Friendship

I had this post floating around in my head yesterday, and I didn't get to it. I did scrapbook though, which was great fun, and I will put a photo of the layout on the bottom of this post.

I went scrapbooking on Friday night as per usual. I was excited because not only was Barbi going to be there, but my dear friend Karen, had promised that she would be there too, come hell or high water. You can imagine how perplexed I was when she smsed me during the day to tell me that Geoff had fallen, and had a suspected broken ankle. Neither of us were very sympathetic as we knew this would seriously thwart our plans. But she was strong, and, maintained, that if she were in that predicament, he would still go to work and leave her to contend with the four kids. So she did, left him with his crutches close by, Karen had put the baby to sleep and she could come out and 'play'. During the course of the day I had been in touch with my other dear friend, and asked her if she would come, seeing as she was still on holidays, and I knew the late night wouldn't be a hassle as she could sleep in the next day, rather than have to front up to work.

I just had the best night. I just felt so lucky, to have spent the night with my three best friends. I made myself leave at 2am!! I could easily have kept scrapbooking, even Suzy, who normally flags earlier, could have kept going. We just chatted and chatted and chatted. We talked about everything, laughed lots, and just enjoyed being together. We ate dinner together and drank cups of tea together, and even did a little scrapbooking together as well. Those nights are so precious to me. They don't happen often enough, where we are all together - so I will treasure that night for a long time. For those hours, I can relax - totally and utterly relax. I can be myself - 100% me, just normal me, not mummy me, not wifey me, not housekeeper me, just me - Jenny - complete and in my element. I don't stress about anything, I don't need to worry about anything, not my weight, not how much money I don't have, not about the work I don't have, not about the things that are falling apart at home (as in physical things, not emotional things), I don't have to please anyone, rouse on anyone, or clean up! Those seven hours just went by in a flash! Being around those amazing women, is like taking a tonic, only works much quicker and is more pleasant to take. They are inspiring and have such uplifting personalities. I woke up the next morning feeling like I'd had a mini holiday. Even though I had had such a late night, I felt good in the morning, it was like a lingering glow was on my heart from all their laughter. We talked about sadness too, as Karen has just lost her Dad, but it was all grounded in a comfortable companionship which just enabled it to be therapeutic for us all rather than distressing - a true sign of friends listening and being there for each other.

I am lucky, truly blessed. I have a family that loves me, parents that love me, a husband that loves and adores me, and the best girl friends a woman could ask for.

I am back with a face lift

I have finished with my .mac experiment. After I received another email yesterday that my link didn't work, after I had already fixed it twice, I decided that the service Apple were offering just wasn't good enough. Plus I tried to sub to myself using bloglines to see how the blog came up, and I letters were substituted for symbols making the (new) title of my blog unreadable as anything that's bears a resemblance to a word. I had photos attached to all these posts too, but they required more work than just 'copy and paste, so at this stage I haven't updated the pics.

I have another post I want to upload, from yesterday plus I have a new post floating around in my head.

Thanks for persevering with my moving around..........

The glass is always half full

I have used that thread name somewhere down the line before. But it’s something I remind myself of often, and generally I am pretty good at thinking that way.

Yesterday, I was becoming more and more frustrated about the fact I couldn’t develop a new workflow! How hard can it be? It’s a brand new, beautiful computer, you aren’t daft, you should be able to figure it all out.

Thank goodness for the internet, user groups and forums. They have given me a wealth of information. I learnt yesterday, that even if I create a document in Word for Mac, I need to add the .doc file ending to the file, so it can open in Barbi’s PC - opens fine in my PC and my Mac, but not hers........I wish these things were easy to explain.

So today, I decided to focus on the positives of this awesome machine rather than focussing on its shortcomings. I read lots of posts about the great things that Leopard can do, and I felt my feelings toward the computer changing again. In between my day’s jobs of washing, changing beds cleaning the bathroom, unloading the dishwasher, playing junior monopoly, keeping kids happy, I was able to develop a new workflow.

