Me through the eyes of Mop

Righto, I've finally got Mop home to do this! So here we go... I've been tagged...



1. What is something mum always says to you?
"I'm not happy"

(Hmm.... I thought it would be STOP FIGHTING WITH YOUR BROTHER!)


2. What makes mum happy?
"When I obey you or when I help you cook dinner"



3. What makes mum sad?
"When I disobey you"


4. How does your mum make you laugh?
"Telling jokes to me... *chuckle*"


5. What did your mum like to do as a child?
"um.. well I don't know anything!"



6. How old is your mum?
"31 or 30 maybe" (30 is correct.)



7. How tall is your mum?
"Taller than this *holds her hand up above her head*"



8. What is her favourite thing to watch on TV?
"Ummm videos"

(you got that right. I don't own Pride and Prejudice on DVD yet!)


9. What does your mum do when you're not around?
"Umm... do some sewing!"

(That's right - the house cleans itself.....:) ) - as I wrote that Mop asked "How does the house clean itself?"

10. If your mum becomes famous, what will it be for?
"Because of your fancy dresses"

(okkaaaay then...I think she means I'll wear them when I am famous)

We asked again and I explained it...

"AT SEWING!!!!"


11. What is your mum really good at?
"Sewing! Or.. umm... writing on the computer"


12. What is your mum not very good at?
"Not good at drawing people."


13. What does your mum do for her job?
"Load the dishwasher, ummm... I think... I don't remember."


14. What is your mum's favorite food?
"Bananas!"

(uhhhh pass the chocolate!)


15. What makes you proud of your mum?
"When she doesn't boss me."

(ohher spot the rebellious little feistball!)


16. If your mum were a cartoon character, who would she be?
"Ummm... The March Hare. *Giggle*"

(Thanks babe! LOL)


17. What do you and your mum do together?
"We cook together and take pictures when we want to."


18. How are you and your mum the same?
"Cos we both have brown hair!"


19. How are you and your mum different?
"you have brown pupils... and I have blue."

(I think she means irises and they are green!)


20. How do you know your mum loves you?
"Because we hug each other.*hugs me*"


21. What does your mum like most about your dad?
"Don't remember"


22. Where is your mum's favourite place to go?
"I think it's Aunty Becky's house"

Go on, have a cluck!!

Watch out... Skip's having a brag!

I just had a very head swelling and heart soaring moment.

I went to pick up Mop from school and Mrs N (her teacher) asked me if she could have a word to me about Mop. My heart sunk - what on earth has she done now?? Mrs N cleared the room, kicking all the kids out onto the playground and asked me to sit down.
"What has she done??" I asked
"Oh nothing bad!" Mrs N said... somehow that didn't reassure me.
"I want to talk to you about how impressed I am with Mop's work. She is .... unbeliveable!"
I let the breath I had been holding out and my body slumped with relief.
Mrs N then went on to tell me that she has been giving Mop year 1 work more and more this term. Not only does she understand it and is capable of doing it, she does far and beyond what it asked. She showed me some examples. Her sentence formation is good. Her writing, spelling and reading is brilliant. She is in the words of Mrs N "A whizz and that girl is going places!! She is incredibly intelligent, and I believe she has a photographic memory. She really retains alot of information, and she doesn't just parrot it, she understands it!"
Mrs N then said that in all her years of teaching (all 7 of them! LOL) that she has never skipped a child forward, but she wants to move Mop forward. So she will be in year 1 next term and will go to year 2 with all the rest of the year 1's next year. Mrs N. will work with the Reception teacher to work out a program so that Mop will still graduate from Reception, even though she hasn't completed the work and graduate from year 1 at the end of this year.

I'm so proud of my girl!! She really is a smart little thing, and I am so glad that she will be challenged mentally and that she is succeeding in her work.

Daz and I have decided that this is the best course of action and of course we are very proud of her. So year 1 here we come!!

:)

PS: This is the same daughter who was born in a very bad way, and the doctor said it was possible she would be brain damaged. :)

Such an awesome testimony to the power of prayer and God.

Renmark..

Last weekend, we spent a few days in Renmark with some friends. We had a really lovely relaxing time. The Big4 Renmark Carvan park is amazing and has the most lovely pool, jumping pillow for the kids and great grounds! We really loved it there. They even play boppy music in the toilet. :)
The first night was a bit rough, I had to walk the grounds with Milly, who didn't want to sleep. I got 4 hours sleep that night. Yuck!!
Saturday we visited a few of the wineries, went swimming, went 10-pin bowling and had an awesome day. Sunday we went to Monash playground and let the kids run themselves ragged for a few hours.

