The Vandervens

EXCITED!!!

2010-11-03T07:52:00.000+08:00

To say we are excited would be an understatement!!! But WE ARE GOING TO CANADA!!! We have booked our tickets and we are off to see my family in Canada!!! We cant wait! April 3rd is when we leave and come back on May 4th :)

Picture post...

2010-09-13T20:03:00.000+08:00

We had given dear Kylie a shower and she was so content and happy after that! She is such a good little girl. I can't believe she is 4 weeks old already!

2010-09-07T20:45:00.000+08:00

First Family Photo.

Mother and Daughter

Love

Best Friends, Ashleigh and Madyson

Things have been going really well here at home. Kylie has been sleeping well at night. Last night she decided to give me nine hours!! Which was REALLY nice! Kylie has since gone to bottle feeding as I encountered the same problems I did with the other, and didn't have enough milk to supply her with what she needed. She ended up at the child health nurse and had lost 100 grams and they don't like that much. So I went to the chemist and picked up a script for some motillium to help increase my supply, but that failed. So I had no other real choice but to fully formula feed her. It has been good as Andrew also enjoys the joy of feeding little miss too.
The other two have been throughly enjoyed having a little sister so far. Madyson loves her little sister to bits! I can't keep her away from her! Owen doesn't really pay to much attention to her, but her still likes her! They are both great helps when it comes to changing her nappy and getting things for her! Always willing to lend a hand! Madyson claims the job of putting the nappies in the bin and Owen takes the job of keeping Kylie happy in the car! So all works out good.

Liking her swing!

Announcing the birth of Kylie Jenna- Lynn Vanderven

2010-09-01T11:18:00.000+08:00


Kylie Jenna-Lynn Vanderven

August 14, 2010 at 8:20 am

weighing in at 10lbs 12oz (4.85 kg)

length was 57 cm and head of 38 cm

All is well with both mother and child! Many have asked where Kylies name comes from. Well to tell the truth my mum picked out her name. We were sitting at the pool at Silver sands this past summer when they were here talking about names. I really wanted to name one of my daughters after my mother, so Jenna comes from a combination of her name, Jeanette, and my middle name, Joanne. Then the Lynn part comes from my sister in law Linda, who also had the honour of holding Kylie for baptism.

On Sunday August 29, we had the joy of presenting Kylie for baptism. We had a joyous day with our friends and family who came to help us celebrate.

We also would like to thank all who have helped us in the many ways, cards, gifts, meals and visits. We thank each and every one of you.

2010-04-20T10:54:00.000+08:00

Hello all, I am sorry for the lack of posts... I just can't seem to get into blogging like some of my other friends and family.

Well I am now 24 weeks into this pregnancy and things are going well! I am feeling great aside from the swollen feet! Today I started washing the baby clothes so my line looks really cute! Full of all itty bitty pieces of clothing! And yes they are pink and blue!!

We were really hoping to once again find out what we were having at our 20 week scan, but the baby didn't want to cooperate, so now we are left with the surprise! Which isn't to bad! Up until now I beleive we are having a girl, I really think it is... however I think my decision might be swaying a bit now. The last two nights I have had dreams of having this baby and both times it was a boy. Well today when doing laundry I was washing it all and accidentally put something bright blue and and it dyed all my nice pink and white clothes a small shade of BLUE! So I am not sure if this is all pointing to something.. but now I am really on the fence as to what I think I am carrying!! We shall find out soon enough!

In other news, the kids have started back at school this week after a 2 week break. Madyson has started a full day at kindy now! And so far she loves it! I can't believe my baby is off to school for a full day already! She goes all day monday and half a day on Thursday. Owen now goes all day Tuesday, Thursday and Friday! He too is LOVING school!

Owen has also started playing in the Free reformed soccer league! He plays soccer every saturday from now till september! And he played his first game on saturday and loved it. He doesn't quite understand how to play yet, but I am sure that it will come sooner or later! Unfortunately we forgot to bring the camera, so no pictures this time, but hopefully this week we will remember it!

As I mentioned before we had a 2 week break with the kids from school, and for the easter weekend we decided to go camping with the family. We went with Will and Linda, Marg and Dave, Mum, Chris and Tyson and all the kids! We had great fun doing all sorts of things! The highlight? We were allowed to have campfires there as the fireban lifts april 1!! It sure is nice to have campfires.. especially when its cold outside. The weather wasn't the greatest, but we still made due and the kids had heaps of fun!

This weekend we are also getting some visitors!! Auntie Marg and Deny are coming to stay with us for 2 weeks!! We can't wait for this! I again have some family here for a bit! I think that is going to be the last for a while :( As much as I would love to see mum when the baby is coming I don't really think that is going to happen... I guess I will have to make due with the family I will have here! But that is okay, they are fantastic too :)

That time again...

2010-02-26T10:07:00.000+08:00

I guess its that time again when I should start updating the blog :)

My parents have gone home and we have settled into routine here. The kids started school 2 weeks before my parents left and for the first week we were at a resort so they didn't go. So the second week when we were home we sent the kids. They are doing so well in school and both LOVE it. Owen now goes for 3 full days a week and is loving every minute. He is learning so much and coming home with so much new things:) On March 31 he goes to AQWA for the day and he is looking soooo forward to that. Last time we were there was with Kim, Chris, and Brian and we had lots of fun. Someone there had the idea to tell Owen that the Blue ringed octopus had enough venom to kill 10 people (which is true!) So now he rememebers that!! So maybe he can tell Mrs Hordyk that when he goes :)

Madyson goes to school for 2 half days on Monday and Thursday. I am not sure how much she gets out of that because I think it is more a play session than actual learning... none the less she still loves it! She gets to see her best friend ashleigh!

As for myself I am now 15.5 weeks pregnant and getting there.. I am hopefully having a scan in the next couple weeks to see how things are going. I can't wait.. I shall see if I can also dig up a recent picture.

As for later posts I am hoping to blog about our trip with my parents. Thats it for now.

One more week....

2009-12-30T19:27:00.000+08:00

I can't believe there is only one more week left till my parents and Kim arrive! I can't wait. We have been waiting for so long for this. We finally get to show them where we live.

As for other news, I had my ultrasound this week, and as it proved to be a good one,
I had my dates wrong :( and not a good wrong either. I was actually only 7 weeks, not the 9.5 I though I was... oh well. Not a huge deal. On the plus side I am not due near my birthday now! The official EDD is August 17th :) I am starting to feel a bit better, but not huge amounts, the tiredness comes and goes and the sickness seems to be Very minimal, I do tire pretty easy, but hey that all comes with being pregnant I guess. I am hoping that I am not to bad next week, I honestly thought I was going to be farther along, so that would have been nice, but oh well!

Well its 7:30 pm here, and I am off to bed for now. It is new years eve tomorrow and if I want to make it to see the new year I better go to bed early tonight:)

Merry Christmas...

2009-12-25T12:19:00.003+08:00

From our family to yours!!!

Wishing you all a blessed holiday season and the joys of Christmas!!

2009-12-22T12:20:00.000+08:00

Here I am at 8weeks 3days pregnant.. I am hoping with this pregnancy to take progression shots.. since I never did this with my other two.. I always thought I was to big and looked fat... well now I don't care.. I just really want to see the progression as things go!!! Especially since this is the third and things seem to be going a bit quicker this time around!

Busyness!!!!

2009-12-21T14:53:00.000+08:00

Oh the joys of the Christmas season!!!!
We have been pretty busy here.. although it hasn't been because of Christmas. Its because Mum and Dad and Kim will be here in TWO WEEKS!!!! I can hardly believe it... the time has gone by so fast. We have been busy arranging things for them to come. Its been great. Although the house renos take a bit longer. We live in an older style house so there is quite a bit thats just fallen to bits and isn't worth doing things too... like floors, windows, bathrooms ETC. So I realised my dream of having a PERFECT house to show mum and dad isn't going to come true.
We have also slowly been pulling out the baby items we still have.. we want to set up the crib sand it down and repaint it. Now that should be a good chore and a half. Also just looking for some newer items.

I have also been baking with Owen. He has taken a LOVE to helping me in the kitchen. So he asked me to bake with him! Although baking in this heat and being pregnant isn't always fun. I guess we should get used to the heat as its supposedt to be a SWELTERING 45 degrees on saturday 0_o Ahh the joy of Christmas!! It's gonna be a warm one. Good thing we have an airconditioned lounge to sit in.. I think we are going to be making the most of that one.

As for the kids, they are both doing well. Owen just finished his school year of kindy. He came home with a really good report card. The only thing he still needs to work on is Rhyming words, for the rest he is doing really well. We were pretty proud of him. So now next year my big boy goes off to pre-primary and Madyson goes off to kindy. I am really going to enjoy my days to myself when they are both in school. Going to give me that much needed rest I will need. I myself have been feeling pretty good. I am still pretty tired, but that is easing up a bit. And for the morning sickness, well it hasn't hit THAT bad this time around.. but I have had a little bit. Nothing to bad tho. I am so glad it wasn't like last pregnancies where I was on medication for it! Also no fun when you had another little one around. I am really hoping to enjoy the love a newborn has to offer. With Owen I coulnd't wait for him to grow up and didn't find that I got to enjoy the newborn stages with him, and also soon after I was pregnant with Madyson :) This time around the kids are much older and able to help out quite a bit. Like even now when I need a nap. I turn a movie on for them and they sit and watch it just like that and when its done they just turn another one on and let me sleep, it really is nice.
As time goes on I am sure they are going to love a little sibling. Owen is already asking if he can feel the baby. Its really cute.. I can't wait till the little bean gets a bit bigger and I can share the joys of this baby with Owen and Madyson. I am not to sure tho that Madyson really grasps whats happening with me. She is still hoping for a kitty! I don't think that is going to happen.

She really wants a kitty, because this week we are cat sitting Raelene's 8 week old kitten, and yes I will admit this thing is the cutest thing I ever seen! So adorable and sleeps all the time. It is the cuddliest kitten even and sleeps on you all the time. He (jacob) Loves attention... he will sit at our door at night and scratch and meow to come in! :) We are also going to be the local pet shelter as the rest of the family decides to go vacationing. Willem and Lindas pets are going to be here for a while also, so we will have a kitten, dog, rabbits, and our fish and chicken! So we should open up a local petting zoo.

Anyways I better get off my butt and actually finish my baking. I am trying to get it all done before my parents come. Although I think I am still going to end up doing some while they are here :)

News!

2009-12-07T17:46:00.000+08:00

I guess the news has gotten out and I can't wait to spill the beans anyways!! But!!!!!! With thankfulness to Our Lord we announce another expected arrival from the Lord. I am due July 30th!!! Perfect timing for ANOTHER child born on my birthday!!! All is going well so far!

Update.

