Busy, busy, busy!!!

Well once again I am not really sure where the time has gone. I had trouble loading these photos but have to admit they have been ready for a few days waiting for a post to be written. Oh well better late than never I guess!
The 'horsey' one has had a busy week. She is thrilled to find out she has been accepted to do her work experience at the Mounted Police in Melbourne in April. I am not really sure whether it is a career she is interested in or whether it was the horses that have attracted her to it!! I am not arguing as it means I will have a week in Melbourne with her!! and the school in their wisdom this year have work experience running from a Wednesday to the following Tuesday so even sadder we will have to stay over a weekend!! We are in the middle of looking for an apartment as close as possible to where she is working as she starts at 7 each morning. So far we have quite a list of things we'd like to do and places to go!! I definitely am planning a visit to the zoo to see 'Baby' the elephant born last month, I think she is just adorable! The 'horsey' one had to attend the local Police station and have her fingerprints taken. The amount of paperwork required is amazing! The 'horsey' one also had a trip to the doctors last night to have her 2nd Hep A injection following her trip to China last year and in preparation for her trip to Vietnam with school in September. While we were there she ended up having the 'swine flu' jab so it was an early night with a panadol for her last night.
HS has been busy too. He is in his final year of school and according to this weeks school newsletter he is expected to do at least 3 hours homework each night! We are thrilled with how much he is doing at the moment but not sure it is quite that amount! He has been on camp this week where he enjoyed 'bonding' exercises such as rock climbing and abseiling. He is in love with his car which is finally healthy (had to have a trip back to the garage after 'they' left a clip unattached??). He would like me to blog a photo of it but I think it deserves a post of its own!!

This is a new purchase that I just had to fit into my budget!!I bought it from the booksellers who leave books in the workplace for soft touches like me!!It is a book of the most amazing cookies. I am loving so many of the recipes and decorating ideas and have a few special ones planned for gifts and others planned for us to enjoy on a weekend. I have found a website that sells a lot of the shapes they use so can see an order going in soon.

I received a parcel in the mail (in January - ooops I am a bit slow blogging about it, my excuse was I needed my camera!!). My dear friend Robyn had purchased some fabric for me as a surprise for a belated Birthday gift. It is 'I love Lucy' fabric. One of the pieces is a scene from her working in the chocolate factory and my favorite piece is just chocolates!!! I also got an 'I love Lucy' chocolate bar! It came from equilter who has a great range of quirky fabric. Now as much as I love it (and am probably happy just to look at it and giggle every once in a while) what on earth am I going to make with it??? Any ideas??

SH and I actually went out for dinner last weekend. His tennis team decided to have a get together so we went to one of their homes for a bbq dinner. I was a little apprehensive about going, I am happy to spend my Saturday evenings at home and I really didn't know any of these people. We had the best night, lots of lovely food and lots of laughs. We were to take a dessert so I made this Berry Cheesecake which was supposed to be a 'low fat' dessert but I didn't read that part of recipe until after I'd bought the regular cream cheese Oops! It was delicious and definitely a recipe I will make again.
Another busy weekend ahead.SH has the tennis mixed doubles championships to contest tomorrow while HS is heading out of town for baseball. The horsey one has netball (playing the best team!)and is babysitting for the first time tomorrow night. I am on duty for the first time for the year in the boarding house. I have made many cupcakes which I am taking in along with various icings and decorations with a Valentines theme. If I can keep them busy for even a few hours I will be happy. I have a few new quilting magazines to take with me and of course the emergency 'chocolate bar'!!! Sunday will see us head to Melbourne for a very special 1st Birthday party. Looks like there will be lots to share next week!!!!

Remembering....

Remembering 1 year ago today 'Black Saturday' when so many peoples lives were turned upside down, precious lives were lost,and homes and livelihoods were destroyed.
May the dawn of a new day bring some hope and peace xx

Milo Energy Biscuits!

We made these Milo Energy Biscuits last night for the school lunches. They are easy to make, last well (if not in a house with teenagers) and are yummy! The recipe should anyone be interested is as follows;

MILO ENERGY BISCUITS
Ingredients

125g butter (needs to be quite soft)
1/2 cup sugar ( I use white sugar)
1/2 cup brown sugar ( you can use raw sugar)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup MILO (powder)

Method

Beat butter, sugars and vanilla until light and creamy.
Beat in egg.
Fold in sifted flour and MILO ( mixture will be quite stiff depending on how soft the butter was)
Roll mix into balls and place on greased tray. Flatten with fork.
Bake in 180°C oven for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.
Makes 40 or more depending on how big you make them.

