Day 29-my baby's growing up...

It was wierd taking a "first day of school photo" on two days, and with not all the kids together.
Today was M's first day of highschool. None of her close friends are going to the same school but she's got 8 other friends joining her at this new school. She's sharing her classroom with Courtney and the rest of the kids from her old school are boys, all paired up in the other three grade 7 classes.
I started work late so I could get her settled in and it was nerve wracking for her. . is my dress too long? no one else has the same shoes as me? my hair's all messy! lol. We started the day with assembly in the main hall, where all the kids sat in their class lines and then went to the home for the year, with their new teacher. The first hour was spent checking their stationery packs and reading the introduction to their diary before learning all the rules... I left her around 9.30am and headed off to work, more than a little worried about her and the fact that we'd separated her from her friends.
Just after 3pm I called her at home to see how she was and how her day had been. She could have knocked me over with a feather, she was SOOOO excited!! She said it was probably even better than her old school, and "my dress is fine"! They had chosen their electives for term one and she's chosen to do Tennis, surprise.. surprise!

Day 28 - I have CROCS!!

Well, I have a cheap pair of green shoes from Target that resemble CROCS. I've wanted some for the longest time but honestly wondered (and still do) if I am too old for them. I only got these because I was looking for sandals/thongs for showering and boating in NZ. I wore them to work today and thought they'd be perfect for today's photo. Green is my favourite colour and these are a really nice bright green...Quote of the day "you sure can see you coming with those shoes" LOL

Day 27

Work day today, and the last day of School Holidays for B and T. This photo is the view from my office window. I love it when the wind is blowing just right and you can see the flags flying like this. We see lots of weather changes from our office but we don't hear them. Like the day, late last year, when our town was battered by one of the fiercest storms ever seen in the town. We watched it come in, but were protected from it's violence. When we left the building to go home before the next front was supposed to hit it was almost surreal. The sky was a bizzare colour and the air was thick, with trees fallen all around. The town rallied together though and the clean up began almost immediately. One of our shade structures was torn off it's wire but we escaped pretty much unscathed! I wonder what the view will be like from our new offices?

Day 26 - Australia Day 2008

ADVANCE AUSTRALIA FAIR
Australians all let us rejoice
For we are young and free,
We've golden soil and wealth for toil
Our home is girt by sea.

Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty, rich and rare,
In History's page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.

In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross
We'll toil with hearts and hands,
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands.

For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share,
With courage let us all combine
to Advance Australia Fair

In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia Fair

We got to sleep in today - our walk didn't start until 7am :) I was pretty happy with my walking time; finishing my 3kms in just over 23 minutes in a race to the line with a lady who had walked most of the way with me...I'm not really sure who won, but I think she may have pipped me by the smallest of margins! B and T took off running at the start of the race and I didn't see them again until the finish line. B got one of the coveted Australia Day medals for coming first in the 12/U girls division and T got his photo in Tuesday's paper. M and Auntie came up the rear, although not last and Grandma tried but couldn't catch me, finishing some where in the middle of the pack :) After the walk we had a light breakfast of fruit and cereals and then wandered around to the Australia Day Ceremony where our friend Gail became an Australian Citizen. It was a hot day and unfortunately the planners didn't provide shade for new Australians or School Citizenship Award winners, who spent almost two hours in the very hot sun. I was however impressed by the fact we sang both verses of the National Anthem and then after the ceremony were entertained by a man who sang good Australian songs like "We are Australian" There was a birthday cake for people born on the 26th of Jan for us to share and a BBQ breakfast, including Bacon and Egg Sandwiches!
After the ceremony we went to play tennis. Auntie and I played against Grandma and M and the other kids took turns in playing on the next court and the practise wall. It was a fun hit, with Auntie not having hit a tennis ball in a number of years and Grandma trying hard to impress her Grand Daughter with her Pre 1980s Yonnex Aluminium Raquet that the kids are sure resembles a squash racquet!

