Bugs...

Seems I have a bug in the system. Hopefully this virus thing is only impacting my system but be careful with yours.

On my pages random words are underlined and look like links but dont click on them. These links take you to random unwanted pages and make the whole thing run slow.

PLEASE DONT GO ON ANY LINKS ON MY BLOG!!!!

We are trying to rectify the situation and dont want to spread our germs.

Hopefully we will be back to normal soon.

Here I am...

I am here, truly. Busy-ness is happening in the background.

Erin is on school holidays and has enjoyed a week of lazing around in her PJs. We were very busy at work and I'm glad now to be also on leave.

We are missing Hayley already and she seems to be settling in well with her independance. I want her to come back and clean up the mess she left in her room though.

We had a fun day today scrapping and card making while the Grandfinal played out in the background. I started on my Christmas cards seeing as that special day is only 3 months away and will be here before we know it. Yesterday at Highpoint shopping centre I noticed that the Christmas decorations fill 3 aisles in Big W but those aisles were roped off. Seems you're not allowed to buy them yet!

My Melbourne Marathon singlet came this week. I now have my bib, timing chip and singlet to wear on the day, just 2 short weeks to train for the 10km distance. I will look the part even if I'm not doing the whole marathon.







They finally announced the Melbourne Run to be held in November. A few of us from work are joining in the Colour Run which will be loads of fun!

Even more weary...

I was right to anticipate feeling weary today. I can hardly keep my eyes open after about 2 hours of sleep overnight.

This is just part of our large hospital team. We had a great sunshiney day for the start and a still evening for the candlelight ceremony. Many laughs were had, lots of laps walked and again our team reached the $5000 mark for fundraising.

Erin and I squeezed into the swag to try to get some shuteye but it was really cold and the wind got up and blew some of the tents up and over the oval fence. We were glad to get home this morning, back to our comforts.

And this afternoon after a rest and reviving shower we loaded up Hayleys double bed on the trailer and she has officially moved out. I will really miss her but she is ready for the move and should have some fun in this dose of maturity.

I am now going to bed and look forward to a lovely sleep in to boot.

Weary...

I'm feeling a lttle weary tonight. It might be the running and cardio tennis workout I did today, or the thought of the Relay for Life tomorrow night. I know I will get very little sleep tomorrow night, our laps are scheduled for 3am and I'm tired already.

Today was a test to see if I could do the running group session as well as the cardio tennis on the same day. I enjoyed both but I had to have a little 'Nana nap' this afternoon.

The school holidays have started and this takes the pressure off. The young mothers at tennis didn't seem to be looking forward to the holidays, it is different for me now that child care is no longer a problem, but I really like the holidays.

I'll like them even better when I'm on holidays as well.

On & off again...

and back on yet again.

Tennis was a washout tonight. We had a lot of rain overnight but it cleared in the morning enough for me to hang out the washing I couldn't get to yesterday. I did  a 6km run, and planted some parsley, zucchini and tomato seedlings. I managed to find a Daphne bush at the local nursery and also planted that in the ground. I am very hopeful of bountiful produce and sweet smelling blooms. But at 645pm it started to rain again, just enough for us to stand around with our palms outstretched debating whether it would clear. By 720pm we concurred. No tennis tonight and because of the school holidays no tennis for another 2 weeks.

Something else that has been on and off again is Hayleys' moving out. This time she has decided to go and has started to move some things down to Lucys. Her Father and I have a little bet on how long she will last so I wont make any permanent changes to the configuration of rooms.

Scrap news...

I ordered and received some new Memory Box dies this week and had fun trying them out.

They are quite intricate and might be a challenge to glue down.

 This one will feature on quite a few Christmas cards this year I imagine.

Likewise with these sentiments. The girls at Fat Cats Card corner sent them out promptly from Toowoomba.

And here is layout number  38 for the year.

Timbertop visit

Being up to number 38 means the end of the year is getting closer.

My busy week...

has not let up.

After working for the past 3 days I was asked to play tennis on Thursday night. I filled in for the mixed doubles and had 2 really good games. It wasn't as intimidating as I had thought, the men were very welcoming and didn't seem to let me off by underplaying but didn't smash me either. We all had our fair share of unforced errors and perfectly placed shots. Chris is not that happy about me disappearing at dinnertime these days but my fitness has definitely improved.

Yesterday, on the day I normally have off, I travelled onto the city for a full day seminar. It was really interesting and took my full attention. I hardly missed the running, tennis and scrapping I normally do on Fridays until I was travelling home on the train.

Uuuuggghhhh!  I HATE THE TRAIN!

Not only was it running late it was packed with likewise 'over it' travellers. I understand it was the end of the day and the end of the week but I dont want to be crammed in with lots of smelly impatient people. But I finally got home and then had to zoom out to a Trivia Night.

We had fun on the night and our competitive streak came out and we did very well. With 3 generations having input, and clever use of our wild card, table number 4 nearly had it in the bag but were pipped at the post by half a point! I also picked up a bottle of champagne and a family pass to the Royal Show in door prizes. A late night but lots of fun and a test of our knowledge. I think I even learned a useless thing or two.

