I do love all my friends who have texted and emailed and poked me on Facebook begging me to blog again! I never really left...it's just that life was simple one day then suddenly *bammo* everything and everyone ran amuck and I just lost all my spare time.
So what have I been up to since Christmas?? Well the last week or so at work was deadly quiet which it always is since all our schools were closed and we could just do "catch up" work and not have to field calls from cranky parents and stressed kindy teachers and school principals! Christmas at work was amazing although the second last week was hard as one of my lovely work friends lost her mum to cancer so I attended her funeral with my boss. It was sooooo hard as they used the same funeral directors as we did for dad and so we had the same people there officiating. She had come to dad's funeral and really liked their service so decided on them. She was apologetic afterwards knowing it would be hard for me but like I told her it is about her loss and not mine and I really was fine about it. She also had the song Amazing Grace played which was also played at dad's funeral. It seems to be a favourite of people of that age so we both let go and howled all the way through! It was cathartic for both of us as we had been a huge support to each other during our respective parent's illnesses and it helps when someone else is going through the same things.
Anyway someone following my blog asked who won our Christmas decoration thingy at work? I got highly commended for my pretty purple display and our department won overall so we beat the IT guys! YEAH!! We had a great time with it and it's the first year we really did the big christmas thing. We also had a Christmas party where one of the guys dresses as Santa and one of the pretty young lasses dresses as Santa's helper and they give out our Secret Santa gifts. Then we got 10 days off over Christmas and had time to enjoy!
I decided to have a Christmas Eve party at my house for family this year which was nice. Mum wasn't much in the mood for Christmas this year being the first without dad but she got through it and did him proud I think. He'd have been happy to see her do the christmas thing for the kids' sake. Christmas Day Mark and I spent at home alone which was so nice for a change but we went to his sister's place for his family's Christmas do. It was lovely and cool and was a nice day.
We didn't do gifts this year. It was decided as a family to donate the money we would have spent on gifts we didn't really want or need to a charity so we did that and it was really nice. Now the kids are all grown no-one really needs anything in the way of gifts. Mark and I took Mum and the family shopping and we did lunch at Sizzler one day over christmas as a family thing since we didn't spend Christmas Day together and that was really nice. Miss 21 and her Air Force guy came too so that was great. Lots of chatter and laughter...we toasted dad and life goes on. We still miss you dad and we always will but we will help mum to get through all this.
Mum now has the house on the market and we have been with her to look at a couple of houses. She retired before Christmas and is a little worried about spendng all her long service leave and superanuuation. But she is doing ok...She is finally on a pernsion which has helped heaps. We are all helping her out and hopefully she will sell before too long and it will be better for her.
So that was December/January.
February was a busy month at work for me with all the schools/kindys back from break. So much to do at the beginning of the year! Also because I organise the Early Childhood Retreat in March my time is pretty much all taken up with that. MM turned 50 in February and I organised a 50th party for him which went really well. He HATES being the centre of attention but he allowed me to shine and get his party organised :) I had a cake made that had a photo of him when he was little done in rice paper on the top of the cake. That was so cool and such a cute photo. He was born in the 60's and it seems all little boys had their mothers pull their shorts up under their armpits lol. He had the cutest, cheekiest little grin and his mother and sister told the party gatherers about the mischief he got up to. I had also invited his old next door neighbour who has lived next to his parents for over 50 years and she too told stories of all the trouble he got into! He tried to blame his brothers but since he was the oldest of the boys I don't think anyone beleived him lol. Was a great night overall.
The rest of February and March has passed in a blur so I know I have missed stuff but I will blog it as I remember it I guess. Oh yeah I did have a trip to the dentist where I spent 45 minutes getting a tooth pulled. He had such a hard time and I had that many needles to numb it all that I felt absolutely nothing even when he had to slice the gum open to get it out...he ended up cutting the tooth into 4 fragments to get them out. I thought I would be in agony afterwards but I only used the pain killers for the first day and after that no pain at all. The gum healed up fine and all is now good. I have one more tooth to go so he told me to come back in 6 months when this gum is healed completely.
The weekend just gone I finally had my Retreat come to fruition. All the hard work paid off and a great time was had by all. We booked Tranquil Park at Maleny which really is a pretty spot. The view from the conference room and restaurant were spectacular. The accommodation was not exactly 5 star but comfortable I thought and the food! Wow so much food! They kept us fed the whole time and there was just too much food I think...very beautiful and plain food...just perfect and lots of deserts!
The weekend was about reflection and relaxation as we taught the early childhood staff how to take care of themselves. Teaching is a rather stressful profession these days and it was nice for them to slow down and take time out to network with each other, visit the local sights and just relax. We had invited the local pastor who did a session about spirituality...it was not as religious as I thought it would be but was amazing at the effect it had on people...we did a sort of quiet meditation and we were given really nice journals to write our thoughts on to. Many people had a sort of spiritual epiphany so there was lots of tears and hugging. It really was amazing.
We had a masquerade ball as well so when I get to work I'll post up a pic of me and a friend in masks! Was a great night! But now I am exhausted and the boss gave me Monday off so back to work tomorrow *sigh*.
I was telling fellow blogger Froggy today about a mutual friend from our old days who I ran into at Super Amart last Thursday night. Miss 21 and her guy wanted us to go with them to give advice on furniture they wanted for their new place and he served us! Was awesome to talk about old days and he hadn't changed much at all just the hair was much greyer! After keeping him for about an hour Miss 21 and Mr Air Force made their choices...they bought a dining room table, a queen sized bed (we managed to talk Galen into throwing in the pillows which he did!) and they also bought a TV entertainment unit. They did a good deal out of the whole thing. MM can talk anyone into giving away all sorts of stuff...he has NEVER paid full price for anything...I tend to slink away quietly as it embarasses me a little!
Speaking of Miss 21 and Mr Air Force, tonight is their last night together for 3 months as he is being deployed to Iraq. It will be his first stint and I think he is a little scared and I know Miss 21 is but here's hoping he stays safe and will be back home in no time.
