31 Jan 2010

Last day of the January PAD challenge and I made it without missing a day!! Now I will attempt the 365 challenge!!!

I took the boys to the shops this morning and MasterJ was relatively well behaved with the promise of going to the park after the shops! I got a new pair of sunnies in preparation for the ceremonial ditching of my glasses :-D and picked up a few bits and pieces.

We went to the park after the shops as promised but it was quite warm by then and MasterJ said that the slides and everything were too hot.



Many photos have been taken today. I think I have a third entry for the Warnbro Electorate competition and I have got some nice shots of the boys individually and on their own. It was hard to choose one pic for my PAD but I settled on the portrait shot of Master J.



Off to finish the roast beef dinner and then to watch the tennis and SYTYCD :-D

30 Jan 2010

I spent the best part of the day scrapping with some like minded ladies. So not much to write about. I got MasterA's album up to day (well Australia day anyway) and MasterJ's album up to Mar09. So it was a very productive day.

I was all out of creative ideas, so todays PAD is just a pic of my scrapping stuff packed up in the boot of my car!

Now...I need chocolate!!!

29 Jan 2010

Another hot day here in the west...so a couple of swims were on the cards :-P

I managed to get the floors vacuumed and mopped this morning while the boys played nicely outside. It wasn't until I went outside that MasterJ turned feral >-( I was trying to take a photo of the two of them together and all he wanted to do was antagonise and hurt his brother. So I have used a series of these photos as my PAD. I also got a decent macro shot of a fly, so I have also submitted that as my PAD :-)

Then at lunchtime, my 50mm 1.4D lens finally arrived - HOORAY!!! So I snapped a few quick shots of the boys this afternoon, and I must say, I am very impressed with my new little lens!! Can't wait to use it in a bit more anger!

I got a few more words cut out in preparation for my scrapping day tomorrow, still some more to do and will get it done and pack up all my gear ready to go. Yay another kiddie free day :-)

28 Jan 2010

Shopping day today! We spent the morning at Rocky City stocking up on the baby essentials, nappies, wipes etc. I was trying to get a plain lense put in the right side of my glasses ready for after my right eye op on Tues, but I couldn't find anywhere that would do it without sending them away. I think I'll just see how I go when the right eye is done, I will most probably be able to see well enough without glasses.

I printed out photos of MasterA ready for my scrapping day on Sat and worked out what titles I need to cut out on my machine before Sat aswell. Got to get on with that tonight.

This afternoon was more shopping, of the grocery kind. On track now for Thurs being grocery shopping day.

I was wandering around the house this arvo looking for something for my PAD and I stumbled across MasterA with his head in the washing machine playing with a little bus....there was my PAD!

27 Jan 2010

Phew - what a day!!! I left home at 630 this morning, which got me to work just before 8am. I spent the morning with the person who is reporting to me, trying to get a handle on how everything works, what projects are in the pipeline, what stage working projects are at etc. It quickly became apparant that it "seems" like a lot is/has been done whereas in reality it's a bit of a shambles! Some of the systems they have in place are very complex and cumbersome for what they actually need to do. I can't believe the documents that have to be completed just to get a project approved to start 8-0

I finished my induction and met people from other business units and it is fair to say that I have learnt a hell of a lot about how a co-op works :-D it's very interesting and there are plenty of opportunities for improvement!

The day ended with me catching up with my boss and having a frank conversation about his requirements to have projects at a business case stage to put before the Project Group Committee in 2 weeks time. Now, for those that may be reading this that understand about a "business case", this is not what we would call a business case. It is infact the whole front end loading and define stage of a project. Sooooo my response to him was - that is not going to happen in that time frame. Especially considering I work 3 days a week and next week it is only 2 due to my eye op. I ended up agreeing to get 2 particular projects to a satisfactory stage for him by next Friday...should be interesting!!

Not bad for a 2nd day on the job and a break of 15 months before that. Not sure I signed up for this .....lol

By the time I got home the boys were ready for bed and they had been at school today, which always leads to 2 tired little boys by the end of the day. Master J had been naughty at school again. Apparantly he hit another kid in the face with a shovel and bruised his cheek and he also threw a ball at another kids head. The carer said that he does it when he gets angry. Not so sure what we do about this because obviously what they do to punish him is not working and he hasn't done anything so extreme when we are around......