>view photos in finder, using quicklook to enlarge image. This is much better than using iphoto as I can’t open another application from iphoto, but I can from finder. The browsers for viewing images in all the programs I downloaded were so inadequate in this area, as the images were all too small, and when you take many many photos of the same thing, it’s really hard to select the one you want when you can’t see them properly. The answer was right within Leopard itself, so I was very pleased
>Pixelmator most probably
>Duplicate image (save as)
>adjust levels
>Save images in one folder, use filename to give size required for printing.
>Use EasyCrop to resize images, and enable cropping of distracting backgrounds

Voila..........sounds a little longwinded,but I think it will work quite well.

Dinner tonight was a delicious Green Curry. It was quite spicy, so the kids ate bread with their’s as well as I didn’t give them much sauce.

I had some Christmas pudding for dessert, (it came in the Chrisco) which I shouldn’t have eaten, because I am beginning to look like one.......

Game of Life

Today’s been a good day. A continuation of this wonderful relaxing time. Last night at scrapbooking was great fun. Barbi and I had KFC for dinner which was a change from our routine Thai dinner. I actually did a layout last night.

My darling man is getting better at handing over the money. I was most impressed, and pleasantly surprised - actually he’s been great the whole holidays. He knows my income is down to virtually nothing, so I have no expendable income.This time last year, he really struggled with me having to ask for money. He was such a tightarse that it was almost humiliating for me to ask for money. I like my own funds, my own bank account and I don’t want to rely on anyone for my financial independence. I was bitten once, very very badly, and that will never ever happen again. During the year he’s really worked hard to be more appreciative of what I do with ‘my’ money and therefore is generous when I ask him for money. It works both ways. He can’t just take for granted all the things my income buys and pays for without giving in return - and he knows I appreciate it very much. So anyway, I did digress there a little. He came home from a job he had to do this morning and I knew he’d gotten paid. I have money put away now for the kids stationery and books, and I said I wanted to look at some new board games for the kids, plus Billy-Joe needed some new shorts. I am very lucky with kids’ clothes as I get so many hand me downs, but sometimes it’s nice to have something new to wear.

I got the kids Junior Monopoly which they have already played. My kind of game.....nice and quick but still fun. Billy-Joe enjoyed it, and Sammy liked it too. I also picked up a Connect 4 type game that Mickey really likes. I wanted the new ‘Game of Life - Twists and Turns’ but Toyworld was sold out, but I got it at an online store. By the time I added in freight it cost the same as Toyworld, so I decided to get it now rather than wait until maybe the end of the month. If this wet weather is going to start again, it would be good to have new games.
I also bought a new image editing program. Finally I have found one that will certainly tide me over until I can get Photoshop Elements 6. It was $AUD71 which isn’t free, but does everything I need a program to do. Who knows I may not even need PSE6. I bought the program from here .

Love these rainy, lazy, quiet days

The photo above is from playing in Photo Booth, as you can see the kids love the little inbuilt camera in the mac, and I get to play with all the wonderful little effects. I played with GraphicConverter a little more today, and I love how it edits, but can’t find the crop tool where I have all the control. There’s another program called Phoenix Slides which I will download late tonight. I have used over 70% of my usage allowance and I am only about 50% through my account period. I barely ever go near my limit, but this is the second month now since I have gone too close. Optusnet, slows my speed down that it makes internet browsing near on impossible. I don’t get charged for the extra, but I can only really use it for emails. I hope I remember to download the program during my off peak times, which is from midnight to midday the next day.

The rain seems to have stayed away today, but it’s still cool and overcast. Blissful, compared to what we are normally experiencing at this time of the year. Bunny has finished painting the verandah, and it looks fabulous - can’t wait for him to be able to start the front.

