Slack, Slack, Slack!

Well, I started off really well, but it didn't last long! Can't believe it's been nearly 2 weeks since I blogged last, but what, with the kids on holidays time is not something I have heaps of at the moment!!LOL
Anyway, enough of the excuses, time for a catch up post!
One of the biggest things that has happened since I posted last is that Arlie, Lacey and Sarah have all been talking about joining the Australian Defence Force! I am a bit shocked by all this, but after looking at the Defence Jobs website I had to admit that it sounded like a pretty good idea.Arlie has talked about wanting to join the Air Force for a while now, but since she decided to do the Uni thing, I thought that it had been just a fleeting thought. As it turns out it is something that she is still interested in. She would love to become an Air Force pilot but sadly, at only 5'1" she is just too short, so she is now looking at joining in some sort of health capacity and then continuing on with her Oral Health degree once she is in. If this is the way it goes, she would actually enlist as an Officer Candidate.
Lacey on the other hand, is looking at joining the Navy. When I asked why the "Navy" she replied (in the only way Lacey can) that if a plane went down she couldn't fly so therefor the Air Force wasn't any good, and since she doesn't like running, the Army wouldn't work either as she wouldn't be able to run away from the bullets, but, if a ship sank, she could swim and have at least a chance of saving herself!!LOL She also likes the idea of being able to do some fishing while on board a ship! On a serious note, she has been struggling a little over the past few weeks trying to keep motivated at school. I think this is normal for this time of year in grade 11 as I'm sure that even though she only has on more year left, after already doing 11 years at school, 12 months must feel like a life time! She just started to feel a little lost not really knowing exactly what she wanted to do at the end of next year. She had talked about the Navy a while ago, but she was worried about having to commit to it for four years but we have now found out about a government incentive program called the ADF Gap Year where you can join straight out of school and only commit to 12 months and at the end of the 12 months you can then decided if you want actually join up for a longer period or you can just leave. The money that they get paid for this gap year is pretty good (somewhere between $31000 and $46000 depending on which service you join) which is not bad for a 17-18 year old.
Sarah is leaning towards the Army and is hoping that it may be an alternative to finishing year 12. Although she is doing much better at school this year, it is still not her favourite place to be so I think the Army could really be good for her. I do have concerns about her dealing with all the rules and restrictions that Army life would bring, and we have talked about it quite a lot over the past few weeks, but she feels that the discipline of life in the Army is just what she needs right now.
We all went for a drive to Maroochydore on Monday morning and visited the recruiting centre there to get some more information. The lady who helped us was great and went through the requirements for each different set of circumstances for the girls in complete detail. We were there for quite some time and at the end of it she gave them all some bags with all the information she had given them as well as a few little goodies like hats and sunscreen. She also gave Kaydon a hat as he had been very patient and was helping her to get different booklets and pamphlets of the shelf. There was a lot of chatter in the car on the way home and all three girls were very excited about what they had learned. Arlie has now made the phone call and has an appointment for an interview with the Air Force in early October and Sarah has started to gather the information that she needs before making her appointment. Lacey is still thinking about it all, but really can't do anything much about it all until next year, but I will keep you posted about how it all turns out.

At long last!

Today was an exciting day for me as, after nearly 12 months of asking, John finally organised to have the old cars that we have had sitting in the back yard removed!! Probably doesn't sound like a big deal, but for me it is!LOL I have hated having these wrecks in the yard for so long because for a while there our yard started to look like a wrecking yard and used car lot. At one stage we had Arlie's Laser, the wrecked laser that John bought for parts, Arlie's blue Astina (the car she is driving now), my white Astina and the Astina wreck that was bought for parts, the commodore wagon, the Tarago, the Pajero and John's work truck all parked in various places around the yard and considering we only have three licenses drivers this was a bit on the ridiculous side! The guy that came to pick up the cars was really nice and even offered me $25 for the two cars, but I was just so happy to see them gone, I told him not to worry about it!LOL

Mowers, Cars & Quilts!

Kaydon has gone to bed tonight a Very Happy boy!! When I got back from taking Lacey to work this morning, Kaydon met me at the car (before I could even get out) and excitedly told me that John had allowed him to have a go on the ride on mower all by himself! Now personally, I don't really see how sitting on a ride on mower can be all that exciting, but for Kaydon, who has been hassling John for years to have a go on it, this is a really big deal.
John hasn't let any one else use the ride on since we bought it a few years ago. He told us that it was because "it was too hard to use", but we have all had the sneaking suspicion that he just wanted to keep it to himself, you know, the Big Boys Toy syndrome, but it seems that he has finally realised that Kaydon is growing up and that he just wants to give these things a go and it worked as nothing was going to take that smile off Kaydon's face!
John went to the Auto Electrician today and got the Air Con fixed in my car and he also put in the stereo and some speakers so I now have a nice cool car to drive and can play my favourite music. I love driving the Astina, it is so much easier to drive than the Pajero and so much cheaper to run. I'm really glad we decided to keep it for me, now all we have to do is find a car for Lacey to replace it!!LOL

While I was sitting here writing this post I could hear hysterical laughter coming from the lounge room. I couldn't work out what was going on so my curiosity got the better of me and I just had to go take a look. Who would have thought that putting Sarah's quilt back in the cover could have turned into a comedy act!! John was helping her and somehow they managed to get it all inside out and wrong way round and the more they tried to get it right, the more messed up it got which brought on more laughter! It was really funny to watch, but as I write this, I realise that it sounds quite lame. I guess you had to be there!!LOL

Friday Catch Up

Been a bit slack on the blogging this week so will do a bit of a catch up!
The weather has been beautiful over the last couple of days and you can really tell summer is not too far away. It was only last week when we had a day with a maximum temperature of 17 degrees, but today it got up to 31! It really was very warm in the middle of the day, but this afternoon we got a slight breeze which cooled things down a bit so John and I decided to do some gardening out the front. I could hear what seemed to be a huge flock of noisy birds in the one of the trees, but when I looked, it turned out to be just these two Rosella's making all the racket. The colours of these birds are so vibrant I just had to take some photos!

