About A Girl

It's been a while.

2010-07-11T00:11:00.000-07:00

Yes, it has been months since my last blog. You ask why - well to be honest I can be very lazy but infact, I have been busy, busy, busy, and here's why.

Since my last blog I had been planning my engagement party and we actually celebrated the big event last month. It was a great night, lots of good friends and family and lots of yummy food. We hired a singer to perform on the night and he was awesome. He sang Carribean music and it reminded us of our time working on the ships. It was just perfect. Our good friends made the Engagment cake which was delicious. It was an amazing night.

We have also been househunting for the past three months. Every weekend is spent looking at open homes or setting up appointments with Real Estate agents. In the beginning it was very exciting and fun but now, three months later, I am really just over it and want my own home NOW!!! We have been looking up and down the Gold Coast for a townhouse and there are plenty out there but some in much better condition than others. Through this whole experience I have learned the following:

1. Some people just live like complete pigs and have no shame in showing their sty's the way they leave them. Would it really hurt to clean the bathroom and kitchen and throw away the garbage!!

2. Most people on the Gold Coast don't use their garages for their cars - that is where they store the crap they have no use for anymore. The amount of stuff in some people's garages is amazing.

3. Apparently it's a buyers market out there. Well, somebody needs to tell the people selling their homes at ridiculous prices!!! I am not enjoying the cat and mouse game of making offers and waiting for a response. Who made these idiotic rules for buying a house!!

Hopefully it won't be too long till we find a home. Living with my parents has been great and fun but it would be nice to have something to call our own.

Finally, my DH and I met up with two of the local football players from our local team. Scott Prince and Ashley Harrison play for the Gold Coast Titans. Usually we make an effort to go to a couple of games each season but unfortunately we haven't even had time to do that. We saw these guys at the local shopping centre.

Will try to post more regularly.

Till next time.

A weekend getaway and a couple of cards

2010-02-26T12:39:00.000-08:00

Last weekend my Fiance and I headed down to Sydney to go to see the UFC who had come to Australia for the first time.... and it was AWESOME!!

We headed down on Saturday morning and we were staying in the city at the Radisson which was only a 10 minute walk to the beautiful Darling Harbour. Saturday afternoon we hopped on a train and a bus to Bondi Beach to take a look around. There were so many people on the beach - it was crazy. Here is a picture of what the beach looked like. Bondi was a really nice area but with lots of 'different' kinds of people there!! My fiance and I decided the beaches on the Gold Coast are much better!!

Saturday night we met up with my cousins and their families for dinner at Darling Harbour. We had such a great night and their two little boys were just gorgeous. We don't get to see them very often but the older we get the more we try to catch up when possible. During dinner my cousin Ian started hyperventilating at the table as he saw some of the UFC fighters eating at the table behind us. We were all really excited as we had seen these guys on t.v but not in real life. We finally got the nerve to go over to the table - I usually wouldn't have but they hadn't even ordered food yet and my other cousin really gave us the push to go over. We met Rashad Evans who was sitting at the end of the table and was one of my favourite fighters. Sadly, he wasn't that friendly and didn't really want to talk to us or even take a photo but he actually did take a photo with us. He smiled in the photo which was nice of him but afterwards I had wished I hadn't bothered as he wasn't as friendly as he comes across on the t.v. :(

Later in the evening we went for a walk around the harbour and my Fiance had spotted another fighter from the UFC - Ryan Bader. Now, this guy was just lovely (and very cute too). He was so nice, he took a photo with my Fiance and then when I came back from where I was he took another shot with me in it too. Complete opposite of the first guy we had met. And to top it all off he won his fight the next day - that's Karma for you!! Now I didn't get the best photo of him and I couldn't fix it to be round the right way but I wanted to make sure you all got to see how so cute and big he was!!

Our weekend in Sydney was alot of fun. Sunday was fight day and all the fights were great. It was amazing to be in the crowd and cheer on the Australian fighters. Can't wait till it comes back to Australia. In the meantime, my fiance and I will just have to watch it on t.v.

Now, a quick little post as I promised my very good friend in Canada that I would post pictures of some cards I made at the Kaisercraft store in Robina. Here are two of the cards I made. I loved using the purple paper - I am not a big fan of purple but this paper was beautiful.

Finally, I hope you are all enjoying the Winter Olympic's. Australia has done pretty good if you ask me. It was great to watch the opening ceremony and I can't wait to watch the closing ceremony. I hope all my Vancouver family and friends are having the time of their life. Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi.

Till next time....

Happy Birthday to Me and much more

2010-01-25T20:55:00.000-08:00

What a busy week I have had.

On January 19th I celebrated my birthday with my twin sister. I had such a great day. My fiance sent me the most beautiful bunch of lilies to work and such a lovely note to go with the flowers. I had told him not to buy me anything as we just spent a lot of money on the engagement ring - but I have to tell you, receiving those flowers truly made my birthday. That night all the family got to together for coffee and birthday cake. It was one of the best birthday's ever. I even got to share the day with one of the kids in my preschool class. Her birthday was the same day and her mum made us a yummy chocolate cake to share with all the other kids.

Below is a picture of the beautiful flowers and my sister and I celebrating our birthday.

I also had to deal with a different side of getting older.................... I got my eyes tested and I am now having to wear glasses!!! I was finding it difficult to see things from afar so I got my eyes tested about 6 months ago and the optometrist said I should be fine for another 12 months. My family have been bugging me to go and see another optometrist to get a 2nd opinion, so I finally went. Straight away the 2nd optometrist said that I should have been prescibed glasses 6 months earlier. So here I am, for the first time in a long time, able to see so much clearer now. I was actually surprised at how bad my sight was. I just didn't realise it. Needless to say, I now look so much more like my twin sister who has been wearing glasses for years. No pictures of me yet.......... I am still trying to get used to how I look with glasses.

Today is Australia Day!!! Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi!!

I am celebrating Australia Day by just chilling out at home. I've gone for a couple of swims, done some reading, scrapbooking and just generally taking it easy. For lunch we had prawns - delicious. For dinner we are going to have some yummy Aussie lamb.

That's me for now.

Till next time............

Weddings, Parties, Anything.

2010-01-17T01:31:00.000-08:00

So, I have had nothing but thoughts of my wedding on my mind for the past two weeks and we aren't even getting married for another two years!! I know - it's crazy, and I never thought I would be like this but I am really excited and overwhelmed all at once about planning this wedding. My biggest desire is that everyone is comfortable and relaxed - I just want to have a really cruisy and stress free day.

I have asked my two sisters and my soon to be sister-in-law to be my bridesmaids. My twin sister will be my matron of honour. They all seem really excited - my sister's have been great giving me advice. Infact my sister-in-law, Crystal, and I had a great conversation last night and gave me some great advice. My head is exploding with information!!

Yesterday was my nephews 10th birthday!! I cannot believe he is 10 already. He is such a great kid. He has a wonderful, down-to-earth personality. Below is a picture of the two of us at dinner last night. He let me borrow his hat to wear. He looks really cool with that hat on.

My twin sister and I will celebrate our birthday on Tuesday. We are turning................... you don't need to know. I just can't believe I am in my mid thirties already - time flies!! Below is a card I made her. I just bought the stamp the other day.

Infact, funny story about the stamp. I went into the only stamp store I have found on the Gold Coast and the shop assistant would not leave me alone. She was asking me randomn questions that had nothing to do about stamping or card making. She was so annoying it was driving me crazy. Eventually I just gave up and bought the one stamp because she was bugging me so much. I think her manager needs to tell her to back off a little or else she will have no sales!!

Till next time................

A Happy New Year to Me!!!

2010-01-08T05:29:00.001-08:00

It is 11:30pm on a Friday night. Everybody in the house is fast asleep and for the life of me I have a million and one things running in my head and am trying to figure out just how to plan a wedding....................... a wedding you ask. Yes, you read it correctly, after 9 years my DH and I have decided to actually get married. Alot of people have presumed that we are already married but we infact are not - we have just been together for soooooooooooooooooo long that it feels like it. But now we have decided to make it official.

So, yes - back to me being wide awake in the middle of the night. Keep in mind that the wedding is two years away - house first then wedding (that is what we both decided). I have been reading other people's blogs about getting married and planning a wedding and I am getting so confused. We know what we want - small wedding with family and close friends, somewhere where it is hot, not sure of location either Australia or somewhere else hot and tropical. Let's see what else do we know - NOTHING!!! Somebody help!!!

Seriously, I know I am just stressing over nothing.................. I have lots of time and we only just decided in the last week. We are heading to a bridal expo (the first of many I am sure) this Sunday so I am hoping to get some great ideas from there. For now, I will try to chill out and just enjoy the ride.

So, when did it happen, I hear you all asking. New Years Morning - I decided to ask him. Yes, you read correctly, I asked him and he said yes straight away. We then went looking for rings that day and I found the one I wanted on the Saturday. Here is a photo of it - hard to see. I am not a very knowledgable person when it comes to rings but I know what I like. It is white gold with a big diamond in the middle and 4 smaller diamonds on either side of the large stone. (I just realized that that totals 9 stones in total - and we have been together for 9 years. That makes it even more perfect to me). So as you can see I did have a Happy New Year and will enjoy planning this wedding with the man of my dreams.

Till next time...................

Summer Rain............

2009-12-20T02:27:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to get one more blog in before Christmas.................

It has been another lovely weekend, and we finally got some well needed rain for our poor gardens. Just the perfect kind of weather to stay indoors and be crafty!!!

I finally finished my last couple of projects that I was doing for gifts for my nephews. I made my two older nephews canvases with some great pictures I took of them earlier in the year.

I then made my youngest nephew a shadow box. The photo's are what made these projects - I just love how they turned out. And, of course, I bought all the supplies from Kaiser Craft. I have to say that I was pleasantly suprised by the prices at Kaiser.

Below are some pictures of the projects I made.

I've had an absolutley wonderful week at work. I got to hang out with some of the older kids that are in Vacation Care. We went to a couple of indoor play centres and tomorrow we are heading to the cinema to watch Planet 51. I have also been spending most of my days with the Toddlers too. Just love it in that room. The kids are so cute. I am nearly all ready for my class next year. I forgot how much planning and prepping is involved in organising a room for the new year. Nearly all done though.

My DH has been cooking up a storm these last few weekends and this weekend was no exception. He cooked a chicken rotisserie today with potatoes and vegies. It was so good that I had to take a picture of it to make you all drool.

There's only going to be more of where that came from this weekend. Christmas lunch in our family is serious business!!! My DH is deep frying a turkey, my sister is cooking chickens, my other sister is cooking lamb and bringing prawns, my mum has bought a ham and then lets not forget the potatoes, pasta and salad. Yes, you read correctly, we actually do bring all this food and it lasts for days later. We all know to dress appropriately to make plenty of room for the food.

In other news, by DH's pet owls have returned. If you remember, last year when we first moved back to Australia, we had these two owls that would visit our backyard nearly every night for a couple of months. My DH would feed them chicken necks and then all of a sudden they would disapper. Well, they are back - I gues it is that time of the year when they return for the Summer. My DH took a great photo of one of them tonight. Check it out............

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and enjoy and treasure the family time you get at this time of year. Eat lots, drink lots and be safe.

Till next year...........................

A Christmas Miracle!!

2009-12-12T15:09:00.000-08:00

You know how people say 'If you pray you will receive' - well I think that somebody has been listening to me and reading my blog.

If you read my blog you will probably have picked up that I am a scrapbooker and a cardmaker. You probably also picked up that since leaving Canada and moving to Australia I have done nothing but complain about the lack of scrapbooking stores we have here. Finally, I now have just found the best scrapbooking store that I think even my North American friends will be jealous of too.

Literally, 5 minutes away from where I live Kaiser Craft have opened up a store selling EVERYTHING Kaiser!!!! Yes you have read this correctly. They have EVERY patterned paper you can imagine, all their paints, rub on's, chipboard, ribbon, etc. I walked into the store yesterday for the first time, saw the lady running the store and told her 'I love you'!! She probably thought I was mad, but it has been a long time coming to find a truly great scrapbooking store here!!

Their grand opening is in the New Year and they will be having classes too. I am just so excited! Later today I will be heading there, of course, to pick up some things to make my last three Christmas gifts for my nephews. I'm sure my DH is just as excited about this too, NOT!

While I was in the store yesterday I was handed one of their idea books - this thing was like an Ikea catalogue!! It is full of their products, page layout ideas, project ideas and some embellishments too. I think this is going to be my second home!!

In other news................ the UFC is finally coming to Australia and my DH and I are so excited. I have been into the UFC for the past 8 years - I actually enjoy watching it. Why wouldn't you like watching cute, strong guys fighting each other!!! Seriously though, we do both enjoy watching it and back in 2007 we went to see UFC 76 in Anaheim live. It was amazing to be there and see the action live. Well............ we are doing it again and got tickets to UFC 110 in Sydney, in February. We have booked a great place right in the heart of Sydney and spending the weekend there. Can't wait.

Now, on more festive news............ the tree is up, I have nearly finished buying all my Christmas gifts, cards will be posted today - only a few days to go till that fat guy in a red suit comes down the chimney. Although, I have often wondered, how does he get into Australian homes - we don't have chimney's here!!

On Friday, I had to host a morning tea at work and will leave you with a picture of the yummy holly cupcakes I made.

Merry Christmas.

Till next time.....................

Countdown to Christmas...........

2009-11-28T23:28:00.000-08:00

Is it just me or has the year truly flown by this time round!!! I do feel more organised than last year though. My Christmas cards are all made and I have started Christmas shopping - I'm doing alot better than I did this time last year.

This time of year is busy for different reasons too. There are alot of events taking place in November and December (and January for that matter too).

In November we celebrated my mum's birthday by going to High Tea with all the girls. My sister's, sister-in-law and neices all got together to help celebrate mum's birthday. We had never experienced a High Tea before so it was special to be doing it all together for the first time. We had a fantastic day of shopping after the High Tea - it was great to go out with the girls. Below is a picture of all of us.

My nephew, Liam, peformed with his band for an End of Year concert last week. He plays the trombone and he does it so well. He looked so cute in his uniform - he looks so grown up too. He is 9 but so mature for his age and such a sweetheart. I was a proud Aunty and had tears in my eyes.

My oldest nephew, Christopher, will be graduating from Primary School this week. I cannot believe he is going into High School already. Time surely flies. He seems to be excited to be heading off into High School - he wants his independence so badly these days. I am sure there will be tears, of joy, at his graduation this week.

I have a few Christmas parties coming up in the next couple of weeks. This week is my new jobs Christmas party which I am excited about. My DH will be coming along with me and it will be at my bosses house. Next week my DH has a Christmas Party at the Dojo who goes to. That should be interesting as I haven't really met anybody from his Dojo yet. And finally, my old work is having a Christmas party the week after. It will be good to catch up with the old gang. I do miss them but am much happier at my new job.

As for my new job.............. it is going really well. I just found out I will be teaching Preschool next year and although I was hoping for a younger age group I am really excited about this new adventure. I have so many ideas and plans in my head right now. I just want to get Christmas out of the way so I can prep my room for next year.

Finally............. I have been a very busy little Elf and have pretty much finished making all my Christmas cards. I have kept with my little tradition and made 3 designs - it's easier to replicate the same card 20 times than to think of 60 different cards. Below are two of the cards I made.

Talking about cards - now I have to write them, so I will be off.

But, before I forget, tis' isn't Christmas until you have watched 'National Lampoons Christmas Vacation' at least 10 times. I started watching it for the first time yesterday. Only 9 more times to go. I love that movie.

Till next time...........

Time for a change...............

2009-10-31T16:18:00.001-07:00

I have recently made a career decision that I should have figured out quite a while ago. I have realised that I tolerate children alot better than I do adults!!! With this realisation comes news that I am going back to childcare and I cannot wait.

Don't get me wrong - I have actually enjoyed working in the customer service industry. It has made me a stronger person and has also made me respect other people in the customer service service industry, but it is just not me.

In the past 9 years I have worked in the U.S on a cruiseship, I then worked in Canada managing a retail store and most recently I worked in Australia in the banking industry. One thing I learned about all three jobs is that there are rude and ignorant people all over the world and they are never going to go away so you can either take it and crumble or become a stronger person from these negative experiences and learn not to behave this way to other people. I of course have chosen to take the latter experience and become a better person from it but not all people do.

Just this past week at my banking job I had one of the worst customer's I've had ever. She asked me to do something that was against company policy and then decided to go on a tirade about how she used to work for the same company, that I don't know my job, that she knows people in the same company who will do it for her - basically she wanted to belittle me in front of the other customer's. This was somebody who has been in my shoes and knows how our hands can be tied but still she decided to humilate me instead of being understanding. All I could think of was how I would never, and have never, done this to anybody in their workplace. It is not in me to be so rude to people - I know I will have alot of people who would vouch for me there. I just don't understand how some people think they can be like this and think that is okay. People ???? I just don't get them sometimes.

On brighter news - I am back to working with little people at the same kindy I left 9 years when I started my overseas venture. I am so excited to be getting back into childcare and possibly getting back to stuyding again.

Yesterday, my neice celebrated her 4th birthday with a Princess Party so below is a picture of me dressed with my fairy wings and with my face painted.

See, I should be working with children............... sometimes I still feel like one.

Till next time......................

Weekend Away

2009-10-13T02:35:00.001-07:00

Don't you just love weekend getaways! My DH and I headed down south to Kingscliff after work on Thursday to stay in a beautiful Hotel for the weekend. We took Friday off from work and stayed there for three nights - it was amazing.