Both boys were not happy to go to bed and I can only think it was because I was only home a very short time before they went to bed. It is very unusual for either of them to continue to cry (for 10 minutes or more) when they go to bed.

Dinner wasn't cooked, so HJ's it was! I didn't get a minute to myself all day, so no PAD during the day today. All I could manage was a snap of my feet after I finally put them up at 8pm...it's now 9pm and I hear my bed calling :-D

26 Jan 2010

Happy Australia Day!

Friends cam round for a sausage sizzle and swim(s) in the pool. It was a great day and LOTS of photos taken!!! I had far too many photos to choose from for my PAD, but ended up choosing the one above!

My very pregnant friend was also kind enough to let me practice my photography on her belly, here are a few of my favourite shots from those sessions!! I had great fun snapping away all day and have spent the last couple of hours with them in photoshop!

MasterJ had a great time playing with his friend MasterS and MasterA (when he wasn't sleeping) was kept amused by the boys! MasterA has suddenly turned into a fish in the pool, wanting to swim away from me at every opportunity, and launching himself into the pool with gay abandon!!! Here is a link to him getting into the pool!!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/video/video.php?v=266644217595&ref=nf

OK, better get off and work out the times for transport to and from work tomorrow :-S

25 Jan 2010

First day of work!!

I even took the train and bus.....and survived...whohoooooooo!!!!

It was a busy day, going through an induction programme. Basically I met with people from different departments to find out a bit about what each department does. Since tomorrow is a public holiday (:-D) the induction continues on Weds. I got to learn how the company operates and met a lot of people. Everyone seemed nice and helpful, so there is hope ;-) and I have a desk that looks out the window over to the park......

Everything seemed to run ok while I was away....Master J helped MrJ wash his car this morning....well not really as MrJ won't let anyone touch his car, let alone Master J....so in fact, Master J played nicely outside while the car was washed GRN They were just finishing dinner when I got home, so they have now been bathed and are in bed!

I did manage to get my PAD done too. I took my Lumix with me and this is what I will be doing on days that I work. The park across from work is lovely, so I might be able to get some shots over there. Today's PAD is of the train as it arrived in Perth to bring me home. Technically not a great shot, but at least I haven't missed a day!!

24 Jan 2010

The day before I start work...not just restarting work, but a NEW job too!

Off to a good start when the aircon decided to pack it in totally. It just keeps tripping whenever it turns on. I rang LG in between chrissy and new year and they gave me the details of their repairer. They didn't ring me back until the new year and they told me that it sounds like it needs it's internal and external cards replaced. So he said he would order them and for us to expect to hear from him in a week and a half. Fast forward 2 weeks, (last tue) and I rang to see what was happening. He told me he didn't know when it was coming, he would ring me when he gets it :-S. So now it is nearing 3 weeks and because of the faults, the compressor has now shat itself.......grrrrr

So I went and did the grocery shopping today. I normally do it on a monday, but since I will be working mondays it needs to change. I will go again on Thurs and groceries will be done on a Thurs from now on.

Due to the lack of aircon, we spent a fair bit of time in the pool today. Master J is swimming extremely well. I am confident that his skills in the water will severely lower the risk of him ever drowning. Master A is a little more reluctant in the water, but after about 10 minutes he seems fine. I even snapped Master A under the water today and is my PAD!

Other than that, a pretty boring day, getting the washing done, getting my stuff together for work and figuring out the train and buses that I will catch tomorrow!! Wish me luck!

23 Jan 2010

Poof - back to reality, Master A was awake at 450am.........

I spent the morning mucking around with the boys until MrJ took Master J out with him to the tip and Bunnings. I took advantage of the Master J free time and played with Master A and took him in the pool without his big brother interupting us! He is nowhere near as confident in the water as MasterJ was at his age, but I guess they are all different. He doesn't hate it, so that's a good thing.

Master A played outside after his swim and I took this as my opportunity to snap my PAD. Again, I had more than one that I liked, so here are my favourite 3 for today :-D

When the boys were in bed I got some more scrapping done. I have finished the stash of photos I had for MasterA, which takes me up to the beginning of January.

