Fingers Crossed for Grommets

Bailey is scheduled to have his grommets put into his ears this Thursday 4th May, after postponing last month due to heavy illness. Finally he is clear of his past illnesses so fingers crossed he does not develop anymore by Thursday. If he does then we'll have to wait yet another month for them to be done.

Deal or No Deal

Laura and I had a great day filming 5 episodes of Deal or No Deal yesterday. We felt very nervous and excited. We waited all day for our block to be called and hoped we would be called for the 500th episode, but to no avail. The 500th episode will be very exciting to watch and you will see us in the audience in Block 6 Row B (second row from the front). Especially at the opening of the show, so keep your eyes peeled to the tele. The 500th episode will probably be aired on or around the 18th of May. There will be lots of promotion for it so keep watching.

Finally on the last episode of the day our block was finally called. We jumped around with lots and lots of genuine excitement. They tell you that's what they want you to do but it is very hard not to get excited. Our episode will follow the 500th episode and you will see Laura on case no. 6 and me on case no. 7. My case is chosen in the first 6 cases of the show.

After the show we purchased a T Shirt, mainly because the proceeds of the T Shirts go to the Royal Childrens' Hospital, so this would mean it will help Kaytie (see Kayties Story link on the right hand side of this page).

We were exhausted by the end of the day and when I got home I had a shower, a cup of tea and went straight to bed, where I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow and I slept until 7.30am

If you're interested in becoming a contestant on Deal or No Deal it is really very easy and you'll have lots and lots of fun. Andrew interacts with the audience a lot and he comes up to the podium to personally thank the contestants. He is great fun and there are lots of laughs to be had.

All you have to do to audition is email your request to cash@seven.com.au or send a stamped, self addressed envelope to Deal or No Deal Contestant Search, 119 Wells Street, Southbank, 3006

Layout Publication

I am so excited because May is the month that the For Keeps magazine comes out with my double page layout published inside it. It's the first time I've had a layout published. Check out the Prince and Princess section for a double page spread on Micayla's 5th "Princess Party" Birthday. Magazine out now!

You can also view the layout be clicking on the link to my layouts on the right hand side. Once in the album select Scrapbooking Layout sub album.

A Day to Scrap

On Saturday Adrian went off with the boys for a bike ride. I had Tania over with Nathan and Mitchell, while Scott went to the footy. The boys played with Micayla and Bailey while Tania and I spent the afternoon scrapbooking. We were having a nice afternoon and decided to carry on into the night. You could tell the kids were having fun because the house had looked like a tornado had gone through it, including the scrapping mess all over the kitchen table from us. The house was spotless before we started. Adrian came home from the ride and Tania picked up Scott and we all had Pizza for tea and a nice relaxing evening having a few drinks and a friendly chat. We do enjoy Scott and Tania's company and we were enjoying the conversation. They went home around 12.30am after all the kids fell asleep watching a DVD, except Nathan. 12.30am is quite late for us these days but I could have gone on chatting for hours. I woke up feeling a little bit seedy this morning and the house still needs cleaning up. I'll get there eventually.

Luck comes in 3's

After coming home from Easter holidays and picking up my 3rd prize in the school Easter raffle, I then found a couple of emails waiting for me. One was from Scrapbooking Memories telling me I'd won a pack of Scotch adhesive products; pretty cool. And the other was from "Deal or No Deal" saying "Congratulations Laura and Andrea, you have been selected to play Deal or No Deal". How excited were we! After auditioning months ago we'd given up on the thought we'd have a chance to go in. Laura and I have decided to double our chances of winning and go halves in the prize money (thinking positively here). I'm so glad we have this chance because David and Laura really deserve to win some money after everything they have been through. SO WATCH THIS SPACE to find out if WE WIN BIG or not!

Click on the link to "Kaytie's Story" on the right to learn more about the battle Laura and David are going through with their sick newborn in the Royal Childrens' Hospital.

Easter Holiday in Moama

We picked Micayla up from school early on Thursday afternoon with the intention of leaving by 2.00pm. We finally made tracks at 3.30pm. The Monash was 50 minutes to Kings Way so we went a different way, overall the traffic wasn't too bad. We stopped for about 1/2 hour for dinner and got there around 8.00pm. A 4 1/2 hour trip, a bit longer than usual but it could've been worse. It didn't take us long and we were set up when Marty, Julie, Sarah and Brandon arrived around 11.30pm. And that was it, all our clan had arrived. For various reasons most of our usuals couldn't make this Easter, so it made for a very quiet relaxing trip.

Our annexe is very old and leaks so we have a tarp over the roof of it. We'd left it up from the last time we were there and when we arrived we found it torn and shredded. It looked like the annexe was wearing a hula skirt. It was too late to do anything by 8pm so we decided we'd buy a new tarp in the morning, after all we weren't expecting rain until late Friday. At 5.30am it started raining so here we were out in the rain at 5.30 putting up a tarp we got out of Scott and Tania's van. Happy we were covered again we went back to bed. When we got up in the morning we found that Scott and Tania's tarp leaks too and we were all wet under foot in the annexe. Bought a new tarp and got it up before a thunderstorm hit us. It rained all Friday evening and we spent the night entertaining Marty and Julie inside our van. The boys were planning their high country trip on the lap top while Julie and I chatted eating and drinking.

