What a term!

OMG! Where did the last two months go?  In three days it will be Mother's Day in Australia.  A happy mother's to all mums and grandmas this Sunday. I hope your children and grandchildren will spoil you!!  I plan to spend time with Monique to chat and have lunch at home.  Can't really afford to spend a lot these days as I only have a basic allowance from the government.

I am still enrolled in my course but I haven't barely studied or done my work experience hours for the past two months as I had a sick father to deal with.  He was diagnosed with Vertigo which means he isn't able to drive a vehicle while having dizziness. So I was a taxi for them to do shopping and other errands for my parents. 

To top it all off, Rachel is going through a school refusal stage. She's in year 11 but she feels its time to leave school.  I had the flu and now its doing its cycle around this household. 

Sadly on Anzac Day weekend I had to take Rachel's cat to the vet to be put down as she was diagnosed with advanced renal failure.  Up until her last week of life, she was fine!! So it was a huge shocked to see her go downhill so fast!  We do miss her greatly as she played a big part of our lives. For Rachel it was more the first time to lose her pet.  After I goggle search more on renal failure I think she may had some of the symptoms for a while but we just thought it was something not to be too concern.  If you have a dog or cat with incontinence problem, might be best to take your pet to the vet, just incase its more then it meets the eye. 

I don't know if I have made this announcement on my blog or not. I am going to become a Grandma in July as Monique is pregnant with her first child. Not like this pregnancy was planned or anything but I try my best to be there for her at her appointments and baby shopping. She had her baby shower last weekend! It was full on and fun!! She had about a dozen guests attending and we all gave her a lot of baby gifts which I am sure she will use at some point.  The stroller and cot has been purchased.  Just need to buy a baby bath and a car seat/capsule. Monique has given a lot of clothes already.

Last weekend I played putt putt for the first time at the Gold Coast with my bowling mates and bf.  W had a lot of fun playing 3 courses.  I managed to get a couple of hole in ones. The league is talking of having this social meet again in October. 

Better go as I have dinner to reheat and served before Home and Away starts.  Apparently two lives are lost after a caravan exposure. Hopefully my next report will be a lot better with happier news. 

February report

Wow!  Where did the month of February go? Normally today would be the last day of the month but this year is a leap year which means we have an extra day of the month every four years.  Not like an extra day would be any different for me as my lifestyle intends to be full on with study and craft commitments and bowling on Sunday nights.  My new bowling report is listed in a different blog (my sporting report)

Summer Holidays sure come and go fast within six weeks (Rachel was eight weeks).  The students went back to school after Australia Day (26 January). Its now about half way into term 1.  This term will be only nine weeks as Easter this year will be here in late March. What plans do you have for Easter?

Rachel's school had their annual swimming carnival earlier this month.  Rachel didn't get involved as she isn't really a sports person. I went along to watch and it was good to see other students show their true sportsmanship.

My stamp club had resumed its meet this month.  Once I joined an art journal swap I have been busy working on creating some pages. I may have introduced a new member to our group as I recently met her via a friend of mine who I caught up with last week. Which reminds me I will have to contact the club committee about the new potential member joining the club too.

Better go as I have afew things to do today.  Have a good month of March!!

My Summer Report

Wow! It's now into the 22nd day of 2016 and only 9 days to go to farewell January. And haven't I had a busy summer month by barely not staying at home for three weeks as it's school holidays still until 26 January. Either it was family time with my bf or Monique, swim at the public pool once, seen two movies (The Snoopy Movie and Goosebumps) and dined out a lot at clubs or taverns.

Since Christmas I was mostly staying at my bf's house as Rachel was absent too.  She stayed at Grandma's for two weeks.  She returned home last weekend which I had some time with her since but last week we had three nights at my bf's house.  This week was busy dealing with back to school supplies as she will be returning back to school next Wednesday.

This month we visited the Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast. We had a two day pass to attend the zoo twice.  At the second visit we seen the Irwin Family (consists of Terri, Bindi and Robert) doing their duty of work.  If you heard of the late Steve Irwin he was the owner of the zoo. He had a passion for crocodiles by rescuing them and relocate if needed.  The zoo originally started by his father (BOB IRWIN) as a reptile park only which Steve grew up in this environment.  I think it become a zoo by the time he married Terri. Bindi is now 17 and has been a busy child with helping her mum operate the zoo, having her own TV show (on Pay TV I think) and has a range of clothing/other stuff at the zoo. Last year she was a winner in the US version "Dancing of the Stars".

