The last few weeks

Sooo much has happened over the past few weeks, where do I begin? (I suppose if I got on here more often it would be a loooooot easier).
First of all a huge thank you to all my wonderful friends who came to my "Biggest Morning Tea" last month! We had around 9 ladies turn up for tea and cake, and raised over $80!! YOU ROCK! I will definitely be doing it again next year!
The boys competed in a gymnastics competition three weeks ago, and considering Bran didnt even want to go out onto the floor to begin with, we were so proud when Brandon was awarded first place and Braithe second place overall. They got little trophies and all! Now they will be working hard to make it to the next level.
Keila on the other hand went to Gladstone to compete in a Regional Gymnastics competition. We were so proud of the hard work she has put in, and it was a wonderful experience for her. Her coaches have given her a new floor routine in preparation for her next Competition in Cairns. She learnt it in just a couple of hours, surprising her coaches, (not us of course). So now we have Keila dancing and prancing around the house practicing at EVERY free minute. (gotta love that drive)!
Brandon had his Tae Kwon Do grading while Keila was away. HE PASSED!! YAY!! So now he is a blue tip....catching up on his sister....AND he got a credit!! We were very very proud of him! I think he has a new attitude towards training now, and it helps that he has been given a few more responsibilities withing the training.
Braithe just started Tae Kwon Do this month. He looks sooooo cute in his little uniform. The most surprising part was that he made this decision all on his own. Scott has asked him late last year, but he obviously wasnt ready then. A few weeks ago though he just announced to me that he was going to start Tae Kwon Do that week. We can't wait until next grading...he's gonna rock!
Erm..What else...Oh yeah, the kids went to a holiday camp in the first week of the holidays, they had a ball and Braithe won a prize for "best behaved child" for the week....MY BRAITHE!! Awesome!
Now everybody is back at school and it is nearly life as normal...well it is life as normal for us!

Bad Fan

I am starting to get the feeling perhaps I should stop supporting my favourite sporting stars! After his famous "accumulator" series, I have watched Russell Ingall struggle race after race with car problems and spectacular crashes, frustrated with how close he gets to the podium each race only to have it ripped out from under him for reasons out of his control. This weekend, at our home track Hidden Valley has been no different. An ordinary start...taken out in a huge accident....returns in race 2 with gusto from second last place to 13th to have the car break down again! I am currently watching the third and final race holding my breath. He has started in dead last, is currently cruising in first due to not pitting yet. I think this is my cue to fall asleep!!!

No, I am not kidding. It seems that whenever I fall asleep during the rugby, my teams come stomping home, yet we can't win a game while I cheer them on! The ONLY race Russel has finished in a decent position....yep, you guessed it...I was snoring!

Will keep you posted after my nap.

Goodnight.

A quick disclaimer

Hi Big Sis
Just in case you noticed the little piggy down the bottom named Aden...There is noooo reference what-so-ever to your gorgeous son other than Braithe's timely fascination with Aden and his unfortunate choice of animal to adopt! lol! (I think it had more to do with the mud and the water rather than the animal to tell you the truth).

If anything Aden should see it as a huge compliment that his little cousin loves him enough to name his pet after him...Well, that's my story and Im stickin' to it!! hehe!
Big luv
Little Sis

xx

Torn...my most favourite ever YouTube.

Happy 70th Birthday Mum!

An excercise that even the Secret Service should be in awe of...Dad, the legend, pulled off the most awesome suprise party ever for my Mum's 70th Birthday!! He managed to organise family from all over Australia. Thankfully they decided to break up the surprises over a week, my brother and his family arriving a week before the event, my sister and brother-in-law from Woorooloo arrived the night before, I turned up the morning of her birthday, and my sister and brother-in-law from Perth finished off the family reunion at Mum's surprise cruise....yes that's right, her surprise cruise!!
The hilarious lead up to the event....with one surprise after another, poor Dad began to hide everytime somebody new turned up....Mum suddenly developed a habit of punching him in the arm! Then amongst all the excitement, Mum had decided she was going to organise a birthday breakfast for herself at Coolalinga, inviting everybody she knew...so you can imagine her annoyance when told one of my sister-in-laws had organised a classic car ride to an unknown destination. "What about my breakfast? People will be waiting for me!" She finally lost the plot when the car arrived at the Cullen Bay jetty with all the family there to greet her, all the grandkids standing outside the car...."Get out of the car Nanna!"