2009-12-03T13:41:00.000+08:00

Maybe I should just give you all an update on our lives. I also just realized this will be my 100th post here on blogger! I never thought I would ever make it that far!! Took me a while but now I am here! I hope that you have all enjoyed the recent additions to the blog! I put some music by casting crowns on the side also.. I found them to be a very moving and uplifting band, I really like their some "And now my lifesong sings" if you ever have a chance try to listen to it! I have found a nice website called Grooveshark.com You can look up all sorts of music and make playlists and such! I really enjoy listening to it!

Well back to our life here! The weather here is really starting to warm up! We are officially in summer now! Bring on the nice hot weather! It supposed to get up to 38 tommorow and saturday! Which should be good as we have the church picnic on Saturday! Nice and warm one for that one! Not always nice to have this really hot weather tho when you dont' have air con in the house! Although some of you Canadians are probably thinking "HOW on earth do they live without aircon in that HEAT" Don't get me wrong.. it's hot, but we have a different heat. It's not so humid and muggy like it is there! Here as long as you are in the shade it's alright! As for in the house, as long as I open the windows in the morning and close them around noon the house says quite nice. Even then when you do leave them open it's nice in the house! Then about 2-4 pm the nice seabreeze comes in, so that does bring some relief! And if it's a realy scorcher we just head down to the water for a swim! The kids LOVE it there! We have been a few times already!

The kids are doing great! Madyson just had her first "trial" day of kindy! She LOVED it! Nothing beats going to school with your most FAVOURITE friend! I have a kid swap with a friend on Thursdays, and she has two little girls, Ashleigh is a month younger than Madyson, and those two are two peas in a pod and inseperable! They are always together! Helps to tho that their mothers are best of friends to! Anyways, they have a REALLY big class this year with a whopping 20 kids! Thats small compared to the 10 or so they are used to, and if you have seen the size of the room, it's not that accomodating to 20 kids! But they will manage! Owen heads off to pre primary and Madyson off to Kindy in February! They are really looking forward to it!

The other thing we are really looking forward to is Mum and Dad coming!!! We can't wait for them to come!!! Nothing beats seeing your parents, especially when for Andrew it has been over 3 years!!! I am just really glad they are coming to the country I call home! We really love it here. we really don't regret the decision at all. Sure we miss my family and everything, but I don't think we would trade it for what we have here! Nothing beats no weather under 5 and no snow! We really do like it!

Madyson ready for school!

Here is a picture of Madyson all ready to go off to school! Don't mind the big DING on the head! We went to the beach a few days before and she got hit on the head with a truck from her beloved brother!

Anyways I hope that you enjoy the update. Sorry there are no other photos.. I can' seem to find them!

The reason why Aussies don't have Thanksgiving!!!

2009-11-27T07:31:00.000+08:00

Thats right.. a 7kg turkey here is 65.00!!!

Anyways we have reasons enought to be thankful and we are that each and every day! Who needs a 65.00 meat to tell us that!

My day in pictures!!!

2009-11-20T12:39:00.004+08:00

Well it was a Thursday and as some of you know a good friend and I do a kid share!!! Every other Thursday we swap children, so one week I have hers and the next she has mine!! This happened to be my day with out kids!!!

It was great! Here is what I accomplished!

As for the oven I had my oven set at 150 C fan forced all day.. I didn't change it just adjusted the baking times... I am not one to follow the temp on the recipes, especially since my oven is fan forced. i just watch, and make sure I don't burn em!!! A record for me today, I didn't burn a thing!!!

If you can't read the recipe just click on it and it will be made bigger!!!

Blog lift!!!

2009-10-12T08:02:00.002+08:00

I thought it was time to give the blog a new lift....

Maybe it would give me inspiration to post more...

We shall see...

As for whats new here... well not much the kids are still the same, not to much changing at the moment!!! We have been up to a little bit lately. Owen is home for school holidays at the moment, for one more day now! He starts back on Thursday! He is looking forward to it soo much! That little boy loves his school alot, not to mention his teacher! Its nice to have him home but at the same time it doesn't make much of a difference to me because he only has school twice a week anyways!!! Now madyson can't wait to go to school either. Now that she is 4 she thinks that she can start going! She has to wait till February when the new school year starts!

We are also starting to get excited because Grandma and Grandpa are coming over soon!! We are eagerly looking forward to this! Only 3 more months and I am sure that will fly by. The weather is starting to pick up here with the beautiful days requiring shorts and tshirts! It lovely! We really see the seasons changing now! YEs you canadians even we see the seasons change..... from cold to hot! That is about the extent of it... oh okay the wildflowers to give the indication here that its spring! Also we should enjoy the greenery now because once summer comes everything goes yellow!

Well this weekend has been a good one for us... On saturday we celebrated the fact that we have been married now for 6 years. We thank our LORD for each and everyone of those days. THey have been incredible.. we have been through highs and lows together from Open heart surgery, to the birth of our two beautiful children, to a stressful move across the globe, each one of these making our faith in the LORD stronger as we move on. The LORD is with us every step of the way!
On saturday also happened to be the day Byron and Rebecca (awesome friends of ours from church) decided to shift into a new rental!! So we ended up shifting them all day!!! It was good fun! That night we celebrated and went to Hogs breath cafe for dinner!!! Expensive, but AWESOME Food with the BEST ribs in the world!! !I LOVED them!! Next time tho we will be going to Mandurah as kids eat free there!!!

Today hopefully we are now back to regular routine, I have to go out later and we have our last lesson of our parenting course tonight!! Then tomorrow Andrew has a hair cut, Byron and Rebecca are up for dinner, The boys have mens club, and wednesday I have to hit the shops!!!

Well off I go as I have homework to finish for tonight!!!

FANTASTIC MUSIC!

2009-08-30T12:40:00.001+08:00

ANother brilliant piece by Jon Schmidt.. unfortunately with his other peice he couldn't get the copyrights he needed so he needed to alter it! and here it is.. FANTASTIC PIECE!

Outings!

2009-08-02T10:00:00.002+08:00

On Tuesday of our holidays we headed to Quindalup fauna park. It was neat to see all the animals!!! Here are a few photos from the day!

A native bird to australia, the laughing kookaburra

Myself and Matthew.

Emu.

Alligator

Owen and the butterfly that landed on him!

Lizard

Adriana

Robyn delighted to have a bird land on her!

From here we headed off to Meelup beach! Where Tyson, Dave and Cody went kayaking!!! A bit cold and rainy but they did it!

The boys kayaking!

Dave

Tyson

The group eating lunch.

Off to Shell Beach!

The two dare devils Nick and Tyson went out to some rocks.. they look like they are about to get washed out by the waves

Tyson made it up on one of the rocks!!!

Myself, Angelica, Amanda, and Adriana... and yes it was FREEZING!!!!

Gods awesome wonder in water.

Off to Canal Rocks!
Its absolutely beautiful there.. listening to the ocean roar and seeing all the water rushing was incredible. Definately a spot to Gods majesty and splendour in His world.

The canal.

Standing on the bridge above the canal.

Emma, Lisa, Jessica and Linda looking at the water below!

We ended our day by heading home and then proceeded to order pizza and have chinese for dinner!! After dinner most of the kids headed off to bed and the adults played games!That night at just before 12 we decided it would be fun to play volleyball!!! Aussies against Canadians... we Canadians proved ourselves to be no good at volleyball... I blame it on the fact that the aussies can practice beach volleyball everyday!! We only have about 4 months :) Well that finally finished at 12:30 and we were all exhausted!!! So we decided to pack it in for the night!!!

The Vanderven clan and camping in Busselton!

2009-07-31T20:33:00.024+08:00

Well, Now all the family has left and all is quiet here. Naomi also leaves us soon, which will be a bit to adjust to here also since she has been with us now for almost 4 months!!! But it has been great.

We have done so much since the family is here... we started off by taking some long over due family photos, what a great experience and sight to see.. its hard to believe it has been 11 years since some of Andrews family had seen eachother.... Here are some of the photos, from Eldest sibling to the youngest who just got engaged!!! Congrats Chris and Tyson, we can't wait till 19 June 2010!!!

Willem and Linda, Kara-leigh, Jodi, Emma, Lauren and Ethan Vanderven

Mick and Helen, Hailey, Nathan and Tyler Tenhaaf

Dave and Margret, Cody, Wade, Meagan, Jessica, Broooke, Brett and Travis Lewis

Nick and Lisa, Robyn and Lydia Vanderven

Dirk and Amanda, Benjamin, Angelica, Caleb, David, Timothy and Matthew Poppe

John and Adriana, Daniel, Joshua, Zachary and Natasha Lewis

Andrew and Michelle, Owen and Madyson Vanderven

And the newly engaged couple.. as of there only about half hour as Tyson proposed just before photos!!!
Christina Vanderven and Tyson Voorhorst

The entire Vanderven Family and its entirety as of 6 July, 2009

The Vanderven Siblings

And Christina's beautiful ring!

The first week of our holidays we spent at Scripture Union Camp in Busselton, What fun that was!! Nothing like organizing a whole weeks of entertainment, food and sleeping quarters for 45 people!! I think Marg and Helen can attest to the fact that it took a good amount of planning for the food!!!! Here are some photos of our week in the beautiful town of Busselton!

There were 7 cabins, all of which were set up like this.. there were 4 sets of bunk beds!!! No double or queen beds!! So those of us who had the desire to sleep next to our husbands took the blue mattresses and put them on the floor in the kitchen and slept on them!!!

Margret, Helen and Dren conversing about things in the kitchen... great to have such a nice large kitchen there :)

See we got a man in the kitchen too!!! We split into groups of one man and one woman (not married ones together) and added the kids to the teams and this is how we split the jobs up, Here is JB making us some good ol ceaser salad!!! This is how things get made for 45 people!!!

And another man in the kitchen, here is Mick cutting up the pumpkin!!YUMMY it was!

Here we all are sitting for dinner!! This is how we ate for both breakfast and dinner, we were usually out for lunch!

And after all that food we have to do dishes, Here is Robyn, David and Christina!

Some more of the yummy food, the dinner prep team was also on serving duties!!!

Over the next few days I will post some posts about the days trips we went on also!

Family!!

2009-06-20T22:02:00.001+08:00

Well its nearly time for the families from Canada to arrive!! We can't wait for everyone to come and enjoy their company and go camping and do all sorts of fun things with them!!!

Also I can't wait for my family to come!! They com January 6th!! Its gonna be great as my parents have never been here!! Should be goood to show them what a great country we live in!!!

Well just thought I would voice my excitement.. its 10 pm so I should be heading off to bed anyways!!!

What we have been up too!!! The long awaited post by some!!!

