Home sweet home :)

After 8 days away with the kids, and no hubby, it was great to be home. B and T were hardly out of the car before they were into the pool! In our absence A had been very busy, working,and replacing "stuff" at home....we have new beds in the kid's room, new washing machine (which "sings" when the load ends) and a cover for the pool.
The dogs were beside themselves trying to get to us all, and the birds have been enjoying time outside in the fresh air.
Back to work tomorrow,and the challenge of remembering to take photos for my photo a day challenge begins.....

Day 49 - 18th February

Wednesday's are big days at the moment. M has swimming at school and then we all head down to the tennis courts at 7pm for M's hit with her coach Craig. B and T spend a lot of the time playing tennis too, and sometimes playing with Turner...
Turner isn't really allowed in the car because he leaves too much hair and he won't sit still, so the hair goes all over the car...BUT, when Dad isn't home we sometimes sneak him down to tennis with us :)
Wednesday's are great because there's very few people at the courts and Turner can run around all he likes. We shut the front gate and he walks around and sniffs things, chases the kids, has some cuddles and if he's really lucky, gets to play with a ball.
It's really hard to take a photo of Turner because he always seems to move just as you click...

Day 38

The trial run. I'm not really sure what the trial run was actually for? Maybe B's birthday party, seeing as how she'll be turning 10 this year..
Anyway, she convinced her dad to let a group of girls sleep out the back in a tent. About 15 minutes before the girls were due to arrive we learned that the tent was broken and not an option. Instead the girls arranged to sleep in swags under the back verandah, and Turner the dog was to be given a chance to behave. The girls had a great time swimming, watching movies, dressing up in Halloween Costumes (why? I don't know either, although we did stop them from Trick or Treating as they were headed to the neighbour's....), putting make up on B's little brother and nail polish on the dog. (See corresponding pics)
Around 1am I gave them the final "GOOD NIGHT" and I finally fell asleep. The girls are convinced it was around 3am when they finally hit the sack! In all it was a good night and the trial was a success...

Day34

The Ice has Broken!
We got our black and white cat from the RSPCA after I told them I'd like a black and white cat, if one came in. She was already named Ice. I'm not sure why she was called Ice, but I think her name suits her.. she's always been a bit of an ice maiden... until she chose not to be :)
Since the unfortunate death of our Beautiful Louis, Ice (aka Ick-e) has become more of a presence in our home. Previously she spent most of her time sitting on the back of the lounge, up on top of the tv unit/scrapbooking cupboard or tucked away in the wardrobe - unless she felt the need to visit...usually when I was trying to scrapbook or type! She still does all these things but she spends a lot more time sitting on the lounge with us and sleeping with the kids. Now she "allows" us to pat her when she's sleeping, without feeling the need to run off and hide. She comes to us when she wants a pat and when she sleeps inside she doesn't wake us up with scratching and purring, she sits quietly outside our bedroom door until someone gets up.
I took this photo earlier in the year, but it's a nice one of her and it shows how she loves to sit on my stuff! When I woke to find her sitting outside our room this morning I thought it was the perfect picture for Day 34, 3/2/09.
I've always loved my big girl, Ice, but with her standoffish personality the kids preferred Louis. Now they love Ice, almost as much as I do, because she's lovable and loving us back!!

Day 21 - a sad day for our family :*(

Today we lost a valued member of our family. Louis the cat. He came to join us when we moved back here from Canberra. He was 7 months old at the time and although he was a family cat, M considered him "hers".
A stayed home from work to look after the girls today and I got a phone call mid morning from M in tears, to say that Louis needed to be put down after A accidentally ran over Louis.
Here's M's post copied and pasted from her Blog:
xxxx to have a hit (at first I didn't want to go but after we got there I was having fun!!!)
After our hit we went to the post office and bought mum her Giraffe and to send Bxxxs parcel.
When we finished there dad took us to McDonald's to get a Mcflurry and it was so yummmm!!!
When we were pulling up in the drive I heard this "meow" and I looked at the front of the car and there was Lewis the #1 cat in the world under the tyre.
I just screamed and told dad to reverse, so he did.
Loui ran into the next door neighbours house so we went back into the house and grabbed a big container and a towel and went back to get him.
he ran under their car and he was panting so hard, I was shaking and crying, I went to the car
and tried to get him but he moved to the other side.
thank-fully our neighbour pulled up and asked what was wrong so we told him and he offered to move the car so we could get him, but as soon as the car moved he moved so we got him and took him to the vet.
when the lady looked at him and did everything, she said that Louis had a broken spine and that the bottom half of his body was paralysed and his lung was damaged.
she asked us if we wanted to ring mum so we could decide what we wanted to do, but we didn't so we put him down and we were all so devastated we rang mum and told her what happened and she was upset as well.
when we got back home dad rang mum and asked her if she wanted us to pick her up and she said yes.
On the way home we didn't really talk much because we were all still sad.
when we got home we chose where we were gonna bury him, then I gave mum her Giraffe teddy, then went out the front to talk to dad about the garden because I think he was only doing the weeding because he was sad and also felt bad.
Now bxxx is going to bake some biscuits with dad for Kitty.