Day 25

Sunday January 25th 2008. This was the day Brayden and Auntie came walking with us and we walked 6.8kms at a much slower than usual pace. It didn't start well, Auntie's alarm didn't go off and M had to wake her up.Whilst they were getting ready I drove around to get "Grandma" who I nearly left behind as she got locked in by the "baby proof door"! When we arrived at the start point we passed the rest of the group and I never caught up to them - although M and G did :)
Auntie and I spent a good bit of the time trying to convince Brayden to hurry up, Maccas was closing, we were nearly there etc. etc. and finally made it to Mcdonalds for breakfast just as most of the others were ready to leave! He was very excited to see a Kangaroo cross the path behind us, but was VERY upset with me for trying to get him eye height to an Orb Spider!! After we climbed a hill to take this photo he wanted to climb all the hills we came across, but his legs were "too tired" to walk..... Considering his age and height Brayden did very well, but he was quick to say he didnt' want to come again LOL. Having said all that Auntie agreed to join us on the Australia day fun run on Monday :)

After going home for a shower etc. Auntie came to visit. The kids swam and Auntie and I "practise packed" my backpack for NZ. It was fun. It's all seeming more real now :) According to my desktop countdown it's getting closer by the second!!

365 Layouts Wk1 and Wk2

I started this project, simply to get me working on my albums. This album was going to be very simple, no wallpapering and hopefully sustainable..
Well, we are into week 4 and I've completed two of three layouts and taken photos for 12 on 12, which I will also include in this years album.
I've noticed my photos are becoming more mainstream and not so creative so I'll have to work on that! It gets hard to think of new things when you are at work most of the day :)
WEEK 1: Started out extremely basic. Printed journaling, photos, two strips of PMP, title, sentiment and lots of white space. After I went back and looked at it I decided it couldn't be THAT basic! I chalked the journaling with SU! chalks and added the "circle" in the corner and then another day added the pumpkin/leaves. It's still very basic, but not plain...and it's in my album!
WEEK 2: Fitting 7 photos on is a LOT harder than fitting 4 :) I played around with sizes for the photos plus tried a HEAP of different layouts, finally settling on a variation of a BH sketch VOL2. Again I have used chalk on the journaling boxes and also around the LHS page. Both pages have a bit of pen work. I think next week I'll pick a layout and take photos to fit....

Day 24 - A day I did nothing I planned to!

Well almost! M and I organised to have a hit of tennis and as we were leaving we rang Ross to see if he'd like to come and hit with T. The boys played doubles on one court and M and I hit for a long time then played a set, which I lost 3-6. Whilst we continued to play our match the boys practised their serves.. T and I teamed up against M and Ross for what was a fun mixed doubles match. T and I lost 6-5. Both boys learned some of the finer points of tennis and T's serves improved lots!
We visited Auntie on the way home and Brayden came to visit with us as did Ross. The kids spent a big day playing Sims2, watching tennis, swimming and chatting. Mum came to visit and to check out my green crocs (finally got some!!) which I'll be using for showering and boating in NZ. As she was leaving there was a spot rainstorm and thunder over by Mt Gillen. We got about 26 drops of rain, a few claps of thunder and the lovely petrichor (smell of rain) We finally dropped Ross home around 6.30pm and B returned shortly thereafter from her sleepover.
I had planned to do some more in my 365 project album, practise pack my backpack, clean up my clothes and prepare my itinerary pages with addresses for NZ.. thankfully it's a long weekend and I'll get another chance :)

Day 23

After a big day at work it was really nice to come home to a beautiful tea of Curried Prawns, Spicy Dip, Tzatziki and Pita breads - lovingly prepared for us by A :)
With a full tummy I adjourned to the lounge room for another night of the Australian Open whilst M played with her Sims2 family on the PC and "the boys" watched Underworld. Seeing as how the tennis has played such a big part of our viewing the past couple of weeks and the Aussies are doing so well I thought it would be the perfect thing to photograph for today's photo....
It took quite a few shots to get a good one but I particularly like the way this one has two pictures of Jelena Dokic right before she won the match to get into the 4th round :) She's certainly doing very well. I'm so glad the Australian public is behind her and welcoming her "home".

Day 22: The beginning of a new era....

After the events of yesterday it was nice to be able to focus on something else...something new and something exciting.
I met M,A and B for an early lunch and took M for her uniform fitting, ready for high school next week. It was mad! There were bodies everywhere crowding into the two little store rooms, three change rooms and two service counters. Combined with the fact that it was hot and we didn't really know what we needed to buy it was quite an experience! Thankfully the stationery packages are now being handed out on the first day of school instead of at another crazy handout :) Today's picture is one of M in the changeroom, ready to make her way to Janice at the credit machine near the front door! It will take some time to get used to M in a school uniform that isn't turquoise...Just as it will take some time to get used to coming home and not being met in the driveway by Louis, "the best cat in the world"..

