A day out for the Crane Clan...

One weekend, Pete got stir crazy......he didn't have to go to work and didn't have any work around the house that he had to do (or FELT like doing, more......always plenty to do around here!).  So he decided to pack everyone in the car and head out on a local road trip, sightseeing.  It was a lovely drive from here, to Yeppoon and back - you can actually make a round trip of it....sorta like a scenic loop of the area.  Here are the results of such actions:

Fun on the sand at Emu Park.

A quick visit to the 'Singing Ship'

Read the information available about it.

Enjoy the etchings on the sun dial.

Pose for photos (though not look too happy that your sister has her arm around you).

Enjoy the lovely view (looks like Mickey is really close there, hey?  I can assure you he wasn't!)

And enjoy something to eat and drink before falling asleep on the way home.

Total cost for the day:

Time:  around 3 hours
Food:  sandwiches, water and a little cordial - $10 (if that!)
Fuel:  Who knows!!  Who cares..???  We had some fun and got outta the house and did something different!!

A wedding of the Celtic traditional kind!

How time flies!!  So much for me starting another blog!  I have been very busy with work and have been unable to find time to do anything other than spend time with my family and go to work!  So, it has not been all dull and gloomy here....although the recent cyclone that threatened our shores made the days that way! 

We enjoyed a trip down to Gladstone, once again.  This time for my best friend's wedding.  It was a beautiful ceremony - done in Celtic traditional style, where the bride and groom quite literally 'tie the knot' by having ribbons draped over their clasped hands and tied together after they said their traditional (but not the 'I do') vows.  Each ribbon represents a certain aspect that they 'may' bring to their union, but which is 'not their intention'.  Here are some links to help me out, because it is quite beautiful to watch, but quite difficult for me to explain right at this point in time (I have just finished a 'sleepover' at work - more on that later!).

http://wendymyers.wordpress.com/extras/in-lieu-of-a-unity-candle/tying-the-knot-ceremony/

http://www.gothicweddings.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=30
Scroll down to see the actual vows they took - this is pretty much it!


http://www.myspiritualwedding.com/content/005422.shtml
And about the colours - http://www.myspiritualwedding.com/content/005423.shtml

This is truly a beautiful ceremony!  Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera, so I do not have photos of the bride and groom (or the beautiful ribbons J made!).  I manned J's camera for the afternoon/night and *think* I got a couple of shots that she would like!  Unfortunately, she wanted the camera for the honeymoon, so I couldnt take it home and take them off (I tried - I truly did!!).  However, I will leave you with my fantabulous point and shoot photos (which, as you should know, I am a HUGE fan of right now!  hehe) of the clouds and landscape coming into Gladstone on the weekend of the 21st/22nd March:

How do you know you are nearly into Gladstone?  When you travel from the north and take the turn off from Mt Larcom, you get a grand view of the powerhouse!  Sometimes it looks dull and boring, like many industrial buildings, but on this day, it was looking a little more spectacular in the heavily overcast conditions!

These photos were taken on the way home - the day before the night the cyclone was due to hit the coastline.  It is amazing how, just over 500kms away, we were affected by Ului!  Although we weren't as affected as those actually HIT by it, we still felt the shock!  Notice how overcast it is?  This was the main aim of these photos that day!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

"Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don't want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can't trace time"

Yep - that song is in my head!  And it is only very early here!  So early that none of the kids are up yet - darn leg/hip/back! Woke me up early with pain and now my mind cannot stop thinking of making some changes around my little blog here......DOH!!

So what is going to change?  I have decided to make another blog to put all my crafty stuff on.  I have been finding it hard to write about one thing or another, because of the way that I originally intended this blog to be!  Original intentions were to make a blog that encompassed everything that went on in this house - well ALMOST everything!  I did not want to share ALL things that happen in this house on the web, but was intending to share the love, laughter, joy, sadness and tears - ultimately, should anyone be interested, how a big family (or our big family) lives in our part of Australia.  All up - this blog is getting a little confused, in my eyes.

I am also jealous of those blogs out there that I have been reading that are wholly and solely based on craft (just one or a culmination of many), fashion, and such!  I read through them and think 'WOW!!'  and wish that I could have a blog like theirs! 

