Borderline?

A shoe catalogue fell out of a womens magazine I was reading the other day, and as I flicked through it, I found myself drawn to these sandals:

They are Hush Puppies brand, quite (as in VERY!) expensive, and even though I know they would be terribly comfortable, I suspect that they could be classed as... daggy?! I think its the ankle strap part...and then, when I was looking for the images to post here, I found these as well. In pink, as well as other colours...who can resist a pink summer sandal?

However, borderline daggy or not, I think they'll be staying in the shops, given their price tag.

I don't get out much these days, and aren't as skinny as I used to be...it's hard to keep up with fashion (although some of it is questionable - I mean bubble skirts and harem pants - though called something else now - were NOT a good look in the 80's let alone now!) and look good, as well as be comfortable, which is my main priority these days. (How did I wear heels all day when I worked in an office/shop, when I was ON my feet all day? youth, stamina and fitness?!)

As an aside, is anyone else having trouble with dragging images around your posts in blogger? I am sure it never used to be this hard (image won't scroll down the page as I try to move it to where I want it to appear in my post - they always load right at the very top) Any hints for me please?!

Puppies and editing

Puppies - they are growing, and are very fat, and very, very cute. Everyone reckons that they are FAT, but I reckon that they are hungry and keep feeding them some more. Well, considering they are only just learning how to eat from a food bar that isn't their mum, it isn't that much, but they seem to enjoy it!

Having some playtime on the lawn. This is Jedda and Bear having a wrassling (and aren't little puppy dog "woofs" the cutest?!) The other two are Bernard and Bug. Bug is the little girl runt, and until recently, could curl up and have a sleep in my cupped hand. She's tiny but seems to be doing really well.

I've found home for the two girls (Jedda and Bug) so have to get word out about the boys. They should be good workers - they have a good pedigree, even if accidental!

The big girl, giving Bear a cuddle. This was an atrocious photo, still is a bit dodgy, but the camera went flat just as I took it, and then of course the moment was lost. Below is the before, and after some diddling in Elements and running a "honey" action. I could have done some more mucking about to pop her eyes...but couldn't muster the enthusiasm (nor quite remember what I should do!)

"After" surely is an improvement though, isn't it?!

Ladybugs and favourite photos

This is a favourite photo from the past few days - Angus modelling a birthday gift of Georgie's. This is the handle of the cutest little umbrella!

Isn't it just adorable? He's quite taken with it, and just quietly, so am I! Come storm season, there's going to be some fun!

Birthday Celebrations

Georgie had an extended fifth birthday celebration this year, with her birthday on Thursday, and a little gathering on Saturday. And cause her dad left in the wee hours, and didn't get to enjoy the fun of the present opening {"are there any MORE presents to open Mum?"...."Umm, NO! Don't you think you've had enough?!'} we had a special little cake that night.

We set the smoke alarm off with the sparklers - but it was worth it. Other kids demanding sparklers for their birthdays too, now. I think next time we'll do it outside, the smell stayed inside all night!

Here she is, with THE cake. This was heavily inspired by a cake that Nicole did for her daughter earlier in the year; I don't think I did my version nearly as well, but hey, it was late, I'd had an unexpected visit to town to take Kate to the doctor (all OK, just needed some steriod medication to deal with the after affects of the anti venom) and I was drooping tired. But the kids are never critical - after all -cake is cake!

My good friend Mel (the one whose blog we are going to make soon, AREN'T WE, MEL?!) took control of my camera to take these photos for me. Maked a nice change for me!

Mel couldn't resist taking a photo of the inside of the cake - a rainbow cake! I only had normal food colouring, but my internet research tells me that gel food dyes give a better result. And also, make sure you use real butter for butter frosting, not margerine. The marg worked OK, but butter tastes nicer. No matter, there was very little left after the kids and the grown ups all had a slice!

And if the morning running around with three little friends and a little cousin wasn't enough, another little friend and her older brother (such a nice boy, Angus was in heaven to have a BOY to play tractors and trucks with!) dropped in unexpectedly after lunch, for a couple of hours. More fun and playing!

