Madison's 13th Birthday

Madison had a birthday on the 11th April and is now "officially" a teenager ! I am a bad mother, and I blogged about Michaela's ball on the official day of her birthday...OOPS !? Here is the time line of events as they unfolded...

So....our wonderful and terrific "Fred" (Harvey's dad who's real name is really Ian..) came for a "quickie" visit on the 7th April. The 8th was Michaela's ball night. (see previous blog) Since Fred lives so far away in Tasmania, it was a terrific opportunity for the family to get together. After dropping Michaela off to her friends house to get the limo Harv and I hightailed it off to Dianella and the very beautiful temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was a truly magnificent place to be with family. So very special.

After the temple session, Harv, Fred and I went to Nando's for dinner. Delicious !

On Sunday the 10th April we listened to the inspired prophets and leaders of our time. I LOVE technology that allows us the privilege of doing that! SO uplifted !

The whole family  decorated a "Olivia" the octopus for Madi's birthday cake to take to the other "Oates" for birthday dinner ! It was fun to make and decorate.



Olivia the Octopus



"Happy Birthday Madison" in Japanese.



Michaela add her special "touch" the the cake with her inscription of "Happy Birthday Madison" in Japanese !

Harv and I made a "last minuet" trifle with all the left over bits of cake etc...

My beautiful and wonderful sister-in-law made us an AWESOME lamb roast dinner ! It had never occurred to me to cook a roast dinner in the BBQ before?! Very delicious and WOW ! It was SO lovely to spend time with the family ! Madi felt VERY spoilt and special.

Blowing out the candles.

Cutting the cake.



Poppy Fred, birthday gal Madison and Julian.



School Ball

Once upon a time, you bought a ticket and you went to the school ball in your "best dress"....now a days...(boy do I sound OLD in saying that!?)...it's THE dress, THE limo, THE corsage, THE shoes, THE hair do, THE makeup, THE accessories and who has the HOTTEST date !? Go figure !

Michaela attended her year 11 ball on Friday 8th April 2011. It was a "BIG DO". Months of planning and saving went into this....with the final balance being very ...erm...expensive...I was VERY proud of Michaela who has been logging hours at Kmart and saving for her big night. She planned ahead and had decided wayyyy back in December 2010 that hiring her dress was the way to go since she would "never ever wear a dress like that again." Smart gal. She also decided that she wanted a "foofey" dress...aka a dress with tulle and "foof" as opposed to a dress that was slimline and more cocktail like...so "foofey" we did ! Her theory is that she will only get to ever wear "foofey" dresses twice in her life - ball dress and wedding dress. Sounds good to me!



The 2nd dress she tried on was IT !



We tried no less than SEVEN dresses before the big decision was made....but we found one ! YAY ! The lady at "After 5 Hire" was awesome. Once you book a dress, she writes all the details down and no one else from the school is allowed to hire the same dress. Sweet as !

The day before, we picked up the dress, matching wrap and matching tie. Michaela got waxing done- eyebrows, lip, legs - sucks being a hairy gal...and sorted last minuet makeup artist, our friend Amy...and we are almost good to go.

B day and school finished at recess time, Harvey picked Michaela up, home, lunch and a quick shower before going to the hair dressers. TWO hours, half a tin of hair spray, hair wax, mousse and 32 bobby pins later..... 

Our wonderful friend Amy came over to help Michaela with her makeup....the final finished, polished and dressed up Michaela was truly BEAUTIFUL !

I'm a VERY PROUD mama bear !



I have FUNNY children !

I have funny children - I mean, seriously hilariously funny as in a "Ha ha ha" way ! They sometimes LOOK funny, but mostly they sound funny ! Madison and Michaela have this awesome banter and great repertoire and they do it so seamlessly....must be all the practise they get at their brother's expense ?!

Over the past few weeks, Madi has decided that she needs to improve her vocabulary with some "bigger" words so that she sounds more "sophisticated". Last week's word was "pedantic" and she managed to insert the word into conversations quite flawlessly and in context, so we thought she was on a roll ! This weeks work was 'egotistical' and she may have used the word once or twice in describing her brother's actions....but it took us awhile to figure out what she was saying....ECO-TESTICLES !? Erm....not quite my darling ! 

