You know what I want to say……

don’t really want to state the obvious…… but I am not sure If I can resist………oh what the hey?

Bugger its been HOT HOT HOT!.

This week has been a struggle for all of us I am sure.

Here is an update with photos.

Miss Matilda started the week quite fashionable.  She looked so OLD dressed like this. Where is my baby girl??????

Australia Day was spent having the traditional BBQ.  We also taught the boys how to play Monopoly.  Lots of fun.

Then the heat started.

The air-conditioning did strange things to Matilda’s hair, check out those curls.

We tried many different methods to stay cool.

But when this is the temperature outside, you don’t have much hope!.

Our indoor temperature is so high because like many others, we lost power a few times.

Trying to entertain the children became more and more difficult. Today we decorated these biscuits but even the smarties were struggling in the heat and melting before we could eat use them.

This is the smoke from the Endeavour Hills fires.  There was also a grass fire about 2km from our home which resulted in traffic chaos (just as we were escaping to mum and dads when the power went out , again!.) . We did get there eventually.

Some of my garden is looking a little worse for wear now.

With the water tank almost empty and no rain on the horizon, I am focusing on trying to keep certain plants alive, the others are unfortunately left to fend for themselves. Very hard to watch this happen.

On a happier note. Weight Watchers has been a huge success. I have lost over 3kg so am back to a weight I am more than happy with. I have been also adding  a bit of exercise into my daily life which is something that was definately missing.  Eating healthy food is making me feel so much better. Lets hope I can keep it up and maintain what I have achieved.

Wishing you all the very best for the start of the school and kinder year. I am not ready to go back, I really enjoy getting up at 8am!.  Fingers crossed that after tomorrow we can enjoy some more sensible temperatures.

Enjoy life, Enjoy the cool change,

Helen xxxxx

Out of Order.

ooops, forgot to finish my post about last weekend, then “lost” it so here we go (again!).

Last Sunday we got to spend a lazy day at Williamstown. Have never been there before but gee its lovely. The weather was perfect, there was a beautiful market, lots of boats for the children to see and go on and generally a really nice vibe about the place.

Getting there involved a cruise around the bay from Mordialloc in the Chev. Definately somewhere I would love to go again.

Yesterday I attempted to do the grocery shopping in that horrible wind!. It was just so strong. When I returned to my car (which was parked at the local supermarket which is perched on top of a wind blown hill!). I found a note, a bad note, from a lovely honest lady who had hit my car with her door. When I finally got the courage up to have a look it was not good   There was a 15-20cm long mark right down my front passenger door and my heart sank.  I knew it was not her fault as the wind ripped my door out of my hands when I arrived, luckily no one was parked next to me at the time.

Anyway once I was home I had a closer look and saw that most of the paint she had left behind rubbed off, phew. Steve hit it with some polish and now all I have is a teeny tiny dent YAY!. What a relief.  I did ring the lady who was also relieved the damage was very minor.  Its nice to know there are still some honest people out there.

Take care and enjoy the long weekend,

Enjoy Life

Helen xxxxx

PS Did I mention that I love the new U2 song?, or did I even need to mention that?. Kind of goes without saying doesn’t it

This is what its all about………

a perfect way to spend a hot summers day……

Enjoy Life

Helen xxxxx

A “blah” week.

Been a quiet one.  Struggled through the hot weather, still no aircon   Brivis will be receiving another call from me on Monday that’s for sure.

My camera has not been in use much either this week.  Glad I am not doing the 365 day challenge!.

Caught up with Jo at a local park on Thursday for a picnic. Nice to let the kids just run around and get rid of some energy.

Matilda was in the wars, she managed to put her teeth through her bottom lip early in the day. Its looking really nasty now but she is one tough cookie and it doesn’t seem to be bothering her.

Had my first weigh in a Weight Watchers. I did really well my first week though a few things worked in my favour so not expecting a big loss again next week. Have been coping well with my new diet, rarely hungry or thinking about all the bad (which means yummy) foods I am not eating.  I am actually struggling to eat enough food each day to reach my points total. Very unlike me!. Will see how I go next week.

Received my new mobile phone yesterday, I was still learning how to use the old one though this one seems to be much easier, slowly getting the hang of it. Its my late Christmas present

Hope you are all enjoying the holidays, not long now until school goes back. Its going so fast. Still so much I want to do.

Take care, Enjoy Life
Helen xxxxx

Weekend in Review

Here is my to do list from the last post.

Housework – not quite finished but I did start!

Scrapping -  Didn’t happen as Steve was held up at work.

Kustom Nationals at Phillip Island – We went, we saw, we had a blast.

Weight Watchers – Was going well until yesterday. Bacon rolls and Pizza and Chips are not usually on the WW menu. Back on track today

Yesterday was a great day at the Island.  Weather was super, all 3 of my boys ( plus my dad) were in their element.

Declan and Riley loved crusin’ the track and going through the noisy tunnel. It is their favourite car show for the year. 

This year Riley took along his little “toy” camera and this is the result.

No photos have been edited at all, this is how he saw it. I think his shots are better than the ones Steve and I took.

Today will be a day  to recover (except for Steve who has a 12 hour shift at work).

Tomorrow will be much the same as they are predicting 37 degrees and we still have no air conditioner that we are allowed to use (hurry up Brivis!).  Might be a good day to visit some family who have cooling

Enjoy your Monday

Enjoy Life

Helen xxxxx

some changes…..

A new year, so a new start.

