hear that?

that's the sound of me sipping my coffee frappe in peace and quiet as I survey a tidy house. (No sign of that tear in my eye that my work colleagues are determined that I must have as I send my baby off to school). Nup...it's all good

It was a 2 part process.
Part 1: yesterday.
Biggest girl off to high school all set to navigate the perils of the local bus system. I relented and drove her to town for her first day. She was adamant that dropping her off in the bus bay was all that would be required. That was, of course, until she was actually in the bus bay and the imminent first day of high school loomed. Now she required me to actually park the car and escort her in the gate. Unfortunately she left her run too late, and as a bendy bus threatened to compact the car, and the driver gestured something towards me, I shoved her out the door with "you'll be fine, have a great day". She stood forlorn in my revision mirror for all of 3 seconds till she found her friend and disappeared without a trace.

I got a text message today informing me that she did not have enough food to survive. I'm not sure that hunger technically constitutes the emergency for which she was given the phone (it was more for say....missing the bus and us having to drive the half hour to town to pick her up)
Needless to say, she has survived the first 2 days despite our dire stories of little 7th graders being used as toilet brushes and me pointing out that having her hair sticking out like that was asking for trouble.


Part 2: today
GSFS (Gracie spacie feral snotbag) makes an impact on the local school.
She started out pretty darn cocky.


slight fear starting to creep in...


OK with the support of others......


Decidedly concerned walking through the school gates....


I've got to do this for HOW many years???


Don't worry, the first face was back by the time I picked her up in the afternoon :)

Australia Day Long Weekend

A couple of hundred years ago, Captain Cook discovered Australia.

Meet Cooky...and his new fleet. Now the word 'fleet' I guess implies more than 1 boat, and if you count our tinny and kayak that didn't leave their moorings in the front yard all weekend, then I guess we'll let him have his fleet. We are not going to call him Captain though. That is just asking for trouble. It was his maiden outing anyway.....we're not going to call him Captain till he gets us safely in and out of the heads.



Now what would have made this story really cool was if Australia Day actually celebrated Captain Cook's amazing discovery of the Great Southland. Unfortunately it doesn't. It celebrates the first fleet arriving under the guidance of Captain Arthur Phillip. And seeing as we didn't have anyone called Phillip (because my brother Phillip didn't bother to come and visit us for the holidays)...there ends the similarities in our story. Unfortunate really, because we set off on a maiden voyage to an unknown destination under the guidance of Captain Cook with a boat full of 'hungry, thirsty and needing to go to the toilet'..well....is 'convicts' too strong a word?


Convict No1 & 2....blissfully unaware of the adventure that lays before them and the fact that inadequate sunscreen on shoulders will ultimately end in tears...


Convict No3. Sea sick apparently. Or bored. Or hot. Or needing to go to the toilet.


First mate eating first....then determining if this is a good landing spot.


Convicts 1 & 4 complaining about the rations. Captain Cook and first mate pretending to care.


The first white explorers.....well maybe not. (Long beach Jervis Bay if we digress from our analogy for a minute)

Apparently this is cool.

I'm not sure if the convicts will be able to row fast enough for them to ski.....

I guess it doesn't matter if you can't stay on.

Convict 1 & 4 learning a valuable life lesson about trusting Captain Cook and the first mate.

And just to prove that old boys can ski....(and to do it before convict 1 & 4 get licences and teach them about payback)

something about 'like a chicken on a chain...' I don't know....has something to do with bull riding.

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY :)

ETA: Convict No5 had sustained a broken leg motorbike riding the previous week and was less than impressed by the whole sea-faring adventure.......just in case you thought we made him walk the plank..

Love my pet?

How could you not?? (I'll tell you when......when he's pulled the clothes off the line.....or dug a hole.....or jumping around in a maniac sort of way)

He is getting better with age....by the time he's 10, he'll probably be a great dog. Only 7 years to go. Bill was fundamentally opposed to getting any dog that was called a labradoodle. It was bad enough that he was the only male in the household....but then to get a 'labradoodle' was some sort of affront to his manliness.... We compromised and got a boy labradoodle. Bill didn't think it was a compromise.

This month's blog train at Faith sisters celebrates all things doggy. If you whip around quickly you can get all the bits for free....if not, you'll just have to buy it from the shop!

grab my bit **sorry....gotta buy it at the shop now!!**

Once you have that, you can visit Audra's Little Scraps for the next bit!

16 years tomorrow

of wedded bliss :)

Our children decided that they should celebrate early by cooking something. I should have probably put a halt to it there.......or after they melted the butter before putting it in to cream with the sugar.....or after they pulled every utensil out of the kitchen cupboards. Their father suggested, as he peered over the top of the novel he was reading, that it was in fact a supervision issue that now needed to turn into a teaching opportunity. He then promptly returned to his novel. Apparently he doesn't teach cooking.

The cake turned into biscuits.....and then just one biscuit....then some sort of decorated slab with the odd chocolate freckle on it. Their father, whilst encouraging their domestic skills, suggested that the anniversary felt more like this many. Anniversary 17 is looking shaky for him.



nah. All good fun. They did clean up eventually. Love you guys! Surprisingly it tasted OK for something that didn't remotely resemble the receipe they 'followed'.



We think this is Gracie's idea of a kiss in preparation. Either that or we look like ducks.

Oh...and I mighta got a combined Christmas / birthday / anniversary present...(for the next 5 years according to Bill). Cant wait for it to arrive tomorrow and get attached to my 5D :)....I think I still get to go out for tea too.....

(I, of course, have not changed a bit....)

8 from 08

Not necessarily the best pics from 2008.....but 8 of my favs.


Big Red. Always up for a picture.


Gracie Spacie feral snotbag....although she maintains that
this will not be an appropriate name when she starts school
in a few weeks. Might be a bit hard for her to spell all that at the
start anyway.


All the cousins - just a cute pic. And for the life of me I couldn't
get them all to sit still.


Charlotte. Tangled in all her finery.



My big girl. The shirt says it all.

A little reminder of life on the farm.

I went to boarding school to get away from sheep.

Living on the south coast now provides

adequate distance. I think the lamb sensed that

and chose Nanny and Tara as a more likely

source of affection.

It is supposed to have gone back to the paddock.

I think it has moved in with Nanny instead.

our neighbours (feral snotbags prospective suitor). He is

of course Rudolf whilst his father hangs the Christmas lights in the

background (on the roof, safety shirt, reindeer antlers & beer in free hand)

Willro&co Photography

I love the challenge of getting a great photo! I love fiddling with it after in photoshop. I'm still working on getting better at both of those aspects.

In 2009 I'm working on a portfolio that includes people who are not my own children! But if you would like to see my work in progress, please check out the links below, and if you live around Jervis Bay and would like a photoshoot, send me an email rjfield@bigpond.net.au

** ETA the new Willro&co Photography website is here! **
Portraits


Moments


Babies