Sad News but a Great Week.

Well a little over a week ago we got the phone conference call which although not surprising, shocked us all as our new division Director announced to us that he was proposing to make our RLO positons redundant. I personally had expected this sort of news a few years ago when our job positions changed somewhat, but this last 12 months felt pretty certain that our positions were pretty safe as we had won the prestigous "Carrick Award" and student support at the Uni was being modelled on our delivery of support. Lots of things were put in place for us to support students in the next 12 months including a name change of our job descriptions so you can image the shock when we were all summons to a phone conference three days before we were due on campus for our annual seminar to be given this news.

It was with some numbness, disbelief, and sadness that we all packed our bags ready to leave and spend our week on campus. Hard to beleive because we were also celebrating 30 years of the Network, and most of us have held our positions for a long time. A couple of the girls had been RLO's for 25 years, others for 20 years, I have been one for 15 years, and the two youngest serving RLO's have held their posiions for 6 and 3 years respectively. This is a job we all love and between us we had something like 200 years of experience. We are actually an RLO family. Our boss Suzanne had organised in fact two Birthday cakes for us this week.

We are a unique bunch of happy vibrant, bubbly woman who love helping and serving people, and when we got together on Sunday night decided that the week would not be a sad one, but a celebration of the good times, and friendships that we had made, and we had a ball. Lots of laughter, in fact, side spitting laughter, we wrote songs about our redundancy and sang them at the special dinner held in our honor - we arrived on Monday with party hats and balloons and streamers, which really did make life a lot easier for the staff members on campus who were hurting for us. The Uni has been a fanastic place to work - they have always treated us well - guess this was why the announcement was so much of a shock, but we have an amazing boss, some great students and we will continue to support our students well until we are no longer needed. We had lots of fun at our dinner, Beryl from Cairns had organised a fun night with party games, hat decorating competitions which were all accompanied by side splitting laughter. Thought I would share some of the photos of this fun night with you.

We have had an amazing boss who although firm, and fair, has supported us every inch of the way during our time as RLO's. Everyone of her staff members have thrived under her leadership and direction. This week is not the last week that we will be on campus. The Uni plans to bring us and our spouses all back to Toowoomba for a weekend to catch up again and have a celebration dinner some time next year. Something for us all to look forward too.

Although we met with all the Faculties and had some pretty full on sessions, there was also a mix of team building, and fun times built into our weeks program. Some of our "Carrick" prize money was spent on getting Dr. Phil Jauncey - a keynote speaker and corporate trainer in management, performance psychology, communication, marketing, education and sports psychology to address us. His address was very motivational and quite applicable to our current situation. He was also entertaining. Besides the RLO dinner on Wednesday evening, we also spent a morning at the"Jondaryn Woolshed". Outreach Staff also got to join us on this excursion, and I managed to get some great photos.
Karen got the surprise of her life when our guide was showing us the cook shed. It turned out to be her Aunty - she never realised she worked at "Jondaryn". She got a little extra ribbing, and Jim our guide made sure that she was the one to shear the sheep.

Our guide Jim did an excellent job. He was so knowledgeable and was able to fill us in on a lot of the History of the sheep farming and shearing in the district. The whole place is set up like a small town, and the school house was really intersting - reading the"Rules for Teachers 1879". Glad I am a woman today, and not back then. On our way back to the Uni, we stopped off to check out Queens Park which was just a mass of coloured flowers for the Toowoomba "Carnival of Flowers" which was held the weekend we arrived. Just gorgeous.

This week away has also allowed me to catch up with my kids which is always fun and exciting, my friend Karen (from Emerald who is also an RLO) joined us and we had a great time shopping and getting pampered in the big city.

Yesterday, Karen and I had a pamper whilst waiting for Sarah to finish work, Karen got a manicure and I had a pedicure - what a luxury, both got to get a great massage whilst we waited, and it was a lovely way to spend and hour or so after a hectic week. Then last night we got to go out for dinner and off to coffee afterwards - got to share photos of coffee and desert - it was presented beautifully, HUGE HUGE PHOTO SHARE this week.

