Daisy Hill

Haircut Story Number 7,859.

2011-10-05T17:48:00.005+10:00

My main object in writing this is to change the look of my Blog page for when I log on each day to see what you are all up to. Even if it's only me that sees it, it was getting a little boring. So this post is really about having a change of scenery :)

I thought I would tell you that I just gave myself a haircut. (Cutting edge news, this.)

Of course I always give myself a bit of a clip 'n chop around the front of my head, (where I can easily reach), in between visits to my chosen (no complete disasters yet) hairdresser - who does actually get a little snippy (soo glad I could use that word there), on occasion about my DIY attitude. But when your hair grows this quickly and a hairdresser visit costs $40.. she's learned to live with it.

(I asked a friend where she gets her hair cut. She always looks lovely, and I thought that surely I could find somewhere cheaper. She pays $120! Sigh.)

Anyway, this time I thought that I would try doing over my whole head. My method for cutting the back and other parts I couldn't see was just to kind of grope around and cut anything that seemed a little long or thick. I amused myself occasionally by wondering if Neil would notice. (If you know Neil then you are probably smiling at the very idea too :) Occasionally I would start day-dreaming, and suddenly notice that the bathroom sink was getting very full of hair. It's almost addictive once you start..

It's not a complete disaster. Perhaps a little 'Meg Ryan'-short-and-uneven in (most) places. (I wish!) I've had worse. And - I saved $40 :)

How Nino Became an Aussie

2011-08-30T13:37:00.005+10:00

(This is another of Uncle Doug's stories, taken from his life story writings. He was about twelve at the time.)

How Nino became an Aussie -

Kojanup is a typical friendly small town about two hundred kilometres South of the West Australian capital of Perth. The entire area is very suitable for sheep farming, however clearing the land of the heavy timber is necessary, and while modern methods with large machinery make it a fairly easy task, it was not so just after the Second World War.

The year of 1947 saw me living with my father in the small Perth suburb of East Cannington, enrolled in the little local school. My parents were recently divorced; another casualty of the war and my sister Patricia lived with my mother in Darwin NT.

The house we lived in was located close to the railway station and had belonged to my grandfather, who had passed away about two years earlier.

The kids at the E.Cannington School were a happy friendly group, while the two teachers did a great job with a class of about fifty kids each. My teacher was the headmaster Charles Biford, who ran his large class of three standards very well.

While I got on well with all the other kids, including the girls, my best mate was Malcolm who lived only about two hundred metres away from our home, and we enjoyed many happy hours, playing cricket, football, riding our bikes and giving the girls a little attention.

Mal’s parents owned a large, mainly uncleared sheep property not too far out of Kojanup and while they lived in E. Cannington, their two eldest boys, Bert and Alf lived in a typical bush hut on the farm. The two parents would travel to their property on a regular basis at least every month. Malcolm and I looked forward to going with them during some school holidays and helped where we could.

Both of the elder boys worked at various bush jobs, shearing, yard building, mustering, droving and anything else that came up. In between those seasonal jobs they worked hard clearing and preparing the farm for a growing herd of sheep.

A young Italian was employed to help with the many farm duties; Nino was a bright young man with a sunny disposition and was a quick learner. Since coming to our country as a prisoner of war only a few years earlier he had been sent to work on farming properties, like many other POW’s.

After the war those POW’s were required to be sent home despite the fact that many desired to stay. Nino at the age of seventeen was drafted into the Army, sent to North Africa and captured by the Australians shortly after, then sent to WA, where he eventually discovered a love for this large free land. Like many of his countrymen Nino went bush, with the help of sympathetic Aussie farmers when the authorities looked for him to send him back to Italy.

That was how the young man came to work with the two brothers in the beautiful Kojanup area.

Now both Alf and Bert, being genuine Aussie Bushies, were addicted to yarns, stories and practical jokes, while poor Nino in his youth and innocence was often the victim of their good natured pranks.

One day after a particularly hard week of tree felling using a mobile circular power saw, the three of them were enjoying a billy of tea, a good yarn, and the inevitable roll your own cigarette.

Young Nino, who had noticed that both Alf and Bert were minus an odd finger or two, asked how come?

Of course missing digits were fairly common among men who worked with razor sharp axes and uncovered circular saws.

Alf rose to the challenge and with a pained expression on a very solemn face, reluctantly told the following story:

“Well it’s like this Nino, you know that we are working hard to get the place going properly and we get very short of money to buy things we need. And well, when we get desperate for food, tobacco and the odd bottle of beer or rum we have to do something desperate, not very nice and a little painful.”

Nino came right in, thinking things like highway hold-ups and bank robbery or even worse crimes. “What for you do for money?” He fearfully asked.

Without a trace of humour crossing his stony face Alf told the story. “Nino I will tell you the truth if you promise not to tell anyone, it must remain a secret to the three of us only”. The young Italian crossed himself and swore he would never tell even under torture.

Alf was mightily impressed by the loyalty of their employee, and went straight to the story.

“Well mate it’s like this”, and picking up his razor sharp axe, he spread his fingers on a tree trunk, and made the motion of chopping.

Poor young Nino was horrified. “What for you chop finger off”. He cried in alarm.

Not a flicker of shame crossed Alf’s stony bearded face. “ We get good money from insurance company, enough to keep us going six months for just one finger“.

Nino believed the story and admired the strength and dedication of Alf and Bert even though it was terrible to contemplate. Another hard week went by and one day, after eating their lunchtime Vegemite and Golden Syrup sandwiches, Bert brought up the fact that they were running short of supplies, and really would have to make a trip to town.

“Yair that’s right we are nearly out of tucker and tobacco, and I sure would go for a nice cool beer or a nip or two of rum after a hard day,” Alf said, looking directly at his brother, who came out with, “Well that’s true enough, we are nearly out of all supplies and we should go to town for more. But what can we use for money? The Bank has been sending us very dirty letters asking to have our overdraft cut down. I can’t see us getting through until our wool cheque comes in about another two months or so at least. Unless”. And he looked hard and expectantly at Alf, who said very softly.

“So it has come to that again”. And reaching for his axe started to hone an already sharp edge.

Nino understood or rather misunderstood Alf’s intention and horrified, cried out “Oh no you poor boys please no”. He appealed and tears streamed down his compassionate face when he looked at the grim, determined pair. “Which one this time?” looking at them both with eyes like saucers.

“Nino you are a very good friend of ours and we both think of you as a brother, but look at our hands, Bert has three fingers missing and I have two and a half gone. Now it is your turn to help my little brother.” Alf smiled at the young lad grimly.

With both of those fine actors looking at him, Nino suddenly got the idea and intent. The young Italian was fast in making his move to get away, but Burt was like a striking black snake, and wrapped his long arms and legs about the lad.

Nino fought like a banshee to avoid a terrible mutilation, he screamed and swore in Italian, English, Australian and a mixture of all three and then some. He punched, scratched, kicked like a wild brumby and bit like a crocodile. All to no avail as Burt using all his great strength and skills as an unbeaten grass fighter, pinned the lad with a neberwazzi, the special hold used by gun shearers to overcome the greatly feared huge feral rams, and nearly everything else that walks, runs or crawls.

Alf had picked up a strong whippy green stick, like the old teachers cane, and while hiding it behind his back, picked up his razor sharp axe, and made sure the struggling Nino got a good look at what he held.

“Quickly now stretch his hand onto the log, it doesn’t matter if he wont stop struggling, if we get more than one it’s a lot more money” shouted Alf.

Burt complied and when Alf raised the gleaming axe, Nino nearly busted loose but the big shearer held on and turned the lad’s head. “It’s OK Nino it doesn’t hurt for long,” Alf called and dropped the axe and brought the green stick sharply on the stretched out fingers.

“I got two“ yelled Alf, as the terrified lad broke loose, screaming and not daring to look at the damage to his stinging left hand, he jammed his supposedly wounded hand under his armpit so he couldn’t see.

The hysterical victim bolted away from the two madmen who had burst into maniacal shrieks of laughter as they chased after the fleeing lad.

Thinking they were not through with him yet, the bolting Nino incredibly went into overdrive, jumping fences and large logs like a champion steeplechase racehorse. Still screaming like a demented Dervish and not daring to look at his hand poor Nino was intent on putting as much distance as possible between the two raving maniacs and himself. .

The two partners in crime, knowing they had no hope of catching their victim collapsed in a heap, out of breath, and blinded with tears of mirth.

It was on dusk before Nino turned up at their hut, and confronted the, by now sort of remorseful pair. Of course the culprits blamed each other and promised they would never do anything like it again. It took most of a bottle of OP Rum before the then inebriated Nino, who finally admitted it was so well done and acted, displayed the spirit of forgiving.

And that was when Nino became a fair dinkum Aussie with his own wicked sense of humour.

For many years that story was told in the bush pubs and shearing sheds around our great country and still is to this very day.

Uncle Doug - PNG Story

2011-06-06T12:16:00.003+10:00

(Continued from previous post..)

'However it was stories about his life at sea that interested me most…

Before and during the War he was the skipper of his own lugger ‘The Black Pearl’ out of Broome, Darwin and New Guinea. Firstly as a Pearler, then during the war he became a Coast watcher in and around the Islands, pursued by the Nips as he called the Japanese.

One particular story I remember well was mainly about an old mate of his who had been a plantation owner in the Highlands of PNG, and also became a Coast watcher. Jock Mac he called him and the Captain had some nearly unbelievable adventures together.

Apparently the pair rigged up two big dugout canoes like a catamaran and fitted it with a large petrol engine and somehow fitted a suitable propeller, then added a .50 calibre machine gun from a wrecked warplane. Then with some other armaments and a crew of local natives, made several raids on Japanese-held ports and outposts, sinking several vessels and killing many soldiers.

Jock must have been a tough old bird, as the Captain told me, and after their last raid they split up to avoid capture. According to the Captain, Jock Mac went inland, into the mountainous and extremely remote country, while he crept around the coast with his local crew, travelling at night and laying up during daylight. Both men carried radios to keep in contact with the Darwin Intelligence Group.

The Captain was picked up by a Naval Patrol boat and was taken to Darwin for debriefing. His beloved lugger Black Pearl, was in a bad state due to Cobra worm and he had to leave her behind. The last he saw of the gallant little vessel was in the hands of his loyal native crew.

Jock Mac’s story after they parted was incredible, as told by the Captain:

The Japs were seriously after both men, with a large reward offered for their capture and while the Captain escaped unscathed, Jock had a much rougher time. With his trusted natives he continued reporting Japanese shipping movements, staying just ahead of the searching soldiers, by moving continuously. It looked as if he would be captured, then beheaded, when he came down with appendicitis, with the Japs only a few days behind the tired, hungry group.

Before taking on the PNG highland Coffee plantation he had worked, after training, in Australia and New Zealand as a veterinarian, so he had a fair idea of the situation and what he must do to survive. What happened next can only be described as the desperate actions of a brave and dedicated man.

Finding a dilapidated grass hut, his native boys repaired the roof enough to have a bit of protection from the rain. Jock calmly prepared a piece of broken mirror, a darning needle with a length of banana frond fibre and a cut-throat razor, then laying on a bed of banana leaves he carefully washed himself with fresh coconut nectar as a sterilzer.

He had taken the precaution of gathering the boys together and explained in pidgin what he was about to do. One can only imagine the shock and terror of those natives, but with their help he operated upon himself with the razor, removed the offending organ then managed to sew himself up! After convalescing for only a few days he had to move away with the aid of those reluctant theatre orderlies, just ahead of the Japs.

He recovered from the ordeal and continued sending vital information, and harassing the Japs whenever possible. Eventually he was returned to Cairns for debriefing and met up with the Captain again. What a reunion that would have been. Returning to his plantation after the war he was killed when a tree fell on him while driving his Jeep on a steep track.

The old Captain had a tear in his eye as he finished that story and I did not think it had anything to do with the rum he had evaporated that night.

Nearly every night he would talk about something out of his past life, especially if he had a little drink as encouragement....'

Uncle Doug

2011-05-30T17:27:00.006+10:00

Ok, I'm putting up a new post because I am tired of looking at the same old one whenever I enter my Blog! (which I do in order to access all of the other Blogs I like to check). That's really the only reason :)

However, I have chosen to post about something that I don't think is boring at all. You might, but I hope not...

My mother's only sibling is about 76 years old, and is living in a small house by a river down in rural New South Wales. He's too unwell over recent months to continue typing up the autobiographical stories he began to record in more recent years - but the stories he has recorded are worth reading and so I'd like to share them, with his permission.

Uncle Doug left home at age 14, determined to seek out his fortune, or at least some adventure. Among other things he was a swagman (a swaggie), a jackaroo and roustabout, a crocodile hunter, a gold miner, a sheep shearer, a cane cutter, and a pearl diver. His life has been interesting and full of adventure. It's also very much an Australian story.

The text uses Uncle Doug's own words and grammar, with a small amount of editing only.

'Starting a New Life

And

Captain Jonson and his World Famous Royal Dancing Ducks.

The first time I saw sheep being shorn was near Buntine W.Australia at Joe Shaw’s property on the wheat belt, where I was employed as a farm hand.   The year was 1949.  I had put my age up from 14 to 16 years of age and was helping out in the shed, cleaning up for just one older shearer.
         Listening to his yarns and stories about his time in the big shearing sheds up North stirred my imagination.
         I loved the stories and vowed to see those big shearing sheds for myself.  I was also impressed by the bigger wages, up from three pounds a week to nearly five and keep, after all I wanted to make my fortune, so after only about six months I resigned.  Not that I was unhappy there, as Mrs.Shaw was a lovable motherly person and Joe Shaw himself was a decent cheerful bloke.  Bevan Shaw their son was in his early 20‘s and a typical multi skilled young farmer, good to work for and showed me lots of interesting things.  I had learned a lot while at the Shaw’s property, driving the old Bedford truck and the new Chamberlain tractor, plowing, seeding, fencing and milking the cow.
Sundays after the milking I would go shooting rabbits with a .22 caliber rifle or after kangaroos with the .303 Lee Enfield.
         Another reason for leaving was that the Police were looking for me as a runaway. I had changed my name Douglas Bedwell to John Davies, it seemed a good idea at the time, however, it was like so many other things I have lived to regret. It got harder to change back to my real name as time went by.
         Anyway after work one evening Bevan drove me into town and wishing me luck said goodbye and left me at the bus terminal, under a tree near the railway station.  I discovered that the bus departed for Perth early next morning.
         With only a single blanket, I put on as many clothes as I could for the nights were cold.  I had asked for permission to camp in the bus in case we got unseasonal rain so I would at least be dry.
         After a long cold night at last daylight came and I was walking around trying to get warm, when an old Morris van pulled up beside me and the driver asked me where he might get fuel for his van.   I explained that I wasn’t sure because I was a relative stranger here, but suggested he could ask the bus operator who should arrive soon.  The van driver was a chatty sort of bloke and soon introduced himself as Captain Jonson.  I told him my new name and that I was going to Perth, to look for a job with the big shearing teams.  The old Capt. had a colourful way of speaking, “Holy buckjumping sand crabs lad this is your lucky day”.  He said looking me straight in the eye, “I like the cut of your jib young Jack, and I can offer you an excellent job with me.”
         He spoke like an old time seaman, with lots of earthy, rather salty sayings.  Telling me that he could teach me much and I could earn a healthy wage.
         While I wasn’t as naïve as he imagined I liked him and it sounded interesting enough.   And so I joined up with Captain Jonson and his World Famous Dancing Ducks, as his assistant.  I put my gear in the back of his van, which was fitted with a shearers’ type stretcher, his bunk as he called it, and indicated an old thin mattress for me.  The rest of the furniture consisted of a small kerosene stove, a couple of hurricane lamps and a small folding table.  There were several blanket covered boxes, and I detected small noises which seemingly came from them.  I had found the ducks, or as he called them “Me Little Darlins”.
        While we were waiting to get Benzene as he called it, the Capt. lit the stove and made strong black tea and heated a tin of baked beans, which we shared, then gave his darlins some grain.  Sure tasted good and I started to thaw out a little.

The Capt. explained his business to me, travelling around country towns, mainly following the country show circuit and entertaining the good folk with his wonderful dancing ducks.

         We would put up the old pale green tent and the Captain would start spruiking and gathering a crowd, while my job was to keep the gramophone wound up playing music, and getting the ducks ready inside the tent.  The folding table was fitted with a sheet metal top covered with green felt like a billiard table.  It was set up in the middle of the tent with the small kerosene stove placed on a box under the table.   Capt. Johnson instructed me to light the stove, and warm up the ducks dancing arena.  He explained that his little darlin’s hated having to dance with cold feet.

         Outside the Capt. would be working the people until he had a crowd, saying things like, “My world famous Royal dancing ducks have been entertaining people, including Royal Families around the world, for many years and we have been induced to bring our smaller high quality show for your education and entertainment.”   There was a brightly painted canvas banner with pictures of ducks dancing in front of a King, Queen and a Prince and Princess, with the legend:  “Captain Jonson and his World Famous Royal Dancing Ducks.”  The ducks were called various names after famous dancers like; Dame Margo, Nijinsky , The Madonna and Matushka were just some I can remember.

         When he had enough people, he would come into the tent to test the warmth of the table.   It had to be very warm or the ducks wouldn’t dance.  Then going outside he would start collecting a shilling for adults and sixpence for kids, as they entered the tent.  When it was considered we couldn’t wait for more people, he would then close the tent flap, come inside and address the crowd.  Introducing the ducks as he gently lifted them one by one saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, It gives me great pleasure to introduce our beautiful Matushka, direct from the Russian Ballet…  Madame Matushka will you please consent to giving your adoring audience a small demonstration of your marvelous talents?”  Then holding her up for a little kiss, would say to me,“ Music Maestro Please”, and place her gently on the arena, after I had started the music.  He would drop a handful of grain, then after a moment or two Matushka would start to pick up her feet to start dancing to the music of Swan Lake or some other ballet.  At the Captain’s direction I would add the rest of the cast one by one until they were all dancing, quacking and pecking at the grain scattered around.  At the end of the record, we would lead the applause and quickly gather up the cast, put them into their cage, with a damp blanket on the floor.  Then after another eloquent introduction, we started the next act as I put another record on and rewind the gramophone.    There were several records, mainly of a classical nature, but some trad Jazz. My favorites were Carmen, the opera and the traditional Jazz, “When the saints go marching in.”

         I got on well with the Captain, even when he had a drink or two, then he would talk even more than usual.  It was quite obvious that he was well educated, at least, to my limited experience.

         He was born in or near Melbourne, had been to the Cup, loved Aussie rules football, and had once entered the Stalwell gift footrace.

         However it was stories about his life at sea that interested me most...'
(I'll continue with another story next time I post.)

The Importance of Beauty?

2011-04-01T22:19:00.014+10:00

This is really kind of cheating, but I just read a thoughtful (as always) post on Divergent Pathways, entitled

When Ugly Isn't

that you can read here, and I am posting the main part of my own comment on that post here, with some additions, since I think it is an interesting topic and I am interested in your thoughts... :)

I don't know what the deal is about our looks. My grandmother told me most sincerely that she thought the most beautiful women in the world was Queen Elizabeth - I think she loved her sense of duty..
What I do know is that the best people I have ever met in life have not been the best looking. Not that I have anything against good looks - I love and enjoy beauty... But it's just one part of what we can be, and not a very important part, when all is considered.
I think the modern world is so incredibly replete with an over-abundance of images everywhere: by mirrors, in reflective windows and other surfaces, photographs, pictures, in magazines, on posters, in advertising, through media, etc, etc, etc - that we've become hyper-sensitive to this one aspect of humanity - giving it an importance far beyond what it deserves.
Added to that is our modern societal custom of interacting with many people each day only by viewing them and having them view us, usually briefly, in passing. The impression we get to make upon others is therefore reliant upon what they see in that brief glimpse. There's some pressure! - to be evaluated time and again by only our appearance.
Before the miracles of modern transport, most of us lived all of our lives among the relatively few people who shared our often very small geographical area of home. People got to know each other for who they really were. I think looks were much less important in such an arena. A beautiful soul could be truly appreciated only under such a sustained and discerning light.
I suppose another factor in our over-concern with personal appearance is our over-abundance of free time. If I had to work longer and harder each day, I doubt I'd be spending so much time worrying about my looks. You know those lovely, wrinkled and weathered faces we sometimes see in National Geographic photos of aged peasants? Those faces look like they've got more on their minds than just visage.

My point is, in summary therefore, that I don't think it was always like this!
But I do wonder about the next life.. Do we change, or do we see with different eyes? (Because, even on my best days, in my best years...)
I sometimes consider that the Saviour was described with the words: “He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him" I also note with interest that the modern prophets and their wives were not usually ultra-slim and model types. (Though always so very wonderful of course! I do this, as you understand, to comfort myself on occasion :)

Of course, perhaps understanding a little about why I worry so much about appearance is not, unfortunately, the same as not worrying about it anymore... But perhaps it helps a little :)

--------

And on an altogether different topic (or perhaps not :) - Our sons Ben and Oliver took out their endowments in the Brisbane temple last night. Almost everyone in the family was there (we really missed Bec, and Beth and Robbie who are in Sydney) - which was so wonderful! There are so many fun things to do in life, but this was one of those fewer occasions that brings pure joy!

Neil and I leave with the twins tomorrow morning for a week away together, travelling the Great Ocean Rd. I am SO HAPPY that we decided to do this - it will be a great time to make some memories, and share some time with each other away from all the necessary preparations...
They leave for their missions in two weeks from tomorrow.

!!!!!

Our babies are Off To Japan!

2011-03-29T11:03:00.001+10:00

Our sweet Twin boys,

who I keep remembering as being only up to my knees just a short while ago...

are leaving on their missions to Japan

in less than three weeks!

Ben and Oliver finally received their mission calls a couple of weeks ago. The family gathered (Beth and Robbie via the phone), to be there for the Big Moment when the envelopes were opened, to find that

Ben will be serving in the Japan Kobe Mission, and Oliver in the (next door) Japan Fukuoka Mission.

They are of course tremendously excited. They can't wait!

We've worked for and looked forward to this moment all of their lives, and now that the time is almost here...

I am going to miss them so much! Even though I couldn't be happier and more proud of them for how well they have prepared themselves, and what wonderful young men they both are!

We've started the countdown of 'Last Time..' and 'Final..'

