First week over

Good morning everyone!  How was your week?  The first week of school holidays is just about over.  The first three days we had beautiful sunny weather but since then the return of overcast days began on Thursday and rain resumed last night.  I think our weather forecasters are predicting will be more a wet and miserable week, next week. I will be glad when winter is over.

 

We had quite a busy first week of the holidays.  The only good thing about this school holidays, the girls and I can sleep in on some days. Also I had late nights staying up to watch abit of Wimbledon tennis this week. It doesn't look good for our famous players to win this year as three players already lost after round 2.

 

Wednesday will be in our history books as two events happened on the same day.  Besides QLD winnng the footy game 26 - 6, we had a leadership spill in the politics world.  Who was running the country that day?  All day they were like schoolyard bullying of who should be the prime minister of Australia. At 4pm on national TV, Julia Gilliard decided to call a leadership ballet to vote at 7pm between her and Kevin Rudd.   By 8pm that night, Kevin Rudd won with 57 votes!! After I was goggling information for my history scrapbook album on Thursday I found out Wednesday wasn't the first time this leadership ballot has happened. Julia Gilliard won in 2010!!  The main reason I forgot because I had a sick father to deal with that year.

 

On Monday we went go karting for one day in our local area. Our local council had a promotion for a school holiday package deal for kids who live in our city community. Normally it's $54 per person to have four races but the kids had the same amount of go kart rides and side show alley for $10 each.  But the only catch is you only can go one time per holiday season.  

 

On Tuesday afternoon Rachel and I saw MONSTERS UNIVERSITY at the cinema.  It was a good movie but I didn't think it was a funny story plot as seen in the previews. Monique had her day with her friend on Wednesday.  They seen FAST AND THE FURIOUS 6 and EPIC at the cinema. Yesterday we all seen DESPICABLE ME 2 at the cinema with my best friend. I was the only one who thought this movie was funny!  Anyway, after the movie we all consume lunch at Sizzlers.  I couldn't believe my eyes how much the salad bar has gone up so much. For my girls and myself it cost me $61 for the salad bar and drinks. I won't be dining there again in a hurry.

 

My MIL phoned last night and pass on some family crisis news of their own. No word on how the FIL's test results went.  Supposely they came back to Brisbane on Tuesday for further tests but their old 4WD of 22 years went to car heaven. So yesterday she got themselves a new car.  Downsized to a hatchback now. Also found out one of their US cousins had died this week.  She had lung cancer! In all the years being married I haven't met all that side of the relatives because they simply live too far away. .

 

The morning period is now well over.  It's now lunchtime hour and it's time to have some lunch.  I think ham and cheese toasties might be ideal today.

 Have a good weekend!

Goodbye Semester One!

Hi everyone! How was your week? It has been interesting week with news via my social media.

 

Yesterday I found out my ex-consultant from Creative Memories is planning to joined up as a consultant for Close To My Heart company.  It's another papercraft company based from the US and they are going to expand their business opportunities to Australia from July 2013 and New Zealand from August 2013. They have already expanded out their business in Canada.... so who knows!  It could become a world wide business of papercrafters for customers and their consultants.

 

I had a good look at their US website last week and I was quite excited to see what products they have for sale.  I like the circut package idea where you get the stamp set as well as the cricut cartridge.  It's been quite a while since I last used my cricut machine and I think it's about time to get that machine going before it collects dust or needs some oiling in the motor.

 

Today was the last day of semester one for school age children.  This term Rachel has learnt on how to sew at school.  She made a small drawstring bag. Next semester she has two new electives to study.  One subject is about Business and IT and the other is about woodwork. I won't know either of their school results for semester one until after the school holidays as I was told in their latest school newsletter about when the reports will be posted and when their parent teacher interviews take place in July.

 

As from tomorrow all kids will be on school holidays for two weeks. More a headache really as I need to find activities to keep my teenagers occupied. At this stage next Monday and Tuesday has been planned.  As for the other days of the week I will worked out what to do later on.  Also it depends on the weather. I am hoping to catch a couple of new release movies and have lunch with my parents at the sports club they regularly attend to in the next two weeks.