2009-06-02T13:27:00.002+08:00

Well, I guess I should once again update this blog of ours...
Just where to start :) I am really not sure. I guess I can start by introducing the newest member to our household. Naomi. She joined us in mid april. We didn't know Naomi before she came so this was a bit of an experience for us! We got an email from a friend that went to our old church in canada, and a school mate of andrew, saying there was a girl from her church coming to Australia and needed a place to stay... So me being the kind hearted person I am said, "Yes, of course she can." So mid april I picked her up from the train station. We have really hit it off together... she's almost like a sister to me now!! Feels like we have known eachother for ages! So now she is looking for a job.. but to no avail. So we are not sure how long she is going to stay with us. But for now we are enjoying her company!
We are also now eagerly awaiting the time to come for our families from Canada to arrive. Nick and Lisa and girls, and Dirk, Amanda, and kids are coming!!!! This will be the first time in a long time they will all be together again! We are going camping and tenting, and doing lots of fun things!!! Also the highlight for me!!! MY FAMILY IS COMING!!!! YAYAY We have been down under for almost 3 years and now we have the pleasure of showing my family what a fabulous country we live in!! They arrive January 6!! So we get to show them a fantastic summer here!
Our little boy is also now almost 5!! I can't believe it! He even goes to school now! And absolutely loves it! He is learning so much there! I love it and he loves it!!
Madyson... well she is hard to explain. She is having lots of fun being home by herself. but we really have to watch her.. as she likes to get into all kinds of trouble!! We have had our fair share of cleaning up after her!!!
Last week, Naomi and I were in the back making cards, and we thought the kids were outside... but appears they were... but with some markers...So in trotted the lovely children, with marker ALL OVER their faces, arms, legs, tummys, etc said " Look mum, were superheros...." Well so they thought! But it was cute... good thing it was washable!!!
Well I don't think there is much new now.. so I will head off!

FANTASTIC!!!!

2009-05-30T08:39:00.001+08:00

The most beautiful piano piece played!!!

Our first BIG purchase in our house!!

2009-03-18T12:50:00.003+09:00

A new dining set!! And we LOVE it... here are a few photos of it!

Saw the surgeon today!!!

2009-02-18T12:43:00.000+09:00

And all looks well with andrew.. he had an xray done this morning and it was neat to see cause you can actually see his valve on there.. the rest is just a blur and all you can see is this round ring and the wires that are keeping his sternum together!!! As for the rest the surgeon said he was healing quite well and that for the valve that he had he was really surprised at how well andrew was living. He said it was the worst valve he had ever seen and that he had seen some pretty bad ones before... he reckons Andrew had less than a year left and he would have had a fatal heart attack.
We also got news that Andrew will also be able to check his warfarin levels at home with a home testing kit instead of having to go to the doctors all the time. This will give him his INR levels right away so that he can measure himself how much warfarin he gets. For those of you who don't know what warfarin is, it is a blood thining medication (aka coumadin) Andrew will be on this for the rest of his life as he now has a mechanical valve.
Through all this though we see how our Lord works in mysterious ways and we give all thanks and praise to him that Andrew is well again. We continually look back and think what if we had never moved to Australia. We realize the family back in Canada really doesn't like that we moved but we feel that that was God';s way of telling us that something was wrong. We felt the Lords hands at work in this. We are thankful each and everyday that we are here. Please continue to pray that Andrews recovery goes well, as he still has limited movement and abilities above his waist as his wound heals.

Cardiologist appointment!

2009-02-17T20:03:00.000+09:00

Well today we met with the cardiologist to have a look at andrews heart and valve, The technichian(SP) said that everything looked really good and that everything that was enlarged before has reduced and is back to normal size!! So that was great news!! Also we meet with the surgeon tomorrow to discuss how he is doing health wise and we are hoping from there that he can get his clean bill of health so that we can continue along with our visa!!!
Hope to update again tomorrow!

For Lisa!

2009-02-04T16:16:00.010+09:00

Six names you go by:

1. Michelle

2. Mom

3. Chelle

4. Auntie Michelle

5.Beautiful

6. Hunny

Three things you are wearing right now:
1 white shirt

2 glasses

3 3/4 pants

Three things you want very badly at the moment:
1 my husband to get well

2 cooler weather!

3 My parents :(

Three People who will fill this out:
1 no one

2 no one

3 myself!

Two things you did last night:
1 Dropped Chris off at the airport to go see Tyson!!

2 Had coffee with Chris at the dome!

Two things you ate today:
1 birthday cake!

2 watermelon

Two people you last talked to on the phone:
1 Raelene

2 Linda

Two things you are going to do tonight
1 Pick up Owen from Lindas

2 make some thank you cards

Your favorite beverages:
1 orange juice

2 iced coffee

3 mochas

Ribbon and paper share!!!

2009-01-29T21:33:00.001+09:00

I would like to send out a message to those that are intersted. I am hosting a ribbon and paper share. I am looking for 6 interested people. The colours you will be getting are Apricot appeal, temping turqoise, real red, night of navy, certainly celery, and pretty in pink. The cost is 22.50 this includes shipping! You will recieve 4 of each of the six colours in paper and 2.28 M of each of the colours of ribbon!! If you are interested leave me a message!

HOME!!!!!!

2009-01-21T13:58:00.000+09:00

With thankfulness to the Lord we wish to inform you that Andrew is home!!! He came home this morning only 5 days after surgery!! All has gone well and he is recuperating well... so they sent him home this morning... but not unless it was with a LIST FULL of dr appointments for later!! So he is here now and recuperating nicely!! We are definitely looking forward to sleeping in our own bed tonight!! He hasn't been sleeping that well in the hospital:(

Well I am just writing a short one for you now and will write more later!

Just a picture update!

2009-01-20T11:58:00.004+09:00

Just a picture update... I hope you can see from pictures how andrew is doing.. I spend all day and night there so I am not home much to update and don't have a computer there!!!
Here is andrew the day after surgery in the ICU still JUST out of bed for the first time.. this was alot of work for him.

Andrew on the Sunday after he was transfered to the ward.

This was about an hour before I left to go home for a bit.. on Tuesday morning... about 5 days post op... he is doing really well and not hooked up to anything anymore!!! YAYAYAY

As you can see on some of the pics his scar is pretty big.. it is about a little over a foot long.. and the bandage you see below it was from his drainage tubes... well off I go about to head back to hospital just a small update!

WARD!!!!

2009-01-18T17:11:00.000+09:00

Just a small message to let you know that Andrew is out of the ICU and OFF MORPHINE!!!! YAYAY that is a BIG step for him!! He is still taking tablets for the pain management but off the big stuff... he also walked from his ICU bed all the way to the ward... VERRRRRY slowly!! But he made it... a good couple hundred feet!! But he did it!! thats one step closer.. I am just about to head off again as I am now allowed to spend the night with him since he is in the ward now!!!

Talk to you later and still many thanks for all the prayers.

Surgery!!!

2009-01-16T22:20:00.003+09:00

Dear Friends and family..... just an update on Andrew.

Andrew was admitted to hospital on the 15th Jan at around 2 we sat around and met with various people that would be with andrew. After all that we played some cribbage and talked. Then I had to leave around 9:30 or so and came home. Raelene and I left at 6 am to head to the hospital and we arrived around 6:50 am. We then went up and saw Andrew, he was very calm, soon after they came and gave him some sleeping tablets to make him drowsy, then at 8 they came back and gave him an injection in his buttox of morphine to make him even more drowsy, which it did. It was really hard to watch him this morning. After about 9 he wasn't really with it more and you could no longer keep a conversation with him, so I said my goodbyes to him and sat there holding his hands. Around 9:45am they came and wheeled him off to the anestisia room, that probably had to be the hardest moment in my life, seeing my husband being wheeled off. I tryed to regroup myself, but found soon after it wasn't possible, so after about 15 minutes I was calm enough to leave. Raelene and I headed off to koorong (Christian book store) and bought ourselves some things... soon after we headed off to Centro Galleria (huge shopping centre) and went for lunch, then we when off to the theatre, and watched Bride wars, that was done around 1:30 and we headed off to go shopping. And at 2:34 that WONDERFUL phone call came from Dr. Gilfillan about surgery, and that all had gone well and they were almost done and about to sew him up. GREAT NEWS!! The part that scares me the most was that he said andrew would have NEVER made it to 30 with out this.. His valve was so far that only about 1 mm of blood was getting through his valve, where at least a few cms should be... I was gobsmacked... I could not believe it... My dear husband would have been dead of a heart attack by about 30. We thank our Lord so much for this.... After I got off the phone I rang a few people to let them know! Then off we went to watch another movie since the Dr still needed abot another hour in surgery and then another couple after he was transfered to ICU. So we watched Marley and Me, excellent movie again, after this we headed back to the hospital and arrived around 7. We went up to the third floor to the ICU and called to be let in, they told us to wait for around 5 to 10 mins. So after that they come to get us and we are let in. WOW was I sure in for a surprise. They had told me that they had already taken out his breathing tube and his nasal tube, what a relief for me as I didnt have to see him this way. When I walked into the ICU my eyes filled with tears as I saw my husbands eye open a CRACK and a smile on his face when he saw me... I sat beside my dearest as he looked like he was in soo much pain... but he looked incredbile... well as incredible as you can expect 5 hours after major open heart surgery!!! All he had on was swan catheter in his neck ( in his jugular vein, to measure things in his heart... it went inside him some how.)his oxygen mask, 2 ivs in his right arm, 2 chest tubes and a catheter, but he still looked AWESOME!! He was doing so well and the doctors were VERY happy with progress so far! Our God is an awesome God, I felt SO OVERWHELMED and it was incredible to see him so alert, he even reached for my hand a few times and even could muster up the words "I love you" to me.. which made me almost cry.... I was over the moon....makes me get tears in my eyes now thinking about it....

So that brings me to now... I am going to head off to bed as it is now 10:30 pm and I am hoping to be back at hospital for 10:30 am for a short visit!!!
I thank EVERYONE who has said a prayer or two for us, for they were answered and my husband is making an INCREDIBLE recovery, they are very pleased thus far.

Oh yeah and I failed to mention that our weather today was OVER 40 and there was a forest fire literally RIGHT beside the hospital going out of control.. here is a link if you wanna check it out!!!

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=77&ContentID=118788

Thanks so much
Michelle and Andrew...

Anxious.

2009-01-14T13:51:00.002+09:00

So its now two days before surgery and I am a bit nervous. I am not sure what I am nervous about, I just am. As for surgery we have gotten a bit more news. Andrew has to be admitted to hospital tomorrow at 2 pm, here they will do all his preop.. he will talk to his anesthetist, and get some preop stuff done. Surgery it self will be at 10 friday morning, I will hopefully be able to see him on Friday evening sometime. I am taking my friend Raelene with me, we are going to go into perth and try take my mind off of the surgery. After that we are hoping to go and see him, I don't think that I will be able to stay the night but we are trying. I hope to be able to spend Thursday night at the hospital with him, and then be tehre to see him first thing in the morning. If not then I have to be at the hospital for 7 am to see him. We are praying that all goes well and that his recovery also goes well. I am hoping to be able to update the blog with updates and pictures as we go along. We both want to be able to look back at this experience... so for those that don't want to see pictures don't look! I will try not to post to bad of ones. We have somewhat been prepared for what we are going to see and it has been good to talk to people who have been through this already! Thanks Aunt Marg!!

