Short break

A busy week as usual, but not too much to actually talk about. The highlight was probably visiting my sister and her family in their holiday unit up the coast. We stayed over one night while Greg had to work, and the girls and I had a great time - caught up with old friends from when we lived up there, enjoyed the heated pool and as you can see, the bunk beds were popular too!

The lowlight of the week was me having an 'incident' at work (yes, another incident!!). I was taking the stairs (doing the right thing and getting some exercise) and managed to trip myself on the top step heading up, stumbled across the landing and crashed headfirst into the bessa block wall. Yes - I am known for my uncoordination, so it probably doesn't surprise many people, and yes, it hurt! So after another 5 day run of headaches I'm rather over it and ready for a clear head so that I can start doing things again....maybe tomorrow!

Our friend's Kerri and Phil had their baby boy Reuben dedicated today at the Church that I grew up in, so I really enjoyed catching up with lots of people that I haven't seen for years.

And that's about it really - hopefully I'll have more to report in a few days. The floors have their final polish tomorrow, so we're inching ever closer to moving in...

Something to 'floor' you

As promised, some photos of the new floor - not sanded and polished until mid this week, but still - what a difference some timber makes!


So "what's left" you ask....
Well there's the skirting boards, carpets in bedrooms, some more electrical work, the gas fitter needs to come, the kitchen install, some more painting to 'finish', curtain rods, doors, fittings...I think I'll stop there, but you get the idea - we're getting close.
Thanks for all your interest and prayers as we've progressed this - it's been a mammoth effort (nearly all done by Greg) and we've hardly managed to catch up with anyone in the meantime in order to focus on getting it done, but we're close now - so close. Hopefully you can come and check it out in person soon...

A floor and a near miss...

Finally we feel like we're getting somewhere. We've been working madly (when we can) on the house for over 5 months now and this week the new timber floor was laid - what a different some wood can make. Unfortunately I managed to forget the camera, so I'll have to provide some visual proof in the next few days, but this does bring us much closer to being able to move in to the house, so we're all very excited.

In the midst of trying to get things done this week, after work on Wednesday I drove down to a specialist cornice place at Stapylton to pick up some cornice (obviously!!) and on my return had an 'incident' in the car. No it wasn't an accident, or at least there were no other cars involved, but as I was driving along the middle lane of the inner-city bypass I came across a 5m long piece of bent metal lying in my lane, and with nowhere else to go and travelling at 80km/hr, I tried to avoid it within my lane space, but managed to wedge it into the front section of the car, right through some of the engine and through the wheelhouse casing and into the area near the tyre.

Thankfully it missed all the really important bits for driving, so after the two knights in shining armour from other vehicles managed to manoeuvre (and manhandle) the metal out of the car again, and with some useful advice on what to do next, I was on my way again. Gave me a fright - I've no idea where the metal came from - presumably a truck a minute or so previously, or from the overpass, but it did make a terrible noise and was rather dangerous for a few moments with other traffic hitting the end of it while I was trying to get it out of the way of the road. Still, it all ended well, and now the car is getting itself seen to at the repair shop for all the damage that was done... I'm very thankful that it wasn't much worse - a week without the car seems a good outcome compared to what could have happened...although Greg having to drive my Dad's 28 year old Laser without air conditioning etc. to the coast for work for the next little while might not agree!!

Catchups

The girls and I visited my friend Lisa today - she, her husband Craig and beautiful daughter Georgia live on the other side of the river, and at times it seems that the distance means we don't get together as often as we should. We made the journey over there today and spent a wonderful morning catching up with them - such fun as always. Sorry we arrived while you were in your PJs Lisa - we forget that other people get to have sleep-ins!

No pictures of Lisa (I promised), but the girls did stay still for a short time, so I managed a snap of them...Georgia, you are more beautiful every time I see you, and a gorgeous little person inside as well - I can't believe that you're 10 already!! Thanks for the mini-concert on your Cello - you're getting very good, and it was a pleasure to watch and listen to you play.

Another year goes by

The birthday girl - resplendent in her current favourite dress
Present and cuddle from Grandma
The greeeen turtle cake
Uncle Steve and Zachary
Ellen dressed for dinner
Olivia turns two today - we celebrated her birthday yesterday though - as she won't see Greg at all today, and given dates mean nothing to her, it seemed only sensible. For months now, she's been telling me: "Birthday, turtle cake, green turtle cake, please Mummy", so that's what it was. No butterflies or ladybird for this girl - it all started months ago when we went to visit my Uncle Graeme with his pet turtle Speedy...and the rest as they say is history. Greg did a great and very creative job for a last minute effort, and the banana cake was fantastic - thanks Mum! Greg and I were up late tiling at the house the night before until late - or at least he was tiling while I was cutting the next tiles to keep him going - so we weren't as organised as we'd hoped to be, but it all turned out fine thankfully!

Olivia had a wonderful birthday though - received one of her favourite books (discovered while housesitting) and a puzzle from Mummy and Daddy, and then the spoiling went on with presents from various extended family members during the party in the evening. We were hoping to have a combined birthday/housewarming to have everyone over to the new house, but that's still a month or so away yet, so a quiet BBQ dinner at Grandma and Papa's instead. Ellen chose to dress for dinner from her dress-up box, with the resultant look rather 'special' - note my wedding shoes - very stylish! The girls also wore their 'wedding dresses' to Church that morning - a highlight for them both - they do love to twirl - but then, what girl doesn't?!?!

Fun at home

The girls spent the morning at home today (such a rarity!) and had a great time with Papa and Grandma. Papa is a very willing victim for adhoc picnic tea parties with Olivia, while Ellen likes to copy all that she sees, so organised a dish of water from Grandma and first had a foot treatment done (which Grandma has every 6 weeks or so) - she even remembers to include the calf massage, if you're interested in having a session! Then she moved on to haircuts - another favourite, although we're wise enough to keep scissors well of of sight, let alone reach!
Pedicure anyone??