And, to end the day, we all trooped off down to our big shed (not in our back yard - long story, but its about 2kms away) to help Trevor load some weaner feed. Such a simple task - that is until the bl*#dy forklift got dry bogged going into the shed, so I had to PUSH the thing into the shed (after pulling it out of the bulldust, and pushing, and pulling) with the bull bar of the toyota, and then had to drive the forklift as Trevor pulled it back out of the shed. None of this happened quietly or easily (or with good temper on Trevor's part!), or in daylight, so the kids did not enjoy the experience greatly.

Oh, but wait, there's more! When we got home, well after dark - after finally getting the feed loaded - there was NO WATER! (council water people, are your ears burning?!). More bad temper, this time on the part of the mother, so we bucketed some water from the rainwater tank to the bathtub, only to discover, with the last bucket load, the water was ON again.

What a day!

Domestic

This morning I have been quite domestic - not domestic as in I have clean floors and folded washing - FAR from that! - but in that I've been baking. Choc Chip biscuits, but instead of choc chips, I used m & m's instead.

I hear you asking: what brought on this rush of Bree-like behaviour? My littlest girl turns 5 tomorrow, and to celebrate we're having a little birthday smoko on Saturday, so I decided do some baking slightly ahead of time, instead of at the last minute as I am wont to do.

These biscuits will be the little something (instead of a lolly bag) the the few kiddies that are coming for cake to take home with them, along with a lollipop. I've yet to make the cake - rainbow is the theme, so stay tuned to see if I can NOT turn this cake into a disaster! (regular readers will know of my complete lack of cake decorating skills).

I can't believe that Georgie is going to be FIVE! This exciting milestone for her opens a whole raft of emotions - that my little family is growing up so fast; that she will be starting school soon(next term in fact, she will be having some pre-prep days at school); that soon I will have only one child at home, and boy didn't that come around fast.

I think its the fact that I will have only one child at home that is making the most impact. Mind you, my floors might stay in a cleaner state with only one kid, but I digress. I haven't had one child on my hands since this time in 2004! edited from original post which I typed 2006. Duh! And as much as Georgie drives me nuts with her mischeviousness and her full on stirring of her brother, both her brother and I will miss her company next year.

I don't mean to say that we didn't miss Kate when she first started school, but being the eldest, it was something that we knew was coming and was something that she so looked forward to. And Georgie is excited about joining her sister at school, but its come around so quickly for me!

Anyhow... Georgie terribly excited about her birthday tomorrow, so much so that she cleaned her room unaided - angels sing! Perhaps someone might have planted the seed that she might need to make some room for new birthday presents...but I'm not admitting to anything..!

Challenge Layout

Nicole issued another challenge, and although I haven't had the time, or the desire to be frank, to scrap, I delved into the archives and found one that I had done awhile ago, that matched her sketch.

I love this sketch, and the results from it, so think I will be visiting it again! Its nice to come back to an old favourite that had been forgotten about, especially when its one that works!

Just Because

... I wanted to see something other than my sad stories when I opened my blog!

Kate completely back to normal, other than a little odd tiredness; mother a little twitchy about the littlest one wandering off to the shed and chookrun, but I will have to get over that...lawn mowed within an inch of its life! Not so much as a snake deterrent, but so as to SEE the bloody things if they happen to enter the yard.

Anyhow, another little gem from Melissa Deakin: I love the way she pairs her gorgeous photos with lovely quotes...

perspective

Sorry for the doom and gloom but I just wanted to add this little story: when we were running around getting Kate to an ambulance etc on Monday evening, a girl that we know (an ex-girlfriend of my brothers' actually) was going through one of the worst days of her life.

Her husband was killed in a light plane crash on their property. She saw it happen.

They have a 8 week old baby boy.

I just cannot imagine how she is coping and what she is going through. She has a wonderful close and extended family, and her parents-in-law also live on the same property (horrifyingly, she was home alone at the time of the accident) so support for her will be strong. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking of her and her baby.

So, as my girl has a sleep in, safe in her bed in her bedroom with her little sister (the chatter from their room last night after lights out indicated that they may have missed each other just a teeny bit!) it puts our little blip into perspective. Maybe I'm a little naive, but I never ever thought that we wouldn't be bringing our girl home - sure there were a few minutes that I was worried that we might have to remember our CPR, but never that she wouldn't come home.

Thinking and praying for Ele and her little baby boy today, and being very grateful. And possibly going back to being the cranky mum that makes 'em pick up their crap and NOT draw on their doona covers...getting back to normal!!

