Movies

Forgot to add:  Monique and I went to the cinema on Wednesday to see "RED DOG".  It's based on a true story from the 70's about a red heeler (a particular dog breed)who didn't really have a particular owner.  This dog became well known and has been travelling around the world where people loved him. 

If you haven't seen this movie, prepare yourself for an emotional ending.  I am not really a dog person and I even loved the movie and cried at the end.

Second week of school holidays

Hi followers!  How was your week?  This week was the second and last week of the school holidays.  I will be glad when school resumes on Monday as I am starting to forget what day we are up to.  I only just realised today is the last day of September.  Where did the month go? I will send my monthly report later on.

Anyway..... back to our week.  Rachel was involved in a sports program held at a Logan high school.  This program is sponsored by Macdonalds and organised by LCC.    From the hours from 9am to 3pm there were three groups of primary aged children being involved with many different sports, coached and played with a handful of qualified sports people.  The kids played six different sports each day from Monday to Friday.  For further details, check out this website: http://www.insportslogan.com.au/index.php?page=cornubia-community-programs

You may remember Monique was busy last week being involved in her teens program.  This week she only got involved in only two activities:  go karting and learning about the basic mechanic skills at a service station. From all the activities she got involved in for the first time these holidays, go karting at Kingston Park Raceway was her favourite.  Check out their website www.kingstonpark.com.au and take your kids if you live in SE QLD.

Her school holiday program is called Krank and it is funded and delivered by LCC.  For further details, check out this website:
http://www.logan.qld.gov.au/community-support/youth/krank

What's on your agenda for this weekend?  As for me it will be simply the same old, same old routine like I have each weekend.  But I am hoping to start preparing some scrap pages ready for two scrap meets next week.

It's getting late and I should get myself to bed for some beauty sleep. 
 Have a great weekend!

Quiet weekend 2

How was your weekend?  Except for going bowling for our leagues on Saturday AM and tonight, it basically was another weekend at home. My DH worked most of the day yesterday as the company he works for were short on staff.  I thought he would of slept in more today but he was up early and managed to get afew things done around the place.  I was busy upstairs while he was busy downstairs.

 

It's a good thing it's school holidays as Monique and I had been coming home later then normal (after 9pm) on Sunday nights.  I wouldn't say we haven't done well to win enough points in the last two weeks but it was worth to stick around and really to get to know some of the other players.  Generally by the time we arrive and play, most players go straight home after their match has been played  Only a small group might stick around to either prebowl or have dinner there. Generally we leave quickly because I have to make sure Monique gets a good night's sleep for Monday (for the first day of the school week).

 

After bowling last week we stayed around socializing with other players.  Tonight we stayed around to watch other players prebowling. Some bowlers and even us at times intend to prebowl because there is times when we have other commitments on a weekend.  It's allowed to prebowl on any number of occassions in this league but it's gotta be done before Sunday night (of the night the player got to be absent). 

 

What's on your agenda for this week?  Rachel will get involved with her usual school holiday sports program this week.  It's on during the same hours of schooling on Monday to Friday.  But it's held at a different venue this time which I better look up to see where as I haven't been there before.

 

Monique will only do two days of her teen activities this week as there wasn't much other that interest her to do.  At least it will be nice to have just me and her time together. It's not very often we are alone!

 

It's now getting late and I should get to bed as I will have an early start to deal with in the AM.  Have a good week!

First week of spring vacation

Hi followers! How was your week?  It's hard to believe the first week of the school holidays is just about over.  And boy...what a busy week we had!  Monique was involved in afew school holiday program for teenagers.  She mostly picked sporty activities and Rachel was lucky to get involved with two of them. I think indoor rock climbing might of been their favourite as both of them said they would like to do it again.  A good thing about these programs, they aren't really expensive to get involved.  Either these activities were free or we paid no one then $2 per person. 

When we were at home the girls went swimming and got involved in some paperwork activities from their old maths fun activity books that was never used in their classrooms. Glad they are getting some use with them afterall. Some were problem solving questionsm, while others were more like crosswords or word searches but in number format instead.