Today was a day to regroup and I'm back at work tomorrow for a study day. There is a loud party going on across the street and if I don't get much sleep tonight I'll be struggling tomorrow to stay awake, especially if they dim the lights during some of the boring presentations. There is only so many times you can watch the same video on the 'No Lift' principles but if any one falls asleep during my blood presentation I'll be miffed.

Too tired

Too tired to do a proper post tonight, its late now and I swam this morning and played two great, fun, long rallied games with a tie breaker, in tennis.

 I finished one page for my album and even took a pic while the sun was shining but can't be bothered getting up to get the camera and upload it.

I can barely be bothered to get off the couch and brush my teeth and get into bed. The next 4 days of work are looming large in the window and the prospect is making me more tired.

Do you ever quote movie lines in your real life? I was prompted to quote "hows the serenity" when we drove through Bonnie Doon the other day, but one I often use is "we have to keep the moon in the window" from Apollo 13 when they've lost their computer guidance systems and need to keep the moon in the window as a reference point. Not sure why I thought of that but I am tired and perhaps I am looking for the guidance of the moon.

Running in the wind...

It has been blowing a gale around here for the last few days. Extreme winds that the experts are saying are the worst since 2008. Different areas around the state have had power outages, trees down and railways disrupted. Not only that we have been lashed with rain and more rain. Damage to our place has been minimal and the trampoline is still in the backyard. That is always a good thing. Even the washing was still there when I bought it in, although it was so cold I couldn't really tell if it was dry properly.

Erin had a prep camp on Wednesday night but was unable to put up a tent or cook on the trangia. Thankfully they were able to sleep indoors and get a hot meal but I didn't know that and worried all night about her.

Cardio tennis was cancelled for today as the majority of the players were at their childrens' school walkathon. I had heard about a running group that meets on a Friday morning and decided to give that a go instead. The motivation you get from a group is invaluable and the young trainer was excellent at pushing me when I wanted to give up. He varies the runs, which take about 30-45 mins each week, and today I had the misfortune to begin on a week where my nemesis the hill was being tackled. The five of us ran over to Erins' school, which is at the top of a hill, and we had to sprint up to the top car park and jog back down. Being a newbie I only had to do this 3 times instead of the 5 he made the others do. This short distance is quite steep and I usually drive up it in 2nd gear! But the lovely Dale stayed with me, correcting my stance, making suggestions for improvements, how to correct my breathing (my breathing always lets me down) and encouraging me all the way. All the while the wind was blowing us back and showers were cooling us off.  At the end we stretched to cool down and more tips were forthcoming.

All of this was free.

Yep, no charge, no sign up for this or that. And come next time for some more.

I'll be back and if I was on the lookout for a personal trainer (which would be great but too much money) I would be booking in with Dale. Definately. I have my routine all mapped out now.

Swimming every 2nd Monday morning. Run the alternate Mon.
Run Wednesday after work.
Pilates Thursday evening.
Cardio tennis/running group Friday mornings.
Run Saturday or Sunday.
And fingers crossed for a game of tennis with the ladies on Monday nights.

(no wonder the cobwebs have cobwebs on them)

This weekly routine costs me $44. $8 less for a non swimming week.

With Dale's help my running will improve so I can blast the 10km in the Melbourne Marathon in just 5 weeks.

The good thing about all this training is I still get to go to Big Sisters' on a Friday, like today, and have lunch with her and catch up and get some scrapping down. I'll photograph the finished product from today when the wind dies down, and share.

Father's Day...

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Today we celebrated the only Father in our house with his favourite meals and a new rattle gun. We ply him with tools so he will continue to do the jobs we need doing. Its our cunning plan and its working a treat.

My Dad has been gone for 27 years now and sometimes it is hard to remember the day to day things and I have snapshots of memories, of his voice and his hands and his manner. I have to keep story telling to remember the memories. When I hear of fabulous Grandfathers I have a little pang, a case of the what ifs.

More sunshine today and a few more jobs ticked off the list.

no: 37

No doubt...

No doubt about it, today was a glorious day and I got to enjoy the sunshine. I was able to feel the warmth on my face not just looking at it through the window.

Such a turn around from yesterday where I was waiting for the rain to clear to participate in my cardio tennis session. But it was worth the wait and we had a great session. One of the parts of the workout was 'musical chairs' where we started off playing shots until we made an error then we had to run around the court until the next player made a mistake then you could jump back in, it was a good workout. Even though it was chilly I stripped off my layers and ended up playing in my singlet.
Crammed into my day also was a speedy trip to Big Sisters' to have a bit of creative time, which was fun but not as productive as usual.

Likewise today when I headed out for my run in the sun I wore just a Tshirt and ended up very red faced. But it was the sort of day when you feel like throwing open the doors and windows and do a bit of spring cleaning. In the end I didn't get much of the cleaning done but its been a good day. And poking around in the garden it is encouraging to see the budding plants.

I'm taking it as a sign of things to come.