As for the rest I think this is the last time that I will post before surgery, So thanks to all those who have been praying for us this far. We really appreciate it.
Love, Andrew and Michelle

One week till surgery...

2009-01-08T09:37:00.000+09:00

Well there is one week left till Andrews surgery.. We still haven't found out much more about what is going to happen. We go see the doctor for preop on Wednesday and from there we find out what is going.
We just wanted to personally thank everyone for their on going support.. I can't name everyone cause there are so many.. there are prayers going up all over the world for a speedy recovery and good surgery. We thank you all so much for this!
With love,

2008-12-18T07:42:00.000+09:00

Just so you are all up to date.. Andrew will be going in for Open heart surgery on Friday 16 January 2009. It will be an 8 hour operation to replace his aortic valve and the artery coming from the valve right. The will cut out his artery right above the coronary arteries and replace it with a plastic tube and his valve will be a graphite mechanical valve. Andrew will have to take warferen, a blood thinner, for the rest of his life and montored so that he has the right levels in his system.
Andrew will have surgery at Mount hospital in Perth, he will be in ICU for 2 days following surgery and then 7 days on a regular ward, after which he will have about 6 to 8 weeks recovery. His sternum will be cut open in surgery so at the end will be wired shut and he will not be allowed to pick anything heavier than a kettle for 6 to 8 weeks post op.
We have looked to our Lord and Saviour for the guidance we need to get through this time. We trust that he will guide the hands of the doctor and bring Andrew through surgery alright, and to also give to us in the waiting room the strength to get through.

Thanks all for your constant prayers as they are a great comfort to us both.

Surgery.

2008-12-16T13:25:00.001+09:00

Just a small quick note, I will write a bit more once I have had time to digest the news and find out a date. We do know now that Andrew will have to have surgery and we are looking at sometime in January, within the next month. Please continue to pray that all will turn out well. This has been quite some news to digest, and we hope to find out more soon

Thanks

Have you done it?

2008-11-30T12:24:00.002+09:00

Have you done it?

I saw these on a friends blog( thanks Jessie!) so I thought I would jump on the bandwagon. All the things I have done are in BOLD. Feel free to copy and paste into your blog!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disney
8. Climbed a mountain [diamond head in hawaii]
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie... do home videos count :P
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Seen the Lincoln Memorial in person
71. Eaten Caviar YUCK!
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92.Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Totally copied a post from someone else's blog to your own

Another update.

2008-11-28T20:20:00.002+09:00

We have now heard some more from our cardiologist on what is actually wrong with Andrew. Apparently Andrew has a severely malformed aortic valve. Meaning, your valve looks like a peace sign with a circle around it... so imagine a Y with a circle around it.. you have 3 sections, now Andrew's only has one section and it looks like a keyhole with a circle around it. Our cardiologist was so in awe of it because apparently this is really rare! So he had told us that surgery will have to happen its just a matter of when. So then he told us to come back in 3- 4 months and see if things have changed and go from there. So off home we went. Then about an hour later he calls back and I guess realized Andrew's case was more severe then he thought. He told us he was going to put it on the review of the team of cardiology at Fremantle hospital so they could check it out and get other opinions on what they thought should be done. So here we are now waiting what to find out.

Other news was that when surgery is needed it will be FULL open heart surgery, not the less invasive one talked about before. So that was a bit of a downfall for us. We are now trying to come to terms with this and realize that our Lord and saviour is in control of this all. He is our ultimate healer and will help Andrew and myself through this journey.

Update!

2008-11-26T19:43:00.001+09:00

We have to let you know we have a new appointment booked for this friday and Andrew will go for an Electrocardiogram.. we are not sure what this is for but we just thought we would tell you what was up!

Another quick update.

2008-11-20T08:02:00.002+09:00

Just another quick update to update all that read here.... At the moment we have seen our GP and now a heart dude that looks at your heart and both have since suggested that Andrew most likely will need to have surgery to replace the vavle in his heart. We are not totally sure yet but it is a most likely. We have to have a meeting with a cardio thorasic surgeon to get the for sure answers and the details on a surgery and how things would go.

We appreciate all the prayers being said for andrew and ask that you continue to remember us in your prayers.... I won't be giving a definate answer on here right away as I would like to call family members and tell them what is going on first. As for family can you please send us your numbers so that we may call you?? Thanks in advance.

Update on Andrew.

2008-11-18T17:26:00.001+09:00

As some of you know today Andrew had a transthoracic ECHO (AKA a heart ultrasound) here we thought we would get some answers to Andrews murmur. However now we have to have an appointment with the cardiologist. He will then tell us or our GP the problems and we will find out more then. The ultrasound details from today should go to a cardiologist tonight and the results should be back within a couple of days!! I can then give you a bit better of an update of what is going on! Till then please continue to pray for us that all turns out okay with Andrew.

New Look!!!

2008-11-17T13:29:00.002+09:00

Okay I am going to give credit where it is due here and thanks goes to Jessie!! Thanks for the great new layout and look Jessie!!! Jessie is from a mom forum that I visit and she is nice designer on webpages and layouts of things!!! she also made my signature below!!!

I hope you all enjoy the new design!!

Andrew.

2008-11-05T15:02:00.002+09:00

As most of you know we are applying for our Visa to get into Australia permenantly. This has come with a lot of paperwork, medical and health checks and some delays. A couple weeks back now we went to Perth for our medical checks to get our clearances to enter the country. Owen, madyson and myself were all cleared, however Andrews had a slight problem. Now don't panic as we are not yet to sure ourselves what this all entails and means. Andrew was diagnosed with a Harsh Systolic Heart murmour.... in English.. I have NO IDEA what that means.. I have been looking things up and apparently it has something to do with the valves going to Andrews heart. Apparently his is pretty bad.. but don't worry yet. Andrew saw the doctor today and they have now referred him to have an ultrasound done on his heart. This will determine what to do in his case. Best case scenario being he will be able to just live his life normal and have checks on his heart to see how things are going, or worse case being he would have to have open heart surgery to repair the damaged valves. We hope and pray that it is just a heart murmor that he can live with and will not need anything major done.

We commit Andrews health to our Lord and pray that he will be alright and nothing major is wrong. Please remember our family and pray that its not major.

Happy Birthday Grandma!!

2008-10-28T21:54:00.002+09:00

A shout out to my mom on her birthday!!! We love you very much and miss you a lot!! We hope that you have a great day!!!

Kitchen Blog....

2008-10-14T09:16:00.004+08:00

Well I like some others have decided to also do a kitchen blog.... mostly for my parents and others who wanted to see our kitchen now that it is complete.. except for a few paint touch ups!!!
BEFORE

After!!!!

Over all we are very happy with how things have gone! All of it is mostly finished now and we have just a few painting spots to do!!!

As for life in general we have gotten back into the routine of things.. Now I have to get off this thing because I need to make cakes for madysons birthday party tomorrow morning... also I have updated the dropshots with pictures of the kids in the airport and in Grandpas truck!!!

Owwww...

2008-10-09T21:07:00.001+08:00

So I am a tad bit sore now... Christina (sister in law) and I decided to join the gym together.. well today we decided to try the BodyStep class... yikes that is hard work when you jump right into it!! We are a tad bit sore!!!

Getting back into the swing of things!!!

2008-10-03T10:47:00.002+08:00

Well it didn't take long and I was back into the swing of things again... I have laundry in the washer, cleaned out the kids closets and started dinner... something I haven't done in a while! The kids are nicely playing outside and I have a few minutes to myself to write a blog.

I still have a bit of jetlag I think.. I am rather tired still... but we shall get over that soon enough!!

The holiday was great to have and the kids and I had an AWESOME time back at my parents house! It was good to be there for my brother and sister in law when they got married! It was great fun to be there! As for the rest there were many memories that we made and will forever keep with us! Owen still wants to go back to Grandma and Grandpas house...whenever he is upset now he misses his grandma and grandpa!!!

Thanks Mum and Dad for a great holiday and we were VERY happy to be able to spend that time with you guys!!! The kids and I really enjoyed it.

Home at last!!!

2008-10-02T20:58:00.001+08:00

Well we had a great trip to Canada and the kids had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa, and now we are all safe and sound at home... a little jetlaged myself, but not that bad! We had a great flight and a good time. I will update some more later.. off to take a shower and then bed!

Ps. thanks lisa for the link to the blog uploads!

Madysons third birthday!!

2008-09-26T01:39:00.003+08:00

Also while we were at Grandma and Grandpas Madyson celebrated her 3rd birthday... She was such a spoiled little girl!

We started off with a dinner at McDonalds with Oma and Opa Post and Uncle Bryan, Auntie Alicia, Auntie Kim, Grandma and Grandpa Owen and Mummy!

With Auntie Alicia

Auntie Alicia also bought us Confetti guns!!! They were like cap guns with confetti and they made a HUGE mess all over the floor!!

Madyson with her gift from Grandma and Grandpa!! She got some cute books!!

Madyson opening her gift from Uncle Bryan and Auntie Alicia!!!

A discman with 5 books on CD!!!!

Singing happy birthday and Madyson blowing out the candles with Grandma and Owen

The birthday girl!!

...and her yummy cake Grandma bought her!!!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for a great birthday!

Some photos...

2008-09-26T01:26:00.006+08:00

I just thought I would update the blog with a few photos from our trip here to Canada!

This was on our Trip to African Lion safari on Wednesday!! We had an awesome time and the kids really loved seeing all the animals!!
href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_A0NMmKMpgy0/SNvLkDoUwHI/AAAAAAAAAMk/fXWqPGG80NI/s1600-h/DSCF0471.JPG">
The elephant show.. such spectacular animals they really are!

Owen getting his hair cut before the wedding from Auntie Alicia!

Camping with Grandma and Grandpa.. the kids had such a great time!!

Some photos from the wedding!!!

2008-09-09T03:38:00.003+08:00

Okay Okay.. the long awaited post for some of you.. here are some photos from the wedding.. not sure who took these but they were from someone else.. not done on my camera... we are hoping for better ones to come along but here are some too keep you going.
We had and awesome time at the wedding, we really did enjoy every part of it. The kids did so great during the ceremony and such I was quite proud to call them my children. As for more pictures you can check out face book as there are a few on there also..

We haven't been up to much else. After the wedding we went to Pinery's park to go camping. We had beautiful weather and it was so nice to enjoy some camping with my parents!! The kids loved it also. We had some rocky starts getting there.... with 5 mins after leaving home we blew a tire and about 2 minutes after we left the cottage to go camping we broke the axel on the van... but with all the the rest of the trip went off without a hitch.. it was great.

As for now I have 3 more weeks here and I am sitting at home here not doing to much. Everyone else has gone off to work so now I have to maybe make some visists to people.. so if your around here and want a visit let me know!!!

