I'm on holiday!

Last day of work today until the 15th of January.

Very excited about going home for Christmas.

ROAD TRIP.

Christmas 10 years ago.

This is a cool thread going on Blue Bazaar....

1996:
23 years old
Living with my sister in a rented house probably at Box Hill at that stage
Newly single - had broken up with my high school sweetheart -finally
Worked in a microbiology lab
Bought my dream car - a Mazda 121 green bubble.
Christmas was probably spent at Mum & Dad's with the Malizia's from next door
Then we would have gone to Eildon for a holiday if I wasn't working.

2006:
Living with Jamie and Mark in Newie
Have our own home in another state to where both our parents come from.
Now I'm a nurse
Had to sell the bubble car
Now drive a 4WD or the Blue Machine (Commodore).
This year we are going on our ROADTRIP - packing up the 4WD with the kid and 2 dogs and heading to Nathalia! Should be good.

Anyone who knows me - fill me in if I have forgotten stuff - PLEASE

Weekend Catchup

No photos.

• Finished all of the Christmas shopping (except for Uncle Mark) therefore not all of it.

• We got a new watering system to replace our "we don't water our garden" system. Groovy pop up sprinklers with a timer and a rain guage so that it won't water when its been raining. Jamie is very chuffed with himself about the whole thing.

• Cooked a really healthy dinner last night, roast chicken, roast taties and some FRESH vegies, my tastebuds didn't quite understand what was going on as I have only cooked frozen veg for so long.

• Scrubbed (on my hands and knees) the bathroom floor and am attempting to tidy the scrap room.

• I have been commissioned to do a scrap book for a friend. Its a first for me. I've been given a stack of polaroids and need to CREATE something with it. She does not want journalling, just nice patterned paper and good structure (Hmmm I think I can do that)

Starting Again.

No I'm not starting a new blog....
I'm starting FLYLADY again. Hopeless, why do I get myself in this housework dilemma. My house becomes so chaotic and messy that the only result is more mess! I would like a cleaner, but wanting a baby comes into play a bit there as well.... better save for the future so I can have a decent amount of maternity leave, and do the cleaning myself. YUCK.
The entrance hall and lounge room are BEAUTIFUL (especiallly when Jamie comes home and fixes the computer corner of the lounge room - but I'm looking beyond that at the moment)

Oh another trend in the blogging world is asking - WHO READS THIS??
If you read my blog on a regular or semiregular basis can you please - pretty please - leave me a comment, I'd love to know who you are - or worse still who you aren't! What is no one reads it other than mum????

Shopping.

I'm copying the Write Girl and showing you my shopping experience. Got Mark a couple of new tshirts, which suit his personality. I think they are very cool, the first one says "DON'T BLAME ME - blame my parents" and the second one is "DON'T GET CAUGHT". He feels quite spiffy in them, it was a good day even thought is was a pain in the a** for a lot of the time. He always wants "just one thing and then I'll be happy" I get the one thing, and then its one more thing and then another. Today I ended up saying to him, ok get absolutely anything you want in the shop, whatever will make you happy. He ended up realising what I was talking about and didn't ask for anything (another big TICK for reverse psychology) .

Jamie played cricket and lost :(

There was then supposed to be a big bash - sausages and beer - for all of the Tech College teams. Only Jamie's team and about 2 others turned up. A big fizzer.

I should be shot.

I have let myself down as a mother and as a scrapbooker.

Mark had a celebration day at school, lots of awards and songs and speeches.

I ask you - where was my camera? At home, on the coffee table. Can I take nice pics of the ceremony when its at home. :( Alas no photos of the big event - long and boring and it was only an hour long. Man it was boring, the music wouldn't play on time and it was much too loud so couldn't hear the littlies sing. The bigger kids have louder voices and their songs were quite good. I'll remember next year!

Havin' a ball.

I'm currently on Day Three of Kim Archer's Christmas Classes. Its a 5 day online class of ideas and nice "stuff".
She has got me sewing, which is just wrong. Make a gorgeous little felt book. Half made a layout. BUT my printer is only doing green tinged stuff at the moment, so I can't print out any photos to go along with it, which I'm a bit upset about.
Today is altering a chest of drawers. I know Mark will NEED one, I'm making one for myself for all of my vast amounts of jewellery- not!

Work is going really good.
Sleep is going very good.
Mark is behaving.
Jamie's wound is better.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Tree is up.

House is a bit neater.

Made my chocolate hedgehog.

Christmas parties are starting.

I love it.

A Day at the Races

The Newcastle Trotting Club put on a day for Firemen and Nurses.

I believe there might have been two firemen and about 90 nurses.

My ward had a table of 12 - we didn't win any money but had a lot of fun.

The photos is of the group of us with the winning horse from "our race" I'm stuck behind the girl in the yellow dress.

The other photo is me (in the black and white) with Karina (in the blue), Lauren (in the yellow) and Amy (in aqua). They are gorgeous girls that is for sure.

Protest

We had a big year last year. Very big. Very big indeed. (ok must stop channeling Richard Hargreaves, the man who writes the Mr Men books).
** The following is my own comment. This is Christy's own blog**
Jamie went on strike for better conditions at work. 35 blokes, the terrific AWU and a very stubborn Boeing. It took 10 months of life on the picket line, disruption no end, no pay (other than gratefully donated money and food), no time away, didn't even get home for Christmas. Earlier this year - February - we thought we had it won. The Federal Court ruled in our favour, the boys agreed to go back to work.... two days later the elation past and the decision was overturned. WE LOST. It was devestating. Only a month or two ago Boeing had the secret ballot that we were asking from DAY ONE about to ask all of its Australian workforce if they wanted a COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT or INDIVIDUALLY NEGOTIATED CONTRACTS. Surprisingly enough the Collective Agreement won with a 96% majority. So all of those workers who stayed inside, the scabs that came down from Amberley they actually agreed with us.

Anyway this all happened a long time ago, why am I bringing it up now. Yesterday was the National Day of Action. Mark and I joined with about 10,000 Novacastrians at Energy Australia Stadium to listen to the Sky Channel Broadcast from the MCG.
The catchcry of the day was 'YOUR RIGHTS AT WORK, WORTH FIGHTING FOR." Followed closely by 'YOUR RIGHTS AT WORK, WORTH VOTING FOR".

Something to think about people.