 

Rachel is quite happy to be just at home to entertain herself on either her ipod or laptop while Monique thinks I am an ATM machine and have money coming out of my ears. There are alot of times I wish there was a money tree existed, then again....... where I live with alot of little finger thieves (including my two) my tree would have missing money. It would be gone like a bolt of lightning.

 

My holiday plans doing some activities with my kids could easily change as I had an unexpected phone call from a cousin of mine this afternoon. It turns out her mum (who is one of my aunties from Central QLD) isn't well. Her medical profession has found cancer in her bladder which will require major surgery.  She will have surgery in Brisbane at a private hospital after the school holidays. Don't worry it aren't the Wesley Hospital, thank goodness!  Otherwise I would dragged her out of their there very fast!!

 

Monique is now old enough to seek part time work so I am hoping over the holidays she will start dropping off her resume off to some businesses down the road. After these school holidays her school based traineeship supposely to start.  She will be attending to her on the job training as a sports and recreation person on Fridays and goes to school four days a week. After she leaves school, she plans on going to university to study teaching as a PE specialist.

 

How's the weather?  It's been a miserable day here today with clouds and rain periods. A couple of people called it the Duck's weather which I am sure the ducks loved swimming in their ponds. Rachel's school supposely had the second day of sports day on today but I think those events would of been postponed until after the school holidays. I have afew loads of washing to catch up on so I am hoping the weather prediction is right to have sunny days this weekend.

 

To all the QLD parents and teachers, enjoy your holiday time with your family.

Saturday Night Fever

We are now half way into June and only four days of term two left for school age children.  School holidays has never been my favourite time as I know my bank balance will drop.  Monday and Tuesday of next week has been organised but still have other days to sort out to keep my girls happy. My 13yo probably would be happy to stay at home and be at her laptop all day.  But I know that isn't good for her health. It's my eldest child who is the issue!! I think it's about time she starts seeking part time work as she's now old enough to start working.

How was your weekend?  My weekend was more like Saturday Night Fever as I had late nights of digital scrapbooking on Friday night. I was creating ten pages of my growing up years at home.  These pages can be seen on facebook. Tomorrow I supposely attend to my weekly casual and sit scrap but I will see how I feel in the morning. Today I was busy sorting out my paper and cardstock box to see what supplies I have got and can use in future page layouts.  Never realised how much supplies I have brought over time. In time it will be all used.

On Saturday night I was out with my best friend.  We had dinner and caught a late movie to see Iron Man 3.  It wasn't what I was really expecting but I did like the movie.  I don't think there will be anymore sequels of this one now.  The next movie I wouldn't mind seeing is Fast and the Furious 6. I have heard it's the continuation of number 5 and possible a number 7 might be out later on.

After afew hours sleep on Sunday morning I was busy downloading some music from itunes to my ipod.  Most songs are from the 70's era.  Rest of the afternoon I was sorting out my bowling record book and began on scrap prep of my yearly history album.

Time is moving on and I should get myself to bed and have my beauty sleep. Otherwise I will find it harder to get up on a cold morning..  Have a good week!

Long weekend

It's now the tenth day into our winter season and so far we have seen more overcast days then sunshine.  I did hear the weather forecaster say it was going to be more a wet and cold winter season this year. Guess that means our electricity bill will be on rise as the air conditioner and the dryer will be on the run.

When I woke up to rain this morning I forgot it was a public holiday (QUEENS BIRTHDAY) today.  For some reason I thought it was Sunday again. Maybe because my street seem to be fairly quiet and both Monique and I had a good sleep in until after 9am.  I could of easily slept more but I was woken up from a phone call.

The main reason why it's a quiet household because both Frank and Rachel went away for the long weekend.  They left before sunrise on Saturday and expecting to be back home at dinnertime tonight. Would of been nice if Monique went but she didn't go because she had a bowling tournament yesterday. 

Most of this weekend had my own time to do whatever pleased me because Monique wasn't going to be home much either.  Either she had bowling or spending time with her boyfriend.  She's been dating this guy for about 2 months now. He seems to be a better sociable guy then her ex-boyfriend. But you know with teenagers you never know how long their teen relationships will last.