Update from Canada

2008-08-25T07:32:00.001+08:00

So I just thought that I would update you all on our trip so far. The flight was VERY long and a rough time. Both Owen and Madyson were sick. Owen was throwing up and had a cold and Madyson had a nasty cold. We are all slowly getting over our colds now. (I ended up getting it also) As for the flight itself it was really long. For those that don't know we flew from Perth to Dubai (11 hours) and then Dubai to Toronto (15 hours) They were really long. Overall tho.. even tho they were sick they did very well. I even got a compliment from a guy infront of me on our flight from Dubai to Toronto that I have a very well behaved set of children. I was happy and proud of my kids to hear that. They did do very well even with them being sick.

As for our time here we are enjoying ourselves. We have since been to visit a few people and have also done dress fittings and such also. We were very lucky as madysons dress fits perfectly... and come to think about it we haven't done anything with Owen yet... hmmmm maybe I should ask about that!!!

As for you Aussies... I miss you all dearly...Especially my husband!! Australia is definatly home for me!! I miss my family here lots but I love EVERYTHING about australia!!!

Well I should go off... I have some things to do and not much more to write about right now.. I hope to come back in the next few days.

Love you all!

Book-to-look Cake

2008-06-11T09:22:00.006+08:00

I have been playing around here and came up with an incentive for others to have workshops. I have created this Book-to-look cake. The idea behind it is there are prizes in each slice of cake. If you decide to book and hold a workshop you can choose a slice and recieve the extra free gift on top of what you have already recieved! Here are some pictures that you can see what I have done

I have used the stamp set Scribble This, along with certainly Celery and whisper white paper. On the bottom I have used a peice of double sided paper from the DSP Spring Fling. I have also used 5/8 inch celery ribbon and 1/4 inch white. The flower on the top was cut out 3 times in white and once in celery. Then I used the 2 way glue pen and dazzling diamonds for some extra bling. The little flowers on the top of the ribbon are from the sweet shapes set.

Tornado....

2008-06-09T14:16:00.001+08:00

For the second time in a matter of 2 weeks we had a WICKED storm pound our area once again. Because we live like RIGHT on the beach here we are always hit one of the hardest. This time it happened to be a small tornado that touched down. It ripped many trees up and tore roofs off house and sheds and fences, Thankfully our house wasn't hit that badly and we didn't have much damage except a leeky roof. But that can be fixed. The worst we had was that our power has been out here for most of the day. Its now 2 pm and it has pretty much just gone on now. As I speak now it is POURING rain once again and the faint sound of a new helicopter over head. Well off to do the laundry now as my power is on!

Drop shots.

2008-05-06T11:16:00.002+08:00

For those of you who are not familiar with, it is an online photo album. I use it to post pictures of our family here for others to see and enjoy. Here is a link to our site for you all to look at the pictures. Feel free to comment on them also!

Stamping....

2008-05-05T12:49:00.000+08:00

As most of you know I am a stampin' Up Demonstrator, I have decided to share some of my creations! I hope you all like them! I am going to keep trying to update with new creations that I do.

Stamps: Scribble this, Heartfelt thanks
Cardstock: Whisper white, Mellow moss
Ink: Mellow moss
Accessories: ribbon, 2 way glue pen, Dazzling diamonds

Stamps: Time well spent (Level 3 hostess set, 2008-2009 IB & C)
Cardstock: Pretty in pink, Tempting turquoise, Whisper white, Certainly celery,
DP Designer paper: Petals and paisleys
Ink: Tempting turquoise, Certainly celery
Accessories: ribbon, markers, brads, 2 way glue pen, dazzling diamonds, blender pens

Stamps: Time well spent (Level 3 hostess set, 2008-2009 IB & C)
Cardstock:Tempting turquoise, Whisper white, Certainly celery, Basic black.
Ink: Tempting turquoise, Certainly celery, Basic black.
Accessories: ribbon, brads, 2 way glue pen, dazzling diamonds, blender pens

Stamps: Be Happy
Cardstock:Mellow moss, Perfect plum, Whisper white
Ink: Mellow moss, Perfect plum
Accessories: ribbon, hodgepodge hardware, corner punch
Techniques: Masking, sponging

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree
Cardstock:Basic black, Really rust, Whisper white
Ink: Basic black, Really rust
Accessories: markers
Techniques: Casing

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Favorite Teddy bear (retired)
Cardstock:Buckaroo blue (In colour 2007) Kraft, Whisper white
Ink: Buckaroo blue
Accessories: brads
Techniques: not sure what its called... however I did make a template for the square and then with the spongue daubers and the ink I 'coloured' it in.

2008-02-15T08:07:00.001+09:00

Make a free ecard - it's easy!

2008-01-18T08:41:00.001+09:00

Madyson climbing up the wall at the funstation!

Owen and madyson in the ball pit!

Madyson having fun at the Funstation!!

Seadooing!!

2008-01-17T21:09:00.000+09:00

Yes we just got in from and evening of fun with a whole bunch of family and friends of ours!! We went to the beach down here and went and had heaps of fun pulling sea biscuits and wake and knee boards!! The kids had lots of fun as well.. unfortunately we didn't take the camera.. so there are no pictures!

Yesturday!!

2008-01-16T21:31:00.001+09:00

We had sooooo much fun yesturday!! We really enjoyed going to the fun station and then we headed to go to Lindas for a party!! It was Ethans birthday, we had heaps of fun and the kids enjoyed swimming!!! I will post pictures later!

Good morning!!!

2008-01-16T08:00:00.000+09:00

Well its just before 8 am here and I thought I would post a blog!!! SURPRISE huh.. I don't generally do this! But I am a little bored and my kids won't stop fighting so I need some sanity...

Today the kids and I are going to go to the funstation.... its a great place for the kids.. it has all kinds of bouncy castles and tunnels and slides and such for the kids!! They really love it there!! And the nice thing is its air conditioned.. because today is going to be 38 outside

We have settled nice into routine again after coming home from Camping! We had a great time there... we did heaps and saw heaps of things.

I will have to add some pictures another time when I can get andrew to help me as they are currently all somewhere on his computer!

Another!!!!

2008-01-15T10:33:00.001+09:00

Well now I have created ANOTHER look for my blog... this one was easier to work with!! I hope you all enjoy it!! and Marian if you read this can you please send me the link to your blog again!! I see to have deleted it!

New look!!!

2008-01-14T11:24:00.001+09:00

As you can all see our blog got a new look.. now I just have to figure out how to get all my links and such back!

Sleeping in Heavenly Peace

2008-01-06T13:56:00.000+09:00

Our Dear niece Amryn, (daughter of Nick and Lisa) has passed away. Amryn was 8 weeks 1 day when our Lord called her home. Amryn suffered from a rare decease called Mitocondrial DNA depletion syndrome. Amryn died peacefully in her mothers arms at 4:30 pm on Friday January 4 2008. We think of our dear brother and sister at this time and wish them all the strength they need in the coming days as they bury their daughter. Wishing very much that we could be there with them.

Good night baby Amryn, We love you.

2007-12-05T17:18:00.001+09:00

I came home from band the other night to find Owen laying on the floor in the laundry room. He was most likely watching Andrew on the computer and fell asleep!

Owen was outside enjoying the nice weather and found a Lizard.. He kept getting excited everytime he saw it! Then he would come back and proclaim to us that the lizard was out!

Madyson playing with her dolls sitting in the cubby!

The latest picture of me and my hair that has grown!

Just a small update...

2007-12-05T09:58:00.000+09:00

Just thought I would send a small update to those who read this! We are all doing very well. The kids are growing up so quick and talking so much! Madyson almost has Owen beat, but they are both quick thinkers and learn quick!
They have been quite the pair tho lately. Madyson is being a cheeky little girl and the other day she kicked out the front window in our house!!!! WITH HER FOOT! Andrew and I were in the back with Owen and madyson was in the from play room. We both heard some glass break and weren't sure what it was.. and sure enough it was Madyson, she put her foot through the window.... but managed not to hurt herself.

Also we are getting a new kitchen this week. The plans have been going for a while now and finally we got some plans together as to how we wanted it. Sent it off to Willem and they had it drawn up! So tomorrow we get our new kitchen, except for the back splash as the granite will take a bit longer to come in than the counter tops. It is going to be so nice to have a kitchen back! For the last about 4 months we havn't had any cold water in the kitchen because it leaked so badly!
Owen really doesn't like the fact that we have taken out the kitchen. He is a child that doesn't like change, talking about the boy who doesn't like it when he has to drink from another cup. So we have been telling Owen that Daddy will get a new kitchen from work, so the other day Andrew came home with some computers that were in boxes and he asked Owen to help him take them out of the car! Being the big helper that he is stepped right in! So as they are taking them in the house Owen says "Daddy no, kitchen over dere..." as they were walking to the back room. Owen was convinced that Daddy had brought the kitchen back in those small boxes. He was so upset to find that it wasn't and said "Daddy go back work and get kitchen?" Owen is going to be over the moon tomorrow when we get our new kitchen!

Not to much else is new here... still going with my Stampin' Up! Have some parties booked for in January so that will be nice. I have also resigned from band and am going to be attending Bible study in the evening. I will still be a part of the committee just not able to attend every week anymore. Things are getting busy here also as we have a party this weekend that I have been planning with a friend and then in 3 weeks we head off to Denmark to go camping with the family! That will definitely be a nice holiday for us!

Well I am off for now and will try update sooner next time.. also will post some before, during and after pictures of the kitchen.

Ps, just to get an idea of who reads the blog... send me a message!

Please Pray and remember little Amryn

2007-11-27T07:49:00.000+09:00

We would like to ask that those who read this pray for my brother in law, his wife, and their daughters. We have recieved word that little Amryn will soon meet our Lord. We know that she will be in a better place, but for those she leaves behind it is a hard thing to comprehend. We pray also that God give Nick and Lisa all the comfort and strength they need in the next few weeks.

Here is a link to their blog so you may follow their story.

http://nicknlisa-alwayssomething.blogspot.com/

What a weekend!!!