 

Tuesday and today were the busiest days of all.  We caught up with two friends from Gladstone on Tuesday. For further details I already posted on the same blog about that day. 

 

Today we went out to the league's club with my parents to help celebrate my mum's belated birthday.  Her birthday was three weeks ago but we had two busy weekends in a row with bowling tournaments back then. 

 

My parents are members and they go to this club twice a week to enjoy free entertainment for two hours on each day with other senior aged members.  This week being school holidays afew members brought their grandchildren along to do line dancing.  The entertainers they had on today did have a couple of dances for kids to do....hokey pokey and chicken dance!  How many of you know how to do them?

 

What's on your agenda for this weekend?  We just have bowling leagues as normal.  The girls and I will be more home by ourselves as ny DH got to work on Saturday as I was told they are short on staff.

 

Time to think about shower and be dressed for bed. 

        Have a good weekend!

Gladstone friends

Half of the first week of the school holidays is just about over.  But Tuesday was the most busiest day of all.  The day was about catching up with two friends who came down from Gladstone.  One of them was passing thru on her destination to Melbourne with a short stop over in Brisbane.  And my other friend came down for a week's holiday with her kids.

The day began from 5:30am where I suppose to be up early and be in Roma Street Transit to meet up with one of them by 7:30am. But the train was three hours late because of a track issue.  Once she arrived we had brunch and walked around all morning visiting a couple of shops around the Queen Street Mall and Southbank.  On returned back to the city we board on the City Cat ferry to cross over the river.  It was my first time on being on this ferry and I couldn't believe how fast it could go down on such a short trip down the river.  Because I suffer from sea sickness I did fell abit off for a short time after travelling on this ferry.  Also I don't think it helped after walking so many kms all morning in the hot sun either.

In the afternoon we caught up with my second friend where we went social bowling with both my kids and her kids in one of the bowling centres, north of Brisbane.  We bowled four games each at a discount price because I am friends with the centre manager.  We had the whole centre to ourselves so the game was played in a glow in the dark setting with some disco and party music of all decades.  Afterwards we went out for a cheap dinner at Maccies!  It was only the place nearby you could send your younger kids to play in an indoors environment at nightime.

It was 9pm by the time my kids and myself arrived home.  My youngest child was asleep going home and she managed to get up by 8am.  Right now she is next door playing.  I still have a sleeping beauty fast asleep (ie typical teenager) on her bed and it's nearly 11am. It's definiately time for her to get up as she has an afternoon school holiday activity to attend to from 1pm.

To all the parents with kids, enjoy the rest of the time of their school holidays.

Interesting weekend

Hi followers!  How was your weekend?  It was nice to be at home more after such a full on week with commitments and activities on.  Basically we just had bowling and visitors over.

 

I do wonder what happened to our spring season as our daylight hours had temperatures in the early 30's.  I am sure the highways either up or down the coast would of been busy as some people would of headed off to the beaches for the day/s.   

 

It's a good thing it's now school holidays as last night Monique and I stayed at bowling until around 9:30pm to chat with other bowlers from our league.  Some wonder what happened to us last week as either of us mentioned we were going to be absent.  So the topic was about the tournament Monique done last weekend.

 

Frank and Rachel went to our local flea markets on Sunday morning and came home with another bird.  It's a mate for our Royal Blue Mask Lovebird.  They seem to be getting along quite well.  It's too hard to tell if the new bird is a female or male.  I heard lovebirds are very hard to see by sight what sex gender they are.  The only way to tell is the bird to have a DNA test done.  Lovebirds can have a life span of 15 years.

 

So what's on your agenda for this week?  My girls are now on school holidays for two weeks and we will have afew activities planned, starting from this afternoon. 

 

Have a good week with your kids!

Last week of Term

Hi followers!  How was your week?  Today is the last day of Term three and sure been a busy one for the primary school.  Their school fete was the highlight of this term and their brand new school hall was finally opened for use.  I am sure this year's graduates of year 7 will be happy to be the lucky students to use the hall for their graduation ceremony in December. Rachel will be there for her graduation in 2012.

