Ups and Downs

Only 62 days till the new year..thank goodness.

2009-11-01T14:03:00.002+11:00

I cant wait for this year to be over...

The past 6 weeks have been hell. In particularly the last week.

My last post ended with a funeral and a BBQ. So I will take up from there.

21/9/2009

Dave stayed home Monday due to feeling unwell from the flu, so the day was spent lounging on the couch watching television. The rest of the week passed uneventfully, which was good as the build up was on for the footy grand final on Saturday. So on Friday I drove down to Tasman meats and bought two lovely pieces of beef and lamb and a size 18 chicken to roast on the 'spit',

I called into Safeway in Lara and bought the ingredients to make a potato bake & some nibbles for Paige, on the way home I called into the bottle-shop and got the alcohol, grabbed a bag of ice and was ready for the big day.

Saturday started off very lazy, I read the paper, ate breakfast, tidied the house, made the potato bake then went and picked up Bec and Paige.

We arrived at Stewies around 12.20 pm to the smell of roasted meat wafting through the patio, the television was on with the sound muted, the men were hovering around the BBQ, whilst Jen was running in and out bringing salads, plates, cutlery and other items that were required by the guys. Paige immediately started playing with Grace which was good. I made Bec and myself a midori with lemonade letting mine sit for awhile to allow the bubbles to fizz out. I had bought a heap of mixers to make shooters later on in the day once the game had really started. We were all going for Saint Kilda....

By 1.30 the meat was ready so it was carved and dished up, I selected the most moist looking piece of lamb and beef, added a lovely scoop of salad including a piece of hard boiled egg, sat down and started to enjoy the feast. I managed a couple of mouthfuls before a piece of the hard boiled egg became stuck in the band, all of a sudden my moth filled with saliva and I knew I had only one option and that was to try to vomit to remove it, but experience has taught me it can take some time, so I had to go home, so trying to be as diplomatic as possible I left, arriving home within 10 minutes I had removed the obstruction but felt completely drained from doing so. I spent the afternoon quietly sitting in the office playing on the computer, every now and then I would go into the lounge to see the scores of the game but as Geelong was winning it didn't really interest me. .

The next week rolled on like the other one with nothing happening, the only thing I really achieved was to wash and groom the dogs. That brought in October, the week ended with a visit to Dr Jason Chan in Werribee for a weigh in and fill, my weight was 87.9kg on his scales and he added .5 mls, whilst there I got him to look at another hernia which had developed whilst on clinical placement in September, this one was above my naval, another incisional hernia. He told me to take things easy in the gym and he would reassess it in a month.

On Sunday with the weather being good we decided to take the boat out to try our luck at some whiting in the bay, we set out and found a nice spot however the anchors just wouldn't hold us and after 5 attempts at trying to get the boat to hold we just drift fished. This was okay until the tide turned and the swell picked up, I noticed the pier had gotten very close, I mentioned to Dave that we had better move, he agreed and started pulling in the anchors, he told me to start the motor and move the boat backwards, with the motor running its too hard to hear whats being said so i moved into the cabin, as I did the chair moved and hit the throttle causing it to go into forward and n full, the boat lurched forward hitting the pier, throwing Dave forward, luckily he was squeezed tightly into the opening so was unhurt, I was so shaken up, I dreaded to think of the damage to the boat expecting to see water gushing in at any time, we went slowly back to the boat ramp. We maneuvered the boat into the dock without too much fuss, I went and brought the Nissan down, only having to back up a couple of times before getting the angle right, we got the boat on the trailer without a hitch, problems didn't start until we tried to raise the motor, the hydraulic lifting ram wouldn't work, so finding the only available piece of metal, (a net rod, made of aluminum) we used that as a lever, of course it was crushed within seconds, I then managed to get a couple pieces of wood into the required spot, it held long enough to get the boat out of the water and up the ramp. I was wet from the waist down whereas Dave was soaked as he fell backwards whilst trying to lift the motor. I started driving back to Stewie's, halfway home I noticed black rubber pieces being flung from underneath the trailer, I told Dave and he had me pull into the closest service street, we had blown a tyre, the only choice was to drive slowly home the back way. I drove as far as the house and made Dave drive to the boat to Stewie's knowing that he'd be there a fair while sorting everything out. What an eventful day and not even a fish caught.

Monday stated off with a bang, Dave stubbed his toe so badly on the coffee table just on his way to work, his toe swelled up so much he couldn't get his boot on so he spent the day at home watching TV on the couch...

Friday arrived with Dave going fishing with the boys and me heading out into Williamstown with Mel for a girls night out, Captain Spalding was playing at the 'Dock's, I met Mel at her friend Scotty's place in town, we got to the pub around 10.30 and stayed till 1am dancing and drinking, Mel & I caught a 'private' cab to the Commercial in Yarraville, its the pub where she was holding her 40th.

The pub looks dilapidated from the outside and very different inside, there are rooms everywhere with old overstuffed lounge chairs scattered throughout, as well as bean bags, stools, a pool table and upstairs is an area for functions, the place apparently comes alive on a Saturday evening when there is a drag show performance. The place closed at 3am so we went back to Mels friends place for drinks, when we got there though, he had run out of everything, not even a cup of coffee to be had.

I caught a cab back to my car the following morning around 7.30 and drove home, had a shower then packed and got ready for the drive to Apollo Bay, Dave & I were spending the evening there to celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary.

We arrived in Apollo Bay around 3.30 and packed our stuff in the hotel room and went for a walk up the street to decide on where to eat for the night. We settled on this quaint upstairs restaurant and went back to the hotel and booked a table for 6.30 that evening, we got ready and walked down for dinner, the meal was lovely, well priced and very enjoyable. We went back to the hotel and enjoyed the spa.

The next morning we had breakfast on the balcony, got ready then spent the morning fishing on the beach, when the surf became too rough we packed up and enjoyed a leisurely drive back home. That evening we had a meal at the Lord Of the Isles Tavern in Geelong.

The week started off with me fainting in the kitchen causing the clock to fall off the wall and hit me on the head, the following day was a review appointment with the dermatologist for a check up from the rash, he gave me the all clear.

On Tuesday evening Dave came home from work with a question...

He wanted to know if it was okay to lend his mate roughly $6500 to buy a boat motor...

I stood there, thought about it and agreed on one condition.

If it was good enough to lend his mate the money for a boat motor then it was good enough to lend me the money for my boob job, Dave agreed, I think he really had no choice.

So I get my boobs, Stewie got his motor and everyone is happy...

On the Friday 16th October Dave & I were invited to the Geelong Greyhound Cup the final of the round, so off to Beckley park for an evening of absolute boredom...

The following day Dave went fishing with the guys & Bec, Paige & myself went to the Geelong show for the morning. We spent hours walking around looking at all the displays, I treated myself to some mini Danish pancakes covered in lemon juice and icing sugar, they were divine.

That afternoon I went to Stewie Dad's place for lunch, the guys had cooked up a lovely feed of fish & chips, I spent a couple of hours there, but came home to enjoy the peace and quiet. I had a few Midori Splice's & Illusions, around 8pm Dave rang saying I had to go to the bottle shop as the guys had run out of grog, so off I went, collected the stubbies and spent another couple of hours listening to guys dribble shit.

Sunday was spent driving up to Euroa just to get out of the house and do 'together' things, we had lunch at a little bakery there, unfortunately the pastry got stuck so I spent the next half an hour in the loo bringing it up, we them drove to Shepparton then had an ice cream by the bank of a lake then drove back to Melbourne, stopping off in Williamstown where Dave had a spring roll and fried rice for dinner.

The only thing to happen during the week was my appointment with Mel for my waxing.

Saturday the 24th arrived which was Mels 40th birthday bash ayt he Commercial Hotel in Yarraville, I booked accommodation at the Plough hotel in Footscray and got there around 4pm, had a shower and went downstairs for dinner, I ordered a chicken salad, whilst I was sitting there a guy came over and joined me saying he didn't like eating by himself, I managed a couple of mouthfuls before I was full, which had been happening all week in fact the most I had eaten was 4 mouthfuls of a bowl of minestrone soup.

I had ordered a cab online, bit of course it never arrived, so I rang & ordered another cab, I arrived at the party around 8pm, the upstairs had all been decorated with balloons, streamers & set into a seventies theme, people in all sorts of costumes from disco to leathers were sitting around the bar.

I stayed upstairs moving from the balcony to the dance floor depending on the music, by 10pm I had found a comfortable seat downstairs and waited for the drag show to start.

The show was excellent, the costumes spectacular, it was interesting to see all the guys hanging off all the 'girls'.

At the end of the evening, my stomach was aching and my feet hurt, Mel was heading off to the casino so I decided to go back to the hotel room, it took nearly 40 minutes to get a cab, finally flagging one down and sharing it with 2 other guys, who tried everything to come back to my room, but I was quite adamant no I'm going to bed...

I collapsed when I got back to the room, sleeping until 8 in the morning, I drove back to Lara to find Dave had gone out to the yard to work on the truck with Daryl.

Sunday was spent just quietly lazing around, I was still unable to eat food so I decided to call the surgeon on Monday for an appointment, the hernia had protruded right out and was now pushing on my stomach.

Monday 26th October, I saw Jason Winnett in Williamstown at 1.30 pm, as soon as he saw my stomach he booked surgery for the following day at Western Private, so I went home and organised everything for the following day.

Tuesday arrived with me fasting from 7am, John picked me up at 10 am and drove me to the hospital, I was admitted and shown to my room, thank goodness I had brought my laptop and some movies as I was last on the list again, not getting surgery until 9.30pm.

I was up walking around the ward at 3am, showered and ready to go at 7am, Jason came around and saw me at 8am, and Dave collected me at 10.30, I went to bed when I got home. That afternoon Bec & Paige came over, as well as John for a BBQ that Dave had organised.

Thursday morning Bec caught the bus home, then Daryl & Fe came over and spent a couple of hours socialising, that afternoon I went and had a nana nap, getting up in the late afternoon and finishing off the classifieds for Missy & Al.

Dave got my dinner, watched some telly then had an early night, I sat in the computer room working on the articles for the Pilbara Echo, around midnight I told Miss I was getting some pain killers and would be going to bed in the following hour, a hot flush came over me so I got up headed for the sliding door to go outside to get some cool air, the next thing I know, Im looking at the ceiling & my head is pounding. I move to my right when a sudden pain crushes my left side, my fingers are tingling with pins and needles, I turn around and look at the ground a pool of blood the size a of a dinner plate had pooled and had started clotting, meaning I had been 'out' for quite some time, I grabbed a water bottle from the bench and doused my face, I grabbed the blanket on the chair and placed it over the blood so I wouldn't slip in it, I slowly got up and staggered to the the bedroom door, standing there I called to Dave, 'you had better call an ambulance I've had an accident, I don't feel very good, Im going to go and lie down'. I walked over towards the office and laid down in the walkway, Dave came over looked at the pool of blood, and said 'oh shit Jen', he rang the ambulance which took over half an hour to get here, I told Dave to put a pair of undies on me, cover me with a blanket and get a flat pillow.

Finally the ambo arrived and the paramedics were fantastic, they were concerned with a head injury and treated me as one, I had a neck brace put on me and log rolled onto a back board then once I was stabilised enough to go we drove slowly to Geelong hospital. Im estimating the arrival time of around 2am.

Once at the hospital I was seen immediately by a doctor who ordered a head, & neck xray as well as a xray of my collar bone due to the pain in my left arm.

They cut my nightie off me, and once in radiology removed all my piercings. By the afternoon I needed to go to the toilet so twice they tried with the bedpan but in the end I had to have a catheter as I had over 1 litre in my bladder, later that afternoon I had a CT scan done and finally at 4.30 pm the results came through clear so the neck brace could be removed and the head laceration looked at, by the time it was seen to the wound had scabbed and there was no point to stitching it as it would have meant re-opening the wound and I said it was easier to leave it, Dave came and collected me at 5.30 pm, there were no obvious fractures to the arm or collarbone but the doctors couldn't rule out a hairline green-stick fracture, so I would be swollen and sore for a couple of weeks.

So the last couple of days have been spent lying in bed watching DVD's or playing on the computer, I have done no housework, the most strenuous thing I do is make myself a cup of coffee.

I haven't had cigarette since Monday 26th October at 2pm and its going to stay that way, I got a real fright, thinking I may have had a stroke or a heart attack, time to start really looking after myself, Im not getting any younger...damn it!

So thats been the last month!!

I'm looking forward to some QUIET time....watch this space...

Oh yeah only 44 days till Missy & Al arrive for Xmas..

Time for an update

2009-09-21T16:41:00.003+10:00

So much has happened since my last post.....

May

On the 23rd May Melissa & Al came for a week, there was a Printing Expo being held in Melbourne, it was also supposed to be a surprise for me but due to my scheduled surgery they told me about their trip. So we picked them up from the airport at 7.15 pm. On Tuesday I went into Footscray for surgery to repair the abdominal fistula. My surgery was scheduled for 1.30 pm, Miss & Al returned from their day at the expo around 7 pm & I was still waiting, I finally went in to theatre at 9 pm. I woke around midnight feeling sore but good. When Mr Winnett came around in the morning I informed him I wished to go home due to Miss & Al being here & the fact that I could look after myself better. So I rang the kids & had them pick me up, getting home at 11.30 am. The following day I went with Melissa & Al to the Exhibition Centre in Melbourne to the Printing Expo, I walked around slowly, sitting whenever I felt tired. That evening the kids went to the function at the casino so they paid for 2 Gold Class movie tickets so I went & saw Night at the Museum 2 & Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. We got home around 1am & set to work on that weeks Pilbara Echo Newspaper edition, I sat up & helped edit all the articles & final pdf files, thereby starting a weekly ritual.

On the Sunday morning the 31st May, Melissa & Al returned home on the 6.15 am flight.

I went to lunch at the Great Western Hotel with the Geelong Lapband Support Group, it was an interesting luncheon, there were some lovely people there.

June

On the following weekend the 6th June Stewie, Dave & myself went up to Bendigo to look at a boat. The one we went up to look at was over priced but new looking, the boat that I found is older but a more sturdier boat, also the trailer is a tandem one. The price was $9995.00 so we offered them $8500 cash, they said no $8750.00, so I said ok, as we were getting onto the back of the car, the hydraulic ram on the motor let go spewing oil everywhere so I winked at Dave & said, really loud so the sales rep would hear, Im glad weve not paid for it, after seeing that happen I wonder what else is buggered, I think it best if we just forget the deal & get that other boat we looked at yesterday., The sales rep ran inside, was gone all of 1 minute & returned saying the manager says its yours for $8500, we said ok as it was only a $30 seal that needed replacing...score they also knocked $99 off a fish finder for us. So we left with a boat.

I eft for Perth on the 19th June arriving at Perth at 7.15 pm in the belting rain, Anthony picked me up, at it was surprise for Caron. We arrived at their new place in Waneroo, Caron was so shocked & surprised it was so worth all the secrecy.

I stayed with Caron, Anthony & the kids until the Wednesday, I went into the city & stayed the Criterion Hotel, the cheapest in Perth. I caught a taxi the following morning to the airport & flew up to Karratha to spend the weekend with Melissa & Al.

I arrived at 8.30 am, to a gorgeous sunny morning, stepping off the plane was like returning home. The colours of the soil, plants, sky was so vivid and bright. After spending months in winter like skies I was lapping up the sun. We drove into town to where the shop is located & met the staff & started work.

The following day was spent driving out to Python pool & Millstream. the scenery was just as breath taking & the improvements made to Millstream were impressive. Even though there was flood damage it was still a peaceful, tranquil place, an excellent way to recharge the soul.

We arrived back into Karratha at 6 pm showered, dressed & went out for dinner at The Icon, 'the' place to eat in Karratha. We sat out in the beer garden & when a table came free inside we went in, & ordered our meal, which even though was pricy was excellent.

Saturday morning was spent catching up on work then in the afternoon, newspaper breakdown was to be done, then deliveries. It was impressive to see almost 1 tonne of newspaper on a pallet, unloading it wasn't too bad. The papers were sorted into walker allotments along with the weekly brochures, the remaining papers were loaded into the van & distributed around town.

We drove out to Dampier & had a meal at the Yacht club, it was lovely sitting on the balcony overlooking the ocean watching the sun set.

Sunday morning was spent delivering papers to outlying towns, then we went to Port Samson & shared a fisherman's basket at the local hotel, in took 3 of us 2 hours to eat it all, it had prawns, in their shell, crumbed prawns, mussels, crumbed calamari, oysters kilpatrick, fish in batter, potato wedges and .

To burn off what we ate & drank we walked out to the exposed reef & investigated all the rock pools looking for octopus and crabs.

Monday was spent working until my flight back to Perth at 5.30 pm, I was going to miss the warmth & sun.

Elisa, Darian & Matthew & Joel picked me up from the airport that evening, I then spent the remainder of my time in Perth staying at their house.

Whilst in Perth Melissa & Al came down to attend the Telstra Small Business Awards that were being held at the Hyatt Regency Ballroom in Perth, they invited me along so I bought myself a new dress, shoes and all the needed accessories. It was the first ball I had ever attended & I really felt special getting all dressed up.

Whilst Melissa & Al were in Perth I organised a surprise party for Eloise & Matthew, Dad & Alison came up from Albany & Jacquie & the kids came as well. It was good to see everyone together enjoying themselves.

On the Friday before I left we (Elisa, Talia, Eloise, Matthew, Joel & Talia's friend) went to the Zoo, we met up with Jacqui, Ashley, Kathryn, Nathaniel and Ashley's two school friends. We spent the day looking around, having coffee & chatting away.

Saturday morning was spent packing for that evenings flight, then Elisa, Darian, Eloise, Megan, Joel & myself went to Sizzler for lunch. Afterwards i went over to Caron & Anthony's but there was no-one home so I went & hung out down at the Whitfords shopping centre for awhile then rang Ashley to see what she was doing, as she was home I went over there & had coffee with Jacquie, they invited me to the movies to go & see Ice Age 3 before my flight. So off to Joondalup Cinema & watched the movie, had a quick take away dinner before leaving to get to the airport in time for my flight.

My flight was delayed yet again, & when boarding finally was called I was held back due to the size of my cabin bag. My argument was that they allowed it on the flight from Melbourne to Perth so why not the other way...it held the plane up for a good 15 minutes while they argued amongst themselves & they even had the Federal Police come down in case I caused a scene. Finally i was allowed on the plane with my illegal sized bag...

Arriving home felt good, to be in my own bed, I had a quick cat nap before Dave dragged me down the street to Ray's Tent City looking at Swags & Engels, we came away with a swag & engel on layby.

The remainder of July was fairly uneventful.

August

Started with Paige's 2nd birthday which was held at Crazy Critters in Norlane, an indoor gym for kids with a cafe attached for the adults it also caters for kids parties.

Halfway through August Mum sent me a text saying they wereon their way as they were having car problems, they arrived on the Sunday 23rd August & did the touristy thing whilst they had their car repaired, they visited the Melbourne Zoo & Werribee Zoo & spent the day out at The Point Cook Airforce Museum which is great value as its free. Mum celebrated her birthday whilst she was here, leaving around lunch time.

Friday saw Dave in Weribee having a colonoscopy, I went shopping whilst he underwent the procedure, picking him up around 2 pm, dropping him home so he could head off to Nelson, fishing for the weekend with the boys.

I spent a quiet weekend at home, watching movies, playing on the computer.