Now - I will not promise that my new blog will be anything like the ones that I have seen, but something close would be nice, wouldnt it?  And I know that I am finding it hard to keep up here, lately, but things will settle down at work soon, because all my training should be done and I should be on a regular roster....with plenty of time for other things!

So stay tuned!  I will be working on this for the next week or so!

What is worse - study or work...?

I sat here and started to type my title for this post as "Tired!!!"  But then realised that I have already written that post title before in the last couple of months!  Thank goodness for 'autocomplete' or I would bore you to death with a post of much the same thing!

So, back to my original question (but not my original post title) - What do you consider worse for making you tired?

I am finding myself knackered after work most nights/days.  Most of my shifts have been 6-8 hours long and have been jam-packed with activity!  I am finding myself doing things around the house just to keep busy....much like I would here, if I didnt have a computer!  hehe  I also find myself not taking many breaks, because I AM in a house and there IS so much to do (basic housework has been seriously lacking in the last couple of months) - bad, I know!!  Particularly when I am trying to put ON weight!

I honestly cannot wait to be trained for community access (where you take the client out shopping, to the movies, etc)!  THAT was supposed to happen Wednesday just gone, but some crap went down at the house and I had to stay 'home' to help out.

Needless to say....I have not been doing anything other than going to work and spending time with the family!  However, here are a few photos that I love and have not yet shared with you guys!

This shot was taken while I was driving - by me!  LOL  It's not the best, because it is from my phone, but I still love it, all the same.  The view is what you get when you leave Gladstone and head up here along the highway past the powerhouse.  To the right of the sun, there, you can see Mt. Larcom.  It is a popular little 'mountain' that you can climb in a day, though the track is a little rough and you need ALL day to do it in!  I think that I have only done the trek once in my life!

Ah.....my scooter!  Where would I be without it?  This is how Will liked to ride it, to start with.  He was a little too short to see over the top, therefore got a little scared!

The three little men in my life.....this picky is a little out-dated, but I love it all the same!  See those little tanks in the background on top of the big one?  Well, they are my 'breeding' tanks!  My electric yellow cichlids decided that it might be a good idea to breed and give us babies!  Lovely little nature lesson for the kids.....especially when Mummy fishy decided that she would like to make some room in the little tank and EAT some of her babies!  LOL

Nothing to add here......just a classic shot of Bubba!  Cracks me up every time I look at it!

Tearing down the BBQ......the boys had soooo much fun that day!  They just didnt like cleaning the mess up!  Like father, like son(s), I spose!!

Hmmm.....

It's Friday and that means that I have Mickey and William at home.....all to myself!  I am yet to determine whether this is a good thing or not, as the house always seems a mess with kids at home during the day and my 'days off' (Monday to Thursday, when they are at daycare) seem to make me a little complacent of things that go on in the house of a family!  I mean - I get to do pretty much anything I want when they aren't here with minimal interruptions.  That means that, should I like, I can leave the sewing machine on the dining table and go to the toilet, go downstairs and hang up/take off washing, clean rooms a little.......you know?  General house stuff when I get the motivation to do it.

With young children at home, that luxury is taken away and I find myself cleaning up after them constantly.  Whether it be apple off the lounge floor, because I was busy elsewhere, like cleaning a mess in the bathroom that they had made not 5 minutes earlier or refereeing a fight over a cup that Will has stolen off Mickey (Will still has sippy cups around the house, because he just won't stay still for long enough to drink one whole drink).

This weather lately truly sucks for the SAHM.  I mean....it's not raining right now, but it did last night and early this morning, so if I let them downstairs, there will be an even bigger mess when they come up, because they will have found one of the mud puddles in the yard and play in that.  If you have more than one kid, do you find it hard for them all to do the same thing at once without having to talk to them 2 or 3 times?  OH MAN!!  What I wouldnt give for an episode where they would! 