 

Besides the normal commitments I had to do, it sure was a busy one for me with a couple of school events on as well as booking activities for Monique to do over the school holidays.  Most of her activities are sport related which I am sure it will be a load of fun for her.  Some events are free or have a small reasonable fee to attend.  In the second week, Rachel has been booked in again to do her weekly sports program but at a different venue this time.  These events have been organised by our LCC.

 

Yesterday morning I was only at the primary school for an hour or so to view their science expo.  All classes had a science related activity on for other students or visitors to be involved with.  Rachel's class had fun with bubble making.  Even I had fun by having a go with blowing bubbles for only a short time.  Monique's high school had a couple of teachers in as special guests:  They had a couple of different demos to show but it seems the elephant toothpaste as everyone's favourite. Another popular area was the popcorn making.  This demo was completed by a junior grade. The teacher gave alot of students (who waited in line) some free popcorn.  The adults used a machine to make it! While the popcorn machine was doing its job, the teacher would explain to students of how popcorn works.  Do you know?

 

Here's a quiz or two for you to work out:  Which one sinks and which one floats?

Apple, banana, carrot, little twig, big wooden block, rubber ball, foam ball and a hard boiled egg.  Now if you are a Science geek, tell me why these things do the way they do? 

 

How can you measure out exactly four litres of water from using a five litre jug and a three litre jug? You can use as much water as your need but remember the water must total four litres exactly.

 

And here is something you could try with your kids over the school holidays.  We all learnt this at the science fair yesterday. Get an empty 600ml water bottle (that kids use at school to drink water from) and have four coins of a 20 cent size and a $20 note (actually you could use any plastic note really).  Add the note then the four coins on top of the opened water bottle.  The trick is to remove the note away from the coins and bottle without knocking them over.  But the catch is to use only one finger and don't cheat.  Tell me how it goes afterwards.  Good luck and have fun! We had Monique to have a go last night and she was so close on successing too!

 

I was back at the school in the afternoon to watch the presentation of commericals made on video in Rachel's class.  This term students had to create a new theme amusement park (as their assignment) and an advertisement was created to show the audience about a new park has been opened. Well..I wouldn't say these students are experienced actors but it was worth watching it for entertainment value. Afterwards we looked at their created map of their theme park.  Some students have good artist talents through  Most of the students used the same ride ideas from Dreamworld.  The teachers did say they will mark this assessment over the holidays so it will be interesting to see what the results will be after the holidays. 

 

Rachel's school had their first assembly in their new hall this morning. After all the dramas they had this year to get the new hall completed months ago, it only just opened to use this week.  At long last!!  Students and teachers were over the moon this AM.  I went in and had a look during assembly.  It looks good! You can smell the new timber used too but I guess that will wear off as time goes on.

 

This morning I received my newsletter edition via email from the high school.  It seems the school done very well with this year's NAPLAN tests.  Apparently it was mentioned in the Courier Mail that the high school is one of the top nine schools listed for QLD.  I haven't heard on how Rachel's primary school went as yet with their NAPLAN results.

 

In just less then two hours, QLD state schools will be over for two weeks.  To all the mums with kids, enjoy your precious time with them. If you planning to travel over these holidays, please make sure your destination will be a safe one. And for the kids, have fun and don't forget to keep up on reading!!

Bowling and more bowling

How was your weekend?  Like I said in my sporting blog I was practically living at a bowling alley most of the weekend to witness my daughter playing in a tournament.  Futher details can be read from the sporting blog.  Would think we would be sick of bowling by now after this weekend.

Today I am still in bowling mode.  I still can hear the sounds of the bowling balls hitting the pins, the juniors with their sporting war cries and music played all day. There were ten centres involved and can you imagine all the players, their coaches, their managers, the junior's carers all packed into a twenty lane bowling centre?  You had to be there early to get a good carparking spot in the centre's carpark and a table to sit? 

Most centres had BYO food eskys for their juniors. Well...they had to continue to have high energy foods to help them continue bowling 9 games per day. I just taken some junk food and lots of water for Monie to have.  She didn't barely touched the food until the end of the day. They had an hour's lunch break per day and I would buy something at the cafe for both of us to have for lunch.  For dinner I grabbed takeaway on the way home. And that was a mistake to do because the person who dealt with orders had stuffed it up at two different places around local. TYPICAL juniors!  They never seem to get it right.

