And they need attending to right away.  Financial things.......serious financial things from our old business (damn dodgy bookkeepers!).  Therefore I have made the hard decision to defer my university studies this year to enable me to concentrate on this problem and solve it once and for frikken all (sorry bout that - I hate having to do things twice....or in this case 3 times!).  After all....this is supposed to be the hardest year of the baccalaureate, so making this decision, although it was hard, was quite easy in the end - solving this problem will take the better half of my days and I will not have time to do that AND uni.

However, I will not be able to focus on the problem ALL the time, so I am having to work out some serious timetabling!  After all......I will be working on the computer......that computer has access to the internet......that internet is a MAJOR distraction, when it comes to doing stuff around here!

I hope to goodness that I can come up with something that is workable and I have the willpower to turn away from the internet for the majority of my time!  Mickey and William will be attending daycare 4 days a week still, so the timetable should be attainable.  I will have to buy myself a diary, too....to keep track of things!  This weekend will be my brain-storming weekend, I think. 
Yep - 15 minutes!  That is all it took me this afternoon to clear out some of my clothing from my drawers.  I have very limited hanging space (a small hanging cupboard for just me and Pete.....UNTIL he can get his butt into gear and reno our room!), so all things in there are left......for the moment.

I sorted my clothes quite viciously.......one pile for 'never wear again', one pile for 'I wont wear that, but I want to take the pattern from it' and one pile of 'yep - I wear that regularly'.  Most of these were shirts and this is just my summer wardrobe (winter stuff has been packed away, due to the limited storage space I have), so a clean out will be coming in Winter, too!

Now....according to Tracey over at Mad Quilter, I am supposed to sort out my style......hmmmmm......do I really have a style?  All the links that she has on her site and all the sites that I visited yesterday afternoon quickly have a name for a style and a description for that particular style......I end up fitting under a couple of different styles, myself!  Therefore, I have concluded that I will just have to work out my own style....I refuse to just fit into one!

So, like Tracey, here is a list of what I like -
  • easy care clothing (ie no ironing needed.....or minimal ironing)
  • comfortable and relaxed
  • I dont mind clothes that are a little bit clingy around my middle....I just dont like clothing that is tight around my shoulders and under arms.
  • My shirts have to be long enough to cover my belly - no midriff tops, please!  Too scary with the stretchmarks!!
  • I quite like my legs, but anything too short and I feel like I am forever pulling the darn things out of my bum when I stand up......and THAT isnt as shapely as it used to be, either!
  • I am quite fond of the flowy little shirts that are going around these days - the light, breezy overshirts that you can buy and stuff (have a couple of those)
  • layering - love layering when I can!!
And here is what I have (post clean out) -
  • a couple pair of casual shorts
  • a couple of plain singlets that go well under shirts that dip a little too low in the bust or under those flowy little shirts
  • singlets that go well by themselves (with wide and skinny straps)
  • a couple of pairs of good shorts - ones that can be dressy-casual or dressy
  • some exercise clothing (basically a couple of sport singlets and a loose pair of shorts)
  • some sleeved shirts (threw into my recon pile the old T-shirts that I just could not get rid of before)
  • nice slacks - black, dark brown and blue (a couple of the blue, as I will, hopefully, be working in the health care system when I can get myself a job).  These wont be good for the hot weather that we have been having, but they are permanently in my drawers - they dont get put away with my winter clothing.
And here is what I intend to make for my wardrobe over the coming months -
  • a couple of skirts - I was quite fond of the 'broomstick' skirt a couple of seasons ago, but since my weight loss, I have not gotten back into them
  • some nice shirts from the ones that I would like to get patterns from or recon
  • I would like to venture into making clothes that are more 'feminine' - I dont have many.  That might mean that I have to delve into the op shops and find some material/recon clothes that are a different colour, but that will be ok.
  • Less denim!  I went through a faze, where I would where only denim shorts, denim jeans and just chuck a shirt on over the top - that will change!
That is about it for the moment!  All clothing that has been removed from my wardrobe is now in my sewing cupboard, ready for reconstruction.......I have plenty of material to work with!
I realise that it is only Wednesday, but I want this week to be over already!  Nothing like trying to speed up time to speed up the aging process, hey?  LOL

Monday, Mickey and Will started at their new daycare.  A much better centre that is better equipped and better service (their old daycare was a little run down, dirty looking and their program for the kids was almost non-existent, because they didnt have enough kids in each age group to make activities for them - but it is what I could get them into at the time, so I shut my mouth and put up with it).  They went into their respective rooms with only a little bit of separation anxiety and settled in well.