The following week saw me start at my Aged care placement for nursing I completed 1 week in the high dependency unit, thoroughly enjoying myself, but the lifting took its toll on my body & I have re-injured my abdomen, so now I wait until I see the surgeon as to what my choices are going to be.

Friday came along with Bec's 23rd birthday, I picked her up & we went into Geelong & had dinner at the Thai restaurant then looked around the shops.

As Dave missed Bec's birthday due to work he babysat Paige whilst Bec & I went to the movies, we saw District 9, afterwards we had dinner at La Porchetta, and came home to a quiet, fed, happy little girl & a calm Pop.

Thursday saw us driving up to Deniliquin in NSW to attend Dave's aunties funeral, we got up at 4.45am & left the house at 5.45am arriving in Deni at 10am just as the service had started, there was standing room only in the church, it was a quick service lasting around 30 minutes. The rain started to fall out at the cemetery as they lowered the coffin.

We went back to the reception for tea & cake & a quick catch up with the relatives, we left Deni around 1pm, we caught up with quite a few friends in Bendigo before leaving for Gisborne to have dinner.

Friday night we went out in the bay fishing for snapper, it started out fairly rough but as the night drew out the calmer it became until the sea mist rolled in around 1 am. Saturday I stayed at home cleaning the house, & preparing for the bbq. I decided to splurge on the required spirits to make shooters. Dave's friend Redeye & his girlfriend Di came over for tea as well as Bec & Paige who stayed the night.

Im all caught up.....

What's happened in May

2009-05-10T05:27:00.002+10:00

Today is Mothers Day and I've been up since 3am as I can't sleep due to the pain in my abdomen & groin.

Last weekend Bec & Paige stayed with Dave & myself. On the Saturday morning we went to the market at Beckley Oval I bought Paige a beanie that looks like a puppy's head & a toy puppy as she is obsessed with dogs. We came home & played on Facebook playing Vampire Wars, at least now I know how to play the game properly. In the afternoon we decided to take the dogs for a walk around the block, we got them all in their harnesses & set off, Bec took the 2 small ones as they tend to pull at the lead, I took Dufus & pushed the pram. We had only got around the corner when a large aggressive German Shepard ran across the road & attacked the 2 small dogs. We were screaming for help, the shepard got near the pram so Dufus growled, the shepard then attacked Dufus right above Paige, as a result the pram tipped over. I pulled Dufus away which is no mean feat as she weighs 27kg. I was so worried about Paige,we were still screaming out for someone to get their dog, I managed to get Dufus away from the pram but in the process pulled all my stomach so was in absolute agony as I was still very sore from surgery. Bec yelled out that we had a baby out here & finally the owner came out & stood at his gate & called the dog, thankfully we weren't bitten & Paige was ok just very traumatized, she suffered with terrible nightmares that night.

By Wednesday the pain hadn't gotten any better so I rang my surgeon for an appointment, I got in to see him that day, he checked me over & I had just pulled on all my wounds, whilst there I informed him of my wound from a previous surgery (2 years prior) that hadn't healed & was still weeping pus & blood( I saw the gynecologist that performed the surgery in January & she told me that it was ok, it can take up to 2 years for a scar to heal, news to me!!) & that it was causing me considerable pain as was the lump in my right groin, so he ordered a fistulagram (CT) for the wound & a ultrasound on my groin. I had the fistulagram on the Thursday in Footscray. They insert a plastic tube into the wound & inject dye into it to see what is happening, it was a very painful procedure. afterwards Dave wanted to know if I wanted to go to Highpoint shopping centre but I was in too much pain ( for me to refuse going shopping is a miracle) we went home. I have the ultrasound done on Thursday & see the surgeon again on Friday to schedule surgery (yet again). He told me that the wound will have to be debraided & all of the necrotized tissue removed, the healing will take a considerable time. So it looks like I will not be going back to Tafe for another term. So I will not be graduating this year...not happy Jan.

On a happier note I have lost more weight, when the surgeon weighed me he was happy with my loss which was 3 kg in 2 weeks even with no exercise, he gave me another fill of the band adding only .5mls. I am down to a size 16...and weigh 92.2kg

I am sick to death of lying in bed, there is only so many books you can read, or games played on the computer, I don't watch TV as I find it too boring & sitting for any length of time is painful. I have almost caught up with all my homework from Tafe but am finding it difficult as I haven't covered it in class time.

I was looking at airfares on the internet & Tiger airways have a deal to Perth for $118 one way, so once this next lot of surgery is complete & I am able to travel I might go to Perth for a little while, I may even get up to Karratha to visit Missy & Al.

Today Bec, Paige & myself are heading to Highpoint to get some retail therapy, we were going to go to the Vic markets but Bec's pram is still broken & Paige is too heavy to carry, Dave is going to Bendigo to have lunch with his family, I wasn't invited...no surprises there! Not that I would go in any case but an invite would have been nice. So thats my news for May

Fun 8 things about me

2009-04-23T16:17:00.002+10:00

Fun 8 things Me

8 Things I am Looking Forward To:

Finishing my nursing course.
Getting a Wii console & Wii fit
Going back to the gym
The next Twilight movie
Xmas as Missy & Al are coming over for it
Watching Paige grow up
Seeing all my family next year at Missy's wedding
Being a size 12 gain

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

1. Got my Twilight movie as well as a bag, Tshirt, bookmark etc
2. Watched my new Twilight DVD
3. Cleaned my house (yes I'm so bored)
4. Played on Facebook yet again
5. Set up my new broadband connection
6. Ichat to Missy & Al last night (so cool, it was done through the computer using the camera)
7. Read a Vampire/Werewolf novel
8. Bought Paige some winter clothes to be kept here for when she stays over

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

Have a photographic memory (would make exams easier)
Afford a maid/chef
Fly over to Perth & Karratha as I miss my family
Go back to school as Im going stir crazy (have to stay at home until the 18th May,doctors orders)
Sing
Run a marathon
Touch type
Give up smoking (at least I have cut right down)

8 Shows I Watch:

Biggest Loser, Go Sharif, Tiffany, Bob or Nathan
Criminal Minds
Shameless
Swift & Shift
Lost
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Weather Channel (does that count?)
AFL

8 People I Tag

Um don't know 8 people who blog....

End of term

2009-04-02T07:02:00.002+11:00

My god what a couple of months it's been. I have already completed 1 term of school, had 3 exams, 3 presentations & 1 debate. Have used 3 black printer cartridges & 3 reams of paper. I am enjoying it immensely but am finding the amount of work overwhelming at times, I spend 6 hours a day in class & another 5-6 hours per day studying/doing homework, but it is paying off as my average marks are around 85 - 97%. Just hope I can keep it up.
On the weight loss front I have dropped from a size 24 - 26 to a loose 18. Since October last year I've dropped 39.6kg, however since surgery its 21.5kg which has only been just over 10 weeks. I am feeling so much better in myself, have another 25 kg to lose, my goal is to be a size 12 by Xmas time, which is very achievable. I eat whatever I want but have had no fried food, chocolate or anything that's not really healthy. I check all labels before I eat, & only select foods that are low GI. I only eat 3 meals a day consisting of around 1 cup (250grams) of food at a time, have limited my coffee intake to 2 cups & only in the morning, to appease my sweet tooth I have a diet ovaltine at night, then rest of the day I fill up on water. My average daily meal consists of porridge for breakfast, baked beans for lunch & 1 banana, vegetarian omelette or stew for tea, every now & then I have a glass of sugar free orange juice, I have a minimum of 2 litres of water a day. I have just joined a gym to start building up stamina. At school I always take the stairs & it averages to 400 steps a day, lugging 2 bags full of text books, files, water etc....
On a different note today I go into hospital to repair my spigelian hernia & remove a tumour that has grown around the femoral artery in my groin. I am starting to get a bit nervous now but am trying not to dwell on it too much as I cant change whats happening, I'm just remaining positive...

2 weeks after surgery

2009-02-07T09:13:00.002+11:00

I saw the surgeon Jason Winnett on Friday 6th Feb for my post op check, everything has healed very well and I was shown where the port is by feeling it. (When I lie on my right side I can feel it)
Jason asked what exercise I liked doing...my reply was look at me do you think I got this way by enjoying exercise, I hate to sweat. He said I need to learn to love to perspire...YUCK! So he suggested walking up & down a pool, looks like I HAVE to get my bathers out & venture down the pool...urgh
He is really happy with my weight loss, since surgery (16 days) Ive dropped 6.8 kg so since the beginning of the year I have lost 10.6kg.
I see him on the 6th March for my first fill, I am really scared about it.
I'm having trouble getting through 175gms of yoghurt & 1 medium banana at lunch, Jason said that over the next 4 weeks the stomach will settle even more & will allow for more food, I'm quite happy with the way it is now so am keeping my meal sizes still to 1 cup (250mls) of food. If I get hunger pangs I have 2 tic tacs & water.
I'm getting hungry around 4pm
I'm now on week 3 & 4 of my diet which is minced meats/mashed vegies & soft fruit slowly over the next 4 weeks I've got to start introducing proper meals into my diet so the band & stomach get used to the different textures, lumps etc...
The biggest problem I'm having is eating enough calories a day, I'm supposed to be on 1700 calories (approx 7000kj) but can only manage around 500/600 (2500kj).
Drinking 2 litres of water is difficult as I can't have fluids for half an hour before meals & up to 1 - 1 1/2 hours afterwards
I cooked shepherds pie for dinner last night & I enjoyed it so much...I was in heaven. Have split the remainder of the meal up into meal size portions so have 4 meals in the freezer for myself & 2 for Dave (his are larger), so the 1 meal I made last night fed 2 grown men + Dave had another helping, my serving & 6 other servings for later on, not bad out of 900grams of mince (heart smart). I worked out the calorie value of the meal for 40gms its 54 calories or 225kj.
So my weight loss to date is as follows:
2/1 118.1
6/1 116.4 (started Optislim)
14/1 115.0
19/1 114.3 (banded)
25/1 112.3
27/1 110.6
1/2 109.5
3/2 108.3
7/2 107.5

Orientation day at Tafe

2009-01-29T21:31:00.002+11:00

Thursday 29th January 2009

Orientation day at Tafe had to fall on the hottest day of the year, it reached 45.5c. I arrived at 8.45 am just in case I got lost but I was able to find the auditorium without any trouble. I took a seat in the second row, and waited, the minutes ticked by slowly, the room was already stifling.
Finally 9 am arrived and the introduction began, we were handed our timetable which is full on, starting at 9 am, 1 hour for lunch then 1 till 4pm 5 days a week, we have Tuesday mornings off but we work through to 8pm.
We were split up into 2 groups of 13 & 15, 9 of us are mature aged, 10 are international students and 1 male the rest are young girls.
We were taken on a tour of the class rooms, & Lab, we were shown our uniform which consists of navy blue trousers & either a pale blue polo shirt or shirt. We then proceeded to the library for a talk on the computers & books etc, then the bookshop to purchase our text books. There are 7 in all totalling $541, and weigh a ton.
I carried the bags of books back to the car just as the news came on it was already 41c.
I picked Bec & Paige up from her house & came home to find the aircon not working properly, by now it was 43c. We watched some more ER then checked the weather it had reached 45.5c...Hottest day on record!
We sweltered....
Dave came home at 6.30 all hot & bothered the aircon in his truck had broken down & he was driving in Melbourne. We turned off the aircon to give it a break & clean the filters..what we found is that it had iced up.
So we are sitting here waiting for it to thaw it shouldn't take too long.

Dear Diary

2009-01-25T00:18:00.002+11:00

Friday 23rd January

Feeling fairly sore, the swelling in my stomach has gone down considerably and the bruising is starting to come out. Had a yoghurt & coffee for breakfast, got dressed and went and picked Bec & Paige up and went to Corio shops. I had a hair appointment at 2pm. We started looking at long pants for me to wear to Tafe, I was after long black trousers. We went into Autograph, I found a lovely pair of pants so I instinctivly grabbed a 24, went into the change room & tried them on, they fell off, so I asked Bec to grab me a 22, they were loose, so I tried on a 20 they were comfortable, even with my swollen stomach. So I grabbed a 22 & 20 just for the comfort side of things. They were on sale reduced from $59.95 to $24.95. We went to Millers next I found a pair of black/grey denim jeans for $30.
We had a look through Kmart but they had nothing interesting, it was time for my haircut.
I went in and gave Sam free range, I wanted a new look, something easy to look after. Chocoate colour with copper highlights.
Sam cut off all my perm and gave me a bob type of style, at first I didn't like it but once she blow waved it I was over the moon.
When Dave arrived home he was carrying flowers, which he gave to me with a big smirk on his face, he just shook his head and said "Gday Geraldine". He walked off laughing, I went up to him and asked if there was something onmy face or was my bum sticking out or something. He just said "No, you look like the Vicar of Dibley" and proceeded to crack up again. I threatened him with me cutting it all off with the clippers but he called my bluff knowing I wouldnt do that just before Tafe stated. So now his pet nickname for me is Geraldine...

Saturday 24th January

Bec, Paige & I went to the Beckley market to buy my 3/4 sleeve shirts, they had them there for $12 so I bought 3, I got a discount & only paid $32 for them. I got 2 x 22 & 1 x 20. Blue, white & white/stripe.
Visited Daryl, Fe &the kids
Spent a quiet afternoon at home.

Sunday 25th January

Bec, Paige & myself went to the showgrounds market in Geelong just to get out & do some walking. We got some cheap fruit, bananas $2 kg as was the grapes & nectarines. I bought a nursing book for $2 and Bec got some shoes for $35.
Came home & rested.

Monday 26th January

Went to the Corio shops, found some comfortable black enclosed shoes for Tafe & will be suitable for nursing as well, theyre from Homyped $129 so have ordered them as they had none in my size was a surprise Im a 10 1/2. Will hopefully arrive next week.

Tuesday 27th January

Drove to Bendigo in the Nissan as we needed the aircon as the temp up there was over 40c. Got there at 1pm, had lunch at the hospital & went & waited for my breast ultrasound. At 2.20 pm I was taken in & screened. Everything appeared ok.
Wandered around the shops waiting for the traffic to go and for it to cool down a bit, we left at 5.30 arriving just about 7.40pm.

Wednesday 28 th January

Spent the day at home watching season 1 of ER had the aircon on full as the temp was 43c, Paige slept on the couch till 8.30 pm then stayed up until 12pm little sod...

Surgery

2009-01-22T17:22:00.003+11:00

Tuesday the 20th of January came along with a heat wave, I was up at 6.30 am so I could have my last optislim & coffee before fasting. I played on the computer for a couple of hours, packed my bag, had a shower, got dressed & checked the train timetable again just in case there was any changes due to the heat.
I walked over to the bus stop at 11.27am and caught the 11.30am bus to the train station, I had thought about walking but it was already hot & humid. It only cost $1 and I got a timestable for the start of the school year. Bought my train ticket to Footscray $3.30 and waited outside as it was cooler. The train arrived at 11.46am and was packed at least I managed a seat. The train arrived in Footscray at 12.24am, I started to walk to the hospital as it was only 4km, I got about 10 minutes down the road before I could feel I was getting dehydrated due to no water, I saw a cab waiting at the lights & yelled out to him "Are you free?" "Yes " he replied so I ran across the raod and jumped in, he was wearing a jumper, he was from Africa and didnt feel the heat. On the temperature monitor in the car the outside temp was 42c. He dropped me off at the Western Hospital, my first thought was my god and this is private it was a dump. I went to information to find out where admissions were, I went upstairs and introduced myself, the clerk said " your not on my list, take a seat & I'll find out what is happening" I sat down and thought about where I was, I went up & asked if there was another admissions area. she said "Are you private or public?" I said "private" She replied "you need to go across the road to the Western Private Hospital". So I followed her instructions on how to get there and got lost, by this time it was 12.55pm & I had to be at admissions by 1pm. I was hot & bothered my pulse was racing & my blood pressure was up, my face was red & sweaty. I finally found an exit where I went down a ramp out onto a street & across the road was a lovely new hospital. I went in and sat down waiting to see the admissions clerk.
I was taken upstairs to the ward where I had a room with another patient with a ensuite, our own tv.
I was put into my gown, had an ECG done & finger blood test to check my glucose level which was 4.9. My pulse was fast & blood pressure was high but soon came down. I laid down and watched tv waiting, I was the last on the list which made me feel uncomfortable.
Finally at 7.22pm they came and took me to theatre, I was given a nebuliser & antibiotics before being operated on around 8.15pm. Jason came in before hand and saw me and calmed me down.
I woke up back in the ward around 10.30pm and was up out of bed by 11.30pm then every hour I got up and went walking to help move the gas in my chest. At 4.30am I asked for some pain relief the nurse brought in 2 Panadol which did nothing, another nusre came in afterwards and could see I was still in pain and brought me back an Endone. I managed to sleep for an hour which was good. Breakfast came at 8.45am I was given a glass of apple juice & black tea, I left it on the tray, Jason came in to check on me and asked if i was hungry I said
"yeah starving", he asked why I didnt have what's on the tray, I told him I cant drink apple juice it makes me vomit & I need a little skim milk in my tea, and when I asked the kitchen staff for some milk she snapped at me saying your on clear liquids. He turned to the nurse and asked her to get me a glasss of orange juice & some milk. He was happy with my fluid intake as I had already drunk 2 litres and kept it down and as I was walking around the ward I could go home. I had a shower after breakfast & was ready & waiting by 9.45am, I was escorted downstairs at 9.55am and John was waiting for me in the foyer, he had brought the Nissan to make it easier for me to get in & out of.
We arrived home at 10.45 am, I changed into a nightie and made myself a cup of tea, took an Endone, rang Bec to let her know I was okay then spoke to Dave, went to bed for a couple of hours then sat up & watched some tv. Dave rang wanting to know if I needed anything from the shop, so I asked for some custard, Codalgin & a pill cutter.
He came home around 6.30pm, I had 1 cup of warm runny custard for tea, it was lovely.
Watched tv in bed till Dave came in wanting to sleep so I watched ER out in the lounge, then played on the coputer till 2.30am, went to bed and slept till 6.45am, got up took some pills ,had a drink and went back to bed till 8.30.I got up and got dressed, I'm feeling worse today, all the bruising is comming out and the gas is still trapped under my ribs & between the breat bone feels like really bad heartburn. Sometimes it hurts to breathe.
For breakfast I had a Sanitarium Up & Go breakfast drink which took half an hour to get down, I then had an Optislim for lunch. At 3.30pm I went over to Bec's for a cup of tea & to get out of the house. I stayed for 1 hour then came home. Poor Paige wanted to get onto my lap for a cuddle and she couldnt, she was so upset which upset me in turn.
Tonight I'm having 1 cup of chicken soup for tea & I'm looking forward to it.
I have to stay on this liquid diet for the next 2 weeks.

An update on my weight loss

2009-01-18T18:00:00.003+11:00

Its been almost 2 weeks of nothing but Optislim & vegetables, somedays have been harder than others, easpecially when I have to go down to the shops for some fresh vegetables, all I can smell is the fresh baked bread & cooked chickens..I walk along practically drooling over the glass counter where the chickens are kept. Everything smells so good, even the fish...
I am getting very nervous about the proceedure as its a permanent thing, not something I can change my mind when I want to eat a big piece of steak, its life changing. I know health wise its the best thing to do but Im still scared. All my other surgeries have been neccessary this one is totally elective. Although Ive already started planning my surgery for when Ive lost all my weight, I want to have a tummy tuck & breast lift, apparently they can do the proceedure in one go to lessen any problems
The pain doesnt worry me its the vomiting afterwards with the band in.
I will have a weigh-in in the morning & see if Ive lost anything since I started.