The kids are happy and are continuing to behave fantastically well. Today they even have their heads out of the gameboys/playstation/computer/nintendos.......and have spent nearly all day playing a WWE DVD board game. It’s quite heartwarming seeing Billy-Joe teach his younger brothers how to play the game. He will sleep well tonight, as he has been kept busy, organizing, paying out the money, counting out the money, reading all the questions and generally keeping the two younger ones under control. I take my hat off to him. Sometime he can be so mean, but today, he has done a fantastic job.

I have watched my first DVD of the Prison Break episodes. I was up late last night watching it. Love it, couldn’t believe that my little ipod would give such a crystal clear image for movie viewing. I never did get that people want to buy TV series on DVD, but I have never been so fascinated with a show before either. I have already filled in gaps, which make the whole thing make more sense. I still have so much to go. Can’t wait for season 3 to come out on DVD and for Season 4 to commence on TV.

Yesterday after many months of putting up with a sore neck and shoulders from my tired pillow, I went out and bought a beautiful latex contour pillow. My old pillow was a good one from a physiotherapist, but had become too flat, and needed replacing. I had been putting it off, because the new one’s I was eyeing off were around $100. I went into the store yesterday and didn’t actually like the $100 ones, so came away feeling quite smug because I’d found an $82 one which suited me just fine. The lady was very helpful and took it out of the packet, put a ‘bluey’ on it and then laid it onto the massage table so I could try it. I didn’t sleep too badly on it last night, but know it will take a few nights to become really comfortable. I know the last pillow took me nearly a week..........I don’t think this one will take as long.

Might head off and have a shower. Barbi is waiting for me, and is always anxious when the weather is crappy, because she knows I hate going out in the rain.

I wonder what we will have for tea. Not sure if I feel like Thai. I am trying to eat better.......at least all my baking is gone.

New Year's Resolution

I don’t make make resolutions generally at this time of the year, although I do think about things I’d like to concentrate on, which in some ways is the same thing I guess, but without the pressure from when things go awry.

I am going to be more organized. Now from a week to week I am very organized. My bestest friend, who is also the least organized domestic goddess I know, laughs at how organized I am. Normally at this stage I have all the kids’ school uniforms ironed - well before term starts, actually last year I had them all done before Christmas!! She laughs when I tell her that I have my meals worked out, working with my latest food magazine (A good Taste, or Good Food Ideas). I go to bed at night and get everything ready for the next day. Cereal bowls, spoons, cereal container out, lunch boxes out with biscuits and stuff already packed. The lunches are made up a week ahead and frozen and Billy-Joe gets them out in the morning. If I know I am working, I organize my lunch too, and get my plunger and travel mug ready, so I can drink decent coffee on the way to work. I try to do most of my housework during the week, so that I don’t have it all for the weekends. I try to do half of the ironing during the latter part of the week, so I don’t have to do it all on the weekend. I hate knowing I have to iron on a Sunday.

So, today, I bought a new ‘We are waiting for Santa’ sign, as our original one, rotted -and they were half price at the junk shop. I also got wrapping paper for next Christmas too. I also bought dh’s Valentine’s Day card already, as I try to make them but that doesn’t always happen, and then I end up picking one which is the best of a bad bunch. At least today I got a beautiful card with many many to choose from. I wanted to buy a new diary too. I got a lovely one for Christmas, but it’s not practical for me, as I like a week for view, and this is two days per view. (A page per day), and I need to be able to see the whole week. I wanted to have a look at the Women’s Weekly diary, but it was sold out before Christmas............who is that organized that they buy them before the year end??? I did see a couple that I liked, but I will wait. Thankfully they are not as dear as they once were either. I can remember paying around $30 for a diary in the early 90’s. The one’s I liked to day were around $7-$15 - pretty cheap.

The kidlets are at holiday care today, much against their chagrin. I disdecorated the Christmas tree this morning, so now my lounge is back to normal. Hopefully said kidlets won’t protest overly much. They weren’t putting the lights on anymore, and my cramped lounge was becoming annoyingly so, so I decided it was time to put it away.

