Goodbye 2011

Well, it's the last day of 2011. 2012 CJC starts tomorrow and I'm all ready. I've changed my list because I've signed up for the Sweet Flowers SAL so I've removed the larger charts and replaced them with small ornaments. Hopefully this will give me enough time to finish Sweet Flowers and the HAED next year and do some more on my WIPS.

December was busy. Our holiday was lovely and relaxing.
The weather was not good, but it didn't matter. We parked our car in the hotel carpark the day we arrived and didn't drive it again until we left for home a week later. We had a few wet and windy days, but managed to make it to the beach several times. The worst day was a record cold day for December and of course we didn't have any warm clothes with us. Here are some pictures.



view from our balcony



A friend on the beach

The Traveller (DH) had to make a quick 4 day trip to Singapore and Malaysia 2 days after we got home from our holiday. I've decided not to plan too far ahead in the future in relation to his being at home!  He is home until the end of next week, then away again.

Before I went on holiday I saw my Dr about a suspicious spot on my neck.  It looked like skin cancer so after I got back he removed it. The week before Christmas I went back to get the stitch out and the lab results came back negative so that was a relief.

DH had had some health issues since he was in hospital in August but we thought they were side effects from the medication he was on but the GP thinks not and has referred him to a specialist for tests to rule out the big C. He is still waiting for an appointment but I hope it is soon.

I sold my old car in mid December. We started advertising it online in November and dropped the price every week because there was no-one interested in it.  Then, I went to morning tea at a friends house and mentioned in passing to another friend that we were finally trying to sell the old car and she said she was interested, her and her DH came around that night and brought it! Not sure I wanted to sell to a good friend but we dropped a bit more off the price so they got a good car for a good price.

Christmas was good.  My dad came for a week and left 2 days ago.  I did lots of cooking before the big day. Christmas Eve I made a roast leg of lamb then we had Christmas lunch at DH's parents house - I made a pavlova and we had cold ham and prawns with salad followed by cheesecake, pavlova and fruit.

I have done a bit of stitching but mostly have been busy getting fabric and threads kitted up for CJC. I'm still preparing fabric for Sweet Flowers.

I started Fall Mandala ages ago then had problems with needing thread and having to frog, then busy with family, etc so here is my progress. 



Fall Mandala designed by Tracy Horner (Ink Circles)
fabric - 28ct Wintered Marble linen from Stitches and Spice
thread - HDF silk

Welcome to my new followers, thank you for all your comments. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year.

Giveaway Winner

I've drawn a winner - Joyce at http://joycesloveoflife.blogspot.com
Congratulations Joyce, as a follower you get the fabric as well.
Hello and thank you to all my new followers, I will do a blog update shortly.

Giveaway

Ok, it's time for a giveaway.
I have a copy of Joan Elliott's Ultimate Cross Stitch Collection magazine.

Just leave a comment on this post for a chance to win.
Make sure I am able to contact you through a blog or email link.


Follower bonus
You don't have to be a follower, but I have a bonus if the winner is a follower of my blog.

If I draw your name as the winner of the magazine and you are also a follower, I will include 2 x fat eights of linen fabric from Stitches and Spice.
The first is Antique Rose 32ct, the second is Butter Creme 28ct.


Closing date is Sunday, December 11.  I'll do the drawing a few days later when everything is back on track after our holiday.  Depending on where you live and your postal service you may get it by Christmas.

Good luck.

Photos

No stitching photos, but I thought I'd share these.

This is my cat, Lexi, pretending to be asleep on a hot afternoon and ignoring the camera.

'I wish you'd stop bothering me'

Here is where DH and I went for our weekend away - Novotel Twin Waters Resort. I walked around the lagoon and found a nice spot for a photo.  The weather was beautiful.


Looking across the lagoon to the main resort area.

We walked to the beach from the resort and strolled in the water.  When I'm walking on the beach I have to get my feet wet.  This is looking south. 

Sunshine Coast beach

We are heading off to the beach again on Saturday for our holiday. We are staying about 10 minutes south of where the photo above was taken, but in the centre of Mooloolaba.  DH left for North America yesterday and will be back the morning we leave.

I have found 15 starts for my Crazy January Challenge. They are listed on the page and I'll add photos soon.

I'll post about my giveaway tomorrow.