Words

Can not express how grateful and relieved we are to be home again with our happy and healthy 6 year daughter.

It has been a very full and stressed filled couple of days, so this post might be a little wordy.

At around 5:30pm on Monday evening, our oldest daughter Kate was bitten by a brown snake.

However, we didn't think she had been bitten (she told us that she had seen it, and that it had run over her foot where she was playing on some farm equipment behind the dog pens, not far from where we were talking to the fuel truck driver). I looked at her foot (and horror of horrors, spat on my finger and rubbed the dirt off her toes!), but couldn't really see any marks apart from a tiny mark on her toe, that she said she had kicked earlier in the day.

Fifteen minutes later, she collaped on the ground, convulsing and vomiting. This bit will haunt me for the rest of my days - at first I thought she was mucking about, for about 10 seconds. The next 35 minutes were the longest of my life. When I rolled her onto her side where she had collapsed, I yelled something along the lines of "GET AN AMBULANCE!" and Trevor took her from me. I ran for my car, tried to start it and ring 000 from the mobile, but the car wouldn't start & phone flat. I then ran for his ute, but 000 didn't want to connect on his phone. So I then ran for the house (we were out in the back paddock), running into our neighbour who had heard us yelling. She quickly took the other two kids back to her house, bringing back bandages.

Meanwhile I had contacted 000 on the cordless phone and returned from the house with our woefully inadequate first aide kit. Our neighbour Marie and I then bandaged the foot where we thought she had been bitten, and I held her in the recovery position and kept her responding to me by having her squeeze my hand. She was semi conscious and still vomiting.

Marie's husband brought over their car, a Kluger and I informed the ambulance dispatcher that I thought she was detioriating and that we would meet the ambulance enroute to town, some 45kms away. I started off sitting on the backseat with Kate half on, half off my lap, but this didn't help her airway, so knelt on the floor as best I could (my skinny days are long gone!) trying to keep her on her side. She couldn't speak but responded to my questions and was having trouble breathing. Trevor broke all speed records on that trip, and it felt forever before the ambulance was sighted - we had passed the half way mark to town where we met it.

Once transfered to the ambulance and given oxygen, as well as having another compression bandadge applied, Kate improved greatly. However, once in hospital she continued to vomit, although quite alert and responsive. Her vomit started to show traces of blood, and at around 8pm her gums began to bleed. Her urine was also bright pink. At 10pm the Flying Doctor arrived and we were flown to Townsville General Hospital, with a "broad" anti venom finally being administered as we landed in Townsville, at around midnight. Immediatley she experienced a reaction to this - face swelling and rash. Once in Emergency (no waiting, straight in) they decided to stop this anti venom, and continue with fluids and half hourly obs.

Throughout this Kate was napping, but quite well in mental state.

In hindsight, I should have probably made some more noise about what treatment she was going to get, as it was 6am on Tuesday morning before one of the Emergency doctors looked harder at the suggested bite site, and it was swabbed positively for brown snake venom.

We were transferred to ICU (protocol with snake bite) where she was given both phernergon (a antihistimine to conteract any reaction that she might have, learned from when she reacted to the "poly-venom" administered earlier) and specific brown snake anti venom.

INFO: brown snake venom has this affect: it causes the blood to loose clotting ability, hence the bleeding gums and blood in urine etc. The anti-venom mops up the venom and the body then breaks this down itself, and returns the blood to normal.

It took all day Tuesday for her blood to test within normal range for clotting ability (The lab were not able to get ANY clotting from her early blood tests). In the early hours of Wednesday morning she was transferred to the Childrens Ward, as her ICU bed was needed. Wednesday afternoon her final blood test came back completely normal and she was discharged. We drove home today.

I didn't get any sleep until 5:30am Tuesday morning, after sitting all night in Emergency. I got a scant half hour before going to ICU, where I then managed to have a rest (Kate was sleeping soundly under the influence of the anti-histimine) and then another quick half an hour before Trevor arrived by car just after lunch. I had a couple of moments where I had a few tears, mostly because I was so tired, but once I had a nap and Trevor arrived, I was fine.

I am surprised that I didn't end up a sobbing mess on the floor; then again ICU puts things into perspective - when your child can talk and laugh, as her bed lays opposite to some poor soul on a ventilator and with every limb plastered, ones troubles tend to get smaller.

