Can You Block Your Ears for a Second....

...while I SCREAM!!! *ARRRRRRRGH*. There. Much better. I think I am almost officially over Christmas. Only one more week to go and I still have done nothing and I can't see where I am going to get the time to do it.

See I started Christmas planning in September. Organised my Christmas cards, made lists of who I was buying for and even started making my Christmas cards to give to people. Then *nothing*...nada...zip...nil. I don't even know what happened. I had oodles of time and now one week before the BIG DAY and I am unprepared.

It's been wet here most of this week. In fact on Thursday, because of the storms we were having, our relieving Boss closed the office and kindly let us all go home 2 hours early to make it easier for us to get home before the storms struck. As it turned out for me, the only train traveller in the office, my trains ended up being cancelled and I ended up getting home an hour AFTER I normally would so my 2 hour head start was wasted! Was not happy Jan! Plus the storms hit as I was driving home from the station. Friday was not much better as it bucketed down just as I got off the train and headed for my car. I was drenched right through before I even got to the car so I was cold and wet and quite snarky.

Anyway let me start at the beginning. Monday and Tuesday in the office was dead quiet. All our schools and kindergartens are now closed so no phone calls or emails which is nice for a change. But dead boring with not much to do. I have a years worth of filing to do as most of us do as in our office it is menat to be a paperless office which means we electronically archive all paperwork, check to make sure it is in the system then shred everything. Now for the past 6 months our archiver has not worked so the entire office has boxes and boxes of archiving to do. This means when we go back online no-one will have time to archive the back log and we normally employ someone's kid looking for extra pocket money to come in and archive...an extremely boring job but not bad since they can whack their headphones on and listen to music while they are doing it.

Wednesday was the judging of our Annual Christmas Decorations competitions. The quality this year was even better than last year. The winners will be anounced at the Christmas Brunch on Friday.

Thursday was quiet and very stormy and we were sent home early.

Friday was Christmas brunch/Secret Santa gift swapping and judging of the Christmas decorations. We didn't win anything this year which we were disappointed in as the person who won stole our idea and only did theirs 2 days before judging whereas we had ours done the first week of December! And ours was way better and more personal! My Secret Santa gift was a ceramic green frog and some choclates.

Our area has decided to boycott secret santa next year and just donate to a good cause instead. What we saw this year did not invoke any Christmas spirit at all. Everyone draws names from a hat and several people were taking names out looking at it and putting it back saying "Nah don't like that one" and pulling out a different name until they found someone they liked. Very rude I thought. Plus some of us buy more expensive gifts (it's hard to buy something decent for $10) only to get something they don't really need in return and not quite as expensive as the gift you gave. I know it's the gift that counts and all but sometimes you would like the gift to be a little more thoughtful than a bottle of hand cream or some little soap balls that were probably gifted by someone's Aunt Sally last Christmas! We just thought that the $10 could be put towards making someone who has nothing a little more cheerful so its not wasted.

The weekend was quiet for us. I had to start my Christmas shopping so ran around like a mad thing trying to buy all the things on my list. We looked at our bank account last night and realised "oops" we have depleted most of our funds and I don't get paid again until the week after Christmas and MM informs me last night that its our turn to host the Christmas lunch. So no idea at this point how we will afford the food! Mum has offered to buy the chicken so that's one thing and MM's mum always makes the trifle and the plum pudding so that is all good. We will just buy the ham, salad and nibblies and everyone brings their own drinks so we should be okay I guess. Will let you know how that goes *grin*.

Generally I do love Christmas but I think with the mad rush I get stressed a little by it all. But come Christmas day I will sit with the family, mum and I will share a bottle of Asti Ricadona between us and giggle like little girls (so my MM says!) and put the past pressures behind us.

And with this blog I will sign off for this week and wish everyone a joyous and wonderful Christmas! Love you all! Stay safe, try not to overindulge (hell no...you know what...indulge to your heart's desire! I know I will!!). And if you are going away please drive safely.

I have been truly blessed once again to have wonderful friends and family like you all!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas....