Today is Monday the 19th January Ive lost 2.1 kg I now weigh 114.3 kg...one day to go

My weight loss journey

2009-01-06T17:50:00.002+11:00

This is the first day of the rest of my life.....

My weight loss journey started many years ago with fad diets then other weight loss plans, such as Atkins, CSIRO, Pritkins then in 2000 I went on Jenny Craig. In 8 months I lost over 43kg, I used to walk 8km every morning then do 1 hour of low impact aerobics, I kept the weight off for 6 months then became ill & the weight came back on and then some. I ended up over the 120kg, I ignored it as much as possible. Then my knees gave out, developed high cholesterol but still I kept my head in the sand, not looking at mirrors just buying even larger clothing, tents I should say. My belly ended bigger than my boobs, even trying to cut my toenails was an effort. Towards the end of 2007 I attended a seminar in Melbourne regarding lap band surgery, I decided that was for me, but I had to wait till my private health cover kicked in as the proceedure was over $12,000 if not insured.
In January 2008 I weighed myself and was absolutly horrified I weighed 136.6kg but still did nothing about it. Mid 2008 I attended another seminar this time in Werribee, afterwards I met the surgeon Mr Jason Winnett and felt comfortable with him so the following week I saw my GP and got a referral.
In October I saw Mr Winnett, was weighed (by now I was 125.3kg), measured and we discussed the proceedure, was then referred to a dietician & respiratory physician. A follow up appointment was made with Mr Winnett to book my surgery, which is set for the 20th January.
Meanwhile I saw my GP for blood test results which indicated that I had developed Type 2 Diabetes, I was in shock for days invisioning daily injections. I stopped using sugar replacing it with splenda and cutting my meal portions down, I also cut my coffee intake.
I weighed myself again on the 2nd January and was 118.1kg even over xmas I managed to lose weight, so in 1 year I had managed to lose 18.5kg, with no exercise or real diet plan.

On Tuesday the 6th January I started on Optislim replacing all 3 meals, I have to do this for 14 days before surgery to help shrink and reduce some of the fatty deposits around the stomach & liver. On the box it says great taste yeah right might be for someone who has no taste buds, I gag trying to drink it. So I weighed myself & my start weight prior to surgery is 116.4kg. I also have to have 2 cups a day of either broccoli, spinach, beans or brussel sprouts, to help with fibre intake.
Have paid the surgeon $3200 & $1200 for the anaethatist. So that leaves $500 for the hospital which is the excess. So I'm counting down the days......

Getting to know me...Christmas Edition

2008-12-26T15:11:00.002+11:00

Getting to know me....Christmas Edition

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper, two 7m rolls that compliment each other

2. Real tree or Artificial? Fake tree as its cheaper

3. When do you put up the tree? the very last moment everyone allows me or until I get sick of being nagged.

4. When do you take the tree down? The 27th December

5. Do you like egg nog? never had it

6. Favourite gift received as a child? books

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No but is always on my to get list and I never end up getting one...next year

8. Hardest person to buy for? Melissa

9. Easiest person to buy for? Paige

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I wrote out my cards on Christmas Eve and am yet to post them

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? potatoes

12. Favourite Christmas movie(s)? National Lampoon Family Christmas Vacation

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I normally start during the year and put things away, but this year due to the lack of money and interest I was still buying on Christmas Eve.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No

15. Favourite thing to eat at Christmas? Glazed ham, hot rolls, xmas pudding

16. Clear or coloured Christmas lights? clear on the tree.

17. Favourite Christmas song(s)? Silent night

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We stay at home for lunch then go to Bendigo for tea

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? No.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? A star.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Christmas stuff & carols in the shops in October, rude selfish people, crowds do I go on.....

23. Favourite ornament theme or colour? Blue & silver but would like a change to red & green

24. Favourite dinner for Christmas? would be to go to the pub

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? peace & harmony

26. Do you bake lots of goodies during the holidays? Not any more now thats theres only Dave & myself

27. Do you decorate different rooms of your home? no just the tree in the family room.

28. What decorations do you put outside? lights usually but not this year

29. How do you spend Christmas Eve? cooking the chickens, wrapping gifts, playing on the computer

30. Is Christmas your favourite holiday? yeah parts of it is, I love the magic & seeing the kids faces but the rest is crap

I tag whoever wants to participate! You can leave me a comment to let me know that you have answered the questions on your blog then I can read yours and get to know you!

Merry Christmas

Another Christmas over

2008-12-26T01:19:00.002+11:00

Well thats another Christmas over and done with. It started off well witha cup of tea brought into me by Dave, whilst Bec played with Paige, I slept in until 8.10, got dressed. Chilled out for an hour then started getting everything ready. While Bec peeled the potaotes for the potato salad & made the green salad, I glazed the ham & got everything else ready for lunch. Dave then got dressed as Santa & surprised Paige by comming down the hall calling out Merry Xmas & Ho Ho HO it was rather amusing infact I was laughing that much that I couldn't hold the camera still enough to take a photo, we all sat around and Santa handed out all the presents which were mainly all for Paige what a surprise. There's too much to list but a few of them are a sandpit with bucket, spade, toys, cars, balls, care bears, outdoor table & chairs with umbrella, books, animals, flute, bells, crayons & scrap book, dvd's clothes etc... Dave got an engine lifter & crane, polo shirts, chocolate, coffee machine & coffee, Bec received chocolates, incence sticks, deoderant, socks, biscuits & books. I got a block of chocolate, box of ferrer roche, coffee machine, coffee, oil burner & dvd's. John (redeye) Dave's mate turned up around 11.30 with a present of a stuffed dog for Paige & bearing a lions fruit cake, frozen apple pie & beer for the rest of us. So the 'men' got the esky set up and sat on the lounge & watched telly. I had all the food on the table right on 12pm, it was a very simple lunch consisting of baked ham, chicken pieces, green & potato salad, beetroot, asparagras, pineapple, creamed corn & hot dinner rolls. We all enjoyed the laid back quiet lunch & enjoyed the food. After lunch John watched tv, Dave had a nana nap on the couch, Paige played with her toys, Bec played on facebook and I cleaned the kitchen vowing not to do it again....I plonked myself in front of the computer after kicking Bec off I suggesting she read her new book Twilight by Stephanie Meyer that was her Christmas gift from Missy & Al, I had an alterior motive, as I wanted to read it myself especially after seeing the movie with Miss & Al whilst in Perth. The peace and quiet was broken when Dave was woken by Paige stuffing a toy up his nose, he got up and cut the ham, found containers for the prawns & organised the drinks for the evening, cleaned out the Patrol so the esky, pram & Bec's overnight bag could fit into the back and moved the car seat so John could fit in. It was time to get changed and drive to Bendigo. We went via the ring road even though its a bit longer the road is smoother and the speed limit is 110kmh compared to the rough goat track through the hills around Bachhas Marsh & Gisborne. We arrived in Bendigo around 7pm at the same time as Matt, Nicki, Jorja & Wade. Dallas led us through the house we stopped at the kitchen to say hello to Brooke. We were led out the backyard, seated at the tables was Helen, Kate, Lauren, Ron & Chris. The place soon filled up when Ted, Di & Adrian arrived as well as Jamie & his girlfriend Simone who happens to come from Lara and Ashlea & her boyfriend who lives & works in Echuca. Stacey & 4 month old Liam arrived later. It was all going as usual with all of 'them' at one end of the table and rest of 'us' being John, Bec, Paige & myself at the other with Dave fliting in between. We had dinner which was no differnt to lunch just mossies to keep us busy. Paige was cruising around chatting away to people when she spilt a few drops of her juice onto or near Chris's white jeans, Chris jumped out of her chair exclaiming that she doesnt appreciate having juice spilt over her. I just ignored it and thought to myself stupid her for wearing white pants to a party where there are children...for gods sake! Whilst Dave got ready as Santa, Bec asked Ron for a hold of the baby this is after he had been handed around to everyone...Ron reply was astounding. "I'll have to ask Stacey first". Stacey obviously gicing the okay Ron handed Liam over, Bec sat down and played with him, Paige being inqisitive came up and grabbed his dummy that was attatched by a cord and stuck it in her mouth as soon as I realised which was nanoseconds later I plucked out the dummy, in the time it took to do that Chris rushed over grabbed the dummy and ran inside and washed it, a minute or two later Bec stood up holding Liam under the arms , when all of a sudden Ron rushed over grabbed the baby and said to Bec sternly "thats not how you hold a baby", Bec was shocked she repkied " I think I know how to hold a baby, I do have one". At this time Chris was over at Ron's side also haranging Bec over her inability to hold a child. Bec was getting angry which I dont blame her as was I, but I had to keep the bloody peace so I just kept on saying to Bec to drop it, and that it wasnt worth worrying over it. I took them inside as Dave was ready to hand out the presents, I went & sat down with Paige however I couldnt stay as Ron & Chris came and sat behind me, so that I wouldnt loose it in front of everyone I took Paige into the hallway and stood behind Dave until Bec came and took over. I went outside to chill out, John came out and joined me, we both sat there and whinged about Ron & Chris's behaviour. We had about half an hour of peace before everyone came out. As soon as Dave came and sat down I informed him of what had happened, he went very quiet, I could tell he was angry. We stayed for seddert then left immediatly after, I dropped Bec off in Long Gully at Bob's, (her ex's Dads place) she was staying overnight there then spending the day with her friend Nae in California Gully returning on the train on Saturday. The drive back to Geelong was amusing as Chris had also upset Redeye over his eating dessert. Di had told him to have another piece so he used his old plate, but got a new spoon and dished up some of Chris's cake and left the spoon on the cake tray, Chris immediatly rushed over grabbed the spoon and went and washed it. (It was a plastic spoon!) As soon as we got home John went home and dave went to bed, I stayed up and played on Facebook then watched tv for 2 hours going to bed at 2.30am. Had a sleep in this morning not getting up until 9.30, layed in bed talking with Dave about what happened last night with his family and how I wont ever go back for Christmas Dinners with the 'family'. He then said if the economic climate allows then in 5 years we can move back over to WA. That gives me a year for my course then 4 years of saving money from working. At least now he's agreeing to move back over there, last nights treatment of Bec & Paige just confirmed what a bunch of prats they can be. So in all an eventful one, I enjoyed the morning and lunch but dinner was horrendous and Im never doing it again! Seeing Paige play with her presents makes up for all the crap of the day:)

Places Missy & Al have been to

2008-12-19T20:51:00.005+11:00

Places Missy & Al have been to

Brunei
Dubai
London
Amsterdam
Germany
Switzerland
Grindelwald. Nächste Halt, Deutschland
will keep this updated :)

2008 A Year in review

2008-12-19T19:17:00.002+11:00

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
Completed 2 online Medical Terminology Courses
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I kept my pomises to myself & I plan to make some nore plans for next year
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My nephew Joel was born
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Yes, my Mother in Law & my ex's father
5. What countries did you visit?
I havn't been overseas
6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
confidence
7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Thursday 11th November I surprised Melissa & Al at the airport
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Passed both medical terminolgy classes & level 2 first aid
9. What was your biggest failure?
Not celebrating Mothers Day properly with Rebecca
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
An episode that put me in hospital for 1 month
11. What was the best thing you bought?
A nurses dictionary
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
human nature I guess, people can do some horrible things to each other
14. Where did most of your money go?
the cost of living.....
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Seeing Melissa & Al after 1 year
16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
Sweet about me
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Happier
b) thinner or fatter? I have lost over 16 kg since the begining of the year
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
organised myself
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
wasting precious time
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
very quietly...just Dave, Bec, Paige & John then dinner in Bendigo
21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
With life
22. How many one-night stands?
NONE, Never
23. What was your favorite TV program?
Shameless, Criminal minds, Law &Order, CSI, ER
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
such a waste of an emotion
25. What was the best book you read?
A boy called 'it' by David Pelzer
26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Music DVDs
27. What did you want and get?
A dart board although theres nowehere to play it
28. What did you want and not get?
dart board stand
29. What was your favorite film of this year?
twilight.
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 43 went out to tea
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
the business remaining a sucess
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
EKKKK horrible....what concept?
33. What kept you sane?
coffee....lots of coffee
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Captain Jack Sparrow
35. What political issue stirred you the most?
The US election.....
36. Who did you miss?
My family
37. Who was the best new person you met?
Mary my case manager
38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
Let it go
39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
"theres nothing sweet about me"

I Have Been Tagged

2008-11-11T22:52:00.002+11:00

I Have Been Tagged

Thanks to Elisa who has tagged me...

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car), Prince Nissan

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie), Coffee Quatro

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name), J Tar

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal), Blue Dog

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born), Anne Swan Hill

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 3 letters of your first), Tarjen

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink), The Black Coffee

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers), Francis Eric

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy), Ysatis Turkish Delight

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ), Bernadette Stanley

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city/town that starts with the same letter), Wilson Walpole

12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower). Winter Daisy

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) Nectarine Shirty

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree), Banana Japanese Maple

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”), The Scrapbooking Rain Tour

13 things I do each day

2008-07-27T17:13:00.002+10:00

13 things I do each day

1. Take my pills
2. Have breakfast
3. Have coffee outside
4. Do dishes
5. Play on facebook
6. Check my emails
7. Sweep floor
8. Pat & play with each dog
9. Talk to Bec
10. Read the paper
11. Watch the weather channel
12. Listen to music max during the day
13. Check the letterbox

Top 13 TV shows

2008-07-27T17:03:00.002+10:00

Top 13 TV Shows

1. Law & Order SVU
2. Law & Order Criminal Intent
3. Criminal Minds
4. CSI
5. CSI Miami
6. CSI NY
7. Shameless
8. Ramseys kitchen nightmares
9. OZ
10. Malcolm in the middle
11. My name is Earl
12. Keeping up appearances
13. Without a trace

Top 13 songs

2008-07-27T16:47:00.002+10:00

My top 13 songs

1. Better man - Robbie Williams
2. Bright Lights - Matchbox Twenty
3. Have I told you lately - Van Morrison
4. Bat out of hell - Meatloaf
5. Hotel California - Eagles
6. Hot August Night - Neil Diamond
7. Annie's song -John Denver
8. Where's the ocean- Toni Childs
9. You learn - Alanis Morisette
10. I'm not crazy - Matchbox Twenty
11. Let me entertain you - Robbie Williams
12. Fast car - Tracey Chapman
13. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen

My top thirteen books

2008-07-25T10:14:00.003+10:00

My top thirteen books

1. The Stand - Stephen King
2. Thomas Covenant chronicles - Stephen Donaldson
3. East of Eden chronicles
4. Cell -Stephen King
5. Swansong - Richard MaCammon
6. Lord of the rings - Tolkein
7. Harry Potter series- JK Rowling
8. Misery - Stephen King
9. Mine - Richard MacCammon
10. Needful things -Stephen King
11. Vampire chronicles - Anne Rice
12. Anita Blake vampire chronicles - Laurell K Hamilton
13. Mayfield chronicles - Anne Rice

My top twenty movies

2008-07-25T06:00:00.002+10:00

My top twenty movies
1. The colour purple
2. Forrest Gump
3. Fried green tomatoes
4. The matrix
5. Pirates of the Caribbean
6. Pricilla queen of the desert
7. Cool hand Luke
8. Paint your wagon
9. One flew over the cuckoos nest
10. Edward scissorhands
11. I am legend
12. The life of Brian
13. Driving Miss Daisy
14. Face Off
15. Grease
16. The hunt for red october
17. The rock
18. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
19. Ghostbusters
20. Gremlins

50 before I'm 50

2008-06-29T13:04:00.002+10:00

My 50 to do list before I'm 50

1. Go on a boat cruise
2. Eat sushi
3. Visit America
4. Make my own pasta
5. Lose 40 kg
6. Write my autobiography
7. Learn Italian
8. Go to Italy
9. Have my photo taken with a beefeater
10. Take Dave to the Kimberleys
11. Fly in a hot air balloon
12. Attend an Anzac day service
13. Swim with dolphins
14. Stay for 2 nights in a 5 star motel and pamper myself
15. See a film in the gold pass section of the cinema
16. Finish knitting my black jacket
17. Throw out all the superfluous stuff in my life
18. Grow own vegetable garden
19. Eat something I've caught
20. Teach someone to read
21. Watch a lunar eclipse
22. Have my portrait painted
23. Watch team win premiership
24. Stand under a waterfall
25. Spend a night in a haunted house
26. Talk to a stranger on the bus
27. Collect something pointless
28. See a whale in the wild
29. Drive along route 66
30. Visit America
31. Have a short story or poem published
32. See all of Johnny Depp films
33. Memorise a poem
34. Be able to take compliments
35. Plant a tree
36. Go to the ballet
37. Read a book in one sitting
38. Visit Gallipoli
39. Grow my hair long
40. Have a white Christmas
41. Attend a scrapbooking convention in America
42. Go white water rafting
43. Love my body
44. Ride a motorbike on the open road
45. Own a tailor made suit
46. Learn to tango
47. Do something I fear
48. Pay It Forward
49. Be an extra in a film
50. Ride a horse

Life goes on

2008-04-24T13:11:00.002+10:00

For Dave's birthday I had bought tickets to Matchbox Twenty but due to his Mum's passing he didn't want to go so I took Bec along with me (It was her first concert) I was hobbling on crutches and my knees were in absolute agony but that didn't deter me. I drove the ute as its an automatic so no gear changing which made it easier. We had great seats and had a fantastic time, Thirsty Merc was the lead in band. Matchbox Twenty came out and sang for a whole 2 hours.
The following week was spent at Dr's getting an X-ray of my right knee, and its also full of arthritis and has 3 spurs on the end of the bones, so I'm to have a CT (Arthogram) scan on Monday 28th, it takes around 40 minutes and dye is injected into the knee, so I will be in some discomfort from that so I've saved 1 endone for Monday.
On the 17 th I had my last cigarette, I've been feeling sick smoking them and my asthma was getting bad so I just stopped, it helped not going anywhere and not being around people who smoke, so Its been a week and the cravings have now passed. I'm really proud of myself as I've tried to quit that many times in the past couple of years. This time is forever as I don't want to end up like Peg dying from Lung Cancer. (Not that she smoked)
Dave's working today and is heading up to the farm tomorrow for the weekend to clean out some more of the sheds, we have had prospective clients(Dingee Historical Society) go through the house and we are now waiting to see what they offer. The society's house they are currently in is being demolished by the school to make way for a car park, so they need somewhere in the area to store all their stuff and to have the place used as a gathering house for any clubs that require space. So fingers crossed. Something has got to start going the right way for us, since moving over to Victoria we've had nothing but one disaster after another.

A death, a funeral & a hospital visit

2008-04-14T12:14:00.003+10:00

All I can say what a crappy day Wednesday was. Dave had left early to go to Bendigo to help finalise some of the arrangements for the funeral that day. I came outside to put all my stuff in the car ready to pick up Bec to take her, Paige and myself to Bendigo. I noticed 2 cars stopped in the middle of the road and I saw a black cat lying in the middle, sure enough as I walked over I realised it was Molly, she had been hit by a car and left for dead, by the time I got to her she took her last breath, I burst into tears as I didn't have time to bury her as I had to get to Bendigo, so I picked her up and took her home and placed her near the gate to the back of the house. I cried all the way to Bec's. I'm not a cat lover but I had grown fond of her. We arrived in Bendigo at 12pm and went to Helen's place to get ready. We arrived at Napier Park funeral parlour at 12.45pm and the place was absolutely packed, standing room at the back. The family were all sitting at the front, it was a lovely service led by the hospital chaplain, candles were lit by Dianne, Helen, Ronald & Daryl. Then family tributes were spoken by Lauren, Brooke, Stacey, Ashlea & Caitlin. The Eulogy was done by Peg's niece Julie Sait & Dave (eldest boy). The music chosen for the reflection was "Beyond the rainbow's end". Caitlin read the reflection then the Lords prayer was said.
To end the service a lovely poem was read called

"The Road Home"

When I come to the end of the road
And the sun has set for me,
I want no rites in a gloom-filled room;
Why cry for a soul set free!
Miss me a little--but lot too long
And not with your head bowed low;
Remember the love that we once share
Miss me--but let me go!