I cannot express how wonderful the Emergency nurses were (Renee and Bronwyn) and then the ICU nurses (Liz and Fiona) were just the best. Kate was quite happy to be left with the ICU nurses so we were comfortable leaving her there during the night so we could rest. One of my old school friends nurses in ICU so she came over during her break and it was so wonderful to see her. Mind you, some of the oodles of doctors that came past (a teaching hospital, so some were students, some different levels of the medical hierachy!) were a little bit different!

So very very glad to be home, and our girl is feeling wonderful, has been quite spoilt from all of the attention and is about at the stage where she is getting into strife again.

I don't know that we will change much of what we do as a consequence of this happening: the pile of farm equipment will be moved away to discourage any snake hideyholes so close to our house yard, and the kids encouraged to wear boots outside the yard. Mostly to NOT play on and in areas that snakes can hide.

Whatever: our girl is home, and we will look forwards and try not to think about that horrid 35 minutes when things weren't going so well.

If you've made it through this, thanks for reading.

testing 2

Fiddling around - this large format can't be done after-the-fact (you can't go back and edit your posts to make images bigger) using the method described (though you could change the width of your image using the edit html button, as Rita tells you to, its just I couldn't do the copy-paste bit in the instructions on previously posted images. I don't know what will happen if you miss that step!).

Anyhow, with my new large versions, I've worked out to fill the width of my posting column with photo, whether it be portrait or landscape, my width has to be 460px. So instead of being stuck with bloggers version of large, I can have all my images fit my page evenly, if I so desire!

Until I get over how cool it is to have SUPERSIZED images on my blog (matches my bum!) be prepared to see every thing BIG. I'll get sick of it soon, I promise!

Oh, yesterday I got FIVE eggs. Today - ZERO. What is going on with this chooks?!

testing

I found some instructions on how to make photos bigger on blogger - and whadaya know, it seems to work!! but now I might have to upload at slightly higher file size (normally around 100mb), cause now it looks a little blurgh!

So what do you think? Like the larger picture? I might not do this all of the time, but it sure makes life fun! If you want to know how to do this, head over to CoffeeShop Photography ---> over there in the photography section of my blog roll!

coping

I am not sure if I picked it up in town when I took my boy to the doctor, or its a version of the nasty virus that's been circulating around our very small township since the races, but I have felt absoultely l.o.u.s.y. for the past few days. I thought I might have been on the improve, but the fever came back this arvo, and although the body aches and pains have gone, my throat is raw from unproductive coughing fits.

So, that's what's happening in this part of the world...sorry for such a depressing post! I've done little other than the bare minimum the past few days, and the kids have pretty much run riot.

But just so its not all doom and gloom, I'll leave you with a tiny bit of internet goodness that I found a while ago and hadn't gotten around to sharing yet...Firstly this cute ipod or phone case - totally doable - this one is made from felt and just stitched with very simple embroidery. If I had an ipod or gadget like this I would make one. Hey - what an idea for a cute christmas present for the girl-friends-in-law (my term for my brothers girlfriends!) An owl one would be cute too...These hippos are just the cutest, are they not? They are here just cause they are just that. CUTE!

And finally - can't remember where I found this darling stitchery, but even though my sewing skills are very rusty (might explain why my sewing machine refuses to work!) I think I could handle this one! This would look cute framed as a gift...Its just occured to me, that even though I have never been a fan of the cluttered country style of decorating that used to be in (I think my style would be "modern country" or simple "lived in and messy", I still enjoy these little touches of handmade.

Enough rambling from this feverish and incoherent woman...

PS pups getting rater chubby and squishing now - and loud little boogers! they are getting most photogenic now, so stay tuned, I'll try and take some pics tomorrow, providing I don't expire tonight (cough, splutter ) :-)

Blurgh

That's how a few of the family members are feeling right now.

Remember that sleeping boy from my last post? He woke up with a raging fever, so much so it led to vomiting for a couple of hours, and then a restless night for him and me, until about 3am when I felt he could stomach panadol and he started to sleep properly. Then followed by a quick trip to the doctor and some anti-biotics (chest infection?) we are now I hope starting to feel better, more or less.

Though now he has "spewy poo" (no futher elaboration needed, is there?! Georgie came up with this name, and I think it is so apt!) - as a reaction to the fever or the anti biotics I am not sure, but hoping that it will pass VERY quickly!