All up, it was good fun playing with the kids and spending time with our friends.

My very first award!!

WOW! I'm honored! I would like to thank my Mum, my Dad, my husband, my kids, my dog, my cats, my friends, my family....

:)

I was awarded this by Mousey over at



"The Dardos Award is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web."

“Premio Dardos” means “prize darts” in Italian. This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day.

The Rules:

1. Accept the award, post it in your blog together with the name of person granted the award and his or her blog link.

2. Past the award to 15 other blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgement. Remember to contact them to let them know they have been chosen for this award'

1. Gail
2. LWD
3. Donna
4. Brazen
5. Carrose
6. Renata
7. Mel
8. Little Blossom's designs

Ok I am going to have to do the remaining 7 later on, when I can think of more. :)

Common have a bawl with me...

Seriously, I've been watching these and howling my eyes out!!!

Can't blame hormones either!!

I think I'm scared now....

Ok, it's only been 4 weeks, but I am scared. I am doing my readings for uni, and seriously, I had to look up about 10 words per page in the dictionary!!

Do you know what ennui means? What about cabals? Oh you would have to know what rubric means!! And what about maladroit?

Now can you see why I am scared. This dude is tossing about words like this in his paper. And this is supposed to be an easy subject!!!

*crawls into a corner to cry*

Well... I guess I'll have an awesome vocab when I graduate. My words will be multiudionous.

And if you want to know what those words mean, www.dictionary.com is your friend - like it is mine!!!

The good times keep rolling...

Hiya!!

Hope you are enjoying the long weekend - if you have one that is! We are doing alot of things that we have been putting off for a while. This is good, because we can get a few things done before we go away to QLD next month. I've been cleaning inside, and Daz doing the outside.

We are just about to sand back and paint our side tables that we got from Dunstone Grove Jumble Sale. I was so proud, I got both of them for $15. They are in awesome condition, just the wrong color. They are sturdy, steady and going to look great in our room!

It's been a nice weekend. We had a picnic yesterday in the park with the kids, and both my brother's and their wives rocked up, so we got to catch up with them.
I preached yesterday, and I totally sucked. I just didn't have the stuff in my head enough, and I fumbled and kept losing my place because I relied on my notes so much. Never mind... I'll be better next time. I guess I didn't have enough time to focus on it as I would have liked.

I'm stoked because yesterday I scored LOTS of fabric for free from Freecycle. Two ladies are cleaning out their stash and getting rid of it, and I am the happy recipient. I'll be able to sew and quilt up a storm! :) I'm planning to divy it up with Gail, since she is into sewing and perhaps quilting too... and she doesn't have money to blow on fabric.

Anyway... that's all. Nothing exciting.

Big week ahead filled with lectures, and assignment.

xx Skip

Crikey! It's started....

Mop: Mummy?
Me: Mmmm?
Mop: Talisha loves Ethan.
Me: Does she?
Mop: Yes. They are going to get married.
Me: Uh huh....
Mop: And I love Aaron.
Me: *astonished* Do you?
Mop: yes.
Me: why do you love him?
Mop: Because he takes care of me.
Me: *stunned silence*.........
Mop: He takes me to the office when I am hurt.

Awww.........

Mop: I know you can't marry your family, but can I marry someone from school?
Me: *gulp* uh.. yes.

SHEESH!! She's 5!!! My little girls first crush... yikes!

1 month today...

.... and we are taking off to QLD. Bec and Nick will be invaded by the Skipper Mob.

We can't wait.

Mop is hanging out to go to the Ginger Factory again so we can buy gingerbread.
Daz and I just can't wait to spend time with our dear friends and relax a bit.

While we are away, an old school friend of mine is housesitting for us. She lives in Darwin usually, but she is coming down to have her baby and needs a place to rest and relax after the event, and for her family to stay. Our place is perfect. It's got lots of baby stuff all ready for her to use. This is an awesome arrangement!

I guess I better start booking places to stay soon for on the way up and way home again and reviewing the packing lists - since Milly is no longer a baby and we don't need to take all that baby "stuff".

We are going away next weekend with friends to Renmark. Looking forward to that too. It will be nice to chillax and do nothing but make sure the kids have an awesome time. I hope to squeeze in a trip to the markets for me - but other than that... eh... it's about the kiddies.

