A bit of everything

Sian and I made it home late Wednesday night, and I think we have now started to settle back into normal routine, well sort of LOL
Dad is doing well and I hear he has had a visit from a community worker in the area who is looking into some support groups etc. Which is fantastic. It's really great that he is on the mend. I just wish we were closer (I am always saying that I know) so we could visit more often. I get a bit frustrated with my brothers sometimes, but oh well. I really was looking forward to getting home, but the minute Sian and I started walking to the plane on Wednesday I lost it. I think I was missing them before I even got on the plane. :( But I have a wonderful family here in Melbourne and some really fantastic friends both on and off the internet!
It was Gareth & my 5th Wedding Anniversary on the 3rd of November, we went out for dinner while mum babysat for us and it was lovely. (Thanks Mum!!) When I got home on Wednesday night I walked in to find an anniversary treasure hunt had been set up. All a little exciting, but boy I nearly fell over backwards when I walked in the bedroom to see a laptop sitting on my bedside table playing Angel of mine and a gorgeous message together with one of our wedding photos on the screen. I am still in shock now I think LOL. I do need to learn to be a little more thankful instead of going 'we can't afford that' I felt terrible, but I think after 'WOW' thats nearly the first thing I said... ungrateful aren't I :( ... Thanks Gareth, I love it!

My baby girl is not a baby girl anymore (well I guess she hasn't really been for awhile!) After a couple weeks of 'no cot, big bed mummy, Bradley bed mummy' We decided it was time to get Sian a big bed. Tonight is the first night my gorgeous little angel sleeps in her 'big girls bed' after setting it up I said to Gareth 'nope, go bring the cot back in' LOL of course we didn't but I so wanted to....
Well here are the pics, hope everyone has a great weekend (whats left of it :-D ) hmmm blogger not playing ... got one uploaded and thats about it, will upload more when it lets me :D

We're going to the zoo :-D

we went to the zoo yesterday and it turned out to be a lovely day despite the dodgy start. Sian was car sick on the way and me not thinking didn't take a change of clothes with me, so when we got to Adelaide we had to do a spot of shopping to get her some clean clothes. We then thought lunch might be best before the zoo as it was likely to be cheaper that way :)
From the zoo we went out to visit Lynn at LC's for a spot of scrap shopping.... I had been promising to drop in every visit for the last year or so LOL, finally got there and it was great. Lynn is as lovely as I imagined she would be and the kids had a ball playing with Lynn's daughter.
Unfortunately Sian was carsick again on the way home, feel so sorry for the poor little babe as I remember what it was like being car sick all the time as a kid, I still suffer, but not to the same extent thank goodness!!!
Here are some photos from the zoo.

Some Photos

First up, Dad is home from hospital, they didn't find the cause of the problems, but they do know he has lost some of his brain function :( it will never get any better and they are going to take his licence away, which has upset him a bit. But he is alot more like the dad I know and love :D He is still very unsteady on his feet and currently uses a zimmer frame to help him. He is hoping in time he will get a bit better and not need it anymore.
Anyways here are some photos from our adventures so far.....
We went to Dundee's Wildlife Park yesterday and the kids LOVED it. Brad got game enough to hand feed the Kangaroo, he was a bit unsure about the birds landing on us though LOL. He was funny when he realised the crocodile was a REAL one hehe.

We made it over to SA ... a couple weeks earlier than planned though.
My dad isn't well at the moment and they have him in the Royal Adelaide Hospital to do tests on him. I believe they are to be very extensive and thorough tests. But hopefully it will mean that they get to the bottom of it all very soon.
Thanks to everyone for the support :D

We took the kids to the Adelaide museum today and they had a ball... Brad looks at the hippo and goes ... thats the hugest mummy!! LOL and then looks at the Lion, takes a step back and then goes... he's not moving :D ... He said this a great new adventure!! As it is free entry we will probably go back again over the coming days and this time I will remember the camera :D We are also hoping to take them to the zoo at some stage too.