They both received their 'Duty to God' awards, and spoke at their last Sacrament meeting in our ward last Sunday. They both finished work last Friday, in order to help us around the house this week (we are probably selling the house this year), before Neil and I take them away for a week down to the Great Ocean Road for a holiday together.
We'll get back in time for video conference week-end,

then they will leave the following Saturday.

In between times we will shop for what they need, and they will spend time with family members and friends. We will celebrate their nineteenth birthday on Friday, 15th,

which is the night they will be set apart by our Stake Presidency,

in a family meeting in our home.

I am so happy and so sad.. ! But most of all, I feel very, very grateful :)

How to Make a Quiet Book - For a Toddler

2011-02-23T14:18:00.013+10:00

We usually make our own Christmas presents for family members. This year for Maggie, I made

A Quiet Book.

I wanted to make it full of things that she can touch, and that her little eyes and fingers can explore, (rather than of activities to do), since she was not yet twelve months old.

To get ideas for what to make, I searched about on the net, and found something very similar to this finished project, 'Maggie's Garden', on Etsy. The one I saw was actually so cute that I even thought about just buying it, but a little chat to Abby confirmed that she loves to have me make something myself.

So - many hours later, here it is! I really enjoyed doing it, and was especially impressed with myself to have it all finished in good time before Christmas day!

I particularly wanted to put it up online, since I very much appreciated being able to see the ideas that other people had shared. Although I have copied a lot of what I have done from the book on Etsy, if you like any part of what I have put into this book and would like to pinch ideas, please be my guest!

If you would like to see more detail in the pages, clicking on each picture will enlarge it.

So (or Sew!) - to the Book!

(Some instructions below)

Instructions - Such as they are!

My objective was to create a good amount of colour, shape, tactile and textural interest, by using a wide variety of fabrics and notions such as:

Silk, velour, velvet, lurex, wool, vinyl, satin, flannelette, plastic, metallic fabrics, cotton quilting prints, tinsel, elastic, buttons, beads, crystals, ribbons, lace, pom-poms, sequins, flowers, knick-knacks, fabric paint, glitter paint, hand and machine embroidery and silver thread, etc.

Leaves and wings can be lifted and played with. Some of the wings have noisy cellophane stitched into them.

Each of the white pages are stiffened with iron-on interfacing, and the covers are lightly padded with iron-on pellon; each of the joined pages are bound with satin ribbon and threaded with two ribbons.

My photos aren't fabulous; most of the pages are better when you can see and touch them. For example, I love the spider's web page, which doesn't show up well here, unfortunately. The background is black satin; the web is silver metallic embroidery floss, threaded with lots and lots of tiny glass beads and real crystals that can slide back and forth along small lengths of the thread.

Pretty much everything is well-glued, then stitched and sewn down over and over again, to make it all as safe as I could for little ones to play with. Most of the eyes are glued and sewn, although the smallest eyes are only glued, since they can't be sewn. However, they seem to be very sturdily attached. I went through the book several times myself, trying to pull everything off, so I hope it will all be fine!

The exceptions to this are the wings I have used on the firefly and dragonfly - the way they are attached is too fragile; they could be ripped off - so I would do those a little differently if I made this again.

I'd love to hear from anyone else who does something like this!

It's all in the Math really...

2011-02-22T18:31:00.001+10:00

We missed Tammy in FHE this week.

(She moved into a share-house with some girl-friends on the week-end.)

Neil, Oliver, Ben and I played the Tennis Ball Game as our Activity in Family Home Evening ....

(Tammy wrote unflatteringly about this game on her blog recently, here)

Unsurprisingly,

We made it to One Hundred on our first try.

It took about A Minute.

'Feminist atheist' loves Mormon housewife blogs...

2011-01-28T14:23:00.004+10:00

'Why I can't stop reading Mormon housewife blogs

I'm a young, feminist atheist who can't bake a cupcake. Why am I addicted to the shiny, happy lives of these women?'

This is the heading of an article written by a magazine journalist.

It's fairly lengthy but I think you will find it
an interesting read.

You can find the article here.
There was also an interesting follow-up blog comment here:
http://blog.cjanerun.com/

Children: Naughty or Nice?

2011-01-28T13:40:00.011+10:00

Have you ever noticed how much easier, and so much more enjoyable it is to Play with children than it is to just 'mind' or 'watch' them? The truth is that I never much enjoyed babysitting when I was a teenager. I did it occasionally for pocket money, but always pined to be off reading a book by myself, and longed for the children's parents to get home!

But actually playing and interacting with little ones is, I was happy to find, a completely different experience! Teaching them, tickling them, talking and interacting with them in ways that they love is Wonderful, exciting, and Fun!

I was speaking with a young mother about our experiences of being at home with small children, (mine from long ago; her's recent). We agreed that we had been greatly surprised by how much easier and more positive it was than we had anticipated. By a long way. We hadn't known there would be so much Joy and so much fun. Or that meeting the challenge each day would be such a pleasant experience. That there would be so much happiness in watching everything our little ones did. So much wonder at how adorable they are, almost all the time. I remember having a feeling almost constantly that the whole world should be watching each moment with me! That anyone not there with me right then was missing out. Of how special and precious each little look, and grimace and coo is. Of how rewarding and fulfilling this time is. Of how Grateful I was to be having that experience.

I know not everyone feels that way. I think that if you are resistant and wanting to give it all a miss, (like me when I was babysitting), it's no fun at all! If all you want is to finish reading that book, (or otherwise veg. out, get some work done, or go to the bathroom alone), then it's frustrating that you can't whenever you want to. If your choice is for selfishness, (and I mean that objectively and not critically) as opposed to addressing yourself whole-heartedly and full-time to your role as wife, mother and home-maker - then being at home, alone, with small children, can be pretty awful!

The irony is that if you choose instead to truly embrace these roles, your days are so much Happier. Not least because your children are so much more secure and cheerful when they have a mother who is truly devoted to them and their home and family. Selfless service does equal Joy, just as the Saviour taught. Losing yourself in service does equal finding yourself in the best way, just as the Saviour taught.

Like most things in life, it's actually easier to do it well than it is to do it badly!

Abby's baby blessings

2011-01-06T22:04:00.001+10:00

Abby has written a lovely post on her blog that details some of her feelings about being a mother at home. If you would like to read it and haven't yet, the link is here.

I'm not dead, but I'm thinking about it :)

2010-11-25T11:48:00.008+10:00

Not really. At least not in a 'can't wait' way, but more along the lines of 'Ah - that'll happen one day and won't that be peaceful...'!

Bethany is married.
It would have happened even without me finishing her dress, (which I did, at 5am for us all to leave for the temple at 8.30 am, so heaps of time really), or without the bridesmaids looking very cute and even a little chic (finished Abby's dress in the night too, and Jessima's lovely mother Michelle made hers), or without all the wonderful bits and pieces for the tables, (everyone loved the individual messages printed on the inside of the place-cards - thank you family, and especially Abby, for all of your help :), or the beautiful, mostly-roses flower arrangements (also finished the night before).

It's fair to say that Bethy was the least 'Brideziller-ish' bride it would possible for her to be. When 5 weeks of me being sick put everything so far behind schedule, and things like her dress were coming down to the line, her comment was, (complete with benignly offhanded tone), "Mummy, can you just use staples, or masking tape or something? It doesn't matter..."

I hope she and Robbie had a happy day!
The highlight of which was, for me - apart from the temple sealing - the song and dance that Bethy performed with her siblings as a surprise for Robbie. I think he liked it a lot. It was, 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough', and included some wonderful, gymnastic and spoofy dance moves that made it a lot of fun.
Tammy and James sang together beautifully too, while the bridal couple enjoyed their first waltz. (Michael was DJ and MC for the night, thank you Michael :)

Another favourite moment was sending Robbie and Bethy running off through a double line of rose petal-throwing reception guests, only to have them wander back into the room 10 minutes later in order to say another goodbye to us!

We don't have the official photographs yet, but here are a few that were snapped. Unfortunately, there is not a good one of Bethy and Robbie, but hopefully there will be one later -
(If you click on the photos, then again, you can enlarge them.)

Now, a busy week of cleaning and organizing Christmas parcels and presents, before we go away to the beach for two weeks :)

I had a wonderful birthday!

2010-09-28T20:08:00.005+10:00

It was actually a couple of weeks back now, but it was a wonderful birthday. Coming up to it I was feeling unimpressed about having any fuss, and would almost rather have given it a miss, but am so glad that I, (and everybody else) didn't! It was a lot of fun!

Tammy had informed me a couple of weeks earlier that her gift to me was a five day holiday with her. She bravely ignored my, 'but I've got things to do at home', responses and off we jetted for a long weekend to Tasmania, with an itinerary emphasis, (after asking me what I would like), on history, houses and architecture, visiting the coast, and things culinary.   (I didn't actually specify the 'culinary', but we did that anyway :) We landed in Launceston on the Thursday morning and picked up a hire car, before visiting historic Woolmer's Estate for a tour and a delicious lunch of freshly-dug vegetable soup and fresh-made bread. While in that area we stayed at the fabulous Peppers at Calstock bed and breakfast, (built 1838). (Top and third photo down.) I'm including some pictures, and believe me, you would have loved to be with us! Our breakfast on each of the two mornings was amazing too. Happy sigh! After day trips to the Raspberry Farm, the Ashgrove Cheese Factory, the Anvers Chocolate Factory, and the town of Devonport, on the coast, we drove to Hobart and stayed for two nights at the Hotel Islington, (built 1847), which was also Totally Fabulous. (Second and fourth photos.) It was also a B and B with amazingly good food - the kind where they make their own muesli, stew their own fruits, and whip up Eggs Benedict on order for your breadfast. We also ate there one evening and Wow! The first course was root vegetables: baby turnip, swede and beetroot, stewed in malt - and cooked to perfection! Yum! While in Hobart we also visited the markets, went to church, and visited the very interesting and historic penal colony, Port Arthur. On Monday morning we flew home via Melborne, to visit the Titanic Exhibition there.   Phew! I had a Wonderful time! Thank you so much Tammy! Our visit was so great, but the best thing was spending that time just with you, and catching up!
But wait - there's more!
Neil takes my birthday off from work each year, and that is something that I really do look forward to! Not even so much to spend the time with him, as to know he is having a short break during tax season, since he works such long hours for these months. I was awoken with flowers, fresh fruit salad and orange juice, and fresh-made muffins, courtesy of Tammy and Oliver (who arose at 5am to get it done).   How nice!
After spending some lazy time in bed and chatting with Neil, we went....   tile shopping! I know it sounds 'ugh', but I've been putting it off for weeks, and having Neil with me made it so much better :) We had time for a movie and a bit of shopping afterwards, before heading home for a birthday dinner with all, and prepared by, the children, under Tammy's direction. What a lovely evening it was! I enjoyed everything so much :)
Jessima and Jonny's present to me was a beautiful, home-made book.   I was going to include pictures, but Jessima has written about it on her blog, here.   I love it, Jessima, thank you! Abby had also been busy, also with a gorgeous little home-made book, about Maggie. I love it too! Everything from everybody was so much appreciated. Including a '52 things we love about Mum' list that the children had written up together, which I loved too. I feel incredibly grateful for such a generous and loving family. Thank you everybody!

( Abby showed me how to photo-collage, thank you Abby! Unfortunately, I haven't mastered positioning the photos on the page yet, sorry! :)

(You can see the photos more if you click on them, which will enlarge them, then click on them again, for full size :)

Got Rid of the Gray!!

2010-07-30T14:39:00.000+10:00

There - more pink! :) After I did the sides I thought the title and text would look better pink too... :D Mama if you're beginning at any stage to have a problem with this (or the touches of purple) just let me know and I'll teach you how to change it all again :) xo

I Love Pink...

2010-07-29T23:46:00.000+10:00

Okay this is Abby... Something went funny with Mum's blog background and she said if I had a spare second could I hack in (muahaha!)(okay it's a little less exciting when you're asked to hack into something for someone but still!), and change it to something other than straight gray. I don't know if pink is Mum's colour, but it's definitely mine, and it's definitely better than gray, so here it is! :) Mum if you hate it, we can find something you don't... xoxox

Patience - for Eternity

2010-07-15T15:04:00.022+10:00

We discussed in Family Home Evening this week the recent Conference talk on 'Patience" by President Dieter Uchtdof.  Particularly how it applies not only to the every-day, waiting-at-the-check-out kind of patience, but rather how it applies to each of us as we work our way toward perfection.   We commented that many people are burdened by feelings of inadequacy and a lack of belief in themselves, making it especially hard to keep going in the face of our repeated failures to accomplish perfection now.

Now, I am a big believer in the need for us to stop worrying about self-esteem issues, and concentrate instead on putting others first, (I know - a big no-no in the mind set of our times). Somehow, coming from your basically unhappy, broken home, I seem to have emerged nonetheless with a firm belief in myself and everyone around me. I'm sure my mother had a lot to do with that. But I am slowly understanding that all sorts of worthy, wonderful people don't feel at all about themselves that way.

So I wanted to pass on a thought that our family talked about:

Babies, children, toddlers are wonderful. They try and try and fall or fail and try again until they 'get it' - eventually, they will walk, talk, toilet themselves, say 'Mummy, I love you', even learn to ride a bike, swim across the pool, and read by themselves. Eventually, their toes will touch the floor while they are sitting on the pew in church; their fingers will eventually reach the doorknob, the top of the doorway, (and sometimes, in the case of teenage boys straining to be picked for the basketball team), the ceiling. These things will, in the normal course of life, always be achieved, as surely as a 10 kilo snack of chocolate is going to show on the scales. Babies don't ever ponder the possibility of failure. It just never seems to occur to them. So they keep trying, until they do advance; achieve; succeed. And we take their eventual success just as much for granted; we also believe that their destiny is to be successful. (Except for the universal proviso of young mums who sometimes wonder if their child will ever sleep through, or ever be toilet-trained, or stop wetting the bed. They will :)

To look at a baby or a small child, it could seem incredible that they will be able to accomplish so many intricate, fabulous things one day. Except that we know what is possible, and probable, because we have already managed it ourselves. How sad it would be to ever see a baby just give up on trying - to walk, or talk, or feed themselves, knowing as we do the progress that would have occurred if they had continued their efforts.

I wonder if that is the way that Heavenly Father looks at us. He sees us fall over, again and again, and I think that His response probably mirrors our response to our own children: a warm and vitally interested desire to encourage and support, and a feeling of overwhelming love for the child, walking or not; successful or, not just yet. Perhaps He loves us in the same way that we love our babies, even when they can't do anything much yet. Perhaps He smiles understandingly, as we occasionally do, when the baby who is learning to sit up, puddles over onto their side, or sometimes falls flat on their face, or even when one throws a tantrum. Maybe it really doesn't bother Him that much that it takes us a while to learn what we need to - since He knows that eventually, with His help, we will, inevitably, succeed - if we will likewise disreguard all notions of failure.

I remember with a lot of loving humour the picture of our oldest daughter, Tammy, learning to play her first piano piece for a beginner's exam. She sat at our piano each day, plonking out the few notes, trying over and over again to play the tune, before throwing her hands to her eyes and crying, with real anguish, "I can't do it, I just can't do it! I'll NEVER be able to learn this - it's too hard!."   Fast forward to her seventeenth year, to the exceptionally difficult and lovely music pieces she practised each day then, in preparation for her Diploma of Music exam.   How wonderful it was to hear her filling our home with such beautiful melodies.

How wonderful to know that our stumbling, faltering, and sometimes emotionally hysterical attempts now to sound a tune, will one day, most certainly, if we 'continue in patience', become performances of great beauty too.

Perfection?

2010-06-30T14:57:00.024+10:00

Our womens' Relief Society class on Sunday was about patience. One sweet sister made the comment that it is sometimes hard to be patient with yourself when you can see others around you who seem to be so much further ahead and more successful with everything in life than you are. "Don't worry," the kind teacher assured her, "they just look perfect on the outside. They have just as many faults and troubles as you! You know that sister that everyone talks about: the one who bakes her own bread, makes her children's clothes, always has her house tidy, does her scripture reading every day? She doesn't exist!!" And many in the class laughed a little and seemed to feel better.

I remember my wonderful mother-in-law, who was a Stake Relief Society president for many years, telling me years ago (when I was a young mum), about a special women's meeting her stake had recently enjoyed. The speaker, one of her counsellors at the time, I think, talked about 'this mythical Mormon woman', who seemed Perfect in every way. "And do you know what?!" the speaker assured the congregation of mormon women, "she doesn't exist! And if she did exist, she wouldn't inspire me! I'm inspired by You! By your faults! Because I can't relate to that 'perfect woman'! I can relate to you!" My faithful mother-in-law told me how much the talk had meant to all the women there; how much everyone there had loved it.

"I don't think we need to be threatened by perfection," I ventured to comment to the teacher on Sunday. "I think there is so much to learn from each other, and I am so grateful to have examples around me of people who can do so many things better than I do."

"Yes, but if anyone seems to be too perfect, it's just discouraging!"

.....

What then of the wonderful gift of our Saviour's perfect example?   Are we to feel badly about ourselves because He was without fault?

Isn't one of the greatest blessings we have here on earth, not only the perfect teachings, but also the perfect example of our Saviour? Are we not further able to take great strength not only from the teachings of our prophets and apostles, but also in great measure from the example of their lives too? As with the lives of so many other good and great people, both the humble and the feted, that we are so blessed to have around us, or to know something of?

My grandmother's example, for instance, taught me that you really could have a beautiful, perfectly clean, perfectly well-ordered home, and that such a home could provide a strong base for a peaceful family life. I wouldn't have known that so well if I hadn't seen it modelled in her home.  Other examples I have garnered from friends, leaders, family members, and much-appreciated biographies, have taught me that I can be more loving, more hard-working, more patient, more forgiving, more generous, more brave and valiant, more humble and meek, more studious, more spiritually attuned than what I currently am - and have shown me that perfection, and certainly improvement, is veritably attainable in all these areas.

I don't find inspiration in under-achievement. How could I? I'm already there! If I am to perfect myself, it won't be from looking to people's faults, or stepping on others, but will be by having kind hands, loving faces, and fine examples before me, to help raise me up.  Before and above all others, we have the example of the Saviour to guide us all.

Perfection in others is surely the very opposite of discouraging! If someone else can do it - isn't it likely that you and I can too? Are we not all children of our loving Heavenly Parents? Are we not all sent here with divine potential, and with the same sure promise of celestial success, according only to our own choices?

I cannot think of a single person I know who I don't look to for an example in some thing, or that I can't learn from. I'm constantly amazed and delighted at how truly wonderful people are. It's a big part of my testimony that we are in reality, all children of God - especially when I can see and feel the truth of that in the people I come across each day.

I'm also constantly amazed when people fail to know that about themselves - how infinitely special each of us is.

I believe that a lot of the things that we think of as being faults in ourselves and others, are probably somewhat insignificant in the big scheme of eternal everything. And that a lot of the kindnesses, and courage shown by many every day, are actually more significant than we currently understand - in much the same way that the stumbles of a toddler learning to walk are really just moments along the way to his knowing how to run: important as part of the process, but eventually all but forgotten in the glow of his eventual, sure success - if he kept trying, that is.

I'm grateful for your good examples!  In so very many ways, you are more creative, more sociable, more diligent, more insightful, more progressed, more all sorts of wonderful things than I am. I am so grateful that you are!

So! - Please don't hide your perfections under any kind of bushell. Your shining lights are helping me to find my way forward and upward too :)

xo

Over the Back Fence

2010-04-20T11:59:00.006+10:00

My mother used to spend part of each day, more or less, chatting over the back fence to one or more of her neighbours. Neil remembers his mother doing likewise. I'm pretty sure their mothers would have done the same. Back then - and it was really not so very long ago - fences were almost always less than waist high, so you could easily see one another, and have something to lean yourself, or your basket of washing, against.

I suppose that these women would discuss their children and husbands, a television show they had enjoyed, cooking and recipes, their housework and homemaking tips, world events and local news, and their personal thoughts about Life, etc.   Over the back fence you could admire a new baby, exclaim over how much little Jonny had grown, and be invited in to see the new lounge suite.

When our children were little I had a close neighbour whose brother commited suicide. I think she and I spent at least half of all our weekly daylight hours together after that, for at least six months, at her place or mine, while our children played and I mostly just listened while she talked it all through; enough for her to come to terms with what had happened.

Then six-foot high wooden paling fences gradually divided our properties, and women began to go out to work more and more anyway, and to stay home with children less and less. Those who were still at home began to stay inside more too - enticed by larger, more comfortable homes and colour TV's and year-round air-conditioning. Women who did stay at home were in danger of becoming isolated, lonely, and sometimes depressed.

(I've always thought that Motherhood and Homemaking as a profession, if you will, is not for the faint-hearted. I remember how keenly I would clean and tidy every morning, and how I was the only one, aside from our beautiful children, who ever saw the bathroom in all its perfection - before the four o'clock bathing tsunamis that drenched all the surfaces I had shined so assiduously that morning! No one is ever going to come along to a hard-working mother and say: "Wow, You have been doing such a Great Job that I am going to give you a Promotion, and a well-deserved Raise!   Nope. You have to really believe in what you are doing yourself. But there is still nothing else that I would rather have been doing.   What is helpful though, is to have some understanding, encouraging and supportive friends to share the ride with... )

Most blogging Mums I know, (admittedly, not a gigantic number), worry to some extent about the time that it takes to blog and to 'blog-stalk'. 'Is it a waste of time?', we guiltily wonder. I'd like to throw this thought out there, in answer to those worries:   Through blogging we are merely re-introducing, with a modern take, the cameraderie our mothers and grand-mothers enjoyed quite naturally and happily over the back fence everyday.  Everyone knew that you weren't supposed to be outside nattering all day; but the usual amount of chit-chat was seen as a positive and emotionally healthful endeavour. I think it still is.

I like that women have a new way to connect; a way that suits our lives and modern living constraints.

(Of course, a one-sided conversation with yourself doesn't do so very much to alleviate feelings of alone-ness, or add as much as it could in the way of encouragement or understanding either, so I think it's always nice to leave a comment on people's blogs too :)

Decorating for Christmas in November.

2010-04-10T00:52:00.004+10:00

Before leaving on our overseas holiday at the end of November, the family got together for an evening of decorating the house for Christmas. We played carols and had take-away for dinner.

