Sunday, May 24, 2009

The gorgeous girls


It's Sunday night and another week has flown by. Last week the teacher's strike lost me my Tuesday, Wednesday after reading at school with G I slipped over to Rainesforest at Indooroopilly for a massage (divine!) but got caught amongst the flood frenzy on the way home (slow trip with lots of turning around due to roads closed thanks to water, downed power lines, a a landslide....it really was all happening!) and Thursday/Friday were work days at Red Hill. Where does time fly when you are running in what feels like ever decreasing circles?
In amongst all of that, I managed to snap the pic at left on Friday morning. I think it should be titled GORGEOUS GIRLS as it is our Precious Princess G giving an 'I WUV YOU GRANDMA!' hug to my darling Mum. Precious.
So what if I didn't get all I needed to done. There's always another week.
But if nothing else last week, I captured a special moment between TWO GORGEOUS GIRLS and I really think that is all that matters :) Love you gorgeous girls xx

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

It's been raining....and raining....and raining some more!

The Mirrabooka Road bridge at the corner of Acacia Drive in Ashgrove.

I approached it from the other side earlier in the afternoon, having no idea that Ithaca Creek has burst its banks. I was rather surprised - to say the least - to find the road under and water powering over the bridge.






More and more and more water at Ashgrove. Since when do we live in a riverfront suburb?












Looking down towards Woolcock Park at Red Hill. I should have guessed something was not right by the quantity of water pump hoses that were running out into the gutter from homes.

Again, I drove down Kenwyn Road having NO idea about the creek level and came to a screeching halt when I saw the road under water in front of me.





Ithaca Creek taking over Kenwyn Road at Red Hill. Lots and lots and lots of water.

We have had 410 mm (or 41cm or 16.5 inches) of rain in about 48 hours. More is forecast for tomorrow. Means it'll be another day where Georgia wears her gumboots to school!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

The CEO

Here's a pic of our CEO snapped this afternoon. CEO may mean Chief Executive Officer to the rest of the world. To us, it is Chief of ETHAN Operations :)

We procured him some more pieces of his favourite Thomas train set today so he spent the afternoon on his knees at the train table putting the new acquisitions through their paces.

Trains are a very serious business when you are two!

(Please see the separate post below about Miss G)

Ta Dah! It's a photo of Miss G



If only I'd captured the wider than wide watermelon sized smile that was on Georgia's face the nanosecond BEFORE I snapped this picture. She was grinning for me and saying 'Ta Dah!' with her arms flung wide.

After we'd returned home from a lovely dinner at the home of friends tonight, I asked her to smile for me so I could take a photo of her pretty pussy cat shirt that Anne and Al sent her. So here is the result.

Anne and Al live in Virginia Beach, USA. That would be 'Birginia Beach.....YES!' if you ask Georgia.

Anne and Al came to visit us in October/November 2007 and we had a lovely time showing them the sights of sunny Brisbane, we all went to Tasmania for a wonderful holiday, they had some respite from the mayhem that is our little quartet during a mini-break in Sydney and the Blue Mountains and then back to Brisbane for more fun before heading home for Thanksgiving.

The world financial crisis squished our plans to catch up this year but fingers crossed for a rendezvous in 2010.

If only the distance across the Pacific were shorter or the planes flew faster!

Friday, May 15, 2009

Murphy's Law

I was feeling pretty chirpy this morning. Despite Ethan's early morning awakening (WHY? He doesn't have to wake early so WHY get up when it is DARK?????), I'd folded nearly two baskets of clean washing, unpacked the dishwasher, had breakfast.....all was on track to get Luke to work, Georgia to school, me to Red Hill and Ethan into the arms of Grandma and Grandpa. I should have known that Murphy's Law was about to strike.

I ripped up the pathology form from the Doctor for tests when Georgia's tummy was out of whack. I put the pathology collection container in the bathroom cupboard and thought hopefully we won't need one of those again. And Georgia's tummy must have heard me. Within 30 minutes after that, her tummy bug had returned to haunt us all and she was very uncomfortable and upset.

Thankfully I was able to get an appointment at our local Doctor's surgery all but immediately and now she's on yet another course of Flagyl to try and eliminate whatever bug is 'bugging' (sorry, couldn't ignore that pun!) her. Sigh. I made it to Red Hill at 11.30am. Not bad for a 9am start :(

Bouquets in all of this must go to Grandma and Grandpa. Ethan was in Grandpa's safe hands throughout while they did their weekly shopping tour, Grandma was with me and the very unhappy and upset Georgia. After the Doctor's visit she told me to go off to Red Hill and she'd take care of Georgia. When I got home, the house was tidied, the children were snoozing, lunch had been made, the pegboard in the garage fixed, the grass attended to and they stayed long enough to look after the munchkins so I could have a little afternoon mini-nap. Truly amazing.