While she was off bowling in her tournament I was busy creating with some papercraft activities which I managed to get alot done.  I couldn't see much of Monie's play because alot of carers were standing up to watch their little darlings play.  Also someone had to stay at the table to babysit their personal belongings as well.  It didn't bother me as I was quite happy to sit at the table and do my own thing.  Only at odd times I could see how they played when carers moved out of the way. But Monie did come to me after each game and let me know how she went.  She did bowl a 200 game on day one. 

Have a good week!

A busy week

Good evenng followers! How was your week?  It sure was a full on week for us with normal commitments and extras....medical appt, school events and sport. 

 

On Monday morning I went to the high school to watch their school assembly for the first time. It has been well over twenty years since I last watched a high school assembly.  It's hard to believe they have the same seating like the ones we used when I was in high school. On this day, I witness many year 8 and 9 students receiving certificates (bronze, silver and gold levels) for SWPBS (ie high achievement marks for effort and behaviour on their report cards).  Monique was one of them and she got the Gold plus level which means she got all top achievement marks in all subjects.  I heard these students will be invited to a school breakfast which got to be TBA soon I assume. 

 

On Tuesday afternoon Rachel went to the same chiropractor to have her spinal examination done.  Looks like she might require chiropractor adjustments done too as the DR found she's got some tightness in her neck (ie that's probably related from a baby issue she was born with) and her hip seems to be out of alignment too.  But we will wait for our next appt next week to see the x-ray results to give the actual report of her health.

 

On Tuesday night I went to the monthly P and C meeting at the primary school.  It seems our recent fete went well but not all the final details have been finalized as yet to say how much profit was made.  Last night Rachel and I went back to school for their family night of Maths and English.  A special guest from a particular University came in to discuss the importance of Maths.  Since afew families with junior grades was there, the guy showed them how to do the basic subtraction.  Do you remember the good old primary days with basic Maths?  How did you learn the basic number of 100s, 10s and so on?  Did you use the tally column system or something else different?

 

Monique had to prebowl for all leagues this week as she's got a big serious tournament to play in Brisbane this weekend.  She bowls in a five man team and each player bowls 18 games over two days.  The tournament starts from around 7:30am and probably finish by 5-6pm on each day.  We just packed some high energy foods for her to have during bowling.  She will get an hour's break for lunch over the weekend which I probably buy something from the centre. I had a busy couple of days preparing some craft items to take and do while she's bowling. 

 

Better go as I need to prepare dinner for my family.  Have a good weekend! 

A new week

A new week has started and hopefully it would be alot better week compared to the last one.  I have noticed our daylight hours are slowly on the increase as we are now into spring.  Our mornings and evenings are still quite cool to wear a jacket but our daylight hours are starting to warm up now.

My cat named Gismo has been a bad boy yesterday.  He managed to capture a little bird outside but we managed to save it from hin. The cat had already done some damage to one of its legs and feathers so I knew it wouldn't be able to fly freely again. The girls fell in love with the pretty little bird but they don't know until after school that the little bird didn't make it afterall. It died around lunchtime today!  I think the bird might of more internal injuries that I didn't know about.  I was going to take the bird to our local animal shelter to see what they could do for the poor little thing but it was already too late. 

 

This morning I was at the high school to watch their school assembly for the first time since Monique started there in late January. It has been well over 20 years since I last watched a high school assembly.  The only difference is that today's kids get rewards.  I was there to watch the ceremony with afew other parents, the year 8s and 9's getting rewarded for outstanding effort and behaviour from semester one.  There were four stages of rewards from Bronze to Gold and Gold plus (that is where the student's report card shows all As and Bs for every single subject). Monique got the Gold plus level and will be invited to attend to a breakfast in the near future.

