Lots of things happening. Got much to tell, but no time to write it all.

Shall try really hard for an update next week!

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Justin: Jess, can you put the toilet rolls in the bathroom please?

Jessica: Sure Daddy……..

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Friday we headed off to the big smoke for a few days. It was great to have our new car, such luxury with the comfy seats and DVD player. We stayed at Manly Beach in a great hotel right across from the surf. The girls will tell you that the highlight of the trip was the breakfast buffet, but we did other things, like ride a ferry, touch the tiles on the Opera House, touch the big bolts keeping up the Harbour Bridge and see all the animals at the zoo. The Baby elephant was gorgeous (all 100kgs of him) and well worth the trip.

Sunday we attend the Christening of my nephew Thomas, had lunch there and came home. It was exhausting, great and emotional and I am relieved to be home! How good is it to sleep in your own bed and have space where the kids cannot find you!

Here are some photos of the trip.

1192 Girls here on the Ferry from Manly to Circular Quay. Very cold and bumpy! At the Quay we bumped into our neighbours whom we NEVER see at home!

1195 Girls at he Opera House looking at the Bridge.

1198 Me enjoying the View.

1201 Justin!

1204 At the Rocks where a beautiful Rainbow appeared over the Opera House. Is that a Michael Jackson vision in the sky!!! Just jokes!

1207 Base of the Bridge where we inspected to bolts and imagined the huge screwdriver it would take to get them tight.

1210 Baby Elephant at Taronga. Holly wants to name it SATU, which means number 1 in Indonesian.

1213 Jess and Holly on the Sky Gondola at Taronga. We went on it MANY times – had to be kicked off!

1216 Sunday Morning frolic on Manly Beach after an hour in the breakfast buffet. Justin may have turned into bacon if I hadn’t pulled him away.

1219 Lovely girls at Sunrise on Manly Beach.

Have a great week!

First day of the school holidays today – only 13 to go!

Jessica’s birthday last month seemed to go on and on. We must have had 5 cakes for 5 different gatherings of groups of people. She loved it of course. Here she is with the main cake (from Adas and Lin). She had some preschool friends over on the weekend and they enjoyed dressing up, dancing, eating and squealing. Justin was a real trooper running the entire show while I was left to eat lunch and drink coffee with the mums. I’ll be keeping him a bit longer!

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The girls got good school reports and positive feedback at Parent Teacher interviews. Holly is to be extended next term, doing yr 4 work (she is in yr 3 of a 3/4 class) but needs to practice her times tables. We’ve been doing this by rote, worksheets and singing them out loud. She is getting better each week. Meg’s teacher said Meggie’s handwriting was so neat that she often thinks it is her own. Other than that, Meg is going along fine and is a delight in class!

In a moment of weakness Justin agreed that I should get an Eternity ring, so before he could change his mind, I was at the jeweler choosing one. It is gorgeous, gold, with 5 diamonds for the 5 beloved people in my life. Little girl across the road suggested that the 5th one was for her as she practically is one of my children anyway!

Had a lovely visit from Rowena and Oscar a few weeks ago and can’t wait to see them when we go to Sydney for a few days. Meeting them at the Zoo and then going to Thomas’s Christening (James and Sascha’s baby).

Weather is turning really cool and running at 7am is becoming harder. Want to train for 10km run in September, but motivation is low when it is foggy and frosty outside. Tried a home routine with skipping rope and couldn’t walk for a few days after due to sore calf muscles.

Kids are hovering, so better go.

Yes it has been awhile since I updated….

Don’t think I’ve mentioned previously that Meg lost her first tooth. She has since lost another and is very gappy down on the bottom row. However she is no longer now the only one in year 1 with no loose teeth so of course she is delighted with this. She is desperate for the top ones to be loose and when I ask if one is, she practically wobbles her whole head to show me that it is (it isn’t!). Now Amy really wants a loose tooth and she tells me that hers is wobbly and bleeding (it isn’t!).

Amy is cracking me up of late with her antics. When I tell her we need to change her nappy, she grabs the tabs at the same time and rips them off letting the nappy fall to the ground. Then she’ll dance. Now I know you are thinking, why is she still in nappies? Well quite frankly it is because I am holding up the game. If I were more dedicated to the cause I’m sure we’d have it done, but I’m not, so we are doing it at Amy’s (and my) leisure.

Jess is reading. She is a marvel. I’m am going to miss her when she goes to school next year, but boy is she ready. She is spelling and writing and going great guns on this website the school recommended www.readingeggs.com If you have a preschooler, it is absolutely fantastic. Meg loves it too and her reading has improved so much since last term. I was incredibly worried about her but she is not the academic type, so I’m happy that she is improving at her own pace.

Holly has entered the phase at school where little girls are turning into little beasts. She was in tears yesterday because everyone was fighting. How do I tell her that this will go on forever in her life, and that even as adults, we lose precious friends and gain others. I just assured her that as long as she was good in her heart she couldn’t go wrong and that She and I would stick together and be friends for each other. Year 3 is tough but so is being 36!