We chose this past weekend as it was my hubby's birthday and our anniversary the following weekend. We stayed in a resort and spa called Pepper's and it was just gorgeous. Our suite was huge. It had a mini kitchen, dining area and lounge area, a huge king sized bed and a spa tub. We also had a room with a private plunge pool - it was too cold to go in the water but we layed out in the sun anyways.

Here is a photo of the view from our balcony to our private pool. Behind the bushes is the larger pool and the spa!

On the Friday we drove down to Byron Bay - it is always fun driving down there. We like to take a stroll through the town and check out what the hippies are up to!! We actually met a really nice lady in a 2nd hand book shop that we got chatting to. Of all things we were talking about the youth of today - needless to say we were there for a while. After a stroll we stopped to have some fish and chips and met another lively character of Byron Bay. The owner of the fish and chip shop was telling us about when he went to the Calgary Stampede back in the 60's!!

Here is a photo of our fish and chips - it was sooooooooooooo yummy!

On the way home from Byron we stopped at the Byron Bay Cookie Co. These are the best cookies in town! They are so good and I had to stock up on our way out of Byron.

On the Saturday we were expecting my sister and her husband to join us at Pepper's. They too were celebrating their wedding anniversary and we invited them to spend the Saturday with us. We had a great day of feasting on cheese and crackers. We spent the afternoon laying by the pool and then we jumped into the spa! I think we were in the spa for nearly 2 hours - we were so relaxed - it was great.

Our weekend ended with the whole family getting together on Sunday for birthday cake for my DH's birthday and my father's birthday. A great end to a great weekend.

We are already planning another weekend away.

Till next time..................

Everybody's Working For The Weekend!!!

2009-10-04T03:01:00.001-07:00

The weeks these day's seem to fly by so fast - which is a good thing as I LOVE my weekends!! As soon as we hit Hump Day (Wednesday for those not in the know), it is all down hill from there.

Had another great weekend with some really hot Summer weather. Took this opportunity to get into the swimming pool for this first time this Summer. The water was still quite chilly but my neice, Olivia, reallly really wanted to go for a swim and I find it really hard to say 'no' to her.

My DH and I actually had Olivia with us all day on Saturday as her parents were painting her new surprise cubby house for her and needed her out of the house. We had a great day with Olivia - first we had to do some shopping and then we stopped for a 'snack'. A Max Brenner style snack. Max Brenner's is chocolate heaven, so you can only imagine that a 3.5 year old could go nuts here!!! We had a chocolate fondue and a chocolate brownie with ice cream and my neice had a babycino with chocolate syrup on top. There was chocolate EVERYWHERE. My neice really got into the 'dipping' aspect of the fondue - at first she was hesitant but she really got into it in no time at all. It was awesome!!!

So,what happens once you give a kid chocolate - they get a really good sugar high and Olivia was no exception. The transformation was amazing - she went from quiet and shy little girl to crazy and loud mouthed sugar baby!! It was hilarious - my DH and I couldn't stop laughing at what we had created with just a little bit of chocolate!! When we got home she kept her energy up by going for a swim and then dancing to Black Eyed Peas.

That night we went out for dinner with my brother and sister's and their families. We went to Aqua restaurant at a place called Labrador. The food was okay but the service was horrible!! My brother turned up first and he said that he had absolutly nobody come to see if he and his family needed a beveridge. Nobody brought out menu's. It was quite ridiculous. Then our main server was acting like he didn't want to be there. I asked for a West Coast Cooler and his response was ' we don't have that'. He didn't even try to offer an alternative so I said I just want water and he couldn't even manage to bring that out.

That's one thing I cannot stand - bad service. Our table spent $500 - there was alot of us - and I don't feel we got the standard of service that came with a bill that size. Not to matter - we had a great night, a few laughs - it's always good to get together, we always have fun.

Finally, today was the NRL Grand Final - Melbourne Storm Vs Parramatta Eels. I don't follow either team so I did't really care who won, I just wanted to see a really good game. I was kinda siding with the Eels as my twin sister goes for them but unfortunatley they lost!! That's another footy season over - can't wait for next year.

Till next time............

What is a scrapbooker to do??

2009-09-26T23:31:00.000-07:00

Australia has it all............ sun, surf, sand, great weather BUT we do not have any good scrapbooking or stamping stores. What is up with that??

When I first moved back home I made sure I knew where the local scrapbook stores were so that if I needed anything I knew where to go. I then recently found out that there is a stamp store nearby too. You can just imagine how excited I was about that.

This past weekend I got back into making some birthday cards - just for fun. I needed some more supplies so my DH gave me the go-ahead to stock up on what I needed. (I always feel guilty buying scrapbooking supplies so this was a bonus that my husband said to 'go for it').

We decided to go and find the stamp store first as I was using old stamps and just wanted a new batch of stamps - liven my cards up a bit. Couldn't find the store - it had been closed down!! Strike One!!

Headed to one of the scrapbooking stores that I found when I first got here. Sign is up but guess what............ store has been closed down!! Strike Two!!

Continued driving to the last scrapbooking store that I know of in the area. I had covered my eyes as I was scared it may have been closed down too. To my surprise it wasn't - yeh!! Got to buy some supplies to make my nephew a mini album. Only one problem with this store..... there was a For Lease sign up in the front of the store. I asked the lady at the store if they were closing down...... she said VERY hesitantly 'no the owner hasn't said that'. Bull - why would there be a For Lease sign up if you were going to continue running the store and re-signing the lease.

I now have no scrapbooking stores to go to. Can you believe that. I can buy some supplies from some of the department stores but for all my stamps and high quality supplies I am going to have to become familiar with online shopping!!!

Before my crisis took place I did make a few cards with some really cute new paper I bought. I got the card idea from my friend Eleonor who is queen of cardmaking. Hope you like!!

Till next time................

Lazy Bones

2009-09-19T22:36:00.000-07:00

To my dear friends who have wondered what the heck I have been doing since my last post - I do apologize. I guess time just gets away to the point where you don't realize that there is only 3 months till Christmas and I haven't posted on my blog for a good few months now. A quick run down as to what's been up!

My husband and I headed to Vancouver for a two week vacation back in August. We had a wedding to go to and a 1st birthday to attend and lots of catching up to do with family and friends that we left behind nearly a year ago. It was a great trip and we enjoyed seeing everybody again and getting in some shopping that we have missed since moving to Australia.

I was a little sick when I first arrived and think it was a mixture of jet-lag and catching a cold on the plane. The flight home was just awesome!!! I say that very sarcastically. I was seated next to a young man who decided it was not in his best interest to shower before getting on a 14 hour flight!! I was honestly to the point of tears as I sat in my chair (trying not to inhale) and contemplating how I was going to survive this long flight. My DH did offer to switch seats but either way one of us was going to have to deal with the odor. I was glad I remembered to bring a small bottle of perfume on the plane with me and decided to put some on my upper lip and squirt some in the smelly boys direction - just to see if he would take a hint (he didn't).

On sadder news, it is coming to the end of Footy season and our team, the Titans - who were doing so well all year - just got kicked out of the finals. We went to see one of their final games a week ago and I was yelling so much that I lost my voice!! It was well worth it though, even though we didn't win it was a great game. Can't wait till next year.

Finally, just to rub it in to all my friends who are heading into the colder weather - my DH and I headed down to the beach today. He had made breakfast and we picked up some coffee's and had breaky on the beach and then just laid out and soked up the sun. I couldn't think of a more perfect Sunday.

Till next time...........

What's New..........

2009-06-10T02:28:00.001-07:00

A few weeks since my last blog and there has been alot going on. So here is the rundown:

I became an Aunty again on Friday May 30th. My brother and his wife had a beautiful baby boy which they eventually called Nicholas. He was known as 'the baby' for the first few days as they couldn't decided a name. He is absolutley adorable (and I am not just saying that because I am his Aunt), he has dark hair with blonde at the tips. His big brother and big sister just adore him too.

Last night my netball team won the Final's - yeah!!! It was a really good game and we all played really well. We won by about 7 or 8 points which was great too. We even got a trophy which was totally unexpected. I started playing netball this year just for fun and exercise so to win a final and get a trophy was really cool. I won't be playing this season as I am trying to commit myself to more classes at the gym.

My parents have gone on vacation for the next few weeks so my DH and I have the house to ourselves. My parents have gone to Thailand and will visit Phuket and Chiang Mai. They are having a great time there - even though my mum wasn't really excited about the trip until they got there. I cannot wait till I go on vacation in about two months time. I love the whole aspect of travelling -packing the luggage, flying, sightseeing, etc.

Well, I think that is all my exciting news for now. Apart from the above I have been spending lots of time with my sisters and brother and my neices and nephews.

Till next time................

Body Type?................ Peanut??

2009-05-23T23:50:00.000-07:00

My DH and I have the body shape of a peanut - and we are so proud!!!!

My three-year-old neice drew a picture of my DH and I while she was at Kindy the other day. We look like two peanuts from a peanut family but I did not care about that. I was absolutley thrilled to know that she thinks of us while she is at Kindy.

Not to brag, but this kid is a spitting image of me when I was her age (absolutely gorgeous of course) and she is the daughter of my twin sister. She isn't the type of kid that will just run up to you and want a hug, she still takes time to warm up to me. Infact, I think she may still be a little freaked out at how much her mum and I look alike.

Anyways, to hear that she had drawn a picture for me and my DH just brought me to tears. I asked my sister if she was prompted to do this and apparently she wasn't. That was why I got all emotional about it - just the thought that she felt like drawing a picture of the two of us was an AWESOME feeling.

I got to spend time with her and my youngest neice yesterday too. It was wonderful to see these two girls playing so nicely together - more like sisters than cousins. My sister's could already see what they would be like in 15 years time - covering for each other to keep from getting in trouble.

It was nice hanging out with all the girls yesterday. I told my sister's we need to do this more often - just sit around, drink tea and chat.

Here is a picture of the peanut people for your enjoyment. I am the one on the right with the big hips!!

It was my oldest step-nephews 19th birthday the other day too. I cannot believe he is 19 already. I, of course, made him a card - he actually appreciates the hand-made cards.

I love being able to create and I put together this cute little card - I also got to buy some new paper too. Since leaving the scrapbooking industry I really haven't kept myself up-to-date as the supplies here are very expensive. I did find some cute new paper from American Crafts. I loved the colours on the paper and new I could mix and match it for either a male or female card.

As for new stamps - I cannot wait to see my friend Eleonor in Vancouver and visit the new stamp store she is working in. I am yet to find a stamp store here on the Gold Coast.

Here is a picture of the card I made.

Well, gotta go. I am cooking a lamb roast for dinner and better not burn it.

Till next time.............

Labour Day Long Weekend

2009-05-03T23:02:00.000-07:00

It felt like we just had a long weekend but it was fine by me to have another. My DH and I decided not to go away for the long weekend, so we just hung around at home. My DH helped my father put together a decking around the pool. They have worked so hard all weekend to get it finished. They are just putting the finishing touches on it now.

As for me - I am pleased to say that I didn't do too much this weekend.

On Saturday we had a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Crystal. She is due at the end of the month and I cannot wait to meet my new nephew. It was a great afternoon and a great chance to get to know my sister-in-laws family. I haven't really had a chance to get to know my sister-in-laws family as I hadn't been here so I really enjoyed the afternoon at the baby shower. We played games, ate food and just chatted. It was great. My mum, sister's and I bought Crystal a few baby items that new mum's need like, baby powder, wipes, etc. My DH had a great idea and suggested we buy something specifically for Crystal so we got her a facial to have after the baby is born. Below is a picture of the present we bought for her and the card that I had made.

After the baby shower my mum, sister and I went out for coffee and cake and some girly chat. It was great to hang out with just the ladies in the family and chill out and relax. I decided that we will have to do this more often.

Saturday night my DH and I went to go and see the new Hugh Jackman movie 'Wolverine'. What a great movie. I really enjoyed it and thought it would be a boy's movie but ladies, let me tell you, there is plenty of eye candy for the girls to enjoy it just as much.

Sunday was such an easy going day. My twin sister was coming over to work on an assignment for university and I had decided that I was going to make some cards for Mother's Day and some to add to my collection that I am hoping to sell. So, with ABBA blaring in the background I got creative and came up with these very cute cards. I just love the colours I used and the stamps too. I do find supplies in Australia are much more expensive but it is so hard not to buy all the beautiful paper that I see.

Sunday night I cooked dinner for everybody. I used a recipe from my Biggest Loser cookbook. I made a beef and bok choy dish with Oyster Sauce. It was quite tasty.

As for Monday - what a total bludge day!!! I did nothing.......... literally nothing. The most I did was make pancakes for morning tea and play with my neice Olivia. I had such a great day. I enjoy spending days like this just before going back to work. I do fell just a little guilty as my DH worked is butt off today finishing off the decking. It looks great though but I know he and my dad will be tired tomorrow.

Till next time.............

A Desperate Housewife

2009-04-19T02:34:00.000-07:00

Bree Van De Kamp - polite, polished, domestic goddess - she keeps a tidy house, bakes daily and always looks perfect. The ideal housewife?? There are two sides to this woman - she is a member of the NRA (National Rifle Association), she can be a snob and most of all when push comes to shove she can be a right royal B*$#@!! I LOVE this woman!! I don't know her personally but have come to love her character on the t.v show Desperate Houswives.

What I mostly love about her are the more likeable characteristics. I would love to be able to keep house like she does, cook like she does, be artsy and creative like her and most of all - host dinner parties like she does.

Today I got the urge to bake and be creative and to host my sister to lunch - I was Bree Van De Kamp for a brief moment in time.

A day in the life of Bree (or more realiastically ME):

Hosting Lunch:

My twin sister came over to the house to study today. She has a little one at home and she is graduating this year and exams are coming up so she came to the house for some peace and quiet. Come lunch time my DH and I decided to surprise her and make her lunch - she had been studying all morning and needed a break. While my DH made roast beef sandwiches I whipped together a salad and then we set up the outside table for lunch. My sister was so grateful and impressed. It was funny - she actually thought we did this every weekend for lunch, I told her she just came on the right day.

Being Creative:

My nephews birthday is coming up next weekend and I had already bought his present but needed to make a card for him. I really had the creative juices flowing today and put together an adorable card for him. I also made some extra cards and am thinking of selling them. I haven't bought suppplies in such a long time and am still using stuff that I have around the house. I have taken a picture of the card I made - I think it's cute - what do you all think?

Baking:

I decided to bake some cookies for the staff at work. I chose Anzac biscuits - as next weekend is Anzac day so I thought it was appropriate. Also, we had lots of passionfruits at home so I made some cookies with passionfruit in them. If I do say so myself, both batches of cookies turned out really well. Here is a picture that you can drool over.

Well, there it is. My day as Bree Van De Kamp. I also managed to do the ironing, sit with my husband and enjoy the UFC and have a boxing session with my DH later that night. Not bad for one day.

Till next time...................

Health Kick

2009-04-18T03:23:00.000-07:00

Since watching this season of the Biggest Loser it has got me motivated to get off my butt and do some exercise and look after myself. I have to say that I am doing well and haven't put on any weight since I left Canada - needless to say I haven't lost any weight either. Although, for the first time in a long time I am happy with my body but would like to lose some of the extra bulge I find from time to time. I know I am not the only one like that in the world............ so I have decided to actively do something about it.

A few weeks ago I joined a woman's gym which is so close to home - it's awesome. Fernwood is located about 5 minutes from where I live and I really enjoy the all female aspect of the gym. They have all the machines you need - bikes, rowing machines, treadmills, etc. They have a weights area but best of all they have amazing classes that aren't overcrowded. This past week I had a trainer go through some of the weight machines with me and tell me which ones I should be doing - basically she gave me my very own programme to follow.

As for the classes, I have only had the opportunity to try two of them out. The Body Balance class is great - it is a mixture of yoga, pilates and balancing. Just love it!!! This morning I tried the Body Pump class - oh my goodness, this one is my favourite right now. You use a bar bell throughout the whole class and do lunges, squats and lots of other exercises while holding onto a bar bell. It was great and was easy enough to follow - next week I am going to use heavier weights to feel more of a burn and workout. One class that I am desperate to try but scared to try as well is the cycle class. I have seen them use these bikes on the Biggest Loser and it freaks me out but I really want to give it a go.

Now, I know it is not all about exercise only........... I have been eating better too. I am trying to follow a meal plan that one of the trainers from the Biggest Loser put together. It is fairly easy to follow and obviously encourages you to eat lots of fruit and vegetables.

Tonight for dinner I cooked a recipe from the Biggest Loser cookbook that I picked up from K Mart a few weeks ago. I made spaghetti and meatballs but the meatballs were made out of pork and veal mince instead of fatty beef. I also made a yummy Greek Salad to go with it. I don't cook very often but do enjoy it when I do. Here are a couple of shots of my yummy dinner.

Well, if anything, I hope I have got some people motivated to get off their butts and do some excercise at least three times a week.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, last weekend my parents bought a Wii and Wii Fit - there's more exercise there to keep anybody entertained for hours.

Till next time...............

Happy Easter To All

2009-04-10T02:42:00.000-07:00

What does Easter mean to me.............

*SPENDING TIME WITH FAMILY - I will be spending Good Friday and Easter Sunday with my whole family. Good Friday we will get together and have a late seafood lunch. Easter Sunday we will come together at my parents place for a BBQ. I will be making dessert - apple crumble and apricot upside down cake (hope they turn out)

*CHOCOLATE - as a kid we used to get so much chocolate at Easter time. It would last right into winter time - that's how much chocolate we would receive. Now that I am older I don't need the chocolate anymore - infact I really shouldn't be eating it. Now, I get to buy chocolate for my neices and nephews. I also made some really cute little gift tags to go with the chocolates - I haven't scrapbooked or made any cards in such a while so to put these together really made my day.

