A busy weekend

Hi everyone!  Another working week has passed by and another weekend is half over in Australia already.  During the working and/or school week, it was more quieter for me and this time I stayed at home for most of the time during school hours but this weekend sure makes up for it.

 

Last night Monique went to her first pageant at a small rugby league near the school. It was one of her high school buddies convinced her to go and give it a tryout. I am surprise Monique shown interest as she isn't a girly girl kind of person to wear a formal dress and makeup.  She looked so lovely dressed up but didn't win the qualifying round. She did stuff up at the interview of alot of common questions about herself and sport with four people.  I say it was the nerves that got the better of her. Believe me I would of done the same if I was in her shoes. I never was involved in pageants and from what I heard last night you got to know how to do ballroom dancing. And Monique isn't really a dancer either!

 

Today was a busy day.  After bowling league we all went to the league's club for lunch with my parents. It was a nice lunch!  My mum and I had roast pork with vegetables.  My Dad had some wrap sandwich filled with chicken pieces and salad. It looks yummy! I will give it a go someday myself. Monique had a toasted sandwich and a huge bowl of chips which I am surprise she said she was still hungry aftewards. Rachel had fish and chips. For dessert it was an ice cream cake for Dad's birthday. Club members get a free cake when they ordered something for lunch or dinner, only in the month of the member's birthday.  My Dad's birthday was last weekend but I was already busy with other commitments on. Couple of us had a go at KENO and it was my Mum who won just her money back. 

 

Tomorrow morning the girls will be going to the Goomeri's pumpkin festival with their father.  Their grandparents go every year and this year they will meet them at the festival.  They have to leave before sunrise as it is a three hour drive from home. They are going to be brave as it will be a cold morning to leave before it reaches daylight.  BOM forecast the temperature to reach 6 by sunrise. I won't be going as I have other plans on.  I won't be going with them as I have other plans organised.

 

Better go and sort out this clean laundry of mine before I go to bed.  I already done other family members and it's time to fold my belongings and put away.. The loads of laundry was out on the line for two days as we had rain periods for a couple of days.  So it was a nice change to see sunshine this morning and stayed sunny all day here.  But it is alot cooler with SW winds about.  Expecting a cold night for sure!  

 

Have a good weekend!

Halfway into term 2

Hi everyone!  How was your week?  Another week just about over and basically had more time at home recovering from this flu virus.  It sure is going around the country as I heard afew people had time off work for a couple of days because of the same virus hit them like a tonne of bricks.  Luckily for me I haven't got the bad case of it as yet but it is enough for my body to lose energy too quickly. I was starting to regain my energy levels on Thursday but after walking up and down the back stairs to deal with the laundry buggered me out before 9pm.  I am not normally an early bed setter so falling asleep in front of the TV before 9pm isn't common for me.

Its now half way into term 2 and the schools keep being busy with their curriculum program and events. The NAPLAN tests are now over for another year. The results should be released to students by the end of term 3.  Both girls had literacy and numeracy tests for three days. Monique supposely finished all tests now but there is a rumour there might be introduced to year 11 students as well.

Yesterday I read the school's newsletter online from the high school.  Looks like we might have a change of principals as the current one is going to be transferred to another school. In the 18 months Monique has been there, I never barely seen him or spoke to him via emails. He is being hopeful to come back but generally it isn't the case.  Hopefully the permanent replacement will be just as good as he was. At present time his senior DP will become acting principal.  I only met this guy last year at Monique's behaviour reward breakfast.  Monique didn't even know there will be a change of principals.  I thought she knew but I told her it was mentioned in the newsletter.  Maybe it was a sudden thing that just happen only this week.

It seems Rachel had a good day at school yesterday.  Her class went to a local high school to see how it feels to be there at high school.  Not sure how she is going to cope as she isn't keen on learning all the time at primary school.  She told they learnt abit of Japanese and Drama today.  They go again next Friday I think.  

I was surprised in the afternoon when Rachel handed me a certificate.  I was invited to attend to a morning tea yesterday morning for National Volunteer Week but I didn't go because I felt exhausted when I woke up.  When the kids were dropped off, came home and went back to sleep for 90 minutes.  But I wasn't expected to receive a certificate for appreciation at the school.  The only thing I done this year was attending to P and C meetings and made my contributions there.  Also Rachel's school photos have finally arrived.  The photos came out great! 