Will share some photos when I remember to take some :D

Happy Birthday Gareth

A big Happy Birthday to my DH for tomorrow!! :D

Well this morning started with the kids wanting to help with the dishes :D in fact they took over LOL but they did a pretty good job really :D




I then went to the gym ... Yay!!!! I am feeling better than I have in ages, mind you when I got home from the gym I was really worn out, and all I did was 15 mins walking and some light weights... I guess it will just take a little time to build back up again to where I was.
This afternoon we went kite flying with some friends and it was a very cold (freezing in fact) and windy, but fun too.
I have struggled with not being a grumble bum today... too many late nights over this weekend I think. Emotionally drained after Friday. But will get back on track now :)
Things are not fantastic with my dad at the moment and I was feeling rather scared for awhile, but speaking to him on Saturday, he seemed alot better than he was. He is off for a cat scan on Tuesday. Hopefully Tuesday's results might help shed some light on what has been happening.
Think it's now time I head to bed :)

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Happy Birthday to my Dad for today! Sounds like they had a nice day in store, with both my brothers and their families and a friend of theirs around for a BBQ.
Made me a little sad that I couldn't be there too, we catch up with all of them so little these days :( - Oh well we are over there in Novemeber for my baby brother's 21st I can't believe he is 21 !! I guess the fact that I am 13 years older than him makes me feel a little old haha!! Never mind..... here is a LO of Dad I did today and thought I would share it, seems as it is his special day :)

Take Care

Sleepover

Brad and Sian had their friends sleep over last night :) it all went fairly well, until Brad went into burnout mode and then it got a little bit stressful, but not for long as it was then we decides bed time was on the cards. They had us out of bed at 6am this morning *eek* but never mind, that the joys... only problem with it though is we had 4 tired and slightly moody kids (and a couple adults LOL) The biggest drama of the morning is when Brad decided for the 2nd time in a week that he was going to bite David... I really lost my temper and made him go to bed (where he stayed for 20 mins or so) The thing I don't understand is Brad has only ever really bitten once in 4 years and that was Gareth... so why he has decided biting David is a form of communication I don't know, but I am certainly not happy about it :(

anyway a couple photos to share

The Girls


The Boys


All 4

Playing ball with Dad

I took some photos of the boys playing soccer and basketball in the yard. Brad had a
fantastic time, Sian joined in from time to time but was more happy to do her thing :)

Happy Birthday Mum!!

Happy Birthday to my mum! It was yesterday, but I am only blogging today so had to mention it anyway!!!

Gareth and I went to the movies last night and really enjoyed the time out, mind you the movie (Lady in the Water) wasn't fantastic. I was expecting it to be alot different to what it was. At one point I jumped outta my chair almost. I really don't know why as I saw it coming LOL. Not as scary as what I thought but then it is rated pg after all, which I don't think is quite right either, but oh well just my opinion. Big thanks to my dear friend Kerryn for watching the kids :-D

Another friend of mine is waiting on news of her sister today. She has been on the donor list for 2 years and early hours of this morning was told they had found her a kidney. She went into surgery around 1030 and were expecting her to come out around 530. So far no news, but I have them in my thoughts, in hope that all goes really well and the kidney doesn't reject.

The last week has been fantastic weather wise and has been great for the kids being able to play outside and I feel a bit more sane these days too. Yesterday was fantastic for washing too, I got 4 loads out and dried in about 5 hours :-D

Had CC over at
LC'S
last weekend and I got 2 challenges done and a couple tags from the make and take with Vicki
Hope you all are having a wonderful week!



I watched the Steve Irwin memorial today and was in tears the whole way through. When True Blue was sung I was really bad ... these words got me
Hey True Blue, don't say you've gone
Say you've knocked off for a smoko
And you'll be back later on
Hey True Blue, Hey True Blue
RIP Steve

Wow!!

I won a LO competition today and I am so stoked as I am also going to be featured scrapper for October :) at OSS
I submitted this LO also and was rejected by SM, but I don't care really :) It won me a prize and that is special to me.