Kate, Jess wants to come to your place for a holiday. So does Adelaide. And so do I and 3 friends….when they heard I had a sister in Melbourne their eyes lit up and I could almost see the thoughts running through their heads… shopping, DFO, restaurants……yippee!!

Till next time…adieu.

Had a super day on Mothers Day, and the adrenaline was pumping before I even got up. I was a bit nervous about the run!! Got there, met up with Mum and Dad, Matt and Penny, did the warm up aerobics and some stretches and headed for the start line. There were hundreds of people running in my event and the start was a bit crazy with everyone jostling for a spot and overtaking/being overtaken. I did my first Km in 5mins, and the second on 5.5mins and after that I was just determined to keep running so didn’t watch the clock too much. There was a girl in front of me most of the way., then I got in front of her, then dam she got around me again. On the hills I am quite strong (thanks to my running around the mountain track) so I overtook her on the last one then bolted home. Justin took a pic of me going over the finish line and that girls head is in shot. Don’t know what her face looks like, but the back of her head is engraved in my mind!! I was determined to beat her. As my friend Jane said afterwards, you always need a nemesis!

So anyway great results. My goal was to finish as close to 27mins as possible. Last years time of 29.40 needed to be smashed!!

Age Category: 30-39 yrs
Place: 158th out of 750 runners
Time: 27:38mins (27.21 from over the start beep to the end beep)
Age Category place: 22nd
Gender place: 79th

I am really quite delighted and plan to do better than that next year! Thank to everyone who so graciously sponsored me. I raised $360 for Breast Cancer Research and reached some awesome personal goals for myself, so I am very appreciative of your support. This is a photo of me (in maroon shirt) crossing the line and nemesis lady in white shirt!

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And this is one after the race, when I am all hot and sweaty, but very happy!!

Have a great week 🙂

My training in the lead up the the 5km Run on Sunday has peaked and now I am just cruising toward the end. On Saturday I ran my 5km training route in 26mins exactly, a PB and 1 minute under my goal time. Hooyah!! I set myself little shorter run goals as well and successively beat those, so I think I am ready for the Mothers Day Classic. I often wonder why I am doing this, and why I am putting myself under this pressure, but it is because a life without a few goals is just a flatline, and also because I love it!! I really do.

This weekend we took a roadtrip in the new car, out to a nearby town called Collector, for its annual Pumpkin Festival. The Pumpkins were indeed in abundance, as were the farmy kinds of displays. Kids liked it and Justin wants to get an Alpaca!

Here is a recent (and rare) picture of us altogether.

Have a great week.

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We have a new car. Justin has finally given in and allowed us to get a car that was made this century! Bravo!! Last week the ever faithful Tarago (that we have had for about 6 years) broke down and needed to be taken by the tow truck to the mechanic. It is getting creaky and noisy, rattly and wobbly and nothing really works properly. We love it dearly but it was time to move on. Justin and I went out on Saturday and looked in all the car yards – we didn’t see anything that we thought was worthy until the very last place (which was actually the first place we went to but were looking for a different car) and there we found the perfect thing. It is a Chrysler Grand Voyager, Silver, 2004, 7 seater, tinted windows, DVD player, and loads of room. Plus they were committed to a $3000 minimum trade-in for our car. I was laughing at that cause our van is nearly 20 years old, not in great shape and we only bought it for $4K all those years ago. We took the Chrysler for a test drive and when we came back to talk money, the guy offered us a $5000 trade in. That sealed the deal for us! Happy Happy Joy Joy!!!!! We pick it up on Friday!!

Easter was delightful with lots of family time and getting together with the rellies. It is nice to have Kate here from Melbourne for a few weeks, and yesterday we went to Mittagong to meet James and Sascha and the new baby Thomas who is gorgy of course. It was torrential rain but Dad used his phone to the max and hired the hall next to the park where we were meeting, so we were dry and happy.

Today is the first official day of the holidays and all 4 girls are getting their hair cut. It is still raining and I have a cold, so things will be low key here.

Here are some photos – it has been a long time since I put some up here!

1140 Amy up in a tree. We went for a bike Ride one sunny Sunday Monring and she wanted to climb like the big girls.
1144 School starting for 2009. Jess at Macgregor Preschool and Holly and Meg at St Thomas Aquinas
1147 Justin’s 37th Birthday party. Cake from Adas and Lin.
1150 Balloon Festival in Canberra
1177 Amy is always in these bloody swimmers. I dress her and then 5 minutes later she is in something else. Looks like a Mankini hey!!
1162 Holly and Amy dancing (note Amy’s dress. Another things she loves to wear is dress ups).
1165 Jess and I before her first day at preschool.
1168Amy giving the newest cousin a kiss. Thomas Scholtens 8 weeks old.
1171 All the cousins on the scholtens side. 11 in all, from 8 to 8 weeks.
1174 Kate and I at Mittagong for Easter lunch.