Weekend Away, planning

No stitching done, it has been too hot and I've had some late nights recently with DS finishing assignments - 2am on Thursday morning!  He finishes for the year on Friday next week but he is going to the Gold Coast on Thursday at 7am for a 2 day maths extension program so he finishes his exams on Wednesday.  I pick him up from school at 6pm Friday.  He went to this program last year and this year there are only 5 of the top students going in each of grades 8, 9 and 10.

DH and I are going away for the weekend - after DD's cricket game and dancing practice, then taking kids to grandparents.  We are members of a car club and this is our Christmas party weekend.  We're going up to the Sunshine Coast about an hour north of here.  There are about 50-60 members going so we should have a great time. I'll take some stitching but will be lucky to do any, think I'll be napping or socializing tomorrow afternoon. 

 I've been thinking about my stitching next year.  I've decided to join Daffycat's TUSAL - it's where you save your orts and take a picture on the new moon.
I've also joined Measi's WIPocalypse to hopefully get some progress done on my wips and blog more often.
Obviously I've had too much time thinking, not enought time stitching because I've joined the Crazy January Challenge 2012 so now I have to select 15 items to start in January.
I'm hoping all the above will motivate me to do more stitching next year.

Lastly, this has made my day.  My photo of Fa-La-La has made it to the welcome page of I Love Cross Stitch yahoo group  Woohoo!

Right, I'm off to bed to get some beauty sleep before tomorrow.  The end of school stress and concerts, etc are nearly over so I'll be able to get back to stitching.  I'll have a giveaway coming up soon.
Thank you for your comments.

It's November!

It's November and I've done very little stitching since my last post.  I'm still working on my Autumn piece for ILCS yahoo group so I can't show it to you.  I ran out of thread and had to stop for a while so I'm not sure if I will get if finished in time.
October is not a good month for me and I think this year was particularly difficult - more on that below.

Here are some of the things that have been happening lately.

AIRPLANES
DH is in Vancouver again.  He left on Sunday morning and will be back next Monday.  Yes, he was caught in the Qantas drama. In case you don't know, Qantas announced on Saturday afternoon at 5pm that they were grounding their entire fleet in response to industrial action by unions.  Within 2 hours DH managed to get return flights to LA on another airline.  Of course Qantas is back flying again now.

CRAFT SHOW
A few weeks ago we had the Craft and Quilt show here in Brisbane.  I was lucky enought to get a free ticket offered by Stitches and Spice in their newsletter.  Here's a photo of part of their stall. The bins at the front are full of fabric.  Some of that fabric made it's way home with me.


Stitches and Spice stall

 I also found something else I had been looking for. I found this in one of the bead stalls.


Bead storage containers


 WEATHER
Look at this.

The closest we get to snow in Brisbane.  A hailstorm a few weeks ago.  It was only marble sized and no damage for us, but friends had cars out that got dented and it was a lot worse in other areas.  We have another wet summer forecast again - please not as bad as the floods early this year.

EXCHANGES
I was in the ILCS 10th Anniversary Birthday Exchange.
This is what I received from Renae

And this is what I sent Jo

A few months ago I decided I needed a new mobile phone as mine was not working properly. I waited and got the new iphone 4s on the first day it came out.  It's my first smartphone and I love it, and I can take photos with my phone (such technology!)  I already had an ipad so I wanted to stay with Apple.

SCHOOL

Kids finish school for the year in 4/5 weeks so it's getting busy for both of them now.  DS is getting another academic award at his schools yearly awards ceremony next week - he got one last year as well.  He has nearly finished year 9.  He is getting very tired again so I think he is about to have another growth spurt.  He will be 15 in January.

We are horribly busy and the next day when I have nothing on my calender is November 27, so we are looking forward to ...

HOLIDAYS

We've decided not to go overseas this summer, we'll go back to the snow and skiing in January 2013.  This year instead we're going up the coast to Mooloolaba for a week in early December.  It's only an hour drive away and should be a relaxing week in the sun on the beach. 

It would have been my mother's 70th birthday in late September.  She passed away in October 1982 when she was 41 and I was 13.  She took her own life after a 9 year battle with schizophrenia, caused by a severe brain injury from a horse riding accident as a child.  I spent very little time with her because I went to boarding school when I was 6, then my parents started living apart, so I have no good memories of our time together.  October is sometimes hard for me and I think this year was worse because now I'm older than my mother was when she died.  I guess as I get older I'm more aware of what she missed out on.   