Life is crazy busy lately, but I am just so content and happy with it. I love my course, I love creating stuff - it's actually becoming a bit of an addiction. I love my family and love my kids. They are all such treasures. Life is going well.

I'm starting a tag....

This is designed to give your blog readers a bit more insight to YOU.

So the deal is, answer the below questions - then tag all your readers - then they need to send a comment saying they have done the tag - so you can read about them!! You also get the added bonus of finding out who follows your blog. :)

Deal??

Righto, so considered yourself tagged... Yes YOU!
and if I don't get any comments, I'll assume no one loves me and that I actually AM talking to thin air. :) Feel emotionally manipulated enough? Good.. :)


1. 5 Things I LOVE to do
2. 5 things I HATE to do.
3. 5 Things I WISH I could do
4. 5 Things that make me happy
5. 5 Things that annoy me.
6. 5 things that make me sad
7. 5 things that make me laugh.


So here I go:
1. 5 Things I LOVE to do

1. Quilting/Sewing/craft in general.
2. Organising
3. Playing board games
4. Entertaining
5. Preaching.

2. 5 things I HATE to do.

1. Laundry - seriously that stuff breeds
2. Ironing.
3. Exercise
4. Fight.
5. Ring up perfect strangers.

3. 5 Things I WISH I could do

1. Spend a whole day in Spotlight with a massive gift voucher
2. Go overseas - Europe, Asia, UK
3. Spend time in the snow.
4. Play a musical instrument that ISN'T percussion
5. Paint beautiful pictures.

4. 5 Things that make me happy

1. Spending time with my family
2. My faith in God.
3. Going to plays, musicals etc
4. Spending time with dear friends
5. The complete unconditional love my children have for me.

5. 5 Things that annoy me.

1. Shopping trolleys that are impossible to steer.
2. Cats that fight in the middle of the night.
3. Drama queens.
4. Being disrespected because of my thoughts, opinions or beliefs.
5. Being manipulated. :)

6. 5 things that make me sad

1. The suffering children have to endure because of choices adults make for them.
2. The suffering humans have to endure because of illness.
3. Wars
4. The fact that people allow themselves to become so bitter and make other people suffer because of it.
5. Non-acceptance of PEOPLE.

7. 5 things that make me laugh.

1. My kids.
2. My husband
3. Dave Hughes
4. Karl Barron
5. Rove Live - apart from stupid Ryan Kelton... or whatever his name is.

A few tidbits.

Allo...
What do you think of the new layout? I've been sprucing up all my blogs. Trying to take it easy this week - and so I thought I would make my blogs all puuuurrrrdy!
The only bad thing with this template is, I am going to have to be a good girl and resize all my pics I put in here so you can see the whole pic, not just half. :) Ehh.. effort.

Study is going well. I have completed one test and am in the process of doing a written assignment. I'm finding this assignment quite interesting because it's forcing me to dig deep inside myself and explain why I believe what I do.

The voice lost thing went on for much longer than desired. 5 days of barely any voice is seriously too much. When it was gone completely I had to bang on things, clap and do all sorts of loud things to get people's attention. Very frustrating when the kids lapped it up for all it was worth. I couldn't tell them over and over to do something, and I ended up just giving up. I lack the energy and the voice to tell them off!

Mop's voice has started to crackle - but feels ok. She probably has caught what I had. That's a change, usually it's the kids spreading their disease to me! Payback!!

Righto... better move on.

Nice seeing you!

I've been tagged!

The lovely Donna has tagged yours truly. Now the deal is:

1. Go to the section of your computer where you store all of your photos.

2. Select the 6th folder.

3. Select the 6th photo from that folder.

4. Post and explain about that picture.

5. Tag 6 other people

Well this is the picture:




This is a picture of Milly, sitting the the kids table for the first time. She loved sitting there, she was proud as punch!

But because I am such an awesome person and the rules don't apply to me - I'm tagging no one. :)

Update...

Well it's been pretty nutty in the Skipper household. Let's see, what's been happening.

Mop has launched into the 09 school year with gusto and enthusiasm. She has been doing After School Sports once a week and she comes home very exhausted after that. She also has started piano lessons. She loves them and she is very excited about it. She enjoys school very much and has some friends she likes to play with. One thing that happened though, I am not thrilled about, is that she was excluded from playing with some girls, because she didn't have blonde hair. Oh well... she was upset, but she focused on the positive, which is that Abby played with her, and she doesn't care what color our hair is. :)

E has settled into kindy nicely. He loves it, though he is a bit reluctant for me to leave him, and he is always happy to see me. I'm not sure what he does all day long, but he always has lovely days, according to his teachers. Apparently he is getting involved socially as well, which is a relief to me. He gets in with the boys and mucks around with them. When we have had groups of people here at the house, he goes and hides in corners. So I am really pleased that he is evolving into a social little man.