Just watched the tribute show for Haiti, terrible what has happened over there :-(

Oh and I submitted my 3 photos for Photographer of the Year for the Rockingham Photo Club. Not that I think I have a chance in hell.... I have taken much better photos this year, but that will make it harder to choose for the comp next year :-S Anyway, with the help of some family and friends, here are the 3:

22 Jan 2010

Yay I got a sleep in! I might have been awake at 530, but I dozed on and off until just after 7!! About time I say!



We went to Bunbury this morning for our hair appointment and I decided it was time for something different. So Michele heavily layered and cut a fringe for me and I think it looks pretty funky. It will be interesting to see how manageable it is when I do it myself!! So PAD today was a self portrait to show off the new "do". It was the first time I had used the timer on the camera and I am happy with the result!



The boys both had a sleep in the afternoon and then I had another evening of scrapping away from home. I did another 7 pages of Master J's album. I am now up to mid february 2008 with him, so I have cracked the 12 months lol.....I have a full day next saturday and another one 2 weeks after that with another couple of friday night sessions as well. Hopefully I will be able to make a big dent in Master J's album and I might consider doing something like our honeymoon for camp in April. It would be nice to do something different than the kids, but I feel like I have to be more up to date with Master J's album first.

21 Jan 2010

We're going to the zoo zoo zoo, how about you you you????

Today was zoo day! I was going to go to the gym, but after a 430am wake up call I was buggered and couldn't be bothered. Turns out I did over 10000 steps today anyway with all the walking at the zoo.

Master J, MasterA and I met with C & J and their bubbas MrT and MissL. Many of the animals were hiding, probably due to the hot weather we have been having. Master J was quite good apart from being a bit whingey at times and right at the end when he was tired, he became horrible. Anyway, it was quite hot, not as hot has it has been and the occassional light wind was a welcome relief! We ate lunch in the park and the bubs got to move around a bit on 3 different levels. Miss L was off and running and didn't want to stay in one spot. MrT just toddled around the mat because he doesn't like grass and Master A just crawled around everywhere getting into everything and anything!

Of course, many photos were taken. My PAD was not my best or favourite, but the most bizarre thing that I managed to capture. The pelican seemed to be stretching his bottom beak over his chest!

I had many favorite photos so have added a couple more because it was such a good day!

20 Jan 2010

My last child free day...........

I spent the first couple of hours cleaning the house, then took off with my camera to snap some pics.

This weeks challenge is Down Town, so I took off into Rockingham and snap snap snapped. I got a variety of shots, again making it hard to choose. I ended up choosing this one of the decrepid Rockingham Hotel sign. My PAD also came from this batch and is of the old museum. I used a wild west action to give it the aged look. The other photos I got can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=138610&id=580522595

Then I high tailed it down to Secret Harbour. Inspired by my first photography club meeting last night. The theme for the club for this month is Secret Harbour. I got a few decent ones, but again, I now have to decide which one to submit. They can all be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=138625&id=580522595

But I have had fun for the last hour learning how to stitch photos together to create a panorama. Here is my end result. It is 4 photos put together and is a section of the Secret Harbour Golf Course. I think it is awesome that the software can do this. I really had fun with the colours and it is over saturated. I had fun mucking around with it, but it is not one that I will submit.

After my photo taking spree I had lunch with C and stayed to watch her little one while she went and had her glucose tolerance test.

The boys had a good day at school and MrJ went out on the boat. MasterJ was all sooky during dinner and then started cuddling up to me after his bath, which is not like him at all. Turns out he was burning up and his temp was 2deg above normal. He had some panadol and it started coming down. I hope he gets over it by the morning because I had only just told him we were going to the zoo tomorrow and if he is sick he will be disappointed if he can't come.

19 Jan 2010

Happy Birthday Chelsea!!

Ugh, another stinky, muggy, hot day!!

Still, I dragged myself to the gym then spent most of the day with Chelsea and Dani just chatting. I did manage to pick myself up a bargain pair of black work pants for $20. So now I will have something to wear when I start work next week!