I bought some chicken thigh fillets today, and have a Yellow Curry in the crock pot. It’s so cool here, (while my southern counterparts are stewing!!) so I have decided to cook a meal usually saved for a winter’s night. I have bought some pappadums too.

I have spent some time, working out how to get my delicious Prison Break DVDs onto my ipod. This whole mac thing changes everything, but that was something I’d never tried before, as I don’t own anything that I’d care to watch on my ipod. That is until now. I downloaded a program called ‘Handbrake’. Three hours later, and voila I had a version I could import into my itunes. After I deleted a few songs to make room for the DVD so it could fit lol....... I sat and watched a bit and was amazed at the clarity of video and sound - fantastic. I have already watched the first episode and its’ starting to fill in some gaps already.

As I am very sad that I don’t have access to Photoshop Elements on my new computer, I have decided to hunt around for something temporary. I downloaded Apple’s Aperture.........accckkkkkk, pity I didn’t check to see how much it would cost after the trial finished before I downloaded it and put strain on my already high usage for this month’s broadband!!! It looks like a program I could like to use, but at $450 it’s not that good. I will hang out for Elements. I did download a program called Acorn, which looks fantastic, so might help me out until I can get organized properly. I want to get started editing all my Christmas photos, otherwise they will pile up too quickly.

Happy New Year

We spent New Year’s Eve with just our family. I made a really yummy dinner. We had chicken schnitzel crumbed with a yummy seasoned crumb mix, I made a potato salad, a cucumber salad and we had tomato supreme as a sauce on the schnitzel. It was a very German meal, accompanied with a german (I think) champagne which is my absolute favourite.

We slept in this morning, gosh I love not having to be anywhere and just being able to clean, tidy, and then please myself. I am enjoying cooking for enjoyment and taste and not worrying about dieting, although I know that will have to change very soon.

I have just put on a pot of chilli, and I got Billy-Joe to help. I make the seasoning from scratch and he thought it was pretty cool seeing all the things that really went into making the delicious flavours. I will serve it with guacamole and corn chips - I don’t have any sour cream and don’t see my chances of getting any on New Year’s Day.

Bunny is outside painting under the verandah. The only place where the rain isn’t able to get to. It’s a pity we couldn’t have got the house finished, ah well there’s always another opportunity. Just I know my husband, and I have to strike while the iron’s hot so to speak. I have to get him while he is feeling motivated, so the rain isn’t a good thing at this stage. At least we have bought the paint, that’s a step in the right direction.

My .macexperiment, I am not sure how it’s travelling at this stage. So far it’s definitely easier, but I want to see blogs of others to see what else is possible. Mine is a very simple one thus far.

The people on my mac users group are a very friendly and helpful bunch, and so far all my queries have been assisted.

Will upload and publish and see what happens now.

Arrggghh, I can’t work out how to just put a photo in the midst of my text..........

A .macExperiment

I am trying out the new .mac facility. I want more flexibility with my blog and I want my photos and blog to be able to ‘speak’ to one another. So this is part of a test which I will run for about the next month to see whether or not I will switch my blogger blog over to this one.

I have much to learn though, as far as my mac goes and of course this new .mac stuff.

Yesterday afternoon I spent quite a bit of time playing around with photos, trying to create a collage so I can use it on my posts. I finally did it using a tool found on http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/

I am not sure of the colours on this blog as yet. I can’t even seem to find where to pick my font, and as you can see, it’s just changed from a serif to a sans serif font, and I haven’t even knowingly done anything. I love that about computers, never a dull moment lol......

Broken Link

Thanks Chris for letting me know that the link was broken to my other blog.

I will continue to 'play' over there, until I work out where I want to 'reside'. I can always copy and paste everything back here, if I decide to stay.

You can come and visit me over Here

An Apple Experiment

I just wanted to invite you to come over and have a look at my 'trial' blog. With the purchase of my new beautiful awesome imac, I got a trial for .mac which among many useless things, (to me) offers an easy blog and album publishing system.