Whew! What a hectic couple of weeks! You know I really need to jot down notes to write my blog as so much happens then comes time to write my blog and *poof* all gone...can't remember a thing! I just know that heaps happened and the last couple of weeks have passed in a blur.

Work is quiet now that the schools and our kindergartens are on break so we are playing catch ups really...doing all those crappy little jobs you don't have time for during the year. We had our team Christmas breakfast where our boss paid for us to have brerakfast at the Rue de Paris on Park Road at Milton. They do the most wonderful pancakes and ice cream with fresh berries....MMMMMM! That was a couple of weeks ago and one day before my boss flew out of Australia to spend 5 weeks in the UK. She will be back in January and the lucky thing emailed me pictures of being in London where it is snowing! Nice!

Last week I had my last appointment for this year with my specialist. I don't need to see him again now for another 12 months. I had blood tests done three weeks before that and everything seems ok-ish. My thyroid is only slightly under active now so he has bumped up my Throxine intake to 100mg a day instead of 50mg. So we will try that for the next 12 months and then re-evaluate at the next appointment. My cholestoral number is still really high although lower than 3 months ago. However even though the number is really high and in the red, the majority of it is good cholestoral and I have less than .05% chance of having a heart attack or stroke which is good to know! The cholestoral level is apparently caused by my PBC and he has said we won't even bother testing my heart or arteries or whatever as it appears all is good there. My liver is stable although still disfunctional but again due to the PBC which means my bile ducts are not working correctly which in turn is damaging my liver but no further deterioration thus far which is good. he is hoping the liver will repair itself which is highly possible so long as I eat the best I can. I drink very little alcohol now and usually limit myself to only 2 alcoholic drinks every Christmas and birthday. Alcohol is not banned but imbibing too much is not a sensible option so I try to be careful and to be honest alcohol doesn't do much for me anyway especially since my MM doesn't touch alcohol and I'm not really a lone drinker! I did have a beer a few weeks ago and I enjoyed that but only because it was there and I won't be going out to buy any especially.

It's the middle of a thunderstorm here at work right now and boy is the thunder loud! It's been hotter than hell here all day and shows no sign of cooling down. Damn office airconditioning! The sky outside is so black! It's 2:30pm and it looks like 7:00pm!

My Christmas shopping, which started off so well, has gotten nowhere as usual. Time just marched on by and I think I must have slept through that particular parade! Now we have Secret Santa at work for tomorrow plus a BBQ with Mum's brothers and sisters and then Christmas Day and I have nothing I tell you! I did however manage to get my Christmas cards out on time as well as sending a long overdue Birthday present which was actually due back in September! Sorry Froggy!!!

Other than that I have decorated my house a little, tried spring cleaning but failed due to too much going on.

More later...I think I will log off for a bit until this storm passes. Our IT guys are standing around looking a little nervous so I will be back later!

Breaking News on Last Post

Ok...3 hours after I typed that post our friend rang to let us know his ex-stepdaughter has dropped the charges! He hasn't been told why (probably because they don't have enough evidence to charge with him with anything) but he will still have to go to Sydney next week to clear up the paperwork and he will still be $40,000 out of pocket by the time he pays all the legal fees which really sucks. They get off scot free while he has a huge legal bill that will need to be paid. I am so happy that he won't be going to prison because his mother really needs him as he is all the family she has. I'm wondering if they considered her as an ex-grandmother in their decision but I guess we will never know.

About an hour after he rang our middle daughter called to say she had just been pulled over by the Police for driving with a suspended licence! Silly girl!!! We kept telling her she would get caught but does she listen? No!! MM has left just this minute with the boy to pick her up and get her car which is still sitting on the side of the road. The Police kindly dropped her home as they wouldn't allow her back in the car.

On a happier note I did some shopping today and bought a heap of Chrissy decorations. Everything is currently on sale so I will post pics when I am done. I told MM next Christmas, when the house will finally be ours, I am having the biggest Christmas display anyone has ever seen. There are some gorgoeus lights displays on sale but a little expensive for our budget this year especially since we want the house paid for by March. Then I will be glamming it up! I adore Christmas and would really love to share it with some littlies. We are toying with becoming foster parents in another couple of years so it would be nice to share the experience with those have nothing.