If you are still with me, thanks for reading so much.  I'm almost sure I'm going to start 15 charts in January, just have to decide on which ones to do.

Hypnotic Page 3 is finished

Hypnotic by KustomKrafts

Another 6 pages to go.

I'm putting this aside and working on Romantic Rose Garden Mandala.

I have a new start but no pictures as it is for an autumn challenge for ILCS yahoo group.

DH got home on Monday morning and he is off again next Tuesday - this time for a week away car racing in NSW.  I wanted to go too but my babysitter (DMIL) is busy with her parents both not well in nursing homes, instead DFIL is going and also DBIL and his wife.  I'll try to go next year, even if I fly down for a few days and skip the 2 days driving down and another 2 driving back.

A finish and hypnotic progress

Fa-La-La is finished.
I finished this early September.


Fa-La-La by LHN
30ct cappucino linen with recommended DMC threads

 Hypnotic progress.
Page 3 is nearly finished, another 6 pages to do after this one.



Hypnotic by KustomKrafts

School Holidays
Kids have started their school holidays today. They have 2 weeks off then back for the last term.  I can't believe 3/4 of the year has gone.   I think DS has done well again, but we haven't got all his results for this term yet.  He got all A's last semester and is academically gifted in maths/science.  He finds exams easy but has to work on his assignments.  He was up until 2am doing his IT assignment the morning it was due and got an A+.  I keep telling myself there are lots worse things than having a 14yo son who is disappointed with B's.  Not so easy when he is stressing over assignments in the early hours of the morning.

A Close Call
I saw a car accident on Thursday morning as I was leaving DS's school.  I was first at the traffic lights to cross a main road and when they turned green I went. Past the intersection a car was waiting to merge onto my road and stopped to give way to me. A tradies ute came flying around the corner and plowed into the back of the stopped car.  I could see it was going to happen and slowed down otherwise I could have been hit as well.  I think the ute driver saw me and was trying to accelerate in front of me.  No one was hurt but it was still a scare.  Tradies in utes seem to make their own rules here and you can see why I give them lots of room on the roads.

DH has been away this week and was due back tomorrow morning.  Unfortunately his plane was delayed leaving Vancouver and he was going to miss his connecting flight to Brisbane.  He has to wait another 24 hours for a seat on the next plane from LA and now won't be home until Monday morning. 


The Vegie Patch
The snow peas are flowering and this was taken before I started picking lettuce.

Summer is on the way.  Mornings are still chilly, but it is 28C today and is beautiful.

Thank you for all your lovely comments.

Progress photos

Hypnotic showing the full width of 14 inches.



LHN ornament Fa-La-La started while waiting in hospital with DH

Here is a picture of DD's vege garden. Lettuce, baby carrots and snowpeas. Planted 4 weeks ago and they have doubled in size since this photo was taken.

Not what I'd planned

Well, my child free weekend wasn't as I'd planned.  When I last posted DH had been feeling generally unwell for a few days as if he was fighting off the flu or a virus. But, the day after my last post, Wednesday, he came home from work at lunch feeling bad and with a very sore elbow. We got an appointment with the Dr later that afternoon and he started antibiotics. Thursday he was worse with his elbow red and swollen. Friday morning I took him to the emergency dept at the local hospital. We were expecting him to get some IV antibiotics for a few hours, but the dr took one look and decided to admit him to hospital.  Initially we were told for 24 - 48 hours, but on Friday night he was told he wouldn't be home until Monday at the earliest.

I sent DD on her camp Friday night, then on Saturday morning I drove DS and 4 other scouts to their camp on the Darling Downs, dropped them off and drove back home in the afternoon - a 7 1/2 hour round trip.  They had problems with transport and I was able to fit everyone in my vehicle.  (Another mum went out Sunday morning to bring the scouts back)  I left home at 7.30am and got back after 3pm, then went off to hospital for a few hours with DH. I got home after dark to eat, feed the cat and collapse into bed.  Sunday morning I was back at the hospital, then off to get DD at midday, home to pick DS up from the scout den, back to the hospital for a few hours. 

On the Sunday night DH was told he wouldn't be out until Wednesday at the earliest. He had a staph infection in his elbow bursa and ended up spending 6 days in hospital getting IV antibiotics. At its worst his arm was swollen and red from just above the elbow to almost his wrist.  He came home with a 2 week course of oral antibiotics, a right elbow still sore and swollen, and a left arm sore with damaged and clotted veins from the IV antibiotic treatment.  He has been home for 10 days now and his left arm is just starting to feel better and he is able to ease up on the painkillers.  Right elbow is still red and swollen.  Dr said 6-8 weeks for both arms to be back to normal.