Just thought I would share a LO and some photos from swimming today.
Sian was hilarious, she had decide she wanted to have a slide today into the water. There was no stopping her, she even swam over to it LOL.
When it finally came time for the slide she pushed right on in to the front!! She now has 2 weeks off during school holidays, goodness knows how excited she will be by the time we get back there :D

Oh what a week

It has been a fantastic week :) The weather has been fantastic spring weather and I am loving it! Brad got a place at the kinder we want him to go to next year YAY!! I have been out for coffee with 2 of my very best friends tonight and had a ball! I picked up a pair of very cute summer pj's for Sian for $3.86 he he :D
I am going to go to the Target that is closer to me tomorrow and see if there are more bargains to be had! (After going to the gym with a friend) Sigh - It's really good to be happy again after feeling like I was in a slump for so long :)

I am really loving my new camera :) took some photos at the park of the kids playing in the leaves and had a play with the shutter speed and really was happy with the photos I got! Here are just 2 that I have cropped down to remove my friends daughter from them so I could put them on my blog




Have a great and happy week everyone.... and Happy Birthday to Kylie for Saturday!

240806

Been a busy week or so, I haven't been going to bed early enough, I have been grumpy and emotional :( I feel so sorry for Gareth and the kids who have been bearing the brunt of it. Then I get upset with myself for treating them badly and then when my little guy says I love you mummy on his way to bed it melts my heart and makes me realise that I need to be thankful I have some special people (big and little) in my life and I really need to get a grip and start acting thankful :(

Ok I got that out and onto other stuff.... Sian had her appointment with the Eye and Ear doctor at Taralye this morning and we have been informed that she does have to have grommets as they are not likely to get better by themselves. Apparently from what he has mentioned, it's possible that her ears have never cleared from birth and it could be amniotic fluid behind her ears. *shock* He suggested raising the head of the bed and making sure I use a decongestant when she get snuffly... When he went on to the consent forms and telling me what I was consenting to.. I mentioned that maybe with trying the other stuff (mentioned above) we won't need the operation. That's when he told me 'it's worth a shot, but it's almost a certainty that she will have grommets before christmas *big sigh* So we are on the list and have been informed it's about a 3 month wait, but that is fine as it's not a matter of urgency yet. My poor little bub. I have just gone through the anaesthetic with Brad and now I have to go through it again with Sian. It really hurts to see the kids go through operations. I pray that there are not too many more, (if any).

There are 2 Cyber crops on this weekend yay! maybe some more inspiration to be had!
One over at OSS that is running in conjunction with their monthly Pizza Scrap and the other (that I know about) is at The Craft Attic


I finally finished the LO that I started before mum and dad came over nd I am really quite pleased with how it came out. I think I might submit it and see how I go. Not holding my breathe though. But in all honesty as much as I think it would be cool to be published, it's not a be all and end all for me, just a 'see if I can' Main thing is that I am pretty happy with LO's I have been doing lately. I have also started another one titled Grandad. I haven't got very far with it yet though.

Finally a photo of my dad that I think really captures him well and is the one I am using on above mentioned page



Take Care
Sam
XX

photos from sunday

Sigh

I have had a roller coaster of a week.

I found out that Brad has missed out on a 4yo kinder placement (1st round) where he is going for 3yo kinder. He still may get in on second round, but we went to check out the kinder he will be going to if he misses out and I must say it is quite good. There are some things that are better than the current kinder, but there are 2 factors that I think given the choice I would choose the one he is at now. 1. The hours and 2. They have a better music and dance program. But I am no longer stressed as I know either kinder will be great for him for different reasons. :)
Mum and Dad came to spend the week and that was so awesome I really miss them alot :)
We had a great week, but they went home this morning and as usual I have had a sad day. Brad woke this morning after they had gone and was a little sad as well. Poor kids miss them as much as I do I think!
Gareth applied for his Citizenship :D
We went into the city on Sunday to take a trip on the 'tourist shuttle bus' thinking it could be a good way to see some of the touristy things with mum and dad LOL yeah right! What a day that turned into. We still had an ok day but.....
below is an excerpt from an email Gareth wrote to the Mayor, which pretty much sums it up

As we approached Exhibition Street, we saw one of the new buses go past, but we were not downhearted, as we'd read that there is a bus approximately every 15 minutes.

Just as we arrived at the bus stop on Exhibition Street, not 5 minutes after seeing the first bus, a second bus whizzed past us at speed. None of our party had spotted the bus arriving as we were approaching the bus stop from the south, and the driver hadn't thought to stop in case we had wanted to board.

Again, we kept in mind that we'd read that the buses were due every 15 minutes, so we sat and waited.

