Amy's Giant Teddy Bear

You let Benji inside and ask - "Where is Amy. Go wake her up" and off he trots - he is better than an alarm clock.

It has been a little chaotic at our place this week and seems thing will not change for the next few weeks either. Bill was off to Woomera with work, meant he got to go to Adelaide and catch up with his parents for a couple of nights so that was good.

Amy and I had to go to Tuggeranong College to sign up for her subjects for Year 11 next year. We worked that out pretty easy, then needed to get her subjects checked, this ended up being done by Lachlan's Extended English teacher - lovely guy. When I introduced ourselves, he laughed and said, Lachlan was probably at home writing his romance story. He teaches Lachlan in extended English, and told us that was their current assessment task and said he felt mean doing it but they had to. He kept saying to Amy – Lachlan will fill you in on how all that works – Amy and I would laugh as Lachlan tells us very little! And just as we expected when we got home and asked Lachlan how his romance novel was going, all we got was a grunt!

Lachlan went of to the ANU open day to check that out for next year, didn't want his mum to come - I had to go last year, but not this year. He is very much the independent young adult. He has his AST Test this week. All ACT Year 12 students sit them, it is a University Entrance Type Exams as they use their results to scale their marks or something like that! It is over 2 days, and when we were discussing about when I shouuld go down to Melbourne to spend time with my mum who is about to come out of hospital after a knee replacement operation, he looked at me with this blank look when I mentioned that perhaps I should leave after his exam was over. It was this look of -why do you need to be around, I am perfectly capable of looking after myself and getting there! When they are little you can't wait for them to grow up and be independent, and then it happens all of a sudden when you are not quite ready to let go!

Worn out after a hard days shredding

Bill decided it was time for a snooze in front of the heater and the dogs decided to join him. Why was he so tired - probably because he had been out shreddding! I was wondering why Sarkule only had 3 legs!

Bill's latest acquisiton is his garden shredder! I think the last 4 weekends Amy and I would come home from church and there he would be out shredding. If you come to our place don't stand still for too long or you will be shredded.

I must admit though it is actually rather useful. Bill's approach to pruning is to cut the branches down and just leave them where they were cut, so there was always branches everywhere, and I was always picking them up and putting them in the trash pak- To me it was like cooking and not cleaning up after yourself! So now that he has his shredder he has been able to shred all those well matured branches and make a chunky but useful ground cover mulch. He is happy, we are happy, just worried though what he might turn to when he has finished all that shredding.

Pictures Up, Lounge Suite Inside

This week I managed to finish off the last few jobs inside - bring in the lounge chairs from the garage and hang up the picutures- that means I have finished all the inside jobs - well apart from organising the spare room and organising the study -but they are all in a reasonable tidy state and useable fashion - it feels good!

Now we just have lots of yard work to do! Had to put a photo in so here is my veggie garden and fruit trees we have planted. Just waiting for spring to come to plant vegetables but it is almost ready to go and spring is in the air. Mind you it was minus 4 this morning but it is now a lovely sunny day and behind glass it seems pretty warm. Bill brought a shredder a few weeks back and is always shredding stuff - there is another photo opportunity- I have to rack my brains to come up with photos for my blogg - I am not very creative!

My dwarf nectarine tree

Another exciting view of my veggie patch - just waiting for a delivery of Gunning Gold Sheep Poo to finish it off!

Racing this week was a time trial - 19.1 km - it took me 38mins and 10 seconds - an average of 30km and hour - I finished 4th in the womens category so I was pretty pleased with me time and pretty tired by the end of the day.

Amy was sick this week so I had to go and have a massage in her place - life is tough sometimes but a mother does have to make some sacrifices!

The Week that Was

I always feel I need to put a photo in my blog when I do a post, and I struggle each week to come up with a photo. I don't have cute little kids to take photos of any more, just scary teenagers who refuse to have photos taken, we don't go on adventures to playgrounds or zoos or parks anymore where there are photo opportunities galore. It is mainly driving in a car, dropping off somewhere and they don't make for good photos plus I never carry a camera so I apologise in advance!

My week to me was productive but not very photo inspiring. I did manage to get quite a few little jobs done, like finishing off getting the veggie patch done, painting a book case, putting back up pictures we had to take down for the rennovations - nothing inspiring for photo taking but it felt good crossing them of my list!