Milly is running around at alarming speeds. She is growing up so quickly, it's so sad. She is saying alot more now. When you ask her where her nose is, she points to it.... well... up it... and says "noes" - she has a few other words she says as well. "Yummy" is the most useful, because that means she is hungry.

I started studying last week. My first two subjects are Study Techniques and Creative Living. I started to freak out at the amount of assignments that were dished out at the beginning, but when I pace myself, I'll be able to get them done. I have to comment after every lecture as part of assesment on the forums, and sometimes I feel out of my league. You can tell who have been doing tertiary education for ages, and know their stuff... then there are a few like me who are using the language of newbies! LOL

We are starting to make plans for our annual trek to Bec and Nick's in QLD. We are also planning a weekend getaway with some friends. We all work very hard at what we do, so it will be good to chillax together.

I am not well at the moment. I have some sort of infection in my lungs and it has effected my voice and throat. I sound awful. Thankfully my voice died last night and not yesterday morning. I was preaching in church and though I struggled a bit, my voice held out! :)

I have lots of creative projects on the go and have been enjoying working on them. If you want to know more about them, then you can check out Creative Expressions (my craft blog).

Here are some recent pics of the kids:

What's that smell??

A funny story...

I was standing there, minding my own business. I hear Sir E (aka Gross-one) behind me.. "What's that smell???" Then I feel something pressed up to my bottom. I peek over my shoulder, and he has his manky feral, but much loved teddy, "smelling" my butt!!!!

Oh he is SUCH a gross boy!!!

First day of Kindy...

*sob*



Look at him! All grown up!!




Today E started at Kindy. I was expecting him to cry, scream, grab my legs and sob his heart out when I took him there - like he does when I drop him off somewhere else for a play time. We met the teachers, we started playing with dried kidney beans - he tiped them from one cup the other.. then we played playdoh. Then I said to him that I was going to go home and do a load of washing - and then come back and get him. He barely looked at me "Ok then Mum, bye!"
I got a kiss.... and I stood up... waiting for the arms to fly around my legs. I waited for the screams and howls. Nothing. I looked at his teacher in shock. She smiled. I walked out the door... nothing...
He had a most wonderful day! He did some paintings of snakes. He had a water fight and had to have his clothes changed!! Naughty!! He played outside with the kids. Sat quietly during story time. He really had a wonderful day.
Not only did he enjoy kindy, but he was happy for the rest of the day. No whinging or anything. He was in a brilliant mood!! And he is really excited about going back to school tomorrow. :) I'm so glad that went smoothly - though a little shocked.



Today my study materials arrived. I have two subjects to do this semester. One is a small one and the other is a bigger one. I'll be getting into that soon. But I can't believe it. My future is sitting across from me. :)

Tomorrow is Mum's birthday and we are having a big family dinner to celebrate. I have a rather huge surprise for her - and I hope it doesn't kill her!! LOL. More about that later because she may read this and guess.

Well I better push on. I have lots of housework to do this evening because I was naughty and sewed for most of the day! :)

Feeling HOT HOT HOT!!!

No... not THAT hot... Heat hot.

In case you missed it, SA has been in a killer heatwave. Tomorrow and Saturday won't be much better - which means I need to move the birthday party E was going to have from the playground to a local play cafe. Thankfully the people who ran it were willing to help us at such short notice.

And a sad thing, my Aunty's MIL died unexpectedly during this heatwave. Her FIL is on death's door with cancer, and his wife has been running around after him in the middle of this heat. She became unwell, called a locum and died when he was there. Very very sad.

So what's been going on over ere?

I got my official "you're in" call from the head of my department a few days ago. She held a small interview over the phone to make sure I was truly suitable for the course. She concluded that I was of sound mind and not emotionally disturbed.... SUCKER!!! ;)

Mop started school again on Monday. She loves it!! We have signed her up for after school sports program and piano lessons. She starts that next week. :) On the morning of her second day I introduced myself to the teacher and she commented that Mop was "very confident!" That's my girl!!

E turns 3 on Monday and he's having a birthday party on Saturday as I mentioned before. He starts pre-school/kindy next week, the same one that Mop went to. It will be good for him to go out and play with other kids.