*FOUR DAY WEEKEND - my DH and I both work in a bank and have got Good Friday and Easter Monday off - which means a four day weekend......... woo hoo!!! Yesterday at work was like crazy town - people really freak out at the thought of not being able to do their banking for two days so they all come in on the Thursday in a mad panic. Let me tell you...... we did not stop

at all all day so I really couldn't wait for Friday to come around.

I hope you all have a great Easter and enjoy your days off from work too.

Till next time..............

A Lazy Weekend

2009-03-22T01:15:00.000-07:00

When there is nothing planned on a weekend to me that means it is open for anything, everything or nothing at all. This was my weekend in a nutshell

1. two days of sleeping in

2. catching up on watching my taped episodes of Desperate Housewives (and there were alot)

3. Brother, Sister-In-Law and the kids came over for dinner - Burgers and Fries (homemade of course)

4. Watched Love Guru (a really stupid/funny movie) and Sweeney Todd (great movie with Johnny Depp)

5. Lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe on Sunday

6. Went to vote on Saturday to be told I was not on the list................ wait till next time.

7. hang around the house and chilled out with my DH

8. DH made some really good dinners - I am so lucky I have him.

9. Did three load of laundry and some ironing.

10. Enjoyed some wine and coolers :)

You know, sometimes it is nice to have nothing planned on weekends - you just don't know what to expect.

Till next time.............

Byron Bay

2009-03-06T23:24:00.000-08:00

Road trip............................ this morning we decided to get in the car and head South into New South Wales. My parents, DH and I were on our way to Byron Bay for a day trip. From where we live it is only about 1 hour away but once there you feel like you are further away then that.

Byron Bay is a beach town and a hippie town. Alot of very cool stores there and lots of great restaurants and bars too. It reminded me alot of Key West in Florida.

On our way to Byron Bay we stopped in at The Humble Pie Co. for some meat pies. My DH loves meat pies and the last time we went there they were really good . Whenever we head South we usually try to stop in there so my DH can get one. The pies were still good but not as good as the last time we went. Isn't that always the way............ the same thing happened the last time we went back to Disneyland. My DH was looking forward to a Disneyland hotdog but when he got one it just wasn't the same. I see a food theme going on here too.................. we love our food (if I haven't already mentioned that). The highlight of visiting the Humble Pie Co. was a huge lizard I saw in the garden. This thing was massive but when I went to get close to it to take a good photo (as you do) it moved away.

After our little pit stop we continued on to Byron and the first stop was going to be at the lighthouse. The lighthouse at Byron is at the most Eastern point of Australia and the views are amazing of the ocean. I took a few shots while we were there. We could see turtles swimming in the ocean and usually you can see dolphins too but not today.

The lighthouse was quite busy with tourists and just people in general. We decided to walk all the way down the path to lead to the most Easterly point - I thought it wouldn't be that much of a walk, was I wrong. Walking back up to the top of the lighthouse was a workout in itself - it was all uphill with so many stairs and we didn't have any water with us. Keep in mind it is stinking hot at about 30 degrees too. We all made it back up again and were glad to get back into the air conditioned car.

We drove back to the town of Byron and went for a walk through the stores and finally stopped for some lunch too. There were so many little cafes and gorgeous restaurants but we decided to stop at a hole in the wall place that sold Turkish foods (I think that is what it was anyways). I decided on a Falafel Pita and it was delicious. We all left the cafe satisfied with the food we ate and definetly wanting to return some time soon.

The road trip home was much quietier - my parents fell asleep in the back seat (dad snoring of course). A great day had by all..................... I love weekends.

Till next time............

Rolling Down A Hill In A Ball.......... who knew it would be so much fun!!!

2009-03-04T00:26:00.000-08:00

My brother just turned the big 3-0 last weekend and my DH had asked him what he wanted to do to celebrate. Apart from having a big party to celebrate he also wanted to go on the Zorb!!

Picture this - a hamster inside a hamster ball..................... now picture a much bigger ball with a human being inside it. Funny image, right? Okay now picture that oversized ball at the top of the hill, filled with some water and pushed down the hill................... HILARIOUS!!!!

My brother, DH and my oldest nephew all went down in the ball together and we were all there to see them and laugh our butts off. I took a few photo's so you can get the idea of what it looked like.

Firstly, the guys had to walk up the hill to get to the Zorb. Once up there they were hosed down to lube them up so that it was easy for them to leap into the ball - yes leap into the ball.

The guy at the top of the hill then pushed them down and they went rolling down the hill. While in the ball the water was splashing all over them and they were flying around all over the place.

Alot of fun had by all.

My DH also got a really great photo of a Kookaburra that was just hanging out in our backyard. If you aren't familiar with Kookaburra's they come from Australia (obviously) and they make a sound like they are laughing. We usually get them in our backyard first thing in the morning - instead of a Rooster waking us up we have Kookaburra's.

Till next time..............

The Biggest Loser Australia

2009-02-21T12:58:00.001-08:00

Well, it is that Season again.................. Biggest Loser Australia is now rolling into it's third week on t.v and I haven't missed an episode.

I am so addicted to watching this series and seeing these people transform from overweight, week souls to fit, healthy and positive individuals. It is a great way to stay motivated and want to do something about your own health.

This year, for the first time, they are doing it in couples. This is a first for the t.v series, just for the Australian series. The last season I watched in Canada was a couples and it was great as you had somebody there with you to keep you going.

I think the thrilling thing for me is that these people are Australian's and some of them live quite close by to me here on the Gold Coast. Infact, just the other day at work the husband of one of the contestants came in and was so excited as he was going to see his wife for the first time in a while. That was when it really hit close to home that these are 'real' people with a 'real' struggle and they do have loved ones anxiously wanting to see them.

The trainers in the Australian series are amazing too - Shannan and Michelle. I do miss the trainer's from the North American series but these guys are just as inspiring.

While watching the show I learned that Australia has now overtaken the U.S.A as the fattest country in the world. THE FATTEST!!! The suprising thing is, I really wasn't shocked. When I moved back home I have to say that that was one of the first things I noticed, how much bigger everybody looked. The silly thing is - we have such great weather here all year round, there is no excuse for not being outdoors and exercising!!! It is scary.............. really scary to see how big some people are getting and to top it off, it is not the guys out there - most of the larger people I see are girls!!

So, how has The Biggest Loser inspired me............... since losing weight with Weight Watchers a few years ago I have always been watching what I put into my mouth. It is so easy to get carried away with candies, fast food, etc. I have started waking up extra early before work to do weights and go for either a jog or a walk. I have committed myself to a Netball team and will be playing once a week (the season starts this Tuesday), and I am going to continue to watch what I eat - I don't want to put on all the weight I have lost.

My theory is, if these people on t.v who weigh over 200kg can do this...................... so can I.

Till next time.........

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish.......... any fish?

2009-02-10T00:37:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday my brother, sister and I (and all our respected family) decided to head down to The Spit to go fishing. Yes, there is a place known as The Spit on the Gold Coast. Click on the link to learn more about it's name.

Sunday was another amazingly hot day - perfect weather to be by the water. Our adventure first started in the car park. The parking was on soft sand and unlike my brother and sister, we do not have a 4WD. Right now we are still borrowing my other sister's spare car (more on the car front in a later blog). Anywho, our car got stuck in the sand. My first thought, 'What a great way to start the day'. No matter what we did we couldn't move it forward and we couldn't move it backward. This reminded me so much of driving in the snow in Vancouver!! My DH suggested that we use one of the 4WD's to bump us out of the sand. I thought this was a bad idea but didn't want to say anything - I'm only a girl of course, what do I know!! Thank goodness a local could see what we were just about to do and came over to let us know that was a bad idea (told you) and that we should dig the sand from under the back tyres. My brother was absolutley no help - he had injured his finger the night before and didn't want to get sand on it. So here I am underneath the car digging the sand out from under the tyres - me and this very helpful stranger. We eventually got the car out of the sand and could start fishing.............. the story continues.

Fishing................. yeh right. As soon as we arrived at the watering hole I knew the boys were not going to be catching any fish. There were boats docked in the water, people swimming in the water and noise from the shore. Again, I didn't want to say anything, but how the heck did they think the fish would be biting - unless the fish were deaf of course. From what I understand it is best to fish in quiet surroundings. Of course I was right - there were no fish biting that day but the boys had alot of fun 'pretending' to catch fish.

The highlight for the kids was finding everything BUT fish that day. My nephews had found balls, a fork, bottles, sunglasses, etc in the water - everything but fish!!! That was the joke of the day.

After our attempt at fishing we decided to head to the nearby beach to get thrown around by the waves. We went to Main Beach were there were dogs allowed on the beach. I thought this was really cool. It was so cute to watch the dogs jumping waves too.

Another great weekend had by all in the sunshine............... I LOVE IT!

Till next time............

Rainbow Beach

2009-02-04T02:23:00.000-08:00

...... doesn't the title just say it all. This past weekend we went up to the Sunshine Coast and stayed at Rainbow Beach. It is a four hour drive from where we live but it felt like a million miles away.

When my DH and I first moved to Australia my family had decided that they wanted to do a trip away all together and we were defintely up for that. I am always up for relaxing days by the ocean and just relaxing in general.

After work on Friday afternoon my DH and I hit the road with my two brother-in-laws and nephew for the long drive up north. It was quite interesting sitting in a car with four boys - I didn't know what to expect but we had a good drive up. We were listening to some really good road tripping music and had fun singing along to ACDC, Nickleback and Bon Jovi. Anywho........ we got to Rainbow Beach at about 10pm and sat around and chatted for a while (the rest of the family had driven up earlier in the day) and then we called it a night.

We stayed at Rainbow Beach Holiday Village - people could either rent a cabin, camp or caravan there. We stayed in a cute little cabin - apparently these cabins were used in the 2000 Sydney Olympics as part of the Olympic Village. Our cabin was perfect for what we needed. It had a mini kitchen, bathroom, bed and most importantly - air conditioning!!! It was really really hot while we were there.

On the Saturday morning we all met up at the BBQ area for bacon and eggs. Too bad if anybody else in the Village wanted to use the BBQ, just my family alone filled up the area. There were people staying in a tent just nearby the BBQ area - I am sure they were glad to see us leave after our few days there. It has hard to be quiet with 8 kids and 10 adults!!

After breakfast we headed out to the sand dunes that were nearby. My mum had been telling us about this area for quite some time and she wanted us all to see what it looked like. After a quick drive and a short walk through bushes we found the sand dunes. They were just magnificient - it was so amazing to see. I did take some photo's but it is truly something you have to see to believe. All around is just sand until you look over to each side and there is a cliff with the beautiful blue ocean all around. It was absolutely breathtaking.

After our morning at the sand dunes we headed down to the beach and went for a swim. The water was beautiful.......... a little rough but the kids loved jumping the waves. We had heard that there were jelly fish around and those things really hurt when they sting you. We kept a watch out for the jelly fish but we were all good - no stings on us. Unfortunatley, as we decided to leave the beach a little girl that was there with her family got stung. The lifeguards are well prepared for this and had an icepack on hand.

After the beach we headed back to our resort and had some lunch and then a swim in the pool. You would think that we would have had enough of water by then but it was so hot and it seemed like the best way to cool down. For some reason the men/boys decided to act out the final dance scene in Dirty Dancing while in the water. My DH and my brother were attempting to lift each other up in the air - it was actually quite funny and I got some great shots. None will be posted on my blog though - I don't think my DH would appreciate that.

For dinner that night we again took over the BBQ and had some sausages and steaks then the girls adjourned to one of the rooms and played poker whilst they boys drank beer and talked. It was a great way to end a great day. Us girls had lots of fun giggling, drinking and playing our version of poker.

We only wished that we could have stayed longer. My DH and I have decided we will try to do the trip again - this time staying longer than a couple of nights.

I love being able to do little getaways like this - it give you time to chill out and pretend you are far far away!!!

till next time.............

Australia Day

2009-01-28T02:27:00.000-08:00

On Monday, January 26th was Australia Day. This is the day, back in 1788, that Captain Arthur Phillip landed in Australia. Click on the link if you are interested in learning more.

Basically as Australian's, we celebrate Australia Day in numerous ways - going to the beach, having a BBQ, at a park with friends, playing beach cricket, etc.

What did I do for Australia Day............ My DH, my parents and myself headed to our local council grounds to particpate in the Australia Day Celebrations. There was so much to see and do there, where do I begin.............

There were cute little piggies that did pig races - why is this an Australian thing to do?? Not too sure....... but it was fun to watch.

There was a rodeo with Australian Cowboys - it reminded me of the Rodeo at Cloverdale in B.C. We watched bull riding and and horse riding - it was actually really cool. There was also a wood chopping contest going on throughout the day too. I had never seen this done before and it was pretty cool to see them at work.

There was a poet who was reciting works done by Banjo Patterson. Banjo Patterson was a famous ballad writer back in the 'olden days' and he wrote our very famous song 'Waltzing Matilda' which alot of Australian's like to think is our 2nd National Anthem. While we were listening to the poet on Australian Day he was reciting the poem, 'The Man From Ironbark'. I remember learning this poem at school.

For lunch I had a yummy meat pie.......... Australia is known for there meat pies and even though it was a hot day I had to have one - it was Australia Day after all. There was also a group of people cooking damper the old fasioned way (see picture below). Damper is basically bread that was cooked in the outback on an open fire. It is so yummy to eat warm with golden syrup.

There was also a dog show with the cutest Border Collies. We spoke to one of the breaders there and her dogs were a mum and son, Trixie and Bronson. Sooooooooo cute and so friendly. During the dog show we watched as a trainer was 'dancing' with her dog and they also explained how to train dogs to catch frisbee's. This has made me want to get a dog ASAP!! Below is a picture of Trixie catching a frisbee.

We stayed at the Celebrations for a few hours but it was really hot out and decided to call it a day at about 1pm. We headed home to go for a swim in the pool and just chill out. It was nice to have the day off from work and relax.

For dinner that night we of course had a BBQ............ a great way to end the day.

It was so good to be home for Australia Day and my DH enjoyed his first Australia Day too.

Till next time.................

Who Turned The Heat Up??

2009-01-24T22:45:00.000-08:00

Last night had to be the hottest night we have had here on the Gold Coast this Summer so far. We had our window open with no breeze at all coming in. We also had our ceiling fan on full blast and I could not get cool. I finally woke up from the extreme heat at 3:30am - yes, A.M!!!! I never wake up this morning - only if my alarm is set to go off at that ridiculous time!!

I was so hot that I got up and laid infront of the t.v with a fan on me to cool down. I could not go back to sleep for the life of me and ended up watching so much crap t.v - Maury Povich, Oprah, The Fabulous Life of Kimora (boy that woman is so demanding and gets everything she wants), I also ended up watching quite a cute movie, Unaccompanied Minors. It had Wilmer Valderamma in it and the kid from Bad Santa (another great movie if you haven't seen it already). Unaccompanied Minors is about a bunch of kids who get stuck in an airport because of bad weather and get up to mischief while there. Just a fun movie to watch at 5am!!!! Seriously though, try and watch it if you get a chance.

By 6am the sun was already coming up and I realiased there was no way I was going to be able to fall asleep now. At 7am I was in the pool doing laps - it was still stinking hot and the pool felt more like a bath then a pool - the water was warm already so early in the morning.

Plans for the day............ to be honest I thought I would be half asleep by 9am but I wasn't. My DH and I decided to head to the beach for the day and we met up with my sister and her family. By the time we got to the beach the sun was mostly gone with alot of cloud in the sky but looks can be deceiving as it was still pretty warm out. We took an esky of fruit, lots of water to drink and headed to Miami Beach for the day.

Here is my neice Chloe enjoying the beach. She loved the water and jumping the waves but preferred to be playing in the sand.

As expected the beach was fairly busy today. The waves weren't too rough either which was good. My nephews just loved going out and jumping the waves. My older nephew had fun with my DH, they went out quite fair and were swimming in the waves and diving into them as well. After a swim the kids loved playing in the sand. I cannot stand the sand all over me - I know as I kid I would sit there and let my brother and sister's bury me in the sand, I just couldn't imagine doing that now.

We were at the beach for about three hours when we saw the dramatic change in the weather. The weather here reminds me of what we had to deal with when we lived in Florida. It can be hot and sunny one minute and then a total downpour the next. That's what happened today......

We noticed the dark clouds in the distance - while at the beach you can basically see from one end of the Gold Coast to the other and we could clearly see that there was rain in the northern part of the Gold Coast.

We decided to call it a day and thought we had plenty of time to pack up our stuff but we were mistaken. The rain came from no where and was hitting so hard. We had to pack up in the rain and walk all the back to our cars while getting soaking wet........... oh well, all the more fun I thought!! We had a great day at the beach but it was nice to go home and have a shower and a cup of tea.

The good thing about not getting much sleep last night is that I have tomorrow off from work as it is Australia Day, so I can sleep in a little. We are celebrating Australia Day by going to a type of fair, I guess you could call it. This will be my husband's first Australia Day celebrated in Australia. We are looking forward to a great day.......... hope the weather co-operates. Time to go, Dad's cooking a barbie for dinner (not the doll, a BBQ).

Till next time...........

Happy Birthday To Me!

2009-01-21T01:02:00.000-08:00

This past week I celebrated my birthday - my first birthday at home in quite a long time. My twin sister and I were able to celebrate our birthday together and we had a great time.

