Birthdays and More flood waters.

My wonderful husband celebrated his birthday yesterday. Unlike last year, this birthday was pretty quiet and low key this year as Steve hurt his back whilst raising his bee hives on Sunday afternoon. After spending days studying flood predicted height, and driving all around the neighbourhood looking at previous flood heights he made the decision to raise his bee hives rather than move them. Moving them required a lot of work as he would only have to move them back once the flood went down. The hives were very heay, and he slipped and twisted on the last hive and felt his lower back go which meant his was armchair bound for the rest of the night, and a good part of yesterday as well.

I felt a bit bad cause we didn't even have a present to give him on the day, as we decided to take back the camera I got for Christmas and upgrade to a Digital SLR. We have been extremely happy with the Fuji Finepix s5000 that Steve got 4 years ago and thought we would upgrade to the S5800. What a disappointment. The images were no were near as clear and the colour no where near as good, so we kind of figured that we would splash out and get a Digital SLR and we would share it, half for me for Christmas and the other half for Steve for his Birthday. Have been kind of undecided which way to go. We have the choice of the Canon ESO 400D or the Nikon D40X. I'm was leaning towards the Canon, but Steve is definately leaning towards the Nikon. We have read so many reviews and been into the shop a few times now to play with both. Whilst all the reports say the Canon is value for money, the lens do not get a good review, and even people I know with the camera have said they have upgraded their lens. On the other hand, the Nikon gets excellent lense reviews and the quality of the lens are of a much higher quality. We have also discovered that all the filters that Steve has from his Pentax SLR will fit the Nikon where they won't fit the Canon, so I have a feeling we might end up with the Nikon. There are excellent features on both cameras, but when it all boils down it is the lense quality that makes the difference when taking the photo. Mind you both cameras will take a much better photo than the camera we have now. Getting excited and can't wait to get it and have a play which we will probably be this weekend.

The flood waters are rising in Rockhampton, but still not expected to peak until late tomorrow night or early Thursday morning. They are rising rather slowly with the river only rising half a metre today. I have lots of photos to share mostly for my records. This first lot of photos were mostly taken on Monday 28th January 2008 at the Ski Gardens and along

sir Raymond Huish Drive. Yesterday we went for a couple of drives to see how far the river had risen. We thought it important to show Chloe as the last flood we saw in Rocky was actually 5 months before she was born. In the ten years before that we had probably seen 4-5 floods. Chloe and her friend Amy were pretty bored after our third stop for photos. Mind you they brighten up when we came accross this amazing kids playground which has just been built and opened just before Christmas. Of course they are still big kids and had to try out a lot of the equipment. Wish I had known about it last week when Nat and Nathan were in with the kids. They would have loved it.
This next lot of photos were taken at the Barrage in North Rockhampton. I think we met up with half the population of Rockhampton there, as it seemed as if everyone was there to take photos. It was amazing to see the water just rushing through. We also saw large sections of ground with grass floating down the river. One large section also looked like it was a floating island.

We came home about lunch time as Steve's back was really hurting so that he could have a bit of a rest, and then went down to the boardwalk on the river bank in Quay Street about 5.30pm, and we were amazed at the number of people just walking along the footpath. I have never seen so many people down there before, all just strolling along, taking photos. These floods have definately caused people to get out and get a bit of exercise. These next couple of groups of photos are taken in Quay Street. The first lot were taken on Monday 28th January, and the next lot were taken today Tuesday 29th. You can see quite some difference from one day to the next. Mind you the river had only risen half a metre in the 24 hour period.

Yesterday we also found this back road around Rocky that had some amazing green fields, and the the view of the sunset was just perfect. We took lots of photos. Today when we went to go back and watch the sun set again, the road was closed and the waters covered the plains and a good section of the road. It is hard to beleive that so much water could cover these fields when the river has only risen a half a metre since yesterday. It will be interesting to have a look again tomorrow night. Couldn't see any houses affected yet today.

The kids all arrived back at school today. I got to do lunch duty in the Year 1 area - some of these littles looked so lost. I had a good day - for the moment I am working in the library (I'm hoping that this might turn into something permanent). I spent the morning in classrooms, and the rest of the day preparing all the laptop computers so they could be borrowed out again this year. So quiet and peaceful, so different to where I have worked the last few years. My friend Jan has taken 6 months leave without pay and I must admit, work is not the same without her. I miss her wonderful caring nature and her amazing sense of humour - she always managed to brighten each day, with a good laugh. We have worked together for over 10 years and it truely is not the same without her.