2007-10-07T19:44:00.000+08:00

It started out not so bad on Saturday when we all went out to the shopping centre. We ended up searching around to find the perfect digital camera. We ended up finding the Fugi Finepix S5700. We ended up purchasing this one. So off we went home to get our camera up and working taking the kids to the park, and seeing how it worked. Only to arrive home to find out that the card we purchased was Faulty. So I took it back to the Harvey Norman by our house (We bought it at the Harvey Norman about 45 mins away) They tried it in their cameras and couldn't find out what was wrong with it. SO...Simple solution right... just replace it with a new one! Welll they didn't have and SD cards in stock. So off I went to The Good Guys to see if they had any in stock. NOPE! Then I went to Retravision to see if they had any NOPE. So then I drove another store and sure enought they had .. after two hours of going around I FINALLY found one! So I get home and by this time its 4 pm. Well we still had to go to Dave and Marg's house (Andrews sister) and had to pick up a bed for us that was dropped off there. We get there load up the bed in our car.... gotta love the wagon! Choof off to our house and rearrange all the beds. So... take the bunkbeds from our room that we were sleeping on... Two single beds smooshed together with a queen size mattress on it... not the most comfortable .. but it worked...So we take those off to Madysons room, put the bed that she was in in the spare room and take them all apart to do this... if you have ever seen our house its a whole bunch of zigzags to get into the bedrooms so the beds just didn't fit! After we did all that it was about 7:30 and the kids were tired and ready for bed, and we still hadn't had dinner. So we put the kids off to bed, Go make ourselves dinner, and eat. After that we decided to finish our bed. As we are doing this we hear a deafening SCREAM from Owens room, followed by the sound of him throwing up :( YES you guessed it ... Owen caught the flu! So we cleaned his sheets and put him back down and not 2 hours later her does it all again1!!!! So now count how many beds I just stripped and made!! Ours, Madyson x2 Spare room, Owen and now Owen again!!! Then at 2 am he does it again... but andrew managed to whisk him to the toilet that time... he did this a few more times during the night... Andrew ended up sleeping with Owen just to help. So Sunday morning comes around. Owen still has a really bad fever, Give him More Neurophen and off he goes. Then we start getting madyson dressed and we noticed a SPOT on her.... OH NO THAT DREADED SPOT IS BACK..... YUP its her impetigo (School Sores) that had come back... and since we saw what happened 3 weeks ago with that.. we were like forget it we are not letting that go as it just spreads. So we packed her up at 7:30 Am and I took her off to the ER. After waiting there for just a short time we were admitted to the ER ROOM!! We waited there for a Doctor to look at her and sure enough.. it was baaaaack. However this time they didn't want to treat it with the oral antibiotics because she contacted thrush through that one so they decided to try a cream this time. So we wait and 3 hours later we were home... So YAYA we think we had it all by then... AND OWEN... was outside playing and he stepped on a Cactus... yes bad us.. we had one in the yard since we moved in.. the kids never touched it.. but We had company over and I think one of them must have hit the pot and knocked one off... needless to say Owen found it... So here we are with Owen SCREAMING his head off, trying to pull the 8 million spikes out of his feet. After a while we got it and then we read up and it said to put glue on his feet to get the remaining tiny little ones out. So we did that. All the while we are doing this our DEAR daughter got into our suntan lotion!! She decided she needed some on and used the whole bottle on herself.
So now here I sit on the computer while the kids are in bed HOPING that nothing else goes wrong. Well I hope your weekend was all better than mine!!!
OH the joys of kids.. and now I am going to bed soon cause I was up all night with the kiddos!

Fun on the bike!!

2007-10-01T10:28:00.000+08:00

The kids and I decided to take a bike ride this morning at about 9:30 or so before it got to hot.. Anyways we went down along the foreshore area. As we were biking along we stopped along the way and looked out into the ocean and not 20 feet in there was a pod of dolphins jumping!!! It is sooo neat that we can just go down our road and the ocean is right there and we can just see the pods jumping!!! Now I am home an hour and a half later and roasting hot.. oh the joys of the coming summer!!! Its already about 25 out and its only 10 am!!! I love the warm weather!!

Pictures..

2007-09-03T15:20:00.001+08:00

I thought I would give you a small picture update as well. Owen had his 3rd birthday a while back and here are some pictures from it!

Madyson being cheeky!

The cake I made.

Owen Blowing out the candles.

Owen and Mommy

Owen getting his gift from Auntie Linda and Auntie Marg.
A scooter that Owen loves very much!! Notice Ethan and
Owen wearing the same outfit lol.. That was a mistake!

Our dear children Owen and Madyson!

Sunny days!!!

2007-09-03T15:14:00.000+08:00

Oh the nice warm weather has hit today... its a nice 28 or so out and bright and sunny. I love this weather. It has been nice and rainy this winter so we are ready for the nice warm summer weather. The kids and I have been outside pretty much all day just having a blast. Now when Andrew gets home at 4:30 we are going to go for a walk to the local IGA and we are then going to buy some fish and chips at the shop and go down to the beach/forshore to the park and we will eat dinner there and let the kids play on the park. Tucker them right out so they will fall fast asleep when we get home as neither of them had naps today!!! Well off I go to make my quick shopping list and get ready to head out!

Mom and Dad!!

2007-08-28T08:27:00.000+08:00

I just thought that since my Mom and Dad also read this site that I would wish them a Happy 25th Wedding anniversary today!! I hope that you had a great time with your open house and may God grant you many more years.

I wish we could be there to celebrate with you, maybe sometime we shall see you again.... you just have to tell Bryan to get married!!!

Not to much is new here. The kids are both growing up so fast! I can't believe Madyson will be two in less than a month!!! They sure do grow up fast.!! As for the rest of our little family, Andrew is working lots at Coastine, but really enjoying what he does.
I too have started a new thing. I became a stampin' Up! demonstrator!! It should be lots of fun yet... I haven't started anything yet as I am waiting for my upline to contact me so we can set up a meeting so that we can get together to show me how things work! Then I can book my first workshop!

Well I don't think there is much more to really update you on!

Quiet Day..

2007-08-07T13:41:00.000+08:00

Today is a fairly quiet day here. This morning my dear Mother in law took my son to my Sister in laws house to play with his cousin Travis. So it's just a me and Madyson day today, until 2 that is, then I have to go and pick Owen up. Haven't been up to to much, done some laundry and cleaning up, now madyson is napping so I am on here. Researching some things and looking things up. Anyone with good bible study guides please let me know of some as we are looking for them for our Sunday evening Bible study.

This weekend we have a potluck dinner at our house for our bible study. We have roughly about 40 or so people coming, so it should be a lot of fun. During the day I have an all day stamp-a-thon, held by a friend of mine out here. It's with all stampin up stuff, so seeing that I just became a demonstrator it should be a lot of fun for me.... YAY all day stamping and no kids!!!

Well I should sign off for now, Madyson is due to wake up shortly and it is 1:45 pm so I have to get ready to go to my Sister in law and pick up my long lost son! I will post pictures of his birthdy party soon.

My Little Boy

2007-07-02T20:53:00.000+08:00

Well, my little boy is growing up!! He turns 3 soon!! Time has gone by so fast! And now he is officially potty trained, all of a sudden after months of trying with him he just decided that it was time to do poos on the toilet!! We have had him pee trained for a while now, but just recently fully trained. He even wears jocks to bed... yaya no more nappies for Owen!
I saw him do the funniest thing today! He had to go to the toilet so I sort of saw him go there and then started watching what he was doing as he was standing in front of the toilet. Then I see him stand on his tippy toes and hear him pee. He stood up and peed! It was soo cute.

Madyson has also been a little terror now... she is getting into everything and saying all the wrong things.. but amidst her terrorism she is a little sweetie. She loves to cuddle, her latest thing right now is telling you all her facial features.. she is really getting good at it. Also naming all her clothing items. She is quite the talker now.

The weather here has been pretty cool, and VERY windy at night, and A LOT of rain, but thats good as we need it here. The warm weather will come soon!

Well that is all for my little update for now! Have a good summer.

Busy day today...

2007-06-15T13:26:00.001+08:00

Today was quite a busy day for the kids and I, but it was great. The kids slept in till 9 this morning so that was a great start to the day!!!
Then Andrew went to work at 10 am cause he worked till 11 pm last night, but I made him a nice lunch and everything and he forgot it!! So the kids and I decided to walk to Coastline and bring Daddy his lunch. After that I had to run to the shops to get some groceries for tonights lasagna dinner. After all that, 2.5 hours of walking later we are home. I also hope to take the kids to the park later.
We are going out tonight so I hope to tucker the kids out all day so they go to sleep good for Kara tonight!
Well off we go, Just thought I would leave a quick update!

OH YEAH!!

2007-05-11T07:33:00.000+08:00

MARIOOOOOOOON if you read this send me an invite to your blog!!! I enjoyed reading the adventures of you and yours!!! Or if anyone can pass this on to marion!

Not much!

2007-05-11T07:25:00.000+08:00

Well not to much is new with our little family... the kids are still getting into things as always.. Madyson still eating snails. I too have been pretty busy. I have gotten involved in a lot of things, both locally and church related. I joined a band not long after we got here, a concert band. For those who don' t know, I play trumpet. So I go there every Tuesday night and we also do concerts and put shows on for various community functions. I am also on the band committee and have a meeting once a month. Besides that I am also on the Creche (babysit) committee... I have the wonderful job of making the rosters. We are also a part of the social committee at church as well. And during all this I still have time to attend two bible studies (One Thursday mornings, and one Sunday night!) and go to the gym!!! Wow I am quite busy!! But its all fun. During the day I am usually home with my two rascals!

The weather was nice this week again hitting the 30 degree mark! and no rain which was nice too... it is supposed to rain this weekend. But thats good for us! We are going to our friends, Derek and Alice Vanderwals on Saturday evenign for tea (or dinner as you like to call it) and then maybe playing some games in the evening! As for sunday, well its mothers day and I dont quite have a mother here to go to!! But I do have a mom back in Canada that I truely love and miss!!! Hope you have a good day mom!!!

Well I think that is all the update for today.. my kids want breakfast.. its only 7:30 am here.

OKAY OKAY!!

2007-05-04T12:41:00.000+08:00

I guess that I will update this thing for those of you that actually read this thing!! I would really be interested to know who all reads this!!! So comment away!!

Anyways, We are pretty busy right now painting the back room in the house... it is an added room so it is not really insulated and the doors don't quite fit properly and let in drafts.. so we are trying to fix it up to turn it into a suitable living area. Right now Andrew's computer is in there and some toys. But we are painting the walls, and the floor because it is just concrete. We are almost done it and getting it all set up. I will have to post up pictures later when it is done.

The kids are getting big and enjoying the time here. The weather has been rainy for the last couple days and cooling off quite a bit. Still around 20 during the day and then cools off to about 10 over night. And then rainy. We have even had the woodstove on most mornings. For those who don't know, the house does not have central heating.. only a gas point, if you choose to use a gas heater, or as in our case the woodstove. The kids know very well that they are not to touch it and Madyson knows quite well that it is hot as every time she walks past it yells "HOT" its rather cute.
Owen is also talking alot more now.. so our fears of him not speaking are disappearing, there is hope! Some people dont' understand him so they often ask me what he is saying. But its getting there. Madyson is catching up quite quick to him also. She is speaking alot of words also. And now she is also been bottle free for two days now!! I noticed that she was getting quite attached to them and wanted them over cups all the time.. So I decided that I would just put them all away and that I would just give her cups! And it is working quite well.

As for Owen's potty training ( he is 2.5 will be 3 in the end of July) I have decided to stop. It wasn't going very well as he could do all his pees on the toilet but his poos were kinda hard.. he never would do them on the toilet... Also when I decided that I would put jocks on him he would always just pee in them instead of on the toilet. So I have quit for now and will start up again when he turns 3 then maybe both will be ready..