DH was meant to be flying overseas on Tuesday this week but he had to cancel this trip as he wasn't well enough to go.  Of course he was working from his hospital bed with the laptop and wireless internet access once he was well enough and was back at work a few days after leaving hospital.  He is the boss so the work piles up even when he is sick.

So, not a lot of sewing done lately.  I started a LHN ornament while visiting DH in hospital.  I miscounted the first day and had to frog the second.  Even when DH was home from hospital I think I was emotionally drained from all the stress and too tired to stitch.  For the last 3 weeks I've had kids activities, etc at least 4 nights per week and also coming up for next week.  Things are getting back to normal now and the housework is under control.  Today was DD's school fete.  The weather was not so good with light rain this morning, but the rides were still operating.  We left mid afternoon when the rain got heavier. 

I've lost the photos I thought I had on the camera and I'm too tired to find them.  I'll post them in the morning.   

Giveaway winner is..

Jo!  Congratulations.

Wow, thank you for all your comments and birthday wishes.  Welcome to my new followers.  My birthday was good, but busy.  I managed to finish page 2 on Hypnotic.

We had a big weekend with DD's activities - Saturday morning was an Eisteddfod while Sunday was spent at a netball carnival all day.  Back to the Eisteddfod again tonight. 
Next weekend DH and I have some child free time.  DD has a cub scout camp from Friday night to Sunday midday, DS has a scout camp from Saturday morning till Sunday afternoon.  I can see some stitching time coming up.  I'm working on page 3 of Hypnotic and I'll show a progress photo next week.

Giveaway

It's my 42nd birthday on August 3.
I'm giving away a $50 gift voucher to 123stitch, my favourite online store.
To make it simple all you have to do is leave a comment on this post to enter.
The closing date is Sunday, August 7 and I'll draw a name on August 8.

Snowman pattern goes to..

Nancy M. 

I will send you an email to get your snail mail address

OOPS...

Big car + tricky driveway + distracted driver (me) =

My 4 month old car

I didn't turn enough and hit the side of the garage entrance on Monday afternoon  after school pick up. The garage I've driven into thousands of times before, the garage I didn't drive into for a month after I got this vehicle because I was worried about fitting!
My first accident in 25 years driving, first insurance claim.  I took it to the assessors yesterday and it should be back with bumper and light all fixed on Tuesday. 

I thought I'd be more upset but it's only a car and can be fixed, no-one was hurt and nothing else was damaged, only my pride.  I have another car to drive and my insurance premium is not affected because I have a good driving record.  Compared to the bad news I'm getting about the health of people I know, it is nothing.

Other than this I had a great Monday.  DH arrived home in the morning and we both did school drop off, went out for lunch, then furniture shopping for side tables for the new lounge.  Found some we liked at 30% off.  We got 3 and they were delivered yesterday.  Photos later. 

Some Finishes and a Small Giveaway

I had a great weekend stitching and I have some finishes.

First, this is the Lizzie Kate piece I made for Lisa for the ILCS group exchange.  Lisa received this on Friday just as I was getting ready to make another as I thought the first was lost in the mail.  This was my first ornament finish.  Forgot to take a picture of the back.
 

LK exchange to Lisa

  This is what I received from Lisa


LK exchange from Lisa

  The kids had their winter school holidays recently.  We drove up to visit my Dad at Yeppoon in central Queensland.  It was a 9 hour drive up there, a bit shorter coming back as we had breakfast before leaving and only had to stop twice.  The weather was terrible - wet and windy so we didn't get to the beach, but we all enjoyed the break.
 
I took LK Snowman '10 to start while I was there and finished it the other day.
I haven't ironed it so it looks crooked.



LK Snowman '10

 I had a great stitchathon on Saturday.  DH was away, the kids both had byes for their respective sports and the weather was wet and cold.  I started stitching at 8am and went to bed at midnight and I had 11 hours stitching mostly on Rose Garden Mandala.  I did another few hours yesterday finishing backstitching and attaching beads and now I have another page finish.




Romantic Rose Garden Mandala 3rd page

All of it so far



I'm going to do some more on Hypnotic next.
I'll have to see if my floor stand works with the new lounge suite.
I forgot to put a picture up of it earlier.  Here it is.  5 of the 6 seats have recliners which we are all enjoying. 

