New Blog Address

I now have a new web site so have moved all my blog posts over there. Just click on the link www.lindamcguire.com.au and you will be taken to the new site.
Thanks
Linda

We Finally Meet Kim!

Taking Arlie's car back to her on Saturday also gave us a chance to meet Kim for the first time!! Arlie and Kim formed their online friendship nearly 5 years ago so it just wonderful to finally meet her! She is such a beautiful girl and is much taller than I realised and speaks English much better than we do!!LOL In all the excitement we forgot to take a photo of Arlie and Kim together as Arlie had to go to work, but I am hoping for many more photo opportunities before she returns to Holland in the middle of August.
Lacey thought she would give Kim some tips on how to be an Australian Bogan by showing her how to carry tongs when you don't really want to carry them!!LOL

The Finished Product

We took Arlie's car back to her on Saturday and it was great to see the look on her face when she saw what a fantastic job John has done on it!! It looks so good and he should be really proud of himself, especially considering the time constraints and bad weather that he has had to deal with!! This photo really doesn't do it justice!! John really is a jack of all trades and even one of the ladies that Arlie works with asked him if there is anything he can't do after seeing what a great job he has done on the car and also knowing how good he is at fixing computers!!LOL

Arlie's Car

John has been very busy over the past three weekends painting Arlie's car. It has been a mix of three different colours since she started driving it and it certainly didn't look it's best. It had a white bonnet, green guard on the front and one of the pop up light covers was white too!!LOL
Mechanically it is in perfect condition, but it just didn't look all that great. He has done an amazing job and now it looks fantastic!! She hasn't seen it yet so I am looking forward to her reaction to it when she does!!

So Far Behind!

Wow, once again I have fallen way behind on all our news!! Things have been really hectic around here (nothing new I guess!!LOL) and sadly keeping the blog up to date has had to wait! But, I hope to do a better job of keeping up to date as much as possible from now on!
I guess the most exciting news at the moment is that Arlie's friend from Holland, Kim, has arrived in Australia for her 6 week holiday! We haven't had a chance to meet her yet as she flew into Sydney on the 1st and Arlie and her have been having a bit of a holiday down there since. They arrived back on the coast last night so hopefully we will be able to catch up with them very soon!

Another Beautiful Weekend

On the 14th of March, we were lucky enough to spend four days up at Inskip Point! If you have not already guessed, we just love it up there, and although it was overcast with some rain showers for most of the weekend, it was still really nice to get away.
Wendy and Brad came with us this time and Ross, Deloros, Corey, Tegan, Travis and Jeremy were there until the Sunday.

Lacey Update

I have just got back from dropping Lacey off for her last shift at Woolworths Morayfield. She has been fortunate enough to gain a position at the Super IGA that opened up here in Woodford just before Christmas! This is going to make life so much easier for all of us as now, instead of an hour round trip to take her to work and then again to pick her up, its only a 5 min trip up the road! This will not only save us a fortune in fuel, but will also free up some time too!
She has already done 4 shifts for them and so far she really likes it. They have her doing registers and working in the deli which is something a little different for her. I really like the uniform too, it looks much nicer than the dowdy Woolworths one.
Lacey also decided, seemingly out of the blue, to get her ear pierced! Its not quite the normal place for it, but Arlie has her ear done in the same place and Lacey has apparently always liked it, so while she was down the coast for a couple days, she decided that it was time. I think it looks quite good and she is happy with it, so I guess its all good!LOL
Her hair is still as beautifull as ever and I think I have managed to talk her into keeping long and curly at least until her formal! She has picked out a dress that she likes and as it is fairly unusual, I have decided to give making it for her a go! Not being know for my sewing skills, this should be quite a challenge!!LOL

So Spoilt

It was our 20th wedding anniversary on the 6th of February this year and I was very spoilt!! John bought me this beautiful ring (the three diamond one) to go with the solitaire that he bought me for our 10th anniversary!!
I made John this special box which contains all the cards, letters and special mementos we have given each other over the past twenty years. It's a bit hard to see in the photo because it's a bit blurry, but there are three photos on the front. One is our engagement photo, the next one is a wedding photo and then the last one was taken last year. The words on the front are the lyrics to a song that my niece sang at our wedding called "Longer" by Dan Fogelberg. It has always been one of my favourite songs because the words are just so perfect.