This week I headed back to Weight Watchers. 

I am a life time member and just had a little “maintenance” to do IYKWIM!.   I am around my goal weight but would be happier if I could drop a few kg’s so that most of my wardrobe fits me properly again.  If I am feeling brave in the weeks to come I will report  on my progress but if I say nothing then you know not to ask!.  Feels strange to be counting points again.

Declan and I have been checking out paint colours for his room.

We found the perfect colour in a book but of course the sample pot comes out nothing like it GRRRR!. Will keep looking.  The background colour in the above picture is the one we are leaning towards at the moment. In some lights it is perfect in others its very yellow?.  If my carpet didn’t exist and I had nice neutral wooden floors then there would be no issue.

The following is just because….

just because my kids are cute just because my camera had been in hiding for days and just because I was playing with Picasa.  It owes me big time as I have been experiencing a few issues with it and ending up installing/un-installing x 3 the program during the week because it decided to stop working.  I am glad to have it back.

Have a great weekend heres mine,  today housework, tonight scrapping, tomorrow Phillip Island in the Chev….not bad if I do say so (except the housework bit).

Helen xxxxx

We won……..finally

Did you watch the end of the cricket yesterday?. It was a fantastic finish, especially for a test match (which I don’t usually find that interesting).  We were just sitting down to dinner when Australia took the final wicket. I started cheering and clapping when Riley and I had the following conversation.

Riley:   Did Collingwood win? Yay Collingwood won! (Clapping and cheering)

Me:   No Collingwood play football, this is Cricket

R:  Then who won?

M:  Australia won.

R:  Oh………(confused look) Oh…….Oh thats MY team! I’m Australia,  yay we won, my team won!

By this time Matilda had joined in and Steve was making some comment about how we only won the game blah blah blah…..(hes not the sporting kind!).  Declan was too busy eating his dinner to comment.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi ,Oi, Oi

With the flurry of painting activities going on around me this past month or so I have finally take a huge step and removed the wallpaper border around our family room/meals area (thanks Al!).  Steve and I have lived with this horrible border for over 5 years, it was time for it to go.  This has caused 2 problems though. Problem 1 is that I now have to repaint the walls, and problem 2 is that Declan is now itching to get the border removed from his room and have that repainted.  To be honest he has been patient, both Riley and Matilda have had their bedrooms done and his is still the original colour.   I did manage to talk him out of painting his room like a rainbow or bright red but he now has his heart set on lime green!.   It is one of my favourite colours so I guess we will have to go and buy a sample pot to see how it would look  (it will only be the bottom half of the walls that colour) and also mention to Steve that we might be doing some redecorating soon

 We finally get a day at home today, which we all need. Might attempt a trip to the wholesale butchers but my children always go completely feral when we go there (something to do with the cold air or so I am told), so I will need to be feeling really brave to do that.

Have a great day

Helen xxxxx

A little road trip.

2009 is going to be our year!.  A year with many changes, one of which is to get out and enjoy life more :-)

On Sunday we took a trip down to Flinders and Point Leo.  It was perfect beach weather.  We spent the morning exploring rock pools and finding a few interesting creatures (more on that later!), followed by a picnic lunch and an afternoon spent swimming , catching fish, building sandcastles and eating icy-poles.

Now, more on the interesting creatures or really the octopus featured above.  We found him in a shallow rock pool after the tide had just gone out. At first he seemed happy hiding under a rock but it wasn’t long before he appeared out in the open and  rather agitated because he was being attacked by some small crabs. He got quite cranky, turned red and started squirting out some brown liquid into the water. It was around this time that others noted he might not survive in the shallow pool until the tide came back in.  No one was game to even try and pick him up so in the end Steve came to the rescue with the help of a passer by and  his sons little toy bucket.   This was no easy feat considering the octopus was quite large, its body was the size of my hand and its tentacles were easily as long as my forearm.   After much coaxing Steve finally encouraged the by now quite tired octopus into the bucket (more like a large cup it was that small!) and moved him to deeper, safer waters.  The vision of Steve carrying this tiny bucket with all these tentacles hanging over the side whilst he was scampering across the rocks will not leave my head for a long time. Unfortunately I was busy balancing a wiggling Matilda on my hip at the time and was not able to take a picture .

We ran into more wildlife later in the day at Point Leo.  When swimming in the shallows we were joined by hundreds of toad fish (I think?). They really were quite cute and very friendly, so friendly in fact we (or should I say “I”), managed to catch one with our bare hands.  The boys spent a hour chasing these little critters around, they can’t wait to go back and do it all again.

Despite the fact that we are not really beach people, it was such a nice day. We all came home very tired and only a little sun burnt ( a good effort for a family with fair skin!).  

We have a busy week ahead, lots of socialising to do and if I’m lucky, maybe even a bit of scrapping. 

take care and ENJOY LIFE!.

Helen xxxxx

Welcome 2009!

We ended the year on a quiet note. I did manage to stay awake until midnight but only just!.

We dusted off the Chev (literally) and headed to Mornington on New Years Day.

Didn’t feel much like summer weather wise but was still a good day…….that was until around 4pm when I got hit by a tummy bug and spent the rest of the day/evening in bed

Not much else to report, have been taking it pretty easy for the last week, recharging the batteries for the year ahead.

I hope you have all had a wonderful start to the new year.  Will leave you with some pictures of my darling children. Will be great to look back on these in a years time and see how they have grown (note the moody 6 year old!)

Take care

Helen xxxxx