Blah Blah Blah

SCHOOL NEWS
School is done and dusted. Lovely ladies luncheon was had by all. Egg sandwiches, washed down with cups of tea followed by cream cakes, quick exchanges of phone numbers and email addresses and the year is complete.
Phew
Oh and being the modest sort that I am, I am sure all of you out there in cyberland would love to know how my report ended up. I got 98% High Distinction, I was totally rapt, ecstatic. Not really bragging just sharing my good news around!!
WEEKEND NEWS
Off to the footy tomorrow for Tigers v Blues - Kelly's 1st ever attendance at a football match, hope she doesn't get bored or else it gonna be a loooooong 3 hours. The weather is cold and wet, perfect for the hot pie and sauce. Friends son is playing at half time in the Little League.
And I might settle down and watch a few more episodes of Life. I also have Dexter but looks a bit scary and might revisit Spooks from the start. Oh and I need to catch up with Lost. Good weather to sink into the couch with a wine to watch all my TV shows.
GARDEN
So now the ugly weeping tree (like Helloooo who is a pretty weeper/cryer...I gotta be the ugliest cryer ever :D ) oh I digress...yes..the not so pretty weeping tree has been taken out of the front garden and I have a relatively small patch of very bare dirt to do with as I please. I love my roses but the choices!! Aaarghhh anyone who knows me, knows how I am with choices. I love Mr Lincoln, also Just Joey but I have always had the white icebergs because they always have lots of flowers for a long period of time but well, I think I want a change. So do I go for something that blends in with my bricks, probably orange and yellow pastel roses or do I go for a display of colour which include my favourite red?? And do I go for a tall or small standard, bush roses or miniatures or a mixture? I need Jamie Durie to pay a visit!!
But working on the theory that gardens are an evolving piece of art...really I can't go wrong, can I??!!

Widgets

]

WTF are Widgets?

Well I had a play around and got one on my blog, aren't I just becoming the big geek. Click on the Media Player tab and you can hear Coldplay's new release Violet Hill.

And news from their website
Top of the US pops
June 19, 2008 8:22 pm
We were pleased enough when Viva La Vida reached Number 2 in last week's Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Now it's climbed to Number 1.
Top of the UK pops
June 22, 2008 6:48 pm
Viva La Vida tops UK charts
BBC Radio 1 have just announced that Viva La Vida has become our first ever UK number one single. Amazing.
(Where are you now Crazy Frog?)

I took my love down to Violet Hill
There we sat in snow
All that time she was silent still

So if you love me
Won't you let me know?

If you love me,
Won't you let me know?

I'm loving you Chris Martin ;-)

Tuesday what will I does day

My first day off for so long and I had booked a physio appointment for my rotten knee. Burnt a big hole in my pocket but finally the clickety clicks have reduced and I have been given the all clear. I still don't trust it completely so will start exercising again with a bit of caution.
Then I have the whole afternoon to myself before school pick up and parent/teacher interview. Ho hum what to do?? Oh I am not used to this, all my friends are at work, oh well go shopping :D
Harvey Norman sales guy very helpful (and btw he smelt gorgeous hmmmmm) um er so I bought a 500gb external drive $121 and a internal DVD burner $33 (unfortunately I overlooked getting when I bought this new computer).
So off home I trotted very pleased with my solo purchases. I think I am getting this I.Tty bitty business. I installed the DVD drive by myself, hardest part was getting the computer cover back on :) and now I am in the process of burning Dexter season 1, episodes 1&2. Ooo the disk has just popped out, wonder if I have been successful??
Oh and I have to make a phone call tomorrow around lunchtime, could be a change coming in my life, keep fingers and toes crossed Kimmy

If a cat could speak, it wouldn't !

My neighbour commented on how cute our new cat was and he guiltily admitted to feeding it. All well and good, but we don't have a cat.
This young female is just gorgeous. She is quite dark but has tiger like markings through her thick winter coat. She is only quite young and well looked after. I think she may be quite fickle in her affections but she kept us both good company today. She basked in the sun near the window. Checked out the whole house upstairs and downstairs. Decided she liked Kelly's doona to sleep on for a while until I got up to make a cuppa and I lost my seat. She was a bit uncomfortable at being picked up at first but soon was purring.
Yes it is confirmed, I am a cat woman. :P I love their independence, their clean smell, their affection and love (when they feel like it!!)
Kelly got our picture of Pippy out, in her heart shaped frame, and said
"Mum, Pippy will always be with us cos she is in our hearts" Then she proceeded to put the frame over my heart and then hers. We had a cuddle and a quiet reflection. Gee I have a sensitive little 7 year old.
And I confess, we fed our visitor today, but we were only being polite :D