Yesterday was Australia Day.  We did nothing special to celebrate the day - because Pete had to work :(  We went to the zoo in the afternoon, though (Rockhampton City Council have a small zoo as a part of their botanical gardens - small, not much in it, but the kids love it, all the same.....especially the two chimps they have there).  It was good to be out of the house and walking around in the fresh air.......albeit being bitten by mozzies at every turn (darn rain!).  I took my trusty walking stick along and managed to get up and down the hill without too many hassles and not needing a break.

My main cause for exhaustion was this morning.  The kids went back to school this morning after their Christmas break and they were a bundle of energy, I tell ya!  Weez was eager and ready to go to year 2, Moo was ready early for year 8 and Bubba Pete was excited as anything to go to Prep!  I took photos and they progressively got sillier and sillier as time went on.  Here is one of the last photos I took of Weez and Bubba together:


Mickey and Will came with Pete and I to drop off Bubba and, as a result, they were unsettled when they got to daycare.  I got a 'courtesy call' from Will's group leader to tell me that he was a little unsettled, but after telling her that he had his 'blankie' in his bag, I received no more calls, so I gather that he settled down after that.

I just picked up Bubba (first week, they finish 1/2 hour early) and my first impressions are - hungry!  I asked him if he wanted something to eat and he proceeded to take his lunch box off his bag and he had over 1/2 his lunch still in there uneaten!  Obviously, he needs to learn to eat some things before he goes out and plays.  We will see how he goes tomorrow and Friday.....if he comes home the same, then I will have to have a talk with his teacher.

So what did I do today without kids (Lenny starts tomorrow, because he is grade 10, and went off to work with Pete today) and an empty house?  Nothing constructive, I am afraid!  I caught up on e-mails that had filled up my inbox last week, caught up on facebook with some friends and became closer to my new friend "Artemis Fowl".  So, all in all......I took it pretty easy, really!  Tomorrow will be a different matter, though!  I am expecting company in the morning....a few friends from uni.  I have baking to do - cookies and such for lunches and I have a wardrobe to go through and start planning to update - my own!

So til then, my lovely cyber friends.......
CIAO!!
And from them you must learn.  And you thought I would have learnt already to take it easy and NOT lift a 20L container of fuel and put it into the car, hey???  I COULD have demanded that my husband come home from work and do it, like he said that he would that morning, but I didn't.  I COULD have asked the older kids to do it together, under supervision from me......but (yep - you guessed it!) I didn't!  And, yes, I slapped myself on the forehead after I did.....knowing full well that I may hurt/injure my back in the process, I continued on my merry way (well....not so merry, as a matter of fact - a few choice words were being said out of my dainty - PAH!! - little mouth!) and lifted the proverbial thing by myself and did it myself!

Hence my lack of posting here in the last week and on facebook!  I HAVE done a heap of reading, though!  I read mostly teen boy books, because that was all that could be reached without going downstairs and finding my boxes of books, but they were riveting all the same!





I started off adventuring with a young boy named Will in the "Ranger's Apprentice" series, by John Flanagan.  To start with, it was just to fight off the numbing boredom that I was feeling while I was lying in bed with nothing to do, bar look at the ceiling or the walls......whichever position was less painful (I couldn't even crochet!!  How sad is that??).  However, it turned into something more.  I fell in love with the characters and found myself reading at lightning speed through each book (AHEM! One per day.....give or take).  If you are into reading fantasy books and love delving into another world, then I recommend that you pick these up - no matter what age you are (from around 12 up) and what gender.  Lenny really wanted these books as a gift 2 Christmases ago, so I bought all that were available at the time in the series.  This Christmas, he received "Halt's Peril" from Pete's Mum and had it read the week after Christmas.  The only problem now is.......we have to WAIT until next November until the next one is released!  I honestly cannot WAIT for it to come out!