I will give you an example - we had ALL the kids one wet weekend and they decided to go outside and play.  'No problem' I thought.  Um....YEH!!  Problem!  They all decided to come inside at the same time to have something to eat!  Now, a kid intent on filling his/her empty stomach is one hard to sway from their task!  As soon as they came to the back door, they were asking for towels (which is no problem in my house - we have plenty to go around!).  While I was getting said towels, one kid came inside and tried to get into the fridge......dirty paws and all!  Said kid was soon bundled off and directed to the bathroom.  2nd kid at door is just itching to come in, so I give him towel and direct them in the direction of the bathroom.  Now.....first kid is sidetracked and in their room!  So first kid told to go to the bathroom (I did this by shouting out to them from the back door), while 3rd kid is eagerly waiting for a towel.  So....we have 1st kid and 2nd kid in bathroom, while I give no. 3 a towel.  I hear a tap turned on in the bathroom and promptly there is the sound of water splashing on the floor.....'Oh goody!' I think.  3rd kid bundled, towels thrown on the floor for the rest of the kids and I follow no. 3 to the bathroom.....just to make sure that they get there!  I find no. 1 in the bath...fully clothed....no. 2 is in their room....fully (dirty) clothed and no. 3 is with me so safe there (whew).  Tap turned off and I have to go and referee a fight at the back door - one kid wants one of the towels that another has got (AARGH!!  How OLD are you?).  Without supervision in the bathroom, water from the bath is then put onto the floor!  So, I set myself to the task of cleaning 3 kids in bathroom....stripping them is an easy task, but getting them out of the bathroom so that the older kids could have their turn is a different matter!  THEN there is the problem of them getting dressed!  Mickey and Will are quite happy to run around naked (what 2 and 3 year old aren't?), so they are mucking around, while I am tending to the older kids (one went to the kitchen for food - HUH?? - another went to their room for clothes - the dirtiest of them all!).  Said kids shooed from the kitchen and room and told to stay in the bathroom.  THEN they all refused to undress in front of eachother!!  I cant imagine just exactly WHY!!  LOL  So I stayed in bathroom and watched and made sure girls did not look at boys while they washed and redressed and made sure they got outta there ASAP (no mucking around, like they usually do).  All this time, the boys are being really quiet.....cannot imagine what they are up to and do I really want to know..?  Um....I dont think so!!  With the 'watcher' task complete, I head to see what the boys are up to..........hmmm.........their room is trashed, toys are everywhere (nothing unusual there)........not in my room (make up being the object of choice in there)........EEP!!  They are in the girls' room and have managed to pull out ALL the clothes from Amy's cupboard and are 1/2 way through climbing up and getting Moo and Courtney's!!  Not to mention that they somehow found Moo's deodorant and are spraying it under one of the beds!!!!  Room smells pretty, but it is all too strong for my nose! 

This will continue all day for me (unless Pete is home).  I will continually go from one kid or other and have to deal with some problem or another.....only to have another problem raise it's ugly head while I am distracted!  I soooooo wish that I had a room for each of them, then I could send them to their rooms and not hear from them for the rest of the day (HA!!  I don't think so, but it would be nice to dream, hey?').  Or a Tardis!!  With a Tardis, I could travel to another place, another time and I could get away from it all.  OH!!  I time travel machine!!  I could fast forward to when they are mostly grown and then they might have a bit of 'maturity' about themselves and not fight so much.....WHO am I kidding!!??  They are bound to fight when they get older, aren't they?  Just might get a little more violent and vindictive then!!  Dont get me wrong - there are good days where nothing seems to happen at all (only a few minor incidents - and the days go so quickly!!) and there are the bad days, where nothing seems to go right (and THESE are the days that last the longest!).  Why oh why cant the days that are good just go slowly and the bad ones go quick?

Anyhoo......I leave you with pictures of Mickey and Will's adventure today - Mummy and Daddy's bed.  They kindly stripped it (wash day is not til tomorrow, boys, but thanks anyway!) and were using the blankets at the bottem as a buffer while they went over the end, so they didnt bump their heads on the wooden floor on the way down!

Looks like fun, hey? 

See those hats attached to the wall?  I got in trouble for putting holes in the wall last weekend, coz I was sick and tired of finding them just lying around the house!  There are more on the wall opposite around our duchess mirror!

