My week thus far....

The weekend gone was quite an eventful one and I must say the most enjoyable one I have had for quite some time! My Miss 21 and her Airforce man have finally moved in together and so they invited MM and I to come visit their new humble abode and have afternoon tea on Saturday. We'd love to say we and with Mr 20 assuring us he knew the way we set off on our journey to Silkstone, an outer suburb of Ipswich about an hours drive from our house. I had been to Ipswich many times as it is dad's hometown and his sister still lives there and over the years we had many visits although these stopped a few years ago as said sister became very ill and wasn't much up for visits. So I figured we should be able to get there easily without getting lost. Well...we didn't figure on all the new underpasses/overpasses and new highway to Ipswich. So we say to Mr 20 "okay which way". He ums and ahs a few times then says "Try that way" only seconds from the exit. "Are you sure?" yells MM as he veers off onto the exit. "Yeah pretty sure" says Mr 20. By now we are on the Centenary Highway and the sign that we pass a bit further on says we are heading to Logan/ Gold Coast and then Sydney. MM is now getting a little uptight and thinking this is not the right way. We head past Forest Lake and Springfield and lots of signs that say we are heading to Warwick but none that say Ipswich. Turns out Mr 20 has only been to his sister's once and she was driving and it was at night so he really had no clue where he was going only that some things "looked familiar". By now MM is yelling at Mr 20 saying "looking familiar" is not going to help us find Silkstone. I ask Mr 20 to pull out the UBD and I start looking. Hmmm we are actually miles from we are supposed to be and should not have taken the exit we took. If we'd stayed on the same path we'd be there by now. It seemed we were going to Ipswich via Cairns! Eventually we get as far as Amberley RAAF base before turning around and heading back the way we came. By now we are an hour late, MM has steam coming from out of his ears and Mr 20 is sulking in the back seat! As for me, I'm just happy to be out of the house and going for a drive! I'm like the puppy that loves getting in the car and sticking his head out of the window and tongue flapping in the breeze! Anyway, after following the UBD which incidentally is from 2004 and has none of the new roads/highways/housing estates in it, we arrive about an hour and a half late! But we got the grand tour of the house and we had a lovely afternoon with daughter and future son in law. The owner of the house is a young lady who is renovating so there is a lot of work to be done but she has all kinds of kitchen gadgets which were pretty awesome! Miss 21 is really proud of herself and she and I spent an afternoon swapping recipes and she asking me for laundry tips and what products are best etc so it was a really nice mother/daughter thing with MM and MM Jnr talking man stuff and Mr 20 sitting watching a DVD on their nice big TV! MM Jr is really good for Miss 21. She really was a wild child out of control at one stage and was living a nomadic existence drifting from one friends house to another with nowhere to call home. He is really pulling her in to line. They argue a bit as she wants to spend money and he keeps telling her to get a job then they can afford to spend money. MM and I silently cheer as we have been at her for years to get a job! But they really are in love and he takes good care of her and she has finally become domesticated! Yay!!

Sunday we had a Christmas breakfast at a park near the beach at Scarborough (Redcliffe) with Mum's family...her brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews. We had a lovely time! We basically only see each other once a year at Christmas and at weddings or funerals. Mum's siblings are a riot and its so odd to see all my cousins who were only babies when I was in my 20's are now all grown up some with kids and families of their own now! One of the aunts is putting all the previous Christmas parites we have had and we filmed on video onto to DVD and we will all get copies. We all laughed at the way some of us looked in the 80's *ugh* and all the cousins how cute they were as little ones. It's so funny. There's ones with Dad in them as well as some with my cousin who died of leaukemia at the age of 21 so it is so nice to look back over the years.

All in all the weekend was wonderful and it really put us in the mood for Christmas again.

My Christmas Thanks

I have come to the conclusion that I am indeed very blessed...I have had the support of some very wonderful friends some of whom actually read my blog and from the bottom of my heart I want to thank you for your love, support and kindness to me over this year which has been quite a horrendous one for me. I know I can count on you all to accept me as I am through my ups and downs, my faults and some of my positives. I can never repay any of you for what you have done for me. Just know that I love you all and I am here for you as well! Thank you friends and have a most wonderful Christmas!

Is it over Yet???

Christmas Madness is in full swing here. Don't get me wrong...I absolutely love Christmas as a rule but this year I just can't seem to get into the spirit of it all. Work has gone quiet again as all our kindergartens are now closing so until they all re-open in 8 weeks time we will have a chance to catch up on all the mundane things that get left behind in the craziness of dealing with teachers, staff and cranky parents. Our office also closes for a week and a half over the Christmas break so that will also be a nice time to recharge the old batteries!

I guess it's also the change in the dynamics this year for Christmas with Dad gone. Mum has become quite morose and is threatening to cancel Christmas. I can understand her sadness at this time but it is a little upsetting to the kids and Dad would hate for the kids sake to not celebrate so I have talked her into coming to our house for Christmas Eve so we can all celebrate at my house then Christmas Day she can stay home and think about Dad. She has agreed with that and has promised to pull herself together for the kids' sake. She had my sister over today and they were helping my niece and nephew decorate so that's a big start!

