so lovely and refreshing, it is still so humid! I can't wait for the next month to go by, not that I ever wish for time to go fast, but it does make it near to unbearable sometimes. Sorry I'm whinging, especially since there have been so many tragedies of a high level lately...I'll not say another word...sorry!
Today we went to 'wet and wild' again and had another good day. We went with some friends of ours as their daughter turned 10 during the week and this is where she wanted to spend her birthday as such. Yazmin however has come home quite burnt and not well due to the fact that she didn't put any suncream on!!!!!! Silly girl!!!!! I had a very serious talk to her this morning regarding skin cancer etc...but it obviously didn't make any difference. The sun up here, well anywhere really is just too dangerous to take these chances. I was speaking to a Dad at cricket this past weekend who has just had a very serious skin cancer cut out from hi head and he was very lucky they found it when they did otherwise he would be making some very gloomy plans at the moment! This man always covers up and uses sun protection of every form but he still got affected. It really is just so scary. I think I will take Yazmin and Bailey...also myslef and Ian, along to the skin cancer clinic where you can get an examination to have everything checked out. If we do it on a yearly basis then hopefully nothing sinister will ever happen to us!...plus we don't want Yaz to end up having old, leathery skin at an early age either!
Last night we went to our neighbours for a b.b.q. and had a nice night. They have three boys, one Bailey's age and they get on tremendously. One of the boys is animal crazy and he has two childrens carpet pythons and two bearded dragons. They are just adorable and I played with them all night. The snake was just sooo cute and he was going through my hair and flicking his little tongue on my nose etc...I was just in awe. Ian won't let us have one though...I tried to get him to hold it too but he wasn't interested...I don't get that?! I guess he's just not as animal crazy as I am. Bailey had a go but was a little apprehensive. Yaz stayed home as she had her friend over for a sleepover and she just isn't into socialising with her parents anymore....yes that time has come and I guess I have to deal with it!
Bailey is still having his guitar lessons and was playing U2's-'Pride' over the weekend. I got it on video on my phone but I'm not smart enough to be able to download it onto the computer. It was so cute and he was singing along too.
Yaz started soccer training this week too. I don't think she suffered too much. She thought she was going to be quite unfit but I think she managed O.K....well I haven't heard her complaining so that's a good thing!
So basically that was this week all summed up! We are all well and healthy and that's the main thing! Hoping that anyone reading this is well and healthy too. :)

Thank goodness for my diary!

It has been soooo long since my last entry...again! It's not that I haven't tried or haven't wanted to, it's just that we constantly have internet and phone problems and I can be almost finished my entry and I lose everything! Do you know how long it takes me to write one of these?! I also have a terrible memory, so if I lose everything it's hard for me to recapture what I wrote in the first place plus my patience wears off so I generally just walk away feeling very defeated by a computer!

Anyway, after having a lovely long overdue conversation with my Mum in England, I promised that I would attempt to do my long overdue entry tonight as I know I won't have time tomorrow as we have a big day ahead planned.

Thank goodness for my diary...as my title says...if it wasn't for my bad memory, I wouldn't have a diary where I write down everything that I do on a daily basis. This is the only way that I get around remembering everything that we did during the week. Sad isn't it considering I am only on the verge of 37 years of age and have a very failing memory! Ian is going to have to have growing patience to be able to grow old with me!

Anyway....let's go back to Ian's birthday...I think that is where I left off last time?! Ian spent his 41st birthday at Bailey's cricket match in the morning, general hanging out at home until late afternoon where we had some friends come over with their children. The adults then responsibly left our children at our house...3 teenagers and Bailey and his friend, and we headed off to the local Indian restaurant. We had a lovely meal there, we ordered a variety of dishes and just shared, all of them were just gorgeous! The service and everything about the resaturant couldn't be faulted and we stayed and had a great laugh there also. Afterwards we came back home, not leaving the children for too long, and continued celebrating Ian's birthday for a few more hours with a few more drinks and a few more laughs. It was such a great night, some very funny moments when us adults acted younger than any of the children that were here and it ended early hours of the following day. Overall I think Ian had a great birthday and unfortunately I don't have any photos of it as our camera still isn't working and Yaz was using her camera with her and her friends.