What's on your agenda for this weekend?  Today I will have an all day scrapbooking event on.  This is an annual event to celebrate its birthday for Creative Memories (based from USA originally).  I think CM has been in Australia for 15 years now but I didn't start scrapbooking until 1999 when Monique was only a baby back then. Over the years I have created alot of photo albums and my girls love looking through their books. I have created afew smaller albums to give as presents as well.  I meet afew consultants over the years but the latest consultant I have been going to workshops since 2004. If I can remember correctly I think I started attending to weekend camps in 2007.

Tomorrow it is an early start as I will be carpooling some junior bowlers to the Gold Coast as the juniors have a TBA tournament on from 9am.  It's a five man team to bowl five games and the juniors compete with teams from Logan, Gold Coast and Northern NSW.

Whatever plans you may have on, I hope you all will have a great weekend!

Winter blues

Hi everyone!  How was your week? Myself I am just taking it easy for the past two days by resting or sleeping to help get over this winter virus. I came down with the early stages of the flu and hayfever on Wednesday.  Actually I went to bed on Tuesday night with a migraine headcold but I wasn't expecting to wake up with a heavy head feeling on Wednesday morning.  At least my nose isn't like a running tap anymore but the hayfever hasn't stopped. I intend to be more affected at nightime and early hours of the morning.  At least last night I managed to sleep through without sneezing most of the night.  Right now my house smells like essential oils as I have been using three different oils regularly to help me to breath and sleep easier.

 

May as well say winter is on its way to our state in Australia.  Nightime isn't too bad until the early hours of the morning where the temperature gauge would drop to around 10 degrees, just before daylight arrives. The air conditioner is on standby as I intend to forget to turn off each morning.  Sometime after midnight the system will turn itself on and run regularly to keep the room the right comfort to sleep.  I have set the air conditioner at 20 degrees as I feel 24 degrees is abit too hot for nightime. Unless the temperature here changes to around zero or under on most nights, it would be a different story then. 

 

If it is a sunny day, the temperature will reach around mid 20's (degree celcius) by late morning.  It's wonderful to have sunny days to have laundry dried before the school hours ends. I'm sure the kids at school will enjoy their playtime outdoors when the sun is out.

 

Monique's class had their weekly cooking day on this afternoon.  They had a choice of either pumpkin or minestrone soup to make. She chose minestrone soup and it's quite yummy.  I am not really a soup person but this one is good:)  Take my word for it!

 

All you need is 2 large carrots, 2 onions, 2 zucchinis and 2 garlic cloves to slice/chop, 3 bacon rashers (chopped), one cup of uncooked small pasta, one can of crushed tomatoes and four cups of beef stock. Saute onions and bacon pieces in a large saucepan.  Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 20 mins. Serve hot! A perfect meal for winter or have the winter blues like me.

 

Rachel had two small servings of it already. My father wants my daughter to make him the pumpkin soup because he loves pumpkin.  I'm the only one who likes pumpkin in this household so I probably make the soup to share with him. His birthday is coming up so I make it for him for his birthday then. 

 

Rachel started to have cooking classes at her school too.  For their first week they made a zucchini slice. She didn't bring any slices home for me to try but Rachel did say it was yummy. I got the recipe of the slice and Rachel wants me to make it at home.  Once I get over this virus, I will make it then for her to consume.  She seems to enjoy eating zucchini.

 

To all mums and grandmas I hope you will have a lovely day with your family on Mother's Day (if your country celebrates this occassion on the same weekend).

 

Time to go and refreshen up before it gets too cool.

        Have a good weekend!

Busy creative week

This time a week ago I was away for the weekend. Its amazing how quickly a week can pass on by. Consider I was away on a scrap camp, you would think after a weekend of scrappin' I would need a break from papercrafting.  No.....I had three meets on this week which I had busy days getting scrap pages ready to be creative. Last night was the best night as I had a table all to myself and I had the motivation to create a half a dozen of pages in four hours.  The topic was just a simple layout to use for any theme.