The cruise was absolutely awesome, a full tour of Darwin Harbour, complete with a personal concert put on by nephew who played Stairway to Heaven on his guitar.
The family photo is fantastic! We had 8 out of the 10 kids from my family there with their spouses and some of the grand children, we really could have done with a wide angle lens! Mum seemed to really love this surprise, Dad did an astounding job organising it, not to mention keeping it quiet considering the number of people involved!!

We had the obligitory "Dinner at the Wharf". A Woods family tradition. As you can see, Mum had a ball ,as she always does, courtesy of my Sister bringing her a "party bag". I looooove my Mum's awesome sense of humour, and her ability to just let loose and have fun where ever she is!

All in all I think the whole day was fantastic, and not in the least what Mum expected...which is pretty cool since she is a pretty switched on old gal!

Well done Dad!! This is why you are my mentor!

You're invited

Well, I have finally lost it! I have decided to register myself with the Biggest Morning Tea! Would be an awesome idea....if I actually knew more than 3 people in Townsville!! lmao!
I have been handing out invitations to anybody who looks vaguely familiar, or looks like they may enjoy a good cuppa. Lets hope I get more than 3 guests as it is for a hugely important cause, and besides, I'm cooking up a storm!!
So consider yourself invited!
"Every cup counts" as they say.

Dear Mr President

GRRRRRR!

I am back online....YAY!
MY computer is dead....GRRRRR!
Yep, that's right...."Nat's pride and joy" is officially dead! It cost me $88 to find this out....along with any self esteem I may have had before the "Nerds" guy came around.....plus to add insult to injury....NOTHING on my hard drive is retrievable!! So all the hard work I have put into my uni for the last couple of weeks, my awesome pics that I have collected over the years, my eBooks, MY EMAILS!!! MY BELOVED EMAILS!! Everything is gone! My one saving grace is that I had saved most of my photos onto disk not that long ago...I think I am missing around 30 new ones in total, so that is not so bad.
Everybody keeps asking me if I had backed up my stuff...well...yes and no....if I am in the middle of an assignment, I am not likely to back it up to disk....but most of the stuff that I had lost was stuff that no sane person would have saved to disk....it is just really annoying to lose it all.
The light at the end of this tunnel is that Scott has a brand new toy...though he hasn't seen much of it since he got it. I will get to do my assignments after all, and I thanks to my eternal fiddling with crappy online programs, I was able to salvage all my old email addresses!!
Thanks to my lovely friends Lindah and Louise...I was able to find my blogger site again!! Now I just have to build up my pics again so as to make it a bit more exciting.
Stay tuned for more exciting news hopefully over the next few days...(hopefuly I will be in a better mood)!

studying at last

After nearly two months of complete stress, I am FINALLY enrolled and online with Uni! Geez it was far easier getting kicked out than re enrolling! LOL!!
Now I am just waiting for defence to finalise payments on my TAFE course and I am on track for this year.
I am determined to do really really well in both uni and TAFE this year. It will be easier without Braithe home. As lovely as it was having his awesome presence around....he is a little boy, and study and little boys just don't go hand in hand.
So now all I have to do is pay for my text books so that I can really be on track, and I am a happy little student!
Wish me luck everyone....I am gonna need it!

While we are on the subject of Cowboys ....This beauty here is a North Queensland Toyota Cowboys Hotsquad Cheerleader...Awesome to watch live I gotta tell you.

Now, this particular Hot Squad Cheerleader is also linked to my little Brandon....

She was his year 2 teacher last year!! How lucky was my little boy?

