Chinchilla

After a pretty good night's sleep for me and not a great one for dear hubby (kids kept him up but I can sleep through most things it seems) we woke to another beautiful HOT day and headed across the road from the motel for the usual travel breaky of McDonalds. Little Miss R always calls it Old McDonalds and both kids get very excited when we go here because it's such a rare treat.

So after fuelling up on hotcakes, hash browns and orange juice (for kids) and coffee (for Mum and Dad) we set off on an hours drive across the downs past cotton and sorghum fields to the town of Chinchilla. It's the end of the bi-annual Melon festival today so things were really beginning to wind down after what seemed to be a pretty big night.

Our first stop was the park of course as it was still early enough and not too disgustingly hot for the kids to play. I hope it was because of the festival that the park was pretty dirty and that it's not like that all the time as it was a bit feral in some places I can tell you. At least the play areas were pretty clean and very well covered which was great.

Then it was driving ALL around town for a couple of hours looking at houses and blocks of land.

As we're looking at living here we're keeping our options open but we did get a pretty good feel of the place today. Not many of the houses for sale really appealed so it looks like we may be buying a block of land and building a house. The above two blocks are just some of the options available

By 1pm we were ready to find somewhere to just stop for awhile and went to a local motel where we were lucky and able to check in straight away. So it was off to our room amongst the beautiful grounds of the Great Western Motel (above) where we enjoyed the air conditioning and a not very restful afternoon. The kids were a little bit hyperactive after being in the car for so long and being confined to a small space in the motel room was not a good idea.

After letting a bit of the afternoon pass, we eventually decided that 2.30pm was a good time to get in the pool. It was shaded by the trees by then so that helped our decision and it was one of the best decisions we've made all weekend. The pool was BEAUTIFUL and we all stayed in there for well over an hour having some lovely family time. As it was early in the arvo and no one else had really checked in yet, we had the place to ourselves which was an even better bonus.

Then it was time to sit on the little verandah ourside our room to have some snacks/dinner. It's been a bit of a different day so it didn't matter if we were having a bit of a different evening and it was really lovely having some family time outside for awhile.

I do say for awhile because things didn't stay that way. I got bitten by some sort of ant on the instep of my left foot while playing hide and seek in the beautiful gardens with my kids. It's still hurting hours later but I'm not too worried about it anymore because while I was taking some photos of the gardens, the kids were running and playing then Master M face planted into the cement. The below photo is the result and doesn't seem to look as bad in the photo as it really looks.

So it's been a bit of an over-tired and very sore evening for one little man. I also find that at 7pm both my kids and my husband are asleep and I'm sitting in a relatively dark motel room wondering what to do?

A weekend away

It's hubby's RDO weekend so we're off for a couple of days to the town of Chinchilla. It's on the Western Downs in Queensland and is hosting the Melon Festival this weekend. That's not the main reason why we're heading to Chinchilla this weekend but I'll go into that further in future blogs.

I had to work in the morning so we headed off in the afternoon and stopped in the town of Dalby for the night which is only an hour away from Chinchilla. It gave us time to let the kids play in a park near the motel which was really lovely. There was a rotunda ......



A fantastic playground for the kids to play as well as ample room to run around.

Then there was the above lovely water feature which we ended up not getting too close to as there was a red belly black snake in that little bit of shrubbery in front

So we headed around a different way over a lovely little stone bridge and then wandered around town for a bit trying to wear the kids out. After an early dinner it was back to the motel room .....

Where we are all squished into one room so that will be interesting having a night in the same room as the kids. I wonder how much sleep we'll get.

Valentines

This post is a little late for Valentine's Day but unfortunately both hubby and I have come down with the flu which isn't in the slight bit romantic. There is a little story I wanted to share from one of my clients which is why I decided to continue with the post.

But first to our story where we really didn't do much at all for Valentine's day except exchange small gifts. I'm sorry for the quality of the photo but it was a case of quick snapping and not feeling well enough to play around with making it look good.