And see my new 'best friend' in that last picture?  The thing on my side of the bed between the bed and the sidetable?  Um, yeh.....wasnt too impressed in having to need it every now and then, but, as you can probably see from the photos in this post (yep - that is me standing 'normally'), I have a problem with my posture...all caused by my back/hip!  This little beauty not only helps me to take weight off my leg (which KILLS when I am having a bad day), but helps me to correct this posture issue when I use it on my left side.

OH!!  And one last thing!  See that little 'land mine' of a car on the floor?  Hmmm....yes, well.....THAT is another thing that I am sick of round here!  We have entirely too many and they get underfoot all the dang time!!

Tired! And my first T recon!!!!

What IS it with this dang weather!!??  It has rained on and off over the last couple of weeks and, I can tell you, I am totally sick of it!  I have read US blogs and I can definitely sympathise with them over the amount of (in some instances) unseasonal snow (Although we dont get snow here and I have only seen it once in my life)!  Monday, tuesday and Wednesday were reasonable days - Monday a few light showers, Tuesday sunny, Wednesday sunny - but today has turned out to be really rotten!  Overcast all day, heavy showers for most of it and a mix of hot and mild temperatures!  Just downright horrible!

On the up-side.....I started my job yesterday!  I trained in the morning for a couple of hours and then moved onto the house where I will be working most.  I have 3 clients (P, D and G) in that house, who's disabilities range in their diversity.  The Cerebral Palsy League doesnt just cater to people with Cerebral Palsy, they cater to a whole range of disabilities (and are going through a name change, as a result).  I learnt a lot on my first day.  And there will be more and more for me to learn in the future, I bet!  I enjoyed it, all the same and look forward to my next shift on Saturday afternoon/night when we get the guys dressed up and P frocked all pretty and head out to dinner for the Multicap function that happens once a month here.  It will also give me a chance to get to know them a little better and build a rapport with them.....even if I DO come home with my arms throbbing from holding D up while dancing with him (yep - been warned of that already!).  In short, it is a chance for a few departments to come together with their clients, catch up and socialise (us and the clients), have fun and just generally have a good time!  Cant WAIT!!

My uniform is basically anything that I am comfortable with wearing.........so long as I wear shorts/pants and a shirt that wont gape in the front and closed in shoes.  I am seriously lacking in the 'modest' shirt department, so I decided to recon that red shirt I bought the other week!  It's not much for my first T recon, but I like it and I have worn it all day.


Before (I am showing you where my actual shoulder is and where the shirts' shoulder is):

And after:

Hmm......thank goodness I shaved my underarms!!  hehe

It didnt turn out exactly how I wanted it to, but it is still comfy and will become a permanent fixture in my wardrobe.  I think I might make another and do a tutorial to go with it!

EMPLOYED!!

Well....not officially, just yet (still have paperwork to do, like bank account numbers and the like to give to them), but I got 'the' phone call this morning, confirming my employment with the Cerebral Palsy League!!  Just another area that I want to delve into.....besides nursing, that is!

So.....I will be doing a minimum of 48 hours per week (ETA - Um....I meant fortnight!)....permanent part time - shift work.  I dont know how it will all go, right now, but I am gonna give it my best shot!  Weekends will no longer be mine, no doubt, but I hope to get the important weekends off, when my bestie gets married next month and my bro gets married in September!

I was actually successful for both job interviews, but this is the better one (more down the career path that I would like to go - not so much the pay rate).

I got my proverbial finger out over the weekend and 1/2 completed another crochet project for my friend.  Honestly, it was WAY too hot this afternoon when I would normally sit down and do some more for me to continue it!  Here is what I am doing:

The pattern is from the August/September issue of the UK mag Inside Crochet, called "Azure Skies" and worked in Moda Vera Believe.  Not my immediate choice, but when K trawled through my patterns, this is the one that she chose herself.  I am actually liking it!  I dont like making a mistake (but, then again, who does?), coz it is a fluffy wool and catches on itself all the dang time!  However, this would have to be my biggest project using a small hook that I have done and I am getting quite proud of myself because of it.  I reckon she will like it!

Alrighty, then!  That's all from me today!  Hope everyone had an excellent weekend!  And hope you have an even better week!!  TTFN!