Keila on the other hand was livid! She has spent most of 2005 stalking Miss T wanting to find out how to become a cheerleader and trying to get her autograph...so come 2006...Brandon gets Miss T for his year 2 teacher....well Keila threw one huge hissy fit! (Must remind Keila that she did have Tahlia Rauhihi, the daughter of the great Cowboys player Paul Rauhihi, as her best friend for a year!)

So, anyway....Not only does she look fab-u-lous...she is an awesome teacher. Brandon is not a run of the mill student...but he loved her as a teacher, and I loved helping out in the classroom as she is one of the nicest people I know!

So there you have it...it IS possible to have beauty, personality, talent, and brains!! Go figure! (If only I could figure out where I've been going wrong for all these years?)

Sheree's stats as posted on the cowboys website:http://www.cowboys.com.au/hotsquad.php

Star Sign:Gemini
5 words that best describe you:Fun-loving, caring, feisty, cheeky, chatty
Favourite player:Luke O’Donnell
Favourite sport besides cheerleading and footy?I play touch football
What do you do when you're not on the field at DFS?Teach Year 2 at local primary school
Love to:Shop, play sport, vege out and eat chicken crispers at Cactus Jacks!
Person you would most like to meet:Ben Harper
Favourite holiday destination:Would love to visit the Greek Islands
Any rules you run your life by?:Family always comes first and Reach for the moon. If you fall short, you may land on a star.

Oh ps...Brandon's teacher this year is pretty cool too...hey, any teacher that can get Brandon to want to show up at school everyday is awesome in my book!

The things we do for love

I tell ya...I have done some hard work in my time when it comes to raising money for my sport....Today had to have taken the cake! Me, Scott, Brandon and Braithe spent six hours delivering phonebooks today! Keep in mind it is in the middle of Townsville summer...about 35 C, about 80% humidity, though that did improve as the day wore on....Dang it was HOT! Braithe and Brandon had the very important job of sitting in the trailer and "organising" the phonebooks, while Scott and I ran back and forth to people's doors to deliver these books. Brandon did step up towards the end when I felt like I couldn't walk any further, so that was a huge help!

Actually in the morning, before we got smart...the boys were both a huge help, as was Keila and her friend Haley. Scott walked up and down the street with a dolly trolley and they ran into the houses, so that was pretty cool....Brandon just loved the importance of it all! We knocked off our two territories by about 3.30, then took off to the Riverway for a well deserved swim!!

They want us to go back tomorrow morning to do some more territories....I think Keila and Scott are going, but on the proviso that Scott doesn't have to get out of the car and deliver any more....hopefully they will have an army of gymnasts to do the legwork! (they were all training yesterday afternoon).

Me on the other hand....I would love to help out again, but seriously, I have rashes in places I would rather not mention, my ankles can no longer be seen, and every step is just one big painful exercise...(I have tried very hard not to move from this seat since I got home!)...so I think the boys and I will probably just stay home so that we don't slow everyone down! Well that's my excuse and I am sticking to it!

Brandon and Jonno

My Brandon got the first student of the week for the year at school.

No this isn't Brandon....this is Johnathan Thurston, famous Cowboys and QLD State Of Origin rugby league player.

So what do they have in common??

A handshake!!!!

Brandon missed out on getting his "student of the week" certificate the first week due to the abominable weather we have been having. I had sat down at the assembly area for over an hour waiting for them so that I could take photo's of him receiving it.

This week I didn't really think much of it until I turn up to pick them up on assembly day and there is Brandon parading around with his certificate, and Braithe just couldn't wait to tell me all about the "Cowboy" who gave Brandon his certificate! When I asked Brandon which Cowboy it was, he just shrugged "I dunno". Braithe was convinced it was "Jonno Thurston", but Brandon claimed that "Jonno Thurston doesn't have a black eye and stitches!"....At least Braithe was listening to "Jonno" at assembly as he went on to relay the story of how Johnathan wasn't wearing his famous head protection and somebody hit him resulting in his injuries.

