Thank you, thank you, thank you for your help.

It was Grand'ma, Aunty Viv and Nonna to the rescue this weekend looking after the boys while Martin and I spent the whole weekend running intercom, home theatre and speaker cables throughout the new house. Also a big thank you to uncle Joe who climbed up into the roof space and walked through the trusses with the cables, he was a big help on Sunday and we would not have got the job done without him. Thank you also to Mia who went to our place with Nonna to help out with the boys. Sorry we stole your hubby for the whole day Leanne.

Last week a semi-trailer ran me of the road, very scary as I had the boys in the car with me. He smashed my windscreen the rotten mongrel. Anyway I had it fixed on the same day, that night we drove to the block and from the noiseit was making noticed it had not been fitted properly. The guy came back again the next day but is was still not right. So today I had my windscreen replaced for the second time, the good news is that it is all good now.

Focus on happy thoughts

I have been a little down over last weeks events and a grump lately so I am trying to focus on the good things happening around me.

Daniel does not need to have an operation. The specialist believes the issue will sort itself out. Martin and I can't believe it, we have had to watch our poor little guy endure so much in his short life, it is nice to see him finally get a break.

Nonna came to watch Daniel and Oscar this weekend so Martin and I could go to the construction site and work out what we need to do for running the intercom cables and speaker cables. When Oscar went to sleep Nonna got out the "Oscar paints" as Daniel calls them as they were a Christmas gift for Oscar and did some painting. They are these hand held paint ball things from Crayola. He figured out if he taps them down hard to make dots on a page they splatter paint out. Nonna had a little bit of clean up to do but the results were amazing. He titles his work of art "Splashy paints". Here is a scan of the master piece.

The aftermath of last week.

It is now 200 people that have died in the fire with many more still missing. Although there are some answers to the how and why these fires were started the disbelief that something like this could happen is still on my mind.

Although the media circus seems to have died down my thoughts are still with those who have lost just so much. I fear for them and the insecurity they must feel. How do these parents tell their kids that everything will be alright when tucking them in at night when they can not possibly feel that themselves. Who hugs them? Who tells them everything will be alright? How are they really coping now that it is all sinking in, does shock and sadness turn to anger? Now that the media frenzy stops do they then begin to feel people will forget when the next big news happens?

I just had to stop watching the news reports it was taking a toll on my my emotions, self preservation I guess. Switching off did not help, I still seem to walk around in this limbo wondering how they are coping and hoping by some miracle I could work out a way to make difference. I also feel a misplaced guilt for I have not lost anything I sleep in my comfortable bed surrounded by those I love, things I own and treasure. What right do I have to cry so much for "my Marysville" when I have not lived there for so long?

I am so angry that these people have to pay a mortgage on a house they no longer have, with a job they can no longer go to. These big banks have so much to answer for. Why can't these people declare themselves "bankrupt by natural disaster" where debts could be written off and they could start fresh and without a bad credit rating. The banks could write off bad debts in their taxes anyway, not like they can't afford it.

Why should the firebug have protective custody? If he likes fire that much put him up in an Elvis choppa and push him off into one of the fires and lets see if he can snuff it out. As for the electricity company, you bastards have been cost cutting for so long and don't do maintenance until something breaks. It is bad enough we have to deal with constant power failures and outages but it was only a matter of time that someone was going to get killed with your lack of responsibility. Who could ever have imagined you would kill so many. It was all for the sake of making more money for your share holders, now let see where all your profits go after the class action. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Well I guess my shock and sadness has also turned to anger.

Bush fire appeal.

I can't stand seeing the devastation of so much of Victoria anymore with out doing something to help. I have gathered baby clothes, blankets, towels and other items to take to those in need. Even our Little Daniel has donated some of his and his brothers toys for those who have lost everything. I am just waiting for the Whittlesea Shire to call back with a drop off point.

The fires here in our beloved state of Victoria has claimed 173 lives so far with that number set to rise even further. Thousands of have been left homeless some of which have also lost loved ones. Here are some images of these fires, http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/bushfires/ some of these photos are just unbelievable as are some of the harrowing accounts of survival. The toll on our native wild life is just as devastating this photo moved me to tears.

Mirboo North volunteer CFA firefighter David Tree gives water to a distressed koala in burnt-out country in Mirboo North, Gippsland, in Victoria's east. Picture: Russell Vickery/Herald Sun.

You may think you are too far away to help but you are not. Please join us in making a donation to the Australian Red Cross, https://www.redcross.org.au/Donations/onlineDonations.asp all the proceeds go directly to these families and not a cent goes into administration fees. Please dig deep into your pockets and donate what you can, these people are hurting on a scale we have not ever seen in this country.