So very little else has happened in the past day or so, and now I have to play catch up on those dreaded house-hold chores. I am not sure if I am getting the virus as well, or that I am just tired from the lack of sleep Monday night, but man, I feel like bus hit me!

Now, question: Is anyone doing this class?

I have long been a fan of Cathy Zielske, and think this would be a great class to do, but not sure if I am in the right frame of mind to do it. (perhaps I never will be?) I have a feeling a might download all of the stuff to "do later" when I have the time, but then might never actually DO it!

So, are any of you out there doing this, and if so let me know and that might just be the motivation to keep me going and challenge me to "keep up"!

I have more collages that I want to do soon and share with you guys - and thanks so much for positive comments on the last few posts! You all seem to love seeing our lifestyle, which isn't that much different to yours - just not as many cars, more bloody animals (not a good thing sometimes! standing in any animals poop is so not a fun thing to do!) and no sea and surf! And no shops! though that's probably a good thing though!

Oh, hopefully a puppy photo shoot this arvo, spewy poo and all allowing. And if I ever re-appear from under the mountains of dirty clothes and dishes...

its your fault the dishes aren't done!

I've been meaning to do this collage for awhile, for myself, but you requests for poddies gave me the kick I needed.

This year, for one reason or another I ended up with 6 poddies in my back paddock. One, with an older non-sucking mate, I had for awhile, and then late one evening I brought home another four. That was an adventure in itself - we had nothing to contain them with to cart them home, so Trevor put a spare weigh box (a large, adult cow sized box that contains the animal when one wants to weigh it) in the back of our trailer, tied it down, then shoved in four protesting, fighting, kicking and quite indignant motherless calves. On the way home it started raining, and it was quite bloody miserable, wet and very, very dark when I got home with the kids and the calves, and had to unload them by myself. I made a pen in the shed for them (having the kids jump up and down to keep the security light on!) and then reversed the trailer into the shed. That was an excercise in itself - dark and wet and trying to get the thing straight! So then, getting the calves out - and it starting drizzling again! Opening the gate and hoping they'd come out didn't work, so I had to climb in and manhandle and push each one out, with the kids holding the pen gate shut so they didn't escape there. Kicks to my shins didn't help my calm and reasoned manner, I can tell you (husband's ears should have been burning!)

Anyhow, after that they settled in well and aquired names: Bruno, Patsy, Clyde, Roger, Hugo and Frank.

A few weejks ago, when they had run out of grass and eating me out of house and home calf-feed wise (none of them were on the bottle, just a special grain ration) we loaded them into the horse float and took them to Trevor's parents property, where they joined their peers.

I missed them for about 10 seconds. One less lot of mouths to feed and look after!

New Chooks

A few weeks ago, I bought some new chooks - two black ones, and two brown ones. My friend Mel {the one who is going to have a shiny new photography blog soon!} asked me to post some photos of them.

So here they are -Bettina, Henrietta, Bridgid and Harriet.

Not really, I am not so anal as to name my chooks. Only my poddies. I am more likely to swear at my chooks when they scratch up the garden. But come to think of it, I have been know to swear, quite loudly and extensivley when the poddies have EATEN my garden! So really, logically, there is no reason why I don't name my chooks, but I just don't, OK?!

Note : I intend to turn this collage into a scrapbook page - print this 6x8 and put on A4 cardstock with some journalling about the chooks - and the plants flowering on the chook run fence - and pretty paper there somewhere. Very simple stuff.

The red ones are a breed I haven't had before, and they are quite regal - they don't walk the same as the other chooks - they carry their legs higher or something. And they are not as quiet - the black ones are quite sedate - and also like finding ways to escape and eat my plants.

They are also yet to lay a solitary egg, so I am thinking of taking the axe and leaning it on the gate - a not so subtle hint to "start a-layin', girls!". At $25 a chook, they best start earning their keep!

In other animal news: my dog Sally had pups yesterday {a little "accident" fathered by the dog just down the road. They had a wonderful frolic, his owner told me. I promised her that she could have one or more of the offspring so the father could take some responsibility!} She had four squirmy, squeaky little bundles of joy, two girls and two boys. The kids have to be restrained from visiting the dog pen every 5 minutes, as Sally wags her tail vigoursly at all visitors and causes all sorts of mayhem amongst the babies!