Julian celebrated his 17th Birthday on 6th February and Bailey has celebrated his this week, turning a big old 9 years of age! He got utterly spoilt with a fishing rod, games, cricket net, books, money, art set, science kits etc...He was at school during the day where he took in a doughnut for everyone in the class to celebrate with him and then we took him to a restaurant in Redcliffe, opposite the water for dinner. After we had a yummy meal we headed home to have his birthday cake...that's a story in itself! I haven't had a working oven for 2 weeks now as the element blew and the real estate haven't got around to fixing it...even after several phonecalls from myself and Ian! So I was unable to make him a cake so had to go and buy one instead! I decided to decorate whatever I bought in a wrestling theme, seeing as this is Bailey's all time favourite thing. I got a couple of square cakes and put them together to make a wrestling ring. At the time of all the icing and decorating however, we had a blackout for hours! Normally this wouldn't interfere with icing a cake...but...it was an extremely hot and very humid day, so the house was like an oven itself and the ceiling fans or airconditioner couldn't be put on due to the blackout! So basically everything started melting and sweating and his cake ended up an awful mess which I was devastated about! I nearly went out and just got another one already made and decorated, but ran out of time..and energy! Anyway, Bailey was wrapped with it as it kind of resembled a wrestling ring...apart form the posts drooping, the icing dribbling everywhere and the cakes seperating! NIGHTMARE!!! Oh well. Ian had a giggle about it too and thinks that he could've even done better, which I'm sure that he could have! I did take a photo but no-one will ever see it!!!

Yazmin attended the school swimming carnival last week and has now made it through to the Regional carnival. She came places in backstroke, freestyle and medley. She always does so well in her sporting events. She has been seriously thinking about taking up swimming again as an outside sport which I hope she does as she is very good at it. Her feet are certainly a big enough attribute to the sport! She has grown so much lately. She is now taller than me and her foot size is a 9 & 1/2. Still very, very slim and gorgeous too! She starts soccer training next week too so life just gets busier and busier! Bailey is still playing cricket on the weekends but when it finishes he has signed up for Rugby League for the winter season which he is really looking forward to. I am a bit apprehensive as he will be doing real tackles etc...so I think I will only see half of any game as my face will be hidden in my hands! I think I'm a very over protective Mum...well Yaz tells me I am anyway. It's not a bad thing right?!

Work for both Ian and I has been very busy. Ian is still driving his very long days in the heat and traffic fumes. I have been pretty much booked out also as we have a heap of new members at the gym who are having massages. I thought about maybe putting someone else on but I have kind of helped my friend make the decision to study massage therapy so I will wait and see how that pans out and who knows where we will go from there?!

Ramses has had a bit of a drama going on lately although he's 100% now. He got into a cat fight, as the vet thinks anyway and got beaten up pretty bad. He had lacerations on his belly, groin, wrist and unfortunately on his 2 manhood bits! Not nice indeed! He ended up having stitches in a few places, with some swipes going right down to bone! So he kind of looks a bit odd now as he has patches shaven off him here and there but the stitches are out and he finished his antibiotics and is back to normal. Oh, he also had the tip of his canine tooth come off too! Poor baby...obviously a lover not a fighter!

The last couple of days it has rained pretty much non-stop which has been beautiful and has taken the heat away also! HALLELUJAH! It did however put a dampener on Bailey's school camp where they were supposed to do a few outdoor activities which were canned but they still had lots of fun anyway. At the moment he has a friend sleeping over, well they are supposed to be sleeping but there is a lot of giggling going on out in the lounge room where they are camping out! We are taking him and his mate, our next door neighbour actually, to Wet'n Wild theme park tomorrow at the Gold Coast...if it's not raining again.Yaz has decided not to come with us...at that age I suppose?...so she is staying at a friends house tonight instead.

Ian has joined an over 35's Soccer team locally which he had training for the first time this week. He's also been out for a few runs to boost his fitness level. I am really looking forward to watching the games. A few of the Dad's we know are in the same team so it should all be good fun. I really need to get our camera fixed!

So that's pretty much all that my diary has revealed of the past couple fo weeks. There is no way I would've remembered all of that..actually is anyone still there reading? This has been an exceptionally long entry! If you are there, thanks for sticking with it. Like I always say, it's not rivoting stuff but it's our lives and I thank you for taking the time out to reading it and being a part of it too....mainly Joyce...is there anyone else who reads it after all? This entry is dedicated to you Mummy Joyce. Love you x

My how time flies...

I can't believe the last time I put an entry on here it was just after New Years! Sorry about that entry...I think I kind of raved on a bit didn't I? Anyway...here we are at the end of another month...again! Looks like this year is going to go just as quickly as last year.