I have also posted this message in my house blog as I am getting a lot of overseas guests. Please post a link in your blogs to the Australian Red Cross and help get the message out there that help is needed.

Card making with Leanne

My cousin is a stampin'up demonstrator and I have made some cards with her so her take a look..........








I am going to have a SU party soon so any Melbourne ladies interested in coming along please send me a pm in the forum and I will give you more details........ of where abouts and we can figure out a day & time that is good for most. I don't think Leanne would appreciate me putting her addy on my blog!

A great weekend and a huge milestone.

Martin and I achieved a huge goal on the weekend. Daniel our eldest who is Anaphylactic had his first ever sleepover. Daniel has NEVER been out of my sight since the day he was born. After almost 6 months of counseling Daniel and I have learned to cope with his conditions, deal with trust and work through fear. Daniel had a recent severe reaction but I was determine for it not to set us back with our goals. Don't ever underestimate the power of asking for help. Sunday was a major step for us, he had a sleepover at Nonna's (Martin's Mum) and I can not tell you how difficult the road has been to get to this point and to let go for the first time. I am so thrilled that Martin and I finally have had the courage to do it as well as give Daniel this freedom. I would be lying if I did not admit to the huge knot I had in the pit of my stomach while he was out of my sight and Martin was worse than me.
We dropped off Oscar to my parents which allowed Martin and I to have our first night together alone since Daniel was born. We had dinner, a movie and a sleep in on Monday morning. We then picked up Oscar and went out for breakfast, we all ate eggs and enjoyed them without the worry of Daniel being around. We bumped into Sandra and Matt and took them out to see our sticks (the frame of our new house) . We are really looking forward to when we will live a stone throw away and be able catch up more often.
Daniel had a ball and when he returned home he could not stop yapping about every little thing he did. Nonna said she was a little nerves and had to check on him a few times when he went to bed. We were glad that it gave her a real understanding of what a day in our life was truly like." We know it will get easier for all of us and we have already talked about the next time it being a little longer visit. I took lots of photos of Daniel packing his bags in the car and Nonna took my camera to take photo's of him at the park and his stay away. This will be a scrap LO for sure. He is still talking about it days later and can't wait to go again.

I have been getting jiggy with it!

As you can see I am now really getting the hang of this blogging thing. My blog is beginning to look pretty cool even if I say so myself. Thanks for the encouragement blog queen aka Shaz.

Woooo hooooo I just noticed that I have 100 visitors to my blog, yay!

If I get a chance sometime this weekend I will try and put up some more photos of cards I have made.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Raspberries anyone?

I went to the construction site with the boys again today and Daniel was trilled to see the big truck with the crane. Every time the wind picked up the roof trusses were swaying from side to side. He was yelling from the back seat Ohhh Oh be careful Bob....be careful, it was really cute. We were there for a while so Oscar was getting a little restless, I told him to quiet down and in his defence jumps Daniel with "Mum we need to go, I think he is fed up!"

On the way back I had to really try and concentrate while driving because Oscar decided he wanted to blow raspberries the whole way home. This was much to Daniel's delight who was absolutely laughing his head
off with his gorgeous infectious laugh at his little clown of a brother. The more Oscar did it the more Daniel would just roar into fits of laughter, I almost had to pull over because they both had me laughing so hard.

Having just been at the site I had the camera with me so when I stopped at the lights I managed to get a photo of Oscar in action. When I asked the little cheeky monkey what he was doing he tried to pull a straight face.

Them tha breaks!

Went to the dentist and had it confirmed I have cracked my tooth, ouch! Now I need to get a metal band put around it or get a crown done. Not happy!
Warning to others.........do not crunch down on those hard bits of pop corn they do crack your teeth! Last time I choose a healthy snack alternative, next time I will choose nice soft chocolate.

Everything is under control.

DH fixed my blog link problem so you can all see Michelle's blog too now. Thanks DH you're the best. OK off to have breakfast and will chat again later.
See 'ya!

Back again, caught up with some GF's today, one I had not seen in ages OMG her little one has grown sooooo much. Another GF was a bit down in the dumps and in need of serious hugging and a lot of chocolate. I brought plenty of hugs and Michelle was equipped with copious amounts of chocolate, what else are friends for! If you read this darling, hang in there kid, you will be alright we are right there with you! Great to catch up with Michelle again and chat about our houses, she went out to her block and has more pictures to post of the next stage of her construction. I can't wait to see them as our construction is one stage behind hers, so I get to see what will come next.

I am off for a drive again, bye now.

Spreading the blog love around.....