For this is a journey we all must take
and each must go alone;
It's all a part of the Master's plan
A step on the road to home.
When you are lonely and sick of heart
Go to the friends we know
And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds,
Miss me but let me go...

The casket was carried out by sons David, Ronald, Daryl, son-in-law Ted, nephews Matt & Jamie and was led by Peg's brother Roy. The procession went to Eaglehawk Cemetery, prayers were said as the coffin was lowered, flowers were offered to anyone who wished to place them onto the coffin. Norm & Peg are together again.
We all went to the Botanical Gardens Hotel for the wake, there were so many people from all over, such as Hobart, Deneliquin, Geelong & Bendigo. As the trays of food were brought out I decided to help distribute the food, going from table to table. It was very dark inside and as I was called over to serve some people I fell over the stage, the tray went flying & so did I. I twisted both knees, jarred my back and hit my head, I was unable to move so an ambulance was called & I was taken to hospital, I puffed on the green stick all the way I knew nothing was broken but knew I had torn my ligaments in both knees. I was seen almost straight away, was given Panadine Forte and had x-rays taken of my left leg as that was the one that hurt the most & my back. When the doctor returned the pain was still the same so I was given Endone, all the x-rays showed was that I have arthritis in my left knee & lower spine (which I already knew), I was given a script and sent home. Dave had already left as he had to take Roy to the airport so I spent the night at Helens. Dave took the train the following morning to pick me up and take the ute home. When I got up Thursday morning I ached in places I never knew I had...bruises were already coming out on my arms, hands, chest & the bridge of my nose(where the tray hit) and my knees, when I went to stand up my right knee went from under me and that when I realised I had hurt both knees. I rang Fiona up to see if I could borrow her crutches until I could see my GP.
So hopefully nothing else will happen for awhile as they say things come in three's.

The passing of life

2008-04-06T22:45:00.002+10:00

In my last post April 1st, I said Peg (Dave's mum) had 2 weeks to live well she never made it, she lasted 5 days. Dave drove up to Bendigo on Thursday afternoon, I remained at home as I was supposed to babysit Paige on Saturday night for Bec. On Friday afternoon I rang Dave and he said they had removed all of the drainage tubes and that she would pass away within 24 -48 hours so I jumped on the next train to Bendigo then caught a cab to the hospital. All the family were there so we sat with her until 1.30 am whilst waiting for a cab to take us to Helens I had a full blown panic attack with vomiting, dizziness and chest pain. We went back to Helen's place (Dave's sister) and went to bed. Got up at 8.30 am Saturday and went straight up the hospital. Pegs breathing had become more laboured and she was retaining fluid. Within 2 hours she had been given 4 doses of Morphine to help with the pain. Around 12.30 pm I went out to stretch my legs, Dave decided to go down to the lake and have a coffee and a bit of a break from the hospital. We returned to the hospital and got up to the room just as Peg took her last 2 breaths. It was an extremely emotional time. We all took turns to say our goodbyes then went to Helens place to have a cuppa and so the family could start organising the funeral, which is to take place on Wednesday. Dave & I returned home late Saturday evening, I slept most of the way home as I had taken an anxiety pill that afternoon as I was starting to develop another full blown panic attack. So I'm not looking forward to Wednesday but at least Peg is no longer suffering and at least she went quickly. I will always remember her favourite saying of "I'll say".

Dave's Birthday

2008-04-01T18:44:00.004+11:00

Happy Birthday Dave, unfortunately he has to work tonight so no going out to dinner maybe on the weekend depending on what's happening with Peg (Dave's mum).
A couple of weeks ago she had been complaining of a consistent cough, the Doctor just said she had the flu but it was constant, anyway the finally x-rayed her and saw a shadow on her lung meanwhile she was also having gallbladder pains. They ending up admitting her and drained around 450 mls fluid from her lung, they put her on morphine for the pain, she was booked in for surgery (biopsy) to see what the shadow was, the Doctors even thought she may have inhaled a foreign body. Dave went up on the weekend and visited her and came home saying she's sitting up really chirpy looks good apart from the fact she's lost some weight. Then on the Thursday at 7.20 pm we got a call from Helen to come to Bendigo as they weren't sure if Peg was going to make it through the night, so we were in Bendigo by 9pm. I nearly died when I saw her she was yellow and grey at the same time, she had lost lots of weight, not the same person I saw a couple of months ago for her 80th birthday. They had taken her down for an x-ray earlier on and her lung collapsed, they drained another 850mls out and gave her more morphine, so she was in and out whilst we were there, I drove Fe home and Dave & Daryl came back together. So we've been waiting for the results and they finally came today she has end stage lung cancer its also in her chest plate, she has 1-2 weeks to live. So she's been moved to a hospice where her pain will be managed and that's as much as I know at this time.

March madness

2008-03-05T14:14:00.003+11:00

Well March started on Saturday and I took Bec, Paige & Bec's two friends to the market, we got there late so everyone was packing up. Dropped Bec off at home and came home myself, was just getting dinner on early so I could watch the footy (yay its back on) I got a call from Bec, Luke put himself on the train and was arriving that evening, poor Bec was so upset as there was a court order stating he could stay there while mediation was going on, (which totally sucks) I told her to ring her Lawyer, but apparently its above board so she has to put up with him, I said don't feed him as she had just gone and bought a whole heap of meat which would last her a couple of months but with the mobile garbage machine then only a couple of days. anyway she cooked up spaghetti as her 2 friends were staying there so he got canned baked beans. Monday morning a team of people arrived unannounced to Bec's to witness Luke's interaction with Paige, there was Bec's lawyer, a rep from DHS, Luke's Lawyer & a plain clothes Police officer, anyway Bec was feeding Paige at the time, he was still in bed, when he did finally come out he grunted at the people (thinking they were friends from Bec's mother group) and he went back to bed, they stayed for a couple of more hours leaving about 20 minuted before I came to pick Bec up for her leg waxing at 3.30pm. So he made a really good impression..NOT
He is still there and will be until Thursday afternoon as that's when the last mediation session is.
Today (Wednesday) is Fiona's 40th birthday so Bec, Paige & myself are going out to dinner with Daryl, Fi, Billy, Brodie & Jason, thinking it will be a quiet family affair today I find out that around 20 people are going to be there, I'm still no good around large crowds I get overwhelmed & anxious. . Dave has to work nights tonight, so at least I have Bec & I can use Paige as an excuse to leave early, at least its close by its at the Lara pub. Well that's my catch up for now...

Another crappy week

2008-02-27T17:28:00.002+11:00

Well my waxing session went well, I then picked up Bec & we went to Corio shops for a coffee, I dropped in some slides to be turned into photos, Rabbit photo shop had a special of 50 cents per slide normally $1.50 ea, so I selected 92 pics of our childhood. Whilst at the shops I broke my handbag & smashed my sunglasses beyond repair.
I sent Ashley a Happy Birthday text on Thursday she turned 14, where does the time go? The weekend arrived & I felt really crappy, suffering from nightmares & panic attacks. I took Bec & Paige to the market on Saturday and bought myself a new pair of sunnies for $10, I never spend more than that on glasses as Dave is forever borrowing them, he stretches & scratches them. Dave's been working day & nights to try & bring in some urgently needed money, so he's absolutely exhausted, the other night he did 3 seperate jobs finally arriving home at 5am, grabbing 3 hours sleep and then doing a day shift. I don't sleep very well when he's not here.
It has taken all my willpower this week not to end up in the Psych hospital again, the voices are back and I'm finding it hard to concentrate, I have the most overwhelming urge to hurt myself. To overcome them I've been keeping myself busy with Bec & Paige. Bec rang me on Tuesday & informed me that Luke has applied for sole custody, that really put me in a tail spin, I ended up having a full blown panic attack, vomiting, headaches, all over body shakes, so Dave took me out for dinner ( I was totally incapable of cooking) to Ripper Roast, we then had coffee at the Texas Pizza Shop & called in on Bec but she was out. I called into the accountants today & picked up our BAS, I almost burst into tears as we've got a bill over $3500 payable by this Friday & I don't have it due to having no work for over 3 months, I've also got to pay Dave's tax bill & that's $1900, so I've been stressing over that, we've got over &10,000 outstanding to us but that doesn't help in the short term. I picked Bec up today (Wednesday) and took her to legal aid as she had an appointment with a lawyer, due to Luke's past history he wont get sole custody but will have visitation rights, once Paige is older he will be allowed to have her overnight and some weekends, but first he needs to find accommodation. Tomorrow I'm taking Bec & Paige to Werribee to get meat from Tasman Meats, she also needs to buy a high chair. This Friday I've an appointment with Centrelink regarding my disability pension, & I'm sure I've incurred a debt, & I will probably lose my pension altogether, I hope not as I wont be able to afford my Psych meds. My private health cover does not kick in until 26th June, so that will help the situation a bit. Well that's been my week, hopefully March will be better.

Another big catch up

2008-02-19T07:36:00.002+11:00

November 2007 I attended another Getaway, I hadn't scrapped in such a long time that I only managed 5 LO's for the whole weekend, I mainly slept and socialised. On the 13th Nov we celebrated Luke (Bec's partner) birthday, we went out to dinner to the Thai Influence Restaurant.
December arrived with still no work as the trucks were out of action. Melissa & Al arrived on the 17th at 4.55 am, they spent 2 nights with us then spent a couple of days doing the tourist thing in Melbourne (Al's first trip to Melbourne). Xmas Day was fairly laid back, we had lunch then Dave went up to Bendigo to spend the night with his family, I had already told him I was spending it here in Lara (Don't need the 'family' crap anymore), so Xmas night was at Daryl & Fe's, we were home by 9pm. I took Melissa & al up to Bendigo the following day so they could catch up with Peg (Nan).
New Years Eve was stinking hot so we decided to have a BBQ down on Eastern Beach and watch the fireworks, it was great not only did we see the fireworks in Geelong but could see another 2 lots going on around the area. Afterwards we went to Dave's mates place and spent the next couple of hours drinking & swimming in their pool. Miss & Al flew out on the 6th Jan, I was a blubbering mess.
On the 10th Jan Fe was induced and she invited me to be there with her & Daryl, so I got to see another baby into the world, it still amazes me.
Caron, Anthony & kids were coming over for Paige's christening, they're to be her Godparents, so they put the twins on a plane and they set off in their 4WD, the twins did not cope very well with being away from Mum & dad so Sheree their Big sister came and took them for a couple of days. On Sunday 20th Jan we celebrated Peg's 80th Birthday with a BIG family get together. (I had to attend this one) I spent the whole day outside the function room as it was too cramped & stuffy, I used Paige as an excuse to leave as soon as the cake was cut. The following week was spent getting ready for Paige's christening. Unfortunately hardly anyone showed up, at least we had Godparents. Caron & Anthony bought Paige the most beautiful gown, vest, necklace & candle. In my rush I forgot to empty the camera and was unable to take any photos, so am waiting on Anthony, hopefully he has some nice ones. Caron, Anthony & family left the following day to return to Perth.
Dave finished repairing the truck so we were back in business (after 3 months of no income) so to treat ourselves we went fishing on the 3 rd Feb, we went to Torquey and inquired as to the best fishing spot, we were directed down a dirt road it turned out to be the nudist beach, not deterred we went and spent a couple of hours attempting to fish but the surf was too high & too many rips so we went for a drive around the area, ending up in Geelong fishing off the main pier, Dave caught a small brim. It was good just to get out the 2 of us.
On Friday 15th Dave took his mate Redeye out for lunch, Dave won over $400 on the pokies so he paid all the small bills around town and took me out to dinner at the Grovedale Hotel, the meal was divine, a bit on the expensive side but well worth it.
Tuesday 19th was an eventful day, Bec's partner Luke left to return to Bendigo as the relationship is over, he was supposed to looking after Paige when she cut herself in his care, that was the last straw for Bec, so I took him to the train station as I was concerned he might get aggro. He went quietly. I then caught up with Bec after her Mothers group, we went for lunch and did some shopping, I dropped her off around 4.45 pm and came home, I sent her a text later on in the evening to see how she was going, she said Paige was looking for Luke and that made her upset so I told her to put all her energy and focus on bubs.
Well I'm off to get my waxing done.

I had the remote control for the weekend

2007-10-21T21:47:00.000+10:00

Yes I actually had control over the remote...Your probably thinking whats the big deal but if you knew Dave and his obsession with the remote....
Dave went up to Bendigo/Dingee for the weekend. He had to attend a funeral in Bendigo on the Friday, his friend Cliff Doherty's brother Doc died of lung cancer. They are such an unlucky family, around 3 years ago one of the brother's daughter got killed in a car crash, there were a few people in the car, they had stolen it and there was an ensuing police car chase but the police backed off as it was too dangerous to continue and only about 10 minutes later she was dead, lost control on a corner and ploughed into a tree head first. Then last year one of the younger brothers, Lenny died of cancer then the Father at the beginning of the year and now Doc.

Dave then went up to the farm to mow the jungle and to make a start clearing the shed...lol
We've been asked again to rent out the house but we don't want the hassle of tenants and seeing as we are going to put it on the market there's no point, I know its dead money, its just easier the way it is.
So on Friday Bec, Luke & Paige came over we had a movie day/night, I cooked spaghetti (only time I can have it is when Dave's not here) the following day my SIL Fe and her kids Billy, Brodie, Meg and myself went to the Geelong show, we got there early so the kids could get to have rides without queuing for too long and get the show bags they wanted. I won this really cute yet weird toy for Paige (apparently its called a Chub Chub), I bought her a fairy show bag and got Dave his favourite Darrell Lea Pig Out Bag, I was very good I bought a pair of sunnies as I had left mine at home. I looked at the bags of fairy floss, but I walked away.
We came home just after 1.30 by then the crowd had started and you could hardly move, I still have problems with big crowds.
Bec, Luke & Paige came over in the afternoon and stayed for pizza, I sat up and watched some movies, went to bed around 1am hoping to have a sleep in but no I woke up around 7am, did a little bit of housework then sat and watched TV for the remainder of the morning until Dave came home just on 2pm. We went out for dinner as I didn't feel like cooking, so we went to the Sphinx...don't bother going, the meal was not how we ordered it, and for the price you would expect a lot better.
Dave went and played the pokies, so I went and sat outside fanning myself with the Chinese fan I have for my lovely hot flushes, I get quite a few stares and alot of smiles especially when I'm perched on the dairy section ledge in the supermarkets...

Bec had her Gall Bladder surgery on Wednesday they were able to remove it via keyhole so she has 4 puncture sites and is quite mobile, shes just having problems lifting Paige as she has put on so much weight...little porker, I even find it hard holding her for any length of time as it pulls on my stomach, which is infected yet again so I'm going to have to get some more antibiotics.

Totally inane stuff

2007-10-12T22:12:00.000+10:00

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car), Prince Nissan
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie), Coffee Quatro
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name), J-Tar
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal),Blue Dog
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born), Anne Swan Hill
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 3 letters of your first), TarJen
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink), The Red Cougar
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers), Francis Edward
9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy), Ysatis Lindt
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ),Burnadette Stanley
11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter), Morris Manilla
12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower).Winter Rose
13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) Strawberry Pajamie
14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree), Cornflake Japanese Maple
15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”), Scrapbooking Storm Tour

Our 15th wedding anniversary

2007-10-11T22:11:00.000+10:00

Some more Tasmanian holiday photos taken in Sheffield and the West gate Bridge at 7am.

Today the 11th October is our 15th Wedding anniversary, I spent he morning finishing off the books in readiness for our 11.30 appointment with the accountant. I came home and spent he afternoon with Bec, Luke and Paige while waiting for Dave to return home so we could get the kitchen table repaired and brought inside. We went and had a counter meal at the Fyansford Pub then went to the Sphinx Club where Dave won over $100 on the pokies so I made him leave, (Me still with the $20 in my purse he gave me)
Since the end of September Ive been feeling off colour, by Wednesday 3rd October whilst shopping with Bec I almost collapsed so I rang around Doctor surgeries to try and get in somewhere, I managed to see Dr Darling in Corio at 5.45 pm, he looked at my wound and suggest I go up to the Emergency Dept and see them there as I needed A CT scan and blood tests.
I was seen by 9pm and they then spent the next 2 hours trying to take blood and to get a vein to stay up without collapsing. After 4 attempts on my right arm and 6 on my left they settled for my right foot, even that was an effort. A swab was taken of my wound and it was cleaned up, I was given some Panadol Forte and sent home, I rang Dave and as it was 2 am he told me to catch a cab. The next morning I had a Ultrasound with a follow up Doctor appointment on Friday where it was A Staph infection so I was given 2 different types of antibiotics. I started to improve within 48 hours and now feel so much better, I still have limitations but its just time.
Since Sunday Ive been doing bookwork in readiness for the Accountant, Ive even been getting up at 2am in the morning to work on them, I normally are up to date but due to Bec having the baby and my operation I have let things go and have paid the price...over 20 hours of writing, adding and calculating.
I'm looking forward to the weekend as I have nothing planned and now that I have access to the scrap booking room I will be organising in preparation of the getaway, and maybe a sleep in...

Terrific Tasmanian Holiday

2007-10-01T11:51:00.000+10:00

We started our holiday on the 21st August, we boarded the Spirit of Tasmania for an overnight trip. we did it on the cheap by booking lounge chairs instead of a room. Upon arrival in Tasmania we were given a discounted breakfast voucher which we used. Our first stop was Beaconsfield. We did the tour of the gold mine museum and then stet off for Bicheno on the east coast driving on the main highway until a Y intersection just after Conara we went left and drove to Stony Creek for a look and came out at Fingal, onward to St Marys down to Chain of Lagoons then to Bicheno. We stayed at the Bicheno Ocean View Retreat for 2 nights. The following day we went for a drive up to St Helens then inland to Scotsdale then to Launceston driving further down the highway to Campbell Town turning left to Cranbrook and returning to Bicheno.
The morning of our departure we went and visited the East Coast Nature World where we saw Devils, King Brown Snakes, Koalas, Wallabies. Kangeroos, a variety of birds and all sorts of animals.
We drove down the Tasman Highway via Richmond where I took a photo of the oldest Bridge then on to Hobart. We were booked into the Wrest Point Casino for the night as we had a surprise 70th birthday to attend to which was being held there. It was Roy Rowe birthday(Dave's Uncle) and he was very surprised to see Dave.
Saturday morning we went to the Salamanca Markets that are held near the wharf area, there was a very eclectic range of goods for sale...note to self take more money next time
That evening was spent at Dave's cousins place (Jenny) where we had a BBQ for dinner, it was so nice to catch up as the last time I had seen them was in Newman in the early 90's.
Sunday we had a sleep in, then off to Port Arthur for some tourist activities, however as we started walking around my knee got progressively worse so we had to leave. They gave us a ticket that is valid for the next 2 years so if we go back we are already paid. Sunday night was spent at Roy & Ariel's place we had a lovely roast dinner and then an early night.
Monday morning we set off for the Cadbury tour that was held at 10am, there was no more tastings but you do get a small box of Favourites at the end of the tour and you get to go into the shop and buy the seconds at a discounted rate. We then set off for Strahan on the West Coast on the Lyell Highway going through Queenstown where theres copper mines.
Strahan is a beautiful little town we were unable to go on the boat cruise or the railway but have definitely pencilled them in for the next holiday, We stayed overnight at the Strahan Village in a room that overlooked the harbour it was such a wonderful view and it started to rain so we left the door open all night just to hear the rain on the roof.
The next morning going via Zeehan then Rosebery and Tullah we headed off to Cradle Mountain to have a look then on to Moina where we were staying the night at Cradle Chalet Boutique Luxury Lodge, the rooms were gorgeous as was the meal and service.
The final day saw us drive through Sheffield where I took heaps of photos as certain walls in town have murals painted on them. We then decided to go back to the Beaconsfield gold museum and buy the jewellery that I liked, a gold wattle necklace with matching bracelet, it is stunning. I bought Dave a fleecy sherpa jacket and beenie.
We then drove to Devonport had a late lunch and waited to board the boat for the return trip home.
It was the best holiday I have ever been on, everywhere we went people were very pleasant and helpful. We are looking forward to returning.