Anyway see you next week!

My "Whinging" Post - Read on if you Dare

Ok...I'm back. I was going to post last night. I got as far as posting my niece's formal photos then felt a sudden wave of nausea then sepnt the night throwing up! I had been feeling off for the past couple of days and it suddenly hit me last night. Today I had the day off anyway to get some more blood tests and stuff done then next week I have my final Specialist appointment until he needs to see me again in another 12 months. I am SOOOO over doctors and tests and stuff. Sucks to be old! (Well oldish anyway lol)

Anyway this post is more of a woe is me post so please don't feel obliged to keep on reading as basically I am just letting it all out here on paper so to speak. One of my friends at work, who is also a Life Counsellor, suggested I was suffering the beginnings of depression. Pfft! I don't generally get depresed. I get a little melancholy at times but in my opinion it just my way of letting out whatever emotional crisis is going through my head at the time. It has been a tough past couple of years but I think I have held up well and doing the best I can to get through life with as little disruption as possible to myself and those around me. This same friend suggested I also needed to talk about the issues more as I do tend to bottle things up as I don't like to burden people with my problems especially as I know everyone is going through something as well and it just seems selfish. So my little bloggy friend here gets to hear it all!

Firstly, MM's knee. After countless x-rays, ultrasounds, blood test and an MRI they could find nothing wrong with the knee or the shoulder, both of which are giving him huge pain. The shoulder they think is arthritis and the knee also could be even though there is still a huge fluid build up there and there must be a reason why it is so swollen. MM remembers when it happened as he felt the knee click out of place at the time so it was obvious to us that something is not right. The verdict from the doctor? Nothing's wrong, can't do anything about it...take some Nurofen...WHAT?? Are you kidding me? So three weeks later the knee still has fluid although the Nurofen has helped with the pain relief and because they make MM drowsy he is at least finally getting a good nights sleep but our research has shown that taking Nurofen over long periods of time can actually cause futher health problems so MM is about to get a second opinion. He is able to get around much better but he can't be taking Nurofen for the rest of his days. I am really annoyed because it took me so long to get him to a doctor and the first time he goes he gets screwed over. But at least he is suffering enough discomfort that he does want it all fixed. I'll keep you updated on the knee thing.

My baby girl Miss 17 finally gradually last week. Mum and Miss 23 and I went to her Valedictory Celebration where they presented the Year 12's with Awards and a Certificate of Completion. It was so beautiful and so emotional. Miss 17's dance class performed their last dance in front of the parents and one her friends had written a song which one of the Classes sang. They showed the usual powerpoint of their time at the school...full of laughs and cheering. It was nice to see all the Year 12's so close. This Year 12 class were basically all good friends with each other so they all cried and got all emotional! Then they had the handing over of the School Charter to the newly elected School Captains for next year. The School Captain for next was this cute lil thing. He suffers from dwarfism and appeared to be very popular. Miss 17 said he gets spoiled at school by everyone...Everyone takes care of him which I thought was nice. No one dared to bully him apparently. He has plenty of body guards ready to defend him! Nice looking lad too. This year's school captain was a really lovely girl who had to give the closing speech and as you can imagine that was extremely hard for her. Everythime she tried to read from her script she kept breaking down. The male Captain beside tried to take over then he bawled too! Then all the parents started bawling lol. Then everyone had a giggle, the girl apologised and giggled and said ok I'm so sorry about that and the proceedings commenced with minimum tears and a standing ovation at the end.

It was a very sad time for Miss 17 and mum as well as dad had always wanted to be able to live long enough to see Miss 17 graduate. He was so proud of her and her photography and her art work as he used to paint and draw a lot in his younger days and was happy to see she also had artistic ability which seemed to have skipped my generation! For her graduation gift I had found a really pretty locket with butterflies engraved on the front and put a photo of dad in it. She wore it under her uniform so that in this way Dad could be there with her on her special day. She wore it to the formal as well. Poor mum broke down when she saw what I had done as she thought it was a beautiful idea and then Miss 17 fell apart as well lol...ah so many tears for just one day!