Over-run by animals, that's what we are! Stay tuned for the PUPPY GIVEAWAY, scheduled for sometime in the next 6 weeks!

Of course

There are many other things that I should have been doing, like the dishes piled on the sink, or cleaning the house and the toilet {the boy has seen how his father pees - NOT a great discovery I can tell you, especially as 1. his aim isn't good and he has a tendency to get distracted and then woops - pee on the floor! and 2. he leaves the toilet seat up!}.

Anyhow, I did get the office cleaned up {both the "real work" desk and my scrapping desk} and seeing as it looked so clean and inviting, I sat down and played.

Both of these layouts are based on a sketch challenge of Nicoles from a few weeks ago, and as it was still in my head (no need to go searching for the sketch).

You might also recognise the patterned paper from the last layout that I did - some would call it laziness, but I prefer to think of it as getting the most out of my dollar! Besides, its very cute and bright, and bright is what I am gravitating towards at the moment, for some reason. And those yellow thickers, so yummy! Actually, I have a passion for almost any thicker...

I am not overly liking this one below, using photos taken from the same time as the ones used above, though this page is for Kate, and the one above for Georgie. It uses kraft cardstock as a base, and I know how everyone loves it so, but I just can't get comfortable with it and haven't worked out how to treat it. I don't really think the white card goes with it, but again - another page done and moving on, peoples! And I suspect its slightly crooked, but the care factor isn't quite high enough to bother working out why and where it all happened!

That's it for today, better go and get those wretched dishes done, and another load in the washing machine - the dirty clothes seem to be breeding again! Kate had another day off school today - not exactly sick, but not really well enough to be at school - quite tired and lethargic. Trevor and I haven't been sick per se, but have both commented on how tired we are, for no good reason, so suspect we have a version of the virus.

I can hear snoring, and see that my boy has fallen asleep half on, half off the spare bed, with his legs in the wierdest position - don't know how he could sleep like that! He must be feeling off, it is rare for him to sleep during the day!

Cheerio!

update

At my mum's place this morning (a mere 60km drive) where we came to drop off a couple of kids horses we have been lent (they are going out onto feed until the wet season) and to check on our steers that we have here.

The kids love coming to visit Granma, and do their best to spread any toy that was leftover from my brothers' and my childhood all over the house and verandah. And then of course when it comes to cleaning up, no-one is responsible for making any of the mess!

Illness wise, we all seem to more or less be back in general good health (so far!) with Kate having a mild 8 hour bout of the tummy bug I mentioned last post. It has yet to make an appearance amongst other family members, so here's a big TOUCH WOOD!

Not much else to share - very pleasant to warm spring like weather here right now - I wonder if I would be safe to start packing away the winter clothes...going on my luck and Murphy's Law, I probably shouldn't.

So that's about it - have to go to town tomorrow and visit with our soon to be new bank manager (now THAT'S a fun process!not) and plan to get some new plants - lavender - to start doing some gardening again now the chances of a frost are lessening. I'm planning a mass planting of lavender in a part of the garden that gets seen a lot, but that I don't want to spend a lot of time looking after. {French Lavender, for those that want to know - it seems to grow well up here in the hot conditions}.

On housekeeping: my mother's computer has a huge screen, and what I thought was a lovely blog header isn't looking so good, as I have the stretch template installed. Think I will do some fiddling again and go back to a fixed setting...one day when I have nothing better to do!

Will have some photos to share with you next time, should I get to the arduous task of downloading the camera. The likelihood of having any scrapping to share is low, as my desk has suddenly become a dumping ground again for all sorts of flotsam that needs sorting out!

Ho Hum

Its one of those days today: the biggest girl is home from school today, upchucking and laying around looking pale and interesting. The only good thing about her tummy bug is that she is now big enough to do it in the provided bucket, and not all over the place. And this bug is (so far) restraining itself to the top end of the gastrointestinal system, so that also has to be a good thing?!

I also think I am coming down with the cold that all of the kids have had for a while, and am wishing I too could lay around looking pale and interesting, but sadly, the youngest of the wild children that live here decided to spread a trail of rice bubbles (dry) from the kitchen and around the lounge room. So that needed vacuuming, in amongst me trying to cross some items off the demanding list of things my dear husband left in the office for me, and emptying the upchuck bucket, followed my obessively washing my hands with antibacterial handwash!