I would like to invite you to come on over and have a look, leave a comment if you wish. At this stage I don't know if I will change over or not. I'm rather attached to this blog, but a change might be nice too.

Come on over and visit me here

I wish all my readers, commenters and lurkers alike, a very Happy New Year. I wish you a 2008 filled with love, joy and happiness.

My Photo Post

My creation, originally uploaded by Jazzmin.

Productive Days

In between making my cake, biscuits, chutney, stuffing, truffles, gift cards, Christmas card newsletters, wrapping gifts, and the normal day to day cleaning/washing/tidying/cooking, I have realized that I have achieved a lot this week.

I have also managed to go out a few times, had my hair done, spent hours with my bestest friend, chatting, eating dinner and chatting until well after midnight last night. Last night was fantastic, not only was it good because she'd been away, and I was happy to have her back - we were the only ones in the store!! One lady came to shop and a couple of other ladies, came chatted, shopped and then said they would let Barbi have an early night. So we got virtually the whole night to ourselves - bliss!!

I should log, on a daily basis what I actually achieve. It's not until someone emails me and says 'what have you been up to?' that I take a moment to recap and realize with amazement that I have done an awful lot. I am feeling very smug at the moment. It's also a strong reminder, that my medication is helping me do all this. The last few months have been a stark contrast to the previous several. I am so thankful that I took stock of where I was at, and that I did something about it!

Today I have also scrapbooked a layout. I even got my sewing machine out for this one.
The photo is Mickey in his safety gear after he got his scooter and gear for his birthday in July of this year, with Sammy hugging him from behind. I haven't actually journalled on this layout, because I have already journalled the fact that he got the scooter in another layout, but I loved the photo and didn't want it going unscrapped!

My Christmas Menu

High Tea
Served at Midday on Christmas Eve
Vanilla Kipferl
Linzer Augen
Rich Christmas Cake
Chocolate Fruit Mince Truffles
Chocolate Dipped Stars
Stollen



Dinner
Roast Rolled Turkey with Fig and Hazlenut Stuffing
Cranberry Chutney
Roast Potatoes
Roast Sweet Potatoes
Roast Pumpkin
Roast Onions
Balsamic Glazed Carrots
Peas with Mint and Garlic
Warm dinner rolls

It's beginning to feel like Christmas

It took me an hour and a half to wrap and label our gifts today. I am nearly finished, still have a couple to finish wrapping. I have them all safely stowed away. I have never had them done this early before.

Dancing is on tonight, and I haven't decided whether to go or not. I want to go, but I don't want to go. It's a Christmas supper afterwards too. I know I will be happy when I get there, it's just the thought that I don't like. Plus I hate going out when it's raining, and it's been threatening rain all day long.....so far there's nothing though. Last night we had quite heavy rain. The grass is growing like mad. Dh will have to cut it before the red suited one arrives, so the yard looks nice. I am getting my hair done tomorrow. I have to get the colour re done, might do something different as it looks too close to my natural colour (pre kids). Mickey is going shopping with my parents tomorrow. Billy-Joe will go to a friend's house, and I will get my hair done at my sister in law's place. Sammy will enjoy being on his own, playing with is cousin.

I might still do some baking. I have truffles on my list and I also might make some more biscuits, just a small batch though. I have enough sweet stuff in the house to sell. As it's Sammy's and my birthday on the 29th it certainly doesn't go astray.

I am still betwixt and between with my editing software. I can buy an academic version of Photoshop Elements 4 (Mac version) for about $100. The new one PSE6 (for which the release date hasn't been announced yet) will cost about double that........unless they have an academic version then it will be considerably cheaper. I am not sure how PSE4 will run on Leopard os x either.

I will go and get my kids soon, they are always really good when they have been out all day, as they are happy to be home, which is good.

Santa's elves, turn chaos into order!

