Autumn days...

Today is the last day of Autumn, sunny & still. The cool air did not deter us from a ride. Boy racer always grizzles & says he is shielding me from the cold, I still feel it but I am snuggled in behind him.

While we were riding I was thinking about a trip we did from Melbourne to Toowoomba on the bike back when we were much younger & hardier.

Our trip took in stops in Canberra & Port Macquarie & an unscheduled stop in the middle of nowhere when we ran out of fuel.

This is the boy racer 25kms outside of Coonabarabran, scratching his head wondering why he believed his young bride when she said with confidence that we would make it to the next town with a low fuel light.



It was a dilemma to say the least. How were we to get back on the road???? This was in the times before mobile phones & the reception in the back of nowhere would probably have been non-existent. One or two cars passed us by & avoided making eye contact, there was not much traffic at all & it looked like we were well & truly stuck there.
Finally a truck actually stopped & asked if we needed help. Yes we did. But that presented up with the next dilemma. Who would go into town with the truckies to get some fuel & who would stay with the bike on the side of the road on their own. Looking back the situation was 50-50 for the realm of terrible outcomes.

I was the one who ended up going in the truck with 2 strangers. To say I was nervous was an understatement. I worried the whole 25kms into the town but those truckies were genuinely nice blokes who took me to the nearest petrol station, helped me get a gerry can of fuel, then got onto the CB radio & hooked me up with a truck coming the other way to take me back to the bike.

Boy racer made up for the 3 hour delay, don't you worry about that.

Fracture?...

What do you get when you spin on a rope suspended from the patio roof with your feet on a skateboard & you flip off & land on your elbow???

You get to go to the Emergency department, have X-rays, & a plaster!



Just when you are contemplating the next 4 weeks putting up with the plaster, how you will shower, dress, get your uniform over the plaster, sleep etc etc. the doctor comes in & says he has spoken to the radiologist as children's fractures are not his speciality. After x-raying the non injured elbow the apparent fracture was on the other arm as well! So they got out the plaster saw & hacked off the freshly applied plaster.
We set off home with the bruised & scraped elbow fixed by 1 hour of plaster, thankful it was temporary.

Maybe the doc needed plastering practise.

Puppy love...

This very sweet little puppy has come to live at our dear friends home.



She is an 8 week old long haired Jack Russell they have named Meg.




Erin could not resist a play with the new puppy until she fell asleep in her arms.

Still sick...

A quiet activity you can do at home while you are in self imposed quarantine is...

scrapping!

I have enough supplies to keep me going through any epidemic so between naps & nose blowing I completed this.



Albie is a friends dog, he came along to our holiday in Port Fairy post Christmas. He is a 'small but mighty' long haired chihuahua & is very well behaved. He walked his legs off on our early morning beach walks & thinks he is much bigger & tougher than he really is. And he put up with Erin's affections.

Erin loves dogs & animals in general, she has told me before that she would like to be a vet, a vet nurse or a dolphin trainer when she leaves school. We'll see.

The carpark saga...

This diatribe is for you Lara.

One thing that gets on my wick is the school carpark. I have to have a little grizzle about it.
A lot of children catch a bus home, a lot get picked up by parents & a small handful walk home. The shemozzle that is the carpark is getting worse. You would think that if a child had to walk more than 5 metres it would be a tragedy in some parents eyes. I say let them walk, it wont hurt them at the end of the day to have to walk to an awaiting car, the rest of the trip is spent sitting down! Its laughable to see parents jostling for poll position to pick up their child and now the school has implented carpark patrol & put up barriers to make sure parents follow the rules. They have even split the dismissal time for the primary & secondary students by 10 minutes to clear some of the congestion.

I had to laugh at Erin today as she ran down the hill to where I wait for her in the car (its a whole 250 metres away) after school. She looked so funny with her stick arms & legs going full speed in different directions, & she looked so happy.

Sick...

I'm sick today...was yesterday & on the weekend. Couldn't go for a ride, was too windy as well as me not being well enough.

I worked on this layout while I blew my nose, coughed & spluttered.



Mothers can't get sick, the daily things still need to be done and having a sickie from work seems really strange. I haven't had one for years, it is quite unusual to be home on a Tuesday with an empty house.

Finished...

I told you to watch this space...

And I finished the layout.

Nothing happening...

Nothing very interesting is happening around here. We've had nice Autumn days - sunny, mild with cold nights, but we have just been going to work or school & the days roll into one another.

I was playing with the scanner & scanned in this photo of Chris & I on our wedding day, a bit of fun captured on film.