We have attached the TV to the wall and DH still has to do some work to hide the antenna and cables.  Next we need to find some small tables to put between the chairs.

Thanks for reading this.

If anyone wants the Snowman '10 pattern leave a comment about it here and I'll pick a name on Friday if there is more than one entry.

It's my birthday next month so I'll be doing a bigger giveaway for that later.

Page 2 finished

This is the gate in the top row.

I've changed to smaller Q-snaps which is working much better for me.  I'm going to put this aside while I work on my Lizzie Kate piece for the ILCS yahoo group swap.  No pictures until the recipent has received it.

Family

We've had an interesting time with DD recently.  First, she was complaining sometimes of a sore arm after her flu vaccination.  After 2 weeks I took her to the doctor and discovered she had an abscess from the needle.  Started antibiotics.  Reminder to self - remember DD has a high pain threshold. 

Next, she fell and hurt her ankle/foot while playing netball, she kept playing and came off during the break.  First aid person said sprained ankle, so I strapped it up for a few days.  After 5 days she started limping again after playing sports at school so I took her to the physio.  Not a sprained ankle, she had a dislocated bone in the top of her foot.  Physio couldn't get it back in manually so taped it up and gave her exercises to do at home to loosen the ligaments, within a few days it was mostly back in alignment.  She had her birthday disco party while her foot was taped up and it didn't slow her down at all.  Reminder to self - DD ignores pain.

Then she got a gastro bug at school and gave it to all of us within 48 hours.  I had to call my fairy godmother DMIL for help on the Saturday night when DS and DH were sick and I couldn't get out of bed to help them.  She ended up sick as well.  I started feeling better on Thursday.

DD had a cub scout camp on the weekend.  I removed two ticks from her this morning.  I'm hoping she has no more incidents for a while.

DH is heading OS on Sunday for a week.  He has 3 days in Vancouver and the same in San Francisco.

Redecorating

I'm waiting for a new lounge suite to be delivered, was meant to be today but now will be Wednesday.  We ordered it in March.  Our old one was brought 2nd hand last century (1999) when DS was a toddler.  We've never had a new lounge suite before and we were looking for a few years before we brought.  The main problem was the room, but we are going to change everything around and move the TV and put the lounge against the wall in the corner.  The bookcase will go in another room.

TV room with new heater against wall



My stitching chair, meals area and kitchen.



I had to buy a new heater yesterday.  Our old 15yo one blew up last week - tripped the circut breaker and shot out flames when DH turned it on after getting it out of the garage.

We only have one heater in the house and turn it on during really cold nights for a few hours.  10C is really cold for us! 

Well, thanks for reading to the end.  I have to go to bed now to be up early for a breakfast at DS's school at 7am tomorrow.

Romantic Rose Garden Progress

It's been a while since I worked on this piece.

current page

Overall progress



I started doing this on Q-snaps 14 x 14 because I didn't want to have to move it around very much with the beads and I can't wash the fabric creases out afterwards with the silk threads.  But, it's too big and I can't reach the top easily, so I'm thinking of changing to 14 x 11.  The border won't fit now so I will have to move the q-snaps around whatever I do.  I love the portability of the Q-snaps and I already have hypnotic set up on my floor stand so I don't want to put this on scroll rods.  I have wool batting under the snaps to protect the fabric and I'm hoping the beads will be ok with this.  Am I worrying about this too much?  I am using 32ct linen.

What have others done in this case?  Any thoughts and ideas are welcome.

DD had a great day on Sunday and DH arrived home around 1pm, just a few hours late.

A Finish

Home of a Needleworker Too is finished.

Pattern by Little House Needleworks

Fabric: 28ct Antique Ivory Cashel

Threads:  Recommended Crescent Colours

Finished  April 17, 2011

I can't believe it's taken me 2 weeks to get a photo of this on my blog.  I caught a flu virus going around and spent a few days in bed where I was able to finish this.  Since then I've had DD on holidays where we did all the yucky jobs - dentist, optometrist - both all clear, haircut and flu vaccination in the few days before Easter.  We had a family BBQ here on Easter Saturday to celebrate my DBIL's 40th bday.  DH and I also celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary on April 16.