Today Sarah and I hit the shops and had the time of our lives as we shopped until we dropped. This afternoon we found this gorgous little cupcake shop at "West End" and had afternoon tea there. Lots of good fun. Tonight I get to go out for dinner with my wonderful son. Looking forward to seeing some special time with him also.

It has been a pretty awesome week spent with a wonderful bunch of warm and beautiful woman - this is the part of my job I will miss the most, the time spent with these guys. Still I am thankful for the 15 wonderful years I have spent in this job and I know that just as this is the end of an era, as one door closes another door open and I am sure that God is in control.

This has been a huge post, and I'll be surprised if you get to the end of it - but so much has happened in the last fortnight both good and bad, that I really want to document it all for my own benefit - I apologise for all the picture too but they really do contain some wonderful memories for me that I want to remember always.

Trust you all have a great week.

Short Post tonight

Just a short post this week - lots to do before the weekend and I really should be in bed. We had our monthly scrapbooking crop on Saturday and as usual of late I had no idea what I was going to do. I did manage to cover a couple of journals that I want to decorate as gifts for friends birthdays coming up and I also managed to paper scrapbook a couple of photos from Pete's graduation last weekend. I used this sketch from here to do this layout. I have found this a really good site for sketch layouts. Worth visiting.

I also managed to do a couple of digi layouts - this first one was for the sketch challenge at Scrap of Faith this month. I scrapped a couple of photos taken last weekend at Pete's graduation. In fact all the layouts were of Pete's graduataion last weekend. The credits for this first layout were

Patterned Papers "Kyrstal Hartley's "The sky is falling" Kit.

Bracket and Paint Slash were from Willro&Co "Bright & Funky" Kit

Notepaper: Willro & Co Designs "Office Supplies Kit"

Green stem: "Saturday in the Park Kit" by bonscrapatitdesigns.

The second digital layout is a scraplift (although I can't remember where I saw it, but thought i might try scrapbooking some layouts to try and teach myself some new tricks. Was really happy with the way this layout turned out.

Credits for this layout are

Patterned Papers & Bird: "Afternoon in my Garden" by Dielle Designs.

Brushes by "Willro & Co Designs

Ric Rac by "Kyrstal Hartley's "The sky is falling" Kit.

Heart and Tree: Unknown.

There is still so much to learn with Photoshop. Got a couple of new books in the mail today also. For Fathers Day, Steve got a book called "The Digital Photography Book" by Scott Kelby and it is excellent, each page has just one tip on taking better photos. Anyway I noticed that he has a second book out called "The Digital Photography Book Volume 2" and it looks everybit as good as the first book, so I ordered it and it arrived today. Easy reading and a good reference book backing up everything I learned in my photography course. I also picked up "Photoshop CS3 for Dummies" so hoping that I this book will help speed up the steep learning curve I have been going through lately.

I really do need to hit the sack, so thought I would leave you with this email I received today. Thought it was worth sharing.

How to Dance in the Rain

It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80's arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He said he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.
I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would be able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient I would evaluate his wound. On exam, it was well healed so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound. While taking care of his wound I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning as he was in such a hurry. The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I inquired about her health. He told me that she had been there for a while and that she as a victim of Alzheimer's Disease.
As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now. I was surprised, and asked him 'And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?' He smiled as he patted my hand and said
'She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is.'

I had to hold back tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arm and thought 'That is the kind of love I want in my life.' True love is neither physical, nor romantic.
True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be.

The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.
'Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain

Thanks for dropping by and have a good week

Edited to Add:

I almost forgot to thank the very lovely Gayle Smith for revamping and updating my blog. This was her gift to me and I just love what she has done, so a very big thank you for not only updating this for me but also for your friendship, encouragement and support this year - you are one in a million Gayle.

Proud Mum with a big photo share

I haven't any scrapbooking to share this week cause we have had a huge week and most of it has been away. So so very proud of my big boy. We spent the weekend away with our kids for the special occassion of Pete's Graduation so I have lots of photos to share. It has been a long slog for Pete to complete his degree so it was a nice to be able to be present for his graduation ceremony.


