ENJOY!

A very treasured gift.

At Christmas time SH and I received a very treasured gift from my Mum. She had made this quilt for us for our bedroom. (Apparently I had commented that she had made quilts for the kids and my sister but we didn't have one!!)We love it and I will enjoy wrapping myself up in it especially when I am having my 'nana naps'!!Thank you Mum, we love you xx

Poor Jimmy!

We have a poor baby Jimmy tonight! On one of his numerous escapee attempts in the past 3 weeks he cut his chest. It really needed a few stitches but it was too late by the time we found it. He found it uncomfortable for a few days but it seemed to heal okay. It did develop a lump there though that just wasn't right so off to the vet today to have it checked. They found a very sharp stick lodged inside that had just started to fester. He is home tonight very drowsy with a chest drain and a collar which is causing him to bump into everything!!!



On a brighter note I collected my camera yesterday and apart from the memory card being 'locked'??? I am so happy to have it back. I have so much to show and tell over the next few days!!!

Just dropping in!

I can't believe it is over a week since I posted! especially after such a good start to the month.
What a week last week was! The Horsey one had a horse trials clinic for 3 1/2 days. As SH and I were both working we had to juggle the days and of course it was more than an hour out of town. The Horsey one stayed down there and one of us travelled each day. I did Tuesday and Thursday which was the last day when lucky me had to float the horse home!!! I am not the most confident at floating and must admit it was a huge sigh of relief when we finally got home safe and sound.
At the same time SH had taken HS and a friend to Melbourne to attend a concert. HS enjoyed himself but the band was certainly not our taste! Friday the Horsey one and I were off to Ararat for her to go the dentist and have some teeth removed under the Orthodontists request. We are hoping to avoid braces!
I enjoyed going to my Saturday quilting group, a very small gathering this month. I took a finished (yes you read that right!!!) heart stitchery. We are making a friendship quilt for a member who is shifting away.
This week hasn't been any quieter, we celebrated Australia Day today with some friends, a yummy lamb bbq and some really good salads. I made a pavlova roll for dessert, my first attempt at this but certainly won't be my last!
SH and the kids are off to Melbourne again tomorrow so that HS can do a defensive driving course on Thursday. They will visit the market to stock up on fruit & vegetables, meat & seafood, and Costco before heading home again.
Back to school Monday, I am actually looking forward to the return of routine, please remind me of that in a few weeks!!
Sorry this was another 'photoless' post, I do have lots to share but the camera we bought in September stopped working on Boxing Day and had to be returned to the company to be repaired. It was ready to collect on Saturday but the company hadn't returned the battery so I am waiting again! Not really good enough for a well known brand of camera, it certainly wasn't the cheapest in the range!!!
Hope to drop in again -very - soon!!!!!

The Big Trip to the USA - part 4

Back into the car again for the next leg of our big adventure. The first problem was that we hadn't prebooked our car hire (we weren't really sure we would manage the driving!!) and cars for a one way trip weren't available. We finally found a company that had a car but no gps!!!! We printed lots of maps but after getting lost leaving the airport where we had collected the car should of perhaps rethought our day!! We had planned and looked forward to driving the coastal road between San Francisco and Los Angeles. When the kids worked out how long the trip would take in comparison to the route we travelled up on they pleaded, sulked, complained and insisted they were not going that way! As we are the parents we got our way reminding them of the beautiful scenery they would see along the way. It would all be worth it! Unfortunately we had fog the whole way which meant we saw nothing!!!!! and I'm meaning nothing!!! The photo above is the only photo we managed of the coast and when we hit LA we hit the traffic returning from a weekend away (yes turns out Sunday afternoon is not the best time to be heading back into town!!) . The kids are not convinced when we tell them we were just unlucky and plan to drive it again one day but maybe over a few days so we can enjoy the communities along the way! We dropped off the hire car at LAX and then proceeded to be ripped off badly by 2 taxi drivers. It was our only experience like that for the whole trip and by this stage all we wanted to do was get to our hotel in Anaheim and hit our beds. HS (who was very unwell with a flu like virus this day) and I were travelling together and became a little worried when all of a sudden our taxi driver started ducking (while driving) at the sound of gunfire. We ducked too and in the next second realised it was in fact the fireworks at Disneyland. This gave us a giggle especially when our driver remained clueless!!!