Among our Christmas bits and pieces are some bendable Santas that always have an adventurous time of it. They hang precariously from fans, mountain climb up the walls and turn up in all sorts of places throughout the holiday season....

Jenna and Ben tried hanging the lights on themselves before giving them up for the tree.

We sometimes get giant lizards in the yard and managed

to snap this one.

We were thinking ... maybe, too much pizza...?

Christmas clown for Jenna.

2010-04-09T23:34:00.009+10:00

To continue in my aim of catching up posts on some of our family's last six months:

For Christmas '09 I made a clown for our grand-daughter, Jenna. It was a nostalgic choice, because I sewed up this same pattern for Tammy and Michael as Christmas presents when they were small.

The same year I also made them for the children's cousins, Tammy and Russell,
who we were visiting in Adelaide for Christmas.

The pattern was from a Family Circle magazine that we still have.
The face and colourful fingernails are embroidered.

Tammy and Michael had their clowns for many years. I remember replacing several noses, feet, hat pom-poms, and at least one arm along the way!
I hope Jenna enjoys hers just as much.

Jenna with her clown and Abby and James' baby, Maggie.

Michael with his clown.

Tammy, Michael and Jonathon.

Nothing but a test

2010-04-09T18:22:00.000+10:00

This post is nothing but a test

You may comment on it if you feel the need and if the comments link is fixed

Ben

Trying to fix it!

2010-04-09T11:16:00.002+10:00

I'm sorry, I must have done something to stop people from being able to comment, and I don't know what it is... For now, please comment where you can if you would like to, and I'll try to.... not sure yet :)
If you know what I need to do, please leave a comment! lol
- perhaps by email, or by commenting on a recent post please :)

School Graduation for Ben and Oliver!

2010-04-08T20:15:00.009+10:00

Our twins, Ben and Oliver, graduated from high school last November. It was a big day for them, after attending at John Paul College since preschool - 13 years altogether. They've had a lot of fun there; enjoyed lots of good times, and lots of learning too, hopefully!

It was a big day for our family in another way too, since

Ben and Oliver are the last of our children to graduate from JPC. We began at the school when Tammy was in grade six and all of our children have attended there since then, seventeen years in all.

These photos show the year 12's filing into the auditorium, the boys crossing the stage to collect their certificates, and then exiting the stage.

The video shows the school war cry, which is always done on the lawns outside.

Catching up on old posts.

2010-04-08T13:23:00.007+10:00

After looking back on some old photos, I decided to catch up with some blogs posts about the last six months. Some that I had begun to post but never finished had ended up in 'draft'. Only now that I am publishing them, they are insisting on staying buried back behind more recent posts - and I can't work out how to get them to come forward... (grrr)
So here are the just-published-but-shy posts if you are interested:

The Abby and Maggie Baby Shower

Homemade Christmas Presents - Family Calendar

Tammy's Halloween Family Birthday Party

Tammy's Halloween Family Birthday Party

2010-04-07T21:25:00.006+10:00

I've been looking back over some photos from the last six months and realize I have missed writing about so many things that have happened! In the interests of filling in the gaps for some of our family and friends overseas and far away, I'd thought I'd do a little catch-up.

Here goes then, starting with the end of October....

On the 31st of October we enjoyed a family birthday party for Tammy - themed for Halloween of course. We decorated beforehand, played games, made home-made pizza for dinner, and had a lot of fun.

Jonny, Bethany and Jessima were on one team for the scavenger hunt.

Can you see the black rubber snake that Jenna enjoyed carrying and chewing on? Cute! :)

Oliver with a furry friend...

Everyone went out for a scavenger hunt in the afternoon, then came home to report and vie for points. James, Abby and Neil were on one team. I think Jenna is giving them a 1! She could be biased though :)

I forget now who won, but James certainly pled his team's case passionately :) One of the challenges was to write and sing a song to describe the day. All the songs were great. The computer was used to view the photos each team took during the scavenger hunt.

The Abby and Maggie Afternoon Tea Baby Shower

2010-04-07T19:26:00.018+10:00

In November last year we had a Afternoon Tea Baby Shower at home for Abby and her first baby, (the future, gorgeous Maggie Sandra Easthope). It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed a happy time with family and friends.

I had fun making the nappy cake and covering it with all sorts of PINK! bits and pieces....
I also made a book for 'advice on motherhood' that all the guests at the shower contributed to. (on the left)
The little box on the right is for the cards everyone helped to make - enough for Abby and James to give Maggie for the first 21 birthdays. Everyone who made a card signed their name on the back, as a nice keepsake reminder of who was at the shower.
Cardmaking was on the back veranda, before we came inside for a couple of games, like 'Baby Madgab' which had all made-up phrases, like:

Farm Hill Ease Afar Eve Are
(families are forever) and:
Jay Emma Ease Gong Tubby Added
(James is going to be a dad) and:
A Beesa Gull Owing
(Abby's glowing)

The menu was expansive, with scones and pikelets with clotted cream and home-made raspberry jam; more than a dozen different mini sandwiches and savouries; mini homemade biscuits, slices, profiteroles, tarts, strudels, mousse, cheesecakes, brandy snaps; fresh cherries and berries; with fruit punch and hot chocolate. Yum! (Everything was homemade, but I had great help in the kitchen from Tammy, Bethany, Neil :)

Three of the beautiful guests:
Jessima, Rachel and Kate.

Kaili painted Abby a wonderful little
picture as a gift for Maggie's room, which Abby absolutely loved!

Beautiful sisters, Abby and Jessima!

There were 16 guests in all.

After most of the guests had left,
Abby's friend Lizzie, who is a photographer, showed us how to do some trick camera shots... Here is Bethany - not getting punched... :)

And Lizzie, also not being punched -
by Bethany.

Jenna was finally allowed to graze on the leftovers at the table with her Nan, Jessima's mother, Michelle.

Jonny had taken her out for some fun time with her dad.

A little engagement.....

2010-04-03T00:09:00.006+10:00

Hello! Bethany here - Mother's 5th child, 3rd daughter. Much to my protest, Mummy has requested that I make a blog post to share a little story.
The story starts with a girl and a boy and ends with the announcement: "We're Engaged!"

In case you were wondering, the girl happens to be myself, and the boy goes by the name of Robbie Wolff :) Due to certain events, Robbie and I were not going to be able to be together for Easter. I would be with my family in Brisbane, while Robbie would spend his Navy leave with his family in Melbourne.
Or so I thought.

This morning mum and dad announced that they were taking myself and the twins for a 'surprise' tonight and we had to be dressed nicely and ready to leave by 7:15pm. At that time, we all got in the car and headed towards the temple. Outside the temple, Dad stopped the car and told us to get out so he could park. As I opened the door I looked up and saw a young man walking towards the car. After a moment, I realised it was my Robbie Bobbie!

Robbie had flown up to Brisbane to surprise me (AWESOME surprise :) ) and one of his friends had picked him up and dropped him at the Kangaroo Point lookout. Which is where mum and dad dropped me off to meet him. After mum and dad and the twins had driven off, Robbie presented me with a MASSIVE Easter egg for my Easter present and then we went to sit down on the Kangaroo Point cliffs. On one of our earlier dates, I had prepared a picnic and taken Robbie to those cliffs to eat it. Robbie had played a song on his phone that night, and tonight he pulled out his phone to play the same song while we sat there (it was a pretty church song). It had been a lovely date when we first went there so Robbie thought it would be nice to go there again. Plus, it's got a gorgeous view and it's just across the road from the temple - how appropriate :P

After a couple of minutes we decided to dig into the egg. I shot-gunned the privilage of cracking it opened and proceeded to bash it against the ground. Robbie looked a little concerned at my somewhat aggressive behaviour (or that's the reason I thought anyway). We started eating and after a moment, Robbie looked into the egg and said "What's that?". I looked next and saw something white at the bottom. And I pulled out....a small white box!

Robbie opened the box and presented to me a pretty, pretty ring and asked if I would marry him. After obtaining a promise from him to kill spiders for me for the rest of my life, I happily accepted.

So now.....we're engaged!

How exciting. We're very happy :)

The End xo

Melbourne weather - ice and sunscreen

2010-03-15T16:38:00.009+10:00

There's a joke about Melbourne that says you can expect to see all four seasons in a day there.

Bethany was visiting her boyfriend, Robbie, down in Melbourne recently when a freak hailstorm and flash-flood hit the city. After hailstones the size of golf balls shredded the leaves off the trees, heavy rain turned the city streets into rivers within minutes. It was a warm day, so the ice melted almost immediately, but it made the waters very cold, and you can still see ice floating in some of the photos. News pictures showed people kayaking in the streets and cars and bins etc. being swept away. It is quite amazing to see how quickly the waters rose. If you look at the two short videos they took on Bethy's camera you can see the water rise across the two streets right before your eyes! - Bethy - a true child of her mother - loved the storm of course. The subways were too flooded to be in use so it did take them a while to get home. But they had fun.

'Shout it from the roofs...'

2010-03-14T22:38:00.005+10:00

Og Mandino said it well when he wrote: 'when I am moved to praise I will shout from the roofs.' I've remembered that since I first read it over thirty years ago. To me it is about the importance of giving people the credit that they have earned.

I was in a Visiting Teaching workshop last week when one of the sisters told of the valiance of her Visiting Teacher, who rode her bike to appointments when a car wasn't available. Another sister said, "yes, I know who you mean - she is my Visiting Teacher too - and she is wonderful!"

"Who is it?" I asked, although I thought I already knew. Ros is a very quiet and diligent sister who I thought could probably really use some unexpected recognition. She doesn't ever look for acknowledgement, but I think it would have helped all of us in the group to appreciate and value this sister a little more too, since she is often overlooked. I really hoped to have her 'outed' as our worthy role model.

Ros was actually sitting with a bowed head next to the good sister who had spoken first, who answered my question with a shake of her head - as if she felt that naming Ros would have been inappropriate somehow.

When I spoke to Ros afterwards, to tell her that I appreciated her good example, and knew that she had made a real difference in the lives of many because of her good works, she let me read a thank-you letter that she had received from one of the ladies she visited. It was very touching and instructive to read and I wish we could have heard it read out during the lesson. I don't think Ros would have minded people knowing that she was the diligent Visiting Teacher being referred to.

I think that always acknowledging people in a positive way is very important. I wish it always happened.

What do you think? And why doesn't it always happen?

I Think I Get it Now!

2010-03-11T09:54:00.005+10:00

Ulysses S. Grant said something like this:

"The way to pay off the national debt is to pay off the national debt."

You can hardly imagine how profoundly that struck me when I read it recently! A light turned on. Or was at least rekindled.

So.... If I want to have a perfectly spring-cleaned room, (I thought), I am going to have to perfectly spring-clean my room! ... If I want to get Abby's cushions sewed, I have to sew her cushions! ... If I want a new lounge suite, I have to get out and buy a new lounge suite!

You can see how well this works through just about every area of life!

At least, in theory... As in - I still haven't accomplished any of those things yet. But I can see the way to get there now :)

I do have a little bit of a sinking certainty that I am going to lose my tenuous hold on this particular piece of wisdom if I don't put it into practice before all memory of said ephemeral epiphany is past.

So I am going to go and do something now.

(Oh - and best to be aware that any concerted consideration of the above actually appears to cause demonstrable descent into avenues of alliteration and assonance.... Who knew? :)

Oscars again. Hmph.

2010-03-08T01:43:00.006+10:00

What do you think of the Oscars?

For me it seems that somewhere along the way the less than 6,000 voting academy members seem to have moved firmly to the opposite side of a growing divide between them and the viewing public. I find it annoyingly arrogant! Of course there is the argument that the most popular movies and performances are not necessarily the most deserving (reference here, sadly, any number of silly, crass, unintelligent offerings). But surely the greater public are deserving of at least something in the way of a respectful nod?

I remember seeing some figures and statistics some years ago which indicated that Hollywood increasingly chooses to finance and make MA or R rated movies, in spite of the much greater popularity and money producing ability of G rated movies. Why do they do that? Why the desire to constantly 'push the boundaries' and shock the sensibilities of the majority of the viewing public, even in the face of clear evidence that a much better financial return can be expected from outlays toward movies that families like to see. What other gain is there for 'them' that is even more important than a financial one?

As for the Oscars - it seems that the more morally liberal the movie, the greater the support from the Academy, again in the face of obvious dissatisfaction and disagreement from the typical movie goer. To wit such raw and dismal offerings as, 'There Will Be Blood', 'Brokeback Mountain', 'Monster', etc, etc...

And then there are the politically rather than meritoriously motivated votes.. Perhaps Catherine Bigelow will win because her direction of 'Hurt Locker' genuinely deserves an Oscar win, (I don't know because I haven't seen it) - but I hope she doesn't win because of the Academy's desire to 'remedy' the 'embarrassing' deficient (actually absence), of a winning female director thus far in the history of the Oscars.

I lost virtually all respect for the Oscars when Russell Crowe failed to win the Best Actor for 'A Brilliant Mind', even while the film won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress. It's hard to believe that he did not deserve the award, since his performance was what carried the picture.

Do I sound too passionate about all this? :) It's only movies, and it's only awards, but it's the injustices that get to me..! If you are going to have an awards system, please let it be valid, and fair. And preferably what you and I can appreciate and relate to! :)

Homemade Christmas Presents - Family Calendar

2010-02-21T23:42:00.019+10:00

We've had a family tradition for years that we make our presents for one another at Christmas time. My present to everyone this year was a family history themed calendar. I'm attaching the whole calendar, for my record and in case anyone else is interested. (I think you can read each page if you click on the photo, which should enlarge it.)

I began with the intention of doing condensed, straight biographies, but tweaked the concept a little to highlight some of our ancestor's character traits instead. I particularly like the story of 'The Twenty Australians' in one of the newspaper clippings, but all the stories are so wonderful to know, that I really love them all. I wanted us to remember them.

(Each calendar page also incorporated some goal charts for those in the family who were interested. I printed them off and bound them at home, with clear acetate sheeting to protect the front and back covers. Each calendar page included a quote about goal-setting at the top of the page. Neil and I each wrote a page with some personal thoughts for our family, that we called the Forward and the Preface. These were on the first two inside pages, but I haven't attached them. On the back inside cover was a list of all the home and mobile phone numbers and addresses, for everyone in our immediate and extended family.)

Front cover.

I'm all cut up

2010-02-04T15:50:00.003+10:00

I just had a haircut :(

(It's not the first time.)

Annie Lennox is back.

Hmph.

One bright note: Don't look like Billy Ray Cyrus. Managed this by having no hair past my ears. What the 'life is a compromise' people are talking about I suppose.

(Have never really liked the idea of compromise.)

Hope you are having a lovely day :)

Will possibly attempt more interesting blog entry in near future.

xo

Australia Day 2010

2010-01-27T08:44:00.003+10:00

I know I have been absent! I did feel as though I wanted to post something for my one fan though! (Previously unknown fan that is - thank you for saying hello Bev! I love that you look in occasionally :)

There's a lot to catch up on, and not much time right now, (Abby and James brought baby Maggie home from the hospital yesterday), but I didn't want to let Australia Day pass by without posting something in honour of our country.

If you will look here and here you can view some photos and read something I wrote about Australia at roughly this time last year. The second link is an explanation of the first. It was at around the time of our bushfires. I hope you like them.

xo

Last post. :) I think. :)

2009-12-19T00:55:00.002+10:00

We're about to go. Pretty much all packed. Shall I give everyone a hug from you?.. Will do.

We can't wait to see you!!!!

(Concerning those pernicious rumours spread by your otherwise very steady father...
no comment. But it's only seven bags. And only a couple mine. Kind of :)

Love you all to pieces!!!!!!!

M
xoxoxooxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxo

ps Am terrified by horrifying reports of disastrous tragedy on the driveway. Hope it is not as bad as you have related. Abby - you write a very scary account!

xoxoxoxoxo

See you soon

2009-12-18T18:42:00.002+10:00

Well it is 1.43am here and we are all packed. That is very good for us. We will get 4 or 5 hours sleep. We have seven check in bags (we bought a couple over here) plus our hand luggage. So looking forward to seeing everyone. Probably in about 36 hours or so.

Love Dad

Holiday is almost over

2009-12-18T09:38:00.002+10:00

Well just a quick note to let you know when we will be arriving home. We will be arriving on Qantas flight QF16 which is scheduled to arrive at 7.45am on Sunday 20th december, 2009. Mum's been shopping again so we will need four or five cars to come and get us.

Gotta go and pack.

Love from Mum and dad
xoxoxoxox

Missing you....

2009-12-16T06:58:00.002+10:00

Mother here :)

I need to pack for the overnight trip to Yellowstone, but it just occurred to me that we probably won't have Internet use available there, so I wanted to say a quick 'Hi!!' to everyone, and to say thank you for your prayers. It was horrible not being able to breathe at all! I know I've been a bit bad at home sometimes, but this was worse and went on for a couple of days. I was so bad on Sunday night that I couldn't see how I would be able to sleep at all, except for the blessing, which helped me to sleep a few times, in between awakenings. But by the morning I was so tired and felt so bad that I asked to go to the medical centre. The doctor was great and gave me a steroid injection, a high dose steroid inhaler, antibiotics, and decongestants, enough to last until after I get home. I started feeling so much better almost straight away, came home and was able to nap for an hour at last, before we went to see the movie, 'Blind Side', which was great! A nine and a half according to Dad, Ben and me. Several times during the movie I just felt so grateful to be able to breathe at last - it made me feel how much we take so many things for granted.

I'm sorry if all that was terribly boring. Now on to something much less so - you! You are all writing that things are good, ok, etc., but no one is telling me much of what is really going on in your days. I'm starting to get suspicious! Would someone (every one would be wonderful :) please tell me what you are all doing? Nobody has mentioned what the drive-way work has been like, or if the cot has come, or what is happening with Robbie coming, or what you have been doing with your not-working-now days Abby, or if you have been bothered with rogue kangaroos, or what James has injured lately :), or what has been happening at work lately Tammy, or if the roof is leaking again, or how big Jessima is getting, or who you have had over for dinner recently, or how Bethany is spending her days, or if there have been any house fires recently, or car crashes - you know - the usual-but-I-want-details kind of things! Please. :)

I'm being asked to move along so that others can get on for emails etc.

We are missing you. We are having a great time, but we are missing you. I'm be glad to see you soon!

Love you all tonnes!
xoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxooxoxoxooxoxoxo
(That was for Jenna, now this for everyone else :)
xoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoooxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxooxoox

Life in Rigby is Great

2009-12-16T03:52:00.002+10:00

Well here we are in Rigby. It is Tuesday morning 11am-ish and Sandy and Renae have gone ........... you guessed it ................SHOPPING!!!!!

It's OK, they have just gone to get a few things before we leave to go to Yellowstone Park.

What was that? What do you mean, "Define - 'few things'," A few things is just a couple of things, right? I mean they will only be gone for an hour or so, right?? I should have got some clarification on that hey. Oh well, I mean How long can it take. A few things.................

Anyway we had a big travel day on Saturday. We left New Yor at 9am (7am Idaho time) and arrived at the Hampton at 10.30pm. We got into Salt Lake at about 1.30pm We got the car and had a coupkle of small stops and at three we were on our way for a 3 hour drive. By the time we got to Logan Utah it started to rain and a bit later that turned to snow which we thought was fun. But then it kept snowing and pretty soon we noticed that the traffic was not keeping up with it and snow was staying on the road with biteumen tracks where tyres would be. Then of course the traffic started to slow right down. I was glad of that but we drove through this snow storm all they way to Pocotello (spelling) Just s few mile short actually. So we drove for over 100 miles (160klms) at between 25 and 35 miles per hour. It was real white knuckle stuff. I kept finding myself all tensed up and then having to relax, and then I found myself all tensed up againg and so it went on and on. Then about 5 or 6 miles short of Poccatello there was no snow and the roads were clear. We stopped there to ring and tell everyone that we were alive. it was about 7.15pm and we were supposed to be to the hamptons at 5-ish.

Bruce gave us some directions and we went to Blackfoot where we got more specific directions from Bruce like, When you come through Idaho Falls "stay on the highway" meaning "don't get off the highway". Not in my defence it was snowing and the road was white and signs were covered in snow so you couldn't read them much. anyway I got off the highway and in my defence it was following a sign that said "Rigby". Anyway we did get the scenic tour of Idaho Falls, allbeit at nighttime in a blizzard. Bruce was waing at a certain corner to meet us at 8.45pm and after getting some further directions we met him just after 10.15pm and then it was just a few minutes from their house. I told he needs some practice at giving intructions. Saying 'don't get off the highway' is a bit ambiguous.

Through all this Chickybabe was feeling pretty sick. We gave her a blessing on Sunday night that said she would sleep and then she would be better. We woke Monday morning and she had slept better but was feeling a lot worse. So much for my blessing i thought. So Renea took us to the doctors where a very nice doctor checked her out and gave her some medicines that have really helped and she began to feel immediately better. hence now she is out shopping. She is still not great but the medicine is really helping still to be able to do stuff. This arvo we are off to Yellowstone Park so i can'tt tell you about that yet.

Ut is so great to be at the Hamptons. They are so great and make us feel so welcome and at home. they just could not do more for us. it is so much fun to be with them. They say hi to everyone and want to know all about you. We tell them our version. In the video camera we had a disc that had some of Jason's trip to our place so we watched that on the computer. that was fun and we also watched te twins snowboarding video. You'll like that too.

Anyway gotta go get ready for our road trip to Yellowstone to wake up a few bears. Yesterday we all went to see the movie, 'Blindside', which we really enjoyed. New saying noe, 'Take him to the bus'.

Now Chickybabe asked that when you comment you need to tell us what you have been doing not just that you are all ok. We would like to know what you have been up to.

We love you all and miss you and will see you in just a few days. We are really looking forward to our last few days here but really looking forward to seeing you all again.

Love dad

xoxoxoxoxoxox

The Shy Blog Entry

2009-12-14T20:20:00.004+10:00

For some unexplained reason, The massive blog entry i just wrote posted itself underneath three other blogs (this one included)

If you would like to read the most recent installment, It is titled "WOW - A Whole Week!"
If you scroll down, you should be able to find it :D

Enjoy

Mum Needs Help!