Haven't managed to get any more scrapbooking done. Probably won't either until the weekend. We have definately had a full house this past couple of weeks, with people staying and just dropping in for a cuppa, but I did receive some good news this week, my ironing lady is coming back. I am so excited, her presence at our place is much appreciated and just helps to take the pressure off on weekends when I usually have to do most of the household chores.

Going to finish off with a couple of my favourite photos taken over the last couple of days.

Floods, Parties and a bit of Scrapbooking.

It sure has been a busy week here. Thought I should warn you that this is a long post and I have lots of photos to share this week. Our house is still full of visitors as the roads home to Emerald are still flooded. As if the floods aren't devastating enough, it is even sadder that both my sister and her husbands and Nat and Nathan's houses have been broken into during these floods. Fortunately for John and Jude, their house was not trashed and the only things that appear to be missing is Jude's cooking alchocol, Nat and Nathan, are not sure yet as they have been unable to get home to check. This is making them a little anxious to get home though to check on their house. My friend Karen has sent in photos of their place too. The TV crews were at their house this week, and they were interviewed and shown on the news. She is so thankful though because in comparison to some of their friends, their damage isn't too bad. One of Karen's friends house is up to the eaves in floodwater. Have a photo of Karen's place that we took 12 months ago, the contrast is unbeleiveable. The first photo was taken when we visited Karen and Pete this time last year, the second photos is the view from their Kitchen window at the moment, the third is of Karen's kids sitting on the kitchen benches in their kitchen. The fourth photo is taken at the side of their house looking towards the back steps and into their kitchen. The last photo was taken in their lounge. The big cleanup has already started for them, and as soon as the roads are opened, Karen's parents will be delivering their caravan for Pete and Karen to live in in their shed until the house is fixed and ready for them to move into. Although lots of houses have been looted in Emerald, there are some really great things happening too as neighbour pitch in to help and as Jude and John got back to their house to clean out all the silt and mud, a crew from their church dropped by to help them with the enormous task of cleaning. They were so grateful and it just let them know that people do really care.
Rocky is now bracing themselves to be flooded early next week. We are in a bit of a dilemma as we have 7 bee hives sitting on a property at Port Curtis. Do we shift them or not. If the river only rises up to 8mts we could leave them there, as it wouldn't matter too much if there was a foot of water at the bottom of the stands. If the river rises to over 8mts, we need to shift them. It is a huge task as they are all full and very heavy. We need to make the decision later today.

I have managed to do a couple of layouts this week which I will share. Still trying to catch up on all the photos I have at home here waiting to be scrapbooked. Took a heap more photos over Christmas and happened even managed to get them printed yet. The first layout is just photos of the kids in the pook with their cousin and dad taken on my birthday weekend. It really was the best birthday and the most wonderful surprise. The second layout is about a really dear friend of mine whose friendship I treasure. They have been a huge encourgement to us over the years, and their guiding help has helped us in raising our own kids. They honestly aren't perfect but have a real heart for God, and have done an amazing job raising their own kids, whom we are all still close too. It was their daughters wedding we attended in December.
Finally it has been a week of birthdays with more yet to come. Chloe's friend Amy celebrated her 16th birthday this week with a fluro party. If the photos are anything to go by, they had a ton of fun.
Last night we all went outto Hogsbreath Restaurant for dinner with my neice and her family as she celebrated her 25th Birthday yesterday, so have lots of photos to share of them. We came home and had a birthday cake with the children. It was great to see how excited they got to celebrate it with Nat. Chloe spent some time helping them make birthday cards for their mum yesterday afternoon, and it was really precious to see how excited they were at making something special for their Mum. They were really excited cause they knew their mum would love them. So cute. It has been great having her and her family stay this week. She really is an awesome lady, so positive, and just has a wonderful zest for life. She is a great Mum to her four kids and I just love having her and her family around. There is not too many 25 years olds who cold manage 4 children ranging in age from 9 months to 5 years, and still manage to give them plenty of time. I love watching the way she interacts with them, and how she is a real example to them of the love of God. Chloe also took a photo of Steve and I at dinner, and this is one I snapped of Chloe that I particularly liked.

On Monday it is Steve's birthday and then a couple of days later, Chloe's friend Luke celebrates his birthday, so there is a little more partying to go yet.
I went back to work this week. It is hard to beleive the holidays are over. I start in the library this year, but I am not sure for how long. The girl I am replacing took on a new job but it had a three month probation period, so she only took three months leave, I have heard on the grapevine that she may be back - really praying hard that she gets a permanent full time job, cause, I know that she really needs the hours, where school is not offering as many. I also have really enjoyed my couple of days in the library, and I would love to stay here. Just feel I need the break.
Yesterday we had a PD day, and spent the day with Sue Larkey who is an expert on Autism. She is probably one of the best speakers I have heard and very motivating. She actually spoke to the whole staff which was excellent as we have a lot of ASD children in our shcool. In fact if you have an interest in Autism and ever get the chance to go hear Sue speak, I highly recommend it.