Our DH's had planned a surprise for us on the Saturday night and rented a limo to take us out to Surfer's Paradise. I had no idea where we were going, all I knew was that I had to get dressed up and be ready by 5pm. While in the limo I obviously figured out that we were heading to Surfer's Paradise but when it pulled up in front of the hotel - I had no idea where we were. It is pretty easy to keep a secret from me...........sometimes I am so clueless.

We arrived at the Marriott Hotel just before 6pm. This hotel is absolutely gorgeous - I love the ceiling fans they have throughout the lobby. We had dinner reservations at the Lagoon Restaurant which is an All You Can Seafood Buffett. Now usually I don't like buffett's but when it's Seafood I am all over it!!!! The food was amazing - I think I ate enough prawns to last me forever. My sister and I also got the wine buffett too - basically you pay $19 and can all you can drink red or white wine all night long.

After our amazing dinner we went for a walk through Surfer's Paradise then headed down to Broadbeach to Jupiter's Casino. We gambled for a little while and then called it a night. We had an awesome evening - it was fun to dress up and be treated like a Princess for a while.

The next day we had a family BBQ at my parent's place to celebrate my nephew's birthday and my sister's and my birthday. All the family came over, even my Grandmother came to the house for a while, which was great.

As I have probably said a thousand times, I love having my family all together for events like this. I missed it for those 8 years I was away and am enjoying it all over again.

Don't ever take your family for granted........

Till next time..............

Wet N Wild

2009-01-20T01:19:00.000-08:00

A few weekend's ago we went to Wet'N'Wild for my nephews birthday.

Wet'N'Wild is a theme park we have here on the Gold Coast that is filled with fun water slides, a great kids area, a lagoon to totally chill out in and a swimming pool with waves.

My older sister and her family have season tickets to this theme park so they know the ins and outs of it all. We got there early in the morning so we could be the first in to get good lounge chairs and a picnic area. My Brother In Law was on top of this - he ran with my two nephews to get the perfect spot - right in front of the wave pool. Why is this the perfect spot........... well at dusk they play a movie on the big screen at the wave pool. It was the perfect setting for an awesome day. That night's movie was the latest Indianna Jones movie - we stayed a watched a bit of it then left early................ we had been out in the sun all day and were exhausted.

We picked the perfect day to go as it was hot all day long........... we realiased how hot it was that night when we couldn't sleep thanks to the sun burn!!! We started off the day going on a few of the slides - I am not a huge fan of water slides so I only went on a couple of them but I had lots of fun.

My favourite thing to do was to go on the lagoon ride where you lay in a tube and float around a lagoon for as long as you like. It was fun to watch my DH totally pick on my mother - she couldn't control the tube and my DH wasn't helping much either by pushing her in every direction possible. Later in the day we went on the tubes again but this time we got separated from my older sister and my neice. We couldn't find them for quite a while until finally they met us back at our lounge chairs. My two-year-old neice had fallen asleep on my sister and she couldn't get out of the lagoon so she kept going round in circles till her husband found her!!!

The wave pool was alot of fun too. Surprisingly, the waves were fairly strong and it didn't help that my DH kept throwing me under the water. Later in the day my twin sister's daughter came into the wave pool with me and that girl has no fear at all. She is only 3 but wanted me to leave her on her own in the wave pool - she kept wanting to go out into the rougher waves. She had a blast and was making me laugh so much!!

The birthday boy had lots of fun on his special day......... he enjoyed going on all the rides with everybody from his brother to his Grandfather.

We even had a birthday cake for him and a BBQ for dinner.

Happy Birthday Liam - glad I could be there to have fun with you!!!

Till next time..........

Mamma Mia, Here I Go Again........................

2009-01-18T01:34:00.000-08:00

Sing it with me everybody......... finally after a long wait I got to see the movie Mamma Mia - and I LOVED IT!!

There was a showing of the movie at a park at Varsity Lakes. Varsity Lakes is a really nice new area on the Gold Coast that is growing so fast. I wouldn't mind being able to afford a house there. A development company had planned a big screen in a park and encouraged people in the area to enjoy an outdoor movie under the stars. It was awesome. I went with my mum and older sister and my nephew - who celebrated his birthday that day - and we also took two homestay children that were staying with my sister.

Here's a little preview of Mamma Mia - if you haven't seen it already you should go.

As for the movie........................ fantasic. If you are a huge fan of ABBA music and just love a good fun movie you have to go see it. Also, it doesn't help that the really hot Colin Firth is in it (he is so yummy)

My nephew celebrated his birthday that night, Friday January 16th and he was quite happy to spend it with us watching Mamma Mia. He was having a blast............ singing along to all the songs. Even the two little girls that were with us were dancing and having fun!!

There is still lots to tell about stuff I have been up to.......... will leave that till a later date.

till next time..........

Happy New Year

2009-01-04T01:13:00.000-08:00

Hope everybody had a wonderful New Year. We did the usual thing of celebrating at home with family. This year's theme was 'At the Beach' - basically we just had to wear our bathing suits so it was easy to dress up for.

It was a great night with lots of food and drinks. There was an impromptu ABBA dance off with myself and my three neices. I don't know what it is about ABBA music but we love it here in Australia. My two year old neice Chloe can sing Mamma Mia - it is very cute.

Four days into the New Year and my DH and I went to the beach for the first time since we moved here. It was an overcast day but the water so was nice and warm. The waves were awesome but there were some strong ones - really have to watch for the rough seas here!! We had such a great time just jumping the waves and having fun. I forgot how fun it was just to go swimming in the ocean. I think we will be doing that more often now.

I found this flickr slide show on the internet of the beaches on the Gold Coast. We really do have some amazing beaches.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gold-coast/show/with/515819212/

Have a wonderful 2009.

Till next time...........

Christmas Family Traditions

2008-12-27T22:36:00.000-08:00

It is truly hard to believe that another Christmas has come and gone so soon. Such big build up and preparation for just one day that seems to come and go so fast these days.

Here is a picture of my sister's and I on Christmas Day. I think my older sister told me at least 5 times that day that she was glad I was home!!!

Christmas has always been about family for me. Even though with just our immediate family there are about 20 of us and it can get quite noisy - I just wouldn't want it any other way. Christmas always starts on December 24th - Christmas Eve - for us. We all went over to my older sister's place for drinks and nibblies. This Christmas Eve it was pouring with rain so getting the gifts and food in the car was an 'event' in itself. We finally managed to get over there and have a good time. At about 11pm 'Santa' arrives to hand out all the presents under the tree. This year 'Santa' was played by my sister's Father-In-Law. It was great to see a really skinny Santa with an Irish accent handing out gifts to the kids and they not having a clue who it was!!!

This is my nephew Liam, and I celebrating Christmas Day!! He is such a cool dude!!

Every year one of the men in the family have to dress up as Santa to hand out the gifts. When I was younger it was usually my dad who would dress up as Santa for us kids. My most fond memory is when we were just a bit older and clearly realised that Santa was not real. My dad and mum had planned this whole scenario that dad was called in to work on Christmas Eve. We didn't say anything at the time - but we all knew that they were telling us stories so that dad could go to the neighbours house and put on his Santa suit. The things you do for your kids - I just love mum and dad for trying to keep the fun in Christmas when we were kids.

Here is Dad and I on Christmas Eve - I do not know why I am pulling this face......... perhaps too much punch!

The next day, Christmas Day, was spent at my parents house. Christmas Day is another full on day in itself.

5 years ago on Christmas Day my dad's mother passed away. Every Christmas Day we start the day by visiting her gravesite and leaving her some flowers. I have to say, I like starting the day like this as it feels like we are including her in one of her most favourite family holidays. She always loved having family together at Christmas.

This year my mum's mother was put into a care facility - we didn't want her spending Christmas alone so we took her to our place for the day. Well, actually, we took her to our place for as long as she would stay - we didn't know how well she would do. She surprised us all and had a wonderful time with us. She did some dancing, and enjoyed her dinner and even had a little glass of wine. It was great to have her spend the day with us.

Now, Christmas is all about food for our family too. We had: turkey, ham, lamb, prawns, pasta, potatoes AND dessert!!!! We were totally stuffed by the end of the day. The kids had fun playing in the pool and also playing with the Wii they got for Christmas.

As for me - I loved being home with my family, I loved watching my nieces and nephews open up their Christmas presents, I loved having my Nana at home with us and I loved having my DH experience his first hot Christmas.

My two older nephews received there very own golf clubs for Christmas. For the first time ever the two of them were speechless!!!! They really loved these gifts.

Madison got this cute bear for Christmas - she just loved it!

My DH and I giving me a 'Christmas Kiss'. I was so glad to have him with my family for his first Australian Christmas!

Christmas SHOULD always be about family - spending time with them and loving them for who they are. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas this year and a Happy and Healthy New Year!!!

Till Next time..........

A brush with fame....... and a haircut!

2008-12-22T02:38:00.000-08:00

The one sport that I grew up watching was Rugby League. Unfortunately, (for my DH anyways) Ice Hockey is not a big sport here in Australia. Infact, ice hockey in Australia is near to non-existant - we have grass hockey but apparently that is definetly not the same if you speak to my DH.

I grew up watching Rugby League as my dad used to play it when he was younger. Now on the Gold Coast we have our very own team. To make it even better, the stadium is literally 5 minutes away from our house.

The Gold Coast team are called the Titans!! I am yet to see them play as it is off season right now. My DH and I got to meet two of the Titans as they were at our local Mall - Robina Town Centre.

My parents have season tickets to the Titan's games - I am hoping that they let us use them throughout the new year.

As for who the players are in the photo's - I have absolutely no idea - although I did find out the guy with the dark hair is Mark and he is a cutie patootie. (See, I managed to put my hand on his shoulder).

Other news in the homefront - I got a haircut!!! In these photo's I have long blonde hair - now I have short dark hair!!! It was getting so hot here and having long hair I just kept putting it up anyways. I needed a change and I love it. I am sure I will get some photo's at Christmas and will post my new look then.

A big shout out to my friend Eleonor - saw your photo's of your Christmas Light bus tour!!! You guys were freezing your butts off!!!! We celebrated Christmas by attending Carols by Candlelight at a park by the beach. What a difference a world away makes!!!

Till next time...............

Summer Fun - part 2

2008-12-20T14:17:00.000-08:00

Here are my three gorgeous nieces from my Summer Fun blog. My dad is holding Madison (the eldest of the neices) and Chloe (the youngest).

The second photo is my middle niece Olivia.

My three cute little angels. Each of them is so adorable. I told my brother and sister's that they really made some cute kids.

Till next time..........

Summertime Fun

2008-12-11T03:06:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we celebrated my mum's birthday and my parent's wedding anniversary. We had a BBQ lunch at my parents place, as you do in Australia, and then the kids and the men had an afternoon of fun in the pool.

I absolutely LOVE having my family all together for events like birthdays, anniversaries and especially Christmas. One thing that I especially love about my family is that all the kids get along so well with each other. I think it is wonderful to have cousins that live so close to each other and that you can see often enough and get along with so well.

On this particular day for some reason only the men went into the pool after lunch and ALL the kids followed in as well. All the kids just love the water - in Australia one of the first things you teach children is how to swim. Also, it is not uncommon for backyards in Australia to have a swimming pool.

The weather on this day was amazing - the sun was out, it wasn't too humid and there was a slight breeze. The last few weeks we have been having some pretty crazy weather - torrential rain, high humidty, floods, lightning, thunder - we have seen it all in such a short period of time.

Below are a few photo's: (I did download photos of my three cute neices but they disappeared - will try to post another time)

My three nephews Christopher, Liam and Andre' all love the water. Aren't they the cutest.

Till next time.............

A Touch of Nature

2008-12-07T02:57:00.001-08:00

We have lots of beautiful creatures living in our neighbourhood.

My DH has made friends with all the lizards that live in our backyard. He has actually started naming them like they are his pets.

I have yet to see the Kookaburra's but I have heard them. You can hear them 'laughing' a mile away.

Canetoads - they are gross and disgusting but we do get alot of those at night time.

If you can believe me we also get bats here. I don't ever remember bats being part of the wildlife here on the Gold Coast but they are everywhere each night. Infact one early evening my mum and I went for a swim in the pool and there were bats flying overhead the whole time we were in the pool.

A few weeks ago I got some great shots of the lorikeets that fly around our area. I was going for a walk with my nephew and we hadn't even left the street that we live on when we found these birds eating from one of the trees in our up our street. They are beautiful birds but can be very noisy first thing in the morning.

Last night we heard an owl in the backyard - I tried to take a picture of it but wasn't succesful.

You just never know what creatures are hiding in the neighbourhood - I wonder what we will find tomorrow!!!

Till next time...............

Love You Nana..........

2008-12-07T02:32:00.000-08:00

Apart from missing my family tremendously, another reason why I had wanted to come home was my Nana, the person I was named after. Over the past year she has been a little more forgetful and my parents made the decision that she needed to move to a care facility that will give her the freedom to still do as she liked but that also allowed for her to have somebody watching her all the time.

They found an amazing place called Hill View House - it is an aged care residence. When my parents first told me about my Nana moving there I was really concerned as I think back to dirty old nursing homes that smell. When I got to visit Nana, after arriving home, I was amazed. This place is beautiful. Nana has some of her old furniture in her room with pictures of her family all over the room. There are activities that she can participate in if she feels like - for eg. bingo, dances, movies, etc. She seems really happy there.

Infact, she seems extremely happy there. She is one of the more alert residents - alot of the people living there are quite elderly and just sit and chant all day or just keep to themselves. I have to say that I am lucky that Nana isn't quite that ill. She is just a little forgetful - I am not even sure if she truly recognizes me - I just take each visit a day at a time. My mum said that she thinks she does know who I am as she was asking about me coming home, 'When is she coming home?' she would say to my mum. I try to visit once a week - I have to go when my mum goes as my Nana will start talking in her native language, Maltese, and I don't understand what she says when she does this. Also, I don't think I am strong enough to get my Nana out of the sad moments that she does have. On my last visit to see her I went with Mum and Dad and it was amazing how both my parents pepped Nana up and made her laugh and smile. I don't think I could do that.

Seeing my Nana like this really makes me think how fast people can deteriorate - the last time I saw my nana was back in 2005 and she was fine. Infact she was getting my DH and I to write down a family recipe - something that she used to make us a long time ago. I think back now and realise maybe she knew she was slowly forgetting things and that was why she was so adament that we write this recipe down.

Something I have learned, and probably always known, make time for your family. Never take them for granted. Especially Grandparents, we have alot to learn from the elderly.

Till next time...............

Garage Sale

2008-11-28T00:56:00.000-08:00

What do you do when you have a whole lot of crap and you need to get rid of it………. You have a garage sale. Well, at least that’s what we did a few weeks ago.

When I moved back home I did A LOT of spring cleaning and getting rid of things that I no longer used or needed. My theory was, if I didn’t need it for the last four years while I was in Canada I probably didn’t need it at all. I don’t know about you, but I tend to hold on to everything that is given to me or I have bought over the years, even if I am not using it. When I started working for Disney Cruise Line I soon learnt how to live with the bare minimum as I just didn’t have the room for it. I also learned not to get too attached to material things as I usually wasn’t able to keep them with me for too long.

The last 8 years of my life I have really learnt how to down size – and in a big way. I think the only items that I haven’t been able to let go of are photo’s. Even if I don’t look at them every day, I like to know they are there for me whenever I need to reminisce.

So,we had our garage sale. My parents (check them out in the photos – aren’t they cute), woke up extra early and were kind enough to let me and my DH sleep in. The garage sale was scheduled to start at 6am – there were ‘keener’s’ at our house by 5am!! Now, on one hand I think that it is awesome that we had people willing to buy stuff so early. But, on the other hand, ‘Get a life’!!! Did you know that there are people who go to garage sales EVERY weekend!!!! I cannot imagine getting up every single Saturday morning at 4am to go to garage sales!!!

I loved watching the different people that came in to buy stuff. Garage Sales really welcome all types of people. We had some really friendly people and some not so friendly people. My favourite were the people who walked into the garage did a quick look around and then leave. I wanted to remind them that it was a garage sale – all they are going to find is somebody elses crap! We weren’t selling antiques, we weren’t giving away gold – just crap! Not to say we had total crap there………… we had CD’s, Kids books, novels, photo frames, etc

At the end of the day we made just over $100 – I know that doesn’t sound like much but really, it was stuff we were just going to get rid of anyways. When we were done for the day we gave all the stuff as a donation to the RSPCA store. It was actually a good feeling that we could do this – they were extremely happy with the donations.

In other news, November 8th was Steve Irwin Day in Australia. A day where we celebrate the memory of Steve Irwin and all that he did for the wildlife. For this day people were encouraged to wear his traditional Khaki. My dad got into the spirit of the day and went hunting in his Khaki in our garden at home. Check out the picture!!

For all my friends in Canada…………. I can only imagine how cold you all are at the moment. Me, well lets just say today was really, really, really hot and we went for a swim in the pool after the garage sale.

Till next time…………..

I'm Back!!

2008-11-26T02:58:00.000-08:00

Yeah!! Finally we have the internet hooked up at home............ so I am back in action with my blog. I have a lot of past blogs that I didn't get the chance to publish so I will keep you all updated on what's been going on over the next week.

As for me........... things here are great. I love my new job. I am obviously still learning alot of stuff and have alot of questions but I am enjoying it. Most of the customer's have been very understanding with the fact that I am still learning stuff - so I have appreciated that.

Last night we had a girls night - my sisters, sister-in-law, mum, aunt and my sister's mother-in-law all went to see Menopause-the Musical. It was a funny show - obviously about menopause. There were alot of 'white-haired' people in the audience - I think we were some of the younger people there!! We now know what our mum is going through - God help us (and her) and we now know what we have to look forward to as well. Really it was good for a laugh and a fun girl's night out.