My new bowling league at the new centre resumed on 17th January.  This league will be my challenge to win points for scratch games. There are afew top bowlers with high averages. I was told most of my points will be based on HCP totals.  I was lucky in the first week to win one scratch point.  The player I bowled against has an average around 150-160. Just her third game was her let down of bowling under average. My bf re-joined the same league I was in which started on the 10th. He told he has bowled well for the past two Sundays.  I know in the first week his team won all the points as I looked online for their standing sheet.  Also I noted the league has new teams welcomed.

My craft days resumed back this month too.  I had two meets in Ipswich.  At the first meet I worked on some scrapbook pages and at the second meet I created a stationery box to add cards or letter paper into.  Also it has an area for a pen and stamps to add into pockets.  I haven't posted any photos on Facebook as the kit isn't quite finished.  It was an 8 hour project to try to complete!!

Time is moving on and I will have to prepare what to take to my bf's to do this weekend.  I was hoping to get started on my studies again as school resumes next week.  It will be hard to get the study mojo back as I haven't studied since summer holidays started six weeks ago. Up until Christmas I had afew prac work hours at the centre. I haven't return in January as I need to have some family time. Have a good weekend!

Welcome 2016!

Happy New Year everyone!  Only an hour to go and the first day of 2016 will be almost over.

What did you do on NYE!  I was home for part of the day then went to my bf's to stay for 4 nights, possibly longer as I don't want to return in a hurry. 

When I return home on Wednesday afternoon I had discovered one of my birds had died and a family friend in hospital. I was pretty emotional on NYE as it was the last things I wanted on my mind.

It was around 3pm when I got back to my bf's house.  His daughter is currently in town for a month so they spent sometime together at the shops.  I didn't mind their absence as I wanted to be some me time for a couple of hours.  We had dinner at his place and just hanged about until 10pm. We went to Newstead House/Park to watch the local fireworks near the Gateway Bridge at midnight. By this stage I had three Malibu and cokes. 

Returned back to his house.  They went to bed and I stayed up another two hours or so drinking half a bottle of Tia Maria straight while watching TV by myself. Yes...I did get drunk!  It's been a very long time since I got drunk but I felt I needed it after the kind of year I had. 

I was pretty tired today after I got up at lunchtime. But I kept myself busy by helping my bf with some household chores and went out for dinner at the club.  I didn't drink this time as I think I already had enough during the festive season. My bf never seen me drunk on NYE and I don't think he will never will at this stage. Not very often I drink so much!  Generally 2 or 3 glasses of alcohol is often my limit.  I can go by for months without any alcohol!  Just this time of the year wasn't really in a peachy season mood for me!!

Now its the start of 2016 and my resolution is to complete my course. What's your New Year Resolution?? 

Our Festive Season

Keep Calm!  Christmas is just about over!  I thought this was brilliant to see on someone's shirt on Christmas Day. The weather was warmer then predicted. It was more warmer on Boxing Day!!

I am glad Christmas is now over because it's never been the same for the past few years.  Any single parent with custody issues would understand how it feels not to see your kids on Christmas Day. It's the second year I didn't get to spend time with Rachel as she prefers to spend time with her father's side of the family instead. Monique wanted to spend some time with her father on Christmas Day but he was more interested in seeing his own mummy instead.  I only got to see Monique on Boxing Day for about four hours as she had previous plans over Christmas with her own bf.

But I did manage to have my family time with my girls and my parents on Tuesday.  After watching a news story about Christmas food shopping on TV I did managed to spend just under $50 for the food for us. I baked some Garlic Chicken Mignon and made fresh potato salad.  Since none of us aren't large meal consumers we didn't have any dessert. 

While waiting for the chicken to cook, the girls and I played monopoly on Rachel's iPad.  You can get a free app from the app store. This app only suits users with iPhone, iPod and iPad which I am sure most of you would have some device.

I spent five nights at my bf's house to spent time with his family on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.  I am pretty sure this family would of spent a lot more then $50 as my bf came from a family of 8 children. We had the same lunch and dinner for two days which I was getting sick of by the last night. We had roast chicken pieces, ham and some other meat roll made.  It was yummy through as I never had it before. Similar made like a meat loaf but wrapped in bread crumbs. We had various home made salads. My favourite salad would have to a pasta one with added walnuts. For desserts we had a choice of trifle, a fruity ice cream pie, ice cream with jelly and fruit salad or plum pudding with custard. Take a guess what I had!! The first year I had some alcohol (mostly wine) consumed since I wasn't driving!!

My bf only lives a short walking distance to his parent's house. Actually four of his siblings live in the same suburb.  Only one of his brothers didn't attend to any Christmas gatherings as he is currently working in Western Australia.