Longer than there's been fishes in the ocean
Higher than any bird ever flew
Longer than thereve been stars up in the heavens
Ive been in love with you.

Stronger than any mountain cathedral
Truer than any tree ever grew
Deeper than any forest primeval
I am in love with you.

Ill bring fires in the winters
Youll send showers in the springs
Well fly through the falls and summers
With love on our wings.

Through the years as the fire starts to mellow
Burning lines in the book of our lives
Though the binding cracks and the pages start to yellow
Ill be in love with you.

Longer than thereve been fishes in the ocean
Higher than any bird ever flew
Longer than thereve been stars up in the heavens
Ive been in love with you
I am in love with you.

Family Time

Last Monday night (24/3/08) we had a lovely dinner with a few extras present. Arlie's friend Matt was playing golf at North Lakes so they decided to come home for a visit and Morgan had spent the day at Brendan's (her boyfriend) place. Arlie and Matt arrived just as Morgan was being dropped off so we invited him to stay for dinner too. It was a great night with lots of laughter and funny stories! We had all heard a lot about Matt but had not met him yet so it was really good to finally get the chance. They have become good friends and we discovered that he is a really nice guy so it's good to know that she has some company down the coast now.
At one time John and I commented on how lovely it was to have everyone at home for dinner and having such a great time together. I hope we have many many more nights like that!
The only down side of the evening was that Kaydon somehow managed to jam his little finger in between the chair and the table when he was setting it for me and the picture shows the damage he did. He must have banged it pretty hard as his finger was black and blue and very swollen by the next day!!
We also discovered that we are going to need a much bigger dinner table when all the kids start bringing friends home as we only just made it around the table with only two extras!!LOL

Easter Celebrations

Easter weekend was a fairly quiet one around here as John was going back to work for the first time on the Tuesday. Also, because it was so early this year, the school holidays didn't start with the Easter weekend as the normally do.
We did however spend the Sunday down at the Gold Coast. Wendy and Brads are staying at there unit down there for a week so Arlie met us there and we spent a lovely day relaxing on their veranda with Mum, Dad and Sandra too.
As usual, the Easter Bunny left everyone some yummy treats and Lacey and Morgan decided that the boxes that their eggs came in made really good hats!!

Yet Another Catch Up!!

Well once again I have fallen way behind with my posts!! I'm going to blame the fact that John was off work for another 4 weeks after his operation (but don't tell him that!!LOL).
Seriously, it has been a bit of a surprise just how long it is taking for John's knee to return to any thing like normal. He finally returned to work on Tuesday (25/3/08) which means that he has been off for a total of 7 weeks. He has been back to the doctor today and it looks like he is going to need some physio, and will continue on light duties at work until at least the 5th May.
I really did enjoy having him home for those six weeks, although it has meant that I am way behind on most of my jobs, but I have definitely decided that I could get used to him being retired and at home all the time!

Getting Ready

Tomorrow is the day of John's knee operation so we have been busy getting the kids lounge room ready. We have set him up in this room as I think he will have quite a lot of trouble getting out of the water bed with a sore knee. I'm hoping that he doesn't have to stay in here too long, but we will just have to wait and see how he recovers.

Dam Tour

As most people would know, South East Queensland has been experiencing it's worst drought in years. I think it's been about 8 years in some places around the region. Our dams have been dropping steadily since March 2003. At that time, the percentage of water in storage across our three major dams (Wivenhoe, Somerset and North Pine)was 65.92% but in August 2007, they hit a low of just 17.25%. Most of the region has been at Level 6 water restrictions for quite some time now too which has meant some very strict guidelines to the water that can be used in the home. Basically they where trying to get each household to use only 140l of water per person per day. Along with absolutely no watering of gardens or washing of cars/houses etc, you could only have 4min showers! The Government has been offering rebates to households which could be used to install water saving devices like rain water tanks and front loading washing machines.

Mia and Rylie

Sunday was a very special day for My Nephews Twins Mia and Rylie. They were Baptised at a lovely church in Petrie and then we all celebrated with them at the Norths Services and Leagues Club. It was a really lovely day and the twins were wonderful.
We had a beautiful roast for lunch at the club complete with vegetables and as Arlie is a member there it only cost $45 for six of us, which is fantastic value!! For desert we got to eat this beautiful cake!!!
I think this is a great photo of Mum and Dad with Sandra and her brood!! She is a very proud grandmother!!