2009-12-14T15:54:00.003+10:00

Hey Family!
As you all probably know, mum is feeling really sick on her holidays! This isn't much fun for her and she would LOVE to get better as soon as possible. There was some snow fall last night and we had all planned to take her outside to go sledding but we can't do this if mum is still feeling as sick as she is now.
One thing she has requested (and I think it's a great idea) is to mention her in your prayers tonight. This wont take long and as you know, it can make the world of difference. Mum didn't say this, but I also think it would be a great idea to say a special prayer for her AND include her in your night time prayers.
Thank You all SO much!
WE LOVE YOU ALL
From Oliver

Museum PS..

2009-12-14T13:53:00.004+10:00

Brecken, you reminded me - I saw just a small part of some of the modern art section too, and loved a huge stainless steel sculpture by David Smith, called 'Becca', after one of his daughters. It was wonderful! Do you know it?

Oliver removed his post, so you'll all have to wait :) (Allow yourself an hour or two of reading, it's going to be BIG :)

My breathing was even worse tonight, but I feel better after a blessing :) I hope I'll be able to sleep. There is a full and fun week planned and I don't want to let the side down. Or miss the fun. (Or get old and wrinkly too soon, .... but I'm hoping for two out of three :)

PLEASE - HOW ARE YOU ALL?? Don't you know that three weeks away is my outer limit without a solid family fix? Be kind to your Mother! And Father. And small animals... :)

xoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxo

Bethy, are you ok?
Tammy? Bec and Michael? James? ... ?
xoxoxooxoxo

WOW - A Whole Week!

2009-12-14T07:52:00.010+10:00

HEY EVERYBODY!!!

This is Oliver again with your update on the twins!

When we last left you, we were travelling to Salt Lake City to watch the Utah Jazz play Basketball. Since that time SO much has happened. On Sunday night we stayed at the Hilton. Somehow we were able to get really cheap prices.......I think..... Don’t quote me on that, although I'm pretty sure it's true. It was pretty nice. There were only two double beds in the room for Myself, Ben, Jason and Bruce.........Jason and Ben slept on the floor. Life is great.

The next morning we woke nice and early and figured out what to do that day before the game that night. Jason wanted to show Ben and I a shop called Cabela's. It is MASSIVE!!!!!! It's basically a shop for every different hunting you can think of. This shop wasn't just a random hunting shop that hunters can get some normal bait from; this shop would give you a choice of 50 different types of bait for any one fish. There was a fishing section that was about the size of Coles at the Hyperdome. (For those who don't know, the Hyperdome is a shopping centre near our house in Australia and Coles is a big shop in it) The hunting section was even bigger. There was a mini arcade in this place where you could pay a dollar and play one of those hunting games were you get the plastic rifle and you have to hit the small targets. So much fun. Inside the shop they also had a fudge shop. We got two different types of fudge, two packets of sugared almonds and two packets of hard boiled lollies. We only did this because it added to the overall experience. The part of the shop that made me feel naughty was the gun section. It was about the size of IGA (another shop close to home that's a bit smaller then Coles.) It was so strange to see a bunch of guns just sitting on the rack for you to buy. I was tempted to buy one except that it would cost way too much and I would probably be arrested when trying to go back to Australia. The amount of stuff wasn't the only awesome thing about this shop. This place was decked out! The decorator must have had the same budget as the builders. There was a mountain in the middle of this place with running streams and everything. There were fish in a pond down the bottom as well. Covering this mountain was about 40 DIFFERENT types of animals that had been shot and stuffed. The more you looked at the trees and rocks that made up this mountain, the more animals you could find. It was crazy. There was also a tunnel that you could walk through in the fishing area that was an aquarium. There was a total of about 300 fish in there. (NOTE: the fish were alive, none of them were stuffed.) To add further to this, there was another add on to the shop that was about the size of IGA again that was devoted to presenting the biggest and best catches. There were deer, moose, bears and so many others that were MASSIVE. It was crazy. I could see Bec, Bruce and Wendy loving that shop. I think that means that Michael should start saving, right Bec?

After spending about 3 hours in that place, we headed back to the hotel to pick up Jason's dad and check out. This involved us all quickly packing up the truck with all our stuff and leaving. That was about 12 noon. The game was at 6. So we killed some more time. We drove down the road and found a park at the 'Gateway'. A mall in Salt Lake City. The first thing we did when we got there was go find the movie times in case there was a movie we could go and see. (NOTE: if you ever need to kill a bunch of time, movies are a great way to do so.) As we got there, the movie '2012' was just about to start in two minutes and so we ran. We all liked the movie. It was unbelievable in parts but Jason's dad continued to think about what he would do and what he needs to get ready in case that did happen. When we got out of the movie, Jason's dad went to go and move the truck because we had parked in a 2 hour zone while Jason, Ben and I went to go window shopping. We stopped in 5 shops to have a look. The first was the AT & T store. This was a phone store. Jason has a phone from them that just recently broke. (When I say recently broke, I mean that morning) He talked to the people who worked there about getting it fixed while Ben and I walked around looking at different phones pretending that we could be interested in buying one. We then left. The next shop we stopped at was a shop called "Fannz". This was a shop were you could get any Jersey/jumper/pants/shirt of any team you support. There were some pretty nice Jazz things but we decided to wait for mother and father to get here until we made any decisions about buying souvenirs etc. The third shop was called Lovesac. Yep, the Lovesac, and that's what it sold - Lovesacs. They were AWESOME. They use some kind of weird material and fluffing but it was amazing. They make couches, foot stools and massive cushions. Imagine the two cushions that mum made, now multiply the size by 7 and make them silent and about 10 times fluffier - You now have a Lovesac. I want one... or two... or four..... Christmas anyone? The final store we went into was the apple store. We basically just walked around in there until we needed to meet up with Jason's dad who had decided to take a nap in the truck. Jason checked his emails, Ben played with and iPhone and I just listened to the music they had put on the iPod Nano to advertise them. After hanging around in that store for a while, we met up with Jason's dad at the food court on the top level of the mall. We still weren't ready for dinner yet but Jason REALLY wanted some sushi. So off he went to get some sushi. When he got back we all shared his tiny meal during which Jason got a spot on his hoodie. I've never seen someone so desperate to get the keys to his father's truck just to change his jumper. After asking about 15 times, Jason finally got the keys off his father after much teasing. We told him where to meet us and then watched him run off in the direction of the car. (NOTE: the spot was about the size of an ant). We then all enjoyed dinner at a seafood restaurant. We all ordered the steak, the only non-seafood item on the menu.....interesting. After eating we set our path to the 'Energy Solutions Arena' to watch the Jazz.

We got into the stadium just like we would with any other sport game and found that there were heaps of things to do outside the actual stadium. (i.e. inside the building but outside the seating and court.) We first went to a small area that had been set up with a small hoop. They had a few small balls and anyone could line up and try to get them in the hoop. Anyone who did get the ball in the hoop was able to get a small face towel with the Jazz logo on it as well as a coupon for a free jazz jacket if they signed up with some bank. So we all had a turn at shooting. After getting a towel each, we headed over to the other side of the stadium where we saw Thurl Bailey. If you don't know who Thurl Bailey is, you can Google him. We got photos with him and also got him to autograph our tickets just for funnsies. After that, it was about time that we went to our seats. Our seats were on the southern end on the stadium 16 rows back and just to the right of the hoop. They were awesome seats. We were able to see everything so clearly. The Game was AWESOME. It was one of the best games we could have possibly asked for. The Jazz were playing the Spurs. The final score ended up being only 3 points difference (104-101). It was amazing. One of my favourite parts was watching Deron Williams Dunk it over Tim Dunkin right in front of us......good times. I have never seen the last 9 seconds of a game take so long! It was so tense the whole time. After the game we had to run out to the truck to leave as soon as possible so that we could get back to Rigby as fast as we could. We then drove back to Rigby Idaho.

We arrived at about 1 o'clock at which time we all went straight to bed. The next morning was Tuesday. Yay for Tuesday! We all slept in until about 10:30-11:00. When I say 10:30-11:00, that means that everyone else woke up at 10:30 and Ben woke up at 11:00. We then sat around for about 5 minutes deciding what to do that day. We came up with the following agenda. We would go and get Jason's phone fixed (He needed to go to the store in Idaho because the store in Salt Lake City couldn't help him) we would then meet up with Chris (Jason's older brother) and have lunch with him. Following lunch, we would go and get fitted with snowboards, boots, bindings and whatever else you need to go Snowboarding. We then start packing for Wednesday and Thursday when we would be going snowboarding. By the time we finished that, we would go to a mutual activity and then we would travel up to Jill's house. (Jill is Jason's older sister who we would be staying with on Wednesday and Thursday because they lived MUCH closer to the snowboarding). We were able to stick to this plan fairly closely with a few minor adjustments. As the plan stated, we began by getting Jason's phone fixed at the AT & T store. While waiting in that store, Jason talked with the people trying to get the phone fixed while Ben and I walked around once again pretending to be interested in buying a phone. Ben did use this time to check his email on an iPhone, so it was slightly productive.

We then went on to Chris's house. We went to lunch to a place called "Mongolian Grill". It was almost identical to dad's Japanese restaurant. You would choose a bowl size and then fill it with all the different veggies and meats that you want. After you had chosen all the food and sauces that you wanted, you would take it to this small man at the back of the shop who would cook it all on this massive hot plate thing. (Imagine a circular frying pan, that is about a meter in diameter and then take the sides off it so that it is just a flat cooking pan thing. It also had a catchment area underneath to catch any food or sauces that ran off the top.) It was really good, not as good as dad's but it was still pretty good. Hanging out with Chris was pretty fun. It was funny to see them trying to beat each other all the time. For example, while leaving Chris's house, Jason started drifting around the corners. (It's REALLY easy to do because of the snow everywhere) So Chris started. It finished when Chris spun too far and ended up facing the gutter. He lost. We then went to get fitted for snowboarding gear. Unfortunately, the place we were going to rent from is not renting out snow gear yet because there isn't enough snow yet and their gear is more likely to get damaged. That was annoying but to make up for this disappointment, we went to the church parking lot and did some donuts. After this short but thrilling experience, we drove back to the Hampton's house to pack for our little trip. This took most of the afternoon but we were also pleased to receive a phone call from our older brother Jonathon. So he already knew most of that. So now we are getting to the parts of our wonderful holiday that he doesn't know about. The packing was uneventful. We then went to mutual.

It was FREEZING!!! What we did was re-enact the birth of the saviour. We started at someones house where we got prepared for the trip. There was a couple in the ward who owned a donkey and so they dressed up as Mary and Joseph with Mary riding on the donkey. We then proceeded to walk and carol to two different houses and asked if they would allow us in to which they both said no. (In their defense, they had been told before hand not to let anyone in). What I found kind of strange is that we travelled to the houses right next door to where we started. They were still fairly far apart, but the funny thing is that they were all members of the church. Three houses in a row were Mormons. It was kind of strange and cool at the same time. Anyway, after being rejected twice, we travelled a bit longer to a third house we're they sent us to their barn. We all crowded around inside and sat down on some hay bales and watched as Mary and Joseph acted out the scene with the help of some wise men and shepherds while the owner of the barn read the story from the bible. It was so cool. I've never really seen something like that. All the plays and re-enactments of the birth of the saviour stay in one place, and you just sit there watching, but actually walking around from door to door like Mary and Joseph would have done was pretty interesting. After the re-enactment was finished, we all stood around talking to different people while warming ourselves up with the heater. (NOTE: while walking around outside for about an hour, the temperature was -17 degrees) There were some donuts and hot chocolate.....but we didn't really want to leave the heater. After this all finished and people started going back to their homes, we drove back to Jason's house to grab our bags that we packed and took off to watch Jill's husband Cody play basketball.

That was funny......in a bad sort of way. According to Jason, it was the perfect game to show us exactly how most Americans play basketball. It started off pretty normal but towards the end of the game there were a tech fouls called. (Tech fouls are fouls when one of the teams is back chatting or yelling at the ref OR they are intentionally hurting the other team.) Cody's team won by 32 points which was good, but there was a guy on the other team who continued to yell at the ref for another 30 minutes after the game. It wasn't like the 4 tech fouls would have made any difference to the outcome, but they seemed pretty intent on the idea that the ref lost them the game and he should be fired. It was almost humorous to watch. Then we drove for about an hour to get Jill's house. When we got there, it was REALLY early in the morning and so we all just flopped on our beds and dreamt of snowboarding.

Wednesday morning! What a letdown.
We woke up earlier then we had all holidays with the intention of getting there as it opened. We first had to go and rent a board and boots etc. because the other shop had been closed. This shop didn't open until 8:30......the Ski runs opened at 9:00......it took 45 minutes to get to the ski runs from the shop.....DOH! We were able to rent the stuff pretty quickly and it was fun trying on all the stuff for the first time. The guy who was fitting us was pretty cool; he even gave us a discount because we were from Australia. SCORE! (It only ended up being a $6 discount, but it was the thought that counts.....right?) We then took off to go snowboarding for the first time EVER! We were so excited! Abby had said that it was the best day ever (I'm sure this has changed seeing as she got married, and for some people this would be the best day ever.....but I might be wrong, you would have to ask Abby) We got up to the place and there was some snow! BUT only the small hill was open. There wasn't enough snow for the others to be open......Let down number one. The second problem was that the snow wasn't recent. It had fallen a long time ago and now it was basically ice. The third problem was that it was -21 degrees not including wind chill. This was apparently the coldest it has ever been for Jason when he has gone snowboarding and it wasn't fun at all. The final problem was the air. It was all completely hazy. You could barely see 20 meters away and everything was just grey. Add onto all this that it was our first time and we ate it pretty hard; this first day was the biggest let down ever. We began having thoughts in our heads like "Was Abby delusional?" and "Why does anybody ever want to see snow? This is dumb". Yes, our thoughts and feelings towards snowboarding were pretty negative. As we went to lunch time at about 11:00am we had all had enough and decided to leave then instead of staying until it shut at 4:00pm. (NOTE: we did have fun, but in the end, the weather and atmosphere got to us) We left the slopes and started heading back to Jill's house. On the way there, we talked about different ideas to make tomorrow more fun. Ideas like waiting until 12 noon to go, that way it would be warmer etc.

when we got to Jill's house, Jill and Cody set us up with 'Rock Band'. For all those who don't know what rock band is, here is a simple explanation. Rock Band is an X-Box game that involves four different people at a time. One to play the guitar, one to play the bass, one to play the drums and one to do vocals. The vocal player would use a microphone to sing into to hit the right notes. Meanwhile the bass player and the guitarist use controllers in the shape of a guitar/bass to play the right notes on the screen as they came down. The drummer had a little drum kit that they use to play the right beats at the right time. All in all, it is SOO much fun!!! We got on there and we played until dinner time about 3-4 hours later. I was on the guitar, Ben was on the drums, Jason was on the Bass and Cody was too shy to do the vocals, so no one sang. After dinner, we all went to see where Jill worked. We didn't go there out of interest only. Jill works at a spa. That includes steam rooms and hot tubs. SOOO NICE! The hot tubs were outside in the snow but it was set to 36 degrees. It was like having the snow all around you but without the cold temperatures. It was awesome. I sat in there for about an hour or two. Jason was there at first but then he had to hop out and got Jill to cut his hair for him. (Jill is a hairdresser). It was the most relaxing thing EVER! I was also able to make a snowball about the size of Jonny's head. Every time my hands got too cold I would just dip them back into the water to heat them back up. This was a great way to end the day. It also sent our moods way back into the positives. Tomorrow was looking up for us.

Prayers are answered.

On Thursday, we stuck to the plan. We woke up at 9:00 in the morning planning to get to the ski resort at 11:00. What a dumb idea. Thursday was PERFECT!!!!!!!! Throughout the ENTIRE day Jason repeatedly told us that this was the best day we POSSIBLY could have asked for. A lot of snow had fallen the previous night meaning that there was about 6 inches of powder on top of the snow that we had gone on the day before. The skies were the perfect colour blue. The temperature was back up to around -10 degrees (which we considered warm). It wasn't snowing which meant the Jason was able to take videos and pictures of us snowboarding without fear of damaging anything. We had gone to the rental shop to get the next boot size up which meant my toes weren't squished. It was perfect. I can EASILY see why Abby had said it was the best day ever. It was AWESOME! It was easier to turn, you sprayed up snow when you turned, if you fell over it didn't hurt, we crashed about 1/8 as much as we did the day before. It was so much fun. We have all the videos and pictures to show you all when we get home. It would be useless for me to try and explain how much fun it was in words. You are just going to have to ask us when we get back.

That day we stayed until 4:00 and we are still kicking ourselves for getting there two hours late. After we finished up for the day, we drove back to Jill's house and packed up all our things and said our goodbyes. We drove back to Jason's house. On the way he got a phone call wondering if he was going to go and see the Rigby High School basketball game. We had never seen a high school game in America before so we chose to go. Oh if only I was famous and I would be too if I played basketball in America. We had called Jason's older brother Chris to come and watch it with us. It was so weird. It looked like the entire school rocked up. They were selling merchandise with "Rigby Trojans" printed on it. My personal favourite was when they announced over the loud speaker, the names of each player as they ran onto the floor. Imagine High School Musical, but substitute 'Wildcats' with 'Trojans' and change the colours to maroon and gold. That was what it was like. They weren't exaggerating at all in the movies. IT'S REALLY LIKE THAT! Rigby actually lost in the end but we don't like to talk about it. It was so strange to see so many people at a High School Basketball game. They even made you pay $4 to get in?!?! If only Australia had been like that. Sigh. That was pretty much the end of Thursday night except that we managed to find our beds right where we left them on Tuesday.

Friday was interesting.
It began like every other Friday. We woke up. But this time we were in a foriegn land in a foriegn bed but we knew the owner so it was all good. We slept in until about 10...ish at which time we had already decided what to do. Eat breakfast! It was so nice. Sister hampton had gotten up at a normal time and made crepes. We ate them with home made rasberry jam, cream, banana and icing sugar......SO GOOD!!!.....not so healthy......but SO GOOD! after this delicious breakfast. We ventured off to the AT & T store for the third time but this was to be the last time. Jason only needed his contacts moved across. After this, we did what Tammy requested. Jason, Ben and Myself ate lunch at Cafe Rio. That's right, we ate lunch at Cafe Rio. Jason had a salady kind of thing. I had a steak burito and Ben had an echilada. Jason and I enjoyed our meals very much. Ben however did not. He had just asked for an enchilada. After realising that they only put the sauce and cheese on the enchilada he noticed that what he was suppossed to say was either a chicken enchilada, or a beef enchilada. But he did enjoy his meal anyways. We then sat around for a little while until the clock finally ticked over to 3:00pm. This meant that Go-Karting was now open for business. It was a small track but it was an awesome track. Because it was in door and the go-karts were somewhat powerful, drifting was easy to do. The trick was to drift AROUND the corner and not INTO the corner. We got the best deal ever. because no one else was there, we had the whole track to ourselves. we could have bought a single 20 lap race for $10. Instead, for $20 we got unlimited racing for an hour. In the end, we ended up doing 120 laps. that's $60 worth of laps. We think we're awesome :D Jason however, wasn't awesome. That so called friend of ours was T-boning us just to get ahead. (NOTE: T-boning is were one car runs straight into another car on there side thus making the cars look like the letter 'T' from above.) but in the end, Ben and I know that we won while playing fairly. After the Go-karting, we tried as hard as we could to get as many tickets on the arcade machines to get us each a go-karting key ring. Which we can show you when we get home :P That night at the Hamptons, we didn't really do that much, we just played with Jason's little nephews and ate dinner etc. It was fun, but after being shot for the 100th time with a foam bullet, I decided I didn't like the game we were playing.

Saturday was going to be eventful and it was but not the way we had planned it. We began by going sledding. This involves tieing the tire to the back of their quad bike. We had had some snow on Friday night and we had decided to test it out. Jason was driving and I jumped on the tube first. It was so much fun. Then it came Ben's turn........hmmm What could possibly go wrong? I'll just let you watch this and then I'll tell you the whole story.

He was knocked out for a few seconds. He doesn't remember much and he doesn't remember why he didn't jump off but I think he might be doing better off now then he was before. Now he knows to jump off things that are about to crash. That's a valuable piece of knowledge he now holds dear. The rest of the time was trying to look after Ben. We finally got him inside with Jason basically carrying him. (Ben claimed he was perfectly fine but we began to worry when he stumbled sideways when trying to walk straight and when he told us it was Thursday on Saturday morning. It's the most sense he's ever made!) Ben is perfectly fine now, nothing wrong except that the cut on his nose makes it uncomfortable to put his glasses on. We had planned to go and watch some chariot races but Ben wasn't really up to it at the time. instead we filled the rest of the day with everyone else having turns on the tube. Jason's older brother Brett came over. He had a great idea. He pulled out a little plastic saucer (Almost like a very shallow plastic bowl about 75cm in diameter.) and tied that to the back of the tire. No one else got hurt. and the rest of the day was really fun. That night, Jason had planned a small party. A sort of get to know other people party. It was pretty fun. Nope, I change my mind. It was REALLY fun. There were two other guys named Landin and Justin, and then four girls named Morgan, Esther, Natalie and Cree. At first we started playing pool. Games like Australia versus America but when they realised that no one could beat the Aussies (NOTE: this is actually true. Ben and I cleaned up with in 3 turns everygame) they all turned there attention to Wii. The game chosen to play was Wii Olympics. The ironic part about this was that Australia won again. We won the fencing, swimming, hurddles and ping pong. The Wii was short lived. Then we all ran up to have pizza that sister hampton had made. Half way through dinner Morgan had to leave but then Natalie realised that Esther had left a board game called "Curses" at her house which was right next door. This game is the BEST GAME EVER!!!!!! Here's how it goes. There are two types of cards and a bell. Challenge cards and Curse cards. On your turn, you have to pick up a challenge card and do whatever's on the card. An example of a challenge card might be: You are a werewolf. Show everyone how you morph in the moonlight. Once you have completed your challenge card, You can pick up a Curse card and give it to another player of your choice. An example of a curse card might be: You must profess you undieing Love everytime a player rings the Bell. Someone may have 6 curse cards at any one time and he must do all of them. If he forgets to do one of them, Someone can ring the bell and call him up on it. If that happens then they loose that card. Once a player has lost three cards, he is no longer in the game. It is amazing what some people can do. Ben for instance had to do the following. Bite his tounge whenever he spoke, before he spoke he had to clap twice and say "attention class!", He had to hicup while he spoke, because he was Mr T. he had to say "I pitty da fool" every time he spoke and he also had to cry like a baby every time the bell rang. I dare you to try it! Can you see why that would be such a fun game. I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard.

