In the wee hours of the morning

It just came to me,can you believe it, my morning usually starts at 5.40am with the sound of the alarm, this morning was different, I woke before the alarm by the sound of one word. That one word just rang out in my head and woke me up, my eyes popped open.........that's it, that's my word, I couldn't believe it my word woke me up, so without any further ado my word for 2009 is...... Courage. It baffled me all morning, and as I drove to work trying to work out why this word came to me. For every meaning I came up with I couldn't make it suit what I wanted it to,that is until I got to work and looked up the meaning and here it is

Courage(noun)

Quality of being brave

the ability to face danger, difficulty, uncertainty, or pain without being overcome by fear or being deflected from a chosen course of action

That's Perfect exactly what I wanted, I was so excited. This year I am going to have the courage to change my ways, I am always the softie, always giving in (even if I don't want to) and feeling guilty afterwards..........not this year, nope If I can't do or I'm not free, than that's it.......no guilt's, no, well, maybe because you want to.......So its the courage I need to pull this off. (wish me luck) So welcome 2009 and welcome Courage.

Blog..Blog...What Blog??

OK girls I hear you..............Promise to myself this year.............Blog more often!!(think I can do it) So as you may or may not have read, Briohny filled you all in about how I have been on the Greek Isles with my lovely Pete feeding me grapes and wine, Oh and naked of course (lol), Where is that bloody lotto win anyway surely it must be my turn. (dreams are free) Oh and thanks for the tip because seriously I think November and December had fallen off my calendar because they are just gone, no, really, I can't find them anywhere, however we are still in January so I'm safe there. OK,OK for those that I have not caught up with for a while I will go back a little, November and December were both whirlwind months as I am sure everyone felt a little the same way. In November my beautiful Girl turned 18, had her formal and graduated from year 12, extremely proud mum, She is a very talented and inspirational person, love her enormously.

December, well with Christmas parties, shopping and a little more shopping a wonderful day spent with Heidi Swapp thrown in there, catch ups with work and than Christmas...........Christmas was to be a little different for us this year and by no means our traditional year, It was the first Christmas ever I spent away from Zoe and Annika as they went to Melbourne, so we had our family Christmas day at Narrell's on the 21st Dec, a wonderful BBQ feast, we than headed for Port Macquarie, in the wee hours of Christmas eve morning arriving there around lunch time. set up camp (as we camped in Pete's mums back yard) once all done we relaxed for a while, popped over to see my mum and sister as she drove down from Brissie as well, than on to Karen's and back home to a reasonably early evening, woke Christmas morning to open the pressies, bacon and eggs for breakfast, relaxed a little more, went to Pete's aunty's for lunch with all the family, home again for a little afternoon nap.mmmm love naps, than on to mums and the beach for Christmas dinner, chicken, champagne and prawns on the beach whilst watching the kids swim and play was a superb and totally relaxing way to top the day off, absolutely loved it. The next couple of days were filled with a little shopping but mostly the beach, I got to stay a great night at Karen's and yes we drank a little tooo much and there were lots of Christmas cheer that evening. We went on to Cessnock for the next couple of days staying with our old neighbours and visiting wonderful friends. Justin Makes mean homemade pizza's...........yummmo. Than back to Port, packed up the tent and car, beach and headed home for a relatively quiet New Years Eve, which was spent at home with family and friends.

The rest of our holidays were spent cleaning out cupboards, cleaning windows, painting and catching up on all the things you just don't have time to do the rest of the year, we did however put in some little day trips to the beach at Southport, the Botanic gardens and we went to underwater world. It was a great feeling to have everything back in some sort of order and to feel a sense of clean and fresh to start out the new year.

12th of January marked my first day back at work for 2009, and yes I struggled with the concept. I love being at home, I loved the idea of cleaning and throwing (and still needed a little more time) I loved the sound of no alarm, I loved my house always clean and tidy.......oh and the list could go on. If only I could stay at home and still get paid the same.........wouldn't that be great, although I couldn't do it all the time as it would send my around the twist, I like getting out. I like the stimulation, I like the friendships that you make and I like the thought of learning.
So after a week of settling back in (and yes it took a week) I am ready for another year.