Theres already Christmas stuff in the shops and other trivial stuff!

2007-09-30T21:49:00.000+10:00

September started with my operation on the Wednesday 5th, Dave drove me up to Bendigo and dropped me at the hospital, I was seen by the registrar and anaesthetist, they were to give me an epidural and a GA. I was having my right ovary removed as it keeps on developing cysts and is no longer functioning properly, and removal of a pelvic wall cyst where the left ovary used to be, so I am now going through surgically induced menopause. I came home on the Saturday, looking forward to my own bed. Dave was spending the next week working up in Bendigo so I had the bed all to myself. Bec, Luke and Paige were still here as Dave had asked Bec to look after me for the first week post surgery as he knows I'm stubborn and I will get up and do things. Well not this time, this round of surgery has flattened me, I still tire easily, cant drive a car which is the most frustrating I feel like I'm trapped....Had the stitches removed on the Tuesday which also happened to be Becs 21st, as she had been sick with gall bladder attacks we stayed home and had a quiet night, we will celebrate later on.

Bec & Luke moved out on Friday 14th. gosh it was quiet around the house...I developed an infection, it took ages to come out. I stood up and it felt like a boil had ruptured inside my abdomen and heaps of pus and blood come out of the wound, so twice a day salt washes, anyway finally a strand of human brunette straight hair came out of the wound ( my hair is coloured red) another strand has since come out.

Dave took me to my Psych appointment on the 21st, I have to be careful as to what type of hormone replacement I have.

The 22nd saw Dave's brother Daryl marry his girlfriend Fiona (Fe), the ceremony was held at Serendip Sanctuary, with Fe's 2 boys Billy & Brodie and Daryl's daughter Meg also in the wedding party, with the reception at the sports club in Lara, the weather turned out perfectly as did the whole day, it was lovely.

The past week I have spent trying to slowly clear a path on the computer table, I have three months worth of bookwork to do, and now with the other truck theres even more invoices....yuck!

Friday 28th Bec & Luke took me out for coffee at Corio shopping centre, it was so nice to get out of the house even for a short while. As we sit outside so that I can have a cigarette I noticed an orange piece of paper on the road, I scurried over (as I cant walk fast yet) and picked it up and scored $20. We wandered around Kmart and came across aisles being set up with Christmas goodies, I was gobsmacked.

Saturday was spent sitting in front of the TV watching Geelong smash Port Adelaide all over the ground, it was not a good game of football to watch.

Bec & Luke picked me up this morning and took me to the market as I'm looking for a pair of ugg boots but am having trouble due to my foot size and the fact that I cannot bend my right ankle.

I spent the rest of the afternoon doing paperwork for the business.

And I'm going to be an Aunt again........

Time marches on

2007-09-30T19:16:00.000+10:00

The 1st August arrived with Bec & myself looking at a rental house in Norlane for her, Luke and bubs. Its an old commission house but is no longer in the commission area, a very quiet neighbourhood. At only $150 p/w it was too good to pass up so we went and applied. On Friday 3rd Bec had a ante-natal appointment and was booked in for an induction on Monday, as she was contracting and bubs was completely engaged, Bec had been complaining of back aches all week. First thing Saturday morning Bec & I went to the real estate agents to sign up for the house, Dave and myself went to see Collingwood beat Carlton, at least it was a half decent game to watch.

Sunday was a quiet day spent waiting.....

We had to have Bec at the hospital by 7am on Monday morning the 6th, she was placed on a foetal monitor and was examined to see if things had progressed over the weekend, she spent one and a half hours on the monitor, then at 9am cervical gel was used. Bec was then allowed up and around so we went and had coffee and cake in the cafeteria, sitting outside in the sunshine was lovely. The contractions had started to pick up and Bec wanted to go back inside, so back up to Maternity we go, as she wasn't in really active labour, she spent the time in the day assessment unit being monitored. The doctor came around 2pm and after an examination she decided it was time to move things along so she ruptured the membranes, within minutes the contractions started to pick up pace, we were moved into one of the birthing suites. Bec sat on the large rubber ball and just focused on her breathing. She managed like this for another hour before asking for some pain relief so she started using the gas, at 4 pm she was 4cm dilated, but he contractions were now coming closer and a lot stronger, we moved into the shower. With Bec sitting on the ball and either Luke or myself behind her for support we ran the warm water over her stomach and back and alternated in giving back massages. At 7pm Bec kept on saying she wanted to push, and I kept on saying "no not yet it hasn't been long enough", after another half hour the nurse came in and suggested a quick examination, the baby's head was crowning, so Bec was told to push whenever she was ready. I held onto one of her legs and held around her neck for support, Luke was standing at the end of the bed with his mouth open in amazement. The student Doctor was on the other side of Bec, the midwife was trying carefully to get the head out when in a quick gush the head and one shoulder with the arm resting against the face pushed through, one more push and Paige Maree was born at 8.09 pm, weighing 7lb 13oz, 51cm long. Making the grand entrance that she did caused Bec to have over 60 external/internal stitches (they had to re-attach part of the labia) ouch...

Luke & I left the hospital around 11pm after making numerous mobile phone calls and sending texts with pictures attached.

Luke & I spent the next couple of days going to and from the hospital, Bec was finally released on Thursday 9th.

The next two weeks were a blur, the household getting used to having a baby around again which I thoroughly enjoy, lots of Nana cuddles. As Dave & I were going over to Tasmania for a week we asked if Bec & Luke would mind staying here and care for the dogs. So on Tuesday 21st at 5.30pm we boarded the Spirit of Tasmania for 8 days of doing nothing but what we wanted to do, no worries of the business, no worry about the kids, grand kid, dogs and cats.

Will do separate entry of Tasmanian trip.

We arrived back in Melbourne on the 30th at 7am and arrived back in Lara at 8.30am, Bec handed me my mail and in there was a letter I had been waiting months for, It was my letter regarding my surgery. I had an appointment that morning at 11 am on Bendigo, so after a real quick shower and a coffee ( I didn't sleep on the boat), Bec, Luke, Paige and myself headed off to Bendigo arriving at the hospital at 11am, I was checked over and given the all clear for surgery the following Wednesday 5th September. We then spent the afternoon visiting Luke's relatives as they had not yet seen Paige, we arrived home around 7pm. I collapsed into bed and spent the next day in there as well. That's how I saw out August. Whew!!

Time goes by

2007-09-17T14:24:00.000+10:00

I was looking back at my last entry dated 20/6 and wondered where the time had gone, so I will do this in stages.
The following week was busy filled up with Doctors appointments, dog wash, Bec went back to Bendigo on the Wednesday, got the finance for the second truck, and on Saturday 30th we took Billy to see Pirates of the Caribbean.
July arrived with the most significant thing being was we saw a solicitor regarding the Leightons contract, they gave the go ahead so we signed on the dotted line and committed the truck to that site only. Which meant employing a person, and along with wages, there's superannuation, work cover so we got the name of a good Accountant that also does payroll, as we were going to form a company. So Dajentar Pty Ltd was born.
On the 19th we drove to Frankston Nissan and traded the Hyundai on a Nissan Patrol Turbo Diesel even though its not top of the range it has a cargo barrier, sub fuel tank, cruise control, retractable roof skylight and is white in colour.
On Wednesday 25th we went and saw Phantom of the Opera at the Princess Theatre, it was good but had altered quite a bit from the first interpretation which I think will always be in my memory.
On Saturday we went to the Telstra Dome to watch Carlton play St Kilda needless to say who won...not us.
Sunday night was spent in A& E with suspect gallstones, have to have an ultra sound.

Filling in the blanks

2007-06-26T06:29:00.000+10:00

The last time that I wrote in my blog was back in March, so I think an update is well overdue. We saw out the end of March with a family wedding, Stacey (Dave's niece) married her long time boyfriend (Tim)at the Big Hill Vineyard in Bendigo, the ceremony was held in a 'shed' then the reception was held indoors, the meal was shocking all the food was cold and it was chops and sausages done on a bbq, each to their own. So we left around 9.30 and went to the All Seasons and played on the pokies until 1 am, we then went back to our motel. The next morning was Dave's birthday so we headed off early to see his Mum for a cuppa. Peg has decided to sell her house and move into a unit as the garden has become too much for her. We then headed down to Melbourne for the first game of footy Carlton v Richmond, not a good game to watch but at least footy's back. yay

Easter was a quiet affair we went to Queenscliff for the seafood festival along with some friends of ours John & Denise, there was live music and queues at all these different tents where you got your selection of different seafood, not being a mad fish eater I settled on the good old basic flake. Note to self next year bring a chair...

Friday 13th April Dave & I flew to Perth for a wedding, we picked up our hire car after having to pay an extra $216.00 and drove to Scarborough, where we met up with Melissa & Al, we had dinner in the restaurant at Observation city, the meal was a buffet style and was lovely. Melissa said she was unable to get any time off work to attend the wedding so Dave rang Daniel and invited him instead, that way we could all catch up, (Daniel & Jacob were playmates in Newman). Sue's (girlfriend from Newman) eldest son Jacob was marrying a young girl from Carmel in Perth on Saturday. We went to the shopping complex where they had their gift registry unfortunately the computers were down so we were unable to find out what they had listed so it was the good old money voucher in a card. We then picked up Daniel and took him to buy some new shirts then off to a friends Peter's to get ready, the men sat around and watched the football, with me reminding them we only have half an hour to get to the venue. So we set off at break neck speed and arrived with 5 minutes to spare. The ceremony was lovely as was the reception, we were under a huge marquee with a dance floor. The meal was sumptuous the whole event went off smoothly, it was great to catch up with Kirby (Sue's daughter) and Jacob.

We left after midnight and drove Daniel back home to Samson (near Freemantle) then drove to Armadale where Kirby lives, stayed for a couple of coffees then drove back to Scarborough collapsing into bed around 4am. I was up at 8am and left Dave in bed whilst I went down for breakfast. We left the motel at 9.30 and drove up to Elisa's in Quinns Rocks, it was hard driving past Jacquie's and not calling in to see the kids :(

We stayed and had lunch with Darian and his daughter Meagan as well as Elisa's tribe, I was amazed as to how much Matthew & Eloise had grown. We left around 2.30 and drove to Caron & Anthony's in Edgewater, it was so good to catch up with all the kids, Emily had grown taller, Chantelle, Laura & Josh were the same. Melissa & Al arrived followed by Eddie (Anthony's long term friend), we had a fondue for dinner which Dave had never had before, he thoroughly enjoyed it. Its a great way of catching up as you chat whilst your meat cooks. I decided to have a few bourbons well that turned into quite a few then the Galliano & Zambucca came out and of course I had to have some,

Dave & I had Nathans bed as he was away at a mates place, being used to a King size and going into a double Dave stretched out and I was pushed off the bed so I slept on the couch in the lounge, I woke up to hearing the kids giggling in the kitchen, Caron telling them to be quiet, I said it was okay as I was awake, the kids laughed even more. So I got up and in the kitchen was a sign saying "Do not disturb, snoring", I laughed that much my side hurt, it was a one of you had to be there type moments.
We then drove into the city and checked into our motel, walked around the mall, had an afternoon nap, met up with Daniel and went to Willeton to Pete's place for a roast dinner which was cooked in a webber. Took Daniel back home and returned to the motel checking back in around 1am. Thank goodness for late checkout, so at 10am we went off into the city having breakfast had an express croissant shop, we then walked the mall calling into Myer where Dave bought me my favourite perfume Ysatis by Givenchy. We met up with Al & Melissa for a smorgasbord lunch at Miss Maudes, enjoyed a meal there and walked into the city and had a couple of drinks at the Moon & Sixpence until it was time to leave for the airport. Miss & Al walked us back to our car and we said our goodbyes we arrived at the airport to find that the plane was delayed up to 3 hours so checked in and went upstairs to wait, Dave bought a car magazine & I bought Kathy Lettes's latest book 'How to kill your husband, and other handy household hints'. I think at times my laughing kept everyone amused, we rang Daryl to let him know our arrival time was around 2.30 am that went down very well. lol
I slept most of Wednesday away as I didn't get much on my 'holiday', the following 2 days were spent getting blood tests done here and in Bendigo, so whilst in Bendigo I drove up and visited Bec & Luke in Echuca coming home via the farm where I grabbed the last of my scrapping gear. So Sunday was spent setting the scrapping room, not that I have used it.
The following week was busy with Accountants appointment for our BAS, Kindy Day where I was invited to play with Brodie at his daycare centre, a GP appointment on the Friday so my week was filled up. All through this my depression was creeping back in.
Tuesday saw the start of May, Billy's birthday was on the Saturday he turned 12, he invited a few mates to go to TimeZone, I got an invite as well, and I love playing the old pinball machines. We had been thee for a couple of hours when I was walking down the stairs my left ankle let go and down I went rolling the pinned ankle, all I could do at the time was sit there and just let the pain settle down, so that ended the day. I came home and strapped the ankle, kept on applying cold packs to it and elevated it. On the Sunday I was admitted to the Swanston Centre (Psychiatric Hospital) for my own safety. They let me out for an hour on Tuesday so I could see my own private Psychiatrist and then released me home on the Wednesday, I spent the next couple of days in a haze as my medication got altered again. Saturday we went to the footy to watch the Carlton v Collingwood game (I took a panic attack pill, which really helped me with the huge crowd). Sunday was Mothers Day so off to Bendigo we go to have lunch at the Allies Hotel with Peg it was nice to go out but it was even better to get home. Wednesday arrived with the dogs having their bath & clip, Bec arrived by train for a week of rest. Friday I saw Dr Singh (Psychiatrist),he increased my anti-psychotic drug to 1200mg a day, so I was a real zombie of an evening. On Tuesday Bec & I called into Werribee Plaza so she could pay some money on the pram when my back spasmed, all I could do was drive home and have a Valium and lie down, so Dave had to drive Bec back to Echuca.
Dave took Billy to the football on the Saturday as my back was still spasmed. it hurt to sit, lie down, stand, actually there is nothing you can do to get comfortable when your back goes like this. I came good on the Tuesday and on the Wednesday Bec & Luke arrived for a visit and to check out the rental market down here. On Saturday we went to the Berkley Park Markets then on the Sunday the showground markets, whilst there Dave rang and told us we were going for a BBQ at Serendip Sancturary with his friend John & wife Denise. So we came home got everything ready and had a lovely BBQ, Bec went for a walk around the park with Denise, Luke set off afterwards to find them, Dave & John went off walking and talking about cars so I stayed behind and enjoyed the peace & quiet.
On Wednesday 6/6, I took Bec & Luke back to Echuca getting home around 9pm, Saturday we went to the footy to watch Carlton beat Port Adelaide :)
On the Sunday Dave & I went for a drive to Winchelsea and checked out this collectible store which was run by a friend of Dave's (Tim who also had a hot rod), whilst the men admired the hot rod, I had fun in the shop buying old swap cards and comics, we then headed off to the local hotel for a counter meal then drove to Colac just for a look at the town then drove back home, in all a lovely day out.
I was so looking forward to my birthday as Dave & I had planned to see Shrek 3 in the afternoon have an early dinner (Thai) then go and watch Pirates of the Caribbean, but on Monday night that got ruined by 3 jobs turning up, I spent it alone so I bombed myself out with some really strong sleepers.
Friday I saw my Psych again and he has reduced my anti-depressant by 20mg, went to the Dome and watched Hawthorn beat the crap out of Carlton, in fact it was that bad Dave insisted we leave at 3/4 time. So we came home where he watched the last quarter screaming at the tv....lol
On Saturday Bec arrived for another break, on Sunday John, Denise, Lionel, Bec, Dave & myself had a roast lunch which all went to shit as Denise stuck her nose in...
My first ever house inspection was held on Wednesday 20/6, we passed with flying colours, even managing to hide Elisa's cats. So Bec & I have spent the past week looking at & buying baby stuff, we bought a cot off ebay and picked it up from Altona, it came with mattress, protector, sheets & blankets. Not bad for $76. :)
The last week of the month has been spent looking at second hand stores, going to markets, mentoring with NEIS, joining a health fund, took Bec to the GP(general check-up, the baby is engaged), got dogs washed & clipped then drove Bec back to Bendigo via Werribee (pram payment) arriving back home last night at 7.25 pm, where I found Dave asleep on the couch so I left him there and got into my pj's and watched TV in bed. My mood this week has been all over the place, lots of lows with a few high days. You can tell when its happening by when I buy things on ebay, the voices are under control which is a good thing but now its my voice telling me to harm myself and I sit or lay in bed at night planning my own death, down to the last detail. So when I see the Psych next I will talk to him about it.
So Ive finally caught up after 3 drafts...time to do the books for the business
If you've managed to read this epic you have done well.

Have you ever done?

2007-06-03T19:14:00.001+10:00

Have You Ever Done…
highlight the ones you have done.

1. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
2. Swam with dolphins
3. Climbed a mountain
4. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
5. Been inside the Great Pyramid
6. Held a tarantula
7. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
8. Said “I love you” and meant it
9. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17 Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s nappy
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 8 states/Territories
41. Taken care of someone who was **** faced
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River (any river will do)
82. Been on television news programs as an expert
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Eaten fugu (pufferfish)
89 Had a one-night stand
90. Gone to Thailand
91. Bought a house
92. Been in a combat zone
93. Buried one/both of your parents
94. Been on a cruise ship
95. Spoken more than one language fluently
96. Performed in Rocky Horror Picture Show
97. Raised children
98. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds (45.5 kilograms)
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Ridden a bike
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey
135. Selected one important author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

Footy's back.....