I love that they have such FUN together and enjoy each others company so much !

Albany

Over the weekend, I went to Albany. It was  a LONG car ride ! 818kms round trip ! We left 1pm - ish on the Saturday and arrived home just after 6pm Sunday. Thankfully, I was chauffeured driven down there and I had the WHOLE back seat to myself ! Woot !

So WHY? Well, it was the Albany Branch Conference so as a stake leader, I went to support the Relief Society sisters in the far reaches of WA. It was awesome. Lot of happy memories of what fun a branch can be - everyone knows everyone...people serving diligently with three and four callings....hilarious activities and gatherings...half the branch getting up to sing for their visitors... :D Most of all I remembered the strength I got from knowing the unconditional love of being part of something special.



The Holder's place

 Upon arrival, the wonderful Holder family had dinner on the table..."Thermomix" dinner...butter chicken. Was delish and the dinner conversation lively and fun. The views outside spectacular ! Imagine...a two week old foal just outside the front door - literally ! Huge, big, sweeping gumtrees, birds twittering, sheep contentedly munching away....and GREENERY everywhere you look ! Was SO delightful !

The branch activity included "get to know the stake leaders" games...was hilarious. The members of Albany branch had to "guess" which foot was sticking out from under the stage curtains. The it was random questions to get to know us better...then a Scattergories game...fun.

I slept in a double bed all to myself...it was even COLD enough that I had to have covers on ! Imagine that huh? (56 days and counting since Perth got any rain?!) Was delicious having to snuggle under the covers ! I even read in bed ! Breakfast was oats...freshly cooked for us with home grown honey and dried figs....YUM ! SO delicious !

Meetings were so inspiring. Pres Pemberton spoke about his travel down to Albany and how he almost came "a-gusta" by drifting off two - three times because he fell asleep behind the wheel of the car ! He paralleled the story with every day life  - we don't mean to drift to the "other side" and engage in things we know are wrong ....it can happen at any time. We need to be alert and attentive for things that distract us from the path of "truth and righteousness".

The sisters appreciated our efforts to present a lesson for them - based on Doctrine and Covenants 101:16.



Jenny (lf) and Lorraine (rt) "hamming" it up !

 It was a good weekend. The road trip was a great opportunity for the three of us in our presidency to bond and get to know each other better. We are a terrific team and I am blessed to be motivated by these fantastic sisters !

Catching up on blogs...again !

Okies...been a pretty busy full on few weeks...Erm...where to begin?

On Saturday 26th February, Prue had her appendix removed. All went well and she is well and truly on the mend. On the Thursday, she went to bed with a "sore tummy", which she has complained about off and on all year...so Carrie (her mum) soothed her and put her to bed. On the way to school, Carried decided that Prue should see a doctor. The doctor suggested that Prue had appendicitis and sent them up to Princess Margaret Hospital for Children...They got into hospital at around 10am and by 5PM (yes, it took that LONG) they FINALLY got to see a radiologist who did a very through ultra-sound and confirmed an inflamed and larger than normal appendix. So Prue was booked into have the appendix removed the next morning. She was FINALLY able to get into a bed/room at 7pm that night...and scheduled for surgery in the morning. In the mean time, Prue was hooked up to an IV for fluids and antibiotics for a urinary tract infection which she also had at the time.

Saturday morning the doctor told Harv and Carrie that Prue was scheduled to have her appendix removed at 11am. That time came and went due to other emergencies. So the next time given was 1pm. That time came and went too. The next time given was 7:30pm and THAT time came and went too...FINALLY at 10:45pm she went in ! In the mean time, Carrie and Harv were getting MOST anxious because the little gal opposite Prue had also had appendicitis...but unfortunately, they had so many delays that when they got to her, they had burst ! Now the little girl had a longer, lengthier and more complex surgery and healing time. Poor little thing. Thankfully they got to Prue's appendix in time - and with key hole surgery. So with no complications, she was happily home for a weeks rest by Monday.

