Happy Birthday Taylor-Marie

Monday 27th June, 2011

Today is Taylor-Marie's 7th birthday.  I want to wish you a very happy day and hope all your hopes and dreams are fulfilled during the year.

Jodi rang a few times during the day wanting some ideas on how to decorate her birthday cake that she is making.  She decided to make a Ladybug cake for her.  Tonight a few of her friends and family are going to the Somerset Hotel for dinner. 

Unfortunately Troy is away for work so he won't be able to make it.  We had a nice meal with great company.

Jodi did a great job making Taylor's cake.  It turned out fantastic!  She should have had it yesterday when all her friends were at her birthday party.  It would have been a hit.

From the Lens.............Taylor 'planking' on a chair

Off To A Party and The Circus

Sunday 26th June, 2011

Wow, I cannot believe I last blogged on Tuesday.  Well nothing much has happened in my life Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  I was busy making Taylor her photo book for her birthday.  She had asked me to make her one on Good Friday and wanted it for Easter.  I promised that I would make her one for her birthday instead and she was happy with that.

She said she wanted Bratz at the front and Barbie at the back.  With me doing the cleaning it was put on the back burner and realising her birthday was only a few days away I thought I had better get stuck into it.  So my days were taken up doing that, hence no time for blogging.

Friday I went into town and met Tony.  I thought I had better buy her a birthday present as well, just in case I didn't get her book finished in time.  I rang Jodi for some ideas and she said she wanted Harumika, some clothes designing toy.

Saturday afternoon we went and picked up Katie.  Friday night she went to the Noarlunga Cinemas for a Movie/Disco night.  She said that she had a great time.  Before we left I had already prepared dinner (Shepherd's Pie).  We came home and I still had some final bits and pieces to do on Taylor's book to finish it off.

Katie and Tony watched "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" which left me to do what I needed to do after dinner.  After the movie she wanted me to play with her on the computer, which we did.

Sunday morning I was up early as I still had to print the pages of Taylor's book.  Tony bound them for me.   We had to leave around 11.45 to go to Taylor's party.  She was having her party at the Plaster Fun House at Paddy's Market, Parafield.  Around 8 of her friends from school were invited along with another 6 of her friends and family.

They could each choose a plaster ornament to paint.  When they finished painting the party hostess sprinkled it with glitter and put on a few accessories.  Most of the kids chose dogs to do, Katie chose a butterfly, some chose a dolphin and one girl chose a bear.  They all did a great job with them.

When they finished the painting they sat down and enjoyed eating pizzas, fairy bread and cupcakes.  Taylor had an icecream cake for her birthday cake, which was provided by the Fun House.

We had to leave soon after Taylor cut her cake as we were heading off to the Great Moscow Circus.  Katie took her piece of icecream cake, put it in a bowl and ate it on the way to the circus.

We had the best seats sitting right in the front row.  The Circus was great, thoroughly enjoyable.  Katie said she liked it better than Cirque du Soleil.  It finished around 5.15pm and so we called in home to pick up Katie's things and then went and dropped her off to Kahra.  She decided on the way that she was hungry so we ended up meeting them at Hungry Jacks. 

After they left Tony and I went and had coffee at Vili's Cafe, called into his work to pick up his coat, which he left there on Friday.  We got home just before 9.30pm.  What a busy, fun filled and enjoyable day we'd had.

From the Lens...............

Winter Solstice

Tuesday 21st June, 2011

I think today is the shortest day of the year.  Yaayyy that means the days will be getting longer and what does that mean.........spring time will soon be here.

I know last night when I went to the shops at quarter to five I had to have the lights on in the car.  It was quite dark then and I don't think it was because it was overcast.

Hmmm maybe it was yesterday that was the shortest day.  Tonight at 4.45pm it was still quite bright outside.  Whatever day it was, it doesn't matter, all I know is that daylight will be getting longer.

Today was spent doing some laundry, playing on the computer and tonight watching some TV.

No Energy Today

Monday 20th June, 2011

I have no energy today.  It seems to be the same, every Monday, after we have Katie for the weekend.  I  thinks it's because you give her so much of your attention, and we are on the go practically the whole time, Monday becomes a rest day.

They are predicting some storms for later on this evening.  They say we are in for some wild weather, like 90kmh winds and some heavy rain.  Not looking forward to that.

I have to go out and do some shopping later on and meet Tony, so I hope I don't get caught up in this weather.  I hate driving in heavy rain.

A Busy Weekend With Katie

Sunday 19th June, 2011

It wasn't hard getting back into the routine again with having Katie.  Saturday morning she slept in until after 10.00am.  When she woke up we had breakfast, got ourselves ready and went and did some shopping. 

With my cleaning, I gave Kahra most of the clothes I had here for her.  They were either too small or she wouldn't wear them.  Kahra has friends who have girls younger than Katie and they willingly take the cast off clothes.