Saturday we went and visited my sister and brother in law Rochelle and Mark and their kids Kieran and Taylah. It was Taylah's birthday a couple of weeks earlier so we gave her her present and the kids had a ball playing on the bikes and scooter on the road outside their van. We came home and lounged around with a glass of wine/beer around the fire. We then set up the spit and cooked a delicous leg of lamb smothered in rosemary and thyme and had roasted potato and pumpkin in the camp oven/pan in the fire. Brandons comment was "we are cooking our food in the ground". How cute! We had no more rain for the rest of the weekend and sat around a beautiful warm fire.
Sunday morning the kids got up to their Easter Eggs and then wanted to go swimming. How could they? It was freezing. Because of the cold we had not even bothered to put the boat in the water. The girls nagged and nagged, so we thought if we take them swimming they'll feel how cold it is and get out and not nag anymore. They were very brave, toe testing first but ended up waist deep in the water. While the girls
were swimming Bailey was throwing rocks and sticks into the water. After a while they got cold and hopped out for the rest of the day; well at least until they started nagging to put the boat in the water because they wanted a biscuit. We decided to put the boat in at Echuca wharf and decided to take a little cruise to see the Port of Echuca by boat. We then decided to find a spot to ski from and Adrian kept driving and driving and we were freezing in the wind. We'd gone so far that when we found a spot we discovered we were actually only about 2 k's from our camp spot. Remember we launched in Echuca and we camp in Moama. I didn't bother to ski, cause the water was just way too cold. I was standing in the water for about 10 minutes and usually, after a while, your feet get used to the cold water but mine just kept getting icyer. The girls had one biscuit then we were taken back to camp while the boys went and brought the boat back in. While everyone was gone, we were sitting in the van and it was quiet all around, then Micayla spotted a Kangaroo bouncing through our campsite. The kids were all very excited and it jumped over the fence like it was bouncing over a stick and hopped away. We had another quite night by the fire before packing up the next morning to go home. Home to the big clean up before Micayla went back to school the next day. Although we were keen to get to school, because late Thursday afternoon we had a phone call from her teacher to say we had won 3rd prize in the school Easter raffle. There was 18 prizes all up. Now we have Easter Eggs to last us until next Easter. It was a washing basket full of bunnies, eggs etc but there were also books, toys, teddies and stationery, just to break up the chocolate.

Easter Hunt In Moama

Easter Bunny hopped into the caravan and left a nice little mess for me to clean up. Micayla gets so excited to see Easter Bunny's prints all over the floor. She told her school teacher that that's what he does. Bailey has no idea yet, he just likes getting chocolate. As soon as he saw his Chocolate Bunny on the table he grabbed it, jumped up onto our bed, unwrapped it and ate it for breakfast, he didn't care about what else was left for him, so Micayla brought it over to him to show him.

Once they'd seen what the Easter Bunny had left inside, they wanted to see what he'd left outside. So they grabbed their baskets and off they went outside with Sarah and Brandon to hunt down more eggs. Bailey found one on the ground, unwrapped it and ate it. We had to guide him to the other eggs scattered around. Micayla was a great help and would point them out to him and not let the others take them from the hiding spot before Bailey could get to it. Once it was all over they tucked into their eggs and that was their breakfast.

All Clear

Bailey developed sever asthma and we had the ambulance out to him. He ended up on Prednisolone and had his preventer upgraded to a stronger one and I had to give him ventolin every 2 hours.

We saw the Doctor today and they have both been given the all clear, finally. What an exhausting week and a half I've had. They maybe sick and just lying around but they winge, and want to lay all over you and you are continually up and down administering medicine. I do it all without complaining because I love them so much, but I'm glad it's over, now I need to rest. It's good to see them well again and back to their normal selves.

Micayla's Scrapbooking

Micayla loves to sit down with me and produce her own pages. I buy her 12x12 paper when it's on special and she uses my scraps and left over embellishments. Sometimes I buy her her own packet of cheap embellishments and stickers. She also gets to use my stamps and ink. She has her own scrapbooking kit she got for her birthday one year, but that's almost all used up. Here are a couple of her creations.

The first one is at the Gingerbread Factory when we went on an excursion with the Kinda and guess what the other one is.

Update on kids illness

It is guaranteed now that Bailey won't be having his grommets put in this Thursday. It is 1am in the morning and I am up with Bailey. He has been coughing a lot and took 8 puffs of the ventolin before it would settle down. He had a fever with a temp of 39.3. I've managed to get it down to 37.5 but now he is fully awake and firing on all fours. The rest of the family are tucked up in bed sleeping, which is where I'd love to be, but no I am still up playing cricket with my little man who just won't go back to sleep.

The kids are sick

Micayla came down with a heavy chest cold and asthma over the weekend and now I have her home from school until Wednesday at least. Just when I was getting used to peace and quite again when she went back from school holidays. We collected some homework and readers from her teacher to do while she is at home. I wish she had have given us some more, what she has given us won't keep her busy enough.

The worst problem is, Bailey has now got it and is supposed to be going in on Thursday to have grommets put in. I don't think that will be happening now. NOT HAPPY!!!!

Your Regular Addams Family

We have a new pet!!! A spider has made a home for itself in our ensuite window and Adrian started feeding it insects. Sick I know!!! But now I don't have the heart to clean away those cobwebs. Our friends are even helping to pick out a name for "our pet spider". The kids are even facinated to see how a spider feeds on the insects. I just think it's disgusting.