Yep, I sent the signed contract back today, so looks like I am rejoining the workforce!!!

I went along to Rockingham Photography Club tonight for the first time. I think I will join, although we'll need to get a sitter as the night the meetings are on are the same night that MrJ has his NCRG monthly meetings...oh well, it's about time I had a hobby!

Now, PAD...I am very disappointed with it. I had planned to take the camera down the foreshore and snap away before the meeting. It was overcast, hot and muggy and I had NO phojo whatsover! I was looking for some inspiration for this weeks theme of "down town" but couldn't find much. I may go back in tomorrow in the day time and see what I can find. Anyway, so the PAD has ended up being a rather boring seagull. That'll teach me for leaving it till the end of the day haha

ETA..i hated the photo so much I took my camera and flash into MasterA's room at 10pm and snapped him sleeping. It wasn't until this time I realised how noisy my camera is!!! I have processed it using a "vintage" action in photoshop.

18 Jan 2010

Phew....another stinker of a day and we have been at the mercy of our tempremental airconditioner....grrrr. I rang the people who are supposed to be fixing the thing and they couldn't tell me when the parts will come in......it's only been two weeks since I rang them FFS

Anyway, went to the gym first thing this morning, it wa 35deg when I got home at 830am. Then I took MasterJ with me to do the grocery shopping and it was 42deg when we got home shortly after 10am. There is something not natural about that! Todays PAD comes from our shopping trip. MasterJ must have his own trolley when we go shopping and he must put things in it, I am not allowed to. Todays battle was trying to get him NOT to put everything he THOUGHT he needed into HIS trolley!!

I spoke with the boss man regarding my job today and he has agreed that I can have the days that I am having my eye ops done as leave without pay. I didn't want to start off "owing" days and having to make them up on a Thursday or Friday. I also asked where the paperwork was, and he wasn't aware that it hadn't been sent......hmmmmmmm. Anyway, the paperwork arrived this afternoon so I need to go through it and fill it all out. Just one thing that I am not happy with is that it says my hours are an average of 22.5hrs a week...with 1 hour for lunch. I don't want an hour for lunch...I want to eat my lunch and get on with my work. Can't see much point in wasting an hour at work when I can use that time to travel to/from there. I think it is a strange thing to stipulate in a contract....am I wrong? Surely it should just say an average of 22.5hours per week and as long as I work those hours, who cares how long I have for lunch??? I'll have to check this out with them tomorrow, before I sign anything. All being well, it looks like I will be starting work next monday :-S



Hoping for some cooler weather this week, especially for the zoo on Thursday!!

17 Jan 2010

Had to be close to the hottest day this year and our main airconditioner decided that today would be one of the days it decided not to work :-S

A couple of swims in the pool today, which is where today's PAD comes from. I actually have 2, because I liked both of them ;-)

Great day for drying washing, well it was probably cooked by the time I got it in. It actually hurt my hands it was that hot!

Since the air con wasn't working in the living area, I took off down to the "shack" and did a few more pages in MasterA's scrapbook. I have almost finished christmas for him.

Other than that, it was a quiet day. MasterJ has been on notice all day today with things like TV and purple juice being off the menu. His behaviour was better, but still pushing past the limits. Probably just less frequent. Tomorrow is another day, let's see what it brings.

16 Jan 2010

GRRRRRRRRRRRR, I know he is my PAD but he is seriously lucky that he has made it to the end of the day, AND I have only been here for 1/2 the day!!!!

Today I had my eye iridotomy done....eye what? I hear you ask..... In a couple of weeks time I am getting IOL's (intra ocular lenses) implanted into my eyes to get rid of my glasses. Before they implant them, the laser a couple of little holes in your iris. These holes are preventative measures incase the lens pushes up against the back of the iris and prevents fluid transfer, the holes will let the fluid pass. This prevents a build up of pressure. It wasn't a long procedure, a little uncomfortable and my eye was blurry for an hour or so afterwards and it has been very light sensitive all day. So on the 2nd Feb, the lens will be put in my right eye and I will have the iridotomy done on my left eye. Then on the 16th Feb I will have the lens put in my left eye! Whohoooooo.....