This weekend was also special because it was my Dad's birthday on the Saturday and then Father's Day on the Sunday, so Steve and I both took Friday off so that we could surprise Dad and take he and mum our for lunch on Friday with my sister as a celebration.
Got to take a few photos too. - Photos of my Mum and Dad, also got the three generations with my mum, and sister Lea, and Chloe and I. It was a shame my other sister couldn't be there, but then Mum and Dad are flying out to Emerald on Wednesday to spend a week with them. Hopefully they will have moved back into their house this weekend. It has been nine months since the floods and they are only just getting back into their own home now.

























It was a long slow trip down on Thursday night due to the weather and also a horrific road accident which claimed the lives of 4 people. There were 3 semi trailers (one a B Double) and a car involved in the accident and the main Bruce Highway was closed for hours - in fact I think it was closed all night and we all had to detour around which added extra time to our journey. it was quite an eerie journey as the road from Maryborough south had very little traffic travelling on it, and we were all feeling very sad and helpless and feeling for the families involved. On the southern end of the closed highway, there were semi's lined up bumper to bumper for kilometres. I have never seen anything like it in my life before.
We finally arrived at Mum and Dad's just after 11pm and we woke them up from their sleep when we arrived and the looks on their faces were priceless cause I am sure they thought they were dreaming. They hopped up and we all had a cuppa and a good chat and finally got to bed sometime around 1am.
We spent most of Saturday morning travelling from Brissie to Toowoomba for the Graduation ceremony. As a staff member at USQ I have been to my fair share of regional graduations over the years that I have worked for them but this was my first on campus graduation ceremony. We had a great family day - got to have some family portraits taken and of course took lots of photos ourselves, and then travelled back to Brissie after wards and went out together as a family for a celebrational dinner.
Sunday we headed home - dropped into Bundy to surprise Steve's folks and wish his dad a Happy Birthdays day, and then through to Gladstone where Chloe had a fitting for her formal dress and got home about 7pm after clocking up almost 2000kms for the weekend. Consequently we are all a little tired today.
Pete had a surprise for us when we arrived also. Last week he got a couple of baby ducklings "Chester" and "Winston" ( although they are really female ducks) They are so cute and the girls are bestotted by them, giving them little baths and swims, and drying them off. Took photos to share, and last night Sarah rang up quite excited cause they have adopted her as their "Mum" and follow her around. So so cute..................















Also have a photo to share from our Woman's Retreat that we hold annually at church. We looked at the "Psalms" this year, and Ann, Lesley, Janelle and I did a little scrapbooking workshop with a dozen ladies, making a mini album. It was actually good fun - as we only had two hours to complete it, we limited the number of ladies to 12 and we were booked out - so much so that we need to do it again in October for those that missed out this time. We actually put kits together to save on time. The ladies loved them and finished them just in time.












Finally just had a couple of other photos I wanted to share. These are things I am thankful for. In Psalm 19:1, the bible says,
"The heavens declare the glory of God: the skies proclaim the work of his hands."
I am reminded of the greatness of God daily as I see displays like these in the heavens. These cloud formations cover the sky last week and we just had to take a photo of it.



Then yesterday afternoon, as we were leaving Gladstone, there was the most glorious sunset - unfortunately by the time we stopped the car and got the camera out, the sun had just dropped below this range of mountains, but the even sky was just beautiful

In closing I just want to point you over to the Scrap of Faith blog where they are having a competition where you can download a free clipping mask created by "Willro & Co Designs" All you need to do is create a layout using them, your layouts will be added to the blog and at the end of September a winner will be drawn and will take away the new Sorbet Dream kit...which is jam packed full of goodies as it is a collab kit between Willro&co and another designer. It is a gorgeous kit and has so much in it, so head on over to SOF and download the free clipping masks and tutorial on how to use them to be in the draw! Click HERE to find more....
These are the clipping masks that you can use.... can't wait to have a play with them myself.