Well I need to go do some birthday shopping and also some school shopping. Thought I would leave you with a quote today.

Happiness is not in our circumstances but in ourselves.
It is not something to see like a rainbow or to feel like the heat of a fire.
Happiness is something we are.
- Harry Wahl.

Thought this was worth thinking about this week.

Praying for a miracle for those affected by the floods in Emerald

This has been quite an emotional week for us this week, as my sister and her families, and my close friend Karen have all been battling floods in Emerald. It has been touch and go for them now for almost 4 days, and the river still continues to rise. This morning water entered both of their houses and has continued to rise throughout the day so that now there is something like a foot of water or more throughout their homes. My heart feels for them so much tonight – not only because of the cleanup but the cost of repairs, the time spent living elsewhere whilst all this happens, the interruptions to their lives – how do you recover from something like this financially. I am thankful though that they are all OK – no one is hurt, this truly is the blessing and miracle. The first photo is taken just a couple of streets over from where my sister lives, and the second photo was taken just as the water was about to cut off the main bridge into Emerald. Anyone that has ever been to Emerald would realize just how high this bridge is above the river, and these photos were taken a over 24 hours ago, and the water is now a lot higher again. My friend Karen was going to email me some photos of their place, she had hoped to do it tonight but might have to wait for them. My niece and her husband were evacuated from their home on Sunday and made the decision to come in and stay with us with their four kids and are staying with us until the waters recede and they can get home. They have 4 children from 9 months – to 5 years of age and thought it was much safer to be in here rather than staying in make shift accommodation with the kids and also trying to keep an eye on them with so much water laying around. We are really enjoying having them here – I only wish that the circumstances of their visit were not as they are.

Other than that, I have spent the past week spring Cleaning. The girls at Scrap of Faith have been on a cleaning frenzy this last couple of weeks, and this has really inspired me to get in and clean my office. It is one of those jobs I have been putting off for ages cause I knew it was going to take a good week to do and it did. I threw out 8 bins of paper. I know it would take ages, cause a lot of the paper here had to be shredded or torn up as it related to my work with Uni. Anyway I am happy to report that although it pretty much took me a week to do, it is now all done. I have to also admit that my niece is also motivating me to get more decluttering jobs done. I am married to a hoarder and she is sure letting him know that it needs to be turfed and if he is not going to do it, he needs to turn his back whilst she gets rid of it. So much harder for him to say no to her.

It has been a couple of months since I have really scrapbooked, and although I really haven’t had much of a chance to do any lately, I did finish off a CJ for the round I am in with Scrap of Faith, and after sitting and shredding paper all day the other day, I thought I deserved a break, so sat down and managed to do this one layout.

Well I only have one more day of holidays left and then I am back to work.
Wouldn’t you know it , the sun has come out this week. Up until yesterday, we have had only three sunny days since I started holidays in the middle of December. Not sure what this year holds. I was to transfer into the library this year, but have heard on the grapevine that the girl I am replacing is looking at coming back. I am still praying that she finds full time work elsewhere, as I know she would rather work a 40 hour a week than the 25-27 hours she gets at school.

Finally I want to give a HUGE thankyou to Gayle Smith, who not only helped me repair the damage I had done to my blog, but who has since done a new banner for me so that I could revamp my blog. Have loved all the chatting we have managed to do this week, and have really appreciated all the new things you have been teaching me this week. Think I will be eternally grateful to you for rescuing my blog to start with.

Things I am grateful for this week. There are many.
1. For all the rain that we have had in Queensland this past month. Our state so badly needed it. – although I also feel sad at the same time when I see how many people are going through a hard time because of all this life giving rain.
2. For my lovely niece and the way she encourages and inspires me in her everyday life. Love watching her interact with her kids, and love how she is always such a positive and encouraging person and has a real love for God.
3. For the girls from Scrap of Faith who have been so encouraging and supportive of each other, especially in motivating me to get some spring cleaning done since I arrived home.
4. For our own home that I can spring clean.
5. For a wonderful church family who welcomed us home and were pleased to see us again.
6. For all our wonderful friends who have just dropped in to visit for a cuppa this week and let us know that we are loved and cared for.

Back Home Again

It is hard to beleive that we were away for a month now that we are back home again. It is so good to be home though - there is definately no place like home.