This weekend is a long weekend as Monday is a public holiday known as Labour Day. I don't get involved with trade unions parades, etc, etc.  Generally it is just a normal weekend with things to do for us.

There is a model train display show at RNA showgrounds in Brisbane. It's always held on the Labour Day weekend for people who loves trains and collects toy train pieces for their set. I taken the girls there once or twice before when they were younger. I think it was more the mini train ride they loved the most. I am not sure if it will be still there running this weekend. I enjoyed looking at all the displays these people create. 

I plan on taking Rachel to see this display tomorrow. She's abit of a tomboy still and loves to play with cars and trains. One of my friends from bowling is a model train collector and I was told he's got a train set up and running at his home address. 

Because I have a busy day tomorrow I better get some beauty sleep then.  Enjoy your weekend!

April report

Where did the month of April go?  It's was the second month of autumn but I think we might have an early start with winter as we had cooler nights already.

It was a busy month with normal commitments, craft and sport. I was the star of the week once at bowling and the girls entered into one tournament played at their home centre.

Redcliffe

The first two weeks of the month were school holidays and I tried to keep my kids busy with activities and day trips.  Besides going to the movies and shops, we had bowling leagues as normal.  We had two day trips to the beach when I drove to the north side of Brisbane to visit Bribie Island and Redcliffe.  It has been well over 20 years since I last visited these places so it was quite a surprise to noticed the changes over the years.

The kids have returned back to school for term two for two weeks now.  My 13 yo only got her school photo package home today after delays on getting them before Easter.  My 12 yo had her districts cross country when school resumed.  The poor girl had to run the course again as a small group of students ran the wrong way into the course.  It wasn't really their fault as the marshall on duty wasn't paying attention at that particular time.

Camp's accomodation

Only on the weekend I was away on scrap camp at our usual venue. I think it is now five years since I have been going to scrap camps twice a year.  It was kinda the right weekend to be away and be indoors as it rained cats and dogs from Friday night to Sunday morning.  At one time we were getting abit too concern thinking we might of ending up extending our stay if flood waters were around in the lower areas of the road.  Thankfully the rain stopped during the early hours of Sunday morning.

Have a good month!

Short week

This week will be a short week as we have a public holiday in the middle of the week.  This holiday known as ANZAC DAY is more a memorial day for our beloved soldiers who fought and died to save our country, many years ago. Because I am the weakest link in remembering our history dates, I don't really know when Anzac Day started.  I just assumed it was after WW1. But I do remember when I was a young miss, my parents used to take me to the city to watch the parade march on Anzac Day.  My kids never seen one but their schools have a memorial service every year.

Besides being a public holiday today, I have my scrap camp preparations to finish off and be ready in two days time.  I leave home on Friday evening and don't come back home until Sunday evening.

How was your weekend?  It was quite a busy weekend as we had bowling leagues as normal and one junior tournament to be played on Sunday.  Further details can be seen in my sporting blog.

On Saturday night I had a late night as I went to the cinema with my best friend.  We watched BATTLESHIP.  I thought the movie was good with alot of action going throughout the movie. I won't say much about the movie incase you plan on seeing it.

 

Time to go and seriously get into this camp prep while the other household members are still asleep, Have a good week! 

Term two started

Hi everyone!  How's your week been going?  My girls went back to school after a two week break. 

 

I had parent teacher interviews at the high school this week and I was given a written mid term report in person.  Except for one subject Monique did well with average to above average marks for achievement, effort and behaviour.  On the same report they list the distribution of achievement codes.  Majority of the year level received an average result for most subjects. Only up to ten students received the top marks but my daugher wasn't one of them this time.

 

Today Rachel will be running for the districts cross country.  She is one of the top five students in her age group to represent her school at another school in Logan.  There is about a dozen schools in the Logan districts competing at this school.  It's only a walking distance from Rachel's school. 

 

I had a busy week with scrap prep of page layout ideas and attended two meets. The third meet will be held tonight.

 

What's on your agenda for this weekend?  Besides bowling leagues and one tournament, I plan on seeing a movie or two at the cinema and continue on getting my scrap prep done and ready for next weekend.

 

Better go as I have alot to do today.  Have a great weekend!