Milly Moo is pretty painful at the moment. She has teeth moving around all over the place and she just wails and whinges. Hopefully those toothy pegs pop through soon and she will be back to her sunny self. She's howling at me now, drool going EVERYWHERE!!
She has taken off in the walking department and rarely crawls anymore.
She is pointing to stuff saying "There!" - and wants us to name whatever it is she is pointing at. Quite cute!

Daz had his birthday a few days ago and we went out for dinner to celebrate. His parents got him a Wii!! (Well... his Mum won it...and she passed it on! :) ) - so Daz went out to get a Wii Fit for the rest of his birthday present and Valentine's day! WOOT!!

Me - eh... nothing to report really. Just got into study - and I should be receiving my first module which is "Creative Living" - apparently it's nice and easy according to my head of department to "ease me in" which is good! :)

One more day of nasty heat... then a cool change should arrive. Hanging for it... totally hanging for it!!

Love from Skipper

I'm in!

I just got a letter callling me a Counselling Student!! WOOT!!

Orientation Day is on the 11th of February!

:) Cool!!!

Long Weekend Away

Hey!!

On the weekend, we went to the Yorke Peninsula and spent time there vegging and relaxing.

We spent time with a childhood friend of mine. We had dinner at their place, played Sequence, and had a great night. We went to church the next day and then had lunch with them afterwards. Since they are worship directors as well, we had an awesome night of talking "shop" and many laughs and memories shared. We love spending time with them.

We took the kids to a playground I used to play at when I was little, we also did some op-shopping and found some awesome bargains!

Then of course we spent a bit of time on the beach. Milly was happy to eat the sand and Mop spent the whole time swimming. She is definately her mother's daughter. Milly loved the water too. E was a bit insecure about it, and grumpy from lack of sleep, but once he was in, he was ok. He didn't like the waves much.

Here are some photos of our time at the beach.













OTHER NEWS:

My application to study has been sent off. They emailed me to tell me it's being processed.

Milly is being brave and walking alot more. She seems to have confidence issues. She doesn't like falling over and so she doesn't walk much. But she is getting better and walking more. In her own time.

Mop starts school again Monday. She can't wait... which reminds me, I better start sorting her school stuff out! Labelling and all that.

E's birthday party is next weekend. Hopefully this heatwave has ended by then!! It's going to be in the park, his favourite place.

We are starting to get organised now for our big annual trek to Brisbane in April. We have 9 weeks until we go. I'll start reviewing the packing lists, start getting the caravan serviced and all that. I love this holiday and I can't wait until we go. It's so awesome to spend 2 whole weeks with my best friend. :)

Something wonderful and quite bizzare happened. I was "blog surfing" - where I went from blog to blog, just clicking on ones that look interesting. I was reading a blog that was fascinating - and she had photos of her, her family and her property. Suddenly I find a picture of the lady herself.... and I looked into the face of someone I was sure I knew!! I looked closer - and it clicked! She looked VERY much like a girl I went to school with in Mt Isa about 19-20 years ago. I scrolled up to her details - and I found her name. Her name was the same. So I contacted her and it was her!!! So we are busy getting to know each other once again.

What are the odds eh?

Righto, I better get going. The kids are getting narky.... I hate this heatwave - it's too hot for the kids to go outside and they are behaving like caged animals.

It's been one of those weeks...

I shall be very glad when tomorrow comes. We are going away for the long weekend and it will be a bit of a break away from everyday routine.

At this moment my precious adorable ray of sunshine son is having a meltdown. He doesn't want to go to sleep. So he's screaming. His choice. He also chooses the consequences.

Milly Moo is cutting molars. She is miserable, has a fever and is biting every thing she can get her jaw around.

Mop is moody and sick of school holidays. She is definately ready for school. Poor thing.

Me - I'm not sleeping so good. I'm having crazy dreams. Last night I dreamed that Bec my bestie died. It was very horrible. I woke up sobbing. My chest hurt so bad from the emotional wrenching. I was so glad it was a dream! Now I am feeling all pathetic and want to ring her - but I know as soon as she says hello I'll start bawling and say "DON'T DIE!!" Stupid me... so stupid.

Not much has been happening this week which is nice. My big news is that my application was sent off tonight for starting my Bachelor. Exciting stuff!! I'll have letters after my name! Not only that but I'll be able to make a difference in people's lives.

*dances about like a mad thing*

Righto...

Spose I should be heading off... might put on a movie and procrastinate with packing for the weekend. :)

Love Skip xx