I had an extra afternoon off work, went to a play with Bill - Deathtrap - very good and a lot of fun. Raced in a criterium at Stromlo Forest Park and came third, gave my bike a clean, buried a dead chook, watered my fruit trees, managed to get my daughter to school for a whole week and rewarded her with a 30 minute massage. I figured the time to ask her to agree to something would be in the first 5 minutes after the massage when she seems to be in a very happy daze and would agree to anything. Maybe that is when I should ask her if we should go cycling around Paris!

Can't believe it is only just over 6 weeks till Amy and I leave for Europe. It looks like we should be adding Venice to our list of cities - Paris, London, Vienna, Venice to meet up with the school trip for a few nights. It also looks as though we are tagging along with Bindi and Simon to Switzerland. Hey that will make for some interesting photos for my blog!

A Big Mistake

Sometimes you realise you have made a big mistake, but it is far to late to do anything about it. Lachlan unpacked his lego this week - lego that has been stored out in the garage for a couple of years now! Why is that a mistake- it means he has enough room in his room to store it- why is that a mistake you may ask- well he is 18, he is tidying up his room and that means only one thing - he likes his new room and is feeling very comfortable there - and for me that means trouble. It means he may not be planning to leave any time soon- I can just see him staying there for the next 10 years and never leaving home!

Oh well - I will just have to put on my thinking cap and find some more subtle ways of making sure he does not get to intrenched down there. I will refuse to put in an intercom system so he doesn't need to come out to talk to us, I will not answer any emails he sends from his room, I will not put in the food delivery chute he keeps asking to have installed. I will not build on an ensuite or kitchenette - perhaps I will reconsider that one if he allows his grandma to move in and share his room! Perhaps the fact that I snuck in and took a photo of his room will make him mad enought to leave home in 10 years!

Back to School!!!!!!!!!

No photos this week, no exciting stuff to report - just back to school after 2 weeks of school holidays and about 2 weeks before that of not having to have a school routine! I found my feet dragging on Monday and found it hard to be motivated - it gave me a little insight in to how Amy must feel about school when you throw in the anxiety!

Have managed to get a bit of gardening in - or rather landscaping, mulching, digging up grass so we can put down mulch and setting up the vegetable garden area, it is more getting the structure in place so we will be ready to plant in spring when it warms up! I even rang up the ABC 666 Gardening Show last week to get advice on how and when to plant my new lawn - and Canberra being Canberra - about 4 or 5 people I knew heard my and recognised me!

Have managed to get some trip planning in as well, have now got accommodation booked for Paris and London, have booked transport from Paris to London, London to Vienna and Vienna to Frankfurt so we can fly home so it is slowly taking shape- probably a good thing as it is now less than 8 weeks till we go!

Had a bit of culture this week - attended a concert of the Griffyn Ensemble - Amy's oboe teacher plays in the ensemble and we got free tickets. I didn't really want to go out at night, and I must admit I have a bit of trouble just sitting still and listening - but I found I did enjoy it. It as not too long and the music was good, interesting and varied - so am feeling quite cultured!

More House Stuff - Amy's Room

Amy is now all settled in her room - she has pink hair to go along with her red velvet curtains and silver feature wall. She was promised a new double bed if she could keep her room tidy for 3 months. However I think I am pretty safe. It is now July and she has not managed to make 3 months yet!

School holidays are about to finish - Amy will not be able to sleep in till 12 any more, she will have to get off the computer and do some homework and oboe practice. However she will only have to do it for 8 weeks because then she and I head off to Europe to visit my brother and his family! We did our passports this week and the lady at the post office couldn't believe the passport photo of when she was 10 was the same person as the 15 year old photo I took in!

We had a fire party in our backyard this week - Amy and about 8 of her friends, they had a good time and consumed plenty of Turkish Pizza and Nutella - but not all at once I don't think.




I will try and sneak into Lachlan's room this week and get a photo - maybe while he is out at school, or maybe he will let me take a photo of him in his room- keep your fingers crossed!

I had my 2nd race at bike racing this week - ventured all the way out to Gunning - takes most of the day - left Lachlan and home in charge of the locksmith and landscaper! It was worth the drive out - I won F Grade - I was pretty happy - beat the blokes - I am getting crafty in my old age - mind you I had to work hard to beat the 70 year old - I wonder if I can still race when I am 70- it is a bit of a scary thought!