Firstly though I want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to my friend Gayle Smith who helped untangle the mess I got this blog into at the end of last week when I thought that I would update it and change it - well I lost my template and all the favourite sites I like to visit etc, and then that made me quite fearful of loosing the lot so it all just sat in limbo until last night when Gayle kindly offered to fix it all up for me. I am forever indebted you to Gayle. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The last week of holidays was definately eventful, although we did manage to have one day of Sunshine. Sarah came up on Tuesday and spent the day with us, it was also the last day that my neice Hannah was with us, so we all went bowling for the morning. Lots and lots of fun, have lots of classic photos of the morning. I am afraid that neither Hannah or I are crash hot bowlers, and there definately was competition between Sarah and her Dad, although he beat her both games. Still we did have heaps of fun together. We also got to take in a couple of movies, "I am Legend" (definately not my kind of movie, spent most of it with my head buried in Steve's shoulder) and then in the evening he kindly came with me to see " PS. I love You" which was more my kind of movie. Steve and Sarah hit the surf for a swim that afternoon also. First time any of us had set foot on the beach our whole holiday on the coast.

Wednesday was a pretty quiet day - mainly just packing up to head home. Thursday we woke early as we needed to be gone by 7.30am to get to Hervey Bay in time to pick up Chloe. It was wet the whole way and the last half hour it just bucketed down. Chloe had a great week, met heaps of great kids and was VERY tired - I am sure she had some very late nights.

We stayed with friends at Hervey Bay for a couple of days. It mostly rained whilst we were there, but it did not stop us going for a few walks, a drive and picnic in the rain, and the kids all hired a 6 person bike and peddles up the esplanade.

Friday night we went out for dinner (Chinese) and whilst the food was lovely, around midnight, I had a real reaction and found my heart started racing, and I got carted off to hospital where I spent the 4-5 hours whilst they waited for it to go back to normal. They seem to think it was a reaction to the MSG which was probably in the food, as nothing like this has ever happened before. Also my blood pressure was pretty good, and everything else was fine. Just really strange and i hope it doesn't happened again in a hurry either. We were pretty exhausted as it is very difficult to sleep whilst laying on a trolley, with all these wired contected to you and your blood pressure being monitored every half hour to an hour, so at 4.05am when they told me it was all back to normal and I could go home I was pretty releived and just ready to crawl into bed and sleep.

Saturday we headed back to Bundy and spent a night with Steve's folks and got to catch up with his brother and sister in law and see the new house they are building.

We arrived home Sunday night late, and I am still in the process of finishing off the unpacking. I have been really motivated by the girls at Scrap of Faith who have been madly spring cleaning these last few weeks, so this week there are plans afoot here to get in and give our office a good clean out. We are paper here galore that really needs to be turfed. Looking forward to getting in and getting it sorted to start the new year.

Hopefully I will get back into scrapbooking again in the next week - lots of photos from the holidays to attach, plus heaps that are already here waiting to be scrapped.

Weekend away together

I'm feeling a little nostalgic today. Looking back at some photos of when we first got together,(we were highschool sweethearts) our wedding and now today. We have spent more of our lives together now than with anyone else, and this man really lives up to his T.Shirt and is my Mr. Perfect. I am so thankful and so blessed to have been married to this wonderful man and everyday I thank the Lord for HIM. I pray that we have many more happy years together. Just for my record, some photos from the past.

Steve and I had the weekend away to celebrate our 28th Wedding Anniversary. We had a wonderful time together, just chatting, relaxing, sat on the grassy shore and beach of the ocean and watched the sun set, out to dinner, and just exploring the country side.

Chloe is spending this week on a camp at Hervey Bay, so we drove her up there on Saturday and delivered her and then booked ourselves into a lovely Motel right accross the road from the beach. We had a relax, did a bit of reading, and then went for a drive up to Point Vernon where we sat and watched the sun set. It was just a beautiful sunset and a beautiful moment together.

We ended up going out to the Pier Restaurant for dinner and I have to say the night was just perfect. The restaurant was excellent, service fantasic, food was just delicious, (of course we had prawns and scallops in wine and garlic sauce, with vegetables) and the deserts were out of this world. They had a guy singing and playing keyboard. He was REALLY good and just happened to be singing a lot of the songs from back in the 70's and 80's. Very nostalgic as that was really our era and we sat for quite a while afterwards just enjoying the music. We went for a lovely walk along the boardwalk at Urangan, and then went for a drive to see the Bay at night before heading home to our Motel. Just had a lovely time chatting together, a sleep in the next morning, and then when we booked out we for a walk down to the beach and then went for a drive down to the Pier and went for a walk along the Pier.