After waiting patiently in the shade for almost half an hour because they couldn't fit inside the uniform shop A and B were more than ready for lunch at McDonald's by the time we came out!!

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 19

M cooked tea for us and we had Spagbog. I was cleaning the pool - vacuuming seems so pointless! You go around and around and then all of a sudden the pool is greenish, with all the sediment settling back onto the bottom of the pool as soon as you finish...grrrr. I got some stuff from the pool shop, so I hope it helps. Other than the stuff on the bottom, the pool looks GREAT!
I'm so glad M is able to help out now as it was very late when I finished cleaning and it was the second night in a row that I'd spent cleaning the pool.

Day 18

All the best laid plans....and all that... After going home early in preparation for this morning's walk, I slept through the alarm. I woke at 5.06am and then went back to sleep to wait for the 5.30 alarm, only to wake at 6.00. Aaarrrgh!! I was really disappointed, but when M got up we decided we'd still go. Around 7.30 we arrived at the start point, just as our usual walking group were preparing to go for coffee. We walked the same walk as we did on my birthday so we wouldn't get lost but were still off road. It was a great day to walk, overcast with the occasional spots of rain. I remembered to bring a camera today and we took quite a few pics along the way. This is my favourite, and as I'm scared of spiders I'm very proud I even got close enough to use the Macro setting! I was planning on photographing a different spider but as I went to walk around to the other side of the web I almost walked into this one. It moved and had it's back to me so I got a better photo than I'd planned!!
After our walk we went to Macca's and the walking group was still there, which was nice. M and I went to Mad Harry's for a spot of shopping before going home to the family. T was the only one awake, playing his new "Lego Batman" PS2 game.

Day 17

As promised, after M and T returned from their sleepover, T and I went to the movies. After much discussion and trying to fit in around A's schedule we decided on Bolt at 12.15. We went in armed with a mixed bag of M&Ms and our drinks and we were so early we even beat the advertisements! During the ads we decided we'd like to see Monsters vs Aliens, Pink Panther2 and Ice Age 3, so we'll need to keep an eye out for them in the July holidays. We still have a week of these holidays left so we'll probably go and see Bedtime Stories and/or TWILIGHT! That should keep my SS friends happy LOL! M is hanging to see Twilight...
Bolt was quite good, I even shed a tear. T was a bit disappointed when the initial Super Hero stuff stopped but then once he saw there was a storyline he sat riveted, trying to figure out what was "movie" and what was "real life" even pointing out that it was "a bit sad". Good choice overall, as I wouldn't have seen it if we'd been able to go to Bedtime Stories.
Around 4pm we went to Nicko's house to celebrate his birthday with a bunch of people from work. We had a good night, with M and I leaving around 10.30 so we could get a good sleep before our Sunday walk, and AB&T got home around 2.30am!! Turns out Nicko's birthday is actually on the same day as mine.

Day 16

I had a full on day at work today, trying to tidy up some loose ends and was pleased with the dent I made in my "waiting for....." pile. I determined that I would NOT be going home to fall asleep on the lounge today, as it was becoming a bit of a regular occurrence and I didn't want it to become a habit. The kids were inside helping make "toast pizzas" and I seized the moment to grab my chair and float around the pool whilst there was piece and quiet. Dinner was over all too quickly and I was soon joined by three active (read splashy) children. It took a lot of convincing for T to stay out long enough for B to take this picture but we managed to get it done, finally! A came in for a short while and joined me on my "throne" with lots of laughter as we were no longer floating, rather being held up by my little legs! After tea I went over to K's for her house warming party and a fun night of Pictionary with K and Mum. The kids and A went to the club for a few hours and M and T ended up sleeping over at their friend's house. B came home with her dad and found me fast asleep on the lounge - I must be getting old!!

