Ant's back... again.....

Ant's back for another Aussie visit...  this time he's brought his friend Koen out for the trip - so it's a more than usual rushed trip...  he and Koen have just got back from Heron Island - so Blake and I went out to the airport today to collect him from the Helicopter...

He's only in Rocky a couple of days this time, so I wont be visiting as he'll be trying to catch up with all of his family while he's there... so he came over to Mom and Dad's tonight for a BBQ and his parents came and collected him from our place later in the evening (they got held up - they were going to come to the BBQ too but were unable to make it in time)..

Ant

Koen

Gran

Greg (just incase you forgot... he's got a busy life - he doesn't usually make family BBQ's these days)

Dad (Always talking when I'm taking photos! heh)

Mom

Frank

The blobby with her Daddy

Playing Patty-cake...

Blake getting Raspberries from Gran

(he's giggling his little heart out while this is all happening - a very ticklish little puggle!)

Blake doing the rounds and socialising....

a tired little puggle... the eyebrows have gone red - and he's ready to get cranky... 

(overtired by this stage and refusing to sleep anywhere but HIS bed)

The toy of the week!

Well, Blake still likes his block/bead thingy toy... (one day someone will tell me what it's really called and I can refer to it correctly - but for now, it's a thingy!)

Blake loves it - he's worked out how to move the blocks around... and when he can keep them out of his mouth he looks at them to see if they'll move themselves...  

It's hard being a cat....

For those of you unfamiliar with our cats - this is BB (BoyBitz) - he's feeling a bit odd around here lately as there is another evil twin BB hanging around.. you can't tell them apart except that BB has more meat on him - but he's still a fairly lean cat - so it's not a HUGE difference....

The Verderator!

The fun about sleep time is that Jade generally decides she's going to spend the afternoon playing... hence she has NO toys in her bedroom (as you can probably tell from various pictures you see in her room - it's pretty empty).

She needs the day sleep - and although she can get through a few days without it if there are kids her age around to play with - but if she doesn't get the sleep - she eventually turns into a feral monster....

But, this time does always bring out her more creative side... she makes do with whatever she's managed to stow away in her room and she has her own little adventure....

Today she wasn't sleeping - I could hear her talking to herself and to her ponies... so I went in to remind her that she's supposed to be sleeping....

This is what I found:

Me - WHAT are you doing?

Jade - I'm in my verderator!

Me - you're in your what??

Jade - in.... my.... VER-DER-A-TOR!! (seemingly a bit annoyed that I didn't hear her the first time - she had to sound it out)

Me - your VER-DER-A-TOR? (making sure I'd heard correctly)

Jade - YES!

Me - and what is a verderator?

Jade - I'm waiting for the doors to close so that we can go up to Grandma's house!

Me - Ahhh... Elevator

Jade - YES!!! (ie. that's exactly what I said the first time - how did you not understand that???)

Unfortunately after she was playing for a bit longer - she obviously lent over in her "verderator" and it and she fell off the bed....

Daysleeps are never the same...

You can never guess where Jade will end up on her day sleep.... sometimes she's under the desk - sometimes she's in the wardrobe... mostly she's just on the floor....

This was yesterday....

(Dora Couch is up on top of her bed - never seen this before)

And Today...

I dont' think she planned on sleeping on the rocking chair - but I guess she got bored of just being quiet in her room and figured she may as well get some sleep, given that's what she was there to do....

(she's never done this either!)

When I went back in to check on her today she was down on the Dora couch with her pillow and blanket - which you can just make out in the bottom of the photo... so I guess the rocking chair got uncomfy after a while - I bet she had a sore neck....

Btw. the rocking chair belonged to my grandmother - and when I was Jade's age I used to sit in it to watch Sesame Street in the afternoon.

Rob's New Trumpy....

Today was the day for picking up Rob's new Triumph... it's a Sprint 1050 ST (I think I got that the right way around)..  we were going to pick it up first thing this morning - but we were running late with organising the kids (and organising Rob) - and we didn't get out of the house until just after 8am... and Jade had gymnastics at 9am... and we weren't going to miss that just to pick up a new motorcycle... it could wait!

As soon as gymnastics was over, we were off....

and here it is.... it's still missing the topbox - but that can wait til next week... we wanted to get out and get riding...

and he got new boots!

Rob's got his plate off the storm - and put onto his bike....

I got a new plate for my bike :)

(The number plate still has to be sorted - Dad's building a new bracket to hold it so that we don't have to drill holes into the plate like we did with the WOB plate)

and here are all of our bikes ready to go for the ride... 

(and now you can all see why I'm not overly happy with the new colour for my bike... it's not the nice dark purple anymore... it's more of a red pink colour...  I'll get used to it one day - or have it resprayed - by someone else!)

and the front view....

From Left to Right

Frank (TRX 850), Tharyn (VTR1000F), Rob (Sprint 1050), Dad (R1100RS)

We rode out to Biloela - which is only a 120km ride... Mom and Gran came out in the Prado with the kids - and we met up and had lunch and headed back to Gladstone (via the Coal Road)... I think if I get to go on the coal road a few more times I'll be more comfortable with it - you just never know if there's traffic going to come in the other direction and the road doesn't have middle lines - and people aren't always on their side..  a bit scary for me!