In the mean while, Michaela, who HATES maths, did an awesome test and got 80% ! Woo hoo ! It has really boosted her confidence in her own abilities and we are SO proud of her. She even got a letter of commendation in the mail !

We have  a "break out" rabbit...Stewit has diligently dug his way out just about every day in the past two weeks. We have moved the cage all around the garden in the hopes of deterring him...but to no avail. On the UP side...Guess had turned out to be an AWESOME "rabbit rounder up- er-er". Every morning, when we let him out to do his "business", he goes to the cage and checks to see if Stewit is in residence. When he is AWOL...Guess goes on the "hunt" and rounds him up ever so gently with low growls, and few yips and excited running around. Its PERFECT ! Whatt watches with amusement and thinks he's "above it all" since he's a cat ! Ha ha ha ! Nine times out of ten, Stewit is in such a hurry to get out of Guess' way that he goes back UP into the hole he just dug out of ! :)

Harv had been practicing his skills in the kitchen. He "invented" a curry the other day. It was yum. Michaela is getting quite savvy in the kitchen too. She is doing a Cert 3 through high school, in the hospitality industry. We had a really fantastic Bacon Cabonarra last Thursday. It was so good she had repeated requests for it this week too.

Everyone else has been busy doing lots of "stuff" too. We manage to keep busy doing lots at break neck speeds ! Life is good.

Valentines Day

Harvey and I had discussed Valentines Day previous to the day...and it was decided that it was for "schmucks" and waaaayyyy too commercialised etc. SO on the day, I gave Harvey a gift of lamb dinner with the trimmings and some chocolate. HIS gift to me was time... he was taking me to IKEA!! Woo hoo !

So on our appointed day, we were up early and out ! Saturday is normally our food shopping day - so we boycotted that for the Ikea car park instead. SO glad we got there early because we got parking, underground shaded area, straight away ! Too awesome. The second "woo hoo" moment of the day was breakfast : bacon, eggs, chipolata sausage, beanies and a hash brown for $1.95 ! BARGAIN ! I was almost tempted to go get seconds ! The third "woo hoo" moment was being able to walk straight up to the first stand we saw and pick up EXACTLY what I wanted straight away ! But what where is  the fun in that I ask? Poor Harv was dutifully dragged up, down and around the Ikea floor plan while I poked, prodded and open/closed cupboards, tables, chairs and anything else that took my fancy. What FUN ! I got a few bits and bots and within an hour and a half we were done.

Best Valentines Day pressie ever. I'm thinking we should do this again ! :)

Epic FAIL at keeping up blog....

Ok....so....Its Chinese New Year...and it coincided with the first day back to school...YAY for me because I didnt have to cook ! :) Dodgy I know...but the first day back to work after six weeks off work is HELL !!

My wonderful, magnificent mother, prepared all day for a magnificent steam boat....ahhhhh....dee-lish ! A meal thoroughly enjoyed by all and sundry. After a super quick visit we were driving back home and into bed for an early night, ready for the next day.

Fast forward another week...and its Friday already and week two of the twelve week term is done and dusted ! Woo hoo ! Everyone is zipping along fine. Madi started at high school this year, Julian in year six, Michaela in year eleven, Prue in year four and Josh doing his diploma in Digital Media at TAFE. Me - I have the "juniors" in the early childhood room at Cloverdale ESC. I am in an new building built with Kevin Rudd (ex-PM) money...the sucky thing is that I have NO air conditioning and its HOT ! Seminary started back this week and its on for young and old already ! Phew ! I'm tired !

Harvey's vines have taken off. His largest haul was a bunch of grapes that was just over a kilo in weight ! Everything else in the veggie patch has "bitten the dust" tho. Quite literally ! Perth is SO hot and dry. Tragic. Nothing will grow no matter how much he waters and tends....sad.

Last Saturday Harv and I attended the Christmas Island Chinese New Year ball at the Burswood. The food was wonderful and there was a fun floor show and of course, the traditional Lion Dancing. Harvey even danced with me ! It was fun to get all "glammed" up in a party dress. My friend Tanya even did my make up. I felt like the princess ! Z:) Photos soon to follow...once I upload them !