Day 15

Today was just another day at the office, but I was greeted with this bright birthday card from my boss. It calls me a "banana" for trying to keep it quiet LOL and I discovered that my sister K who works for the same organisation had spilled the beans on my birthday.
The Magno-men are an attempt to brighten up my work space, but I found that I don't have a very magnetic work area. They belong to the children, but they've not missed them as far as I can tell :)

Day 14

Happy Birthday to Me!!
M and T came walking with me this morning as B was at a sleepover and A wasn't home from his night shift. We walked for just over an hour and both kids did really well. T and I came up the rear for a bit, just chatting and walking, before we decided we didn't like being last... We ran and passed a few people at a time, with M and T ending up racing to the carpark for "first place". They both enjoyed themselves and were looking forward to the next walk. Unfortunately for T it won't be every time as I like to walk at a faster pace than his little legs can keep up with!
Mum greeted me with a candle and Gift Voucher for my birthday. I started work late as M and T were very keen to give me my present and I wanted to wait till their dad was home...it was worth the wait, they gave me a CrazyPopper popcorn maker to replace the one B had burned out a few years ago....Kirsten and I met up for lunch and then after work she came over to drop of a very chocolate cake she'd baked especially for me, then she left her kids here for a swim whilst she went out for a walk. After her walk we chatted for a bit before I took MTB over to my sister's new house for a lovely prawn birthday tea :)

Day 13

I was going to post the 12 pictures I took on the 12th for the 12 of 12 challenge on SS but my PSP7 doesn't want to load .. I think I need to put this computer to sleep and restart it tomorrow. Anyway, at least, after a year, I finally remember to take the 12 photos! Hopefully I will also be able to scrap them, as part of my Year in photos (365 project) album for 2009.
Today's photo is from my Vision Training and Webinar. We had around 10 laptops plugged into power boards in the conference room and spent the day zooming around in Vision, creating excel reports from Sun Finance..it was very interesting but extremely tiring. I was exhausted! I had a sleep on the lounge somewhere before 7pm and wasn't much more mobile after that..I only got up off the lounge to pick the kids up from "Marly and Me" at the movies. T and I will go on Saturday as I may feel more awake then! I fell asleep last time I went to a night movie so didn't want to risk it today :)

DAY 12

Andrew met me at work and we snuck out for a drink at the Sports Bar before heading home. We had to spend $15 to use the cc so we got a take-away Vanilla Slice to share later....we had double dessert tonight LOL
This dessert (pictured) was lovingly and very secretively prepared by B9 and T7 :) Cooking chocolate, strawberries, nectarines, peanuts, banana, strawberry doughnut using the tealight fondue set T won in a pre-school raffle a few years ago.
B and T love to surprise us with little things like this - Breakfast is another meal they love to prepare...

Day 11

M came home from Auntie's just as we were settling in to do some budget planning for our NZ trip.
She "undressed" our Christmas tree, ready for me to take it apart and put it away for another year. It's time to start thinking about school supplies, not Christmas, even though CMPhoto is sharing her countdown with us on a regular basis on SS!

I went for another walk this morning but this time we went bush. It was a good chance to stretch out some of the muscles that were a bit sore from yesterday's race and an opportunity to do some bushwalking prior to our big mountain walk in New Zealand. After an hour and a half at the hiking shop yesterday I got my new hiking boots as well as some good socks, sock liners, zip off 3/4 pants and a neck roll to keep out the cold. I've also ordered a pair of 3/4 thermal underpants. I'm looking forward to wearing all my new gear, especially trying my hiking boots around here before we go. I thought about wearing the boots today, but I think I'll wear them around home a bit for a few days first...

Day 10

In preparation for New Zealand and also to increase M's overall fitness I decided we should go walking with Grandma and the Running and Walking club. This was my first such walk in quite a while and as it turned out it was a tough first walk. It was the final in a three series 5km competition. I walked hard the first 2.5kms, ahead of mum who walks regularly but is after all sixty years old!! After the turn/water stop I slowed right down and was passed by my three pacing partners. I began to stroll as I really couldn't keep up the same pace for another 2kms...then I got bored, so I jogged a bit, giving up my walking status (race numbers 300 and above are for walkers and I was number 345) and walked and ran until I crossed the finish line in the official time of 40.12minutes. Mum aka Grandma crossed not too far behind me and ended up taking out the silver medal after taking part in all three races in this series. Mel is all organised to come out with us on Wednesday...I wonder if she will...
PS to an earlier posting - my Australian Open cup was still on my desk and nobody has light-fingered it :)

Day 9

Just before bed on January 8th I heard an exclamation of sh*&t from the hallway and was surprised to see dh standing under a dripping ceiling in the hallway. After some examination in the ceiling we discovered where the water was coming from and agreed we needed to call the aircon man in the morning. And that sometimes we actually need to spend money on handymen instead of trying to always fix stuff ourselves...
Mid morning on Friday I left work to meet up with our technician at home. He took a quick look around, on the roof and in the roof space and determined that we just needed a service. This photo shows our aircon after all the pads etc. were removed for cleaning. By the time I got home from work it was all back together and we haven't had any issues with water since then...touch wood..