End conclusion - Rob loves his new bike, I've definitely missed riding mine but I had a sore butt by the time we got home... Frank's now looking at buying a Trumpy - and I think that if Rob were to give Dad his Trumpy - Dad would be happy too :)  (not that Dad doesn't like his BMW)...

Anyway, hoping for a decent night's sleep tonight... Blake's had a week of bad nights - but we believe this is due to needles - so hopefully he'll be over it soon.... but I'm going to head to bed now (8pm - how sad is that???)

They just grow up so quickly.....

Yesterday I went to look at some items that a local lady had up ready for a garage sale..  Frank needed a new couch - and she'd listed that she had a lounge suite - so we got in there early (also the time she was planning to have people come over wasn't a good time for the kids....

The lounge was great - so Frank now had that in his unit... but while Mom was talking to Frank about whether he wanted it I went to look at what else she had for sale and managed to pick up a new pair of Dorothy shoes for Jade (they fit and she loves them) - they'd never been worn and still had all the tags on them... so that was a bargain...  also managed to pick up another Jigsaw puzzle for Jade for $2 and it had never been done and the box wasn't even opened....  (this has been her latest thing... it's all about doing jigsaws again)

Anyway, I also managed to pick up this block thing - I don't know how to describe them.. but you'll see in the pictures.... This was for Blake.. and he loves it...

Even the feet can play this game!!!

I took the new jigsaw to Mom and Dad's place for Jade to play there (so that they had more than 1 ready for when she is over visiting)...   and when we got home we opened a new puzzle (as she's getting a bit bored with the Thomas and the Cars ones as she can pretty much do them blindfolded....

She used to want people to talk her through how to put the jigsaw together, now if you try to help you get told that she doesn't need help - she can do it by herself! (and she can)

She's really good at putting things together....

Blake decided that chewing on it was acceptable...

Blake then realised that you can move the blocks around...  and sat there for quite a while moving the dice block up and dropping it to watch it fall - then moving it up again - and letting it go...

He was quite impressed with himself...

and the jigsaw is complete... (all in 7mins (according to photo times) - with no assistance at all - I was too busy taking photos!)

Then it was bathtime for Blake...

I pulled out a tie-dyed singlet that Vi had made for Jade (but by the time she sent it - Jade was about 9 months - and out of size O already....  it only just fits Blake now - I think it's a small O)

Bad Clients!!!

I have to post just to let you all know that our Anniversary was spoilt by inconsiderate clients.... 

Rob had an emergency call Thursday morning to say that their CardXpress machine wasn't working... unfortunately for this particular site - if they don't have that machine - they don't sell fuel... so this is very traumatic...  especially around cotton picking time - with trucks galore passing through the town...

So Rob packed up his van and headed off to St George Thursday morning... he did manage to get home last night in time to get Jade off to bed - so that was good at least I guess...

New Monitors!!!

My new monitors arrived today... 23" Widescreen... x 2...

Rob needed new monitors downstairs as his 19" has been gradually kicking the bucket...  ie. a huge black patch in the middle of the screen....  and his 17" is REALLY old....  and he wanted "non" widescreen monitors... so we went looking - and the best value we found were actually 23" monitors...  these are HUGE...  I need a bigger desk now...

The monitors don't look so big next to my tower... but the tower is one of those "super soft - make no noise" towers... so it's a fair amount bigger than a standard tower... but believe me... my room is nearly lit up with both monitors going...

(best thing about new monitors is that I've had to tidy off my desk!!!)

Happy Anniversary #4

Four years ago today, we were married already!

We had an early morning ceremony and reception was over lunch.  It was a fantastic day and went way too quickly.  The good thing was that at the end of the reception - we all got changed and headed back to Mom and Dad's place and spent the evening having a nice relaxed gathering taking up their entire verandah (and some of the house).

Some photos for those who weren't there:

Frank and Rob ready to head to Camelot

Vi and I

Mom and I

Dad and I

Frank and Rob

Frank and Vi (our complete Bridal Party)

with my family

with Rob's family (unfortunately Rob's sister wasn't able to attend)

The Cake...

I loved our wedding cake

(Traditional - but with the Teddy Bears on top - I had to get my Teddie theme)

And, the "going away outfits" ehehe...  I enjoyed going upstairs at the end of the reception - getting out of the dress and back into shorts!!!  (some things about me will never change!)

And in true Rob and my style - we headed to World Superbikes for our honeymoon.... :)  (it was Rob's first ever Phillip Island experience - and he had to work for most of the week while we were there - but we still had a great time)..

Greg's Rugby Day....

Greg had his Senior School football comp today... this was to select a team to play for Capricorn (I believe) - this would have then gone to state titles - etc....

Anyway, he seemed to have a good day.... although he's irritated his knee injury again...  but he seems quite happy to strap it and keep going....

Greg is on the bottom of the pile up.....

Unfortunately he wasn't selected... actually all of the kids that were picked for all of the teams seemed to have come from Mackay or this other college...  none of the Gladstone or Rocky guys really seemed to get a look in... one Biloela guy was picked - but that was all....  

I wasn't paying too much attention to all of the nitty gritty details - Blake was hot and a bit grumpy - but the nice breeze there - and the fresh air did him the world of good - he was just too grumpy at the time to notice it....  poor little guy!  he tried to sleep on the way home - but we picked up Jade and she managed to keep him awake....  here's hoping he sleeps tonight!