bush christmas 2007

Lauren and her dog Tess, Janine with new pup, Bootlace.

Happy Christmas to all the cousins and others. We checked out the dams yesterday and found this one full to overflowing, approx. 3 times its normal capacity - great!!! Poppa and Lauren tried some flying but are still trying to land at Caloundra. Keep a look out for them!

Christmas morning started with everyone greeting Nana and Poppa on the bed. After our devotion time we had a quiz to sort out fact from fiction about the Christmas story and most realised they were a bit rusty on the facts. Nana did a loose version of the Christmas story using the different chocolates. A lazy day reading, eating great food, Monopoly (nana won) and using her new toy, the Cuttlebug.

Enjoy your holiday

From the bush cousins

Christmas 2007

Howdy all. Christmas on the farm was a little quiet without all the relatives. Thank you all for all the lovely presents. We went to church this mornig. I picked up a load of New Guinea nationals who are down for Christmas with their relatives. There are about 18 of them in one house! Home by 10 to put the roast in the oven. We had four guests - Peter Willison, his two sons and daughter in law ( the girl I was mother of the bride for) Doug and the kids are enjoying their Christmas present. Doug thinks it was for the kids but I think it was really for him! We all got showered in dust and the track over the sand heap is getting worn. I will miss singing grace tonight with Peter and Steven...can't wait for next year.... we'll have to sing it twice!

Hope you all had a lovely day...I'm now going to get my hair straightened by Kimberley with her new toy

Love from the Hardwicks

busy time of the year

G'day nephews & nieces,
Just thought I would wish you all a very merry christmas and a happy new year. No doubt we will see some of you on Christmas day but to the Muckadillians, hope you have a good one. Uncle Kerry and I spent 9 days with a group of 14 young people doing Christmas programs in 18 schools. It was lots of fun, but quite exhausting. Our reward was 3 days on great keppel at the end! We should have a family get together there some time, See you soon, Janelle

Our New Nephews

I thought I'd just play the bragging aunty for a sec here and introduce you all to Zach & Nate. They are 18 wks old but were born at 28 weeks so they are just now 8 pounds. (Zach was 980g and Nate was 1050g when they were born). They were in hospital for 10 weeks and in and out of intensive care. Naturally Pete's sister Bron and her husband Trev were very protective of who held them etc. because they were so susceptible to infection and the like. So here is a pic of Aunty Anna and Uncle Pete getting their first cuddles about 2 weeks ago. Oh, and they're identical! Fun hey! I'm holding Nate and Pete has Zach....I think.

Wedding Anniversary No.6

Ok - prepare to be blown out of the water ladies! Men - prepare to be put to shame!
Today is our 6th wedding anniversary! Unfortunately Pete is in Sydney at a 'Wild At Heart' men's conference with Steve...did I mention they're not allowed to have mobile phones at this conference!?! So I've spent it all on my lonesome..no, I lie..I had to work so I spent it with about 100 stressed out Christmas shoppers.

Anywaaaaays, Pete decided we should celebrate on Wednesday night since he was leaving Thursday. I got a big bunch of flowers on arriving home, I cooked his favourite dinner and then I was told I had to get ready cause we were going out! I was told we'd be doing lots of walking so wear good walking shoes and he put on jeans so I followed suit on that. We drove about a km down the road to the Petrie hall to go to...wait for it!....a ballroom dancing lesson!! I couldn't believe it!! So after I got over the romantic gesture part of it, I started freaking out that I was about to look like a real unco! We had a fantastic night with 50 new friends (all at least 20 yrs our snr), learning the quickstep, the chachacha, the rumba and the jive. Sounds impressive right!? Ok, they were extremely beginner versions of those dances and at one stage the entire circle dance was stopped so we could get some specialist attention, but wow it was fun! Next time however, I will not be wearing boho sandals and jeans...all the other ladies were wearing heeled dancing shoes and swirly, elegant skirts..the men collared shirts and shiney black dress shoes.

I am pretty sure we will be going semi-regularly next year AND we will definately be dragging along some friends and family!!

21st & 1/2 Bday party

Here is just a happy snap of my b'day party. It was good to catch up with everyone and it was fun just being able to relax (when it was all over). There was a little accident at the top of the stairs with the beetroot, however we didn't tell anyone, as Aunty Lyndal came to the rescue with more tins of beetroot.
The next photo is the siblings plus one, Olivia.
The final photo is of Suzzy, myself and Kym. I teach with these ladies and they flew down just for the party which was great.

Hardwick hello again

Whats happening? Hasn't anyone got any news?
Did you here about Janine? No room at the Inn
Tomorrow I am leading the Christmas Service at Aloomba. I am using Janines story about not finding any accomodation in Townsville (due to Elton Johns visit) as my illustration. Thanks Janine!
Christmas party here last night for 26. It seemed to take all weekend to prepare. We had a lot of fun even though it was 37 degrees all day. The kids ended up having a water bomb fight at 8.30pm to cool down! The airconditioning didn't have any effect.
Doug has grinded back the concrete at the barracks in prep for tiling. You should have seen the mess on my newly painted walls!
Mitchell has had his first day of holidays. Home alone with Dad popping in between fertiliser runs. The cane is growing at an incredible rate and so is the grass.
School christmas night Friday and church family fun night this Saturday.
Kimberley is looking foraward to all the socialising
Thats all for now
Merryl

Hardwick Hello

Is that a John Deere?

That really looks like fun

Hardwick Happenings

As you can see we are now harvesting the last of our crop. Mill stops tomorrow and we have no choice but to cut in the bog and ruin the crop for next year or leave it unharvested until next year. Doug is not very happy, the contractor and the mill have mucked him around again. We were supposed to get cut out last week in the dry. Merryl was 2 metres away from being hit by a bolt propelled into the principals office by a shang hai today. Glass sprayed everywhere. The culprits haven't been found yet. A snake in the kitchen yesterday...I wonder what tomorrow will bring! Still not game to publsih a photo of the barracks for chloe!!!

Janine's finally finished

Janine's Formal and Graduation is finally over and it was a big 2 days. Nana and Poppa were there to see her dressed in all her finery and surprisingly Lauren was working in Toowoomba those 2 days and was able to be a part of it too. Graham and I got out of our working gear into something more presentable and enjoyed the evening show with other the parents. They all 'arrived' at the school grounds (it has a great entrance for this) and after photos, nibblies and speeches, fireworks in the oval brought this segment to a finish. We then went to Rumours for the dinner and dancing - yes Graham got up to dance in the father/daughter dance but they both got a bit lost trying to work out the Pride of Erin on the crowded dancefloor! The evening ended with the students forming a guard of honour down the staircase for the parents! Rather moving!!

The Graduation Service hld a few surprises too - Janine gave the Valedictory Speech! We sort of knew but Nana didn't so she was quite moved! Janine then got a surpise by winning the All-round Achievement and Christian Character Award as well as an Academic Award.

Holidays, glorious holidays! Part 2

One of the highlights of our holiday would have to have been our bike ride. A bike ride you say? That doesn't sound very interesting!? But wait! You havn't seen THIS bike!! Take a look at this beauty!!

Mitchell's moment

Mitchell had 10 seconds of fame on the stage at the convention centre on Tuesday night. He got an academic excellence award. On wednesady night we went to Babinda speech night to see Kimberleys friend Rebekah get school captain. Two speech nights in two days... I could think of more exciting ways to spend my week nights! Actually it wasn't bad.. TAS music was very entertaining.

Holidays, glorious holidays! Part 1

Thanks Aunty Merryl! I sent you a msg on your birthday...did you get it? I had a fantastic day but more on that later...

Pete & I have just come home from 2 wks up at the infamous Caloundra penthouse. It's hard to come back down to earth after all that relaxing but so it goes! Due to terrible weather we spent most of the time watching movies, reading and playing Stars Wars Lego on playstation (no, I admit, it wasn't just Pete!).

Chelsea and Steven joined us for a night on the first week and we spent a lovely rainy-ish day at Montville (much to the delight of the boys). Got all our Christmas baby shopping out of the way...Pete's sister Bronwyn had twin boys in July and his other sister had a little girl in July also..and one of my bf's Julie is having a little girl in February so Chels and I got baby shower shopping done too.

Happy Birthday Anna

We thought of you yesterday. Hope you had a great day. It's a good thing we get a minutes silence on your day!! how could we forget Love Hardwicks

Central Queensland News

Well not much new is happening up here! I just returned from a weekend away with some of the teachers at Rydges at Yeppoon. Was lovely but got too much sun and now I'm red and sore! Not a lot has happened up here since my last post. It looks like I won't be at Mt Larcom next year which is good and a little sad! Not sure where or what I will be doing. Have applied at some of the private school which will be ok. I know God has my life worked out and thats all I need to worry about.
Janine I can't believe you're driving congrats thats so exciting you'll wonder how you ever survived without your car.
This is a picture of me with Kym, one of my really good friends up here. I was trying to find a more interesting pic but they will have to wait. Maybe after I'll try and get some rydges photos up and some of my sunburn. Hope I haven't bored you all too much.
Talk soon
Leetice

janine on the road

Hey Janine, That's fantastic. Now you don't seem to have answered the schoolies question. Which direction are you heading. We will know to look out for you.

its tru...

Hey crazy cousins
This blog thing is really hard to work out so i hope it works
Yes aunty nell its all tru... i have my licence so all u other drivers better watch out! I had 7 mistakes and ur only allowed 7 so that was kinda lucky :) And yes i'm going to schoolies ... 15 days to go!! Catch you all later luv lots xoxo

I heard it on the grapevine!

Just heard this morning that Janine got her drivers' licence. Is this true? Hard to believe little Janiney is old enough to drive! Hope all is going well for the country cousins doing exams, etc. And Lauren even Aunty Janelle new some of those names. She did however not know the sunny cowgirls, or whatever. Are they from the Sunshine Coast??

I'm off to the big smoke of Bribie tomorrow. The annual trek for the hairdresser. I feel like I'm wearing a beanie. Can't wait to take it off!!!
I'm looking forward to the weekend. We have a retreat at work. A whole weekend scrapbooking. Well I'll probably be doing cardmaking some Christmas little numbers..... We have a practice Friday night at our place for the Mission Trip Uncle Kerry is organising once again. This time we will end up at Mt Larcom and see Leetice before she finishes up, up there. A whole new bunch of y.p. so it will be interesting. Anyhow I'm off to bed.....An early start tomorrow.
Love Aunty Janelle.
P.S. Is Janine going to schoolies???

Spirit of the Bush

Hi all,
Just thought that I would let you know what has been happening in the little town of Roma lately. Well, not so little last weekend. Roma doubled its population, due to the "Spirit of the Bush" troupe rolling into town. It was a free concert put on by Lee Kernaghan, Adam Brand, Sunny Cowgirls and others (even my city cousins should know those names!) to rally farmers in the area battling the drought. I donned my RM's and headed off to the showgrounds looking to have some fun. It was a great afternoon/night, watching all the performances and I managed to catch up with a whole bunch of people that I hadn't seen in ages. The highlight would have had to been Lee Kernaghan- he is an awesome performer. Other than that, I have been busy trying to study for my uni exams coming up in 2 weeks. Luv Lauren

mother of the bride in aunty lyndals dress

hardwick happenings

hello family,

Thought you may like a look at some of the photos of last months events.

One of the wedding, one of Kimberleys birthday, one of the bridge on fire in the dismantling stage, the cousins haircuts and poppa and mitchell in the surf. I'm not game to show Chloes new home yet..... and now I'm having trouble putting on more than one photo...how do I do it cousins?

Love Aunty Merryl

What a Great Day...

Beach Party!!!

My 21st birthday party was a ball on the weekend...Anna, being the official photographer to the birthday star hopefully will post a piccy soon!
The day started at 730am at Windward Passage as we picked the perfect party location as we looked out from the balcony. We hired a slow slow slow 7 person bbq boat (minus the bbq), loaded it up with beach balls, a kiddies pool, 8 umbrellas, 1 main shade, drinks and nibbles, leis and sombreros and what seemed like a tonne of other stuff and headed off to party island. Unfortunately we discovered that the fantastic island location we picked would come at a much bigger cost than expected...that is about a 50m trek across sand hills...not quite the pleasant walk Steven and I recalled taking on our recent holiday at Caloundra, especially when you are lugging the above mentioned party accessories!
Following the long wait for a very slow returning boat (captained by the handsome Dean) and a hike through the sand we had all arrived and the construction of the beach slip 'n' slide began - for about 30mins we watched the dreams of 10 young men unfold as they carefully moulded out the perfect slip 'n' slide down the beach while the girls relaxed in the kiddies pool under the shade of our sombreros! Unfortunately due to severe abrasions to the stomach the slide closed after about 6mins and the footy began.
A beautiful steak hamburger, watermelon, chips, choccies and cake for lunch and my beach party dreams were complete - big thanks to mum and dad for missing half the party to prepare it all (not planned very well)! It was an awesome day but yet somehow for the muscular pain it caused I don't think it will ever be repeated again! I'm sure my obliging friends and family only love me so much!

Coming Up for Air

Howdy nephews and nieces and aunties,
Finally working out again how to get on to this blog again. I've been a bit busy at work lately with Christmas promos starting already. Going to the big city on Thursday for a training day at Kelvin Grove. Always fun to see other store owners...... Uncle Kerry is busy as ever. Came back from Fiji and now has a Mission Trip coming up with fundraising, practices, etc to be done. He also is doing a funeral this week for one of Vaughan Bruton's 24 y.o. mates who was killed on Sunday in a motorbike accident. His father (the mates) is Vaughans boss, was travelling behind his son and saw him lose control and plough into a tree. Apparently they went bike riding most Sunday's together. Rather sad. Be careful all you motorbike riders!!!!!

Now, most importantly, how did the party go on the weekend. Are there any photos to be seen...... Although I was locked up inside all day, I did get to look out and see that the weather seemed okay. And I didn't hear of any air/sea rescues at Bribie so I'm guesssing it went well????

hello everyone

Can't believe there is no more news posted by the cousin. I was Mother of the Bride on the weekend for my friend Mary's sons wedding. Biggi is from Germany and none of her relatives could attend. The green outfit (Lyndals chelsea wedding dress) got lots of comments. Not to mention the shoes - which were discarded after the church for Jodyes more comfortable ones. Got home after midnight. Returned the next morning to the hotel for breakfast with friends. Cairns is getting ready for Stevens visit this week. Bought a new stove and electrical fittings for the Barracks today----getting ready for Chloes arrival! Kids had pupil free day today - a day shopping with Grandma. Love to all Aunty Merryl

Hardwick Happenings

Now that I have managed to get Kimberley off my seat, I'll say hello to all. Doug and Mitchell are at a Youth Alive concert tonight called Ransom. Hope Doug ( and Mitchell) can hack the pace!
I've been painting down at the barracks today, Doug has been welding the new garage together. We're off to Tully Baptist in the morning to do a little bit of "ministry". Their PA is broken down, the overhead projector is not working and they use the brown and yellow chorus books. Hope we can be an encoragement.
Afternoon tea with Farnsworths at Etty Bay to discuss Dougs MC role at the wedding in January. Yes Anna, I have thought of looking for the palm cards!
Coming down Thursday night 22 Nov and coming back Sunday Lunch time for the next tooth session.
See you soon Aunty Merryl

Hi

Hello Everybody !!! WE saw the blockbuster video shop that Steven is going to move stuff into today!!! We also saw our new neighbor Andrew Timmothy Fuller!!! He is sooooo cute!!! Miss U all!!! From Kimberley NOT MUM

Monster Hail Storm Hits Petrie!!

Ok ok so it wasn't really monster but it was pretty full on with golf ball sized hail!!! Ok ok it wasn't golf ball sized hail..more like large grape sized hail but it was loud and crazy and scary for a little girl at home on her lonesome!! It hit this arvo at about 5pm and little Petrie-town is a bit of a mess now. Usually storms go around us here (I've never experienced one like this while living here) but this one tore right through. We have a little creek that runs out the front of our house that is usally about 1 metre wide...well I'll let you see for yourself how big it got today!!

BMX Bandits

Pete & I had a fantastic couple of days over the weekend and I thought I'd share one bit of it with you. Saturday afternoon we went down to Pine Rivers Park where they have just built a new bmx jump track thing. They had a pro competition with riders from all around Australia in our little Strathpine!!! It was absolutely stinkin hot but awesome to watch. Sorry you missed it Dean!! Here's a couple of pics from the day...amazing what they can do!!

home sweet home

We arrived back safe and sound. Mitchell off to school today. I missed the kitcehn tea I was organising due to a migraine headache. Donna to the rescue - they all had a good time. Doug is busy building carport roof . Talk about a construction and a half . I'll send photo when finished
Love to all Aunty Merryl

caloundra retreat

Had a good time at Nana & Poppas. Mitchell & Kimberley enjoyed the surf and wanted to go back daily. Not too much shopping - too many hanger ons! Early mornings - 5am starts! Good sunrises. Back to the farm life today.Aunty M

All dressed up and no where to go...

The story of my life in Mt Larcom/Gladstone. This is a picture of some (most) of my friends from school (Kym, Lisa, Kelly (house mate), me and Tiff). We had just competed in a Hollywood Trivia night and won. I'm still on school hols which is good and I'm doing my best at doing as little as possible, which I have discovered I am very good at! The only problem is that there are kids everywhere! Talk to you all later Leetice

welcome new bloggers

Howdy relatives. Good to see you all. Home from a big day at work today. Had to teach a kids class as well on my own. Looking forward to catching up with you all.

Welcome to Brisbane!

Well it's time for the annual southern migration for the cousins from the far north and they've arrived with a bang!

Mitchell, Kimberley and Aunty Merryl spent yesterday arvo at with Aunty Lyndal and Uncle Geoff, visited me at work (what a nice surprise!), watched movies in the theatre, helped Chelsea find a plan for her new house, got a crash course in blogging and all this before dinner with Nanna & Poppa before they were whisked away to Bribie!

It's great to see you guys!

Nana's thoughts

Excited to be here with you all but I really am not a cousin. It is wonderful to share with all my lovely grandchildren (cheque book of course! - written by aunty merryl) I am blessed to have ten plus two youngies in my flock. Blessings to you all. Nana

Mitchells school moments

Nana wanted this photo on to show off her handsome grandson in his school uniform

Hello

Hi, Bye

Let's Terminate the Tilapia!

Hello everybody! This is Kimberley and this is my first time on the blog!

On the 16th of September Aloomba State School held a tilapia terminators fishing competition. Everyone who competed in the competition caught, altogether, 2549 tilapia! It was my birthday. I caught 2 big ones and one small one and Mitchell caught one mud cod. We were fishing for about 4 hours and then we had to head back to the school.

Trinity Anglican School came first in the school competition. Babinda State School came second and Aloomba State School came third! Next year we are hoping to catch more fish. I'm sure if Aunty Janelle were there she would have had a blast! BYE FOR NOW

Christmas List

Aunty Merryl's in town so the Christmas list is done!

Lyndal > Maibry
Geoff> someone? can't remember who's left?
Anna>Chloe
Peter>Kent
Dean>Graham
Chelsea>Merryl
Steve>Nanna
Janelle>Poppa
Kerry>Lyndal
Chloe>Geoff
Leetice>Peter
Kent>Chelsea
Maibry>Steve
Graham>Doug
Lauren>Leetice
Merryl>Kerry
Doug>Anna
Nanna>Dean
Poppa>Lauren

Mitchell, Kimberley & Janine are still under 18 so presents please! Ha!

Happy Birthday to You!

I'll let Chelsea fill you in on her birthday celebrations but I thought I would post a piccy of the occasion. Good to hear from you Teece!

CHELSEA IS 21!

Happy birthday Chels! Didn't get to send you a text as my phone is broken and don't have anyones number! I hope you had a great day and will see you some time soon!

larcom news

hello everyone! well at last i'm getting around to posting a blog! i have tried previously and i even had photos! but my computer wouldnt let me post it! So i am now on 2 wks holidays and have returned back to nambour to try posting a blog and to do as little as possible. i am still in mt larcom which is about 5hrs north of the sunshine coast or 45min south of rocky! Its not too bad but its not that great. I am only contract so am not sure whether i will be there next year or not i would like to become permanant so that i have the stability of work but will wait and see what God has planned for me, but will continue to push the principal for permanancy.
Will try and post fairly frequently to keep you all up to date with the latest. Maybe next post will have some photos.
leetice

Happy Birthday Chelsea!

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear Chelsea!
Happy birthday to you!

The Magic Man!

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS, COME SEE THE GREATEST MAGICIAN IN THE WORLD! .... WOOHOO!
You will never guess who came and visited Prep on Tuesday. The kids absolutely loved him! They even said he was better then the lady that came from the sensory circus who taught them body tricks! Dad was able to practice for Fiji and the kids were able to experience another part of circus performances. So it was great for everyone.
The kids are absolutely loving the 'circus' unit we are doing. Everyday they are in the tent practicing and performing. We have ticket masters, ring masters, assistants, tightrope walkers, cheetahs (!) and tamers, acrobats, magicians, fire twirlers, a food crew and most importantly security! Our security many is very professional. He told me today that he needed to go and do some exercises so he could be strong. He is great at crowd control and ensuring every audience member has their ticket! The food crew was great today. We had a rehearsal of what they are going to cook for the parents. They cooked cheerios and mini bread rolls. Yum! Yum! They were also very professional wearing gloves and collecting the money.
As much as I love the kids, I can't wait till the holidays! 6 more school days to go!

Aye, Aye, Captain!

This was taken on crisp winter morning out on the passage at Caloundra...Steven and I were on holidays recently at the ol' penthouse and on our second last day up the coast it was beautiful and sunny, and quite warm for a winters day so we decided to call up Poppa to come meet us the next day for some boating! Unfortunately there was only one warm day in winter this year and it was not the day we went boating.

An 8am start down at the boat ramp got us knee deep in freezing cold water, shivering in the crisp wind wondering what we were doing...but we had all gone to too much effort to get up and going we couldn't very well turn on the plans. We jumped in the boat and powered down the passage, wind in the face, getting wet and feeling miserable...ah, family bonding! Finally once we felt we'd gone far enough we stopped somewhere on Bribie Is for shelter and morning tea treats, but froze our legs off in the cold wind!

After our brief pitstop, we turned back...and would you believe it, in 5 minutes the weather had fined up and it was a beautiful ride (it also possibly had something to do with the fact that it was much later than 8am by this point)! The return trip was great, we cruised by the waterfront houses, Steven had a drive and Poppa tested the accuracy of the fish finder's depth indicator by cruising along the sandbanks...love technology and the Walton curiosity - like father like son (I'm sure I've been in similar boating experiments before)!

We had a great morning, thank you Poppa!

Greetings

Hi Cousins,
Hope you had a great weekend. We had a good one. Quite relaxing. Managed to go to church at Mapleton for the opening of their new extension of the church. Was good to catch up with some old faces. (not old as in old but as in familiar faces from way back) Hang on a minute, i guess they were oldish. Did some scrapbooking of the cousins on Friday night. Of course it was when they were all little and could fit in a bath together...... How cute.
Thought I would send a happy memory of some of the cousins.....

Youth Alive

Saturday night saw Pete, Kochy and I off to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre for Youth Alive...I know what you're thinking!..Pete is not exactly 'youth'!..but we managed to sneak him in! Ok ok me and Kochy aren't exactly youth anymore either..I know! With this dilemma in mind as we approached the venue, we decided to find a big bunch of wayward looking youths and followed them closely in the door, giving the 'youth leader' nod to the people on the door. Alright, so we didn't really have to go to that extent but we certainly did feel like a minority!

Our main purpose for going was to see Switchfoot (that's a band Nanna) rock the stage. But before they came on we were lead in worship by the youth alive band and then preached to by the awesome Reggie Dabbs ("there's a little bit of chocolate in everyone!"). I had been told how fantastic Reggie was but had never got to hear him..and boy were we blown away! He had 3000 kids in the palm of his hand and a call saw tonnes of them saved. It was actually really cool to watch the dynamic in the room and the Spirit at work.

And then there was Switchfoot! They were totally rock & roll and totally anointed!

I think I might have worked it out!

Hi guys, Yes I'm slowly trying to work out this blogging deal..... It's a worry. These old people just don't seem to be able to manage this new technology. Anyhow....How's the holiday going Chels. Hope the weather isn't effecting it too much. It's been raining all day and night here. We'll be considering getting Uncle Kerry to build an ark soon if it doesn't let up.... Anyhow have a good one.. love Aunty Janelle

Happy Father's Day!

Ok, I know it's late but happy father's day to Dad, Poppa, Uncle Kerry, Uncle Doug, and Uncle Graham! We had lunch with Nanna & Poppa, Dean, Mum & Dad (the other 2 had to work-bummer!) and it was lovely! We almost had a REALLY good lunch as Mum poured everyone, including N & P, a glass of de-alcoholised wine...except it wasn't de-alcoholised! We realised after a few minutes! We were THIS close to seeing Nanna & Poppa sloshed!! Could've been quite a day!

Poppa was quite rapped (is that how you spell it in this context? Maybe one of the teachers out there can tell me!) with his present from Mum & Dad of a model tractor...and of course it sparked much conversation about this and that model of tractors going back about 40 yrs and was it a totally true replication etc etc...most riveting conversation for the men at the table anyway! Poppa told us the story of how his father died in a tractor accident and showed us how after that, all tractors were made with covers over the battery as a safety precaution - something that would've saved our great-poppa's life back then.

Nanna also reminisced with an article she's found in the paper about the sale of the old boothville hospital (at least I think that's what it's called). All her little babies were born there and she was actually able to point out on the pic which rooms she had stayed in! I told her she should buy it then she could actually show us around!

Teacups

Last week at our weekly women's teaching night we had a surprise baby shower for one of the girls and someone brought along these gorgeous little teacup biscuits. Mum and I thought of Nanna straight away and snapped a piccy to send to her but I thought the creative Nambour ladies might want to see it too. The bit in the middle is a marshmallow...not only does it look good but it tastes pretty darn yummy too!

Help for the struggling bloggers!

Ladies - when you're posting a blog you need to press 'publish post' at the end not 'save now'. You've done a couple where you've just saved them as drafts and so they're not actually on the blog.

Just the way I like it!

This is me in Thailand being waited on hand and foot by little Thai girls. It was $12 for 1 hour of pampering!
See... Aunty Janelle is pretty clever! More clever than you thought!

A Night at the Tivoli

Last Sunday night I took Chels on a surprise outing as an early birthday pressie. She was quite peeved when Pete and I went to see Brooke Fraser perform earlier this year and didn't invite her so off we went into the valley to see her play the Tivoli. It's such a beautiful old style venue - very opulent, and very cosy. Brooke was fantastic..she's got such a milk & honey voice...I could listen to her all day! Ladies to the north - if you havn't got her albums you need to march to your nearest cd store and snatch one up straight away!

Whoa Nelly!

Hey Aunty Nelly! It's nice to hear from you...I will be truly impressed if you figure out how to post a photo all by yourself! I have tried to txt Aunty Merryl to let her know I've set this up but I don't think she's quite fluent with that technology yet either! I'll have to give her a call this week..I'm sure Mitchell and Kimberley would get a kick out of this!