On Christmas Eve I went to the local shops to buy the last of presents for Pete's siblings. I made that simple I purchase a handful of scratch its as I didn't know what they really wanted.  They had their family opening presents at 9am on Christmas Day.  The main focus was more on the baby as a new addition was welcomed about three months ago. I wasn't expecting much from his family but I did get a nice gift from his parents and two of his sisters (they are twins!!). From my bf I did get a hello kitty oven matt and a lovely necklace. Monique did get me two colour in books. Afew scratch its and a fuel voucher from my parents.

In the evening we went to Midnight Mass with one of the twins. She came to pick us up.  We arrived half an hour early to listen to the Christmas Carols sang by a choir. A lot of religious songs I haven't heard for years.  Return back after 1am and consumed supper of Christmas nibbles with two drinks. I think I only had about 3-4 hours sleep as we had to be up early.

Would you believe me one of the cinemas was open on Christmas Day?  My bf and I watched the late session of Star Wars 7 (The Force Awakens) as it was released at the cinemas a week before Xmas. I am not really a big fan to science fiction movies but I did enjoy this action pack movie. BB-8 would be my favourite character!!

Avoid the shopping centres on Boxing Day but my bf and I did go yesterday afternoon as I knew it would of been abit quieter to attend.  It was more clothes shopping for me this time! Another Xmas present from him.  I only got a nice shirt, a cotton vest and a new watch.  There were other clothes I like but none in my size.

All the best for a safe and happy New Year! Best of luck with your ambitions in 2016!

Festive Season begins

School holidays started earlier this week but my girls finished school 2-3 weeks ago. My 15 yo plan on alternate weeks of spending time with me and her father in Logan.  This week she's in Logan until Christmas Eve then goes to Hervey Bay for two weeks to spend time with Grandma (on her father's side).

This past week my vacation care hours started.  I worked for over 15 hours this week.  Both days they had special guests in to educate children about indigenous culture and preparing for storms.  On Friday we had water play fun!  I think it may been abit too cold for some children as we didn't really have a hot sunny day. I will have another two shifts to do before the centre closes over the Christmas and New Year week.

On the other days of the week I spent time with my 17 yo as she had errands to do and business appointments to attend to. She tried to make a claim for youth allowance but sadly her eligibly was rejected as her father earns more then the quota states. On Thursday I had my full day with my 15 yo. We went to the cinema to see Hotel Transylvania 2. In the evening we went to the club with my bf (as I wasn't seeing him this weekend due to him working night shifts) for dinner and seen a free movie upstairs. The movie we seen was called Tomorrow Land.
 
Only 5 sleeps to go and I still need to get motivated to finished my Christmas shopping, present wrapping and post afew Christmas cards. I won't be spending much Christmas hours with my girls this year. Like always my 15 yo prefers to spend Christmas with her father's side in Hervey Bay. This is the third year she done it!  Since my 17 yo has a serious relationship with her bf she will spending time with his family over the weekend. Don't worry I already got plans of my own now!! I will be away for 5 nights to spend time with my bf and his family.

All the best to everyone for a safe and Merry festive season.  Safe travels and take care during the severe weather moments if it happens in your area.  As far as we know we should be expecting good weather over Christmas here in SE QLD.

November report

Only 22 days to go until Christmas!  Almost finished my present shopping but still got to my yearly newsletter and post off a handful of cards this year after I write them up.

I had a busy November with normal commitments.  And recovering from a nasty flu virus vs asthma.  It seems I'm getting asthma again after returning to the same environment from previous years. 

My 17 yo has now graduated high school two weeks ago.  The previous week she had her senior formal held at Dreamworld.  She was beautifully dressed which I attended to the photo session with my boyfriend.... Yes..... I do have a man in my life now!  I'm so happy to be with him on most weekends while my 15 yo stays at her father's.

My 15 yo just finished year 10 last week and she's already complaining she's bored.  Typical teenager! So this week we have been at the club to dine in with friends and seen a movie with her sister and my bf this afternoon. We watched The Hunger Games, part 2 of Mocking Jay at the cinema. On Sunday night my bf and I watched Spectre at the cinema after a social game of bowing at a different centre.

My bowling league is now finished for the year. We had our break up party on last Saturday night.  The night wasn't appraisable.  I was happy with the prize presentation and raffle draws but not so happy with the buffet meal served.  The food could of been a better quality for the priced we all paid. But all will changed in 2016 as I will join a new league at a new centre.  I already been introduced as I have bowled with them socially for the last two Sunday nights. They are a friendly bunch!  They even invited me to attend to their break up party next weekend. 

All the best for a safe and happy festive season with your loved ones.  Be safe on the roads if you have any travel destinations. Our road toll has been quite bad lately in our state.