For first time in ages I slept for ten hours overnight.  That is because I had a close to an all nighter up on Saturday night. It was decided to do a DVD marathon night of watching five DVDs of Fast and the Furious as the sixth movie is now released at the cinema. I enjoyed most of this movie sequel.  Number three had different actors then the other movies.  Going by the story plot I feel it should of been the first movie but two other people told me number 3 movie should of been really be number five or six. Feel free to let me know what you think, only if you have seen the movie sequel.

Surprisely due to limited hours of sleep on Sunday morning I managed to bowl well last night. My team won all the points and I even won the fortnightly raffles.

Time to go as I have a couple of laundry loads to fold and put away.  The dryer had a good use this weekend.  Have a good week!

New season started

Goodbye Autumn! Friday was the last day of May.  It’s hard to believe May travelled by so fast.  At times I feel I need more hours in the day to accomplish more things to complete.

The first official day of Australian winter started yesterday but actually our winter season started about a month earlier then everyone predicted. It isn’t my favourite season of the year so I will be glad when the colder months pass on by. Now it’s the start of the winter flu season too which common colds already hit this household. I was offbeat for a couple of days with a heavy head and migraines and Monique had one day off school last week for the same reason.

How was your month of May? I was busy with things to do at home and places to go.  Also I managed to catch up with afew friends from bowling and craft and caught two new released movies at the cinema.

Two new renovation shows started on Channel 7 (HOUSE RULES) and 9 (THE BLOCK SKY RISE).  I intend to record one show while I watch the other as both programs are on similar time slots. But on Sunday nights both vcr are recording because I am not at home to watch any tv channels.  Not even the bowling alley has a TV on with free to air channels showing. 

Also our part of the state had the closure of analogue TV signals on 28th May.  What a difference to see with full digital viewing of television now but we still use our top boxes as they are connected up to both VCRs.  Yes... we still own and use them as I intend to record alot of TV programs to watch later on or the next day if I am at home. We are aware once they stop operating permanently, we won't be able to buy another vcr recorder as they don't exist anymore. 

How was your Mother’s Day? Monique and I bowled in a friendly based tournament at Logan in the morning.  We managed to win the competition!  I was given a pair of animal slippers (which Monique wants to wear but her feet are too big) and a box of chocolates. I don’t know which person polished away those chocies as I didn’t get a great deal of them. Like everything else I own or wish to consume, it intends to disappear!!

It has been abit of a mixed bag with unexpected news this time round. Besides hearing the bad news about an old feline friend and a sick relative, the best highlight of the news would be: Creative Memories went into receivership after two decades of operation in US. Guess this means my workshop dates with our consultant will be reduced greatly.  I am not taking it as a big deal as I have learnt a lot over the years.  I have a local craft store I can visit or go more digitally and complete pages at home. This month I was casually busy on trying to get my girl’s school albums up to date as I have both girls now in high school.

Also I have been busy journaling at home for my new project.  It’s about history of my life since the day I was born. Most of the journaling is about world history of events taken place yearly.  I have been working on this on either Friday nights or some weekends which I will get back to shortly.

Our CM consultant hosted her final Memoranza Day last month.  It was a seven hour event held in a function room at a Lawn Bowls Club, south west of Brisbane.  During our lunch break I watch a competition match of lawn bowls for about 20-30 mins. It was very interesting to watch.  It looks very simple to play!  The only difference between lawn bowls and ten pin bowling is the weight of the ball and the power of throwing it. 

Speaking of bowling, we are now half way into the season for Sunday night league. My team stayed 3rd place for many weeks and after just two weeks of losing, we lost our top 3 placing for Sunday night. But no other female has beaten my high game scratch (223) as yet. Monique has played in two tournaments in May. She played one at her home centre and the other match was played at the Gold Coast. Monique’s high game for the year so far is 236 (and it is a lane record at Logan).

Monique had her second interview (induction process) with QIS at her school.  In one hour we completed the enrollment and employment packages.  She will commence her school based traineeship at the beginning of semester two.

All the best of luck and happiness for a new beginning of a new season.  To my followers and readers who live in the southern hemisphere, remember to rug up well and take great care of your health.