2007-03-30T09:50:00.000+10:00

Yes it's that time of year, footy's back...yee har
For Dave's birthday I have bought him gold membership to Carlton which gives him all the games in Melbourne with allocated seats, on the lower tier near the goal posts. The first game is on Sunday which is Dave's actual birthday so we will be going to the 'G' to watch Carlton v Richmond. Go the Blues.....
He's already received a present from Melissa, which is fridge magnets and business cards, they look really neat and Dave was stoked. (See above pictures)
Were off to Bendigo on Saturday for Dave's nieces wedding (Stacey Tarr) which is being held at Big Hill Vineyard...well excuse me...lardy dar, I'm really not looking forward to it, so Fiona (Daryl's fiance) and myself will be doing shooters. Fiona has already got the shot glasses, when you bang them down they light up.
So were staying in Bendigo for the night at the Haymarket Motel(with a spa) and then heading down to Melbourne the following day.
I've spent the last three days doing bookwork, trying to get financials together as we are looking at buying another sweeper, so then the fun begins. We will probably become a company with myself as Director and I will then employ Dave as a contractor so he can then get work cover, superannuation and the rest of the benefits and it means we only pay tax at a company rate. Anyway I will be talking to my accountant about it. We are in the process of renting a shed in Lara for the trucks so that the men can have all their tools and spare parts stored and it will give them room to fix things. So were going halves with Daryl so the rent is only $160 per week which is totally tax deductible.
So I have made a decision I won't be doing the aged care course as I will be running the business full time, not only do I do my books but I help Fiona with hers.
Saw my Psychiatrist on Wednesday for an hour and we discussed treatment options, he believes he can help me, and their is a possibility I won't be on medication for the rest of my life.
Its going to take around six months of intense therapy (weekly appointments) its called psycho therapy. He has already warned me that its a huge possibility I will relapse and end up in hospital, he believes that I have schizoid tendencies with bipolar disorder totally bought on by childhood mental, physical and sexual abuse, and that the voices that I hear are of my parents and myself as a child.
So he has increased my Seroquel ( anti-psychotic) to 800 mg a day to eliminate the voices and then we are to start treatment. He has also given me really strong meds for anxiety, you only need a half. Otherwise you'll be zonked out. I've also got the best sleepers they are non-addictive and work within half an hour, (Stilnox) I have the slow release and the normal ones.
Went and saw the Doctor yesterday for tablets to stop smoking, as Ive tried the patches and gum to no avail, so I have a script for xyban, hopefully that will work, cause I really want to quit.
Just not this weekend, having to deal with Ron & Chris and the rest of the family is extremely stressful.

The female line continues

2007-03-21T10:30:00.000+11:00

Becs having a girl. Yes its pink. lol Bec had her nineteen week ultrasound on Monday and everything is looking really good. I was absolutly amazed at the clearness of the pictures, we got to see fingers, toes, ribs, ateries to the kidneys and heart chambers. Bec not only received pictures but had a video made of the ultrasound. She is twenty weeks and her due date is still the 2nd August.

She is looking really well, and she's lost weight. She's booked into Bendigo Base to have the baby and to start ante natal classes.

My week started off fairly quiet, just going to the gym. Then dave 'accidently' stoved the side of the truck into a power pole and damaged the tank and running gear. He finished the job he was on and came home to repair it, so all Friday was spent running arond for parts and tools. It was finally repaired by 10.30 pm, On Saturday morningI sprayed primer on it whilst dave went into town for the remaining parts, Dave then spent the afternoon spraying the tank white.

We headed up to Bendigo that afternoon to surprise Trevor for his 40th, the party was being held in the White Hills Football club rooms, there was a great turn out, instead of presents a wishing well was set up where you could deposit money as Trev's dream is to go to America.

there was a TV set up inthe corner with the NAB cup being displayed, Carlton beat Brisbane. Go the Blues....

We left the party just after 11pm and went back to the Haymarket motel where we had a room for the evening.

At 4.30 in the morning Dave's mobile rang, I answered it, the caller asked if it was All Hours street sweeping, I said 'yes one moment' and handed the phone over to Dave. They then asked dave if he swept streets at night, Dave said Yes why, the caller then said" Can you come and sweep my street as I want to wake my neighbours up", Dave replied with some unmentionables and went back to sleep, I however was wide awake.

Breakfast arrived at 8.15 which we thoroughly enjoyed, I then paid the account and checked on the room booking for the niece's wedding thats in a fortnight.

Called in and had a cup of tea with Daves mum Peg, she has decided to sell her house and move into a unit. She's found a nice one and has made an offer all dependant on her selling her house, not that I think she'll have much problems as its a nice house with a lovely garden.

Dave drove back to Lara to finish a few repairs on the truck, I had a quick Nana nap and we set off back up to Bendigo, i followed the truck until we reached the Calder highway just out of Gisborne, then I drove straight through to Dingee arriving around 10.30 pm. I dragged the single mattress into the kitchen, left the door open and the fanon and crashed on top. Monday morning arrived too quickly as did the flies. So I packed some more boxes in the ute and went next door for a cuppa and a chat. Left there at 11 am and got down the road and heard a bang, i stopped the car had alook couldnt find anything, got back in, got up to 70 km and bang, bang, bang.... stopped thinking i had a flat, checked allthe tyres they were fine, nothing leaking under the car. Got back in slowly drove and nothing as soon I got up to 70 bang, bang, bang. I got out again and checked undr the front end, there was a piec of balck plastic hanging down, it seewmed to be attatched to the front bumper. Not wanting to destroy it I called into Rick's place and he repaired it for me while I waited so I counted the cats and there was quite a few new additions...lol

I set off for Echuca and arrived at 12, had a couple of cups of coffee whilst we waited for Bec's ultrasound appointment which was at 2pm. Dropped Bec and Luke at home and headed back to Bendigo to catch up with Dave, as he was working in town for the week and staying with his mum. When I called him all that changed the job was finished early and so he was heading back home for a couple of days. I left Bendigo at 6 pm and arrived home in time to play with two very excited dogs before watching Desperate Housewives.

Dave's plan of having a couple of days off got cancelled with 4 jobs comming up within hours, night shift in Melbourne and work out of Geelong. At least were getting the work.

So this week Im doing the books, going to Melbourne to get new brooms for the truck, going to Avalon to watch the Airshow...(Ive had to listen to the planes go overhead for the past week, and feel the house vibrate) I might as well go and see them in action. Hopefully get some interesting pictures.

The holidays over

2007-03-03T17:40:00.000+11:00

Today Mum flew back to Perth after staying with Dave and myself since the thirteenth of February, she came over for a Burns Family Reunion that was held in Bendigo on the eighteenth of February at the RSL club in Long Gully. Rebecca, Luke (her partner) Dave, Mum and myself represented Frank & Elsie Burns along with Sharyn Ficarra and her son Charles and wife.
We visited a neice of Mums in Langwarren, we travelled across the bay on the Queenscliff ferry to Sorrento. We had a GPS with us that we nicknamed Smarty Marty as he managed to get me through Melbourne without going on any tollways back to Geelong. We drove around the foreshore and saw a ferris wheel all lit up so upon investigation we found it was working so we went up and the view was absolutly awesome. The beams were constantly changing colour, after our ride we walked down onto the beach and took some photos of the giant wheel turning.
We then had Thai for dinner, dining on some really yummy char-grilled octopus, then a chicken green curry.
The following day was spent driving to Steiglitz to find the cemetary to photograph the headstones of our great grandparents. We then used a map that Nana Burns had drawn to find the old farm, the map was so accurate it was spooky. We then went back to the local cafe and had tea and a ham roll, there was a sign on the wall describing Devonshire Tea and that the jam is home made by Fay a ocal in the area. Mum questions the lady saying that she had a cousin that once lived around the area, anyway a phone call was made a Lyn McFairlane was found a cousin of Mums and they have both been looking for each other for years. So a chance statement and a relation was found who is also into geneology.
Friday was spent on the train going from Lara to Bendigo to pick up the ute and go out to dinner with my mother and Daves mother. By the time we got everything finished up at the farm it was 8pm and Dave had headed back to Lara so I took Mum and Peg out to La Porchettas for Italian. We dropped Peg off and were home by twelve thirty in the morning.
So today was spent scanning photos and documents while Mum got ready for her flight that departed from Avalon at two thirty so she needed to be there by one thirty. Its great being so close.
I'm looking forward to sitting down and watching the football tonight.

2007-02-09T14:56:00.000+11:00

OMG so much has happened since my last entry back in November. Melissa left to Perth so I was all alone. So I continued with packing up the house, what a humungous effort, the biggest room is the scrapbooking room. lol
I flew to Perth on Thursday 26th November and bedded down at Jaquie's she already had Elisa, her 3 kids & Melissa staying so it was a full house.
Then Elisa found a place in Quinns Rock and moved up there, Steve was still grumbling about her, Jacquie refused to go there without a personal invite so it was very stressful. My voices came back and on the 21st December it all got the better of me I took some pills then some more and collapsed at Jacquies friends place. I woke up in Joondalup hospital on a drip. The psychiatrist came and saw me the following morning when I was more aware and asked me what I wanted to do I said spend Xmas with the kids so she released me.
That evening at Jacquies was very uncomfortable with Steve, he wouldn't even sit in the same room as me, anyway the next morning I woke to find Jacquie and the kids out and I asked Steve if he would like a cuppa, his answer was curt and abrupt so I decided to have it out with him. He told me he wanted me to leave and stay away from the kids. So I went inside and packed my stuff up and moved up to Elisa's.
Right up till xmas morning no-one had bothered to get Elisa's address, the crosoints were burnt, the kids were starving. When everyone finally arrrived they thoroughly enjoyed opening their presents, which I missed most of as I was on the phone.
We had a BBQ at Steve & Jacquies and a swim in the pool, it was very uncomfortable being there :(
Boxing Day was spent at my girlfriend Carons place, they have a poo,l trampoline and cricket gear so the kids had plenty to play with, it started at 2 pm but the Precious clan didn't arrive till after 5pm, we then had the pinata which the kids really enjoyed.
The meal was lovely as it was just leftovers and pizzas, so not many dishes. I stayed at Carons and left the following day to Albany to stay with my Dad, Melissa & Al were going to be there at the same time.
It was great to see Dad & Alison again, I went fishing the following day with Alisons son Duncan, he caught a couple then we went 4 x4 driving and had heaps of fun. We stopped at Dingo cove and watched a huge pod of dolphins surfing the waves, we went down to the beach and were about 3 metres away, it was amazing.
The next day was spent with my Dad fishing up a river, I caught 4 brim and released them as I don't really eat fish I just enjoy doing it.
The next day was spent driving to Quinninup where my Mum lives, it was a very picturesque drive, upon arriving it was decided to go to the local pub for tea, the meal was lovely and there were some real characters there.
New Years Eve was spent atMum's friends house, I shared a bottle of Riccadonna with Mum then the homemade Bailey was brought out, I think I drank at least a litre of the stuff I was up dancing & singing the usual idiot stuff but I felt great.
The next day was spent touring asround the karri forrests and surrounding towns, then back home to a lovely lamb shank stew...yum
I returned to Perth the following day with a very large carved wooden crocodile table in the back of Elisa's car along wth a sign saying caution crocodile on board, it got quite a few stares and a lot of laughs...
I spent the afternoon/evening with Caron and left to go back to Elisa's around 8 pm, I got to the last round- about before the turn off when the light drizzle had caused the oil on the road to foam and my tyres hit it and skidded out, the back wheel popped the tyre off the rim, I was really scared as that was the first real accident Ive had and thankfully there was no traffic on the road.
I had to ring Elisa to get Darian to come out and change the wheel as the crocodile was on top of the spare wheel and I couldnt do it on my own. So an hour down the track I arrived home very wet and thankful to be alive.
I went out to tea with Al & Melissa to the Hogs Breath Cafe which serves the best steaks, then coffee and cake with Elisa at Miss Mauds.
I returned home on the 4th January to a very happy husband and even happier dogs. I got to see the inside of the house for the very first time and I liked it, its very roomy and easy to keep clean.
The next couple of weeks were spent doing boowork, driving up to Dingee and packing up stuff. Going to Echuca to see an ultrasound of my Grand child. Chasing up GPs and Psychatric services.
Then last Friday my husbands friend Mick Paulke died from his brain tumours the funeral was held on Wednesday at 11 am, the service was lovely.
So to take my mind of things I went and had some piercings and some tattoos done :)

So much has happened

2006-11-16T12:15:00.000+11:00

Gosh where to start...Well I had my knee surgery (22nd Aug) and they removed bits of bone, fluid and scraped the joint, its still a bit sore, I cannot kneel on it but at least I can walk without pain, even if it is a very slow walk. So all the weight I had lost I gained being very inactive.
Elisa then decided to move her flight forward so she could find a house before we all came over at the same time dh Dave was finding it harder and harder to go to work and be happy, so we discussed starting our own business and buying a street sweeper. I started the NEIS course which ran full time for 6 weeks and at the end of it I received a Certificate 4 in Business.
At the same time we had alreaady found a machine and had organised finace and had bought it, we called ourselves All-Hours Street Sweeping Services and Dave moved down to Lara and moved in with his brother until we found a house. So starting in the middle of September I started travelling backwards and forwards to Lara/Geelong looking for a house to rent. We were having so many problems due to the fact we have owned our own properties for the last 17 years and we have dogs...which I will not give up!
November 1st came around too quickly...up at 4am to set off to the airport. 1 small car, 3 kids one in a car seat, 1 cat in crate, 2 large suitcaes, 2 kids school backpacks and 2 stressed adults. We made it with 15 minutes to spare, time enough for a couple of photos and some tears, they were mine.
Decided to go and cheer myseld up by going to the movies in Bendigo I went and watched Kenny, if you want a laugh do yourself a favour...its very Australian. Came home to a very quiet house till dd Melissa came home.
Dh Dave came home for the weekend and started cleaning up the yard, porch, shed. Then his brother Daryl and stepson BIlly came and helped for 2 days, washing windows, lifting heavy items, man things...
The week flew by and I had left my medication in Lara, by Thursday I was a gibbering mess, crying, feeling sick in the stomach. So when Mel;issa finished work we went to Lara so she could say goodbye to Dave and I could get all my pills. We left there at 9.20pm and took the wrong exit and ended up in Footscray, we managed to navigate our way to the calder freeway and arrived home at 12.40 am. Melissa slept most of the way. waking as we pulled into the driveway.
The following week went just as quickly with another 4am start on the 11th Nov, this time it was 2 huge cases, 1 dog in crate & 2 humans, we got there with over 50 minutes to spare then the hiccup came. The plane Melissa was due to fly out on the heater in the baggage compartment wasnt working and the dog would freeze to death, so she would have to take a flight 2 hours later, costing $22. Melissa had already given the dog his sedation pill and was worried that in 2 hours it would have worn off and he would start howling, and thet they wouldnt let her on the plane. Everything must have gone smoothly as Melissa nd her dog Conner arrived in Perth safely.
I left the airport and drove to Lara just to have enough time for a coffee before getting ready for Daves friend Mick's wedding in Geelong. Mick has tumours growing in his head which has left him almost speechless and with no motor control. Anyway it was a beautiful wedding and reception all held in his Mothers backyard.
Dave, John, Denise and myself drove into Geelong abd had a roast meal then went to the movies to see Kenny, I laughed just as much.
We got back to Johns house where I left Dave and drove back to Dingee getting home aound 2.30 a,. So Sunday was spent in bed sleeping.
Monday I decided I had better get started on the packing so I pack a couple of boxes a day so as to not strain my back. Its been very theraputic cleaning out some of the junk. I have kept a couple of special items from the kids childhood.
I have been sorting items to sell and putting them in one room with items to keep in another, the end room has all of Elisa's stuff in it.
So here we are up to today...Ive caught up on all my emails, made my bed, updated my blog and have put off packing long enough.

Back to normal

2006-08-14T14:24:00.000+10:00

Back to normal yeah right...Well it did quieten down after the funerals for awhile. I saw the Orthopaedic specialist and am booked in for a Arthrescope on the 22nd August, Im looking forward to being able to walk again without pain.
Ive also seen the Gynacologist as they are keeping up a review on a cyst in my left ovary, I asked the quuestion "When going through menopause does your bladder become weaker?" then an internal exam occured and I have a prolapsed bladder, so am being referred to a specialist for tests and treatment.
At the same time Im visiting my GP as he is taking blood to keep an eye on my cholesterol level as Im on medication for it as well as diet & exercise. Ive been doing weight watchers for 6 weeks and have lost a total of 4.8 kg and thats without exercise due to my knee.
I also have a part time job working for the Australian Buerau of Statistics as a Census Collector, I have been doing the delivery/collection in the township of Mitiamo. I used it as great exercise as I would park the car and walk the entire town.
As of the 7/7/2006 I became a non-smoker...did it cold turkey which was hard especially with the funerals but I feel so much better for it.
I have also stopped picking at my nails, they are healthy and long, they certainly look much better than the horrible stubs that used to be there.
dh Dave, dd Melissa and myself went to the football on Sunday 13th August to see Hawthorn play Carlton, it was part of Melissa's birthday present but unfortnatly she got car sick on the way down to Melbourne so was unable to enjoy herself. She couldnt even bring hrself to sing the Hawthorn song when they won. We stopped in at Highpoint for dinner, Dave & I had Nando's, whilst Melissa had nothing. So comming home I drove, Melissa was in the front and Dave slept in the back. Today has been spent tidying up/ washing/ floors, that sort of mundane thing.

Two funerals and a f disc...

2006-07-22T11:11:00.000+10:00

I am so glad this week is over...We had Norm's funeral on Wednesday 19th July, it was held at Mulqueens in Bendigo. A catholic chaplain ran the service with a poem read by grand daughters Brooke, Stacey, Kate & Ashley. Flowers were put on Norm's coffin by Lauren. Dave gave a speech thanking everyone and highlighting some of Norm's life, which included a love of lawn bowls, darts, horse racing and travel with the occasional bet in between. The casket was carried out by sons Dave, Ron, Daryl and grandsons Matt & Jamie. Norm was buried at the Eaglehawk cemetery and a wake was held at the Botanical Hotel and was attended my a great many people.

I went home in the early evening leaving Dave to catch up with his relatives and friends.
Arriving home Elisa informs me the computer has crashed again...So Thursday was spent trying to fix it, an Acer technician who was in the area came and had a look and the bad news was it was more than likely we would not be able to salvage any files or photos. He said he could take it and there was no guarantee he could repair it the other option was to f disc the computer and reload windows, so due to the financial situation I made the decision to f disc it, so I've lost all my email contacts and all my emails that I wanted to keep.

Then on Friday we traveled to Melbourne (Altona) for Doss's funeral. (Norm's elder sister who died 25 hours after Norm), a catholic service was held by an incompetent priest who rattled on more about a banquet rather than about Doss. Tea and refreshments were served in the room next to the chapel and afterwards we went to the Westside hotel for drinks. We stayed until 6pm and drove to Peg's(Dave's mum) for a cup of tea and arriving home around 10pm.

So today I'm having a quiet day babysitting the kids whilst Melissa & Elisa go food shopping...yay for DVD's...
Oh yeah this is day 15 as a NON smoker.

Back to reality...

2006-07-16T08:11:00.000+10:00

I have finally returned to the land of the living and its been another bumpy road, in fact potholes as large as craters appeared.
Looking back now I can see when it all started going pear shaped...

It started with the marriage breakup of some friends who live close by, both parties would tell all their problems to me, and I was trying to stay neutral. I was even getting phone calls from the Mother of one of them.
Babysitting a child from the marriage break up (after school until 7.30pm)
attended a funeral of Lenny Doherty, he died from cancer and was only 40 years. ( Really gave me a mortality check)
Got a speeding fine on the way home from the funeral.
My dog Dufus first had a spider bite then ingested toxic material both requiring trips to the vet and quite a big bill.

So on the morning of my Psych appointment I snapped...I tried cutting my wrist using a kitchen knife so spent time on the phone to the mental health triage. I managed to keep it together until dh came home and drove me to my Psych appointment, Dave went and visited his father who was still in hospital. The Psych put my name in for the next available bed at the ABC unit, we waited for Dave to return as the psych wanted to discuss a few things with him but Dave didn't get back until 5.45pm by this time I was having a coffee at MacDonalds. When I got home I gave all my pills to my sister so I couldn't hurt myself.