Next up, I am delving into the world of a young criminal prodigy - Artemis Fowl, by Eoin (Irish for "Owen" - for those who lack an Irish lilt to their words) Colfer.  I read book one yesterday and I am, again, finding myself enthralled with a completely different set of characters and a completely different plot.  Artemis (for those of you who have not heard of this series) is just 12 years old and has taken it upon himself to renew his families riches to their former glory, following in the footsteps of his missing father.  But do not let his age fool you, he is a genius.....and he has his own lunchbox.  Together with his butler.....Butler and Butler's sister, Juliette, they are a force to be reckoned with.  In book one, he manages to find the equivalent to the fairy's bible to help him on his quest for fairy gold.  This little book helps him to a certain extent, however, you soon learn that it is not the only thing that will help him in his quest to restore his family's riches......

That is about it for me for the last week and a little bit!  Boring, I know.....but it was wonderful to get into some reading, again.....even if it WASN'T aimed at my age level!  I have got sooooo many ideas in my head for sewing/crafting.  Now....even though I still have to take it a little easy (still spending at least 20% of my day in bed), at least I can SIT (yep - was unable to sit, due to the nerve running down and around that part of my backside) and do little things to get ready for the big things that are clogging up my crafty-ness!
Instead of doing some sewing/crocheting or whatever other crafty thing my mind was supposed to be set at yesterday afternoon, I decided to head downstairs and go through some of my fabric stash.  I wanted to make a little purse out of some of the sample curtain material I got really cheap from a curtain shop that was closing down a couple of years ago.  I found some of said material, but to my surprise it was already cut out to make something else!  Of course, to make my life easier, the pattern and instructions werent with it, but I knew that I had to have gotten it off the internet - most likely somewhere over at Craftster.  So I set to looking for it there first.....only to be distracted by all the brand new stuff that I found on there!  Don't ya just HATE that?

Not to worry, though!  I found it (here)!  And here are the finished results -



And individually - I can tell you....I remember cutting these out now and it was a little hard to get the pattern to line up properly on the front!

These are destined to be gifts.  Probably for Christmas time.  I have a box which I like to fill with little things each year and this year, I have decided to fill it mostly with handmade objects, instead of cheap and nasty things I find at the $2 shop on sale.

So, my next endeavour will involve a reconstruction!  You may remember the bag I made from the shorts that my friend gave me...?  She also gave me a few items of clothing that she no longer wore...and I dont blame her!  Have a look at these -

"Hmmmmmmm" right?  I don't mind the black and silver/grey one....just the top needs changing.  The other one, however, is black with a bright yellow top and that ribbon is actually a purple....photo does not do it much justice.  The blue and white number is not too bad, either, except that it has a few rips in it and is looking a little old.

So i set to work with my unpicker today and came up with this -

First intentions were to make these into a broomstick skirt, but the one on the right has a thin gauzy material, which wont be suitable for it.  It does, however, have a lycra-type underskirt, which I can make into a pair of tights for me or one of the kids!  The rest may just go away for a future project.

Further inspection of the silver/grey one shows me that mayhaps I shouldn't have taken the skirt off and only changed the top around a little....but we learn from these things, don't we?  I shall just have to sew it back on....IF I can figure it out (my sewing skills are limited to straight sewing...haven't gone into gathering too much, just yet!).

As for the blue one.....?  No idea, just yet!  There are two layers - the blue with white dots and a white underskirt.......hmmm......
After a full-on week last week, I am looking forward to a week of relative peace and quiet!  We held Dad's birthday party on Saturday night, which went quite well, so we are very VERY happy.  There were a few moments of disorganisation, but we stumbled through them and came out the other side trumps!  All in all - a good night was had by all and Dad really enjoyed himself and let his hair down (well....what hair he has left, anyway!).