Mum also finally retired 2 weeks ago so she is now a lady of leisure although she is now stressing about getting the house in a fit state to sell. She will be fine once she sells and moves into a smaller, more affordable home. She will also be debt free as well then and can just enjoy life for a change.

My Miss 16 niece finally bought herself a car on the weekend! My MM, myself, Miss 16 and my brother found a private sale on the net and went to see it. My MM knows all there is to know about cars having re-built them in his youth and working in his parents service station for many years and also racing them for a few years so he tagged along to make sure Miss 16 was getting something good. Well this car really is just the thing for her. It's a 97 model Ford Fiesta 5 door a greeny blue colour with blue racing stripes. The tyres are all brand new and the interior is spotless. The paint work even isn't too bad. The usual scratches on the sides from trolleys and stone chips etc but its in better nick than my car! She fell in love with it on sight and MM went over it with a fine tooth comb with Miss 16 praying he wouldn't say there was something wrong with it! MM took it for a spin and it runs like a dream so for $4500 it was a bargain vehicle. RACQ have also looked it over and its passed road worthy with flying colours so Miss 16 is now the proud owner of her first car! She has had 3 lessons in it already and my brother took her out and already she drives like a pro he reckons. Can you beleive he got her to reverse park just to tease her and she did it twice! Perfectly! That's nuts! Miss 16 has always been an extremely calm person though so I think she will master driving like a pro! Maybe I will be safe on the roads after all!

Some Chrissie Pictures from my Office

Ok...after a bit of nagging here they are =P





My workstation is the bottom one. The others belong to work colleagues.

Actually as one colleague just commented this is the best fun Christmas we have had in all the years she has worked here. Everyone is participating whereas in previous years only one or two people have done decorations. This year it has become bigger than Ben Hur! Me and another girl have tried to sabotage IT's christmas train. We ended up derailing it which has now resulted in a small war being declared. Bring it on Boys!!!

DANGER! DANGER! New Teenage Learner Driver !!!

My niece, Miss 16 finally got her Learners yesterday and is soooo excited! She couldn't wait to tell everyone then got in a huff because nearly everyone, even the guy next door, said they were all handing in their licences and catching public transport lol. What's even scarier is she has asked ME to teach her. *Gulp* She has a fair bit saved for a car so MM and I will take her car shopping, then once she has that she will start with a driving school first and we can take her out for drives as well so she can complete her obligatory log book hours. I have told her she will have to buy an ex-driving school car so I can have controls on my side as well *Grin* Mum has also given her dad's car to trade in. Dad's was a Toyota Camry still in very good nick for its age (about 17 years) so even if she only gets a few hundred dollars for trade-in it will be good. And so begins the next stage of my little girl's life *sigh* She has been spending a lot of time with the next door neighbours as the guy next door is an artist and he held an exhibition at their house last weekend. He does awesome work and since he discovered Miss 16 is also wanting to get into art he has been sort of mentoring her. He has also been encouraging her with her art work and has seen some of her pieces and agrees with what we have been saying that she needs to get a portfolio going. She has now also decided to go back to her natural hair colour which is great!

My Miss 21 has now moved in with her boyfriend at the house in Ipswich. They are housesitting the boyfriend's boss's house while he is deployed overseas for 3 months. When he gets back the boyfriend will then be deployed overseas. Miss 21 rang me the night after their very first night together and said that so far they still like each other and not one fight yet! Miss 21 is incredibly messy whereas the boyfriend who is in the Air Force is a neat freak. We have been invited to dinner there in a couple of weeks when they get settled so I can't wait!

Yesterday I took the day off work to help MM get the house in order. Still waiting for Insurance Assessors to come out and assess the damage from the storm on Sunday. MM spoke to the Telstra guy on Monday when we finally got our phones operational. Apparently the whole street's phone lines went out. There were 3 Telstra guys in our front yard trying to find the Telstra pit and when they found it all the cables and wires were fused together! Was a real mess apparently. Further inspection of the trees near the house showed the lightning passed through 2 trees. The bigger tree had scorch marks all the way down the trunk till it reached the smaller tree splitting it in two and leaving a huge gouge mark in the ground. MM was told if he had been on the phone at the time he'd be dead now. Both our phones have to be replaced as they are dead as well. All in all a pretty lucky escape I'd say.

Well the office Christmas decoration war has started. This place looks like it has been literally moved from the North Pole and Santa has moved his workshop right here! We have snow and lots of sparkly stuff every where! The IT guys have excelled themselves. They have set up a beach umbrella and towells and have a stubby full of real beer and everything! Plus they have a huge video screen playing old Christmas movies and christmas carols playing all day long. The poor guy in the office beside IT has heard all 85 christmas carols about 20 times already! There's lights flashing and carols playing and every work area has tried to outdo themselves with the best treats. There's candy canes and choclates and jelly beans and all other manner of bribery for everyone in the office. This is going to be really fun I think! I did think my work area was really nice but now it looks miniscule compared to others! The battle is on! Will try and get photos and put them up. Our Accountant has stuck Grinch pictures all over his office which is hilarious! He is not a Christmas kind of person...

Anyway enjoy the rest of your day!