I crocheted my honey a heart. It's the first heart that I've tried and I thought a pretty teal colour was so much better for him than hot pink. v I decided that giving him something I made that he can keep in his pocket or by his bedside was infinately better than the usual chocolates. (Especially as we're both losing weight)

I received a lovely bunch of flowers which may be a cliche but as I rarely get them they are even more precious so Happy Valentine's Day my love.

To the story of my lovely elder Scottish client who comes to see me semi-regularly. She LoVEs Valentines Day and she told me the story of why.

She was a chubby teenager and into her early 20's and always wanted a Valentine but never received one. Now she has a beautiful, romantic husband and when they first started going out she asked if he could give her a Valentine as she'd always wanted one.

She's now in her late 60's and still adores her husband. They always celebrate Valentine's Day because she said that how many of us really do special things for each other any other day of the year. They bring out all the cards that they've kept from each Valentines Day and put them up around the house.

They don't usually do anything expensive (they're Scottish of course) but celebrate the day with a beautiful card, a romantic dinner and just spending time together with maybe a small gift to exchange. When she left my salon she was so excited at the prospect of Valentines Day coming up that it was like a teenage girl going on her first date. Her hubby was equally excited about it which was so beautiful to see.

Lets hope we all have many special Valentines Days where both parties appreciate the day and believe it something special.

Little Miss R's images

I did something today that I wouldn't normally do. I gave Little Miss R my camera for half an hour and let her walk around taking as many photos as she wanted. At first I was a little apprehensive about giving a 5 year old a camera until I remembered that in this digital age it didn't matter if the photo was crap, all I had to do was delete it. I was also interested in just what she would consider worthy of her interest and decide to snap it!
I have to admit that a lot of the photos really were pretty terrible but there were some that were fantastic and that I loved. I have just a few of those on show for you today and her brother's legs seemed to feature in them regularly.
The first photo was the hole made from the totem tennis pole. They decided that they wanted to stick the hose down it and then yell in the other end. I'm not sure if the intention was to scare the living daylights out of the ants or not but they had some fun doing it.

The slippery dip and swings also featured a great deal.


Master M running around and playing with this piece of hose seemed so much fun at the time that LoTS of photos had to be snapped of it.

I also loved some of the close ups she got of plants and flowers in the yard. It acutally looked like I have an amazingly fantastic garden even though the reality is a little sadder than that.

And of course there was the pirate ship game that she had to take photos of. The pirate ship in question is Daddy's ute of course with lots of rope, pirate noises and many 'sail the seven seas' being yelled about. Walking the plank featured quite a bit and I was amazed at how much fun they had and how easily they took it in turns for this part! There was hardly any whinging, fighting, yelling or hitting for at least half an hour. It was more playing together, laughing and having fun. Yes mothers out there, miracles do sometimes happens, it just means letting the little pirates adrift for awhile.

Friends

Today a couple of things happened that reminded me just how special it is to have friends. My sister came to my salon for a couple of treatments and then we went out for lunch and coffee. I love being able to do that and to have someone special to share such an everyday moment with me. It's not something that I do much anymore (go out to lunch that is) and being able to do it with my sister who is a person with whom 'best friend' just doesn't seem to be able to convey our relationship. She is truly an extraordinary person with whom I am so honoured to know and to have as my friend, let alone as my sister that even having something as mundane as lunch at a cafe is something special.

Then there is another of my friends with whom I love dearly but do not catch up with often. I know a lot of that is my fault because I've come to realise that I'm truly AWfUl at keeping contact with people. I find that when I catch up with my 'true' friends, even though we may not have seen each other for awhile, when we do catch up it's like we've only seen each other the day before. I hope you all have lovely 'true' friends like this too.

I say all of that above because the gorgeous H who is dealing with an extremely stressful situation in her life at the moment, thought enough about me to gift me with the beautiful hair ties that you see in the above photo.

Thank you so much H and S for gifting me with special things today. Love you and thinking of all my other special friends with whom I don't contact that often either.

Susie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A Day in Life: An Ordinary Sunday

I woke up this morning with a bit of a headache so lovely hubby looked after the kids while I got to have a bit of a sleep in. I felt like I'd slept in for most of the day so was surprised when I got out of bed to find that it was only 6.55am!