And waited

And waited

And while we waited, more people arrived and joined the queue for the bus that was bound to arrive sometime soon, surely.

45 minutes after we arrived at the bus stop, a bus arrived. Full to capacity.

There I was, with my wife, two small children, and their grandparents, having waited over three times the amount of time we had expected to wait, to be presented with a bus with no room.

That was the final straw. The time was approaching 3pm, and we were aware that after 3pm the service is reduced (if that is possible). Angry and disappointed at having a family trip ruined, we returned home.

I am hoping to actually try and get some scrapping done this week, we have our monthly get together on Saturday with a group of Melbourne girls. It is always a fun day and I am looking forward to it.
Here are some pics from Sunday.
Or not ... blogger not playing the game, will add them another time :)

PS
A big thanks to Jaki for helping me work out the new header pic on my blog :)

50 posts - Hospital and a Crop

Ok this is going to be a long one LOL
I didn't realise but My Baby Girl is 2 entry was my 50th woo hoo :) I know sad aren't I LOL

Well on friday night I went to a crop at Scrappy Hollow and had a great time and even managed to get a LO done!!
Unusual for me as I normally talk more than I scrap LOL - I Finally met the very lovely Sandi I think it's nearly 12 months since we first mentioned catching up :D We had a bit of a chat and I look forward to catching up again some time soon :)
On Monday Brad and I were off to the hospital to have his teeth fixed, I was soo proud of him, he was really brave. We arrived and got admitted to a room, it was only about 10 minutes until the anaethetist came in to ask questions and then the theatre nurse popped in. She came without her trolley as this tends to scare the littlies she told me. That was fine so we then marched (would have been hilarious site) all in a line down to the theatre :) Brad hopped up on the bed and he was wheeled into the theatre still being very brave, but kept looking at me for my reaction. (I am proud of me too as I stayed really strong and didn't sook while he was awake) On went the mask and he didn't fight it at all, 5 minutes later he was asleep (here I got a little teary but not too bad)and I was being ushered out while they did their thing. After awhile they came out to tell me that the filling that had been done in the chair by another dentist had to be removed and a root canal done as the nerve had died (I was not impressed with the other dentist at this point!) But it was better to have it fixed all in one go than having to go through it all again in a few months. So an hour and a half after he went in I was collected to sit with him in recovery while he woke up. We had a bit of stress when he decided he didn't want the drip in and kicked up a stink, but they gave him some nurofen and he settled down. The drip ran out and he informed the nurse 'it's finished take it out now!) She explained he needed to eat and drink first, which he promptly did and then said 'Finished - take it out now!) To Brad's joy she finally said yes :) Then it started I want to go home now mum - I said you can't yet honey, you need to wait a little while and this went on for the next hour, and then we went for a walk to find the nurse and say hello, couldn't find her, so we walked a second time and then I decided just to get him dressed and kill some more time. Thankfully she came in 5 minutes later and told him we could go now YAY!!
He was awarded a certificate of bravery, which I thought was fantastic as did he.
So we left hospital and went to the shop where he was allowed to buy a toy. He chose a remote control buggy/car that he has named 'Buddy' and it's alll over *sigh*
Until I got the bill today and it was an additional $770 on top of the $1600 already paid and the $450 yet to be paid *faint* so about $2700 all up OUCH!! and I now have to make sure we brush twice a day AND teach him how to floss (yeah right which me luck!!)
Hopefully though there will be no more huge dental bills for awhile!

If you made it to the end of this saga you deserve a pat on the back!!
Until next time Ciao

My Baby Girl is 2

I can't believe it is 2 years since I was in hospital with my little angel. I can't believe how fast she grown and how much she has learnt! At this point 2 years ago she had been in the special care unit for 24 hours and it was to be another 6 days before she was well enough to come home. To look at her now you would never know.
My little Fairy Princess had a wonderful day and loved every minute. She (and everyone else) was exhausted by tea time.
She received a little touch leap pad from us along with a new dressing gown and some crayons and a doll, from my friend Rebecca and her girls she received a gorgeous little pink hand bag, from Kerryn and family she got a My little pony and a fantastic Alice in Wonderland story book, which will be cherished and from Jenni and family a very wonderful present of crayons, pencils and colouring books, which hopefully means she will prefer the books to my walls LOL