That night ended soon after, we all talked for a while and then people left just like every other gathering but what made this one special is........get ready...... MUM AND DAD ARRIVED AT LAST!!!!!!!! Dad had pretty white knukles from driving in the snow but they both made it here nice and safely. The unfortunate thing is that I got kicked out of my own room. Sigh. Now I have to move into a messy room again with Ben. BUT I did have a clean room for a week, and for that I am grateful.

I have just realised that I forgot to put photos throughout and because I am lazy, I'm just going to put them all here at the bottom. Have fun!! - For some reason it won't let me load any more then 5 pics. If there are any stories that you would like to see photos for, say which ones they are and I'll make another entry with those photos. :D

Cya
Oliver

This is Ben and I just at the front door of Cabelas

Notice the mountain in the middle of the floor

This is Me with a massice Moose Teddy thing. ben has one too, but he's kind of just sitting there really awekwardly and he went to bed so I don't know if he wants it up on the blog. But if you want to see it just request it!!

This is Jason Ben and I with the free towel at the entrance to the inner stadium.

This is in the final seconds of the Jazz game

(NOTE: He missed both shots)

This is the Snowball that we made

Wish you were here - to see the Museum! :)

2009-12-14T05:51:00.003+10:00

That was me who just posted Oliver's 'Volume 111' - and I hope he won't mind... I know that he hasn't finished it yet, and after Jonny's recent criticism, Oliver planned to make his next entry a book, but I thought that if I posted mine, then he came home and posted his, you might never get around to reading the little entry of mine that would be at the end :)

And he should be nice to me, because I feel dreadful. Not from guilt or anything, for publishing his personal entry (well maybe, just a little), but sick dreadful. Can't breathe, and I really kind of mean that, dreadful. Am struggling for breath, and hoping that Dad will know if I brought a 'puffer' along. (I'll ask for a blessing when they get home too. One must be able to breathe :) And what do I do with my remaining perhaps few moments in time here on earth? I stay home from church, where I really wanted to go, (but didn't want to inflict myself on everyone), mind Dad's lamb pot-roast on the stove, and write to you :)

But enough of the chit-chat... It seems days since I really filled you in on the details of our recent jaunts. I'm not sure how far I'll get before I peeter out, but here goes...

Meeting Brecken and Justin, and Reuben and Simeon was great. We wanted to get together with them again before we left, but I messed it up by getting sick. They are lovely :)

I shopped. Dad held parcels. And practiced patience. (As if he needed the practice! :)

Things here are so cheap! Many things are about half the price. A few items are, inexplicably, about twice the price or more what we have at home. - Christmas decorations, for one. I planned to get each of you one tree ornament from Macy's, in NYC, (remembering several lovely old Christmas movies), but bombed out, I'm sorry. The selection wasn't great, and the prices were horrible! I can't tell you why this exception to the general rule, but there you go...

(You don't suppose Dad willed me sick, to escape from all the shopping, do you? It just occurred to me... No. .. He wouldn't do that... Would he?)

Dad told you that I stayed in bed on Friday morning, feeling yuck, and that we decided that he should carry the sight-seeing torch for both of us that day. Which he did very bravely, considering there was a little chill in the air. (I finally 'get' why people like to visit NYC in Spring, Summer or Autumn :)

I arose at lunchtime, cleaned myself up, and caught a cab to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
(As a side note, I have really enjoyed chatting with our various cab drivers. My favourite was.. I don't remember his name, but he's from Jamaica, and we chatted about reggae and universities and all sorts of things. Other drivers were from: Korea (he and his three brothers have seven sons and no daughters between them. !! He goes back to visit twice a year); from the Carribean; from India... Some are more chatty than others. But all of them want to retire back to where they came from! Interesting :)

Dad had told me that the museum would close at 4.30pm, so I didn't have very long, I thought. Actually, it closed at 9pm, and I managed to stay until almost the end. It was stupendous. Splendiferous. I loved it, it was just amazing. I was rushing past one door, (towards the end, in the last couple of hours, I was just trying to see as much as possible), when I suddenly saw one of my favourite portraits by John Singer Sargent, 'The Wyndam Sisters'. It's a large painting, more than two by three metres in size, and when I saw it my jaw just dropped open and I stood there in the doorway like a stunned galah, thinking, 'you need to close your mouth Sandra', and then I burst into tears. I hope nobody was watching! It was overwhelming to see so many originals of what I only have in books at home. I saw the original of Van Gogh's 'Vase of Roses', that we have on the lounge room wall at home! I saw wonderful originals by Mary Cassat, Memling, Renoir, Monet, Rembrandt, Reubens, Gainsborough... so many. I even saw a Picasso that I really like, (unlike some of his). I was near tears several times. I also managed three separate guided one-hour tours - European Masters, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and Museum Highlights. I also loved the statuary, and the French Period 'Rooms', and everything :) Loved it all!

'They' are home now from church, so I'll try to catch up a bit more later, or Dad will. Tonight the entire Hampton family are coming over for dinner - sixteen adults and four kiddies, plus two babes - for a lamb pot-roast dinner, starring DAD as the cook, and AUSTRALIAN LAMB as the (less willing! ) meal. Supporting roles by chocolate mousse for dessert, by me, and fresh breadrolls and a beautifully set table, by Renae!

HOW ARE YOU ALL?????

LOVE YOU!!
xoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Goodbye NYC!

2009-12-12T22:21:00.002+10:00

Leaving NYC! It's just after 7am and heading for airport. Will blog later :)

Love to all!!
xoxoxoxoxoxooxoxooxooxoxoxo

Why is the Subway called 'The Subway'?

2009-12-12T09:58:00.002+10:00

Well here we are again. Dad this time. It is Friday night in New York. Chickybabe has been sick. She got sick yesterday and felt pretty awful by the end of the day. She had a bad night and felt pretty ordinary this morning. She stayed in bed until early afternoon and then feeling a bit better caught a cab to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I left around 10am to go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. So off I trot to the subway to catch the "1" train (1 is the route) to the end of the line. I pick a nice window seat thinking that I'll get a nice look at the bottom half of Manhattan while I am travelling down to South Ferry Station. The train pulls put of the station and then I remember why they call it the subway. Some view. Duh!!!

I think today must have been the coldest New York day ever. Especially when you take the 'wind chill factor' into account. I have never been so cold in my life. I was absolutely freezing and when the wind came up 'freeze' went to a whole new level. I wish I had read some books about the Arctic or Antartica so I could have some vocabulary to help you understand how cold it was. I am talking COLD!!!!!!

Anyway the Statue of Liberty was pretty cool (aside from the fact that it was outside). I mean, fair dinkum, who put it outside?? New meaning to the phrase, 'I got some cool photos'. Liberty Island (home of the statue) and Ellis Island are both out in the middle of the bay. No where to hide from the wind. BBBBBRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

Needless to say I really enjoyed the outing. Since I had the camera (and you may remember our first night out in New York we left the camera in the hotel) with me, I decided that when I got off the train at 50th and Broadway (see I even speal like a New Yorker) I decided to go back to the Rockerfella Center and get a photograph of the Christmas tree. Then I decided to go to the Top of the Rock (observation deck at the top of the center) 70 floors up. I got up there just as the sun went down. You know what happens when the sun goes down. Yep, it gets colder. I'm shivering now just thinking about it. The wind was merciless. I thought my fingers, ears and nose were going to fall off. Anyway I took some pictures (and you had better like them when you see them) then saved myself and got back to the hotel as fast as possible. Feeling has been slowly returning. I am able to use two fingers typing now (don't get smart - I usually use three). I can hear now and my nose is tingling - I think that's a sign of life.

We leave tomorrow to head over to Idaho to the Hamptons and the twins. There seems to be snow everywhere but where we are. Maybe that will change next week.

Hope you are all well.

Love Dad xoxoxoxox

Update on the Twins: Volume II

2009-12-10T16:16:00.004+10:00

I have decided that my blog entries are going to have a consistent format. They will now follow these four steps:
1. One complete day of our holidays unless I have nothing else to do in which case I will write more then one day to catch up to our current day.
2. A picture that may or may not have been taken on that day. And depending on my mood, an explanation
3. A call out to someone. You may be picked at random but if you would really like a call out then you must send me a huge email to me. Emails that are nicer to me will be look upon with more favour.
4. A funny quote that has been said while we are in America. (Trust me, there's a lot)

Sunday the sixth of December. It was a fast Sunday. It also seemed pretty short. We woke up in the morning around 9 - 10 and got ready to go to Jason's ward. We then left to go to church. It was pretty much the same as our ward. It was a fast and testimony meeting which was awesome but I was surprised at how many small primary kids got up. They made up at least 40% of the testimonies which meant that most of the parents got up as well to help their child. It was really nice.

After sacrament meeting, Jason introduced us to a LOT of people, all of which I have forgotten their names. I feel slightly bad for this.....itty bitty little bit.....but it's still there. (MOVIE?!)

We had to miss Sunday school and priesthood because we needed to start heading down to Salt Lake City for the Jazz game (for all of those who are unlearned in the area of sports, the 'Utah Jazz' is an NBA team. NBA stands for the National Basketball Association. So what you have now learned is that Utah - a state of America, has a basketball team - called the 'Utah Jazz', that plays against other states in the NBA - the National Basketball Association). The rest of the day was basically driving to Salt Lake City. Productive but Uneventful. The reason we drove down earlier then we had to was to avoid a snowstorm. (YAY - SNOW!!!!) But that is the end of that day really.

This seems like a great time to add that I made up the system for a selfish reason. I don't have much time to write right now, and so by making up the system I could write only about Sunday and feel as though I've written enough....I love you guys......oh don't be like that......sorry......SMILE!!!

Today's picture......

This is a picture of the temperature gauge in Jason's dad's truck. That was taken today just for you guys.

Today's Call out is to my parents in New York. I hope you having an awesome time because we certainly are thanks to you :D

The funny quotes that I tell you are coming from my phone. While we have been away, my phone has become the quote book for us. (for those outside our family, the 'Quote book' was started by Abby a few years ago and it contains all the funny/dumb/witty things we have said.) The quote for today unfortunately can not happen. This is because I only came up with the idea a few hours ago and because of that, I have been unable to attain consent from the people involved and it seems a bit mean and illegal to post these types of things without their permission.
I hope you are all having a Wonderful time over their.
Ciao for now!
Oliver

Update on the Twins: Volume I

2009-12-09T16:27:00.008+10:00

hey It's Oliver again!!! and Ben :P

It may seem like we haven't been writing....that's because we haven't been.

I could tell you the whole range of excuses that I came up with to tell you but then I realised that none of them really stopped us from writing to you lovely people except that we had other things to do.

The last time you heard from us was the night before we left for Idaho. That was a while ago. Since then, much has happened but I will start on Saturday morning when our parents abandoned us :D

Tears were shed as mum and dad slowly left our view. The moment they left our view we went to a small shop to get some breakfast. Our breakfast (of which I had no input) consisted of two large cookies each and a power aid. we then ran out the door to find our transport. We found it right outside the door. It was pretty convenient if you ask me. Our bus/car/thing was called the 'Salt Lake Express'! Including the driver and ourselves, there was a total of five people on the bus/car/thing. We did not however get any photos. (NOTE: this is not un-common - Sorry mum :S) Our bus/car/thing was scheduled to drop off the other two passengers a bit before us and then continue onto Rigby, Idaho and arrive at 12:15 in the afternoon. At 11:20, we were kicked out of our bus/car/thing into the 10 degree weather at a random petrol station. Doh! (NOTE: the temperature stated is in Fahrenheit. In Celsius, it is about -12 degrees.) We bunkered down for the ice age...........we waited..........and waited........and froze..........and waited.........and froze.......and waited.......BUT as luck would have it. After only a few minutes of waiting, Jason drove into the station to pick us up!! In his own words he said: "My mum told me to go and pick some stuff up and then go and pick you guys up but as I drove past the station I saw two twins standing there frozen. I was like WHOA what are they doing there so early.You guys are lucky I drove past when I did!" And we agree :D

We then went shopping in an American supermarket!!! which wasn't that exciting.....but we can say we did anyway :)

Then Jason took us to a place called "Bambinos" It's a fast food place that is apparently unique to Rigby. They are SO good. the only problem was that they were small with each of us easily eating three. which was about $3 worth of food - that's right, the food is CHEAP! everywhere we go, everything is so cheap. Jason likes to rub this in all the time, so we mention our longing for MILO, Tim-Tams and Just Right. That's silences him fairly quickly :)

We then arrived at the Hampton's house. We saw snow in their front yard. We met the parents. We settled in downstairs. We commented on their use of a basement. We took a tour. We answered a few questions and went outside....to ride the quad-bike and do a few doughies! SO much fun but we were only able to do this for about 15 minutes until we froze and went back inside. This worked out fine because their nephew's third birthday party was about to start. So we all jumped into the truck and took off to wish him a happy birthday. It seemed like Jason was their favourite uncle. (He was the only one their but they did seem to like him a lot) They were so funny and we all had a great time.

That night was fun. After a small debate, We decided to go bowling. Jason's friend Karlee, had discounted tickets and so we played three games (which I might add was still cheaper then $20 - see what I mean - everything is cheaper). We had three games. The first was a proper game. Jason won. He's still talking about it. He got 122. The second game was more for funnsies. We weren't all trying very hard but Jason won again. He doesn't like talking about his score in that game. The third game was interesting. each ball, we had to bowl it in a different way. The first bowl, we bowled backwards, the second bowl we had to spin twice before bowling straight away etc. The interesting part about this game is the final score. Ben and I came a tie for first place. Hmmm.... Interesting. After this, we went to a take-away place called "Five-Guys". It was a burger place. but the Fry's were really good! They were made from Idaho grown potatoes, but instead of processing the potatoes, they just cut them into strips and fried them like that. It's better then I make them sound. The final food for the night came from another place called "Sub-Zero". It was an ice-cream place but not like any other. You made the ice-cream. It was a bit confusing at first BUT by utilising the wonderful brains provided to us by our parents, (THANKS!), we were able to make sense of the process. You began by choosing a cream. This was either custard, premium, something and no fat. Custard gave a smoother ice-cream (remember Nielsen's Frozen Custard? Same thing... sort of). The Premium gave a richer flavour. Something was never explained to me and No Fat wouldn't taste very nice simply because all the good parts must have been taken out to make it No Fat. After choosing the cream, you chose the flavour. they had heaps of different flavours. For the purpose of saving time, I will forgo telling you what others had and use my own chooses as an example. I chose the custard cream. and the flavours I chose were: Cherry, coconut and chocolate. (If you haven't realised, I was testing them the same way I tested Nielsen's Frozen Custard. Get them to make Cherry Ripe.) You were then able to choose a mix-in, similar to Cold Rock. I chose Mini M&M's. Here comes that cool part. All the stuff that you have requested is still liquid, not ice-cream. They then use N2 to freeze it instantly. THEY MAKE IT INTO ICE-CREAM IN FRONT OF YOU!!! I had already done this in chemistry and so it wasn't as exciting for me, however, Ben thought it was pretty awesome and so I decided to sound excited for his sake :D I must say this - they beat Nielsen's Frozen Custard in the flavour. Nielsen's Frozen Custard was probably smoother but Sub-Zero did get the Cherry Ripe flavour perfect. While we all ate our ice-cream, Jason and Karlee tried to convince us to ask for the number of the girl who served us. Apparently she was checking us out. We didn't but I just thought I'd throw that in there to let you all know just how lucky you all are to know such amazing people. I would elaborate further, however my humility is holding me back. Sigh. The night ended with the drive dropping off Karlee and getting back to the Hampton's house. This was pleasant but uneventful.

That was our first night in Rigby, Idaho.

Tonight is our fourth night since we separated and right now I am sitting in front of Jill and Cody's computer. It is 1:23 in the morning and I am about to go Snowboarding in less then eight hours. I am wasted. I am going to bed. I will write to you all hopefully tomorrow night/tonight with the other three nights including our first snowboarding feats. I bid you all a wonderful Afternoon/evening/morning/whatever time you read this

This is Oliver Munro on Jill's computer.

Farewell

Maths professors.

2009-12-09T03:00:00.003+10:00

I'm sitting in a tiny room that is devoted to internet use, here in our hotel in NYC, catching up on emails, etc. Sitting beside me is a man who was muttering under his breath and trying to work out on paper what 40 times 3,000 was? He looked at me and so I answered, "120,000". He still looked worried.
"Is that a mathematical equation or something?" he said. "I need to know how much 40 times by $3,000 would be?"
I directed him to Neil, a couple of computers away, (in case he hadn't trusted me). Neil looked up and said, "$120,000".
"Are you guys both Maths professors or something?" he asked, incredulously.
I smiled and said, "no".
"Well, you sure are smart!" he said.

Who knew? :)

xoxo

Another one within minutes

2009-12-08T13:50:00.002+10:00

You should read Chickybabe's entry just before this one if you haven't yet. I an instructed to fill you in on the bits she was too tired to write about, but I read Chickybabe's entry and either she got it all or I slept through some of it.

We have been having a great time in New York. We arrived at Justin and Brecken's place on Saturday arvo and spent all day Sunday with them and the all day today intil a little after 3pm. We ......babysat Reuben on Saturday night for a couple of hours while Brecken went to a concert with Simeon (Justin was at a shoot); we talked for a while which was very relaxing and nice; I went to bed around 11pm (it was 9pm in Salt Lake so I stole a couple of hours) and I never woke up until 10am (how cool is that?? - 11 hours sleep); we got ready fast and caught the subway to church; church was in the same building as the temple so that was neat and interesting; we had a really nice fast and testimony meeting; Sunday School and Priesthood were also good; Not sure about relief Society (talk, talk, talk I assume); after church we went for a walk in Central Park, full of interesting things to see; then we caught the subway to a members apartment where ward choir practice was held; a pot luck dinner preceded the practice; it was a pleasant night and very enjoyable to witness an aspect of lifr in NYC; after practice was over we caught a bus to 122nd & Broadway and walked home; we settled down, had a drink and then we talked about all sorts of things until about 1.30am; I woke up at 9.30am (how cool is that??); we just had a nice time chating until we left around 3.30pm in a cab to come down to our hotel; we are on the second floor which is not good (too noisy) but they said they will change us tomorrow to a higher floor.

So our hosts over the last couple of days (justin and Brecken) have been wonderful. How holiday has been great and very busy with us always being on the go, but it has been a little pit stop these last two days. Very relaxed and nice amd Justin and Brecken were absolutely perfect. They made us comfortable, couldn't do enough for us, fed us, were great company, and they love our Tammy. So , I ask you, What more could you ask for. So a GIANT THANKYOU to Justin and Brecken.

So now it is nearly 11.30pm and I must away as I cannot have another late wake up as we have too much to do and see.

Hope you are all well back home and in Sydney. We love you and miss. Be safe.

Love Dad.

PS it seems I forgot to say someting funny.

Too bad.

Without a camera.

2009-12-08T12:00:00.003+10:00

We went out tonight in NYC without our camera and have been regretting it all evening! So you'll need to just take our word for all that we saw...

We headed first to Time Square from our hotel, with a pit-stop for dinner at Sbarros (pizza and salad, etc). Brecken had told us to go to Rockafella Centre if we went nowhere else, so we headed there next, and saw the fabulous Christmas tree, plus a long row of beautiful Christmas angels in lights, as well as the outdoor skating rink there. Before reaching there though, we walked past some piles of GIANT Christmas balls in a mound in front of one of the buildings. Each ball was taller than us I think. (It was about now that we regretted the absence of our cameras... )

After spending some time at the Rockafella centre, we entered the fabulous St Patrick's Cathedral that was nearby. It was so strange to us that the tourists were welcome - to gawk, take photos or video, light candles or not, buy something at one of the two gift shops, or just idle about. We toured up one side aisle and down the other, noting at least a dozen artists making sketches of the various naves etc. along the way, as well as several people who appeared to be homeless - surrounded by some luggage or belongings - and asleep while sitting on the benches. I could try to describe it all to you, but if you visit here you will see some photos for yourself. (Since we didn't have our camera with us.) It was impressive. I would love to go back during the daytime if we can, to see the effect of the daylight streaming through all of the beautiful stain glass windows.

Not far further along the road was a building decorated all over its facing for several stories up, with giant, lighted snow-flakes. In its windows was also an animated Christmas story, with people moving along in line, reading the story and enjoying the display. When I realized that the store was Saks on Fifth Avenue (!!) we went in for a quick peek. Things were expensive, but very elegant, and the Christmas decorations inside were so elegant! You can see on the photos how lovely it was..... oh wait.. maybe not, sorry :P

We wandered along, looking at some of the other stores on The Avenue, and then all of the ENORMOUS billboards on Time Square - although, Dad would probably describe our progress more as galloping :) - I was cold :) After that, we met Will Smith, saw a spaceship land on top Macys, and were invited onto the Fox News Station, to give our views about politics in the USA. (I knew that it was a good idea to be ready for that :) If only we'd had a camera!

Tomorrow we'll take one out with us :)

I haven't even told you yet about our wonderful day yesterday with Brecken and Justin and Reuben and Simeon. Or that the Bishop and his wife where they go to church, are the two main (with dark hair) characters in the temple film. Or that we saw Justin's film, went to church in the building where the NYC temple is located, had a wonderful evening at a pot-luck dinner and choir practice for 30 at the home of one of the ward members, listened to some wonderful singers there - at least one from the NYC Met Opera, travelled by bus and on the subway, and stayed up until after 1 am, talking about all sorts of things with our wonderful hosts. But I'll have to tell you about all of that tomorrow. because right now I need to head to bed. Big day :)

I hope this makes sense. I'm really rather tired.

I love you all!

Does anyone have any news of our missing boys? Last seen heading to Idaho? (Please feel free to hassle/harass them into writing something!

xoxooxxoxoxoxoxoxooxo

(Tomorrow I am going to find a Book Store!! :)

We're here in NYC! aka 'Where are those Idaho Boys?

2009-12-06T10:02:00.004+10:00

We're here in NYC!