Oh woe is me! And I have a sore thumb...well, not really, but there is a tale to tell about that!

You see, we currently have four cats in and around our house. Two of them are meant for the property, but are yet to have an operation of a "delicate" nature, that will prevent the cat population from growing down there, if you get my drift...anyhow, the cats get fed out in the garden shed, on top of an old non-working chest freezer in which we keep all of the pet food (as a rat deterrent). Every day I take down the cat's dish and open the freezer to get out the cat/chook/dog food, and every day I have to also take down one or other of the cats so as to open the freezer.

Yesterday was normal - cat's dish and cats on freezer, took them off, got out feed for respective animals, and shut the lid again, replacing the cats dish as I turned to head out. Fed chooks (a few metre walk away) returned feed tin to shed. Hearing a commotion, I actually looked in the shed to find one of the cats in some distress half on/half off the freezer. As I had (gently) shut the freezer lid, one of them had jumped the gun and was on his way back on to the lid, and I shut the lid on his foot, trapping him.

Here's where the sore thumb happened - he wasn't very impressed about having his foot stuck and as a token of his gratitude, stuck one of his razor sharp claws through the top of my thumb, near the finger nail - all of the way through (luckily, through the calloused part, not the meaty part!) ...so here I am, attached to the bloody cat, trying to open the freezer and free his foot, whilst also trying to keep the rest of his claws away from me, and get the other one out of my finger!

All ended well - little damage to either of us...just another fairly normal day in my daily life with animals and children!

Embracing Imperfection

I was searching for a photo to use for Nicole's latest sketch challenge when the photo on the layout below fell out. Its an old photo, going back to New Years Eve of 2000, when we didn't have kids - weren't even married! {2001 was to bring that for three of us in this photo}. Don't we look so young!

Anyhow, below is my interpretation of the sketch...

I should have gone for that nanna nap yesterday afternoon, instead of doing this - because it was nothing but mistake after mistake from go to whoa! I didn't plan for those flowers, or for that file tab thingy (can someone tell me just how to align them so they look right?) nor that strip of hot pink patterned paper along the edge. Though now I actually like that strip. And these particular thickers do not come with ANY capitals, but yet LOOK - a capital F!

Repeat after me: embrace imperfection...embrace imperfection.

{alternativley: another page done, another story told!}

Me

So, seeing as I am embracing the warts-and-all approach of sharing me and my many imperfections and loving thy self (blurgh! not! but anyhow...) and before you ask - here is the only picture of me in my racing finery. I love the fascinator that I wore, but not sure that I did my hair right for it (I think now that sleek would have been better than messy, and gee, that rinse I didn't have time for would have done me good!)

{I really don't know how I managed to produce such good lookin'kids, although I might be biased! I've always thought they were all cute, as any mother does - but ye gads! that deep red is obviously Kate's colour! is it me or is she stunning or what? and note to self - get those new glasses that have been on the TO-DO list for so long - these ones are so daggy! } And so ends this small annoucement of admiring ones' own offspring and critiquing ones appearance some more!

Didn't get a full length pic (really didn't need that!) but I wore my favourite dark navy (to go with the navy fascinator!) wide legged denim trousers and red boots. Hence the red necklace, that I thought was kinda cute, but looking at it here, didn't reeaally go. At all! Oh well. I also had a little red 3/4 sleeved sort of cropped jacket, and red bag and bracelet, so in theory it all went together! Probably should have worn the navy & white top to tie it together better, but the white one was warmer!

And I did put lippy on (or nice lip gloss in this case) AND eye makeup and foundation, but again, what seems fine in the mirror in this case, appears quite pale! Whenever I put on a darker lipstick these days it always seems too much, but I guess after wearing none at all for the past 6 years (after wearing full on makeup 5 days a week for the 8 years prior to that!) anything seems too much!

Well, that's enough of me for a good while, don't you think?!

The Races

Yesterday was our local race day, and it was such a busy day that I am absolutley shattered today - or else I am getting a cold or something. Spent the morning make sandwhiches and carting it all out to the food shed and setting it all up, then after setting speed records dressing everyone, spent the afternoon & evening selling food and drink (non alchohlic) to the racing public! I didn't think to take a photo of the shed, but its corrogated iron (thankfully with a cement floor) - very rural and rustic.