Hope you all have a nice weekend, I'm hoping we can get out on the bike if this nice weather holds up.

A little story...

about my parents.

This is my Mum & Dad happy at a fancy dress party circa 1970. Mum had made them both a matching kaftan, just whipped it up, never to be worn in any other setting. I can bet you my house that under the kaftan Dad has on a white Bonds singlet. We all thought it was hilarious that Dad was wearing a dress and jewellery! He would have been the life of the party. They would often go out to dinner dances & functions together & I always thought Mum looked beautiful.




Even after Dad died Mum loved to go out, to movies, concerts, dinners with friends, trips, she pushed herself to be social.

This photo looks like it is deteriorating with time, yellowing, so I want to scrap it to preserve the memories.

Watch this space

Skinny jeans...

How does such a lovely sweet baby turn into a teenager that plays the guitar in a band...

And have legs that fit into 'skinny' jeans????

The girls...

This is what Callum got up to last night...


His girlfriend is not even amongst these girls.

Doesn't he look happy!

I scrapped..

I got some inspiration from the local scrapbooking shop. It's amazing what a new piece of paper can do to get you out of a rut, even though I have loads of papers at home waiting to be used.

From 2 pieces of paper I was able to pull together 3 layouts.

Edited today with better pics.

Score!!!...

Erin told me tonight that Mr R had given her a score for her big project... a fantastic result of 81% - thats an A don't you know Mum.

I told her how proud & pleased I am with her effort, thank goodness the pushing paid off. I asked her if she would leave it til the last minute again & she responded with 'Yeah, I work well under pressure!' I don't think so!!

Work today was really hectic, I am totally wiped out tonight. I need a bit of TLC right now. Yesterday was International Nurses Day & the hospital had arranged some pampering for us to celebrate. I went over to have a lovely foot spa, hand massage & a short session of Reiki. What is Reiki you ask??? It seems to be a nice way to spend 10 minutes laying back & relaxing with your eyes closed while you wonder if anything is actually happening. A bit of hocus pocus, non touch technique & then its all over. Hop up he said, go back to work, take a bit of cake with you as you go.

Right-o, was that it?

Lucky me..

I received this little surprise in the mail today...


4 lovely chippies to use in my scrapping from the very kind Leeann Pearce all the way from Kalgoorlie!
The land of blog makes us feel as if we know each other like friends, as if we are just around the corner. It is just the motivation I need at the moment to get reinspired. Between 2 trips to the hospital to do competency testing & lecturing I managed to make a card & a layout today (but you should see the mess!)

After reading Anita's blog this morning I was thinking about all the crafts I have tried over the years, mostly with my mothers guidance...

Folk art painting - lots of paints still left over & most of the projects packed away as I veered away from 'country' decorating style.
Card making - some of those supplies still come in handy
Paper tole - maybe thats where my love of paper came about
Cross stitch - oh the hours I put into that craft, & I still love those projects I made, one of them a stitched clock face for my sister & a family tree piece with all the grandchildren's names.
Tapestry, long-stitch. a dabble with quilting, (I ambitiously started a 2000 piece quilt for the year 2000, got about 200 pieces into it & gave up) are amongst the things I have tried. Have done a little knitting & have a whole 2 scarves to show for it, seems like crocheting is making a big comeback - might have to try something small to start off with. A portable hobby would be a bonus!!
Funny though, our local scrap shop is half of the old wool shop, maybe the wool sales will claw back some of the market share!

Happy...

Happy Mothers Day to you!

It's the catch cry for the day.

I was able to sleep in, enjoy some lovely time in the garden with my girls, & put 3 new beads on my Pandora bracelet. I haven't seen Cal yet, he stayed over after a party but did manage a Happy Mothers Day text.

I think there is too much pressure to 'appreciate' Mums on a designated 'special day' I love spending time with my children on any day but it was nice to do so today. Maybe I will feel differently when I don't see them everyday. I know I didn't like Mothers Day for the first couple after Mum died, but that feeling is fading with time.

I'm a fan...

"Hi, my name is Jo-Anne & I'm a Greenday fan."

"Hi Jo-Anne"

Yep, thats right, its probably not the thing to admit to when you are 45 with teenage & young adult children but I am looking forward to more music from Greenday. I like to listen to it loud when I am doing housework or driving in my car.



And we are having a very doggy weekend. We borrowed 'Marley & Me' plus 'Beverley Hills Chihuahua' from the video library & had a giggle & a little cry at both. Watching the special features makes you appreciate dog trainers, & the lovely dogs, some of who were specially trained to be naughty!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Scrapping...