Well I have had my trip to N.S.W. with the children for Mum's 70th. It was a good week and I was able to catch up with a coupld of friends also...briefly! Mum had a good day. It was just family as she clearly stated as her birthday wish. We ended up at a local tavern and had a great pub meal. We wanted to go to a different restaurant but it was closed, so was the next one she thought of, so the tavern it was. Good food and great value for money, Mum's ideal day out! We went back to her house for coffee and cake...or should I say crumble, apple crumble, as she is soooo fussy on bought cakes as she can't stand any cream or custard etc...and this was the only option for Dale, who had the job of buying her b'day cake. It all went down well though and was absolutely lovely too. Still can't believe she is 70. Definitely doesn't act it...which is a good thing I guess! The rest of the week was spent catching up with my brothers, spending some quality time with Mum, and seeing a couple of close friends for a feew hours here and there. Yaz had three sleepovers, she was very busy socially! Then after a very fast week, it was all over and we were heading back on the plane, back to Ian and Ramses who both seemed very pleased to see us and have the noise and destructiveness around them again!

Now in a few days it's Ians 41st birthday! Then Julian's 6 days after then Baileys 4 days after that! Busy, busy, busy again!Bailey returns back to school tomorrow, I return back to the gym...for a workout and work, and Yaz is back to school Wednesday. Then everything is back to reality and living a structured life again until the next lot of holidays!

Yesterday we celebrated with some friends, Nicky and Sean, who became Australian citizens. We attended the official ceremony and then headed back to theirs for a good old Aussie b.b.q. It was a good day...a long one too. It started at 10.00am and we got home around 11.00pm. Today was Australia Day, so a public holiday, a chance for all of us to just relax and read,(me!), spend hours on the computer,(Yaz!), spend hours on the wii,(Bailey!), and watch never ending hours of cricket!,(Ian). I love days like these!

We're not sure what we're doing for Ian's birthday this coming Saturday but we will definitely do something fun and you will know all about it next Sunday!

xxx

Happy New Year Everyone!

Happy New Year to anyone reading this blog. Wishing you all the very best for this year ahead! Try not to break any resolutions made as they are usually made with the greatest of intentions and reasons and we are all worthy of the good things in life that these resolutions promise to bring...or we promise to bring ourselves! Stick with them. We're all in this together!!!!! Every year I make the resolution to get fit...never happens. I stick to it for a month or two, avoid it for two months or three, then the cycle begins again. I'm going to try sooooo hard to make this one resolution come true and stick to it. Positive thinking is the key I believe. That's another resolution of mine too is to look at everything in a less of a negative way as I am the Queen of Negativity! Well my crown is now up for grabs as I surrender it to anyone willing to take the burden on!
So what did everyone get up to for New Years eve? We went to a friends house as I think I mentioned in last weeks entry and we ended up having a great night. Probably drank a little too much...or a lot too much...but that's what New Years is for isn't it? Since then we have been eating quite healthy and I haven't had any alcohol at all and don't intend to for quite some time either. I've hit the gym again and am embarking on not letting my shyness or fear of uncertainty get in the way of doing things...like ordering anything over the phone! Yes believe it or not I have a strange condition where I either go into hysterics or blatantly hang up when placing an order for whatever over the phone! I don't know how long I have been this way, Ian remembers it from when he first met me so it's been quite a while! I don't know how I came about having it either...but I am going to confront my odd little dilemmas and get over them!
Not long now until we head to N.S.W. for Mum's 70th. Ian is unfortunately not coming due to work, the cat etc...We are going down there for a week and then when we get back, there will only be one weekend before the children go back to school for their new year and new grades. Yaz will be in Year 9 and Bailey will be in Year 4. I can't believe it! Yaz is heading off to Italy next year with her Immersion program. How exciting!!!!
Well we haven't been up to much else really, just had a few lazy days at home getting even more acquainted with the wii and I've been obsessed with reading novels because for the past two and a half years I have only been able to read medical books and study so I am really enjoying being in a world where i can have some escapism in the way of books. I just love them!
Incase you haven't noticed, on the top left hand corner of this blog page, I have a link to some photo albums. It only took me about three weeks and a lot of late nights to work out how to get this link on here but it's there and it seems to work for me. If anyone has a problem with this link at all please let me know so I can look into it. I will try and add new albums regularly.
Till next week xxxxx.......

The end to another year...