Thursday went by in a blur I don't remember it at all...by Friday I was on the edge. I began packing a bag for admittance to the Psych hospital, Matthew was in bed asleep and Elisa went down to the post office. Whilst she was gone I came across an old toiletry bag with some pills inside so I took them. By the time Elisa got back I was sitting on the edge of the bed crying...She immediately rang the mental health triage number who advised her to take me to hospital. So she got Matthew and drove to Bendigo a trip of around 40-45 minutes, I have no recollection of the trip. Staggering up the path to emergency was hard enough (would have been funny to witness). I was seen almost immediately, when asked what I had taken I rattled off a cocktail of drugs, Panadine Forte, Valium, Temazapam & Solium. Out came the charcoal drink and I was placed on a heart monitor, to which I was to stay attatched to for 24 hours, an IV line was put in with fluid going through. The tablets had affected my heart rate and my potassium levels were all over the place, so they had to keep an eye on it. The ED psychiatrist visited and asked if I would admit myself to the ABC unit to which I agreed (otherwise it was involuntary which is a stay of 6 weeks). I spent the next 4 days in the ED as there were no beds at the Psych hospital and no beds in the wards. They moved me on Monday to the ABC and finally put me back on my meds, at the same time increasing my anti-psychotic drug and introducing another one, so I was a zombie again. I stayed in hospital till the 1st June. Arriving home was a blur as I was on 2 anti-psychotic drugs, I had to wean myself off my old ones. I was unable to drive a car and all I did all day was sleep. I was under instructions to reduce my stress, as that is one of my triggers, so my friend Sami was told we could no longer look after her daughter.

Then life took over and threw another curve ball, within days the following happened

Power kept on surging and going out, causing the DVD & VCR to blow up
Lost the phone line for 6 days
Ran out of water, so had to buy in a tanker worth at $ 180
Ran out of gas, so a bottle ordered from the store $ 88
Car rego came due $250
My local GP called me wanting to see me after routine blood tests. He informed me that my cholesterol level is the highest he has seen, and I need to go medication immediately, stop smoking, loose weight & exercise.
The computer broke down and was in the repair shop for 12 days, so no internet. $ 77

So on the Friday 7/7/06 I QUIT smoking...went cold turkey! Day 3 was the worst I had the full body shakes, vomiting..all that lovely stuff.

Thinking that nothing else could possibly go wrong I set out on Friday to do my Avon orders, upon arriving home my sister informs me that my dh rushed to Bendigo as his dad(Norm) had taken a turn for the worse, I thought nothing of it as this happens all the time. Then the phone rang at 3pm and dh informs me his father passed away at 2pm. So I got changed and headed down to Bendigo to be with the family, I called both my girls and let them know, Melissa was going to meet me at Nans house. When we arrived we found out that Norm's sister Doss was also in hospital not expected to see the night out. When dh arrived home last night he told me that Doss passed away at 3 pm today exactly 25 hours after her brother, apparently the standing joke was that Doss had always said she'd outlive Norm. So Norms funeral will be on Wednesday in Bendigo and Doss's on Friday in Melbourne.

So that's where we are up to....Welcome back to reality Jen, what stress I hear you say...There's no stress in my life...LOL

The rollercoaster ride of life....

2006-05-17T05:52:00.000+10:00

The black dog has arrived!!
Another night of hardly any sleep has passed, in the past week I've been averaging 1-2 hours a night. So Im feeling absolutely exhausted. Due to the mood stabilizers that I take I didn't recognize that I was manic last week until it was too late (Friday I was feeling SO good, I spent heaps of money that I didn't have), after the high inevitably comes the crash., and boy have I crashed.
I had been feeling relatively good for the past couple of months, just the normal highs and lows that 'normal' people get.
However, Saturday arrived and I was really low...Almost as bad as last year when they admitted me to the Psych ward of the hospital where I stayed for 3 weeks.
All my triggers are present, the stomach upset, not sleeping, not hungry, the voices getting louder and more persistent in my head, the urge to cut myself and the suicidal thoughts. The feeling of absolute worthlessness, self loathing and frustration. I have been taking all of my medications so Im not sure what has caused this episode, the only thing that's keeping me going at the moment is that I have my sister and her little kids living here and I don't want them to see me when Im like this, so I put on my happy face even though inside Im being torn apart. I know its not a really healthy thing to do but they don't need to see or hear their Aunty rambling on about doing herself in or to see me sitting in a dark room crying constantly.
On Monday I called my councellor and he made an appointment with the Psychiatrist for Wednesday afternoon, dh Dave is taking the afternoon off work to drive me down there as they don't want me driving a car in my frame of mind. When I told dh he has the time off all he said was "What are you doing to me?" That upset me even further as its not something I wish to have happen, if I could change things I would.
He seems to think that as long as I take my meds things should be okay, normal like but their not!
So I've just got to keep it together until I see the Psych.

Football, piercings and other stuff....

2006-05-15T06:29:00.000+10:00

Yet again another week has flown by with life being hectic as usual, things are never dull and boring around here. Dd Melissa decided to get her top ear pierced and got it done via a needle and ended up costing her $65, so I decided to get my left top ear re-pierced with the gun to show her that it doesn't hurt ($25). So then Melissa decided to got her other side done using the gun, so now she has 2 very red and swollen top ears as she has to wear ear muffs at work and is showering in bore water, we've managed to take out 2 studs and replace with sleepers to make it easier to get the antibiotic ointment to go through her ears. Mine only took 3 days to heal so I have sleepers in mine already.
The week went smoothly with nothing major happening, on Friday as soon as we dropped the girls at school Elisa, Matthew & I went to Bendigo and spent the day shopping. I bought myself a pair of black stretch jeans, cow pajamas, bedsocks, 3 bras and a red jacket...talk about a splurge I was feeling fantastic (MANIC) that day which should have been a warning to me, as after a good day comes a bad one and I crashed...
It was a real effort to get out of bed and get dressed on Saturday, (having the kids here helps me as I don't want them seeing me when Im really down, so I put on my happy mask) so I visited a girlfriend who has recently separated from her husband, I spent the afternoon chatting and having coffee. Still feeling really miserable I came home and decided a walk might make me feel better, so I grabbed Dufus and we walked for 40 minutes, we were both hobbling by the time we got home our arthritis was playing up, but Dufus really enjoyed the walk.
After dinner we decided to give the kids a treat by lighting the bonfire so they could cook some marshmallows, we gave them sparklers to play with while the bonfire died down enough so we could get close enough to toast them (the marshmallows not the kids...lol).
Sunday morning rolled around ( I was so tired as I've not been sleeping the past week even with taking valium & temazapan) dh Dave made me a cuppa and then dd Melissa got up and started making pancakes with the help of Talia & Eloise, so we had a huge feed of pancakes. Melissa gave me a beautiful Egyptian bath towel in a gorgeous blue colour.
Dave & I left home around 9.30 as we wanted to visit his mum who is now on crutches as her osteo-arthritis is playing up, she really liked her little gift that I got her from Avon. We stayed for a cup of tea which Dave made...
We arrived in Melbourne at the MCG around 1.15pm (Carlton/Essendon) and got a great carpark almost out the front of the gate, we had really good seats on the ground floor under cover as it rained most of the game so we were nice and dry. It was a great game to watch with it being fairly even and we finally got to sing the Blues song...yay
We drove to Wallan to visit my friend Sue, this time she was home and we ended up staying until 9pm having a real good catch-up. We would have stayed later but dh had to start work at 6am, so we drove home, it rained all the way up till Heathcote then not a cloud in the sky and it was very cold. We arrived home after 11pm. Dh went straight to sleep but I was till awake at 2.30am so I got up and took 2 valium hoping that they would help me, well they didn't so I gave up and have been sitting up in front of the fire.
I will be calling my councilor Kevin today as Im really worried that Im heading into another depressive cycle, as I have 3 out of my 4 triggers happening (and I don't really want to end back in the psych ward). It is just the worst feeling in the world when that black cloud descends on top of you.
So hopefully this week things will improve, will keep you all posted.
Happy Mothers Day to all the Mothers out there.......

An update on Dufus, our dog.

2006-05-11T09:51:00.000+10:00

Dufus started vomiting mid Sunday morning while Dave & I were at the football, on Monday I let her out to go to the toilet and she disappeared, at first I wasn't too concerned but after a few hours had passed I become increasingly worried. The thought going through my mind was she had gone away to die. Elisa & I went looking for her but couldn't find her, Dave came home after work around 4.30pm and we searched for her, he finally found her hiding under the caravan behind the hay shed. Whilst looking for her I came across a pile of stuff she had brought up along with grass and dog biscuits was a tampon, (obviously Dufus had gotten into my dd's rubbish). She looked terrible, her eyes were all bloodshot, her nose dry and she was constantly licking her lips as she was very dehydrated. I called the vet and made an appointment for first thing Tuesday morning. Dufus tried to drink water but as soon as she did she would vomit.
So after dropping the girls off at school Elisa, Matthew , Dufus & I went to Rochester, normally Dufus is really excited about going in the car but she just laid down the whole trip. When arriving at the vet Dufus got weighed in and she had lost almost 1kg since her last visit which was only 3 weeks prior due to an infected spider bite on her nose. The hardest part of the visit was explaining to Keith the vet what I had found in her vomit and that I thought she maybe had another stuck in her stomach. He checked her stomach and it was very tender to the touch, he took her temperature which was normal, and did a rectal exam and she was badly constipated. So Keith decided that Dufus should stay and be put on IV fluids as she was dehydrated, give her an injection to stop the vomiting and they would take an x-ray then do a barium meal to check for any obstructions. If there was an obstruction then surgery would be required. I rang the vet around 4pm to check on her condition and she had just had her last x-ray after the barium meal, the good news was there was no obstruction but she was to stay overnight to get her fluid level back up and to ensure the vomiting had stopped. I was to call around 10am the next day to find out when I could take her home. I was so relieved.
So 10am came and I called the vet they were just giving Dufus a small feed to see how her stomach was and they said to call then back at 1pm as she was to have another small feed around lunch time and if all was fine I could get her. So I sat and knitted waiting for 1pm...finally I called the vet and she was ready so I went and picked her up arriving home around 3.15pm. The kids were really excited to see her when they arrived home from school as were the other dogs. So she is on antibiotics and some other medication for 10 days just to help her body fight whatever infection she caught, the vet has put it down to Gastroenteritis, I was worried about toxic shock from what she had swallowed.
So good news all around, now I just get to wait for the bill.......

The past week.

2006-05-09T07:33:00.000+10:00

Another week has flown by with life being chaotic...Monday is food shopping day so the whole day was taken up with doing that wonderfully banal chore. Tuesday was a quiet day spent at home catching up with the housework. Wednedsay we drove to Elmore as Elisa was to have her stitches removed but as they hadn't healed they're to stay in for another week, we arrived home to a message on the answering machine from the bush nurse, she had seen Talia at school and the sore on her face that we thought was a bite turned out to be a school sore so a trip to the doctor was in order, the only appointment available for the next week was that day at 2.30pm, so Elisa raced to the school and collected Talia and was back here in time to collect the other 2 girls from school. I drove down to Bendigo to put Dave's wage in the bank and get some jeans for Dave, I managed to get myself a pair as well. Friday Elisa and I went to town looking for shoes for Dave and picking up some prescriptions. Friday night was spent watching the football. Saturday came around and when Melissa came home from work we went to Bendigo to buy some Egyptian Flannellette king size sheets as I was starting to freeze at night, we also bought some potted daisies white and yellow, a frilly cyclamen, slippers for me, so a good retail therapy session.
Saturday afternoon ws spent knitting as Dave had gone to town to visit his dad and have tea with his mum, he visited Cliff and then dropped into the Allies for a catch-up, leaving there and getting home around 1.30am, he had a sleep in on the Sunday as it was his first day off since we went to Portland. He got up and cut some wood before we left for Melbourne to see the Carlton/Collingwood game at the MCG. We arrived at the ground around 1.30pm and the sky was clear, although the forecast was for hail/rain. The game started off really well and was enjoyable to watch, then half time came as did the rain and wind. Third quarter started as the rain cleared, and dh Dave said we are going to lose by around 85 points. Well he wasn't far wrong, Carlton went down by 72 points and appeared to not even bother playing in the last half. Very disappointed we left just before the siren as to beat all the crowds, we drove to Wallan calling in on a girlfriend who was expecting me but she wasn't home. So I drove onto Bendigo got some Red Rooster for tea and drove home arriving around 8pm.
On arriving home my sister informs me my dog Dufus has been vomiting all day, so I spent the evening keeping an eye on her, she disappeared on Monday which really worried me, she spent the day hiding in the hay shed behind the caravan only comming out when Dave came home late that evening, so an appointment for the vet has been made for today as she is not eating and as soon as she drinks she vomits. So hopefully it will be nothing too serious. Will keep you all posted.

Another month gone....

2006-05-03T14:21:00.000+10:00

The weeks are just flying by, April has come and gone. We celebrated dh's 51st birthday on April Fools Day with a quiet dinner at home. Melissa & Elisa had gone to Melbourne as Talia & Eloise were to fly out that day to Perth for a month long holiday, they were heading up to Kunnunurra for their Aunties wedding. So all was quiet around the house...
On the Saturday before Easter dh and I went to the Telstra Dome to watch Carlton play the Sydney Swans, it was such a dismal game to watch with the Swans constantly kicking backwards or really short kicks, the crowd became very vocal by booing and hissing, even though our team lost it was good to get out and see a footy game.
Easter came as did the Easter Bunny, leaving Matthew some lovely eggs. I also scored really well with 2 Lindt bunny's and a box of Forrero Roche chockies...mmm my favourite.
On Easter Monday Elisa & I decided to do food shopping, we set off in her car only getting a couple of kilometres down the road before her car made an awful bang and stopped. The car had blown a radiator hose and the water pump belt had come off, so Elisa walked back to the house and picked up my car so we could go shopping. However, we totally forgot that the roads all around Bendigo were closed due to the parade. So not much shopping was purchased. It was one of those days that we should have stayed home.
Elisa was getting more and more excited as the end of the month drew near as her girls were flying home on the 28th. But Murphy had other plans by sending a cyclone towards Darwin flooding all the roads up there, so the girls had to be driven from Timber Creek in the NT to Kunnunurra then a short plane trip to Broome with a night stop over then from Broome to Melbourne on the Saturday. We got up at 3am and left by 3.30am. Their plane was supposed to arrive at 6.20 am, but it was early so we ran through the terminal so Elisa could be there when the girls got off the plane. They were so excited to see her. We stayed and had coffee with Sue (the girls Nana), then headed to Highpoint for some retail therapy. Whilst at Highpoint I had a lovely head and neck massage and Elisa got her ears pierced (the top part of the ear). We were absolutely exhausted so decided to go home, stopping off in Bendigo to have dinner at La Porchetta. We arrived home around 6.30pm with the kids going straight to bed.
Life got back to normal with the girls starting at their new school on Monday, so Elisa & I made the most of the time and went food shopping.
So life has been busy as usual...I wonder what's in store for this month.

Our holiday in Portland

2006-04-03T14:18:00.000+10:00

My dh Dave and myself spent 3 nights and 4 days holidaying in Portland. We were given the holiday for free as part of the Take a Break Holiday program provided by the Uniting Church and the Wimmera Drought Relief Fund, its aim was to give farming families a holiday which they normally could not afford.
We left home on Monday 20th March and visited Dave's friend Cliff (his brother Lenny is in a hospice, as his cancer is advanced) we then visited his parents before setting off for Ballarat. We stopped for coffee and cake at La Porcetta in Ballarat then head off for Portland via Hamilton.
We reached Portland by 4.30 that afternoon, we headed straight for the tourist information centre for maps and info on what do to in the area. We got to the Portland Bay Lodge around 5.30pm. Dave sat in the car whilst I got shown to our room. (Dave was so looking forward to a romantic holiday as it was our first without children) Graeme our host showed me to our room...a single bed and a set of single bunks, with just enough room to get around, there were communal showers and dining area. The meal was delicious, there was soup, then roast beef and dessert. We went back to our room as there was no TV or radio so we spent the evening playing cribbage. The next morning after a feed of bacon and eggs we went sight-seeing. We went to Cape Bridgewater and viewed the petrified forrest, the blowholes and the lighthouse. We then drove to Nelson which is 5km from the SA border and had lunch overlooking a tidal creek. We then drove back to Portland and toured the Motor Museum and drove around the city centre. We called into a fishing shop and bought some bait and spent the next 2 hours sitting on the breakwater fishing. We headed back to the Lodge for dinner, then after a short nap we went fishing off the boat ramp which was about 50 metres from the Lodge.
The next morning we went straight down to the breakwater and fished there until we got sick of tired of losing all of our sinkers and hooks. We set off for Narrawong as it sits on a tidal creek, we stayed there for about 1 hour, we got a few bites but nothing on the end of the line. We headed back to Portland to the boat ramp as there was a bit of beach to fish from. We stayed there for 4 hours, I caught a little bait fish and saw 4 sting rays swim about 1 metre from where I was standing. Dave spent most of the time sitting on a deck chair reading a magazine and drinking a beer. We went back to the lodge for dinner then spent the remainder of the night sitting outside with a few other couples having a drink.
Thursday morning arrived and we set off for Apollo Bay as we were planing on spending the night. We stopped off at Warnabool so I could see the whale nursery (wrong time for whales though) we then had lunch at Port Campbell. The next couple of hours were spent driving along the Great Ocean Road admiring the fantastic scenery. We arrived in Apollo Bay and booked into a Budget Motel overlooking the beach. We walked up to the shops and bought a waffle ice-cream to eat whilst walking along the beach front. There was kilometers of beach and only 1 man fishing, so back to the car we got our rods and tackle box/bait and back to the beach we went. I caught 4 sand crabs and 2 baby whiting (I threw them back as they were undersize), Dave caught 2 large whiting but we were unable to keep them so back to the water they went. We spent around 3 hours fishing, it was lovely standing in the water with a rod.
We went back to the Motel, got cleaned up and went down the street to a local cafe for dinner.
We were up early the next morning and set off for Geelong as Dave has friends there he wanted to catch up with. Just out of Lorne dave was feeling car sick so I had to slow down, I was having fun driving around all the sharp bends it was just like rally driving...lol
We spent the morning in Geelong then off to Wallan where my girlfriend Sue lives, we had a cuppa and a chat before heading for home, arriving home to some very excited dogs around 5.30pm. It was an exhausting but very enjoyable holiday.

Tagged

2006-04-03T13:53:00.000+10:00

Ivé been tagged by Elisa.

What scrapbook lines/products etc do you dislike? I would have to say patterned paper that has ducks and such things like it.

What is the hardest thing you ever had to scrap? It was my wedding photos from my first wedding, I thought I had better do them for my kids sake.

What techniques do you use more than anything else? Paper tearing and layering.

What is the smallest scrap of paper you save? Anything bigger than 4x4.

Have you ever had any scrappring related injuries? Just the occasional paper cut.

Finish this sentance...If I wasn't a scrapbooker/stamper I would spend my money on... DVD's, CD's, books

Give your best ever storage or organizational idea. I was piffed 2 fantastic paper keepers from Scrap Stash.

You just won a week long scrapbooking cruise for 5. Who is going with you?
I would take my dh Dave, and 3 friends from FoRW.

When you received your first publication notification, who did you tell? I have never entered any of my LO's for publication. The only thing I have entered is the monthly challenges from FoRW.

