Farewell 2006

I'm still posting from my phone next bill should be good.
What a year it has been. We've joined the ranks of mortgage payers and said farewell to renting. I've left my job and started afresh at a new school. Aaron bought a sexy new car. Sarah started theatre classes and bowling lessons and also changed schools. Deanne finished her first year of uni. Ally's band's been getting loads of gigs. Max had a cancer scare. I've lost 10% of my body mass. I've made some gorgeous new friends. We've moved into our lovely new home. So that's about a brief run down of 2006 i wonder what 2007 has in store.
Have a happy and safe new year.
Love wendy

Busy busy busy

Well so much for my theory that tradies don't work over summer. The estate has become a hive of activity since boxing day with brickies chippies painters and sparkies all hard at it. Even road crews and site scrapers have been working. Max is loving his walks across the paddocks and vacant lots and i've been enjoying cooking and entertaining with an oven that actually works! Peter has done a fabulous job on our fences and aaron should be moving the excess dirt from the driveway scrape any day so i can soon make a start on the front garden.
We're off to get some new blinds today and to have a look at other odds and ends. Hard to believe the year is nearly over.

New house ..but no internet

Hi all.
This is a very quick update as i'm posting from my phone. We're loving life in our new home. There's still lots to do such as the drive and decking not to mention a thousand fix ups by metricon homes. I won't pass judgement just yet!
It was fabulous having a christmas eve dinner with family and friends and we enjoyed a boxing day celebration next door.
Hopefully internet up and running soon but in the meantime i hope everyone enjoyed the festive season and i wish you all a happy and safe new year.
love wendy

What's Going On???

Hello,
With the silly season fast approaching it has been a busy couple of weeks.
Report writing has, of course, featured prominently for me, although I find the package/system at my new school far superior to that of my last so it was a lot less stressful than I had imagined!
Sarah had her end of year concert for her drama, singing and dance class. It was a wonderful performance and she did us proud. Nana Jean and Deanne came too and had a ball.
We had fabulous seats with a perfect view of the entire stage and no tall people or women with hats in front! Sarah did so well with all the songs and is really starting to develop a love of performing and a presence on stage. She looked fantastic up on the stage and there was one number where some of the others were watching her to get the steps right. There was one routine that she didn't seem to know, she told me she was away when they learned that number, which was odd as I have taken her to class every week this semester. As it turned out it was something they did on the weekend workshop. But all in all it was a fabulous performance, I guess all those long hours waiting for her to finish rehearsals every week were well worth it!
While we're on the subject of Sarah performing on stage...I had half the office staff searching the school for me on Thursday as Sarah's school had rung to talk to me. It turned out her carols concert was this Thursday not the following and Sarah was devastated as she had told us the wrong date. Fortunately, I had no classes that afternoon as the year 10s had finished and I had all my In Lieu classes in the morning. So I dashed over to her school; and there she was, practically folded over the fence watching for my car. You should have seen how happy and relieved she looked as she and her friends raced along the fence line to meet me.
The carols concert was great and all the kids looked like they were having a wonderful time. Even the teachers gave a performance, which brought a smile to my face...it was Summer Holiday by Cliff Richard and it reminded me that holidays are fast approaching.
When Sarah and I got back to my school we got even more good news. Not that I like to talk about money (it's just not the done thing) but my pay slip was in my pigeon hole and I knew it wouldn't be pretty as I joined the strike action last week. The timing was terrible and I was dreading the truth...but to my surprise I was actually paid considerably MORE than usual as there was an adjustment in my salary with almost 6 months arrears to be paid....take that Mr Howard and your disgusting IR laws!!!!
I went to a great retirement do that week as well. It was for Anna, Rod and Andy from my old school. It was at a restaurant near by so I walked there (great idea as I got really spooked on the way home). The evening was wonderful. I was able to catch up with my dear friends and colleagues. As much as I know I've made the right decision in moving schools I miss these people so much.
Sandra's speech on behalf of Anna was marvellous, she really has a gift for public speaking and Anna was of course incredibly witty. It is a sad day for education when someone as talented, passionate, intelligent, caring and brilliant as Anna leaves the system. I just hope she takes to writing so I can continue to learn from her. Enjoy your retirement Anna Banana.
Well, there's been lots of other things going on but it all escapes me now so I'll just give you a quick house update.....




























































































Physically, everything is just about ready to go, or so it seems. Of course no one works in the building industry this time of year and the banking industry doesn't seem any better. Then of course there's all that council stuff not to mention the estate approval and a surveyor or valuer from the bank. Ahhhhhhh!!!!!! It seems unduly complicated, for example, you can't get the final bank cheque until you get the certificate of occupancy...but what do you need in order to get that all important certificate??? You guessed it...the final bank cheque. And somehow you have to get about 50 different people out to come and inspect and check everything and issue insurance and heaven knows what else....and we thought the building stage was challenging! So we'll have more agony waiting for all the paperwork and other red tape to go through. There are also some minor touch-ups around the place and of course the all important installation of appliances and our water tank(just try to get a plumber this time of year), which of course they don't install until the day before you move in because of all the thieves who pinch things from unoccupied houses...just look at what happened with our doors and the trough. Still it is getting closer and we celebrated after our walk through with Bruce last night by grabbing a take away and eating a delicious family meal in our beautiful home.

Excited

I'm so excited I can barely breath...can't explain yet but possibilities hang in the air.

See ya

Reports reports reports

I have so much to post at the moment but really don't have the time to upload photos and give an update on all that is going on in the family.

However, I need a break from reports. I swear they were invented by someone who was jealous that teachers get school holidays. I really dread this time of year, all the work that comes in at the very last minute, agonising over whether or not to pass or fail that borderline kid and avoiding the temptation of saying what we'd REALLY like to say.

At least the report writing program is a lot more user friendly than the one I've used in the past, still it's completely new which means I'm having to familiarise myself as I go. Oh well. It's not so bad, I'm on my last class. Tomorrow I just need to calculate attendance, proof read (hate doing that on a screen) and make sure there is isn't any work around that I haven't counted.
Of course there's also the usual domestic engineering and lugging boxes of garden waste to the top of the drive before the green collection. I'd love to mulch it all for the garden here but I cannot.

Well need to get back to it.

See you soon with a proper update.

Wendy

Report Writing Day

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH......................................................................


Need I say more???

Food Addict

I can't seem to stop eating lately. Food, food and more food. I'm too frightened to go near the scales...a) I'm frightened of what they might say b) I'm frightened of what they won't say..they may just break under my substantial girth! I must be close to 90 KGs!!!!
I don't seem to have any energy to exercise and I'm hungry or just feel like picking constantly.
Oh well...the silly season is upon us so there's no point fighting it. I'll just have to make yet another new year's resolution. I've got one month to eat drink and be merry!!!
That's all.