While browsing around my favourite blogs I found this on Ali Edwards blog about being in a creative rut or feeling guilty about indulging yourself in selfish pursuits. This is part of her 5 points...

5. Not getting anything done because there is simply not enough time. This is a big one for a lot of people. You may never even begin because you envision the need for a huge chunk of time to create something. Nothing is more frustrating than that. One of the biggest lessons for me over the last few years is that little bits of time add up to big projects. It is lovely to have hours of uninterrupted time but it just isn't realistic for most people. Make the most of the time you can carve out for yourself. Maybe you do your journaling one night and upload photos the next and bring them together on a page the following night. Stop over-thinking. Stop creating complications. Your layouts do not need to take hours to complete. Ask yourself what is most important and why do you really scrapbook?

I need to give myself a break, I do feel guilty for not getting enough scrapping done. It is a pastime I enjoy because I love my photos & recording our history & telling our stories but I look at what I want to achieve & sometimes feel a bit overwhelmed.
I enjoy going down to my sisters to spend a few hours scrapping with her but in the back of my mind is the houseful of chores I've left behind to spend that time just on me. The other thing that puts me off is the amount of supplies I feel the need to load up, it takes me ages to pack it all up to go. Scrapping is not really a portable hobby. Today was another day I had lots of plans & didn't achieve much.

And in an attempt to fix up the look of my blog I'm experimenting with a site that Sharon has put me on to.

This is my sisters & me posing for the birthday shot.

I'll try to have it scrapped soon without any obligation....

The homework...

Chris is home!

Erin has had a very comprehensive project to do for homework, & tonight is the last night she/we have to work on it. It will be handed in tomorrow & I can stop nagging her to get it done.
I've sent Chris to the travel agent today to pick up some colourful brochures to add to it. She is not embracing the idea of getting on to things early & not leaving it 'til the last minute.

Callum has been invited to a fancy dress 18th birthday party & has asked me what can he wear?? The trick is to look sufficiently dressed without being uncool. We have loads of dressups in the box but of course they will only fit a 4 year old. It might be a good time to pass on some of these pirate/fairy/where's wally outfits. But when I go through the box it brings back a lot of memories of days when the there was no homework to hand in on time.

As I type this entry I am sitting at the desk at work, the last patient is gone & I am catching up on some emails etc. When I look up & out the window it is quite grey & cloudy. A burst of sunshine is beaming down on the circus which is parked over in the paddock. Their enormous tent is yellow & white stripes with 4 cornet type peaks on top. Each peak has a little flag fluttering in the wind & it looks luminous in the sunshine, quite pretty & appealing. It makes me smile when I look at it even though I don't like circuses very much. I'll try to get a pic with my phone when I go out.

Missing you...

I'm missing my man. He's hanging out with his bros & things are rolling along as normal but not quite normal.

I've posted a recipe on Jo's bit on the side for the Chocolate cherry torte that I made for Louises birthday.I've been waiting for someone to ask for one of my recipes so I can casually drop the line 'oh its on my blog'

This is a really delicious cake & deliciously, deceptively easy. Its looks like you've gone to lots of trouble & expense without all the trouble & expense.





This is the remainder, I had to quickly snap a pic before it all went.

Celebration...

Back from Louises' birthday celebration. It was a good day & we had lots of yummy food. Now the last thing I feel like doing is getting uniforms ready & doing other preparations for tomorrow morning. We're just having some toasted sandwiches for tea & an early night or a lovely long browse through the many photos we took during the day.

Busted...

If you don't want your mother to know what you are up to you shouldn't send her a text message with "Don't tell mum....."
That just shows that texting & drinking don't mix.

Preparations...

Today has been a day full of preparing.

Firstly I helped my sister clean her home ready for her party on Sunday. Her frozen shoulder really hampers any activity especially vaccuuming, mopping & window washing, so I helped her out.

Then I came home to washing & ironing Chris' clothes so he can pack in the morning. He's off to Toowoomba to catch up with 2 of his brothers for a few days. The six children in his family are spread around Australia & he rarely catches up with them. Even rarer is them all being in the same room at the same time, hasn't happened for years.
The six siblings & their offspring have never been all together in the same place. Ever.

And finally Callum has been madly preparing for his first gig with his first band at the NoiseBar in Brunswick tomorrow night. This band only asked him to join last week so he has been learning songs on his guitar & practising playing standing up!

So its going to be a big weekend for all of us, will post some pictures soon.