Oh and I almost forgot to share my news, my gorgeous daughter got an OP 8 and got accepted and got her first choice at Griffith university to a double degree, Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Business.

And yep I am the proudest mum in the whole wide world.

I am still deciding on my word for this year, I will have it in the next couple of days, so I will share than. So until then, stay safe, stay beautiful and stay tuned.

Looking forward to a wonderful 2009


Lorna
XXX

Crop Royale - weekend In Sydney

Well what a weekend, an absolutely wonderful weekend and a must to put on the calender for next year. I will start at the beginning shall I!! hang on, has everyone got a cup of tea or coffee you will need it!! Friday night went to the airport with miss Debs (chauffeur driven by my lovely Pete and son JJ) The flight was delayed by about 45 mins, however we made the most of it had some dinner and Debs tried to pick up a guy....... yep any guy (no seriously she was a little picky and couldn't find one) finally it was time to board and a little goodbye kiss to the fam and we were off, it was a good flight and going over Sydney by night was quite spectacular, (and there was no camera in sight, I told Debbie to keep hers down lol) The wonderful Miss Lorraine B (Her Royal Majesty's Tours) was there to greet us with the lovely Miss Loretta herself. Chatting all the way back to Lorraine's and when we got there we were given red wine and got stuck in to helping her pack kits, yep we had a late one. Up early Sat morning got ready, packed the car and off we go for a great day...yee hah and long awaited for I might add, we got to the location of Crop Royale itself, a little shop called Fantasia, and when we walked in I was gobsmacked the shop was huge and so full of wonderful goodies it took awhile for me to lift my jaw. What a wonderful start to the day, huge shop, lovely staff and great people, all waiting to start a scrap filled day. There were four lovely girls from Maitland in there coordinated printed T's looking like little princess with all the added bling. So, Set up begun, registration begun and then classes, the classes were amazing, and the kits were amazing so much product (luckily I took an extra suitcase) we were sooo spoilt, and let me say the teachers were exhilarating and we managed some serious scrapping, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, supper were all scrumptous and delightful. Lollies on every table chocolate bars thrown at you.... so much food, let me tell you, we rolled out of there. Prizes, prizes and more prizes Lorraine and the girls were giving these away prizes every 1/2 hour all day and all night (thanks to the wonderful sponsors) I was very tired come 11pm and my brain wasn't functioning very well, but still on a high from a tremendous day, packed the car back up and headed back to Lorraine's where the four of us sat and chatted about the day over a coffee on the back veranda. Sunday morning Lorraine woke us at about 9.30 and her wonderful hubby had cooked everyone bacon and eggs on the BBQ for breakfast, and after breakfast he took us for a spin in the Mazda convertible (check out the photo,I look good in it, don't I)I told you we were spoilt.Then we met up with a few of the girls and headed to Yum Char, we were the dumb char's at the yum char's and ate ourselves silly..... Now did I happen to mention to anyone that I was and the ultimate word here being was on a diet!!! after lunch it was off to Bondi Beach for the arvo................ WOW and guess who we had photo's with, Yep you guessed it the guys from Bondi Rescue itself, yummmo (and yep Miss Debs tried to take on of them home too) Traffic on the way back leaving Bondi was horrendous but as always and never failing Miss Debs made sure the trip home was entertaining to say the least, It started Lorraine mentioning how lovely these purple flowers were on the medium strip, to Me mentioning that Pete would love a cutting of them to grow in the garden. Well Miss Debs was off, out of the car over to the medium strip, bum in the air and taking pieces of this plant and back in the car, than she proceeded to do it again this time she thought she would give the car beside us some cuttings as well and yep you guessed it, it was a car full of guys and she was even giving them planting and growing tips (seriously do you really think they were interested) shortly after that she just strolled up to some random guy walking along minding his own business and pulled on his towel, he jumped 20 feet and than she told hime she just needed to light her smoke(it was a bit windy), must have said a few other words as he walked off with the biggest smile on his face, as if that was the best think that had happened to him that day. In to the city to drop off the Miss Loretta as she was spending Sunday night in the city and doing some sight seeing on Monday before going home on Monday night, than onwards back to the lovely Miss Lorraines where darling hubby had made a gergeous roast for dinner.... yum yum, played with computer and than a must do early evening. Monday up early and the very lovely herself Miss Sherry took us to the airport, so then it was back home to tell all, of the wonderful adventures and people met. The absolute biggest biggest huggs and kisses to the wonderful Baite family for the wonderful hospitality we were shown thank you for sharing your family and opening your doors for us, my home is always open for you guys and thank you for showing me that there are still beautiful people out there, and to the lovely Miss Loretta its was so nice to meet you and I can't wait to catch up again...........Bring on Crop Royale 2009........Yooh Hooooo!!!! Both Miss Debs and I are there with bells on.