It is easy to tell that the school term is drawing to a close! The kids are getting harder and harder to get up each morning and they are all looking forward to having a few weeks off. I must admit, I am also looking forward to having a break from the daily drive to Caboolture and back for the school run!

Kaydon had been busy working on a new model car. He really is enjoying this new hobby and we hope that we may have found something for him to get into. We have tried so many different things trying to find something that he will stick too and these certainly seem to have done the trick as this is the second one he has finished and he is really keen to make a start on a third.

This week I decided to get out my sewing machine and have a go at making a quilt for Lacey. I have had the material for this sitting in my cupboard for months now but as I am not a very confident sewer, I have been finding reasons to put off making a start. I don't think my sewing machine has seen the light of day since I made some outfits for the girls to wear to Renee's wedding and that's a few years ago now!! So far it has gone pretty well and I have actually done 63 of these pieced squares. Each square is made up of 4 individual pieces of material sewn together to make the block. I am hoping to get the squares sewn together over the weekend and then I will be able to work out how much material I will need to put a back on the quilt. I'll keep you updated on the progress of this project and hopefully I will actually get this one finished!!LOL (the one I started for out bed the year I fell pregnant with Kaydon is still sitting in my cupboard unfinished and he is just about to turn 12!!)


And lastly, here is a photo of Corey (Sarah's oldest brother) and Tegan with their new baby, Travis John Bleakley. I don't think I have ever seen a baby with so much hair!!

A Day We Will Never Forget

Today is another one of those days that I will always remember exatly what I was doing when I heard about what had happened in the US. It is always a sad day, and, no matter how many times I see those images of the planes hitting the towers of the World Trade Centre, I still find it hard to comprehend how any one could do that! I intend to spend the day watching some of the specials that are on to commorate the lives lost on that horrid day.

Seventeen!

Sarah turned Seventeen today!! We celebrated with cards and a present this morning before school and then again tonight with KFC and cake!And to add more excitement to the day, she also became an Aunt for the first time with the birth of Corey and Tegan's little boy Travis!

Last Night in Victoria

Thought it was about time I try and finish writing about our trip to Victoria!! We spent the last few days of the trip just relaxing and taking a few short runs into Shepparton.
The weather had turned quite bad (cold and rainy) so we decided to give the train ride into Melbourne a miss. On the Saturday night before we left Tracey, Steve, John and I went to one of the local pubs in Tatura for dinner. It was a lovely night and the food was terrific. John actually made quite a pig of himself and devoured two full rump steak dinners. The fellow who owned the pub was a friend of Steve's and as it was a pretty quiet night, he ended up joining us for a few drinks. There was a lovely big fire going in the middle of the room, and after a few "complimentary" ports, I was feeling very toasty and warm, inside and out!LOL The kids were at home happily watching the Live Earth concert on TV so it was a very "peaceful" night out.

Steve Irwin

It is so hard to believe that its been a year since the death of Steve Irwin! It was another one of those moments in time where I will always remember where I was and what I was doing when I first heard the news. I could not believe that someone who was so full of life could possible be dead, but sure enough, it was true. My heart goes out to his family today. This world is not quite the same without him.

Fathers Day

How do you tell when John has had a good Father's Day?
When he is in bed snoring his head off before 8.30pm!!LOL
After spending the day doing a few odd jobs around the house (yes, even on fathers day!) and did two trips to Caboolture to take Lacey to cricket and pick her up, we had a huge roast dinner to celebrate his special day. He is the worlds best DAD and deserves to celebrate it in any fashion he decides!!LOL
This is the card I made him. The words inside are very true and fitting and read-:
Dads are special people no home should be without,
For every family will agree they're so nice to have about.
They are a happy mixture of a small boy and a man.
And they're very necessary to any family plan.
Sometimes they're most demanding and firm and stern and tuff.
But underneath they're soft as silk for this is just a bluff.
But in any kind of trouble Dad reaches out his hand.
And you can always count on him to help and understand.
And while we do not praise him as often as we should.
We love him and admire him and that's just understood.
It's only fair to emphasise his importance and his worth.
For if there were no loving Dads this would be a loveless earth!

A Day Out

With Tracey visiting at Renee's place this weekend we decided to take a trip to Kooralbyn and catch up. It was the first time she would get to see her new Grand Daughter, Amelia, so there were some great photo opportunities! Mum, Dad, Sandra and Wendy also decided to take a drive down and see Tracey and Amelia, so it turned into rather a large family get together.
It was also Sandra's birthday so it was a good excuse to have a cake (not that we need an excuse to eat cake!!)It was great to be able to share Sandra's birthday with her as it's not very often I get to do that with her. These family get togethers don't happen as often as they once use to, but they are a lot of fun when they do occur.
We had to call an end to the fun at about 4pm as Lacey was playing indoor cricket back in Caboolture and needed to be picked up. We decided to have dinner at McDonalds before going home which worked well as we got to see the River Fire fireworks display on the big plasma screen there while we ate.