2nd term comes to a close

Kelly off sick today so we had a cuddle on the couch in the morning, out to lunch at local cafe with Nan and a good read through her school portfolio and report in the arvo. Both ladies of leisure, lovely :) oh and joined by our neighbourhood cat who has totally melted by heart...more on her in next blog
"What Kelly has achieved"
'Kelly has demonstrated outstanding skills and work habits in class activities and is confident, well organised and motivated producing wonderful work. She is a keen reader using fluency and phrasing, recognising when what she has read does not make sense and re-reading to self-correct. Kelly predicts and infers what questions the text might answer. She also retells what she has read logically and includes key ideas. In Writing, it is pleasing to see Kelly writing a range of short sequenced texts including imagined ideas, cards, messages and notes. She uses capital letters, full stops and question marks correctly some of the time. Kelly uses her knowledge of some spelling patterns to generate plausible attempts at spelling unfamiliar words. She listens to conversations and texts including, serialised stories about real or imaginary events with little supporting visual information. In Mathematics, Kelly is able to model, read, record and order two-digit numbers and knows numbers before and after a given number up to 100. She can also count from 0 by 2s, 5s and 10s to a given target. Kelly is able to classify two dimensional shapes accurately, according to properties like the number of sides and faces of the shape. Kelly has been a quiet achiever in I.C.T. this semester, experimenting with a variety of computer software with enthusiasm. Well done on a terrific semester's work, Kelly!'

Well aren't I just the proud Mother Hen :D

She is bordering on grade 2 level for English and Maths. Both her effort and class behaviour are excellent...if only I got some of that nice behaviour at home...just seem to be getting all the oh yeah attitude at the moment. The joys of Motherhood

End of school term looms

Phew!!
I printed, bound and handed in my much complained about report. My schoolfriend who had also struggled with it finished at the same time. Telstra has made a fortune out of our late night text msgs and phone calls basically just to whinge to each other. Well, we both bound it at the same time and I put my arm around her and we posed to an imaginary camera with big cheesey grins. What a relief!
Had last terminology test and our teacher saved the easiest one for last, woohoo.
Finishing up on Thursday going out for celebratory lunch Thursday week :)

Might take a week off on the school holidays and have a few pajama days with Kelly. She sure needs it. Poor darling. She tells me about 'a girl in her class' who, after lunch, whilst watching Charlotte's Web fell asleep!! Of course it was her...double checked her bag for a teachers 'please explain' note.
Oh and we have to practice catching in the holidays...she only managed a 2 out of 10 with the beanbag catching P.E. exercise...as far as throwing and catching are concerned she is a terrific runner!! Eye/hand co-ordination has never been one of her strong points much to my mums dismay...

Good luck continues for me, stars must be in the right alignment!!

Spooky monster

Well my good things are on a roll...
Following on from Thursday, a little good thing...it was a phone call actually 'Anonymous' (see previous posts comments).
Today I just had one of my feelings that I should take my phone to morning tea (something that I never do). So I followed my hunch. Well I got another phone call, cant tell you all yet but it is work related...

Now that you are all sooo intrigued, I will totally change the subject and show you a pic of a man "down on his luck" and how I tried to cheer him up!! I have got a stupid grin on my face because I took it of myself with my mobile camera. Didnt even have Kelly with me as an excuse. Nup, no excuses, Im just a little bit crrrrrazzzyyyy.

Oh and I decided to do something unique and interesting yesterday. We trundled off to the Eastlink open day along with 99,998 other people!! So much for unique but it was kinda fun. Did the 10km bike ride, what a breeze, wish I had attempted the 30 but was wary of my still dodgy knee. Even though the 10km was easy peasy Japanesey on the bike it did give me an appreciation of how far I had run (read shuffled) in my fun runs.

My Nan is around me lately, heard a tinkle of my windchime and the smell of my daphne bush keeps wafting up. I feel very settled in our new home, like I have lived here for years. I feel safe, secure and my world is really shining brightly at the moment. Must try and hold onto that contentment through these winter months.

Red wine, Garfield eyes and finish line in sight

Enjoying home made pizza with a nice shiraz and a Ribena for Kelly (in her own plastic wine glass) on a Friday night...snuggled up on the couch watching The Whale Rider - (mmm I do have an attraction for the cultural side of the Maori but not the Once Were Warriers side)
Doesn't get much better than that

Bring it on, 1 week to go, 4 nights of staying up to midnight, eyeballs look like Garfield and finally getting to the end of my school assignments, reports and tests.
I can do it, I will do it
And my intuition spooky again...last Saturday I got a strong feeling that something good was going to happen to me this week. I sms'd a few ppl telling them so I have evidence!! But by Wednesday I was doubting myself but...
On Thursday, something small but good did happen to me.

Some pics

Water Baby

Sensible climbing shoes - NOT!!
and Lysterfield Disco Diva

And it is now official, I have more pairs of Birkenstocks than my German born and bred friend.
Is it going to far too get some Birkie slippers??