Busy and happy

Gosh I am so happy that the school year is at an end. I am feeling busy, but relaxed and happy. A couple of times, though I have had the racing heart thing again - just like I did last year, but it's nowhere as bad. I have been making good use of ical and putting things down in the diary (I know Michelle, I hear ya!) and it's making me feel organized and not stressed. The Christmas cake is done, the Vanilla Kipferln are done, and today I made some shortbread stars half dipped into chocolate. My new kitchen is making everything a gazillion times easier. I can prepare the evening meal, and then just move over and roll out biscuits and have two trays out ready to take it - just heaven. I was thinking back to a few years ago, probably six years ago, our first in this house. I had the bright idea, (amongst others) that to make the Vanilla Kipferln really authentic I would make my own vanillin sugar, rather than buying it like I normally would. I had never done this before, so I got dh to buy the vanilla beans (poor boy nearly had a conniption when he saw how much they were), I cut them in half (I'd seen that on a cooking show) and then placed them into a Tupperware sieve (that had a base and a lid for storage) with icing sugar. This is where instructions would have been handy (or common sense) - as when I went to use the vanilla sugar, it was as hard as a rock!!!! I should have done it for maybe an hour or two, not a week lol......... So then I am trying to dust these hot biscuits with the Tupperware sieve when of course nothing came out. I bashed the container on the sink, because at this stage I had a crying baby on my hip........ Needless to say said container's lid and base fell off and I had icing sugar everywhere. At one stage I was dusting said biscuits with child on hip, vacuum cleaner on the floor and icing and crap everywhere..... I asked myself why am I doing this?? Back then, I did it mainly for my Dad, now I do it because I would not only have him to answer to, but it's become such a tradition, my whole family, especially my own kids just love them. So they remain a Christmas favourite. This year, however, after I have been making them for about the past 14 or so Christmases, they were quick and easy! No hassle at all, I finally have them wired, and my deluxe kitchen is just the best place for baking.

Like I have posted before, I am missing elements! I have found a widget though, that can resize my pics, so at least I can post them on my blog again. There is a facility within iphoto where you can upload photos to a blog or web page, I will investigate that further too. I am loving my imac, and learning much. I am also getting myself into stuff that I can't reverse, but I have always learnt best by my mistakes! I am so glad there are forums and groups out there where people are only too happy to help.

I have some photos. The boys at a girlfriend's house this morning. Just sitting down and being quite happy about having their photo taken. A scrapbooker's dream. I was complimented by a couple of the girls there how well mannered and lovely my boys were. I was very proud. They are such a handful and drive me around the bend nearly,but all the hard work and peristence on my part is well worth it when I get remarks like that. I thanked them for their great behaviour and said how nice it was to take them to someone's house. Billy-Joe noted that it was much better taking them to someone's house than a shopping centre - amen to that!! Tess had an above ground pool and the boys just had a ball. I didn't have to worry about them. There were other boys there, Tessie's two boys and yet they played with their own siblings.....strange.

My good friend Noeli from Springbrook was coming on Saturday, but he can't come now, hopefully he will come early in the New Year.







The yummy Vanilla Kipferln after they've just come out of the oven and are freshly dusted.

Pretty Trivia

Pretty toe nails

Pretty cards and candles


Sometimes it's nice to write about not much. Plus the fact that I now have a widget which resizes photos for me.

Visit to Santa

I am so lucky, that my three boys are still ardent believers of Santa.

I'll be back later with a photo. There's got to be a way of resizing the image for uploading.

Worked it out, thanks to a widget that does the resizing for me.

My beautiful boys with the lovely Santa at Myer. The photo isn't perfectly edited - am eager awaiting the release of Photoshop Elements 6 (for Mac) early next year before I can do much on them again. I can use the kids' computer, (my old one) if I get desperate.....

It's all apples

I haven't done much blogging, either writing or commenting in the last couple of days. I have been extremely busy.