Had breaky and took something for the headache so started to feel much better. That meant I could get into the day which in this case means WASHING! I seem to have so much of it as it's my first day off so I have work towels as well as work clothes, not to mention sheets and the kids clothes as well.

I also got to admire my new 3/4 pants which I love! Now I've lost a bit of weight I've gone down a size (YaY!!) so treated myself to a couple of pairs of my favourite style denim pants for summer. I just love the pocket detail on the top pair.

Speaking of summer, it's so hot and humid today that I was a little puddle of sweat putting the washing in and out. Luckily I wear sunscreen and a hat otherwise I would be burnt to a crisp with the amount of washing I needed to get on and off the line. Thank goodness we have air conditioning so I was able to escape back into the house to cool down!

What a lovely surprise to find that we have a pumpkin vine growing in the back yard. I'm not much of a gardener (I can hear plenty of laughs from my family there) so when I grow things it's usually by accident and things that can look after themselves very well.

Then it was off to do some grocery shopping which I usually seem to do early on a Sunday. We were definately out of fruit and as we have a couple of fruit bats in the family a re-stock was definately in order.

Choosing some paper to cover Little Miss R's school books was fun too however trying to cover them has not nearly been as fun as I've had two little helpers and it's been slightly fRusTratINg!!

Aaaahhh some crochet time at last. Getting a bit of relaxing time in my cool air conditioned bedroom, watching the cricket, having a lovely cup of tea and working on the border of Master R's blanket.

Looking out the window it would seem a storm is building up which is not surprising as it is so hot and muggy.

We were intending to go for a ride to the bike park again and had them already loaded into the ute. We went yesterday when I got home from work and had a great time as usual however today our plans had to change. The reason for that is below....

I did say that there was a storm building up. Well it wouldn't be a good idea to get caught in it so we played some cricket in the back yard and kicked some balls around instead.

Then the storm went around us so we didn't get anything much except some wet washing but by then it was a bit too late to go to the bike park.

Left overs for dinner to kick off a bit of a lazy Sunday and then it was tossing and turning for half the night because I was having so much trouble sleeping. Little Miss R's back to school today so I may get the chance of a nap when Master M goes down for his. How decadent, a nap during the day but I think I'm going to need it.

Keep smiling and I'll pop in again soon.!!

Susan xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On the way to work

It takes me about an hour to drive to work each day and there are a couple of ways I can go. One of them is straight down the 4 lane highway until I'm on the outskirts of Brisbane city and then turn inland for the last 10 minute drive through the rolling hills to my salon.

This is the way I have to go when we've had a lot of rain like in the recent terrible floods that have affected our state. The way I prefer to go is a little bit more round about but is so much prettier and there's nowhere near as much traffic.
Once I leave my house I drive past the beautiful Glasshouse Mountains which I never grow tired of seeing. I've grown up in this area and have seen so many changes but the mountains always remain the same.

After travelling down the 4 lane highway for a bit, I get off at one of the exits and continue my travels past lovely little picnic areas and lakes (above and below).



I then have to go through a place called Young's Crossing (next two pictures below) which can be quite pretty but was devasted in the recent floods. It's also near the North Pine Dam and when water's let out from there then the crossing has to close because the road floods.

The water is still very brown and dirty because of the floods and a lot of what you can see was under water. In the second photo there are some picnic tables just out of the photo and up the hill a bit. They still have debris on top of them which just goes to show how high the water came. If I get the chance, I'll try and get some photos of those for you.

Young's crossing

Young's crossing (other side of the road)


Then after a few more twists and turns past some houses and shops, we get to the valley with the lovely little village of Samford nestled among the hills. On the left had side in the top third of the picture below you will see some buildings amongst the trees. That's the township of Samford and my salon is nestled in there somewhere.

I hope you've enjoyed a little view of my trip to work. I of course left out the traffic and boring house and road bits. They're not nearly as nice as the lovely views I've shown you and I'm sure you see plenty of those yourself!

Keep smiling

Susan xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx