Off to Grandma's.....

Here are Oliver, Alex and their cousin Kyle waiting to board their flight to Brisbane.  They are a little excited as it's the first holiday that the 3 of them have been on together.

My two will be back on the 7th October at the end of the school holidays where as Kyle will only be there for one week.  God help Grandma!!!

All I can say is.... our house was quiet tonight!

Menu Plan Monday (3rd April - 9th April)

As you have probably gathered by now, I LIVE for menu planning! By menu planning it ensures that we have a weeks worth of meals organised which is especially useful Monday through Friday when there is not much of the day left after finishing work, picking up the kids from school and having to deal with the tasks of homework, clothes washing, showers, etc., and to do without the hassle of worrying WHAT we are cooking for dinner each night. Honestly if I left deciding what’s for dinner until I go home we wouldn’t eat until midnight!!

We had another busy start to this week.. Oliver had his birthday party on Saturday night with 3 friends staying over and me taking 5 kids to the movies to see Alice in Wonderland (which I had to say again I thoroughly enjoyed). I have to admit though that by Sunday night all I could be bothered cooking was toasted sandwiches for dinner.

One more week remaining of school holidays and then it's back to normality with the kids back to school and more importantly back home with us.

They are off to Nana and Grandad's again for a few nights this week as Noel and I are still working while they are off school. The lucky ducks will be treated to a holiday down the coast with their grandparents, which will be good for them and also good for Nana and Grandad to get away.... cross fingers that my two angels (monsters LOL) behave themselves.

We had a busy weekend with Easter and due to some change in plans we ended up being all over the place with our menu. The Lynbrook hotel was nice on Saturday night with Vera, her boyfriend Paul and all the families. The kids were well behaved but as usual I ate too much.

Our usual family Easter Sunday lunch didn't eventuate this year with everything that has been happening, which I must say felt quite weird not seeing the family during this time. Nana and Grandad wanted some quiet time (for which I do not blame them) while Sean and Vicky already had plans to go to Vicky's family for the day. We didn't end up doing a great deal at all, the usual Easter Egg hunt, Nana and Grandad popped in and that was about all. To be honest, not in the mood for a huge Easter dinner we ended up with a pasta dish while watching a movie.

Spending the day out yesterday was great - just the four of us. We ended up at Phillip Island, somewhere we haven't been for awhile. Lunch was at an old-style pub, The Isle Of Wight, in Cowes where the meal was huge therefore leaving us not wanting much for dinner. Dinner ended up being "grab your own" where the kids had frozen dinners and I had some french breadstick and butter!!!

However this is how our week was planned - cross fingers we can stay on track for the remainder of the week:

Saturday ~ Lynbrook Hotel with Vera, Paul and families

Sunday ~ Creamy Tomato, Chicken and Mushroom Pasta
Monday ~ Isle Of Wight Hotel, Cowes, for lunch so grab your own dinner

Tue ~ Roast Rack of Pork with all the trimmings

Wed ~ Carribean Lamb and Sweet Potato Curry with Steamed Rice

Thu ~ Chilli Ginger Teriyaki Beef with Noodles
Fri ~ Sticky Lemongrass Pork Patties with Steamed Rice and Asian Vegetables

I know that our week starts on a Saturday but that’s just for the ease of fitting in with my grocery shopping which is normally done on a Friday night or Saturday afternoon. As usual more great menu ideas can be found at Menu Plan Monday over at I’m An Organising Junkie, don’t be shy pop over and have a look at other’s menu plans. You never know you may just find something different to have for dinner.

Some recipes for things we cook can be found over at our cooking blog, A Dash Of Flavour, normally posted after they have been cooked or just click on the links for each meal when they appear.

Happy cooking,


My Family from WiddlyTinks.com

School holidays again.....

Well we are pretty much in the middle of the school holidays and Easter has been thrown into the two week break as well which I do like the idea of.

Noel and I are working through the holidays (as usual) but are looking forward to spending the 4 day long weekend with the kids. They have been at Nana and Grandad's this week and will be back up there next week - even though Oliver believes he is old enough to stay at home by himself now that he is 12!!

The house once again has been quiet all week in the evenings but Noel is getting a chance to get a few early nights and relax from all the overtime he has been doing latey. As for me, I am catching up on a few things along with just relaxing also.

Tonight the house will be filled with chatter, laughter and hopefully no arguments as the kids return. There is always a buzz in the air when the four of us have been seperated especially for a few days......

Cannot wait to see my babies (sorry Ollie) again.....

My Family from WiddlyTinks.com

Normality - does it exist at our house?

Well as I mentioned my Mam returned to Brisbane yesterday and I already miss her!! Now that she has gone, it's back to just the four of us being at home and settling back into our routine, our ways of doing things, our little world!

I wouldn't really say that the house has officially returned to normality! Although many of our friends would never put "The Murray Family" and "normality" in the same sentence as we tend to do things differently to most. But we enjoy the way we are dealing with this thing called life ensuring that the obvious gets done and more importantly fun is had!

Another couple of weeks of school holidays to survive and Noel hasn't returned back to work yet as his holidays finish on the 27th. The kids will spend a few days up with their Nana and Grandad at the end of January and then 1st of February sees the start of the school year.

During the next two weeks we will be getting ready for the start of school, getting books organised and buying uniforms, etc.

A couple of weekends left to have lots of fun, including going to the Balnarring Picnic Races on Australia Day for the Balnarring Cup!!

My Family from WiddlyTinks.com

Somebody's tired....

It's a hard life being a busy kid on school holidays ~ especially when you sit still for 5 minutes in the company of your good friend, Rocket ....

My Family from WiddlyTinks.com

Back to school..... holidays are over!

Well I cannot only complain about the weekend passing by fast again but these two weeks of school holidays did also. I guess it was harder with the fact that Noel and I worked through them and the kids spent most of their time with Nana and Grandad.

We had a wonderful weekend, it was really good to spend some quality time together.

Saturday night we babysat Christian for the first time overnight. Confession firstly, we spent most of Saturday afternoon childproofing the house for a two year old. Ornaments up a little higher, etc. Now that both of our children are older you don't think about the little things until you start looking at where they.... Christian wasn't bothered at all by the fact that his mam and dad were leaving him with us, however I think mam and dad felt differently. We all waved them off and then before we knew it Christian had run back into the house without a second thought about his parents wanted to wave to him as they drove past the house again (after doing a u-turn of course). Sean and Vicky were off to a birthday party, to which no children were invited. I am not a fan of these occasions, its a rarity when ares are not with us as well.
After a huge cooked breakfast (healthy of course) we all went to Myuna Farm in Doveton. Noel and I hadn't been there before whereas the kids had been with the school. It was actually quite good considering I really didn't have high expectations.

The highlight I have to admit was watching the kids on the pony rides. At first Oliver didn't want a ride, but as we got closer he changed his mind which I was glad about and doing so he went first.

Then Christian who I just didn't think would go anywhere near the horse (to be honest Shetland Pony) but he seemed to enjoy it.

Alex giggled all the way through her ride and I have promised now to take her horse riding at a proper horse farm! Now that's going to be interesting!!

After dropping Christian back of at his home, it was time for our next adventure for the day. Our last adventure for the school holidays. We had pre-organized tickets for Gold Glass to see Julie and Julia, and decided that we would have dinner out just to make a night of it. Dinner was at Hog's Breath Cafe, which we all enjoyed and I have to be honest and say that I did eat too much. It was the first time that the kids had been there so it was quite novel to them.

But gee did their eyes light up from the minute we got to the cinema.... Gold Class is such a different experience to the normal cinema's. We ordered our drinks and were then ushered to our seats or should I say arm chairs? It was funny to watch the kids change the positions of their seats, up and down, up and down but they enjoyed the novelty of it all! I thought the movie was great as did Oliver, Noel thought it was good but Alexandria was bored. Julie and Julia is a movie about a food blog writer and a cookbook writer. Julie Powell sets out to cook every recipe from Julia Child's cookbook, Mastering The Art Of French Cooking, whilst at the same time the film showed Julia Child writing her cookbook. Well worth seeing if you are a foodie with a cooking blog like me. At time I could see the looks on my family's faces and knew all to well that they were thinking "that's exactly what mam is like or does at home".... lol it was funny!

Although school holidays are over I must say that my beloved weekly "routine" is back to normal or well it is at least for the next 10 weeks when school holidays starts all again!

Another quick weekend....

Well another weekend over and it was a quiet yet full, if that makes sense.

Friday night saw us out for dinner with the kids and Noel's parents to celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary. We went to La Porchetta in Mentone, which I have to admit wasn't the most brilliant meal we have had, considering we don't mind La Porchetta (the Frankston one is better!!) It was good spending the evening together and catching up. Not only had we not seen the kids for the whole week but we hadn't seen mam and dad for awhile either.

Saturday after working only for a few hours, a little shopping on the way home and we settled in to watch the Grand Final. We were meant to go over to a friend's house but Alex complained of being sickand dizzy. She actually slept from around 3 pm until the next morning.

Unfortunately, as far as the football went, it wasn't the year for St Kilda this year and they lost to Geelong. Oliver cried his little heart out when the final siren sounded much to the surprise of Noel and myself. Like all good supporters we were dissappointed but glad that it in fact was a good game.


Sunday, after having a sleep in (which I enjoyed) we decided to take the kids to the cinema. We went and saw G Force in 3D... the kids loved it even if as adults we struggled to concept guinea pigs being secret agents for the FBI! Not to mention the trained cockroaches that carried minature spy cameras into place where normal agents just couldn't go!! LOL!! The kids look really nerdy with their 3D glasses on - it made me giggle.

Unfortunately, the weather was miserable all weekend but we enjoyed our time as a family. The kids are back to their grandparents again today but only for tonight. Home tomorrow evening until Thursday. School holidays are a pain for working parents who need to organise sitters left, right and centre but we make the most of every day we have together the best we can......

A quiet house....

It's school holiday's and as we both have to work due to lack of annual leave up our sleeves (saving what we have for Christmas holidays) the kids have been packed up and shipped off to Nana and Grandad's for the majority of the holidays.

They were dropped off yesterday morning by Noel on his way to work and he will pick them up on Friday night on his way home.

Needless to say last night when I got in from work the house was TOO quiet. Not even a little idle chatter could be heard it was just me waiting for Noel for finish his overtime.

It's funny how deafening quiet can be.....

Another family day...... and yet another fast weekend!!!

Noel and I decided we needed another family day and yesterday was perfect weather wise so we go up and without even telling the kids where we were going we all got dressed and were out the door by 10am.

The car had a buzz of excitement about it, especially as the kids had no idea where we were going and we did!! All the way from the back seat we heard "Are we going to...?", "Are we going to...?", "What does it start with?" and "What's the second letter?" etc etc. It was quite a fun trip although we were only in the car for 40 minutes.

We took the kids to Narre Warren to the circus. I had got the times mixed up and thought the show started at 11am only to find that it didn't start until 1pm. So instead of having lunch at a quickie takeaway such as McDonalds etc., we went in search of a nice cafe or restaurant to have some food. Narre Warren really didn't have something that suited so we went into Berwick and to Beno's Cafe and Bar.... and boy, was it good. We all enjoyed our food and we all ordered differently, I had Beno's Big Breakfast, Oliver had Beno's Gourmet Beef Burger, Alex had to have the kids' nuggets and chips and Noel decided on the Tapas Plate.... I won't go into each meal but I can tell you that we were all so full that dinner lasts night consisted of toasted sandwiches at 8.30pm!!!

The circus was fantastic also. Circus Olympia, consisting of several Russian performers and it was mentioned that it was the show's first time in Australia but I would have to investigate to confirm that. The kids had a ball, so did Noel and I. I get great enjoyment watching their faces and seeing the enjoyment and how they light up at even the simplest things. There was some animals in the show and quite enjoyable and varied performances which lasted two hours. Well worth going..... we purchased ring side seats so we were quite close to all the action.

Our house will be quiet now until Friday night. It's school holiday's here in Melbourne and both of us are working. This means the kids get to spend the weekdays with their grandparents, who thankfully help us out when they can and will no doubt spoil the kids rotten. Noel will pick them up on his way home from work on Friday, we will spend the weekend together and then do the same again next week. We have chosen not to have time of this holidays so we can have time together over the Christmas school holidays. Hopefully I will get chance to give the house especially their bedrooms a good clean during the evenings while they are not home...... garbage bags here I come!!

School holidays - bring 'em on.....

Today is the official first day of the Victorian School Holidays and I am actually looking forward to the next two weeks. Not only do I get to spend some quality time with my kids for a change, they get to spend some quality time with me CLEANING and SORTING and THROWING RUBBISH OUT!! Sounds like my kind of fun!!

No seriously my mission, which I have chosen to accept, for the first week is a good clean up and out!! The kids have been worded up and have agreed to help.

If we get it all done the second week is all about fun. I am even lining up a get together with the boys and Jamie as the kids really love spending time with their cousins. Maybe a park somewhere for a play and a picnic - now that sounds like a great idea!!

So bring it on.......

Well we have been quite busy.......

Wow cannot believe that I haven't posted here for a few days.... have you missed us? LOL!! We have been quite busy as a family as you will see and to be honest none of us have really been near the computer at all.

Saturday we babysat Taila and Mitchell, our friend's children. They were moving house, Noel helped with the actual move but I thought it would be really helpful to have the kids overnight to give them a little more freedom to sort out the boxes etc. I love moving house but it such a stressful time really. Anyway several DVD's later we had Homemade Pies with Wedges for dinner..... all the kids excited by this idea, especially when I told them they could make up their own pie!

Sunday, started with Lemonade Pancakes being requested by our kids, which was great as budding chef Alex taught Taila how to make them - yes they really are that easy. These went down a treat, infact neither Noel or myself got one and ended up having poached eggs on toast instead! The kids were picked up early afternoon so for the rest of the day we just enjoyed ourselves as a family of four, which was really nice. We did have Chinese Roast Pork for dinner to celebrate Chinese New Year... served with a salad and rice paper we made our own rice paper rolls. YUM! A nice easy dish to prepare and the kids love making their dinner up themselves.

Monday was a day at the Picnic Races in Balnarring and also Australia Day. Needless to say, as usual, it was a food fest even though only six of us went this meeting. We took a bbq chicken, salad and some bread rolls. Noel's mam brought party pies and sausage rolls. I also made a huge platter of fruit so that was nice and refreshing.

Tuesday (Noel and I both had a RDO) was meant to be relaxing but overall turned out to be not only a busy day but a warm one. In fact it was the start of our heatwave that we are having here in Victoria. I cannot believe that it was 43 deg C yesterday, 43 deg C today and forecast much the same for tomorrow. We picked up the kids school books which I must say cost us almost $600, did a little bit of grocery shopping and then got the dent in my car bumper assessed by the panel beaters. My car is now booked in to be repaired on March 2nd and will be in the panel beaters for two days.... two days without my car all because some idiot decided to hit my stationery vehicle (with my hazard lights on I must add) while driving with her dog jumping around in her car!! Not happy at all!!

I have spoken to Mam a few times since she left - I miss her like crazy and I am really glad (and grateful) that she is planning to come to Melbourne in April for Noel's 40th birthday. I am planning a party which will probably be at home and more than likely a spit roast. Hopefully I will be able to round up a few of his older friends that he hasn't seen for awhile to surprise him with but we will see. I do however know that I need to pull my finger out and start organising it!

The house is quiet again at the moment as the kids have both gone to Noel's parents for the last few days of the school holidays. School goes back on Monday and I must say I am so looking forward to getting back into our normal routine. Plus I hate having to farm the kids out left, right and centre due to both of us working. But what can we do? It's the government's fault.. I mean we are entitled to 4 week's paid holiday leave per year but the kids get 12 weeks off school?? Go figure!!

Enough rabbiting on ...... more adventures to go and have!

Saying goodbyes....

I hate the fact that Mam lives in Queensland only because I hate saying goodbye. There is never a brave or strong way to say it.... even trying as hard as I can there is still always a tear or two or at least 5 minutes blubbering in the car.

This morning was no different!! After stalling to leave for work as long as I could I had to leave. By this time I had said to myself so many times to keep happy, but that last cuddle and expressing my thanks once again reduced me to tears, Mam to tears and even Alex who had got up to wave me goodbye.

Mam is returning to Claire's today and she will be there now until she leaves on Wednesday. Unfortunately due to the situation with Claire it means that I won't see Mam again before she leaves (incidently I spoke to Claire yesterday and told her I want this fued thingy to stop - she said she would call me soon!)

So the house will once again be quiet tonight.... the kids are back with Mam and Dad for another week of school holidays and they will return on Friday night at this stage. Bring back school I say (the kids wouldn't agree) and bring back our normality!!

Quietness in the house can sometimes be sooo wrong!

I am missing my kids.. I am missing the noise, the laughter, the squabbling, the questions especially from Alex, the mess, the yelling but most of all I am just missing not having them near me. The house has been too quiet this week without having them at home. They will be with their grandparents until Friday afternoon when Noel will pick them up on the way home from work.

Not hearing from them at all this week lets me know that they are having fun especially being taken to Halls Gap for a few days. And I am guessing that they have been well behaved as we haven't heard from Mam and Dad either!!

They idolise their grandparents and I am really glad that they have a strong bond with them. Mam and dad also cherish them, as do Sean, Vicky and Clare. In fact they have a closeness with all members of Noel's family which I am really proud of because they don't have a lot of it from my side of the family, none of us do!

Don't get me wrong, they adore Grandma as well when she visits and this year I need to help them to cement that bond a little stonger. I don't know what steps I will take at the moment but I do want to ensure that their relationship blooms more each each. But while we are speaking of relationships -a relationship that is destined to be distant is that with their aunty Claire and her boys, their cousins. As upsetting as it is, she and her family are the ones that miss out.

When questioned why by the children, I used to say she is busy or maybe next week but I have stopped hiding things from my kids and stopped making excuses, I have explained that I have tried to make the situation better and they know that it's NOT their fault either. Even my Mam cannot understand what the problem is or where it all went wrong. I think the main thing my children need to know is that they are loved by me, Noel, their grandparents, and the other important people who are currently in their lives.

I actually realised a while ago that I have wasted way too much time on wishing my sister would actually be my sister. And with all that's happening around me it's just another thing that I really don't have time to worry about anymore.

Let's face it - the world is still going to spin around, I am still going to get old and die but it's what I do with my time left that is important!!

Mongolian Hot Pot and 10 pin bowling.... a busy but good weekend!

Okay so I find myself once more sitting here in disbelief that is Monday AGAIN and that another weekend is over. Overall it was a good weekend, not overly flat out but enough to say that I am feeling tired this morning.

Friday night the kids tried out the pie maker and after eating 2 pies each I believe they have deemed it a success and a very welcome appliance in our house! Noel, Mam and myself had a chinese dish, we have named "nice chicken" which has a sauce of hoisin and cayenne pepper. A unique taste and the hotter the better according to most who try it.

Saturday Mam came to work with me, I was thankful of that as it was dead and good to have someone to talk to - saying that we managed to watch 2 movies also! Next stop was the Dandenong Market where we met Noel and the kids. Nothing to adventurous there except a lot of people, some with not much deoderant on especially with it being warm...yuk! We bought some fish, prawns and beef for the Mongolian Hot Pot dinner we had planned.

Dinner was ACE! As usual we all enjoyed the Mongolian Hot Pot (or Steamboat as it's often called also). Mam was in her element as she hasn't had one quite some time. We don't have the Hot Pot that often as it does take quite some preparation and there is always enough food to feed an army. Needless to say we had it for dinner last night also (and there is still more left over!!)

I will post some photo's tonight when I get home.

Sunday morning Mam and I popped down to Lars and Pips house. It was beautiful and huge. It's the first time either of us had been there. It was good to see them again even though it was only a short visit. However I do feel guilty for not making more of an effort each year to keep in contact with them. I only make the effort when Mam is in Melbourne and seriously that isn't good enough. We emigrated on the same ship as them in 1973 so they have known me all my life. They are from Finland whereas we are from Wales but they are like family, in fact they have been better to us than our real family has over the years!

In the afternoon we went 10 pin bowling at Cranbourne. We played two games, which was fun and great to be actually doing something with the kids. Grandma enjoyed it too and really got into it. I have decided that we don't do enough "fun" things with the kids. Don't get me wrong, we do a lot of things together but I don't thing we do enough kid fun things, if you can understand that? Must get back to focussing on them while they are still young enough to have fun with their Mam and Dad!

Back at work today for another week. The kids are off to Halls Gap with Nana and Grandad, we will get them back on Friday night and Mam is off to Claire's for the week and I will pick her up on Friday.

Needless to say the house will be very quiet tonight, that's for sure!!

Happy birthday to.....

Cannot believe that it's my birthday already, meaning that 8 days have already flown passed this year!! Being at work on your birthday sucks especially when it's dead quiet but it's paying those damn bills, right?

So far we haven't done a great deal as far as school holidays etc go but both Noel and I came back to work on Monday.

My Mam is babysitting the kids for us this week and so far they all seem to be having a ball. Tuesday they all went to the beach and saw the sand sculptures and "The Blessing of the Waters" by the Greek Community. Didn't know that was on but it added an extra element to the day for mam and the kids. They all got sunburnt!! BIG TIME!! I think they will be spending today at home, just like yesterday in recovery mode!!

Sunday we did go to the races and that was great fun. It was all the family as usual which was great and good to see to see Sean and Vicky again. Christian, being older this year, was fascinated by the horses and it was good to see face his face when the horses were near our area. (Being a member we got to set up our area right next to the race track, so brilliant view of all the races.)

Here is Mam and Sharon relaxing and from the look of it studying the form guide. Some of the races are hard to pick especially when there can be four horse and the TAB is only paying 1st and 2nd! We have even witness a two horse race... can you believe that? Only at Balnarring!! (It was a beautiful day, not too hot and thankfully not raining - somewhat hard to believe for Melbourne!!)

Relaxing inbetween races is some more of the family. Sean (white t-shirt), Mam and Dad, Christian, Oliver and Tom are keeping in the shade and having something to eat. One good thing about the races is we are never short of food or maybe that's a bad thing, everyone brings something to share so we don't have to buy food from the overpriced food vendors down there. This year we took our weber and had some lovely roast lamb with salad and bread rolls, not to mention dips and nibbles, and satay skewers. As I said lots of food!!

Of course there are no photo's of me (I think Mam might have taken one but we will leave that on her camera ... I like to hide behind the camera but who know's maybe one day I will come out from behind it!! LOL!!

But I do have this wonderful photo of my cheekyboy.... Oli!!

Off out for dinner tonight to the RSL with Noel, the kids and our parents. I didn't want a second "birthday" event but I had no say in it really!! It should be a good night and hopefully we will all get a good meal like we normally do, mind you saying that I have to make a good choice food wise! Especially now I am back on my diet - I must be good!

At this point in time nothing major has been planned for the rest of the week or the weekend. But then again, knowing us, things will change - as they always do...