I have crossed over to the dark side! I have left the PC camp and am now a proud iMac owner. I have been researching specs for a new computer for the last few months. My old PC was still fine, but the kids desperately needed one that had more grunt than the one my old PC Tech kindly built for me out of spare parts. It was so tediously slow. The kids would open Sims and then could just about have had a shower whilst waiting for it to open. Whilst my old PC isn't a gaming computer, the 1GB of RAM is enough to keep them out of mischief. I had planned to buy the new PC in the New Year, via Credit Card and cash payment - and paying it off very quickly.

I read various blogs and have always been interested in reading ones where the writer has loved the Macs. I know that people who have them, won't use anything else.I also know they are expensive, so I spent hours doing research on working out how it was better, and whether it would suit me. I am very lucky that my dh, although not at all tech savvy appreciates what I tell him and takes it all on board. He respects me and my judgement, so discussing the pros of a Mac with him was a positive experience. When I came home from scrapbooking late on Friday night, I still hadn't decided 100%. I had posted on Two Peas in a Bucket and knew that the Peas would have answered my post whilst I was out. They didn't let me down, and the replies were positive and encouraging. I had rung Myer during the day and the lady in IT told me that Myercard had an interest free offer going. I needed to do some more Christmas shopping, so went out Saturday afternoon. I'd talked briefly to dh that I may just come home with a computer if I liked what I saw, because at this stage I still hadn't seen an iMac in the flesh!!

I organized my Myercard and bought the iMac. I was served by a young guy who knew what he was talking about. I couldn't get the Academic discount, but he threw in a Canon printer and $30 discount off the Apple Care extended warranty.

Mum and Dad came and bought pizza for us and we all had a fun dinner with garlic bread and wine of course. Peter was absolutely exhausted - he works so hard everyday. He had worked that morning, and had had a late night the night before too. We all had fun, and the kids went to bed later than normal and Mum and Dad left not long after 8,30pm.

I started with the new iMac around 9pm and by just after midnight I had my new iMac going. I would have done it all much quicker, but I spent (wasted) time burning stuff onto Cds. Stupid thing spent nearly an hour doing something and then it told me it didn't work!!! The new iMac needed to install around 660MB of updates, so I left it doing that when I went to bed. At least that way it used my off peak allowance, so that was good.

The next day Bunny went to the PGA that I'd bought the tickets for. It was timely as I could spend the entire day guilt free......setting up the new computer. It's time consuming anyway setting up a new machine. My brother built me a computer about two PCs ago, and he was stunned when he saw it a day after he'd handed it over to me. He said he'd never seen a computer changed so much in such a short space of time. I like it all set up in a particular way.

I spent from 9am to midday just sorting out iTunes! I had to set up the old computer close to the new one, so I could share the ethernet cable. I hadn't deauthorized the old computer, which meant I couldn't authorize the new one with my iTunes account, and the iMac wouldn't recognize my ipod because of it. The kids were a bit of a handful during this time, as I had to take their 'new' computer back so I could do this. I would upload a photo showing the set up - I have worked out how to get my photos on to the iMac, but I don't know how to resize them for upload. I am waiting a few months for when Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac comes out and then I will be back in action as far as all my image editing goes. So for now I just have iPhoto.

By 5.30pm, I had managed to instal my saved bookmarks, installed my address book, and the music was playing out of the speakers too....... I went to bed around 9.30pm and I was quite weary. In the course of the day I'd also taught myself a lot about using a Mac. Even today I went onto the kids' computer and I was looking for things in the Mac spots.....so it won't take long at all.

I am pleased that I made the change, and I look forward to a long association with my iMac.

• 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 1GB memory
• 320GB hard drive¹
• 8x double-layer SuperDrive
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory

I also added Office for Mac, iWork and the Apple extended warranty.

Some Christmas Cheer

We put up the tree yesterday.......... It was fun, (kinda sorta) but boy it's hard work.
"now I have this pile here, please don't touch'
" no we aren't doing those yet, let's do these first'
' didn't I just say, to leave those things alone'
' no, I am putting those up'.

DIDN'T I JUST SAY I WAS GOING TO PUT THEM UP, LEAVE THEM ALONE!!!!!!