Our first stop was the Village.  She wanted to go and have a look at some sneakers that she had seen there previously.  They still had them and at the price of $99 she knew not to ask for them.  Instead, we went into Big W, as she had seen some there.  I ended up buying her a pair, but they were to stay at our place.

We then went out to Elizabeth.  Here I got her a top and some pants.  I also wanted to get myself a jacket, but soon gave up looking for one as she was complaining her legs were hurting.  Funny how they don't hurt when we look for clothes for her.

After having a coffee we went to get something for dinner and came home.  I ended up cooking pasta for dinner which she enjoyed.

Saturday night we played a few games of Uno, played on the computer for a while, watched a bit of TV and ended up in bed about 10.30pm.

Katie's tooth also had become quite loose.  She was eager for it to come out and kept playing with it with her tongue. 

On Sunday morning she asked to go to the Zoo.  That was fine with us.  Seeing we are all members of the Zoo Society it doesn't cost us anything to go.  The weather didn't look too bad, the sun was shining and there was lots of blue sky.

I didn't want to go in too early, as if we finished at the Zoo early, we would have to find something else to do with her.  Our first stop was to see the Pandas.  Geez they have grown, especially the male, Wang Wang.  They were quite active, as at 2.30pm they were closing the exhibit for an hour.  I don't know what for, maybe to feed them.

Our next stop was at the pelicans.  It was feeding time and the keeper let the kids throw the fish to them.  Ooohhh what a smell.  Katie smelled like fish but she loved throwing the fish for the pelicans.  Their huge bills didn't miss catching too many of them.

After going to the toilets to wash her hands and get rid of the smell we headed for the lion enclosure.  It must have been close to feeding time for them as well as they were prowling around their cages.

Tony and her went into the nocturnal house.  I was on the phone to Kahra arranging a meeting place and time to drop Katie off.  When they came out she wanted me to go in and see the bats and bilbys.

We didn't get around to see the monkeys or the orangatans or the tigers.  That's for next time.  That's the beauty of being members, we can come and go as often as we please.  It is much cheaper to be members than paying to get into the Zoo each time we go.  We can also go to any of the Zoos in Australia for free and also to some overseas ones.
  
We saw the giraffes, wombats, otters, hippos, lemurs, red pandas and Katie and Tony went into the snake house.  That is one place I refuse to go into.  While they went in there I went and got some coffee for Tony and I and Katie wanted some hot chips.  It had also started to rain.

The time was getting on so when we finished our coffee and chips we thought we may as well go.  By now the rain was coming down harder.  We had to call into Tony's work so that Katie could change into her clothes for home.  She wanted to wear what I bought for her on the Saturday, but she knows that they stay at my place and if she wears them before she goes home, she has to change.

Darren came to pick her up.  She will be back with us again next Saturday as she has Taylor's birthday party to go to on Sunday.

A Shuffle Makes For A Win

Friday 17th June, 2011

Today I have my nail appointment and then it's off to meet Tony and go and pick up Katie.  I must be getting used to the cold weather, if it weren't for the wind, today would be almost 'mild'.  It is supposed to get to 16 degrees with some showers.

We picked up Katie around 5.00pm and she couldn't wait to tell me her exciting news.  At school they had been running a Christie's Got Talent, along the lines of Australia's Got Talent.  They had auditions, semi finals and today was the final.

She and four of her school friends, Maddie, Connor, Jayden and Marcel formed a group and called themselves the "Five Awesome Shufflers".   There were several acts in the final and the voting was done by the kids at school and also a panel of judges.

Well guess what?  They WON!!!!!  She was sooooo excited telling us, so I can imagine what she was like when they announced her group as the winners.  They received a medal and a certificate.

She first learnt to shuffle from Tori.  By watching Tori do it she picked it up pretty quickly and seeing she has had no formal lessons she is quite good at it.  To me, trying to explain it, it's moving your feet, in a shuffling movement, real fast to dance/pop music.

She has worn out a few pair of shoes doing it also.  She calls them "shuffling shoes", but they are only slipon canvas type shoes.  Luckily they aren't too expensive.

Last night while doing some grocery shopping she was trying to teach me some shuffling in the aisles.  My shuffling is nothing like hers.  We even had an audience, some other shoppers stopped to watch us.  I think Tony was just a bit embarrassed........hahahaha.

From the Lens........I wanna do some shuff-ell-ing

Those Phone Calls Have Started Again

Thursday 16th June, 2011

I finished off the laundry today and even managed to get some of it dried outside.  The temperature was rather cool even though the sun was shining and it was quite windy. Good drying weather!

During the day guess who I got another phone call from?  A wretched call centre in India.  This time I didn't have an infection in my computer, instead it was showing up on their end that I had a lot of yellow triangles. 
Bwahahahahaha......what's that supposed to mean?