It's lovely - Brecken is delightful, and even prettier than you said Tammy, or than her photos show. Dad is sitting on the lounge, reading a series of books to Reuben, and struggling so valiantly not to go to sleep instead! Every now and then Reuben says for him to 'wake up', and Dad apologizes and says that he is silly to be going to sleep, isn't he? But he's not so very silly, since we each had about an hour's sleep last night, getting to bed at about 4am after packing, then getting up again at just after 5am, to leave for the airport at 6am (or a bit after, as it happened :)

We had the opportunity to go to a Stake music evening with Brecken tonight, (Justin is out late, working on a shoot), which sounded lovely, but we opted to stay and mind Reuben at home instead. Reuben is a lot of fun to talk to and be with. We are just so tired!

But very happy to be here :) It began to snow just as the airport taxi we were in pulled up to Justin and Brecken's apartment block. It was so pretty that I laughed to see it and paused for a few moments to watch it before we came inside.

The boys made it safely to Idaho, though stood outside in the cold there for an hour before being picked up, as their shuttle bus ran very early. Bruce told Dad when we rang that the boys looked like frozen popsicles when they picked them up :) But by the time we rang when we landed, they had been fed, thawed out and warmed up, and were outside again with Jason on the four-wheelers.

Dad's awake now - or I hope he is, since he and Reuben are playing 'catch-the-running, bouncing-boy-while-he-launches-himself-into-the-air-onto-the-visitor-from-Oz' game.

I'd write more, but ... I don't want to!

lol - Movie!! - Jonny!? You guys are getting slower...... It's not actually a movie...

I would like to! But I can hardly string enough words together in order to pretend that I still enjoy a level of coherent thought. I'll write more tomorrow, or Dad will. I keep going to sleep too....
Justin and Brecken will come home to find that Reuben is babysitting ussssssssssssssssszzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........

Love you allllllllllllll :)
xoxooxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoox

WE LIVE!!!!!!! You pessimistic people

2009-12-05T13:03:00.009+10:00

hey everbody!!!!!

IT'S BEN AND OLIVER AGAIN!!!!

(lucky)

We can tell by all of your comments that you may be a little worried about the state of our health and well being. We are here to inform you that you we are doing well. That will be all. Goodbye.

Ok, we lied and we are sorry :(

This week has been awesome!
We began as you know by staying with the Smoot's and going to their school etc. (It was SO weird! they had a running track INSIDE!! maybe it's just us who thinks that's weird)
Anyway, after we left the Smoot's house early on Tuesday afternoon, we went to visit Sister Arbuckle. We must admit that at first we thought this would be slightly awkward with looong pauses while Sister Arbuckle gathered her strength. (In our defense - We had never met her AND mum and dad kept talking about how "we weren't going to stay with her because she's older and it would be too much of a strain on her") We arrived shortly after leaving the Smoot's to find her and her daughter cleaning out the basement. Hmm....interesting.
Sister Arbuckle was awesome!!!

I've never heard of a grandmother who has made blankets for every single one of her 40 - 50 grandchildren

and lived to tell the tale! Mum was flabbergasted in every way about how healthy Sister Arbuckle is. (as she said about 50 times) repeating phrases such as "You look younger than the last time I saw you" and "You look so alive and energetic". Mum and Dad and Sister Arbuckle had a wonderful old chat but we would have to say that the highlight for us would have to be the lunch. Frozen Custard. We'll let you ponder that for a second........Mmmm Yummy. (NOTE FROM OLIVER: I don't even like custard but this was more ice-cream from heaven)

The best part about this lunch was that it cost NOTHING. Sister Arbuckles grandson owns and works there and was working when we came in. SCORE! Mum and Dad and Sister Arbuckle all had sandwiches. Myself and Ben were smarter then this. We saved the space for the other things :D

Dad even said that this ice-cream gave new meaning to the word 'smooth'. I (Oliver) even challenged them as never before and tried to get them to replicate a 'Cherry Ripe' flavour after giving a small description of a 'Cherry Ripe'.

Oliver: Ummm... it's like cherry mixed with some coconut covered in chocolate....

Dad: Yeah, that sounds like it

Server: ......um...ok

Six minutes later, that came out with Cherry Ripe Ice-Cream. It was Amazing.

We then took our journey towards Salt Lake city again.

The Toones were not expecting us until later on in the evening because they would not be home SO we went and took a tour of the conference center! IT'S HUGE!!! We all thought it was awesome. From the paintings, to the sculptures, to the floor (Yes the floor is pretty amazing), to the Christmas trees, to the decorations and to the conference hall itself. It was breath taking. These were a few of my favourite things - Stop singing and keep reading - The picture of Jesus visiting the Americas after his death (That painting is MASSIVE) The Hall with the balconies that aren't supported by any pillars so that EVERY seat has a clear view of the pulpit. (the guy who was taking us through on this tour mentioned that the upper balcony actually sinks about 15 - 25 inches when it's full ....... Proverbs 3:5-6)

This tour sadly ended without being able to see the roof of the conference centre (to all those who didn't know, like myself, the roof is four acres of park lands)

Our direction following skills were then put to the test as we ventured off to find the Toone's House. We blame Google directions. We arrived at their house later then we had planned but were warmly welcomed into their home. We inhabited their basement as we still do until tomorrow morning. They are both so wonderful. Claire had even made up more beds then were needed just to give us the option of where to sleep. Elder Toone (hehehe) was exactly the way we remembered him. Helping wherever and always smiling. After talking with them for a little while they fed us and allowed us to go to bed. We woke up in the morning to find Claire cooking German pancakes along with one of the BEST sauces we've ever tasted. We then took of for a day of fun :D

Park City.

The city renowned for it's snow of which it had almost none... D:

BUT we did continue to drive up the mountains as far as possible until we found the small patch of snow. It was there that we realised just how dirty Ben is when it comes to snowball fights (NOTE: I should mention now that neither of us could really make a snowball. I came close, but it took ages!)

NOTE: The trucks that drove over the snow compressed the snow making them blocks of ice. Ben uses them numerous times throughout the video. If he picks something up and throws it straight away, that is a block of ice the size of a snowball.

After this short play in the snow, we all jumped back into the car and tried to regain movement in our fingers while driving down to the main street of Park City.

The Main street in Park City is like a frozen version of the cute street up in Caloundra. We began at a small restaurant called "The Establishment" We had a wonderful meal after which dad gave a lesson on the current economic trends. (HAHAHAHA ask someone later). We then continued to RUN up and down this street entering any shop that had a heater on. (It was -8 degrees). This was so much fun. We ended in the Family Tree, A small family history centre that was built while the winter Olympics where in Park City. We then drove to the outlet area. Imagine DFO, but make it outside (the front of each store led out into the cold) make the shops twice as large, the prices half as much and put a red moose out the front holding a shopping bag. That's the Ranger Shopping outlet! We got there at 2:30ish and had to DRAG mum away before the shops shut to be back at the Toone's house for dinner. Mum still had the opportunity to buy one bag of stuff..... Dad, Ben and I managed 3 bags....don't ask.

Once again we blame Google Directions.

Although this one is a bit of a stretch since we weren't actually following directions but as Dad saw the big signs leading to the Toone's house pass by on the off ramp that we weren't friends with... we wish we had.

Once again, the Toone's gave us a lovely meal after which we all headed to bed.

Thursday morning was just as wonderful as Wednesday morning. We emerged from the depths of the house to find about 8 different cereals lined up on the table with bowls and spoons placed neatly on the table. The milk was off to the side. We all some cereal and talked for a while with Claire (Matthew was already at work). Today's plan was to split. Mum was going over to visit her e-buddy while the rest of us were going back to the Smoot's house to pick up a power board that we had left there. We drove south for about half an hour to drop off mother. We then drove an hour and a half north to the Smoot's house followed by another hour and a half south to pick up mum (We also had a good time talking to mum's e-buddy and her daughter and her daughter's friend for a while :P). This was then followed by three quarters of an hour north east back to Tanger Outlet. Yes, we went back but this time mum stayed until 9. Dad, Ben and I ran to different places for mother, slept in the car etc. Once again mum came out with many shopping bags. Dad, Ben and Myself had improved since the night before and were able to limit it to 4 bags.... it's not what it seems. (did anyone else start thinking about the swan princess just then or was that just me???)

Everyone was dead by the time we got back to the Toone's house. So we all fell into bed.. after talking for a while and eating a few toasties that Claire made to counter act every one's hunger.

This morning was once again awesome. This morning was yogurt with chopped oranges and banana followed by a potato, bacon casserole thing. It tasted better then it sounds :D

Today was different to the others. Today Mum drove to whatever shops she could find. Meanwhile Dad, Ben and myself caught a ride into Salt Lake City with Matthew as he drove to work. It's not like mum just wanted to shop instead on being with us, She DID have good reasons to shop. Back on temple square, we began the day with baptisms at the Salt Lake City Temple. It was wonderful. Very different from Brisbane temple but was just as good :D This was followed by visiting the South and North visitors centres on temple square, the assembly hall, the church office building, the Brigham Young Memorial Park, the conference centre (we wanted to see the roof), the church history museum and finally the Family History Centre. We just fit as much as we could into our final day in Salt Lake. It was SO fun. We also had lunch at the Lion House. We then ran back to the north west corner of the conference centre to catch a ride back to the Toone's house with Matthew. We had to run because we had spent our last hour in the Family History centre looking up family members :D (This was really interesting and fun - well at least for me and i guess dad and Ben to ..... so interesting and fun for everyone!)

When we got back to the Toone's house, we were relieved to see that mum was back safely (she hadn't finished shopping. She was waiting for dad and dinner so that she could return to the shops to pick up...

*PARTS OF THIS TEXT HAVE BEEN LOST/STOLEN BY CHRISTMAS SPIRIT DUE TO THE CONTENT IT MAY CONTAIN AND THE DAMAGE THIS COULD HAVE ON CHRISTMAS SPIRIT*

...After/during/now we are writing to comfort you all and letting you know that we are safe. I should also note that Ben and I played electronic Monopoly with Matthew

This is a photo I have titled: I can walk on water too.

It was taken on top of the Conference Centre which we went back to today to go on the roof. All the little pools of water had ice on them!

You may be disappointed that we only uploaded one photo, HOWEVER. It took ages, you already have a video and it's midnight here.

We are all having SOOO much fun. America is so different. We are all smiling every day and having a great time. (There you go Tammy!)

Goodbye and Goodnight

From Oliver ... and Ben

P.S. When uploading the photo, we might have chosen the wrong one ... but at least it's a photo :D

P.P.S. We apologise if this post seemed to get more and more boring as the post went on. This is due to our fatigue and time restrictions.

P.P.P.S. You better appreciate the picture, my feet were freezing while I waited for that picture to be taken!

The day we almost died.

2009-12-02T03:01:00.003+10:00

Well, I am here, bowing to public pressure to write a blog entry. I should just go and write it on my own blog but I do not know how to get into it. Anyway, it is Tuesday 1st December here, about 10am. We are at the home of Steve and Kathy Smoot. Yesterday we left thr Armstrong Mansion around 11am and head down to temple sqaure. After find ing a place to park we walked there stopping at a little souvenior (spelling) shop. There were a lot of T Shirts with all sorts of writing on them. The boys really enjoyed reading them all. We went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building just in time to see the movie, 'Joseph Smith - The Prophet of the Restoration'. It is still a tear jerker. Ben and oliver trying to man up and head back a dry tissue, but we know they were touched by the spirit. It is hard not be with such a story.

After that Ben, Oliver and I went to the Lion House and Beehive House for a tour while Chickybabe went to ... see if you can guess .....no not the visitors centre, ...... no, not to the cinnabon shop, .... no, not to the welfare centre, ..... no, not to the Church History Museum.. OK I'll tell you because you'll never guess. She went to the Deseret Bookshop. I know, I know, that came out of left field. Who could have guessed that?? Now here is something that will really knock your socks off. Sandy came out WITHOUT a single book. Let me give you a moment to recover.

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Feeling better? Need a little longer? Take all the time you need.

We ate at the Lion House Pantry Reataurant, which was nice and homely. We left Salt Lake then and travelled north to Centerville where we went to a Walmart to get a couple of things and then came further north to Kaysville to the Smoots home. We experienced another little "woopie daisy" moment. This time we didn't 'nearly' turn into the left side, we actually did. I use the term 'we' to help share the burden. I have to admit that the three passengers in the car were extremly quick to notify the driver that he needed to go RIGHT!!!! RIGHT !!!! RIGHT !!!. I am thinking that I don't have to turn right for three miles. Oncoming traffic helped me to realise what they were talking about and the situation was expertly and instantly rectified without any harm done (unless you think soaring blood pressure is harmful).

We had a lovely night with the Smoots. They only have Jenny and Ashleigh at home, but Ryan dropped by with a mate and Matt and his wife and baby dropped by as well. The Smoots asked after all of you and wanted to know all that was happening in your lives and send their love. W e had a nice dinner and talked a lot and caught up with their lives. We played UNO. The only reason I did not regain my world UNO champion title is that I never had it in the first place. The other reason is that I didn't come anywhere near first place. I could have if I wanted too but I was worried about the sensitive feelings of the younger players.

We have had a lazy morning so far and the twins are about to go up to Jenny's high school to have a look around and the we will be on our way to see more stuff.

So that's it for this entry. Check us out tomorrow. Same Bat time, same Bat channel.

Love to you all

Dad

PS

2009-11-30T16:16:00.002+10:00

Two things more:

One: I'll get Dad to write tomorrow, hopefully. (For all those fans who have been requesting him.)

Two: Jessima has been keeping a travel blog of their time at Hamilton island. You might like to check it out, as it's wonderful, with fabulous photographs (unlike this one so far!) and Jenna is shown being adorable, as usual. You'll find it here:

http://jonnyandjessima.blogspot.com/

"Woopsadaisy!"...

2009-11-30T14:15:00.002+10:00

It's what Dad says all the time! ... when he almost drove off the road, .. when he almost drove into oncoming traffic (momentary mind block on the right-hand drive thing)... :)! He didn't even realize he was saying it until we all started laughing!

You need to try to imagine where I am right now. I'm sitting up to a beautiful dark wood antique desk, facing a corner of the room. Next to the computer screen is a large and heavy glass and marble table lamp, fringed with dangling crystals. On my right is a large, elaborately carved fireplace surround, overhung with a mirror under which a bronze bust of Brigham Young sits upon the mantle. Ben is reading his scriptures on the huge, comfy, (Ben says it is comfy!), leather-upholstered, cushion-covered lounge right next to my other side. Opposite him is a matching lounge, and at the end of the room, behind me, is an eight foot tall, beautifully decorated Christmas tree flanked by matching upholstered armchairs. The tree stands before a trio of lace curtained windows set into a curved wall. The woodwork in the room is oak coloured, and all the doors, the window and door frames, and the wooden dado wall are extensively carved. The ceiling is at least eleven feet tall, and the gilded and painted cornice is about three feet wide and is amazingly elaborate.

We are at the Armstrong Mansion, in Salt Lake City, having arrived here a few hours ago, from St George, where we stayed last night at the Days Inn (no internet to use there, sorry :) Fortunately, this net use is complimentary, which means that I will be able to quickly check my emails too - although I can't be too long, because I have a line of politely-not-wanting-to-be-too-pushy-people (hi Ben and Oli :) behind me.

We were to have stayed tonight with the Smoot family, just north of SLC, but Steve and Cathy had to be out at a special church function tonight, and Steve suggested that he book a complimentary room for us here for tonight instead. (Steve is one of the owners of the Armstrong Mansion.) It's a lovely bed and breakfast just a few blocks from Temple Square, so it is lovely to be here, and we will head over to spend a night with them tomorrow instead.

St. George was a little out of our way on the way up from the Grand Canyon, but we are glad that we made the visit there. We arrived in the early evening, and really enjoyed a (chilly) walk around the beautiful St. George Temple grounds soon after we were able to get settled at our hotel and get something to eat. The grounds were lit with wonderful Christmas lights in all of the trees and all through the gardens. Out the front of the temple was a life-size nativity, with a recording of the Christmas story playing over speakers. We could immediately recognize that it was the voice of President Hinckley that was speaking, and Neil and I both got choked up. Like Neil said, it was like meeting an old friend again there.

This morning we attended church at the Stake centre opposite the temple. The first talk was by a sister whose great-grandfather was the author of the Christmas hymn, 'Far, Far Away on Judea's Plain'! She told us the story of how he came to write it, in St. George, all those years ago, for a church Christmas choral program, never guessing that it would gain the world-wide recognition that it has. This sister told us that she is ninety eight years old! The other two talks were also wonderful - one on the importance of the messages in the Conference edition of the Ensign, and another on the importance of forgiveness. The brother who gave this talk told us of a heart-breaking, true story of some of his friends, who had had a division in their family for many years, until finally, spirits were humbled and hearts softened and family members were reunited in love. But oh - what a tragedy that so much time had passed meanwhile! It was very poignant and I wished you could all have been here with us to hear what was shared.

On the way up from St. George we stopped in at Cove Fort for a tour with the missionaries there. Ben says: "It was so cold! It was cool. I didn't know that it would be so busy - not just today, but in the past. I thought that it would be a random fort in the middle of nowhere. While going through it, it was a lot easier to count your blessings! Life is much easier today."

It was so cold in fact, that there was snow on the way up here!!! There's even snow here in patches on the ground, although it's almost more ice. But still very exciting!! :)

Well done! - to anyone who is still reading :) You must really love us. Or... nope, I'm going to go with the much loving us :)

But now it is time for bed. We have just come in from a night-time visit to Temple Square. It was beautiful! We listened for a time to a choir singing Christmas carols in the Visitor's Centre, then rambled for a while among the gorgeous Christmas lights, until Dad was too cold to continue. (He hadn't come rugged up enough.) I think that the boys were freezing too, but less inclined to admit it :)

We love you all so much!
Sweet dreams!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

ps : PHOTOS. We are taking a LOT of them, but are not easily able to load any just yet. We should be able to post some next week. Or the week after. Or will have a 'come up and see my holiday slides' night when we get home :)
xo

Friday at the Grand Canyon

2009-11-28T11:33:00.003+10:00

Tammy:

Ben thinks: it's a hole
(Best big hole he's ever going to see!)
Ben feels: Miniscule.

Oliver thinks: We should build a flying fox over the canyon. He's almost got it worked out.
Oliver feels: He says he feels small next to it.

Dad thinks: He told you last time. Breathtaking!
Feels: Relaxed.

Mother thinks: I wonder if I turned off the iron before I left home?
Mother feels: Aahh. Happy smile! (I think I did :)

Today, Friday, at the Grand Canyon:

Woke up a bit better (jet lag has been a problem. That, or we are all just very lazy :)

Did some washing.

All went to see the Grand Canyon movie at the Imax theatre. Fun. Almost hit our feet on an outcrop of rock. Made it to the end of the movie safely.

Caught a bus to the Eastern end of the Canyon walks. Enjoyed hiking back to the main area, a few miles away, along the eastern rim. Took some great photos. Dad went and sat away a bit so that he would not have to watch through some of the more daring ones!

Hiking down the Angel trail into the canyon a little way.

Have had a nice dinner and are happily now heading back to our cosy cabin to get into pj's, snuggle into bed, drink hot chocolate and watch something on tv together. (I've also got a book to read and Oli and Ben are SuDoku-ing it in a big way.

We're having fun :) Bonding. Eating :) Walking/hiking. Saw deer, goats, squirrels and a huge black bear so far. Kidding about the bear :)

(This costs us a fortune whenever we log on - it's actually the way the rangers at the GCanyon finance all the programs and conservation at the park, so please forgive us if we are brief, don't currently have time to check emails, and are really boring - can I blame that on it too? Please? :)

Love you all tonnes :)
xoxoxoxoxo

It's a Giant Hole!!!

2009-11-27T12:55:00.003+10:00

This is Oliver and Ben.

Mum said it was our turn to write on this blog (bahahahaha).

We have been instructed to write about our day at the Great Hole.

It all began last night with ambitious dreams about waking up early. This morning at 11 o'clock we achieved this dream. We arrived at the foxhole just after 11:15. After Mum, Ben and myself had been walking around finding food and places to fill up our water bottles we finally found dad who had gone to park the car. Excitedly we jumped on the red route bus that took us to the very western end of the walkable trails. Once more we stopped for food and drinks; after which we started the long trek back to the cabin. 10m down the bitumen path mum happened to spot a small winding goat trail much closer to the rim. Dad sighed. Mum jumped over the powerless barrier designed for her safety and took off down the path. Ben let about 1 second pass before he also jumped, unfortunately a little far..... R.I.P Ben ... photos to come.... jokes! he just took off after mum. Oliver being the angel that he is, felt sorry for his father being abandoned by his wife and child and stayed by his side and gave him a shoulder to lean on. Well they had an awesome time walking down the BUILT path playing kick the rock and hit the cheesecake (the cheesecake was a very large rock at the bottom of the hole shaped like a piece of cheesecake) Meanwhile mum and Ben enjoyed living life on the edge taking HEAPS of photos (NOTE: Dad and myself were unable to take any photos of our fun because mum and Ben took all three cameras) some of which are rather impressive. They may tell you that their journey was much funner and more exciting, however, dad and I were able to spend a large amount of our time bonding and having fun without living in fear of the falling from the edge. After walking 3.7 miles (7.7km) from Hermits Rest to Mohave Point Dad couldn't take it any longer. We needed to catch the bus to get to Hopi Point to watch the sunset in time. To our surprise, Ben and Mum were already on the bus having caught after walking 2.7 miles (4.5 km) but they assure us that they had more fun and got to see just as much as us (we don't actually understand how that works) After watching the sunset, we drove back down to our cabin and ate at the same place we did last night. This is all we have time for because our money is running out.

Goodbye until we meet again (or until you read this again - either or) :)

Written by Oliver
Supported by Ben

Arrival at the Grand Canyon

2009-11-26T12:45:00.003+10:00

This is now officially a travel blog!

We are at the Grand Canyon, having arrived yesterday at the LA airport at 6.45am on Tuesday, (the day we left home at 12.30pm), then travelled to Las Vegas by plane, then on to the Hoover Dam by hire car. By the time we finally hit the pillows last night at about 7.30pm, we were so tired that we slept through until fairly late this morning. Dad was up at 7am; I dragged myself up at 8am, and we beat the boys up until they finally rose at about 10am.