I finally annoyed my GF into getting a blog! Good on'ya Michelle! She has already got posts and photos of the construction of her home (yep when you see it we are building the exact same house with subtle differences) I know what you’re thinking "the same house"? We just have very similar tastes and we just do everything the same, well kind of anyway. As I often say "SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT" the similarities are a bit freaky at times, check this out.........

Both Libran
Both Married to tech heads (Normal one's with a personality, not robots, so don't worry.)
We both have two boys.
We go out buy scrap stuff and ring each other to talk about what we have just purchased and find that 9 times out of ten we have just bought the same thing!
We go to display homes on separate days with our DH's ring each other to say we have pick the house we want to build and find it is the same house same builder! Go figure!

Mind you a few months after we met and got together for dinner and in an abstract conversation about facial hair, my DH jokes about a guy at Uni had a ZZ TOP like beard, to which Michelle’s DH responds with "where did you go to Uni?" followed by "OMG that was me!" yes we found out that our two DH's went to the same Uni and did the same classes! Talk about six degrees of separation huh!

To think she and I only started chatting when her mothers group fizzled out and she join the one I was about to leave, our two boys (only 6 months old) were like magnets to each other, so she and I started chatting and found out we had scrapbooking in common, well the rest is history!

Anyway getting back to blogs, I can view her blog but I am having trouble adding her to my blog buddy list, the link doesn’t want to work. So I have sent a pm to Blog Queen (Shaz) to see if she can help me.

Off to the block again tonight to see if the frame has started to go up, so look out for another update on my house blog if you're interested.

Lazy weekend.

We have had a lazy weekend took it easy yesterday needed to catch up on some Zzzzzzzz's after a few sleepless nights with Daniel. Today we took my Mum and Dad to see our slab as well as the surrounding area we are building in. Dad was really surprised at the amount of development that has occurred in the area and was really impressed. He was shocked at the size of the slab and joked about us needing a maid. We all had dinner there together and then called it a day.

Happy day!

Daniel is feeling much better today which is great to see. I took the boys out to see the slab getting laid, Daniel was thrilled to see the big trucks and 7 Bobs. The two boys and I all threw a coin each into the concrete for good luck, the Bobs thought it was funny. We took Daddy out tonight to see the completed slab and Daniel was excitedly telling him where he threw his coin. This will make a great LO one day.

Doh!

I just spent ages typing in an update to my Bricks and Mortar blog and then once I posted it I realised I was in the wrong blog! Doh! All fixed now.
The boys and I went to the Block today and I don't know if it was the puppy owned by one of the builders that Daniel patted or the dust/pollen that he rubbed into his eyes but one or the other caused him to have a severe allergic reaction. He was very distressed poor little thing as his eyes swelled so much he could not see. I got him home ASAP and gave him antihistamine and he slowly improved.

He wants to go out again tomorrow to see the concrete trucks but I think I will leave him in the car to watch this time. I will have to take him out at one point because I am going to get him to throw a gold coin into the concrete as it is getting laid for good luck! It is an old family tradition!

I am on fire

Well look at me "Miss smarty pants" day 3 and I now have two blogs!!!!!!
Yep you read that correctly, I even posted a link, so yes I am getting the hang of it now. I started a blog about the construction of our new house so you are welcome to come along for the ride.

No much sleep in our house last night, hot weather, wheezy family members and all round general grumpiness going on. Well now we have a complete set of 4 members that are asthmatic, yep Oscar too. Grrrrrrrrr Not fair.

...and another card.....

This card was a bit of a rush job for a Birthday it was late and I need to get to bed, it was the fastest card I have ever put together and yet I am happy with the way it turned out! I love my Cuttlebug!

Another card.....

This next one is a card I did for a friend who needed a card for Mum going on leave and who is about to have her little bundle of joy. It is more of an interactive card as it does this cool flip out thing anyway the photos should explain it all.

Some cards I have made recently.

I have been too busy to do LO's recently so I have turned to card making. Here are some of my recent ones.
This first is card for a dear friend who has lost her Aunty, it was hard to make because it meant a lot to me that it turned out nice.

I am getting there!

First of all thank you for your help Lisa, your tips are great and this blogging thing is not as hard as I thought.

Well I have managed to put up a photo of me today and have added a few blog buddies so I am beginning to get the hang of it. Yay!!!!!!!!!!

My first entry.........

Hello and welcome to my blog, I am new at this and have no clue of what I am doing but I guess time will tell if I get the hang of it.

I am wanting to set up three different areas in my blog. The first being my daily bla bla bla and photos; the second being my scrap chat, cards and LO's; finally my captains log on the construction of our home.

I hope I will figure it all out soon and it will all fall into place.

Thanks for tuning in.