Now, I could quite easily write a long vent about Master J's behaviour today, but lets leave it at the culmination of it all, which was him being sent to his room and within 1 minute of him being in there, he sat on his bed (doona, pillow and sheets) and did a wee....and while dealing with this Master A decided he would help himself to the 1/4 can of coke zero left sitting on the table........

Please let tomorrow bring me a better behaved child.....and as I write this sentance he has just thrown another toy at the window....time for bed methinks

15 Jan 2010

Crikey, the temperature keeps rising and it is going to be a hot weekend!!

5th day in a row of exercising today - whohoooooooooooo!!!!

I finally sorted through the boys clothes and Alex's drawers now close again! He already has more than enough clothes for winter courtesy of his brother! I have 2 bags to give to the Carolia Charity and I put some clothes aside to give to our little nephew Master D.....now here's the stoopid part!!

We went down to Mandurah today, because I am chasing a 50mm f/1.8 lens for my camera. Anyway Camera House and Harvey Norman did not have any so it was a wasted trip on that part. BUT we were going to drop the clothes of to Master D. So we rock up and it has been a long while since we visited their house and it has only been once. They are in a new estate, so houses are pretty sparse and all look the same. So we decide which one was their house, knock on the door a couple of times to no answer. So MrJ decides we'll leave the clothes on the porch. Get home, manage to get hold of Master D's mums number and find out that they live at number 14, not number 20. DOH!!!!! Far out - how stoopid can I be???? I hope these people haven't found the clothes and thrown them out or something.

It was too hot to do much again today. Although late this afternoon Master J went out for a play and I grabbed the camera, with a serious lack of phojo and got my PAD. I was planning something else to do after dark, but now that it is dark I CBF. So today's PAD is an insect that had been wrapped up in a spiders web. Not sure what the insect is, and I don't really like the photo, but that's it for today!!

No paperwork turned up for the job.......starting to wonder if their organisation skills are a sign of what it will be like to work for them. Oh well, we'll see what monday brings :-)

14 Jan 2010

Geez it was a warm one today!!

Started off the day well with a trip to the gym! Then Master J's little friend came over for a play and a swim while I caught up with her mum. She is 27 weeks pregnant, it is going to be so exciting to have a newborn around again!! So we spent a bit of time in the pool. Master A was asleep the whole time - another 4 hour marathon. I have decided he does these marathon sleeps to get over 2 days of daycare, where he sleeps less than 1/2 his usual amount!!!

We chilled in the aircon this afternoon and watched Happy Feet. It is great that Master J will sit and watch kiddies movies now - pity Master A is now hitting his straps with his activity and noise level :-S

Took off to the shops late this arvo and had dinner out at the foodcourt.

PAD today courtesy of Master A. I have been trying all week to get an "eye" shot of either of the boys, but they move around far too much. So after he had eaten his lunch I gave him his cup to keep him occupied, while still in the highchair and I managed to get the macro of his eye! It is a bit grainy in the large size due to the high ISO (we were inside), but I am happy with it. I also got another that I couldn't resist :-)

I rang Chandler McCleod today to get feedback for the psychometric testing that I had for the job. I was pretty suprised at the ability results and the profile had me spot on!! These were the results:

Ability Results

• Abstract Reasoning (general knowledge, problem solving) - 89th Percentile (general population)


• Verbal Reasoning (how many big words you know - haha) - 94th Percentile (general population)


• Numerical Reasoning (how you deal with numbers and patterns) - 73rd Percentile (general population) He said that he would place this higher, because I was accurate. I answered 24 out of 34 questions and 22 were correct. So had I put my foot on the gas and answered them all I would have got most of them correct and a higher percentile!!