Here are some photos of the dress I made for the night:


I must apologise for the photos themselves....they are cropped from others from the night and these were the best shots to get a view of both the front and back. 

I used a pattern from 'STYLE' number 2404.  Material was from the lot that I bought at the op shop week before last.  Buttons from my stash - I am fiercely allergic to sewing button holes, so I cheated and made the closure with clips and buttons sewn over the top (plus I was running out of time!!).  I also ran out of time to make the accessories that I planned on making!!  I was half way through crocheting a brooch or something using some chocolate brown yarn from my stash.....oh well!  The necklace I used was good enough to make it less plain.

So we come to today!  What is on my to-do list for today?  Well.....I have to:

* call the university and make an appointment for Thursday to see about what scholarships I may be able to apply for (found it hard to keep up with bills last year and this year looks like it won't be any better!)

* clean up my 'sewing area' - which consists of the top of the coffee table and several boxes lying around the lounge! 

* finish off the housework that I started this morning - with us being away all weekend, there isn't much to do, really!

And that's it!  Really - that IS it.  I have caught up on all the goss on blogs and facebook from the weekend, so this afternoon will be full of crafting, methinx!  Will have to come back and show it all off!
Here is some of the free stuff that I have found on the web this week:

Crochet Patterns/tutorials:

 Craftzine.com - where people write in with a link to their free pattern, tutorial or whatever and have it published here.  Gives you plenty of links to patterns and has a category for just about everything you wish to know about!

The Crochet Dude - not many people know about Drew over here in Australia, but I would like to think that I am spreading the word about him and people are becoming more aware of this talented man!

Sewing Patterns/tutorials:

Indietutes - here are a lot of tutorials, technique directions and information!

Confessions of a sewing dork - HEAPS of information with tutorials!

Inspriations:

Crochet - Attic24 blog - lots of pictures in this post.  Her personal reflection on her year that was in '09 and the (very colourful) projects she completed.

Sewing - Wardrobe refashion - Lots and LOTS of inspirations here!  Follow the links to their blogs and you will get even more tutorials and inspiration!
Today is my Dad's birthday (hence the 'Wattsie')!!  Therefore, I am going to dedicate this post to him.  He is now a large 60 years old.  Not being there before, I would not know what it would be like to be that age (remember when you were a kid and considered 60 to be, like, ancient?) - I still have another 28 years to go 'til I am THAT age!

My Mum and Dad raised me to be accept other people, regardless of their race, colour, religion or denomination.  Growing up where I did in a small community kept me a little sheltered to the 'outside' world, even though I travelled into the nearest larger town nearly every weekend during hockey (field) season and had contact with other kids from there then.  I like to think that I am still the same person today, just that society has changed the way I see some people these days.

After Mum passed away in 1993 of cancer, Dad became our rock.  Although we all went our separate ways in an attempt to 'deal' with things, I like to think that Dad was still there for us in a large way.....even though we didnt express our feelings very often or stuff like that, it was just nice to know that he would be there, should I have needed him.

Dad has always been the 'quiet parent'.  However, I always knew when he didnt approve of something that I was thinking about doing or had done....just from the expression on his face or the tone of his voice.  A few times over the years, I have turned to him and told him that I have mucked up and he has given me the look of, 'I knew you would'.  For that I am thankful - he has let me make and learn from my own mistakes.  He hasnt stuck his nose in where it is not wanted (never has to anyone, as far as I know) and has never given unwanted advice.  Any advice he HAS given has been given with the expectation of us making up our own minds. 

I love my Dad for who he is - a gentle man.  My Mum was the outspoken one in our family.  He has put up with a lot shit over the years around the place (not that HE tells me...I have to hear it from someone else!), but always seems to come up with a smile or joke.  He may be a difficult person to talk to at times when it comes to other people in the family or close friends (for example....not letting us know that someone has gotten married or someone has passed away or similar), but that is my Dad - and I am slowly learning to ask questions to get inside his brain.