Thankfully Nicole Luke our resident DSTA took a photo of Brandon and Jonno, so that finally cleared up the mystery for us.

Brandon just cracks me up....he remembers soooo many facts and figures about animals and plants and machines, but when it comes to people.....he rarely remembers anybody's name, or where he knows them from! How could he NOT take any notice of this sporting icon shaking his hand!!!! Just wait til I tell his best mate Jack!!! lmao.

ps. will try to upload that famous photo once I have had a chance to scan it.

Happy Valentines Day!

It was Valentines Day when I started looking for a good photo of Oscar! Never mind....Guess what I got for Valentines Day???? Go on, I bet you can't guess ;) Well, mine is better looking than the one up there, but you get the picture....Yes....Scott got me an Oscar for Valentines Day!!! (And yes...he is in his right mind....This is all I wanted!!!) I luuuuuuuuurve my husband sooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was heart broken when my evil bristle nosed catfish killed my beloved Oscar earlier this year, he had such an awesome personality, would beg for food, would jump out of the tank to get food...(which freaked Braithe out a little.....hehe)..and would swim up and down his tank as we moved around the room. He even had a good relationship going with my Axls!
This new guy is a completely different colour, Oscar was a bright orangy pink albino, whereas this guy is similar to the one above. His markings are gorgeous! He is a little timid at the moment, but I can't really blame him as he was chased up and down the tank for about 10 mins by a trainee pet store attendant, then dropped off the bench by Keila! All this after being taken away from the safety of his 10+ brothers and sisters at the pet shop. He'll get over it!
I'm not sure what to call him...obviously Oscar is out. I was thinking of Vincent...he looks kinda like a Van Gogh painting....I might ask Braithe in the morning....He is pretty good with naming pets, although I might tell him up front that I veto fishy, bubbles, and jaws!
Did I mention that I luuuuuuuuurve my husband??!!

Crikey!!

(Red Bellied Black Snake)

See this handsome critter here....I came face to face, (or rather foot to tail), with one of his relatives this afternoon!! I kid you not...I was less than 20cm away from the poor bugger as he was most probably lying in wait for his next meal. I obviously didn't mean to intrude upon his day, I was merely trying to steal....ehem.....I mean....borrow some river weed from the banks of the Riverway when I came across him. He got more of a fright than I did let me tell you! He took off like lightning....thank goodness in the opposite direction....jumped off the river bank (if you can imagine a snake jumping, work with me here), and proceeded to skim across the water lilies. I was very impressed! Then I lost sight of him, and so ended my weed hunting expedition as I was not too keen to come face to face with him again, nor meet any of his immediate family!! Keila was hilarious. When I first saw him scoot out from under the bush I yelled back to her "SNAKE!" I am thinking of putting her in little athletics after seeing her 50 metre dash up the river bank and up the nearest pole! All the training of "now if you see a snake just stand still and wait for it to move out of the way" went right out of the window with her. She was very impressed with me though as I had stood still long enough to tell her what kind of snake it was, where it had gone, and how long it was.

So long story short......I will have to buy my dang pond weed!!

Tazzie Devil for the day

This is how I feel at the moment, I just wish that I was actually in his furry little body right now! Just think.... you are expected to be snappy and bad tempered all the time....and anybody that gets in your face.....you just bite their fingers off! Plus look at his serene little back yard!!

I am sorry to say that all weekend I have behaved like a Tazzie Devil, so kids, husband, myself....we have all felt the wrath of Nat! I think I needed to be in that really serene little enclosure, for my family's safety.

Will try to find my happy place today by the time they get home, perhaps some major overhaul of the garage, my room...I should be doing some scrapbooking too....I have heaps to submit to Scrapbook city, and am about a month behind.....but no playtime until the jobs are done!

Perhaps I should take that particular trait from my little mate up there....He never sat still!!

No wonder his little cave was sooooo spotless!!!

This week just HAS to be better!

Ever had one of those weeks where you wonder if you were put on this Earth as some sort of joke for the universe to enjoy??!!