• Verbal Critical Thinking (conclusions, inferences etc) - 60th Percentile (management population)

Personality Profile

• Very driven & ambitious.
• Always continuing to develop.
• Strong initiative and self reliance.
• Adapt to the environment - so if in a professional environment will behave professionally, but at home will be very different (lol).
• Strong emotionally and resiliant, works well under stress
• Identifies and implements different ways of doing things - works efficiently
• Likes to see the big picture and look at things strategically then work out how to meet goals
• Lots of energy (lmao)
• Can get frustrated when getting into detail hinders progression of work and may overlook details in order to get things complete
• If not kept interested or motivated then I will look elsewhere for the motivation
• Not a naturally trusting person. It can take sometime to earn my trust, but once earned there is no problem
• Self imposed high expectations of myself and potentially others. Need to be realistic in all of these expectations
• Good communicator, but can be a force to be reckoned with (lol). Need to adjust style to suit people so as not to "railroad"

13 Jan 2010

After a restless night (with Master A making the odd noise here and there, enough to wake me up to hear MrJ snoring so I couldn't get back to sleep >-( ) I had a productive morning. Everything done by 930. That was; vacuuming, cleaning the bedroom carpet, take the kids to daycare, 3 loads of washing and a training swim.

So then took some time to get out and snap my PAD. I was on the search for some bugs, and managed to find some bees. They were flitting between the tiny flowers, so it was very tricky to actually get focussed and click before they buzzed onto the next flower! So out of 45 photos, I got 3 decent ones and I couldn't pick between them. I spent a good hour or so editing in Photoshop and creating my story board!

Got stuck into some scrapping and moved along nicely with Master A's album. I am up to christmas for him. I would like to get him up to date by next week, so I can plough into Master J's again.

I had some more discussions with the recruitment agent today. God he gives me the shiates!! Instead of answering a simple question with the answer he waffles and waffles....grrrrrr....anyway seems like I won't have to deal with him anymore. He has sent me the job description and the contract and other paperwork should be sent to me tomorrow. With that all being well, it looks like I will be starting work on the 25th :-S

Master J had another accident free day at school today and was quite well behaved......apart from hitting another kid with a "shobble" (plastic) outside.....what goes through his mind????

Yummy roast lamb for dinner! It was a hot one today, aircons are on in force right now. Now should I get back to my scrapping???

Oh and what was MrJ doing while I was busy all day???? Out on the boat of course :-S

12 Jan 2010

Listen....it's quiet!! Kids are in bed and MrJ is out for the evening....ahhhh bliss!!

It's official, Master A has reverted to early morning wake ups. Four in a row is enough for me to say it will continue :-S

Gym again today. Every morning I feel like not going, but I am sucking it up and getting down there. I haven't been too bad on the food front either. So hopefully I can shed the kg's I have put back on and then some more. I am not brave enough to get on the scales, I think it would make me cry.

Kids were at school today, and since I believe my child free days are about to end (if I am starting work), I thought I better make the most of them! MrJ and I went to see Avatar. I was astounded. It didn't appeal to me as the whole fantasy theme is not my kinda thing. BUT ....WOW....what an awesome movie. It entranced me the whole time, which was a LONG time haha. The 3D added to it's brilliance, but I think it would have been excellent in normal viewing. I am still in awe with how someone can come up with that kind of story, let alone the imagery of the movie itself. Needless to say, todays PAD is associated with the movie :-D

The rest of the day was quiet....until I got the kids home LOL MasterJ had an "accident" free day at school, but he ruined his promise of a toy if he didn't have any accidents by not honouring the "be a good boy" side of the deal. He apparantly was better today than last week, but he still hit 2 kids......I hope this behaviour stops soon, because then he would be a delightful (energetic) little boy.

I didn't hear anything back re: the job today. The recruitment agent gave me a "courtesy" call too see that I received the contract on Friday. I told him that I had responded with some queries and amendments. He said he would follow them up on it. Not that I wanted him to, I think he should be taking a step back now. Pushy bastard that he is! Anyway, I didn't hear from him either. I will ring the company tomorrow and see what is happening. I have a sneaking suspicion it is because I asked to see the Job Description (since the contract states that I agree to carry out the the responsibilities listed in the JD, I think it is only fair that I see it first, don't you?) and they probably haven't got one written up for it! Hopefully should know what's going on tomorrow.

I was going to get into some scrapping tonight, but I think I will just kick back and relax and get into it tomorrow.

11 Jan 2010

Oh what a busy day.....another early start 515am :-S

Master A seems to have had some sort of tummy ache today. He has been a bit spewy and done a large number of poos - each one resulting in an eruption of tears. Not sure what that's all about, but would like my happy baby back tomorrow thanks!!