Had a nice lunch together, and then headed off to explore all the beaches between Hervey Bay and Burrum Heads before heading back to the Sunshine Coast. It is probably over 40 years since I had visited some of these spots, and there is some beautiful spots along the rivers and beaches where we reckon we could easily retire. (Steve is a mad keen fisherman, so I guess really we have no option but to retire near water)

On our way home we dropped into Coolum to visit my sister, her husband and children, and ended up having dinner with them. It was great to catch up with them, as we don't get to see them that often. Their kids are all growing up so quickly, but are really great kids. We finally got home about 9.45pm last night. Today we are just relaxing - very quite today as we are the only ones left here. My other sister and her family have all headed back to Emerald. Three more days until our holiday on the Sunshine Coast is over. These holidays are going way too quickly. You look forward to them for such a long time and then they come and then they are gone. I am very thankful though that Steve and I both have school holidays off each year. We are definately blessed.

Happy Birthday Mum

I want to wish my Mum a very Happy Birthday today. What a blessing she has been in the lives of our family. She has also been there for us, unselfishly giving of her time to cart us here there and everywhere when we were growing up, always there for us to chat too and direct us in our very formative teenage years. She was a wonderful example to us of God’s love and always encouraged us in our walk with God. She was my best friend growing up and is still someone I can sit and chat to about anything. I love her to bits, and I thank God daily that he allowed her to be my MUM – I couldn’t have asked for a better one.

Mum was fortunate this year to have us all on the coast to celebrate her birthday. We all went to Sizzlers for lunch. Not only was it great to celebrate Mum’s birthday with her, it was good for the cousins to all catch up and spend some time together also. Thought I would share some family shots. I have very few photos of my sisters and I together, and even fewer with us with our parents so it was nice to take a few shots today. Also managed to get a few shots of the three generations, with my girls and I with mum also.
We have spent also a week on the Sunshine Coast now and haven’t even got to the beach once, It has rained everyday we have been here and the beach has been closed for most of the time, due to the strong winds, and rough surf. We have spent a good deal of time out and about as my sister and her family are also staying here in a Caravan. Steve has set up the X-Box in the shed down the back (it is massive) and most nights entertains the kids down there with games and movies.

Sarah and Colin have also been holidaying down on the coast here with Colin’s family and we spent New Years Eve with them all and had a wonderful time. It is also a blessing that our families get along so well. Our son Pete shares a house with Colin’s brother, so both families getting together is a bit like a family reunion.

I am also feeling very thankful to the Lord for his protection over us as we travelled to the Sunshine Coast, as we had a back tyre blow on our trip here. The tyre blew and it sounded like a bomb going off. Steve had asked our mechanic in Rocky to rotate the tyres before we left, but he told us that he had not rotated that tyre as he didn’t feel that it should go on the front. There still appeared to be plenty of tread on it, so we were a little surprised that he left it. I am sure the car travelling along the motorway next to us would have got a heck of a fright as it certainly gave us one, It was so loud, and then the noise of the rim on the bitumen was loud also. I took quite a few photos of the blown tyre and of Steve and Chloe changing it ( Chloe was having a practical lesson in changing a car tyre) but unfortunately my memory card corrupted and I lost everyphoto I had on my card. I was pretty disappointed as I had also taken some great photos of Pete's place to show friends at home whose son also lives with Pete, and for once the house was really clean (not sure when we will see it that clean again) so unfortunately I cannot share these photos. (edited: - found a couple of photos that Chloe took but these don't really show the damage - still good to have a couple of photos for my reference)

This weekend we celebrate our 28^th wedding Anniversary, and we are off to take Chloe to Hervey Bay so that she can go on a camp with a group of her friends from Rocky. We have decided to find a motel or resort there to spend the night, and make a weekend of it to celebrate. Another blessing in my life – how blessed have I been to have the most wonderful husband who I love more today than I did on the day I married him. He has been a wonderful loving, encouraging and supportive husband, who has not only been there for me, but been a wonderful and very hands on dad to our children, and all of us love him to bits.

Want to also wish everyone a very Happy New Year also, may your year be full of love, joy and peace.

There are so many things I am thankful for each and every day, and these are just a few of the things that I am really thankful for today.

1. My wonderful parents, especially my Mum who celebrated her birthday today.

2.My sisters and their families and that we were all able to share this day together with my mum.

3. Also have the afternoon with my wonderful husband and wonderful girls.

4. Having a girls night out tonight with my girls, sister and her girls.

5. The sound and smell of the rain as it beats down on the roof of the house as I type this. That it is falling on the earth and refreshing it. (Don't often get to hear it at home so am really enjoying it even though I am on holidays)