Boarding the Qantas Jumbo from Brisbane we passed the business class seats on the way in (I overheard Oliver behind me saying, "sweet!" before he realized those weren't our seats :) before heading to almost the back seats of the plane. We had forgotten how cramped it could be! I managed about 2 -3 hours all up, and I don't think that Neil or the boys did much better. It was a long trip, but would have been much longer if we were swimming, so... :)

The Dam would have been really good if we weren't still so tired. All any of us secretly wanted to do was to snuggle into a comfy bed! It was interesting though.

Leaving our hotel this morning so late, we have arrived here in the dark, so we'll push the boys out the door to see the 'big hole in the ground' first thing in the morning. The nights come early here, and dawn is not until about 7am, so we don't want to waste too much time.

I only have a moment left before my time runs out! So I'd better tell you the important things:

We are fine. We love you. :) Write soon!!
xoxoxo

Have seen lots of cars riding along with no-one in the driver's seat.... strange and a little frightening! :)

It's BYO umbrella!

2009-11-06T12:04:00.007+10:00

I would just like to share this with somebody:

The wonderful music of 'Il Divo' is playing through the ceiling speakers, currently accompanied by the 'plop..plop' and 'drip..drip' of rain water coming in through the leak in our roof, falling through the space where our entry-way ceiling used to be, and landing on the polished floor a few feet from where I sit, relaying this damp little drama to you!

The plasterer just left. He had come to replace the storm-damaged panel in our ceiling, but decided not to continue after he and I both discovered that the leak has still not been fixed. The discovery was a little more exciting for him - he had just removed part of the ceiling when it began to storm outside and he was suddenly liberally showered by rain whilst indoors! The roofer promises that he will be here on Monday morning at 7.30am, but I think I am losing my confidence in him... he was going to be here yesterday. And on Friday, without fail. And the Wednesday before, barring death or war.

So the painter who was booked for 7.30am on Monday will no longer be able to start her work then . (Yes - apparently a 'she'.) And the carpet cleaners coming on Wednesday may now be in the way of the painter when, (if ever) the work is ready to do.

Abby's baby shower is on next Saturday. (Please hold the puns.) Hmmn! Oh-well.

On the up side :
'Il Divo' has been followed on the player by the beautiful voice of Sarah Brightman.
...So maybe there won't be a roof over our heads... :O
Maybe the house won't be ready for the baby shower in time... :(
But at least... there will be music!
:)

ps I also had a very pleasant chat with the plasterer before he left - I believe it had something to do with him suddenly finding that his very booked and busy day was a dud after-all. I was able to hear about his outing this morning to a V8 car track, where he and a mate had enormous fun, racing their cars at 270 miles an hour (I think that is what he said. - He also said that he would have stayed there for longer if he had known what awaited him at our house.) I learned about the time he and a mate went parachuting, (he loved it :) and about a dare he took for $50 from a mate (!) - to swim across a shark-infested lagoon on an island somewhere! He (my plasterer) had a snorkel and fins, and the water was only a metre or two in depth, but the sharks were so thick in the water, that he could barely use his fingers to swim along without hitting them. They were right in his face and brushing against him as soon as he put his head underwater. They were only reef sharks, and no longer than a couple of metres each, but still! He had a little underwater camera, and took shots (very close-up!) of them all the way across, with the sharks getting more and more agressive all the while. Whew! Rick (my plasterer) has a few sons who are turning out just like him too, no doubt to the delight of his real-estate-selling wife.
Rick will be back next week. I hope. I wonder if he would bring photographs....?
:)

I'm sad.

2009-10-16T18:06:00.010+10:00

I'm feeling sad :(

I realize that's it's not a big deal to anyone else, and when compared to war, or famine, or the rising cost of chocolate, it's really nothing at all....

But I have just had another dreadful haircut! As luck would have it, and very unusually for me, I've been really liking my hair lately! It's been longer recently, and sitting nicely almost always, so that it's really been very little trouble, and - highly unusual, this - even a source of some mild satisfaction. I went in for just a trim, (because we are going away on holiday in a month or so, and I was getting in early, just in case it needed growing into), and came out realizing that I will hardly need to use shampoo for the next six months! All my hair's gone! Unfortunately, I had been rather hoping that I might look better rather than worse when we go away. Hmph!

What is it with me and haircuts!?

And I should know not to make an effort before any event! I remember a date I went on when I was sixteen. I had come across a recipe in a magazine for a natural face mask, and applied some mashed-together yoghurt and cucumber to my face a hour or so before I was due to go out. I happily thought it was working well because it made my face all-over tingly, until I washed it off and was left with wildly red splotches all over my face and neck! I don't remember how my date reacted - I just remember how mortifying and hilarious it was. And ironic!

Then there was the YSA ball I decided I would make more than the usual effort for. Neil and I had just parted ways and stopped dating for a time, and I was going to the ball with Alex, a mutual friend of ours. (As it happened, Alex and I sat across the table from Neil and his date.) It was a hair thing again! For only the second time ever in my life, (the first was at my mother's re-marriage when I was ten), I decided to have my hair put into an 'up' do at the hairdresser's. I remember I told the woman doing it, that more than anything, it was to: a) look soft and natural, and b) use as little hairspay as possible. Predictably, I left the salon with a stiff hair helmet - absolutely awful. I ran all the way home, as wildly as I could, to make it all fall down if possible, and arrived laughing and looking a complete fright. My (patient) date arrived while we were still washing my hair out over the laundry sink.

Then there was the time I was going on a beach date and thought to try some self-tanning lotion the night before.... But I'm sure you've heard enough.

Am I the only one this happens to?!

Ok, ok! ... :)

2009-10-07T13:37:00.014+10:00

I was sitting at the computer in our study a few minutes ago, when I heard the first loud 'splats' on our roof from an all-too-brief, but heavy, rain squall. (I've been noticing in recent days how brown the grass is getting, and had just mentioned this morning that we need rain - ergo I feel as though I must have somehow ordered it! :)

After sitting at the computer doing genealogy since early this morning it was a relief to jump up to close some of our windows against the rain. The smell was wonderful! Then all at once, quite as if a maestro was leading them, all the birds in the forest and around the house began to sing, and they sounded so amazingly happy that it was just beautiful!

But that's not why I haven't posted for so long.... On the Saturday after my birthday at the end of August, Tammy and Abby gave me a surprise birthday afternoon tea! It was so lovely of them and everthing was so beautiful, that I wanted to post a few pictures of it, but was not sure who had taken what photos, and on what camera - and I am so disorganised as to have still not worked it out yet!

Finally, Abby posted a couple of pictures that she took while they were preparing, here on her blog, which will give you somewhat of an idea - but you should know that they don't do justice to how nicely the girls had prepared and presented everything. In addition to our family, they had invited some of my friends too. I had no idea of it at all. Which was funny afterwards, when I realized how keen the children at home had been to get me out of the house that morning, while I had been enjoying relaxing and chatting with them for hours! (Tammy was at Abby's while they both cooked all morning - I thought she was at work.) As soon as I finally left with Neil, the boys and Bethany tore into doing a garden trim-up and getting everything else ready. Anyway - I was very proud of them all - for being always so generous, and for having the skills to do everything so well!

And while I'm posting about how wonderful the children are: We have just finished two weeks of school holidays, that we spent doing some of the spring-cleaning! Yay!! (That was me, not necessarily them :) However, it brought a little skip of joy to my happy heart to see how enthusiastically Ben dedicated himself on one of the days, to scrubbing out the oven, as well as the stove, the exhaust fan and the grill, until they shone like new. (That was my directive for the cleaning - to make everything look as if it is brand new!) It makes me feel as though I have done something right - to be able to hand over our son one day to his (projected) new wife and whisper, as I happily tear up a little and hug her, "He does ovens too!"

Not to be outdone, Oliver likewise gladdened my heart one day when he came to tell me, after cleaning all the windows and window surrounds in the house, and as though it was a precious secret he had discovered, "It really feels satisfying to get something clean!" Good times! The twins were really good sports about it all for the most part. They cleaned for 4-6 hours each day in the morning, then organised some fun dates and activities for each afternoon/evening. Now they are back at school for their last term before graduation!

(The photo at the top is of a baby quilt I sewed a few weeks ago. Bright, isn't it? I'm trying to stash away an assorted collection for future babies :)

Don't you love Spring?!

My Birthday

2009-09-02T11:00:00.007+10:00

It was my birthday on Monday, and I had a lovely, lovely day!

Neil took the day off, as he does each year. I hadn't been well, so I didn't even try to open my eyes til about 9am, then still stayed in bed until after 11am. Neil brought me some breakfast that Tammy had prepared, then read his scriptures for a while, while I ate, and we enjoyed chatting and reading together.

I finally managed to get myself up and dressed so that we could head out to do some shopping in the afternoon. Neil had surprised us all a couple of years ago by turning things around and giving each of us a gift on his birthday! I loved the idea, so he and I have each done the same since then.

We'd had the missionaries over for dinner the night before, on Sunday evening, (I hadn't wanted to cancel it), and had enjoyed a very pleasant evening with them and with all the rest of the family too, including Michael and Bec, who can't always come from so far away. For my birthday all the family was coming again, which meant that I had 13 gifts to buy, and only a few hours to do it in - but Neil helped me and we were able to get everything I had wanted to. I'm afraid that we were really too extravagant - but we kept reminding ourselves that it was my birthday, and that this was what I enjoyed the most, so... :)

We snuck the parcels in while the children, led by Tammy, were preparing dinner in the kitchen. It was so nice to come home to everyone together, including Michael and Bec, and to be met with beautiful flowers, delicious smells, and all the happy sounds of our family.

After a yummy dinner and an FHE lesson by Neil, we participated in the activity, which was present-opening! I was given some perfect, thoughtful presents from everyone, which I love, (thank you!) before we finished with a birthday cake made by Jessima.

Lovely!

Christmas is coming......!

2009-08-25T10:18:00.004+10:00

Thank you for the travel advice! Neil and I are still trying to find a time when we are both still awake and not too tired to finalize our plans, but your suggestions and thoughts on here and in emails have been very helpful :) The suggestion box is still open for now, if you think of anything else... :)

It's that time of the year when our family start to think more seriously about Christmas coming up, and Christmas presents. We've had a tradition since the children were little, of making our gifts for one another, so we are always on the look-out for ideas. I usually sit down with each of the children in the September holidays, to plan out anything they might need help with. Now of course, they are older and can usually take care of it themselves. (You can see an example of a previous present here.)

I know that Jessima is already all organized, as she usually and wonderfully is, (although I haven't managed yet to weedle out of her what exactly it is that she is doing! There's still time though - and I haven't even started on Jonny yet :) Abby and James seem to be all set too.

I've also pretty much planned out what I will be doing, and have started on making some of my presents. But since I also double as the 'Fount of all ideas for Christmas presents', for everyone else in the family, I've been checking out a few webs sites for more ideas.

One site that I've come across has some useful ideas, not just for gifts, but for activities to do with children, etc, too, that I thought some of you might find interesting. I admit that part of what I like about this particular site is that the photos are clear and beautiful, and I love the colours in them. You can find the site here. I enjoyed looking around on it to find some things I like - I hope you can find something useful there too. For example - in 'Photography Tips', there is an explanation on how to post larger pictures on your blog page.

Did you know that there are only 122 days left before Christmas?
:)

Open for travel advice!

2009-08-18T17:59:00.018+10:00

(These are shots of Ben and Oliver with Jason, taken when he came to stay with us on holidays last year from Idaho. We are looking forward to seeing Jason and his family again soon :)

It would be more interesting for you, the reader, if the following travel-planning musings were part of a clever metaphor that tied our occasional physical journeyings to our path through life..

But it isn't :) It really is just travel-planning musings that I am asking for help with -from You!

A few months ago, when fares were half their normal price, Neil booked return tickets for himself, Ben and Oliver and me, to fly to the States at the end of the year.

We will be leaving Australia on Tuesday the 24th of November, and will arrive several hours earlier in LA on the same day! (I still always get a kick out of that! Does that mean that if you kept flying west-ward for days on end that you'd end up back in last week? :) We will leave there on Friday, the 18th December, and arrive home on Sunday morning, the 2oth.

The twins will finish high school just a few days before we leave. They otherwise would have been going on a week-long trip up to the Barrier Reef with other LDS grade 12 graduates in the time we are away, but are happy to come with us to the snow instead! The snow is one of the drawcards for us all - Neil and I love it and the twins have never seen it. This trip is also their Christmas and birthday presents, for the next 3 - 6 years... And ours! :)

We have been busy with tax season at work, (especially Neil, who has been working from 6am-9pm, plus Saturday mornings ) and haven't properly planned out the trip yet. Especially for visiting at such a busy time of the year, we know that we are leaving it a little late to be booking places.... so, wondered if anyone can help us?

(I have spent hours on the net, but much of it has been frustratingly less than helpful.)

This is what we are more or less planning so far, but we would love any further, or better ideas:

We don't think we need to spend any time in LA... ? I have asked the twins and Neil if the theme parks are a must for them, but they don't seem particularly keen, especially after what they have heard about waiting in lines for hours. I also have wondered about whether we ought to do a day or half-day bus tour of LA? I've read that these are quite good, and they apparently visit a lot of interesting places. However, none of us feel too upset at the idea of just leaving LA as soon as we get there. (Unless we reconsider after you telling us that we should... :)

We have decided that we would like to visit the Grand Canyon for about 3 nights. Neil and I loved it there - and so would like to take the twins, even though Ben says he has no interest in seeing what is 'essentially just a big hole in the ground'. We told him that this is one of those (many, many, many times :) when his parents know best, and that he will thank us anon! I am keen for us to walk the entire southern rim, (I'm blissfully imagining doing it in a snow storm), and also to hike a few hours down into the canyon. (And out again :) Driving from there to Salt Lake City is going to take at least another day. Also, if we fly to Phoenix and drive from there to the GC, it seems that along the way we could see Montezuma's castle, Meteor Crater and the Oak Canyon Scenic Drive.

We plan to be in SLC for about 6 days. We'll take the boys all through Temple Square; to the JS Memorial building for the film and some lunch (up top); take a tour of the Convention Centre, and the Humanitarian Centre; perhaps book for a baptismal session at the temple; perhaps do a tour of BYU; and visit friends. We're also looking forward to the Christmas lights on Temple Square! And we'll do shopping at the bookstores. And visit Park City, which I loved on a previous trip, so want to show the twins. Anything else??

After SLC, we plan to send the twins up to hang out in Idaho with Jason and his family there, while Neil and I set off for a week on our own :) We are thinking that we might head to New York during that time. Brecken has very kindly already offered some great suggestions, as well as offered to put us up with her and Justin for a bit, while we take another look around the city. (See Random Things, number 10.) But we are wondering if we should hire a car for a few days and head north to see Boston too, with Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard etc. along the way (just because I love the sound of them :)? Or visit Vermont? Or re-visit the Niagra Falls? (Really not sure here.) Brecken has suggested that south to DC might have less snow, but - I love snow! Although we are not used to driving in it. Does that much matter? Or should we just stay in NYC for the week? See shows; do Christmas shopping; live in the art galleries; get a NYC Pass, and sight-see like crazy?

Then back to Idaho for a joyous re-union with our loving sons, who will be missing us like crazy by then - if they actually have noticed our absence at all.. :) And a wonderful 5 days or so with the fabulous Hampton family, which will be a real high-light of the trip for us. We'll hopefully be enjoying some snow activities there too!..... Snowball fights at Jason; burying Jason in the snow; showing Jason up on the snow-mobiles... we'll all have lots of fun! :)

Now - if you've been adding up the days, you will find that we have used up about 23 days so far, of our 24 and a half day trip. It would be easy to spend that bit of extra time anywhere along the way, but I've been considering some other ideas....

So far, everywhere we are going, Neil and I have more or less been before. I was wondering if we should, or might be able, to fit in a road trip for a few days, from LA up to San Fransisco. Along the way we could see some of the Spanish architecture in Santa Barbara; the Hearst Castle and the elephant seals and sea-lions on the beach near San Luis Obispo; drive along the coast through Big Sur, Carmel and Monterey, where again we might sea sea-lions and otters along the sea front; take the famous 17 mile drive past pebble beach; and try to see some of the Californian redwood trees too :) We could then perhaps fly from San Francisco to Phoenix, on our way to the GC.

This really sounds good to me. We love road trips with beautiful scenery and interesting sights.

But how are we going to fit it in? How many days would we need in order to do this? What other part of the trip would we take the days from? Is it worth it??

Something else that I know we need to keep in mind is that we will arrive in LA on the 24th of November, and Thanksgiving in the States is on the 26th. If we go straight to the GC, we will be there for this. If we head north along the Californian coast, we will be somewhere along there... Does it matter where we are? Are we going to have more trouble booking somewhere around this time?

Neil has been too busy at work (and being Bishop), to give much thought to any of this, although he is really looking forward to it - and the twins are just happy they are coming along, and keen to do or see anything fun or interesting. I would love to hear any ideas/suggestions/advice/warnings that anyone else might have?? Nothing apart from our return tickets is booked yet, and the only destinations and activities we are definitely tied to emotionally, are the GC, SLC and Idaho. And probably NYC.... And possibly the northern Ca coast. Oh dear! Any suggestions?

Thank you! - Even for reading this far :)

A photo of Abby but nothing at all profound!

2009-08-12T12:55:00.004+10:00

I haven't written for a while :)

Just doing other things, I guess.

Our daughter Abby is pregnant! That is very happy news for us all, as you might imagine :)

That is Abby in the photo above. She's bigger now. But still our baby having her own baby! The baby is due in January next year.

....

I'd like to write something profound,

but would need to found/find it first!

I'd like to write something beautiful,

but just thinking about you seems to cover that :)

Would love to share something very interesting!

In Ter Rest... Nope. Sorry :)

And that's where I've been folks! :) I've been reading a lot, and really enjoying some others' profoundly interesting and amusing thoughts... And have been loving the beautiful days we've been having - the weather is perfectly lovely recently! I've been getting onto my list of Things To Do. But nothing to really share, which concerns me with wondering thoughts about whether I am selfish: glad to take but not much to give.. oh dear...

Sigh.

:)

xo

Just family news..

2009-07-21T11:45:00.016+10:00

It's been a few weeks since I wrote... clearly.. :) Here's a catch-up on some of the recent happenings:

(I've changed the blog page background - some friends and family were having trouble reading the old one - I think because they have Mac computers. We'll see if this helps.)

We had a family work day at Neil's office a couple of Saturdays ago that was enjoyed by all (I think :) It was a lot of work but was fun too and went well. All the family was there (except Mick and Bec), plus a few wonderful friends who came along to help. We managed to have everything done by the end of the day, which was amazing considering how much work there was to do. Altogether we planted over 300 plants, built paths and gardens, and moved about 18 cubic metres of mulch, compost and decomposed granite. We began about 7am and finished up in the dark at about 7.30pm. Some of the people passing the corner wondered if we were filming a 'Backyard Blitz' episode, and were looking for the cameras :)

The photos also show the wheelchair ramp that Jonny and the twins built and painted for us in the last week of their holidays. They did a great job. James is at the office today (and yesterday), finishing up some of the painting on the veranda.

The Friday night following was the regional Priests and Laurels Ball for which I had been busy organising, sewing and catering etc. Tammy surprised me by taking Thursday and Friday off work to help out - so generous of her, as always. I really enjoyed the time working with her, along with James and Abby (on school and Uni. holidays), who also came by all of Thursday and Friday, to see what they could do to help. All three were amazing and I could hardly have done it without them! Then Jonny and James and Abby and Tammy and Bethany all helped for the evening up at the chapel too, along with a few wonderful friends who came to help on the night. Neil left work in time to pick up Ben and Oliver and their dates for the ball, then he also came along. (Oliver and his date Jolea were very pleased to win the 'Enchanted Dance Couple' award at the ball :) (Jessima was at home with Jenna.)

The ball was very successful - about 600 people turned up (they had expected 350 at most), but we managed to feed everyone there, with hors d'oeuvres, petite fours and fruit platters etc. (Fortunately I always do plenty of food :) The 24 YSA I had asked to help serve on the night were delightful and hard-working, and looked very professional in the uniforms we made. Several people at the ball asked if the waiter staff were members or were hired for the night :) Tammy did a fabulous job helping to supervise the 'plating-up' area and the wait staff while I was busy with the food; Jonny helped with the food; James was fantastic and very busy all night cleaning trays to be re-stocked; Abby helped plate out; Bethy served as one of the wait staff. Done!

We minded Jenna the next day, Saturday, while the twins went to help Jonny (and Jessima) with an Elders' Quorum activity that Jonny was organising, then Neil and I went to James and Abby's on Saturday night for dinner. Bethany's boyfriend Robbie was also here for the day, and Abby and James came by too. We introduced Robbie to the game of 'Take Two' :)

Last week Oliver and Ben were home with suspected swine flu. They were really ill on the Monday night, but after a blessing from Neil before they went to bed they were so much improved the next day that they wanted to go to school. (I kept them home :) How wonderful it is to have access to the blessings of the Priesthood!

Am I being nepotistic?..

2009-06-29T11:18:00.015+10:00

I am writing this just to change my page from the last post! (It turns out that people can do the foot thing afterall - Abby and James both showed me that they have no trouble at all!)

I haven't been writing because there have been too many other things happening. (The sort of things that I suspect causes real writers to get going and write more, and the not-so-real ones to fall away into paths of washing loads and family dinners etc.)

I've been working, (rather urgently), on my List. (See -)http://sandragmunro.blogspot.com/2009/05/only-three-days-behind.html
My real list keeps getting bigger, of course, but I'm not writing it down anymore because some of my much loved and loving but bossy family members continue to take exception to various items. (I think the number of items is their main objection :P )

Tax season begins on Wednesday. Big Landscaping Day is on this Saturday and I still need to organise it all: plan, peruse, procure, purchase and positively not procrastinate!