Today is Cross Country day at the school and Meg and Holly were both required to be in it. Meg in the 7 yrs had to do one lap (which is around the oval and around the school) and Holly in the 8yrs had to do 2 laps. Both are quite good runners so I gave them a pep talk before school about not giving up if someone passes you, try and catch the person in front etc etc. I dropped Jess off at preschool and stayed there for awhile helping out. On the way home I could see that the kids were all lining up ready to run, so dashed in to see Meg running and she came 2nd. She was sprinting for the finish line to catch the kid in front. I was so proud I was crying!! What a sook I am 🙂

Then Holly was warming up and she took off in the pack. After the first lap she was coming second and I cheered and cheered. As she came around the final bend she was still in 2nd place and I nearly cried again. As she went over the line I was beaming and jumping up and down with excitement and pride. How good are my girls?? Holly was overwhelmed and she got a bit teary but oh my goodness….there was not a prouder mother there today than me.

We went down to Batemans Bay on Friday, but it was probably not the best weekend to be traveling. Last week Jess got a vomiting bug and had a day off Preschool, and thus me calling in sick for work. The next day, Amy was a bit off colour but we decided to go to the coast anyway hoping that she would perk up. Well, she did perk up – most of the way down the mountain and well into the afternoon in fact. Poor little thing. She was washed out Saturday but we managed a walk along the beach, swim in the pool, and dinner out at a restaurant. Then 2am Sunday morning, Meggie got the bug and she was very unwell. She just wanted to go home and by this stage we did to, so we packed up the Van and made out way back up the mountain and onto Canberra. I’m just waiting for Holly or Justin to get it now!

Holly News – Legs galore is this young girls these days – getting very tall. She loves Year 3 and is doing really well. Her first term in Piano lessons is going super and she can pick up a lot by ear. She seems to think that playing fast means playing good and her teachers notes at the bottoms of the page always say “Slow Down Holly”. She is in the school Choir which is performing at a nearby Nursing Home on Thursday and then at Palm Sunday Mass on the weekend. Justin commented today that she is in a world of her own and I think she is. Sometimes she has no clue as to what is going on, but as long as she is happy, I’m happy. What’s a bit of vagueness now and then??

Meg News: Sometimes I think Meg grows before my eyes. Her face is really changing from that little girl one. Meg is surely my free spirit child. She’ll have a go at anything and probably love it. She is happy and enchanting and engaging and certainly a pleasure to have around. She won the right to have the weekly trophy for the dance class, so she has that sitting next to the ones she won last year. She is good at the dancing, but I don’t think it is the thing that she is passionate about. We’ll have to try a few more things to see what she really loves.

Jess News: Learning to write and read. I have a book that I made for Holly when she was a bub, with a magazine picture on one side and the word of the thing on the other. All the girls have loved “reading” this book because they can guess the word by looking at the picture. Jess is writing the words now. She knows all her letters and numbers to 10 by sight, and now asks me “How do you spell…..” and then writes it down. She is a dark horse this Jess. She will be the surprise brains package for sure! She is also really good with maths, adding up and taking away especially.

Amy news: “Too heby” (too heavy) is her fav thing to say. She also used to say “What” a lot, so now we have trained her to say “Pardon” and more recently “I don’t understand”. Hilarious! She is the master of facial expressions and cracks me up when I glare at her for doing something naughty and she smiles and nods her head as if to say “You know I am going to get away with this”. “Uppy” is also something she says all the time, which means “pick me up I am not wanting to walk another step”. I am a bit over uppy and would really like her to walk a lot more, but she is the baby……She is certainly getting away with a lot of stuff that the others never would have. I guess that is OK 🙂 She is a such a delightful baby, but I suppose at 2 and a half she is not a baby anymore. She is sleeping in the bottom bunk, still waring nappies (after the carpets got cleaned I went off the toilet training because it was too risky and messy!) and just scribbled all over my desk in pen. I gasped and while she hung her head in shame she mumbled “Holly did it”. Ohhh what a scamp!!

Me news: I am running and running. My training for the run on Mothers day has me very inspired. My times are really improving and I am certainly getting faster and fitter. I have about 4 routes that I do and am recording my times so I can see the progress. For example one route was taking me nearly 18 minutes 2 weeks ago. Today I ran it in just over 17 mins. My goal is under 17mins and I will try that next week. Thanks to everyone who has sponsored me, I am up to $250 and I think that is awesome. Post op I am doing fine and the pathology results of the gall bladder showed that it was healthy, but jam packed with 28 stones and had thickened walls from the muscles having to work so hard. Good thing it came out.

We are off to Gundagai this weekend for the wedding of my cousin Jane. Should be a great party and lots of us are going and they always put on a good event. I bought a new dress last week, maybe need new shoes too….

My Aunty Thel (well actually my great Aunt/my mums aunt) who was my Nanna’s sister died last week. She was so much fun when we were little kids and while her health has not been good for the past 20 years, she made it to 84 and kept in touch with us from her little home in Trafalgar Vic. She lived as a widow for 50 years or so and that is perhaps why we had so much to do with her when we were children. She was that loving, available aunty who showered us with gifts and always sent us a birthday card with stickers all over the front of the envelope. We were always excited to get one of those cards! She will always have a special place in our hearts.

That is probably enough for now! The natives are getting restless and making a mess while I have been distracted here. Meg is home sick and orchestrating the trouble. Have a great week. Happy Birthday Lin!