My husband kindly reminded me that in other countries they have egg nog, and that's what it's for - to drink while children are helping with decorating the tree.

Next year I will make some!

I always try a photo shoot in the middle of all this.............remember that phrase, 'Never work with animals or children' (They had my children in mind when that phrase was coined lol............

The good, the bad and the ugly.

I will start on the negative aspects of this post, as in the timeline of events, plus I like to finish on a positive note.

My teaching contract is up at the end of the year. I have enjoyed the security of knowing that I am to work two days per fortnight, with a set income I can count on, and when I do relief days it's the cream on top. I also knew that may not be renewed next year, but I was hopeful. If a contract is renewed, we get paid for holidays, which is fantastic. Alas, the contract was not renewed, so my income will cease over the holidays. That in itself is a concern, as I have averaged around $700 per fortnight, and that will go down to zero. Thank goodness for Centrelink. I have already paid ahead my utilities and some other payments, so that things are diabolical over the Christmas break. I hate not having any money - and I enjoy being independent and never having to ask dh for any money. Our incomes are kept separate with each our own responsibilities and spending money. This suits me very well. I was bitten badly with money in marriage #2 and really appreciate the ability to manage my own income....... This is all well and good for most of the year, just at Christmas time, it becomes a real issue. And, as no teachers are sick early in the term, it tends to continue till nearly Easter.................

So, as I said, I wasn't too shattered when I found this out, but what I was really pissed off about, was the fact that I wasn't told to my face. I actually read the finer points of the classes appointments for next year, (of which I would have been the choice) in the school newsletter and in a letter handed out to parents which I quickly perused before giving out to the kids!!! I came home on Friday night feeling quite low, and very much taken for granted. That emotion compounded with my feeling on Saturday morning that I was a single mother with three boys..........only exacerbated my feelings of being taken for granted. Dh came home and I said and chatted to him, and, as always felt much better. I am not taken for granted at home, but I just don't think anyone really knows what goes into making the home clean and comfortable. I seem to spend hours, and there's not much pay off at the end. Billy-Joe helps which is fantastic, and he knows that things aren't easy to do, so there's a healthy respect there now for what I actually do. The little ones are still in training, but they keep their rooms fairly respectable at all times, so no complaints there......

I know the nature of my job is thus
* haven't done country service so don't expect a permanent position on the coast EVER!
* if I put my name down at several schools I would have more work than I could do
* I don't cope with going to a new school at the drop of the hat. The ferals give me the irrits and I hate not knowing where everything is, and being on duty when you don't know exactly where to go, and the kids don't listen to you anyway
* It's just the nature of my job and I should just accept it.
* I get great money for being on call
* I get a little job satisfaction
* For relief days, I have no assessment or reporting, or planning

Okay, onto the positive aspects of my post.

I sold my stove!!!! Thanks to Michelle (private blog) who helped me give my listing a bit more pizazz and she also sat through the watching and waiting till the very end. I went out this morning to drop the kids at school and do a quick errand, when I came home and checked, I nearly fell off my chair............ They had gone beserk!! I got $420 for it, which Michelle pointed out, is what I initially wanted, plus it covers the useless ads in the paper and trading post. I am really pleased. Peter is giving it the once over tomorrow so it's spotless for the pick up. The inside looks great, the outside just needs another good wipe over........... Michelle and her advice and this great sale, has given me the confidence to put the kids' cot onto Ebay as well. I won't ever use the paper again. I have a heap of scrapbooking stuff I want to sell. That's very time consuming though, as it's all bits and pieces.

Chrisco arrived today, and I am happy with what I ordered. Having said that it was a bit like Christmas because I forgot what I ordered. There's enough frozen fish, and kids' quick meals to see us well and truly over Christmas and beyond. A lot of the stuff I don't buy during the year, so it's truly a treat. The tricky part was finding room for all the stuff. I reduced the amount of my order this year, thank goodness I did, as my freezers and pantry is full!!!