2 Weeks, 4 days till...

we leave on our trip. The flights are booked, the accommodation is booked - and I've been making connections with people in those countries. I look forward to meeting people I only know via email - this is exciting! Graham is slowly healing and we're hoping and praying that he won't be in any pain and can move easily when it's time to leave.

The cat is healing too and should have his bandages off in a few days - this is good because I don't want to have to be worrying about him whilst we're gone or lean on our girls to have to take him back and forth to the vet.

One more week and Christine comes home from Euroa - we go up next weekend to help her bring her things home.

Mental note: I have to remember to stop hitting Ctrl+S everytime I finish a paragraph - it automatically saves and publishes the post before I've finished writing.

If you are in Ireland, London or Paris I'd love to hear from you about places to go see and things to do - it's my first trip to all those places, although Graham has been to London in the past, but mainly on business.

My Archives Are Missing!

I know the archive links aren't working - hubby rang me from work to let me know (he must have had time to do a bit of surfing and reading!).

I am hosting our blog on our own server and haven't yet worked out why they're not showing up so am waiting for support help - so please do come back and visit another time and hopefully they'll be up by then. ;-)) K.

Kicking off the New Year!

Happy New Year to you all! And I hope it is a happy one for you.

Well, the cat worked out how to get his collar off after several days but hasn't yet succeeded in chewing his bandage off, so I guess that's good.

We're on countdown here - well, some of us anyway. Christine has been accepted into a course with the National Irish Stud in Ireland and so her father and I will be flying with her at the end of this month. Now, this could be interesting because less than a week ago Graham came off his mountain bike whilst in Olinda with Ryan and Dave, and he's a little sore, with a possible cracked rib. So we're all hoping and praying he'll heal well enough for a long flight and travel round Ireland.

I've always wanted to travel to Ireland so this is a wonderful opportunity - my ancestors are from there. We're also going to do a quick visit to London and Paris and I plan to meet with some VAs (what's a VA? Click here) during our trip - some of them I know via the Internet so it would be a shame not to meet with them face-to-face when I'm over their side of the world! The rest of the family will be home, keeping things going over here and Brigitte (my part-time assistant) and one of my team members (you really do have to click above about the VA if you don't know what I mean) will be keeping things going in my business. So, particularly at the end of January and early February, I hope to do a few 'where are we now?' type posts, along with suitable photographs to give you an idea of our trip.

Family Pet Found!

Beauie went missing just before Christmas. He is a 13 year old Burmese cross cat with the most beautiful placid nature and our girls have grown up with him here in Melbourne. He is loved very much so when he didn't come home for breakfast or dinner on Thursday 22nd Dec we got worried. And the next day, and the next day.

On the Friday I made up posters with a photo of him and put it in the letterboxes of homes in our street and in a local shop window. Also laminated and stuck copies of it on our two front gateways for passing pedestrian traffic. Nothing. And then on Boxing Day (26 Dec) I went out to feed Shadow (another of our 3 cats) and Beauie jumped down from a box he was in, limping badly. His front right paw was swollen and filled with pus - the vet couldn't tell us what might have happened, perhaps a bite, perhaps a tear if he had his foot trapped somewhere. Anyway, he's been home now 6 days and not liking his collar or bandage but loving all the attention. His paw isn't stuck in the air by the way, he just likes to shake it to try and get the thing off - and it looks like he's holding it up to show you all!

You Are Rudolph

Sweet and shy, you tend to be happiest when you're making someone else happy. Why You're Naughty: You sometimes stick that nose where it doesn't belong Why You're Nice: Christmas would be a sad affair without you!

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

Resolution Time Again!

Well, it's almost here, the time when people plan once again, to lose weight, to get more exercise, to make more money, to spend more time with family and many more things. Did you achieve any of your resolutions for 2005?

I'm proud to say I did. I wanted to lose a minimum 1kg per month, i.e. 12kgs for the year. But I didn't do anything about it till April - and only because the Pastor from my church had lost 10kg, it showed, and he told hubby and me he was going to Weight Watchers. So, that did it! If he was going so was I and I did.

I had a lot of learning to do, but it did pay off. I'm almost 14kgs lighter (that's 14kgs in 8 months and not 12kgs in 12 months), 15cm less around the waist, and I'm also fitter. I started going to the gym up the road for a few months but now have a bike and treadmill in the spare room at home so it means I can go into my own gym anytime I want, as often as I want, thanks to my hubby and Christmas. I'm also a lot wiser about the type of food I eat, how I prepare and cook it, and drink more water now. The family likes the food I prepare (they always liked what I did before but like this better) and so it's been good for them too.