I have them quite often, so I don't know why I was too surprised last week when it really hit the fan for me.

Already fighting suicidal imagery which had reared it's ugly head again without warning or reason....my week slowly went downhill. On Thursday it all came to a head. Frankly....Thursday SUCKED!

I had FINALLY had got of my fat bum to clean and organise the garage. I was about 20 mins into it, charging along....whump! I passed out! So that was the end of my cleaning spree for the day as I am completely useless after I pass out! So already feeling pretty sorry for myself, I go out the back in the afternoon to discover that poor old Stitch...Brandon's beloved cockatiel is shivering on his perch due to the rain being blown in. Trying to do the right thing, I get him out of his cage and put him on my shoulder....something that I have done a thousand times before outside....Tank, the big black wally dog, stands right behind me as I step back making me fall on my ass and scaring the heck out of Stitch......The bird who usually wanders around the backyard WITH the dog and comes to me when he is called, takes off into the pouring rain...An hour and a half of standing in the pouring rain, I could hear him but not see him. By the time I DID find him high up in the palm tree a big gust of wind blew him right out of the tree and off he went into the wide blue yonder.

Needless to say I was heart broken, Stitch and I have spent a lot of time together on this computer. Plus the painful task of telling Brandon that I had lost his favourite pet through sheer stupidity! He was soooo nice to me about it..."It's not your fault Mummy, it is Tank's" How compassionate is this child! We have his cage open out the back with the hope that he will realise where his food's at....But between you and me.....I don't think he's coming back.

Thursday night I try to log into my Uni courses....only to find that they have discontinued me from my course! Friday I recieve a letter to say that my current enrolment has been cancelled because I haven't "shown cause" for why I did so crap last year.....What tha?? I haven't even received any notification asking me to "show cause"!

So now I have that huge stress as well....

You can imagine how scary it is for somebody who already felt suicidal for NO reason to suddenly be reminded about what a complete and utter loser they REALLY are! Let's put it this way.....I ain't getting much sleep these nights.

Well that is my whinge for the day....I am going to put my "silver lining" cap back on knowing that this week HAS to be better!!

Luckily Anita my saviour from Red Cross came around today and has offered her invaluable help to me to try to work out this uni thing.

Hopefully Stitch will decide to come back.

Hopefully Brandon wont pull anymore "I refuse to go to school" acts this week.

Hopefully his appointment at Child Health will go smoothly this week.

Hopefully the scary woman who is supposed to be organising my TAFE will forget how angry she is with Scott and not give me a hard time when I go to see her this week!!

and Hopefully my husband and kids wont decide to side with MY head and wish that I would just hurry up and leave them alone!

THIS WEEK WILL BE BETTER! I AM ALIVE! I HAVE BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN! I HAVE A WONDERFUL HUSBAND! I HAVE A ROOF OVER MY HEAD AND FOOD TO EAT! I AM BLESSED! (yeah right!)

Australia Day 2007

I guess I am a week late, but thought I would share how we spent Australia day anyhow.

<<<<------- We got to see Paul Kelly live in concert for FREE!!!!

It was amazing!!

I saw Paul Kelly in concert for the first time when I was a kid, maybe 10-12 years old. Mum had won tickets through the local paper. He played at the "Gun Turret Ruins" at East Point in Darwin with the Coloured Girls...a haunting venue, perfect for such an icon!

So anyhow, Australia day he played for free at our Entertainment Centre, well kind of free, we were supposed to get tickets out of the local paper apparently, but since I got my information from the council website, which of course didn't mention the paper....we turned up WITHOUT any newspapers and were told we couldn't go. That is until a lovely door security guard offered us two tickets that he had in his hand, and a man standing at the ticket booth that had heard our disappointment, gave us 3 more tickets!! How nice was that!!!!

The concert was absolutely awesome, I just lurve Aussie Rock at the best of times, but to hear Paul Kelly live is just magic! Braithe unfortunately missed it all. God only knows how, but he managed to sleep right through the entire concert! But Keila and Brandon loved it. (Brandon is a groover from waaaay back)!