Went off to the gym this morning. Cleaned all the bedding. Went to the shops , then grocery shopping and played outside with the kids. Now sitting down catching up on the days goings on :-D

Master J's behaviour continues to baffle and frustrate the crap out of me. One look from his father and he does what he is told, but for me it's blatent ignoring and continuation of the behaviour that I have told him off for. Playing outside I told him a number of times to stop throwing sand, then he looks at me and throws a whole heap over Master A. So into his bedroom he went. When I went to get him, he told me what he had done that was naughty and went back out to play...for all of 5 minutes before he started throwing stuff again....... I am at a loss with what to do with him...........

I sent an email regarding the contract that I got for this job with some change requests and queries and I haven't heard anything back from them....hmmmm I wonder what this means???

Anyway - off to see Avatar tomorrow. It better be good because it will be 2 hrs and 40 minutes of my life I will never get back ....haha

Oh, almost forgot. PAD today, I originally snapped a quick pic of a red crane that had gone up outside the shopping centre while I was grocery shopping, but it was crap. So I took the kids playing outside as an opportunity to snap some better ones. The one of Master J was a fluke cos he would not stand still and look at the camera long enough for me to focus and click. Stubbie was a much more willing subject LOL

10 Jan 2010

Early start today - thanks MasterA (430am)........

Today I took the boys to a 2nd birthday party for one of the little boys MasterJ plays with at kindygym. They both had fun, but didn't wear them out enough for a marathon sleep in the afternoon. I think I got about an hours peace.

I went for a training swim in the pool. Last time I did this was the first time and I ended up with a migraine. So I limited it to 20 minutes today and no migraine. Might be better to build up slowly!

I watched My Sisters Keeper tonight. What a sad sad sad movie. I think it hit home harder than it would have a few years ago, due to me having children of my own. It also made me think of those that have children, well anyone really, that are battling cancer. I hope that I never have to go through anything like that in my life time.

As for PAD, I got a shot of MasterA on a swing at the party. I'm not happy with it technically, but it gave me the chance to learn some more editing tricks. There was a leg in the picture on the LHS of the swing and I couldn't crop it out. So I learnt how to get rid of it out of the photo!! So there are 2 photos today, one is the before and the other is the after (edited) version!

Feels like I am starting to get a cold or sore throat or something....hope it doesn't eventuate into anything!

9 Jan 2010

Guess what - another hot day! Good for drying washing, though not good for hanging it out!!

Master J got some playdoh for christmas, so we got that out to have a play and I used it as one of my PAD subjects. I also played around with his trucks to get a second shot for today! I got to play around with some more in photoshop to come up with todays end results!

MasterA is becoming a little character, some things good, some things bad. But overall he is not yet exhibiting the same traits (other than his love for making noise) as his older brother...and he is just so darn cute :-D

We watched "UP" this afternoon, another great flick from Pixar!!

Today saw the last straw for me with MasterJ's behaviour this week. He has been getting increasingly worse with his behaviour towards me and complete lack of respect to do anything that I say - even when he is being told off. As a result he spent a fair amount of the day being carted backwards and forwards to his room. He was also denied swimming in the pool - an activity he loves. I am having to find different tactics to deal with his behaviour, so I will see how this goes.

8 Jan 2010

Could barely walk this morning, so decided to give the gym a miss. I didn't think I would make it up the stairs alone, let alone carrying boombah boy MasterA!!

Instead we hightailed it to Garden City Shopping Centre for some free aircon and retail therapy. There wasn't anything in particular we were shopping for, but ended up with some new DVD's and I got a sandwich press/griller! The PAD came from MasterJ standing in the toy car aisle at Kmart - the only place he wants to go when we go to the shops!

Yep - another hot day again. MasterJ is now so confident in the pool I don't need to be in there with him. Just watching from the pool deck :-)

Got a call from the recruitment agent in the afternoon. Putting a case forward for what they want to offer me and why. The upshot is they are offering $10K less than what I told them I was expecting. After some discussion with MrJ, I decided that it is a decent offer and they had it in writing to me via email by the end of the day. There are a few things that need clarification before going ahead and accepting the job AND they want me to start on the 18th Jan.....hmmm not sure I am prepared enought for it to be that soon. I think I will negotiate that to the following Monday...... I also need a police clearance!! Gotta get on to that on Monday and find out how to get one!