Madyson has been doing some wierd things lately too... Last week or so I went into her room in the morning to go get her and I opened the door to a really foul smell and when I looked at her she was covered in.. yes you guessed it... Poop, it was all over her.. the wall, the sheets, the crib and her blankies... thankfully not in her mouth this time. So I looked at her and gasped and she announces to me "Ewwwwwwwwwwww mom" I was about to cry... so I took her and popped her into the shower and started with the spray bottle of cleaner to clean her room... ewwww did it stink in there for a while. This is not the first time as some of you would know that she has done this!! You think I would learn... well now she goes to bed with her jammies on backwards and her nappy taped to her bottom!!! That seems to be working as she hasn't got them off yet. and if she does get them off she can't get her nappy off.
She has also pooped in the bathtub and everytime she does she starts to cry and says s"ewwwww mom" and wants me to take it out right away... lol silly girl...

Well I am writing this as they are awake and my washer is beeping because they have touched the buttons on it (frontloader, so it is at their level, big mistake!) and they are mighty quiet somewhere.. prolly destroying something in the back yard.. or madyson is eating more snails... she doesn't think the food in the house is any good .. so she eats snails..... ewwwwwww

well off I go hope you enjoy the update in our lives!

2007-04-02T21:41:00.000+08:00

Wow having 7 extra kids sure is a lot of work!!! YUP! I had to babysit my Sister in law, Margs children! 7 kids from 13-3! Boy was that a hand full. We had to look after them from 12 till around 8 and then we could go home when the younger ones were asleep. We had to cook dinner also!! WOW do you go through a lot of food with that many kids! The clean up isn't too bad cause they all have their own chores.. except the two younger. They cleaned up the kitchen and everything.
As we were on our way home, Andrew asked me if I ever wanted a family that big!! I would have to think about it but it does have its advantages... lets just say I think 4 or 5 is a better number!

Well today the kids nicely slept till 9 am for us!! That was great! Then we all sat down to have a nice breakfast, it was great and the kids think it is great to have Daddy home in the am. Andrew decided to change his hours and he is going to start at 12 and work till 9:30, he comes home from 6:30-7:30 to eat and help put the kids in bed... He has done this now a couple days and it is working well for us... However if I happen to have something in the evening then he will just work during the day instead!

The kids have been doing very well and are getting big!! Owen is being such a little ratbag lately!! But cute... Today he found my bin of baby toys and wanted to play with a little monkey that is in there.. he sings songs and such.. however the batteries are pretty much flat, and doesn't always work. Anyways today at tea he decided that monkey had to sit at the table with us... so we told Owen to fold his hands and close his eyes.. so he did... but so did monkey.. Owen held monkeys hand folded.. and about the middle of pray.. I see Owen open his eyes and shake his finger at monkey and he covers his eyes... apparently monkey was being bad by not closing his eyes... it was sooo cute!!!

Well that's all for now!

To all the mommies!!

2007-03-28T07:11:00.000+08:00

I had this posted on the mom forum I belong to and thought I would share....

I was out walking with my 4 year old daughter. She picked up something
off the ground and started to put it in her mouth. I took the item away
from her and I asked her not to do that.

"Why?" my daughter asked. "Because it's been on the ground, you don't
know where it's been, it's dirty and probably has germs" I replied. At
this point, my daughter looked at me with total admiration and asked,
"Mommy, how do you know all this stuff? You are so smart." I was
thinking quickly. "All moms know this stuff. It's on the Mommy Test. You
have to know it, or they don't let you be a Mommy." We walked long in
silence for 2 or 3 minutes, but she was evidently pondering this new
information. "OH...I get it!" she beamed, "So if you don't pass the test
you have to be the daddy."

"Exactly" I replied back with a big smile on my face.

When you're finished laughing, send this to a Mom.

Weekend...

2007-03-26T20:55:00.000+08:00

So how was everyone else's weekend?? Well we didn't do to much this weekend...On Saturday I went to Sister in law Linda's house to clean for her as she was host to a wedding from her niece. I really enjoyed myself and practiced on my house all week.. so needless to say, by the time the weekend came my house was rather tidy!! I ended up getting home at around tea time.. so we fed the kids tea and put Madyson to bed. Soon after I hit the sack too cause I was SO tired. I even went to bed before Owen, he tucked me in :P I had a really good sleep then!!! The bonus was that the time changed that night and we all got an extra hour to sleep also!!! So an early night and an extra hour was great!

Sunday was nice also, I babysat in the creché on Sunday morning and then in the afternoon went with Andrew to church, we had a reading sermon from the hands of Rev. Bredenhof. That evening we had Bible study at Anson and Rachel Vandelden's (they live right behind us) So we walked there with the kids. We take our kids to these ones cause we meet at peoples houses, it works out quite well. We usually put one of them to bed and let the other stay up. Next Sunday we get to host it at our house!! That should be fun!!

Well today was Monday! This morning I went to the shops so that I could get some nappies.. as I had run out, to mail out a birthday card, and then hit the bank. Taking two kids to the shops is quite the chore.. you really have to walk at a 2.5 year olds pace! So oddly enough it took us a while. Then we had to stop by Coastline (Andrews work) pick him up and bring him home for lunch. We decided that we were then going to go to Linda's house.... so Daddy had to walk back to work after lunch! We went to Linda's to say good-bye to her parents as they leave tomorrow night. They had a great time while they were here and it was great to see them!

That brings us to now... I have just come home from the gym and had a shower... its now 9 pm and I think I am going to hit the bed and read a good book called "Giving Sorrow words" by Melinda Tankard Reist. It is all about women who have endured abortions. Last week I went to a Womans forum Australia all about abortion and its statistics... it is really sad and scary... each year there are 90,000 abortions in Australia alone... That is A LOT!!! Anyways read the book it is a good one!

Well off to bed. Hope you all have a good day!

To those who want to try waxing at home :D

2007-03-23T14:13:00.001+09:00

The things we women will try???

CAUTION: Be prepared to laugh out loud...I laughed till I almost cried as I could just see this happening!

All hair removal methods have tricked women with their promises of easy, painless removal - The epilady, scissors, razors, Nair and now...the wax.

My night began as any other normal weeknight. Come home, fix dinner, and

play with the kids. I then had the thought that would ring painfully in my mind for the next few hours: "Maybe I should pull the waxing kit out of the medicine cabinet." So I headed to the site of my demise: the bathroom.

It was one of those "cold wax" kits. No melting a clump of hot wax, you just rub the strips together in your hand, they get warm and you peel
them apart and press them to your leg (or wherever else) and you pull the hair right off. No muss, no fuss. How hard can it be? I mean, I'm not a genius, but I am mechanically inclined enough to figure this out. (YA THINK!?!)

So I pull one of the thin strips out. Its two strips facing each other stuck together. Instead of rubbing them together, my genius kicks in so I get out the hair dryer and heat it to 1000 degrees. ("Cold wax," yeah...right!) I lay the strip across my thigh. Hold the skin around it tight and pull. It works! OK, so it wasn't the best feeling, but it wasn't too bad. I can do this! Hair removal
no longer eludes me! I am She-rah, fighter of all wayward body hair and maker of smooth skin extraordinaire.

With my next wax strip I move north. After checking on the kids, I sneak back into the bathroom, for the ultimate hair fighting championship. I drop my panties and place one foot on the toilet. Using the same procedure, I apply the one strip across the right side of my bikini line, covering the right half of my *hoo-hoo* and stretching down to the inside of my butt cheek (Yes, it was a long strip) I inhale deeply and brace myself....RRRRIIIPPP!!!!

I'm blind!!! Blinded from pain!!!!.... Vision returning, I notice that I've only managed to pull off half the strip. CRAP!!! Another deep breath and RRIIPP!! Everything is swirly and spotted. I think I may pass out...must stay conscious...Do I hear crashing drums??? Breathe, >breathe...OK, back to normal.

I want to see my trophy - a wax covered strip, the one that has caused me so much pain, with my hairy pelt sticking to it. I want to revel in the glory that is my triumph over body hair. I hold up the strip! There's no hair on it. Where is the hair??? WHERE IS THE WAX???

Slowly I ease my head down, foot still perched on the toilet. I see the hair. The hair that should be on the strip. I touch. I am touching wax. CRAP! I run my fingers over the most sensitive part of my body, which is now covered in cold wax and matted hair.

Then I make the next BIG mistake...remember my foot is still propped up on the toilet? I know I need to do something. So I put my foot down. DANG!!!!!!!! I hear the slamming of a cell door. *hoo-hoo*? Sealed shut! Butt?? Sealed shut!

I penguin walk around the bathroom trying to figure out what to do and think to myself "Please
don't let me get the urge to poop. My head may pop off!" What can I do to melt the wax? Hot water!! Hot water melts wax!!!

I'll run the hottest water I can stand into the bathtub, get in, immerse the wax-covered bits and the wax should melt and I can gently wipe it off, right??? WRONG!!!!!!!

I get in the tub - the water is slightly hotter than that used to torture prisoners of war or sterilize surgical equipment - I sit. Now, the only thing worse than having your nether regions glued together is having them glued together and then glued to the bottom of the tub...in scalding hot water. Which, by the way, doesn't melt cold wax.

So, now I'm stuck to the bottom of the tub as though I had cement-epoxied myself to the porcelain!! God bless the man who had convinced me a few months ago to have a phone put in the bathroom!!!!!

I call my friend, thinking surely she has waxed before and have some secret of how to get me undone. It's a very good conversation starter - "So, my butt and who-ha are glued together to the bottom of the tub!" There is a slight pause. She doesn't know any secret tricks for removal but she does try to hide her laughter from me. She wants to know exactly where the wax is located, "Are we talking cheeks or who-ha?"

She's laughing out loud by now...I can hear her. I give her the rundown and she suggests I call the number on the side of the box. YEAH!!!!! Right!! I should be the joke of someone else's night. While we go through various solutions, I resort to scraping the wax off with a razor. Nothing feels better then to have your girlie goodies covered in hot wax, glued shut, stuck to the tub in super hot water and then dry-shaving the sticky wax off!!

By now the brain is not working, dignity has
taken a major hike and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need Post-Traumatic Stress counseling for this event.

My friend is still talking with me when I finally see my saving grace....the lotion they give you to remove the excess wax. What do I really have to lose at this point? I rub some on and OH MY !!!!!!! The scream probably woke the kids and scared the dickens out of my friend. It's sooo painful, but I really don't care. "IT WORKS!! It works!!" I get a hearty congratulation from my friend and she hangs up.

I successfully remove the remainder of the wax and then notice to my grief and despair....THE HAIR IS STILL THERE.......ALL OF IT!!!!!!!!!! So I recklessly shave it off. Heck, I'm numb by now. Nothing hurts. I could have amputated my own leg at this point.

Next week I'm going to try hair color......Now that's
funny........Notttttttttt!