Its about time

I know its been a long time a very long time since I last posted, I have been soo busy, with work, family trying to catch up with friends and going away. So whats been happening? I have been away on a great weekend to Port Macaque catching up with family and friends. It was so great to catch up with you Karen, and thanks for letting us stay as always:) and can't wait till Christmas when I spend a week down there! Have been catching up with friends for lunch, and even a great crop day, it was so nice to see Briohny again and share some great laughs and whats even better is that we don't have to keep on swimming anymore - lol and it was good to see Peta and Jan too:) I taught my last two classes at Scrapbook Princess and thought they went really well and would just like to say thank you to the girls for sharing my last class and making it special. As sadly this month I resigned from teaching at Scrapbook Princess - time was a big factor......... well lack of it anyway. Thanks to the push from Jan I booked into the wonderful day with Heidi Swapp and just can't wait. Can't wait to be taught by her, can't wait to sit with the wonderful Jan and Ruth, Debbie and Lorraine and Donna. Great friends in the scrapping world make a big difference and these gals make you realise that they are still out there. (wish you were coming Briohny Have just had a great weekend in Sydney, but I'm leaving that for a separate post and will add some photos. My sister has been doing some huge reno's at her house so I spent a morning with her picking tiles, its always nice spending time (when I have time) with my sister and I wish we had more times together sometimes. its really funny because we either see each other all the time or very rarely. she really is a special person and I am so proud of all the hard work she puts in around her home, being a single mum can be so stressful sometimes...... but she pulls it off rather well. Pete and I celebrated our 8th year anniversary together, wow now that eight years have flown, and I still love him more everyday, and I am so grateful and lucky to have someone like him in my life. Ok now this is all getting a little mushy so i'll just leave it there!! and don't forget to come back soon for my weekend away on Sydney post and photo's

Ciao

WOW has it been that long?

Where on earth did April go? I must have missed that month, I haven't bloged since March.. wot the? Now I have to really think of what I have been up to. I will start with the long weekend just passed as that is still fresh in my mind. Saturday just bummed around did some washing, went and got my hair cut and yep had time to do some scrapping, Sunday met up with the girls I used to work @ the club with and had lunch on the pier in Eagle St, at the Boardwalk cafe what a wonderful day and the weather was grand, sooo nice to catch up with them all,You ladies rock i am so glad we have decided to do it every second month. Sunday we went on a bush walk at Mt Cooth tha and than on the way home we stoped at New Farm and caught the ferry accross to Southbank had some lunch and than sat in the park with my brother and his friends, another splendid day. The Anzac weekend another long weekend that went by way to fast, My friend Debs came and stayed as it has been way too long since we caught up (wow I have a lot of ways don't I) We went to scrap day at the princess and had a great day, some great laughs and Yay Deb's got some layouts done after months of not scrapping. Sunday went to some markets and some other scrap shops and than Debs went home, it was so good to catch up after a long time. Now apart from that I really can't remeber what else I did.... I really need to update more regulary now that age is setting in.(lol) I hope everyone else enjoyed thier labour day weekend. So for now its see you all later