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 6

This is what my Scrapbooking Area looked like when I got up this morning! Legs out from under the "cubby" house belong to T's friend. And that's T on the bed. LUCKILY they didn't knock my cricut off!!
I had planned on working on my albums last night but I didn't get there - I was distracted by the computer and the TV. Looking at the room, it's just as well I didn't lol
It was all cleaned up when I came home from work, and T is now sleeping over at R's :) B still hasn't organised a sleepover IN ADVANCE for her friend E.....
Edited to add... When it came time to do some actual scrapbooking at my desk tonight I hit a brickwall. First I couldn't find my album (you can probably see it on the floor near the drawers if you look closely...) and then when Bonnie finally gave me my album we couldn't find the photo. After lots of searching we came up with the PMP and journalling but had no luck with my photo..so back to the printer we went for my third and final attempt at Scrapbooking a page about "Spike" the Japanese fighting fish.
In the end I had a very productive evening, finishing two pet pages, a 7x7 dps for Julie's Christmas album and my first layout for my 365 layout album...almost a record for me!!

One Year On...

Wow! I've had my Blog for a year! I just re read it to make sure it was all ok to share with A's family (that's why I set it up initially anyway!) and read my Anniversary entry from last year...
Well, it seems Last year I gave him his wedding ring all spruced up...(top)
Guess what I gave him this year? A new one.
His old one got stuck in a lock at work and broke. I had it repaired but the filigree pattern was cracked and would most likely break again soon. We picked out a new ring and put it on lay-by. I paid it off early and gave it to him for our anniversary...(bottom)

DAY 5

There was no doubt about what today's photo would be. It was my first day back to work after a lovely (almost) two weeks off. It was a nice day, albeit a little long.. I spent the day doing some Statement work that I just don't get time to do on a regular basis...It felt comfortable. Like I was in my own little corner of the world.
The kids were home with their dad. B went to play with her friend E and spent no small amount of time trying to convince us E should sleep over!! Unfortunately she hasn't learned to preorganise these things and as T already had a friend sleeping over and A wasn't feeling well, the sleep over didn't happen. Oh well, I'm MuD instead of MuM for a while as far as B is concerned!!!

DAY 4

Tyson took this picture of M and Me in the pool. I had to record the moment because it is so typical. Probably typical for anyone who has ever had kids around them. I went up to the pool and discovered I was alone. I was quickly joined by two very excited children... The kids convinced me to pump up my previously unused blow up chair. I jumped into it and made a big splash (which was obviously very funny to little people..) LOL - of course as soon as they were able they were on my lap, sharing my chair.
This picture shows Mel's fascination with her feet! One of her Singstar profile pics is of her feet with her toes splayed just like they are here:)

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

DAY 2

Day two was tough! I spent a lot of time planning for our NZ holiday and so took two photos of things relating to that. I posted a poll on SS coz I couldn't decide which to use...
The poll decided that I should use the first one, and I've included here as it's the one I will use..... I have also printed the other to use (maybe) as background for my journaling, it's the title page to the journal book pictured here.
Planning for the holiday has been a lot of work, and apart from a couple of "brochure sessions" I've done most of the work. I've typed up the itinerary, deciding what we can/can't fit in as well as working out costs and making bookings. But it's all good. I'd prefer it this way, to not knowing what's going on and when! The lonely planet guide was a Christmas gift from my mum. The note book is what I've written a lot of my planning into, and has been altered to include pages for each day of our trip. Each day has three pages, including separator, envelope, date tab and 2 double sided pages for journaling.

365 Project.

I've signed up for the 365 Project on SS. I'm really looking forward to it. By all accounts I should have an album completed by the end of 2009, with one photo/item from each day in the year. I'm really excited about it. It will go hand in hand with my new goal to do at least one page per week.

DAY 1
Here's my first photo for 2009....
Breakfast at Macca's to celebrate my nephew's (red) 5th Birthday. He spent the night at our house so his mum could go out and celebrate New Years Eve with her friends :)
After breakfast we did some shopping and my DN chose his own present - Australian Towel, Hat and Tattoos. Interesting choices as he would have got a DS Lite game had it been our choice!

My DS7 has just begun to see my DN as a friend as well as a cousin. It's really nice to see as I was great friends with my cousins growing up.