It turned out to be a rather cool and windy day, so the kids were happy to wear their nice winter outfits AND tights! I was smart and put footless legging thingys on Georgie (not that you could tell, she had long boots on) but couldn't find any in Kate's size/colour so she had to wear real tights. What a pain, they kept falling down! I made the girls flower things the night before - made Georgie's from an old brooch of mine and sewed it to an oversized clip, whilst Kate's I pulled apart a huge fake flower and then sewed a button in the middle and then onto a stretch elastic headband. They both loved their "fascinators"! Angus couldn't go without his faithful felt hat - I love his little woollen vest. Sadly I don't think he'll fit into that next winter, and I dont' think we'll be going anywhere else suitable to get another lap out of it this year!

A local lass was roped into doing face painting, so my girls happily lined up to get some done - Kate's rainbow was so cute! (and when are those teeth going to grow?!) She came over to the food shed so I could take a photo...

Here are Trevor and Angus, lined up for the Gents Fashion on the Fields (with the young bloke who won it - I think the yellow tie was the clincher!) . Angus wasn't in it, but needed a rest on his dad's shoulder and wouldn't come down for love or lollies! Trevor is never impressed about being selected as an entrant in this event (some words were muttered about not being a "show pony"!), but was "persuaded" that it would be rude to not show up for the judging.

And here are three of my lovely friends - Donna, Mel (love the orange!) and Yvonne (look out soon for Mel's new blog; I have finally talked her into doing a blog for her photography business, and will be helping her (ahem, might also be called "nagging"!) set it all up in the near future) Donna was one of the other mums in the food shed, and Yvonne used to be one of them too, until she moved down the road a bit (like 100kms down the road!) Yvonne tells me that she went and found a hat to wear because she knew I would give her a hard time if she didn't! (she knows me well!)

I dragged Trevor and the kids home around 7:30pm when it started to get really cold, and it became apparent that the kids really needed to come down from that sugar high that they were on (and after Angus didn't use the toilet for a poop, if you get my drift! still have issues with that, but slowly making progess!) The younger two both went to bed in a sobbing, screaming heap after a bath and big glass of milk to counter-act the CRAP that they'd been ingesting all afternoon, and Kate just melted into bed quietly (she too had been ingesting crap, but also a sausage burger, so that balanced it out a little!)

This morning was spent cleaning up - washing up and putting away the equipment used in the food shed and BBQ stuff from the burgers we did in the evening. Right now, I think I might need a nanna nap, and a movie for the kids - and some pants for the boy, who is running around pants-less for some unknown reason (no poop - I already checked that!).

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse of our race day for 2009!

Yard Work

Last weekend we quickly ran the cows through the yards to take off the last mob of weaners and brand a handful of calves, before we turn the mob "out bush" for the next two months, or longer, depending on when the first storms arrive.

Here are some of the cows heading down the laneway to the yards; the kids and I were late getting down to LC, so when we got there and went to see what was happening, came across the mob heading in. Being late presented a great photo opportunity as the cows wandered past me - normally I would be BEHIND them, eating dust!

Georgie took this snap of me and the other two - who begged to have a go at my very heavy SLR. I really shouldn't take it to the yards (just LOOK at the dust) especially as I have a little point and shoot AND my old fixed lens Finepix in the cupboard unused, that would be better for this job - but I can barely download ONE camera, let alone two or three!

And yes, I was working, but was taking a breather with the kids (my little boy said"I want yoooou Mum!" so I had to give him a cuddle) while Trevor and a mate, who came out from the city for the weekend a change of pace, were letting a mob out of the yards.

And below: one of the kids looking out of the buggy when we letting some cattle out. Looking out under the windscreen down the bonnet. Too cute!

Butterflies...

A quick page that I did the other day when I probably should have been doing housework but couldn't be bothered (which possibly happens more than it should, but I will neither confirm or deny that rumour!) Guess who got a butterfly die set recently and now has to use it to justify the purchase?! I have loved that patterned paper, I think there might be a couple of smaller bits left that I am saving to put on another page - got to say I've got my money's worth out of it!

I've just downloaded the camera, so will be doing a series of mini posts of our recent adventures.

Stay tuned!