She had her formal that night and her date was an old friend she has known since they went to kindy together. This is the same boy her ex-best friend used to go out with and when they broke Miss 17 was NOT ALLOWED to associate with this boy anymore. Miss 17 was basically well that's too bad. I have known C much longer than I have known you and I will be friends with whoever I want. So now Miss 17 and her best friend no longer speak although I think the frost is beginning to thaw as they had their photo taken together and the ex-BF has had about 3 other boyfriends since this one! Miss 17's date leaves for the navy shortly and is taking Miss 17 on a holiday up the coast with his parents as that is his graduation present. None of Miss 17's friends did schoolies. They spent the weekend together at Rydges in Brisbane, had a great time, no alcohol involved as none of them drink and they reckon it was the best time they ever had. Miss 17's date was so cute as he actually asked Miss 17's boyfriend R if it was ok if he took Miss 17 to the formal and to the weekend away. R has become good friends with C as they all hang out together with Miss 17 and her friends and he was fine with it all. R is a couple of years older than Miss 17 but he likes all her friends and they all hang out a fair bit together. So it's good to see some responsible kids. R is also quite religious as is his family and he has already told my mother not to worry about Miss 17 as they have decided they will not have sex until they are married which they figure they will do when Miss 17 turns 21. They have it all planned out. Finish Uni (2 years), travel for a few months, find work, get married, move in together. We'll see how that all pans out. Miss 17 idolises this guy and he her. It's all very sweet really.

Work has been very quiet. My boss has had her first holiday in 5 years and she has known flown to the UK returning in January so with school and kindys closing until then work will be very quiet.

Saturday MM and I went to the Surprise 50th Birthday of one of my dear friends from work. Her daughter emailed me a secret invitation to send around work so quite a few of us turned up. She loved it! She is an absolute riot and extremely funny. I love her to bits! We ended up buying her edible undies which she ate right there and then lol. And a little blow up man where you have to bang on him a few times and he "pops" out of the packet all blown up lol. Hilarious!
It was the first time MM and I had been out for a while and the restaurant was at Shailer Park which is an hours drive from Petrie. But I have Yoda on my Tom Tom GPS now and he was very amusing as we found our way there! Although he did get me confused on the way home and I ended up missing a turn off! Damn you Yoda! MM loves Yoda so he had a great time!

Sunday was meant to be a quiet day for me until we got a phone call from some dear friends of ours asking if they could drop in for a bit before they had to go to lunch. They live at Maroochydore and the Mr has been friends with us, well with MM for over 30 years and with me since I met MM about 12 years. The Mrs has been part of the relationship for probably 2 years. I was good friends with the ex-Mrs but she has now moved to Sydney.

There is a fairly lengthy story that goes with this. About 4 years ago the Mr and ex-Mrs divorced. We were shcoked as they owned a huge palm nursery at Nambour, where very well off and always very much in love. He was step father to her 2 daughters, both girls a bit whacked IMO. One became a model and got involved in the drug scene in Melbourne and the younger one turned out to have schizophrenia and ended up moving to Sydney for work but was not staying on medication and was doing bizarre stuff like running around naked on the snowfields in New South Wales and playing chicken with traffic in Sydney. So she was locked away for quite a bit of time. Both girls were very high maintenance. Suddenly the oldest girl tells her mother that her current husband molested her at 13. Instant divorce. The ex-Mrs came to us crying about it and at the time we told her that we didn't really want to become involved as we were friends with both and we really couldn't see that he would have done it. He was an ex-Victorian cop whcih doesn't mean much but he was always anti-paedophile and used to tell us how he used to love locking away rock spiders.