Well, as I said earlier I will catch up with what I have been doing the last month. Again, sorry about not blogging more often but now I have connection with the rest of the world so you will be hearing alot from me from now on.

Till next time..........

I Have A Job!!!

2008-10-30T19:36:00.000-07:00

Well my DH and I have been in Australia for less than 2 weeks and got the phone call we have been waiting for – we are now employed!!!! It didn’t take us long at all – infact out of over 100 resumes that came in and after about 7 possible candidates going in for an interview, my DH and I were the two chosen and we couldn’t be happier. We will be working for a bank here on the Gold Coast – in two different branches though. I am really looking forward to learning something completely new and moving ahead with a new career goal. We start our jobs next Wednesday in our branches and then we have to commute to Brisbane the following week for 5 days for training in their head office. For those who don’t know, Brisbane is about 1 hour away from where I live. It is the capital of Queensland, which is the State I live in.

That’s enough Geography for one blog……..

This morning my twin sister, Netty and my niece, Olivia came to pick us up and we headed down to a suburb called Nobby’s Beach where I went to surprise one of my very good High School friends, at work. My friend Melissa and her husband own a bakery and we thought it would be a good idea to just walk into the bakery and surprise her. Well, she wasn’t working today but as we arrived her husband was on the phone to her and he called me over to talk to her. She dropped what she was doing at home and came to meet us at the bakery. It was so good to see her………. She is one of the sweetest people I know, a good friend, kind-hearted and such a darling. We chatted for a bit before our busy day continued.

While on the way home my niece had a MAJOR explosion in her diaper ………. I mean MAJOR!! I forgot how stinky diapers can get. So when we got home we put her in the bathtub for a bit and then I got to dress her and do her hair. I know it sounds silly but I love playing hairdressers so I took advantage of doing her hair and she loved it. She looks just like I did when I was her age.

This Saturday we are celebrating Olivia’s 3rd birthday. I am excited that I get to be here for it. Tomorrow we are going to head over to Netty’s place to get the yummy treats ready. Chocolate Crackles, cupcakes, etc…………. all the things that I shouldn’t be eating and probably won’t be eating. I am so worried about putting all the weight I lost back on again so I am being extra careful. Will let you know how the party goes.

We met up with my brother and sister-in-law for lunch at Hooters!! I know, I know………. Hooters!! But they have pretty good food there and I know that my DH can get the hot wings that he likes so much there too. I was surprised to hear that there was a Hooters on the Gold Coast but it isn’t as bad as it sounds – really.

Till next time…………….

Greeting from the Gold Coast

2008-10-27T18:17:00.000-07:00

Well my DH and I have kinda settled into our new life in Australia. Still no job, so it feels like we are on vacation right now. We did go for an interview yesterday - fingers crossed!!! I felt it went well but I may not be what they are after. Will keep you posted.

Today it is stinkin' hot - don't know what the actual temperature is but all I can say it is 'bloody hot'. And it's not like the heat starts in the middle of the day - oh no - it is boiling hot first thing in the morning at 6am. That is where you can find me oiled up and tanning in the back yard!!! Check me out this morning!!!!

It has been great visiting with my family and seeing all my neices and nephews. Olivia's 3rd birthday party will be this Saturday. She is into Dora the Explorer these days so I bought a gift accordingly. She is slowly warming up to me......... she is my twin sister's daughter and I am sure it is freaking her out that we look the same. Infact Olivia looks just like we did at her age!!

My DH and I still haven't found a new Dojo to join but we did find a really good gym and will start working out today. It is so easy to get out of routine and I have been fairly lazy since we moved here so I decided today, despite the heat, we have to do some form of exercise today.

That's it for now........... haven't been able to scrapbook or make my cards yet as we are still waiting for most of our boxes to come.

Till next time..................

A Quick Post

2008-10-22T17:57:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while ................. sorry but I have been just a little bit busy.

My DH and I arrived in Australia a couple of days ago and I don't have internet access.

So a quick post to say - 'Yeh I'm home'. It is good to see my family, especially my nieces and nephews.

Will post again soon.

Till next time.............

Just when things were going smoothly.....

2008-10-15T19:50:00.000-07:00

Only two days till we go now!! I have nearly finished packing my luggage. I have been struggling with what I should take and what I should leave behind. We are planning on leaving alot of our winter stuff behind - we don't think we really need it right now. For some reason I have been stressing over what I should be taking. My older sister called me this afternoon and laid it out clearly - I can always buy things in Australia, it's not the end of the world. True............ it made me feel better about leaving things behind. Also, I have to remember that we will be back next Summer so I can bring more stuff home then.

The end of the world came at about 3pm this afternoon though............. I was on my way to Coquitlam to pick up my final pay check and the car broke down. I was so mad. First the radio just totally went off and I couldn't get it back on. Then the light came up for the ABS breaks and the air bags and finally, I got the biggest hint when a sign lit up that said Check Battery!! At that point I was questioning whether I should continue out to Coquitlam and then the car encouraged me to stop driving by just not working!!!

I think the thing that upset me the most was that people were honking at me - like I could go anywhere. Then I would have cars come right behind me and just sit there waiting for me to go - my hazard lights were on, I don't know what more I could have done to prove that this car was going nowhere. The final straw was a creepy old man on a bicycle came by and stopped by the car. He looked at me all weird and I thought 'great, now what'. I said to him 'is there something I can help you with' and he said something in a foreign language and then pointed to the green light and said 'go'. I informed him that I would go if I could but unfortunetly I couldn't. People are so STOOPID!!!

Before all this took place I actually had a lunch date with my good friend Heather. It was nice to sit down and chat over lunch before I left. We went to Cactus Club and the service and food was really good. The last few times I had been there the service was really bad and food mediocre - it seems to have improved. After a tearful 'goodbye' with Heather I then headed to Coquitlam when the 'incident' happened. We only waited for the tow truck for about an hour. Hopefully the car will be fixed early tomorow morning - we have lots to do.

Day ended on a high - got my final pay and all I can say is 'cha-ching' - this final pay check has really come in handy.

Till next time.............

Thanksgiving #2

2008-10-14T23:34:00.001-07:00

Last night we went to our friends place for Thanksgiving dinner #2 and it was sooooo good.

This time the turkey was deep-fried............. now I know that sounds really unhealthy and grose and for the longest time I turned my nose up to a deep-fried turkey. I have now converted...... bring on the deep-fried turkey!!! It was so juicy and not oily or fatty at all. The best part was the crunchy skin - mmmmmm. Sorry for any people reading this blog who are vegetarians - you guys are missing out!! Check out the picture below, it is mouth watering.

In other news, my DH and I are down to our last few days here in Canada. We did a little bit of running around today. All the boxes are basically packed, we are going to send them off on Thursday. Just all last minute stuff.

We have been looking EVERYWHERE for travel scrabble, and can you believe that we cannot find it anywhere. We have looked at Chapters, other book stores, Toys R Us and even Walmart - no lucky finding it anywhere. Yet, about three months ago we saw them everywhere - figures.

We will have other stuff to do on the plane anyways - Ange bought me the new Nicholas Sparks book, I have a Vogue magazine to read, I still have to buy a crossword and I can just bug my DH from here to Auckland anyways. Oh, yeh, don't know if I mentioned but we have a direct flight to Auckland and will hopefully be able to leave the airport there and do a little sightseeing. We are there for quite a few hours and the plan is to meet up with some friends from our Cruiseship days and check out New Zealand.

Finally, I had to say goodbye to Sebastian today. Sebastian is my fish that I have to leave behind. He is now in the loving hands of my dear friend Eleonor and her family. Thanks Eleonor, for taking Sebastian in.

Till next time

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-10-13T16:14:00.000-07:00

What does Thanksgiving mean to me..................

1. It means I get my favourite food - HAM!!!

2. It means we get lots of other food too - turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pototoes, carrots, peas, etc.

3. It means all the family get together to enjoy this meal

4. It means our extended family - friends from the cruiseship - also come over for dinner

5. It means good times had by all

Check out the pictures below of dinner - so good!!!!!

We had a lovely day of getting together and chatting before my DH and I head off on Friday. To end the night we lounged on the couch and watched Ironman!!!

I know I ate way too much........... trouble is there is no time for exercising as we had brunch this morning with our good friends Erin and Todd and now we are heading out for another farewell Thanksgiving meal - this time, a deep-fried turkey. I know I will have to go for an extra long run tomorrow.

Till next time.

Day of Tears

2008-10-10T22:42:00.000-07:00

As expected today was a hard day......... it was my last day at Clipper Street and I had alot of 'Goodbyes' to give out.

It was lovely to get to say bye to those special customer's who I got to know real well. Some came in to the store just to say bye which was really sweet. Thanks Sharon, for the gift and the magazine to keep me out of trouble on the plane.

My boss Diane took me out for lunch today. We had a great time and nice long chat about lots of different things. She is such a sweet lady and after the first time I met her, back in 2005, I knew I wanted to work for her. It was really hard saying 'Goodbye' to Diane, there were lots of tears (not just from me).

As for my staff and friends at Clipper Street - the hardest people to say 'bye' to.

Heather and Cathy - thanks for calling and saying 'Goodbye' - you girls ROCK!!

Ange - thanks for the Nicholas Sparks book - I am truly going to miss our early morning chats. You are such a strong and wonderful person. I know I am going to see you Down Under soon enough.

Veronica - one of the most hardworking people I know. I'll miss your little visits throughout the day.

Steph - you are going to do an amazing job - Congratulations again on the promotion.

Allison, Danielle, Frances - you girls are AWESOME!!! Thank you for being a great addition to our team.

Maureen - thanks for dropping in and saying 'bye' today. It was great to see you and the kids one last time.

S.A - we were an great team in the good old days - I have missed working with you. Keep in touch my friend.

Allan - my 'little brother' - thanks for ALWAYS making work fun. And making me cry again when I checked my email.

And finally Little Sam................. oh my goodness. Did we let open the flood gates or what!!! That was a crying session that was 1 month in the waiting. Keep in touch little Sammy - I'm going to miss you and your gorgeous voice.

Clipper Street has given me LOTS of great memories that I will always have forever. What a great group of women that I got to work with each and every day. How lucky I was.

Till Next Time..............

Coquitlam Clipper Chick Party

2008-10-07T22:41:00.000-07:00

Last night Stephanie, the new Manager of Clipper Street in Coquitlam, hosted a going away party for me at her house. It was so good to get together with 'my girls' away from work.

It was really hard to tell my staff that I was leaving but they have all been very supportive and I am thankful for that. I am leaving them in fantastic hands!!

Here are just some photo's of our fun night.....

Here is the whole Coquitlam Clipper Street gang, we are just missing Sarah Anne :(

Thanks Steph, Sam, Ange, Allan, Mona, Allison, Danielle, Frances and Maureen for coming. It was great times.

A picture of some of the girls just chilling out and chatting.

My yummy cake that Frances made - so good!!

I'll miss you all girls. Keep in touch.

Till next time.............

Being Creative

2008-10-05T18:56:00.000-07:00

I have made a few more cards this week for upcoming events.

The first one is a 'Thank You' card that I have made for one of my boxing/Jiu Jitsu instructors. The card actually worked out really well and I love the colours that I have chosen too. The paper I used is from Kaiser Crafts - the same paper I have used in a previous post. I also used a stamp from Inkadinkadoo but realized after I had stamped the image that I needed to cut it out in an oval shape - a regular rectangular shape just wouldn't do. I bought one of the Marvy oval punches for this. I really like the look of this card - a little ribbon and a flower, done!!

We actually just got in the Nestabilities from Spellbinder on Friday at Clipper Street. Why did I bring these up - let me explain. Nestabilities work with the Cuttlebug machine (I just got one of these at work too). They are dies of different shapes the fit into each other and I have decided that I am going to buy the square scallop set and the rectangle scallop set - if there are any left at Clipper Street tomorrow. The great thing about these is that instead of buying one sized punch you can buy a whole set of dies - great for if you have a die cut machine.

Back to my cards. I made this card for my Dad's birthday which is on October 12th. I used this really cute stamp from Stampendous - I love this monkey, there are quite a few stamps with this monkey on it. I just water coloured the sky and grass with my watercolour brush - I don't usually like this look because I can never get it right - but I am quite pleased with how this turned out.

That's it for tonight........

Only 12 more sleeps to the move Down Under....

Till next time..........

Oprah - An Overwhelmed Mom's Mistake

2008-10-02T22:26:00.000-07:00

I am not a huge fan of Oprah but occaisonally I do like to watch the show - it always depends on what the topic is about.

Last night I was intrigued with the episode entitled, 'An Overwhelmed Mom's Mistake'. My first thought was - okay, something bad happened because this lady is a bad mother. After listening to her story I got a greater understanding of exactly what Mom's have to go through each and every day and how easily something bad can happen.

Now, I am not a Mother - and I like to think that if I do ever become a Mom I would be the best Mom ever. I would be able to hold down a job, raise a family, continue a loving relationship with my husband, etc. After listening to this ladies story it isn't so easy being 'Super Mom'.

Infact, the scary thing is that what happened to this Mom can happen to just about anybody - here is her story:

The Mom in this situation was an Assistant Principal at a school. It was the first day of school so she was busy preparing for that. She had two children to get ready for the day. Usually her husband takes her children to daycare but on this particular busy morning he had to go to the dentist so couldn't drop off the youngest child.

The Mom got the youngest child in her car and went to drop her off at daycare but arrived too early. She realized she had time to run an errand first before dropping her daughter off to daycare. She went to pick up some donuts from a bakery, for the staff at school ,and then headed off to school. During her day at school there were some new teachers so she talked about her two wonderful children to them and had a normal day. At the end of the school day one of the fellow teachers was walking past the Mom's car and to her horror saw the child sitting in the car - not moving. The child had been sitting in the car, in the heat for 9 hours. I don't think I need to go on here.

The scary thought is it can happen so easily. And it is not due to lack of caring for your child or being a bad parent - I think we often try to fit so much into day that is already busy that we overwhelm ourselves and something as tragic as the above story can happen.

I know we have all been in similar situations - for example it is not uncommon for me to drive home from work and totally not remember my drive home. I could be thinking of things that need to get done, or get into such a trance from the same drive that I do every single day that the car kind of leads me home. Another example is that just a couple of weeks ago I was going out to dinner with friends. The restaurant was on the same route that I take to work and I totally forgot to exit at my turn off because again, it was instinct to just continue driving on the road I was on.

Back to the Oprah story - I felt so bad for this lady. I am sure she and her husband will always have guilt over what happened to their child. I am sure it is something that they will both learn from - it is just a shame that a child had to lose their life to learn this lesson.

To read more about this story go here: http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20080902_tows_moms

A lesson that we can all learn from this story...................... don't overwhelm yourself, life is too precious to always be in a rush, stressed and not taking care of yourself. Look after yourself - your life is precious too.

Till next time.............

A Good Citizen

2008-09-29T18:07:00.000-07:00

This past weekend my DH and I witnessed a car accident. We were literally right behind the two cars that got hit in the middle of an intersection. My first thought was, 'We had the green light, how could this happen'. My second thought was, 'That could have been us if we were in front of those cars'.

I have been in only one car accident, and that was in Australia. I had a drunk driver decide to ram right into the back of my car while I was stopped at a red light - to make it that much better the guy that hit me didn't even have a valid license.

I have never seen a car accident before, though. It was actually really frightening to witness. Basically what had happened was that a young guy going North thought that he could make it through the intersection before the cars going West. Even though the cars going West had a green light, for some reason the young driver thought he was invincible and could make it through the intersection. This young driver obviously went through a red light!!

My DH and I did the right thing and gave our information to the people in the accident and told them that we witnessed everything. We then had to go to the police station and write a statement. You are probably wondering why do this? It is such a hassle, isn't it??

This is why we decided to give a statement: Put yourself in the situation of being involved in a car accident. Wouldn't you want somebody to come forward if they saw everything. In this day and age you can never just think your honest word would help you in situations like this. We were actually eager to give a statement as we did see EVERYTHING that took place and it was so clear that a red light was driven through that caused this accident.

Next time you witness an accident think about coming forward and giving a statement. Remember Karma - what goes around comes around. You may need a witness one day too.

Until next time.............

A couple of cards.........

2008-09-27T22:13:00.000-07:00

This morning I had some time to make a few cards. I have decided that I will make an effort to make two of each card that I design so that I always have a copy. I tried doing this a while ago but for some reason never actually followed through with it. Today I actually made doubles of the two cards I made - it is always good to have spares at home - you just never know when you will need them.

The first card is a thank you card I made using a stamp set from Inkadinkadoo. The stamp set is called Expressions and Frames and is one of their clear stamp sets. I love this set as you can change the greeting in the centre with a variety of frames. I coloured the stamp in with my new copic markers. These markers are awesome - one of my new favourite things. They don't leave any lines when you colour an image and they come in ALOT of colours and variations of colours. Again, I used my Fiskars threading water border punch - love this tool. The most exciting part of this card though, is the paper. We just got in a brand new paper line from Australia - Kaiser Craft!! The paper I chose was from Sublime - it is a mixture of black, white and a really cool shade of green. I also just checked out their website and found two stores in Australia that sells this paper - the stores are about 20 minutes from where I will be living in Australia so I am very excited about that.

The second card is also a thank you card. I got this really, really cute stamp set - again from Inkadinkadoo. How cute is this Chiahuahua - I used the copic markers to colour in the stamp image, except the red, I used a gelly pen. The paper I used was from Scenic Route Paper Company and it was from their Sonoma line. Another really cute card that didn't take too long to make. As you can see I had a fun morning card making.............. more to come.
Till next time...........

