MOVING THE PASHA BULKA ...

We tried ...



LOL ... a bit of photo fun !!!!

We've had a lovely weekend. Great to see the sun shining so i could finally get the unpacking & loads of washing done from our holiday.

Last night we went to the drive-in and seen 2 movies including SHREK 3 ( mmm ... it was pretty good, but not as good as 1 & 2)! It was very cold but we were well organised with sleeping bags in the back of the 4wd for Blake and his 2 friends; and us adults were well decked out with beanies, jackets, blankets etc. We even took along the camp stove & billy for hot chocolate to keep us warm ... yum!

Today, with other friends we headed over to Newcastle to view the infamous 'Pasha Bulka' which run-aground on Nobby's Beach in those terrible storms 2 weeks ago. Approximately 1000 other people had the same idea ... wow, there were people everwhere!






It really was incredible to see ... very surreal ... this massive ship "smack bang" in the middle of a picturesq public beach!



Whilst we were there helicopters were flying back & forward airlifting items onto the ships ... they looked like massive rolls of cable; so we figured that maybe they have something to do with preparing the vessel for the plan to try and float it back out at some stage this week ??!



We also had a bit of fun taking photos that looked like we were holding up the boat and trying to push it back out to sea ... hence, the top photo of Mark!

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend too!

Have a great week!

JULIE x

SOME HOLIDAY PICS

Just a short post tonight to share some of our holiday pics ...









Now i just have to get motivated and do some scrapbooking with my pics.

I actually purchased an album in Noumea (with the idea of scrapping this as our 'Cruise Album') that was very much an "island" theme & appearance with a timber binder, 3d sea turtle on the front cover and the pages were like recycled paper ... it was gorgeous .... but .... because the turtle was made from woven banana palms it wasn't allowed through customs :(

Never mind, i'll have to come up with some other idea.

Hope you are all having a good week and keeping dry!!

JULIE x

HOME CHAOS ... HOLIDAY FUN !!

WE'RE HOME ....

Well, so much for leaving a clue the night before we left for our holiday!

On Friday (the day before we were to leave) everything turned to chaos ... no power - power poles fallen across the road in our street, no hot water, no phones !@#?!!

What are the odds ???? You book a surprise holiday to celebrate your 10th Wedding Anniversary ... a natural disaster hits in the form of flooding, massive seas etc .... and where are we going .... ON A CRUISE !!!!!!!!!!! OMG!



Thank god i had everything washed and dry, but that's about as good as it got!
We had to pack UN-IRONED CLOTHES by candlelight, boiled water on the camp stove to all wash from the sink ... what a sight! and received news that Sydney Harbour had been closed due to massive seas.

We were up at 6.00am and having to make contact with P&O approx every 20-30 mins for an update to find out whether we were still going ??!!

In the meantime our back entertainment area, laundry & garage had flooded (no big deal on the grand scheme of things) and poor 'Soxy' (our little dog) was doing "doggy paddle" around the back yard !

Just after 9am we got word that our cruise was going ahead ... wasn't sure if this was a good thing or bad thing at this stage ... so we left Mum & Dad with the house keys to sort out the chaos and we jumped in the car and headed for Sydney.

Will fill in all the details and pics of our holiday on my next post, but ironically it ended up being a good week to be away 'cause our power was not reinstated until THURSDAY (that would have meant nearly a week without electricity & hot water ... eeek!)

Anyway, we're good, great holiday (in between the first & last night) ... still have a sever case of swaying - haven't got my "land legs" back yet but home safe and sooooooo looking forward to sleeping in my bed tonight!

I hope everyone else has faired ok in all the chaos and started to dry out a bit. Thoughts and prayers to those who lost loved ones (we were keeping track of the events by SKYNEWS on the ship).

JULIE x

TEN YEARS

Today is our 10th Wedding Anniversary !

I have just had 10 red roses delivered ... awwwww, so sweet.
Every anniversary my DH sends me the number of red roses equivalent to the number of years we are married .... gosh, imagine how much it will costs for our 50th Wedding Anniversary!!

Thinking 10 years into the future seems sooooo far away; however, looking back over the past 10 years it has just flown by.

No marriage is perfect ... we've had good times, bad times, great times & sad times ... but most importantly, all these things have contributed to what we are today - i feel that we are very lucky to have each other, good health and a happy little family!

So ... the other exciting thing about our Anniversary is 'THE HOLIDAY'!

Just 2 more sleeps. Mark still doesn't know where we are going and I'm not going to tell him until we get down to Sydney on Saturday - it is soooo hard keeping a secret when you are so excited and can't share! I picked up the tickets from the Travel Agent's yesterday and started packing last night ... ooohhhh I can't wait!!

Mmmmm ... I might leave a little clue here late on Friday Night ...

Have a great day!

JULIE x

A 2 WEEK CATCH UP!

2 Weeks ... OMG ... "Stop the world i want to get off" !!

Life has been exceptionally busy, almost bordering on rediculous ... but it is all good!

Even though i have updated for 2 weeks, i have been popping in and out, catching up on everyone else's Blog but just haven't taken the time to sit and do a post.

Also had some photos which i hadn't bothered to download and i almost feel obliged to have some pics for a post otherwise it seems so boring.

Anyway, enough of the rambling .....

In my last post i mentioned our weekend away at 'the Bay' for the Mother's Day weekend and our trip out to the toboggan park ... here are a few pics




Really love this pic of Blake & my mum ...




The last few weeks have just flown by doing the usual things ... home, school, work etc etc

But the best thing about the days going fast is .....

Only 8 MORE SLEEPS til "The Holiday" !!!

DH still doesn't know where we are going ... can't wait to tell him the suprise!!

I am going to start setting aside our clothes for packing this weekend 'cause the next week will be chaos at work trying to get everything super organised before i go and i don't want to be up til all hours of the morning before we leave trying to finish off the packing (which is what usually happens) ... I am such a "pull it all together at the 11th hour" person .... hehe!!

I am also a little unsure of exactly what & how much to pack ??? but can't really ask for your advice cause you don't know where i am going and i can't tell you cause it is a secret!!

Don't you just hate all these secrets ... was reading a few other blogs tonight and they've got these little teasers about a big thing arriving in the scrapbooking world !!?? OOOOhhhh ... can't wait to find out what it is!!

OK, i think that's about it for tonight ... bit of a "much about nothing' post really ...

but i'll finish with some silly pics of my DS, Blake. He is at that age where 'showing off' is sooo cool (or so he thinks) He is actually amused by his efforts of pulling funny faces to have these photos taken ... mmm ...




... I wonder if he'll find them amusing when he is a teenager and brings home his first girlfriend ........ Oh Mum, you wouldn't !!??

Have a great weekend everyone!

JULIE x