Can you believe that 2008 is just a few days away from being over?! How can this possibly be? I remember when I was young, always hearing the 'older' generation always talking about how quickly time passes and remember rolling my eyes in a mocking kind of way thinking, 'how ridiculous'! I guess I have reached that same category as part of the 'older' ones as time literally does just slip away far too quickly, each day, each week, each year. I can't believe it has been two years since we moved up here also! I had a brief vacant moment in the kitchen earlier on thinking that it could only have been one year for sure. I had to think really hard to work out that it is actually two!...anyway, sorry, just went into one a bit there...let me just adjust my crochet blanket over my knees, have a cup of tea and then I shall continue...

Anyway...I really hope that anyone reading this has had a wonderful Xmas. We had a lovely little one, just the four of us. The children woke us up very early Xmas morning and Ian and I were knackered as we had a late night Xmas Eve. We stayed up cooking and preparing! Everything from the turkey, a chocolate yule log, some rocky road, potato salad and the trifle. I had it in my head this year that I would do it all, I wouldn't do the 'easy' thing and get a ready made log etc...I saw the rocky road recipe and just 'had' to make it...it ended up costing me about 5 times the amount as if I'd just bought one...and I'm not even a huge fan of rocky road...Ian still shakes his head about it. Once I get an idea though in this maze inside my head, I have to do it to satisfy my curiosity and my desire to create. Well it all turned out O.K. The log was very time consuming and I'm sure I turned a few hairs greyer after getting the 'roll' right and dealing with chocolate ganache that was melting in the Queensland humidity and wouldn't spread properly...Ian certainly knows the right things to say though when the following day I was feeling a bit kind of 'down' about it not being perfect, and he told me that it was more than perfect because it was made with my love and goodwill and enthusiasm. How beautiful! Just what I needed to hear. Yaz was the 'gift person' this year and handed out all the pressies from under the tree. I remember when they were younger, we had huge mountain fulls under the tree, now the presents seem to be getting smaller...still costing as much, if not more, but it definitely decreased in floor space this year. Yaz got the phone she has so desperately desired for so long, plus some clothes, jewellery, a straightener, wii games etc...Bailey got a wii fit, games, a microscope, clothes, book etc...and as a joint gift they got a wii 'rock band', which I think our neighbours have now realised we have it! Yaz is the drummer, Bailey the guitarist and Ian or I on the vocals. I haven't even had the chance to try the drums ot the guitar yet...mind you I have been pre-occupied with my new singstar game and my Dawn French book...plus other treats. Ian also got a wii game...like the big kid he is...plus a blue tooth for work, cd, dvd's etc...so we were all utterly spoilt....again! As usual we ate WAY too much on the day. Why do we do it? Although I must admit, since Xmas, tonight was the first night that I had to cook as we've been spoilt with all of the left overs! The day itself was fun and relaxing and went very quickly. I spoke to my family twice during the day...I do miss them!...and we finally got hold of Ian's parents in the evening as their Xmas was just beginning. Next year we dearly hope to be over there with them celebrating Xmas. It's been way too long and we miss you all sooo much!

Boxing day we all got up a bit late and then gathered some food together and headed to Nicky and Seans for the day. Again we ate heaps, had a drink or two and played singstar and went for a walk. We didn't get home until around 9.30pm and we were just so full and so tired from two days of non-stop eating rich and junky food, too irrisistable to turn down!

I feel like I've piled it on over this past week so back to the healthy lifestyle I was into before-hand and back to the gym again. Xmas always seems to take it's toll in this way with me, but oh does it feel so good getting here!

So as of tomorrow I head back to work until New Years Eve and do it all again, this time without as much junky food but more alcohol and a few days off work. We are heading to Charmayne and Mike's for New Years Eve so there's no doubt that there will be lots of drinking, singing and dancing. Bring it on!!! I keep saying to Ian that 2009 is going to be our year...I pray that my prediction will be spot-on! In fact I hope that 2009 is everyones year. There seems to be a lot of people that have had a terrible year this year for one reason or

another so I wish everyone only the very best for a happy, healthy and prosperous year and may everyones dreams come true! xxx

Xmas love to you all xxxx

I have yet again left out a week of updating this blog. Life has just been very hectic all round. We have had my brother and nephew up for just over a week. Unfortunately I still had to work so I wasn't around as much as what I had hoped but we still had a great catch-up, especially Yaz, Bailey and Julian. They all got along so great. We took them up to Bribie Island on the weekend and it was so beautiful up there. Shane and Julian loved it too. Unfortunately the airconditioner in my car has gone and we were stuck in stand-still traffic in the hottest part of the day on our way up and it was sooooo boiling hot! We just literally dumped our stuff on the sand and ran into the water. Shane borrowed the car when I had to work so he took Yaz and Bailey down to the lagoon a couple of times and out to lunch one day. Yazmin and Julian also had a day out on their own and went into the city on the train to do some Xmas shopping. On the Friday night Shane and i made some cocktails and enjoyed drinking those, sitting out the back feeling very relaxed indeed.