My favourite picture from Christmas just gone - Taking his shoes off at the bottem of the stairs with William.
(yes, I am writing this on Wednesday, but I had absolutely NO time to post last night!  Sorry!)

I have decided to make Tuesday my 'sorting out' day - for the moment, anyway.  This is where I will go through my stash (of one sort or another) or my office or my bedroom (which seems to be a dumping ground for most things!) and sort a few things out - whether it be rolling up fabric onto cardboard and putting them away, cleaning off my duchess (which my hubby manages to throw EVERYTHING on!) or my desk (which I seem to throw EVERYTHING on!).

So here is what I managed to do yesterday!


I got these four patterns from Spotlight last week at just $2 each!  So they were put into their respective spots in my pattern draw (I made that up last week).


I went op-shopping with Pete and the kids on NYE and came home with just a few bits of fabric...hehe.  All cheap, of course!  And now I know a good oppy to go to get some decent sized bits of fabric!

So they all ended up in a plastic box like this yesterday -

Added to the pile is a scraps bag that I plan on cutting up fabric squares from (idea from here), some spare plastic bags (some of the fabric came in it) and some shorts of Corky's that need taking in, because she is not quite your average sized 11 year old!

In the top photo, you may notice a roll of brown fabric with white spots...?  It is currently sitting on my ironing board with pattern pieces attached to it....waiting for tonight when I can attack it once again and, hopefully, start making the dress whose pattern I have been eyeing off for a little while!

All up....proud of my effort yesterday!  With the kids home from holidays, I find it hard to focus on anything at the moment!  Well.....for more than five minutes at a time, anyway!  Any longer and I find the kids will be fighting too much and/or wrecking something (wet weather is NOT my friend right now!).
Pete headed off to Sydney by car late Thursday afternoon (yep - no New Years together for us this time!) to pick up some of his sister's furniture and bring it back, so I was left at home with 8 kids all by myself!  I am pleased to say that I survived, though I dont know how!  And I only have the girls at home today - Pete has taken the older boys off to work and the younger boys are at daycare (YAY!!).  Pete got home on Saturday night very tired and a little cranky (the seats in a panteck (sp?) truck are VERY unforgiving!).

Today, you can find me at my sewing machine (once again!).  I originally planned on making myself a dress, whose pattern I have been eyeing off for a while.....but I had a complete clean up of my little area yesterday and found a whole HEAP of unfinished projects!  Now....I have committed myself to completing these today before I start on anything new.  So here is what I have come up with today -


4 pairs of shorts - all I had to do was finish off the elastic and sew up the casing!!  What is it with the end of projects that I just cant finish?  hehe


My friend gave me these gosh-awful pair of pants a couple of months ago and none of my boys fit them, so decided to make a beach bag with them.  They are made of your typical board-shorts material, so will suit this purpose to a T.  Modeled by the lovely Moo.


My Dad is turning 60 on the 6th, so my SIL and I decided that we would throw him a little party on Saturday.  Things are getting turned on their heads, though.....my Uncle just celebrated his 50th on new Years Eve, so most of my Mum's family wont be able to make it.  We were hoping to give him a massive celebration, but it turns out that perhaps only 1/4 of the people that we invited will be able to make it (we invited close to 200).  Therefore it looks like we will be canceling our venue and making plans to have it at Cam and SIL's place!  Should be fun!  I sat down today and made phone calls and stuff to try and organise some people that have not gotten back to us yet (what IS it with people and invites....you send them out, but you still have to chase them up to get RSVP's!!??).  After this (and the school reunion I helped organise last year - OH!!  gotta tell you about THAT yet, hey?  WHOOPS!!) I dont think that I will be organising too many parties in the future!  Well.....maybe just ONE more, but it will be worth it - my brother's wedding!  Then that is IT!!  I mean - I LOVE organising parties and I love attending them, but it just seems like too much hassle in the week or so heading up to it!!