What would our little quartet do without their support? I think we'd fall about in screaming heaps and be dragged off my men in white coats driving a padded van.

Here's hoping for a lovely weekend ahead - filled with sunshine and good health!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

What is love?

What constitutes love differs greatly from person to person. Last night for me, it meant my darling husband making an emergency dash to Baskin-Robbins for a tub of chocolate peanut butter icecream - just for me. He also sat down with me and we watched TV - something we rarely get a chance to do.

Since Tuesday 5 May, the day after my last blog post, at least one member of our little family, or more, has been sick. There's been vomiting (mostly Ethan but Georgia too), colds (Ethan, Georgia and me), awful coughing (mostly Ethan but Georgia too) and other winter type ill bugs. And it is not even winter yet but I'm already saying roll on Spring. That doesn't bode well for the usual bug season we have in July/August and early September. Sigh.

So Ethan was home from daycare last week, Georgia went to school today (Thursday) for the first time this week and by yesterday, I had completely and utterly lost it. I'm not nurse material on a good day but day 9 of everything being out of whack was too much for me.

I managed to get steak and sausages on the table for dinner last night. Luke rustled up the salad. And as soon as dinner was over, Luke sent me away from the munchkins for an hour so I could wind down. And after they'd gone to bed, he went and bought me ice-cream. It was just what I needed. What a man!

Fingers crossed for good health for one and all.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Hello!

Thanks to all who have reminded me that my 'New Zealand in review' series is still awaiting completion. Yes, fully intend to get it finished.....hopefully before Christmas! Who knows which Christmas but I'm sure I'll get there at some point :)

It's been a topsy turvy week. Georgia still seems to have a bit of a tummy bug which stresses me. She's been to the Doctor and we are still awaiting the results of pathology tests. Hopefully that'll yield the answer for what has been irritating her gut since early April. There was a meeting between us and the school + advisors about Georgia's term 1 achievements and issues. There were some positive outcomes from that + the usual stress which I go through when faced with the Principal, Deputy, Disability Advisor, Guidance Officer and class teacher across the table. What a lineup.

After nearly a month of 'holiday', Ethan was back to daycare at Newmarket on Monday and Wednesday and I was back at the admin desk at Red Hill kindy on Thursday and Friday mornings. Luke had the week off so he enjoyed being in holiday mode while the rest of us hit the ground running.

AND, it was Grandma's birthday on Friday. She turned 21 again. Well 21 and another half century and a bit but who is counting? Mum, Dad, Margaret and I had a lovely celebratory lunch on Friday at Gambaro's Seafood Restaurant. Mum said she very much enjoyed her day so that is really all that matters.....Birthday Girl happy, everyone happy!

I've also swung into fundraising mode this week. The Fair at Georgia's school is in September so I'm doing my 'usual' art union and silent auction prize gathering for them. Takes time, can cause stress but if I can make a positive financial contribution like I did for the Red Hill Fair in 2007 and 2008 then it is so, so worth it.

Dreamworld




Being a public holiday here today, we decided to do something rather unusual for us...we went to a theme park, Dreamworld - http://www.dreamworld.com.au/content/drw_2008_home.asp?
We thought we might only stay for a few hours but 5 hours later after both of the munchkins had missed their traditional 'weekend' noon snooze, we headed for home. A marvellous time was had by all but particularly Georgia. She loved it.
The first pic is her on the 'Big Red Car' ride in Wiggles world. You can see the movement in her hand as she was doing the hand actions to whatever song was playing when I took the pic. Then to the tea cup ride that both Georgia and Ethan loved. Onto the wildlife area where there were snakes, emus, koalas, kangaroos, a cassowary and all sorts of animals to see. Then we found the 'vintage cars'. They run on rails to the kids can steer while an adult operates the stop/go pedal. Great fun! Unfortunately the pic I took of Ethan 'driving' is blurry but he thought the cars were great.
We also found a steam train (a different steam train to the one in NZ Georgia told us) plus lots of rides in Nickelodeon Central - the flying dogs, merry-go-round, flying planes, Spongebob Flypants (where Luke and G lay on their tummy and were swung around!), the Ball House AND the Swinger Zinger (aka a chair-o-plane). Georgia's smile while she was on the chair-o-plane was fabulous. She LOOOOOOOOOOOOVED it. Not just loved it but LOOOOOOOOOOOOVED it.
We were really impressed at her sentence construction this afternoon/evening. She was retelling us about we'd done at Dreamworld and we were amazed at the details she was verbalising and how she was sequentially explaining it all. Yay George!
Ethan managed a 30 minute power nap in the car on the way home but otherwise was sleep free. A very big day for a 2-1/2 year old little man but he coped really well.