But weight loss isn't the only resolution I achieved this year. I began to spend more time with family - and not working as much on weekends. Our garden benefited a great deal too - I started on it in November 2004 and it was around June or July this year that I stopped working on it every weekend - that's probably helped in the exercise dept too. I can now take time to smell my own roses, and lavender, and gardenias, and.... The photo to the left was taken March this year but the garden has grown considerably more and I need to go back out there and get some weeding done, when the weather is cooler that is.

Hope that 2006 brings you much of what you're looking for! Me? I'm looking for more family time, more success with my business but perhaps less time in the business and more time on the things that drive me. K.

Looking Back Over 2005

Another year draws to an end. How does it go so fast? Must be because we are busy. Time cannot surely go faster can it? Although it seems to do so.

This year has been a good one with lots of things happening. One of the highlights being the engagement of Angela to Ben Woff in May of this year. He proposed to her on their 5th anniversary. They have been going together since they were 13 1/2 years of age! The engagement party was held at our church with around 100 people in attendance. It was a good night and we met many of his family members. His mother is a Pastor at the church.

The beginning of 2005 saw Graham and me in South Australia, visiting with family members and attending the ordination of friends at a church in Gawler. The timing fit in very well with our planned trip to SA so it was good to be there for them.

Mel and Ryan have been married 18 months now and settled into married life and their rented home at Upwey which is about 40 mins from us in the hills and not far from where the guys go mountain bike riding.

Not long after we got back home Meredith returned from her overseas trip of a few months. She was glad to be back home and returned to Uni to do her Masters in International Politics. She currently works part-time and is busy saving to go overseas again, hopefully late next year.

Miriam completed her 4th year in Uni at Monash and has been preparing for Honours next year. She has also been tutoring a number of Year 10-12 students in Maths and really enjoys doing this. She gets so much satisfaction out of helping teenagers achieve well at school. Damien, her boyfriend of 4 years, is working with Hal Leonard Australia, the print music people. He is also something of a champ in war gaming, has won trophies and is challenged to many competitions.

Christine began work after completing her studies last year at Wangaratta TAFE and has spent the whole year at Euroa. Neville (her boss) has a bungalow on the property that he did up, and that is her home. We helped her shift in and she was also allowed to have Pride come and live on the property too, much to her delight. She was thrilled to be reunited with her horse. We've been up to Euroa a few times now and it's been good to visit Christine at her own place. It really is her dream with a dam outside her front verandah, horses everywhere, beautiful birdlife, a pool on the property and beautiful gardens. They work her hard and she is happy to come home to us periodically, but she really does enjoy it.

Angela has spent the year working, with an insurance company. She walked straight from my office part-time into a full-time position and I lost my assistant. Both Angela and Christine have been able to buy their first cars this year which means we suddenly did not have to do much running around any more. Funny how things change almost over night.

Graham and I have been able to enjoy a few weekends away this year and 2 day weekends are now stretching out to 4 days. Still not long enough, but better anyway. We have a favourite cottage just outside of Warragul in a valley that we like and fortunately the owners like to rent to us. But we did spend a weekend in Beechworth early October. This time Miriam came with us, and Graham's best mate, David Woff, who also happens to be Ben's father. The Mountain Bike Race held in Beechworth was held on the Sunday and we found a house to stay at, 500mtrs down the road from the start of the race. There were heaps of people there that day and beautiful weather. I enjoyed a wander around Beechworth as they all participated in the day's events and then went to the next town to wait for their arrival. Got photos of them as they came each completed the race.

We stopped by Euroa on the way home to pay a visit to Christine but so the boys could also rest after their race from that day. We were traveling in two vehicles and I could only drive one of them so the guys just took it easy in the van. Graham and David (Dad'n'Dave) have been mountain bike riding together for around 3 years now. Graham got his first mountain bike on his 50th birthday. He now owns a few more bikes and it depends on the weather and the terrain as to which one he uses. Miriam also goes out with the guys and on occasion Ryan (Mel's husband) goes, as does Damien (Miriam's boyfriend), and a few young lads from Heatherton church - lads who don't have fathers on the scene and who very much enjoy having Gray and Dave take them out riding. It is now a regular weekend event, sometimes both Saturday and Sunday, depending on what else is happening at home. Recently the tryout for the Commonwealth Games was held where the guys go every week as where the paths have been developed for the Games in 2006. Lysterfield has become a very popular park but the guys were going there long before it was known that the Games would be there. Today they have to share it with a few more people but still find quiet tracks to themselves. They really do have a great deal of fun as well as exercise!

Well, we hope you've had a good year and one that has provided lots of variety and entertainment, as well as good friends and love from families.

I've been learning about blogging and it occurs to me I could blog about my family, my interests and so on - great thing for my extended family to visit and make comment, plus helps me practice this new skill or art. So if I meander in my posts, I guess it's allowed. I'll start off with news from our family newsletter - for those family members and friends who may have missed out getting one.
Kathie