 

After school the girls and I went to the bowling alley as Monique and I had to prebowl for this Sunday night's league.  Only because Monique will be away bowling all weekend into a real serious tournament.  She's got to bowl 18 games (9 games per day) from 9am to about dinnertime I think.  Anyway I thought it was a waste of time prebowling as I bowled crap.  I started well then went downhill afterwards.  It happen for me last night too! Got to go bowling again on Thursday aftero as Monique got to prebowl for Saturday morning league.  What an expensive week this one going to be! 

 

Time to go and make dinner for the family now.  Have a good week!

Bad start

It's already the forth day into September and it hasn't really been a good start.  On Friday it was my Auntie's funeral but I couldn't go because of the travelling distance.  By the time we got the details it was too late to travel by car. I thought about flying up for the day but the flights didn't work to my advantage either.  So you could say Friday was a quiet day at home,thinking about her and the rest of the family. It was over five years ago when the last time I had seen her. My youngest child would of been abit too young to really remember her.

On the same day Rachel's school had their fete on.  It started from 2:30pm and ended with a fire show at 7pm. It was a good thing I decided not to get involved with their fete this time as I wasn't really in much of a sociable mood that day.  But I managed to stick around at the fete for a short time to watch the my girls having fun on afew rides and I watched abit of entertainment on stage.

This weekend was busy with bowling, shopping and attending to a baby shower.  It supposely happened on EKKA day but her baby had to arrive early into the world due to later pregnancy complications.  The baby has survived and is putting on weight nicely.

Today it was Father's Day which we decided to do our own family thing.  If you know us that well, you should know what we did.

Hope you all will have a great week!

August report

Goodbye August!  Where did the eighth month of the year go. Finally this is the final month of winter. It was a busy month with normal commitments, craft and bowling.  Also I started on spring cleaning downstairs.

Some good luck and bad news had happened this month.  For the lucky charm I won $45 for the lotto number card again at the TQI tournament and the bowling raffle on Sunday night recently. 

As for the bad news I found out a friend has been diagnosed with a brain tumour and I have lost another relative on 29^th August.  Her resting place service will be held tomorrow morning but I couldn’t go because it was just too far to travel on such short notice. Besides this weekend will be busy with important commitments on. Once I plan on going away on holidays up north with the kids, I make sure I stop there to pay my last respects to her.

We had two weekends in a row with bowling tournaments.  The first one was for Juniors where leagues played against each other on 7^th August at Logan Lanes.  Both girls were involved in two teams and they came 3^rd (Monique) and 8^th (Rachel) out of 16 teams.  On the following weekend (14^th August) Monique had her sixth TQI tournament played at Mt Gravatt. Not surprisingly she did it again!  She came home with another two medals to add to her collection for team placement of coming 1^st and the other one for high series with HCP.

Being the eighth month of the year reminded me it was my birthday this month.  I turned another year older this year and I just had a quiet day at home.  It would have been nice to have a scrap day but my CM consultant decided to cancel this workshop day as we had an all day meet on the following Saturday.  Three days later after my birthday, it was Monique’s 13^th Birthday which now means she is a teenager.  Can I hibernate like a bear until she turns 18?

Besides normal scrap meets, I was invited to attend to an all day mega scrap meet at Runcorn Tavern's functin room on 27^th August.  This event was a fund raise event for Make a Wish Foundation. Unfortunately I didn’t win any prizes but I managed to have a productive day on creating some pages.  Right now I am working on a new project.  One of my relatives requested some family photos of us so I decided to create an album instead.  Instead of what kind of album I normally use I choose to use a picfolio album (where you just simply add your 12 inch completed pages into a plastic sleeve).  Last month CM had a deal going where you buy two albums for the price of one and I thought the picfolio was a better deal to buy.  I didn’t have to worry about purchasing extra albums pages or protective sleeves as the picfolio album had another pages for what I need this project for.

At this mega scrap day, our lunch was included in the price from the tavern.  We had a choice of five dishes from their menu. We could have either steak, pork, chicken, pasta or fish served with their salad bar. All choices were picked from many ladies but I went for pork and vegies as it has been a while since I last consumed a roast dinner. It was quite yummy too!

Well that's it for this month!  I hope you all have a lovely day with your father on this Sunday.