The Priests and Laurels' Ball is on the following week and I'm doing quite a bit more to help with that than I had originally planned :) One of the extra things I am doing is to collect together a group of about 25 Young Single Adults to help on the night with waiter/waitress service. I didn't set out to do this particularly, but find that my almost-completed list resembles a pretty good 'who's who' of the best of the eligible returned missionaries in our area. Any girls that are a part of this group are going to be pretty happy with my selections! :) Bethany will be one of them, and should enjoy the opportunity to work with at least 5 young men that she has dated or is currently dating, as well as to meet a few new prospects :) I'm hoping that I am not so busy on the night with the food and everything else, that I don't have time to look up and have a smile or a giggle now and then :) (I'm going to put 'grow up, Mum' on next year's To-Do list. If I have room :)

Life is good - busy but good. I have been reading some good books - slowly though. I read them in the moments when I am cleaning my teeth and drying my hair. (I need a haircut but then I wouldn't need so long to dry my hair!) I've considered trying to use the time while I am driving about but have had to discount that for obvious reasons... I love spending time with our fabulous family.

xo

(Bethy is the one in green. She is with Abby and my mother, and Abby pretending to be my mother back in her modelling days! :)

I Think There's a Deeper Metaphor in This....

2009-06-18T13:04:00.004+10:00

There are no rules about what I can put on my blog are there? (Apart from the obvious - no photos of me or Tammy :)!

Because Tammy just sent me this on email - and I think it's hilarious - it made me laugh and laugh. (Leah, I really want to see you trying this! Bec, Kaili, Lizzie too! :) Here goes:

HOW SMART IS YOUR RIGHT FOOT?

This is hysterical.
You have to try this. It is absolutely true. It only takes 2 seconds..
I guess there are some things that the brain cannot handle.
It is from an orthopaedic surgeon..
This will confuse your mind and you will keeptrying over and over again to see if you can outsmart your foot, but, you can't. It is pre-programmed in your brain!

1. While sitting at your desk in front of your computer, lift your rightfoot off the floor and make clockwise circles.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the number '6' in the air with your righthand.

Yourfoot will change direction. I told you so! And there's nothing you can do about it!
You and I both know howstupid it is, but before the day is done you are going to try it again, if you've not already done so.

xxoo

Done. Done. and Done. :)

2009-06-17T11:58:00.010+10:00

This is a photo of the little old house we bought last year (us and the bank - our partners in crime once more) for Neil's office. (So far this sounds a little like a fairy tale.. )

We had a work day back then in the yard, and I organized to have some interior walls built, and carpets and air-conditioning and insulation installed - but I haven't done much since. However, with tax season starting on the 1st. July I've had to get working on it all again...

We did have another family half-work-day there a couple of weeks ago. (BIG THANK YOU! to Tammy and Jessima who scraped the windows; Bethany who cleaned; Jonny and Ben who carpentered and hung doors; James and Oliver who strung wire along the fence as a trellis; and Abby who lay on the lounge feeling sick, but who minded Jenna anyway).

I finally made some headway yesterday on several of the big decisions I have been collecting quotes for and agonizing over. Deciding on, then contracting someone for the driveway and car-parking areas. (Done.) Designing, then contracting to have the office furniture made. (Done.) Deciding on and ordering new filing cabinets. (Done.) Deciding on the best way to build a new wheelchair ramp and organizing someone (thank you Jonny!) to do it. (Done.)

(Thank you Jana :) - http://divergentpathways.blogspot.com/2009/06/just-do-it.html )

That felt good! :)

We have another full family work-day on the last Saturday of this month, when we hope to do all of the landscaping in one go. Then we'll be just about done!

(I still have a couple of days of painting to do inside, and I need to quickly get on and finalize the landscaping plan, purchase the plants, and order mulch, compost and stepping stones, etc. - but I think we are getting there! )

Yay!! :)

Daisy Hill and Angels

2009-06-14T16:09:00.017+10:00

(BY THE WAY - I have changed the name of this blog to Daisy Hill. It seems apt. I live here. I'm heading there.. one day :) It makes me think of the song 'I'll give you a daisy a day, dear', and Neil, who always does. It sounds up, (challenges) and over, (the hill!), but pretty along the way :) It makes me think of my mother, who loves daisies. And Meg Ryan in 'You've Got Mail', saying, "Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower?"

Wow. And to think that all I was really thinking was that I didn't really much like 'Sandy Speak'!... lol xo)

I've been reading an autobiographical book by Elder F. Enzio Busche and would like to share with you a few passages:

(One day while working at the Church administration building, Elder Busche was told that there was an elderly German woman who wanted to see him. )
'I saw a woman who must have been from a respectable home and who was trying to be charming, but her clothing was a little ragged. Her manner did not fit her appearance.
'Her name was Sister Neuberg. She was a German convert.. I do not believe that she had ever married or had a job. She must have always been with her parents.. When they died, she was suddenly alone and did not know where to go. She was in her sixties or seventies. What she had to say was astonishing.
'She had $1,500 in cash that she wanted to give me for the missionary fund.. I was reluctant to take her money and asked her why she wanted to do that. She told me that she had talked to the Lord, and the Lord had told her the money was needed for poor missionaries; therefore, she wanted to give me the money..
'Why didn't she give it to her bishop? Wasn't she a member of a ward? She said, "Ah, yes. My bishop.. always gives it back to me and says I should keep it for myself, but he doesn't understand, and I don't want to confuse him. For years, I have gone to the temple grounds and given it to a person that I thought looked trustworthy. But then the Lord told me I shouldn't do that. He said I should give it to a General Authority who could give me a receipt and who would make sure the money went to the right place."
'She told me that she had told the Lord that the General Authorities did not understand German.. She said the Lord had told her that the Church now had a German-speaking General Authority, and she could go to him. She had asked the Lord what the name was and the Lord had told her, "It is Elder Busche."
Elder Busche was doubtful, but 'finally took the woman's money, gave her a receipt, and made sure it got to the missionary department.'
He was 'surprised when she came again the next year and the next. Every year, she came with $1,500..' He 'became more interested and learned to listen.
'She told me many things.. one day, she told me the Lord had told her that a big flood would come and there would be a river running down State Street in Salt Lake City. I thought she was a little deranged because we were in a desert. How could a river possibly run through the middle of the city?
'Of course, I was shocked when just a couple of months later there was a river running down State Street. It was the famous 1983 flood, which came practically without any warning. After that, I had more respect for what she said.
'One day, she was unsettled by a talk at general conference.. she said to me, "Yes, I went to the Lord and complained about that talk and that brother, but the Lord told me, 'They are all different, but they are all acceptable unto me, even the least among them is acceptable unto me.' So what can I do? I have to live with that and stop complaining and sustain them all."
'She told me one day that the Lord would soon take Elder Bruce R. McConkie to Him. That was before it was made public that Elder McConkie was sick. Soon after, I learned that he had cancer and then he passed away. I finally had to accept that Sister Neuberg had gifts and insights that were very unusual.
'Once when she brought the $1,500, I asked her where in the world she got the money. She told me, without any embarrassment, that she was making a special sacrifice because, she said, "I want to show the Lord how much I love Him and how much I appreciate His atonement for me." She went on to explain that her father had left a small endowment for her to live on. She lived in a little house where her parents had lived. She saved the money for the missionary fund by not using any utilities. She did not use any heating all winter but wore two big sweaters, a big coat, and a wool cap. She did not cook any meals but ate raw or cold food. She said, "It's only a small thing that I can do. The Lord has done much more."
'..She told me many events that did occur. She was very alone and had no one to talk to. I was probably the only person that she ever told some of the things in her life to. She said, "People don't understand me. Home teachers don't come to me because they are afraid of me. They all think I'm a little crazy and weird. But I like to have my visits from the Holy Angels. I speak with them and talk with them about the plan of salvation, and they give me comfort."
'She surely lived a different life than a regular person. Besides her frequent walks through Temple Square, she spent all day long reading the scriptures and other religious bookds. All were in German... her English was so broken that most people could not understand what she said.. I finally realized that I was probably the only living person with whom she felt comfortable speaking..
'She was always happy and enthusiastic about Christ and the beings from the other side of the veil. She looked forward to being with them and felt honored to be going home soon.'

____________

When I was younger I know that I was very critical by nature. I found that I sometimes hurt people, under-estimated and under-appreciated them. A few timely experiences in my youth helped me to learn that no good or joy comes from being judgmental of others. At least, I am still learning that lesson, but I believe it with all my heart. The scriptures don't tell us to judge one another. They do teach us repeatedly to love one another, then they explain what that means, in the verses that describe charity.

I honestly quake internally when I stop to wonder how many angels in rags (metaphorically) I may have overlooked or, worse still, have actually looked down on. I try not to do it.

I feel so grateful that Heavenly Father doesn't overlook anybody. And that He does bless the truly deserving and needful.

Further along in the book, Elder Busche also told of a recently converted woman who was visiting America for the first time, from her home in a newly opened Eastern European country. She told him of the poor circumstances of the members in her home branch, and of 'the many sacrifices that they joyfully made.'
'Then she said, "Once in a while, we have holy angels visit and comfort and strengthen us." She added with a smile, "Can you imagine? I have found people in Salt Lake City who have never seen an angel." She laughed as if that were the strangest thing she had ever heard.'

Truly, many of us surely live far below our potential for blessings.

(ps - Did any of you happen to notice the light reflecting off the book cover, just where the words 'Reflections of..' were printed :) !?
..hah,.. sometimes I think I am wasted on you guys... :)

'When adding eggs, break the shells first.'

2009-06-13T00:21:00.008+10:00

I read a book this morning that I really enjoyed.

I found it after it was recommended by Brecken on the 'goodreads' web site.

I have posted a review on the 'goodreads' site - but it's a plot-spoiler, so don't go and read it until you have read the book :) (Which book I own, if you would like to borrow it :) You could read Brecken's review there though.

I love the 'goodreads' site. Happy sigh. I see a happy future for us both :) - a happy future for us all in fact.

The book is: 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society', by Mary Ann Shaffer. I like the book cover too.

THANK YOU BRECKEN!

2009-06-04T14:58:00.018+10:00

I'm excited about two things (of many):

First: Myer was kind enough to send me an email telling me about their current stocktake sale. I went yesterday and came home with a arm-load of baby toys for Neil and me! - for our grandchildren, that is. I'm not going to tell you how much I spent, but I can tell you that I saved $50! :) Do you like them? (The flamboyantly decorated ring-stacker rotates and sings too! It's very cheerful :)

(I felt a little like Meg Ryan's boyfriend in 'You've Got Mail' - when he buys himself a new typewriter and shows Meg, who promptly whips off a cloth to reveal an almost identical machine at the other end of the table... Neil okay-ed the goodies, then asked about the cupboard loads of toys I still have stashed away from our own children... I told him we needed/wanted some more :)

Then, today!!! - I am feeling particularly happy because I logged on to catch up on a couple of blogs, and found a marvellous widget thing on Brecken's site that transported me - like one of the children from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - to a magical new place full of excitement and wonder! (There should be some icon to show you that I am jumping up and down inside :) The link took me to 'goodreads', a land of book lists and shelves, bursting with suggestions galore for good books to read...

... Let me start again, and try to sound more sensible this time. I should explain that I had been going to post an entry today about some books I have been reading in the last few weeks:

'From Log Cabin to White House' - a biography of James Garfield (old, but a really good read - it's one of my books from childhood)

'Mormon Scientist' - a biography of Henry Eyring - an excellent read; really enjoyed it.

'Long Walk to Freedom' - a good biography of Nelson Mandela - informative.

'Boyd K. Packer' - an interesting biography; instructive and inspiring.

... Then, before writing it up, I read on Brecken's blog about a book list site she had joined. I went there to take a look, and I just love it! If you like to read I would just encourage you to go there and sign up!

(Oliver just helped me to attach the widget to this blog. Thank you Oliver!)

I love this site because:

As it scrolls through almost endless pages of books it has reminded me of some wonderful past reads. By rating your past reads, you can begin to compile a personal list of books you have read. (I did find however, that older, lesser known books may not be on the site. You can add books if you wish.)

It's helped me to find a lot of good books to add to my personal 'to read' list. It's great to see what others have recommended, and I found some books by using the 'search' function, for instance by author, that I didn't know existed. There are so many 'lists' and 'shelves' that have great suggestions! :)

The 'search' is great! - You can look up authors of course, plus all sorts of categories and subjects. By searching for 'lds' I have access to titles that I had never heard of, because Deseret doesn't carry them, but which I can now follow up on if I am interested. It's not limited to just one book store, or even to what is still in print.

If you click on a 'friend' you can compare at a glance what you each thought of the books you have both read, and take recommendations from their list of books.

Most good reads have comment left by other site users. Some of them get it horribly wrong (in my opinion :D ) but it's interesting to read their views, and you can join the debate if you're feeling keen enough yourself. (This one could be a dangerous time-stealer option though.)

(Backstory - I just read a review by someone who detests 'Wuthering Heights'!, which I love.. humm! :)

I'm in heaven! I told Neil that I feel as happy as he would if he had just been given season tickets to all of his favourite sports events!! Bliss!

THANK YOU BRECKEN! :)

Happy reading all!

(Jessima, I hope you like that new book :)

Ps Is it just me, or does Cookie really have his eye on that ring-stacker thingy....

Small and simple things.

2009-06-02T07:48:00.003+10:00

This is our adorable grand-daughter, Jenna. (Recent photo courtesy of Jessima and Jonathon) We babysat Jenna overnight for the first time on Saturday night. She was an angel, of course. It was a lot of fun. Her eyes lit up when she saw Mummy and Daddy on Sunday though!

LIFE is busy.... , of course :) The twins are in (grade 12) exams; Neil and I are gearing up for tax season next month; Bethany has a hectic social life.... :)

Tammy flew down to Canberra last week, along with about 80 other YSA from around Australia, to represent the church there. They were told that the purpose of the trip was to: thank; inform; and learn. They met with the Speaker of the House, the Whip, the Leader of the National Party, and about 25 other federal MP's. They also enjoyed a meeting with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, who was in Australia for a visit.

Abby has been sick recently, the poor little thing :( - but is about to be greatly cheered with the news that she has won the Money, Money competition :)! Her guess of $2,800 came closest to the actual amount of $2,721! I know! - it's a lot, but unfortunately still not enough for that visit-friends-in-America trip, Jill. But we are still saving :)

Abby - your prize is a choice between:

1. 'Small and Simple Things' - a book by Marjorie P. Hinckley

2. Two movie tickets

3. A bottle of Echinacea and a packet of Panadol. :)

I have been thinking lately about a quote by Sheri Dew that 'it is not possible to sin enough to be happy'. It's really true, isn't it? Although, I mentioned it to Bethany, and she said that she has sometimes been happy after sinning. Sigh.

I've mentioned everyone (from our immediate family) in this post except for James and Micky and Bec. Hi, James and Micky and Bec. :)

Money Money Competition!

2009-05-25T23:13:00.000+10:00

Neil and I had a few hours at home alone recently - it felt fun and we took the opportunity to plunder our full 'Dad's Overseas Odyssey' money tin and count it up. We've been adding to it with one and two dollar coins and fifty cent pieces, (along with the occasional note), since the children gave it to Neil on Fathers' Day a while ago. Eventually it will help us go tripping again! Neil is funny - he loves to put money in each day, and often contrives to get as much change as possible when he shops! We have started a new tin, but meanwhile...

Can you guess how much is there??

We've counted, and are wondering who can best guess the correct amount. What do you think?

"Only three days behind"

2009-05-19T10:24:00.000+10:00

We are always told that we should write down our goals. I just know that there are lots of good reasons for me not to do that... but - here goes - in the interest of... clearing some room in my head for other things :)

MY GOALS FOR THIS YEAR (what is left of it and them!):

To finish scrapbooking my Mother's eight week holiday with us and send it down to her in Adelaide.

Plan a holiday for Auntie Linda come up and stay with us.

At least 20 mins. in depth scripture study daily.

Design new office furniture for Neil - in reception and in his office. Research building materials; collect quotes; organize a builder; have the work completed and installed before June 30.

Design landscaping around Neil's office; collect quotes and organize machinery; purchase plants; coordinate deliveries of mulch etc. for a family work week-end 6th and 8th June, to have work completed by mid-June.

Purchase new cupboard and sliding doors for Neil's office; paint them; organize builder (or the boys) to hang them, before end of June.

Design and organize someone to build a wheelchair ramp up to the office veranda.

Lose weight and get fit, (2 hourly gym visits 3x week), partly in order to complete a 50k hike to celebrate my birthday at the end of August.

Babysit adorable grand-child for beautiful daughter Jessima once a week or so. Be available as much as possible. Have a grandchildren sleepover once a month (whenever Jenna's parents are ready).

Complete Tammy's huge 'million year quilt' before the end of the year ( It's in the photo - I only have the edging to do). Make a few baby quilts before the end of the year. (For future grand-children.)

Begin on some children's quiet books.

Learn how to redo my blog page.

Clean out Michael's room; repaint and re-decorate it as a spare bedroom/grandchildren's room/new room for Ben or Oliver/exercise room????

Spring-clean through the whole house - every cupboard, shelf, nook and cranny. Re-plaster and re-paint the garage ceiling; paint some of the internal walls.

Replace the garden shed; redo the foundation and clean everything out. Oversee wall and ceiling storm damage repairs. Get roof fixed.

Work out what to do about a new lounge suite. Fix up the old one? Again?

Make new floor cushion covers for Abby and for us.

Make alterations to Abby's black dress, temple dress and orange blouse before winter!

Weed, fertilize, spring tidy and planting - then spread 5 square metres mulch in the garden.

Knit at least one scarf for my mother and send it down to her for winter.

Plan 2 family holidays for the next 12 months - one for those at home and one for extended family.

Be available for my family and friends when needed.

Regular temple visits.

Restock my food storage and help the rest of the family to get theirs.

Help Tammy with purchasing and compiling 24 hour packs for everyone in the family.

Decoupage a tissue box for Jessima (and one for us too).

Complete the Christmas presents I have planned for family gifts. (I can't write this one down - but it's going to take more time than anything else.)

Learn how to make great raspberry jam and give it away for gifts at Christmas.

Make Christmas parcels for the missionaries who don't get them from home. (Last year there were 45.)

Offer to cook and decorate for the missionary Christmas lunch (120) in December. Consider asking some friends to help this time!

Make sure I send out a family Christmas letter and cards this year. (Missed last year :(

Read lots of good books. Try to learn more than I forget!

Continue planning some family childrens' books I would like to write. (Hoping to get Mum and Abby to illustrate them.)

Be a diligent SS teacher and a good friend and VT.

While I am working full-time for Neil from July to November - get the office in tip-top shape. Get some paintings framed for the office.

Organize all the photo and other folders on my computer.

Enjoy a monthly one-on-one activity with each of the children at home. See if the others would like a turn too :)

Socialize with old and new friends at least once a month - invite them over for dinner.

Help with catering etc. as required for the regional Priests/Laurels Ball on July 10.

Be cheerful, humble, kind, charitable, uncomplaining, hard-working and Christlike. (ok - that's a long term one.)

So!

In the spirit of Sister Marjorie Pay Hinckley who once said, “I have a new project to read one chapter a day from each of the standard works. I’ve been on it four days and I’m only three days behind" - that is my current list of goals!

(Please feel free to make further suggestions. If I have missed anything. :)

Grandma's Birthday Sleep Fairy

2009-05-14T01:32:00.002+10:00

These photos are from the birthday dinner we had for my mother the night before she left (with Neil and the twins) to return home to Adelaide. It was funny - by the end of the night only the grown-ups were standing! (Neil, me, Tammy and Grandma :) It was as if the sleep-dust fairy had come along and sneezed over all the kiddies. And it was not as if the dishes had not already been done! :)

ps I had a lovely Mothers' Day - thank you to our wonderful children! I am so grateful for each one of you and I am amazed at how blessed I am.

pps My sister Linda was here for dinner on Mothers' Day too, and made it into the quote book -

Bethany: Auntie Linda, are you schizophrenic?

Linda: It depends on who you're talking to...

Reporting in..

2009-05-05T23:54:00.001+10:00

Had at least half a day where I did a little better. Yay for me! :)

'Go and Do!'

2009-05-04T11:33:00.000+10:00

John 13:14,15 'If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example,that ye should do as I have done to you.'

I was given this scripture to read in a workshop yesterday and it really struck me - that I really need to 'do' a lot more than I have been doing!

I think about 'doing' good things all the time - worthwhile, useful things. Then I read a book or putter about instead! Meanwhile, my time on earth is wasting away...

Abby gave me a lovely little book a few days ago, (thank you Abby! :) called, 'it's a happy thing'. One of the quotes from it reads,

"Live with your whole being... all the days of your life!

Your reward will be true happiness!

(Rebecca Thomas Shaw)

-not a new thought, but perhaps a timely nudge!

A doctor once described me in a reference (I was a nurse), as being 'self-actualized' to a high degree. It was true then, but I'm sorry to admit that it hasn't been true lately :( I am too often paralysed into inactivity by procrastination. I've got so much that I want to do that I often do nothing at all!

Why am I inflicting this on you? lol :) I don't usually write down, or like to write down goals etc. But perhaps I can write soon that I am, in fact, 'doing' better - a small framework of accountablility as such.

Meanwhile - it's a gloriously beautiful day outside; it's a public holiday; my husband is on his way home from dropping the twins at a friend's house, to spend the afternoon with me; I had a great sleep last night; my life is full of blessings... (My husband just got home -with eggs benedict for lunch :)

And of course, I have some good books to read and some puttering about to do!
(haha - just kidding, kind of! I'm going to do better. Thanks for listening :) I'll be here all week folks :)
xo

Adorable grand-daughter!

2009-04-27T19:03:00.000+10:00

Some recent pics of Jenna Michelle Munro, grand-daughter extraordinaire!

There are some more recent and adorable pics of Jenna (and her parents) on Jessima's blog page: http://jonnyandjessima.blogspot.com/2009/04/like-baby.html

Photos -Michael's wedding and twins' b'day party

2009-04-27T16:58:00.000+10:00

I'm a bit behind with posting some photos...

Here are a few, from Michael's wedding to Bec last Saturday (from a few that Jessima snapped - we haven't seen the photographer's photos yet), and a few of the twins' 17th birthday party.

Jonny was best man at the wedding. Doesn't Michael look happy? He was absolutely beaming when they came out of the temple. Bec looked beautiful too.

(Update : the photographer, Maioha, has posted a few pics of them on her web site: http://onyxphotographer.blogspot.com/)

Ben and Oliver had about 25 friends over, plus family, for theatre sports (that's Jonny, surfing on Ben), followed by a dance party in the family room. Fun!