About a year ago he and the Ex-Mrs finally sold their palm nursery for a large substantial amount of cash. The very next day after settlement went through, the daughter went to a Police in Sydney and laid charges against him. Turns out she is substantially in debt, has a drug addicted boyfriend who apparently "witnessed" the molestation. So the past 12 months he has been going to and from NSW getting legal advice and now will have to go to Court next week. He has been told the minimum time he will serve is 4 years. He and the new Mrs have read the statements. He apparently "touched her boob" which he admits to but says that at the time this daughter was quite promiscuous even at 13 and was wearing a bikini top and she asked him to tie it up. The strap fell down and he went to grab it and inadvertently "touched her boob". She also alleges he felt her up which he categorically denies. Because he is also an ex-cop prison will be hell for him. What's worse is that in their defense they are not allowed to mention the fact that he came into a lot of money before the allegations were made which really sucks. So she doesn't have to prove that he did actually do it but he has to prove that he didn't. What's more his elderly mother has been given about 3 months to live and this is distressing her even more. When he goes to Court next week he is likely to never see his mother alive again. The daughter is now 30 years old so it took her about 15 years to lay a complaint.

Now please don't think I am condoning this kind of behaviour. If he did what is alleged then yes he deserves to go to jail. Child molesterers are the worst kind of evil in my opinion But nothing this girl is saying rings true. The Police even noted in the case notes that he is an avid player of World of Warcraft like that proves without doubt that he is a child molesterer. It's all very bizarre. They went through his computer with a fine tooth comb looking for child porn I guess and found it as clean as a whistle. The alleged "witness" claims that Mr made him watch child porn once and also forced him to watch "snuff" movies to prove what would happen to this dude if he hurt his step daughter. Even when the ex-wife told the Police that they never owned any porn at the time they were married nor any "snuff" movies they were never beleived. Both of them are quite prudish so it doesn't seem to fit.

Anyway must be off...Going to shop today for Chrissy decorations and cheer my house up a bit. Christmas this year I want to enjoy more. We didn't really do it last year as it was our first Christmas without dad but time now to get back to enjoying it.

My Niece's Formal Photos

Above: My niece (in the black dress) and her date. The young lad in the glasses is from Gladstone and apparently we went to school with his dad

Before I start my actually post for today here is a few formal photos of my girl :) You'll have to excuse the "watermark" splashed across them...we haven't paid for the real ones yet lol...

My niece and her date for the night...not her boyfriend :)

Hard to beleive that they are all grown up! Seems like only yesterday we were bringing her home from hospital!

Tuesday...

Well here I am...It's Tuesday I am at work although not busy as you can see *grin*

Just got off the phone to MM who has finally dragged his aching body to the doctors after me nagging him continuously for the past 5 years or so. About 6 months ago his "restless leg syndrome" started flaring up again and in the midst of a nocturnal "kicking" somehow did an injury to his knee. The next morning he got out of bed barely able to move and has been semi crippled by the knee ever since. A couple of days ago it looked super-swollen. I touched his knee and told him it felt like there wasa build up of fluid there. He looked at his knee and got quite a shock himself...his knee was huge and extremely puffy. So today he made an appointment to see my GP as they bulk bill and he hates having to pay cash to a doctor. MM has not been to a doctor since I have known him (about 13-14 years). The only time he has been near anyone medical was a couple of years ago when he collapsed and I thought he had a stroke as he wouldn't wake and I had to call the ambulance. He had spent that night in hospital and numerous tests later could find nothing wrong. It was just a "turn" of sorts. At t he time they asked me who his GP was and I had to tell them he didn't have one. "Surely he must have a GP" said They. "Nope" said I, "I can't even tell you when he last went as he hadn't been to one in all t he time I had known him." I had even rung his mother to find out and the last time she recalled was when he was 19 and lost his thumb when he was sheet metal working and that was about 25 years ago!

Anyway he ended up today seeing my GP's husband also a doctor at the same surgery. They are both Indian but very nice and easy to understand and they actually show concern for their patients. They will let you stay as long as you need for them to find out everything so they can best diagnose. MM was impressed and he hates doctors. Anyway he had this poor doctor pulling out his hair when he asked for MM's medical history.