We topped off the day by venturing down to our local Riverway where we watched Ice Age 2.....again for FREE.....while the kids sat in the pool!!! How incredible is that? They set up the screen right at the end of the big pool, where there is a shallow step created there...(and now we understand why)...So everyone just sits in the pool to watch the movie! We will definitely be keeping our eyes peeled on the council site for when the next movie is due!

We always try to get out and about for Australia Day, but I have to say that this one is the best we have experienced for a while!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!!!!

The Lucky Elephant

So, everybody creates their own luck...I understand that, but after the past few years, you can't really blame me for asking for a little help!

I am putting it out there to the universe, to my new Lucky Elephant there, (complete with my son's hands, so how lucky must that be! he he).....this year I would like to succeed with my family skills, my studies, with my life goals to get better physically, mentally, and spiritually, and with my resolve to become the person that I believe I used to be pre "losing it".

I used to be a competant person, a woman who was able to hold down a full time job, study at night, hold a second job when needed, AND keep my family and household together. I used to be able to look adversity in the face and shrug my shoulders at it. I loved a challenge.

Now, just getting out of bed every morning is a challenge, and I don't love it one bit. Making time to spend with the kids, though something that I want to do, can be almost excruciating sometimes. Showing my husband the love and support that he needs in his time of confusion just feels like it is draining what little energy I do have, and I hate feeling this way, as I don't ever want him to feel like he can't talk to me.

I want all of this to change...and I know that I need willpower, and resolve, and a lot of hard work....and hopefully a little luck will help a long the way.

Day one

Well, Scott went back to work today after a really long Christmas break. It's kind of weird not having him here wafting around the house. I got up and made sure I said goodbye this morning, which was a bit of an ask at 6.15, but it was worth it....I THINK he appreciated it.

I had all these grand plans for our first day without Daddy...one of which included riding our bikes down to the park.....Erm.....it has been raining constantly since some ungodly hour of the morning!! Not that I am complaining, we haven't had any decent rain all wet season, which has been a bit disappointing, so this is a welcome relief....I just wish it had have come a little earlier and NOT on the one day that I am trying to do the "good mum" thing! he he. I'm sure it will clear up later in the week. Until then we have plenty to do around here, puzzles, games, poker...the list goes on. Right now they are entertaining themselves supposedly cleaning up....though just between me and you, there is more playing than cleaning going on out there!

So, I think I might fart around on here for a while, then go and clean out the garage! Now, I have written it, so it must be done!

Have a great one!

Ok, so I guess it's a pretty weird thing to start blogging about, but hey....if you took any notice of my title, you probably have cotton on that I'm not that normal anyhow! Besides, I have been farting around with this site for soooo long now that I had to start writing about something, and this is as exciting as it gets today!
Well....let me introduce you to my babies! Rose, Axl, and Toffee. I am sorry to report that Toffee passed away just before christmas as a result of a lethal Bristle Nose Catfish attack. (The Bristle Nose is now responsible for the death of my beloved Oscar and Toffee, so is now relegated to a guppy bowl!!)
So anyway, I have always wanted Axolotls and finally have moved to a state where I am allowed to keep them. For anybody who is still scratching their heads....Axolotls are also known as Mexican Walking Fish, though they are not really fish. They are the laval stage of the Salamander. Mine will never turn into Salamanders though as they have been bred in Australian aquariums and the ability to morph has been genetically removed from them. They are so cool, each has it's own personality. For example Rose begs for food and is quite active, while Axl is a bit of a loner, and spends a lot of time in his log. My kids love them!!!! They have taken them to school on several occasions with little information sheets, and their show and tell sessions have been really successful. Braithe my youngest enjoys collecting the worms and feeding them, which is really cool since Braithe has never liked touching any type of insect up until we got the Axls.
At present Axl and Rose are sulking at the bottom of their tank, they had their fortnightly water change, and though you would think they would appreciate all the nasties being taken out of their tank, they just hate things being moved around! They'll get over it!