I wonder how Txxx is going to feel, because he cries over someone killing a grasshopper, or getting rid of a car!lol lol

It's gonna feel so weird without Louis.
I'm going to miss him coming down to the bottom of the drive way to greet us every time we come home :(
xxxxxxxoooooooxxxxxxxoooooooxxxxxoxxxoxooox
Rest In Peace Louis
Love you soooooooooooooo much, my #1 cat in the world:) >>
I've xxxd out the names etc.. The top picture is the last picture I took of Louis (12/1) and the bottom one was taken just before we said our goodbyes.

Day 20

Today was my second day without my lifesaver Kirsti. After taking yesterday off I had to work today and so did A. I came home at lunch time to check on the girls and Turner decided to join us inside. He's not allowed on the lounge but somehow his cuddle turned into an on the lounge hug. I don't think he realises he's not a little puppy any more :) Bonnie took a heap of photos and this is one of many with the light behind me not very condusive to photography.... After lunch I dropped the girls at the movies to see "Bride Wars" and then they walked over to meet me after work. I can't believe they are so grown up...where have the years gone?

Day 7 and 8

I'm still on track with the photo taking, just behind on uploading to the blog. When I did my layout last week I found it was very easy to journal my page by copying and pasting from here, into a work doc editing and printing. Voila..done.
DAY 8
This is my work coffee cup. It's the subject of today's photo purely and simply because I actually managed to finish a cup of tea before it went cold! And thinking of Cups...I'm not sure my Australian Open Cup (gift from M) is still on my desk...I sure hope it is, because if it isn't it means someone light-fingered it :*(

This morning's photo could just have easily have been the rabbit, Sam. He was hiding behind the dog's lounge instead of in his cage. The dog ITurner) knew he was there and was acting very strangely until we figured out what was making him crazy! M was able to pick Sam up
and he was returned to the safety of his shredded paper filled cage!

It could just have easily have been a photo of Turner who managed to escape...again!!! Thankfully our new neighbours like Turner and they rescued him, watered him and kept him company until they dropped him home! We took some Chocolate chip cookies over to say "THANKS" and I think B has a new friend in their daughter who must be about the same age...time will tell.

DAY 7

Kirsten aka Kirsti and Smurf is our life saver!
She minds the kids for us when we have to work during the school holidays.
She babysits for no other reason than she believes A and I should have a night out together.
She runs my kids to sport at the end of a working day so that I can have an hour to myself.
On Day 7 she even cleaned my floors!!

We've known Kirsten for a long time, I can't remember living here and not knowing her - that's around 14 years! We've had our ups and downs but they are in the past. Last year K asked me to be in her wedding, which I readily accepted - my first Bridesmaid job ever! We had some dress dramas - the zip broke before we left for the church but it was lots of fun. It was a very relaxed wedding day with a bbq reception at the local club, which suits K and P to a "T". A spent the night cooking the bbq so I'm not sure how relaxed he'd say it was LOL, but it was a great night :)

Thanks Smurf - we love you!!!

DAY 3

Still on track! Today's photo was another toss up..
I was working on my "dead pet" album and was rudely (cutely) interrupted by my cat Ice who decided I was working on HER table and it wasn't going to happen LOL. She kept crawling all over my desk, sitting on my lap etc. all the while leaving her hair behind her as she went :)

This is probably the best photo I've ever taken of Ice, but it's not the one I'll use in my layout.

I'm going to use this picture of the girls instead. It's not often they "play" nice. I love moments like these so I had to photograph this one. B and M decided to make chocolate chip cookies. They took turns mixing and adding ingredients and shared the job of making the balls of mixture into cookies on the tray. If I was in a more artsy mood I might have just included a pic of a cookie. But I wanted to get the girls, both smiling, into one picture!
I'm hoping one day we could do a layout using:
Sisters by blood - Friends by choice

Girl Dog has a new home...

We couldn't keep her. She was in the cage a lot of the time and was playing with Turner or running amok down the street the rest of the time. Almost impossible to train her under those conditions and almost as impossible to convince Turner that it was a good thing to be stuck in the yard when Girl Dog was out front....
I posted a message on my work Email Chat and found her a new owner. Well two actually. Apparently they have "come to some arrangement" LOL, whatever, I'm sure she's being loved to bits as she should be.
After a whole heap of name changes she was affectionately known as "Girl Dog" and I told her new owners this..
These photos were taken whilst I was waiting for the (very grumpy) Council Ranger to say I could keep her. Thanks to the lovely Lady at the RSPCA who told him I wasn't breaking any rules and was welcome to keep her! This actually meant I am allowed to give her to Maria and Phil!! After a whole heap of name changes she was affectionately known as "Girl Dog" and I told her new owners this...I must find out if they have named her something else...watch this space :)