If you love LOVE STORIES................

2008-09-26T22:50:00.000-07:00

I am totally in love with the way Nicholas Spark's writes his novels. I have read quite a few of his books in the last few years and I never want them to end. Infact, I purposely make them last quite a while so that I can imagine my own ending and pro-long the love story I am reading.

Currently I am reading his book, 'Dear John'. I am down to the last 80 pages and the story is getting to the really good 'lovey dovey' part. The basis of this story is that John falls in love with a girl he meets while on leave from the Armed Forces. He has to leave her to go back to work but they remain a couple - as best they can - for another couple of years. They eventually break up, his father passes away, he comes back to town and they see each other again. I won't tell you what happens next. I can't tell you what happens next as that is the part I am up to in the book too.......... I can't wait to see if they fall in love again. Oh God I sound like a teenager - but I realy love these kinds of books.

I have also read, and totally recommend, the following books by Nicholas Sparks:

The Notebook (fantastic movie too)
Message In A Bottle
A Walk To Remember
Nights In Rodanthe
The Wedding (this has been my favourite so far)

They have just made Nights in Rodanthe into a movie too that came out this week. It stars Diane Lane (who I think is an amazing actress) and Richard Gere. I can't wait to see this movie.

So, girls, if you are up for a good love story, pick up a Nicholas Spark's novel.

Till next time........

Farewell Dinner with Clipper friends

2008-09-25T18:13:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday night I went out for dinner with some good friends from Clipper Street. We went to the Starlight Casino in Queensborough and went to Shang Restaurant. The food was really good. It is an Asian noodlehouse that has Ramen and Udon noodles for mains and lots of yummy appertizers.

Again, it was another fun night of eating good food and chatting away about anything and everything.

Below are a couple of photo's of the night.

The first is of me and my very good freind Sarah Anne. We worked together for quite a while and then she left me :( Work was never the same again. We worked really well together and I am going to miss her heaps but I know we will keep in touch once I have moved.

The next two pictures are of me and another great friend from work, Eleonor. We have so much fun at work - even though we work in two different locations. If ever you are having a bad day give this girl a call and she will have you in stitches!!

I now only have about two weeks of work left and three works of living in Canada............. I am sad but so excited at the same time.

Till next time.......

Nap Time......

2008-09-24T21:31:00.000-07:00

I don't know what happened to me this afternoon but I was exhausted by the time I got home from work today.

I was fine at work and then just before I left I started getting the sniffles - hate that as it is a sure sign that a cold is on the way.

Once I got home I got right into bed with a splitting headache and after eating some dinner slept from about 6pm - 8:30pm. I was so done................ achy, tired and just totally out of it.

My plan for tonight was to make a couple of cards (still a few more to make before I leave) with some new stamps and paper I just bought from Clipper Street. I just didn't have the energy to do anything tonight.

I'll post pictures of my night out yesterday with my Clipper Street friends another time - when I am not so tired.

Till then.............

A Big Fat Greek Wedding...........

2008-09-22T21:10:00.000-07:00

...............well kinda.

My DH and I headed over the border this weekend to Bellingham, Washington to attend a friends wedding. The wedding was on the Saturday but we decided to make a whole weekend of it and headed over on Friday and stayed till Sunday. It was a great little getaway for just the two of us to be together. We don't anticipate being able to do this for quite a while when we move to Australia.

The wedding took place in a Greek Orthodox Church and it was gorgeous. This was my first time attending a Greek wedding and there were so many traditions as part of the Ceremony. The great thing was that the bride and groom actually took the time to make hand outs to give to all the guests to explain the different parts of the service. Here is a brief explanation:

Part 1: Service of Betrothal

This is where they exchange rings and the Priest blesses the rings. Their 'sponsor' (Koumbaro) exchanges the rings between the couple three times.

Part 2: Ceremony of the Sacrament of Marriage

The Priest leads several prayers (yes, there were infact several prayers); He then joins the right hands of the bride and groom and they remain hand on hand throughout the remainder of the ceremony.

Part 3: The Crowning

The Bride and Groom are crowned with a flowered crown (Stefana), the crowns are joined with white ribbon. The crown symbolizes the glory and honour bestowed on them by God. The crown is then exchanged three times between their heads.

Part 4: The Common Cup

The priest give wine to the couple and they each drink from the cup three times.

Part 5: The Ceremonial Walk

The Priest then leads the couple around the alter three times - as a sign of their first steps together.

Part 6: The Removal of the Crowns

The Priest blesses the couple and removes the crowns and separates their previously joined hands. They then get to kiss.

This is quite a long ceremony but I just love all the tradition and the Church was just beautiful. I took a couple of photo's. See below.

The reception took place at the hotel we were staying in. The Hampton Inn was the name of the hotel and they have a Hall behind the hotel for receptions. My DH and I only knew the bride at this wedding so this was an opportunity for us to meet some new people too. We really lucked out as the people sitting at our table were all really nice. We had a great night, great food, great drinks and then called it a night. The best part was that neither of us had to drive home - just a quick walk to our hotel room.

Goodluck to your wonderful future together Cecelia and Philip.

Till next time.....

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

2008-09-17T22:19:00.001-07:00

Last night I went to Brown's for dinner with my friends from the Richmond Clipper Street store.

With only four weeks till we leave for Australia I am trying to get together with those people that I have become friends with before I leave. It seems silly to have to use leaving the country as an excuse to get together. I really wish that I had gone out with my 'girl' friends alot more while I was living here but for some reason I always seemed 'busy'.

There is something for everybody to ponder.......... always make time for yourself and for your friends. Life should never be too busy that you can't fit in quality time with those you love.

Anyways, we had an awesome night.

Thank You Eleonor for organising it - I am truly going to miss you. Eleonor and I had a great bonding moment when our wonderful boss sent us to Vegas for a scrapbooking convention. We have been good friends ever since. Check out her blog - she is an amazing stamper and has been my inspiration for getting into stamping.

Thanks also to Fleur, Noreen and Lyndsay for coming too. It was great to sit down with good friends, have good (giggly girl) conversation and great food too.

I have always had a soft spot for the Richmond store as this was my first store that I worked in and managed. It is a tiny store with alot of heart - although since working in the larger location I find Richmond to be a little claustrophobic for me now.

Below are some pictures from our night out.

Thanks girls for the great night....................

Till next time............

No Pain No Gain

2008-09-15T22:32:00.000-07:00

If you ever want to know what real physical pain feels like do 3 hours of crazy exercise and then you will know. I thought that after a while of doing boxing classes and jiu jitsu the pain would eventually go away and my body would get used to the constant torture. I now know that it isn't so.

Tonight I did my Boxing class - 1 1/2 hour class of non-stop body conditioning. Get a load of this:

1. Skipping for about 15 minutes (I don't mean Primary School 'skip for fun' kind of skipping either)
2. Circuit training - 3 cycles of different activities such as push ups, hand stands, speed bag, shadow boxing with weights, etc (we aren't having a friendly little picnic here)
3. Squats - try 150 of them
4. Lunges - again try 75 on each leg
5. Sit-ups with medicine ball - not for the faint hearted, another 100 here.

This is just part of what we did tonight. My body was aching so much during and after and then we still stayed for our Jiu Jitsu class too. I don't know how I lasted 3 hours of exercise but I did and I am so proud of myself for it.

The boxing gym I have been attending is Next Generation in Richmond. Mark, Jeff and Louis all help out at these boxing sessions and they are amazing. They are so patient with you but what I like best is that they are encouraging too. I know if it wasn't for them I would probably give up. Actually, I think the old Jo would have given up - I think there encouraging just makes me want to try harder.

Time to rest now.

Till next time...........

Jo Can Cook

2008-09-14T21:17:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know I am not a huge fan of the kitchen or cooking. It's not that I don't know how to cook - give me a recipe and I'll cook you a meal - it's just that I don't like to cook. I would much rather be scrapbooking, cardmaking, watching t.v, working out, etc - I could really go on here but I will stop.

For some reason, this morning when I got out of bed I felt the need to make my DH breakfast in bed. He cooks for us ALL the time and I felt it was about time that I returned the favour. Even though I wasn't eating it, I cooked him bacon, eggs and toast. Now, aren't I a good wifey!! I didn't even leave the kitchen in a mess!!

After breakfast I was feeling a bit daring and offered to cook dinner. I know, twice in one day, what is wrong with me!!!

My MIL and I had found a recipe about a month ago. While waiting for my DH at the dentist we were reading some magazines and I came across a recipe for Carraway Pork Piccata. While my MIL pretended to have a coughing attack, I carefully tore the recipe out of the dentist's magazine.

Basically the recipe is like a Pork Snitzel but it uses different ingredients like panko (a Japanese style bread crumb) and different herbs. Each piece of Pork is about 300 calories so we just had salad and corn with it to keep it a light meal.

Below is the recipe - try it home some time:

2 Eggs
1 1/4 cup Panko
1 tbsp caraway seeds
1 1/2 tsp dried parsley
6 centre-cut boneless pork loin chips - pounded to 1/4" thickness
2 tbsp canola oil

1. Whisk eggs together in a wide, shallow bowl
2. Stir together panko, caraway seeds and parsley in another wide, shallow bowl
3. Dip pork in egg then let excess drip off. Dredge in panko and set aside on a plate until ready to fry. Continue with rest of chops
4. In a non-stick pan heat 1tsp of oil over medium high heat. Pan fry 3-4 minutes on each side. continue to cook in batches until all pork is used. Keep cooked pork warm in a low oven.

They suggest to serve with a wedge of lemon. Kids may like ketchup with it.

Happy eating.......

Till next time................

Packing away craft supplies :(

2008-09-13T16:58:00.001-07:00

I got to play with my craft supplies one last time before the move to Australia. I know it seems silly - but I really didn't enjoy putting my stuff in boxes and knowing that I won't get to play with them in over a month.

I am taking most of my supplies with me - I wasn't about to leave everything behind. I have given some things away to friends. I managed to get most of my supplies, tools, etc in two boxes - which I think is very good.

I am not sure what the Scrapbooking stores will be like in Australia - another reason why I wanted to bring all my goodies with me. I still have a list of things I want to buy from

Clipper Street before I leave - I guess I will have to hide those in my luggage.

So my plan today was to make all the birthday cards, Congrat cards, etc that I needed over the next month so that they were ready ---- I just don't think I could bring myself to buying a greeting card. I haven't bought one in the last 4 years and I am not about to start now.

Today I am posting two of the cards I made. My DH and I are going to a wedding and an engagement party before we leave so I made a couple of cards for these occaisons.

We have been getting a lot of new paper at Clipper Street this week and one them was from S.EI. It is the new Windsor Collection and I used the matching flower embellishments too. I loved how these cards turned out. They were simple to put together but still look very elegant for a Wedding card and Engagement card.

I surprised myself and didn't use any stamps for these cards at all. The greeting is done by a rub-on. At Clipper Street we have a variey of rub ons greetings from Pebbles Inc. They come in three colours - white, black and brown. They also come in many different greetings - Happy Birthday , Congratulations, You're Invited, etc. If you don't live nearby you can also get these greetings at our online store - Clipperstreetonline.com. I love these rub-ons as they are an easy way to put a greeting on a card.

Hope you like the cards.

Till next time..............

Australia Bound

2008-09-12T22:01:00.000-07:00

Some very exciting news..... my DH and I have decided to move to Australia. I am originally from the Gold Coast and that is where we will be heading in October. I have loved living in Vancouver but I miss my family very much and am looking forward to seeing them.

We plan on buying our very first house together in Australia and look forward to the warmer weather and a new start. We are really lucky as we get two Summer's this year - although Summer in Australia will be very different to Summer in Canada.

Now the countdown down is on........ we leave October 17th and actually arrive in Australia on October 19th - Our 8 Year Anniversay. Good timing, eh.

Till next time...........

Birthday Wishes

2008-09-11T17:29:00.000-07:00

A big shout out to my niece Chloe who turned two today!!!

Can't wait to see you real soon!!

Also, Happy Birthday to my sister Michelle for tomorrow - she turned.............. don't worry I won't tell people how old you are.

Best Wishes to both of you on your special days.

September 11

2008-09-11T17:06:00.001-07:00

7 years ........... that is how long it has been since 9/11. Where were you on September 11th, 2001? What does this date mean to you?

The eerie thing is that I remember quite clearly were I was and what I was doing on this day - as if it were just yesterday.

In September 2001 I was working for Disney Cruise Line. We were just pulling in to Norfolk, Virginia for Drydock. I know my DH and I were really excited about Drydock as we were planning on driving to Washington to see the sights - it would be a totally new experience for both of us.

On the morning we arrived in Virginia we were all called in for an emergency meeting in the Kids play area. There were no guests on the ship, just crew. As I stepped into the Kids play area I saw my Manager's there watching one of the t.v's. They had the station on CNN which I found odd as we were not usually allowed to watch regular t.v in the Kids area. It was then that our Manager's explained what was going on and as they explained about the first plane going through the twin towers - we all watched in horror as the 2nd plane went through the twin towers too. It still brings tears to my eyes watching that and thinking that it was a blockbuster movie being filmed. Sadly it wasn't, it was actually happening and it was happening not that far away from where we were.

Drydock did not start of as much fun at all. The ship was in total lock down - nobody was allowed to leave and nobody was allowed to come on. Our drydock area was a known Navy base and could have been targeted. Infact, it felt like total anarchy as there was rumour going around that just being on the Disney ship was a target in itself - being that it is an 'All American' company. My DH called his family in Canada to make sure they knew we were okay. I know his friends were eager to get us home quickly but we couldn't leave the ship. I remember calling Mum and Dad in Australia to tell them not to worry - I ended up scaring them myself as the news hadn't even hit Australia at that point.

I think we were in lockdown on the ship for a few days before they started letting us off the ship and living a somewhat more normal existance. Needless to say, my DH and I decided not to venture out to Washington. We took in the sights of Norfolk which was more than enough. After about a week it was business as usual................

After 9/11 everything changed though. Leaving Orlando airport to head home there were armed police everywhere. Extra security was obvious and understandable but it was from that point on that I knew things would never be the same again.

For all those people who lost loved ones due to 9/11 - I am so very sorry. Such a horrible thing to have taken place - lives taken away because of what??

A Busy Weekend

2008-09-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

This weekend just flew by. We had lots planned over the weekend so I think that is why it went by so fast.

I was lucky enough to have Saturday, Sunday and Monday off - which was awesome.

On Saturday I went shopping with my MIL. We got a 40% off one item coupon for Old Navy (one of my favourite stores) so we went out to use it. I have been meaning to purchase new pants for a while now as I have lost a bit of weight and nothing is fitting right anymore. I found a great pair of pants that I thought I could wear for work - but the icing on the cake was that I think I confused the clerk and she gave me 40% off all my items. I ended up getting three pairs of pants for $50. I thought that was a steal of a deal - literally.

Saturday night was UFC 88!! One of my favourite fighters, Chuck Liddell was fighting that night and I was really looking forward to him knocking his opponent out. Unfortunately, that is not what happened. Please watch the video to see the shocking KNOCKOUT.

On Sunday, my DH and I went to training at the gym. We were grappling and sparring for about 2 hours and I was pooped at the end of it. It was an awesome workout though and I do feel like I am getting more and more stronger each day.

Finally Sunday night we went over to our friends, Juan and Mariyln for dinner. We used to work with Juan and Marilyn on Disney Cruise Line and they now live about 45 minutes away. It is nice to have good friends from our ship life living so close.

That was our weekend - as you can see I was tired and couldn't wait to crawl into bed Sunday night.

As for Monday - I am goodness - let's just say I was aching all day Tuesday. We did a boxing class and then went right into a Jiu Jitsu class on Monday night. I was totally done then.

Till next time......

Some cards to share.........

2008-09-05T09:33:00.001-07:00

Not the best photo's, but here are a couple of cards that I have made recently. I am always eager to play with my stamps and cardmaking but it is so hard to find the time sometimes. Here they are:

The first card, 'Congratulations', was made for a couple of friends who just opened a restaurant. One of my friends from work, Sam, suggested the new Basic Grey line, Offbeat. The actual paperI used is called Atypical and it has vegetables all over it in a kind of hip way. I just love this paper and the colours in it too and I paired it up with matching cardstock, brads and ribbon. Simple card that can be put together in record time - I should know, my DH gave me about 15 minutes to make it.

You are probably wondering, where does she get her ideas from. Well, I often go through magazines to get initial ideas but often I will look at something and then go in a totally different direction. The ideas truly are endless when it comes to card making.

The second card is for my dad for Father's Day. No, I am not late for Father's Day. In Australia we like to be different and actually celebrate Father's Day in September. I used some really cute paper that I had lying around the house. I can't remember which company made it, maybe Scenic Route??

Anyways, as you will probably notice I have been using a threading scallop punch alot in my cards. It is my new favourite tool - I think I may be using it too much!!! It is a punch from Fiskars and we sell it at Clipper Street and at Clipper Street Online. I bought the 'Father's Day' stamp from Clipper Street a little while ago. Comes in handy at least once a year.

Well, that was my creative moment from for this week. Wish I had more time to be creative though.

Till next time..............

Pleasantly Surprised

2008-09-03T22:43:00.000-07:00

I just watched the movie 'Georgia Rule' yesterday and loved it. What a great movie.

The biggest surprise for me in this movie was what a great actress Lyndsay Lohan is. She was amazing in this movie. I am not a big Lyndsay Lohan fan - I am not into these young actresses who think the world owes them something - but this girl can act.