Pictures...

2007-03-03T20:53:00.000+09:00

Well I just thought I would send you all a picture update today!!!! We had a pretty boring saturday.. we arranged the house a bit more as we have been given MORE!! furniture from Will and Linda!!! Its great! They upgrade and we get the old!!! Anyways as the pictures show the weather is nice here... The last few days have been cool with the weather being in the low 20's but on monday it's supposed to be up to the scorching hot 38 again!!I I do like that weather... Monday is a holiday here also.. Labour Day! So Andrew has off.. Not sure yet what we will be doing.. for one we are going to measure the kitchen cause apparently Willem wants to put a new kitchen in the house for us!! So we will not complain about that!

This is a little dinner outing we have with the kids.. we take them to the forshore at the beach near the park.. we go to the fish and chips store up the road and get ourselves some fish and we enjoy our dinner outside...

enjoying our food!!!

Our dear Madyson running around the park after the seagulls!

Just lookin cute!

This was from our day at the beach on Feb 28 (Andrew and linda's birthday parties!) It was such a beautiful day out and we enjoyed a nice swim.. even the kids went in!!! This was just having fun with the trucks.

She is such a tomboy.. always pushing trucks around.. at home too she is always in the dirt.!!

Owen and Ethan playing trucks in the water!

Andrew helping Will and Linda with their stuff!

Owen was tired after helping mommy do the laundry!

Quite the day already and its only 11 am

2007-02-28T10:59:00.000+09:00

Well it has been quite the day already and its only 11 am. Owen has managed to spill the box of Sultana Bran all over the floor.. and then while eating his breakfast he managed to knock my Gerbera flower onto the floor also.. so there was soil all over the floor. Then madyson decided it was fun to throw the sippy on the floor with milk in it and it exploded... Being fed up with both the kids I threw them in bed! And voila! They both fell asleep and the house is all quiet... So off I went to go and make some more cards!

Hopefully the day gets better... I have someone coming over later to collect some things I put on freecycle. Tomorrow I have bible study in the am and will see what is happening after that.

Happy Birthday to my dearest!!!

2007-02-28T09:18:00.000+09:00

Happy Birthday to my dear husband!!! I can't believe he is already 26 years old!!! We had a birthday party last weekend for him!!! Not 100% sure what we are going to do today.. but hopefully just enjoy our time together.. Maybe we willl even go to the beach or for a nice walk.

Supersize!!

2007-02-26T12:38:00.000+09:00

For those of you who can't fathom what a BIG dump truck looks like.. this will give you and indication we HAD to move to the side of the road!!!!

And this is the dumptruck put together!!!!

SUPERSIZED!!!

That is Aunt Deny standing beside it!!!

Aunt marg and Deny took these pictures when they were here in November!!

Party!!!

2007-02-25T15:14:00.000+09:00

Well Saturday was a pretty busy day for us... we decided that we were going to drop the bed off at Linda's sister on Saturday morning,... so we got up at about 8 and drove to Seville Grove took us about half an hour. On the way there we saw a BIIIIIIIIIIIG truck. There was a police in front of it a little ways telling everyone to pull off the road... the truck was hauling a dump truck for the mines and it took up the entire road way... in Mandurah they had to close the bridges to traffic so that they could get over the bridge... it was really cool!!! Owen thought it was sooo neat to see!! Then we came home and cleaned up the house a bit to get ready for our party!!! Later we headed down for an afternoon at the beach with the rest of the family!! We had a blast and the weather was beautiful all day.. it was around 34 or so.. just nice!So after swimming we all decide to come back to our place for some food.. and we ordered pizza for dinner!!! We had a great time...

Now today its sunday and we are about ready to go to church again, then after church we have Discovery bible study from 7:30 to 9. It was organized by some young couples in our church. We go to peoples houses instead of in the church and we are all allowed to bring the children! It should be really fun and a good way for us to meet some new friends!!!

Well we have to head off I have to go and wake the kids from their naps and we are off to church!

My day

2007-02-23T12:15:00.000+09:00

Well, this week has been pretty busy and quick!! I like it that way!! Makes Saturday come rather quickly. Although we never have to much planned on a Saturday. Its usually spent cleaning up something around the house as the yard is still a mess from the people who owned the house before... they didn't seem to take to much care in the yard work... And my kids like to explore so I would rather have things clean back there so that they don't get hurt.

Unlike our usual Saturday, tomorrow we are going to have a birthday party for Linda and Andrew! We are going to the beach after lunch for a few hours and then coming back here for drinks and munchies and pizza. I reckon its going to be fun. Its supposed to thundershower but hopefully that holds on till after the party is done!!! I love summer in this country.. The weather is soo nice out lately... beautiful and most days are in the 30's. The kids usually just play outside in the back yard and occasionally we go to the park for some fun!!!

Last night we decided to take a walk along the foreshore and grab some fish and chips from the shops and have a picnic dinner on the beach!! It was so nice and it was great for the kids... after we were done dinner the kids played on the play ground and Andrew went and got us some Ice cream!!! We enjoyed that and then headed home to put the kids in bed... it was a great night out. The idea came from a book that were are reading Called Creating and Intimate Marriage by Jim Burns http://www.parable.com/HomeWord/item_M060206002.htm It is a really good book.

As for today, Andrew is coming home from work a bit early and then we are going to go to the Doctors with the kids to have their needles updated.. after we came here we had to visit the doctor to see what needles the kids were behind in.. it appears that here they have more needles for kids than in Canada... so Madyson has to catch up on 7 and Owen needs 3. So off to the doctor we go later... Then we are going to head off to Linda's sisters house to drop off the bed that we have been borrowing since we got here... and then going to head off to the mall today... maybe after that I will head off to someones house to check out a bed that I found on freecycle... it is a single bed with drawers underneath it!!! hopefully it is pretty neat!!! Then we will paint it up nice and use it when she goes into a bed!!!

Well I guess I should sign off and maybe finish my house work before Andrew comes home!

Good ol freecycle.

2007-02-12T19:51:00.000+09:00

Well, my day has been going quite well, Andrew is working late today and won't be home till 10 pm. Anyways today I decided I would go and pick up something I got off freecycle, I picked up a bike for Owen, it was a spiderman 2 bike. All it needed was a little bit of WD40 and it was off to go.... So I walked to bunnings to get some!!! A good 40 minute walk and it was great. We came home and I sprayed it and Owen went off biking. He thought it was great!!!

Well, got to get my kids ready for bed, So I will post again later!

Our house

2007-02-10T12:41:00.000+09:00

So this here is the house that we live in! It has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. A study which we turned into a play room and a big added room in the back.

This is the back yard...the big window you see is the kitchen.. when I wash dishes I can see the whole back yard! there is a door right beside it in the middle of the kitchen.. not sure what it is there for.. we never use it. Then you have the sliding door. the first window next to the door is Owen's room.. the second.. half a door.. behind it is a toilet.. so technically there are 3 toilets.. there used to be a pool over the big paved area.. now it is filled in.. so they had a toilet on the outside.. the other window is my card making room, or the fourth bedroom. Works great for that!Then there is the door to the big add a room.

Here is a wider view of the back yard. You can see the big add-a-room on the back.. it is not insulated at all and the doors leave a breeze coming in.. so it's rather hot in the summer and cool in the winter... but made for a great room for Marg and Deny to sleep in.... minus the spiders.

Yes, I know, my kids have a lot of toys everywhere...

This is the front of the house....the window you see there goes to our room and the one beside it, was what was supposed to be the study in which we turned into the play room.. We have a rounded drive way to park in and it continues up along the side of the house, to a big garage in the back yard.

The first window that you see here is also the one in our room with the air con unit beside it.. then you have a little window and that is the one that goes into our bathroom.. the next window is madyson's room.. The one after that is the kids bathroom and the farthest one is the laundry room. There is also a door at the end that goes into the add-a-room and then there is a gate that goes into the fenced off backyard.

This is the front of the house again.. with the view of our gorgeous car!!! Isn't it great! now you can better see the front of the house.

This is the front of the house from the other side of the rounded drive way. This window goes into the living room. And yes our gardens do need some work.. the people that lived here prior didn't do much along the lines of gardening and looking after the grass... There WAS a garden in front of the bay window.. but it all died. There is still a "little"palm in the front of it.. but you can't see it on the picture. There you see our recycling box also.. MUCH bigger than the TINY thing you get in canada.

Our Brown-eyed beauty

2007-02-10T12:03:00.000+09:00

The kids and daddy found a new spot to play!!! Under mommy and daddy's bed!

Owen after HE enjoyed a bowl of ice cream!!!

Our blue-eyed beauty

2007-02-10T11:51:00.000+09:00

This is our dear daughter Madyson, reading her book!

Madyson enjoying her bowl of ice cream!

Eating her snack!! She is my little posing baby!

Cleanin

2007-02-09T14:04:00.000+09:00

Wow, On a major cleaning sweep lately!! I am still trying to get some things organized from the move... Which will have been 6 months tomorrow!!! WOW I can't believe we have been here that long!! It is still so amazing here... Welll I put away ALL my baby stuff! Finally I have pretty much had most of it out since Owen was born and now Madyson is done with it.. I really want to keep my crib bedding set nice so I put that away also and madyson just uses another quilt we have here. Sorting through closets and what not.. Oh so much fun.

Apparently our new desks are supposed to come in soon so clearing room for those also!! I can't wait to have this house COMPLETELY in order, I know, that will never happen lol!

2007-02-08T21:25:00.000+09:00

These are some of the pictures from Our camping trip in Albany, WA. It is such a beautiful part of Australia... The night pictures from below are from New years eve.!! We had such an amazing time camping with everyone and definitely something I would love to do again! It's kind of like camping with my family, except the fact that we can't have campfires here!

Helen and Wade making us some Oliebollen!!! ooh that is so good! For those who don't know what it is, it's a dutch thing!!!

The Vanderven clan. Some of the Many nieces and nephews!!!

This is our campsite at the park ! And our lovely car!

2007-02-08T10:29:00.000+09:00

Well it has been a while since my last post.. I guess I should try to keep this up for my nice family so far away to keep in contact with me!!! Anyways the kiddies are doing great and getting big and so grown up! I started potty training Owen a while back and its going great!! They are getting so big!! If i get this right lol I might actually put some photos on here! Thanks Lisa!

We have settled in quite nice here down under!! Things are going well! Andrew works lots of hours and is going to be picking up a few more here and there... We are also anxiously awaiting the coming of our desks from work!! Woohoo have somewhere to put my computer on! instead of a little night table lol!!! Well here is a picture of our darling children in the car on the way to camp in Albany. It was soo beautiful down there!!!

Anyways I will leave it at that and see how this looks and works!

YAY

2006-12-12T16:23:00.000+09:00

Well, with everyone else starting a blog lately, I decided that I myself would try and get one up and running... Maybe I will come back a bit later, as my darling daughter just woke up!