I took off to a series of 4 scrapping evenings tonight. I learnt a new layout and got some more of MasterA's birthday pages done - and there is a few of them!!

Oh and HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY MASTER L.....another of MasterA's online buddies!

7 Jan 2010

Yep - the legs are feeling it this morning :-( but still went to the gym to stretch them out a bit.

Got home to a message from the recruitment agent. Apparently they want to make me an offer and he was just checking on my expectations of salary etc....so will see what comes of that!

I had an idea to set up a backdrop to get some pictures of the kids having fun with paints. So today was the day! I set up for MasterJ first, while MasterA was asleep. He had fun with the canvases to start with, then realised it was a free for all and started painting himself!!! He stopped when he had managed to use up all the paint, which was all of about 5 minutes. I cleaned him and all of the mess up and then it was time for round 2 with MasterA, while MasterJ was in bed! He also had a great time, and if possible, ended up with more paint on himself than his brother did!!

I got some fantastic shots and it gave me a lot to play with in my newly downloaded Photoshop. I can't believe they want $1400 for the full version. I have 30 days to make up my mind!

Another stinking hot day today, so we all went in for a swim in the afternoon.

6 Jan 2010

Kids at school again and MrJ out on his brothers boat for the day, house is clean, time for a ME day :-)

I went off to the gym and got into some weights, lunges and squats as well as some cardio. Gonna hurt tomorrow!!!

Spent the day sorting out MasterA's latest photos, and got going on doing his birthday pages. This is where todays PAD comes from - two of the pages I completed.

Cooked a yummy roast beef dinner too!

Took off to Kmart in the evening - they are open till 9pm every weekday during the school holidays - perfect time to go as there wasn't a sole around!

Got onto this weeks photo challenge, which is glass. Here is the result:

5 Jan 2010

YAY......kiddies back at school today and MrJ out on his boat.

Took the christmas decorations down (that has got to be the worst job in the world!) and got to giving this place a damn good clean. I got nice and carried away and even cleaned the carpet down the other end of the house. The water was disgusting and formed my PAD!!! That was most of my day!

I am expecting to hear back about a job I had an interview and psych tests for before christmas. The recruitment agent rang me today to tell me that they had completed the reference checks.....

4 Jan 2010

Ahhhh...Monday....hi ho hi ho it's off to the gym I go!!!

Another stinking hot day. Got home from the gym and grabbed my camera and went outside for some inspiration. I ended up taking a few snaps of MrJ and MasterJ's cars, but went with the GTS badge as my PAD.

MasterA had a marathon daytime sleep - 4hours!! I had to check after 3, but he was just flat out!!

I called Harvey Norman regarding my Bessell floor cleaner that I put in for repair 4 weeks ago and they got back to me and said "we're not going to make you wait any longer, come in and we'll give you a new one". YAY...I need it for tomorrow for my marathon house clean...correction this HOUSE really needs it LOL. Took the opportunity to print out the most recent photos of MasterA to get his scrapbook up to date!

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming :-)

And today is MrT's first birthday. MrT is MasterA's online friend. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY MrT!!

3 Jan 2010

It is Sunday, so that sees MrJ off up to his Amateur Radio Club for the morning. It was a very hot day, it had reached 30 deg C by 9am. So once MasterA was back in bed, I took MasterJ in the pool. I let him get in by himself and snapped a few shots to get my PAD. The whole time he was in on his own with no floaties. You can see how well he is doing via this link:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/video/video.php?v=227257572595&ref=mf

Mum and Dad's besties from England are currently in Perth visiting their son and his family. The emigrated here in March last year, and this is the first time his parents have come over. So today we hosted them here for a BBQ. It was great to catch up with them again, I hadn't seen them since 1998 and MrJ had never met them before. Our kids and their kids had a great time playing together, and of course, many more photos were taken. It was still very hot in the afternoon, but the pool got a good workout :-)