So that is it for my Monday Mojo!  I got into the swing of things and I am really happy with what I got accomplished today!
It seems that I got a little ahead of myself over the last couple of days!  I didnt tell you what we did for Christmas!  Well....here goes!

This year, we only had 5 of our 8 kids with us.  Weez was with her Nan and Poppy and Corky and J-Man were with their Mum.  Happens every 2nd year for us....a quiet Christmas - well, as quiet as it can get with 3 young boys with an endless supply of energy!

Christmas Eve we headed down The Boyne, set up camp outside my Dad's house and settled in for the night.  I took my sewing machine down, fully planning on sewing up the Christmas stockings that I bought from Spotlight a couple of days before (at 75% off of $14.95 - which made them just $3something - they were hard to resist!).  Problem was....I had no foot to go with my sewing machine!  Somewhere along the way (between house, car and Dad's house) I lost it.  With no spare ones with me, I abandoned mission and sat about, catching up with Dad and chatting with Pete.  We were not late to bed, because we knew that the kids were going to be up early the next morning.

Yep - the boys were up early!  After not being able to make up the stockings, I decided to 'steal' their pillow cases and provide them for Santa to deposit their presents in.  this proved to be a bad move, as Mickey and Bubba both woke up, crying for them!  I had no idea that they were so attached to their pillow cases!  Bubba was the first up.  He ended up sleeping beside me, so he woke me at the same time with "Mum!  It's morning time!"  LOL  Of course, Mickey was next up and went straight upstairs.  Bubba probably forgot about presents, because he was straight onto his bike!Will was left sleeping in the van....he had been up most of the night - new bed, new noises (or lack of at Dad's place), etc to get used to.




The boys soon found their pillowcases again!  And soon delved into the depths to see what Santa had brought them.  There were plenty "OOO's" and "AAAH's" as they poured over their gifts. 


Next up was brekky - nothing really special, but Will had fun, all the same!


At around 10am, we decided to head on down to the river and play on the beach to fill in time before we were to head over to my brother and SIL's house for lunch.


They enjoyed splashing in the water.


And Will especially enjoyed ruining the sandcastles that Daddy made!!

On the way home, Will enjoyed being perched on Daddy's shoulders.




And Bubba Pete enjoyed riding his bike.  This is a particularly cruel hill for kids to ride up (a long, gentle slope) - I did it many a time when I was a kid and dreaded it all the time!

That is all for the photos!  I forgot to take my camera to my brother's house and, as a result, forgot to take photos for the rest of the day!  My brother, Dad, Pete, Lenny and Moo enjoyed a little bash with the hockey sticks out the back of Dad's place while SIL and I looked on.  I cant tell you how much it pained me to see everyone with those sticks in their hands and me unable to join in because I could twinge my back, again!

That night, we had leftovers from lunch.  We didnt feel like eating much, because we had been eating and drinking all afternoon, but the kids still had a fair meal.  We said goodnight to my brother and SIL early that night, because they were heading off to Carnarvon gorge early the next day.
Happy New Year to whoever may be reading this!  I hope that 2010 brings you plenty of love, joy, hope and enjoyment.

I started off the day on a good foot - the kids cooked me brekky!  I have been finding it really hard to sleep past 5am most mornings of late, because of my back/leg aching.  This morning I was blessed with waking at 6am!  Better than a 4am start, which is what I lived with yesterday!

So, here I am at 10:30am, completing my story that I started last night before I headed off to bed.

July and August saw me very very busy!  They went past in a whirl of activity - study, attending lectures at the uni, getting kids off to daycare, more study, 'work' at the hospital, celebrating mine and Mickey's birthdays, making sure the older kids had done their homework, study (again), keeping house (the older kids have their daily chores, but, lets face it.....they just dont do as good a job as me!), study (yep - more!), spending quality time on weekends with Pete and the kids (I kept Sunday as a 'sanity' day - where I would not pick up a book or go online for anything), etc, etc, etc.  Lots of late nights and early mornings, but all worth it in the end!