Basically the story is about three generations of women - daughter, mother, grandmother - who have a strained relationship. L.L character is a chronic liar, her mother is an alcoholic and they do not get along. The grandmother and her mum - do not get along either. L.L character is sent to live with the grandmother - Georgia - and to learn all of Georgia's Rules.

There is obviously alot more to the storyline - but like I was saying L.L was just awesome. I remember reading in magazines all the drama she caused while filming this movie - but this girl has talent. No excuses for being a spoiled brat but she is lucky she has the talent to get her away with stuff.

This is a chick flick that I highly recommend. While I'm on the subject of great chick flicks, if you haven't seen it yet I encourage every woman to watch the tear jerker 'Terms of Endearment'. It was on the t.v the other night - what a great movie.

Till next time.............

PNE moment

2008-09-02T21:27:00.001-07:00

I just had to add these photo's from the PNE. Here is Bren, Cammy and I on our favourite ride. The one were we just couldn't stop laughing.

In the first photo you will notice little Cammy sitting in the middles of us. Imagine this ride going at full force and Cammy - who weighs next to nothing - being squashed into nothing. We all had the giggles the whole way through the ride.

In the second photo the lady who worked this ride actually told us to change seating arrangements so that Cammy wouldn't be squished again. I think this was a smart idea.

I have to say this was one of the funniest moments ever with these two little angels. What a great day out.

Thanks gir

2008-09-02T17:22:00.001-07:00

I don't know if I have mentioned before but my DH is an unreal cook. If it wasn't for him I think I would be living on Kraft Dinner!!!

I am one lucky lady as he can open up the cupboard or the fridge and come up with an amazing meal with what is in front of him. Now, if I opened up the cupboard or the fridge my next move went be calling Domino's and ordering a pizza.

Tonight was no exception for yummy meals. My DH had a pork roast sitting in the slow cooker all day and we were going to have pulled pork sandwiches. I came home from work and nobody was home and all I could smell was the roast cooking. It took ALOT of will power not to start chowing down on it.

Now I know it is hard to get a real grasp of how good this smelled but the next best thing is to take a picture of it so everybody can drool over what my man cooked. Doesn't it look good. I love how the photo even shows the steam coming out of the pot.

Well, needless to say dinner was delicious.

I've definetly got a keeper here.............I just wish all woman had men like my DH who were so willing to cook and not only that, so willing to cook really good meals.

till next time..............

Labor Day Weekend

2008-08-31T16:19:00.000-07:00

What does Labor Day Weekend mean to me................

1. 3 day weekend
2. Start of a new school year
3. Mall is crazy busy (thanks to school going back)
4. Time at home doing absolutely nothing

My DH and I have three days off together, which is great. We have no plans to go anywhere so we will be hanging around the house doing nothing. Some times you just need days like that.

Yesterday, Saturday, I slept in and went for a nice long walk around our neighbourhood. After that I just lounged around - we had an afternoon nap and then went out to Matsuyama for some yummy Japanese food. After dinner we walked up to the store to rent a DVD - there was nothing there that we really wanted to watch so we just walked home and watched some tube.

Usually, I would be the first to say 'What a waste of a day' or 'I should have done more that day'. To be honest, I did have those thoughts first thing in the morning and then my DH reminded me of actually how often we get to do this. The answer: Not very often. So then I didn't feel quite so bad. I enjoyed doing absolutely nothing.

This morning we woke up and already had plans to go to Browns for Brunch. I think I have already mentioned but this is a restaurant that just opened last week and that my DH's friends own. Brunch was great. My DH had a breakfast pizza that looked yummy and tasted just as good. It had egg, bacon, peppers and cheese on it. So good! I opted for the Breakfast Bun that had egg, bacon, cheese, lettuce and tomato and came with potatoes on the side. Even better and so filling. I couldn't eat it alll. Normally I would have forced the food down but I have learnt not to do that. If you live locally I recommend trying out Browns in Richmond. Great for brunch, lunch or dinner. (Did that sound like advertising or what!!!!) Seriuosly though, great food.

Time to go....

Till next time.....

Fun at the PNE

2008-08-26T22:25:00.001-07:00

I took Monday off from work so I could enjoy a day at the PNE with my DH, Mother In Law and my two neices. For those of you who do not know what the PNE is, here is a quick explanation. The Pacific National Exhibition takes place every Summer for two weeks, the last two weeks of August to be exact - just before kids go back to school. There are rides, animal exhibits and lots of really yummy food (which only means really bad food). They have musicians on throughout the day and in the evenings they have special concerts too.

My DH decided to volunteer me to go on all the rides with our neices and I am kinda glad he did. I had a blast pretending to be a child again. I felt bad as I didn't want to go on any rides that were too scary so my eldest neice, Bren, had to ride on her own a couple of times. The ride below is one of the ones she went on. At first it looked okay and then when I saw it go upside down and stay like thatI realized then that I defintely would not be going on this ride. I can do roller coasters with loops but rides were you stay upside down for the whole thing are definetly not my cup of tea. I passed on this one.

Bren's sister Cammy is much smaller and couldn't go on most of the rides that her sister could. We did find a ride that we all loved and that we could all go on together. Basically this rides goes really really fast and pushes everybody to one side of the seat. It reminded me of when I was younger and we would go for a drive with our parents with all the kids in the back seat and when my Dad turned a corner somebody would yell out 'Corners' and push into one corner of the car so we would squish that person. That pretty much sums up our favourite ride at the PNE. Unfortunately, I did not know that was how this ride went and we put poor little Cammy in the middle of us the first time round and I could not stop laughing throughout the whole ride as I watched Cammy get more and more squashed. Seriously, this kid is so tiny and here she is inbetween me and her older sister, getting the life squeezed out of her. She loved it though and that is all that matters.

There were the cutest farm animals at the PNE too. We saw a 10 week old calf. There were actually four calves and they were named John, George, Paul and Ringo. Very cute. There was also a horse feeding it's baby too. I love animals but it was so stinky in animal exhibit - I couldn't wait to get out of there.

My DH found these two pigeons at the fair too. He had to get a photo of the girl pigeon with it's head up the boy pigeons butt!! Only my hubby could spot something like this!!!

We all had a wonderful day but were exhausted by the end. Cammy and Bren fell asleep on the way home.

Till next time...........

I passed!!!

2008-08-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

I am now a yellow belt in Jiu Jitsu........... I am so over the moon about this accomplishment.

Back in May, when my DH and I started taking Jiu Jitsu I didn't know what to expect and if I would stick it out. I was only interested in trying to stay fit and healthy and the other positive was that this could be something that my DH and I could do together.

4 months later I am still loving it - infact it is the whole atmosphere in the Dojo that I love. We have an amazing instructor, Lori, we get to work with great people at each of our sessions and we have made some great friends there too. What more can I ask for. I love learning new things each time we go to class. It makes me feel empowered and capable of taking care of myself if I am ever put in a situation where I need to defend myself.

This past Sunday I had my belt test and I wasn't feeling too nervous but I always have doubts in my own capabilities and I felt like I wasn't doing as good as I should have been. I know I screwed up in one particular part of the test and I was kicking myself about it as it was so simple yet under pressure I always freak out. I knew I forgot to Kiai a few times (a Kiai is something you say on your initial distraction/hit to alarm your attacker and to attract help). Basically, I knew each time that I did something wrong or forgot to do something and it was frustrating me.

Anyways, to make a long story short I totally flipped out and thought I had failed and not done well enough so, in 'Jo' fashion, I cried. I just got really overwhelmed as I didn't want to look like a failure to myself and to my Sensei.

The Happy Ending is that I did pass and will now be a yellow belt in Jiu Jitsu - which is awesome as I didn't start doing Jiu Jitsu with the intention to go through the different belts. I am looking forward to learning totally different things now though.

Thank You Lori for being an awesome Sensei and putting up with me being a cry-baby.

Till next time............

The Mist!!!

2008-08-24T10:33:00.000-07:00

So, earlier this week I said to my DH that I wanted to do nothing but stay at home all night Saturday. I was so exhausted from having such late nights that I anticipated a night of doing nothing. The great thing is we did absolutely nothing and it was awesome.

We were just flicking through the channels and my DH came across the movie, The Mist. I remember seeing the shorts for this and thinking, I am never going to watch this. I DO NOT do scary movies. I am the type of person who puts myself in the situation of the movie and it freaks me out.

The Mist is a novel by Stephen King - need I say more. So, that I don't give away too much - basically there is this mist that is covering a town and bad things are happening. There are a bunch of people stuck inside of a store and they cannot leave the store or the 'mist' will get them. There is a bible-thumping freak, who eventually gets most of the people in the store thinking that this is the will of God, etc, etc, etc.

Basically, there cannot be a good ending to this movie - I figured that out early on in the film.

If you like scary movies and Stephen King novels then I recommend you rent it, or watch it on one of the movie channels like we did. I sat through the whole movie and only covered my eyes twice!!

till next time............

A Late Night..........

2008-08-22T17:28:00.000-07:00

My DH's best friends are opening up their own restaurant, hopefully this weekend. We went to check out the new location last night after Jiu Jitsu and it looks amazing.

The restaurant will be located in Richmond at Ironwood Plaza. It is called Brown's Social House - a great place to meet up with friends for a quick bite and a few drinks.

The really cool thing is that we have seen the whole transformation of what the store looked like empty to now. Everything about the restaurant looks awesome - the lighting, furniture, blinds, wall features, etc. They have both done a great job with the restaurant and I am so proud of them.

The food is really good too. My DH raves about the pizza there and I had a really good salad too.

If you are in town I recommend you try Brown's. There are other locations too in the Lower Mainland.

All this talk about food is getting me hungry. I think it's dinner time??

Till Next time.....

Poor Solly

2008-08-19T20:12:00.000-07:00

Solly is my Mother-in-law's cat and he is desparately missing her right now. Like I mentioned in a previous post she went to Ontario to see her daughter who has just had a baby. So now it is up to my DH and I to keep Solly company.

Solly is used to having somebody home with him all the time and unfortunatley we cannot stay with him all day as we have full-time jobs. He has been meowing more often these last couple of days and sleeping more too. I must say though, it has been rainy outside so that may be why he is prefering to nap than to play outside.

Below is a picture of Solly - isn't he cute. He isn't even a year old yet and has such a lovely temperant for a cat. Solly is so much fun to have around the house and is especially fun to watch after a bit of cat nip.

Don't worry Solly, mummy will be home soon.

Till next time...................

Exhaustion..................

2008-08-18T19:30:00.000-07:00

What a busy weekend .................... I feel so exhausted and the weird thing is that I was fine till I got home and did nothing for 30 minutes.

Saturday night we attended a wedding reception in Vancouver. It was a really nice night - a chance for us to dress up and have a good time and meet new people. The reception hall was beautiful and the wedding was for a couple from an East Indian and Chinese background. I was a little disappointed as I thought the bride would be wearing a Sari but she instead stuck with the traditional white dress - which was gorgeous by the way.

Sunday morning we got up extra early and dropped off my Mother-in-Law at the airport. Two Sunday's in a row of getting up before 7am - something is not right here!!

Sunday was also our pre-test for our Jiu Jitsu yellow belt. I was super nervous as expected but actually did okay - I just need to go over my theory a little more. Our actual belt test will be next Sunday.

Sunday afternoon we met up with two friends from our Jiu Jitsu class and played 18 holes of Golf at Country Meadows in Richmond. I did okay - my game is improving each game I play.

So, now you know why I am so tired. We had a full weekend and then by the time I had finished work on Monday I was done. We were going to go to Boxing and Jiu Jitsu that night but instead stayed home in bed and watched a movie. (We watched In Bruge with Collin Farrell, I quite enjoyed it)

Time to go rest now.........

Till next time.............

Last post for today

2008-08-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

I know you are probably thinking three posts in one day, what the hell?? I have neglected to blog much this week so I am making the most of it while I have time.

I just wanted to show you all a card I made this afternoon for a wedding reception my DH and I are attending tomorrow.

We just got in a brand new paper line at Clipper Street yesterday, from Basic Grey. I just had to use it to create this 'Congratulations' card. The line is called 'Offbeat' and I matched it up with white and brown Bazzill cardstock.

I got this card idea from my good friend Eleonor who is also a manager at Clipper Street. I changed it up slightly to make it my own. I bought this new wave punch that I had been anxious to use - I like the way it looks on the card. The greeting has been stamped on and I just added a bit of ribbon and a Prima flower - and there - card done!!

Okay, that's me for today...............

I'm an Aunty again..........

2008-08-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

My Sister-In-Law and her husband had their baby girl today. Lilliana was born in Ontario today and I cannot wait to see her. This is the third neice for my DH and he was so happy for his little sister.

My Mother-In-Law is flying out on Sunday to help with the first week and then hopefully they will all be moving back to Vancouver in September.

Just wanted to share the wonderful news with you all.

Till next time..........

A quick visit

2008-08-15T21:48:00.000-07:00

So last weekend my DH and I got to meet up with an old friend from our Cruise ship days.

Even though we only had an evening to spend with Neil it was so good to see him again. We had worked out it had been at least 4 years since we saw him last but it definetly didn't feel like that. We got into talking about what is going on with Disney (that's the cruise ship we used to work on). We also chatted about what the future holds for all of us and what plans Neil has next. Neil has been working for DCL for nearly 10 years - crazy, hey. I was there for 4 years and that was long enough for me. It's a great life on a cruiseship but can be hard to get back into reality after a while.

When working on the cruiseship everybody is like family because you don't have your real family with you. It was soooooooooo good to catch up with Neil. He was like having a brother on the ship for me. I like to think we were always there for each other and still are.

Miss you already Neil.

While waiting for Neil at the ferry terminal I got some pretty good photo's of the surrounding area. The ferry terminal was in a place called Horseshoe Bay which is basically on the way up to Whistler. It is a really quiet seaside town and so cute. There really isn't much there except ther ferry terminal and a few restaurants.

Enjoy the photo's.

Till next time.............

What's with all the fighting?

2008-08-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

What a busy weekend........... and it started with Fight Night on Saturday night. You are probably wondering what I mean when I say 'Fight Night'. No my DH and I do not attack each other and nor do we go out looking for a fight - although that could be fun (see what I have turned into since taking up Jiu Jitsu). Okay, to get to my point, Fight Night is when we have a bunch of friends over and we watch the UFC pay per view all together. It is a great night with friends and a good excuse to drink (for some) and have a few laughs.

This Saturday night my DH and I hosted Fight Night. Our first night hosting and it was alot of fun. We thought we were going to run out of food (oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the person hosting supplies dinner and snacks). The day started with only 12-15 people coming over but by the end of the day we were over 21 people which was AWESOME. Everyone had a good time, the fights were good and entertaining - I think it was a successful evening.

On Sunday we had open training at our Dojo but the person who was supposed to open the Dojo never showed up........... what to do??? We went home and beat the crap out of each other!!! I am not joking. We now have mouth guards and gloves - so we went outside and traded punches with each other. It was actually fun!!! We didn't hit each other too hard to cause any major injuries but hard enough to get the feel of it.

I'll let you know how the rest of our weekend was later...............

Till next time............

Happy Birthday Madison!

2008-08-06T22:50:00.000-07:00

I would like to wish my niece, Madison, a happy 4th birthday!! I have tried calling home a few times to wish her a Happy Birthday but haven't been able to actually speak to her yet. (By the way, thanks Mark for the 1:30am wake up call yesterday - have you not heard about something called 'time zones')

Yes, I know she looks quite young in this photo but this was taken back in 2005 when I was home last. Isn't she the cutest little thing............... I miss you so much Madi and can't wait to see you again.

Madison, I hope you had a wonderful birthday and got all that you wanted. Hopefully I will speak to you soon - I'll try to call when you are not napping.

Till next time................

A Baby is coming............. and a creative moment

2008-08-05T21:14:00.000-07:00

My Husband's youngest sister is about to give birth any moment now!! She was due on the 5th, I was hoping she would share a birthday with Madison on the 6th, but still nothing!!!

With a baby coming soon I see that as an opportunity to be creative and make a gift. A few months ago one of our very creative teacher's at Clipper Street came up with this gorgeous idea (as seen in the photo's to the right). I changed it up slightly to make it somewhat my own.

The project is an accordian book that comes in a box - this item can be purchased at Clipper Street - and is quite a popular item.

So, the idea is that you decorate the box with patterned paper and cardstock and then you decorate the accordian. With this being a baby book I have kept a page of the accordian for each of the months of the first year of the baby's life.

The paper's that I have used are from SEI - they came up with such a cute baby boy and baby girl line. I bought the corresponding rub-ons that go with this line and used them throughout the accordian.

Clipper Street is also selling a gorgeous baby boy and baby girl layout kit. Just check out Clipperstreetonline.com to see a picture of it!! So cute............makes me want to have a baby!!!

Till next time..........

An old friend.................

2008-08-05T17:11:00.001-07:00

I got some very exciting news today. A friend that my DH and I used to work with is coming to visit us and we haven't seen him in at least 4 years. What's the big deal................let me explain.

Back in 2000 I left Australia to go and work for Disney Cruise Line. I met my husband on my very first contract on the ship and that is also were we met our friend Neil. Neil was like having a brother on the ship - we hit it off straight away and became quite good friends with him. My memories of Neil is that he always made me laugh, he was hard to understand (he was from Scotland), and he always made the cruise ship feel like home whenever I returned for a new contract. He was kinda like a piece of the furniture as he has been there for a million years (maybe not that long but I bet he thinks it feels that long).

The most amazing part about working on the cruise ship was that we became such great friends with people from all over the world. For goodness sake, I'm Australian and my husband is Canadian. I can't think of any other job where you are working with people from one end of the world to the other.