MM: "You want ALL my medical history"

Dr: "As much as you can remember yes"

MM: "How fast can you type and how much time do we have"

Dr: "As much time as you need"

MM: *Proceeds to give Dr details of ALL the broken bones and operations he has had since he was a child including the broken back and spinal operations as a 12 year old, the broken collar bones, arms, fingers whilst playing football, the loss of the thumb while sheet metal working, the stab wounds from his days as Nightclub Bouncer when patrons got rough, a bullet wound from a drive by shooting when he was in his "wild boy" phase and the list goes on. *

The Dr eventually ran out of page space on the computer and couldn't figure out how to create a new page on the computer. MM, being the computer tech, actually sat with him and showed him how! Anyway it seems MM and this Dr are now long life buddies and MM has a list of tests to be conducted for all the ailments he has.

He needs x-rays and a possible MRI for his knee, ultrasound for the injury to his shoulder which he never got seen to, and probable removal of some skin cancers. Plus tomorrow he has a barrage of blood tests to be done as well and then eventually the removal of the fluid on his knee once they find out how much damage has been done to it. And the Dr made him do a prostate test as well now he is 50 which MM is not happy about and the Dr also wants to do a colonoscopy for a haemorroid MM has had for some time and had been treated years ago but is now giving him grief. This is what happens when you delay the inevitable. We have put our cruise off till early next year so we can both be at our healthiest. No point going if MM has to be pushed around in a wheel chair! Although he said he wouldn't mind if it was a cute young nurse! I agreed and said it would be a cute young "male" nurse. He gave THAT look that said over my dead body. Well sweetheart that CAN be arranged *grin*

We went over our finances on the weekend and we have a grand total of $8,000 left on our house mortgage! So we figure that will be paid for by February; in March I have my Early Childhood Retreat to organise so our holiday/cruise we will aim for end of March/early April at the latest. We have waited this long...a few more months can't hurt.

Oh and I did order my Kindle on the weekend so it should be here this week although MM won't let me have it until Christmas since it will be a Christmas present. No fair! That was the condition of me getting one and MM thinks it is hilarious and keeps doing evil laughs in my direction every time I look at the list of books we have already downloaded ready to be put on it. *Sigh* Men can be so mean. I very rarely ask for anything and don't spend money on myself except on birthdays and Christmas so I can't wait!

And so another Sunday comes to an end...

It's 8:00pm Sunday night...Ugh! I hate this part of Sunday...preparing things for work for the week and then it's time for bed early to be up early Monday morning to start a new week. It's such a drag...I really need a new job but lack the motivation to change so just whinge about it to everyone and tonight you guys are it!

Believe it or not as I sit here typing this I am drinking a.....BEER! Crown Lager to be precise. Why? I hear you ask...because it was there! Well actually I bought them for some friends of ours who dropped in for a visit so MM could fix Mr's computer. They are a lovely couple and we get on with them well aslthough the Mrs is the new Mrs. I am still good friends with the old Mrs but since the divorce she has moved to Sydney and I do like the new Mrs. These situations are always awkward but the old Mrs never gets mentioned by them or us so it's like she never existed really. So we had drinks and nibblies and because there was a beer still in the fridge I decided I would nab it. This is only my second drink this year so my doctor shouldn't be too upset. He hasn't banned me completely from alcohol but told me to drink it sparingly so I have.

We also watched "Ghost Rider" as they had never seen it while we waited for the computer to be re-formatted we watched the movie.

Miss 22 is still moping around and visits regularly. I can't remember if I told you that she and the Air Force guy are no more. She came over a couple of weeks ago heart broken because only a week after they split he had a new girl friend moving into their old place so we figure she was in the picture before they even split. So a 5 year relationship bites the dust. She has finally decided to get herself a job and has applied to a couple of child care places. She was doing childcare up until she moved out of here then just decided to live off her boyfriends salary and not work anymore. That was pretty much a sticking point with him as well. He was always at her to get a job as she loves to spend money so the fault was hers as well.

Anyway short and sweet tonight as I still have heaps to do and the beer is gone now...so time to get up and finish and then to bed!

Night all!