September was pretty much the same thing......just as busy!  I found myself slotting into a routine, though.  The kids were well and truly into their routine and things went smoothly!  They were aware of when I had to be at the uni and when I had to be at the hospital with the help of a timetable on the fridge.  Heaps of organisation has been happening here!  I spose you have to when you are busy, busy, busy!

October saw the end of my 2nd term of uni and the start of 2 weeks of exams (actually 4 exams over 4 days, but it was 2 weeks in the making).  The good thing was that I had the hardest one first and the easiest one last.  I am pleased to say that I passed all of my courses.  Not with flying colours, like I would like (I could have done a little better with Human Physiology if I had've studied a little better), but I passed all the same!  As a bonus, because they have changed the whole Bachelor of Nursing, I do not have to do anything over this term (uni is essentially 3 terms throughout the year - March to June, July to October and November to February - not much is offered in the 3rd term, because it is over Christmas and people tend to lose focus a little...wonder why?  hehe). 

My last day of prac turned out to be just 4 1/2 hours long (a total of 176 hours were to be completed).  I worked it so that I could have a little extra time to study for my exams.  This day proved to be a little busier than usual (for a Thursday) and I found that I did not leave as early as I intended!  It also proved, again, that I should listen to my instincts and talk up when I feel that something is going to go wrong!  In short, I had a patient faint on me.  Our notes told us that she was to be assisted by two people at all times when mobile, but the enrolled nurse that I was working with thought that she would be ok.  My instincts thought better, but I thought that, because the nurse I was working with had a little more experience than I, she would know better.  I ended up behind her, breaking her fall with my right leg under her bottom and preventing her from falling back onto the toilet, onto the toilet roll holder or wherever else she may have hurt herself in that tiny, tiny bathroom.  No time to run outside the bathroom and hit the 'Nurse Assist' button just outside the door and not much room to move to put her gently on the floor so that I could.  I was trapped and no one heard my calls or me hitting the walls.  It seemed like it took ages for someone to come back in!  By that time, the patient had woken, again, and we got her to the shower chair.  I felt fine after, but it wasnt until that night that I started to feel the affects that it had on my back!  I found myself going to the emergency room, once again, and being referred to the physiotherapy department for treatment.

So this is where November finds me - totally UNbusy, with the end of uni for the year, and having the boys at home an extra 2 days a week (I had to put them into care for 4 days while I was doing my courses) and attending physiotherapy.  I had the pleasure of being treated by a student who had almost completed his training.  I apparently gave him a new challenge!  He soon worked out that I am also having problems with my sacroiliac joint!  This also affects the sciatic nerve, causing the pain (and this time numbness in my outer 3 toes).  After a couple of sessions and doing the exercises that he gave me, I felt a little better - better enough to reclaim my elliptical cross trainer from my friend and get onto it every day for at least 20 mins at a time (once in the morning to get me moving - slow - and once at night to get my fitness up).  November is also when I found my crochet mojo again and I began whipping up Christmas presents by the dozen!  I planned on finding a job as well, but with my back/leg being the way that it is, I reneged until I feel better - just focus on getting my fitness up and then look at doing something like that.

December saw the completion of many projects that I started.  Things continued on as usual (unbusy usual).  Pete went away a few times for work, the kids completed their years at school (all quite well, I am proud to say) and Bubba Pete got excited about starting at Prep next year!  It saw us buying a new Christmas tree, decorations and presents.  December was great for the festive spirit and made us feel alive, again.  We spent Christmas day with my family at Boyne Island.  We drank, ate, drank some more and really relaxed!  A good time was had by all, but it was over WAY too quickly!

December made the last year, with all it's ups and downs, seem all worthwhile.  I am really proud of what we achieved together and individually this year!  I know that 2010 is going to be just as challenging and eventful!  Things are going to get a lot busier around here, but I just KNOW that we are going to get through things.  We will lose faith at times and things will seem too hard to do, but we will be together and we CAN work through the good times and hard times together and come out trumps in the end!

I hope that 2010 will be as exciting for you as I know it will be for us!