Some happy news

2006-03-05T17:40:00.000+11:00

Iv'e had a very productive week, Iv'e sorted through my scrapping stash again and have found a heap more stuff to list on ebay. Completed a community album double LO for a member of FoRW, it's the only scrapping Iv'e done in a long time, I seem to have lost my mojo, it does'nt help that there's so many good tv shows on. Read the latest Stephen King novel Cell, thoroughly enjoyed it...
Elisa and te kids came over on Friday afternoon and stayed the night, Melissa cooked a great big pot of spaghetti which was yummy...I spent the evening working on my CA LO and Elisa worked out everyone's biorythyms.
The next morning we were up early and headed off to Murrabit to the large market there. We spent a good 3 hours walking around looking at all the stalls, we had a bacon & egg sandwhich for breakfast and the kids had hot dogs, we also ate a hot jam donut whilst the girls played on the jumping castle. The only major item I bought was a fly veil for my hat as the flies were incredible, you were constantly swatting at your face. We drove to Kerang and spent some time in the local park so the kids could have a play. On the trip home Elisa & I talked about her decision about leaving in April or June. I convinced her to stay until the begining of December and to move in here, that way she can save more money for the move and trip across the Nullabor(we have decided to go via the Great Ocean Road), that way there is 2 cars (as Melissa will be travelling at the same time) and 3 drivers. Eloise also gets to complete a full year of Prep, I get company so we are all winners. The hardest part was asking dh what he thought of the idea. He agreed so Elisa is giving notice to her landlord and will be moving in over the holidays.
So Saturday afternoon was spent planning the trip and working out a household budget. The girls were playing out the front on the big tree, they had saddles and reins and were pretending to go riding.
I spent the evening watching the football and reading my book, today has been a very quiet day (apart from the daily chores), all Iv'e done is read my book.
But I am a happy camper as I will get to spend more time with my sister before she heads west.

A downer.

2006-02-26T23:49:00.000+11:00

Well after the excitment of the past week waiting for the weekend to come, it all went to sh*t. Spent a quiet day on Saturday watching the Winter Olympics then the football, during half time the announcers said the Carlton Family Fun Day had been cancelled due to the weather apparently Melbourne had copped a real downpour, we had 2 small storms go through our area but there was more lightning & thunder than rain, we lost power for around 2 1/2 hours (at least it wasnt as hot as the previous night) just after cooking dinner.
The power came back on in time for me to watch my team (Carlton) get beaten by 28 points by Geelong, I stayed up and starteded watching the movie "Jaws" ( I first saw it when I was 10, it had just been released...) but sleep got the better of me.
Got up this morning to a cooked breakfast provided by my dh, of scrambled eggs, bacon & toast. We worked on repairing the chicken coop for the next 2 1/2 hours, dh then mowed the front/back lawns before heading down to Bendigo to visit his parents. Not wanting a cooked meal he decided on Hungry Jacks, he even brought me home a burger.
So I spent the night watching that really inane movie about the category 7 storm, what a waste of 3 1/2 hours on my behalf.
I should have spent the time working on my scrapbooking challenge, "What it means to me to be an Australian" either that or sorting out my new patterned papers.
So I suppose all is not lost of this weekend, at least the chickens won't blow away in the next big storm...and I wont get lost in the grass hanging out the washing.

A bit of excitement.

2006-02-24T11:34:00.000+11:00

Gosh, it's been over a week...and I'm only just getting time to do another entry. Iv'e only got my telephone line up and working again, Iv'e been without the internet for 3 days and it felt like my arm had been cut off. It started with some static in the line which I could live with, but then the line crashed and all I was getting was 4.1 kps (yes...dial-up and its oh so slow). I called Telstra and they had someone in the area so they repaired it...it was good for an hour then it crashed again. I rang Telstra again the next day and the same technician returned, this time replacing over 1 km of cable, he blamed the cows/sheep for the broken line...(funny how the line runs on the outside of the property). Touch wood its been good since then, the line runs at anywhere from 28.9 kps to a whopping 33.2kps on a good day.
On Saturday morning I arrived home from collecting my Avon orders (Yes, Im a ding dong lady) my dh Dave had pulled all his car seats out of the EA and was pressure washing them (saying they would be dry in 24 hours), so not to be outdone I decided to wash my car, it was in bad need of de-bugging, so I spent a good hour on the job. after all the scrubbing I decided a lie down was in order. Whilst lying down my dh polished & waxed my car.
That night dh decided to ring his friend in Geelong to see if he wanted to go to the Ford Open day, ( I opted for a quiet day at home) so the alarm was set for 4am. Dh set off in the EA with a towel on his seat.
I spent a lovely quiet day at home reading my book and playing spider solitaire (which Im addicted to), dh arrived home around 10pm with 94 photos...thank goodness for digital cameras. Dh's 1948 F100 doesn't look as good as the one in the photo (he's been working on it for 7 years now).
Monday rolled around with the house empty again...did the obligatory housework and played on the computer until it had cooled off outside. Spent 3 hours pruning the Rosemary, Lavender & Curry bushes...they had grown out of control...
After dinner I was lying down watching the Biggest Loser and the phone rang...couldn't be bothered to get up to answer it as I knew dh was in the lounge (right next to the phone). Dh comes in and says "Guess who was on the phone?" So going through a list of people..and not getting any I gave up. He said "Anthony Koutafides". "Yeah right" I said...along with a few other words, to which dh replied "we've been invited to the Carlton Family Fun Day on Sunday".
Still not believing him, all I could do was laugh and say "As if, the captain of Carlton is going to ring you up..."
But he was serious...and we are off to Melbourne on Sunday, dd Melissa hasn't decided if she's going to come or not. You get to meet the players, so hope to get loads of photos so I can scrap some.
woohoo the footy starts again...I know its only the nab cup but at least its something to watch on a Friday/Saturday. Go the Blues....

Our Weekend

2006-02-14T13:54:00.000+11:00

We had a good weekend, Elisa and the children came over in the afternoon as we were all (including Dave & Melissa)going to the Dingee Family Festival. We got there around 7pm as we had to wait for Dave to come home. there was a jumping castle for the kids as well as bags of different coloured fairy floss, we shared a purple bag. Dinner was an all you could eat affair with spit roast pork, lamb, beef, cold chicken, salads, hamburgers and sausages...there was heaps of food. The entertainment was a Highland Pipe Band as well as a couple who sang popular songs from the 60's & 70's. After dinner everyone was treated to an ice cream, we arrived home around 10.45 pm with 3 very tired children .
Sunday arrived with the children up early...
Dave had his first sleep in, he hadnt had one for over 2 years, so he really enjoyed his lounge in bed. The girls had a picnic lunch consisting of fairy bread, grapes, apples & bisciuts on the front lawn whilst Elisa & I sat inside had coffee and chatted. I have asked her to consider staying an extra couple of weeks so that we can celebrate Matthew & Eloise's birthdays before they leave for Perth.
Here's hoping.....

Its happened again

2006-02-11T13:52:00.000+11:00

Yes Ivé been tagged again, this time by Jenni.

What were you doing 10 years ago? I was living in Newman, WA and working 13 hour rotating shifts in the Mobile Equipment Workshop as a Maintenance Scheduling Clerk for BHP. My dh Dave was also working on site in a different workshop. My dd Melissa was in her last year of primary school and dd Rebecca was in grade 4.

What were you doing 1 year ago? Living on a farm in Dingee, Victoria with dh Dave & dd Melissa along wiht numerous animals. I was milking every afternoon a herd of around 380 cows, with the odd morning milking thrown in. Dh was away all week working in Echuca so I was left to look after the place.

5 snacks that you enjoy:

bacon & onion dip with celery/carrot sticks
camerbert cheese with cracked pepper crackers
pissastio nuts
cabana with water crackers
nachos

5 songs to which you know all the lyrics:

Bat out of hell - Meatloaf
American Pie - Don McLean
Cat's in the cradle - Cat Stevens
Most people I know think that Im crazy - Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs
Don't walk away - Toni Childs

5 things you would do if you were a millionare:

Buy a decent sized modern house on some acreage in the mountains where it rains.
Give my children a deposit for a block of land or house.
Update my car.
Buy more scrapping supplies especially sizzex alphabets dies.
Buy a new lounge suite and king size bed.

5 bad habits:

I am a martyr.
I am too self critical.
I pick at my nails.
I smoke...yes I know Im trying to quit.
I suffer from foot in mouth syndrome.

5 things you like doing:

Scrapbooking
Reading
Having coffee and a chat with my sister/s.
Observing the moon/stars through my telescope.
Having my neices and nephews around me

5 things you would never wear, buy or get again:

boob tube
DIY electrolosis kit
grease pants
home brand coffee
bunderburg rum

5 favourite toys:

computer/internet
digital camera
telescope
scrabble
yahtzee

5 people I am tagging:

Tagged again

2006-02-10T00:09:00.000+11:00

This time Ive been tagged by Elisa, so here goes:

1. First time you got kissed was in Derby 1972 his name was Robert Young, I was 7 years old , he was 9. His brother's Jack & Ivan along with myself and my sister Jacqui would hang out everyday in the bush, playing up in the boab trees or playing on the mudflats, we would all go to the outdoor pictures every Friday night and it was there that Robert kissed me.
2. First time you drove a car was sitting on my Grandads lap driving his Holden FJ out to a sheep station (somewher in the mallee) where my Nan was the cook, but the actual driving of a car was when I was 15 yrs & 9 mths I had just got my permit and Mum took me out for a drive in her Toyota Corolla in a new building estate so there was no traffic.
3. First time you scrapbooked, well I used to make scrapbooks as a kid but as a serious hobby not until my dear sister Elisa introduced me to it when she moved over here 3 years ago, I went to a couple of CM classes but didn't enjoy them as I found them too limiting.
4. First time you went on a date was in Broome 1977 with Andrew Fisher we went to the outdoor movies to see a Bruce Lee film and he bought me a carved pearl shell/leather necklace.
5. First time you fell in love was in 1980, I had the hugest crush on this guy who was in year 12, he didn't even know I existed, I had a photo of him which I carried everywhere, his name was over all my books and his initials were always written on my arm, funnily enough his name was Andrew as well.
6. First time you cooked for someone, does cooking for my sisters count? We were living in Wyndham I was 9 years old and our Mother was playing golf and Dad was next door having a beer, so I cooked sausages, mashed potato and peas for tea, I burnt my hand in the frying pan by leaning over the stove reaching for the oil, I slipped and put my hand in the hot pan. A hard lesson learnt.
7. First time you got on a plane was in 1972 we flew from Melbourne to Perth on a TAA 727 then from Perth to Derby on a Foker Friendship plane, I remember the hostesses spraying us all with an aerosol can before letting us off the plane, as to this day I have no idea to what it was.
8. First time you shaved your legs was in 1979, I had moved from Derby to Perth and was starting at a city high school so I used my dads electric razor, got in huge trouble as I didn't clean it.
9. First time you put on make up was when I was around 4 living on the farm in Swan Hill, my sister Jacqui and I would dress up in mums clothes and wear her jewellry and make up, we thought we were Princesses.
10. First time you moved out of your home, technically my parents moved out in 1982 and left me living there. I actually moved into my own place in Midland, Perth in 1983.

It's been awhile

2006-02-08T11:02:00.000+11:00

I just checked the date on my last post and was horrified to find it's been almost a month since I last posted, so I thought I'd better do a catch up.
I have managed to do a few layouts over the holidays, this is my favourite so far, its a picture of my neice Ashley holding her brother Nathaniel the title says Precious Memories which I thought was so apt as their surname is Precious.
The last 2 weeks have been spent going to the doctors in Echuca for Q fever testing, the first test is a scratch and a blood test to see if you are already immune, then a week later the immunisation, anyway i had my test done and within minutes a huge lump appeared on my arm then 2 days later a rash covered my torso, I also had constant pins and needles in my fingers. my dd Melissa who had the same test had no reaction like mine. I went back last week to find out that during my lifetime I have somehow contracted Q fever so now Im immune and NO injection required. so now I'm covered to work in any livestock industry.
Last Tuesday was a really busy day, Elisa rang me as her car battery had dies and the kids needed to get to school, so I left home and drove to Rochester to pick up the girls for school in Elmore, they were about 40 minutes late. Back to Rochester to try and fix Elisa's car, which I was unsuccessful at. Off to Echuca to see the doctor and Elisa bought me lunch at a great cafe called the Green Olive, I had an iced coffee & a chicken, bacon,cheese and tomato foccacia. We then wandered around Big W then checked out the LSS where I was very controlled and only bought 3 papers. Then visited my dd Rebecca before heading back to Elmore to pick up the girls, they had had a great day.
Back to Rochester where Elisa cooked an early dinner of chicken kebabs and salad before heading off to watch the girls at their karate practice. It was facinating watching them go through all the moves and the reasoning behind them. Eloise was allowed to join in and it was so funny watching her little legs trying to kick up at the kick pad.
All of last week was taken up with ebay as I have opened a shop called
Jenni's Needful Things and was busy loading the store as well as auction items, I have cleaned out my scrapping room and decided to get rid of what I don't need or use. I also cleaned out my bookcase, I have already sold over 50 books and there's still that many to go.
My dd Melissa was to start a new job at the Pyramid Hill Abertoir on Thursday however a friend from the old piggery where she worked called over on Saturday and offered her a job at Bears Lagoon Piggery, he is now the manager there. She thought about it and rang him on Monday to say yes to the job...she started yesterday and is in the nursery part of the piggery so she is rapt.
So yesterday was the first day Ive had at home on my own in over a year and would you believe I had to spend it in bed as my back had spasmed, it took 4 panadine forte and 2 valium before I was able to walk, so I lazed around and watched the cricket, at least there's something to watch on tv now as all the good shows have returned. Yes Im a TV junkie...my favourite shows are:
CSI - all of them, Desperate Housewives, Supernatural, Without a Trace, All Saints, McLeods Daughters, ER, Lost, Prison Break.
Do you think I need a life?

Ivé been tagged.

2006-01-16T17:53:00.000+11:00

Ive been tagged by Sue

A is for age: 40
B is for booze of choice: Bourbon
C is for career: Have applied for a meat packer job
D is for your dad's name: Gerald
E is for essential items to bring to a party: Dip & biscuits
F is for favorite song at the moment: Advertising space - Robbie Williams
G is for favorite game: Scrabble
H is for hometown: Born in Swan Hill but have moved too many times.
I is for instruments you play: None
J is for jam or jelly you like: Plum jam
K is for kids: Melissa (21), Rebecca ( 19)
L is for living arrangements: Dh Dave & dd Melissa & numerous animals
M is for mum's name: Mary
N is for name of your crush: Keanu Reeves & Brad Pitt
O is for overnight hospital stays: Too many to list
P is for phobias: Spiders EEEEEWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Q is for quotes you like: Life is like a box of chocolates
R is for relationship that lasted the longest: My DH we are up for 16 years this year
S is for sexual preference: My Dh oh and Brad Pitt & Keanu Reeves
T is for tattoos: I have 8 of them, planning my next one.
U is for underwear: yes I do wear them occasionally
V is for vegetable you love: all of them especailly brocolli
W is for weekend plans: scrapping hopefully with Elisa
X is for X-rays: Had heaps
Y is for yummy food you make: chicken fetticini
Z is for zodiac sign: Gemini

What a week

2006-01-15T19:03:00.000+11:00

Gosh where did the last week go? Life has been busy again...Melissa & I were getting bored so we decided to have Eloise come and stay to give Elisa a break, Eloise helped to cook chicken fetticini & a sultana cake, I took her swimming at the reservior which she enjoyed heaps... she stayed one night before missing mummy too much, so back over to Rochester to take her home. Talia then wanted to stay so we brought her back on Thursday evening. We did the same activities as Eloise.
On Friday night my dh Dave took me out to dinner, we had a lovely chinese meal at the House of Kong in Bendigo then visited some friends before geting home around 11.30pm.
Elisa, Eloise & Matthew came to stay on Saturday night...we took all the kids swimming at the reservoir, Matthew had a great time, Talia made a mud house and Eloise kept on dunking me in the water. We took all the dogs for a swim which they enjoyed immensly.
Elisa & I spent the next few hours scrapping and chatting up a storm, then watched a movie before hitting the sack around 12.30am.
Sunday was spent scrapbooking all day, have managed to do 15 LO's so far this year.
I'm sure Ive gained weight as Ive eaten Lasagna & chocolate cake, oh well back to reality this week...I was looking at photos of myself when I was 72kg...I should pin one to the fridge as motivation. Well thats been my week....

Ivé made a decision

2006-01-09T21:36:00.000+11:00

Its been 10 days since I wrote in my blog...a lot has happened in those few days. My daughter Melissa and I went over to my sister Elisa's house for NYE...It was so hot the aircon couldn't keep up. I managed to have one midori splice before becomming ill, not sure from the drink or the heat so ended up going home and was in bed by 9.30 pm. I woke up at 12.03am to see the fireworks on the tv, I wished myself a happy new year and went back to sleep.
During the week I have been thinking about Elisa and Melissa leaving to go to Perth and what I'm going to do when they leave as they are my support group. Even though I have cyber friends it just isnt quite the same as family. They know when my depression is bad and when Im heading into an episode.
So with all this going through my head Ive not slept much, during the wee hours I decided to ask Dave my dh to move over to Perth as there are more job opportunities for the both of us, a better lifestyle and his ds Daniel lives there as well.
So I plucked up the courage and asked Dave if he would consider moving...his answer was NO! He said "He was too old to start again, there was nothing there for him" So it looked like I was moving by myself as I was not going to stay in Dingee for another year. I am sick of the isolation, the 110km round trip to get food, the nothingness that is here. After another night of very little sleep I asked Dave if he would consider moving to Bendigo, to this he agreed. He understood my reasons for wanting to move into a town, I could go swimming to help my back/knee & weight loss, I could do courses to help me get a job.
None of the finer details have been discussed as yet Im just glad a decision has been made.
On a lighter topic I weighed myself this morning to find I have lost 5.2 kg, its just the incentive I needed to continue with the food choices Im making. I was hoping to give up cigarettes but with the stress Ive had during the week I gave in and bought another packet. I will try again soon.

It's sort of a shock

2005-12-31T07:53:00.000+11:00

Yesterday I found out my youngest sister is planning on moving back to Western Australia with her three kids, I understand her reasons as she must do whats best for the kids, but I'm going to miss her terribly. No more Friday night scrapbooking, no more getaways, no coffee, long phone calls or impromptu visits.
My dd is also really considering moving there as well, as there are no job prospects here. She's 21 and doesn't have a life, she goes nowhere, sees no-one, just stays at home and keeps me company, for which I am very grateful.
I will miss them all so much, my dd and I both cried yesterday whilst discussing the pro's and cons of such a move, and what it would mean for her.
She's worried about my mental state, who would be there for me if I had a relapse and went down again? Hopefully I did my best to convince her that I was okay and that things would be fine. I don't want her staying here on my behalf, there's nothing here for her.
Jenni

My first post

2005-12-28T17:17:00.000+11:00

This is my first ever blog and post...I have decided to do this as a means of recording my weight loss. I am not going to call it a diet as I will fail... I will call it a lifestyle change, I have chosen to make a start on New Years Day, along with quitting smoking.
The hardest part is going to be giving up chocolate, that is my biggest downfall. I will be following the weight watchers point system as it has worked for my sister, she has already lost 9kg without exercise.
Hopefully by putting this on the internet will keep me motivated.
I am also going to scrapbook my journey, by taking a photo every month and making a LO of it.