Cartilage chaos

Just a little secret between you and I, but I was a teeny weeny bit worried about my knee that I might have inherited another dodgy maternal gene and developed cartilage problems.
So I booked into the physio for Sunday. Heat is applied for about 25 minutes, then the man genius gets to work.
He poked and delved, firstly into my mind, then into my knee. He came to the conclusion that I have probably strained my leg whilst moving, (bending and lifting) and one little twist the wrong way is all it takes to end up with a dicky leg.
Anyway he really got into the inside of my leg (as you do??!!) and all of a sudden, Crack.
Didn't hurt but I tentatively asked, 'Ummm, what was that exactly??'
Reply 'That was your cartilage popping back into the correct place"
Ooo no wonder I felt like my knee was out of place and that I was working around on a Gigantor leg.
3 stretches, hamstring, quad and calf muscles - all vital to keep my leg in perfect working order - yes I have been a bit slack with the stretching after gym so tut tut now I pay the penalty
Oh and I got the ok to do the 6km on Sunday but it has to be a walk, with a rest halfway - won't be breaking any records.
Better do some walking and cycling this week, feel like a blob :-)

Weekly fine whine

My kinda good news
My right knee has given good service for 40+ years but
For the first time in my life I have been having anti inflammatory pills.
I have put heat bags on all evening and have rubbed Deep Heat in morning and night.
Not one to stick to the traditional medicines, I am also ingesting Arnica homeopathic pills and rubbing in Arnica cream.
So after resting it all week, finally it feels a little better. Probably the stairs in the house are not helping my cause. Fingers crossed it comes better next week as I would like to go in the 6km run even if it becomes a 6km walk.

My second good news is that finally finally...
I have started working on my school report and guess what
It is not as bad as I originally thought, ironic, hey??!!

Third good news
And it is a looooong weekend this weekend, Queen's Birthday weekend
Saturday=swimming
Sunday=Kelly's schoolfriend birthday party
Monday= SLEEP IN :D

And get this
As it is a public holiday on Monday, one of our part-timers at work was asked to come in for an extra day later in the week so that she still worked the same number of hours. Bad luck that she has 2 small children and is working her guts out on a crappy new system that was not ready to implement.
FFS - so are the management going to set example by working on the weekend??? I think not
I am so over it
What should I do?
Decisions, dilemmas
Need money but don't need the crap

Generation Gap?

One of the presents I bought for Kelly for her birthday was Mastermind
My sister and I played this game for hours,. We made a few a homegrown rules and variations to the original game along the way.

I have taught Kelly the easy version where you place the black (correct colour and spot) or white (right colour, wrong spot) pegs in holes that correspond to the coloured pegs.

Mum and Kelly had a 'friendly' game tonight.
Nan - Are you sure that white peg is right Kelly?
Kelly - Yes Nan
Nan - But I don't think it can be Kelly
Kelly - Nan, this is not how you played in the 'olden' days!!

Four weeks to go and counting

My school year is nearly at a close.
Had a very hard test today on the nnnnervous system, gee I was nervous taking that one!! Glad I studied last night, it was by far the most difficult terminology test we have had. We only have Psyche left - had a quick flick through and I gotta tell you that self diagnosis is not a good thing!!

We are doing Excel at the moment and I am enjoying doing all the charts and graphs, haven't done those before. I have a little pesky report that I really really really need to start working on. I have found it very hard to get motivated as it just does not interest me...I think I can, I think I can.
Finished XP, Powerpoint assignment & presentation, 2 Medical packages, audio typing (what a crack up - especially when I sped up/slowed down voices!!), resume and application letters, job placement at the Epworth, few assignments all in the last 4 months...

Phew, no wonder I am tired. But I have really enjoyed it and have met some lovely people along the way. I am a group of 4 that sit together, lunch and laugh together and have tentatively had coffee for the first time outside of school hours. Hopefully we will be able to continue our friendship once school is out. Though there is talk in the camp of the girls doing their Certificate IV so maybe just maybe I might continue too.

Where it will take me?? Not sure
Do I even want to work in this industry?? Not sure

But it has been interesting learning about the human body, polishing up on my computer skills and fun getting to know a different bunch of people. Oh and the floristry students do lovely arrangements of flowers - I am the running joke with how many bunches I buy - but they are cheap!!

Should I sign up for Cert IV?? Apparently can do some at home...mmm tempting

Toilet jokes

Well I suppose I could only be immune to it for so long. As I had the good sense to give birth to a daughter I have probably avoided it for a little longer but finally they have caught up with me...drum roll please...toilet jokes.
Wee, poo and fart jokes and words now seem to amuse my previously delicate daughter (well maybe I am exaggerating on the delicate just a little!!)
Though it is hard to chastise when I am playing along with the joke.
The other night on the way home Kelly had found an old balloon in the car (amidst her assortment of hair-ties, pens, textas, lolly wrappers, don't even go there). She was blowing it up and letting the air out, much like a whoopee cushion. Well of course I went along with the joke and the "Oh Kelly, you're disgusting" only encouraged her further.
Then in exactly my words and tone of voice, she announces "Oooo Mum I've got pains" and lets the balloon whistle out a beauty.
Well I laughed so hard that I under steered into the roundabout, narrowly missing the gutter.
A good fart joke still funny at 41?? Baaad Mother :-D