Our friend Neil will be here this week for a wedding. This Sunday we will be meeting up with him for dinner and then he is gone on Monday. A quick visit, but I am just happy that we can meet up with him after all these years. Will keep you posted on our visit.

Till next time............

The Dark Knight

2008-08-02T09:52:00.000-07:00

After at least two attempts my DH and I went to see The Dark Knight yesterday. We caught a very early showing yesterday morning - 11:30am and there was only about 10 of us in the theatre which was great. We had tried to see the movie twice before but the line ups were ridiculous. So now I am going to review the movie from a 'girls' perspective. Here goes:

So is 'The Dark Knight' deserving of the hype that has been surrounding it - my answer 'yes'. It was definetly action-packed and the special effects were amazing. The movie was over 2 hours long - closer to 2 1/2 hours actually but it was non-stop throughout the whole movie. Usually I get bored with a long movie and can't wait for it to be over but not with this movie. There was full-on action throughout and it kept you wanting more - there were no long, drawn out parts at all. For those who haven't seen the movie they do introduce another Batman character about 3/4's into the film which is why you forget about how long the movie is as it captivates you yet again. I won't tell you who this character is just incase you want to see the movie for yourself.

I wasn't a big fan of the newer Batman movies. I was one of those few people who liked Tim Burton's version of the Batman movies. When the newer Batman movie came out with Christian Bale I wasn't too fussed and didn't really like him in the role. After watching The Dark Knight I soon changed my mind. Christian Bale is actually quite hot and looks good as Batman too. One of the first movies I ever saw Christian Bale in was American Psych - totally creeped me out and I thought he was such a pig - I obviously forgot he was just acting. Times have changed as like I said earlier, Christian Bale was one unreal Batman. Talking about actors, Maggie Gyllenhaal was amazing. Loved her in this role - much better than Katie Holmes. I am not a Katie Holmes hater but she seriously did not fit the role in the first Batman. Maggie was much better and more believable - and she also has a hot brother too.

Lastly, Heath Ledger................ what a rockstar!! (And I am not only saying that because he is a fellow Australian) He was AWESOME as the joker - a little creeper but that was the role he had to play. His character was the one that really kept me on the edge of my seat. All that talk about him getting an Oscar - I used to think that was silly and just a simpathy vote but after seeing the movie - I believe much deserving. What a shame he is gone........... he was such a talented guy - his last full movie role definetly shows how talented he was.

So, what do I give this movie. Definetly a thumb's up. Not for children at all - it is a really dark and scary movie, but a great movie for adults. I would wait and watch it without the crowds or do what we did and watch it early in the day.

Till next time....................

Some quick cards..........

2008-07-30T18:41:00.000-07:00

At Clipper Street, we have started getting some new product into the stores and it is one of the most exciting parts of my job, but also the hardest. Imagine seeing all this new stuff come into the store and you have to stop yourself from buying it all. That is what I have to do nearly every single day.

When I first started working at Clipper Street I am sure that 1/2 my paycheck would go right back to the company. After a while I realised that this just wasn't going to work out, actually it was my DH who basically said 'Stop spending money at Clipper Street'. Now I have learnt to buy supplies ONLY when I need them. I have actually done very well. I find that buying like this is better for me as I don't have too much paper laying around that I know I won't end up using.

So, back to some of that new paper we got in at work. We got the new Christmas and Valentine's line from American Crafts and it is gorgeous. I got a couple of sheets of the Christmas paper as it is very seasonal and may all be gone soon. As for the Valentine's line - well I bought the paper for a very girl birthday card. Soooooooooo cute!! Below is a Birthday card that I made as soon as I got home.

One of the patterned paper's I used had cupcakes all over it so I cut one out and I used white liquid applique on it. I know it is hard to see but basically the white liquid applique makes the icing on the cupcake look real.

The second patterned paper I used had polka dots all over it - as you can see. I love using polka dots - it is one of my favourite patterns to use.

This is a card that I made last week but hadn't posted yet.

I used Heidi Swapp paper, which I just loved. (There are those damn polka dots again).

I had bought the chick stamp a while ago, back in Easter time. I don't make Easter cards but loved the chick and thought I could use it for a birthday care - so I did. I just watercoloured him yellow. Isn't he cute - he looks like he is dancing.

To give the card a different look I used an inverted corner rounder on the first layer. These corner rounders are hard to find - I bought the last one from Clipper Street a while back and we haven't been able to re-stock them since.

Till next time.................

OUCH!!

2008-07-27T17:19:00.000-07:00

This morning we had a jiu jitsu training session at the dojo. My DH and I have been interested in learning how to grapple and take our training a little further. You may wonder why I would be interested in this. Well...................... I have now become a fan of the UFC and am intrigued at how they get out of submissions and how they take people down and, well just about everything. Like I have said before our Sensei is awesome, and even better then that she has shown us some cool grappling moves and today we learned some more. All Ihave to say is OUCH!!!

My arms have never been so bruised up before in my life. We were doing scissor sweeps and elevator sweeps - you probably don't know what that means but they were grappling techniques and they were so much fun to do. I was actually able to get my DH off of me a few times - which I thought was pretty good as he is much bigger than me.

Below are a few photo's of me. Enjoy.

Till Next time...........

What ever happened to having manners???

2008-07-24T17:13:00.000-07:00

One of the things I remember as a kid was being told to 'watch my manners'. Always use please and thank you. Be polite. Use common courtesy.
I sometimes think that people forgot about these simple things once they become adults. I know I try to remember my manners on a regular basis but I believe some people just don't think about it at all.

I am sure you are wondering what brought this topic on - I'll explain.

Today I was at work helping a customer and as I was cashing her out her cell phone rang. Instead of ignoring it or turning it off or even just excusing herself and answering the phone - she started a full blown conversation while I was ringing through her product. Not only that, she didn't stop talking once, I don't even know if she heard me say how much the items came to. She continued the conversation as she walked out the door - no 'thank you' - nothing. No acknowledgment that I had even helped her.

Now, I totally understand that if it was an important phone call that she would have to take it, but this was a casual call with a friend (I heard everything) and it could have waited.

I just don't get the urgency with phone calls. I know people who drop everything as soon as their cell phone rings.

What ever happened to the good old days - when there weren't any cell phones. Apparently back then there were no emergencies either.

Let's go back to simpler times................

Till next time....

G'Day

2008-07-21T22:36:00.000-07:00

I started writing this blog as a way for my family to keep in touch with what I am up to each day and also as a way to write how I am feeling.

I just wanted to say hello and thank you to all those people who have been reading my blog - from Australia to the Bahamas and even to South America - I never thought I would get this many people reading my blog - so thank you again.

This is truly awesome to me as I used to work on a Cruise Ship and still have friends from all over the world - this reminds of that time and I hope I can meet lots of wonderful new friends from all over the world again, through my blog.

Please feel free to leave comments - it would be great to get to know you all.

Till next time..........

Golfing..............

2008-07-20T17:54:00.001-07:00

What a beautiful day on the Lower Mainland. The sun was shining, there was a bit of a breeze - the perfect day for golf.

My DH and I had an early start at the driving range first and then headed off to Mylora in Richmond for a round of golf with some friends from our Jiu Jitsu class.

Now don't get any ideas - I am no professional. Again, this is something that I do to be active and it is a sport that my DH and I can do together. To be perfectly honest I suck at golf but I did have a few good hits every now and then.

I think the highlight of my day was watching a little squirral we made friends with try and find food to eat. He was really friendly and wanted to hang out with us. So cute!!

This afternoon I made a Congratulations card for some friends who just got married and we will be seeing them next weekend. Hope you like it.

I used a beautiful new Beach Wedding paper line from Creative Imaginations and also bazzill bling.

For the stamped greeting I heat embossed with gold.

Till next time....

Feist on Sesame Street

2008-07-18T19:42:00.000-07:00

Just another quick blog. I heard about this on the radio yesterday.

In August Feist will be appearing on Sesame Street's 39th Season premiere and will be performing a new version of her song, '1,2,3,4'. It is sooooo cute.

Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fciD_II7NI

I HATE traffic!!!!

2008-07-18T19:11:00.000-07:00

Now I know that 'hate' is not a very good word to use but seriously, enough already.

I already work a good 45 minutes away from home and can handle that but it is so annoying to just sit in traffic and not move anywhere for a good 30 minutes. That was my drive home today. For some reason it took about 40 just to get around a block - after that it was smooth sailing. It took me over 1 1/2 hours to get home tonight - UGH!!

While I'm complaining about the traffic I'll continue with some of the moron driver's out there too. I just love people who honk there horn when there clearly isn't anywhere anybody can go!! What is the point??? They think by honking their horn all the cars will magically disappear and Tinkerbell will come flying by to lead them to the front of the line of traffic!! (Sorry, I used to work for Disney AND I believe in fairies).

And, finally, I love those crazy people who think that if they drive really really close behind you that you will be there friend and get out of there way. I don't know about you but that only encourages me to drive slower and annoy them even more!!! As you can probably guess, I had one of those wankers behind me today too. But Karma did deal him a nice hand as at some point on the drive home he got stuck behind a bus and I passed him in no time!!

Now, you are probably all thinking, oh my gosh this girl gets so worked up about traffic. To be honest - I do. As I said earlier, I HATE traffic and I especially dislike stupid driver's who cause accidents.

And lastly, I will own up to the fact that one of my favourite radio stations to listen to is the traffic report on AM730-those from Vancouver will know what I am talking about.

Now for some more soothing stuff. To the right is a greeting card I made the other day. I find card making and creating very relaxing (helps after a day stuck in traffic).

All the supplies I have used I purchased at work at Clipper Street Scrapbook Company. We have brought in the cutest stamps with this little cat called Fluffles on them. The card says 'Happy Birthday .... or bust'.

The paper I used is from Around The Block and the cardstock is Bazzill. I used gel pens to colour the stamp and for the greeting Pebbles rub ons.

Till next time.

A break by the beach

2008-07-15T17:34:00.000-07:00

What an AWESOME weekend.

I often find that when you plan weekends nothing ever works out. Unplanned weekends are the best. This weekend was no exception.

We went to visit friends who have a Summer place at Point Roberts. Funny thing about Point Roberts is that it is part of the U.S.A but you can only get there thru Canada. It is a quiet little town with nothing much going on there. There are no big department stores, no Starbucks, no MacDonalds - this is why I like it so much. It is peaceful, quiet and such a relaxed place to spend a couple of days. The best part - it is only 20 minutes away from where we live but you would think it was further than that.

My DH and I were only going to stay one night with our friends. There house is right on the water and we were going to enjoy a delicous Mexican feast (thanks Erin) and spend time with friends chatting and chilling out.

We ended up staying two nights and then had to go back to reality on Monday. It was such a nice break from the hussle and bussle of city life. I have attached some photo's so that you can be jealous of our relaxing weekend. There is a great shot of Mount Baker, Washington.

Enjoy...........

Till next time.

Frustration..............

2008-07-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

A moment to vent............... why is that guy's lose weight so much faster than girls. It's not fair. I have been working my butt off by exercising and making sure I don't eat junk food and my weight has stayed the same, yet my DH's weight is dropping like crazy. AAARGH!! It is so frustrating.
I am basically living on fruit, yogurt and pita bread during the day. I haven't eaten chocolate in at least three weeks (and for those who know me - I LOVE my chocolate). As for exercising - I am doing some kind of exercise at least 5 times a week. Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing, going to the gym, even going for runs.
On the positive side of things:
1. I feel healthier
2. I have become more energetic and less lazy
3. My clothes are fitting a little better
4. I am no longer addicted to junk food!!
I will be patient and wait for more results..................
Thanks for letting me vent.

Till next time

Inspiration

2008-07-08T17:26:00.000-07:00

A day of Inspiration................

I went to my Monday Boxing class yesterday and was totally inspired by one of the girls in my class. I have never seen somebody (close up) that is so toned and had so much energy. This girls arms were AMAZING - it inspired me to work harder and get a body like that!!! One day.... let's not rush into these things. Boxing was so hard yesterday - the previous Monday it wasn't too bad and we got to beat up on our coach - which I loved!! Great for getting your frustrations out. Yesterday was intense. I dont' think I have ever sweated so much but it was such a great feeling.

This week at work, Clipper Street Scrapbook Company, we are having a BOGO sale on all our stamps. I have truly gotten into stamping over the last year and my stamp collection is growing slowly. We have such a variey of stamps at Clipper Street - so many varieties to be insprired by. I have already bought mine - I have left some for everybody else.

Till next time

A Lazy Sunday

2008-07-06T19:01:00.001-07:00

I love Sundays! Why, you may ask.....................

1. I get to sleep in.

2. It is the one and only day that I know my husband and I have off together so we alway do something together.

3. There is usually nothing ever planned on a Sunday - so I get to do nothing all day - except what I want to do.

Today was no exception. I got to sleep in till 10:30am - until my two neices came running in to the room to wake me up.

My husband and I went to a Jiu Jitsu training session - which was the only thing we had planned for the day - great to get a work out in.

I lazed around all afternoon and then when I felt like it I made some greeting cards. Why?? Just because.

I enjoy keeping my Sunday's chilled so that I am not too tired for work. If I haven't already mentioned I work for a scrapbook company that really helps and encourages my crafting addiction. I manage the Coquitlam store of Clipper Street Scrapbook Company. The best scrapbooking store in the lower mainland. (And I am not just saying that).

Below is a card that I made today. After long days at work I usually don't feel like being crafty but today I couldn't wait to make some cards with some new paper that I had just bought. Yeh, that's another thing - I love buying new scrapbook supplies too!! More on that next time.

For those in the know I used bazzill cardstock; Doodlebug paper, Inkadinkadoo stamp; and assorted ribobn.

Those three little words............

2008-07-05T18:06:00.000-07:00

Now, when I decided to move to Canada there was one main hesitation I had - and it wasn't the obvious of missing my family. That is a given........... of course I am going to miss them. The thing that concerned me the most was not seeing my nephews and neices grow up. For some reason I thought that they would forget who I am and not think about me. Well I was so wrong. My older nephews always want to talk to me on the phone - even at 10 and 8 years old they miss me and always ask when I will be coming home.

Since moving to Canada both my sister's have had babies that I haven't even met yet - two little girls that I cannot wait to meet. This is where my concern came true - these two little angels won't know who I am and will probably take a while to warm up to me when I get to meet them. On a positive side of things - my twin sister's little girl will see pictures of me and think it is her Mommy - it's going to be funny to see what happens when we are both in the same room as her. Poor little thing will be thinking she is seeing double!!

So anyways, I had the best phonecall yesterday. My brother in Australia called me to see how I was doing and we chatted on the phone for a while. During the conversation my 6 year old nephew wanted to say hi to me. I haven't seen Andre' in nearly three years and I feel like I have kinda missed seeing him grow up. When I left he was quiet and shy and now he always wants to have long conversations and tell me about school and what he has been up to.

My brother had told him that it was time to say goodbye to me and before passing the phone to his dad he said those magical three words that always get to me. Without any prompting and in his sweet voice he said 'I Love You'. I just melted and got a little teary............as I tend to do.

I love you too, Andre'

Oh the people you will see...........

2008-07-03T17:54:00.000-07:00

I had the day off from work yesterday so we spent the day with the in-laws. We went on an adventure to Vancouver via the sky train. Oh the people that you see............. I love people watching and travelling on the sky train is the ultimate in people watching. The way home was much more entertaining. Some guy thought that it would be okay to bring his pet dog on the sky train even though there are signs that clearly state 'No animals allowed'. Not only did he bring his dog but while people were standing on the sky train his dog had a seat (actually he was sitting on two seats because he was a big dog). Did I miss something - since when did priority for seats on buses and trains change to dogs - I always thought the elderly had first dibs - My bad I guess!!

We were on our way to Scienceworld to see an exhibit on the music of Disney! My husband and I used to work for Disney - that is where we met - so we have this fascination for everything Disney. Plus I had never been to Scienceworld so it was awesome to see something new too. For all those parents out there - Scienceworld is a great place to spend the day with you kids during Summer Vacation. So much for children to see and do. They even have an Imax theatre - we went to the Dinosaur show at the Imax - it was actually really interesting.

Last night after we got back from Scienceworld we went to our Jiu Jitsu class. My husband and I attend West Coast Jiu Jitsu in Richmond. Our Sensei is awesome and oh so patient. I have been attending West Coast JJ since May and I love it. It is great exercise and for all you women out there it is great for self defence. We go two times a week - and sometimes three times a week.

On that note - I'm outta here as I have to get ready for Jiu Jitsu. Till next time.

Happy Belated Canada Day

2008-07-02T17:57:00.000-07:00

Happy Belated Canada Day to everybody. I had the day off from work so we decided to head down to Steveston for the Salmon Festival. My first time attending it and boy was there alot of people down there. We got there just in time for the start of the parade which was awesome. My favourite part was being pushed around by the people who believed that they had priority in standing directly in front of me so that I couldn't take any photo's. Gotta love that. I just don't understand why some people just don't have common sense and manners. You people know who you are!!

After the parade we headed over to our friends place for their annual Canada Day gathering. It was a baby haven. There were babies just about everywhere you turned and if not a baby a pregnant woman was in sight. It was actually quite funny. I did get my hands on the cutest little boy, Mason. He was only one month old and so sweet. He was sleeping the whole time I had him and I think I held him for about an hour - yes I am a baby hog. Once I get them I don't want to give them back.

Well gotta go. I am heading off to my Jiu Jitsu class - yes I do the Jiu Jitsu - or my husband likes to call it 'Jo Jitsu'.

Bye for now............

Scienceworld