DH went to Vancouver on Easter Monday and both DS and DD went back to school on Wednesday.  DH is on the plane now and will be home sometime tomorrow.  His flight was delayed leaving LA, and because this time he is flying back through Sydney he will miss his connecting flight so I hope he doesn't have to wait too long to get another flight to Brisbane.  He doesn't want to get home too late because tomorrow - May 1 - is DD's 10th bday.  Tonight I'm just waiting for her to go to sleep so I can wrap her presents.

Stitching progress

At last I've gotten some stitching done.

Home of A Needleworker Too



DH was away last weekend and it was wet so here is where I'm up to.  We have another wet weekend forecast so I'm hoping to do more. 

School holidays

Queensland school holidays this year at easter are chaotic.  School has 4 terms per year, 2 semesters of 2 terms each.  Each term roughly 10 weeks followed by 1-2 weeks holiday with a big break over summer in December/January.  Because easter is late this year the official first term is 12 weeks followed by 12 days holidays then term 2 is 9 weeks long.  DD goes to a private primary school which follows the government holidays so she finishes today (Thursday) and starts back the Wednesday after easter/anzac day holidays.

DS goes to a private high school who had different holidays this year.  His first term was 9 weeks, then he had 2 weeks holidays and started term 2 on Tuesday.  He has the 5 days public holidays off over easter.  His term 2 is 10 weeks long.  He gets more holidays than DD anyway.  So I've got two children who have holidays at different times and are only off together for 5 days when we can't go away because DH is flying to Vancouver on Easter Monday/Anzac Day!  Luckily I work from home so it isn't too bad,  I just had to get that frustration out of my system.

Next week DD has to come with me when I'm on tuckshop roster again at DS's school.

Someone asked about tuckshop.  It is the kitchen/shop at school where we prepare and sell food for the students to eat at lunch and morning tea if they don't have food from home.  It is run by 2 paid convenors and staffed by 3-5 volunteers every day.  I'm rostered on one day every 4 weeks working 8.30am to 2pm.  Any profits go to school projects.  This year it is towards refurbishing the library.

Stash shopping

It was too hot to stitch in March so here's some pictures of my new stash.

Stoney Creek In the Village series patterns

A kookaburra kit and some patterns

Some fabric from Stitches and Spice here in Australia.

More fabric from Stitches and Spice



I also brought some new wheels last month

2011 Toyota Landcruiser VX diesel

My new car which DH uses to tow the car trailer when he goes racing - like last weekend.

WIP Update

I have some progress on my Home of a Needleworker from a week ago.  This week I was working on my froggy exchange for the ILCS yahoo group. No photos of that until it arrives at its destination overseas.

I've had a really busy week with school activities and sports.  DH got home last Sunday and has another 2 weeks here before heading overseas again.  Yesterday I got sunburnt at DD's cricket game, it was a hot day and the shade was disappearing.  I'll be more careful next time. 
Tomorrow I have a business lunch and Tuesday I'm on tuckshop roster at DS's school.  Hopefully it will cool down a bit by mid week.

Started Home of a Needleworker

While I was resting my knee in Vancouver I started Home of a Needleworker by LHN.



It is very hot and muggy here in Brisbane so I haven't done any more since getting home.

Home again

We had a fantastic holiday.  Our 5 days skiing at Whistler was great and we would all love to do it again.  Of course the kids learnt much faster than DH or I.  The weather was nice and cold but not unbearable.  It snowed one day while we were skiing then was sunny and  -15C the next day. 



Here I am

I twisted my knee on the last skiing day and probably did some ligament damage.  It was a week before I could bend it easily but it is mostly fine now - just uncomfortable if I am on it for a while or twist it again. 
After Whistler we had 4 days in Vancouver while DH was working.  DD, DS and I had an easy few days and I was able to put my knee up for a few hours every aftenoon and get online to check what was happening at home.

We stopped in LA on our way back home for 3 days - 2 days at Disneyland and the last day at Universal Studios.  Again, we all had a ball and were exhausted when we got on the plane.




DS, DD and I at Disneyland



We loved our time away but were glad to be back home.

DMIL was going to come with us, but 2 days before we left her mother had a mild stroke so she stayed.  While we were away Nanna had more strokes and is now in a high level nursing home unable to walk. 

The Floods

We were not affected by the Brisbane floods.  Our house is in the northern surburbs away from the river and we are on a hill. It has been horrible to see the damage done to my city and state from the floods and this week Cyclone Yasi.