My mam is here... yippee

Well once again I am spasmoticly posting to my blog. Sooo much is happening and I fear it is only going to get worse.

Last night we spent the evening at my sisters house as my mam has arrived from Brisbane. She is staying here until the 24th January. What a hoot. I love being with my mam - she makes me feel special and the kids just adore their grandma. I was so excited at work all day yesterday about her arrival that most of the drivers asked if I had won the lotto!!

As you can see by the time of this post it is really early but couldn't sleep. Plus I have something in my eye that I can't remove even with saline wash.

Must keep pottering.......

PS Claire cooked a really and I mean really yummy roast pork dinner and I must say I wasn't that good points wise but geez it was good. Need to do exercise this morning for sure.

The start of a new week!

Well another weekend has come and gone. As per usual I have managed to avoid getting anywhere near my blog.

Noel's parents came over for lunch yesterday and it all went well. We had the usual Sunday roast and it was enjoyed by one and all. We had a great afternoon together. Noel's mam and dad have been using the internet to book a holiday for them and the kids in the first week of the school holidays next March. We also spent a great deal of the day planning food, etc for Christmas Day.

Work today was boring - it was a union RDO so therefore there was not as many trucks coming in and out of the quarry. I managed to organise a few things for Christmas and for January. We have so many things happening in the next few weeks it seems we are already booked out until March.

Spoke to my mam today. She is really looking forward to arriving next Tuesday. I avoided the topic of my sickness and completely forgot to mention my appointment with the specialist on Monday. She has lots on her mind and I have no need to worry her at the moment. Not so sure however how her plans for spending Christmas day at our house is going to effect Claire and Jamie. Oh well I suppose only time will tell.

Health wise today I have felt okay. Not wonderful but on the other hand not yucky. I have decided to concentrate on changing my diet - you know the whole lifestyle change thing and tonight I have even managed to have an alcohol free evening. Quite an achievment for me as most nights I pour myself a glass of wine when I walk in the door for work and picking up the kids! I am actually proud of myself.

Anyways will stop waffling on now.

~*JO*~

Rain Rain Go Away...

Well as usual the weather here in Melbourne turned for the worse. The few rays of sunshine we received in the afternoon were of course short lived and as I was nearly home when raindrops appeared on the windscreen. "This is all wrong" I remember thinking "I am meant to be going for a walk tonight and more importantly I am meant to be meeting Vicki!!" It wasn't meant to be. So a few emails later and we have prosponed out long awaited meeting until Wednesday night.

Dreaded rain... absolutely spoiled my fun!!!!!!!!

Work wise my day was rush, rush, rush. I am facing a week full of month end procedures topped with an assessment that I am required to complete for my Certificate IV Workplace Trainer Assessor that I am attempting to successfully pass. Today I did one assessment on a fellow workmate that I have had to write, trial and assess the lucky candidate on. I have two more assessments to complete before I submit my work for my assessment. I have been chosen to complete this course through work and to be honest do not want the hassle of failing and dealing with management. I think I should do okay!!

School holidays have begun and Oliver is at his grandparent's house for the next few days. Alex will be going there tomorrow (Tuesday) night for a sleepover. It is amazing how much you miss your child when they are away from you for just one night. I miss Oliver not just because he isn't here but I miss just talking with him and being able to cuddle him when I want to. He will be having a ball with his grandparents and not even giving us a second thought.

Although both of us miss the children when we are apart Tuesday night will be different for us all. Normally I attend the Weight Watchers meeting where I am the recorder (money taker) and have been for some months now. Noel gets to spend quality time with the children whilst I am working at the meeting. So as both the children are at his mother's house tomorrow night the night is sure to be something different. Saying that I am sure that nothing exciting will happen except maybe get a head start on the housework.

It is our 12th wedding anniversary this Sunday. Nothing has been planned to date but we have tossed around the idea of having a lunch here with just the family. Will see what happens.....

But at the moment I am too tired to think about it and will say goodnight!!