I was told that many people do not understand computers and so he went on to explain to me that when you connect your computer to the internet it also connects to millions of computers around the world.  This is where these yellow triangles come from, someone puts them on your computer much like a virus.  They can also be red crosses but my computer didn't have those.

He told me that I didn't have to do anything, that he could fix my problem from his end.  He  asked if the computer was switched on.  I told him that it wasn't (it was).  He said to go and turn it on and he would wait.  I put the phone down and went off and hung out a load of washing, mopped the kitchen and bathroom floors.  I was gone for maybe 20 minutes and when I came back to the phone he had gone.  So much for waiting....lol

I did expect another phone call from them but none was forthcoming.  They are the biggest PITA!!!

Halfway Through June

Wednesday 15th June, 2011

Today's date is the halfway mark for the month of June. This month is flying by.  It was a bit of a slow start for me this morning but I managed to get a start on the laundry.  Got a few loads washed and the rest can be done tomorrow.

Tori rang.  She is having a birthday in a few weeks and for her birthday she wanted to know if I could get her a ticket to the Bliss n Esso concert on Friday night.

I went on the net but there were no more tickets available.  Tori was disappointed and so I suggested she either go to the Entertainment Centre early on Friday in case they release some more tickets or from a friend, who doesn't want the tickets or can't go.

About an hour later she rang me, all excited.  One of her friends did have tickets but didn't want to go to the concert and said that Tori could have them.  She was so happy.  I hope she gets the tickets from her friend and enjoys the concert.

Rang Katie tonight to see if she was going to come and stay for the weekend.  She said she was.  It has been five weeks since we last saw her.  We have missed her!

I Am At A Loss With Nothing To Do

Tuesday 14th June, 2011

How nice it was to get up this morning knowing that all the cleaning had been finsihed.  All I had to do was sort out the spare bedroom and study. When Tony shampooed those floors, everything standing on the floor had been put onto the bed.

As we had to take the carpet shampooer back to Woolworths I went into town and picked Tony up.  We dropped off the shampooer, did some shopping, and then went to fill up the water bottles.

On Monday I took out the filters from the vacuum cleaner and washed them.  They were taking ages to dry so Tony suggested I take them into work and he put them in front of the heaters at work and try to dry them out. 

By the time we got home it was time to sit down and watch Australia's Got Talent.  I am loving this show this year, there are so many talented performers, it's gonna be hard to pick a winner.

We Have Finally Finished

Monday 13th June, 2011

Today is a Public Holiday in South Australia in recognition of the Queen's Birthday.  I don't know why we celebrate it today when her actual birthday is in April.

Well today is the day we finish our spring cleaning.  Tony is shampooing the carpets.  I can't believe I started this cleaning some four weeks ago, and I never believed we would ever get to this day.  It seemed to take forever.

For those who didn't know I had done it wouldn't notice anything different.....the house looks the same.   I know that it is clean as it has a freshness about it and looks and feels much cleaner.

Our next project..........clean out the garage.  That will be in a few weeks though as the next few weekends we have other things to do.

From the Lens............

The End Is In Sight

Sunday 12th June, 2011

Well today is the penultimate day of all this cleaning.  Well, maybe not.  I told Tony that the last four weeks have just been a practise and I'll get stuck into it on Tuesday.  You should have seen the look on his face.....bwahahahahaha.
 
Today he shampooed all the mats and then did the dining room chairs, lounge suite and chairs, study chairs and the computer chair.  It took him most of the day to do that.

While he was doing that I went through and dusted, cleaned the bathroom and toilet and gave the carpet a quick going over.

Tonight we took the last of the rubbish into work and dropped off the final bag into the charity bin.

From the Lens.........

Much More Spring In My Step

Saturday 11th June, 2011


This morning when I awoke there was much more spring in my step.  I knew that the end to this cleaning caper was nigh and I just wanted to get stuck into it, to get it finished.

Firstly, we tackled the laundry.  What I thought would only take a couple of hours turned into nearly all day.  In the end I finished it off by myself as Tony wanted to shampoo the car seats and floors in the car.  I must say, they look brand new again.

While he was doing the walls and ceiling in the laundry I finished off the lounge, dining and kitchen.  Wow! something seems to be missing.  Oh! that's right, it's all the mess that was in there.

Now all that's left to be done is to shampoo the mats, chairs, lounge and carpet. 

Busy As A Bee!

Friday 10th June, 2011

I must have been too busy yesterday because I forgot to blog.  I did get the windows washed inside and out in the kitchen, family and dining room and when Tony came home we hung the pictures and when the curtains were washed we put them back up.

Around 10.00pm we took a trip to the Salvation Army charity shop and dropped off some more of our unwanted bits and pieces.  We couldn't put it in the bin as some of it was glass and would've broken as it dropped into the bin. 