Just after I had come home from dropping Shane and Julian off at the airport, I got a phone call from Mum with some very sad news. My cousin in England, Robert, had died in his sleep. He was only 38 and had everything going for him in life. Obviously everybody is just devastated and I just can't get my head around it. He now leaves behind his son and soon-to-be fiancee, plus his parents, brother and 2 sisters. It's never a good time for something like this to happen but it's the week before Xmas and his birthday is 31st December too, the day he was going to propose to his girlfriend. It's all just so sad. Xmas will be very different from now on for all of them now. Our love and thoughts go out to my family and Roberts close friends etc...

We are now pretty much prepared for Xmas, just the food shopping to go. It will be a very quiet one this year and hopefully we will get to chat to all of our family either on the day or Xmas night. Xmas is the day that really hits home just how much you miss the people that you love. I coouldn't get Yaz into having a photo with Santa but little Bailey was more than happy to and had a good old chat with the man himself too, letting him know all that he wants for Xmas. He was a very cool Santa too, making him laugh and hi-fiving him etc...

Last night we had a wonderful night around at Mike and Charmaynes, where we had some lovely Indian and a few drinks. Mike's Dad is over from New Z ealand at the moment and he was such a laugh and loved getting up for a bit of a dance, so he kind of started us all off really and by the end of the night, Ian was doing a very convincing Tom Jones impersonation which left us nearly peeing ourselves in hysterics! If only I had a video camera handy! Speaking of cameras, our digital is packing it in for whatever reason and all of the photos I am taking are turning out blurry so I haven't been able to take many lately at all.

Anyway, I guess my head's not really with it at the moment as I have a total blank and have nothing else to say except that we wish all of you a very Merry Xmas. Please keep safe and tell everyone that you share your life with just how much you love them. That's the greatest gift of all...and it's free!

The End!

This week has seen the end to my college at long last. After two and a half years of studying, I am finally free. I had my last two exams this week which was a nightmare having both on but I managed to get through them and now never have to go to college ever again. My time now belongs to my family who have been neglected for such a long time due to me always with my head in the books and never quite 'there' mentally. They have also inspired me and encouraged me when I didn't think I would do well enough etc...so I thank them dearly for helping me achieve my dream! I must admit I never thought I would ever have my own business, let alone help people by working in the health care industry. We went out for a lovely meal last night to celebrate too as I have decided not to go to my graduation in a couple of weeks for a few reasons.

This week Bailey had a 'learning celebration' on at school where the Yr 3 students performed a few poems, songs and then some line dancing. We got to have a look at their work they have done in the last term also so it was great to see how Bailey has been doing. They were all very cute!

I took Yaz and Bailey into the city on Saturday to meet our favourite radio celebrities-Hamish and Andy. They have just brought out a cd for xmas, which we bought before hand for them to sign which Ian will be getting for xmas. We lined up for about 2 hours before we ended up meeting them and it was such a scorcher of a day. We were standing in the full on sun for that length of time in the hottest part of the day so felt very drained and hot afterwards. We did have suncream on but we still got a little burnt. Anyway, it was worth it as we got such a buzz out of meeting them and they personalised Ians cd too. The four of us just love these guys.

Today Bailey and I went to Moreton Island for my work's end of year party. We had such a great day, although have come home quite burnt even though we applied suncream at least 6 times during the whole day. The Queensland sun is just soooo strong and maybe we need to get a better suncream? It's a 30+ but obviously not the right one for our skin types! We just hung out at the island all day playing in the beach and going to the resort pools etc...It was the perfect day too. A long day but a fantastic day. Ian and Yaz could've come also but it was very hard to convince Yaz as she likes to go places where she knows people and there were no girls there her age anyway. If Yaz wasn't going then Ian wasn't so it was just the boy and I. We just love it over there. I am so thankful that we moved up here as we have all of this at our doorstep and it is just paradise!

So that's about it really. The week ended perfectly, my college has ended and we celebrated the end of the working year too. Hard to believe really! Now I can concentrate on doing some Xmas shopping, getting back into the gym...especially since all the good food is just around the corner!, and Shane and Julian are arriving this Wednesday for just over a week and we can't wait. My house will certainly be very full, but full of fun and happiness, the perfect thing just before Xmas!