I couldn't believe it, there were two girls there going through the bins.  One actually got inside one of them.  They had a trailer hooked up to their car and had it filled with items that had been left by other people.  We wondered whether our items would have been taken by them as well.

Today I made a start on getting the kitchen, family and dining rooms in order.  It took me most of the day and I still didn't get finished when I had to stop and go and meet Tony at the Village.  We were going to hire a Britex carpet shamp0o machine for the weekend. 

Woolworths at the Village didn't have the upholstery brush attachment with theirs.  We knew that Woolies at Northpark did, so we went there to get the machine.  Loaded it into the car, did some shopping and then went to the Hampstead Hotel for dinner.

When we came home I didn't fancy doing any more cleaning.  I'd had enough!  Tomorrow is another day!

Is That Light Shining For Me?

Wednesday 8th June, 2011

Oh God! walking out into the family room/lounge room this morning made me feel like wanting to go back to bed and stay there all day.  There wasn't much I could do until Tony came home and washed the ceiling and walls for me.

I quickly snapped out of the going back to bed thought and decided to make a start on the laundry.  When Tony rang me, he could tell I was getting fed up, so he suggested I take a break, go into town and pick him up from work.

I loaded up the car with more bags for the charity bin and went in and met Tony.  We called in and did some shopping, had Barnacle Bill's for tea, dropped off the bags and headed for Bunnings.  I wanted a shelf for the display cabinet's bottom cabinet.

We got there about 5 to 7 only to be told they were closing.  During the winter months they are only open until 7.00pm Sunday to Wednesday and Thursday to Saturday until 9.00pm.  The lady asked us if we knew what we wanted and when we said we did she let us go in.

We found some shelving but had to have it cut to the size we wanted.  It is a darker wood than the cabinet but seeing it can't be seen I decided to go with it, I wanted a shelf.  We can always change it when we see some shelving closer to the colour to that of the cabinet.

Why didn't we think of putting a shelf in there before?  It looks so much better, and my dishes are not piled on top of one another like before.  At least I will be able to get to them without the risk of breaking anything.

Tony washed the ceiling and walls, vacuumed the curtains, all ready for me to wash the windows tomorrow.  I am just starting to get a bit excited as I can see a glimmer of light shining at the end of the tunnel.  Yippeeeee!!!

Plodding On

Tuesday 7th June, 2011

I'm still plodding on.  I just want my house back to normal and not the mess that it is in.  I can't see how people can live in messy houses like someone I know (no names mentioned).  It is alright for a couple of days but to live in it day after day........ugh!!! 

I got the display cabinets emptied, cleaned and washed all the glasses and ornaments.  When Tony came home he cleaned the oven and washed the ceilings and walls in the kitchen and dining room area.

I can't see this cleaning being finished by Friday.  As Monday is a public holiday here, Tony said it was alright to have the carpet steam cleaner for the extra day if need be.  I think we are going to need it.

A New Week

Monday 6th June, 2011

Well, I wonder what exciting things today will bring.  Oh, that's right more cleaning.  Hopefully this will be the last week of the 'spring' cleaning.

I managed to get the ironing done today, more washing, cleaned the DVD cabinets, finished up the spare bedroom and sorted through some stuff in the family room. 

I didn't go shopping tonight, thought I would use some of the food we have got in the pantry and fridge, so tonight I made a tuna mornay.

When Tony came home, and after dinner, he cleaned the hotplates and we cleaned out the fridge.  Seeing I do that regularly throughout the year it wasn't too bad.  He was going to wash the ceilings and walls in the kitchen, but it was getting too late, so we're leaving that until tomorrow night.

Can I Just Stay in Bed?

Sunday 5th June, 2011

You have no idea how much I just wanted to rollover in bed this morning and go back to sleep.  Instead I got up, Tony helped me fold some laundry, we cleaned up the kitchen benches and started to empty out the pantry.

Oh dear, you just don't realise what you have in there.  Everything seems to get shoved to the back and when you look at it there is food stuffs in there with expiry dates dating back to 2004.  We threw out bags and bags of food, half empty bottles of sauces, oils and packet jellies, puddings and such. 

While doing that Tori and her friend Daniel, came over.  Lucky they did, as they took a whole lot of food (not expired) home with them.  I also found a box of glasses and so Daniel was quite happy to have them as he is sharing a house with a mate.

After they left we got back into it.  From the pantry we moved to the cupboards.  Seeing we had only done the cupboards about a year ago, I didn't think we would have much to throw out.  How wrong was I!  We got a box full of gear plus a garbag.  Tori and Daniel left too early....lol.

By the time we were finished Tony and I were both exhausted.  As it was getting close close to dinner time we called it a day and spent the night relaxing, watching TV.